Ah, new chapter. This was a fun one to write, I must say. ;) I'm sorry for keeping you guys waiting so long for this one, but I hope that you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it… a huge thanks goes out to my best friend/beta Thorfaxic, as always, I could never live without your brain, woman. And to all of my reviewers, I love you. You all are awesome and are the driving force behind this whole fanfic. You've kept this thing going for exactly a year, to this day. XD So, I'll shut up and let you read now. :D
Carlisle Cullen
Snap. The sickening crack of the deer's neck bone was almost like music to my ears, each individual fracture like a wind chime tolling in the soft breeze. It was odd to consider such a repulsive sound to be delightful, but after weeks upon weeks of starvation, the sound was anything but displeasing. Once the corpse had been drained of its precious blood, I tossed the broken body aside to the bushes, sending a silent 'thank you' for my meal. What a life this has become, I thought silently, deciding to leave the rest of the forest animals to their lives. Dwelling in a forest and draining animals of their blood. This certainly wasn't the sort of change I expected.
Luckily, the sky was overcast enough to allow me to walk freely without staying confined to shaded areas, so I took advantage of the opportunity and made my way through the maze of trees, eventually ending up in the outskirts of a vast, abandoned field. My eyes swept through the area, searching for any direction of civilization. After a few moments of searching, I managed to find the last traces of a gravel trail that most likely led to some section of the town. I didn't bother to quicken my pace past a normal human one as I shuffled down the trail, my eyes fixed on the ground before me. It was an ongoing debate in my mind whether or not it was a wise move to return to California – I couldn't possibly continue my studies at this point, but the risk of being caught in what I considered my hometown was far too great. Settling in a scarcely popularized part of a forest definitely was not my first choice, though I had to admit that it was comforting to have a vestige of familiarity in my temporary home. The sights, sounds, scents – I'd rather that I was accustomed to these than having to familiarize myself with an entirely new environment. As much as I wish I could say that was my only reason, it was only one among the several hopes I had for returning to my home. Leaving Esme behind had to be my most heart wrenching regret – like Romeo and Juliet, I felt as if I should be banished from her life, feeling as though neither our love nor my species would be accepted. Although, unlike the late Romeo, there was no quarantine keeping me from returning anyways.
I kicked a stray pebble aside from the path, stuffing my hands deep inside my pockets. No, there wasn't anything stopping me, except for myself and my own insecurities. There was no guarantee that she would even consider letting me back into her life – after all, she had perfectly good reasons to want to keep me out of it.
The gravel path was beginning to fade away into a sea of dehydrated grass when I finally reached a couple of old, dilapidated buildings at the end of the trail. I craned my neck upwards, assessing the height before I proceeded to scale up the side – surely I'd be much less conspicuous if I were hidden at the top of a building rather than freely walking the crowded streets. My footsteps were silent on the vacant rooftop until I landed with a muted thud on the structure beside it, the soles of my shoes now carelessly scuffing across the surface. I'd let my mind wander so far into its own realm that the sound of a muffled female scream nearly flew straight past my ears. What the hell? My head snapped up straight, tuning my extended hearing in an attempt to find the sound once more. Instead, the only resonance audible to my senses were a few broken whimpers and a maniacal chuckle emanating from what seemed like an abandoned building at the end of the lot. Leaping down from the rooftop I had been on, I slunk my way over to the occupied building, dropping into a crouch a few feet from the entrance. I held my breath for sake of self-control, the potent scent of human blood flooded through the area and danced around my nose, toying with my senses. Do I go in? I contemplated silently, taking a few short breaths through my mouth. Dammit, Carlisle, you have to go in. Somebody could be dying in there. I shook the small voice out of my mind, straightening my posture ever so slightly as I slowly approached the door.
I managed to squeeze through the small opening of the door, being sure to fully conceal my presence. I once again held my breath, clapping one hand over my nose to secure that no appealing scent would be able to enter. Whoever else that resided in the building were far off from where I had entered – I could hear a deep male voice muttering several derogatory terms coupled with the fading whimpers of another human being. Here goes, I sighed mentally, preparing myself to plunge face-first into a questionable situation of life-or-death self-control.
I kept myself well-hidden in the shadows, slinking through the environment with my back pressed close to the wall. Though my extended senses could already hear each word and breath each person took, the sounds grew louder as I came closer and closer to the scene. My eyes finally reached the two inhabitants a matter of seconds later – they were confined to the muggy, nearly claustrophobic area in the back that couldn't have served for anything more than a rather large storage closet. The man's husky voice bellowed through the room, carrying on a string of profanities while simultaneously striking a crumpled form on the concrete floor before him. He had to be at least double the size of the young woman on the ground –sinewy muscles bulged from underneath the sleeves of his shirt, his tall shadow long enough to completely envelope the woman in shadows. Despite the fact that her back was to me, I could vividly imagine her face contorted in a grimace of pain with each strike that came to her petite body.
Once I stepped only a centimeter out of my hiding place, I made the brainless mistake of letting my hand fall from my nose, opening up the airways and allowing the sweet scent of freshly spilled blood to swirl teasingly through the air. I could nearly feel the dilation of my pupils, sensing that my eyes had shifted to a harsh, coal black as my vision found the inviting pool of scarlet beside the female. Venom pooled in my mouth, my fists clenching as I desperately exerted my entire being into remaining in control. The tempting blood simply continued to flow from the wounds, streaming down the floor and settling into the cracks and crevices in the concrete. I squeezed my eyes shut, gulping down the abundant amount of venom before beginning to breathe only through my mouth. Upon regaining my full control, I was jerked from my second of peace by a sharp shout from the man in the middle of the room.
"Who's out there?" he demanded, spiraling around in search of another being. "Don't you hide, coward." Suppressing a faint snarl from deep in my chest, I took a small step out from the corner and into the entryway of the room. Heavy silence fell over the both of us as he turned around to set his menacing gaze on mine, staring unblinkingly at my – in all modesty – perfect stature in the doorway. He took a step towards me, straightening up to appear as if he towered over me. I simply stood my ground, my hands placed calmly at my sides.
"What are you doing?" My mouth was set into a thin line as he sized up my appearance, his eyes raking up and down my body.
"Just teaching this little bitch a needed lesson," he responded acidly, sharply gesturing towards the young woman curled up on the floor. I dropped my gaze to her form for a moment, my eyes sweeping across the excessive amount of wounds that covered her skin. Her face was covered in a curtain of matted hair, disguising her identity. I couldn't help but notice that the perfume of her body was strangely familiar, though my focus was broken by the man pounding the toe of his boot into her side again. In a split second, my fingers were wrapped around his shirt collar and I had him slammed up against the wall, his feet dangling a few inches above the ground. He took one meaty hand and wrapped it around my wrist, struggling against my iron grip. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he spat, his head rearing back and forth as he desperately tried to free himself from my grasp.
"Leave her alone." My voice was a snarl as my upper lip curled into a menacing growl. He mouthed the word 'no', craning his neck as close to my face as possible, his rancid breath flooding into my nose. A rather loud hiss escaped my mouth before I spun in a one-hundred and eighty degree angle, releasing the collar of his shirt to send him flying across the room. His back hit hard against the opposite wall with a thud, his entire body sinking down to the floor. To my displeasure, his leg had been extended as he sat, the sole of his shoe coming in contact with the woman's head. Her body flinched, managing to turn onto her back and finally reveal her face from underneath the sea of hair. I lost interest in the lump of a human by the wall for a brief moment, taking in the sight that lay before me.
One side of her face was stained purple with a bruise, a drop of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. Both of her eyes were squeezed shut, her chest rapidly rising and falling with the hyperventilating breaths. Most of the blood was still spilling from her mid-abdomen, her originally navy blue shirt spattered with scarlet. Some of it had even managed to mat into her hair, tangling the soft, caramel locks in some sort of sick, twisted embrace.
Esme.
For a moment, the entire world seemed to come to a halt. The only recognizable sounds in the area were the beat of the hearts as they pumped luscious blood throughout their veins. I knelt down on one knee over her body, placing my hand softly on the un-scathed side of her face. The man – who by this time I had realized was her father – continued to go unnoticed as he sat against the wall, attempting to regain his strength. I ignored his groans of aggravated pain, my ears still completely focused on the two heartbeats teasing my senses. They both beat out of time, the noise floating around the room until a tiny flutter made itself heard behind the other, more potent rhythms. My eyes scanned the room, searching for the source of the tiny flutter, but following the sound only led me straight back to the woman before me. Her heart was pumping frantically, pounding in my ears as it clung onto her life; Charles' heart was nearly the same frenzied rhythm, only filled with adrenaline rather than fear. Where was the other one coming from? I leaned in closer to Esme's broken form, following the sound once more until it finally led me to the origin – I sucked in my breath once more as my head hovered directly above the main source of the bleeding. The miniscule heartbeat was coming from her lower abdomen. My eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, continuing to listen to the small fluttering inside. It seemed as though my head had laid there for centuries, until Esme gently stirred beneath me and the tiny beat came to a close. Finally snapping back into reality, my torso shot straight up and my eyes zeroed in on the doorway opposite my position.
She had been pregnant. She had been pregnant with my child – and he, the worthless being slumped against the wall, had stolen that new life from her. I pulled myself to my feet, the soles of my shoes slapping against the concrete, not paying a bother to keeping silent.
I came to a halt directly in front of Charles as he still attempted to bring himself to his feet. He was about halfway up before I pulled my arm back and punched him clear across the face, his head snapping to the side accompanied by the crack of his jaw. He clapped his palm over his jaw, grunting with pain he felt around for any stray droplets of blood that may have somehow escaped from his mouth.
"What did I ever do to you?" he bellowed, his mouth set into a grimace of misery.
"You hurt her," I stated, stepping in closer to Charles. "That's what you did. Maybe someone should abuse and beat you down to a pulp, maybe someone should rape you. Or they could plunge a knife through your stomach and see how you like it." I reached down toward where the open pocket knife was scattered on the floor, wrapping my fingers around the plastic handle before I aimed it straight at his chest, the bloodstained blade penetrating his skin as a thick sheet of blood seeped around the wound. Unfortunately enough for Charles, I had let go of the breath I was holding and allowed myself to inhale the succulent scent of his blood. Pulling the knife from his chest, I held onto it in one hand while my razor-sharp teeth sunk through the warm skin of his throat, directly below a rapidly pulsing artery. The white-hot burning in my throat was finally quenched with the smooth liquid pouring into my mouth while the weakened body of Charles writhed beneath my grasp. His agonized cry of pain was finally enough to let me detach my teeth from his throat, wiping a stray drop of blood from my lips. His eyes were glazed over as he stared unblinkingly at the wall, his breaths coming in short, distressed huffs. Blood spilled down his neck and over his shoulders, staining the fabric of his shirt and trickling onto the floor.
"I may as well finish you off while I'm at it." Another snarl ripped from my throat as Charles turned his gaze towards me, his eyes begging for mercy. The handle of the knife was still pressed firmly into the palm of my hand, droplets of red falling from the tip of the blade. "For Esme." He opened his mouth to attempt to respond, but I immediately crushed his chance to speak by sinking the blade into the wound I had made beforehand to widen the opening and reveal the most vital bodily organ: his heart. The muscle pulsed wildly when I exposed it to the thick air, the powerful scent inviting me closer. Managing to refrain from letting my thirst take over once more, I reached my hand out to his chest, appearing as though I were trying to help him. He grunted again, recognizing my actions for the slightest of moments until I let out an intimidating snarl, latching my fingers around the pumping muscle, holding it in an iron grasp.
"You don't deserve to have a heart."
Charles' eyes set their stone gaze on mine, his face completely disguised by a mask of pure torment. I clenched my jaw, saying no more as the room fell silent around the three of us, my fingers still clenched around his weakly beating heart. His blood stained my entire hand, the sickening snaps and tears of the muscles and veins that kept his heart intact almost making me nauseous. His breathing suddenly ceased and his eyes completely glazed over once the muscle had been completely detached from his body, my hand still wrapped around the limp, bloody lump. I extended my arm out beside him, giving the heart one last violent squeeze before I let it fall to the floor, landing almost silently on the ground.
I let my vision linger on Charles' lifeless body for a few lasting moments, feeling no sense of regret. I then turned on my heel and faced the woman sprawled across the floor, barely audible whimpers emanating from her body. My breaths began to come in shaky huffs as I knelt down next to her once more, trailing the tips of my fingers down her beautiful face. Her eyelids began to flutter, opening into small slits as her head rolled over towards my lap.
I couldn't let her die.
I couldn't let her slip away, but I couldn't assure myself that I had enough self-control. It was a choice between giving her 'life' or letting her go – and I was not willing to give into that second option.
I gently brushed the matted hair away from her neck, exposing the inviting skin. I ceased inhaling through my nose, leaning in close enough that my breath bounced off of her throat.
"I'm sorry, Esme," I murmured, my lips coming in contact with the skin ever so slightly, "but this is going to hurt."