19. Attente
"Siobhan, who is this?"
The man filling the doorway of the small house was tall and imposing, his hard face betraying none of his feelings. I knew, however, that he could not be happy that I was here, in his house, with his mate and female coven member. I had spent the last few hours expounding on my part in Adelaide's disaster, holed up in a tiny cottage with the two women. The little girl, Maggie, sat with me at the rickety table placed to the side of the miniature kitchen.
"This is her man, Liam," said the blonde one, known as Siobhan. By the way the man's eyes narrowed, I figured he knew just which she his mate was referring to. "He claims he wants to help us stop her."
I stood, stretching out my hand. "I am Blaise," I said, as he examined my hand scrupulously.
"Liam," he grunted back, and shut the door behind him, locking it. Well, at least he had no intention of throwing me out. "You're a nomad?" he asked, turning back to eye me, taking in my long, rugged leather coat and tangled black hair. I had long ago ignored my personal appearance, and ever since I had set eyes on Adelaide, my own vanity had flown out the window. Perhaps it would have been wise to clean up before meeting this rather intimidating vampire.
"I've been a nomad for four and a half centuries," I replied, lowering my hand. "I understand you travel as well?"
"Of course," said Liam, as he laid his hat on the table. "This is just where we stay when we aren't hunting."
"That's quite interesting."
He shrugged. "It's not much, but it serves our purposes."
Well, it's more than I have, I thought.
"So," Liam pushed past me and addressed his mate, "he says he can help us? Why would he want to do that, against his own mate?"
"Before you start making conclusions, I'll tell you what I've found out," retorted Siobhan. I sat back down cautiously across from Maggie. She winked at me, then turned her attention to Siobhan. "The woman hasn't made any more violent moves since you left," continued the large but graceful woman, pulling up her own chair and motioing for Liam to do the same. "We've been watching her closely, haven't we, Maggie?" The little girl nodded. "We remembered she'd told us that nonsense about her mate being the one we had to worry about. So, we decided to find her mate and see the truth for ourselves."
"You already knew she was lying?" asked Liam.
"Yes. That woman created the creature, no doubt about it." I suppressed a growl; just the idea that I would do something so abominable was offensive. "I sent Maggie to look for her mate, and she found Blaise here--" she nodded at me "up near the border of France."
"I don't condone what Adelaide has done," I interjected. "She never told me what she was about until the monster was finished changing." I clenched my fists under the table and shifted restlessly. If only I had torn that thing apart when I'd had the chance-- but I hadn't, because of Adelaide.
"You were unaware of what your mate was doing?" questioned Liam, eyebrows raised. "For at least three days?"
"We often separated, to make hunting less conspicuous. I saw no reason to worry when Adelaide was gone for a week; she was gone for three months, once." I didn't add that I had nearly gone insane with jealousy, especially when she had baldly told me she had been pursuing someone else. Unfortunately for that man, I had run into him two days after. I never ran into him again.
"Odd," remarked Liam.
"Not really," I defended myself. "Many nomads operate that way." Never mind that I had never been an ordinary nomad, and Adelaide was certainly not an ordinary anything.
"So your mate was gone for a week, out hunting, and she brought back the creature with her?"
I gritted my teeth. "No." I had known it would come to this, retelling the bitter argument between me and my mate. "Adelaide came back from a hunt after four days and told me she was going to change a human into one of us. She said it was because she loved the human, and wanted to keep it alive forever. I told her that was ridiculous. For one, she had only been away four days-- how could she love something in that short a time? Two, why would you turn a human into one of us if you loved it? Humans are happier mortal. But anyway, she and I had a tremendous fight over it, and she...finally left." The memory still stung, due to my perpetually-fresh vampire mind. I could still hear her screaming at me, her eyes blazing. "I knew it was useless to follow her, even though I'm a fairly good tracker. I waited for her to come back. And she did, to my surprise, only..." It was all too real, too clear. "Only she was carrying that thing, in her arms. Naturally, I had been appalled, and demanded that she destroy it before the Volturi destroyed us. She refused, and went so far as to protect it with her own body when I tried to kill it myself."
"You did try to get rid of it?" interrupted Maggie, as if for clarification.
"Yes, of course," I answered, perplexed. I thought I had made it pretty simple. "That was when I left." When I had abandoned my mate, my love. "I've been watching Adelaide ever since."
"Why didn't you alert the Volturi yourself?" It was obvious Liam was not one to be easily convinced. Something in his tone, and the way he was observing me, like I was some kind of unpredictable criminal, caused me to bridle.
"Would you have turned her in?" I asked angrily, pointing at Siobhan.
"Be fair, Liam," advised Siobhan, laughing. Personally, I could find nothing amusing in the situation.
Liam's eyes darted to Maggie's face. Her mouth twisted, and she nodded pertly. Why was Liam looking to the lesser member of the group for a form of affirmation?
"I know Siobhan would never create an immortal child," answered the tall vampire.
I flinched at the phrase. "Adelaide does not have a good presence of mind, she never has. She acts on her whims."
"That's apparent," agreed Liam. Was the man trying to provoke me? He probably was, now that I considered it.
Breathing deep, I pulled my hands out from under the table, setting them neatly on the tabletop. "You must understand. Of the two of us, I was the leader, because I am able to think things through. Adelaide, though much more quick and skillful than I, has always been rather wild, without foresight. That's why she created the monster. She most likely doesn't even know what's she has done."
"You think not?" piped up Maggie, tossing her short curls. "I think she knows exactly what she's up to. After all, she's gone down with her little devil and killed quite a few humans, and some of us, too."
"I know," I replied. How could I not know? All this time, I had been agonizing over whether or not to betray my mate and turn her in.
"My question still stands," pressed Liam. "Why didn't you tell the Volturi, before things got so out of hand?"
"I made the decision to go to Italy when your little coven member found me," I half-snarled, forcibly keeping myself in the chair.
"Indeed?"
"Don't you see!" Instinct told me to remain calm, but I had had enough the man's hounding. "Adelaide was my mate! I know you can understand that! I didn't want to have her killed! How much plainer can I put it?!"
"All right, Blaise, we know," said Siobhan, catching my shoulder and holding me in my seat. "We know how difficult that would be, giving your mate to the Volturi. Liam couldn't do it, either."
"Dragon sans pitié!" My french was reappearing, as it did frequently when I was emotional.
"No mud-slinging, please." Siobhan was the authority in the coven; I could tell, because I sat down again under her level stare.
"Yes, yes," I said, taking gulping breaths in an effort to remain calm. I couldn't fight all three of them, and, I realized, I didn't want to. "Do forgive me, but--"
"No apology needed," said Liam. "I can see now that I pushed a little too hard." He held out his hand, and after a second I shook it in a business-like gesture. "You were very attached to her, I see now."
There was no reason for me to be so angry, I admitted. They were right to interrogate me. "Do let me apologize. I know you must ask me these things."
"Very manly of you, Blaise," chuckled Siobhan, slapping me on the shoulder. The friendly contact made me start, but I didn't recoil.
"You're an interesting nomad, Blaise," said Liam, once again scrutinizing me, yet in a different light. This time his gaze was intriugued rather than suspicious. "You don't react in ways they usually do, and your reflexes seem uncanny, even for a nomad."
"Reflexes?" I wasn't following his train of thought-- my reflexes weren't that fabulous.
"You said you're over four centuries old, correct?"
"I am."
"You move more like a fifty year old vampire."
"So I'm told," I said dryly. Adelaide had said much the same thing over and over.
"Hmmm." He leaned back in his chair, his arms over his head.
Siobhan moved away from me, now that I had settled back into my chair. "And you seem to know when not to pick a fight. That comes in handy, I am sure."
"The reason I'm still alive," I muttered. "Although most would call it cowardice."
"Prudence can be seen as cowardice," Siobhan philosophized. "You should talk to my friend Carlisle about that. You two would get along, I think."
"Listen!" hissed Maggie, going stiff in her chair.
There was the noise of a car engine outside, roughly a hundred yards from the house. The noise died suddenly, replaced by the watchful silence I registered to be the approach of a vampire. The silence made a straight path for the house. "You have company," I whispered wryly.
Liam stood. "It's--"
The knock on the door sent us all into action. Siobhan rushed to the door, Liam let her pass, I left my seat and did my best to be invisible, while Maggie sat where she'd been sitting for hours. As the irish vampire swung open the door, I caught a unique scent from the doorway. Was it human? Or was it animal?
The door was wide open, and now I could see, on the doorstep of the small house, one of the most urbane vampires I'd ever set eyes on. Despite the jeans and mud-stained trench coat he was wearing, the man could have been the icon of good breeding. His stance was exhausted, but he still held himself erect and dignified. "Siobhan," he said, in a very doctor-like voice.
"Carlisle!" Siobhan embraced the new-comer, then stared over his shoulder. "And Rosalie!"
"Rosalie?" aksed Liam and Maggie both.
"My ever-present help in trouble," smiled the man, Carlisle.
"Siobhan, Liam, Maggie," said a musical voice. In spite of my desire to remain unseen, I peered out at the new addition to the meeting--
And was met by the most incredibly beautiful woman. I couldn't help but stare, dumbfounded, at her and her statuesque figure. Her golden hair and perfect face competed well with her body, or complemented it. Adelaide was stunning, but there was no comparison to this creature.
I assumed she was the new-comer's mate, seeing the way she laid a hand protectively on the man's shoulder. The man, Carlisle, squeezed the fingers of that hand with his own, then stepped inside the house at Siobhan's invitation. Neither of them removed the sunglasses hiding their eyes. "How are things here, my friends?" he asked, hanging his coat on the rack behind the door. "We came as soon as possible, but there were several delays."
"It will be all right, now, Carlisle," said Siobhan, smiling. "Now that we have you to help us sort this mess out."
"I hope so," he answered, his face darkening unexpectedly.
The pristine blonde, Rosalie, had not relinquished her hold on the man. "First, I have to say, Siobhan," she said, ignoring the warning look Carlisle gave her, "that I don't approve of this."
"Of what, Rose?" asked Siobhan, genuinely confused.
Her chin rising regally, the blonde's face became that of a vampire, rather than an angel. "Of bringing Carlisle here to die."