Chapter 26: Blood Lust

Thoughts trickled through my mind as Rosalie disappeared from view. I had never realized that being human could be so wonderful. Most of the things that were human about me seemed annoying. I didn't imagine that Rosalie would prefer to be human, it seemed so strange. It left me wondering what I was missing out on in being immortal. Death still seemed like something that I didn't want for myself or my children, but something about the way she had said that dying was worth living a human life for had awoken a line of thinking that I hadn't previously entertained.

Before I could really delve into the issue anymore, the door ahead of me creaked open revealing a barely awake Jacob. I smiled at his messy hair and the groggy blinking of his eyes. His vision focused slowly as the smile slid over his yawning lips, "Hey, Ness, where'd ya go?"

"I had to pee," I said with an eye roll, "again."

He chuckled and stretched his arms out wide with another yawn,"Well, we better get down there, he's awake. I can smell him," he said with a boyish gleam in his eye. He swept me into his arms and swung me lightly down the stairs.

"Put me down already," I said smacking him lightly on the shoulder. He smiled and obeyed, a little reluctantly. He pulled me in for a quick peck and caught my eyes for a moment, I couldn't help myself. I sent him a tantalizing image of our little tryst. The scarlet burn of rushing blood suited him well. I smiled devilishly and turned, dragging him behind me into the living room.

I think I managed two steps before my mind stopped working, making it impossible for me to control my legs. Jake bumped into me, not realizing that I had stopped short of our destination, "Oh man," he said quietly as we both stopped and stared.

There, in the middle of the great room was Athenadora, her eyes blazing red and blood dripping hideously from her lips. David lay beneath her, blood pouring into a dark pool beneath him. Carlisle and the others stood motionless, surrounding her, frozen in apparent terror.

"Don't move, any of you," she snarled viscously, her eyes shifting monstrously around the room, "Don't move, or I'll finish him off."

My eyes darted to Alice. Her expression was cold and calculating. Her tiny features artfully positioned in the most ferocious manner possible. I scanned to my father next who was clearly reading Alice's plan from her mind. The two of them were poised to strike. Emmett's enormous figure bulged from the edge of the room. Rosalie was positioned to stop him should he do anything rash. Jake moved slowly in front of me, not wanting to catch Athenadora's attention.

"Surely, you wouldn't risk killing him," Carlisle said, attempting to subdue the situation. I could feel Jasper's calming waves wisping through the air. Athenadora's chest cavity heaved and she remained crouched, close to David's open wound.

"It should only take a second longer," she held her stance as if possessed my some horrible demon. She seemed evilly ugly and contorted in her posture.

"What will only take a second," my mother demanded, "If you kill him, we will kill you." Her shield flared, along with determination in her amber eyes. Carlisle shot my mom a warning look, but her gaze didn't leave the intruder.

Athenadora's laugh ricocheted off of the walls as she threw her head back, "Kill me? I think not you silly girl. After drinking his blood, none of you will stand a chance." Her haughty expression was sickening. "It will only take a moment longer and I will have done it." Her eyes swiveled wildly. Nothing seemed to be happening. The room itself seemed to hold its breath in anticipation. Her chest continued to heave, but it was clear that she was beginning to have doubts as to something miraculous happening. "It must take more," she said angrily bowing her head to resume feeding upon the still impeccably dressed David.

She kept her eyes on us, but before anyone could move to stop her, long white fingers with glassy nails closed over her throat. Her eyes went blank with shock. My father moved quickly, along with Alice. The two of them tackled the roaring vampire. As David released his grip of her throat, I noticed heavy indentations in her flesh. Alice and my dad wrestled her to the ground and pinned her down. I jumped out from behind Jacob, "Carlise, he needs blood!" I rushed to David side, closing my hand in his.

The tears were streaming down my cheeks. David's face had gone pale and his skin had sunken in horribly. His skeleton like appearance was unbearable. His mouth hung open like a gate halfway off its hinges. His fangs were more visible now, horribly grotesque and jutting from his jaw. Without the fullness of the flesh in his face he was truly monstrous. Carlisle was at my side instantly with a heap of bags of human blood from upstairs. He wasted no time tearing the bag open and prompting David to drink. The blood from the bags fell over his lips as his dilapidated form struggled to swallow enough of the life-giving substance.

Roars erupted from the corner where Athenadora lay pinned to the ground. "What should we do with her?" Alice said, struggling to hold her down. Emmett relieved her of her duty and took hold of the struggling and very much insane vampire.

"What's wrong with her?" Esme asked in horror, "I thought... I thought she wanted to talk to him."

"We all did," Carlisle replied, still helping David to consume the donated blood. "She must have blocked her intentions from Edward. I don't know what she was hoping to gain in this," he said shaking his head. "How could she have thought that we would allow this?"

David's animation was slowly returning. The skin on his cheeks began to fill and the color was restoring itself fairly quickly. "Grandpa," I said slowly still captivated by David's regeneration, "I think she thought that she would be able to kill enough of us to get away."

Carlisle answered quickly, "How could she be so stupid? We vastly out number her..."
"But if she were more powerful..." I trailed off in my thoughts. "That is why she came, she wasn't trying to warn us to save us, she was showing us what she intended to do. What they all intend to do! They are finding that they can't destroy the ancients, they are too strong. They are going to breed with them! Like the one in my vision! She was going to give up her ability to be in the sun and trade it in for more power!" I turned and stared at Athenadora, her body still wildly thrashing beneath my dad and Emmett. "But it didn't work, she didn't turn, but how?"

David's eloquent voice sounded, "Because she didn't do it right." Nearly all of his former self had been restored. His expression was extremely calm for someone who had almost been killed. David laughed, not unkindly, at the thought that he had plucked from my mind, "Although I quite thank you for your kindness in restoring me, I hardly almost died."

"But, but," I interrupted.

"Ah, yes, blood loss, but she could not have finished me off, as she put it. If she had wanted to end my existence she would have had to do much more than relieve me of my blood." He slowly stood up and seemed to be wiggling back into his old form, the new blood charging through him. "I would rather that we do something with her before we continue our conversations. Obviously, I do not want to give any of the others of her kind any ideas."

Carlisle nodded, clearly amazed at his instantaneous recovery, "Yes, I quite agree. I'm glad to have you up and on your feet so quickly my friend."

"Yes, well thanks to you, good doctor," he said with a slight bow and a smile. "Now, I for one, am not interested in killing unnecessarily, but what would you like to do with our friend?" I was surprised to see the vicious side escaping from David's proper poise. He had the ability to be absolutely frightening if need be. "Right again, my dear. Our kind is beautiful as well as terrifying. I find the appearance of your species to be much more appealing."

"I think we should kill her," Emmett growled from across the room. "The bitch is putting up one hell of a fight."

"You can't kill me!" she shrieked, "I'm Caius' wife! The Volturi will hunt you down one by one and slaughter you, all of you!"

"Not if there's no Volturi to do it," my mom sneered.

"That's enough," Carlisle said, "We're not going to kill her, but we are going to keep her safely out of harm's way. David, I'm afraid we are going to need to prepare to offer you another place to rest."

David nodded, "Quite alright, it will be no trouble at all."

"Emmett, Edward, bring her down here," Carlisle said opening the door to the cellar.

The two of them hoisted her up, restraining her as they walked down the stairs. We all followed. Athenadora screamed in terror and twisted her body frantically trying to escape. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be," David said calmly. Emmett and my dad lowered her screaming body into the casket and David clicked the lid shut and sealed the latches, locking her in. She pounded and wailed from inside the prison, but to no avail. She could not lift the heavy lid.

Esme ascended the stairs, "I can't stand it," she said softly. David didn't seemed overly pleased with the situation, but he let it be and followed her.

"Are you sure about this?" My dad said the Carlisle. "What if she gets out?"

"She better hope she doesn't," my mother said through gritted teeth.

"That's for sure," Emmett said with a chuckle, "Come on, sis." We all headed back towards the light of the kitchen leaving Athenadora in a shrieking mess.

The family filed into the dining room and took their various seats. "Well that was certainly unexpected," David said in a polite tone.

"That's an understatement," Jake mumbled. "What are we going to do with her?"

"We'll figure it out," Carlise said, "I'm more concerned with what she was trying to do."

Alice broke in, "Nessie, I think you need to show everyone the vision that she gave you. It will help everyone understand what we are dealing with here."

I held my hands out and everyone joined once again to receive the information. It took only a couple of seconds to assemble the set of events. I took a deep breath and administered the images, again ending with the horrific scene of the green eyes evaporating into ashes.

"This exactly what I feared," David said. "The remixing of our two species seems to produce a dangerously powerful hybrid. We don't know what they are capable of. From the given vision, they are unable to withstand sunlight. It seems that they are created in the usual fashion..." David trailed off in his own thoughts.

"Wait, the usual fashion?" Rosalie said. "That seemed hardly usual to me."

"Yes, Carlisle," agreed, "Could you shed a little light on what the usual fashion entails?"

David's brow furrowed, and his eyes met mine, reading my thoughts on venom. "Oh, I see, our species evidently does not procreate in the same manner. How strange," he lost himself in thought once more. "Not long after I had acquired this body, this youthful image, my maker forced me into this existence. I remember it quite vividly," his face twitched with a glimmer of pain, "Ah yes, Nessie, a very painful memory indeed. You see, I loved him very much, my Dark Blooded father. I knew him in my human form. I obsessed over him, over his vampiric existence. We endured a great adventure together that involved me switching bodies and gaining the one that you see before you. I had been in this youthful flesh for a very short time when my maker came to me and told me that he planned to turn me. I begged and pleaded for his mercy-- I loved him, more than anything and I couldn't believe him to be capable of my murder. I underestimated him..." he paused to compose his face. "Ah, yes, I loved him dearly. I was blinded by this love and had forgotten his true nature, it was my mistake I suppose. He came at me swiftly and I fought with all my strength to stop him, which of coarse, was useless. He drained me to the brink. He pulled all of my human blood from me, letting me struggle with death. He tortured me with a moment of panic that I would never know mortal life again. When I had just given up and death had nestled its shining face so close to mine and images of my life had flooded my last thoughts he ended it. He bestowed upon me the dark gift. Drained of all of my human blood, I couldn't resist. He bit into his own tongue and delivered the kiss of immortality. The first drops of his blood stunned my body and all I could think of was getting more. I savagely bit into his tongue with all of the mortal force I could muster sucking the blood from the wound. He pulled me back from him and slit his own wrist. I pulled the bloody arm to my lips and sucked vigorously, pulling the life, or whatever you want to call it, back into my veins. My maker told me to drink deep, to take as much as I could so that I would be strong. I felt as though I would burst. The dark blood pulsed through me, ravishing my body. The sensation was thick and unbearable, I jolted with fear and excruciating pain as my mortal death unfolded. My body went into shock, convulsing as I expelled the remainder of my human existence on the floor around me. When the pain subsided, I opened my eyes to a new world. All of the things around me had come to life, the details, the light, everything had changed. For the first time, I saw the deep richness of color and of beauty itself," he let his gaze fall to the table. All of my family members bore expressions of remembrance of what the sensation felt like. They all recollected their own transformations. Only Jake and I sat without knowing the feeling, without understanding the change.

Carlisle broke the silence, "So, as I understand this, a mere bite would not suffice?"

"No, there has to be a transference of blood, you must rid the human of their blood and give them your own. There is no venom, as there is in your species. It is a different process and I do believe that our friend, Athenadora was very much unaware of this fact. She sought to become a mingling of our two species, but after witnessing the vision projected by Nessie, I am sure that her blood would have had to been drained first in order for my blood to take hold. My blood no doubt will enhance her strength and her powers, but it was not enough to transform her," David said plainly.

"So your maker," my father began slowly, "does he still exist?"

"Oh yes, but he lies in a sort of slumber, as he has for some time now. He is troubled I think. None of our kind truly understand what he is going through or why he choses not to respond to our calls. He has partaken in the blood of the ancients and is very strong. He does not need to feed any more. He only does so when he choses. He had drank from the primal fount many times before we destroyed her. So he was very strong."

"Is it common practice for you to drink from one another?" Carlisle asked.

"I wouldn't say that it is common practice, but it is known to happen when certain relationships are formed. It takes on a very intimate tone and is done willingly with great love," David's eyes flashed to mine for a fraction of a second. I blushed and turned away, trying to banish thoughts of Jake and I from my mind. David smiled lightly and continued, "It is a great blessing to drink from the elders or those who have drank from them. The ancient blood greatly increases our powers and calms our thirst. Being made by one of great age or strong blood also produces a stronger fledgling, as in my case. I have not spent very much time in the blood, but due to my maker's strength, I have managed to obtain many powers of the ancients," David offered informatively. "I also have a theory that the amount of time that one spends in the flesh, that is, as a human increases the mental powers and stability of a fledgling."

"Wait," my father interrupted, "You said that you destroyed your primal fount?"

"That is correct," David stated.

"But, I thought that would kill all of you," my dad asked suspiciously.

"Yes, and probably all of you as well if the core of her had not been taken in by another of our species."

"What do you mean by taken in?" Carlisle said, his eyes gleaming at the stimulating conversation.

"Well, we are still uncertain of which part of the body hosted the spirit, but Maharet and her sister ingested the brain and heart of the first of our kind immediately after killing her," David looked at the other members of my family, "It is what I suppose that one of you may have to do once the first of your species is discovered should this individual prove to be untrustworthy, which is sadly, what I fear."

My family members looked around at one another, "Naturally, Carlisle would be the one to do it," Alice said matter-of-factly.

"I am not so sure of that, Alice," Carlisle responded. "I'm not sure that I am the correct one to shoulder that burden. It is not an easy decision to make, nor one that should be made without extensive deliberation."

"Quite right," David interjected, "It is a great burden and the one who does it must be strong enough and willing to ward off any who sought to gain his power or to destroy the species," he said his eyes casting for a moment on Jake.

"Then who else?" Alice said, a little stunned at the idea that Carlisle didn't immediately agree with her.

No one answered. Each of the beings inhabiting the table seemed in their own worlds imagining the possibilities.