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Chapter 47: Nothing But Time
I let the cooling agent of the ground simmer out my fear and angst for a moment. I closed my eyes and reveled in the complacency of survival. I felt my preternatural blood working its dark magic to repair my wounds and although I felt slightly weakened, I was surprised to over all feel mostly recovered. Reality drenched me like a bucket of cold water as I jolted back to full awareness and sprung agilely to my feet.
A whirlwind of action filled me-- Jake, now naked and laying limply in human form next to me, churning vampire half breeds staring in horror and backing quickly out of the chamber and into the awayness of the night, and something else, something ancient and familiar. I felt it before I actually saw what was transpiring.
A pair of feathery arms swooped over me in a feverish rush, "Daddy," I whimpered in relief. His soothing arms wrapped me in a security that I had been privy too for my whole life.
"Yes, angel," he whispered softly, "you are safe. I would never let anything happen to you."
I smiled up at him, letting him be the hero. But as I stared into his eyes, I caught a strange red reflection in the golden pools. I whipped my head around to bare witness to the scene first hand. A scream escaped my lips as a thrashing and vicious looking Marcus fought the restraints of the most ancient of vampires.
Her fiery red hair fell over their forms as she easily held the writhing evil captive. My eyes met hers, so unnatural to be staring into a pair of human eyes belonging to the eldest of all known immortal vampires. She smiled an easy and reassuring smile, but quickly turned her attention back to Marcus with goddess-like command she snapped at him, "Stop fighting, you cannot overpower me." Her voice was cool and confident and amazingly Marcus instantly obeyed. "You have caused great suffering young one, you have abused the power that you have embodied and I will standby no longer. I cannot witness the reckless and cruel slaying of mortals for your amusement. Nor will I allow you to create armies of this half-bred creatures who have no want or need to control themselves. I have allowed many atrocities in my time without interference, but I find that you have exceeded your personal limit and I will not allow it to continue."
Time itself seemed to bow to her radiating power. Her stone-like appearance made me think of rocks melting down to tiny grains of sand as the waves berated them. Her skin caught the light of the watching moon and all around her and us was uncannily still. The earth seemed to coarse through her and the wind was there to obey her commands as it lapped seductively at her blazing locks. And although she seemed an angel of mercy and protection I knew her dark danger. I could feel the black power swelling within her veins, the taste of her ancient blood flooded my memory. Nothing dared to move. The moon seemed paralyzed in fear and respect for the being who may be nearly as old as itself and very well may embody the power to control the tides of time.
In the silence, time ripped open at the seams as a dauntingly mad cackle tore through a scene so still it may have been a painting. Marcus' dark and curly hair bounced playful in his mocking laugh, "You cannot destroy me!" he snarled through his laugh, "I am their fount, I am their maker. If you destroy me, all of your precious vegetarians will follow. Surely in all of your great and abundant wisdom you have not overlooked this tiny detail!" His roaring laughter echoed throughout the stillness of the watchful night sky. The stars did not twinkle in delight, they merely stared, as did I and the rest of my family.
A cold click of expensive shoes fell vibrantly upon the floor, striking a perilous note, "My queen, I do wish to speak on behalf of the other species."
"Very well David," Maharet said with a kind and amused smile, "We have nothing but time, dear friend."
A polite and well received inside joke played upon David's lips, "So true," he bowed his head respectfully. "In my time spent with the Cullens' clan, I have seen things foreign to our species. I have seen a camaraderie and love that none of us have really had the pleasure to experience. They mate for life, they have the ability to make love and in some cases, bare children. They are a miraculous species. They seem a cross between human and vampire. They do not grow tired of one another or long for solitude-- they are family, as mortal men experience the word. They share a love and devotion to one another that I thought to be dead within the dark blood. It is true that we love one another and share a kinship like no other, but it is not a family tied love. No, it is blood tied and earned through great time and respect. Even among the closest of kin, this bond falls short of what I remember as love and companionship in my mortal existence."
Maharet's eyes seethed with a loneliness I had never seen, a want and need that had been so long unfulfilled that it seemed even she had forgotten of it. "Yes," her voice fell softly upon my ears, "you speak wisely my friend, I too remember bonds of my mortal years and long for the time when I may share them once more." Her eyes and mind were in a distant place and for a moment I caught an image of another red haired beauty, identical to the first.
But David continued, "They love like we cannot love. Time can be easier for them to withstand because of these bonds and this coven in particular has seemed to master this skill. Their care for one another supersedes all other needs-- even thirst. They have survived purely upon the blood of animals and have devoted their immortal existence to the human condition.
"Yes, I am aware of Carlisle Cullen's chosen profession," Maharet said with a childlike smile. "I have to admit that it is very intriguing. I have no doubt of your love and fascination with this family David, I too would like to bask in their warmth. I do not intend to destroy the entire species simply for the actions of a few reckless individuals. Surely you know that, but you understand my dilemma, don't you?"
David nodded in silence, I tried to pry into his mind, but he flashed a knowing look in my direction and simply blocked my entrance, leaving me at the door with only the phrase, all in good time, my dear. Try to be patient.
I nodded in confusion. Marius stepped from the shadows unseen. "How do we chose for them? How do we tell them what is to be done? Why not leave it to them? The choice was so obvious without our own situation, but this is different, there is no clear choice here. Who are we to decide? My queen, I do not wish to play God."
"Marius," Maharet spoke with a loving authority and respect for his concerns. The compassion written into her sculpted face overwhelmed me. "You, as usual, share my sentiments. I do not wish to, as you put it, play god. So what do we do? If we cannot choose for them? Do we burden them with the choice? Do we burden them with this?" A power from deep within Maharet's core shook the room. Marcus screamed as a stirring and dark blackness swirled around the two of them and for a moment Maharet's beauty melted into the most horrifying image of evil I had ever seen. I shrunk back, not wanting to see the image of her charred skeleton fused with the blood and souls of the millenniums she had endured. I closed my eyes and shivered as the image burned itself into my brain like an angry brand. I felt my father's arms pulling me in close.
I stole a look around the room as I realized that almost all of my family was present. Alice and Jasper clung to one another at Carlisle's side. Emmett and Rose stood behind Marius and David. And I stood wrapped in my father's arms, next to my mother. Jake lay unconscious, but breathing, at our feet. All of the half-lings had fled like scurrying rats from Maharet, as if they sensed her ability to destroy them in one easy motion.
Marcus began laughing like the asylum's newest patient once again, "You cannot destroy me! You see, there is no way around it!" He smiled the grin of the mentally unstable, crooked and conniving, but without knowledge or reason.
Maharet nearly laughed in amusement as she held him easily with one of her statuesque arms, "Oh it has happened before, young one." she smiled as a spark of memory slipped from her treasure trove of private thoughts. I saw an image of another, as old as she with jet black platelet hair and dark, but still unnaturally bright skin. Her name blazed into the scene, Akasha. She was the first, and she no longer existed. "We have a way Marcus, be sure of that-- it is the means that we are concerning ourselves with. I do hope you are enjoying your final hours, because as you know, we will be taking to safety before the light of the sun graces the earth with its presence. And that means, my evil friend, that your time is coming to a close." The kindness in her face fused with a sort of evil delight and menacing power as she stared into Marcus' eyes, which suddenly flashed with fear and fury. The moon peered down at him with a cold and calculating grimace as it dragged slowly across the sky toward its resting place and toward Marcus' demise.
"You can't!" he roared and began thrashing again, "You can't! I am the first! I am the fount! The spirit chose me! You will kill them all! You can't destroy me!" The insane laughter rolled from his lips once again in haunting and maniacal bursts.
Maharet's lip curled with mysterious flirtation, "Oh, but we can... And we will."