Chapter 9: My Angel

I packed up the essentials and shipped them on to a house I purchased in Ashland. Edward and I took longer to meander our way to the new house, preferring to wander like nomads for a while, working on his self-control and sampling the local wildlife. We slept under the stars for about two years, before finally coming into Ashland during the night.

Edward was adjusting well to the different lifestyle, but I still wasn't sure if he was ready for human contact. I could see the conflict on his face when the wind blew the wrong way. In being able to read my mind, he was more willing to trust that I knew what I was doing in telling him to control his thirst. He wasn't a newborn any more, but he was still young and susceptible to his instincts.

Settling in, Edward and I agreed that he would be a cousin of mine. We would use my last name "Cullen", since I'd never been in this area before. I would work the night shift and Edward would remain at home. He should have been in school during the day, but both of us agreed we shouldn't push our luck. Edward would remain home, for safety.

I was working one night in the hospital when an ambulance brought a young woman in. She had jumped off a cliff, attempting suicide, but for what reason was unknown. She was presumed dead, but I still had to look over her to be sure.

The mangled body was devastating to see. Each limb was bent out of shape, shattered in some places. Her chest was collapsed with multiple ribs puncturing her lungs. Her hair was so covered in blood and grime, even I could not tell its real color. But something about the curve of her mouth brought back a distant memory of a young girl in Ohio, who'd fallen from a tree and had sat quiet as I'd tended her broken leg.

I checked the name on the papers. "Esme Evenson." Had the girl not spoken of a Charles Evenson, who her parents had admired? Perhaps the Esme Platt I had tended as a child had grown up to marry Charles. The age would be right. I'd tended the 16 year old girl ten years ago. This woman was 26.

It means nothing Carlisle, I told myself. She is married, and probably dead. Just examine the body and sign off. I checked her eyes and checked off all the preliminary requirements to pronounce a person dead, before moving on to the more major ones. A heartbeat, for instance. At first I didn't feel a pulse in her wrist. But as I listened closer, I could hear a slight beating. A soft pulse that gave me hope. She wasn't dead! Her heart still beat! I listened at her throat. She was hardly breathing, but that was there too. She was barely alive, and fading.

I had to change her. I looked at her through the tempting blood that cause venom to pool in my mouth still, and I saw beauty. The same beauty that Esme Platt from Columbus, Ohio had exhibited ten years before. Except this was more mature. Without a second thought, I signed for Esme's death and wheeled her towards the morgue. But like Edward before, Esme didn't stay in the morgue. I picked her up and took her back to the house away in the woods where Edward and I lived.

Edward was waiting for me when I rushed inside, cradling Esme's broken body to my chest. Her blood dripped on my lab coat. Edward was already holding his breath against the smell.

"Edward, go outside and get fresh air," I suggested. Edward left without protest. I laid Esme on the couch, just as I had with Edward, though I felt more rushed. Without pausing for even a breath, I bit into her skin where I thought the venom might do some good, at major veins. I needed to get my venom to her heart to keep it going. Already the light pulse was fading.

For the longest time, nothing seemed to happen and I worried that I had been too late, that this angel who slumbered in front of me, had faded away. But I began to hear a stronger thumping in her chest. The venom was working! My angel began breathing deeper as the venom spread through her arteries from the heart, and back through the veins. I sat by her, not breathing myself. I listened to each beat of her heart, always waiting for the next. If her heart had stopped at any time before her transformation was over, I don't think I would have breathed again.

As the minutes wore on, I watched her wounds heal and watched as her breathing and heart rate increased to normal levels and beyond. The first sound to escape her lips was a cry of pain. A cry that wrenched my silent heart and made me spring to my feet, ready to defend her from whatever was causing her pain. But I couldn't. The pain was my own doing, my venom that burned inside her. I could only sit by, gripping her hand as it tightened with each new wave of pain. I was reminded of my transformation. It was almost 300 years ago, but was made raw by Esme's suffering. I would go through that pain again, if it meant stopping hers. I would take all her pain ten times over, if it meant she never felt it again.

I never left my angel during the whole four days of her transformation. Only once did I let go of her hand, and that was when Edward brought me water and a cloth to wash the blood from her face and arms. I spoke softly to her, telling her to hold on, that everything would be alright, reminding her of the meadow where she used to swing with her friends, and the tall oak that she'd climbed on a bet. The one that had caused us to first meet.

Edward hunted alone, carefully staying to the proper diet. The "vegetarian" one, as I called it. I was proud of him for staying in control while I was occupied. Only after three days alone, did Edward come to sit with me at Esme's side.

"You really care for her," he said. "I can tell. And you've seen her before, years ago."

"Ten," I replied.

"She remembers you," he said softly. "She hears your voice and remembers you from Columbus."

I was puzzled for a moment, and then realized that Edward was hearing Esme's thoughts.

"Is the pain receding?" I asked.

"A bit," he replied. "She can feel her fingertips again. It doesn't hurt so much anymore."

"That's good," I commented. It wasn't that we both didn't know how the transformation worked, but that I wanted Esme to hear it. I wanted to reassure my angel that all was well and that it would soon be over.

"She is curious," Edward murmured. "Curious about you, and me. Curious whether or not she is in heaven." Edward chuckled. "She thinks our voices are too wonderful to be humans. She thinks we're angels." He laughed again, almost bitter. "We are far from."

"We are hardly angels," I agreed, looking at Esme's round, lovely face. The face I had burned into my memory. It was peaceful now, as compared to only a while ago when it had cried out in pain. "But perhaps she is."

Edward sighed, looking at Esme. "Perhaps," he said, resigned. "But she has suffered much, before you even brought her here." He disappeared upstairs, probably to his own room, leaving me to watch over my angel.

Early in the fourth day, Esme's heart began to beat faster and faster. The venom was retracting into her heart, the last human organ. It beat faster and faster, in a desperate attempt to fight the venom. But it was doomed as soon as the venom entered her body. As the venom worked to consume her heart, the muscle beat faster and faster and faster until it abruptly stopped.

Cliffhanger! Muahhaha! I know I'm mean to leave you hanging like this, but what kind of writer would I be if I answered your every question right away and didn't leave you coming back for more? Stay tuned, the next chapter in Carlisle's story is coming. Don't forget to review me and a special thanks to catchstardust and Emiliana Keladry for already doing so.

-Wish