Legends

Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.

Chapter Twenty-Nine-Reflection

Rosalie had spent a good proportion of her life-vampire and human-admiring her reflection in the mirror. But now she could barely look at it. She ran her perfectly manicured nails down the mirrored glass in frustration and anger. The mirror invites a person to see their soul and the condition of their heart, to look past physical features. Rosalie had always been a great beauty, but all the reflective surface did these days was reveal the ugliness underneath. She had sold her soul to the devil and there was no way back.

Emmet's image appeared behind her and she scowled. "So, you're back." She stated coolly.

Emmet flinched at the harshness of her tone. He was wearing his usual hangdog expression. It infuriated her. Just like everything did these days. He had just returned from a sojourn in Seattle with Carlisle. The coven leader needed his burly strength to help contain the increasingly restless newborns. "Didn't you miss me at all?" He asked.

"How can anyone miss a stone in their shoe?" Rosalie sneered derisively. Flicking her shiny blonde hair over her shoulders, she glided past him gracefully, fully intending to leave the room and him.

Emmet caught her wrist in a vice like grip before she had a chance to escape, swinging her around to face him again. "You loved me once. What changed?" He demanded.

Rosalie's haughty gaze swept over his boyishly handsome face, her lips curving up into a sardonic smile. He wasn't wrong. She had loved him once, thinking of him as her perfect match. She remembered the day she had saved him from a bear that just about mauled him to death and, despite the extreme effort this cost her, carried him 100 miles to her home, for Carlisle to change him, because she didn't think she could do it herself. She had told Bella once that she saved Emmett because he reminded her of her friend Vera's son, Henry, with dark curly hair and dimpled cheeks and "the strange innocence that looked so out of place on a grown man's face." Oh, what a fool she had been! Not once but twice!

"I changed, Emmet. Now release me."

"And if I don't?" Emmet challenged, pulling her closer.

Rosalie's nostrils flared slightly, her eyes and face showing no fear. She was past being intimidated by any man. "You just try it and see what happens. Remember it didn't turn out so well for Royce King." She rarely referred to her drunken fiancé who had been responsible for her tragic demise. After being brutally gang raped and beaten by him and some of his friends, and upon becoming a vampire after Carlisle found her dying in the street, she avenged her death by killing Royce's friends one at a time, saving him as her last victim.

"Dammit, Rose." Emmet gripped her wrist harder. If she had been human his tight hold would have shattered every bone. "You don't get to treat me like this. Why can't you be more like Esme? She worships the ground Carlisle walks on."

"Esme is spineless and weak minded. I think she actually enjoys being submissive to Carlisle. That's why they are so perfect together-he loves controlling people and she loves being controlled. Now let me go." Rosalie bit back through gritted teeth.

Emmet drew his face closer to hers, his eyes and face hardening. "The only reason you still exist is because of me. Never forget that, sweetheart. If it was up to Carlisle, he would have disposed of you long ago. I mean, what do you really have to offer to the world other than your beauty? You have no special gifts. You're nothing but a vain and narcissistic air head. It makes me wonder why I still want you around."

"Maybe you should be the one to look in the mirror." Rosalie suggested, yanking her wrist out of his tight hold, she rubbed it absently. "I'd watch your back, lover boy. You don't know when this vain, narcissistic air head might strike back." She threatened, before flouncing out of the room.

Emmet didn't follow.

Rosalie slotted gracefully into the driver's seat of her Mercedes-Benz C-Class convertible. Its dark red paint glowed crimson in the bright overhead lights of the underground garage. Anger leant her wings as she put her foot down, sending the back tires spinning as she pealed out into the night. In a matter of seconds, she reached the end of the long driveway and spun carelessly onto the main highway. Without awareness of the road or the lashing rain, the Mercedes moved over the highway, lights on full beam. Rosalie watched how the yellowed yet bright light played in the droplets, showing the deluge, the flood from the sky, in apparently solitary drops.

She was driving so fast that even the wind pushed on the car to no avail. Over the quiet purr of the engine, Rosalie could hear the monotonous hiss of the tries over the rain-washed highway and the air that made its way through the filters was meadow-sweet. All around, through the tinted windows were trees. Leaning forward she fiddled with the radio to fill her ears with the latest popular tunes, starlets, the new pop "idols." She was desperate to distract herself from the dark thoughts circulating inside her brain. She didn't know what she was doing, was just desperate to escape the stifling confines of the huge mansion which was becoming worse than any prison.

Rosalie knew it wouldn't be long before she was hunted down and dragged back to the bosom of the family. Once Carlisle learned that she had made another break for it, he would waste no time in punishing her severely. Emmet was right when he said she had nothing to offer the world other than her beauty. She had tried Carlisle's patience once too often, he only let her exist because for some insane reason Emmet insisted on keeping her around like some damn trophy. She despised him so much. Almost as much as she despised Carlisle.

She wondered how harsh the punishment would be this time. Would he do to her what he had done to Jasper? Part of Rosalie almost welcomed the idea of being put out of her misery. After all Carlisle had only changed her because he initially thought she would make the perfect mate for his precious Edward. Rosalie shuddered at the thought of being tied to that spineless fool. She'd had a lucky escape there. He had shown no interest in her or her beauty when she was turned. And she had hated him on first sight. He was as despicable as Carlisle.

Rosalie was so lost in her thoughts that she had long ago stopped watching the road in front of her. It was only at the very last second that she saw the huge wolf step out into the middle of the road, his sleek grey fur with black spots dampened by the rain. One moment the road was there, wide open and free, the next her ears were filled with loud noises, and the acrid smells and the sheer horror of the blood spatter covering the windscreen as the Mercedes slammed violently into the wolf, ramming it right off the road and into the side of a tree. Its pained howls echoed in the rain filled sky as a sharp branch from that very same tree impaled it in the side.

Whether a human or a vampire, a car crash comes as a shock and that's an aspect that even the best movies and novels aren't good at showing. It is the equivalent of looking without seeing, a form of emotional blindness. Rosalie pulled herself out of the wreck of her car, looking erratically to the left and right of her. Her beloved Mercedes was nothing more than a pile of twisted metal, its back tires still spinning eerily after impact.

Rosalie felt the shock setting in, her brain going on pause as it tried to make a new connection, one that brings with it high emotion of either joy or sorrow. It was like finding herself unexpectedly on a platform, train approaching, realising that this time the destination was not a choice. Her hands found their way into her hair as she pushed it out of her eyes, and she tried to focus on the scene in front of her. The wolf was no longer howling in pain, that was because it was no longer a wolf. In its stead was a man, a boy, his head was bent so she couldn't see his face. He was tall, taller than Emmet. Over six feet. Hoarse breaths escaped him as his shaking hand hovered above the deadly spike of the tree branch that had impaled him in his left side.

Her first instinct was to run away and let him succumb to his fate. After all he was the one who had stupidly stepped into the road in front of an oncoming car. She had been speeding, and maybe a little distracted, but it still wasn't her fault. And he was one of the La Push wolves. Her mortal enemy. If the situation were reversed, she was sure he would have no qualms in leaving her behind to perish. In a matter of a few days, (and depending on the extent of Carlisle's punishment), they would have been facing each other in battle anyway.

But something inside Rosalie cracked. Earlier she had looked into the mirror and seen the reflection of her soul and the truth of its condition. And it frightened her. Feeling true compassion for probably the first time in her life, Rosalie approached her enemy to offer help.

The boy raised his head slowly and stared at her, his russet skin ashen from all the blood loss. "Are you coming to finish me off?" He wheezed painfully. "I would hurry. My pack will be here soon."

Rosalie shook her blonde curls, focusing on the spike poking out of his left side. Already the skin was trying to heal around it, but was unable to close fully, causing the blood to continue to flow. "I'm not going to finish you off. And I'm not a doctor, but I think the spike must have missed most of your vital organs, otherwise you'd probably be dead already." She said calmly.

"No shit, Sherlock." The boy muttered.

Rosalie glared at him, unamused at his foul language. "You can drop the sarcasm, boy. I doubt your precious pack will make it in time to help you. And I'm the only other one here."

"Why would you help me?" His confusion was clear.

"I don't know." Rosalie admitted honestly. "But I'm your only option. And this is going to hurt." She stepped forward and gripped the protruding spike with both hands. "Maybe you should tell me your name?" She suggested.

"Embry Ca- ahhhhh!" His screams filled the night as Rosalie chose that moment to yank the spike pinning him to the tree right out of his flesh.

A/N-thanks for reading!