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Chapter22

Killing

"So she's the one who taught you that you could … you know?" Bella asked.

"Yes, that and much more. I wish I could tell you the whole story, Bella. I haven't the time, right now. I have to go and find out what Carlisle wants."

"I'm hungry. Should I wait?"

"If I'm not back in a few hours, then you can go yourself. Just be smart about it. I'm sure you'll do fine. Otherwise, I'd certainly enjoy your company. I thought we might go into the city tonight." Edward glanced in the direction of Carlisle's quarters, his expression of exasperation surprisingly human. Bella laughed.

"Go. I'll take a shower, and wait for you." She watched him leave, then stripped off her nightgown and made her way into the bathroom.

It was not as luxurious as Rose's, but it was quite enough for Bella, who had spent the last year showering in a cold tile room with seven other women.

She thought of Mike. Jessica. Renata. Ben and Angela. Would she see them again?

Her desire for revenge against Mike was already fading. It was difficult to maintain any concern.

Her connection with those mortal lives had been severed. She didn't need the drug, didn't really care if Mike's crimes went unpunished.

The thought of Jessica still hurt, but what could she do for Jessica? Killing Mike would only put the girl out on the street with no immediate source of the drug.

More pressing, and more troublesome, was the story Edward had begun. Kate. An elder vampire and a previous lover.

Bella wondered what had happened to her, and knew it couldn't have been pleasant.

The expression on Edward's face had been heart- breaking. There was still so little she knew about her lover.

Centuries of life that remained dark to her, stories untold. Edward was a creature beyond the scope of time Bella was capable of visualizing. She could not imagine living for nearly half a millennia.

The thought filled her both with fear and a fierce, fluttering excitement. So much to see and do, side by side with the one she loved.

Bella turned off the shower, brushed her hair, pulled on clothes. There was a plush armchair against the wall, and Edward had left a collection of Dickinson's poetry on the nightstand.

Bella sat down, picking up the book and beginning to read. The transition that began on the night she had met Edward was still happening, the blood working on Bella in ways both subtle and obvious.

Beyond the strength, and the speed, it seemed also to be shaping her mind, maximizing it, bringing it to its full potential.

She was now able to read far more quickly, comprehend on many more levels. The work, which would once have left her confused and frustrated, now fascinated her.

She continued to read, glancing occasionally at the door, waiting for Edward.

Bella's ears picked up the noises several minutes before her brain truly became aware of them.

Shuffling from down the hall. Heavy breathing. They came not from the direction of Carlisle's chambers, but from Rose's.

She glanced at her watch. It had been more than ninety minutes since Edward had left. If he did not return soon, Bella would have to go hunting without him.

She stood, set the book on the table, crept out the door, edging toward Rose's room. She hoped to determine which of the two women inhabited the body before making her presence known. The cry startled her not only because it was unexpected, but because the voice belonged neither to Rose, nor Rosalie.

It was a woman's voice, gasping for air and begging. Bella heard fear in the voice, but also pleasure, longing, desire.

"No. Please wait!" Bella crept toward the door, curiosity overwhelming her. Light shone from the interior of Rose's room, spilling gold and amber onto the carpeting of the hall.

Bella glanced through the crack, into the room, eyes wide. On Rose's bed lay a girl about Bella's age, naked and sweaty, bleeding from a wound on her neck and another near her navel. She had straight dark hair and brown skin, broad hips, heavy breasts.

Rose, or Rosalie, was straddling her, unclothed as well. There was blood on her lips and chin.

"Wait?" It was obviously Rosalie. The tone of the voice was enough. "Do you really want me to wait?" The girl was stammering, panting, staring up at Rosalie with huge, confused eyes.

Rosalie didn't give her a chance to form a coherent answer, but reached instead behind her, between the girl's legs. The girl cried out, arched her back, immediately matched the movement of her hips to the rhythm of Rosalie's hand. She leaned her head back, gasping, baring her throat.

Rosalie moved her head down without hesitation, feeding. Bella felt her own hunger roar to life despite her horror.

The blood, the sex; she could smell them on the air. Rosalie pulled away again, licking her lips.

"I can't finish you tonight, but I can start you. Edward thinks he can leave me here by myself. Fuck him. You're mine, Tanya."

Tanya looked up at her, semi-conscious, dazed from passion and lack of blood. Her nipples were dark, engorged with blood, standing hard, and Bella noticed that there were bite marks on her breasts, too.

A gold chain hung around her neck, its small crucifix pendant currently shoved aside, dangling in Tanya's left armpit.

"Drink," Rosalie said, and ran a sharp fingernail across her own breast. She lowered it to Tanya's open mouth. The girl latched on to it like a child intent on feeding.

Rosalie gasped, turned her head, and caught sight of Bella. Their eyes seemed locked. Rosalie smiled, but in those eyes there was only malice.

"Mine," she said. Bella turned and walked back to her room on legs that felt numb.

Three and a half hours had passed since Edward's departure. The hunger was gnawing at Bella, but she was afraid to leave her room.

Afraid that Rosalie might be waiting for her, might be looking to show off the awful progeny she was creating.

Would her blood taint the girl's mind? Would she and Edward find themselves now the only sane beings in an even larger brood of vampires?

The door to her room opened. Bella whirled, expecting Rosalie, unsure of what she might do to avoid confrontation. Edward stood there instead, looking at her, calm as ever.

"You waited."

"You … we … there's a problem, Edward. It's bad. Really bad. Something really bad is happening." Edward nodded. His expression didn't change.

"I am aware of it."

"But you didn't stop it?"

"I wasn't able to. I was with Carlisle. I believe he knew." He came into the room, sat down in a chair, looked out the window. Bella waited for him to explain.

"There is nothing to explain," Edward said after a while. "Carlisle knew, yes. I'm sure of it. He knew where Rosalie was, and what she was doing, and now there's another half-vampire lying unconscious in a cell in the basement, and Rose's been crying for the past hour."

"Rose?"

"Rosalie let her back in, as soon as she'd done it. Rose woke up naked, lying next to the girl. It didn't take her long to figure out what had happened, but she couldn't make herself kill the girl. Perhaps it's maternal instinct. Perhaps it is Rosalie exerting her will. I do not know, but Tanya is her child now."

"Couldn't she just leave? You said that half-vampires eventually revert."

"They do. It doesn't matter. They are bonded now. What will the girl do, if we take her somewhere and leave her lying unconscious? She will wake up and return home. Rosalie will eventually wrest control of the body away from Rose. When she does, she will go to the area of the city where the girl lives. Tracking her from there will be simple."

"So what do we do?" Edward laughed. There was little humour in the sound.

"Yes. What do we do? We go hunting. Then I go to Carlisle and tell him what he already knows, and find out how he wishes me to proceed."

"Would he care?"

"I do not know. The possibility exists that this is some sort of test, or lesson, or final parting gift. He might tell me to do nothing. He might tell me to slaughter the girl. To be honest, I'm not sure what the best course of action is. He may have arranged this entire event, that he might exercise one last bit of control over me before I abandon him forever."

"Would you do it?" Edward's gaze did not leave the window. He shrugged.

"She might well be better off. Rose would certainly be better off. In truth, it might be better for all involved if my parting gift to Carlisle was to slaughter those of his descendants whom I am not taking with me."

"Edward, no! Rose? She …"

"She shares her mind with something that has become progressively stronger with each passing day. Something evil that was never meant to be. Something that is slowly taking over the body that once was hers." He turned to Bella.

"The question is not whether Rose will die, Bella. It is whether she will die by my hand, or Carlisle's, or Rosalie's. She will eventually be absorbed. This leaves Alice, who is almost certainly better off dead, and the half vampire in the basement, whose name I do not even know."

"Tanya." Bella's lips felt numb. Edward looked at her, and there was a momentary dizziness. Bella's vision swam, and images of the events with Rose seemed to flicker past behind her eyelids. Then it was over.

"Yes, Tanya. My apologies, Bella. I should have asked before doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Normally I receive thoughts passively. I shut most of it out, in fact, for a variety of reasons. Occasionally though I harvest. In this instance, I'm now aware of what you saw and heard."

"How do you do this stuff, Edward?" Edward shrugged.

"All thought is energy. All energy can be harnessed. I do not know how my mind does it, only that it can."

"Edward … what do we do?" He sighed.

"My largest concern is not determining Carlisle's desire, but whether I should carry out those actions regardless of his wishes. The people who will be left in this mansion, Bella, are largely better off dead. Rose knows this. She's known it for years."

"That's why she cried last night. When you finished me." Bella felt cold and frightened. She felt as if some momentous event was taking place, something beyond her ability to control. Edward nodded.

"Your birth into darkness was the beginning of the end. It was the beginning of the end of everything she has ever known."