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Chapter 26

No one

For several months, Edward spent every waking moment of his time with Kate and Bree. It took little time for Kate to coax Edward into the fullness of his own sexuality, and evenings frequently began with feeding, perhaps a show, and ended in lengthy stretches of passion.

His early teachings came from Bree, and with Kate's guidance the two learned rapidly.

Bree took his virginity from him, gave him her own, in a bed of satin, Kate's soft whispers a soothing backdrop to the heat of passion, the heat of blood.

After this, their lovemaking was frequent, spontaneous, shared. Edward and Bree, Edward and Kate, Kate and Bree, the three together.

Bree would be a fledgling someday, Kate explained. Her body was young, yet, but the time was nearing.

Bree, for her part, was content for now with the ministrations of her vampire lovers.

Days blurred into weeks, weeks into months. Edward saw nothing of Carlisle, delved no further into the darkness that had held his soul for the past decade.

Mental, physical, spiritual, Kate was his teacher in all things, and found Edward a most willing pupil.

A year. Another. A third. When Kate brought Bree to darkness, Edward was there, watching like a proud father. The process was more difficult for her than it had been for Edward, and Kate explained that this was due to differences between the vampire strains.

There was pain, but Bree bore it, and in the end was nearly unchanged by the transformation. She gained strength, speed, the ability to see in the dark, but no evil touched her, and she did not lose her sexual abilities.

She remained their constant companion, a fledgling learning from her mistress, and from her friend.

They made quite the trio, strolling the streets of London after dark, dressed in the latest fashions, hunting as it pleased them.

There were events to attend. The theatre, the symphony, the opera. Time passed, as it does during the good times, in what seemed a blur.

In her third year of vampire life, Bree discovered the pleasures of coupling with her victims before she fed. This was a bittersweet occurrence.

Her time with both Edward and Kate became less frequent, much to their disappointment. She still lived with them, still enjoyed their company, but now hunted alone, and most of her lovemaking was with humans.

Simultaneously, this left more time for Edward and Kate to be alone together. They used it, growing ever more skilful in the pleasures they brought to one another.

Bree was a welcome addition when she wished to be, a companion otherwise.

More years. Five became ten, ten became twenty, twenty became forty. Carlisle was a distant memory.

Kate, Bree, they were reality. Edward's companions. He had come to love his immortal life with them, to cherish it more than he could have thought possible.

But in the forty-first years of his new life, Edward found these things he cherished, his entire world, shattered beyond repair.

It started in a grove of trees, under a full spring moon. Kate and Edward, walking in the park, talking quietly, warm from the kill. They entered a small grove, away from prying eyes. The glint in Edward's eyes had made Kate laugh.

"Someone will call the constable!"

"Let them." Skin against skin, lips at each other's necks, warmth flowing between them, growing to a fire. No one had called the constable.

When it was through, they lay in each other's arms, saying nothing. Kate stared at the moon. When she sighed, there was melancholy in it, to Edward's surprise.

"What is it, Kate?"

"Edward, sometimes I think I can see the future." Edward was unsure of how to respond.

Kate sighed again, put her forehead in the hollow between his neck and shoulder, kissed the skin there. At last he could take the silence no longer.

"What do you see?" No words, for a long time, and then Kate moved her head, rolled her weight on top of him so she could look into his eyes. There were tears in her own, a first from Kate.

He saw them drop, felt them land, cool on his cheeks. The moon reflected silver in the tracks on her face.

"Darkness, my love. All I see for us is darkness," Kate whispered, and putting her head to his chest, she wept.

Edward paused for a moment, took a deep breath. Bella glanced over at him.

"This is hard for you. I'm sorry, Edward. You don't have to tell it." Edward shook his head.

"No, it is best that I do. I have kept this story to myself for hundreds of years, and I think perhaps this is why it is still so painful. If I could have brought myself to talk about it, I might have been able to heal. Modern psychology seems to bear that theory out."

"Could Kate really tell the future?"

"She was certainly right in this instance. All there was for us, in the end, was darkness."

"What happened next?"

"Next? It's funny, in a way. What happened next was done to protect me. Ah, Bella, I was young. I was so very young. I had lived for over sixty mortal years, yes, but forty of those were vampire years. They pass in a blur, and contain fewer lessons. There was no death to deal with, aside from the victims. No sickness. No worrying about occupation or supporting a family. There was nothing to make me into a man.

"Kate knew this, I imagine; she knew how naive I was. Perhaps that is what made her love me. Kate's strain is prone to depression, particularly after long stretches of immortality. She was more than eight hundred years old when I met her. I believe that Bree and I became her anchors. Her reasons for living. She was terrified of what might happen to us, but equally terrified of pushing us away and being alone."

"What did she do?"

"She told me not to worry about it, to forget her words. I was confused. Upset. To be honest, I was frightened quite severely by this sudden change. I had never seen Kate weep. In truth, I had never seen her give in to a weakness of any sort. To see her so distraught was disturbing, though I did my best to comfort her. I held her, and she clung to me in a panic for a time. I whispered in her ear that I would make things right, that all would be well. Eventually she regained her composure."

"Did she explain?" Edward shook his head. His voice betrayed more frustration than sorrow.

"No. I attempted to learn more from her, but she would say nothing. She dismissed it as the emotional ramblings of a woman, and like a fool I accepted it. The calm, collected, unperturbed Kate I knew was returning, and I was glad for it. Relieved. I took her at her word. This was a momentary emotional outburst."

"But it wasn't."

"No. And looking back on it now, it is obvious. Her entire demeanour changed after that night. She knew that the end was coming, and she hid that knowledge to protect me. Ah, Bella, I loved her. I loved her as I love you, but I am so angry with her, to this very day. Furious. Why did she not explain? Combined, prepared, we might have prevented it. There might have been some other alternative."

"Sometimes people, even people who have been alive for hundreds of years, make mistakes, Edward." Edward nodded.

"Indeed. It is not the mistake that frustrates me. I have only grief for that. It is the knowledge that, if she were here right now and presented the same choices, she would come to the same decisions. She would make the same mistake."

"But she's not here, now. Something happened, Edward."

"Garret happened."

"Garret?"

"There were other vampires in London during the seventeenth century. Bree and I did not know, because Kate had never explained it to us, but there are rules among vampires. Laws. Kate was breaking them, and by extension, so were we.

"Normally, fledglings are in great danger if separated from their masters for any extended period of time. Even now, this is sometimes a problem. Rival vampires are likely to attempt to make an example of them. I was tolerated in my separation from Carlisle in part because his power was so immense even then that there was concern over what his reaction might be, and in part because of my lineage. Eresh-Chen, first child in a line of first children, dating back to see who was the source of all vampires.

"Traipsing around with Kate and Bree, two vampires not of my bloodline who had, it seemed, stolen me from my sire … this was not acceptable. Eventually, disapproval became dislike, and dislike became hate. Garret used this hate in an attempt to further his own political position among the local vampires. He made an example of Kate in a bid for power."

Bella looked out at the road ahead. Edward was not driving at his normal reckless speed, as the road did not have his full attention, but they still drew near to the mansion.

"Finish the story, Edward? I want to know how it ends." Edward nodded.

"There is little left to tell, to be honest. Six more months of happiness – forced, on Kate's part – before it all ended. I said before that I had never really had call to become a man, in the forty years I spent with Kate. I made up for that in one night. In one instant.

"When Garret kicked the door to our apartment in, Kate did not even flinch. She did not even look up, just continued to stare into the fire. I looked into her eyes and I saw great sadness there, and great fear. I also saw acceptance, and understood that Kate knew that her death had arrived. In that moment, Bella, I aged those forty years."