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Chapter 27

The end of her

Edward was on his feet, startled. The door to the apartment had been blown inward, shattered and destroyed.

The hulking silhouette in the shadowy entrance did not move, only stared, pale blue eyes shining out at them.

Kate closed her eyes for a moment, touched a hand to her forehead, and turned her head to the door.

"Garret."

"Kate."

The vampire took a step forward, into the light, and surveyed them. He looked for all the world like a Viking in Englishman's clothing.

Tall, well over six feet, with long blonde hair and a heavy blonde beard, Garret's vampire nature only added to his already formidable presence.

He looked at them with an air that seemed almost detached. There was certainly no fear in him.

"I knew it would be you."

"Ah. Who else? It is time to pay for your transgressions, Kate. You must answer for what you've done, for thieving away the Eresh-Chen from his master. We will not stand for it any longer. You will release them, and come with me for judgment." Kate shook her head.

"I know your judgment already."

"That may be. You will come with me regardless. Your fledglings may leave. The one you stole from Carlisle will have his own judgment to face. The other will be … watched with great interest."

Edward took a step forward, meeting the eyes of the vampire in the doorway.

"We go nowhere without Kate."

"Edward …" Kate's voice was a whisper, the sadness behind it immeasurable.

"Mind your tongue, priest, lest you find it removed from your mouth."

"You have no right—"

"Fledgling, do you know the concept of seniority? I have lived for more than a thousand years. I have every right, if for no other reason than it will bring me pleasure to see this one punished for her crimes." At this Kate stirred, anger flashing in her eyes.

"Crimes? Against whom? I swore no allegiance to your covenant, Garret, or that of any other. I am bound by no rules but my own. Your seniority matters not to me, nor does Carlisle's, nor does Edward's. Eresh herself might give me orders and I would disobey as I see fit. I will not live by rules penned by the dead. I will not!"

Garret seemed unruffled by this. His expression was amused, detached, a man only passingly interested in what he was hearing.

"You've made that obvious, Kate. I would not be here otherwise."

"No. And you … you live by rules written by dead vampires who could not have foreseen these times. The old ones are all dead, Garret, or so disinterested in our affairs that they might as well be. Why do you cling still to their words? Why hold yourself to their useless laws?"

"Sin challas est mura. Si mura vallas etruars." Garret seemed to be reciting, as if the sentences had been drilled into him.

"I have read the scrolls, Garret. Without law there is chaos. With chaos comes destruction. It is due to weaklings like yourself that those words hold true."

For the first time, her words seemed to have an effect on Garret. He turned to Kate, gaze smouldering, a sneer on his lips.

"Weaklings …"

"Mark this, Garret. You will be undone. You will know fear, and you will remember, in those moments before the eternal sleep, what I have said to you. You will know your weakness, and you will die in shame. That is your curse."

"I have been cursed by many, Kate, in my years. Someday, perhaps, I will die. When I go down that black hallway, I will take pleasure in knowing that you went first." Garret moved forward swiftly, grinning, eyes aflame.

Bree shrieked something incoherent, and Edward leapt out in front of the charging vampire, grappled with him, and was appalled at the strength in those arms.

It was like wrestling iron. Kate screamed his name, the word a desperate plea. Garret made some noise that was halfway between a laugh and a snarl, grabbed for Edward's hair, and by it threw him across the room.

The back of Edward's head collided with the marble slabs of the fireplace with a flat, harsh cracking noise, and he felt himself moving as though slipping slowly down an incline.

He heard more screams now, Kate's, over and over, calling his name. Had Bree's voice joined in with hers? Edward couldn't tell.

It seemed difficult to think. Difficult to breathe. There was the clink of chains, but it was all so dim, so quiet, and so distant.

Could he hear other footsteps? He thought perhaps the room was flooding with vampires, disciples who had been waiting only for a command from Garret.

Edward wanted to move, wanted to help his beloved, but he could not seem to gain control of his limbs, and everything had grown so dark.

He slipped into this world of darkness, where nothing seemed to matter, and everything felt safe.

The blow would have shattered a mortal man's skull and sprayed its interior contents out across the marble.

Edward, no longer a mortal man, was left with nothing more than an hour of unconsciousness and a splitting headache upon awakening.

An hour, though, was too much time. Too much time by far. Kate was gone. Bree was gone. The apartment was dark, empty, abandoned; little more than shattered furniture and scrape marks against the walls were left to tell the story of what had happened.

Edward fled from it, stumbling through the pain in his head out into the night, into darkness.

There was no sign of the other vampires, no clue to where they had gone. Edward shut his eyes, trying to concentrate through the throbbing, trying to feel Kate's presence, as she had taught him to do.

There was nothing for him, nothing but the echo of her words, over and over again, in time with the waves of pain and nausea.

Darkness, my love. All I see for us is darkness.

Sick, frightened and helpless, Edward felt his legs buckle, felt the hard cobblestones cut his knees, felt hot tears scald his face.

He put his hands there, covering his eyes, and knelt in penitence, praying for salvation to a God in whom he no longer truly believed.

Edward was silent, reflecting, lost in his memories. He had recounted this final part of the tale in a voice that was listless, almost dead.

Bella understood. With pain came emotional detachment. It was a survival instinct, and one with which her days with Mike had made her quite familiar.

She felt vaguely ill. She knew where all this led. There was no redemption. There was only three hundred and fifty years of darkness, followed by her arrival, which in turn had become the catalyst for events that seemed likely to end with more blood, more death, more despair.

"Not your fault, Bella. Mine. Death and rebirth. With you I can be free, but as with anything else, there is a price I must pay first."

"How does this story end, Edward?"

"I do not know. It is still on-going. I can tell you how Kate's chapter ended, though not in great detail. I know from Carlisle's network of contacts that Kate was burned alive, chained to a pillar with brush heaped around her. Of Bree, I know not. The stories are confused … conflicting. Some said she died with her mistress. Some said she was able to escape, to flee into the night. I desperately hope for the latter, but I hold little faith in it.

"In either case, I could never bring myself to track down the truth. It would have been painful enough to learn for sure that she was dead, and I fear that the judgment in her eyes, should she be alive, would be even more unbearable."

"And what happened to you? To Garret?"

"To me? You know the answer there. Kate was gone. Bree was gone. Garret was more powerful than anything I had previously known, save Carlisle.

"And so it was Carlisle that I turned to."