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Chapter 31

Meeting Tan

It had been twenty minutes since Rose had departed, and Bella still felt numb. There had been little more conversation after Rose's choice. She had asked Edward when, and he had said only,

"Not yet." Rose had nodded, and left to hunt. The expression on her face was dark and distant, and Bella did not envy whomever Rose might choose as a victim.

Edward sighed, stood, turned off the television. He turned to Bella, his face set in its typical expression.

"Hungry?"

"Starving," Bella admitted. "But I think if I drink right now, it'll overwhelm me. I'd never be able to stop crying. How can it be like this, Edward? Why aren't there more choices?"

"Carlisle makes it so. His age, his power, his will. There is something I neglected to mention to Rose, something that makes me willing to risk his wrath and do as she asks. He believes he has found a way to make more children."

"I don't understand," Bella said. Edward was quiet for a moment, organizing his thoughts. At last he continued.

"Eresh blood is too weak to make fledglings for a very long time, and then within a century or two, it becomes too strong. The power of the blood makes our offspring go mad, as Rose and Alice have. Another few decades, and the fledglings begin simply dying from shock.

"Through great study, and having watched your progression, Carlisle believes he has learned how to dilute his blood and, by doling it out in minute increments over a lengthy period of time, create a sane fledgling.

"I left this out because Rose does not need to know. It is bad enough that Rosalie will engulf her, let alone that she someday will become useless to Carlisle entirely. When that happens, Carlisle will butcher Rose, Alice, and Tanya without a second thought. Whatever death I can offer Rose will be much better than anything Carlisle might deliver."

"God, Edward. How can you talk about this? How can you be this … this …"

"This cold? I have been contemplating it for decades, Bella, as I have said. Rose's fate is of great importance to me. I wish I could provide her with more choices. I wish I could save her, but I don't know how. Every emotional fibre of my being screams against the decisions that are being made here. But I don't know what else to do.

"The young man whose body I occupy is still here, somewhere, Bella. Vampires do not age as human beings do, and the hot blood of youth is still very close to the surface in me. I simply have centuries of practice controlling it. That young man rages against this. He would try your impossible deed, if I let him.

"I have first-hand experience, awful beyond description, that vampires of my age and power can be killed easily by their elders. Kate's destruction came at the hands of a vampire only a few hundred years her senior and that vampire lived only ten more years before Carlisle destroyed him. It has been centuries since those events, and Carlisle has only grown more powerful. If we challenge him, we will die."

Bella opened her mouth to reply to this, when a scream, long and wailing, echoed from somewhere below them. She shut her mouth with a snap, eyes wide, looking at the floor.

"Tanya awakens," said Edward.

It was Bella who went down to see the girl. She had asked to, and Edward had simply held his palms up to the air. Be my guest.

Bella wondered if sometimes he understood her motivations better than she did herself. Bella did not know why she needed to talk to this half-vampire woman whom she had never met.

Bella only knew that it felt right, and after a life guided mainly by instinct, she had learned to trust her feelings.

She knew the girl could hear her footsteps, coming down the long stone staircase. She could sense a sudden panic, could hear already rushed breathing speed to a near hysterical pace. She spoke into the darkness:

"I'm not going to hurt you, Tanya." The girl's panic seemed to break, and she found her voice, questions bubbling out of her like water.

"Who are you? Where am I? What's happening to me? Where am I? Help me! Where are you? You have to help me!"

Bella's eyes were better than a human's now, and even in the dark she could see the bars of the cell, could see the girl behind them, on her knees, shuddering.

Tanya was wearing a pair of jeans and a loose, brightly-coloured blouse. No socks, no shoes.

Bella tried to remember waking up in that cell. Only a few weeks ago. It seemed forever.

"I'm going to light a candle. There's one down here. Everything's going to be okay. You're fine, and I'm here to help. Try to relax, if you can. It will be better for you." Tanya lapsed into gulping, panicky breaths, staring out into the darkness.

Only half-vampire, her vision was not as good as Bella's. There was a candle on a small table by the cell, a box of matches sitting beside it. Bella struck one, and held it to the wick.

The flame glowed and flickered, casting enough light that Tanya was able to pinpoint Bella's whereabouts. She scurried down the length of the bars, pressed up against them, held her hand out, and cried,

"Help me! Help me!" Bella sat on the floor and extended her hand. Tanya gripped it tightly, enough so that the pressure would have been painful, if Bella were still human.

"Tanya. It's okay. You're okay. You're not hurt."

"I feel wrong. Help me!" Bella laughed a bit at that.

"Yeah, I imagine you do. Let me guess: right now you can hear better than you ever could before, and see better in this light than you should be able. Am I right?"

"Yes. I … yes."

"Okay. Look … I've been through this, and I'm okay. You're okay too, I promise. Can you take the facts straight, Tanya?" Her matter-of-fact tone was working.

Tanya closed her eyes and, with visible effort, forced herself to breathe deeply, to get control of herself. Her grip on Bella's hand loosened slightly.

"Just tell me," She said after a moment.

"How much do you remember?"

"I don't know. I was … I was at the club. Some Goth chick kept smiling at me, and I couldn't stop staring at her. Look, I'm not normally into that, okay? I couldn't help it. I remember finally getting up to go talk to her … and then I woke up in this fucking hole." Bella nodded, and said,

"Okay, well, here it comes. When you don't believe it, I'll prove it to you. But I'll tell you first. Last night you came home with a vampire named Rosalie. You uh … hooked up with her, and she bit you, and drank a lot of your blood. Normally you'd either die, or wake up somewhere and not remember anything, but she decided to give you some of her blood in return. Since she didn't drain you all the way, you're not completely a vampire yet, but you're about halfway there. After that it gets … complicated."

The girl was silent for a long time. Her response, when it came, didn't surprise Bella much.

"What?"

"I know it sounds hard to believe …"

"Hard to believe?" Tanya gave a tiny, hysterical laugh. "Hard to fucking believe? I pass out somewhere, and I wake up in a fucking prison, and some random chick comes down and tells me that I'm in some fucking Brad Pitt movie, and it's only 'hard to believe'? Dios … this is fucking impossible!"

"It's not impossible. Trust me." Tanya pulled her hand from Bella's and gripped the bars, stared out at her, furious.

"Listen, you crazy bitch, I don't care who you are. I don't care what the fuck hallucinations you're having. Tell me where the fuck I am, and then let me go. Right now."

Bella felt anger for a moment, and forced herself to react as Edward would. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were calm.

"Tanya …"

"Tan. Everyone calls me Tan."

"Tan. Get up. Go look in that mirror on the wall. You couldn't see it in the dark, but I know from experience that the candle's more light than your eyes need, now. Go look, and tell me how hard it is to believe."

Tan stared at her for a moment, then curled her lip in defiance and stood up. She took Bella quick strides over to the mirror and peered into it. Her reaction was immediate, and very similar to what Bella's had been. She flinched, stumbled, fell backwards, crying out:

"Jesus!" What had Edward said? Jesus has nothing to do with this.

"I'm sorry, Tan." Bella watched as Tan covered her face with her hands and wept.