Chapter Seventeen

Seventy Years Later. . .

Carlisle

I was still not at all sure that a move to Forks was for the best although I knew Esme had a soft spot for it as our first real home with the children. We hadn't been there in decades so there was no worry of anyone recognizing us and I hadn't practiced medicine when we were there last. It was a nebulous feeling that we would be walking into...not danger exactly, more uncertainty, unease, I couldn't explain it any better than that. Rosalie and Emmett were happy to go wherever we decided on while Edward wanted the bright lights and culture of a city. In the end we decided to stay here in Boston a couple more years, then we would be forced to move on in any case.

I received the invitation from Aro quite out of the blue, he knew I was unhappy visiting Volterra but he asked for my help and as a friend I couldn't refuse him. Esme decided to accompany me, more for moral support than because she wanted to go to Volterra and Edward of course was eager to see all the riches that had made their way to the Volturi citadel one way or another. I knew Aro had wanted Edward ever since he discovered Edward's gift of mind reading but he had accepted Edward's polite refusal which wasn't quite in character but then perhaps he had just decided to be patient, something that was entirely in character for my friend.

When I heard Eleazar had been invited too I knew there was something going on and Aro wanted to know about someone, possibly a gifted human. That piqued my interest and we met up to travel together, Eleazar, Carmen, Esme, Edward, and myself. We were met at Pisa airport by the usual blacked out sedan driven by one of the guard and taken straight to Volterra. It was pointless asking our driver if he knew what was going on, the guard never divulged any intelligence, not even to a friend of Aro.

He met us personally at the main entrance coming down the steps in the dusk of evening to welcome us and complimenting the women before shaking hands with Edward.

"Please my friends come inside, I am so pleased you decided to accept my invitation."

I wondered if our reception would have been equally as warm if the invitation had become a command, still we were here and curious to find why we had been "summoned."

"I would offer you refreshments but knowing your dietary choices that would be foolish. There is plenty of wildlife around the town to furnish your needs and feel free to avail yourself of the facilities here. We have an excellent library and I know Sulpicia and Athenadora are so looking forward to a visit from dear Esme and Carmen. Edward, if you would like access to the archives I know Marcus would be only too pleased to help you search for...whatever interests you, we have a fine collection of original works by Debussy and Bach."

Edward thanked him and went off to find Marcus with Alec while Jane escorted the women to the wives tower.

Waiting until we were alone Aro ushered us in to his study closing the door before taking his seat behind the desk.

"Carlisle, I have need of your particular talents, yours too Eleazar."

"Mine? You have a sick human here?"

Aro nodded and sat back,

"It's a rather unusual story my friend. One of my guard was involved in a task for me in Rome when they came across a rather strange human locked in an abandoned asylum. She wasn't afraid when she saw her, in fact her precise words were,

"I saw you coming, please help me. Take me out of here with you."

Now as I'm sure you can appreciate the guard in question, Heidi actually, brought the girl back here knowing of my interest in gifted humans but since she arrived the girl has become sick from an injury she had sustained before she was discovered and we are unsure what to do. I would hate for a gift to slip through my fingers as I'm sure you can appreciate."

"So you want me to heal her and Eleazar to read her gift?"

"Well Carlisle, you do seem to enjoy healing the humans and Eleazar, it was a condition of your leaving Volterra that I could call on your services as and when needed."

Eleazar nodded a little unhappily at being reminded he owed Aro while I was curious to see this girl who had been locked in an abandoned asylum.

"Has it been abandoned long? The asylum I mean."

"I have no idea, I'll ask Heidi to escort you to the girl, she knows all there is to know of this strange story."

Heidi came at Aro's call and escorted us to the furthest tower,

"Aro didn't want temptation in anyone's way and the girl was bleeding when I found her."

"Tell me the story please."

"I find it easy to collect humans from abandoned buildings sometimes, they aren't missed and are eager to come with me for a hot meal and a bed for a few nights. I'd watched the asylum for a few days and it held its fair share of homeless and drug users so I went inside but something drew me to the cellar which was locked although the door itself was rusted."

"Not the lock though?"

"No, the lock looked fairly new. Anyway I heard a heartbeat and smelled blood as soon as I entered and found the girl in one of the locked rooms, cells really. She had a head wound and was very flushed but she spoke to me as if she'd been expecting me. Unsure if it was a gift or merely a delusion I decided to bring her back here along with the others I had collected."

"Do you know anything about her?"

"Only a name, Alice."

She stopped outside a door and produced the key unlocking it and throwing it open to reveal a girl lying on a bed, skinny, almost emaciated and from the sound of her heartbeat and the color of her face running a high fever.

"If you could fetch my bag, I brought it just in case."

Heidi nodded handed Eleazar the key and walked away as we approached the bed. On the side of her face and into her hair line was a nasty cut and bruising, she had been hit hard by something a blunt instrument of some kind As she heard us she opened her eyes, pretty eyes shining with fever and smiled,

"Hello Dr Cullen, now I know I'll be OK."

Then she closed them again and her breathing steadied a little as she drifted back to sleep.

"Is it a gift or did she just hear my name from someone?"

Eleazar was watching her intently and shook his head slightly in warning. Taking heed I knelt down beside the bed and took Alice's temperature and pulse. She certainly had a high fever and the wound on her face and head was infected. By this time Heidi was back with my bag so I gave her an antibiotic injection and cleaned the wound.

"Is she going to make it?"

"I think so, she's very sick but she's young and the young are incredibly resilient."

"I wonder what her story is. How she came to be injured and locked in an old asylum."

"Hopefully once she recovers she will be able to tell us."

Deciding someone should stay with Alice and that a female would probably be less threatening if she woke up Aro arranged for two suites of rooms either side of Alice's to be made ready for us and Esme and Carmen would watch over her. Eleazar came to invite me to hunt while the women sat with Alice but before we left he handed Esme a piece of paper with a finger to his lips. Outside the town walls he relaxed slightly.

"Well Eleazar? You don't normally act so strangely, what's the matter?"

"It's the girl, she's powerfully gifted, she can see the future, or the version of the future that is in play at the time but I don't think such a gift should be handed to Aro do you? Imagine what he will be able to do with that."

"You're right of course but what can we do? She's already revealed her gift to him."

"Not entirely, remember she was delirious, Heidi could have been anyone and Alice could have said she knew someone would come. He never heard what she said to you and if he had it could have been she heard it in her delirium."

"So what do you suggest?"

"We minimize her gift and then either you or I should offer to take her in and see if we can improve the gift. Of course it means her becoming a vampire but I doubt Aro would allow her to remain human, even if he allowed her to live."