Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 5 - Eleazar and Carmen
It wouldn't go a day without Isabella thanking Merlin and all the Gods that casual clothing has become more and more acceptable, she was also thankful that since arriving in Italy and their incidental meeting with the brothers, no one has tried to force her into dressing properly and attending tea parties (listen, she loves Mipsy and could never have asked for a better house elf, but she has trained the new one to do the same! And Carlisle refuses to get involved in fear of becoming the new target!). The travel was supposed to be a short one, she would explore some of the woods and try to catalogue the magical creatures she's able to find while Carlisle would be attending some lectures he seemed interested in. It goes without saying things didn't work like they thought they would.
It was a matter of weeks before they were found by the Volturi.
Right now, Isa was taking a leisurely walk ("Of course I'm not hiding from Aro, Jane. I had nothing to do with whatever he's complaining about. I'm pretty sure it was Caius this time") when she arrived at Carlisle bed chambers. It amused the brothers tremendously that the two of them were able to sleep and even consume things like wine and whisky as long as it is laced with blood.
"Hey...", she said while closing the door.
"I heard Aro screaming earlier," his eyes never left the book in his hands, "Was that you?"
Isa crossed the way to the bed where Carlisle was lying on, his attention still on the book he held. The room was big and lavishly decorated in light colours, gold accents and expensive fabric that told anyone of the money and influence the Volturi held. The blond girl didn't pay much attention to the room decor and simply started taking off her shoes before getting on the bed and lying beside her Sire to peek at what he was reading.
"No. It was Caius. But no one seems to believe me." She sighed tiredly.
"I wonder why is that." No, he didn't and you could hear it in his voice.
"Please, as if you and Marcus are a pair of angels, anyway... I saw Eleazar."
"I see."
She stopped trying to read the page and her eyes were now on the ceiling decorations. Before coming to the past, she never understood the need for those, but now that she spends a lot of the time she was lying in bed contemplating unlife, she was sort of thankful at having something interesting to look at.
"He's really going to leave the guard, won't he?"
"I believe he will," Carlisle closed his book, knowing he would not be able to finish that page and that whatever Isa had in mind she needed to talk about, "He found his mate and she didn't seem to appreciate the life he leads here."
The girl hummed her understanding and silence sat for a bit before being broken again.
"Do you regret it?", her voice barely over a whisper, making Carlisle turn on his side so he could see her expression.
"Regret what?"
"Our bond," she explained, still not looking him in the eyes, "Cold Ones have mates. Life partners and all of that. Eleazar tried to explain to me about it. How it only took one look at her to know she was the one and got me thinking... Carmilla said we are abominations, not true Pure-bloods from the old clans, but also not really a Cold One. And I heard you and Marcus talking."
"Isa..."
"I'm serious, Carlisle," her eyes finally met his, red on red from the wine they had last night, "We created this bond and it only gets stronger with time. I'm not saying I regret it. You quickly became the most important person to me, right there on top with my Dad and my Mum, and even then the feeling isn't the same."
He sighed, knowing they would have to discuss the bond one day. His fingertips found their way to her face, tracing the curve of her cheek.
"When we accepted our roles as Sire and Progeny, what I offered wasn't just companionship," his words weren't much louder than hers, "I offered everything I was. I offered to become your father and your son, your brother and your friend, a confidant and your partner. And you gave me back the same. It wasn't an instant connection like that of a mated couple, it wasn't a purely romantic and sexual thing," he chuckled a bit when he saw her cheeks getting flushed at his comment, "Our bond is different and is something we both chose to create and accept. It's something we have been working on for the past what? One hundred and something years?"
"Close to that." She said with a smile.
"Exactly. It was never really easy, and we do get on each other nerves from time to time because you are a menace and a nightmare..."
"Lies! All lies! I'm an angel."
"Yeah, yeah. Of course." He completely ignores her flimsy defence, "The thing is: we chose to be those things. It wasn't some predestined be-all-end-all meeting like in romance novels. And if it replaces a mating bond, so what? Have you considered that maybe I never wanted the mating bond?"
The confused way she blinked when he pointed out how he didn't even want to be mated to some Cold One he didn't know was endearing in a way.
"You don't?", but what about Esme? The way Edward described their relationship, how he would talk about them being mates... She got so fucking worried about the possibility of ruining that for Carlisle!
"Why would I want that?", he was being honest, "It doesn't sound all that good. Just think about it for a second: what if the person that you are mated to has different values to yours? Will you force the person to change or change yourself into something you never wanted to be to make them happy? Would you sacrifice your happiness and values? And what if you are already in a relationship with someone you deeply love and care about? Would you break their heart because one day you looked in the eyes of a passing stranger and something decided that should be the one instead of the relationship you put time and effort into?"
It wasn't hard to see where he was getting at. Free will.
They were never forced to have this bond; they chose to have it. They chose to work on it, to cherish and nurture a bond that could only happen between them as Sire and Progeny even at the cost of sacrificing any chances of finding a mate like normal Cold Ones do.
"When I was human, I met this boy."
"The one you said will be my... Son?", it was obvious he would never be comfortable with the idea of having a son that close to his human age.
"Yes, the same." She confirmed, "When we met it was... Strange. It didn't take much for him to consume my every thought. I would give him my life if he as much as asked for it. It was way too strong of a feeling, and I know he felt the same." She laughed at her own stupidity back then, "I was ready to be turned into a Cold One so that we could spend forever together."
"What happened?", because something must have.
"He left." Her voice was dispassionate. She didn't hold any romantic feelings for Edward anymore. From her perspective it has been more than one hundred years already, and that all-consuming mating bond had been replaced by the bond with her Sire, "And the way he did it broke me. It shattered me inside, Carlisle. Back then, I didn't understand why it hurt so much, but listening to Marcus talk about bonds I finally realized: he was supposed to be my mate. Had he not destroyed my heart with his actions, that is."
"Is that why we are discussing our bond? Do you still wish to be mated to him?", now he was getting worried that she could be hurting because of it.
"No... I don't," she reassured her Sire, "Whatever I felt for him is gone now. And it was his own doing. He ruined the idea of mates for me, and to be honest, I'm much happier with the kind of bond we have. You treat me as an equal, Carlisle."
"And he didn't." It wasn't a question.
"No. He did not."
The house was made of wood and stone and it didn't seem to have as many windows as the house Carlisle has in Forks. She never understood the need for that many windows, especially when compared to their estate back in England, for some reason the house in Forks often made her think of a dollhouse and the thought was certainly an uncomfortable one.
Carlisle drove around the house, keeping the car on the path cleaned on the snow towards the garage, it was open and she recognized Emmett's Jeep. She knew that if she paid attention, she could hear everyone inside the house, but doing so would certainly give her an anxiety attack so she focused on the ending of the song playing in the car. Carlisle decided to be the little angel that he is and didn't point out to her face how ignoring reality wouldn't change the outcome, instead, he just got out of the car and grabbed their bags before opening the door for her and totally not having to force her out of the car.
"Come on," his voice sounded so calm and steady that she wanted to trust him, "It will be fine. I promise to keep you safe from the scary vampires and Carmen."
"Carmen is the scariest of them all!", her comment made him laugh.
Inside the house, the vampires were listening to the voices outside. They recognized Carlisle fairly easily but he wasn't alone. The conversation that was happening in the garage made the ones in the Denali coven laugh at some girl singling Carmen out as the scarier in their coven.
"I think I like her," Kate said, "Anyone that recognises the mighty fury of Carmen when Eleazar screw something up is good in my books."
Alice wasn't paying much attention, she was desperately trying to catch even a single vision from Bella, the last one was about her, yes, but it was messy and she was pretty sure her best friend had died! Jasper was trying his best to calm her down, God bless this man's patience in dealing with her in moments like this. The only thing that brought her out of her blurry visions was Rosalie asking Esme if Carlisle had arrived and Kate laughing for some reason.
The front door opened and in came Carlisle. Something about him was different...
At first, she thought it was the clothes. What? Everyone knows how much she cares about those! And Carlisle was dressed nothing like he usually does. He had on an untucked deep burgundy shirt with the two top buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up showing his wrists and a bit of his forearms, and was that a holster strapped to it? It was hard to be sure because the sleeve covered the rest, and even if it was, what kind of holster is strapped to the forearm? He was also wearing black denim trousers. Since when does he wear denim? And were those boots? Combat boots? No... The material was different. What kind of leather was that? And what was going on? Alice was so lost in Carlisle's change of style and freaking out because of it that it took her a moment to notice that he wasn't alone.
The girl was shorter than him and her hair was a much paler gold than his, everything in her screamed fragility, like a very expensive doll. Her hair was long and wavy, a bit messy, probably from the wind outside, and what was it with the partially undone braids? Alice wanted to get a brush to her hair immediately! She studied the face, it was familiar but those blue eyes were throwing her off, almost as much as Carlisle's did.
Wait a second...
Since when does Carlisle have blue eyes?
"Eleazar.", Carlisle was already greeting his friend while the girl stood in her spot, arms crossed over her chest (Alice internally cheered at not being the only one near flat-chested) and glaring at Carmen.
What in the hell was going on?
Everyone with the exception of Carlisle and Eleazar seemed unsure of what the problem was. Alice could see from the corner of her eyes how Esme was trying to approach the two women to stop anything bad from happening.
"Carmen." The blond said, a snide tone to her voice. And why was her voice so familiar?
"Isabella." Carmen returned the greeting similarly. The heavy silence only lasted for a minute before they failed to keep their faces straight and Isabella was the first to laugh before being hugged by Carmen, "I missed you. Where have you been?"
"You know me. Can't keep me away from London for too long." The blond, Isabella, joked in return.
Isabella... What could be the odds of this girl having the same name as her best friend? Alice could hear Esme hiding a sob. She saw Bella as a daughter, and to be confronted by someone with the same name just felt cruel.
"Doesn't matter!", Carmen was already pulling the blond toward the other members of the Denali coven, "I have been seeing Carlisle more often than I see you. That is plain wrong."
"I always knew I was your favourite." She joked ignoring how Carlisle scoffed at that with an as-if.
"Let me introduce you to the rest of our coven," Carmen ignored the men and turned Isa towards the Sisters, "These are Tanya, Kate and Irina. They are the ones that invited us to join their coven and become family." She gave the very summarised version of what happened, "And this is Isa Cullen."
"Nice meeting you." Isa ignored the Cullens in the room with them who were looking at Carlisle as if waiting for an explanation about the blond girl claiming to be one of them, "I'm Carlisle's Progeny."
The use of the term progeny was deliberate, it's not a term used by Cold Ones. They usually call the mortals they turn as first-born or newborn, terms like that. The ones to use "Sire" and "Progeny" as descriptors are the other kind.
"Carlisle," Rosalie cut the greetings, done with what was going on in there, "What the fuck?"
"Rosalie, watch your manners." Esme tried to stop the tirade that was bound to come out of Rosalie.
"No, Esme." Too late, Rosalie was clearly mad at not knowing what was happening, especially since it involved their family, "He left us here as soon as everyone agreed to do what Edward wanted and now, he comes back with some blond midget claiming to be his progeny! And I can't be the only one that notices that she smells just like that human."
They knew it would happen one way or another, so it would be better to get the worst out of the way. Carlisle turned to Eleazar.
"Can we use your office?"
"Go ahead. Just keep me out of this mess." His friend clearly washed his hands off of the situation.
Carlisle shook his head, the tired smile on his face revealing how he didn't expect anything different from Eleazar, his friend was way too used to Carlisle and Isa being in the centre of most of the chaos going around the castle during his time in Volterra and getting others involved in their mess. That being said, Eleazar learned pretty quickly to walk the opposite way whenever someone approached him asking about those two. It came to a point where people started believing that Eleazar's gift was to vanish in the shadows with how quickly he would disappear when he heard his friends' names.
"Come on, everyone." Carlisle said to the rest of the coven before his hand closed around Isa's as he pulled her along with him to Eleazar's office.
The office wasn't all that big, there were a few bookshelves but he had more trinkets from his travels and pictures than books and Isa could bet her last box of blood pops how the majority of his books were in his actual bedroom. But the space was cosy, there was a couch and a few armchairs in dark brown that went well with the dark wood and the overall colour scheme in the room. Even the potted plants that she just knew Carmen had to be the one taking care of to keep them alive, Eleazar was never one to mind things like that, Carlisle could just picture his friend getting lost in a book and forgetting the plants for months. Yeah... It has to be Carmen's doing.
A click signalled the door being closed. It gave the illusion of privacy, but barely.
"I believe you want some explanations." Carlisle leaned against the desk in the office, Isa sitting on top, her ankles crossed but still swinging slowly.
"You think?", Rosalie was still pissed.
Nothing new in there.
"Is it true, Carlisle?", Esme had to know. The girl smelled just like her daughter did, and they looked close enough to be related somehow, "Is that... Are you Bella?", at the end, the question was directed to the blond who was nervously biting into her lip.
"I'm Isa." The young vampire said, "I haven't been Bella Swan in a while, Esme."
Esme's hands covered her mouth. If to hide a sob or an anguished scream, she had no idea.
"How could you, Carlisle!", and Rosalie was back at biting his head off, "She was human! She had a life ahead of her and now... Now she doesn't even look like herself!"
Isa sighed at all the screaming. Why are Cold Ones so emotional about everything?
"Rosalie," Isa called her and when Rose's eyes met hers, she offered her hand, "Touch me. I'm being serious. Touch my hand," when the Cold One did what she asked of her, Isa resumed, "Do I feel like a Cold One? Do I even look like one?", Rosalie seemed to calm down at the pliable feeling of her muscles instead of the stone-like quality she had been expecting, "Look at Carlisle. Does he look like a Cold One?"
"I don't understand...", the blond Cold One seemed so lost now that Isa took pity on her.
"Does any of you know what being a Progeny means?", she asked, deciding to start by explaining the differences between their kinds.
Most of the Cullens shook their heads but Jasper was the one to raise his hand and offer an answer, one could notice how he cringed under the attention of everyone.
"Progeny is the word used to refer to the offspring of a vampire."
"Like a newborn?", Emmett was trying to understand what was the difference. It seemed to be the same for him.
"No. I really mean an offspring between two vampires."
Rosalie looked bug-eyed at his words.
"This can't be...", she refused to believe it. Rosalie was studying the two vampires in front of her, they did look a bit similar, the hair colour wasn't a match, Carlisle's was more of a pale gold than the platinum from Bella's, and their eyes, although both blue also wasn't the same, hers were more greyish. For someone who doesn't know them, or what Bella was like before, it would be easy to think them to be related somehow.
"No! I'm not his daughter. Let's make that extremely clear," Isa said when she saw the almost sick look on Carlisle's face. He really dislikes the idea of being seen as an actual father like that, usually, Isa would mess with him until she saw her Sire squirm, but this time she would help him out since her neck is also on the line, "Jasper is right. A Progeny is the offspring between two Pure-blooded vampires, since the offspring between a vampire and a human is something else called a dhampir and we are not going to address that particular mess." No sir... She wouldn't touch that wasp's nest with a ten-foot pole, "However, a Progeny can also be the mortal turned into a vampire by our kind."
It would be better if they don't out themselves as abominations, not when they can be easily mistaken by some unknown clan.
"How is it possible that only you two are like... Like this? Esme and I were also turned by him.", it was clear that Rosalie was thinking about the possibilities their kind have that Cold Ones lack.
"Isa and I... We weren't like you to begin with. Normal humans turned by one of us will become Cold Ones, Rose." He tried his best to explain that without hurting her feelings. He knows what her deepest desire was, and how much this information must be hurting her and Esme. The thought that vampirism didn't equal giving up on having children, it was only impossible for them as Cold Ones, "But when our kind," and here he was talking about wizards, not that the other knew, "Is bitten by a Cold One we become like this. Isa's appearance is the result of her being, basically, adopted into my clan. When I found her, she was already dying-"
"Wow. The story of your life, isn't it?", Rose was still pissed but at least she looked a bit more understanding than before.
"He's telling the truth, Rosalie," Isa's hand that was on the table moved to hold Carlisle's, "I was dying of my wounds in the Alley when he found me."
No one knew what to say to that.
I mean... What is one supposed to say when you find out that the girl you all knew and claimed to love as a sister or even a daughter almost died in an alley somewhere and the only reason she was standing in front of them was because the leader of your coven went back in his word to leave her behind?
"But how is it that Carmen knew her?", Emmett, asking all the right questions when Isa didn't want him to.
She almost laughed at her shitty luck.
"Well... We better catch you guys up on the past three hundred years..."
...
"Does it hurt?", Isa asked as she poked the handprint on Carlisle's face, the glare he threw her way was answer enough, "Sorry... I never imagined Esme to be the violent type." She said with a shrug.
"Can you blame her?", Jasper was the only one to come back to the office when they were all done with the cliff-notes version of what their lives were truly like, "People won't usually believe in time-travel, even for vampires used to weird gifts. And there's also the little detail of the two of you being witches-"
"I'm a witch, Carlisle is a wizard. But if you want a neutral term to address the two of us you can call us Sorcerers. I hear that the young people are using it a lot more than the traditional ones, for its versatility." She had that shit-eating grin plastered on her face when Carlisle sighed tiredly by her side and Jasper laughed.
"Fine. The two of you being Sorcerers." Jasper rolled his eyes, "And then that's that part about you two being bonded and basically giving up on your future mates. I think that's why she hit you, but I'm not sure. I mean, she has always seen Edward as her first son, we all know he's her favourite, no matter what she says about loving all of us equally, everyone knows Edward is the favourite."
Jasper handed Isa her bag that was left in the living room when they arrived and the blond was quickly looking inside for some Essence of Dittany, when she pulled out a tiny stained glass vial the Cold One in the office with them watched as she applied a few drops to Carlisle's face, rubbing it lightly. It was mesmerizing to see the already dark purple handprint disappear as if it had never been there before.
"What does Edward have to do with anything?", she asked as she evaluated how well the essence worked on his face. It was always a gamble when you try to adapt some of the potions to work on vampires
"You said you felt the mating bond with Edward when you were human," he began as she nodded about him being correct, "But when you were thrown into the past and met Carlisle you embraced the bond between Sire and Progeny. You chose to give up on Edward and being his mate for what you and Carlisle have."
"Of course I would choose my bond with Carlisle!", the look on her face left no doubt about how she thought one would have to be out of their mind to even entertain the idea of choosing to be mated to a Cold One, "I honestly mean no offence, Jasper, but between actually having a choice in the type of bond and what it entails and being basically thrown into a relationship that had all signs of being abusive, I will always chose having a say when it comes to my life."
"No offence taken. Trust me. I could feel your feelings when you were together with Edward. It did not paint a nice image. And now the feelings Carlisle was giving off while you dated Edward make so much more sense..."
It was impossible to ignore how uncomfortable Carlisle looked when Jasper said that. He knew exactly what Jasper must have felt coming off of him. And by the curious look on Isa's face, she wouldn't be letting that go anytime soon.
"I may have felt more protective of human you than I realized I would." He muttered as a reply to her unspoken question, "Look," now he was defensive, "As a human, you were incredibly prone to accidents, okay? And it didn't help that you were his singer and that he acted creepy whenever it came down to you. Come on! He would watch you sleep. Without your knowledge. Who does that?"
"Okay. I agree with you. That was definitely creepy." Isa wouldn't even pretend it wasn't, "And the way he would try to run my life under the excuse of me being human and needing protection was another creepy point. It got so bad that when you guys left, human me had almost no friends to fall back to."
The two started to dissect her relationship with Edward. The most amusing part, in Jasper's opinion, was that they weren't blaming everything on his brother but that they were also dissing human Bella and her behaviour for the months she dated the Cold One. It was obvious to Jasper that this conversation was an old one and that they probably had discussed her relationship from all possible angles at least a few hundred times. Now they were talking about the merits of going out with Cold Ones against the other kind.
"You two are weird."
Back in the living room with the Denali coven and the rest of the Cullens were still trying to come to terms with everything they just learned, how Bella... No. How Isa was the first one to be turned by Carlisle and the fact that they have three hundred years of history together, the time they've spent with Carlisle doesn't come anywhere closer to that.
"I know it may come as a shock," Eleazar started, "It was something we also had to get used to. When I met the two in Volterra was my first contact with their people. Wizards, or Sorcerers according to Isa... Have their own laws in place to keep their secret hidden, we can only know because their government considers Cold Ones as magical creatures to a certain degree and the Volturi decided to work together with them to preserve this whole masquerade."
Rosalie sat next to Esme, her mate holding her, if for comfort or to stop her from going back into that office and finishing what Esme started no one knows.
"Are you really suggesting they told us the truth?", she spat, "Time travel? Magic? None of it makes sense! It can't be real."
"Why can't it?", Alice voiced, she had been quiet this entire time, "Until we became vampires did we believe them to be real? I can't really speak for myself, because I have no memories of what I may have believed in or not. But if vampires and shifters are real, then why not magic?"
"Alice, have you gone insane too? I know she's your friend but-"
"No, Rose. Think. Just for a second put your anger aside and think about what they told us." Alice wasn't begging but she certainly didn't leave much room for her sister to escape, "All those times Carlisle would act weird when unexplainable things would happen around him and he would dismiss it and shift our attention to something else. How Bella figured out what we are too easily, and how she treated everything like it was normal. That's because if you are a witch, it would be normal. To Bella, we were simply a species of magical creatures she hadn't had any contact with before, nothing else!"
"And Edward? My poor son...", Esme was more than just a bit upset thinking about how her son would suffer when he finds out that Bella not only is a vampire but that she severed their mating bond. That she was now bonded to the man he saw as his father.
Alice felt conflicted.
On one hand, she had so many visions about Bella becoming one of them. However, she knows that her visions aren't precise. They are based on the choices a person makes. Until the accident that landed Bella in the past, she kept having visions of how one day Edward would choose to change her, she has even seen them getting married. And then one day the visions stopped. They just stopped altogether. She became scared that something must have happened to her friend so she broke her promise to Edward and looked into Bella's future. Some of what she saw was strange, the visions were blurry, with some black spots here and there and sometimes it was just too fantastical looking to be real (now she knows those crazy fantastical visions were about magic). And then, yesterday she had a vision of someone's death. It was all weird and out of order. She saw someone asking Charlie how he was doing, another person saying they heard about what happened to Bella. Charlie looked as a coffin was lowered inside a grave... People talking about how she would still be here if it weren't for the Cullens... Everything led her to believe Bella had died somehow.
And then she had another vision.
One she didn't tell anyone about.
They all know about Esme's feelings for Carlisle. She has been in love with him ever since she was human and it hasn't gone away after she was turned, on the contrary, it became stronger. If what they were told about the bond is true and they basically replaced what could have been a mating bond for what they have... Could that mean Esme would've been his mate? No. It would be better if Alice never voices those conjectures.
But the new vision, the one that came after all Bella-related visions stopped was of Carlisle and a blond woman. It wasn't anything scandalous, mind of the gutter, it was pretty innocent, to be honest. In the vision they were all back in Forks, the blond girl was sitting on the grass on top of a blanket holding a book, basking in the sunlight when Carlisle approached her and made himself comfortable in the grass, his face burrowed on her stomach and saying something that made the blond girl laugh.
That was it.
Still, Alice knew how the others would interpret even the most innocent thing right now that they were so upset.
"Esme... Edward was the one who chose to leave her." No matter how much Emmett tried to spare Esme's feelings, it was impossible when it came to the topic of Edward losing his chance with his mate.
"Carlisle shouldn't have done it. To take away what was supposed to be the mating bond."
"In his defence," Eleazar cut their pity party, "Carlisle and Bella had no idea about the mating bond when they established their bond. If I'm not mistaken, when they learned about the concept of mates among Cold Ones, it had already been close to one hundred years since they started working on the Sire-Progeny bond. And even when they discovered about mates, let's just say... They weren't impressed."
Carmen gave an awkward smile. It was hard for someone in her position to understand their thought process.
"They didn't like the idea of how finding a mate could jeopardize previous relationships and how it feels as if they don't have a choice in the matter." She tried to explain, "I know that's not how we all feel about it, no need to bite my head off, Rosalie," she said as soon as Rose opened her mouth to defend the bond she shares with her mate, "But keep in mind that they are not Cold Ones. Not really. They had the opportunity to develop something just as special. Something that I hope you will learn to respect give time."