Chapter Twenty-Nine: Bloody Skeletons - Mason

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've been around for a long, long years, stole million man's soul an faith.
And I was 'round when Jesus Christ, had his moment of doubt and pain. Made damn sure that Pilate, washed his hands and sealed his fate.
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name. But what's puzzling you, is the nature of my game."

- Rolling Stones (Sympathy for the Devil)

Saturday, September 17, 2005

The dance of fire bewitched me, the chaotic rhythm and primal need to consume calling to my inner beast. I let myself get lost in the flame for a while, needing time to prepare my thoughts. Thankfully, Angela needed some time to clean up and get her injuries mended. I had gotten to her in time, but she was still hurt both in body and mind, and my heart ached because of it. Eventually I heard her come into the room and settle in with the rest of the family.

I turned and met her eyes, a smile coming to my lips almost involuntarily. Reluctantly I shifted my gaze away from hers and surveyed the room before speaking, "I ask only that you let me finish without forming an opinion. This isn't easy for me to tell." My voice betrayed my nervousness, and waited anxiously for each person present to acknowledge my request. When they did, I took a small breath of air, an attempt to calm my tension.

It didn't work at all.

"As far as I know, I am the first vampire." Everyone except Angela expressed shock, and in a couple of cases awe or confusion. Rosalie crossed her arms as her eyes lowered in an expression I couldn't read, be it shock, pain or resignation. In contrast Emmett looked excited, and was practically bouncing on his heels. Bella shook her head softly like she was denying a thought she hadn't expressed out loud. Alice just lowered her eyes, and stared at the floor. Edward immediately looked upset, and crossed his arms as well. Esme was already sitting down, and kept her face neutral, and Carlisle immediately sat forward with extreme interest. I met each of their gazes in turn. Then I began.

"I was born different. My light skin and nearly white hair were abnormal. I don't fully remember my childhood, or my adolescence, those years are like ghosts, lost to me forever. Except for a general feeling of being ostracized and shunned by even some of my family. Yet one thing I do remember from those years was my hunger. It had always been there even as a child, lurking like a caged beast locked away beneath my chest. Food could not satiate it, neither could laughter or as I grew, sex. Eventually, I found some relief in the heat of battle, it gave me a sense of gratification, and yet I was never fully satisfied. At the time I always assumed everyone felt as I did. It wasn't until I was an adult, and could carefully observe those around me, it became clear I was different.

I was the strongest of my people, who were but children to me by comparison. I became a hunter, the best in the tribe, earning my place of respect among them. Over time, I realized my people were following traditions to the detriment of our survival. We would only stay in an area so long as the food was plentiful, and then move on. This kind of nomadic life was all we knew. However, somehow I knew I could do better. My physical superiority and belief that our leader was failing us, gave me a thirst for leadership, which I took easily by challenging my tribal chief.

When I won the fight, the rest of my tribe were shocked, but most followed me willingly and those that didn't I banished. I started my time as chief by establishing a permanent home for my tribe, finding a spot with plenty of resources and natural defenses. We started to build more permanent structures, and crude walls to keep out those who would want what we had. For a time, we prospered, living in peace. The river provided fish; the animals moved in predictable patterns which we learned to exploit. I should've been happy, but I still felt that hunger.

Soon a rival tribe began to harass my hunters, they wanted our tiny village and the stocks of dried meat and simple crops we had managed to stockpile. They had no concept of warfare as it exists today, but they were determined to take what was ours. I led my best fighters to their camp one night and killed their leader. His people started to run, but instead I welcomed them into my tribe. In a day we had doubled our numbers. We built larger structures, and my craftsmen started to develop new skills in weapon making and construction.

We survived that first winter without a single death. Soon, other tribes learned of what we had built, and while some tried to take it, others joined us. This rise to power was slow, taking years. By then it was clear to me I wasn't just different, I didn't age like the rest of them. I held absolute dominion over my people and formed a small army over time. I sent scouts out to find anything new, and eventually we learned of our neighbors, an organized village like my own.

I thought I loved my people, but it was merely a sense of pride at my accomplishments. At least I knew that I could lead them to their greatest moment in history, so I ordered my soldiers to attack our newly discovered neighbors. I underestimated their defenses, and my people were slaughtered. I was the lone survivor, and found it easy to kill everyone around me when I had no need for restraint. So I pushed forward alone, so consumed with anger at the loss of my men, that I killed every man, woman, and child in that village. I found a strange calling that night, and for the first time I felt that inner beast roar. I went back to my people victorious, and news of my actions spread across the region. Many flocked to us, wanting the security that came with my strength.

They gave me information, news of other communities near us, other threats we didn't know about. They brought skills, and weapons we had never seen. I rebuilt my army and armed it. I attempted to teach them how I fought, and within a decade we conquered everything within a hundred miles. It was a simple life, there was no politics, just the bliss of warfare, and I excelled at it. I was a master of a craft forged in blood and bodies. It was a horrible tribute to my actions that in my arrogance I refused to leave survivors in my wake.

I was without question a tyrant or warlord, perhaps the first. I ruled by fear and quested constantly to quench the hunger inside of me. We pushed further out, fighting, and sacking every settlement, village and eventually town we came across. But time was not friendly to me, and after a few decades of war the bloodlust no longer held the beast at bay. I began to grow impatient and made poor decisions, at the same time I was growing weaker by the day. Finally, my people grew tired of my rule and the constant warfare, and staged a coup to force me out. I was banished beyond the lands that I had once held dominion over; it was a fate worse than death for me.

I wandered endlessly as my body began to wither before my eyes. I lost my ability to think rationally and eventually lost my mind to the beast inside. Mad with hunger and unable to think rationally, I attempted to prey on anything in my path. Yet animals instinctively ran from me, and my clumsy attempts at unarmed hunting proved futile in my fragile state. Then I encountered another lost soul banished from another tribe of people far distant from my own. He was a solid man, hard and unfeeling, and managed to beat sense into me after I tried to attack him. In fact, he was the first ever to beat me in single combat. He almost killed me, but thought better of it, realizing that two surviving together would be better than making the attempt alone. Yet I was still weak from this unknown thirst burning in my chest. He took pity on me and managed to catch us a meal, but without fire we had to eat it raw. I ate ravenously, and found an odd strength flowing into me.

The beast inside stopped pacing for the first time in years, and I felt the strength I had lost returning to me. I used it to hunt and the more I ate, the stronger I felt. My blood lust soon returned as well, and it quickly turned to desires for revenge. I regaled my new companion with tales of my glory and promised him a place at my side if we sought retribution on my people. Although weary, he followed obediently, and we started our pilgrimage of carnage against the peoples of my land. Once we were beyond the pitifully tended borders, we slaughtered our way into their new seat of power.

Unlike the fortified cities and organized militias you might be used to, these people had no real concept of defense. We easily massacred half of them in a single night. After I had killed the leaders, I drank their blood as a symbol and to celebrate my triumph. In that moment I was undone, the blood was an elixir. The power it contained clarified to me my darkest secret, I had never truly been human. I was singular, unique, and my dissociation with those around me abated any mercy I had left within me for my people.

I drank and drank until there was no thirst left, and still I continued gorging my desires. There were but a handful of survivors left at the end, not that they were untouched by my gluttony. Days passed as I waited for the thirst to return. My companion was stalwart in his loyalty, but obviously feared me innately. I had no need for him anymore, but he served a purpose, company. The screams of the survivors ended one by one, as each succumbed to death. Until there was one, her screams of pain were like a song to me, I had no idea why she was crying in pain, but it suited me. For three days I stayed in my bloody monument of vengeance, and on the third day she stopped screaming. She was still and cold as stone and her breath no longer heaved her heavy chest. When her crimson eyes opened, she looked wild, like the internal beast I was so familiar with.

In that moment I had finally found true kin, a real companion. My companion in banishment fell to her hunger, and I made no attempt to stop her. He was weak and she was strong, and there was nothing I cared for more than strength. After she was done, she turned on me and after a prolonged fight which ended in stalemate she eventually ran away. Her strength was undeniable, and I was also struck with her unspeakable beauty, she was unlike any woman I had ever encountered. After a few months she returned to me, her mind clear. She saw in me strength, so she became my wife, although we had little by way of ceremony then.

She was my queen, and I was again the absolute ruler. We discovered I had left dozens of survivors scattered throughout the villages I had slaughtered and fed on, who were much like her. I claimed leadership over my new race of unrivaled monsters. Eventually there were no humans left in the area, my new vampire nation was never sated. Unlike me, however, food held no sustenance for them. Desperation caused us to turn to the animals of the forest and the lands, and after a while I noticed a change in my monstrous subjects. It wasn't obvious at first, but little by little they started to show human emotions, including love. Their eyes shifted as well, from crimson to amber, it was a fascinating change but an unwelcome one. I was bent on rebuilding my power, so I pushed us into populated lands again.

To my everlasting shame, I figured out that human blood was the key, so I kept my people gorged on the fragile people in our path. A choice that led future generations of vampires to believe human blood was the only option. Any human that was strong enough to put up any measure of fight was allowed to live long enough to join the ranks of my growing army. Over time we established a new centralized home, and kept small human villages close to us to provide us with food. Eventually I grew lazy and tired of conflict and wanted to explore a more stabilized life. But my new race wasn't exactly built for a stationary existence, and they soon grew restless and hostile towards each other. Small groups tried to splinter off and strike out on their own. By trial and error, I had to learn the best ways to destroy them.

Eventually I built an elite guard of dedicated fighters whose sole concern was to ensure that these splinter groups never succeeded in their attempts at abandoning my home. Yet again time was unkind, and even Rachel, my wife, began to exhibit the same desires as my restless soldiers. So, I decided to grant their demands and push out again to expand our territory and to satiate the building blood lust in my army. The men were so excited that they gathered all of our enslaved humans together for a grand feast. That is when they brought her in, a woman so beautiful that I was instantly captivated. I knew that I had to possess her, and I was not one to suppress a desire that intense.

I turned her that night while Rachel led our subjects in their fun, and she was more than pleased to guide them in their slaughter. Two days later I had my new companion and Rachel was instantly jealous. The reason was clear almost immediately, Celesta was special. She was intelligent and compassionate and wasn't lost to wild abandon like other newborns. Unfortunately, because of that compassion she had absolutely no desire to drink human blood.

I knew that I had to separate them, and I also felt confident that Rachel could accomplish my goals. So, I sent her to wage war. For the first time I felt contentment, but soon that new emotion was replaced by another new one, fear. In the vast number of years I had already been alive I had made it an art to instill fear in others. But it was an emotion that I had personally felt only once before, when I was banished and alone. It was such a foreign sensation to me that it set me on edge.

It was then I realized that Celesta was unwilling to kill to the point that she wouldn't even drink the blood of animals. Slowly she began to wither from starvation, it wasn't death exactly just a type of living torpor. She spoke of the virtues of humanity and the value of life, and for the first time I listened. I was even starting to understand what compassion was, even though love was a concept that was impossible for me to comprehend. Then Rachel returned unexpectedly, she took advantage of my new weakness and tricked me into believing an obvious lie. I went to survey the new recruits she had acquired in her travels and while I was occupied, she destroyed Celesta.

It was the first sensation of loss I had felt since being banished, and an old rage filled me. Celesta had become a symbol of something far greater inside of me. She had sparked something, almost a renewed glimmer of the vestiges of humanity I still had left. The change had come on so gradually that I hadn't even realized it had happened. No longer could I see humans as simply cattle, I could see their lives and struggles and pains. Grief and hardship like I had suffered, and I found compassion for the first time. I struggled with this new conflict for months, until I realized that we had to be stopped.

So without much choice and fearing what would happen if I just left, I turned on my followers in defense of the humans I used to prey upon. I fought for days, methodically destroying every single one of my legions. Rachel was the last, but she knew me too well and managed to escape my wrath. I abandoned my home and set it ablaze, refusing to leave any traces of my old life. As the fires began to consume the city I had built over centuries, a monument to my arrogance and bloodlust, I vowed to give up the blood I craved the most.

Over the centuries I learned to control my instincts, hone my abilities, and finally empathize with humans. I managed to extinguish my thirst for human blood completely and exclusively pursued animal blood. I found renewed strength after a time and continued to repress my instincts until they atrophied. Even more surprising is when I discovered a power deep inside myself. It wasn't there in my youth, but as I aged it manifested. It is an elemental fire that took many years to refine and contain, and it still can be greater than I can control.

Meanwhile I tracked Rachel across the world which had expanded during my lifetime ten fold. At first it was easy, as she left a convenient trail of corpses scattered like breadcrumbs behind her. Then she learned evasiveness and discovered methods to cover her tracks. I believe she even resorted to feeding from animals to satisfy her thirst long enough to get through a populated area.

Whatever her methods, eventually I lost her trail entirely. I continued my search for a long time afterwards, but I grew distracted by the societies growing around me. Years of learning about humanity let me master the art of blending in. I grew introspective as I witnessed the ever-changing flow of society, and the rise and fall of entire civilizations. But even with my new interest in humanity I never gave up searching for Rachel. Eventually I stumbled upon her again by accident. She was in Volterra, posing as nobility. It was easy to see her new game, she thought of humans as pets now. Her favorite was a man of the cloth with a deeply charismatic and intuitive nature.

I saw an invaluable opportunity, so I captured him. I took him deep into the bowels of the city, treating him as kindly as I could. I made sure he was secure then I returned to observe Rachel to gauge her reaction. As I watched from a distance, I discovered with pleasure that she was nearly livid with frustration and anger at his disappearance. I knew with anger there would be a lack of rational thought, so I staged an elaborate trap for her. She fell for it easily and followed the trail I had left for her. It took her two days, but she eventually tracked down her clergyman. I was surprised to see her nearly compassionate towards him. She kissed him and reassured him that everything would be okay.

But as they started their escape, I confronted them. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that she had managed to gain a respect for life. But she cast him aside like he was nothing more than a favored toy that held no sentimental value. I felt my heart sink and finally put her to rest, nearly two thousand years after the day she should've died. In her carelessness the clergyman was mortally wounded, and hoping that his compassion would allow for a repeat of my beloved Celesta, I turned him.

I spent close to a decade with him before he turned on me. I had hoped he would be like me, but he had no interest in the preservation of life. I didn't want to admit that my experiment had failed. Partially because I had tried to teach him about humanity and the values I had come to cherish, and partially because I was alone, and I didn't want to cast him aside too. In secret he had changed two others and taught them the secrets to getting through my defenses. Together they chased me out of Volterra and once I was gone, I never wanted to look back. I began to wander again, and during my travels I found evidence of other creatures lurking in the shadows. When I finally found them, I was horrified to discover they were like Rachel. That's when I realized they were Rachel's true legacy, she had spent centuries changing humans all over the world."

Carlisle lowered his head and closed his eyes in obvious pain, "Aro was the clergyman, wasn't he?" I nodded at him in shame. "Is that when you founded your other coven?"

"Yes, I explained the details to Angela, but in short my coven was similar to yours, although I couldn't quite understand the concept of family at the time. Eventually things fell apart, and they all died one by one. I've been alone ever since." I said with a somber expression, and Carlisle nodded once and managed a sympathetic half smile.

Edward cleared his throat to ask a question. "So how are you different? You kind of jumped over the details." Edward seemed thoughtful, but a touch melancholy. It was a mood that seemed to rest over the room like the oppressive weight of a falling anvil.

"As I alluded to, I was never turned; I was born different. Call it mutation, evolution, or what have you. Whatever you want to classify the event as, I have never been fully human. My physiology is substantially different from humans, but it is also different from yours as well. You see, I believe the venom that I produce causes a chain reaction which literally freezes a human body. Well in a way, it is more like a crystallization process. Which makes you more akin to silica than the carbon all other life is made from. It makes you extremely tough and nearly indestructible. But it means that you are quite different from nearly every other form of life, one that has no formal classification. I'm sort of stuck in the middle of that process, so instead of being crystalline my flesh is more like scale skin. It is made up of millions of round objects that resemble tiny scales. Because of that I do not reflect light as intensely as the rest of you do. My eyes are also a manifestation of my gift, when I use my power the metaphorical process seems to almost complete for a few seconds, and my eyes shift into a shade like yours. " I could see my explanation was sufficient, and everyone stopped to consider my words for a couple of seconds. Which was an eternity for us, but for Angela it must've felt like no time at all.

"That makes a strange sort of sense." Edward, still thoughtful, cracked a wide smile and shook his head in amazement.

"I don't think any of it really matters. Past is prologue, we need to make the best of the situation we're in now." Rosalie said unexpectedly. I nodded at her in gratitude.

"Personally, I was hoping that when you told us about yourself, you would somehow shine some sort of light on things in a way that we would be able to figure a way out of this mess." Alice added.

"I'm simply glad that everything is out on the table, so to speak." I said with a smile, my secrets now fully revealed. I looked to Angela to gauge her reaction, and she wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were cast downward, and I could see the glistening of tears on her cheeks, which she hadn't bothered to wipe away. I wanted to comfort her, but I knew I was the cause of those tears.

"So, what's the plan?" Bella asked the room, her hand still absently stroking her father's hair.

"I have absolutely no idea, but I'm ready for any fight." Emmett said with a grin.

"No, you're not Emmett." Alice said, wincing from some remembered pain.

"Huh?" He said in confusion.

"My vision, you didn't make it. Almost none of us did, and you weren't even there." Alice shook her head, indicating me as the one missing from her future sight.

"Why would I abandon you? It makes no sense." I said struggling with the implication. I had committed to keeping this family alive, I had no explanation for her vision.

"I don't know." Alice said without elaborating further.

"Look, we cannot afford to lay blame. We need to figure out how to mend our relationship with the Quileute, and somehow placate the Volturi. Can you watch Victoria's actions in case she is the one behind this newborn army you saw?" Carlisle asked Alice who nodded uneasily.

"I'll try, but my visions aren't really cooperating like they used to." Alice said with a look of panic and pain in her eyes and face.

"We'll figure this out, we have to." Esme said with a touch of desperation, and I could sympathize with her fear. Everyone was silent for several minutes, with no one being able to offer any form of solution. Then Angela cleared her throat, and stepped forward.

"Turn me, that way I'll be able to help with this fight. I'll have the time to get over my early newborn thirst and be rational when we are finally attacked." She stared at me as she spoke, and it was clear this was her declaration, her way of saying she was ready to be a part of my life.

"No, not for this." I said reacting emotionally to her totally rational argument. "One more won't make a significant difference. I promise when you're ready I'll turn you myself."

"It is my choice, and I've made it." Angela argued.

"Okay, Angela. We appreciate your attempt at sacrifice, and we want you to join us eventually. I think what Mason means is that we do not wish for you to end your human life prematurely. Please take a night to think this over?" Carlisle said getting between us physically to end the argument.

"Practically speaking, two newborns would be nearly impossible to handle. We would need to give time for Chief Swan to adjust to this life, learn to control his impulses and choose what he wants to do with his thirst." Esme posited, her reasoning sound.

"Okay, I'll wait. Mason, take me home." Angela said finally, and I nodded easily.

"I don't have a car here." I said in shorthand to let her know it would be a windy experience.

"She shouldn't put additional stress on that shoulder, take mine." Carlisle said, throwing me his keys.

"Thank you Carlisle." I said with a small sigh. I motioned for Angela to lead, and she took off towards the garage. Once we were in the car she quickly buckled her seat belt and turned towards her window, her hands in her lap.

"You're angry." I didn't phrase it as a question.

"Yes. But not really at you. I'm angry at myself. I'm angry at the world. None of this is fair, and none of it makes sense." She turned towards me as we turned off onto the rural highway out of the driveway.

"I understand those feelings, all too well." I said starting to reach out, but thinking better of it I put my hand back on the steering wheel.

"Don't shut down, please. I know how hard that must've been, and I don't have a clue how I feel about it yet, but my feelings for you haven't changed." Angela reached out and took my right hand in hers, and intertwined our fingers. I pulled her hand up to my lips and kissed the back of it, and she immediately started to tear up again.

"That part of my life is a horror I try never to think about. I remember every single face of every person I killed. I would understand if you cannot accept me as anything other than a violent monster." I said letting go of her hand to shift gears down as we arrived in town.

"I'll never understand your past. The idea of you killing innocent people..." She shook her head a few times as if banishing the thought from her mind. "It will be something I have to work through. I knew it was going to be bad, otherwise you wouldn't have kept it hidden." She was clearly shaken, but also conflicted and there was nothing I could really do to help her through it.

"But the truth of it is harder to hear." I said finishing her thought.

"Yeah. I know you and Carlisle are right, I shouldn't rush into things." She said looking down at her hands, fiddling with a small white flower I hadn't seen her pick up.

"Do you like flowers?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Not enough to be a florist, but I've always fantasized about getting them from some guy trying to make up for something stupid he had done. Which is just desperate. You should really reconsider, I'm your basic loser. Nothing special here." She grimaced and shook her head refusing to look at me.

"Aren't losers the foundation for heroes in most fantasy fiction?" I said trying to be helpful, I had no desire to argue with her own self image yet, it would seem disingenuous.

"You think I could be a hero?" She said incredulously.

"You are a hero. You've saved my life, twice and from what I understand you saved Bella's life as well." I said honestly.

"What? That doesn't make sense." She looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, a metaphor I had used on occasion since hearing it in that Christmas movie. It had made me laugh at a time when I was feeling very down, the small moment of joy giving me a glimmer of hope that things wouldn't always be dark and empty.

"You forced me to think about my choice, saving me from a life of solitude and desperation. Then you let me into your life, accepted me for who I am and reciprocated my affection. I only killed again, you have resurrected me." I tried clumsily to explain what she had already done for me, and that to me she defined grace and bravery, and beauty.

"I made you kill again. I'm so sorry." She said clearly avoiding the praise.

I sighed for emphasis and then chuckled, "C'est la vie." I took a deep breath as we pulled up close to her house. "I have said it before and I will say it until you believe me, you are beautiful, and not just physically attractive, you are the best soul I have ever encountered in my long years."

She blushed and looked down with her eyes wide and then quickly got out of the car. I got out as well, and reached out my hand to hers. I scanned the neighborhood for anyone watching, and then I leapt us up onto her roof so she could sneak back into her room. She turned to me before she went inside, and then leaned forward to kiss me. It was quick, but passionate and we both sighed with contentment as we parted.

I returned to the car, and as I got in I heard her whisper to herself, "I'm beautiful."

Author's Notes:

I didn't fully intend for there to be so much Mason and Angela back to back to back, however, the next couple of chapters will involve some major Bella/Rosalie stuff as well as the fall out from everything that has happened so far. I do plan to keep this posted on a somewhat regular basis, but I'm not sure what pace that will be.

Next Chapter: The Love of a Father - Edward

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