Adult-FanFiction.org : Books

The Newborn
By : belladonnacullen
Category: Twilight Series > Het
Views: 3452 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.
Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Our journey across the frozen northern wastelands was eventful, to put it mildly. Carlisle and I led the charge westward, for it was the same route he and I had taken after we left Chicago in 1918. We’d wandered that winter, Carlisle talking endlessly, explaining everything, overjoyed to share his thoughts completely for the first time in near three hundred years. I studied his every move, his every thought, looking for the key to be like him. Looking for a way to walk through the world without the burning desire to kill and destroy. But this time we set an ambitious pace from the start, hoping that the speed of the journey might keep this newborn’s mind distracted from his twin obsessions: Rosalie and human blood. We travelled quickly westward, planning a brief stop at an area we’d used as a feeding ground when Carlisle and I made our first trip to Denali, Great Bear Lake.

The relentless speed of our journey definitely seemed to agree with Emmett. The newborn reveled in the power of his legs, in his stamina, in his strength. He’d take a running jump off of even the smallest incline, looking to best his previous jump with each repetition.

“I bet I can jump farther than you,” he challenged me after his first few attempts. And as a newborn, he could, so I didn’t take the bait.

“No thanks,” I called as I ran past him. But the newborn didn’t plan on letting me get away so easily. I saw his plan to tackle me from behind, so I waited until he’d already leapt at me before sidling out of his trajectory. Emmett hit the ground hard, and the world shook with his impact. I’d beat him in my own way.

But instead of the angry attack I expected, Emmett picked himself up, laughing, happily flexing his limbs, excited to find no bruises or broken bones. “Nice!” he exclaimed to no one in particular, chuckling under his breath.

Emmett was almost always grinning, or laughing. He found his blood-red eyes ridiculously funny, he thought the way he sparkled was hilarious, and he was consumed with joy whenever he caught a glimpse of Rosalie. He made sure to catch frequent glimpses.

If nothing managed to distract Emmett’s attention while he was focused on Rosalie, he’d charge at her and tackle her to the ground, pinning her underneath him, with more on his mind than wrestling. And while he was neither refined nor subtle about his intentions, Rosalie didn’t appear to mind in the least. In fact, I’m almost certain they might have consummated their relationship, if you could call it that, right there in the middle of the ice field in the broad gray light of day, if it weren’t for the presence of the rest of the family.

More specifically, the presence of Esme.

“Ahem… Emmett,” Esme would grumble, her arms crossed, her foot tapping loudly at the ice by his head. To which there was typically no reply.

“Ahem,” Esme would repeat, accidentally ‘tapping’ an arm or a leg.

“’Scuse me, ma’am,” Emmett would apologize with a smile, picking himself up and running to catch up with Carlisle, or to play on the nearest ledge. Poor Rosalie was left a wet and flustered mess on the snowy ground, torn between her own desire and her own embarrassment.

But often enough, Esme didn’t have to intervene at all. Emmett’s eyes would catch the glimmer of a bird overhead, or spot a particularly large outcropping of granite that he wanted to climb and leap from, or he would spot something he could eat, and he was off. More often than not, it was the smell of blood that would intervene.

Although Emmett had feasted on five caribou, a human and six sled dogs, when he was able to direct the flow of his reeling newborn thoughts, he was ever primed for his next meal, no matter the source. Fox, hare, arctic tern, squirrels, snow geese; he drained the blood of things no one else in my family would give a second thought to. He was searching out something, anything, equivalent to his human meal, in search of the elusive high, I suppose.

Of course, all newborns are bloodthirsty. But Emmett’s thirst went beyond anything I’d experienced with Esme, Rosalie or myself. And while animal blood seemed to be a source of curiosity for Emmett, his experience with the Inuit had left an indelible impression on the newling. It was an experience he was eager to relive, one way or another. Of course, this silent yet guiltless reverie about drinking human blood left me ill at ease. I found myself dwelling on my memories of its taste and texture more than I was comfortable with. So I sprinted ahead, taunting Emmett, urging us all on faster. After the long journey, we could all use a feeding.

It was an enormous relief when the tempting scent of a large heard of bison slapped me in the face with the icy northern wind. Bison was unexpected bounty in this wintry expanse, they didn’t usually stray this far north during the cold months.

Emmett was off with a roar of delighted anticipation, his feet hitting the ground hard enough to crack the frozen tundra beneath him. Any human finding his tracks later might have suspected them as evidence that Sasquatch did, in fact, exist. Of course, Emmett had no idea what he was running for, but he didn’t care either way, it was blood and that was good enough for him. It was as if the living world was his to sample, a gigantic buffet of ways to satiate his thirst, and he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into his next meal… and the one after that, and the one after that.

Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and I ran to catch up to him. We hoped to show him how to corral the herd, assuring a more orderly kill of a larger number of animals. Carlisle caught up to me smiling, happy.

“It’s been eleven years,” he thought.

“Eleven years?”

“Since we’ve hunted as a family.”

I hadn’t realized it had been so long. Our last hunt together was on the banks of the Hudson, with Esme and Carlisle, before I’d left them. We’d taken down a small herd of deer for Esme. They were her favorite. I wouldn’t hunt with my parents after I returned. I’d only given in and hunted with Esme for the first time the night Carlisle changed Rosalie. And Rosalie, ashamed of her inhuman instincts, had never hunted with any of us.

I took a minute to listen carefully to Rosalie’s thoughts. She was elated, exuberant, and very intent on Emmett’s backside as he charged ahead of us. She wasn’t thinking about how she loathed her existence, how she hated drinking animal’s blood, how I’d bothered her by doing one thing or the other. Emmett’s backside. That was it. Refreshing. Well, Emmett’s backside wasn’t refreshing. That she wasn’t being negative, on the other hand, was.

But all of our thoughts dissolved into a unified vision as the bison came into view; large, hulking creatures full of warm, salty blood. Their musky smell, their slowly beating hearts, and their warmth elicited lows growls from the entire family. With that, the herd froze in place. It was that instant before the stampede when you had to take action, move decisively to pen the animals in. But Emmett, in his haze of newborn bliss, burst right into the heart of the herd, scattering the creatures to the four corners of the icy plane. Suddenly, it was an unorganized blood splattered mess of a kill, with Emmett’s cries of joy cutting through the frantic hoof beats and bellows of the beasts, and the grunts of satisfaction from the rest of the family.

Emmett, in his unskilled haste, disposed of two large bison before the rest of the family could drain one apiece. He stalked through the grisly remains of the herd, a proud smile playing on his blood stained lips. But as I pulled an unending stream of blood from the bison I held in my arms, I lost track of Emmett’s thoughts, and the thoughts of all those around me. It had been too long, and the thick, rich blood of the large creature felt like warm silk against my sore, burning throat.

“Rosalie!” Esme’s voice pulled me back from my reverie. What had he done?

I rushed in the direction of Esme’s voice, but when I picked up Emmett’s thoughts, I knew what I’d find before I saw it with my own eyes. It was well that I was prepared. I found Esme standing over Emmett and Rosalie, bloody, wet, limbs intertwined, half dressed, smiling like fools.

Carlisle approached quietly, but hung back from the scene, his back to the sheepish lovers, shaking his head. “We should keep moving,” he mumbled.

“Well, thank goodness we brought a change of clothing,” Esme scolded Rosalie. Emmett, however, was left with his blood soaked and soiled rags, yet didn’t seem to mind in the least. He simply pulled the gory strips of his shirt from his body, baring his hulking torso to the world. He used the rags in a half-hearted attempt to wipe the blood from his chest, but he didn’t try to wipe the smile off his face as he watched Esme and Rosalie disappear around an outcropping of rock. And his thoughts…

“Do you mind?” I asked the man. I couldn’t take it any longer.

“What?” he turned to me, startled, happy and challenging all at once.

“You’ve only just met my sister, and I find your thoughts and your actions ungentlemanly, to say the least.”

“My thoughts?” he asked.

“Your thoughts, Emmett McCarty.”

“Aw, hell, you can read my thoughts?” He rolled his eyes in exasperation.

I nodded, my eyebrows arched, my arms crossed in front of me.

“Whoops. Well, sorry… Edward, is it? But there’s nothin’ I can do about that,” he said, patting me on the back, grinning.

“You can treat her with respect,” I offered.

“Aren’t you all vampires?” he asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Who are you to act all high and mighty?” he challenged.

“Just because we’re vampires, doesn’t mean we can’t act civilly with one another.”

“Ha!” Emmett slapped his knee and held his sides, his laughter booming across the field of ice. “Listen, Edward, I just got a second chance at life with, your uh, Rose, and I’ll be damned if I let civility or whatever you call it get in the way.”

By this time Rosalie had reappeared, pulled back together, her new dress dry and intact.

“Well, hot damn,” Emmett thought to himself. But then he turned to me. “You don’t have to listen, you know.” And then he ran off in Rosalie’s direction.

Rosalie, for her part, was pleased that Emmett had given up his shirt. Very pleased. She didn’t stop him from picking her off her feet in his embrace. Indeed, she encouraged him by wrapping herself around his naked torso, and grabbing fistfuls of his hair, as she pulled his face to hers for a very inappropriate kiss. Esme smiled a little and coughed politely. Neither took the hint. “We have to keep moving, Rosalie,” Esme finally tried to interrupt, to no avail.

“Rosalie….Rosalie.” Esme tapped Rosalie’s shoulder. The only response from Rosalie was a passionate growl.

“ROSALIE!” she shouted in the girl’s ear. It was the first time I’d heard Esme raise her voice.

Rosalie startled and looked around, like she was seeing the world for the first time. “Esme? What?” She jumped awkwardly off of Emmett.

“We have to keep moving, Rosalie,” Esme muttered, walking back towards Carlisle and I, shaking her head.

*****

I felt much like a sheep dog, corralling Emmett, moving him ever westward. He took my proximity as a challenge of sorts and never tired of playfully trying to goad me into a contest: wrestling, running, turning boulders to powder. He bet money he didn’t have, well, he’d bet anything, and all he had was a ragged pair of trousers. It didn’t take long to give in to his theatrically sad newborn eyes, (such a unique contradiction), to agree to a wrestling match. I took pleasure in using my mind to anticipate his every move, besting him quite consistently. It may have been childish, but it couldn’t be helped. Having Emmett around brought out a very intense instinct to hold my status in the family unit. I’d been with Carlisle from the beginning, and this upstart wouldn’t take my place.

From the beginning... That first journey toward Denali with Carlisle was almost always on my mind. It was as different from this trip as possible, aside from the presence of a newborn male.

At first I’d simply been relieved to run through the snowy plains without the constant temptation of human blood, and the constant torment of hearing human thoughts. My awakening to immortality had instantly introduced me to the darkest parts of men’s minds. To suddenly know the desires of well-mannered neighbors and their wives, the secrets that children kept, the pain and suffering of the shopkeepers and day laborers: it was like I’d found out I’d always lived in hell but had been deaf before, and now I was damned to it forever, my deafness gone with my heartbeat.

But Carlisle was like an oasis amidst the darkness. His mind never strayed to those confusing and improper thoughts, to deceit or dark fantasies. I delighted in his brain, which worked hard to answer my every inquiry, that never contradicted his words, and that, amazingly, never desired human blood.

For although I’d never tasted it myself at that time, I wanted to, badly. It was nearly all I could think about. The horror that came with this desire nearly incapacitated me, and before we’d entered the land of snow and ice, I’d been afraid to move, lest I catch the scent of a human. I knew all too well what I wanted. My brain painted a detailed picture for me; my instincts tugged me toward that picture relentlessly. I knew how I would pull the human’s head back, gently, so as not to break the head from the stalk and lose excess blood, how to slide my other arm around theirs and how my leg would pin theirs together, to minimize their struggling. And then, wrapped in this warm embrace, body against body, I knew exactly where my teeth should pierce the skin for access to the strongest stream of blood.

But Carlisle didn’t fantasize about this, ever. And I clung to the man and attempted to become him somehow, to live a blameless existence like my mother would have wanted. Carlisle delighted in my attention, and he attempted to teach me everything of the world he knew. His joy at having me with him as a companion was like a life raft those first months. With a simple question from me, he would babble on with an answer for days, talking openly about his life for the first time in his long existence.

He told me about his life’s calling: to use his vampire abilities to help ease human suffering. I knew that for him to be happy, he had to be among humans, helping. I knew I couldn’t hide forever. After a few months of wandering the great northern expanse, I encouraged him to bring me closer to humans, hoping against hope that I wouldn’t relegate his existence with me to only the most remote wastelands.

We approached Fort Smith in north central Canada on a summer day. We kept our distance from the settlement, and kept under cover. The relentless summer sun glanced off our skin and then reflected off the snow in thousands of crystalline rays of rainbow light. Carlisle and I sat in the snow; his hand positioned reassuringly on my shoulder, with a grip that I understood and was grateful for. I trusted him to keep me from the humans. I trusted him with everything.

Their scent ebbed and flowed throughout the three days that we sat there, the most delicious aroma I’d ever smelled. My muscles tensed for the first forty-eight hours and finally relaxed, but venom flowed the entire time we remained there. And my mind… My mind replayed its own favorite bloody scenario over and over.

Instead, I tried to concentrate on Carlisle’s mind, to force my own brain to work like his. Carlisle wondered if the influenza had made it this far north. He wished he could visit the clinic here. He wanted to get into that town as badly as I did, but for completely different reasons. It was almost as if we were different creatures entirely.

“Never?” I managed. Speaking coherently was difficult, with so many of my own thoughts battling with the thoughts of others, with so many impulses to fight.

Carlisle knew what I meant, though. “No. It was difficult at first. I starved myself to near insanity before I killed that first deer.” I saw the scene play out in Carlisle’s head, I saw his relief and satisfaction and joy through his mind as he drank down the warm blood of his first kill.

But then, I saw it, in another, more recent flash of memory. “Never?” I challenged.

“Not until you, my son.”

And I saw the embarrassed anticipation, his fingers curling, heard his quick and shallow breathing, and I saw his teeth tearing at my flesh, how his body grew strong, his muscles flexed, his mind expanded, his body alive like it had never been before. I saw how he tried to catch a droplet that escaped his mouth, and what that small action did to him, how he looked at my eyes, unfocused, near dead, and pulled away in disgust.

“How did it taste?” I asked breathlessly.

And Carlisle’s eyes glowed bright yellow, and his mind stopped thinking in words so that I never got an exact answer. But the look on his face gave it all away. I was touched deep within, I shivered and my skin buzzed and I knew, in no uncertain terms that this man stopped drinking my blood because he loved me, and also because he loved it, my blood. And this singular experience was both horrifying and holy, and bound me to this man for all of existence, in much the same way I’d been bound to my mother and father. By blood and by love.

And like I did with my human parents, I worked to make this new parent proud. We wandered, and he told me what he knew of: our history, medicine and humans. I’d clung to my music as I’d been turned, and it was nearly all I had left of my human memories. I spoke to him of the pieces I’d loved, explained the feelings they emoted, their intricacies, and he listened, hanging on my every word.

But after many months, I despaired that I could lead Carlisle’s life. I knew in my heart what I was made for, and it saddened and disgusted me.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve failed you. I want to drink the blood of humans, with every minute of my existence. I think idle thoughts about it. I see visions behind my eyelids; I see scenes in the clouds. Perhaps there can be no other like you, Carlisle, for certainly, I am not,” I confessed miserably.

His eyes lit with realization and inspiration. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. There are others, Edward! Five others.” I saw the five in his mind, and in his mind I saw why he didn’t think of it earlier, but I was too embarrassed to say anything about it. They were vampires that took humans to bed. That came intimately close to humans, without drinking their blood.

“And they make their home near Denali, less than one thousand miles from here.” Carlisle’s face broke into a wide smile, and I saw his pride, and his dream of presenting me to his friends. “We should go immediately. You should meet the others, see that there are other ways to accomplish this life of abstinence.”

I couldn’t say no. And I would attempt my best behavior while I was there, to make Carlisle proud.

*****

“Edward, Esme and I think it best to continue past the lake, and head straight for Denali.” Carlisle’s words woke me from my reverie.

“Why?”

My parents exchanged glances, unwilling to talk out loud.

“Esme worries about Rosalie,” Carlisle explained thoughtlessly.

“Why?”

“Emmett is contentious and… large.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think she minds.”

“I know she cares for the man, but it’s too much. He’s so aggressive,” Esme explained wordlessly.

“And she isn’t?” I challenged.

“I’d feel better if we were at our home, not out in the wild.”

“Yes, but that man needs to feed. There’s nothing in the mountains. At least at Great Bear Lake there would be…”

“Great Bear what?” Emmett asked, bounding over with Rosalie in tow.

“Great Bear Lake,” I admitted.

“They’ve got bears there?” he asked, suddenly more intense than jovial.

I nodded my head.

“Well I don’t care what you all do, but I’m going to that lake. You can just point me in the direction. Are you coming Rose?”

Rosalie looked to the three of us for support. I heard her thoughts. She’d go with Emmett no matter what we did, but she hoped we’d come too.

“It seems as though we’ve been outvoted, Esme,” Carlisle said, hugging his wife to show his support.

As we approached the lake, the air was filled with the scent of warm-blooded creatures. I could pick out the odors of caribou, musk ox, moose and grizzly. Stands of spruce grew thick and close to the earth, their deep green needles and brown trunks in stark contrast to the monotonous gray and white landscape. The flat ground sunk impossibly lower toward the banks of an unending sea of ice.

The first victims of Emmett’s thirst were the elk hiding in the pinewoods on the shore. This served as something of an appetizer for the newborn, and he hardly paused before lumbering off in search of his main course. Carlisle and Rosalie followed close behind, while Esme and I flanked Emmett, hoping to head him off in case he made an unexpected detour.

“Edward!” Esme screamed silently.

I spun around and saw that her eyes were wide with fear, fixed on something toward the distant shore.

“No, no, no, no,” she silently pleaded.

I peered into the distance, my vision somewhat obscured by a thick blanket of fog. But there, perhaps fifty miles off, near the opposite shore, I could see a small plume of gray smoke. Humans.

“Edward, we have to leave now!” Esme nearly cried. I listened for the thoughts of the others. Emmett was taunting a large male grizzly, wrestling, roaring and growling with delight. We’d never pull him away, but perhaps it gave us the time we needed.

“We need to clear the humans, now. He’s wrestling a grizzly, enjoying himself and taking his time.” Esme seemed frozen in place.

“What?” she asked. I almost wanted to shake her.

“You have to go, Esme. I need to stay close enough to hear his thoughts. To help stop him if he gets too close.”

“Scare the humans?”

“Esme, go! Or they’ll be worse than scared, they’ll be dead.”

She turned and ran over the ice without further hesitation.

But Emmett’s thirst got the best of him, and he ended his game rather abruptly, sinking his teeth into the giant bear’s neck and forcing him to the ground, sucking the bear dry as he lay splayed out over the lifeless animal. I didn’t hesitate, and ran toward the scene. It was over. He’d killed the bear. The symbolism wasn’t lost on me. Now we could leave.

But before I could reach them, Emmett was off, his newborn mind suddenly, unexpectedly focused. It wasn’t over by a long shot. He ran along the banks of the lake, toward the opposite shore, following the heady scent of a bear, a brown bear this time. He was unknowingly headed straight for the human camp. Esme and the humans were out of my range of hearing, and the only thing for me to do was to try to head Emmett off and force him to turn around. I shrank a bit at this prospect, having some experience with Emmett’s strength and willpower when his hunt was interrupted, but I ran ahead anyway, focused on saving the human’s lives.

After that, everything happened very quickly. Esme, in her haste, was actually very successful at frightening the humans. Just as I managed to jump into Emmett’s path, an unmistakable odor pervaded the air around us, growing stronger with each second. The humans were headed this way.

Before he could form a conscious thought, Emmett tossed me aside and charged for the open ice of the lake. I saw the humans, two specks on the horizon, running for their lives, right into Emmett’s path.

“Emmett!” Rosalie called out. “Emmett, please! Come back!”

We raced after the man, but he was even more driven than he had been that first time with the Inuit. Now he knew what he wanted, what he could have. I couldn’t catch him. The humans froze, trying to comprehend what was barreling in their direction. A topless, sparkling, blood-covered hulk of a man.

“Come back!” I heard Esme crying in the distance, as if she could guard the humans from Emmett’s advances, as if they’d run to the monster that scared them out of their shelter for protection.

I won’t go into detail. It’s enough to say that their lives were over quickly.

*****

We were subdued as we continued the last leg of our journey. Two more lives had been lost, and each of us silently blamed ourselves for the tragedy that befell those men. Rosalie had stopped speaking to Emmett, and she’d begun to doubt her own heart. Emmett couldn’t focus on her for more than five minutes at a time, and she’d told him that she wouldn’t tolerate feeding from humans, yet he hadn’t hesitated when he’d caught their scent, quickly forgetting all about her and his promises to her in the lust for blood.

Esme worried about Rosalie, and about the man that was trailing behind our family, dejected. And Carlisle worried about Esme. He could never stand to see her sad.

While all of these worries held some appeal to me, my mind strayed elsewhere. We were entering the mountains, and on the other side lay Alaska, and finally Denali. I hadn’t spoken to my friend, my cousin Tanya, since before I’d left New York. I left without a word, without an explanation. I was too ashamed to call when I returned, too wrapped up in myself. And somehow, over time, the letter I should have sent became harder to write, and easier to ignore. I’d have to face her, yet I was embarrassed by my actions.

As the first tall peaks came into view, Emmett charged, bare-chested and with his pants now torn at the knees, ahead of us. Rosalie sighed.

“We’ll go to Anchorage for clothing straight away,” Esme murmured to Carlisle.

“Tanya has a sewing machine, and I’m sure she has fabric. It would be quicker. At first,” he reasoned.

“Yes. We’d best get him clothed, quickly.”

As we made our way into the heart of the McKenzie Mountain Range into the Yukon Territory, Emmett’s spirits begun to soar. His smile crept back onto his face and his bright red eyes sparkled, as a plan formed in his mind. I couldn’t help grinning to myself at the newborn’s idea. It seemed we’d created a giant baby vampire. Emmett charged up the steep slope in our path, not pausing for a second before taking a running leap from the summit, tumbling through the air, laughing, colliding with boulders and turning them to powder on impact, then rolling down the rest of the slope, only to pick himself up and start all over.

The first few times Esme watched, she gasped, and hid her face against Carlisle’s chest. Carlisle chuckled. “Well, why not?” he reasoned. “Whatever else the boy is, he’s definitely… sturdy.”

Rosalie watched in awe, eyes wide, disbelieving, entranced. Emmett bounded over to her. “Rose, baby, come on! Have you ever?”

She simply shook her head as Emmett tugged her along with him up the next slope. “You’re always so serious, darlin’,” he grinned. “You gotta’ have some fun sometimes, right?”

Rose let the man pull her along to the top of the peak, and Esme closed her eyes again as Rosalie took a running jump off of the summit, her hand clutching Emmett’s. Together they tumbled down the slope, laughing all the way, ending at the bottom in a tangled heap. Emmett clutched Rosalie in his arms, obviously wanted to do more than lay there, but she shook him free.

“Let’s do it again!” she exclaimed, beaming at Emmett.

“Ha! I’ve created a monster!” he laughed.

And they were off, leaving Carlisle, Esme and I struggling to keep up with their frantic pace. They held hands for the next series of dives, and soon we heard Rosalie’s laughter echoing through the mountains, her soprano two octaves higher than Emmett’s deep, booming bass. They repeated their stunt over and over until finally, they jumped on a fragile outcropping near the peak of Mt. St. James. The two vampires easily broke through the rock, and tumbled nine thousand feet down the mountainside with a mountain’s worth of snow, ice and rock following close behind. It was quite the avalanche. The thunderous rumble triggered other snowfalls throughout the range, and easily drowned out Emmett’s laughter.

We ran to the base of the mountain. It had only been a few minutes, but all was quiet; the landscape was eerily serene. The flat white ground showed no evidence of the destructive power of the snow as it cascaded down the mountainside, taking a good chunk of the mountain with it. And there wasn’t a trace of Emmett and Rosalie.

“They must be okay!” Esme worried, her eyes searching out the landscape in front of her.

“Of course, Esme. They’re here, somewhere,” Carlisle assured her, turning to me. “Edward?”

Carlisle was right. Buried under meters of snow, we couldn’t see them and we couldn’t hear them, but I could pick out Emmett and Rosalie’s thoughts plainly enough.

“They’re together,” I assured my parents.

“Thank goodness,” Esme sighed. “Can you tell where they are in all of this?”

“In an air pocket under the snow. But, uh, they don’t really want to be found, Esme.”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Well, where they are, there’s nothing to distract Emmett from Rosalie,” I tactfully replied. “And… vice versa.”

Esme’s eyed went wide again and she spun around to face her husband. “Oh, Carlisle!”

“She’s a grown woman, Esme.”

“But they’ve only just met.”

“What difference does time make when you’ve found your mate? What difference did it make for you and I, my love?” he asked, his voice growing low and rough. I tried not to follow the path his mind was taking. Filtering the thoughts of each and every member of the family was becoming increasingly difficult.

Esme smiled warmly at Carlisle, her thoughts momentarily joining his. But then she shook her head, clearing her mind. “But you weren’t such a brute.”

“And I wasn’t half as fun as that young man, either,” he laughed. “He’s taken to this life with ease. Emmett will make a welcome addition to our family, as soon as we can curb his appetite.”

“If we can curb his appetite,” I corrected. It seemed unlikely.

“This happened so suddenly,” Esme continued. “I wish I’d had more of a chance to speak with Rosalie, to explain…”

“And what words would you have used, dear? There are none, you know that. We did just fine without any help.”

Esme looked doubtful, and Carlisle held her by the arms, smiling into her worried face. “She’s going to be fine, infinitely better than fine. You know that, don’t you?”

“I still wish I’d had you speak to the boy. That you’d told him in no uncertain terms to be good to her.”

“After tonight, dear, he’ll have no choice,” Carlisle murmured, rubbing Esme’s arms. “It’s our nature.”

Esme finally smiled, a small strained smile. “Then it’s done. She’s bound. She’s not ours anymore. But his. Forever.” Esme buried her head in Carlisle’s chest, taking short, shallow breaths.

“You sweet, silly woman,” Carlisle cooed. “Don’t cry.” Carlisle pulled her in for a tender kiss, and I left everyone to their own devices for the evening.

*****

Everything changed at the base of that eternally altered mountain. I spent days wandering the glaciers, waiting on my family. If Tanya wasn’t waiting at my final destination, I might have struck out for Denali on my own. It would have been infinitely easier than passing the time trying to ignore the thoughts and occasional sounds of everyone around me.

When Emmett and Rosalie finally made their way out of their snowy hideaway, they were transformed in a way that was difficult to describe with words. But it was familiar. I’d seen as much with Esme and Carlisle so many years before. They touched, constantly. They smiled at one another, always. And they managed to communicate in that same wordless fashion that Carlisle and Esme did, understanding flowing almost thoughtlessly between them. Emmett regarded Rosalie with reverence and wonder, and Rosalie glowed whenever Emmett gazed at her. She nearly always glowed. He carried her a good portion of those last few hundred miles, just because.

Esme and Carlisle were quietly happy, themselves. They regarded the two newly mated vampires with tender respect and understanding. And although I could read the thoughts of all around me, and I could study their actions, I knew I was witnessing something that I couldn’t quite grasp. Suddenly I was removed from the situation, an outsider among my own clan.

Esme let out a sigh of relief when the large Denali house came into view. It was enormous, with large windows overlooking the mountains, peaked roofs, intricate stone masonry, and a grand entrance.

Rosalie stopped in her tracks, in awe. “Oh, Esme, Carlisle, it’s beautiful.”

Emmett nearly swooned just at the sound of Rosalie’s voice. He grabbed her waist and pulled her body flush with his. She reacted to him immediately, pulling his head to hers, winding her leg around his, and kissing him deeply. He pulled her into his arms, and walked swiftly toward the front door.

“Perhaps we should go straight away to Tanya’s house,” Carlisle suggested.

*****

I sat at on the piano bench, looking westward toward Denali. As night advanced over the silvery landscape, the gray light of day slowly faded to black. Heavy snow and wind was coming in off the coast. A herd of antelope clomped unusually close to the house. Kate was in her room humming to herself, preparing for a night with her new human. But otherwise, the world was silent. The rest of the family was off on a hunting expedition, and once Kate left I’d have the house to myself. I looked forward to these times of silence and solitude, for I could fill the space with the sounds and sights of my choosing.

Kate skipped down the stairs and made her way back to the study.

“I’m off, Tanya,” she sang. She was quite pleased with her new man and was giddy at the prospect of seeing him.

“Enjoy yourself, dear.”

“You do the same, Tanya. Perhaps you’d like to come out with me? He has many friends at the mine,” she offered, as she brushed my hair behind my shoulders and patted my head. I would not be pitied.

“There’s much to do about the house. I won’t lack for chores to occupy my time.”

Kate sighed. “You never come out anymore.”

“You know that’s not true, Katrina.” To allay suspicions, I’d taken the odd human here or there. But I was true in my heart. I had no choice.

“Fine, sister. I’ll be back before dawn, as always.” I stayed where I sat until I heard the front door close behind Katrina.

I moved to the desk, where earlier I’d set to reading Paradise Lost, again. I’d read it enough that the pages were worn thin and the print was light and smeared. Eleazar had gifted me a new copy, well bound with pages that were immune to the effects of light. It sat on my nightstand, untouched. But this evening I was restless, and I was quickly up perusing the shelves, running my fingers along the spines, looking for something to capture my interest. I sighed; these books offered nothing that could hold my attention. I stepped to the phonograph and put on an old recording of Bessie Smith, and went to stare out the window at the blustering storm.

My vision was taken over by my memories, as vivid today as they were eight years ago. This was an indulgence I allowed myself only when I was alone. I wouldn’t let the family see me doe eyed and moping. It was bad for morale. Irina would use it as an excuse to attempt to overrule me at every turn. Katrina took pity on me. And after all that Carmen and Eleazar had done for me, I couldn’t let them see that their journey had made no difference.

Or, perhaps, afterwards, it had made it worse.

Because he never came. He never called. Not a letter, not a card.

But for him, I understood.

I knew, of course, the probable depth of his pain. I knew how he would hold his actions against himself. I could almost feel his exquisite agony, all those thousands of miles away. I wanted to feel it, and I wanted to be the one to make it better. Tenderly rubbing away the hurt, letting him know that his actions were normal, understandable. That he was singular among us, because he’d left the lifestyle behind, not for love, not for sex, but for himself.

A wolf howled in the distance, and suddenly, it was 1927, and I was in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains, watching Edward take down the she-wolf. His lethal grace could make me shudder, even tonight, eight years later. He stood, so powerful, glistening with blood, in command, even though I was near one thousand years his senior. I’d held my breath that night, my mind reeling, my knees suddenly weak. It took every shred of willpower I’d possessed to keep my mind away from my own desires and focus on what was important.

Edward had been in pain. It was the night everything turned, and I’d struggled to reason with him, to do whatever I could to tilt the balance in the other direction. To keep him with us. I pulled from my knowledge of eastern religion, philosophy, appealed to his sense of family. But I’d failed.

But now, alone in the study, I didn’t have to force my mind in a direction it didn’t want to go. Instead I let it stray. I toyed with the past and bent it to my liking. Edward looked down at me; his lips wet with wolf blood, his eyes glowing and yellow after the feed. I growled, meeting his fiery glare. Suddenly, he had me pinned against the trunk of a tree, his body pressed against mine. He was very, very strong. “What do you want from me,” Edward growled.

Summoning all of my strength, I pushed against Edward, and he flew backwards, he landed on his back, and I landed on top of him. “You know what I want.”

He flipped me over, of course. No man with the dominance he showed in the hunt would stay underneath me. He growled and snarled as he tore my dress off.

Back in my body in Denali, I clutched at the windowsill, holding myself up, pressing myself against the cold glass. It was so vivid… so alive to me… he’d been so strong and wild and certain that night, the most ferocious killer, the most sentimental thinker, long, lean, muscular… sad.

I could make these memories feel so real, that I could almost see Edward walking toward the house through the gray storm, like he had that first winter seventeen years ago. I could almost smell his scent on the breeze. I was good, I mused to myself. Tonight it all seemed so real.

“She sees us. I can just hear her thoughts now.” The voice was deep and musical, rhythmic, like slow jazz piano, carried on the wind. Edward. He was here.

“She’s surprised to see us.”

A/N: I was so excited to bring Emmett into this story! Finally some fun, some happiness, some sex! But, alas, writing from EOPV, he wants nothing to do with sex. I'm open to writing a short little outtake from Emm or RPOV if your interested. Just let me know! m
- 17
- 18
- 19
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Newborn	By : belladonnacullen Category: Twilight Series > Het Views: 3452 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

The Newborn