CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LONG NIGHT

No one moved for what seemed like a long time, but was really only a small moment.

           

“Don’t answer it,” Renesmee said quietly.

            

“She’s not going to harm us,” Edward replied. Savanna had obviously removed her guard allowing Edward to read her mind.

           

“Just wait a little bit more then,” I said. I thought that now would be a good time to put my gift into practice. I closed my eyes, and blocked out all my other thoughts concentrating on the expandable force inside of my mind. I felt the thin walls to my bubble of protection, and concentrated on slowly pushing it out around me. When I had pushed it out far enough, coving each of us, I waited a for a moment making sure that I had a good grip on it – I was much better at using and controlling it than I was six years ago, but perfecting this ability would take centuries Edward had said. “Okay,” I announced, opening my eyes, “I’m good”.

            

Edward went to the door, my protective shield moved and moulded with his body easily – I had a confident hold of things. “Savanna,” he greeted coldly when he opened the door, “what brings-“.

            

“I’m here to help,” she said quickly, interrupting him. She was holding a small tube of glowing-red liquid.

           

Edward didn’t move a muscle, and snarled slightly at her, “what have you done to him?” he asked.

            

“It was an accident,” she said, seeming somewhat frustrated with him. “You’re running out of time! He will be dead in a few minutes if he doesn’t take this,” she held up the bright red tube.

            

“Edward!” Rosalie’s voice cut through the tension in the air. “I think she’s right, Emmett’s skin has almost turned black – we have to try.”

            

Edward moved aside slightly, indicating for Savanna to come in. She started but stopped suddenly.

            

“Bella – “ Alice said. I realised that my protective force was blocking her from entering, and I quickly let it disintegrate – at least I knew it worked on her. If Savanna was right about Emmett only having a few minutes left to live then I didn’t want to waste any time withdrawing my shield to mould around her, protecting us while she walked amongst us.

            

“This way,” Rosalie said, indicating for Savanna to follow her.

            

Savanna entered the house, walking past us and followed Rosalie into Carlisle’s study. Rosalie stopped just before she reached the hospital bed where Emmett was lying, indicating for Savanna to approach him. Savanna walked up to Emmett, and opened the cap to the small tube of the glowing red substance. “Can you hold his mouth open,” she said to Carlisle.

           

Carlisle nodded, and did as she asked. We watched intently as Savanna let two drops of the liquid fall into Emmett’s mouth. “Done,” she said, facing Rosalie, “he will be fully healed in about six hours.”

            

“What did you give him,” Edward asked, his voice still cold and unfriendly. I guessed that she was blocking her mind from him again, which would have made him extra cautious – not that we all weren’t cautious of her as it was.

            

“My blood,” she replied flatly and a little hesitantly. “I shouldn’t be here,” she added, “I need to go.”

            

“I don’t think so,” Jasper said, his voice surprised me as I realised that he had only just joined us. I noticed that his shoes were covered in mud too. He must have followed Edward to get Emmett and had been searching the forest for clues to what or who was behind this. “What are you?” he said coldly. His body was tense; and I could tell he was prepared to attack her if he needed.

            

Savanna didn’t reply. “Jasper,” Carlisle said, “she has helped us enough, let her go now.” Jasper relaxed his body slightly, and Savanna left the room.

            

“Thank you,” Carlisle said, just before she reached the door. She stopped and looked back at Carlisle and nodded slightly before leaving.

            

When we heard the front door close Rosalie was the first to speak, “his skin is getting lighter,” she said, her voice filled with relief and astonishment.

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “whatever Savanna gave him, it seems to be working.”

           

“What do you think it is?” Edward asked.

            

“I’m not sure,” Carlisle replied, “I’ve seen nothing like it, same with the black substance that must have been in the animal blood he drank. The acid content was so high it completely destroyed the equipment.” Fortunately vampires are almost indestructible.

            

“I haven’t heard of anything that relates to acid, especially acid so violently potent as this,” Edward said, puzzled, “it must be witchcraft!”

            

“Well we should have the chance to get some answers tomorrow,” Carlisle said, “now that Savanna has made the first move – “

            

Emmett interrupted him throwing-up a mouthful of the black acid, which started bubbling on the floor as it dissolved and disintegrated the carpet.            

            

“Edward I’m going to need your help,” Carlisle said, “if I can pump his stomach then hopefully the recovery process will be a little faster.”

            

“Sure,” Edward said. Rosalie stayed too, but the rest of us left the room. Emmett didn’t need an audience, and the sight wasn’t exactly pretty.

            

“Well see you tomorrow,” Alice said, holding Jasper’s hand as they started to head to their room. Tonight had been tyring; we had been living in fear-free bliss for the last six years, so everything seemed to be happening too fast, shocking the system.             “Are you guys okay?” I turned to face Nessie and Jacob.

            

Jacob yawned, and Nessie nodded.

            

“I think you two need to go back to bed,” I said, a little amused at them both – it was cute seeing them tired; this sight must have been similar to what Edward saw from me when I was still human.

           

I followed them as they slowly walked up the stairs, heading to their rooms where I was sure that they would both fall back into a deep sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. I wished that Edward was with me. I felt a little lonely – like something was incomplete without him. It wasn’t that I needed to discuss the nights events, but it was all so dramatic, and now that I was by myself, this was highlighted – usually after something like this Edward was with me, holding me and making me feel like everything will be okay. I went into our bathroom, and turned the heat of the water up as far as it would go on the baths’ electronic dial. For any human, the temperature would have been too hot, but I would still barely feel it. I was hoping that it would act as even a slight substitute for the comfort I was craving from Edward.

            

I relaxed into the bath and after quickly failing to escape to the world Edward’s music was sending me earlier, I settled on watching the subtle glow forming in the far distance of the forest – the sunrise. We would be going to school in a few hours, which I wasn’t looking forward too. Fortunately we had started late in the week, today was Friday. I couldn’t believe that all this had happened and we hadn’t even had our second day at High School yet. This night seemed like it had lasted forever, and I felt like we had been in Seward for months.

            

Edward surprised me when he walked into the bathroom. Usually I would have heard him well before he entered the bedroom, but my brain was not thinking straight at the moment – as a vampire I didn’t need sleep and couldn’t even if I wanted too, which would have been nice now.

            

“Hows Emmett?” I asked, turning to face him.

            

“He’s better,” Edward asked, “he’s gone for a run to try and get rid of any remaining poison, and he will be coming to school with us too.”

            

“Wow,” I said, astonished, as he was almost dead about an hour ago.

            

“Mind if I join you?” Edward asked, sounding slightly amused by something.

            

“Please,” I replied. As I watched him remove his shirt I noticed that it was completely ruined, as if he been in a fire or something. His pants were the same too. “What happened to your clothes?” I asked.

            

“Acid,” he said, “it doesn’t hurt us though unless its consumed,” he added reassuringly. Sure enough his skin was flawless as usual. He came into the bath next to me, and grabbed my face gently as he leaned in to kiss me. His kiss sent an electric pulse straight to my heart, making me lean into him, kissing him back passionately. I didn’t want this kiss to end, and neither did my body as I had somehow managed to move into a position where I was pinning him to the edge of the bathtub. We remained locked in this moment of passion for the next hour until the sun had almost filled the sky. 

   © Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010