CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ANSWERS

Edwards grip around my waist tightened slightly as the first glint of the mornings sunrise began to form in the horizon over the large mass of forestation the filled our bathroom window. From around 2am we had stopped talking to each other, waiting, still and silent as marble statues for Monday to come around. The rest of the weekend had been a bit of a waiting game too. Carlisle, Edward and Jasper, had been spending as much time as they could at the library, but had found little information on exactly what a venevore really was and where they came from – we were hoping that today would bring some real answers. I was anxious to see that Savanna was going to show-up at school, that she would honour her promise to answer some of our questions.

            

I leaned back slightly in Edward’s embrace, lifting my arm and finding his smooth face with my hand. I gently ran a couple of my fingers down his jaw line – lifting the barriers of my mind I said the words, “I love you,” as loud and clearly as I could, without making an actual sound from my mouth. He answered with another slight squeeze of his arms around my waist, and continued watching the sunrise in anticipation for the day to come.

Renesmee had came better by Sunday, but we still made her take things easy – the headache had gone, but her strength wasn’t yet as strong as usual. She was looking forward to seeing Jacob again after his first weekend back in Forks visiting Billy, this week had felt like an entire lifetime, and we all had noticed his absence; he was meant to have come back Sunday evening, but we received a call a few hours beforehand from Billy, who said that his flight had been delayed due to a bad storm and was rescheduled for today. We weren’t surprised by the call though, as Alice, who was now able to see visions of Jacob as she had became use to his presence, had been keeping an eye on him and saw the freak storm and the delay coming well before meteorologists. Esme and Nessie were picking him up from the airport early this afternoon.

The sun was almost in full view over the horizon line. I watched it closely, my anticipation growing. I could see the sun moving inch-by-inch, higher into the sky. As soon as it came into full view our day would begin.

“Bella,” Edward murmured, a little awkwardly, unexpectedly breaking the silence of the last few hours. I turned slightly to look at his face. “Your elbow,” he added in the same awkward manner.

I concentrated on my elbows, quickly realising that I was digging one into his chest a little to hard – my whole body was on edge today. “Opps,” I said, quickly relaxing it. I still had moments with Edward where I forgot that in terms of fragility we were equal.

Edward kissed my shoulder as I began to let my body gently sit against his again.

“Perhaps we should just start getting ready,” he said about a minute later, “the others are anxious to start doing something now too.”

I liked this idea a lot. Time was moving excruciatingly slow, watching the sun rise every inch. I was out of the bath and drying myself before I had the chance to answer him, “I think that’s a great idea,” I said as I ran the towel through the wet ends of my hair; my voice sounded like it had more of a ring to it than usual.  

*****

Getting up earlier didn’t help at all; it just made the morning seem that much longer! We hadn’t seen Savanna at school yet, but Edward reassured us that she was here. Our first three classes of the day, English, History and Science were extremely slow. Why did Math have to be in the afternoon! The one day that it wasn’t in the morning!

We were the first to be waiting at our usual lunch table, along with Alice. Nessie was coming towards us now.

“Eric doesn’t seem to know anything about our arrangement with Savanna,” Edward said, monotonously shearing Nessie’s thoughts before she had reached the table to shear them herself; “he’s keeping his distance though – probably a little confused from us intervening with his plans at the party on Friday,” he added.

Nessie sat down, and Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper joined us a few minutes later. After lunch Nessie was to be picked up by Esme, so that they could get Jacob from the airport together. She was excited to see him – this weekend must have seemed a lot longer for her being stuck in bed for the large majority; Jacob had no idea what had happened at the party and she was probably dying to tell him all about it.

I remembered my fears about Jacob and Nessie falling in love so soon, as she was only a few months off becoming fully grown; but I wasn’t as worried now. Jacob and Nessie had become a lot closer over the last few weeks, but it wasn’t the type of love that I had feared; they were best friends, companions – maybe the romance would come in a few more decades, after all, we’re living forever!

For the rest of the lunch break we all seemed to be consumed in our own thoughts, making the odd bit of small talk – moments like this were never awkward for us, we were all so used to one another.

“And three, two, one,” Jasper muttered. On one, the bell indicating that it was time for classes to resume rang – he had clearly been counting down out of anticipation for meeting with Savanna.

“Esme’s here,” Edward said to Nessie.

“Great!” she replied enthusiastically. Her anxiousness was concentrated on Jacob as oppose to the slightly more frightening thought of finally getting some answers out of Savanna in regards to what exactly the deal was with her and her family – something we were looking forward to, but was frightening never-the-less.

“Have fun,” Alice said, as she started getting up from her seat. Edward and I were meeting with Savanna alone. We were hoping to organise a time with her during math class, or to even skip math and talk to her elsewhere.

I smiled slightly at her, “keep watch,” I replied.

She winked at me as she turned to head to her class. The rest of us got up too, making our way out of the cafeteria. “See you at home,” I said quietly to Nessie, as she was about to part from Edward and I to sign out of school for the day at the main office.

“Bye,” she replied quietly.

Edward took my hand, squeezing it slightly as we continued down the corridor to our math class; we were a matter of minutes, seconds from finally seeing Savanna since my outburst on Saturday. I could sense that Edward felt the same climax to our waiting as me.

Savanna was standing opposite our math class, looking more nervous and awkward than usual – she was constantly moving slightly, shifting her bodyweight from leg to leg. “Hey,” she said quietly, her voice quivering a little; “ahh, meet me in the car park.”

She didn’t give Edward or I a chance to respond, walking past us immediately towards the office – possibly to sign out?

“Lets go through the cafeteria,” Edward murmured to me, “we don’t want to make too much of a scene with all of us leaving.”    

I followed Edward, back though the cafeteria to take the different rout to reach the car park. We kept our pace slow, human and casual, as we didn’t want to bring any attention to ourselves – we were still susceptible to being noticed as straying students in the teachers eyes!

When we reached the student parking lot Savanna was waiting for us near our Volvo. “I guess we’re skipping class,” I said to Edward under my breath.

“So, where are we doing this?” Edward asked Savanna, when we were a few metres away from her.

“Desiree knows,” she said, “we’re going to see her”. I wasn’t quite sure whether that was a direct reply to Edwards question, or more of a sperate statement, a demand even.

“I’ll drive,” Edward said, his voice sounding a little confused – Savanna must have had the usual guard up for protecting her thoughts.

I sat next to Edward in the passengers seat; Savanna was in the back. We didn’t talk as Edward drove to her house. The silence seemed rather awkward to me. Though I had the feeling that I already knew that answer, I wanted to ask whether this change in plan was a bad thing. Desiree seemed to play the lead figure in the family, introducing us to her family, and coming across so confident – I wanted to know Savanna’s thoughts on that, before we met with Desiree. I was confident that she was in some kind of trouble over this.

I refrained from speaking however – she seemed nervous and on edge. Instead, I pushed the natural barrier that constantly surrounded my form out towards Edward so that he could read my thoughts – he always knew instantaneously when I was allowing him into my mind, to read my thoughts, as he always seemed to show it on his face; even when it was fixed like a statue I was able to make him twitch ever-so-slightly. I knew that he wasn’t able to respond with Savanna in the backseat, but was happy that I was able to express my thoughts knowing that he was listening.

The car slowed and Edward turned the indicator on as we pulled into Savanna’s driveway. We parked outside the entrance, and Savanna was quick to open the door. I started to do the same, remembering to be slow as Desiree was probably watching us from the house – I hadn’t looked. We’d not said that we were vampires, though it was obvious that Savanna and her family could tell that we were more than human. As I began to pull the handle of the car door with my left hand, I felt Edwards smooth touch as he grabbed my right. I turned to look at him.

“Remember your gift,” he murmured. Then he let go to get out of the car himself.

Despite the fact that I had just used it to communicate with Edward, I had forgotten about using it to protect in case anything went wrong in this situation – was I going to have to enter a series of potentially dangerous positions with various supernatural beings to remember that my gift can be used to protect? Remember that it was a weapon of sorts, rather than just a means of being able to communicate with, Edward!?

I put that thought to one side as I stepped out of the car, following Savanna and Edward inside.

“Edward, Bella,” Desiree said, in the same welcoming tone from when we had first met her as we walked into the living room. She was sitting in a red armchair, which I hadn’t seen when we last here – it must have been moved out of the way, in a corner or something. It wasn’t as worn as the other furniture in the room, but definitely looked as though it was from the same period. She looked like a Queen sitting in her throne – her long black hair was luscious and sleek, with a gentle wave and blended with her matching black dress. She wore dark lipstick, and a little black eye liner, which accentuated her white skin. If I was still human I would have seen her as flawlessly beautiful – but I could see normal human flaws in her skin, so I knew that she definitely wasn’t a vampire, or at least didn’t have that same trait of everything being enhanced when turned! Not that this observation actually meant anything; after all that had happened over the last couple of days.

“Please, sit down,” she added, gesturing to the three-seater couch across from her, “Savanna tells me you have some questions?”

I followed Edward, who was heading to the couch to take a seat. “Yes, we do,” he answered, a little coldly, “I’m sure your aware with all that has happened over the last few days, otherwise we wouldn’t be meeting with you; so lets cut to the point, what exactly is a venevore?”

Desiree’s face seemed thoughtful as she spoke; “Well its rather self explanatory,” a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice, “a venevore is a creature, a being, who lives on a diet of, venom.”

“Using their claws to infect another’s blood stream to create a source of food, we’ve got that,” Edward said, a little impatiently, “how many of you exist? Where do you come from? What does Eric want with Renesmee!?”

“Savanna,” Desiree said, maintaining a certain level of grace and elegance in her voice, “would you get us all something to drink?”

“Ahh, sure,” Savanna said, quietly, her voice still trembling slightly with nerves like she did in 

the school car park.

Desiree looked back at Edward, who hadn’t seemed to had taken his eyes off of her whilst she spoke to Savanna. “Two,” she said matter-of-factly, answering him, “I come from Salem, Massachusetts; and as for Eric, well, he is a venevore like Savanna, isn’t it rather clear what his intentions were?”

Edward let out a low growl that I was sure only I could hear – she was over-confident, and looking down on him, which he didn’t like! Reflective of his age perhaps. I was processing what Desiree had just said, only two venevores! If Savanna and Eric were the only two, then what was Desiree, she had to be something more than human, she held too much control over Savanna.

“What are yo –“ I was cut short as all of a sudden the sweetest smell entered my nose. It was a familiar smell, but in a form that was a lot more concentrated than what I was use to. It was blood, fresh human blood outside of a body! The burning in my throat was increasing by the second, and I clutched it as I looked over at Edward to see if he was having the same reaction. He seemed to be composing himself better than I was, but it was clear that he was struggling too.

“Bloody-Mary anyone?” Desiree asked, her voice now clearly lined with amusement. Savanna immediately came back into the room, with three glasses of dark red liquid, fresh, warm blood, each with an authenticating green stick of celery. She placed the tray on the small coffee table between Desiree, Edward and I. The drink was clearly not the tradition tomato juice and vodka mix, but simple pure human blood. 

I focused on trying to paralyse my body, the smell was so strong now, sitting right in front of me. I was afraid that if I moved even half a millimetre I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and if I drank it then it would almost be impossible to drink from animals again. I remembered what Edward had said before we came inside, to use my gift! Now would have been the perfect time, except I couldn’t shield the smell of blood – if it even were possible for me to do so then it would be something that would take years, even centuries to perfect. Blood was something so engrained into me, into all vampires. The constant thirst was the price I’d paid to be with Edward for eternity –

Desiree chuckled, and the smell instantly went away. The burning in my throat didn’t subside as quickly, however, I was in full control of myself again and could risk moving. I looked over at Edward, he appeared to be feeling the same way as me. 

“You’re a witch!?” he said, gasping slightly. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at Desiree as he spoke this time, but rather the three drinks on the table; they were now a light and more tomato-red colour, no longer the deeper red of the real blood, they looked and smelt the way they were suppose to – to any human that is.

“And you’re a vampire,” she replied, with an element of humour and sarcasm in her voice, “and clearly vegetarian? Which type of animal do you prefer to drink?” It was evident that was mocking us now.

Edward glared at her. I was rather overwhelmed by the whole situation; this really was not going as we had planned. I starred at Edward, waiting to see what he was going to say next, what he was going to do – I was waiting for him to jump from his seat and push her to the wall, demanding that she take us seriously or something, but he remained perfectly still. He calmed his face, but just as he was about to speak his cell phone rang. He answered it immediately. My sharp hearing allowed me to hear every word of the person calling – it was Esme. I wondered why she calling; I glanced over at the clock on the wall, Jacob’s flight should have landed about ten minutes ago.

“Edward! Edward!” I heard Esme exclaim when he put the phone to his ear, “something’s happened to Jacob! We saw him coming off the plane, down the hall to meet us, he was even waving at us, but as soon as he came through the metal detector he vanished!”

Edward immediately looked at Desiree, glaring at her, and bearing his teeth slightly. “Don’t panic,” he said through his clenched teeth, “I think I know what’s happened, just go home.”

I watched the phone crush in his hand as he slowly re-closed it. He kept his eyes locked on Desiree. She stared back, looking smug and content. “Where is he?” Edward asked. I could tell that he wanted to hurt her badly, but guessed he was restraining himself as she was clearly unpredictable.

“Upstairs,” she replied, “you can have him back shortly, don’t worry.”

Her face then turned cold and serious, “I just thought that I’d make the most of this, opportunity, to let you and the rest of your family know that this is my town.” She held her stare of a moment longer after she had spoken, then relaxed he face slightly again, “I think its time you both left,” she said abruptly.

“Savanna! Get the dog would you.”

She was clearly more powerful than she looked. How had she known that we were vampires and Jacob was a wolf – did she know that Nessie was half human too?

Edward was the first to move, getting up from his seat. I followed him as we left the living room. Jacob was waiting with Savanna by the front door, his face looking a little sheepish. Edward went through the door first, I stopped to let Jacob go before me, he smiled slightly – he must have been glad to see Edward and I, he sure had a lot of catching up to do!

As I was about to step onto the porch outside of the front door Desiree spoke, making me freeze, “Renesmee is a fascinating creature,” she said, slightly playfully. I knew that she was playing a game here, being tactful about something – what was prompting her to bring Renesmee up? Then I remembered that Eric wanted to kill her, to turn her blood to venom to drink. 

I was about to turn around, to face her – I wanted to run at her, threaten her. But Edward beat me to it! His body flashed past mine, and I turned instantly to help, to watch his back if he attacked, but he stopped suddenly when he was about half a metre away from her – his muscles were tense, his back arched and he groaned slightly. He was in pain! I realised that I had seen him like this before. Jane from the Volturi had had the same effect with her gift!

“Gift!” I thought, suddenly remembering what Edward had said earlier again. Closing my eyes I focused on my shield, pushing it out towards Edward, I could feel the strength of the hold that Desiree had over him, but was able to move past this completely surrounding him. I opened my eyes, and Edward looked like he was in control of his body again. I couldn’t see his face but I could tell that he was glaring at her; Desiree was ignoring him, fully focused on me – I stared back at her. She looked a little stunned, which I took some pleasure in; Desiree had clearly not expected me to be able to stop her.

“Lets go,” Edward said, breaking the silence. He turned around and started coming towards me. I did the same, leaving the house. I had a good control of my shield, and I didn’t need to see Edward who was behind me, to continue to cover him with it.

I kept my shield expanded around the three of us as we drove away from their house. Our meeting with Savanna had not gone to plan at all, and we were left with even more questions due to being taken by surprise with Desiree – but, on the other hand, we had learnt enough to give us a better grounding for finding more answers ourselves. 




© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2011