Rank Heresy is a podcast run by @therealvinelle and @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin (wno is also @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta and @thecarnivorousmuffinart) where we talk in depth about fandom, franchises, and more.
Basically, all the heresy of our blogs in a vocal format.
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Introducing the April writing competition (as suggested by a member of the Rank Heresy server):
Somehow, (insert character here) is Harry Potter's biological father.
Other fandoms are allowed, for Star Wars it will be "Somehow, (insert Star Wars character here) is Harry Potter's father", for Twilight it is "Somehow, (insert Twilight character here) is Harry Potter's father", and so on. You may choose yourself who is being fathered unexpectedly for those. If you choose Harry Potter, however, it must be Harry who discovers he is a Snape, a Malfoy, a Riddle, a Dumbledore, a Dursley, a Kenobi, or a Dobby.
As an added challenge: try not to write crack fics. The concept is humorous, but this is a very terrible discovery Harry has made and certainly no joking matter.
Switching Lily Potter as a mother is begrudgingly allowed.
In the name of restoring some of the glory of days past the collection will be revealed as of posting, but anonymous until May 1st.
Very belatedly, we announce the challenge for January (and now also February so people actually get time to write for it). The challenge is:
Aliens.
Anything at all to do with aliens. Extraterrestrials, martians, xenomorphs, in any fandom you like. It could be fanfiction of an IP that features aliens, it could be a crossover with an IP that features aliens, or aliens in your choice of IP. It can be that aliens built Hogwarts, Luke Skywalker discovers aliens are real and everyone is surprised he is surprised by this, Carlisle Cullen discovers Twilight vampires were the alien parasites all along and he is not sure how to feel about this information. Maybe the Cullens have a movie night, some bastard chose Alien and now no one wants to say anything or look directly at Renesmee.
I'm trying to listen to the podcasts (the most recent one about Merope and Tom Riddle Sr) and on every platform it either says "we can't play this podcast right now" or "this podcast doesn't exist." I'm not sure why that would be happening on every platform at once, did you take it down?
Not intentionally! It should be fixed in a few minutes. Thank you so much for letting us know!
Im barely on Tumblr anymore, so does rank heresy have an AO3 account to bookmark and subscribe?
You're in luck!
For writing competitions everything goes under the parent collection RankHeresy specifically you'd be looking for subcollections, which is each individual competition.
As far as episodes go, best thing to do is subscribe on your podcast viewing platform of choice.
November-December 2025 challenge: Everybody but us came up with the prompt
For this month's writing competition, we're doing a follow-up of the 2025 writing competition. As some of you will recall, each contestant had to submit a prompt to enter the competition. While only one was chosen to start off the competition, Muffin and I, Vinelle, felt the prompts were all a little too good to end up in the wastebin. They're simply too diverse, lulzy, interesting, and, well, writeable.
Therefore we are making the November challenge a free-for-all choose one of these glorious prompts, and November extends into December so you may choose to write more than one, or even all of these.
Entries are to be submitted here, and given the long duration of the challenge they will be revealed immediately (as we are aware there are readers who sort by 'recent', who might not otherwise spot your fics...).
Competition ends January 1st, 2026.
Now for the prompts:
One unfortunate soul isekais into the world where edward ate all of biology. can they survive?
A grievous misunderstanding turns out happily for everyone involved, except that one character has figured out what's actually going on
A relationship (platonic or romantic) study of a toxic relationshipÂ
George R. R. Martin writes another ASOIAF spinoff but leaves it hanging like the rest of his work. Brandon Sanderson takes over, which inspires Naomi Novik to write a fairytale retelling of said story.
A fifth year Tom Riddle somehow ends up in the Hogwarts Legacy timeline. Or, a a person finds themselves displaced in time.Â
Character A kills Character B and tries to hide it. Character B is not dead.Â
As inspired by the concept of the Rank Heresy Summer 2025 challenge:
Isekai a character into an alternate version of their book that was (with its world, plot, and all other characters) written and conceptualized by another author. For example: Meyers Bella Swan wakes up in the middle of a George R. R. Martinesque retelling of the Twilight saga. What Isekai rules you want to follow and by what logic the world behaves (yours, the original or the hypothetical new authors) is up to you.
Mpreg (kill that thing patrick)
A sad dying prostitute Tom Riddle discovers the joy of magic tricks when his old roommate Alfie shows up at his door looking for an assistant for the biggest show of his life.....Chaos ensues!
Bella dies and comes back to haunt everyone in the Cullen family but Edward
Jasper wants to go square dancing without being tempted to eat the whole ballroom, so he decides to try and teach the Cullens and Denali when they all get together. Shenanigans ensue, and Eleazar insists on having a rose in his mouth the whole time while being way too handsy.
Space Oddity chapter 10/9: DELETED and chapter 10/9
Yes, I was going to end it with the actual finished chapters.
However, chapter 10 does exist, or two docs exist where one is titled "Chapter 10: DELETED" and the other, a mere 6 kb big word doc, is titled "Chapter 10".
These cringefail chapters are where we first tried one angle to continue the story on from chapter 9, wrote Edward and Bella going off the deep end before staring at what we had just written and agreeing this was terrible and we didn't like it.
So we tried again, we returned to Tom Riddle in Volterra to see what he had been doing. Tom Riddle had been doing nothing and would be doing nothing, ever. He had nothing to do.
Nobody had anything to do.
"Wait, does this fic have a plot?!" we suddenly asked ourselves, and the answer, after we had written 9 chapters of this, was "Nope".
And so it was abandoned.
Now you get to see where, and why, things ended.
(And you're being spared the alternative chapter 9: in which Alphard uses Facts and Logicâą to prove the Cullens are all stupid and the Volturi are the good guys akshually!
This fic had somehow turned into a conga line of bad writing tropes.)
Without further ado:
Chapter 10, DELETED: "Haven't we been here before?" - Edward
She found Edward outside, two miles upriver from the Cullen house.
âYouâre right,â she told him firmly, âThis is ridiculousâthat manâs taking over our family.â
Bella could hardly believe it. Heâd only been here a few hours, just that, a few hours, and heâd thrown out Jacob, decided they should all leave Forks just because he said so, and oh yeah apparently decide to enroll Renesmee in kindergarten somewhere because he felt like it.
It was unbelievable, and soârude and presumptuous. Bella never told the Cullens what they should do, never. Sheâd never dream of being that imposing, not when it had taken so much for her to just become a Cullen in the first place. But he just told everyone what to do the second he arrived!
Even Rosalie didnât tell Bella how to raise her daughter!
âHeâll outstay his welcome,â Edward said through his teeth. âThey wonât last a week with him.â
âHeâs already done that!â Bella scoffed, unable to help herself.
âNot with Carlisle,â Edward said bitterly. âCarlisle isâheâs a bit blinded, heâs not seeing this clearly.â
âBlindedââ Bella asked him in disbelief, âHow?! Heâs horrible! Heâsâheâs awful! I was trying to be generous about Jacob, I really tried, but heâs just awful!â
âBut he speaks well for himself,â Edward said, pacing irritably up and down the river, âheâs intelligent, heâs sure of himself, heâs the type whoââ
âSo?â Bella asked, âAro did that just fine, doesnât mean heâs not awful.â
Edward stopped at that.
âWe should have known when he threw out Jacob,â Bella said, pacing back and forth, âWe should have known. All of thatâthose disgusting assumptions, he was clearly just doing it so he could get rid of Renesmeeâs protector. No one to keep her out of kindergarten or whatever he wants now, is there?â
And she couldnât believe sheâd fallen for it. She really had thought heâd meant well, but heâd simply misunderstood the situation so badly that there wasnât a way to recover from it. The next second theyâre talking about leaving Forks and putting Renesmee in school of all places. With six-year-olds!
âDid you know thereâs a reason people usually donât turn people that old into vampires?â Edward said instead.
âI meanââ
Bella had assumed it was just that, because they were old.
âWhatever age youâre turned at, thatâs the age youâll be forever,â Edward reminded her. âSomeone whoâs turned too young will always be immature and impulsive, someone whoâs an infant wonât ever learn to speak, someone whoâs too oldââ
âWill be too grouchy?â Bella guessed, trying to think of what âoldâ meant in this context.
Edward smiled. âSomeone whoâs young, an adult but still young, will be open for new ideas and able to adapt in a way an older person wonât be. Turn someone too old, and theyâreâtheyâre not just frozen in time, Bella, theyâre rigid. A single decision, once made, canât be unmade. Youâve met Caius, he canât be reasoned with at all.â
âThis isnât about adapting,â Bella said quickly, âEdward, donât you see, itâs all about control. This manâhe just wants to control all of us. He wants to tell us what to do, tell us how to raise Renesmee, and heâs already acting like heâs in charge. Thereâs nothing to be open-minded about.â
And it really pissed her off.
Carlisle was one thing, he had his role as patriarch and coven leader, but he tried to be democratic about it and if he was the head of the coven then Esme was the heart of it. No one person made all the decisions or represented the family as a whole, they all had a role.
Alphard Black, however, clearly wanted them all to sit there and follow his every order.
âI donât think he can be,â Edward pointed out quietly. âAt least, it will be much more difficult for him than it would a twenty or thirty years younger vampire. Take his resentment of the Denaliâthat was extreme, but I donât think it would have been possible for him to get over it no matter how much time passed or what Tanya did.â
âEdward, I donât care if heâs open-minded or not,â Bella told him blankly, feeling like she and her husband were having two entirely different conversations, âWhat I care about is that he decided weâre leaving, he decided a big thing for Renesmee without us, and he decided Jacob has to be completely cut out of his own imprintâs life.â
Maybe being a mind-reader, Edward was very caught up on the âwhyâ, understanding the âwhyâ of why this man was doing this. Bella didnât care, she just wanted him gone before it was too late.
âWe have to have a secret vote to throw him out,â Bella told him firmly, âHeâs not there, Renesmeeâs not there either. Just the original Cullensâand me.â
Edward pushed his hand through his hair. âNo,â he said. âI mean, yes, we obviously need to have a family meeting, but not when I donât know the full extent of his gift yet. We donât know what he can do.â
Bella thought of how heâd made that small cat out of thin air, how Jacob had just disappeared, andâ
She really hated it.
âWe go to the Denali,â Edward said, stepping close to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. âWe talk to Eleazar, if anyone knows anything itâs him. Weâve known this man less than a day, remember, we are at a complete disadvantage.â
âRight,â Bella breathed in relief. The Denali had to know so much more about him than they did, theyâd known him for eight months and briefly when he was human. Even if heâd been hiding his abilities from themâEleazar would still have sensed what he did not wish to reveal.
âWe canât let him know, though,â Bella pointed out, âWeâweâll say weâre going on our second honeymoon to Isle Esme.â
No one would question that, with the hectic past year Bella had felt a bit stifled in Forks. She loved being there, of course, and watching her daughter grow like a weed, but she also would love to travel a bit and be on her own just a little more with her husband.
âAlice will know,â Edward pointed out.
âAlice wonât tell anyone,â Bella reminded him, Alice had always taken Edwardâs side in the past, Bellaâs as well, and sheâd do what was best for the future overall. Bella had no doubt that going to the Denali was exactly what they needed.
Edward made a face, and glanced in the direction of the house. âAlice likes this man,â he said quietly. âShe sees him as her ticket to safety from Volturi.â
Bella stared at him, feeling the weight of that statement crushing her.
âWhat about us?â she asked him, âWhat about my shield, your telepathy, Jasperâs empathy, Aliceâs visions? What happened to those?â
âAlice doesnât think we have anything to be upset about,â Edward sighed. âSheâs excited to leave Forks, and she thinks Renesmee will be the most popular girl in kindergarten. She wonât be happy about this.â
âShe really thought that?â Bella asked, feeling betrayed in a way sheâd never expected. Alice was her best friend, her closest sister, she was the one who had always stuck by Bella and held her close in her thoughts even when Edward had tried to abandon her.
Alice was supposed to be on her side.
âWeâll bring Jacob,â Edward decided. âFor now we decide to go to Isle Esme, and once we have informed the family we go to speak with Jacob, and make for Denali then.â
So, they were lying to Alice then.
Bella felt a stabbing sensation in the heart that was supposed to be long since dead. However, she swallowed it down and told herselfâthat sheâd really love being on Isle Esme again, and for the first time as a vampire as well.
Edward placed his hand under her chin, and tilted her head up. âWeâre saving her from a dilemma,â he told her quietly. âAnd weâre giving them time to ask themselves how good he really is for the family, and how close we want him.â
âYeah,â Bella agreed quietly, and kissed him gently.
LINEBREAK
âSo, how are you going to make him get rid of that shield?â Jacob asked as soon as he shifted back into a human.
Telling the family had gone a bit better than she would have hoped.
She had expected protests, insistence they come along, or even a suggestion that all of them could go to Isle Esme. Had the family wantedâ
She would have loved to abandon the Tanya plan, and have a vacation together instead, even if Alphard Black would be there. As it was, there was a small hope that he would have been scared off by the sounds of passionate lovemaking at all hours on the island.
No such luck. The only protest had been Esme wishing sheâd known in advance so she could have had the sheets freshly ironed, âThey must be so damp now!â
Renesmee, at least, had wondered if she would be going as well, but then she had learned about the kindergarten plan and promptly began squealing and running around the room for sheer uncontrollable excitement, Isle Esme quite forgotten.
Bella had had to remind herself that her daughter was only a year old, that she didnât know there were sides in this and she was supposed to pick one, that Bella couldnât feel angry or disappointed just because Renesmee was throwing herself around Alphardâs neck while shouting âThankyouthankyouthankyouâ, butâ
Sheâd been a little disappointed and a little angry.
And so, no one had protested the idea that Bella and Edward would be spending an indeterminate amount of time vacationing on Isle Esme.
Edward told her after theyâd left that Alphard Black had had some judgemental thoughts about the fact that they were leaving their daughter, when they knew several very large changes were already happening in her life, with little warning simply because they wanted some sun and sand but Bella didnât care what he thought. However, he hadnât wanted to overstep his bounds and say anything, especially not after how the last conversation had gone.
Well, Bella was glad the man didnât want to overstep his boundaries.
It would be very bad if he did that, especially when he was completely new in the family and didnât know anybody or anything.
He hadnât even known newborns were particularly strong until Jasper had explained.
As a result, even with phoning Jacob and telling him the plan, waiting for him to arrive, they were back in Alaska less than two hours later.
And the first thing Jacob asked was about that manâs gift.
âIt has to have some distance limit,â Bella said, thinking of her own shield andâwell, sheâd never tested how far it could extend exactly, but she had a feeling there was a limit somewhere. All gifts seemed to have some limit or another.
Aro heard every thought, but he had to touch your hand. Edward had a limit of only a few miles and could only hear what you were currently thinking. Chelsea could only turn relationships that werenât strong enough.
Alphard Black had a limit, it was just a matter of figuring out what that limit was.
âSo we get him away from Renesmee,â Jacob said.
They were closing in on the Denali house, it was only some ten miles away, but Jacob had been bursting with too many thoughts for Edward to be able to translate all of them.
Bella was glad, she supposed, that Jacob had changed back into his human form so they could all talk (and, mainly, so she could vent), but it was a bit difficult to have to see him in his human form, and be forced to see that look of pain and desperation that was etched into his face now and had been since she and Jasper spoke with him in the woods.
âThatâs the plan,â Bella reminded him.
Theyâd find out what the Denali knew and use that to convince the Cullens to throw him out. Whatever his gift was, he had kept insisting it wasnât very impressiveâmaybe what heâd done so far was the best he had.
Creating a cat was nice, but it wasnât very useful in terms of a fight.
âAnything else happen while I was gone?â Jacob asked.
âTheyâre moving,â Bella scoffed, though sheâd told Jacob this already. Sheâd explained everything on the way up while they were running, needing toâ
Get it out of her system, talk to someone who was sane.
Jacob curled his hands into fists. âOf course they are,â he said, his frame trembling just slightly.
âTheyâre also putting Renesmee in a kindergarten,â Bella said, curling her own hands into fists.
âWhat?â he balked, his face going slack with shock.
âYeah, I know, Edward pointed out how insane that is and somehow we were told weâre raising our own daughter wrong!â she said, still bristling at the memory of it.
And Renesmee was too advanced for kindergarten, sheâd been too advanced when she was three months old. It did matter that sheâd been reading Pride and Prejudice and War and Peace by the time she could walk, sheâd have nothing to talk about with the other kids and sheâd end up a weird miserable loner.
âBut theyâllâno,â Jacob said. âNo, she canât go to kindergarten.â
âPreaching to the choir here, Jake,â Bella said.
âAlphard is confident he can disguise not only her but Carlisle as well,â Edward said darkly, âHe demonstrated to Carlisle, on a small scale, but he seems confident that he can make a grown vampire like Carlisle look like a human child.â
âWhat?!â Jacob hissed.
âYou didnât tell me that,â Bella said, feeling unsteady.
âHe said as much himself,â Edward said, looking at her in confusion, âBella, that was why he was so confident he could disguise her without the humans noticing. Thatâs what the plan relied on.â
âYes, but not that heâd make Carlisleâoh my god, is he insane? Edward, is he insane?â
Edward shrugged. âIgnorant, I think is the word for it. Heâs completely ignorant, unwilling to learn, and because his brain is frozen at over fifty years of age weâre not talking him out of it.â
âWell, he wonât get away with it,â Bella snorted, trying to imagine the idea of Carlisle trying to pass himself off as human let aloneâ
Except Zafrinaâs illusions were very convincing, they were short-ranged, they had limits, but everyone had felt very convinced by whatever it was she showed them. If Alphardâs disguises worked like thatâthey might be very convincing.
That didnât make it any less of a stupid risk to take, and to soothe the ego of a ridiculous old man at that.
âDo you suppose his barrier will wear off?â Jacob asked. âI mean, it has to, right?â
âThatâs why weâre meeting Eleazar,â Edward reminded him, picking up his pace just slightly.
âIf anyone will know the details of his gift, the limits, itâs going to be Eleazar,â Bella said, âI think he even had some kind of a training plan for Alphard, if Iâm remembering right.â
She picked up her pace as well, encouraged and determined to meet the man and see this through.
âYeah, Iâm phasing,â Jacob muttered and fell behind. There was the tell-tale rustle of clothes behind Edward and Bella, and then four paws thundered against the ground towards them.
A few minutes later, they were standing at the doorstep, Edward knocking courteously.
Kate opened the door and stared at them silently, a very exasperated and dull look in her eyes, âAlphard threw you all out?â
âNo!â Bella said swiftly, âNo, we came because we wanted to talk. Jacob hasnât run into the shield again.â
Kate sighed, and stepped aside. âTanyaâs in a funk,â she warned.
Edward tilted his head, then grimaced. Quietly, he explained to Bella, âTanyaâs feeling rather despondent that Alphard left, that Carlisle took him without asking. She had high hopes for him and for finally getting the Volturi.â
âHe just ran off,â Bella heard Tanyaâs voice from the basement, and the sound of wheels against the ground. âHeâs got an interesting idea of what it means to help a girl.â
There was the sound of more rolling, and Bella had the impression of a wheeled chair being pushed around while Tanya sat in it despondently.
Edward just made a face again.
âWell, I suppose weâre not actually worse off,â Kate sighed, âWe havenât lost anyone we didnât start with this time. And now we can invite humans back, after eight months of pointlessness. Weâre justâback where we started.â
âWhich is nowhere,â Tanya said as she appeared in front of them, having climbed up the stairs to see them, âAbsolutely nowhere. Irina was burned alive and thereâs nothing any of us can do about it!â
âIâm sorry,â Bella told her, and she meant it.
âI donât understand it,â Tanya said, âWe did everything we could to help him. We offered him a coven, we showed him how to hunt, Eleazar was there to help him with his gift, he could have chosen any one of us as a lover! He had everything a man has ever asked for!â
âSome people canât be reasoned with,â Edward said quietly. âAlphard Black seems to be one such man.â
âSexless,â Tanya hissed at him, âEven more so than you, Edward, and you know that means something.â
Bella would have flushed if she could, and as it was she made a small âeepâ noise.
Edward was much worldlier than she, however, as he just looked at Tanya in wry amusement. âWell, he thawed to my family.â
âOf course he did, youâre a flock of puritan nuns and monks,â Tanya huffed, âYou two have your cozy cottage so you donât disturb the others and Rosalie and Emmett have to go off on romantic vacations.â
âNo, Tanya, he has made himself at home,â Edward said curtly. âHeâs making decisions for the family, only thing he hasnât managed is getting us all to move to Europe. And yes, he tried!â
âThe man wonât even let us call him by his first name, and now youâre saying heâs too comfortable,â Tanya said, shaking her head in disbelief, âI donât understand it. Kate, I simply donâtââ
She made a noise of frustration, throwing her hands in the air again.
âWe need him gone,â Bella said firmly, âHeâs taken over everything andâwe were hoping you could tell us more about him, anything at all, so that we could get rid of him. If you want him backââ
Bella couldnât exactly recommend it, but if the Denali knew what he was like and wanted him back then Bella supposed that was a fair outcome.
âAnd we need to remove his teleportation field,â Jacob cut in quickly, making sure this was remembered.
âWant him back?! Tanya flailed her hands. âWhat would I do with him back? Heâd apparently teleport us all to Forks and take the house!â
âWell, then he can go live in the woods on his own,â Bella concluded, heâd survive on the animal diet doing that, and maybe some self-reflection would be good for him, âBut we need him gone before things get any worse.â
âThat wonât be necessary,â Eleazarâs voice sounded, and Bella turned to see him sprinting towards the house.
They all stilled as he approached, Bella holding her breath as she waited to see what it was he had to say.
âI donât know as much about Alphardâs gift as Iâm sure you had hoped, Edward,â Eleazar said immediately once he was inside. âHe hasnât given me the chance to. HoweverâI do expect to be able to say I know his character well enough to be able to make a few predictions, and I can tell you what I do know about his gift.â
Eleazar led them into the Denali living room, and sat down on the sofa by the fire.
Bella sat down between Jacob and Edward, and waited in anticipation.
âI told him, as Iâm sure you have heard, that the man has a very broad, multifaceted, physical gift,â Eleazar began, âWhat I meant by that wasâunlike most of us, he will be able to showcase abilities that at a glance seem quite unrelated. He can, for example, pull objects towards him, multiply their quantity, and make shields which physically move a target. However, it is all possible due to the same gift.â
Bella nodded, âYes, exactly. Or he can make things appear from thin air, like a cat.â
âHe did that while he was human as well,â Eleazar said with a wry smile in Tanyaâs direction. âItâs what drew Tanyaâs direction.â
âHe was so sweet,â Tanya commented miserably. âSo sweet, so English, I thought I was getting a precious old man who would conjure flowers at me and tell me I was a sweet girl.â
âThought you wanted him to tell you you were a bad girl,â Kate blinked, feigning confusion.
Tanya bit back a laugh.
Bellaâtried not to think about that.
âHe can make objects appear, he can summon something through the air, multiply blood so it never runs out, skin an animal, and repair anything he breaks,â Eleazar listed off. âThat is what we are certain weâve observed him doing.â
âAnd thatâs all you know?â Bella asked in disappointment.
âWhen you say he can skin an animalââ Jacob began, looking queasy.
âJust that, one second the skin is there, the next itâs gone,â Eleazar shrugged, âHe seemed to do it on instinct, as heâd always skin his kills before eating, even hours after he was turned.â
âI hate this guy,â Jacob said with feeling.
âThe fur is disgusting,â Tanya shrugged, âItâs not an enjoyable experience having it in your mouth.â
âNot that heâd skin them for us,â Kate remarked. âNo, sir.â
âButâthatâs all?â Bella pressed, needing to have something firmer to stand on, anything they could use.
âHe was only eight months old,â Eleazar noted with a smile, âYou forget, Bella, you were not only a prodigy, born to be a vampire in a way Iâve never seen before, but you had motivation he did not. You had your child to protect and then, at the showdown, you expanded your shield further than you ever had in our practices. Alphard, by comparison, is a far more ordinary newborn vampire for whom the stakes are not nearly as high.â
âWellâis what heâs shown that useful or dangerous?â Bella asked herself, âItâs all very flashy but it wonât stand up against Jane or Alec. I donât think itâd be very helpful against anyone.â
It was nothing like Benjamin who could summon fire to burn his opponents. It sounded grand and impressive, but thinking about it nowâBella didnât see why they were getting so worked up about it.
Tanya stared at her. âBella, he can teleport anywhere and multiply blood, summon what he likes, pull living creatures through the air, skin themââ
âYes, I know,â Bella said. âI donât see how thatâs helping.
Kate and Tanya both stared at her disbelievingly.
âBella, if he was lessââ Tanya made a face, âIf he was cooperative, we could be in Volterra right now without the Volturi ever knowing what hit them. We could have you there with your shield to protect us, weâd bring enough of us, and even if he canât tear vampires apart all heâd have to do is get us there. We could have killed the Volturi months ago!â
âWe could have taken them completely on our own,â Kate said. âIn, grab a victim, out, kill them, then back in we go. Itâd be done in thirty minutes.â
âIt would have been pathetically easy,â Tanya insistedÂ
âAnd with you, weâd have been guaranteed!â Kate said to Bella. âBut even without youâBella, think about it, even Jane needs to concentrate to use her gift and I could just appear next to her and electrocute her before she can use it! Sheâd be dead before anybody knew what hit her.â
âBut now, we canât, because Carlisleâs stolen him!â Tanya snapped, she laughed, âAnd you want to throw him out so even if we do get him away from that pacifistâs hands, heâll live in the woods somewhere as happy and useless as can be!â
Edward drew his lips together. âWhat if we force him to fight?â he asked.Â
They said nothing.
âThere was one thing we got him to budge on,â Tanya said carefully, âHe said heâd protect Renesmee. That was the most we ever got out of him.â
âYes,â Edward said tonelessly, âyou told me.â
âIf the Volturi come after her again,â Tanya said, that careful expression still on her face, âHeâll defend her.â
And Bella abruptly realized what she meant.
âYou want us to use Renesmee as bait,â she breathed in horror.
Theyâd stage it so that the Volturi had some new reason to come after Renesmee, perhaps suspecting her of breaking the law, and with Renesmee as their sole target Alphard would have no choice but to fight against the Volturi.
Except it would mean just that, using Bellaâs daughter as bait and putting her in the most danger sheâd ever been in a second time.
CHAPTER 10: "Why are you filming this, I'm doing nothing" - Tom Riddle
There was a part of Tom that wanted to protest his new life.
The war was over, whether it had been ripped away from his hands or if heâd gone to sleep for over fifty years. Somehow, without having done a single useful thing, the fight had ceased to matter andâ
He wasnât sure if that put things into perspective or not.
Heâd always known, intellectually, that Voldemort would become a forgotten, meaningless, event. Tom, who intended to live forever, would easily live to see his old moniker fade into dust. That had been half the point of terrorizing his countrymen in the first place, the cruel absurdity of it and how Voldemort was nothing more than the means for them to destroy themselves.
It was another thing, however, to suddenly find himself living it with no time having passed at all.
Just like that, he was Tom Riddle once again, fully and truly and there was no magical world at all. His Horcruxes were somewhere, seemingly alive and well for all he could tell at least, but wherever they wereâ
The cave had been unoccupied, none of the modifications heâd made existing, and the diaryâwell, if Lucius Malfoy didnât exist he had no chance of finding it, did he? It filled him with a large sense of panic whenever he dwelled on it too much, but he felt certain they hadnât been destroyed. They were justâinaccessible to him.
And their pull to his own soul, the link tethering him to his world, was not strong enough to pull him back there.
Regardless, he had little idea what to do with himself now that he was unexpectedly a civilian once again.
Lily had handled the transition far better, while he wasnât sure he would call the two of them close there was little in her behavior towards him to indicate he had once been the greatest terror in her life, that heâd intentionally terrorised her first by attempting to kill her only child, and then by stealing said child.
He had expected, once they both knew they were no longer in their own world and the prison heâd kept her in could no longer exist, for her to make herself scarce with the boy or at the very least indicate to Aro that she wished to reside in a different dwelling, but nothing of the sort had happened.
They accompanied one another around Volterra, visited the Volturi regularly (even if their work for them was separate), and they accepted Aroâs many thinly disguised tickets for such things as outdoor opera in the Roman Forum or a weekend spa retreat as if there was no reason not to.
They had never actually spoken about any of it.
Still, there was something to finding himself employed in all but name to a group of tyrannical vampire warlords that he simply didnât like.
He liked Aro well enough, he liked him a shocking amount in fact, which was another thing he didnât like, just as he didnât care for how easy it had been to let the simple deal to produce Portkeys slide into transforming their skin so the vampires could walk in the sun, providing charms to turn them invisible at will, or repair charms for the many withered treasures Aro hadnât managed to throw away.
None of it had been very large, very impressive, or at all dangerous to himself, Lily, and Harry for that matter, but it was still far more than Tom had ever intended on providing to them even in exchange for things like access to their library and funds.
Even the blood replenishmentâ
That had been all Lily, and there shouldnât possibly be a way for it to be the wrong call when she had figured out how to make the few drops of blood the secretaries were willing to offer turn into bottles that never ran dry, allowing the Volturi to sustain themselves fully without the loss of a single human life, but Tom still had a feeling he didnât like.
He couldnât shake the feeling that he was walking into a trap. He knew he was, he knew Aro intended to make Tom and Lily nice and comfortable, wait for them to say âWell, alright old chap, this vampire business does seem pretty compelling after years of thoughtâ but it had to be more than that.
Space Oddity is a fic @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and I co-wrote in the summer of 2023, then abandoned. Then again, in January of this year, we tried to resurrect the fic and wrote a few chapters before deciding they were bad and the fic unsalvageable. We opted not to publish these chapters.
There have been requests to see these chapters, however, and as they do exist and people wish to see them we have decided to publish them here on tumblr (as publishing them on Ao3 would indicate a stamp of approval weâre not comfortable with).
The other chapters can be found on this blog or @therealvinelle or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta under the tag âSpace Oddityâ.
Read at at your own risk, and please note that our decision not to write more of this fic is final.
Alphard ended up only draining the one squirrel.
He sat back with a sigh, pulling the blood out of his clothing and mending it with a single wave of his hand.
âIt gets better,â Carlisle told him. âProgress will be much slower once youâre out of your newborn year, but it wonât be like this forever.â
âHm,â Alphard hummed, deciding not to comment on that. It was a nice thought, and it was better than it had been during that first week, but it had been eight months now and he didnât feel remotely sane.
He was certain that whatever âbetterâ was heâd never feel human again.
The best he could hope for was living a life where he learned to tolerate and adapt to his new state, he would never be rid of it.
âAre you sure you want to talk about your past with us so soon?â Carlisle asked, watching Alphard closely. âDonât feel pressured simply because we told our stories. All my friends know my past, I donât know all of theirs.â
âYes, itâs fine,â he said distantly. Heâd have to say something eventually, and better to have his own word than for Edward to slowly untangle the millions of references and things he would inevitably think about.
He didnât want his past to be some charming mystery to keep the Cullens occupied. He wanted it acknowledged and then left behind, not poked or prodded with when there was so much he had lost.
âWould it beââ he paused, then said, âIs there any polite and respectful way to ask Edward not to be present when I talk?â
Carlisle simply looked at him, seeming a bit surprised.
âI donât wish to exclude him,â Alphard told him quickly. âBut it became apparent to me when Bella was speaking that Edward couldnât keep from listening. There areâ there are things, a great many things, I donât wish for him or anybody else to know, and it would be difficult to keep from thinking about them when I talk about my life.â
âAh,â Carlisle realized, âYes, Edward will understand. I can tell him for you, if youâd prefer that.â
âGood,â Alphard said. âThank you.â
He stared out in the distance.
âI must also askâI want you to answer me honestly,â Alphard said, knowing even as he spoke that the answer would make no difference, âDoes your coven have the same hopes as Tanya? Do they wish for me to help them take revenge against the Volturi?â
The answer wouldnât change anything, of course. His only choices seemed to be here or the Denali, or else barricading himself in the wilderness and inevitably losing control over himself and devouring Merlin knew how many.
He was stuck, one way or another, and it didnât matter if he had traded one set of opportunists for another.
The fact that these ones hadnât personally destroyed his life, only wished to take advantage of his current state, somehow made it more tolerable.
Carlisle shook his head firmly. âNo,â he said. âNo, we are a peaceful coven. Tanyaâshe used to be too, but you have to understand what losing Irina did to her. Itâs changed her.â
Alphard scoffed. âYes, I know. It changed me too.â
Carlisle gave him a horribly pitying, knowing, look. âIâm so sorry.â
Alphard exhaled. âAnd these Volturi,â he said. âWhat can you tell me about them? Other than what Iâve already heard.â
Carlisle and Jasper had both dedicated significant time to introducing the Volturi and their impact on the supernatural world during their respective speeches.
âI donât know if I have much more to tell,â Carlisle admitted, âI lived with them for several years, but everything I thought I knew about themâit doesnât hold up with what Iâve witnessed in the past two years. Frankly, Iâd trust Bellaâs word more than mine.â
Alphard nodded. âIt was a frustrating story,â he said. âI hate to say as much, butâit was a very frustrating story.â
It was one thing to only get one side of somebodyâs story, quite another to try and make sense of a complex and convoluted past debacle when Alphard didnât know any of the people involved, barely knew the first thing about the world they were living in and the few things he did know heâd learned within the past day.
âYes,â Carlisle smiled, looking back at the house fondly, âIâsheâs in love and she and Edward believe theyâre the only people who have ever been in love, for all they intellectually know otherwise. To her, every minute detail of her and Edwardâs story, the color of his eyes on a Tuesday two years ago, is vitally important to her recounting.â
Alphard had to smile. âThat isnât what I meant,â he said.
At Carlisleâs look, Alphard leaned back and asked, âWhat would have happened if the Volturi simply killed you, and claimed after the fact that you had broken the law?â
âAt the trial?â Carlisle asked, âThat was why we gathered so many witnesses. There were claims that the Volturi had done just this to other covens, and after what had happened that summerâI could no longer dismiss them. I wanted everyone I could reach to know of what was happening and to witness that we were innocent.â
Alphard nodded. âAnd they let a newborn army rage in Seattle, just on the off chance they would take care of you for them?â
âYes,â Carlisle said grimly, âObviously, I wasnât in the throne room to hear their discussionsâbut the fact of the matter was that the army grew astronomical in size and Jane and the others only arrived the second after it had ended. Even if they had not heard or were busy elsewhereâthey were clearly present before the battle took place. They chose not to intervene save to kill the sole survivor on the other side.â
Alphard nodded. âAnd then a few months later, Irina arrived with an excuse they couldnât pass up, and if it had just been you there without witnesses they could have easily said Renesmee really had been an immortal child.â
âYes,â Carlisle nodded, looking incredibly somber as he said it, âAnd even thenâeven with dozens of witnesses on both sides, even after we had proven our case, we were still nearly murdered where we stood. If it had not been for Bella, none of us would be here today, they would have killed us all.â
Alphardâs lips twisted. âI do wish Tanya hadnât been correct about these Volturi,â he said.
There had been a part of him that had held out hope, even after hearing Bellaâs story, that there would be a miraculous misunderstanding somewhere and the Volturi would have been perfectly in the right, Irinaâs death a righteous consequence of her own sins, and for Alphard to be able to happily lead them to Tanyaâs residence and say, âHave at.â
He also wanted Tanya to have been wrong, to have not simply been using him for her own ends, but using him for an unjust cause. Sheâd still done this to him, it was still a vile thing that had robbed him of his life, but now it was just a bit more muddled than it had been before and all the more unsatisfactory because of it.
âI canât defend her actions,â Carlisle said quietly, âBut understand thatâthese are actions born of grief and rage. Irina never intended to lie to the Volturi, she followed the law to the letter, but they burned her right in front of her sisters just so that they might provoke a fight.â
âMerlin,â Alphard whispered, bidding away the unwelcome image of anything close to that happening to Walburga.
Losing her had been awful, but if sheâd died in agony and for an awful reason such as thatâhe wouldnât have survived it.
âI still wonât overthrow them,â he promised himself, âI will not unless I absolutely have to. This is not my fight, and the fact that I was turned for itâunderstand I canât give Tanya that satisfaction.â
Carlisle nodded. âThen we are agreed,â he said softly. âI donât want them overthrown either, I donât ever want our paths to cross at all. I want them to leave us alone from now on.â
Unsaid, but clear in his voice was the sentiment that Carlisle did not expect them to leave him alone.
âBella is not agreed,â Alphard reminded Carlisle with raised eyebrows.
That story had been told in such a manner that it was quite clear sheâd wished for Alphard to stand at the end, applaud, and tell her he would gladly take up arms under her banner.
âBella is young,â Carlisle said quietly. âAnd she is rightfully angry, they wanted to murder her daughter.â
Yesâ
Alphard could not blame her for that, nor could he pretend he wouldnât have been equally as hostile if anyone had threatened his nieces in the way the Volturi had and continued to threaten Renesmee.
âThe Volturi are corrupt, far more so than I ever wished to acknowledge, but they are the only stable governance our world has seen in thousands of years,â Carlisle concluded tiredly, âIf they fall, however much they deserve to, it will be anarchy and bloodshed for years if not centuries.â
Alphard thought of the newborn wars Jasper had described, and made a face. âYou donât think it would control itself?â
Even someone like Fenrir Greyback, who sought to overtake the world with his werewolves, seemed to be a little more content with a flock of twenty or so acolytes than he would readily admit. Every group of magical creatures had in the past, they would expand to a certain stopping point and then live until wizards inevitably encroached upon their territory and forced their numbers down.
That was when the instability set in, not sooner.
âDo you remember the War of the Roses?â Carlisle asked him with a smile.
âIâm not that old,â Alphard informed him.
âNeither am I,â Carlisle grinned, âWhat I meant was that it was a bloody, awful, conflict which raged solely because there was no clear answer as to who should be king. It was so infamous that Shakespeare alone devoted several plays to it.
âConflicts with a power vacuum are never clean or easy,â he continued, âAnd if youâll remember Jasperâs story, covens are fighting tooth and nail over relatively small amounts of territory. Imagine if they were vying for power over the globe, or, on a smaller scale, countries?â
Alphard still wasnât quite convinced, but he nodded.
It wasnât as if he would be finding out either, not unless the Cullens did get persecuted again. In which caseâwellâ
He struggled to see how an organization of vampires who devoured hundreds of people in a single year, whose leader had attempted to break Carlisleâs resolve to abstain from murder rather than join in the animal diet, could be humanityâs best option.
Even Bellatrixâs Dark Lord, or Gellert Grindelwald, hadnât come close to a body count stacked as high as the Volturi.
âBella and Edward are both young, even Edward in his own way, and neither can understand that even the Volturi, even with what they have turned out to be, are better than the outcome of deposing them. Perhaps in time that will change, perhaps the Volturi will grow worse or perhaps an alternative will present itself. However, for now, itâs the best we have and we will simply have to keep our heads down.â
Alphard only nodded.
Then he said, âAre there other things I should know about your coven?â
âMy coven?â Carlisle asked in surprise, âIâm not sure, youâve heard about our gifts, heard everyoneâs storyââ
He trailed off, clearly thinking hard over what he should tell Alphard.
âI supposeâ we donât call ourselves a coven,â he decided. âWe use the word âfamilyâ. Itâs a better word, and feels truer to what we are. Though, obviouslyâwhile Edward is a son to me, he always has been since I turned him. Esmeâs my wife, Rosalie has always felt like a daughterâwhat Iâm getting at is that no one expects you to feel like an uncle or brother.â
Alphard smiled wryly. âWith all due respect, Carlisle, I donât imagine that will happen either.â
If this was to be a permanent arrangement, then he would quite happily remain that old man whoâd wandered in one day and had simply become part of the furniture until they stopped expecting him to leave.
The Cullens were alright people, but he had a family and to pretend what he had with these people, no matter how close they might come to be as time passed, would be anything similar would be an insult.
Carlisle made a bit of a face, âBella hasnât brought it upâbut sometimes I worry that she feels sheâs not as close to us as she should be. I donât think she wants me to act as a father to her, her fatherâs still alive and well, but I think when Edward told her about usâhe gave the impression that on being turned the relationships were preordained.â
Alphard stared at him. âDaughter-in-law might be the word youâre searching for,â he pointed out.
âOh, yes, I know,â he said, making another face, âButâwell, youâll see.â
Alphard bit back a laugh.
âI expect a serious conversation in which itâs decided whether we should refer to you as Uncle or Grandfather,â Carlisle said.
âOh, no,â Alphard said, not sure whether to laugh or be horrified. âNo, by Salazar, no.â
âI shouldnât be saying this,â Carlisle said quietly, âSheâs very sweet, Iâm so grateful to her for more reasons than I can count. Sheâs a remarkable woman and we all have our quirks.â
It sounded as if Carlisle had been keeping this buried for some time, unable to say a word, or even think it, when the womanâs husband was his own Legillimens son. And even if it werenât for the Legillimens son, it seemed the only people he could speak to were his own family, which of course was no good or Merlin forbid Tanya and the Denali.
Alphard patted him on the knee sympathetically.
Carlisle gave him a grateful look, and for a moment his lips were shutâ
Then he turned to fully face Alphard, and said, âYou know Iâve only ever actually had one conversation with her? We make small talk all the time, butâI thought about it not too long ago, and I realized, weâd only had the one proper conversation, and that was two years ago!â
âWell, I canât say Iâve endured too many conversations with my nephew-in-laws,â Alphard told him. Though Lucius and Rodolphus both tried very hard to do otherwise, constantly trying to engage him in conversations about the most inane topics.
âDo you live with them?â Carlisle asked bluntly.
âMerlin, no,â Alphard laughed. âThough Rodolphus would love for me to, heâs all but told me that once Iâm too old to fight back theyâre wheeling me in to live in his attic.â
âBella has now lived in this house with us for over a year,â Carlisle said, âWellâto be fair, she and Edward live in the cottage with Renesmee. We wanted them to have a private space, Bella especially, who obviously isnât used to the obscene lack of privacy that comes with being a vampire among other vampires. However, thatâs part of the problem, they live in that damn cottage.â
âAnd you have no way of getting her on your own without it being obvious,â Alphard surmised.
Carlisle nodded. âIf we see her, and thatâs a generous âifâ, sheâs being dressed by Alice. Otherwise she hunts with Edward or Jacob, she comes in to pick up her daughter so they can go back to the cottageâand thatâs it! Thatâs all!â
Alphard just laughed.
âI donât need to be her father, I donât want to be,â Carlisle told him hastily, âItâsâsheâs said things from time to time that make me feel as if I should be and that Esme should be a mother to her as well.â
âYou knowââ Alphard shook his head. âI think in some other world, human Alphard would have been venting to you like this about his niecesâ husbands as well. And I mean exactly like this, the closest I had was that BellaâBellatrixâ at least agreed that Narcissa had married an atrocity. But she had her own husband I wanted to complain about!â
Heâd had his friends, but none of them close and the one who had beenâ
Wellâ
Tom had long been gone by the time his nieces began their cavalcade of awful life decisions, and Alphard had been left without anybody to even write a vent letter to.
Carlisle laughed and then let it out, âWell, maybe now that Jacobâs goneââ
He didnât finish that sentence.
Alphard stared for a moment, before realizing. âBella has been spending much of her time with him?â he guessed.
âYes,â Carlisle said quietly, âJacob was her best friend as a human, the closest friend sheâd ever had. More than thatâwell, if it werenât for him, she would have died during her pregnancy.â
âThatâs one way to win a firstborn,â Alphard nodded.
Carlisle let out a very long, very haggard sounding sigh.
âI havenât inquired about details, itâs not my business,â he said, sounding as if he was reading off a script.
âItâs not your business?â Alphard cut in sharply. âHow is it not your business!â
âBetween Bella and Jacob,â he told Alphard, before looking away again, âIf anything was or is happeningâEdward would be aware of it. Ergo, itâs not my business.â
âIââ Alphard flailed his hands. âIs that the only problem you see with this? Thatâs all you needed to decide it would be alright? To not interfere?â
âIt is not the only problem,â he said, âAnd I told you, when it came to RenesmeeâEdward vouched for him and I canât see any reason why heâd lie about it.â
âEdward is seventeen, and from what I have seen of him he acts his age to the fullest,â Alphard told him curtly. âYouâre young yourself, but hardly young enough to not see as much!â
Carlisle didnât say anything for a long moment, eventually managing, âWell, thankfully, it no longer matters.â
Alphard didnât know about that.
If this was how Carlisle made his decisions, if fear of confrontations or interfering in the business of others, even when he had every authority and moral reason to do so, and if he would really uncritically accept a young and biased Legillimensâ testimony in this mannerâ
Abruptly, though he had no reason to compare them, Alphard was reminded of his own father who had always been a little too close in age to him as well as Walburga. It had made him just a little too hapless and a little too cowed to ever truly step into the role of father.
Had it been Alphard and Pollux in this situation, and Alphard told his father that Jacob had every right to be with his child and to leave it well aloneâ
No, actually, his father wouldnât have done the same thing. He hadnât. He had gone out of his way to help Regulus once he realized how badly the boy was doing, taking him to Quidditch matches and Hogsmeade trips, and while it had been too little too lateâhad Walburga been able to chase him away, she would have.
But it did now strike him that perhaps Carlisle Cullen, physically trapped at twenty-three, was too young to himself be managing a forever seventeen-year-old son. The man couldnât seem to juggle the need to give Edward independence, to show he trusted his judgement, with the need to step in when the situation required it and upset his family if it was necessary.
âCan I ask about your plans for Renesmeeâs future?â he asked carefully, hoping the sinking sensation in his stomach didnât show on his face.
If vampirism had done one thing for him, it was to turn his very expressive face into one that, if the Denali were to be believed, barely betrayed that heâd listened to a given conversation at all.
âVery few,â Carlisle admitted, âWhen sheâs six and stops growing, the plan is that she will attend high school with the other children. Until then, weâve been homeschooling her.â
âThereâs no school she can attend now?â Alphard asked, already knowing the answer. âNo other children she could be with?â
Carlisle shook his head. âNo. Even if I trust her controlâno.â
Alphard pressed his lips together. âShe canât grow up knowing only ten people,â he said.
âI agree,â he said, âBut thereâs little we can do. Sheâs too noticeable to humans, and too dangerous to them right now. Her control is extraordinary, she does exceptionally well with her grandfather, but sheâs only a year old. Beyond her control thereâs her strength, one careless moment is enough to kill a human.â
âWhat if I could alter her appearance?â Alphard frowned. âI should be able to.â
Without waiting for Carlisle to answer he conjured a mirror, and frowned at his own face, orâthe set of stone features that passed for his own face these days, anyway.
A moment later, his eyes were a deep brown, that painfully familiar color they had been up until just a few short months ago. He heard Carlisleâs sharp intake of breath beside him.
Alphard wished them away a moment later, wishing heâd chosen something innocuous like blue, but they had served their purpose.
âThatâs remarkable,â Carlisle breathed, staring at his restored face in disbelief, âButâitâs not the entire problem. Really, the fact that we look the way we do might be a good thing, humans know to keep their distance. Itâs thatâsheâs very good, very careful, but sheâs a year old.â
âThen you can be the five-year-old next to her,â Alphard smiled.
Carlisle looked at him in disbelief, âYou can do that?â
âIt will takeâmore effort,â Alphard said slowly, âbut it is possible with magic, yes. Quite possible.â
Alphard would never would have dared to promise a thing like that before becoming a vampire, but these daysâwellâ
If Tomâs experience with magic had been even half of what this was, then Alphard could finally understand why heâd always thought everybody else simply wasnât trying.
âWell, in that caseââ he said, trailing off and looking dazed, âThenâyes, she could go to kindergarten.â
Alphard grinned at him, feeling optimistic about something for the first time inâMerlin, since before heâd turned.
âWe will have to move,â he said quietly, speaking more to himself than to Alphard, âI would have to quit work, we canât have her here in Forks either. Itâs time we did, though, we need distance from Jacob and La Push and we need to leave Forks before our presence becomes even more suspicious. Weâve been here too long already and with Bella having disappearedâsomeone will wish to see her sooner or later, her father canât put them off forever.â
âBut there isnât any need for that now, is there?â Alphard asked. âI could make Bella look human, and her father wouldnât need to trouble himself.â
âNo, we must leave Forks,â Carlisle said firmly, âAnd frankly, this excuse is a godsend. Itâs exactly what we needed.â
Alphard held up his hands. âAlright,â he said.
Carlisle looked back at the house, and Alphard followed his gaze to see Edward, Esme, Jasper, and Bella arriving back at the house, having clearly met up in the woods. Renesmee was with them, carried sleeping in Edwardâs arms.
As Alphard watched, Rosalie and Emmett appeared from the woods, wearing different clothes than they had been before.
âIf you donât mindââ Carlisle said as he stared at them, âI think we should break the news first. Hopefully, your story wonât have to wait too long but Iâd rather strike while the iron is hot.â
âNot a problem,â Alphard assured him.
Carlisle rose from the log heâd been sitting on, graceful even for a vampire, and once Alphard had risen as well (he still was sometimes surprised at just how easy it was to get up from what should have been deeply regretted positions without a trace of slowness or grimacing) he ran to meet his family.
Alphard slowly walked to join them.
LINEBREAK
âLeaving? You meanââ Bella looked at her husband for confirmation.
Many of the Cullens looked unsurprised by this announcement. Those few that were surprised didnât seem too flustered. Bella alone seemed to have been caught off guard.
They were seated about a large round table, each in identical chairs, positioned such that they all had a good view of one another.
It reminded Alphard fondly of the family meetings of his youth, when they would all gather in Grimmauld Place to discuss one urgent matter or another. These meetings usually involved a bit more alcohol than this one did, and there would be more shouting and bickering, but it still brought a strong feeling of nostalgia.
Much like the children below a certain age always would be, Renesmee was soundly asleep upstairs, having been carried into the house so nobody would miss out on anything that happened. It made Alphard wonder why Esme had taken her to the cottage to begin with, but it had given her a nice excuse to let Renesmee have some breathing room after all the chaos earlier in the day.
He just hoped the girl wouldnât be taken aback by suddenly waking up in a different place than sheâd been expecting.
âMoving from Forks, yes,â Carlisle explained, âWith a new cover story, new identities, new everything.â
âBut why?â Bella asked, âNone of us are in high school, for all anyone knows weâre still at college, have your work colleagues gotten suspicious?â
âTheyâre starting to wonder about me,â Carlisle confirmed with a nod. âIâm supposed to be thirty-two now, and while I can get away with that they still know us a little too well in this town, they look a little more closely than they should.â
He didnât elaborate on what he meant by this.
âBut you can fix that!â Bella told him, âIf itâs not your ageâand Charlie can vouch for you!â
âCharlie shouldnât vouch for me,â Carlisle said quickly, âAs it isâthe wedding has brought much more attention to us than is typical. Itâs nothing too serious yet, but it could become that way.â
âBut what about Jacob?â Bella asked. âIf we just leave, heâll thinkââ she cast a glance at Alphard, before looking back at Carlisle, her voice forceful. âHeâs going to think weâre cutting him off.â
Carlisle blinked. âHe is cut off, Bella.â
âYes, butâleaving?!â Bella balked.
âWe donât usually stay in one place very long,â Rosalie told Bella, âEven if no oneâs had an accident, itâs ten years at most.â
âItâs really stretching it,â Jasper said with a thin smile.
âThink weâve only managed it twice,â Alice frowned. âI mean, thatâs a lot, butâ average is four point seven years, if you want it mathematically.
âBut youâre only at four!â Bella pointed out.
âNot in a small town where Edward just had the wedding of the century and no oneâs seen the bride since,â Carlisle pointed out, âand if Jacob starts acting strange in public, and itâs connected to us, that wonât be good either.â
âThen maybe someone shouldnât have made a shield that sends Jacob to Alaska!â Bella said, glaring directly at Alphard as she said it.
âShield stays,â Alphard said.
âSo, Jacobâs the problemââ
âThe problem is weâre unaging vampires and this was going to happen eventually,â Rosalie cut in, âAnd we now have three new people who canât be seen in public because nobody knows who they are or theyâre not supposed to be vampires. So, unless you want to stay in this house and hide in the shadows, we have to move.â
âI can go to Seattle,â Bella tried.
âThatâs not the point,â Rosalie told her andâshe was blonde, very blonde, but she reminded Alphard all at once of Bellatrix and the way she would sometimes bully Narcissa. Alphard felt as if he was sitting at his own dining room table, watching Bellatrix tell her younger sister what an idiot she was and pointing out every single flaw in her logic.
He glanced warily at Edward.
Oh, yes, Edward was looking at him, but at Alphardâs gaze he simply nodded, indicating he was going to keep it to himself this time around.
He still looked amused, though.
âAlright, so if we leaveâwhen do we come back to Forks?â Bella asked, looking at each of them, âIt was seventy years last time, wasnât it?â
âI donât think weâll come back,â Carlisle told her, âWhen we came back the first timeâI had not realized how uncomfortable the Quileute tribe was with our presence. Our relationship with the tribe is tenuous at best, they wouldnât welcome our returning and frankly I donât wish for them to. Weâve caused them enough suffering.â
Bellaâs face fell.
âI think itâs a good time,â Rosalie said. âIt gives Jacob a clean break, and we can give your father an address to visit.â
âButââ Bella bit her lip, looking incredibly vulnerable as well as uncertain. Once again, she looked to her teenage husband to gauge what he was thinking as well to silently plead for his help.
âDo we have any suggestions for where weâll be going?â Rosalie asked before Bella could argue more.
âEast,â Alice decided. âI like east.â
âYou mean the east coast?â Jasper frowned at her. âOr just east?â
âSomewhere in New England,â Alice nodded, âLots of snow, maybe a big barn with room for everyone.â
âA New England barn,â Bella echoed.
âObviously weâll renovate it,â Alice told her, âBut I like that big spacious feel and that New England feel with the autumn leaves, the snowy winters, the warm humid summers.â
Alphard was forcefully reminded that this woman was not and had not been human in a great many years. Merlin, this New England place sounded like the most miserable place in the world.
Bella looked like sheâd never heard anything less convincing in her life.
âNo sun,â Edward told his wife sadly with a fond smile, âWe canât crawl out of our hole only at night.â
Bella huffed a deep, inconsolable sigh.
âIsnât there anywhere in Europe we could go?â Alphard decided to suggest. âThere must be somewhere suitable.â
He wasnât going to suggest the Scottish Highlands, but he wouldnât object if somebody else did. Or the Faroe Islands, heâd always dreamt of going. Failing those options, the Soviet Union had to be perfect even if Tom had made it sound like the most miserable place on earth.
They all looked at him as if he was mad.
âIâsuppose we could consider that,â Carlisle allowed, looking around the table.
It was clear, however, that feelings were strongly set against it.
âAm I committing a horrible taboo if I askâŠâ Alphard looked around the room. âWhy not?â
âWeâre American,â Alice explained to him dully, âWe vacation in Europe but we live in America. Weâre an American family who plays baseball.â
Alphard stared. âBut you would be just as American in Europe,â he pointed out. âIâm no less English for being here, and surely you must want a change in scenery.â
âBut weâd go to European school,â Alice said, nose wrinkling as she said it.
âAnd thatâs not good,â Alphard surmised, suddenly horribly remindedâ
Edward was not the only teenager in the house.
Alphard, in fact, was surrounded by teenagers. The only ones who werenât were Emmett, who was twenty and hardly any better, Carlisle who was twenty-three and also hardly any better, and Esme who Alphard would guess to be somewhere in her mid-twenties.
Merlin.
âI love Paris as much as the next girl who loves to shop,â Alice told Alphard firmly, âButâwe just donât live there.â
Well, then, Europe was right out.
âBut what about Renesmee?â Bella asked suddenly, âEverything she knows is here. The house is here, the cottage, JacobâCharlie is here.â
âSheâll have to move anyway,â Rosalie retorted.
âBut sheâs so little!â Bella objected.
âWhat?!â Edward balked, staring at Carlisle.
Carlisle stared at him desperately, clearly willing him to shut up.
Edward, however, had other ideas, âThey want to put her in kindergarten! Alphard has some way of disguising her to be humanâCarlisleâs plan is that he wonât work at first in order to help her blend in with the humans!â
âThank you, Edward,â Carlisle said in the deafening silence that followed.
âItâs a terrible idea!â Edward told his father, âSheâs only one, sheâs barely met a human, she has no idea how to blend in with ordinary six-year-olds.â
âThatâs why I suggested it,â Alphard said before Carlisle (who looked very aggrieved) could say anything. âShe needs to be with people who are not her immediate family.â
âAnd so youâre choosing young children? Theyâre beneath her intellectually!â Edward said, âEven if she doesnât make a ghastly mistake, potentially killing a child, sheâll be bored stiff! That girl was reading War and Peace a month after she was born!â
âThatâs all the more reason to make her socialize!â Alphard balked. âAre you hearing yourself, man? Reading War and Peace hardly makes her fit to enter society!â
âBut she wonâtââ Edward cut himself off and seemed to be putting great effort into calming himself.
âIâll be with her,â Carlisle reassured him, âOr barring that, you or Rosalie could volunteer if you like. I didnât want to put anyone up to it if they didnâtââ
âDonât humor him, Carlisle!â Edward snapped. âThis man didnât know she existed until today, he doesnât know the first thing about our world, how it works, what we areââ
âThis doesnât have to do with your world!â Alphard shot back, âIt has to do with a young girl who has spent a year in a house seeing only the same ten people day in and day out! She has had no chance to be a child.â
âSheâs not human!â Edward shouted back at him. âYou canât apply the same rules to her!â
âIs sheâjust what do you think she is?!â Alphard balked. âDo you think she will learn the rules of society, of ordinary social conduct, by herself?â
âSheâs a hybrid,â Edward told him as if he was an idiot, âSheâs somethingâshe is completely different from an ordinary human. Sheâs half-human, more human than we are, but she is not one of them and never will be. Her mind doesnât even work the way humans do, she was sentient in the womb!â
âShe acted indistinguishable from any other five year old when I met her today,â Alphard said.
âThen you donât remember five-year-olds well,â Edward sneered.
âIâve raised three children!â Alphard argued, flailing his hands. âAnd helped with more! I daresay Iâve seen more five-year-olds than you!â
âMight be good for her,â Emmett cut in very loudly, by the look on his face clearly intending on stopping the brewing argument before it could get started, âI mean, if itâs possible, itâs a lot better than being locked up in the house all day.â
âDo not encourage this, Emmett!â Edward snapped at him.
âIf someoneâs with her then even if she messes up, no one dies and we just move,â Emmett reasoned, âItâs not that bad.â
âTo put it this way,â Alphard said, placing his fingertips on the table as he leaned towards Edward, âwhat is the consequence of this?â
âAre you her father or am I?â Edward asked Alphard dully, then he looked at his own father, âI forbid it, thatâs final, this will not be happening. Renesmee will enter public school when she finishes growing.â
Alphard stared at him.
And although he didnât say it, but knew Edward knew he thought itâ
He should like to see Edward stop him.
âI think she should do it,â Rosalie said, coming to Alphardâs defense and before Edward could fly at Alphard, âIâll happily volunteer to go with her. If these âdisguisesâ work then Iâll spend all day making arts and crafts with her. AndâI think we should have a vote on it.â
âA vote?!â Edward hissed at her.
âEveryone who thinks, if the disguises work and Renesmeeâs chaperoned, she should go to kindergarten raise your hand,â Rosalie said, raising her own arm high in the air.
Alphard raised his hand duly.
As did Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett.
âHe doesnât get a vote!â Edward snapped at Alphard, but it made no difference, the nay-sayers were greatly outnumbered.
âSo, Renesmeeâs going to kindergarten,â Bella said in a daze as she looked at her in-laws in disbelief.
âNo, sheâs not,â Edward snarled.
âWhy ever not?â Carlisle asked in bafflement. âEdward, why not?â
âBecause itâs not worth her time!â Edward snapped, âSheâll be bored, sheâll be spending all day with people she hates instead of her family, she wonât learn anything useful, there isnât one good reason for her to go thatâs not appeasing a man who has no idea what heâs talking about.â
This last was said with a venomous glare towards Alphard.
âI imagine the girl will be pleased,â Alphard said in the silence that followed. âItâs a rare child who rejects company.â
Though Regulus would probably have seized any opportunity to stay home with his mother.
He had, even at eighteen and when his grandfather was tempting him with good tickets to the World Quidditch Cup he had wondered if they could bring Walburga too.
âThis is ridiculous,â Edward said, standing from his seat. He looked at them all, shaking his head, and then stormed out of the room a second later.
Bella stared after him for a moment, then darted after him.
âWell,â Rosalie said in the silence that followed. âThat went a lot better than I thought it would.â
Space Oddity is a fic @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and I co-wrote in the summer of 2023, then abandoned. Then again, in January of this year, we tried to resurrect the fic and wrote a few chapters before deciding they were bad and the fic unsalvageable. We opted not to publish these chapters.
There have been requests to see these chapters, however, and as they do exist and people wish to see them we have decided to publish them here on tumblr (as publishing them on Ao3 would indicate a stamp of approval weâre not comfortable with).
The other chapters can be found on this blog or @therealvinelle or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta under the tag âSpace Oddityâ.
Read at at your own risk, and please note that our decision not to write more of this fic is final.
The newborn was in Carlisleâs office, taking in the paintings while they all waited for the others to arrive.
Bella felt funny even calling him a newborn.
Heâd reassured her that he wasnât nearly as controlled as her, that he blacked out almost every time heâd heard an animal heartbeat. However, after his last reassurance that her gift was much cooler than his was, she didnât take that very seriously.
He seemed to be too British to be impolite to anyone.
Even Jacob, heâd very politely thrown to Alaska when heâd had a misunderstanding about imprinting was.
He was also just too old to feel like he could be new at anything, nevermind vampirism. Newborns were young people like Bree or Riley, not this man whose hair had streaks of gray and whose face was just a little odd in the way that indicated older age. She could all too easily picture the wrinkles and crow's feet that would have been around his face when heâd been human.
The thing was that Bella had never foreseen a new Cullen beyond her. Edward had been the only one missing a mate, Bella had been his mate, ergo when Bella was found they were all in perfect pairs. Even Renesmee was eventually destined for Jacob, whenever she matured and was ready for a boyfriend and then a lover.
Of course, now that she thought about it, that was a bit silly as Edward had been turned by himself without her. Rosalie had been turned by herself without Emmett. Then Alice and Jasper had of course shown up on their own together. There was no rule that stated that there wouldnât be some new single Cullen who would come along (and that Cullen would then need a mate of their own).
It was just that the Cullens had seemed so set, such a perfect unit, and Bella simply hadnât been able to imagine anyone new coming along.
Not to mention that Edward had been telling Bella how hard it was with so many of them before Bella had been turned. They couldnât keep adding vampires forever, that was ridiculous.
But even that didnât mean that Bella and Renesmee were the firm final touches to the Cullen family.
She supposed he might not be staying here permanently. He didnât seem very interested, for one thing. She also didnât see how he would fit. He couldnât very well be Carlisleâs newest son when he was much older, but it would only be weird for everyone if he became the Cullen grandfather. He might not even want to stay in the country at all, America wasnât his home.
Yes, heâd learn control, and then he could be on his way back to Britain where he would be their uncle they could visit from time to time.
Maybe heâd join the Irish coven, though Liam would absolutely hate him just for being from England.
Alistair, then, if Alistair felt safe around him he could finally have some company. And then maybe Alistair could go on the animal diet, heâd probably like that when he realized it meant he could become even more of a recluse. If you went off of people completely, you could spend all your time in the wilderness uninterrupted.
âThatâs the Volturi,â Carlisle said to Alphard, touching his arm to get his attention and pointing to the Solimena with a smile. âThatâs Aro in the middle,â he pointed, âThereâs Caius, Marcus, and thereâs me.â
Bella couldnât believe heâd kept that picture. She supposed it was painted by a master, it was a great work of art and priceless, but it was also a picture of the people whoâd tried to kill them all and would do it again the second they got the chance.
But it wasnât Bellaâs office or her painting, so she felt awkward saying as much.
âNot what I pictured,â Alphard offered cryptically.
Carlisle looked very surprised. âReally? What did you expect?â
Bella didnât know either. She thought the Volturi looked like exactly what they were, villains. They wore dark cloaks, had that strange powdery skin, those clouded red eyesâshe couldnât picture them as anything different even if she tried. Even when sheâd first met them as a human, when they hadnât been her enemies, sheâd known to be terrified.
âBureaucrats,â Alphard hummed.
Carlisle stared. âYou know, youâre going to have to tell me about your life,â he said after a pause. âIf youâre willing, that is.â
âI suppose thereâs not much reason to hide anything,â Alphard said glumly, âI donât think it matters much anymore.â
Carlisle nodded, his eyes rapt on Alphardâs face. He didnât say anything, however, just continued to stare dully at the portrait of the Volturi.
âWellâto give you a brief history of my life, I knew absolutely nothing of vampires when I woke up,â Carlisle said. âI was very lost, and it was pure chance I realized I could live off of animals. I was on my own for years until the Volturi found me, and Aro invited me to live in his palace.â
Why was he still telling this story? Bella understood it had happened to him, that it was a part of his history, and the Volturi would always be a part of his historyâbut they had tried to kill all of them. It could just be a part that Carlisle didnât mention to people anymore, everyone would understand that.
Maybe this was his way of processing what had happened, how the people heâd thought had been his friends had been so eager to betray him out of fear and jealousy.
âNice of him,â Alphard said with a frown.
âYes,â Carlisle said, looking at the little painted Aro. âYes, he was.â
âNot for very long,â Bella cut in, âThat friendship didnât last, they tried to kill us multiple times just a year ago.â
Carlisle sighed, but nodded. âYes, things changed.â
Alphard was frowning deeply at them all now, and looked at the painting as if the little Aro there might explain what had changed.
The better question was why heâd put up with Carlisle at all. Had Carlisle been such a curiosity heâd wanted to collect him despite his lack of a gift? That was the only thing that made sense for Bella.
As for Carlisle thinking the man was a friendâhe thought the best of everybody, that wasnât very surprising.
Carlisle skipped ahead rather than linger on the few decades he spent in Volterra, âI traveled the world upon leaving, ending up in America where in time I turned Edward, as I told you earlier.â
âAnd you turned him,â Alphard finished, a sharp look in his eyes.
âYes,â Carlisle admitted plainly, though there was a bit of a tense edge to his voice. Clearly, theyâd talked about this already.
âWell,â Alphard said, turning to look at the other paintings in the room. âWe have much to tell each other, it seems.â
But they werenât going to discuss it here.
Bella supposed that Carlisle was closer to his age, just barely, but it did make Bella feel a bit left out. Maybe it was because Carlisle had met with him first in Alaska and he and Bella had barely gotten a chance to talk to one another.
âWhatâs this one?â Alphard asked, and walked towards a nineteenth century painting of a town square, showing a group of youths whoâd gathered around a fountain.
Carlisle followed him. âI treated the artistâs sister, thatâs her modeling with the green bonnetââ he pointed. âI wasnât actually sure I liked it, but I felt I couldnât say no. Now itâs a good memory.â
Bella hadnât known that.
Alphard nodded, âGood colors,â he remarked.
Bella lit up as she heard the sound of vampires swiftly running from the north.
âTheyâre here!â Bella told them, and moved the curtains so she could see the window.
There was Edward, out in front, followed by Jasper, Rosalie, and finally Emmett. No sign of Jacob, but he had only arrived in Alaska after the others had already left. He would be further behind, and Bella could only hope he could follow the otherâs trail and wouldnât get lost.
âEdward!â Bella shouted, and opened the window, jumping directly into his waiting arms.
âBella!â Edward grinned at her as he swung her around like a princess in a fairytale.
She leaned in to kiss him, and stayed there in his arms for a moment, simply basking in how warm and perfect it felt to be here in his arms like this.
âI missed you,â she told him sincerely, even though itâd only been a short while. She always missed him when he was off somewhere, the same way he missed her whenever she was on a weekend trip with Alice.
It was hard to be separated from him for even a second and never something she could endure for very long.
âI missed you too,â he told her, and kissed her again.
âTheyâre recently married,â he heard Carlisle explain, a smile in his voice.
Bella giggled, knowing that she and Edward were going to act like theyâd been ârecently marriedâ for the rest of eternity, the same way that Rosalie and Emmett did and even Jasper and Alice did in their own way.
âWhereâs Esme?â Rosalie asked.
âSheâs gone with Renesmee to the cottage,â Alice said, jumping down from the window as well.
âAnd Jacob?â Edward asked in surprise.
Bellaâs smile fell.
Edwardâs eyes widened, and he looked up at Alphard and Carlisle in alarm. âYou what?!â
Heâd heard, then. Alphard had seemed very dispassionate about having to do it, he hadnât seemed to take any smug pleasure in throwing Jacob across the planet, but Bella still couldnât help but wonder what heâd been thinking.
Sheâd have to ask Edward when they were alone.
âWhat? What happened?â Jasper asked, sinking into a crouch already and breathing in deeply through his nose, searching the snow around them.
âJacobâs in Alaska,â Edward told him dully, âHeâs with the Denali and probably an hour behind us.â
âHeâs where?â Rosalie balked. âBut we just left!â
âThe new vampire teleported him to the Denali,â Edward explained with a terse sigh.
Alphard jumped down, and smoothed out his colorful robes. âYes, I did. As I haveââ
âItâs not what you think it is,â Edward told him, cutting in, âAnd Iâm not naive, I know what that looks like. Iâd certainly know if it was happening to my own daughter.â
Alphard looked very unimpressed. âYou clearly didnât.â
âItâs safer for Renesmee,â Edward told him, âWith him, she has a dedicated protector who will always make her his priority. Heâs a good friend and a good fighterââ
âWhat,â Rosalie said slowly, âhas happened? Alice, whatâs happened?â
It was Carlisle who answered. âAlphard here was introduced to a man who will always be Renesmeeâs friend, protector, and partner through life, and he made up his mind about the situation.â
âCan we please stopââ Bella wanted to scream, âYou explained it better to me than him!â
She couldnât exactly blame Alphard, not when Bella had also been murderously angry when sheâd found out. It also hadnât helped that theyâd all done the absolute worst job of explaining what imprinting was and what it meant. She could absolutely see where he was coming from, it was just so frustrating that they were now in this mess where they couldnât explain!
âHow did you explain it?â Alphard asked tonelessly, looking around the Cullens. âIâm all ears.â
âWhatever,â Rosalie said with a sigh, throwing up her hands, âI guess Jake is in Alaska, good riddance.â
Bella grit her teeth, not surprised since Rosalie said whatever she was thinking and sheâd never liked Jacob, but hating it just the same.
She jumped down from Edwardâs arms, and turned to Alphard. âJacob is my best friend. Weâve been friends since we were children, he was my friend long before I turned and I trust him with my life. Heâs saved it, multiple times! There wouldnât be a Renesmee without him!â
âOh, thatâs why,â Alphard said, looking at her dully as if sheâd just fit the final piece of a puzzle for him.
âWhat does that mean?â Bella asked him sharply.
âIt explains why you would ignore this,â Alphard said. âAnd why no one else is intervening,â he continued, âAs you, the parents, have authority, your husband doesnât wish to upset you, and everyone else is assured that you have absolute control over the situation.â
âNoâno, thatâs not it!â Bella snarled. âJacob would never hurt her!â
âItâs an old story,â he told her without sympathy.
âNo! Heâs not human, this isnâtâit isnât what you know, and you havenât even tried to listen! Itâs an imprint!â Bella said.
Alphard said nothing, but Bella could see that he thought he was right and was probably thinking all manner of unkind things about Jacob and how this had happened and what was happening.
âIt doesnât matter,â she said coldly. âJake will be back, andâyouâre not her parent. You canât forbid him to see her.â
âHeâll try,â Alphard allowed, and there was a little smile on his lips as he said it.
âWhat does that mean?â Bella whispered.Â
âThe moment heâs within aââ he appeared to think about it, âIt should be about a five kilometer radius, but whenever he enters within that distance of her he will be sent to the residence of the Denali coven.â
Emmett whistled.
âWell,â Rosalie said, and there was something in her voice.
âBut heâsââ Bella didnât want to say âher imprintâ for all it was the only thing she could think to say, âThatâs not fair!â
âItâs absolutely fair,â he said, âAs I understand it, Jacob will easily be able to return to his home and family, do his shopping, this house is quite remote. This will in no means get in the way of any aspect of his life save spending his time with a little girl.â
âIt will get in the way of Renesmee!â Bella cried out. âSheâs his entire life!â
âBecause he told you he needs constant access to her for supernatural reasons us non-wolves canât ever hope to understand,â Alphard said curtly. âIs that correct?â
âThatâs not fair,â Bella said, and that was the worst thing to say but she couldnât think of anything better. He wasnât being fair, though. He was making it all sound terrible when it wasnât, and everything heâd said was true.
It was something that he, Bella, Edward, nobody could hope to fully understand. Imprinting just wasnât something that happened to them, so of course they couldnât get it.
All Bella knew was that it was such a powerful, strong hold that it had torn Sam away from Leah, brought strangers together, and inspired Jacob to risk his life for a child heâd wanted to abort not a few weeks earlier.
âIf you could teleport this entire time, why didnât you leave Denali sooner?â Emmett asked.
âWhere would I go?â Alphard asked him in turn.
âIâm a good mother,â Bella said, ignoring them both. âI love my daughter, I would never let anybody hurt her. What you think about Jacobâabout meâitâs all false!â
He didnât say anything to that, but Bella didnât need to ask Edward to know what kinds of things he was thinking.
She looked at Edward, pleading with her eyes that he do something. He had to talk sense into his family, or this Alphard Black, and get him to undo his teleportation shield. And this man couldnât stay here, he had to go back to the Denali if he couldnât accept Jacob.
Jacob had been here first, he was family in every way that counted. This man had a place to go back to, there was no reason for him to stay.
âMr. Black, am I to understand you will be staying with us then?â Edward asked instead.
âYes, I invited him,â Carlisle said, putting a hand on Alphardâs shoulder as if theyâd known each other much longer than a day.
But he couldnât.
Only, Bellaâs tongue was frozen, as terrified as if sheâd still been human. Could she really say as much when she was so new herself? The Cullens were her family, but she was also the newest and Carlisle was the patriarch. If Carlisle disagreed with her, which he clearly did, then would Bella really win this fight even if everyone else agreed?
Would Rosalie vote for Jacob? Would Esme vote against Carlisle? What about Jasper?
âHow about you tell me about yourselves,â Alphard said, clasping his hands together. âOr should I tell my own story? Iâd hardly know where to start.â
And Bella felt the hope of throwing him out flying out the window.
She would just have toâ
Change his mind somehow.
Or Edward could do it, he could read the manâs mind and figure out what would persuade him. Jasper might be able to soften him up and make him more agreeable to, Alice could foresee the best path to victory.
This would be fine.
âThatâs alright, I can start,â Carlisle said cheerfully. âDid you see the cross on the door? My father made it.â
LINEBREAK
Bella wasnât sure how she felt about the fact that the Cullens had so readily shared their stories, at least parts of them, with a complete stranger when Bella hadnât been told these stories for over a year after having met them.
It was true Rosalie didnât share much of her story, but Esme had shared hers, as had Emmett and Alice, and even Edward barring the part where heâd left the diet.
Jasper had spent a full hour telling not only the story of his past, but pulled out a globe to explain about the newborn wars. Carlisle had taken at least that long, showing Alphard around his office and even showing the sarcophagus he had in the attic. Sheâd learned details sheâd never been told before.
Now that it was her turn, she felt a little likeâ
Like a mouse that had been stepped on.
It was the only way to describe it.
âLike I said before, I was human just a year ago,â Bella explained reluctantly, well aware that her story was not very interesting compared to the othersâ, âMy dad lives here and I moved in the winter of my junior year of high school. I found out there was this family that had moved in after Iâd stopped visiting, two years before Iâd arrived. They were so beautiful, I noticed them right away in the cafeteria.â
She glanced at Edward shyly who grinned back, âAnd I learned they were the wealthy Cullens. Their father was a surgeon at the hospital and they had all been adopted by Carlisle and his wife Esme.â
âTo clarifyâthis was a small human settlement,â Alphard asked, frowning at her.
âTown,â Bella corrected, trying not to sound terse, âBut yeah, horribly small. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knew exactly who I was when I moved in with Charlie.â
Alphard nodded. âItâs like the world I knew, then.â
Bellaâ
Decided she didnât care what that meant, even though she was clearly supposed to be dying with curiosity.
âAnyway, I was in the same year as the boy with the red hair, the youngest, and we had Biology together,â she smiled, âAnd the moment I walked into the classroom he looked like he wanted to kill me.â
Alphard blinked. âOh,â he said, clearly unsure of how to react.
âI had no idea what Iâd done, what I could have done, but I was certain that he wanted to kill me,â she said, âI spent the entire class terrified. When it was finally over, he ran out the door like the hounds of hell were on his heels.â
Emmett laughed loudly, and Jasper was grinning at Edward as well.
âI caught him in the school office later,â Bella said, âWhere he was insisting he wanted to switch classes but the counselor was telling him it was impossible. When he saw me, he glared and ran out again. And then for the next three days he wasnât at school at all.â
âIâd run to Alaska,â Edward admitted a bit petulantly, âI thought the fresh air would get her scent out of my mind.â
Alphard balked. âYou donât mean the Denali?â he asked.
âTheyâre practically family,â Edward told him, âWe consider them cousins. There arenât any other covens we know of on the diet.â
Alphard looked like there were a great many things heâd like to say to that, but he refrained. âIâsee,â he said.
âAnyway, Edward came back, and this time it was like heâd had a personality transplant,â Bella smiled, âHis eyes were a completely different color, the lightest gold imaginable where before theyâd been the darkest black, and he was determined to talk to me. I think at first he just wanted to be polite, and to show that he could talk to me like a normal person, but then I was tooââ
âContradictory,â Edward supplied for her with a grin, âMysterious. I couldnât read your thoughts and you kept giving me unexpected answers. I couldnât make sense of it.â
Bella smiled back at him. âIâm very mysterious,â she said, and snuck in a kiss from him.
âThe next morning, I was nearly killed by a truck,â Bella said, feeling like it was all a lifetime ago, âI would have been toast if Edward hadnât pulled me out of the way, from across the parking lot. And thatâs where the trouble really started, because I noticed and he couldnât talk me out of noticing. He tried to convince me I had a concussion, but I knew Iâd seen him on the other side of the parking lot and Iâd seen him bend the car like a pretzel.â
Alphard nodded. âI see.â
âEdward was determined not to talk to me after that,â Bella said, âAnd so he tried, forâa week?â
Edwardâs lips curled upwards in amusement.
Alphard gave Edward a funny look.
âNo, it did matter,â Edward said, clearly replying to a thought Alphard had had. âIf sheâd talked, it would have gotten us unwanted attention.â
Alphard looked a bit taken aback at his thoughts being addressed like this, but he recovered quickly. âA girl with a concussion, who hit her head, thatâs hardly a risk,â he said.
âIt was a risk,â Edward said darkly, âAnd not one we wanted to take or that I was ever supposed to take. The well-behaved Edward would have let her die in that parking lot.â
âWell,â Carlisle cut in hastily, âI donât think thatâs necessarily the case. She had hit her head, I could have easily said she was concussed. Even if she wasnât these events are very disorienting. You made the right choice, Edward, even if you hadnât been in love.â
âMy cousin once went out into Muggle London with his nose turned into a dog nose, he hadnât noticed Lestrange hexing him. He said nobody said anything, not one person, people must have all thought it was a costume,â Alphard said. He shrugged, âYou get away with the most surprising things.â
Bella was tempted to break down and ask what âMuggle Londonâ was, or any of the rest of what heâd said, but then she just knew sheâd lose the chance to tell her story and theyâd never come back to it. She saw Emmett opening his mouth in confusion to ask just that and hastily continued her story.
âAnyway, we did blood testing in Biology later and Edward skipped classâfor obvious reasons now. I didnât know, though, and so I went to class andâI hated the smell of blood back then. I had a really strong sense of smell, Hannibal Lecter strong, and blood was just awful, the worst. So, I had to go to the nurseâs office. And Edward sees Mike Newton carrying me there and thatâs what breaks him. He starts talking to me again andâoh, was that before or after you told me you shouldnât be my friend? I canât quiteââ
It was unnerving, actually, how she was getting details muddled. She remembered everything that happened, she knew she did, but it seemed like the exact ordering of events was eluding her. She knew the blood testing had been before Port Angeles, because it was before sheâd gone to First Beach because Edward had said he couldnât go. However, she couldnât remember if it was before or after he had invited her to sit with him at lunch and asked her to tell him some of her theories.
It had to be before, didnât it? That was the only thing that made sense.
Edward was smiling at Alphard, however. âIt seems you remind him of someone,â he told her with a grin.
Alphard looked a bit caught out. âYes, ahâmy niece. Narcissa. She fell in love herself, with a rather useless man, Lucius Malfoy. She hasnât shut up about him since, theyâve been married eight years.â
That wasnât a very flattering comparison.
Was he saying that Edward was useless, Bella couldnât shut up about Edward, or both?
âIâm very sorry, I simply hate every one of my nieceâs husbands, each is worse than the last,â Alphard said. âBut please, please donât let me interrupt. I wish to hear the rest of your story.â
âEdwardâs fantastic,â Bella told him dully.
âHeâs not insulting me,â Edward told her with a smile, âHe justâhis niece was very in love and you remind him of that.â
He could have thought it a little better then.
Frowning, she continued, âAnyway, during this little conversation, Edward almost agreed to go on an outing with me and some of my human friends to a beach. Except, he declined when he heard where we were going so I got curious. There, I met an old childhood friend of mine, Jake actuallyâanyway, I managed to flirt with him and get him to reveal his old tribal secrets. Because turns out, they knew exactly what the Cullens were.â
âYou flirted?â Alice laughed, sounding a bit strained.
âBadly,â Bella admitted, âI batted my eyelashes a little while trying not to fall over. I still canât believe it worked.â
Emmett laughed, careful not to jostle Rosalie whoâd placed her head against his shoulder and who was looking at her hands.
Carlisle was tinkering with the antique mechanical carousel heâd found broken when he was showing Alphard the attic, but at Emmettâs laughter he too chuckled warmly.
âIt was Jacob who told me the Cullens were vampires that didnât eat people,â Bella explained to Alphard, âThat they were dangerous because they could slip and thatâs why the tribe didnât go to the hospital and were told to keep away. I didnât know if I believed it then, though it fit with everything Iâd found out so farâbut I also decided it didnât matter. I was in love with Edward Cullen, whatever he was, however dangerous he was.â
âOh,â Alphard said, nodding, âI suppose that does happen.â
âThere was a big dance coming up so I went dress shopping in a nearby town with my human friends Angela and Jessica,â Bella continued, âAnd I went to look for a little bookstore only to get lost on the way to the restaurant we were supposed to eat at. Only, I was followed by these men. They cornered me in an alley but before anything could happen, Edward came out of nowhere with his stupid shiny Volvo to save me.â
Alphardâs eyes had gone wide. âOh, no.â
âNo, this isnât where the story ends,â Edward reassured him quickly. âIâd been following her.âÂ
âYouâ oh,â Alphard blinked, looking taken aback and confused again.
âIâd seen enough of Bella to know that she faced certain death at every turn,â Edward explained. âI did not trust her to remain safe for a simple trip to Port Angeles. And somehow, I was absolutely right about that.â
He had been, which was depressing as it was embarrassing.
She really had been a walking death magnet when sheâd been human.
âAnd that was when Edward and I finally confronted the truth together,â Bella said, âHe took me to dinner and got me a mushroom ravioli and coke. The waitress also flirted with him like mad, but he didnât notice it. He admitted he could read minds but not mine and I admitted that I knew he was a vampire. We crossed a threshold then, I was no longer in my human world or pretending to be in it, and Edward couldnât let go even though he thought he wanted to.â
âYes, ahâthat is very lovely, itâs a beautiful story,â Alphard assured her, then looked at Edward. âWhen you say she was facing death at every turnâwhat do you mean, exactly?â
âThat wasnât the full story,â Bella said, feelingâdejected wasnât the word for it, neither was dismissed. Everyone else had gotten to tell their stories, and Bella knew hers wasnât the most exciting of them, but she still wanted to tell it.
âIâm terribly sorry,â Alphard said quickly. âItâs simplyâwellââ
He looked desperately at Carlisle, but Carlisle was now focused on Alice, whoâd come to help him fix the carousel with her much smaller fingers.
âHeâs not saying to finish,â Edward reassured Bella, âHe just wants clarification.â
Oh, she guessed she had skipped some parts. That made sense.
âThere was the truck Bella had mentioned,â Edward listed off, âThat was one. There was also the fact that she was my singer. To a vampire, some humans smell far better than others, and some smell so irresistibleâI canât even describe it. Suffice to say, her scent changed my life, I was no longer the same person upon catching scent of it. I had never in my life so badly wanted to devour a human being, nevermind that she was an innocent who had never done a thing wrong in her life. The odds of singers are so small theyâre almost considered a legend. Aro, who is three-thousand five-hundred years old, had never come across one of his own despite traveling the globe.â
Yes, Bella had been about to explain that.
Alphard, at least, looked appropriately impressed and horrified.
âThere was the fact that after the truckâshe knew too much, that put her life in risk from us,â Edward frowned, but then moved past it quickly, âShe was the clumsiest human in the world, you wouldnât believe how clumsy she was. I was deathly afraid that sheâd fall down the stairs and kill herself. And then of course those men in Port Angelesâit just kept happening.â
Bella nodded. âSo, to pick up where I left offâEdward had told me he was a vampire, but I didnât know anything else, well, he admitted a few things that were myths like the coffins, garlic, all he told me was that the didnât burn in the sun but not why he couldnât step outside. Soâthere was the dance coming up, I had been planning to go to Seattle asâoh, I canât believe I forgot. I had been asked by three different people, and I was horrified by it. Me on the dance floor would be a complete disaster. So, Seattle became my excuse for why I couldnât go. But then Edward asked if I wouldnât mind skipping the dance with him, weâd go to a place where he could show me why he couldnât go into the sun.â
Alphard frowned, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He shook his head minutely at Edward.
âAlright,â Edward frowned at him, looking very confused by whatever Alphard had just thought.
âI donât want to interrupt,â Alphard told him meaningfully, whichâBella appreciated, she did appreciate that and he couldnât help thinking thoughts.
âBut when you have questionsââ Edward began.
âI can ask them later, if Bella doesnât get to them herself,â Alphard said forcefully. âNow please, let her talk, and please ignore my thoughts.â
âThank you,â Bella told him honestly, really appreciating that he was letting her get through this.
âEdward was very upset with me becauseâheâd confessed how hard it was for him not to kill me. He told me I should stay away from him, that he was dangerous and especially to me, and that if I was smart Iâd run. Instead, that Saturday, I told Charlie that Iâd be in Seattle by myself. He didnât know I was with Edward, so if anything happened then no one would suspect the Cullens.â
Alphard opened his mouth, gaped at her in horror for a full two seconds, then closed it with a resounding clack.
âYes, I was angry as well,â Edward said, âIt was as if she wanted me to devour her, kept giving me every excuse I needed to get away with it.â
Alphard said nothing.
âHe took me to a meadow and thatâs where he showed me what he looked like in the sun,â Bella said, âAnd we realizedâthere was no getting out of this for either of us. Both of us were in love, even though I was a human and he was a vampire. We were in the most absurd relationship, a lion in love with a lamb.â
Alphardâs mouth opened again, but this time it was to just stare at her, his jaw hanging open.
âAnd so, Edward decided I should meet his family,â Bella grinned, âObviously, Iâd met the others at school, very briefly. Alice had introduced herself, she knew we were going to be friends, but Iâd never spoken with any of the others. Except for Carlisle, that is, weâd met in the hospital after I nearly got hit by the truck. But this would be my meeting them knowing they were vampires and seeing them inside their house where all masks were off. I was terrified.â
She smiled fondly at the memory, âHere I was, in my khaki skirt and best blue blouse, hoping I looked impressive when I was meeting a family of vampires.â
âA khaki skirt isâyou donât know what khaki is?â Edward said in befuddlement.
Alphard held a finger to his lips, signalling for Edward not to interrupt.
âItâs, um, a type of fabric and color,â Bella mumbled, feeling she had to explain some of that since sheâd brought it up.
âItâs this,â Alice said, and ran out of the room, returning a second later with a khaki dress she held up for Alphard. âThis is khaki.â
âOh, yesâlovely,â Alphard said uncertainly, then added, âRemarkable.â
Had heâ
Not seen khaki before?
Alice seemed to have realized the same thing, as she was staring at Alphard almost hungrily and oh, Bella knew that look of an incoming fashion project.Â
Alphard wasnât going to know what hit him.
âSo, I met Edwardâs family, everyone except Rosalie and Emmett anyway,â Bella said before anybody could ask him if he really hadnât seen khaki before, âAnd they were very welcoming even though I was human. Edward told me all about Carlisleâs backstory, the one you just heard. Esme actually made me lunch, she made me a whole pasta dish because she thought I was Italian since my full name is Isabella. It was so sweet. And soâI got invited to a baseball game they were going to play.â
Alphardâs face fell.
âI watched, obviously,â Bella reassured him, knowing what he was thinking, âEsme was the umpire and I was just there to be impressed by Edward. He was showing off a bit.â
âA little bit,â Edward smiled back at her.
âThe problem wasââ Bella frowned as she remembered what happened next, âThe sound of them playing baseball was heard by three vampires nearby. Alice hadnât seen it would happen, as they werenât going to come until they heard it. And so James, Victoria, and Laurent showed up, with no time to remove me from the field.â
Alphardâs face had fallen even further, both corners of his lips were pointing downwards and his eyes were round.
âThey werenât on the diet,â Bella told him with a wry smile, âBut it was worse than that. James was a kind ofâI guess you could call him a serial killer actually. He liked hunts that were difficult, challenging, where other vampires would get in his way. When he realized that the Cullens would protect me, that Edward was in love with me, he decided he was going to hunt and kill me.â
âHorrible,â Alphard commented emphatically.
âIt really was,â Bella said, âI had to lie to Charlie, tell him I hated Forks and I was running back home to Phoenix where my mother was. We hid there, trying to figure out what to doâbut James called me, pretending he had my motherââ
Edward let out a surprised laugh.
âSorry,â he said when everyone looked at him, âSorryâbut Alphard here just pictured his niece doing exactly what you did with Charlie, apparently you are exactly like her. It wasââ he cleared his throat. âIt was a bit unexpected.â
Bella stared at him in disbelief. That phone call of her mother crying in the background had been the worst she had ever received. It still haunted her even though sheâd been turned. She had thought her mother was being tortured.
And what sheâd done to Charlieâ
Sheâd felt horrible, she had used the worst thing she could against him so that heâd agree to let her go. Sheâd purposefully manipulated him, hurt him, all so she could get her way.
âI am so sorry,â Alphard implored her. âI see my nieces everywhere, if you must know, your daughter was quite like a young Bellatrix. Please, I really donât mean to make light of your story. Continue your story.â
Bellaâsupposed heâd just lost his family, she understood.
âUm, anywayâJames told me heâd let my mother go if I came to him. I managed to elude Alice and Jasper and made itâThank god, he didnât have my mother, heâd used home videos heâd found in my old house. My mother had been in Florida with Phil. So, Iâd been an idiotâbut at least it was ending. James didnât think the same, though, itâd been too easy for him. So, he set up a camera and filmed himself torturing me so that the Cullens would come after him afterwards.â
Alphard sank back into the chair he was in, looking absolutely tragic as he listened to this.
Bellaâwas a bit encouraged, actually, she hadnât ever been much of a storyteller but if she was getting this much of a reaction from the man she had to be doing something right.
She straightened up a little, and made her voice a little dramatic as she continued.
âHe bit me, I nearly was turned right then, but the Cullens managed to find me and Edward sucked the venom out,â Bella continued, âThey killed James and the next thing I know, Iâm in a cast in the hospital with a cover story that I fell down the stairs in a hotel and fell out a window.â
She looked at Edward, thinking, âNot much happened for a while after that, actually. I wasnât turned, even though I wanted to be. The next big event was my eighteenth birthday which wasâit was a disaster. I got thrown into a table andâit was so bad, Edward decided that he was the greatest danger to me and that he and his family had to leave so Iâd live a normal human life.â
Edward wasnât looking at her.
His eyes were dark, pained, and he wasnât even breathing as he sat there, listening to her recountâthat.
Sheâd also learned that Edward had thought vampires didnât have souls, and that was why he was so adamant against turning her butâthat felt a little personal to tell when Edward hadnât said as much himself.
The less said about all of that, the better. It wasnât a period of Bellaâs life she enjoyed looking back on. Sheâd almost be glad when it faded for her along with some of her other human memories.
âHe left,â Bella concluded quietly. âAnd I was on my own.â
âThatâs when I met Jake. Wellâwhen we became friends,â she said, looking away from Alphardâs gaze to smile up at Edward instead, placing her hand in his. âHeâs the one who pieced me back together, whoâhe made it possible to breathe again, I could sleep at night without having nightmares. HeâŠâ
She trailed off.
âHeâs not what you think he is,â she said emphatically. âAnd imprinting is normal, you can meet others who have imprintedâSam will be happy to explain, you can meet Emily, Kim, Rachelââ
Or maybe not Emily, Bella realized.
The last thing they needed was for Alphard to take one look at Emilyâs scarred face, hear the story behind it, and then send Jacob to the Arctic.
âAnyway,â she said quickly. âThings happened, and Alice thought sheâd had a vision of me dying. She came to Forks, saw I was actually alive, only Rosalie had already told Edward I was dead. Edward decided to call to make sure, but Jacob picked up the phone, and my dadâs friend had died a few days earlier so he was at a funeral and thatâs what Jacob said.â
She could see realization dawn in Alphardâs eyes.
âWhat I didnât knowâI thought Edward didnât love me anymore,â she said. âBut Alice had a vision at that moment, as soon as Jacob had hung up, that Edwardââ
Edward didnât say anything, his lips turned downwards and his expression incredibly pained for all he was clearly trying to hide it.
âI was going to kill myself,â he said tonelessly.
Bella shuddered.
âIâdâalways planned to,â Edward admitted, his voice thick, âBella was human, I wasnât, she was going to die long before I ever would. I couldnât stand the thought of living without her. Iâd already made plans long beforeâso, when it happened, I knew exactly what I was going to do.â
âHe was going to Volterra,â Bella said.
The other Cullens were watching her now, Carlisleâs and Aliceâs fingers had frozen over the mechanical carousel and they were both sitting there, somber looks on their faces, none of them moving. Rosalie was gazing directly upon Edward, looking like something had gone out of her, and even Emmett had a serious look on his face as they listened to Bellaâs story.
Alphardâs face was tight, his fingers curled in his lap, just taking it all in.
âThe problem was that we couldnât get to the other Cullens in time,â Bella said quietly, âAnd Alice alone couldnât intercept him, he wouldnât listen to her. Edward would only stop if he realized I was alive and itâd all been a mistake. At the time, Iâd just thought he was guilty and felt responsible for what happened to me.â
Bella let out a shaky breath as all the memories came back, âWe got lucky, so lucky. We couldnât stop Edward from meeting with the Volturiâhe was too far ahead of us. However, when he did meet them, they turned him down. They refused to kill someone as gifted as he was, they said it was a great shame.â
Which told Bella everything she needed to know, in retrospect, that they were always looking for opportunities and new gifts for Aroâs collection.
âBut Edward didnât take no for an answer,â Bella said, âHe was determined. So, he thought about it for a while, and he came up with a plan that he would walk out in sunlight in public. That would be in violation of the law, and the Volturi would have no choice but to execute him.â
Alphard turned his head to stare at Edward, a deep and upset frown on his face. Edward didnât look at him, however, was still staring at Bella.
âThank god, and I donât even know how because Iâm the clumsiest person on the planet, but I was able to run all the way through Volterra and stop him before he could step out into the sun. Butâthen we had a new problem, because I was a human who knew the secret but hadnât been turned, and that was against the law too.
âGuards started showing up around us, and they forced us to go into the sewers and further below, where they have dug out tunnels they live in. They wanted us to meet Aro, Caius, and Marcus.â
There was a small sound of something metal snapping, and Alice and Carlisle made identical faces of horror.
The carousel repair wasnât going well, then.
Bella let out a shaky breath, âIn retrospectâI donât know how we got out of that one. Alice saved our bacon. The Volturi wanted me to either turn or die, because thatâs the law. It was dumb luck that they were for me âturningâ, because even when I was human I was immune to Aro and Jane. Edward, of course, didnât want either to happen at the time, he was very against me turning back then. Alice was able to convince Aro that I was going to be turned, the future was set. So, we were all able to go home.â
Alphard opened his mouth, and closed it just as quickly.
âI wanted her to be human,â Edward said darkly.
âYes, of course,â Alphard agreed immediately. âButââ he glanced at Bella, then meaningfully back at Edward.
Bella wondered what silent conversation was going on between them, what Alphard was thinking that was having Edward respond like this.
âThey werenât ever supposed to know,â Edward said darkly.
Bella looked between them, trying to determine exactly what the subject was.
Alphardâs face had straightened out, however, and Edward just smiled briefly at her. âContinue, my love.â
Bella nodded. âAlright,â she said. âSo, the trouble wasâI skipped this part, but remember Victoria?â she asked Alphard meaningfully, âWell, she wanted revenge for Edward killing James. Only, she didnât want to kill Edward himself, she wanted him to hurt the way she was hurting. So, she decided sheâd kill Edwardâs mate, me, the same way he had killed James. Sheâd been trying for months to do it, it was only the wolves that had been stopping her. But she couldnât manage it on her own, and when the Cullens returned she panicked. She made herself a newborn army.â
âOnly, we didnât know that, we just knew the death rate in Seattle was much higher than it should have been but for some reason the Volturi werenât responding,â Bella said, âEven though itâs their job to stop things like newborn armies and the humans were definitely noticing that something wasnât right. When we realized what was happeningâwe tried to call the Denali but they couldnât help us.â
âSee, remember Laurent?â Bella asked Alphard, âWell, when James first began hunting me, heâd decided to leave him and Victoria. He wanted protection and when he heard about the Denali, he decided heâd try the diet and join their large coven. There, he and Irina fell in love and found out they were mates. Only, he couldnât stick to the diet and Victoria found him and made him go back to Forks to see what the situation was. He happened to find me in the meadow, andââ
âOh my god,â she said, her eyes widening. âOh my god, I completely forgot to tell you about the wolves!â
âItâs alright,â Alphard said quickly.
âNo, no-you need to know this,â Bella said. âSo, the wolves in La Push have had an ability, itâs in their blood, that means they can phase. It hadnât happened for many years, but when the Cullens came to live here they started phasing again. You see, the wolves can kill vampires, they exist to protect the tribe. So, more and more of them were phasing.â
âThe wolves killed Laurent when they realized he intended to kill Bella,â Edward cut in, âAs he was Irinaâs mate, the Denali took grievance with this and wanted revenge. When we asked for their assistance, they would only agree if we allowed them to kill the wolves which, obviously, would break our own treaty with the Quileute tribe. As a result, we couldnât count on the Denali for support, and we also couldnât risk inviting any human-eating vampires to the area.â
âYes, butâthis is important, for the imprint,â Bella said, then paused.
What if she failed to explain this properly, for the second time, and solidified Alphardâs opinion that Jacob was bad for Renesmee?
Jacob would never forgive her.Â
âBella, this is a lot of information,â Edward told her gently, perhaps knowing what she was thinking, âI think we can explain the imprint later.â
âYes, Iââ she sighed in frustration. âYouâre right, and we can get Sam to explain it. We can call him.â
She sighed again, âBack to the story, the Denali couldnât help, we couldnât call in anyone who would feed on humans or take issue with my being human but knowing the secret, we had a problem. So, we decided to join forces with the wolves, and thatâs how we fought Victoriaâs army. WellâI didnât fight, obviously, I justââ
âBella, may I cut in?â Carlisle asked.
âUh, sure,â Bella offered, not sure what it was he wanted to say.
âYou remember what Jasper told you about the Volturi,â Carlisle said quickly to Alphard. âThey never let a newborn army get out of control, never. We thought for the longest time the Volturi would interfere, that they would clean up the mess, because itâs what they do and they always do it swiftly.â
Hadnât Bella explained that?
âWell, they did,â Bella said humorlessly, âTurns out, theyâd sent a few guards to confront Victoria behind our backs. They told Victoria that her army would be destroyed, theyâd all be killed, but theyâd give them one day to make their move against us before it happened. They let the army live, just so that they could have a chance at us first, kill all of us, without getting their own hands dirty.â
Carlisle nodded faintly. Heâd abandoned the carousel entirely, and was watching her and Alphard as she talked.
âIt didnât work,â Bella said grimly, âThere wasnât a single death, not one, and thatâs when Jane walked in as if she and the others had only just arrived. They killed the sole survivor of the fight from the other side, a girl named Bree whoâd just been turned, who didnât even know there was a law. And all Jane said was âIâm very surprised Bellaâs still humanâ.â
Alphard nodded, he was frowning deeply again but he was paying incredibly close attention to what she was saying.
âIn the meantime, Edward had convinced me to get married,â Bella said, smiling up at him, âWe even told the Volturi so theyâd know what Edward and I were up to and why I was still human. It was a beautiful wedding, we went to the Cullenâs private island, Isle Esme, for our honeymoon andâwellâRenesmee happened.â
Bella thenâdecided to skip over much of what happened then.
âIt was a hard pregnancy, we didnât really know what was happening as we didnât think it was possible, but we got through it and I was turned just after giving birth,â Bella smiled at him, âAnd Jacob imprinted, of course. And thenâit all went wrong when Irina happened to see Renesmee.â
âShe thought she was an immortal child,â Alphard surmised.
Bella gave him an impressed look.
Carlisle had made a point to explain not just his own history, but the history of vampires when he had the floor, so Alphard did now know what an immortal child wasâbut it was still impressive for him to guess it immediately.
Bella hadnât realized what Irina thought until Alice had her horrible vision.
âYeah,â Bella said, âAnd because their own mother had been killed for making an immortal child, the rest of the coven barely being spared and only because they hadnât been involved at allâshe went straight to Volterra where the Volturi had just been waiting for an excuse. Now they had one, and we had one month to prepare for when theyâd put us on trial and kill us all.
âWe invited every friendly vampire the Cullens knew to be witnesses for us, to see for themselves that Renesmee was not an immortal child, and was perfectly controlled. The Volturi did the same, bringing dozens of witnesses for their side. The confrontation happenedâand even though it was perfectly clear that Renesmee wasnât an immortal childââ
Bellaâs lips turned downwards, âFirst, they killed Irina for bringing them âfalseâ testimony. They killed her right there in front of her sisters and coven, nevermind that Irina had had no idea and was perfectly innocent. Then, even when they admitted Renesmee wasnât an immortal child, they still wanted to kill her because they âcouldnât guarantee what sheâd be in the futureâ. And so, they used their gifts against us, and thatâs when we discovered that I could stop Jane, Alec, even Chelsea.â
âNo,â Edward said forcefully, leaning forwards in his seat and looking intently at Alphard.
Alphard raised his hands up. âIâm sorry, I justââ
âThat isnât what happened,â Edward said. âIt had nothing to do with Renesmee. She was the excuse, the scapegoat Aro wanted to use to destroy our coven. Aroâs motive was to get Alice and I, itâs the way he works.â
He looked askance at Bella before continuing, âThe Volturi have a woman, Chelsea. She manipulates relationships, makes you feel affection, betrayal, gratitude, loyalty, anything she wants between anybody at all. What Aro does, is that he scouts for new gifts, and when he encounters oneâsuch as Aliceââ
Alice raised her hand with a humorless smile.
âHe will leave well enough alone, for a time, until something convenient that he can use comes along,â Edward said. âHe wants to look legitimate, he wants people to believe he is just. So, a coven will be accused, and he will come to that coven with a sorrowful face, wringing his handsââ Edward smiled darkly. âAnd then that one gifted vampire will say he repents, and Aro will give clemency, inducting the new member into his guard while Chelsea has stood behind him in the shadows.â
Bella shuddered again.
âThey retreated to save face,â Bella finished grimly in the oppressive silence, âAlice and Jasper had found another hybrid, an adult named Nahuel, and after witnessing that he was perfectly fine and controlled Aro and the rest scampered off pretending itâd been their decision to pardon us all along. Andâthatâs it, now weâre here, until the next time they decide weâve broken the law.â
A morbid part of Bella was curious to see what excuse theyâd come up with.
âThat was quite the story,â Alphard said when they concluded. âIâsuppose I should be telling you mine, but I would actually like a couple of hours to think all of this through.â
He raised his eyebrows. âAnd I should hunt,â he added.
âOh, right,â Bella said, because although technically she wasnât much olderâshe did get it. She had to hunt way too often and it was deeply embarrassing and especially because she hadnât stopped ruining her clothes.
âCarlisle, will you accompany me?â Alphard said as he rose from the sofa. âAnd I can tell my story tomorrow, when Esme and dear Renesmee might hear it as well.â
âOh, certainly,â Carlisle offered, standing as well.
With that, the pair of them were gone, leaving the rest of them.
They all turned to Edward and Alice to see what they made of it. Alice tilted her head towards Edward, indicating that he would go first. Edward, however, just frowned and nodded at Rosalie.
âI like him,â Rosalie said immediately.
âI do too,â Jasper said, and looked up at Alice.
âHeâs interesting,â she nodded, but there was approval in that nod.
âYou do?â Bella asked, especially surprised atâno, at both. Rosalie was just so contrary that Bella half-expected her to hate him for some ridiculous reason like âhis hair is too longâ. Jasper would hate anyone that was a threat to Alice.
Both of them being so immediately positive wasâstrange.
âHeâsââ Rosalie exhaled, and shifted in her seat. âHeâs blunt, heâs intelligent, he seems to have the right priorities. He seems like someone we can trust.â
Bella supposed that was all true, she was just surprised to hear Rosalie say it when Rosalie had always been so negative about Bella for things like being human and Edward thinking she was beautiful.
âBut he canât stay if he canât accept Jacob,â Bella cut in before any of them could get too far, âAnd we have to do something about that instant-teleport-shield, if there really is one.â
âJacobâIâm sure Jacob will be fine,â Alice said, glancing at Jasper.
âI donâtâI donât dislike him,â Bella said carefully, because that was true, she didnât, âHe seems fine. And I get it, I had the same reaction and I had a lot more information and had seen imprinting for myself. But that doesnât change the fact that Jacob was here first and is far more important to Renesmee.â
âRenesmee adored him,â Alice pointed out carefully. âIâve never seen her so excited about somebody, and he was very nice to her.â
âShe was always excited about new people,â Bella reminded her, âAnd thatâs what he is right now, a new person, heâs not a replacement for Jacob and he canât be.â
Alice shrugged.
âDo you know if he can do anything else?â Emmett asked. âAside from making cats and teleporting Jacob?â
âYou mean if he can teleport the Volturi away?â Jasper grinned. âI was just thinking it.â
âI donât know,â Edward said, âHeâs beenâcareful, with the Denali. Tanya made the worst impression imaginable.â
âHe wouldnât let them call him Alphard,â Rosalie snorted. âGod, Kate, Tanya, Carmen, even Eleazar have been trying to seduce him for months, hasnât worked!â
Bella spluttered. âEleazar?!â she balked. Then, âCarmen? Kate?!â
âWhen the women werenât working they thought maybe they just had to widen the field,â Rosalie said with another laugh.
Bella had never been more grateful in her life that she couldnât blush.
Holy cow, though, she was reeling.
She supposed gay vampires had to exist, but for Eleazar to be willing to try it, nevermind Kate and Carmen trying when they were both mated was just inconceivable. Where had Garrett been in all this?
Perhaps when they said seduceâperhaps theyâd meant flirtation, or theyâd tried to find him a mate. That was probably closer to it. The alternative, that all four of them had been throwing themselves at a man like Alphard for eight months, a fifty-year-oldâ
No, she couldnât imagine it. Maybe it was just Tanya, though even that felt like a bit much given how hung up Tanya had been on Edward. There had to be some misunderstanding. Even if they were succubiâshe just couldnât picture it.
âHe believes theyâve turned him to be a weapon against the Volturi,â Edward told them darkly, âA trump card to support Bella without having to rely on Benjamin. The worst part isâitâs not entirely wrong. Tanya meant well, she thought he was losing his mind when she found him wandering around Anchorage, asking for directions to places that didnât exist. Turning him could restore his sanity, his youth, and give him a new familyâit didnât hurt, however, that heâd created a bouquet out of nothing and handed it to her.â
Bellaâs gaze was drawn towards Rosalie.
âIt didnât go well,â Edward concluded grimly. âFrom the moment he woke up heâs been furious with them, nothing theyâve tried has made him amenable. Even little things, like asking if he wanted to watch a movie together has been met with refusal.â
Eight months was a long time not to open up even a little.
Bella could see why theyâd called Carlisle in the end.
âAs a result, heâs clearly been resistant to displaying his full arsenal,â Edward said, âEleazar wasnât able to see much either, only that he was powerful and that his gift is a very multifaceted physical one. Eleazar tried to have him light something on fire, the way Benjamin can summon fire butâhe said he couldnât do it. It was unclear if he truly couldnât or if he simply refused to try in front of them. From what Iâve seen of his mind, itâs very much the latter, he knows heâs much more powerful than heâs displaying, but he has no intent on showing either the Denali or us just how far he can take it.
âThe only thing which seemed to get them anywhere was earlier today, when they told him about Renesmee,â Edward said. âHe seems to like children.â
âThenâthatâs good,â Bella said slowly.
âIt could be better,â Edward told her grimly, âIf it comes to a fight with Volterraâheâll protect Renesmee but he wonât fight the Volturi. Right now itâs too tied up with his hatred of the Denali, he doesnât want to destroy their enemies.â
âTanya said heâd given a very conditional promise,â Edward said. âThat if her story was true, and the child was in danger, he would help protect the child.â
âBut that is all true!â Bella insisted.
âBut heâs reluctant,â Edward sighed, âAndâit really is a disaster. I understand how it happened, how Tanya could have made this mistake and how she meant just as well as Carlisle did upon turning usâbut she still made it and I donât know if we can recover from it.â
âIâm sure itâll go better now,â Alice said. âHeâs met Renesmee, he liked her, he knows that everything the Denali said is true, and heâs still a newborn. Everyone is miserable as a newborn, once thatâs over and he realizes he has all the time in the world and a body thatâs young again heâll feel much better about it.â
âWhich could be ten years from now,â Edward pointed out.
âImmediate future is showing heâs out of the newborn stage in about two months,â Alice said, apparently not one to be deterred. âPerfect yellow eyes. Weâll take it from there.â
Bella looked at Alice, biting her lip, then asked, âI know you canât see anything with Jacobâbut does he ever say heâs wrong about him, at least? Can any of us ever convince him?â
âWhat if heâs right?â Rosalie cut in.
Bella glared at her, telling herself to ignore it, and turned her attention back to Alice.
âBella,â Alice said slowly, âI donât want you to get upset, but trying to convince him heâs wrong is the worst thing any of us could do.â
Rosalie nodded, and got up to sit next to Bella. âDo you know what happens if he gets convinced weâre going to give Renesmee to a pedophile?â
âBut we arenât!â Bella hissed at her, unable to believe she was even having this conversation.
âBut if we keep insisting we should give Renesmee to what he believes is a pedophile, what do you think heâs going to conclude?â Rosalie asked meaningfully.
âI canât see it, obviously,â Alice said, âBut thereâs a lot of futures where he disappears and the family becomes a lot more clear than usual. I think we all know what that means.â
âHe takes Renesmee and runs,â Jasper explained to Bella.
âI would too in his place,â Rosalie said intently, placing her hand on Bellaâs knee and leaning forwards to catch her gaze. âIf I met all these new people, if I saw a little girl and a grown man who thinks sheâs his soulmateââ
âHe kidnaps my baby?!â Bella asked them in horror.
âIf you convince him that the only thing you want is to hand Renesmee over to Jacob,â Alice told her, âThereâs a lot of muddy futures for all of us which means that Renesmee stays right where she belongs.â
âIf he stays, the Volturi canât touch us,â Rosalie said, squeezing Bellaâs knee as she spoke. âEver. He can teleport them away. Any threat at all, anybody who wants to hurt us or Renesmee, he can send away packing.â
âSo weâre sacrificing Jacob for our own protection?!â Bella asked them in disbelief, feeling as if she didnât even know these people, even if it was Rosalie speaking.
âHeâs not sacrificed,â Alice said in an unimpressed tone, making it clear how little she thought of Jacob, âHeâs perfectly fine. He can go back home, Bella. Heâs just not involved with us anymore.â
âHeâll die,â Bella said. âIf heâs without his imprintâheâll die!â
Alice exchanged a glance with Rosalie.
âHeâs human,â Rosalie reminded Bella, âHe was always going to die someday. And no, I donât think losing access to Renesmee will make him keel over tomorrow morning.â
âHeâll be fine,â Alice said. âHe could even imprint again, who knows?â
âTo a girl his own age,â Rosalie supplied. âA girl from his tribe, even, a human girl.â
âThatâs not how it works!â Bella hissed at them both, âYou canât imprint a second time!â
âWe donât know that,â Edward reminded her, âImprinting was thought to be a legend among the wolves until recently. Very little is known about it.â
âCall Jacob,â Jasper said. âExplain to him why he canât see Renesmee, and ask him not to try to get around this. Call Sam as well, immediately after, explain the same thing.â
âExplain what?â Bella laughed bitterly, âThat heâs exiled becauseâbecause some guy showed up out of nowhere and said so? That he doesnât get to see Renesmee anymore, ever? That he canât even be within five kilometers of her? And all because this guy who doesnât even know what imprinting is decided it?â
âBella, if Jacob doesnât get an explanation for whatâs happening there is a chance he will go to Sam, go to the elders, tell them the Cullens are refusing him access to his imprint, and the tribe will declare war on us,â Jasper said. âYou need to call them.â
âIâm not doing it,â Bella said firmly, âI donât agree with this, IâI donât even think Alphard Black should be a new Cullen. He doesnât even seem to want to be and so he has no business interfering.â
âPeople will get hurt, Bella,â Jasper told her, his eyes dark, âThat will likely include Jacob and may even include some of us. If the worst happens, Jacob could be the one running off with your daughter.â
âWhich only happens if too many of us are dead,â Emmett shot in.
âIf you donât call them, Carlisle will,â Rosalie said. âBut Jacob will want to hear it from you.â
Bella looked at her in disbelief, then the others andâeven Edward wasnât saying anything.
âHeâs probably already on his way!â Bella snapped at them, knowing sheâd have tears in her eyes if she was human, âYou think heâs carrying a cell phone?!â
âIâll tell Carlisle to call Sam,â Edward told Jasper, âBella, you should go out to meet Jacob, explain whatâs happened and keep him calm. Even if Sam doesnât agree and the tribe doesnât break the treatyâJacobâs an alpha and we have to stop him from ordering Leah, Seth, Quil, and Embry to help him.â
âI can come with,â Jasper said abruptly. âIâll use my gift.â
Bellaâ
Hated that she couldnât disagree with that, because Jasper would have to keep Jacob calm or else he was going to lose it. Bella felt like she was losing it just sitting here.
âI canât believe youâre going along with this,â she told all of them in disbelief, âIâwe donât even know this man. You just met him today!â
There should be no question of who was winning this fight.
âBella, it isnât even our decision!â Alice snapped.
âThen whose is it?!â Bella asked, âDonât we get a say in any of this? You all sure got a say in whether I was turned or not, in case you forgot.â
âItâs his!â Alice said. âEven if we agreed with you, whichâof course we do, but what are we supposed to do? Tell him to stop using his gift? He wonât, thatâs what weâre trying to tell you!â
âThen he doesnât get to join the Cullens!â Bella pointed out, âIf he wants to be a Cullen so badly then he canât use his gift however he wants!â
âThen he takes Renesmee and she grows up with a British accent,â Alice said.
âOh, he takesâoh, Iâd like to see him try,â Bella said sharply.
âWe only knew Jacob was in Alaska because he told us,â Jasper reminded her grimly, âAnd because he was kind enough to send him to our friends. Renesmee could be taken anywhere in the world and we have no trackers.â
âEven if we did, if he can put up a barrier that sends you away he wouldnât need to hide. Weâd just be thrown wherever he likes if we got close,â Alice said.
âHe wouldnât dare!â Bella said.
âBella, heâs not our enemy,â Alice told her, âI told you, there are many futures where everythingâs perfectly fine. Now, theyâre dwindling because you keep deciding youâre going to do something extreme, but it doesnât have to be like this.â
âYou mean only if I give him what he wants,â Bella said, andâthat was it, she hated this man. Heâd seemed polite enough, pleasant enough, but heâd walked into her life and made decisions without consulting anyone and without thinking of anyone either.
âWhich is Renesmeeâs safety,â Alice said. âBella, he met all of us today, and what he saw was a family who was letting a man prey on a little girl and it kind of sounded like heâs encountered it before. Now heâs got the power to stop it, so heâs doing just that.â
âBut heâs wrong,â Bella reminded them.
âBellaââ Alice sighed, âThis was never going to last anyway, you know that, right? What was going to happen when we had to move?â
âJake would move with us,â Bella said slowly.
âOh, so he just leaves his disabled father?â Alice asked, âToodles, Billy, hope you have fun?â
âHe has Rachel!â Bella said. âRachel is coming back after college, she can take care of him! Paul, Seth, Leah, the tribeâtheyâre all there for him! And it isnât like Jake canât visit!â
Even Charlie would be happy to step up and help Billy with anything he needed.
âAnd what about all his friends? The pack? La Push itself for that matter?â Alice asked, âAnd how exactly was he supposed to fit into the family of vampires? He looks older than Carlisle and he looks very different than the rest of us. Is he supposed to pretend heâs in high school so he can spend every second with Renesmee? âHello, fellow children, my name is Jacob Hale and I like skateboardsâ.â
âItâs what the rest of us are doing,â Bella said.
âYeah, but we donât look like twenty-five-year old giants,â Alice said, âAnd they already think weâre incestuous freaks. And what happens the first time someone hits on Renesmee or thinks sheâs cute? Do you honestly think Jacob would just walk past that and do nothing? That someone wouldnât get seriously hurt?â
âBella,â Rosalie said, in a voice that was entirely tooânice, too persuasive, it was so clear that she was using her sensible persuading Bella voice, âsomething thatâs bothered me with all of this is Renesmeeâs future. If Renesmee grows up, and she meets someone she falls in love with, she canât have a man whoâs always there and needs to be there every day, whoâs always her number one.â
âHeâd be fine with that,â Bella insisted, âBecause heâs only going to be what Renesmee needs him to be.â
âWould she be?!â Rosalie said. âWould her husband? Bella, imagine if Edward had a woman whoâd been living here since Edward was a baby and who would always be more important to him than you, who was his soulmate and partner, Iâit wouldnât work!â
Tanya, Bellaâs mind immediately supplied.
If Tanya had been a member of the Cullens, if she and Edward had had a will-they-wonât-they relationship for years in which Tanya had been very interestedâ
Bella couldnât help the face she was making, even though it was absurd and she should be past this already because Edward had married her.
âGive it time,â Rosalie said. âLet Renesmee grow up, let her have time and if she wants to marry him she can. We can write Jacob letters, tell him sheâs fine, let him know sheâs safe. And Renesmee can fall in love with whoever is right for her, without Jacob making it complicated.â
Thatâ
Was a point, as much as Bella hated to admit it.
Itâd hurt Jacob tremendously but if Jacob was only a platonic imprint then itâd give Renesmee a chance to grow up and meet her real mate. If he was a romantic imprint, then he could show up when she was grown and nobody could throw a fuss about it anymore because he hadnât even been around for the past six years.
Otherwise, people would be bringing this up for the rest of eternity, and no one would ever give Jacob or even Renesmee any peace about it.
And six years for a vampire, even for an immortal shapeshifter, was nothing.
âAlright,â Bella sighed, âIâll talk to Jacob.â
He wasnât going to like it, Bella didnât either, but it seemed like it was the only way. Sheâd just tell him that if he didnât wait, then everyone would accuse him of being a pedophile forever. Besides, he really should go to school.
Alice lit up, âGreat!â she said. âNow I have to shop for Alphard, itâsâshould I just drive to Seattle? No, Iâll order some now and drive after. Edward, can you get Esme? Iâm thinking chic library, Clooney coffee advertisement atmosphere for his room. You know, I almost wish his hair was grayer.â
With that she sprinted upstairs, and Bella heard her poor laptop give a surprised squeak as it was booted back to life.
Rosalie squeezed Bellaâs knee one last time, then got up and walked to Emmett.
They exchanged meaningful smiles, and a moment later they were running outside, hand in hand.
âIâll get Esme,â Edward said quietly.
And thenâ
It was just her and Jasper left in the room.
Bella groaned, got to her feet, and then decided there was no point and just flung herself out the office windows. Sheâd leave the talking to Sam business to Carlisle, let him have fun with that, talking to Jacob was going to be hard enough.
She ran north, searching for Jacobâs scent, and quickly caught up to him. Jasper tailed her, never far behind.
âJake!â she called out when his wolf form was in view, âJake! Stop! We have to talk!â
Jake skid to a halt, transformed, and immediately started swearing as he struggled with the bundle at his neck, trying to put on a pair of shorts.
âWhat is it?â he asked, looking between her and Jasper, âWhatâs happened? Whereâs Renesmee?â
âRenesmeeâs back home,â Bella told him, âSheâs fine.â
âGoddammit, Bella!â Jacob hissed as he stalked towards her, âWhy didâwhy couldnât you let me explain it?! I canât even blame the leech! You made me sound like a pedophile!â
âItâs only gotten worse,â Bella said.Â
âWhat did you tell him?!â Jacob asked her, and Bella could feel Jasper immediately exuding calm towards both of them, âAndâyou brought the therapy leech?!â
Jasper didnât say anything to that, nor did he stop using his gift, and it looked as if Jacob couldnât help calming somewhat as his breathing grew less heavy and his heart rate slowed.
âI told himââ Bella tried to keep her breath even, to not begin crying right there, âI told him we were friends. I told him we grew up together, youâd been my best friend who saved my life again and again and there wouldnât be a Renesmee without you, and he concluded that had to be why I was protecting you. That I couldnât see straight.â
âGoddammit Bella,â Jacob told her, though he didnât look upset, more dumbfounded, âIââ
Then he started laughing, actually laughing.
âYouâve gone full Cullen,â he finally concluded between his snickers, âChrist, what a mess.â
âWhat?â she whispered. âJake, Iâwhat do you mean?â
âForget it,â he said with a sigh, âSo, let me guess, the second I get close to Renesmee I get launched to Mars.â
âYouâll need to lie low for now,â Bella agreed. âIf he starts thinking weâre helping a pedophile, he can just take Renesmee. We canât stop him.â
âWhatâs âfor nowâ,â Jacob said darkly, but it looked he knew exactly what she meant.
âHonestlyââ Bella looked at Jasper, winced, then said, âSix years?â
Jacobâs knees gave out.
âJust until she grows up,â Bella reassured him, âThe whole problem is that sheâs too young and youâreâaround. So, just donât be around for a while, she grows up, and then no one has a problem with it!â
Jacob didnât look like he could hear a word she was saying. He was just sitting there, his face completely blank, his eyes unfocused, his hands hanging limply by his sides.
He looked like her words had torn a hole in his chest.
âYou can go to college or become a mechanic!â Bella told him gently, âItâs not forever, just a few years, and it gives you time to do whatever you want to do until then.â
âBella, all I want to do is be near her,â he told her with the emptiest, soulless eyes.
âYou will be,â Jasper promised him, and Bella turned to look at him in surprise. âBut not for a little while.â
Jacob looked at him, the beginnings of something desperate in his eyes.
âYou can still email and write, Jake,â Bella reassured him, not quite reaching out to touch him when she didnât know if that would calm him down or make things worse given her vampire state, âYouâre not going to be absent from her life. You just have to back off for a while, only a little while.â
âYouâll be together again,â Jasper assured him. âYou just have to wait. Six short years.â
There was an incredibly strong feeling of calmness and relaxation that came with Jasperâs words, and Bella could see it was starting to affect Jacob. He was nodding, though he still had a numb look on his face.
âYeah!â Bella said, encouraged by Jasperâs reassurance, âYou hear that? The Cullens understand. Itâs justâitâs too soon, sheâs too little, and even if youâre not immortal, six years is nothing.â
Sheâd been so afraid earlier that no one had understood, that Jacob was being thrown under the bus, but it sounded like all the Cullens were being reasonable. If Jasper was saying only six years, that meant that it was just to give Renesmee enough time to grow up and figure out what she wanted.
If after that time, she wanted Jacob, then great. If she found a different man, then that was great too and Jacob could become her best friend without chasing her soulmate off.
âButâwhat will I do?â Jacob asked Bella, âIâI canât even remember what I did before her. What am I supposed to do all day? How am I going to wait for six years?â
âVideo games?â Bella asked him with an apologetic shrug, âI know youâve gotten behind on those.â
âTake care of your father,â Jasper instructed him. âGet a job, gain an income, maybe get the money to buy a better house. Youâre a good mechanic.â
âYeah, thatâsââ Jacob looked at him, nodding slowly, âThatâs a good thing. I donât want Renesmee to have to live off of Cullen money. Christ, I donât want to live off Cullen money. I have to have some savings.â
âI mean, that would be fine,â Bella told him, not wanting to look into how she was âliving off Cullen moneyâ as he put it, âBut I think itâd be a good thing for you to do. You always wanted to be a mechanic, remember?â
âPhones,â Jacob realized desperately. âI can call her. We can be on the phone!â
âYup,â Bella told him with a grin, âIsnât technology amazing?â
âYouâll send letters,â Jacob instructed. âPictures, lots of pictures. I want to know everything she does, and I need to hear her voice every day. Promise me that, Bella.â
âAll the time,â Bella promised him, âIâll keep you up to date on absolutely everything. And sheâll call too.â
This hadâgone better than Bella had thought. Bella had thought Jacob would be destroyed the way she had been when Edward left, but maybe the promise of simply having to wait a set amount of time, of knowing he could still write and see pictures and be in contact made all the difference.
Heâd always been stronger than she was.
âAnd tell that leechââ Jacob sighed, âActually, donât say anything to him, youâll just make it worse. Bella, promise me that you wonât say anything.â
âI wonât,â she promised.
âPromise,â Jacob made her promise, âLet Sam talk to him.â
âI wonât! I promise,â she said. âAndâsure, alright.â
âI donât want any more leeches explaining how imprinting works,â he said firmly. âYou let Sam talk to him. Sam will sort this out, and if he still isnât listening you let me figure out what to do, alright?â
Bella nodded, letting him know that this was exactly what she was going to do. Sam would get through to Alphard, Sam was a wolf himself, had imprinted, and could explain things far better than Bella could.
âGood,â he sighed, âGood, this isâIâm going home.â
âOh,â Bella said, stepping away as Jacob tore off his pants in preparation to phase. Once again, Bella turned around, hating that Jacob justâdid this around her with no regard for who was watching.
âHang on,â Jacob said. âDoes he have a phone?â
âWho?â Bella asked, still not looking.
âThe new leech,â Jacob said. âAlphard, or whatever the name was.â
âUm, no, not yet,â Bella said, âBut when he gets one I can let you know. Iâm sure Alice is shopping for one already.â
âYeah, but Sam wonât have his number,â Jacob pointed out.
âRight,â Bella said, realizing that was a bit of a problem, âUmâactually, I think weâre having Carlisle tell Sam about whatâs happened. So heâs not surprised.â
âThen Carlisle can lend the phone to new leech,â Jacob concluded. âAlright. Alright, Iâm off then.â
This time, he did phase and scampered off towards La Push.
Bella watched him run and only when he was out of sight did she realizeâ
âGood job, Bella,â Jasper told her quietly, sounding impressed as the waves of relaxation faded from him.
âWait!â Bella realized in horror, âHeâll want to see her from a distanceâheâs going to run into that damn barrier!â
Bella took off sprinting after him, âJake! Jake! Jake, stop! Thereâs something I forgot to tell you!â
âYouâll never catch him, Bella,â Jasper said, having maintained a human walking pace. âHeâs faster, remember.â
Bella groaned, coming to a halt. She brought out her phone, searched for Tanyaâs number and justâshe just wanted to cry.
Space Oddity is a fic @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and I co-wrote in the summer of 2023, then abandoned. Then again, in January of this year, we tried to resurrect the fic and wrote a few chapters before deciding they were bad and the fic unsalvageable. We opted not to publish these chapters.
There have been requests to see these chapters, however, and as they do exist and people wish to see them we have decided to publish them here on tumblr (as publishing them on Ao3 would indicate a stamp of approval weâre not comfortable with).
The other chapters can be found on this blog or @therealvinelle or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta under the tag âSpace Oddityâ.
Read at at your own risk, and please note that our decision not to write more of this fic is final.
Renesmeeâs attention was drawn away from Jacobâs story by the sound of Aunt Aliceâs light, but racing fast footsteps.
She was returning, then, from having watched as most of the family went to see the new vampire.
Thereâd been a discussion that maybe Renesmee and Jacob should leave the house so that Aunt Alice could have her visions, but this was decided against as there were two of Renesmee and Jacob, and one of Aunt Alice.
Grandmother Esme, who had been in the kitchen making Renesmee (but mostly Jacob) cookies came rushing out, wiping the flour off her hands and onto her apron, while Momma closed her book.
Aunt Alice came into the room like a wind, her eyes wider than usual but still distant, as if she was only halfway there in the room with them.
âWell?â Jacob queried before she could say a word.
âIâll need you to step away from the baby first,â Aunt Alice said dully, blinking once before focusing on Jacob.
âWhat?!â Jacob seethed.
âIf you turn into a giant dog you wouldnât want to accidentally maul her,â Aunt Alice said with a sniff, âAnd donât tell me it doesnât happen, we both know it does, especially with imprints. So, stand in the corner over there first.â
Jacob frowned but got up, and took several demonstrative steps away from Renesmee until he was standing in the corner of the room.
âWhat happened?â Momma asked, sounding deeply concerned asâif it was something that would make Jacob this upset it had to be serious, didnât it? If Alice was asking him to step away, when she couldnât even see him, then that meant she knew it would go poorly.
âCarlisleâs bringing the newborn.â
âWhat?!â Jacob roared, and phased. In less than a second, a massive red wolf was where Jacob had been a second before, snarling and clawing at the carpet. It looked as if it was taking everything he had not to lunge at Aunt Alice.
Aunt Alice just wrinkled up her entire face. âYeah, I wasnât consulted either,â she told him, not sounding pleased at all, âBut from what I could see, heâll be fine. Our first meeting goes absolutely fine, I donât know what happens when he meets you though.â
This last was said with an accusing look towards Jacob, who not only blocked her visions but who she couldnât see.
âButâheâs bringingâyou mean he wants him to visit right now? Alice, heâs a newborn!â Momma fretted.
Grandmother took a look at Jacob and flew up the stairs, returning a moment later with a fresh set of clothes she put into a bag and hung around his neck.
Jacob huffed and trotted out the door, and Renesmee heard him phase back to his human form just outside the room, evidently in control of his temper again.
âYeah, thatâs the problem, heâs not coming to visit,â Alice said, not paying any mind to Jacobâs absence, âFrom what I could see, the man hates the Denali, and I mean he hates them, all of them, but especially Tanya. But he also doesnât want to eat humans so weâre his only other option.â
Momma stared blankly at Aunt Alice.
Jacob appeared in the doorway again, though he was shaking all over. âCarlisleâs bringing a new leech?â he hissed, sounding the angriest Renesmee had ever heard him. âTo Nessie?!â
Alice made a face. âThatâs what I was saying,â she said. âAnd he made Jasper tell Tanya!â
âAnd we donât get any say in this?!â Jacob asked, âIf he doesnât like the Denali then fine, he can live in the woods somewhere!â
âThatâsââ Aunt Alice looked around the room. âThat isnât how Carlisle does things. He doesnât just turn people out.â
Grandmother nodded fervently.
âJasper and I are only here because the Cullens were generous enough to take us in, even when there were so many of you already. Thatâs not even getting into Jasperâs past,â Alice reminded him, looking quite fond and nostalgic when she said it, âSo, I canât exactly throw stones, Jacob.â
âYou said he doesnât want to drink humans,â Grandmother pointed out, looking at Alice. âSoâthatâs happy news, of course we have to help him.â
âHe has a clean record,â Alice said, âThough thatâs probably mostly because of the Denali. Heâs been careful, staying far away from humans.â
âAnd now heâs coming to live with Nessie,â Jacob growled, trembling so much Renesmee worried about the doorframe.
âWith all of us,â Alice said, âBut yeah, Nessie too.â
She sighed, âIf I could see anything, I could be more helpful but, since it concerns Nessie hereââ
She shrugged dramatically.
âThen weâll leave,â Jacob said abruptly. âNessie, weâre going.â
âTo where?â Grandmother said in surprise, looking around the room and at Momma in alarm.
âWe are?â Renesmee asked.
âLa Push,â Jacob offered, walking across the room and taking Renesmeeâs hand in his own.
âOh, you think theyâll be happy about that?â Alice scoffed, âYou think theyâll accept her with open arms just because sheâs your imprint? I donât have to see the future to know how that proposal will go.â
Renesmee glanced up at Jacob, at their conjoined hands, then at her mother who was still sitting there looking very confused.
âI think it will be alright,â Bella said with an apologetic shrug to Jacob, âIf itâs very bad for him, then he can live in another cottage until he has better control. I was able to hold Renesmee after a few days, I think it will be alright. And every other vampire sheâs met has been just fine. And Alice said what she could see went well, soââ
Renesmee nodded, and smiled up at Jacob. âSee, Jake, itâs fine,â she said, squeezing his hand slightly.
âItâs not fine!â he snapped at her, only to relent, âNessieâthis isnât like those leeches who came to the fight. They were all really old, they had control, and we knew they were your friends. We donât even know this guy.â
She rose to her tip-toes, holding up her hand and waited for him to lean down so she could touch his cheek.
Jacob stared at her for another moment, then she saw the anger go out of him and he knelt down in front of her.
She showed him what she thought of this, and after a moment Jacob leaned away. âNo, Nessie, it isnât going to be exciting meeting someone new.â
Wasnât it?
Grandfather had disappeared very quickly after getting the call from Tanya, but heâd said the new vampire was incredibly gifted, that he could do things Tanya had never seen before. Now he was coming to live here, at least for a timeâthat had to be exciting, didnât it?
Jacob tended to be very negative where vampires were concerned, however, so she supposed it wasnât surprising that he didnât agree with her.
Since that tumultuous month when all the strangers had arrived and the confrontation with the Volturi, things had settled down and her world had grown significantly smaller. For the past several months itâd been just her family, Jacob, and Grandpa Charlie.
It would be nice to meet someone new again.
She looked around the room, âWill they be here soon?â
âYouâre not meeting him, Nessie,â Momma said immediately, and a moment later she was by Renesmeeâs side and had picked her up, even though Renesmee was getting a little big for that. âNot until we know itâs safe.â
âIf that,â Jacob chortled. âNessie, you sure you donât want to go to La Push? Talk to Emily?â
âI want to stay,â Renesmee insisted, and she did, and it was her home too. Sheâd have to come home sometime and this new vampire would be there, she didnât want to put this off forever.
âHow about we let Carlisle and Jasper decide when they get here, theyâll know what to do,â Esme said. âNessie, honey, do you want me to make you something? Hot chocolate?â
âOh, and Iâm supposed to just sit back and let them decide whatâs best for Nessie?â Jacob asked, âWhen Iâm the one biologically designed to keep her safe? Did you people forget what imprint even means?â
âWe havenât forgotten, Jake,â his mother told him gently, then she grinned at him, âAnd I know youâll protect her.â
âEven if he loses control, heâs one eight month old newborn vampire against all of us, and I think he was pretty old when they turned him,â Aunt Alice chirped. âThe newborn strength will probably be gone before itâs been even a full year.â
âWhat about that gift?â Jacob sniffed dubiously, âWhatâs that supposed to be?â
âNot sure,â Aunt Alice said.
âSo, it could be dangerous,â Jacob said.
âNot with me here,â Bella told him with a smile, before that turned into a thoughtful frown, âI mean, probably not.â
âHow old do you think he was?â Grandmother asked Aunt Alice pleasantly.
âFrom what Iâve seen?â Aunt Alice asked, thinking it over even as she spoke, âIâd guess past fifty. He certainly wasnât in his thirties.â
âHuh,â Bella blinked. âThatâsâactually a bit old. Thatâs older than Charlie.â
She made a face at the idea of someone being older than Grandpa Charlie. Which, Renesmee had to agree, Grandpa Charlie was the oldest looking being she knew, and sheâd never been sure if it was because he was human or something else.
Grandfather though had informed Renesmee that all of her family had been turned when they were very young, and Jacob was still very young himself, Grandpa Charlie had just gotten a chance to age because he was still human.
âMaybe that will make it easier for him,â Grandmother suggested hopefully. âJasper has always talked about how the newborns had to be very physically young, since they had it so much worse than older people.â
âHe didnât lose it with Carlisle or Jasper,â Aunt Alice said, âEven though heâs newborn and was clearly pissed.â
âThatâs good, then,â Esme decided.
âThatâs good?â Jacob scoffed.
âYouâve lost it with vampires plenty of times before,â Bella reminded Jacob with a prim smile, âAnd now youâre doing just fine.â
âOnly because I have no choice,â Jacob sniffed, then reached out a hand to ruffle Renesmeeâs hair.
âYou love us,â Momma said with a wry smile. âYou love leeches.â
âYeah,â Jacob snorted, then laughed a bit. âYou know they call me leech lover?â
âNo!â Momma said, laughing as well.
âAlright, I donât like it, and Iâll be here when he shows up,â Jacob told Aunt Alice, âBut itâs clear I donât have a choice. So, I guess Iâll go along with it. For now.â
Aunt Alice gave him a funny-looking smile, but she didnât say anything.
Instead, she turned to Renesmee. âWant to play dress up before he comes?â she asked, beaming at Renesmee.
And now it was Renesmee who knew she had no choice but to go along with it.
LINEBREAK
âTheyâre nearly here!â Aunt Alice said, rushing back inside the house. âFifty seconds.â
âNessie, get behind me!â Jacob barked, even though Renesmee was already sitting behind him on the floor.
âItâs just Carlisle and the newborn, the others are a half hour behind,â Aunt Alice said.
âAs a reminder,â Aunt Alice said pointedly, in that tone she used when she felt people had forgotten what she had already said, âIâve only seen how this meeting goes when itâs just Bella, Esme, and I. So, I donât know exactly how this will work if you two stay in the room. What I can tell you is that it will be fine if itâs just the three of us.â
âWhatâs he like?â Momma asked.
âHeâsââ Aunt Alice drew her lips together. âBritish. Old school.â
âHeâs British?â Momma asked in surprise.
âYes, and posh,â Aunt Alice laughed.
âWhatâs that supposed to mean?â Jacob asked in disgust.
âYouâll see,â Aunt Alice said cryptically and turned back towards the door.
Sounded exciting, Renesmee knew âBritishâ from a few movies, it was the pixelated humans who spoke differently than Renesmeeâs family and lived in a place called England.
Her parents had given her many books set in England, Mommaâs absolute favorite books were about people in England from around two-hundred years ago. However, theyâd all seemed so fantastical and different that Renesmee could hardly believe they were real.
Footsteps became audible to Renesmee just then, and she lit up, looking out the window in excitement.
There was her grandfather and next to him, as promised, someone new.
The new vampire was shorter and smaller than her grandfather, had very dark long hair, and there was something about his face that looked just a bit different than her grandfatherâs as well in a way she couldnât quite place.
He looked stately, more aristocratic and regal than both the Romanians and the Volturi, and like he belonged in a stately manor in rural England along with Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennett.
Grandfather paused with the vampire, just outside the house. âThis is the place we live,â he told him before looking up at the window and making eye contact with Aunt Alice. âAlice, I thought you could all come outside to meet Mr. Black,â he called out. âIt should be safe to bring Renesmee.â
âShould be?!â Jacob hissed.
âRenesmee smellsânot appetizing, not exactly,â Grandfather was explaining to the man, âBut she doesnât smell like one of us either. No oneâs tried to eat her so far, but weâve also only ever had one newborn around her and she was quite controlled.â
âYouâre sure,â the man said dubiously to Carlisle, not just dubiously but with a touch of horror at the idea of eating Renesmee. âThe other newbornâs her mother, itâs hardly a surprise she kept her act together.â
âYouâre quite controlled for a newborn yourself,â Carlisle told the man, âItâs actually very hard to keep your act together.â
âAnd if I lose control?â the man pressed, his lips tightly pressed together.
âThen there are many more of us than there are of you,â Grandfather told the man with a smile.
âThat sounds safe!â Renesmee said to Jacob and the others happily, turning away from the window to beam up at them all. âDoesnât it?â
Jacob looked like he was going to have an aneurism, Momma did too, but Aunt Alice and Grandmother were both confident.
Aunt Alice was already walking outside, followed by Grandmother. Momma stared after them, gave Jacob a helpless look, then followed behind, and Jacob and Renesmee were last out.
âI canât believe weâre doing this,â Jacob grumbled under his breath, nevermind everyone could hear him, âI canât believe they didnât even ask me!â
âWhoâwhatâwho is that?â the man said in astonishment, staring at Jacob in horror.
âThatâs Jacob Black,â Grandfather said to the man, âHeâsâheâs human, mostly, but he has the ability to turn into a wolf. Heâs not a werewolf, though, he can control it and heâs perfectly aware when heâs in wolf form. Children of the Moon are almost extinct these days.â
The man turned his head to stare mutely at Grandfather, before turning back to look at Jacob, Renesmee, and the others.
âI see,â the man said.
No one said anything after that, they all just stood there, staring at one another. It was very different than Renesmeeâs many meetings of the many vampires who had been witnesses for the trial. Though more than a few of them had been uncomfortable, several had refused to touch her at all, theyâd all introduced themselves easily, told her parents that she was not an immortal child, and then the introduction was over.
Sheâd never experienced anything like this before.
âWell, this is Alphard Black,â Grandfather said. âHe follows our diet and has expressed an interest in staying here with us for the foreseeable future, and Iâm happy to have him. Mr. Black, do you have anything you wish to add?â
Mr. Black sighed. âYes. You can all call me Alphard, since we will be living together. I simply didnât like Tanya acting so familiar with me.â
Grandfather looked a little surprised but also very happy about that.
âI suppose I should go first,â he then said. âIâm Carlisle Cullen, I work as a doctor among humans and have done so since the nineteenth century. Iâm married to Esme.â He nodded towards Grandmother.
âYouâwork among them,â Alphard asked in shocked surprise.
âIt took a very long time,â Grandfather admitted, âBut Iâve never had any accidents and human blood honestly doesnât bother me these days.â
âIâsee,â Alphard said unsteadily.
âIt took a very long time,â Grandfather reassured him, âSeveral centuries.â
âI see,â Alphard Black said, clearly not knowing what to say about that or how he was supposed to respond.
Grandmother was next, âIâm Esme, I was turned and married Carlisle in 1921. I love to cook, Iâve done a bit of architecture, and interior decorating with Alice.â
âCooking,â Alphard echoed faintly.
âAs a hobby,â Grandmother assured him with a smile. âThough these days I have Jacob and Renesmee to enjoy what I make, so thatâs been a lovely change.â
Renesmeeâ
Didnât enjoy human food much but she felt terrible admitting as much to her grandmother who seemed so happy to be able to feed her and Jacob. Jacob claimed the food was always very good.
It all tasted the same to Renesmee.
âWe all have our hobbies,â Alphard allowed, though he was looking like it was desperately difficult for him not to say anything else.
It was amazing, he really did sound exactly like those British movies and TV shows.
âIâm Bella,â Momma said, smiling a bit uncertainly at him. âIâm the newest, I was turned about a year ago. Iâm married to Edward, I met him here in Forks, Renesmeeâs my daughter, andâoh, I have a shield!â
âYes, I heard a bit about you from the Denali,â Alphard said. âEleazar seemed very fond of you.â
Momma looked taken aback, but pleased. âHe did?â she asked.
âYes,â Alphard told her, and here he did smile, âI was constantly being compared to you and falling short in every way. Take it as a compliment.â
âOh,â Momma laughed. âWellâwhatâs your gift, then?â
âWe heard you were gifted,â Grandmother nodded eagerly.Â
âBroad and physical,â Alphard said with a grin.
Grandfather chewed on the inside of his cheek, but one corner of his lips quirked upwards nonetheless.
âThereâs been more of a fuss over it than is deserved,â Alphard told them, âItâs not as impressive as the Denali have been imagining.â
âOh, Iâm sure itâs something very good,â Grandmother assured him warmly. âAnd youâre so young! Give it time and practice, Iâm sure youâll be amazed.â
âYouâre very kind,â Alphard offered Renesmeeâs grandmother, and he seemed to mean it.
He then looked at Renesmee.
Renesmee felt her face light up. âIâm Renesmee!â she declared, rising to her tiptoes and then back down again.
âTell him how old you are,â Momma prompted Renesmee with a laugh.
âIâmââ Renesmee began, then paused as an idea came to her. âNo, guess.â
Alphardâs eyes narrowed. âSeven,â he suggested.
Renesmee grinned and shook her head.
Momma giggled.
âEight?â Alphard tried, though he looked like he already knew this would be wrong.
Grandmother and Aunt Alice were laughing now as well, while Grandfather was smiling broadly. Even Jacob looked a little amused.
âNo!â Renesmee said.
âSix,â Alphard tried again, smiling back at her as well.
âMuch younger,â Renesmee said, deciding to help him.
âFour?!â Alphard said, looking very dubious as he said it.
âOne,â Momma answered for Renesmee, laughing at Alphardâs expression.
âSheâs what?â Alphardâs face fell and his eyes grew wide as he stared at her in disbelief.
âHybrids grow very quickly,â Grandfather told him, âWe donât know much about them, to our knowledge thereâs only a few others in the world. Weâve been told the others reached full adulthood at the age of seven. Sheâs slowed down significantly in the last few months.â
Renesmee was giggling, and she giggled more when Alphard continued to look gobsmacked.
âSheâs in perfect health,â Grandfather added. âWe met another hybrid, Nahuel, who was fully grown and had several sisters. Renesmee is perfectly ordinary, for a hybrid.â
Alphard looked as if he had a lot he wanted to say to that, but decided to say nothing at all. Renesmee giggled, remembering how confused and disturbed many of the witness vampires had been, watching her grow from one day to the next.
âIâm Jacob,â Jacob said, placing a hand on Renesmeeâs shoulder and giving Alphard a tense, but surprisingly polite smile. âJacob Black, so same as you actually.â
âAnd you live with vampires?â Alphard prompted, not commenting on their shared surname.
âPractically,â Jacob confirmed. âIâm here every day.â
âJacob lives in La Push with his father,â Bella offered with a smile, âHe just comes to visit because of Renesmee.â
Grandfatherâgrew very tense and Renesmee caught Aunt Alice giving him a look.
âBecause ofââ Alphard looked from Jacob to Renesmee and then turned to look at Carlisle.
âMaybe this isnât the place for that,â Grandfather told the rest of them hesitantly.
âFor what?â Alphard asked, looking back at Jacob.
âJacobâhisâtheyâre not a species, they are human,â Grandfather reassured him, âBut the shapeshifters of La Push have this physical phenomenon that sometimes happens called imprinting.â
He trailed off, seeming uncomfortable with saying more, and it was left to Momma to explain, âImprinting is when a wolf sees someone and they become their partner. That person becomes the most important person in their life, forever, the missing piece that completes them.â
âAâpartner,â Alphard said unsteadily, looking horrified.
âNot like that,â Grandfather said swiftly, âIt can be platonic.â
âItâs okay, I freaked out as well,â Momma said. âWhen I woke up and they told me Jake had imprinted on my newborn daughter, I was so mad I broke Sethâs ribsâSethâs one of the other shifters. Really, itâs like Carlisle says, it can be platonic.â
âGuys, can you stop making me sound like a pedophile?â Jacob asked them in disgust, âYou guys are the worst at explaining this. And I donât even know why you are explaining it, none of you are wolves! The bottomline is that Iâm Renesmeeâs older brother, best friend, protector, and whatever she needs me to be forever.â
âOh, no,â Alphard said faintly, and he looked awful, just awful.
âItâs a good thing,â Jacob told him dismissively, âIt means sheâll always have someone who makes her their number one priority. Sheâll always have a personal protector, and she needs one with vampires always wanting to kill her.â
Alphard turned slowly to look at Carlisle. âYouâaccept this?â he asked.
âHe canât help it,â Carlisle told him, âItâs a biological phenomenon and it canât be undone as far as we can tell.â
âMany men have said so before,â Alphard said quietly, and when he turned back to look at Jacob his face was completely cold.
âHeâs not sick!â Bella said, âGod, we really did tell this all wrong. Itâsâitâs a good thing, it means he and Renesmee are supposed to be together! He wouldnât imprint if he wasnât what Renesmee needed!â
âFine,â Alphard snapped and then looked directly at Jacob. âJacob Black, is there ever a chance in the future you will have sex with the girl?â
No one said anything, the rest of Renesmeeâs family turned to look at Jacob, Renesmee as well for that matter.
âIf the answer was no,â Alphard said in the silence that followed, âyou would already have said so.â
âOh, come on!â Jacob spat out, âNone of that is fair! I canât tell the future! If she wants to get married Iâm not saying no!â
âItâs true,â Alphard said abruptly. âI do have a gift. Hereâs one of the things I can do.â
He brought out his hand, pointing a finger at Jacobâ
And then Jacob disappeared in thin air. One second he was there, opening his mouth to defend himself, the next he was gone.
âJacob!â Momma cried out in shock.
âI sent him to the Denali,â Alphard said.
âYou sent him to Alaska?!â Momma asked, whirling on him.
âYes, heâs alive and well and in Alaska and so far as Iâm aware among friends,â Alphard said, âHeâs even in the same country.â
âBut sheâs his imprint!â Momma said, âIt will kill him to be apart from her! Youâheâll feel physically hurt, physically!â
âHe has a hand, doesnât he?â Alphard asked.
Aunt Alice made a noise like a ship horn, and slapped her hand over her mouth to quell it.
âNot like that!â Momma cried out in horror, âRenesmee, honey, youâdonât ask what that means!â
Renesmee had assumed Alphard meant that Jacob would make a sock puppet that looked like Renesmee to play video games with.
âHeâsâin Alaska,â Grandfather said slowly, as if not quite believing it, âBella, can you tell Billy his son is in Alaska and weâre very sorry?â
âIââ Momma stared at him, her jaw hanging open.
âI would myselfâbut I donât think itâd be welcome coming from me,â Grandfather said, still sounding very dazed.
âIâll call,â Momma said, and disappeared back inside the house.
âWhy did you send Jacob to Alaska?â Renesmee asked.
âYouâre too young for that,â Alphard told her instead of answering.
She looked at Grandfather to see if heâd have an explanation, but he was still looking rather dazed.
âNo man, Renesmee, should pick a one-year-old as his future bride,â Alphard said when it appeared no one else was going to say anything, âEven the worst families donât matchmake their children until theyâre at least in their early teens.â
âBut Iâll be an adult when Iâm seven,â Renesmee pointed out. âAnd I donât know that I was Jakeâs future bride, just because weâve played wedding doesnât mean I was actually going to marry him.â
âYouâveâMerlin,â Alphard said in despair.
He began walking towards the house, keeping a distance from Renesmee while he shook his head.
âThat went well,â Aunt Alice whispered in the silence.
âDid it?â Grandmother asked her with a worried look on her face.
âThink we just got rid of Jacob,â Aunt Alice said in an even quieter voice.
Theyâdâgotten rid of Jacob?
Rather than think about what that meant, how Renesmee was supposed to feel, she trotted inside as well.
âKeep your distance, child,â Alphard said immediately when he saw sheâd followed him into the living room.
âDid you get rid of Jacob?â Renesmee asked him instead of listening. When he glared she backed up to the other corner of the room.
âYes, Renesmee,â he said once she was pressed all the way into the corner. âYes, I did.â
Grandfather stepped into the room, positioning himself close to Renesmee, and Alphard gave him a grateful look.
Grandfather still didnât say anything, though, he looked like he was a little out of it.
âWhy?â she asked.
âBecause Iâve once been responsible for three little girls, and I would have done exactly the same thing for them,â Alphard said.
Renesmee nodded, taking in this valuable piece of information about the new vampire with wide eyes.
âThough, I unfortunately could not do the same about their husbands,â he added darkly, âHowever much I would have liked to.â
âWhy?â Renesmee asked, utterly fascinated.
âBecause all three of my nieces made very poor choices in spouse,â he said, though he was smiling a little bit at her.
âThey made poor choices?â Renesmee pressed.
âFor different reasons,â he said, âButâyes, they all chose poor life partners whom they have remained with to this day. At least, they had remained with them when I saw them last.â
âHow old are they?â Renesmee asked.
âThe youngest, Narcissa, is twenty-five,â he said with a fond smile, âAndromeda is twenty-seven, and the oldest, Bellatrix, is twenty-nine.â
Renesmee couldnât even imagine being that old.
âHow old are you?â she asked.
He laughed a little at the question, âFifty-four.â
âWow,â Renesmee said in disbelief, âThatâs older than Grandpa Charlie.â
âYes, Iâm told the Denali thought I was dying of old age,â he said.
Dying ofâwhat? You could die from just being too old? But Grandfather was over three-hundred years old and even her father was over a hundred.
âI wasnât,â he said quickly on seeing the look on her face. âI was in perfect health, and fifty-four really isnât old. Not for my kind.â
âOh,â Renesmee said, supposing that had to be true since all of her family save Momma and Grandpa Charlie werenât that old yet.
âDo you go to any kind of school, Renesmee?â Alphard then asked her, tilting his head.
âNo, I canât,â Renesmee shook her head, âI grow too fast and the humans donât know about me. Even Grandpa thinks Iâm fatherâs niece.â
âShe will attend high school once she has stopped growing,â Grandfather said quietly. âUntil then we homeschool her.â
Alphard didnât say anything in response to that, he just glared at Grandfather.
âItâs complicated,â Grandfather told him, âAndâto keep it short, you remember Edward reads minds? Edward is Renesmeeâs father, he believes Jacob and therefore I do.â
âYou mean the boy who looks like heâs still in Hogwarts, is supposed to determine the girlâs safety?â Alphard laughed disbelievingly. âThatâs been your guarantee?â
âHe was seventeen,â Grandfather smiled, âBut heâs lived one-hundred years now and heâs run into many kinds of people. If he tells me itâs not happeningâJacob is a good man, he helped us in our greatest hour of need long before the imprint. And he hasnât done anything to deserve our suspicion.â
âYes, he has,â Alphard said curtly, âand you may evict me for my decision, but it wonât change anything. Jacob Black canât step within five kilometres of the child. Iâve made that impossible.â
Grandfather said nothing, even though Jacob Black had been here since Renesmee had been born and Alphard Black had just shown up right this second.
âWhich will it be?â Alphard pressed.
âJacobâwill need to move on eventually,â Grandfather said slowly, to Renesmeeâs utter shock, âWe will have to move very soon. Thereâs too many of us, we havenât aged enough, and Bella canât be seen by others who knew her when she was human. Jacob would have to let go sooner or later, and maybe itâs better itâs sooner.â
âYouâveâGrandfather,â Renesmee breathed, staring at him then staring at Alphard.
Alphard looked surprised as well.
âI know this is hard, Renesmee,â Grandfather told her, âAnd I know we havenât discussed this butâwe really canât stay in Forks for much longer and itâs better that Jacob stay with his father and his friends. Itâs not good for him to become too involved with us.â
âOh,â she said, then looked up at Alphard.
Alphard, however, was frowning at her. âYou were right,â he remarked to Carlisle, drawing in a careful breath through his nose while still looking at her. âSheâs really not a problem. I can talk to her just fine.â
âWe didnât know with Bella at first,â Grandfather said, âSince she smelled different than us butâno one has had any issue thus far. We just try to be careful.â
âIf you think about it, Iâm less appetizing than a squirrel,â Renesmee told Alphard. âItâs very sad for me.â
âYes,â Grandfather told her, âAnd thatâs a very good thing.â
âMomma was delicious,â Renesmee pointed out. âI even remember.â
Sheâd once thought it would be very funny if the reason she wasnât delectable was because Edward had simply smelled awful, but Edward had heard that thought and told her she was being stupid.
âWhat?â Alphard asked.
âIn utero,â Grandfather said quickly, âRenesmeeâhas some memories of being in utero and surviving off her motherâs human blood.â
And being born.
That had started out so well, sheâd been desperate to get out and so relieved when she could finally see the world around her and smell and hear things properly, and stretch out her limbs, and sheâd been able to look into her motherâs face for the first time.
Then sheâd bitten her, because sheâd been too stupid and selfish to understand how weak her mother was already or that she was dying because of Renesmeeâs actions, and then her mother had been dead.
It wasnât an event she liked to talk about and pretended she hadnât remembered very clearly.
âJakeâs at the Denali,â Momma said as she stomped into the house, âI called and he answered their phone. Heâs going to run home through Canada.â
Grandfather made a face, but didnât say anything.
âTanya is furious,â Momma continued, and glared at Grandfather and Alphard both when she came into the room. âJacob is too.â
Grandfather pushed a hand through his hair, still making that very upset face. Alphard, however, did not look upset at all. He looked quite pleased about that information.
âAnd I thought you werenât supposed to have an impressive gift!â Momma groused to Alphard, âYou just sent him half a continent away with a snap of your fingers!â
âIâm sorry, Iâm cursed with modesty,â Alphard said, not looking at all sorry.
Renesmee bit back a giggle, but she was grinning at him.
âWell, Jacobâs really upset, so I hope youâre happy when he comes back and you have to explain yourself,â Momma huffed as she sat down next to Renesmee, âAnd heâs really not aâwe made it sound bad! Itâs not like that!â
âOf course,â Alphard promised. âIâll happily talk once heâs here.â
He was clearly lying.
âAre you really from Britain?â Renesmee asked, and immediately felt rather stupid. He was clearly from Britain.
âYes,â he said, but he frowned as he said it and it looked like he was thinking quite hard.
âWhatâs it like?â she asked. âIâve only ever been to Forks.â
âI wouldnât know,â he said immediately, âIâm fromâa very secluded part of Britain. Itâs not like the rest of the country.â
She nodded, with wide eyes. âWhatâs the secluded part like?â
âOh, Iâm not sure I know how to put it either,â he said with a sigh, âItâsâit has its good and its bad, though times have been troubled as of late. I wouldnât live anywhere else, however, and Iâve had a great life there.â
âCanât you go back?â Renesmee asked.
âI donât think so,â he said with another sigh, âIâm increasingly certain.â
âOh,â she said, deflating. âBut if you found out how, maybe you could take me?â
âYes, in that case I could take you,â he smiled at her.
She beamed at him. âDo you want to see my gift?â she asked.
He looked at her in some surprise.
âOh, you have a gift?â he asked her.
âEdward and I are both gifted,â Momma said to him, âSo, I guess Renesmee inherited a mix of us both.â
âThat is how these things tend to work,â Alphard said, a warm smile on his face as he looked at Renesmee.
âItâisnât, really,â Grandfather said slowly, âBut then again, powerful gifts are so rare, especially in humans, I suppose there isnât much of an opportunity to find out.â
Alphard turned to look at him in surprise. âIn my world, it was a guarantee it would be inherited,â he said quietly. âAlmost always.â
âWhat do you mean in your world?â Momma asked him with raised eyebrows, âYou mean England?â
âYesâsomething like that,â Alphard said distractedly before turning to Renesmee. âYou wanted to show me your gift, dear?â
âYes!â Renesmee said, and darted across the room towards him before anyone could stop her.
âNessie!â her mother cried out.
âItâs alright, Momma,â Renesmee told her, and then turned back to Alphard, holding up her hand towards his face. âYou have to bend down,â she explained.
He looked at her warily but complied, bending down far enough that she could reach his face.
She paused for a moment to think about what she would show him. She usually showed new people (not that she met many) things sheâd done, interesting things sheâd seen and bits and pieces she thought they might enjoy, Kate for instance sheâd decided to show her recollection of where every electric socket in the Cullen house was. Kate had loved that.
Alphard, however, was more difficult because almost all of her memories had Jacob in them and that seemed like it would only make trouble.
She decided to show him the first time sheâd seen Pride and Prejudice with Momma. She showed him the entire movie, what her Momma had said after they finished, and how sheâd loved seeing the dresses and countryside in England.
It probably wasnât exactly like what Alphard knew, he was dressed very differently from the people in Pride and Prejudice, but it was what she had to offer.
She slowly drew her hand back, watching his face carefully to see if heâd liked it.
Her stomach fell a little when she saw that he just looked confused and bewildered instead.
âThat wasâthank you, Renesmee,â he said, trying to recover. âThat was very special.â
âWhat did she show you?â Momma asked, coming up to hold Renesmeeâs shoulders.
âA memory of herself,â Alphard answered, staring at Renesmee. âWatchingâa movie of Pride and Prejudice.â
âI can show you something else?â Renesmee offered.
âNo, thatâs fine, dear,â he told her, and he seemed to mean it, âI enjoyed it.â
Others had enjoyed it more was the problem. He looked impressed, but not overjoyed by what sheâd shown him. Sheâd clearly chosen the wrong thing but she had no idea what else she could show him if he didnât like Jacob.
âHow about I show you another thing I can do,â Alphard said, stepping into the middle of the room.
âYou can do another thing?â Renesmee asked in anticipation.
âWe shall see,â he told her cryptically. âWhatâs your favorite animal?â
âA wolf,â Momma answered before Renesmee could. Renesmeeâprobably would have said wolf if because it was expected. She hadnât actually thought about her favorite animal, because, well, it had to be a wolf.
âDo you like cats?â Alphard asked after a moment.
âIâve seen pictures of them,â Renesmee admitted, âIâve never eaten one though.â
Alphard smiled. He held open his hand and moved his other around itâ
And then, sitting in his palm, was a cat, a very beautiful little cat with white fur and blue eyes.
âIt doesnât smell!â Renesmee told him in shock. It smelled like nothing, absolutely nothing, like it wasnât there at all and it was only Alphardâs hand there.
âIt doesnât have a heartbeat either,â Alphard said, and let the cat jump down from his palm onto the floor, where it walked towards Renesmee. âItâs not a real cat.â
âItâs an illusion!â Renesmee realized in delight, remembering the illusions sheâd been shown as a baby.
âTry to touch it,â Alphard suggested with a smile.
Renesmee reached out to poke at it as gently as she could, and she felt its soft fur and warmth against her fingers. It meowed and rubbed up against her fingers while it purred.
âMomma, itâs a cat!â she squealed in delight, picking it up. It looked evenly back at her and after a moment tried to swat at her hair with its paw.
âI can see that,â Momma said in surprise as she looked down at it, âItâsâis it really a cat? Itâs not an illusion orââ
âItâs more real than an illusion, it has physical form,â Alphard admitted, âBut itâs not a true cat, no, it will fade.â
âGrandfather, look at it, itâs a cat!â Renesmee said, running to show it to him. She turned her head towards the door. âGrandmother! Auntie Alice! Come quickly, Alphardâs made a cat!â
The others rushed in and watched the cat in stunned amazement the same way Grandfather and Momma were.
âItâs not a real cat,â Alphard explained, though he was looking very chuffed.
âI can see why the Denali were impressed,â Momma said quietly, âThey really said I was better than this?â
âThey had nothing but good things to say about you,â Alphard assured her. âIâm the problem child.â
She gave him a weak, uncertain smile back, and it was clear she wasnât convinced about that. Renesmee wasnât sure either. Her Momma was brilliant, had beat the Volturi single-handedly, but her shield wasnât the same as making a cat out of nothing or sending Jacob all the way to Alaska.
âIâm going to talk to Edward about giving you his room,â Grandmother said to Alphard, once sheâd recovered. âHe has the cottage now, so I think that should be alright.â
âOh, alright, though I donât sleep and I havenât brought anything with me to stow away,â he said, frowning at the last part of what he said.
âItâs nice to have a place of your own,â Grandmother argued. âAnd youâll have things soon enough. Do you want me to decorate it for you?â
âDecorateââ Alphard looked confused again. âMerlin, I donât have any money, do I?â
âNo need to worry about that,â Grandmother told him. âWe can cover all your expenses, itâs really no trouble.â
âNo, Iâd feel terribly,â he said, and then appeared to think it over, âI should be able to make everything myself. I donât see why not.â
âOhâbut Alphard, I really mean it,â Grandmother insisted, âThis is why we have money, and youâre living with us now. We couldnât have you out in the woods making furniture on your own when you can just buy it!â
He looked at her for several seconds, then sighed and smiled, âIf you insist, then. Thank you, Esme, I really do appreciate it.â
âRenesmee, itâs past eight,â Grandfather said abruptly. âIsnât that near your bedtime?â
Renesmee almost said she wasnât tired, but it was clear this was a trick question. From the way he was looking at her, it was her bedtime whether she liked it or not. She looked at Momma whoâlooked upset for some reason, and couldnât quite hide it when Renesmee looked at her.
âIâll take her,â Grandmother offered, taking a look at Momma. âCome on, Nessie.â
Renesmee put the cat on her shoulder and took Grandmotherâs hand. Together, they walked through the house, out the door, and towards the cottage.
âI thought he was nice,â Renesmee told Grandmother in confusion, not sure what had happened at the end.
âOh, I did too,â Grandmother agreed. âHe was veryâ decent is the word for it, I think.â
âIs he staying?â Renesmee asked.
Grandmother smiled, and squeezed her hand. âI hope so.â
âI hope so too,â Renesmee agreed.
Grandmother gave her a funny look then. âYouâre not upset Jacob left?â
âHeâll be back,â Renesmee promised, Alaska couldnât keep Jacob away from Renesmee for very long.
âI donât think he will be,â Grandmother said quietly. âNot if what I heard Alphard say was true.â
âOh,â Renesmee said quietly, though she still didnât believe that. Nothing could keep Jacob from her, thatâs what he and her parents had always promised her from the day she was born.
âWhat do you think about that?â Grandmother pressed, looking at Renesmee a little more intently.
They stopped walking, and Grandmother crouched down so she could see Renesmeeâs face better.
âI guessââ Renesmee frowned, trying to take it seriously, âIâll miss him but if itâs whatâs best for him then I think thatâs best.â
Grandfather had made it sound like being around Renesmee so much was bad for Jacob. And that one day theyâd have to leave without him, and itâd really hurt him if all heâd been doing was spending time with her.
Renesmee had never considered that before, as Jacob had always said he couldnât even breathe without her, but if that was the case then of course he should stay away.
Grandmother stared at her, not moving at all and not even breathing for several seconds as she took in Renesmeeâs words.
Renesmee was beginning to wonder if she should apologize, butâGrandmother didnât look mad either.
The moment was broken when Grandmother smiled, and came to life again. âI think it is best for him,â she agreed. âAnd youâre a very wise little girl.â
Renesmee smiled back at her and put thoughts of Jacob out of her mind.
Space Oddity is a fic @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and I co-wrote in the summer of 2023, then abandoned. Then again, in January of this year, we tried to resurrect the fic and wrote a few chapters before deciding they were bad and the fic unsalvageable. We opted not to publish these chapters.
There have been requests to see these chapters, however, and as they do exist and people wish to see them we have decided to publish them here on tumblr (as publishing them on Ao3 would indicate a stamp of approval weâre not comfortable with).
The other chapters can be found on this blog or @therealvinelle or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta under the tag âSpace Oddityâ.
Read at at your own risk, and please note that our decision not to write more of this fic is final.
âSir, are you alright? Do you need help?â
A very large, kind-faced Muggle woman who sounded the most American Alphard had ever heard was leaning over him with a concerned look in her eyes.
Next to her was another Muggle, a man who was giving Alphard his most reassuring smile. âIs there anyone you want us to call for you?â
Alphard had no memory of how heâd gotten here or where he was. The last thing he remembered, he had been just about to leave his flat to go shopping. Now, however, he was outside somewhere very cold and evidently somewhere quite Muggle.
âLetâs get you up first, whereâs DennisâDennis! Dennis, I need you to help your pop with this old man here!â the woman shouted, waving her arm at a Muggle boy who was wearing the shabbiest, ugliest clothes Alphard had seen in his life.
âThatâs quite alright,â he told them quickly, getting to his feet (and trying not to bristle at being called âoldâ, he was hardly that old, not yet), âThank you for the concern.â
He quickly began walking away from the couple, picking a direction at random and walking with a purposeful gait that was not to be questioned.
âAre you sure you donât need help?â the woman shouted, looking terrified like she thought Alphard would keel over and die if he didnât let her come and fuss over him.
âYes, quite fine!â Alphard called out, and rounded a street corner at a speed that was not quite jogging but was very brisk walking. As soon as he was certain theyâd given up on him he came to a halt.
He didnât recognize this place.
There wasnât a hint of anything remotely familiar, and worseâit was extremely Muggle in appearance. There was no hint of wizarding robes, enchanted street lamps, nothing but Muggle mechanical devices.
He did know, however, this wasnât Muggle London which he was familiar enough with to recognize on sight. The streets were too wide for that, the buildings too sparsely separated and built differently. And there was something about the place that simply lookedâdifferent in a way he couldnât quite put his finger on.
âNice clothes, dude!â a young man leered at him walking past, and Alphard did a double take.
Heâd thought the woman and her family were just Americans visiting, butâthis Muggle didnât seem at all associated with them, yet he was clearly American as well.
Alphard checked his sleeve and sighed in relief when he felt his wand there. That, at least, was still in order.
Well, this was easily solved.
It was a mystery he certainly didnât like, but all he had to do was get himself back home and he would be back home. He could figure out why and how heâd ended up in this place after that had happened.
Alphard turned a corner into an alley, reassured himself that no Muggle was watching and that there were no Muggle recording devices about, then Apparated back home.
He passed through that familiar, suffocating tube that would take him homeâ
And then, like heâd hit a wall somewhere, he was spat right back out into the alley heâd come from.
Had someone put anti-apparition wards in this place? Alphard had never tried to apparate through one before, he had no idea how they worked or what it felt like. But why would anyone put wards around a clearly Muggle town?
Alphard glared at the wall for a moment, then shook it off.
Heâd simply go to Grimmauld Place instead, and his sister couldâ
Well, she couldnât fuss over him, because she was dead.
Alphard felt like the air had just been knocked out of him as he stood there, feeling terribly lonely and lost and wondering how he could possibly have forgotten that.
A part of him still hadnât quite accepted that she was gone. She couldnât be gone, after all, not when Orion had already left them far too soon. It felt like everyone in Alphardâs life had started disappearing, slipping through his fingers for no reason whatsoever, far before their time.
What had happened to wizards and witches supposedly living for centuries?
Heâd never once thought that time would be so precious and that he and his closest family would have so little of it.
He supposedâ
He had the rare, and very out of character urge to go see his father. Pollux, at least, wouldnât turn him out and they could have tea while discussing something that wasnât Walburga, or Orion, or Regulus, or Cygnus, or any of the other things theyâd both be thinking about. Really, considering how much Pollux had lost in the past few years it was the least Alphard could do to see him more often.
He closed his eyes, concentrated on his fatherâs flat, only to experience the exact same result.
Well, someone had warded the town.
Alphard sighed, glaring at the seemingly empty sky above him. He would have to walk until he got past wherever the wards ended, which could be outside of the city. He peeked out of the alley to look down the street in both directionsâ
He couldnât see the end of the town anywhere and he could only hope this wasnât a city as large as London.
He looked down at his clothes with a sigh, realizing that they were very obviously wizard garments andâwellâcertainly not what heâd remembered Tom wearing whenever heâd gotten onto or off the Hogwarts Express.
He had gone into the Muggle world with Tom on a few occasions, Tom had always taken great pleasure in dressing Alphard up in Muggle clothes, butâthe Muggles here werenât dressed at all the way the Muggles of London in Alphardâs youth had been.
Chances were heâd only embarrass himself if he tried to resemble them, and considering how unappealing their attire was he didnât particularly feel like doing this even if he did get it right.
Heâd just have to be one of those Muggles who dressed a little differently. He was even in luck, as he happened to be dressed for the outside and his boots and cloak were all charmed to withstand the cold.
Feelingânot better about himself, but like he had a little more direction, he stopped at a sidewalk and waited patiently for the light to change (and feeling quite proud that he remembered this much of the Muggle world, that they were very set on light signals for who was allowed to pass in which direction).
A few automobiles rushed past and then the light changed indicating that Alphard was permitted to walk without being run over.
Two young women were also walking with him, and he saw their furtive glances his way as they tried to look without seeming rude.
He ignored them.
And it occurred to him, again, to wonder why anyone would create a ward around this city. They were difficult to maintain and were a pain to anyone trying to get to and from any given location. In Wizarding Britain they only had a few warded areas and buildings and only because the troubles with the Dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters had gotten as bad as they had.
He came to a sudden halt, as a horrible thought struck him.
Rushing into the nearest alley, and ignoring the surprised noise from one of the women, he barely bothered to wait until he thought they werenât looking (what difference would it really make), before closing eyes, focusing on the alley heâd first tried to Apparate from, and Apparating back there.
This time, the Apparition went seamlessly.
It wasnât this place that was warded, it was his home as well as his fatherâs. Except that the both of them lived in entirely different cities from one another. Alphard certainly hadnât warded his flat to this degree, and even if he had his father would never become this paranoid.
âDamn,â he hissed to himself, striding out of the alley, only to realize he had no reason to wander about this Muggle town anymore. He strode right back inside. âDamn!â
Clearlyâ
He had to find out where, exactly, he was. When he did that, he could narrow down locations he might travel to in order to get himself closer to home.
He walked back outside, and looked around for somebody he could ask. The Muggles, surely, would know where this was and it would be a much quicker process than Alphard attempting to suss it out on his own.
He looked out the street again, feeling a sneaking horrible suspicion.
Americans did come to London, they came quite frequently. But chances were the first person you ran into on the street would not be a Muggle tourist. Perhaps the reason he couldnât Apparate to his home or his fatherâs was because he was not in Britain.
But how in the world would he have wound up outside of the country?
âDo you need help?â a voice unlike anything else heâd ever heard, like a windchime, asked from right next to him.
Alphard did a double take, butâ
Oh, thank Merlin, another magical creature.
She wasnât anything heâd ever seen before, but she was human enough, and clearly spoke English perfectly well.
And if he hadnât heard of whatever she was, chances were she couldnât be too dangerous. The Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum had been mostly based on being able to recognize dangerous magical creatures such as werewolves, vampires, hags, dementors, and anything that might pose a threat to an unsuspecting witch or wizard. The more harmless creatures were left to the purview of Care for Magical Creatures or else not discussed at all.
âYes, thank you,â he said gratefully. âMy name is Alphard Black, Iâm a wizard and Iâm quite lost. Could you tell me where I am?â
The womanâs smile widened. âOf course,â she purred. âYouâre in Alaska, a city called Anchorage.â
How the hell had he gotten to America? Crossing international wards was not a simple thing to do. Well, it was simple enough, but you couldnât do so without going to the international Portkey office. He certainly couldnât have done it by accident.
The woman let out a surprised laugh. âYes. Yes, it is.â
âOh, Merlin,â Alphard said. âWellâthank you, young lady. Whatâs your name?â
âTanya,â she replied easily, her smile widening.
âThank you, Tanya,â he said.
Well, if he was in Americaâperhaps that solved his problem in a way. He simply had to get to the magical district in any given city, and they would certainly have Portkeys that could get him back to Britain.
How heâd gotten to America was a different matter, but it, again, was one he could solve later. The most important thing was to get back home.
He supposed he might as well ask.
âYou wouldnât happen to know the nearest magical village?â
It wasâstrange that a magical creature wouldnât know such things. He supposed it was possible that they, like Muggles, had no awareness of the wizarding world except that wizards typically kept a short leash on intelligent species. It wouldnât be good for the statute if centaurs ran about being noticed by Muggles.
He couldnât imagine this woman hadnât been visited by MACUSA and regularly at that.
âMissâTanya, if you donât mind my askingâyou are a magical creature, are you not?â he asked carefully. âYou are clearly different from ordinary humans, and Iâm sure youâre aware of the fact.â
She stared at him, tilting her head a bit, and it was quite clear that had not been a question she had been expecting and she was now far more intrigued than she should have been.
âTanya, can you tell me if thereâs any kind of authority you are in contact with, anyone who manages magical orâshall we say unusual creatures like yourself?â he pressed.
âAnd how would you know about them?â she asked him, an edge to her ethereal voice now and her eyes just a little brighter.
âIâm a wizard,â he said slowly. âI work in the British Ministry. Iâm asking you about the American Ministry, which is called by its abbreviation, MACUSA.â
Her eyes dimmed and she laughed, âOh, youâre mad.â
She pointed out the alley and to the street, âJust go into one of the buildings there and the people will help you get sorted.â
âYes, quite,â Alphard said and brought out his wand, conjuring a bouquet of flowers.
He handed them to her. âThank you for your help.â
He began walking, leaving her standing there for about a quarter second until she was suddenly standing right in front of him.
âHow did you do that?â she asked him, her eyes bright again andâthey were a very alarming color, even for a creature, a bright hawk-like yellow.
âNot sure, you see Iâm quite mad,â he told her.
Then, just to be contrary, he conjured a kitten and gave her that as well.
He didnât have a chance to react or see her reaction, however, as the very next second everything was black.
LINEBREAK
He wasnât sure when the fire abated enough that he could begin to form lucid thought again.
There came a point, however, when he was aware that the fire had gone out in his exteriors. His hands were freed from the pain, having started with just the fingers and slowly creeping up his arms, and his legs were free up until the knee.
It didnât make him suffer any less, the pain in the rest of his body was only intensifying (and he never would have believed such a thing to be possible), butâhe was beginning to be able to think again. He could identify that the voice that had been screaming this entire time had been him, and it was grounding to at least be able to ascertain this much.
Then he drifted off again, and it was some time before he was aware enough to realize the pain was now concentrating on his heart. Wellâ
It couldnât possibly hold out much longer, he was amazed itâd held out this long, but it would have to give out soon. Heâd wait for that.
Half an infinity later, it did.
He opened his eyes and winced at not simply the brightness butâclarity wasnât the word for it, though it certainly was sharper than before, it was that there was so much at once. It felt as if simply by opening his eyes heâd seen the smallest details of wherever he was, the individual specks in the wallpaper and fibers in the carpeting.
He also was aware of far more noise, not just the ticking of the clock in the room, but the ticking of several clocks he couldnât see as well as the soft breathing of people surrounding him.
He opened his eyes again and carefully began to sit up, only he moved far too quickly, in a way his muscles and joints simply werenât meant to. And when he looked down at himselfâthe unfamiliar clothing should have been the worst of it, a sign that he had been dressed by someone else without his knowledge, but the worst of it was his hands.
They werenât his hands, not the way theyâd been just a moment ago.
The shape was the same but the skin had hardened into a smooth, crystal substance, and all the blemishes and even the veins had been smoothed away.
âWhat haââ he shut up at the noise that came out.
That hadnât been his voice.
That hadnât been any voice, that had beenâsome musical instrument he couldnât identify, something that could never come from a human throat.
âYouâre a vampire,â a woman said. It was the woman from earlier, the one with the wind-chime voice, and she was now sitting across the room from him in a chair and looking quite pleased with herself.
Alphard didnât even have time to process what she was doing here, or what this meant, before a horrible snarl like a wild animal tore itself from his throat and he found his body acting of its own to flip him out of the bed and to the floor, where he fell into an immediate crouch.
âDo you remember me?â she asked him with a smile.
âYouâre that woman,â he spat, remembering what sheâd called herself a second later âTanya.â
âYes,â she said. âItâs alright, weâre not going to hurt you.â
She didnât step closer, however, she just stayed where she was with a reassuring smile on her face. âTake your time.â
She clearly wanted him to get up from his stance and relax.
Bully for her, Alphard wasnât going to do that.
âYouâve turned me into aââ he looked down at his hands then back at her, âWhatever this is!â
It certainly wasnât a vampire.
âA vampire,â she said helpfully. âIâll answer all your questions.â
âNo, itâs not,â he hissed at her, actually hissing like a cat, âI know vampires. Iâve even met one, unfortunately, and they are not this.â
That had been a memorable Slug Club experience. Slughorn had a single vampire acquaintance that he invited to his get togethers on occasion, seemingly for the sole purpose of impressing everyone that he knew and could invite a vampire to his functions. What Santiago thought of it, why he chose to attend, was something Alphard had never quite been able to figure out for himself.
She gave him a funny look. âI donât know what youâve met,â she said quietly. âBut I am immortal, I sustain myself off of blood, and I am stronger and faster than any human. I shine in the sun. So do you now.â
âThen thatâs something else,â he said dully, not that he supposed it mattered. The point was that Alphard had, very likely, been irreversibly changed or cursed and would never again be an ordinary human wizard.
His life had been destroyed in the blink of an eye, the way peopleâs lives were destroyed when they contracted lycanthropy. He would lose all his positions, he likely would not even be able to meet with his family, at worst he would have to live in a cave somewhere for the remainder of his existence.
âDo you need a moment?â she asked him.
âWhat do you want?â he asked her, âWhy did you do this?â
Lycanthropy, unless it was that foul creature Greyback, was typically passed on by unwitting werewolves who had transformed. They didnât intend to turn their victims and typically had no awareness of it when regaining human form. He didnât know about vampires, certainly not about this womanâs speciesâbut sheâd clearly done this for a purpose.
She blinked, and looked taken aback.
Alphard heard a sound from the outside, someone whispering somethingâhe didnât catch the words, but his head whipped back towards her.
âThereâs more of you,â he realized.
âYes, my sister and her husband, and a couple who lives with us,â Tanya said immediately. She was beginning to look worried.
âWhy did you do this?â he repeated, âWhat do you want from me?â
And why was she so certain he would ever give it to her when she had done this to him?
Her lips tightened. âYou were gifted. You were clearly gifted, andââ
âIâm a wizard,â he told her dully, andâ
Oh, was she another Greyback? Greyback made a point of not turning wizards, of turning children before they were old enough to attend Hogwarts, in order to isolate them and drive them into his ever growing ranks of werewolves.
However, perhaps this woman wanted trained witches and wizards at her beck and call to do her bidding. Perhaps she thought, isolated from society, Alphard and others like him would have no choice but to turn to her and do what she wished.
âWhatever you want to call itââ she wrung her hands, making a show of looking very worried, âIâve never seen anything like you, but I knew I couldnât let you go. AndâGod, Iâm going about this all wrong.â
âNeed help, Tanya?â a male voice called out.
Tanya gave Alphard a speculative look. âWill you be alright if I introduce you to the others so soon?â
What could Alphard do?
If he got to the Ministry nowâperhaps theyâd take him to a hospital, perhaps this could be reversed, or perhaps he would be so dangerous now they would deem him a creature that must be killed on sight. Perhaps this was some American creature that had never made its way to Britain, explaining why he had never heard of such a thing.
Bellatrix, he realized.
Bellatrix, for all he despaired of her close contact with the Dark Lord and her decision to surround herself with all things dark and forbiddenâif there was anyone who would know what to do, or have the right contacts, it was her, and she wouldnât turn him into the Ministry. Even if she wished to involve her beloved Dark Lord, sheâd have enough sense to only do so if there was no other way.
Sheâd certainly have enough sense to not tell Narcissa or anybody else, and to make it seem as if heâd merely taken ill with Dragon Pox while they sought to find a cure.
And if they didnât find a cureâ
Wellâ
Heâd still need her help with this.
Was he still capable of using magic? He wasnât certain, he knew werewolves could, goblins could as well if they were permitted wands, but what of witches or wizards turned into something else?
Though the idea of losing his magic, of being rendered not only this but utterly impotent, was so terrifying that he hardly dared to contemplate it.
Well, either he was or he wasnât, and if he was then he should be able to Apparate toâ
He was in America and hadnât been able to reach Britain, at least not his home or his fatherâs. Except that the option of going to MACUSA was now barred to him, he could no longer obtain a legal Portkey.
He would have to somehow manage the Muggle way either by boat orâone of their flying machines he occasionally saw overhead.
He looked around the room for his wand, and his lips twisted when he saw it in Tanyaâs hands.
Of course, like an idiot he had used it in front of her. She knew it was important to him.
He warily sat back down and repeated his earlier question, âWhat is it that you want from me?â
Perhaps she was not Greyback, perhaps what she wanted was something terribly silly to have destroyed his life over. If it was something harmless that he could easily accomplishâheâd loathe it, but heâd do it and then he would leave.
If he had to make her a pretty vase he would gladly do so as long as he could have his wand back and walk out the door.
Tanya smiled carefully at him. âIâm sorry, I know this is all very upsetting,â she said, though she still sounded very unsure of herself. âAnd Iâve never done it before so itâs all a bit unfamiliar to me.â
She shifted slightly in her seat, simpered, looking like she was trying her very hardest to appeal to him with her sweet and youthful face and open red-yellow eyes.
It abruptly occurred to himâif Alphard was a different sort, if he was younger, then that might very well have worked. She was a very beautiful woman, far younger than he was, and he could absolutely see many a man being very charmed by her even in a situation such as this.
She wouldnât realize that Alphard was not that man.
âYouâve destroyed me,â he told her plainly, âUpsetting is not what I would call this.â
Her mouth fell open, but she closed it quickly. âMy sister was killed,â she blurted.
There was a sound from outside the room, someone drawing in a sharp and shaky breath.
âI did not kill her,â Alphard told her.
âNo,â she agreed, âbut the people who did are impossibly strong and powerful, and will keep killing women like Irina as long as we canât fight them. They killed my mother, my brother, and a few months ago they killed my sister.â
âAnd you believe I can?â Alphard asked her, somehow more unimpressed than he could ever have prepared himself for.
She leaned in. âGifted people are a fraction of their true potential while theyâre human,â she said. âMaking you a vampire has made you stronger than you can imagine, whatever you could do in the pastâitâs a joke, it wonât be anything like what you can do now!â
He was tempted to tell her what a fool she was. Sheâd chosen an aging wizard at random on the street. Alphard had never practiced in dueling beyond the paltry amount heâd done while in school, he lived a comfortable life. And even then sheâd gone and changed him into some creature, limiting his willingness as well as ability to help.
If a wizard was on a rampage, killing her fellow species left and right, then Alphard certainly wouldnât be able to help her now.
âYou were old,â Tanya continued, leaning forwards eagerly. âYouâve had a wonderful life, Iâm sure, but it was nearing its end! You would have been dead in twenty years! Less, even!â
âMy natural lifespan is three hundred years, I was fifty,â Alphard cut her off. âMany grow older.â
Most people died well before a hundred, but she didnât need to know that.
âI have three nieces who are like daughters to me,â he continued, âTwo of them have children, one depends on me financially. I have a younger brother, a cousin close enough to be a sister, my father is still alive. I had a life I was living! And now Iâm here, to dispose of your enemies, simply because I happen to be a wizard who can conjure a box?! That was your plan!â
Tanya looked stunned.
âIâm sorry you lost your sister, but I will not be avenging her on your behalf and I strongly hope you learn a lesson about turning innocent people who make the mistake of asking you for directions,â he went on as he stood.
âYou canât leave,â she said urgently.
âIsnât that the door right there?â he asked, pointing.
âYouâll kill many people,â she said darkly, the smile gone from her face along with any attempt to charm him.
Alphard sneered at her, only to hear the rush of footsteps.
A moment later, two men and two women, all of them inhuman like Tanya, were there in the room as well, giving him guarded looks.
âYou feel that fire in your throat?â she asked him, âThat unquenchable thirst. Itâs uncomfortable, isnât it? In a few hours, it will be excruciating, you will feel as if you want to die. Thatâs your thirst for human blood. Youâre too new to control yourself among humans, even within miles of a single human. If you leave, you will kill someone.â
Alphard took a step back, grabbing at his throat as he felt a sudden fire, exactly as Tanya was describing and burning just as painfully as the fire that had made him into a vampire.
âYou donât have to kill humans to survive,â she told him more gently, âWe donât, we survive on the blood of animals, but itâs difficult and not something that comes naturally. Youâll need time to manage it on your own.â
âEleazar and I are taking you on a hunt,â one of the men said. âThereâs a bear close by, we thought weâd let you do the honors.â
Alphard stared at them both in dread.
âTry to keep an open mind,â the shorter of the women, a dark-haired woman with vaguely Mediterranean features, said. âItâs always a big adjustment, but I think youâll feel much better in a few days.â
Alphard thought about refusing, butâthey had his wand and he had a terrible feeling of foreboding about that feeling in his throat. Tanya must have some way of controlling him, or else she never would have taken the risk of transforming him into this.
He had the terrible feeling that she was quite correct, that he was now trapped here by whatever these creature instincts were.
âAlright,â he said quietly, âLetâsâkill a bear.â
Tanyaâs smile widened.
LINEBREAK
âKate! Kate, you wonât believe it!â Garrett crowed the second they were in hearing distance. âHe killed that bear like a Jedi!â
Alphard, too, was stunned for all he didnât want to convey as much to Garrett and Eleazar. It had all been instinctual as well, done not even with the amount of thought it took to breathe, but whatever kept his heart running or however his legs knew how to walk or run.
Heâd simply looked at the bear, andâ
Wellâ
It had flown across the clearing, the pelt shredding itself away from its neck, and landed in his arms.
And then heâd ate it.
He had torn it open like paper, tore at its jugular with his teeth alone, and drunk its blood raw while spitting out its sinew and muscle.
Then heâd duplicated the blood, and kept duplicating, drinking continually and never feeling satisfied.
He had been there for an eternity, drinking a sea of blood, drenched in the carcass of a bear. When heâd finally returned to sanity, or some semblance of sanity, the light had changed and the two men had been standing over him with their jaws hanging open.
There had been no point in apologizing for his manners, he was too far past that point.
He had never felt so wretched nor ever in his life displayed such magical abilities. It wasâit was beyond even Tom, actually. Tom had been exceptionally gifted at all forms of magic, and heâd also had a knack for wandless magic. Even he, however, had seemed to have to concentrate harder if he wanted to do something without the use of a spell. He certainly couldnât have lost complete control of himself like Alphard had, and still performed wandless magic, or any magic at all, without thinking about it.
For Alphard, magic was now bending the rules of the physical world for him at his convenience. And yet, he was also now something unknown, something that had taken over his rational mind without Alphard even having a chance to stop it.
âIs there a shower?â he asked nobody in particular.
He wanted to sit in it and cry.
âUpstairs, first on the left,â Tanya breathed with a look of elation on her face as she rushed out to greet them, her skirts swaying around her and looking for all the world like a lover he had been separated from who had not seen him in years. She was followed by two other equally delighted and beautiful women, one of them another blonde and the other dark-haired.
At least someone was happy.
âDo you want us to wait for you to tell the story orâno, I have to tell it,â Garrett gushed. âHe summoned the bear through the air like a magnet, and when it was drained, he just made more blood! He just kept making more blood!â
The three women each made delighted shouts, Tanya even jumping up in the air.
Alphard continued his way back to that house, saying nothing.
His throat feltâbetter, it wasnât burning, but he also had the feeling it wasnât quite enough. It wasnât the same as not feeling full, the sensation was quite different and had nothing to do with fullness, but it was akin to that in that something was ever-so-slightly wrong.
He now believed Tanya, if what he wanted was human blood and he came across oneâheâd almost blacked out when heâd caught scent of that bear. One second he had been standing there, the next heâd been eating it.
If that happened with a personâ
He trudged into the house and up the stairs, and found the bathroom on his first left, as Tanya had promised.
âOh, oh, wait!â one of the women, Kate he believed, rushed in after him and hastily turned the knobs for him, âYouâre too new, youâll break everything if you touch it right now. Justâgive it a few weeks and you should have more control, I promise.â
Alphard, however, was distracted.
There, on the wall, was a large mirror.
He found himself standing in front of it, so fast his eyes hadnât been able to see himself, and he peered into what was meant to be his own reflection.
He lookedânot simply younger, that wasnât the word for it, he looked alien. His skin was now the same as the others, the same as his hands, that smooth crystalline substance that didnât allow for any wrinkles or blemishes.
His face also seemed sharper somehow than before, far more angular, looking far more like carved stone than a human face of flesh and blood.
His hair was still gray around the temples, but it was brighter, shinier, and thicker than he could recall it being even in his youth. There was dried blood in it, it was sticky and clung together near the ends but wasnât the ratâs nest it ought to have been.
That wasnât the only change, however, his eyes were no longer a dark brown but instead vivid crimson red, brought out more so by the blood he was covered in.
Kate let out a small gasp. âIâm so sorry,â she whispered. âThis wasnât how we wanted to do it. With all the excitementâand you were so angry, we didnât think it was the right time. We have a whole mirror downstairs, we were going to do a reveal.â
Alphard said nothing.
âYouâre wonderfully handsome,â she told him warmly, pressing against his side and smiling at her own reflection next to his. âAnd with long hair like thatâmen donât have long hair anymore, but Iâm so happy you do.â
He wasnât handsome.
He had been good looking enough in his youth, his entire family had been comprised of handsome individuals. Now, howeverâyes, there was an ethereal, haunting beauty to the face he was staring at but it was in the manner that sirens were beautiful.
He looked like something that could and would devour human flesh.
âOh, heâs seen his reflection!â Tanya shouted, and there was a rapid flurry of footsteps before she, too, was crammed into the bathroom and beaming into the mirror. âOh, you look so young,â she said, wrapping both of her arms around his right arm as she put her head on his shoulder.
âGet off of me,â he said, tensing up and just retraining himself from throwing her off of him.
She gave him a wide-eyed, hurt look that would have suited Narcissa far better.
âI believe I came in here to shower, not be gawked at,â he told them both, barely keeping from snarling at them both.
âRight,â she said, then looked at the shower in concern, âThe thing isâwould you like Garrett or Eleazar to help you? Youâll break the bottles otherwise.â
âExcuse me?â he asked.
âYouâre newborn,â she said hurriedly, begging him to understand, âIt gets better, but youâre less than a day old. Youâre doing so well, but youâll break everything you touch.â
He sighed. âIâll repair the bottles should I break them.â
âYou can do that?!â she asked in delight.
âI donât see why not,â he said, considering heâd done everything else wandless. Certainly, it was worth trying for himself and if he couldnât, well, they could purchase new soap.
âOh, heâs wonderful!â Tanya said in delight. âIsnât he wonderful, Kate?â
âGet out,â Alphard told Kate, not even looking at her as he carefully, very carefully, stepped away from the mirror and towards the running shower.
The two women closed the door, and he immediately heard them whispering to each other in a foreign language.
He took off his clothes andâ
As predicted by Kate, immediately tore them off his body. They fell off of him in scraps of bloodstained fabric, utterly ruined and unsalvageable. He stared down at the pile of rags at his feet, the clothing that now looked so utterly wretched.
Carefully, very carefully, he stepped into the spraying water. He simply stood there for a second, watching as the blood began to flow from his body into the drain.
It was odd how he didnât feel warmed by the water. He could tell it was hot, that he must have been warming up under it, but it didnât make a difference just as he hadnât felt the cold outside. Heâd sat in the snow for hours, bent over at an awful angle, and never once felt stiffness, pains in his joints, or even the bitter and sharp sensation of cold.
Perhaps he truly had become the undead.
He gingerly placed a hand to his chest, resting it there, feeling the utter lack of his own heartbeat or the feeling of blood circulating through his body.
Heâd heard it stop beating, hadnât he?
Bellatrix wouldnât be able to help with this. Worse, he would cloud an already devastating event in her life with guilt if she came to believe sheâd failed him.
It was perhaps better for her, and the rest of his family, if they never learned just what had become of him.
They would move on, believe he had become simply another statistic, another victim of the Dark Lord who had disappeared into thin air for no known reason. He wouldnât be the first, that had happened to several people in these troubled times.
It might even break Bella free from her love of the Dark Lord, if he took her beloved uncle from her for no reason.
He smiled bitterly as he imagined the Dark Lord trying to explain himself to her and his other followers, that of course he wasnât responsible for Bellatrixâs uncleâs disappearance. Yes, it certainly resembled what had happened to his own victims, but this time he swore it wasnât him.
When asked what he thought might be the reason for Alphardâs disappearance, the Dark Lord could feebly shrug and suggest, âVampires?â
And Alphard couldâplacate these people long enough to learn how to control himself. He would learn how to walk in public without killing the nearest bear or person and then he would leave and find his own dwelling where he could live out the remainder of his existence.
They were living in a house, they had a shower, clothes that had been nicer than what heâd seen in that Muggle town, they were not the miserable slum creatures that Alphard knew as vampires.
Who knew? Perhaps Alphard could get his own revenge on these people. He had no wish to help the murderers of the sister, they were certain to be a ghastly sort themselves if they were murdering people of this species for no cause, but he would find his own means to get back at Tanya and her family.
He didnât know what he would do with himself, just what sort of life he would set about living, butâheâd put one foot in front of the other.
LINEBREAK
âIâm not sure,â Eleazar was saying as he peered at Alphard with a critical eye, âItâs hard to say, itâs veryâmuddled. Iâve never seen anything like it.â
Time passed strangely for an immortal who no longer could sleep. He felt no exhaustion, and it seemed instead that the sky lightened and darkened at cyclical intervals that meant nothing to him.
Time had ceased to have any meaning.
A full eight months had gone by, eight months during which Alphard would feel very like himself and very put together and lucid for about a half hour, and then he would remember squirrels existed and immediately run crashing out of the window to find one and drink its blood. He could cut himself off mid-sentence, having heard a fluttering heartbeat, and there would barely be time for him to excuse himself before his feet were beating against the ground like drumsticks to catch and kill something warm and living.
He even ate rodents, rats and mice and everything else within reach, and his only regret was how small they were. (It had been a truly wonderful day for him when he found a nest of rats, a scene that would have disgusted his human self but that had been a very fun chase-and-eat, three-in-each-hand, buffet for him.)
They had told him that this lasted for roughly a year. For an entire year, often more, he would be a madman, a ânewbornâ, prone to volatile outbursts, breaking everything he touched, and irresistable blood lust.
However, he wouldnât truly be sane until about a decade had passed, or so they claimed. A year was what it would ordinarily take for Alphard to be able to speak a full sentence.
He had not killed a single person, through sheer avoidance and wilderness he had not had the chance to. He had not seen for himself whether it was something he could resist or not, for all he privately suspected it wasnât quite yet. As a reward his eyes had turned from a violent red to a pumpkin orange.
But the Denali, as they called themselves due to their base of operations in Denali National Park, had decided that he was now lucid and biddable enough to have what they deemed to be a very serious conversation that Alphard had absolutely no interest in.
Eleazar, that insecure and least charming of the Denali, was having his grand moment.
âYour gift is certainly physical,â he noted, nodding importantly.
âI was a wizard,â Alphard said not for the first time, though he knew that word meant nothing to these people.
He wasnât sure it meant anything to him either. Heâd gotten his wand back after a month, finally convinced he could steal it back for himself and make his escape. However, the moment heâd touched it, it had broken in his hands. It had feltâ
That, perhaps more than anything else, had made it feel as if his humanity was ripped from him. Heâd stared down at the unicorn hair, the broken wood, and felt an endless despair and feeling of inevitability.
In theory, he could have his wand fixed, in theory he could buy a new one if it was irreparable. Howeverâ
He now no longer seemed to need a wand at all, and that almost made it worse.
âNo, there are two types of gifts, psychic and physical. Yours is physical,â Eleazar said, narrowing his eyes at Alphard. âAnd very⊠broad.â
âYes, I am a wizard,â Alphard agreed, forcing himself to say âamâ even though it was such a silly thing to cling to. He was a wizard, he was determined to remain one, even if he was now also this creature they insisted was a vampire.
Heâd made a point of retaining his clothes for this reason. The Denali were too polite (or scared of upsetting him) to say anything, but it was clear they found it very amusing and quaint when he had them buy him fabric rolls that heâd then enchant into wizardâs robes, and heâd use metals around the house to fashion buttons, buckles, and everything else he needed to look like himself.
It was small, it was petty, but he was determined not to give in and dress like the American Muggle world was a society he had any connection to. He would hold onto that much.
âAnything more specific?â Garrett queried.
From what Alphard had come to understand, Garrett was a relative newcomer to the Denali coven. Heâd only joined a few months ago when heâd become enamored by Kate at the confrontation in which the sister Irina had been murdered by their enemies. He had enthusiastically agreed to eat animals, as opposed to humans, and considered himself the most American of Americans, as he claimed to have fought in their revolutionary war.
He was quite pleased that Alphard had been a Brit who he could rib endlessly about the Muggle British monarchy.
Eleazar folded his arms behind his back. âCan you light that log on fire?â he asked Alphard, inclining his head towards the tree log in question.
Alphard certainly wasnât going to volunteer his abilities.
He was not certain what, exactly, he could perform without a wand (though heâd had no difficulty replicating everything heâd tried thus far), but showing the full range of his magical potential to these people would bring him nothing good.
Heâd experiment more when he left and was safely on his own.
So Alphard stared at the log, raised his eyebrows, and then turned back to Eleazar.
âIt seems not,â he told them pleasantly.
Rather than have the intended effect, this seemed to please Eleazar. âTry to concentrate,â he offered, taking a step closer and smiling at Alphard. âThink about how you want it to be on fire. Picture the flames.â
Alphard stared at him, then made a show of concentrating, knowing that heâd be badgered until he appeared to make some effort.
He waited one second, two, threeâ
âIt seems not,â Alphard told Eleazar with an apologetic smile.
âItâs alright, Mr. Black,â Eleazar encouraged him. âYou can manage it, I know you can.â
(Alphard had made a point of not allowing them to use his first name and not responding when they did. This bothered them a great deal, as they clearly wanted him to feel indebted and personally close to them, the better to make use of him when the time came. Alphard, however, wouldnât even make a show of doing so.)
âWhy?â Alphard asked him suspiciously, âWhy are you so certain Iâm able to do this?â
Did he have some understanding of magic? It hadnât seemed as if any of them did, but he was clearly confident that lighting things on fire was well within any wizardâs ability, which was true. If that was the case it would be much harder to bluff with this man and the others.
âI have trained many vampires before you,â Eleazar said. âI trained Bella, in fact. After only two weeks with me, she could hold her own against the Volturi. Trust in me, Alphard, I know what Iâm doing.â
âMr. Black,â Alphard corrected with a smile, then thought over what heâd said.
Bella was a name that had kept popping up, as was Volturi (usually spoken in a derisive voice). Other names, like Carlisle, Edward, Esme, Rosalie, Alice, Emmett, and Jasper were often brought up as well, and appeared to be friends of the Denali while Aro, Caius, Jane, Alec, and Chelsea were the names most often brought up as the names of enemies.
Irina was the name of the lost sister, and another name, Renesmee, seemed to be important as well.
Alphard had yet to receive the full story, however, being too busy chasing rats and squirrels around Alaska, and as such the meaning behind these names eluded him.
It was just as well: these were not his people, and he had made a point of citing a sudden need to eat a rat whenever Tanya offered to sit him down for the proper story.
Sadly it seemed he could no longer avoid it.
âDid Bella have myâabilities?â he asked carefully.
She couldnât have been a witch, or else they would have known about witches and wizards. Perhaps sheâd been an Obliviated Squib, and the vampire venom had increased her magical potential as it had Alphardâs, to where she could cast magic without knowing what magic was.
Or, perhaps she had been a witch, but unlike Alphard had been wary enough not to announce such a fact and had played dumb when these people had queried her. If so, she was much smarter than he had been.
If he could go back in time and prevent himself from showing off to Tanya, had simply left and let her think he was a doddering madmanâ
But he hadnât, and there was nothing he could do to change it.
âShe has the opposite,â Eleazar grinned. âShe has a psychic shield. She can shield against other peopleâs gifts!â
No, that was very possibly the same gift, and she was a witch who created a shield against magic.
âShe hadnât even realized until she met Eleazar,â Carmen gushed. âIt was really a miracle he was able to teach her so fast.â
âDid she?â Alphard wondered, and now was certain Bella had been perfectly aware but that when Eleazar had confronted her and insistedâsheâd had to give them something and so sheâd told them shields were the only thing she could produce.
âYes,â Eleazar said. âSheâd known something was strange before, but she only realized the full extent of it once she spoke to me.â
âCan I meet her?â Alphard asked on impulse.
If this Bella person really was as smart as she seemed she would almost certainly refuse, butâ
She could also be his ticket to escaping the Denali.
She would have been one of these creatures longer than him, she would know more about them and would know what he didnât know to be wary of yet. They could work together to escape from these people and live on their own without eating humans alive.
âWellââ Eleazar looked uncertain.
âIt sounds like she and I have a great deal to talk about,â Alphard said, stepping closer with a brilliant smile on his face. âAnd Iâm sure it canât hurt to ask.â
âThe thing isââ Eleazar made a face, looking at the others.
âSheâs newborn as well, technically,â Tanya explained, âShe was only turned a few months ago. Sheâs very well controlled, but newborns donât typically do well around other newborns.â
âOh,â Alphard made a face.
âShe also has a daughter,â Tanya added. âThey wonât want to risk being near a newborn, even if you are wonderful.â
Oh.
No wonder she was playing along.
Merlin forbid, if Narcissa, Bellatrix, or Andromeda were trapped in this with him it would be much harder to escape or to even protect them. What would he do if these people were holding his nieces or even his grand-nephew and grand-niece hostage?
âItâs not like that,â Carmen said quickly at the look on his face. âRenesmee isâwell, sheâs like us. Iâll show you the picture Rose sent!â
With that she was whirling back inside, leaving Alphard to feel like heâd been hit in the stomach.
Theyâ
Hadnât.
Had they turned a child into one of these things? A little girl? He felt ill. Not simply ill, but he felt more hatred for these people than he ever had, not even when heâd hated them far more than heâd hated any living creature.
âRenesmee was born while Bella was still human, but the father was a vampire,â Tanya said. âSheâs a hybrid. She can age, she will grow upâoh, thereâs Carmen.â
Carmen was clutching a Muggle electronic device as she sprinted out, grinning from ear to ear.
âShe was what?â Alphard asked, andâ
It happened in the wizarding world as well, and sometimes it wasâhe couldnât call it mutual, not with some of those creatures, but it was sometimes âdesiredâ by the human partner for all Alphard couldnât understand why.
Carmen tapped the buttons on the device, and showed the screen to Alphard. âThere! Isnât she beautiful?â she asked.
On the screen was a picture of a little girl, perhaps five or six years of age. She was very thin and small for her age with only a hint of rosy cheeks. She had a shock of curly dark-red hair, held together in a bow, and large chocolate-brown eyes.
She clearly wasnât human, and had never had a chance to be.
âHereâs when we met her,â Carmen continued blissfully, and now Alphard was looking at the same child only aged around two or three years old, still too thin, and still with that terrible pallor.
Alphard didnât say anything, just looked at that skinny little child who was born into the world of the undead, whose human mother had now been turned as well.
Yes, if he was Bellaâhe wouldnât have been able to leave either, not when it would risk the helpless creature in the photos.
âI guess we can call Carlisle,â Tanya said carefully, watching his face. âHeâll be happy to visit, and I think youâll enjoy speaking to him.â
âIs that necessary?â Eleazar said in dismay.
âEveryone likes Carlisle,â Tanya said meaningfully. âAndâthe Volturi are a danger to Renesmee, you know,â she said to Alphard.
âThey are?â Alphard asked quietly, wondering what the Denaliâs enemies would have to do with the little girl.
âThey donât want hybrids to exist,â Tanya said. âTheyâre scared of them, of what they can do. Itâsâwell, itâs just cruelty.â
Oh.
Oh, yes, Alphard knew that reaction. The wizarding world had been like that, not so long ago. Half-breeds were more tolerated these days, but just barely, but it wasnât so long ago that such children had been exposed at birth. Any child with a drop of inhuman blood in them was seen as a dangerous abomination, something you could never count on to be fully human.
âIâll call Carlisle,â Tanya said, a smile on her lips as she turned on her heel and ran back to the house, a skip in her step at this sudden, small, window of opportunity with Alphard.
âOh, the Easter bunny costume,â Carmen said, and began looking through her pictures. Alphard saw a grid of hundreds of pictures of that little child, each of them small and pixelated and each more depressing than the last.
âIâll pass,â he told her with a strained smile.
âDid you have children, Mr. Black?â Kate asked in an all too understanding voice.
âNo,â he said curtly, then after a pause admitted, âThree nieces, my younger brotherâs children. I had two nephews as well through my sister.â
Though Regulus and Sirius had always felt more distant to him, courtesy of having been raised by Orion and Walburga.
âOh, you were the uncle sneaking them gifts when he visited,â Kate said with a knowing smile. âI know that game.â
He didnât say anything, didnât explain that he had been the one to raise his nieces due to Cygnusâs age or that things with Walburga and her sonsâhe had never been sure how to approach what had happened with Sirius and Regulus, just as Walburga had never been certain how to raise children.
Tanya was out a few minutes later. âCarlisle will come tonight!â she said excitedly. âAnd heâs bringing Jasper and Edward!â
Judging by the happy exclamations from the other Denali, this was very popular news.
âNot Esme and Rose, then?â Kate asked in dismay.
âEdward is Renesmeeâs father,â Carmen explained quickly to Alphard.
Alphard said nothing, determined toâ
Hold out judgement, he supposed. These things did happen, and these creatures were intelligent, they had once been human themselves. Perhaps Edward and Bella truly were in love, it was impossible to know until he saw it for himself.
âAnything else I should know about these people?â he asked.
âEdward reads minds,â Kate said quickly, âJust so youâre not caught off guard. Heâs very polite, and he wonât ever say anything about what he hears.â
Tanya gave her a furious, horrified look.
Kate stared back at her. âWhat?â she asked.
âOhâ Kate!â Tanya said in frustration.
âHe has to know,â Kate said furiously in turn, âWhen he finds out later he would be furious if we hadnât told him. We have to tell him!â
âI suppose,â Tanya said wearily, not quite admitting defeat but clearly realizing that this was a worse problem.
âHeâll read whateverâs on your mind right now,â Garrett explained to Alphard, âso you canât think about, umâ do you think about sex?â
He frowned at Alphard.
(His wife and Tanya had both made a point, a very unsubtle and overt point, over the past few months to assure Alphard that he was a very youthful and vigorous man they found madly attractive, and they were both women who were blonde and beautiful.
They had yet to realize.)
âNot particularly,â Alphard said dully.
âOh,â Garrett laughed, a bit uneasily. âWell, I guess youâre good, then.â
âAnything else I should know about?â Alphard asked instead.
âJasper can sense and manipulate your emotions,â Kate said. âNot much, but heâs good with a crowd.â
And just why were these the two that were coming to meet with Alphard? What was it they thought of him, feared from him, that theyâd wanted a mind-reader and an emotion manipulator?
âTheyâre the nicest two people in the world, really,â Tanya said. âAnd Carlisle, oh youâll love Carlisle.â
âI see,â Alphard said simply, deciding that there was little use in preparing when he couldnât learn Occlumency in a few hours. He would simply have to see where it went.
âI think I should talk to Carlisle first,â Eleazar said, glancing at Alphard. âYou know, explain the situation.â
âWhat situation?â Alphard asked him.
Eleazar smiled brilliantly and unconvincingly at him. âYour gift,â he said. âHow it works, all the things you can do, the training plan Iâve made for youââ
âTraining plan?!â Alphard balked.
âOf course,â Eleazar said as if this was obvious, âYou will need to hone your gift to reach your true potential.â
And what did Eleazar know of Alphardâs potential? Why was he so certain Alphard had potential?
âThank you, but I donât need you to do that,â Alphard said.
âYou wonât win against the Volturi otherwise,â Tanya said darkly, âTheyâre powerful, I meant that, youâll need to be at your best to defeat them.â
âI wonât win against the people I have no intention of fighting, if I donât let Eleazar talk to Carlisle first?â Alphard asked in an unimpressed voice.
âTheyâll kill Renesmee,â Tanya said gravely, âThey were only stopped last time by Bella, but they will try again.â
Alphard gave her a measured look. âIf what you say is true, and I can help protect this child, then Iâll do so. That is the extent of it.â
âGood,â Tanya grinned at him, and he hated that smile, the smile that made it all too clear that Alphard had finally given her what she wanted. She had finally found the one thing she could use to move him, the one thing she could use as leverage.
But he couldnât pretend otherwise.
âGarrett, would you accompany me for a hunt?â he asked, ignoring her.
âYou drained two deer an hour ago!â Garrett balked.
âNewborn,â Alphard replied.
âFine,â Garrett said with an exasperated sigh, and began walking down the hill, guiding Alphard down the mountain.
Alphard had always found Garrett to be a bit dim. Alphard wasnât at his best, hadnât been for months, but he was aware enough to know that Garrett was significantly less bright than Tanya.
âYou really donât think about sex?â Garrett asked once they were out of hearing range.
Alphard didnât dignify that with an answer.
âCome on,â Garrett urged him. âYouâre a vampire now, youâre young again, you have all these urgesâI was the horniest Iâd ever been when I was newborn, I used to jerk it for hours.â
âWhatâdonât tell me that!â Alphard said in disgust. âWhat is wrong with you?!â
âThatâs normal,â Garrett insisted, âEspecially when you have beautiful company. Youâre the deadest man among the undead.â
Alphard stared at him. âFine. Fine, I was a red blooded man before, now I am a blood-thirsty demon who eats rats and my only company is you people. Donât flatter yourself that you and your friends would be so attractive as to make me forget that.â
He hadnât actually had a lover for some time, since Tom had disappeared. He hadnât been interested in one, itâd been too depressing and heâd simply been too busy with the girls. Not to mention, Alphardâs predilections meant that lovers were more difficult and risky to find. It was no good if he confessed to the wrong person and had them telling the rest of the wizarding world. However, the lack of a lover hadnât stopped him from entertaining himself.
But he heard every noise in that house which meant the others would as well. Alphard had no interest in having the entire bloody household listening to the sound of him pleasuring himself.
âWhatâweâre not attractive enough for you?!â Garrett laughed in disbelief. âThatâs why youâre not interested?â
âYouâre all very handsome,â Alphard said dully, and it was true, the two sisters were very beautiful, as was Carmen. Garrett himself had a rugged appeal, if that was your taste, and Eleazarâif you didnât know him, knew nothing of his personality, was quite good-looking.
But being good-looking meant nothing to Alphard when it was the people who had turned him into a monster and removed him from his life and family for their own selfish purposes.
âReally,â Garrett said dubiously, looking like he couldnât decide what to make of that.
âShouldnât you be glad? Isnât Kate your wife?â Alphard asked.
He had wondered about that.
Garrett wouldnât quite say something when Kate was making eyes at Alphard, but he would be watching very closely, looking very pained, as his wife tried her damndest to get ravished by the Englishman.
He could only conclude Garrett, too, wanted Alphard to like them and that the only way he could conceive of that happening, after everything that had happened, was Alphard taking at least one of the women as his lover.
âShe is,â Garrett confirmed stiffly.
Alphard laughed, he couldnât help it.
âWhatâs so funny?â Garrett asked, in the manner that made it clear he knew exactly what was so funny about it.
âYou donât think itâs even a little funny?â Alphard asked him, knowing of course that the man really didnât.
âThey have open relationships,â Garrett admitted after a pause, looking quite disgruntled about that, âTheyâre notâmonogamous.â
âAnd you didnât realize when you first married her,â Alphard intuited. âOr you thought sheâd change her ways.â
âNope,â Garrett said, âI met Kate when we were witnesses for Renesmee. We fell in love immediately, she was valiant, wonderful, braveâI love her so much. And she loves me too, I know she does.â
âWell,â Alphard clasped his hands together. âI guess she didnât fall in quite the same way you did.â
âNo,â Garrett sighed, âItâsâthey havenât told you this, but the thing about Kate, Tanya, and Irina too when she was aliveâtheyâre succubi.â
âGesundheit?â Alphard stared.
âI mean, not really,â Garrett said with a wary look at Alphard, âSuccubuses donât exist, or the ones that doâitâs just vampires. Theyâre not a different creature if thatâs what you were thinking. Itâs because they sleep with human men.â
âThey sleep withâ oh,â Alphard groaned in disgust. âNo.â
âI donât get it either,â Garrett said, but then smiled, âBut the thing is, because they love those men so muchâthey gave up drinking human blood. Thatâs what motivated them. They didnât know it was even possible, Tanya tried to starve herself before they realized it was possible.â
âFucking Merlin,â Alphard whispered in despair.
Garret whistled. âDamn, finally a real swear from you! Who knew!â
Alphard gave him a disgusted look but said nothing.
âAnyway, the thing isââ Garrett sighed, âWhat I hadnât realized, I knew theyâd been doing this, but I didnât realize that my coming up here wouldnât mean sheâd stop doing this. I assumed that we were serious, and we are serious, but Kate assumed something different.â
âI see,â Alphard said dully.
âItâs not like that,â Garrett said swiftly, knowing what Alphard was thinking, âThose humans mean nothing. They show up for a few nights and then theyâre gone again. Kate barely learns their names.â
Alphard had never heard a sadder story in his life.
âI told you, itâs not like that,â Garrett said more firmly, âIâm the one thatâs most important. Iâm the significant other for Kate, the others are allâmayflies, distractions. Iâm the one whoâs still here.â
âSo you are,â Alphard told him.
He then tilted his head, âAre you in the mood for one more question?â
Garrett made a face but then nodded.
âAre you actually married?â Alphard asked.
âNo,â he snorted, âCanât exactly go to a church, can we? And even if we didâitâs all just fake paperwork with fake names. Vampires donât get married like that.â
âWell,â Alphard said, justâtaking him in. âYouâre a very lucky man.â
Garrettâs nostrils flared, but he didnât say anything.
He was, though, Garrett could leave whenever he wished. There was no binding marriage, no finances to lose, no children, nothing tying him to this woman. The moment he finally tired of heartbreak there was nothing to stop him from leaving and starting anew.
That was a very fortunate thing.
âLetâs go find something to eat,â Alphard told him.
LINEBREAK
Alphard caught scent of the newcomers before he saw them. That was something that he had gotten used to surprisingly quickly, and yet still felt distinctly uncomfortable to him. His sense of smell had not only strengthened, but become a vital part of him and how he understood the world.
He could tell where someone had been, who a person was, their emotional state, and more solely by their scent. They could have left a place hours ago and he would know not only they had been there, but where they had stood the longest and where they had come from and where they had gone.
He still relied more on his sense of sight, but scent had become a close second without him even realizing it.
They slowed down just before they were within sight to a leisurely pace, barely faster than a human would have run, and Alphard had to laugh at the gesture.
Upsetting newborns was, from what heâd learned from Tanya, extremely easy and usually had horrible results.
âThey brought Emmett and Rosalie,â Tanya said, sounding surprised.
If those two had any obnoxious talents Tanya refused to say what they were. He had to guess not, then, or as Kate had pointed out, Alphard would be rather upset when he did learn about whatever it was they could do.
Alphard just stood there, waiting, and a few seconds later five vampires appeared out of the treeline.
They were young physically, all of them looking as if theyâd barely left Hogwarts, the youngest boy with red hair looking as if he should have been in his seventh or perhaps even sixth year. None of them looked older than Narcissa.
One was tall and broad, a mountain among men, with a large grin on his face. On his arm was perhaps the most beautiful woman Alphard had ever seen, a young blonde woman. Next to him was a lankier blond fellow with thousands of scars running across his face and a wary look in his eyes, then the boy with the red hair, and finally another blond man who looked to be the oldest of them.
âCarlisle, hello!â Tanya said, and ran forth to meet the oldest-looking blond man.
She threw her arms around his neck, and he laughed and swung her around.
Immediately Alphard disliked him.
The red-haired boy gave him a rotten look, while the scarred blond man was looking at Alphard with a very guarded expression.
Carlisle put Tanya down and made eye contact with Alphard. âHe hasnât had any accidents,â he said, his eyes lighting up.
Alphard frowned.
âNo, heâs wonderful. Heâs taken to vampirism like a fish to water!â Tanya gushed. âCome, letâs introduce you!â
She led the five vampires forward to Alphard. âAlphard, this is Carlisle and his daughter Rosalie, and his sons Edward, Jasper, and Emmett.â
âPleasure,â Alphard said shortly. âAnd I have asked you to refer to me by Mr. Black, Tanya. You know this.â
âYouâve been here for eight months,â Tanya said with a strained smile, âI think we can be a little more familiar than that.â
âI think otherwise,â Alphard told her, and turned back to Carlisle and his friends.
They all had varying looks of apprehension and befuddlement on their faces. The largest man, who was Emmett if Tanyaâs gesturing was anything to go by, looked like he was trying not to laugh.
âWell,â Carlisle was the first to recover, âyou are free to refer to me by my first name.â
Alphard smiled at him. âThank you, Carlisle.â
Tanya looked like she wanted to cry.
âI understand you wanted to talk,â Carlisle explained, âor at least that Tanya had invited me here to speak with you. My family is here because they were curious. Has Tanya told you about Edward and Jasperâs gifts?â
âYes,â Alphard said, âEdward reads minds and Jasper can control emotions.â
Though it was polite of him to ask as much when Tanya hadnât wanted to tell Alphard in the first place. That would have been rather awkward, had Kate not confessed and here Alphard was caught off guard in front of all of them.
âCorrect,â Carlisle nodded, still looking a bit unsure of his footing.
Did he want to speak with Carlisle?
Well, he knew that if he remained here confined to the company of these people, nothing would change. It could be this would be simply more of the same, but it would at least expand his network and they could very well tell him things the Denali wouldnât.
There was very little reason not to, then, even if he turned out to be insufferable or even dangerous.
âLet me tell you about his gift,â Eleazar blurted, and stepped out in front of Alphard.
âOh, please, Edward has been dying to know,â Carlisle parried immediately, looking entirely too happy Eleazar was offering. âHavenât you, Edward?â
Edward, the boy with the red hair, looked genuinely enthused and eager as he stepped towards Eleazar, âI have, you werenât very clear on the phone but you saidâhe could make a difference? Heâs that powerful?â
âOh, fascinating,â Carlisle said, and stepped towards Alphard (and the scarred blond man followed him like a shadow). âMr. Black, I thought we could take a walk.â
Funny, how Eleazar seemed to want to talk about Alphardâs âgiftâ without Alphard present. However, that seemed in character for the man, and he did consider himself an expert on Alphardâs capabilities (something that did concern Alphard, because if he was an expertâthat wasnât something Alphard wanted him knowing).
Edward was looking at him again, an assessing look.
âI hope you donât mind if I join you,â the scarred blond said, and Alphard had a feeling this had to be Jasper.
âThatâs fine,â Alphard said, as it was clear that he would not be given a chance to refuse. That was not a request but a command heâd just been given.
Though there was something about the man and his scarsâit put Alphard on edge, in an instinctive way he couldnât explain.
Carlisle led them both towards the north side of the mountain, while behind them Rosalie and Emmett were happily chatting with the other Denali.
âI suppose Iâd best start with asking how youâve been,â Carlisle said once they were out of earshot.
Alphard said nothing. These were the Denaliâs close friends, the first people they summoned to this place. Alphard was hardly going to admit the truth or that he was not pleased with his circumstances.
Anything he said would likely get back to Tanya.
Carlisle gave him an assessing look. Then he said, âI received a phone call from Tanya saying she had turned a man with an incredible gift, but the man is regrettably very difficult and doesnât want to train or help her at all. Sheâs worried, frustrated, and wanted me to come talk to him, as Iâm apparently known to charm the most unlikely people.â
âItâs very regrettable Irina died,â Alphard allowed himself, âIâm very sorry for the loss, although I never met her myself. However, itâs not my conflict, and I have no personal investment in their revenge against what sounds like a very dangerous foe.â
Carlisle nodded, and sat down on a rock, gesturing for Alphard to do the same. Jasper leaned against a tree, clearly intent on making Alphard forget he was there.
âWhat do you know of Irinaâs death?â Carlisle asked, then frowned.Â
âShe was killed by a group of vampires called the Volturi,â Alphard said, âThere was a confrontation with them, where they murdered Irina without cause. She was preceded by the murder of their mother and brother.â
Carlisle nodded. âDo you know why the confrontation happened? No, actuallyâMr. Black, what do you know?â
Alphard stared at him.
Carlisle had his lips pursed, however, and was clearly evaluating him.
Then he said, âThe Denali are close friends of mine. They have been for many years, I consider them extended family. However, I do disagree with them from time to time, and this is one of those times. I donât think Tanya had any right to turn a human for her own ends, I was myself turned against my will, and having made that mistake towards others Iââ he waved a hand. âI donât agree with her decision.â
Tanya didnât seem to see it that way. She and the others clearly expected that Alphard would have first been upset, but that heâd quickly get over it and move on with his new life. He would mourn the loss of his family the way he would have if they had passed by natural causes, and embrace the wonders of being a rat eating monster.
They also felt that Alphard should feel honor bound, compelled out of their mere proximity to them, to undertake this great revenge.
âYouâve turned people,â Alphard said, wondering just what tale Carlisle was going to spin for him.
âYes,â the man admitted, âEdward, whom you saw earlierâhe was the first. He was dying of the Spanish flu when I found him, he wasnât going to survive it and his mother askedâwell, I suppose that sounds like an excuse.
âEsme, my wife, was next,â he continued, âI found her in the morgue, I had met her years earlier and thought it tragic that sheâd be losing her life so terribly young. Then was Rosalie, I was a doctor in the town she was in, I found her dying. She was in no condition to survive otherwise. And last was Emmett, Rosalie brought him down from the mountain where heâd been mauled by bears and asked that I turn him.
âI wasâIâd been lonely a little too long, I had forgotten that there are people who donât wish to live on as vampires even if the option is to not live on at all,â he continued. âRosalie made this very clear to me.â
âI was turned by someone else,â Jasper said simply when Alphard turned to look at him.
âI see,â Alphard said.
âIâm going to wager a guess that the Denali havenât told you a great deal about our world,â Carlisle said quietly. âI suspect, for instance, you donât know about the law.â
âNo,â Alphard said, rather than ask what âthe lawâ was like a fool.
Carlisle nodded. âVampires live under a single law that we must obey. This law is enforced by the Volturi, and the punishment for breaking it is death, always death. The law itself is that we shall not reveal ourselves to humans.â
Alphard stared at the man, and then he couldnât help it, he laughed.
After all this time, all these months, and it turned out the âVolturiâ was simply MACUSA by some different name? An organization that was exterminating magical creatures breaking the statutes, full of creatures too powerful to fightâ
Merlin, it had been MACUSA all along, and Alphard had never even realized because theyâd painted these witches and wizards as devils with unnatural powers.
Carlisle and Jasper were looking at each other in confusion.
âIâm sorry, itâs justââ Alphard didnât say anything, couldnât, just continued laughing.
They wanted revenge against the wizarding world after all, just as Alphard had suspected. Tanya really was a Fenrir Greyback, and the worst part was heâd known it the second this had happened but heâd allowed himself to be distracted.
And now it was too little too late, because Alphard was one of them, and if he went to MACUSA or any other Ministry heâd undoubtedly be exterminated as well.
âDo you wish for me to continue?â Carlisle asked carefully, looking so very earnest in his concern.
âWhy not?â Alphard said, feelingâa deranged manic sort of despair that made everything seem terribly funny.
âThe Volturi are based in Italy, named for the city of Volterra,â Carlisle explained. âThey are ruled by the three ancient kings, Aro, Marcus, and Caius, and they have been in power for just about two-thousand years.â
Well, that was different.
Alphard thought of what he knew about the Italian ministry. He didnât deal in foreign relations much, and the Brits had always been closer to the Americans and the French than the rest of Europe, at least since Alphard had been in the Wizengamot. But from what he knew, it wasnât a monarchy and functioned in the same bureaucratic manner that Britain did.
âCan I ask you a question?â Alphard asked him. âA few, actually.â
âOf course,â Carlisle volunteered.
âAre the names MACUSA or Ilvernmorny at all familiar to you? To either of you.â Alphard asked.
Carlisle stared.
Jasper, too, looked like Alphard had grown a second head.
âBeauxbatons,â Alphard offered.
How could they know about a ministry, about the statute, but have so much information wrong? How, for that matter, could they have very little understanding of what a witch or wizard was, especially if they felt they were in a war against them?
Even if Eleazar was more informed than Alphard liked, if the Volturi were wizards then he should have been far more familiar with their abilities than he was. Guessing that Alphard could light a log on fire was the least of what he should have been able to do.
âDo you believe the Volturi have been enforcing thisâlaw, as you call it,â Alphard said, watching Carlisleâs face very closely (he was a little more expressive than Jasper), âfor two-thousand years?â
âWhat?â Carlisle asked him.
That was too long, far too long. The statute had only come into effect near three-hundred years ago, no one pretended otherwise. Before then, Muggles had been fully aware of magic even if it had been a mysterious and unknowable thing to them.
It could be these creatures had been told otherwise, lied to, butâthere was no reason for that and if they were as immortal as they claimed to be then they should very well know it wasnât the case.
âThe year sixteen sixty-five,â Alphard said. âDo you know if anything particular, or notable, happened that year? Anything at all?â
âNo,â Carlisle said, looking so very lost. âNo, and I lived through it. Iâd just been turned, butâno, Iâm sorry, Mr. Black, but Iâm very confused.â
No, Alphard was.
There had been no sign of magic in the time heâd been here. No sign that vampires had any real awareness of the wizarding world beyond this conversation. Everything heâd thought seemed familiar had just been conjecture, the conjecture and assumption that Bella must be a witch herself.
He could try to make this âVolturiâ fit into a Ministry or international organization he was familiar withâbut it didnât and nothing else did either.
âIâm going to ask you another question,â he said slowly.
âAlright,â Carlisle agreed, nodding.
Alphard paused for a moment, observing him.
If Alphard was right, but Carlisle hadnât realizedâthen he would be putting Bella in a tough spot. He would be putting that poor daughter in danger as well, potentially.
âDo the Volturi ever use wooden sticks to wield their powers?â
Whatever question Carlisle had been expecting, it clearly wasnât that. He looked too baffled and confused to even say anything.
After a moment, he just whispered, âMr. Black, I have no idea what youâre talking about.â
Then Bella wasnât a witch, the Volturi were not a magical organization, and these creatures had no idea what witches and wizards were. Despite killing Muggles for food, no Ministry had intervened and regulated their existence, nor offered the human-drinking vampires alternatives such as blood pops or forced them to consume animals instead.
âIâm a wizard,â he told Carlisle. âI am from a society of wizards, where there would be a Ministry. Vampires exist, but they are miserable, sorry creatures who canât get a decent virgin even if they pool all their money together on a good day. School children learn to ward them off with simple spells in their fourth year.â
Carlisle just stared at him.
Alphard had not been able to reach his flat or his fatherâs. Perhaps that was because he was in America, or perhaps it was because they didnât exist, nothing existed, and Alphard was stranded somewhere unknown.
âIâm far away from home,â Alphard concluded, staring into the trees pitifully.
Carlisle and Jasper exchanged looks, clearly not knowing what to say to him.
Alphard put his face in his hands, trying to keep himself together and not realizeâeverything was gone. Everything.
âIf you wishââ Carlisle let out a breath, and looked at him. âTanya wonât like it, and weâll have to find a way to keep Renesmee safe. However, if you wish to come stay with my family insteadâŠâ
âCarlisle,â Jasper cautioned, though his heart wasnât in it.
Carlisle was undeterred. âIâm offering.â
What was the point?
There was nothing.
Even if Alphard had been forced into exile, even if he had to pretend to be dead to his friends and family, at least they were still here. There was still a magical world, still wand shops and everything he had ever known in his life.
What was he supposed to do when there was nothing?
âDo you want a moment alone?â Carlisle asked uncertainly, then added, ârelatively alone?â
Well, would Alphard rather be miserable here with the Denali, who would try to goad him to destroy their enemies or miserable with these strangers until he could learn to control himself and find some new way to live?
The answer was obvious when put like that.
âNo,â he said, pulling his hands away from his face, âNo, Iâd like to come with you, as soon as possible.â
Carlisle gave him a smile, whilst Jasper grimaced.Â
The two men exchanged a glance.
âHow aboutâI think goodbyes are difficult,â Carlisle said. âJasper, how about you take Alphard, and I canââ
âGive Tanya the happy news?â Jasper asked with a despairing laugh. âNo, Iâll do it.â
âThank you, Jasper,â Carlisle said, looking quite grateful for Jasperâs heroic sacrifice at letting Tanya know that her prey had escaped her.
Jasper just smiled back at him, looking very brave. âNow go,â he said. âGo, go, go.â
Carlisle began running south and Alphard wasted no time in catching up with him, matching his pace.
âAmerica?â Alphard asked, he would assume as much judging by the accents. He supposed a part of him was disappointed in that, in that it wouldnât be home, but a larger part was grateful in that there was nothing he would fail to recognize.
If he stayed here, he could pretend that this was his own world.
âYes, through Canada,â Carlisle said, making a wide berth around the Denali house. âThey know where weâre going, so no point losing our scents in the water.â
Well, wasnât that wonderful?
Alphard wondered if Tanya would show up to serenade him, begging him to return and offer his mighty powers to murder her enemies. Perhaps heâd get lucky and sheâd just seethe miserably in the mountains.
âHang on a moment,â Alphard said, nearly stopping. âDid you say you were there in the sixteen-hundreds?â
âYes,â Carlisle said as if it were nothing.
Alphardâ
Stared.
âTanyaâs far older than I am,â he offered, âAs is Kate for that matter. Iâmâolder than many, but younger than quite a few as well.â
Of course he was.
âIâm the oldest of my coven,â he offered upon seeing Alphardâs face, âJasperâs the second oldest, but younger than me by about two-hundred years.â
Alphard wondered what he could even say to that.Â
However, just then he caught the scent of something and felt the burning horrible sensation in his throat that would only grow worse the further they ran.
âIâm terribly sorry, but we have to stop for a squirrel.â
âOh, of course,â Carlisle said. He didnât look at all bothered.
Space Oddity is a fic @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and I co-wrote in the summer of 2023, then abandoned. Then again, in January of this year, we tried to resurrect the fic and wrote a few chapters before deciding they were bad and the fic unsalvageable. We opted not to publish these chapters.
There have been requests to see these chapters, however, and as they do exist and people wish to see them we have decided to publish them here on tumblr (as publishing them on Ao3 would indicate a stamp of approval we're not comfortable with).
The other chapters can be found on this blog or @therealvinelle or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta under the tag "Space Oddity".
Read at at your own risk, and please note that our decision not to write more of this fic is final.
âTheyâll be here in five minutes,â Demetri said, and a moment later a text lit up his phone.
âAlright, out,â Heidi clapped her hands. âEverybody not supposed to be here, out!â
Aro was almost surprised they were playing along so well. Theyâd been extremely jumpy at that meeting, clearly only agreeing to that much due to the fact that they believed (rightly so) that Aro could track them across the globe.
It had been pure luck however that he had found them so quickly. Even for one of his kind, crossing that amount of distance in so little time was no easy feat, and when they could hurdle across entire continents in the blink of an eye Aro had been left fretting and hoping theyâd stay in one spot in Europe long enough to intercept them.
But they didnât seem to realize how limited Aro was or that, so long as they were content to live on the run, they could have escaped him if theyâd simply kept moving.
But theyâd remained in that flat in Volterra and they were now approaching, which meant Aro had managed at least that much.
âWe should be able to hear them soon,â Demetri said to Aro, before jumping through the hole that would lead him to the lower levels.
Soon, the room was empty save for Aro himself, Caius, Marcus, and Renata.
He felt a bit silly, standing in the reception area like this. However, meeting directly in the throne room would leaveâa certain impression. That was of course the point of the room, it was what it had been built for along with being large enough to house enough humans to feed all the Volturi at once. It was meant to strike awe and terror into humans and vampires alike, to give them the instant feeling that they were in the presence of kings who had ruled for two-thousand years.
But that wasnât the impression he wanted to give these two, not when they could disappear in the blink of an eye.
It would for instance be a very bad start if the man noticed the drain in the middle of the throne room, and Aro hadnât been able to find a rug that was large or convincing enough.
âI donât understand why you havenât simply turned them,â Caius pointed out, âYou do it with everyone else.â
Aro did.
Whenever there was rumor of a particularly gifted human he wasted no time in turning them. Only with Jane and Alec had he hesitated, as theyâd been much too young when he had found them. However, he had intended only to delay their turning for when they were a more suitable age, and had nearly lost them because of this.
Even the humans who turned into disappointing vampires were worth the chance that they might have something truly special.
Howeverâ
If he attacked them, and either failed to get them both or they decided they didnât particularly appreciate being made into vampires, he could very well have given himself a problem he wouldnât know how to manage.
He didnât know the extent of their gifts, didnât know their minds, and he didnât know how dangerous they could turn out to be.
And after Bella Swan, he wasnât going to assume that his or more importantly Chelseaâs gift would work. It would be just his luck that the easiest means he had to cement and foster loyalty would be lost to him.
And it was because of Bella Swan that he wouldnât risk losing this opportunity out of carelessness.
In the distance, his ears picked up on three sets of human footsteps, Philippa and the two gifted humans.
âIf you will enter through here,â Philippa said pleasantly, and there was a creak of the South door opening.
âOh, alright, umââ he heard the woman say. She sounded hesitant.
âIâll hold him,â the man said in a tired voice, and there was a rustle and a small childâs grunt.
There were four heartbeats, Aro realized, and he felt a sinking feeling of resignation that one was much smaller than the others. There was a child after all, and it sounded very small.
âNo,â Caius said in anger and disbelief.
âThat is one problem,â Aro confirmed.
Even Chelsea would not be able to overcome the rage at separating a mother from her child. Aro would have to convince these two to foster the child out to someone in the city until he was of an age to be turned.
âTheyâre bringing a child?!â Caius balked.
Ah, yes, that was also surprising.
Though from what Aro had gathered of these two thus farâhe suspected they didnât trust leaving the child in Volterra unprotected. Though it meant they were confident bringing it into a room full of vampires, even after theyâd seen some of Aroâs abilities.
âOh, thatâsâyou have electric lighting!â the woman said, sounding delighted.
(Aro wondered how antiquated they thought vampires were, if they had been expecting Draculaâs underground candlelit lair in the catacombs. He supposed that wasnât wrong for the Romanians, for example, but it still pained him given theyâd had a conversation in a modern pub.)
âOf course,â Philippa said pleasantly. âThe palace is very old, but Aro put in running water when he first built it and he electrified it inâI think the nineteen fifties, Iâm not sure.â
Heâd put in the wiring in the nineteen sixties, once heâd been completely sure he wasnât risking a fire and even then he had been careful not to let anything that could possibly blow a fuse near his beloved library and art collection.
The man didnât comment on the use of electricity.
âIt just keeps going down?â the woman asked Philippa, sounding a bit nervous. Aro heard the clack of her footsteps come a step closer to the manâs.
âFor another thirty meters, yes. Youâll see a door around the corner,â Philippa said.
They reached it a few moments later, and then they were stepping into the hallway. Another moment later they stepped into the lounge.
âWelcome!â Aro offered with a cheery smile, âSo glad you decided to come!â
The man immediately stopped, stepping in front of the woman with a guarded look on his face and tightening his hold on the child.
The child was, indeed, a toddler of about a year and a half. He had a mess of thick black hair sticking out in every direction, a face that looked unfamiliar, perhaps taking after his father, but he had his motherâs striking eyes.
He was also wearing clothes far more expensive and precocious than most human toddlers did in this current era, he had on a little shirt and jacket with a set out of dark blue pants and black shoes.
The woman was wearing a turtleneck.
Aro stepped forward and motioned to Marcus and Caius standing behind him, âThis is Caius and Marcus, they are the brothers I mentioned in our last discussion who rule the vampire world alongside me. And youâve of course met the lovely Renata.â
âPleasure,â the man said. âIâm Tom Riddle. This is Lily Potter, and her son Harry.â
The woman, Lily, gave the man a funny look but quickly looked back at Aro and the others without saying anything.
Well, the names were fake, then. Aro supposed it wasnât surprising although he wondered why the man bothered. He supposed, to them, perhaps they thought there was something in the human world which Aro might use against them. They likely had little understanding just how divorced humans and vampires were, that nothing from their human lives had any interest at all to Aro or any other vampire they might meet. Whatever past they were hiding held no interest to him.
âI invited you here so we might get to know one another,â he said, clasping his hands. âI will tell you more of our world, what vampires are and what we, the Volturi, do, and we will discuss how you may fit into our little organization.â
âWe are not becoming vampires,â Tom Riddle reminded him, his expression becoming harder as he spoke.
Caius laughed.
Aro sighed, âYou have explained as much.â
âSo long as thatâs clear,â Tom said, and it was quite clear that he intended to stand his ground and expected Aro to make an issue of it.
âWe wonât force you,â Aro said instead.
He suspected theyâd already realized that Aroâs angle was to wait them out, heâd confessed as much already. However, it was one thing to intellectually know that and another to realize Aro really did intend to wait years if he had to.
He smiled at them. âPlease, take a seat.â
Tom passed the child to Lily, and they sat down next to one another on the sofa.
The child began fussing slightly, looking up at Caius in fear.
âItâs alright, Harry,â Lily said, beaming at the child and wiggling her fingers. âLook!âÂ
A bright, blue horse erupted from her pointy finger, and hopped around the back of her hand and between her fingers.
The child gave the horse an unimpressed look, clearly having seen it many times before and clearly thinking his mother was rather stupid for bringing it out.
The woman was too tense to fully pay attention to him, however, her eyes kept darting to Tom for reassurance and she was sitting ramrod straight on the edge of her seat.
Aro let his hand brush against Marcusâs.
What Marcus saw in these three was not the most convoluted mess that Marcus had witnessed, far from it, but it was not clear cut either.
The woman was the mother of the child, the child regarded her as much and she felt the same. However, some terrible event had clearly happened, one that had made the woman terrified for the childâs sake and the child uncertain of everyone and everything. His relationship with the man was also strange, in that it contained the seedlings of something filial. This was a child who was not sure if this was his father or not, but knew the man was one of the most consistent presences in his life and had been for nearly as long as he could remember.
The woman had shockingly few other relations for someone her age. There were what seemed to be a set of deceased parents, a bitterness that had scabbed into a mostly closed wound she avoided thinking about, an estranged sibling with whom her relationship had degraded into something tense and bitter, and friendships which had been built on uncertain ground, never touching all that deep.
Most of those friendships, at least those with the living, were in a state of chaos as they had either turned from enemy to friend or friend to enemy.
There was a dead husband and lover, with the scent of a failing relationship on it. The relationship had ended tense, strained, for all that both had tried to make it work and had not yet been at the breaking point. Now, it was colored by grief and a sense of insufficiency, that she wasnât grieving as much as she should be but didnât know how to go about that either.
There was also a respected mentor and guide who had become not simply a disappointment but an enemy.
When it came to the manâ
She was terrified of him, and he had at one point been a creature she feared the way one fears war, disease, and other incomprehensible and inhuman forces. That fear had since given way to a persistent sense of surprise and disquiet, most of all confusion. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and beginning to wonder if perhaps it never would.
He still wasnât human, he was too unknowable for that, but she was afraid of him now only because she reminded herself to be, and she even felt a burgeoning sense of loyalty and trust in him that he had earned by not proving her wrong yet.
This was a woman whose very world had been turned on its head, whose every relationship had either been ended prematurely by death, or whose entire nature had changed due to a few large, cataclysmic events in her life that had all occurred quite recently.
The man was arguably worse.
He was a cynic, a cynic forged by solitude and bitter life experience who had surrounded himself with people he held in contempt, yet who still managed to disappoint him despite his low expectations. He viewed them, at best, as employees and enemies but mostly as fools embarrassing themselves for his benefit.
There had been one lover, one he was still carrying a torch for in spite of himself and for many years after the fact, but he had ended the affair with a vague intention of resuming it at some undecided point in a vague future. These days, he would keep tabs on that person from afar, and there was the bittersweet sense that he perhaps preferred it this way, having the choice and knowing it would be there.
It had occurred to him that that door was now forever closed since he was no longer in his own dimension, and he had immediately tried to convince himself he was fine with this, and would simply never dwell on the matter again.
The woman was both the most normal and abnormal part of this.
He admired her greatly, felt a sense of rejuvenation and youth through her, and he was greatly anticipatory towards what she might accomplish and eager to place himself in the role of mentor. He also was interested in her romantically for all he hadnât realized as much himself, he wanted to impress her at every turn. She had, unwittingly, become his top priority, a fact that he only partially admitted to himself.
Aro released Marcus and sat opposite them, feeling so much better about this now that he had at least some idea of whom he was talking to.
âI was born three and a half millennia ago, in Mycenaean Greece,â he began. âMarcus was born around the same time, and Caius was a bit olderâabout a century?â
He made a show of looking to Caius for confirmation.
Caius looked tired, just tired of this already, but he nodded. âCorrect,â he said.
âIn my time, vampires were a known part of our world,â Aro continued. âWe all knew of the gods who would shine in the sun like stars, demand their sacrifice at least once a fortnight, wielded impossible strength and speed, and looked more beautiful than even the loveliest men and women. They inspired myths, art, musicâwe feared and admired them in turn.
âI was different than you,â he told them with a fond smile, âI wanted to become a god. I didnât have to get all the way to the top of Olympus, I had no interest in managing the sun or whatever it is the major deities might do, but I saw no reason I could not grasp some divinity for myself. I also had a remarkable talent, it wasnât as profound as it is now, as I explained before a gift becomes deeper and far stronger upon turning. However, I had some ability to read minds.
âI will save you the boring details,â he continued. âBut at the tender age of twenty-seven, I had gotten my wish and made myself immortal. My ambition was fulfilled, and although I soon found myself a coven with Marcus, Caius, and our wives I had no designs upon the larger ruling covens which had held large territories since time immemorial.â
He smiled briefly as he realized that Philippa was sitting by her desk as quietly as she dared, clearly hanging on to every word and hoping no one would throw her out before she could miss the rest of the story.
âBut they were not as stable as I had once thought,â Aro sighed, âCovens warred against one another for territory with many people dying in the process, disasters among the humans, their own wars, famines, and plagues, pushed our kind to extend their reach which only caused more conflict.
âThe same venue through which I had become a vampire, was alsoâshall we say often trod. We would create more of our kind if we saw a particularly beautiful, or impressive human, or if a bold enough human approached us, or simply on a whim. The number of vampires was rising, always rising, and our dead would be swiftly replaced by two more.
âThe world was too small,â he explained, âAnd a terrible period befell the human civilization in the area in which I had lived as a human. Between natural catastrophe, human conflicts, and our own conflictsâthe population in the ancient Mediterranean plummeted and the civilization we had known collapsed. It was centuries before the modern ancient Greece came to be.
âIt troubled me,â he said, crossing his legs and folding his hands over his knee.
âAt the time, when our kind warred, we warred in the way of humans. Numbers, skill, and strategy would determine who was victor, the strongest covens were the largest and most experienced. The Dacians and Egyptians were the strongest of all, numbering over twenty-five at their respective heights.â
At that, both Tom and Lily looked surprised, and they exchanged a glance.
They didnât say anything, however.
âGifts, at the time, were vanishingly rare,â Aro continued, a small smile spreading across his lips. âUnderstand I canât truly be called a brilliant visionary, as my weapon was something that simply hadnât been available to our kind, not in the way I was able to use it. Most vampires that are gifted areâwell, they are rare, for one thing, but theyâre alsoâŠâ
âUseless,â Caius supplied tersely.
âA cruel way of putting it,â Aro said, âBut yes, useless. You might meet a vampire whose gift is to find lost items. Or perhaps theyâre a little lucky from time to time. Nothing that can be used for winning a war,â he concluded.
âI, however, had my ability that Iâve told you about, reading minds,â Aro said. âEvery single thought a person has ever had would be mine, and at a single touch at that. Marcus would complement my gift, as he sees relationships. He could look at a single person and know everyone he trusts, why he trusts them, if they trust him, if he is untrue to his lover and how he feels about the factâa thousand little things that helped him piece together a person with a single look.â
Tom Riddleâs eyes slid to Marcus, as did the womanâs. Aro could see the immediate dismissal in the womanâs eyes as she stared at the man. The man was more cautious but it was clear he hadnât realized quite what Aro meant either.
It was funny, even before Marcusâs demeanor had become what it was today, he was often overlooked. He had been by everyone around him until Aro and Didyme had come across him. People couldnât imagine what seeing a ârelationshipâ was like, what it meant, or how it could provide information that Aro could not obtain for himself. After all, wouldnât it simply confirm âloverâ, âsiblingâ, âfriendâ?
It was too abstract of an idea, too in conflict with what they knew Aro was capable of and later Chelsea. They didnât see why he had anything to offer in addition to the pair of them. As a result, he was almost always underestimated.
âTogether we had all the intelligence a person could ever want, and I set about searching for others with gifts. My search led me to Chelsea, who can manipulate a personâs relationships, strengthen and weaken them just enough that an army might find itself falling apart at the seamsâbut we were still reliant on skilled warriors and sometimes plain luck in battle. My little repertoire had given us a leg up on the enemy, but it wasnât decisive.â
âAnd thatâs why youâre interested in us,â Tom concluded dully, not sounding very impressed by Aroâs story.
âLet me finish,â Aro grinned, holding up a finger. âYou see, in the ninth century I made the very happy discovery of a gifted pair of children. Theyâgot their way, you might say. I decided to keep watch on them, as they were much too young to turn.â
(This was the part thatâmight make Lily, but probably Tom as well, a bit squeamish.
But it was better to explain it than have them see the twins and assume the worst, or even lie. âOh, Jane simply has one of those faces. Really, sheâs twenty!â)
âHowever, lifeâintervened in a very cruel way,â he said. âThey would not have lived to see adulthood, and a swift decision had to be made. And thenââ he raised his eyebrows at them. âThen, they turned out to be something beyond even my wildest dreams.â
Tom made a face, looking extremely suspicious and disgusted with this, no doubt having his own opinion on just how forced Aroâs hand had been.
âWith their addition, I had firepower I had never had access to before,â Aro explained, âThey have the power to take out an army of any size within half of a second without killing a single soul. Suddenly, there were no more bloody battles, there was no need for them, as the outcome was already decided the moment we mobilized.â
Aro spread out his hands. âThe Volturi became the uncontested leaders of the supernatural world. And in the centuries sinceâwell, itâs been over a millennium, actuallyâmy collection of gifts has only grown better.â
âSo then, you have no need of us,â Tom concluded.
Aro gave him a grim smile. âOne year ago, a woman with the gift of nullifying gifts appeared.â
âYou can laugh,â Caius said from where he was leaning against the wall. âI often do.â
A very unenthusiastic and bitter âHa ha.â came from his lips.
Aro made a face.
âThe twins donât work against her, Chelsea does not work against her, my own gift does not work against her. There are gifts that can be used against her, but they are of no help to us in this situation. Worse, she can nullify these powers when used against over fifty people, perhaps she can protect hundreds or more though I canât say for certain.Â
âShe is also convinced that I am a very evil and corrupt man, and I want to destroy her family and way of life because I hate freedom,â Aro continued. âAnd I sound terribly dismissive and reductive when I say as much, butâit really seems to be the case with her, and she has a husband who believes all these things. He is a very opinionated but unintelligent man of seventeen years, and she has absolute faith in every word to come out of his mouth.
âThere was a large confrontation over a grave misunderstanding,â Aro said, âThere has been no mobilization against us yet, but her gift is known on a global scale and she undoubtedly receives petitions daily to raise an army.â
âFor the twoâthreeâof you to appear in my alleyway, with your inexplicable gifts, the way you didâyou are quite frankly a godsend,â Aro confessed. âAnd I find I donât even mind your refusal to become vampires quite so much, because while it does make you terribly vulnerable I expect the mobilization would happen quite comfortably within your natural lifespans.â
Lilyâs mouth fell open at that phrasing.
âIâm sorry,â Tom said, a strange look on his face, âYou would like for us to fight an army of vampires?â
âNo,â Aro said, âyou would die immediately. I would like for you to help us. Even teleporting us where we need to be, or getting us out of danger, could give us the advantage we need.â
The man made no expression to that, but the fact that he didnât react made it clear he thought this was quite unlikely.
Instead he said, âWe can make you devices which can instantaneously transport you from anywhere in the world to a chosen location.â
Aroâs jaw fell.
Caius was sitting next to him in the next moment, looking like heâd been hit on the head. âWhat,â he hissed.
âTo make it clear, you can depart from anywhere, but you cannot arrive anywhere you choose,â the man further explained, as if this was Caiusâs objection, âThe destination is always fixed, per object, and if you wish for a different destination you would require a different device.â
âThis,â Lily pulled down her turtleneck to show off a small silver necklace. âThis is a Portkey, and it transports me to his location whenever he or I activate it. Harry has one as well.â
âIt can be anything, it can be timed, it can be worn on your person, set to a fixed location or a given person,â Tom said, as if Lily hadnât just said she was essentially his prisoner. âIt can take multiple people as well, if you wish.â
âYes please,â Aro choked out, feeling lightheaded.
âAnd thatâs all?â Tom asked, âIf we provide this to you, we comfortably remain in this city unbothered?â
âYes!â Aro said. âI meanâIâll happily accept anything else you wish to offer us, but yes!â
âThen Iâll need to know how many you require, how you want them to operate, and where you want them to send the user,â Tom said dismissively, looking far more comfortable now that heâd determined the nature of their relationship and exchange of âgoods and servicesâ as heâd called it in their first meeting.
âThatâsâgods,â Aro said. âIâd need one for each guard, andâIâll give you a list. Gods, I think I need a moment.â
Tom didnât look very impressed, while Lily simply looked disturbed. It was clear neither thought much of this miraculous device, this âPortkeyâ, that they could create. He supposed to a pair that could teleport at will, this kind of object was superfluous.
âIf I understand correctlyââ she frowned, then turned to Tom.
Her lips began moving but, to Aroâs amazement, he couldnât hear a single word.
Whatever she was saying, however, it was clear Tom wasnât impressed by it.
After just under a minute she turned back to Aro. âDo I understand that if you lose thisâwar, if this woman and her allies are able to dethrone you, that would have a human death toll?â
Aroâdecided it had best be honest.
âIn short, yes,â he said, âWere it that particular coven alone, and only them affected by this, it would not be so terrible. They are typically pacifists, barring this conflict, and they have an extraordinary respect for human life. However, because of that and other things, they would not continue our operations and thatâs where the trouble lies. Other covens would no longer fear if they ate too many humans or fashioned themselves gods, and there are many vampires who long for such an opportunity and are quite bitter at having been denied it. Some of these will undoubtedly be allies they turn to. For that reason as well as others, I expect the death toll would be quite large.â
Lily pursed her lips.
Then she said, âI can try to heal your injuries. I donât know how to do that, but if you have someone whoâs injured who would let me experiment, I can see what I can do.â
âAh,â Aro laughed, âno, Iâm afraid we have no one-legged veterans in need of your assistance. If you get injured, you either die or someone pieces you back together. The only injury for a vampire is a scar.â
Lilyâs face fell.
âI think theyâll be fine,â Tom told her.
Lily just nodded, her lips pursed.
Then she said, âWhat about Harry?â
Aro let out a sigh, âNothing. I expect heâll live as an ordinary toddler.â
âI meant when he grows up,â Lily said. âYou wonât want him to help you?â
Aro stared at the boy in confusion, trying to imagine what use a human child would be to him. Then he realized, he wasâAro had never seen a gift manifest that young in a human, but if she sounded so certain it was possible.
He must have been showing signs already.
âI think, since Aro here turns his gifted humans, it has either not occurred to the man such things might be inherited or the gifts he is familiar with are different,â Tom said tersely, looking at Harry.
He had twisted his torso, ever so slightly, towards Lily and Harry as if expecting to jump up in front of them at a secondâs notice.
âInherited,â Aro said weakly, staring at the two in disbelief.
âWeâre from a world where there are thousands of us,â Lily explained slowly, watching Aro and Caiusâs faces. âPortkeys, for instance, theyâre just infrastructure.â
Aroâ
Perhaps, perhaps if the gifted humans had all found each other, and then formed a small village in which they only chose to have children with other gifted individuals. Aro couldnât imagine it, it wasnât sane, it wasnât even likely.
Except heâd tried this! Heâd tried this with Volterra, heâd put as many promising humans and their relatives as he could manage, and nothing useful had manifested! Not in a thousand years!
Often there were hints of a gift in a direct descendent. Much as Didyme had turned out to have a gift, simply not one Aro had found useful, a direct descendent of a gifted human might have a gift but there was no guarantee it would be as powerful or even similar.
It was actually quite strange and remarkable that little Renesmee Cullen should have a talent that, at least on the surface, was the inverse of her fatherâs.
There was a reason that the Romanians were not breeding humans out of the Volturiâs sight, it was because inheriting gifts simply didnât work and was not reliable. This was why it was always better to turn a gifted human than wait on them to have children and perhaps die in childbirth.
âHave children,â Caius said bluntly, still looking a little like heâd been hit over the head.
âCaius!â Aro snapped at him.
âAro, this is the first fucking time youâve found someone useful since the sixteenth century, and they might be better than Jane and Alec. If Jane and Alec were here, and human, I would tell them to have sixteen children. And Iâm saying the same to these two!â
Lily looked like she wanted to die, simply die, while Tom looked like heâd left the room entirely.
âYou canât simply tell them to have children!â Aro said, utterly appalled. It was worse that he was thinking it as well.
He had an Adam and an Eve, as it were, and true, they could not create the beginnings of an entire society, but they could certainly provide a strong line of descendants. The man was certainly interested, and the woman wasnâtâdisinterested, not if circumstances changed just enough.
âWhat the hell else are they going to do all day?â Caius asked with a shrug.
âWe donât have that type of relationship,â Tom said, sounding as if his mind was still wandering about in the ether.
Caius just looked at them.
Aro slid his hand against Marcusâs andâthere had been a fluctuation, though not much. He was certain the pair found the suggestion alien and absurd, but now that it had been made there was a thread of realization between them that they were two people and two people might enter such a relationship.
It was clear the idea hadnât occurred to either of them, that it simply had not even been a remote possibility until itâd been stated in such clear and harsh terms.
Well.
There was Chelsea for that.
He supposed there was the risk that Lily might die in childbirth, though modern medicine had lowered that risk tremendously and sheâd made her mention of healing abilities. If they wanted to turn before then, he would comply. However if they insisted on remaining human anywayâ
âWe have a very good community in the guard,â Renata said out of nowhere, looking a bit desperate. She was addressing Lily. âObviously as you two are human, it is best we keep some distance, but I donât see why we shouldnât spend at least some time together. I can show you Italy, for instance, or Heidi can.â
âThat would be lovely,â Lily said, sounding as if she was still contemplating Caiusâs words and increasingly horrified by them with every passing second.
Renata looked like she wanted to cry. âYourâI like your sweater.â
âOh, thank you,â Lily said.
âI almost said her son is a sweet child,â Renata whispered, and Aro had to fight the horrible, horrible laugh that threatened to spill from his lips.
âWell, do you perhaps wish to see the library?â Aro asked the pair.
We are now three fics deep, with @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and @therealvinelle (as a team), @shakespeareanlizard, and @smallcatwoman each having written their contribution. The fics as well as the upcoming deadlines can all be found here!
Will there be a group chat for the summer competition?
I love that idea, actually. I'll set it up on discord.
As it happens, there are a few competitors I haven't managed to get in touch with: if you haven't heard from me in the past two days but want to be in touch/in the group chat, send us a DM!
