Not So Secret

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Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 8, 2010 at 2:41am

this might b easier sorry
________________________________________________________________
PREFACE
The year is 2015. The Cullens and Jacob Black have moved to a small town in Ontario, Canada and changed their name to Masen. Alice is a waitress working shifts after school, Rosalie has a part time job at a fashion boutique, Emmett coaches the local baseball team and Jasper leads trail rides through the forest surrounding the town. Bella works at an art studio and receives lessons there (and additional ones from Edward and Esme) while Edward teaches young children piano. Carlisle is Chief Surgeon at Toronto Hospital and Esme takes two shifts a week in the children’s ward. Jacob is a mechanic, and between the whole family Nessie receives more than adequate education. She now appears in her late teens or very early twenties and has enormous mental capacity. The wolf pack visit occasionally, but Charlie’s visits are extremely rare, though he keeps in contact with Bella.

Chapter One – A Prisoner

Carlisle’s POV
“Doctor Masen, there are some visitors to speak to you.” The voice of Elizabeth Collins, my secretary, interrupted through the intercom unit on my desk.
“Excuse me,” I apologised to my patient. I pressed the button on the intercom and instructed; “Please tell them I am with a patient right now, but if they could wait a few minutes I’ll be right with them.” Outside, I could hear the soft mumble of Lizzie’s voice as she explained this to the visitors.
“Please continue, Mrs Williams,” I invited, picking up my pen again. She had barely opened her mouth when Liz interrupted again.
“They’re from the government…I don’t know what department. They say it’s urgent. A matter of national security.” The pen slipped from my hand slowly as I tried to figure out what exactly had happened. I realised Mrs Williams was staring, so I quickly added some more notes to my page and excused myself. I hated ditching patients, but it couldn’t be avoided in situations like this.
“Doctor Kennedy,” I called, leaning out of my office door into the hall. He turned to me in response. “Would you mind taking care of Mrs Williams? I have some urgent business to attend to.” Dr Kennedy was clearly disgruntled by my request – I think he’s jealous of me – but he hid it so well no human eye would be able to pick up his slightly narrowed eyes and slightly heavier step. I smiled, pretending not to notice, and handed him my notes as Mrs Williams hesitantly emerged from my office. I directed her after Dr Kennedy and returned to my office, where I found three visitors already waiting for me. Two of them were men I had never seen before, each in neat black tuxedos with thin black suitcases at their sides and guns in their belts. I felt like I had stepped into a crime serial. Standing in front of them was the most powerful fourteen-year-old to walk this planet.
“Jane,” I breathed. She smirked.
“Carlisle.” The smirk turned into a mocking grin; as if she knew something I didn’t. It was more sinister than Edward’s, though, and I’m not sure whether that is because she’s tried to kill me in the past or because the two strangers were aiming not guns at me, but blowtorches.
“Excuse me,” I said, making a point of sitting down at my desk. I gestured to the seats on the other side of it, but my visitors remained standing. “I believe I have a right to know what is going on.”
“We know what you are,” the tallest man said, not bothering to hide the disgust in his tone. He dumped the suitcase on the table and released the latches – more crime show déjà vu - to reveal…a sachet of donor blood? I jumped, and they smiled: clearly this was the reaction they were looking for. At first I was confused, then I realised that this could only mean one thing. The realisation must have shown on my face, because Jane laughed.
I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t look up. I just looked at my hands and willed them – begged them – to stop shaking. And I wondered; if they had found out about me, did they know about the others? Had they tracked down Esme and the rest of the family? If they hadn’t, it wouldn’t be hard now. Would they find Renesmee? And if so, what would Jacob do to stop them getting her?
“I take it you will be coming quietly?” Jane inquired as I got to my feet. The men put their blowtorches away – though not too far out of reach – and I rushed to beat them to the doorway. I hated such shows of power, I always had, but I was determined to prove to them that I was not afraid of them, that I was not beaten. I gave my badge to Liz, leaned in over her desk and whispered in a low voice to save any other human in the room hearing me – Jane would be able to, of course, but she wouldn’t make a show of it, I hoped.
“I may not be coming back for some time,” I said, trying to keep my tone steady. “Refer my patients to Doctor Kennedy. I’ll call when I can come in again.” Liz eyed my guards warily, made a note of it on some scrap paper and nodded. I walked quickly out of there, holding my head high, and hoped that no more of a spectacle would be made. It was a small town; news travelled fast.

Nerves and curiosity battling away in my mind, I sat quietly in the back of the strangers’ sleek black car and listened to them talk. It almost sounded as if they were bragging, which was brave of them as they still felt the need to handcuff me and have Jane guard me with a blowtorch despite the fact that I was yet to lift a finger against them. From the look on her face, Jane had had enough of the men’s talk. I wondered why she put up with it, but the answer was simple enough; she didn’t want to end up like me. A prisoner.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 11, 2010 at 4:28am

Chapter Two: No Answer

Esme:
“Are you boys hungry?” I asked, clicking the latch on the back door and stepping back to allow the six Quileute boys into the house. They each wore shorts and carried small bundles that I assumed were shirts. Leah followed them, wearing a dirty white singlet and corduroy shorts, and grinned at me.
“And you, Leah?” I inquired, embarrassed to have left her off the first question.
“You shouldn’t have to ask,” she said, smiling.
“Of course not.” I laughed and shook my head, heading into the kitchen. Jacob and Nessie ran downstairs to greet their friends, and even Emmett came down after a while, wearing his optimistic grin. He said a brief hello to the wolf pack, then headed towards the doorway.
“I’m off to pick up those light fittings Alice told me you were going to want,” Emmett said, as if I had asked for them myself. I was not taken by surprise at Alice’s uncanny ability to see what I wanted; I trusted her vision to be well and truly correct. I tossed Emmett the keys to his Jeep and reminded him that he had junior baseball training to take that evening. When he left, I turned back to the dining room table to find the entire wolf pack and Nessie seated around it.
“So what do we feel like today?” I asked them. Moments later, various orders were flying at me. I laughed at some of the stranger requests, but I knew they were just trying to challenge me. They were yet to find something I couldn’t make. Eager to take their challenges, I retreated to the kitchen and pulled several types of meat out of the refrigerator. No sooner had I turned the stove on than someone rang the doorbell. I looked at the clock: six o’clock. It must be Carlisle. But why would he ring the doorbell?
Leah, seeing that my hands were covered in meat juices, answered it. It was not Carlisle, but two stern-looking women. The women wore identical, grey suits and had their hair in identical buns, but one held a clipboard while the other held a slim black suitcase.
“Esme Anne Masen?” one of them inquired crisply.
“Yes,” I replied, stepping forward and wiping my hands on my apron. The wolf pack were on their feet – thankfully all fully clothed – ready to defend Nessie and I if necessary. Part of me detested the fact that, if it came to that, they would defend Nessie, not me…but the rest of me knew that I would do the same thing. I was glad of the protection they offered her.
“We have reason to believe you are a risk to the population of this country; you are to report to secret government facilities immediately for questioning.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, astonished, “but I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” The woman with the suitcase unlatched it and pulled out a sachet of donor blood. I was so shocked I couldn’t move: how could they know? How had they found out?
My motionlessness was clearly not what they were looking for: the woman with the clipboard pulled out a knife and slit the bag, sending blood splashing onto the tiles. I clenched my jaw, partly in restraining my thirst but mostly in restraining my anger. How dare they come here, to my home and accuse me of all this?! Not that it wasn’t true, but what if it hadn’t been? And even though it was, a little respect couldn’t hurt!
“Come with us,” they demanded.
“Why should she?” Nessie spat through clenched teeth, jumping out of her seat and coming to my aid.
“Vanessa Carlie Masen?” One of the women inquired. This was a name we had taken from Bella’s false-passport idea: it was much less conspicuous than Renesmee. Nessie froze. Instantly, Jacob leapt in front of us – in front of Nessie. Leah and Sam prepared to knock him back, though it looked like they weren’t inclined to try too hard. Suddenly I was struck with fear.
“I’ll come,” I agreed quickly, trying to make the women leave before Jacob transformed and ripped the both of them to shreds.
“It’s alright, Jake,” Nessie assured him calmly, gracefully recovering from her shock. Jacob’s almost silent snarl turned into a louder one. “We’ll go. We’ll be back soon, don’t worry. It’s just a few questions.”
With that, Nessie and her smooth copper hair and confident stance led the two inquisitors and I outside. No sooner were we out of Jacob’s sight than they clapped handcuffs on us both and put us under guard in the back of a white limousine.
Nessie reached across the space between us and touched me on the forehead. Our guards looked at us strangely, but said nothing. Nessie flashed through images of our family, projecting them into my mind easily. She broke contact and raised her eyebrows, leaving me to work out the question; do you think they’ve found the others? I nodded ever so slightly, not wanting to believe what I knew was very likely. She touched me again, this time with images of Jacob, in both human and wolf form. She raised her eyebrows again: what will Jake do? This time, I had to shrug. I didn’t have any other answer.
“Where are we going, Esme?” she asked me softly, out loud now. “Where are they taking us?” Her voice was so innocent and forlorn it sounded like the young child Nessie was. She was frightened. She came and sat beside me and put her head on my shoulder. More images projected in my mind; Jacob, Bella, Edward, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Carlisle and myself. Worry, nerves, fear, and anger…her moods reflected mine. But I couldn’t answer her question. It would break her little heart. I just couldn’t tell her I didn’t know, that I could offer no answer.
But of course, she’d already seen that.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 12, 2010 at 10:56pm

Chapter Three – Special Cases

Carlisle:
My captors removed my handcuffs when I got out of the vehicle only to fasten new, stronger ones around my wrists while they were pinned behind my back. My head was still ringing from a sort of sonar rod they used, like a dog-whistle, so I didn’t ask any questions. Luckily, they seemed intent on explaining their project to me as we walked. Mostly, they talked me through the rooms, the most chilling of which contained only a flat metal bench which, my heightened sense of smell told me, was spattered with blood. This was the room they used for examining their subjects.
The lab we were waiting in had a dim roof lighting but strong, sensitive lights on many stands at many messy benches. A few humans examined and worked on various technologies, which the men explained were a sort of tazer that used different frequency waves to stun, paralyse (or, I guessed, torture) their ‘scientific studies’. Which now included me. I didn’t need the handcuffs, the blowtorches or the ringing in my head to remind me to be scared, because at that very moment I heard Alice’s disembodied voice shout after another vampire as they came crashing through the door at the other end of the room. I didn’t recognise him, but that didn’t stop me turning away as all weapons turned on him and he was disintegrated in seconds. Once the shock had passed, Jane cleared her throat and continued through the door, sweeping the heap of ashes aside with her cloak. Unsettled at the emptiness of what was essentially a dead body she had just pushed aside, I was struck motionless. My human captors shoved me forward, and I stumbled through the doorway, scattering the stranger’s ashes further.
The room was dead silent, everyone frozen in action by Jane’s confident smirk. There were two rows of cells – one against each of the longest walls, leaving a passageway through the middle. There were double doors at one end of the passageway, which had been barred and padlocked shut since we had come through them, and the other the wall was reinforced with steel bars. It was at this end of the room that Alec stood, his hand clasping Alice’s throat, holding her slightly off the ground, so that her toes just barely brushed the dusty floor. When he saw Jane, he let Alice stumble forward. Gasps erupted from the watching prisoners, most of which from the second cell from the back on the left side, where I now noticed Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were detained.
“C- Carlisle-” Alice spluttered, throwing herself at me. “I was worried – I saw them attack you with blowtorches. I thought…you were…” Shaking, she buried her face in my shoulder for a second before Jane dragged her away and tossed her into a cell. Not the one containing Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, I noted with both fear and curiosity, but one further down in the same row; the cell at the front.
“That’s my girl,” Alec remarked casually, pecking Jane on the hand before slipping back into the weapon room. Jane swept her arm forward, and her powerful figure led us past the shocked cell inhabitants towards the steel-inforced back wall. I forced my captors to pause when we reached Jasper, Rose and Emmett’s cell, but they all started talking at once and I couldn’t understand a word before Jane slapped me across the face and jerked me forward.
“You might be the leader of your coven, but here you’re just another prisoner,” she snarled, pressing my face against the wall and boring her eyes into the back of my head. “Pain,” she hissed. My head was sent reeling again, throbbing, but I didn’t fight it. I knew it was a trick – not that the knowledge made it hurt any less. I could feel it start to crack – the wall, not my face – and realised once and for all that what Jane said happened in this twisted prison. I didn’t bother trying to disagree, because I clearly didn’t understand the situation. Jane dumped me in the far back right cell, then she and my human captors cleared out of the room. It stayed silent for a moment, then low murmuring picked up.
What do these people want? Why? And, perhaps more importantly, how could they capture and control us so easily when the numeric odds were so strongly in our favour? Questions flew around my head, but it seemed the more I thought, the more my head spun from the humans’ frequency taser. My efforts were forgotten, though, when two familiar faces stumbled through the doors at the end of the hall.
“Esme! Nessie!” Alice cried delightfully. My heart instinctively jumped at the sound of Esme’s name and the angelic face and beautiful smile that went with it, but simultaneously fell when I realised that if they were here too, they were in just as much danger as the rest of us. They never got to my cell – they were both thrown in the front one, opposite Alice – and when I struggled to call out, a powerful surge overcame my whole body as if I had just been electrocuted. I fell to the ground in shock and pain, and realised I must have experienced a higher notch on the frequency taser. From my new position, I became aware of very faint voices below me.
“He can hear us – keep him quiet! Why doesn’t he get up?!” one of the voices muttered, frustrated. Something shocked me again. I jumped to my feet.
“Carlisle?” Esme’s wavering voice floated down to me.
“I’m alright, Esme,” I tried to assure her, but though my tongue and lips moved, no sound emerged. Perhaps these frequency tasers could do more than I had anticipated. “He can hear us, keep him quiet!” one of the voices had demanded. Were they talking about me?
“…but these ones, they’re strange. Tamer then the others, with golden eyes…” the other voice was talking now but I was frozen. “Special cases I guess – maybe a new breed?”
Strange vampires. Tamer. Golden eyes. Special cases.
Everyone in my family were unusual specimens in a lab that didn’t bother with animal rights, let alone human, for its subjects. We were thrown into a new world with bizarre and advanced weaponry, new opponents and no understanding of what exactly they wanted or why. Though I tried to push the image away, I couldn’t help remembering the cold, blood-spattered examination table. I shuddered, and the handcuffs clenched tight around my wrists. I didn’t care about that, though; things were too nightmarish for such petty pain to matter.
My family had drawn the attention of these new, violent strangers and I was stuck pacing a tiny cell at the back of it all, praying they didn’t get to my family before I did. Special cases, I guess…I shuddered.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 13, 2010 at 10:04pm

Chapter Four: Lost

Esme:
We had been imprisoned for a week before something happened.
All of us were starved, and my eyes stung whenever the door opened because there was so little light in the cells. Renesmee tried to sleep in my arms, but she could never quite drift off. Her eyes had rings under them darker than mine, and she needed to eat or drink something. Even if it wasn’t blood. She was developing a frightful cough and crying out for Jacob and Edward and Bella in her sleep. I still hadn’t seen Edward or Bella since the morning of our capture. They had been out only a few hours to pick up Nessie’s birthday present, and I imagine they had been quite shocked to come home and find the entire house destroyed – which I guessed is what they would find as Jacob didn’t seem to take Nessie’s capture lightly. Still, I was glad they were not in here with us, suffering like we were. Nessie whimpered “Jake!” and kicked out in her half-sleep, so I stroked her hair and hummed quietly until she settled again.
“Alice,” I tried to say. It felt as if my tongue was swollen when I spoke; from hunger or the strange new weapons I couldn’t tell. I had never felt this bad before. Not even newborn.
Still, Alice heard me and looked up. The expression on her face nearly brought me to sobs. The light in her eyes was still there, but only barely. Her petite frame now appeared sickly and fragile.
“Esme,” she choked back at me. “I’m scared. I can’t see anything anymore… can’t see what they’re doing…” I shuffled closer to the bars that parted us, but there was still an entire passageway between us.
“It’s going to be okay, Alice,” I whispered. “I’m going to get all of you out of this, I promise.”

* * * * *
Bella:
Edward blindfolded me while we drove, then made me wait in the car when he went to pick up Nessie’s present, the nature of which I still had no idea. Once he’d put it in the boot, we drove somewhere else and Edward did something else – again, he didn’t tell me what. I was beginning to wonder why he’d even agreed to bring me on the drive. Probably because he couldn’t say no to me: I had nagged and begged and pleaded with him to let me come. Of course, the idea had been mainly to discover the genius birthday present he had been hiding from everyone – even Alice – but I guess that plan had failed. Still, I was not prepared for the shock I got when Edward finally removed the blindfold and pushed me into the house before I could look back. Apparently, neither was he.
There was blood in the doorway – human blood. Had Esme or Nessie attacked someone? I doubted it, but looking around it appeared someone had certainly lost it in here. Clothes, CDs, dirt, plants, artworks, lampshades, towels, vases, plates, glasses and long strands of red-brown hair were scattered all over the house. The very empty house. Had they been arrested? Kidnapped?
“Esme?” Edward wondered, looking around for some sign of life. “Nessie? Jake?” Though we were both searching for movement, we were startled when Jacob emerged from Carlisle’s study.
“Sorry,” he panted, his dark skin nearly as white as ours because of the thick layer of plaster dust that covered him.
“What else did you wreck, wolf?” Edward demanded, strains of an old feud between them reminiscent in his tone as he peered over Jacob’s shoulder into Carlisle’s study.
“I think this is the only room I didn’t wreck,” Jacob replied, appropriately abashed. “But these strangers came and took Nessie -”
“And Esme?” Edward interrupted.
“Yeah,” Jacob added carelessly, brushing the plaster dust from his arms. His disrespect towards the life of the woman who was effectively our mother angered both Edward and I, but that was beside the point, so we ignored our anger. “These people from the government came and took them. They knew.” Knew what? seemed a pointless question. They knew we were vampires. And if they knew, but still dared to intimidate us, it meant they’d found a way to capture us. Which meant they probably also knew how to kill us.
“Where did they go?” Edward and I demanded simultaneously.
“I…I don’t know. We can find them though, right? Rescue Nessie?” Jacob asked hopefully. “And Esme?” he added after a moment, figuring it to be the reason Edward and I were still speechless.
“You’re a giant dog, and we’re the world’s best predators,” Edward said, pretending confidence. “How can we not find them?”
Jacob leapt forward, changing in the air and slipping down the stairs in the same fluent movement. Edward and I jumped over the handrail and met him on the ground floor. In seconds, we were flying out the door after Nessie’s scent.

* * * * *

Esme:
“It’s going to be okay, Alice,” I whispered. “I’m going to get all of you out of this, I promise.”

Suddenly, the doors swung open. A chorus of hisses erupted from the prisoners – including Renesmee and myself as she woke with a start – as we cringed away from the light. I wondered if this sort of thing had happened before, which would probably be how humans got the idea that vampires burned in the sunlight. I hugged Nessie tightly, afraid that if I let them, they would take her even though they hadn’t touched any of my family yet.
“I need to speak with the one called ‘Carlisle,’” the voice bellowed. I still couldn’t see the speaker’s face past the blinding sun, but from the voice I guessed it was male. Suddenly I was filled with nerves and anger. What did they want with Carlisle? How dare they take him further away from me? I hissed and snarled as they passed, but I didn’t dare let go of Nessie.
“It’s okay Esme,” Carlisle assured me quietly as he passed. His wrists were raw, his eyes were dark and his expression weary, but for me he could always smile. I knew it was a lie, but it lifted my heart just a little.
“No,” Alice choked once Carlisle and the stranger had disappeared. “No it’s not.”
Renesmee looked up at me.
“What are we going to do?” she asked. I couldn’t answer her. I felt like I was choking, suffocating, drowning…These strangers had taken Carlisle away. I didn’t know why, or how far, but I knew he was gone and I knew it was not okay. Not with him, nor Alice, and definitely not with me. But I couldn’t feel angry about it, because Carlisle had smiled at me, which meant he wanted me to stay here and look after the others. Suddenly I didn’t know what to do. I was just lost.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 14, 2010 at 8:23am

Chapter Five: Poor Alice

Carlisle:
I was hardly paying attention to my captors now. Esme’s face frightened me: how long could she keep up such a dangerous front? Surely, eventually, she would falter, and they would tear her apart like cougars. They were just waiting for one of us to slip. Biding their time, letting us starve, in the hope that one of us would trigger an attack. Esme was stronger than she let on, but even she had slipped before. It had destroyed her, but it had happened. Violent, bloody and fast. If she slipped here, she’d be dead before she even realised what she’d done...I wished Edward was here to talk to – he seemed to know what was going on in my head better than I did at moments like this – but then I realised that if he were here, we would have no hope of a rescue. But hoping for them to rescue us was foolish; they understood less than we did about this bizarre place.
“So…I understand you’re a doctor?” my interviewer began, offering me a seat. “Wait, no: I don’t understand. How?”
“Practice,” I shrugged, looking around and trying to make my eyes adjust to the sun that was pouring in through windows on all sides. The room we now sat in resembled my office, but it was much emptier; cold and lifeless. It felt like the wings of a stage, as though we were waiting for something. The feeling put me back at the clearing, trying to figure out how to defend Nessie against Caius, who didn’t want to hear the truth.
Suddenly, something clicked and I felt my arms braced to the arms of the chair. I don’t know why – hunger, I guess, taking over any fear or anger I was feeling – but I panicked. Of course, it was fruitless: I was tazered – this time with an electric shock rather than a sonar one – before I was even halfway towards the door. Suddenly, my interviewer was in the way, wielding a blowtorch. My instincts told me to attack him, but the humane part of me refused. I cleared my throat and sat back in the chair.
“I’m sorry,” I said. The man snorted, as if to say ‘you should be,’ and I snarled at him. Didn’t he understand what he was doing to us? Clearly not, because he backhanded me across the face with the end of the blowtorch. Startled, I jumped to my feet. I was burning with fear and anger and hunger. It was worse than ever, and my emotions were only making it worse. I tried to calm down, but how could I when these men and their blowtorches threatened my family?
“Now will you cooperate?” he asked.
“Okay,” I found myself saying. “What do you want to know?”
“How and why did you become a doctor?”
“I want to help people,” I replied truthfully. “I don’t want to be a vampire, I never did, but now that I am, I have to deal with it.”
Clearly, I said the wrong thing, because I earned another tazer strike. Behind us, through all the halls and doorways, I heard Alice scream. That was worse for me than anything this man could do. He glared at me like I was a bad dog, waiting for me to apologise again.
“What do you want me to say?” I muttered.
“I want the truth.”
“That is the truth, I swear.”
“On what? God’s word? Your mother’s grave?” he mocked. “Your soul?” I gritted my teeth, clenched my fists and tried to take even breaths. I needed to calm down. If I let my anger get the best of me, it was a death sentence for this man and myself. Besides, nothing I could swear on meant a thing to this man; would he understand what it meant when I swore on Esme’s grave? I very much doubted it.
“There’s nothing I can swear on that you would understand,” I replied. “My life? Is that enough for you?”
“You’re already dead,” he replied flatly. Of course I was.
“Then your life,” I snapped back. I barely got time to realise what I had said before the blowtorch came past again. I snarled and tensed and wondered how long it would be before I lost control. I was battling to hold onto my humanity, my sanity, but this man was making it more and more difficult.

And with every strike, poor Alice screamed.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 15, 2010 at 9:46pm

Chapter Six: The Hunted

Bella:
Going cross-country was definitely not what this outfit was designed for. It was uncomfortable, and to make matters worse; falling apart. After a week of hunting scents and sources, Jake, Edward and I had found that there was some kind of military base outside Seattle where they were keeping the rest of the family – including, we now feared, Carlisle. We all felt stupid for taking so long to find something so close to home. It was an anxious wait until nightfall, when we snuck to the base together. Jacob had to travel as a human a lot, which irked him even more than us. Nevertheless, all three of us arrived at the base early the next morning. The sun was rising, and guards patrolled the grounds, so Jacob turned back into a wolf and settled a way back from the treeline of the surrounding forest. That way, he figured he could hide fast enough for the guard to second-guess his size if it came down to that, but he would not be suspected of being a vampire. Edward and I watched from the trees, carefully hidden. Edward’s face was creased in concentration as he tried to read everyone’s thoughts.
“They’re all frightened,” he informed us quietly. “Angry and starved. Esme has Nessie. She’s…fine.” It was a lie. I saw it in his eyes. Jacob noticed too; he snapped at Edward and shot him a glare.
“Don’t try to save us the pain,” I said. “It’s going to happen anyway.”
“Nessie’s sick; dehydrated and famished. They haven’t been given anything – water, food or blood. If it weren’t for Jasper, Esme would have lost it and attacked someone days ago. They’re all so hungry any moment of anger or fear is overwhelming. Instinct starts taking over. Human captors with dangerous weapons are essentially poisonous foods…but hunger will make you forget- Jacob!” It was too late to stop him now; the enormous russet brown creature that was Jacob Black was already flying madly across the clearing. I shot after him, and Edward could do nothing but follow me.
“Bella, stop,” he said, pulling me back under the cover of the trees.
“Stop?! Our family is in there, Edward!” I cried, my voice high with distress. The guard glanced in our direction and Edward shushed me.
“I can’t find Carlisle,” he said. “He’s in there, they all told me, but some guy went out to question him and he hasn’t come back. He’s not readable anymore, Bella. I think…”
“He’s dead?” my voice was so quiet even I could hardly hear it. Carlisle…dead. The words sounded even stranger in my head; somehow more impossible.
“We shouldn’t go in there,” Edward said.
“Yes, we should,” I insisted. “If Carlisle is…dead…it means someone else is on the hit list next. We have to get them out of there, Edward.” Edward shook his head, but he could never say no to me.
“Promise me you’ll be careful?” he said, kissing me gently. Jacob whined, and we snapped to attention.
“Promise,” I agreed. Then we all ran for the front gate. Vampires they were ready for – blowtorches and the whole deal – but the guards were so scared by Jake they dropped the keys and their weapons and ran inside.
“We only have a limited time before they call reinforcements,” Edward said, already unlocking the gates – again specially designed not to be broken by vampire strength. I wondered which vampire they had tested it on, as no human had ever seen the extent of a vampire’s strength and lived to tell the tale, as far as I knew.
“Then we’d better be quick,” Jake said, pulling on his shorts and karate-kicking the door so hard it simply snapped off the handle. We slipped through the gap he left and found ourselves in at the beginning of a long, narrow hallway with several doors lining it. At the end opposite us, there was a set of double doors.
“Those lead to the cells,” Edward confirmed.
“This is too easy,” Jacob said warily but restlessly. I took a few steps forward and flames erupted from the walls, floor and ceiling. Edward only just had enough time to snatch me out of the air and crash through one of the nearby doors before they engulfed the passageway.
Edward and I peeled ourselves off each other, got up and looked around.
“Edward!” I choked, my eyes wide in horror. “It’s- It’s Carlisle! At least, I think it is…” Edward’s face dropped when he saw Carlisle’s mangled body. It looked as though someone had got angry with him while holding a cigarette lighter and a chair – if he had been human. But what could do this to a vampire?
Edward hoisted Carlisle up by his underarms and tried to sit him in a nearby chair. I noticed with a grimace that the chair had metal bands to fasten wrists and elbows to against it, but these were snapped. I had a terrible feeling Carlisle was the one who had broken them.
“Edward!” someone remarked happily. They sounded strange, almost drunk. I turned to see who was speaking, but was shocked to realise it was Carlisle.
“Carlisle,” Edward said, trying but failing to keep the urgency out of his voice. “What did they do to you?” he asked, weighing every word. Carlisle chuckled deliriously and fell against Edward, down for the count. In some circumstances, I would have laughed at Carlisle’s out-of-character antics, but now I was filled with horror and anger and terrible fear. If they’d done this to Carlisle…I hated to think what they would do next.
Suddenly, alarms blared overhead.
“Intruder Alert…All stations commence lockdown procedures immediately…” Edward, kneeling beside Carlisle, who had slipped out of the chair, gave me a look of horror.
“Where’s Jake?” I asked. At that very second, Jacob’s wolf form smashed through the wall behind us, sending chunks of plaster flying everywhere. Nessie sat up on his haunches, and the rest of the family formed a V-shaped organisation with Jake at the head. Behind their front line was a swarm of vampires; some I knew and some I didn’t. Esme ran forward to help Carlisle, who had evidently sobered up since we tried to talk to him.
“Esme,” he greeted wearily, putting a hand on her cheek. “You should run. They’ll come; they’ll find us.”
Edward and I took Esme’s place in the V-formation.
“Nice of you to finally show up,” Emmett remarked, cuffing Edward on the shoulder in a brotherly way.
“I agree,” someone said.
Jane.

One of the vampires behind me swore.
“This is where you decide to fight or run,” she said simply. As if on cue – which they probably were – rows and rows of heavily armed humans filled the hall. One of them tried to pry Renesmee from Jacob’s back; they received a hefty paw slapping them against the far wall. Another tried to take Carlisle away from Esme. In the very short battle that ensued, Esme took a blowtorch to the face, leaving a long scar much like Carlisle’s, and a whistle rang that made all our heads throb with pain. Esme was forced to let Carlisle go, then tortured out of any thought to attack. The pain and hunger and anger were driving her crazy; she thrashed around like a wild horse. Then, as soldiers surrounded her, she became a cornered dog. After a short, frenzied attack, Alec took control of the situation; the cornered dog became nothing more than a rag doll. Jane snatched Esme out of the air and tossed her backwards: through the remaining wall and straight into a cell. After that, none of us wanted to risk a fight. The soldiers recovered themselves from Esme’s attack – she hadn’t killed any of them, I noted with surprise – and both sides just stared each other down.
Finally, the vampire side made up their minds: we charged. Straight through the crowd, right to the passageway. Then we froze. One of the strangers barrelled past us and the hallway engulfed him in flames. Stunned into silence, there was nothing left but for us to hand ourselves in. Two of the men in tuxedos grinned at eachother.
“I think it would be appropriate to say that the hunters have just become the hunted, aye?” one of them remarked, jokingly elbowing the other.
“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Rosalie muttered.

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 11, 2010 at 10:28pm

my first banner for this story and a banner for an old story that also fits this one...you won't get the quotes til later in the story but i like them so...hmm, how do you put the picture in the comment box? anyone? (feeling stupid right now...)

Permalink Reply by Gracie ♥ on January 12, 2010 at 8:56pm

i like this! its really good!!
and all you ave to do is right click the picture and "save image as..." then click the little camera in the comment box and upload the image!

Permalink Reply by TeamCarlisle+Esme on January 12, 2010 at 10:45pm

thanks gracie! i get it now. so anyway these are the banners i have so far.

this is from an old story but it kinda fits with this one too (you many not see how just yet)

and this one is made for Not So Secret. both are by the wonderful Esme Anne Platt Evenson Cullen=]

Permalink Reply by Gracie ♥ on January 12, 2010 at 10:53pm

no problem!

Permalink Reply by Mrs Sky Cullen on January 28, 2010 at 6:12am

This is, AMAZING! Fantastic! Indiscribably awesome! I should've guessed when it's the author of the AMAZING Stars! Well actually, I did. And I knew it would be good. =D Can't wait to see what happens. I hope Jane and the men in tuxedos burn in hell. Lol =D
You've given me a lot to think about ... =)

Permalink Reply by Mrs Sky Cullen on January 28, 2010 at 5:42pm

Hey, I made this for you =)
I was bored, and I thought maybe I could make this for you =D
Tell me if you like... or if you don't...
=D

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