The Man in the Long Black Coat, Chapter Twenty-One

Edward descended the stairs into the basement and locked the hatch behind him. He took a moment to survey the room and wished again that Alice would wake up. He'd gotten lucky, finding the basement without her help, but he needed guidance. Now that he'd carried Alice and Charlie down there, he wasn't sure what he should be doing.

He knew they couldn't go anywhere for a few days. Charlie would be dangerous, more dangerous even than Jane and her half-assed run at Forks with her private army.

A newborn vampire must be taken seriously.

"Will he be OK?" Bella asked. "Is it taking?"

Charlie was unconscious, propped up against the wall where Edward had placed him. He had bite marks on his neck and arms. Edward was going to move Charlie into the storage room soon, before he woke up. Charlie's skin had already turned pale. His cheeks were sunken, and the gray had begun to disappear from his hair.

"Honestly, I don't know, Bella. Aside from my own experience, I have very little knowledge of newborns. About all I know is it's far from a pleasant undertaking. He'll be in severe pain for a few days. And he'll be incredibly dangerous."

"Is that why we're hiding here? Because he's dangerous?"

"That and the FBI," Edward said. "I've been reading Charlie's thoughts, as jumbled as they are. Apparently, Jane showed up and went on a rampage. When she discovered that you and I weren't here, she went looking for Charlie."

Charlie stirred. His groans echoed off the walls in the tiny room.

"I have to get him away from you," Edward said. "If he comes to, he'll smell your blood and kill you before he even knows what he's done. I won’t be able to stop him."

He carried Charlie into the storage room, a ten-by-ten space with a workbench against one brick wall and the house's electrical box on another. It looked as if the Cullens had built it for exactly this purpose, holding newborns. It was like a small fortress.

Edward ducked under the chain hanging from the single lightbulb in the center of the ceiling, moved the toolbox away and laid the chief down on the bench. He secured the door behind him as he carried the tools back into the main room. There was no need to leave a cache of potential weapons within Charlie's reach. He locked the door behind him.

"Jane killed off the entire police department," Edward said, rejoining Bella. "She and her army tore through town like a drunken pack of newborns. They killed dozens of people, maybe more."

He sat down, and Bella took the seat next to him.

"So that’s why the feds showed up," Bella said.

"It's a disaster for the Volturi," Edward said. "There had to be hundreds of witnesses. They'll tell the authorities, as well as every cable news reporter with a microphone and a blow dryer. There’ll be no stopping it.”

He stopped and shook his head. "I don't know what Jane was thinking. It doesn't make any sense. I can't figure out what she was after. It can't just be one rogue vampire and a couple of humans."

Bella put her arm around Edward's shoulder and hugged him tight.

"What about Alice?" she said. “Will she be OK?”

"I don't know. She was badly wounded. I've never seen a vampire come back from that much damage. But she's tough. I didn't think she'd last this long."

Edward had laid Alice down on a blanket on the floor. She hadn't made a sound since they arrived, but her wounds did appear to be healing slowly.

“Why is she surviving when the rest of the family isn’t?” Bella said. “I thought you had to burn the bodies to kill them.”

“Not if you remove the head completely,” Edward said. “If a vampire is badly wounded, as Felix was after you shot him, you can destroy the body by burning it before it has a chance to repair itself. But without a head, the nerves linking the brain and the body are cut. There's no way that kind of injury can heal itself, of course.

“All of the Cullens were decapitated, and so were the Volturi Guard members out there. That was probably Jasper’s doing. Judging by Alice’s injuries, it looks like someone almost succeeded in decapitating her, too, but wasn’t able to complete the job.”

Bella looked over at Alice, who hadn’t moved since Edward carried her in. "She needs blood," Bella said. “She won’t be strong enough to heal without it.”

"Yes," Edward said.

"You need it too, Edward. How long has it been?"

"I'll be fine," he said. He gritted his teeth and refused to think about it, honestly uncertain if he could go on much longer. It had already been weeks.

"No, Edward. You won't be fine. You’re weak and getting weaker."

Bella crossed the room and turned on the television. She picked up the remote and sat back down next to Edward.

She began flipping channels. The Forks Monster, the networks were calling it. All of them had live trucks stationed outside the police department, where the FBI had taken over.

"This quiet town is devastated, Angie," one of the on-scene reporters was telling the news anchor. "So far, the authorities have identified seventy-three victims, including almost the entire police department.

"That department's chief, Charles Swan, is missing. No one knows what led to this tragedy, but witnesses are openly speculating that it was some kind of monster."

She clicked the television off.

"You're going to have to be strong enough to deal with that," Bella said, nodding at the TV. "Not to mention Jane and whatever else the Volturi throws at you."

She kissed his cheek and walked across the room, took a box cutter from the toolbox, and rolled up her sleeve.

"You first," she said, running the razor up her forearm, careful to stop after making a two-inch cut.

"Bella. No," Edward said. He reached to take the blade away, but he’d reacted too slowly. He unconsciously licked his lips as he watched blood trickle from the wound.

“Take it,” Bella said, moving in closer. Edward turned his head away, but she put her hand on his chin and tilted his head up, so she could look into his eyes.

“Please,” she whispered, leaning down to kiss his lips. “I need you, Edward. We all do, Alice, Charlie. You’re the only thing between us and the mob outside. Between us and the Volturi. You’re our protector, and we need you to be strong.”

She put her arm to his lips, and Edward drank. He closed his eyes and ran his tongue over the wound as he sucked, the warm fluid gliding down his throat. He moaned softly, realizing how hungry he really was.

Bella put her other hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer, until her arm was against her stomach and Edward’s head rested on her chest. She stroked his hair, gently running her fingers through it as he continued to feed.

Edward knew he should stop. He felt Bella stroking his hair, her blood running down his throat, and he lost track of where he was and what he was doing. The outside world had disappeared, and he was here only with the blood and the animal instinct inside him that ached for the blood.

He opened his lips wider and took more of Bella's flesh in his mouth. He ran his teeth over the wound and felt the skin give way. One little tug, a small bite, wouldn't hurt. He could open the vein a little and he knew that the blood would gush and he would capture it all and it would be good and feel good as it warmed him from the inside. He would be good and he would be strong and he would embrace the monster once again and all would be forgiven. He would be forgiven. He opened his mouth.

"Stop! Edward, you're killing her!"

The scream jarred him. He opened his eyes and he backed away from Bella's arm and he saw her collapse before him, a ghost.

He bent to her and scooped her into his arms, not daring to look at Alice, now awake and screaming.

He laid Bella down on the floor and propped her head up with a furniture blanket. "Bella, please be OK," he whispered. "I'm sorry. Please wake up."

He felt the strength he'd gained, as if he'd injected enough blood for an army. He was sure he hadn't taken more than a pint, though. There hadn't been enough time.

He stroked Bella's hair and he felt that her skin was warm. Color began to come back to her cheeks and she opened her eyes.

She smiled at Edward, and turned to look at Alice.

"You're awake!" Bella said.

Alice smiled back, though weakly. Her neck still showed purple scars, and the skin around it appeared raw.  "I'm not the only one, I see."

"That? I just got a little woozy is all," Bella said. "Dracula here couldn't stop himself. It's good to know I have that kind of effect on him."

She sat up and kissed him, then moved over to Alice. Bella bared her arm and put it in front of Alice's face. "Your turn," she said.

"You should wait," Edward said. He put his hands on Bella's shoulders as if to guide her away.

"Hands off, dude," Bella said. She turned back to Alice as Edward stepped away. "Here," she said, and she put the wound gently to Alice's lips.

Alice arched her neck upward and put her lips to the wound, hesitant at first. "I'll be fine," Bella said. "It's not the first time I've passed out from blood loss. It passes quickly. Don't worry about it. But maybe don't wait for me to fall on the floor before stopping." She looked at Edward and smirked. "I do need to keep some of this for myself."

Alice closed her eyes and locked her lips on Bella's skin. Edward watched, ready to intervene if he needed to.

Alice pulled away after a few seconds. She sat up, and she stood.

"Wow," she said. "I feel stronger than ever." She ran her hands down the front of her body and looked at herself.

"What have you got in there? Premium? Holy shit, Bella. I feel like a new woman. You should bottle that stuff and sell it online."

"I have a theory about that," Bella said.

Edward smiled. "She has lots of theories."

Bella ignored him. "Try to see my future, Alice."

Alice closed her eyes and appeared to be concentrating. A moment passed. "I've got nothing," she said.

Bella smiled.

"No one's powers work on me. I'm different," Bella said. "And I think my blood's different, too." She turned to Edward. "Remember the first time I fed you? After Felix almost killed you? You said you were overcome with power from a few drops. And you said the smell was different, too, when we first met."

"It's the only reason I didn't kill you," he admitted.

"Well, yeah, that and my charming personality. But what if there's something in my blood that's different? Something that gives vampires an extra boost? Maybe that's why Jane went nuts. She figured it out, and she wants me for herself."

Edward said nothing, but he thought she had a point. There was no denying that there was something different about Bella; the immunity to vampire powers, the effect of her blood, the way his powers didn't seem to fully work when she was nearby.

"I've heard such legends," Alice said. "But I didn't think they were real."

"Tell me," Edward said.

"They're called Shields," Alice said. "And they're incredibly rare. There's a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA. It's not inherited, which is why no one can predict who's going to have it."

She explained that these shields were often conscripted into serving the church in medieval times in the fight against vampires.

"Carlisle would know more," she said. She turned away, and pressed her palms to her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Alice said. "I just can't believe they're gone. I thought. I mean, I saw me and Jasper living together forever. I never saw anything like this coming. When you've spent as long as I have seeing the future, you come to depend on those visions. You believe them, even though you know they’re not real, only possibilities."

Bella put an arm around Alice and guided her to the blanket on the floor. She sat with her and let Alice cry on her shoulder.

“Jasper was an honorable man,” Edward said. “As were all the Cullens.”

He knelt down beside the two women and looked Alice in the eye.

“Understand this,” he said. “Jane will not survive her mistake, Alice, and neither will the Volturi. I know it won’t bring Jasper back, but Jane's days are numbered. I won’t rest until she’s gone.”

“What are you gonna do, Edward?” Bella said.

He looked over his shoulder at the room where he’d put Charlie.

“How do you feel,” he said, “about holding a press conference?”

-30-

A/N So there you go. A few folks had questions about how to kill a vampire ‘round these parts, and it turned out Bella was wondering the same thing. I’m trying to make this fic as canon as I can while still following the laws of physics. And the Shield thing with the blood? It just made sense to me. Anywho, thanks to MazzyStarla for rocking my world (go read her much cuter fic, Dress You Up), and thanks to all you wonderful peeps out there for clicking and reading.

The Man in the Long Black Coat, Chapter Nineteen

Charlie stepped into the foyer, his hand needlessly hovering over his holstered gun by force of habit.

"You must be Charles Swan," said a smiling Carlisle as he held out his hand. "It is a delight to finally meet you. Bella has told me and Esme so much about you."

"Charlie. Please," he said, shaking Carlisle's hand.

There was an awkward silence.

"Would you like something to drink?" Esme said. "I'm afraid all we have is instant coffee and some canned soda. We don't get many visitors out here."

"Coffee's fine. Black."

Esme smiled and hurried into the kitchen.

Edward briefed Carlisle on the last twenty four hours in Forks while Charlie caught Bella up on the night's events. The deaths of Aro and Demetri. Jane's apparent wounding. Emmett's insistence on staying behind.

"I'll send Rosalie, Jasper and Alice in search of Emmett," Carlisle said. "Alice mentioned some time ago that she believes he would be waiting at the Swan house. Apparently Jane disappeared."

"So what happens now?" Charlie asked.

"Indeed," Carlisle said. "This is, quite frankly, unprecedented. Aro had been the Volturi's leader since its inception. He'd grown into a sadistic dictator, and the organization, in fact all vampires, may be better off without him. But make no mistake: Caius and Marcus will not bow down quietly. Quite the opposite I should think. They will be angry and out for vengeance. Especially Caius. He is as ruthless as Aro ever was, and far smarter. There will likely be a struggle for power, one which I do not see ending peacefully. And let us not forget that Jane is still out there somewhere. She will be far beyond angry."

"I'm not looking for a fight," Edward said. "I never was. I'll disappear again. It'll be as if I never existed."

"Yes, yes. I am sure you're quite capable of taking care of yourself, Edward. But what of Bella and Charlie?"

"They can stay with us," Esme said, carrying a silver coffee platter into the room. She set it down on the coffee table and took a seat beside Carlisle on the sofa.

"I appreciate the offer, ma'am, but I'm going to have to decline," Charlie said. "I vowed to protect and serve the town of Forks, and I see no reason to go back on that promise. End of discussion."

"I'm going with Edward, anyway," Bella said, avoiding Charlie's gaze.

Another uncomfortable silence filled the room. Charlie sipped his coffee and set it down on the platter.

"So. Vampires, huh? How'd that happen?"

Bella burst out laughing. "I wish you could see the look on your face right now, Carlisle. It's priceless."

"Yes. Well. I can certainly see where Bella gets her curiosity and frank nature from, Charlie." He smiled and smoothed his pants legs with the palms of his hands.

"We each have our own stories, Charlie. None is more or less pleasant than the others. Mine begins in London in 1640, where my mother died giving birth to me.

"My father, an Anglican pastor, was among an elite group that spent its time and energy trying to rid the world of supernatural creatures, which they saw as an affront to God.

"I took over this group after my father's passing. But my heart was never in it as deeply as my father's was. I did not, and still do not, enjoy killing creatures of any kind.

"Needless to say, I was careless. I'd discovered a coven living in the sewers, and led the charge against them. I was mortally wounded. I hid for three days, but I could not avoid the inevitable.

"I wouldn't accept it, of course." He laughed. "I tried to end my life in every conceivable way, but none of them worked. We simply did not have the means back then that are available today.

"I was afraid I would become that which I'd hunted. But I was no killer." He briefly glanced at Edward. "Soon, I stumbled across the lifestyle I continue today, wherein we harm no humans, subsisting only on animal blood. It has been my goal for 350 years now to convert all vampires to a life of vegetarianism, as we've come to refer to it."

"Whoa," Charlie said. "And do you have magical superpowers like our friend Edward here?"

Carlisle smiled. "Only the capacity to resist the enormous temptation of human blood. It is why I became a doctor."

"That is so fucked up," Bella said.

Charlie side-eyed her.

"Oh, please," she said, smiling. "You know it's true. She turned to Edward. "Your turn."

"Not now," he said uncomfortably.

"I know it's not easy, Edward," she said. She snuggled up next to him and draped her arms around him.

"Please?" she said, kissing the back of his neck, the skin behind his ear. "You have so many secrets. I've told you mine. Carlisle and even Charlie let theirs out. I think it's only fair that you tell yours."

Edward stood. "Is that what you all want? To know where I came from? How I got here?"

"It would be lovely to know more about you, Edward," Esme said. "You've learned so much about us."

Edward hesitated. “I try not to dwell on the past. It does no one any good.”

“What is past is prologue,” Carlisle said.

Edward smiled at the Shakespeare quote. “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past,” he said.

“Thomas Jefferson. Of course,” Carlisle said. “He was a good man. But what about Simone Weil? ‘The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.’”

Edward countered, “Sometimes the past seems too big for the present to hold.”

“I don’t know that one,” Carlisle said. “Who is it?”

“Chuck Palahniuk,” Edward said, smiling.

“Now that you boys have had your fun,” Esme said, rolling her eyes at Carlisle, “let’s let Edward talk.”

Edward sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You have done so much for me. I suppose I owe you at least this much. I’ve never told the whole story. When you live your life alone,” he said, gently squeezing Bella’s hand as he sat back down, “there’s no one to tell it to."

He paused and thought back. “I was four years old when I saw my mother get killed. I didn't know it then, but time and experience taught me what had happened to her. A vampire took her life.

He closed his eyes. "It was 1905. June. I was playing outside. Our house backed up to Lake Michigan, long before the highways came in. I used to love watching the seagulls at the edge of the water, as if the entire lake were made for them. The activity was always heaviest at dusk, right before my father arrived home from work.

"I had my back to our yard. My mother had been hanging the laundry out to dry. 'Be careful,' she told me.

"I didn't recognize her screams for what they were. Not at first. I thought she was playing. But when I looked up, a man I'd never seen before was crouched over her as she lay in the grass. I ran as fast as I could. 'Momma!' I screamed.

"The man stood as I approached. He had the palest skin I'd ever seen, so white it was almost translucent. Shockingly white hair that dragged his shoulders. And his eyes. They glowed a cloudy dark red, as if he were a beast from someone's nightmare"

"Caius," Carlisle said.

"Yes. Now you know why I could never bring myself to take the Volturi seriously," Edward said.

He steepled his fingers in front of his face, set his jaw right and continued. 

"He spoke to me. 'Your mommy's had an accident.' He wiped blood from his lips with the back of his hand and put his other hand on my shoulder. Mother lay on the ground, unmoving. Blood trickled from a wound in her neck."

Edward paused and shook his head. "I looked up at him, mesmerized, confused. I was too taken aback to be afraid. He had a grin across his face that even a four-year-old child knew wasn't appropriate for the situation.

"We both looked up at once. My father's train had stopped at the end of the block. We saw him coming up the road. The man turned back to me. 'Looks like my time here is done, for now,' he said. He smiled and reached out a hand. I thought he was going to ruffle my hair. Grownups had a habit of doing that."

He smiled at the memory, briefly. "Instead, he stuck out a single finger, its nail grotesquely long, and gouged my cheek from my ear to the corner of my mouth. 'A little something to remember me by,' he said.

Edward fingered the scar on his cheek and absent-mindedly ran his hand through his beard.

"I never spoke of what happened. No matter how many times my father pleaded with me, I couldn't do it. To ignore it might mean it had never happened. In any case, the authorities wrote it up as an animal attack.

"Eventually, my relationship with my father crumbled. He could never forgive me for my silence. He remarried, and I became the forgotten child. By the time I was a teenager, I was ready to move on.

"I'd always been tall for my age, so when America joined the fight against the Germans in World War One, I signed up. I became a Marine. I lied about my age. That was easy to do back then.

"My unit was just outside Paris." He looked at Charlie. "It was my seventeenth birthday, though I didn’t tell anyone that. June 1, 1918. We’d just fought the first day of what would become known as the Battle of Belleau Wood. We’d done well, and had captured a squad of Germans. I was guarding them. It was late at night.

"What I witnessed brought back terrible memories. There was a whole pack of them. Frightening creatures with pale skin and red eyes. They tore apart that entire squad in a matter of minutes. I fired my weapon, but it did no harm.

"The gunfire did wake my unit, though. The creatures fled. My sergeant approached me afterward. 'You gonna be OK, private?'

"I didn't answer him, and I didn’t speak about the incident for the rest of my time in the Marines. Eventually, they discharged me on a Section Eight. A psych discharge.

"I went back home a disgrace. I couldn't talk about it. Couldn't explain myself. Who would believe me?"

He stopped talking then, and no one else spoke for a moment.

"You poor thing," Esme said. "You were just a boy. What a horrible world you must have believed you lived in."

Edward laughed and Esme looked away, embarrassed. "I'm sorry for laughing, Esme. I suppose I did have a skewed sense of the world by the time I became an adult.

"But it got better. I'd met a girl before the war. A woman, really. Katherine. She was older than I was. I thought she was the most beautiful creature on the planet."

Bella gripped his hand tightly.

"When I came back, she introduced me to our child, John William Masen. He was nearly a year old already.

"We married on the shore of Lake Michigan. I settled into the same job as my father, manufacturing agricultural machinery at one of the factories sprouting up all over the city. All seemed right with the world. I would never be rich, but I thought I could be happy.

"But then the Spanish flu hit. Millions around the world suffered. Millions died. I brought it into our home. Katherine caught it quickly. We tried to avoid the hospitals, but the quarantine caught up with us. John William was on the verge of death. I pleaded with the doctors.

"I didn't seem to have it as bad as others did. I don't know why. But they said there was nothing they could do for my family. They would either die, or they would not. It was up to fate.

"'I'll do anything,' I told them. But I was weak. I was poor. I had nothing they wanted, even if there were something to be done.

"There wasn't, of course. Our destinies were written for us."

He stopped talking and put his head in his hands. "I wish I could tell you I was brave. That when I heard the doctors scheming, making a deal with the vampires, I did something to stop it. But I didn't have it in me. Not then. All I saw was eternal life. Endless possibilities. By then, I'd forced myself to forget what had happened to my mother, what I'd seen in the war."

He sighed. "They talked of a deal with vampires. I knew what that meant, of course. But I deluded myself into thinking the vampires would turn us, somehow. Make us a happy family again. We’d be immune from death. It would last forever. I waited with eager anticipation.

"So I pretended I hadn't overheard the conversation. When nightfall came, I slept fitfully. The attack happened at midnight. They killed Katherine first. I tried to stop them, but it was useless. They were too powerful. I was horrified at my own stupidity.

"I took John William away. We hid in a storage closet. But they wrenched the door open and tore him from my arms.

"I will never forget the man who killed my baby. It was as if he'd walked out of a nightmare and into the real world.

"'The baby is mine,'" he growled. He was a beast. Eyes the color of blood. Tribal tattoos forming a pattern across his hairless scalp. His mouth dripped blood as he tore John William from my arms."

Carlisle gasped.

"Yes, Carlisle. The man who haunts your memories also haunts mine."

"He is my biggest failure," Carlisle said, shaking his head. "I thought we had a chance with him. I thought I could do good."

Edward shook his head. "You will help me find him one day. He and I have unfinished business."

"He's the one who turned you."

"I have always assumed so. I passed out after John William was taken. I came to as the sun rose. It was a massacre. The vampires had fed on dozens of flu victims, my wife and child among them.

"I didn't realize I'd been bitten until I was blocks away. Blood poured from my neck. I screamed out in desperation. I prayed to die. I literally dropped to my knees and prayed for the final time in my life. The last thing I wanted was to become what I was from then on destined to be.

"I was a killer, and there was nothing I could do about it."

-30-

A/N Thanks everybody for the reviews. This little story hit 1,000 the other day! Special thanks to MazzyStarla for keeping me on the path.

To the guest reviewer who asked about the "-30-" at the end of my stories: Newspaper reporters used to do this long ago to signify the end. I picked it up somewhere and just liked it. There's no hidden meaning in it or anything. :)