30. Holy Water, Stakes & Crosses

- Carlisle, Cullen

My judgment had been severely mislead over the coming days; I fooled myself thinking that for a couple hours at the hospital my mind could be put at rest, that I could focus on the medical tricks needed to save people’s valuable lives.

My own inward pleading for a sense of tranquilly had been mislead by the composed smile on my face, but underneath I knew the need for the information she possessed would continue nagging at me. It was tugging on my subconscious during times of solitary reconciliation.

I leaned back into my desk chair, resting my head on my arms – which I had pulled behind my head. “Her distinct connection with my past is evident; I just can’t put a finger on how?” I said to the Southern-blonde vampire sitting in front of me.

Jasper speedily scanned the documents in his hands, stopping at one and pulling it out. His eyes read it at a leisured pace. “Carlisle, this girl you speak of, Mary Lynette” – I nodded my approval – “there is nothing suspicious in her records. Nothing connecting her to your past. How can you be sure?”

“There are no family connections, no background history… nothing,” I repeated in shock.

“Carlisle.” Alice stepped behind Jasper and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, while at the same time, plucking the document free from his hand without rising suspicion. “Did Mary-Lynette say anything that could attract your attention? Perhaps it was only the similarity of the cross; teenage girls are into that whole vampires-biting-their-necks-and-crosses these days.”

A deep shiver penetrated my bones as I thought of what Alice was saying – if only people knew, and they would repel from us straight away, chase us away with pitch-forks and torches like in the ancient days. “It’s the same, Alice, I know it.”

“There was one thing,” Jasper added, pulling a thick blue volume from his knee and placing it on the desk with a thud. Dust circled the air in motes.

“Jasper may have found a lead,” Rosalie continued, her expression pinched and bitter.

When I’d told them about my predicament, Rose was the sourest about it – however, I couldn’t blame her. She’d grown up believing in true love, disregarding mythical creatures as mere fanatical prose, with a caring family and a blithe past.

Myself, Alice and Jasper had shared acrid and hostile pasts that we carried on our shoulders as burden’s. Esme understood how important and powerful the urge was for me to dig into my human life; many things were still unclear, and she was incredibly supportive. It was sometimes because of her sympathetic and benevolent nature that I wished I could give her what she wanted most.

“Carlisle, are you listening to me?” Rosalie demanded sharply, crossing her arms around her slender body.

I sat up, straightening my back. “I’m sorry, Rosalie. What were you saying?”

She rolled her eyes. “I was just saying that Jasper might have found a lead to your mysterious girl, what’s-her-face.”

“Mary-Lynette,” I corrected.

“Whatever,” she waved away. I smiled at her as consolingly as possible, and placed a hand on her’s that was on the desk. I muttered my thanks and pulled away, unsure if my contact was making her uncomfortable.

Steadying the impatient tapping of my foot, I looked towards Alice with a pleading glare. “Alice, what is the link? Tell me.”

“This is serious, Carlisle,” Alice warned, pointing a finger toward me as if to warn, or to sternly reinforce her words.

I nodded with certainty and folded my arms. “Jasper, what have you found that may link to Mary-Lynette.”

Jasper flicked through the pages until his pace slowed and he stopped. The book was open on a page full of tiny scrawled writing on one side, and a diagram on the other. He pushed it over towards me. “The cross this girl was wearing around her neck? What did it look like?”

“It was like a normal silver cross, Jasper,” I replied. I let my eyes roam over the words on the page, drinking up the knowledge I could gain during the short few seconds of Jasper’s narrow-eyed glare.

He exhaled and flicked over the page, pointing to a small picture. “Was it this type of cross?”

I looked at the small depiction of a similar cross to Mary-Lynette’s. Or was it her’s? It had the exact same shape, silver texture, thin and small-linked chain onto which it was held upon and then the small diamond jewel encrusted in the middle of the cross. The one thing that the cruel impostor of a photograph didn’t show was that when the sunlight bounced off the metal, it glistened like purified gold.

My throat clenched up as I traced the small paragraph underneath the photograph. “It is the same,” I stated plainly.

“Finally, we caught a break,” Rosalie breathed, throwing her arms up in the air. “If I had to fantasize about this girl one more day I would have gone and hunted her down myself,” she said aspirated.

I looked at the young beauty of Rochester through a hooded gaze, a quiet growl held between my teeth. “You will not, Rosalie,” I declared sternly. “This girl is to be left alone unless I state otherwise.”

“Carlisle, you read the paragraph underneath the photograph. She could expose us, are you willing to take that risk?” Rosalie cried in frustration.

“I will not let this young girl’s life be interrupted due to our suspicions that she might reveal us, Rosalie,” I denied. “No harm will come to our family, I swear that to you.”

Rose stomped her foot, but before she could open her mouth to speak, Alice interrupted. “Rose, be quiet,” she hissed. “We know the risks; but I agree with Carlisle. We already have enough going on with watching Sue and then the wolves’ problems. Leave this one be.”

“Fine,” he stormed, then left the room in a blur.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Drama queen. She owes me anyways, she wrote in my diary,” she muttered under her breath. Jasper chuckled. “Now Jazz, tell Carlisle what you found out,” Alice coaxed.

“According to my research, this clan dates back further than your history, Carlisle. The symbol – the cross – symbolizes their society of people called the “Old Ones.” Jasper leaned back into the chair, cracking his knuckles.

“Is there any reason to believe that this clan knows about our existence, or the wolves?” I questioned, putting my head in my hands.

How could telling everyone this one piece of information turn into such a chaotic disaster? Jasper had gone to such lengths as to even get J. Jenks to gain some information about Mary-Lynette, so far the information had been futile, and rather pointless. And now this clan of “Old One’s?”

Alice leaned over Jasper’s shoulder, and scanned the book that was turned towards me. I pushed it to her. Flicking through the pages faster than my brain could calculate, Alice followed the words with her finger. “From this it looks as if their belief in “creatures of the night” is relatively short, however I’m sure they know something.”

“Not enough to know of us however,” Esme knocked on the door. She walked inside and by my side, her hand rubbing my shoulder comfortingly. Her warm smile helped conceal the intense coiling irritation from my face – smoothing the creases from between my brows and pulling my eyes away from the book, until they rested on her glorious face.

I kissed her softly on the cheek and pulled her onto the chair with me. She smelled of freshly baked cookies – Jacob must have been in the house to visit Renesmee.

“I would keep an eye on her, Carlisle,” Jasper said, standing up and brushing away visible dust from his jeans. “If she ever comes to the hospital again,” he added before leaving us to some privacy.

Alice danced out with him, their hands tightly locked. With some privacy finally within my grasp, I held Esme tighter than human grip and kissed her hard on the lips, letting all the hollow and empty feelings melt away and be replaced by love and adoration.

“I never thought I’d get some time alone again. This Mary-Lynette business is really tiring me out.” I nuzzled her cheek.

“Ah Carlisle, you old fool,” she mused. “You give up on this girl too easily,” she tapped my nose, and replaced her finger with a sweet kiss. “She may give you the key to you human past, you have to try. And I’ll be there to support you every step of the way.”

I laughed lightly, lifting her up onto the desk. “You spoil me with all these privileges, Esme. Have you ever considered wanting something in return,” I breathed against her lips.

Esme pulled away and jumped down from the desk gracefully, her brown curls bouncing in the air. My heart swelled with the deepest and most profound idolization and admiration that I had to swallow it down.

“You give me everything I want, Carlisle. Now get back to work, otherwise I’m going to have to be the cause of your procrastination later,” she said then leaned back over and kissed me gently before leaving me be.

A few seconds after she had left, a small white paper-plane flew into the room as if guided by a remote control. I grasped a hold of it between my fingers as it flew over my head. I unfolded it.

Inside there was a scrawled address, with one name that gave me a short spark of hope, and also one of dread. Alice’s feminine signature was penned into the corner of the page. I would have to thank her later. Now the main question was: What was I going to do? Was I going to follow my hope of discovering more of my hazy human past and risk the safety of my family at the same time? Or stay in the confines of my partially empty mind?

***

It had been a couple of hours since our discovery of Mary-Lynette’s heritage, and perhaps what she was? Now I was due for late-shift at the hospital. Manoeuvring the Mercedes into the car-park wasn’t a problem; however my pre-occupied mind was a problem. If only I had stayed home with Esme. Yet human lives were only brief, whereas I had eternity to be with my true love, my beautiful Esme.

Meandering around the car-park, I came to the darkened entrance of the hospital. A shiver of anticipation ran through my body, which was normal, however alongside it was the feeling of a sudden dread. Then it hit me.

I was forced against a shadowed wall and something was pressed against my chest. It was against the flesh in which my heart was situated underneath. It was a stake. A bottle of holy water clutched in the other hand. And a silver cross around her neck. It was Mary-Lynette.

“You’re dead vampire meat.”

I know you’re going to hate me for the cliff-hanger, but I couldn’t help it. I have cliff-hanger syndrome. Here are the questions:

1.  What is an “Old One?” Is Mary-Lynette one?

2.  Does the clan know about the existence of vampires? And how did Mary-Lynette find out?

3.  What will happen to Carlisle?

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