Rebirth (Twilight Saga - Pregnant with the next generation)

Chapter 10: The First Confrontation

By the next hour, all of the girls except Bella had been sent to the kitchen where their project was to bake cupcakes with Renesmee – if Alice didn’t eat all the batter before they could get it in the oven as had been the case in previous failed attempts.

The doorbell rang, the bright sound turned to a funeral dirge with the expectant dread pause that shadowed it. Carlisle opened the door, hoping to start the meeting with a friendly face. Jasper stood just inside focusing on maintaining a neutral atmosphere and energy in the tension-charged room.

“Carlisle” Marcus and Caius just nodded as Aro kept up the amicable pretense in his greeting. “Aro so good to see you again”, Carlisle tried not to grimace as Aro’s papery skin met with his own in a deceivingly firm grip. The ancient’s grip faltered as Carlisle’s thoughts and memories flooded his mind, unwillingly giving him the information needed to destroy his family with nothing he could do about it.  

“It sounds like once again, the Cullen family has defied even the most impossible of feats. “By all means Carlisle bring them out so that we may witness this miracle”.

Emmett started from his chair, a low virile growl rumbling from his broad chest. Jasper held him back with a hand; “it’s alright Em they’re just curious…for the moment” Edward soothed. Bella slipped from the room discreetly and returned with the women and Renesmee on her hip.

If ever a vampire had looked so majestic and so ethereally stunning it was Esme, Alice and Rosalie as they swept into the room, heads held high like the proud triple prow of a ship sailing into the room to face an indiscernible fate.

Each joined their husband in the middle of the room and faced the Volturi. Even the unshakeable Marcus staggered back in shock at the sight of three of their kind so obviously with child. “It’s one thing to hear, but to see in all flesh’s eviscerality...”Caius wondered out loud.

Jane’s lips curled back in a snarl, “Aro we must end this – they have caused too much trouble already”. Her lip crooked up minutely and cocked her head, leering at Esme. Carlisle’s face blanched as Esme’s mouth opened in an O of surprise and her hands went protectively to her distended belly as she drew back in fear. Faster than even Edward could ever move Carlisle threw himself in front of Esme and pushed her back into Emmett’s arms, taking the full brunt of Jane’s cruel anger. He fell to the floor with a sickening thud- writhing, his face a grim mask of torture. Alec stepped forward and laid a hand on his sister’s; “Jane that’s enough now, come on”. She blinked and Carlisle lay motionless on the floor. With surprising strength Esme wrenched herself from Emmett’s arms and fell to her knees beside her husband. She cradled his head in her hands and placed it on her dwindling lap as he regained his senses.

Carlisle’s vision swam in an unintelligible haze of pain, coming to focus on his angel, his perfect Esme hovering over him. Wincing at the terrific aftershocks of pain still radiating in his body he got to his feet and held his wife close before taking her into his now steady arms and away into the other room. Bella had ushered Alice and Rosalie out by this time as well – after seeing what Jane had tried to do to Esme.

“Aro”, Carlisle’s voice thundered as none in the room had ever heard it; his kind eyes now glinted with a cold unstaunched fury that told of his emotions without Edward or Aro’s gifts. “Get out – get out of my house get out of my sight and do not come back again” he roared. For the first time Aro looked unsure – “Carlisle, my friend, Jane meant no harm”. “The hell she didn’t” Edward snarled from the corner.

Marcus and Caius were the ones to step forward this time, “our past alliance has granted you license thus far in your ‘projects’ Carlisle – but it has gone too far. We were wrong to let Renesmee be born and we shall not make the same mistake twice. Kill the infants – before or after birth I do not care” he waved a hand dismissively, “but the bodies are to be sent to us, and if we have not heard word from you by the last of April further repercussions will be taken. And they may cost you dearly.”

The cloaked group made to leave, their trailing crimson capes an ominous allusion to the bloodshed of the future. Aro turned at the door and said sadly “this is your and your family’s last chance my friend, I pray you take it”.

After hours of unmoving silence Carlisle staggered to his feet and hurled an antique side table through the glass panes of the wall of their house. His sons tried to persuade him to stop and held him back but beside himself with grief and guilt and anger he shrugged them off savagely.

Only the slightest touch of a familiar cool pale hand brought him back to his senses. He turned and stared unseeingly before clutching her to him in a fierce embrace.  The others slipped out unseen as he sobbed into her shoulders. Wild fierce sobs were torn from his chest as he thought upon what could have happened to Esme – what the Volturi planned to do to not only her but to Alice and Rose as well. 

“I’m so sorry” he choked out “Oh God Es, I’m so sorry”. There was more torment in his eyes than she had ever seen in a man or monster’s before.  “Oh Carlisle, my Carlisle” she stroked his hair and pressed gentle kisses to his taut jawline “whatever happens-“ she tilted his face up to meet hers “you have given me a gift, a precious miracle that I would not trade for anything else”. 

“By the time the Volturi plan to make contact with us we will have had the babies. That means Alice will have her visions back full strength and we can stay one step ahead of them until we can prove, like we did with Renesmee, their innocence.” Esme had spent many a restless night pondering such a plan of action for the future.

“You’re sure Jane didn’t hurt you?” Carlisle whispered hoarsely as he carried her to the bed. She shook her head, auburn curls splaying across the pillow “thank you Carlisle – I wouldn’t have asked to jump in front of me like that –“ Carlisle cut her off with a finger pressed to her lips. “There was no alternative cara mia. You are tutte mi vida and I will die before I see anything happen to you or our baby”. He drew her into his arms underneath the covers. She nestled her head into the crook between his head and shoulder and curled into him as his hand encircled her torso and wrapped around her belly. Their baby rolled beneath his touch and he rubbed the spot where it had kicked her and bent over to press a kiss to the smooth skin before lulling her and his restless unborn child to sleep with her favorite Italian lullaby.

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