Cullen - Origins [English Version - FINISHED]

Chapter Fourty-Seven

The hospital door leading to the exit opened with a bang. Two men in white coats came out, walking with rapid steps. One was tall and blond, although small wrinkles at the corners of his eyes betrayed an advanced age ; the other was barely shoulder length and looked a little younger. His close-cropped, deep brown hair gave him a serious look, and his frowning eyebrows didn't help make him look gentle and friendly. The tall blond man took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, also with his eyebrows furrowed. He spoke loudly, with an annoyed air, between each puff of smoke.

- It is the best ! He exclaimed in the direction of his colleague. Asking us to treat this... This...

He swept his free hand over the space around him, searching for words in a grimace of disgust. His colleague watched him in silence, listening to the blond man, with an almost impassive air except for his eyebrows forming a V so much they were frowned.

- This... This animal ! The blond man finally spat out. They should have sold it to the vets or let it die ! Why give it to us to care for ?

He took another puff of smoke, blowing through his mouth. The remaining smoke coming out of his nostrils made him look even more menacing. The small brown crossed his arms on his chest, then spoke before the other continued his monologue.

- You know, he began in a low and serious voice, I do not think that this giant wolf is an animal.

The blond man stopped his gesture, his cigarette to some centimeters of his mouth.

- What do you mean ?

- You approached him ? Questioned mysteriously the brown.

The wrinkled eyes, the blond man shook negatively of the head. He was looking for what his colleague was getting at.

- You should have. Commented the latter, the glance in the emptiness.

A silence. The blond man waited for the continuation, tapping the ground with impatience.

- You should have, resumed the brown, because I am persuaded that you would have been very interested.

- That is to say ? Asked the man, eager for answers.

- That wolf... It was... It was as if it understood us. As if it was able to understand our language, and what we were doing. The dark-haired man said thoughtfully.

- It can't be ! Exclaimed the blond man.

His colleague slowly turned his gaze in his direction, impassive.

- A wild animal would have panicked to find itself surrounded by humans. Not this one. continued the dark-haired man. He let himself be done, while pushing some moans when the pain was too strong. When I approached him, intrigued by this behavior, he turned an eye in my direction, and I can assure you that he had a human look.

- A human look ? What do you sing to me there ? Grumbled the blond boy while pulling on his cigarette.

- The glance which I saw was not that of a beast, you can believe me. Affirmed the brown one.

The blond man finished his cigarette, then threw it on the asphalt before crushing it with his foot. That made, he put his hands in his pockets of his blouse before turning his glance towards the parking lot of the hospital. His eyes glided over each of the parked cars, without looking at them.

- It's not for nothing that the police asked us to treat this Wolf... He remarked.

He seemed calmer, as if the revelations of the brown man had calmed the confusion that reigned in his mind.

His colleague nodded, also looking towards the parking lot.

- The blood tests should help us to know what hurt this Wolf. He commented. I'm curious...

The blond man opened his mouth to answer his colleague when the service door opened with a bang behind them. The two men turned around in surprise. A third man in a white coat came out, his hair a mess.

- We have the test results ! He shouted. You won't believe your eyes.

The two men exchanged glances. They already had an idea of what might be in those tests, and they weren't happy about it at all.

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When Edward and Bella arrived at the spot where they had left two policemen and the two suspects moments earlier, the vampire already had a bad feeling : even before they reached the end of the hallway, he should have heard the thoughts of the quartet ; and for some as-yet-unknown reason, he hadn't.

Letting Bella go ahead, the vampire remained on guard, attentive to every sound or movement around them. He was so focused on their surroundings that he nearly bumped into his wife when she stopped dead in her tracks at the end of the hall. Edward didn't need to ask her why ; he saw with his own eyes the two dead bodies of the policemen in front of them, and then a third body further back. The vampire realized after a few seconds of looking at it that it was the park manager. Obviously, there was no trace of the Holy Mother.

- It looks like we're going to take a little longer than expected. The vampire commented darkly.

Bella nodded, and didn't waste a minute ; already she was crossing the room to consider which way the woman in the white coat might have run. Edward joined her in a hurry.

- It's almost certain that she doesn't belong here anymore, so she must have found a way to escape from here without the police seeing her. Bella said, thinking aloud.

Edward refrained from pointing out that there was also the possibility that the Holy Mother had simply killed any police officer who got in her way. She had shot two police officers, armed, and even her sidekick : this woman was capable of anything.

- She couldn't have made it to the corridor we came down, or we would have run into her. Bella continued, spinning around. So she took either the right or the left corridor, she added, pointing to the two remaining corridors.

Both corridors were dimly lit, enough for a human to see. Only the middle hallway, which the two vampires had taken, was pitch black. Edward hesitated about which one to take.

- We need to split up ; maybe she's already made it out of the basement. Bella decreed.

She looked him straight in the eye. Edward sighed.

- I guess we have no choice. he said. I'll take the one on the left. If one of us finds her, we'll call each other. We have to stop her without her killing us. he continued.

Bella nodded, and he kissed her forehead tenderly, then left for the left corridor while she headed for the right.

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- Garrett ! Can't you slow her down ?!

Rosalie's exasperated voice echoed down the dark hallway. Alice was running to her right, and Esmée was silently following them, closing the gap. The ex-nomad was running at high speed, trying to reach Astrea who had disappeared from their field of vision. However, it was easy to follow her, she had left traces of her passage : her anger and distress had increased her strength tenfold, she had made a gaping hole to enter the basement. Now the huge holes in the walls here and there told them which way she was going.

Garrett didn't even try to answer the vampire ; focused on his goal, he didn't care about the blonde's comments. He had to get to Astrea at all costs, because in the state she was in, she had no idea of the danger she was in. What would happen if she met a troop of soldiers, armed with poisoned bullets ? As powerful as she was, if the soldiers shot at her, she would be finished. Shuddering in disgust, the vampire sped up his pace, his eyes fixed straight ahead. How could Astrea know where she was going in this labyrinth? He was sure she wasn't following a random direction. Could she recognize Carlisle's scent and follow it ?

Suddenly, a high-pitched howl sounded in his ears, and Astrea's anger boiled up inside him. He forced himself to go even faster, alerted by the howl that seemed endless.

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