A Vampire's Love - Edward Cullen (Twilight saga)

Chapter 57 - Imprint

Just when I thought I made the right choice to step away from Aiyanna's life, I realized that we had gone too far for her to be safe even with us away. Instead of fleeing to make her life better, I realized that we actually left her unprotected.

"You were expecting ? Why are you not sure ?" I asked.

"Because I can't see Aiyanna anymore. I did my best and didn't watch after her, but when I saw Victoria's plans I realized that I actually can't see anything related to Aiyanna. I've been checking with the people around her, and everything seems to be normal, but I still can't see her. Something's blocking me, and when I try to see further in Victoria's plans I can't see anything either and I wouldn't be able to tell you why."

My once void body started to be shaken with emotions for the first time in so long. Anxiety.

Was there anything left to protect ? Did Victoria already make her move ? What if we were too late ? What if, like last time, it already happened ? Alice's uncertainty was making me uneasy.

I prohibited every member of my family, myself included, from going back to Forks because I believed that Aiyanna deserved to be happy. She deserved to live.

And yet, Victoria wanted to take that right away from her, because of me again.

"This is our responsibility. We left Aiyanna unprotected and I refuse to let Victoria put her hand on her again. And before you say anything about your rules, we won't break them. All we have to do is get to Victoria before she gets to Aiyanna without being seen."

I had made a promise to Aiyanna. If I went back to Forks even just to hunt, would I be strong enough not to go to her house to catch just a whiff of her scent, or climb up the tree behind her house and see her face one last time ?

It had been the hardest thing for me to leave one time, how much strength would I need for me to go away a second time ?

"I just called to let you know that I was going back to Forks. I will not warn the others. It will slow me down. But I was hoping you'd come, Edward."

[Present time]

I came...

...and it didn't go as expected.

I strongly believed that we could hunt Victoria while keeping Aiyanna oblivious to our coming, but never would I have imagined that we would actually hunt with her.

When I went outside and went to the nearest airport, I realized that I had spent seven months crawled into a rat hole without any notion of time.

Seven months had been enough for Aiyanna to completely change her appearance and turn into creatures I never thought I would meet again.

Victoria was already too far for me to catch even a glimpse of her thoughts inside the cold and dark water. As for Alice, the fact that she couldn't have a vision of where Victoria was headed next, had been disturbing her ever since we started to hunt.

It was because of one external factor that we failed to anticipate.

The shapeshifters.

We had met their last pack eighty years ago, with which we agreed to respect the treaty that we violated today.

"I thought they couldn't turn anymore." Alice thought as she swam back to the surface.

So did I.

What I never would have even thought of, was for Aiyanna to be a part of them.

She was there. At least, her body was because her mind had gone blank. I couldn't catch any of her thoughts.