Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Torn Part 2

I COULDN'T FOCUS DURING THE FOLLOWING DAYS. I couldn't go to work, all I was able to do was pace around the house. Anxious. Guilty.
     "You made the right choice, Miss Elizabeth," Igor had said to me after a week of hearing nothing. He hung up his jacket and caught me by my wrist as I passed him. "You know as well as I that if you had gone, it would have meant all of our deaths."
    "But he doesn't know that. Carlisle doesn't know that. Rosalie and Emmett? They didn't know that. They're just going to assume that we thought they were a lost cause and valued our lives greater than theirs!" I screeched. More guilt, I was taking it all out on the one man who didn't deserve it.
     "And when the day comes for the truth to be revealed, whenever you let that happen, they'll understand?"
     "Hardly," I scoffed. "You don't know Rosalie. If the rest of them will, she won't. And y..." I stopped myself, so close to telling him what I didn't want to say a week ago. My emotions, my rage and fear and guilt had made me slip. I hoped he didn't push it.
     "And what?" He pushed.
     "And I don't know if you will forgive me?" I couldn't look at him know. Guilt was overbearing, I couldn't even make myself sit down. I felt sick. I wished I could have been.
     "For ensuring my survival? There's nothing to forgive," Igor chuckled. He put his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. "What is the matter, my love? What is bothering you? If it's purely about your brother, I assure you, if Aro does kill your brother, I will hunt down Marius and Rachelle and we will do what we were trained to do from the start."
     "No, it's not that," I muttered. "Not fully."
     "Than what?"
     "Remember how I told you about Alice? The psychic who grabbed her empath and ran away from the risk of a fight?" I asked. I felt him nod against my shoulder and I turned to face him. My stomach churned, fearing his response. "It's Mary. The Alice who ran is Mary Alice Brandon."
     "What?"
     "They found out last year that Alice, who can't remember her past, before she woke up, in the slightest, was saved from the hunter James, by an unknown vampire working at an asylum. They found out because James practically told Bella while trying to kill her. Igor. I'm sorry."
     "Why didn't you say anything?"
     "She had chosen to run from the fight, she wasn't going to be there. There was no need to worry you. I'm sorry."
     I waited for the judgement, waited for the anger of keeping this from him. But it never came.
     He put his hands back around my waist, and now put his head atop of mine.
     "My statement earlier still stands. There is nothing to forgive."
     I chuckled against his check. Only part of the tension in my stomach, chest, and neck easing. So my fear of hiding the truth from Igor was still a thing, but what of my brothers' fate? What of Edwards or Esmes?
     Igor stayed in the front room with me, holding me in a locked embrace, until the sun began to rise through the clouds telling us that neither of us were going into to work.
     Igor never let my hand let go of his when he went to call his work. Joked that he was coming down with whatever I had and that he would be staying home, he added that his clients could call him if they so desired but that was all the services he could offer. Then he handed the phone to me. Pretences. I asked my boss for medications for Igor, as well as a top up for myself. Doctor Harry Balding said that they would be in my office when I was able to go in next.
     I wasn't sure if I'd have the strength to leave the house, let alone walk through a Hospital pretending to be too ill to work. I thought of getting a nurse or someone else to pick up the medications for me and drop them off, but I was worried my uncontrollable emotions would make me so something I'd regret, so I did nothing.
     Nothing, but pace, wait, and worry.
     One week turned into two. Two weeks became three. Christmas came and my anxieties had just gotten larger, then, through our town, came a face I recognised.
     I had worked very hard in my early days to remember the faces of every single vampire I had the fortune to meet in London while I was a human. The gentleman who suddenly ran through our town in a hurry, who only passed us because Igor had convinced me to go out hunting.
     "You're from London," I accused, making him stop and look at me. "You look rushed. What's wrong?"
     "And you look like Carlisle..." he mused. The wind pushed against me. Pushing his scent firmly into me. Fear. He was running and hated to stop.
     "Go, trust your instincts, it got you out of London it will get you out of this. Before you ask," I raised a hand as he opened his mouth to ask. "I have a gift. I know one's entire past with just their scent. Thank you, Alistair, for updating me on Carlisle, I see he has a lot of friends helping him and more than a lot of them have declared that they'll fight for him if it comes to it. If it hasn't already. Thank you. You can start running again if you must."
     Before he said anything else, before he asked anything else, Alistair left.
     "You knew him?" Igor asked.
     "I worked hard to remember the faces of the vampires I met as a human on the streets," I admitted to Igor, watching Alistair run. "He was one of them."
     "Your brother?"
     "Maybe we should go help. There are a lot of people there standing with him but Alistair fears that it will not be enough! If my brother falls-"
     "If there are a lot of vampires standing by your brothers' side, Miss Elizabeth, then being there is the worst thing you could do for him. You know that as well as I do. Stay strong, my love, everything will work out."
     "If Aro kills Carlisle-"
     "Then the Volturi will follow Alistair's scent, it will lead them through here and we will ensure that the Volturi are down as many heads as we can before we're taken down. But until that happens, Miss Elizabeth, you must stay strong. I needed have to say this again, but the best thing for you to do to help your brother right now-"
     "Is to stay away. I know."
     There was no way I was going to be able to hunt with this updated news. It just heightened my fears and guilt even more. However, I did stay in the forests to keep Igor company as he hunted, try as he might to get me to at least have a deer.
     Once Igor was done though, and we went back to the house, I couldn't make myself stand inside, I stood at the porch and Igor was all too willing to stand by my side as we waited for news. Waited for anything.
     Days went past, where the only movement between us was Igor attempted to get me to eat. Which he managed to convince me the night before New Year's Eve. If anything, it was the snow that thawed me out. Ever since our stay in Alaska, snow relaxed me. Gave me a feeling of hope.
     It was later that very next day when there was movement and our waiting would finally end. Three female vampires, all with dark skin... and were familiar with Igor.
     "Zafrina! Senna! Kachiri!" He called and ran out to them. "What brings you up this way?"
     Though we both already knew that answer. They had been running in the direction of Forks.
     "We were helping a friend, Igor. We are surprised, you live so near. Why did you not come to help?" Kachiri asked.
     "We hadn't heard anything. What happened?" Igor lied, again.
     "Our friend, Carlisle," Zafrina began to explain, but her eyes were on me. "His family were accused of something they did not do. The Volturi had come to destroy them for the crime."
     "The crime they didn't commit?"
     "One of Carlisle's boys mated with a human and had a baby."
     "Impossible."
     "I thought so to, then I met her. She is stunning, Igor, you should go meet her now that the threat has passed."
     "Aro let them free?" I asked from the porch.
     "Yes, there was no crime. And there was evidence that the child could keep the secret, so, he let them be," Zafrina answered me, her eyes narrowing. Suspicious I supposed, I looked like Carlisle.
     "That is wonderful news. It is a pity we didn't hear wind of it or we would have helped!" Igor lied. "But I suppose you ladies want to get back to your Amazon. I've never seen you this far away before."
     They nodded said their goodbyes and left. Igor returned to me with a worried smile.
     "I think Zafrina knows your little secret, Miss Elizabeth," Igor said.
     "Everyone tells me I look like him, so it isn't hard to guess. Not even Esme took long to get it right," I responded.
     "And now you can relax. Your brother is safe..."
     I heard it in his tone. The worry. Curiosity.
     And the wind finally changed.
     "You're worried the Volturi aren't going to give up," I stated for him, putting my hands around his neck. "Well, now it is my turn to assure you." I chuckled. "Aro isn't the man you were taught he'd be. Not anymore. If anything, he has seen the armada my brother can bring together in a few short weeks and won't be so quick to jump to conclusions next time."
     "Next time? You think your brother is going to make this a recurring habit?" Igor smirked.
     "Well, I don't know my brother, Igor, maybe he might. Or maybe it's just his children that will cause all the issues."
     I laughed for the first time in weeks, letting my forehead rest against Igors as I finally, finally relaxed knowing my brother was alive and well.