Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Secrets

Book 3:

Reawakening

IT STILL AMAZED ME, what I could see, even if I expected it. The small particles of dust in the air floating around me, the marks of the wood that made the ceiling. The marks in the walls... the individual fibres of my clothing... my skin was so pale, had it been that pale before? I couldn't remember. I struggled to remember the last time.
     I could hear the movement of the wind through the trees outside, I could hear fabric moving in the front room downstairs. Impatience?
     I still hadn't breathed when I turned to the other presence in the room. Igor stood just beside the bed Verity smiling in his arms. I was once more taken by surprise at his inhuman perfection and just how absolutely handsome he was. Even more so through new eyes.
     And then I breathed and all I could smell was them. Igor's familiar oak and lavender and Verity who I could only assume was the coconut and almond smell. And with their scents, their pasts.
     I knew everything about my husband I hadn't know before, though there was a familiar side to it. I had got his past before, but this was new...
     Another interesting thing I realised that I wasn't just getting his past in this life, his fantasies, standing at the bottom of the stairs as I washed, breaking the stair railing only to replace it before I noticed. His waking up in confusion... I was also getting his past in that timeline as well. All of it. Every touch with me, every whispered word, every stroke of a brush. Through his past, I got every kiss, every lingering word. The caves. The asylum. Nanaimo...
     The war.
     There was Mary Alice, Lucy, Demetri... those he considered his children.
     Everything.
     I looked at my daughter as she looked between her father and I. So beautiful, I couldn't see a single flaw in her childish face. The fact that she didn't look mere days old and rather like a toddler didn't startle me, Renesmee had fully-grown at 7-years of age so I knew she'd grow fast but she would eventually stop.
     "Miss Elizabeth," Igor said softly.
     Igor...
     Both his and our daughters' scent was fuller in the room than what I could only imagine was my own. They hadn't left my side at all during my change unless it was to speak to...
     I ran up wanting to hold my daughter, she outstretched her arms and Igor let her fall into them.
     "You look beautiful," Igor whispered and tucked some of my hair out of my face.
     "Is Aro still here?" I asked I could remember Igor telling me he wanted to meet Verity's mother.
     "He is," Igor muttered. He didn't sound as if he liked the fact.
     I heard a soft chuckle from downstairs.
     I breathed in my daughters' scent once more. Not for her past, but for the familiarity.
     "Thank you," I whispered to her. Knowing that she had chosen specifically when to come out of my body, knowing that if she hadn't at that moment, her father wouldn't have been as prepared as he had been.
     Verity smiled up at me and I kissed her forehead.
     She was happy, she loved me more than her father. I tried to not let that get to my head.
     I wanted to let Igor know that I understood everything. The future, the messed up timelines. But I couldn't think of how to put it, especially with the unwelcomed prying ears below.
     "Miss Elizabeth," Igor said as he caressed my face.
     I wanted to pull him closer, I should have been more careful with my behaviours. Should have remembered that as a newborn, what you think you do. My free hand that wasn't holding my daughter, grabbed Igor's waist and pulled him towards me. Both he and Verity laughed. He then reached around to hold my hand that was still behind him.
     "I don't think you should hide what you know from him," Igor whispered. "Not this time."
     For a moment I was confused. Then I breathed again and I realised he was talking about my talent. He knew that his scent was all through the room, he knew that by now I already knew his past, he wasn't sure if it was both pasts but I at least had seen all his conversations with Carlisle about the past they both remembered. And I now remembered through him.
     He didn't want me to hide my talents and what I knew from Aro. Or what I would know, when I met him officially.
     I nodded and Igor began walking me down the stairs, the front door was wide open.
     There was a pale man standing between me and the door. Before I breathed I realised he looked familiar but I wasn't sure where from. I felt like I had met him before. His shoulder-length black hair, his near-transparent skin. Bright red eyes... black cloak and suit that looked as if it had been hand-sewn in blood.
     A bit dramatic but I wouldn't put it passed him.
     I quickly dug through Igor's past and found him rather quickly. Aro. I had met him as a human, briefly, he had been fascinated by Igor and my relationship so hadn't killed me or ordered Igor to do it. But I also knew him from the other timeline.
     Then I breathed and Aro's scent crashed into me. If it hadn't been for my daughter in my arms, I would have thrown him out and tore his head off, as he did Her.
     "Welcome to our night, Mrs Farkas!" Aro said with a plastered smile. "It is so nice to see your survival!"
     "Aro," I said softly.
     "You remember me?" Aro smirked. "I do like to make an impression."
     I was shaking my head before he finished.
     "I am gifted, Aro. And I know how it works," I continued while keeping my daughter tight to my side as my lifeline. "Once I get a strong smell of your scent, I know everything about your past. Every secret you've ever wanted to keep, every touch with your mate, every feeling anyone has made you feel. Every love. Every murder. And I am so sorry, Aro, but you've been standing in front of that doorway since we met."
      Aro briskly looked behind him to the open door. His shoulders straightened and his chin raised.
     "Prove it."
     I turned and saw who I could only imagine was Fantine. The hair was the same, the shape was the same, but she looked so much more vibrant. Her skin was paler than I could remember it being, and her eyes were very very dark. But I could still hear the faint foreign accent that reminded me of Fantine.
     "Igor Farkas, born in 501 to farmers in Europe," I began, staring right at Fantine. "In 512 he witnessed his fathers brutal murder by the leading forces of his homeland. The man who remarried his mother was cruel, unkind, unkempt, and unjust. Once he grew old he grew fascinated with the world and in 529 he began travelling the country which led him to the Cavians where he was changed out of their desire for revenge. I know what the taste of human blood made him feel. I know how he felt in his first year of being a vampire and then how he decided to leave his makers."
     "He could have told you all that," Fantine argued.
     "Look at his face."
     My head snapped to the familiar voice of Igor's past. Demetri was staring at Igor, cheeky grin on his face.
     "He's as surprised as we are," Demetri continued.
     Demetri... there was no wind travelling his scent and past to me, but I knew enough. I knew how during that final fight, he killed someone he considered his own brother, to save Igor. I knew his love for Lucy...
     I tried to shake the memories out of my head, they weren't this life, he wasn't that Demetri... yet.
     "Very well, I have just met Aro, officially," I stated. "I know he was born before time was recorded in any way shape or form. Mathematically speaking, around 250BC, he had a younger sister, Didyme, and his family were simple sheep farmers. I know Aro, growing up, always wanted more in life and even though his parents tried their hardest to satisfy his greed he was never happy. Aro's greed got his parents murdered which brought him to vampires. His greed made him want to be like them, want to be immortal because mortality wasn't enough. I also know that while he was human, he was fascinated with the minds of the people around him. But as they didn't hold his fascination enough he learnt to read people but discontinued his personal studies. That very interest in minds as a human grew into his gift in the immortal life. To be able to read every thought one has had with a simple touch. I know that he had hoped his sister would be gifted, and she was, just not the same way as Aro had hoped. As an immortal, with his sister, his status in the immortal community grew and kept growing for a very long time. Aro, I won't continue because I feel as if you want me to stop."
     "Thank you," Aro nodded.
     "Igor, take Verity."
     "Miss Elizabeth, what are you doing?" Igor asked. "Be calm."
     "I am calm."
     "That is what frightens me."
     I chuckled and ran my fingers through his beard, Aro cleared his throat, distracting me before my own head caused a scene.
     "Know, Aro, that from your past, I do not trust you," I stated, looking at our white hat king. "I do not trust your judgement." Demetri, Felix and Tristan growled at me, Aro silenced them with a wave of their hand. "Nor do I trust your actions. I want you nowhere near my family. Especially around me."
     "Is that an order?"
     "A request."
     "And if I do not follow this request."
     I ran ahead so I could whisper in Aro's ear, he raised a hand to stop Felix, Demetri, and Tristans' approach.
     "Than our world will know what you have worked so hard to hide."
     "I could kill you," Aro whispered back. "So easily."
     I stepped back from Aro, hearing the threat in his words. Through his past, I knew that he was afraid. And usually, his fear led to that vampire's death, but not mine. This fear would stop him from killing me. Fear could be an amazing ally, even to the one feeling it.
     "No, you couldn't."
     I held out my hand, to let him know what I knew. Suddenly remembering that the spirit of my mother had once explained to me that my gift also hid aspects of my past from others, I wasn't sure how that aspect of my gift worked, I had hoped Aro would hold my hand and let me find out. But he turned to his guard and left without a touch.

*Cover characters illustrated by ra_bliss.art on Instagram and created by Canva.*