Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Monsters Part 2

I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO COULDN'T STAND STILL WHILE VERITY WAS IN TOWN TALKING TO THE WOLVES.
     And it was the longest hour I'd ever experienced until she returned.
     "I don't understand what you all are worried about," she muttered. "They're nice people."
     "When they're humans, maybe," Mary sighed.
     I hugged my daughter tightly though it was painful, I could smell she had been with the werewolves because it masked her scent.
     "Interesting," Edward chuckled.
     We all looked at him.
     He shook his head telling all of us that he wasn't going to tell what he heard, but I did have a nagging suspicion that it was how the stench of the wolves on Verity masked her past from me.
     "How did the talking with the wolves go?" Igor asked, getting us on track.
     "Well they're willing to help," Verity explained. "They agreed with us and thought it must have been them that made Grandfather and the others disappear from Mary's vision, so they're just as curious as they are terrified of the medusa."
     "So they feel the same as us then," Esme chuckled weakly.
     "One of them said it'll be interesting to learn how they die," Verity continued. She stopped talking though her brows pulled together.
     "Is there more?" I asked.
     "You don't know?" Mary asked me.
     "The wolves mask her scent."
     "Really?" Carlisle and Igor gasped.
     I ignored them and focused on my daughter.
     "She hopes," Edward sighed. It wasn't an annoyed sigh and that worried me.
      "I thought you didn't say what we didn't want to be told," Verity snarled at her cousin.
     Edward just smirked at her.
     "Hopes for what?" Igor asked.
     Verity sighed heavily before turning to Igor and me.
     "Werewolves and vampires working together to defeat a new monster neither of us has faced before..." she sighed again. "I hope that maybe we don't have to kill her and she can live in peace with us just as the werewolves are."
     "It's a nice thought," I confessed.
     "And a Cullen one at that," Igor chuckled.
     What did that mean?
     Esme chuckled.
     "Sweetheart," I kissed her head. "I'd love it more than anything if this medusa, or whatever she turns out to be, is willing to leave us and our families in peace and we can move on without any bloodshed. I will keep hoping for that outcome during our meeting with her, however, sometimes monsters really are just monsters and I know to accept that. You've lived long enough to know that by now?"
     "I will always hope," Verity stated.
     "And I hope you never stop."
     "Optimists by blood," Esme chuckled and her eyes beamed up to my brother.
     Carlisle smiled and kissed Esme rather... passionately. It was amazing really, I thought Carlisle had more dignity than that, it felt like a fire had just started in the corner of the room.
     "Don't you dare! We've got more important things to be thinking about!" Mary shouted and threw a book at them
     "Sorry," Carlisle mumbled and Esme looked as if she'd be blushing if she could.
     "We should hunt while we can," Igor stated and looked back outside towards the woods. "Get ourselves as strong as we can. And keep our minds busy off of, other, topics."
     I chuckled, hearing in his words he was referring to Carlisle and Esme's show.
     "We should also be waiting there for Father where Mary's vision disappeared," I suggested.
     Igor nodded.
     "Then let's get going," Mary said. "There isn't much time."

Hunting in a large group was definitely interesting, and decidedly a horrible way to hunt as the animals could sense such a large mass of monsters coming their way; but we all unspokenly decided that with a monster that could potentially tear us all apart nearby, it was best if we stayed together.
     We took turns, a few of us hunting while a few more would be lookouts in case the medusa was close enough to overhear or want to investigate.
     Then when we were all full and the day came, we all went to where Mary's vision disappeared and waited. All of us on so on edge that the tension was palpable. Though, fear had us close. I could never let Igor leave further from my side than what I could easily reach, the same as Carlisle. Both important men in my life were within easy reach. Esme, for the first few hours, clung on to Carlisle's arm, then she decided that moving around made her more comfortable as her newborn instincts to hunt and protect made it difficult for her to remain still with the stress.
     Verity stayed in the middle of us all. Mary kept jumping between looking ahead and looking around us in the present. Edward was monitoring not only Mary's vision but the surrounding areas. We would be ready.
     "They're almost here," Mary announced about noon, the sun was almost at its highest.
     "I can hear them... but I cannot hear it," Edward stated.
     "Perhaps she's not here?" Verity offered.
     "She saw how many vampires are here and chose to not attack?" Carlisle asked.
     It was a nice thought, but from what I could remember of the medusa from my human life, it didn't fit the very faded very foggy picture.
     "Perhaps she is more animalistic than not," Igor suggested. "You do not hear the animals thoughts when you are feeding."
     "That is an interesting thought," Carlisle mused.
     Not long after that, we heard Nicholas' coven. Carlisle and I greeted them while they others kept looking around us.
     "Carlisle? Elizabeth? What a surprise, I did not expect to find the two of you together-"
     "There should be a scream now," Mary cut him off. "Where is the scream?"
     "And that strange noise," Edward nodded.
    "What's going on?" Fantine asked.
     "You're all on edge," Peter stated. I recognised him from my first few days.
     "Fantine, Peter, John, do you remember a medusa in London?" Igor asked.
     "I'm sorry, a what?" Peter gasped.
     "Before their time," Fantine sighed. "Is that's what's happening here? You think a medusa may be near?"
     "Mary saw it," Verity said. "Hi, Grandfather."
     Nicholas grinned at her with such pride. I hated it.
     "To clarify, I didn't see it not clearly anyway. Every time I got close enough to get any sort of picture it became hazy and a headache to look at. But your futures vanished so..."
     "You never saw an attack though?" Fantine asked.
     "Your futures had disappeared from this point onwards, so in a way we knew," Mary answered.
     More footsteps mortal steps.
     "They're friendly," Edward said to Nicholas and the others and Igor hurried to greet the wolves.
     "We're not going to be much help in the daylight, but we will do what we can," Ian said.
     "There may be no point, according to Mary the monster was supposed to attack moments ago, but there has been no sight of her," Igor answered.
    "Their smell is going to repulse you and you are going to want to attack immediately," I emphasised looking at Esme. "Don't. They're allies. More like us than mere myth suggests."
     The Londoners looked confused and Esme held onto Carlisle tightly, it made my father raise a brow.
     "Don't let me snap," she whispered.
     "Never, love," Carlisle whispered and kissed her head. Making my father looked surprised.
     "Later, Nicholas," I chuckled and walked ahead to meet Igor and the wolves halfway. Verity joined us also. Mary moved to the other side of the group, away from the wolves.
     "So what is your plan?" Beverly asked, tying her hair up at the top of her head.
      A wind pushed and I heard Nicholas and their new member start to hiss.
      "Remember what Liz said," Carlisle hissed right back. "Attack them and we will protect them from you."
     "What is that smell?" Fantine asked.
     "We're werewolves," Ian snarled at them. "I suppose that is the Coven you warned us about?"
     "My father's coven, yes," I answered.
     "Hmm."
     "Your plan?" Beverly pushed. "If it's to stay here and wait for the medusa's attack we cannot wait with you, at least not in full. When we are not transformed we still have human needs."
     "We have a house a few miles north with all necessary facilities," Igor offered. "You can help yourself while we wait."
     "What do vampires need for plumbing?" one of their younger members, Jack, asked.
     I chuckled with Igor.
     "Hunting in the rain can get a little messy," Igor answered.
     "Ah huh, I'm sure that's all you use it for," Beverly grinned and winked at me before she turned. "A few miles north you say?"
     "You're not serious, Beverly?" Ian hissed at her.
     "What do you expect we do, Ian?" She asked. "I'm not waiting out here in the woods for some creature we know not where it is? Not while human, there's nothing we can do about it. We can come out and give more support and assistance tonight. Do what you want brother, you know you cannot make me follow you, so I'm going to the house."
     She turned and continued walking away.
     Ian looked from the other wolves to Igor.
     "Is there food?" Ian asked him.
     "Help yourself," Igor nodded before turning back to me.
     "We might as well all go back," Mary sighed. "I can see now. If anything the medusa has left."
     "Are you sure?" Carlisle asked.
     Mary nodded but Verity's head was shaking.
     "What can you read?" Igor asked. Mary looked up to him then turned to Verity.
     "Our futures still don't continue until tomorrow. Her mind may have changed so we have a future for now, but I still cannot read beyond tonight," Verity stated.
     "We stay here, away from the house," Carlisle suggested.
     "That way the wolves are safe while mortal," I agreed.
     "So we're just waiting?" Fantine asked. "You have no idea where it is the beast is lurking?"
     "We're just waiting."
     "She must have chosen to change her course. Same outcome, just a different way of getting us because there is so many of us," Igor suggested. "So, while we have a moment. Fantine, care to tell us what you know?"
     "There was a medusa in London?" Peter asked looking to her.
     "A few years before you joined us, Peter," Fantine stated. "A few of visitors discovered her while she was hunting some orphaned and homeless children on our streets." She was looking at me when she finished that sentence. "They managed to scare her away long enough for us to group together with the witches-"
     "Witches?!" their new member gasped.
     "I'll explain later," John chuckled.
     "It was hard, but we had to corner her, surround her, for though she was strong we quickly learnt that she could not attack all of us at once. She favoured the witches so we believed she favoured anything that smelt mortal to her," Fantine listed.
     "Will I smell mortal?" Verity asked.
     "I highly doubt it, Verity," Fantine smiled softly. "You are part immortal. I believe she won't have anyone specific to focus on so she may feel panicked."
     "Which could be why she hasn't attacked," Igor noted.
     "But we still need to be careful," Fantine emphasised. "When it got scared it became more aggressive."
     "And their talent for turning things to stone?" Igor asked.
     "She can turn vampires to stone," Fantine stated. "But unlike mortals, we can turn back after some time. Don't look at her in the eye, and don't look at the snakes in the eyes either."
      "Wait, snakes? What snakes?" Esme asked.
     "The one in London had snakes for hair," Fantine explained. "They're strong, strong enough to break stone so probably strong enough to tear us apart."
     "Let us not find out, shall we?" I said.