17
Eclipse
R o s a l i e ' s S t o r y
THE NEXT MORNING was eerily quiet and the silence, in its own odd way, was deafening. It was nine o'clock in the morning and Adele usually awoke at seven o'clock. Almost everyone was seated in the living room, remaining completely silent as they tried to listen for any sign of life in her bedroom. They knew she was home – they could hear her sobbing underwater during her late night bath last night.
They only heard her move once and all sounds ceased after that. She had a wooden deck attached to her bedroom – a deck she rarely used – but for the past few hours, she lay on the floor, staring at the bright sky above her.
They were worried. She hadn't shown any sign of being depressed or angry and they figured that maybe last night's discussion of the Volturi triggered some catastrophic emotions. But Alice didn't get it – she faced the Volturi like a badass. Why would that bother her?
Rosalie was the first to break the silence, "Someone should go check on her." Seeing as they could hear her, she could hear them.
They all looked at each other until Esme stood and put her hand soothingly on Carlisle's chest before speeding upstairs. She stood outside of Adele's door and took in an unnecessary breath. She knocked on the door, "Adele?"
There was no reply. On the other side of the door, Adele lay completely silent. She knocked again and she sighed, "Come in." Esme softly opened the door and closed it behind her. She quietly looked around the room, only to see through the glass wall that Adele was laying on the deck. She walked through the open doorway and knelt beside her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"
Adele didn't remove her gaze from the scenery above her and remained quiet. Esme patiently waited for her to say something, anything, and after a moment of silence, Adele turned her head and her golden eyes met Esme's. "You remind me of her, you know." she said it so airily, "My mother."
Esme bowed her head and then looked back at Adele who returned to her previous task. Esme truly felt sorry for the young woman. Adele may have been intelligent, protective, and even authoritative, but Esme saw past the facades. She saw a lost girl who lost her mother at a very young age. "I'm lost, Esme." she sighed, "I have been so caught up in helping everyone that I have lost my way. I do not know what I want any more." No, that's a lie. I want love. I want happiness.
Esme was at a loss for words. Adele just told her she reminded her of her mother. She always felt that she had an obligation to guide Adele through hardships as a mother would. This was one of those hardships. "Don't mind me." Adele put her arms over her eyes to block out the sun that made Esme's skin glimmer like diamonds, "I shouldn't be putting this weight on your shoulders."
"No," she shook her head, "I want you to." Because you helped me once a long time ago and you were kind to me when you didn't have to be, when you shouldn't have been. Adele sighed as she remembered exactly what Esme was thinking about.
Adele Cullen, even after three centuries, never expected to create a Coven of her own. After witnessing the vindictiveness of the Volturi coven, she was against the idea – that was, until Carlisle turned Edward Masen, a young pianist who was dying from the Spanish Influenza. He partly did it with the hopes that Edward could be Adele's mate, but instead the two became best friends and she was his guide through their world of bloodlust and immortality.
Esmeralda Platt was a young and beautiful auburn-haired woman of twenty-two, but her allure was deceiving to the abuse she faced at the hands of her soldier husband. Carlisle remembered treating her once six years ago when she was an audacious sixteen-year-old who'd broken her leg after falling out of a tree. But the woman he witnessed take a swan dive off of a cliff was nothing like that girl anymore – she was battered, bruised, and was suffocating with the heavy loss of her newborn son so much that she just took an out. And for those few seconds of flight, she could breathe again, until she crashed into a bed of jagged rocks and felt a physical pain akin to the pain in her soul.
Adele and Edward were there that day to witness Carlisle jumped right off of that cliff after her and they needed not feel his anguish to know that she was the one for him – somewhere along the way of trying to find a mate for his daughter, he found his own. Esme was barely conscious when she saw the blonde angel shadowing over her and she vaguely remembered the gentle man from years before. When she smiled weakly up at him, a broken smile tainted with crimson blood, he felt it – the way her hazel eyes glistened in the sunlight and melted into his, the way their souls fused together when he took her hand and the way her faint heart beat sped up as he told her that everything would be all right.
Three days later, he paced in Adele's bedroom of their New York loft. Edward sat on the piano bench in the corner where the room was darkest and played a soft tune while Adele, who then sported a short finger-waves hairstyle, smoked from a cigarette and watched her father almost enviously.
She couldn't blame him for moving on from her mother Rosaline because she was murdered over three centuries ago, but the surreality of realizing that three centuries had indeed passed was overwhelming. It almost angered her. And while she was ecstatic that her father could finally have someone to lean on and love besides herself, she was envious of the fact that he found his mate when hers was gone.
Esmeralda's limp figure lay stiffly against the feather pillows lining the headboard of Adele's bed and her lovely auburn waves were fanned out around her. Adele stared at her, waiting for her agonizing thoughts to recede – when Edward was in transition, she was curious and stupid enough to try to read his thoughts and she could almost feel his pain. She didn't dare try it this time around.
Just as Adele put out her cigarette (it was a habit Carlisle resented despite that fact that her lungs were nonexistent, which she never failed to point out) Esmeralda began to stir and her eyes darted to and fro beneath her lids. Carlisle stopped pacing as her eyelids fluttered opened and she dragged in an unneeded breath of air.
In her confusion about being very much alive and curiosity about her whereabouts, she shot up and examined her surroundings. Edward stopped playing and stared intently at their newest coven member, selfishly glad that he wouldn't be facing the hardships of vampire-vegetarianism alone. Carlisle inched to the foot of the bed and attempted to ease her into all of it.
Esme looked between a brooding Edward to the glamorous and slightly arrogant Adele to the only face she recognized, "Carlisle?"
"How do you feel?" he asked and she did not reply as she became vividly aware of the burning thirst in her throat. She brought her hands up to her neck and looked fearfully at him – what had she become? She remembered him taking her hand, she remembered him bringing her wrist up to his mouth and then nothing, nothing but the pain she awoke from.
"I get it." Adele spoke up and just the smoothness in her voice was calming, "Your throat burns – it is because you are thirsty."
"W-Why?"
"You are like my father and I." Adele leaned forward in her chair and licked her lips, focusing so that she could enter Esme's mind and show her everything she was and could be. She showed her the upsides – enhanced strength, speed, and beauty – and she showed her the downsides – the effect sunlight had in them and bloodlust.
"I...I can't..." she spluttered, "I do not want to kill anyone."
"And you will not have to." she replied softly, setting her envy aside, "Let me show you." Adele extended her hand to her and she took it. She lead her to her bureau and stood her in front of the mirror, placing her delicate hands on her shoulders. Esme gaped at her reflection and held a hand up to her flawless face. When she noticed her crimson eyes in the darkness of the room, she frowned. "You won't have to feed on human blood, Esme. Do you see my eyes?"
Esme nodded as she gazed at Adele's golden eyes in the reflection, "They are golden like Carlisle's." She turned to look at him and he smiled, nodding. She turned back to the mirror.
"Do you know why they're golden?" he asked.
"We feed upon the blood of animals. We have all vowed to never feed upon the blood of humans, and as such, my father prefers to call ourselves vegetarians." Adele told her, "That's why our eyes are golden. It's only when we transition or when we feed on humans that our eyes are crimson like yours."
"What if I cannot?" Esme bowed her head, "What if..."
Carlisle sat beside her, "We will help you."
"Esmerelda, I promise you this: you are not alone in this. I will help you no matter what it may take." Adele smiled, "You are one of us now."
"Thank you." she smiled because she felt like she would finally be a part of a loving family. She wouldn't have to face her demanding parents or her abusive husband. She had Carlisle and his children now. She smiled, "How is it we have never met?"
Edward bowed his head and slowly opened the draped to let in the morning sunlight. She could already tell he was a distant boy, dissatisfied with his immortal life.
"Now that we have, my name is Adelina Cullen, but I prefer Adele." Now that I'm a new person, she thought.
"Thank you, Adele." Esme said, "You truly are extraordinary."
Esme sat down and placed Adele's head on her lap, running her fingers delicately over her curly hair. She always felt this off maternal instinct for her. "My dear Adele, you have carried this weight on your shoulders for so long. It is time to let some of it go. I would gladly take some of it on my own shoulders if it meant you would suffer less."
Adele sat up and she wrapped her arms around her. She sighed, "I am so tired, Esme. I am so tired of cleaning up after everyone, of having to stay calm when really all I wish to do is scream and cry."
"Then why do you carry such a responsibility?"
Adele pulled back and gazed confusedly into her eyes, "I must protect those I love now because I couldn't so many years ago when it mattered. I owe it to them and to myself." It was common sense, wasn't it?
She heard Carlisle lingering on the other side of the closed door. "You can come in, Dad." He quietly opened the door, crossed her bedroom, and joined them on the deck. She decided it was time to face it. No more running, no more hiding. "I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I have been imprinted on. And if I do plan pursue it, I need to know that I won't have to take care of everyone else anymore." The couple exchanged furtive glances and she chuckled, "Speak your thoughts. I read minds, remember?"
Esme licked her lips and Well, honey, I think it's a second chance at love for you." Esme replied, "But that all depends on if you want it."
"But when I fall in love again – if I fall in love again – I don't want it to be because it is fate forced upon me."
Carlisle thought back to the midnight chase with Victoria when Emmett and Adele crossed the Treaty Line. They should've been killed as the Treaty allowed, but they weren't. "Which of the wolves imprinted on you?"
"Paul Lahote. He was the silver wolf." she answered, "I haven't even seen him in his human form much less spoken to him. It's all so bizarre."
"You don't have to go through with it." Carlisle said with a protective edge in his voice. He knew her loss of Jace was still raw and maybe it always would be, but it was for her to decide and no one else. "It's your choice and if that's how you feel, then so be it."
Esme examined Adele's troubled face and knew that wasn't all, "There's some thing else bothering you, isn't there?"
She hesitated now. Everyone else (like the nosy fools they were) were probably listening in and there was no doubt in her mind that it would get back to Edward. But it was time to say it. She got over her nightmares and she helped Edward and Bella through their hardships all at her own cost. "I'm tired of cleaning up after Edward– especially when he doesn't even acknowledge it." she huffed, staring hard, "I kept his mate alive. I kept her from committing suicide all the while I wanted to do the same myself. I walked through the doors of the Volterra castle and I faced those monsters who killed Jace and it took everything I had not to kill them, to slaughter them all. I saved all of them, all the while letting my emotions and vulnerability show to the enemy." she laughed bitterly, "And when we returned, he didn't even acknowledge it. There was no thank you or any grateful gesture except from Alice."
Carlisle sighed. He saw this coming. "Why did you help him?"
"I helped him because I remember what he was like after you changed him. He was lost and broken – he had no one. He went on murderous raids and I put him back on track. I cleaned up the messes he created." she balled her fists and set her jaw, staring indignantly at the sky, "He was like my little brother and I could relate to how he felt. He felt alone, he lost everything and everyone he loved and I knew how that felt. So when he found Bella, I saw it as my obligation to ensure he didn't lose her, too."
While Adele was noble for feeling that way and for protecting everyone, the real reasoning behind it was much more complex and irrational. She was still attached to the little girl who lost her mother, sister, and lover, and she hung onto everything important to her because she was afraid it would happen all over again. Same shook her head. "You don't need to do that anymore."
She laughed sarcastically as a defense mechanism, "Yes, I do. We all do, now. Haven't you heard? We've made allies with the wolves and now Isabella is going to have a full protection detail." But the others didn't know that yet and Rosalie was livid. At the sound of glass shattering, they stood and looked over the railing to see Rosalie storm into the woods and Emmett running after her. She had broken the glass in the door after she slammed it shut behind her.
Adele laughed thankfully – she wasn't the only person that wasn't thrilled with the arrangement made between Edward and Jacob. "Rosalie seems to feel that same way." Esme and Carlisle chuckled. "Yeah. We're going to need a new door." she stood up and brushed herself off, "Alright, I've vented enough."
Carlisle placed his hand on her shoulder, "You can talk to us whenever you need to, Adele."
Esme nodded, "Yes, honey. Don't hold back from us."
They made their way downstairs and entered the living room where only Alice and Jasper sat, playing chess. Jasper looked up and smirked, "You're calm."
Alice sighed, "She won't be after this." Adele groaned, "I just had a vision. The dog tried to kiss Bella. She apparently tried to punch him and broke her hand. I didn't get all of it because my visions are hazy around those dogs, but Edward and Jacob are going to fight in front of Bella's house."
Esme shook her head, "They're like immature teenage boys."
"Aren't they?" Jasper chimed in with a small grin as he claimed Alice's pawn while she wasn't looking.Adele rolled her eyes and grabbed her trench coat from the rack.
"Where are you going?" Alice asked as she smacked Jasper's hand away and took her chess piece back. He chuckled. He could care less about Jacob Black.
"I'm going to put the assholes in their places once and for all before they jeopardize the Treaty again." she grabbed her car keys and gazed out of the window to see Rosalie and Emmett ranging together by the tree-line. "And I'm going to see if Rosalie would like to join me."
***
Much to Adele and Emmett's surprise, Rosalie declined her offer to beat up the boys which, on any other day, would've been like a dream come true. But she didn't want to be with mongrels like Jacob Black longer then she had to be.
Either way, Adele made good timing as she screeched to a halt in front of Bella's house. Edward was leaping out of his car in an murderous frenzy as Bella jumped out of Jacob's truck behind him, cradling her injured hand to her chest. The irony of the fact that she fractured or broke her hand on Jacob's was hilarious and it took all Adele had not to laugh. Edward lunged for Jacob and Bella intercepted his path, looking fearfully to her house where Charlie was.
"Not here, Edward! Please!"
"IF YOU EVER TOUCH HER AGAINST HER WILL AGAIN–" Edward fumed and Adele sped over and pulled the naive girl away to take her place between them. The fragile human was no match for their strength or anger. guys.
"She's not aware of what her will is!" Jacob spat. Because you bloodsuckers brainwashed her!
"Oh, she can speak for herself." he replied ruefully, "I guarantee you."
"Fine." he growled and stepped forward to get into his face but Adele held him back with a firm hand. "Someday, she'll speak for herself and ask me to." The men were in each other's faces not and Adele didn't want to risk a human seeing them fight. Despite having half a mind to bash their heads together right there, she just held them back with the hopes that they'd walk away.
"STOP IT, JACOB! JUST GO–" Bella gritted her teeth. They lunged for each other but Adele was saved from getting violent by Charlie who heard the commotion and rushed outside. He got between the two guys and pushed them apart as they glared furiously at each other.
"Okay, guys, let's take it down a notch." he demanded, "Come on. Simmer down." The young men were capable of crushing him in seconds but his authoritative glare made them cower and back off. "Now what the hell is going on?!"
Jacob cleared the phlegm in his throat, "I kind of kissed Bella..."
"Oh." Charlie replied. The others may not have noticed it, but Adele read his mind and realized he was slightly pleased. She almost laughed at his immediate change of attitude at what Jacob said next.
"...Against her will. So she hit me...and broke her hand." he added, "Accidentally."
Charlie's expression changed and he glared murderously at Jacob as his rare protective father side surfaced. Jacob arrogance faded as helmet Charlie's eyes and he even he shrunk under his glowering gaze. That was the end of it.
***
Adele laid down on the railing of the front deck and watched the stars as Carlisle finished setting Bella's hand with a splint. Rosalie stood at the table next to the open door and flipped nonchalantly through newspapers in search for any leads or updates on the Rogues in Seattle. "It's just a small fracture." he told Bella, "You're all set."
Emmett and Jasper walked into the room and noticed Bella's soft cast. Emmett grinned, "Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Bella?"
Bella shrugged, "Punched a werewolf in the face."
"Badass!" He exclaimed and hopped up onto the table. Rosalie looked up. "You're going to be one tough little newborn."
"Tough enough to take you on–" Bella stopped mid-sentence when Rosalie slapped her newspaper down onto the table, shot her a fierce glare, and stormed out onto the deck. Adele sat up and consoled her quietly.
Emmett looked back at Bella and shook his head, "Don't worry about it."
Edward spoke up to try to diffuse the tension, "Did you find any leads?"
"No sign of the intruder." Jasper pitched in, staring at the muted television as she watched the news. "But Victoria continues to make appearances. She's toying with us. Keeping us distracted."
Emmett raised an eyebrow, "From Seattle?"
"Or the intruder....or something else."
"Alice can keep tracking her decisions but we have to track her on the ground." Edward huffed.
Tired of being ignored and being angry at Rosalie for storming out for the hundredth time, she walked out onto the deck where the women were. Adele was sat on the railing and Rosalie leaned against it as they ended their conversation. Rosalie glances back at Bella and scoffed, "Go blather to someone else about the joys of becoming a newborn." Bella looked to Adele for help but the other blonde looked down at her hands. She felt just as strongly as Rose on the topic of Bella's mortality.
At long last, Bella finally had enough of her. "Okay. Rosalie, I don't understand what I did to make you hate me so much."
The latter laughed bitterly, "I don't hate you. I don't particularly like you, but..." a ghost of a smile formed in her face at Adele's chuckle, but that disappeared as she met the human's eyes, "Bella, I envy you."
She was bewildered, "What? T-That's ridiculous."
"No, it's not." she spun around exasperatedly, "You have a choice. I didn't, Adele didn't, none of us did, but you do and you're choosing wrong!" The others eavesdropped from the next room and Edward was almost glad she was getting this off of her chest. She sighed, "I don't care how miserable your human life is."
"My life is not miserable. It's not perfect, nobody's life is perfect."
Rosalie smiled bittersweetly as she reminisced on her past, a past she always kept far behind her. "Mine was. Absolutely perfect. There were things I still wanted: to be married with a nice house and a husband who kissed me when he came home. A family of my own."
Bella leaned against the railing to listen intently. Adele pursed her lips and bowed her head – Rosalie's past wasn't far behind her, "Royce King was the most eligible bachelor in town, I barely knew him. But I was young, I was in love with the idea of love. On the last night of my life I left a friend's house late, I wasn't far from home..." Adele looked away and closed her eyes as she held Rosalie's hand.
"...He was drunk with his group of friends. He wanted to show me off and once thing lead to another..." she swallowed a lump in her throat at the horrid memory. "They left me in the street thinking I was dead – believe me, I wanted to be. Carlisle found me – he smelled all the blood – and I thought he was helping me..."
"I'm sorry."
"I got my revenge on them, one at a time." her frown morphed into a wicked smile, "I saved Royce for last so he would know I was coming." Adele remembered helping Rosalie with this part of the story. She snatched a wedding gown and murdered Royce in it. This was, of course, before she became a vampire-vegetarian. "I was a little theatrical back then." then the far away look in her eyes disappeared, "Things got better after I met Emmett, but we'll always be this, frozen, never moving forward. That's what I miss the most....possibilities...sitting on a front porch somewhere, Emmett grey-haired by my side surrounded by our grandchildren, their laughter..."
"I understand that's what you want." Bella licked her chapped lips, choosing her words carefully, "But there's nothing I'm ever gonna want more than Edward."
"You're wrong again." Rosalie shook her head and said the one thing everyone, even Edward, dressed to tell her. "After you've been changed there's one thing you'll want more. One thing you'll kill for....blood."