Luminosity

by Alicorn

  "And then what if it doesn't work and she wakes up and she's in Irina's position from the get-go because you've gone and gotten yourself killed trying to free her up for somebody "better"?" I asked.

  "You're right," Maggie mumbled. "But she deserves better."

  "She'll forgive you," I said. "She can't not."

  "I know, and that makes it worse. If I hurt her before she could have sent me away and protected herself and now she won't even be able to do that, at least if I see her, and who am I kidding, I can't stay away forever if I'm alive, I'm not that strong, if I were then I could be with her now..."

  "Once she's a vampire it's unlikely you'll be in a position to hurt her," I pointed out.

  "That doesn't mean I never did," Maggie said. "Idid."

  "Do you need me to stay here with you to keep you from doing something stupid like provoking Ilario?" I asked.

  "No," said Maggie. "I'll just... wait here, I guess. Will you ask someone to stay with Gianna, please? She shouldn't have to be alone. It doesn't have to be you, you've got a baby to take care of - maybe Jasper, if he can help her at all with his power, but he probably can't, it's not that strong - Esme?"

  "I'll find Esme and ask her," I agreed.

  "Thank you," Maggie murmured, and I gave her a useless pat on the head and left her at the edge of the fjord.

  * * *

  I stopped at the house, turned the oven off, and went looking for Esme. I found her in the garage, chatting with Rosalie while the latter tinkered with the engine in a giant red car that I figured probably belonged to Emmett.

  "Hello, Bella," Esme said warmly when I let myself into the building. Rosalie lifted a greasy hand from the car parts to wave at me.

  "Hi," I said. "Esme, Maggie can't stand to be around Gianna anymore, and Ilario left just a few hours after she regained consciousness. But Maggie doesn't want her to be alone and asked me to ask you to stay with her for the last few hours."

  "Of course, Bella," said Esme. There was no possible universe in which Esme would refuse a request like that; she was just the sort of creature that went about comforting the distressed, and didn't resent her nature, either. She patted Rosalie's hair - braided into a blond pile on her head to keep it out of the way - and flitted past me to go to Gianna.

  I nodded to Rosalie and turned to go, having nothing in particular left to say, but she stopped me - "Bella."

  "What?" I asked, turning back.

  "Do you think - not today, maybe not this week, but soon - do you think I could babysit Elspeth?"

  I blinked. I was used to the idea that Rosalie was thrilled to be involved in Elspeth's creation and birth, and that had been helpful. I was a little puzzled by the offer - or rather, the request - to be involved in her care. "We don't have a lot of other pressing obligations..."

  "I understand. I... know you don't need me to do anything," said Rosalie, pursing her lips. "She sleeps and you don't, we aren't any of us going to school this year, there's not much going on in general except Gianna's turning, etcetera - but if you ever wanted to go travel with Edward for a while again, just the two of you, I would behappy to look after her."

  I considered the offer. Elspeth was growing fast, so outrageously fast - every moment I had with her was precious, even more than if she'd been human. Yet I had no grounds to confine that argument to myself and not extend it to her other relatives. Rosalie only had so many days to play with Elspeth-the-baby, too.

  Also, this would give me cover if I needed to go abroad again: I'd "let" Rosalie hang onto Elspeth while Edward and I "got some time to ourselves". I hoped that I wouldn't need to make another significant trip again, but it wasn't out of the question.

  "I'll keep that in mind," I said. "Thank you. You know, you could come with Alice to the photo shoot in a couple hours - we should really have more pictures with everybody in the family, not just me and Edward and Alice. Just because I don't want her around the main house until Gianna's up and about and not so shouty doesn't mean everybody else has to be left out."

  "I will," Rosalie said.

  I smiled at her, then went back to the main house to fetch the roasted vegetables and purée some fruit into a smoothie for Elspeth. Then I started poaching some eggs. Nice, balanced diet. Esme was already doing her best to calm Gianna, who found her suicide-by-vampire tactics far less effective against non-Maggie individuals.

  * * *

  I brought all the food to the cottage, fridged it, and went into the spare room that held Elspeth's bed. Edward was watching her sleep, unwilling to leave her unsupervised for even a moment, but on this night he was holding her hand, pressing it to his face, and had his eyes closed.

  "Bella, you have to see this," he murmured, very softly, so as not to wake her. He motioned me closer with his free hand and put Elspeth's palm against my cheek.

  I could see her dreams.

  I gasped involuntarily, not enough to wake her, as "remembered" colors and forms and faces floated across my mind. Peaceful, mostly meaningless, mesmerizingly lovely. Edward's face and mine were the most prominent in the dream, but everyone else she'd ever met made at least one appearance. Even Gianna, sedated and inattentive, as Elspeth had last seen her, was featured once. Between faces, random hues faded into each other, spun into and out of arbitrary shapes.

  "It's amazing," I whispered to Edward, and he grinned at me, then went around to the other side of her bed to try the other hand. This worked well enough. We held still, absorbed in Elspeth's dreams, until dawn started poking through the window and she woke up with a comical yawn. She noticed us leaned over her and, before reasserting control over her hands, she pushed at us the image of ourselves, with a little smugness attached. I imagined her saying,Ah, attention, just the way I like it.

  "Do you think it'll delay her talking, that she can do this?" I asked, picking up Elspeth to get her fed promptly. She did as much growing in her sleep as she did during the day and consistently woke up hungry. "Oatmeal, in the fridge."

  Edward microwaved the food and I grabbed a spoon. "It could, but I doubt it'll slow her down by much. She seems to mostly understand us, anyway, and we can always ask her to start using words if it becomes an issue."

  Elspeth reached out her hand to me and I bent my head to "listen": she showed me the picture of Gianna's blood, again. "No, no blood," I said. "Breakfast today is oatmeal. You haven't had it before. You might like it." I stood back up while Elspeth made a pouty face at me. "You'll look out for whether she's actually not feeling well as opposed to just wanting it for the taste, right? It's not impossible that her dietary needs are different when she's growing than they will be when she's an adult, but she's seemed healthy, just petulant."

  "All I'm getting is the petulance part," he assured me. He took the oatmeal out of the microwave, and Elspeth huffed a small sigh as its non-blood smell steamed through the room.

  "Speaking of what you pick up on," I said, giving the oatmeal a stir, "why were you so enthralled by her dreams? They were new to me, of course, but wouldn't you have been able to hear them regardless without her projecting them to you?"

  "Actually, I can't hear dreams," he replied. "They either don't count as "surface thoughts", my theory, or they're too different from any mental activity I can do since I don't sleep, which is Alice's hypothesis."

  "Does Eleazar have an opinion?" I asked, scooping up a taste of oatmeal to offer Elspeth and listening to her hum to herself as she contemplated its flavor.

  "Never occurred to me to inquire," Edward replied. "At any rate, dreams are supposedly hard enough to remember while still human - I have no recollection of the process at all, myself - so it was very novel to be able to see Elspeth's."

  "From what I wrote down, most dreams are much more complicated than that - although probably not in anything resembling Elspeth's age range. How did you get the idea?"

  "She was making sounds in her sleep - not talking, but it was close enough to the way you used to mumble to yourself," he said. "And it seemed
worth a try."

  "Ummmm," sighed Elspeth, and I gave her more oatmeal. She consumed it with a despondent and long-suffering expression.

  * * *

  Rosalie arrived to the photo festival as promised; the grease was washed from her hands and her hair was down again. Emmett came too; Elspeth, who had plenty of motor control, clung to his head like it was a crows' nest in one picture.

  The look on Rosalie's face, when she had her turn to hold Elspeth and pose, was glowing, proud, a heart-piercing smile - with a twinge of sorrow. She was either trying to forget that Elspeth wasn't her own baby, and not quite succeeding, or she was reveling in aunthood and distracted by something else, related or un-. I glanced at Edward, looking for cues; he was calm, so I didn't worry about it.

  Alice got a few shots of Rosalie holding a parka-clad Elspeth, and then directed the costume change and the handoff. When the baby had left her arms, Rosalie's face assumed its default expression: lofty, neutral, introspective. Rosalie's expression normally said, you'll have to do better than that to get my attention. That might have been what made her happiness so arresting when she displayed it, come to think of it. I was looking at her while I thought of this, and noticed a quiver of her eybrows - very subtle.

  Rosalie wasn't paying attention to me; she was watching Edward pose for his pictures with Elspeth. I walked into the frame after Alice was satisfied with the batch, and then there was a nuclear family shot, and then Edward walked off, Elspeth got a new outfit, and I took a picture with her by myself.

  It was an intricate sequence of tasks, but we all moved quite fast and Elspeth was durable enough that we didn't have to dress and re-dress her like she was made of soap bubbles. (She could certainly be harmed if we were reallycareless, but avoiding it wasn't that hard and didn't slow us down that much.) All told the taking of photos was an operation of fifteen minutes. Alice danced away when the last snapshot was in her camera, to upload them all to her computer, and get versions of them that made me look pink and brown-eyed 'shopped for my ignorant family.

  Rosalie lingered, even as Emmett left.

  "...Do you want to give her her morning snack?" I asked. We fed her five times a day, which wouldn't be that strange a feeding schedule for a new baby if we weren't giving her giant portions of solid food. Although it would be arguably stranger if she was getting a liquid diet, because in her case that would take the form of blood. "See if she likes eggs?"

  "I'd like that," said Rosalie, lighting up. I handed her Elspeth. She followed us into the house, and, with Elspeth in one arm, she warmed up the eggs. Rosalie seemed immensely gratified when they got a positive reception; I supposed I should have guessed that eggs would be Elspeth's favorite food, given their appeal to Gianna during the pregnancy - and Sue during hers, for that matter. It was a small thing, and it made Rosalie immensely happy, so I refused to let myself resent the fact that Elspeth's first eggs hadn't come directly from my hands or Edward's.

  Elspeth ate her half a dozen eggs with reserved gusto. Part of me wondered where she put all her food. She was maintaining a high body temperature and growing, so I supposed it would make sense that she'd eat like a werewolf (invariably ravenous), but the wolves were a whole lot bigger than her. After Elspeth was informed that the sixth egg was the last, she promptly beamed up at Rosalie and planted her palm on the blonde's cheek. "Aww," said Rosalie, melting. "She's so polite."

  "Has she found a way to say "thank you"?" I asked.

  Rosalie nodded, just a little, not dislodging Elspeth's hand. "Just replaying what happened, with a feeling attached," she cooed, rocking the baby slightly.

  I had the most peculiar feeling that I was somehow being intrusive by hovering over Rosalie while she held my daughter. I looked over at Edward, who was standing just behind me, a thin frown spreading across his face. There was no obvious way to demand that Rosalie hand Elspeth back and leave without being rude - and setting a bad example for manners seemed worse than just letting Rosalie loiter a bit. I put the egg container back in the fridge to keep it out of the way; I'd wash it later while something or other was cooking the next morning.

  "Aren't you darling," cooed Rosalie. Elspeth smiled smugly.

  Edward said, "Gianna's going to be done turning in less than a minute."

  "Oh, we should all go look in on her," I said. "Elspeth ought to get properly introduced. Gianna did her a very important favor, after all." I paused. "Someone should also let Maggie know."

  "Rose, would you run and tell Maggie, please?" asked Edward, holding out his arms for Elspeth. "She's sitting on the edge of the fjord nearest the main house." Rosalie looked regretful, but handed over our daughter and went to inform Maggie. Edward and I, Elspeth in tow, made a beeline for the main house; we slowed down when we could hear Gianna's last, piercing screeches, waiting for them to die down before we brought impressionable ears any nearer. (Elspeth's hearing was not as keen as ours and Edward assured me that she didn't hear a thing.)

  We arrived at the room where everyone was congregating last, just after Rosalie and Maggie. Gianna was on her feet, gazing out the window, tall and whole and perfect. The barest tea tint remained to her skin; she was Ilario's exact match in coloration. Behind her was everyone else in the coven, Ilario at the front of the group. Maggie stood off to one side, cringing in expectation of some terrible retaliation for her bad judgment hours earlier.

  "Gianna?" said Ilario softly.

  Gianna spun on one foot, took in the assembly of us with one sweep of her eyes, and fixed her gaze on Maggie. Her newly crimson eyes lit up with pleasure.

  "Well..." said Maggie. "Well, look at you, baby."

  Gianna flew forward, enveloping Maggie in a hug. For the first time I consciously noted how much taller Gianna was than her mate. Maggie was pretty little, but when I'd compared her to Gianna as a human, the known difference in strength was more salient than mismatched stature. Maggie squeaked when embraced, and Gianna blinked and released her, having made the same mistake I had the first time I tried to hug Edward as a newborn.

  Simultaneously, the two of them said, "Forgive me?" Presumably Gianna wanted forgiveness for how she'd asked to die, and Maggie wanted it for listening to her.

  It occurred to me that Ilario still didn't know what had happened while Gianna was turning, and would have no idea why Maggie would need forgiveness, unless he thought it was about her having left Gianna while she turned. I supposed if he saw fit to make a fuss about the event at this point, if he even learned the information, then Gianna would inevitably make it not worth his while to attack Maggie.

  Gianna and Maggie grinned at each other, giggling softly over the concurrent utterances. After a moment, Gianna looked up at the rest of us. "...Good morning," she said. Etiquette was silent on the way to greet a group of vampires who were there to watch one newly be a vampire. "Oh my! Is that Elspeth?"

  I nodded, taking her from Edward and holding her up so Gianna could get a better look. "Elspeth Annarose Cullen, in the flesh," I said.

  "Oh, she's so cute," said Gianna. "Hello, Elspeth. You've gotten much bigger."

  "Say hi, Elsie," I prompted.

  Elspeth waved at Gianna, smiling toothily, and then stretched out her hand, wanting to communicate by memory transfer. Cautiously, aware that Gianna was still a newborn and that Elspeth's blood, while not very appealing, waspresent, I stepped forward to enable this. Gianna looked politely puzzled by the baby's intentions until she had begun conveying the desired information. "Oh, she knows who I am," Gianna said, beaming.

  "She's very smart, especially considering she's three days old," I said. Elspeth dropped her hand and I re-settled her in my arms.

  "You should hunt, baby," Maggie said, wrapping herself around one of Gianna's arms. "Edward, is the place clear?"

  He checked, and nodded, and Maggie urged Gianna out a window and into the woods. Ilario followed them after a moment's deliberation.

  "I'm glad that's over with," I said. "Well, Elspeth, do you want to have a look a
round this house?"

  Elspeth planted her hand on my face and replayed the quick journey in through the front door and up the stairs that she'd already undertaken, with an attached feeling of incompleteness and curiosity. "I'll take that as a yes," I said.

  That was my last peaceful day.

  * * *

  Chapter 27: Scatter

  The phone call came the next morning. I was with the whole family, posing Elspeth for more pictures against the backdrops available in the main house. While Esme took her turn I picked up the phone unthinkingly, and froze when I saw the identity of my caller. Before I could invent an excuse to take the call privately, Jasper had seen the name.

  "Jacob Black," snarled Jasper. Would he know the name? The surname certainly, but - I remembered a snippet of a paragraph from my notes, read and attached to memories early in my second life. Jasper had answered the phone first when I'd called Edward to tell him that Jacob was at Charlie's house on Valentine's Day. He'd have been near enough to hear the entire conversation. He would know who Jacob was - Billy's son. A Quileute. He'd know enough to be furious that I was in secret contact with him.

  Edward's head snapped up and he was across the room in a moment to interpose himself between me and Jasper. The phone rang again, and everyone else was holding still, waiting to see what was going on.

  If Jacob was calling me - not texting, not relaying a message through Rachel, not sending an e-mail - then it was urgent. He would know as well as Rachel or Leah the protocols for getting ahold of me. Or at least it had better be urgent, because if it wasn't, I was going to kill him. I flipped the phone open, trusting Edward and Alice to keep Jasper under control while I dealt with the emergency. "What?" I snapped.

  "Bella," said Jacob, "you know that bloodsucker Becky's gang killed a while back? His mate was here sniffing around, and we couldn't catch her when we found her - she went into the water and we lost the trail. And she snitched on us to the Volturi and now there are some scary damn leeches who've got near everybody lying on the ground blind and deaf and sorta paralyzed. I peeled off my own pack, same way Becky did, and was able to get everybody with an imprint to follow me and they didn't knock me out, somehow. Nobody else managed to get away and we had to leave them."