Title: The Edge
Author: Janine
Fandom: Twilight
Pairing: Alice/Bella
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer. I’m just borrowing them.
Summary: The time has arrived for Alice to turn Bella into a vampire.
Previous chapters here
---
After Florida
Bella looked at herself as she stood in front of the full length mirror, her hands compulsively running over the smooth material of the white nightgown she was wearing. Her fingers drifted up to her hair, and she lightly ran the tips over the pale flowers that had been braided into her chestnut strands.
Esme had spent the past couple hours fawning over her, styling her hair, braiding the flowers into it, hovering around her, constantly checking to make sure that she was comfortable and that she had everything she needed. The attention had embarrassed Bella a little, but she knew that Esme’s nerves and attention came from the fondness the woman had for her, and so sat still and let Esme spoil her.
Tearing her eyes away from the mirror, Bella turned to look behind her.
The room was lit only by candle light, the flickering orange waves filling the room with gothic romance. In the middle of the room was a single bed with white sheets, and strewn over the comforter and the floor around the bed were blood red rose petals.
Bella closed her eyes and forced herself to breath in and out, trying to calm her nerves.
She felt like a bride on her wedding night.
Bella’s heart spasmed in her chest as the door to the bedroom opened. Turning around, her hand pressed tightly against her heart as she tried to get it to stop thumping, Bella watched as Alice and Carlisle walked into the room.
Alice had told her that none of the others would be in the room. Esme had wanted desperately to be present, but once Alice bit her there would be too much blood in the air, and Esme knew that she would not be able to resist the scent. Emmett and Rosalie also would have been too tempted my the smell of blood, and Carlisle wouldn’t have been able to restrain all three of them, while also trying to monitor Alice’s intake to make sure she didn’t take to much blood.
Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper were all gathered in the living room at the moment where they, and Esme would stay, waiting until Carlisle came down to announce that the conversion had begun.
Carlisle stopped just inside the doorway, but Alice continued in, walking over to Bella and taking her hands into her own.
“You look amazing,” Alice breathed out, her lips curving up into a delighted smile as her eyes raked over Bella’s body. “I told you, you’d clean up well,” she continued, her eyes sparkling playfully.
“It doesn’t look half bad,” Bella murmured, her own lips curving up a little bit as she turned her head to the side and looked into the mirror again. She was a low maintenance type of girl, but it did feel like of nice to be dressed up like a Princess for one night.
“Don’t be modest,” Alice said, her expression turning sly. “You look good enough to eat.”
Bella stared at her for a second, and then laughed, stepping into Alice’s body, sighing gratefully when her lover wrapped her arms around her, hugging her comfortingly.
“It’s going to be alright,” Alice whispered, pressing her lips to Bella’s cheek.
“I know,” Bella breathed out, her hand searching out Alice’s. “I’ll always bet on you.”
Alice smiled at her, and then she leaned forward and pressed her lips against Bella’s, pouring all of the love she felt for the younger woman into the kiss.
“Come with me,” Alice said softly, holding Bella’s hand firmly, her thumb stroking the back of it, before she began to lead her to the bed.
---
Bella’s eyes drifted over to Carlisle as Alice’s slight frame settled down on the bed next to her.
Carlisle met her gaze, and they remained staring at each other for a few seconds before Bella blushed and turned away.
“This is strange,” Bella whispered when she felt Alice’s arm drape over her waist.
Instinctively, she turned into Alice’s touch, her blush deepening when she realized what she had done while under Carlisle’s steady gaze.
“I know,” Alice said softly, her eyes dropping away from Bella’s for a second. “But, it’s a necessary precaution,” she continued looking over at Bella. “You may need his help,” Alice breathed out then, her voice so soft that Bella had to strain to hear her.
“I won’t,” Bella said softly, hearing the self-doubt in Alice’s voice.
She reached out for Alice, her warm hand cradling the vampire’s jaw.
“Everything will be fine,” Bella said, choclately brown eyes holding Alice’s increasingly darkening golden gaze.
Alice smiled down at Bella, the expression sweet and a tiny bit embarrassed.
“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” Alice asked.
“Yeah,” Bella responded, smiling. “But you were taking too long, and I don’t have forever … yet,” she finished, stroking Alice’s cheek lightly.
“You will soon,” Alice whispered, her eyes darkening before Bella. “But first,” Alice continued, her eyes hooding as she spoke, “a kiss goodnight.”
And with that she leaned down and pressed her mouth to Bella’s, her arms tightening around the younger woman’s waist, drawing her tightly against her. Alice closed her eyes, focusing every bit on her mind on the sensation of kissing Bella.
It was the last time she would be able to kiss Bella as a human, and she wanted to remember it.
Bella was slightly breathless when Alice pulled away from her. Alice could hear her blood rushing underneath her skin, and could hear her heart, pumping furiously as her soft, pale flesh flushed red.
“And now,” Alice said softly as cool, tapered fingers brushed against Bella’s gently pulsing neck. “I say,” she continued, licking at her lips, “goodbye,” she went on. The word was barely audible. “And I love you.”
Bella’s lips parted, a soft, overwhelmed, chocked whisper escaping from her throat.
Candlelight danced over Alice’s skin as unimaginably dark eyes stared at her, the flickering light making the familiar planes of her face and curves of her body seem strange and mysterious.
Alice looked both graceful and predatory at that moment, and Bella thought that she had never looked so beautiful.
She parted her lips to say so, but before she could utter a sound, she felt something sharp and cool penetrate her neck, the pain of the puncture taking her breath away.
Bella felt Alice’s arm tighten around her and lift her so that Alice was cradling her in her arms. Alice’s cool mouth was pressed against her blazing skin, and the dual temperatures warring for dominance made her shiver. Her eyes fluttered closed and her body relaxed, as her blood began flow.
---
Alice moaned deliriously as Bella’s blood began to flow into her mouth.
Her eyes rolled back in ecstasy, and she shivered, before jerking Bella towards her body, holding her tightly as her fangs penetrated deeper, freeing more thick, warm plasma into her mouth.
She had never tasted anything so delicious in her entire life.
What she had sampled of Bella’s blood at her birthday party was nothing. It wasn’t even a hint at the incredible redness that pumped through Bella’s veins. What she had tasted at the party was like judging the grandness of the Mona Lisa by looking at it’s likeness on a postage stamp.
Bella was magical.
She was heavenly.
She was perfection.
Alice’s hand moved around to the back of Bella’s neck, cradling it as Bella’s blood pumped into her mouth and her venom seeped into Bella’s bloodstream.
Alice drank, convinced that there would never be a more perfect moment in all of the rest of eternity.
---
Carlisle stepped forward as Alice’s hand moved to Bella’s neck.
Most people killed by vampires did not die because their body was drained of blood. They died from broken necks. It was a natural instinct, a primal act of self-preservation that inevitably led a vampires hand up to their victims neck, their fingers pressing with too much pressure as the ecstasy built up within them, the victims death stopping the flow of venom through their bodies, and the risk of turning too many people and exposing themselves to the world.
However, as Carlisle began to take another step forward, he saw that Alice’s hand was only cradling Bella’s neck, not squeezing it. She was applying next to no pressure and Carlisle realized that as Alice had continued to drink that Bella’s head had begun to bend back, and Alice was only trying to help her.
He stopped where he was, his eyes locked on them.
Even in the throes of blood lust, Alice was looking after Bella.
Carlisle relaxed his posture, certain that Alice was fine for the moment.
---
Alice’s head spun, and for a few moments she didn’t know where she was or what was happening, only that her mouth was warm and full, and that she felt like she was floating in the air wrapped in a dozen fuzzy blankets.
You’re feeding, Alice thought a few seconds later. Her mind was still spinning but not as much.
It’s Bella, she realized, her lover’s familiar scent beginning to penetrate the thick cloud of blood lust fogging her brain.
You need to stop, her brain told her.
She didn’t know how long she had been drinking, but it felt like a while. It felt like she had always been there, with her mouth attached to Bella’s neck. It was like she had been born connected to Bella, inside of her, Bella’s essence flowing into her, as part of her flowed into Bella.
You’re killing her, Alice thought, her ears beginning to register Bella’s decreased heart beat, and how slowly the blood was now trickling into her mouth.
Alice felt Bella’s fingers in her hair.
She couldn’t remember when Bella had reached up to touch her.
Bella’s fingers were massaging her scalp softly.
Alice expected to feel Bella’s fingers tangle in her dark strands of hair any second, to feel her begin to tug and yank anxiously, as more blood escaped from her and her head became lighter and her body more lethargic.
But, the same slow, gentle motion continued and Alice knew that Bella wasn’t afraid.
Bella trusted her. Bella believed in her. Bella always bet on her.
---
Carlisle moved forward quickly, his hand extending towards Alice, the tips of his fingers so close to her that he could feel the fine hairs on the back of her neck.
---
Alice tore her lips away from Bella’s neck.
Her head fell back indolently, her lips parting as she moaned, crimson streaks trailing down her chin and over her jaw before running down her neck.
She swayed slightly back and forth, and then trapped her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down a second later, her own blood flowing into her mouth, mixing with Bella’s.
---
Bella moaned softly as her head hit the pillow, her body immediately relaxing against the mattress.
She barely had enough energy in her to blink.
---
Alice looked down, blinking slowly as her head began to clear.
Bella looked paler than she had ever seen her before, and the left side of her neck was painted in red.
It looked like an abstract expressionist had gone insane with a can of red paint on the canvas of Bella’s pale skin and the colorless sheets of the bed.
Alice bent down, her face slowly moving closer to Bella.
---
Carlisle’s fingers tightened around Alice’s neck, the force of his grip stopping the downwards motion of her head.
Alice didn’t seem completely lucid yet, and he didn’t want the scent of Bella’s blood luring Alice into drinking again.
Bella had lost a lot of blood, and likely wouldn’t survive the loss of much more.
---
“I’m okay,” Alice said softly.
Carlisle’s hand lingered on her neck.
“Really,” Alice breathed out, turning her head as much as was possible in the powerful grip of his hand.
Carlisle studied her closely.
Her eyes were still black, but he could see sense in them. Alice likely still wasn’t really ‘okay’, but she was aware of her surroundings once more, and she was in control of herself.
Carlisle nodded and removed his hand from Alice’s person.
“She’s still bleeding,” Alice said softly, her voice concerned as her eyes focused on Bella’s neck once more.
“Yes,” Carlisle said softly, his hand moving to rest lightly, comfortingly on Alice’s shoulder. “She will. As long as her heart still pumps,” he went on, knowing that that wouldn’t be for much longer. The venom that Alice had pumped into Bella’s system would soon reach her heart and then shut it down. After that it would it would begin to diffuse through her body, leaving a painful trail of fire in its wake as it attacked Bella’s cells, changing them, modifying them, in some cases destroying them until Bella was one of them.
“How long will that be?” Alice asked softly.
Bella was beginning to sweat and her body was trembling.
“Soon,” Carlisle responded, stroking Alice’s back lightly. “It’s not like when James bit her hand. The venom was very close to her heart this time,” he continued. “In another ten minutes or so, the transformation will begin.”
Alice was silent for a moment, her eyes focused entirely on Bella.
Then, she shifted on the bed, moving so that she was sitting with her head against the back of the bed, and then she carefully drew Bella back against her, cradling her in her arms.
Bella made a weak, unintelligible sound as Alice settled her body against her, and Alice kissed the top of her head, her eyes squeezing shut as Bella settled limply in her arms.
“I’d like to be alone with her,” Alice said softly, her eyes turning up to face Carlisle.
“Are you sure?” Carlisle asked gently. He had seen a fair share of transformations and they were difficult to witness. He had cared for the members of his family when he turned them, but it was once they were turned and had become family that he had come to love them with all of his being. Alice was already completely in love with Bella, and it would make watching her suffer through the transformation process all that much more difficult to bear.
“Yes,” Alice said softly, nodding her head as she spoke. “I am. I’m sure,” she went on, burying her nose in Bella’s hair, though she kept her eyes on Carlisle.
“We’re here. If you need anything,” Carlisle said his head turning towards the door for a second before he looked back over at her.
“I know,” Alice breathed out. “Thank you.”
Carlisle opened his mouth to say something, to try and talk her out of being alone with Bella during this time, but he promptly shut his mouth without saying a word. He knew that he would never be able to convince her to leave Bella.
“Be strong,” Carlisle said softly, knowing that Alice would need every ounce of inner-strength and will power she had to make it through the next few days. “And remember, it will pass, and she will be fine.”
Alice smiled at him weakly, and Carlisle took a step forward and then bent down, pressing his lips against the top of Alice’s head.
He took a moment to stroke cheek fondly, and then stepped back, his eyes holding Alice’s for a second before he made is way toward the door.
---
Two Days Later
Rose lifted her head from where it had been resting on her knees.
“It’s quiet,” she said softly, her eyes turning to the side to look at Emmett who sat with his elbows resting on his thighs while his hands were clamped uselessly over his ears.
About an hour after Carlisle had joined them in the living room two days before, the screams had started from the upstairs bedroom where Alice and Bella lay. The loud, piercing screams that tore through the listener like a knife through room temperature butter had only gone on for a few hours, but that had been more than enough to fry their nerves.
Their senses were tuned unnaturally high from the faint scent of blood that lingered throughout the house, and the cries of distress had only heightened their awareness, leaving them terribly sensitive to every sound in the house.
The screams had been followed by pained groans and whispers, and the sound of thrashing, as Bella twisted on the bed sheets and struggled within the restraining circle of Alice’s arms. Sobs, yells, curses, moans, whimpers, howls, wails, and snivels had followed, the sounds alternating constantly with only a few minutes of silence every hour or so interrupting their flow.
“It’s been over an hour,” Rose observed blinking, her eyes drifting over to the grandfather clock in the hall.
“She’s right,” Emmett said lifting his head, hope beginning to flare in his chest.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he would have been able to stay in the house. It was becoming too much for him. He couldn’t stand to hear someone he loved in so much pain and not be able to do something about it. He hated feeling useless and if he had stayed around the sounds much longer he was certain that he would have started to throw things about and bash them just to have something to do.
“Is it done?” Jasper asked.
His voice was soft and strained, and Carlisle knew that it was taking a great deal out of him to be speaking at all. As difficult as it had been for all of them, it had been much worse for Jasper. Not only had he had to deal with all of their worry, and anxiety, and heart ache bombarding him, but he had had to sit there with them, knowing that the woman he loved suffered upstairs, and that there was nothing he could do to ease her pain.
Carlisle stood still and silent, his eyes closed as he listened.
“Yes,” he breathed out finally. “I think so. If it’s not completed she’s in the final stage.”
Jasper sighed, his head falling into his hands gratefully.
Esme lifted a hand to her head, and combed her fingers through her luxurious brown hair before she breathed out raggedly, her eyelids fluttering as she did.
She stood.
“Thank god,” she murmured. “Thank god,” she repeated her voice cracking as she spoke. “Let’s get Alice.”
---
Alice blinked slowly as the door to the bedroom opened.
She didn’t move as the others began to move towards her. She couldn’t. Physically she was fine, but mentally she was exhausted. She felt like the girls in her gym class looked after they’d had to do a twelve minute run.
She felt raw and exposed, and when Esme’s soft fingers brushed against the side of her cheek she would have begun to cry if she could.
As it was, she released a deep shuddering breath and turned her face into Esme’s hand, her eyes closing with relief when the older woman drew her head against her chest and lifted her hand to Alice’s disheveled hair to gently pet it.
Just as Alice’s mind began to drift, Esme’s scent and touch relaxing her for the first time in days, she sensed a presence approaching and turned her head away from Esme and faced the intruder with her teeth bared and her chest rumbling.
It was only Carlisle and Alice relaxed.
Her nerves were shot.
“The hard part is over,” Carlisle said after examining Bella for a few seconds. “She’ll rest peacefully for another hour or so … and then it will be done,” he continued glancing around the room. “You did well. Everything is fine,” Carlisle continued in a softer tone, his gaze focused on Alice.
Alice sighed, her body slumping and nodded at him.
Esme ran her hand up and down Alice’s arm lightly, her eyebrows scrunching together as she thought.
“Jasper,” she called softly a few seconds later.
Instantly, Jasper was at her side.
“Take her,” Esme said softly, her eyes lingering on Alice before she looked over at Jasper. “Get her cleaned up,” she continued.
Alice started in her arms, Esme’s words alarming her even in her state of exhaustion. She didn’t want to leave Bella.
“Ssh,” Esme cooed, still stroking Alice’s arm. “I’ll stay with her,” she went on, her eyes drifting over to Bella’s peaceful, sleeping body. “I promise, I’ll take good care of her,” she finished, smiling gently, her voice as soothing as a softly lapping tide.
Esme took a step back from the bed then, and allowed Jasper to take her place at Alice’s side.
Alice felt Jasper’s hand slide behind her back, and stiffened for a second, but as she looked up into his worried eyes she relaxed and allowed him to lift her into his arms. Carlisle had said that Bella was alright, and she had been sleeping for almost an hour. Esme wouldn’t let anything happen to Bella, and she was exhausted, and frazzled, and dirty, caked in two day old dried blood.
A warm bath was probably just what she needed.
Alice curled herself against Jasper, her arms looping lightly around his neck as her head came to rest on his shoulder.
Jasper closed his eyes in relief and pressed his lips against the top of her head, luxuriating in having her in his arms again. He then looked up at the faces around the room and nodded to them briefly, before he headed out of the door with Alice.
The blood on the sheets around Bella was dried, which meant its intoxicating properties had almost completely dissipated, but Carlisle stripped the blanket from the bed, and replaced the spotted pillows with clean ones. There was some blood on the sheet, but it was negligible and he didn’t want to disturb Bella to change them.
When he was done, Esme settled down on the mattress beside Bella, her fingers softly stroking her hair.
It was just like touching any of the other members of her family now.
“I’ve got it,” Esme said softly, looking over at Carlisle. When Bella woke up she would need to be cleaned up and changed as well. “I’ll bring her down when it’s done.”
“Okay,” Carlisle responded, holding his wives eyes for a moment before he dipped his head towards her and then turned and headed towards the door, Rose and Emmett falling in step behind him as he headed for the stairs.
To be continued …
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fembuck
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Date: 2009-01-08 12:49 am (UTC)I really liked you explanation why so many people die of vampires.
Most people killed by vampires did not die because their body was drained of blood. They died from broken necks.
I was a little disappointed though. I missed the "animalistic" Alice in this.
And I'm not entirely sure that I like that we don't get to "see" the interaction between Alice and Bella during the change.
But I liked the chapter nonetheless. Keep up the great work!