|Falling for a Cullen| |Carlisle Cullen Fanfic |

Chapter 11

The Cullens were silent and Ashley felt questions running through her head. The Volturi? Who were they? What were they?

"Why won't they let me?" Carlisle asked after a while, his voice as calm as usual. Raver fixed his gaze on Ashley.

"If the Volturi had had their way with that girl, she would have been taken out a long time ago", he said. "She was too interested, too curious about the vampires for her own good."

"They wanted to kill me?" Ashley asked, her voice merely a whisper.

"Of course, and they would have done that if this... accident with Esme Cullen hadn't occurred at first", Raver answered and smiled grimly.

"But you killed her", Edward hissed. "Why?"

"First of all, when I did that, I had no idea about the Volturi's plans for this child. I killed Esme because of that I wanted Carlisle to be normal."

"He is normal!" Ashley exclaimed. "He is everything a man is supposed to be, unlike you! You are a murderer!"

She wanted to continue, but she didn't know what else to say. Even though she still didn't like to think of Esme as her predecessor, she'd heard the Cullens talk about her in very kind ways. She had been an amazing woman and this horrible... man had killed her.

Carlisle placed his arm around her shoulders and gave her a thankful smile.

"A vampire like him is not normal", Raver hissed. "He is a shame for our race, him and his family! I am very disappointed in how he turned out after I bit him. He was a hunter as a human, and look at him now; compassionate and weak!"

Emmett growled and crouched down as if to spring forward and attack, Edward hissed at him to make him stop.

"And those that you have raced yourself are just as weak!" Raver continued. "Weak cowards, a shame for the vampire-clan, you..."

He was interrupted by Jacob, who'd rushed forward in his wolf-form and separated Raver's body from his head. Ashley screamed and Carlisle quickly turned her away. The rest of the Cullens quickly sprung forward and helped Jacob rip the body to pieces. Carlisle, on the other hand, took Ashley in his arms and rushed away from the scene, far away into the woods once again.

When he sat her down on the ground, her cheeks were wet with tears and she wasn't quite sure if they were because of the scene she'd just witnessed or if it was because of the speed. Carlisle sank down in the grass in front of her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry", he whispered. She didn't answer, she just leaned against his cold chest and cried.

"I shouldn't have let you seen that", Carlisle said. "I shouldn't have let you been there."

"Carlisle, stop", Ashley mumbled and wiped away the tears. "Stop blaming yourself for everything."

She straightened up and looked at him.

"Even if you'd told me not to, I would have been there."

"Then I should have taken you far away from there, from Raver, made sure that you were safe", Carlisle said. Ashley shook her head.

"You couldn't have done that", she said. "Raver wanted to talk to, or insult, you. If you'd tried to get me away from there before he was there, he would have followed us, right? He would have been able to follow your scent."

Carlisle looked at her in silence before he carefully wiped away one of her last tears with his thumb.

"I love you so much, Ashley", he whispered. She smiled at him.

"I love you too."

He slowly leaned forward and touched her forehead with his and Ashley closed her eyes. She could feel his cold breath on her skin and both her breathing and pulse speed up. Though she wasn't able to see it, she could imagine Carlisle's smile when he noticed.

Then his lips met hers.

It was all over the newspapers the next day. Famous business-man Carl Raver missing, no clues have been found. Ashley threw the paper aside, shuddering as she thought about the fact that Raver would never return to her father's side. She wondered how he would take it; after all they had been partners for a long time now.

The answer came when she turned on the television. Her father's face filled the screen and even though he might seem quite ordered to most people, Ashley noticed the lines around her father's mouth that indicated how stressed he was.

"We put our trust in the police and hope that Mr Raver will return soon", he said in a short tone.

"Mr Tyler, if Raver does not return, who will take his place?" one of the journalists asked. Ashley groaned; how could someone ask that right now? Her father needed to at least hope that he would not be in charge of finding someone else!

"I will not discuss that question", Mr Tyler said sharply and continued to walk through the crowd of flashing cameras and microphones.

"You cannot tell him the truth, Ashley", Carlisle said. He had silently come down the stairs and now stood behind her.

"I know", she answered and turned off the screen. "I just feel bad for him. He is so stressed right now and those questions won't exactly help him."

Carlisle nodded and sat down next to her on the couch.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked after a while. Ashley blinked in surprise.

"Carlisle, I have school in less than two hours, remember?"

The blond vampire smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"The sun will be out today", he mumbled while still resting his cold lips on her dark hair. She tried to keep breathing. Obviously he noticed, because he chuckled softly.

"How about we take the day off?" he continued. Ashley swallowed.

"Carlisle, I can't pretend to be sick", she managed to say. He looked into her eyes and smiled.

"You don't have to", he said. "Your father's in a bit of a crisis and maybe you should be with him during this day."

Ashley frowned.

"The last thing he would want me to do is to skip... oh..."

She suddenly realised that Carlisle had known already that her father would not want her to be away from school because of him, but that she could tell the principal that she was with him. Not with Carlisle.

"Maybe I should... call the school and tell them I'll be away", she said and smiled. Carlisle smiled back and watched her as she picked up her phone.

"Mr Jeffrey? Hi, this is Ashley Tyler... yes, I'm fine, but I need to be away for today... yes... well, he is quite stressed right now... no, I agree... yes... thank you."

Carlisle smiled as she hung up and she knew that he had already heard the entire conversation with Mr Jeffrey and there was no need to tell him again.

"Well, now that that's done... what shall we do?" she asked. To her surprise, he picked her up in his arms and brought her outside.

"I was thinking of a little picnic in the sun", he said and ran with her towards the forest. She curled up against his chest and smiled as the trees flew by.