The Last Witch

Part 8: To See and To Know

Carlisle

He doubted he'd ever been this relaxed before, it was strange, and he wondered if this could be at least partly what it felt like to sleep. While he could not see or move he could still feel the hardwood, still smell Charlie's blood in the air along with his mate's scent of jasmine and vanilla with a hint of black coffee beneath it; lightly floral and yet somehow that undertone of coffee also made it seem deeply sensual. He could hear every word they spoke. He was amazed at how young she had been when she first used her gift or was it gifts? There was clearly more to her abilities then growing flowers or healing or whatever she'd done to him. 

A/N: So I wanted to make it so that certain magics will have a different effect on vampires. In this case the sleeping spell she put Carlisle under only does half the job. While it 'knocked out' Carlisle, it didn't actually put him to sleep but rather placed his body into a sort of meditative state where he would still know what was going on around him.

"Mind telling me what you were going to do with him?" Charlie asked her and I focused in.

"I'm gonna take a look at his memories" Was she like Aro? I wondered. I heard her footsteps move closer until she was bending down at my side. The soft flesh of her hand a burning yet somehow comfortable heat against the hard ice of my cheek.

"legilimens" she said softly.

FLASHBACKS

A/N: Mention of spousal and child abuse. Mention of sexual assault and implied rape of others.

I was but a young boy of nine playing when I heard my mother's screams and so I ran to her chambers, only to find my father striking her. I attacked him, throwing all I could grab within my reach and he came for me. I raced out but did not make it far for he caught me at the stairs and I tumbled down. I woke days later with no recollection of what had happened and the news that while I survived my illness, mother did not.

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It was just 3 months past my twenty and third year when father began to speak of arranging me a wife. He spoke of Agnes Peletoot. She was fairly tall but still shorter then I with a slight figure and while her face was of a decent sort, her hair reminded him of straw, both in color and the appearance of it's texture and her eyes a dull blue that lacked any spark of intelligence. He dreaded the thought of being wed to such a simple woman and one he was sure his father, if the looks they shared were anything to consider, had bedded. Father commanded I begin courting her days later.

I was to wed Agnes Peletoot shortly after meeting my twenty and fourth year in another month. However, for tonight he was ordered to take lead in the hunts. If the information he gathered was correct there was a coven hiding within the sewers of London.

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My flesh felt as though it was melting from my bones. The pain was intolerable as I begged the lord almighty for salvation. And when I awoke, I knew I was the very beast my father had hunted and so I ran, I ran as far and as quickly as my legs allowed far from that which caused the burn in my throat to deepen. I was a monster, a vampire.

I attempted to end my foul existence. Starvation. Drowning. Jumping from great heights. Nothing worked and then came his greatest discovery. Though accidental , in his starvation he attacked a herd of deer, he learned he could feed off animals. He did not have to be a monster and so for nearly two centuries he practiced, eventually  perfecting his resistance to the bloodlust and studied medicine as he had wished to do since he was but a boy. He remembered how his mother was so often ill and how he wished he could have aided her or at least lessened her pain.

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I met others like myself and then I met those who traveled in couples, mates. The very concept was startling. A person perfect for another, one in which you would share all with. I had never known such a love and I wondered if I had a mate out in the world somewhere looking or waiting for me. I wondered as I met numerous mates about how long it had taken them to find each other and was startled to learn that for many of the mates they had gone without their partner for years some even centuries but one fact remained there was no greater love then that of a mate and as he spoke with them he decided to wait for his mate. He had plenty of time and knew that when it was time, she would come.

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I wondered if my mate would be disappointed in me, for I knew I was. While I had escaped her grasp before anything but heavy petting after divesting our bodies of our clothing my body was now known to another now. A woman not my mate and I feared if she ever learned she would leave for why would she want a man who could not resist the temptations of the flesh after making a vow to wait for her no matter how long it may take. She had been a woman of the night as a human and once changed her 'gift' became seduction. It was when I learned of her destruction, after using the gift on a mated man only for his mate to discover him struggling with himself not to betray her, that I learned of my kinds ability to have such 'gifts'.

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Memories skipped by as she traveled though my mind. My time with the Volturi. Meeting his family. Edward dying of the influenza and his mother's pleas. Discovering Esme still alive after jumping off a cliff after losing her newborn boy. Finding Rosalie laying on the street, her clothes torn, body beaten and violated, stained in the fluids of her attackers. Emmett mauled by a black bear before Rose found him and asking me to change him. Meeting the Quileute shape-shifters. Coming home to find Alice and Jasper having moved in to Edward's room while he was working at the local clinic.

Finding and keeping the drawings made of a woman from behind that Alice would occasionally drew.

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Edward, Esme and I learning our mates were in Forks. Esme's mate was injured, a man named Charlie and his daughter was the mate of both myself and Edward. I looked upon the drawing of my shared mate, Genevieve Swan.

END FLASHBACKS

"Tha-that's . . . " She stuttered and I wished I could move. I wished I could hold her.

"What's wrong?" Charlie asked.

"Absondere." She whispered and my eyes snapped open, looking into her own that were filled with hesitance. "Mates. W- We're mates? And Edward too? You both are?"

I nodded with a small smile. "Yes. Do you understand what it means?"

"I saw as it was explained to you. Everything you saw in your mind, I did too."

"How?"

"I'm a witch."

A/N:I feel like some of you might think I'm going a little fast on this and I am. However that's mostly due to the fact that I want to get into the canon timeline. I want some of the action and to get to how Carlisle/Genevieve/Edward are already envisioned in my mind and maybe put occasional flashbacks or little mentions of how they got there. I want this to highlight how they are as mates rather than the progression into it, which we all know tends to be rather quick from what we've seen of the twilight world. I want them to be fully established in their relationship by the time Bella arrives in a little over a year. Next one or two chapters, depending on how much I put in, will be a major speed up with clips of what goes on before getting to Bella's arrival.