“I thought you said she was fine.”
“She is.”
“Why isn’t she waking up?”
“Give her time, Edward. Her body needs to recover.”
I was on the edge of consciousness. Just before I opened my eyes. I hated that part. All of your senses come back at once and bombard you. I recognised the voices that were speaking next to me. I think they were discussing me. But if it was me, what did my body need to recover from?
“It is all gone, isn’t it, Carlisle?” Edward sounded hesitant, unsure.
“I am positive,” Carlisle said, in his calm and reassuring voice. “Jasper got rid of all the venom, except for...”
Jasper? Venom? Huh?
“Except for what?”
“I took some blood samples from the arm where Jared bit her and from other parts of her body and well...”
Jared! He had bitten my arm. The venom entering my veins and turning my blood ice cold yet scorching it at the same time. The agonizing pain that had accompanied it and sending my body into violent spasms.
“Carlisle, what’s wrong?”
Yes, Carlisle, what’s wrong with me?
“There is venom in her blood.”
“But you just said all the venom was gone!” Edward’s voice was loud and frightened.
There was still venom in my bloodstream! I could die! It’s has to be gone before it reaches my heart!
“I know what I said, Edward.” Carlisle’s voice was still calm despite what he had just said. There was still venom in my blood. Shouldn’t they be doing something to get it out? I could die!
I felt someone’s cold hand grasp my wrist. They lifted it up and I felt their cool breath on my skin.
“Edward, stop!” Carlisle shouted. “There is no need for that!”
“If there is venom in her blood I need to get it out. She could die!”
“Let me explain.” Another cold hand was around my wrist. It was a very gentle hand. I guessed the first hand was Edward and the second Carlisle. Carlisle prised Edward’s hand off my wrist and placed my arm on something soft. It was now that my fingers had been placed on this soft material that I realised I was in a bed. But where exactly? I didn’t want to open my eyes and ask because I wanted to find out what was wrong with me.
“The venom can’t harm her,” Carlisle explained. “It is attached to her red blood cells and travels around her entire body, even into her heart. It is only a trace of venom but it is enough to change her.”
“Change her?” Edward sounded as confused as I felt.
“She won’t become a full vampire but I am sure that it will grant her some kind of immortality. Did you feel how her skin is slightly colder than normal?”
Edward’s gentle fingers brushed against my skin. I didn’t feel a difference but he must have.
“She does look slightly paler. Not as pale as us though,” Edward murmured. I knew he was looking at me very closely. “And her heart is still beating.”
“It isn’t enough to change her completely into a vampire,” Carlisle said. “I have been running tests on her, while she has been unconscious, and it seems the venom in her blood is repairing any damage that happens to her internally.”
“I don’t understand,” Edward said.
“Her healing ability that she already possesses will heal a cut she gets on the outside. The venom heals anything that happens inside. Simply, her organs cannot fail because the venom will repair the tissue, make it new again.”
My eyes flew open and I sat up fast.
“Back track,” I said. “I’m immortal?”
“Kayla,” Edward’s face look relieved that I had opened my eyes. His lips which had been set into a fine line broke into a smile.
“Hi,” I said brightly at him. I smiled for him, just so he knew I was ok. I saw that I was in Alice’s room again. Was she the only Cullen that had a bed in their room?
I turned to Carlisle.
“I’m immortal?” I repeated.
“I think you may be,” Carlisle said. “The venom isn’t killing you, I know that for sure. See, our venom can repair any damage that is done to a human body. If a human fell down a set of stairs and I bit them, sending my venom into their bloodstream, then the venom would automatically heal any broken bones, stop internal bleeding, etc. Do you understand?”
“So if my organs start to fail the venom will stop them?” I asked.
“It will do more than that, Kayla,” Carlisle looked uneasy. “The venom has been in your blood for more than a day, you were unconscious for a long time. It’s not a case of the venom will repair your organs when they begin to fail. It’s actually stopping them from failing. From the moment the venom attached itself to your blood cells.”
“But that’s not good,” I said. I was panicking. I started to hyperventilate. “I can’t be like that. I will get old. I will be this shrivelled prune but with a healthy body.”
Edward was next to me and stroking my hair. I looked at him and could see nothing but joy in his eyes that I was alive.
“No you won’t be,” he said but his voice betrayed his uncertainty. He looked at Carlisle. “Right Carlisle?”
I turned to Carlisle who was watching me carefully.
“Edward is right,” Carlisle assured me. “I’m sorry to say this, Kayla. But you won’t age.”
“I won’t age?!” I knew that I should be ecstatic. Isn’t this every person’s dream? To be young forever and not die. But why did I feel this sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach?
“It’s the venom; it’s very difficult to explain. I’ve been running tests and your skin isn’t ageing. Nothing is.”
I looked down at my hands. What was I? Was I half vampire? I wouldn’t get any older, my skin looked paler and I would live forever. Yet I didn’t have a craving for blood, I had no venom that I could inject into someone and my heat still had a beat.
“Kayla, are you ok?” Edward’s arms were wrapped around me now. I noticed that he didn’t feel as cold as he used to. His skin was as cold as if he had just stepped in from outside not like he had just stepped out a freezer he had been in all day.
“What happened to me?” I asked him.
“Nothing has happened to you,” he told me. “You’re still the same person you were before Jared bit you.”
“But you don’t feel so cold anymore,” I whispered. “Not like you used to.”
“It’s the change of temperature on your skin, Kayla,” Carlisle said, quietly. “You’re not as cold as us but you’re not far from it.”
“Do I feel any colder to you?” I asked Edward.
“You’re still warm to me,” he answered, softly.
I nodded.
“Will anyone else feel the difference in temperature?” I asked Carlisle.
“Yes, but don’t worry about it now.”
I nodded.
“You must be hungry,” Carlisle said. “Let me get you some food.”
I nodded again and he left the room quickly.
“Is he gone?” I asked Edward. “Jared, I mean.”
“Yes, Alice and Jasper seen to that. They also got Persephone. If only I was faster I might have been the one to rip his worthless head off.”
I looked at my wrist. The one Jared had bit. There was a faint white crescent scar there. One simple bite had changed my entire life.
Edward pulled me onto his lap and clasped his hands in mine.
“You are not any different,” he whispered to me. “You are still the same Kayla I left with Alice and Jasper. You are still the same Kayla that moved from England to Forks. You are still the same Kayla I fell in love with.”
“I am?” My voice was barely audible through the tears that coursed down my cheeks.
“Yes,” Edward said fiercely. He wiped away the tears and kissed my lips.
If Edward said that I was still the same person I was before then I must be. So I would live forever, was that a bad thing? It was only now that I realised the great thing that came from this. If I was still human, if I wasn’t immortal, I would have grown old and Edward might have left me. He couldn’t stay with me forever. I would be like thirty and people would have mistaken him for my son and when I hit sixty, my grandson. But if I was immortal, if I didn’t age, I could be with him forever and no one would mistake him for son or grandson.
“Feel better?” he asked me, a smile on his lips. He had just listened to my thoughts and he knew I saw the bright side of this. But of course, he would have already thought of that. As soon as Carlisle had said I was immortal that was the first thing he would have thought of. That we could be together forever.
I had one question for Edward.
“How do I explain this to Charlie?”