Red Moon ~ Chapter 13 ~ Knocks on the Door

Chapter 13: Knocks On The Door

At first we hesitated, looking at each other with eager eyes wondering what we should do, and then I headed for the door. A tall woman with dark skin and green eyes stepped in.

“Hello, I’m Gianna,” she said and placed a tray with two cups on a short dresser next to the door. “Master Aro asked me to bring you these.” She pointed at the cups.

I started observing them. They were silver with jewels on them. I stretched on the tips of my toes to see what was in the cups. Something liquid and red, a thick, bright, vivid, enticing red. Then, that is when the smell hit me. And it smelled sooo good. I felt the burning in my throat again. It was blood, human blood. I could barely resist the urge to grab the cup and drink it until the last drop had slid down my throat quenching the burn.

I cringed as I tried to keep myself in control. I tried to concentrate on the dust moving around the room but it didn’t help much. I held my breath for a while like my dad told me he had done at first around my mom, which made me think of my parents, Renesmee’s parents, all the humans who would have died if they killed humans, anything to find a reason to fight the crave for the sooo good smelling liquid… finally that last thought grossed me out and I hissed at Gianna.

“I already made it crystal clear to your Master…I DON’T DRINK HUMAN BLOOD!” I screamed at her. She did not even flinch.

“I was just following orders,” she said avoiding my angry gaze. “I will see what I can do.”

She gave a slight nod, left the cups there and stepped out of the room.

“Calm down, you can’t shout at them like that while we are here, I can’t imagine what Aro will do if he gets angry with us,” Nessie told me, scared at the prospect of an angry Aro.

“But… but! It’s gross! I can’t drink that! But it smells so good; I can barely keep myself from drinking both cups,” I said disgusted both at myself and at the sweet nectar in the beautiful cups.

“I know what you mean…” she said melancholically and sat next to me on my bed as she hung her head in shame for the thoughts that were haunting her as well.

There was another knock on the door. I didn’t move; I wouldn’t resist if I went any closer to the tray.

“Who is it?” Nessie asked in a singsong voice trying to hide her fear of who was behind the door.

“You have a visitor,” Felix said from the other side of the door.

“Get your hands off of me, leech!” a familiar voice said.

“Jake!” Renesmee jumped from the bed and opened the door. Jacob came in and gave her a big, bear-like hug lifting her feet from the floor. Felix closed the door and said he’d come back in a while. Not that we cared much at the moment. I still didn’t want to move closer to the tray.  It was consuming my every thought. How could Nessie stand being next to it?

“I was so worried about you, Jake, I– I thought…” tears filled her eyes again; Jacob hugged her even tighter and gently stroked her hair.

“No, you don’t need to worry about me, you are the one in danger right now…” he told her as he kissed the top of her head and took a deep breath inhaling her scent as if it was his lifeblood.

“Wrong.” Why should I act like I-know-it-all now?! “If we make a wrong move, you are the one he has threatened to kill, not us.” Me and my big mouth… Now that was mean. Why did I talk to him like that?

“I can take care of myself. But you should be careful Nessie… I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, or Eshe.” He let out a slight whine as he told her how he felt honestly.

“Can you contact the others from your pack from here?” Ness asked.

“No. It must be too far from the others for us to hear each other. Hey, do you still have your cell with you?” Jake asked as he pondered what to do next.

“I think so. I didn’t think of calling home…” she went to her jeans and searched the pockets. “Nothing… They took it…” she said with a half panicked look on her face.

“It’s okay. I’m sure Alice will know exactly where we are. They’ll come and save us,” Jake said, truly confident in what he was saying but obviously forgetting that Alice has a hard time seeing us half-breeds.

“Let’s hope so,” I whispered under my breath. “Where have you been Jacob?” I asked quietly to avoid any possible sensitive ears in the area.

“I woke up in another room. Felix was outside. He told me that I could see you for a while if I promised to be a “good little dog” and here I am. I think they still want me to work for them as a guard dog…” he told us with a disgusted look on his face. 

“Don’t tell them no,” Nessie whispered; pleading and pain in her voice. “Please. It’s better to be part of the guard than being dead.”

“It’s not like I do have a choice right now,” he said still holding Renesmee in his arms and leaning waaaayyyy too close to her.

“Sorry but can you two hug later?  Please come here because I can’t take another step closer to you or those cups.” I asked them never taking my eyes off the cups on the dresser.  It was torturous.

“Why?” Jake asked as he slowly turned and followed my stare to the dresser.

“Look what’s on the tray behind you.” He looked disgusted and let out a slight growl as his eyes questioned Nessie and how she was handling it.

“Yeah, that’s what I think too. It’s just… I… I… don’t know if I can get much closer without deciding to drink it…”  I confessed; the shame evident in my whispers.

“Okay,” the both agreed and I saw Nessie touch Jake’s face in a silent conversation. I suspected she was reassuring him that she was fine and not going to try and drink the blood.

“Aro expects us to drink it. Both of us.” He looked at Ness and she shook her head to confirm that she had no intention of drinking it either.

“No way. I’m not drinking that,” she said out loud to make it more convincing and gave him a sweet smile.

Suddenly the door opened and Felix was back crossing the room in a flash and grabbing Jake by the arm.

“You have to come now; Master Aro and Master Caius want to discuss something with you.”

“I’ll miss you,” Nessie told Jake and kissed him on the cheek.

Is it my imagination or she’s flirting with him? Huh, that is interesting. 

He hugged her again, gently tracing a finger down her cheek and stopping at her bottom lip, which she kissed? and followed Felix out of the room.

“Umm hmm.” I murmured and she giggled.

“What? I didn’t do anything wrong.” She smirked.

I looked her straight in the eyes. “You like him,” I simply said as I cocked an eyebrow and gave her a grin...

“Duh! I thought you had already noticed that! If the Volturi want to kill us, at least I should enjoy some things that Jake and I have wanted to do forever, as long as I have time to do so!”

“That is an option…” I grinned and snickered.

“Why, what would you do if you were in my place? I have loved Jake since I can remember, but because of my age… we have been patient, especially since my parents are just not ready for us to ‘take it to the next level’, but they are not here… are they?!” She giggled again and looked at the door Jake had just left through and heaved a heavy sigh.

I tried to change the subject. “So, why do you think they wanted us?”

“I have no idea,” Nessie replied once she came back down to Earth and could think about something other than her shape shifter boyfriend.

Gianna came back and knocked as she opened the door. “I’m sorry, Master Aro said that’s all we’ve got but he asked me to introduce you to someone. He believes you will like them.”

“Okay, I guess. But first, could you at least take this out of here, because we are not interested in drinking it and then we would be more than happy to meet them?” I told her with a smile, trying to keep up pretenses and not act as angry as I was feeling.

“Of course my dear.” She took the tray, left the room but she was back rather quickly. Too quick for us to discuss who Aro could possibly want us to meet or be able to come up with some sort of game plan or means of escape. 

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