By the Light of the Moon I Will Always Love You

Ariel stood in the twilight, watching the moons reflection float on the water of the river. The low rushing sound of the flow seemed louder than usual in the quiet of the night. It was a sound in a deathly silence that was filling the area.

Ariel shivered, and looked at her hands that were painted in dry blood that had leaked from Peter’s wounds. A tear ran down the length of her nose and dropped onto her palms, leaving a clean trail in the middle of the ghastly sight. She moaned softly, alone and grieving and fell to her knees.

The water was cool, soothing away the pains that Ariel was creating in her mind. The liquid rushed around her hands, momentarily becoming red as it healed her palms of the evidence of Peter, and of the accident.

She crooned softly, her body shaking and her hands balled into fists underneath the water. Her slender form curled in on itself and her hand touched the ground as she fought the ability to curl up and escape from a situation she had never wanted to be in. What had she done?

It felt like forever but was in reality only a brief second, before his strong arms curled around her and she was lifted into his embrace. Ariel buried her head into his shoulder, his burning hot skin almost too much to bear, his scent spicy and rich, For the moment, he was the only thing real in her world, the only person she wanted to see or acknowledge.

“Ariel, sssh…it’s okay, everything will be okay”, Jacob’s voice trembled, not knowing how to comfort his imprint. He had never seen her like this, never seen anybody completely destroyed like this. It was worse than when Edward had left Bella. At least then, Jacob had been a source of comfort, now he felt helpless.

Frantically, he looked up at Alice and Jasper as they approached. Alice’s face was tight, her worry apparent on her features and Jasper bent down anxiously to Jacob and Ariel. A feeling of calm and reassurance rushed through Jacob and Ariel both, and for the first time Jacob thanked the stars that these vampires had extraordinary skills.

With reluctance, Jacob allowed Jasper to take Ariel in his arms and set her upright. He chucked her under the chin, and when Ariel finally raised her tear filled silver eyes to meet Jasper’s steady golden ones, she sighed, “Jasper, what have I done? I’ve ruined him, I’ve ruined everything”.

Jasper shook his head, “Stop it Ariel, you need to concentrate on what’s really important right now. What’s done is done. Now, come…we put him in your room. You need to see him, to be with him…”

Ariel took a deep breath and with Jacob’s presence on one side and her favourite brother on the other she allowed herself to be led back into the house and to her room. She stopped outside the door, preparing herself for what was on the other side. She looked down at her bare feet, that were muddy and leaving a faint trail on Esme’s carpet. And then Jasper hit her with another wave of calm and pushed open the door, nudging Ariel inside.

Ariel whimpered as she looked at Peter, his hair still matted with blood, his hands scratched and dirty. Carlisle looked up from a notebook, and smiled at Ariel, “Come child, be where you are needed”.

Ariel looked at her father and nodded, taking her place beside Peter. She took the cloth that Esme was using to clean his body, and resumed wiping the dirt and blood away from his still form. She raked her eyes over his white, still face, the eyes that would never open blue again. His hair that had always smelled of that wonderful human scent he had, the one she had always found intoxicating, gone.

She wiped the cloth over his face, lingering over his lips. The room filled with the steady beat of Jacob’s heart and the blood pumping through his body but nothing else besides the steady breathing of the vampires.

Peter had always been beautiful in Ariel’s mind, and now as she looked upon his frozen face she mourned for the loss of the human boy that had wiped away the shadows from her world when she had needed the sun the most. He was the one that had put a smile on her face when she needed to laugh, a light in her eyes when the world looked dark. He was her Peter, he would always be her Peter.

“Oh Peter, I’m sorry…I’m so sorry”, she whispered, placing her head on his unbeating chest, her small hand clutching the white shirt Alice had changed him into. She refused to cry anymore, and so closed her eyes against the fresh wave of remorse.

Carlisle placed a steady hand on her shoulders, and kissed the top of her head, “Ariel, you did what you thought was right, and no-one can blame you for that, least of all Peter.”

Ariel sighed, “But Carlisle, father, what if he wanted the other option…”

Carlisle signalled the others to leave the room, “What if? That’s the question everybody asks, what if I had never found you all those months ago? What if Bella had never moved to Forks? What if Jacob had never imprinted on you and what if Jasper had never run after you? There are so many questions with so many answers Ariel, so you cannot ask yourself what if? Because there is no logical answer daughter…”,

Ariel gazed at Carlisle and then back to Peter and nodded, “What will you say happened to him? Are we bringing him back to the scene of death?”

Carlisle rubbed his mouth, “I don’t know, someone will surely see it within the next three days before he wakes.”

Ariel smiled, “I forgot you never witnessed an Angel change before. As you can see my venom stopped his heart immediately rather than deliver a three day burning. He will wake within the next few hours”.

Carlisle smiled, “Remarkable”, and jotted down several new notes to his journal. “You should be here when he wakes, to explain, reassure and hunt.”

Ariel shook her head again, “There will be no hunting, he won’t need blood. He will not have a burning in his throat. The overwhelming need for blood only presents itself in a situation where attraction arises between two people. He will not need it, nor will he have lack of control. Do we really need to say he has died?”

Carlisle shrugged his shoulders, “With this new information, I do not know. He can make the decision himself but there is still risk of friends and family noticing the changes that will overcome him, his heart will not beat however human he may look. He will still be a vampire”.

Ariel frowned in thought, “Yes, you are right.”

They sat for several hours, in a comfortable silence that was only briefly covered with conversation. Now and again, Ariel would brush Peter’s face in a tender gesture as if reassuring his unconscious mind that she was there, that he was safe.

“What does it feel like?”, Carlisle finally asked as they watched Peter’s fingers begin to twitch, signalling he would soon awake “If it does not burn.”

Ariel sighed, her eyes swirling with deep thought as she tried to remember back several centuries to when she had been bitten by Kit, after he had pulled her from the dark lake used to kill the innocent women accused of witchcraft. It was a blurry memory, “I don’t remember much, I don’t think I could hear or feel anything around me, the way you could when you were changing. It was like my mind was far away, completely torn from my body and I was swimming, in a silvery pool…it’s a strange sensation but it…was pleasant. A warm tingling as the venom starts to wrap around your body, as if it simply awakens senses and feelings that were dormant for your human life. And then you wake up, and everything seems so much clearer, there’s no pain or confusion, just a simple acceptance at what you have become, and how you will embrace it.”

Carlisle smiled softly at the account, “Truly angelic then, though it is a pity you have been alone so long. Kit, your leader, he was good?”

Ariel smiled and nodded, Kit was a strong memory as was William and the other friends she had had at that time. “Yes, he was. He helped those that needed help, and he was the first person I saw when I awoke, and I truly believed he was an angel. I even imagined wings, great white one, spreading from his back. He was patient and kind, and he gave all of us, more time to run from the Volturi as he sacrificed himself first.”

Carlisle squeezed her hand sympathetically, “You do not talk much of your old life, it must be painful. Tell me about William.”

Ariel was aware of the silence downstairs, aware that the others could hear the conversation, that Jacob would hear about her mate, her William before her Jacob. But she was not ashamed of her old life, indeed she embraced the good memories willingly, she would talk of William willingly for he was a part of her, a part of her heart she would never forget.

“He was wonderful, he was slightly older than me, as a vampire. Twenty-one in human years when he died and was changed. He was educated, he had been a lord, killed by his only brother who was jealous he was heir to their father’s lands. Kit changed him as well. But he was kind, a trait I believe angel vampires possess. I have never met any that weren’t. We possess a kindness, and a patience that normal vampires do not, except for you of course Carlisle”, she smiled at him and continued. “Mine have been tested over the years of course, but do you know, William never sought revenge from his brother. He never wanted to hurt the man who had cost him his life. He looked out for him, looked over his lands, and threatened anyone who would ever hurt him. He watched over his murderer until the day he died, of old age, comfortable in his bed, surrounded by his family.”

Ariel sighed as she remembered William, and again brushed back Peter’s hair from his face. Peter reminded her a lot of William and perhaps that was where the attraction had originated, the closeness she had always felt with him. And then there was Jacob, who was different in so many ways, yet he was the one she could not live without.

“I miss him everyday Carlisle. I have to, he was part of me. His memory hurts less now though, Jacob helped with that, my new family also. I owe him my life and everyday I thank him, for wherever he may be now for that. I thank him that his guiding spirit led me to you and to Jacob. I will always love him but he is my past and Jacob is my future.”

She finished on the positive note though her eyes were tear filled with the memory of her first love and the sacrifice of his life for hers. Carlisle knew she would speak no more but he was surprised she had spoken at all. A new found respect filled him for the girl that had lived so many years in fear for something she could not help but be.

His thoughts broke as Ariel gasped, sitting up straight in her chair and clutching Peter’s hand as he began to move. His eyes opened, and he blinked once, twice before turning his head to gaze at Ariel with his new silver eyes;

“Thank you”, he whispered and squeezed her hand.