Better Than Revenge

Valerie's POV:

I worried that I was cutting off the blood circulation to Seth’s hand, especially when his fingertips were losing color, but I couldn’t let go. Every time I shut my eyes I saw that face, pale but perfect, and scarlet eyes. Scarlet seemed like a complimenting word, but it’s the color they were. Such a deadly color. The point is, I could have sworn someone taped a picture of the vampire to the inside of my eyelids.

“You’ll have to take this off,” Carlisle pulled gently at my sweatshirt.

I switched my eyes over to Seth. He nodded in encouragement, and so did I.

I sucked my arms in first and Seth helped me pull it over my head. I couldn’t see how blood covered I was, but based on Seth’s reaction, it was bad.

He sucked air through his teeth. “Does it hurt?” He asked me.

It stung a little, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I shook my head, not ready to talk yet. I wasn’t sure I’d ever speak again.

“Isn’t it supposed to burn or something?”

“That’s only if there’s venom. The bite wasn’t deep enough. Unless the venom was sucked back out.” Carlisle explained absently, sliding the straps to my tank top and bra down my shoulder.

He wiped all the blood away, which seems like it made it appear less gruesome. Then he handed a few wipes to Seth. Seth looked at the white material in his hands, then smirked at me.

"Hold still,” He held my chin and cleaned the makeup off my face, brushing gently around my eyes and nose. He squeezed my nose between his fingers and I kind of squeaked, getting a good smile out of him. I kind of wished I could have seen myself in the mirror before cleaning up, just to see if I could make it in a horror movie or not.

Seth asked Carlisle to come out to his house, mostly because I didn't want anything to do with vampires at the moment. Carlisle agreed, mostly because nobody was watching...her...when she came and...

I loosened my grip that was acting like a blood clot to Seth’s hand, but it only caused him to hang on tighter.

He brought his eyes back from the opposite direction after hearing I was okay. “So she‘s fine?”

Carlisle nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched him turn the corner, and then looked back at Seth.

His brown eyes captured mine without my consent. “You okay?”

I looked down at my hands and scowled. They were still stained with dried blood. Seth noticed and offered another wipe. I took it, but realized my other hand was still holding his captive.

He took it back and opened his hand. He laid my fingers in his palm and cleaned them just as gently as he cleaned my face.

“Carlisle’s a good guy.” He said. “You look nervous.”

I looked back to the corner which Carlisle disappeared behind and shrugged.

“I mean, I - I guess you have a right to be.”

I saw him glance up at me through the corner of his eye, but I continued to watch him clean my fingers.

"Please talk to me." He begged. "You do remember who I am, right?"

I let my smile free. 

He chuckled through a sigh. "Good. I was  worried there for a second."

I checked to see if Carlisle was coming back yet. Seth’s hands were so warm compared to Carlisle's, sometimes I thought it was obvious that he wasn’t human.

 Carlisle came back which a bunch of doctor related things. In all honesty, it looked like a first aid kit.

"Okay." He said, rifling through his box. "It is deep enough for stitches, but I think a good bandage should work nicely."

Seth sighed for the tenth time in five minutes. Just a band-aid.

Carlisle simply taped a piece of white…stuff over my mouth. It was awkward, like I stuck a sock in my mouth. I didn't like it at all.

He played with it to make it less in-the-way, but was out of luck. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but you might want to reconsider stitches."

I flinched at the word. Seth squeezed my hand. "Isn't there something else you can do?"

Carlisle fingered through his box again, coming up empty handed. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried the depth of the bite will stretch and tear your lip before it gets a chance to-"

"Just do it." I said. "Get it over with."

Carlisle nodded, but Seth grinned at the sound of my voice. It wasn't a pretty sound, all scratchy and broken. But he still smiled. I tried to focus on it instead of the needle.

I held perfectly still with my eyes pinched shut as Carlisle stuck that giant needle in and out of my face. I felt it pull loosely on my skin as it tugged along, but thankfully there wasn't any pain.

"There you are." Carlisle smiled at his work. "All done."

"Does she get a lollipop?" Seth joked.

Carlisle presented me with a grape Tootsie Pop. I would have smiled, but I was afraid to move my mouth.

. . . . . . . .

"Everybody's waiting at Emily's." Seth told me as we got in his car. "They can't wait to see you."

I decided to use my voice. "Are they all  okay?"

He smiled again as if I sounded like an angel choir. "Yeah."

I nodded a couple times and watched the trees out the window. I started to bounce my knee, still a bit anxious.

After a minute or two Seth placed his hand on my knee cap. I stopped bouncing it, but his hand remained there. 

His thumb brushed across my knee, and it reminded me of how our relationship used to be. So casual, and effortless.

I yawned, realizing I was exhausted, but opening my mouth that wide was pulling at my skin. I covered it with my hand in pain.

"Is it bleeding?" Seth asked.

I used my free hand to flip down the sun visor and check in the mirror. The sight made me gasp in horror.

"What?" He asked, panicked.

I didn't blink for a long time, staring at the image in the mirror. It was hideous. She bit my mouth, and I knew that. But I didn't expect a complete set of teeth to be visible on my skin. Two dark red cresents laced with black stitching faced eachother, and it was all I saw when looking at my reflection. It didn't help that my makeup was all gone.

"Holy..." I breathed, quickly slapping the mirror up and away.

"It will fade after some time." He promised, rubbing my knee again. 

"It will scar." I pointed out negatively, tearing up again. I didn't know if I would ever stop crying. "She knew it would scar."

Seth drew his eyes from the road. "She knew?"

I hesitated in telling him, but I knew I had to. "She said something about leaving a scar, after she bit me."

He considered the possibilities, coming up blank. "Why?"

"She thought if...if she left a scar," I took in an extra breath. "You would have no choice but to think about her everytime you kissed me." My throat was tight, threatening to send tears to my eyes.

"Val, you can't really believe that-"

"You know it's true! Why else would she bite my face? She knows you just as well as I do." 

He kind of flinched, like I slapped him across the face. "You obviously don't know me then."

My stomach rolled because I realized we were fighting again. It only feuled me.

"So you're saying that the next time you kiss me you won't see this at all? This big, ugly scar will just blend right in?"

He didn't really react, just allowed air to pass through his lips. He sounded like a horse.

We pulled up at Emily's. Seth was slow to kill the engine. "I really want to talk to you later, but not now, okay?"

I cleared my throat. "Fine."

We both unbuckled our seatbelts at the same time, glancing at eachother because of the coincidence.

I wanted to kiss him so bad. It would be hard with a face full of stitches.

I hurried up the steps ahead of him and almost let myself in, but decided to knock instead.

The door opened slightly, blocked by the chain lock. "What's the password?"

"Password?" I asked the voice. "Um..."

"I'll give you a hint : Seth fits nicely under the category."

I had no clue. "Paul, just let me inside."

"Open the damn door." Seth stepped up behind me.

"Ooh, somebody's grumpy."

"Paul!"

"Only secret club members are allowed in! Do you honestly think I'll let some random girl off the street come in here with her stray puppy?"

"What if she has a cool scar?" I teased, somewhat regretting it.

The door slammed shut, the chain jiggled, and then it flew open again.

Four pairs of giant eyes gaped wide open at me.

"Can we come in now?" I asked, wishing I put a brown bag over my head before leaving the house.

They continued to stare. I dropped my eyes to my feet and slipped passed them as they made a hole for me to go through.

I grabbed Seth and glued myself to his side. But it wasn't long before I was stolen away, consumed by a huge bear hug - well, a wolf hug.

I smelled him, and decided it was Jacob.

"Hi, Stranger." He muttered.

"Hi, Loser."

He laughed, backing away to check out the damage. "I like your battle scar."

"It's hot." Paul butt in.

"Chicks with scars get it in, right Em?" Embry called across the room.

Emily wasn't paying attention. "Huh?"

"Exactly." Quil shared a fist bump with Embry.

"Oh, by the way, Val," Paul hooked his arm through mine and dragged me a few feet away. He cupped his hand over my ear and whispered into it. "The password is puppies."

"Puppies?"

"Shhh! You can't go announcing the password to the whole world." Jared closed in on my other side.

Their amusing little game was nice, and I loved them all for it. But I just wasn't ready for jokes. It was too soon.

"Excuse me," I squeezed out from between them and hid in the kitchen.

I grabbed myself a cup from the cabinet and filled it halfway with water. I took a sip and a fresh breath of air.

Seth found me with that GPS he must have installed in his brain. He made sure no one was following him and then stepped up to me.

"A little much?" He guessed correctly.

I dumped out the rest of the water. "I love them so much, I just..."

"I know, it's alright. They don't care."

I sighed. "Is this...this is like a party that we're having for all the wrong reasons, isn't it?...can I just go home?"

Seth reached his hand out delicately, running his fingers down my cheek. The feeling of his skin on mine was heavenly. I forgot what it felt like.

"What will we tell your parents?" He asked.

"Emily got a new cat that went crazy and attacked everyone in sight."

He smiled his beautiful smile. "They'll worry about rabies if you tell them that."

I shrugged. "We could always tell them the truth."

He bit his bottom lip. "You can tell them if you want."

I smiled a little. "I'm kidding."

He blushed a little. "I knew that."

I touched my fingertips to the puckered skin on my lip. 

"Don't touch it." Seth caught my wrist with a smirk.

"Yes, Mom." I stuck out my tongue, pleased that my personality was coming back. "Do you wanna talk now?"

He nodded slowly, gathering his thoughts again. We both weren't comfortable with laying our feelings out on a table, so when we had to talk like this it was difficult.

I waited patiently.

"Party's in here!" Quil stuck his head in the doorway.

"No, no, no, no, we're coming out there." Seth waved his hands in front of Quil.

"You have five seconds." Quil warned, disappearing behind the wall.

"What are you gonna say in five seconds?" I challenged.

"I can say plenty."

"You better get going then."

"Two seconds!" Quil shouted.

Seth was speedy, and I almost missed it. But he did lean forward and quickly kissed my check before jumping the barrier between the kitchen and living room, where Quil nearly tackled him to the floor.