NOVEL NEXT Chapter 56: Chapter 56 - The Cullens Unexpected Surprise
February 6th, 2005 - Sunday
The day was fading to darkness when The Cullen family was interrupted by the emergence of three individuals falling out of a portal that appeared on their ceiling.
Alice had seen it coming, and thus, Edward was also aware but shocked nonetheless.
Rosalie, Jasper, and Emmett tensed accordingly, bending their knees and snarling with the instinct to defend their Coven… their home.
And if they were having such reactions, how could Esme, the certified mother bear, not have an even more intense reaction to the invasion of strangers?
But Alice had foreseen that future…
It did not end well… for her family…
Alice blurred, stopping Esme who had similarly blurred forward.
Esme was not confused by any means but a motherly instinct drove her to subdue a threat before it had a chance to harm Rosalie or anyone else, and they could all feel it…
They could feel it down to their bones…
All three of the men who appeared in their living room were a threat…
One held the stink of a Quileute but more powerful…
Another held a powerfully beating heart, smelling as if a finely aged wine that should never be drunk…
The last…
The last held a subtle heartbeat, no different from a normal human, but there was an underlying momentum…
"Edward!" Alice shouted.
Snapping out of his daze, Edward blurred forward alongside Carlisle, latching onto Jasper who had been trembling in one spot.
He had been desperately trying to restrain himself from lounging and he had succeeded… it was far from the level of control everyone else possessed but it was improvement.
"Alice…" Carlisle's eyes narrowed, also evaluating the threat. "What is happening?"
Alice stared at the ceiling for a split second before replying. "A chance…" She voiced. "A chance for communication."
"They are exhausted," Edward scrunched his nose, concentrating on reading a mind for the first time in a long time. "—they were fighting something… it seems impossible based on the images in their minds but… they won, barely…"
"Wait…" Edward paused, shifting his eyes from left to right as if circling through an imaginary, holographic screen but what he was really examining was Sam's and Kaulder's thoughts. "Carlisle, can you tell me who you see on the couch?"
Carlisle was confused but still proceeded with his examination – two of the people were easily identifiable. "Xavier. Also, there is a boy from The Quileute Tribe, we must send him back as soon as possible and then there is—" The Leader of The Olympic Coven paused.
His vampiric senses and hundreds of years of experience were telling him something different from what his eyes were witnessing.
"A skinny human with long, blonde hair?" Rosalie offered, seeing that Carlisle was stumped. "But why is there something strange about him?" She mused. "His bodily proportions seem vague."
Edward cycled through Rosalie's vision, then Jasper's, and finally Esme's, and Emmett's… from there it became obvious, they were all seeing the skinny, blonde man.
Everyone except Alice…
She saw Kaulder as he truly was – a towering figure, his presence commanding and almost otherworldly.
An imposing physique, built with the strength and durability forged through endless combat… immortal experience with a human body.
A strange combination if Alice had ever seen one.
As The Last Witch Hunter regained consciousness and shakily stood, every move he made seemed deliberate and infused with a sense of purpose, reflecting his unwavering determination.
Kaulder's eyes, sharp and vigilant, missed nothing as he scanned the room for a threat – there were several, bloodthirsty and definitely stronger, but he didn't even flinch.
"It's been some time since I encountered vampires," Kaulder mused, grabbing the empty sheath attached to his back. "No matter."
Where there was previously no weapon, Hexenbane became visible, its imposing magical majesty causing even Carlisle, ever stoic and calm, to frown in distress.
Before Kaulder could make a move, he felt weightless as his feet left the ground and he shot back into the sofa, landing atop Sam, who merely groaned in his unconscious state.
"Please don't kill anyone," Xavier groaned, nursing a pounding headache that never seemed to be going away. "This was the only place Raven could send us unless you wanted to be trapped in that darn tower for eternity."
Kaulder paid Xavier no mind, staring at his signet ring to see the faintest hint of a glow… when nothing came, he slid Hexenbane back into its sheath.
The Last Witch Hunter was not a mindless Being, he investigated and killed only when he was threatened… there was no magic bubbling beneath the surface so he could wait for events to play out.
"Xavier…" Rosalie stepped forward.
"Rosalie," The Eternal greeted.
Despite Alice being the bubbliest and friendliest personality in The Cullen Family, Xavier found that he tended to get along better with Rosalie – something she also felt seeing she chose to be the one to talk to him.
"You brought strangers into my home," Rosalie declared, eyes narrowing. "What is this about?"
Xavier floated to his feet, using that brief moment to sense all the vibrations in the air – after the battle; he had grown even more accustomed to his Eternal Physique.
The vibrations of the gravitons were clearer, allowing him to sense everything with greater clarity.
The Eternal levitated into a bow. "I apologized," He said. "This was the only place Raven could lock onto given our dire circumstances."
"What happened in Los Angeles?" Edward questioned, brows furrowed in concentration.
Xavier's eyes immediately shot to Kaulder, attempting to raise a hand to stop The Immortal but he was too late…
"URGH!" Edward clutched his head; kneeling on the ground with such force, that it created cracks in the marble floor.
Snarls came from all around…
The previously straightened backs of The Cullens were now bent, their feet braced against the ground in preparation to launch an attack.
The Eternal's eyes glowed an ominous golden, though it was for show more than anything… Xavier could barely muster enough Cosmic Energy to fly.
He would need some time to recharge…
"Stop…" The Eternal urged.
Kaulder narrowed his eyes. "The kid didn't have proper manners," The Last Witch Hunter turned to Carlisle, already figuring out who the leader was. "—it is rude to peek into someone's mind without permission."
"What… how?" Edward questioned, calming enough to straighten his back. "What was that? That has never happened before…"
"The pain will disappear in a couple of seconds," Xavier explained, walking up to Edward and tapping him on the shoulder. "You are too accustomed to the minds of normal people, which are always open but Kaulder is an Immortal, he can close his mind or worse… let you see inside of it."
"You glimpsed my memory of fighting a Kraken," Kaulder chuckled, his voice a rumbling heaviness. "That thing turned me to stone with a gaze. Took a decade for my body to regenerate… it's easy to deal with telepaths if you show them memories too traumatizing for their minds to bear."
"Telepaths?" Carlisle raised a brow.
"This side of The VEIL doesn't have much-advanced knowledge about gifts," Xavier interrupted before Kaulder could go on a rant. "The important thing is that Edward has to be more careful about how he uses his gift going forward… the world is going to become a lot stranger."
Jasper, Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie were still on edge, not due to some slights but because of the enticing smell of Kaulder's blood.
"Jasper," Carlisle calmly requested. "Do you mind?"
Jasper had trouble controlling his urges but he did not have any issue suppressing the emotions of others, so soon, Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie felt their thirst diverting.
Not entirely gone but more manageable.
Unfortunately, Jasper was immune to his own gift – the same way Edward couldn't and didn't need to read his own mind and Alice could not see the result of her own decisions, Jasper could not forcefully control his own emotions.
"Should we wait for the wolf to awaken?" Alice questioned, twirling briefly as she approached Xavier's side and leaned on his shoulder.
Kaulder thought it was normal…
But everyone else tensed, Jasper especially…
The familiarity with which Alice acted was not uncommon but it was Xavier, and they were not particularly close by any measure of the word.
It felt as if Alice had skipped several steps…
Realizing her mistake, Alice grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, future familiarity leaking through," She explained, brushing Xavier's soldier off as if she had made him dusty.
However, he was not in a pristine state to begin with…
Golden blood stained his torn clothing and he was visibly exhausted, abnormally cautious, and in desperate need of a bath.
Alice scrunched her nose…
'There is a creek that flows through the backyard," Esme advised, dipping out of the living room and returning with towels and toiletries. "I doubt you would prefer to use our showers…" She said. "And I fear the smell will linger long after you are gone."
Kaulder and Xavier nodded.
"What about him?" Kaulder gestured to the sleeping Sam. "He won't wake up no matter what we do and he is super heavy right now."
Xavier turned to Emmett. "Can you carry him for me?" He asked. "His body is still acclimating so he won't be up for a while… just toss him in the creek – he will either drown or wake up."
"Now, you're talking," Emmett smirked.
He loved the idea of tossing a wolf in water to see if it could swim like a dog – of course, if Sam drowned then that would mean war with The Quileutes.
'Let's pray he can swim…' Emmett internally mused, dragging Sam through the door, following behind The Last Witch Hunter and Eternal.
As if reading Emmett's thoughts, something which Edward probably did and signaled to Rosalie, she urged Jasper. "Perhaps, you should go with them."
Brooding as always, Jasper followed along after Alice tapped his shoulder twice, a cue permitting him.
Xavier, watching all this from the corner of his eye as he exited the living room, immediately understood The Cullen Family. 'The women are the bosses here,' He noted.
That was something not mentioned in the book.
......…
Kaulder, without an ounce of shame, slipped out of his clothes while he was still some ways from the creek, allowing everyone to take in, or turn away from, his figure.
Xavier sank back next to Emmett. "Can you do me a favor?" The Eternal questioned.
"Yes?" Emmett was immediately intrigued.
Rosalie knew Xavier best but Emmett was the one who roamed in the same circles and every time Xavier had that expression, something fun followed.
"Toss Sam as high as you can…" The Eternal conspired, conspiring now that he had regained some strength. "Preferable in the direction of the creek."
Emmett smiled…
"Emmett," Jasper was urging him not to… but…
With a grunt of effort, Sam was tossed… when he was nearly twenty feet in the air; Xavier pushed off the ground and soared after him.
The gravitons stirred…
The Eternal guided the gravitons to caress Sam, taking the unconscious Alpha a couple more meters in the air before releasing the gravitons all at once.
Nearly a hundred feet in the air, the duo fell with the intensity to make the biggest belly-flopping splash in history.
Sam's eyes opened a couple of seconds before impact was imminent and for a moment, it seemed as if he was ready to shift and avoid the outcome.
Xavier could not allow that…
The Eternal roused the gravitons one more time, causing himself and Sam to accelerate faster for the last ten feet of their fall.
SPLASH
ARF
That night, the howl to end all howls echoed throughout the reservation forests and Forks.
The howl quickly spread to the point it became a local myth.