la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

49

Minerva was pretty sure she was in shock. She may have been from the attack alone, if it weren't for Carlisle. Her mind was moving a mile a minute through angry fog as Alice's car raced down the highway at a lethal speed.

She couldn't feel her hands, not even a little. With her gaze fixed out the window, she was absentmindedly picking manageable shards out of her palms and letting them drop to the car floor. Cool air was whizzing through the driver's side window, twirling her hair around her face.

"No wonder you guys drive like psychos." Minerva mumbled as Alice took the bend on the road quite sharply. She didn't think she'd spoken loud enough to be heard but Alice chuckled softly. She glanced toward the rear view mirror, a set of golden eyes focused on the road reflected back at her.

It was all clicking together, puzzle pieces she didn't realize should be fitting together. The weird eye colour, the temperature. It seemed like forever ago when she told Carlisle what she was. She'd nearly forgotten his promise to tell her about his supernatural experience. If she could see past her own infatuation, she might have put together that his life was one big supernatural experience.

She didn't know whether or not to be thankful that Alice was the companion for this. Under ordinary circumstances, she and Alice got on like a wildfire. How many times had Alice come into the flower shop knowing exactly what Minerva was and exactly what they were keeping from her? It made her blood boil. She felt like such a fool. Why was the joke always on her?

"Where are we going?" Bella asked softly from the front seat. Minerva had almost forgotten the girl was there. When she remembered, she didn't think she could have gotten angrier. Whatever Carlisle's family was, Bella wasn't one. Bella was most certainly normal, human through and through. Why the hell was she wrapped up in this? Why the hell was a supernatural creature involved with a human, worse than that, a human teenager?

The anger for Bella's safety gave way to something worse. Bella had been in Forks for three months. Three months and she was in on whatever their secret was. She and Carlisle had been friends for nearly a year. In that time, she'd shared so god damn much about her own life, told him things she'd never told anyone. She trusted him implicitly, why the hell didn't he trust her?

"Pheonix. Might as well give some validity to your excuse." Alice responded. It took all Minerva's mental fortitude not to slam her head into the window. To Pheonix would be around a twenty four hour drive, they were roughly two in.

Minerva looked up from her hands, freshly healed but covered with dried blood. "What are you?" She'd thought of every creature who's path she'd ever crossed but none of them matched up with Carlisle. If she hadn't been so pissed off, she might have laughed considering Carlisle to be a skin walker. Not today, though. It hung in the air as Alice's eyes flickered up to look at her in the rear view mirror. Minerva waited expectantly.

"You don't want to hear it from Carlisle?" The very sound of his name felt like a dagger in the back.

"I think I've been in the dark long enough." Minerva scoffed, crossing her arms around her stomach. "Besides, you know my situation." There was a distinct vile in her tone. She wasn't sure whether to be thankful or to kick herself when Bella's head snapped to the side.

"Your.. situation?" Bella asked slowly, craning around to look at her.

"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ." Minerva let her head thump back against the seat.

"Leave it, Bella." Alice advised.

"I mean," Minerva laughed but it was mostly to keep herself sane, the frustration was pushing her toward hysterics, "everybody else knows, right?"