A Witch Thing

19

When they arrived back at the large house, the illusion had far been forgotten and discarded, the magic wearing off to reveal what was behind the mask. Though, she had to give some of that credit to herself. The masking spell only works as long as the person using it told the truth. If a lie is told, the illusion would weaken until it was fully broken.

Jasper got out of the car, opening her door and helping her out in a rush. She walked into the house with him at her side. Before they could even reach the porch, Esme and Carlisle are rushing out of the house, smelling the blood from inside.

Carlisle walked over, stopping a short distance away from her. "Are you alright? What happened?" He asked, his arm coming up to his nose to cover the scent of the blood. She nodded, "Yes, but my spell is going to wear out soon... Can you fix this?"

Elizabet very carefully lifted the towel off of her arm to show just enough of one of the scratches for Carlisle to see. He looked at it for a second, assessing the wound and nodded. She covered it back up and nodded, "Okay."

Rosalie, Emmett, Edward, Bella, and Alice gave her a reassuring look and went into the house to get away from the blood. Carlisle took in a small breath and then held it in. He lowered his arm and went to her side, walking with her into the house as he examined the wound.

Esme walked next to her, holding her breath as they all got into the house. When they got inside, everyone had gone to another room, farthest from Carlisle's office to smell as less blood as possible.

Esme broke off when they got into the house and Carlisle headed to his office, Elizabet next to him as she felt the spell wearing off. Carlisle sat her down and began to grab his supplies. "Any pain?" He questioned.

Elizabet shrugged, "It's coming back. The spells wearing off..." She screwed her eyes shut as the hurt from the deep cuts slowly returned to her. "Then I better work quickly." Carlisle spoke, bringing his supplies next to the table.

He moved her sleeve down her arm, freeing it so he had more to work with. He looked at where he'd just removed the sleeve, seeing a mark on her skin. "What happened there?" He asked, brushing his hand over it as he tried to see what it was.

Elizabet got a small look at what his eyes were trained on and she looked away, "James." The mark he was looking what was one of the punishments she had received from not performing an unknown and, as far as she knew, nonexistent spell right.

Carlisle looked at her facing away from him and asked, "Are there more like them?" She didn't answer. She only continued to look away. That was response enough. Many more.

Most of her body was decorated with them. Most of them from James, then another chunk from Victoria, and only a couple from Laurent, but only because James had made him. Elizabet could see it in his eyes that he didn't want to hurt her.

Carlisle caught the hint, telling him that she didn't want to talk about it. Not right now, at least. She would come around.

He removed the towels and examined the wound again, looking at it to see exactly what he needed to do. He spoke to himself, thinking out loud about what he needed to do.

He got to work, trying his hardest against the scent of her blood. Elizabet chewed on her lip. "Sorry..." She mumbled.

He glanced up at her before looking back at her arm, "No need to apologize. It's not your fault that you got hurt."

"I know...but the blood... It's-"

"You have no need to apologize for the blood you have. You were born with it, you didn't choose it." Carlisle responded, continuing to work at the cuts. As he stitched up the first one, he asked, "Why is your blood so much more potent, stronger than human blood?"

She shrugged her free shoulder, "A witch thing. The magic in us spreads throughout our body, our blood. We'll smell mostly like another human, just a tad bit off. But when our blood is spilled, it's...this." She motioned to her arm.

Carlisle nodded, taking in this new information. Elizabet furrowed her brows. She'd seen the way the others reacted to her blood, how they covered their noses and stayed a safe distance away, trying their hardest not to stand too close or breathe too much in fear of hurting her. But Carlisle was here working away at her wounds, breathing like any other day and behaving in such a normal way, for vampires, at least.

"The others were having so much trouble with it... You don't seem too phased." She asked, tilting her head slightly. Carlisle looked up for a moment as he continued working, "Centuries of practice."

She nodded, "Yeah, but it's only been, like, fifteen minutes... The others were having so much trouble..."

"The others haven't been away from human blood, or witch blood, I suppose, for as long as I have...especially not Jasper." Carlisle responded.

She furrowed her brows as she spoke, "Strange."

"How so?" Carlisle asked, taking another moment to look up at her. She shrugged one shoulder and looked back over at her arm. "Jasper seemed the calmest out of everyone...besides you, of course."

Carlisle's head shot up for a moment, staring in disbelief. "Really?"

Elizabet nodded and Carlisle thought about that for a moment before getting back to the task at hand. "Strange, indeed." He slightly mumbled.

There a slight silence before Elizabet asked shyly, "Did you ever think about living differently...?"

Carlisle shook his head, "I enjoy my work too much. Helping people, saving lives. I'm hoping there's a point to my existence, even if I am damned."

She furrowed her brows, tilting her head as she asked, "Damned? The Sun Children aren't damned."