Noonday Sun: A Post-Breaking Dawn Twilight Fanfiction

Afterword; Chapter 25, Choices

Chapter 25, Choices

I glanced around the gathered vampires. I'd never seen such a large group, not even when the Volturi had come to acquire Alice and Edward for Aro's living collection. Every single one of them had the vegetarian vampire topaz eyes. I shook my head in disbelief. How had so many of them chosen to live a life of peace with the humans? What had happened in the vampire world?

Carlisle had called for a gathering. He had found a way, a possibility for us all to live together, a city of sorts. Vampires ranching.

It seemed like such a novel idea. It had been Nahuel's, actually. He and Leah had picked Creighton University for a reason. There were a couple of slaughterhouses within a hundred miles of Omaha.

He had the brilliant idea that visiting vampires could visit the slaughterhouse and drain the beef carcasses as they hung. Beef didn't taste much different from elk, and there was a lot of blood loss during the slaughtering process.

Carlisle took the vision one step further. He bought the plant. He could see that a slaughterhouse run by vampires made perfect sense. The humans got their beef and the vampires used the blood. He quietly purchased the ranches surrounding the slaughterhouses and had called for a meeting. Every vampire he knew was asked to spread the news.

The date was set for twilight on April 6. It was to be held at the largest ranch house on Carlisle's various properties 40 miles north of the slaughterhouse.

As the topaz eyes filtered in, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, Edward and I were astonished at the number.

Carlisle moved the meeting to the little bowl-shaped valley a few miles from his home. A hundred pairs of eyes stared at Carlisle as he moved to the top of the natural indentation where everyone could hear him.

There was a hushed expectancy in the crowd. I watched as Carlisle moved and was astonished at how much he looked like an angel at that moment. The setting sun caught his golden hair and it shone as his skin glittered in its last rays. His white clothes turned russet as the sun said goodbye. He turned to address us.

Carlisle paused for a moment and looked over the crowd. "As you know, the world has changed. We, the vampires gathered in this group, have chosen to deny our thirst for human blood. We can live peaceably with our human neighbors." He paused and looked over the gathered vampires. "I have seen a city of peace established in this place. A place where we can walk freely and not be afraid. All this land," and Carlisle waved his arm, "for fifty miles in either direction is mine... and it can be yours, too, if you want. I have seen a possibility where we can co-exist with the humans. The slaughterhouse forty miles south can be our source of food. Beef isn't much different from the elk most of us have dined on." His eyes paused as he looked fondly at Eleazer, Carmen, Garrett, Kate, and Tanya, who was holding hands with her new tall, dark-haired mate, Lemuel. "We can use the blood and then the humans can use the meat. I see a system of cooperation established here, a system of peace." Carlisle stood quietly, waiting for his words to sink in.

Benjamin and Tia were standing in front of me. Tia turned to Benjamin and whispered so softly even I couldn't hear her. Maggie was here with her red-headed mate, the vampire she'd met while we were hunting through the Volturi castle. Siobham and Liam stood quietly. Carlisle had already spoken to them of his plan. Quiet whispers from vampire couples floated up from the small valley. A human ear couldn't have heard the soft sigh.

Austin had come with his beloved Sarah. She had left Grace at the ranch house. Austin posed a question a few of the vampires needed an answer to, "What about schools for our children?"