The Other Swan

Chapter Eleven: What's Happening to Me?

Carlisle wrapped gauze around my arms, the cuts bleeding slightly. I sat on his desk and waited for him to stop overreacting. He must've sensed my exasperation and quickly finished wrapping my arms. He took my hands and gently rubbed the back of them with his thumbs. I let my gaze wander around the study, looking at the giant painting on the wall. The painting was a picture of four men. Two of them had long, dark hair and the other two had blonde hair. One of the last two had shoulder length hair while the other had short blonde hair. 

"Carlisle?" 

"What is it, Jade?" He looked at me and then turned around to see what I was looking at. 

"Is that you in that painting?" He leaned against the desk beside me and took my hand. 

"I'll tell you later. But not today."

I gazed at him, perplexed by his answer. He gave me his signature half-smile and tugged me off the desk. 

"I want to show you something. Trust me?" I nodded, wondering what he had to show. He walked over to the balcony doors and pushed them open. He turned and held out a hand to me. 

"What are you planning, Carlisle?" I asked while taking his hand. He chuckled and picked me up bridal style. I froze and gripped the front of his shirt. 

"I'm not going to drop you," he reassured me. 

"You say that now." He jumped off the balcony and landed on one of the nearby tree branches. 

"I'm gonna have a heart attack. Do you really want that to happen?" I held tightly to his neck, my hands ringing the collar of his shirt. He glanced down at me before taking off like a bullet, jumping from tree to tree.

"Okay, forget the heart attack, I think I'm just gonna be sick." Carlisle's chuckle hit my ears and my cheeks blazed a deep red. I breathed out a sigh of relief when he finally stopped jumping and landed on the forest floor. He put me down and I leaned against him, feeling a little queasy. 

"Are you all right?" His hands rubbed my biceps and I nodded. 

"Fine, just give me warning next time you do that." He pressed his lips to the top of my head and then released me. 

"I wanted to show you this." I looked around and saw what he was talking about. A small waterfall cascaded down from the boulders. Moss covered the rock face and hung over the side. Water drops plummeted to the pond below, creating more ripples in the already churning waters. 

"It's beautiful here." Carlisle took my hand and pulled me behind a boulder. I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, but he pressed two fingers to my lips. He nodded up to one of the boulders that was resting in the middle of the stream before the water ran over the sides of the rock.

A doe and her fawn were walking cautiously to the waters edge. The fawn was splashing around in the water as the mother watched the trees warily. The then bent her head and drank from the water, her fawn coming to stop beside her. A feeling welled up inside me. And it wasn't a good one. I felt sick to my stomach, but at the same time, I wanted to rip apart the doe and fawn. Carlisle moved his hand up to my shoulder as I tensed up. I leaned against him, thankful that I hadn't thrown up yet. 

"What's wrong? Jade?" I shook my head, trying to clear it of the thoughts swirling like a hurricane in my mind. My stomach heaved and I doubled over, my arms wrapped around my middle. Carlisle reacted immediately, grabbing me by the shoulders and pulling me closer to him. My body shook as my stomach tried to make it's way out of my body via my throat, with my heart right behind it. I barely heard the two deer run off as I sank to the ground, gentle hands wrapping around me.

"Breathe. It's all right." I shook my head once more, knowing Carlisle thought it was another panic attack. But it wasn't. It felt so much worse than that. My bones and muscles started hurting, my head pounding like a war drum. I vaguely felt Carlisle pick me up and curled instinctively into him. 

"It's not a-a panic attack, Carlisle." His arms tightened around me and I felt his gaze on my face. He took off running and my stomach did a complete 180 from what it was doing previously. My stomach settled, but my heart was still racing and my head pounding. I soon felt something soft under me and realized that we were back in his house. His right hand pressed against my forehead while the left one went to my hands. 

"Fever. That's not good. What have you been up to the past few days to get you sick? However, how quickly this affected you is surprising." I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

"I've been careful. Like you told me to be. Not doing a lot of anything. I haven't been around anyone sick lately either." His hands covered mine and pulled them away from my face. His thumbs rubbed under my eyes and I opened them, looking up at him. He inhaled sharply, his eyes widening. His shoulders tensed and his hands clenched mine. I gazed up at him in confusion. 

"What is it?" Carlisle broke out of his shock and rushed off somewhere, coming back a second later. He held a mirror in his hand and kneeled in front of me. 

"I know what's happening and it's very surprising you have this." My eyes widened in alarm and I reached a hand out for his. 

"What are you talking about, Carlisle?" His gaze was soft as he held up the mirror in front of my face.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Jade. How you have this and Bella has only a small amount of it is strange. It may be why you and your sister can block out Edward's mind reading, how Alice can't see into your future, how Jasper isn't affected by your blood and you not affected by his power. This is why I couldn't smell the cuts on your arms. You are special. More so than I realized. I have only known one other like this in my existence and the amount power and self control he had over this was incredible."

My eyes widened as I stared at my reflection. I put a hand to my face, not believing what I was seeing.

"Listen to me, Jade. This is going to change you. But not much. We can speak more of this later. You need to rest. The first few stages are always unbalancing."

I grabbed onto his wrists and he set down the mirror, taking my face in his hands. "Carlisle, what's happening to me?"

"Jade, my dear, you are......"

(On a scale from one to fifteen, how mean was that to leave it hanging like that? This one took me forever trying to work out just right to where it flows right into the next few chapters.)