The Tale of the Brokenhearted

Chapter 32: What Are You?

Edward's POV

After the initial shock and everyone hugged Leah and celebrated that she was alive. Rosalie and Alice were beside themselves and Esme clung to her as if she were her own child that had risen from the dead. Jasper gave her a brief hug but was more focused on the changes in her appearance. He was confused and intrigued by it both he and Carlisle seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Carlisle wanted to look her over to figure out what exactly was going on. From what we know of shapeshifter lore, she should be dead; and moments ago it looked like she was dying. However, now that we were away from the crowd and Leah was sitting on Carlisle's medical table, she was dangling her feet at a pace she thought was normal. It was actually pretty fast and would've looked odd to the human eye.

Carlisle had taken a sample of her salvia and was now looking at it through a microscope. Leah glanced at me and offered me a half smile. She was anxious and bored at the same time. I found Carlisle's thoughts to be pretty interesting; he'd found that what was supposed to be her saliva was pretty much pure venom. After a moment Carlisle took his stethoscope and listened for Leah's heartbeat. She took a deep breath and looked over to me again.

"Shhhh, Leah," Carlisle whispered. It was weird that he was even using the stethoscope our hearing was far better than the human ear I think he just wanted to make sure that he was missing anything. "There, it is extremely faint but there it is. Your heart is beating but it's really, really faintly," Carlisle murmured. "How do you feel?"

"Odd," Leah answered bluntly. I cleared my throat and she rolled her eyes and sighed.

"My mouth tastes funny. My saliva burns my throat when I swallow it." She cleared her throat. "And there's another thing… that may freak you out." Leah mumbled, I heard her thoughts and the thought shocked me.

"What?" I blanched.

"Nothing, it's just that you all smell kind yummy, but don't worry I have self control. Especially you, Edward, … really, really yummy." She looked me up and down and I knew she was considering me as food and not her lover. "I really need to adjust to that." She shook her head and ran her hands through her hair. I took a moment to fully take in the woman beside me, Leah was simple breathtaking. Her complexion had lightened by a couple of skin tones and her hair seemed fuller and touched her shoulders. All of her features that I loved about her seemed to be sharper and intensified. I also loved that even though she looked like a vampire she still felt faintly warm to the touch.

"Does your throat hurt?" I asked and she shook her head.

"I'm not hungry," she shrugged. "Or thirsty." She gave everything some thought. She stood up and came over to me at a speed that I wasn't even comfortable with. "I'm adjusting to everything. Especially when I look people in the eye, I get these weird images and everything is in such great detail it's like it's etched in my brain. I think I'd rather keep my eyes closed." She smirked a little. "The good thing is that once I've obtained the knowledge it doesn't happen again. There's just some things I'd rather not know about people." Emmett and Rosalie sexual escapades went through her mind.

"Trust me I know what you mean." I grabbed her hand and toyed with it. I glanced toward the corner and noticed Carlisle on his computer. He was steadily doing some research on what he thought might have happened but he didn't think it was possible.

"Well," he finally spoke and it got both Leah's and my attention; within seconds we were right behind him. "Your people's theory about your kind maybe a little flawed; or you weren't really what you thought you were." Carlisle continued to read.

"It looks like you've morphed into a hybrid which shouldn't be possible. Just based on the inaccuracies of human mythologies, it doesn't make sense for this situation. However, some things do correlate, such as the physical characteristics: the fact that your appetite has changed, the color of your eyes, and heartbeat. A good way to test it would be a strength endurance test, we could match you against our own strengths to see if you're stronger than a normal vampire, but we wouldn't be able to do that until your newborn phase is over."

"Why is that?"

"Because right now you're stronger than us regardless, even if you're just a normal vampire." I answered. Leah frowned.

"I'm not a vampire Edward, I have a heartbeat," Leah countered sharply. Carlisle spun around in his chair so he could talk face to face.

"Yes you do, but a good portion of you, I do believe, is now a venom carrier. You are indeed at least half vampire." Leah gasped and horror filled her eyes. "Don't worry child, it's not as bad as you're thinking it is."

"No, no you're misreading me. My tribe … they won't allow for this. My blood and my body have been compromised. They are going to seek me out if they find out what's happened. They're going to want to kill me."

"If you're a hybrid they won't be able to." I wrapped my arm around her waist and she just glared at me and narrowed her eyes. She thought about something that caused my mood to sober too. "We'll deal with them if there comes a time to. Who knows, maybe you're just a 'normal' vampire, if that's the case then we haven't done anything against their laws."

"There are no laws about creating hybrids because Aro didn't think it possible, so even if he found out about you we've committed no crime," Carlisle explained. "Hopefully that will ease your mind some," he smiled and reached out to hug Leah once more. "I am just glad that you are here alive and conversing with us. Any repercussion that we may face, we shall tackle as a family."

"Thank you Carlisle," Leah said while still in his arms.

"No problem. Also, I think you should probably go hunt before you start to feel any kind of discomfort especially since you said you think we smell appetizing." Leah nodded and released Carlisle.

"You want me to take you?" I offered and she nodded and stepped toward me.

"Yeah, but there's something I want to do first," Leah thought of Bella. She wanted to thank her for saving her life and apologize to her about what happened with me. I frowned. I didn't think she really needed to apologize but I knew her heart was in the right place.