Crescent • A Twilight Story

Embracing the Flame

We fell into a rhythm of normalcy. Or at least, a normal for us.

It'd been a few weeks since we had seen Ward, he apparently was staying with cousins in Alaska indefinitely.

The routine was simple enough. School felt like one of those cliché teen romances. Duke carried my books, walked me to class, and held my hand as much as possible.

Gemma ate lunch with us at the boy's table, and I wondered if Harry had imprinted too. The way he looked at her when she was distracted elsewhere, it was the same look Duke gave me.

Right after school, things took a more sci-fi turn. Mae would pick me up while Duke trained with the guys, and we would head to my new residence with the Cullens.

Stress tests. Imaging. Blood work. It was something new every day. They researched a thousand books. A hundred myths. The only theory left came from Duke one night, as he returned from seeing his grandparents.

"Fast healing. Blood repels vampire venom. Maybe she's a wolf."

They explored that avenue, of true werewolves. Analyzed my blood and cells to the shapeshifters. Attempted to provoke me into changing. Studied the effects of my body against the phases of the moons.

Nothing. Dead ends.

Duke stayed with me at night, or Rosalie when he was out on patrols, and I began to possess the ability of sleeping through it.

I wasn't under any pretenses that the blonde vampire cared for me, only for the possibility of a cure. It was another avenue they'd been exploring, using Mae's blood to see if I truly possessed the ability of expelling the vampiric cells.

But the results weren't pretty. Under the microscope, it appeared as if my blood acted as a fire. It burned through the ice, as the ice had burned through them in their change.

They needed to wait and see, what the effects might do in the long term.

Though Duke and I shared a bed and closeness, he my only true friend. We hadn't been able to find the right moment to seal our fate with a kiss.

The eve of Halloween, Mae stopped by her house and I let myself step foot inside the cottage for the first time in so long. The fireplace crackled as before, and to my surprise a haggard figure sat motionless.

His body hunched over on the couch, snapping in my direction as his disheveled hair covered his face. He had a beard now, or at least, a thin layer of stubble dotting his cheeks.

"Ward?"

***

I followed in my grandfather's footsteps, getting a grip on myself in Alaska. When she walked in the room, her lovely scent wafting in a gust of autumn breeze, I breathed it in.

I don't want to hurt her. I reminded myself. I can't hurt her.

I took her in, shocked to see what she had become in my short absence. Her skin had filled around her cheeks, her face a little more full and eyes no longer sunken in. She'd been eating, I realized. And sleeping, her expression bright. If not also concerned.

"Ward?" Her voice echoed inside my soul, and I reminded myself once again she was not mine. But his.

And once he smelled my scent on her... I would be as good as dead.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here." She turned back to the door, and I stayed planted on the couch.

"No one does. Though I suspect my mom will soon."

She paused, her fingers twitching above the door handle.

"I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting you to be there." Her voice was but a trembling whisper.

"Afraid I'd come to hurt you?" Every time I slept, crashed really, I dreamt of her sobbing in the corner and curled into a ball.

She inhaled sharply, turning. "Afraid you weren't okay." I straightened. "Without your family, your parents,"

"Dad couldn't stand the sight of me before I left. It was better this way."

"No. No, it wasn't." I studied her, the concern in her tone. It seemed genuine somehow. Impossibly genuine. "Are you staying?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you should." I shot up, keeping my distance across the room. "Really, Ward. Your family needs you. And you need them."

"You can't mean that. And Duke," Her eyebrows twitched at the mention of his name. "Duke would never allow a threat like me near you. And I am a threat. To you."

She crossed her arms. "And I to you." She flipped back her hair. "A poison remember."

"No, a drug." She shrugged.

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is," I stepped toward her, the floorboards creaking. "I could kill you first."

"I have a theory," She said, taking a staggering step toward me as well. "That you won't."

I paused as she continued to move forward, with a determined look on her face. "Not worth testing it."

She continued moving forward, her lips parting. "You're worth testing it, Ward. To have your old life back. Your friends too."

"I'm a mutt to them. An abomination." She frowned at that.

"I don't think that way." My stomach fluttered as she stood before me, stopping a foot away. "We all have are faults. Things we're not proud of. Aren't you ready to start proving them wrong?"

Her hands shook as they reached out toward me, tentatively slow. I held my breath as she placed her head on my chest, her arms tucking beneath mine.

I froze under her embrace, unsure what to do with myself. "You said awhile back you wanted to be friends, Ward. Let me help you. Let me be yours."

Slowly, I wrapped my arms around her, taking in a deep breath. Embracing the flame.

It wasn't as bad as I remembered, her gentleness a balm against the maddening desire. When she pulled away there was a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I don't know where to start."

Rory dipped into her bag, pulling out the sketchbook I'd given her.

"I told you to be honest and kind to yourself." She said, heading for the door. "Perhaps it's time you start there."