Carlisle and Renesmee turned to me expectedly.
"What have you found?" Renesmee asked.
I gestured with a sweep of my hand to the page in front of me. Written in an old hand was the heading 'Cerveny Plyn'.
"That's Czech for Red Gas," said Carlisle excitedly.
Like parishioners reciting a prayer from the Bible , we read the page together.
Once we finished pouring over the text we glanced at each other hopefully.
"If this book is correct, the cure for the effects of the cerise gas is to avoid blood," Renesmee said.
"The problem with the cure is that vampires need blood to survive," Carlisle sighed. "Three months without blood would cause extreme weakness, insanity in the vampire and eventual death."
"We now have an alternative to drinking blood," I reminded him. "I don't drink blood and I'm perfectly healthy."
Renesmee turned to me. "Yes! You don't drink blood, Ella - you drink sap from the Sangue Tree. That's why you didn't lose your powers."
"So by that reasoning," Carlisle said with a speculative expression on his face."If Renesmee and Alice drink Sangue instead of blood they should recover."
"Lucky we have an ample supply of it," I said, thinking about the Sangue tree sitting in the garden outside the cottage where Renesmee, Bella, Edward and I lived.
"We must get to the tree - we have no time to lose," said Carlisle.
We headed resolutely out of the library and returned to the cottage. I wheeled into the back garden, Renesmee and Carlisle by my side.
On my lap in a bag were two glass jars and a sharp knife.
I made my way to the Sangue Tree that had become my lifeline. I hacked into the bark of the tree. Red sap spilled out like an open wound.
I positioned the jar underneath the waterfall of sap and watched as it poured in.
Once the first jar was full of red sap, I filled the next one. Before too long, I had two jars filled with a life-sustaining alternative to blood.
I handed one of the jars full of sap to Renesmee.
"Drink this," I said.
Renesmee clasped the jar and took an experimental swallow. Her face broke out into a surprised grin.
"It tastes like a delicious mix of blood and raspberries," she said happily.
"Let's transfer this to Alice," said Carlisle.
We headed back to the lounge room where Alice was still positioned on the couch. Her head was now slumped against the arm of the chair. Here eyes were barely open.
I could see that she was greatly weakened. Jasper was reading to her.
"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds," he read.
He reminded me of Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. Jasper was reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 to Alice just like Colonel Brandon read to Marianne when she was weak.
Aw we walked into the room, Jasper stopped reading. He looked at us bleakly.
"I need to find a way to help her," Jasper intoned in a desolate voice.
I handed the vial of blood to Jasper.
"Here you go," I said. " Alice needs to drink all of this."
He gently sat Alice up and held the jar to her pale lips. She drank it obediently. Slowly, the colour came back to her cheeks. She sat up tentatively.
"That tasted disgusting!" she said sassily. "And it smells like damp leaves!"
I smiled happily. "Someone's got a little bit of her spark back," I said in an undertone.
Thought she complained, it was obvious to all of us that Alice felt instantly regenerated.
"A few more weeks of drinking this and your powers will return," said Carlisle.
Everyone smiled with relief.
"I'd like to go back to my own bed," Alice said as she looked at Jasper.
"Allow me," Jasper said. With a chivalrous expression he scooped Alice up in his arms and carried her off in the direction of the Cullen house. Once again, I was reminded of Colonel Brandon. This time, I remembered him carrying Marianne through the rain.
That evening, Renesmee, Edward, Bella and I were alone in the cottage. We settled in front of the fire to relax.
This felt like the first time since I had become a vampire that I'd had nothing to worry about.
I thought about the adventures I had had since I became a vampire: I had felt the exhilaration of riding through the woods on a werewolf;
I had felt the protection of a swarm of martens while they lined up to protect me from the Volturi;
and I had felt the power of discovering that I had an affinity with animals that allowed me to communicate with them.
Even though these adventures had been amazing, I was looking forward to living a normal existence as a vampire.
As if reading my thoughts, Bella said "I'm not sure if you girls are aware of the date, but school goes back next week."
"I'd lost track of time," I said. Luckily my life as a vampire had started in the school holidays which has given me time to process. But now reality had caught up with me.
"Ella, we need to prepare you for remaining as inconspicuous as possible at school," said Bella.
"It can be tricky at first but we will help you," said Edward.
Suddenly the front door was flung open and an excited looking Alice stood in front of us. She was obviously feeling a LOT better. Behind her came Emmett, wheeling two enormous racks of clothes.
"It seems like that inedible substance revived me just in time," she said with a smirk."I'm here with everything Ella needs to look like a human - a stylish human. School starts in three days and we don't have a second to waste..."
Soundtrack:
While I was writing this chapter, I was listening to:
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