Part 3
I both loved and hated my job. The thrill of surgery and the feeling of accomplishment when it was a success was the best feeling in the world. The worst was the long shifts and the deaths. The constant deaths. You’d think this far in the future we’d have cured everything. That was not the case. Population was struggling from the natural disasters, pollution and weather acceleration in the past hundred years as it was. Adding disease and preventable deaths on top of that meant the human race really needed to get its act together, but without over populating like it was close to doing in the 21st century. The World Union, basically a union with an ambassador from every country, all agreed on a three-child policy in order to keep the population growing but at a reasonable rate. Micah’s infectious sympathy for humanity caught on pretty early in my life. I studied sociology with him and the history of the world but his love for medicine was his forefront. It was only natural that I would start to like it too. When we first moved to Chicago, id often visit him at the hospital and the thrill of it was just compelling.
I started my residency last year. Most residents were full time but with my job at the Volturi I could only be here part time. I didn’t want any special treatment so I made sure I did the shifts the same as the other residents did as much as I could. That meant I did one three-day shift a week and then a twelve hour one some other time in the next four days. The other three days I was at the Volturi or had free time. I was lucky I had Carlisle on my side.
I had to say though, I had never seen my mother at the hospital. I frowned as I saw her head towards me in the busy corridor leading to paediatrics. People were glancing at her wondering who the hell she was as she walked through the hospital like she owned the place. She smiled softly at me as she reached me. My co-workers began to whisper and I narrowed my eyes at my mother. She had promised me she’d never interfere with my job here. This was like my safe haven where I didn’t have to be Esther Josephson’s daughter. I could just be me.
“Mama,” I hissed so those around me didn’t here.
“I’m sorry angel but I had to come see you, I’m leaving for Europe on business in an hour. I just wanted to come tell you myself.” She explained, she added the word Volturi in my head for only me to hear. She reached to tuck the hair behind my ear as she spoke. It was natural for her to do but I wanted to step away, so those watching wouldn’t think anything of it. Luckily, we didn’t look much alike so their first thought wasn’t likely to be that she was my mother.
“Okay,” I frowned at her, I didn’t know why she was making the effort. Normally my sisters would tell me something like this.
What’s going on? I asked the joint mind but no one replied.
“It could take up to a week. Aleksander is staying here.” She explained and I nodded.
“Okay,” I said again. This time she leant forward and kissed my forehead.
Ill be back soon. Keep your papa company. She placed in my head and began to walk away. I watched as Harvey Leon’s eyes roamed my mother’s body as she left. I felt physically sick.
I was immediately surrounded by my fellow residents.
“Who was that?”
“Is that your sister?”
“What did she want?”
“Is she single?”
I span to face them, anger in my voice without really wanting it to be.
“It’s none of your business,” I almost yelled at them.
“That was Carlisle’s sister.” Someone mentioned. “I remember her from when she visited Carlisle that one time.”
“Your aunt?” one of the girls clarified.
“Esther Cullen?” people muttered
“The one that adopted you?” someone added in awe.
“She raised me. Yes”, I mumbled and tried to walked away but they kept asking questions. Most of them knew I didn’t like to talk about my family life but this was the first time they’d seen me interact with anyone other than Micah or Carlisle. Our public story was that Carlisle was Micah’s biological father and that I was adopted into their family and raised by Carlisle’s younger sister, Esther.
“Hey back off. Get back to work,” Harvey called out to those still hovering in the hall.
“Yes Dr Leon,” I heard mutters and they all started to disperse.
I shot him a thank you glance and left to check on one of my patients.
I somehow forgot that my sisters were basically avoiding me as I continued with my busy shift. It wasn’t like my sisters not to tell me things, especially if they involved our mother. They didn’t enter the joint mind once over the next two days. I was starting to question what was going on. I hadn’t seen Carlisle back at the hospital either. That was rare. He had left no explanation other than ‘family issues’ with his PA.
It was two days into my shift when I started to feel the incline of worry but I kept pushing it down to focus on my job. I knew if it was urgent someone would have told me. My mother was immortal, it’s not like I had to worry for her life if she was doing something dangerous
“Hey jailbait,” Harvey whispered to me, distracting me from my thoughts. I rolled my eyes and rested my hand on my hip. Jailbait was a stupid nickname he gave me not long ago. When I first started here I looked in my twenties physically but still younger than most surgical residents in the 23rd century. Most were early 30s after their training before they got to actually work in a hospital. I was passing for 25, the story was I had just skipped a few grades. Passing as younger than the average gave me a few nicknames entering the program. When Harvey and I started seeing each other on the side he would joke that I was almost jailbait to him. This would be the only time in my life that I wouldn’t actually be lying about my age. I aimed to make the most of it.
I was lucky really, I was blessed with quite an older immortality age. My mother was physically mid-twenties and my father late twenties. Giving me an average age of 25. Micah was lucky in that way too, he was physically mid-twenties thanks to his parents being older than the average vampire in our family. I see some of Micah’s much older family members that are stuck in their teens or very early 20s and wonder how they even get through life. They must constantly be ID’d and have to deny their age or dress up to make them seem older. Medicine and technology were on their side though, about a hundred years ago the human scientists found a way to make people look younger. It was a huge thing for people in their forties and fifties. This meant, for the population between 30-60 you could hardly tell the difference anymore, most of the population looked in their thirties, even when they were close to hitting sixty. At a certain point it just didn’t work anymore and humans began to age after 60 but it meant that the vampires of the family had a very good cover story for staying in the same place for decades on end. They didn’t even look out of place.
This helped Carlisle stay around and continue his hospitals. He had also perfected the art of deception when it came to his age. He acted much older than a man being in his twenties so people tended to assume he was older. He was passing for forty something at this point. I didn’t know what he was going to do in the next twenty years when his excuse would start to fade. I imagined he would hand his job to Micah eventually and if Micah ever did decide to settle down and have a family it would go to his children after that.
“What?” I hissed at Harvey staring at me suggestively.
“On-call room?” he raised his eyebrows. “My shift’s over.” He mentioned. Most of the time we hooked up it would be on the tail end of one of our shifts just out of convenience, if only one of us was missing for a while it was less obvious we were committing an affair. I sighed as I checked my schedule on my tablet. I should be in the ER but I could go missing for a bit. I nodded as I followed him in, I turned and locked the door behind us.
Locking doors was against rules. They weren’t even supposed to have working locks but I used my ability to make a select few work for this purpose. They had special keys only the cleaners had. There would be at least one room locked for use at a time so it was the perfect hideaway for people like me and Harvey that just couldn’t get caught. Harvey thought I had a special key and because my uncle was the chief, I managed to make him turn a blind eye. In reality if Carlisle had any idea he never asked me about it.
As Harvey began to kiss my neck and shoulders I tried to put everything out of my mind. It didn’t help when he felt the need to bring up my mother to me.
“So, your aunt…” he began still kissing me. I shivered in disgust and pushed him away slightly. My mother wouldn’t approve of my relationship with Harvey. In fact, no one that knew did.
“Do not mention my aunt when you’re kissing me,” I frowned at him, he laughed.
“Sorry, it’s just, she’s hot,” he said as he leant back towards me.
“She’s practically my mother. Please don’t ever say that again,” I said.
“I’m sorry. I know you’re protective over your family and that. I didn’t mean to anger you,” he said, this time I let him lean back in again.
We were in the on-call room for barely an hour. I lay facing the ceiling wondering to myself why I wasn’t aware of the ‘family issues’ that Carlisle’s PA had claimed was his reason for absence, was this to do with my mother mysteriously saying she had to leave?
“Are you okay?” Harvey whispered to me, he lay next to me catching his breath for a moment.
“Are you? Old man.” I joked watching him adjust.
“Shut up,” he mumbled. Harvey was early forties technically. God knows how much of that miracle age cure he’d used to make him look younger. He had the lottery of good looks though, that wasn’t something scientists had mastered the art of yet. I leant over to reach my tablet. I checked the staff signing in page and noticed Carlisle still wasn’t here.
“Are you worried about your uncle?” he asked me over my shoulder. I minimised the tablet putting it back on the floor next to the bed.
“A little,” I mumbled. His fingers started to trail patterns on my arm and I held back the urge to shiver. I didn’t mind the sex, in fact it distracted me from work and life, he was good in bed but I hated this bit. I hated him wanting to hold me or cuddle me or even touch me. I sat up, reaching for my top.
“You can talk to me,” he reminded me as he watched me dress.
“I know,” I said defensively and turned to look at him. He looked concerned. “I know,” I stated again, this time softer as I sat on the edge of the bed. I felt bad sometimes when I was with him. I couldn’t always hide my attitude when it came to our relationship. I liked him, I liked our friendship mixed with flirtations and secret meetings, but at the same time I didn’t like the fact I was his mistress and he pretended like I wasn’t, I hated that he was a liar and I couldn’t truly ever trust him. I hated that he had a perfect family at home, an amazing job and he still needed more on the side. I also hated that I caved and gave him it. Every time. I hated that he wasn’t who I really wanted. Who I lived my life for and who I turned to for everything.
As if the universe was laughing, my phone buzzed with a message from Micah.
How you holding up? Need ice-cream?
‘Ice-cream’ was our code word for blood. When we were kids we dared each other to try some. Even though we knew our bodies couldn’t digest it, we wanted to see why humans liked the stuff so much. Needless to say, it was gross. It became a code word for us, we joked that it was basically the opposite of blood, blood was warm and delicious. Ice-cream was cold and nasty. Given that we couldn’t really talk about our diet around humans or through messages in case someone saw we started to use it as a cover for what we really were eating instead.
You have no idea. I sent a quick reply and stood up from the bed.
“I have to get back to the ER,” I said heading for the door, I unlocked it and eyed Harvey staring at me.
“Ivy. Call your uncle, just ask,” he said trying to soothe my worried mind. I smiled back.
“I will. See you in a few days.” I assured him and left him to head back to the ER. I wouldn’t. Carlisle wasn’t likely to actually tell me but I knew who would. I’d get it out of Micah the second he appeared with my meal.
The next few hours were crazy. It didn’t even register to me that Micah hadn’t come after his message until I saw him smiling across the ER at me. My mind suddenly registered the burning in my throat when I saw the flasks in Micah’s hand. He held one up and it took everything in me not to rush over there at vamp speed and take it from him. I had blood with me to drink on the job but nothing beats the warm stuff.
“Where is Carlisle?” Was the first thing I said as I reached him. I took the flask and brought it to my lips. It was deer. Micah had gone out and drained it for me. I wanted to kiss him I was so happy. I expected boar warmed up because it was easy to get, but Micah had made the effort to get me something fresh.
“What?” he asked with a frown
“He hasn’t been here in two days,” I said giving him my ‘I know something is up’ face he could never resist folding too.
“Let’s go somewhere private,” he told me taking my hand and leading me to the on-call room I had been in with Harvey just a few hours previously.
“There’s something going on at the Volturi,” he explained to me after he checked the room was empty.
“Like what?” I asked in shock. He sighed as he sat down on the bed. I sat on the opposite one.
“A guy came to court saying he saw a group of witches in Italy forming a coven under the name of Lilim, he thinks they’re coming for the Cullen’s. Zio called an emergency meeting the other day, they sent your mother and my brother and sister to find out more.”
“My mother said she was going away for a while but she didn’t tell me what for.” I hissed. I should have known she was trying to protect me.
“Why are you whispering?” he asked with a smile.
“Because I’m mad!” I glared at him and I could see his mouth twitch into a smirk. I was a little frantic as I thought over the betrayal of my mother. Not only that. My sisters didn’t tell me either.
“My mother ugh,” I groaned in frustration.
“She’s just protecting you. There was no point in you knowing anything yet. You’re a Balev. You don’t have the threat of the Cullen name,” he tried to ease me. It worked, his reasoning and presence always worked, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t still worried.
“No but you do, and I’m with you most of the time. People call me Ivana Cullen all the time by mistake because of my link to your family. You don’t think they won’t put two and two together when they found us?” I asked.
“Ivana. We’re probably the most protected here. It’s the human generations that are the risk in this situation. Not us. She knows if anything happened to us we have your sisters. She also knows no witch stands a chance against you,” he said raising his eyebrows as if to dismiss the entire situation
“She could have still told me,” I mumbled but my excuse had faded. A minute with my best friend and I was okay. That’s how strongly he affected me.
“Well she sent me instead. We just have to stay out of the way for a while. Whatever happens, happens.” He explained
“And, how are you?” I asked in concern. Micah wasn’t a warmonger. In fact, he was the definition of pacifist if I ever saw one.
“What do you mean?” he asked for clarification.
“Potential war? Threat? Conflict?” I asked. He nodded in understanding.
“Anxious,” he answered and I automatically moved towards him. I moved to sit next to him, my hand reaching for his in comfort.
“My mother’s right. They won’t come for us,” I said resting my head on his shoulder. I couldn’t stop myself. There was no one in the world I felt more comfortable with than Micah. Seeing him in conflict with himself, seeing him anxious and uncomfortable made me want to take it all away. It was an uncontrollable urge to comfort him. He was the best man, hell, best person, I knew. He literally couldn’t hurt a fly, even if he wanted to. He didn’t deserve to worry over things like this.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t worry about those that carry my name,” he said and I squeezed his hand in comfort.
“Our family will sort it. They fought Lilim and won. They can do this too.” I said trying to reassure him. I don’t think it worked though.
“They did that with an immortal witch, an immortal witch that literally gave her immortal life to help your mother win,” he sighed.
“We have plenty of those now,” I laughed. My mother harboured immense power when it came to her magic, and I had seen Axton and Alena too. There was something very different about them, they were around when I was a child a little but soon left on a mission in another state. We had another one too. Cain. But he scared me. He always had. From the day he tracked me down and wanted me to join him. My parents assured me he’d likely never hurt me or anyone in this family in fear of retaliation but they were never quite sure. He was an odd one.
“Three.” He reminded me. “I’m pretty sure they would very much like to survive this.”
“The twins are more powerful than they were back then, we also have my mother’s power now. She knows how to use it better than she did when she faced Lilim. And you’re forgetting something. These witches aren’t Lilim, they’re mortal and their power is nothing on my mothers. All will be fine,” I said right as my pocket buzzed. I looked down to see my patient I’d spent the last two days checking on was struggling to breathe. “I’m sorry sweetie I have to go,” I said quickly kissing his cheek. Hoping he understood.
Who was I kidding, of course he understood.
“I’ll be fine. See you tomorrow,” he said sadly as he watched me leave. I was getting déjà vu almost. Only this time I didn’t want to leave the man in the on-call room.
“See you tomorrow.” I said giving him one last look to check he was actually okay before leaving to get to my patient.
End of Part 3
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