LOVE AND DEATH, edward cullen

twenty three

━━ love and death. (2024)
edward cullen x fem!oc
chapter twenty three

My brother came into the kitchen with a dust pan and small broom, dumping the remains of the glass into the trashcan as Carlisle continued to use tweezers to pull shards from my arm.

"Guess you can say I'm a real party crasher." I laughed awkwardly just as Beau shot me a glare. "Not funny, Pen."

Carlisle still smiled. "It's not your fault. Edythe — things are complicated for her. Having not one but two humans in our family now can be a bit overwhelming."

"And Jasper?" Beau asked before standing beside me by leaning his hip against the counter. "Jasper hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of us," Carlisle explained.

"Seems like you're the only one it doesn't affect," I smiled at him, trying my best not to move as he began to apply a cleaning solution to the skin.

"Centuries of practice." He damped a cloth pad around the sore area carefully.

"Did you ever think of living differently?" Beau asked curiously just as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Carlisle bobbed his head side to side like he was debating over the answer. "I enjoy my work too much. Helping people and saving lives. That's why I became a doctor. I'm hoping there's a point to my existence, even if I am damned."

I frowned deeply. "Damned? You're not damned."

"Then you and I agree. But Edward doesn't believe there's an afterlife for our kind." He lifted his gaze to mine. "He thinks we've lost our souls."

Realization settled over me. "Thats why he won't turn me? He thinks he'd be damning me."

Carlisle put the used tools into a metal bowl then discarded the bloody bandages into a separate one before lighting them on fire. "If you believed as he did, would you risk it? If the roles were reversed?"

"I've never thought of it that way," Beau muttered. "It must be difficult for them. But I've never — wait." I carefully eyed my brother out the corner of my eye and noticed his appearance shifting to anger. "Have you tried to talk Edward into doing it?"

"It's complicated," I responded sternly. "And it's none of your business."

"It is my business when my younger sister is trying to convince someone to change her."

Carlisle took the tools to the sink while taking away the — now in ashes — used bandages and put them underwater. I looked over at my brother with a grim look. "Say what you want Beau but your relationship with Edythe isn't like mine and Edward's."

"What the hell does that mean?"

I slid off the counter top and carefully fixed a small cardigan from Esme over my shoulder to hide the wound. "It means other things are happening behind closed doors that you aren't fully aware of."

"That's because you refuse to tell me anything." Beau stepped in front of me and blocked my path from the exit. "You're not going to change yourself just to be with Edward for eternity, I don't care how badly you want it — " he looked over my shoulder, I'm assuming towards Carlisle as he apologized. "No offense."