𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍, 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐰𝐨
Life or Death

CARLISLE FROWNS AS HE LOOKS at Thalia's unconscious body. He couldn't help but worry that his venom didn't work, that maybe, he was too late and that the gold bullet was successful in its job.

"Need not worry, Carlisle. Thalia is going to be fine," A voice says behind him as he hears its steps coming towards him.

He looks behind him and sees Celia Cohen leaning on the side of the arch doorway, looking intently at her granddaughter.

"Why isn't her heart beating? The venom should've worked," Carlisle asks her while playing a thumb on Thalia's cold and pale cheeks.

Celia sighs and walks towards him, and places a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. She says, "She's in some sort of a limbo for banshees. If a death of a banshee is by natural cause, you pass through to the other side without any problem, if it's by supernatural or intentional causes, you have a choice to make, either she'll go back here, or she'll stay and pass through."

Carlisle went silent, processing the information that had been revealed to him.

It eases his thoughts that Thalia may choose to come back, for her grandmother or him.

"How do you know this?" Carlisle asks curiously.

If Celia knows about it, she must've chosen to go back and not pass through the other side.

Celia chuckles, knowing exactly what his question implies, and she answers, "I didn't die. It's in one of our old journals passed in our family, an ancestor of ours decided its future generation should be aware of what is going to happen if it occurs. However, it is still in my possession, and I never thought to give it to Thalia. I didn't know that this was going to happen."

Carlisle nods and asks again, "What do you think she'll choose?"

Celia purses her lips. She honestly doesn't know what her granddaughter will choose. She knows that her daughter, Lilith, and his son-in-law, Karl, are going to help Thalia with her decisions. It's also written in the journal. However, she didn't want to shatter Carlisle's hope, so she willingly chose to leave it out.

"It is up to her on what she chooses, but let us not blame her if she chooses the latter," Celia tells him with a sigh.

Even if she wants Thalia to go back and stay here, she'll never blame her for any of her future decisions. She'll just support her throughout everything, even when it comes to choosing life or death.

"Go hunt, Carlisle. Thalia won't leave," Celia says as she pats his shoulder while she returns to the guest room Esme and the girls arranged for her.

Carlisle sighs in defeat and nods as he walks out of the house. He couldn't help but recall what happened in the cafe.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

A GUNSHOT ECHOES throughout the coffee shop as Carlisle and the others rush toward Thalia and Liam.

He sees Liam looking at him with a satisfied look on his face, giving him his sadistic smirk. Thalia's body suddenly drops to the ground.

"No!" Carlisle yells as he runs towards Thalia's body, gently turning her around, carefully trying not to worsen the damage.

Blood pooling on the ground and his hands covered in her blood, he sees a bullet hole right in Thalia's heart.

Alice rushes towards him while the others restrain a weak Liam, "She's dying, Carlisle. We don't much have time."

"I know," Carlisle whispers as he looks at Alice, and the pixie gives her a nod and looks around the cafe. Still, the people didn't seem to mind the scene unfolding before them.

He knows that the compulsion didn't break, looking back Thalia he purses his lips and places a kiss on her forehead, and whispers, "I'm sorry," as he gently removes her brown hair away from her neck, leaning forward, he places a kiss on the skin of her neck, as he bits into it, skin tearing, spreading his venom to Thalia's body.

"I've seen it. She is meant to be one of us, Carlisle, since I first saw her in my visions," Alice says comfortably, and Carlisle looks at her in defeat, "I didn't know that it was supposed to happen be this way,"

"I know, I didn't know too," Alice says and looks back and sees the boys holding Liam. Then she looks at Carlisle and nods. "Go. I'll take care of Thalia,"

Carlisle hesitantly gives Thalia in Alice's arms as the pixie gently cradles her body.

Carlisle places a peck on Thalia's forehead. Standing up from his place, he walks towards the others and stands in front of Liam, and the man just looks at him with a smile. "Too late now,"

Emmett angrily slaps the back of Liam's head and says, "This man is annoying. He keeps taunting us, Carlisle," as he looks at Liam in disgust. This man he is holding right now doesn't deserve to live after what he had done to Thalia.

"Carlisle, it's your choice, but abusers and murderers like him don't deserve to be pitied," Jasper tells him. It disturbs him that Liam radiates such dark emotions.

Jasper Whitlock expected just as much when Thalia decided to tell them last week, and he promised to himself that he'll kill the man if he ever encountered him, and now he did.

However, it is still Carlisle's choice. If he chooses to let him live, Jasper will make his own motive, find him, and kill the man himself.

"Do you really want a man like him walking freely? He'll just go to jail and have a life sentence. He deserves more than that for doing that to Thalia and to those women that he murdered," Christopher tells him he isn't really into violence.

However, after Thalia told them what Liam did and how he remembered Esme telling him back in 1923 what his first husband did to her, he didn't take Thalia's situation lightly.

"I agree with them," Edward says while looking at Liam, who just winked at him, a look of revulsion crossing the bronze-haired man's features.

Edward Anthony remembered when he left Carlisle, Christopher, and Esme when he decided to embrace his true nature, using his mind-reading ability to seek out the worst people in society, people like Liam, under the belief that as long as he was serving justice, it didn't matter that he was giving in to his monstrous nature and feeding on a human.

Yet, he is willing to kill another human for Thalia's sake, even though they have known each other for a short time, Thalia treated and understood him as a son, and he gained another loving and nurturing mother.

"I do not agree when it comes to violence," Carlisle says as he looks at the boys. They frown at him and continue, "-however, I can make this one an exception. It shouldn't bring any harm,"

As the others chuckle and laugh, they really thought Carlisle would disagree about killing the man they are restraining.

"What's with the red dagger?" Emmett asks Carlisle curiously as he examines the weapon deeply embedded in Liam's back, and Carlisle answers, "That's the only weapon that can kill him."

"Well, I'll be damned. This made our job easy," Christopher says as he is about to pull out the dagger.

Carlisle stops him, "Let's continue this in another location. We're in a public place," As he and the other look around, a look of realization crosses their features.

"Right, I forgot about that. What kind of witchy juju did he do?" Christopher asks as he and the others drag Liam to the back entrance of the cafe and into an empty and covered alleyway.

"Compulsion, they'll forget everything that happened today. Liam made sure of it," Carlisle answers as Liam chuckles and says, "Smart move, yeah?"

"Oh, will you just shut your mouth, man? You've said enough," Emmett says as he and Edward hold on to both of his arms as Jasper aggressively removes the red dagger from his back, and his painful screams echoing in the alleyway, yet not enough to startle the pedestrians.

"So, where do we begin?" Jasper asks, he twirls the dagger in his hand. This is one of the kills he wouldn't regret or give him the guilt, the opposite really, oh, he is going to enjoy this.

"I'm going to call Rose," Emmett says as she dials his best friend's phone number, and the blonde woman is suddenly in front of them and says with a smirk.

"Good idea to call me. I wouldn't want to miss this," She will make sure that Liam pays for what he did to Thalia, and she will have fun.

Carlisle smiles and looks at each one of them as Jasper hands him the red dagger, then he plunges the knife into Liam's shoulder, a painful scream and whimpers escaping his chapped lips as Carlisle chuckles at the sound. He deserves every bit of pain after what he did to his beloved Thalia.

Carlisle looks at them and says, "Do whatever you please. Just leave the heart to me."

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

CARLISLE GOT BACK FROM HUNTING, and he sees the others gathering around Thalia's body, confused and worried. Alice then looks at him with an excited smile as the pixie skips towards him. "Listen," she tells him, and so he does.

And it's the venom slithering inside Thalia's body, and that's when he knew that Thalia Elie Bennet chose life over death.