Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer [114]
I stared into them anyway, keeping my gaze locked there.
And then her body was suddenly still under my hands, though her breathing picked up roughly and her heart continued to thud. I realized the stillness meant that it was over. The internal beating was over. It must be out of her.
It was.
Edward whispered, Renesmee.
So Bellad been wrong. It wasnt the boy shed imagined. No big surprise there. What hadnt she been wrong about?
I didnt look away from her red-spotted eyes, but I felt her hands lift weakly.
Let me , she croaked in a broken whisper. Give her to me.
I guess I should have known that he would always give her what she wanted, no matter how stupid her request might be. But I didnt dream he would listen to her now. So I didnt think to stop him.
Something warm touched my arm. That right there should have caught my attention. Nothing felt warm to me.
But I couldnt look away from Bellas face. She blinked and then stared, finally seeing something. She moaned out a strange, weak croon.
Renes mee. So beautiful.
And then she gasped-gasped in pain.
By the time I looked, it was too late. Edward had snatched the warm, bloody thing out of her limp arms. My eyes flickered across her skin. It was red with blood-the blood that had flowed from her mouth, the blood smeared all over the creature, and fresh blood welling out of a tiny double-crescent bite mark just over her left breast.
No, Renesmee, Edward murmured, like he was teaching the monster manners.
I didnt look at him or it. I watched only Bella as her eyes rolled back into her head.
With a last dull ga-lump, her heart faltered and went silent.
She missed maybe half of one beat, and then my hands were on her chest, doing compressions. I counted in my head, trying to keep the rhythm steady. One. Two. Three. Four.
Breaking away for a second, I blew another lungful of air into her.
I couldnt see anymore. My eyes were wet and blurry. But I was hyperaware of the sounds in the room. The unwilling glug-glug of her heart under my demanding hands, the pounding of my own heart, and another-a fluttering beat that was too fast, too light. I couldnt place it.
I forced more air down Bellas throat.
What are you waiting for? I choked out breathlessly, pumping her heart again. One. Two. Three. Four.
Take the baby, Edward said urgently.
Throw it out the window. One. Two. Three. Four.
Give her to me, a low voice chimed from the doorway.
Edward and I snarled at the same time.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Ive got it under control, Rosalie promised. Give me the baby, Edward. Ill take care of her until Bella
I breathed for Bella again while the exchange took place. The fluttering thumpa-thumpa-thumpa faded away with distance.
Move your hands, Jacob.
I looked up from Bellas white eyes, still pumping her heart for her. Edward had a syringe in his hand-all silver, like it was made from steel.
Whats that?
His stone hand knocked mine out of the way. There was a tiny crunch as his blow broke my little finger. In the same second, he shoved the needle straight into her heart.
My venom, he answered as he pushed the plunger down.
I heard the jolt in her heart, like hed shocked her with paddles.
Keep it moving, he ordered. His voice was ice, was dead. Fierce and unthinking. Like he was a machine.
I ignored the healing ache in my finger and started pumping her heart again. It was harder, as if her blood was congealing there-thicker and slower. While I pushed the now-viscous blood through her arteries, I watched what he was doing.
It was like he was kissing her, brushing his lips at her throat, at her wrists, into the crease at the inside of her arm. But I could hear the lush tearing of her skin as his teeth bit through, again and again, forcing venom into her system at as many points as possible. I saw his pale tongue sweep along the bleeding gashes, but before this could make me either sick or angry, I realized what he was doing. Where his tongue washed the venom over her skin, it sealed shut. Holding the poison and the blood inside her body.
I blew more air into