The sun shown brightly over our back patio in Toronto, our black chairs absorbing as much heat as possible, but my chair was very cold. I gently shut my bittern and beaten copy of Wuthering Heights as I finished it for the n'th time and stared up at the cloud covered sun. If the sun decides to peer around a cloud it would shoot tiny rainbows off of my skin. That is one trick I never got sick of; watching my pale pale skin create tiny colorful rainbows. I heard the sliding door open and shut. Lillyann came and sat next to me.
She was a pretty girl, as we all are, but I'm sure she was pretty even before she became a vampire. Her long brown hair dangled behind the patio chair as she sprawled comfortably bathing in the sun.
"Do you ever wonder where Hazel and Vallieus go when they leave us?" She pondered allowed.
Hazel and Vallieus are what you would call my adopted parents. They were the ones who taught me how to live this life and have raised Lillyann and me as their own for the past eighty-five years. I guess you could say Lillyann is my big sister in vampire years but in appearance I would be her older sister.
"No," I responded now watching some Cedar Waxwing birds fly in and out of there nest.
"Why?" She asked. That was a good question. Why do I not wonder where Hazel and Vallieus go when they leave us like this?
"I guess it's just the way things have always been. They have always left us but that always come back."
"I suppose so." She snuggled deeper in to her seat and did not say anything else. So I retreated to my room to be alone. Like Edward, my room was on the third floor of our house, and my window looked out at lush forest. But the forest did not capture my attention now. I was sitting on my couch staring at my wall of pictures. They were thumb tacked and taped to the light green wall, but you could not see any color. I had pictures from every place I'd ever lived as a vampire, from DC and Texas and even back when I was in Alaska. Most of them were of Lillyann and me making silly faces at some tourist attraction. There were a few of Hazel and Vallieus. But some of my most cherished ones were of Fork's which I kept in a picture book. Most of them were worn and faded. I had flipped through them so much they were starting to fall apart. My mind drifted back to that time when I was in love and my heart almost skipped a beat, if it had been able to beat at all. I let out a deep sigh, just then my head quickly snapped up as I heard the front door slam.
"Bella," Vallieus called as he burst into my room. The door slammed against the wall and knocked to painting off the wall shattering the pane of glass.
"What is it?" I said with a start. He flashed to my closet and starting pulling my bags down. He flung one at me and I caught it. I guess now was not the time for questions.
"We have to leave now!" His voice was surprisingly calm for his actions. I guess you learn a thing or two after 500 years. "Pack your bags but not too heavy we have to run. Take only the things that can't be replaced." I caught his eye as he turned to leave. The look in his eyes frightened me. He was scared and worried, but about what? He left my room in a blur. It took me a few seconds to snap back from his eyes and start gathering my things. One quick sweep around the room and my bag was packed. It was really not that heavy; very few true valuables. I threw the bag over my back and dashed down the stairs to Lillyann's room.
Hazel and Lillyann were just zipping up the bag as I arrived at her room. I felt a slight whisper on my skin and looked over at the open window. A large gust filled the room; my nostrils flared. The scent was neither human nor animal, but them. The vampires were coming for us. Now it was clear why we were leaving but the question now was why were they coming? I looked at Hazel hoping to get some answer in her eyes but nothing and now was not the time for twenty questions.
Just then Vallieus was at my arm with a bulging bag on his back. We all stared at him. His face was so serious. "We're running to the clearing. We will stay together and cut through the river." He looked over to me "Bella your lead, don't worry we will keep up with you." He took a moment to check with all of us to make sure we understood. I took a deep breath and we were racing through the back door.
When the four of us would go hunting together, we would practice "hunting formation." It helped us run as a team. We would all take turns leading to see each others' strengths and weakness. When ever I was the lead all I could think about were the times I would glide through the forest on Edward's back. I would just think of his speed and his weightlessness. I would always out run my family. Vallieus would scold me for not running with the family, but he was always stunned by how fast I could run. But today was different, he wanted everyone to follow my pace; we were running for our lives.
As our feet lightly splashed over the river Vallieus took this opportunity to talk to me.
"Bella" It was lower then a whisper but I could hear him as if he were talking normally. "When we reach the clearing I need you to hyper speed it to the plane and get it ready for us no matter what." I nodded my head once to let him know I understood. In our family it is a requirement to be able to fly an aircraft. When ever Lillyann or I would ask why Hazel would tell us "I don't want us to cause any problems on the plane." But now I'm not so sure that is the true reason.
I quickly looked behind me to see my family about ten feet behind me. They were keeping up better then usual. As I brought my head back around I caught a familiar scent. I could not tell specifically who it belonged to, the campfire smoke made it hard to decipher, but I did know that it was human and we were leading angry vampires right to them.
"Vallieus," I head Hazel call across the forest. "What should we do? We led them here"
I saw the clearing about 50 feet a head, and a dark SUV. They were camping in our clearing. How did they find it? Well no matter how they did, we needed to get them away from here quickly, there's no telling how close the monsters are.
I pushed harder as I reach the edge of the clearing. I blurred by the humans, they did not even notice my passing. I ran to the far west side of the clearing to the "Ditch." As I ran I concentrated on texture of the ground, waiting for a change in sound…
"There," the pitch turned metallic under my feet. I dropped my bag and began to dig with my hands. I had found the left corner of the "Ditch." I quickly dug to my right till I found the center control box. There was only one hole and only four keys could turn the lock. I quickly ripped the necklace from around my neck, grabbed the keys, and placed each one in their slot and gave one full turn to the right. Low metallic clicks sounded and the ground began to open. "Thank goodness for inventers like Vallieus" I muttered to my self.
The barge opened up like something from a sci-fi movie and the plane began to rise to the surface. I looked behind my while I waited for the plane. My family was kindly shoving the camping family back inside their SUV. I scrambled to the newly resurrected plane and hopped into the cockpit. Now I could watch my family help the humans as I started the plane. Lillyann was running my way with all the bags. I ran back and opened to door to let her in. Still running she tosses me her small bag. I caught it and set it next to mine. As she got to the door I reach out my hand and flung her in the plane.
"Who is the family?" I quickly asked her while she put down the other bags.
"The Burges, they overheard us talking about the clearing passed the river and found it."
My stomach sank. The Burges were a really good friend to the family. We were introduced to Sara at the town market and the three of us just clicked. Three years later she asks Lillyann and I if we would be her bride's maids. We accepted, I mean how could we not? We actually went of our way and try and be ugly, we felt so bad. But she never did say anything about it. Sara and Michael have been married for about five years and we were still all really good friends.
"Oh no, Are they going to leave?"
"Yes but they're little confused and none too happy. I believe they think we just want this place to our selves." I rolled my eyes as I watched the SUV start to pull away, but now was not the time.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the brush move and out they came. There were seven of them, all tall, well built, and had looks to kill. They quickly surveyed the scene, one immediately started running after the disappearing SUV. Vallieus and Hazel followed him and three more followed them. The other three started charging the plane. I looked at Lillyann, she grinned at me.
"You got a light?" I smiled back. We both jumped out of the plane and charged the three vampires.
Lillyann and I were an effective team when it came to fighting. We had spent most of the last century sparring together to perfect our coordination and harmony with each others movements. This had made our partnership strong and efficient.
I looked straight ahead, staring our opponents' right in the eye and as the distance between us closed time seemed to slow down. Every thing felt like a well choreographed dance that we had been practicing for months. Every powerful stroke or our arms, every swipe of our legs made perfect contact. Soon time resumed and marble pieces lay around Lillyann and me.
"You brought the light right?" Lillyann asked, I just rolled my eyes and tossed her the "Torch" as we called it. I started to gather the marble pieces in to a pile while Lillyann started to coat them with lighter fluid. After every piece was collected she grabbed a twig, lit it on fire and tossed it into the rubble. It caught flames instantaneously. Lillyann and I stayed to make sure every piece caught fire.
"That was almost too easy," she whispered through the purple smoke.
"Yes it was," muttered a soft sweet voice from behind us. I turned around and saw Hazel and Vallieus about ten feet away gliding toward us. My Heart lifted to see they were all right, but what about the Burge's?
"What happened to the Burge's?" I quickly asked as Vallieus swept beside me. He looked back at me with very serious eyes.
"Bella now is not the time we must hurry and get out of here; more will be coming." I fought back my argument, no matter how much I wanted to know, he was right. More of then were coming and the fate of the Burge's had already been sealed dead or alive.
Vallieus and Hazel took there seats in the cock pit wile Lillyann and I tied everything down and took our places. We were soon flying over our beloved home that was now consumed in flames. The firemen were trying with all there might to control the burn but it would be hours till any of them would be going home. As I watched our home burn my heart ached to return to that home. Out of all the places we had lived over these past eighty-three years, British Columba, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Washington DC, and now Ontario, this was my favorite house. It was the only one that truly felt like a home. Somewhere safe…somewhere open…
In a way it reminded me of the Cullen's home. As I thought of those memories I anticipated the pain but in the back of my mind I new it would not come. I have not felt that pain now for about thirty-six years. Sometimes the memories hurt but the wound in my chest did not gape as it once did. It did not worry me because the fact that I am now a vampire only confirms to me each "day" that Edward was real and that what we had was real. As the memories drifted away my eyes refocused and all you could see of our house was the billowing smoke that rose from where it once stood.
And there were more pressing matters to deal with. Lillyann glanced at me seeing as I was not weather watching any more so she could now ask her pressing questions.
"Ok so is someone going to tell us that just happened back there?" she demanded. Vallieus looked over at Hazel who was focused on something far in the distance. He sighed heavily.
"Yes I am going to let you explain." Hazel muttered to the window. His eyes narrowed. He took in one deep breath.
"As you two know there were other vampires living in the Toronto area."
"Yeah but we had nothing to do with them!" Lillyann snapped.
"And your mother and I worked very closely with some of them." He continued as if she had never interrupted. "One of them in particular, Demetrius Falsanco, he is, well was a scientist like my self. He was just a little older then you Lilly, about one hundred and seventy-five years old; brilliant mind. Your mother and I were interested in what he was studying and what he discovered."
"What did you find out?" Lillyann interrupted again. But this time he answered.
"We were studying the Universe and Time Travel. We were getting close. We had formulated a theory as to create time travel but we could never get it in to motion."
"So what was the Vampires problem, they did not want anyone to mess with time?" I asked, very excited about this subject. He moved he glance to me
"No actually quite the opposite, they wanted our machine to work."
"So what happened?"
"It was three o'clock and as your mother and I walked into the lab we smelled a foul scent coming from Demetrius office and we walked in and there was nothing but a mound ash. So your mother and I made a run for it knowing that they would think it was us who had killed him because we had worked so close with him."
"So if they knew it was you and if they really wanted to kill you why did they only bring seven very inexperienced vampires?" I asked
"Like Lillyann said, you two did not socialize with them and I don't think they knew you two were so strong." Hazel chimed in with a smile.
"I also don't think they had planned on splitting up. So it was to our great advantage that you two kept to your selves." We all laughed. I suddenly stopped, realizing I did not know what had happened to our friends.
"Wait what happened to the Burge's." I was really worried now.
"Isabella they're fine. They were a little shaken up about the whole thing. We told then they need to leave town and fast. We gave then enough money to do so and they know our PO Box number to write and tell us how they are." My fears lifted. They were a smart couple they would be alright.
"So where to next?" Lillyann asked, always excited for something new
"We are getting out of public eye for a while till things settle down. We are moving further north. We have what you would call a 'safe house.' I had it built a long time a go. It is still a really nice house." Vallieus replied.
"Ok, but where is it at?" I asked still confused.
"The Provence is Manitoba, and the closed town is Bird which is about 20 miles away. And there is plenty of wildlife." I smiled weakly at Hazel and Vallieus. I know they meant well but even as a vampire I was still not fond of snow. But to keep my family safe I would grit my teeth and bear it. At least this time Lillyann and I were friends, no, more like sisters. But there was a time when we did not get along. I think those were the worst twenty years of my life and I would not want to relive them for anything. I stared out the window, regretting starting over again and remembering all the times I have had to restart my life. But this time would be different; it would just be me and my family. What could go wrong?