Edward and I were celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary. We of course were forever frozen in our teens. We were vampires masquerading as humans in the town of Forks with our family. Carlisle and Esme were our parents to the public. Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, and a new addition to the family Gena were our siblings. Gena had joined us after the battle with the Volturie. She still mourned the loss of her human family. She had latched on to us as a replacements.
Carlisle was blond and looked like Zeus's younger, better looking, brother. Esme was more rounded than a normal vampire, her hair was caramel brown and she had beautiful dimples. Emmett was a hulking vampire with curly black hair. Rosalie, Emmett's wife, was the most beautiful creature I have ever seen with long blond hair and a perfect figure. Alice was extremely petite with short spiky black hair. Jasper, Alice's husband, was tall with curly blond hair. Gena was unique with reddish brown hair and luscious, graceful, curves. I always thought I was plain with my mahogany waist length hair and too thin body. Edward was utterly beautiful with bronze curls and a perfect six foot body.
It had been ten years since our battle with the Volturie, and the death of the ancients. Marcus, Caius, and Aro had been killed while they tried to tear my family apart because of my sister Alice and me. I was still mourning the loss of my wolf brother Jacob Black. All of Victoria's newborns that had survived the battle had become nomads running off in twos and threes. Some of them had even remained vegetarian. We saw them from time to time as they passed through Washington.
Our family was going to have to move soon. We had decided on Barrow Alaska. Esme was exited to build a new house. It was a town they had never lived in before. Carlisle had been hired at the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital which was the source of medical care for the entire North Slope. The rest of my family was mourning the loss of the road system and their cars. I wasn't losing anything. My planes were very practical. I had added an expensive Bombardier Learjet 40 to my collection. Edward, as always, indulged me in my airplane habit.
Edward flew my Grumman G44 Widgeon and Gena would drive down to Denali to pick up my Super Cub. I would have to teach everyone how to fly so they wouldn't all go insane. I had already taught Gena how to fly but I didn't trust her with the Widgeon or the Learjet. I was protective of my planes.
My family met me at one of the smaller Seattle airports where I stored the Learjet. They boarded the plane and Gena sat beside me in the copilot seat. I got clearance from the tower and took off. The plane was smooth and had a very luxurious interior. We were going to stand out in Barrow.
I was used to standing out. We had more money than we could count. This was the product of living for hundreds of years and being able to predict the stock market. Alice only allowed us to wear designer clothes. I refused to wear anything with tags I couldn't read. Of course the longer I lived the more languages I could read and the larger my wardrobe became. We were all inhumanly beautiful which was perfectly natural since we weren't human.
Tanya met us at the Ted Stevens International Airport and Gena went with her to go get my Super Cub. I wished that I was going back to Denali to live, but Esme loved having us all together in one place. There was sure to be awesome hunting on the North Slope and I bet I could get into snowboarding and back into my snow mobiles.
We made a circle over the town of Barrow and it was a tiny grid. We landed and I parked on the small space of asphalt assigned for private planes. Carlisle had come ahead of us and had our new cars waiting in front of the one small terminal.
There was a white 1999 Ford F-150 flatbed, a blue 2003 Jeep Liberty with lights on top, a gray 1994 Toyota Pickup with a lift kit and roll bar, a silver 2005 Subaru Impreza Sport, and a red 2008 Subaru WRX.
I went straight to the lifted Toyota, Alice and Jasper took the silver Impreza Sport, Emmett and Rosalie got into the red WRX, Gena ran right over to the blue Jeep, and Carlisle met Esme in the Ford flatbed. Once all of our luggage was out of the plane and strapped to the flatbed Carlisle led the parade to the new house.
Esme had been designing from afar. The house was the usual neutral colors and the lower level was furnished. The upper level and the tower however were blank sheet rock and windows. The floors were all hardwood pine. I secretly loved color and was glad that I got to chose how my room was this time.
Esme led us all down the hall pointing out our rooms. Alice and Rose's rooms were the largest to accommodate their expansive closets. Gena's room was already equipped with all of the art supplies that anyone could ask for. We reached the end of the hall and I still didn't have a room. Esme took my hand and led me up a spiral staircase to the tower.
The tower was a large octagonal shaped room that was totally bare. Four out of the eight walls were made of glass. I could see the stormy Beaufort Sea in the distance. It was totally different than Forks with it's trees and walls of green. Here tundra stretched out flat forever.
"Do you like it?" Esme bounced anxiously still holding my hand.
"I love it Esme. It's beautiful."
"I thought you and Edward could build your furniture and paint. I know how you love colors."
"Thank you Esme. I'm sure Edward will love it too."
"I'm glad."
Esme left me alone up in the tower. I stood still contemplating our new life in Alaska. Somehow Jacob seemed to be next to me and I thought nothing of it. I turned to look at him. He was my Jacob with long hair. He was very tall like I remembered and I could almost feel the heat radiating off of his skin.
"S'flat Bells, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Shut up Jake. It's the price I pay for being a bloodsucker." I smiled and he did too.
"Who are you talking to?" Edward came up the stairs.
"Me idiot." Jake said.
"Be nice." I whispered.
"Be nice to who?" Edward was smiling and a little confused.
Jake wasn't next to me anymore. The heat in the room disappeared. Edward looked at our 180 degree view and whistled. He put his arms around me and I put a hand to his face.
"What shall we do with our room Edward."
"I don't know what we'll do with it but I know what we can do in it." His lips moved across my shoulder to my neck.
"Don't rip my clothes." I cautioned. "All my other ones are still downstairs." He carefully unzipped my leather jacket.
"You are a bad influence Mr. Cullen."
"Yes ma'am." he growled in my ear as he unbuttoned my designer high necked corset top.
Needless to say it took us a while to paint the room. We had better things to do. I cherished every moment I had with Edward. I could still see him in the grasp of Caius and Marcus about to die. I pushed that thought out of my mind and focused on more pleasant things.
It was the month of night up in Barrow. I laughed as Edward told me about a movie that the humans had made about evil vampires in Barrow killing everyone. Little did the people of Barrow know that they had nine vampires among them. It had taken our family about two seconds after the snow fell to have nine high powered snow mobiles shipped to us.
Esme had designed a garage that housed all of our cars and had an upper level with a ramp up to it on the outside for the snow mobiles. My Learjet was grounded for the winter and my Super cub was my plane of choice. I worked part time in the hangar working on everyone's airplanes. I was a stellar airplane mechanic. The guys in the shop stared at me of course and Edward became very possessive whenever he came to visit me.
"What is your problem with the guys?" I asked him when he was driving me home in the Toyota.
"They are constantly admiring your rear end and I'm sorry but that's my territory." He was smug.
"Actually Edward it's my territory." I smirked at him and he laughed.
Edward and I had eventually painted and furnished the tower. It was painted a warm purple gray with a plum accent wall. There were two small pine standing closets which Alice had packed full. We had also built a window seat with more storage underneath. For appearances sake there was a double bed with a soft plum comforter.
We had followed our usual pattern and enrolled in the local high school but the curriculum was so appallingly bad that none of us could stand it. So the story went that Esme spent all of her time home schooling her seven teenage adopted children.
None of them knew that I had been to Barrow before in my fifty years of aimless wanderings before Edward had found me at my Father's funeral fifty years ago. I had kept a cabin way away from town and had worn traditional animal skins as part of my camouflage. The hunting had been fantastic. Polar bears were particularly cantankerous.
I was working on Duke's Piper Pacer, Duke was my favorite hangar bum, and Jacob appeared.
"Why didn't you ever pick up a wrench when you were human?"
"Well I've had about a hundred years of experience now Jake." I smiled at him and he smiled my smile back, the one where his face was free of resentment.
"Edwards right. These guys all look at you way too much."
"I'm sorry did you just say that Edward was right about something?" I teased.
"Don't push it, I may love you, but you are the one and only bloodsucker I have feelings for."
"Well I'm flattered Jake."
"Jake?" Duke walked over to me. "Who's Jake?"
"Imaginary friend." I lied easily.
"Imaginary! Huh." Jake smirked.
"How's my plane?" Duke was very easy going.
"Almost done."
"Great!" Duke's face lit up. "You're fast sweetheart."
"Yeah sweetheart." Jake barked a laugh and I shot him a look.
After I was finished I put all my tools in the back of the Toyota and looked around. Jake was gone. I wasn't worried he always came back. I never told anyone that I saw Jacob whenever I was alone, it would have worried them. They wouldn't have understood. When it first happened about three years after Jacob's death I had asked him what the hell was going on and he had told me it was a wolf thing.
I drove home and Edward played my lullaby as I pulled into the garage. He was welcoming me home. Rosalie was tuning up the WRX using Emmett as the jack. I parked the Toyota and put my tools away on the shelves.
I walked into the house and Alice cringed as she saw my Carrhearts and Smartwool top. I was covered in grease and my hair was in a very messy French braid. I took off my hiking boots in the entry way and walked upstairs to the bathroom to shower the grease off. I seemed to be the only vampire who managed to get dirty. I dried off with a fluffy towel and put on something Alice had a better chance of approving of. Well, at least my new clothes were clean.
Alice was forced to do all of her shopping online and the sites that claimed they didn't ship to Alaska always made an exception for her. Our lives were different but still wonderful. I spent a lot of time at the hangar with Jacob working on 1940's pieces of junk but it didn't bother me. The guys just got used to me talking to myself.