Once a month, Emmett insists on having male bonding time with Carlisle, Jasper, and I while the girls enjoy themselves at home. It's a time to let loose, wrestle, and challenge each other on who can "bag the biggest" animal in Emmett's lingo. After all of us are gorged to the point of illness we relax and listen to the sounds of nature enjoying the silence instead of the monstrous nagging of Alice and Rose, on trivial events and happenings going on in the Cullen's house.
It was one such a day that my life changed, either for the better or the worst, when we ran into a young child; possibly nine months old, sitting on a bolder. The mere fact that the child shouldn't have been able to get up there by itself was one thing to worry about, but my family's thoughts were something internally different.
"Holy Shit! Mother of God, is that a child? Rosie would just…" I quickly jumped over to Jasper's thoughts to gage his prospective. "The child is so calm… why is the child so calm? Edward? Aren't children supposed to be afraid to be alone?" Before I could even answer Jasper, I picked up the one taboo of the vampire world. Shocked beyond belief I toned everything out but Carlisle's mind.
"It can't be, nobody would do that… not after the wars caused by such a crime. But it's all here, the pale white skin and vampire beauty… the explanation of the why it's out here all alone. Let alone the smell of vampire all over the child. But her eyes… they should be red, not crystal blue. Something is terribly wrong. Maybe I should check her out? That would give me the chance to see what she is." With that, Carlisle began to approach the child, something that put me off balance. "Carlisle, I don't think you should –" But before I could even finish my sentence, a tall male vampire jumped in between us and the baby, blocking her from our view growling at us.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" He growled, crouching down into an attack position.
Carlisle hands flow into the air, trying to show that he meant no harm, while I tried to read the males mind. But all I got was nothing, not a sound. I tried harder, focusing on the male, but still I got nothing. I switched to the child, and encountered the same thing. What is happening…? I've never had this happen before. How can I not read their minds? Am I losing my gift? I expanded my abilities to pick out the thoughts of my family… all beyond shock. Jasper was thinking of attack strategies while Emmett was still thinking of how cute the kid is. Carlisle on the other hand, was trying to think of ways to in fact prove his suspicions.
"We mean neither you nor the child any harm; I was just going to examine her to see if she was injured in any way or malnourished." Carlisle lied through is teeth, hoping that would put the man at ease. From what I could see, it wasn't working. The man was staring Carlisle down as if he was a man of the Volturi intend of murdering the infant. It wasn't until we heard a small cry that broke everyone out of the stance, the male quickly turned around a grab the child in his arms all without taking his eyes off of all of us. While in his arms, the infant reached up and placed her chubby hands to his face while looking him straight in the eyes. Whatever transpired between the two relaxed the man's stance so that he was now looking into Carlisle's eyes. After a few moments, the child patted his face and focused her vision onto us again. The man straightened up, moved the girl onto is left hip, and cleared his voice.
"I'm terribly sorry about that, I'm Charlie Swan," he extended his arm to Carlisle who shook it, "I apologize for my behavior but I thought you were endangering my daughter."
"His WHAT?" was shouted from all three of my family members, however, none of the voiced the thoughts.
"I peg you pardon, did you just say daughter?" Jasper asked.
"Yes, I see I have a lot of explaining to do. I would like you to met Isabella Marie Swan; My biological daughter." Charlie replies.
All of us stood god smacked. How could this man joke about such a thing, it was one thing to create an Immortal Child, but to lie about it was another thing all together.
"You see that is where you are wrong" Charlie states.
"Excuse me?" Carlisle asked.
"Your young man here seems to believe that I am lying about Bella being my daughter, I was informing him that he is wrong in that statement." He muses.
But I didn't – "No, but you thought it."
"Holy shit! Not another one." Emmett yells.
"Wait, you can read my mind?"
"Read it, yes, along with other things."
But?
"If we could take this elsewhere I will explain everything."
"Certainly, if you follow us we could go to our house. It is not that far away until you would rather your place?" Carlisle ponders.
"No, your place is fine. I have yet to find a house yet."
With that, we took off. Running into the living room where the girls where looking at clothing on the laptop. When we got there, the girls looked up and screamed. Asking why was there two vampires in there house and one being a Immortal Child. Before anyone could do anything, Carlisle raised his hand and asked everybody to take a sit. All the Cullen's on one side and the 'Swan's" on the other. Charlie had placed the small child on his lap and was looking down at her, while she lend up onto his stomach. When Carlisle cleared is throat thinking about the child Charlie looked up.
"Please let me explain before you jump to any conclusion, Bella is not an Immortal Child. Look at her eyes, are they not blue? Do you not see the blush on her skin? Nor smell and hear the blood pumping through her veins? Isabella is something the vampire world has never seen before. Something that I would of never believed if I didn't see it with my own eyes."
"What is she?" Rosalie asked, looking at the child with adoring eyes.
"She is half vampire, half human conceived by me when I slept with her human mother."
"Mama?" The little girl asks in the cutest voice.
Charlie looked down at the child with a heart broken smile and said "I'm sorry sweetie, but Mama's not here anymore." With that small sentence, the child's eyes started to well over and she started crying begging for her mother. All the while, Charlie looked on with a pained look, rocking the infant back and forth to calm her down into a slumber.
All of us stared at the pair of them, god smacked by what we heard until Carlisle asked for Charlie to explain.
It took him two hours to tell us about falling in love with an eighteen year old human, agreeing to change her into a vampire after they were wed, and having sex with her as a final request. What neither of them knew, however, is that vampires can impregnate humans – creating children of vampire strength that rip there their mothers in other to get out. Charlie claimed that by the time everything was done, he could not save his beloved and now he was moving around to protect his daughter from the powers to be.
He explained that he was worried about Isabella, about her growth, stating that the child was only one month old however looked to be nine months old. He explained his power, about how he was a mental shied and how with that shied he was able to read minds. He touched upon Isabella's power, about being about to communicate by touching. He explained everything, and by the end of the night. Esme offered Charlie a room in the house, and a place in all of our hearts.
