Atlantic Sunrise
Summary: Two years after the events of Breaking Dawn, the Cullens relocate to New Hampshire. However, there may be trouble on the horizon in the form of a vampire hunter with a vendetta against all vampires, vegetarian or otherwise.
A/N: I did say I wasn't going to start any new fics because I have too many works-in-progress at the moment, but I decided a while ago that I was going to write this and I thought it's about time I got round to it. I came up with the idea for this a while back when I entered a Twilight OC contest, and since the character was never used I decided to write her story for myself.
Unlike the vast majority of Twilight fics, this is not going to be a romance! I intend to keep all romantic elements to an absolute minimum so as to focus more on the action.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
Chapter One – Tabula Rasa
The sky was filled with an endless expanse of grey, the thick blanket of cloud draining the color from the sunlight and bathing the world below in a pale, dreary luminescence. In the drab light, darkened further by the shadows cast from leaves and branches, a sleek silver Volvo was making its way through the winding roads in the forests of New Hampshire. It sped on quickly, taking the sharp turns and bends with a reckless gusto, suggesting the driver had little regard for the safety of his passengers. Fortunately, no other vehicles appeared on the road before the Volvo slowed to a mere twenty miles per hour, having neared its destination. It took a turn off from the main road to head towards a clearing in the trees, where the forest opened up to reveal an old Victorian manor house sitting in the middle of an unkempt and overgrown meadow.
The house itself was beautiful, albeit in need of a few repairs. Its architecture was in the traditional New England style, with a high, sloping roof and stone porch, as well as a white painted wooden façade and wooden shutters over the windows. The paint was faded and chipped in several places and more than a few clay tiles were missing from the roof, but despite that the house still retained its essence of elegant luxury that it had no doubt had when it was first built.
A crude driveway cut across the grassland leading up to the front of the house, and gravel crunched as the car rolled up it towards the entrance. The Volvo came to a stop just in front of the porch before the driver's side door swung open and a man stepped out. His honey colored eyes glanced around the clearing for a moment as a light breeze rippled his brown hair, and then he turned his attention back to the passenger side door where a woman was just exiting the car. She got out and surveyed the manor house in front of her without speaking, making no move to brush her dark hair out of her eyes as wind blew it across her face.
"So what do you think to your new home, Bella?" the man asked, walking round the front of the car to go over to his wife.
"It's beautiful," she replied, although for all the emotion in her tone she may as well have said, "I suppose it's alright."
Her husband smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist, giving her a brief squeeze and peck on the cheek before stepping away again to open the back door of the car. "Come on, Renesmee. We're here," he said commandingly.
From inside the car, a pair of dark brown eyes glared up at him from behind a curtain of thick, bronze-colored hair. "Well, I don't want to be here," the girl protested, refusing to move, "I want to be back in Forks. With Jacob. Why did I even have to come with you anyway?"
Edward gave an impatient sigh. "Renesmee," he began, "You know that…"
"Alright, fine," she snapped, suddenly getting out of the car and barging past him. "We can't stay in one place for too long at a time, you can't leave me on my own, yada yada yada… I heard you the first fifty times," she said sulkily as she stormed off towards the porch.
Seeing her daughter's reaction, Bella called out to her. "Nessie…" she shouted in a pleading tone, but the half-vampire just ignored her.
"Renesmee!" Edward called after her more forcefully, and she stopped and looked back at him with a roll of her eyes. "I get that you don't like being away from Jacob, but you know it's not permanent and we all have to get used to things changing from time to time. Now help your mother and I unload the trunk," he instructed, heading round to the back of the car where Bella was already beginning to unload her things.
Renesmee just pouted and turned away from him again. "Do it yourself," she said as she strutted off towards the front door, but before she could open it it swung open from the other side.
From inside the house, a handsome blond man with a complexion just as pale as the other three stepped out onto the porch. "Renesmee," he greeted with a warm smile, "Bella, Edward. You've arrived at last. How was the journey?"
"Not too bad, thank you, Carlisle," Edward replied, while Renesmee simultaneously said, "It sucked," and stormed off into the house. Carlisle watched her leave with a raised eyebrow and then turned back to Edward and Bella.
"She's already having trouble adjusting," he commented in a neutral tone.
"It's difficult for her to be away from Jacob," Bella said softly, picking up a box of her things from the trunk and carrying them towards the door, "I can understand that. Try not to give her a hard time."
"Of course not," Carlisle answered sympathetically, before offering to Bella with the box. "Can I help you with that?" he asked, and she handed it over to him with a muttered "thanks" before going back to collect another one from the car.
"Oh great," another voice said from the doorway, and the three of them turned to the see the golden eyes of Rosalie Hale observing them coolly from just inside the threshold. "I see you've finally arrived in this dump."
Carlisle gave her a slight frown. "It's not a dump, Rose," he chided gently as he stepped past her to carry Bella's box into the house. "It needs a bit of work doing, but when we're finished it'll be just as nice as our house in Forks."
Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but couldn't we have had the repair work done before we moved here? As it is I can barely stand to be in the place." Ignoring Carlisle's disapproving look as he glanced back at her, she swaggered out of the house and peered down at Edward and Bella with a hard stare. "If you two want to pick your room, just to let you know that Em and I have already picked the second one on the left on the first floor; the one with the least damp," she said, wrinkling her nose at the last part. "Anyway, have fun unpacking. Emmett and I are going out hunting now. We've been here trying to fix the house up for the past three days and it's about time we got out."
Edward frowned at her in annoyance. "Rose, surely you can go a few days longer without a hunt? We've only just got here; couldn't you at least help us with our things?"
Rosalie glared at him, but before she could retaliate there came the sound of a young, girlish voice from inside the house. "Did you say you were going hunting?" At that, Renesmee suddenly reappeared in the doorway, looking at Rosalie with a hopeful expression. "Can I go with?"
Rose just looked at her coolly for a moment, and then turned to Edward who was giving his daughter a reproving glare. "Renesmee, you don't need to hunt until you've helped…" he was beginning to say, but Rosalie cut over him.
"Of course," she said, giving the half-vampire a warm smile. Rose had a soft spot for Renesmee and was quite content to spoil her with everything she wanted.
Edward turned to Rosalie, ready to redirect his frustration at his daughter towards his adoptive sister instead. "Rose, you can't tell her that it's alright for her to go hunting with you. I'm her father and I'm saying that she can't."
Renesmee could be heard giving an angry huff from the doorway, but Bella crossed to Edward and touched his arm. "Edward," she said gently, "Nessie's really upset and angry about having to be here in the first place; maybe we should give her a break. If we let her work off some of her frustration by going hunting then maybe she'll stop taking it out on the rest of us."
Edward stared at his wife for a few moments with his angry look still on his face, but then his expression softened and he gave a defeated sigh. "Alright," he said, still sounding a little irritable, and then turned back to Renesmee, "Go off and hunt then. But you're going to have to unpack all your own things when you get back; I'm not doing it for you."
Renesmee glared at him. "Fine," she huffed, "But if Jacob were here he'd help me unpack." She didn't give Edward chance to respond before calling out, "Emmett? Are you coming? Rose said we're going on a hunt."
From inside the house there came the sound of several bangs and crashes from upstairs, and then there were a few heavy footfalls on the staircase before the bulky form of Emmett Cullen appeared beside Renesmee. "Of course. I was just trying to assemble some furniture, but that can wait," he said, explaining whatever it was that had just fallen over upstairs. "Are you coming too, now?" he said to Renesmee, before hopping outside onto the porch with an enthusiastic spring in his step. "Great, the more the merrier. Let's see what kinds of food New Hampshire has to offer."
He crossed over to Rose and grinned at her, who returned his smile with a smirk and muttered something about how the New England cuisine had got to be better than the accommodation. Renesmee skipped over to join them, for the first time in a while actually looking pleased about something, and Edward found he was unable to stay mad with his daughter much longer when he actually saw her looking happy for a change.
"Just stay safe," he called after her as she and the two vampires headed towards the forest.
Renesmee just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, of course, dad. I'm a freaking half-vampire, remember? What do you imagine is out there that could possibly be dangerous for me?"
Edward knew she had a point, but that didn't stop him being naturally inclined to worry. He was, after all, her father.
"Have fun!" Bella called out, but didn't get a response as Renesmee sauntered off towards the trees alongside Emmett and Rosalie, unaware that there may well be something out there that was dangerous to her after all.
A/N: Not much to say other than I think that, as Twilight fics go, this may well be a little different to what some people were expecting. You'll see what I mean next chapter. In the meantime, please do review and let me know what you think!