Chapter 1

In all of my 362 years as a vampire, I Carlisle Cullen had never gotten used to the amount of damn paperwork it took to run a hospital. It did help tremendously, however, when the computers came into scene. But there were still certain charts and forms that could not be done on the computer, thank God for vampire speed, or I would have been backed up for months with all of it.

The end of my shift at Forks Memorial Hospital had ended 20 minutes ago, and I was looking forward to getting home to my 5 children and my twin sister Esme.

Esme was not more than a few days younger than me in vampire life, of course, when she discovered I had been turned; she insisted that she would not be without her twin for the rest of eternity, so she joined me and we had wondered thru time together, picking up our "children" along the way.

First there was Edward, dying of Spanish influenza, his human mother had begged me to save him however I could. Before she died, I could have sworn I saw a flicker of knowledge exactly what I really was in her eyes, but there was no fear whatsoever just trust and peace. I had promised this mother on her death bed I would save her child, so Edward was welcomed as a son in his family.

Then came Rosalie, brutalized by her fiancé and left to die. Rosalie then saved Emmett from an untimely demise and had found her mate.

Jasper and Alice followed a few years later, and their unconventional family was formed.

We had lived in forks, Washington for 3 years now; there was hardly any sunlight in this part of the state, which was the perfect climate for my family of vampires. The town wasn't full of people who asked a lot of questions, the majority mainly kept to themselves.

I pushed my chair back, grabbed my keys to my Mercedes and headed for my office door, as soon as I opened the door, an over whelming scent almost knocked me off my feet. I could feel the need for blood in me rise, human female, she smelled like freesia, with a hint of honeysuckle, ooh so sweet I thought to myself.

God after all these years working in a hospital setting, I had never reacted to blood this way

Just then my phone beeped with a text, Alice, wow, this girl was dead on with her visions and her timing. "I read" Carlisle, she's there with you, she needs you, and her life depends on it."

"She" I said to myself, then it all crashed down on me in a wave, he came to an awesome realization, mine, I thought to myself. The one I had been waiting for for almost 400 years, my mate. I almost couldn't comprehend it, I ran my fingers through my blonde hair and grabbing the rail in the hall to steady myself.

Over the intercom, as if to confirm my feeling, I had been paged," Dr. Cullen, paging Dr. Cullen to trauma bay 3, stat!"