Hello again! Not sure if I actually have anyone still sticking with me...I'm a bit erratic with my update schedule, and my writing,
and pretty much everything really :S Sorry about that.
Anyway, this was just a little plot bunny that just couldn't sit still. Damn thing.
I sat down one evening and just let it all out. Only problem now is the .bunny hooked
up with another little bunny and now there's this whole little family of hoppy bunnies in my head.
You see where this is going? 0.o So, yeah, let me know what you think :)
Named after the awesomeness that is John Mayer's 'No Such Thing'; go ahead and have a listen
whilst you read. You won't regret it!
No Such Thing
Prologue
EPOV
"You're such a damn cheater."
"Rosie, baby, I didn-"
"You SO did! Don't think I missed that sneaky little dimple-flash, asshole." I rolled my eyes at my siblings' display downstairs, tossing my book neatly onto the shelf before heading down there. In the few seconds that took me, Rosalie and Emmett had moved on from their computer game and were rolling around the floor instead.
"Esme will have your heads if you break the wall again." I whistled, running through the room with averted eyes; Emmett's thoughts were bad enough without having to see it through my own eyes too.
"See ya' green eyes!" I scowled at Em's muttered comment, throwing myself effortlessly over the river that bordered the house and landing on the other side. My eyes flicked upwards into a large tree, prompting a smile.
"Esme." Her warm smile quirked up at the corner a little, my greeting amusing her. "Mom."
"Much better. Will you join us? We thought we'd take advantage of the mountain lion boom."
I grinned her favourite crooked smile, leaping up to scoop her off the branch she was perched on and take off running with her in my arms. "That sounds like a great idea, thanks Mom." She giggled and kissed my cheek before settling against me, happy to let me do the work as the plants and trees whipped past us, the little sunlight that filtered through the canopy sending rays of light bouncing from the patches of skin that were bare. If it wasn't for the unseasonably sunny weather I would be in High School today, finishing up my final year for the sixth time. The fact that I'm missing today isn't going to have even a minimal effect on my grades considering for the past two years I've been teaching students in the grade I'm currently pretending to be.
"There you are! We've been waiting forever." Mom and I grinned at each other as I set her down, watching as my adoptive sister, brother-in-law and father joined us in the small clearing. Esme flew into Carlisle's arms, their eyes saying everything as he reached up to stroke back a lock of her wavy caramel hair and she smoothed a crease in his button down.
"I'm sure you're over exaggerating a little there, Alice." Alice, often likened to a pixie, tutted reproachfully and tucked herself under her grinning husband's arm.
"Are Em and Rose otherwise occupied?" Jasper chuckled then at my sudden burst of amusement, picking up on it from fifty feet away; he's the empath, whilst I'm the mind reader and Alice sees visions of the future that vary depending on the decisions made. We're quite a family in the gifts department. "Hm, interesting." Alice's eyes snapped shut and she turned away from me, scrambling her thoughts as I frowned and tried to grasp what she was seeing.
"What is it, angel? What do you see?" Jasper whispered, although Esme, Carlisle and I could all hear clearly. I listened to the minds around me, trying to decipher Alice's vision.
"I must remember to remind Emmett to fix that crack in the wall."Esme was considering whether she'd be able to persuade Emmett and Carlisle that the whole back wall of the house could be re-done. "A glass wall, perhaps?"
"Her emotions are all over the place." Jasper's only thought was Alice and her fluctuating emotions; through his ability, I could feel the gist of them too and it began to give me whiplash within a few seconds of trying to read her mind.
"Is everything ok, son?" I turned my head towards Carlisle, moving to stand with him and Esme when it became clear I'd have to ask Alice about her vision once she was a little more clear-headed.
"I think so. Alice is just having a confusing vision." My eyes flickered back to my sister, Jasper's arm now around her as his hand rubbed soothing circles on her back.
"Is she all right? Is Jasper helping?" Esme asked quietly, frowning worriedly. Jasper heard her worry and sent out a ripple of calm, making her smile and shake her head. "Concentrate on Alice, Jasper, but thank you." He dipped his head in her direction.
"I think we'll skip out on this trip, Edward. I'll take Alice to the cabin."
"Ok, call us later." With a brisk nod Jasper carefully lifted Alice into his arms, shot us a quick smile and then turned, heading towards our cabin higher in the mountains.
As soon as they were gone Esme and Carlisle turned to me, curious but not alarmed, per se. "Jasper thought she'd want somewhere quiet and calm to wait this one out."
"Can you still hear them?" Esme asked, glancing from me to the spot they'd disappeared from moments before.
I listened, picking up Jasper's thoughts immediately. Alice's were there but scrambled and the vision was still going as strong as it had been before. "Yes, they're fine. Almost at the cabin. Shall we head out?" Carlisle took Esme's hand and bent to kiss her hair as I ran past, flying across the clearing and up into the trees. Esme zipped through the undergrowth, her bell-like laugh reaching me from where Carlisle was chasing her playfully behind me. A strange sensation curled in the pit of my stomach as I listened to their laughter and affectionate thoughts. They'd been married ninety years this summer and were still as in love as ever. They would have been married sooner had it not been for Carlisle's insistence that they wait until Esme had outgrown her newborn stage; exactly one year after Esme woke up as a vampire they held a private ceremony with me as the only witness. It was a little strange at first, adjusting to Esme being around when it had been just Carlisle and I for three years, but her sweet and nurturing nature had me wrapped around her little finger almost instantly. Suddenly, a lithe body wrapped itself around me, I lost my footing with the force of the collision as a loud crashing sound rang out and we tumbled to the ground in a mess of limbs.
Carlisle jogged over, lifting his wife up easily before offering me a hand. "All right honey, pay up." Esme demanded cheerfully, leaning back into Carlisle's front as I accepted his help and got to my feet.
"What was that all about?" Esme raised an eyebrow at my slightly belligerent tone, chastising me suitably.
"Your father bet me ten dollars that I couldn't snap you out of the funk you were in." Esme shrugged innocently, smiling radiantly at Carlisle as he shook his head and handed over a ten dollar bill. All the while I watched on, frowning a little. Before I could say anything there was a familiar wet thumping sound getting closer and closer. The three of us fell into crouches, moving swiftly into nearby trees.
"You take this one, there's another a bit further out." I barely saw Carlisle's nod as I leapt silently from tree to tree, gathering speed as I got higher and higher, eventually finding myself at a spot I hadn't visited in a while.
Living as I do, as we do, makes it hard for us to settle in one place for too long. If we do we risk someone noticing our lack of ageing or getting too suspicious. Also, there's only so much incessant chatting and teenage gossip I can stand. Therefore we have homes all over the world, mainly in the colder climates that spend a lot of time under the cover of clouds. It's quite essential when you consider that when our skin meets the sunlight it looks as though millions of diamonds are embedded there.
I look out over the snow capped mountains, feeling the chilled air whip my hair and finding it strangely comforting. Our last home had been in New York and we'd only returned to Forks, Washington -where we are now for the next couple of years at least- a month ago. It occurred to me then that this was the first time I'd been truly alone since we left New York; it was nice. On Lake Crescent I counted three small boats and one larger, and as the wind carried I could hear the faint whisper of their heartbeats. The scent of their blood was lost to me, lost as the most mouthwatering scent seemed to swirl around me out of nowhere. I inhaled deeply through my nose, my eyes slipping shut as a loud moan ripped out of my throat. Amazing... The scent pierced me to my very core like nothing I'd ever come across. It was the perfect blend of sweet and floral, something that had eluded me. Until now. Without conscious thought I was up and leaping down the mountainside, the stones unlucky enough to get in my way smashed to pieces in my haste to get to that mouthwatering scent. Somewhere in my subconscious I realised that this reaction was totally unfounded and ridiculous, but in those moments, I couldn't care less. Flying through the trees at the bottom of the rocky incline I filled my lungs repeatedly with the scent, letting it out only to inhale as hard as possible the next second. If my heart was still beating it would have been going overtime, probably unable to cope with the strain this peculiar reaction was wreaking.
Mere seconds had passed between the scent finding me and my arrival on the pebbled beach of Lake Crescent but it felt like a lifetime too long as my head whipped around, my chest heaving with rapid breaths and my eyes, searching for something tangible. Trees. Grass. Pebbles. Water. Fucking hell! I let out a frustrated roar, smashing a large boulder to pieces with a swing of my leg. Then, a broken rhythm punctuated my rage. Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. Again, I swung around. Eyes seeking. Ears scouring the miles surrounding me. Mouth, burning with venom. Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. A whimper tore from my lips. My hand ripped at my hair. My body twisted in all directions; trying desperately to get a read on this, whatever it was.
"Oh, God..." There. Milliseconds later I was throwing myself into the water, powering my way beneath the surface. Water surged into my throat as I inhaled, growling at diluted scent. It lingered in my airways though. I closed my mouth and stopped breathing, holding it in. Legs and arms working in tandem. Crossing the lake as if it were a length in an ordinary swimming pool. Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. The sound was faint, but there. Still there. Then I hit the shallows on the other side. Leapt clean out of the water, crashing onto the pebbles before taking off. That goddamn scent...it was stronger. Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. All the sounds around me fell away as I slammed on the breaks and stood stock still. Statue-like, I held my breath and paused. Sunlight poked into the edges of the forest, and vague recollections of a meadow somewhere around here managed to break my concentration, but only momentarily. Another weak du-dum regained it and that was me. Done. Cooked. Finished. Because just through the break in the trees was the most delicious smelling anything I'd ever come across. And if my senses had it right, it was a human. Sending up an apology to Carlisle for the crime I was about to commit -because this was inevitable now, even I didn't have enough control to stop myself- another deep inhale propelled me into the open. Then my eyes fell on the broken body in the center of the familiar meadow just moments before something hard as stone slammed into me and took me soaring through the air with it.