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Threat

Hot and satisfying the endless thirst, even if for a short time, the blood rushed from a deep hole on a beast's neck. A huge pile of flesh and fur jerked for the last time, let out a blood-curdling roar and went still.

When I had drunk enough, I lifted my head from my drained prey and sat on top of it, feeling proud of myself. This time, I hadn't ruined the outfit, given by Aunt Alice. Every time we got back just a bit stained with blood or ripped our clothes, she would pout her lips disapprovingly and disappear from our sight for a few hours or even days. That was her way of punishment for 'destroying clothes she picked out with such self-devotion', as she had once stated out. My parents, especially my Mother, tried not to pay any attention to Aunt Alice, but I liked her. She and my other aunt, Aunt Rosalie, were my best girl-friends. They were totally opposite to my Mom, not to mention her taste in clothing…

"Renesmee!"

I rolled my eyes involuntary. Here it goes again…

"Don't worry, my dear," my father whispered in my ear. He suddenly was standing behind me and lightly holding my shoulders to support me. "I'm pleased with you."

Actually, there was nothing to fear of. Dad knew everything I thought – he can read people's mind. Finishing off a little oversized wild rainforest cat wasn't even hard. But it seemed that Mom was still thinking of me as her little girl.

Maybe that's the reason for her behavior, because not so long time ago I truly was a little girl. Physically I look like a seventeen-year-old and I'm staying like that for at least one hundred and fifty years, according to Nahuel. But, in truth, I'm merely seven years old.

"Renesmee, I asked you to choose an easier prey to hunt!"

"But, Mom…"

"You could have gotten hurt! Don't forget that if your father can wrestle with lions, that's only because he's stronger as he's a vampire. But you're half-human, for crying out loud! Moreover!.."

"Mom, calm down." I said as I felt creeping in a cloud of her hysteria. "Dad was waiting nearby, he let me hunt."

Mother turned abruptly to glare at my Father, who even shuddered at her fury and tried to hide from her using my back. The hell surely would be waiting for him when we got home – I already could imagine. Mother would shield my mind for a week while screaming curses and accusations at dad in her own head all the time. This would have meant nothing for anyone else, but for a mind-reader like my father it was a really severe punishment, especially from his beloved mate.

Fuming, Bella turned back to me again. I sighed in my mind – sometimes my mother behaved so childishly. It was like a reversed mother-daughter relationship; she would flow with fury or grief and I would be the one soothing and encouraging. Occasionally, Edward made jokes about Bella not being so irritating when she was a human. According to him, that was because of her fear for other vampires and a need to be protected by him.

Even so, Dad didn't tell the whole thing that was swirling in his mind. I knew there was something more to it than just irritation. Something about what they both had their mouths shut up tightly, as did my aunts, uncles and grand-parents with Jacob, also. Nobody had exactly told me how I came to this world and under what circumstances. That was the hell frustrating lot they had been pulling on.

But one thing I knew for sure. As the Volturi came to us with full-confidence about extinguishing our family and had to retreat, no doubt they were going to threaten and maybe attack the Cullens again, especially after uncle Garret's exclamation about the ancients' charade (by the way, now he lived with the Denali family as the mate of aunt Kate). Aro wasn't going to let go of this as he held Grandfather Carlisle and his family an evidence of exposed threat to his own authority.

Shiver went down my spine when I recalled his features – a ghostly feathery whisper of a voice, burgundy and milky colored eyes and translucent skin. Edward didn't show a sign of notice, but of course he knew what I just thought about.

However, Bella didn't, so she simply misunderstood me.

"Oh, Renesmee, my dearest one, forgive me, my precious little girl, I didn't want to, it's just I can't bear looking at you like that and feel helpless with anxiety." She started to come to the edge of hysteria again. Maybe it was helpful that no vampire could cry, but I just had to see her almost tearful face and some kind of mental mechanism would click in. Then I would feel completely guilty (for nothing, actually) and swear 'not to do that again' several times.

"Mom, everything's fine. There was no danger, nothing happened and I'm safe and sound."

"But something could…"

"Do you think Dad would have let that go?" I cut off her. "Relax, because sometimes you just go overboard. Okay?" I patted her back and threw a pleading look to Edward. Some help? I added as well in my head. He slightly nodded and wondered loudly.

"I think it's time for us to get back. Zefrina and other Amazons must be waiting. Huilen and Nahuel should have made it to them by now."

"Yay!" I clapped joyfully. "Did you hear, Mom? Let's go, let's go!"

I couldn't be sure but it seemed for a sec that some kind of sadness crossed over Bella's face before she composed and smiled at me. I jumped off the body of the great jungle cat and together with my parents ran into the rain forest, back to our friends.

Senna greeted us back with one nod. She, Kachiri and Zefrina were waiting on top of huge jungle trees, looking like creepy aliens, who had landed down to Earth (I had to admit – even though I'm mythical, too, but, ironically, I found Amazons' built much scarier than the rest of us. Maybe, I've watched too many sci-fis, oh well…). Our (or, at least, Carlisle's) newest friends from South America, Indian-vampire Huilen and her half-human, half-vampire nephew Nahuel, were there as well.

We climbed up lianas rapidly and joined the company. Huilen was telling Kachiri something so fast and low that I couldn't even pick up a word, but that didn't make any difference – Huilen was more comfortable speaking in Mapuchi tongue rather than in English. For Nahuel it didn't matter because he spoke in both freely and fluently, almost a native speaker.

Zefrina smiled for me (she kind of… well, adores me… huh…) and asked.

"Well, child, did you miss our jungle? And you, young one?" She probably referred to Bella, though my mother 'grew up' as a vampire few years ago.

Mom acted faster than me.

"Yes, Zefrina, we absolutely did. Your rain forests are magnificent and gorgeous as always."

The Amazon leader rocked her head back and forth approvingly and was on her way to asking another question, but I was distracted by Nahuel and didn't hear that one.

"Hello, Renesmee."

"Hi." I murmured. I felt kind of confused and miserable near possibly the only one male of my kind, no matter that he was older than my own father, geez.

"Want to join me?" he suggested as he turned towards the depth of woods. Without another word I rose up and we flew over strangely knotted giant trees' branches. It reminded me of Tarzan. I liked that cartoon a lot in my childhood time. I thought I resembled him – at the same time we belonged to two species, but fit nowhere in particular.

We got to the one of the biggest Amazon falls. This fall was approximately 52-yard-high and had a lot of big and dangerous sharp rocks at its bottom (of course, danger existed only for human kind. In our, immortals', case rocks themselves would face a threat).

I liked this place very much. It was fun to sit on a bank like a statue and observe the life that was flowing its way here. It was impossible while being with true vampires, though (It seemed like not only animals were instinctively scared to death by immortals' presence, but also even plants would appreciate having a pair or four feet and run for it after feeling vampire presence nearby. I couldn't quite comprehend, why. When they didn't drink blood, vampires looked… well, quite cute… or at least some of them did…).

Nahuel cleared his throat to draw my attention and silently said.

"I heard you came only for a few days this time…"

Confused, I looked at him with questioning eyes and then I regretted for doing that. The guy looked embarrassed and didn't lift his eyes to meet mine.

"I was thinking if you would like to stay for this summer with my aunt… and me?" He briefly glanced at me.

I couldn't believe what I'd heard - did he just offer to spend two months together? Me? And him? G… gosh, I was way too young for this guy! (Even though he looked gorgeous… rawr…) Awkward silence lasted for few seconds while I composed a proper answer.

"Eh, there's this one little complication. You see, I'm starting school this year and Edward was going to tutor me during summer because I have to be on the same level as my classmates-to be, so..."

"Oh, school..." he realized, but then complained under his breath, almost too low for me to hear. "Why do you have to go there at all?"

Eventually, he knew. During my short life I'd met only five humans overall: Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Renee with Phil, Aunt Sue, Seth's mother, and Jacob's father Billy Black, the Chief of Quileutes. Luckily Grandfather Carlisle came up with an idea of me needing a proper education and becoming 'a true Cullen', which included contacting with human kind and learning to control one's thirst.

That's how the town of Forks officially gained a new habitant. Renesmee Cullen, after a tragic parents' death in auto-crash incident somewhere in Florida, was adopted by her Uncle Edward and Aunt Bella and came to live with them in Forks. She was going to celebrate her seventeenth birthday (in truth, only seventh. But, anyway, Aunt Alice would make a big deal of the celebration, as she always did).

I tried to fix an awkward mood.

"But, yeah, I surely would like to come with you guys. Maybe next year, would that be alright with you? I have to deal with uncontrollable-thirst-around-humans thing first, okay? Edward says it's hard to be in school. He calls it his own purgatory…"

Nahuel chuckled and after swiftly turning around and cutting me off he jumped off the cliff, gracefully and at the same time casually.

"Hey, wait for me!" I called to him and spontaneously went after. Oh, crap! The outfit… Ah, whatever now…

Extreme sports were my favorite free-time activities. In La Push, Forks, I frequently dived with Jacob and his pack, but Amazon's cliffs were much more dangerous looking. I felt kind of sick, sadomasochistic satisfaction after experiencing a thrill of fear and adrenaline rush, mixed together. At those times I was glad I had a human side, always ready to fill one's blood with hormones. Of course, if someone except Jacob, uncles and Nahuel knew about my hobbies, I would definitely be put in a silver cage for one or two decades. So I had to choose precisely with whom to spend my free-time.

When we got back, I felt some kind of tension in the air. My parents were sitting in stiff poses, not moving, only looking at each other with eyes full of worry. As I stepped into the clearing, Mother composed herself first and suddenly she was standing in front of me, her arms wrapped around me like she wanted to protect me from some kind of danger or at least not to let me look around. Father's long, white arms were around us both in a second.

"Thank you, Huilen. We deeply appreciate your help. No doubt we'll use your advice." He sounded too worried, almost like he feared of something he heard while I was away. "Goodbye."

And then I was flying through rain forest on Edward's back. I wanted to know what happened. Why? What's going on, Dad? I thought as I touched his cheek so that he wouldn't be able to tune me out. What did Huilen say? Why did we leave in such a hurry? But he was silent as a rock.

When we came to airport and got into a plane, I tried to force Bella to answer, but she just absentmindedly soothed me and brushed my hair all the time.

"Everything's going to be fine, don't worry, sweetie, Mom and Dad will fix things up, just don't get worried, okay?"

Yeah, like her talk had to help.

By the time we arrived at Seattle, I became so anxious that I was almost bouncing in my seat.

The rest of the family met us in a waiting hall. All of them were hiding something, I could feel it. My suspicion grew stronger as I sat into Dad's Volvo with Aunt Rosalie, Uncle Emmett and Grandmother Esme while my parents sat into Grandfather's car with Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice. Rose was babbling nonsense like a need to get me a driving license or a shopping weekend somewhere in France. She was trying not to let me notice that something was off, not as it should be.

I couldn't get a grip on myself as a silent and overwhelming fear crept into my mind. This time it wasn't like that one, which I felt standing on a top of the fall. I couldn't imagine what was coming, but it was bad enough to make such a big vampire family so frightened.

_
To be continued...