Chapter 1

Transition

I was going to miss Forks, Washington.

More specifically, I was going to miss this cottage, the big white house, and the forests around them. I had lived here all of my very short life. I rarely left the house anymore except to hunt in the woods with my best friend, Jacob Black, or one of my family members. Sometimes I would go with my aunts, Alice and Rosalie, to one of the big cities for a shopping trip. My parents and I used to go to Grandpa Charlie's house, but now that was only on the occasional evening—usually a holiday. Most of the times I saw him now were at the Black's house on the Quileute reservation, La Push. But even that didn't happen very often. Charlie wasn't exactly comfortable with my accelerated aging. He knew that I was special, but he didn't know the truth. It was better that way.

It was better that no one in Forks knew the truth—or much at all—about me.

Even though I had only been alive for five years, I looked like I was at least three times that age. And my family often said that I acted as if I thought I was even older. This opinion was usually expressed in tones of exasperation.

The official story—whenever people thought to ask—was that Edward Cullen was my legal guardian and that he and his new wife, Bella, had adopted me after Edward's older brother and sister-in-law, my parents, had died in a car accident.

Since the Cullens usually kept to themselves anyway, no one seemed to think it unusual that I was never seen in town…nor did I go to school. And no one seemed to know exactly how old I was supposed to be.

The truth was that my biological father, Edward Cullen, was a vampire and had been for a nearly a century. My biological mother, Isabella Swan Cullen, was also a vampire, although she had only been one for the last five years. She had still been human when I was born, and my birth had almost killed her. It was only my father's pre-planning and quick actions that had saved her—saved us both, really.

By some freak accident, the placenta had detached, and I had started to suffocate. To save me, my father had cut me out of her womb with his razor-sharp teeth. While my mother's best friend, Jacob, kept her lungs breathing and her heart beating with CPR, my father had injected as much venom as he could directly into my mother's heart, and then he had spread venomous bites all over her to help her body make the transition even faster. Although I only remembered seeing my mother's broken body and radiant smile before I was given into Aunt Rosalie's care, I had heard the story before.

So I was half human and half vampire. I had a heartbeat and chocolate brown eyes, like my mother before she was changed; I also had super-tough skin and razor-sharp teeth, like all the rest of my vampire family. I was stronger than the average human, I could run faster and jump higher and farther than any normal human, and I ate my meat raw—usually freshly killed by me. I could eat normal human food if I had to, but I didn't really like the taste of any of it.

In addition to all of these extraordinary qualities, my body had aged approximately three years for every human year I had lived.

This is why I didn't venture into the tiny town of Forks more often than absolutely necessary. The cardinal rule in the world of vampires was: keep the secret. If any of the humans there recognized me and noticed how rapidly I was growing, there would undoubtedly be questions. And the answers to those questions would lead to the mandatory death or vampirization of anyone who discovered them.

Apparently I wouldn't have to worry about that now, though, because we were leaving.

Carlisle, my grandfather for all intents and purposes, had called a family meeting in the dining room last night. We never used that room for its intended purpose, but my family believed in keeping up appearances which meant having all the right props. The dining room was used primarily as a conference room. Everyone gathered around the big antique table when necessary and discussed the issues that would affect us all.

Last night, Carlisle had called us all together to tell us about an issue he and Esme had talked about during their last hunt. Recently, some of the doctors and nurses at the Forks Hospital where Carlisle worked as a doctor had begun to speculate about the devastatingly handsome and impossibly youthful Dr. Cullen. Some of them were wondering why he never seemed to age, even though he had worked with them for the last seven or eight years. He claimed to be thirty-six, but he looked more like twenty-six. And people were starting to talk.

It seemed it was time for the Cullen family to move on.

To tell the truth, it had been time for them to move on after I was born. I knew that they had planned to move to New Hampshire after the wedding where my parents would go to Dartmouth for a semester before my mother became a vampire. But she had become pregnant on their honeymoon, something no one had expected—or even thought possible. She had become so deathly ill that we had both nearly died before Jacob had the brilliant, if sarcastic, idea that I—"the fetus"—was actually thirsty, not hungry. Drinking donated human blood had given us both the strength we needed to survive that unlikeliest of pregnancies.

And after I had been born and my mother had been changed into a vampire, they had planned to leave because Charlie couldn't find out the truth about my mother. Not to mention that she had expected to be a typical, blood-crazed newborn for a few years before she would be safe enough to be around humans. Luckily for all of us, Jacob had taken a huge risk and prepared Charlie to see my mother—who had a remarkable ability to resist the smell of human blood—by showing Charlie his other self…the giant russet wolf who often hunted in the woods with me. Because of Jacob's gutsy move and Charlie's insistence that he only be told the facts on a need to know basis, we had been able to stay around for the last five years, and I had gotten to know my grandfather.

But now that was all coming to an end.

I knew that Charlie would be able to handle it still, even if his eyes nearly popped out of his head every time he saw me because I had grown and matured so much since my last visit. But the good people of Forks seemed to be unable to handle the extraordinary situation anymore.

The discussion had been a short one. No one had protested too vehemently. They all knew that we had been living in Forks on borrowed time.

I paused in my packing, remembering the conversation clearly…

"So it's time to move on," Rosalie had whispered when Carlisle finished explaining the situation at the hospital.

"We think it's for the best," Carlisle confirmed.

No one spoke for a few seconds.

Then my mother asked, "So where should we go?"

My father looked at Aunt Alice whose fingers seemed to be trying to shove their way under the marble skin at her temples. I knew Daddy was trying to listen to Aunt Alice's thoughts as she looked into the future. I wasn't really interested in where. Since I had never been outside of Washington, I really didn't have a preference.

My only concern was Jacob.

I looked at him where he sat beside me. He looked stunned, as if someone had hit him in the stomach with a two-by-four.

I reached out to touch his hand. I showed him a picture of himself with me and my family on the road. I was sure he would read the question in my tone.

I knew he had a job and other responsibilities in La Push, especially as the Alpha of the second wolf pack on the reservation, but he was my best friend, and I had never been away from him for more than a day or two. I couldn't imagine moving away and not being able to see him whenever I wanted to or not being able to hunt with him. Jacob always made everything fun.

He looked back at me, and I could see the conflict raging in his eyes. It seemed that he wanted to join us as much as I wanted him to, but he was wondering if he could really just pick up and leave.

"I don't—" he started to say when Aunt Alice suddenly growled.

"I can't see!" she hissed.

I looked up to see Uncle Jasper rubbing her shoulders. I knew he was enhancing the calming feeling he was projecting toward her with his touch. She was always frustrated by trying to see any future that included half-breeds. Over the years of increased familiarity, she had become more able to see me, although I was still only a fuzzy blur in her sight. It was the wolves who made the future completely disappear.

Her inability to see seemed like good news for me.

"You're coming with us, Jake?" my mother asked, interpreting Aunt Alice's frustration and echoing my thoughts. It was not an invitation but an acceptance of the inevitable.

Jacob didn't say anything for a moment. "I guess I have some loose ends to tie up," he said. He sounded almost bewildered. He looked at me then back at my parents. "How soon?"

"A week," my father answered, looking at Carlisle who nodded. "You've already given your notice," he added without accusation. Again Carlisle nodded.

Aunt Alice pushed Uncle Jasper's hand off her shoulders and stood up in one fluid movement. Before I could blink, she was through the door calling out in a peevish tone, "Let me know when you decide where we're going."

I smiled at Jake who still looked stunned. I was still touching his hand, and I showed him the same picture, this time laced with my satisfaction. It wouldn't be so bad to move as long as he was coming, too.

He smiled back at me, but it didn't reach his eyes. He was really worried about something. I would have to get him alone and talk to him soon. I didn't understand why he was so upset.

Just then my father caught my eye and shook his head quickly. What was that supposed to mean? I reviewed my last thoughts and decided that he was trying to tell me not to question Jake about his reaction. Hmm. That made me even more curious…

It turned out that my father's warning wasn't really necessary. I hadn't been able to talk privately with Jacob at all. He had gone back to La Push after the discussion concluded. He hugged me briefly and kissed the top of my head before heading for the door, mumbling something about telling his father and meeting up with Sam, the Alpha of the first pack.

So now here I was, the next day, packing up my books and photos while Jake tied up his loose ends. Emmett, Rosalie, and Esme had gone ahead to find a new home while the rest of us packed up the necessary belongings that we would all take with us and closed up the house and cottage for the next… how many years? I wondered if we would ever come back to Forks… to this house. I hoped so.

I hoped that Jake would finish making his arrangements quickly so I could talk to him. Now that the initial discussion was past, I was starting to feel a little apprehensive. Even though I knew I would be surrounded by my family, I wondered how we would fit into our new home. Would I be allowed to mix with the locals who didn't know anything of my family's history? My aging seemed to be slowing down, and I knew from the stories of Nahuel and his sisters—the only other half human-half vampires we knew of—that I would be fully grown in another year or two. Judging from the way Nahuel looked, my body would freeze at something resembling a twenty-one-year-old. I would look that age—older than my parents looked—forever.

Would I finally be able to join the real world?

This was another reason why I wanted—no, needed—to talk to Jacob. He wasn't just my best friend; he was also my confidant. I could talk to him about anything, and he always seemed to understand. He was always there for me, no matter what. I was glad I wouldn't be losing that in this upheaval of everything I knew. At least he would still be with us…with me.

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