It had been a year and a half since the Volturi came for my family. But it still haunts me. Their red eyes, their cloaks, the way they wanted so much to slaughter my family… I saw them almost every night in my dreams. This time I woke up crying. At once, I felt cool arms wrap around me and fingers brush my hair back. Momma.
"Shush, Renesmee, it's alright…" She whispered into my ear. I nodded, trying to calm myself and stop my sobs. I reached up to touch her cheek. Where's daddy? I asked her. She cradled me closer.
"He went out hunting, sweetie… He'll be back in a little while. Or I could go get him if you want?" She suggested me. No, it's okay… It was just a bad dream. I snuggled closer to her, trying to forget the dream. Her cool arms and quiet humming helped me finally drift off to sleep again…
I woke up in the morning when sunlight streamed in through the windows. Momma was still beside me on the small bed, her eyes closed. I wondered for a millisecond if she was actually asleep. Then I remembered vampires couldn't sleep. She opened her golden eyes as if reading my mind. She smiled at me.
"Good morning, Renesmee." She said. I placed my hand on her cheek. Can we go hunting today? The thought of daddy going hunting last night had made me thirsty. She propped her head up on her elbow.
"You sure you don't want to try human food? I could make some pancakes or something." She asked jokingly. She knew I wouldn't. I hated it. I wasn't sure how humans could stand it themselves.
"It tastes good to humans. That's your vampire side thinking." Daddy's voice came from the doorway. Momma and I both looked up and smiled. He was leaning against the doorframe, smiling at us.
"She wants to go hunting." Momma told him, getting up and walking over to him. He wrapped her in a tight hug and nodded to her.
"So I heard. I think Rosalie's planning on going hunting too. You two could join her." He suggested. I grinned and nodded eagerly. Anything with aunt Rose was always fun! I would never play favorites with my family, but if I had to, Rose would be my favorite beside my parents.
"She'll be happy to hear that. You can get dressed and then go hunting if you want. I'll be at the house if you need me." Daddy told me. I grinned again and headed for my closet as momma and daddy kissed. It was much smaller than momma and daddy's closet in their room, but Aunt Alice stocked it full enough it didn't matter. Momma followed me into the closet to help me pick something out. I was too short to reach her cheek while she was standing, so I grabbed her hand. What about this? I pulled out a white summer dress aunt Alice bought on one of her last shopping sprees.
"Um… White dresses might not be the best for hunting." Momma told me. I grimaced at the thought. Probably true… Momma pulled out a pair of jeans and a pink blouse instead. I nodded. I got dressed and then momma and I headed for the big house. As always, everyone was excited to see us.
"There's my favorite little niece." Emmett said from the couch as he watched the football game. I hurried over and climbed onto his lap to touch his cheek. I'm your only niece, Uncle Em. I reminded him.
"Take what you can get, Nessie." He told me jokingly. Suddenly I was lifted off his lap and pulled into a hug. Aunt Rose, of course.
"I was just about to go out hunting, wanna join me?" She asked with a smile on her face. I nodded as momma walked over to us.
"She was excited about it." Momma told Aunt Rose, coming over to stand beside her. I touched Aunt Rose's cheek, imagining the three of us hunting together. Aunt Rose smiled wider.
"Then let's go." Aunt Rose set me down and we hurried out of the house. I wasn't allowed to try and kill anything dangerous (deer's were the only things I could kill myself or at least they allowed me to. I always wondered what my limits were…), so Aunt Rose and momma killed some cougars to share with me. About an hour later we had had our fill and decided to head home.
"I'm going miss things like this when you're older, Renesmee." Aunt Rose said as we walked a human pace back home. I was in between them, holding each of their hands. I projected my thoughts to both of them. I'll still hunt with you when I'm older. You're family and I'll always be here. I told them. Aunt Rose smiled down at me.
"Good, I love hanging around with you." She told me, reaching up to brush my hair out of my face. Momma brushed her own hair back from her face and looked over at Aunt Rose.
"You do realize that you can take Renesmee for a night or even a weekend. You could take her on a vacation of shopping trip or something, just the two of you. You're her godmother and trust me; we both owe you one for when I was pregnant with her, why shouldn't you spend a lot of time with her too?"
"Thank you, Bella; I might just take you up on that offer soon. Renesmee needs another shopping trip; her clothes are getting too small again." Daddy told me that they didn't get along well before I was born. I wasn't sure how that was even possible… They were like sisters now and I couldn't imagine them not liking each other.
"Or you could adopt your own son or daughter…" Momma suggested. Momma had been hinting at adoption for Aunt Rose for a while. I knew what adoption was and I knew Aunt Rose had wanted a baby for a long time, but for some reason Aunt Rose didn't seem to want to. I project my thoughts to Aunt Rose on the matter. Why don't you? You'd be so much happier… wouldn't you? I asked, starting to get confused.
"Well, Renesmee, it's not that simple. If I adopted a baby… well then we would have explain that we're vampires and then they'd have to keep the secret… It's just not the right time. Maybe in the future if Emmett and I lived on our own, away from humans, it could work… But then we would live away from you guys and that wouldn't be right… It's just never simple when you're a vampire, I guess…" She explained. Before anything else could be said, we heard a vampire running towards us. At once, Aunt Rose swung me into her arms protectively and momma's shield expanded like a bubble around us. Both of them growled.
"It's me!" Aunt Alice's voice rang through the forest. Everyone relaxed just slightly as my small pixie aunt came into view. But momma kept her shield up and Aunt Rose kept me in her arms, not willing to risk me if there was something dangerous. Aunt Alice ran over to us.
"What's the matter, Alice, what happened?" Momma asked hurriedly, seeing Aunt Alice's worried expression. Aunt Rose looked around the forest for any sign of danger, hissing.
"I didn't even see him coming until he walked in the front door… Of course, just like I can't see Renesmee, I couldn't see him, but…" Aunt Alice was saying, not explaining anything.
"ALICE!" Momma almost yelled at her to get her attention. Aunt Alice's head shot up and focused on her. Aunt Rose looked over at her too, abandoning her threatening hissing.
"Sorry, sorry, I wasn't being helpful… Nahuel's here. And he's not alone… You'd better come back, hurry."
