Chapter 2

Present Time

"Look, if we are going to live here we need to blend in. We can't call attention to ourselves. How suspicious would it seem if all of a sudden this new family moves to town with four teenagers and no one ever sees them around? This is a small town and people talk. They already know we're here." Peter, our father, replied. Technically, he wasn't really our father but in our coven he was the oldest physically when he was turned at the age of 32, so he took on the unofficial role. Over the last 40 years that I have lived with the Moretti's I have come to view them as family and I had a great respect for Peter and Clara as parents. They were the parents I wish Charlie and Renée would have been for me.

"Ahhhh, pop, do we have to?" Whined my youngest and favorite sister, Rebecca. She was the comic relief in our family. She had a delightfully playful personality and she balanced out my usually serious demeanor.

"Yes, we do. It would do you well to remember we put this to a vote and you all voted yes. Or rather, the majority of you did any way. Besides, I've already enrolled all of you and you start tomorrow. I don't want to hear any more about it. I'll be in my study if you need me." He turned and sped up the stairs before any of us had a chance to reply.

"Ugh, it's just like a man to run away when you want to have a serious conversation with him." Rebecca scoffed, running a hand through her short auburn hair while Virgil, Olivia, and I just laughed at her.

"Becca, really. I don't believe you have ever had a serious conversation in your life. And besides, you're acting like it's the end of the world. We have been to school before, you know. It isn't a big deal. What's 7 hours a day in the grand scheme of things when you will live for eternity?" Virgil asked her. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes.

"That's exactly my point actually. We are immortal creatures of the night," this time I rolled my eyes at her, "why do we have to stoop so low to mingle with the humans. It's like suffering two different kinds of torture at once. We have to fight our nature so we don't drain them dry and expose ourselves and we have to sit through hours upon hours of classes we have already taken at least a trillion times. It isn't even like we learn anything new. At all. Ever. And we are in a confined space for prolonged periods of time with them, to boot. It's cruel and unusual punishment and I want to know what I did to deserve this." she huffed, pouting adorably, living up to her role of being the baby of the family. If we were trying to rile her up then she was the red headed step child that daddy didn't love, but mostly she was just adorable. But don't let those freckles and tiny little button nose fool you, she has a mean streak in her too.

"Oh come on. Quit being such a drama queen. It is not that bad." Olivia said once Rebecca had finished her little rant. If any of us actually looked related it was those two. They were roughly the same height at about 5'5" and they both had freckles and deep red hair. They were beautiful, Becca especially. But that might just be because I've had a little crush on her since the first time we met.

"I agree that she is being a tad over dramatic, but it is pretty bad. And really our time here on this big green rock is subjective. Yes, we have an eternity, but only so long as someone doesn't rip our heads off and tear us apart limb from limb and/or set us on fire until there is nothing left but a pile of ashes." I stated, running a hand through my unruly brown locks. All of my siblings turn to look at me with matching expressions of horror.

"Damn, Bella. You're really morbid sometimes, you know that?" Virgil asked as he raised a dark brow at me. My sisters just nodded their agreement, matching auburn heads bobbing up and down. I just sighed and stood up from the couch, making my way out of the family room as I replied over my shoulder,

"Whatever. I was just pointing out that we aren't infallible and we don't really have forever if fate decides to cut it short." I knew I was being negative and I hated that. I also knew my siblings hated when I got this way and I saw how it hurt them and I hated seeing that even more.

I ran out the back door and took off into the forest surrounding our house. It was a beautiful night and the moon was full, its' glow lighting the darkness that should have engulfed me as I made my way deeper into the trees. I came to a small clearing and decided to lay down, crossing my arms behind my head. I could see every single star in the sky. I could see Orion's Belt, which was always my Mary Alice's favorite. I could still recall the many nights we had spent laying in each other's arms, gazing up into the sky, wishing that we could float up and catch the stars.

With my enhanced vision I could easily see Alpha and Beta, the two brightest stars in the constellation. Alpha, which ironically was not brighter than Beta, was a slightly reddish color. Beta, or Rigel as it was also called, burned a blue-white color and it was the brightest supergiant in Orion's Belt. Mary Alice was my Rigel. The brightest star in all of my darkness.

Enhanced vision is one of the many aspects of being a vampire that I enjoyed and while it was useful, did little to make up for the years of loneliness I had unwittingly submitted myself to. However, it did help on nights like these when her absence began to wear more heavily on my heart. It made me feel closer to her and I had to wonder if she was out there somewhere gazing up at the stars as I was. Missing me the way I was missing her.

I chose this path so that I could find my Mary Alice and spend the rest of my existence loving her and protecting her the way I should have been able to in Life. But after searching high and low for over a century and not coming across a single trace of her it was becoming increasingly more difficult to hang on to my hope of finding her. If she hadn't been turned by another vampire then she was certainly dead and it killed me not knowing if that was the case, or if she was out there somewhere, waiting for me to show up so we could start on our lives together which we had once so desperately longed for. The one thing I knew for certain was that we would always be together in the stars.