JPOV

I knew she wouldn't let me off that easy. About an hour before we were going to have a family meeting, Alice cornered me, asking if she could talk to me. I, of course, said yes. But throughout our whole conversation, I was itching to get back to Lily. But, she said she had something important to do and she would see me in an hour.

Alice basically told me that she had given Lily her blessing concerning me, because she could see that my decision would be to leave. Once she made the decision to give Lily the go-ahead, she said she had a fantastically clear vision of a tall brunette man with love in his eyes. She was convinced it was her true soul mate, the one she was really supposed to be with. I opened up to her for the first time in a long time and told her that before Lily had shown up, I had decided I was giving up on this lifestyle.

I didn't want to go back to killing, but Lily told me that you didn't have to kill humans to drink from them when you were like her. I didn't know how she did it, but I was anxious to learn, and I shared as much with Alice. She was completely understanding and accepting of me, like always, and she wished me happiness, even when her own wasn't for certain.

I wrapped my arms around her tiny frame, surprised at how foreign it already felt to touch her. She sagged into me for a moment, before going rigid. A moment later, I smelled her arousal.

"Sorry, Jazz. Old habits die hard." She seemed embarrassed. Now, we can't have that.

"Oh, it's alright, darlin'." I skimmed my nose along her neck before placing a gentle kiss just behind her ear. When she shivered I pulled away slightly and softly kissed her on the mouth, pouring all my thankfulness and joy and my goodbye into that kiss. When we broke apart, she smiled, her eyes shining with impossible tears.

"I love you, boy."

I laughed. "And you know I'll always love you, girl." I kissed her forehead and took her by the hand. "Come on now, let's go get comfy for the meeting."

"Okay, I'll be right down."

RPOV

She was the reason my marriage had finally failed. She was the reason I was going to lose my husband. She was the last person on earth I wanted to talk to, and she was standing in the doorway of my room, blocking my escape.

"What more do you want from me, Liliana? You've already taken my husband and my happiness. I've got nothing left." I flopped down on the bed, feeling weak for once, and not knowing what to do about it.

"I've taken nothing from you. You've just been so willing to give it up." Her voice was smooth and her words were perfectly planned and calculated. She was educated and grown up and beautiful and perfect. Everything I wanted to be but could not. I hated her.

"I gave you nothing! You just waltzed in here, compelled me to keep my mouth shut, and forced me to watch you dazzle my husband! You know he won't even look at me now? Three days, Lily! He hasn't spoken to me or even stepped foot in here for three days." I was ready to rip this bitch apart but she cut me off, spearing my heart with something she shouldn't even have known.

"He doesn't want kids!" She stopped and watched me; watched me as my heart fell right out of my chest and burst into flames. Then she proceeded to dance in the ashes. "He never did, you know. I spoke with him about it, and he says you're obsessed with it. Obsessed with the only thing you can never have, instead of appreciating what's right in front of you. He knows that you don't love him the way you should, and he's been dying inside for almost a century." She paused, finally looking me in the eye, though I was afraid to look back. "Now, do you still feel that I took something from you, or am I simply giving something back to him?"

Her face was like stone, showing no emotions. There was a timbre to her words that hinted at an ulterior meaning, but I was in too much shock to figure it out. Because even if she was a stone cold bitch, it didn't change the fact that she was absolutely right.

"I'm sorry." Lily looked very confused at my apology, but I didn't give her a chance to say anything. "Tell him for me, please? He won't speak to me. But I need him to know I'm sorry." I heard a door slam downstairs and someone sprint away from the house. Fuck.

Lily smiled at me then, a sad smile that didn't reach her eyes. "He knows," she said.

And then she disappeared downstairs.

LPOV

I ran down the stairs, out of the house, and into the forest with every intention of scolding Emmett for running away when Rosalie was only trying to apologize. It was only when I saw him doubled over, clinging to a huge Hemlock like his second life depended on it, that my ire cooled. I walked up to him slowly, not wanting to startle him, and rubbed his back soothingly.

"Emmett, love, she meant every word she said. Her conscious betrayed no signs of distress, other than the obvious fear of hurting you. Now that your new future is laid out before you, I see no harm in forgiving her your past."

His eyes met mine and they were pitch black, full of rage.

"Forgive her?! Why should I forgive her? She's the one who spent the better part of our life fantasizing about babies she could never have and treating me like the asshole who made it that way. Hell, she had Carlisle turn me. What if I had wanted babies, huh? Like regular human babies with a regular human girl? I'll bet she never thought of that!" He yelled his last sentence back toward the house, probably hoping for Rosalie to hear him.

He gulped down breath after breath and he seemed to be calming, but I could see the outburst in his eyes, waiting just below the surface to unleash on any unsuspecting victim who might say the wrong thing to him. I grabbed his shoulders, locked eyes with him, and snapped his will in a matter of seconds.

"Kiss me." I said. And, oh boy, he did.

Emmett's lips were cold and hard and powerful, but soft and gentle all at once. Though I'd had centuries of experience with kissing, his was the most caring I had ever felt. It was like he could pour all the emotion he was feeling into his mouth, and transfer that energy to me in a kiss. My heart beat faster, almost like a human's, and I could feel myself getting excited.

I pulled back from him, hoping to slow things down, but his movements mirrored mine. One more step from each of us and we were pushed up against a tree, his hands in my hair, his mouth on my neck, and my legs wrapped around his waist. His arousal pressed directly into my core as it grew, and I felt the first stirrings of pleasure as his hips rocked into mine.

As my hands wound into his hair and pulled, he gasped, biting down on my neck slightly. I threw him off of me with a little too much force and he crashed unceremoniously through two rows of trees. He was immediately on his feet and headed back toward me when I willed him to stop.

"Not yet, Emmy-bear, but soon. Okay? Now, let's get this show on the road." We walked back to the house hand in hand.

"Alright, everyone, let's get this over with. I know you are all dying for answers to questions you're too scared to ask."

I waited patiently as family members trickled in. Emmett was already sitting next to me on the couch. Carlisle perched himself on the arm rest of a chair, leaving the seat for his wife. Edward and Bella curled up in the loveseat directly across from me. Rosalie came down the stairs but stopped at the far wall, leaning against it. Jasper brushed past her, and sat on the floor in front of me, leaving the other open chair for Alice. She touched his shoulder as she passed by, and he smiled up at her.

A small smile graced Esme's face as she walked toward me, sitting on the plush chair that Carlisle also occupied. Silence passed and I sighed. I glanced at Jasper and then Emmett longingly while everyone got settled. The only person making eye contact was Esme. Chickens.

She finally spoke up. "Okay then, I'll go first. Liliana, how old are you?"

Startled, I looked down at my hands. "If you were a male, I would burn you at the stake for asking me that question. But, I know what you are really asking and I will answer. However, I am keeping my weight to myself." I raised my eyebrow, and then took a deep breath.

"I am 3,423 years old," A hush came over the family. "Yeah, let that sink in for a minute that I'm actually older than the Torah. I was born in 1,412 B.C. in ancient Greece. As for the whole Christ debacle, and whether or not that was real, is a discussion for another time." I waved my hands in dismissal. I decided no further questions were really necessary, and launched into what I thought of as a pathetic excuse for a life's story.

"My mother died while giving birth to me. I don't remember anyone in my family. Not their names or what they looked like. I had my parents and one older brother. That's all I remember. I don't know about my childhood or much of my youth. The first thing I remember was when I was twenty-five. I was tired of people assuming I was a peasant because of my last name, so I changed it to Cuthridge and moved away from my hometown. Throughout the years I've constantly changed my first name. I've been Liliana, Leanna, Liana, Anna, Annie, Lilian, and Leeann. You name it, I've been called it. Except Lily. I've only been Lily for a little while now. Anyway, I settled down in a small town outside of what is now Marseille in France. I had only been there a week when he found me. I met and fell madly in love with a man named Giovanni. He was the love of my life and the bane of my existence. He had beautiful, dark hair and bright eyes. Long story short, he was handsome and wealthy, and everything a young girl could have dreamed of. I thought for sure we were to marry and have our own family. Little did I know, he already had a wife, and I was little more than his whore. His wife found out about me and she demanded my head on a platter. In order to save me, Giovanni transformed me into a vampire."

Ignoring Bella's gasp, Edward held up his hand, and I paused. "Wait. How? I'm guessing changing into a vampire is different with each race?"

"That's right. Except for the Originals. There's no way to become one of them. You either are or you aren't. Except for Stones, who procreate by venom, the transition is the same for the other races. You have to have vampire blood in your system when you die. When you wake, you must drink human blood to cement the transformation. If you take longer than a few days to quench that thirst, you become a Revenant. From then on, you constantly seek blood, needing to quench that first thirst you denied yourself, so you're driven purely by hunger. Stones can become Revenants too if you deny yourself, but the burn is usually too great to ignore so, it rarely happens in your race."

I sat back in the couch, running a hand through my dark hair. "Imagine my surprise when the man I loved forced his sliced wrist to my open mouth and then proceeded to break my neck. I woke up a day later alone in some field."

Jasper frowned, "How could he do that? What's the point in making you a vampire if he was just going to leave you? He didn't save you, he damned you."

I smiled grimly. "His wife, Salome, is an Original, as is Giovanni. There are six originals in total. Ivan is the Original. Vampires exist because of him." I paused for a moment, thinking that over. "Actually, vampires barely exist because of him. He created his five fledglings and forbid them to create more. Obviously, none of them listened. No one seems to know the true story of how Ivan himself was created." I laughed, then, thinking of all the versions I'd been told.

"Besides Salome and Giovanni, there are also Isolde, Sebastian, and Gwendolyn. Most people assume that Sebastian and Gwendolyn are a couple, but they're not. Isolde mostly lives alone, though it has been awhile since I spoke to her. Gwen was my best friend when I was first made; she took pity on what Giovanni did to me. Isolde is madly in love with Gwendolyn. She is fiercely loyal and the most honest person I've ever met. You would think that her years have made her wise, and yet she is still so very naïve about the world and its ways. Still, you will not find any other vampires more powerful than them; not even the precious Volturi and their pets.

"So, anyway, as a human, I could easily be found. Blood isn't as potent while it's still in the veins to other races, as it is to you, but the smell is there. Once she found my smell, she could find me. As a vampire, my human smell disappeared forever. He gave me a chance to live by killing me. I still haven't figured out which would have been better. In the span of twenty-four hours, I found out the man I was in love with is married to someone he will never leave and I became a vampire. I was crushed. I tried to commit suicide numerous times. Through trial and error I learned how to deal and discovered what I could and couldn't do, all the while dealing with a broken heart."

"Has he ever tried to contact you?" Rosalie interjected. I had been briefed of her history and knew, without a doubt, that if she were to care about any part of my story, that would be it.

"Who? Giovanni? Yes, he has; a few times. The last time was over two hundred years ago. He never even got close. Never will as long as I'm alive...or dead. I was in Russia at the time, when I spotted one of his men. Giovanni never came to look for me himself, he always sent his men. They all looked the same to me, so they were easy to spot. I took off before they caught wind of me and found myself in London. This was now the late 1790's, early 1800's."

I paused, "Man, those dresses were to die for. They don't make them like they used to. I even miss those damn corsets. They were a bitch, but damn if you didn't look great in one." I rubbed my ribs, remembering the pain.

"One night, I was roaming the streets just after I arrived in London and I came across a young man who looked a bit like Giovanni, only with blonde hair. I was scared, yet intrigued." I looked over at Carlisle, sharing a small smile with him before he sobered up and leaned back, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Of course, he was more scared of me than I was of him."

"I was not!" Carlisle objected.

"Don't lie. You were too! You were a baby vampire and you didn't know what the hell was going on. Admit it!"

His lips twitched. "I admit nothing,"

"Such a liar!" I laughed.

"Me? Never!" he smiled.

"Whatever, old man!"

"How old are you again? Oh right, you were there with the dinosaurs, how could I forget?"

"Carlisle!" Esme scolded.

I laughed, shaking my head. "It is okay, Esme. So there we were, both of us scared and alone on a dark night. I wouldn't hurt him and I knew he wouldn't hurt me so we took shelter in this old brothel. For whatever reason it was abandoned with all the furnishings, so we were quite comfortable. We spent some time getting to know each other and learned that we were the same yet different." I hitched a laugh as the memories resurfaced.

"Once, I came back from the saloon with this beautiful woman, thinking that surely Carlisle would want a taste of her," I winked at him. "I practically drug this girl to him, and there he was at the dining room table, of all things, draining this poor bunny! There were more on the floor beside him, poor things! What did Thumper ever do to you?"

All eyes turned to Carlisle as Rosalie snickered, and Alice laughed quietly.

"Sure, laugh like you don't have the same diet." His eyes narrowed at his children.

"It's better than killing humans," Edward spoke.

"Is it?" I raised my eyebrow. "Animals are innocent, only killing to survive. Humans kill every day in this world, and you think they don't deserve it? No one is so innocent that they don't deserve it. You could feed from an animal and only take so much and let it live, but then the blood will attract other predators to finish the job, so killing them is necessary. That, I understand. However, to survive, I don't have to kill humans; sometimes that's just part of the fun." I held up my hand when Edward huffed and shifted.

"Before we get into that fight, let me continue. Carlisle was eating his meal, blood all over his face. He tried to be prim and proper and eat at the table but he was horribly messy back then. I do hope you are better, darling."

Carlisle laughed, "Yes, I can assure you that I am." Esme giggled and Bella blushed.

I smiled when Jasper's hand gently encased my ankle. "I did everything in my power to seduce Carlisle into feeding from this girl, just to make him see all the fun he could have. I didn't compel him because I wanted him to make that decision himself but, he never did, no matter what I tried." I shook my head.

He smiled proudly, "I even got as close as sitting next to them on the couch, but I couldn't bring myself to drink from her, no matter how good she smelled."

"Do you remember what you said?" I rested my chin in my hand, leaning against the arm of the chair.

My friend wrapped his arms around his wife, "I said, 'My dear, I can't. I hope to have a family of my own one day and I want to set a good example, where we can live in harmony and not put humans at any more risk than they already are to themselves.'"

I nodded. "We stayed together for a few weeks, enjoying the freedom to be who we were. True to my word, Esme, we never did anything. Well, we kissed, but nothing else."

Carlisle shifted, kissing Esme's hair. "One morning when I woke, she was gone. The only thing she left behind was a note that said 'Someday we will meet again.' Then nothing; never to be heard of again."

"I thought you didn't sleep!" Bella frowned.

"Stones and Revenants don't. The others can but it's only necessary for those who are weakened by the sun. I don't have to sleep every night. I can get away with once a week if I'm on the run and don't have the time or safety. Some nights I got so horribly bored of his talking I would compel him to relax and slip into slumber. Those nights were lovely," I shared a smile with him as Jasper's thumb rubbed the inside of my ankle.

"What have you done with yourself since then, Liliana?" Bella asked me.

I pondered a minute, "Well, I've been to a few good concerts, but I think Elvis will always be my favorite. I've been all over the states; so far my favorite places are Maine, California, and Colorado, though I do have a soft spot for the South. Oregon isn't too bad if a little hippie-ish. More importantly, though, I have made sure I have a safe house no matter where I am in the world. Kind of like what you have." I looked around the room. It really was a beautiful house. "Giovanni hasn't come looking for me since London so I think I'm safe enough to stay in one place for a while. Who knows what we'll do." I shrugged, looking over at Emmett and then down at Jasper.

"I'm guessing we'll be leaving soon then?" he asked.

"We'll head out in a day or two. I have a house in Oregon, but we'll only stay there for one night. We have a flight to catch in a few days. I recently bought some property across the country. That's where we will live."

Emmett stood up. "Well I guess I should hunt then, right?" he turned to me.

"I would say no, but it's up to you. The less blood there is in your system to start with, the better."

Esme and Carlisle stood as one.

"I would like you to. One last family outing," Esme fought to keep her expression neutral but anyone could sense her pain. Jasper nodded as they gathered at the back door. Edward dragged his feet, looking back at his love.

"Edward go with them, I'll be fine here." Bella smiled, pushing him along. The others had already started running. He kissed her forehead and took off. A few hours later, Bella and I were drinking iced tea on the back patio, watching the woods for their arrival home.

"Lily, can I ask you something?"

"Of course." I sipped the tea and leaned back into the lounge chair.

"The other day, you said you knew all about losing the love of your life. Was that Giovanni?"

"Caught that, did you? No, it was not. I thought I loved him but I didn't know what love meant until I met Paul. That was in the sixteenth century." I closed my eyes imagining his face. "Paul was beautiful; long, light brown hair, almost blonde, and dark blue eyes. Sebastian, the man I spoke of?" Bella nodded. "They look devastatingly similar. Paul and I met at a fair where they had one of the first merry go rounds." I smiled at the memory. "From that very first day, we spent every waking moment together, which of course caused some talk but we didn't care. The only thing that mattered was each other. We were in love, everyone-else-be-damned, you know?" I looked over at her and we shared a smile. Bella knew exactly what I meant.

"After some time, he earned my trust, and I told him the truth of what I was. I was so scared of what he would think. When I told him, he did the last thing I ever thought he would do. He kissed me. Then he said 'You're still the Annie I fell in love with.'"

"Oh, that is so sweet!" Bella giggled.

I nodded, "I fell more in love with him right then. Years went by and he got older but he made it clear he never wanted to be a vampire. I wasn't happy about it but I respected his wishes. It killed me not to just change him anyway, because trust me, I was tempted. One night, I saw a couple of Giovanni's men and I freaked. I didn't want Salome to find us and take her anger out on Paul, so I left him. That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and my only regret. I left him a note saying I will always love him but that I had to go."

A tear slipped down my cheek. I wiped it away quickly, not wanting to scare the human when she noticed the blood on my face. I smiled. "I would appreciate if you didn't tell anyone. Not everyone in this family needs to know I have a soft side."

"I promise," Bella nodded. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"Yes, I kept tabs on him through the years. He bought our dream home, a beautiful Charentaise house. He eventually married and had three beautiful children. He finally succumbed to sweating sickness when he was forty-one. It was only a matter of hours from the onset of the fever to his death. His wife was devastated, but I compelled her to take money from me for his funeral, and to survive without him. I try to visit his grave when I can. I haven't been there in a long time though; I like to stay away from Italy as much as possible."

"Oh, I can imagine! Have you ever met the Volturi before?" She looked at me with a strange and hopeful face. It dawned on me that her new family probably wasn't completely honest with her, so I decided I would be.

"Yes, I know them very well. I actually stayed with them for almost a decade after I left Paul. I wanted to stay close enough to keep tabs on him but far enough away that he could never find me. I really did like Marcus, but Aro and Caius have tried for centuries to rule the world, and they still don't. I imagine that's rather frustrating, and so they are not the most pleasant people to be around."

Bella looked sad for a moment, as though she were remembering something. "I think I can see what you mean. When I met them…well, Aro and Caius never took their eyes from me. Marcus seemed relatively bored throughout the whole ordeal."

"That's because he is bored, my dear. Bored of living, and yet cannot die. He used to accompany Aro in his quest to have the most gifted collection of vampires, but he has long since grown tired of breaking up mated couples and families. I think it all became too much for him when he took Chelsea from her parents." Bella's confused look spurred me on; I wanted her to know something before she ever went back there.

"Chelsea has a gift, a very powerful one. She can influence relationships; make you love or hate someone in the blink of an eye. Make you lay down your life for someone you just met or turn against someone you've known your whole life. You must beware of her. She could take Edward away from you. For good. I promise you, if I ever have the chance, I'll ruin the bitch's life."

Bella and I shared a hearty laugh and she thanked me for my promise. We spent a few minutes in comfortable silence before reaching for our favorite pastimes; Bella with her book, me with another one of Rosalie's magazines. After another hour I heard them in the forest.

"They're back." I looked up, not yet seeing movement. Bella perked up, scanning the trees before going back to her book. Half an hour later, the family emerged. Emmett had his arm hooked around Edward's neck and they were laughing. Esme and Rosalie were clutched together, but smiling. Alice was dancing in front of Carlisle and he threw a pile of leaves at her. She twirled around in the cascade of greenery. Jasper walked alongside the two of them with his gaze, and his smile, aimed directly at me.