"Nessie, your ice-cream is melting."
"Well, let it. So that its consistency matches my resolve that one day I'll come to understand at least one thing about this world!"
Edward laughed and zipped over to the bookcase on the wall behind her, surprising her as he always did when he moved at vampire speed. Seeing her father move around the room that swiftly always made Nessie feel wistful. She was half-human, so she was nowhere near as fast and as strong as a full-vampire. At any rate, she hoped that she had inherited some of her father's leonine dexterity, which impressed her a lot more than Alice's too dainty ballerina steps or Emmet's power-driven moves. Edward was a remarkable balanced composition of athleticism – understated strength, unmatched speed and catlike agility.
From the top shelf of the bookcase he pulled out a thick volume of papers bound by a dark green leather cover which was emblazoned with golden lettering on the top left hand corner. He thoughtfully stroked the make-shift book and laid it gently on the table in front of her.
"Nessie, what is life essence?"
"I guess, the human spirit," she answered, shrugging. "Whatever it is that keeps human hearts beating."
"And you suspect that vampires are dead, and we therefore need to steal this life essence from living creatures?"
"Yes."
There was a pause which made her look up. Edward looked as though he was having a hard time keeping a straight face. "You know, for a half-vampire-half-human, you have some pretty peculiar ideas about your existence."
"Dad, come on… This is no time to be laughing at my possibly half life essence."
"Okay, I'm sorry. This," he indicated the book , "is a thesis for one of the more interesting Phds that I have ever achieved."
Oh no. Science. Nessie could chat for hours on end with her father on great many subjects. Their shared love of music, for instance. She loved to spend hours listening to his many compositions which had sold in millions around the world and had earned him a collection of awards over the decades. One of Nessie's favourite ways to entertain visitors to the Cullen home was to regale them with stories of how, on her sixth birthday, she had finally discovered that the world-renowned late classical composer 'Masen King' was actually her own father.
(Edward had created the Masen King name in order to work in the music industry – it was impossible for a vampire to maintain a public persona – as they never age, for one. Continued media scrutiny was an avoided exposure risk for the whole family. Nobody but the Cullens' dedicated team of attorneys and accountants would ever know that the great famed 'Masen King' and the young Edward Cullen were actually one and the same. This was similar to Esme writing and having millions of romance novels published under the 'Olivia Childs' pseudonym. The world would never know that the beloved 'Olivia Childs' was actually a vampire – albeit a loving, maternal and non-threatening vampire).
"If you are going to bore me out of my half-essence despair, you are so going to succeed." Edward's extensive education in the various fields of sciences did not rank high on her favourite topics of discussion though.
"Wait… Hematophagy? Yes that sounds pretty bloody!" Apparently she had tried to dismiss this subject prematurely.
"Would you like to know what I discovered after two years dedicated to extensive research on the subject?"
"Yes…" she rolled her eyes in a 'that's why we're here' gesture. Bella once told her that she looked so like her father when she rolled her eyes.
"I discovered that we drink blood solely because it is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids and it can be consumed without immense exertion. Blood contains all that our bodies need to subsist, just as food, air and water contain all that humans need to survive."
"So it is all biology, nothing more, nothing less?" she sounded sceptical.
"I think so."
She flipped through the pages of the leather bound volume and came across a section that was dedicated to case studies of societies that consumed blood in or as food.
"This is so eccentric. I do drink blood but this curious cocktail of blood and milk concocted by the African Maasai people," she screwed up her face and pretended to shudder at the thought.
"Oh and I definitely would go on a diet if Esme set these Blodplattar thingies on the breakfast table… what exactly are they?"
"Swedish blood pancakes."
"Oh yum. I'll dip them in some of this… Czernia?"
"It's a blood soup from Poland…" That was more than enough to repulse her.
"So some humans do consume blood, although not in the way you led me to believe. Urg, I think I've just found my calling in life." Nessie closed the book and pushed it towards Edward.
"And what is that?" Edward was still laughing at her reactions.
"I am going to create a much tastier range of cuisine to appeal to half-vamps like me."
"That's wonderful, Renesmee."
Nessie then noticed a photograph that had slipped out from between the pages of his book. It was a picture of a woman of medium height, pale skin, icy blue eyes and a head of tangled blonde hair. She was attired in a robe decorated with strange mystical designs. She also was adorned in an array of golden jewellery on her hands and neck.
"Who is this?" she asked, holding up the photograph to her dad.
"Freja. An Icelandic woman that nearly proved that drinking blood isn't merely a biological process."
"Huh?" Nessie looked so agog at this new development that Edward sighed with resignation. He knew that she would make him tell her about Freja first, before he could suggest that they go downstairs to join the rest of the family in a board game that had just started. He decided that he'd better get it over and done with.
"There was once a time when our family thought that there were spiritual means to quench our thirst." He paused and gave her a wry look, as though he was ashamed of admitting it. "In the late seventies, we met a Nordic woman called Freja who claimed to be a descendant of a long line of 'realm guardian fey'," he drew quotation marks in the air with his hands as he said that.
"Fey? What's fey?" She was definitely interested.
"I guess you would call them fairies, but nothing like the Magic Ultimo version."
"Wait a second… was she for real?" Nessie's pulse accelerated once more with eagerness.
"I have no idea. She was fascinated by our family. We usually cause an uncomfortable stir when we descend upon a new place, but that was the first time we arrived in a town that was already stirred up by the presence of another bizarre creature."
"What was so bizarre about her?"
"For one, she was drawn to us, not terrified, as most humans are. And she knew right away what we were. I looked into her mind and it was so much more… vivacious than an average human mind. It was pulsating with immense encrypted information that I couldn't ever decode." He slipped into a reverie, evoking the memory.
"What was she guarding?"
"She claimed to be a portal guardian. Apparently her bloodline was responsible for keeping those who live in this realm to remain here and those who live in other realms to never cross over."
"Hold up… Realms?"
"You know Nessie, I was the most sceptical about that but… this world just might be vaster than any of us can ever conceive. There might be worlds all around us, alternate realities where beings that we know nothing about live."
"Do you think that maybe there's an all-vampire realm out there?" Her chocolate brown eyes were now shining at the possibilities that had just opened up.
"Maybe! But, back to the strange woman. She claimed to be running from a Scottish coven that had kept her prisoner for several years in order to utilize her gifts."
"Wow! And yet, she was not afraid of you?"
"She said that she recognized the golden hue of our eyes and its implications. She believed that we would not harm her." He stopped to let her process the words.
"So, how is she connected to the whole life essence business?"
"I'm getting there. Freja claimed to possess the ability to prepare a cure for vampire thirst. She called it 'blessed waters', and according to her, it was far more superior to blood. One drink of this 'blessed waters' and one would be sated for several months, while also feeling stronger."
"Dad… That is incredible! How did she claim to do that?"
"She said that by opening a portal to a spiritual realm," another quotation marks gesture, "in a fountain of water, the spirits from that realm, in an eager attempt to meet with the loved ones that they left behind in this world, would infuse their life essence into the water. By drinking the water that the spirits use as passage into our world, vampires would devour that sought-after life essence."
There was a several seconds-long pause. Then Nessie exhaled. "But… that just sounds a bit far-fetched and a lot creepy."
"For you and me both, sweetheart. I didn't want any part of it. But the fact that we entertained her for even more than a few minutes was indicative of how desperate our family was to live without killing innocent creatures. We would try anything."
"But of course the ghost-juice didn't work." About this, Nessie was confident.
"Actually, her 'blessed waters' appeared to work at first. Jasper, Rosalie and Esme all tried it and were cured of their thirst for a while…"
"So… so, she wasn't some crackpot chancer?"
"No, she definitely was. Freja was no realm portal guardian. She was a gifted hypnotist. She put strong suggestions deep in the recesses of their minds to stop thirsting. And it would've worked if they had not consequently grown physically weak."
"I see." Nessie sighed. "Well… there goes my life essence theory."
He made a move to get up, and cocked his head to the side, as a suggestion that they both better go downstairs to join the rest of the family.
"Dad," she said, while he ushered her through the door. "If you really have no qualms about vampirism, then why were you so dead-set against mom becoming a vampire?"
"Well…"
"She said that you were absolutely against it."
"Yes. I had my own reasons," he said, unwillingly.
"Which were?"
"I was afraid that your mother would turn out to be a Volturi-type of vampire."