Chapter 3 --3 Years Later
Vvvvvroooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It was the dead of night and I had the whole highway to myself. I shot past the trees lining the highway so fast that they seemed to bow out of the way. If I were human, they were sure to be only a blur of color. The starry night's gleam reflected off my sleek midnight black motorcycle as I drew nearer my destination. It was unusual to see the stars here. Good ol' Washington State was our chosen spot for the time being because of the constant cover of clouds. It was easier to walk around during the daylight, I had missed it. From what I could remember I use to love the sun, my complexion was much darker then. Though I had grown up in Chicago, my family took a lot of road trips south for the summer. I turned off the highway and into the tree's. I was late, he would be angry with me. I jumped off my bike and started to run. As I slowed into a walk I cupped my hand around my throat. I began tracing the outline of the scar on the back of my neck. In the beginning I was more rebellious…but then he attacked me. I tried to run many times, but he was a tracker. He always found me. After the fourth try he had had enough. The searing pain that could only compare to the transformation itself swirled around in my memories. Nowadays I pretend to be just like him. But I'm biding my time…
"DEMI!" I put on my always composed face and walked towards him, smirking.
"Callum," I smiled as I ducked my head in salute.
"Don't act as if nothing's wrong, you were expected back an hour ago."
"I wanted to take my time. I was enjoying my late night joy ride."
"I need to hunt as well, do not make me wait again." He reached up and stroked my face. A devilish smirk spread across his face as he held my face in his hands and I took in his mood at once. Repulsed as I was I had to keep my features soft, innocent.
"You need to hunt, I'll be here when you get back," I whispered seductively, believably.
"Don't move from this spot," he demanded forcefully before crushing his lips to mine. I held still, he needs to believe, he needs to believe I chanted to myself. He disappeared into the trees and I waited until I knew he was definitely gone. Then I ran. I ran so fast that my motorbike surely would not have kept up with me, not even for one second. I ran, changing direction, backtracking, zigzagging. Callum cannot know that I left the clearing he so vehemently demanded me to protect. It was stupid really. No other Vampire's have been around at all since we made it to Washington. I finally reached my destination at the edge of California. He was there, waiting for me. I watched his anxious face break into a glowing smile as he bounded the last yard in a couple strides and swept me off my feet. My world felt right again as he held me close to his chest and stroked my hair.
"I've missed you so much Demi," he breathed into my hair.
"I love you Tristan," I breathed back.
I was going to end it here but I figured I hadn't wrote in a while so I better give you more =)
"I can't stay long, I think he'll be back before daybreak."
"Please let me end this," he growled fiercely.
"No, stop saying that! Callum is lethal, we have to think of some way to make sure that he'll never bother me again."
"And until then?" He inquired, jaw clenched. I smiled and traced his jaw line, watching it relax at my touch.
"We'll have to be patient. Careful." Callum was dangerous, if he even knew about Tristan it would be the end of both of us, I couldn't, wouldn't let anything happen to him. I didn't doubt Tristan's strength but I just couldn't let him fight, and I would just get in the way, I had no fighting experience. Tristan's lips found mine and he wound his arms around me. I was content to stay like this for the rest of my existence, but we've had our share of obstacles from the moment we'd met. In fact on that first night, I had tried to rip his head off. I had just reached my one year mark and I was off hunting alone. Tristan had also been hunting in the area and I caught his scent coming on strong. Thankfully he was stronger than I was as my newborn strength had been depleted. He had me on the ground beneath him when I met his eyes. They were a somewhat muted red, different than the eyes of any of the other nomads I'd come into contact with. I was mesmerized into total defenselessness and we began to converse. Tristan, like me, had a hard time murdering people. He instead stole blood from blood banks. I began to do the same shortly after. The blood never had quite the perfect fresh taste that was longed for, but it was almost exactly the same anyhow. For the past two years Tristan has trailed along with me, keeping enough distance so Callum would never know. It is incredibly hard to deceive a Vampire, especially a tracker like Callum. I have to make Callum believe I love him so that he doesn't get suspicious (he has already commented on my strange eye color). What made Callum so territorial over me was the obvious fact that he had created me and then there was that something else. I had acquired a gift once I'd become a vampire. I found that I had the ability to camouflage myself, turn myself into another person. It was all an illusion really though, only the person I directed my false impression to saw me differently while everyone else saw me exactly the way I was. On occasion Callum made me take on the appearance of someone's former mate, to torture them before he defeated them. It was his way of revenge for the petty things that have happened to him throughout the years.
"I've met other's Demi." Tristan's voice snapped me out of my reverie.
"Other's?"
"Like us. Vampires. Only they were different."
"Where?" A sheepish grin spread across his face.
"Well, I went into Washington, I wanted to see you, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't go any nearer than 50 miles."
"He could have crossed your scent!" I hissed.
"He would have thought it was someone passing through, anyway, this Clan was different. There were so many of them…and their eyes."
"Their eyes?"
"Their eyes were most unusual. Topaz, golden, I've never seen anything like it in my 60 years. And they called themselves a family." These unusual Vampires had intrigued me almost instantly.
"But how? And why are their eyes different?"
"They live off the blood of animals, Demi, this can be our eternity together." I smiled, a gleam in my burgundy eyes.
"This could be what we've been searching for," I breathed, my forehead against his. He placed a hand on the small of my back and dragged me in against himself, leaning in, he kissed me softly and swiftly. "Alright, let's do it."
"Do what?" He murmured, his face buried in my hair.
"Meet with them, learn from them."
"And Callum?"
"Train me to fight Tristan. With the two of us, we should be more than enough," I whispered the words, feeling the intensity of the longing I felt for this new life.
"I probably should train you to fight, but I refuse to let you fight Callum, I can handle him on my own."
"No way in-"
"Shh." He placed a finger to my lips and one side of his mouth tugged up into a lopsided half-smile. "Let's just meet the Cullen's first and see how we should continue from there."
"Cullen's?"
"I told you, they think of themselves as a family."
"Alright then, I think it's about time we visit the Cullen's."
