A/N: Well, the chapters just keep getting longer, and I popped out two of these babies in one day. Anyhoo this chapter is A LOT of dialogue which, strangely enough, I found out I'm not so bad at. I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts on this, and if you think I should slow down on the updates, or if you like getting a new chapter a day. But please read, review, and tell your friends! Enjoy!
Ashlyn knew that on the ride to the Cullens house, though they were making small talk and being entertaining, both Carlisle and Alice were thinking about her eyes, and how strange they were for a vampire. They would share glances that she didn't understand, or phrases meant to communicate just between the two of them. But Ashley didn't mind. That was always what it was like in Italy, and even though she had come here hoping for a different life, she didn't find it at all rude. Maybe if she were someone else she would, but her background wouldn't allow for it.
Ashley was gazing out of the car at the nature around them when Carlisle announced that they had arrived at their house. It was a stunning place, all windows surrounded by the most beautiful backdrop she could imagine. There was an entire section the appeared to be floating on the left side of the house. Her jaw nearly dropped, "You LIVE here?"
Alice chuckled, "Well, yes. What? Did you expect something underground and ancient? Not modern and very fashionable?" There was a gleam in her eyes, like she was proud that they could surprise this girl.
"Maybe not underground and ancient, but definitely something way more conservative." Ashley was still in awe. The house had a beauty that you didn't see at first glance. The contrast between the blues and grays, the small shrubbery, the overall feel of the house was that even though it was so modern it still had the warmth of a suburban home.
Carlisle was watching the two interact, if Ashley could get along with Alice she could get along with any of them. It wasn't because she was the worst of them, or annoying, but she was a big character, and if you can deal with that you can deal with everyone else. "Come on girls, everyone is dying to meet you, Ashley." He said it with as much warmth as he could muster. Her eyes were still confusing him. There was no way that a vampire could have green eyes, let alone green eyes that looked like emeralds, ever.
Ashley got to the door first, right as Esme opened the door, "Hi! I'm-"
She started, but Esme finished, "Ashlyn, we know. It's great that you're here."
"Well, actually I prefer Ashley, Aro only calls people by their full names, so that's what he tells people to call me. I ask him not too but he always says 'That's your name, so use it'." They both chuckled. They too were getting along.
Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie were making their way from the kitchen to greet Ashley. As they began to make their way they all caught sight of her. Rosalie continued on, but the boys stopped. Once they were sure they were out of ear shot Emmett burst out, "Jasper, please tell me you think she's as fine as I do, because that is one hot mama."
Jasper hit him on the shoulder, "Emmett. You are married, as am I, and if we do anything with her our wives will kill us."
Emmett didn't appreciate the answer Jasper gave him, "Just because I think she's fine doesn't mean I'll do anything with her. Man."
"In that case, I do have to say I agree. She is one hot mama."
"That's my boy. Now let's go meet her before she thinks we're rude."
Once the boys walked upstairs they got the full effect of her appearance. She wore clothes that made her look tall, but she was only a few inches taller than Alice, which really amounted to nothing. "Hi, Ashlyn, right?" Emmett started.
"Actually Emmett, she prefers Ashley, which you would know, if you weren't downstairs with Jasper talking about how hot she is." When Ashley looked at him she gave him a half smile, with a bewildered look on her face. Boys reacting like that was something that she was used too, but never had a girlfriend, or wife, reacted like that before.
Ashley let out a real smile, "Well, Emmett," She paused to make sure his name was right "It's a pleasure to meet you. And thanks for the compliment, I guess." She made a funny face when she said the last sentence trying to test the waters. "And you must be Jasper." He bowed and grabbed her hand to kiss it. Ashley giggled, "A country gentleman. How nice."
Jasper smiled back, and as he did stepped towards Alice and grabbed her hand. "You, Miss Ashley, are a much prettier and much different person than we were expecting. And that, is a nice surprise." He was adept at making a girl feel good.
As Carlisle looked on this meet and greet that was happening in front of him he noticed that Ashley made direct eye contact with everyone, and never stopped smiling. She was excellent at this small talk. This brought back the memory of when they all first met Bella. It wasn't nearly this easy. They had all stumbled on their words, and talked about the weather but didn't really connect. Maybe the difference here was that she too was a vampire like them. They began to make their way to the living room. A lively conversation was beginning to unfold. "…and then when I got back the camel was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Middle of the desert, not another soul for a good twenty miles, and my tied-up camel disappeared. I was so upset." Emmett was ending one of his favorite stories.
Ashley laughed – it was something like velvet, her presence filled the room. Esme looked at her for a long moment, "How did you come by such surprising eyes?" As she said this in a warm voice, there was obviously a story behind something so unusual.
The question caused Ashley to look down, almost like she was ashamed. When she looked back up, she was still wearing her smile, but it looked more like a grimace. "My mother gave them to me." She looked at her hands and began twirling a gold ring that was sitting on her left ring finger. "She told me once that the only people who were given eyes as pretty as mine were the ones who were meant to change people's lives. She also said that the reason that hers were so dull was because when my brother and I were born she had changed someone's life, our lives, so she passed that blessing to us. When I was much younger I thought that that was why my eyes hadn't changed. It was because my mother always wanted to make sure I remembered that." Ashley had been staring at her ring the whole time, and once she realized that she looked up at the rest of them, "So, if that answers your question. I honestly don't know why my eyes are like this." That statement was a complete lie. She knew exactly why.
In May of 1938 the Volturi sent her on a mission to talk with Vladimir Nikolai, a Russian vampire with a knack for knowing too much. It was her first mission on her own. She was supposed to question him, find out if he had a gift or not, and then kill him either way. The tricky part of the mission was that if Vladimir did have a gift, she had to get it too. With only twenty years of being a vampire under her belt, Ashley couldn't control her power well enough, or her hunger. When she came across Vladimir he was in a human form, which Ashley couldn't understand because he was supposed to be a vampire of nearly 500 years. But then when her gift began working, she understood. That was her gift, understanding. Once she understood something she could always do it without fail, and that had translated from her human life to her vampire life. In that moment she also understood her gift, and how she had to use it. That was the point of her mission, not only to get rid of someone that the Volturi wanted to see gone, but also to show her her power. That was the first gift other than her own that she mastered, and the manifestation of that were her eyes.
Though the story of Vladimir Nikolai had come to her mind, it was such a quick sequence of events that nearly no time at all passed. It was just enough that it seemed like she was taking in the emotion from the story of her mother. Rosalie reached over and put a hand on Ashley's knee. "That was a really sweet story, and I totally understand how that feels."
With fake concern on her face Ashley replied, "Really?" she added a pause and furrow of her brow "How so?" The one thing that Ashley hated the most in the whole world was one uppers, and obviously this girl was one of them. She started on a story about how her mother and father never really loved her once she was old enough for marriage and just wanted her to find someone equally attractive with deep pockets. She was shallow in life, and kept it going all the way through death. Ashley understood it though; she was used to being the center of attention and the most beautiful girl in the room. It must have upset her that she would have to start sharing the spotlight for both of those things.
Jasper looked at his watch and tapped Carlisle's shoulder, "If we don't get going soon all the Mountain Lions will be in their dens." She looked at their eyes, noticing for the first time that almost all of them were black, with the exception of Alice and Emmett. "I know their Edward's favorite, but I really want some right now."
At the mention of Edwards name Ashlyn remembered why she was there in the first place. "Speaking of Edward, where is he and his wife and child? And what about the shape shifter, what is his name, Jacob?"
Carlisle looked directly at her and her only, "Yes, his name is Jacob. They all decided that they needed a family vacation, granted a short one. But they thought that since you would be here mainly for them that they would get away and have a little alone time without having to think that you were waiting for them or whatnot."
"I understand. I would do that. When should I be expecting them then?" Ashley was able to capture the attention of the room, which had not been paying attention to the two, with the tone and inflection of what she was saying.
"Well today is … Friday? Yes, Friday, and tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards and they are coming back on Monday. So three days." Carlisle replied with a bursting smile on his face, he tried not to laugh but did anyway.
Alice blinked at him with an unamused face. "Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Carlisle I told you it is not cool to drop Rebecca Black lyrics into everyday life. If you were a thirteen year old girl, I could understand, but you're not. And to add to that it's a little creepy that you know that lyrics well enough that you can drop them into everyday life."
"Well you're creepy enough to know the lyrics too. Because if you didn't you wouldn't have picked up on it." Rosalie quickly retorted. "So don't hate on Carlisle just because he wants to try to be cool." Carlisle made a face when Rosalie said that.
"How about this, everyone who's hungry goes and grabs a snack so we don't start a full on fight about Rebecca Black's song. Okay?" Esme was playing the mediator.
"Fine," everyone replied in unison.
Once everyone with dark eyes left to go hunt all who were left was Alice, Emmett, and Ashley. "You know Ashley, I totally wasn't trying to hit on you earlier, but I just never imagined Volterra vampires being anywhere near as attractive as you are." Emmett was about to dig himself a whole that no one would be able to help him out of.
"Thanks, I guess. But I totally understand, the public face of us isn't exactly the prettiest group of vampires. Like this coven, it's made up of a bunch of really attractive people, and you guys aren't just attractive because you're vampires but everyone was obviously good looking when they were human too. Over there they probably all looked like horses rear ends when they were human and the venom is the only reason they look half decent. It's sort of like Botox." They all laughed.
Alice looked at her, she really was too pretty, and she looked so much like Edward it was almost freaky. "Okay, I'm going to say something, and I'm saying no offense now, but when someone says no offense it usually means it's something mean so I'll just go ahead and say it." Alice paused and took a breath out of habit, not necessity. "If you're as good and important of a guard member as Carlisle makes you out to be, then why did you get sent all the way here literally to the other side of the planet, just to see if a kid has grown?" Ashley looked a little wounded at what Alice had said, but thought on it for a moment.
She couldn't give the real answer, not yet anyway. She had careful instructions, and she was not about to mess them up. "I got in trouble." Ashley sighed. "I didn't do what they wanted me to on another assignment, and it upset Aro. Nobody really liked me there anyway, so he made a big deal out of making me leave and sending me here so that I could finally understand that I can't defy him. It's super lame. I don't understand it. Personally I think it's just his way of letting me know I'm on the fence." Emmett shook his head.
"That is dumb. How is this going to teach you a lesson?" Emmett shot out.
Alice nodded in agreement. "Does he not understand that we're nice, and that you aren't going to be reprimanded here?" Ashley felt bad now that they were reacting so fiercely. She didn't realize that these two had taken so well to her. Her story was only half true, she was here because she broke order, but there was so much more that made it all make since that she couldn't reveal to them now.
"I'm fine with it. It's going to be nice not to have to work, and be around people who decently like me. Because in Italy, the permanent guard really did hate me. They thought it wasn't fair that I was a part of it from day one. But its whatever, because I'm way better than them now." Her smile was back on her face. "You know what, this has been really fun, but I'd love to get settled in and see where I'll be staying."
Alice face palmed. "I didn't do that yet! I'm super sorry! Come on, it's on the top floor, all by yourself. You'll be staying where Edward used to live, but now he doesn't."
"He doesn't live here?" Ashley asked.
Alice let out a quick smile, "Oh no, after Bella had Nessie Carlisle and Esme gave them their old cottage it's not too far from here, and very cute. They live there so that they can have more of a family life and less of a coven life. I mean, they do have a child."
Ashley nodded, "Of course."
"Oh! Ashley, I'm just going to warn you. You know that we have the, uh, shape shifters."
"Yes. I know."
"Well you're going to have to meet them. Rules. Carlisle will set up a meeting probably for sometime after you meet Edward, Bella, and Nessie just so that it isn't a big rush. They can be a little intimidating, the wolves that is."
A/N: So there it is. Chapter Three. I hope you liked it, I'm really starting to dig this story, like if y'all knew what was all leading up to I think you'd be stoked. So check back in a while for updates!
dannasaur
