Disclaimer: I do not own anything twilight related. It all belongs to Stephanie Meyer. Excerpt is from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. If you don't like spoilers, don't read this. The beginning is the last few pages of that book to make the story flow better.

Chapter 4

Esme turned around, "Welcome Bree Tanner to your new—", she cut off and looked at me with a sweet understanding face. She then looked to my left, "Jasper, Bree seems troubled".

At that moment my helpless feeling turned to fright. Oh crap! Is he going to tear my arm off… or worse?

"Hmm, I see," was all he said before a soothing wave of calm came over me. "Feel better?" he asked.

I looked up at him,"Yes, much better. Thank you?" I meant for it to sound like gratification, but it came out in a whisper-like question. He was smiling at me, but in a stern way, like an approving military general.

"Jasper has the gift to sense peoples' emotions and also alter them," Esme answered.

"Well, I believe it's time for introductions," Carlisle announced.

"I'm Alice," said the petite, black haired vampire as she enclosed me in a sister-like hug. "And you already know my Jasper," she said as she bounced over to her mate. This puzzled me, How could a pixie full of energy and brightness seeming as if she could bounce off the walls be attracted to a drill sergeant who seems to always have a stick up his butt? I guess opposites really do attract.

I heard a humored laugh come from the lanky, auburn haired vampire standing next to the human. "What's so funny, Edward?" Alice demanded.

His laugh tuned down into a chuckle, "This young one, Bree, has a very amusing mind." I smiled at him, and then wondered why he thought it was so funny. "I can read minds," he replied, "all except for Bella's." He motioned to the human at his right. I refused to look at her for fear I couldn't control the thirst, and she noticed.

"She doesn't like me?" she tried whispering as quiet as humanly possible to Edward.

"No, love, she just is trying to exercise self control." Edward replied, in a soothing informative voice.

Still looking away I spoke to her myself, "Bella, I don't hate or even dislike you. I do hate that you are the most delicious thing I have ever smelled. I'm really trying to keep myself from hunting you, which is very hard. I have been hunting humans since the day I was born into this life, and I don't know how to cut it off midstream. I'm not slowly weaning off it, it's just gone. For me, it's like a smoker who's too broke to afford anymore cigarettes ever again. I've gone cold turkey, and it's for forever. So please try to understand where I'm coming from. Even right this very moment, my mind is insanely ripping itself in half trying not to kill you."

I expected her to be afraid, to be absolutely terrified of me for what I'd just said, but she replied in a calm, understanding voice, "Ok. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable here."

I was confounded and completely bewildered by her response. Why is she sorry? A normal human would see it's not her fault. And it's not her fault, it's mine. I have to learn self-control. And she wants me to feel comfortable here. Wow.

"Ha ha! She won't feel uncomfortable here," that voice actually took me by surprise; it was so loud and boisterous. I turned around to see a big, burly vampire smiling at me. He was pretty intimidating, until you looked at his face and saw a big goofy smile on it surrounded by brown ringlets. And his smile was so warm and goofy that it was contagious, I realized that I was smiling too.

The blonde standing next to him smiled too, "Well, Emmett, with you being a big old grizzly bear, she might feel intimidated, I mean who wouldn't? Just look at the smile on her face, it's pretty timid."

"Aww no, Rosie, that's not it. She looks pretty happy to me. I bet it's 'cause she sees that she's got a new, awesome, big bro like me! Ha ha!"

Big brother? I guess they really are like a family, I thought.

"Well, now that everyone is acquainted, how about we all head inside?" Carlisle turned and walked to the big oak door, which was a little taller than Emmett. He opened the door and we walked into they foyer. It was huge and had marble flooring. Talk about rich! I noted.

"I'll take her down to her room," Emmett informed Carlisle.

"Down?" I asked, "As in a basement?" I hated basements. When I was human, I remember being kept in the basement of my house. That's where I slept. It was always dark, wet, and smelly. Not to mention that I had to share the space with whatever animals got down there. Sometimes I was locked down there for a couple days when I'd run away. I still hate basements with a passion, I remembered.

"I promise we won't lock you down there and we'll visit you a lot." He answered my thoughts, "Bella's scent has fills up the entire house, and you'll get accustomed to it best in the basement. When you barely notice the scent, then you'll be allowed upstairs sometimes. You'll finally be allowed upstairs when you can completely resist her blood."

"I really don't like basements though. They're always small, dark, and remind me of my human life," I shuddered.

"Well, it's more like an apartment all to yourself. The one thing that makes it a basement is that there are fewer windows than the other floors, and they're smaller. Other than that, there's a bedroom with a queen sized bed, a master bathroom, a living room, and a small refrigerator." Esme told me in a soothing, motherly, voice.

I felt bad about even complaining. From what she described to me, it sounded like she wanted to make me feel at home, not like I was the prisoner that they were responsible for. "Oh, um, thank you. I never thought a basement could be like that," was all I could think to say. To be honest, I was pretty choked up that they cared that much. "I'm really grateful," and I truly was.

"Well, shall we go to your new 'apartment'?" Emmett asked.

"Sure."

"We're gonna have to walk past Bella to get there so close your eyes and I'm going to hold on to your shoulders."

And I'm glad that he told me to do all that because once we got to the point right in front of her, my body started twitching in her direction and venom pooled in my mouth.

"Easy, killer." Emmett chided.

In the next moment, a pair of soft hands was on my face and I panicked, "Bree, everything is alright. We're just going to carry you downstairs instead, and then we'll bring you some sustenance. I promise this to you." Esme spoke soothingly, and once again, I wanted to cry. Not because I felt helpless, but because there was something in the back of my head that was bringing out sadness, like an old memory. It was just too fuzzy to remember.

"Okay," I replied. In the next instant I was picked up and three seconds later I was sat down on what felt like a very plush couch or bed.

"Alrighty, you can open your eyes," Emmett said.

When I opened them I expected to see something that resembled a basement, even if it had multiple rooms. But the walls and ceilings weren't bare, and the entire floor was carpeted with the softest material I had ever felt. The walls were painted in a creamy-ivory color, with little Italian décor on the top. The carpet was a nice shade of purple that reminded me of lilies. I happened to be sitting on a soft couch that was a very light tan. I got up and walked towards the smell of soap.

In a hallway that I was walking in there were very old pictures of Carlisle and his family, but right before I got to the bathroom door, I found a newer picture of very tan muscular young men. They were all very handsome, but somehow all resembled puppies. Maybe it was their eyes, because they all had deep brown, almost golden irises. Except one. One of them looked quite a bit younger than the rest, and his eyes were a cross between blue and green. Like the clearest ocean in the world. And his face was so innocent and naïve. He seemed like the cutest one to me.

I decided to continue my self-led tour to the bathroom. I opened the door and looked around. There was a huge bathtub that looked more like a Jacuzzi, a big shower, and a marble countertop with an ivory sink built in. I went to the cabinet and found a whole assortment of name brand shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and lotions. I went over to the sink and looked in the drawers. There lay several hair brushes; some were silver and gold, and a bunch of hair products. I bent down to look in the cabinet under the sink and smelled the soft aroma of clean cotton towels. I glided my hand over them and felt every thread soothe my skin. I shut the doors to the cabinet and stood back up again. I took a look in the long grandeur of a mirror that was in front of me. When I lived with the feral coven, mirrors always got broken so Riley eventually stopped replacing them. I took a long look at myself. I was a disgusting beauty. Everything that the transformation had changed was covered in dirt. My clothes were matted with blood and my hair was so knotted that I feared I'd never untangle it. If I were human, I'd be an ugly toothless hobo. A shower is very much needed when I'm done with my tour, I noted.

I walked back out of the bathroom and down the hall. To my left was a dark wooden door that looked polished. I opened it and looked at the bedroom. The floor wasn't like the rest of the basement, it was wooden floored. The bed was huge, even though I wouldn't need it for sleeping, but it would be nice for relaxing. I walked in and looked around. There was a nice sized bookcase on the same wall as the door. So the bed will be good for reading too. On the wall to the left of the bed was a huge entertainment system. It had a Bose sound system, and small recording studio next to it. There were a thousand CDs on shelves on the wall. I went to the closet that was to the right of my bed, and opened up the doors to see a massive closet that I'm sure contained every type of clothing imaginable. I went to the dresser section and pulled out a red tank top, tan sweater, and nice blue faded jeans. There was already a bra and panties set atop the dresser. They were exactly my size, Coincidence? Hmmm….

I eventually came out of my room and found Emmett waiting in the hallway.

"I'm going to take a shower and try to clean myself as much as possible."

"Sounds good to me 'cause you smell almost as bad as those guys," he said pointing to the picture with the green eyed boy in it.

"They're smelly?"

"Oh, just wait, you'll see," he smirked when he said that, like there was something hidden in that meaning.

I just shrugged and walked into the bathroom. When I started the shower, it was warm within a matter of seconds. I stepped in and let the warm water spread all over. Suddenly, I was in the cave with Diego again. I could see the sun sparkling off his skin again. I was pulled back by a pounding at the door. I finished rinsing off and stepped out.

"Yes?" I said without opening the door.

"It's Alice," the chirpy voice replied. "I have clothes for you."

"Oh, thank you, but I already have my clothes picked out."

"Yes, I know. I saw you were going to wear jeans. Well I think you've been wearing jeans for too long."

"Ok….?" I questioned.

"Oh just let me in, I'll show you what I picked out."

I would have just said no, but she kind of scared me. She was like a ball of energy, that if you tried to control there'd be devastating consequences. So I opened the door and she bounced right in.

"I think this would look great on you," she held up a short autumn dress that ended mid-thigh, paired with plain black leggings. "The orange and brown tones would really brighten up your face and your—oh my god! What is that thing on top of your head?" Alice's eyes were glued to my head in horror. I touched it to find long strands of hair tangled up in a mess.

"I think that's my hair," I said very melancholy. How am I ever going to get this out? I thought hopelessly.

"I'm sneaking you upstairs to my room for a day of beautification, because you need it very much."

"What about Bella?" I did not want to attack her.

"Hmm… I've got an idea."