Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. All recognizable characters belong to SM.
In the Woods:
A Bella and Edward Story Part 6
Reader, shortly after the twins were born, we discovered that they, like their parents, have gifts.
Elizabeth can read minds like Edward but only the ones that she chooses. She does this by throwing a shield around the person whose thoughts she wishes to access. Her mind however, is protected like Bella's with a filter of sorts against all the other noises.
Masen can throw his shield up to protect against gifts that attack the body. This is the opposite of Bella's gift which only protects her mind.
Please keep these things in mind as we rejoin the Cullen family and continue on with our story.
When Edward and Carlisle returned from their hunt, a relieved Bella came out to join them. She let them know the twins were up to something.
Bella had been concerned because they weren't their usual mischievous selves. They had been thick as thieves all day long and had been dividing their time between Jasper and Alice. They were constantly asking them to use their gifts and then running off to have whispered conversations. They had been so very serious all day that she had found it rather alarming.
As she was about to confront them, Alice pulled her aside and assured her that all would be revealed when their daddy and granddad arrived home. It was very important to them that the whole family was there.
As soon as they entered the cabin, Elizabeth flew into her daddy's arms and gave him a great big hug and a smooch on the cheek.
Edward in turn, tickled his little princess.
"Daddy, Masen and I have exciting news!" Elizabeth said with a tinkling laugh.
"Yes, but it would be much easier to demonstrate than to explain." said Masen as he hugged his daddy around the legs.
Grace not wanting to be left out of the fun stood on her hind legs and waved her front paws to get Edward's attention. He scooped her up and allowed her to lick his face as he followed his children.
Everyone moved into the living room and sat down facing the twins who were preparing themselves for the big reveal they had planned.
As the twins took a deep breath and were about to begin, a few stray thoughts got Edward's attention.
Edward stifled a gasp as he heard the thoughts of his children.
"Please don't spoil the surprise, daddy." Elizabeth pleaded with him in her thoughts.
Edward smiled at her lovingly and gave her a slight nod to let her know that he would let them do things their way.
The twins asked everyone to please sit quietly and to hold all of their questions until the three demonstrations were over.
The grownups agreed.
Alice and Edward were the only ones that weren't exchanging curious expressions.
For the first demonstration, Masen threw his shield around Alice and asked her look into the future to see what the weather would be like the next day. Alice did as she was asked and let everyone know that it would be sunny out. Masen thanked her and released her from his shield.
"Masen, please look into the future and let us know what the weather will be like a week from tomorrow." Elizabeth asked
Masen did as requested and said that it would be overcast. Elizabeth then turned to Alice and asked her to confirm that for them. Once again, Alice did as requested and confirmed that Masen was in fact correct.
Jasper, Bella, Esme and Carlisle exchange startled glances but kept their thoughts and comments to themselves.
For the second demonstration, Masen threw his shield around Jasper and asked him to use his gift to send the grownups waves of sadness. Jasper did as requested and then Masen released him from his shield.
"Masen, please send waves of amusement to the grownups." Elizabeth requested. With a smirk that was identical to his father's, Masen happily did as requested.
Masen stopped messing with their emotions and switched places with his sister, letting her take centre stage.
For the third and final demonstration, Elizabeth threw her shield around the group and thought about just how much she loved and cherished each one of them.
They were all able to hear her thoughts and smiled lovingly at their little girl.
"As you can see, Elizabeth and I seem to have each developed a secondary gift." said Masen stating the obvious.
"Elizabeth can now send thoughts to anyone she throws her shield around." Masen explained to the group.
"Masen can now throw a shield around a vampire and absorb their gift. Once he has absorbed the gift with his shield, he can use that gift as if it were his own. As long as the shield remains around the vampire, there is no limit to how often he uses their gift. However, once he has removed the shield it only seems to work once for him. Another bonus is that the other vampire doesn't feel when his gift is being absorbed." Elizabeth explained their findings from the day's experiments.
Everyone was stunned yet pleased by this turn of events. They all spent the evening testing these new gifts until it was bedtime for the children.
After tucking the children and Grace in for the night, the grownups all gathered on the porch to discuss this new development.
"Carlisle, have you ever heard of vampires with more than one gift?" Esme asked.
"No, dear. You have to remember that the children aren't full vampires. As vampires, we are frozen. The children are half human and this allows them to grow and develop in ways that aren't possible for vampires. Their vampire half is accelerating that growth and development. It is truly remarkable." Carlisle commented.
"They are growing up so quickly. I am just relieved that these gifts of theirs will help them protect one another." Jasper pointed out.
He had spent a good portion of the evening testing the twins to see if their shields could be shared between the two and it worked with no problems at all.
"The only downside is that it seems to drain them physically. Their heads barely hit the pillow before they were asleep." Edward said with obvious concern.
"I just looked into the future. As they grow, they'll be able to use these gifts without it affecting them as it does now. It will become second nature to them by the time they reach maturity. These gifts are just so new that their bodies haven't grown accustomed to them yet. Please relax. I promise that everything will be fine on that front." Alice reassured her family.
"Thank you, Alice that really eases my mind." said Bella, who had been quietly contemplating everything she had learned that evening.
Both Edward and Bella thanked Alice for her reassurance.
After that, each couple split up, to spend some quality time with their mate while taking in the beautiful starry night.