This little note is for all my dedicated fans. First of all, who else is excited about all the awards Twilight won at the MTV Awards, and the premiere of New Moon? I know I definitely am. I can't wait. Second, this is the chapter that a lot of people have been dying for. This is the chapter where I reveal the secrets of Bella's past, and tell exactly who Sly is. It might take a while because I want it just perfect; but I'm out of school now, so I have a lot of free time on my hand. Please review so I know how it turned out.
Love,
Kas
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"This is a little hard to explain." I began.
"Maybe you could start by telling us who he is." Edward said sneeringly.
A slight grin appeared on my face, "This is Sylvester Cardonas Swan-Papoulias; my elder brother."
"Brother?"
"Yes, Edward, he's my brother."
"What? Are you gonna tell me Vanita's really your sister? Was that another lie?" he asked derisively.
"No. She's really just my best friend. She's close enough to the real thing though."
"Would you mind explaining to us exactly what you are?" Carlisle asked.
"I …we…it's complicated. And it's not exactly safe for either of us if you know." I answered.
"We can take care of ourselves. And we would never betray you; no matter what you tell us."
"Well, let's see if you can swallow this. We're half Angel and half vampire." I said, avoiding their faces.
"That's impossible!" Jasper shouted, "Your blood runs. You have a heartbeat. You have color. You…you…"
"Yes. Yes. I know. All of that is from our heavenly side."
"Maybe it would help if you just tell us the story." Carlisle said.
"Okay," I let my mind travel back. I released all the painful memories that I usually kept locked away, "My father was the first vampire. His name was Lucious, and he was one of the devil's most trusted and highly favored demons. Lucifer turned him into a vampire, and ordered him to create an entire race. My father obeyed, and created who you would consider the kings of the vampire world. He made Aro, Caius, and Marcus. The three of them came together and populated the Earth with vampires. My father left them to govern the vampire world on Earth."
"Later on, during one of those epic battles between good and evil, my father met my mother. She was an Angel named Lina-Sophia, who had been Greek and Italian before her immortal life. I'm not sure what happened, but one look and they were in love. Sophia, as she was called, fled with Lucious. They were married, and had three children. Sly is the eldest and I am the youngest. Obviously, with God being able to see everything, he knew all about it. Unfortunately, so did Lucifer. Two other brave souls --- a demon and an angel --- decided to risk following my parents' example, since they went unpunished. That's how Vanita was born."
"My family and I had been living comfortably for years. We had spent five years in Italy, and five years in Greece. My mother was teaching us about her cultures. When I was around ten, tragedy struck. With so many starting to disobey them, God and the Devil decided it was time to take action. They summoned us into limbo. There, God exiled my mother from heaven, and Lucifer sentenced both my parents to death. We had to watch as they were killed. Once it was over, we weren't allowed into heaven. Being the abominations we were, our family was made an example of. We were sent to live with Lucifer instead. All other vampires have a chance at redemption. You guys will probably make it into heaven; but there is no chance whatsoever for us."
"We were still children, so Satan was now our official guardian. This created complications for our family. We were already broken, so any little thing could've pushed us over the edge. Sly and I stayed very close, but my sister was another story. Evil had always been more dominant in her than in us. After what happened with God, my sister felt that he had no compassion. She didn't want heaven if it was like that. She let her evil half completely take over. She stuck close to Lucifer, learning from him. But, even though he did love her, she wasn't the one he wanted. It was me."
"The day Lucifer announced to the underworld that I was to be the heir to his throne, our family was shattered. My sister, Khristalie, she went crazy. She was jealous. After all the time that they spent together, and all her hard work and training, she though he was going to name her the heir. When he chose me, she turned against me. She started blaming me for everything bad in her life. She even blamed me for our parents' death. She's been trying to kill me for years. The first time she tried, Sly pulled us apart so that we wouldn't hurt each other. She ran after that. Because we all have this sort of mental shield, no one can find us. They can't use psychics, mid readers, trackers, or anything like that. Not even God knows where we are unless we allow him."
"So that's why none of our powers work on you three." Alice said.
"What? What powers?" I asked.
"I can see the future," she said, "Jasper can control people's feelings, and Edward can read minds."
"And you were planning to tell me this when?"
"Um… well…see…" Alice sputtered.
"Uh huh. I guess I'm not the only one keeping secrets. But it's okay."
"So why do you two live separately?" Emmett asked, referring to Sly and myself.
"I used to live with him; but when Khristalie kept hunting me down and trying to kill me, Sly had to put me somewhere safe. When I met Vanita, it was during a fight with Khristalie. Sly and I had relocated to India after her last attack. I was running from Khris when I ran into Vanita. I could instantly tell that she was like me. We bonded instantly. Sly figured that since I would no longer be alone, Vanita and I could live together while he traced Khristalie. He sent us to America. We've been moving around for… a while. Sometimes, my carelessness gets us into trouble."
"What do you mean?" Carlisle inquired.
"Well, we bond easily with people. They are drawn to our angelic halves. But as much as we bond with humans, we also bond with vampires. We've come across many that we thought we could trust. Once we let them in on our secret. Since the Volturi is also supposed to be looking for us, the traitors either rat us out to them hoping to gain favor, or they rat us out to Khristalie hoping to get a reward from her or Lucifer. They tell her where we are, and there's a big showdown. I try not to hurt her because Sly wants to reason with her; but that usually leaves me injured. Once we escape, Vanita calls Sly and tells him what happens. That's why she was so upset about me bonding with you guys. She was trying to protect us."
"You have nothing to worry about with us." Esme assured us, "We will keep your secret, and we will also protect you if the occasion ever presents itself."
"Thank you, Esme."
"If no one else can track her, then how can he?" Jasper asked.
"You know how twins can sometimes hear each other's thoughts? We have something similar to that. If one of us is in serious danger, the others can hear it and feel it. We can also get into each other's minds if the other is off guard, or we really need to. Sometimes, we can get visions of each other. As you just witnessed, Khristalie sent me a vision. She wants me to know that she's coming; I just don't understand why. She must have some trick up her sleeve."
"So what else can you guys do?" Emmett asked.
"I'll let them answer for themselves since we all have different powers."
"Well, not completely different." Vanita corrected, "All of us, including Khris, have the basic vampire abilities. We're super strong, super fast, we have heightened hearing and sight; only we're better at all those than vampires are. And we don't sparkle in the sun. Because we're half angel, we sort of have this glow. Our extra abilities are where we differ. I have a dominion over time. I can slow it down or speed it up."
"That day when we were almost late for class," I reminded them, "Vanita was the one who held off the bell to give us a few extra minutes."
"I can project a force field to protect me and others from physical attacks; but it's weak. I can't hold it against someone really powerful for too long. And I can also do this." Vanita focused on nothing imparticular until a halo appeared above her head. She pulled the halo down," I can turn this into any weapon I want it to be," she demonstrated this by turning into a knife, a sword, and a whip before making it disappear, "It'd be kinda weird if I walked around with a halo hovering over my head."
"You can say that again." Emmett muttered.
"I guess it's my turn now." Sly said, "Well, I can sense peoples true purposes. I'm sort of like a human lie detector. My power doesn't work on my sisters, but Bella never lies to me, and I can always tell when Khris is lying. I can shape shift into any person or animal I want. I can't control the weather, but I can control rain. Really, I don't do anything special. I'm just the protective big brother who's trying to keep the family together. And I'm sorry for almost attacking you earlier."
"It's okay." Carlisle said, "We would do the same thing if it was one of us."
I sighed deeply as everyone's heads turned to me, "So I guess it's my turn now. I think we should step outside. I don't want anything to happen to Esme's beautiful house."
We stood up, and everyone followed me outside. Sly and Nita stood beside me as we faced the Cullens.
"For starters, I'm a conjurer. I can make anything I want appear and disappear. That's how we get our cars and our houses. The clothes we pay for, because Vanita and I love to shop."
"Show us." Alice practically demanded.
"What do you want?
"The Golden Gate Bridge!"
"Be reasonable, Emmett." Esme chided.
"Fine." Emmett sulked, "Then how about a bear. A grizzly." He suggested with a smirk.
"Don't you dare eat it."
His face fell when I said that. I shook my head at him, before I closed my eyes. This was a small thing to conjure, so it only took a few seconds. When I heard the bear's roar, I opened my eyes.
"I can speak to animals through their thoughts, as well." I demonstrated this by telling the bear to walk towards Esme, and snuggle against her. It listened to me. Esme was petting it; but when Emmett got a hungry look on his face, I made the bear disappear.
"What else can you do?" Alice asked excitedly.
"I can control fire." I opened my hand and a flame appeared. I threw the flame towards Emmett and made it go out just before it touched him, "I've gotten very good over the years." I smirked, seeing his terrified face, "And there's one other thing I can do. I fly."
"You…fly?" Alice asked, a bit stunned.
"It makes sense, seeing as how angels usually do fly."
"I have wings and everything."
"Can we see?" Alice asked.
"Sure." I responded. I focused again and pushed my wings out of my back. The Cullens stared in awe at my sparkling, ebony feathers. Like with the other night, I crouched down and pushed off from the ground. I didn't go too high; I merely soared above the trees so that I was still in view. I loved flying so much that Sly had to call me down. I lowered myself, but remained hovering above the ground, sitting on the air.
"Your wings are beautiful," Esme complimented.
"Thank you. Unfortunately, this is a power that I must share. People always used to say that Khristalie and I were enough alike to be twins. Our powers are very similar. She can create and manipulate electricity. That's the offensive power she uses against me when we aren't fist fighting. On top of almost copying my fire power, she can fly to. I get a bit jealous of her because, even though her soul is so dark, her wings are pure white. Sometimes I wonder if something went wrong, and I got the wrong wings. But I appreciate what I have."
"So…I still don't get it."
Everyone shook their heads at Emmett idiocy.
"Emmett ---" I started, but he cut me off.
"No. I mean, I understand. It's just weird is all. What do you guys eat? Is there like a special angel diet or what?"
"No. we follow both a human and vampire diet." Vanita answered.
"But we don't eat humans." I quickly added after seeing the looks on their faces.
"Anymore." Vanita grumbled.
"Sorry about that." I said, "We gave up humans so that we'd be harder to track."
"With so many vampires out there, how could they track you?" Rosalie asked.
"Our venom can't turn humans. Its affects are countered by the angel magic. But it does leave a significant mark. After we bite them, the body will glow to vampire eyes. It will appear luminescent, like a light is being shined from underneath the skin. They would follow the dead humans to us."
"So we had to give up the best meals of our life, and turn to hunting animals. Although, they do put up more of a challenge." Vanita grinned.
"How about sleep?" Jasper asked, "Surely angels have no need for sleep."
"True; and neither do vampires. We only sleep when we want to. Sometimes our minds or bodies will become exhausted, and we'll need to rest." Sly told them."
"So now you know pretty much everything." I said.
"Not everything. There's one more thing I want to ask."
"Yes Emmett."
"How old are you?"
"Yes." Carlisle added, "I had been wondering."
"Oh, age is nothing but a number really." I said, trying to avoid the question.
"Stop stalling." Emmett said.
"I'm not!" I argued.
"How old?" he asked again.
"I'm…we're…Sly and I are two years apart. Khristalie and I are one year apart. I was born around 640,000 B.C" I said, trailing off at the end.
"WHAT?!"
Their reactions were just as I expected.
"Bella you're older than dirt." Emmett joked, earning him a smack upside the head from Rosalie.
"Don't be so rude, Emmett." She scolded, "You're embarrassing her."
"It's okay, Rose. I got over my age a long time ago."
"We seem to have a slight dilemma here." Vanita reminded me.
"Nita, I know."
"What's seems to be the problem?" Carlisle inquired.
"Well, remember how I told you that if I told you our story, I would be endangering you as well as us? You're in trouble now. My sister knows where we are. She's bringing the Volturi here. She won't pay you much attention if you stay out of the fight. The Volturi will notice you at once and give you two choices. You can either help them take us down, or you can take our side and be sacrificed one by one until we give in to save you. If you choose to ally with the Volturi, I will understand. It's safer for you, and that's all I really want."
"Bella, you're nuts!" Emmett exclaimed, "Of course we're gonna stand by you no matter what. I don't care if she brings a hundred Volturis. I'm itching for a good fight anyways."
"Emmett's right, Bella." Alice agreed, "We all love you, and we're all gonna fight for you; no matter who comes along."
I looked around to see all of the Cullens nodding their heads. I was about to thank them when my eyes rested on Edward. He was leaning against the wall, his eyes staring off into the distance.
"Edward?" I called.
The moment his name escaped my lips, Edward fled from the room. he had barely left the atrium before I heard the front door slam.
"Don't worry about that Bella. He's just upset. He always was the biggest brat."
"It's okay Alice. I needed to talk to him anyway. I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong." I stood up to leave, but felt my brother's hand in mine; stopping me. I looked back to see my brother almost pleading with me, "It's okay."
"No, Bells, it's not. He's mad. There's no telling what might happen to you. And what if Khristalie is already here? Anything could happen to you."
I gently pulled my hand from his and placed it on his cheek. I caressed it with my finger, as he held it close with his own hand.
"Sly, you are way too overprotective. Now that the link is open, I can feel Khris. It's gonna be a while before she gets here. Besides, no matter how upset he is with me, Edward cares about me. He wouldn't let anything happen to me. He's almost as bad as you. Don't worry about me. I love you."
"I love you too."
