Chapter 7
"Do you have a name?" Emmett asked the young girl, who was still stood in the doorway with her hands over her ears and frozen in shock.
"Oh...My...Go..." The girl's hands fell from the side of her head and she stepped around Emmett and looked at us all one at a time, then to Nessie's breakfast that was in a puddle on the floor. "That's not human is it?" She pointed to the blood on the floor and looked at me, she was smirking. Why was she smirking? She had just walked into the Vampires Lair after nearly being flattened by two of said Vampires, and all she could do was point at the puddle and ask if it was human blood or not, then smirk!? This was messed up. Why wasn't she running away screaming like Edward had expected me to do.
"Erm...No. Animal" I replied, slightly dumbfounded.
"Cool, so it's true then..." She grinned and turned to look at the others, "This is a pretty cool crib you got!"
"Excuse me, who are you?" Rose snapped at the girl.
"My name is Christina..." she looked down at her clothes, as if mentally comparing herself to us, she was wearing a long trench coat that was supposed to be brown, but it was caked in dirt. Underneath the trench coat she was wearing denim jeans and a woollen sweater, her hair was the same shade of brown like my human hair had been, and it was in great need of a wash and so were her hands and face. I noticed her eyes were a sparkling green as they fell upon us again.
"Christina, why aren't you asking for help, and telling me that someone is coming like I saw?!" Alice was getting rather impatient now. The girl looked to Alice, dumbstruck.
"Like you saw?! What do you mean, like you saw? And how did you know what I was gonna say? You some sort of freaky psychic?"
"Something like that..."
"Look, I know who you are, and I'm not afraid. I want to be one of you... and I don't mean adopted or whatever shit you're thinking. I mean...I wanna be a vampire. Like you."
"What the fu..." Emmett started.
Carlisle jumped in before Emmett could finish, "Emmett, Ladies present! Christina, what makes you think we are Vampires?" He attempted a good humour laugh, but Christina wasn't falling for it.
"I just do." She shrugged. "I've been through alot on my life..."
Edward gasped and turned away, walking to the back windows. What had he heard? And in whose thoughts?
"I want to get away from it all, to be one of you and live the way you do. To be free." She looked towards Edward against the back window, "Dude, You Ok? You look like you're gonna hurl..."
"I'm fine; I just...need some fresh air." Edward gave a small smile and slipped out back and walked towards the lake.
"I'll go see if he's ok" I told the others, I put Nessie down between Carlisle and Esme and headed outside.
"Bella...I can't go back in there, not while she's there."
"Why? Edward what's wrong?" I reached him near the lake, not as quick as I would have liked, but Christina could still see us through the windows.
"Her thoughts...She can't help it, she doesn't know I can read them. When she said she had been through alot, she mentally put them into a list..." He grimaced. I put my arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. "She has been through a lot. Rape, Abuse; mentally and physically, Self Harm, Abandonment...her step father...he's evil!!" Edward spat the last words about her step father.
"That poor girl, no wonder she wants to be one of us..." I was filled with sympathy for her, "How did she know what we are though?"
"I have no idea, we should go back in and find out though." Edward and I walked back up to the house hand in hand, but when we got there, she was on her way upstairs with Rosalie.
"Where is she going?" I asked Esme.
"I've sent her upstairs to get a wash and some rest, she's so tired. We can discuss why she is here after she has washed and changed clothes."
"But what about what Alice saw? She said Christina was here to ask for help and to tell us someone was coming..." Edward looked pointedly at Alice and Esme.
"Yes we asked her about that, it's other humans, the same ones who killed the girl in the wood. She's scared of them, and they're heading here too." Carlisle told us.
"Here as in Forks?" I hoped out loud.
"No, unfortunately not. Here as in...here" He gestured with his hand to the house.
"Do they know what we are too?"
"Christina said yes, that's how she found out."
"I'm so confused..." Emmett chimed in.
"We've been exposed, to humans... How!?" Edward moved to Carlisle and picked up Nessie, more for his comfort than hers I thought.
"She wouldn't say." Carlisle told us.
"What? Why?" I asked him.
"She said she will tell us everything if we agree to turn her. She said she has no family left anymore, she's all alone. Jasper said he could sense she was serious. She wants to be one of us." Carlisle looked saddened by the fact another human had found out what they were and wanted to be one too, like me. Only difference is, I wanted this for love. She wants this to be free.
"So, we agree to turn her. She tells us everything, then we send her on her merry way. As a human." Rosalie said from the staircase.
"That's a good plan." Emmett agreed, Jasper nodded.
"Alice, do you see anything in her future?" Esme asked. Alice's eyes glazed over as she concentrated.
"Yes, I see a few things; they're coming so fast I can hardly make them out though. I see Bella and Christina talking. And I see her stood here, with 3 others, humans. They're all angry. The next thing I see is Christina again, as a Vampire, and our sister. Although I don't see how it all happens, or how much time is between each." Alice looked at Carlisle, then at me.
"NO! That will NOT happen!" Rose was in Alice's face in a flash. "We will not turn her! Not just for information! Not for anything!"
"Rose..." Carlisle started.
"No Carlisle! You know how I feel about this! The only reason I agreed with Bella being changed is because of the situation! You know I would never agree to help decide about changing a human when she has other options!" Rose was stood in front of Carlisle now, with her back to Alice.
"Rose, I said I didn't see how much time was in between everything I saw. There may be circumstances where we have to change her. Circumstances like Bella's, or mine, or Edwards....or Yours..."
Rosalie huffed and turned around to face Alice again. "Then we will change her, but only if there is no other option. But until then, she stays human."
"Agreed"
Rose spun around sharply and faced Carlisle, "You're agreeing with me?" She sounded shocked.
"Yes Rose, I am. I agree with you whole heartedly." Carlisle smiled.
"Me too." I smiled at Rose too.
"Everyone agrees with you Rose." Edward said.
"Speak for yourself" Alice huffed, she then caught the looks that were being thrown at her by Rose, Edward and myself, "Just kidding...I agree too Rose.
"Thanks" Rose let out a big sigh. "She's upstairs in the bath, she said she would be down after it to talk to us. She needs some clean clothes." She looked at Alice.
"Oh, I'll get her something" Alice smiled and headed upstairs. We all heard her knock on the bathroom door and tell Christina there were some clean clothes just outside the door for her, and if she would like some pancakes for breakfast. Esme headed into the kitchen to start mixing the pancake batter and to keep herself busy.
"She'll be down in 5." Alice chirped as she headed down the stairs. I realised that there was still a puddle of blood on the floor, so I headed to the cleaning cupboard just inside the kitchen doorway, and took out the cleaning supplies and got to work.
"Edward, could you take Nessie out for breakfast please?" I smiled up at him, and he smiled back.
"Sure, you're not coming?" He asked me. What could I say? 'No actually, I want you to go so that when Christina comes down, you don't freak out at her thoughts'? So I went with the simplest answer I could.
"No, I think I'm going to stay here. Don't forget to put her hair up." He looked around for a hair band and I passed him one from my wrist, where I always kept at least 3 for just incase's.
"It's a good job you have no blood flow, you'd be cutting it off having them on your wrist all the time" Alice chuckled.
"I'll see you soon" Edward kissed my forehead and headed out back with Nessie, her hair in a half ponytail and tucked up into the hair band. I finished cleaning up the spilt breakfast and put the cleaning things back into the cupboard just as Christina came down the stairs in a pair of jeans I vaguely remember Alice wearing once, and a cotton long sleeved shirt, with a pair of blue ankle socks covering her feet.
"What smells so nice?" She asked.
"Me" Emmett laughed, but his laugh was cut short with a sharp jab in the ribs by Rose, which made me grin at Emmett. "Ow, you know how much that hurt?"
"Yes, it was supposed to" Rose smirked at Emmett. Christina was at the bottom of the stairs looking from Rose and Emmett to me with a cocked eyebrow and half smile.
"Just ignore him, everyone else does" I looked at Emmett and smirked, "Esme is making you pancakes in the kitchen." I smiled at Christina; she stopped herself walking off the last two steps, and stared at me... mouth open, eyes glazed over kind of staring. Without another word she shook her head and smiled at me sheepishly.
"Sorry, you kind of..." She started.
"Dazzled you?" I laughed.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Christina was giggling now and walking towards me.
"Edward used to do it to me all the time, sometimes I was sure he did it on purpose just so my pulse would go through the roof" I laughed at the memory, and walked Christina into the kitchen. It was weird how comfortable I felt around her. She was someone who knew what we were, and wanted to be like us. This must be how Alice felt when I was still human and I wanted to be turned, to be with Edward. Could Christina really be my sister one day? A small, selfish part of me hoped she would be. The rest of me agreed with Rose.
"Really? You mean, you and Edward were human together?" she asked me, with a look of amazement and envy.
"Erm, well....Oh Alice is calling me. Eat your pancakes and we'll talk soon." I smiled and left the kitchen. "Alice, are we admitting what we are? Or denying it still?"
"Admitting. There's really no point in doing anything else. She knows. And in 5 more minutes, we're going to tell her we'll change her if she tells us how she knows and who these people that are following her are." Alice told me nonchalantly.
"OK, good." I walked back to the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar opposite Christina while she ate her pancakes, Esme asked Christina if she wanted some more and she politely said yes, which Esme took as her cue to pile her plate with another seven pancakes. "Esme, I don't think she had Emmett's appetite!" I laughed, and from the other room I heard Emmett tell me that no one has his appetite.
"So, you and Edward?" Christina asked between mouthfuls.
"What about us?" I smiled.
"Well, you two were human together? And the little girl you were holding when I arrived, she's your daughter? She looks like you both."
"Not quite...I mean, Yes, Renesmee is our daughter. But Edward and I wern't human together...I was human. Him...not so much"
"So Vamp's can have kids?" Her voice rose an octave at this revelation.
"No, not female ones. See, Edward and I fell in love when I was still human, we got married, just over a year ago, went on honeymoon, did 'it' and I fell pregnant, with Nessie. In the space of a little over a month I went full term. I almost died giving birth; well I did die in some ways. My heart isn't exactly beating." I chuckled, Christina had stopped eating and was staring at me, and she reminded me of myself, the way I looked in the restaurant in Port Angeles when Edward told to me about himself. "Well, Edward, and my best friend Jacob, who's a werewolf, saved my life; they got Nessie out safely, and turned me at the same time, injecting Edward's venom straight into my heart with a needle, and then by biting me on my arms and stomach." I absentmindedly traced the bite scars from that day, and looked at Christina to see how she was handling the story.
"Werewolf!?" She finally said.
"Yes, but that's another story..." I smiled.
"Ok. That's...weird...but I'm sure I can handle it" She smiled at me, "So, when you were changed, did you feel anything? And how long did it take?"
"Eat your pancakes; we can talk about this another time."
"No please, you don't need to go into detail..." She pleaded.
"Yes, I felt something" I said quietly, although I knew I could be heard by Carlisle anyway, and I still hadn't told him the morphine was useless during my change, "and it took about 3 days."
"Thank you." I was shocked she had thanked me, why did she think she needed to thank me? I didn't do anything worthy of being thanked...did I?
"Why are you thanking me?" I smiled.
"Because you're amazing, you gave up everything for love. I mean, I'm assuming you still have family outside of these guys, right?"
"Right."
"And you became one of these people for love. And a daughter, who by the way, is so freaking cute. But I thanked you, because you're real, you could have lied to me, about everything, but you just sat and told me the truth. I know that blonde girl out there wouldn't have told me anything...wait, can she hear me?" I chuckled and nodded, "Oh, erm, no offence to the blonde girl."
"Her name is Rosalie. Anyway, for the last time, eat your pancakes then we all need to talk."
I sat with Christina and waited while she finished eating her pancakes, she occasionally looked up to me and smiled, and I wished I had Edward's ability so I knew what she thought about our past. When she had finally finished we walked through to the large table in the dining area where everyone was sat waiting, Edward still hadn't got back with Nessie.
"We need Edward to be here, Bella, your phone is about to ring" Alice informed me, and sure enough, it started to ring. I looked at the caller ID, it was Jacob.
"Hey Jake"
"Hey Bella, I know it's only like, 10:30am, but what time do you want me at the cottage to see Nessie?"
"I'm not sure yet Jake, I'll call you later though, promise. K, Bye" I snapped the phone shut and looked at Emmett, "Could you see if you can find Edward and Nessie please, they shouldn't of gone too far" I smiled. Emmett walked out back and when he was sure Christina wasn't watching, he ran and jumped over the lake and carried on into the wood. Even though she knew about us, it was probably for the best that she didn't know too much at the moment, just incase. I took my seat in the middle of the table, between two empty seats. Christina stood awkwardly in the door; I motioned for her to sit next to me on the right, between me and Carlisle, who was at the head of the table. She carefully took her place in the seat and smiled at everyone. Just at that moment Edward and Emmett came back through the doors, Emmett carrying Nessie. Edward sat next to me on my left, and Emmett took Nessie to the other side of the table where he sat next to Rose with Nessie sat on his lap.
"Ok Christina, we have all had a talk, and we want you to explain to us why you want us to change you, and to tell us why there are 3 others following you here, please." Carlisle said to Christina gently.
Edward gripped my hand under the table.
"Ok well, like I said before, I havn't got anyone left, no family, no nothing. Technically I have a legal guardian, but he doesn't care about me. My step father, he killed my mother, and he got away with it. Lack of evidence. I saw it happen but I was too young to testify. That was 11 years ago, when I was 6, and since then it all went to shit. Nothing went right for me. Ever." Christina sounded angry, bitter and upset all at once. Carlisle, Esme and Alice's faces had softened and they looked at her like they wanted to help the little 6 year old Christina. I was sure that's how I was looking at her too. Edward was still gripping my hand and trying not to look at Christina. "Anyway, I went through some stuff, got away from my step father 4 months ago." She grinned, she looked so happy that had she had managed to get away from him, "He hasn't reported me missing or anything, I knew he wouldn't. Anyway, when it was cold outside, I'd go to the library and use the computers there, for something to do. And that's how I found out about you. There's a website, it's pretty well hidden, you have to be invited to join it, and if anyone just stumbles across it using Google or some shit, the main homepage looks like it's just a website giving stupid movie trivia facts about vampire movies and stuff. To get to the rest of the site you need a password. Basically, it's a website for people who want to be Vampires. And there's a section in the forums, erm, forums are like message boards where people can talk to each other..." She looked around us all, and I'm sure we all looked bewildered.
"We know what forums are Christina. But a website? There's a website where people talk about wanting to be a Vampire!?" Carlisle was shocked.
"Yes, but that's not it. There's a section in the forums, it's called "Spotted". It's where people write about seeing Vampires, meeting them etc. Most of them are fakes. But you're not..." Christina smiled.
"WE'RE ON THE WEBSITE!?" Carlisle, Emmett, Rose and Edward said together.
"Yeah, you were 'Spotted' hunting animals somewhere, I forget where, but it was a few years. And there was someone in Port Angeles on the website, they said you lived here, in Forks, and they had seen you. And they were sure you were Vampires. It kinda backed up the message board theories and stuff. So a group of us decided to head up here... there were 5 of us. But one girl Michaela, she got cold feet about it. She was from Seattle, like me."
"Oh...I see..." Edward said.
"What?" Christina asked.
"She got cold feet; the other 3 killed her and drained her blood, then drank it....you got scared and ran away." Edward looked at Christina.
"Yes...how did you..?" Christina shook her head slowly, as if trying to shake away mental images.
"I can hear your thoughts, and what you see in your mind, I can see it too. But I can only hear what you're thinking at the moment you're thinking it. Like right now, you're repeating the words 'No way' in your head."
"Actually, I was repeating the words 'No Fuc.."
"There's a child in the room, which is why I took out the expletive." Edward told her.
"Oh sorry, I forgot. But yeah, anyway, that's what happened. I didn't know they would kill her, or drain her blood. They used something to make holes in her body, like Vampire bites. The kind of Vampire bites you see Vamp's making on Buffy though. And they're not after me, well they are, I saw them kill someone and drink their blood... but I mean, they're coming here first. They want the same as me, to be Vampires. And I'm betting they're hoping you will turn them before they come looking for me. When I was travelling up here with them, I got to know them. They aren't nice people. If they get turned, they won't be like you. They said they were going to go home and turn their families, and then kill people who were ever mean to them."
"Incoming. 3 humans. About 2 hours. They're in Forks at the moment, stopping people in the street and talking to them." Alice told us.
"How did you find the house? We aren't exactly in plain view..." Carlisle asked.
"I asked around." Christina shrugged.
"Which means your old friends will be doing the same."
"Well yeah but you can take them right?"
"As a rule, we don't kill humans." Carlisle shook his head.
"But they'll kill me!" Christina looked at me wide eyed.
"No they won't, we'll protect you from them, they won't get through us, don't worry" I smiled at her.
Christina relaxed and smiled at me, "Thanks, so when am I being changed?" She looked around expectantly, no one met her gaze.
"Christina, not right now. There are...things, we have to do first. Like, sorting out these people who are coming here. And trying to figure out how to close down the website." I informed her.
"I can do that, you have the internet on those computers right?"
"Yeah..."
"I'm a fast learner, and I can figure things out pretty easily and quickly too" She grinned.
"Alice, go with Christina and shut down the website if you can." Carlisle looked at Alice and she nodded.
"Wait, I wanna see what the website says about us..." Rose stood up.
"Me too" Emmett agreed. "They could know too much, and the last thing we want is the Volturi on our backs, again."
"They already know too much by knowing about us!" Edward growled.
"No, they don't. They just highly suspect, and they're hoping they're right about you." Christina told Edward.
"She's right. Ok Christina, load the website and get us in, and show us where the message board is about us please." Carlisle told her as he stood too.
We all stood and followed Christina and Alice to the computer, careful not to crowd round her. She switched the computer on and waited while it loaded, then she opened the internet browser and typed the website name into the address bar. The first page to load looked like Christina said it would, just useless stuff about Vampire movies. Christina clicked a link on the sidebar called 'Members Only' and a box popped up, she typed in the password, which was 'Kubus1923'.
"What does Kubus1923 mean?" I asked.
"It's supposed to be a pseudonym of a Vampire, and 1923 is the year he was turned. That's all I know about it." Christina told me as she navigated her way around the website to the forums, typing in passwords as each new page waited to load. "Each page has a different password, the main password, Kubus1923, is just to get in, the rest a relatively easy, just things like 'interviewithavampire' and 'lostboys'. Vampire film names. When you get invited to join, you get the list of passwords for each page, they get changed every 6 months. Each thread on the message board doesn't have a password though, only one password to access the page."
Christina showed us our own thread, and we read what people had written. From what I could tell, they didn't know much. Someone had spotted the Cullen's, before I even knew them, hunting animals through a telescope while they were stargazing. They were far away, which is why they wern't discovered. And since then, people had apparently seen us around various places. No one had proof of who we are, which was something to be thankful for. Christina then showed us a private thread that did need a password. It was a group of people discussing coming here to ask to be changed. There were only 5 people posting messages in this thread. Christina pointed out her username, and Michaela's.
"Michaela was a good person; she had no family like me. They'd all been killed in a house fire. She had Alopecia, a hair disorder. She hoped that by being turned, she would be cured of it, and she would be free too." Christina's voice betrayed her and showed us how sad she was, they must have been good friends.
"Thank you Christina, do you know how to close down the website, and make sure that all the information is lost?" Carlisle spoke softly.
"Yeah, it'll need a password and I don't know it, but I'll figure it out quickly. The owner of the website will get notified if I try and delete it and get the password wrong 3 times...But that's ok, because he's in Forks trying to find us." She grinned, and set to work on deleting the site. After 5 minutes and countless tries on the password, she finally got it and the site was erased for good.
"Now what?" Nessie asked, she had been really quiet since she had gotten back with Edward, so quiet I had forgotten she was here.
"Now Nessie, we wait for the others to show up." I smiled at her.
"I'm bored; can you call Jake and ask him to come now?" She smiled sweetly and innocently at me, and I couldn't resist.
"Jake the wolf?" Christina asked.
"Jake MY wolf" Nessie corrected her with a grin. I laughed and dug in my jeans for my cell phone and called Jake. "Is he coming? Let me talk to him!" Nessie reached for the phone from Emmett's arms. She was practically bouncing, she hadn't seen him since last night and she missed him. I passed her the phone and we all watched her tell Jake he had to get here.
"Jake, I'm soooooooooo bored! You have to come and rescue me before I fall asleep from it" Nessie giggled. I could head Jake on the other end of the phone laughing at her and telling her she wouldn't fall asleep from boredom, she'd die from it, and then he laughed more, "Don't laugh, if you get here quickly I'll have some dog treats waiting for you" Nessie laughed loudly, "Ok Ok, no dog treats...not even a nice juicy bone? Cya soon Jakie!" Nessie handed the phone back to me and I heard Jake say my name.
"Bella?"
"Yeah Jake"
"Is it ok if I come up then?" Jake asked me wearily, incase Nessie asked him without permission from me.
"Yes, meet us at the cottage when you can" We said our goodbyes and I hung up. I reached to take Nessie from Emmett's arms and I turned to Christina. "Wanna come meet the werewolf?" I grinned. She jumped up from the computer with a grin on her face, which I took as a yes, and we headed down to the cottage.
