Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.
Summary: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.
Warning: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?
A/N The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!
Where Loyalties Lie.
Chapter Eight: Visitors Part Two.
"But I want to see the Whitehouse," Clara said sulkily. She'd relayed Ilsa's message to the others and they were now preparing to leave their hotel, rent a car, which Thomas would drive and get on their way to Forks. Or Cutlery as Clara had taken to calling the American town.
"We'll see it another time Clara," Cossette said patiently.
"But what if they kill us?" Clara asked unhappily, "We can't exactly go site-seeing if we're all dead!"
"She has a point," Thomas commented.
"You're not helping!" Daniel snapped at him, "Clara they won't kill us. You've met Carlisle and Esme; you know what sort of people they are. If they didn't want to get mixed up in our troubles they'd let us wipe their memories and we would go back home and continue like nothing has happened."
"Carlisle and Esme might but what about their children? What if they aren't as nice as Carlisle and Esme? What if they won't listen and assume I'm an uncontrollable Immortal Child? They could go all crazy on us and kill us all!" Clara screamed at him, "Please can we go and see the Whitehouse?
"No! Now go get ready to go," Daniel ordered Clara who put on her most sulky pout and folded her arms slowly across her chest.
"What are we going to do about the sun?" Cossette asked, deciding now was the right time to interrupt this argument before it got any worse i.e. before it got physical. Despite being so small Clara was just as strong as the rest of them and could do just as much damage as anyone else. Now Cossette had a very good point. It was raining today so there wasn't going to be a problem but she'd just checked the forecast and their journey was going to take place in sunshine from tomorrow morning. People might notice people shining in their car…
"I'm afraid you three will have to hide under blankets until the sun goes in," Thomas said apologetically.
"Great! Blankets!" Clara shouted angrily, throwing her arms out to her sides, "This just gets better and better! Next thing you know you'll be saying we aren't going to stop for food on the way." There was silence as the three adults looked to each other quickly. "We are going to be stopping for food aren't we?"
"Well…"
"No! We are going to be stopping for food! Like hell I'm gonna wait for who knows how bloody long for a-"
"Clara! Language!" Cossette snapped.
"We'd better be stopping for food on the way is all I'm saying," Clara said.
"Or you'll do what? Throw a temper tantrum?" Daniel asked sarcastically. Until today Clara had been having the time of her un-dead life. The eight-day cruise on the QE 2 had been non-stop for Clara, doing everything that was possible whilst avoiding the sun and pretending to have to sleep at some point in the night. Then whilst Ilsa was off talking to the Cullens they'd gone shopping in New York, they'd taken in three different shows on Broadway and had gone for a day trip to the Statue Of Liberty. But now that they were actually going to meet them she was the worst person to be around the world, just one temper tantrum after another.
"I'll-I'll go hunting on my own and I won't tell you where I went and you'll be all worried and…"
"…and we'll ask Alice to look into your future and see where you are," Thomas finished calmly for her. "She can see the future remember?" His little sister turned to glare up at him.
"I can be very annoying when I want to be," she said threateningly.
"Only when you want to be?" Thomas chuckled.
"Oh I hate you!" Clara screamed at them all, running into her room from the communal family room, slamming the door loudly after her.
~ * ~ * ~
The bellboy had loaded all their suitcases into the trunk of their very nice and very expensive rented car. Thomas unashamedly checked the cute young mans ass out as he did so. Clara climbed into the front passenger seat sulkily, holding the thick blanket on her lap. Cossette and Daniel shared s look before sliding into the back seats, Daniel helping Cossette before walking around the car and getting in the others side. Thomas paid the bellboy a huge tip, his hand touching the firm bum gently as he walked to the drivers seat and climbed in. The bellboy stared at them in shock as the car pulled away easily and joined the traffic of the city.
It took them half the day to get out of the city and the car didn't increase above fifteen mph until then. Once out of the city Thomas pushed the car to the very edge of the speed limit. Clara flicked through the radio stations, unable to pick one and then finally pulled out her Ipod, listening to it loud enough for the others to hear the music too over the classical music she'd left playing on the radio. Cossette and Daniel chatted happily together in the back seat, holding hands between them. Thomas occasionally joined in their conversation but mostly he focused on driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car with idiot drivers seeming to be playing target practice with their car.
~ * ~ * ~
"You made this?" Ilsa asked in shock as Alice pulled her into the dance studio, followed by everyone else who also wanted to see the new rooms. "All of this?" Alice giggled as she nodded before putting a CD on the very expensive looking music system. Beethoven. "This is my favourite."
"I know," Alice answered.
"My mother used to play the piano. Not extremely well but her best and favourite piece was the 'Moonlight Sonata'. She used to play it to me before I went to bed, when we still had our piano," Ilsa said softly, sadly. "Clara's favourite is 'Cartoon Heroes' by Aqua of all things. She loves that song."
"Never heard it," Bella said.
"Oh you will do. The music system has an Ipod dock and I've seen her dancing around here, once in pyjama's," Alice laughed loudly. "I've also seen her teaching me and Renesmee ballet in this room and I can't wait."
"She tried to teach me once but…I'm not a dancer," Ilsa laughed softly and everyone joined in softly, Bella muttering that she wasn't going to be learning how to dance…ever. Her clumsiness had not gone away after all. Alice gasped suddenly, drawing all eyes to her, silencing the cheerful laughter,
"Charlie's coming to see Bella!" she gasped loudly and everyone turned to look at Ilsa once again, or more specifically to look at her hungry red eyes.
"Uh-oh," Emmett said loudly.
"This could be bad," Jasper said quietly to Alice.
"I take it that Charlie's human," Ilsa said and was answered with nods from everyone, "And off the menu?" She was only half joking.
"He's my dad," Bella snapped, not appreciating the joke.
"Ah. Definitely off the menu then," Ilsa said almost to herself.
"If you wish to feed off of a human we ask that you hunt as far away from Forks as possible," Carlisle said after clearing his throat loudly. Ilsa turned to him and nodded in understanding. "Ideally, of course, we'd prefer for you to hunt animals with us but we don't force anyone to join our ways."
"Animals?" Ilsa mused the idea over in her head, humming to herself and biting on her thumbnail. Alice grinned, knowing the answer she was going to give, "I think I'd like to give that a go."
"Yes!" Alice screamed in excitement, "Come on Jasper! We're taking her hunting with us!" The pixie like vampire grabbed her husband's hand before grabbing Ilsa's with her other hand and rushing down the stairs. "I just saw a vision of us three on a hunt and it was no cool, you're going to be such a natural it's ridiculous. And I got another one of Clara taking down a bear, all by herself, a bear!"
"That doesn't surprise me. I think I'll stick to something small," Ilsa laughed.
"How about a deer?" Jasper suggested.
"A deer? You want me to kill bambi?" Ilsa asked, horrified.
"Bambi?" Jasper asked confused as the three left the house, everyone still able to hear their conversation of course.
"You can't tell me you've never seen Bambi."
"No."
"Oh dear. Don't you watch Disney movies? They're American! Like you!"
"Never had call to."
"Alice…"
"Don't worry, we'll make him watch it. Later. Right now we hunt."
~ * ~ * ~
"I'm hungry," Clara complained for the thirty-third time, Thomas had been counting. Daniel and Cossette sighed together on the back seat, both currently curled against each other reading a book each. Cossettes was in French, Daniels in German, which he had learnt from Ilsa many years ago. "Can't we stop for just a little snack?"
"No," Daniel answered without looking up from his book.
"But I'm really hungry!" Clara actually stamped her foot on the floor of the moving car. Thomas' eyebrow raised as he indicated, pulled out, overtook the car going ridiculously slowly, indicated, pulled back in and continued speeding on down the road slightly faster than he probably should have been.
"Tough!" Daniel snapped, finally looked at her as she twisted round in her seat and glared back at him, "We aren't stopping for anything other than petrol-"
"Diesel," Thomas corrected automatically.
"-diesel until we get there. Now stop acting like a three year old!" Daniel snapped at her. Clara let out an angry shout, slumped back into her seat with her arms folded over her chest and glared at the car in front of them.
"I've got a flask if you want one of my cocktails," Thomas offered her quietly.
"Is it warm?" Clara asked him.
"No."
"Then I don't want it. I want warm blood. Not a cold blood cocktail," her gaze stayed on the car in front until it turned off and even then she followed it so that she was then looking out the side window at the world passing them by.
An hour later Thomas pulled into a petrol station and slipped out to fill the tank full with Diesel for the fifth time so far. Driving across America took a lot of fuel it seemed but it wasn't like they were going to run out of cash, they'd saved up quite a bit over the years. Cossette and Daniel went into the little shop to buy a couple of magazines and some chocolate for Thomas. It was then, when everyone else's attention was diverted, that Clara made her move.
"Where's Clara?" Cossette asked when she and Daniel returned to the car, just as Thomas was placing the nozzle back in the holder.
"What?" he asked quickly, ducking to look in through the window. "Shit."
"When I find her, I'm going to kill her," Daniel promised, "Thomas, drive down the street and find somewhere to park up. Cossette and I will find her. Oh and here, enjoy your chocolate." They'd discovered long ago that while they couldn't taste anything other than blood Thomas could and he loved a good cup of tea and some chocolate just as much as he loved blood. He couldn't survive on them however and ate out of pleasure. He didn't touch the chocolate bar now though, just parked on the side of the road, climbed out the car and scanned the busy pavement for his little sister. His stupid and deeply in trouble little sister.
"Never run off from us again!" he heard Daniel shout angrily before he saw them, coming out of the woods behind one of the houses. People stopped to stare as he practically threw Clara into the front seat, Clara whose eyes practically glowed red from the fresh blood she'd just eaten. The three adults climbed in and Thomas pulled the car away from the curb carefully. "Clara, you are grounded until I say otherwise."
"Grounded?" Clara laughed.
"Yes grounded. You'll be with me. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. No dancing. No singing. No music. No TV. Nothing. Until I think you've earned it back," Daniel said calmly.
"What!" Clara turned around as she shouted angrily, "You can't do that!"
"Yes I can and yes I will," Daniel said, reaching forwards to snatch her Ipod from her, "And it starts now. You disobeyed me. You could have been seen. You could have been caught. Now you will suffer the consequences of your actions."
"That's not fair!" Clara screamed at him.
"That's life."
"I hate you!"
They journeyed in silence from then on.
~ * ~ * ~
"Here bambi, bambi, bambi…" Ilsa called out softly making her two companions chuckle beside her. Sniffing the air she found nothing, "Bambi hasn't come out to play today."
"You're being too loud. They know your coming," Jasper explained in a whisper, "If your quiet you will catch a scent and then the fun begins. They run on instinct, they try to get away and it's fun to catch them, to outwit them."
"As fun as hunting a human?" Ilsa asked.
"No. A different sort of fun," Jasper answered before putting a finger to his lips. "Wait." So Ilsa waited. And then a scent filled her senses. Jasper smiled beside her and gestured for her to go. She took off at a run, following the scent, avoiding trees as easily as if she were in an empty clearing. Finally her prey came into her sights, a large doe.
'Bambi's mum' she thought to herself. The doe started to run and Ilsa grinned, loving the chase as the animal erratically turned, jumping fallen logs and dodging trees. It was almost too easy to circle round and knock the doe down from the side.
"Find the jugular," Alice was suddenly at her side, helping hold the struggling deer down on the damp ground. Ilsa leaned down and sniffed, searching for the place where the scent of blood was the strongest. Her mouth watered as she found it. She bit down and flinched at the fur but then the blood started to flow down her throat. "Welcome to vegetarian side."
~ * ~ * ~
"You should have seen her, she's a natural," Alice said almost proudly as the three hunters returned to the house once Charlie had been and gone, "Once she shut up and stopped scaring them away that is." Emmett laughed loudly.
"So what did you think of the taste?" Esme asked in her friendly way, taking Ilsa's arm and leading her to one of the comfortable sofas, sitting with her.
"It was…different," Ilsa admitted as everyone else sat in the other comfortable seats, Alice curling up on Jaspers lap as there weren't enough seats. Not that she minded of course, any excuse to curl up with her husband was a good thing.
"Good different or bad different?" she asked, her head resting on Jasper's strong shoulder as his arms snaked around her thin waist.
"I don't know. I haven't decided yet," Ilsa answered honestly. Her phone rang.
"It's Thomas," Alice said as Ilsa struggled to get it out of her pocket.
"Hello?" Ilsa asked.
"Hi Ilsa. Were just passing through some place called Denver, thought I'd give you a call. See how things were going at your end?" Thomas' cheerful voice asked.
"It's going good. I've just been on my first vegetarian hunt," Ilsa answered.
"Oh."
"Don't knock it till you've tried it Tommy," Ilsa laughed, causing the Cullens to smile at her, "It was quite fun hunting a deer actually. They're less predictable than a human. I did have to get past the whole 'I'm Killing Bambi' thing. That much than getting past the 'I'm killing a human being thing', I feel more sorry for Bambi. Little deer, minding it's own business, not doing anything wrong or illegal or stupid…and we kill it," Ilsa laughed into the phone.
"Ilsa, you are one of a kind," Thomas laughed with her, "I'd have thought you would have found it harder to kill a human than a deer."
"But it was Bambi! Or technically it was Bambi's mum but still, Bambi!" Ilsa defended herself.
"Bet it tasted awful," Thomas muttered. Now of course with their super hearing the Cullens could hear every word he was saying to his sister. They could also hear it in his voice that whatever she said about the taste he wouldn't believe her.
"Actually it wasn't that bad," Ilsa answered.
"Yeah, right. Anyway must go," Thomas said quickly.
"Can't I talk to Clara?" Ilsa asked with a frown.
"She's grounded," Thomas explained with a chuckle.
"Grounded?" Ilsa laughed.
"No music. No dancing. No television. No free time. And now apparently no phone," Thomas explained further.
"What did she do?" Ilsa asked in shock.
"Disobeyed Daniel big time. We stopped for diesel and she slipped out of the car and went hunting in the woods behind someone's house. She'd been told no snacks until we reached Cutl-Forks. I must call it Forks," they all heard a girls voice giggling in the background, "So now she's grounded."
"How many did she kill?" Ilsa asked.
"I don't know."
"The family," the girls voice said quietly and they could all imagine her shrugging, "They were having a picnic."
"Clara, don't make it worse for yourself," Thomas snapped to the voice.
"I think the Cullens are going to be good for her," Ilsa muttered.
"Humph," Thomas made a noise that could be taken as either an agreement or disagreement. "So going now. See you in a while."
"Have a nice drive," Ilsa said pleasantly as her brother hung up on her.
"Is Clara always so…" Rosalie couldn't find the right word.
"Spoilt? Yeah. We've been trying to cure that for years. She does have her good moments," Ilsa answered with a smile, "She can be nice, very nice. And compassionate. She does however like the hunt and she likes to play with her food."
"Ew," Bella gasped.
"That's just her nature. Like I said, you lot are going to be good for her," Ilsa was still smiling around at the family, some of whom smiled back. Alice nodded in agreement with Ilsa, she'd probably seen it. "Sooooo, now what do we do?"
"We could go shopping," Alice suggested eagerly.
"What for?" Ilsa asked with a frown.
"Please tell me your not another one that doesn't like shopping," Alice practically begged, shooting a quick glance at Bella who looked away quickly.
"Depends on what I'm buying I guess," Ilsa answered slowly.
"What about clothes? Alice asked.
"I hate clothes shopping," Ilsa said instantly.
"But why? Clothes shopping is wonderful!" Alice cried out happily.
"Not when you're as skinny as me," Ilsa muttered.
"But you could look so good in some of the current fashions," Alice said eagerly, looking to Rosalie for agreement. She got none. Rosalie was being her usual friendly self. Alice glared at her.
"No Alice, I'd look unhealthy," Ilsa corrected.
"Not in what I'd pick out for you, you'd look hot," Alice promised, "Please? It gives us something to do while we wait for them. And its fun. We could all go, the girls. For a girly day of shopping."
"Alice…" Bella began. Alice's look shut her up, "Sounds great."
"Please Ilsa?" Alice begged.
"Alright. But if I feel uncomfortable I'm coming straight back here," Ilsa warned the other girl. Alice gave a cheer of happiness and raced upstairs to get her credit cards and to change for their shopping trip. "What have I just agreed to?"
"Torture," practically everyone in the room answered.
A/N I promise that the others will arrive in the next chapter. It's called 'The Arrival'.
