Chapter 7

I Can Hear You

I found Jessica at the main house. She was sitting cross legged tinkering with what I assumed was some kind of folding computer. She had large headphones on, and she bit her lip in concentration.

She had a change of clothes which, like those she wore in Volterra, where modern and tailored. Clearly whilst I had been away Alice had been at work on her. I approved, her clothes now gave her a sophisticated, offbeat, artsy look that perfectly suited this version of the girl. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and I noticed she already wore her Cullen Crest on a leather cuff on her wrist, like Emmett and Edward.

Speaking of whom, Edward glanced up at me from his seat on the couch behind her, and nodded. He put down his book, stroked Jessica on the shoulder, planted a kiss upon her head, and made his way up the spiral stair.

I sat down on the floor in front of her. She slipped off her earphones and gave me an easy smile.

"Hey you." I said.

"Hey." She said.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Teaching myself some software. It's for making music. You?"

"Checking in with my shiny new sister. Alice restyled you too, I see."

"Your honey restyles anything and everything that moves around here. You know she got mad at me for wearing the same outfit twice?"

"Sounds about right." I chuckled. "I expect Mr. Gordo will be in Armani next time I see him."

She chuckled and then fell silent. Dumbo was back in the house, and this time he had fangs.

Jessica shifted, pushing the computer thingy to the side and sliding her legs over my lap. I adjusted to accommodate her. She slipped my hand into hers.

I loved how comfortable she was at expressing her emotions physically with me. Though in hindsight, our first, awkward sexual manifestations of this shared longing to touch was an important moment in me figuring out who I was, this level of intimacy felt like a better fit between us. She liked to speak with touches as much as I.

"So. We're, like, vampires now. What's up with that?" She chuckled. I picked up the little hint of darkness in that statement.

"Alice and I just drank a deer like a milkshake." Edging closer to what I wanted to talk about.

"Poor Bambi." she said.

"That's what I said."

"How was it?" She said, looking down at my hand as she massaged it.

"Not as good." I confessed. I turned her hand over to look at her leather cuff. I brought my other hand over hers and rubbed the back with my thumb.

"Well, next time I will be sure to try the veal." She said, more to herself than I.

"You saved Alice's life. And mine. Thank-you sister." I brought her fingers to my lips before returning to my massaging.

Jessica seemed cheered by this notion. She put her head onto my shoulder and watched me working gently the muscles on her tense fingers.

"What happened, when I was in Italy?"

Jessica let out a long sigh.

"I found out I was sick. Real sick. Like, I had eight months tops kinda sick. I couldn't really talk about with anyone. You had vanished. I just kinda shut down after that, stopped talking.

"Then, there was an accident in town. A logging truck lost control. It ploughed into the cafe."

"Oh Jessica." I kissed her hands again, she had mine in a vice like grip.

"So I guess, after my mom's funeral, I was all alone, and I just had had enough. I went up to the cliffs at La Push. Well, you get the idea."

"Edward saved you?"

"Yeah. He was the only one who could hear me throughout. The only one listening."

"I am sorry I wasn't there for you." I said.

"Nah, no need. I know you had your own thing going on there, now. The whole Slayer thing. Hey, young me, you legit frenchied a superhero." She said. I chuckled.

"Edward already loved me by that stage and he was determined to make what time I had left beautiful. We got close and I fell hopelessly in love with him. At my birthday party, I found out they were vampires the hard way. Papercut. Disaster. Anyway I freaked. Lost it. Said some stuff I regret. I ran. I mean… vampires?"

"Yeah, right there with you."

"Edward, my big byronesque lug, got all broody and decided he was a monster and went to the Volturi for a formal stake dinner."

"Alice found me, in Vancouver. We talked. One of those epic deep and meaningfuls that goes til sun up. And then she had a vision of her dumb brother."

"Lemme guess, two tickets to Italy, a stolen Porsche and I am all caught up?"

"Yeah. Alice helped me realize I wanted to go on. And I sure as hell wanted Edward to go on to. She showed me I had a choice."

"Smart choice."

"Really? 'cause three people are dead because of me." She said.

"Two had it coming." I said. "My score is two, and counting." Jessica seemed confused by this. "I turned a girl. Every person she kills is on me."

"Buffy. I liked it." She confessed, her vibrant red eyes sparkling at the memory. "I really, really liked it. What does that make me?"

I stroked her hand and didn't say anything. When I looked back, she was looking out towards the dark mountains beyond, the tips of her fangs peeking through the broad wolfish grin on her face.

...

Alice was at her drawing board when I entered her room. She had an adorable expression as she worked, her lip bite tugged her little nose to the side, and now and again her deep honey colored eyes fluttered shut as she reached for the images within.

She didn't look up as I entered, and I didn't want to distract her, so I went to her wardrobe and explored. I knew now that the majority of my eternity was this; finding ways to pass the endless constant that was time.

I slipped my clothes off and slid on a familiar grey dress. It was the one I had tried on that first night- the one that played a part in my sexual fantasies ever since. I pictured Alice standing behind me, her breath making the hairs on the back of my neck stand, making my nipples become sensitive against the fabric, making my mortal blood rush in my veins.

I looked at myself in the array of mirrors once more. How I had changed.

Gone was the ragged brown pixie haircut of then, replaced with a sleek, angular bob with blunt bangs. My hazel green eyes where now crimson, unblinking, sharp as razors. My skin was flawless, smooth, no moles or scars, even the tiny spots that would regularly break out around my lips where gone. The puppy fat of my teens stripped away, leaving an angular face with a proud nose and high cheekbones. With makeup I could perhaps pass for early 20s.

It was still incredible to me now that this was it. The face I would have forever. Well, I hoped the red pupils would fade to gold. No, I vowed it.

They would be gold.

"Do you see what I see now?" Alice said. She glided over to me with her ballerina grace. "Just how beautiful you are?"

I could feel her breath on my neck, which felt hot to me now. Alice's gaze was filled with longing, and this time I knew it wasn't bloodlust. I reached up to stroke her cheek. She pressed close and sighed, I could feel her rubbing against my back. I turned, and expressed my growing lust with a kiss.

"Edward says get a room!" Jessica yells from somewhere in the house.

"Wanna go for a walk in the moonlight?" I asked.

...

At midnight, the entire family was gathered in the living room. Jessica was curled around Edward on the couch next to Rosalie and Emmett. Esme and Carlisle stood behind us, arm in arm.

Alice had laid out six drawings on the large rectangular glass table. Despite me being able to draw very well by my peers' standards, my own two pictures looked infantile next to hers.

"I don't recognize the girl." Carlisle said looking at my drawing. "She isn't Volturi."

"I didn't see her among the guard." I said.

"Newborn?" Rosalie suggested.

"She felt powerful to me." I said. "The same sort of vibe I got off Jane. Perhaps stronger."

"Perhaps she is of a different house. Did you see anything like a crest?"

"Oh… ooh." I grab a pen and start to draw the elaborate earring as best I could.

"This." Carlisle said, "The sun had eight rays and three stars. Are you sure?"

I nodded.

"This is the crest of House Aurelius. An ancient line. But it was disbanded in the 1930s."

"Her clothes are modern." Alice said. "Tacky, but modern."

Carlisle looked concerned.

"Both Alice's visions and yours overlap regarding a hellmouth. Heinrich Joseph Nest, the last master of Aurelius was obsessed with finding them. He saw them as part of our legacy. Aurelian's worshiped The Old Ones."

"What's a hellmouth?" Esme said.

"Legendary gateways to a hell dimension beyond ours." He said. "In some of our origin legends, the first vampire was made when a being from a hellmouth bit a human but did not kill them. In some versions it was the last great demon, in others it was a pure vampire, which are either called Turok Han or Nosferatu."

"Well, all this coincidence is making me feel like these where visions, not part of a wild trip." I said. "Looks like House Orwellian is reforming."

"Aurelius." Alice corrected.

I looked at Alice's drawings. One was of a metal seal with a pentagram, goats head and what I would call Celtic… knotty things. just looking at it made me feel uneasy. Something at the fringes of my mind was whispering to me, I shuddered at its call.

Another of her drawings was of a three pointed symbol written in blood on the forehead of a powerful looking vampire with a broad neck. His proud face deformed, the brow wrinkled up like he was clay and someone had dragged down his face into a permanent scowl.

A third picture showed shattered glass or mirror upon a dirty floor, in the reflections I could make out a vampire wearing what looked to me like a black duster, his features hidden in shadows. In some peices he grinned menacingly, in others he looked tortured with woe.

All the rest of her drawings looked like these medieval artists pictures of hell I had once seen in a school book. Lots of naked people and demonic things getting all chompy and stabby with them, limbs being ripped off, the blood being poured into open mouths.

It made me salivate.