Vampire Mermaids – Seafood?
RPOV
A few weeks had passed since we all discovered our powers and being mermaids. The three of us planned to go down to the deserted beach we went to last time. Ever since we got the tails, Alice, Bella, and I all loved the water a lot more. We'd been itching to go to the beach for a week or so, but the weather didn't permit. Stupid rain. Because it was only the three of us, we only needed one car. Right now, Ali and I were in the garage, arguing over who got to drive.
Well, it wasn't exactly 'arguing' as much as it was threatening. She was hovering a fountain of water behind her, threatening to send it at me. I kept on evaporating it into the air, but this was getting old. Bella was leaning against the hood of the Jeep, looking annoyed and bored. That's probably because we'd been at it for an hour. Yeah, we both wanted to drive THAT much.
We continued our 'argument' for another fifteen minutes before Bella interfered.
"Okay, seeing as how I'd like to make it to the beach before it starts raining, let's do this the old-fashion way." She pulled a coppery penny out of her purse. She threw it up in the air. "Call it, Rosalie."
"Tails." I called. The penny flipped mid-air a couple of times then came clattering to the ground. After a second, it stilled. Tails side up.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. "I'm driving." I stated with a smirk.
I pulled the keys out of my purse and popped the trunk. We threw our purses and in and I closed it. I hopped into the driver seat, with a grumpy Alice in the passenger seat. Bella sprawled out on the back row.
"Cheer up!" I ordered Alice, the normally perky pixie. "You can drive next time."
She checked the future, and seeing that I meant what I said, smiled and became her usual self again. She chattered about different outfits she bought online, continuing on to what she bought Bella and I, much to Bella's chagrin.
We were driving down the road at about 120 miles an hour. I was lost in my thoughts, alternating between the ocean and Emmett. Alice had that dreamy-eyed look she gets when she's searching the future, probably verifying when the rain would hit. I looked up at the mirror on the dash and caught Bella reading some old book. Does she even own any from this century?
Half an hour later, we were pulling into the grassy area near the beach. Since the beach isn't public, there weren't any real parking spaces. Thank god that it wasn't muddy, I do not want my car's exterior messed up, I just finished waxing the surface yesterday. I raised the expendable roof of my convertible, so when the rain came it wouldn't hit the seats. That was bad for two reasons. One, my BMW had a leather interior, rain would ruin it, and two, more importantly, we wouldn't make it half a mile without growing tails.
We didn't have to do any of the trivial human things like put on sunscreen and lug down beach chairs. We simply tugged off our cover-ups, revealing the same bikinis we wore last time we came here. We left the cover-ups in the car. We didn't need to discard our shoes; they made the change with us. We raced toward the water. I won, being the second fastest in the family and the fastest girl. Bella was a few feet behind me and Alice behind her. We dived in.
We swam a distance out before we changed. Gone were the human swimsuits, in were the tails and matching tops.
We played around in the water for a while, flipping and twirling. We searched different areas, trying to find different species of fish. Being vampires with enhanced hearing, we could talk underwater and hear each other just fine. At one point, a family of dolphins swam up to us and we followed them around, easily matching their speed.
We giggled and followed them for a while before they went off, probably looking for food. We went our separate ways for some time then met up with each other through our telepathy link.
We poked our heads above water, checking to see if the rain had let up, at all. It hadn't, just like Alice said it wouldn't. We headed to the cave that we went to last time we were here, and waited out the storm, passing the time by gossiping and joking around. We kept our lower bodies submerged, casually leaning back against the rock encasing the water. There was no point in drying ourselves off, even if all I had to do was clench my fist a couple times. We would be going back out into the ocean soon, and we were content as we were.
Eventually, Alice gave us the go-ahead and we headed back towards the shoreline. We shimmied away from the water and I dried us off. It was obvious the rain had just stopped and I was glad that we had worn the flip-flops. If we were barefoot, we wouldn't make it two feet before sprouting tails.
We went back to the car and pulled on our cover-ups. As we were driving away from the beach onto the highway, Alice spoke, well more so complained.
"Uhh! That completely ruined my make-up." She complained as she started furiously wiping off her under-eye, using a compact for reflection. "I had to use regular mascara this morning. I ran out after last trip."
"Just order some more online." I suggested casually.
"But I need it now!" She whined.
"Fine," I said, slowing down the convertible so we didn't miss any exits that could lead us to make-up stores, "Where do you want to go?"
"Well, you're going to run out of gas if we take any detours," She informed me. I checked the gas level. Crap, the needle was nearing empty. Why didn't I check it before we left? Oh right, Alice and I were debating who got to drive and we were in a rush to beat out the rain.
Normally, we could just walk at a human pace to the nearest gas station, it's not like we were in any danger. (We weren't allowed to use vampire speed in case of witnesses.) But now, we'd be risking rain and other forms of water if we walked, so we had to stick to the original plan.
"So," Alice continued, "Let's just stop at the Forks Giant, it's on the way and they carry CoverGirl stuff."
We stayed on the highway and then veered toward Forks. We still had the top of the car up, just as a precaution against lingering sprinkles or splashes. I drove towards the Forks Giant and parked, carefully avoiding any large puddles that could serve to be a problem. The asphalt was still wet, so Forks must have gotten the same storm. Of course they did, it's Forks, rainiest city in the continental U.S.
I popped the trunk so we could get out our purses. We got our purses and headed toward the entrance of Giant. I haven't been in a Giant in sooo long, not since Emmett's latest Prank War with Edward and Jasper. He needed shaving cream and water balloons, I didn't ask.
As we entered, we earned more stares than usual. The Cullens don't usually come to Giant much, what's the point when you don't need food? Plus, not many people had seen Bella's new appearance yet and they seemed mystified by her sudden beauty.
The three of us ignored the stares, well Alice and I did, Bella seemed shocked that people were staring at her and tried her best to look in any direction but at them. We followed Alice who automatically knew where the makeup section was. She was currently holding a CoverGirl Lash Blast and a CoverGirl Lash Exact, both waterproof. Finally, after like 30 minutes, Alice made the crucial decision and decided on Lash Blast, hanging the Lash Exact back on the hook.
We had to cross through a bunch of different sections to get back to the check-out counter. Seriously, poor design, people. All of the aisles and sections we crossed smelled disgusting, their potent scents wafting into our noses. All of them, that is, except one: Seafood.
I watched as Bella and Alice smelled it too, their eyes changing from light topaz to a dark shade of amber, and immediately knew mine were doing the same. The change wasn't obvious unless you had watched it, so we were safe from suspicion. But I still wanted some crab. Did I seriously just think that?
"Hey guys," Bella said, "Why do I feel what I did when I was human?" She asked very quietly so that humans couldn't hear.
Hunger? Maybe that's the gnawing feeling I have in my abdomen.
"I don't know, but I do know that I want shrimp, and not just the blood." Alice stated.
Bella nodded. "Same here, but I want lobster." She said.
"Crab." I affirmed.
Bella casually walked up to the lady behind the counter with a hairnet. She looked to be somewhere between 40 and 50. Good thing, I really didn't want to have to deal with some guy's lustful stares.
"Miss?" Bella questioned. "Can I have 1 lb of crab meat, a 1lb of peeled shrimp, and a de-shelled lobster?" She asked.
The woman looked at Bella a little funny, probably wondering why a Cullen would want anything from the fish market, but set to work none the less. 10 minutes later, the seafood had been packaged, placed in a bag, and handed over to us with the price stamped on the outside of the brown bag. Bella handed the bag to me to hold then got some butter, old bay, and cocktail sauce that the store kept nearby.
Alice and I looked at her funny, seeing as how we haven't eaten in nearly a century.
"They add flavor." Bella said simply.
We went to self check-out, not wanting to have any more people gawk at us for buying food. Alice scanned her mascara and Bella scanned the food. We paid with my platinum card and left.
We plopped our purses and the contents from the store in the trunk, then got in the M3. We drove home, all wondering why we suddenly craved seafood. Once we arrived home, we opened up the trunk. We pulled out our purses and slung them over our shoulders, and then I grabbed the grocery bag containing the toppings, Alice the mascara bag, and Bella the brown bag holding the seafood.
We made our way out of the garage and into the house. We brought the food stuff into the kitchen and Bella set to work making it edible. I mean, we couldn't get food poisoning or anything, but cooked seafood's better than raw seafood.
Esme walked by the entrance to the kitchen, stopping for a second. "Hi, girls. What are you up to?" She asked.
"Cooking," Bella informed her.
Esme started walking away then returned a second later, realizing what she said. "And who are you cooking for? Are Jake and his imprint coming over?"
"No," Alice answered.
"It's for us," I told her at the same time.
She gave us all a weird look. She probably thinks that this is some dare. "Have fun with that," she said and left the kitchen area.
As Bella was plating our meal, the guys returned from their hunting trip. The three of us went for the 20 minutes it wasn't raining last night so that we could go to the ocean today. We had to finish so quickly it wasn't even funny.
Bella found the forks that we hardly ever use and gave one to me and her. Alice had a little shrimp fork instead. Bella had cooked Alice's shrimp and plated it with a pile of cocktail sauce. Alice was dipping a shrimp in the cocktail sauce right now, then brought the fork to her mouth and chewed slowly, savoring the taste. Right, she doesn't remember human food. Bella gave me Old Bay seasonings and butter for the crab. Bella, herself, cooked the lobster in butter and was now munching down on it.
I heard the guys down stairs talking as I was dipping a particularly lump piece of crab meat in butter and rolling it in the old bay. I love vampire hearing.
"Is that human food?" Jasper asked, shocked.
"It smells like," Emmett paused, probably sniffing the air, "crab, shrimp, and lobster. Yuck. Why's that here?"
"Well why don't you ask the girls, they're the ones eating it." Edward said.
I heard the light, quick vampire steps up the stairs and then the guys coming into the kitchen. The sight they saw when they entered must have been pretty hilarious. The three of us, all chowing down on yummy seafood, and enjoying it.
I saw Edward mouth 'yummy' with disbelief from the corner of my eye.
Alice was attacking the shrimp like she hadn't eaten in a century. Well close to a century anyway. The way she was scarfing down food, Jasper looked apprehensive to come near her.
Bella was moaning, she liked the lobster that much. Edward looked at her like the lobster stole her mind. As for me, I casually bit and chew like it was completely ordinary for a vampire to take a liking to crab meat.
The guys were watching us eat, which was kind of starting to freak me out. I don't observe them when they hunt, watching them drain a carcass of all its blood.
"It's weird, right?" Bella asked out of the blue.
"What?" I asked, wondering what it was she was referring to.
"Having people watch you eat?" She clarified.
"Oh, yeah." I told her.
"Sorry if it ever freaked you out. Now I know how you feel." Alice said.
The guys, who had just now realized we were talking about them, stopped staring at us like science experiments. By now, we had finished eating and were clearing the plates.
"Does anyone know how to work this dishwasher?" I asked to no one in particular. We had this high-class, modern dishwasher, but nobody bothered to read the instruction manual seeing as how we never actually use it.
No one gave me a direct answer. Instead, the guys just started asking a million questions.
"Why were you eating?" Jasper asked.
"Doesn't it taste like dirt?" Emmett asked, curious.
Alice tried to answer their questions to the extent of her knowledge, when I noticed Edward was missing. Where'd he go?
I heard a faint, "Thanks Esme."
Then he was back up in the kitchen. He fiddled with the dishwasher for a second and then it started running. "Esme read the manual once, in case we had guests." Edward informed us.
"Does it taste good?" Edward asked.
"Yep!" Alice exclaimed, popping the 'p'.
"Delicious." I stated, reveling in the taste of crab smothered in butter and old bay.
"As good as when I was human." Bella told Edward because she still remembers what human food should taste like.
Carlisle walked in the door, returning from the hospital. He walked, well, the vampire version of walked, up the stairs.
"Why do I smell seafood?" he asked. We explained the whole seafood-tastes-good thing to him and he got that doctor-observing-an-intriguing-patient look on his face.
"Interesting." He stated, "And only seafood?" We nodded.
"I don't think you need to eat, it's optional. This has to stem from you mermaid transformation, like the telepathy link and the powers."
Whatever, as long as that crab still tastes this good next week.
