6. GIFT
"C'mon, Archie. We all know I stopped aging months ago. I'm not turning eighteen," I complained. But as soon as the words came out, I felt a little guilty shooting down his enthusiasm.
"But does that mean we should pass up an opportunity to cel-ebrate? Not a chance! The last person to really have a birthday around here was Eleanor in 1935. You can have at least one vampire birthday," Archie said without missing a beat.
"So what exactly do you have in mind…? Birthday cake? Balloons?" I mocked him. And still, I knew there wasn't any predicting Archie.
His grin got even wider when he saw the acquiescence on my face.
"Oh, I can't wait to show you!" he cheered enthusiastically like a kid at Christmas.
"Actually," Edythe interrupted. "I wanted to show him my gift first. After all, it's closer."
"Edythe, it's been killing me for days!" he pleaded. "Fine. Rock, paper, scissors," he demanded, holding out his hand with a bemused smile.
Edythe rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just tell me who wins?"
Archie's face went smug. "I do, of course. Now, off we go." He darted out the back door before anyone could delay him any further.
At least Archie was there to show the proper enthusiasm. That definitely was one aspect of myself that didn't get lost in translation. Besides, I think everyone was happier for how much joy this brought to Archie than they actually were for me. I even caught Royal sporting a smile.
"Enjoy it, Beau. It's from all of us," Royal said when he noticed my glance in his direction.
"Are you guys not coming with us?" I asked, looking around at them.
Eleanor let out a laugh that seemed to imply something I was missing. "We thought we'd give you two a chance to, uh… enjoy it alone. You can tell us about it tomorrow." Again, she and Jessamine snickered like I wasn't in on some joke.
"If you say so," I shrugged.
Edythe and I set off, following on Archie's trail. It was merely second nature to follow his scent, not bothering to watch where he'd gone.
When we reached the edge of the forest, he was waiting there for us.
"Don't attack me, please," he warned. Then he jumped onto my back.
"What the…" I demanded as he hoisted himself up and covered my eyes with his hands.
"I'm making sure you can't see," he explained.
"I'm pretty sure I could just close my eyes," I pleaded.
"Nope. We're doing this my way."
I treaded on blindly, and I wasn't really afraid to run into anything. In that event, the tree would be the one getting hurt.
"Oh, by the way," he started. "This is also as much for Edythe as it is for you… just to give you a hint."
"Thank you, Archie," Edythe said.
"Okay, are you ready?"
He said this just I noticed the new unfamiliar scents that didn't normally belong here in the forest. "Er, yeah, I guess I'm ready."
Archie hopped down, releasing his grip on my face. I stared into a darkness that, to mortal eyes, would have concealed whatever was in front of us. But I could see it with no problem.
Here in this tiny clearing was a small, stone cottage. It fit so naturally with the scenery, it seemed as if it had been here for a hundred years. In fact, it looked as though it had grown right out the ground. Thick ivy climbed in complicated patterns up the north wall. Small, flat stones trailed in front of our feet up to the wooden doorway.
"What do you think?" Archie was bursting at the seams. He handed me a small key.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"Earnest thought it would be nice for us to have our own place for a while, but to still keep us nearby," Edythe explained.
I went on staring at it because the idea refused to sink in. Our own house?
The joy started to fade from Archie's face. "Don't you like it? I mean, I'm sure we could fix it up differently. In whatever way you'd like! We can add on more space if it's too small. I was thinking about adding on a few more rooms, but Earnest just thought you'd like it more if it was exactly the way it was. But I insisted that we should at least—"
I put my hand over his mouth to shush him.
He put his lips back together and gave me a few more seconds to gather myself.
"You're giving me… a house for my birthday," I stammered.
Edythe corrected me. "Us… and it's really more of a… spare bedroom. We don't have to spend all of our time here. We take turns using it. Normally whoever the most recent newlyweds are will stay a while. It gets remodeled from time to time, depending on the tastes of who currently uses it."
"Way to talk down my house," I murmured.
Archie's face lit up. "So you like it? I can't wait to tell Earnest!"
"How could I not?" I asked.
"Well, we all know how you are about presents… Anyway, the closet is stocked. Don't overwhelm yourself."
"Do I even want to know how big the closet is?"
Archie simply gave me a mischievous glance, and then he shot away like a speeding bullet.
"You kids have fun in there!" I heard him call from beyond the trees.
I felt odd, waiting for the reactions I should anticipate my body to have, but no longer would ever have. I wanted to feel like I was exhausted. Coming to a home at the end of the day made me feel like I should be getting ready for bed.
And when I thought about it, I felt as though this had all just been one long, continuous day, starting when I'd opened my new eyes. This had been the longest day of my life, and really, that day was never going to end. The absence of a sleep cycle really diminished my whole perception of days coming and going, hence my ignorance of the date. I almost laughed out loud at the sudden perspective I had on eternity.
Then Edythe asked the question she never had to ask anyone but me. "So what are you thinking?"
"I was just thinking about us… and how this has sort of been the first day, and the last day, of forever. It's actually hard to wrap my head around, even with all this extra space for thinking."
"Never-ending consciousness can feel that way," she shrugged.
Edythe pulled me inside. The house looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. The floor was a massive mosaic of flat, smooth stones of varying shapes and sizes. About half the walls were made from wood, and the other half were stone. A small fire crackled in the old-fashioned fireplace, its flames burning bluish green. I recognized the driftwood from the ocean.
The furnishings didn't match each other; they were a mixture of different styles and eras, but they somehow harmonized each other in an appealing way. One of the chairs almost seemed medieval, while a lower ottoman by the fire was more contemporary. There was a large carpet stretching down the main hall. A bear rug sat in front of the fireplace.
"I'm betting that's Eleanor's," I said as I pointed at the fur.
"It's a tacky old thing… But yes, it's hers. She has an obsession with bears…"
There was a giant, wooden bookcase at the back of the room stuffed with books, some I guessed were older than the two of us put together. I pulled my book from Charlie's out of my pocket and slid it into a place on one of the shelves. It all seemed to fit together so perfectly. The paintings on the walls were some of the ones I recognized from the main house, but they fit just as well, like they'd always belonged.
This was a place where you could believe magic existed. Like the fantasies of old children's stories. I honestly don't think I would have been surprised if Snow White and the dwarves decided to walk in from the other room. Edythe was just as much a character in a fairy tale to me.
And I was standing in the fantasy beside her.
Edythe broke the silence. "I'm sure you're just dying to see the closet. Or, at least that's what I'll tell Archie."
"Should I worry?" I asked hesitantly.
"You should run now. Run away screaming."
She took my hand and led me down the hallway with a ceiling that made me think of a miniature castle. It led to the only other room in the cottage.
"Carine tried to replicate the room from the island. She knew we'd liked it so much," she explained.
The massive, white bed so closely matched the one from our honeymoon I would have said it was the same one… except for the fact it didn't have chunks missing from it. The walls were the same white, and in the back of the room was a small glass door that looked out into a small garden that was equally as enchanting. Right in the center of the flowers was a small goldfish pond, like our own tiny ocean.
"Wow," was all I could say.
"I know," she said. "Are you ready for your gift from me?" she asked. "Don't worry. It's not another car or anything crazy like that. I know you hate big surprises… Hold out your hand."
She dropped a small, silver necklace into my hand. It had a tiny chain, anchoring to letters of a fancy calligraphy.
— plus que ma propre vie —
"More than my own life," she translated. She looked at me, probing me with her topaz eyes.
I met her gaze and smiled. "I love you, more than my own life," I contended.
Edythe nodded toward the double doors to our left. I braced myself for what I was about to see and stepped in.
The closet was bigger than the bedroom was. In fact, I think this originally was meant as the bedroom, and the other portion the closet. There were more clothes in here than I would have thought possibly to collect in a lifetime. This was the sort of horde that could only belong to an immortal. Hell, it even gave the average apparel store a run for its money just in shear terms of inventory.
I laughed. "What, no checkout counter? No sales associates? No dressing rooms?"
Edythe started to laugh, but it was cut short when my lips interrupted hers.
I pulled my lips free from time to time, getting a few words out on each break. "You know what… We're going to tell Archie…. We spent hours in here… We were trying everything on," I whispered in between breaths. "We're going to lie."
She caught my drift in an instant. "And what do you suppose we do instead?" she said as her hands grabbed the shirt around my back.
The next thing I knew was the sound of fabric tearing. Taking our clothes off would have just been too slow. Her clothes, at least, were already destroyed. Oh well. We could always go shopping here in the cottage
We ended up horizontal on the floor, not bothering with the bedroom. Again I felt oddly off balance. I was waiting for reactions my body wasn't capable of anymore. My heart should have been pounding in my throat. My face should have been burning red. My skin was suddenly hypersensitive under her touch, and the electricity shot through me.
At some point, before the sun rose again, I finally broke the silence to ask her something I'd been wondering. "How long could this go on? I mean… Carine and Earnest, Eleanor and Royal, Jessamine and Archie… They don't spend all day naked, secluded in their rooms. They're out in public all the time. This is the only thing I feel like I'll ever want to do. Does it ever let up? I always thought I wouldn't want anything more than blood. But I don't feel that way at all." I squeezed myself tighter to her, emphasizing what I was saying.
She busted out laughing. "Hard to say… Every other newborn vampire is too obsessed with thirst to spend much time doing much else. But you're so different, the rules don't seem to apply to you at all. Eleanor and Royal were the worst. After they got married, I couldn't stand to be within five miles of them for a good decade. Why do you think Carine and Earnest built this place for them? They were the first proud owners of the cottage of… love."
"So you're telling me they were just normal again after a few years of this?" I couldn't quite believe that.
"Depends what you could consider normal. For the most part, you've only seen them during the day. But as you pointed out, not having to sleep means there's plenty of room to balance daytime life and… this."
She abruptly took the reign of dominance, which did some interesting things to the way we were connected, putting an end to our conversation.
At the break of dawn, we were lying on the floor in front of the fire. We'd been just staring at each other for hours. I was considering making the suggestion that we should keep to ourselves for today, but Edythe had a different idea.
"I guess we should go make an appearance and tell them how much we love it… Otherwise, they may start to think we're some sort of nymphomaniacs. We don't want to take away the award from Eleanor and Royal…"
I remembered Eleanor's suggestive laughter earlier, and I suddenly understood the joke. I sighed. "Yeah, you're right."
We stepped into our personal shopping mall. Finding something to wear in here could take all day. Everything was wrapped in garment bags. I started peeking through them one by one until Edythe stopped me.
"What are you looking for? I'll help you."
"All I want is some jeans. Where are all the normal clothes?"
She followed some scent to a dresser in the back of the room and opened a drawer, pulling out a pair of expensive-looking blue jeans that were probably designer brand.
I flitted to her side.
"How did you know where they were in all of this?"
"Denim has its own scent just like anything else. You'll learn them all in time," she shrugged. "See if you can find a cotton and polyester blend."
I sniffed, thinking back to the fitted shirts I had worn before and how they smelled. Though I hadn't particularly given the inconsequential scent any thought, I was able to perfectly recall everything. I sifted through the concoction of aromas around me and honed in on the one that matched the one I was thinking of. I went over to the opposite wall and opened a bag. It was made of the material I was looking for, but it was Edythe's.
"You got the scent correct. Nice. But your clothes are mostly located back over here on this half." She was pulling a beige pullover from a bag near her, holding it out to me.
It only took her a second to find the clothes she wanted. And if I hadn't seen her undressed already, I would have said there was nothing more beautiful than Edythe in her charcoal grey hoodie and sweatpants. She smoothed out and parted her crazed hair using only her fingers, and within seconds she looked like she had just returned from a hairdresser. Then she took my hand as we raced along in a dead sprint back to the main house.
"Well, well…" Archie bit his lip. "We started to wonder if you were ever going to come back… but we didn't want to bother you."
Eleanor guffawed, sending vibrations through the house. Even Royal managed a silent laugh.
"So what were you two doing all this time? Discussing the national debt?" Eleanor howled with laughter.
I half expected the blush I should have felt coming. I tried my best to ignore her. I looked up at Earnest. "Thank you, Earnest, so much. It's perfect."
Before he could respond, Eleanor was at it again. "Oh? You mean it's still standing? I figured you two had knocked it to rubble by now!" She threw her head back, dramatically falling onto the couch.
I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that she and Royal probably had plenty experience with breaking houses. I narrowed my eyes at her and growled playfully—at least I think it looked playful.
"It's a little dense," Edythe said to Eleanor, "to be provoking the strongest one in the house. Don't you think?"
"Oooh, scary!" she said mockingly.
Edythe turned to me. "Beau, do you remember during the change, how I mentioned you'd probably be the strongest one in the house for a while?"
It rang a bell. I sifted through the painful, half-mortal memories. I hadn't thought of it ever since. "You're right," I said, my face glowing with the challenge.
Archie let out a long laugh. "Oh! This is gonna be good…"
I took a breath. It was time for Eleanor to become the brunt of the jokes. "Eleanor, how about a little bet?"
She jumped off the couch without hesitation. "Absolutely. Bring it on, brother."
I flashed my teeth in a cocky smile. "You and me. Arm wrestling. Dining room table. Now."
An odd expression suddenly crossed Archie's face. "Um, Beau," he said quickly. "I think Carine is a little fond of that table."
I realized what he was implying.
"He's right," Eleanor smiled. "But I know the perfect place. Follow me."
We went out the back through the garage. There was a rather large boulder in the trees on the edge of the front lawn, and I watched Eleanor head directly for it. I started to follow her into the trees, but then something was suddenly crashing through the branches as it hurdled in my direction. The enormous rock whizzed past me, landing with an earthy thud in the middle of the lawn. It was a little round and irregular, but it looked like it just might work. Eleanor emerged from the trees, dusting her hands off as she admired her work.
She took her position, placing her elbow on the boulder. Even though Eleanor was broad and tall, muscular for a woman, she still didn't look as physically powerful as Archie or Royal. However, I knew that with our kind our outward appearance had little correlation with our abilities. Though we were all strong, everyone knew Eleanor's trademark strength. Rather than some extra talent, she merely got a double dose of whatever made all of us like superman.
I was days away from being six months into my new life. Did I still retain the extra initial power? I remembered now how I'd thought she was the most intimidating of all the Cullens the first time I saw them. I tried to look unconcerned as I placed my elbow down and took her hand.
"Alright," I began. "If I win, no more sex jokes. To anyone. No more innuendos… no anything. Nada."
Her eyes narrowed. "Fine. I win, though, and it gets a lot worse."
Jessamine started the count. "One… two…"
"Three!" Eleanor jumped the gun.
I grunted as she shoved against my prepared hand. And to my surprise, nothing happened.
Of course, I could sense the force she was exerting on my arm, but it wasn't painful or difficult to counter. In my head, I could gauge with almost certainty that if I were to relax, and her hand were able to come down full force, this rock would be rubble.
She turned up the heat then, and I wondered if a runaway train racing down a hill would offer as much resistance. It still wasn't enough to move me, though. It was only beginning to be slightly irritating. It actually felt kind of good to be totally unrestrained from using all this new energy. I'd always had to be so careful not to break things. This was a relief.
She grunted, the veins popping up in her forehead. Her whole body strained and angled toward mine. I'm not sure how long we sat there unmoving.
But at some point I started to get bored. That's when I decided I would turn it up to eleven. She lost a fraction of an inch. I laughed as Eleanor hissed through her teeth.
"Yeah, that poor house is definitely long gone," she said through the strain.
And that comment did it for me. The irritation surged through me and turned into a sort of boost of strength. I smashed her hand down into the boulder with so much force that it shuddered with a loud crack as it collapsed into seven big chunks. One fell on her foot, and I had to laugh. I could hear everyone else's muffled snickers as well. She kicked the piece of rock, and it sailed into the trees.
"Rematch. Tomorrow!" she demanded.
Edythe peeled in laughter. "It's not going to wear off that fast, El."
Eleanor turned and stalked away, crushing another piece of stone in her hand into dust.
Although I knew with almost certainty how this would turn out, from what Edythe had told me, I still had a hard time believing it. I marveled at what had just happened.
I was fascinated by just how much strength I never realized I held. I picked up one of the fragments of boulder and squeezed it between my hands. As it disintegrated into gravel, it was comparable to what it would have previously been like squeezing a big piece of cheese.
"Cool," I marveled.
At that moment, I felt the heat on my skin as the clouds momentarily cleared out of the sun's path. I had only seen myself a handful of times in the direct sun like this; the constant cloud cover made it a rare event. So it almost frightened me every time the explosion of blinding white cast off my skin.
I guess I could say that after eighteen years of being the most mundane kind ordinary, I now found that I could shine. And here in this moment, I was finally just as amazed with myself as those around me always seemed to be.
My life as I knew it was long over. But I had been reborn in the most spectacular way. I was so made for this. I was born to be a vampire.
I almost hated the word vampire, because that didn't seem to really describe what we were. Not this little family at least. We got everything that came with being one, without ever actually doing what makes a vampire a vampire. The idea made me want to laugh. Whatever this was, whatever it should be called, I had found my true place in this world within in it—the place I was undoubtedly meant to be.
