Chapter 11- Embry

I measured her breaths like a doctor measured medicine.

I had been so close to losing her. When I had first burst through the hospital doors, they had just been bringing Maddie in, her skin so white that my stomach had twisted, thinking she was already gone. And for one of the first times since my eyes had been opened to the world around me, I thanked God that a vampire was working in the hospital.

She lay, asleep, in front of me now. And I reached forward, tenderly running the tips of my fingertips over her bronzed hair. It was the color of the sky just after a storm, the sun still bright behind the thinning clouds. My hope.

And she was so, so special. I had known that she was, even before I truly knew the extent to her ability. It must be hard, keeping such a secret to yourself.

I heard the door creak open, and I didn't have to turn to see Alice ease through the opening, Jasper on her heels.

"Wow." Alice breathed, using her tiny arms to hold herself together. "This is weird."

I retracted my hand and nodded to Jasper, a silent greeting. "What is weird?"

Alice let out a choked laugh, her eyes never leaving Maddie's face. "Genetics. It's weird, isn't it? I mean, I'd seen pictures of children looking exactly like their grandparents from decades prior to their birth. But I guess I never realized the extent to which it actually went."

I looked away from the crazy pixie, dragging my eyes to Jasper instead. He had taken a stance near the window, no doubt separating himself as far away from the bloodied hall as he could. He didn't breathe. Carlisle may work in a hospital, but I still believed that Jasper had the strongest strength of all. You couldn't miss something you'd never had, but Jasper had been a monster, and now he was this. There was something inspirational about that.

"I still don't understand."

"I mean, she is a spitting image of my sister." She drifted closer and placed a hand on the sheet of the bed, just inches from my Maddie. "I knew she had married, and I tried to trace the lineage if only to find out what happened to my family. But I gave up." Alice shook her head.

I frowned, my brows pinching in confusion. "Your sister?"

"Brandon. Maddie's last name is Brandon. And I was Mary Alice Brandon." Alice smiled, "Carlisle pieced it together when she said that her sensitivity to things unseen ran in the family."

"And Alice died because of hers." Jasper continued, his gaze looking out the window.

"So, Maddie is…"

Alice's smile beamed brighter, and if it were possible, I felt like she'd be crying. "Maddie is my family. Generations apart. But she is my family."

#

Maddie

I walked slowly through the hallway of the Cullen's house—or more specifically—their freaking mansion. If I had thought that they were obscenely rich beforehand, then the knowledge that they were ancient vampires made me numb at the thought of just how much money they really had. Did they even see money as money anymore?

"We've fixed you up a room upstairs, sweetheart. And of course anything in the house is welcome to you as well. Make yourself at home."

I smiled kindly at Esme Cullen, the warmth of her heart canceling out the chill of her skin. At first, the idea of living in a house full of vampires had set me off; but Embry had explained that the Cullen's didn't drink the blood of humans, but instead the blood of animals. But blood was still blood.

"Huh. This is bigger than my house was." Dean disappeared at my side only to jump upstairs and peak his head into the room that I supposed was now mine. "Damn! They got you everything, Mads!"

"Thank you for letting me stay here." I said. It was obvious that they were trying a little too hard to give me space, by the way that two boys were lounging on the couch pretending not to oogle at me. The only comfort was Embry as he trailed behind me, carrying two of my three duffels.

"Of course! And the boys are coming over tonight, if that is alright. I'll have dinner ready. Do you like spaghetti?"

"Yeah, spaghetti is fine." And then she fell away to give me space.

The room really was gorgeous, and more spacious than my bedroom and bathroom at home combined. She had fixed me with a queen bed, placed squarely in the center of the room. The length cut in half by the pillows that conquered the daisy comforter. There was a bathroom connected to the bedroom, which opened into a full sized closet. All my clothes wouldn't fill a quarter of it.

But my favorite part was the desk, and the blackboard fixed on the wall above it. I couldn't help but smirk, giddy at the picture of my textbooks placed below it. The future of me scribbling homework onto that board.

"I know they can be a little much, but they are really great people." Embry said, placing the duffels onto the bed. "You haven't even met all of them, huh?"

I turned away from him and drug the duffel over toward the closet. It was still weird for me, knowing that a handful of people knew about me. And I them. My father had conditioned me to be afraid of their kind my entire life, and now I was living in their home. They are coming. But I still hadn't explained that to Embry, not wanting to speak of danger aloud. Plus, if my father had been wrong about all supernaturals, then maybe he was wrong about this too.

"So, who actually lives here?" I muttered, realizing that Embry would be leaving that night. He had become my safety net, the only thing that made me feel safe in this sea of uncertainty, and I didn't even know him well.

"Everyone, basically." He waved it off, "You'll see though."

Before I could ask any more, there was a knock on the door. "Can we come in?" A high-pitched voice asked. But it became increasingly clear that the knock had simply been a curtesy, because the next minute, a tiny pixie-headed girl danced into the room with a tall blonde trailing behind her. "Hello, I'm Alice, and I am so excited to have you here!"

"Don't scare her away right off the bat Alice, tone it down a little." Embry said from the door, his eyes closed.

The blonde swallowed a laugh.

"Hi." I said, playing the peace card. "I'm sure you already know who I am."

"Of course I do, silly." She clasped my hands between hers, "And we are going to be very close. Trust me."

I shuffled uncomfortably and waited a second out of respect before pulling my hand away from her.

"Huh. It's kind of funny, if you think about it. I'm dead. And they are dead. But different kinds of dead—ya know?"

I rolled my eyes at Dean. Even though I didn't have to hide what I was here, I still felt weird talking to someone the others couldn't see. But my gesture didn't go unnoticed, because Alice clapped her hands together quickly and followed my line of sight.

"Oh! Is there a spirit here!?" She sighed wistfully, "I wonder what that would have been like. I just had pesky half-assed visions. Lot of good that did me!"

I frowned instantly, "You had the Sight?"

Alice took a seat atop my desk, her legs folded underneath her. "Not the way you are thinking. I couldn't do what you could, see ghosts I mean—least I don't think so." She shrugged, "I don't remember my life as a human."

"Is that the way for all vampires?"

"No," The silent blonde said, jumping in. "Alice is special."

"Oh…," I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "But you were like me, when you were human?"

A twinkle went into her smirking eyes, "We are more alike than you'd think, Maddie. But in time!" She tilted her head, clapped her hands, and disappeared down the stairs without an explanation.

"Yeah, she does that." Embry stood and tilted his head, listening. "Nessie and Jake just got here. Prepare yourself, because you are about to be thrown into the deep end.