Lillian
"No! Eleanor!" May's pained voice filled the forest. I turned in time to see her leaping over the fire closing the space between herself and Elle. Elle. Her struggling body lay between two sadistic newborns. One -the male of the two- was pressing her head into the ground, muffling her cries. The other, a female, pinned Eleanor's legs and arms to the floor, preventing her from any form of escape.
I dropped the assorted branches I'd collected and ran across the field towards May who was already tearing the female away from Eleanor. Another male emerged from the forest behind the disorderly affray; his dark brown hair was untidy, and his eyes had the same golden tone as May's parents. This vampire could only be May's adoptive brother, Demetri.
May struggled with her rival who was evidently more physically capable than her, no doubt from the fresh consumption of human blood and her newborn status. Demetri soared into the sadist restraining Eleanor - knocking him to the ground and freeing Elle. The two males began an intense battle, with Demetri seemingly having the slightly upper hand.
I attempted to run over to Eleanor, but was stopped in my tracks as something grabbed me around the ankle, throwing me into the mud below. I turned and caught sight of one of the girls who had previously attacked me (her comrade however, lay amid the ashes in the fading fire). A vicious sneer grew across her face, her crimson eyes showed no signs of remorse as she attempted to kick me in the abdomen. I turned, avoiding her kick, and via the use of telekinesis; I uprooted a small tree from behind the newborn, and pulling it towards me, hitting the back of the girl in the process.
In that small second of distraction, I hastily dismembered the newborn's body, adding her limbs into a newly lit fire, courtesy of Eleanor.
"Is everyone alright?" May called out. Glancing around the now quiet wilderness, I could see that numerous small fires had been formed, each releasing thick purple smoke. Random arrays of body parts however still painted the battlefield in sickly patches of ivory.
"I know I am," the Demetri seemed to have survived his battle with the newborns, considering the fact that he was waving a loose arm around, "not so sure about this guy though."
"Demetri!" May flung herself at her brother, "long time no see, bro."
"Yeah, such pleasant circumstances that we reunite in," Demetri grinned, a faint Russian accent broke through his words. "I think a second longer, and your little friend here might have been dead..." He said, gesturing towards Eleanor.
"I am not little - and I was handling it quite fine, I didn't need your help!" Eleanor said; retreating into the forest.
Demetri seemed bewildered as he watched Elle, "What's her problem?"
"Uhh, she's just been under a lot of stress lately," May appeared to be as shocked as Demetri (as were Lucy, Craig and myself). "So where've you been lately?"
"Well," Demetri began, "first-"
The sound of multiple, rapidly approaching footsteps halted the family reunion, "Oh my god, how many vampires are there?" May whined. The idea of having to face another set of blood thirsty newborns wasn't exactly ideal at this present moment in time, but then again, when is it ever ideal?
The six of us gathered together forming a tight circle, we all hunched down, ready for attack. As the footsteps grew nearer, the intensity in the clearing climbed; finally, the first of the group became visible from beneath the foliage. Surprisingly, it was Carlisle and Emmett, followed closely by Jasper, Edward and Alice. As Emmett closed the distance between himself and me; he embraced me into one of his signature bear hugs.
"Well this is certainly a pleasant surprise," The Cullen's appearance was certainly unexpected in this part of the forest. "What brings you to this part of the wilderness?"
"Alice had a vision," Emmett reminded me of Alice's uncanny ability to have premonitions of the future. "She saw the newborns coming to the clearing, near where you were hunting, she saw you three and their contraband colliding, and her vision just stopped there."
"And you naturally thought I couldn't take care of myself?" I teased.
Emmett chuckled, "No, I actually wanted to watch you kick all those newborns' asses."
"Maybe next time sweetie, you were a bit late this time round, who knows, I could even teach you a move or two..." I gently tugged the collar of Emmett's shirt and lowered him closer to myself.
"You? Teach me? Please." There was barely an inch separating myself and Emmett, and, as he spoke, he closed the gap, bringing his lips upon mine.
Only when Carlisle 'subtly' cleared his throat did Emmett and I break from our libidinous embrace. If I were human, my face would have been scarlet from the sheer embarrassment of being caught in such an inappropriate situation. Emmett, noting my mortification, winked and smiled largely- revealing his two identical dimples.
"I-I'm sorry, I got slightly carried away," I stammered, Emmett had readjusted his arm, which now rested comfortably along my waist.
Carlisle smiled, "Not at all. Well it's good to see that everyone is alive, luckily you had some help from-"
"Oh, this is my family," May interrupted, "these are my parents; Lucille and Craig, and my brother Demetri."
"Demetri of the Volturi?" Jasper questioned, setting his gaze on Demetri.
"Ex-member of the Volturi," Demetri said icily.
"You left?" May wacked Demetri across the back of his head, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Demetri absentmindedly rubbed his head where May had hit him "I was going to sis, I wanted to surprise you, but –as you can see- I was slightly distracted upon arrival."
"Oh, sorry." May grinned sheepishly.
"So you're no longer a part of the Volturi?" Jasper pressed.
"I realised -after many years of thought- that if I were to live forever, what exactly would I live for? The Volturi- they live for power; they see themselves as the hidden kings of our world. I didn't want any of that, madness from eternal existence. What I want is a purpose."
May erupted in violent laughter, "What are you going on about?" she asked, while everyone else stood around awkwardly, trying to decipher the meaning behind Demetri's words.
"Speaking of which, where is Eleanor?" Carlisle wondered.
"She's hunting...in Canada." Alice answered; no doubt she'd had a vision of Eleanor and her whereabouts.
"Canada? Why on earth would she be hunting in Canada?" I wondered. Alice shrugged, but something in her eyes led me to believe that she was hiding something.
"Perhaps we should leave her be," May suggested, "just give her some time; she'll come back when she's ready."
"Well since everything's alright, we'll leave you to catch up with your family May. It was nice to see you again," Carlisle left the clearing, followed quickly by Edward and Jasper after they had both said their farewells. Alice however, left with a particularly audacious grin directed toward me and Emmett (who still had his arm around me).
"I'll see you later May," I said.
"Wait, where are you going?" May asked.
"They're your family May, go be with them. Besides, I have to go buy Eleanor's birthday present," I had absolutely no idea what I was going to get Elle. After knowing her for well over sixty years, and having celebrated a few birthdays within that time, presents ranged from extravagant jewellery to expensive cars and everything in-between. . Besides, what exactly do you buy a vampire for their three hundred and fifty eighth birthday?
May seemed quite appalled by my lack of organisation, "Lillian! You haven't bought her present yet? What's wrong with you? Her birthday's in a few days!"
"I don't know what to get her!" I yelled indigently, "and it's in a week for your information."
"Whatever! Go get her something- now." May's heightened voice filled the forest, I wouldn't be surprised if Eleanor could her us all the way over in Canada...
"Fine, but wait, have you bought her your present yet?" Maybe May could give me an idea as to what I could get Eleanor.
May laughed, breaking her fit of momentary anger, "yes, and I'm not telling you. Emmett you better take her away before she gets too carried away."
Emmett too laughed, "Gladly, come on beautiful." He gently grabbed my hand and pulled me deep into the cover of the forest. "I never thought we'd be alone..." Emmett pulled himself down upon me. His lips trailed across my cheeks; starting on the edge of my lip, then moving up to the egde of my ear, and circulating back down again. His hand meanwhile, fell slowly down the curve of my back - sending tingles through my spine.
The butterflies in my stomach fluttered agilely; through the many times which Emmett had kissed me -hastily so- the butterflies had always appeared. "Ta maman ressemble," Emmett whispered broken French into my ear, "à bout mon âne."
I pulled myself away from Emmett and looked him in the face, "What?"
Emmett looked quite surprised at my surprise, "uh, ta maman ressemble à bout mon âne?"
My laughter seemed to bring a wave of relief to Emmett, but also add to his confusion, "Now who taught you that?"
"Edward, why?" he asked.
"What exactly did you do for him to teach you that?"
"Me? Nothing?" he smiled and put his arm around my shoulders.
I don't think that Emmett realised that ta maman ressemble à bout mon âne, translated to Your mom looks like my ass, in French.
"Sure." I wrapped my arm around his waist and we began strolling through the woodland. "So what are you doing tonight?"
"Oh I've just got a few things to sort out," Emmett had a very peculiar expression on his face; it was as if he were up to something and he wasn't going to tell me what. "Why?"
"I was just wondering. What about tomorrow, any plans?"
"Hmm, not that I know of, why are you doing something?"
"Well, the shops are closed for the day, but tomorrow I need to buy Eleanor her present -before May murders me."
Emmett chuckled, "what are you going to get her?"
"I literally have no idea, but I think she was hinting towards a kitten, I have a feeling that won't go down too well though. It'll probably be dead within its first second of living with us." I sighed, "And there's no point getting her anything antique, considering that she'll probably be older than anything I buy her."
"We'll go to Seattle tomorrow then, oh, and I'll introduce you to my baby..." Emmett smirked.
"Your baby?" I asked, confused. Emmett simply nodded, "Alright then, it's a date. "
Emmett glanced at the watch on his wrist, "I've got to go now Lily and do some...stuff. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Oh okay, see ya." Emmett kissed me lightly on the cheek and left, running east towards the Cullen house. With May hanging with her family, Eleanor hunting in unknown area, and Emmett now gone, I was for once left without anything to do.
XXX
I nervously twirled a lock of my hair around my finger as I waited for Emmett to arrive. Again, I glanced at the large oak clock mounted on our wall; the seconds hand had only moved ten places since my last check.
"Jesus Lillian, chillax a bit -you know what guys are like, totally disorganised, he'll probably be here next year." May sighed; her and Eleanor had grown increasingly frustrated. Throughout the course of the morning, I had hassled them for their opinions on each of the fifty billion outfits I'd tried on, eventually, we settled on the jeans and coat ensemble – along with my beanie, scarf and favourite pair of gloves.
I listened to the numerous cars speeding along the main road adjacent to ours. Suddenly, a car broke through the traffic and turned hastily into our street; its tyres screeched piercingly on the dampened road, and at last, it came to a progressive halt in front of our house. The front door of the vehicle clicked open, Emmett's feet crunched the gravel on the footpath as he walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.
May peeked out from a gap in the curtains, "I stand corrected."
I grabbed my handbag and went to open the door, this time, opting to use the 'normal, civilised, and non-le freak way' (as Eleanor would call it) instead of with telekinesis. Surprisingly, Emmett wasn't at the door; instead, he was grinning widely –next to him, a huge white Jeep.
"Your baby?" I questioned.
"Mhm," Emmett nodded, "isn't she beautiful?"
"Gorgeous." I agreed as I walked towards the car.
"Still, I could think of someone who's more beautiful than her." Emmett pulled himself away from the car and slowly walked towards me.
"Is that so?" I asked.
"Yeah," he answered, "she has pretty blonde hair, gold eyes, and a really, really hot body when nake-"
"Emmett!" I gasped, May–who was standing in the doorway– looked on with an expression of total disgust.
"Um, ew." May gagged.
"Uh, I think we should go now," I hastily opened the passenger door whilst Emmett walked around to the other side.
"Don't worry girls," he said, "I'll take good care of her." Emmett revved the Jeep's engine; the sharp noise blasted through the empty street. Next door, I could see the edge of the curtains raise, peeking from behind, stood our neighbours Meg and James. I waved towards them; they however, mustn't have seen me, despite eying Emmett's oversized car suspiciously.
"Who are you waving at?" Eleanor asked.
"It's Meg and James," I said, pointing towards their house. Eleanor, May and Emmett immediately look towards the window, both May and Elle waved as I did. Once they noticed we were watching them, James and Meg promptly drew their curtains back.
"Well that was weird." Eleanor commented. How odd. Since moving to Forks, we hadn't seen much of our neighbours; Eleanor, May and I had just assumed that they were quiet, but now with this clearly irrational behaviour, maybe they were just extremely unusual?
"Yeah...anyways," May tapped on her wristwatch, "I want her back by eight."
"Not a problem, she'll be home well before then." The car jostled forward as Emmett raised his foot from the break.
XXX
The drive to Seattle took us a couple of hours, even with Emmett's completely insane driving. At last, we arrived in the hectic city, the towering buildings and apartments –along with the everlasting rush of traffic– was definitely a sight for sore eyes.
After managing our way through traffic, Emmett was easily able to locate the largest mall in Seattle (which he credits to being 'dragged' to many shopping trips by Alice).
"Thank God." I sighed after stepping safely on the ground. The car park was so congested, that once we finally found a spot, we almost got into an argument with a middle aged human struggling to control her three screaming children (one of which urgently needed a diaper change). It wasn't until we finally stepped into the chilled air-conditioning of the mall, that I really felt at home.
"So where are we heading first?" Emmett noticed my obvious change of mood, and grabbing his hand, I directed him straight to Tiffany's.
"Tiffany's?" Emmett wondered.
Guys can be unbelievably hopeless sometimes, "Jeez Em, every girl loves jewellery." Hundreds of jewels shimmered under bright lights of the Tiffany's display cabinets. Everything ranging from necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings – in all forms of shapes and colours – filled the shop. In the centre of the store, lay the most extravagant of all gems; encased in oversized glass, a single diamond ring glittered lavishly. "Whoa, now that's what you call a ring."
Emmett walked over from the ring display and stood next to me, observing the ring. "Wow, that is one huge rock."
"Yeah..." I stared admiringly at the pear-shaped diamond; any woman would kill to have that 2.5 carat ring resting on their finger. "I think we should leave now Emmett, before I buy the whole shop."
"I thought we were here for Eleanor," he reminded me as we walked out of the store.
I giggled as Emmett wrapped his arms around me, "We are, but the amount of times I've bought Elle jewellery is beyond countless. I need to get her something different this year, something awesome."
Emmett laughed, "What, like the Sims or something?"
The Sims, why didn't I think of it before? "Have I mentioned that I love you?" I kissed Emmett lightly on the lips before walking towards the nearby Apple store.
"Wait, what?" Emmett followed confusedly beside me.
"The Sims," I repeated. "Eleanor loves the Sims, I can't believe I forgot – I mean, it's the perfect present."
"I never would have thought that were you Sims players."
"Hey, I'm legendary at the Sims." I reminisced on the old times when Eleanor, May and myself would spend hours on the computer. "Once, I made a family with ten generations, but then they died because May 'accidentally'killed them all. Our obsession has faltered over the years but, I think it's time to reinstate it."
"Alrighty, well let's get shopping then." As soon as we stepped into the store, we were immediately hounded by the nearest shop assistant.
"Hi, how may I help you today?" he asked a little too eagerly, well, eagerly enough to cause Emmett to place his arm all too noticeably around my waist.
"Uh hi, I was just wondering what your best laptop in stock is?" I asked.
The shop assistants eagerness was now replaced with fear, perhaps because Emmett was giving him such blatant death stares. "Um yes, well we have the uh Mac book Pro, that's our newest product. It's a very efficient and fast computer."
"And how does it cope with games and such?" Emmett asked.
"Q-quite well." He stammered.
"Alright, we'll take it." The shop assistant seemed taken aback by our avidity, but proceeded to get a laptop from the back of the store. Emmett and myself however, walked over to the counter, to pay for the Mac book.
"That would be $1799." The assistant announced when he returned with a packaged laptop. I handed him my credit card and proceeded to enter my pin number.
Emmett grabbed the shopping bag and walked out of the store, but not before glaring one more time at the worker. "Receipt's in the bag." He mumbled after him.
"Thanks," I said before following after Emmett. "Hey," I murmured when I caught up with him, "I think that guy practically shit himself."
"Yeah well he shouldn't have been looking at you like that," Emmett muttered.
I placed my hand in Emmett's free one, "Naww, don't be so hard on the guy, he was young." He mumbled something in response, but continued walking. "Besides, he was nowhere near as hot as you."
Emmett pulled me towards him for a quick kiss. "Lily?"
"Mhm?" He let go of my hand and instead replaced his arm around my shoulders.
"You know I love you right?" It surprised me how much those three little words affected me so. You always see in corny romantic movies how hearing I love you for the first time makes your heart stop, I didn't think it was true – or physically possible for a vampire for that matter.
I stopped walking and looked directly in his warm, liquid eyes. "Of course I do."
"Good then." Emmett smiled smugly before kissing me again, this time deeply than before. It wasn't until he broke the kiss, that I realised nearly quite a few people were staring at us (especially the over concerned mothers with kids "Those over-sexed youths..."). But it wasn't until I really looked around that I noticed that there was one couple staring quite intently at us.
"Crap."
"What?" Emmett asked, slightly concerned.
What are the chances? "It's Meg and James." I whispered in his ear.
"You neighbours?" He asked.
"Yes; my neighbours just witnessed me making out with a Cullen boy," I gasped, "some FBI agent I am. May and Eleanor are going to murder me!"
Emmett glanced back at where Meg and James were, "well they're gone now, maybe they didn't recognise you?"
"Yeah I highly doubt that. Come on, let's buy the games and get out of here, the humans are becoming overwhelming." I inhaled deeply, hundreds of different smells filled me; blood, human stink, human food. It was positively disgusting.
We headed to Best Buys where we purchased the entire Sims 3 collection totalling for a nice $300.
Having bought Eleanor's present (and not bumped into Meg and James again), we decided to use the opportunity to do some shopping for ourselves. Emmett bought himself a few pairs of sneakers along with a couple of beanies, whereas I found some new jeans, boots, a cashmere scarf and leather gloves. There were only a handful of people left in the mall by the time we began to leave.
"I think I should leave the Mac and games at your house until Eleanor's birthday," Emmett was putting the shopping away in the boot of the Jeep while I waited in the front. "I don't want repeat of 1984."
"What happened in 1984?" Emmett wondered.
"Well me and May went out hunting, and when we came back, we found the whole house had been turned upside down and Eleanor sitting on the lounge. She claimed that she came home and found the house like that, but her scent was all over our stuff."
Emmett shut the boot and walked over to the driver's door, opening it swiftly. "Did she find the presents?"
"Nope," I laughed. "We're smarter than that; we hid it in a safety deposit box at the state bank."
Emmett chuckled, "Good call. So what are you doing tonight?"
"Why do you ask?" I wondered, although, I had a feeling that he was thinking somewhat similarly to what I was.
"Well I was wondering..." he began.
"Mmm?" I prompted.
"Feel like playing twister?"