Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer is the brilliant inventor of the Twilight Universe and she owns everything there in.


Masen

Jeesh! I thought my parents were loaded. They were dirt poor compared to the wealth the Cullens had stashed away.

They had a privet Jet! Ok, so it was rented, but still it's not exactly an everyday expense.

And skills, you wouldn't believe it. Little Pixie Alice with her scary looking mate Jasper as her co-pilot was flying the plane. She had nagged at Bella and Edward until they had relented, it seems that it wasn't often they rented jet planes, especially for such long journeys and Alice wanted to take advantage of the chance when she could. So Edward and Bella agreed for her to come along provided her and Jasper stayed at the airport when we landed.

I was the reason for the unusual hiring of a privet jet. They weren't sure if I was ready to deal with being stuck in a tin for nine hours with two hundred humans and no fresh air and no escape. So they settled for hiring this plane instead. For which I was grateful.

I didn't know if I could handle being around a human in the middle of an open field yet, never mind having to sit next to them on a plane. I didn't know if I could bear the burn in the back of my throat, which Nessie had told me was the hunger, being worse than it already was.

Funny really how I already thought of her as Nessie, but then again Ronnie never did quite seem to fit her.

It was two hours into the flight, Bella and Edward had briefed me on most of the facts I needed to know about the Volturi. The main conclusion I came up with was that you didn't want to mess with them. Now I was left alone with time to think.

How strange this all was, would I ever accept it completely?

Here I was, Terrence Nathaniel Masen, nineteen years old and I was a vampire.

A vampire!

God, to think such creatures really existed, and now I was one of them. Although the Cullens' way of life didn't seem too fiendish, feeding off animals didn't seem so bad. It was better than drinking human blood; that just seemed wrong, even when all my new senses screamed that it was right.

I couldn't get over the fact either that those two kids sitting there was Nessie's parents, they looked the same age as her, if not slightly younger. Bella was frozen at eighteen, Nessie was adamant about that; she said that even though her mother woke for the last time on her nineteenth birthday Bella insisted that it didn't count. She had been eighteen now for nearly 20 years.

Edward looked 17, the age he had been frozen at over a hundred years ago.

So I was frozen now as well, thanks to the hillbillies from hell, and I had been adopted into this family. But did I really want to stay with them? It wasn't as if there was anything tying me to them now. It wasn't as if Nessie was mine. She belonged to someone else. She didn't even think of me in that light. I was just her friend.

Gee, why did I have to be in the office that morning? She probably would have given me a wide berth if the others had got to her first, telling her all the stories and rumours that surrounded my time of ill health. I would be living my life as a contented loner.

Yeah, like I was ever happy in my other life!

All I needed was time to adjust; maybe Nessie was right about hooking up with her cousin from Alaska. Anything just to get her out of my head, I owed myself that much if I was doomed to live for eternity.

I sighed.

God it would be nice to sleep rather than be stuck in this endless awakened state.

"You know Masen, we don't really know much about you." Bella said suddenly.

I looked up into her gold eyes, but they were friendly, curious, and not judgemental.

"All we know is that you're called Masen and you're from Heartbridge. I mean do you have any other names even?"

"Yeah. My names Terrance Masen, everybody calls me Masen though. They wouldn't dare call me Terrence or Terry or god forbid, Tezza." I shuddered at the thought.

"So your surname is Masen?" Bella gasped. "With an e?"

"Yes." I answered. "Why?"

"Because that was Edward's surname when he was human." Bella stated. "You don't suppose you two are related?" She asked, looking between her husband and me.

Edward shook his head uncertain.

"I don't think we are." He said. Then he looked at me. "Do you know if any of your family lived in Chicago in the late nineteenth early twentieth century?"

"No. My family's dyed in the wool Texan. We made our money back in colonial times by owning a lot of land and growing cotton, and then we struck oil. My grandfather sold the family business just before fossil fuels became unpopular and invested in greener energy sources. That's where all our money comes from now. All their money I should say. It's more likely that I'd be related to Jasper, what with him being Texan and all." I conceded.

"Oh." Bella looked slightly disappointed for a moment, then she looked expectantly at Edward. "Did your family come from Texas?" She asked.

The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile. "Not as far as I know." He answered.

"It would have explained a lot though." Bella replied solemnly.

"Explained a lot about what?" Edward asked.

"About why you can both read minds."

"It would, aside from the fact that I don't think my mind reading came from my father." Edward said smoothly.

Bella frowned, a dent appearing between her eyebrows. Then her face straightened as realisation dawned.

"Yes. Perhaps that's how Elizabeth knew what Carlisle was. She read it from his mind." She gasped.

"That's always been my theory." Edward replied with a smile.

"So what was your mother's maiden name? I don't think you've ever told me before."

"It was O'Connell. Her family was Irish."

Bella looked at me then. "Any O'Connell's in your family?" She demanded.

"You know what, that was my mother's maiden name." I replied sardonically.

"It was?" Bella asked, excitement clear in her voice.

Edward gave me a wary look.

"No. I was joking around. My mother's name was Harris, but I think her mother's family might have hailed from Ireland. But I'm not really sure, it was the Masen family and their great wealth that was always lauded at home." I explained.

"Oh. It would have been nice." Bella replied quietly.

"What else can you tell us about yourself." Edward asked quickly.

You know most of this; you've already read it. I pointed out silently.

This is for Bella's sake. She can't read minds, remember? Besides it is always polite to allow people to volunteer their information rather than just stealing it from their minds. Some people can get a bit touchy about it. Edward thought back.

"Hey. What are you two whispering about?" Bella demanded, looking between the both of us.

"Sorry love." Edward soothed, kissing her on her forehead. "I was just explaining the etiquette of mind reading to Masen."

"Oh?"

"He was wondering why I was fishing for information when I'd already read it all from his mind. I explained that it was only polite to speak aloud so that people who couldn't read minds could hear." Edward explained.

Bella nodded her head. Then she looked at me expectantly.

"I'm nineteen and I lived all my life in Heartbridge. The only travelling we ever did was the four hundred miles or so we did every summer when we went to visit my grandparents on the ranch back in Texas. I'm the middle of five boys, all of them sports mad apart from me. I'm the geek of the family." I said with a laugh.

"Nothing wrong with that." Bella said, touching my hand lightly. "You should have seen me trying to do gym when I was alive. I don't know how many times I brained Mike Newton with a badminton racquet."

"He deserved it." Edward stated flatly.

"Edward!" Bella chastised.

Edward raised an eyebrow and Bella shook her head.

I looked away for a moment.

"So you have four brothers then?" Bella asked.

"Yes."

"That must be nice. I was an only child growing up, I always wanted siblings, and it must have been nice having readymade playmates."

"It was noisy for one thing. It was a good job my parents were loaded and we had a big house, or I don't know what I would have done. Like I said, my brothers are all sports mad while all I wanted to do was read my comics, look at the stars or play music." I replied.

"Oh, I suppose that does make a difference." Bella conceded.

"Yep. And the big house helped when I became ill and started attacking people with screwdrivers." I said quietly, I may as well tell her because Edward already knew; it wasn't as if that was going to effect me anymore anyhow.

Bella looked at me as if waiting for the punch line.

"He's telling the truth love." Edward said quietly.

Bella looked at him then looked at me, her face was full of questions.

I couldn't seem to find my voice to speak.

Would you like me to explain? Edward asked silently.

I nodded my head.

"Masen had a brain tumour when he was younger." Edward began, Bella's face turned to shock and pity. "It was in the part of his brain that determines behaviour, it was making him believe all sorts of strange things. The fact that he had latent telepathic abilities didn't help matters either. His behaviour was becoming erratic but he was only given a brain scan after he attacked the gardener with a screwdriver."

"Oh god, that must have been awful." Bella gasped, grabbing my hand.

I shrugged. "I got better." I said.

After that Bella told me the story of how her and Edward met, and Edward told me of his time before Bella although he himself declared it was not that notable because his life didn't truly begin until he met her.

We kept up this casual banter until we touched down in Italy, and then it was time to drive to Volterra.


Thanks for reading,

Gemma x