"It's just a sprain." My father told Bella as he finally finished wrapping up her wrist. "It should heal fairly quickly."
"Humph!" I protested at him, crossing my arms and stomping my foot. Why did he say that? I already healed it with my special powers!
"Provided it hasn't already." He said, giving a slight chuckle at my antics. "You should leave the cast on for a few days just to be safe."
Being a physician, naturally Carlisle was a little skeptical of my newly discovered gift. Heck, even I was. But after I laid my hand on Bella and 'healed' her, she claimed her wrist had never felt better. And after thoroughly examining it, even Carlisle said it looked perfectly normal. The swelling had gone down and everything!
We had all wanted to test my abilities again to make sure if wasn't some kind of fluke, but in order to do so, someone had to be hurt or injured and the only person around here was Bella and, of course, we weren't going to harm her just for that. Fat chance of Edward allowing it even if she had volunteered! That is, *IF* my gift only worked on humans. . .
"Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Bella?" Emmett joked, laying on the island in front of her. We had told him and Rosalie all about what happened with my gift and they also seemed to be equally impressed. I confess, I was beginning to feel a little puffed up about it.
"I punched a werewolf in the face." Bella answered him.
"Yeah, she hit Jacob just because he kissed her." I added, still ticked off at her about what she did. I wouldn't have punched him he had kissed me!
"As always. . . Thank you, Lanie, for your unending lack of discretion." Bella said casting an annoyed glance my way.
I shrugged. "It's just Emmett." What's the big deal? He's our brother now.
"Badass." He said, suppressing a laugh. "You're going to be one tough, little newborn."
"Tough enough to take you on." She challenged him.
Over by the couch, Rosalie, having overheard the conversation, abruptly threw her newspaper down and stomped out of the room, onto the balcony outside and slammed the door behind her.
What was that all about? Bella and I looked to Emmett for answers.
"Don't worry about it." He told us, sounding like he already knew what the problem was.
Bella stared after her for a few moments before making the decision to follow her out there. Good luck with that! I knew how much Rosalie disliked Bella.
"Got any leads?" Edward asked Jasper, who had just walked into the room.
"No sign of the intruder." He replied. "But Victoria continues to make appearances."
Intruder? Who are they talking about? Riley? Should I tell them about when I saw. . .
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! The sound made me look up from my musings and I was surprised to see Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett all scrutinizing me.
"What are you thinking about?" Jasper probed.
"Um. . .uh. . . nothing important." I answered nervously. He looked as though he didn't believe me.
"It's for you, Lanie." Edward told me.
"What's for me?"
"Someone's at the back door."
"Really!? Who?"
"Seth Clearwater."
"Again? I wonder what he wants..."
"I'm guessing you."
"Oh. Can I go, Dad?" After what happened last time I left, I would always be careful about where I went from now on.
"Stay close to the house." He allowed.
I smiled a 'thank-you' and jumped down from my bar stool and started running down the stairs. WooHoo! Seth is here! Wait. Why am I so excited? It's just Seth Clearwater. Why is he so special all of the sudden? He's NOT! I don't even care if he's here to see me. Why would I care? I don't!
"Woah!" My mother exclaimed as I passed her in the hallway. "What are you so excited about?"
"What? I'm not excited." I shot back defensively."What makes you think I'm excited? I'm perfectly calm."
"Okayyy. . . ." She said with a raised eyebrow.
Just stand here for a few seconds looking around at stuff just to prove that you're not anxious to bolt out the door to see Seth. Not that I AM anxious to see him. I just don't get out much. I mean, if she thinks I'm so happy to see him she might think that I have a crush on him or something weird like that. Which would be completely ridiculous because I don't. . . like, AT ALL.
"I gotta go!" I told her as I made a sprint for the outdoors. I could hear her laughter behind me.
I stood by the door for a second and took a deep breath to compose myself before opening it.
"Hey, Seth." I greeted, flippantly. "How's it going?"
A huge grin spread across his face. "Much better now that you're here!"
I gave a slight chuckle. "OK. I guess I should have expected that."
"Is your family alright with me being here?"
"Yeah, it's cool. We should just. . . ." I turned around to see inside the house and then grabbed his arm and led him down to the bottom step where we both sat down next to each other. I wanted to be as far away as I could get so my family couldn't listen to what we were saying. Although, even at this distance I was pretty sure they could hear us whether they wanted to or not.
We sat there for a minute not saying anything. Me, because I was too busy enjoying my tidbit of freedom and being outside in the fresh air and Seth, because he was too busy enjoying being with me, even if he looked though he was going to get a migraine from trying to think of something special to say. I decided to put him out of his misery.
"Oh! Look at this locket Carlisle and Esme gave me." I held it up for him. "Isn't it pretty?"
"Yeah, it's the prettiest thing I ever saw!" He agreed enthusiastically.
I rolled my eyes and dropped it back down on my chest when I noticed he wasn't actually paying much attention to the necklace itself.
"I guess they kinda beat me to it." He said, nervously rubbing rubbing his palms on his knees.
"What do you mean?"
He leaned back and stretched his body out so he could easily reach into the pocket of his pants and pulled something out of it. He held it in his fist in front of me, so I put my palm underneath so he could drop in in my hand. "I hope you like it."
"Oh, my gosh!" I exclaimed, holding it up. "This is so cute!" It was a round, flat piece of some kind of whitish stone with the word 'imprint' engraved in a circle around the inside of the perimeter. Engraved on the other was a paw print. It was held by a leather cord.
"'Cute', huh?" Seth repeated with a smile, sounding satisfied with my reaction. He took both ends of the cord and tied it around my neck. Then he slid his hands behind my neck-I began getting goosebumps at the warmth- and lifted my hair out of it's trap and placed some locks over my shoulders, where it hung down next to my face.
He then put his elbow on his knee and laid the side of his head in his hand where he was facing my direction and stared at me, all starry-eyed. I finally laughed when he let out a wistful sigh.
"Are you going to do that all night, Seth Clearwater?"
"Would you let me?" He asked, and couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.
"Well, I think you just decided to wait to imprint on me after I changed because I'm so much prettier now." I said, knowing it wasn't true, but wanting to hear his response anyways.
He immediately sat straight up and seemed horrified at the thought. "Lanie, that's not true! I swear it!"
"Uh-huh." I said, trying desperately to hide my smile and act like I wasn't entirely convinced.
"It's not!" He insisted. "Besides, I've always thought you were really pretty!"
"Did you?"
"Yeah! Actually, to be honest, I kinda miss the way you used to look."
I couldn't figure out why, but that touched me in a way I could never describe. Maybe because there was so much about my old life that I missed too. In fact it hit me so hard, I had to change the subject so I wouldn't start crying.
"So. . . Tell me more about this 'imprinting' that I don't already know."
He bit the side of his mouth in concentration. "Well, here's one thing. . . .I have to do whatever you tell me to."
"Say what!? Anything?"
"Yeah." He chuckled at my response. "I would even have to kill myself if you told me to."
"Wow." I said in contemplation. "Well, don't go taking everything I say too seriously. I don't always mean what I say. . . . especially when I'm pissed at someone."
He smiled and shook his head. "Alright."
"So, tell me something about your new life that I don't know yet." Seth prompted..
"Like what do you want to know?"
"Hmm. . . How old is Dr. Cullen? Jake says he's really ancient!"
I scoffed. "Yeah, he is. I don't remember the exact year he was turned, but is was like. . . way back when old English was just called English."
We both laughed at my description for a second before we were interrupted.
"Can we come out now?" I heard Jared came out from the darkness.
"For real! We're bored senseless out here!" Embry chided, following behind him.
"You guys again!?" I said with exasperation, pretending to be annoyed that there were there. "Why do you always gotta follow Seth around like a posse of bodyguards?"
"You think we would let one of our own in vamp territory without protection?" Quil asked rhetorically, stepping out from behind a tree.
"Why not?" I replied with an attitude. "What do you think they would do? Just savagely attack Seth for no good reason?"
"We weren't going to take that chance." Quil returned.
"Well, for the record, they wouldn't. . . EVER." I said. "As a matter of fact, that's typically more animalistic, werewolf behavior. . . . No offense, Seth."
He shrugged indifferently.
"Oh, yeah?" Embry shot back. "You wouldn't think so if you'd seen some of the bloodsuckers we have."
"No joke, Lane." Jared agreed. "You've just been spoiled by living with some slightly more civil ones. You don't know how the rest are."
"Yep! Hate to break it to you." Quil said. "But not all vampires are as cute and cuddly as the Cullens."
"Hello! Has it completely escaped ALL of your minds that I lived in a vampire city for two months!?" I reminded them. "Oh, but you think my family is cute and cuddly, I'll be sure and tell them you think so."
Jared, Embry and Seth laughed at the expression on Quil's face when I said that.
"So, I bet your those leaches are glad to have you around after what you can do." Embry commented.
"What do you mean?" I asked and then noticed that Seth was posed in a defensive position as if he were concerned that what they were going to say might hurt my feelings and was ready to stop it if so.
"Uh . . .ya know. The fact that you're practically a chocolate fondue fountain for them." Quil said, cynically.
"Yeah, or like a blood bank bartender." Jared snided. "Hey, can I get a bloody Mary?"
"I'll bet you provide refreshments for their bloodsucker friends too." Embry sneered.
"Humph!" I crossed my arms and stuck my nose in the air. "Well, it might surprise you all that no one in my family as EVER tasted my blood."
I could tell by the looks on all their faces that they were indeed genuinely shocked.
"For real!?"
"Wow."
"Why not!?"
"Honestly. . . I don't know." I admitted with a shrug. "Though, it's certainly not for lack of offering."
"You did what!?" Embry asked. "Why would you just give to them?"
"It's really not as big of a deal as it sounds." I told them. "I used to have dozens of vampires drinking my blood almost everyday."
"Seriously, Lane." Jared said, he faces twisted in disgust. "That is just. . . " He ended with a shudder.
"Whatever!" I laughed at his reaction.
"Well, if any of them try it, " Quil nodded towards the house. "We're coming after 'em and we're bring you back to the rez with us!"
"It's none of your business if they do!" I argued."Anyways it's my own god-danged blood and I can do whatever I to with it!"
Embry shook his head at Seth. "Boy, you sure can pick 'em!"
"Lanie, it's time to come in!" I heard Alice call out from one of the second floor windows.
Seth looked crestfallen. "That wasn't very long." He brooded.
"I'm sure there will lots of other times!" I said happily, trying to cheer him up.
He nodded half-heartedly and then looked at me like he wanted to do something but wasn't sure if he should. Hesitantly, he raised his arms up and wrapped them around me, pulling me in a tight hug.
"Group Hug!" Jared yelled out and all of the sudden I was engulfed inside a Jared, Embry and Quil shield. For some reason, they seemed to purposely rub themselves on me as much as possible and blow in my hair a lot.
I couldn't figure out exactly why they did that until after they had trotted away and I went back in the house. I stood there in confusion when saw the repulsed looks on my family's faces after I walked past them in the living room. Even Mom and Dad seemed to be holding their breaths.
"Go take a bath, Lanie!" Rosalie ordered, sounding like she was trying not to gag. "You smell like you've been playing with a bunch of wet dogs!"
Alright, guys. . . I almost didn't bother continuing the story after the lack of reviews on the last chapter but I had already started on it AND I got a few very encouraging ones near the end. Thanks to Michelle/anonymous reviewer! So, if you're still interested and want to read more. . . click 'REVIEW' and let me know about it! :D
BTW,(to the person who asked/suggested) there will be a few things about the movie that I will change. It has to do with Lanie's gift! ;)