Hello! Surprise! Again, thank you a million times for all your reviews and alerts and thank you to the silent readers. You make my heart happy.

I hope this talk is everything you expected to be. It was difficult to write about Demetri's history. It came out of nowhere. I don't have the background stories of anyone. So, keep up for more surprises.


The Butterfly Effect.


Chapter 7: Family.

Felix and Bella sat in an embrace for a few more minutes, simply enjoying each other's company. She needed to stop comparing, but her human mind kept going that place. As much as she had loved Edward, she had never felt this kind of peace being with him. He was always too careful, too scare to crush her by mistake. And just like Alice, he also had a lot of energy, regardless of everyone's claim that he was the calm one. Felix also had a lot of energy, but it was different. He knew when to stay calm and simply enjoy a moment of peace. Maybe being a soldier trained him to appreciate quiet moments like this. The ever dooming possibility of being killed in battle and everything she didn't understand about that. She shook her head, she had enough in her plate, and she would not add worrying about battles and him fighting when that possibility was not even present in the moment.

She sighed and stood up, gathering courage for her heart-to-heart with Demetri. "Do you want me to go with you?" Felix asked from his place.

"I kind of want to do this alone if you don't mind." She wrinkled the fabric of her sweater with her nervous movements. Felix stilled them by joining their hands.

"I will here when you finish." He promised kissing her knuckles. She smiled and breaking the contact she walked towards Demetri's and Heidi's room.

It was a short walk. Their room was down the hall on their same floor. She was still amaze at the amount of people that lived and worked in this place. It was more people than she had originally thought. There was a time where the Vulturi were just an abstract entity in her mind. She smiled amusedly at how drastically everything changed with one simple decision.

Standing in front of her friends' door she hesitated one second but breathed in deeply and knocked on the door. She knew they knew she as outside and appreciate the fact that they were letting her do this on her terms.

Heidi opened the door, smiling softly to Bella. "Hey. Come in." She stood aside and Bella entered. "I'll be in the training room." With that simple goodbye she left, leaving them alone.

Demetri was sitting in a bean bag chair that looked too small for his big frame. She had to laugh at that. He didn't look very comfortable in there. It looked like it was made for more slender people, like Heidi or herself. "I think you may have bought a kid's beanbag." Demetri smiled amusedly and stood up graciously. He signaled the large couch and she sat in there, butterfly style. Demetri sat besides her.

"Are you alright?" He asked cautiously.

She smiled. "I am. I'm sorry I reacted that way. You took me completely by surprise and it overwhelm me a little."

"I didn't mean to upset you. We don't have to talk right now if you're not ready."

"You and Felix are too cute for words with that. But I am ready, and I am fine. I promise." She smiled and he felt a sudden wave of nostalgia. She looked so much like his sister.

"Do you have any questions? I thought that would be an easier way to start." He offered.

"I have a lot of questions. I don't know which one I should ask first." She pondered out loud. With a sigh she settled with the easiest one. "What made you look into your family tree…or mine…or whatever… Aside from what you told me earlier."

"I told you I had a little sister. She was five years younger than me. I was born around 1840 in Germany. I was transformed when I was 22 years old. Our father was a successful lawyer, so we lived a decent life. I had been working with him since I was old enough, so, around 15. Clara was my little sister and she was pretty much my dad's shadow when we were home. My parents were very strict but never un-loving. My little sister loved to play with some dolls my dad had bought for her in one of his trips. And she also liked to draw. She would sit for hours in the kitchen drawing and humming to herself. We were not the typical Victorian family. You look a lot like her. Physically and in character. It's great and sad at the same time."

"Tell me about her. Were you close?" Bella understood why her looking like her great, great something was sad and happy for him. And she kind of glad as well that she looked like one of her ancestors. She took a lot after Charlie but knowing that it goes way back filled her with some sort of pride. She felt a little silly.

"We were as close as we could. We were very different. She was more of a dreamer, an endless romantic while I liked to stayed focus on the facts at hand. My parents were looking for a suitor for both of us. I followed my father's orders, I didn't care for marriage, but I knew I wanted a family sometime in the future and being 22 and single was weird in that moment. Clara, on the other hand, threw a tantrum, she wanted to marry for love. Which I endlessly teased her about. I called her cliché and other similar names." Bella smiled amusedly. Had she ever had a sibling she could see that situation repeating itself. She believed herself to be an endlessly romantic girl. "My mom convinced her that there was nothing more romantic than an arranged married that found love on the way." Demetri laughed. " My father had rolled his eyes at that, but he was a smart man and remained quiet."

"I totally see yourself being an older brother. You have that bossy behavior." He stuck his tongue out at her. "Very mature." She rolled her eyes playfully. "So, she wanted to marry for love, and you didn't mind an arranged married. What happened. Did you get married?"

"I never got married. I died three months before the wedding." Her eyes widened. How awful to be so close to getting married and not fulfilling it.

"Were you in love with her?" She tilted her head and observed him with such curiosity. She tended to do that a lot, Demetri noticed. Just like Clara did when she was five years old and asked him questions.

"No" He shook his head. "I cared for her we were great friends at that moment. But I wasn't in love with her. At the moment I thought so, but after I met Heidi and fell for her, I realized that I had never been in love before." Bella smiled widely.

"You two make a stunning couple."

"I know. And so does she" Bella laughed. Certainly, he wasn't humble and didn't have any problem with self-appreciation.

"Back to Clara. You've said a few times that I remind you of her and that's what made you look?"

Demetri nodded. "You do this thing with your head. You tilt it to one side and observe the world with curiosity. She used to do that a lot when she was little. Physically you look like her as well." He stood up from his place and rummaged through a drawer, producing a photograph that in itself was a relic. In it she observed a teenage girl with her hair up, tied with a ribbon. She was wearing a dress, but she couldn't discern it very well, since it was a bit blurred. She had a gentle face, and with everything she knew about her, she could picture her as a dreamy girl. Her smile was playful, and her eyes were big and dark-colored. She was beautiful. And she could see the similarities between both of them. They were thin, big, and dark eyes. Possible dark hair, although she wasn't sure. She could have been blonde, but as the picture was in black and white it was hard to tell.

"She's beautiful" She said giving the photograph back. "Thank you for showing it to me." Demetri returned to her side pretty quickly. Vampire speed. Bella still had troubles with that. She rolled her eyes mentally. Sure, she was pretty calm learning about her ancestors through the eyes of one of them, who was also a vampire. But, the simplicity of vampire speed still weirded her out. She was absurd.

"The short time I've known you, I came to notice that you are very drawn to earth, but you want to believe everyone is good. Otherwise you wouldn't be here. You are shy, which I assume you must get it from your father or your mother. You don't talk much about them. But you seem to observe everything. Like nothing can get past you. It's very interesting, actually. But you've told us you liked classic books. You are also a romantic. I know it's an overstretch saying you got everything from my sister, since you must have gotten a lot of things from your mom's side of the family as well. But she is the only family I got to meet, so I can only compare you to her." Bella launched forward and hugged him tightly. Or as tightly as you can hug a vampire.

"You have no idea how much this means to me. You're offering me family unconditionally. You barely know me, and you've trusted me with such a huge part of your life. And you've protected me like a big brother does." Demetri shrugged feeling self-conscious suddenly.

"So. Have you been with the Vulturi ever since you were transformed?" She asked dropping the sentimental feelings aside.

"More ore less. I joined them approximately ten years after I was transformed. I joined them in 1872 give or take a few years."

"And you have this tracking power, right?" The Cullens had talked about them a lot after their first encounter. Edward wasn't a fan of the topic, but she had questions and she felt better once she had answers. He looked surprised. "I dated a vampire before, remember? I had questions after that first encounter." He nodded.

"I am a tracker, yes. I can read someone's essence and track it. It's as if I could read in your mind your essence. Everyone is different. It's a strange gift. But I don't over-think it."

She thought about it. Edward couldn't read her mind. But Alice could see her future, Jasper could affect her emotions. But on the other hand, neither Jane nor Alec could affect her, and their gifts were purely psychological. So, she was immune to psychological gifts. But emotions originate in the brain as nervous impulses. Did that mean that she was susceptible to certain psychological gifts? What did that make her? Aro couldn't read her either. Again, no surprise there, his gift worked pretty much along the lines of Edward's. Could Demetri read her mind's essence, or whatever? "Are you able to read me?"

He nodded. She pondered more upon it. So, she repelled most of the psychological powers, but not all. She didn't understand how Alice's visions worked and if they were based on her mind. Decisions required a lot of synapsis, but it wasn't an offensive gift. What does that mean? Jasper's gift could be used as offensive if you were against him. Same with Alec's and Jane's. She was sure she had a gift, Aro had implied that much. But her gift had holes in it. Well, not every gift is perfect, right? She thought about Carlisle and his theories. If she was presenting symptoms of a power now, what would that mean once she was transformed?

"Carlisle has a theory that you bring into this life, certain characteristics that were strong in our human life. Does that mean that you had some sort of ability for finding people when you were human?"

"I know his theory. I don't think I had any special ability. I don't remember having one anyways. It could be possible." He shrugged.

"Thank you for trusting me. And for showing me that I could trust you when I arrived." She hugged him again and he hugged her back, consciously remembering to be gentle with her. She was fragile and breakable, and Felix would have his ass and Aro his head if he hurt her in any way.

Bella ran into Felix a few hours later when she was returning to her room. She smiled happily at the sight of her boyfriend. They made some small conversation on their way to her room, and while she changed in the bathroom with the door slightly open so she could hear what he answered. They were both in a good mood.

"I have some news that you will like." He taunted seeing her get in the bed and cover herself with the covers. He sat next to her automatically. She nodded, showing her attention and urging him to continue. "Bree is alive, and she was assigned to be with the queens."

"That's wonderful! I'm happy for her." She had felt responsible for her fate. It was and it wasn't her fault what had happened since James was killed. It was all just a twisted turn of events. But she still felt responsible. And the fact that she was alive made her happy.

"She's still very shocked and shaky. But I'm confident that she will be alright with time. The queens are quiet ladies and I'm sure Bree will need that silence to heal. He hasn't shown any remarkable gift, but Alec is confident that given time we'll know."

"I am very glad she's able to have something stable and quiet to heal. She seemed nice, and I felt so bad that she was so scared. It wasn't her fault anything that happened".

Neither was it Bella's fault, Felix thought to himself. He let Bella sleep and thought about the newborn. If she didn't have any special gift, she wouldn't be the only one in the guard in that position. He, himself didn't have one, but his fighting skills compensated that fact. He had the theory that not having a gift and being able to be here, where gifts were collected like weird dolls, made you somehow more appreciative of your surroundings and loyal as well. He also believed it made a double edge sword. He would keep an eye on Bree, but he suspected she wouldn't present any problems. Besides, Alec seemed quite taken with her.


So, I remember at the last minute about Bree. I knew she was a plot hole that I hadn't talked about at all. I may develop more about her story in future chapters.

As I said, Keep up for more surprises!

Kisses!

Paty4Hale.