Sixteen
Esme was grasping Tanya's hand tightly. It was the embrace of long-lost sisterhood. Tanya and her sisters had always been especially close to Esme. In their human lives, both had been close in age when they were turned, and both acted as mother figures to the families that they continually protected.
It had been especially difficult for Esme to see Tanya so heartsick over Edward's lack of interest in her so many years ago before he met Bella. For over a decade, Esme had hoped, both during their time in Nashville in the late eighties and closer to their Denali cousins in Alaska in the nineties, that Tanya and Edward would form a stronger connection. She knew the desire was true for Tanya, but Edward was obliviously.
Esme had worried, for many years, that Edward, her beloved first son, had been too young when Carlisle transformed him into a vampire. She lingered over the guilt that he had been too much a young boy and not enough of a full human male to desire physical and emotional connection, as she and the others did.
She had thought, once, that his hesitation might have stemmed from the stigma of his sexuality. In the early days, there were less kind words for men who longed for other men. Words that she would never label her son with, but she had hoped that over time he could entrust her, with the secrets of his heart, if there were in fact secrets to be had.
She had been just as surprised and delighted as the other members of her family were, when Edward had fallen so deeply and irrevocably in love with Bella Swan just a few short years ago. Esme loved the romanticism of it—of Edward waiting, nearly a full life time since his human death, to find the one creature who could unlock his heart.
She hoped, that Tanya would one day find the same, although she was aware of the Denali sister's entanglement with human men over the years. Like a well-honed taste, they preferred their lovers to be alive, and when they tired of them, or the inevitability of their aging, became noticeable, they separated themselves from them. Making the break amicable, and they continued to watch their former loves with the devotion of mothers and eventually grandmothers, burying dozens from old age along the way.
Kate, Esme knew, was happily entangled with Garrett, one of Carlisle's more colorful friends, and for Kate's happiness, Esme was grateful, but she wondered aloud, why Kate did not join them in coming to visit.
"She wanted to be back in Alaska," Tanya confessed to her old friend. "Like Carlisle," she pointed at the doctor, bent over his medical equipment on the other side of the room. "And Edward, she did not trust that Alec meant well in coming to us. She worried, that if she were to leave Carmen and Eleazar without protection… and if there were an attack from the Vulturi… She has the strongest gift amongst us."
"I see," Esme confirmed. It did make sense, but it was rare to see the sisters without one another, even more so now, since Irina's death. "And how are Carmen and Eleazar?"
"They are well." Tanya seemed distracted. It was easy to notice.
Garett was pacing on the other side of the room, his jacket trailing across the ground with each heavy step. He did not seem to be waiting for Carlisle, or in fact any of the others, instead he kept to himself.
"Forgive my brother here," Alec said, pointing to Garett as he paced and fidgeted. "He is a besotted Romeo with his lady love so far away , and he is eager to get back to her."
Garett eyed him, nodding curtly and smiling apologetically to the rest of the Cullen's in the room. "I suppose I am a bit out of sorts." There seemed to be other words left unsaid, but even at Esme's prompting he stayed on the far side of the room. Both physically and emotionally distant from them.
Edward and Bella had stayed behind at the cottage, and Rose and Jacob were taking up guard duty at the perimeter. They head heard wolves howling in the distance all day. The treaty remained fragile, and Sam's pack could enter the Cullen territory at any moment if they felt that their treaty was in any way breached by the presence of a new vampire in Forks. Emmett, likewise, was on his way to scout ahead, closer to the tribal land to see about how many Quileute wolves had shifted.
Esme's mind wandered to Seth and Leah for the briefest of moments. She knew that Seth was far away but Leah was close by. Would she be with the other wolves at the border of their property? Was she safe?
Alice and Jasper sat beside Alec. Alice was tense with apprehension, but Jasper seemed to be attempting to reign in the moods of so many temperamental vampires in such a tiny closed space. Jasper's posture was relaxed, his back flush with the back of the chair and his arms resting lazily at his side's, wrists tilted downward nonchalantly.
"How long have you been in Alaska?" Alice asked, contrary to Jasper, she was bent forward, legs crossed at the ancles. Wrists touching with fingers interlocked. Every bit the picture of someone on edge. She had been blind sighted by his presence, and she wanted to make him as uncomfortable as possible.
Jasper inched his foot over, touching the toe of his shoe with hers. It wasn't the same as a physical touch, but she visibly relaxed.
"Not long," Alec offered, giving no further explanation.
Alice narrowed her eyes. His presence here had caught her off guard. She had tried, despite the distance, to keep tabs on the Vulturi, especially Aro, and she had thought that she was always slightly attuned to their Denali family in Alaska. But she had seen nothing of Alec's coming here, or to Alaska, for that matter.
Sensing Alice's distress, Esme turned away from her conversation with Tanya, to face the stranger "How long has it been since you separated from the Vulturi?"
Alec shrugged, sweeping his hands out in a wide arch, indicating that time was bound to escape their kind often. "It feels like it has been many decades in the making."
Esme was shocked by how young he looked. He must have been no older than fourteen when he was turned into a vampire. Physically he looked to be only a few years older than Renesmee. She knew that this physical façade was quite deceiving, he had been an immortal for nearly a thousand years. Her eyes made an involuntary glide over to Carlisle's office, where she could still see him bent over his microscopes, examining the new blood sample he had taken from Ness after she fed on human blood for the first time.
Alec was right in that time moved differently for their kind. She had had less than a hundred years with Carlisle. She worried at times, how many more they would be able to have together.
Alice furrowed her brow again. "You didn't seem at odds with them four years ago when you tried to attack us."
Alec hung his head. "Please forgive me for that." He looked, in turn at Alice, Esme, and Jasper, meeting their eyes with sincerity. Or at least, as Alice saw it, the sincerity that he was able to muster when pressed to. "I hope to convey to you the depth of power and aggression that Aro can have against people. My sister, Jane," Alec seemed to shutter, "has limitless power at her disposal. Absolute power can always be tempting."
"And what about your power?" Alice insisted, her lips were tight, her jaw set.
Alec paused briefly before answering. "I cannot apologize for my abilities, any more than you can. I also cannot change them. As you, yourself, cannot change your own. Nor, I suspect," He gave Alice a charming grin. "Would you want to."
He was true about that. She had feared and regret her natural abilities when she was human, but now, as tedious and frightening as it was at times, she loved that her powers were what could save her family. She worried, though, that she had not seen Alec's decision.
Behind her eyes she could see flashes of the future. She could make Alec very angry if she didn't watch her words. She could see Jasper tensing, like a caged animal, ready to spring, claws out, to protect her. She could see later in the evening when Esme would kindly offer him a room at the house. Alice could see that she would give him Edward's old room, unironically. She could see Emmett pacing the forest, following the siren song of wolf howls, hunting them as much as they were hunting him. She could see Renesmee sleeping soundly, for the first time in days. She could almost feel the little girl's strength returning. Rose and Jacob were outside the cottage fighting, as they always were, each one bent on the superiority of the protection that they could offer Renesmee. She could also see Bella, crestfallen and sunken to the ground, her body shaking from sobs, while Edward tried to comfort her.
"I should go help Emmett and the others," Garett broke in. "I feel useless here, and It's our presence that has brought such danger to you all."
He gripped Tanya's shoulder before he passed. Giving her a quick firm squeeze. Esme noticed it and couldn't help but wonder about it.
"Be careful," Tanya warned when Garrett let go of her.
Garett stopped, turning back to her, eyeing her with a strong surge of protectiveness. After turning from her, he left the room silently.
"I can assure you," Alec continued, turning back to give his full attention to Alice. "That I have no intention of using my powers in any way to harm you or the rest of the Cullen's, but rather, if I may, offer myself as a new form of protection to your family, as I have with Tanya and hers."
Tanya broke in, "It is true." Here she turned to Esme, grasping her fingers tightly again. "He has not meant us any harm since coming to us. He has proven himself to be unwilling to consume human blood again. He has subsisted of only animal blood since he came"
Esme leaned forward. It didn't matter what volume she chose to speak in, every vampire in the house could hear her. "And how long has he been with you?"
Tanya straightened, keeping her eyes on Esme, though she was tempted to slide them in Alec's direction. "Nearly two months."
It felt like a lie to Esme, but why would her dearest friend lie to them?
Alice knew there was something more to this than met the eye. "And what reason would Aro have of letting you go? Or Jane for that matter?"
"As I said," Alec went on, curtly, "Aro believes I will one day return to him. He does not believe my choice to abstain from killing human's will last more than a handful of months. And Jane…" he let the sentence hang in the air.
Jane was lethal. She had the face of a pre-teen girl, red-eyed and flaxen haired, but she was as deadly as a viper ready to strike.
"I know you're afraid of her," Alec began.
"Oh, we're not afraid of her," Jasper cut in, his southern drawl was more present when he felt cocky. "We've faced her before, and we always knew we'd have to face the rest of the Vulturi again."
Alec smiled, placating. "Naturally, it was wise of you to plan ahead. Aro's reach is long, although he is never quick to act. It may be the next century before he remembers all of you up here, in your misty forests, with your startlingly lovely child."
"Aro's reach is long," Esme confirmed. "Why would we want to bring his ire on us sooner, as you say, when we could continue as we have been for another century without his notice. If you become like us, vegetarians, as it were, it would expose us even more to him."
Tanya broke in, reaching for Esme's hand again. "He will stay with us," she said, matter-of-factly. "He is one of us now." She turned her face to him, letting a small smile break across her face. "Our brother. If harm is to come to someone, it will be to us."
Tanya's declaration shifted the moods of everyone in the room. Even Carlisle, from his office work, stopped to listen to Tanya's words.
"Does he truly mean so much to you?" Esme asked.
Tanya nodded in the affirmative, squeezing Esme's hand again.
"I can promise you," Alec stated. "If my sister Jane, or any of the others, including Aro, seek to harm you, I will be on your side of the battleline. My time with the Vulturi has ended. My time with Tanya and the rest of you has only just begun."
Alice furrowed her brow, the image of Carlisle's words stunning her.
Jasper reached out for her arm, grounding her back in the presence.
Carlisle walked from his office out into the main foyer. "It will take us time to rebuild the trust that was lost to us four years ago when the Vulturi attempted to attack us, but I trust Tanya with my life," he gestured to the room at large, his wife, Esme, and two of his children, Alice and Jasper. "I would trust Tanya with all of our lives. Nothing is more precious to me than my family, and if Tanya considers you a part of hers, then we will strive to do the same."
Tanya stood, opening her arms to embrace Carlisle, who in turn reached his arms out to her.
Alice was taken aback by the sight. She saw nothing forbidding about Alec or his presence. To the contrary, she was seeing glimpses of the future where Renesmee was recovered and the family was at ease. She could see Ness and Alec walking in the forest, their shoulders touching as they walked, discussing the centuries he had walked on this earth. But more importantly, she saw Jasper, training with Alec, watching through her strange kaleidoscopic vision as Alec showed him what Aro and the others did to train the Vulturi army, the weapons at their disposal, how they hunted the streets of Vultura, looking for victims and sacrifices. Jasper was happy, his smile wide, and she could never deny him the ease that she felt in her bones from his apparent joy.
Jasper tightened his grip on her arm, sensing her being pulled deeper into spiral of visions.
When her eyes cleared, she looked to him, saw the question in his eyes: Are you alright? What did you see?
But she smiled. Her conscience clear.
Alice had seen it herself; Alec meant them no harm.