Chapter Two: Much Ado About Nothing


The rudbeckia sits pleasantly with the other flowers, creating a vibrant contrast of colors. Ariel sits by it, curled in on the loveseat with one of the cozy throws, staring at the palm of her hand where a number is sprawled in curvy numbers. She didn't even know that cursive numbers were possible, but somehow that little pixie managed to do it.

Unsure of how she feels about it, she still puts the number in her phone under the name Sunflower, named after the flower Alice brought as a gift. She starts to type out a message to the number before back pedaling with a sigh, her head starting to develop a dull throb with the beginning of a headache. Her brother always pushed for her to branch out, create her own friends. She liked his friends well enough - Chloe seemed to have more common sense than most, Linda was very sensible and reasonable too. She liked the kids - though Trixie is closely approaching her teenage years, that had to count for something too, right? Isn't that enough?

Alice seemed nice enough, if a bit upbeat and clingy. She talked as if she knew something that Ariel didn't, which is odd, but not any odder than anyone else Ariel knew. Alice seems convinced that they would be spending more time together, a lot of it, and wrote her number on Ariel's hand before she could protest while insisting they go shopping some time together. While Ariel found that while in LA she preferred the flea markets and thrift shopping, something - mostly the expensive and stylish clothing Alice wore - tells her that Alice would have a field day taking her to a mall. Still, Lucifer's own message of branching out, trying new things, have sex, still echoed in her head. Though she quickly crosses out the option of sex in that message. The idea of meshing bodies with anyone isn't an idea she finds appealing - sex being something a bit too human for her tastes.

What to do, what to do, rants in her mind as she thinks over the woman who visited. Alice seemed fairly young, but considering what she is, there's no way of really knowing how old she is without asking. With perfect pale skin, those tawny eyes, and her whole demeanor, it was easy to put two and two together as to what she was. A vampire. Not the first one she's met, granted, but a vegetarian vampire who lives here with their 'family' just next door, in a town full of people. She supposes there's a first for everything, but it does squander her hopes of it being a 'quiet' town. If she's learned anything, it's that any time supernatural beings - divine, vampire, or otherwise- spends time with people, there's bound to be drama and chaos.

She supposes she could move, but despite them being neighbors, she doubts she will be interacting with them often anyway. It's not as if a coven posses any threat to her. Due to her voice, similar to Lucifer's ability to draw out desires, her power of suggestion and command those around her (to a degree), does come in handy. A perk of being the angel of beasts she supposes, is being an alpha that's hard to deny.

Coven or not, she's still an angel. They can't simply tear her apart and set her on fire as they do with their own. Unless she uses her ability, she supposes that physically, she may have some trouble keeping up with that many vampires in a fight. Though the chances of her fighting them are slim to begin with.

She's always quite liked the vampires, from the ones she's met. Though she does not have much experience with ones who feed from animals, in the past, she didn't mind them feeding off humans that strayed too much into the forest. Less humans caused less problems. Now, however, she may have more of a problem having swore an oath to protect as a nurse. But if the vampires are truly not feeding from the people, if the rest of Alice's coven are like her…. There's really no need to be too worried. She supposes she should keep an eye on them, her oath as a nurse dwelling in her mind, but it would be best to stay back a bit and keep her distance for now. Unlike her little brother, she would prefer not to get into their business unless she had to.

She doubts her brothers really know much, if anything, about vampires, with Amenadiel spending most of his time in heaven before and Lucifer not being the type who snoops around unless it suits him. LA did have a small population of vampires, she had found, but considering they were only feeding off people who wouldn't be missed and they had yet to come up in any of Chloe's cases, she shrugged them off. If it came up, it came up, if it didn't, not quite her problem and the more human companions that her brothers' were fond of seemed to have their hands full of supernatural beings.

Ariel shrugs and lays down, throwing her head back. A coven of vegetarian vampires as my neighbors… What are the chances?


Alice isn't quiet about her vision when she gets home, radiating with excitement as it plays in her over and over in her mind. It would be hard for Edward not to see it.

The first thing he notes is the change in the light around the woman that casts her in a more generous, softer light and allows him to really see her. Her lithe frame is narrow and reminds him of the stem of a flower. She stands almost as tall as Carlisle, who stood beside her in the vision. Strawberry blonde hair falls in slightly tangled curls around a more sharp face. Then he notes the stunningly yellow eyes and the way Carlisle comforts her with a softness he's not seen from his 'father' toward anyone that's not apart of the coven. The kiss Carlisle plants on her head only confirms it.

Mixed emotions stir in his chest. Happiness mostly, the idea that Carlisle will find his mate. The idea that this woman will likely become a part of the coven, one of them. Her eyes only confirming it. But Alice's visions are still subject to change, they're not always set in stone. He doesn't want to get his hopes up, but at the same time, if this is one of her visions that fails to come true, he can't help but feel a nagging disappointment of what could've been. Carlisle has done so much for them, that the idea of him finding his possible mate would be beyond incredible.

"I met the neighbor," Alice blurts out, her voice barely containing her excitement, "Her name is Ariel and when I went over I got a vision and -"

"-and saw her with Carlisle," Edward finishes.

"As his mate," Alice adds, emphasizing it harshly, "He was cuddling up to her and kissing her head and she was here in our home, apart of our coven."

"Woah, what," Emmett jumps from the couch, "So hows that happen? Does he transform her? Is she already a vampire? When will it happen?"

Rosalie huffs, not offering much of a comment but her face says it all. Edward doesn't have to look into her thoughts to know that while the idea of a stranger in their home doesn't please her, she's trying her best to swallow down her doubts if it means Carlisle would be happy. A heart of ice, it seems, thaws at the idea of the person who has helped them all finding love.

Alice, however, pauses at Emmett's question before shrugging with a very clear 'I don't know' expression on her face as she lets out a small mmmm. Edward turns to her, his brows furrowing slightly.

"What do you mean you don't know? Her eyes in the vision -"

"- were yellow, yeah," Alice's voice raises a pitch, vibrating with a bit of excitement of the unknown, "But I just met her and her eyes were already yellow! They didn't look like contacts. I thought she was one of us already, and yeah, she didn't quite smell human, but she had a heartbeat and I could smell the smallest hint of blood so she's definitely not another vampire."

Jasper puts a hand on his mate's shoulder, eyes shining with a bit of concern.

"What do you mean she didn't smell human?"

Carlisle's entrance is silent and sudden, but he blends into the conversation with ease. A quick nod and a small prob from Edward shows that he's caught up on the conversation, easily hearing it as he neared the house. Unlike Edward, however, Carlisle shows more excitement at the idea of their neighbor being neither human nor vampire, his curiosity piqued. His concerns, Edward can see easily in his mind, are more about this stranger becoming his mate than by them not being human. He can already see his 'father's' doubts about the vision becoming true, that it may be too dangerous or too unfair toward Ariel if they were to mate, or that it may attract the Voltari's attention.

Something hits Edward in the chest, constricting it with a small amount of pain at the idea of his 'father' not getting to be happy with someone. Edward has long accepted that he will likely be alone, but he knew how much Carlisle longed to have a mate, to share his happiness and his family with someone special. Unlike him, Edward thinks Carlisle deserves to be happy with someone.

"She smelled too… woody to be human," Alice blurts, "She smelled like the forest and morning dew and pines. Almost like how hikers who spend their life up in the woods smell like, but it was somehow… stronger. More natural. Like it was just apart of her. And she didn't smell gross like she had just been hiking. It was so overpowering that I couldn't even smell her blood at first and even the hikers, you always smell their blood first. But even then, it was super faint; I was only really sure that she alive because she had a heartbeat."

"Interesting," Carlisle hums in thought, his mind already racing as he tries to remember everything he's heard from the Volturi. Nothing sticks out to him at the moment, aside from rumors of many other creatures lurking around aside from vampires and werewolves. He always hoped there is truth to the rumors, a longing to investigate and study something new. He thinks he has a book tucked away in his study - more notes than anything about things that the Volturi have tried to inspect.

"But she still had a heartbeat," Carlisle presses and at Alice's nod, he frowns. "As long as she has a heartbeat, she is still alive, faint as it is. There's a higher possibility that she may simply be a human with a gift than another, unknown species."

"But her eyes were yellow," Alice insists, "Bright yellow. More so than ours!"

"Contacts are pretty popular these days," Emmett tosses the comment up with a shrug, causing Alice to huff with a pout.

"You didn't see her like I did!"

The two start to bicker back and forth, with Alice occasionally trying to drag Edward into it, insisting that he saw her too due to him pressing into her memories and into her vision. Smart as he is, Edward steps away and out of the conversation as best as he can. Carlisle can feel the headache beginning to form as the realization that human or not, it doesn't change the fact what Alice saw in her vision which brings a very new set of issues to the table.

"Emmett, Alice," Carlisle's voice cuts through their 'not quite yelling but still sort of yelling' match with grace, "That's enough bickering. Alice's visions are always subject to change and we don't know enough about our new neighbor to make any type of assumptions right now. So for now, we take things one step at a time and handle anything that will happen along the way."

"So continue as normal until the new neighbor either falls in love with you, tries to kill us, or just ignores us," Edward summarizes. Carlisle gives him a slightly tired, and a bit hurtful, nod in return, not quite agreeing with his wording, but not denying it either.

"For now, yes," Carlisle clasps his hands together smoothly, trying to regain control of the situation, "There's not much else we can do, I'm afraid."