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Chapter 5

What Are They?

Edward

Our siblings looked at us indecisively as I came back into the cafeteria with Alice.

Each of them wondered what had gotten into us. Except Samantha. She looked annoyed.

I almost readily laughed at the face she was making.

My behavior had been conspicuous. Not just my own, Alice's too, since she had followed me. Two students ran frantically out of the school and two newcomers, who had not yet exchanged a word with them, ran after them.

If we were exposed, there were very clear protocols regarding what we had to do. Outwardly we'd do nothing. We'd observe, eavesdrop and research. In most cases, we simply fled. If there was suspicion, it was usually because we already knew the person. From another city, from another life. For example, once in a school we had a teacher who had studied with Jasper, thirty years earlier. We had no explanation for this. But people's memories were as full of holes as a sieve. Memory could be deceptive. We pulled up roots as soon as there was even the slightest concern. So far, this had worked very well.

Someone had once recognized what we were. At first it was not clear to us how he could be so sure of that. We killed him. Unfortunately, there was no other way out, because he had very incriminating evidence: the recording on his surveillance camera. We had shadowed him at first. We wanted to know how he knew about our kind. Maybe he wasn't a threat to us. Through Bella, we had definitely learned that people could keep secrets. It was possible, after all, that something similar to what had happened to my Bella had happened to him. If we had gone underground immediately, as we usually did, that man might still be alive. But he had left us no choice. While Rose and Jazz broke into his house to destroy the footage, the man had already downloaded the video to his smartphone and was on his way to the authorities. It was very impressive footage: Carlisle and I had broken into his house and were vampirically quick to look for clues as to why he knew about us.

This boy had also immediately identified us as vampires. He hadn't seen anything inhumane. No quick movements, no excessive effort, no response to unspoken thoughts, no strange behavior from Alice when she had a vision. Nothing. We had been sitting at a table - like all the other students - with trays partly full of food in front of us, chatting about trivia. The sight of us had been enough for him!

For the rest of the school day, I focused on the thoughts of Jake and Leah's friends.

But it was wasted time. Except for a text message they all got, I got nothing from them. None of them had any idea why the two had run off. I considered some possibilities and worried after the text message arrived, but then they were the normal thoughts of teenagers.

After the lunch break, I had biology. I sat in my assigned seat in the back row. The two seats next to me remained empty.

In my mind I saw Bella coming toward me as she once had, and she sat down next to me.

'Today you don't look so sinister and evil!' she whispered to me laughingly.

'Yes. Because today you are just a hallucination. A very pretty and charming hallucination.'

Something I had to remind myself of that regularly so I wouldn't forget. So, Samantha couldn't take advantage of me again. Literally.

That evening, I had hacked into the school computer and learned the exact names of the siblings.

Jacob William and Leah Renée Black. Both were born on February 14th, 2007. Twins. Parents were not entered, as in most school directories, only their address and telephone number.

I had talked to Carlisle about the day and now gave him the latest information. "Black!" I said meaningfully.

"A frequent name. It doesn't have to mean anything."

"We've dealt with people of that name several times before. I know. But I don't understand why both of them looked so familiar. Also, Alice thought she knew them."

"What do you think that might be about? What's the first thing that went through your mind?" asked Carlisle interestedly.

"Ephraim Black," I replied, even knowing it was unlikely.

Carlisle considered it.

'We talked with him for a long time until the treaty was finalized in all its details. Perhaps these twins are similar to him in nature, so that Edward recognized Ephraim in them. But then why Alice? She had not encountered him. She was not one of us at the time. A reflection, perhaps. Something Jasper intuitively picked up from Edward and equally unconsciously passed on to his own mate.'

"Now you're clutching at straws!" I smirked as I replied to his thoughts.

"You're right about that," he admitted.

"I'll run to the address in a minute. Maybe I can learn something else."

"What do you hope to learn?" Carlisle inquired skeptically, his thoughts already occupied with packing and moving on.

"That we can stay," I said directly.

I felt very comfortable here. Especially with my own house. Even if it wasn't particularly big, it was exactly enough for me. And I knew that my siblings felt the same way. They were glad that I didn't hear every single thought and that Jasper didn't have to witness every change of emotion. In my case, it was also the distance from Samantha and a private life without 'parental' supervision.

Jake and Leah's behavior aside, I also really liked the school here very much. No one was suspicious or wary of us from the start, but rather nice and helpful. Since we'd left Forks, we had even changed our interactions with people a bit. We behaved more openly, more humanly than we had done up to that point. Our aloofness, which we had always intentionally built up, left only room for speculation. We maintained friendships - or let's call it acquaintances. We also did things with our classmates, tutored them, told them about ourselves, and did what teenagers did with each other. These past efforts had shown that this had mostly stopped the rumors about our family.

Carlisle nodded.

It was also his wish not to relocate so quickly again. A year ago, we had had to leave Pinewood Estates in Texas only because of me and my stupid run-in with Samantha. We had moved there only a few months before and had pretended to be younger than we normally did. We had wanted to stay there for a relatively long time.

Carlisle accompanied me to the address I had taken from the school file.

The house was located northwest of the city on the edge of the forest and was separated from neighboring houses by numerous trees.

A nice little house with a garage. A light yellow wood exterior, with white shutters and a small porch next to the front door. Behind the house was a terrace and one could see the edge of the forest, but it was separated by a low white fence and a well-kept lawn that was surrounded by narrow flower beds. All in all, it looked very cozy.

'Just the thing for you, my darling,' I thought, turning to my imaginary Bella.

She nodded smiling.

No lights were on.

It was still too early for everyone to be asleep.

We stepped out of the shelter of the trees and carefully walked to the terrace. I was just putting my hand on the door knob when my Bella yelled at me.

'You have no right to break in here!' she reminded me crossly.

I argued with her while Carlisle looked through the windows.

After a few fierce words thrown at me by my Bella, she recomposed herself, smiled at me and tapped herself on her cute snub nose.

I sucked in a deep breath.

I froze for a moment and Bella nodded at me in conformation.

The smell of wolves! Quite weak. As if it were not yet fully pronounced. But something else. Again, something familiar. But the wolves already covered it up.

"Wolves!" I said to Carlisle.

He also took a deep breath and seemed to notice it too.

"Then it seems you were right to think of Ephraim Black."

I nodded.

"Do you still want to go in?" asked Carlisle.

We knew what we wanted to know.

They knew our kind because they were wolves. They could deal with secrets. But would they attack us? We had not kept to the treaty. I had not adhered to it. I had bitten a human. Are they already looking for us? Is that why no one was here? To destroy us? No.

The stench was not yet obtrusive. Moreover, these children had been frightened when they saw us. Nothing about them suggested that they knew what they were. That they knew what strength rested within them. That they had the power to become dangerous to us. I think that was more the reason that no one was here now. They were where they would learn to deal with it. Possibly it was the Quileute Reservation. But it was equally possible that there were other tribes of their kind. Native Americans, after all, existed all over the continent. Not just in Forks. Moreover, my Bella, with arms folded in front of her chest and an admonishing look, was still standing unyieldingly in front of me, 'blocking' my way.

So, I ran again back home with Carlisle.

The next few days would show what the twins intended to do with us.

I ran to the house again two days later, but all I saw was the same scene as before with Carlisle.

Perhaps it was they who had fled from us.

A week passed, but the next Monday Jake and Leah came back to school.

We had discussed that we should be nice and polite to them. Whether it was the same particular tribe of spirit warriors or another, there was the possibility of a life side by side. As it had been in Forks.

Thanks for reading!