-GUNNER-
We were invited to a vampire party while we were in Alaska.
I had no idea Maisie had so many vampire friends, until a girl with bright blonde hair showed up at her door. Maisie had sent me to open it, and when I saw the girl's golden eyes, I instantly knew what she was.
Leah was behind me in the next moment, but the girl only smiled. "You must be Maisie's brother! She talks nonstop about you. And you're Leah, right? From the wolf pack?"
"Yeah, that's us." I looked over my shoulder and called to my sister. "Maisie!"
She came bouncing from the kitchen. When Maisie looked at this vampire standing on her front porch, a big smile broke out on her face. "Kate!"
"Maisie!" They hugged each other, and Maisie pulled this Kate into the house.
"Guys, this is Kate! She helped with Maria and all that mess. Where's Garrett?"
"Bothering Edward and Jasper, I'm sure."
The Cullen brothers and Jasmine had gone to hunt. Though they fed on animals, they had still gone far into the Alaskan wilderness, away from the towns. According to Jasper, that's where the 'better game' was.
"Kate's an Alaskan too," Maisie was explaining. "But she's been travelling with Garrett. He was there for the Maria mess, too."
I looked at Leah over the top of Maisie's head, but she shrugged. Apparently, she didn't remember Kate or Garrett, either.
"Wait!" Leah said suddenly, interrupting something Kate had been saying to Maisie. "You were at Rosalie's wedding, right? With your…"
She let the sentence drop off suddenly, her cheeks turning red in a blush. I raised my eyebrow at Leah, but she dropped her eyes to the floor. This Kate waved her hand around.
"With my sisters, yes. You were there that night, then. Don't worry, I don't hold what happened that night against your pack. I mean, Carlisle has been telling us for decades about the pact that you and his family share. Irina should have known better, it's not like we didn't know who Laurent was."
I didn't know who either Irina or Laurent was. Kate must have assumed I was in the know, because she switched subjects immediately.
"We're in state visiting family in Denali, but we wanted to swing by and see you too! We're taking Garrett out on the water tomorrow night, to see the Northern Lights. You would think with all the travelling he's done, he would bother to look up at the sky at some point, but apparently he's never seen them!"
Kate turned to us again, a huge smile on her face. "Have either of you seen them?"
"Um, no," I admitted. It was only our second day in Alaska. "We haven't."
"You two have to come! The season for them is almost over. We'll make a party of it!"
This girl's excitement left no room for us to argue. I would have, because I knew how Leah felt about vampires who are not part of the Cullen family. In other words…she didn't trust or want to be around any vampire Carlisle hadn't adopted.
"We would love to," Leah said before I could even open my mouth.
Leah just laid her head on my shoulder, though, listening to Kate prattle on to Maisie.
"A vampire party," I mumbled to myself later that night, laying in bed with Leah. She tossed her phone onto the bedside table, rolling to wrap her leg around mine and laying her head on my chest.
"A first time for everything." Jasper and Maisie were at Edward and Jasmine's. I wasn't worried about Jasper overhearing us. "I want to go. Kate smells familiar."
I had heard the other wolves discuss Leah's ability to tell the Cullens by scent, because she had spent time with them. To the guys, all the vampires smelled the same. But according to Leah, there were different scents. For example, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie all smelled really similar, because Carlisle had turned the other four. Jasper and Maisie smelled similar, because Maria had turned Jasper and marked Maisie. Alice smelled different than all the rest, because she had a different 'creator'. There was no thread of commonality binding Alice like the others.
"I should've known there was an ulterior motive." Leah laughed, tipping her head back to kiss me. "Familiar as in…the vampire who's been hanging around La Push?"
"Exactly. See, you're getting so good at this." So, that was Leah's game in agreeing to going to the wedding. She wanted to see if the vampire who had been a Forks frequent flyer would be in attendance, too.
I hoped for Leah's sake that her hunch was right. Sam didn't take our going to Alaska well. Leah was one of the older, more experienced wolves in the pack. She was smaller than the others, too, making her quick on her feet. She had been instrumental in disposing of the newborns during the fight with Maria and the subsequent stragglers since then.
I ran my fingers through Leah's short hair while she drifted to sleep. I must have fallen asleep, too, though. I woke up in the middle of the night, curled around Leah. As usual when we shared a bed, the blankets had ended up kicked to the floor. Leah ran so hot, her skin always almost feverish, we didn't even need blankets when we slept together.
I rolled away from Leah, terribly thirsty. Another hazard of sleeping with Leah, though I wouldn't trade it for the world. When she stayed over at our house back in Forks, I was pretty good at taking a glass of water to bed with me for this very reason.
Here in Alaska, I had forgotten, so I made my way down the hall and to the stairs. Maisie had told me, Jasper doesn't sleep. So don't be surprised if you come downstairs for water and he's just hanging out in the living room.
But I had forgotten, so when I found that the lights were on downstairs, it made me stop in my tracks. The downstairs of Maisie and Jasper's house had an open floor plan; from the stairs, I could see through the living room and into the kitchen.
If Jasper knew I was standing on the stairs, clearly able to see them, he gave no indication. Rather, in the kitchen, he helped Maisie wrap a blanket more securely around her and pressed a steaming cup into her hands.
"Oh, you're holding your breath again." Her voice was teasing. She looked into the cup, wrinkling her nose before lifting it to her lips to take a drink. "I thought we were past that."
"Not while Gunner is here." Jasper's voice sounded strained. He was standing close to Maisie where she sat perched on a stool. Maisie took another drink from her cup, and as I watched her, the pieces fell into place.
"Oh, duh. Thanks for that."
I knew my sister had to drink blood now. She had explained it to me, and so had Leah, and so had Carlisle. I had heard it from three different people, from three different perspectives, but I had tucked all of those away in my mind. I knew it was happening, but I had never seen it, so it was all too easy to pretend it had never happened.
Now I could see, though. I watched Maisie sigh, lifting her cup to her mouth and drinking the rest of it in quick gulps. I watched Jasper set the cup aside once Maisie had finished. She opened her arms, letting Jasper into the circle of her blanket, wrapping him into it with her and resting her head against his chest.
Jasper cradled her head, running his fingers through her hair in the same soothing way I had run mine through Leah's when we went to sleep. He was whispering something to her, but I was too far away to hear any of the words he spoke.
I felt like a creep, watching this intimate moment between Maisie and Jasper. My drink entirely forgotten, I tiptoed back to the guest bedroom. Leah was out to the world, but I pulled her close to me while she slept. I held her through the rest of the night, but I couldn't quite make it back to sleep myself.
I remembered Jasper could feel my emotions, even though I had forgotten he doesn't sleep. There wasn't a doubt that Jasper could feel my unease the next day, but he didn't make a comment on it. Instead, I was invited to play online Mortal Kombat with him, Edward, and Emmett.
"Hey, Gun," Emmett had picked up on Maisie's nickname for me instantly. I had noticed that Emmett was a fan of shortening everyone's names. Jazz. Eddy. Maise. Ali. Rose. "Has anyone at Forks High found the sandwich I put in the ceiling of the cafeteria?"
"That was you?" I was distracted for just a split second, but it was long enough for Edward to decapitate my character. I reached across the couch and gave my controller to Jasper so they could start the next round.
Emmett was in New York. His voice came to us from the headsets we all had, a little muffled from the sound effects of the game. Still, I could hear his big laugh easily.
"Hell yeah! I do it at every school we go to, after Eddy and Ali graduate."
"It smelled like death for months. No one knew where it was coming from. The janitors only found it because it turned into this gross sludge and started soaking through the ceiling tile." Emmett laughed so loud I almost took my headset off.
"Yes! I never know how it ends up. Unfortunately, I don't know any vampires who can see into the past for me."
"Please, don't encourage him," Edward complained, even as he tossed his controller back to me after being bested by Jasper. I barely caught it in time. "We've been trying to teach him to behave for decades."
"And I've been telling you it's a lost cause for decades," Jasper said, his eyes not leaving the screen as we started our match.
"You're just upset that Jasmine finds me hilarious, Eduardo."
Our afternoon passed in this way, battling each other at various video games. At one point, Emmett and Edward got in a heated argument over Emmett's supposed cheating. Jasper pleaded ignorance and told them to take it outside if they were going to end up fighting. I won't lie, I got kind of scared at that thought, and I guess Edward picked up on that through his mind reading, because he immediately dropped it.
Maisie and Leah had abandoned me here for the afternoon, going our to shop and have dinner together. At least Jasper was making an attempt to entertain me, though. I guess, because I was in the know, Jasper and Edward had dropped all pretenses around me. I wasn't sure Emmett ever had pretenses. But they all three talked openly about hunting, about Jasmine's progress as a newborn vampire. Jasper and Edward moved so quickly, their thumbs flying over the controllers. I was surprised they didn't cause the game to lag, they punched in combinations so fast.
Still, I was happy when Maisie and Leah returned home, giving me an excuse to leave the games and eat the food they brought me.
"Here, I bought you a new wardrobe, too," Maisie told me, handing over a bag. "I know you think you know cold, but wait until we're out on the water. You'll thank me for this tonight."
I was busy shoveling lava cake in my mouth, but I nodded. Leah laughed, shaking her head. "I don't think you understand. Maisie's going to have you in so many layers, you'll hardly be able to move."
"It can't be that bad." But I was naïve. There was a thermal under layer and thick wool socks. A pair of insulated pants that looked like something you would wear skiing; a heavy parka. Wool gloves, the thickest beanie I had ever seen. I put it all on, instantly sweating in the house, just to make Maisie happy.
"Now we really are twins," she told me when I came downstairs. Maisie was dressed almost the same way. It wasn't lost on me that Edward, Jasmine, and Jasper were wearing much thinner layers. Leah never needed a coat, even in the snow, but even she had opted for a jacket and long sleeves.
"Our delicate little humans," Leah teased, pinching my cheek. I pursed my lips, but she only laughed. "Let's go see some Northern Lights."
A/N: Y'all I have the worst sunburn I've ever had in my life. The sun is the devil. This has been a PSA.
Also, FriendlyNeighborhoodHufflepuff: First, I love you too! Second, I know when I'm being a brat and I'm not afraid to admit it! ;)
MOST IMPORTANTLY, y'all don't forget to check out Remembrance by littlebeachhut! She has been putting out new chapters!
See you guys soon, I promise there is action coming in this story, but like I said... I'm kind of a brat. Also still getting used to/experimenting with this whole changing perspectives each chapter thing. But I am really enjoying it! I hope y'all are too!
As always, thank you to everyone who leaves a review, follows, and favorites this story! Y'all are all awesome!
