Tanya's POV
I crouch low in the freshly fallen snow and stare at the juicy rear end of a humongous bear. Frosty mist visible with every breath I take. I can see each water vapour droplet swirl in the air and the colour spectrum burst through the droplets when the light from the rare early morning sun hits them. The bear is easily a foot taller than me and probably weighs five times more than I do but that bear has nothing on yours truly, Tanya Denali, coven leader, proud owner of a thousand years history and business woman extraordinaire. The mass of fur begins to walk off in another direction and I stalk behind it, trying to make this feed more enjoyable. I leave a trail of breathed mist in my wake as I pursue my meal. Damn the furball has quite the big derriere. After eating or errrrr in my case drinking the same type of food for over a millennia you tend to start playing with your food. I purposefully stamp my boot clad foot in the snow and the bear snaps its head in my direction. It lets out a mediocre roar to warn me of its strength. I smirk and slowly turn that smirk into a ferocious snarl, white teeth bared and fangs flashing. I could tell my golden eyes have turned obsidian black. For a moment I swear the bear has a what the fish expression on its face before it runs away, its large junk in the trunk bumbling along after it. How the hell can you miss that, seriously?
I skip after the bear, seeing where it will run to for safety. It's forced to stop at the edge of a frozen lake. It frantically looks around before running off against the ice water's edge. Bored with its stupidity (who could outrun a vampire?) I leap into the air aiming to land on the bear's back. Hopefully I'll get to bite its neck and not its big backside. Thank you venom improved accuracy! While still airborne I wrap my arms around the bear's neck and quickly snap it and sink in my teeth. Poor yogi. Damn now I have some sort of attachment to this furball besides the obvious attachment via my teeth. Never name your edible pets. It's not very wise when somehow they end up on your dinner plate one Sunday evening. Yeesh.
I pierce my teeth deeper through the fur and muscle on its neck and drink the crimson nectar running through its veins. The taste is slightly bitter, metallic and tangy. I drink the blood leisurely knowing that I have time before I need to go back to the house and kick Kate and Irina's butt at guitar hero since it's the only game that managed to survive when Kate threw a tantrum because she thought Irina cheated on some war game.
CRACK!
My head snaps up when I hear the sound.
I drop the bear and look up over at the lake and feel a strong gust of wind blowing in my direction, moving the fine ice from the lakes surface towards me. As the wind moves, the force of it finely cracks the ice. The sharp sound echoes out in the relatively silent area. The cracks fan out over the surface like willowy spider legs snaking along in an irregular pattern.
BOOM!
The sound reverbs through the lake, it conjures a picture of a giant stepping foot onto the land beyond the mass of frozen water in my mind. The vibration that follows the boom causes the earth beneath me to shake, the cracks on the ice lake cause it to shatter into a thousand small pieces, now floating on top of the visible water. The aftermath of the loud vibration reveals snow being upturned from way beyond the lake and all I can see is a 10 foot wall of snow coming towards me at even faster than vampire speed. My eyes widen and my jaw drops as the snow hits my body like a freight train, I fall on to my back as it buries me, encasing me in a white blanket. Within mere seconds the area is silent once again. I claw my way back to the top of the snow and spit out some of it from my mouth. An electric like tingle shoots up and down my spine as my surroundings settle.
"Holy crap!" I exclaim at nothing in particular. My phone starts to buzz and I fish it out my pocket and answer it. Already knowing who it'll be.
"Did you feel it Kate?!" I shout into the phone.
"Yeah Sis! The sign has come!"
"It's about bloody time, that lord of the little shits won't know what's hit him!"
"The princess will be back Tanya and the Aching era will be over soon," Kate whispers into the phone, her tone suddenly solemn when speaking of the lost princess.
"We need to go South and find the child of Bellona"
"Me and Rina will start packing."
Bella's POV
My eyes flutter open and a pounding in my head makes me flutter them shut again. Son of a bitch, someone turn off the light. I can hear little niggling squeaks in my ear, as though someone is talking to me while I'm under water. Let me get to the surface first you fool. I try opening my eyes again and this time I'm successful and the voices are much clearer. So…that light is the sun behind grey clouds in the sky and…there is no water around whatsoever. My bad. I let out a small groan. Ow my head hurts.
My eyes suddenly come back into focus and I see numerous heads looming down at me from my laying place. It reminds me of the floating heads in that one Friends episode. Hehe. I giggle a bit and the heads look at me with wide eyes. I immediately stop and try to get up. Wrong move. I feel so dizzy that I'm scared I might throw up in a bit.
"Woah woah there easy now new girl, just don't get up yet." The short blonde haired floating head says, its blue eyes wide and its mouth in a frown.
"washts appened?" I slur a bit.
A long brunette haired floating head gives me a disapproving look.
"You passed out. Wait are you drunk? I mean like you're giggly and like slurring your words. Are you hungover? I mean it's a Monday who gets hungover on a Monday? That's what Sundays are for." The brunette haired floating head pipes up in it's slightly nasally voice.
"Shush Jessica! She's just hit her head on the parking lot floor I think she's concussed. Someone go and check where the nurse is" A brunette coloured, tied back in a pony tail, haired floating head says, pushing its glasses back up its nose.
The dizzy feeling starts to subside and I feel much more coherent. I try sitting up once again successfully, ignoring the protest from the blonde haired no longer floating head.
"Hey you okay?" The girl with the glasses asks.
I blush and answer sheepishly in the affirmative.
"I err don't know what came over me," The nauseous feeling comes back and I stick my head between my knees. "I remember one minute I was getting out my car-"
"Nice ride by the way" The boy who kept fumbling the catch when the jock and him where tossing the ball says while giving me two thumbs up.
I blush again luckily this time my head is slightly out of view.
"Thanks, and then I was looking around ya'know? Taking in the environment and I saw-"My mouth snaps shut and my eyes bulge out of my head. I quickly lift my head up ignoring the warning flips in my stomach. I frantically start looking around,, trying to look around the group of people surrounding me. Where is she? She was right… there! She was right there in that spot. No no no no no no she can't be gone. I wasn't dreaming this time. She was there. My angel was right there. I feel my heart beat quicken at the thought of her not being real. A figment of my imagination. I can't be going insane and seeing dream girls in the waking world. I'm sure I fell and hit my head after seeing her. I wasn't dreaming of her while I was out like a light. She has to be real. I start to hyperventilate just as the school nurse reaches me.
My eyes start to water and I feel tears threaten to pool over from frustration when I see two beings with golden eyes and pale skin staring at me a few feet away from where she was. One was a girl with short black hair in some sort of spiked choppy fashion, her height the same as her hair. Short. She held the hand of a boy with curled blonde hair, not as captivating as that of my goddess but deserving of compliments none the less. His expression one of unease. Those eyes are familiar! The colour is the same but the expression encased within those beautiful eyes is not the same as hers. Hers were full of turmoil and colliding emotions which were captivating with an alluring pull.
I wasn't dreaming. That eye colour cannot be just imagined. The imagination would do it no justice. I reach out towards the two statuesque students just when my hand is grasped by the overzealous and cuddly looking nurse.
"Oh no dear! What happened? Did you faint? Where does it hurt hmm? Show me deary"
The two unearthly beautiful beings walk past me and my little groupie and into the school. I frown when the thought of her being real floats around in my head like a lazy swimmer doing the back stroke leisurely. A happy sigh leaves my lips and a dopey grin adorns my face. My attention is drawn back to the nurse and I reply slightly breathlessly.
"Everything hurts ma'am but everything hurts so good".
"Oh dear this one needs a trip to the hospital, she seems to have hit a head a bit hard"
"What did you see? You said you saw something?" The girl with the glasses asks politely with a curious undertone.
"Heaven," I say without missing a beat, breathlessness still evident in my voice.
In the distance I can hear the nurses uplifting voice call out.
"Right somebody call an ambulance right now please!"
Rosalie's POV
I reach the hospital in record time, the red brick building the biggest in the town of Forks. For a small town the decor of the hospital is fairly modern with a few traditional constructions thrown in here and there. I pick up Carlisle's scent amongst the thousand other scents mingling in the stale air of the hospital corridors. Some old and some new. I've never told anyone or let anyone realise that even though my senses are improved more than any humans can ever be, compared to other vampires mine are even more advanced. If the others can hear every single sound within a 10 mile radius, I can hear the sounds within a 20 miles radius but I can hear everything so clearly that at times it feels as though the sounds are right near my ear. I already feel like a pariah when surrounded by the human race and I am much more unapproachable than my other family members that bringing light upon my enhanced senses to my family will make me an outsider within the only safe place I know. My family.
I follow the fresh strong scent of Carlisle, the smell of limes and pine cones, through the hospital and find him at the reception of the x-ray department talking to the middle aged receptionist. I know that Carlisle can sense me and must have caught my scent by now so I wait patiently on the side. He quickly finishes his conversation and turns around pretending to be surprised to see me. I internally roll my eyes. Such things waste so much time.
"Rosalie? Honey what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?" He asks worriedly. A creased brow and a slight frown on his handsome aristocrat-featured face.
"I need to tell you something, it's really important." I reply with a nudge of my head towards the doorway I just came through.
"We'll go to my office, excuse me Judy." He politely speaks to the receptionist before leading the way out. I've never heard Carlisle speak in any other way besides from politeness. It's like it runs through the venom in his veins just like the 'vegetarian' meals he drinks.
We reach the office and Carlisle ushers me in.
"What's wrong Rose?"
"It's about Edward. He might have lost control of his vampire."
"What? What happened Rosalie?" He asks in alarm.
I hesitate a bit before answering but manage to school my features and not allow Carlisle to see how frazzled I feel. I'll have to tell him about the human girl. I'll have to talk about her. I could say a million things about her and none of those things will make sense in a million years. How could I say so much about her, like how her eyes are so deep that looking into them is like head diving into melted chocolate or how when the light hits her hair you can see highlights of golden brown and auburn but not tell anything of significance like what are her pet peeves or what are her guilty pleasures. I could say all the aesthetically pleasing things about her but I could not explain the full embodiment of her personality, what really makes her her. And that thought nearly makes me falter and rush back to the girl and play twenty questions with her or until my heart is content with enough information of her. Control yourself Rosalie. We don't take interests in humans. I compose myself and answer Carlisle with the account of events.
"There was a new girl at school and she fainted, She fell and she might...might of hit her head. I don't know if she was bleeding but Edward just charged for her but before he reached her he ran into the forest. Emmett ran after him and I came here to tell you." My heart clenches painfully when I think of her being hurt. Every cell in my body is screaming at me to go back to her and see if she's okay. I can feel my heart wanting to tears itself, rip itself to shreds and cry out tears of blood for defying my instincts. Never has this heart been more alive and full of activity since it had stopped beating all those years ago. Resist Rose. Resist it and maybe it'll go away. She could be bleeding, losing her life blood. That blood, so sacred and so full of life, that a drop of it being run should be sinful. You didn't smell any, maybe she wasn't bleeding? I was so concentrated on how she was looking at me that every other thing flew out of my mind. My senses were blended into one that even if I wanted to I couldn't tell you of what was happening and when in that moment. In that moment all that mattered was that her eyes shouldn't leave mine. What has she done to you Rosalie Hale? How the almighty are falling. Who is she to reduce the Ice Queen into an emotional puddle. Why would she look at us? Why would she dare to look at the Ice Queen?
I scoff at my thoughts. Why wouldn't she look? She's human; all the humans look at us. Envy us, desire us and want us. What is there to envy besides from eternal beauty which leads nowhere and ends nowhere, besides a dead end, what is there to desire when the outcome is inevitably death and the want is selfish, all humans want what they can't have. When they get that one thing they feel as though they have accomplished the best thing in the world. Vampires are designed to elicit all these feelings, a carnivorous flame attracting a helpless moth. Nothing is real about it; we are made to allure the prey in the most powerful of ways. Playing on powerful emotions, envy, desire, want, need, all these emotions make you want to be closer to the object causing them, unknowingly leading you to a draining trap. Stay away from her Rose; this could only lead to bad things.
My phone starts to blurt out the pink panther theme tune and Emmett's picture lights up my screen.
"It's Emmett." I tell Carlisle while accepting the call at the same time.
"Hey Em, did you find him?"
"No babe, Edward can sure run fast with that skinny ass of his, I lost track of him about two minutes ago."
I sigh and answer. "Okay Em, come home and I'll meet you there."
"Kay Rose, see you in a bit."
I end the call and look over at Carlisle who's heard the phone conversation.
"We'll just have to wait for him to turn up at home, I don't think he'll do anything bad." Carlisle says, worry still evident on his features.
"I'll go home too; I don't want to go back to that hideous school. Those humans don't know that staring is rude and deodorant smells better that BO." I say with a sneer. I feel my vampire snarl at me for the real reason of not going back, to avoid the girl. Fight it Rosalie.
"Okay dear, I'll ring up the school for you and Emmett." I give Carlisle a brief hug and leave his office making my way back out. I'm just about to turn the corner of the corridor when I catch a glimpse of the girl being rolled down the corridor I am in by a nurse. My eyes are wide with panic and I quickly turn back around the corner and run as fast as I can in vampire speed back the way I came from. An internal battle of wills raging within me. The newly discovered side of me wants to go back and be close to her, it's curious and concerned but the old part of me, the part that is aware of self preservation and consequence, the part of me that has been my shield, my way of life for so long wants to run away and stay away. This round goes to the old part. Curiosity always kills the cat anyway.
I can't see her right now. I don't know what I would do if she looked at me. Either kill her or kiss her. I couldn't bear with myself if I did either so avoidance is the best answer. I growl to myself. What the hell is happening? I don't like not being in control of myself. I feel as though I am losing myself and that doesn't sit right with me. Who the hell is she to make me feel like this? I'll fight it and I'll show my vampire that no one and I mean no one can control Rosalie Hale. Me against myself. Let the best bitch win.
Edward's POV (2 days before school starts)
They say that since the beginning of time there were vampires. A lineage so ancient that its history of origin has been lost. Well there are stories of how it began but if they are true or not that's up to the opinion of the listener. They say there were the Elders. Three to be precise. The High Elder Royceus, Elder Aros and the Third who has been wiped from history.
Apparently she was female.
The Elders were the creators of the vampire laws. Do not be revealed, was one of the laws. There were others but that was the one that was the most important. The most sacred. The Third had been said to have broken this sacred law and was destroyed. Nothing else in known about her.
The Elders had advisers. The Gifted they were called. They had talents or shall we say gifts which helped the Elders know that the laws were being followed. The most important of the advisers was the Oracle. A prophetess. Her prophecies were mysteries to be solved. Riddles which always came true. One story states that the Oracle suffered a great loss. The greatest loss known to a vampire. The loss of a mate. It says that the Oracle was heartbroken and succumbed into the Sanguinis Libidinem trance. A state of mind reached when the vampiric side takes over completely and blood lust is so heightened that a massacre is inevitable. During the state of Sanguinis Libidinem any gift the vampire has becomes so enhanced that it usually becomes their destruction. It becomes poison and so uncontrollable that in the end the vampire dies from gift overdrive. During this state, the Oracle foretold a numerous number of prophecies before she died from the loss of control of her gift but there was one prophecy, a poem, which was repeated a thousand times, so important it was that it survived and became known as the song of the Blood Singer. They believe that the prophecy revealed that the vampire population would increase prosperously. Every new vampire knows the song of the blood singer, it is the declaration which needs to be said after they are turned which initiates them into the vampiric way of life.
So imagine my surprise when one day a note is taped to a rock in one of my usual brooding haunts.
A meadow, full of flowers and life. A place which is calm and undisturbed by the clumsy hands of humans. Various rocks littered unevenly around the meadow provide the perfect place to sit and think. I had just reached the meadow when the light fluttering of white cloth catches my eye. I run over to the cloth. No one ever comes here besides from me since it is in a place too dangerous for humans to climb up. I unravel the cloth and read the message written in red ink:
Whose blood that sings
Take under your wings
Whose love that is yearned
Has much to be learned
Whose ancient lines
Send tingles down spines
Whose blood that sings
Shall kneel to the King
Whose blood that sings
It is time to begin
Dear Edward, I have chosen you to help me.
The time is near. I shall be in contact with you soon.
Veni, Vidi, Vici
Rex Royce
King Royce is alive? How is that even possible? Lord Aro declared that he had been killed in the Dark wars. What does he mean the time is near? Help him with what? To be chosen by King Royce is an honour and I will help in any way, come hell or high water.