Disclaimer: All characters of Stephanie Meyer are her own, I only own Clara and Mary.

Chapter 2

Jasper gazed out the window. Things were tense in the Cullen household, and he struggled to supply calm, as he was bombarded by worry and anxiety left and right. The almost unbelievable had happened. Edward almost exposed them all. Thankfully he had the sense to leave town before something terrible happened. And here everyone was so worried about himself (although they had good reason to be worried. His restraint wasn't excellent). But ever since he left, Alice's visions had started acting up again, causing him another load of stress. There was something she wasn't telling him, he knew it. But he didn't push. He knew if she was hiding something from him regarding the future, there was good reason. But he couldn't help his curiosity.

He was about to go for a hunt to get away from all the negative emotions when suddenly, Alice's normal irritation and worry turned into abundant joy and excitement. It shocked him still. Not a second later, Alice was beside him, grasping his hand and looking into his eyes, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Alice, wha-," he tried to ask.

"Jasper! The future is becoming clear for me! And it's the most incredible future! Oh, I'm so happy!" she leapt into his arms, burying her head in his shoulder.

He let out a huge sigh of relief. "Well, that's great, darlin', is this something you can share with the rest of the class?" he asked with a smile on his face. Her elation was contagious.

"I'm sorry Jasper, but things need to take their natural course. Telling you would change the future," she solemnly added. "But I promise you won't have to wait long!" Incredible future? While Edward is away struggling with bloodlust? The timing seemed almost comical.

"Does Edward have something to do with this?" he carefully asked.

Alice thought for a moment, "Yes. This was the moment that solidified the future. That is, if things take their natural course," she added cautiously.

Jasper nodded. "So, what now?"

"Now?" she met his eyes. "Now we wait."

Clara thought she had seen some wonderous sights. Being immortal and virtually indestructible, she had seen things humans could only dream of seeing in person. Indescribable creatures at ocean depths still undiscovered by humans, mountain tops that were undisturbed before she christened their peaks, underground civilizations she discovered by accident. But nothing she had seen before compared to this. She had heard of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, but seeing them in person (with the enhancement of her vampiric vision) took her breath away. She could have stared at it for hours, watching it ebb and flow into a kaleidoscope of colors, but it came and went in a matter of minutes. Even Mary was entranced.

Most days, Clara was content with her life as a vampire. She often wanted for nothing, lived each day as a new adventure, and didn't have the obstacles humans faced when it came to taming the unforgiving earth. But some days she cursed her existence, longed for growth and change, wanted to crave something other than blood, and for that burning to cease for just one minute. It never did. She longed for someone to confide in, who confided in her in return. A lifetime companion. Mary she was grateful for, but their relationship was held at arm's length. They benefitted from each other for protection (should the need arise), companionship, and a sense of security, but that was the extent of their relationship. Clara learned long ago that their personalities clashed too much to truly consider themselves friends, something she mistook her bond to Mary as her creator for as friendship at one time. Unfortunately, she didn't see this reality changing anytime soon.

It had been a few years since the two had crossed Alaska's threshold, and Mary was getting antsy. She longed for her familiar southern climate and cowboy's blood. Clara was reluctant to let her frigid world go. It fit all too well that the two would be literal polar opposites as well as figurative. But she didn't have as strong of a will as Mary and wasn't ready to be on her own quite yet, so to the south she will return. She requested one last trip, however. A few months back, during one of her kills, the man had gasped something along the lines of "just like those Denali monsters" when he saw her. Needless to say, it caught her interest. Denali, Alaska was such a small place, you couldn't find it on a map. It seemed these "monsters" were the only residents. It was virtually uninhabitable for humans, so far away from any human civilization. If there were vampires here, they must be a coven, nomads didn't stay anywhere long enough to get a reputation. But a coven of vampires living in the middle of nowhere? They would have to travel hundreds of miles to feed to stay unnoticed. Either there was a gift involved, or there was more to the story. Clara wanted to know the story.

Mary was completely against the idea when Clara presented it to her, and it was understandable. Approaching a coven of vampires was dangerous, and the two knew nothing about them, nor their size. The coven could see them as a threat and attack, and the two would stand no chance. Neither had any special gifts or abilities that would aid them in battle. But Clara couldn't let it go. Mary found their situation odd as well, and reluctantly conceded to her companion's odd request.

The two were preparing for their journey, needing to feed one last time to have the strength to make it in one night. Mary looked over at Clara, the two watching a few drunken men stagger down the empty street, beers in hand.

"What do you think you'll find in Denali? So, what if it's a normal coven? Then, what?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead. Then, we leave, I guess. But something is telling me we aren't going to find normalcy in Denali."

Mary sighed. "What is normalcy for our kind, anyway?" she pondered, walking towards the men, her eyes already locked onto her target.

"That's true," Clara conceded, joining her. "If it's nothing, then we can just go, head directly south if you want."

"Oh, I want," she purred, reaching the man's face, already captivating his attention.

Clara turned her attention to the other two. "Now, which one of you do I want first?" she asked sweetly, each man tuned directly to the sound of her voice. Even Mary's target wavered when he heard her speak.

"Couldn't you have waited till I had this one?" Mary complained, leading her human away and gaining his attention back.

"You know I can't control it," she replied. The two other men were drooling now. "Gross," she commented, but spared not another moment to drain the first man dry, moving to the second before he could scream. Her trances usually lasted long enough so that wasn't a problem, however.

"I can't imagine what men would do if you sang," Mary remarked, rolling her eyes at the two bodies lying at her feet.

Clara draped them over her shoulder effortlessly. "Luckily we don't have to find out," she winked, then sped off into the woods with the remains of her meal to bury the evidence. A tedious but necessary job. She performed it faster than usual, though, eager to meet the people she thought of nonstop since she heard of them. Denali. She wondered what awaited her there.

The house was beautiful, she thought. Log cabin-esque, but a modern design. Plenty of windows. It almost made her chuckle. Creatures made of stone living in a house made of so much glass? As far as she knew, the coven was unaware of their presence. The two were lurking right at the tree line but were still a good distance away from the house. From their vantage point, they couldn't tell if the coven was home or not. They had been waiting for a sign of movement for over an hour now.

"What do you want to do, Clara? Approach or flee?" Mary asked, disturbed by the potential danger they were in. For all they knew, the coven was returning from dinner right now.

Clara shifted her weight, lightly nipping at her lip. "I… I think we should approach. Slowly. If we get close enough for them to catch our scent, we'll know for sure if they're home or not."

She wanted to offer her companion an option to stay behind but knew that wasn't possible for communication's sake. Because of Clara's gift, it was dangerous to talk to anyone, men especially. Since Mary was a girl, her influence had little effect on her, but she still tried to speak as little as possible and switched to sign language for lengthy conversations.

"Alright. I hope your instincts haven't led us to our deaths," Mary said forebodingly, making Clara's eyes roll.

Clara took the first tentative step outside of the brush, completely exposing herself. There seemed to be permanent cloud cover in Alaska, luckily, so she at least didn't shine like a beacon, potentially startling the coven. She heard Mary follow her a couple steps later, then her eyes finally caught movement from the house. A figure opened the front door and stepped outside the threshold, closing the door behind them. Clara instantly froze. She took in the stranger, noting that he was male and her kind by his scent. He was a few inches taller than her and had messy bronze-colored hair atop his head. But his most notable and startling feature were his honey-colored eyes. Clara's red ones widened at the sight. She was positive he had a vampire scent. There was certainly no blood coursing through his veins, no heartbeat. But his eyes were strange. Her curiosity grew tenfold.

He called out to her, "Hello, there. To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit? My name is Edward."

Mary took the remaining steps to meet Clara and responded in a light tone, "We mean you no harm. My name is Mary, and this is Clara. We are nomads, just passing through. We heard of rumors speaking of monsters in Denali and were curious as to the situation in which you lived. Clara in particular was curious," she added, accusatorily. Clara peeked at her from the corner of her eye and narrowed her eyes a fraction. She hadn't needed to add that bit at the end, she inwardly complained.

"Then by all means, we will answer your questions. There are five members of this coven, however I am not a member. I am simply a friend from another coven, though my coven and theirs share a bond of sorts. We refer to each other as 'cousins'," he explained as the door opened, letting the five coven members he was referring to outside. Seeing the six off them lined up across from the two of them set her instincts on high alert, but she tried to stay calm. Edward had seemed pleasant and welcoming enough, there was no sign of a threat. Yet.

"No need to fear," the only other male encouraged, "Come. We have nothing to hide," he finished, head tilted to one side staring intently at Clara.

Taking a breath, Clara began to approach the coven, Mary almost scrambling behind her. When she was a few feet away from them she nodded her head to each one in greeting, then signed to Mary, "Tell them I say hello and apologize for this method of communication. I would like to know why their eyes are gold."

Mary quickly translated to the confused faces of the vampires. It was certainly unheard of a vampire that used sign language to communicate, so their confusion was understandable, but Clara's lip still curled a fraction at the sight.

"I'm sorry," one of the women stated, "But can you not speak? My name is Tanya by the way. These are my sisters Kate and Irina, Carmen, and her mate Eleazar."

Mary was about to explain, Clara was sure, when to her surprise, the man, Eleazar, spoke up. "I believe it has something to do with her gift. Am I correct?" he directed to question toward Clara.

Confused, Clara nodded her head, wondering how on earth he could know that. As if she asked the question aloud, he answered, "My gift is seeing the gifts of others. And yours is quite fascinating, and dangerous should you decide to use it against us," he added, but with a slight smile on his face. He already trusted her not to use it, it seemed. This coven confused her more and more! "Allow me to explain to my coven. Our friend here has a certain power of persuasion. Her words subject those who hear it to a trance, in fact, the hearer is lured to the sound and loses their conscious mind, completely abandoning their self, and aligns themselves to her. Similar to the siren legends, I presume."

Clara nodded once more, amazed at his knowledge. She quickly tried to explain further so as to not lose the small amounts of trust she had built with this group, signing, "What he says is true, but the effects are far greater to humans than our kind, and mostly to males. Should I speak now, the women would be largely unaffected and the men almost in a sort of dream-like state, but should I speak longer the effects grow stronger." Mary translated this quickly as she signed.

"Thank you for sharing this with us," the woman named Carmen responded, smiling, "Perhaps to return this favor we should disclose the gifts among us?" she offered, speaking to her group.

Edward nodded. "I believe my gift will be the most disturbing to you so I feel I should go first. I have to ability to read the minds of others." Clara and Mary instantly took a subconscious step back, tensing up. He could read minds? Was he reading hers now? "Yes," he sighed, answering her unspoken question, "I can, but I cannot control it. The thoughts of those around me are as if they were spoken aloud; it can be difficult to distinguish between thoughts and spoken word."

"I am the only other one with a gift," a woman said. Kate, she remembered. "I can create an electrical impulse all over my body, shocking anyone who touches me. I can control it, however, and turn it on and off."

Mary was right to have been cautious at first, thought Clara, this coven was dangerous. But, she assured herself, they have been nothing but open and honest with her so far, although they hadn't answered her question about their eye-.

"Our eyes are this way because of our diet," Edward spoke up, startling her out of her thoughts. He had been reading them again! "I'm sorry," he apologized sheepishly, "I told you I can't control it. But we don't survive on the blood of humans. Instead, we drink animal blood," he finished.

Clara and Mary but had disgusted looks on their faces. The blood of animals? That didn't sound appetizing in the slightest, she thought. "Why?" she signed, Mary voicing her question.

Eleazar answered. "Our conscience, morals, respect for humanity? We have all converted to this lifestyle out of respect towards humans. We are not so different from them, in fact, we were once them. Edward's coven leader, Carlisle, inspired us. His coven is entirely animal-drinkers as well, though mistakes do happen occasionally."

It was truly fascinating. She had a realization. "So, that is why you live so isolated? Because you do not rely on the human population to survive?" she signed.

They all nodded. "Yes," Tanya answered. "The farther away from humans we are, the better, so as to avoid mistake, as Eleazar put it. But we do occasionally need to utilize human services and travel to civilization every now and then. Maybe we aren't as good at acting human than we thought?" she wondered aloud.

Clara's mind was spinning. She never knew this way of life existed, and it was practiced by not one coven, but two! The thought of drinking animal blood disgusted her, but being able to spare human life? She tried not to think about the lives she was taking when she fed, their immediate alliance to her helping her cause, but as she let herself reflect on the hundreds, no, thousands of lives she's taken over the years, the thought made her want to vomit. When had she become such a heartless creature? She thought she was content with her life, but at what cost?

"Show me," she signed, but Mary didn't voice it. Confused, Clara turned her head to look at her. Mary's face was contorted, showing a mixture of emotions, hurt, confusion, and possibly betrayal? "Tell them," she insisted.

Mary shook her head no. "Do you want to stay with them?" she signed back.

"I'm just curious," she defended, "I want to know how this life is possible."

"You want to stay. You want to join their coven," Mary argued.

"I just want to learn! Don't you? We no longer have to kill innocents to survive. People with a life, a family, a future! Can't you see?" Clara begged. Mary didn't answer.

Edward cleared his throat. "If you don't mind, would you like me to translate your request to my cousins?" Edward darted his eyes between the nomads, caution and worry etched into his face.

Clara looked at Mary's unchanging face once more, then nodded to Edward, offering him a smile in thanks, which he returned.

"Clara would like to know more about our lifestyle and would potentially like to adopt it as her own," he explained to the coven. They all smiled at her in response, some more enthusiastic than others, but encouraging just the same. "I do believe the two have a lot to talk about at the moment, perhaps we can give them some privacy for now? Clara, you can join us inside when you're finished. Of course, the offer is open to you, too, Mary," he quickly added, an awkward look on his face. He then winced slightly, which confused Clara for a moment before she realized he was probably hearing Mary's thoughts right now, and by the looks of it, they weren't pleasant. Then his eyes widened immensely as he stared at Mary. Clara didn't like being left out of the loop and turned to Mary, signing, "He's right, we need to talk," then turned to Edward thinking toward him, which sounded weird in her head, thank you, and if they could give them five minutes it would be greatly appreciated. He nodded, eyes still wide, but now staring at her, seeming to take in every feature of her face. It was a bit disturbing, but luckily, he responded to her request and the coven all went back inside the house, closing the door behind them.

Clara turned to Mary, tilting her head in the direction of the forest and sped off in that direction. She stopped when she was about a half mile into the tress, far enough away for sure to not affect the new vampires she just met, but before she could say a word Mary spoke up from behind her.

"There's something I've never told you, Clara," she started, looking down, "But I never knew how to explain. I didn't want to lie to you, but I didn't want to give you false hope, either. You see, I knew your father during the war."

Clara's eyebrows furrowed. What did her father have to do with this? And how would they know each other? It didn't make sense.

"He was changed by a vampire named Maria during the war. He was on his way to Galveston when he came across Maria and two other female vampires. They were fighting their own war, a war against vampires, and needed an army. Maria thought your father would be able to be a good commander of this army of newborns. So, he became her lacky, did everything she said or get brutally punished. After one year, a newborn was to be killed, since they couldn't be trusted to follow orders anymore. He did the killing. Eventually, Jasper discovered his gift, the ability to feel the emotions of others. He felt the fear and pain of every single one of his kills. It was driving him insane. One day, he helped a newborn and his mate escape Maria, then attempted his own escape. Maria caught him, however. She tried to kill him but, well, I was there. I fought her off and helped him escape. We joined the other two, Peter and Charlotte, later. On the way, he told me his story and I told him mine. I was just a nomad who showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the right place at the right time. But before we parted ways, he asked me to do him a favor. To check up on you, make sure you were doing alright. I agreed. I traveled back to Houston, but when I arrived, you weren't fine. You were sick. Hay fever it seemed. You were too far gone. During the night, I took you and changed you, hoping that maybe one day the two of you would be reunited. But I'm no tracker. I never found him again. But I have a feeling that Edward knows him. I was thinking about my promise to Jasper earlier and he had this look on his face. I can't explain it. You saw it, too, right?"

Clara nodded slowly. Her father… was alive? And Mary knew… and never told her? She was engulfed in feelings of hurt and confusion and betrayal… she couldn't fathom it.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why keep this a secret? All these years I thought… I thought everyone I loved was dead, but… why? Why, Mary?"

"Because you'd be hell-bent on the impossible task of finding him. How on Earth do you think you could've done that? I've been searching behind your back this whole time, in fact, I was starting to give up. Not a trace in 150 years? I thought he was dead. But I know he's not, now, and all we have to do is ask Edward about it. You could be reunited today!"

Reunited with her father. Today. It seemed too good to be true. But there was one more thing to talk about. "If we can find him today, that would be the greatest gift I'd ever received. But what about this animal diet? What do you feel about it?"

"I think this is your calling, not mine," Mary replied. "Perhaps this is where our paths split. You're far too spunky for me, anyway," she added, the corner of her lip twitching. "And if your father is in Edward's coven, then naturally you will become a member as well, and converted to this diet. I prefer the nomadic life."

"Mary," she stated simply, putting all her emotion she felt in that moment in the word. Everything she experienced in this new life was with her, everything she knew Mary taught her. Mary created her. She never thought this day would come. But at the same time, she had overwhelming excitement for this new chapter of her life. Seeing her father again, after all this time! The hope and sadness she felt over this new situation battled for dominance. She stepped forward and hugged her friend, startling her, but didn't care. What she couldn't say in words, she said in this gesture. "Thank you," she whispered into her hair.

"You're welcome, Clara," She responded, resting one hand lightly on Clara's back. The two stepped back from each other, nodded, then disappeared, each headed in a different direction. The leaves they stirred up drifted leisurely back down to their resting place, resuming the peace and tranquility the forest provided, unaware of the changing world around them.

A/N: Please leave a review! Thank you all for reading my story!