Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, and to everyone who has put this story on alert. I appreciate you taking the time to not only read this, but to give me feedback as well. Please review again and continue to enjoy Family Ties. :)
Thanks again, Mel Cooley :)
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. If you don't recognize it, it's probably still not mine. Alex is mine. All things Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer. Now on with the story!
Before:
"There is much more we need to discuss," Carlisle said. "But right now, I believe your great-aunt Rosalie is waiting to speak with you outside."
Now:
I swallowed hard as I reached for the doorknob. I knew she was expecting me, could probably even hear me on the other side of the door, but Rosalie looked deep in thought as she stood alone in the back yard. As deep in thought as someone could look from the back, anyway. My fingers touched the brass knob and I hesitated.
"I know you're there, Alex," Rosalie said, without turning around. "Please come out."
Her voice sounded muffled and far away, but I could still make out the words. My next breath hitched in my throat. I was suddenly nervous. What would I say? What would she say? What would we talk about? There was no normal way to start the conversation that loomed ahead. My palms started to sweat. Rosalie finally turned around and looked at me expectantly through the glass. I forced myself to breathe again and turned the knob.
As I stepped out into the cool night air, she smiled softly at me, as though encouraging me. I gently closed the door behind me and approached Rosalie. Aunt Rosalie. Great Aunt Rosalie. That sounded so weird. Especially because the woman before me looked barely my age.
I stopped next to Rosalie, on the bank of a river that ran behind the large estate. Cue the awkward silence.
After several moments of looking at anything but each other and pretending to be enchanted by the surrounding forest and flowing water, I couldn't take it anymore.
"So," I began uncomfortably, "after 97 years, you're still alive."
Rosalie shook her head slightly and looked off into the distance again before I realized my mistake.
"Oh," I said. "Or… Un… alive…?"
She chuckled under her breath. "Yes," she said, turning to me. "I suppose I am still 'unalive'." She turned to look at me again. "Is anyone else… What I mean to say is, are you…"
"As far as I know I'm your only living relative left," I answered for her. "Grandpa Richie passed a few years back. Uncle Henry went before I was even born."
She nodded as though she'd expected as much.
"He was only five when you disappeared," I continued, "but Grandpa Richie was always telling me stories about you. He really loved you. Everyone did."
"Yes," she agreed. "I know."
"Then why run away?" It was a question I'd always asked, but Grandpa Richie had had no idea. From what anyone could see, Rosalie had had the perfect life, about to marry a man who would make a perfect husband. It was a mystery that had spawned a slew of local legends.
"Was that the story? I ran away?" She shook her head. "I didn't run away. I wanted to be married. I was eager to start my life with Royce, have children... I just didn't know what kind of man Royce was. Sufficed to say, he was most certainly not the man everyone believed him to be."
"Did he have something to do with your disappearance?" I asked. I gasped, and whispered, "Did you kill him?"
The ghost of a smirk appeared around Rosalie's mouth. "He killed me first."
It took me a moment to process that statement. This whole vampire/undead thing was still new to me, and I was still getting used to the idea that the Cullens weren't exactly 'alive.'
"So Royce King murdered you," I summarized, as calmly as I could but not able to stop my voice from cracking on 'murdered.' "How did you become... like... how did...?"
"How did I become a vampire?"
I nodded.
"Carlisle found me," Rosalie continued. "Royce and his friends had left me for dead in the street. Carlisle smelled all the blood. He thought he was helping me by turning me."
"But you disagree?" I could tell by the tone in her voice that she held some bitterness.
"I wanted to raise my own family," she said. "Have my own children, grandchildren later on. But I'll never have that. We will always be what we are. The only one of us that's exempt is Renesmee. And now you. But from what we've learned from others of your kind, and from what Carlisle has learned in his research, you'll have stopped aging by now, and Renesmee will stop in another year or two."
I knew she was right. If Renesmee was really the same as me, if I was indeed half-vampire, she would stop aging soon.
"I've looked like this since I was about seven," I said softly. "Grandpa Richie coached me on what to say. I had to lie about my age a lot." I paused and took a breath. "Until he died, and then I kind of had to figure it out for myself. It wasn't too hard though."
"How long ago...?"
"I was five," I said. "Looked about 13. I bounced around foster homes for a couple years, and then, walah. I looked legal, made a few changes to some documents, and I was out on my own. I took my inheritance and moved to New York City, played around awhile before getting a job as a cop when I was actually 21, and here we are."
I forced a smile, but my facial muscles felt stiff and I quickly dropped it.
Rosalie shook her head and looked back out into the dark forest.
"After all these years thinking my human family was long gone," she said under her breath.
"Surpriiiiiise," I said.
Rosalie chuckled.
From behind us, the back door opened and light footsteps pranced happily in our direction. I hardly needed to look to know who it was.
"Sorry to interrupt," Alice's chipper voice called from about 47 feet behind us. "But Carlisle needs to see Lex in his office."
I turned and smiled. "Okay."
"Come on, I'll take you."
I stepped into the large office. The walls were lined with bookshelves, all full. A leather couch was up against one wall in between two bookshelves, and two leather chairs sat facing a large desk. Oak? Mahogany? I was no wood expert. But it was impressive, regardless.
Carlisle looked up from a slew of papers spread across the desktop and smiled warmly at me, setting his pen down.
"Alex," he said as he stood and motioned toward one of the chairs. "Please, have a seat."
As I did, he pulled a leather bag out from behind the desk and walked over to me with it. I hoped there would be no needles involved. Cringe.
"No need to be anxious," he told me calmly. "I'll be very quick. You'll barely even feel it."
I nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay."
He opened the bag and began to pull something out. I looked away and occupied myself with the book titles stacked on the walls.
"Did you have a good conversation with Rosalie?" Carlisle asked.
I answered without looking in his direction. "I guess, as good as it could have been under the circumstances. Meeting your 97 year old aunt who looks about as young as you are doesn't exactly make for the smoothest of interactions."
I heard a small chuckle. "No," Carlisle agreed. "No, it doesn't. Okay, Alex, hold your head as still as possible."
I almost nodded, then realized that would entail moving my head, so I refrained and instead whispered, "Okay."
A few moments passed in silence. I felt a faint tugging at my scalp where Carlisle was pulling the stitches out. But I couldn't take the silence for long.
"So, what am I supposed to do now?" I asked.
The tugging stopped momentarily, and then started up again. I'd caught him off guard.
"That's entirely your decision, Alexandra," Carlisle said as he worked. "You are, of course, welcome into our home any time. Rosalie is a part of this family, and so, by extension, are you now." The tugging stopped and I heard Carlisle set something aside. "All done," he said. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to face him.
"Most groups of vampires refer to themselves as covens," Carlisle continued. "We refer to our group as our family. And we are very tight-knit. There are no secrets within our family."
"So then what's with the mutant wolves?" I asked.
Carlisle hesitated.
"No one seems to want to tell me," I continued. "If you're going to call me family, and there are no secrets within your family, then I want to know why I was almost eaten this morning."
I saw a hint of a grin and Carlisle began to clean up the medical tools he had used.
"They weren't going to eat you," he said. "And they're not actually wolves. They're part of the local Native American tribe, the Quileute. We have an alliance, of sorts. They're shapeshifters."
Aha. Shapeshifters. Of course. I had to remind myself that I was in a house full of vampires, several of whom were well over a hundred years old, and that in the grand scheme of things shapeshifters were not a big deal.
"So if they weren't looking for breakfast, why were they attacking me? Just to rip me to shreds for fun?"
"They smelled you," Carlisle explained, leaning back against his desk. "You see, we are their natural enemy. Years ago, we made a treaty with them. As long as we stay off their land, and don't bite a human, they leave us alone. It has since become more complicated, but long story short they leave us be while any other vampire who is unfortunate enough to enter the area is fair game. In your case, they picked up your scent and when they investigated, things got a little… out of hand."
"Out of hand?" I asked incredulously. "All I was trying to do was get into my house, and these massive wolves came out of nowhere! I ran to the car and one of them lunged at me! Then they chased me down the road!"
Carlisle held up a hand to stop my rant, nodding. "I have spoken with Sam, the leader, and it has been cleared up. You were just defending yourself against a perceived threat. And now that we're aware of your situation, we won't let that happen again. But they do want to meet with you, just to see for themselves that you're not a threat to them."
My jaw dropped. I was supposed to go and meet these feral monsters who, despite what Carlisle assured me, I was pretty sure were about to have me as a snack mere hours ago? Was he crazy?
"Calm, Alex," Carlisle said. "We won't let you go alone. They don't mean you any harm, but the wolves can be… unpredictable at times."
I closed my jaw and processed what he was saying. The attack before was just a misunderstanding. These gargantuan, shapeshifting human-wolves were actually the good guys.
In a nutshell, I was attacked for no reason.
Someone owed me a new car.
"Okay," I conceded. "When are we doing this?"
"I told them you'd need a few days to recuperate," he told me. "I don't want to overwhelm you at once. I also talked to Chief Swan-"
"Wait," I interrupted. "Why? I need to start work, I've got bills to pay, I just bought a house!"
"Chief Swan is more than understanding, Alex. And we need to keep up human appearances. Getting over head trauma in less than a day doesn't help with that. As for bills, if you need help, we always help our family."
I wasn't sure what to say. Here was a man... No. Here was a vampire... Um... Here was someone I had just met earlier that day, already offering to help me out as if I were his own. He really had no relation to me, except an obscure connection through my great-aunt whom I'd never previously met and who, until a few hours ago, didn't even know I existed. In the course of one day, Carlisle had already done so much for me, and I had no idea what to say in return except,
"Thank you."
Carlisle smiled. "Think nothing of it. Now, you must be tired. I'll let Rosalie know we're done, I'm sure she'd love to drive you home. Unless you'd like to stay here. We have an extra guest room."
"Thanks," I said. "But I'd like to go home. I still have tons of unpacking to do."
A Note From The Author: Meh.
Rosalie turns out to be not so easy to write for. What have I gotten myself into? *facepalm*
Please leave a review, even if you hated it, but especially if you loved it! No pressure, but it really helps to know if you're enjoying what craziness my brain concocts.
Read on!
Ren
