I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child
Slowly those feelings
Were clouded by what I know now
Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all
I still remember the sun
Always warm on my back
Somehow it seems colder now
Where has my heart gone
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything
Evanescence – Field of Innocence
The gruffness of the voice shocked me a bit. It was more human than anything that had entered this house before. Even Caleb's voice was soft and even and smooth. The loud voice I heard downstairs was followed by a low growl that Caleb caught immediately.
"That's my dad," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
"Claire! Come down!" yelled my mother. Sometimes she still wasn't used to only having to speak normally to get my attention, but that was okay. I grabbed Caleb's hand and slid slowly off the bed and pulled him towards the door. A rumbling growl was below us now, a growl I didn't recognize.
"You changed someone in Forks," assumed another voice I didn't know.
"No, we found her in London, actually," assured Carlisle with an even and perfectly controlled tone. I heard a murmur of assent among the strangers as Caleb and I made it to the landing.
"This is Claire, my daughter," said my mother hastily, running to my side and wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I wriggled out of her grip and back into Caleb's. A look of shock crossed the faces of every stranger in the room. They were all tall and dark. Two of them were about twenty-five years old or so, but the others looked about sixteen or seventeen. I recognized one of the older ones from the memories of my family members almost immediately.
"Jacob Black?" I questioned, looking up at him. A wide smile flashed across his face.
"She looked nothing like you, Bells. She doesn't act like you either. She prefers to be with the safer choice, though…I can't really assess that quite yet," Jacob said, throwing a glance at my mother. I saw my father stiffen next to her before composing himself again.
"Sam," I said softly, looking at the other older one. He nodded solemnly and I looked to the other, younger, ones. "Quil, Jared, Paul, Embry, Leah, Seth," I said slowly, looking to all of them. Most of them were shirtless, Leah wearing a sports bra on her top only and a pair of short shorts. She was pretty, her body toned and muscled. She looked to be about only nineteen or so. Caleb stood behind me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders as he looked at the visitors.
"And one of ours is here, I see," said Embry with a smile.
"Actually, he's mine," came a voice I knew too well. I turned to hear the clicking of heels as Keira walked in nonchalantly, pushing a strand of her dark hair over her shoulder. Caleb laughed and the other visitors smiled wolfish grins as they took in her beauty. Rose appeared in the doorway next, followed by Lucy and then Clark and Micah. I smiled. It was good to see them again. Seth took a step forward as though to meet Keira but she held her hand up and shook her head and he fell back. It was clear the Keira was an alpha female. Who was an alpha male in Caleb's pack then? It struck me, then. Caleb was. He was in charge. That was why he and Keira had come to my house the night to question me about Port Angeles.
"So, what can she do?" Same asked, nodding his head in my direction. I didn't like that at all.
"I do have a soul. I can speak for myself. You can address me and speak directly to me. I'm not illiterate or anything," I said, placing my hands on my hips. I could see Emmett swelling with pride at my side and smirked. I even saw a few of the wolves crack smiles. Keira was beside me, grinning broadly. The rest of Caleb's pack hung back in the doorway.
"Alright then, what can you do?" Sam asked me, his posture making him look a bit miffed. I scanned his thoughts, laughing internally.
"Well, first I think you need to stop thinking such sulfurous thoughts about and appreciate the fact that I'm smarter than most of your pack. Other than that, I can manipulate light into solid objects," I said, smiling.
"You can do what now?" asked Jacob, butting in as he thought it was incredibly important.
"Watch," I said, smiling. I looked at the chandelier hanging above us in the entryway and closed my eyes. I opened my palm in front of me and felt a burst of power run through and then focused it, as I always did, into a solid shape. When I opened my eyes, a ball of pure light sat, suspended in mid-air, above my hand. I smiled and moved my hand from underneath it, making it move to match the direction my eyes were going. I moved my head and then brought it back to myself, spinning it around my body and then throwing it at Sam. He went to catch it, but it passed through his hands and burst into a million little fireflies, which darted at him, attempting to hurt him. He swatted at them and I sighed and made them disappear as the light in the chandelier came back on.
"Wow," said Jacob appreciatively. I glanced into his thoughts and was hit with horrible visions of my father's heartbreak and various scenarios of him with my mother. I felt a more restraining hold on my body from behind me and saw Caleb's look of disapproval as he held me more tightly.
"Don't," he whispered, too soft for anyone, even my family members, to hear. I sighed and bit my lower lip before falling backwards into his ready hands. A low gorwl still left my chest and I saw Jacob's head turn in my direction. Everyone else completely chose to ignore it.
"So, between two packs and a coven as strong as yours, especially with her on your side, we shouldn't have a problem beating them," said Paul confidently.
"Do you even know what the Volturi are?" Jasper asked in annoyance. I seemed to feel obligated to rip off Paul's face as well, but the restraints that Caleb had on me were very, very strong.
"Need we?" Jared asked, his gaze shifting from Keira to Jasper.
"They're the only thing our kind has that could be considered a royal family. Their guard is impenetrable, their powers are elite. If my guess is right, the only reason they're doing this is to try and recruit Claire to their guard which I will not let happen and I doubt anyone else in our family will," said my father as the eyes shifted to him. My breath caught. I hadn't really accepted a possibility that they would want me to work for them, to work with them.
"So, who do they have?" asked Jacob, now interested as he leaned against the wall casually. I smirked and looked at Alice. Her memories flooded into me and I saw my father, writing in pain on the ground as a small girl stood over him, doing nothing but looking at him with a twisted smile on her face. My smirk immediately faded into a mask of shock and pain. I shit out the memories Alice was trying to show me and turned quickly around, burying my face in Caleb's chest. I heard Sam scoff. Clearly he did not approve.
"The most formidable are the twins," said Alice quickly. "Jane can inflict pain with a glance…the worst pain you can imagine, it's worse. Alec, her brother. We've never seen what he can do, but I assure you…those two make their guard unstoppable. Aro is one of their leaders; he can read every thought you've ever had just by coming in contact with you. Heidi is as beautiful as she is terrible. Do not be distracted by her. Demetri is a tracker. He can find almost anyone just by meeting them. We think that's how they found us. Marcus knows relationships. Do not let him inside your minds of it any of you have imprinted, they will use her against us. I do not ever want to have kill a mortal just because she is putting my family in general, but I will if I have to. They might even go so far as to use a few newborns, but that won't be a problem, as I'm sure you all remember," Alice said, looking to the wolves. They all nodded in unison as images from Alice flooded my mind again. A battle between an old foe and new ones had occurred many years ago. I shuddered thinking about it.
"Is that it?" Jacob asked with a confident smirk.
"No, not nearly. They have such strong and experienced people on their side. Maybe you weren't there when we met the mercenary this afternoon who tried to destroy my niece," said Emmet, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We'll handle it," said Sam. "If they go on our side of the line, we'll take care of them. They've never fought anything like us before. They won't know what to do or what we are. We will know them down to their smallest detail if you help us."
"That we will do, but we will not be risking our family by using that stupid line again. We work together as we did that one time long ago," said Esme, stepping forward to place a hand on Alice's shoulder as Carlisle's arm wound around her waist. I sighed and turned around again. Caleb's arms stayed firmly around my waist, holding me to him. I didn't mind in the least bit. I was thinking only of him. I did not want him to fight.
"We know the Volturi better than you might. We are from Europe, after all," said Keira. I noticed a hint of an Italian accent creep into her voice. I was a little shocked.
"We're not really cousins, or brothers and sisters. I forgot to tell you," Caleb said with a slight smirk. "Though, our Uncle really did teach us everything we know. We owe it to him. When he attacked you it was the first time he had phased in a very, very long time." I nodded and clutched his wrist in both my hands, feeling the warmth of him spread through as a shudder ran up his spine from how cold I was. I smiled. We were perfect. I was not perfect and he was not either, but together, we were perfect.
"Bella can bring us a bit of an advantage, and, because of Claire, I think it is safe to say that since she can reproduce the effect of the sun, we can be sure no human lives will be wasted. They will be forced to fight in the mountains or in the forests. Forks will be safe," Jasper promised the pack of Quieutes who stood before us.
"How is Bella and advantage?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow. "What, can she actually walk across the floor without breaking something?" I heard a hollow laugh from my father and knew that if it were possible, my mother would have blushed, very, very brightly. I smiled.
"Bella's ability, if she gets close enough, will cancel out the powers of whoever she is fighting. They will still be fast and strong but they can't use their extra talents. I think Bella should help Edward take down Alec, if there is a possibility of it," said Rosalie, already scheming of ways to end the lives of those who had wanted to kill her brother years ago. I felt an anger I had never known before. I felt like I had grown up.
It seemed like the easy things in life had just ended for me. I was not a child anymore, though I had been sixteen for about twenty years. It seemed like I couldn't be innocent anymore, that I would be the one to spill blood now. I was going to fight. I was not ignorant and naïve. I was grown up and that made me curious.
----------
About an hour later, they had gone. Keira and her pack had left too, all but Caleb, he was allowed to stay with me. We were sitting in the room I had at the Cullen mansion. He was laying on the bed, horizontal. I was laying vertically, my head resting on his stomach which, at the moment, was bare. He wore only a pair of jeans. I had on a pair of short, cloth shorts and a tank top. We had just come back from a run.
Ever since I had felt that loss of innocence a few hours before, it made me wonder what he was like. My mother had told me that while werewolves continue to phase, they stop aging.
"How old are you really?" I asked him, rolling over so that my chin was on his stomach, which glistened with sweat. It smelled wonderful, his smell. I had grown to love how he smelled.
"Sixteen," he said with a smile, pushing himself up on one of his elbows as I sat up and he pulled me into his lap.
"How long have you been sixteen?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. He smirked.
"How long have you?" he asked, a playful grin on his perfect lips. I looked at my hands folded in my lap and felt his hand run itself through my hair once. "That's what I thought," he said with a grin. I rolled my eyes.
"Twenty years, give or take," I said simply. "Your turn."
"About sixteen," he said, rolling his eyes.
"So, you're what…thirty-two?" I asked with a laugh, falling backwards into his arms and. He smiled and looked down at me before kissing the tip of my nose. I laughed and then pushed him down and was on top of him in less than a second. He grinned and touched my thigh, his fingertips lingering there for a split second before he flipped me over and was on top of me. I laughed as he leaned down, his blonde hair falling onto my forehead as he pressed his lips to mine. My hand flew to the side of his face, locking him to me. I could feel the muscles in his jaw flex as he continued to kiss me. I was about to gasp to let him get some air but his tongue snaked its way inside my mouth. I was a little shocked, to be completely honest. I bit down on his tongue, not hard, but I could see his eyes open in masochistic happiness with the moment. He wriggled his tongue free and then snagged my wrist in his hand, pinning me down beneath him.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a smirk.
"Nothing. You're done," he said with a laugh. "We can't ruin your honor. What would your parents think of me then?" I smiled at him.
"Ha ha, you're so funny. You know…I'm betting Alice is about to dart up the stairs right now…and…if my dad might hear my thoughts, he's about ready to rip your face off," I said with a grin. He released his grip on my hands and backed up, leaning against the footboard. I smiled at him as I crawled forward again, on hands and knees until my lips met his again. His two hands were on my cheeks and we both closed our eyes, both in eternal bliss. When I pulled away he smiled at me.
"Have I told you how much I love you yet today?" he asked, his beautiful eyes locking to mine. I smiled.
"I can't remember," I said, giggling like a little girl.
"Well, I love you more than I love the air I have to breathe and you don't," he said, laughing. I grinned and kissed his bare stomach, feeling his abs flex under my frigid lips. I smiled against his warm skin and he grinned as I rested my chin on his stomach again and he touched my hair, running his fingers through it.
"So, what now?" I asked him, smiling still.
"I guess all that's left is to wait," he said, his face growing serious.
"I don't think we can win. If it comes down to them asking me to come with them and everyone I love being destroyed, I'll go with them," I said slowly. I was thinking about it too. Hadn't I always wanted answers and power and a feeling of belonging. There, I might actually be able to find that. Sure, they were monsters and I had never spilled human blood before, but they could answer my questions. Maybe they knew why I was different from the rest of my family, why I have the powers I have and why my eyes don't change from black to gold but stay that crystal blue that is too alluring for humans to pass up.
There was one question that I had never even wanted to ask. I was too scared to ask it. Sometimes…and only on occasion, I still had a heartbeat. Each day, I felt it fade a little more and I knew one day it would be completely gone. I shuddered at the thought. So, was a part of me still human? Was it possible for me…to have children and live a life that most vampires could only dream of. I hadn't eaten human food since my transformation, but I could try it. What if it satisfied me? What if I was mortal but had a taste for blood and could live forever and not age? What if I was special? What if I had evolved?
I was growing up. Five years ago, I never would have attempted to second-guess my family and what they said were the undeniable truths of being a vampire. I looked up at him.
"I'm different from the rest of them," I said touching his strong stomach that had a chiseled six-pack of abs on it. He smiled.
"I know. I knew since the day I met you. Are you just now realizing it? You still hold human blood in your body. That pureness of your powers just does not want to seem to let it go. You're like my own little angel. But it scares me. Can't that also mean you can die?"
"I don't know," I said softly. "How did you know before I did though?"
"Vampires are second nature to me. Your scent was different, you had blue eyes, you were more beautiful and more powerful than your family members and you weren't newly born. I did some research and found that mythology has taken a form inside of you. You still retain some humanity while the others are completely vampiric."
"What's what supposed to mean?" I asked him, a low growl building in my stomach.
"You're able to do things they can't, but you can do everything they can. Claire, I think it's possible for you to even have a child. You could probably eat human food and your digestive system would still accept it as normal."
"How could that be? My father changed me, let the venom seep into me. I woke up three days later completely different. I was a vampire, a full vampire. My eyes were purple, stained with red and blue. I am a vampire," I said defiantly, sitting up so I could face him directly.
"Vampires don't have blue eyes, Claire. Vampires don't have an incredibly slow heartbeat and working body systems. You do," he whispered, leaning forward and pulling me in towards him. He placed me on his lap and cradled my face against his soft, warm chest.
"I'm special," I whispered as I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I pulled my head from his grip and touched the tear, letting it sit on my fingertip. Caleb grabbed my hand and placed the tear in his mouth.
"You are," he said softly. "Now, maybe we should go downstairs, though I think it would be better if I put a shirt on first." I nodded. He was right. I would try not to make it completely obvious that I wanted answers, that was for sure. My family didn't need to know more about what made me an anomaly among them.
A/N: Alright so yesterday I got my wisdom teeth pulled and my face kinda hurts, so you'll have to excuse how long this has taken me to finished with school and everything following me around. Gah. I hate school-work. So, read and review please. Eight reviews for a new chapter. And, if you have any questions about this chapter of previous ones, ask in your review and I'll answer them. I think you've earned it.