I whirled around on my heels to face my pursuer, curling my back defensively as a dark shadow emerged from behind a large spruce. There was a short hesitation before they proceeded into the gap. The hesitation was just enough to make me think. Were they unsure? Perhaps they meant me no harm, and I was just wasting my time being overly defensive. That seemed reasonable enough, I decided. I shifted into a casual stance, straightening up from my crouch.
"That's better," They sang. It was obviously a she. The unknown woman's voice was unusually high pitched, and chimed like bells. It put harps to shame. It was a beautiful voice.
Before I could react, a feeling of calm washed over me, instant and very unnatural. I didn't think I should be feeling calm right now, just a moment ago I felt ready to spring. Maybe the venom was getting to me.
The tree's rustled softly as she slid fluidly from the underbrush, into the center of the gap. I noticed she was moving very slowly, watching me with careful golden eyes. I must have been the problem. Why else would she be so cautious? After all, I was about to attack her. I really needed to learn how to control my actions.
I realized the woman's face was familiar to me, but only recently familiar. Another memory popped into my head from last night when Carlisle introduced me to his family. After I pondered through the names and faces, I found a match. This must be 'Alice'. Yes it must be. I recalled the small figure, pointed hair, and delicate features. Something I hadn't realized was how small she was. Yes, she was most defiantly slender, too slender. I thought she was going to break in half. But at the same time, it suited her. Her figure was not that much bigger than mine, probably just an inch or two taller. And although she was childlike, she seemed older, more matured.
'That must come in handy' I scowled at the squishy grass. My entire life people always assumed I was years younger than I really was. After a while it got annoying, but I knew someday that would pay off. Middle aged women craved youth, so much that it was kind of revolting. And now I had nothing to show for it. Frozen at fifteen, forever looking twelve. I had to restrain a shudder.
"We've been looking for you," I looked up to her face, now only a meter apart from mine. There was a slight smile on her full lips. I could hear something behind her friendly tone, almost…tired? I hope she hadn't been searching too long.
"I'm sorry, I must have lost…track of time." I smiled back, making it as convincing as possible. She didn't buy it, I could see that much.
"Hm. It's alright, but we should head back, Carlisle and Esme are worried." She kept her tone light, but pressed her lips into a hard line. I wondered how much I'd worried them, and how much I had irritated the others. What a good way to make a first impression, 'good going retard.' I thought to myself.
"Sounds good," I nodded in agreement.
We took off into the forest, heading in the opposite direction. I followed Alice; she knew the area much better than I did, and I'm sure I would have been embarrassed later if I'd gotten lost in the woods. The first vampire to get lost, I was such a dough head it probably would have happened. Thankfully I had an excellent guide to insure I didn't. Alice must have had a built in radar or something; she never once paused to check with direction to take. Thirty seconds into our sprint, a tall, muscular and fair haired man crept out from the tree's to join us. I was sure this would have scared me, but that strange calm feeling returned and I could have cared less. I ignored the flood of questions filling my mind, and focused on running. He didn't seem to be any danger; there was no attempt to fight. Instead he ran to Alice's side, keeping only an inch from her. She didn't flinch at his actions; instead she turned her head swiftly to him and back, giggling. Another face popped in my head, Jasper's. It was him. I wasn't sure why I hadn't realized this sooner.
We reached to house in no time, Thanks to Alice's wonderful guiding. We slowed to a human walking pace, as we made our way across the front yard. As we made our way to the house I made sure to keep a safe distance from them as we walked, it felt wrong to interrupt they're strange closeness. There was a strange bubble like atmosphere emitting from them I could just barely feel. For me it was mostly awkward, but that was hard to ignore with how intense the feelings were. Luckily they barley noticed I was there. Maybe they were used to the attention, and ignored it, like now. I sure hoped so, no point irritating them further.
We made it to the large front doors, with me still trailing behind. They opened the doors together, making a noise no louder than a feather being swept across the floor. Sadly that was loud enough to be noticed in this home.
Carlisle and Esme were already at the door, greeting us with gentle embraces and welcoming smiles. When they caught sight of me Esme's face crumpled into worry. But a motherly worry, her embrace was a little harder than the ones she gave to the others. I wondered how much I could have worried them, surely not that much; after all I had only met them yesterday. While Esme softly crushed me to her body, I caught a glimpse of Carlisle over her shoulder. He was looking away, but the right side of his face was still visible. He almost looked angry, or perhaps just very confused. I think more confused by the way his eyebrows were set. Maybe he was the one I had irritated the most, which I supposed I deserved. I had run off pretty soon after arriving, and I hadn't been awfully polite about it. I said a quick goodbye, and then booked it to the forest to have a break down. Now that I thought about it, that was pretty rude.
Esme released me from her iron grip and gave me a stern look before returning to Carlisle's side. I wasn't sure if now was the time to talk or not because Alice and Jasper were still in the room waiting patiently for the others attention. I took that as a no, and glided quickly to take a seat on the first step of the grand staircase, this was a conversation that could wait.
"Well, Jazz and I are off! There's an overload of dear off to the east." Alice spoke swiftly, a little bit of urgency coloring her tone.
"So soon?" Esme's calm had not yet returned. Her eyebrows furrowed down as she looked into each of their eyes.
"Jazz hasn't gone for a while, and its getting to be a bit much." Alice turned her head to look at Jasper, matching Esme's expression.
He stared down at her with a reassuring smile on his face. "It's manageable, really."
"Nope, Come on, let's go!" She smiled widely back at him, grabbing his hand and tugging him through the front doors.
Jasper smiled and shook his head as she pulled him back through the doors, but he cooperated and followed. The doors slid shut, but I could still hear Alice's angelic giggles as well as Jaspers. That's when it occurred to me.
"Oh." I said out loud. I could feel my eyes pop out a little from the surprise. I must have been terrible at realizing things, because that seemed to be the case. They weren't just family, they were all together.
"What is it dear?" Esme said, turning to me, concern replacing worry.
"Oh, it's nothing," I said, shaking it off. "I'm sorry about last night. I really should have given some warning before bolting off like that." I stared down at the floor not wanting to meet their gazes, especially Carlisle's.
"Actually…well it's a little silly, but we thought you had run away." I looked up to Esme who was looking away with a hand placed over her dainty smile.
"Oh no, I wouldn't! I was just…deep in thought. It's been a while since I've had some time to think."I nodded reassuringly to her, as an act of comfort. There was no need to worry.
"That reminds me-" Carlisle spoke now "-Would you care to tell us your side of the story?" My side? Had the Volturi already informed them of their side? That could be a possibility. "Ah, I'm sorry," Carlisle said shaking his head thoughtfully. "Alice has a talent for knowing things before they happen. She-"He paused to catch my reaction. "Saw you coming. Rather, the Volturi planning you coming. We understood the situation, but there was no information about how you got tangled into this, if it's not too much to ask we would like to know how you came into our world." He looked down at me with gentle eyes, smiling lightly. Of course this made sense. They didn't even know how I had ended up here, and it seemed fair to left them know.
Carlisle offered we take our proper seats before I begin, so I rose and joined them on a pearly white arm chair, to sit across from them. They took their place on the love seat and gave the floor to me. I'm not going to lie, this wasn't a story I had been willing to tell, but they deserved to hear it, so I gritted my teeth and made it as light as I could make it. I began from the beginning of my vacation all the way to…that final moment. I skipped the conservation with Aro, and the blood thirsty Alec who turned me, but made sure my point was clear enough to understand. I skimmed through the actual turning part, with a brief description of my pain and the days, then the preparations to arrive here, all the way to actually arriving. They kept the same expression the entire time I was explaining. Carlisle's face froze into a mask of patience, every now and again nodding to him self. Esme wore the same expression, but slipped up once when I was explaining my failed escape, then being smashed into the wall but composed her self quickly after.
To my surprise, I had taken me all of six minutes for a brief explanation. It wasn't much, but more time than I had intended. They didn't say much once I had finished just sad glances in my direction. They allowed me to leave, and make myself at home. Esme suggested a shower, apparently there was a bit of dirt caked onto my face. That sounded good to me, so I thanked them again, and rushed up the stairs, until I reached my floor, and began searching for a bathroom. I found on at the end of the hall, opposite to my temporary room. It was large, very large, but probably not to them. I stifled a laugh, but didn't succeed. How much money did they have? I didn't want to find out, I thought with another laugh.
My shower was very quick; I made sure only to use a teeny bit of the expensive looking shampoo and conditioner, surely from salons, and then scrubbed my body with the fruity smelling soap, removing all the dirt on my skin. Apparently I hadn't gotten away Scott free from lying on the forest floor last night. While even while in perfection, we can't all be perfect.
I hopped out of the shower and grabbed the clean looking towel from a cupboard across the room. I ruffled the towel through my hair, and down the rest of my body. As many times that I've showers, this felt like the first time. With my new senses nothing felt familiar, not even the most common thing. That was going to be frustrating.
After I scrubbed through my damp short hair, I wrapped the towel around my chest and tucked it in safely. The large mirror over the sink was fogged up from the steam, which I was grateful for. I hadn't actually seen myself, my new self that is, but I had a good guess. Pale skin, red eyes the works. All the things us newbie vampires had, and something that couldn't easily be changed.
I took a deep breath and swiped one pale hand across the foggy mirror, allowing enough room to get a full view of my face. I didn't want to, but I had to sooner or later. Better now I figured, so I could scare myself now and get over it. I forced my eyes in the spot I had cleared, coming face to face with the monster in the mirror.
It was worse, much worse.
My face was wiped clean of color, like someone took bleach and splashed it across my face only leaving a ghostly complexion. The subtle blush of my cheeks had vanished, fading into bleached skin. From my fuzzy memories, my face had been rather soft, squishy with flesh. Now it was stretched firmly across my high cheekbones, no longer offering the sense of softness instead replaced with a statue like quality, hard even in stillness.
The skin only made my eyes more noticeable. They contrasted against the pearly white of my new skin, making them pop from my face similar to the ways advertising would pop up on a TV screen. That seemed pretty dull in comparison though. TV ad's wouldn't jump from the screen and try to drink your blood.
The only thing vaguely familiar about my new appearance was chin length hair, scattered wildly across my face from scrubbing it with the towel. It was chestnut in color, appearing almost black from the water.
I continued looking for the familiar features throughout my new face. At first I saw nothing but the horrifying beauty that mocked me from the reflected surface. Then more came. A jaw was slightly squared, with a chin that was a bit pointed. Eye's that weren't awfully close together but more than centered, and a little larger than normal. A nose was a teensy bit longer than perfect and had a bulb like end. And last but not least, lips that were slightly bigger on the bottom than the top. The relief that washed through me was tremendous. It made me still feel like I was still intact with my new self, like I hadn't replaced it with the pretty zombie in the mirror. All these imperfections were a gift, a reminder of who I was, not the person I was intended on being.
I decided I had enough for one day, and tore my gaze away from the mirror. Even with these new eyes, there were only so many things I could stand to look at, that being one of them. Despite the newly found similarities, the eyes still scared the crap out of me. I would have to ask Carlisle how he obtained the lovely butterscotch color. I searched for an answer that would explain it, but there were few options. My first thought was that it was simply my new eyes deceiving me, or perhaps they didn't work quite right. My second thought was contacts. But why pick yellow? Not a very common color, in fact not common at all. Why not brown or green, they could pull it off. It seemed unlikely they would pick yellow to blend in, but who knew why.
After a few seconds of pointless thinking, I told myself to shut up. I would never know unless I asked so there was no point in being confused over something I didn't understand. But it was something I did intend on understanding.
I crouched down to the floor with my towel still tightly intact, picking up my clothing I had thrown on the floor. I picked up an unfamiliar white t-shirt. It was thread bear and detailed with flower designs sewn into the fabric along the bottom. I was sure I didn't own a piece of clothing like this, and I was sure I hadn't been wearing this the day of my turning. The t-shirt I was wearing must have been blood soaked from Alec's greedy feeding. I felt a pang of hatred inside me, just thinking about that gluttonous face. I wanted to rip my nails down his face, silencing those childish giggles.
I shook my head away from the vengeful thoughts and focused back on my clothing situation. As I dug through the rest of the small pile, I realized nothing was the same. My worn jeans were replaced with a pair that was well fitted and dark washed. My color faded blue hoodie was now a black, high necked guess leather jacket. But to my pleasant surprise, the pair of blue torn up runners I had bought last year was still in my possession.
As for the rest I assumed the stranger's clothing must have been borrowed from Jane's 'public wear'. I had never seen her in anything besides that dreadful black robe, so I was guessing there had been plenty to go around. It was a shame for it to just lie around. I had to admit, the clothing was very, very cute.
To my surprise, the outfit had been untainted by the muddy forest floor. Not a single piece of dirt had been smeared onto the new leather. That was a good thing.
I dressed slowly, feeling each article of clothing slid perfectly over my frame. It was even better fitting then my old clothing, but probably more uncomfortable, I hadn't been used to this type of style, as in fashionable and expensive. The pair of jeans I was wearing must have been over a hundred dollars for all I knew, it seemed very likely. I ignored the urge to check the brand name, just out of curiosity. Instead I ruffled my fingers through my damp hair parting it to its usual side, and opened the bathroom door heading for the first floor.
I remembered I needed to ask Carlisle about the eye color, but I had been distracted with the clothing problem. My pace sped up to a run, my curiosity growing with every step I took. I wanted badly to know the secret to their eyes; I didn't want to be a red eyed freak for the rest of my existence.
I reached the top of the grand staircase, turning swiftly to fly down the steps to reach them in the living area. But I couldn't get my feet to move another inch; I was frozen at the top, my foot resting on the next step.
The heartbeat that thrummed as quickly as a bird's wing beat loudly from down the stairs. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them. Mostly the heartbeat, that pulsed like music in my ears and wouldn't leave me alone. Quiet intakes of breath were playing alongside the heartbeat, putting me deeper in my blood crazed trance. They were close, very close, their heat was almost touching me just enough to tickle my burning throat.
My thoughts were blurred by the thirst, but I used what ever I had left to calculate. The Volturi would bring me blood pack every so often, I had never once fed from a human or rather I refused to. The blood quenched my burn, but it never lasted long enough. They were usually cold, so I was never immediately tempted but after I smelt it…I gave in. the last time I had one was the night before departure. This was completely different then blood packs, they were so warm, and close. I could barley smell their scent, but the healthy heartbeat was enough to persuade me. Unfortunately I had barley been around humans since the transformation, unless I had two bodyguards strapped to my sides. I had no practice with resisting, and most of all no restraints. I was a newborn, with no practice, and no blood in my system.
I knew what was about to happen.