A New Life

I stared up at the light and gasped in amazement. I could see every little square in the plastic covering, the filament glowing in the bulb and the dust motes flying around beneath the yellow-white glow.

I blinked, and realised I was in foreign territory. I leapt off the table and landed crouching by the east-wall-window. Then I remembered that these people had helped me and stood straight. A human couldn't have blinked in the time all this happened, and I stood very surprised and rigid.

I could finally see this helpful family, and myself. All my cuts were healed and I was clean and smartly dressed (must've been the pretty blonde – no, I did not miss her Louis Vuitton leather boots or her chic leather Gucci biker jacket.) and I had some pretty patterned dolly shoes on with a small heel.

The family had eight members... and a half. The one who addressed me was the blonde male who healed me.

"Hello, my name is Carlisle Cullen, and this is my wife Esme," he said in a perfectly human voice, not like the (seemingly unintentional) attractive, sexy voice he used before.

"Hello there, welcome to our home," said the strawberry blonde woman Carlisle had indicated as his wife, Esme.

I stood in silence, to stunned to speak.

"I'm Emmet, this is my wife Rosalie", said the dark-haired burly man, and he indicated the beautiful blonde, who waved. Emmett seemed happy to be part of some action, but Rosalie looked a bit... reluctant, as though her life had been disrupted too many times.

"I'm Alice," said the spiky-haired girl, "and I knew that Chanel 'Wonder-gown' would look just fabulous on you, you're lucky you changed while you have such a great figure."

I wrinkled my forehead in confusion. All vampyres changed about my age... didn't they?

"This is Jasper, he hasn't been with us as long as the others, but this is Bella, and she's the newest addition to our family," said Alice in an admiring tone.

"Hey," said Bella, "This is Renesmee and my Husband, Edward," she indicated a small child (the half) and the bronze-haired boy. Was everyone in this family married?

Bella didn't have amber eyes like the others. Hers were an orangey-gold colour with a scarlet rim and a gold centre, like her gorgeous (obviously designer) tie-dye tunic, but that was lilac to a deep mauve.

"Renesmee is a little hard to get used to, but you'll learn to love her, trust me," said Edward. He was beautiful. His bronze hair was gelled up in a tangled mess that was actually quite sexy. He had on a light grey tee-shirt with an undone dark grey short-sleeved shirt over the top and some loose dark jeans.

The young girl was gorgeous. Renesmee had on a long-sleeved pale pink, yellow, green and blue striped tee shirt under a pinkie-red chunky-strap dress. Her blonde curls had escaped from her little plaits, tied up with little pink ribbons fiercely holding their own, clinging to her shiny, silken locks.

Edward, Bella and Renesmee were perfect together, and they made me smile without thinking. Renesmee smiled back at me and whispered a little "hello," which made me smile wider and want to hug the little beauty close to my chest.

The Cullens seemed to be happy with my acceptance and they smiled at me reassuringly.

"So what's your name?" said Alice.

I stood stunned. What? What was my name? Oh! My name! I opened my mouth but closed it again, like a fish, then stepped back uneasily.

Carlisle, the head of the family, I assumed, looked and smiled at me reassuringly, and I felt welcome and accepted. Then thoughts of the House of Night (the vampyre finishing school that I went to when I... was a fledgling) surfaced in my mind and made my heart ache. I was torn, but maybe these accepting new people could help me get back to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Err..." I managed to say. I'm sure they were amazed by my awesome linguistic skills.

"Don't worry, we won't bite!" said Alice, but she smiled mischievously which freaked me out a bit.

"Alice," said Esme in a resigned but sarcastic way, rolling her eyes.

"Please, go on," said Carlisle.

"Z-Zoey... Zoey Redbird," I said in an almost questioning tone.

"Well, welcome, Zoey," said Carlisle.

"Yes, we'd love to have you stay... if you'd like?" said Esme.

"Sleepover!" cried Alice, drawing a loud breath in delight before speaking like a small child.

Renesmee reached toward Bella, and Bella bent down so that she could touch her face, before nodding and whispering something into her ear, I made it out to be "yeah, that's what it is, we can stay too if you'd like" and Renesmee nodded happily.

"Um..." was all I squeaked out, again astounding them with my conversational abilities.

Everyone stopped their whispers as though they just remembered that I was there. "Please?" said Renesmee anxiously.

"...Sure," I said smiling reassuringly, and Renesmee came running to me, a huge grin on her face, and hugged my legs. I almost cried, which is odd seeing as I don't really express emotion a lot. I kneeled down and she touched her palm to my cheek. I gasped in amazement.

A whole world flashed before my eyes: Renesme was imagining both of us snuggled up under a duvet in her lounge watching her favourite Disney DVDs, and her, Bella, Edward and I being best friends and going to eat animals together, then she thought about human blood, and it felt like a razor shot down my throat. Then Edward grabbed Renesme at lightning speed, and Emmett grabbed my arms behind me while Jasper stood in front, his arms spread protectively.

"Aahh..." I moaned quietly. I felt very weak and this strong mans arms were very... strong. But how did they know?

"Let her go, she looks weak," said Carlisle.

"But newborns are always strong... and thirsty" replied Emmett

"Can you feel that now?" Carlisle asked. What was he talking about?

Jasper looked defeated as he waved his hand for Emmett to release me and turned. I almost fell over, I was so tired.

"Does she look normal to you?" asked Esme, "look at her markings."

I gasped. I still had my marks? I reached up to touch my forehead instinctively, and then looked down at my chest. Yes! I still have Nyx!

I laughed happily and whispered a thank you to Nyx. The Cullens looked a little confused. To say the least.

"Nyx... is my goddess, I'm just glad she is still with me... She gave me these marks," I said tentatively. Carlisle looked curious. I had a lot of explaining to do. So I told them everything. I told them about my grandma, Neferet, my circle (air, fire, water, earth and spirit candles are lit and we thank or worship the goddess for things like the full moon. I have my own circle because I have an affinity for each of the elements, more about that later), the Tulsa House of Night and my mum and John. They all listened curiously until I had finished.

"Intriguing..." said Carlisle.

"I never thought there was another kind of Vampires..." said Alice

Jasper was looking a little defeated, and I was about to ask him, but Edward beat me to it.

"I know, Jazz," what? How does he know? "I don't get it either."

I stared at them, confused.

"Edward can read minds," said Carlisle. I turned to look at him in disbelief, as he continued, "and Jasper can sense and manipulate your emotions, whilst Alice gets visions of the future." I was stunned. There was no such thing as these abilities... right?

What about my abilities? Crap! I gasped but Edward... read my mind, so he beat me to it.

"What can you do?" he asked politely.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"Let's see," I interrupted. "Air, I need you." I called on air and asked it to play with Renesme, tousling her curls and tickling her chin. She giggled.

"Intriguing..." said Carlisle... again.

"Fire, can you help me, please?" I blew into my cupped hands and a flame began to flicker and grow until it was resting in my hand like you would hold sand. There were several gasps.

"Water, could you assist, please?" Rain began to fall from nowhere several inches above my cupped hands until the fire was out completely. "Earth?" that was all I needed. The rich smell of freshly cut grass filled the room and I could hear birdsong and feel grass under my feet, despite my pretty new shoes. More gasps rippled through the room.

"And spirit, I would appreciate a visit from you," I said excitedly, knowing that the fluttery feeling of my spirit lifting would come, and it did. Low chatter erupted in the large room with thick white carpet and pale cream walls. A grand piano was set in the corner and ornate vases sat around the room in any available space, filled with spring bouquets of all different colours, shapes and sizes.

"Amazing," Jasper finally said to me, "That you have such abilities unknown to this world."

"Oh, they're not completely unknown, there were a couple of high priestesses with three or four affinities, but I'm the first with all five. And fledglings aren't supposed to have a filled in expanded forehead-mark, and no vampyre or fledgling has ever had marks anywhere else before," I lifted my palms and pulled down the shoulder of the black woollen sweater I was wearing over my dress, so that they could see my shoulder and part of my chest. Yet more gasps of awed amazement.

"What are you?" said Edward. I felt a bit insulted actually. "Sorry, it's just... in your mind you spell vampyre with a 'y'?"

"Yeah... vampyre... do you not know what that is?"

"We are vampires," said Carlisle, "with an 'I'. We have twenty-five chromosome pairs as opposed to the human twenty-three."

"Oh... right..." I said, awesomely intelligently, of course.

"You are new... you're special," said Esme, almost lovingly... admiringly.

"Um... there are lots of us... there are the red fledglings as well..."

"Wow... interesting," said Carlisle thoughtfully. "I will go and research this, make sure our Zoey has somewhere to sleep and for Pete's sake get her something to eat. Goodbye Zoey," he finished happily before leaving the room.

"I..." Jasper followed after him, blurring with speed, a look of defeat and wonder clouding over his face.

"Well... that was interesting..." said Emmett.

"Whatever," said Rosalie and the pair of them left together, Emmett raising a hand to me as a goodbye gesture.

"Well, I'll see you soon," said Alice, but she was speeding out the door before I could reply.

"Sorry about them Zoey, you're new to them, they're just curious," said Esme apologetically.

"Sure... don't worry... I don't mind..." I said and she left the room.

"Come on," said Bella, "let's go hunt."

"Erm... Okay?"

"Yay!" cried Renesmee.

Edward and Bella sighed and rolled their eyes in unison, looking lovingly at each other before kissing softly, then each kissing one of Renesme's cheeks simultaneously. She giggled and they gestured for me to follow them from the room.

I did, slowly, as I wished within me that I had a loving family like that, that I could have someone who loved me as a partner, for me, not for relation or for blood... me.

Suddenly my marks, the intricate swirls and intertwining bands showing what I was, a gift from Nyx, all over my face, neck, back, palms and chest, unlike any fledgling or vampyre ever before, were glowing. I could have sworn I was shining out, throwing rainbows and sunrays in every direction. I was really, really happy. I was elated.

I loved these people, too. And I liked it. I liked loving them, and I liked being loved.