2 The Cullens
We were driving through Forks at a steady speed. Kelly's bump was ever growing and her diet had changed too. One night when I brought home food for her she found a steak and within seconds she ripped open the packaging and began sucking the excess blood from the meat. I was terrified she would get sick but she didn't and a craving for blood quickly followed. Kelly couldn't bring herself to drink from people so I had the idea of stealing blood packs from hospitals. Now Kelly's diet consisted of human blood and rare cooked steaks – definitely an iron/protein theme on the go.
I put the window down to see if I could catch the scent of a vampire – nothing yet just a disgusting wet dog smell in the air. I continued to drive to higher ground as vampires didn't usually like to live too close to humans and as I put the window down again I caught the very distinctive smell of vampires – excellent!
The dirt track road had a clearing to the right and as we turned the scent began to become stronger. Suddenly a glamorous house came into view which was originally quite old in age but had been altered to look very modern.
"Is that where they live?" said Kelly, clearly impressed.
"It's not difficult for vampires to accrue money babe" I said.
"Why don't we live in a place like that?" she said.
"What's wrong with our home! We live in an exclusive area of London, I'll bet good money that our apartment in Tower Bridge is a lot more expensive!" Bloody women! I thought.
"I was just saying!" she said.
I calmed down, there was no point getting into an argument over something as stupid as this. Plus she was right it was a very nice house.
I parked the car in front of the house. "Stay here" I said.
As I got out of the car there was again that wet dog smell in the air. What is that? As I approached the door it opened before I got there and a male vampire with blindingly blond hair stood in the doorway looking both curious and wary at the same time. As I got closer I noticed he had yellow eyes – ugh.
"I'm looking for Carlisle Cullen, are you him?" I said.
"Yes I am him, how can I help you" he said in a pleasant American voice.
I looked over Carlisle's shoulder and saw at least seven other vampires in his home. I decided to just bite the bullet and admit who I was.
"My name is Joshua" I said. Instantly at the sound of my name all vampires stiffened and hissing sounds began to resonate from the three male vampires behind Carlisle.
"I'm not here to cause trouble I just need Carlisle's help!" I said.
I had already heard Kelly leave the car and walk up behind me. Thanks to Kelly's complete lack of fear of vampires she popped her head round with a huge smile on her face. "Hi! I'm Kelly" she said.
Kelly walked round to the front of me and I placed an arm protectively across her. Instantly the faces of the vampires calmed and looked surprised.
"Well you didn't predict that Alice!" said a big male vampire with dark hair.
A tiny female looked flustered. "Well I can't see hybrids! – or who's carrying them!" she said.
Carlisle now much more relaxed smiled at us both. "Well I think you better come in" he said.
Carlisle invited us into his home and formally introduced himself and his family and it turned out that most of the members of his coven possessed powerful gifts of their own.
Carlisle's wife was Esme, a sweet looking vampire who often smiled reassuringly at both of us – I liked her instantly.
The large male vampire who first spoke earlier was Emmett and he kept a possessive arm around the shoulders of his mate Rosalie, a gorgeous blond who seemed a bit annoyed by Kelly's present condition.
Another male was Jasper, a vampire who had the ability to influence mood. Jasper was covered in battle wounds and I was eager to ask him about those. His mate was Alice, the tiny vampire who has the impressive gift for predicting the future. Alice had predicted my arrival but, it turns out due to Kelly and bump, wasn't able to see clearly what I wanted or who I was.
The other two vampires were Edward and Bella. Edward was a mind reader who had an annoying habit of answering questions you only thought, not said. Bella was a mental shield and beside Bella was a child I couldn't take my eyes off. She was about ten years old with blushing cheeks and a heartbeat! Her name was Renesmee and she in turn seemed fascinated by Kelly. She held her hand to her mother's face and before Bella could react Edward answered his daughter's thoughts.
"That's true. She's not making any of us thirsty". Edward looked at Carlisle who turned to me.
"Has this always been the case or just since her pregnancy?" he said.
"No it's always been the case" I said. I kissed Kelly on the side of her face.
"That so interesting" he said looking fascinated.
"Yeah" I shrugged disinterested. The fact that no vampire seemed enticed by Kelly's blood was a relief and I wasn't about to look for a cure.
Carlisle, we discovered was a doctor for humans and asked to examine Kelly. When she lifted up her sweater he looked surprised.
"Hmm, you don't have any bruising" he said. Kelly and I looked perplexed.
"Why would I have that!" she said. Carlisle glanced at Bella.
"Bella's stomach was black and blue from the baby's kicks. Do you feel movement?" he asked.
"Yes I feel movement all the time" she replied. Kelly looked at me anxiously.
"What are you getting at? Are you saying there's something wrong with the baby?" I said.
Carlisle held his hands up.
"No, no, all pregnancies are different, as long as you are feeling movement I'm sure everything is fine" he said.
Over the next several days we settled in to stay with the Cullen's until the baby was born. Carlisle had a spare bedroom which used to be Edward's and it conveniently had a bed in it already so Kelly could sleep whenever she needed. I discovered the disgusting wet dog smell belonged to Renesmee's 'friend' Jacob a werewolf! Jacob just seemed to sort of tolerate my presence. It was strange to me that he was determined to spent pretty much all his time hanging around vampires despite that fact, I was told, he was supposed to kill them! Apparently his connection with Renesmee overruled that.
One day about a week into our stay with the Cullens, Kelly was resting and watching TV so I wondered outside to the garden to watch Bella who was with Edward and Emmett, practicing throwing her shield off herself onto another person.
Emmett saw me watching "so you can control women?" he said to me.
"That's right" I said.
He looked at Bella "why don't you try it against Bella's shield?" he said grinning.
Oh here we go! I looked at Edward who was glaring at Emmett.
"No" I shook my head.
I heard Kelly waddle out-side, she'd been having trouble walking normally since her bump was now the size of Brazil. "I'd like to see your gift" she said.
Kelly was dubious I even had any power over women "it's probably just because you're really good-looking" she once said dismissively.
Emmett's eyebrows shot up "you're not going to tell me you've never used your power on Kelly!" he said.
"It doesn't work on her" I said.
Suddenly all eyes were on Kelly.
"She must be a shield like Bella!" said Emmett.
Shield? It had never occurred to me that the reason my gift didn't work on her was because she possessed a kind of power of her own.
Edward shook his head "she can't be like Bella, I can read her mind. I couldn't ever do that with Bella even when she was human" he said.
"Maybe Kelly's shield isn't as strong as Bella's" suggested Emmett. He looked back at Bella.
"Come on Bella, give it a try" he said.
"Oh sure, why not" she said.
I looked at Edward who shrugged his consent, then focused on Bella. The strangest thing happened! I couldn't influence her mind in any way but I could control her body. I walked Bella over to Edward and put her arms around his neck.
"THAT WAS HORRIBLE!" she said.
I burst out laughing "that's hilarious! I've never had that happen before" I said.
"Did you really do that!" said Kelly looking amazed.
I moved Bella's limbs again like a string puppet.
"STOP THAT!" she said. I laughed harder.
"Well that's interesting" said Edward who was looking a bit disappointed that I had any influence.
"So you can control Bella's body but not Kelly's and Edward can read Kelly's mind but not Bella's" said Emmett looking baffled.
"So what does that mean? Am I a shield or not?" said Kelly.
No one knew the answer. "I guess we'll find out" I said.
That evening I decided that for the first time since our arrival in Forks that I should go hunting. When I told the Cullen's of this they looked awkward.
"You can't hunt in Forks Joshua we have a treaty with the werewolves" said Carlisle.
"That's fine, I'll drive to Olympia" I said.
Carlisle looked relieved "thank you" he said politely.
"Why don't you try drinking animals like the Cullens?" said Kelly.
Oh no! This was exactly what I hoped wouldn't happen. I liked the Cullens but I had no intention of becoming an animal-drinking vegetarian!
"That's not my diet babe" I said hoping she'd drop the subject.
"But it could be. The Cullens have proven that you don't have to kill humans to survive" she said.
I looked at her pleading eyes. Don't say yes, don't say yes.
"Ok I'll try it" I said. You idiot! What did you say that for!
Kelly beamed her smile and threw her arms open for me. I walked over and kissed her. Hopefully once she's a vampire she'll be so desperate for human blood we can take junior and leave here for a normal life.
"Ok Cullens teach me your ways" I said. Your disgusting, weird, abnormal ways!
I saw Edward in the corner of my eye trying not to laugh at my thoughts and so a hunting party was put together leaving Esme, Renesmee and Jacob to stay with Kelly.
Drinking animal blood was more vile than I ever imagined it would be. How any vampire could be trained to live like this was a mystery. As I walked back to the house Kelly was standing at the door smiling.
"How was it?" she said.
I just grunted in response. As I approached her, her smile suddenly dropped and her eyes stared into mine as her face changed to a look of agony.
"What's wrong?" I said grabbing her.
The rest of the Cullens helped lower her to the floor as her legs began to buckle underneath her. Kelly began thrashing about, her cries incoherent.
"What's going on Carlisle is it the baby?" I said desperately.
Before he could speak Kelly found her voice.
"I'M BURNING!" she screamed.