AN: So there seems to be a little interest in this story. I'd appreciate a beta, so if you're interested, please let me know. I'm sure there's glaring mistakes in the first chapter, so you can see what I need help with.
Obviously I'm not Stephanie Meyer, I'm not averse to lemons.
Jared had told me about himself during the drive. His full name was Jared Cameron and he had a girlfriend called Kim. He then proceeded into a soliloquy of her beauty, kindness and incredible sweetness. I would make a point to meet this deity. By the time I could see a small cabin set in the woods, I was considering coupling with her myself, given his enthusiasm.
The cabin had pretty flowers hung from rectangle containers at the windows and a covered wooden open entrance to a door. It was another home that didn't resemble my safe black haven. More barriers dividing mankind from the elements. I supposed I would need to divide myself from the elements soon too. The Sun Goddess had risen into the sky and I thought sadly how at home I would be welcoming her to a new day in prayer right now. All powerful and all knowing, she smiled down on me benevolently despite my failure to worship her.
Sam opened my door and I grasped the door frame to assist my balance as I pulled myself out of Jared's lap. I saw a group of six young men, approximately my age looking at me in awe. My mind shrunk from the attention but the ever opportunistic Siren sought a mate. She hungered for these fine examples of manhood. My eyes dilated, my heart sped up and I felt my temperature rise. The Siren playfully strutted past their wide eyes and I retained enough control to keep her from approaching them and embarrassing myself any further. I was going to need to gain a tighter leash on my impulsive Siren. As it was, my baser instincts was rather pleased with the male attention, anticipating a successful hunt.
Following Jared's amused lead, I entered the creaking door. I was entering the belly of the beast. An actual home of actual humans. How had this come about so quickly? I wasn't adequately prepared but I couldn't bring myself to exhibit further weakness.
The cabin revolved around the kitchen. Bluntly cut wood and worn furnishings seemed to watch me attentively. Without the water of life to cradle them, they needed many belongings. And standing in the kitchen was their Queen. Scars down her cheek indicated that she had fought despite her quiet demeanor. Any human that had survived such an attack as her scars indicated, I would be wise to be wary of. I sensed full respect from Jared, Sam and Seth towards her. She had similar colouring the men but was the picture of soft femininity. She paused from her work in the kitchen for Sam pulled her into a loving embrace and dotted her face with many intimate kisses. With that, she turned her gaze on me. I politely avoided eye contact until I had bowed my head to her.
"You must be Nova! It's nice to meet you!" She offered me a warm smile that I returned to the best of my ability. I felt inner pain as she resembled Electra, my mother. Gentle and calm, she was her own haven of peace. I longed for my mother's comfort in this strange land. She might only be human, but I missed the ease and comfort of being in a place where my instincts weren't calling me to do things against my better judgement. I longed for the camaraderie and acceptance of many females. Maybe I could rebuild that in my new life? Was that possible? I hoped so.
"I'm Emily Young, Sam's fiancè." She returned too working in the kitchen. Fiancè, was it another word for a deity or sovereign? I wasn't familiar enough with the workings of a kitchen to guess what she was doing. I eagerly moved forward to observe her labours; I would need to learn to prepare my own food in my own kitchen once I found lodging. I noted her exchanging a look of surprise and intrigue with Sam. "So... how did you come to be stranded in the woods? Wait, before you answer that, barbecue sauce or apple for the pork chops?"
"Pockchups?" My comprehension was better than my spoken English, but I could not recall pockchops.
Her smile broke ever wider. "I'll go with apple to surprise you then. You didn't run away from anywhere did you?" Her high voice was reassuring and achingly familiar.
"I make big mistake. I'm deport- no, no right word. Right word ... eject?" I displayed forcefully pushing against the air. "Push out." I just felt safe to tell her anything. The past day and night alone on the road was the longest I had ever spent from my own kind. I had never spent so much time alone. I was dying for a friendly comforting face. I was sorely tempted to tell her everything.
"I'm sorry. That must be hard for you." She expressed a sympathetic look around her scar and I could almost forget the three men and standing nearby.
"Why were you... pushed out?" Sam inquired with a stoic face pulling me out of my brief respite. I was reminded that I was an outsider and he was gathering information.
I stared at him deciding much more carefully what I could share with him. Finally exhaling, I realized that I didn't want to share any information with him. Goddess help me, the more he pushed me the more I could see that he was a threat.
"I think the word you're looking for is banished. That's quite unusual these days." Emily inserted herself gently, offering me chopped vegetation from a flat wooden block. I felt myself relax as Sam backed away with an admonishing look from Emily. "You don't seem like a trouble maker to me. What could you do to get into so much trouble?" She was warm and kind and friendly and I could melt right into her.
"You no belief me."
"Try me." She said seriously. I stared at her while I thought about it. I wanted to. Maybe I could explain a round about way. She felt familiar and motherly. Like home, my people. But I needed to learn so much more and I wouldn't betray my people anymore than I already have.
"Can't. Cut long yarn short. I almost kill someone." I decided I should at least tell them the worst of it.
She looked taken aback. I was disappointed, but I shouldn't be.
"How?"
How should I answer that question? With my hands? I wouldn't say that. "It's complicated."
She gave me an understanding nodded and continued to move gracefully around the kitchen. Sam had sent away the men standing out front of the cabin.
"So, where are you from?"
Having given the subject more thought, I decided that my people were most aligned with the islands. I was quite familiar with the islands culture. "Northern Mariana Islands. I grow up with Chamorro." I hoped my blatant lying wasn't as obvious to everyone else as it seemed to be to me.
"See? That wasn't so hard. Could someone look that up for me please?" Emily cooed. I looked up at the ceiling but couldn't find anything. I looked around to see no one else was looking at the ceiling.
Seth and Jared were laughing at something until they saw Sam behind me and Seth immediately left. These people were strange.
"How did you get here?" Emily asked conversationally. She seemed to easily continue conversation while working on something that appeared to be complex to me.
"Swim." I answered pre-occupied as I watched her carefully. She laughed and then the room grew quiet. She mixed liquids and powders in containers and cooked them in pots on the cooker. She pulled cooked meat out of the door of the cooker. As time passed, many men came into the cabin. I was struck by how similar they all looked to each other. They teased each other and yelled rambunctiously. They were like soldiers who had spent a great deal of time together.
We were settling down to eat when Seth entered. "Jared, she was telling the truth. She's American. She's from near Guam." He flashed me a big smile and I felt myself relax. Finally, I had a decent cover story. "Matriarch society huh? You don't look indigenous." I shrugged unable to explain that away. It was better they made assumptions about me rather than be caught in a lie. "I read that your mother's brother raise children. Uncles have the role that our fathers play in our lives."
"My mother has no brother." I pointed out. "My father had his own people." I hoped that explained enough. "Here?" It was better to learn their ways and direct attention away from me.
The men were shoveling food back so quickly I had barely had a chance to put any food on my plate. I ate a lot at home too, but not so quickly and I was sure I was more polite. I focused on being grateful that they were feeding me. There were just so many of them. Seven faces whose names I didn't know. I had been introduced, but the names had slipped away as quickly as they were called. I did know Sam, Jared, Seth and then Emily.
"The man and woman start a new family here. Traditionally, the man was in charge." Jared explained.
"Emily look in charge to me." I observed aloud. The table paused with some wide smiles and Emily's skin darkened nicely as she tried to hide her face. I couldn't guess why.
"Interesting observation." Sam benevolently at her.
"Who's joining me cliff diving?" Jared changed the subject. A raucous unanimous consent was reached.
"You'll love it!" Seth told me.
My stomach dropped, I could not go in the water. There wasn't any way to leave the water with legs instantaneously. "No." I shook my head adamantly. "I find lodge and job in Forks." I was sticking to the plan and distracting them from the cliff diving.
Sam and Jared looked between each other. As though trying to make a decision.
"What qualifications do you have?" Emily asked helpfully.
"Quali-?"
"What can you do?" She reframed the question for me.
"I shrugged." I didn't have any idea where to begin.
"There's not a lot of unskilled jobs around here. Do you mind if I ask why you need to go to Forks? Do you have someone you're going to be staying with there?" I sensed the table listening in on our conversation despite low conversations.
"My mother come here for me. I wait one year."
"After breakfast, I'll take you down to an elder to see what they can do for you." Sam decided.
"Why are you helping?"
Sam and Jared tensed. "Just a sixth sense." I didn't like the sound of that.
By the end of the day, I was renting a room in Tiffany Call's house in La Push at a rate I was assured was affordable. I hadn't met her son yet. And so I awkwardly waited in her living room at the a clock ticked on the mantel. She had made hot, strong, bitter drink that she called coffee and offered me what she called cookies; they were sweet tasting disks.
Tiffany was an attractive woman, I would guess that she was in her early to mid thirties. She had shoulder length black hair, light brown eyes and light skin. The carried an anxious atmosphere about her that called me to want to protect her. I sensed that she had had some rough years. From the pictures, she didn't appear to have sisters or a mother or other adults to help her. It seemed to be just her and a shy looking boy. I hoped that maybe we could be close. Maybe we could fill a gap of sisterhood in each others lives. But judging by the gaping void between us so far, I had my doubts. My English was limited and she appeared to be unsettled around me.
The house was decorated with many floral patterns. I thought it nice to be surrounded by flowers. It suited Tiffany perfectly.
She left me in the living room to make dinner telling me to watch teevee. I wasn't sure what teevee was, so I watched out the front window at the empty street. Each house lining the street was divided by space, keeping the humans living quarters far apart. At home, we clustered together inside of a vast space. We didn't want more space. We liked to touch. And yet the humans seemed to avoid touching. I wondered what else was different. If I spent long enough periods for enough years, I could become one of them. Could a time ever come when I would want to be one of them? I just didn't want to be alone and could never return to the Sirens. But if I didn't join the humans, I would always be alone.
I felt like crying. Alone or divided in neat little cells. Couldn't I go back and leave that nice Mr Vampire alone?
That's when a tall, dark and handsome man walking up the street turned down the walkway. I noticed that this group of men, spent their time shirtless. Most of the men I saw aside from this group, opted to wear shirts. They seemed oblivious to the weather and they were warmer than everyone else. Was it possible that it had something to do with the creatures that kept vampires out of La Push?
I stood back from the window as he walked through the door. "Embry?" I asked. His eyes trailed down my body quickly before he raised his eyes to smile at me.
"That would be me! And you must be Nova. Our new boarder. Did you already bring everything up to your room?" His low voice reverberated through me. I was tempted to seduce him for a moment before my sanity won out.
"She just had a back pack. Poor girl!" Tiffany lamented from the kitchen.
"Travel light?" I wouldn't call the large bag traveling light. I didn't used to travel with anything. I decided to keep that little gem to myself.
"I got a call from your Calculus teacher Embry; I'm not happy! We will be talking about that later. Now, take out the garbage for me, dinner will be ready in five minutes." Embry looked up and appeared to be having a pained conversation with the ceiling. Again? Why would people reference the ceiling? I looked up at the ceiling intently but couldn't find anything up there but white paint.
Embry paid me an odd look and then grinned. He walked with slightly stooped shoulders as though to melt into the shadows. I followed him as he took black plastic sacks out to the street. I noticed that quite a few houses had done the same. I wondered was the purpose was of this. Was this a trade? What would the Call's receive in return?
He was rambling something about school and attendance. It seemed to be of importance to everyone except Embry.
Soon we were sitting down for dinner of spaghetti. It was sufficient. The Call's attempted to make conversation. I paid close attention wishing to improve my English.
At the end of dinner, all I really wanted was to bathe and sleep. Excusing myself, I went upstairs to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I was looking forward to a much better bathing experience the shower in the change rooms in Hoquaim. I submerged myself under water as my skin shimmered softly to a familiar pattern. It was heavenly.
Through the water I heard a knock came at the door. "Honey, will you be long in there? I was expecting you to take a short shower. But that sounds like a bath." Tiffany asked the door in her hand wringing manner. I felt as though I had been caught with blood on my hands. I pulled my head out of the water quickly. Panic struck and I let out an artless squeak that in no way resembled a human voice. I threw my hands over my mouth recoiling from the sound of my voice echoing off the tiles.
"What was that?" Embry was clearly worried. "Is something in there?"
"I'll be-" I cut short as my voice was still too high and tight. Only dogs would hear that. I cleared my throat and tried a few octaves lower for a human voice. "I'll be just a minute. I'm just washing my hair."
"Thank you sweetie! I'll give you fifteen minutes." I heard her walk away.
Embry waited suspiciously close to the door. I held my breath waiting for him to walk away or break the door down. But he did neither. "Nova, can we talk when you come out? I'm calling Jacob while I wait."
I nodded nervously before realizing that he couldn't see me. "Yes, Embry." I said breathlessly exhaling my held breath. How was I going to dry off in fifteen minutes? I felt dizzy.
I'm undecided if this should be an imprint story. Could you vote in my poll? Those that are interested in me continuing, please leave a review. I'm drifting here because I'm really not sure if the concept is so weird that it just doesn't work. I'm trying to see if I can give this an edge of reality. And slowly shift her view of men as disposable. Please let me know what you think.