Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight Stephenie Meyer does, however I do own any original concepts which arise in this. I do not own Brie Gwin De Luca however; she belongs to my close friend, and the incredible, frostfur72, and so give her all credit please guys!
A/N: Sorry this has taken so long guys! I recently went back to school and have been settling in, as well as being ambushed with a shit load of homework so this took ages to conceive and finish! This chapter, for a change, is in Rhett (my sort of Edward)'s POV, opposed to Nelle's. I plan on the fanfic having all the odd number chapters be in Nelle's POV, while the even number one's being in Rhett's, but things might change. This chapter will basically introduce you to the Cullen's other set of 'cousins, the Fuller/Wise gang and I hope you like them! They're coven hasn't got an official name yet, so if anyone could suggest one for me, I'd be most grateful! Hope you enjoy and please R & R!
I've never exactly been a big fan of the annual move that my family must partake in every couple of years, but it's part of the vampire lifestyle and thus, something I've become accustomed to over the years we've been together. The hardest part is probably adjusting to the new schools' we choose to attend; Damon often teases me, asking why I attend human school's if I dislike them so much, but what else is there to do? Sitting at home completely alone, with my siblings at school and parents at work, with only my history books to read and television to watch has never had any appeal to me. Sure, I can always paint and explore my artistic, creative side, but I need inspiration, and some days that is not within me.
Brie and Leon decided to set off ahead of us that morning, because they were always excited at the concept of change and both of them probably wanted to be alone together. Whenever you see Leon, Brie will never be that far away, and it works exactly the other way round. They enjoy each other's company more than any other pair of vampires I've met, and are borderline inseparable. Only Bella and Edward Cullen can possibly rival Brie and Leon's closeness. The Cullen family act as our sort of cousins in the vampire world of relationships and semi-families. Carlisle Cullen, the head of their coven, is the closest thing to a brother Quincy, my adoptive father, has ever had, meaning that our families have naturally grown close over the years.
So close in fact that we're to be meeting up this weekend for a family hunt, like we do most months. Last time we travelled to Forks to visit them, so this month they're visiting us in our new home of Northwest, North Carolina. It surprises me how long they've been able to stay in Forks but Bella's father, Charlie, lives there and they wish for him to stay close to her and Edward's daughter, Renesmee. Renesmee was conceived when Bella was still human, and thus is a vampire-human hybrid. She fascinates my father, Quincy, who plans to use her as a form of helping perfect the new drug he's trying to make. It will apparently allow vampires to conceive children and Bella and Edward have kindly allowed him to take a sample of Renesmee's DNA because she too has allowed it.
Part of me considered staying at home and phoning Edward; the two of us used to be closer than most because we were the only members of our families without mates. That changed when Edward met Bella Swan and currently I'm the only single member of either family. I will admit, I envy both my parents and my siblings who have found their soul-mates. Quincy, my father, and Letitia my mother are together; Leon has Brie, and Damon has Nora. I have no-one. But it's admittedly my fault.
I am a painstakingly picky vampire, and when it comes to mates, I am a literal nightmare. My beauty naturally attracts them, like any good predator, and I am able to captivate both humans and vampires alike, but none of them have ever truly captivated nor interested me. I have met some incredibly endearing females of both species who I've found cute or intelligent or sweet, but none of them have ever made me fall in love. I've only ever been able to make friends with other females I've met, never found my mate. My mother once attempted to pair me up with my former adoptive sister Juni, but it didn't work out. It couldn't have worked out, even if my mom didn't realise it.
Juni Carter, formerly Juni Wise, was and probably still is beautiful. Then again, what vampire isn't apart from a small minority? Not as stunning as Brie or Leon who were naturally over-attractive as humans, but still eye-catching and captivating like any good vampire must be. Her blazing golden eyes, which all of our family share due to our 'vegetarian' lifestyle, went perfectly with her chocolate brown coloured hair that hung around her shoulders. She had a fringe from her human life which would never grow out but she liked it that way. She stood at a petite 5'3" with a small waist line and skin pale as snow, which sparkled like diamonds when caught in the sunlight, like all vampires. Her facial features were sharper than that of the other girls in my family, but they made her edgily attractive. She left about eight years ago, choosing to live in Texas with two more family members of ours; Davis and Kitty.
She left because I didn't reciprocate the feelings she harboured. I think we were the first case of vampires were the female had found her mate but the male hadn't. I sadly couldn't feel the love beyond siblings towards Juni which she deeply felt for me. I hated myself for not being able to reciprocate her feelings, but they were impossible to feel back. Juni was a sweet, polite girl but she wasn't for me. Since she left she barely spoke of me, but part of me tried to believe this was for the best; I hoped she'd gotten over me and somehow managed to find her true mate. That her feelings towards me were wrong and she'd met the man for her finally, but according to Davis she'd done the exact opposite. She still loved me wholeheartedly.
Trying to push those thoughts of my ex-sibling to the back of my mind, I stared out of the car window into the open countryside and woodland which surrounded our house. Naturally we'd chosen to build our house in the middle of the woods so we would be surrounded by our animal pray, and this time we'd chosen an old-fashioned log cabin style house. It had been Nora's idea, and because the last house had been designed by me, mom figured it was her turn to design our home. Nora's idea of a home was old-fashioned with modern interior but it reflected her personality. Old-fashioned with creative touches.
I wasn't riding in my car, I wasn't even driving, and I was actually sitting in the back seat. It was Nora's car we'd taken this morning, but Damon was driving. Nora owned a white Honda Civic because she'd always been a fan of smaller car makes, because of her smallness. Damon's the only one of us she lets drive her car, but go figure; he is her husband so it's logical. They've been together for over a hundred years with no major arguments that I can remember, and trust me, I have a good memory; so it makes sense he's the only one allowed to drive her beloved Civic; even if, at 6'7", he has a near impossible time so much as fitting into the damn car.
My brother, Damon, stands at an impressively tall 6'7" all though he is forever frozen at seventeen; a factor of life which often puzzles me but apparently he inherited his ridiculously tall gene from his father who peaked seven foot tall, so it sorta figures. His skin has an olive hue to it, because his father was Spanish and his mother was from Nepal, meaning he can pass himself off as human better than the rest of us. His face is made of all sharply edged lines and strong prominent features, excluding his lips which are soft and rounded. He has a thick set of shortly cut, slightly curled dark hair and the standard golden eyes of our family.
My sister, Nora, couldn't be more different. Nora stands at a mere 5'0", almost an entire two foot smaller than Damon which makes them quite the spectacle together. Her father apparently was also small, reaching only 5'5" by adulthood, which pretty much explains why she's so tiny. She's the palest of us, a sort of ghostly white colour and therefor has to wear more make up than all of us put together or she'd never be able to pass off as a human being. Her face is soft and rounded, with dimples either side of her mouth which easily show when she smiles on of her usual smiles. Her hair is the most striking thing though; its copper coloured, like Edward's, only more on the red side and reaches just above her thighs.
That day she was wearing another one of her famously eye-catching outfits; white dress shirt, topped with an emerald green blazer, almost navy coloured skinny jeans and a pair of brown heeled boots which made it to her knee level. They'd have probably been calf length on a woman of a more average height that had size three feet but Nora had always been tiny so they made to the knee. Damon was dressed in a much more reassuringly normal style; fading grey t-shirt which was such a dark shade it almost descended into black, a simplistic silver pendent hanging around his neck and brushing against it, fully black jeans which flared outwards at then ends and weren't as tight as Nora's, with a simplistic pair of much lighter grey converses. He wore no jacket although I'd told him it'd be more intelligent to wear one because it was a cool day, at least a cool day to humans, and he'd look even more odd not wearing one. But Damon, being Damon, decided that he didn't want to wear one and arguing with him has proved futile many times before.
I guess I'd picked a fairly sensible outfit for that day as well; I don't like wearing as dark colours as Leon, Brie and Damon choose, but no way was I going for the bright, blinding shades Nora likes, I prefer the paler colours but combine them with darker ones. And I've never been one for too much pattern or logoing, unlike my siblings. I chose a simple dark jacket, a sort of misty grey colour, a little lighter than Damon's shirt, which I wasn't sure of the texture of, navy blue t-shirt and a pair of much lighter, sort of cloudy blue, jeans with a pair of white converses. Leaning back into the seats of the car, trying to make myself more comfortable, I stared out of the window. The light streamed through it gently and hit the skin on my hand, causing it to erupt into a glistening mass of shining, like a thousand diamonds had been neatly embedded underneath the surface of my skin.
Sighing, I looked upwards at the sun and closed my eyes, concentrating lightly on focusing my power entirely on it. Like the rest of my family, bar Quincy my father, I had acquired a gift. Like most, I acquired it after being turned, with only Leon having his ability of electrokinesis during his human life. I had acquired a power simply known as 'twilight manipulation', the ability to control both the dark and the light. The moon and the sun all rolled into one. Focusing my power directly on the glimmering sun in the sky, I made it dull itself, relaxing its hazy glow and letting the cold fully seep into the air. It may have been a chilly day, but with the sun still wholesomely shining in the sky, we were still all in danger of being discovered. Upon this notion, I heard the gentle sound of Nora softly moving round in her seat.
"Thanks for that!" Her thick, Irish accent immediately made the sentence sound happier and I couldn't help but break out into a smile. For some reason, Nora's smiles always acted infectious to all she met, even if she could be the solely most annoying being in existence. I wasn't closest to Nora by any means, and I doubt I ever will be; Leon is the one I have the most in common with and the one I can easily talk to on a daily basis, but Nora could cheer up a bear with a sore head, so it's just something about her.
"No problem…" I shrugged slightly and looked up at her. "Excited, aren't you? Meeting all those new people, making all those friends."
"Oh, of course!" Nora stated matter-of-factually, a proud smile erupting on her beautiful face. "I love meeting the humans and getting to know them! It makes me feel almost as if I'm one again!" Unlike some, such as my adoptive cousin Rosalie Hale, Elenora Mainer, more commonly known as Nora even in her human years, was thrilled to become a vampire. Her happiness after transformation seems to seep onto others and make them enjoy their new lifestyle, even though it isn't her special gift.
Nora's 'gift' is similar to another vampire who is now deceased by the name of Victoria, simply known as 'enhanced self-preservation'. In Nora's case it stems from her naturally ability to hide as a human, due to people being hostile towards she and her father's lifestyle of circus performers. When she was turned it stemmed into something entirely of its own and pretty much makes her the world's hide-and-seek champion. Even Brie, the fastest one in our family, has a hard time catching her when we train together she's that good. Nora was born in Darkley, Armagh in Northern Ireland which explains the accent. That was where the family met her and, because of her turning, she could never grow out of the thick accent she picked up as a human, and still to this day makes no attempt to imitate an American one. Nora has the vocal mimicry talent of a dead mole, and cannot cover up her incredibly prominent Irish one to save her life. The same cannot be said for me.
I was born in England, and actually spent the first good sixty years of being a vampire traveling around the United Kingdom, but I usually choose to put on an American accent which convinces others. Sure, there are traces of an English undertone in it, but most people don't pay attention to it. I mean, when you're a vampire, people have a tendency to notice your looks first, personality later. Everyone has their own shallow side, especially vampires, so I don't care too much when the human girls and boys stare at me. I only start caring if they begin to persistently harass and borderline stalk me everywhere I go.
Although lately, even my families seemed a little bit odder than normal, and we're an openly odd family, not including the vampire side of course. Quincy, aka dad, was totally wrapped up in developing his new 'vampire child enabling drug' as we'd nicknamed it; Letitia, aka mum, was busy settling into her new job as a nurse working in a children's ward at Northwest Hospital; and my siblings were obviously invested in the normal things for them. With Brie it was her appearance and Leon, with Leon it was his human family visiting in a couple of weeks and Brie, with Nora it was meeting new humans at school and Damon and with Damon it was training tonight and Nora. I had nothing much to occupy myself with, bar school, and even that didn't seem to appeal to me too much. I've never been a big fan of starting new schools, but it only gets worse when you start having to turn down the human girls and see the looks of upset or anger on their faces. At times like that I'm thankful I don't have Edward's telepathy.
When we arrived at the school, it was pleasantly small. I'd never been a big fan of huge, bustling schools with hundreds of students, and cramped conditions. Northwest Overman High consisted of five matching buildings made of coppery coloured worn bricks, as if it needed to be rebuilt, and one slightly smaller building made of white plaster which I immediately guessed was the gym. I figured the gym must have been rebuilt because it looked different and newer than the other's. It was clouded with an open surrounding of woodland and shrubbery, being built on the edge of the stretch of woods which eventually led to our home.
I quickly spotted Brie and Leon, but then again, they're pretty hard to miss on the mistiest of days. They were standing by Leon's bike, talking to each other, their bodies a couple of centre meters apart. Leon stood at 6'2", two inches taller than me, while Brie reached 5'8" being the tallest female in our family. Like the rest of our family, bar our patriarch and leader, Leon and Brie possessed special abilities. Leon had electrokinesis in life which passed onto him after death, only enhanced his control; while Brie was something incredibly rare in her own right. A shapeshifter. She could change into different people and the odd couple of animals, but usually just used them to make herself look like different forms of people so she could move around without people realising who she truly was.
She was still going by the name of Brie Gwin Fuller, but didn't look like her true self. She still was the obviously most beautiful member of our small family unit, but had edited herself slightly so she couldn't be traced. Her once mid-back length, straight as wood, pitch black hair which had a fringe with the tips dyed a light shade of blonde, was now no longer like that. It still reached her mid-back length, however had edited to a chocolate fudge colour and although straight, curled itself slightly at the ends, with the fringe now gone and had a simple centre parting, openly displaying her breath-taking features. Her golden eyes, a trademark of a vegetarian vampire, matched the hair perfectly and her slender, graceful figure was dressed in a pale pair of icy blue jeans, a white tank-top styled shirt which dipped and showed her cleavage slightly, with a lavender leather jacket coating her upper body with a pair of beige heeled boots on her feet which met her calf.
Leon stood towering slightly over her, his slender build looking shockingly pale compared to his darkly coloured clothing. He had a deep grey-green hoodie, pitch black t-shirt with the Five Finger Death Punch band logo covering the centre, and greyish coloured jeans with blackish-blue bovver boots. His golden blonde hair glinted slightly in the sunlight, matching his eyes almost as perfectly as Brie's altered hair matched her own. It was cut short, coming down to about his ear length and was a lot neater than my own. His tattoos which he'd acquired in his human life were covered up by clothing and his build looked slightly more muscular than my own, because of the events leading up to his own almost death. Leon's face was composed of entirely sharp, sculpted angels and defined features, much more notably sharper than my own and even Damon's, which makes him the second most attractive member of our family, being only beaten by Brie.
Naturally, most of the Northwest Overman High School students were staring at them, but their eyes quickly averted to us the second the car came to a halt in an empty parking space and we all stepped out to make the spectacle even more shocking. After three hundred and nineteen years of life, you're used to the reactions of humans when they first see you, which explained why Leon and Brie simply chose to ignore them and wrap themselves up in their own little world. The odd member of the student body cast me a look but most of them were directed at the others. I guess I'm apparently the most normal one of us, so it's my job to be overlooked. Til' the girls find out I'm single, then I'm suddenly the one everyone pays attention.
I guessed that once upon a time, Damon, Nora, Brie and maybe even Leon suffered from the constant harassment of human's attracted to them for their looks and interesting traits, but I've been suffering with such troubles for precisely three hundred and nineteen years. I've adjusted to it. Every once in a while someone will try a new technique which will amuse, maybe even impress me, but I've never met the human, or even vampire, who is my true soul mate and will spend the rest of existence with me. That is the true reason why I've envied those such as Brie, Leon, Damon and Nora, and even our former family members Davis and Kitty for finding their true loves who they can be totally happy with. Even though they departed over thirty years before, I still admit I miss the two of them.
Davis 'Davy' Vance was turned by my adoptive father, Quincy, about a hundred years before I was, being well over four hundred years old. He flitted between our family for many years, and when I first joined he was gone, off exploring the rest of the developing world. When he returned, about ten years later, he had bought someone back with him; a young, Spanish vampire named Katarina Vance after taking on his surname, but she quickly acquired the nickname 'Kitty' due to her quick, agile, cat-like grace and fondness for the animals, which she refused to feed from. They stayed with us from then on until about thirty eight years ago Davy came to the decision that he wanted to resume his traveling, care free lifestyle and the two set off once more; they pop in every once in a while, but I have a feeling it'll be quite some time before they decide to stay with us again. Davy always preferred to have his own space, opposed to being stuck with us, so it's logical he'd want to be alone with Kitty. But I figured I had the right to envy them, just for once in my incredibly long life.
Lessons bought pretty much nothing to me, except a basic repeating of some things I knew, and the occasional thing I didn't. At Northwest Overman the Junior year's History class were taught about the Stone Age, which was a pretty nice change from most of the high school's I'd ever attended over points of my life. Luckily, Brie had chosen similar subjects to me, so in classes the teacher usually placed us together and I wasn't forced to sit next to some poor human girl who stared at me like I was Jesus reincarnate. In English I was stuck in one of those unfortunate situations, next to a small, brunette girl named Joanne Taylor who spent most of the hour lesson asking me questions about where I'd lived before I moved to Northwest and generally trying to pass herself off as more interesting than she truly was. I didn't hate her persistent questions or talking, I just pitied her really. The way she felt like she had to make herself seem more interesting or exciting to make me pay interest.
The others had a much more pleasant time as far as I'd heard back from them when we all grouped back together when the lunch break reared its usual head. We picked the seat furthest away from the window for obvious reasoning, which was located off to the side, nearest the exit doors; maybe it showed something that if a gaggle of students came up to us to interrogate us about who we were and what we were up to, we'd have a fair break which enabled us to look human. When I first arrived to the table, Nora was missing from it, but it didn't surprise me. Her, being a typical social butterfly, would be talking to her newest human best friend and we all knew it. Only Leon and Damon sat at the table by my arrival, but Brie arrived a matter of a minute later from her art class and took her place next to Leon.
We always sat in the same formation at our chosen lunch table at every school we ever attended, on the right hand side of the table would be Leon and Brie, whilst on the left it would go me, Damon and Nora on the end because she could fit. It helped that these tables were shaped like rectangles opposed to circles, or Leon and I would practically be brushing elbows when we sat down. With someone of Leon's height, Damon's muscle and Brie's fussiness, a small circular table would make hell on earth come to us because we'd be bickering like cat's and mice. A plate of pasta, tomato sauce, topped off with cheese sat in front of me but I'd barely touched it; eating was unnecessary but I tried to make myself eat some so I seemed a little more human. Plates of chicken salads sat in front of both Leon and Brie, who were surprisingly tucking in quite well, but Damon only had a drink of water. He never ate much at school, often claiming to the friends he made that he preferred to eat at home because he felt more comfortable. For someone like him, he isn't at all the 'tall, idiotic giant' which many people see him as.
"How was that Taylor girl in English?" Typical for Brie to start off the conversation, especially when it comes to the smallest hint of me finding my romantic interest. I could practically feel Damon and Leon's ears pick up, and typically, Leon commented on this first.
"What Taylor girl?" He asked, staring from between me and his wife.
"The girl who sat next to me in English…" I muttered half-heartedly. "She was pleasant enough but a little bit annoying…" It all came out as a sort of sighing sound and all three of my adoptive siblings sighed, a collective eye roll and eyebrow raise went up around the table. "Look!" I insisted. "It was nothing personal; she just wasn't really my type!" I sighed. "She seemed too desperate to try and make herself interesting and even if I did go out with her, it would never have truly lasted!"
"You're too fussy!" Damon laughed, rolling his eyes, causing Leon and Brie to laugh themselves, a collective 'that's so Rhett' aura immersing around the table. I knew we got a few glances from fellow students for that, but only a couple actually bothered to stare before getting bored, simply because they had no clue what we were even laughing about. Their laughs were strongly distinctive as ever; Damon's a low, booming growl, Leon's a sharp, cynical bark and Brie's a light, fluttering melody. When they'd calmed down enough to regain their composure, I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders, trying to ignore them. This was a common source of humour amongst my siblings; I'd grown used to their regular teasing over the subject of dating.
"At least he has standards." Leon hit me on the arm and grinned at me, his face looking twice as handsome whenever it twisted into a sarcastic, dangerous type smile. "I think I'd personally have him fussy as heck, rather than some idiot who'd date any pretty girl who said a couple nice things, right?" Brie nodded at her husband and smiled herself, her entire facing blooming into a perfectly sculpted flower, her golden eyes glittering.
"Of course." She reached over and grasped hold of my hand. "You just have to wait for the right person to come along, I sure did, but the payoff was worth it!" She glanced back at Leon and I had a horrible feeling they'd go off into their own private world, or, even more terrifying, end up kissing in public. And when I say 'kissing', I mean a full blown make out session between the two of them. Thank god Nora turned up at that moment to save my dignity.
"Hey guys!" Her voice pretty much erupted throughout the entire dining room, but its infections tone made all four of us break out into a smile. She was waving insanely, her coppery coloured hair bouncing around her head with the sheer amount of gusto she was putting into it. And of course, in typical Nora fashion, she had someone accompanying her. The girl stood about six inches about Nora and was significantly plumper, although nowhere near obese or even fat. Her face was soft and pleasant, with a definite prettiness about her, and outlined in a cascade of strawberry blonde curls which reached her mid back. Her skin was fair in tonnage and she had a collection of freckles about her which made her slightly cuter than she would be if she didn't possess them; her eyes were a warm, almost comforting fudge brown colour and looked down at the ground almost shyly. She was dressed in a pair of slightly darkening blue jeans, with a paler sky blue t-shirt and a blue jacket, which's shade, was the colour of the sea in winter and finished off her mainly blue outfit. I swallowed and turned away after getting a good look. I've never been too fond of Nora's human buddies.
"Who's this?" Brie didn't sound as hostile as she had on some occasions because the girl wasn't threatening to her in beauty stakes. On at least one occasion Nora made an impeccably beautiful friend, Brie was in one of the foulest moods I've ever seen her in, and barely ever talked to the girl, ignoring her pretty much all the time. I can't even remember her name; she was beautiful with her raven black curls, Siberian husky blue eyes and paling skin, but was shallow and even vainer than Brie at times. On this occasion, Brie sounded more curious than hostile.
"This!" Elenora raised her hands above her head in theatrical mannerisms, "Is Nelle Hillon!" Hillon, that surname rung a bell and I eventually remembered where it was from several hours later. She was the daughter of one of my adoptive mother's colleagues at work, kinda nifty I guess. Little did I know how much this seemingly average girl was going to change my life in so many ways…