"Well," I said after a long moment of silence, "how did your family form?"

"I was first," Carlisle said. "I was living in London and I was a hunter—a vampire hunter. When I discovered a coven of vampires in the sewer, the mob behind me and I attacked. They were faster, however. One of them bit me. I stayed hidden for three days during the painful transformation."

"Painful?" I asked. In movies, the victim was bitten and two seconds later BOOM! they were vampires.

Edward started laughing.

"What?" I groaned.

"Edward can read minds," Alice said. "But don't mind him; Edward's just a natural born smarty pants." Edward flashed a large, mocking grin in her direction.

Oh. So that's why he'd laughed. I wondered if they turned into bats…

Edward went into a rage of laughter. Alice smacked him.

"Stop!" she groaned.

"Okay," Edward said, I could see the effort it took him to keep from laughing.

"Anyway," Carlisle continued, "yes, the transformation from mortal to immortal brings three days of ridiculous pain and suffering. When I realized that I had become, I tried to destroy myself but I had no clue how difficult it would be. As you can see, I didn't succeed." He almost laughed. "I came up with a way to not be the repulsive monster I'd feared in my human life, I fed off of the blood of animals. I called it vegetarianism for vampires." This time, he did laugh.

"Then, how did the rest of the family come to be?" I asked.

"I came next," Edward said. "Carlisle found me in a hospital in Chicago back in 1901. My parents were already dead and I was dying of the Spanish Influenza. There were so many people; no one even noticed when he took me." He smiled. "I was kidnapped and no one paid enough attention to care," he teased. "None at all. I was so offended." He laughed, coughing to hide it. "When I became a vampire, I was reading the minds of mortals and immortals alike. Then, Carlisle introduced me to his ways."

"I saw Esme twice in a hospital, the second time they wheeled her straight to the morgue. She'd…er…fallen off of a cliff. Their human hearing was too poor to hear her slowly beating heart."

"He bit me," Esme said. "When I opened my eyes, I saw him. We fell in love and he was the most amazing man I'd ever met."

Carlisle wrapped his arms around Esme.

"And then I found Rosalie in the streets, she also was dying," Carlisle said.

Rosalie sighed a loud, heavy, depressed sigh. I'd never seen someone look so sad.

"I'll spare you the details," she told me. "But I will tell you that I eliminated the problem the second I was able to. I opened my eyes to this new world and I immediately knew I was the most beautiful creature alive." She took a small mirror out of her pocket and gazed at her reflection for a moment before returning to her story. Edward rolled his eyes. "Aside from the once red eyes, I suppose. These new gold ones are much more alluring."

I fought the temptation to roll my eyes like Edward had. Rosalie may be the most beautiful girl alive, but she was also the most pig headed and vain.

"I found Emmett one day," Rosalie continued, "while I was hunting. He was being mauled by a bear and I simply couldn't let him die. Something in his face—his eyes to be exact—made me have to save him. The boyishness that looked so out of place on a man's face was extremely attractive to me."

"When Rosalie found me," Emmett said, "I could've sworn I'd died and gone to heaven already. She was beautiful; she had the face I'd always imagined an angel would have. But when I was bitten, it all turned into pure, torturing hell. I couldn't exactly believe I was in hell, only because my angel always stayed with me. I knew it couldn't have been hell if an angel such as my Rose was there." He hugged Rosalie tightly and they kissed.

"Get a room," Edward murmured.

"Get an island for you and Bella, Ed," Emmett said back. His smirk that followed the statement—which I was positive was some kind of inside joke—was completely smug.

"Emmett," Bella said, "I thought we had a deal. Either you shut up or I tell Jasmine how you lost to me in an arm wrestling match. Oops! Looks like I just did."

"Bella…" Emmett was standing up.

"And even then," she said. Bella didn't look afraid of Emmett, but I was cringing into the sofa. He looked like a…like a…like a vampire. "must I remind you Emmett how many houses you and Rose knocked down?" Bella smiled an evil, sinister smile.

"That is it!" Emmett screamed.

"Emm, Emm," Rosalie was saying pulling him down. "Sit down before she says anything else. This is already getting kinda personal."

They all laughed, with the exception of Rosalie and Emmett who were looking pretty pissed off at Bella.

"Where did we leave off?" I said through hysterical laughter. I'm sorry—but it was all too funny.

"After Emmett," Alice said. "Came Jasper and I. Jasper was from the south and I was from Mississippi. A vampire at the asylum changed me when I was about to be killed by another vampire. I opened my eyes and saw my future with Jasper and our future with the Cullens. So, I led Jasper here after we met in Philadelphia in a café."

I stared at Bella.

"Bella is a…complicated story," Edward said. "We met when she was human. Her blood was the most succulent thing I'd ever smelled. We fell in love after some time and, after much pestering, I agreed to change her."

"And you made a lopsided compromise with me," Bella teased. "Remember? The before car, Edward? Did you really think me so fragile that I would need missal-proof glass and four thousand pounds of body armor?"

Edward's expression stayed blank.

"Yes," he said.

Bella's eyes narrowed as she laughed. I knew some kind of mischievous plan for revenge was forming in her head. I wasn't sure why she bothered; Edward probably already knew what it was…

"Wrong," Edward corrected. "Ever since she was human, Bella has been immune to my powers and any other vampire powers that work within the mind."

"The translated meaning of that," Bella said, "is basically that there's some sort of mental problem that went on with me and influenced my special ability. I'm a shield, I can shield anyone's mind from powers outside the shield. It comes in handy."

"So how did you turn into a vampire?" I asked. I noticed my voice was starting to sound like that of a newspaper reporter. Bah, I hated when I did that.

"Part of our compromise," continued Bella, "was that Edward was to turn me into a vampire after I starred in an amazing wedding thrown by Miss Alice over there." Bella pointed at Alice and she beamed. Her eyes sparkled with excitement from a day that might have been a thousand years ago, as far as I was concerned.

"About two years ago, actually," Edward corrected once again.

"Know-it-all," I murmured. He laughed.

"And Renesmee?" I said turning to look at her. "Alice said you were a…half breed?"

Nessie giggled.

"That's right," she said. "Momma gave birth to me when she was still human. I almost killed her because I was too strong." She shook her head in dismay and guilt. "I broke her bones and fed off of her blood to keep myself alive, I didn't realize I was draining her life in the process."

I gasped. "You still….remember that far back?"

She nodded.

"Wow." It was all I managed to say.

"The memories of vampires are strong, they remember everything. And I'm more vampire than human so," she shrugged, "I remember it all."

I studied Renesmee's features carefully.

"Your eyes were brown, Bella?" I asked suddenly. I'd meant it to be a mental question.

"Yes," she answered. Looking at her face, I could place the brown eyes perfectly. I knew she'd look beautiful with them.

"Now don't go making that sappy comment I know you were going to make on Jasmine's thoughts, Edward. We've all heard it before." Alice snickered. I'd all but forgotten that she could see the future.

"Fine," he murmured teasingly.

"And, Nessie," I continued, "you're three years old?"

She laughed. "Yup! I'm even younger than you are, Jazzy!"

I laughed too. I liked my new nickname. I also like how Nessie was so proud to admit her real age. Thinking of her as a three year old surprised me. She was a lot more mature than half the girls back at the orphanage put together.

"Jasmine," Edward said, "you're not at all concerned about out diet?"

I shook my head.

Honestly, Edward, I said in my head, it wouldn't matter to me if you fed off of humans or animals. You're still just an amazing family to me.

"Thanks, Jasmine," he told me. "Wow, you sound exactly like Bella when she was human."

"You didn't care either?" I asked her.

"Nope, not at all. Or…not really anyways," Bella admitted. "Surely, Jasmine, you must be a tad bit concerned?"

"I was," I admitted. "But I think Alice and Jasper covered the basics. You're a family of…" I searched for the word Alice had used, "vegetarian vampires, I hear? You only drink animal blood?"

Carlisle nodded. It was then that I remembered he had been the one to come up with the system in the first place.

"That explains the eyes," I murmured. I was sure that traditional vampires at least had the red eyes I'd heard they would. Rubies instead of topazes.

Edward scoffed. "Traditional vampires," he murmured.

Everyone laughed at his comment, including me.

"So," I said through laughter. "Are there any other mythological," I put air quotes around the word, "creatures I should worry about?"

The laughter cut off abruptly and everyone stared at Renesmee.

"Yeah," Nessie said. She wasn't necessarily answering my question with that—I could tell—but I knew there was something else they were going to dump on me. "I doubt we can keep Jacob and his pack away for much longer."

"Pack?" I asked.

"The werewolves," Renesmee responded matter-of-factly.

"Werewolves," I repeated and sighed. "This day is getting so unreal…."