Thanks to everyone who's added my story to their favourites or alerted it, and thanks to those of you who took the time to review! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it so far! Sorry if sometimes I take long to update- I've been busy lately with rock climbing and family stuff, not to mention like twenty tests in school, but I'll have winter break to hopefully write a lot! Also, I decided to have a short scene in this chapter that would be one of the first not to have at least one of the main characters. I hope you like it!
While the transformation had been the most painful for Tayla, it had been the first time Alice had seen what normally occurs, and it hadn't been easy for her at all. When Bella had been changed, she lay perfectly still the entire time, the only signs that she was still alive being her heart beat and the slight twitch of her fingers for a second. With Tayla, she screamed for over two days straight.
The second Alice had realized it was too late to save Tayla as a human, she had controlled her thirst as best she could and knelt down next to the girl, who was just beginning to comprehend the pain. It started as a quiet whimpering, and then the screams broke loose. Alice had to force herself not to cover her ears or leave, but it was hard, even more so when Tayla began begging for death. At first she had screamed wordlessly, unable to form coherent thoughts or words. It was like that for the first several hours, and those hours were actually the easiest for Alice to sit through, it easy is the right term.
About six hours after beginning the transformation, Tayla had been feeling the pain for long enough to be able to focus on forming words in her mind. The sounds changed, becoming more like extremely violent sobs with louder screams mixed in every few seconds. A few minutes after she started sobbing, Tayla was finally able to get a word out, and so she began to cry and scream for Alice to kill her and end the pain.
It was all Alice could do not to comply. Besides, it's difficult to kill someone already so far into the transformation. The venom makes every part of them exponentially stronger until the pain begins to ebb away. To kill Tayla, Alice would have needed to do it much like disposing of a regular vampire, ripping her apart and burning the pieces, but it would have taken longer to separate the limbs, which in turn would have caused the pain to worsen until it was done. That could have taken hours, and besides, Alice wasn't going to kill her after bothering to find her and save her. Because of that, Alice stayed by her side for the entire time, while Tayla screamed and cried and begged for death a hundred times over.
The screams only got worse when the burning changed for Tayla. It began to recede from her fingertips, but only got hotter in her heart. Her shrieks turned wordless once again and became louder and more frequent. This continued until the moment the fire stopped, and then Tayla lay there for the next several seconds, unmoving with her eyes shut tightly. When she opened them, she shot to her feet in a fraction of a second, suddenly aware of everything around her. Every leaf on the ground she could see its intricate design perfectly; every drop of dew on the grass was like a crystal, reflecting light in a thousand ways she had never seen before; and most frightening of all, she could see the sun sparkling on her pale white skin as it broke through the thick cover of foliage.
In the next half second, Tayla realized a few more things. One, she wasn't breathing, and she felt no discomfort at that fact at all, although she quickly took in a small breath. Second, her throat was burning in the different way than it had been before, like she hadn't had anything to drink in weeks. Third, she had just been burning alive, and the person that stood mere meters away from her had done nothing to help. Her natural newborn instincts taking over, she did the most expected thing. She attacked.
Alice had seen it coming of course, and danced to the side to avoid her. Tayla attacked her a few more times before seeming to get her thoughts in order to realize that it would do no good. She kept a few feet away, having never seen this new person before, and studied her curiously. She was very short, barely even making five feet, with spiky black hair and dark golden eyes. Her face seemed kind, welcoming even, though she made no move forward. They stayed that way for the next three seconds until Alice spoke.
"I'm sure you're very scared and confused right now," she had said, surprising Tayla with her voice, which sounded almost too high, too bell-like. "One thing I can promise you is that you're safe with me. I won't let anything happen to you from now on if you come back with me."
Tayla had taken a moment to consider what she was saying. On one hand, she didn't know who this girl was, and she had ignored her screams begging for death. On the other hand, not only did she seem to know what was going on, and she was Tayla's best way to figure it out, there was a strange feeling of trust that settled over her when she thought rationally. And so, placing her trust and her life in this stranger, Tayla accepted the offer of help.
Now, she waited for Alice to return, feeling bad that she would be running off, but she figured it was the only way. Besides, there was no way she could stay in that house around the half-human any longer. She had been told that Renesmee was not coming back for a few days, spending time on the Reservation with Jacob instead. Tayla was perfectly fine with that- she could still remember how her throat burned when she was in the room.
The young girl was incredibly tense while she waited, because she did so while sitting on the sofa in the living room, with half of the Cullens there with her, not including Alice and Jasper, who had yet to return. Edward and Bella were still at their cottage, and the remaining four sat around her in silence. Esme sat on the couch next to her, but kept her distance, knowing she wasn't terribly comfortable with the situation. Carlisle's sat on Esme's other side, both of them pretending they were watching the television, which Emmett had turned on. He sat on the chair next to the couch, very focused on the football game that was showing.
The other member of the family who remained was Rosalie, and she was very obviously staring at Tayla, her expression unreadable. She looked as if she were simply assessing the girl, trying to decide what to make of her. Tayla never looked at her; she never looked at anyone. Instead she let her eyes travel swiftly around the room, over and over again, half trying to decide how to make her escape, and half genuinely curious.
According to what Alice had told her earlier, they had been living in Forks for many years, and they had almost completely avoided detection, with the exception of Bella and the wolves, and of course other nomads passing through. She knew that the biggest contributor to this factor was not the overcast weather, but the incredible self-control the Cullens displayed. It had been difficult enough for Tayla with Renesmee, and she wasn't even fully human. They had been living around humans, going to school with them, even socializing with them for years, not to mention all their years in other towns and cities. And that was nothing compared to what Carlisle was doing- working in a hospital, being around blood every single day, and never once coming close to losing control. Tayla couldn't even imagine herself ever having that type of control, but Alice assured her time and time again that it would become easy over the years.
There was another thing Tayla found very interesting. While not the case with every immortal, many of the Cullens had... gifts, powers unique to each vampire. Alice could see the future, Edward could read minds, Bella was a shield against gifts affecting the mind, Jasper could influence moods, and she was told that Renesmee could project images into your head with one touch. Of course every vampire had their recognizable quality that had been enhanced during the change, some just took on more supernatural ones. As far as everyone knew, Tayla had no special gift, but she may just have not discovered it yet. Some gifts aren't always as obvious as ones like Alice's and Edward's.
At that moment, Tayla half turned her head as Alice danced into the room with Jasper following at her heels. Instantly she felt more at ease, and that wasn't even with help from Jasper. It was that strange feeling Tayla got that she could trust Alice, and she felt more comfortable anyways with her around, seeing as she had been traveling with her for those few days.
"I hope we didn't miss anything exciting," Alice said as she settled down on the ground in front of the couch, even though there was plenty of room for her next to Tayla. "Oh, I love the new dress Tayla! I found it while shopping in Olympia a few weeks ago, and I'm so glad it fits you. You know, that color really suits you."
Tayla had to smile. It didn't take long to get to know these things about Alice. It had taken the young girl approximately thirty minutes of talking to know that she more than loved to shop, and often took day trips to Olympia or Port Angeles for the better stores.
"Well, I guess I'm lucky you have such good taste," she replied, adding with a laugh, "I bet you'd pick out better clothes for me than my mom did."
Alice let out one of her tinkling laughs, and was quickly joined by most of the others, who were glad the situation had lightened up. Tayla hadn't even noticed Jasper standing next to the couch, and was slightly startled when he spoke.
"Rosalie," he said her name, almost in a warning. Tayla looked up to her to see that her gaze had not shifted since she last made eye contact. When Jasper spoke, she sighed, and finally looked away.
"Sorry," she mumbled, before disappearing upstairs. Emmett turned from the game as if to follow her, but Alice jumped in before he could.
"I think I should go talk to her this time," she said, and took off up the stairs without waiting for an answer.
The whole No-Cullens-Allowed rule on the Reservation never seemed to apply to Renesmee. Whether it was the fact that she wasn't fully vampire, or that Jacob had imprinted on her, or that she was generally likeable, she was free to come as go as she pleased. That ended up being very useful when she had need to stay away from the house for a few days, until Tayla could be ready to have her around. After a conversation with Bella and Edward, Jacob had agreed it was safest for her with him, and so he phased just outside their house and quickly but carefully took her across the border. He phased back when they were within walking distance of his house, but still carried her on his shoulders.
"So Nessie, what do you want to do for the next few days?" Jacob asked her. Instead of replying out loud, Renesmee pressed her hand down to his cheek to send him images of what she wanted to do.
Swimming, playing on the beach, visiting Emily, seeing Quil and Embry and Seth, beating Jacob at video games...
The images ended with the party they were having that night. It wasn't exactly a party, it was more of a get together. Even though he, Quil, Embry, Seth and Leah were in their own pack, they still hung out with Sam's pack frequently. After the confrontation with the Volturi, the tension between them had disappeared completely. They knew that they couldn't become one pack again- Jacob couldn't go back to being a follower- but being in two worked just fine for them. Wolves from either pack generally listened to either chief, but they listened to their leader for the final word. Then again, there wasn't much they needed to do that required orders. After the Volturi left, the young members of Sam's pack ceased to phase, as they weren't needed anymore. Those who remained were the original pack, Sam, Jared, Paul, Colin, Brady, and then Quil, Embry, Seth and Leah with Jacob. They did patrols every once in a while, but Jacob spent a good portion of his time at the Cullens with Renesmee. It wasn't easy for him to be away from her.
A question floated into Jacob's mind, courtesy of the girl on his shoulders. How long do I get to stay with you?
Jacob himself wasn't a hundred percent sure of the answer. Someone would call him when it was safe for Renesmee to return, but even Alice had a hard time judging when that would be. For the time being, she would be staying at Jacob's house. Then again, he barely even called it that anymore, because he often slept in the woods in wolf form near the Cullens house, in case anything happened with Renesmee, although nothing ever did. However, Billy always welcomed him back into the house when he wanted to stay there, and would be more than happy to accommodate him and Renesmee as long as necessary.
"I'm not entirely sure Nessie," he said in reply to her question, before adding jokingly, "Why, you think you're going to get bored of me that fast?"
Renesmee's laugh sounded in his ears, and in a moment she was leaning down to put her tiny arms around Jacob's head.
"I don't get bored of my Jacob," she answered. He laughed along with her the rest of the way home.
I felt it would be important to let you guys know how things were going with the wolves, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. This seemed like a good way, and I hope I got all the details right from Breaking Dawn. I'm over halfway done re-reading Eclipse(I'm being slower than usual) and then I'll get right on it. So, what did you guys think?