Chapter Three

Andrew settled self-consciously into the easy chair farthest away from the fireplace. After he'd carried the bodies away from the cabin, Alexander had made a show of stoking the fire and arranging the candelabras in a more efficient manner. He looked like a person settling into a hotel room for an extended stay. The implication made Andrew uncomfortable – he rarely stayed still for long. Constant ranging kept him occupied, and was more pleasant than sitting around, wondering about things he couldn't possibly know.

After Alexander had made himself at home in the second of the two, overstuffed chairs, he gave Andrew an indulgent look. "Now, let's see about setting your mind at ease. It's plain to see you are full of questions."

Andrew, unabashed that it should be so obvious, leaned forward eagerly. Before he could begin his litany of inquiries, Alexander asked his first. "Let me try to understand where your knowledge lies. It will allow me to educate you more efficiently. I can see that you are new. How old are you?"

The question confused Andrew for a moment. It made him reflexively attempt to think about his previous life, to how old he had been when he was turned. But whatever device his mind had in place to deter such thought, it rejected him once again and left him frustrated. "I don't know," Andrew admitted. "I can't remember."

Alexander looked at him with real surprise. "You don't remember being created?" he asked doubtfully. "When did your…awareness of yourself begin?"

Andrew finally understood the context of the question. "Oh, almost a year. I remember waking up. I was as I am now, but I don't remember anything of my life before."

Alexander wasn't satisfied – he'd never heard of a vampire, newborn or otherwise, not retaining at least partial memories of their human existence. "What about your creator?" he pressed. "Surely you remember him, or her?" Andrew shook his head. "Very odd," Alexander mused. "Unimportant, in the grand scheme of things, but odd."

"How old are you?" Andrew reciprocated Alexander's own question.

Alexander smiled – it was the smile of one who does not exactly expect to be believed. "One hundred and thirty-one."

Andrew, who'd asked the question with no expectations, nodded his unthinking acceptance. "So we don't die," he confirmed the conclusion he'd obviously reached on his own.

"Oh, we die," Alexander said easily. "We can be killed as completely as any other animal. It may be harder to do us in, but we are still mortal, in the true sense of the word. If our life is uninterrupted by violence, it is, as far as I know, permanent. Fragile immortality," he mused with a smile.

"How many of us?" was the next question. It was asked eagerly – now that Andrew had been assured that he wasn't one of a kind, he was excited by the thought of making connections with others like him.

Alexander seemed to understand what Andrew wanted out of his question. "We don't exactly keep a census, but we are not rare in the world. I am surprised that I am the first of our kind you've met, even given you're only a year old." He leaned back with an air of someone about to tell a tale. "We are a curious lot, vampires. Extremely social on one hand, sometimes illogically distrustful of each other on the other. Covens and families are not formed easily, and while many of us look at our time among others like us as the best of our lives, the bonds are easily broken."

"Why?" Andrew asked, intrigued. He could not imagine someone like Alexander being a loner – he seemed overly social and genuinely pleased to have company…or at least, an audience.

Alexander sighed. "I still have not puzzled that one out," he admitted. "The dynamics depend on the personalities involved. I know of some covens with two or three members that are hundreds of years old. They would die for each other. Other covens are dozens strong, but the…turnover rate is high. Sometimes it is a matter of convenience, other times just a yearning for company. I know of only two exceptions." Andrew could hear the weight of the words, and knew that he would do well to remember what Alexander said next. "First, the Volturi have been around since the beginning of human history. They have their own history that predates the ancients of the human world. They are our kind's royal family, and they uphold the law."

"The law?" Andrew interrupted. He could not imagine anyone trying to police vampires.

"It is not so forbidding as it sounds," Alexander assured him. "As a matter of fact, there is really only one rule for us. Keep yourself a secret from the humans. That's all."

Andrew laughed. After all, any human who found out what he was only had seconds to live, anyway. "So these Volturi hold themselves to a high standard."

Alexander nodded. "Don't ever treat them with a flippant attitude, though," he warned. "Their coven is huge, unshakable, and full of talent. Going against them is tantamount to suicide."

Andrew was growing bored of talking about faceless authorities. "You said there were two exceptions."

Alexander's smile returned, but it was bothered. "Yes. North of us, there is a medium coven of…strange ones," he said distractedly. "More a family than a coven."

"What makes them strange?" Andrew was thirsty for knowledge. He didn't know it, but this was a holdout of his personality from his unremembered, human life.

"They have made the decision to abstain from human blood," Alexander told him, still a distracted note to his tone. "They do not seem to suffer for it, either. As a matter of fact, they seem to be…much more civilized than most of us. More compassionate, which I suppose is to be expected. The leader is a doctor for humans, if you can believe it," he said disdainfully.

Andrew didn't believe it. For the first time, he questioned himself for putting any measure of trust in this virtual stranger. "What do you mean? He treats injured humans?" Andrew could not imagine being in close proximity to any human for any period of time, let alone an injured human.

Alexander seemed pleased at being questioned on this point, as if it reinforced his belief that he was not the only one who found this ridiculous. "Carlisle is old, and has trained himself to ignore the scent of blood. He and his family live among the humans, careful to always hide what they are, surviving on the blood of animals."

Andrew was truly baffled. "But why? Doesn't it pain them to be around their natural food source? Doesn't it bother them to have to pretend to be normal?"

Alexander shrugged. "I don't really know. The only reason I know anything is because they caught me on their territory about twenty years ago. I did not know it had been claimed, of course. So when I was confronted by a band of yellow-eyed vampires who claimed to be something different, I tried to learn all that I could. They invited me to stay with them, but it was a loaded invitation. You see, as much as they wanted to educate me, they also wanted to convert me. I tried, of course…a challenge is one of my favorite things. But their lifestyle restricts the one thing that I cannot go without, and we parted ways as acquaintances." Alexander seemed to grow restless, and once again got up. He began thumbing through a book he found on the shelf, and Andrew confronted him.

"Why do you do that?" he asked bluntly. "Fiddling with the fire, the candles…sitting to have our conversation…now reading a book? You act more like a human than one of us."

The question didn't seem to bother Alexander. He didn't look up from the book. "You have much to learn, young one. Do you think you can simply run up and down the west coast, killing random people forever?" The question sounded rhetorical. "One day, you will find yourself in a situation where it is more practical to fit in with your prey than it is to feed without restrictions. This is one lesson I took from the Cullens, and one I am thankful for." Andrew assumed the Cullens were the strange clan Alexander had just spoken of. "You see, there will come a time where your interests will change. Not feeding – that is one hobby you'll always have," he said slyly. "But the way in which you go about it will evolve. You'll learn that there are certain satisfactions related to being able to have your prey come to you. Not hunting, but trapping. You'll see," he promised again. He closed the book and smiled abashedly, as if he'd said too much.

Andrew didn't know why, but this pleasant vampire was starting to make him nervous. His instincts were telling him to leave, to go about his way. "What now?" he asked, and Alexander seemed to know exactly what he meant.

"I don't know. I don't suppose you'd want to travel together," he said, and it wasn't really a question. Andrew supposed he'd picked up more of his emotional mood than he'd thought. Alexander seemed to make a decision. "I wasn't really heading anywhere in particular. Just wandering. I'll stay here, in this cabin, until the snow melts. If you'd like to visit, or you find you have any more questions, you will know where to find me. If not…well, if not, then it was a pleasure to meet you, Andrew." Alexander offered his hand, and once again, the gesture did not suit the aura he was giving off. Andrew shook it anyway.

"Thank you, my friend. I will keep that in mind, and I'll try to visit before you move on. Thank you again, for everything." Alexander nodded, his expression still appraising, as Andrew left the cabin a bit too hurriedly for comfort.