7.
"Should we go outside and meet him?" I suggested. The putrid odor was now so strong that we all knew Fred had to be right outside. None of us took a breath.
Alice shook her head and stood. "He'll come to us."
Another ten minutes passed before there was a soft knock on the front door. It was so light, I knew he intended it to only be heard by vampire ears. Carlisle moved towards the door and opened it slowly.
"Come in," he said kindly as we all rose out of our seats to greet our guest.
The man who stood before us surprised me. He had let his guard down enough so that we could look at him. He stood tall, around 6'2", I would guess. A mess of curls lay thick upon his head, followed by piercing red eyes that slowly took in every single person in the room. And he was quite handsome.
The voice that came out of his mouth was deep and gravely. Had he not spoken, I would have guessed him to be about 17 or 18, but he sounded a lot older.
"Hello."
Carlisle and Esme were the only ones who responded. Everyone else stood perfectly still, examining the stranger. Esme stepped forward and stuck her hand out towards the tall blonde. "Hello Fred, I'm Esme Cullen, and this is my husband, Carlisle." She placed her hand on his arm when she introduced him. "Bree said you might be coming."
A slight twitch in his facial muscles told me more about the relationship he had with Bree than anything else. They had been close; he was one of the only ones she'd trusted.
After a moment of silence, his eyes had moved around the room once more and returned to Esme. "So, you know who I am."
"Yes," Carlisle said. "We tried to save Bree in the meadow. She didn't want to kill us. But we couldn't save her."
"The Volturi," Fred whispered, and with his anger his odor grew worse.
Carlisle showed no signs that he noticed the increase in Fred's shield. "So, you've heard of them, then."
Fred glanced around the room. "Yes," he replied casually. Silence took over again before one by one, starting with Edward, everyone else introduced themselves. I was last in line.
"Lisa."
"You weren't with the rest in the field." Something about the way he handled himself reminded me of a boy I had gone to high school with, a big computer geek. He noticed everything, calculating what it could mean, without sounding like he knew everything. He was humble in his knowledge.
I looked around at everyone else and noticed they were all watching Fred and I. "No," I said in a soft voice. "I'm new," I added.
His eyes fell down to my hands and then flew back up to my face. "You're married."
I opened my mouth in surprise, unsure of how to respond, but Fred had already moved on.
"You all look like you've been waiting for me for a while." His eyes fell to the novel I had been reading. "Terrible book." No one would read it unless they were trying to keep their mind off something, he seemed to be thinking. It was scary how perceptive he was.
"So which one can see the future?" His question took us all off guard a little, which seemed to amuse him. "Riley told us a few things about you."
"That we would get inside your mind," added Edward.
Fred looked at him. "You must be the mind reader."
Edward nodded in reply, though I wasn't sure if it was to his spoken question or a mental one.
Fred's eyes moved to the window. "I've heard stories about these dog friends of yours." Then he was watching us again. "Do you always keep them around?"
Something told me he already knew the answer to that question and the reason why they were here.
"They're our friends," said Emmett. He was eyeing Fred, waiting for him to attack us all or something. "Like you said."
"They smell terrible." His eyes fell on my hands again, which I hid behind my back. "Your husband isn't one of us, is he?" It was really beginning to unnerve me how much this guy could read about us. "I won't bite him."
I bit my lip and clasped my hands behind my back anxiously.
Carlisle cleared his throat and held out his arm towards the couch. "Have a seat."
Fred complied, and everyone else took his lead, finding a place to sit. I sank back into the love chair and Alice sat beside me, Jasper taking up a spot standing behind us. He put his hand on my shoulder, trying to calm me down. Immediately I felt a wave of nervousness and fear hit me, but it wasn't my own. I realized that it was Fred. With everything in him, he was holding on to his control. And then I felt myself calming down, though I wasn't sure if it was because of Jasper or because of Fred's feelings. I thanked Jasper softly anyways.
Carlisle spoke up again once everyone had found a place. "You know a lot about us, but we don't know that much about you. Tell us, why did you decide to come? Why now?"
Fred clasped his hands and rubbed them together. "I wanted to come for a long time. I just got caught up in some things."
Emmett's foot began tapping against the floor, showing his impatience. With Jasper's hand still on my shoulder, I felt a tiny break in Fred's control. I shot a glance at Emmett, telling him to quiet it.
"I was stupid. I wanted to tell my parents I was all right, to let them know I was alive. They were looking for me and I needed them to stop." His hands began shaking slightly.
"You couldn't have them find you like this," whispered Bella.
Fred shook his head. "I wrote a letter and went to a street corner to put it in a mailbox. What I didn't know was that the police had been tipped off about a drug deal that was going to happen on that street corner. There was an undercover cop car waiting; I recognized the officer behind the wheel and began running. So he chased me, thinking I was one of the drug dealers. I lost him easily, but the next day, my picture was everywhere. So I laid low for a while until I thought it was safe to get out. At least my parents stopped looking for me after that."
His eyes had moved to his hands while he was talking. We all sat silently for a long time, before Fred finally regained some control and looked up. "I came here to start a new life. You are the only other ones of our kind that I knew of."
"Well, you're welcome here, Fred," spoke Esme, compassion rich in her voice.
Emmett shot a glance at his mother. "Esme," he whispered fiercely.
She glanced at him. "Emmett, this boy is no danger to us. He's scared."
Emmett didn't seem convinced, but he let it slide.
"I don't want to impose-" Fred began, but he stopped when he saw Carlisle moving towards him.
"You're welcome to stay with us as long as you need, Fred. We'll clean up a room for you."
"No," he said. "I mean, that's alright. We can stay in the woods."
"We?" asked Emmett. His defenses were up again.
Fred glanced at him nervously. "Well, I met a girl while I was traveling down here. She said she wanted to come with me to meet you all." His eyes landed on Alice for a split second before he was looking back at Carlisle. He stood up. "Thank you for your kindness, but I won't ask you to put up two-"
He was cut off by the sound of hinges creaking softly. Everyone looked towards the door as it slowly swung open. I guessed it was the girl Fred had told us about. She had apparently heard our conversation. Her eyes moved around the room until they finally landed on Alice. A smile spread slowly across her lips.
"Hello, Alice. I've been looking for you for a long time."