Chapter 2. Home

I tracked the scent to Grand Central Station. Whom ever the scent belonged to had gotten on the Subway. I started to get into a rage, until I remembered---very stupidly---that I don't hunt humans.

My old coven, the Cullens, and I were vegetarians. So here I am kicking myself for letting Carlisle down by letting into temptation.

Stupid, vampire instincts.

Im amazed that I can think his name without breaking down into the tearless sobs that we call crying. As I walk down the streets of New York City, I watch all the young people going to and from the many clubs here.

I have never, in my five years here---that have felt like a millennium---been to a club. There are so many clubs here, but the nightlife has become so uninteresting to me.

I say young even though I am technically eighteen, and most of them are twenty, I have been around for far more years than they have.

I have seen more disasters then they have, been in many more tight spots than they have, and met many more monsters than they have.

I shook my head. I can't afford to think about this here, now.

It was time to go home, the sun was coming up. I walk and walk. To a human, it would seem a long time to walk, but to me it couldn't be shorter. It is kind of annoying not to be able to run until I reach the woods.

As I reach the woods, I automatically start into a sprint that would outrun a normal person. I run and run until I reach New Jersey. I watch people in New York, even though I live in New Jersey.

I go to New York because it is big, and has so many strange people. So far I haven't had any luck in finding a vampire, even though I have been searching for months.

I have thought of making someone like me, but I can't bring myself to do it. This life has brought me nothing but a little happiness and a lot of regret.

I need to hunt, I think to myself as I pass a bear. The bear could have been contemplating trying to eat me, but I was gone before it could follow. My irises are a deep black.

I was surprised that the little boy even came up to me, because my eyes were so dark. He must have been hungry.

I finally reach my destination. It's a rundown church that looks like crap from the outside. There are crumbling pillars and gravestones everywhere. Spiders and cobwebs line the front steps.

The church is made of a cool marble, but no where as smooth or silky as my skin. I sometimes like to just sit on the crumbling steps and stare at the night sky. Here in the middle of the woods you can see so many stars.

I watch the bats I have come to know as companions swoop and dive bomb each other. They are very graceful. Not as graceful as me, of course, but graceful all the same.

If I was any thirstier, then I would grab one right this second and drain it. I shudder very lightly thinking of drinking one of my friends. I had to exercise my control just thinking of the warm blood in my mouth.

I hurry and lightly jump up the forty foot high building in one leap. I had to be careful no to over shoot myself the first couple times I tried or I would land in New York.

Now, since I've done it so much, it hardly takes any thinking at all. It was beyond easy to find the hatch that drops me down into the priory. It's a quaint little church.

The front hall used to be white, but it blackened with age. All of the halls in the building have crucifixes crisscrossing down them. The tiles are the same marble that makes up the outer building.

As you walk through the double doors into the sanctuary, any human---or vampire for that matter---might gasp and stare because to them it could be beautiful.

To me, things stopped being beautiful a long time ago.