The light footsteps were easily distinguishable from the heavier footsteps just ahead. We could now hear voices-a woman vampire's voice and a deeper man's voice.
"How will they react, Alice?" the deeper voice asked.
"I can't see yet. They haven't make steel decisions, but right now it's on the border of aggressive and full-fledged attack. They can hear us right now." replied the higher, chiming voice. How could she, first, possibly know that we were planning an attack. Secondly, how could she talk so calmly about a future attack on herself and her traveling friend?!
"We come in peace, Cullens!" the deeper voice called to us as he and the woman appeared out of the trees. His face was covered in scars, and Rosalie, Carlisle and I instantly tensed. The deep voiced vampire smiled dryly, but it was the female who spoke.
"Hello, Esme!" she called out as she stepped into the room. "Hello Carlisle! Hello Rosalie. Where are Emmett and Edward?" Everyone in the room except for these newcomers tensed, our lips pulling back over our teeth. How did she know us?
"Which room can I move into?" the female chimed again, bounding over to the stairs. We could all hear Edward and Emmett racing back, Edward having been alerted by our minds. In a few seconds, Emmett was at the door. Since he was hunting closer, he was naturally the first to arrive. Emmett instantly moved to guard Rosalie from view, who smacked him on the shoulder, irritated.
"I can take care of myself, Em" she growled. He snorted, and didn't move.
"We come in peace, Cullens" the deeper voice said again. "I'm Jasper, and this is my mate, Alice." Ok, so Alice was the one who knew all of us. She closed her eyes, standing perfectly still for a second. Then, she opened her eyes again.
"OK Jasper, I see which room will be ours!" she chirped. "Nice meeting you, Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, and Emmett. I can't wait to meet Edward. He'll be my favorite brother!" she chirped before heading upstairs to clean out the room that would be hers. Jasper smiled, and remained downstairs.
"What is she doing?" Carlisle muttered as we saw the little pixie dash into the garage, armloads of someone's stuff in her tiny arms.
"That's Edward's stuff! I hope she's kicking him out," Rosalie said, muttering the last part to herself. Carlisle put a gentle hand on her shoulder,and Rosalie shook it off.
"Alice can see the future" Jasper was explaining. "She saw me in her future apparently, and when we met, we decided to come to you, who she'd seen in a vision." Carlisle and I were exchanging confused glances.
"And I'm empathic. I can feel what you are feeling now" Jasper announced.
"OK, then what am I feeling?" Carlisle challenged, stepping forward. Jasper looked like he was barely concentrating.
"That one's easy, your emotions are filling me so fully. For the most part, Carlisle, you're shocked and confused. And you're still a little tense. Did I tell you, I can not only feel your emotions, but I can control them too?"
Rosalie was the next to step forward. "Make me feel something" she challenged. Jasper thought for a moment then grinned. Rosalie's face contorted to pure anger.
"WHAT IS ALICE DOING?!" she shrieked. Jasper grinned again,and her expression turned to adoring. She turned to Emmett, whose arm she was clutching.
"Aww Emmett, I love you so much" she cooed. I pretended to gag, to tell Jasper to stop before it could escalate right in the living room, which it did all too often. Jasper sighed. Obviously he'd been enjoying himself.
Alice darted down the stairs again, carrying yet another armload of Edward's stuff. What was she doing? Obviously, moving out Edward's stuff. Eventually, the petite vampire stopped moving armloads of stuff downstairs, and Carlisle and I decided to see what was going on. We walked up the stairway, moving casually at a human pace.
"Hmm...should we stop her?" Carlisle murmured to me as we walked up the stairs, holding hands. I giggled.
"No, I don't think so. I can't wait to see his face when he sees this" I giggled back.
"Think of something else, then" Carlisle murmured, smiling at the mental image of Edward's face when he saw his precious sound system in the garage. I started thinking about the renovations that I wanted to do to the house. Maybe add a garden, and hedges along the sides of the road to make the turnoff less obvious. You see, we didn't really want visitors...
Carlisle and I stopped at the door that was previously Edward's. It took all of my concentration to remember my renovation ideas.
"Come on" I giggled to Carlisle. "I can't hold up much longer." Right on cue, we started to hear the faint sounds of Edward, racing back to the house. Carlisle and I turned, each grabbing a book on the way downstairs. I changed my thought path quickly, switching to the plot of the novel that I was currently reading. I glanced at the book in Carlisle's hand, and noted that it was a medical reference. Not that he'd ever need it, seeing as he rembered every lesson froom medical school...
I switched back to the plot of the book in my hands, opening it to the page number that I was on before. I didn't need to mark my page, of course.
"Hello, son" I heard Carlisle murmur absently.
"Hi, Carlisle" Edward replied, sounding slightly confused. I refused to think about the fact that we were shielding our minds, because if I did, all our efforts went down the drain.
"I'll be in my room" Edward called walking by. I stiflied a giggle, and turned my full attention back to my book. As soon as Edward was out of the room, however, I set it down on a side table. I looked across the living room, to find that Carlisle had done the same thing. My husband winked, holding out his hand. I took it, and we streaked up the stairs in perfect timing.
"What the..." Edward said as he walked into the room that was now Alice's. I couldn't help, and burst into laughter. Beside me, Carlisle did the same thing.
"Hi, Edward! I was wondering when you would come back!" Alice chirped behind us. Edward looked her over suspiciously, before holding out his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Alice" he said, like the gentleman that he was raised to be. "I'm-"
"Nice to meet you, too, Edward" Alice chirped, smiling. "This is-"
"I know, Alice." Edward said, cutting her off in return. He was grinning as he turned to Jasper. "Nice to meet you, Jasper" he said, sticking out his hand. The battle-scar ridden Jasper smiled in return, and put out his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Edward" he replied with a quick shake.
"Well, now that the formalies are over" Edward said, turning back to Alice and eying her sternly, "Where is all my stuff?"
