Yey, I got this Chapter done quicker than I expected. This is the longest chapter I've ever written. I was going to split it up but then I figured I didn't want to be like Lost (The TV Show). I stopped watching that crap because they never ever answered any questions, just kept piling up mystery after mystery, confuzzling me. So here are some answers, not ALL the answers, and maybe a couple new questions; but answers none the less.
Chapter Twelve: Secrets and Lies
As the thoughts in my head raced, only one of them was clear.
There were little parts of my mind throwing up theories of what was happening; Had Francesca and Cora come to blows? Was Cora on that fire; was it the scent of her demise that now filled the air, choking me? Or had I been found, had they come to take me back?
But the overwhelming majority of my thoughts were focused on just one thing; running.
But which way to run? My hybrid instincts were having a little tug-of-war over that one;
Towards the fire? If it was Cora, then I had to save her,
Or away from the fire? Did I heed the warning saturating the evening air and get the hell out of there?
It was too late. This split second my mind had taken to form all those thoughts, had proven too long for my legs, the legs that were now thrashing into the ground, carrying me towards the billowing tower of smoke visible rising from the treetops downhill from where I stood.
A flicker of flames were becoming evident through the trees when the ground disappeared from beneath me as I collided with what felt like a brick wall; a brick wall with solid arms that clamped around mine, lifting me to a halt. I might not have been running anymore, but the collision triggered a completely different motion; sending my body slamming to the ground. There was a split second of throbbing agony, before everything went black.
{--}
The pain was unbelievable. A fiery pounding swept my head over and over. The stabbing pain was so intense I daren't move, so I just lay there with my eyes gently shut. I wasn't sure where there was. I wasn't sure how I got there, or even what happened that I was in so much pain. I wasn't really sure of anything.
I could hear voices and was immediately thankful that though close, they were delicately hushed.
"I say we just wait until she wakes up. Until then we don't know anything, so let's not make any rash decisions." The male voice was low and unfamiliar, as was the one who replied though it was a little louder, sending a clench through my buzzing skull.
"That's if she wakes up. I mean, we can't just have a vegetative human lying around the place."
"She's not human!" The first voice replied, this time breathy and impatient, as though he was repeating himself for the hundredth time.
"So you keep saying, Al. But she has a heartbeat. Ok, yes, I admit, it's abnormally fast, but so what, she's probably in shock since you knocked her out!"
"I didn't knock her out! And it's not just that Oz. Just look at her, feel the heat off her too, and tell me she's the same as Sonny." There was a moment of silence where all I could hear was a high-pitched buzzing that was ringing through my skull. "Plus, you're not the one she ran into. I swear to god she almost ripped my shoulder from its socket when she hit me, she was going fast, I mean, not human fast." I'd decided it must be me they were talking about, but I still couldn't manage to open my eyes or even move much through the barrier of pain, so I just lay there and listened. "And another thing, her head. If she was human, the way she hit that rock her skull would have buckled and you'd have had to scrape her up off the floor before carrying her back here."
"Which I still don't think was a good idea!" They were no longer whispering, the voices were raised and the resonance vibrated through my aching head. "Ok, say it isn't human. What kind of danger have you put Sonny in now? And after all you heard in that witches head, she was involved in that too."
"No she wasn't, they were lying to her Oz." Someone took a deep breath, but I could tell it was neither of the two men arguing. I decided to do the same and took a slow breath to sample the scents around me.
Venom. Lots and lots of venom. From what I could tell there were at least three vampires in the room, none of which I recognised.
{--}
My mind was still fuzzy; I couldn't establish any coherent thoughts or remember anything of how I got to wherever I was.
"Well, one thing's for sure; she's in no pain whatsoever." The third voice sent my eyes flying open. Not in any pain? I was in the worst pain I'd ever experienced in my life; well, physically at least. I tried to lift my body upright but the throbbing was so severe I dropped back onto the cushiony surface and groaned in agony. I heard the vampires in the room moving, and something ice cold was placed on my forehead. I let out a gasp as its coolness soothed the throbbing and grasped it back as I felt it begin to pull away again. As I held it in place over my brow I felt icy fingers intertwining with mine; it was the hand of one of the vampires that I was finding so soothing.
"Renesmee?" The voice was that of the man who was first to speak; the one who had insisted I was not human. It came from close beside me and the speaker's breath was cool and intoxicating. I let my eyelids gently drift open, the motion made easier by my vampire-cold compress. My vision was blurred briefly but I blinked and the figure before me began to clear.
A pair of large, golden eyes looked down into mine.
"Renesmee? That is your name isn't it?" Was it? I wasn't sure. My thoughts were an incomprehensible blur. Even if they had been formulaic I wouldn't have been able to answer. I was left in a dizzying, awestruck, speechless state by the beautiful face that was hovering over mine. His lips were plump and a peachy colour and his skin was olive though it appeared paler, like there was a faint sheet over it, a little like ….
"Cora!" I rolled from the bed I was lying on, throwing the cold hand from my temple. It all came back now, the smell, the fire. I needed to be sure Cora was okay. But my legs buckled as soon as I hit the floor, the throbbing pain in my head was so intense that I slid down the wall nearest me with my head in my hands, groaning in agony.
"She isn't in any pain, none at all." I looked up in disgust at the voice. It came from a man stood on the opposite side of the bed to me. He was pale and his brown hair flowed to his shoulders, there was a look of confusion painted across his slightly bearded face as he stared at me. The beautiful boy came to kneel before me,
"Does it hurt?" My answering 'yes' was a violent grunt through gritted teeth. The boy span to face the man on the other side of the bed. "She's not lying, she really is in pain." In the time it took me to blink slowly, the man with the long hair had swept to kneel beside the boy, taking one of my wrists in his hand. He gave it a squeeze, a strong, painful squeeze that caused me to shriek and cower away from him, but he did not release my wrist.
In a split second I was on top of him, my free hand slammed against his forehead and my shield lowered. I used my gift to shriek at him to stop before I was dragged backwards by the boy. The man had released my left wrist and now sat twisting his own, his topaz eyes burning into mine in a look of fascination.
"That did hurt didn't it?" I nodded and shrank back against the wall, cradling my aching wrist and letting my still-throbbing head loll on my shoulder. The boy's cold hand returned to my forehead and I reached for his other one and wrapped it around my wrist. He gave me a gentle smile which I had neither the strength nor the inclination to return. He kept his eyes on mine, though I knew he was talking to the man.
"I felt it too. Just for a second, I could hear." The long haired man crawled closer, removing my wrist from the boy's cold hand and placing it in his own.
"You spoke to me, with your hands. You placed your hands on me, and you spoke to me." I just nodded slowly, too submersed in pain to do anything more. "If you do that again, I can help you. Right now I can't, I can't make this pain go away. But just then you did something that meant I could. Could you do that again for me?" I figured he must have meant my shield, so I tentatively lowered it. Both of the vampires gasped as I did so; gasps of fascination. And then the pain was gone. My wrist, my head, I felt nothing.
I took a few deep breaths, relishing in the renewed peace my body now felt. With this peace came clarity as my memories tumbled back into the forefront of my mind. I leapt to my feet and let my eyes scour the room. They fell on a door at the far end, before it stood a pale, wide man with spiky, platinum blonde hair. His arms were crossed and one of his eyebrows was lifted as he gave me a hostile scowl. I leapt across the room trying to make a break for the door but he lifted up and clamped me in his arms, keeping me securely across his shoulder. My body wriggled to get free and I heard him cursing as his grip tightened to keep me from escaping. From across the room, the beautiful boy chuckled.
"You believe me now, Oz? Or could any little human thrash about like that?" He dropped me to my feet, spinning me round so my back was against his torso, his arms wrapped firmly around me.
"Let me go! Cora! Cora!"
"She can't hear you anymore, not now I've burned the witch." I felt my knees crumple momentarily before, with one quick swoop, I span in his arms, loosening his grip and slamming his shoulders into the wall, snarling inches from his face.
"You! I'll kill you!" I was under the control of my anger, my incomprehensible rage at what I had just been told. Cold arms came around my waist, tugging me gently. The long haired man appeared at my side, trying to pull my fingers from their forceful position on the blonde vampire's body.
"Get her off him Alvar. I won't let her be hurt, just get her off!" At the man's words the arms around me tugged harder, yanking my body away from my target. I writhed in the arms, clawing at the two vampires who now backed away from me.
My screams resonated through the room. Screams of anguish, anger and desperation for revenge.
"Let me go! Let me go!" But the arms didn't budge, and the blonde vampire leaned closer to me, but steering clear of my clawing hands.
"No. You're not going anywhere 'til we get some answers." The long haired vampire shot him and threatening glance, trying to pull him away from me. "First off, how the hell did that leather-clad little demon know who we were?" The what-clad demon? The arms around me pulled me closer and the sweet-aroma of the beautiful boy's breath was at my neck.
"Oz, you got it wrong! Renesmee, listen to me. White dresses, right?"
"Alvar, you're hurting her, loosen your arms a little." Though the arms around me slackened at the long-haired vampire's request, I had felt no pain. My movements had slowed, I was too confused, trying to string together what was happening.
"Cora only wears white dresses, and that other woman fed you some bull about it being their thing." I was now still; paralyzed with confusion and frustration. Cora wears white dresses, not wore. "We didn't hurt her, I swear."
"Then wh..?" I felt my eyes widen and my breathing stopped. How many leather-clad-witch-demons did I know? I could only think of one.
"Francesca?"
"Who?" The big blonde vampire was bellowing in my face so I rammed my palm against his forehead projecting him an image of Francesca. When it was done, a look of shock passed over him briefly; no doubt as he adjusted to the sensations of what I had just done, then he was back to yelling. "Yeah, that was her." He was snarling inches from me when my body was tossed behind the boy's, who took my place before the Blondie's threatening glare.
"Oz, back down. Leave her alone."
"Oh, you're defending her now? She's dangerous Al."
"No, she's not. She didn't know anything, they were lying to her. And if you want some answers from her I suggest you calm down." The older looking vampire came to stand between them, placing a hand on each of their chests.
"Enough. Both of you." Both their postures relaxed but their glares remained fixed on each other. The man then came to stand before me taking both my hands in his. My head was spinning. This didn't feel real, this couldn't be real. My knees bent and I came to rest on the edge of the bed, my vision blurring again. The vampire's cool hands were running softly around the wrist he'd nearly crushed only moments earlier, though no pain had returned. "I am very sorry for your wrist, but I thought you unable to feel pain." I just blinked and shrugged, shaking my head in disbelief at what was happening.
"Who are you?"
"I am Brice. This is Alvar and Oscar." His head inclined to the two boys. I say boys, they both appeared older than me, but not as old as Brice. Alvar had crawled onto the bed behind me and was now peering over my shoulder, and Oscar had returned to his solid stance in the doorway.
"You killed Francesca?"
"Yes." Oscar remained fixed in the doorway staring at me as he spoke.
"Why?" Ok, so I wasn't Francesca's biggest fan. But ... she was dead? Oscar went to speak, but Alvar raised his hand to silence him.
"She threatened us. She knew things about our … family. Things she shouldn't. Do you know how she knew us?" Oscar came closer and Brice leaned towards me, they were all clearly interested in what I had to say.
"I don't know. I mean, she has this, this ability. She can, I mean she could, she could use the abilities of people around her. But that's all I can think of." Oscar and Brice' eyes fell on Alvar who nodded slowly to them.
"What? That can't be all she knows!"
"Oz, be quiet." Brice still had my hands in his when he spoke, not letting them go when I quickly leapt to my feet.
"I have to go. I have to find Cora!"
"No. Renesmee there's something you need to know." My stomach did a flip at Alvar's words. The last person to say something like that to me was Victor, and it had changed my life.
"No, no. Whatever it is, I don't want to know! I just want to go. Please let me …"
My head snapped round towards the wall behind me. Just like every other wall in this room it was a dark wood, and its smell filled the room, clouding everything else. But the smell that had caught my attention came from the other side of it. I sniffed the air deeply, and took a step forward. Behind me Oscar growled and Brice came to stand between me and the wall. I ignored him and closed my eyes to listen. I focused on the sounds around me until I found what I was looking for. A heartbeat.
"You have a human here?" Oscar growled again and Brice glared over my shoulder to silence him.
"Yes, we do." I took a slow look around the room. Six golden eyes burned into me, waiting to see how I would react. I was positive they had no idea what I was, so I could understand their unease. But to see three male vampires so fiercely protective of a human was strange, even for me. I was about to ask about it, when I realised I didn't care. I just wanted to leave, to see Cora, and sort this mess out.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"You hit your head pretty hard. Which is partly my fault, sorry." Alvar held up his hands and smiled apologetically.
"Well, I'm fine now. Thanks." I turned to leave, but Oscar moved to block my path.
"Just tell her, Al."
"Ok. We figured we should rescue you." Oscar grunted. "Ok. I figured I should rescue you. But Oz is the one who carried you back."
"Gee, thanks. But you really shouldn't have bothered." I tried to slide past him but he shifted, blocking me again and spinning me with his arms so I was facing Alvar.
"Would you just listen to him? The sooner you do, the sooner you can answer my questions, then leave." Sounded good, well the leaving part at least. So I took a deep breath and prepared to listen.
"Ok. So I know you were staying with Francesca, and then there was Cora. But there was someone else wasn't there? Somebody who kept leaving?" I felt my eyes narrow as I wondered how he knew these things. "You were told this person was 'rescuing freaks'" My jaw dropped slightly as he repeated exactly what Francesca had said just a few weeks ago. I shook my head slowly.
"But that was just a joke." A joke that had upset Cora enough for her to leave, so that it was just me and Francesca. I shuddered, trying to block out the memory of that night, and Alvar continued.
"It might have been a joke, but it was also a lie. He; I think it was a he, was spreading the word. He was making sure that the message got to where he wanted it to go without him actually having to go to Volterra himself." I felt my breath hitch and my heart skipped a beat. Brice made a sound like he was clearing his throat before he spoke.
"That's in Italy. It's home to a particular coven of …" I tried not to laugh as I waved my hand to show he needn't continue. If there was anybody who didn't need an education in the Volturi, it was me.
"It's ok. I know all about the Volturi. Pretty well actually." Alvar forced a smile and nodded.
"I figured you would. It kinda makes sense you do." I felt frustrated when he didn't continue.
"Go on. What word was he spreading?"
"That he had you. And he was willing to give you up, for a price."
{--}
It felt like my jaw was about to hit the floor, and a wave of dizziness spread over me. I barely noticed when Brice took hold of my arms and took me to sit on the bed.
"Give me up? To the Volturi?" I was thinking out loud, but I knew that the three vampires were listening intently. "But, why?"
"We were hoping you would tell us. You see Brice has few rules for us. The only real one is that if we ever hear anything to do with the Volturi, we come straight to him. And we figured, well Alvar figured, we couldn't really leave you behind." The aggression was gone from Oscar's voice, though he still kept his defensive stance a few feet away from me.
I could feel the thoughts racing through my head, and a gasp fell from my lips once I figured it out.
"He knew. He knew that they never really wanted me. They wanted them." I remembered the conversations before and after the Volturi came to "visit" when I was a child. It was all a ploy, what they were really after was new recruits. Namely a telepath, a clairvoyant and a human-shield. "He was going to offer me as bait. He was going to give me to the Volturi, so that they could use me to get them."
I was pretty sure they'd asked me more questions, but though the sounds may have echoed down my ears, they didn't pass into my conscious, so I just sat in silence. They'd lied to me. I half-listened as Alvar said I was the only person who'd been lied to about it, confirming that Cora had been in on it too.
Now I had nobody.
{--}
The fact I was still fortressed from over-emotion meant I didn't cry, I just sat in silence, running over everything in my head. The vampires were silent now and I could feel their gazes fixed on me.
"Okay." Each of them shifted in some way as I spoke for the first time in a while. Oscar slid his head towards me, keeping his body at a distance, Brice took a step closer, leaning down to my level, and Alvar swept to sit beside me on the small bed.
"Okay?" Brice' voice was low and questioning.
"Yeah, okay. Thanks for telling me, you saved me a lot of bother." My smile made them all shift again, more uncomfortably this time. It was true though, being dragged to Volterra and having to watch the Cullens give themselves up to save me would have been …. I don't know what it would have been, but I was glad it didn't have to happen. "So, I'll be going." I went to stand was pushed gently back down by Brice.
"Go where?"
"Um, I don't know. Its not really sunk in yet, so I suppose I'll work on that first, then figure something out." It hadn't sunk in. Francesca was dead. I was sitting in a room with the vampires who'd killed her, and Cora and Victor had betrayed me. I felt …. Numb. But numb was good, it could be a lot worse. I could have been making a complete fool of myself in front of these near-strangers if my emotions had been ravaging me, sending me into some sort of emotional breakdown.
"I'd prefer it if you stayed, I have so many questions I want to ask you."
"Yeah, me too." Oscar's tone couldn't have been more different to Brice' gentle one, it was almost accusing. Alvar turned to me next.
"I don't really have any questions, but I'd like you to stay."
"No - I can't, I won-, I have to go!" My arguing fell on deaf ears as one silent nod from Brice sent the two younger looking vampires into motion. Oscar left the room and Brice rose to draw the curtains over the window that displayed the now pitch-black sky. Behind me Alvar had rolled over the bed and was pulling back the covers and plumping the pillows when his eyes met mine.
"Oh. Do you even sleep?" From the corner of my eye I saw Brice spin on his heels, clearly interested in my answer.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah I do." I watched them moving around. Oscar returned with a pile of clothes and Brice left the room quickly, returning with a glass of water before coming to kneel before me.
"Water?" I couldn't help but smile at his engrossed expression as I nodded and he placed the glass on the floor beside the bed.
"Yeah, food, water; all good to me." How is it these three vampires seemed to be able to care for a human so well? It was only then I remembered the human scent and the heartbeat from earlier.
"Right, so Sonny is just sleeping on the floor tonight?" Oscar was stood at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed firmly again. Alvar sighed before he answered.
"No. Just carry a couch up there, he'll be fine." Oscar huffed impatiently before striding out of the room. I listened carefully to his movements. I heard him in the room outside the one I was in now, dragging and lifting something. I heard him climb a few steps before there was then a loud knock on a door through the wall behind me.
"Sonny, open up." I listened to the footsteps crossing slowly across the wooden flooring, then there was the heavy clinks of what sounded like locks being slid open.
"What's going on, Oz?" The voice was new. It was the voice of a young man, the human I assumed.
"Not sure yet. Looks like she's having your bed tonight though, bud. Couch good?"
"Uh, of course. So, she's staying? Can I meet her?" The boy's excited tone was met with a low, rumbling growl from Oscar.
"No, go to sleep!" A door slammed and Oscar was quickly back in the room, standing at the foot of the bed beside where Alvar and Brice now were.
Now I felt weird. This was a dream right? I wasn't really in a strange house with three male vampires treating me like a royal guest.
"Well, goodnight. And tomorrow, you answer our questions?" I felt too bewildered to say anything so I just nodded at Brice and waved as the three of them slipped quietly from the room.
{--}
I fell asleep quickly. I couldn't help but smile at the peculiarity of my situation, rolling my head into the pillow which was drenched in a human scent. When I woke, it took a while to remember. And when I did, the disbelief of last night had evaporated. I now felt the crushing feeling of betrayal. I felt the shock of the fact that Francesca was dead, that Victor had lied to me, but I couldn't accept Cora was a fraud. I could not believe that all the affection she'd shown me had been false; that the way she'd always protected me had been an act.
I felt physically exhausted as I remembered the events of the day before. All the memories lay behind a haze; clouded by my disbelief. A pile of clothes lay at the end of my bed, Oscar had brought them last night before I slept but I didn't change into them, instead I just pulled my boots back on and slowly crept from the room.
The living room had the same dark, unpolished wooden floor of the room I'd slept in. A large brick fireplace stood opposite the doorway I was leaning out of. Before it was a small sofa, and a gap where I assumed the one Oscar had carried away usually was. The little standby light on the large TV made me smile; I could hardly remember the last time I'd been in the presence of indoor electricity. To my right the living room extended into a small kitchen. The wooden floor switched to a grey, stone tile and the sound of the buzzing fridge floated through the silent house. Between my door and the kitchen was a gap in which there was a short flight of stairs which led to a thick, steel door. Behind the doors thickness I held my breath to hear the sounds of the sleeping human.
The flashing clock on the oven told me it was 12:22, I really must have been tired, I don't ever remember sleeping this late before.
{--}
I leapt a little when the front door blew open. I hadn't heard Oscar's approach, which was unusual. He stood in the doorway staring at me for second, before nodding a greeting and sliding over to the kitchen. I watched him take a few things from the fridge and then Alvar appeared in the door, Brice following behind.
"Oz you ass, you dropped your wood!"
"She was awake, I had to check she wasn't …" Oscar's eyes drifted quickly to me before he delved deeper into the fridge.
"She wasn't what? Hammering down Sonny's door so she could suck him dry?" I heard Oscar growl as Alvar and Brice dropped the piles of logs they were holding beside the fire and the drifted to stand before me.
{--}
I thanked Oscar when he placed a bowl of cereal on the small table and ushered me to sit and eat, then I watched him take a similar bowl up the stairs. Alvar and Brice watched me intently as I ate, making me more than a little uncomfortable. The cereal was mushy and sweet and the milk tasted more like water, but I was hungry and didn't want to appear ungrateful, so I ate it all.
"So, what did you want to know?" I could tell that the vampires were all drowning in impatience over there want to grill me. Brice ushered me over the couch and the three of them stood before me in silence. I breathed a sigh of relief when Alvar's impatience seemed to get the better of him and he choked out the first question.
"Ok, so I gotta ask. What exactly are you?" His palms were raised in apology for the bluntness of the question, but I just shook my head and shrugged it off. I felt giddy before I answered, I'd never had to explain this before, so it was very strange.
"I'm a hybrid." I took their expressions in for a moment, Oscar and Alvar looked puzzled, but Brice's bottom jaw almost smacked the wooden floor. "I'm uh, I'm half vampire, half human; a hybrid."
"How?" I smiled as Oscar and Alvar asked in unison, Brice still looked unable to speak.
"My mother was human, my dad …. Not so much." Even I was surprised by my casual tone, should I be dealing with this so well? Should I be able to talk about them so easily?
{--}
I told them a lot, but nowhere near everything. I told them about my diet, my gift and my shield, but not where my shield came from. I told them about the Volturi's attempt to destroy me, at which each of them reached a new level of fascination. I told them about running away, but only in mild detail, and was glad when they didn't pry. They mostly seemed interested in my anatomy, and determining how much of a human I was, they were also more than a little surprised at my age. I found Brice easiest to answer; his knowledge already seemed pretty vast, particularly on the Volturi. Alvar just stared at me mostly, nodding at the appropriate times and Oscar kept looking me up and down, then turning to Alvar, as though for some reassurance of my words. I only stopped so that I could eat again. Oscar had prepared pasta which was flavoured in some tomato sauce and was a vast improvement on breakfast. He took a similar plate upstairs though I heard no conversation.
{--}
It got dark outside and the cabin grew cold. Alvar raced to the bedroom and came back with the big navy hoodie I hadn't changed into last night.
"No, it's ok. I'm fine, really." I was wearing only a baggy grey sweater and a pair of shorts but I wasn't cold. Since I'd run away the façade of being human wasn't necessary, which meant I didn't have to dress to look like the weather actually affected me. Too many clothes were uncomfortable against my already heated skin.
"Yeah, I mean you're really hot." Oscar snickered at his words and Alvar flinched from me, looking embarrassed. "No I meant- you are but- but that's not- you just. You're …" I laughed and nodded.
"No, it's okay. I know what you mean." His cold hand came quickly to my forehead.
"You're almost wolf temperature." I grimaced when he spat the word and Oscar hissed behind him.
"Yeah, so I've heard."
{--}
I answered the rest of their questions honestly, and loved that they didn't ask anything too inquisitive. I never even brought up my family, or why I left, they didn't even ask about Victor and Cora, but Oscar had particular interest in Francesca. It seemed they'd found her scent near the cabin and followed it. When they found her she had attacked him and Alvar, and then threatened to come here for Brice and Sonny; who I figured was the mysterious human locked behind the steel door. They wanted to know how she'd known about them, but that I had no idea of. The only real light I was able to shed was on something that had apparently been a source of major frustration for Oscar.
"You see Renesmee, my brother prides himself on being fast. And I'm not talking vampire-fast, I'm talking … Oscar-fast." Alvar laughed at his brother's pride-filled stance as he spoke of him. "But that woman, she was just as fast as him. Which he hated, and on top of her threats, she turned into poor Ozzy's worst nightmare." I only felt a little uncomfortable hearing Alvar speak so casually about what was essentially a murder; what made me more uncomfortable was the fact it was bothering me so little. "So, you said her gift was to use other people's abilities, right?"
"Yeah. I guess she just used her ability to be as fast as him. Though I don't know how she could know about his gift, I never really knew how she worked."
Oscar's last question was the only one I had no answer to.
"So, what are you gonna do now?" What was I going to do now? Going back to where I'd come from wasn't an option. I'd changed too much in the past few months; I really was no longer a Cullen. I considered tracking Cora down and demanding an explanation, but that would prove easier said than done given the fact she was invisible.
"I don't know." Alvar scurried to his feet, his pleading eyes falling on Brice, who I'd long since figured was boss around here.
"She can stay right? Even if it's just tonight, I mean it's late and we must have exhausted her with all our questions." Brice was silent and his eyes slid from me to Oscar, who was still looking me up and down.
"As far as I'm concerned, the decision lies with Oscar and Renesmee, not me or you Alvar. Oz, could Sonny do without his bed for one more night?" Alvar swung around to his taller "brother" who was chewing his lip as he looked at me.
"Yeah, he'll be good. And I'm not going anywhere so I'm okay with her being in the cabin . But do you want to stay here tonight, Renesmee?"
"Uh, yeah sure." I really did. I was exhausted and not yet ready to go off into the world all by myself. One more night in the cabin would be nice. After tonight though, I had no idea what I was going to do.
With Francesca dead, Cora and Victor are just gonna leave Nessie the hell alone .... right???
I've decided offering previews is good for me, it forces me to write whilst I'm still in the writing frame of mind and not just shut down as soon as the chappy's up.
So Previews for reviewers.
Whaddya think of the new guy-vamps, or is Ness better off on her own now? And does anyone think they figured out Alvar or Brice's gifts?
