I took mythology a lot more seriously since I'd become a vampire.
Often, when I looked back over my first three months as an immortal,
I imagined how the thread of my life might look in the Fates' loom who knew but that it actually existed? I was sure my thread must have changed color; I thought it had probably started out as a nice beige, something supportive and non-confrontational, something that would look good in the background. Now it felt like it must be bright crimson, or maybe glistening gold.
The tapestry of family and friends that wove together around me was a beautiful, glowing thing, full of their bright, complementary colors.
I was surprised by some of the threads I got to include in my life. The werewolves, with their deep, woodsy colors, were not something I'd expected; Jacob, Leah of course, and Seth, too. But my old friends Quil and Embry became part of the fabric as they joined Jacob's pack,
and even Sam and Emily were cordial. The tensions between our families eased, mostly due to the twins. they where easy to love.
Sue Clearwater was interlaced into our life, too one more I had not anticipated.
Sue seemed to have taken it on herself to smooth Charlie's transition into the world of make-believe. She came with him to the Cullens' most days, though she never seemed truly comfortable here the way her children and Jake's pack did.
She did not speak often; she just hovered protectively near Charlie. She was always the first person he looked to when the twins did something disturbingly advanced which was often. In answer, Sue would eye Seth and Leah meaningfully as if to say, Yeah, tell me about it.
Leah and Jacob had a new camaraderie that kept her close to us all. EJ help keep her close to us to.
I asked Jacob about it once hesitantly; I didn't want to pry, but the relationship was so different from the way it used to be that it made me curious. He shrugged and told me it was a pack thing.
She was his second-in-command now, his "beta," as I'd called it once long ago.
"I figured as long as I was going to do this Alpha thing for real," Jacob explained, "I'd better nail down the formalities." Plus Leah knows how I feel about Renesmee because she feels the same for EJ, Jacob and Leah where always most with the twins.
Happiness was the main component in my life now, the dominant pattern in the tapestry. So much so that my relationship with Jasper was now much closer than I'd ever dreamed it would be.
At first I was really annoyed, though.
"Yeesh!" I complained to Edward one night after we'd put the twins in there wrought-iron cribs.
"If I haven't killed Charlie or Sue yet, it's probably not going to happen. I wish Jasper would stop hovering all the time!"
"No one doubts you, Bella, not in the slightest," he assured me. "You know how Jasper is he can't resist a good emotional climate. You're so happy all the time, love, he gravitates toward you without thinking."
And then Edward hugged me tightly, because nothing pleased him more than my overwhelming ecstasy in this new life.
And I was euphoric the vast majority of the time. The days were not long enough for me to get my fill of adoring my son and daughter; the nights did not have enough hours to satisfy my need for Edward.
There was a flipside to the joy, though. If you turned the fabric of our lives over, I imagined the design on the backside would be woven in the bleak grays of doubt and fear.
Renesmee spoke her first word when she was exactly one week old. The word was Momma,
Which would have made my day, except that I was so frightened by the twins progress I could barely force my frozen face to smile back at her? It didn't help that she continued from her first word to her first sentence in the same breath.
"Momma, where is Grandpa?" she'd asked in a clear, high soprano,
only bothering to speak aloud because I was across the room from her. She'd already asked Rosalie, using her normal (or seriously abnormal, from another point of view)
means of communication. Rosalie hadn't known the answer, so Renesmee had turned to me.
the next day EJ spoke his first word. The word was daddy, witch I heard him say to Edward that to would have made my day, except that I was still so frightened by there progress. It didn't help that just like his sister he continued from his first word to his first sentence in the same breath.
"daddy, where is momma?" he'd asked in a clear, low bass,
Edward most not have been close. I the heard Edward said she s with your sister.
When they walked for the first time, fewer than three weeks later, it was similar.
Renesmee simply stared at Alice for a long moment, watching intently as her aunt arranged bouquets in the vases scattered around the room, dancing back and forth across the floor with her arms full of flowers. Renesmee got to her feet, not in the least bit shaky, and crossed the floor almost as gracefully. Jacob had burst into applause, because that was clearly the response Renesmee wanted. Then
EJ simply stared at Jasper for a long moment, watching intently as he fallowed Alice around the room arranging bouquets in the vases scattered around the room, EJ got to his feet, also not in the least bit shaky, and crossed the floor to fallow Renesmee like Jasper was following Alice. Leah had burst into applause, because that was clearly the response EJ wanted.
The way they where tied to the twins made there own reactions secondary; there first reflex was always to give the twins whatever they needed. But our eyes met, and I saw all the panic in mine echoed in there. I made my hands clap together, too, trying to hide my fear from them.
Edward applauded quietly at my side, and we didn't need to speak our thoughts to know they were the same.
Edward and Carlisle threw themselves into research, looking for any answers, anything to expect. There was very little to be found, and none of it verifiable.
Alice and Rosalie usually began our day with a fashion show.
The twins never wore the same clothes twice, partly because they outgrew there clothes almost immediately and partly because Alice and Rosalie were trying to create two baby albums that appeared to span years rather than weeks.
They took thousands of pictures, documenting every phase of there accelerated childhoods.
At three months, the twins could have been a big one-year-old, or a small two-year-old. They weren t shaped exactly like a toddler; they where leaner and more graceful, there proportions were more even, like an adult's. Renesmee s bronze ringlets hung to her waist; EJ s brown hair also hung down to his waist but it was pulled back into a ponytail; I couldn't bear to cut there hair, even if Alice would have allowed it.
The twins could speak with flawless grammar and articulation, but they rarely bothered, preferring to simply show people what they wanted. they could not only walk but run and dance. they could even read.
I'd been reading Tennyson to them one night, Because the flow and rhythm of his poetry seemed restful. (I had to search constantly for new material; the twins didn't like repetition in there bedtime stories as other children supposedly did, and they had no patience for picture books.)
One night well I was reading to both of them before I tuck EJ to his own room. The twins tuck each others hands and
Renesmee reached up to touch my cheek, the image in there minds one of us, only with them holding the book. I gave it to them, smiling.
"'There is sweet music here,'" Renesmee read first without hesitation, that softer falls than petals from blown roses on the grass EJ read second also without hesitation , or night-dews on still waters between walls of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass ' "they read together.
My hand was robotic as I took the book back.
"If you read, how will you fall asleep?" I asked in a voice that had barely escaped shaking.
By Carlisle's calculations, the growth of there bodies was gradually slowing; there minds continued to race on ahead. Even if the rate of decrease held steady, they'd still be adults in no more than four years.
Four years. And old people by fifteen.
Just fifteen years of life.
But they where so healthy. Vital, bright, glowing, and happy. There conspicuous wellbeing made it easy for me to be happy with them in the moment and leave the future for tomorrow.
Carlisle and Edward discussed our options for the future from every angle in low voices that I tried not to hear. They never had these discussions when Jacob and Leah where around, because there was one sure way to halt aging, and that wasn't something Jacob or Leah where likely to be excited about.
I wasn't. Too dangerous! my instincts screamed at me. the wolfs and the twins seemed alike in so many ways, both half and-half beings, two things at the same time. And all the werewolf lore insisted that vampire venom was a death sentence rather than a course to immortality. . . .
Carlisle and Edward had exhausted the research they could do from a distance, and now we were preparing to follow old legends at their source. We were going back to Brazil, starting there. The Ticunas had legends about children like Renesmee and EJ. If other children like them had ever existed, perhaps some tale of the life span of half-mortal children still lingered. . . .
The only real question left was exactly when we would go.
I was the holdup. A small part of it was that I wanted to stay near Forks until after the holidays, for Charlie's sake.
But more than that, there was a different journey that I knew had to come first that was the clear priority. Also, it had to be a solo trip.
This was the only argument that Edward and I had gotten in since I'd become a vampire. The main point of contention was the "solo" part. But the facts were what they were, and my plan was the only one that made rational sense.
I had to go see the Volturi, and I had to do it absolutely alone.
Even freed from old nightmares, from any dreams at all, it was impossible to forget the Volturi. Nor did they leave us without reminders.
Until the day that Aro's present showed up, I didn't know that Alice had sent a wedding announcement to the Volturi leaders; we'd been far away on Esme's island when she'd seen a vision of Volturi soldiers Jane and Alec, the devastatingly powerful twins, among them. Caius was planning to send a hunting party to see if I was still human,
Against their edict (because I knew about the secret vampire world, I either must join it or be silenced permanently). So Alice had mailed the announcement, seeing that this would delay them as they deciphered the meaning behind it. But they would come eventually. That was certain.
The present itself was not overtly threatening. Extravagant, yes, almost frightening in that very extravagance. The threat was in the parting line of Aro's congratulatory note, written in black ink on a square of heavy, plain white paper in Aro's own hand:
I so look forward to seeing the new Mrs. Cullen in person.
The gift was presented in an ornately carved, ancient wooden box inlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl, ornamented with a rainbow of gemstones. Alice said the box itself was a priceless treasure, that it would have outshone just about any piece of jewelry besides the one inside it.
"I always wondered where the crown jewels disappeared to after John of England pawned them in the thirteenth century," Carlisle said. "I suppose it doesn't surprise me that the Volturi have their share."
The necklace was simple gold woven into a thick rope of a chain, almost scaled, like a smooth snake that would curl close around the throat. One jewel hung suspended from the rope: a white diamond the size of a golf ball.
The unsubtle reminder in Aro's note interested me more than the jewel. The Volturi needed to see that I was immortal, that the Cullens had been obedient to the Volturi's orders, and they needed to see this soon. They could not be allowed near Forks. There was only one way to keep our life here safe.
"You're not going alone," Edward had insisted through his teeth, his hands clenching into fists.
"They won't hurt me," I'd said as soothingly as I could manage, forcing my voice to sound sure. "They have no reason to. I'm a vampire. Case closed."
"No. Absolutely no."
"Edward, it's the only way to protect them."
And he hadn't been able to argue with that. My logic was watertight.
Even in the short time I'd known Aro, I'd been able to see that he was a collector and his most prized treasures were his living pieces. He coveted beauty, talent, and rarity in his immortal followers more than any jewel locked in his vaults. It was unfortunate enough that he'd begun to covet Alice's and Edward's abilities. I would give him no more reason to be jealous of Carlisle's family.
The twins where beautiful and gifted and unique. He could not be allowed to see them, not even through someone's thoughts.
And I was the only one whose thoughts he could not hear. Of course I would go alone.
Alice did not see any trouble with my trip, but she was worried by the indistinct quality of her visions. She said they were sometimes similarly hazy when there were outside decisions that might conflict but that had not been solidly resolved.
This uncertainty made Edward, already hesitant, extremely opposed to what I had to do.
He wanted to come with me as far as my connection in London, but I wouldn't leave the twins without both there parents. Carlisle was coming instead.
It made both Edward and me a little more relaxed, knowing that Carlisle would be only a few hours away from me.
Alice kept searching for the future, but the things she found were unrelated to what she was looking for. A new trend in the stock market; a possible visit of reconciliation from Irina, though her decision was not firm; a snowstorm that wouldn't hit for another six weeks; a call from Ren e (I was practicing my "rough" voice, and getting better at it every day to Ren e's knowledge, I was still sick, but mending).
We bought the tickets for Italy the day after the twins turned three months. I planned for it to be a very short trip, so I hadn't told Charlie about it. Jacob and Leah knew, and they took Edward's view on things. However, today the argument was about Brazil. Jacob and Leah where determined to come with us.
The five of us, Jacob, Renesmee, Leah, EJ, and I, were hunting together. EJ and Leah never really hunted with us EJ just like being near his sister. The diet of animal blood wasn't Renesmee's favorite thing that was why Jacob was here. Jacob had made it a contest between them, and that made her more willing to hunt than anything else. EJ still like human food best but well Jacob and Renesmee hunt. EJ and Leah would run and play, Leah in her wolf form.
The twins where quite clear on the whole good vs. bad as it applied to hunting humans; Renesmee just thought that donated blood made a nice compromise.
Human food filled Renesmee just like it filled EJ, but unlike EJ Renesmee reacted to all varieties of solid food with the same martyred endurance I had once given cauliflower and lima beans -EJ loved cauliflower and lima beans-. Animal blood was better than that, at least. The twins both had a competitive nature, and the challenge of beating Jacob made Renesmee excited to hunt. EJ and Leah would have human food eating challenges.
"Jacob Leah," I said, trying to reason with them again while Renesmee and EJ danced ahead of us into the long clearing, Renesmee searching for a scent she liked. "You've got obligations here. Seth, Quil Embry "
They snorted. Where not pack nannies. They've all got responsibilities in La Push anyway.
"Sort of like you? Are you officially dropping out of high school Jacob? If you're two going to keep up with the twin, you're going to have to study a lot harder."
"It's just a sabbatical Jacob said. We ll get back to school when things slow down Leah said."
I lost my concentration on my side of the disagreement when they said that, and we all automatically looked at the twins. They where staring at the snowflakes fluttering high above there heads, melting before they could stick to the yellowed grass in the long arrowhead-shaped meadow that we were standing in. Renesmee s ruffled ivory dress and EJ s ruffled ivory shirt and pants where just a shade darker than the snow and Renesmee s reddish-brown curls and EJ long brown hair managed to shimmer, though the sun was buried deeply behind the clouds.
As we watched, the twins crouched for an instant and then sprang fifteen feet up into the air.
there little hands closed around a flake, and they dropped lightly to there feet.
they turned to us with there shocking smiles truly, it wasn't something you could get used to and opened there hands to show us the perfectly formed eight-pointed ice star in there palm.
"Pretty," Jacob and Leah called to them appreciatively. "But I think you're stalling, Nessie." Jacob said to Renesmee Renesmee bounded back to Jacob, EJ bounded back to Leah; they held there arms out at exactly the moment the twins leaped into them. They had the move perfectly synchronized. Renesmee did this when she had something to say. She still preferred not to speak aloud. EJ was talking quietly to Leah.
Renesmee touched his face, scowling adorably as we all listened to the sound of a small herd of elk moving farther into the wood.
"Suuuure you're not thirsty, Nessie," Jacob answered a little sarcastically, but more indulgently than anything else. "You're just afraid I'll catch the biggest one again!"
She flipped backward out of Jacob's arms, landing lightly on her feet, and rolled her eyes she looked so much like Edward when she did that.
EJ seeing what his sister just did flipped backward out of Leah's arms. And rolled his eyes to.
Then the twins darted off toward the trees.
"Got it," Jacob and Leah said when I leaned as if to follow. They yanked there t-shirts off as they charged after the twins into the forest, already trembling. "It doesn't count if you cheat," Jacob called to Renesmee.
I smiled at the leaves they left fluttering behind them, shaking my head. Jacob and Leah where more children than the twins sometimes.
I paused, giving my hunters a few minutes' head start. It would be beyond simple to track them, and Renesmee would love to surprise me with the size of her prey.
I smiled again.
The narrow meadow was very still, very empty. The fluttering snow was thinning above me, almost gone. Alice had seen that it wouldn't stick for many weeks.
Usually Edward and I came together on these hunting trips. But Edward was with Carlisle today, planning the trip to Rio, talking behind Leah s and Jacob's backs. I frowned.
When I returned, I would take Leah s and Jacob's side. they should come with us. they had as big a stake in this as any of us there entire life was at stake, just like mine.
While my thoughts were lost in the near future, my eyes swept the mountainside routinely, searching for prey, searching for danger. I didn't think about it; the urge was an automatic thing.
Or perhaps there was a reason for my scanning, some tiny trigger that my razor-sharp senses had caught before I realized it consciously.
As my eyes flitted across the edge of a distant cliff, standing out starkly blue-gray against the green-black forest, a glint of silver or was it gold? gripped my attention.
My gaze zeroed in on the color that shouldn't have been there, so far away in the haze that an eagle wouldn't have been able to make it out. I stared.
She stared back.
That she was a vampire was obvious. Her skin was marble white, the texture a million times smoother than human skin. Even under the clouds, she glistened ever so slightly. If her skin had not given her away, her stillness would have. Only vampires and statues could be so perfectly motionless.
Her hair was pale, pale blond, almost silver. This was the gleam that had caught my eye. It hung straight as a ruler to a blunt edge at her chin, parted evenly down the center.
She was a stranger to me. I was absolutely certain I'd never seen her before, even as a human. None of the faces in my muddy memory were the same as this one.
But I knew her at once from her dark golden eyes.
Irina had decided to come after all.
For one moment I stared at her, and she stared back. I wondered if she would guess immediately who I was as well.
I half-raised my hand, about to wave, but her lip twisted the tiniest bit, making her face suddenly hostile.
I heard Renesmee's cry of victory from the forest, heard EJ s laughter, heard Jacob's and Leah s echoing howls, and saw Irina's face jerk reflexively to the sound when it echoed to her a few seconds later. Her gaze cut slightly to the right, and I knew what she was seeing.
two enormous werewolfs, perhaps the very ones who had killed her Laurent.
How long had she been watching us? Long enough to see our affectionate exchange before, I was sure.
Her face spammed in pain.
Instinctually, I opened my hands in front of me in an apologetic gesture. She turned back to me, and her lip curled back over her teeth. Her jaw unlocked as she growled.
When the faint sound reached me, she had already turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Crap!" I groaned.
I sprinted into the forest after EJ, Renesmee Leah, and Jacob, unwilling to have them out of my sight. I didn't know which direction Irina had taken, or exactly how furious she was right now. Vengeance was a common obsession for vampires, one that was not easy to suppress.
Running at full speed, it only took me two seconds to reach them.
"Mine is bigger," I heard Renesmee insist as I burst through the thick thorn bushes to the small open space where they stood.
Jacob's and Leah s ears flattened as they took in my expression; they crouched forward, baring there teeth Jacob s muzzle was streaked with blood from his kill. there eyes raked the forest. I could hear the growl building in there throats.
The twins where every bit as alert as Jacob and Leah. Renesmee Abandoning the dead stag at her feet, she and EJ leaped into my waiting arms, holding each others hands, pressing there hands against my cheeks.
"I'm overreacting," I assured them quickly. "It's okay, I think. Hold on." I sat them down and pulled out my cell phone and hit the speed dial. Edward answered on the first ring. Leah, Jacob, EJ and Renesmee listened intently to my side as I filled Edward in.
"Come, bring Carlisle," I trilled so fast I wondered if Jacob and Leah could keep up. "I saw Irina, and she saw me, but then she saw Jacob and Leah she got mad and ran away, I think. She hasn't shown up here yet, anyway but she looked pretty upset so maybe she will. If she doesn't, you and Carlisle have to go after her and talk to her. I feel so bad."
Leah rumbled.
"We'll be there in half a minute," Edward assured me, and I could hear the whoosh of the wind his running made.
We darted back to the long meadow and then waited silently as Jacob Leah and I listened carefully for the sound of an approach we did not recognize.
When the sound came, though, it was very familiar. And then Edward was at my side, Carlisle a few seconds behind. I was surprised to hear the heavy pad of big paws following behind Carlisle. I supposed I shouldn't have been shocked. With Renesmee and EJ in even a hint of danger, of course Jacob and Leah would call in reinforcements.
"She was up on that ridge," I told them at once, pointing out the spot. If Irina was fleeing, she already had quite a head start. Would she stop and listen to Carlisle? Her expression before made me think not. "Maybe you should call Emmett and Jasper and have them come with you. She looked really upset. She growled at me."
"What?" Edward said angrily.
Carlisle put a hand on his arm. "She's grieving. I'll go after her."
"I'm coming with you," Edward insisted.
They exchanged a long glance perhaps Carlisle was measuring Edward's irritation with Irina against his helpfulness as a mind reader.
Finally, Carlisle nodded, and they took off to find the trail without calling for Jasper or Emmett.
Jacob and Leah huffed impatiently and poked my back with there noses. they must want the twins back at the safety of the house, just in case. I agreed with them on that, and we hurried home with Seth Embry and Quil running at our flanks.
I picked the twins back up.
Renesmee was complacent in my arms, EJ was happy, there hands resting on my face. Since the hunting trip had been aborted, Renesmee would just have to make do with donated blood. Her thoughts were a little smug. I would make EJ some thing to eat to.