Chapter Thirty Three

Bella

Hunting wasn't as bad as I'd feared and the blood did ease the burn in my throat but it was still there in the background.

"You will get used to that Bella and learn to ignore it. I'm afraid animal blood never satisfies like human blood or so I'm told. I've never drunk from a human myself."

"Never? Not even out of curiosity?"

"Carlisle explained to me that once we start to feed its like a frenzy takes over and we can't stop and that means drinking human blood would result in a dead human."

"So every time someone like Garrett feeds he kills?"

"Yes."

"But what about me? He didn't drain me"

She hesitated as if about to say something then smiled,

"Garrett is very fond of you and managed to resist the urge to drain you."

"So he did just enough to change me? Is that so difficult? Who else do you know who has that self-control?"

"Carlisle. He's never killed a human only changed his family. There are a few but they are rare."

"Is it possible to drink from a human without changing or killing them?"

"I have no idea, why?"

"Well if your thirst is only quenched by human blood and you could drink from a human but leave them alive that would be a better way to live surely?"

"I don't think it works like that Bella but you could speak to Carlisle, if anyone knows it will be him."

Carlisle

Edward and Alice arrived home while Bella was gone but thankfully I didn't have to fill them in, Alice had seen some of the action in her visions."

"Bella doesn't come through well though. She was foggy as a human but now I can't see her future at all, it's all shadows as if something is interfering with my gift."

"Really? Perhaps it's because she is so new."

Alice shrugged,

"Could be I suppose. I've never tried to see a newborn before. I see Garrett is still with us"

She shot a glare at our guest who was sitting on the back porch watching two squirrels fighting over nuts he had thrown in the snow.

"Yes, he feels responsible for Bella's transformation"

"Why? Did he change her? No I'd have seen that. So who did?"

"We had another vampire wanting to join us just as everything went so wrong. He saved Bella from the wolves and was forced to change her when he realised she was dying from blood loss."

"If he was a human hunter why didn't he just drain her and be done with it?"

"I think he wanted to show me he was worthy of my help."

"So where is he?"

"Garrett was upset that Jasper had bitten Bella and there were angry words exchanged, accusations thrown and Jasper left."

"Yeah that sounds about right. I agree with Rose about him, he's trouble."

"Garrett is my friend Edward, he wouldn't do anything to hurt the family and I'd appreciate it if you would be polite to him. He might be with us for some time, I think he would like to get to know Bella better. There might be a romance in the air, he's been alone so long. Speaking of which I would also appreciate it if you said nothing about Jasper, the other vampire who helped."

"Why?"

"It would just confuse Bella and she is just now learning to cope with life as a vampire. Esme took her to hunt."

"Where are the others?"

"Rose and Emmett went on to prepare the house in Boston. I thought it was close enough to humans for Bella to learn to interact but isolated enough that no one would see if she slipped up."

"Why do we have her by the way?"

"Well I could hardly expect her father to cope with a newborn although I can see she has turned out to be exceptional."

"How?"

"Well she hasn't attacked anyone yet or trashed the house. Think about Emmett, he had been terrible for the first two years, ruining several houses before settling down at last Alice"

"Well it will be interesting to see this strange newborn who has become a part of the family with no discussion on the subject."

"I'm sorry Alice?"

"Well, you had a quick conversation before asking me to stay, I know Edward was consulted about you finding a mate and when you changed Rosalie you did it for Edward here. She chose Emmett as her mate so what exactly is the status of this Bella Swan Cullen?"

"There wasn't time to discuss it, we were in terrible danger from the wolves and their allies. We still are in fact unless you've seen something Alice?"

"No I haven't but I want to know what place Bella has in the family."

"She is a welcome addition Alice as you were and I expect you to treat her as such. You aren't usually this hostile to newcomers."

"Well perhaps because I see her as a dangerous addition Carlisle and Edward agrees with me. The Quileutes wont just give up, they've lost too much. If they persuade the other guardian tribes to join them we could be hunted to extinction ourselves. More so if we have the evidence of the broken treaty with us, namely Bella Swan."

"No one in the family bit Bella, we did not break the treaty and if necessary we will move abroad, away from the guardian tribes. Before that though I think we should wait to see their reaction. I could always appeal to their leader directly."

"Do you think he would speak to you?"

"Well If the need arises we will find out the answer to that question Alice but in the meantime I suggest you two adjust your attitudes, Bella will be back soon and I don't want any unpleasantness, it wouldn't be fair. Oh yes, and no ill feelings towards Garrett either, not while he is a guest in my house."

I had been shocked by Alice's hostility, Edward tended to be led by her but why she should take against a girl she didn't know who was changed through no fault of her own as a direct result of us being in Forks I couldn't fathom.

Bella

When we got back I found two newcomers, Alice and Edward Cullen and while they were friendly I felt their reserve, perhaps they weren't happy at my presence but there was little I could do about that so after being introduced to them I went to sit with Garrett watching the squirrels. He looked up as I joined him and smiled and it made me feel tingly inside, he really was very good-looking.

"Poor little things have to work so hard to survive the winter. I missed Thanksgiving you know. I was supposed to be going to a party."

"I don't think you missed much, too much turkey and pecan pie for my liking."

"I never had pecan pie, we had pumpkin pie once, my mother was on one of her cooking fads but it was awful so we stuck to ice cream or frozen desserts after that. Now my diet is strictly liquid, warm and straight from the vein. Ugh it sounds horrible when I say it like that."

"Then don't, you'll get used to it. How was your hunt?"

"I caught a deer but I couldn't bring myself to kill it at first. Esme had to help, I don't think I'm very good at that sort of thing. I felt like I was cheating taking down a poor defenceless animal."

"Maybe if you ask him Emmett will take you to hunt bear, that's not helpless."

"I hadn't thought of that. Garrett have you never tried animal blood?"

"I did once, just to shut Carlisle up, its his pet subject, turning us away from our natural food source. Can't say I liked it much and I was still thirsty."

"Esme says that never goes away with animal blood. I'd like to try human blood, just to compare but I don't want to kill anyone to do it."

"Well there is another way although the blood wont be warm. There are plenty of blood banks, you could try stored blood, that way you don't hurt anyone."

"I'll think about that thank you Garrett."

I lay my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around me and I flashed back to the cave, we had sat just like this waiting to see what our captors would do next, before he had changed me for ever into his kind.