Five
Carlisle and I smirk at one another as Rosalie lets loose yet another powerful snore, overpowering even the sound of the jets' engine to our sensitive ears with its sheer volume.
"For the love of God," I whisper to Dad, laughing, "If I had remembered how bad she snores I would have made her stick to her initial choice to stay home."
He grins back at me, pushing a stray fringe of blond hair from his forehead.
"Can't say I disagree, son," he replies, "I wouldn't be surprised if she starts making the plane shake from the vibrations."
Grinning, I shake my head and refocus on my book.
Dad and I were almost out the door to drive to the airport to board our private jet when Rose came barreling down the stairs with two rolling suitcases crashing down noisily after her, saying she changed her mind, she's coming with us and to shut our mouths about it.
Neither of us speak for several minutes, both caught up in our respective reading but when Carlisle did break the comfortable silence it was far from surprising
"Am I doing the right thing? Allowing Rose to come along?"
A sigh leaves me. He's asking if I had listened to her thoughts, heard from the source what exactly made her come after she fought so throughly against going.
"I don't know, dad." I say not looking up from my book.
"Come now, Edward, you must have heard something." He presses.
"No, dad, really, I didn't. I told you I've gotten really good at blocking others thoughts when it's just a few people around me. Bigger crowds are still impossible to me, I don't think I'll ever get out of being bombarded with everyone's thoughts, but I truly don't listen to your guys minds at home and haven't for years."
Carlisle nods, not liking what I'm saying but accepting my words.
"It's weird," he snorts, "any other time I would be ecstatic that you don't eavesdrop on our private thoughts —"
"But now that it would have been beneficial; you're annoyed," I interrupt, "I get it, dad, but I'm not going to invade her privacy unless absolutely necessary."
Dad nods his head, shamefaced.
"You're right, son, I just want this trip to bring some happiness to Rose, but it could so easily push her further down the rabbit hole if she doesn't hear what she wants to. I should have thought of that, of her feelings, and yours for that matter, before I brought it up."
"We both know you always mean well, dad," I say, patting his knee. "Don't doubt your analytical mind now, it's served you well over the last three hundred and some odd years."
He smirks. "But why does it have to be so analytical all the time? It can be such a bloody nuisance."
I grin back at him, surprised to hear a bit of old world London — from another life time, sneaking into his speech. "I don't know, you should analyze that."
He eyes me dryly, about to retort back but is cut off by an especially monstrous snore from Rose and to our utter amusement shocks of mild turbulence.
We both lose ourselves in a fit of hearty laughter, jerking Rose awake in the process.
"What! What's going on? Are we crashing?" She goes to stand but is swiftly jerked back by her seatbelt.
"Why are you goons laughing?" She shouts as the plane calms down. "Why was there turbulence?"
We bust out into a new fit of laughter, if we were human our sides would've been aching at this point.
Rose though, a quick study, starts yelling at us again.
"Screw you, I can't help it! I have a deviated septum!"
We just laugh harder, earning curious looks from the flight attendants and candy bars thrown at our heads.
We could have easily dodged or caught them but instead we let them hit their targets to make Princess Rose happy.
Unfortunately our well meaning deed had the opposite effect. Knowing we were humoring her she growls and takes out her iPod, closing herself off from us.
Dad and I share an eye roll and go back to reading.
Can't please 'em all.
DAF
"Hello! ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming out," An excessively tall vampire with a shaved head and red eyes says in way of greeting, stepping behind a podium on the stage In between two long tables were the panel will sit; He smiles at his audience cheekily. "My name is Dr. James Matius and I'll be introducing our elite panel of experts tonight."
"Lord, he's tall." Rose whispers from beside me, mirroring pretty much everyone else's thoughts in the large, crowded conference room.
She's not wrong. I myself stand at 6'5", but undoubtedly this guy would tower over even me, by almost a foot probably.
"Are the women creaming themselves right now?" Rose asks with a chuckle.
Good naturally rolling my eyes, I survey the room, my head pounding from the influx of thoughts barging in on me.
"Uhh . . . no. The majority feels cautious, actually, almost intimidated."
Rose lifts an eyebrow sharing my confusion. He's not an ugly man but just so imposing, even while being rather lanky. His presence is just so fucking commanding. It's off putting.
From the jumbled thoughts throughout the room I see I'm not the only one thinking the same thing.
I don't know if it's actually my thoughts or those around me influencing me, but both men and women are totally turned off by this Vamps presence.
I feel myself swell with an alien urge to assert myself and I have no idea why. The need grows more and more severe every second but the problem is I'm sitting in a crowded room about to listen to a lecture and Q&A, there's nothing for me to do or say. No way for me to satisfy myself. I don't know what it is but I don't like this man.
Taking deep breaths, I urge my more over imaginative instincts to calm down. And now I'll pretend that bout of forced zen actually worked.
"But before we start — I'd especially like to thank the press for coming out," Dr. Matius continues, unnerving me further with every word, "we are all very grateful knowing some of you travelled far and wide to join us here in New York."
I look around the room noting all the people, supernatural and human, mixing together uneasily, many with notebooks at the ready and cameras varying in size from handheld to inconveniently massive.
"Our hope here today is to simply educate the human race, particularly the stuck-in-their-ways elders." The tall Vampire smiles, showing a bit of fang. Christ, this guy has got to be really un-evolved if he can't control his fangs. "Now, don't be offended, every species has 'em." The crowd forces a laugh. "Those of you that remember life thirty years ago when yours was the only race to seemingly exist may have not taken to the change very well, may have fought against learning of what we are, how we became and how we can provide for this world. But the more we all understand each other the faster these dangerous and wasteful feuds can be ended."
The tall Doctor grins at an older human in his late sixties, sitting in the first row with his arms crossed and a worried look on his face.
"And I call out elders only because If you were to walk into any given high school or college campus in this country you'd be hard pressed to find a young person that's not aware of how us supernatural beings function; why my fellow Vampires have the eyes we do, what it means to be a Black Witch rather than a White Witch, or what it is about the moon that forces the change in Werewolves."
"Maybe these young humans have a Witch for a mother, and though the gene might not have been passed down to them, they are aware of the lifestyle, they grew up in it. Or maybe their best friend turns furry every once in a while and that's just how it's always been. Whatever it may be, our message has reached their ears. Now we wish for the rest, the more resistant, of the human race to be brought up to speed."
"And to do just that allow me to introduce to you, Dr. Carlisle Cullen."
I feel myself instantly relax as my father takes the place of the confusingly worrisome Vamp, and smiles towards the easing, applauding crowd.
I turn to Rosalie, "Now the women are creaming themselves."
Rose turns to me with a scrunched nose.
"Ew! That's our father, I don't want to know that!"
I snort at her.
"Please, at least you don't have to see their thoughts."
Woman after woman, and some men as well, no matter the species, are imagining all kinds of nasty things they want to do to my father and it's making me feel queasy.
She pats my shoulder in sympathy and turns her attention back to the stage.
Carlisle may not be Roses biological father as he is mine, Emmetts, and Jaspers, but she is his child in every other way that's important, same with Jaspers mate Alice.
Her Introduction into our family was fast and furious, but once the dust sifted and the bodies buried, she created her niche in our family endearing us to her completely. Princess antics and all. The same can be said for Alice.
But anyways, this isn't unusual, the exact opposite actually. Once a member of your family mates, it's the vampiric way to gladly make room for the new, important addition of your family, you gain a daughter or a sister you would die for.
To shun your sons or brothers mate, is to shun them both and it's just not done.
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen," Carlisle grins, his golden eyes shining, "and all those watching from home. Dr. Matius pretty much summed everything up. We are all here today because we Supernaturals want to finally, after thirty long years, be understood."
Carlisle then introduces the rest of the panel consisting of twelve individuals — four Vampires, only one with red eyes, darting from side to side anxiously. Three Weres all muscled bound and moving with large jerks of their bodies, three Witches and two Humans.
"I'm not going to lie," Carlisle says after everyone on the panel is sitting comfortably, "While those of us outside the human species may have some similarities, we are not the same. Each species has certain evolutionary advantages compared to not only other races but also to our own kin. Not all Vampires are the same just as not all humans are the same."
Dad smiles at me and I groan quietly
"My son, Edward, is a brilliant musician, he can pick up a new instrument and implicate it to his will and make stunning music. I once sat at a piano, touched a single key and I kid you not, all the chords in the freaking thing snapped."
The crowd laughs gleefully, enjoying Carlisles trustworthy presence.
"That pretty much sums up my musical ability." Dad chuckles.
To be fair though, what he's not saying is he was only a toddler at the time and didn't understand his own strength as well as the pianos wiring being faulty.
"You might have noticed that Dr. Matius has red eyes while I have gold. All that means is I have found my mate and he has not. There are a million differences existing between all of us but that doesn't mean we can't all live in harmony."
He goes on to implore the humans to listen with open minds. Think of what all our individual advantages can accomplish pooled together. He asks that fear not be a factor and the further strengthening of all our races become the main priority.
With the conclusion of his speech Carlisle motions for the first person with a question to step up to the microphone in the crowd. Most of those in line to ask a question are human, but not all.
"My first question is for you Dr. Cullen." A short, older human says a little too loudly in the mic.
Dad motions him to continue.
"You said you have a son? How is that possible? I thought Vampires are dead. Or is it just that you, ah . . . whats the word uh — oh sired him?"
I roll my eyes. For Christs sake I get the humans have been resistant to change but it's been thirty years, you'd think they had learnt something about our species in that time.
From Carlisles thoughts I can tell he is also already exhausted but he hides it well.
"While human men can be turned into Vampires, it's important to remember that we are not dead. Our hearts beat, blood runs through our veins and we can reproduce with human women, well not just any woman though. Those of us lucky enough to find our mates do so early in life — And we then mate for life, this is the one person we shall spend the rest of our existence with, and only she can bare her mates children."
"You can tell if a Vampire has a mate by his eyes, like I mentioned earlier. A Vampire with red eyes has not found her and a vampire with gold eyes — has."
"What is it about your . . . mates that makes your eyes change?" The Human asks.
"All vampires are born with, or changed then adapt, red eyes. Before a Vampire finds his mate he feeds on the blood of animals to sustain himself — which keeps them red."
"You people don't feed on humans?" The human asks looking uncertain.
This is dangerous territory Carlisle is coming up on.
"In our culture it's considered extremely ill mannered to feed upon humans before our mate is found, so it's generally not done."
Kinda a lie. There are those that do but it's not as uncommon as Carlisle is trying to make it seem. Not that I blame him, we're trying to make progress here and while not all the negative things about Supernaturals can be avoided from coming out today, that one definitely can be.
"But once she is, she then becomes our source of nourishment —"
Christ here it comes.
"Wait! Wait!" The human shouts, not the only one looking scandalized. "You feed on her? So what? She's just a blood whore to you monsters? You steal our women and then enslave them?"
"What an asshole," I snarl to Rose, "by his thoughts he could be a fucking poster boy for misogyny and yet he dares to accuse us of enslavement!"
"What's he thinking?" Rose asks.
"He's not surprised women are stupid enough to fall for our game and ruin their lives. That's why they need a man . . . Uh, guiding them."
Guiding. Yeah. That's a much better word to use in Roses presence then the real one that sack of shit thought.
Roses eyes flash with anger anyways, knowing I'm condensing the truth.
"Fuck that dickhead!"
"No, sir," Carlisle speaks slowly, "The Vampire isn't the only one who feels the mating attraction. Humans, at least not those mated to Vampires, don't really have such a thing — nor do Witches. When it comes to Vampiric mating both parties dedicate themselves to each other, falling in love almost instantly and deeply, an evolutionary response to further the Vampiric race. Nobody is enslaved by another but are happily and equally bound to one another. Werewolves also go through a similar phenomena."
The human, red in the face, comes back to the mic and just explodes with expletives.
It took seven seconds for the mic to be cut off, but the fact that most of us here are Supernaturals with amplified hearing it does little good. It's not until he's escorted out that we let ourselves breathe and a new human steps up to the mic.
Carlisle laughs. "This is going well."
The crowd, Humans in particular are still too wound up to appreciate the sarcasm.
"Umm . . ." The next person says into the, on again, mic. "Hmm, wait you said, uh, you mate with humans, but don't you guys live forever? What happens to the human? Is it the same with female vampires?"
Dad begins to relax again, hoping the worst is over with.
"First off, there are no female Vampires, only males, much like only women are capable of being Witches, nobody really knows why yet, only guesses with no bases in scientific reasoning, all we can say for sure is just that thats how it is. And pertaining to our mates, as they sustain us with their blood, we sustain their lives. Our saliva mixes with the woman's blood and basically freezes the enzymes which leads to a domino effect throughout her whole body, keeping her at the same age. This needs to happen often, not only so the Vampire can feed but also if the woman goes too long with out the treatment to her enzymes she'll begin to age again."
It can also only happen during sex, specifically when the woman orgasms. If a vampire tries to feed without erotic pleasure it's agony for the woman, the Vamps venom too acidic to handle. But when coupling it has the opposite effect and works as an aphrodisiac. But there's no need to mention that either, at the moment. It'll just fuel the delusions that we enthrall them into our webs of blood slavery
I don't know why, but I'm glad dad also left out that our saliva mixing with their blood makes our mates completely immune to all diseases. It also strengthens their bodies to the point of almost indestructible. Compared to a Vampire they're still absolutely delicate and malleable, but compared to other humans they're downright superhuman.
The humans eyes light up and he eagerly grabs the mic.
"Wait, does that mean vampires can make us immortal?"
All of the humans minds come alive with eager greed.
'I could be young forever?'
'Please say, yes, I don't want to die!'
'Young forever, young forever!'
Dad sighs.
"Like I said earlier, while human men can be changed, it is very ill mannered, a betrayal, to feed on any human besides ones mate, so it's very rare for a human to be changed. And once again — women aren't born or can be changed into a Vamp. Unless she were mated to a Vampire our saliva would act as an acid to her immune system."
Disappointment rings clear — spoken aloud and silently thought, but that doesn't mean most are deterred, the chance at immortality too delicious to give up on.
Dozens more people come up and ask their questions, overwhelmingly about Vampires, much to the ire of the other panelists of different species.
I start to drift in and out, already knowing everything that's being said but force myself to pay attention. History is being made today and it's being lead by my father. If that doesn't deserve my full attention I don't know what does.
"Um, I have a question for the Witches." A pretty human woman asks.
"My mother was a Witch, the only one I've ever known, but she died when I was very young so I was never given any answers about why I wasn't born a Witch like her."
Dr. Lucy Munich, who has yet to speak, fields this question.
"Quite simply, the Witchery gene skips a generation. My fellow kin believe this is because, as magic users with a deep and intimate connection to this world, a cosmic balance needs to be kept. We are capable of changing reality to a certain extent, our procreation the end of that extent. If we were able to produce Witches every generation after a few thousand years, meaning now in this day and age, things would be unbalanced for humanity. Now this is just a theory, but a very widely accepted one by my people, it may not be found in science — but neither can witchcraft."
That last part was a very peculiar dig at my father but I don't know why she even bothered, I hadn't been actively keeping up with her thoughts so I'm missing the connotation.
"So-o-o my children will be Witches?" The human asks, uncertain if this is a good or bad thing.
Dr. Munich nods. "Your daughters will be, males can't inherit the gene, much like women can't be Vampires. There's no apparent reason why, it just is."
The Q&A continues on for another two hours, not without more drama as two more humans explode at answers they don't like.
Such as Weres also only mate, or what they call imprint, on human women and Witches can hex people.
"Alright we have time for just one more question." Carlisle says, looking as eager and refreshed as when we started but by his thoughts I can tell he's exhausted. Vampires don't sleep, but that doesn't mean we don't tire and need to recharge.
The older man I recognize as the man Dr. Matius had smiled at in the beginning, stands and walks to the mic slowly.
"My question is for all of you." He rumbles, stone faced. "You say every race has its evolutionary advantages, but from what I've heard it's you people that can do everything. Live forever, are immune to diseases, find your soulmates, manipulate the balance of the universe at your whim. What do humans have that can compete?"
Not a bad question, and to be honest I can't think of an answer that would appease him and every human grumbling along with him.
Thank Jesus dad and the other Vamps didn't mention the fact that some of us have extra special powers, even from the norm of our kind. Like my being able to read minds or my brother Jasper being able to, not only sense, but manipulate peoples emotions.
All the panelists look to one another, searching for an answer, and I thank God there's at least Carlisle up there and not thirteen people like me and them.
In the smoothest voice I've ever heard, Carlisle answers the gentlemen.
"Ask yourself, sir, who has had and still does have, complete control of this world since the dawn of time and who has had to hide in fear of eradication?"
For the first time in my life I know what a deafening silence really is.
AN: Officially all out of Pre-written chapters so don't be upset that updates probably won't be as quick. Just keep reviewing and I'll work hard to update at least every Friday if not more.