"Nice to meet you," Jasper said.

His voice was as strained as his expression. Lilah would've almost preferred him to not say anything, as Rosalie had opted not to.

"Rosalie and Jasper were a bit more reluctant to meet you," Esme said. It was obvious there was more to that than she was willing to stay. Especially because she smiled wide, trying to cover for what laid beneath the statement. "It's nothing against you personally, dear."

Lilah didn't buy it. She didn't question it either. She didn't want to know. She couldn't blame them either. Why would they want to come meet the psychotic crying woman in their house? Why had the bothered to show up when they had?

"That was Jasper's gift you were feeling a minute ago," Edward said. He leaned forward a bit in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. "When you felt that calmness that you rejected. Jasper has the ability to feel and influence the emotions of others…he was only trying to help."

So vampires were more like witches than not. Constance had a gift too, though she had carried hers from her human life. As a witch, she had been bestowed with the gift of tactile telepathy. She could touch a person, an object, an animal, anything, and peer into its history, its thoughts, the core of its being. The gift had followed her. Perhaps she would've developed it anyway, becoming a vampire.

Lilah glanced up at Jasper, who was still watching her. She felt sorry for him. She barely understood her own amalgamation of emotions at the moment. Anxiety, fear, curiosity, amusement, homesickness, resentfulness, comfort. What he could or could not make out of all of it, she had no clue.

"And you can read minds?" she asked, gazing back to Edward.

He was surprised. Taken aback. Both of his brows shot up. Behind him, Emmett laughed a whooping laugh, apparently delighted by Lilah's question.

"Yes," Edward said. He was smiling a bit too now, again appearing a bit more boyish. "May I asked how you came to that conclusion?"

"You've always answered questions before I could ask them," Lilah said. "And you always started to laugh or smile when it wasn't quite appropriate…unless you heard what was going on in my head."

He was grinning now, in that same way. He laughed, and then said, "Well, Lilah, the way you think is very…amusing. For lack of a better word, your thoughts are quite…loud. You're very expressive within the confines of your own mind, and yet you don't show it at all on your face. Your thoughts and your face seems as though they belong to two different people…please don't be offended, but it's quite funny. Whatever I imagine you're thinking based on your expression is the opposite to what you actually think."

Lilah was glad she could provide a vampire with a new form of entertainment. That was something, at least. It made her not completely useless, in the smallest of ways.

And again, Edward laughed.

"What's she thinking?" Emmett asked, eager to be in on the joke.

"She's glad that she can provide an old vampire like me with some new form of entertainment."

All of the Cullens—minus Rosalie and Jasper—laughed. It was nice. So much so that, for a moment, Lilah forgot that she was in a house full of strangers.

"Yeah, I never would've guessed that," Emmett said. "You'd be a champion poker player, Lilah."

"Do you all have gifts?" Lilah asked. The curiosity had gotten the better of her.

"I can see the future," Alice said. "Not exactly and not concretely, because that's not how the future works. I can see likely decisions and the subsequent outcomes."

Her small brow furrowed slightly, and she added, "Although I can't see yours. Carlisle has theorized it's because you're a witch, and that interferes with my vision."

For the first time in her life, Lilah was upset at the prospect of not knowing her future.

When they were younger, she and Morgan used to dabble in fortune telling. Lilah never wanted to know her own. Her life before Phoebe adopting her had been pre-planned. She would marry a man chosen for her by her father. A good man, who might've been old enough to be her father, who was in high standing in the church. She would bear him as many children as he wanted, do his laundry, cook for him, keep his house, so on and so forth. Her future was hers in name only. In reality, it was something to be bought by the highest bidder, the man she would eventually be married to.

Once Phoebe took her in and the entire world was open to her, she didn't want to know her future. She wanted adventure and surprises and to take it as it came. That always threw Morgan for a loop—when they were teens, Morgan wanted to know, for sure, that she'd have a successful career and a fairytale romance and never have to worry about money. Lilah would rather be surprised.

Now, though, it would make Lilah feel better to know that everything was going to blow over and be okay. On the flip side, if Alice's visions didn't show that, she didn't want to know.

"I have extra super strength," Emmett said, bringing Lilah back to the present. Playfully, he showed off his massive biceps for added effect. "I'm as stronger than most human blood drinkers, even though I do the 'vegetarian' thing."

Lilah believed him. Emmett looked as though he could reduce a mountain to dust with only half the force of his pinky finger. She recalled what Constance had told her about drinking animal blood. It was more ethical, for those vampires, like the Cullens, who believed it was morally wrong to drink human blood. However, it meant that said vampires were slower and weaker than blood-drinking vampires, and they needed to sleep. They existed in some strange limbo between human and regular vampire.

Emmett, though, had his gift to make up for that. He could surely mow down a few dozen human drinking vampires without much of an effort. He would've been unstoppable if he drank a typical vampire diet.

"What about you?" Emmett asked. He was eager, grinning from ear to ear. "Carlisle said witches are similar, that most of you have gifts."

Lilah didn't think she wanted to answer for a second. She hadn't revealed her gift to anyone outside of her family. Both of her families. And her birth family had almost killed her over it.

But, she was in a house of vampires. Her gift would not at all phase them.

"Telekinesis."

Once more, Emmett seemed amazed. So much so that even Rosalie cracked a smile.

"Can I see? That sounds badass! What can you—" "Emmett, please," Esme said in a way that was indeed very maternal.

Emmett, too, must've felt it, as he calmed down, wrapping an arm around Rosalie's shoulders as he relaxed, in a way that indicated to Lilah, that they were the other couple of the house.

"I'm so sorry," Lilah said. She had calmed down since her breakdown, and they'd had a full conversation since it happened, so all of the Cullens stared at her, unsure of why she was apologizing now. "I didn't mean to behave and cry like that in your home, when you've been so kind and hospitable. I just…I don't mean to be a burden, I never intended to ask any of you for anything when I came here. I don't want to intrude. I don't want anyone to feel as though they owe me anything."

"You haven't intruded," Carlisle said. He was so kind and sincere that Lilah nearly believed him. "We might've appreciated a word of notice about your move to Forks, but in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing to be upset about. We're glad that you're safe here, Lilah. We'd like—out of our own volition—to do what we can to ensure your safety. And if all it takes is giving your father a mean look so he runs home with his tail between his legs, that's nothing."

"We'd like to be friends, dear," Esme added. "It's so rare that we're able to have real friendships outside of our little family. And as we build a friendship, we offer our help, because that's what we do for those we come to care about."

Something was choking Lilah at the back of her throat. She saw so much of Phoebe in Esme at that moment that she wanted to cry. Phoebe, who'd found her as a terrified, broken mess of a teenager. Phoebe, who'd taken her in with open arms, given her nothing but love and affection and encouragement long before there was anything in it for her.

Esme was much the same. There was nothing but affection and care in her golden eyes. She might not have known Lilah yet, but she wanted to, and she was already sure that Lilah was good enough, worthy enough for care, affection, and help. There was so much love in Esme's eyes. Love that, in time, she would give Lilah. Because she was worthy of it.

Lilah almost broke down for a second time. She felt Edward's eyes on her, softly. She was sure her face was stony and not at all indicative of the emotional goo in her mind.

"Okay. Thank you," Lilah said, finally agreeing. "But I want to earn my keep, so to speak. I know you're vampires, but there has to be something I can do for you in return."

Esme opened her mouth, surely to say something about it not being necessary, but it was Emmett who beat her to the chase, and asked, "Show us some of your mind powers!"

Lilah laughed. She gave in, because it was hard not to with Emmett. She focused her eyes on the copy of Meditations on the table. Directed her magical energy into two hand-like appendages, and raised the book into the air, causing it to fall open, and the pages to dance, as though they were being flipped through by another invisible hand. Once every page had fluttered, the book shut, and gently floated down toward the table, as though it had never been moved in the first place.

Emmett was wide-eyed and slack jawed. Like a child after seeing their first real magic trick at the fair.

"Holy shit! You're like, actually Samantha from Bewitched."

At that, Lilah laughed again. His references indicated his age. That show had been off the air for almost a decade by the time Lilah was born.

He was going to ask Lilah for more of a demonstration, but a glare from Rosalie stopped him from doing so. At first glance, they appeared to be an odd couple, Emmett so lively and brash, Rosalie so stiff and cold. But upon second glance, they immediately made sense. They balanced each other out. Emmett would probably be a lunatic if not for Rosalie to ground him. Likewise, Lilah had caught Rosalie flashing Emmett smiles all throughout their time together, smiles that she probably wouldn't have flashed anyone else.

"Do we have an agreement, Lilah?" Carlisle asked, bringing the conversation back to its original intent. "We agree to have your back if any danger comes up, and, in turn, we put effort into cultivating a friendship?"

It was the least she could do. "Yes, of course. Thank you."

Beside her, Alice bubbled with delight. Her smiling face was one of the loveliest, warmest sights Lilah had ever seen.

"I really would love to take you shopping for furniture," she said. She was holding back some of her excitement, Lilah could tell, likely on Edward's advice. "And if you want to do something in return, we could use some help with our garden in the backyard. None of us have bothered to do anything with it, but I'm sure you could make it beautiful with your expertise."

Now Alice was speaking her language. She was fantastic at doing for others. She would have to make herself work on allowing others to do for her. She'd just started to allow her family to do things for her, now she would have to widen that circle.

"That sounds great, Alice. I'd be happy to."

"This is so exciting!"

Shockingly, Lilah found herself agreeing with Alice. She had never been excited to go furniture shopping before in her life. How strange, how quickly things had changed, being around these vampires.