Light tapping on the door wakes me up the next day, a change from waking up alone and in silence. "Elisabeth? Are you awake?"
It's Edward.
"You can come in," I say with a yawn. "I'm awake."
The door unlocks and he opens it slowly and steps in before shutting it again. He's brought more water.
"No breakfast?" I ask.
"Not today," he says. "You have to fast until the night of the initiation."
I sit up and look him in the eyes. "I still haven't said if I'll do it or not."
He raises an eyebrow. "Your face said enough last night."
He wasn't wrong.
"Drink," he says, handing me the glass of water he brought up.
I take it and drink it all in three large gulps. He sits on the edge of the bed. "I imagine you have questions." He looks at me with the same blank expression he's had almost the entire time I've been here. I nod and say, "Yeah, a few."
"Ask."
"Who were you praying to before you all…ate."
His face doesn't change. "Do you believe in God?"
"We went to church a few times when I was a kid but, no, I guess I never really was religious."
"You should start," he says. "Believe in a few of them, actually. There's more than you're taught." He pauses for a second before continuing. "We were praying to the god who created us. Vlakir."
"When did he create the first one?"
"Thousands of years ago. The first of us was a beggar. He was dying, and wanted health and power. He prayed and called out to anything that would hear him, and the night he was on his deathbed, Vlakir appeared. He granted him every desire he could ever wish for; money, women, sex, knowledge, endless life. Immortality. But there were conditions to this. Terms he couldn't avoid."
"What were the conditions?"
"He had to feast on flesh and blood to keep his power and his life. And he had to recruit others."
"How many of you are there now?"
"Thousands. We don't give this gift to others freely; Vlakir chooses. He brings them to us in one way or another, and it's unavoidable. Fate."
The dreams…they were leading me here. "And if who he chooses doesn't want this…?"
"They die."
"But why?"
"Because we have to keep this part of us hidden. We move in the shadows. Throughout time our kind has been hunted down. Entire populations have tried to eradicate us. It's a safety measure…to ensure we don't get caught."
I nodded. He kept on, "We form covens and stick together in our covens. There are different ones all over the place. He leads people to the coven he chooses for them, or he leads covens to them."
"Renesmee wasn't there last night. Is she not part of this coven?"
He shook his head no. "She's only half vampire."
"Are half vampires not allowed inside covens?"
He shook his head again. "They are, but they're rare. There is a werewolf pack here in Forks-"
"Werewolves?" I asked.
"Yes. For years our kind was at war with their kind, even though inside, we're both monsters. We asked for a solution for over a century. When I met Renesmee's mother,"
"Bella?" I said.
"Yes, Bella. She was close with the werewolf pack here. Vlakir chose her to carry Renesmee because of her ties with the wolves. Werewolves do something called imprinting when they meet their destined mate. It's permanent and can't be undone. Renesmee was made to be exactly who Bella's friend was meant to imprint on, and he did when she was born, binding them together for life. This meant the fighting had to stop."
"So she doesn't do the rituals with you?"
"No. She hunts with us for food, then goes home to the wolves. She's a tie between both sides which means she can't fully participate with us. If she does, it makes her full and it breaks the tie, and the fighting starts up again."
"Why?"
"Because they're forbidden to be with a full-blood, but they can be with humans. Since she's half human, she's allowed to be with him, and him with her. And since he imprinted on her, he gets the same immortality she has. That keeps the peace between us for now. When they eventually have children, that permanently binds both sides because there is now a being who is both vampire and werewolf. The vampire god and the wolf god become family, vampires and werewolves become family. We take family seriously and don't tolerate infighting."
"How does Vlakir choose new recruits?"
"There's not any solid reason. Sometimes he sees one of his children is lonely and needs a mate or would work better with one, and he scours each soul on Earth until he finds the perfect match. Sometimes he sees a human he just particularly favors and wants to give them what he sees as his perfect gift. Sometimes he sees something in a human that he feels would make for a powerful disciple."
"And me? Why did he pick me?"
His expression changes from blank to confused. "I don't know. But he did and we can't question that."
A minute of silence passes and then I ask another question. "My mom used to have visions about me, and after I hit puberty I had the same dreams. I saw you in my dreams, always during a blood moon eclipse." His eyes look curious and I continue. "Alice asked about my birth and eclipses and when my next birthday was. She said it was during the next blood moon. Did she ever tell you what she saw in her vision the other night?"
He shakes his head no. "She didn't. But she'll be with you today to begin preparing you for can ask her."
I feel relieved and excited I won't be alone all day today. Or stuck in this room. "Prepare me? What does that mean?"
"Every vampire is gifted with a power. All humans have a latent ability that vampirism brings out. She's going to try to see what yours is."
I already had an idea of what mine is going to be since I already have prophetic visions as a normal human.
"Do you have anything else to ask?" he says.
"What happens during initiation?"
He smirks. "So you have decided."
He's got me there.
Before I can think of anything else, Alice knocks on the door before coming in anyway and asks if I'm ready to follow her to her room. "Yeah, I'm ready. Just let me brush my teeth and get dressed."
"No worries," she says, "you can do all of that in my room downstairs."
She grabs my hand and leads me to her room.
We both figured out pretty quickly that I'd be a seer like her, so after I brush my teeth, she starts taking my measurements so she can start sewing a gown for initiation. It will be the night of my 18th birthday this Saturday, beginning when the eclipse begins. We'll be outside in a clearing in the woods, directly under the moon. I can't take not knowing any longer so I finally ask her what she saw when we touched hands and her vision hit.
"I saw you," she says, "and Edward."
"Edward?" I say.
"Yes. It's like you were both being initiated, even though he's already been through it before. I think he's who's been chosen to turn you."
"Wouldn't Carlisle do it? Since he's the coven leader?"
Tape measure in both hands, not looking away from my hips, she says "You'll drink from all of us because it binds us together as a coven. But you'll drink from him first, and he'll drink from you."
She writes down a measurement and then starts on my ribs. "I've seen you in visions with Edward before."
I was shocked. "Did you know it was me?"
"Not until I saw it again, the first night you were here. The face was always kind of blurred. The whole vision, really. I could never figure out what they meant until you came here."
"What do they mean?"
She stops, puts her tape measure down, cups my face in her hands, and smiles.
"Vlakir chose you to be his bride."
His bride?
"We thought it was Bella, but she was just a vessel for Renesmee. I didn't have these visions with her. I've had them about you for the past five years."
Five years…five years ago was when my dreams started. That's when mom's dreams about me started getting more frequent. It just hit me…
I've been fated for Edward.
"Don't be nervous," she says, clearly noticing the change in speed my breathing started taking. "We have a strong bond. You'll fit in fine with us."
"It's not that, it's just…"
I've never kissed a boy, or even had a boyfriend. I'm a virgin. How am I supposed to jump into a marriage? "I barely even know him. I've only been here for four days."
"You've been chosen. We can't change his will."
She finished my dress measurements in silence.
I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in my room, trying to come to terms with the complete 180 my life was going to be making the night of my birthday.
Vampire initiate.
Edward's bride.
