I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. Thank you for the likes and saves 3
To be clear on ages:
Bella - 17
Edward - 17
Emmett - 20
Jasper - 20
Rosalie - 20
Alice - 19
Carlisle - 23
Esme - 26
*
"Who are you?" The blonde vampire asks. The feeling of calm falters slightly. My anxiety rises again. Was I being manipulated? By him?
"I mean no harm." I say after a while. Can I tell them who I am? Will they force me to go back?
"We want to believe you, dear. But we would like to know who you are. If you're lost maybe we can help you." The motherly vampire says. She shows nothing but the truth in her eyes. Her voice was pleading.
"My name is Bella." I say slowly. I'm hesitant but clearly there was nowhere I could go.
"Bella, if we have Emmett let you go, will you try not to run?" The other blonde man asks. His voice was calm. Compassionate.
I just not. I wasn't sure if I would try to run or not. My mind is telling me to but my body doesn't feel like it will. He nods at the one behind me named Emmett(?). I am then placed slowly to the ground and with a gust of wind, the burly vampire is with his coven. I gasp. He was as big as I thought he would be but he was also so beautiful. He has a small smirk on his face forming a slight dimple on his left cheek. He is wearing a black hoodie and grey jogging pants with white sneakers. He was a tower of a man with the biggest muscles. His hair was a beautiful dark brown with short curls. His eyes were full of amusement and curiosity.
I look down for stop my ogling. I still don't have on shoes but at least I'm clean and clothed.
"Bella, what brought you to our home." The compassionate vampire asks.
"I was passing through." I pulled on the bottom of the shirt i wore. I felt so small-vulnerable. I forced my physical shield up, relaxing in its comforting hug. They couldn't see it thankfully so. If they did try to approach me, I can detect where you move.
"You did more than just past through." The blonde female sneered.
"I'm sorry. I-I needed to. Please if you let me go, I'll no longer be a problem." I pleaded. I looked at the coven leader. Hoping that he would spare me.
"Please, don't mind Rosalie. You're doing what you have to do." The motherly vampire spoke looking pointedly as the blonde woman apparently named 'Rosalie'. "We can help you if you tell us what you need. My name is Esme, this is my husband Carlisle. These are our sons and daughters. Alice, Edward, Jasper and you've already gotten close to Emmett." She points at the members as she notes them by name.
"Your eyes." Jasper says. Yes, my eyes are interesting. They developed a deep red coloring in the center of my irises and transitioned to a chocolate brown on the outside. The red was the one thing the showed proof of my unfavorable diet.
"Your heart also beats a lot faster than a humans would. Even with anxiety. It's too fast. You should be dead." Edward grounds out. Still fighting. For what, I don't know. He still creeped me out.
"That's because I'm not like move humans. Like you aren't like most vampires." They all tense. "I'm a hybrid. Half human, half vampire." I say quietly.
"How is that possible? You have bites all over you." Rosalie says loudly. I'm was surprised she would continue to talk to me since she seemed to hate me so quickly.
"I don't know. The bites were from feeding. " I really didn't know. No one knew. For all I knew I was the first of my kind. The bites were feeding scars. There were a portion of them where I'd be sparring with another vampire-a newborn that would latch on.
"Were you born half vampire?" Carlisle asks.
"I was human a year ago. Forced to change." I say sadly. Flashes of my parents went through my mind. They died even when I was promised their lives wouldn't be wasted.
"Oh, dear..." Esme gasps sadly. He hadn goes up to her mouth. Everyone watched me with what I could possibly mistake sadness for pity. Emmett especially.
"Where are you from?" Jasper asks. Already knowing. He has to. He has to smell her on me. I'm me. The one part of her permanently in my veins.
"Texas." I say looking him directly in the eye.
"Maria?" He asks, clenching his jaw after. I just not in response.
"Your sire?" Carlisle asked Jasper. He gots a stiff nod it return. He then looks at me with such sadness. If he knew Maria was jaspers sire he, he knew what she was capable of.
"It appears you are both siblings by venom then." Emmett says with dry amusement. You can hear the distaste for Maria's existence.
"Did she follow you?" Rosalie asks. Ready for a potential fight. She leaned forward as if she were about to crouch.
"A couple of her newborns did. But that was two days ago and I was nowhere near here." I try to clarify. I don't think they'll come this way. I hope they don't.
"Why should we believe you?" she sneers. Her teeth were being put on display. A reminder that she is dangerous.
"I saw it." Alice jumps in confidently. "she's not a harm to us." She turns to me. "That means you can stop running." She bored her eyes into mine.
"Stop running?" I say. What else could I do? I had nowhere to go.
"You can't be giving her permission to stay with us Alice. She has a territorial vampire looking for her. One that Honda your husbands past. Would you want him have to see he again when the time comes that Maria decides to storm into Forks. Endangering not our family but the people that live here." Rosalie is turned towards Alice with hostile body language.
"Rose. I've seen what comes from this and it's perfect. If you do believe in my visions that's on you but I have never been wrong. Right, Edward?" Alice tilts her head over to look at Edward whom is currently punching the bridge of his nose. What's with him?
"Even though I know what you see doesn't mean I can side with you. I can get a read on her. It's too quiet." He hissed. He's trying to read me? Was he a mind reader? I did have a mental shield; something I couldn't necessarily control.
"interesting." Carlisle breaths.
"I'll say." Emmett mutters in fascination. He had a wider smile on his face now causing both cheeks to provide deep dimples. They made him ever more handsome but so boyish looking. Almost adorable.
I blush and look down.
"I promise I'm not a threat. I don't know how to let you...'read' me but I wouldn't dare try anything." I out my hands up. Thank god I don't sweat.
"What did you mean by saying your scars are from feeding?" Jasper asked.
"My blood. It's like temporary steroids for vampires. After my change the smell of it amolifked cause into it to be temping especially to newborns. They would drink from me before a battle or for their own pleasure. I think it's because the genome in my veins made it so." I look at my arms. Crescent scars everywhere. I hadn't realized they would be in full view after being clean. I didn't notice them with the mud. I began to wish I were dirty again.
"I'm so sorry." Esme sobbed.
"We can protect you." Carlisle speaks willingly. Almost protective. Before our conversation they mentioned their roles and played the part of a family. Maybe he developed fatherly instincts. He gave me that feeling.
"I cannot ask you to do that." I say after hearing Rosalie growl.
"So you're just going to keep running? Then go through this with another coven that may not be so kind?" Jasper asked. He raised an eyebrow indicating he knew I knew he was right.
"I already saw you decide to stay, Bella. Just say yes and you'll have a home. You'll be protected." Alice says she still have a smile on her face. Only smaller and sincere. How does she know what decision I would make?
"You can see the future?" I ask in shock.
"Its subjective and heavily based on the decisions of others. If Maria decided to come or decided to send someone, I'll be able to see the outcome. Though she isn't physically here. Because you're around and I know you, I'll see the decision. I knew you would be here. I stalled on telling everyone because no offense, you needed to shower." I blues at her judgement. "My visions are only reliable when a decision is concrete. And this one was concrete. You decide to stay." She says confidently swinging her little hands at her side.
Was she lying to me? Is this a way to force me into saying I would stay? Even so, and if she could see the future well enough.m, I would know Maria's moves if she ever decided to come to me. The thought of her finding me shook me to my core. I wouldn't dare risk living day by day wondering how far or close I am to death.
"Thats settled. She's a part of the family." Alice announces happily. Just as I made the decision to stay. Surely she must understand I'm doing this just to survive.
"Welcome. Bella please understand we also mean no harm. Alice has a good judgement or character as Alice as Jasper does. I trust them. In turn we will learn to trust eachother. In the mean time, I would like you to know that we feed from the wildlife around our home. If you haven't already noticed, I'm sure you have. Our eyes are gold. That is due to our diet-I'm not fully sure why it does that. Apart from our coven there is only one other that share the same dietary interests as us. From the red in your eyes I see you drink human blood. Thought I do not support that I would recommend hunting outside of forks for the reason that we made a pact with the Quilluiet tribe over a decade ago. A treaty if you will. Human drinking and hard are forbidden. In the case that we do harm any humans we will be chased out of Forks." Carlisle explains.
"I hardly have an interest in human blood. I was forced to do it through starvation." I growl. I wasn't upset with Carlisle. I understood why he was telling me about the rules of life here. I'd rather not take another human life. Honestly, food is something I could eat but to be strong I needed blood. If animals were something I could drink, I could try.
"No interest what so ever?" Edward asked. He seemed more frustrated.
"Only when one starved." I remind him.
"What of the abilities you have? Edward can't hear you. But it seems I'm able to feel your emotions." Jasper stated. So he's an empath. He was manipulating my emotions so I didn't run away. He forced me to stay calm. I began to feel irritated. I can't trust them.
"Why should I tell you? You controlled me a few minuets ago. For all of your benefit. Want to feed on me too then?" I get into a defensive stance. There's no way I could defend myself against all of them. Hell he emitted power over them all. Given the fact he has Maria's venom in his veins means he could take me out in seconds but I'll die fighting.
"Bella, please calm down. I told him to do it. You need us. You wouldn't have listened any other way. You made the conscious decision on your own. His power stopped the Mikey Emmett put you down. You won't win the fight but you can trust us." Alice said knowingly. She was serious.
My shield is fully covering me. They wouldn't be able to touch me if I focused. But I panic and struggle to keep it up. My chances of escaping are slim but my chances of living is zero. I relax and sigh. I had no choice. This wasn't a forced decision. This was what I wanted. To belong fairly and have a normal life. They seemed normal enough even with a couple of them having attitude problems.
"I have a shield ability. To both mental and physical attacks. I think your skill works on me because it's more physical than mental. It takes more work to put up my physical shield so I'm accessible to you." I was disappointed my vulnerability to his power is present but there are worse talents to go up against.
"That's why Edward can't read your mind. Is there a way you can turn off the mental shield?" Carlisle announces. I shake my head.
"The mental shield is harder to get rid of. I can't control it any better than a mind reader can probably hear any thought from any person. It got stronger after my change. I've had it since I was human. I think it had to do with me always wanting to keep to myself. In a way I was protecting myself." I cross my scarred arms.
"That's fair. I guess I should enjoy the peace and quiet. It just makes it harder to understand or trust others without knowing what they're really thinking." He says with less frustration.
"Maybe you can help each other." Alice says with a hint of mischief in her voice.
"Over my dead body." Rosalie says she stands protectively in front of him. I understand she wants to protect her mate but I wanted nothing to do with him.
"It happens, Rose." Alice days matter of factly.
"Also how cool would it be to have someone new in the family? Sure she's different and out of place, and awkward but she's a new member." Emmett booms excitedly. "She can go to school with us." He claps his hands together looking at me.
"School?" I asked with a shaky voice.
"Unless your bloodlust is hard to control astound humans. Of course the new school year doesn't start for a few weeks. So in the mean time, we would get you hunting animals and used to the area." Carlisle says.
"Humans aren't a concern. I'm hardly tempted by them. I can eat food as well so keeping up the image of one isn't the issue. I guess I've taken a long time from being around civilization, it spooks me a bit. The exposure." I shiver at the thought of people possibly approaching me.
"You don't have to go if you don't want, dear." Esme said gently. "You can always stay here. School is for upkeep and to avoid boredom. It isn't a requirement."
"I saw you go as the most probable outcome. You'd just get bored being inside all the time. You actually enjoy school from what I saw." Alice chimes in.
"If you saw it, how could I say no?" I shrugged giving up on thinking about just staying away.
"Yay! We can also go shopping to get you your own clothes." She says both happily and sternly. Dread filled my veins but the rest of them. Simply laughed.
"Welcome to the family, Bella." Carlisle says.
Eventually everything calmed down and I was given the option of having my own room. Emmett immediately volunteered his own saying he hardly spends time in there unless he's playing video games. He had the most welcoming personality apart from Alice. He sure was intimidating though. Strength radiated off of him. Proof that if you poke the bear, your bound to get mauled.
As much of an inviting offer that was, I took the spare room in the basement. Emmett understood disappointedly. He offered to help move whatever furniture I needed. Flashing his dimples smile and amazing muscles.
It's funny how it kind of looked like a smaller separate apartment with its own living space and a bathroom next to the actual bedroom. It didn't have a bed yet which was fine since I hardly had to sleep but they were persistent on getting me one anyway. The room had yet to be decorated.
Jasper told me his story. How he had been in Maria's clutches for over 50 years. He has a friend, almost a brother named Peter which he let leave as a newborn with his mate Charlotte. He wasn't usually as merciful with the others in the camp due to being Maria's second in command and having to be harsh. Something about Peter made him drop the command to kill them and he let them leave. Eventually Maria and Jasper began to fight. The army being split. Before he could exact revenge on her for attempting to have him killed, Alice met him. At the time they were in Pennsylvania. They attracted immediately and due to Alice's visions-they were able to find the Cullens.
His story gave me hope that I may find what he has. I may be able to be happy. They could really be my new family.