Chapter 12: The mammal

The page Bree was reading turned as her marble-like fingers pulled it to the other side of the book.

She was reading about different animals. Her eyes were occupied with reading the nutritions of foxes. She had not remembered that the cunning creatures were able to eat berries. It was fascinating. "Omnivores," she mused silently.

A picture of the cute bushy-tailed red animal picking berries jumped to her mind. A short smile appeared in her expression before she let it fade, like it had never even existed.

The door to her room opened with a boom as she got ready to turn another fragile page over. Emmett's head popped in. The man wore a mischievous grin. "I hope you're not. We are, to my knowledge, carnivores. It would be a shame if you started drinking the nectar from the flowers. That would be next level!"

Disgust plastered on the young teen's face as her gaze found the hulk-like vampire's. She couldn't even think about attempting to drink the disgusting liquid coming from the plants. If animal blood tasted bad, the one coming from flowers must have been horrible. She almost gagged in disgust. She would never touch the insides of the green plants. It would surely make her traumatised. The thick transparent thing dripping from them—absolutely never would she try to put that into her mouth. And over her dead body, would she actually slurp it down to her stomach. She could get sick from it. Or could she?

Were vampires able to get stomach bugs? She hoped not. She would need to ask Carlisle about it after the man returned from his hunting trip. Surely he would know.

"So...would you want to come help me and Rose?" Emmett asked. He leaned against the frame of the door. It creaked ominously under his weight, warning that it could not take much more of his lean.

"I don't know." The newborn sighed cautiously. She wasn't sure she wanted to go 'hang out' with the two, as Emmett referred to it. The muscular vampire had pestered her for the last two days, forcing her to talk with him three times each day. It was annoying. She hoped she would be left alone to suffer and read her books in peace.

"C'mon bee. It will be fun. I pinky promise! We need your help with fixing up my Jeep. I accidentally drove straight into a tree while making out with Rosalie." His lips turned to pout as he undoubtedly repeated his yesterday's little adventure in his brain.

The teen narrowed her eyes and shut her book gently. It dutifully complied with her command, letting itself be closed without a struggle. "I don't know how to fix cars." She wasn't keen on being stuck in the same room with the most horniest Cullens. She swore she had seen them slip away multiple times this week, first not realising why they had done so. Soon, however, the reason had dawned on her. They were very into each other. The car incident had just proved her theory right.

And then there was also the fact that she had heard their alone time two times.

The other mated couples living in the residence didn't seem as occupied with their mates. They did also disappear occasionally, but not nearly as often as the hulk-like vampire and the blond goddess.

"It doesn't matter. Rose won't let us touch the Jeep anyway. She just needs a couple of extra hands to give her tools." Emmett raised his shoulders nonchalantly. "And I'm too bored to let both of my hands be occupied so I need your help."

"I guess I can come," the young girl sighed. She stood up reluctantly. "But only if you leave me alone for the rest of the day."

"Deal."

Bree felt her muscles relax after the man's promise. She hadn't known her body had stiffened. It had tightened so subtly that she had not managed to notice it. Worry flickered in her brain before she stepped towards the muscular vampire. She let it move back of her mind as she reached the door.

The Cullen led her downstairs through the scary stairs. She climbed them down quickly, skipping the last three stairs with an enormous jump. She liked to think the movement had been huge but most likely, especially for a vampire, tiny. Nevertheless, she still felt proud of it. She had managed to jump all the way to the bottom from her place on the glass stairs. It was an achievement that the hellish transparent thing hadn't tripped her in the air maliciously.

Her silent demeanour dragged behind the other vampire. Her eyes gazed around as they took a peek inside the huge garage. Its shelves were shaking with tools she couldn't recognise, each looking more mysterious than the last. How many tools did people need to fix cars? Wouldn't it be more proficient if someone made one super tool to fix all the problems with rusty vehicles? Or was the world too capitalistic for that?

The newborn ruminated in her thoughts until she spotted the blond goddess. She was lying under one of the multiple cars sitting in the garage.

"Finally," Rosalie sighed. Her head popped beneath the red car she was working on.

Emmett's face twisted in disappointment. "Babe? Why aren't you working on my Jeep anymore? I thought you'd only concentrate on it."

The blonde vampire pulled herself up from under the car. Her hands full of oil, she stood up and wiped her pale hands against a towel put on top of the red car. "I wanted to make sure my BMW was doing well. And besides, you were taking too long."

"You're going to return to my Jeep now when I'm back, right?" The hulk-like vampire spoke, his face full of worry. He looked to be quite upset about his Jeep's fate.

Bree didn't get why the car worried him so much. Vampires were faster than the metal machines, so logically, there was no point in using them. They just slowed their kind down. And most importantly, the Jeep was only a car. It could be replaced easily with the enormous amount of wealth the Cullens seemed to harbour. Why bother fixing it when you could buy a new one? The Jeep in question looked too broken to be fixed. It's front was completely ruined and flat, looking more like a metal square than a car.

Rosalie walked up to the man. "Yes, but I need to get a couple of tools first." She turned to look at the teen standing in the garage's doorway. Her face unreadable, she said, "Are you going to come in?"

The brown-haired girl's gaze went to the woman, shifting then to Emmett. The mated couple stared at her, waiting for her to step inside the stuffed garage. Her eyes dropped to the concrete floor before her head nodded submissively.

She was unsure about stepping inside, but she just had to do it regardless of how reluctant she was to do the action. She had promised to help the two Cullens with the Jeep. Ultimately, it would be worth it in the end. She could spend time alone without getting interrupted when the torturous interaction would be over, like they had agreed. It couldn't be too bad to stay in the garage for an hour or two. Hopefully, the time would go by fast.

She inspected Rosalie's face, trying to see if she seemed hostile. Her memories brought back the words the other vampire had said in the Cullens family meeting. If the newborn had had to choose one other person after Jasper, whom she didn't trust at all, she would have chosen the blond goddess. She had proved she didn't really care about Bree and was ready to see her get killed.

As Bree walked inside, the muscular man glanced quickly at his mate, his expression messaging something to her. The young teen darted her face around the garage, feeling a rising awkwardness inside of herself. She had no idea what he was attempting to communicate and, frankly, did not care. She wanted to do what she was asked to do and then go back to reading.

When the glancing between the two Cullens was done, Rosalie scoffed and walked to her. She seemed irritated for a blink of an eye before relaxing her features. She raised her head, eyeing the cautious girl. "Do you know any of the car tools by name? Or do I need to explain their names to you so you will be able to help?"

Under the judging stare of the woman, the newborn squirmed. "I- I don't think so."

"I guess I need to introduce them to you shortly then," the blond goddess sighed more softly. Her hands found their way to her hips. "Listen closely. I don't want to repeat myself."

The minutes ticked by as the crimson-eyed vampire noted all the names of the hundreds of tools placed on the shelves. After the confusing introduction to them, she was put to stand next to them and give them one by one the ones Rosalie needed.

Emmett stood lazily next to her, occasionally helping her to hand the tools to his mate. His eyes studied the woman's work, wonder sparkling in his gaze.

Clicks and clanks rang in the air as the blond vampire fixed the Jeep slowly. As the time wore on, the young girl turned more restless, her gaze not on the places it was supposed to focus on. She wished for the 'hangout' to soon be over. Her books had started to call for her from upstairs. She was able to feel their luring thin pages and enchanting scent hovering into her nose.

Her change in patience was noticed as Emmett rolled his eyes playfully. "Really? Bored already? Kid, we have only worked on my Jeep for an hour. I was betting you'd stay here longer."

Bree's eyes widened. Betted? What did the man mean by that? Had he made a bet about her? Her heart stung. Suddenly, she didn't like the direction the day was going. She certainly did not want someone to bet on her. It was rude.

"Which means that I won," Rosalie announced under the car. She came back up with a victorious pearly smile. "You shouldn't have made a bet with me and known that the way the newborn is glued to her books, she would not stay away from them for multiple hours."

"Shi-" Emmett opened his mouth to curse, but the sound of a motor cut it abruptly. The loud engine crackled like it was about to explode. The teen hadn't heard such a loud motor before. It was almost fascinating how a car was able to make such vile sounds.

Her body stiffened as a heartbeat came to her awareness. It was delicious sounding, bringing sweet venom to her tongue. If she had been closer to it or more thirsty, she would have lost control and attacked it right on the spot, but her full belly from yesterday's hunt made her feel swollen. She didn't want to make it worse.

"That stupid human! What have we told her about coming to our house!" Rosalie hissed furiously. She had jumped next to the delirious girl and taken hold of her when the younger vampire had imagined the tasty flavour of the arriving human's blood. "Bree, stop breathing."

The newborn's senses were on fire. She felt them eat her mind slowly as the unknown car drove to Cullen's residence. Her eyes locked on her room's door as she held her breath, waiting for the human to leave. She had no plans to endanger her living situation, and the yellow-eyes had made it abundantly clear she was not to hurt the pinkish mammal called Bella.

Emmett and Rosalie had forced her to her room as they had made a plan to keep the situation in check. The muscular vampire was to stay on the other side of her room's door and seize her if she lost control. The blond woman, on the other hand, would usher Bella away. It sounded efficient, but Bree wasn't sure the hulk-like man would truly be able to hold her off if she lost herself to bloodlust. She was stronger than him, and that would create trouble in the said scenario.

Her throat scorched from pain. The thick venom inside her mouth twirled, waiting for the right time to attack. It's slippery grasp urged her to swallow and let the sweet substance flow freely into her throat.

The delicious smell of human blood stroked her nostrils. It pushed itself into her brain, fuzzing it and making her feel like her head was full of cotton. The thoughts in her head were slow and muddy as her hands flew to her throat, clasping it desperately.

Its soreness grew the longer the human and Rosalie were talking on the door. Their voices became more frustrated. The argument they were having turned more heated. Neither party was ready to give up what they were set to do.

"Bella, for the last time, leave! Edward will kill us if he finds out you're here." Rosalie's voice rang sharply in the air. It's irritated tone travelled to the young teen's ears.

"He doesn't need to know." The mammal called Bella reasoned.

Rosalie's furious hiss broke from her lips. "He will find out! My brother isn't an idiot. He will smell your scent when he comes back home and question why it's here. We are all going to be in trouble."

"It's too late to hide it anyway. I've already left the scent. I just want to speak with Bree." Bella reasoned determinedly. She didn't seem like she was going to back down.

"I'm not letting you near a newborn. Edward would personally pulverise me if he finds out she has been close to you."

Emmett chuckled, amused, from the other side of the sixteen-year-old girl's door. He didn't appear too worried about the human's appearance now that Bree was safely in her own room.

It was silent for a second. "Shouldn't I know what it's like to be a newborn so I can get ready for it? The best way to do so would be to talk with Bree. She could tell me what it's like from a fresh perspective. I sent Seth earlier to-"

"Seth came here because of you?" Rosalie gasped furiously. "You do realise both he and Bree could have gotten hurt?"

"No…I didn't think about that," Bella admitted. Her voice became silent as she acknowledged her mistake.

The girl listening to the conversation upstairs tilted her head. She wanted the human to leave the residence. The quicker it happened, the better. She didn't wish to make Bella her meal. At least for now. The Cullens pet needed to stay far away from her, safe from her hunger. It would be better for everyone involved, even though the idea of tasting her seemed more appetising as the clock ticked onward.

Bree glanced towards the mirror. She blinked. The action was unnecessary, but gave her something else to do. To distract her mind from the human downstairs. She didn't want to think about the creature anymore or listen to the heated conversation. It only served her throat and mind, reminding them about the delicious blood pumping in the human's veins. She wasn't in a state where she could have concentrated on something like that.

Her uneasiness was starting to rise. Minutes ticked by as the voices of the blond vampire and brown-haired human spoke vigorously. She couldn't take this for much longer. She would need to escape from the window soon.

The inviting scent of blood circulated faintly in the newborn's room. Its tasteful existence persuaded her to burst from the white walled room and attack the mortal downstairs.

The conversation stopped. The sudden, unexpected silence startled the teen. What had happened in the time she had not paid attention to the voices for them to stop so abruptly?

Her curious senses directed themselves back towards the two creatures downstairs as she leaned forward.

She could hear steps. They vibrated in the house confidently, like they had just won a battle. The beating heart got louder, as if it were coming closer. Surely the human was still at the door? Rosalie wouldn't have let her further inside, wouldn't she? Rosalie wouldn't be that dumb to risk the life of the pinkish mammal. The blondie knew how big of a threat the three-and-a-half-month-old vampire was.

"Ugh! Fine! Go kill yourself, but know that it's not my fault when you get hurt. Maybe you will learn something from defying us." Rosalie's infuriated, but frighteningly defiant, tone hissed.

Horror stroked into the crimson-eyed girl's expression. No. The human couldn't come to her room. She just couldn't. She wouldn't be able to control herself.

She bolted from her sitting position on the floor. The floor creaked loudly as she shot up in a hurry.

While dread polluted most of her brain, a small part of her mind reeled in satisfaction. It demanded that she would run to the human and finish her off. Kill her quickly before anyone had time to do anything. The lure to do so grew within her. The part of her brain responsible for the horrendous idea whispered to her seductively, not seeming to understand how the idea would end up dooming her to death.

She shook her head desperately. She needed to get out of here before the growing bloodlust would overtake her and make her do something that she didn't want to.

Emmett's panicked voice came through her door. "Crap! Rose, what are you thinking? We can't just-."

"It's fine, Em. Let the human enter the room. She is too much of a mule to understand the danger she is putting herself in."

"Like that makes this any better!" The muscular man argued.

Bella joined in. "Please. I promise I won't stay for too long. You can hold Bree if it makes you guys feel safer. I'll be out of the room in five minutes…sooner if needed."

The silence engulfed the house again. Only the bothersome heartbeat and the loud veins of the mammal disrupted it.

Bree waited tensely in the quietness, her body rigid from fear. She pleaded- prayed that she would not be forced to face the demonic human. The amber-eyed vampires couldn't pressure her to face her.

Her marble hands flew to her throat as she let out a strangled whine, attempting to tell the older vampires that she wouldn't be able to be any closer to Bella. She would kill her otherwise.

Her praying was heard when Emmett sighed. "Bella needs to stay on this side of the door. I will not open it for her. The kid can hear her just fine from inside the bedroom and I bet Bella can hear her too from here, right?"

The newborn's stance eased. She wouldn't be put to endure the presence of the mouth-watering mammal from closer. She had at least some room to breathe. She still could not take too many or too deep breaths, but at the very least she didn't need to be in the same room with the scent of Bella. She would have been doomed in that case. She still was, but not as badly as if the human would have diluted the air she was breathing.

The most concerning thing about her was how her scent was slowly

sneaking beneath her door to her room. If she were to put a towel to block the scent's entrance, would it hold it on the other side?

She ran desperately to the bathroom attached to her bedroom and snatched the biggest towel she saw. Her steps brought her back to her room and made her drop to her knees in front of the white door. She stuffed the fluffy white object in front of the slim crack under the wooden door. She had to hope this would work.

"Bree?" Rosalie's alarmed call made her hands stop in their place. She raised her head, looking through the door like she'd be able to see the angelic woman.

Her shaky voice answered, "I- I'm fine."

"Did you just put a towel against the door?" Emmett chuckled, amused.

"Umm…yes. I thought it might help keep the mammal's scent away."

"What mammal's?" The human asked with a heavy dose of confusion in her tone.

The hulk-like man snorted. His booming voice reverberated in the hallway "Yeah, Bree. Why don't you tell her what you're talking about?"

The young teen pulled her lips backward, showing her pearly teeth. She didn't want to talk about unnecessary things while in so much pain. Her throat was killing her. Why couldn't the mammal ask the questions she truly wanted to know? "I'm talking about you. You're the mammal, Bella."

This was slightly humiliating. It was another thing to call Bella a mammal when she was not around, but to let her actually hear it? Why had she let the word slip from her mouth so easily?

"Oh! Umm…that's…okay…I guess?" Bella said stunned. A small amount of her scent escaped to the bedroom, regardless of the towel supposed to hold it on the other side.

Bree took three steps from the door. Her body stiffened again. She held her desire to gulp, not wanting to aggravate her throat's volcano further, but it was turning out to be harder than she thought. She wished to be able to do so safely. Her mouth was like a pool, except rather than being full of water, it was filled with venom.

Her hands clutched her throat desperately. Their marble surfaces against each other. "My throat hurts a lot."

"If you want to ask Bree something, do it now!" Rosalie snapped, her anger and worry mixing with each other as she directed them towards the human.

"How easy is it to not hurt others?" Bella blurted quickly out.

The red-eyed girl winced. The question had made her think about her thirst even more than she had already thought about it. The mammal hadn't clearly thought her question properly through, failing to realise the said question wouldn't be a great thing to ask. "It's hard."

Her agonised answer created a short silence. It lasted only for fifteen seconds before Bella spoke. "Yes, that's what I've heard." Her heart picked up as she continued carefully. "I remember Edward mentioning how Alice saw you die when the Volturi arrived back. Umm….so…how do you feel regarding that?"

The newborn blinked. She felt terror rise inside her chest. The Cullens had known she would die almost the whole time she had stayed with them. Was this the vision the Cullens had kept from her? A crushing feeling filled her unbeating heart. It took over her body like it was the easiest thing in the world. She wouldn't survive the Volturi confrontation. Her only hope would be to escape before the dark-cloaked ancient vampires came back. She now more than ever needed to find Fred.

She felt another spike go through her heart. The teen had started to think the yellow-eyes wanted to genuinely get to know her. The last couple of days had been surprisingly nice. However, she saw how wrong she had been. They had pitied her and tried to make her comfortable in the house until her imminent death would take hold of her.

They had lied to her, and she had been idiotic and blind. Done the one thing she shouldn't have—the thing she had sworn not to do—to start trusting them slightly.