Three months have passed since we started the experiment. Except for Edward and Alice, all Cullens have now at least partly converted to a diet of processed animal blood. The changes are remarkable.
One day Carlisle came home from his shift at the hospital, nearly overcome with emotion. There had been a birthday cake for a colleague, and his team was so happy that he joined them in eating a slice for once. He had not realized how much of the social bonding he had missed by not taking part in any food-related team activities.
This event also inspired Esme's new passion for charity bake sales. She had often wanted to help out with those, but without the ability to taste-test her creations she had not dared to feed them to the humans. Now nothing was stopping her, and at least every other weekend she organizes something and rakes in serious cash for various charities. The local public library, food bank and domestic violence shelter had never been quite so well-funded. Not in the least because her husband relishes in trying every one of her baked goods now that he is able to and always makes a sizeable donation in return.
Rosalie and I are often dragged into these schemes. Emmett actively wants to participate, but was banned from the kitchen by Esme after a particularly messy incident with a large bag of flour. My participation was initially mandatory on account of me having the most experience cooking and baking, but as Esme and Rosalie slowly got comfortable around the oven I can thankfully back out more often. Against my expectations, Rosalie absolutely came to love this activity once she got over her apprehensions. The baking she does not care for much, but she loves chatting with all the small children that come to buy the goodies. Since becoming a vampire she had always avoided children, partly because she was sad at her inability to have any, but mostly because she was horrified at her yearning to eat them. Now devoid of bloodlust she can chat and play with them and it goes some ways to filling the void in her life of not being able to have children herself.
Jasper is always press-ganged into helping set up the stands and hanging up the decorations by Esme. He pretends to protest, but nobody quite believes him. He clearly loves to bask in the happy emotions of his family on such occasions. One day a big package arrived for him from Texas, which contained a rather old, beat up guitar. His friend Peter had apparently kept it safe for him while Alice kept him under his control, as the pixie did not approve of the aesthetics of the instrument. Or the music he liked to play on it. Or anything about him really. Now this Peter apparently considers Jasper sufficiently emancipated to safely reunite him with his instrument. He brings it along and quietly strums out some country tunes while watching Rosalie dance to music with the children.
Emmett, while generally inclined to happiness, has never been this happy, because his wife has never been this happy. Other than supporting Rosalie, he still takes it as a personal challenge in this experiment to see how much human food he can inhale. Carlisle quite despairs of keeping up the stats for him in his lab notes. There does seem to be a sort of trade-off between how much human food a vampire eats and how much processed blood they need. It seems that when they are able to get a lot of nutrients out of human food, less blood is required to keep them from going thirsty.
Carlisle's current running theory is that it must be the hunting instincts that drive the bloodlust. The family members that completely converted to a non-hunting diet, regardless of what percentage of calorie intake is blood and what human food, all completely lost their bloodlust as well. While alternating between hunting and drinking processed blood Carlisle still felt some bloodlust, until he completely converted like the rest. They all still hunt animals to collect blood to process, but without the intention to sink their teeth into the prey and immediately drain them, the hunting instinct does not get triggered.
Jasper actually came up with an idea to make the blood gathering easier as well. Since processed blood apparently tastes the same no matter what animal it originally came from, there is no longer a need to hunt wild animals. He found out that it is possible to buy blood from butcher shops for very cheap, as it is a waste product they have in large quantities and do not have many other uses for. Using some of his shady underground contacts he set up a letterbox firm through which he can inconspicuously handle the purchases, and is now having tank loads of cow and pig blood delivered to a convenient drop location.
Very importantly this solves the main bottleneck in the supply chain. Rosalie has long since optimized her first machine, and has started building a second even better one. That has made the greatest limitation to our production capacity the amount of fresh blood the vampires are able to harvest. Fresh meaning not clotted, which it would do if gathered per our current hunting method and transported more than 20 kilometers. While the vampire speed and strength meant the hunting did not take up that much time, we could not become too much of a burden on the local ecosystem. The forests around Forks could just about handle supporting the Cullen family, but Carlisle has started to consider 'converting' some of his friends. It would be unfair to do so before we could reliably supply them with bloodshake powder, and currently we still have only the one processing plant in our garage.
Thankfully something about the way the bought farm animal blood is treated or handled allows to keep it stable over much larger distances. Thus none of the local wildlife needs to be killed anymore, which has greatly eased the conscience of particularly Carlisle and Esme.
Even Emmett, who still can't help himself when it comes to wrestling with grizzly bears, has become more considerate toward the environment. He is now careful not to kill the bears, and lets them go after he catches them. He laughingly compares this to sport fishing.
Speaking of Emmett, he is presently driving me and Jasper to Port Angeles after abducting us. When we enter the city he finally reveals his purpose.
"We need to do some clothes shopping for Jasper."
"Why?", the man in question groans. I have an inclination that Alice has often dragged him along on trips for this purpose many times, and the experience has not been enjoyable for him.
"Because you hate your clothes. You never gave back that shirt you borrowed off Bella's dad, and you have been wearing it as much as you can get away with ever since. Alice bought all your clothes in a style she likes but you hate, and it is about time you realize you can decide yourself what you want to wear."
Okay, that is actually sweet. However, it only explains the necessity of bringing Jasper on this trip. "Why on earth am I involved in this?", I groan.
"Because apparently Jasper likes your dad's style. You have to know where he gets that stuff."
"I don't.", I say honestly. "Actually, he doesn't ever really do clothes shopping. I believe he bought his entire wardrobe in the late 80's and still wears that."
"Ahh the 80's.", Emmett sighs and veers the car around. "Back when they still produced quality. Thrift store it is then."
Soon after he parks the jeep in front of a large thrift store and pushes us inside.
"Alright Bella, we need to find him at least five shirts. And then give that other one back to Charlie before you get a complex about seeing Jasper strut around in your dad's clothes."
"Really Emmett.", I roll my eyes. Emmett has been making such comments increasingly often, and I'm starting to worry he knows how my treacherous hormones have been lusting after Jasper lately. To avoid drawing Jasper's attention to the conversation I move towards a rack of promising looking plaid shirts.
I turn out to be quite good at picking out shirts that Jasper likes, and Emmett discovers a hidden talent for finding jeans that cling to him in an absolutely sinful way. Yes, this man definitely spent some quality time on a horse to get a butt like that. Eventually he stops pretending that he doesn't like our shopping trip, and emerges from a rack holding a worn leather biker jacket. Emmett and I whoop appreciatively.
In the end Emmett has snuck in a few plaid shirts into the cart for himself as well, and I have found a nice oversized sweater that will help keep me warm in the Forks climate.
Passing through the accessories section on the way to the checkout Jasper is drawn to a vintage looking pair of aviator sunglasses.
Meanwhile Emmett tries on a baseball cap.
"Hmm odd.", he mutters and studies his face in a nearby mirror.
"What?", I ask.
"I think my hair has grown. When I wore hats before, my hair would be barely pushed past my eyebrows, but now it is in my eyes."
Jasper appears next to him in a flash and pushes him away from the mirror to study his own hair. Because his blonde hair is so curly it is harder to notice growth. He pulls on one of his curls to extend it to the full length and whistles.
"You are right. I hadn't noticed, and it is probably the one thing Carlisle didn't think to measure."
"The only thing?", Emmett asks with false innocence, then wiggles his eyebrows at Jasper's glare.
"This is so cool though!", he then exclaims enthusiastically. "I know Rose has wanted to try cutting bangs, but she never dared because she would be stuck with them forever."
Jasper can't help but smile at that. Emmett may be goofy, but making his mate happy is always his first priority, and Jasper is happy that his sister has such a supportive husband.
As he peers closely at the mirror however, he notices something else. "Aw dang, I thought I was done with shaving forever."
Emmett grabs the face of his protesting brother to study his cheeks, where indeed some stubble has grown. "No way! I'm so jealous man. I remember from my human life that I never managed to grow a beard, always cursed with a baby face. How on earth did you not notice this?"
"You know I don't like looking in mirrors.", he answers annoyed, pushing Emmett aside. Again, I could so kill Alice for what she has done to his confidence. "And I am not in the habit of feeling up my own face."
I decide to diffuse the tension. "Well, just imagine if Emmett could grow a beard and still had to pretend to be a junior in high school." Jasper nods at me in gratitude, and Emmett guffaws. He appears to be plotting now.
"Okay another stop on the itinerary. We definitely still need to get Jasper some cooler looking shoes, but I also want to get a haircut. I always thought that Peaky Blinders do with the shaved sides looked cool."
Aloud we start to discuss hairstyle options for Emmett, but we know that silently each of us is thinking about the possible implications of this new development. If vampires are characterized by anything, it is their eternally unchanging nature. All previous diet-related changes were striking, but ultimately finite.
Carlisle had even tested the fact. After his eyes, sans the golden border that remains, had fully changed into their original light blue he switched back to a full animal hunting diet for a week. His eyes started to change back to gold when the processed blood in his system was gradually replaced by animal blood. The newly grown hair would not recede back into their scalp though, or would it?
Speaking of Carlisle, he absolutely chews us out when we return home and he learns we let Emmett cut his hair without getting precise measurements first.
The Cullens are all studying their hair now. Rosalie and Esme, who have consumed roughly the same amount of human food though Rosalie over a longer period of time, both believe their hair has grown a fraction. Just a few millimeters, but some. Carlisle does not notice any change in himself, but he has barely consumed human food so far.
Carlisle says he remembers being able to grow facial hair as a human, which I hope to see in the coming months because I am absolutely unable to picture him with any. This in contrary to Jasper with a beard, which I very much am able to picture, but desperately try not to because my unwanted cowboy fantasies are rapidly getting out of hand as it is.
Emmett is currently trying to convince him to grow the same style of moustache that my father has, which thankfully the family has collectively vetoed. I only wish they could convince dad to get rid of his moustache as well.
Later in the evening though, when I pass behind Jasper sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap, I see he is looking up different beard styles.
He notices me looking and shrugs. "My worst scars are in my neck, and they are the most difficult to hide."
Fucking Alice. At that point I can't bring myself to care what anyone in the family thinks, and gently wrap my arms around his torso while I look over his shoulder to study the options he is considering. Another side-effect of the processed blood that I am grateful for is that the vampires are no longer freezing cold, but take on the temperature of their environment like a cold-blooded reptile. However, that does mean I have no convenient excuse for the involuntary shudder that goes through my body as his comfortably room temperature one leans into my embrace.