Friday, September 24, 2010

CHAPTER NINE

SETTLING IN

We spent the next hour or so looking around the rest of the house. Everyone had their own tailored space, and there was no lack of attention to detail – Carlisle’s study was even lined with his extensive collection of framed paintings, drawings and photographs from the house in Forks; and Alices room was pretty much a clothing store where she could pick outfits for everyone. She also had a secondary space where she could spend time with Jasper – like the room for Edward and I. Jacob was in heaven in his room; it was a lot bigger than his old room at Billy’s in La Push. It had a large, king size bed, a computer, and a flat screen TV with a wii consol. We ended our tour back at the main living room where the rest of us, Jasper, Carlisle, Rosalie and Emmett were quietly chatting to each other.

“So, what do you think of the place,” Carlisle asked us with a small grin in Esme’s direction.

“Esme has done an amazing job,” Edward said.

“Tomorrow we can all go hunting together,” Emmett said, “there is some amazing terrain to explore, and plenty of grizzly.” We all laughed, Emmett was in his element here; Grizzly Bear was his favourite animal to hunt.

Out of the blue, a low rumble interrupted our conversation. “What is that?” Rosalie asked.

“Ahh, sorry,” Jacob said, his face blushing slightly. Rosalie put on a repulsed look – she still didn’t like Jacob very much, but tolerated him. Edward had said that a lot of her actions towards him was just her being stubborn as well, she was happy that he such a good friend to Nessie.

Esme gasped, “Jacob I’m so sorry, I should have asked if you were hungry when you first arrived. I’ll fix you something now.”

“I’m fine,” Jacob started. But Esme was already out of the room. We all laughed again.

“Don’t feel bad,” Edward said, “she’s looking forward to being able to cook for someone so regularly like this.”

“So when do we start school?” Nessie asked eagerly.

“The day after tomorrow,” Carlisle replied. “I’ve spoken to the principal, and you’re all enrolled. You and Jake are in the same classes, except for English.”

“Cool,” Nessie said, grinning at Jacob.

Esme came back into the room with a large plate piled with bacon and eggs, “its just something quick,” she said, as she handed him the plate, “you tell me if you need anything else.”

“Thanks Esme,” Jacob said. His eyes were bright and excited by the food. I understood how he felt, as I remembered the feeling of amazement when eating various meals that she had prepared for me when I was still human; she was an amazing cook, and seemed to enjoy it a lot.

“Its great that your so excited Nessie, but you have to remember that we have certain responsibilities to maintain,” Jasper said, in a more serious tone now.

“I know,” Nessie replied, “thats why I have Jacob.” We all looked over at him, but he was in own world with his food, we all laughed again. Jasper didn’t fully understand what Nessie was capable of, she wasn’t a vampire, only part; and she was born this way. She had an easier ability to choose who she wanted to be. There was nothing stopping her from being a vampire like Victoria for example. Jasper had always struggled with me finding control from day one, and I guessed it was only natural that he felt a little bit like this with Nessie too.

“Nessie will be fine,” Edward said reassuringly; “we took her to the mall in Seattle as a test, and we didn’t realise how thirsty we all were until after a good few hours of blending in perfectly – she is more than controlled.”
Jasper seemed relatively satisfied at this, but I guessed he would still keep an extra eye out.

We sat together, catching up for the next few hours before residing to our separate rooms for the rest of the night. It was nice to all be in the same room again. I knew that no matter where we were for the rest of eternity that as long as we were together we would be home. As soon as the door to our room clicked shut Edward had his hands on my face as he lent in to kiss me. His kisses were always new to me, despite that fact that I had probably kissed him thousands of times. The electric sparks began to fly inside my body, but subsided as he pulled away, “take a seat my love.”

I realised that he was going to play the piano for me, something he hadn’t done in a while, as we didn’t have one in our cottage, just the main house. I walked over to the Victorian seat, and sat down while Edward took his place at the piano. I closed my eyes as he serenaded me with the lullaby he had created when I was still human – which seemed like a very long time ago now, the memory of my human life was fading as newer, more vivid memories overtook. The lullaby continued for lot longer than usual, and Edward repeated sections and added new parts to it. I let my mind reach out to his so he could see and hear what I was thinking. I focused on the blurry moments of my human life that involved him, in an attempt to form clearer pictures. I could tell that Edward was connecting with this, and trying to extend the images for me through his playing. I kept my eyes shut for a moment after his final chord, and when I opened them again he was on the seat next to me, staring into my eyes.

“Edward, that was amazing,” I said, almost breathless as I was still deeply captivated by the music. He smiled slightly, and I lent over, kissing his lips; “your amazing,” I added. My captivation from the music, which had made me weak, was beginning to be replaced with a different feeling – one full of strength. I didn’t stop kissing him, only moving closer into him, until I had pushed him flat on the seat and I was on top. I ripped his shirt as I began kissing down his neck, and onto his smooth chest of stone. The strength from my desire to have him was growing, and I ripped his shirt all the way off. He let out a soft groan of pleasure, and his muscles tightened as he gripped my waist, pulling me down and smoothly swapping positions so that he was now above me. He kissed my neck and ripped my shirt off too. My life as a vampire felt very animalistic at times, like when we were hunting, right before we made the kill, the desire for blood overruled every aspect of our bodies, and total control was lost. It was the same in these moments of passion with Edward, I let my feelings overtake, my desire for him consumed me, and the rest of the movement became a rapturous blur.

If we were human, we would have been exhausted, but we weren’t. Edward got up from the couch and me, “I think we should test out that bath,” he said seductively. I followed him into the bathroom, and it was already full of water. It was similar to the bath in the penthouse, in that it had the ability to re-heat the water continuously. Edward got in first, and I followed, lying in his arms. As I lent back against his chest my eyes were not met with a white ceiling, but a black-blue sky, scattered with millions of bright white stars. “Its beautiful,” I said to Edward.

“Not as beautiful as you are,” he replied.

I turned my head slightly to kiss his cheek, intending for it to be just that, but the smell of his skin enticed me to develop it further, creating another moment of blissful passion between us. The rest of the night continued like this, and in between these moments we would gaze at the night sky and talk about what the future held. We also had to refill the bath up few times as we were spilling a lot of water.

When the morning came around Edward and I left our room and found Nessie laughing as she played on the wii with Jacob in the lounge in our wing of the house. We didn’t really have any video games in Forks, but the physical interaction required with this one made it seem more interesting than a normal video game. They were playing tennis, and from the sounds of things, Jacob was loosing, and had been doing so for a number of games. “Yes!” Nessie exclaimed, “four in a row! Your getting predictable now Jake.”

Jacob's face looked sour. “Maybe we should give the wii a rest for a while,” I said.

Edward seemed to agree. “It smells like Esme has breakfast ready for you anyway Jake, then I think Emmett is going to show us around outside, and take us hunting.” Edward and I exchanged a smirk as we all went downstairs.

Once Jacob had finished the enormous breakfast that Esme had prepared for him, we went outside with Emmett and Jasper – who had decided to come along last minute. “We are pretty much in the heart of the forest,” Emmett said, “so we really don’t have to go that far to find anything.”

“Over the past eighty-odd years the animals have moved closer in as the house was burnt out and abandoned ever since, and we are rather isolated from other houses,” Jasper added.

We were walking across the now well-kept field towards the thick forest that surrounded the property. We stayed at a human speed for Jacob’s sake, as he would want the privacy of a tree to undress before phasing.

“Whilst we’re not travelling too far today, we’re right in the national park, so you can go a lot further,” Emmett said. He had an slight authoritative tone to his voice, which I guessed reflected his enjoyment for showing us around.

When we reached the forest Jacob ducked behind a tree, and returned swiftly in his wolf form. “Lets go then,” Emmet said with a grin. We followed closely behind as we ran through the forest. It was similar to Forks, but did have some different types of foliage. After a short while I noticed that we were actually been climbing a hill; I looked ahead and saw that the bush seemed to open up at the top. Emmett slowed down to a walk when we were a few metres away from coming into the clearing; “check out this view,” he said.

We walked into the light, and found that it truly was a magnificent view. The top of the hill we were on presented a valley of thick forest that seemed to continue for miles. We were in a hunter's paradise! I closed my eyes and listened hard, I could hear that there was prey near by – Emmett was right about not having to go far to hunt. “Lets meet back here in an hour,” Emmett said, and at that we went off in different directions from one another, exploring our new hunting grounds, and letting our natural instincts, our thirst for blood, take control.

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron

Friday, September 17, 2010

CHAPTER EIGHT

WELCOME HOME


I lay quietly in Edwards’s wet arms as we sat in the bath together watching the sun being to creep over the horizon. We would be back on the road again soon, and in Seward by late afternoon.

“We might need to get a tub like this installed,” Edward said, as he stroked my arm.

“That would be cool,” I said, excitedly, and I turned around in his grip to kiss him.

“We really should get out of this tub though,” he said, “you might get wrinkly.”

I laughed at his joke; diamond skin doesn’t wrinkle. “I suppose your right, I said, “Alice really would miss us if we just stayed here forever.” I got out of the tub, and grabbed a towel to dry myself with.

We came out from our suite to find Nessie and Jacob eating breakfast on the patio that overlooked the city, and I realised that Edward and I would need to hunt when we got to Seward. The fire in the back of my throat began to burn more as I thought about hunting, but I was quickly distracted as Nessie waved to us though the glass. We walked out to them.

“Your lucky we’re in the Penthouse,” I said to Nessie when we reached the patio, “your shimmering ever so supernaturally.” She laughed. The sky was cloudless and the sun was up here.

“Argh!” Jacob moaned jokingly, as Edward and I sat down to join them, “you two are just blinding,” Nessie didn’t glimmer as much as she wasn’t fully vampire.

“Don’t forget that we all think you smell like a dog,” I replied, “and don’t say we smell bad to you! Majority rules.”

We all laughed. It was nice for the four of us to be able to relax together, and it was good to be able to be in the sunlight for once – I was convinced that the Vitamin D did something good for our bodies, but there was no convincing Edward of that, it hadn’t be proven he would say.

Once Nessie and Jacob were finished their breakfast we checked out of the Hotel and continued on our journey to our new home again. The car was waiting for us at the entrance where we had initially left it with the driver; and the entrance to the Hotel was sheltered from the sunlight, so we had no issues with our skin and the bright day. Despite our talkative start to the morning, in the car, we kept to ourselves for the most part of the journey. I was getting more and more anxious as we got closer to our destination, and I could sense that the others were feeling something similar as well.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, as Edward slowed the car down.

“We’re not far from Bear Creek now, we’ve been taking a back road so we won’t be seeing Seward city before we reach the house, but it means we can stop to hunt here first,” he said.

I was grateful of this as I could guarantee that Alice would be very excited by our arrival, which mean that we wouldn’t get to feed for an even longer time – and we were both getting rather thirsty. Edwards’s eyes were black, and the fire was in full heat in my throat.

Edward turned into a narrow gravel road, which led to a deserted opening – a car park I guessed.

“We shouldn’t come across anyone here,” Edward said, “no large game, but plenty of Elk which will do.”

We got out of the car and followed Edward into the surrounding forest.

“Lets meet back at the car in fifteen,” he said.

I followed Edward for a bit until I heard the beating hearts of a small group of Elk nearby. Nessie had followed Edward as well, but had dispersed earlier. She wouldn’t need to feed as much as Edward and I, as she had been sustaining herself with human food throughout the journey with Jacob. Jacob wouldn’t hunt, but he did come into the woods with us; he would have stayed back briefly as we ran off in order to phase – he seemed to enjoy having times where he could free-run in his wolf form.
I crouched low to the ground, and moved silently across the forest floor stopping behind a small bush as I could hear that the Elk were just beyond it. Their heartbeats were out of time with one another, but each Elk’s rhythm was normal, which meant that they hadn’t suspected any form of the lethal danger that I was about to store upon them. I closed my eyes and listened, visualising their positions; there were four of them, three directly in front of me, and the other one to my right. I edged back slightly, and letting my thirst for their blood overtake, leapt lightly with ease over the bush, killing the first three with a single blow and in another bound, snapped the neck of the fourth. Their blood was weak, but satisfied the burning to an extent. Larger prey would have been more satisfying, but considering my thirst, this was sufficient enough. When I was finished drinking I headed back towards the car, coming across another stray Elk, which I feed on too. Alice was waiting with Jacob and Nessie by car, and I could hear that Edward was almost at the clearing to the small deserted area as well.

“Alice!” I was surprised to see her, “how close are we?” I asked. She had obviously seen us coming.

“About fifteen minutes,” she chimed, “but you can run there in five. I’m so glad your all finally here, I can’t wait to show you around!” and at that, she came over and gave Edward and I a hug each; one that I’m sure would have cracked a rib if I were still human.

“Its good to see you too,” I said, not being entirely truthful; I wasn’t quite ready to face the undoubting enormity of what my wardrobe was going to be!

Alice sat between Jacob and Nessie as we drove to our new home, giving Edward directions, despite the fact that she knew he didn’t need them, out loud at least – he was practically a walking GPS system.

“And then it’s the first on your left,” she said, genuinely excited. At first I couldn’t see what she was talking about, then I noticed that there were faint tyre treads in the small amount of visible shingle for the main road that we were on. The driveway was heavily masked by the surrounding forest, the same way it was back in Forks, but more so.

“So where is Bear Creek?” I asked. Alice had said fifteen minutes, and we had only been driving for about ten. I was expecting to come across the odd house before we turned into a driveway, or at least for the forest to become less dense.

“We are right on the outskirts of it,” she said, still excited.

I noticed that the driveway was slowly opening up more as Edward increased his speed gradually. After a few minutes the narrow driveway presented what appeared to be a sharp bend. “Just around the corner,” Alice said in a slightly higher pitch. A wave of anxiety rushed through my body, we were so close now, and the surrounding bush was so dense that I couldn’t have even caught the slightest glimpse of the house. As we turned the corner however, I let out a soft gasp. The house was stunning. It was old, and looked full of history – a quality that I dearly loved about the small cottage that Edward and I were given. It was made of a combination of materials, rusty red weathered bricks, wooden panels and plaster; and parts of the house were covered in creeping vines. It looked authentic, and old – but simply spectacular at the same time. As we drew closer I could see the attention to preservation, as the skirtings looked freshly painted. The house was less submerged in the forest as the other in Forks was, with a lot more open land that surrounded it, including immaculately presented gardens and a large natural lagoon. I felt as if I was entering a wealthy estate in an old fashioned film – the house not only looked historical, but it was big, very big. I wondered how many rooms it had, considering it was an old boarding house.

We crossed the small brick bridge with the stream that connected to the lagoon, and parked at the front of the house. As I was getting out of the car I stopped as I noticed the tall, very dark, green double front doors – they were truly spectacular. “Welcome home,” Esme called out as she emerged from them. She ran over and gave each of us a hug.

“Its good to see you,” I said as she hugged me, “the house looks amazing!”

She smiled graciously, “thankyou Bella.”

“Stop being so modest!” Rosalie called to Esme, appearing from the front doors too now. “Wait till you see the before photos, this place was a mess!”

Esme just smiled, “come inside, let me take you on a tour.”
We followed Esme through the double doors, passing through a gorgeous entranceway. The interior trimmings were a dark red maple colour, and the tiles on the floor were rustic shades of grey, and by the looks of them, probably the originals. The walls were a light, textured grey wallpaper, that was modern but didn’t clash with the age of house. The entrance was about seven meters long before opening up to two hallways to our left and right, as well as another set of large double doors, in the red maple colour, directly in front of us; above us was a fantastic, dazzling chandelier that was at least two meters in diameter. I could have kept taking in the entryway, but Esme opened the other set of double doors, revealing a large, bright living room.

“This is the main living area,” she said, “but there are three more, which are substantial in size too.”

The first thing that I noticed was that like our house in Forks the walls facing out towards the back of the house had been almost completely removed and replaced with large panels of glass. The room seemed to blend in with the outside, and the view of the lake and extensive garden area was magnificent. The furniture, and walls were slightly more modern than the entranceway, a more obvious connection to what was new and what was authentic and original. I admired the magnificent old chandeliers as they contrasted with the modernity of the glass windows and off-white walls.

“Lets show them their rooms first,” Alice chimed excitedly.

Esme smiled, “okay.”

We followed Esme back out of the living area and took the left hallway. It led to a set of large stairs that seemed to curve around the wall, opening up to a small mezzanine floor that again contained a set of double doors.

“We thought that whilst we were all living in the same house, you guys should still continue to have your own place of sorts, so this wing is your,” Esme said, smiling her radiant, caring smile.

At this she opened the doors, which revealed the same glass panels as downstairs, but with a higher view of the outside area. The room was similar to the main living area, except that the walls were a deep cool grey colour, in a textured wallpaper, and it felt more homely as it wasn’t as large. The furniture wasn’t modern like downstairs either, apart from a television screen, it was old fashioned, but seemed to have been re-upholstered in a deeper shade of the grey.

“Wow,” I said, almost sheepishly. I had thought that our main house in Forks was flash, that Isle Esme was flash, but this place simply outdid the others. I was speechless.

Esme chuckled quietly and replied modestly, “I’ll show you and Edward your room, and Alice can show Jacob and Nessie theirs. Your all in the same wing.”

I felt Edward give me a gentle push as Esme moved. Our room was more like a honeymoon suite, but better than any honeymoon suite. Unlike our bedroom in the cottage at Forks, there was no bed. Instead, to our left, there was a re-upholstered, vintage cream loveseat that faced a shinny black grand piano in the corner of the room – which had two walls of glass facing out to the backyard. On the interior wall to our right, was a wooden bookshelf, and another door. I moved towards the door, then hesitated. “May I?” I asked Esme, softly as I was in a complete state of awe.

“Of course, she said. This is Edwards request.”

Edward's request? I wondered what she meant by this. I had assumed it would have been the extensively large wardrobe customised by Alice. I continued in curiosity though, and when I opened the door I was met with smooth, black shiny tiles, and a large white, contemporary square bath tube.

“Just like the hotel,” Edward said, making me jump slightly as he whispered in my ear. If I could create tears I would have been crying. I loved the previous night with Edward in the Hotel. It was so romantic siting in the water with him. The bath faced another wall of glass, which this time continued into the ceiling – we would be able to feel as if we were outside even more than when we were in the other rooms with glass walls, we could gaze at the starts all night. “The hotel was a taste,” Edward continued.

I turned around to face him, “its beautiful,” I said, feeling a sudden rush of love for him as I was still trying to process it all.

“Yeah, yeah,” Alice interrupted suddenly as she came in. “Thanks to Edward I’ve had to cut down on your wardrobe space.”

Edward and Esme laughed, and I turned around to look at the bathroom again. On the other side of it was a set of glass doors with a brightly lit white, walk-in wardrobe behind them. “Wow,” I said, feeling bad that I hadn’t noticed this before the bathtub.

“Well go check it out,” Edward said, slightly sarcastically. “You still can walk into it,” he was cheekily directing this at Alice, rather than me.

I walked in to the wardrobe and it was just as overwhelming as in our cottage. I pretended to be more interested, and excited as I continued to look around the wardrobe, but in my mind I was really only thinking about one thing – my bathroom, and sharing it with Edward.

“Thank you so much,” I said to Esme and Alice, giving each of them a hug; “you are both so talented.”

“There’s still more to see,” Alice said, grinning at me.

We followed Esme and Alice out of our bathroom to continue the tour of our new home. Edward grabbed my hand, and I squeezed it affectionately in return, and looking up at him, I mouthed the words, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he mouthed back.


© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron

Saturday, September 11, 2010

CHAPTER SEVEN

GOODBYE FORKS

Jacob was sitting patiently on the covered couch as we entered the living room from the backyard entrance of the main house. It was a strange feeling walking in with all signs of living being covered up; yet the feeling was strangely familiar. We had done the same at our house, covered all the furniture, and pictures on the walls with white sheets to keep the dust from building up – we weren’t coming back any time soon. The fact that we had replicated this in our house was not the familiarity that I was remembering; the scene of the Cullen house all packed up reminded me of when the Cullen’s had left shortly after my eighteenth birthday, when Edward had left me and had caused the now fully healed hole in my chest to rip open. I remembered the devastation when I desperately ran to the house to see if they had really left, and of course finding that they had. As I took in the room my focus landed back to Jacob, and I smiled to myself as I remembered that he was there for me during that time, that even though he could have never fixed the hurt I felt for not having Edward, he had persisted in trying. I felt for Jacob, and understood the pain he must have been feeling for leaving his father and I wanted to support him this time, like he had supported me.

“You all set Jake?” I asked.

He looked up, and smiled, “sure am!” Despite the enthusiasm in his voice he could not mask the sadness and pain in his eyes.

“Anything you need before we hit the road? You’ve said goodbye to Billy?” I didn’t want him to have any regrets, and I knew that he didn’t always express his emotions properly.

“Yeah!” he laughed, “stop worrying about me. I’ll be seeing him soon anyway.” He was reassuring me now, which I didn’t want as he’d done so too many times, so I just laughed.

“Well, lets go then,” Edward said, every time he spoke over the last few days there was genuine excitement in his voice, which was reassuring.

Carlisle had left us his Mercedes, as it would be more comfortable since there were four of us, and whilst Edward and I couldn’t feel discomfort from sitting in one place and position forever, Nessie and Jacob could. We sat in silence as Edward speed out of Forks.

We had stayed in Forks for an extra few days than we had originally planned, as after Seattle it was clear that Renesmee would be more than capable of holding her own with moving to Seward. Our plan was get to there within two days at the max, as we still needed to stop for Jacob and Nessie’s sake – Jacob still required a human diet, and it would be nice for them to have some sleep in an actual bed. Having the extra few days was great as I got to spend some more time with Charlie - I still wasn’t going to be seeing him for a at least a few months. I was able to get better insight into his and Sue’s relationship; they were exited about moving to Alaska, and it would be good for them. Whilst Forks held a lot of good memories for them both, it also contained a lot of baggage, especially for Sue and the loss of her husband. They were unusually cute together and I knew that they were looking forward to staring a new phase of their lives.

We were well outside of the Forks area; we had left whilst it was still dark so that we could drive fast with no distractions in order to gain some descent distance as two days for getting to Seward, including stops, really was beginning to break the laws of physics. I looked at Jacob in the back seat through the side mirror of the car, he looked contempt and somewhat excited now as the rising light brought with it a foreign area of landscape. I wondered what Seward would look like. Would it be like Forks? We did have to choose to live in places where the sun wouldn’t expose us.

“Hey,” Nessie said, breaking the silence, “can we plug my ipod in? We all should be more familiar with the latest music for High School.” Since Edward had brought this for her, she had become very attached to it, and loved popular music – another trait she had inherited from Edward. I hadn’t really thought about it before but we hadn’t really exposed Nessie to too much music. Edward had an extensive collection, but usually played it when we were alone together, and when Nessie was out.

“Sure, pass it over,” I said. I could see Edward grinning as he kept looking ahead at the road.

We sat in silence again for another few hours longer as we listened to Nessie’s music and dwelled upon our own thoughts. Edward pulled into the car park of a mall a few miles in from the Canadian boarder. The mall was the safest place to go if we were to be out amongst the public as we were in a particularly sunny area, and we could enter the artificially lit building via the underground car park.

“So how about we meet you two back here in thirty minutes,” Edward said, turning around to face Nessie and Jacob. “That way you two can grab something to eat, and we won’t draw any attention by not eating anything;” Nessie preferred blood, but because she was more human than Edward and I she could eat food easily when required.

“Okay,” Nessie said, grinning at Jacob.

As they began to get out of the car Edward stopped them. He pulled out two shiny black credit cards from his pocket, “you’ll both be needing these in Seward, get anything you need.”

“Wow,” Jacob said. He seemed speechless, and I could relate to how he probably felt as I remembered when Edward gave me my credit card. The Cullens didn’t look at money in the same way that humans did – a precious item – they did have over three hundred years of savings and investments, so it was something that didn’t need to be worried about, an endless source.

“Come on Jake,” Nessie’s voice was excited and a little impatient at the same time – eager to leave the confinements of the car for a while, as she began to push him out the door. I was surprised when I caught myself beginning to gush over how cute they really were together, I didn’t want to think about their future together in that way yet, and I certainly wasn’t ready to be accepting it.

“Thanks guys,” Jacob called as Nessie had successfully pushed him out from the car. They were laughing together as they went inside the mall.

As I began to turn my head to face Edward, I was met by his soft lips as they hit my cheek. I sighed as the tingling sensation that I subconsciously always seemed to be craving spread throughout my body. I leant over the gearstick and handbrake of the car as I kissed him back. “I love you,” I mumbled whilst kissing him still.

“I love you too,” he said.

After a short while of absolute, mind numbing bliss with Edward he pulled away from me. Grinning, he said, “we’d better go and get petrol before Nessie and Jacob get back. How does the penthouse suite sound for tonight?”

I was speechless at this, he was always full of surprises, and really could be so romantic. I just grinned at him. He laughed to himself as he put the car into first gear and screeched out of the parking lot.

We found a relatively empty service station, which had a good roof that would prevent the sun from causing Edward’s skin to glimmer. I stayed in the car, and watched through the tinted windows as the other surrounding customers looked over at us when they saw Edward get out of the drivers seat. Whilst Carlisle’s car was flash, it wasn’t exactly unique. They were steering at the fact that Edward only looked about seventeen. Being a part of the Cullen lifestyle myself made me realise how money-conscious humans really are. They didn’t like it when others who typically shouldn’t have certain things did. As Edward walked back from paying for the petrol at the service counter, I couldn’t help but be completely distracted from my earlier thoughts. He was my personal walking god, my more perfect and walking Michael Angelo’s ‘David.’ My body began to ache for him, as I remembered that we would be spending the night in a Penthouse.

Nessie and Jacob were walking out of the entrance as we arrived back at the malls car park. “Hey guys,” Edward said as they got inside the car. We sped off again and continued our journey towards Alaska. Edward drove well over the speed limit, but slowed down when he heard that a traffic officer was near – his gift was very handy in these situations. “We will be staying the night at a Hotel just inside the Alaskan boarder, we should be there around eight,” he added.
For the rest of the afternoon we were all more talkative than this morning. Jacob had a lot of questions about family dynamics, and how to play his role as boarder with the Cullen family – Carlisle’s friends misbehaving son. He was also very interested in learning about the other towns that the Cullen’s had lived in.

“So how long will we be staying in Seward before we move again?” Jacob asked.

“Well,” Edward replied, “providing all goes well, we can stay until the end of College for you and Nessie. Rosalie enjoys getting married to Emmett,” we all laughed at this, “and its nice to be able to be in the actual workforce for a bit as oppose to always being in school.”

I forgot how old Edward really was, I knew he had repeatedly been through High School and Collage, but it had never really sunken in until he described it like this.

“And where will we be going next,” Nessie asked excitedly.

“I’m not sure,” Edward laughed, “but I think we can worry about that in a few years time.”

We continued like this until we reached the Alaskan boarder, it was dark outside, and our Hotel wasn’t too far away as it was almost eight – Edward was always right with his timings. We didn’t speak until we reached the Hotel, I was unexpectedly nervous as I realised that my thoughts about Seward were rather surreal and that the reality of it all was getting closer – we really had left Forks. Edward pulled up outside of the bronze and granite coloured Hotel entrance, and pressed his window down to talk to a man in a black tuxedo approaching the car with another two mean in matching tuxedos behind.

“Hello sir,” he said, “welcome to Alaska. If you would like to step out of the car I will show you to your rooms and will have our driver park your car for you.”

“Thank you,” Edward said. He pulled his window back up and popped the boot as we all got out of the car. He handed the keys over to the driver, and the other man was already taking our suitcases from the boot for us, and loading them onto a gold trolley.

“This way please,” the man who had spoken to us first said.

We entered a spacious lift, where another man in a black tuxedo was standing to press the buttons to the floor we wanted to go to – ‘penthouse.’ It was at the top of all the numbers. When the lift came to a stop we were met with a short hallway that only contained one set of double doors. We followed the man in the black tuxedo. The Penthouse was absolutely beautiful, the walls were made of large sheets of glass that looked out onto the city below, which was truly beautiful at night time. He showed Jacob and Nessie the way to their rooms, and took Edward and I up a small flight of stairs to ours. The room was larger than I’d thought it would be, and had two walls of complete glass that presented a view of the city that was even better than what was downstairs. As I looked around the room I caught a glimpse of the bathroom and noticed that it too had a glass wall with a view of the city, and was much larger than any bathroom I had ever seen. In front of the wall was a bath that appeared to be full already.

“We took the liberty of getting the bath ready for you,” the man said. He had obviously noticed that I was looking in that direction. “The bath is heated so will stay warm, and you will see the temperature gauge on the wall to make any adjustments.”

“Thank you,” Edward.

The man smiled, “if there is anything else, please do not hesitate to call me,” then he turned and left the room.

I intuitively ran over to Edward, and throwing myself into his arms kissed him passionately. After a short moment he pulled away from me, “wait Bella,” he said. “We should make sure Nessie and Jacob are settled in first.”

“Okay,” I sighed sarcastically.

We went downstairs and both Nessie and Jacob came out of their rooms.

“This is a palace!” Nessie said.

Edward chuckled to himself, “make sure you both get some sleep tonight,” he said.

“Sure,” Nessie grinned.

“Goodnight guys,” I said as they both began to turn back to their individual suites.

“Night,” they both said simultaneously.

In a flash I raced back up to our room, but just before I reach my destination, the bathroom, Edward caught my waist and turned me around to face him.

“I love –“ I started, but was interrupted as he kissed me. We tore each other’s clothes off and somehow found our way to the bath where we enjoyed the gorgeous view, and the company of each other for the rest of night.

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron

Saturday, September 4, 2010

CHAPTER SIX

SEATTLE

“Morning,” Renesmee said as she peaked her head around the door to our room. I was glad that she sounded like her normal self still after a good nights sleep.

“Morning sweetheart,” Edward replied. “Are you ready to spend the day in Seattle’s he asked?”

“Of course,” she laughed, “are you two?”

I smirked for a split second and as fast as I could, flew from the bed; “we’ve been waiting for ages,” I said playfully. “Shall we go now?” Nessie turned around and laughed at me. I’d moved so quickly that she hadn’t caught on fast enough that I was now standing behind her.

“Race you to the car,” she said; And before I could reply she was out the front door.

I went to look back at Edward sitting on the bed, but before I could barely turn my head I was met with a quick kiss on my cheek as he flew past and out the door after Nessie. “Game-on,” I thought to myself as I slammed the front door behind me.


The drive to Seattle was fun and relaxing. Nessie was laughing almost the entire way as we joked about things. I loved that we could all relax again, the news about Seward had given me reason not to be so upset about Nessie and Jacob’s future too.

“So what do we have planned today?” Nessie asked. I wasn’t too sure of the answer to this, I was just happy that the three of use were able to spend this time together.

“We are going to observe,” Edward replied.

“Observe?!” Nessie said, “observe what?”

“Humans,” Edward answered, chuckling to himself. “How else are you going to be prepared for being a part of the community in Seward?”

She was quite for minute, and I could see in the side mirror of the car that she was thinking about this. For her entire life she has been sheltered in our small knit family, and any exposure to others outside of this was generally not with other humans.

“Its going to be fun Nessie,” I said. “You have nothing to worry about, but there are certain characteristics that humans have, that naturally don’t come out in us.”

Edward pulled off the main road into a parking lot for one of the many malls in Seattle.

“What is this place,” Renesmee asked.

“Its called a mall,” Edward replied. I forgot how much Nessie didn’t know about the outside world. In fact, I had never really thought about how she wouldn’t know about certain things that as a human I had always taken for granted. She was smart, and would most likely be the top of her classes at high school, but was well behind in her connection to mainstream society. “Its where people buy things from, where teenagers hang-out outside of school,” Edwards contempt smirk was comforting as I wasn’t sure whether I should be worried about Nessie’s lack or not – I could tell that Edward was confident that she would be just fine; she was a fast learner after all.

We followed Renesmee as she led us around the mall. Edward told her to explore, to go wherever she wanted to and that we would discuss things later on. I could tell that Edward was as equally fascinated by our daughter just as I was. She was adorable to watch as she explored the different facets that the mall had to offer. We followed her into a large electronics store where she appreciated the salesman a little too much by getting him to let her test almost every product in the shop. Edward brought an ipod from the man, and as we were leaving the shop he whispered in my ear, “so Nessie can be up to date with the latest music, plus, she was starting to make him a little too desperate!”

After a few more hours of exploration Edward suggested that we head back to the car. “So, what did you think of the mall,” he asked Nessie when we were inside the shiny black Volvo.

“The people that work in the stores are so friendly,” she chimed.

“Their paid to be like that,” I said, laughing a little. I was amused by her innocence.

“Its good that your are now more familiar with an important part of teenage culture. Did you notice anything else? Anything about the type of people that you will be going to school with?” he asked.

She thought about this for a moment, then her eyes lit up again, “Girls love to shop – and not even buy stuff sometimes, just look for things that they want; and guys can be really annoying!” she said. I remembered thinking this myself when a particular group of guys shouted sleazy remarks to Nessie and I when we came out of a makeup store; had they gotten even more immature since I was at high school last?

Nessie’s face turned unexpectedly serious, “are you guys thirsty?” she asked. I realised that she must have been fighting the desire for blood in the mall today; the fact that she hasn’t been around anywhere near this amount of humans before must have slipped Edwards mind as well – at least in regards to blood – as his face became serious too.

“Nessie we’re going to go straight home,” I started, “Edward – “

“Its fine,” she interrupted. “I didn’t touch anyone did I? It was good practice for me!”

I knew that she was right, but I still felt bad that we didn’t make sure that we had hunted this morning. We were all too excited about going to Seattle. I hated the thought that she was suffering from restraint, restraining from what we desire the most, what we kill for – blood; I could feel the mild burn for it in the back of my own throat now too.

“Nessie,” Edward broke the silence, “I am so proud of you, you really are just going to be fine in Seward!” The tone in his voice was filled with awe.

I was a completely confused by his reaction, I knew he was right but I didn’t understand how he could just disregard the fact that she had the desire to kill, and that we had put her in that situation by being so careless in the first place. He was usually the last to forgive himself of something like this! “Edward – “ I began, but stopped as I didn’t know what else to say. He knew what I was feeling thou as he placed his finger to my lips.

“Bella,” his voice showed that he was still taken-back by something; “she has your will.”

“What?” I asked, really confused now.

“Remember when I took your on your very first hunt, and we came across that hiker’s scent?” his eyes were dark and wild with intensity as he spoke. I nodded.

“Bella, Nessie has your control! Its in her genes. Bella you are one of the very few Vampires in existence who has ever had that kind of restraint around a human before in the slightest of ways, being young and thirsty; and you are by far the most controlled vampire of the few that I have ever heard of. Carlisle for example was in utter torment when he restrained himself from feeding on human blood when he was made. You have a gift, a soul and a conscious that can rise above this ingrained desire and so does Nessie, she’s going to be fine in Seward!”

If my tear ducts were not frozen then I would have had tears streaming down my face. I loved that Nessie was controlled, but at the same time I hated it, as I knew the pain that was involved. Its not just about being self controled, our natural desire to feed was always in conflict with an even stronger desire of not wanting to cause pain. Control is not a choice for me, it’s a part of me. I felt sad that Nessie would always be in pain no matter the choice she makes. Pain of giving in to desire, and pain from constant thirst quenched fully only through human blood. I leant over the front seat to embrace my daughter, “I love you so much,” I said.

We decided to head home, as we all needed to hunt. Seattle had turned out to be more than just a small learning experience for Nessie. She had proven to everyone that she was ready for Seward.

“You can’t get too attached to people,” Edward was explaining how we would need to approach our role as high school students. “After we graduate we have around a year, sometimes two before we relocate again. Its easier and safer not to be attached to people as you will have to cut all ties with them.” This explained a lot in regards to how the Cullen’s were seen as Forks High School. It wasn’t just the beauty that came with being a vampire; it was the fact that they, we, couldn’t get to close to people as it could compromise our hidden identities.

“At least we have each other,” Nessie said, “and Jacob.” She was right. We would go insane if we didn’t have each other.

“Nessie,” I said, “how is Jacob feeling about all this? We are all more immediate family, but he’s leaving his behind.”

“He’s sad, but also excited. The pack is settling down which makes him feel a bit uncomfortable. He doesn’t like the fact that most people his real age are having children, a family of their own; and he feels somewhat looked down upon by choosing to be immortal, like he is being really immature or something. He’s excited about living with us, a real immortals life, but also grateful that he can visit Billy so often.” I couldn’t help being surprised at how much Jacob had confided in Nessie; this was a new Jacob to me.

“I’m glad that he’s not unhappy,” I said, “you’re both really good to each other.”

For the last stretch home we sat in silence. I thought about everything at once, and I guessed that Edward and Nessie were doing the same. I thought about Jacob and Nessie, how good they were together – despite not wanting them to be together yet; I thought about Seward, and imagined what it was going to be like, would it look like Forks? What would the hunting be like? What did the school look like? How overwhelming was this boarding house going to be? I just pondered, letting my brain scope over all of these thoughts, never committing to focusing on any one thought in particular.

When we hit the driveway to our home in Forks I began to notice the dry burning sensation in the back of my throat. We were all thirsty, and our eyes were dark. After parking the car in the garage, we ran in silence until we were close to the Canadian boarder, “meet back here is ten,” Edward announced. It would usually only take us about five minutes to feed, but we had gone without for a little while longer than usual.

We split up to find our prey and I caught a scent to my left. I could tell from the smell of its blood that it was a panther, one of my favourite animals to hunt, as it was my first. I let the fire in the back of my throat consume my humanity, as I became the vicious hunter I kept locked away inside of me. I slowed dramatically as I came closer to the animal, and crouched low to ground as I approached it. The panther was in the thick grass, crouched also as it was stalking an elk. I leapt from my position, landing on the panthers back and sank my teeth into its skin. The warm liquid flowed into my mouth, cooling the scalding fire at the back of my throat.


© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron

Friday, September 3, 2010

CHAPTER FIVE

PLANNING

Carlisle was sitting quietly on the couch as we walked into the living room of the main Cullen house. We had decided to meet here after we had let Charlie, Jake and Nessie know the news. The site of him by himself was unusual, and made me wonder what the new place was going to look like. I guessed it would be flash, especially since some of the others had left early to get things ready. The Cullen’s had a tendency to be a little too humble about certain things such as material items, so I guessed that get ready meant major renovations.

“So how did Charlie take the news,” he asked casually, before fully turning around to face us.

“Rather well,” Edward announced, whilst glancing at me as an indication to explain further.

“Ah, yeah!” I said, as pumped sounding as I could be. I was surprisingly tired, which was weird considering I didn’t need to sleep. “Charlie has accepted a new job in a town that will only be two hours away from us,” I explained. Feeling emotionally drained from everything over the last two days had made me numb, and Charlie’s announcement
hadn’t really sunken in yet.

“That’s great news!” Carlisle said, smiling at me in particular, “and what about Renesmee?” he continued.

“She needed some space,” I replied. “The concept is totally foreign to her.”

“And it didn’t help that she overheard some of the conversation Bella and I were having about it this morning,” Edward added. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was feeling the same way as me – tired. It was turning out to be a long day, and I really hoped that there would be no more draining emotional situations for a while. We sat on the couch opposite Carlisle.

“We still need to go through things with Nessie,” Edward said.

“Yes,” Carlisle replied. “This is going to be something quite new for her.”

The more casual conversation was a nice change to how the earlier parts of the day had gone. I hated the way we were forced to tell Nessie this morning, we barely had the chance to discuss things with her; and whilst the visit to Charlie’s was exciting and more positive, my brain really was overwhelmed with excitement about having the chance to continue to see him like I could in Forks. I was simultaneously trying to figure out the depth of his relationship with Sue, as the way he talked gave the impression that she would be coming as well. Seth was about to leave home for university, so I got that she no longer had any commitments to her children in this way, but I really hadn’t gauged the depth of their relationship – Charlie was all-so private.

“Esme tells me that the renovations to the house in Seward are going well, but they still have plenty to do as the place is rather run-down” Carlisle said; “she’s grateful for the extra time you guys are taking to get there.”

That word renovations reminded me again of the Cullen’s wealth, my wealth, “what is the new place like?” I asked.

“Its an old boarding house, built in the early 1900’s. Its similar to this place in that its more secluded from the rest of the city, on the outskirts of a small district just outside of Seward called Bear Creek,” he replied.

I was caught-up by this - boarding house; surely this meant it was going to be rather large. My mind began generating different images of mansions, with many rooms, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I couldn’t imagine actually living in a place larger than our addressed home in Forks.

Before I could dwell on this any further I heard the engine to Jacobs Rabbit – his pride and joy of a car – coming up the driveway to the house. I glanced up at Edward, and he smiled at me; “she is rather excited about things now,” he whispered.

This was an unexpected relief. I wasn’t sure how long it would take Nessie to come back to her usual, over eager, optimistic personality – but I didn’t expect her to do so this quickly!

“I think the three of us should drive somewhere tomorrow, Seattle perhaps? It would be nice to be able to relax and spend some quality time with Nessie, plus we can discuss some things about high school life with her. You and Jacob will be fine as you’ve both very recently been in this environment, but its still so new to Nessie,” Edward said.

“That’d be great,” I replied, smiling at him. It felt like it had been a long time since we had spent some decent quality time together, just Edward, Nessie and I; and we needed it. especially considering the news of moving that was sweeping in on us extremely fast.
“Hey guys,” her voice chimed as she entered the front door, interrupting my thoughts. Jacob was next to her as they entered the living room together, and seemed to be filled with equal enthusiasm. “So what this place like?” she asked.

“Well, its similar to Forks,” Carlisle answered, “approximately 3000 residents, it has similar in weather – its by the sea though, so there is a fishing community, but we will be living further away from this and closer to the wildlife parks in Bear Creek, just outside of Seward.”

“Wow!” Renesmee’s jaw dropped, “so we can hunt bears easily then, as well as access the sea? That’s awesome!”

We all laughed.

“Why don’t you both come take a seat?” Edward said, “what else do you two want to know?”

“What’s happening with school? How does that part all work,” Jacob asked.

“You and Nessie will be in the same year group,” Carlisle answered, “with three years to go until you leave high school.” Renesmee and Jacob grinned at one another. “Edward, Bella and Alice will enter at two years left, and Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper will be in their senior year.”

“Will we be living together? What about the fact that I look a lot different to you guys?” Jacob questioned, sounding a little sceptical now.

“Well, here in Forks people believe that Esme and I have adopted our children, and we intend to do the same in Seward. This seems to be most effective judging from all the other places we have lived as well,” Carlisle said.

“Cool,” Jacob said, and he turned to face Nessie, “I guess I can beat you up now sis,” he joked.

“I’ll beat you any day,” Nessie replied, with an even bigger grin on her face than before. It was really nice to see them both happy about the situation now.

“Well you two wouldn’t be siblings;” Edward said, smiling - I guessed at their joy as well. “Jacob, Charlie is moving as well, to another town which happens to be near Seward, so we won’t be coming back to Forks at all really; however, how would you feel about flying back to see Billy every second weekend? That way we could introduce you Carlisle’s friend’s son who has been sent away from home for discipline reasons or something – it would justify anyone wondering why you left the area, and you would be able to see your Dad more.”

Jacobs face went serious for a moment as he processed what Edward had to say. “That, ah, sounds great,” he said, “I didn’t think I was going to be able to see him anywhere near that often; thanks!”

I squeezed Edwards’s hand. I was so happy at this; for the first time since this news had been broken I felt one-hundred percent, genuine happiness towards the idea. “This is going to be great!” I said. From the way that everyone smiled back at this I could tell that we were all feeling the same. Renee always use to tell me that change is always a good thing, it usually doesn’t seem like it at first though. She was right! For the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening we discussed our future together in Seward, and listened a lot to Carlise about what the place was like. Finally, life seemed to be back to normal, we were able to relax and simply enjoys one another’s company.

When we were back at our homely cottage that would always be my favourite place, and Edward and I were alone in our room, he lifted my chin towards his face so he could kiss me. We kissed softly at first, but his taste, his smell was so delectable that I wanted more. It was familiar yet somehow new at the same time. I felt electric sparks penetrate throughout my body, and my desire for him became an intense need. Our kiss became more passionate, and Edward pulled me closer against his body with sudden fierceness that would have broken my bones if I were still human. I could tell that we were both feeling the same feelings, love, relief, happiness; it felt completely new, like the first time Edward and I entered this house, our second honeymoon and our first chance to be together both as vampires. As we continued kissing I ran my hand through his hair and gripped a bunch of it. I heard my clothes tear as Edward ripped them off my back, and I did the same to his only to feel his soft skin against mine, no longer cold, but perfectly balanced in temperature. He pulled out of our kiss for a moment.

“Bella you are gorgeous,” he murmured.

I didn’t respond to this through words, instead I pushed him to the floor next to the white bed and continued to kiss him. He was my very own perfect god, my perfectly sculpted statue. I felt as though I couldn’t get close enough to him, and our passion and desire for each other only became more intense as the night wore on. I loved that I could have endless love with Edward as a vampire, and that I didn’t tire from physical exhaustion. I was lost in my desire for him, and more than willing to be lost in passion with him for eternity.

When sunlight began to fill the sky Edward slowed things down, bringing me back into reality. He ran a finger lightly down my cheek and circled it a little on my neck. He lightly kissed me again on my neck ending with a single kiss on my lips before we moved from our position on the floor. We got dressed for the day, then I lay with him on the white bed in a state of pure bliss until we heard that Nessie was up.

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron