Red Moon ~ Chapter 6 ~ A Tour in the House

Chapter 6: A Tour In The House

We sat for many hours talking, telling our stories. Actually, Nessie was most of the time showing, she preferred it this way. They were similar it seemed...at least at first glance.

She was born in Forks, Washington though, then moved to Michigan State for the three next years and then moved here, to Sherrill. They had travelled much less than we had, we must look like nomads to them, even though we aren’t. I learned some things about her family. Carlisle was the first, the “father” of the family. Then Edward, her father, joined and then Esme, Carlisle’s wife. After a few years Carlisle changed Rosalie and Emmett and around fifteen years later Alice and Jasper came and since then, they lived with them too. The last, besides her of course, was her mother, Bella. They definitely were a big…family; a very charismatic and gifted one too. 

Jasper was an empath; he could feel and control the emotions of the others.

Alice could see visions of the future, though they were subjective to peoples always changing decisions.

Edward was a mind reader and her mother had a mental shield…I’ve never used the word family for such a big group of vampires, but the Cullen’s were different, special. I could feel it. And if you think of how many of them there are and that they had never had real fights with each other… Just… Wow…

I told her about my travels, up to the most recent in the Amazon and this one especially interested her a lot. She wanted to know everything about it and how Zafrina was doing; there seemed to be a close bond between these two. She told me she had promised her she would go see her again in Amazon sometime, but her parents want her to reach full maturity first. Well who knows? We may go together and see her then, I had promised the same thing to Zafrina anyway.

Then she asked me if I wanted to see the rest of the house. They must put a lot of work and effort into the house.  It was a combination of modern and classical that coexisted perfectly with each other.

“Esme designed and decorated the house, like all our previous ones. She has made it perfect. She has been planning it for two years. If you see how many plans she has made and how many times she has changed them… They are too many!” After she finished explaining this to me, she showed me the last room on the floor, the kitchen, which apparently was used only by her, but still it was planned as well as the rest of the house and to accommodate as many humans as vampires. The counters were a white marble and there was a modern, round table made from glass with six chairs around it. We left the kitchen and went on the first floor, where the other bedrooms were.

The first room, on the left from the stairs was very big with most of the walls covered with huge bookcases filled with every kind of books. There were so many of them and some looked so old and might crumble away in the wind; they may be more than three thousand years old, so this must be –

“This is Carlisle and Esme’s bedroom. It’s the first time grandpa didn’t want a separate room to study, so he works here,” Nessie said before I could finish my thinking.

I nodded and looked around the room. A big window covered the part of the wall that had no bookshelves and gave a perfect view of the forest outside. It was still cloudy but I was sure the sun could shine through at any moment. The wood in this room was very light, based on my knowledge about trees and its scent; I think it must be beech wood. Even though it was a very light room, the style was pretty serious. A big thick brown carpet was on the floor and the wall was painted in a soft beige color. The whole room was very simple and modern. In front of the window was a huge desk where more than four people could sit. On the right side were some of the oldest books I had ever seen and next to them some notes. On the left side were some architecture plans and an unfinished blueprint. The clouds in the sky went away and sunlight hit the back of the room. I turned around and noticed the bed. Actually, not the bed but the beautiful painting over it.

It looked completely different from the room’s style, so old, so classical, and so big and the frame was carved dark wood. On the canvas were drawn bright figures in swirling robes and in the background were long pillars and marbled balconies. On the highest balcony, four figures were standing looking over the ledge as if they were being honored. The one in the back was blond and behind the others, who were calmly looking under the balcony. The two of the figures in the front were black haired and the other one had long, snowy white hair. I kept staring at the picture for many minutes, examining every little detail and even though Renesmee was telling me some more things about Carlisle and Esme, her words were just a soft buzz in the back of my head. I was completely absorbed by the painting.

Suddenly the buzz stopped and I could hear clearly Nessie's voice. Or I thought so. Her hand was placed on my shoulder. She didn’t say anything; the voice was in my head. ‘What is it?’

I turned to look at her. “Who are the figures on the painting?”, but I was already almost sure about the answer.

I could swear her eyes got a little darker when she started talking. “The Volturi, Italian vampires and leaders of the most powerful vampire coven that has ever existed. We had some problems with them some years ago… and sadly I remember every single detail of our meeting. I’ll show you this sometime. But not now,” she finished with a shudder.

“Okay,” I replied, curious but not that enthusiastic to see Renesmee's memories of the Volturi.

“Want me to show you the rest of the rooms?” she said excitedly but obviously trying to change the subject.

“Maybe later, I feel a little tired.” This wasn’t exactly true. I wasn’t tired, even on my dad’s back I rested just fine. I just wasn’t in the mood right now. My mind was reeling over the painting and the Volturi.

“We have plenty of time. Shall we get something to eat?” she smiled, trying to draw me away from the painting and the room.

Renesmee touched my hand ‘Dad thinks Chinese is unhealthy. He prefers home cooked food.’ This explained Esme’s look. My mom would agree in many things with Edward, I think. She does the same thing with food and my diet.

We got the plates with the warm, 'unhealthy' food and sat at the table in the kitchen to eat. We were silent but all the time I was staring at Renesmee's brown eyes.

“Is something wrong? Don’t you like the food?” Renesmee asked looking at me and then at the food on my plate, which I was more playing with rather than eating.

“No, no! I’m fine!” I hurried to say. “It’s just…” I stopped. I stared at the rice in my plate. What was it? I had no idea. I simply got upset and maybe even scared since I saw the painting. For no actual reason, just my gut was telling me to be afraid, but of who?

 “Are you feeling sick? You look pale.” Huh. My skin is white like every vampire’s. How can it look paler?

“Um, I just need some fresh air I guess. Can we go for a walk after we finish eating?”

“Yes, of course, but that means you have to eat, silly,” she said with a chuckle and nodded towards my plate. She didn’t speak for a while and let me eat my food.

I was listening to the conversation my parents’ and Renesmee’s family was having in the other room.

Only then had I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything for almost a day. I nodded and we both ran down the stairs quickly and saw our families sitting on the living room and making plans for our stay in Sherrill. As we walked inside the room, Esme got up and turned to face us. “Girls, I ordered Chinese for you. Eshe, your parents told me how much you like Beijing duck and spring rolls”. Then she gave Edward a look, annoyed, and like she was scolding him.

* * * * *

 “We are going downtown tomorrow to look for a house around here, something away from the center of town and register Eshe in the local public school,” my dad said. He was always the ‘plan maker’.

“You don’t need to. Just tell us how you would like the house to be and we can build it pretty fast,” Esme said decisively, interrupting my dad.

“We own another lot around here and we could build it there,” Carlisle explained and I could almost see both my parents preparing to object to that.

“But we can’t take your lot!” my mom said. Like I said, they would object.

“Really, it is not a problem! We bought that lot just recently, when Alice had her first vision of your arrival!” Esme spoke again.

“No, no, please don’t say anything but what you want your house to look like!” Alice said, in her high pinched voice. “You are just as difficult as Bella. You are actually twice as difficult as Bella!” Everyone in the room giggled at that comment. “And we will register Eshe after spring break. Carlisle will make sure your daughter is in the same class with me and Nessie.”

“You are going to high school too?” both my parents asked together, perfectly synchronized. (It’s not the first time they had done it and before I thought it was really annoying, and it is.)

“So do Bella and me. I pretend to be Renesmee's twin brother and because this school prefers not to have siblings in the same classes, Bella and I are in a different class,” Edward explained.

“Oh, okay. I see there were no way we will get our own house, Alice and Esme look like they will bite our heads off if we try to. But we have to look for a job too. We want to give Eshe the freedom to have some personal life so we are always working like most parents do,” mom answered.

“We could check into that. I think there is a shop that specializes in garden supplies and plants and I know the owner. He was looking for new employees earlier. Maybe I could give you his phone number to check into it tomorrow,” Jasper offered.

“This is so kind! Thank you.” Both my parents said at the same time.

“I have already applied for the place of a photographer in the local newspaper through the internet while we were in Texas and I am just waiting for their answer,” my dad finished.

“That’s great. Then everything is settled. Until your new house is finished, you will stay here,” Carlisle said and clapped his hands in satisfaction.

* * * * *

 “Boo!” someone said behind me. Nessie was trying not to smile. I turned around. It was Emmett. I hadn’t heard him come in. I had been concentrating so hard on the conversation about our stay in Sherrill and I wasn’t paying attention at nothing else.

This was a thing I wasn't good at. Multi-tasking. I always do one thing at the time. I am cautious with what I do but I can’t do anything else at the same moment...

I stopped the babbling in my head and looked at the vampire before me again. He was waving his hand in front of my face. “Hello? Earth calling Eshe!” Nessie giggled and turned on the other side, like she was hiding it. “What happened to you, girl? Are you still on our planet?” I grinned at him.

“Of course I am, silly! I was just thinking,” I answered him with a goofy grin.

“Multi-tasking, girl! Doing two things at the same time?” he said ironically.

“Not my best. Anyway, why aren’t you with the others?” I asked curiously.

“Nessie called me. Didn’t you hear her talking? Seriously, where have you been?” He pretended to be shocked by my non-presence here.

“Ha! Here. Kinda…”  I said as I tried to shake the cobwebs from my head and focus.

“Want to have a fight? You and Ness against me? It may land you back on earth, literally,” he teased me.

“Stop it. It stopped being funny.” Neither he, nor Nessie seemed to think so though. They were both laughing.

“I was serious about the fight,” he said, still smiling.

“We can beat you at that one! I almost creamed you last time on my own!” Renesmee told him and stuck out her tongue.

“I let you win! And it was before Rosalie wanted you to get dressed for that party!” he said putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head.

“Nuh uh! It wasn’t like that!” she objected as she pushed him back to prove a point.

“Uh huh! It was!” he answered back by stalking back towards her.

“Kids, behave!” Esme told from the other room in a very ‘mom-like’ tone. They really looked like two kids. Two very little kids. Actually they reminded me much of two siblings in the movie “The Emperor’s new Groove” and yeah, I am a huge cartoon fan.

We all laughed. Nessie followed Emmett and went out through the back door, out of the kitchen. I was right behind them. They ran a little further away from the house, where it was clear from trees and stones, except for two big boulders which were cut in half and pieces of shattered stone were all around. The place was surrounded by an off-handedly made fence from cut tree logs that created a circle.

“This was from the last wrestling match Emmett had with mom,” Renesmee said and pointed at one of the shattered stones.

“And of course, I won! I so love she’s not a newborn anymore!” I saw him grinning again.

Ness snorted. “Yeah, yeah, you never lose. Except when Jasper did that the previous month.” And she looked at the other cut-in-half boulder and snickered.

“It was a draw! He didn’t beat me!” he complained and kicked the dirt with his huge foot causing dust to fly around him.

“Ya, ya, ya. Emmett, don’t be such a baby. We all lose sometimes, just accept it,” she said and got in the circle. Emmett raised his eyebrow and growled playfully. He followed her and so did I.

Okay, fighting with a vampire isn’t something I ever felt the need to do or think that I would do to have fun. Who knows? They say you’ll never know if you don’t try at least once, right?

I leaned against the fence a little further behind from Nessie. She crouched and sprang forth to attack Emmett. He mimicked her and they met each other and crashed creating a loud thud like two stones were crashing with extreme strength. They both landed on their feet; Nessie trying to push Emmett back, but it was like he was glued at the very same spot he landed.

“Eshe? Will you come on? I need a little help over here!” Nessie shouted me.

I ran towards them, and crashed against Emmett. He fell on the ground from the impact and Renesmee and I were on top of him. We had pinned him down, holding his arms but I was sure that he could throw us several meters away if he wanted. He chuckled, ready to get up again.

“Emmett? Nessie? Eshe? Where are you?” Alice asked and approached us. I looked up at her. “Oh my! You have destroyed your clothes! What have you been doing here?”

Nessie let go of Emmet’s hand and touched mine.

‘Ah, perfect. She will take us inside and she will be looking for clothes for us to wear for more than an hour.’

Ness thought and showed me a big room filled with clothes and Alice going up and down and filling mine and Renesmee’s hands with clothes to try on.

Nice. I hope she has a good taste. I don’t really mind playing dress-up, just not all the time.

“Come on, come on! Let’s go! You need new clothes!” Alice headed inside and went up the stairs.

While we were walking, Ness and Emmett were arguing about who won again.

“We beat you, Emmett!” Nessie whispered trying to tease Emmett.

“No, Alice stopped us! I was about to get up!” he said, obviously annoyed.

“Guys stop! Emmett, you lost, you might have won if we hadn’t stopped the fight! Everybody happy now?” I stopped them with my sudden outburst.

“They’re not like that always...” Alice whispered in my ear. “Emmett is like her big brother. Just they have been a little antagonistic lately.”

“Ah ha. Okay.” Was all I said, they reminded me of Harry and Betty, two children who lived next door in Florida. They were like that all the time. Since I first met them. So, I have my doubts about things not having been like that always.

Emmett went in the living room and hugged Rosalie. We followed Alice up the stairs and went in one of the rooms I hadn’t seen before. It was very simple, outfitted in black painted wood and deep red and white fabrics. The one side of the room was covered with windows, like in Carlisle and Esme’s room but here there were white curtains on the sides. There wasn’t much in that room except a big double bed, made from wood, painted black and in a modern style. On the sides of it were two end tables, on the one there was nothing except some red and white candles and on the other were some fashion magazines. There were some black and white pictures on the walls and just in the middle of the wall a big double glass door with beautiful swirls on it. Alice opened the door. The room inside was a huge closet. Bigger than the bedroom. It looked like the room Nessie showed me in her thoughts. And just like then, Alice started going up and down from closet to closet and filled our hands with white bags with clothes. There was no scent of cotton from the bags, neither of denim, but there were lots of clothes made from silk in here. Now I get why Renesmee doesn’t like Alice dressing her.

I don’t mind much about the style or type of clothes, even silk; as long as the clothes are not pink!

She stopped in front of us and opened the first bag I had on my hands. Oh oh. Pink. Baby pink. A silky, baby pink, fluffy dress.

No way. No freaking way! I am not wearing pink!

“Next bag.” I said and shook my head. “I hate pink, Alice; I won’t wear this in any way.”

“Ah! Why? I am sure this will look so cute on you!” she tried to change my mind.

“Uh uh. No. Not pink.” I repeated more sternly, hands on hips and tapping my right foot on the floor.

She took a lot of bags from my hands; apparently all the pink clothes she wanted me to try on.

Wow, she really wanted to dress me in pink? How did she not see this coming?

“Okay, then what about this?” she pointed to a bag that had a deep red silky dress. It looked beautiful, although a little too formal.

“Do you have something simpler?” I asked, trying to be kind, I didn’t want to disappoint her.

“This!” she said, absolutely sure I’d like this before I even had seen it. It was a blue –sky blue, the exact color my eyes were, silky again dress, knee long, very simple, something I wouldn’t object to wear. My face said everything without a single word. “Excellent! Now shoes!”

Ah, hell! What’s wrong with my Converse?

She headed to a closet which was… OMG! HOW MANY SHOES DOES THIS VAMPIRE HAVE? It was filled with shelves and all of them had shoes! High heel shoes, sandals, ballet slippers, sneakers, everything!

Oh, please, do not let her not give me any heels! No heels, no heels, no heels!

I shouted in my head while she was browsing the shelves trying to find something that fit me. “Okay, girl, I would suggest you try some heels, but I don’t want any complains today! So take these.” She handed me a pair of simple ballet slippers, thankfully! “Nessie, your turn!”

Nessie touched my shoulder as she cringed and laughed.

‘Save me! Save me! I hate it when Alice wants to dress me! Tomorrow we will choose clothes from MY closet!’ she seemed really despaired, this girl really couldn’t stand Alice’s clothing obsession…

After we were both dressed and Alice happy, we went to Nessie’s room and played ‘Uno’, something much more human than fighting with Renesmee’s vampire uncle, Emmett. We had a great time! My dad came in, all smiles and told me about the new house the Cullen’s would build us and the school and all the other stuff I had already heard. Then we all sat together in the living room and watched a baseball match Emmett and Jasper wanted to watch while Edward and Alice were playing chess. It was really funny. Alice foresaw the next move they would do and Edward was listening to her every single thought. Their longest match was four minutes long! I can’t play chess even if I play with the most patient vampire of the world! It simply is not my thing. We would have stayed up much longer but both Ness and I were feeling really sleepy. Esme added a second bed in Renesmee’s room for me, my parents told me “Good night” and I fell asleep as soon as I was in my bed and my head hit the pillow.

The next morning I got up early, Nessie was still sleeping so I got out as quietly as I could and closed the door behind me. Of course everyone else in the house was awake, it is hard enough living in a house with your vampire parents; imagine how hard it must be to have also two vampire aunts, two uncles and your grandparents too!

“Good morning everyone!” I said quietly and went to sit on the couch next to my mom. She was talking with Bella but they as well as everybody else in the room had stopped talking when I entered the room.

“Eshe, do you want breakfast?” Rosalie asked me with a sweet smile. She really should be a model!

“Sure.” She got up at the same moment. “No, you don’t have to. I will find where everything is,” I said. I like to know where things are and be able to find whatever I need in a house without any help.

“I will just come and show you what is where,” she offered. She led the way to the kitchen and started explaining to me what was in each cupboard and what was in the fridge. “And here is bread, rice cakes and-”

“Okay, okay. Thanks, I will find whatever I want on my own,” I said and she left the room a little sad. 

I jumped up to catch the bread, I couldn’t reach it in any other way, opened the fridge to get cheese and ham to make some toasts and five eggs to make omelets. I cooked really good omelets. Too bad they didn’t have bacon… Mom hates it when I make omelets with bacon, she says it is too fattening, but up to now, I haven’t become any fatter, so I don’t know what her problem is. I still wonder if I can become fat at all. After about five minutes, everything was ready and I was at the table eating. It was like I hadn’t eaten for ages. I ate everything so fast; I didn’t realize when all the things I had cooked disappeared.

I was still in Nessie’s PJs, and Alice didn’t lose the chance to dress me again. She hadn’t tried to give me any pink clothes since yesterday but it looked like she was thinking of doing it. She gave me a purple sweater and a pair of black jeans. I almost had to beg her not to give me a skirt, I couldn’t stand skirts, and of course wearing my Converse was not allowed. She gave me another pair of ballet slippers. Edward must have been hearing my complaints about skirts and Converse because he and Bella appeared soon after we started.

“Alice, why are you forcing the girl to wear a skirt?” Bella asked Alice. Bella looked like she too must hate being dressed by Alice just as much as Nessie did. Must be in the genes.

“Calm down, Bella! Wow, you look like you will rip my head right off!” Alice joked. “I haven’t been pushy, have I, Eshe?” Alice batted her eyes and gave me those puppy dog eyes.

“To be honest she hasn’t. I asked her not to make me wear a skirt and she gave me a pair of jeans,” I told Bella as I gave Alice a warm smile.

“But you wanted to wear your shoes not ballet slippers,” Bella objected, still trying to defend me.

“I don’t mind wearing ballet slippers,” I said honestly.

Oh my, I really don’t want them to have a fight because of a skirt!

“Okay, love, Eshe seems to be able to handle it on her own, there is no reason for tension here.” Edward put his hand around Bella’s waist and tried to calm her. I am sure he heard my thoughts because he seemed to find the argument between Bella and Alice quite entertaining.

“Um, is there a computer with internet access anywhere?” I asked trying to change the subject.

“Go use the one in Carlisle’s office,” Edward suggested.

“Okay, I don’t want to stay on for too long, I just have been waiting for a mail from a friend.”

“You can use it as long as you want,” he said and smiled a crooked grin that seemed to really affect Bella. She almost swooned. Too funny!

“Okay!” I practically ran out of Alice and Jasper’s bedroom and went into Carlisle’s. He was downstairs so I didn’t bother knocking on the door first. I opened the computer; I wanted so much to check my e-mails! I was waiting for mail from another ex-classmate of mine, Anny, her whole name was Anastasia but she didn’t like it and everyone called her Anny. She’s fourteen years old and we were together last year in the same school in France. When I told her we were moving, she gave me her e-mail address and asked me to keep in contact. I turned the computer on and waited for it to connect on the internet. It was fast! In less than two minutes, it had loaded my mailbox and I was deleting all the junk mail. And finally! Yeah! I had a mail from Anny! I opened it:

I was so glad for her. And she was going to have a new sibling! That was cool. I think. She already has three more but one more is never bad. I smiled at that.

I wrote her back a reply quickly:

I didn’t like telling her I was in Alaska since I wasn’t, but I couldn’t do much about it. And this about internet and phone line wasn’t completely a lie. I didn’t have any of these when I was in the Amazon!

When I was done typing my email, I turned the computer off as I had said I would and got up. My eyes fell on the painting again. I got stressed right away. I stood frozen for a while staring at the direction of the painting, my breathing was getting fast and uneven.

“Morning. Have you seen, Eshe?” I heard Renesmee saying from downstairs.

“It’s not morning anymore, sweetie. You slept a little late today. Eshe is upstairs,” Bella told her.

I closed my eyes and turned towards the door. I acted weird enough yesterday, I can’t let her notice it again. I changed my face to look like Nessie's even if I looked weird; the first thing she'd notice wouldn’t be my weird expression but that I look like her. I forced myself to smile and opened my eyes again. I headed for the door but before I touched the handle, Renesmee opened it.

“Heya!” she said and stopped. “Wow, you looked like me all day yesterday but you still freak me out. It will take me a while to get used to seeing my face when I am not in front of the mirror!” We both laughed.

“Did you have breakfast?” I asked her.

“Yep, Rose made something for me to eat. Aunty Alice wants to take us out to eat later today. What do you think?” Her eyes begged hoping I wouldn’t say no.

“Sure. Where are we going?”  I asked, wondering what kind of human food she really liked.

“Italian restaurant. Oh, this thing with you two drives me crazy! I can’t see you and I really can’t fix my schedule!” Alice said and rushed into the room.

“You can’t what? I thought there are not blind vamps…” I said completely confused.

“I am not blind! I can’t see visions about your future! So I don’t know if you want to go eat out, I didn’t know that you don’t like pink and skirts!” she said annoyed from the misunderstanding.

“Oh, oh, okay! Sorry! When you said I can’t see you… Okay! Um… Whatever! And by the way I love Italian food!” I said completely embarrassed but now understanding why she did not know things about me I thought she would.

“Okay, then everything is settled! Come on, girls! Edward?” Alice said.

 “Yes?” he asked.

“Can I borrow the Volvo? Carlisle asked me not to drive my Porsche around here a lot!” she told him.

“Okay, the keys are on the table next to the front door.”  He nodded his head in the direction of the keys never looking up from his book or to stop playing with Bella’s hair.

“Thank you.” She grabbed them and opened another door on the right of the front door that lead to a garage. Inside were six cars and when we came we had seen other two parked outside. Alice and Ness got in a silver Volvo and I followed them. Alice started the car and drove through the town. She parked and we all got out of the car.

Alice stood very still, I knew what happened. I smelled it too.

What was he doing here?

“Girls, stay close to me.” I did as she said although I doubted this little vampire could protect us.

“Alice? I-” I started to say.

“Not now, Eshe.” Alice hissed as she took a protective stance between us and the vampire.

“But-” I tried to say again. Too late. He was already in front of us.

“Eshe? Is that you?” he asked me.

“Hi, Victor,” I told the tall, brown haired vampire who spoke to me.

“Do we know you?” Alice asked him, very suspicious.

“No, I’m sorry, I am Victor. Are you Eshe’s relatives?” he asked as if did not have a care in the world.

“Maybe. Why do you care?” Alice said as she was silently sending a message to Edward.

“Alice, Victor is a family friend. We have known him for more than three years,” I explained. Victor smiled and his brown eyes sparkled.

Always these brown contacts… isn’t he yet bored of brown eyes?

“Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I just… I don’t meet people like you and especially in Sherrill,” she apologized. “I am Alice Cullen, this is my niece Renesmee.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said and shook hands with Alice.

“I was taking girls out for lunch. Do you want to come with us and sit?” Alice suggested, even though she was not completely relaxed yet.

“Why not? Let’s go,” Victor replied as he reached for my hand to walk with us.

We all went together in a little building that was sending out the most wonderful aroma. The sign outside said “Pasta ala Italiano”. We sat at a table in the back of the room, away from the window looking at the street. I ordered a carbonara and Nessie ordered a small pizza with everything imaginable on it.

“So, how have you been doing, little one?” He smiled as he patted my hand.

Agh! Will he ever stop calling me that?

“Did you go over and meet that Zafrina in Amazon?” Victor asked me lifting an eyebrow.

“Yeah, and guess what! In two years, I’ll stop growing! I will be an immortal as much as you are!” I added excited.

“This is very good news.” He answered, not surprised at all.

Did he know something he hadn’t told us?

“Where have you been this last year?” I asked him. We hadn’t seen him since we parted at the airport when we were leaving France.

“Here... There. Wandering around. You know how we nomads are. I was in Alaska before I came here. There are some others who like to feed the crazy way you do. Can you believe it?” he smiled. “They live in a small town called Denali.”

“You met Tanya and Kate? How have they been? Eleazar and Carmen are still with them?” Alice asked suddenly smiling at the memory of her friends.

“You know them? How small the world is… They are all fine. There is another guy with them too. Garrett. Have you heard of him?” Victor asked, still shocked Alice knew these vampires.

“Garrett is with them too? How lovely! Oh, by the way, my family also feeds the same crazy way Eshe’s and Tanya’s family do,” she said and smiled.

“Seriously? I thought you were wearing contacts! Is this some kind of a new trend?” he asked. This was the only thing that annoyed me about Victor. His diet.

“This is no trend, this is valuing human life,” Alice told him with a frown, not liking his reaction at all.

“Okay. I won’t argue about this. You have chosen a nice town to stay in. Everyone seems so friendly,” he said with a strange look in his eyes.

“Yes, it is nice. This is our home, so no hurting the humans. Got it?” she replied, kind of annoyed by his comments about our diet. I was annoyed at first too, but after a while I shrugged it off. 

We continued talking for an hour and then we went back home. I said goodbye to Victor and promised I’d tell mom and dad he was around. It nice seeing him again but it didn’t help me forget about the painting. He was the first person who told me about the Volturi. So Victor and Volturi were always connected in my mind. I tried to hide it. Back home I changed my face again. Renesmee wasn’t shocked this time, but I can swear dad was getting pissed I looked like Renesmee that much lately.

Renesmee took me upstairs in Carlisle’s room again. “Hi, girls, how was lunch?” he asked us reaching to give Renesmee a bear hug.

“It was good. Grandpa, where is the notebook you write down all the vampires you have known?” she asked innocently, like she did not want him to be alarmed. 

“Let me get it for you. I have it in a drawer here, because I was checking something. What do you want it for?” He handed Nessie a small but thick leather book.

“We met a friend of Eshe’s parents on the way to the restaurant,” she explained him.

“I am going to go tell my parents and I will be right back,” I said and headed for the door.

“You don’t need to. Auntie Alice will tell them. Come here. Can you draw his face?” She opened the book, changed the pages, there have been many sketches of the vampires Carlisle apparently has met, and next to them notes about each of them. My eye caught the name Tanya written on one page and in the last three mine and my parents’ names. I also noticed three names I wasn’t that pleased to see. Aro, Marcus, Caius. The Volturi. This didn’t make me feel much better but I hid it as well as I could.

I took the pencil Nessie offered me, took the book from her hands and made the sketch really fast, almost mechanically. It was so easy for me to draw faces. “Here. Anything else?”

“Does he have any special abilities?” she asked me.

“He thinks the animal-blood-diet is impossibly crazy. Is this counted as a special ability?” I said sarcastically.

“Nah, I don’t think so. Anything else interesting?” she prodded.

“No, he is just a nomadic vampire, who apparently drinks human blood. And he travels alone. That’s all,” I stated simply.

“Okay, I will write it down. What are we gonna do after that?” she asked me.

“You could watch some TV… I think there is a good movie on today,” Carlisle told us.

“Nice. Then that’s what we’re going to do.” She handed the leather book back to Carlisle. “Thanks, grandpa.” she told him and kissed him on the cheek.

We went downstairs and watched a movie. All I noticed was that it was a comedy. I have no idea what it is about. I was thinking about the painting again. The Volturi… “Eshe? Are you there?” Renesmee asked me as she gently tapped my shoulder.

“Yeah, sorry. Hey, want to go for a walk? I don’t really like the movie,” I lied. I couldn’t know if I liked it since I hadn’t paid attention to it even for a minute.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go,” she replied obviously bored too.

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*Just in case you haven’t recognized the painting in Carlisle and Esme’s bedroom, it’s the same painting Stephenie Meyer had described in ‘Twilight’ in chapter 16 (Carlisle) when Edward and Bella are in Carlisle’s office and Edward tells her Carlisle’s story.

Here are the descriptions from Stephenie’s book for whoever is interested:

Reflexively, his eyes flickered to another picture — the most colorful of them all, the most ornately framed, and the largest; it was twice as wide as the door it hung next to. The canvas overflowed with bright figures in swirling robes, writhing around long pillars and off marbled balconies. I couldn't tell if it represented Greek mythology, or if the characters floating in the clouds above were meant to be biblical.

…

He touched a comparatively sedate quartet of figures painted on the highest balcony, looking down calmly on the mayhem below them. I examined the grouping carefully and realized, with a startled laugh, that I recognized the golden-haired man.

…

"Aro, Marcus, Caius," he said, indicating the other three, two black-haired, one snowy-white.

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