Renewal [Emmett Cullen] (1)

[27- Conversations]

"How did you find it?" Carlisle asked, everyone was sitting in the living room, awaiting our arrival.

"Incredible, everything is so different." My words didn't capture the awe I was still in.

"I'm surprised. Usually newborns are ravenous but you're in control. More than I expected." Jasper nodded in agreement with his father.

"El was so fast, probably faster than Edward. I know newborns are already much faster than mature vampires but   this was different," Emmett enthused. I didn't know what to say so I just kept my mouth shut, it had been a while since people were complimenting my athletic ability.

"It may be your gift," Carlisle said, his eyes were suddenly bright, an amazed smile beginning to form on his face. The thrill of forming a theory with new information.

"Just like Emmett's strength," he added. It wasn't as interesting as Edward's mind reading or Alice's premonitions but I wasn't going to complain. It was better than nothing.

"Wait, wait, wait," Alice trilled from the couch. She danced across the living room, dreamily graceful. "You promised I could be there the first time! You didn't look before you left."

"Alice, Eleanor isn't the type of person who—," Emmett protested.

"It will only take a second!" And with that, Alice darted from the room. Emmett sighed.

"What's she talking about?" I asked. But Alice was already back, carrying the huge, gilt-framed mirror from her room, which was nearly twice as tall as she was, and several times as wide.

My first reaction was an unthinking pleasure. The person in the glass was indisputably beautiful, every bit as beautiful as Alice or Esme. She was fluid even in stillness, and her flawless face was pale as the moon, complemented by the frame of her sun bleached hair. Her limbs were smooth and strong, skin glistening subtly, luminous as a pearl.

All her insecurities; the scars from her operations, the one finger on her right hand that was very quite straight after a football injury, disappeared, it was if they never existed. But like an alien, this person seemed strange, too beautiful.

"What do you think?" Alice asked impatiently.

"My height difference may take some time to get use to," I replied, intently ignoring her question. Everyone laughed.

I gazed at everyone's eager faces,
"You all look much... shorter now." Emmett chuckled.

"Well you did go from about four feet to what?" Alice said.

"5'8," I replied automatically. Wow, I 'gained' more than one and a half feet in height.

"And the eyes. How long will they last?"

"Animal blood dilutes the color more quickly than a diet of human blood. They'll turn amber first, then gold," Carlisle added. My eyes would blaze like vicious red flames for months?

"I'm fine," I promised Jasper who saw how I tensed up. He relaxed, feeling my change in emotion. My eyes flickered to the stranger in the mirror and back. "It's just... a lot to take in. How am I still alive?" I thought I already knew the answer but my human memories were hazy.

"Three days ago, the pneumonia infection spread rapidly through your blood and infected most of your organs. Your body started to shut down," Carlisle said, his tone now serious. "You were beyond the point of saving. There wasn't anything I could do from a traditional medical standpoint, besides of course changing you."

I took a deep breath in, even though it was unnecessary.

Carlisle continued, "Just before your heart stopped, we told your parents that you didn't make it. We told them that you needed to be cremated since the infection could still be transmitted. After they saw you for the last time, I wheeled you to the hospital's morgue, injected you with venom, and Emmett carried you back to our house."

"So I can never see them again?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Emmett shook his head.

"I'm sorry, there was no other way. It wouldn't make sense if after a couple days you were healed and could walk. They can't know of our existence," Carlisle replied, sadness in his voice. I knew they meant well but I couldn't fathom the thought of never seeing them again.

We spent the rest of the day talking on the couch. Carlisle invited me to live here permanently; since I was legally dead, it would be hard to find a place to live. Alice was beaming when I accepted her request to stock the closet and decorate my new room, which was originally the guest room, not that any guests had ever slept over.

Slowly the Cullens left the living room, engaging in their various pastimes.

"Do you want to go somewhere more private?" He asked, "I know a place." I nodded, following him back outside.