Annora |E. Cullen|

EIGHTEEN

We waited at the gates of the airport for the three of them to come off of their plane. Emmett and I stood close together, luckily my eyes had gone from their blood red shade to a dulled down, near black colour due to my hunger. I put one headphone in the ear farthest from the family and started to play music. Ace of Base started to play and Emmett looked at me with a raised brow.

"Don't you dare judge me, I'm really hungry," I shifted my weight around.

"And The Sign is going to dull that?" He chuckled.

"Fine," I changed the song, "Lauryn Hill better for you?"

"Actually, yes," he smiled at me and then wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

I smiled when I saw Alice and Edward turn the corner, I couldn't have cared less about the human they were dragging along with them. It wasn't that I suddenly had a distaste for humans, it was that Bella was still cut out of my life.

Edward froze, "Annora, what happened?"

I shrugged, "Long story, we have plenty of time for it later."

He nodded and Alice came rushing up to me, she wrapped me in a large embrace. "How are you doing? I haven't been able to talk to you since before," she hinted at what Rosalie had done.

"I'm very hungry, but otherwise, I'm fine," I smiled at her.

"We have to catch up. We can go hunting after this," she suggested.

"Fantastic idea," I sighed in relief; food would come soon enough.

"Bella, thank you so much for going and retrieving Edward, we are forever grateful," Esme grabbed Bella's hands lightly.

Bella simply nodded and smiled, she was exhausted, that much was plain to see.

"This poor girl is dead on her feet, get her home and to bed," Esme instructed Edward who nodded and escorted Bella away from the family and towards the parking garage.

"Food?" Alice turned to me.

"Food," I clasped my hands together in excitement and then kissed Emmett before Alice and I parted from the family and made our way towards Canada.

We ran as fast as our feet could carry us, but I happened to be much faster than her. Occasionally I had to stop and wait for her to catch up because I hadn't yet figured out my control on things like speed and strength. Once we reached the country's border, we looked around the forest for something to prey on.

I found a bear that satisfied my tastes while Alice stuck to animals like deer and elk. I felt bad for ending the life of a living thing, regardless of plant, animal, or human. I had to eat, however, and it was in some way better to prey on animals as opposed to humans. No one in the family knew I had this issue, I kept it to myself as I had the fear of being judged by a group of people that I very much sought approval from.

"Are you all right, Nora?" Alice asked from behind me as I brushed myself off from my meal.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not wanting to reveal anything without being certain that she already knew.

"I wouldn't be all right if Jasper's insane ex came after me in the middle of the night," she explained.

"I'm more angry than anything else. I can't be so mad, you see. I was never able to have children, so it's not like she took that away from me. What she took away from me was my choice, when it really boils down to it. She took away my life. I can no longer trip and bruise myself. I can no longer make a mistake and bleed.

I can no longer be surrounded by people without wanting to go insane. I can no longer look at someone and not know everything there is to know about them. She took away so much," I sighed.

"Would you have changed if you still had the choice?" She asked.

I didn't even have to think about the question to answer it, "If Emmett was the one that asked me, I would have said yes without hesitation."

She grinned widely, "You two really are mates."

"What is this mate thing I keep hearing people talk about?"

"You don't know? Ah, well, vampires have soul mates. I suppose everyone has them, but with vampires, it's much more apparent. Once you meet your mate, human, wolf, another vampire, whatever they may be, a metaphorical string attaches itself to the two cores.

"One to yours and one to Emmett's. The farther you are from each other, the less you feel you can breathe. The closer you are to each other, the more comfortable you feel. You fit together like puzzle pieces. What one of you lacks, the other makes up for. It's quite an interesting thing to watch," she mused.

"So like how you and Jasper are. The two of you move together wherever you are. You gravitate towards each other without even thinking about it," I connected the dots.

"Precisely," she smiled. "What's your thing? Have you figured it out yet?"

"My thing?" I questioned.

"You know," she moved her hands around in a nonsensical motion, "like how I can see the future and Emmett has heightened strength."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "I can look at a person and know everything about them."

"Everything?" Her face dropped.

"Yeah, are you okay?"

"I don't even know that much about myself."

"Here, let me see," I looked at her and waited for the wave of dizziness to come over. Once it did, I could read her life like a chapter in a book. "You were changed at 19 by faculty in a mental health facility. You've been able to see the future since you were a little kid. You had a sister and a mother and father. You had a stepmother, but she wasn't the loveliest of people. That's all I can gather from your early life."

She stood with her mouth open for a moment, "That's more than anyone's been able to tell me so far. Thank you so much, Nora," she wrapped me in an embrace.

I wasn't able to deal with emotions even as an undead creature, "Are you ready to go home? I miss Emmett already," I laughed.

"Absolutely," she smiled and we both took off south.