Forever Young

Chapter 45

I nodded and went into the house, allowing him the privacy he clearly wanted. Before I even made it into the family room where everyone else was, though, I was intercepted by Renesmee. She stepped out from behind a corner, grabbing my shoulder to stop me from walking into sight of those in the other room. 

Nessie pushed me towards her bedroom and I went that direction silently, knowing she was trying to be inconspicuous. She closed and locked her door and then pushed me to sit down on her bed as she shut the curtains over her window. Once she was sure that nobody could see us, she held a hand out to me.

Both Renesmee and I had powers that required touch, so I wasn't sure if she wanted me to make us invisible or if she just wanted to show me something. But she didn't immediately start speaking to me mentally when I touched her hand, so I took the hint and covered any sound that we may make- it would allow for a two-way silent conversation. 

"What did Benjamin say to you?" Nessie asked me mentally. 

I shrugged, still not sure what to make of the conversation. "He doesn't seem to... believe that we're a family I guess. He has some weird thing about covens. He thinks I belong to Carlisle and that he punishes me too much or something. I don't know."

Renesmee grinned. "Well, I think I solved the puzzle. It comes from years of experience in gossiping."

I rolled my eyes as my sister dramatically flipped her hair over her shoulder. "And?"

She made a face at me, irritated that I was ruining the dramatic pause. "And," she emphasized. "The last time he came with his mate, she seemed really into the whole 'family' dynamic. See, Benjamin's creator was always really... severe. He tried to control everything. His name is Amun. He created Ben and tried to control him for his gift. Amun also made one of his slaves his mate, because he knew she would give him absolute obedience. Ben was tired of living under such an awful leader, and left with his own mate. So he's really weary of any coven leaders. Including Carlisle."

I nodded, feeling bad for any judgements I had made towards Benjamin. To him, any hierarchy was bad, because one had been used to abuse him. To me, Carlisle and Esme were not just in charge of supervising me, but they also looked out for my best interests and cared for me. Without those two additional aspects, I wouldn't have loved them the way I did.

No wonder Benjamin had been so worried about me being punished- he probably thought all punishments were dealt out with cruelty.

Nessie wasn't done, though. "His mate's name is Tia," she told me. "She's super nice, and has a crazy strong sense of humanity. She is huge on doing the right thing... sorta like Esme. She was super interested in the vegetarian diet, and the idea of having more of a family dynamic instead of a coven one. I think it's scaring Ben, because he doesn't understand it. He probably asked her to stay away this year because he was worried coming here and seeing us would make her sure that this was what she wanted."

Part of me didn't believe Nessie- after all, this was all just one big theory. She had no real proof or reasoning to back up these presumptions. But another part of me- a larger part- was aware that Nessie had amazing intuition. She was almost always right about these kinds of things.

So what did that mean for us? Probably not much. As great as it was that there may soon be more vegetarian vampires in the world, and fewer human victims, Benjamin's life would likely rarely intercept with ours. We hardly ever saw Tanya and Kate, despite them also being vegetarians. Even if Benjamin and his mate made this change, we would likely still only see them once every year or two.

"That's good," I said aloud, allowing my invisibility to fall away. Someone would probably come looking for us soon if we kept speaking silently- Esme always got worried after just a few minutes of silence from me. "I hope they do."