gift or curse (A Twilight fanfiction)

Chapter 2

"Alone?"

"Eh, yeah." That seemed to raise a few eyebrows.

"And before that?" the young boy asked.

There was something in his eyes that made me wonder if he knew more then he let on.

Carefully I articulated: "Before that I was a careless traveler that made a quick stop in Seattle before continuing to Vancouver." I tried to grin, but my humor got lost somewhere in the silence that followed.

The girl shot a glance at the boy and he gave a small nod. It was so tiny and so fast that only superhuman eyes caught it, but wasn't that my new description?

"It's okay guys, she won't be a problem. We'll take her with us." The boy spoke to the wolves and one at a time they left, stepping backwards. Did they take his word for it that easy? They didn't exactly seem like pets to me. The brown one was the last to leave and I couldn't keep myself from waving as he sort of grinned my way.

"Seth says: see ya", the boy chuckled.

"His name is Seth?" I asked, looking at the bush where the huge wolf disappeared in. The myth of werewolves lingered in the back of my brain, a hazy tale, from the time I was a child. Did I just meet them? I looked up at the cloudy daylight and frowned.

That subject too, moved to the back of my mind as the boy answered: "Yes, and my name is Edward Cullen. This is my wife, Bella and my brother, Emmet."

Suddenly, all other subjects were shoved aside. "Your wife?" I echoed, shocked. They looked merely old enough to vote, let alone be married. I had to redefine my definition of the word: boy.

The girl, Bella, bit her lip, which made her look a bit embarrassed, but the big guy laughed out loud.

Before anyone could comment, Edward said, now speaking at vampire speed: "Come, back to the house."

They took off, almost at the same time, and I followed. I had never see myself run before, eyeing the three in front of me made me strangely appreciative of my own abilities. Did I look so fluent as well? Hardly touching the ground, jumping between trees as if gravity was a thing of the past? I wondered if a camera would be able to film it, I would love to see myself thus gracious.

When we got closer and closer to the town, I got more and more nervous. Until I remembered that these were no ordinary vampires. Not like the one's from the stories, the one's I've been created amongst. These golden eyed vampires lived on animal blood, just like me. Was that why they could live so close to humans? There were so many questions running through my mind. I couldn't wait to ask them.

The house we ended up at was still a few miles away from the main town and it took me a few whole seconds to take everything in. And that was saying something. It was huge. Did they live here with just the three of them?

That unspoken question was answered when the front door opened and three more vampires appeared. Two of them were a little older than the others, but not nearly old enough to be called their parents. And yet, that was exactly what Edward did.

"Mom, dad, this is Ariadne, she came from the Yukon. Ariadne, my parents, Carlisle and Esmee, and my sister, Rosalie."

Part of me wondered how Edward had guessed the Yukon had exactly been my home and not one of the other forests, but my new spectators drove that thought away.

Rosalie was stunning, but what shocked me the most was that the giant, curly-haired Emmet, who was supposed to be her brother, jumped up and pulled her in an embrace that was absolutely not brotherly. Or else it was very wrong.

Edward chuckled again and I pulled up one eyebrow.

Carlisle was the one that explained the situation. "They call me their father, but I am merely their creator. For the humans here we are a family, they are my adoptive children."

I exhaled. Not because I had been holding my breath, but as a sign I understood. I hadn't breathed like I used to do in five years. My ears, however, picked up wafts of breath all around me. In and out, like they still had lungs that needed air.

It was another question that left my mouth in the end, after I was done staring. "Don't people find it weird, that your children all marry one another?" I heard myself asking, and then I felt ashamed for the intrision. Or at least, I tried. Luckily I could no longer blush, no heat crept up my cheeks.

A chuckle told me Carlisle didn't mind me asking. "Yes, they do, and that's why we have to move from time to time. You are lucky you came here today, a few day's later and you would have found the house empty."

"Shall we go inside?" The small dark-haired woman, Esmee, asked and suddenly everyone seemed to remember manners.