P R E D I T O R •• TWILIGHT [1]

•TWELVE•

•••

It had been a few days since the accident with Isabella Swan. Bridie Cullen had not left her room, the fear and guilt eating her from the inside. Instead, she sat reading and watching films from her favourite decades, her French doors were shut and locked with the curtains drawn. Esme and Rosalie were the only ones to see Bridie, everyone else thought it best to leave her alone. Her younger adopted brother Edward had spent most of his time with Bella in the hospital helping her to adjust to only having one mobile leg. Her leg had been fractured thanks to James not to mention the massive piece of glass that had been stabbed into her. Bridie felt extremely guilty towards both Bella and Edward. She wanted her brother to be happy but he possibly couldn't when his mate was in pain.

It was a week later that Bridie finally came out of her room to go to school, her finals were coming up and she thought it best to attend the classes. She had Carlisle create a fake doctors note to explain her absence. When she first stepped into first period AP history with Jasper, everyone wouldn't stop staring at her except for when the teacher walked into the class and told them that they would do a pop quiz before watching a World War Two film. Jasper and Bridie were the first to finish with all the questions right.

Lunch rolled around slowly and the Cullen's sat at their usual table picking at the food they couldn't eat. Her siblings continued to stare at Bridie as they watched her pick at her food, Bridie's cheek rested against the palm of her hand and her elbow sat on the cafeteria table. Students were watching the Cullen's as Bella came over and sat down next to Edward. Bella's heart was beating a little quicker since she sat down at the Cullen's table.

"So uh, Bridie how have you been?" Bella asked. Bridie looked up and forced a smile.

"I've been better," She replied quietly. "How's the moon boot working out for you?" Bella laughed.

"I'd gladly get rid of it if it wasn't necessary." Bella replied. The bell went and Alice pulled Bridie away to walk to chemistry together. Chemistry was a slow lesson, So was English and maths and art. Finally the day came to an end and Bridie decided to ride with Edward since Bella was taking her own truck to spend time with her friend Jacob.

"Have you talked with Villanelle since that night?" Edward asked, breaking the silence that hung in the air. Shaking her head, Bridie continued to read her book. "You can't feel guilty forever, Bri." Edward looked over at his older sibling. "Bella has forgiven you and so have I, you've saved her life twice now when I should've done something about it instead of leaving it up to you."

"I've put her in pain, Edward, and by putting her in pain I've put you in pain." Bridie replied as they pulled up to the house. Edward turned the car off but didn't get out and neither did Bridie.

"You still saved her life, if she had've died on either occasions you saved her I wouldn't have forgiven myself," Edward turned to Bridie who had closed her book and had rested her head against the window. Her medium length wavy caramel hair hid her face from her brother so he couldn't see her but he could hear her thoughts. There weren't many of them and her head felt so empty. The thought that seemed to linger through her mind is how much pain she was in– she felt the pain she caused Bella and Edward and she felt the pain of shutting out her mate.

"You deserve to be happy, brother." Bridie got out of the car quickly and walked slowly up the stairs of the house.

"And so do you." Edward appeared behind her, he gently grabbed her arm in his hand and forced her to turn around.

"God knows I've tried." Bridie said through gritted teeth. "I can't, with everything that's happened because I can't find the will to move past it." She said. Tears welled up in her eyes and instead of them staying there they fell. Both Edward and Bridie froze, gently her hand touched her cheek and she bought it down to see her fingers wet with salty tears.

"Inside. Now." Edward pushed her inside where they made their way into the living room where everyone was gathered. Villanelle stood in the middle of the room with Rosalie standing next to her as well as Carlisle and Esme.

"Bridie?" Emmett asked shocked looking at her wet cheeks.

"I told you, it's the effects of my gift." Villanelle said quietly, her arms crossed over her chest.

"What did you do to me?" Bridie asked shocked.

"My skin made contact with yours for too long, what you're experiencing is my gift. I can make an immortal mortal for a short amount of time through weakening the vampire side of you. The reason it's a short period is because it takes a few days to happen, you'll be human for the next week or two until your body regains the strength to become immortal once more." Bridie folded her arms.

"That creates more questions than it does answers. You better sit down because you're not leaving until I know everything." Bridie stated taking a seat herself next to Jasper and Emmett.

"I have the ability to pretty much turn an immortal into a human for a short amount of time- only three days. It takes a few days for their strength to diminish and then when those three days are up it's vis versa." Villanelle started.

"How does it happen?" Carlisle asked, Bridie looked up at her mate then back down at her hands, they were slowly growing less pale. For the first time in almost 300 hundred years, Bridie felt scared.

"Whenever someone makes contact with my skin for too long, a short handshake or a high five or something like that is fine- but Bridie, our skin was touching for roughly around an hour. Thats enough to turn you human for a few days." Nodding, Bridie got up and walked up to her room.

"This is great!" Rosalie exclaimed. "Bridie will get to be human for a few days, I know she doesn't seem very excited but I think she'll be happy." Jasper shook his head.

"You're wrong." He stood up and sped up to Bridie's room. He knocked before entering, watching his sister look at the calendar in front of her.

"Nine days." She whispered, running her hands over her face.

"It's going to happen isn't it?" Jasper asked, Bridie nodded before replying with a small hum.

"For four days." Bridie replied quietly. footsteps echoed through the call and Carlisle and Esme entered the tidy bedroom.

"Bridie whats wrong?" Esme asked, sitting next to her on her bed.

"Apart from me being human for the next nine days? oh pretty much everything." Bridie replied, groaning.

"Why do you have a calendar out?" Esme asked. Bridie glanced at Jasper who nodded his head.

"In 1723 my brother taught me how to hunt and track animals. During autumn of 1725, we were out in the woods, we were hunting deer. It turned out that a boy my brothers age was also hunting- the same deer that I spotted to be exact." Carlisle sat down on her computer chair while Jasper leaned against the wall. Bridie's siblings and Villanelle were all downstairs listening to her story. "I fired my arrow at the same time he did but the deer ran off, mine hit the boy straight through the chest and he died instantly, his arrow hit me in the shoulder. It was then that the curse of my family kicked in." Bridie looked down at her hands.

"What curse?" Carlisle asked, concerned.

"My family were hunters a long time ago, born and bread to kill anything that posed a threat to the human kind. Long story short, back in the early 1600's a werewolf bit one of my ancestors and that gene carried down the line. To activate the curse you had to kill someone, thats why we slowly started to find new methods of the 'Family Business'. My parents estate burnt down with them in it in the summer of 1715 and my brother and I were orphaned to our aunt and uncle when I was two years old. To my knowledge, it was the last remaining member of the pack that they never killed. My brother ended up killing him but the gene wasn't passed down to him- only me. I transform into a wolf every full moon, my curse forcing me to but when Villanelle changed me, the curse was dormant." Bridie stated. she looked up. "Theres a full moon on its way and," she paused. "well you're about to see what human Bridie can do."