The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Sixty-Five

"So," I said.

"I've never met anyone else like you in a thousand years."

"You know, statistically, I read somewhere that there are seven people in the world at any given moment who are exactly like you. And if you times that by a thousand, then I think you're just bad at looking around and meeting people."

Demetri looked at me seriously, the joke didn't make him laugh. "So why him?"

"I don't know. I just like him. He's different. He's new."

"New doesn't last."

"Not like shiny new, more like, a breath of fresh air that punches you in the gut..." I broke our eye contact, realizing I shouldn't be gushing about my boyfriend to Demetri. "It's just... It's not that I don't like you."

He was leaning toward me, his knee was close to mine. He didn't say anything when I said that, he just took a drink from his cup and waited. I don't know why I said that out loud, it's not that I don't like you. Of course I liked him. But something just didn't work between us. "It's just... It's not fair between us. You and me."

"Fair?"

"How old are you?" I said pointedly.

He looked away as he thought about it. It took him a while to remember. "I was born in the year one thousand and eight B.C. So that would make me... one thousand and six." I put my palm up like that explained it and took a gulp of Whiskey. "How much have I told you about my past?" he asked.

I shrugged, "A few things here and there."

"I grew up in Greece," he said. "I was turned when I was twenty-five. Before that, I was taking care of my mother. We had a hard family life... You remember about my father?" he asked. I nodded. "What I didn't mention before was that it was me and my brother who killed him..."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "When you were still human?"

"Yes. It's strange to think back to so long ago. The memories are less vivid. My brother and I were carpenters, in a company, not our own. Sometimes my boss would have us track people down for payments. Not all of the payments were for the carpentry business...

"Then I came across the path of Amun. He turned me. Took me to Egypt with his coven. I was happy there for a couple hundred years, and then Aro heard of my ability." He swirled the whiskey around his glass. "It wasn't until Chelsea died that I remembered... No, it wasn't that I cared to remember. You see, when I was with Amun, I was not particularly eager to join the Volturi guard, but I suppose I had forgotten until now. I felt my alliance shift with her death, and I remembered there are other ways of life."

Demetri went on, "The world is more dangerous in some regards now. But the Volturi, it was all consuming. Amun was part of the summit to create a new government. I rekindled our friendship, and he invited us to join him again, with his wife Kebi, and two others, Benjamin and Tia. So that's where Jane and I were planning to go after we got you."

"I'm glad for you," I said. "I hope you like it with them."

"You can come with us to see what it's like with them. Your wolf pack would still be there if you decide you don't like it."

"Demetri," I said, at a loss for words, not knowing how else I could make it clear that I didn't want to go with him.

He turned his bar stool to look across the floor at the five bodies that were strewn across it. "What were you doing here tonight?" he asked.

I followed his gaze, but I didn't want to look at the faces of the people I had murdered. "Um..."

"This mess you and your sister made goes against all of the morals of the Cullen's, and I vaguely remember the Cullen's mentioning at some point that the Quileute tribe has a rule against biting humans that is punishable by death."