The woman, Alex, walked a few steps closer so she could see all of us. There was something strange about her. She seemed human, but at the same time she didn't.
She had an irregular heartbeat that went too fast for humans to handle, but she couldn't be a vampire, because of her very clearly blue eyes.
She also seemed to hold herself differently than other vampires, more humanlike, like it came natural to her. She just seemed different.
It took me about one second to assess all of this before I glanced to Carlisle to see what he was going to say.
"Who are you?" Carlisle asked and Alex smiled.
"Well, I think Swan could fill you in." She said and Dad looked at us with the still-shocked look on his face.
"She's a detective in Seattle. Um, we-" I looked to Dad in surprise as I got what he was implying.
Were they together? I hadn't realized my dad had a girlfriend.
"A detective? But how? You're obviously not human." I asked her and she smirked.
"You're very perceptive, Adelaide. I can see your immortality only strengthened that." She told me.
"How did you know my name?" I asked her.
"The same way I know all of your names." Alex said, then glanced to Carlisle.
"You're Carlisle Cullen, turned in the 1640s, you turned.." She looked to Edward.
"Him and then her, Rosalie Hale." Alex said, looking between Edward and Rose.
I looked at each of my family warily. How did this woman know who we were and when we'd been turned?
"Alex, how the hell do you know all that?" Dad asked her.
"Because I've been looking for you all for a while now. And now I've finally found you, and to my surprise, Swan is one of you too." Alex remarked.
"Why have you been looking for us?" Carlisle asked her.
"I'm a hybrid. I've been looking for people of the same bloodline as me." Alex said and I looked to Carlisle. A hybrid? Did that even exist? A hybrid between what?
"Hybrids are a myth." Jasper spoke up.
"And yet here I stand, as real as ever. It's true, I am a hybrid. Read my mind, you'll see." Alex told Edward, who nodded at us.
"She's telling the truth, yet we still don't know what bloodline you're talking about." Edward told her.
"Perhaps we should go inside? I'll tell you whatever you want to know." Alex said to us.
"Like hell. I don't want you anywhere near my family until you can prove to me you're not working for Victoria or you're not dangerous." I told her.
She turned to me and grinned. "I like you, you have fire. I guess you get it from your dad." She told me and I exchanged a look with my dad, who looked embarrassed.
"How about this? I know who turned Charlie." She told us and I saw Dad looking at her in surprise.
"Come in." I told her, walking behind her as she headed into the house.
"Wait, she and dad are.." Bella trailed off and I winced. "Let's not talk about what they are right now. I'd rather not have the talk with Dad again." I whispered to her and she nodded, still looking surprised.
It was surprising to me too. I'd always assumed Dad never got over Mom. Well, apparently he had, and it was about time, too.
Carlisle stepped beside me and grabbed my hand. "Wild day, huh?" I asked him and he smiled.
"It's not everyday your fiance's father turns into a vampire, has an arm wrestling match with your son and then a hybrid shows up to your door and says she's sleeping with your fiance's father, is it?" He asked me and I shuddered.
"Please don't ever say that again." I told him and he laughed.
We reached the den and Alex didn't waste any time before making herself at home. She sat on the sofa and looked to us. "Sit down, it's sort of a long story." She told us.
We all exchanged a look before sitting down. I didn't think she realized we didn't actually need to sit down at all, but we obliged her anyway.
Bella and I sat beside our dad, who was sitting beside Alex. Big surprise there. The others sat in the surrounding chairs. Alice even sat cross legged on the floor.
"So tell us your story, Alex, right?" I asked her and she turned to me.
"Alex Carver, yes. It's short for Alexandria but that's besides the point. The point is that the newborns in Seattle have gotten out of control." She told us.
"You're a detective there, right? Have you found any evidence as to who is leading these newborns? An amount of newborns that size suggests some sort of plan, at least." Jasper asked her.
She nodded. "No evidence to the humans, of course. As a detective, I've had access to the crime scenes and they all resemble each other. Bodies dumped without care, little blood in their bodies and of course the puncture marks on their necks or wrists." Alex told us.
"And the Seattle P.D. writes them off as murders, correct?" I asked her, wondering how the police were going to explain the continuing killings.
"Yes, we do. I know differently, but I can't say that to my officers." She told us.
"And you say you know who turned Charlie, is that related to the Seattle killings?" Carlisle asked her.
She grinned at him. "You're smart, I like you." She remarked and I sent her a glare but she only laughed.
"Sorry, just needed to confirm something. Obviously you two are together, yes?" She asked Carlisle and I.
"Yes, we are." I told her a little defensively and she grinned.
"Wow, your family really as a thing for the supernatural. First Bella, then you, and now your dad." Alex told us.
"Speaking of my father, how did you meet him in the first place?" I asked her.
Dad looked over to me and cleared his throat. "We met on the case a year ago. The animal killings, or what we thought were animals at least. Alex came down from Seattle to help investigate, but when we didn't find any more evidence, she went back." He told us.
"Well, obviously, there's more to the story than that. I mean, you two seem to know each other pretty well." I said, not wanting to say what I actually meant, which was 'you two seemed to have some weird sexual tension.'
"Well-" Dad started but Alex cut him off.
"When you and Bella were "mugged" in Phoenix and you were killed , your father called me. He wanted me to help him try and find the mugger, but there was no evidence. That's when I started to put the pieces together that you may have made it out. I'd seen vampire attacks before and I realized that this accident or mugging seemed too perfect. I mean, muggers don't typically leave time to wipe the gun clean and any other evidence." Alex told us and Alice made a face.
I remembered she told me she'd been the one to go back and fabricate the mugging.
"I was very thorough." Alice defended and Alex nodded. "Yes, and to anyone other than me, it seemed like an open and shut case. I just knew it wasn't as it seemed, seeing as I am one of you myself. In a way." Alex told us.
"In a way? What do you mean? What sort of hybrid are you?" I asked her.
"I'm a hybrid between a wolf and a vampire." She told us. I looked to her in surprise. I hadn't known those existed.
"How is that possible? Wolves and vampires hate each other." Bella piped up and Alex glanced to her.
"My wolf isn't exactly the same as the wolves here. These wolves are actually shape-shifters who happened to choose the form of a wolf all those years ago." She told us.
"So you're apart of the Children of the Moon, the wolves Cauis and the Volturi hunted down to near extinction?" Carlisle asked her, but she shook her head.
"No. The wolves I come from do turn every full moon, but they can control it. They have special rings that allow them to control when they turn. Moonstones. Much like your pack of wolves, except we don't protect any certain people and we are less mystical. But it is odd you mention the Volturi since they are a huge part of my story." Alex said.
"How?" I asked her, not even hiding my curiousity now. The fact that there were many different types of wolves intrigued me. Alex's connection to the Volturi did as well.
Everyone else seemed to be as engrossed in her story as I was.
"My mother is one of them. Renata." Alex told us.
"Renata? Aro's shield?" Carlisle asked her in surprise. After I'd made it back from Volterra, Carlisle had told me everything about his stay with the Volturi. Including all the people he knew. I remembered him telling me about Renata, a woman who guarded Aro personally.
"But vampire women can't have children. It's impossible." Rose spoke up.
"Actually, there is a way." Alex told her and I watched as Rose's face lit up.
"How?" She asked her.
"I'll tell you but first I need to explain who I am and how I got here." Alex told her and Rose nodded, looking to Emmett with excitement.
I smiled at the two of them. How much more happy would Rose be if she had her own child? Hadn't she always wanted that?
"Like I said, my mother is Renata. Before she became a part of the guard, she roamed for four decades. Along the way she came across a community of wolves. They were different than the ones she'd heard about, of course. This particular community of wolves still wasn't too fond of vampires, though. They believed vampires were a sign of nature's imvlalance. They believed no one should be able to escape death. They were going to kill her, but one of the wolves vouched for her not to be killed." Alex told us.
"Your father." Dad said and she smiled at him.
"Yes. My father saw my mother and something clicked between them. The mating bond. My mother was shocked, seeing as she assumed the mating bond was only between two vampires. She was wrong. The two of them fell in love and my mother stayed at the community with him. Somewhere along the way, she ended up pregnant, which surprised everyone, including herself. Everyone knew that vampire women couldn't reproduce." Alex told us.
"So how did she?" I asked her.
"Well, you see, even though my father protected my mother and brought her into the community as his wife, some of the wolves weren't so welcoming. They wanted my mother gone. So when my mother and father announced they were pregnant, everyone was shocked. Except one woman. She was a witch and a wolf hybrid who'd been staying at the community for a while. She was one of the people who hated my mother." Alex told us.
"A witch and a wolf?" I asked her in shock. I was surprised there were different types of hybrids as well. I hadn't even realized that witches existed. I'd never come across one, but apparently, there was more to the supernatural world than I thought.
"Yes, they exist. There are fewer now, but they are out there." She told me.
"If she was a witch, did she cast some sort of spell?" Rose asked Alex.
"You're on the right track, except it was a curse. The woman wanted my mother gone, so one day, she cast a spell that would allow my mother to become with child, but with a twist, of course. You see my mother could give birth to me, but not with my father by her side and she wouldn't be around to see me grow up." Alex told us.
"What happened after you were born?" I asked her and she sighed.
"The woman, her name was Freya, she contacted the Volturi and informed them of my existence. They showed up to the community and did what they do best. They slaughtered everyone. Cauis couldn't be convinced that these wolves weren't the same as the ones he hunted, so he killed them all. I was hidden when they came. They left Freya, my father and my mother alive to be questioned about my whereabouts." Alex told us.
I felt terrible for Alex as I listened to her story. How terrible it must have been to watch her own father and her family be killed.
"Aro read my father's thoughts and killed him, upon hearing of a revolution my father had been planning against the Volturi. Freya was also killed, as she was half wolf. My mother, Renata, was spared as a member of Aro's guard who could assess abilities told him to spare her. I believe his name is Elezear." Alex told us and I looked to Carlisle in surprise.
"You know him?" Alex asked us.
"Well, yes, we do. He's apart of a coven of our friends in Denali." Carlisle told her.
"I'd like to see him again, if that's alright. I want to thank him." Alex told us.
"For what?" I asked her.
"Elezear told Aro to spare my mother, but he didn't inform him that I was still at the camp." Alex told us.
"How did Aro not detect you?" I asked her.
"I have an ability as well. While my mother can shield and protect a certain person, I can protect myself. I can make it where I am not seen or heard at all." Alex told us.
"Are you saying you can become invisible?" Emmett asked her.
"Yes. How else did I sneak up on a coven of vampires?" She asked us, referring to earlier today. Now that I thought about it, it had been odd how she'd just appeared and none of us had heard her.
"So you were invisible while Aro questioned your family?" I asked her.
"Yes and as Elezear can see gifts, he saw me, but he didn't say anything. I was still quite young then, only a few months after I was born, but I grew remarkably fast. I was the size of a ten or eleven year old at that point and my mind was just as developed. That made it easier for me to keep the charade up until the Volturi left." Alex told us.
"Wait, so how old are you?" I asked her.
She turned to me and grinned.
"I'm nearing my 706th birthday. Of course, I reached maturity when I was about five years old." Alex told us. My jaw dropped at her age.
"Seven hundred?" Dad asked her and she turned to him.
"Is there a problem with that, Swan?" She asked him teasingly and I glanced to Bella, who was making the same face I was. I was torn between noticing how cute they were and also being weirded out because he was my father.
"No, it's just weird. I mean, I'm 41, and you're 706, there's a bit of a gap there." Dad said.
"Oh you're in your prime." Alex said with a wave of her hand.
"Bet you feel bad about punching Carlisle earlier, huh?" Emmett piped up and I sent him a look to shut up.
Alex looked between Dad and Carlisle.
"Over Adelaide, I'm guessing?" She asked Dad, who nodded.
"Actually, you can call my Addy. Everyone does." I told her and she smiled. "Long as you don't call me Alexandria."
"Um, Alex, something you said earlier, it's confusing me. What is the bloodline you're talking about?" Bella asked Alex.
"It's yours. You, your mother and Addy's bloodline." Alex said and my jaw dropped.
"Wait, our mother?" I asked her while Bella just exchanged a surprised look with Edward.
"Yes. Your mother is descended from my mother's human family. It turns out not only do vampire and wolf hybrids exist, but so do human and vampire ones. Your mother Renee is a distant descendant of one of those hybrids. The abilities in the family seemed to have skipped her and went straight to you and your sister." Alex informed us.
"You mean our gifts came from birth?" I asked her and she nodded.
"Yes." She told me.
"Wait a minute, if your mother is Renata and my mother is descended from her human family, doesn't that make us related?" I asked her.
"Distantly, yes. On your mother's side, of course. I've been looking for someone of my bloodline for years and I just happened to stumble upon you and Bella when I met your father." Alex told us.
"I'm still confused on something, Alex. You said human and vampire hybrid. How is that possible? Wouldn't any human die after that?" Edward asked her. I wondered if he was thinking of Bella.
"It depends, but most of the time, yes. The children are very strong and fast growing and the human body isn't equipped to handle them, but sometimes the mothers survive. The children reach maturity at about 7 years after they're born, a little slower than I did, but still soon. After that they stop growing." Alex told us.
"And they can have children as well?" I asked her.
"Yes. If they have a child with a human, that then makes the child only have a small percentage of vampire genetics. The line keeps going and the genes usually dilute. In your case, your mother somehow didn't receive the genes, but the two of you did." Alex told us.
"So you're telling me that Bella and I have vampire genes in us already? We're part vampire?" I asked her, hardly believing it.
"How do you think your sister can block others gifts? She's a shield as well, just like my mother is. And Addy, you seemed to inherit your gifts from the other hybrids." Alex told me.
"Wow, this changes everything." I said in surprise.
"So, when I change into a vampire, will the process be sped up because I already have some buried inside?" Bella asked Alex.
"You're planning on turning?" Dad asked Bella, who flushed.
"We were going to do it after graduation, Dad." She told him.
"Oh and I was supposed to just never see you again, is that it?" He asked her.
"Dad, I was going to keep in touch for as long as I could. I'm sorry." Bella apologized.
"Charlie, come on, you're a vampire now. You can't expect Bella to stay a human and grow old while everyone she loves is a vampire, can you?" Alex asked and Bella sent her a small smile.
"I understand, I just wished I could have learned about all of this sooner." Dad said with a sigh.
"Alex, can I ask you a question?" Alice asked suddenly and Alice looked down to her.
"Sure."
"You say you know who attacked Charlie and who is controlling the newborns? Who is it?" Alice asked her.
"I don't know her name. All I know is I've watched the city for a while now and I've seen a vampire with red hair lurking."
"Victoria." Bella whispered and I saw Edward tense.
"You know her?" Alex asked us.
"Yes, she was mated to the vampire who attacked Bella and I in Phoenix. When he was killed, she wanted revenge. She wants to kill Bella. She came back about two months ago but then escaped. The other night we caught her trail but she evaded us once again." I told her.
"So she must be rallying the newborn army in Seattle to use it against you all." Alex said.
"An army that size will be impossible to take out." Jasper said in alarm. I knew he could feel the fear radiating off of me at the moment. As I could feel the fear coming off of everyone else in the room. It only intensified my own.
If we couldn't stop Victoria, we would all die.
***
The idea of Renee being descended from Renata isn't mine, I first saw it somewhere on a twilight fan theories page. I just wanted to try and bring it to life.