After Senna served us with her collected fruits, the adults decided to take a walk around the jungle. The expedition team really needed a good hunt. They skipped the scheduled weekly meal because they wanted to get back with the hybrids as soon as possible. Jasper had dangerously black eyes when they arrived. It didn't suit him as it made his features much more animalistic as they should be. And even alarming was the fact that he considered taking a sip from Jacob. He almost slapped himself in the face when he noticed that train of thought. It was a clear sign of a need to hunt. So the vampires went. Until they were gone we were left alone with our guests and Jacob.
I used out my time and in this couple of hours I led them into the mysterious world of UNO. I never considered it as a difficult game, but Nahuel and Jennifer had a harder time picking up all the rules than I expected. Nonetheless after the third round they got a hang of it.
"UNO!" Jennifer shouted and put down a yellow number 3 card. She had left only one card in her hands. She smiled victoriously as she was about to leave first from the game.
"Not so fast." I smiled viciously and I played out a Yellow +2 card.
"Ah! Why do you hate me?" She sighted, devastated. That was my second time that I prevented her from winning.
"Hihihihi." I giggled evilly. She never had a chance in the first place.
"Don't let her fool you. She is cheating." Jacob told her. He and Renesmee wisely choose not to join the game. They were just watching the show.
"How can someone cheat in a game like this?" Nahuel asked him while he tried to organize his umbrella-like deck. He just got to pick up plus 8 cards in the previous round.
"She can see what is in your hand from your thoughts. And what you are planning to do next." Renesmee commented.
"Ren! Don't tell them!" I scolded my sister. Why does she have to ruin my fun?
"She does what?" Jennifer freaked out.
"How is this possible?" Nahuel asked and he put down his cards.
"She inherited it from Edward. He is a mind reader and this ability passed on to Carlie." Jacob revealed.
"Of course. Why don't you tell them what color my socks are!" I yelled at him and dropped my cards.
"Blue." Renesmee blurted out.
"Thanks sis. That helped."I gave her a death stare. She didn't seem to care. She just smiled back at me innocently. Oh, so you enjoy messing with me? Careful sister...
"Edward is a telepath? I never noticed." Nahuel caressed his own chin while he tried to remember every conversation with our father.
"How did you miss that? That guy is unbearable." Jacob laughed. Renesmee hit him on the shoulder. He mocked our dad after all.
"You didn't meet with someone gifted before?" I asked them.
"It depends. What is a gift?" Jennifer asked.
"We call supernatural abilities as gifts. Like these." Renesmee told her and leaned closer to touch Jennifer's arm. She projected her memories about our stay at the Denalis. What Eleazar said about gifts. What was ours. What can Kate do, what Zafrina can, Alice's visions, Jasper's empathy. It was a great info rush. Jennifer got dizzy in it quickly. She pulled away like she got hit by lightning.
"What did you do to her?" Nahuel asked more hardly than he meant to.
"I just showed her the gifts. I didn't know she couldn't handle them." Renesmee muttered. Did she just hurt someone?
"Oh no! It was amazing. It just got me by surprise. You should see it too." Jennifer quickly came to my sister's defense.
Her brother contemplated the offer for a while. Should he? He was curious, but what does Renesmee do exactly? At the end he let her touch his hand and Renesmee showed him what she showed to Jennifer. This time she took her time and she slowly dropped the pictures rather than in an excited hurry like before. Better safe than sorry.
"I see... That is amazing!" The world just opened right before his eyes.
"So these gifts... Where do they come from?" He asked.
"In paper one person has them from birth. Others don't. Uncle Eleazar said when someone is human it is more muted and when they get turned into a vampire it gets hightend. Mom had her shield when she was human too," I told them. I decided to pick up the deck and take it back into its box. We won't finish this game.
"And it can be inherited?" Jennifer asked.
"Yes." Ren answered this time.
"That's so cool. Father would love to hear this..." She squealed.
"I bet he would." Nahuel commented sarcastically. Jennifer didn't take it to heart but she dropped the topic.
"So... ohm..." She hesitated. "Why does your family have different eyes and not red? Is this because of the gifts?" She then asked shyly, like she was asking something improper. I exchanged a look with my sister. It was obvious to us but for strangers...
"It is because we don't feed from humans." Renesmee answered this one.
"What? Then what do you eat?" Jennifer didn't believe her ears.
"Well when we were babies we got some human blood, but that was donated blood from the hospital and not from a living person. If we get old enough we will hunt animals like our parents do." Renesmee told them.
"Why would you do that? It is such an overcomplication."
"Why wouldn't they? If it works." Nahuel told her.
"To be honest it is easier this way. You know we live close to others. Grandpa is an active doctor in the hospital. It would be so much more difficult if we had to expose corpses all the time. Not to mention if we accidentally turn someone, that is our responsibility too. If you don't bite humans you don't cause accidents." I told them. Jacob looked at me like I said something unfit, but in reality I just sounded too adult for a moment. It broke some sort of illusion. I ignored his puzzlement. Don't act suspicious and it won't get suspicious.
"But you don't have to be worried about turning someone. Female hybrids don't have venom." Jennifer started, like this would change our minds or loosen our worries.
"Maybe we wouldn't have to but Calrie has to. She got venom." Renesmee corrected her.
"She has?!" Nahuel and Jennifer asked in syncron.
"Yes. What is the problem with that?" Jacob asked immediatly. Strangely, he got a protective attitude. Is it because of their tone? Or is it because something is not in order? Does it influence our well being?
"Until now we all thought that only male hybrids have venom, like myself. All of my sisters don't have venom. We thought it was a gender based difference. But if you two have..." Nahuel said
"Oh I don't have. It is just Carlie." Renesmee cut in.
"Is that so. Why is that? Is it not gender based but evolutionary? Then father was..." Jennifer quickly fell silent.
"Grandpa thinks I became like this because I was still in the womb when our mom started turning. I got some of our fathers venom into my system." I explained. That made the most sense.
"But that couldn't have caused it." Jennifer told silently.
"Why not?" Nahuel asked.
Jennifer didn't answer. She didn't want to tell him that their father already tried to inject venom into them. He did it with Maysun, his second daughter. It happened when Jennifer was just a few weeks old. She clearly remembered those days. Maysun screams haunted her for years. Fortunately after a while she got better but nothing significant changed. She didn't become more of a vampire than before.
"HE DID WHAT? WHY WOULD SOMEONE BITE HIS OWN DAUGHTER!?" I got upset immediately. Fuck the secrets, and peace. Jennifer was frozen in shock. She wasn't allowed to tell anyone this. She didn't mean to.
"What is she talking about?" Nahuel asked his sister. His stare became firm.
"Oh It is nothing." Jennifer tried to outplay it as soon as possible.
"Jennifer knows that the venom doesn't make a hybrid venomous, because your dad tried that on Maysun already, and she didn't change and got venom." I told them. Even if Jennifer looked at me begging I had to tell. Something like this can't stay in the dark.
"He did what?!" Jacob and Nahuel were upset at the same time.
"It isn't like you think. He just wanted to know what would happen. We had to be prepared for everything. Venom to us, hybrids, like a sickness. It downs us for a few days, then we get better like nothing happened. It is a major piece of information. He did it for our own good." Jennifer told us in one breath.
"No wonder Maysun so messed up! There is no justification for this!" Nahuel stood and started pacing in his distress.
"She got better." Jennifer told him like it would make it less wrong.
"Do you have any idea how it hurts? Did she know before she got bitten?" I asked. I could call back my first hours when I was burning in the venom all too clearly. She didn't answer. She couldn't clear his father's name.
"Why would you explain his action? You are not in the wrong. He is." I reacted to her untold thoughts.
"I definitely have some words with him..." Nahuel stated threateningly while paced up and down.
"Words with who?" Came Hulien's voice from behind us. Bella and Edward were with her.
"It is just a small misunderstanding." Jennifer started.
"That is the farthest from that." Nahuel retorted.
"Someone would like to include us?" Bella asked kindly.
Renesmee stood and quickly walked to them. Bella picked her up and Ren touched her cheek showing the last few minute's topic and how we got here. Both Bella and Edward stared at Jennifer with wide eyes. That was crazy. Before they could utter a word Jen stood up.
"I think it is time for me to leave. I was far away from home long enough." She smiled and played obliviosity.
"I am not comfortable for you to go back." Nahuel said honestly.
"It is fine." She danced on Nahuel's side and kissed him on the cheek. "You just over react things." She said lightly.
"Am I?" He asked back doubtfully.
"Yes. See you later aunty." Jennifer then went to her and hugged her lightly. The woman hugged her back strictly.
"Take care." She told to Jen.
She knew if Jennifer wants to leave she will. They tried to stopped her before.
Jennifer said her goodbyes to the others and left us before the sun setted. In the evening we talked a lot about her situation. Not so surprisingly no one liked what they were hearing. Zafrina was completely convinced that we should go after her and bring her back as she might not be safe at home.
"We have already run those circles. She genuinely believes in her father's methods. They raised her to follow them." Hulien told us. She dug up a lot of questionable stories that accidentally slipped from Jennifer's mouth. This topic wasn't an easy one.
"Can I go get some snacks?" Renesmee whispered to Bella. She didn't want to disturb the conversation.
"Would you like for me to take you?" She whispered back. Renesmee shook her head and trotted into the tiny jungle hut.
"Aren't you hungry?" Bella asked me.
"No. I am fine." I told her.
I didn't long for fruit or other edible things. We were eating like humans for a few days now and I started to miss a good cup of blood. Here we didn't have any cooled blood bags, and the jungle is full of giant carnivores. Not a good way to start our hunting career. Also I am sure Emmett will beg Rosalie to come here for a vacation. This is the kind of environment that suits him very well.
I was musing like this when a piercing scream hit us. We didn't have to guess who it came from. The group rushed into the hut as one. Jacob phased into a wolf so he could fight off the danger, while the Amazons circled the building like vultures. We found my sister crouching before the fireplace sobbing. She was alone in the room. There wasn't a scent that would give away the stranger. Only the fire cracked in its place.
"Renesmee, What happened?" Edward was at her side.
He took her face in his hand and searched for any injury. He found one. Renesmee's left hand had a nasty burning scar from her palm straight up to her elbow.
"What happened?" Bella asked shakily. I never knew that a vampire's voice can shake, but here we are.
"I just wanted to know." My sister sobbed.
"Know?" Bella looked at Edward.
"I just wanted to feel it..." She sobbed again.
Oh god. Renesmee felt left out as she never experienced pain before and couldn't relate to our conversation. So she put her hand into the fire to solve this problem.
"Carlie!" Edward snapped at me. It appears I was the one who told her to use pain. But I didn't mean that!
"It wasn't me! I never told her to burn herself. She is stupid on her own!" I defended myself. I wont get punished for her crimes.
Edward had to accept my innocence as I clearly didn't tell her what to do. Alice came in with a wet towel and some cream to treat my sister's scar. Bella carefully applied it, paying close attention so she wouldn't cause more pain for her daughter.
"I hope you learned your lesson because you won't do anything like this ever again." Edward told my sister, angrily.
Renesmee nodded and drank in every burning sensation that she felt. She engraved it into her mind. She was like that kid on the playground who had found a small knife and hid it deep into her pocket. It was her weapon now.