The Banshee -Paul Lahote-

Chapter 2

Mavis stood between her parents, staring at Bella who seemed nervous. The brunette girl rubbed her pants before speaking, "you all know what I want. And I know I'm asking a lot of you." Bella was asking a lot of them, and although she acted as if it bothered her, Mavis didn't believe that. Luckily, Edward couldn't read her mind like he could with the others. "The only way I can think of it to be fair is to put it up to a vote."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Edward spoke up from behind her.

"Shut up," Bella whispered to him. Mavis let a laugh escape her mouth at Bella's word. She quickly raised her hand, attempting to cover it with a cough. Edward glared at her, and that made Jasper pull her closer to him. As if he was protecting her. Alice noticed and kissed the top of her head. "Alice?" Bella asked her first.

Alice began walking towards her. "You know I already consider you my sister." The two hugged, and Mavis smiled at the sight. Alice took to Bella better than others, including herself. At first, Mavis enjoyed having someone else around with blood inside their body, but Bella didn't seem entirely interested in getting to know her. "Yes."

Bella stepped off the stairs, "thank you."

"I vote yes," Jasper sided with Alice. That didn't come as a surprise to Mavis. Her father always agreed with her mother. "It would be really nice not to want to kill you all of the time."

"Dad," Mavis whispered.

Bella glanced at her, "Mavis?"

"Oh," she spoke. "I'm not a vampire. My vote doesn't really matter."

"Well, it does to me," Bella argued.

Mavis smiled slightly, "really?"

"Of course," Bella chuckled. "Vampire or not, you're part of this family, and your opinion matters to me."

Alice bit her lip, hiding her own smile as she noticed Mavis's expression change. "I vote yes." That seemed to surprise Edward and Rosalie.

If anyone was going to side with Rosalie, it would have been Mavis. "I'm sorry," the blonde woman said. "I am sorry to the both of you for how I acted before, and I'm grateful that you were brave enough to save my brother." They all knew where this was going. "But this is not the life I would have picked for myself. I wish there would have been someone to vote no for me. So, no."

Nobody could be surprised by her vote, but it seemed to hurt Bella. "I vote hell yeah," Emmett smirked. He picked up Bella and spun her in a circle. "And then we can pick a fight with these Volturi another way."

"Well," Esme grinned. "I do already consider you as part of this family. My vote is yes."

Mavis was proud of how many of her family members were able to vote yes. It wasn't a life any of them would have picked, but it was there's now. She wasn't like them, and Mavis was unsure if she ever wanted to be. That conversation had luckily never come up. But she would be seventeen soon, and it was still unclear if she was immortal. Carlisle wanted to wait until she was eighteen before that became an issue. He read that once Banshees reach their full potential, they become immortal, but other texts stated differently. As of right now, they were not sure what her future looked like, but they had time. Alice couldn't see it, and that scared her. But not Mavis. Knowing her future could never be predicted was comforting in an odd way.

Carlisle stepped closer, but Edward spoke first. "Why are you doing this to me?" They stared at each other, "you do know what this means?"

"You have chosen to die without her. You leave me no choice. I won't lose my son." Mavis knew Edward did not want this for Bella, not entirely. But Carlisle was right. He wanted to die without her. Bella is a grown-up, and if she wanted this, it was fair to ask. She loved Edward and wanted to be with him. "I vote yes."