FORKS - carlisle cullen

E L E V E N

Eleanor Martin's POV

After Carlisle and I return from the woods (I'll spare you all of the gory, bloody details) and approach the house, the pain in my throat has subsided. We walk through the front door, his hand around the curve of my waist and we approach the living room.

"Eleanor, this is my family." Carlisle smiles at the faces of everyone in the room.

"Your family now, too!" The girl from the picture I remember to be named Alice says, rushing to me and hugging me tightly.

"Great. Another vamp around here." The tan boy - Jacob - teases with a grin, making me smile as he shakes my hand.

"It's great to meet you," I smile before scrunching up my face in distaste, the a terrible scent of wet dog mixed with mildew hitting my nose. "My God."

"It's a dog thing," Rosalie shoots a playfully disgusted look at Jacob. "You'll get used to it."

I turn to Carlisle, recalling what he said in his office about dogs talking. "You don't mean to tell me-"

"Yep," Jacob laughs shortly. "I'm what these people call a mutt, but what my people call a werewolf."

"Why not?" I chuckle. "At this point, I doubt that anything I previously believed to be true was really true. Werewolves exist."

I feel a tug on my jacket and I look down, seeing Renesmee standing there. I am confused when I hear her heart beating and see pink in her cheeks.

"Renesmee is half vampire-half human." Edward explains.

"She was born before I was turned." Bella smiles fondly, and I can clearly see that she and Edward are Renesmee's mother and father.

Renesmee tugs on my coat again, and I kneel to the ground, smiling widely at her.

"Well hi," I smile at her, marveling at her cuteness. "I'm Eleanor."

"I'm Nessie," she giggles cutely, reaching up and playing with a strand of my hair. "Can I show you something?"

"I would love that, Sweetheart." I reply, feeling the happiness that comes from being near a pure-hearted child always brings.

Rather than taking me somewhere, she moves her hand from my hair onto my cheek, and I close my eyes when images begin to flash through my mind. I see what must have been what she saw when she was born. Bella was still human and she looked worse than death itself. I then see a large group of vampires in black cloaks, all of them with gleaming red eyes. She pulls away and I sit back on my heels.

"Wow." I breathe, wondering how she did that.

"Vampires sometimes have special gifts or abilities," Edward says, answering the question that I had been wondering in my head. "I have the ability to read minds, which you have just seen. Alice has visions of the future, Jasper can manipulate emotions, Bella can produce a shield, and Renesmee can show people what she has seen."

"It just keeps getting more and more complex, doesn't it?" I speak up, making Emmett laugh loudly.

"This is only the beginning."

꧁꧁꧂꧂

Carlisle and I stay up all hours of the night, him telling me everything there is to know about the vampire culture. I learn about the Volturi. Carlisle tells me about his story and how he became a vampire along with the stories of how he came together with all of his family.

He explains that all of them are mates: Jasper and Alice, Rosalie and Emmett, and Bella and Edward. He explains that Jacob has imprinted on Rensemee, and has taken a protective, brotherly role over the child.

"The bond between a vampire and their mate is unmistakably strong and cannot be broken." Carlisle says, and I speak up.

"Is that why I'm so attracted to you?" I ask him, and he smiles with a nod.

"Yes," he speaks. "And I to you."

I smile widely at him, now somewhat glad about my change even though I was attacked.

"Carlisle, why didn't that vampire kill me?" I ask, confused. "Why did he leave me to change?"

"I don't know," Carlisle sighs as I trace patterns into the palm of his hand, marveling at the fact that we are the same temperature now. "But we've been trying to track that rogue down for around a month now. He's been hunting humans in the forests and in the outskirts of town. People think that they are bear or mountain lion attacks, but he had been hovering in the area for some reason."

"Is that why all those people were on the news?" I remember the stories of dead hunters on TV, and he nods.

"Carlisle, El, please come down here!" Emmett calls us, and we race downstairs, me beating Carlisle by a good bit.

"What is it?" Carlisle asks when we see Alice rapidly drawing onto a piece of paper, staring blankly ahead of her.

"Alice is having a vision," Edward narrates, looking into her vision himself by using his power. "The rogue left the area; he's killed somewhere else."

Alice finishes her drawing, and I take a glance at it, and I begin to collapse to the floor. Carlisle catches me in an instant before I can even hit the wood, but I stare in shock at the paper.

"What's wrong?" He asks, his touch doing little to calm me.

"That's my parents' house," I feel a great pain in my chest and my eyes burn violently, but tears refuse to fall for some reason. "He must have... I knew I shouldn't have left that ticket out in the open!"

I dash onto my feet, grabbing my cellphone from my pocket and quickly dialing my mom's phone number.

No answer.

I desperately try my dad's cell phone as well.

No answer.

In a last minute attempt, I try their home phone, and on the final ring, it is picked up.

"Game over." I hear an unfamiliar voice say before the line goes dead.