Forever Young

Chapter 43

It didn't take long for the other two members of Siobhan's coven to arrive. The man seemed to be the most intimidating- he was lean, but very tall and even stiller than Siobhan, who introduced him as her mate. He hovered next to her silently.

The other vampire was a smaller girl, with curls that were even wilder than mine. She was taller than me by probably more than a foot, but still seemed to be dwarfed by the size of the other two vampires in her coven. She smiled at me, and her dimples and wide eyes would have made her look innocent if not for the glaring red color that displayed her diet.

Carlisle called me over as he greeted them, and it took Edward gently pushing me off of his lap to get me moving. I sent him a glare, and he just smiled at me, nodding towards my father.

"Hello, Camellia!" The curly-haired girl greeted, eagerly stepping forward and putting a hand out to me. "I'm Maggie."

I shrank into myself a little bit, my shy nature seeming to clash with her boldness. "Hello." My hand hesitantly made its way into hers, and she closed her hand gently around mine, as if she weren't sure exactly how breakable I was- or, rather, how human I was.

Maggie grinned at me, then glanced back at the taller man. "Liam, stop being so awkward. Come say hello."

Wishing she hadn't called him forward, I held my breath as the man stepped towards me, his height making me feel even more childish than usual. He didn't seem any happier about the situation, and didn't bother to extend his hand to me. He bowed his head slightly in greeting, tipping his hat before stepping back to his mate.

Shaking her head, Maggie turned to me, rolling her red eyes. "He's very introverted," she explained. "And old-fashioned. Don't mind him. We're all quite happy to be here."

I forced a smile. "I'm glad you're here, too." There, that was a normal thing to say, right?

Apparently it wasn't- I winced as Maggie laughed. "No, you're not," She disagreed, not sounding offended at all. "But that's alright. Carlisle mentioned you haven't been around many strangers."

Carlisle was frowning slightly as he looked at me, and I rushed to contradict Maggie- surely allowing them to think I didn't like them, even if it was true, counted as being rude. But before I could get the words out, Edward spoke up from behind me.

"You know Camellia, both Siobhan and Maggie have a gift, just as you and I do. Siobhan can manipulate a situation to reach her desired outcome, and Maggie can sense when people are being dishonest or evasive. Isn't that interesting?"

My cheeks burned as I clamped my mouth shut. Apparently insisting that I was glad they were here was not the best idea. Just a few seconds in, and this girl had already caught me in a lie. "Oh," I mumbled, scurrying back on to Edward's lap and hiding my face in his shoulder. "Yeah. Interesting."

I was sure that Maggie wasn't the only one to notice that I didn't actually find it as cool as I tried to make my tone imply.

"Camellia has never been around others of our kind," Carlisle explained, feeling the need to defend my behavior. "She spent all of her time alone before joining our family- developing more of the social skills will be a learning experience, you understand. This will be good for her."

I was glad that I was still hiding my face in Edward's shoulder. I didn't want Carlisle to see the pout on my face. My social skills were just fine. Maybe I just didn't want to talk to ugly, mean, red-eyed, stupid-

Edward's hand squeezed my leg in warning. With a sigh, I remembered that even my thoughts were not a safe place to insult Carlisle's friends, and I forced a half-smile on my face as I turned to once again face the others.