Burning Star: A Twilight FanFic

Ch 5- The Irish Woman

The first thing I heard after the the large van pulled up to the Cullen's house was my name being screeched out in a shrill voice. Berit was here. I transported myself outside to face her wrath.

Her eyes were tightly shut and her jaw was clenched. We all stood there awkwardly as the Cullens came down to meet the half vampire. She opened her warm brown eyes. Her gaze was hard. I knew that she really wanted to use her power on me right now.

"Have ye found Raven?' she spit out.

I nodded. "Yes. A member of one of the packs found her. She's summoned them all back to the reservation somehow. She's meeting with them now."

"Mo Mac Tire, take the boys and go see what she's doing." She never called her mate by his real name or his nickname. Always "Mo Mac Tire"- gaelic for "My Wolf". Everyone else called him Mitch, excluding Alunara. She never used nicknames.

Mitch stared at her, gauging how serious she was. It was rare to see them apart, and Berit was always uncomfortable without him. I was surprised she'd be willing to be alone surrounded by new people like this. She smiled at him, and waved him off. He took the boys into the woods to phase. I got quick waves from Alex and Will before they left.

"It's been a while, Berit. I haven't seen you in a few years." I was calm. I was now the only person Berit was familiar with here. She might be absolutely terrifying, but I was going to do everything I could to make her more comfortable.

Berit was not a people person. She wasn't rude or antisocial, necessarily, but she was uncomfortable in crowds because of her gift- the reason she was so scary. Berit's gift was the ability to identify fears and then create illusions based on what she found. She was highly skilled. In five seconds, she could force you to live decades of agony and terror. And she could do it to dozens of people at once. But that wasn't really the type of person she wanted to be, thanks to Mitch. Unfortunately, even though she didn't use her ability consciously, she was unable to stop pulling peoples fears from their minds. Her world was filled with fear. Even when others weren't actively afraid, she was still registering all their deepest anxieties. I always felt pity for her.

"Yes, it's been a while. I heard ye been nominated to the council. Congratulations!" She was moving towards me now. Of course she had to bring that up. I noticed how thick her accent was. It had been centuries since she'd last lived in her homeland, Ireland, but she still had an accent. It was always worse when she was nervous.

Suddenly I felt an aura of unnatural calm wash over everyone. Jasper was trying to help her. She gave him a sad little smile. Even with that subtle hint of anguish, she was still amazingly beautiful. Red hair, brown eyes, porcelain skin, and an enchanting face. "I'm sorry," she sighed wistfully. "But that won't work on me. I do appreciate yer effort though. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Berit McCabe. As ye can tell I'm a halfling. It's good to meet ye."

It was Edward who answered her. "Hello, Berit. I'm Edward, and this is my wife Bella. The one who tried to calm you was Jasper, and next to him is Alice. The blonde is Rosalie and her mate is Emmett. And these are our parents, Carlisle and Esme."

They all greeted her kindly. After Berit grabbed a box from her car, which Jasper took from her, we all walked into the sitting area again.

"Set that down here," she said pointing to the floor between her feet and the table. She took off the lid and began pulling out old journals. "Now, I knew yer all a bit new to having a halfling around, so I went ahead and brought my records. Everything I've learned about myself and halflings is in here. Six centuries worth of knowledge."

Carlisle, who seemed to delight in every chance to learn, beamed. It was like staring at the sun.

Rosalie pulled me aside to talk as they all began sorting through Berit's journals.

"Can you tell me more about Jack? And about your family?"

"Of course. Let's see," I mused.

I started with what I knew about Grandpa's younger life. He became a police detective in his twenties, and worked for another forty three years. When he was 27 he married my late grandmother Esther. They had three kids. My uncle Rick was the oldest, then my aunt Marie, and finally my dad, Jack Jr. His wife died of cancer when they were both 71. After that he, moved to California with my mom, Allison, and my dad and my brother, Chris. He found out about magic when my brother was little because my mom had to teach Chris basic magic so he could control himself. I was born  7 years after Chris. My aunt had one daughter, Elise, and my uncle had a son and a daughter, Max and Alana. I'd met them once when I was twelve, but they all still lived in Rochester. They didn't really like my part of the family because they thought my mom was a freak. It was only after my brother and I'd begun managing my grandfather's and parents' finances (we had insider information and a lot of connections) that they'd tried to come into our lives. We chose to distance ourselves since it was clear they were only after the money. My cousin Elise wasn't greedy though, and she checked in every few weeks. She'd just had a son, Lyle, who was adorable.

I noticed her stiffen as I mentioned the distance between my family and the others. "They only wanted the money. Of course," she ground out. I didn't have an exact idea of what had happened to Rosalie. But I had a suspicion. My grandfather had done some poking around, and he'd found multiple reports of women being assaulted by Royce King, her ex-fiance. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. I also was sure she'd been the one to kill Royce and his crew, and I was glad.

I sighed. "It's the way a lot of humans are. But at least one of them is better. Elise and her husband were thinking of moving to Phoenix sometime this year. Her company offered her a position there with better hours. Hopefully she'll visit him."

She nodded, and stared blankly out the window, deep in thought.