Twilight OC Rewrite

Chapter Fourteen: Mind Over Matter

After some time, I straightened out and began to pluck the strings of my new violin in an unfamiliar tune. I knew Christian was watching me, but when I turned to meet his golden eyes, he looked perplexed.

I stopped plucking. "What is it?"

"I can't begin to describe." He said without hesitation.

"Try."

"Vampires are creatures of habit, Alex. We are unchanging. We feel hunger, but that hunger is for blood, to feed. But this is different. There are new hungers, ones I don't even understand. They're so foreign."

I knew I looked confused, but I couldn't help it.

"I didn't think it was possible to feel something new in this life. I feel so... human."

"You mean to say, you've never felt this way before?" I was hesitating, not wanting to hear if he'd ever wanted someone else, ever loved someone else before.

"I was turned pretty young. I was only 18, as I've told you. I was born at the very start of the European Renaissance, changed when it was still young. I stayed with my coven until just a few years ago. We'd been together a long time. We traveled to the States sometime after the Renaissance had ended. I believe it was in the 1800s. By then, I had been alive for 350 years, so it actually took a while to update my accent." He laughed to himself. "I wasn't a vegetarian, then, either. I was like other vampires, feeding on humans, red eyes, the whole lot. About 200 years after, so roughly five years ago, I found the Cullens and a new way of life. My coven had been devastated by the Volturi, but I never knew why. My 'mother', the woman my creator loved, had found me before the Volturi attacked and sent me away; told me to find the Cullen clan. I don't know how she knew them or how she knew the Volturi were coming for them, either. I'm still searching for answers, quietly though; I don't want to bring any trouble to my new family since they were so gracious with me." He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to tell you my life story. The short version is no. I stayed with my clan and I didn't have any romantic attachment to them. I was considered a nomad as I searched for the Cullens, and then upon arrival, I felt nothing then, either." He wrung his hands, anxious. "I met the Denali clan. There are three sisters and one of them, Irina, had appeared to be quite taken with me, but I wasn't interested."

His tale ended and I was pretty much speechless. So I said the only thing I could think of. "I'm sorry you lost your family. You must still be adjusting; I couldn't imagine.." I trailed off. I didn't know what else I could've said. He's only been without human blood for five years after indulging for over 400 years. It was impressive I wasn't dead, but still, I wasn't afraid. I was beginning to wonder if I really was an idiot.

He shrugged. "It's okay. It's hard some days, but the Cullens were kind to me. I showed up on their doorstep famished and sad. I hadn't eaten the entire search, afraid to stop, afraid the Volturi would find me."

"How did you know about them coming if you were sent away?" I probably shouldn't have asked, but I did anyway.

"I stayed, secretly, until they came. I had left, but came back a few hours later and hid myself. I left when I watched them rip my mother apart; she was trying to protect the others. She died first. I didn't stay to watch the others and I didn't help. I feel like a monster, actually. But I was terrified."

Oh no. "Christian, you couldn't have helped them," I didn't know if this would help, but I continued. "You would've been killed along with them and your mother wouldn't have been able to rest. She made you run for a reason."

"I wish I knew what that reason was." He paused. "Thank you, Alex."

"What was your mother's name?" I asked.