I Face My Monsters

Chapter 16: "You."

Vale's eyes fluttered open. She was used to getting up very early, so it was still dark outside. It took a moment for her to remember where she was.

In Doctor Cullen's home office, on his sofa...

Her eyes flicked around the room. It was empty. She couldn't help but admire the shelves upon shelves of books that lined almost every wall of his office. A little part of her danced excitedly around, wondering if it would get the chance to explore any of them.

Her phone buzzed. It was Bella.

"Vale, weird question, but do you believe in vampires?"

"Way ahead of you, Bella." Vale muttered to herself. She decided not to respond. There was a knock on the door. "Come in." She said, softly. She wanted to be respectful of vampiric-sensitive hearing.

Alice walked in, her hands full of neatly folded clothes. She was smiling brightly. "Good morning! I brought you these. They all will fit, don't worry about that. Shower is just down the hallway to the left. I can't tell you how excited we all are to have you here Miss Rockford." She was practically bouncing.

"I think we've reached the point where you can just call me Vale, Alice." Vale said, smiling at the girl. "How did you know what size I was?" she asked looking at the clothes. They consisted of a simple white long-sleeved blouse and a pair of dark blue jeans and black slip-on shoes. "OH, you don't know yet!" Alice said, beaming. "Carlisle hasn't told you!"

"Carlisle?" Vale blinked, confused. 

"Have you been calling him Doctor Cullen this whole time?! Honestly, Carlisle is a total idiot sometimes. Okay, so some vampires have gifts," she ranted, excitedly, "mine for example is seeing the subjective future. Jasper, my mate, can feel other people's emotions and manipulate them at times, Edward can read minds, Emmett has super strength (cause' he's too dumb for anything else haha), and Rosalie is a walking supermodel, but I personally think you're the first to give her a run for her money on that-" "Woah, slow down, girl, let me process this." Vale said, chuckling at her enthusiasm.

Her mind slowly revolved the new information around in her mind, picking apart her words. "What did you say Jasper was?" "My mate. You see, vampires have mates, which involves a strong bond between the pair. A vampire knows their mate by their scent, which is unique to them and them alone. It usually only happens between two vampires, but it has been known to happen between a vampire and human occasionally."

"So, it's like a 'stars align' kind of thing?" Vale asked, with an eyebrow raised. She waved jazz hands around.

"YUP! Pretty much!"

"Uh-huh... does the human know it?" she asked. "Know what?" "The whole mate-bond thing... does it just click for them?" "No, they don't, unless they become a vampire themselves. The vampire will become aggressively protective and possessive of their mate, and it usually only gets worse with time if the bond isn't officially sealed fairly quickly."

"So Esme isn't Carlisle's mate?" Vale asked, keeping her face as serious or as unreadable as possible.

"PFFT. NOPE. Esme is like a sister to him. She's gifted with super-empathy, and we all call her Auntie. Carlisle prefers more headstrong women." Alice's face was beaming, she could tell Vale was putting things together. 

"So, you're saying that you and Jasper are a thing-" "And Rosalie and Emmett are a thing, and Edward is his own boss as of the moment." "Right. So who is Carlisle's mate?"

Alice's golden eyes glimmered into Vale's dark hazel ones.

"You."