Carlisle and Esme

45. Philadelphia

Chapter Forty-Five

Starting afresh was something we were used to by now. It took a matter of minutes to unpack. Rosalie and Emmett had their own room, Esme and I had our room and Edward had his room. There was just the one spare bedroom which we used as a mess room. Esme used it mainly to finish her cap collage and other pieces she had started.

Edward clearly had the best bedroom. It was smaller than most but it had the best view of all the rooms. The view looked out over mountains and oceans and the surrounding woodland. He was quite satisfied with it.

I sorted out a new job at the local hospital and had Emmett, Rosalie and Edward registered for the local high school. Rose and Edward were starting as juniors and Emmett was to become a senior. It was always fun to start new. I sometimes worried that my children were getting bored of it but they never once complained. I was proud of them.

"You know... I was thinking of that conversation you had with Eleazar." It had been a month since we had moved to Philadelphia and life was good. My children were getting along well at their school and I had once again been promoted up through the ranks of doctors and nurses to having my own office at the hospital. But of course, with higher power and status comes the endless stream of paperwork. I was sat at my study with all my paperwork. Edward was sat in a corner of the room, reading one of my books. He usually did this and I loved to watch him read while completing my paperwork. Edward's words now took me by surprise. I hadn't thought about the Denali sisters' pasts on the succubus and their victims. I had no idea how he knew.

"What about it?"

"Well the succubus. It's the stories of our kind. As is the incubus. Just makes me wonder what other stories are true."

"Like what?" Edward picked up the book he was reading. The pages folded over, closing the book with a light thud. I read the title. Dracula.

"This book is filled with all the horrors of ways to kill us. And it's all wrong. A stake through the heart... It wouldn't scratch our skin. Garlic doesn't burn our skin. Crucifixes don't even make us cringe." Edward gestured to the crucifix pinned on the wall of my study. It was surrounded by the pictures of my history.

"We don't sleep and the sun makes our skin sparkle, not burnt. I get it," I put my pen down and linked my fingers, leaning my chin on the top of my intertwined hands. "Some of them are true... And others are supposed to... well... Make humans feel like they had a shot at killing us."

"Make them feel better." Edward snorted.

"Well yes exactly. It may seem silly to you and me. We don't hurt humans and they have no reason to fear us. However for other vampires... The ones that live to hunt the humans, the ones mortals do fear. And if it makes them feel better..." I stood up and picked up my completed paperwork, shifting it into a pile. I then put it into my suitcase. "Then what other choice do we have but to leak out those stories to comfort and soothe? To create the aura of peace and not panic." I smiled and left the office.