Say You Love Me.

o n e.

A Place to Call Home.

With a small rush of adrenaline, the ivory-toned girl stormed through the trees gracefully after she’d disposed of the small deer’s body.

For someone who wasn’t a full vampire, escaping to Washington from Alaska was an exhausting process.

Iris had been on the run for almost two days now, leaving behind a family that was usually so kind—all except for one. She and Irina had never been on the best of terms, and after Laurent’s sudden death, all the two did was argue over every little detail of his life. Irina found it horrible that Laurent was killed by “dingy mutts,” as she put it. Iris strongly opposed Irina’s opinion, admitting to her directly that she believed Laurent had gotten what he deserved.

Their latest (and last) argument ended so badly that Irina threatened to hurt Iris. With that, she decided to take a break from the Denali coven for a while and pay a visit to her favorite family of vampires: the Cullens.

She grinned to herself as she perched atop a fallen log, thinking about how surprised they’d all be once she arrived. Strangely enough, Alice couldn’t see Iris coming. Similar to the shapeshifters, Alice’s visions disappeared when she came closer.

Still and concentrated for a moment, she inhaled deeply, growing excited as the Cullen scent grew stronger. She lunged from the tree and onto the ground then, sprinting the rest of the way to her destination.

------

Iris smiled to herself as she stood outside the door, watching the house shake slightly in Emmett’s wake. He burst from the house with an ecstatic look on his face, scooping the frail girl into his arms.

“Iris!” he shouted, spinning her around at a nauseating speed. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I would tell you if I could breathe,” she managed to cough out as his embrace became tighter.

“Put the poor girl down,” Esme advised. “You’re squeezing the life out of her.”

A childish smile appeared on his face as he obliged, another booming laugh escaping his lips as she was enveloped in another tight hug by Jasper.

“Tick tock, Iris. We don’t have all day.”

She rolled her eyes playfully as Jasper let her go, nudging him in the ribs.

“I just thought I’d pay a visit is all.”

“Well, please warn us ahead of time,” Alice said as she joined the group. “You know how antsy I get when I can’t see anything.”

Iris gave her an apologetic look before continuing, “Sorry. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision.”

“What did Irina do now? Steal a pair of your favorite shoes?” Jasper smirked.

“Oh, of course,” Iris replied sarcastically. “And y’know, she threatened to take away my ‘useless existence’ if I spoke ill of Laurent again.”

Emmett raised an eyebrow. “When did she become so crazy?”

“She’s always been insane. And speaking of lunatics, where’s Edward?”

“Wasting his time with that pathetic human,” Rosalie scowled, making her usual beautiful appearance look gruesome.

“Rosalie,” Carlisle warned, the tone of his voice stern.

She rolled her eyes. “My apologies, what I meant to say was that he’s wasting his time with a somewhat pathetic human.”

Iris was taken aback with Rosalie’s attitude towards the girl. She hadn’t expected her to feel so much hatred towards one person. “I didn’t know Bella was that horrible.”

“Of course not. She’s a lovely girl,” Esme replied, ushering a certain irritated blonde back inside.

“That’s good to know. I’m excited to meet her.”

“So, Iris, now that you’re here, where do you plan on staying?” Alice questioned.

“Well,” the green-eyed girl hinted, “I was wondering if I could stay with you all? Not permanently, but until things in Alaska get better and tensions die down.”

She never liked to refer to Alaska as her home because honestly, she felt that it really wasn’t. The only reason she continued to live there was due to the fact that the Denali coven had been so kind and gracious to her when she had nowhere else to go. They were even nice enough to let her live with them throughout the years. And even though she resided with them, she knew that her real home was in Forks with the Cullens.

“You’re more than welcome to stay here,” Carlisle replied.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said happily, hugging him tightly.

“This is going to be so much fun!” Alice exclaimed, bouncing up and down with excitement.

“I agree.” Emmett nodded his head in approval, a devious smirk tugging at his lips. “Now I have another human to mess with.”

“Human?” Iris gasped, feigning disgust. “What a terrible thing to say! I’m half-human. Get it right, Emmett.”

A feeling of happiness spread throughout Iris as she joined in on the laughter surrounding her. Forks was definitely her home.