Slow Life

XII - THERE'S A VAMPIRE!

XII – THERE'S A VAMPIRE!

It took all of five minutes for me to kick Emmett's ass again.

"Where did you learn how to play like this!" Emmett demanded to know. I only smirked at him and pretended to blow on my nails and then polish them on my shoulder. Jasper snickered again. He had relaxed quite a bit while we were all sitting in the living room waiting for the last member of the Cullen family to join us.

Carlisle said he went for a run before I came. Carlisle also insisted I call him Carlisle instead of Dr. Cullen.

I could actually get used to Edward's family if and when they decided to explain themselves to me. I could actually see myself as the little sister of Emmett and Jasper and having girl times with Alice and Rosalie (if she ever relaxed). And even though I loved my parents, it was always me that took care of them. Here, Esme insisted on doing everything and the love she felt for her children and husband was radiating from her.

I also noticed some new things about the Cullens that I hadn't noticed in school. One time Alice fell in a daze and Jasper was immediately by her side, hugging her. This got another point to my Alice Theory. Also, Emmett got really agitated once (I had him beat for the fifth time) and suddenly calmed down after Jasper glanced at him.

This was getting interesting.

A door slamming brought me out of my thinking and just as Edward stepped in the room, I pressed another button and Emmett's part of the screen once again said GAME OVER. I put my controller down and looked at Edward.

He looked terrible. He was still beautiful, but his eyes were really black and he had huge bruises under them. It looked like he hadn't slept in ages.

There was silence while Edward just looked around the room at us. Once again, it was Emmett who broke the tension.

"Damn it, Bella! Tell me!" he started whining. Edward's eyes turned on me then and I felt my heart stutter.

"That's for me to know and you to... probably never... find out," I managed to say without looking away from Edward's eyes. Emmett huffed and puffed and looked mightily put out with me. He was probably hoping that I would be distracted enough to slip up.

While I was replying to Emmett's huffs, Edward sat himself in an armchair the furthest from me. I felt a stab of hurt and saw Jasper glance at me again, curiosity clear on his face.

"Okay, so – as I said on Tuesday," I started once everyone's eyes were on me again.

"Well, not said, more like snarked," I added and saw Carlisle's lips twitch.

"When I met Carlisle, my name was Leonora Vandervelt and I was sixteen years old..."

I spent the next fifteen minutes telling the story of my previous life, and then another half hour answering Carlisle's questions about reincarnation and my other lives. And I could swear that if he wasn't such a calm person that he would be bouncing in his seat when he questioned me.

Alice giggled suddenly and I turned to her.

"So," I said. "Alice, what did you see?"

Silence reigned in the room again. Then Emmett started laughing. Alice looked over at Edward and then Emmett and lastly on me. Then she grinned and replied,

"You were imagining Carlisle bouncing in his seat."

"Yeah, I was. He's a really curious person, isn't he?" I retorted with a grin myself.

Emmett spent the next few minutes guffawing.

"So, you can see the future?" I asked Alice, then turned to Jasper, "and you can feel and temper with the emotions of other people or something."

Jasper froze in his place next to Alice.

"I haven't seen a vampire in a long time," I added into a silent room. "Especially one with golden eyes. You don't feet on human blood, do you?"

Carlisle shook his head and proceeded to tell me his reasons on why they didn't feed on humans but on animals. I nodded in understanding.

"How can you sit there, all calm, and discuss about us being vampires, like it's an everyday topic of conversation," Edward suddenly burst out. He hadn't said anything since he came back and I almost forgot that he was in the room. I say, almost, because I'm always aware of him.

"Because I've met vampires in my past lives. Though they were nothing like you," I said calmly.

"One or two even killed me. I only took this long to figure out what you were because of your eyes and the fact that you go to a high school. But then I put together all the clues I noticed and put two and two together and got four."

My body was suddenly flung over someone's shoulder and we went barrelling out of the house and into the forest.