A Thousand Years // Edward Cullen

Chapter 10

Edward had thought that starting a conversation with Bella had been difficult and nerve racking... but now he felt like he was ready to die. He was sitting on the stairs with Vince, Glynn, Alice, Jasper and Kamber. All the other adults were seated in the living room talking and the little ones were running around with Emmett and Rose who seemed to be in heaven.

Edward was fidgeting with his fingers, trying to think of something to strike a conversation but whenever he thought of something, it sounded too stupid or embarrassing. However, he was saved from this problem when the baby, Holden, waddled over unsteadily to Kamber and flopped against her knees. Smiling sweetly at her baby brother, Kamber lifted him off his feet and into his lap. The boy wiggled and fidgeted around until he was comfortable, his back against Kamber's chest and his head snuggled against the crook of his neck whilst he played with her fingers.

Edward found himself staring rather intensely at the girl who was seated on the middle step, leaning her shoulder against the railing. He noticed that whenever she sat down, she pulled her left leg up to sit on but always left her right leg down. He found that rather intriguing and honestly, cute for Kamber never tried to act like an adult even though she was at least Alice and Rose's age.

"Can I ask you something?" Alice asked out of the blue.

Kamber looked up and smiling, nodded.

"How can you bear to change diapers for almost thirty years till the little ones are potty trained? Besides that, how come your growth is so much slower?"

Kamber smiled and shifted so she was leaning her back against the railing and she began to wiggle her fingers to entertain Holden.

"Well, our bodies might grow slow but everything else doesn't. Holden just recently began to learn how to walk but that is because his body grows just like humans... but ten times slower. However, his intelligence is already equal to that of a ten-year-old. Right Holden?"

The baby looked up at his sister, then at Alice before an adorable smile spread across his chubby cheeks and he nodded, "Right sissy!"
Alice's eyes bulged. Holden's voice was just like a babies, small, high pitched and with a slight lisp because of his lack of a full mouth of teeth... but besides that, his pronunciation was clear!"
"How..." Alice gasped.

"Like Kamber said," Vince explained. "Holden might still look like a baby physically, but his mind has been growing for the past ten years. He is even studying fourth grade schoolwork."

"But how does that work?" Edward inquired, finally speaking. "How come your growth is so slow?"

Vince and Glynn both looked over at Kamber who entertaining Holden was. However, she lifted her eyes and smiled, nodding. Glynn rose to his feet and grabbed a bouncy ball from his pocket. Twirling it in his fingers, he threw it straight at the grownups.

"Dad! Heads up!"
Mr. Vicasi barely turned his head to see the ball nearing him. He reached up with one hand and the ball stalled in the air.... Frozen.

"Woah," Alice whispered. "He can control things telepathically?"
"No," Kamber replied. "He can slow things down. See, that ball is still moving.... But incredibly slow."

Alice's eyes widened but Jasper tilted his head in puzzlement, "What does that have to do with your growth?"
Kamber smiled, "Our dad can slow things down and he is also a shield. That is why you cannot read his mind Edward because he blocks it."
Edward felt his pale face turn slightly pink when she said his name and looked over at him.

"When we were born, there was speculation as to what gifts our father possessed that we would inherit. As it turns out, we inherited most of his shield gift which means no one can read our minds and we can protect ourselves against other vampire gifts... but we cannot protect other people like our dad can."
"What about the sounds I hear when I try to read your mind?" Edward asked. "It's like I'm listening to the forest."
Kamber smiled, her face lighting up, "That is because we can only block you partially because we inherited the gift from our dad. The sounds you hear in our minds are the sounds we hear more times than naught... because we're part werewolf, we spend a great deal of time in the woods."

"Well that makes sense," Jasper remarked, "But what about the growth?"
Glynn smirked, "We inherited that from our dad. See, we might have inherited the gift to shield ourselves partially... but we didn't inherit dad's gift of controlling time like everyone thought. We do not have the gift to slow or speed things up like our dad can... but we ourselves are slow.... If you get what I mean."
"See, instead of us inheriting the power," Kamber explained. "the gift of slowing things down was imbedded in us deeper than we thought... thus meaning that we would age... incredibly slow."
"Oh," Jasper whispered, finally understanding.

"Does that mean you will never stop gradually aging?" Alice asked.

Kamber grinned, "That's the best part! Because we are part vampire, we are also immortal. And just like half vampire, half humans, we stop aging once we reach adulthood. Vince and Glynn have both stopped growing, so they won't age anymore. I just recently reached my maximum, so I wont age anymore either."
"That's amazing!" Alice whispered. "So does that mean you don't change diapers for twenty years?"
Kamber and Vince both laughed at this.

"We actually do," Glynn replied. "Because physically we grow slow. So, just like how Holden just recently learned to walk after ten years of life, he won't begin to learn how to potty train for another few decades."
"That's got to be painful," Alice whispered.

Kamber smiled, "It's not really. We're used to it and with vampire speed it's even easier. Besides, there are plenty siblings to take turns!"
"Quick question," Jasper spoke up, "It just dawned on me that your mother is a werewolf... so does that mean you inherited some of her gifts?"
At that moment, all the adults had risen to their feet and had overheard the last part of the conversation. Vince, Glynn and Kamber all looked at their parents and then smiled at Alice, Jasper and Edward.

"I think it's time some proper introductions occured."