Rising Sun - Gabrielle Danielle Burnett (ebook reader 8 inch TXT) 📗

Chapter 1
Jacob Is Coming

I placed my hand on my momma’s arm and sent her a picture of a large russet wolf. She frowned and I felt that she was remembering a time when Jacob loved her, before she was a vampire. I knew that I was the only Cullen who was aware that momma still remembered those days. I knew that she didn’t want anyone, least of all my daddy to know. But that was okay, I hadn’t told anyone of my growing ability to sense what people were thinking either.
My gift wasn’t as clear as daddy’s yet, but I could feel it getting stronger. Just like momma’s memories of her human years were growing almost as strong as her vampire ones. She’d said that she didn’t miss those years of tangled relationships and worry, and it was the truth. But it still didn’t rid her of the memories.
A split second later and her frown turned back into a soft smile, though, because of my almost-vampire-sensitive eyes, I could see that it was only half-hearted. “Jacob will be here soon, Renesmee.” She told me in her singsong, wind chime voice. Momma was the only one of the Cullens who still referred to me as ‘Renesmee’, everybody else called me Nessie, although Carlisle and Esmé always switched back to ‘Renesmee’ when momma was around.
I removed my hand and smiled sweetly, having my daddy’s ability to hide my emotion behind a mask. Inside I was nearly bursting with pure happiness and emotion. Jacob was coming back to Forks! It was good that daddy wasn’t around, because he was able to read my emotions, like my Uncle Jasper. Daddy had told me that he couldn’t read my mind like he could with everyone else but momma, and, even though I’d been younger and my mind-reading powers less developed, I could still tell that he wasn’t lying.
I’d still rather not have him know how excited I was to see Jacob again. He’d only been there for the first few months of my life, after which all of the pack but Seth and Leah had gone with Alice to search for more werewolves to defend Forks. Secretly I think, from vague memories, that Jacob had only ordered the wolves do this so that there would be more werewolves to defend me when he returned. I knew that Jacob had left Seth behind so that there was someone to warn him if he needed to come back. Leah had just stayed with her brother, besides having a knack for disobeying the alpha (to some degree), she’d only been able to stay because Jacob didn’t want her around.
“Thank you, Bella.” I told her. I was beginning to try and speak out loud more for when I started school at Forks High School. Momma had decided that I deserved a go at a human lifestyle. She’d also told me that I needed to call her Bella, since I was too old to be her daughter anymore; because she’d stayed eighteen and I’d grown to be about fourteen.
“Your welcome. Now go out and play, it’s a nice day.” She replied. I knew that it was a nice day already, although all of the blinds on the magnificent windows in the Cullens’ house were down, because all of the Cullens that remained in Forks (everybody but Alice, who would return sometime today) were inside.
Since the house was so far back in the woods, it wouldn’t matter if the Cullens were sparkling inside of the house, though they couldn’t go outside, but it was disorienting to be around so many sparkling vampires at once, so the blinds remained down.
I was allowed outside because my skin only gave off a faint luminescent glow, it didn’t sparkle, thankfully. I liked sunny days wouldn’t be happy if I had to stay in on the few ones that Forks actually had. But I was reluctant to leave my family. I knew that they’d want me to go outside too, so I decided that I would.
But I would have company. “Okay mo—Bella. But where’s Seth and Leah?” I loved Seth, though not in the way that I remember feeling towards Jacob. And I really liked Leah, now that she’d warmed up to me and would actually hang out with me now. She hadn’t liked me at all, for a while, and she’d resisted the pull that had affected everyone else, which was why I liked her so much. She liked me for me and not for my strange gift that made everyone want to be near me.
Momma’s smile grew even more forced; though all of the other Cullens found it amusing, she disliked my affection for the wolf girl. It was probably because I was her child and she felt protective of me. But she still answered, “They’re hunting, you’ll probably be able to smell them once you get out in the woods.”
“Thanks!” I called, running through the house and dodging a sweetly amused Esmé who smiled and wished me luck as if I was human girl who needed luck to find her friends. I paused just long enough to thank her.
I was out the door in an eighth of a second; my speed had developed well beyond that of a regular vampire’s, and I was now as fast as daddy and faster than momma, who’d outgrown her newborn strength. She said that I got all of my speed from him. I knew that that was the truth because I had very few human attributes besides the fact that my eyes were chocolaty brown rather than dark brown or gold. My hip-length braid was a beautiful bronze, exactly like my daddy’s, and it perfectly complemented my eyes.
I was proud to look like my parents, and to be a Halfling, which I’d started thinking of myself as. But I was also happy to be fast and have a good sense of smell, which enabled me to fly down the long, winding driveway and leap across the road, since there were no cars in sight. I sensed that Seth and Leah were deep into the woods on the other side.
Running was fun for me, more so than to an actual vampire, probably because I could actually feel more of the things around me, although I was still tough enough that it didn’t hurt. I’d held momma’s hand while running enough times to know that I liked it even more than she did when she was a newborn.
Sometimes I purposely hit a large branch just to see what it would do to me. I never even faltered when I hit them, although I snapped the branch cleanly off of the tree. There was no stinging or bruised feel, either, just a quick sensation of a numb pain that was exhilarating. I couldn’t do this much though, or people—human people—would start to suspect things.
Unfortunately, for me, since I was so fast it didn’t take very long for me to reach Seth and Leah. I stopped at the edge of the clearly they were in, although I really wanted to keep running. I was downwind, so that they couldn’t smell me but I could smell them. They couldn’t hear me either; I made sure of that.
Then, with a long, graceful bound I landed on Seth’s side and wrapped my arms as far around him as I could, which wasn’t much, and, careful not to harm him (I had been taught that werewolves aren’t indestructible like vampires), I pulled him down with me.
There was a quick, false snarl and he licked my face. I grimaced and shoved him away. “Seth!” My anger was fake and he knew it. Then Leah jumped on me from behind and it turned into a friendly wrestling match. Since I couldn’t swing her over my shoulder I swung over hers and landed on her back, something that the werewolves only let me do, and wrapped my arms around her neck. I was careful not to cut off her air supply, and grabbed lower, where her windpipe wasn’t pressed against the hide. I felt no instinct telling me to bite her or drink her blood, because she was a wolf and I would have fought any instinct like that anyway.
She bucked around playfully for a bit, before rolling over on me. It didn’t hurt and felt like nothing more than a comfortable pressure. A split second later and she was on her feet and Seth was leaping.
He landed on me, which was also on his sister, and all of us fell in a dog pile on the mushy ground. I noticed, without particularly caring, that I was covered in mud. I would take a quick run through a river on the way back and take a shower when I got home. Just like full vampires I only needed showers when I actually got myself dirty. Even though I grew larger, I didn’t sweat and my hair didn’t get greasy or dirty enough itself for me to need shampoo. I took rough swims through the river enough that I washed all of the dirt off of me, unless I was covered head-to-toe in mud, like I was now.
Suddenly both of the werewolves ran into the trees. They immerged a few moments later as humans, both in shorts and Leah in a thick sports bra, which she’d discovered was easier to carry around than a t-shirt.
“Hey, Nessie!” They called, rushing up to squish me in a group hug. Normally Leah wasn’t into the whole hug thing, but I think that they were squishing me as get back for winning the match. They were grinning and I lost my innocent smile to grin back.
“Great to see you too.” I replied from between them. I was tiny, smaller than either my momma or my daddy. Carlisle thought it was some sort of side effect from the vampire/human gene mixture and I agreed; it was a better excuse than anything Emmett had come up with (An example of which is, “Loving a werewolf stunts your growth, Nessie”). I knew that he meant Jacob and I knew that he was referring to when I was younger. I didn’t even know Jacob anymore.
“So, what brings you here? Looking for a Jacob update?” Seth asked good naturedly. A large grin was still across his face. The idea hadn’t come to me but now that he mentioned it, I realized that it was a good one.
“Actually, I was coming to see if you wanted to race or something, but a Jacob update would be cool.” I replied, turning my face into a mask again so that they didn’t know how excited I was. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of this. I wondered if momma would be mad, then I immediately dismissed the idea. Jacob was one of her closest friends and I knew that she missed him greatly, despite their ‘problems’. She couldn’t blame me for missing him. I could see daddy being a bit upset, although not because of me asking Seth for an update but because I was so excited over seeing him. There was still a firm wall of awkwardness and unease between them that was on the verge of irritation and anger. They were brothers but it was still a weak bond. Even with all they’d been through they couldn’t get past what had happed before, and the supposed imprint that Jacob had on me.
I remember missing him a lot for a few days after