Redshift, Ashlynn Chantrea [early reader books .TXT] 📗

reads minds, one that sees the future, one that causes pain and one that can block the abilities of others. I don’t know how they got it wrong, but they sure believe that one of them is like Jane.”

“They must mean Kate.” Carlisle said.

I turned back to them, curious.

“There are more of you?” I asked.

“Kate is a friend. She can send a painful electric shock to anyone that touches her skin. She is part of Tanya’s family. They are good friends of ours but not a part of our family.”

Family. No wonder they were so tightly bonded. They saw each other as family. Not just a group with a common goal or even a clan. They were strong because of how tightly bound they were to each other by a deep emotional connection.

“I wonder how they mistook her as one of yours.” I said, thinking aloud.

“Tanya’s family is much like ours.” Carlisle answered.

“They stood with us against the Volturi five years ago.” Bella said.

“The Volturi may see them as a threat as well.” Edward said to Carlisle.

“We should warn them.” Esme said.

Jasper looked pensive, staring off into the distance as he spoke, “They probably expect us to call on our friends to fight with us when they decide to come for us.”

“I’ll do what I can to make sure it doesn’t come to confrontation.” I said.

All eyes were on me again. There was a mixture of surprise, disbelief, wonder and sadness in their expressions. No one said it aloud but I could see that they didn’t believe I could prevent this, even if I really did want to.

I don’t really know what made me volunteer that. It didn’t make sense. Logically, avoiding a war with an army determined to fight was futile. But I wanted to find a way, if only to spare this…family. They were good, decent. It felt important to protect them. And to make sure no one else was pulled into this.

I had a purpose now. I had to bring an end to the war, hopefully in a peaceful way. But more importantly, I had to bring an end to the draft. No more changing people into vampires to build armies. No one should be forced to live the way we had.

“I’m going to stop them.” I said with unexpected fierceness.

Laney grabbed my hand, “We will stop them.”

“Think we can, bossman?” Hector asked, picking up Bianca’s nickname for me. I guess I really was the leader of this group of misfits.

I looked over at him, “Yeah, I think we can.”

“We can take ’em!” Bianca said with a confident smile, “We’re the best fighters out of the whole army.”

“We have a lot to do before we start thinking about fighting.” I turned back to Carlisle’s family, looking specifically at Alice, “Will you see them coming?”

“I’ll watch them all, even Felix. If one of them decides to come our way, I’ll know.” She assured me.

“Good,” I felt like I could relax. Without the axe hanging over our heads, it made things less stressful. I could focus on other important things. The most important of which was finding an alternative to killing people in order to survive.

“Please, come inside. You all are welcome here.” Carlisle said, inviting us into his home.

They all walked in before us. My friends had relaxed a bit. I wondered if they could sense how gentle this family was. Or if they were just following my lead.

It was beautiful inside, windows everywhere, letting in lots of natural light. There was a grand piano, nice, expensive furniture, lots of flowers in crystal vases. It all looked expensive. When I was human this would have been the kind of place where I wouldn’t want to touch anything. I looked around, taking in how normal and human it felt.

Laney and Pim stayed close to me, Laney still gripping my hand. But Bianca and Hector lost all restraint. They ran around, looking at everything. They ran up the stairs, snooping in their bedrooms.

Bianca gasped, “Look at the size of her closet!”

The triplets stayed down stairs but wandered into the kitchen, asking question about why they had food in the house and why they needed appliances like a stove or a refrigerator.

Again, I felt the strange sensation like I should be blushing. They were being childish and rude. Carlisle’s family didn’t seem to mind. Most of them smiled at their antics, Rosalie looked slightly irritated but calm.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. I suddenly had a whole new respect for my father. If I had been half this bad as a kid, I can’t imagine how he would have let me live. It didn’t take very long before I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Children!” I snapped loudly. They all appeared in the living room with us. “We are guests. Show some curtesy.”

The triplets, Bianca and Hector all looked at each other, smiling conspiratorially, “Sorry Dad.” They all said together.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. The rest of them chuckled.

“How is it that I’m the most mature?” I complained.

“All of us have been wondering that, Adam.” Pim said.

“You have old man syndrome.” Bianca teased.

“Yeah, you didn’t go through the whole disorientation of feeling nothing but thirst.” Hector said. He sounded a little accusatory, like I had skipped the twitchy, volatile part of this life on purpose. Well, in a sense I guess I did.

“There wasn’t anything normal about my transition from what I can tell.” I replied.

“How so?” Carlisle asked, seeming deeply curious. I could appreciate his curiosity.

“Eight hours after he was bitten, he stopped screaming.” Laney told Carlisle.

“That was always the worst part.” Rain said. “Listening to the new ones changing.” Zephyr whispered. “Reliving the burning.” Meadow groaned.

“We all wished they would change the new ones somewhere else.” Bianca said, looking slightly paler than before.

“For days, all we could think about was how it felt when it happened to us.” Hector whispered.

“Until they changed Adam.” Laney said, looking at me with an expression I couldn’t identify. Wonder? Respect?

“It freaked everyone out. We could hear his heart beating but he wasn’t making any other sounds. He wasn’t squirming, groaning, gritting his teeth. It was all anyone could talk about. The Volturi had no idea what to make of it.” Pim said.

“Ralph thought he had died.” Hector said, smiling.

“Jane had to point out to him that he couldn’t be dead with a heartbeat.” Bianca added, also grinning.

“Then we heard Adam talking to Ralph. No pain or even irritation in his voice. Ralph was so pleased to report that your talent was an incredible tolerance for pain.” Laney said.

“Jane wasn’t thrilled with my ability. She wanted to destroy me but Alec talked her out of it. She threw such a fit when she saw she couldn’t hurt me. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum.” I remembered.

“She doesn’t take kindly to being subverted.” Edward said, “She reacted the same way to Bella.”

“So, you’re a shield, like Bella.” Carlisle said. It didn’t sound like a question.

“I think I’m more of a shield than Bella is.” I said.

“I do all right.” Bella proclaimed, smirking.

“I don’t mean that you aren’t powerful. I believe Pim’s assessment. What I mean is, my talent is only useful to me. From what I’ve heard you can shield others as well as yourself. That would make you more of a weapon than a shield.” I replied.

“That’s true.” Edward said.

“My shield is hardly a weapon.” Bella argued.

“Like most things, that would depend on how you use it.” I replied.

“Yeah, you’re like Captain America!” Hector interjected.

We all looked at him with the same expression.

Seriously?

“What?!” He responded defensively, “His weapon is his shield.”

I rolled my eyes and then continued as though he hadn’t spoken, “You can project your gift onto others. Render those with offensive talents inert. I have a theory about that.”

“What is that?” Carlisle asked.

“From what I’ve seen so far, there are two types of talents. Those that are transmitted and those that aren’t. Those that transmit, send signals to others causing a physical response. There are a number of uses for these, aggression, information, protection, etc. Those that shield from the talents of others, don’t transmit. I can’t make others do what I can do, but I can interpret and deflect what others can do to me. I think Bella is a jammer. She sends out a signal that disrupts the signals of others. She doesn’t inwardly deflect it. She outwardly cancels it out.”

“So you can block anything?” Hector asked. I didn’t like the sound of his voice.

“Be nice, Hector.” I warned.

Edward looked over at Bella. She stared at Hector.

“What is it you can do, Hector?” Carlisle asked.

Edward laughed, “You make people dance?”

I saw Alice smile the moment before Edward lifted his hand and slapped himself in the face.

“Why are you hitting yourself?” Hector said tauntingly.

“Hector!” I snapped at him. “Apologize!”

“He did that?” Emmett asked, looking impressed and amused.

“Hector can control the actions of others with his mind,” I turned and glared at him, “and he’s going to apologize for using his gift aggressively.” I growled.

Hector only glowered at me.

“Quit burning bridges.” I snarled through tightly clenched teeth, “I’m not going to stand in the way if he decides to beat the crap out of you for that.”

He narrowed his eyes, “I’d like to see him try.”

“Moron,” Laney snapped at him, “His girlfriend can block you from controlling him. He can tear you to pieces if he feels like it.”

“And none of us,” Rain said. “Are going to stop him,” Zephyr continued. “If he decides to.” Meadow finished. Then they said together, “You kind of have it coming.”

His bravado faded. Bianca moved closer to him and elbowed his side.

“Just say you’re sorry already.” She whispered.

“Sorry.” He mumbled.

“With contrition, Hector.” I said, still glaring at him.

He stared at me with a blank expression.

Laney sighed, “Say it like you mean it.” She translated.

He apologized again, sounding a little more sincere this time.

“He’s just having some trouble with his impulses because he’s thirsty. We all are kind of touchy right now…except for Adam.” Pim explained.

Carlisle’s family stiffened in their stances, looking a little more wary of us. Edward was the first to relax.

“They’re under control for now.” He squinted, looking confused, “They aren’t really burning, they’re itching. It’s annoying rather than painful.”

I glanced at Bianca with a meaningful expression and looked over at Edward. He had followed my gaze and was reading Bianca.

“Wow.” Was his only response.

Apparently the longer we went without feeding, the harder it would be to control our impulses. Well, they would have trouble at least. I didn’t foresee a problem even if I went an extended time without blood. Just the thought made the irritation at the back of my throat flare. I pushed it back again. So annoying. But that was all it would ever be for me, an annoyance.

“We have to feed.” I said, thinking of the trouble the rest could get into if their irritability intensified. I could see us losing our allies if we weren’t careful. “There’s no way around it.”

“Not here.” Carlisle said quickly, “We cannot condone hunting in this area.”

My group didn’t appear to be paying much attention to Carlisle. They were all facing me. The triplets looked angry and the rest looked unwilling.

“No!” Rain snapped harshly at me. “No way!” Zephyr growled. “Not happening!” Meadow snarled.

“We’ll be okay for a while.” Laney insisted.

“We can hold off.” Bianca agreed.

“Too bad your super scientist brain can’t develop a substitute.” Hector said jokingly.

“Even I can’t synthesize blood.” I admitted, “I could probably clone it, given the right equipment and enough donor blood to work with.” And then it clicked. “Wow, I feel painfully slow!” I said aloud.

“You’re going to clone blood?” Hector asked, puzzled.

“No…well, maybe…eventually, but no. The answer is so obvious, I should have thought of it sooner.”

My friends looked at me expectantly.

“Donor blood. Like the kind at a blood bank. No humans involved, just blood. The answer to the conundrum.” I explained.

Their faces seemed to light up as they caught on.

“Can we do that?” Bianca asked.

“Don’t they add chemicals to it?” Pim asked, “To keep it from coagulating?”

“No, they just freeze it. Thaw it out and it’s just like it was coming out of the vein.” I answered.

Then I heard Edward answer an