Darkness Will Come to Light [1]

XXVIII. Riot

The Cullen house was eerily silent when Savannah and her mom dropped Mel off after the library. Carlisle's Mercedes was parked out front, so she assumed at least he was around. "Carlisle?" she said hesitantly, tossing her shoes by the door with her school bag soon following.

"Melaina." Mel jumped at Carlisle's voice coming from the stairs. "Why don't you join us at the dining room table?"

Her heartrate spiked as she turned to look at the vampire doctor. She discovered their secret; what were they going to do to her? Taking in a shaky breath, she whispered, "Do I have to?"

"Yes, and you know why. Please." He gestured upstairs. "We will answer all your questions."

"I-I don't have any. Everyone has secrets. I'm not too surprised."

"Then we must at least go over some ground rules. You can ask any questions that come to mind when the time comes."

"O-Okay." Mel bit her lip and hesitantly followed him up the stairs to the second floor. Carlisle walked at a human pace as to not freak his foster daughter out so soon after her discovery.

The family was waiting. The coven of vampires. "Yes, Melaina. Tell us what you think we are."

She snapped her gaze to Edward. He knew what she was thinking, as he usually did. "You're vampires. I live with vampires."

"Melaina." She looked at Jasper slowly. "You are scared of us, and you have a right to be."

"I don't mean to be scared. I trust you..."

"It's your natural human instincts to fear us and trust us," Edward explained. "It's the draw from predator to prey."

"But...you're my family. Am I prey to you?" Her voice wobbled.

Esme walked slowly around the table and took Mel gently into her arms. "Never, honey. We love you."

"Why did you take me in? With a slash of my wrist, I could cause a riot." Jasper noticeably flinched at the imagery.

"We hoped that we could prevent you from harming yourself with our amplified abilities," Alice admitted. "I saw that you would have a better chance with us than with a human family."

"Saw? Like...the future?" Mel scrunched her eyebrows. "Could you maybe explain all of your vampire abilities? I noticed some to a degree, like Edward knowing my thoughts." Mel glanced at Edward and added, "I thought you were just good at reading my face." She shrugged.

Esme led her to an open seat between Carlisle, who was now at the head of the table, and Edward.

"I have a theory that our strongest human traits become intensified in this life," Carlisle began.

"He thinks that I must have been very sensitive to the thoughts of those around me, and Alice had some precognition as a human," Edward said.

"While I have precognition and Edward has telepathy, Carlisle brought his compassion. Esme brought her ability to love passionately with a strong maternal instinct. Emmett, as you've probably guessed--" Alice was cut off.

"Is stronger than the Hulk," Emmett said with a giant grin. Alice rolled her ocher eyes.

"As I was saying, Emmett brought his super strength. Rosalie brought her tenacity and beauty." Alice placed a hand over Jasper's. "My love was charismatic in his first life--able to influence those around him to see things his way. Now he's a pathokinetic, an empath."

"Okay, so you have extra abilities, as well as--" Mel started to tick off a list on her fingers. "--speed, strength, hearing, vision..." Her family nodded at various speeds. "What about, like... compulsion or being invited in? What about sunlight? Are your Cullen crest pieces actually daylight rings?" 

"You watch too much of that vampire show of yours," Emmett said and rolled his eyes.

"I do not," Mel said indignantly. Well, maybe that was a lie. The Vampire Diaries was addicting.

"The history of vampires and their characteristics have been embellished through the centuries. Popular culture suggests that we sleep in coffins and burn in the sunlight--both myths. In fact, we do not sleep at all, as you have probably noticed or suspected. The crystalline structure of our granite skin causes it to glisten in the sunlight, instantly setting us apart from the humans, so we avoid that at all costs," Carlisle explained. "I'm sure that there are vampires who have the ability of compulsion or mind-control, but it is not inherent in all of our species. We also do not need verbal admittance to enter a home."

Mel continued to think about the Salvatore brothers from TVD.

"We don't have fangs and wooden stakes cannot even penetrate our skin," Edward said in response to Mel's thoughts. The biggest question had yet to be said outside of anyone's mind until Edward picked it up from Mel. "Our family, and very few others, feed on animal blood to survive. We call it the vegetarian lifestyle. It's what changes our eyes to gold and allows us to live peacefully with humans."

The Cullens spent the next few hours talking to Mel about their biggest family secret. She was informed about the Volturi and her need to keep her mouth shut at the risk of being found out by the vampire rulers in Italy. Exposing themselves as vampires to a human could result in the death of them as well as Melaina. She swore that she would protect her family as they protected her.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

With all of the talk of vampires, Melaina forgot to ask about having Sav over until the next day.

She waited impatiently by the front door for Carlisle to come home from a long shift at the hospital.

Jasper buzzed by her and went upstairs. Her energy was filling Jasper like helium in a birthday balloon. He knew Alice could distract him.

Mel pounced as soon as Carlisle pushed open the front door. He didn't look surprised. After all, he saw her pacing through the glass window as he walked up the steps from his car.

"Hi, I have a question. Would I be able to have a friend spend the night, please?" Mel asked before the door had even closed behind her foster father.

"Hello, Mel. My day was great, thanks for asking." Carlisle grinned at her. "How was your day?" His amber eyes sparkled in amusement.

"It was fine," Mel said quickly. "But what do you think? Would that be okay?" she asked eagerly.

"We'll make the necessary arrangements, but it's alright with me."

"Yay, thank you!" Mel reached in to give him a quick hug before dashing up the stairs to call Savannah. She could hear Carlisle laughing downstairs as she closed her bedroom door.