Edward

I kneeled down by the spots of blood that littered the frosty dirt. The faint imprint of the girl’s body could be seen, barely there, almost invisible. Her scent still lingered, the drying blood letting off a delightful aroma. When I had seen her, my breath had caught in my throat. Her eyes had been already fading, more of a golden red than bright red. It was amazing. She hadn’t even fed yet and her eyes were fading already.

“Who turned her, do you think?” Emmett asked.
I shrugged and sniffed the air, taking care to sniff into the wind to see if there was an unknown scent coming from that direction. Once more I shrugged and stood, brushing my pants off and tugging at the hem of my shirt. Emmett’s mate, Rosalie, rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I don’t see what the big deal is about this girl. There have been newborns found at random like this, and none of you ever cared this much. She’s just another baby vampire that doesn't know how to handle herself and just be burned.” she complained in her whiny voice.

Emmett slung an arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek, trying to calm her down. At that moment, Alice and the girl wandered back out of the woods. Alice was pristine, as usual, and the girl was pretty clean for her first feeding. Rips and tears from the crash showed pale skin and the bottom of a cotton undergarment. I averted my eyes, not sure I could trust myself with the image of her perfect body. A growl rose in my throat as Emmett whistled and Jasper grinned, even with his mate, Alice, snuggled up beside him.

“I think we have ourselves another member of the family, everybody.” Alice said in her tinkling voice, smiling with a pearly white set of teeth.

Chalice ducked her head and fiddled with a scrap of cloth that hung off of her blouse. Again, my eyes wandered to the rip on her rib cage, examining the bloodied fabric of the garment. I could tell that before she had been turned, already she was near death and bleeding out. With the amount of her own blood visible on the fabric, it looked gruesome and terrible.

“Do you have any idea who changed you?” my foster mother, Esme questioned gently, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Chalice flinched slightly and looked at the ground, unsure, it seemed, of what to say. I walked up to her and tilted her chin up with a finger. Her eyes widened when she saw me. For what reason, I didn't know. Her eyes were now a very light red with more gold showing through. Her skin was smooth and even, and the slight hint of sun that peeked from around the clouds made her skin glint and glow faintly. She was so different, better, more incredible. Nobody else's skin was sparkling right now, only hers. And her eyes were changing so fast that you had to wonder if she was even a newborn vampire, or older than that.

“What did he look like?” I asked softly, trying to get a read on her mind at the same time.
A barrage of images invaded my head, flashes of the crash and a woman I assumed was her mom. Then, a vampire I recognized whispered among the many pictures. He was the boy we had burned. It was strange since he had not a speck of blood, or even the scent of her blood on him. He had been wandering around her, though, circling like a hungry lion. He had dark hair, blonde streaked through the black. His mahogany eyes sparked bright in her memories, the last thing she saw before she was fully turned. It was amazing, the images her mind still remembered. Most of the time a vampire, newly turned would remember bits and pieces of their fuzzy, blur of human memories. But Chalice’s, hers were crisp and fresh and new. Yet they were human memories, left over from her previous life.

I realized that I was staring, amazed at her face, and that she was staring back, a hand laid on mine, as it caressed her cheek. My foster siblings were looking at us both, a worried and troubled expression on all of their faces. I drew back, quickly removing my hand from her face. I could have been mistaken, but it was almost as if Chalice was sad that we had broken the short moment we had experienced. I cleared my throat unnecessarily, raising a few eyebrows when I told the family what I had seen.

“It was Ambrose. He turned her. Carlisle, is it possible for her human memories to be just as clear as her newly made vampire ones? It seems a bit abnormal, the things I saw that were from her past life. The clarity in them seemed too sharp to be remembered from the human mind. It was remarkable.” I said in an amazed voice, sharing my thoughts with my father, Carlisle.

His face remained questioning, but he replied, just as clueless as I was.
“It seems possible, it just isn't easy to picture. There has been other reports of special vampire such as her.” he gestured to Chalice as he said this. “Actually, there has been only one. A singular vampire that died long ago, was burned for being a witch among the village. Even then, some small settlements had common sense enough to tear apart their victims before burning. It was as if they knew about the vampire race.”

Everybody looked around and gave a skeptical glance to their spouse. I only trained my gaze on Chalice who was glaring off into the distance. Her eyes were glassy, lost deep in thought, unblinking. She wasn’t breathing, something vampires usually did just out of habit. Her still body was rigid as a tree, solid as one too. Emmett smiled and sauntered up behind her, jabbing her back with two fingers. I could only shake my head and turn away. He just didn’t understand that at this point in time he was not the strongest, nor exactly the smartest in the clan right now. My thoughts were confirmed when I heard a grunt and solid crack against the earthen floor.

Various sounds of amusement swept around the half circle of my family as Emmett was being pummeled by an angry and upset newborn vampire. It wasn't until Chalice had Emmett’s head in the position to rip it off that somebody jumped in. Both Carlisle and Rosalie swooped in on her at the same time, succeeding in rescuing Emmett from Chalice’s clutches and soothing her to the point if reasonable speaking.

“What’s on your mind, dear?” Esme asked, trying to keep a casual voice as she prodded Chalice for more information.

Chalice only stood there shaking, her hands trembling with barely controlled anger. But then, suddenly she collapsed, falling to the ground and landing with her head resting on an outstretched palm. We all rushed to her at the same time, trying to revive her which wasn’t happening. Vampires never closed their eyes for rest or anything such as. And never, ever, in the history of vampires, had one become unresponsive and passed out. It was hard to tell if she in danger or anything since body temperature never changed, and the usual blush in any normal persons cheeks was not present in a vampire.

“Chalice, honey, wake up. Come on, sweet.” Esme begged.
Nothing was working, until I scooped her. Instantly, she twitched awake, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She all of the sudden looked brittle and broken, like a toy china doll about ready to crack. Her hands were limp, dead, all too friable. She shivered violently, writhing and twisting, her mouth uttered inaudible words, too silent for ears. A secret was being held back, restrained, tied down to a chair and locked up so it could not escape.

“Put...me...down.” Chalice stuttered weakly. I shook my head and clutched her tighter.
“If you...you don’t put me down...you will get hurt.” she said with more force, even starting to try and shove me away.

I had no choice but to put her down, laying her on the cold, compacted ground. I was just time, too, because at that moment something extraordinary happened.