36 | PRETENSES |

➖

"ELK?"

"It's the most common animal in these parts," Esme explained kindly to the newborn eyeing the unsuspecting herd of elk the vampires were hunting.

Aurora tried to not sound so disgusted at the prospect of drinking from animal blood instead of human, however, duty called and she had no choice but to answer, no matter how weird it would be. The hellish thirst was enough for Aurora to succumb to it and quietly ask for help. She was just grateful that only half the Cullen coven had volunteered to come along on Aurora's first hunt.

"Don't knock it til you try it," Alice whispered with a bubbly grin.

Emmett nodded in agreement. "I like grizzlies, but they're not in season. There's some mountain lions up the mountains if you'd like to sink your fangs into that, but elk will be the most available meals around here."

She felt eyes on her again and she looked over at Jasper who had also joined in the fray. They hadn't spoken since the night he apologized and confessed he was still very much in love with her. She supposed it wasn't hard for the others to notice the awkward tension between the two.

She was lucky Edward was at Bella's house again. Aurora assumed he tried to stay away from the Cullen house nowadays because of her. She wasn't blind to the way he stood closer to Bella every time she came within distance or subtly didn't allow Bella to ever speak to her for long despite the human trying to help her assimilate. It was clear Edward didn't trust her the most out of the entire coven.

If he had read her thoughts, if he had realized she was still with the Volturi—she would've been in deep shit. She was normally much better at compartmentalizing the confusion that was her life, tucking away puzzles such as Alec, the Volturi, and Jasper Hale and the Cullens into their own separate boxes. The newborn made a mental note to eradicate the potential problem of Edward's mind reading capabilities soon.

Aurora looked away from Jasper's piercing stare. She took the silence that lingered as her signal to pounce.

Literally.

She didn't have to exert any effort as she shot herself at the largest elk in the herd, the buck, like a bullet straight through the fifty feet of trees between them. She took the antlered animal down as she crashed on him like a meteor. The others, Jasper, Alice, Esme, and Emmett took down the other startled animals before they could run off.

For a few minutes, nothing seemed out of the ordinary (or as ordinary as five vampires feeding on a herd of elk could be.)

Until a wet, unexpected squelch ripped through the trees and the headless body of the buck fell onto the black dirt.

Aurora stood with her eyes squeezed shut. She could feel the fresh animal blood soothing the burning thirst, although drastically different from the delicious taste of human blood, it was enough to dim the flames that threatened to consume her. It was different, but she didn't mind it as much as she thought she would. Strange yet satisfying. At least this way, her meal didn't beg for mercy.

"Woah, newbie! That was fucking wild," Emmett was the first to look at her, his refreshed eyes gold as sunlight and wide in astonishment.

Aurora slowly put the head of the buck down on top of it's decapitated and blood drained body.

"You look harmless, but you're dangerous," Alice smiled widely, stating it as if she had always known Aurora would be and she probably had, only now the characteristic had heightened.

"More dangerous than you think," Aurora muttered with a shake of her dark wavy hair.

"Damn straight. Jazz, you see how she just tore it apart!? I miss being a newborn and having an excuse to make a mess every time I hunt," Emmett gestured to Aurora's bloodied hands and stained hoodie with an impressed grin. "She's a ripper! Lucky you two aren't back together then otherwise—"

"Emmett!" Esme snapped.

Everyone felt awkward again.

"I'm not that bad," Aurora had the decency to look embarrassed. If she was still human, the other vampires would expect her cheeks to be as crimson as the blood staining her lips and hands. "Just when I'm particularly thirsty, I tend to get a tad...excited."

"You ripped Bambi's head off."

Jasper chuckled deeply, his chest rumbling in amusement at the peculiar and unexpected sight before him. While the others tried to hide their slight apprehensive at Aurora's prowess, his expression showed nothing but pride. It reminded her of the way Alec looked at her back in Italy.

➖

"AGAIN."

Aurora exhaled harshly as Alec stepped away from her, her sight immediately returning.

"There's no point, Alec," Aurora stood from the ornate wooden chair she had been sitting in, attempting to push her mind, her power beyond her own imagination. "This is never going to work."

Alec, his eyes dark and brilliant, raised his brow cooly. He was always so levelheaded, so calm as if nothing in the world could make him lose his cool. He was untouchable.

"You aren't trying hard enough, luce mia," Alec closed the distance between them, his hand coming to play with a loose dark tendril of hair. "Must I emphasize the importance of you being able to overpower another vampire's gifts again?"

Aurora rolled her eyes and scoffed, crossing her arms. "It's not like anyone can resist my compulsion. I can make anyone do whatever I say." She was cocky now, probably an attitude that had rubbed off on her with her constant proximity to Alec—who was the epitome of arrogance.

"Don't you see how that's exactly the chink in the armor? There are those out in this world who can get around that. Mind readers will know when you're about to use compulsion, manipulators can contest you, and I can take away your ability to speak," Alec was no less strict than if she was merely another guard member he had been forced to train. He was relentless, but in this case, in Aurora's case, her capabilities as a vampire actually mattered to him. "You are more than capable of learning how to get exactly what you want without uttering a word."

"Now. Again."

She gritted her teeth as her senses disappeared slowly. He always started with vision, then smell, taste, touch and finally hearing so even as she felt like she was floating in a sensory deprivation pool, she was able to listen to his critique. She struggled to keep standing and thus she finally fell. "You're too strong."

"Focus, luce mia." His voice sang like an angel's harp.

She loathed the sound. It only reminded her how helpless, powerless she felt when Alex overpowered her, when they both knew she could be more. She could be better.

Aurora inwardly glowered at herself. She could do this. "You can not take away my senses."

She gasped as her once black and empty vision was suddenly flooded with vivid color and the peculiarly smug smile on Alec's face. "Wipe that smirk off your face," she snapped playfully, confirming that she had succeeded.

She knew he hadn't relented his ability by the way the air swirled around her unnaturally, the only telltale sign of Alec's gift. He wasn't holding back—he never did—but his paralyzing mist couldn't touch her, it surrounded her yet like her command decreed, Alec couldn't take away her senses anymore. She couldn't fight the giddiness that rushed through her.

"An improvement," he said simply as her compulsion faded and his gift penetrated her senses again, "Try verbless this time."

She sighed as her vision blacked out, but at least she was still standing. Or she assumed she was.

Her brows furrowed in concentration as she pushed that part inside of her—that silvery, sludgy part of her mind she had connected to her gift—outwards and with all her might. She was in control, she was power.

Your power will not work on me.

The thought, so simple and basic, yielded immediate response this time. She blinked as she found herself on her knees in the empty board room Aro had decreed as her training space. Alec was crouched in front of her, looking down at her with a smile on his face.

Alec, who often shared no emotion besides his hallmark smirk, was smiling. He was proud of her, for only being a vampire for two months and already mastering her gift where it had taken him decades.

"That's my girl."

➖

Luce mia,

I hope your mission is going well. Remember to not make any decisions until the end of the month. I look forward to seeing you with that odd shade of gold when this is all over.

Yours. AV

Aurora crumpled the slip of parchment Jane had handed her before Aurora had forced her to return to Seattle, deftly tearing it into a million pieces and dropping it into the water filled ditch as she walked along the private road leading to the Cullen house.

After the successful yet messy hunt, Aurora had insisted on lingering behind to familiarize herself with the Olympic range once more. Aurora had to use her gift to convince the Cullens to all go back to the house. She needed to think, to gather herself outside the den of lions.

She couldn't stop thinking about him—Alec, that is. Not for any romantic notions, but oddly enough because of Jasper Hale.

Aurora was after all, first and foremost, a woman.

She couldn't dismiss the blonde's words so carelessly, she wasn't that heartless. She guessed Alec was on her mind because of it. She had always wondered why Alec was so attached to her, brushing it off because he had saved her and created her into what she was now. Now though, with Jasper's candid profession as well as Jane's begrudged appearance, Aurora had no choice but to confront the fact that Alec might be in love with her.

Which meant, two people were in love with her and she literally had no idea why or how to feel about it.

She was interrupted from her thoughts as a car engine rumbled in the distance, growing louder and louder until a bright red convertible pulled up beside the newborn.

"Get in, Rory," Rosalie stopped her car next to her. "We're going shopping."

"Shopping?" The idea seemed ridiculous and out of place for the jaded blonde bombshell to suggest to her. It was no secret Rosalie wasn't Aurora's biggest fan.

Rosalie met her gaze coolly. "Yep. We used to do it all the time when you were human."

Aurora arched a single brow. "Really?"

The blonde's lips quirked upwards. "No, but your clothes are beyond saving," Rosalie eyed the stains of Aurora's hoodie in disgust.

"I don't think it really matters," Aurora shrugged, "I'm not trying to impress anyone. It's not like I will be meeting any humans any time soon." She pursed her lips, trying to convey a semblance of annoyance at the command her masters had given her.

Rosalie rolled her amber eyes. "I get that the Volturi didn't allow you much freedom or whatever when you were a guard member, but you're one of us now. So who cares if you're dead? There's more beyond Forks."

Aurora sighed, not seeing any way out of it, and sped over to the passenger seat, not bothering to open the door. She automatically started to put on the seatbelt but stopped short when Rosalie stared at her oddly.

She then remembered she had no need for it as a vampire. Some part of her still itched to buckle herself in, whatever human part that remained.

Aurora glanced at her own reflection in the mirror and frowned. "Won't the humans notice my eyes?" While she had just fed, her pupils were still a shade of crimson, albeit with the barest golden flecks, but just as vivid and obvious. She wondered if they would turn amber by the end of the month.

Rosalie was already reaching into her purse whilst speeding down the road. "Here." She tossed the small cardboard box to Aurora who caught it reflexively.

Aurora opened the box for plastic tablets containing a pair of blue-grey colorer contacts. The newborn glanced at Rosalie curiously.

The blonde shrugged at Aurora's inquisitive stare. "Sometimes I like to reminisce when my eyes were blue."

With careful movements, Aurora placed the contacts in, blinking rapidly as her vision slightly blurred. Her crimson hue shifted to a purple tinged shade of blue. She could see the grid lines of the lenses. She grimaced at the itchy, uncomfortable feeling. "These are horrible."

"Get over it." Rosalie said flatly. She regarded Aurora with narrowed eyes. "In fact, get over this whole act you've put up since coming back. You can stop pretending to be some scared, vulnerable girl. I know you, Rory, even if you don't. No way in hell would you come back here for the sake of your pride if you remembered what happened between my family and yourself."

"Well feel free to divulge," Aurora snorted, thinking of how she was no closer to knowing anything about her human self than when she was in Italy. It was like the Cullens were purposely skirting around the events that led up to her going to Italy. "The others treat me like...glass. I have a feeling they're avoiding telling me the entire truth for some reason."

"If you remembered, you wouldn't blame them," Rosalie kept her gaze trained on the road. No one liked to address the elephant in the room, which was why Rosalie was bringing the elephant outside.

"Why won't anyone tell me about what happened?" Aurora phrased it as a question, but she used a little compulsion to bend Rosalie's unwavering loyalty to her coven enough for the blonde to pause.

Rosalie's eyes glazed over the slightest bit as the truth tumbled from her lips. "Edward and Carlisle think you might become upset if we told you the full story of your human life. It's not exactly pretty. We may have accepted you into our home again, but we have to protect ourselves as well. You're a newborn, so you're prone to respond with destructive rage instead of rational logic first." She nonchalantly pressed harder on the gas pedal.

Aurora took notice. "And that's why you're driving me out of town?"

The blonde smiled briefly, glancing at Aurora with a nostalgic nod. "You've always been clever. A decision maker. You always knew exactly what you wanted. Makes sense why you can control our minds," she muttered.

"Really?" Alec had told gifts emerged from a vampire's strongest human traits.

"Top of your class, actually," Rosalie nodded again, her gazes shifting from nostalgia to sadness and pity. "You had a bright future ahead of you before we fucked up your life."

Aurora couldn't ignore the flare of irritation. What was the point of this entire thing if the blonde was only going to pussyfoot around the truth like the others. She barely withheld her growl as she met Rosalie's eyes straight on, her strange violet-blue colored eyes zeroing in as she pulled on Rosalie's mind with her gift.

"Tell me."

Her amber eyes glazed over at the strength of Aurora's command. And so Rosalie Hale spilled everything she knew about the short life of Rory Aden, the human tragedy. From car crashes to nomads and birthday parties and various hospital visits.

They were well out of Forks, halfway to Vancouver, when Rosalie blinked and the fuzziness cleared. She didn't notice the shift in her demeanor as she continued driving. Aurora's gift now had the side affect of the victim having no clue they had been under her control. It was another nuance she had been working on.

"It's funny," Aurora let out a breath of laughter that bordered on a scoff. All this fuss of her lack of human memories only to find out she only knew the Cullens for less than a year of her life yet they changed the very course of hers forever. "My life was a fucking joke."

Rosalie looked at Aurora with widened eyes of disbelief. "You think losing a child is a joke? My brother leaving the woman he loves to try and fix the irreparable damage was brutal, Rory."

Aurora shook her head. "It's funny how now that you tell me what went down, I realize what a fucking idiot human me was. A vampire/human hybrid baby? I'm having trouble believing you now and it happened to me. Y'all were right to leave. The Volturi would have had a coronary, destroyed this town, and then continued life in their pretty castle."

She was almost barking laughter now at the madness of it. She couldn't believe the Volturi thought that she of all people would have a chance of bringing down the Cullens when the coven had left her the second the vampire world was actually threatened. Aurora had to give it to them, they may look harmless, but they were definitely vampires.

Rosalie sighed. "We shouldn't have left."

"Hey, according to you, I'm used to it," Aurora snickered.

She stared at the newborn with a reproachful gaze. "Still. I'm sorry."

"Me too," Aurora shrugged.

The blonde frowned slightly at the newborn's odd tone. "For what?"

"For messing up your life as well."

Before Rosalie could question what the newborn meant, her phone rang, breaking the weird atmosphere. She answered with a swift "Hello?"

"Rose? You're with Rory, right?" Jasper's voice was heard by the two vampire's despite him speaking in a near whisper. His concern for her was apparent in his tone.

Rosalie's brows furrowed. "Yes, I'm with her. We were going to Vancouver for some shopping—"

"There was an intruder in Bella's house. An unknown vampire," Jasper said seriously. "Emmett and I are tracking the scent."

Immediately, Aurora's thoughts flashed to Alec and the other guard members. What if the Volturi decided to extract her early?

Rosalie's eyes widened. "Where are you two?" Her worry for her mate and brother was eminent was the convertible in suddenly screeched to a stop and rapidly made a u-turn.

"Meet us in the woods a mile south behind Bella's house."

➖

A.N welp the cats outta the bag and while rory doesn't remember anything she at least knows everything that happened

ok im so sorry how short and shitty this update was smh but ive been so busy these last few weeks and i appreciate yall not hounding me to update so yeah

btw this chapter was supposed to include the rest of this part of eclipse but idk when i have time to edit the rest of the scene sighhh