Chapter Text
“Well I’ll be damned, more American vampires! Where the hell have you been?” Louis exclaims, hands on his hips.
Carlisle laughs, "Washington?”
“We didn’t really go anywhere besides New Orleans, Louis,” Claudia says, “thought the country was too young.”
“I was turned in 1663 in London. Was hunting a coven through the sewers, and…” He chuckles, “I’m 381 years old.”
“London? Can’t believe we missed you.”
“Well I left in the 18th century, joined the revolution.”
Louis whistles, “I was turned in 1910.”
“Aww, you’re only a baby!” The woman with Carlisle says with a smile.
“This is Esme, my wife.” He pretends not to notice how Louis flinches when he says ‘wife.’ “She was turned in 1921. She’s just giving you a hard time.” He tucks her into his side.
“I’m an old soul,” Esme says. “What about you?” She asks looking at Claudia who had been staying at a distance. Claudia looks taken aback, and her eyes shine defensively.
“It’s alright, Claudia, you can tell them,” Louis says.
“We just met these people,” she hisses.
“They warned us against hunting the wolves, and we saw their speed. They’re like us.”
Claudia looks unswayed.
Can they really be worse than the others we’ve run into? Louis says quietly.
“I was turned in 1917,” Claudia says.
An unspoken question hangs in the air with the intensity of don’t ask, don't tell.
“Is it just you two?” Louis asks finally.
“Goodness, no,” Esme laughs.
“We have our own little… family. There are 9 of us–” Carlisle says.
“8 of us,” Esme corrects him quickly.
Claudia and Louis look at each other suspiciously.
“They’d love to meet you. Our Alice saw you coming,” Esme continues.
“Saw us coming?” Louis asks. Esme and Carlisle turn, walking slow enough to encourage Louis and Claudia to follow.
“She has a gift,” Carlisle says.
_______________________
They walked in the woods for a bit before coming upon a large, brown and black, modern house. 6 vampires, each coupled up with another, stand on the stoop.
“That’s them!” One of the girls with brown hair at her chin says. There are 3 girls, and 3 boys. Louis finds his hackles raised at the way they’re coupled up: girl and boy.
“Alice!” Carlisle starts, “this is Louis and Claudia. Let’s keep introductions short, they’ve come a long way.”
Alice bounds up to them, another girl with long brown hair and sharp features follows a few steps behind her. Alice shakes Claudia’s hand with both of hers before Claudia can pull away, then shakes Louis’.
“I’m Alice, we’re going to be friends. I just know it.”
There’s a dull throbbing from the woman vampire behind Alice. It feels like stone.
“Oh, Bella, stop it. They aren’t going to hurt us. I saw it,” Alice says with a gentle eye roll and a turn to Bella.
“You better be right, Alice,” she says jutting her chin. She speeds back to the man she was with and stands down, he puts his arm around her.
“What was that?” Louis asks, the tang of stone still in the air.
“It’s Bella’s ability,” Carlisle says, coming beside Louis.
“Her ability-?” Louis starts.
“That’s Alice and Bella, as you’ve gathered, I’m sure,” Carlisle interrupts him. “We were just telling them our names and when we were turned before we came over here.”
“I was turned in 1920.” Alice complies immediately.
“1935,” A large man with short hair pipes up, “I’m Emmett.”
“1933, and I’m Rosalie. His wife,” The blonde woman next to him says. She still looks unsure of Louis and Claudia.
“Jasper, 1836,” a thin male with reddish hair says, “and Alice is mine,” he adds with a smirk.
“1918, I’m Edward,” says the one next to Bella. He’s by far the most posh and stoic, his polish almost matching Carlisle’s.
“And this is Bella,” Esme starts after silence from Bella, “she’s our youngest–”
“2006,” Bella speaks over her. She’s still looking Louis up and down.
Louis whistles low. “And you all just found each other?”
“Kind of. I turned a number of them,” Carlisle says. There’s a short sadness in his words, aware of the weight of it.
“We would have died if you hadn’t.” Esme says to him, squeezing him around his waste.
“Did you turn her?” Emmett asks loudly, pointing to Louis and Claudia. Rosalie smacks his shoulder.
Louis inhales, but Claudia speaks first.
“We share a creator. There’s no use talking about him.”
“Alright, let’s go inside, shall we?” Carlisle says.
___________
They find themselves in the living room falling into easy but hesitant conversation. Each duo still coupled up, Carlisle in the kitchen. He comes back with a platter of blood bags.
“This is blood I’ve gathered from my most… inebriated patients,” he says.
Patients? Louis asks Claudia telepathically.
He’s a doctor, I read his mind earlier. She replies.
Interesting.
“We also have some of the real alcohol if you guys can stomach it.”
“And Emmett and Jasper have tried making some mixtures of the two. They’ve made a few that don’t make us sick.” Rosalie says with a hint of pride in her voice.
Carlisle starts serving the blood.
“You guys fine with it cold?” Carlisle asks before pouring some into a crystal class.
“Of course, thank you, sir,” Louis says, accepting the glass.
“None for me, thank you,” Claudia says quickly.
Alcohol is the miracle of awkward meet ups. Soon, conversation is flowing like a river and laughs arise from each of them. Bella and Claudia don’t partake and stare each other down like some silent contest. Claudia is under Louis’ arm on the back of the couch, and Rosalie is practically in Emmett’s lap.
“So how many other vampires have you met?” Edward asks, his arm around Bella.
Louis looks at Claudia who looks back at him.
“Oh a fuck ton. 3 of note?” Louis says.
Louis! Claudia hisses. Louis waves her off.
“One in New Orleans, and two in Paris… Wait, so you turned all of them?” Louis asks, turning to Carlisle. He’s lounging with his legs over Esme’s lap.
“Not all of them. I didn’t turn Bella, Alice, or Jasper,” he replies, “just everyone else.” The sadness is back in his voice.
“We would've died, honey,” Esme says, burying her hand in his hair. “I’m thankful you turned me.”
“Ditto!” Emmett says, “Shit, I was going to be bear shit if Rosalie didn’t pull it off me.”
“Bear shit? You were eaten by a bear?” Louis exclaims with a laugh.
“Not all of me, ayyyyy,” Emmett says, bucking his hips against Rosalie. She laughs.
“How did you know you could turn people?” Claudia asks, suddenly enraptured and staring at Carlisle.
“I didn’t,” he replies, “I just knew I needed to save Edward. He was my patient, and such a bright and promising young man. He didn’t want to go.”
“Carlisle,” Edward says.
“What? It’s true! Don’t think he fully realized what me saving him would entail, but we’re happy now.”
Edward looks at Bella with a small smile, “I was 17. Couldn’t imagine the loss dying then would’ve been.”
Esme chuckles gingerly. “Yeah,” she says, rubbing her thumb over her other wrist. Carlisle holds her tighter and she snaps out of it.
Suicide, Claudia slithers into Louis’ head. Didn’t you see her wrists?
Claudia, these people are our hosts–
That one, Bella, was turned by Edward or someone else she keeps thinking about. I can’t make out who–
Claudia!
“You guys are fantastic hosts,” Louis says aloud.
“Have you ever been in love, Louis?” Rosalie asks leaning over the coffee table to him. She’s slurring her words, very drunk.
Claudia whips her head to look at him. Louis doesn’t care, and he feels like defying her.
“A few times… not like y’all though.”
The Cullens look at him curiously and Louis clears his throat. He might as well get it out before they decide they’ve extended too much hospitality to a gay, black vampire.
“They were men,” Louis says and waits for a reaction that doesn’t come.
“Where are they now?” Esme asks tenderly. Louis snorts.
“Nahhh, hell if I know,” he says.
“Fucking cheers to that,” Rosalie says lifting her drink haphazardly. “I was in love once before Emmett. Bastard fucking killed me. Absolute fucker,” she rambles, “nothing, nothing! Like Emmett. So big and strong and–”
“Alright, I’m going to get her to bed,” Emmett says and the group laughs. He stands up picking Rosalie up like she’s a tissue box.
“Goodnight, Rosalie,” Carlisle starts with a general echo from everyone else. Rosalie keeps rambling about her ex and how unlike Emmett he was.
She’s like me, Claudia says telepathically, but she clearly didn’t intend Louis to hear.
What?
Nothing!
“So you said 3 vampires of note, any names we’d recognize?” Bella asks Louis.
“Louis!” Claudia says aloud, but Louis is still feeling defiant and loosened by the drinks.
“Mmmm, Armand?”
There’s a deadly quiet in the room.
“I don’t know, maybe I misheard him,” Louis adds quickly.
Misheard him! Hah! Claudia says. He kidnapped your little writer and fucked you for years–
Claudia!
“An-Anyone else?” Esme adds quickly.
Louis, I swear to fucking Jesus–
“Guys, drop it. They don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Edward says suddenly. Both Louis and Claudia whip their heads to look at him.
“Edward’s gift,” Carlisle adds quickly, mediating, “he has quite the knack for reading minds even into telepathic conversations he’s not invited to.”
“Yeah, sorry,” Edward says quickly.
“Everyone but Bella’s.” Alice’s voice is also slurred and drunkenly happy. She’s been playing with a stoic Jasper’s hands the entire time. Claudia sees her chance to strike.
“So you don’t know that she’s thinking about that girl?” She says to Edward, “I’m getting the letter R.”
Bella shoots up.
“Woah, she’s just playing. She didn’t mean anything by it,” Louis says.
Claudia! Say you didn’t mean it.
“Nah, it’s alright,” Claudia replies, “Don’t worry, Bella, your shield is still pretty good. I know every detail of the others’ lives already.”
“Oh yeah?” Jasper challenges.
Claudia, these are our hosts. Louis warns.
“Yeah. He's a doctor, she was committed to an asylum, Rosalie was gang-raped, and you,” she points to Esme, “died by suicide. Slit wrists, am I correct?”
The room is deathly silent.
Claudia! Do we need to take a walk?
But Claudia continues, “and don’t even get me started on you,” she turns to Jasper, standing up, eyes flashing fire. “The confederacy? Are you fucking serious?”
“I was very young–” Jasper starts to defend himself.
“Oh my god, and that! All of you repeat high school over and fucking over again, and you are just, just fucking old enough not to be breaking the child vampire, great laws, BULLSHIT. What’s the cutoff? Seven-fucking-teen!?”
The room is silent again. All the Cullens look sheepish.
“Je-sus,” Louis starts, “I’m so sorry about her, she’s–”
Don’t make excuses for me! Claudia yells at him telepathically.
“It’s alright,” Esme says calmingly, “she’s clearly been burned before–”
And Esme means absolutely nothing by it. She doesn’t fucking know. Just a poor choice of words, but Claudia whips her head again and stares daggers into her.
“Alright, we better get going,” Louis says, standing and grabbing Claudia’s arm.
“No, it’s quite alright, you have all the reason to be wary–” Carlisle starts. Claudia is already storming out.
“No, nut-uh. She needs a breather,” Louis says quickly to them before Claudia is pulling him out.
“What the fuck was that, sister Claud?” Louis yells at her once outside. It’s pitch black in the forest.
“It’s like she knew, SHE KNEW–”
“No, she didn’t! I read their minds a little too. She doesn’t know shit about us. None of them do. And I don’t shit about them because unlike some very ungrateful guests, I’m not prying for secrets! Treat them like people, Claudia! They are people, our people!”
“You can’t know that!”
“C…”
Claudia flips around. “Unlike me, every vampire you meet is instantly enamoured with you and doesn’t want to fucking kill you! Armand was going to kill me, remember? And you threw his name around like that?” she snaps, “That’s why I ran away. And you didn’t believe me until 70 fucking years later! Or, maybe you did, and you chose him anyway!”
“Claudia!”
“No, you tracked me down not even 3 weeks ago crying about your new ex I fucking told you was bad for you, and you’re here, fresh, acting like nothing ever happened. So yeah, Louis, I’m pretty fucking pissed.”
“Claudia, I’m sorry–”
“You fucking should be!”
“I- I’m here now,” Louis tries, “Lestat is dead. Armand is never gonna bother us again, and–”
Claudia snorts a laugh.
“What!?” Louis asks exasperatedly.
“We never burned his body! We don’t actually know if he’s dead–”
“Claudiaaaaahhh,” Louis moans, “we’re doing this again!?
“Yes, let’s do this again because what are you gonna say this time? What magic words are you gonna say to make it like you didn’t betray me!”
“He hasn’t shown his face for 86-fucking-years. That fuckin’ portrait in the Theatre De Vampires, then nothin. If he was alive, he would’ve found us by now.”
Claudia huffs, a wrathful laugh, “you don’t believe that,” she says.
“I–” Louis starts.
“And you see his face everywhere you fucking go. Every time you look at me, right? Because I am your fucking baby, I cease to exist outside your courtship. I have never been an individual, just your guys’ fuckin daughter. That’s why you stayed with Armand, right? Why you let me fucking go? Finally, finally, felt free of his grip without me and in some other man’s ass.”
“That’s enough!”
“Is it!?”
Birds actually flew out of the trees like they do in movies. Carlisle clears his throat. It’s impossible to know how long he’d been standing there.
“Just me,” he says when they both turn to look at him. “Look, you don’t have to stay but we’ve killed other vampires, too. We have darker secrets, too. I didn’t know about the Volturi or the Great Laws before I made Edward. You’re right, he just made the cutoff. I know you didn’t, and I know you’ve had to live with that every day since 1917. 100 and nearly 10 years. That’s a long time.”
Claudia crosses her arms, her jaw is set. But Louis can see it in her eyes, she could cry. He struck a chord with her.
Claudia clears her throat. “The Volturi?” she diverts.
“The coven in Italy,” Carlisle elaborates.
“Those who must be kept?” Claudia asks him.
“Those who must be kept?” Louis echos her not knowing what the fuck either of them were talking about.
“Those who what?” Carlisle asks.
“What?” Claudia asks back, but the conversation is over. It’s not like anyone cared about that part anyway. The woods are silent besides the crickets and the wind in the trees.
“I’m going hunting,” Claudia says after a moment. “Louis, do whatever the fuck you want. You don’t need me to tell you that.”
“We usually stick to animals, but we don’t mind. Either way, go up to Seattle. It’s about 100 miles east. Be careful now, it’s getting early. The cloud cover will do you good, but it’s not perfect,” Carlisle says to her. Claudia gives him 1 curt nod before vampirically speeding away into the woods.