Chapter 006
The Cullen house rose from the forest like something out of a fairy tale.
Glass and wood combined in impossible angles, all clean lines and sweeping windows that reflected the gray sky. It was modern but timeless, beautiful but slightly intimidating. Exactly like the family that lived inside.
Alice parked the Porsche in a garage that housed two other expensive vehicles—a Mercedes SUV and a sleek BMW. Edward had already arrived; his Mercedes sat beside the SUV, engine still ticking as it cooled.
"Home sweet home," Alice said cheerfully, as if we hadn't just been threatened by dangerous men on a deserted road. As if Edward hadn't just revealed himself as something inhuman. "Come on. Everyone's waiting."
My legs felt unsteady as I climbed out of the car. Edward appeared at my side immediately, his hand finding mine with that now-familiar cold touch. The emotional connection flickered to life—concern, protectiveness, and underneath it all, that persistent fear that I would finally see him as the monster he believed himself to be.
"You don't have to do this," he said quietly. "I can take you home. We can forget—"
"I'm not forgetting anything." I squeezed his hand. "And I'm not running away."
Something in his expression softened. Relief, maybe. Or resignation.
Alice led us through a side door into a space that stole my breath. The interior was all open concept, with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the forest. Everything was in shades of white and cream, with dark wood accents and artwork that probably cost more than my dad's house. A grand piano sat in one corner, its surface so polished I could see the ceiling reflected in it.
And standing in the center of the room were the rest of the Cullens.
Emmett lounged against a white leather sofa, his massive frame somehow graceful despite his size. Rosalie stood by the windows, her arms crossed, blonde hair cascading over her shoulders like liquid gold. And beside her, perfectly still, was Jasper.
I'd seen him before, of course. At lunch, in the hallways. But I'd never been this close to him. He was tall and lean, with honey-blonde hair and features that were angular and almost severe. Where Edward's beauty was classical, Jasper's was harder. Dangerous.
And his eyes—the same strange golden color as the others—were fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
"She's nervous," Jasper said softly. His voice had a slight southern drawl that I hadn't noticed before. "And confused. But not afraid. Interesting."
I blinked. "How did you—"
"Jasper can feel emotions," Alice explained, moving to his side. She tucked herself against him, and his arm came around her automatically. "It's his gift."
My heart stuttered. "Gift?"
"We all have them," Emmett offered with an easy grin. "Well, most of us. I'm just abnormally strong and devastatingly handsome."
Rosalie made a sound that might have been a laugh or a scoff.
"Edward can read minds," Alice continued, ignoring Emmett. "I can see the future. Jasper feels and manipulates emotions. It's part of what we are."
What we are. The words hung in the air, heavy with meaning.
"Vampires," I said quietly. Not a question. A statement.
The room went silent. Edward's hand tightened on mine, and I felt his spike of panic through our connection.
Jasper's eyebrows rose. "She figured it out."
"She's observant," Edward said, his voice tight. "And I wasn't exactly subtle today."
"You never are," Rosalie muttered, but there was no real heat in it.
I looked around at all of them—these beautiful, impossible beings who had just been confirmed as creatures from myth and nightmare. I should have been terrified. Should have been running for the door.
Instead, I felt that same pull, that connection, especially to Edward but also to something larger. Like I'd been walking toward this moment my entire life without knowing it.
"So," I managed, "vampires are real."
"Very real," Jasper said. His eyes hadn't left my face, and there was something assessing in his gaze. "And you're taking this remarkably well. Edward, she's not even close to panic. Just... curious. Determined." He tilted his head. "And something else. Something I can't quite identify."
"That's what we need to figure out," Edward said. "Maya experienced something today. Something impossible."
"She felt your emotions," Alice supplied. "In biology class. Physical contact amplified it, but she sensed them even without touch."
Jasper's entire posture changed. He straightened, his focus sharpening to laser precision. "She's empathic?"
"We think so," Edward said. "But it's different from what you do. She doesn't just feel emotions—she experiences them as her own. She felt my thirst, my fear, my—" He stopped abruptly, jaw clenching.
"Your attraction to her," Emmett finished with a laugh. "Dude, that's gotta be awkward."
Heat flooded my face. Edward looked like he wanted to disappear.
But Jasper was moving forward, his movements careful and controlled. He stopped a few feet away, studying me with those intense golden eyes.
"May I?" he asked, gesturing between us.
"May you what?"
"Test your ability. If you're truly empathic, you should be able to sense what I'm feeling. And I'll be able to feel your response." His expression was serious. "It won't hurt. I promise."
I glanced at Edward, who looked deeply uncomfortable but nodded slightly.
"Okay," I said.
Jasper closed his eyes for a moment. Then I felt it—a wave of calm washing over me, so profound it made my knees weak. It was artificial, imposed, and I knew immediately it wasn't my own emotion. It was his, projected outward.
"I feel it," I whispered. "You're trying to make me calm."
Jasper's eyes snapped open. "You can tell it's not your emotion?"
"Yes. It's... separate. Like I can feel where it's coming from."
"Fascinating." He exchanged a look with Alice. "Most humans can't distinguish between their own emotions and what I project. They just feel suddenly calm or happy or afraid without questioning why."
"I'm not most humans," I said, the words coming out more confident than I felt.
"No," Jasper agreed. "You're certainly not." He took a step closer, and I felt another shift—curiosity, but tinged with something darker. Caution. Wariness. "Now try this. I'm not projecting anything. Just feeling my natural emotions. Can you sense them?"
I focused, the way I had with Edward in biology. That tingling sensation started at the base of my skull, building, expanding—
And then I was flooded with Jasper's emotions. Not as overwhelming as Edward's had been, but still powerful. Curiosity, yes, but also a bone-deep wariness. Control, constant and exhausting, like holding a door shut against a storm. And underneath it all, a darkness. Guilt. Self-loathing. The weight of centuries.
I gasped, stumbling backward. Edward caught me immediately, his cold hands steadying me.
"That's enough," he said sharply to Jasper.
But Jasper was staring at me with something close to wonder. "She felt it. All of it." He looked at Edward. "She's not just empathic. She's pulling emotions in. Reading them like I do, but without any training, any control."
"Is that dangerous?" I asked, my voice shaky.
"Potentially." Jasper's expression was grave. "Empathy is a powerful gift. In the wrong hands, or without proper training..." He trailed off. "I've spent decades learning to control my ability. To shield myself from others' emotions and to project carefully. You're doing all of it instinctively, with no filter."
"What does that mean?" Edward's voice was tense.
"It means she could be overwhelmed. Humans feel emotions intensely—but vampires?" Jasper shook his head. "Our emotions are amplified by our nature. Stronger, more consuming. If Maya is sensing what we feel without any barriers..." He looked at me with something that might have been sympathy. "It could break you."
The words settled over the room like a physical weight.
"Then we teach her," Alice said firmly. "Jasper, you can show her how to shield, how to control it. Right?"
"I can try." Jasper's drawl became more pronounced. "But I've never trained another empath before. Especially not a human one."
"I'm not staying human," I blurted out.
Everyone turned to stare at me.
"What?" Edward's voice was strangled.
"I mean—" I struggled to articulate the certainty that had just crashed over me. "If I have these abilities, if I'm connected to your world somehow, I can't just go back to being normal. Can I?"
"You don't know what you're saying," Edward said, his face pale. "Becoming like us, it's not—you can't—"
"I'm not saying I want to become a vampire right now," I interrupted. "I'm just saying that I can feel something changing. And I don't think it's going to stop."
Jasper studied me for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was quiet but certain. "She's right. I can feel it in her—something building. Growing. Whatever she is, whatever she's becoming, it started before she met us. We just... accelerated it."
"How?" I asked. "Why?"
"That," said a new voice from the stairs, "is what we need to determine."
I turned to see a man descending with fluid grace. He was blonde, impeccably dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt, and he radiated the same impossible beauty as the others. But there was something different about him—a gentleness in his expression, a warmth that seemed at odds with the predatory nature of his kind.
"Dr. Cullen," I said.
"Please, call me Carlisle." He smiled, and it reached his eyes—eyes that were the same golden shade as his children's. "Welcome to our home, Maya. I understand we have quite a bit to discuss."
He moved into the living room, and the others shifted to make space for him. Edward's hand found mine again, grounding me.
Carlisle's eyes went to our joined hands, and something flickered across his face. Approval, maybe.
"Edward has told me about your abilities," he said gently. "And Jasper's assessment confirms what I suspected. You're manifesting empathic abilities at an accelerated rate. The question is why." He paused. "Maya, has anything unusual ever happened to you before you came to Forks? Any instances where you felt connected to others' emotions, or sensed things you couldn't explain?"
I thought back through my life in Phoenix. The way I'd always been able to read people, to know when they were lying or hiding something. The way crowds sometimes felt overwhelming, suffocating. The nightmares I'd had as a child of feelings that weren't my own.
"Maybe," I admitted. "I always thought I was just intuitive. Good at reading body language."
"It's possible you've always had latent abilities," Carlisle said. "And something about our presence, our nature, is bringing them to the surface."
"Or," Jasper said quietly, "she's not entirely human to begin with."
The room went silent.
"What are you suggesting?" Edward's voice was dangerously soft.
"I'm suggesting that pure humans don't develop empathic abilities spontaneously." Jasper's eyes met mine. "There are others in our world, Edward. Not just vampires. Humans with gifts, humans with supernatural heritage. If Maya's abilities are manifesting this quickly, this powerfully..." He let the implication hang.
"You think I'm part... something?" I asked.
"I think you're something rare," Carlisle said carefully. "And potentially very powerful. Which means you need guidance. Training. Protection."
"From what?" I asked, though part of me already knew the answer.
Carlisle and Jasper exchanged a glance that made my stomach drop.
"From others who would want to use your abilities," Carlisle said. "Or eliminate you as a threat."
Edward's hand tightened painfully on mine, and through our connection, I felt his fear spike—not for himself, but for me.
And in that moment, I realized that coming to the Cullen house hadn't given me answers. It had only revealed how much danger I was actually in.
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