Another mundane day in the eternal existence of the Cullen family. At least, that's what I thought it would be. Alice had been unusually quiet this morning, her thoughts carefully focused on translating the Constitution into Arabic – a sure sign she was hiding something from me.
"Anything interesting today?" I asked casually as we drove to school in my Volvo.
"Nothing concrete," she replied aloud, while her mind continued its suspicious translation.
"You're being weird, Alice," Emmett commented from the backseat. "More than usual."
"Leave her alone," Rosalie said, though her thoughts echoed Emmett's concern.
Jasper sat quietly, monitoring everyone's emotions – our family's emotional barometer. "There's anticipation," he noted. "Something's coming."
We arrived at school early, as usual. Decades of practicing this charade had made it routine: park far from other cars to avoid scratches, maintain distance from humans, pretend to be normal teenagers. Simple rules that kept our family safe and our secret secure.
The buzz of teenage minds filled my head as students arrived – the usual mixture of hormones, insecurities, and mundane concerns. But today, there was a dominant theme: the new girl, Chief Swan's daughter.
"Isabella Swan," I heard Jessica Stanley think, her thoughts a mix of envy and calculation as she planned how to use the new girl to elevate her social status. Through various minds, I caught glimpses of her – and found myself momentarily stunned. The new girl possessed an otherworldly beauty that seemed impossible for a mere human. Her dark hair fell in perfect waves, her skin held an almost supernatural glow, and her movements carried an unconscious grace that drew every eye in the room. Even through the filtered lens of human minds, there was something different about her – something that set her apart from the ordinary. The boys' thoughts were particularly loud, but there was an underlying current of unease in their admiration, as if their instincts warned them that this beauty wasn't entirely natural.
But then something unprecedented happened.
I couldn't hear the girl's thoughts – a first in my century of reading minds – and then I heard something else. A another voice not hers, ancient and powerful, emanating from her consciousness:
"This place is even more boring than the sixth circle of Hell. At least there we had creative torture sessions."
I stiffened in my seat at lunch, drawing my siblings' attention.
"Edward?" Jasper probed, sensing my confusion.
"The new girl," I murmured too quietly for human ears. "I can't read her thoughts, and… there's something else. Something inside her mind."
"Well, hello beautiful," the voice in her head purred, and I realized it was noticing us. "Now those are some specimens worth studying."
"What do you mean 'something else'?" Alice asked, her thoughts finally focusing on the present.
"A Different voice. It called itself…" I paused, listening as Jessica explained our presence to the new girl. The voice was analyzing us with disturbing accuracy.
"Their souls are different, but they're not demons. Never seen anything quite like them in my years."
"Demons?" Rosalie hissed under her breath. "Edward, what exactly are we dealing with?"
"The voice isn't just different," I explained to my siblings, keeping my voice too low for human ears. "It's otherworldly. When it threatens, the very air seems to vibrate with power. Whatever is sharing Isabella Swan's consciousness, it's unlike anything we've encountered." I paused.
"I don't know," I admitted. "But it's old. Older than us."
"Impossible," Emmett scoffed, but his thoughts were less certain.
"Foster kids my demon blade," the voice scoffed. "They're something else entirely."
"It knows we're not human," I translated for my siblings. "It's… amused by our cover story."
"Can it sense what we are?" Jasper asked, his military mind already strategizing.
Before I could answer, the voice spoke again: "Ooh, that's interesting," It said. "Pretty boy can hear us, can't he? Hello there, handsome. Nice trick, but you can you also hear me?"
"It's talking to me directly now," I informed my family. "It is trying to know if I can hear it."
"This is bad," Rosalie stated. "We should leave."
"No," Alice said suddenly, her vision clearing. "That would draw more attention. We need to act normal."
"It's been calling me 'pretty boy,'" I muttered, earning a snort from Emmett.
But it got worse in Biology. The moment she walked past the fan, her scent hit me like a wrecking ball. Never in my existence had human blood called to me so powerfully. My muscles locked, venom flooded my mouth, and the monster within me roared to life.
"Whoa," the voice – Maze – sharpened. "His whole posture just shifted. I don't like this, little human. Maybe I should take over?"
Take over? What does that mean? I was too focused on not killing her to fully process the implications, but the voice continued, growing more threatening:
"His eyes changed color," It stated "And he's not breathing. Definitely not human. Stay alert."
"Hey. Whatever you're thinking about doing to my human? Don't. You really don't want to see what happens when I get protective."
The threat should have been laughable – what could harm a vampire? But something in that voice made me pause. It knew what it was talking about.
"This is fascinating," The voice said "He's fighting some serious bloodlust right now. I've seen that look before, but usually on much less pretty faces. In Hell, we'd call this foreplay."
I fled as soon as the bell rang, straight to my car where my siblings waited.
"Edward?" Alice approached cautiously. "I saw you leaving…"
"I have to go," I managed. "Her blood… I've never smelled anything like it. And that thing in her head…"
"Go to the Denalis," Alice nodded. "I'll explain to Carlisle."
But I had to try one last thing – changing my schedule. In the office, when she walked in again, bringing that maddening scent…
"Oh, this is rich. The mighty whatever-he-is is running away? From us? Try it. Give me one reason to show you what real fear looks like."
I didn't wait to hear more. Racing home, I barely paused to explain to Esme before packing a bag. As I sped toward Alaska, one thought kept circling in my mind: What exactly was Isabella Swan? Or more precisely, what was the ancient entity sharing her consciousness?
"Think we can make the pretty boy's head explode if we start reciting demon poetry?" The last thought I heard from the voice followed me like a taunt.
The demon in Bella Swan's head knew too much. And for the first time in decades, I felt genuine fear – not for myself, but for my family's security.
This wasn't over. But for now, distance was my only option.