It's Either War or Peace

Katie Vereeka's Point of View

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Rip Bagans,” the man said. “My wife is Renee. We’re the ‘parents’ of this family. Demi is married to Joe Carter and Taylor is married to Jackson Letchworth.”

“And how old are all of you?” I asked.

“I was bitten at thirty-one and Renee at thirty. Demi was eighteen and Joe was twenty-one. Taylor was nineteen and Jackson was twenty.”

Ugh. That meant nobody was near my age. “What do the rest of you look like?”

“Well why don’t you come in and find out?” Rip smiled and opened the door wider for me.

Hesitantly, I walked in. Immediately I looked around. Everything was perfectly clean and there were no smudges anywhere, not even on the windows. From the corner of my eye I saw five people with red eyes sitting and standing around a black couch. Standing was two girls and a boy. Actually, two women and a man I should say. The older woman looked to be around Rip’s age. Renee. She gave me a comforting smile as she used her hand to move her dark hair away from her face. The other woman had black hair and she wore it long and had side bangs. The man had black hair too but his was short and spikey. Two blondes sat on the couch. One was a woman and one was a man. Both of them thought they owned the world we live in. Just for that I wanted to pull hard on their curls.

I whispered to Rip, “Who are they?” and bobbed my head towards the blondes.

“Taylor and Jackson Letchworth. The two with the black hair are Demi and Joe Carter. The woman by herself is my wife Renee,” Rip whispered.

Renee looked at me, her smile widening. “We’ve been expecting you. Alice Cullen told us you were coming.”

“Who is this girl?” Taylor asked in a rather snobby manner.

“This is Katie Vereeka,” Rip said. He put a hand on my shoulder. It made me realize how tall he was. I was only up to his mid-chest.

“That’s the Katie Vereeka we’ve been waiting for?” Taylor asked. “I pictured someone much taller."

I glared at her.

Renee saw my face. “Be nice Taylor,” she said.

Taylor rolled her eyes.

“Can you guys tell me who you are exactly?” I asked.

“We’re the Chicago Coven,” Joe said.

“But we don’t usually refer to ourselves as a coven,” Demi said.

“We refer to ourselves as a family,” Jackson said.

Jeez, it sounded like they were speaking from a script.

“Can I ask one question?” I asked.

“Of course,” Rip said, looking down at me.

“How do you know Alice Cullen?”

“We’re good friends with the Cullens,” Demi said.

“Well, I read all the Twilight books and apparently they’re true,” I said. “Carlisle invited a whole bunch of vampires to witness Renesmee. Why weren’t you there?”

“Didn’t she say she was going to ask onequestion?" Taylor whispered to Jackson.

“Taylor!” Renee scolded. Demi rolled her eyes.

“We met them two years later,” Rip Said.

“How tall is Renesmee now?” I asked.

“About the height of your average eight year old girl,” Rip said. He looked at his family. “I think it’s time to get Katie situated.”

They all nodded.

I followed Rip to the fourth floor. He guided me to the room that had a balcony. The walls were white and the couch that was in there was black. It sat behind a coffee table. CD and DVD racks were all over the place and on the wall hung a flat-screen TV. In the corner of the room was a piano keyboard.

“The keyboard was a gift from Edward Cullen,” Rip said.

“I don’t know how to play,” I said quietly.

Rip smiled and patted my back. “We’ll teach you.”

I walked farther into the room. The sun was brighter and it began to make my skin sparkle. Rip’s sparkled too as he followed me. I looked through CDs and DVDs. They were all some of my favorites.

“Alice told us you like all of these,” Rip said.

“How does she know so much about me?” I asked, still looking at the CDs.

“You’ve been in her visions since you were ten,” Rip said.

I looked at him, surprised. “Seriously?”

Rip nodded. “At least that’s what she told us.”

I walked over to the coffee table that was in front of the couch. I picked up the remote that lied on it and turned the flat-screen on. Pretty Little Liars was on. The HD was strong and perfect and the sound made me think I was in a movie theater.

“We also bought clothes for you and we put them in the closet,” Rip said.

“I don’t know how to thank you for all of this,” I said.

“Just joining our family and staying is enough,” Rip said.

I looked at him. “You sure?”

Rip chuckled while shaking his head. “Of course.”

Before he could realize what I was doing, I hugged him tightly. He picked me up and hugged me just as tight while I rested my head on his shoulder.

“I’m glad you came,” Rip said.

I smiled. “Me too.”

Rip put me down and patted my back. “Have fun,” he said. He walked out of my room.

I sat down on the couch, resting my feet against the coffee table. I watched the rest of the Pretty Little Liars episode. In the end, I ended up watching the whole marathon.

Two weeks passed. My blood diet wasn’t your average vampire diet. Most of the time I would drink animal blood but when I was too thirsty I went along with the Chicago Coven’s diet and drank human blood. Sometimes I felt bad for killing a human but other times my vampire nature took over and I didn't. Especially if the human was a douche bag.

I was also on the news every night. My parents had a search party looking for me. They found barely any evidence for where I could’ve gone. I’m not surprised. They just found some blood in the forest that belonged to me.

Man. Those gangbangers will be “innocent” forever and those search parties will be searching for eternity.

Rip and I were the only ones home while everyone else went hunting. Something was lingering on my mind. I stopped on the stairs and peered around the first floor. Rip was reading a newspaper in the kitchen they never used to cook in. I walked up to him.

He smiled at me. “Good morning.”

“Can I ask you something?” I asked, sitting at the island.

Rip put his newspaper down. “Ask away.”

“How did you meet the Cullens?”

“We just ran into them on a hunting trip one day,” Rip said. “My family and I were in Forks at the time.”

“Did you have a favorite?” I asked.

Rip chuckled. “I liked them all the same.”

“How was Alice?”

“She took a liking to us,” Rip said. “That’s probably why she told Jacob to tell you to head north. After the gangbanger incident she didn’t want you to stay in the south.”

“Do you know what happened to her after she bit me?”

Rip nodded. “She stopped by and told us before telling her family. She felt guilty about it. She was also scared for her family’s reaction. She knew they wouldn’t take it too well.”

I frowned. “What did she see them do to her?”

“She didn’t say. But she didn’t look too happy,” Rip said. “She’s scared about another thing too.”

“Which is…?”

“The demigods.”

I gave him a confused look. “The hell are those?”

“Have you ever read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books?" Rip asked.

I shook my head.

“Well, they’re about children who have one mortal parent and one immortal parent. That immortal parent is a Greek god,” Rip explained.

“Don’t tell me this series is real too,” I said.

“It is,” Rip said while nodding slowly.

“Why would Alice be afraid of them?” I asked.

“They’re out to get her,” Rip said.

“For what reason?”

“You know how the Volturi don’t like vampires that are younger than sixteen?”

I nodded.

“Luckily they don’t know about you,” Rip said. “But the demigods do and they agree with the Volturi’s rules. Instead of killing you though, they’re going to kill Alice for changing you. They’re giving you a chance.”

“Can’t we save Alice?” I asked, worried.

Rip shrugged. “Maybe. You could always use your powers Alice told us about to protect her. How strong is your future telling?”

I paused and searched. Visions of werewolves popped into my head.

“Well, I can see werewolves,” I said.

“Then your future telling is stronger than Alice’s. She can’t see werewolves,” Rip said.

“Can Alice see these demigod things?” I asked.

Rip shook his head. “She knows about them because of a letter she got. Rumor has it that they’re throwing a surprise party for a certain demigod soon. She’s very special though. Both her parents are Greek gods. Supposedly she’s the one to kill Alice.”

My eyes widened. “We need to find Alice!"

Rip chuckled. “Good luck with that. She ran away from home after her family found out what she did to you. No one has seen her since.” And with that, Rip walked up the stairs.

“But I will find her," I whispered to myself. "She's in my future."