Immortal Imprint

"Congrats!" Emmett exclaimed, whilst throwing his bulky arm around the small yet undeterred shoulders of the newly fed Nova. "That was pretty impressive for your first hunt."

"He's right," Esme abruptly joined in, gently placing her hand on Nova's back as they opted for a slow stroll back towards the Cullen's house. "It was extremely brave of you to take on a stag of that size as your first kill."

Despite smiling and thanking them in return for their kind and reassuring words, Nova couldn't help but feel slightly sicken at the recollection of what she had just done.

At the time it was all just seemed like a blur to her; as if she was looking on helplessly from outside her body as her uninhabited anatomy stalked up behind the innocently grazing stag. Pouncing at it from behind and effortlessly snapping of its antlers so that it didn't pose a threat to her whilst she sunk her teeth deep into the flesh of the stags neck, lapping up the delicious taste of its warm blood flowing down her esophagus- appeasing the burning feeling that had been bubbling in the base of her throat since awakening less then thirty minutes before.

Paul wasted no time in heeding Edwards warning and stormed out of the house without even giving Nova a second glance. Only for her to watch him phase merely seconds after his feet touched the dirt ground, knowing that it was because of her re-birth that his inner-wolf couldn't control itself.

Jacob explained it was only natural for him to phase like he had, what with his internal instincts of protect and kill conflicting. Before also pointing out that he was amazed at the amount of self-control Paul had gained to hold it off long enough till he was safety outside and away from her.

That struck a cord with Nova as she and Paul had often spent late nights taking about him becoming stronger in controlling his temper and restraining the timings of which he phased. All of which he had been trying to do in the hopes of one day leaving Sams pack to lead a happy and normal life with her.

Something which -as she thought harder about it as the trio neared the house- she knew could never happen now.

"I hear congratulations are in order," the softly spoken voice of Carlisle spoke, appearing at the front door just as Nova, Emmett and Esme climbed the steps to reach him. "A stag? Not bad."

"How did you know?" Nova questioned with furrowed brows, suddenly realizing some of the Cullen's had a habit of knowing things without being told. Edward explaining to her why Bella's eye were also red when she mentally questioned it and him clarifying that the sweet scent she could smell lingering in the house was human blood which belonged to their hybrid daughter Renesmee, being the other few occasions she picked up on it.

"Edward. Both he and Alice are gifted," Carlisle explained, leading Nova upstairs into parts of the house she had never ventured to before. After Paul's sharp exit, the Cullen's decided it would also be best for Nova to feed before even the subtle smell of Renesmee's blood became to unbearable to ignore. "Edward can hear peoples thoughts and Alice has visions of the future."

"Is that why they sometimes glint a different color and the rest of you don't? Because they're gifted?" Nova had noticed flickers of colors coming off around Edward and Alice when she first saw them after coming round from the venom. But with so much going on in what with Paul leaving and having to grasp her own head around becoming immoral, she hadn't had much time to think a lot of it until now.

Coming to a standstill halfway up the second flight of stairs, Carlisle turned to Nova with his eyebrows now knitted together in confusion. "You can see the colors of their gifts?"

The question took Nova by surprise and triggered a strange sense of fear within her, fearing there was something even more abnormal about her other then just being immortal. "Cant you?"

"No," Carlisle immediately replied, only adding to Nova's anxiety. "Clearly you possess a gift of your own. Eleazar, one of our cousins from Denali, has the ability to identify gifts. Perhaps you can too." Despite his words coming as a shock to Nova, she still found herself smiling somewhat of a introverted smile at the thought of being gifted.

As Nova slowly paced the length of the room she had been generously given after Edward and Bella's move into the small cottage a little way deeper into the woods, she couldn't stop herself from casting her mind back onto her earlier conversation with Carlisle. There was no way for them to be sure whether her gift truly was ability identification, which is what Eleazar referred to it as when Carlisle spoke with him over the phone a short while after Nova professed her unforeseen talent.

Eleazar said he could sometimes see the colors of immortals gifts, but it rarely worked that way for him. Normally he could just sense it; one look at a person and he could identify the gift they had, if any at all.

But Nova couldn't do that. She couldn't identify their gifts, only their gifts color.

Continuing to pace lost in thought, Nova suddenly became alert to the sound of twigs snapping under the weight of heavy footsteps. Through the darkness she could just about notice the subtle rhythmical movements of leaves attached to low-grown bushes and trees which looked to be caused by the stabilized breathing of something or someone.

She didn't need to be submerged in a whiff of his strangely ghastly yet alluring scent to know that it was Paul watching her from afar.

And despite her uncertainty of how he would react when confronted with her again, Nova didn't hesitate in flitting out to find him.