Chapter 1
It was during the Great Depression, Carlisle, Esme, and I had finally convinced Rosalie and Emmet to exercise a margin of self-restraint long enough for them to be tolerable on our trip out west. The time had come for us to leave Chicago and its surrounding areas, not that we would be readily missed, the population had become increasingly transient as families were always looking for work, much less food and a more favorable climate than the cold winter that would soon be upon them. Of course, none of this truly mattered to our growing coven – we were vampires and could easily survive anywhere, just as long as no one noticed us glittering in the sunlight, or that we didn't age.
We traveled west to the Olympic Peninsula; it rained a great deal there and we wouldn't need to concern ourselves so much with endless days of sunshine. There was also a great deal of wild life for us to feed off of, unlike the majority of our kind; we chose not to feed off of the humans but animals. They sustained us; our eye color was also not as obvious as the tell-tale blood red of the others and allowed us to interact with the humans with greater ease. Things appeared to be going well on our move, until we were discovered by a local tribe of Indians – they called themselves Quileutes and had come across our kind in their past. A mated pair had decimated a large part of their tribe and they knew that they wanted nothing to do with our kind, and most certainly did not want us on their land. They also knew what it would take to kill us.
Carlisle spoke with them and convinced them that we would bring no harm to them, that we only hunted animals, not humans. The Quileute Chief and Carlisle formed a treaty stating that we were never to trespass on their lands, and that we were to never harm a human or they would expose us for what we were to the pale faces. While the tension would long remain, the treaty would allow us to have a peaceful existence in the area, and maybe even a real home. What hadn't been counted on was that our presence would have such a strong impact on this small tribe – they were shape shifters. When vampires were near their lands some of them transformed into large powerful wolves that were capable of killing our kind, not something we were accustomed to dealing with. We all wanted to live as close to normal as possible so we made sure we all abided by the rules that had been agreed to.
More than a month had passed since the treaty was made, and Esme had found the perfect spot for our new home, a small river ran just down the hill from where we had cleared the trees. There was a small town starting to develop far enough away that we wouldn't be easily noticed, but still close enough to interact with the humans if we wanted to. Carlisle always seemed to want to help them; he had studied medicine over the years and enjoyed it immensely. That was how he came upon me, my name is Edward by the way, when I was 17 and dying from the flu. It was also how he had come upon his mate, Esme – she had been presumed dead by the humans after her fall, but Carlisle had heard her heartbeat in spite of how faint it had been. They complimented each other well; they were both very kind and giving and had basically taken on the role of being my parents. Rosalie was a slightly different story – we don't talk about it much, very sad really, but Carlisle had hoped she and I would become mates after he found her, nearly dead, and changed her. Things didn't work out that way though. We seemed to annoy each other more like siblings tend to rather than find anything irresistible about each other. One day she carried Emmet out of the woods after he had been attacked by a bear asking Carlisle to save him. They've been mates ever since, and ironic as it may sound, bear is Emmet's favorite thing to hunt.
After a couple of weeks had passed, the house was finished to Esme's satisfaction and we had settled in. The hunting was plentiful, and the area was quite beautiful with the mountains and forests. We didn't bother with the beach; it was off limits in accordance with the treaty. The Quileute weren't thrilled with our decision to stay in the area, but we kept to our end of the bargain and as time went on, they started to accept the possibility that we would stay true to our word and not harm any humans.
