Noonday Sun
A Fanfiction Book
Roseanne Evans Wilkins
Noonday Sun: A Fanfiction Book
Roseanne Evans Wilkins
Cover Design by Create Space
This is a fanfiction book and is not available for retail sale. Purchase of this book is strictly prohibited. No monetary gain of any kind is to be gained through the sharing of this work.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This is not an official publication of Stephenie Meyer or her publisher, Little, Brown, or anyone associated with them.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price are copyrighted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © 1981 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book is dedicated to
Stephenie Meyer,
without whose characters this story
could never have been told
and to
Beth who saw the vision
and helped me continue
and
to Craig
who dazzled me the first time I saw him
and who continues to dazzle me
I love you
To some it is given by the Holy Ghost
to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
and that he was crucified for the sins of the world.
To others it is given to believe
on their words,
that they also
might have
eternal life
Doctrine and Covenants 46:13-14
Prologue
The Cullen/Volturi incident had taken the vampire world by storm. There had been nearly fifty vampire witnesses at the event, and it had been like watching meiosis in action. You could see the birth of a new vampire world taking place, and it wasn’t the ugly, monstrous world that everyone had thought it was. Suddenly vampires all over the world were seeing the distinct, human possibilities in their monster world. It was like the morning sun after the breaking dawn. Things as they were didn’t have to be.
The absolute love and devotion of the Cullens and their family had impacted the vampire world like nothing in the history of the world—with one exception. The birth of the first vampire. But that was another—an unknown, and vampires had been too tied to their insatiable appetites to focus on the beginning. But this was a new world, with new rules, and Carlisle had begun the search…
Chapter 1, Dartmouth
Hanover, New Hampshire. Home of Dartmouth College. At the normal, human rate of travel, Boston was just two hours away, Montreal three, and five hours to New York City—not that we ever felt a need to go to The City. Canada was the preferred location. There was plenty of wildlife there to hunt.
My forever eighteen-year-old face was reflected back at me from the jumbo jet’s window. I still wasn’t accustomed to the white skin, the eerily attractive features. Little pieces of my human self had survived. My long mahogany hair was the same. My lower lip was still a little too full to match my upper lip, and the shape of my brow was the same as my human one, but the stunningly attractive beauty staring back at me still seemed alien. I was grateful the freaky red eyes had faded into a color closer to Edward’s golden ones. It was our shared vegetarian diet that colored our eyes—vampire vegetarian, anyway. Those of us that chose to dine on animal rather than human blood shared the golden eyes. Mine were closer to a soft Topaz. I was still only a few months old. It took time for the initial horror red to fade.
I shivered in anticipation. The plane would be landing in Boston in a few minutes, and I wasn’t sure how ready I was to accept the changes in my life. I still wasn’t accustomed to traveling first class. This flight would have seemed a lot longer in coach. As it was, the flight was over before I was ready to get off.
Edward, a lock of his forever seventeen-year-old bronze hair falling forward, squeezed my hand with his long pale fingers. He sensed rather than heard my agitation. He could hear the thoughts of everyone else who shared the jet with us, but he’d never been able to hear my thoughts until I learned how to lift my shield. I was too distracted to attempt lifting it just then.
Jacob, my Quileute shape-shifting nearly-seven-foot-tall future son-in-law, and Renesmee—Nessie now, even to me—were in the row ahead of us, Nessie’s head snuggled against Jacob’s shoulder. Her bronze curls framed her perfect face.
Will I ever get over the wonder of her face? Her beautiful skin was slightly luminescent, but nothing that would keep her out of the sun. She looked about six even though she was only a few months old. Voicing my thoughts, I said, “Nahuel reached full maturity at the age of seven. I’m just waiting for Nessie’s growth to slow down. His aunt didn’t really say what his growth rate was through infancy. I never thought to ask him if his sisters’ development differed from his. He didn’t seem to like them very much, so I didn’t want to pry…” Nahuel and his three sisters were the only other half immortal beings I’d ever heard about, and Nahuel was about 150 years old.
A familiar crease formed between Edward’s eyes. “I didn’t think to ask, either. I was just relieved that her abnormally fast development was… typical.” His lips turned into a small smile. “As if ‘typical’ can be used to describe Nessie.”
We had never thought in our wildest imaginings that our vampire family could include a child. Of course, I had been human when we were first married, but we didn’t know that a vampire could conceive a child with a human. I hadn’t even wanted to be a mom when we were first married. I just wanted to be with Edward—forever. It was Edward who’d brought up the subject of me and children.
I never really wanted any, but the moment I felt Nessie’s first nudge, I loved her with the same intensity that I loved Edward. It had been very difficult for Edward to watch me dying while I carried his child, and he had to transform me into a vampire to survive the birth, but our beloved daughter was the light of both our lives.
The landing gear touched down. What will my new life bring?
We worked our way through the airport. It had been a late flight so the normal daytime airport traffic was reduced to an occasional weary passenger. At the exit was a tall man in a black uniform. “Cullen” glared darkly on the whiteboard he held to his chest. I looked over at Edward, one perfect eyebrow raised in a silent question.
Even though he couldn’t hear my thoughts, he could read my face, and he replied, “I had a limousine ordered to drive us home. Our cars will be in the garage.”
Of course, that made sense. Uniforms just made me nervous. They reminded me of the Volturi.
I had a constant, nagging worry about the Volturi. I knew they would be back, sometime. Aro wanted Alice and Edward in his guard. The Volturi had never run away from a battle. But they had run from us, and they were scheming. I was sure of it. I knew Aro feared us. He knew Alice would be watching for their move and that we would be prepared for whatever they planned to do. Alice’s ability to see the future would prevent him from launching a sneak attack.
He also needed more weapons. I had effectively shut his worst ones down. My shield had bested him. Bella Cullen besting Aro Volturi. Weird. I was sure he wished he’d killed me the day I’d gone to Italy to save Edward, but Aro’s desire to see how my skills would develop as a vampire had convinced him to wait. My strange ability to block Edward had extended to Aro and Jane and Alec and Chelsea. I was sure I could’ve handled Renata, as well, but I was never given the chance
.
We didn’t have any luggage. I suspected Alice had arrived previously and filled our closets to bursting. She had a peculiar view of clothing as being disposable. I could picture her, her small pixie-like body neatly ordering all the piles of clothes she’d had delivered. Her dark hair would’ve been in her normal spike, and her vampire beauty would’ve been in sharp contrast to her business-like attitude. Clothing is a serious business for her. I smiled at the vision. Alice is my best friend. I will miss her.
As we approached the uniformed man, his eyes revealed a sudden hint of fear. Jacob towered over him, and his t-shirt and sweats couldn’t hide his muscles. Edward’s cat-like grace and vampire features shouted danger to any normal human. The man swallowed, then said in a perfectly-controlled voice, “Cullen party?”
Edward nodded curtly, and the chauffer led us out to the waiting limousine.
I watched through the dark limousine glass as we drove through Boston. We would be in Hanover in a couple of hours. The airport in Lebanon was just ten minutes from Dartmouth, but it was a smaller airport and didn’t accommodate the bigger jets. We hadn’t wanted to take a puddle jumper with Nessie aboard.
“Our place is near Fletcher Reservoir,” Edward volunteered when I turned to him.
The driver turned into the overgrown track that served as the drive to our house. It wound through the trees and reminded me of the drive to Carlisle and Esme’s home.
Carlisle had created my Edward and his own wife, Esme. He only used his venom as a last resort. Both of them were nearly dead when he’d created them. I could picture them, Carlisle’s golden hair like a halo around his head with his arm around Esme, her heart-shaped face and caramel-colored hair reminding me of the silent-movie era. My throat constricted. I miss them already.
We broke through into a clearing to face a beautiful two-story home. The rock walls were softened by ivy, and it reminded me of our cottage in Forks. This home was definitely bigger, though. I bit back my protest. Nessie would need the space. She was growing fast, and Jacob made any room seem small. He was as much a part of her life as Edward and I were.
Billy had taken Jacob’s moving to New Hampshire in stride. As his father, he understood the whole imprinting thing, but Charlie had a hard time understanding why Jacob, my former boyfriend, would feel the need to travel to Dartmouth with us.
He had seen Jacob transform into an enormous wolf—as big as a horse—so he knew Jacob wasn’t exactly what he seemed, but he failed to see why I’d need to have Jacob hanging out with Edward and me.
We didn’t think it was wise to explain that Jacob had imprinted on Nessie. It had weirded me out. There was no way Dad would understand, so we said we were hiring Jacob to watch Nessie for us and left it at that. Jacob was the best protector we could ever have for her.
As dark as it was, our departure from the limousine didn’t alarm the chauffer. A daytime departure would’ve required us to be in cloaks. Our vampire skin would’ve glistened like diamonds in the sun.
He held his face expressionless.
I’m impressed with his control. It isn’t every day you meet someone as breathtaking as Edward.
Edward’s perfect lips were twitching.
My brow furrowed, “What’s so funny?”
“He had a hard time keeping his eyes off you.” He bent to kiss me. “You’re a stunning sight, Mrs. Cullen.”
I smiled. I love that name.
We watched the driver move his long sleek car around the curved drive for the return trip. I looked up at Edward. “I think I can do this.” For the first time, I actually felt excited about the prospect of attending Dartmouth.
Edward reached around my waist and gave it a squeeze. “I’ve always known that,” he said, a smile sounding in his voice. “That cell assignment was a clincher for me.”
He tapped my nose gently, both of us remembering our high school biology class. My memories were dim, blurred by the blunt human senses I had then. Edward’s were clear.
I envied him his earliest memories of our time together. I had to work hard to retain them. I had discovered that writing them down helped, and so I had started my life book. I wanted to keep it for Nessie.
He paused a moment, then continued, “I know I was planning on taking some classes with you, but Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has a world-class reputation. I’d hate to miss this opportunity, so I have arranged a residency there. I have two graduate medical degrees. It’s time to get the experience I need to become a physician.”
I pulled away, startled. “Can you do that?” I asked, incredulous. “All that blood…”
Edward grinned. “I discovered after delivering Nessie, human blood doesn’t have the pull for me that it used to. Having the sweetest blood imaginable surrounding me and being able to take care of your needs and ignoring my own was a… turning point. Human blood just isn’t the same.”
I shuddered at the unbidden memory of me drowning in blood. Nessie had shown me the image she remembered at her birth, and the blood had been pouring from me. Edward’s quick action had saved my life. I had only moments…
“Wow. A doctor.” I looked up at him adoringly. “I always thought you were amazing. Now I know.”
Edward smiled down at me. I could see the excitement in his face. His resemblance to Carlisle was unmistakable.