Dark Moon Arisen

Chapter Seven: So, Hey, Guess What? I'm a Vampire

Harrison Cullen's POV

Explaining Algebra 2 really isn't the best way to spend your day, but hey, I'm alright doing that if it makes Rose mad at me for jeopardizing everything. Pushing her buttons is a fun pastime. Plus, it might lead to me spending time with a certain human… but that is not my motivation. No, spending time with humans is a bad idea. I looked up at the clock. 3:45 PM. Not bad.

"I don't think I've ever finished my stuff this early. Ever."

I grinned sarcastically. "And all you have left is five chapters in Lord of the Flies."

"Uh. God, don't remind me… I hate school assigned books. They suck hardcore-like."

"They suck hardcore-like?" I questioned, one eyebrow arched.

She nodded. "It's true. They suck hardcore-like. Books like Lord of the Flies are too British to translate into English that is understandable by us normal human beings known as Americans."

"Hey! I'm a Brit and I speak perfect American. Don't loop all us Brits in with bad authors that critics love and everyone else wants to lynch!"

She nodded in agreement. "True, true. But, you sound American and stuff. You're like… British Light. You're an Americanized version of British. You're bastardized British-"

I cut her off. "Alright, alright, I get it. I act like an American. Blame it on Emmett."

"You blame everything on him."

"And I tend to be right often too. It works though. Even if I'm wrong people believe me. Blame it on Emmett and you will seldom be questioned."

She shrugged. "I can't keep working. My brain might possibly spontaneously combust inside my skull."

"I highly doubt that but whatever you say."

Christine shoved herself off the couch and wandered into her kitchen. "Want a soda? We got Coke, Dr. Pepper…" I denied the beverage. "Are you anorexic or something? I've never seen you eat anything. It's plain weird." I paused, aww shit… "Or is our normal people food too good for your British fancy-ass self?"

"Second one." I leaned on the counter.

"Makes sense." She struggled to pop the stubborn tab on her Dr. Pepper before she tossed it at my head. "Open." I rolled my eyes and tried to open it without mangling the thin aluminum can. It exploded all over my leather jacket. "Aww, crap. Sorry." She grabbed the can back and toweled off my jacket.

"It's fine… really." I took off the jacket and stuck the sleeve under the tap to get the sticky sugary drink off. "See? Problem solved."

Christine's POV

I grabbed his jacket and was a little confused. I'd seen him wearing it for a few hours straight, and it was icy cold, like when I grabbed my coat in the morning… I brushed the oddity out of mind. I dried it and handed it back, even as he said he didn't mind me getting Dr. Pepper off something that probably cost a couple hundred dollars. After all, the guy drove a Jaguar XKR.

Harry shrugged on his jacket and adjusted it. "No harm done." He grinned, and for the first time I felt a little unnerved around him. No way he was this utterly unaffected all the time. He was continuously cheery. It was odd.

I pushed that thought away and wiped the beads of soda off the can and slowly took a drink, studying the rather odd person in front of me. I made a mental list of oddities. 1) His jacket was icy cold, even when worn for an extended period of time. 2) He was weirdly perfect, both damn good-looking and rich and nice. 3) He was freakishly pale with permanent bags under his eyes. 4) Those eyes… some days warm butterscotch some days black as night. 5) He was Harry. That totally counts too. 6) He was, unsettling. Sometimes I got the heebie-jeebies and creepy-crawly vibes from him. Mostly when he smiled. Definitely not a normal reaction to a hot guy smiling at you. And finally, a big one. 7) I still really don't remember the entire drive back from Port Angeles, despite Dr. Cullen's assurance it would slowly return bit by bit. Like, a sudden memory of a song on the radio. I don't even recall if the radio was even on! It's too weird for me to forget. Can I forget that I forgot something…? Now, I can't say that is Harry's fault. But, there is also the fact that I supposedly was raving about how Harry ripped the door off the car, yet never remember doing it, and that me suddenly forgetting that fact came directly after a visit from Harry. Does that fact count as number 8?

I guess so, either way, there is no way on Earth Harry is a 'normal' person. Who is normal anyways? I'll settle for Harry being more insane than the average person.

Harrison Cullen's POV

I sighed as I tried to decipher the odd look Christine was giving me. Finally she spoke. "Does your dad know that you're about to drop dead?" I gave her an honestly confused look. "I'm trying to figure out something." I waited for her to elaborate. "See, your jacket, the inside where Harry goes, was freezing cold." Shit… bad things. "And, you've been wearing that for hours. It should be nice and warm. But it's not." She paused, "So… I figure, he has to be dying or something weird like that."

"I have an abnormally low body temperature, therefore I'm dying?" I laughed a little as I followed, or tried to follow, her logic. "Seems logical. Let's go with I'm dying."

"It was either that or, like, you're a zombie. The undead and crap like that. I went with you being on the path to being dead." Zombie was a bit closer; I chose to not point that out. I wonder if I qualify as the reanimated dead. But I was never in a coffin or morgue… Esme was though. She wasn't actually dead at that point… Hmm. "So, again. Does your dad know your dying?"

"Not yet. My doctor told me, Dr. Cullen's really big on the whole doctor/patient thing so he didn't tell my mom and dad. I just don't have the heart to break it to them that I'm dying. Don't worry though, I've got a least a week." I put on a big happy grin. "Wanna go skydiving with me?"

She thought on it, took a drink of her soda. "I've got a test, and if I die without taking it I may return as a zombie and roam the world looking for math teachers to eat."

"So, you're going skydiving then doing humanitarian work, correct?"

"Pretty much." She only held a straight face for about three seconds, then regained her composure. "Okay, so, what's with the weirdness Harry?"

I thought on it. "I'm a vampire. See, Carlisle was born in the sixteen hundreds and was the only child of a minister obsessed with things that go bump in the night. And, when daddy got old, Carlisle took over the family business and was a huge disappointment 'cause he wasn't a crazy lunatic killing people with bad breath who hated garlic or had weird fetishes for wolves." That got a little laugh. "So, one day, he found a real vampire in the sewers. Nasty thing, probably had a bunch of little crawly things living on it." I wriggled my fingers for added effect on the crawly things part. "Anyways, Carlisle got bit and knew he would be killed for being contaminated and crap.

"So, he spent three days in a basement turning into a vampire himself under a pile of rotting potatoes. Fun, right? Carlisle led a charmed life." I paused, then continued. "Anyways, he knew what he was, so he tried to kill himself. Jumped off cliffs, drowned himself, starved himself. Nothing worked. We're tuff fuckers. So, yeah. He was depressed and in the woods when an unfortunate deer walked by and Carlisle ate it. Well, drank the blood. It was then when a little light went off and he realized, 'Well shit. I don't have to eat people. I'll eat innocent deer.' Venison isn't the best, I by far prefer wolves and bears and such.

"So, time passes, and Carlisle atones for his evilness by helping people. He curbs his thirst for unconventional beverages and become Dr. Carlisle Cullen. It was in doing this he met our dear friend Eddy. Eddy was dying of the Spanish Influenza in Chicago in a hospital was where Carlisle was working nights. For the sake of keeping things in order this was 1918. Anyways, Eddy's mommy told Dr. Cullen to save her little boy by any means necessary. Now, I'm not sure she realized the consequences, but we unfortunately got saddled with a sad emo baby vampire known as Edward Mason, now Edward Cullen.

"Now, Eddy was the first of us Cullen kiddies. Shortly thereafter, Carlisle met this girl. Now, Carlisle is a predator. This guy is like, 300 years old hitting on young 20-somethings. Bad man, that Carlisle. So, this girl, let's call her Esme, decides to go cliff diving without attaching a bungee rope. Unpleasant, but true. Actually, she was hiking and there was a rock slide… but hey. My story works too. Anyways, Carlisle says, 'OMG. Hot piece of ass gonna die, gotta save her and add to my small army of the undead!' So, us kiddies got a mommy!

"Then, Carlisle is walking home and smells blood. Oh shit, somebody decided to mug Rosie. Shocking? Not at all. Some of us, namely me, wouldn't mind doing it today. Now, Rosie would've died given the technology of 1920's America and Carlisle didn't realize that she was a real b- wait. Should watch my language.

"So, yeah. We got stuck with her. Then, she's out and about in the woods in 1935 when she sees this boy getting mauled by a bear he picked a fight with. She thinks he's like a cuddly toy or something, kills the bear and can't turn him, so the carries him two miles to Carlisle and begs him to make her a sex slave and boom! We've got Emmett. Then, in the late 50's, 1958 to be exact, we get accosted by this freaky little demon pixie thing who claims she's seen the future and we let her live with us and she's hauling around this guy who looks like he's in physical pain, I believe it's 'cause he's with Alice. Anyways, we get stuck with an actual emo known as Jasper who got turned because he's a man whore who decided it'd be fun to sleep with random women walking around the barren wastelands of Texas. And, then Alice who I believe came from a mental institution but I've got no proof.

"So, we became the Hales because Rosie is a stuck up b- really need to stop cussing, and the Cullen's 'cause of Carlisle. And, then, not too long ago Carlisle actually found me mostly dead in an alleyway, molested me in the backseat of his Mercedes and brought me home like I was some lost puppy he found in a sewer gutter and was like, 'Can we keep him? Pretty please?' So, yeah, I was like, oh shit who are these people and ran off and killed a moose and was pretty freaked out and ran back and demanded to know what they did to me." I nodded at the conclusion of my story. "That's about it."

"You killed a moose?"

"Elk actually… However, I find it odd that's what you question out of my whole story."

She shrugged. "I'll admit it was rather entertaining to hear about emo baby vampires but all things considered, it makes a fair amount of sense. Explains your weirdness and stuff."

Well, telling the truth got me pretty far. "Want to see me put my fist through a tree?"

She laughed at my offer and threw her now empty soda into a recycle bin in the corner. "Sure, right after you go find another moose for lunch."

"More like dinner actually. But hey, when moose blood is on the menu…"

"Sounds tempting but I'll pass."

"You're missing out."

"So why did Carlisle molest you in a car?"

"He bit me to turn me into a vampire. Y'know, normal stuff and all. Oddly, nobody ever believes me when I tell the truth."

"And rockslides and muggings?"

"It's true, Carlisle only turns almost dead people."

"And Emmett tried to wrestle a bear?"

I laughed. "Pretty much everyone else I changed their death scene a little due to politeness but that, that is one hundred and ten percent correct."

She rolled her eyes. "Does being a vampire make you have funky eyes?"

"No. Being a nice non people eating vampire makes me have funky eyes. See, I only eat animals, hence the gold eyes and no creepy glow-y red ones. And, if you're wondering, they turn blacker and blacker the longer I go between meals."

She gave me a weird look. I wonder if she almost believed me there for half a second as normal people's eyes don't change. "Garlic? Coffins? Bursting into dust in sun? Bursting into dust if you're staked?"

I shook my head. "In order: No, it just smells bad, we don't sleep, period, and the last two are only true in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"Where's your fangs?"

Laughing, I gave a logical response. "Now really, I try and fit in and not chased by lynch mobs here, 'kay? How 'effin discrete are giant ass teeth?"

She nodded. "True, very true. Do you turn into a bat or wolf?"

"Do I look like a werewolf? Do I smell like a mangy beast? No." I'd forgotten about bats. "Stick around long enough and I may turn into a bat but that has nothing to do with vampirism." Magic is pretty impressive.

"You make a pretty lame vampire."

"And we haven't even gotten to the whole glitter part."

"Glitter?"

"Remind me to show you one day. It's like… vampires if vampires were part of Rent…"

I couldn't keep a straight face after that. Neither could Christine and I was all but rolling on the floor. "A-alright." I tried to calm my laughter. "Now, I'm serious. Vampires. Anymore stereotypes you're interested in?"

"Anne Rice?"

"Crackpot. Although… we do tend to have incredible powers of seduction." I threw her a long look that got an arched eyebrow in response. "Damn. Anyways. We don't go kill a giant ass moose a night. It's just plain inconvenient. More like a week and a half to two weeks depending on the vampire."

"Interesting. Can I come?"

"Nope. I may accidentally eat you. It's true."

"Damn…"

"That it?"

"You mentioned fists through trees?"

Thinking on it I paused. "Ah, I could, but I may miscalculate… I could possibly make a whole lotta match sticks and toothpicks."

"Interesting…" She looked over at her backpack. "Feel like filling me in on Lord of the Flies…? I really don't have time to read it."

I laughed. She so did not believe me on the whole vampire thing. "You so have enough time to read it. You're a lazy ass person is all." She shrugged and tossed me the paperback. "Hmm… in chapter one we meet our cast of mildly homosexual males who swim naked in pools of water and blow things…" I paused at her laughing. "What? You're thinking inappropriate things, huh? It was a conch shell geeze, they're like, eleven or twelve…"

"Y'know, we're past this part and like, are on chapter fifteen."

"But my version is so much better…"

_-_-_-_

Well, things hadn't moved to far forward with Christine because yeah, if she actually touched me she might notice I'm about like, fifty or so degrees… That would lead her to the conclusion that I'm not a normal person with funny stories about how my entire adoptive family is a bunch of vampires. So… no moving past good friends anytime soon. Or ever if I can keep myself in check…

Ha. Fat chance of that ever happening.

So, here I found myself in Port Angeles heading to my car twirling my keys before I hopped into the driver's side. I hadn't shut the door and some punk hopped out of his own car waving a gun yelling me to leave my keys and leave the Jag. I sighed and got out when a second idiot jumped out with another gun pointed at Christine who'd backed away from the car too.

"Hey man. I don't want any trouble. Just leave and you were never here."

He didn't like that and shoved his gun at my chest. "I'm the one with a gun here man! Give me your keys and you wallet!"

I looked over to where the second punk had his gun waving around too. "You really need to back away kid."

"How old are you anyways? Eighteen? I said give me your wallet you little fuck!"

"Go back to your-"

He placed the barrel against my forehead. "Shut up you fuck! I'll shoot!"

"I really don't doubt that. It'd be a very bad idea though. Now, go back to your car-" That was as far as I got before the force of a point blank shot from a 9mm caused me to fall flat on my ass and to have a bullet sticking out of my head. "HARRY!" Crap. She thinks I'm dead. Not quite though.

I yanked the bullet out and tossed it at the idiot. I stood up, pissed look on my face. "Now." I grabbed the gun out of his hands as he stuttered in shock. "Leave." I bent the gun in half and threw it into my car. I smelled urine as him and his friend booked it in the opposite direction, towards his car. Of course he just kept going.

Now this screws things up. "I- I saw you get shot! You- you yanked a bullet out of your head! What the fuck are you!" Christine backed up until she hit the closed store's front.

"Calm down. Really, I can explain-" It looks bad that I have a dent from where he hit me.

Her heart pounded loudly and I swallowed venom. I could smell fear rolling off her and some primal part of being roared inside my chest and liked it. Most of me was panicked. "Listen… you asked me what was wrong with me-"

"V-vampires aren't real!"

"Yet I just got shot and I'm standing here perfectly okay in front of you." I paused. "I- I'm not normal. My real name was Harry James Potter and I was born in England in 1980. I should be in my twenties, yet I'm not. This all seems surreal yet… it's all true."

She looked at me, completely terrified. "At least let me drive you home, alright? You're an hour drive away. If you called somebody to come get you it'd take an hour at least. We can talk in the car where it's warm." I opened up the door and half pushed her in. I got in my side. The last thing I need is a ticket… "Seatbelt." I sighed and reached over and buckled it. She tensed as I got near and it was not helping my self control. "Listen. You thought I was joking earlier… I wasn't. I've never lied about it. You thought it wasn't real though, because it sounds impossible. It seemed… impossible when I was turned but, I was living it. I had to accept it. Live with this…" I didn't have words for my current state.

"I- I just want to go home Harry." Groaning I turned my key in the ignition and revved the engine before taking off down the streets, this time at the legal speed. I pulled up at the curb in front of her house a little under an hour later.

"It seems kind of obvious, but I'd appreciate if you didn't mention this yeah? You'd get called insane, my family would move, again. We do try and not get discovered and run out of every city we move to."

"Then why the hell did you get me involved?"

I stared down at my steering wheel. "I- I really don't know. But I'm sorry. It's not fair, to you, my family." My phone flashed a new text on the center console. 'Keep talking.' "I really shouldn't have said anything; this was all a bad idea." What was I supposed to say? Goddamn Alice getting my hopes up. Christine reached for her door handle. "Wait." I scrambled for something to say… anything. "Just, I was an idiot." This was really awkward and I needed to stop stalling. "I just… had this stupid ass idea that I wasn't a danger to the people, humans, I got close to and all… I used to have friends and living in a bubble with the occasional other vampire we run into and my family is difficult. It's hard to have a life ahead of you one day and have it ripped away the next. I don't blame them. If not for him I'd be six feet under. Yet… unlike every other person I've met you didn't shy away from me. Didn't respond with fear like everyone else does. I put you in a bad spot and I'm sorry."

She'd paused at least and looked like she was thinking. Maybe spinning the depressed Harry who was just looking for friends was working? Possibly. "Why… how… it doesn't make sense." I looked around for a demonstration object, picked up my phone, then crushed it into a powder. "How… how can that… it's not possible."

"More like it shouldn't be possible. Look around. Carlisle is an amazing doctor yet we're in Forks because well, we need cloud cover. We're rich because we've had 300 years to accumulate wealth. We don't buy food if we live in the middle of nowhere. And… we all have the same eye color. We're all freakishly pale. And there's the rumors that Esme and Carlisle don't care that Rose and Emmet are secretly together and same with Alice and Jasper. Now that shouldn't be true, yet, sadly it is."

"Sadly?"

"I can take a bullet, crush a phone and have supersonic hearing and that's bad in a house of couples." I shuffled my feet. "But more than anything, just… don't say a word. We'd like not having to leave town early. Carlisle and Esme like it here and Alice says to stay here for the next couple of years for some reason. Rose hates moving all the time anyways…" I trailed off. I don't want to be the reason we move yet again. This was my first town, I don't want to start off on the wrong note.

"You- you really are… you're a- a va-vampire" Christine stumbled over her words. "How come you crashed a car then? And were hurt?"

"I actually wasn't hurt, Carlisle faked my medical exams. And I didn't crash my car. Ah, y-you were driving. See, I went to your room to tell you to not say anything about how a dove headfirst through a car door and apparently. Okay, well, see some of us have-" I looked for a word. "Well, we have special abilities. Alice is a psychic, Jasper can read emotions and manipulate them to his will, Edward is telepathic. Me, I can change people's memories. I didn't realize I could do this, and might have accidentally altered your memories to the story I was telling people. I really didn't mean to and I didn't realize I'd did it until I had already done it… sorry."

"Y-you altered my memories?!"

I winced. "I didn't mean to… I'd never done it before. I've only been a vampire for under a decade. It takes some adjusting to." I stared at my shoes. "If I can figure out how to reverse it I will."

"How'd you do it the first time?"

"Stare at people and tell them what I want them to think."

"Do the opposite. I want my real memories."

I rolled my eyes. Such a stupid method wouldn't work. I looked at her. "Fine. I want whatever freaky mind-spells I used to not be there."

"That's really nice and all but how about trying?"

I sighed, then concentrated. "Umm. Let's see. I never placed any memory altering effects on you. When I went to your room in the hospital we talked about our cover story, yet I didn't alter any memories. You remember what really happened." I waited. "Did it work?"

"No."

"Damn. You have to relearn stick shift then."

"Says who?" She pointed out the different gear positions. "Wait… when the hell did I learn that?"

"Uh, earlier this year?" I bit my lip. "Maybe… maybe it's like… unraveling whatever I did…" Silence fell over the car. "Sorry about that. Jasper and I are figuring out what happens when I do it and we'll start working on reversing effects."

"You were going to leave me with fake memories?"

"Their plan not mine." I said quickly. "I think it's a bad idea. I don't know if it has long term repercussions and such. I've never altered people's memories. Right now I'm giving Jasper nightmares. Adding disturbing memories of Emmett and him dancing naked in the woods…" I grinned and laughed. "There's a difference between adding and changing and deleting and such."

"You said you don't sleep."

"We don't. I think Jasper is grateful of that." Sighing I stared at my roof. "So, pretty soon whatever I did should go away. I never meant to do it in the first place." I twidled my thumbs and in my head I jokingly thought that something wicked this way comes. Maybe Rose… she's wicked. And evil, mostly evil though.

"If you don't, I'm going to start stalking up on like, elephant guns since handguns don't work."

"For the record, buckshot tickles."

"Really?"

"No, but it's annoying to pick out of my chest." I scratched where Emmett shot me. I looked down at my now ripped shirt. "Dammit."

"That's…"

"Annoying mostly. Should've seen how many door handles I crushed. Esme bought them in bulk when I was around." I rubbed my neck. "So… are we… okay? Sort of? I mean, I'd beat myself up if you were mad at me or like, scared I'd eat you. For the record I could've done it multiple times so you can safely say it's not in my plans."

"Yeah, it's just… not expected. I heard high school is tuff and all, but I don't think most people plan to have their friends come out of the vampire closet to them and all. It's not that common…"

"I'd have to agree. For normal humans that is. At the school I went to… It could've happened and not too many heads would turn." That got me an odd look. "I'll explain later. Promise." I stared down at my hands. "Just for the record though… I- uh." I was never good this sort of thing. "I'm out of the vampire closet and all… so, there's not the whole freak out moment when I turn out to be ice cold and all. So… what's the current policy on dating vampire guys?" Wow that's a bad 'hey wanna go out?' line…

"Depends on the vampire guy."

Is that a yes, no or possibly so long as there a no more weirdness with you? "A particular vampire guy with a really cool Jag and a cool British accent."

"Current policy is vampire guys with really cool Jags and British accents tend to have really annoying mind control powers that they don't know how to use and that tick people off."

"Well, what if I promise to never ever alter this memory?" I leaned across the car and lightly kissed her. Man I hope this works… I pulled back after a few seconds. She looked, well, a little shocked that after holding back for so long I'd really just done that.

"Then…" She paused and hesitantly placed one warm hand on the back of my neck and pulled me closer. I mentally cheered. Ha! I can so control the part of me that is currently telling me to move about two inches lower and bite into the hot pulsing vein- No! Stop it! Right now, this is good. This is very good in fact… I stopped when a porch light flicked on. "Crap. I've got to go inside."

"Alright." I opened her door. "Want a ride on Monday?"

"Yeah, sure." She quickly got out of the car and hurried through the light rain to her house where the door was already open with her mom giving her a look that kind of looked like it was a 'really, right in front of the house?' look. I couldn't help but grin though as I pulled away from the curb and through the dark town towards my house.

"You reek of human." Was Rosalie's greeting.

"You know what though?" She just arched an eyebrow. Almost taunted me. "You're not going to piss me off tonight. I'm in a good mood."

"So almost killing humans and getting shot makes you happy?"

"Yup."

Carlisle stopped me. "The Port Angeles police want to speak with the owner of a 2000's Jaguar XKR with a license plate that starts with a 4, and that is in his late teens, early twenties." He held up a police sketch of me. "And who looks like this. Apparently a man who had urine on his pants ran in screaming about monsters. He tried to car jack somebody, then you kept talking, and he shot the man point blank in the forehead, the man then yanked the bullet out of his skull and told him to leave. The girl the man in the Jag was with said his name was Harry. I wonder who they're talking about?"

"Sounds like a raving lunatic to me. But I did almost get shot. I felt the bullet in my hair. And I did almost get car jacked. Go ask Christine. I was not shot. Do I look like I got shot in the head?" I paused. "There's a bent in half 9mm in my car though…"

"Get rid of it. And I'm not buying you a new phone!" I rolled my eyes. Esme would buy me a new phone then. I pulled out the mangled handgun, mangled it further, ripped it to pieces then disposed of it in a river. Never finding that gun. Ever.

I wandered into my attic room and flopped onto my bed with a big grin. Things never worked out for me before. Maybe things could change. Might even find the wizard area in America, I could buy me some wizarding things. I can get a new wand as well.