Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer [10]
First there was the wedding dresss train. Alice clearly had let her artistic sense overpower practicalities on that one. Maneuvering the Cullens staircase in heels and a train sounded impossible. I should have practiced.
Then there was the guest list.
Tanyas family, the Denali clan, would be arriving sometime before the ceremony.
It would be touchy to have Tanyas family in the same room with our guests from the Quileute reservation, Jacobs father and the Clearwaters. The Denalis were no fans of the werewolves. In fact, Tanyas sister Irina was not coming to the wedding at all. She still nursed a vendetta against the werewolves for killing her friend Laurent (just as he was about to kill me). Thanks to that grudge, the Denalis had abandoned Edwards family in their worst hour of need. It had been the unlikely alliance with the Quileute wolves that had saved all our lives when the horde of newborn vampires had attacked
Edward had promised me it wouldnt be dangerous to have the Denalis near the Quileutes. Tanya and all her family-besides Irina-felt horribly guilty for that defection. A truce with the werewolves was a small price to make up some of that debt, a price they were prepared to pay.
That was the big problem, but there was a small problem, too: my fragile self-esteem.
Id never seen Tanya before, but I was sure that meeting her wouldnt be a pleasant experience for my ego. Once upon a time, before I was born probably, shed made her play for Edward-not that I blamed her or anyone else for wanting him. Still, she would be beautiful at the very least and magnificent at best. Though Edward clearly-if inconceivably-preferred me, I wouldnt be able to help making comparisons.
I had grumbled a little until Edward, who knew my weaknesses, made me feel guilty.
Were the closest thing they have to family, Bella, hed reminded me. They still feel like orphans, you know, even after all this time.
So Id conceded, hiding my frown.
Tanya had a big family now, almost as big as the Cullens. There were five of them; Tanya, Kate, and Irina had been joined by Carmen and Eleazar much the same way the Cullens had been joined by Alice and Jasper, all of them bonded by their desire to live more compassionately than normal vampires did.
For all the company, though, Tanya and her sisters were still alone in one way. Still in mourning. Because a very long time ago, theyd had a mother, too.
I could imagine the hole that loss would leave, even after a thousand years; I tried to visualize the Cullen family without their creator, their center, and their guide-their father, Carlisle. I couldnt see it.
Carlisle had explained Tanyas history during one of the many nights Id stayed late at the Cullens home, learning as much as I could, preparing as much as was possible for the future Id chosen. Tanyas mothers story was one among many, a cautionary tale illustrating just one of the rules I would need to be aware of when I joined the immortal world. Only one rule, actually-one law that broke down into a thousand different facets: Keep the secret.
Keeping the secret meant a lot of things- living inconspicuously like the Cullens, moving on before humans could suspect they werent aging. Or keeping clear of humans altogether-except at mealtime-the way nomads like James and Victoria had lived; the way Jaspers friends, Peter and Charlotte, still lived. It meant keeping control of whatever new vampires you created, like Jasper had done when hed lived with Maria. Like Victoria had failed to do with her newborns.
And it meant not creating some things in the first place, because some creations were uncontrollable.
I dont know Tanyas mothers name, Carlisle had admitted, his golden eyes, almost the exact shade of his fair hair, sad with remembering Tanyas pain. They never speak of her if they can avoid it, never think of her willingly.
The woman who created Tanya, Kate, and Irina- who loved them, I believe-lived many years before I was born, during a time of plague in our world, the plague of the immortal children.
What they were thinking, those