WARNING: coarse language and a few innuendos

MAYA CHAPTER FOUR: MEET THE FAMILY

“Hi, you must be Maya,” said a girl with wild bronze-colored hair. Her eyes were chocolate brown and sparkling, her skin made her look deathly sick – yes, she was that pale – and her smile was friendly yet shy. She was pretty, I had to admit.
And I was intimidated (and not in the safe way.)
“Yes, I am,” I replied, my voice barely audible to my own ears. I looked down at the grass below, ashamed to be so embarrassed. This was a family of vampires, for God’s sake! The scent of the air around this one chick alone was enough to make me vomit. Why the hell should I be intimidated by a bloodsucking leech? It didn’t make any sense.
The red-headed chick pulled me into a hug. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she said, squeezing me. “I’m Renesmee,” she added.
“Nice to meet you, too,” I managed to spit out. God, the stench of parasite was overwhelming. I wanted so badly to kill her; to rip her throat out or something, but the others wouldn’t exactly take that well, would they? “Um, you can get off of me now,” I added, my throat burning.
“Oh, sorry,” she murmured as she let go. I held my breath after that, trying my hardest not to kill anyone, because if I got even one tiny whiff … well, let’s just say I might have to pay for a massive funeral. Needless to say, I was thankful that she had a conscience.
The girl, Renesmee, looked over at Embry, who was staring at me worriedly. “Hi, Embry,” she greeted him, hugging him. “It’s good to see you again.”
Embry chuckled once, still looking at me with nervous eyes … and hugging the leech-girl back. Great. “It’s good to see you, too, squirt,” he replied, stepping away from the girl before I lost control.
Good pup, I couldn’t help but think.
Renesmee turned toward me. “Come on, Maya, meet the rest of the family,” she giggled, turning on her heel and almost running back into her house. I heard a lot more giggling from inside the house, and her telling her family that I was coming, and that’s when I finally had enough.
I turned to face Embry and give him hell. “Embry,” I started. My voice was low and devious.
“Maya, I’m sorry,” Embry interrupted, sounding sincere enough. “I know I should have given you more of a warning, but I was worried about your reaction.”
“Worried about my reaction?” I repeated, incredulous and angry at the same time. “Well, what do you think my reaction is now that you haven’t warned me earlier?” I gave him my ultimate boy-you-are-so-screwed-it-isn’t-even-funny look.
“Extremely pissed off with me,” he answered, looking down at the ground. If it was someone else that I was upset with, I’d growl at them and tell them to grow a pair and face me. But I was … soft when it came to Embry for some weird reason. And here I thought I was the ultimate drill sergeant.
“Em, Maya, hurry it up,” Jacob called from the house, impatience saturating his voice.
“In a minute,” I yelled back without turning to look at him. “Embry, I have one piece of advice for you: never keep anything from me. It won’t ever work well for you and it will always bite you in the ass. Understand?”
Embry nodded and said nothing. I would have felt sorry for offending him like this, but people die for lying to others and he was lucky that I liked him as much as I did. “I’m sorry,” he muttered softly.
I sighed, which was basically my way of accepting any apology. I grabbed his hand, took a deep breath (I did not intend to let that breath out anytime soon) and walked forward and into the house – the house full of vampires that were just waiting to drink every last drop of my blood. Oh, awesome.
Everyone inside turned once they saw me and Embry step through the door. It was easy to see that they were vampires; their skin was too damn pale, their faces were too damn perfect, and the stench in the house made even a skunk smell clean. But these vampires were different than the ones I was used to seeing. Their eyes were this odd shade of gold, instead of the usual red or black.
If I didn’t know what they were, I would say that there was no way in hell that these people were related to each other, since they seriously look nothing alike (well, apart from Renesmee and the red-headed boy standing right in front of me. They looked so much alike that they could be twins.) The guys were built and hot as hell, while the girls looked like they just walked off of a runway.
It figured. I couldn’t even keep a guy and they literally had men dying at their feet.
“There they are,” Jacob said in mock exasperation. “It’s about time you two got here.” I rolled my eyes at him and smiled. “So, meet the family. You already met Nessie, I’m guessing. The one sitting on the couch and watching football is Emmett, then there’s Rosalie, who’s somewhere upstairs fixing her hair or something. And over here staring at you are the rest of them: Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper, Alice the Freak, Edward and Bella.” The vamps waved as their names were called, and the little pixie-like brunette girl, Alice, glared at Jacob when he called her a freak.
I muttered a quiet and quick hello that was meant for all of them.
“Maya, the Bucs are playing the Panthers, if you’re interested,” Seth said from the couch which was placed in front of a wide screen (and I do mean wide screen) TV next to the door.
“Panthers win, 37 to 21,” I stated, knowing the history of the Panthers and the Bucs too well.
“What?” the massively built boy with dark brown hair – Emmett – asked, sounding genially surprised. “There’s no way that the Bucs lose this game.”
“Well, they do,” I replied softly, looking at the granite floor below. I was never one for eye contact. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Are you willing to take a bet on it?” Emmett asked, his eyebrow arching in mischief. “I mean, you do gamble, right? I don’t want to just take your money from you if you don’t.”
“I gamble,” I told him, still looking down at the floor. “But I don’t take money from people that I just met; it’s rude.” That received a few laughs from the other parasites, which I didn’t understand. That really wasn’t meant to be funny because it was the truth. My mom told me that it was rude and “unladylike” to gamble with a man you just met.
“Well, maybe you can make an exception,” Emmett insisted. I would have argued – even though my mother would probably be in Indiana by now, I still didn’t want to disobey her – but I was out of breath, no I simply nodded and pulled Embry by the hand as I walked towards the big vamp and the giant TV. The vamp smiled and scooted over to make room on the couch for us. Embry sat the closet to Emmett, while I sat at the other end of the couch, only breathing in Embry’s scent.
Everyone started really introducing themselves while Emmett and I were debating on how much to wager on the football game. The vamps Jasper and Bella were the ones that I found that I liked the most. They were both very introverted and nice, but Jasper kept looking at my neck the way Homer Simpson would be looking at a can of beer or a donut. It wasn’t exactly the most comforting thought in the world, believe it or not. If there was ever a fight between me and this coven, they’d be the ones I’d kill last.
Embry kept apologizing in my ear for his lack of warning whenever no one else was talking. I kept telling him to shut up, that I forgave him, but it wasn’t until the seventh time that I told him that he got the message. I found it strangely endearing, however, that he was so worried about upsetting me; that he was so anxious about my happiness. If my heart weren’t a black hole (as my father and ex-boyfriends have told me) it would’ve been soaring out of my chest right now.
The game ended the exact way I said it would – the panthers won by sixteen points at the end of the fourth quarter. Emmett kept cussing under his breath and muttering about how I was just lucky as he dug into his jeans to grab thirty dollars to give me. “I want a rematch,” he muttered as he handed the money to me.
I smiled in response. “We’ll see,” I replied, smiling wryly and snatching the money from his hand. He smiled in return and slapped me lightly on the back, laughing as he did so. He was going to say something in return when Carlisle – I think – brought out a small cake and many big presents. Damn. And all I got for my twelfth birthday was a decapitated Barbie doll…
Life was so unfair.
I started walking towards the cake (I was as hungry as hell) when my phone started playing Duran Duran’s Hungry like the Wolf, indicating that I had a phone call. I quickly excused myself ad went outside before answering. “Hello?” I greeted.
“Hola, chica,” a familiar perky voice replied from the other end. Lila Rodriguez, a member of the pack in New Mexico was calling. “How’s my favorite biche?”
“She’s been better,” I chuckled. “What’s up?”
“We have a little surprise for you in the forest,” she giggled, as if she were a schoolgirl telling her best friend that a boy liked her.
“A surprise?” I repeated. “Let me guess: it’s a van with no windows that has all of my favorite candy in it, right?” I laughed again. “And what do you mean ‘we?’ you guys are all back in Santa Fe, aren’t you? How can you have a surprise for me here when – okay, I’m an idiot,” I muttered, causing Lila to giggle. “What are guys doing here?” I demanded.
“I thought you’d be happy that we’re here,” Lila said in mock sadness. I rolled my eyes and smiled.
“I am,” I sighed, “but I’m just a little … shocked. I mean, I’ve only been here for a day and you’re already visiting me.”
“Because we already miss you,” she argued.
“Then you guys have some serious separation problems.”
“Just come to the forest and find us,” she said dismissively before hanging up. I growled softly and then texted FUCK YOU before putting my phone in my pocket and walking back into the house.
Jacob laughed when I came through the door, his face covered in bright blue icing. “Nice ring tone,” he chuckled, rolling his eyes.
I laughed with him. “Yeah, you have to love the irony,” I replied, making him laugh louder. I rolled my eyes at him and walked over to Embry and Seth, who were stuffing their faces with cake just like Jacob was. “Hey, guys,” I greeted them, rubbing my forefinger against Embry’s plate to get some icing off. It was sweet.
“Hey, Maya,” Seth said while Embry nodded. “Hey, um, I have to go take care of something and I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I told them.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Embry asked through the glob of cake in his mouth.
Please come, yes, please come, I begged him in my head, all the while knowing that it was impossible. “No, I’ll be fine,” I assured him, internally kicking myself for not saying that he could come. Hell, he could come with me to hell and back if he wanted to, but there was just some shit that he didn’t need to know about me. I kissed him on his cheek and rushed out of the house again to go find my friends.
I leaped over a river that they had near the house and that’s when all hell broke loose. I bumped into someone and almost flew back ten feet. The person didn’t seem too happy about it either.
“What the hell?” she yelled. I stood up and faced her.
Her golden eyes stood out and I realized I was finally about to have some fun with this coven, after all.
I just pissed off a Cullen.