Shopping Trouble

I giggled slightly at Gavin, somehow actually able to tell he was just messing around.

"There are several things I could say to that..." I snickered "and probably none of them are appropriate for someone I just met" I winked playfully

It was easy for me to be suggestive and flirty when I didn't think there was any chance in hell of the person being attracted to me. That was the case with Gavin. He was a vampire and I was a girl that hung out with werewolves. Not to mention he seemed to have a tendency to mention Sophia, which gave the impression he liked her.

I gave him a small grin of thanks when he said I had nothing to be sorry for either and then nodded to Bri when she thanked me for what I'd done with her necklace. I blinked though when Blake said they had human friends and girlfriends.

"Girlfriends?" I stared at him with wide-eyed curiosity "But how do you..I mean, the wolves just hug me and nearly break me...how do you guys.." I blushed "Nevermind..none of my business"

I ducked behind Jonas to hide in embarrassment because I'd almost just asked vampires about their sex life.

I could tell Bri was still feeling a little hurt. Later, when we were alone, I'd have to explain to her that I did think of her as part of the family. Not in the vampire way of course, but part of my family anyway because I knew I wanted her to be with me for the rest of her life. I just hoped that information didn't freak her out or something. For now, I just wished I knew how to make her feel better. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze and an 'I am sorry' look.

I let out a snort of amusement at the exchange between Gavin and Una, but ended up breaking into full blown laughter when she started to ask Blake about vampire sex and then hid behind Jonas when she realized what she was doing. I couldn't blame her for wondering about that though; it was something I was paranoid about. I was terrified that if I tried it with Bri, I'd break her.

"So you're a witch?" I asked Una curiously as I looked her over. "You don't look like one. I always imagined they'd have a wart somewhere and you know.. look gross." I smiled at her. "And well.. I didn't even know they were real."

I gave a shrug. It wasn't like I knew a whole lot to begin with. I'd spent the first ten years of my vampire life scared of being around humans and the next ten getting use to their scent and the ten after that just adjusting to everything. Might have seemed like a long time to a human but those thirty years had passed by pretty quick.

"Oh yeah?" I laughed at Una's comment and figured whatever she'd been thinking must have been kinky. It wasn't often I met a human that wasn't terrified of me. I was interested in Sophia as someone very special to me but that didn't mean I couldn't play.

"Guess you should pretend you've known me for years then."

I snorted when she asked Blake how the whole sex thing worked with vampires and humans. I couldn't exactly answer that, but I did keep my ears open to hear Blake's take on it. Out of curiousity, of course.

I felt awkward and completely out of place. Everyone was talking to Una and Jonas and ignoring me. Bren seemed more intrigued by these two than he did me even and after he gave my hand a squeeze I went against every fiber of my being and pulled my hand away from him. I knew that I wasn't any part of any of this. I wasn't some supernatural creature - monster was too strong of a word - and I wasn't a powerful witch. I was a boring teenage girl who had no reason to even be here.. and none of them were helping my feelings. What made everything worse was that I was feeling like a whiner and I hated myself for it and I hated myself even worse because I couldn't stop. I just felt sorry for myself.

Until today I'd gone everywhere with Ray when it came to group stuff and I only realized now that I felt so comfortable with these guys because I had Ray there. Another plain 'ole human like me and I always had someone to relate to. I didn't here. Una may have technically be human but in a normal human's eyes she wasn't. She just looked the part. Along with the rest of them really. I'd felt alone back at my old school before we moved but it was never anything like this. To see people you actually cared about forgetting, even for a few moments, that you even existed. Even the new people had no interest in me, which just fueled my aggravating thoughts more.

But do you think I could bring myself to leave? I wanted to just say that I was going home and walk away but I couldn't open my mouth to say the words and I couldn't move my feet to run in the other direction. I had to grind my teeth together I was so annoyed with myself right now. So I just crossed my arms and looked off down the street, not even paying to the conversation anymore. I would stay here for Brendan because I couldn't bring myself to leave him no matter how miserable my stupid, emotional, hormonal feelings were being right now. I hated being a teenager.

"I don't really think you need to worry about it." I shrugged at Jonas with a small chuckle. "This is the first time in a year that we've run into each other, I can't imagine it happening on a daily basis now just because we've had one today."

I had to stop and think when Jonas asked how many of us there were. It wasn't that I had to count or anything, I just didn't know if I was giving him too much information about our family. I gave Brendan a sideways glance and read into his mind a little so he could tell me if it was okay to answer or not. When he gave me the ok, I looked back at Jonas.

"There's six of us. Including Sophia."

It didn't really occur to me not to count her because as far as we were concerned, she was already a part of the family. Gavin was already pretty attached to her, she was all he could talk about these days. So I was surprised when he flirted with the witch a little.

I didn't get a chance to give him a warning look, that he was getting himself into deep trouble, because I was distracted by Una and her question about sex. I gave one of my musical, amused laughs and shook my head.

"It's not as hard as you'd think.. just takes a little bit of control. I participated in the foreplay but after let her take control." I winked at Una and snickered. "I think I ended up giving her some bruises though. She wouldn't let me see where I was grabbing her so I got the picture. But she's fine otherwise." I smiled. "It really isn't any of your business but I don't mind sharing."

I nodded "Right, well, I'll tell them to be prepared for there being six golden eyes here just in case anyway" I smiled "Plus it helps us since we patrol the woods between here and Raventree Hollow. Lets us know to worry a little if we start smelling more than six of your tracks at any time. Don't worry though, if there's extra tracks running around, I'll come back and find you guys to see if you've got any guests first" I snickered slightly

I was surprised at the exchange between Una and Gavin. Una rarely ever flirted on purpose. She was usually a bit too shy for that. I figured she must think Gavin was just messing around with her, cus if she thought he was seriously interested in her, she would have been incapable of speech. I laughed when Blake actually answered her question and Una went red and babbled a bit. That was the Una I was used to.

"So, Abrianna...how'd a pretty human like you get into hanging out with vampires?" I asked her "Doesn't their coldness creep you out?"

I was, of course, refering to the temperature of their flesh. Werewolves and vampires were polar opposites when it came to temperatures. We were like space heaters and they were meat lockers.

I chuckled at Gavin's talk of witches "Nope, no warts and thanks for not thinking I look gross" I smiled "But yeah, we're just as real as vampires and werewolves..and as stupidly portrayed in most books and movies" I snorted

I blinked and laughed, a small playful smirk crossing my face when Gavin kept up the meaningless flirting. If I'd actually let myself think that he meant any of what he was saying, I'd become a blushing babbling mess.

Before I could respond though, Blake surprised me by actually talking to me about his sex with his girlfriend. I went wide eyed in surprise and then felt my cheeks turning bright red.

"Uh...thanks for..satisfying my curiosity.."I babbled slightly "Not like I'd ever actually need to know..but I was always curious"

Hell, so far I hadn't even needed to worry about how to have sex with a human. I definitely didn't see myself needing to know how to do it with a vampire. Not only could I not imagine one of those perfect porcelain creatures ever wanting me, but with the way Jonas was such an over protective brother type friend..I couldn't imagine one of them getting the chance either.

I'd tuned out the conversations around me. I was focused on Bri, staring at her with a small frown on my face. I could tell she really wasn't happy and I was trying to think of ways to make up for hurting her feelings.

Some part of me caught Jonas' comment to her though and before I realized what I was doing, a deep threatening growl issued up out of my chest and through my clenched teeth. I blinked in alarm at myself and then gave a sheepish look to Bri.

"Erm...sorry." I fidgeted slightly, having seen the warning look Blake had given me

I chuckled, still looking sheepish. If I could have blushed, I probably would have. I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Guess I've finally found something I love enough to get possessive over" I chuckled, smiling at Bri

"That's okay though if you think about it." I chuckled. "If we were portrayed right we wouldn't be able to blend in right." I cleared my throat and snorted. "Not that we're blending in very well right now, being huddled in an alley."

I wasn't really doing any serious flirting, I was more or less testing the water. I was genuinely interested in Sophia for one and I was sure she could do a lot more damage to me than Una could and I also didn't want to be a hypocrite. I couldn't give Brendan and Blake so much crap about human stuff if I was going to jump into the same boat. But I did think she was really pretty for being mostly human.

"Wait, for some reason I thought you were joking when you said you had sex with her." I blinked at Blake and sighed. "You're really a lost cause, aren't you." It wasn't a question, but I threw a questioning look at Bren. "You haven't.. have you?"

I glared slightly at him. It was bad enough I'd seen one of the two girls, in one of my 'visions' turn into a vampire but if he'd done the same thing with Bri than it would make my assumption wrong about it being Ray. I shook my head and looked back at Una.

"So where were you two headed?"

My face turned a little red at the conversation Blake was having with Una about the sex he'd had with Ray. I had a strong urge to kick him to make him shut up because while I was sure Ray wouldn't have had a problem talking about it herself, that didn't mean she would want Blake blabbing about it. Was bad enough that the 'family' already knew everything about it.

Not only was I feeling protective of the special moment Ray had with Blake, but I was also a little embarrassed that Brendan so obviously didn't want that with me. He hadn't even made any move to either. No passionate kisses or touches.. just.. nothing. Unlike Blake, who always had his hands on Ray. Did that mean there was something wrong with me?

I was torn out of my thoughts when I heard someone say my name and my eyes drifted over to Jonas. I look of pure surprise graced my face, making me blush again for being so obvious as my eyes raked over his chest but I gave him a small smile.

"No, it doesn't creep me out. I've gotten use to it." I shrugged. "I like being cold anyway so it works out." I chuckled. "And.. Brendan." I answered his first question. "Told me what he was and has been stuck with me since."

My brain hadn't overlooked him saying I was pretty either but my face turned a little more red when Brendan suddenly growled, quite loudly because we were actually all being pretty quiet. I rose both my eyebrows at him but gave him a pleased smile at the same time.

"Don't be sorry." I moved to Bren's side and placed my arms around him and my cheek to his chest, then whispered so only he could hear me. "I'm sorry."

"We don't really know anyone to have any guests. You'd probably track them faster than you could get to us." I chuckled. "Besides it's easy to tell the ones that are feeding on humans because of the red eyes.. I was serious when I said we don't talk to those kinds of vampires." I shrugged. "We had another coven once that fed on humans and couldn't get along with us at all. In fact they couldn't even get along with each other."

I laughed at Una's obvious discomfort about the sex issue and I could hear Bri's heartbeat grow a little faster and when I turned around I noticed her cheeks were pink. I didn't have to peek into her head to know what she was thinking. I turned back to Una and smirked.

"No problem. Need to know anything else?"

My head snapped over to Brendan when I heard his growl and I gave him a warning glare. I was sure Jonas hadn't meant any harm in what he said and the last thing we needed to do was have a fight because he thought Bri was pretty. Granted I was being a little bit of a hypocrite because I would have already ripped Jonas' face off if he'd said it to Ray.

"Of course I wasn't joking." I was still glaring at Bren, but I turned to look at Gavin. "Why would I like about that? Might be pretending to be high school students but I'm not going to act like one."

I pulled a face at Blake "Geez, they can't even get along together?"

I simply smiled and nodded when Bri answered my question; I wasn't even phased by Bren growling at me. It even made me chuckle a little.

"Vampires in love..that'll make the boys back home have to rethink some things" I smiled

I blinked and quickly put my hand over Una's mouth when Blake asked her if there was anything else she wanted to know.

"Don't encourage her" I groaned at him, rolling my eyes "Otherwise, it'll be a darn good thing you're immortal cus she'll keep asking you stuff until poor Bri has grown old and died" I snickered "She's horribly curious about everything"

I sighed a little at Gavin and shot him an evil look "No, I haven't."

I glanced down at Bri, the sheepish expression back on my face as I wrapped my arms around her and stroked her hair. "I've been too scared to hurt her." I admitted

I was mostly admitting it for Bri's sake, so she would know that I wanted to but that I was just afraid. I didn't know if I would have the sort of control Blake had managed to have with Ray. I wanted Bri too badly to be sure I wouldn't get carried away.

"And why are we a hopeless cause? There's nothing wrong with enjoying being with a human. You've been flirting easily enough with Una" I shot at Gavin

And then an idea occurred to me and a mischievous look crept onto my face.

"Una" I said in a silky voice "our brother doesn't understand why humans are appealing to us at all. Could you help me educate him, by simply giving him a hug? Just to give him a small taste of the advantages of snuggling a human"

Since our bodies had been cold for so many years, most of forgot what it was even like to feel warmth. I was hoping Una's hug would show Gavin how appealing it was to feel the soft, warm body pressed against him. I kissed the top of Bri's head and watched in amusement as Una actually obliged me

"Good point" I chuckled to Gavin

I snickered through Jonas' fingers when he covered my mouth and explained to Blake why it was a bad idea to ask if there was anything else I wanted to know. He still had his hand over my mouth for good measure when Brendan made his request of me.

I eyed Gavin for a moment and then tilted my head enough to look up at Jonas. He let me go, but watched Gavin warily as I made my way over to him.

"I don't know how I'm going to make him see the light..but I'll give it a go" I chuckled a little

I had to stand on my tip toes to place my arms around Gavin's cold, hard neck. I was thankful that my hair was keeping my neck from being exposed to him, maybe I'd be less tempting to bite that way. I pressed my body up against his and hugged him. While I was hugging him like that, I decided to be evil and educate him a little more than Brendan probably wanted me to.

"And it's even warmer inside me" I whispered in his ear with a tiny snicker

I let him go then and skipped back over to Jonas' side with a perfectly innocent smile on my face.

"There" I shrugged at Bren "I educated him, but who knows if the lesson was learned?" I chuckled

"Of course vampires can love." I scoffed. "Just humans is what makes this all.. vomit worthy."

I was talking to Jonas of course but the way I'd said it and then looked moodily in the other direction gave the impression that I just might have been talking to myself. I didn't mind my brothers being in love or being happy. In fact if I knew which girl was going to be the one turned I would have happily accepted her. It was just hard to swallow when one of them didn't belong with us. As far as I'd seen anyway.

"No there's nothing wrong being with a human who's going to join us one day." I said, confessing what I'd seen. "One of them will, you know. I'll accept her faster than you can blink but the other? You know what the Volturi would do to whichever girl it is just for knowing our secret."

There, I'd basically just admitted that it wasn't the girl specifically that I had a problem with, it was the fact that she could actually get seriously hurt from being involved. I waved my hand to Bren and grunted at him.. completely forgetting I was in the company of a werewolf already.

"Why don't you just turn her and then you won't have to worry about hurting her?"

I blinked when Bren suddenly asked Una to hug me and she actually agreed. My eyebrows nearly flew off my head and I awkwardly opened my arms to her. I growled quietly at her in a joking way as she leaned up. The hair covering her neck didn't help at all because I could still smell her.. hear her blood pumping through her veins.. it was all a lot of torture, but I still managed to get my arms around her waist. She was definitely warm and it was hard not to keep holding her there against me so that I could enjoy it.

I pulled her tight against me, but not tight enough to hurt and blinked in surprise when she commented on how warm she was in a very naughty way. I was so shocked in fact that when she moved away from me, I stood hunched over with my mouth hanging open.. absolutely unable to think of a quick comeback for a change.

I sighed contently when Brendan stroked my hair. I knew it might have looked a little goofy or wrong too. A handsome vampire embracing a plain human and talking about how he was afraid to hurt her if they ever got anything close to sex. I was use to it, since these three weren't exactly quiet with their thoughts and feelings so I didn't think to consider this might be weird for an outsider.

"I think I could handle some bruises, Bren." I told him soothingly and nuzzled my face against his chest again. "Not that I want to run home now and do anything.. but I trust you."

The idea was nice, being able to be with Brendan in that way but for some reason I didn't think it would ever happen. For one I was far too ashamed of my body but it just didn't seem likely. I stiffened slightly in Bren's arms when he asked Una if she would go hug Gavin. I knew instantly it was a bad idea and I closed my eyes and gave a loud, aggravated sigh.. not caring who heard me.

"Brendan." I said quietly. "I know she's not exactly part of the group but have we forgotten about Sophia already?"

I kept my eyes closed because everyone else, even Blake, seemed to be watching what was happening but I just couldn't bring myself to. I knew that Sophia wasn't exactly my best friend either but I could easily put myself in her place. What if that was Brendan, and Blake was asking another girl to hug him?

"No. We think it's because we don't feed on humans... we're able to control ourselves more. Actually get along."

I rose an eyebrow at Jonas when he sounded surprised that vampires were in love. I wasn't mad or anything but I found it slightly insulting.

"Rethink what? Just because we can't die doesn't mean we can't love."

I chuckled and shrugged when Jonas teased Una by saying that she would have a ton of questions for me because she was curious about everything.

"Oh trust me, I'm use to that from my girl."

I looked over at Bren and gave him a small smile that clearly told him that he didn't have to worry about hurting Bri, but I thought she said it better than I did. I turned to look at Gavin and snickered when Una hugged him, but was so curious about his surprised look when they were finished that I had to take a tiny peek.. and nearly died when I found out Una had said.

"Wow. Warmer inside you?" I asked with a shocked expression, then gave a shrug and laughed. "She's got a point."

I nodded "That makes sense"

I shrugged when he asked what they'd have to rethink "It's not cus you don't die. It's cus you don't have a heart...a lot of the guys seem to take it literally when they say you love with your heart; so there's been a lot of debate about whether its possible"

I wasn't trying to be insulting or anything, pointing out our ignorance more than anything really. I blinked when Blake seemed to read Gavin's thoughts and suddenly his shocked expression made sense.

"Una!" I gaped at her "Since when are you such a little pervert?" I laughed

"Gavin" I grumbled "I'm not going to turn her just so I can have sex with her. As for the Volturi, hopefully they'll never find out" I shrugged

I chuckled a little at the dumbfounded expression on Gavin's face.

"I think he learned" I snickered to Una

I looked down at Bri and stroked her hair again "No, I haven't forgotten Sophia" I told her quietly "I'm just hoping that if Gavin saw it's really not bad being cuddly with a human, he'd get off mine and Blake's backs for loving you and Ray"

I picked up on her comment from earlier "And I know you wouldn't mind bruises, but I don't think I could bare to see them on you and know that I inflicted them on the beautiful girl I love" I murmured in her ear

My head whipped up when I heard the comment about being warmer on the inside. I looked down at Bri and groaned slightly as my hormones suddenly began screaming louder in my body. Una's comment about 'hot and tight' nearly made me die. My head flopped down onto Bri's shoulder and I whimpered.

I blushed bright red when Blake teased me for what I'd said to Gavin and then chuckled when he said it was true.

"What?" I blinked up at Jonas innocently "He asked me to educate the guy..so I did" I snickered "Soft and warm on the outside..tight and hot inside"

I cackled at the way Jonas' cheeks turned pink that time. He was staring at me like he didn't even know me. I looked over at Brendan when I heard him groan and whimper.

"Oops" I laughed "Sorry, Brendan"

"No but you can turn her and spend the rest of your lives together." I said hopefully and then grumbled. "It's either Ray or Bri. The curiosity is killing me.. so to speak."

If it would have been possible, my face would have paled and then heated up to a million degrees. It wasn't that I didn't know what it was like to have sex with a woman - I'd been human at one point and it wasn't very long ago so I could still remember. I was just completely stunned that Una would be talking like this when she seemed so sweet and innocent before. It made a large grin grow on my face and I prayed to God that Sophia wasn't around to here me because I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. My heart belonged to Sophia I knew already but I was dying to mess with someone. Even in just a friendly flirty way.

"Oh I still remember what that was like." I snickered. "Even though some aren't quite as nice as Una made it seem." I winked at her and chuckled. "Wanna show me yours? I can see if you're right."

I cackled slightly and then laughed at Jonas and Brendan's expressions, and how Bri had even turned red at Una's last comment.

"Oh come on. What she said isn't that bad.. at least she didn't describe it in detail." I snickered.

I tensed slightly at the talk of turning me. It wasn't that I was honestly afraid of it, it was because it had been on my mind lately. I would never voice that to Bren of course. It was bad enough that Blake had seen it in my head and glared at me for it. But the thought of growing old while Bren stayed young and gorgeous wasn't very appealing. He would live on to find someone else long after I turned to dust even. I'd already made up my mind that when I started to reach thirty, I'd end things. I couldn't live the rest of my life knowing that someday I wouldn't ever see him again. Ever.

"Yeah.." I chuckled jokingly to ease my tense body. "I don't need sex quite that much."

I smiled when he said he couldn't even give me bruises and I snuggled with him for a moment. He may have been cold and hard but he was still Brendan. I found comfort in those arms.

"That's okay. I don't need it if you're not comfortable with it." I did chuckle though when Bren groaned and placed his head on my shoulder, until I realized what Una said and the way Bren reacted.. it made my face turned bright red.

"I have emotions so of course I can love." I laughed at Jonas. "And besides.. technically I do have a heart. It just doesn't beat."

I snickered and shrugged and then looked over at Gavin at all the talk about turning one of the girls. I growled a warning at him.

"Neither one of them are being turned.. they're fine human."

I didn't mind Ray being a human at all. Human or vampire, it didn't matter to me because I was going to spend the rest of our lives together but I did want her to be human for as long as possible. I didn't want to kill her, so to speak.. and I didn't trust anyone else to do something like that. Not even Bren.

"What?"

I blinked and stared at Una in shock. If she would say anything else on the subject I was sure I was going to fall over and die - so to speak. I couldn't believe this shy, innocent girl was saying so much. Looked like even Jonas was surprised.

I couldn't even talk. I was just staring at Una in utterly stunned silence. Where had my sweet, innocent friend gone? I looked at Gavin like this tiny pervert was all his fault and then clamped my hand down over her mouth before she could respond to him.

"So..let's see..Blake can read minds" I said like I was making a list "so that's his power. Gavin on the other hand, seems to have the power of ...perversion" I laughed

I held the wiggling Una tight against my chest so she couldn't break free. She was laughing her ass off. I could hear her muffled laughs through my fingers and feel her body shaking with the strength of her laughs.

"Uh, right...well..before Una decides to try and take Gavin up on that charming offer" I snickered "I think we're going to head home."

I glanced around at them, a slightly mystifyed expression crossing my face.

"It was actually nice to meet you..in the end" I grinned at them all "See you around some time"

Una was still laughing but lifted one arm to wave to them all. I scooped her up and then ran off toward the woods with her.

lps

I didn't trust myself to speak. The talk of turning the girls was causing a low rumble in my chest, a growl struggling to come out. It wasn't that I didn't want to spend the rest of eternity with Bri. That thought was actually quite appealing. I just..didn't want her to have to do it like this..to give up her humanity for it. The insatiable thirst, the horrible pull toward human blood, never sleeping..on and on the list could go.

I was distracted, however, when Jonas announced that Gavin had the power of perversion. The growl instantly died and I laughed lightly at the joke. I waved to them as Jonas dragged her away from us..Gavin mostly. I chuckled and then gave Bri a gentle squeeze.

"Ready to go home, my love?" I smiled "I haven't let you eat yet today" I frowned slightly "That's very bad of me. I keep forgetting you humans need food a lot more regularly than we need blood."

I stroked her cheek and returned to smiling "Come, I'll cook you something nice. Anything you'd like. I got bored and went to culinary school one decade" I chuckled

I continued chatting lightly with her, walking with my arm around her shoulder as I led her back toward Blake's car.

lp