Chapter Text
Rosalie checked her make-up one last time in the rearview mirror of her brand new 2012 Tesla Roadster. It was a sleek silver two-seater fully electric sports car, and Rosalie couldn't wait to start tinkering with it, adding a few of her custom modifications. But that would have to wait. For now, she was focused on starting this new degree program on the right foot. It was a warm sunny September day and the leaves hadn’t yet started to change. A ray of sunlight slanted through the side window and Rosalie slowly turned her head back and forth, watching the effect of the light on her skin. She could see a slight shimmer, but nothing that would be visible to the human eye. It was ridiculous really that it took them this long to find the right combination of makeup to disguise their crystalline vampiric skin. Rosalie lifted her large purse from the passenger seat and opened her door.
In the Dartmouth student parking lot, her immaculate sports car was almost inconspicuous, almost. The lot was mostly Mercedes, BMW’s, Volvos, and Audis, though a red Porsche pulled diagonally across two spaces caught her eye. Rosalie smoothed her green pencil skirt over her wide hips and settled her purse on her shoulder, pulling her long wavy blonde locks clear of the strap. Rosalie herself could never be inconspicuous. Her designer clothes might not be particularly remarkable among the ivy league student body, but her curvy 5’9” frame, large wide-set eyes, smooth pale skin, and perfect bone structure could never pass unnoticed. And, her impeccable fashion sense only accentuated her remarkable beauty. The fitted cashmere cream short sleeve sweater hugged her ample chest and the dip of her waist. The tailored skirt and brown leather riding boots highlighting her long legs. Two boys getting out of a mud splattered Land Rover a few spaces over turned to stare at her, open mouthed.
“Hi,” said the bolder one, offering a nervous smile.
Rosalie simply ignored him, turning towards Kenmore Hall, which she had noted during her first visit to campus last week. It was a modern building, designed to compliment the older red brick buildings dotting the sprawling campus. Rosalie walked confidently to her class on the second floor, not needing to consult the building map that other students clustered around in the lobby.
Rosalie was the fourth student to enter room 219. The professor, a small gray haired man seated behind a desk at the front of the room, shuffled through stacks of paper. Rosalie could see that the other students in the room, three disheveled looking young men, were looking at their own copies of the pages. As she approached the professor, he looked up, his eyes widening at the stunningly beautiful young woman standing before him.
“Should I take one of these, Professor?” she asked in her customary cool dignified tone, pointing at the packets.
He looked at her with concern. “Oh, are you sure you’re in the right place, Dear? This is Metric Spaces and Measure Theory.”
“Yes, Rosalie Ha… McCarty.” She said, clearing her throat and hoping the professor hadn’t noticed her stumble. She would never have forgotten that they were currently using Emmett’s last name if this old man wasn’t being such a prick.
“Rosalie McCarty, you should have said.” She held her stony expression, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. As if his rude assumptions were her fault. “I see here that you’re enrolled in the engineering program. You realize that this course is not required for you to complete your degree.”
“I thought it would be fun,” Rosalie said without a hint of humor in her tone.
“Ah, well, good luck then I guess. Here’s the syllabus and the first assignment.” He handed her a packet.
Rosalie turned and saw her three seated classmates staring at her, joined now by another man and woman standing near the door. She moved to a seat half-way back, sitting near the end of a row. It took all of her exceptional control not to grip the edge of the table so hard it crumbled. She held perfectly still for a few seconds, waiting for her temper to calm. After one more unnecessary but somehow still steadying breath, she pulled her computer, textbook, notebook, mechanical pencils, and highlighters from her bag. Avoiding looking at her mostly male classmates, who were still casting curious glances in her direction, Rosalie began reading through the syllabus, highlighting the required reading.
The professor stood, and he was just beginning to address the class, when a young woman opened the classroom door. He turned to her and she smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”
“Metric Spaces and Measure Theory?” he asked. Rosalie bristled. The professor had only thought that she and this girl didn’t belong in his class.
“Yes,” the girl confirmed, her smile widening, and the professor gestured towards the stacks of paper.
As the girl looked around the classroom for a seat, Rosalie couldn't help watching her. She was tall, maybe even taller than Rosalie, with a lean athletic frame, less curvy and more muscular. The definition of her arms and shoulders was visible through her v-neck t-shirt and faded skinny jeans hugged her long legs. Her most remarkable feature was probably the mass of long tightly curled dark brown hair, shot through with golden highlights, drawn into a messy ponytail. A few strands had pulled loose and they framed her heart shaped face. Her skin was a light honeyed brown and her black brown eyes crinkled at the corners as they met Rosalie’s. Rosalie looked away as the striking young woman approached and took the seat next to her. Rosalie took a purposeful breath in and smelled the round fruity aroma of plums, balanced with a tangy citrus, and just a hint of black pepper. The delectable aroma made her throat burn. But the burn didn’t stop at her throat, it spread down through her body and out her limbs, leaving her fingers and toes tingling and a pleasant warmth deep in her core. Rosalie thought that this may be the first time she’d felt truly warm in her almost eighty years as a vampire.
Rosalie turned to look at the startling girl and the girl’s eyes met Rosalie’s.
“Hi, I’m Selena,” she whispered.
“Rosalie.”
The professor droned on about the syllabus, the textbook, his grading system, all the usual university minutia. Rosalie’s eyes drifted back to Selena several times throughout the next hour. And, each time, Selena seemed to sense it, turning her head quickly to meet Rosalie’s curious glances. The third time it happened, Selena winked and her beautiful full lips twitched before her gaze returned to the professor. Rosalie didn’t let herself look again. A human wasn’t supposed to be playful with a vampire. Rosalie’s vampiric beauty, her scent, the way she moved, all of this was meant to draw people in. But humans could also sense that she was the apex predator. They were meant to fear her, and they did.
Selena’s effect on her was also… unusual. With each slow deliberate inhale Rosalie drew in Selena’s rich scent, rekindling that tingling warmth in her core. The scent of Selena didn’t make her thirsty exactly, no this was something else entirely.
When class ended, Rosalie closed her computer, stacked her notebook and papers on top, and began swiftly returning everything to her purse.
“Hey, Rosalie, is this your first semester in the mathematics program too?” Selena asked, turning in her seat to face Rosalie. Selena’s eyes quickly flicked over her, before returning to her face, warm and unguarded.
“I’m in the engineering Ph.D. program. I’m just taking this class for fun.” Rosalie answered coldly, not looking at Selena. She needed more time to think through the strange way this girl was making her feel.
“Wow. Well, would you like to be study partners? It always helps me to have someone to work problems with.”
“I don’t need any help.”
Selena snorted and Rosalie looked to see that wide smile spreading across the girl’s face again. “You don’t take things very seriously, do you?” Rosalie said, before she could stop herself.
“You’re the one who said you were only taking this class for fun.” Selena responded, grinning, her eyes twinkling.
“Do you want to get a drink?” Rosalie asked. Where did that come from, she thought.
“Now?” Selena replied. Rosalie heard her heartbeat accelerate.
“Yes,” responded Rosalie defiantly, she couldn’t back out now.
Selena looked her over appraisingly. In a soft teasing tone she said, “It’s ten in the morning, Rosalie.”
Good lord Rosalie, is that your only pickup line? Why are you even using a pickup line on your classmate? Think! Morning… Drink…
“Coffee! Do you want to get coffee?” Rosalie asked, her words coming out too fast.
“Umm, Ok.” Selena responded, with another smile. “I have a job interview at 10:45 though.” The two women stood and made their way out of the classroom. Selena suggested a coffee stand on the ground floor. “So, what exactly are you studying? You said you’re getting a Ph.D. in engineering,” Selena inquired, turning to look at Rosalie as they stood in the long line.
“I’m in the electrical and computer engineering track. I like machines,” answered Rosalie distractedly, her eyes fixed on the menu, her arms crossed.
“That’s cool. Do you know what you want to do with your degree after you finish? Do you want to go into academia, or—”
“No,” interrupted Rosalie, her posture rigid, her face closed.
“No, you don’t know what you want to do?” Selena asked. Rosalie turned to see Selena smiling at her again.
“No, I’m not interested in being a professor.” Selena was still smiling at her with that amused glint in her eye. Rosalie willed herself to relax. She was Rosalie Hale after all, she was supposed to be the one making women feel flustered and tongue tied. “What about you? What’s this job you’re applying for?” she asked.
“I was thinking of being a professor, if I can make it through the Ph.D. program. For now, I’m just applying for a job at the math lab and tutoring undergrads. I did a lot of tutoring in college.”
“That sounds terrible,” Rosalie responded.
Selena laughed again. “I don’t mind it. But, I guess you weren’t kidding about not wanting to be in academia.”
They picked up their drinks, the cheapest drip coffee on the menu for Selena and a mint tea for Rosalie, and stepped away from the stand.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you in class on Wednesday,” Selena said, starting to turn away.
Before her brain could catch up with her mouth, Rosalie heard herself saying, “Let’s do this again.”
Selena smirked. “Are you asking me out, Rosalie?”
“No,” said Rosalie haughtily. “I’m agreeing to be your study partner.”
Selena’s smile made Rosalie’s long dead heart clench.
“Great,” she shifted her backpack on her shoulders, “but if you change your mind about the date, let me know. I wouldn’t be opposed.” Selena walked out of the building, the sunlight catching on the gold highlights in her curly hair, hallowing her in light.
-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-
Rosalie stamped on the accelerator, climbing the narrow mountain road. She appreciated the power and responsiveness of the Tesla’s electric engine, but at times like this she would have preferred her Porsche. Shifting through the gears of that car’s manual transmission made her feel like the vehicle was a part of her.
She’d planned to stay on campus all afternoon, poking around some of the labs in the engineering department and walking through the library again. But after her encounter with Selena, she had nervous energy to burn.
The pounding bass coming from the car’s speakers was abruptly cut off by a cheery ringing. Rosalie would never admit to Emmett that she actually enjoyed his rock music on occasion. She looked at the car’s display screen connected to her phone. It read, “Alice.” Rosalie sighed and pressed the answer button. There was no point in trying to dodge her sister’s call, Alice would only keep calling.
“Rose, what did you do?” Alice’s overly excited voice boomed from the speakers. Rosalie hastily lowered the volume.
“Alice, how nice of you to call,” she answered sardonically.
“Don’t pretend with me Rosalie. What did you do?” Alice was almost shrieking.
“Alice,” Rosalie said, actually slightly concerned now, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I didn’t do anything.”
“Your future… It’s… It’s missing,” Alice said, her tone despairing. Alice was always touchy when she had trouble using her gift of foresight to track every possible future of her family members. But, this sounded different.
“What do you mean missing?” Rosalie asked.
“I don’t know. I can still see some things, some paths, but the farther I look, the more of it just… isn’t there.”
“Like I’m dead?” Rosalie asked, feeling more curious than concerned.
“No,” said Alice, frustrated, “I don’t see anything happening to you. But Rose, that’s just it, I can’t see!” Alice’s voice broke on the last word.
“There now, Love.” Rosalie could hear Jasper’s warm, calming tones in the background followed by Alice taking a much steadier sounding breath. Alice’s husband Jasper had the power to control other people’s emotions. It was a useful gift to have with such a jittery, emotional mate.
“Hi Jasper,” Rosalie said, knowing he’d hear her even though Alice didn’t have the phone on speaker. None of them needed it with their vampiric hearing.
“Hello Rosalie,” Jasper replied in his honeyed relaxing tones.
“You know that doesn’t work through the phone, right?” Rosalie asked. Jasper laughed. “I don’t know what to tell you, Alice,” Rosalie said. “I didn’t do anything. All I’ve done today is go to class.” But, Rosalie was starting to wonder if perhaps–
“You did,” Alice whined, but Jasper’s gift seemed to be keeping the full extent of her alarm in check. Alice explained, “I was checking the family’s futures this morning, as usual, when all of the sudden I started finding blank spots. The more I looked, the more I saw that those blank spots were linked to you, and it started with whatever you were doing this morning.”
Rosalie was silent, thinking. Alice sensed her reticence. “Tell me!” she demanded.
Rosalie sighed. “I met a girl.”
“Rose!” shrieked Alice.
“I didn’t do anything, Alice. I just met a girl in my math class and agreed to be her study partner. That’s all.”
“That’s not all because I didn’t see it!” Alice exclaimed. “And since when did you have anything to do with humans aside from, well, you know.”
Rosalie rolled her eyes, not that Alice could see it. “You’ve had gaps in your vision before.” When Alice didn’t answer, Rosalie said, “The Quileute.” The Quileute Tribe was the indigenous nation near their old home in Forks, WA. Certain members of the Quileute had the unique ability to shapeshift into the form of giant wolves, giant vampire hunting wolves. The last time that Alice had gaps in her visions, she’d discovered that she couldn’t see futures tied to the shapeshifters.
“Do you think this girl is a shapeshifter?” Alice hissed in alarm.
“No,” Rosalie answered honestly. “You know the shifters smell like filthy wet dogs. This girl smelled,” mesmerizing, heavenly, “human,” Rosalie concluded. “Maybe it’s a gift, like with, Bella.” Rosalie said the name softly, but its impact still reverberated through the phone. They did not talk about Bella, the human girl that their brother Edward had foolishly fallen in love with in Forks, despite all of Rosalie’s admonitions. Edward’s gift was to read minds, but Bella was the one individual, human or vampire, whose mind was impenetrable to his gift. Edward’s eventual decision to leave Bella to her human life had broken something in him. His heartbreak had seemed to turn more and more from melancholy to mania and it drove him from the family.
“You’re suggesting that this human girl is, what, immune from my visions?” Alice was incredulous.
“I don’t know, Alice. I’m not the gifted one,” Rosalie said with a sneer. She wasn’t bitter about her lack of a gift, really.
“Well, that still doesn’t explain why her future would be so intertwined with yours,” Alice said pointedly.
That is interesting, isn’t it, thought Rosalie. She sighed, “You know how I feel about interfering with the lives of humans. I have no intention of doing anything to jeopardize this girl’s future, whether you can see that or not.”
“And you know that I don’t entirely agree with you about that, I never did.” Alice had believed that Edward would turn Bella, that Bella was destined to become a part of their family. Alice had seen it in many of the possible futures. But Alice’s visions weren’t fixed. As the infinite unpredictable events of life unfolded, the future could shift. As previously unforeseen dangers had seemed to continually swirl around Bella, it became increasingly more likely that her involvement with vampires would lead to an early death, a death not to be followed by an eternal afterlife as a vampire. However, when the Cullen family had voted to leave Bella and Forks behind, Alice had been one of the most vocal opponents to that decision.
“Rose, promise me you’ll stay away from this girl.”
Rosalie growled, startling herself. “I refuse to be nothing more than a cog in the machine of your machinations. This is my life, Alice, and I will make my own decisions as I see fit.”
“You know I respect your personal autonomy,” Alice pleaded, this was not their first time having this argument. “But this is different, I can’t warn you if—”
Rosalie pressed the red end call button. She needed to think, and Alice wasn’t helping.
-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-❀-
Rosalie arrived at the automated electric gate of the Cullens' mountain home just as the clouds were beginning to turn a vivid pink and orange. As she followed the long curving drive further up the mountain, she absentmindedly looked out at each gap in the trees, appreciating the view of Vermont’s rolling hills and farmland. The home was located on the edge of Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest, less than an hour from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Though, with Rosalie, or any of the other Cullens driving, it only took about 30 minutes to get there.
The Cullen matriarch, Esme, had bought the old ski resort when it closed down in the late 80’s. In the years since then, during the family’s occasional visits, they’d reforested the majority of the slopes and dismantled all the resort infrastructure for which they no longer had a use. About five years ago, Esme had declared the site’s ecology sufficiently restored to begin construction of the main house near the top of the mountain. She’d chosen a site facing the national forest and away from the prying eyes of any neighbors. Inspired by the agricultural architecture of the area, the house resembled a series of barns, clad in timber with steeply sloping black metal roofs. Of course, no agricultural building would possess the multi-level tinted glass windows that were the trademark of Esme’s modern design aesthetic. The many metal roofs of the sprawling structure were also covered in solar panels so that the property could be entirely off-grid. Esme built the home to fit all seven members of the family, including Edward, but like many of the Cullens' properties, the whole family had never resided there. Instead, they’d only ever made semi-annual maintenance visits before Rosalie and Emmett moved in a month ago.
Rosalie parked her car in one of the heated garages connected to the main structure and entered the house through a side door. She’d hoped to go straight to her bedroom, but it was pointless to try to sneak around in a family of vampires. “Rosie!” shouted Emmett as soon as she opened the door. Rosalie walked through the open plan living room/dining room/kitchen, with its three story vaulted ceiling crisscrossed by massive rough hewn beams. She followed the sound of a video game to the snug, which Esme had constructed in the British style, tucked to one side of the living room. The room was still generously sized, but it was filled with soft comfortable furniture, its windows were covered in heavy woven curtains, and its french doors to the main room could be closed to give it a cozy, intimate atmosphere. Emmett had essentially taken it over as his personal gaming room, which Rosalie didn’t particularly mind. With only the two of them in the house, there was plenty of space.
“Hi Em,” Rosalie said, leaning against the door jam with the languid grace of a lioness.
Emmett paused his game before tossing the controller on the ottoman and looking at Rosalie. “Alice called,” he said, a questioning look on his face.
“I thought she would,” Rosalie muttered darkly. She’d silenced her phone after hanging up on Alice earlier and hadn’t looked at it since.
“She’s pretty freaked Rosie. She kept telling me that a bunch of your future just disappeared.”
“Good.” Rosalie said, throwing up her hands. “You know how I feel about living under her constant surveillance.
Ignoring her, Emmett continued, “She said it’s because of some girl you got involved with today.”
Rosalie glared at Emmett. “Her name’s Selena and I didn’t get involved with her. I just agreed to study with her for one class. Besides, it’s not like we even know for sure if she’s the reason Alice’s visions are on the fritz.”
Emmett watched his sister, his face serious for once. “In seventy years of going to school with you, I’ve never known you to study with a human.”
“I’ve never needed to before because I never got to go to graduate school. You know Carlisle always said I looked too young and it would be too unusual for a woman to be a graduate student in the sciences. Even now he doesn’t trust me to be here without you chaperoning me.”
Emmett just shook his head, not deterred by Rosalie’s attempt at misdirection. “You know I fully support you hooking up with whatever beautiful woman catches your eye, Rosie.” Emmett waggled his eyebrows at her.
Rosalie couldn’t stop her lips from twitching at Emmett’s antics.
Emmett’s voice turned serious again, “You’ve always been the most cautious member of the family when it came to befriending humans. Why is this girl any different?”
“I don’t know, but she is,” Rosalie answered, letting her perpetual mask of cool indifference slip enough to reveal her fear and uncertainty.
Emmett studied his sister, his best friend, the woman who gave him this eternal existence. He knew the length and breadth of the walls she’d encased herself within these many long years of her existence. “Maybe different is good. Just be careful,” Emmett said softly, before standing and resuming his customary jovial tone. “Now I’ve got to get ready for work, it’s my third-shift of my first job. I showed you my shirt, right? It says ‘Mama Sal’s SECURITY’ on it. So cool…” Emmett continued to ramble as he dashed downstairs to his room.