Edythe Cullen

"… and so the lion fell in love with the lamb."

- Edythe to Beau

Edythe Cullen, born June 20, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, is a telepathic vampire and a founding member of the Olympic coven, as well as a protagonist in the novella Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined.

She is the mate of Beau Swan and the adoptive daughter of Carine and Earnest Cullen, as well as the adoptive sister of Eleanor and Archie Cullen, and Royal and Jessamine Hale.

After nearly dying from the Spanish influenza in 1918 in Chicago, Edythe was turned into a vampire by Carine, as the only alternative to death. Over the next ninety years, the pair gathered a family of vampires around themselves and called themselves "vegetarians". Her Twilight Saga counterpart is Edward Cullen.

Early life
Edythe was born on June 20, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois; the only child of her parents. In 1918, she and her parents fell ill to the Spanish Influenza. Her parents died, but nurse Carine Cullen decided to save her. Carine took Edythe from the hospital, brought him to his house, and there changed her into a vampire.

Edythe formed a deep bond with Carine, who became a mother figure to her. It was Carine who first realized Edythe's telepathic abilities; she noticed Edythe answering questions that Carine had not asked aloud. In the 1920's, Edythed gained a father when Carine changed Earnest into a vampire to save his life after a failed suicide attempt.

Edythe went through a rebellious period at the beginning of her vampire life and left Carine and Earnest in 1927. During her lone time, she used her mind reading ability to attack the worst people of society, thinking that, as long as she was serving justice, it would not matter that she was feeding on humans. A few years later, she regretted this decision and returned to Carine's family and their diet of animal blood in 1931. In 1933, Carine changed a would-be socialite named Royal Hale into a vampire after finding him left for dead by his fiancé and her secret lover. Carine and Earnest were sometimes concerned that she had no romance in her life, which was partly what prompted Carine to change Royal. However, as stunningly handsome as Royal was, Edythe could not stand his shallow and self-absorbed mind, and the two became nothing more than siblings, and weren't always on good terms. Eleanor Cullen became Edythe's adoptive sister when Royal found her near death from a bear attack and fell in love with her in 1935. Already vampires, Jessamine and Archie sought out and found the Cullens in 1950, and adopted themselves into the family after both escaping their tragic pasts.

When the Cullen family were living in Alaska, they encountered the Denali coven, the only other group that shared their diet of animal blood.

By 2005, she had attended several colleges and universities, earned degrees on several subjects.

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb." "What a stupid lamb." "What a sick masochistic lion."

- Edythe and Beau

At the beginning of Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Edythe is rather depressed, sullen and brooding, and her family notices it. They know she is missing something from her life, though she herself doesn't. When Beau Swan moves to town, she feels frustrated by her inability to read his thoughts and is forced to listen to everyone else's thoughts about his to find out what she can, and realizes that all of the girls already like him. She feels very protective of him, trying desperately to rationalize her feelings of lust over his overwhelmingly attractive scent. When he is forced to sit next to her in Biology and she smells his blood, she insanely wants to kill him, and thinks about massacring the whole class as well. Promptly after leaving school she left for Denali, where a fellow vegetarian coven lived, to avoid causing disappointment to her parents.

A week later, she returns, with her family being extremely protective of her, watching for any signs of danger. Not wanting to leave a bad memory to Beau, she introduces herself in Biology, and is fascinated by his blood and by the fact that she can't read his mind, and because of that, she isn't quick to dismiss him like she would any other human. He answers all of her questions in different ways than she thought he would, mostly because she cannot read his thoughts. She saves him from Taylor's van, and then refuses to speak to him for a long period of time. But after all the time not speaking to him, the other girls, McKayla Newton in particular, think that nothing is going on between the two and decide to make a move on him. Over the next few weeks, she starts to pursue him and after one night together in Port Angeles, she discovers that he knows she is a vampire and that he has fallen in love with her too. The two then form a deep emotional relationship. After a while, Edythe invites Beau over to his house to meet her family, who, except for Royal, immediately take a great liking to Beau.

Archie, Edythe's brother, invites them both to play baseball with them. Edythe takes Beau to the field, but some unexpected guests show up: three nomadic vampires named Joss, Lauren, and Victor. Joss catches Beau's scent and decides to hunt him for sports, as tracking was her obsession. After some thoughts from Beau, Archie, and Eleanor, Edwardallows them to try to use Beau's plan: Beau convinces Charlie that he is leaving town, and Archie and Jessamine take him to hide in Phoenix. Edythe tries to lead Joss away, but loses her trail. She then flies to Phoenix, only to find out that Beau has gone to confront Joss alone. By the time she and her family get there, he has already been bitten. She tries to suck the venom out with her mouth, but then Archie sees two outcomes: Beau dies while Edythe tries to stop the transformation, or Beau becomes a vampire. Beau then chooses to become a vampire. After the conversion was complete, Beau and Edythe end up together happily, but not without regrets, since now Beau can never go back to his parents and must fake his death for their protection.

Physical appearance
"The last girl was smaller, with hair somewhere between red and brown, but different than either, kind of metallic somehow, a bonze-y color. She looked younger than the other two, who could have been in college, easy."

- Beau, on Edythe

Edythe is noted to be extremely attractive and has a petite build. Beau has on one occasion described her appearance as similar to the mythical Greek god, Aphrodite. Her long hair has an unusual bronze shade, and her eyes are described as topaz or liquid gold. Her appearance changes if she goes too long without feeding: her eyes darken, becoming onyx black, and purple bruise-like shadows appear beneath her eyes.

Personality and traits
Edythe is very similar to Edward Cullen in personality. Usually described as brooding and stubborn, but also very kind and compassionate. She easily charms human males with her beauty, scent and body, and persuades them to do her bidding. She always puts Beau's safety, humanity and welfare before anything else, and goes to great lengths to protect him from what she sees as danger..

She retains some of the traditional mindset and outdated speech from her human life in the early 20th century. Since vampires do not sleep, she employs the night hours reading books and studying languages, science, business and music, becoming a virtuoso on the piano she owns in her house. Edythe enjoys listening to a wide range of music, including classical, jazz, progressive metal, alternative rock, punk rock, but she dislikes country. She also shows great skill in playing the piano. She prefers indie rock to mainstream, and appreciates rock and classical music equally. She surprises Beau in an early car ride by having Debussy in his CD player. Edythe mentions in Life and Death that she likes music from the fifties better than the sixties, and dislikes the seventies entirely and comments that the eighties were "just bearable".

Edythe and her family all enjoy driving fast. She owns a Volvo S60R, which becomes a C30 in the movie adaptation, and an Aston Martin Vanquish as a "special occasion" car.

Powers and abilities
"I ran flat out, using all the extra strength that I had because I was new. It was enough to keep her in sight as she sprinted across the most direct route back to the house. My strides were three times as long as hers, but still, chasing her was like chasing a bolt of lightning."

- Beau, on Edythe's speed

Edythe is the fastest vampire in the Cullen family. She is also a skilled fighter in the Cullen coven, though for her speed rather than being the strongest. She has also admitted to fighting dirty. As a vampire, she has sharp senses, superhuman strength, speed, endurance, healing factor, and agility. She describes herself as the most dangerous predator in the world whereas her appearance, scent and voice are enormously attractive to her prey, so much so that she occasionally sends Beau into a daze entirely by accident. Edythe explains that vampires do not need to breathe, though they often do so out of habit and to retain their ability to smell. She cannot digest human food, and compares its attractiveness for him to the prospect of eating dirt for a regular person.

Telepathy
"I told you, most people are very easy to read." "Except me." "Yes, except for you."

- Edythe and Beau

Edythe possesses the gift to read the thoughts of those around her. She can hear all "voices" in close proximity with her, but has learned to block out the ones she is uninterested in by focusing on one voice or something in particular. Edythe mentions that her ability is like being in a room where everyone is talking at once. She can tune out the "voices" so that it's just a low buzzing in the background.

The closer and more familiar she is to a person, the farther away she can reach that person's mind when she wants to, but can only keep track of them within a few miles. She mentions that she can use it to dismiss people who feel attraction toward her and her family. She can also telepathically experience Archie's visions and keep track of a shape-shifter's telepathic link to her pack when she is within range. However, Beau Swan is the first exception to her gift as he is shielded from psychic powers, which is part of what made her curious about him when they first met.

Relationships
Edythe Cullen is the mate of Beau Swan, as well as the adoptive daughter of Carine and Earnest Cullen and the adoptive brother of Eleanor, Archie, Royal and Jessamine.

Beau Swan
Beau Swan is Edythe's mate. Edythe had a strong attraction to Beau's blood, making it extremely difficult for her to even be in his presence.

Early on in Twilight, Edythe struggled to stay away from Beau in an attempt to protect him, but she eventually convinced herself that her lust for his scent was a budding love for him despite her apprehensions. For this reason Edythe sees herself as selfish, knowing that she should stay away from Beau for his safety, but not being able to bring herself to do it. She also finds him interesting due to her inability to read his mind, and often surprises her with actions and thoughts that never quite go the way he expects. Even though she gets to know him better, she is constantly thwarted by her inability to read his thoughts. While Beau is human, she has to constantly keep herself in control to protect him, for even a simple touch she could kill him. She confesses to herself that by meeting Beau, she has found the human side that was long ago buried under.

Carine Cullen
Carine Cullen is Edythe's adoptive mother and creator. She changed Edythe into a vampire in 1918 during the second wave of the Spanish influenza, after the passing of her both parents. After Earnest joined their family, she struck out on her own and fed on humans, but a few years later, she developed guilt over the decision and returned to Carine and Earnest.

Since then, Edythe has learned to praise her for her discipline and compassion for human and vampire beings, which allows her to sustain on animal blood rather than human. Edythe considers Carine the best mother anyone could ever have because of her kindness and generosity.

Earnest Cullen
Earnest Cullen is Edythe's adoptive father. Since Edythe's natural father passed away during the Spanish influenza epidemic, Earnest became her substitute.

Earnest admits to Beau that Edythe means more to him than the rest of his "children", because she was his first child since he became a vampire, and is very thankful that she has found love with Beau. He is also very supportive of their relationship. He especially enjoys hearing Edythe play the piano.

Archie Cullen
"Is Archie your favorite brother?"

- Beau, to Edythe

Archie Cullen is Edythe's youngest adoptive brother, of whom Edythe is very fond, because he is fun to be around and is most understanding. Of all siblings, Edythe is closest to him. She likes him as a brother because he adapted to her quite well. Edythe always said to Beau that she likes Archie the most because he helped her get over things and was really a lot of fun to be around. Another reason to why they are so close is because she can understand his burdens of constantly having visions of the future.

Another reason they are closer is because Edythe's telepathy allows her to experience Archie's visions every now and then.

Royal Hale
Royal Hale is Edythe's first adoptive brother. He was changed into a vampire by Carine Cullen after she found him near death. He has blond hair and is described as the most handsome man in the world. Carine had originally hoped that he would be a romantic companion for Edythe. However, their feelings for each other remained those of loyal siblings, and Royal eventually fell in love with Eleanor Cullen instead. Of all four siblings she shares a connection with, her relationship to Royal is never on the best of terms.

Eleanor Cullen
Eleanor Cullen is Edythe's adoptive sister. Eleanor joined their family in 1935 after Royal saved her from a bear and Carine changed her to save her life. Over time, they have grown into a close relationship as sisters, though Edythe finds her annoying at times due to her dark humor. Eleanor, unlike most girls, enjoys wrestling and practicing martial arts as well as going on hunting trips together on a regular basis.

The three sisters are quite capable in martial arts; Eleanor is known as the physically strongest member, the third fastest (after Edythe and Jessamine) and the third best fighter (after Jessamine and Edythe). Edythe is only able to beat her sister due to her ability to read minds, which allows her to read her opponent's thoughts and parry Eleanor's attacks.

Jessamine Hale
Jessamine Hale is Edythe's second adoptive sister.

She and Archie joined their family in 1950. She has always thought of herself as the weakest link due to her violent background.

The three sisters are quite capable in martial arts. Jessamine is known as the most experienced fighter among them, but is only the second fastest (after Edythe) and the second strongest (after Eleanor).

Appearances

 * Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined