[A/N] Hey everyone! This is my first fanfic! It is a quick epilogue for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. My friend gave me the idea, and I decided to write it for you guys to enjoy.

I don't own Twilight, all rights go to the a-m-a-z-i-n-g Stephenie Meyer. I will admit that there is a huge chunk of italicised text straight from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, but it's all to do with the story.

Happy reading!

Bree's POV

I found myself staring at a patch of pale sky, with a bed of soft sand beneath me. I blinked. The sun was in my eyes, an annoying distraction. I shielded my eyes with my hand.

And that's when I noticed it.

My skin was normal again! It didn't have that strange, unnatural diamond shimmer.

Was I dreaming? I didn't think so, as vampires don't sleep. So something had happened. Maybe I just couldn't see the shimmer because of the too bright glare. My vision was still perfect though, not like seeing through mud, so I wasn't too worried.

Then I got another shock.

My throat wasn't burning! It felt hydrated and…refreshed. A bit like I always felt after a hunt.

Okay, now I realised that something was really wrong, and I needed to discover what it was. What happened? I wondered to myself…

I scrunched my face up tightly, and willed myself to remember everything.

"Welcome, Jane," said the yellow-eyed one who held the human.

They knew each other. But the redhead's voice was not friendly – nor was it weak and eager to please like Riley's had been, or furiously terrified like my creator's. His voice was simply cold and polite and unsurprised. Were the dark-cloaks this Volturi, then?

The small vampire who led the dark-cloaks – Jane, apparently – slowly scanned across the seven yellow-eyes and the human, and then finally turned her head toward me. I glimpsed her face for the first time. She was younger than me, but much older too, I guessed. Her eyes were the velvet colour of dark red roses. Knowing it was too late to escape notice, I put my head down, covering it with my hands. Maybe if it were clear that I didn't want to fight, Jane would treat me as Carlisle had. I didn't feel much hope of that, though.

"I don't understand." Jane's voice betrayed a hint of annoyance.

"She has surrendered," the redhead explained.

'Surrendered?" Jane snapped.

I peeked up to see the dark-cloaks exchanging glances. The redhead said that he'd never seen anyone surrender before. Maybe the dark-cloaks hadn't, either.

"Carlisle gave her the option," The redhead said. He seemed to be the spokesperson for the yellow-eyes, though I thought Carlisle might be the leader.

"There are no options for those who break the rules," Jane said, her voice dead again.

My bones felt like ice, but I didn't feel panicked anymore. It all seemed so inevitable now.

Carlisle answered Jane in a soft voice. "That's in your hands. As long as she was willing to halt her attack on us, I saw no need to destroy her. She was never taught."

Though his words were neutral, I almost thought he was pleading for me. But, as he had said, my fate was not up to him.

"That is irrelevant," Jane confirmed.

"As you wish."

Jane was staring at Carlisle with an expression that was half confused and half frustration. She shook her head, and her face was unreadable again.

"Aro hoped that we would get enough far west to see you, Carlisle," she said. "He sends his regards."

"I would appreciate it if you would convey mine to him," he answered.

Jane smiled. "Of course." Then she looked at me again, the corners of her mouth still slightly holding the smile. "It appears that you've done our work for us today…for the most part. Just out of professional curiosity, how many were there? They left quite a wake of destruction in Seattle."

She spoke of jobs and professionals. I was right, then, that it was her job to punish. And if there were punishers, there must be rules. Carlisle had said before, We follow their rules, and also, There is no law against creating vampires if you control them. Riley and my creator had been afraid but not exactly surprised by the arrival of the dark-cloaks, these Volturi. They knew about the laws, and they knew they were breaking them. Why hadn't they told us? And there were more Volturi than just these four. Someone named Aro and probably many more. There must have been a lot for everyone to fear them so much.

Carlisle answered Jane's question. "Eighteen, including this one."

There was a barely audible murmur from the dark-cloaks.

"Eighteen?" Jane repeated, a note of surprise in her voice. Our creator had never told Jabe how many of us she'd created. Was Jane really surprised, or just faking it?

"All brand-new," Carlisle said. "They were unskilled."

Unskilled and uninformed, thanks to Riley. I was beginning to get a sense of how these older vampires viewed us. Newborn, Jasper had called me. Like a baby.

"All?" Jane snapped. "Then who was their creator?"

As if they hadn't already been introduced. This Jane was a much bigger liar than Riley, and she was so much better at it than he was.

"Her name was Victoria," the redhead answered.

How did he know that when even I didn't? I remembered that Riley had said there was a mind reader in this group. Was that how they knew everything? Or was that just another of Riley's lies.

"Was?" Jane asked.

The redhead jerked his head toward the east like he was pointing. I looked up and saw a cloud of thick lilac smoke billowing from the side of the mountain.

Was. I felt a similar kind of pleasure to what I'd felt imagining the big vampire shredding Raoul. Only much, much greater.

"This Victoria," Jane asked slowly. "She was in addition to the eighteen here?"

"Yes," the redhead confirmed. "She had only one other with her. He was not as young as this one here, but no older than a year."

Riley. My fierce pleasure intensified. If – okay, when – I died today, at least I didn't leave that loose thread. Diego had been avenged. I almost smiled.

"Twenty," Jane breathed. Either this was more than she expected, or she was a killer actress. "Who dealt with the creator?"

"I did," the redhead said coldly.

Whoever this vampire was, whether he kept a pet human or no, he was a friend of mine. Even if he were the one to kill me in the end, I would still owe him.

Jane turned to face me with narrowed eyes.

"You there," she snarled. "Your name."

I was dead anyway, according to her. So why give this lying vampire anything she wanted? I just glared at her.

Jane smiled at me, the bright, happy smile of an innocent child, and suddenly I was on fire. It was like I'd gone back to the worst night of my life. Fire was in every vein of my body, covering every inch of my skin, gnawing through the marrow of every bone. It felt like I was buried in the middle of my coven's funeral bonfire, with the flames on every side. There wasn't a single cell in my body that wasn't blazing with the worst agony imaginable. I could barely hear myself scream over the pain in my ears.

"Your name," Jane said again, and as she spoke the fire disappeared. Gone like that, as if I'd only imagined it.

"Bree," I said as fast as I could, still gasping through the pain that wasn't there anymore.

Jane smiled again and the fire was everywhere. How much pain would it take before I died of it? The screams didn't even feel like they were coming from me anymore. Why wouldn't someone rip my head off? Carlisle was kind enough for that, wasn't he? Or whoever their mind reader was. Couldn't he or she understand and make this stop?

"She'll tell you anything you want to know," the redhead growled. "You don't have to do that."

The pain vanished again, like Jane had turned off a light switch. I found myself facedown on the floor, panting as if I needed air.

"Oh I know," Jane said cheerfully. "Bree?"

I shuddered when she called my name, but the pain didn't start again.

"Is this story true?" she asked me. "Were there twenty of you?"

The words flew out of my mouth. "Nineteen or twenty, maybe more, I don't know! Sara and the one whose name I don't know got in a fight on the way…"

I waited for the pain to punish me for not having a better answer, but instead Jane spoke again.

"And this Victoria – did she create you?"

"I don't know," I admitted fearfully. "Riley never said her name. I didn't see that night…it was so dark, and it hurt!" I flinched. "He didn't want us to be able to think of her. He said our thoughts weren't safe."

Jane shot a glance at the redhead, then looked at me again.

"Tell me about Riley," Jane said. "Why did he bring you here?"

I recited Riley's lies as quickly as I could. "Riley told us that we had to destroy the strange yellow-eyes here. He said it would be easy. He said that the city was theirs, and they were coming to get us. He said that once they were gone, all the blood would be ours. He gave us her scent." I pointed in the human's direction. "He said we would know that we had the right coven, because she would be with them. He said whoever got her first could have her."

"It looks like Riley was wrong about the easy part," Jane said, a hint of teasing in her tone.

It seemed like Jane was pleased with my story. In a flash of insight, I understood that she was relieved Riley hadn't told me or the others about her little visit to our creator, Victoria. This was the story she wanted the yellow-eyes to know – the story that didn't implicate Jane or the dark-cloaked Volturi. Well, I could play along. Hopefully the mind reader was already in the know.

I couldn't physically take revenge on this monster, but I could tell the yellow-eyes everything with my thoughts. I hoped.

I nodded, agreeing with Jane's little joke, and sat up because I wanted the mind reader's attention, whoever that was. I continued with the version of my story that any other member of my coven would have been able to give. I pretended I was Kevin. Dumb as a bag of rocks, and totally ignorant.

"I don't know what happened." That part was true. The mess on the battlefield was still a mystery. I'd never seen any of Kristie's group. Did the secret howler vampires get them? I would keep that secret for the yellow-eyes. "We split up, but the others never came. And Riley left us, and he didn't come to help us like he promised. And then it was so confusing, and everyone was in pieces." I flinched at the memory of the torso I'd hurdled. "I was afraid. I wanted to run away." I nodded at Carlisle. "That one said they wouldn't hurt me if I stopped fighting."

This wasn't betraying Carlisle in any way. He'd already told Jane as much.

"Ah, but that wasn't his gift to offer, young one," Jane said. She sounded like she was enjoying herself. "Broken rules demand a consequence."

Still pretending I was Kevin, I just stared at her as if I was too stupid to understand.

Jane looked at Carlisle. "Are you sure you got all of them? The other half that split off?"

Carlisle nodded. "We split up too."

So it was the howlers that got Kristie. I hoped that, whatever they were, the howlers were really, really terrifying. Kristie deserved that.

"I can't deny that I'm impressed," Jane said, sounding sincere, and I thought that this was probably the truth. Jane had been hopeful that Victoria's army would do some damage here, and we'd clearly failed.

"Yes," the three vampires behind Jane all agreed quietly.

"I've never seen a coven escape this magnitude of offensive intact," Jane continued. "Do you know what was behind it? It seems like extreme behaviour, considering the way you live here. And why was the girl the key?" Her eyes flicked to the human for just a moment.

"Victoria held a grudge against Bella," the redhead told her.

So the strategy finally made sense. Riley just wanted the girl dead and didn't care how many of us died to get it done.

Jane laughed happily. "This one" – and she smiled at the human the way she'd smiled at me – "seems to bring out bizarrely strong reactions in our kind."

Nothing happened to the girl. Maybe Jane didn't want to hurt her. Or maybe her horrible talent only worked on vampires.

"Would you please not do that?" the redhead asked in a controlled but furious voice.

Jane laughed again. "Just checking. No harm done, apparently."

I tried to keep my expression Kevin-ish and not betray my interest. So Jane couldn't hurt this girl they way she'd hurt me, and this was not a normal thing for Jane. Though Jane was laughing about it, I could tell it was driving her crazy. Was this why the human girl was tolerated by the yellow-eyes? But if she was special in some way, why didn't they just change her into a vampire?

"Well, it appears that there's not much left for us to do," Jane said, her voice a dead monotone again. "Odd. We're not used to being rendered unnecessary. It's too bad we missed the fight. It sounds like it would have been entertaining to watch."

"Yes," the redhead retorted. "And you were so close. It's a shame you didn't arrive just a half hour earlier. Perhaps then you could have fulfilled your purpose here."

I fought a smile. So the redhead was the mind reader, and he'd heard everything I'd wanted him to hear. Jane wasn't getting away with anything.

Jane stared back at the mind reader with a blank expression. "Yes. Quite a pity how things turned out, isn't it?"

The mind reader nodded, and I wondered what he was hearing in Jane's head.

Jane turned her blank face to me now. There was nothing in her eyes, but I could feel that my time had run out. She'd gotten what she needed from me. She didn't know that I'd also given the mind reader everything I could. And I protected his coven's secrets, too. I owed him that. He'd punished Riley and Victoria for me.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and thought, Thanks.

"Felix?" Jane said lazily.

"Wait," the mind reader said loudly.

He turned to Carlisle and spoke quickly. "We could explain the rules to the young one. She doesn't seem unwilling to learn. She didn't know what she was doing."

"Of course," Carlisle said eagerly. "We would certainly be prepared to take responsibility for Bree."

Jane's face looked as if she wasn't sure if they were joking, but if they were, they were funnier than she'd given them credit for.

Me, I was touched to the core. These vampires were strangers, but they'd gone out on this dangerous limb for me. I already knew it wasn't going to work, but still.

"We don't make exceptions," Jane told them, amused. "And we don't give second chances. It's bad for our reputation."

It was like she as discussing someone else. I didn't care that she was talking about killing me. I knew the yellow-eyes couldn't stop her. She was the vampire police. The even though the vampire cops were dirty – really dirty – at least the yellow-eyes knew it now.

"Which reminds me…," Jane went on, her eyes locking on the human girl again and her smile widening. "Caius will be so interested to hear that you're still human, Bella. Perhaps he'll decide to visit."

Still human. So they were going to change the girl. I wondered what they were waiting for.

"The date is set," said the little vampire with the short black hair and the clear voice. "Perhaps we'll come to visit you in a few months."

Jane's smile disappeared as if someone had wiped it off. She shrugged without looking at the black-haired vampire, and I got the feeling that as much as she might have hated the human girl, she hated this small vampire ten times as much.

Jane turned back to Carlisle with the same vacant expression as before. "It was nice to meet you, Carlisle – I'd thought Aro was exaggerating. Well, until we meet again…"

This would be it, then. I still didn't feel afraid. My only regret was that I couldn't tell Fred more about all of this. He was going almost totally blind into this world of dangerous politics and dirty cops and secret covens. But Fred was smart and careful and talented. What could they do to him if they couldn't even see him? Maybe the yellow-eyes would meet Fred someday. Be nice to him, please, I thought at the mind reader.

"Take care of that, Felix," Jane said indifferently, nodding at me. "I want to go home."

"Don't watch," the redheaded mind reader whispered.

I closed my eyes. I love you, Diego, I thought.

I opened them again here, with the blinding light. So, I guess I died, and went somewhere. But my only goal right now was to find Diego, wherever he was. I got up off the soft sand, glad to have lost the vampire in me. I was Bree again.

I walked across the sand again, calling for Diego. I wondered where he would be. It was very lonely here, on this deserted beach.

I collapsed onto my knees again, and drew myself into a ball. There was no way I would ever find Diego. My life was a disaster from the start. Tears streamed down my face, forming haphazard patterns in the sand.

A hand on my shoulder startled me. I whipped around, to find myself staring into a pair of familiar eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Diego!" I squealed. I was overjoyed. I didn't know where we were, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Diego was here, with me. I threw my arms around him, drowning myself in his familiar scent that had no vampire in it.

He hugged me back, glad to have found me too.

"Where are we?" I asked. It had been bugging me from the start, and I was expecting an answer.

His lips twitched. "We're in Heaven," he whispered softly.

"J-just you and me?" I asked stupidly, even though I couldn't see anyone else.

"Yes," was his simple answer. Diego and I, alone. This was too good a chance to let go of.

So I wound my hands around his neck. He smiled, and did the same to me.

"So, I guess we're not soulless demons after all," he whispered playfully.

"Yeah," I whispered in agreement. He pulled me into a kiss, and I lost myself in the feel of his lips, of his hands winding into my hair.

His words echoed round and round in my mind. Not Soulless.

[A/N] What did you think? Review, please! You know you want to…

-UPDATE-It is kind of annoying me that I've got one review (from the AWESOMELY AWESOME Peonywinx) and I'm getting like 25 hits. Guys, you can totally do better than that. Letting me down, much *rolls eyes*