Prologue

And I knew in that instance my life was no longer worth living.

My angel, my fate, my only reason for existence was gone and there was nothing I could do to bring her back.

My eyes were red and I saw reflected in the angel what I had done.

A small, sweet sigh departed her frail white lips.

Time was up.

Chapter 1; first sight

High school was the one time I wished more than ever to be able to sleep. The teacher droned whilst my mind doodled imaginary patterns in the out side world through the window. There was no point in trying to pay attention, I already knew the answers and if neccassary could pick them from mrs Gof's thoughts which were quite jumbled today might I add.

The lecture seemed to carry on for a longer period than normal, but then when you live forever time starts to drag.

No need to sleep, no need to "eat" and no purpose to a bath room other than a shower.

When the school bell rang my eyes flickered quickly back to the front of the room so that it would not appear I was different. No one noticed any way, their human instincts shy away from the sight of me and my family. Poor kids, if only they knew how close they were to death every minute of every hour they were near us.

When I arrived at the cafeteria, I made my way to our usual table. Even the sophomores who didnt quite understand who we were yet stayed well clear of our lunch spot. My tray was full of fruit today and a flaky pastry that smelled quite dry and vile to be quite frank. But the food was just a prop. We didnt need it my brothers and sisters and I. We just needed to blend in. Or try to.

Edward, Alice thought, hows he coping?

Jasper, my youngest brother immortaility wise was staring out of the window, his thoughts were of frenzied images of how he would like to head over to a small blonde girl and gently press his mouth to her neck before he bit...

Enough! I would not become to involved in these thoughts. Already the yearning in my stomach for blood was grinding and the venom flowed freely through my mouth.

Edward! Alice thought again concerned for the benefit of her soul mate. I was used to these silent chats. The others of my family barely noticed them let alone any humans with their half blind eyes.

I moved my eyes slowly up to the ceiling and then down to the floor as though following a dust mite.

Anything out of control? she begged again.

This time I pretended to follow the lunch line, left to right. Thanks Edward, the visions are settling now.

My little sister Alice was gifted like myself. She had the power to see visions of the future, although these visions changed with the decisions a person made about their plans. The future is not set in stone for any one.

And me I can read minds. Not any mind any where, just the ones that are near and the immediate thoughts going through their minds at that point in time.

Jasper also is gifted. He has the ability to taste the emotions of the people around him. He can also change them. That is one of the many reasons he joined our clan. We mostly known as the Cullens. He joined because he got a flavour of his terrified victims fear. He developed a sole conscience one that made him feel guilty for being a monster.

suddenly Jaspers thoughts were changing again. "Maybe I could just say hello and then bend..."

"Jasper", me and Alice both growled at the same time.

"oh", he mumbled - embarrassed. He moved his eyes of in to another area of space.

"Its alright Jazzy," smiled Alice, " you werent gonna' do any thing, your future is bright today."

"hey alice", beamed emmett - the middle brother, " any fights I win tonight"

"that would be cheating", smirked alice in one of those sweet ways that makes you want to chuckle with her.

Rosalie couldnt stop thinking how beautiful she looked today with her new scarf and matching purse.

"Oh I bet I could just waltz over to one of those humans and they would think I was royalty"

She marvelled to herself.

I contained my laughter in my mind.

Jaspers thoughts were still struggling to be tamed. I dont know why we were testing him this way, it wasnt fair on any of us. We would have to go hunting tonight. We hadnt been for two weeks and our wills were starting to weaken along with any shreds of possible remaining humanity.

Suddenly my thoughts were distracted. A girl had thought my name. I was glad that the name Edward had died out over the past century, you wouldnt believe how irritating it is to have your name thought only to realise your answering someones thoughts not their spoken questions.

This particular though was easy to recognise. Jessica stanley, one of Lauren Malorys crew.

She's already crushing on the cullens. well they wont notice her they dont notice any one.

I wondered who she could be referring to her when I saw a curious pair of deep brown eyes staring at me.

The eyes immediately dropped when she realized I was looking at her.

Around the eyes was a mane of rich brownish red hair. Her skin so pale it was almost transucent looking.

I recognised this face immediately as the face of new girl Bella Swan, daughter of chief to police Charlie Swan.

Named Isabella she had corrected every one who called her Isabella today with Bella.

Half of the males were already imagining themselves frantically in love with her, particularly Mike Newton and Eric. There seemed some rivalry.

Not that this suprised me - a typical human reaction.

She didnt seem that different apart that she was a lot less agile than any of the others and a lot frailer too.

In jessicas mind I heard Bella ask Jessica;

"which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?"

wow fat chance thought Jessica posionously.

That ones Edward Cullen. Gorgeous obviously but apparently nobody heres good enough for him. I heard her reply to Bella.

Bella shyly glanced upwards at me through the curtain of her hair only to look away quickly blushing scarlett.

I felt the sudden urge to reach out in front of Bella to protect her from the vicious thoughts of Jessica.

" The new girl's already wondering about the cullens", I smirked to emmett lowly so no one else would hear.

Ha whats she thinking about us so far? thought emmett.

I turned my minds direction back to the thoughts of Jessica. I wish she wouldnt fantasize the way she did.

It made me almost snort with laughter at her propostereous idea's.

If my lips were any where near her in that way, she wouldnt be very safe lets just leave it at

that.

I probed the space next to Jessica but there was nothing but silence.

Had the girl moved? My gaze wandered without my permission.

No the girl was still there blushing wildly.

Odd maybe I had missed her mind. But still I could not hear a sound from her direction.

Only silence and emptiness.

She swivelled round slowly and returned my gaze. I was frowning deep in concentration so this obviously frightened her.

I switched my eyes to the ceiling, away from the mental mute.

I didnt understand, how was this possible.

So- what is she thinking? Emmett thought again.

I shrugged. I didnt want to be tormented over this one particular mind.

Time to leave. Alice thought. She picked up her tray and dumped her untouched food into a trash can in one fluid movement.

Emmett and Rosalie followed. And I ended up practically dragging Jasper who was afraid of what he might do if he went within a meter of the small blonde girl.

" hold your breath bro", I muttered. "It makes things a lot easier".

The bell rang shrilly throughout the hall way.

Time for biology.

I perched on my seat, and again rested my gaze on a distant place out of the window.

A few foot steps caught my attention. I looked up to realise The new girl Bella Swan was in this class and the seat next to mine was the only empty one available. Poor girl. She would be extremely unnerved by my closeness I was sure.

I began to clear my books away from the empty seat that would now be hers.