Chapter 1
RENESME'S P.O.V.
I glance nervously down the narrow hallway, mummy left me almost half an hour now, and Aunty Rose told me she would be right back… The toys they have left me to play with in Aunty Alice and Uncle Jasper's room are beginning to get boring. I can hear their voices quietly floating up the hallway from Carlisle's study, what are they talking about? I decide that it is in everybody's best interest that I know… After all, aren't I almost as smart as them? I tiptoe down the hall toward the big, thick door. Briefly, I consider knocking, until I hear my mother's voice rise slightly above the rest.
"…Can't you smell anyone on it?" She asked worriedly, which automatically stopped my little fist in mid-knock.
"No, and that's what is so worrying about it, it can't be just anyone, obviously its someone very, very skilled at keeping themselves undetected." I heard Carlisle reply.
"Just when we thought all the threats were over!" Jacob cried, and almost immediately, the room was full of noise, people shushing, and somebody coming toward the door. I turned and raced back toward Aunty Alice and uncle Jasper's room, and sat on the couch where my toys were perched.
Seconds after, my father came through the door. He smiled warmly at me and came to sit beside me. He picked up one of the dolls that was lying on the couch and began examining it. I stared at him for a moment, thinking of what to say. He looked up at me and I placed my hand delicately on his cheek. I could feel my message flowing through me to him. I sent him a picture of me standing at the door, hearing what was going on in the study. I also told him how confused I was.
He smiled at me and said, "Nessie, because our family is so large, sometimes other people like us don't understand our… situation…" he seemed to be struggling for words, but he continued.
"Even before you were born, we had a lot of trouble with others of our kind. Usually, it isn't much of a problem, because of all the extra abilities we poses, but sometimes, it gets hard."
His babbling was making me impatient, so I once again sent him a message, this time asking him to get to the point, what was it that didn't have anybody's scent on it?
"A letter, Nessie, a letter that had no return address, no 'from so and so', not even any scent…" he trailed off. Now I was even more confused, didn't people get letters all the time? I asked him through my messages.
"It's strange because, for one, vampires don't get letters all that often, and for two, its hate-mail that we cannot trace at all. It must have been sent by someone with a great sense of self-preservation." This made more sense to me, but what did it say? Once again, I asked him via my messages. He simply showed me the letter.
Cullen Family –
You have been brought to our attention because of your rather interesting connections. By this, of course, we are referring to the werewolves with whom you associate with. We have deemed this unacceptable. What rights do we have to tell you whom you can and cannot 'play' with, do you ask? To put it simply, we are an organization of rather highly ranking vampires who were bred for the pure necessity of keeping large covens in the Southern hemisphere under control. We have no association with the Volturi, as we believe that their time has come and gone. Please do not try to contact us, if your 'friendship' with the werewolves continues, we will be forced to take action.
I read through the letter carefully twice, before asking, this time in my actual voice, "What does this mean?"
My father looked at me for a moment, before saying simply, "I have no idea…"
Suddenly, from outside, somewhere near the woods, we heard a sharp yelp, which gurgled away into a human cry.
Both my father and I leaped up at the same moment, racing through the open window. Down by the edge of the woods, I saw something that stopped my tiny heart in its tracks…
Jacob, my Jacob, was laying on the grass, surrounded and covered in blood, screaming, his body mutilated…