A knock on her door woke Bella up abruptly. She jumped up and looked around, confused, not remembering where she was. It passed within a few seconds. She realized that she was in the New Moon Inn in southern Kansas, staying the night after working all day. Bella stood up and padded to the door in bare feet. There, leaning on the door jam, was her best friend, Jasper.
"Well hello, darlin'!" he said energetically, his familiar southern drawl comforting Bella in an unfamiliar hotel room, "It's about time you woke up, I've only been waiting here since 8, when you said you'd be up! I must have been waiting here for an hour before I finally knocked!" Bella looked down at her watch and smiled to herself. It was 8:09. She wouldn't say anything because she knew that Jasper liked to be a drama queen. It was just his style.
"I'll be ready in a minute," she laughed, turning walking towards the bathroom, rolling her eyes when she heard Jasper sigh dramatically and shut the door a little too loudly behind him as he came in. She knew that the day ahead of them was going to be stressful but exciting like their work usually, so she showered and dressed quickly, wanting to get started. She slipped on her old, ripped, faded jeans and a sweatshirt the color of sand, then pulled on her mud-covered combat boots and tamed her wild hair back into a low ponytail, sliding on a headband for good measure. When she walked out of the bathroom, Jasper was pacing.
"Alright," she began, jolting him from his thoughts and making him jump, "What're we doing this time?"
"There's been a string of disappearances in the area lately," he said with a frown on his face.
"So what is it?" Bella asked, now beginning to pace as Jasper had been before, "Werewolves? Demons? Ghosts? Not another leviathan I hope…"
"No, no, no," Jasper said impatiently, "I called Charlie and he said that it's probably a vampire." Bella trusted Charlie immensely, so she believed that it was, indeed, a vampire. Charlie had pretty much raised Bella and Jasper since they were kids. Both Bella and Jasper had parents who were hunters. Not of deer or pheasants or rabbits, but of the supernatural, and now the two were following in their parents' footsteps. Their parents had all been killed by demons ten years ago in the everglades of Florida, when Bella and Jasper were 12 and 14. Ever since then, Charlie had been taking care of them while they're not on hunts, and giving them advice when they are.
Jasper and Bella loaded into their car, which already continued everything they needed to deal with these vampires in the trunk. As they drove to a small town outside of Kansas City, they were quiet, just listening to the music blaring from their car stereo and thinking about how they were going to kill the most vampires in the shortest amount of time. It wasn't like they'd never done this before; they'd cleared dozens of vampires' nests before, but they were both a little anxious. They had had some close calls before, and Bella had a strange feeling about this particular trip.
It was a few hours until Jasper finally parked the car, but the spot the finally landed at surprised Bella. They were just in front of a forest. Usually, vampires stayed in abandoned warehouses in the middle of cities, where there were plenty of people around to kill. This was unusual, just adding to Bella's strange feeling. She still trusted Jasper and Charlie, so she followed Jasper, trudging into the forest behind him.
As she walked, she noticed how eerily quiet it was. In the forests around her house in Washington, there were always deer and squirrels running around, maybe even hunters or hikers. The silence made her uneasy. Something was definitely up. After walking for what she guessed was two or three miles, a cabin came into view. It was definitely not what you'd expect in the house of a vampire. It was actually quite beautiful. It was an big old log cabin with a big front porch and ivy growing up on wall. After admiring it for a few seconds, standing in awe, she was shaken back to reality by the sight of a trail of blood on the front porch. She pointed it out to Jasper and he nodded, saying they were in the right place.
They crept silently towards the front door, watching their surroundings carefully. When they got closer, Bella realized that she could hear voices inside. They weren't the usual animalistic, ferocious, angry voices that usually belonged to vampires. She heard quiet, happy, normal talking from right inside the door. It was obviously a woman, but soon a man started talking. When she pressed her ear against the door she could hear their relationship quite clearly:
"Come on Alice! I bet you two hunts that you can't do it!"
"Of course I can do that, Emmett! I'm not that weak! And besides, I could never risk two hunts. I could never go that long without meat."
At that, Bella looked at Jasper with wide eyes and he just nodded towards the door and took another step forward. He kicked the door down with a huge thump, which resulted in screams and shouts from inside the cabin. Bella looked around, stake in hand, but didn't see the sources of her voices. Then, in a flash, a tall, blond man appeared by the staircase.
"Why are you here?" he asked, his voice threatening, but his body language still and non-aggressive.
"We're not here to answer your questions, you filthy monster," said Jasper with disgust.
"We've done no wrong!" said the man loudly, "We don't kill people; we kill animals!"
"Oh sure," responded Jasper, "Of course you do." He lunged towards the man, stake raised above his head. The man moved more quickly than anything I'd ever seen. He caught Jasper's wrist in the air before either of us knew it was happening.
"Listen here," said the man, whispering angrily, "I'm trying to be nice and civilized here, but you just keep threatening my family and me. If you want to stay in one piece, I suggest you listen to me."
Jasper rolled his eyes and pulled his wrist out of the man's hand. He plopped down in a chair near him and said, "Give me one good reason that we shouldn't kill you right now."
"I don't have a reason why you would kill me," he grumbled angrily, "Let me just tell you about us, maybe you'll believe me. My name is Carlisle. When I was human, I was a doctor. Obviously, I like to help humans, not kill or even hurt them. We are a normal family, who just happens to be plagued by vampirism. It is me, Esme, my wife, and my kids, Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett, and Edward. We had another child. She was newer…less under control that we are. Her name was Victoria. One day, a week ago, she lost control. She went on a rampage. That's probably why you're here. But that's not us. That's not how we live. We feed on animal blood, not human blood. It isn't as satisfying, but it is the life that we've all chosen to live, and none of us have looked back. Victoria is no longer part of our family. We are not like that, I promise."
As he was talking, a tall, younger man stepped gracefully down the stairs. He was an Adonis. His copper hair waved in the slight breeze coming from the open window. His face was perfect, each feature beautiful. His eyes were green, the color of fresh parsley. They shimmered and gleamed when they saw his father, love obvious in his eyes, but then he saw Jasper. His stare changed into one of anger and confusion. When he looked up, he saw Bella and his face changed. It softened. His hard, stone-like features turned kind and friendly. He gave her a little crooked smile, and something inside her fluttered. Bella had never believed in love at first until that moment. Her life suddenly revolved around him and he was all she could see. When he smiled wider and looked down, Bella's focus broke and she tuned back into Jasper and Carlisle's conversation.
"You could all become like Victoria. You could all lose control. Why shouldn't I just kill you all now?" said Jasper, gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow.
"Stop," said Bella quietly. Jasper, Carlisle, Edward looked up and at her with surprise, "We're leaving. They don't deserve this," she said, louder now, looking right at Edward. She rushed over to Jasper and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the cabin, whispering, "We can't hurt h- no I mean them. We can't hurt them." She felt a tap on her shoulder so she turned around. Edward was very close. He leaned closer, putting his hand on her hip and whispering a thank you in her ear. Bella was crushed that she had to leave, but how could she ever be involved with a vampire? That's not who she was. She nodded her head, biting her lip, and turned to leave. Once they got in their car to drive home, she realized she was shivering. The adrenaline had kept her from feeling the cold earlier. She stuck her hands in her hip pockets to warm them up. She felt something that wasn't there before, so she grabbed it. She pulled out a small slip of thick paper, folded in half. She unfolded it and smiled. Written in elegant script in the middle of the paper was "Edward 913-552-4601".