Title: Secret Identities

Author: Nadia Mack

Rated: T

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight/Covenant related. I own utterly nothing, which is depressing.

Author's Notes: Isabella "Bella" Swan did not move from Phoenix, AZ in this story. This is a crossover of sorts with the movie "The Covenant." While I enjoyed "Twilight" and the proceeding novels after it immensely, I really wanted to make Bella into something a little more mysterious. By the way, I wrote this initial chapter prior to Forever Days and I figured I might as well post it.

The Cullen Coven:

Carlisle Cullen

Esme Cullen

Edward Cullen *

Rosalie Cullen

Emmett Cullen

Jasper Cullen *

Alice Cullen *

The Heirs of Ipswich:

Caleb Danvers

Pogue Parry

Reid Garwin

Tyler Sims

Isabella Swan

In 1692, in the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts, five families with magical abilities, referred to as "the Power", formed a covenant of silence to protect themselves from persecution to escape the witch trials that plagued Europe and then the New World. Passed down from parent to child, the magical world of witchcraft is about to collide with the mythical legends of vampires.

Prologue

"You're leaving."

Isabella Swan turned to face her childhood friend; a sad smile graced her normally composed face.

"I was going to tell you after your graduation party."

Isabella, along with four close friends who were practically family: Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Tyler Sims and Reid Garwin were direct descendents of the original five families that founded the Ipswich Colony in the 1600s. They were connected by an ancient secret, forged by a special ancestry that made them different from normal humans.

As the youngest of the five heirs to "the Power" and born a couple of years apart, they grew up together. With Caleb and Pogue attending Harvard and UCLA respectively this fall, Tyler and Reid will be moving on as well in the following year. In turn, Isabella would be living with her father on the Northern West Coast until she graduated.

"Where are you moving to?"

Bella sighed. "Forks, Washington."

Caleb stared at her with surprise. "You're going to live with your father?"

"With mom remarried and wanting to start over in a way, I thought it was about time I get some quality time in with Charlie."

Isabella's mother Renee, who had grown tired and weary of the secrets her ancient family has kept for so many generations that eventually ruined her first marriage, wanted to start a new life. Free from the burden of bearing a first born child with the gift and having no intention of having another one in the immediate future, it seemed as good a time as any to begin anew.

"Is that what you want?"

"It doesn't matter," Bella replied with an indifferent shrug. "With you and Pogue off to college, it'll be a matter of time until I spend senior year alone. Besides, I think I could use the new scenery."

"Right," he drawled, not believing her reasoning one bit. "Because Forks is so much more different from Massachusetts." Caleb looked at her more closely. "Are you sure this has nothing to do with what happened last week?"

Bella bit her lip, contemplating her answer. "The Families had a right to bind my powers."

"That's ridiculous," Caleb scoffed. "You had no choice, you were just protecting us. If it weren't for you, I or one of the others would've ended up using our powers in the open."

"It's really no big deal."

Caleb rolled his eyes. "You're the only one who doesn't mind."

Two weeks ago, their small town had succumbed to a serial murderer. Caleb led his own discreet investigation, knowing his gifts and his connections would help him. But it was Isabella who discovered the madman first. Acting as a bus driver, Victor Davis snapped and trapped a bus load of school children and drove them through a forest path that could've ended in the bottom of a steep cliff if she hadn't interfered and used her powers to stop the bus from meeting its doom.

While the family was sympathetic, they weren't tolerant at the fact that a few of the children inside witnessed her stopping the vehicle from the rear of the bus, her eyes black as night and her unfathomable strength holding the vehicle at bay.

Thankfully, no one believed the children once the authorities arrived and arrested Davis on the scene, but it still left a mark and now the only way she could avoid further detection was to leave. In the end, the Families banded together to bind her powers (not an easy feat) knowing that if there were any further inquiries if her identity was compromised, there was nothing to find but a normal kid who was misidentified as the children's anonymous savior.

"I'm going to miss you," Caleb said.

"Me too," she replied with a soft smile. "I'm gonna go and let the others know. I won't be leaving until the end of summer." She tilted her head to the side. "Wish me luck?"

Caleb shook his head. "You hardly need it."

She laughed lightly. "Thanks."

Chapter 1

Three Months Later

In the state of Washington, under near a constant cover of cloud and rain, there's a town named Forks, population 3,120 people. This was where she was moving.

Her dad's name is Charlie Swan; he was the Chief of Police.

She used to spend two weeks in this town every summer, but it's been years. Time, distance and the sacred secret her mother had kept from her father separated them to a point that they hardly knew each other.

His home was modest, infinitely smaller than the ostentatious mansion she grew up with in Massachusetts, but that didn't bother her so much as the fact that starting new in a different setting without her friends (brother's more like) made the gravity of the move much heavier than she expected.

It wasn't long until she started school the next day in a beat up red truck that she found herself liking more than she expected. Charlie had bought it from his best friend, Billy Black who lived on the Reservation. Even though she had driven fancier cars that she never really liked to drive, she was still grateful for the gesture. The old hulk of a machine suited perfectly. It certainly looked like it could protect her well enough if she suddenly skidded off the road or some idiot rammed into her.

School was another matter altogether.

Isabella, or Bella, which she preferred nowadays, had seemingly lost her casual laid back attitude and she attributed it to the fact that she didn't have Caleb or the others to help her engage other people as easily as they did. A part of her had hoped that without the burden of her powers, the transition would have been easier but apparently, it wasn't meant to be.

Suffer in silence, she thought dismally.

Then there were the students she met so far in school. Jessica Stanley would have been a nice enough girl to form a friendship with if she didn't have anything but air in her brains. Eric York, the resident geek, was a little too quirky for Bella's taste. Tyler was a little too outgoing. And don't get her started with Lauren Mallory, the supposed resident popular chick that the girls wanted to be but secretly hated.

There were only really two people she could imagine herself hanging out with possibly. Mike Newton, the stereotypical popular jock who didn't mind being made a fool (or acting like one) but his eagerness to befriend her had an alarm attached to it warning Bella that if she wasn't careful, he was likely to turn into a puppy that would follow her around in hopes to snatch a date or two.

That leaves Angela. A thoroughly nice girl that looked and sounded genuine when she approached her. And she had a brain, which was a plus in Bella's book.

By the time she reached lunched, Bella noticed a table in the far end of the cafeteria that was occupied by a group of what she could only describe as beautiful. All were pale and incredibly gorgeous. They were five of them. Quiet yet attentive to each other except for the one guy that sat alone in one area of the table.

"Who are they?"

Angela looked at the direction of Bella's gaze and smiled. "They're the Cullen's. They moved here from somewhere in Alaska a couple of years ago."

Bella raised her eyebrows as if the name should ring a bell. The unspoken suspense ended when Jessica explained the rest.

"They're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster children. The blonde haired girl, her name is Rosalie and the dark haired guy next to her is Emmett. They're together by the way, and I don't even think it's even legal."

Bella looked back at them briefly. "Hmm."

"They're not really related, Jessica," Angela kindly reminded her.

"Yeah, but it's weird," Jessica replied, the thought scandalizing. "And the ones on the left is Alice, she's a bit weird and the blonde one is Jasper who always looks like he's in pain. They're together too. Dr. Cullen is like a foster dad slash matchmaker."

Bella dismissed Jessica's tactless descriptions of the Cullen's and went about asking who the last person was. "What about the last guy?"

Jessica turned dreamy eyed. "Oh, that's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, but don't bother with him. He doesn't date, at least not in this school. Apparently no one here is good looking enough for him."

Bella smiled, thinking it was a relief that she wasn't the only one who felt out-of-place here.

"They tend to keep to themselves," Angela added as an afterthought.

Bella looked back at the table and caught the boy, Edward, staring at her intently. She stared back stubbornly. His eyes seemed to bore right into her but after a few seconds, he looked away seemingly frustrated at something she couldn't decipher. A strange feeling of foreboding came into her consciousness and she too, looked away.

Then fate intervened and landed Bella in the one class that had her seating arrangement right next to the intensely handsome bronze-haired boy with the penetrating gaze.

As soon as she retrieved her slip from Mr. Banner, her biology teacher, she felt the strong breeze of the heating fan flow past her. It was at that moment that Edward Cullen suddenly looked like he was sick and an irrational part of Bella thought it was the sudden sight of her that produced it.

Slowly, she made her way to her seat trying her best to avoid eye contact. Reluctantly, she lifted a small part of her shirt to her nose wondering perhaps if she smelled that awful to him. Nope, it was cleanly laundered.

So what the hell was Cullen's problem?

Bella ignored him the best she could for the rest of the hour, knowing just out of sixth sense that he was staring at her throughout the period while their teacher droned on about the behavior of flatworms. It seemed her new teacher had no qualms about jumping straight into the deep end of academia regardless of the fact that it was only the first day of school. A subject she belatedly realized she already covered last year.

Before the class was even over, Edward shot out of his seat and exited the classroom just as the bell rang.

Normally, Bella wouldn't care but his reaction to her presence went past borderline rude and she was more than willing to step out of her self-imposed bubble of silence to demand what his issue was, but that idea came to a screeching halt when she entered the administrations office only to run across the same classmate who was now staunchly trying to change classes.

By all intents and purposes, Bella was a nobody in this town. No heiress to an old colonial family with a magical heritage. She had no aspirations of becoming part of the in-crowd in spite of the fact that the people who were forcing their attentions on her were inadvertently making her the topic of every discussion throughout the school.

She just wanted to be left alone and finish the next couple of years without incident.

Edward Cullen was making that goal surprisingly hard and that touched a nerve she didn't want to call attention to.

To infuriate her more, the guy didn't even bother to show up to class the rest of the week, and she wondered how a student could get away with that at the beginning of the school year.

By the second week, Bella almost felt normal until she spotted Edward Cullen back at his seat next to hers in Biology. Rather than confronting him, she would follow his example and just ignore him altogether.

That was until he introduced himself.

"Hello," said a quite musical voice with a hint of hesitation. "My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

Bella's head turned to his attention and she felt almost blindsided by his golden eyes and striking features. Her mind was quick to fill with confusion. "How did you know my name?"

The slow smile that appeared on his face threatened her to distraction. "Oh, I believe everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive."

Bella inwardly groaned and wondered why she didn't just show up at her father's door unannounced and saved her self the headache.

"No," she spoke quickly. "Why did you call me Bella?"

He blinked looking confused. "Umm… do you prefer Isabella?"

"No, Bella's fine. But I think Charlie – I mean my dad – must call me Isabella behind my back – that's what everyone here seems to know me as." She didn't normally stutter like an idiot, especially when she was raised and educated in one of the top private schools in the country.

"Oh."

This is strange, Bella thought. One minute he couldn't get away from her fast enough and the next, he's as polite and congenial as ever. Maybe he had a mental disorder he's trying to hide.

It was then that Mr. Banner handed out a worksheet that came with a bunch of slides we were suppose to identify without a textbook. It was a subject the class touched on just last Friday. Having a fairly good knowledge on the subject already and the fact that she had a tendency to read all her text books in the beginning of the year, it was almost too easy to get through. That was the case until she realized she was literally being partnered up with Edward.

"Get started," the teacher commanded.

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked and she obliged simply out of due politeness.

Bella looked into the microscope quickly and promptly answered, "Prophase."

"Do you mind if I checked?" he inquired.

She shrugged, not caring one way or the other. Edward quickly looked and appeared only slightly stunned that she was correct. Did he think she was stupid? Well, that assumption wasn't going to last.

Then it was his turn. Edward barely looked into the small lens before he proclaimed that it was "Anaphase."

"Mind if I looked?" Bella asked for the sake of amusement.

Edward smirked. "By all means."

Bella checked and was unsurprised that he was correct. For all his outwardly physical attractiveness and voice sophistication, he had an innate air of intelligence not easily found on an average high school student. "Anaphase," she repeated.

"You're turn."

Bella took the microscope and peered in. "Interphase." She shoved it back to his side of the table daring him to contradict her.

"I believe you," he said smoothly.

They finished quicker than the rest of the class, leaving a whole chunk of time to waste until the bell rang when Mr. Banner looked over their answers. He looked at Edward disapprovingly. "So, Edward. Didn't you think that Isabella should have a chance with the microscope?"

"Bella," Edward corrected automatically. "Actually, she answered three of the five."

Mr. Banner looked at Bella, his expression intrigued and a little bit skeptical. "Really? Have you done this lab before?"

"Not with onion root," she answered.

"Whitefish blastula?" he guessed.

"Yeah."

"Were you in an Advanced Placement program in your old school last year?"

Grudgingly, Bella nodded.

"Hmm." Mr. Banner looked thoughtful. "Didn't expect that coming from a starting junior. Well, it's a good thing you're partnered with Edward here. It gives me time to teach the rest of the class without worrying too much about you two."

From the corner of her eye, Bella noticed that Mr. Banner wasn't the only one intrigued by the newfound knowledge of her academic history.

At that point on, Edward seemed intent in knowing her. Asking questions about why she decided to move to the rainiest and dreariest state in the Continental U.S. She kept her answers clipped and to the point until it was almost futile to do so, so she answered as best she could without going into too much detail. Her lab partner went far and beyond the norm when it came to basic conversation. Almost like he was trying to get into her head.

"Do you wear contacts?" Bella asked suddenly.

Edward looked positively surprised by the question. "Pardon?"

"Your eyes, I'm pretty sure they were black the last time I saw you in class. Now they're golden brown."

The bell saved Edward and before she knew it, he was gone again. Mike inquired what our interaction was all about and in all honestly, she couldn't give an answer because his mood swings were so erratic, it'll likely give her whiplash before this semester was over.

The next couple of months came and went with relative normalcy. Edward went back to keeping his distance, attempting to sit away from her as far as the humanly possible in the limited space they were given and she in turn ignored him unless class assignments necessitated verbal communication.

Snow, ice, rain and a combination of all three began making its descent onto Forks with alarming frequency as the winter season was making itself abundantly known. Over six months without having to use her powers (not that she used them often in the first place) began to feel like a footnote belonging to the past. Almost as if it never existed inside her even though she could still feel the power course through her veins.

It was a particularly icy day outside when Bella exited the school campus and made her way to her truck. Out of habit, she looked over her shoulder and found Edward staring at her yet again and it struck her as odd. For someone who went out of his way to stay out of her way, he spent way too much time observing her.

She sighed, looking forward to getting the hell out of school. Another end of the day and she relished the freedom from the monotony and weirdness of her daily school routine.

That's when her senses warned her of impending danger. She spun around and caught the sight of the Tyler's dark blue van that was skidding, tires locked and squealing against the breaks, spinning widely across the large patch of ice on the parking lot. Worse, it was headed straight toward her.

Bella's body tensed up and her instincts naturally geared to protect herself before she realized that her powers were binded and she was literally left helpless from the oncoming vehicle.

Unable to move fast enough, she braced for impact when she felt the onslaught of another push her body down. With eyes suddenly unfocused, she saw an outstretched arm stop the van just a couple of feet shy from where it would have crushed her. Bella's eyes widened as she looked at the face of her savior, Edward Cullen. One arm secured around her waist and the other leaving a remarkably large dent against the passenger side door.

Before she could even process what was happening, Bella was surrounded by dozens of students. Some asking her if she was okay. Others calling for 911. The rest just wanting to get a glimpse. While that was happening, Edward discreetly disappeared from view; leaving Bella with questions she was annoyed that she wanted answers to.

To be continued…

So what do you think? Too outlandish? I'm thinking to stick with the narrative form as opposed to the normal 1st person POV that this fandom is used to. You've probably noticed that I condensed certain conversations, and I purposely did that to avoid too much repetitiveness.