Chapter 1: Unheard

Leaves rustled. Something unseen whisked by, leaving leaves twirling to the ground unheard. The moon's light dappled the ground where the forest's foliage let it in. The light briefly illuminated a figure running faster than a cheetah, colder than ice, and stronger than a rock. The figure breathed deeply, although that wasn't necessary.

Not a lot could scare a vampire, although this one was more than frightened. It was a fugitive. Running from the Volturi. Alone. Wanted by them only to killed. Painfully.

Emma raced, literally, for her life. Her poor blue silk blouse was shredded so that it hung on her by only threads. Her curly black hair was matted and tangled with twigs. Subconsciously, she nagged herself for becoming this ragged. Of coarse, that couldn't be helped. Temporarily stunned, Emma watched as a blooming light grew larger quickly up ahead. Maybe they can help me. Wait, who am I kidding? As if they would help me, even if they-Surprise stopped her in her tracks. They are vampires! The smell wafted toward her, distinctly carrying the smell of one, two, three, four, five, six vampires! And a human!Her mouth hung open in a very undignified way. Her surprise was cut short when a growl sounded from the woods.

Emma knew that if her heart wasn't already dead, it would be beating very fast. Had the Volturi caught up already? Before she could get over her surprise, again, a figure launched at her. It tackled her perfectly, and although she put all her energy into the fight, within a few moments she had been pinned by the vampire, she knew it was a vampire by now.

"Well well well, what do we have here? Feisty eh?" Emma struggled but the vampire had her good.

"Woah there! Tell me who you are and then come with me, and I might let you go alive."

"Emmett let her go, she's terrified." A new voice broke in. Emma breathed a sigh of relief, they were not the Volturi. Grumbling something about not being aloud to have fun, the vampire let go of Emma and a new hand offered to help her up. Ignoring the hand, Emma pushed herself up.

The two vampires were male, one with curly brown hair and big muscles, the other with bronze hair, and they both had topaz eyes. While she studied them, the two others were studying her.

Edward noticed her curly, shoulder-length, black hair, shredded blue shirt, jeans, and the frantic look to her dark yellow eyes. The thoughts from her mind came in odd, haphazard, jumbles. He had to tune his powers directly at her to hear her thoughts perfectly, and oddly when he did he lost hearing Emmett's. He was almost glad of that.

Emmett only noticed the way her eyes darted back and forth, and how cute she was. Man she's cute. He thought then shot a look at Edward. Oddly, he was only looking at the female.

"Edward."

"Huh?" Emmett blurted. "Did I miss something?" Edward grinned.

"I told her my name. She's wondering who we are, what we want, and if anyone has a spare shirt." Emmett nodded.

"I'm Emmett." He grunted.

"And you are?" Edward stared hard at the girl. She glared back. Edward's grin vanished.

"Yes, I read minds. I know your power too." The girl's eyes widened. Emmett blinked.

"Will someone tell me what I missed?!" He yelled.

"So she finally showed up huh?" Edward and Emmett turned. Emma took the opportunity to bolt. She didn't get more than twelve steps before someone tackled her from behind.

"I'm Alice Cullen by the way." The small female said cheerily as she helped Emma to her feet. Emma noticed this one had short spiky black hair and expensive clothes. "Sorry about that, but I wasn't about to let you go." Emma shrugged off the fema-Alice's hand.

"Who's this?" Anothe-no, four more vampires appeared from the direction of the lights, which was probably a house. Emma groaned. Alice stared at her, frowned, then quickly composed her face and grabbed Emma's arm. She tugged her over to the other vampires.

"This is Jasper." She gestured toward a blond male. "Rosalie." Another blond, although this one was a female and had long hair. "And Carlisle and Esme." This time one male and another female. The male had blond hair while the female had caramel colored hair. Carlisle stepped forward and shook Emma's hand with both of his own.

"Nice to meet you . . . ?" He was clearly asking for her name. Emma stared at him until he let go of her hand. Esme cleared her throat and put one arm around Emma's shoulder's.

"Let's get back to the house, shall we?" Emma stared at Esme until she took her arm from around her shoulder's. In between Jasper and Emmett, felling unusually calm, Emma was taken to the Cullen house.