Prologue:

Bella's POV

Maybe it was silly. But I felt like, maybe, just maybe, this could be our place.

Who said we weren't city people? And this, of all places, was somewhere we could blend in. Who would be looking at a group of people with shimmering skin in a city where a man with skin dyed blue or someone whose hair was a bazillion different color was a common sight?

At least, that's what I tried to convince myself.

Besides, I liked cities, especially the BIG city. When I was 11, my mother had taken me here with her. She was on a business trip, and while we were in her offices, and she was busy consulting distraught couples, I would sit by the window and look down at the bustle below. It was so alive here. It should be perfect for us.

I mean, if the Empire Clan could do it, why couldn't we?

A little voice in my head that I enjoyed ignoring whispered to me again. It seemed to have been extremely busy lately.

"Bella. The Empires eat people.Where are you going to find game to hunt around here? Unless you plan to follow in the same dietary habits as they do…"

I shook my head, shaking the words from my thoughts. We would make it work. After all, how hard could it be?

Right?

…..

Bella's POV

My granddaughter grabbed my hand and used my finger to point to something out of the airplane window. "Tall," she said, her eyes widening at the sight of the buildings that were just appearing on the horizon. "Really, really tall."

She placed her fingers on my temples and showed me a question, a talent that she had inherited from her mother. Is that where we were headed?

I smiled and nodded down at her. "That's it, baby."

She grinned contentedly and settled back down into her seat, resuming her activity of drawing various finger on the untouched pretzel bag that had been handed to us at the beginning of the flight.

I sighed and leaned back into my seat. The day was finally here. Early this morning, my entire family and I had hopped on a plane ride that was set to take us across the country to a place completely different than our old home.

But just how huge this whole thing was hadn't quite settled on me until now. The entire flight, I had spent contemplating and going over it all in my head.

Was this really a good idea?

I knew it had been time to move, of course. That was what came with everlasting life. We had to change places before people started to notice that we didn't seem to age, and we had already stayed in Forks for much too long.

But to New York City? It had been such a spontaneous decision, mostly affected by my family's yearning to keep close to Renesmee, my lovely daughter, and, of course, my young granddaughter, Sarah Bella Cullen-Black. None of us could have possibly bared parting with her, just when we were getting to know her.

Truthfully, I was a little bit nervous. A few of my family members (insert Carlisle and Esme's names here) were not exactly in the metal state of mind to deal with the quick-paced motion that city life brought on. I had left choosing their house up to them, as we had decided that each couple should have their own apartment. And yes, I did say house. Somehow, the two had managed to score possibly the only one left in the city. But when we asked how they had managed it, they weren't able to really tell details.

Honestly, I just hoped they hadn't been screwed over.

A cloud of sadness filled my mind. Alice would have been so excited. Knowing her, she would already have been making plans to thoroughly expand her closet. She was built for this city. I could imagine her strutting the streets, getting a taxi with ease, and dragging Renesmee, Rosalie, and I down to 5th Avenue and the rest of the Shopping District. Constantly.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by a poke from my husband who was sitting next to me.

"Bella, love. Gather your things. We're landing."

My stomach fluttering in anticipation and excitement, I grabbed my carry-on bags from underneath me and placed them on my lap.

I heard my name whispered form the seat behind me, and I turned to face my son-in-law, Jacob Black.

"Bells, can you hand me Sarah? I need to get her in the backpack before we have to start moving."

I nodded, and picked up my granddaughter, helping her gather her toys together.

"Hon, you have to go back to daddy now."

She smiled and gave me a peck on the cheek goodbye. I beamed, unable to control myself. She was just so damn adorable.

Jacob came around to our row to unbuckle her seatbelt and pick her up out of her chair. After Edward ruffled her hair and kissed her on the cheek, he carried her away.

I took my husband's hand, and he chuckled. "She's going to be a beautiful young lady one day."

I squeezed his hand in agreement. "It must be your genes."

Just then, our pilot came on the announcements. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now preparing to land at JFK International Airport. Thank you for flying AirTran and I hope you have a great trip to New York."

A few moments later, we felt our aircraft hit the ground with a resounding jolt, and we began to stand up and string together our belongings along with the rest of the passengers.

We waited as row by row of people left the plane, and finally, we all left, walking down the aisle in groups, Carlisle and Esme first, then Renesmee and Jacob with little Sarah in his arms, followed by Rosalie and Emmett, and finally, Edward and I. Once we had all exited, we met by the baggage retrieval, standing in a circle in a secluded corner of the room.

"So… what now?"

Rosalie, being the most street smart of all of us, jumped in. "We can take the subway. The blue line runs right by here, so we can all just start there. Jake, Nessie, you guys don't have to go very far, since you are going to live in Brooklyn. You'll be taking the line south, like us, but you'll just get off at the Shepherd Avenue stop. From there, you can just take a taxi." The two nodded, internalizing their instructions.

Rose turned to Edward and I. We were staying in the same apartment complex, so she was reading the instructions for all 4 of us. "You guys, plus Em and I, we've got a longer trip. Eventually, we'll get off the blue line, and get on the one that's colored orange. We'll take that all the way up to Upper West Manhattan. Let's just get off… at 81st Street Station. We can pretty much just walk from there to where we're going."

I frowned, glad I had Rosalie going with us. I hadn't understood any of what she had just said.

Finally, she turned to Carlisle and Esme. "Where are you guys headed?" she asked.

Esme quickly pulled out a little slip of paper out of her pocket. "It says here… Cypress Avenue?"

Rosalie's face would have paled if it could. "Are you sure?"

They both nodded.

Rose grimaced and swallowed hard. "You guys… you're headed to the Bronx. South Bronx. I-"

Carlisle frowned, and interrupted. "I've heard a lot about that place on the news. It sounds bad… but we can handle it, right? I mean, we're…" I gestured quickly at his teeth, not wanting to say the word out loud.

Rosalie shook her head. "That's not what I'm worried about."

Since we were all still confused, she continued. "The Empire Clan… well, their headquarters is on Cypress Avenue. I was just thinking… you said you don't know much about the house you got, or-"

Esme nodded, understanding. "Who sold it to us."

We were all silent for a moment, suddenly deadly aware of every honk of a horn and siren rushing by outside. Finally, Carlisle spoke up.

"There's nothing we can do about it," he said, sounding like he was reassuring himself more than us. "Anyways, I'm sure it's not them. It's probably just a coincidence."

"Are you sure you don't want to come stay with us? Just for tonight?" Edward asked, grabbing his mother's quivering hand.

But Carlisle firmly shook his head. "We'll be fine."

"O-okay then," Rosalie said shakily. "So you'll just…"

As she told the two their instructions, my mind wandered off. Could it really be them? The clan had a long history of fierceness, and in the vampire community, were credited with at least a fifth of the murders that took place annually in the city. And it was all brought back to their alleged leader: Adriano de Luca. These tales could be rumors, but still…

I was awoken by Edward grabbing my arm. "C'mon, love. We're going."

As the door swung open, the sounds I had heard muffled inside the airport crashed into me, amplified by a thousand. We were all suddenly swept into a rush of people, all on their cell phones, seeming incredibly rushed to get to one place or another, even though it was 11 o'clock at night. Nobody walked this fast in Forks. I was suddenly relying solely on Edward's touch to lead me to where we were going.

Before I knew it, I had been led onto the subway. Grabbing onto one of the nearby poles, I held tight onto Edward's hand and with a rush of relief saw the rest of my family surrounding me.

The train jolted to a start, and we all stood in silence.

After a few quick minutes of stop after stop and many a "Are we there yet?" accompanied with a giggle from Sarah, the tired- sounding announcer said "Shepherd Avenue". Jake and Nessie gathered their bags and their baby before giving each of us remaining a peck on the cheek.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Nessie said to me, and I nodded, hoping I looked more assured than I felt.

"Be safe. I love you," I replied. She quickly nodded before scrambling off the car with many others.

What felt like hours later, Edward, Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett and I all got off the train.

'We're taking the green line," The two oldest told us. We all nodded and exchanged quick and worried goodbyes. Looking confused and mildly scared, they hurried off into the crowd of people.

From then on, we all followed Rose.

About half an hour later, we hopped off of our car for the last time to see a worn out wall with woolly mammoths and dinosaurs made out of tile scattered all over it.

"We're near the Museum of Natural History," Rosalie explained.

After a few blocks of walking, I suddenly saw a huge building rising across the road. There was a glass extension on it. It looked like…

"A planetarium," Emmett explained. "It's supposed to look like the solar system."

It was beautiful.

We finally stopped walking in front of a small building, with a tarp covering the entrance. It was… rather drab, really.

"This is it," Rosalie said, and walked forward first into the lobby. Going straight up to the front desk, she took the job of checking both of us in. She handed Edward and I our room key once she was done.

"You're on level 6," she said. "We're on level 3. Will you guys be able to find your rooms?"

We nodded, and she smiled contentedly. Kissing us both goodnight on the cheeks, and after a pat on the back from my brother-in-law, they walked up to one of the elevators and entered the door closing behind them. Edward and I followed suit.

After going down many twisting and turning hallways, we finally made it into our unbelievably small apartment, with just one bedroom, and bathroom, and a kitchenette that was useless.

My husband and I sighed in unison. I guess this was our new… home. To even think the word felt weird.

We were woken from our thoughts by a knock on the door. Edward opened it to find a young woman in her early 20's carrying what seemed to be a… burrito in her hands.

"Hi!" She said, walking in with no sign from us to enter. She threw her arms around Edward and gave him a big squeeze, quickly doing the same to me.

"I'm Emily Roberts, your new neighbor!"

….

A/N: So, sorry. This was a pretty long chapter, but I wrote this with no earlier planning, and I tried to make everything I put in pretty relevant. I plan to post the next chap within a week.

So here are some spoilers:

Chapter 2: Edward gets friendly with the new neighbor, and Carlisle and Esme are missing in action. Bella explores her newfound fascination.

Chapter 3: A terrifying wakeup call comes to the Cullens and Blacks, and Rosalie catches the interest of a famed director.

Hope you liked it, lovies!

Love,

Daniella

Please review!