A/N: Ok, new story! I'm going to set a few ground rules:

First of all, for all that this is a Twilight fanfiction, there will be no canon characters in it. Ms Meyer created a wonderful universe with vast potential, but few people look outside of the canon characters. I mean, there's only so many times an original character can encounter the Cullens. So I set myself a personal challenge: play in the Twilight universe and do with with only original characters.

Second, I'm not going to be updating very often. I'm ADD and I have a job that prohibits me from writing while I work.

Third, I adore constructive criticism. If you think there's something wrong with the story, or you have ideas for the plot I'd love to hear them! I've got a vague idea of how this is going to go, but nothing is set in stone. Even the main characters' back stories and personalities are pretty fluid right now.

Onward!

Vespertine

Chapter 1:

The City

Abel POV:

I really hate the city.

It's a loud and filthy place, belching sound and smog into the air at all hours. I could almost feel my sense of smell slowly getting worse, the sensitivity dulling as the smog and filth coated my throat and lungs. I glared up at the sky, where a soft drizzle came from - even the rain was dirty, giving the air an unpleasant oily taste. I much preferred the untouched wilderness often found in the north; the blessed lack of civilization allowed my mind to settle and think in the silence there. The clean rain made everything smell new and fresh. Just thinking about it made me sigh, and I couldn't help making a face as I tasted the air again. How could humans live like this?

Not that I have any choice to be here, of course; what had been a light tugging for weeks was now an insistent pull centered somewhere behind my eyes. I was getting closer to my target with each step I took, and with each step it got more insistent, more compelling. I couldn't turn and leave even if I wanted to. Even if I didn't need whoever I was walking toward.

A young child on a red bike sped past me, splashing through a puddle on the sidewalk, intent on getting home, and for a brief second I considered merely putting out my arm and ripping him off the idiotic mode of transportation. There was an alley not far and I could make it there in less than a second. I could stay there to enjoy my meal, and leave the broken body behind. I could easily get away with it.

In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to come straight here without feeding first.

Unfortunately, my ability could be quite annoying and demanding when I unleashed it. When it found what I was seeking, I couldn't even hunt for the racket the damn thing was setting off in my head whenever I stopped. For three weeks I had been making my way south, through Saskatchewan and into Montana, following the vague feeling and for three weeks I had only dared to stop once.

I grimaced as I remembered the taste of the elk's blood. But I couldn't detour to kill a human, and so the foul stuff had to serve. I winced at the thought of what the pull could have turned into had I veered off course to hunt.

All this passed in a fraction of a second through my head, but with an almost silent sigh and a menacing frown, I let the child live. A small wave of filthy water rose from the shallow pool, slopping toward the hem of my beaten and slightly ragged jeans. Unthinking, I sidestepped away from the slow crest of muddy water, faster than the human eye could follow. Another frown - the city was where I truly had to hide. I always forgot that I couldn't do such things when people might be watching.

A quick scan of the surrounding streets revealed no one lingering near enough to catch me in the act of being inhuman and I sighed, resuming my interrupted walk, musing as I went. Big cities were always trouble - they usually had nonhuman residents, local covens that tended to get a bit upset when nomads such as myself hunted in their range without permission. The last thing I needed was to have a scrap with others of my kind. It was too important to get myself out of my current predicament first.

Although the thought of a good knock down, drag out certainly had it's own appeal now that I thought about it...

Suddenly the steady pulling in my head jerked sharply and I clenched my teeth together at the stab of pain. Whoever could help me was very close, probably close enough to realize the urge to travel in my direction was unnatural. I was coming up on a street corner and decided I would wait there for my savior - I grimaced at the word - to come to me instead of wandering aimlessly through the streets.

I was about 10 yards from my planned stopping place when a girl came running around the corner slightly faster than a human could have, her perfectly formed face screwed up in a mixture of fury, terror and determination. She was looking over her shoulder as she skidded around the sharp turn, scowling, and my ability gave another sharp tug. I had stopped when she came into view and now I took an involuntary step forward at the sheer force of the pull, a red hot knife of pain jabbing me behind the eyes.

I growled, wanting to shout at my ability, ask it what the hell it thought it was doing yanking me from my beautiful Canadian range to this filthy city and this girl who obviously had some problems of her own to deal with. I wasn't here to help someone else solve their problems for Christ's sake. Of course I couldn't, and said girl was barreling down on me, still looking over her shoulder.

She looked forward again, scanning the street for any human witnesses I assumed, and caught sight of me. She gasped, red eyes widening as she skidded to a halt rather gracefully just a few feet in front of me, the wind of her running blowing her brown hair into her face. The heavy smell of lilacs hit me at the same time.

Of course she's like me, I thought sourly. Just the icing on the cake for this whole damn situation. I bet who ever is chasing her is one of us, too.

So much for avoiding trouble from the local covens.

As if in answer to my bitter thoughts, three more bodies came loping around the corner not a second later. They half laughed, half growled as they spotted the girl in front of me and she stiffened, spinning away from me and hissing fiercely at them.

"Ah, Gwen," the leader, a medium sized man with black hair, said oily as they slowed to a stop not 20 feet from her, ignoring me for the time being. "Fancy meeting you here."

She tensed more and growled this time, shuffling her feet and moving closer to me slowly, her scuffed sneakers scraping loudly on the pavement. A brief surge of hate and protectiveness at his suggestive tone swamped me and overpowered my irritation with. It was easy to see she was scared of these three goons. She wasn't doing a very good job of hiding it.

The one to the leader's right shifted forward a step and looked me up and down, sizing me up through his lank blond hair. "Who's your friend, Gwennie?"

Gwen didn't answer, only hissing at him and moving again, this time not bothering to disguise the fact she was inching closer to me. Her fear was like a heavy cloud surrounding her, tickling my nose and I could tell they smelled it too. The one to the leader's right, who hadn't spoke yet, chuckled and moved closer, delighting in her slight whimper. Another surge of intense hate at these poor excuses for beings, and I bristled, stepping forward and whipping Gwen behind me without thinking.

"I'm glad you met me here like we planned, Gwen," I said over my shoulder as pleasantly as I could through the slow building red tide in my vision, quickly coming up with a plan. I couldn't take them all on at once, but if I could somehow get us out of this without a fight... She was important somehow, and so I had to keep her alive. Even if I didn't particularly enjoy dealing with her problems.

The other three didn't like the way I pretended to know the brunette, their stances shifting uneasily. Good, it seemed they were just bullies and didn't want to fight as much as they first let on. I felt rather than heard her relieved sigh as she caught onto my lie.

That's right, I thought bitterly. I'm saving your sorry ass so you can save mine.

"Not that I didn't have some problems getting here," she said softly in her wind chime voice, glaring around me at her pursuers. With a small wave to the other men, the leader straightened from his crouch; he had obviously sized me up the same way his crony had and decided the girl wasn't worth the fight I might put up.

"Be careful, Gwennie," he purred, "your new friend can't babysit you all the time. Walker will have his due." Argh. I wanted to throttle the pervert.

With a sharp glace at Gwen, who was still poking her head around my right arm, he turned and left, gone in a flash and taking his followers with him. She blew out a heavy breath and the smell of lilacs again washed over me; a brief, painful memory of white flowers in the hot Texas sun gripped me before I realized my new charge was talking.

"Thank you," she said softly from behind me and I turned slowly to see her with her head down, brown hair hiding her face. Her tone was sad, remorseful. "I didn't mean to drag you into this."

I couldn't help the wry grin that came to my face, an automatic response. For a brief moment, I forgot I didn't like her. "Hey, no worries, eh? At least you didn't run me over. For a second I thought you might."

This brought a smile to her face, like it was intended to. She looked up at me, red eyes amused, and brushed her hair out of her face. "Yeah," she chuckled and I reeled again as another irrational surge of emotion briefly drowned me. I struggled for a moment to not gasp at the unexpected completely out of character feeling.

The hell? Was I going crazy?

She brought her eyebrows together in a frown as she watched my face. "Something wrong?"

I shook my head, as much to clear it as to reassure her. "It's nothing." Grasping at anything to get off the subject until I could think on it more, I flashed a smile at her and stuck out my hand. "I'm Abel, by the way."

She grinned in response. "I'm Gwendolyn, but call me Gwen. I'd hate to have to kill my savior from the big bad Eldan coven because he used my hated name." She shook my hand, her small hand feeling frail in my own.

Eldan coven? So that must have been who those goons were.

As if she read my mind - not a far off thought when it came to fellow vampires - she grimaced. "Those were the guys chasing after me. Their leader is a bit... miffed with me right now." She didn't seem to want to explain any further, so I let it drop. Glancing around, I realized we were still standing on the sidewalk in a ramshackle part of town completely out in the open if those three decided to show up with reinforcements.

"Walk with me?" She suddenly asked, once again seeming to read my mind. I looked at her dumbly for a moment, caught off balance by her ability to guess what I was thinking. I must've had quite a look on my face because she hurriedly added, "We can go to my place." She paused and thought about that for a second before ducking her head. If vampires could blush, I'm sure she would have. I chuckled without thinking; she was so amusing.

She took a deep breath. "I mean, I have a place around here where we could go. You know, get out of the rather murderous public eye for a bit. Walker's bound to have more than those idiots running around after me." She grimaced, her nose wrinkling and that made me smile again, the expression completely bypassing my brain and going straight to my face.

I'm a grinning fool, that's for sure.

I grandly gestured to her. "Lead the way, madam! I shall follow wherever you wish."

A strange expression flitted across her face, one that couldn't interpret, before she smiled back and turned back the way I had come, looping her arm through mine with a laugh. "C'mon, o brave knight. Let's get going."

I tried not to make a displeased face as I let her pull me along. Suddenly I realized that the other pull - that of my ability - had completely stopped. I didn't remember when, but it had. I sighed inwardly. So Gwen really was the answer to my problem. But that didn't help any; how was this little girl, defenseless against three idiot vampires, going to help me with those hunting me? They were definitely more powerful than the local coven.

Christ, what had I gotten myself into?

A/N 2: Ok, how was that? Again, I'm not sure how often I'll update, or where exactly this is going, but I'd love some feedback! Next chapter will be Gwen's POV and we get some idea of who's chasing after Abel and making his seek help out.