A/n: Twilight and its characters are not mine.

So, here I go again. Wont be able to update as quick as I did my previous story, at least not in the beginning. Throwing this out because I finished it, enjoy while I take a vacation. Hopefully you'll like it and beg for more ;)

This takes place a few months before the original books start.

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Chapter 1

There was no forewarning of her presence in the woods, as the wind carried sweet scent of her to infiltrate my nostrils like bolt from the blue. I'd find myself contemplating the way she entered my life many times afterward, an unpredictable chaos sweeping me off my feet, as if caught in the middle of a tornado.

Alice had her vision of a fellow vampire coming to town a few days earlier; her only piece of information was that the female's intentions wouldn't be amicable. We'd been tracking her ever since.

It was both imperative for our family to safeguard the population of our present home of Forks out of humanitarian reasons, and by keeping menacing vampires from slaughtering innocent people we'd be able to maintain our sedentary lifestyle. We choose to prey on animal blood over human; a preference implying a certain loss of strength attained from feasting on the blood of man and additionally holding a constant lack of utter satiety. The selection was grounded in Carlisle's philosophy, preaching that we live in peace with human beings, staying abstinent would redeem us; or on a simpler note - vampires couldn't be evil if they did no evil.

And this vampire, she belonged to another group of our kind. There was no questioning that becoming a vampire was a morph into something fundamentally distinct from human nature. Yes, we kept our former bodies, and to some extent the potential of keeping our personalities – but the constant siren's call from the blood caused most of us to embrace the vampiric nature in the transformation process. Few could withstand the potent pull of the burning hunger, yet we chose to rise above it and fight it.

Somehow she'd managed to elude us completely – until now. It puzzled us why she seemed to refuse to abandon her relentless city border lurking, dawdling like a famished vulture waiting for its prey to take its final breath of life. Could she be so naïve to think we'd give up on protecting it?

I halted instantaneously directing my stride towards the origin of the scent I'd caught, recognizing it immediately as foreign and similar to the few whiffs I'd encountered the previous days before losing her trail once more. Habitually I focused on extending my mind to read hers as I neared my target only to crease my forehead in confusion at the complete radio silence facing me.

Rechecking my family's minds to ascertain I wasn't stripped of my ability, finding their trails of thought within my reach, a clammy grasp of uncertainty accompanied me as I stepped through the clearing and into a meadow. Encountering a vampire one-on-one ordinarily held no worries for me; I was used to having quite the upper hand being granted admission to every conscious brain activity in my opponent. Seeing the creature standing in front of me, clear as day, I brutally came to terms with the unavoidable truth: I could not read her mind.

She stood poised facing me, evidencing her control of the situation by clearly only being found because she wanted me to. A slight pulse of panic jolted inside of me, but outwardly I stayed calm and approached her in a confident stride.

My skin sparkled in unison with hers when touched by the sun's sweet caresses as I closed the gap between us and stood mere feet apart from her. I found myself unable to avert my eyes from her, my heightened visual acuity only emphasizing the perfect being standing in front of me.

She wore a white long-sleeved dress, her feet bare but showing no signs of being victim to the harsh forest ground as one would expect a human being to display. Seeing her standing in front of me rendered no doubt that even though she'd once been human, she was something entirely different now.

Her brilliant auburn hair softly framed her heart-shaped face, falling silkily to rest on her narrow shoulders, the careful wind playing with the strands in a lazy manner. Her supple and full pink lips, at the moment locked in a lopsided condescending smile, had me paralyzed in pure temptation. Lastly I lingered at her eyes, scarlet irises regarding me patronizingly.

She let her previously crossed arms fall to her side in a tedious bravado, letting out a sigh of annoyance while at it. "You're quite the persistent bunch, aren't you?" Her voice was of such a lovely tone and yet at the same time of such sinister quality it nearly caused me to shiver by the perverseness of the pairing.

Her eyebrows furrowed suddenly, her face portraying the type of amazement one would expect if a child was faced with the Easter Bunny, before she threw her head back and let out a chiming laughter of amusement.

"I've never quite believed the ridiculous stories," she blurted between cackles, "I've always refused to believe anyone could be so delusional."

"What?" I asked humorlessly, easily catching the mockery in what she found hilarious. She regained her composure, but kept the demeaning smile as she spoke.

"Your eyes, they reflect your… asceticism. I feel like I'm standing face to face with a unicorn. This is why you and your clan keep hunting me? Are you so deep within your psychosis that you'd kill your own kind to protect humans?" The final word was spoken with such revulsion I grit my teeth in defensiveness.

I kept my external serene mask despite my distaste. "We keep a permanent residence here. Killing people here might draw unfortunate attention to us, we'd appreciate if you'd refrain from doing that," I explained with my voice tranquil, hoping to avoid physical confrontation, her ruby eyes rolling to the back of her head as I spoke.

I tried to read her level of aggression, though clearly hostile, I wasn't convinced she was interested in a fight. Hopefully, I thought, this could be solved with conversation.

My mind kept tabs on my family, mapping their whereabouts to estimate their distance from me. I could reasonably assume Alice had already seen this encounter taking place, but I was too focused on predicting and reading the pristine vampire in front of me when lacking the means to tap into her mind to access the information Alice might hold. The extent of her knowledge would also be limited by the degree of certainty related to this situation, rendering my efforts to obtain clues to how to handle the situation potentially more confusing then beneficial.

As she tapped her finger pensively to her chin I decided to attempt to lower her antagonism by approaching her graciously. I feared she might grow so bored she'd fight me for the hell of it. "My name is Edward Cullen," I worded affably, desisting the stretch of a hand accompanying the introduction not to accentuate human norms.

Her eyes twitched slightly, suspicion visibly causing her to hesitate. What seemed as thousand intervals of silence fell between us, never once of them which she unlocked her cherry orbs glowing of wariness from mine. The hushed moments she offered while staring me down in obvious ambivalence had me on the brim of sanity. It had been a long time since I'd ever wondered what another being would say, the thoughts leading up to the words always preceding the uttering of them.

Her features reading of conflict dissipated suddenly and she cocked her head to her side while observing me in fascination. "You're frustrated with me taking my time?" She asked the question with a playful tone, yet the smile of wickedness shaping her lips still.

Revealing my ability to a vampire palpably callously natured wasn't within my comfort zone, and I knew I had to think fast. I couldn't risk offending her by telling her it was none of her business, but unveiling the truth wasn't an option either.

"I'm confused by your reluctance," I replied offhandedly, she arched an eyebrow in a distrusting reply. "We're nothing but friendly and peaceful, if you're not of any intimidation to our lives we offer no threat to you either," I continued waving my white flag as wide as I could.

She exhaled and crossed her arms over her chest again. "My name is Bella." She stood uneasily after speaking her name, her exquisite name, as if ready to haul herself at me if responded wrongly. I was perplexed; it was almost as if she paralleled unmasking her name as giving a stranger the keys to her house.

"Pretty," I said, instinctively and a bit more tainted with awe then I would prefer. Undoubtedly she was the most magnificent girl I'd ever been forced to hunt down and shun from the village, but at the same time her malevolent nature had me stepping back from her like fire.

She offered a mere insipid blink at my comment reinstating the awkward silence between us.

I felt my family closing up; Emmett would after my estimations reach us first, and in about five minutes. I had to make sure to convert her attitude to a more friendly part of the scale – or that she be on her way before he came to join us. Emmett was not one for deep conversation and benefits of the doubt, and this girl was sure to give him plenty of reasons to make him want to shut her up.

I decided to give no hint of the upcoming members of my family's looming appearance. Not only was I torn between keeping her safe from Emmett, but I discovered a strong need to stay close to her.

To my astonishment she beat me to breaking the frosty atmosphere. "I didn't plan on hunting here anyways," she whispered with such soreness I wanted to grab her and pull her into my arms like an overprotective fool. I mentally reprimanded myself for letting what seemed to be hormonal activity get the best of me; this was a dire situation needing my complete and unaffected attention. I detached myself quickly, stripping myself from any emotion I felt.

"What were you seeking, then?" I casually inquired, relaxing my stance to underline my indifference. I was only showing her how friendly natured we were. Her business was of no interest to me.

Bella's eyes narrowed cautiously at my query, leaving me internally groaning at not thinking my question through. Of course she'd see it as an invasion of her privacy, now I'd put her even more on her toes then before. She ignored my question blatantly while keeping her expression blank.

I realized she was purposely torturing me, having discovered my annoyance of silence earlier she was exploiting my irritation and deliberately fuelling it by staying impassive.

"Why do you do it? Stay off the blood, I mean," she asked suddenly with curiosity. Again she caught me off guard with her show of interest, plummeting from pointing her aggression pendulum from one side to the opposite one in seconds.

"We believe in the sanctity of life," I began explaining, although identifying my own self-righteousness at the same time she did. She snorted denigrating at me with once.

"But you'd kill me if I try to kill them? Am I not alive?" She asked in opposition, but her previous constant anger had faded and been replaced with appeal. Bella's salient intelligence had me mesmerized, only to be further enthralling paired with the furious, yet beguiling, silence of her mind.

I discovered it was a minefield to discuss how we regarded human nature superior to the vampiric one with a creature clearly embracing the latter without insulting her. I could loathe my own blood lusting tendencies, even encourage my family to follow my path and avoid the dark inclinations we carried with us, but I couldn't manifest my revulsion to her – and at the same time keep her from clawing my eyes out.

"I'm unconvinced it's comparable in that way," I finally said after a long pause. "I'm personally convinced we're soulless creatures, and that humans on the other hand are in possession of one."

She arched a taunting eyebrow at me, seeing my display of diplomacy for what it was. "You think we're worth less then they are?" She asked rhetorical, biting her lip distractedly. "But you feed off animals? I'm assuming you regard them as devoid of a soul as well, then?"

Bella's question had me catch my rebuttal in my throat. She took my halted silence as an invitation to carry on. "And why are they superior? They can be just as bad as some of us, they kill and maim, only – they have no blood lust to throw the blame at."

"Look, I'm aware of the layers to this, but our choice to not live off humans is an independent choice of fundamental philosophy. Human beings can choose to not kill and maim others of their kind even though there are a few who do, as well. It's a choice in what believe is right," I defended rapidly, happy to keep to the innocuous discussion instead of receiving hostility when asking her invidious personal questions.

I could sense Emmett slowing down now, and my mind worked in parallel processes to discover why. It seemed Alice had a vision and had rallied them out of our range of discovery to have it unfold. I dared to peek quickly into her mind to study it, managing to see bits of what were Bella and me sitting in our house back home, clearly enjoying ourselves mid conversation.

The vision was of such shock to me it had my attention span narrowed, causing me to lose focus of Bella's voice. Her displeased cough brought me back to reality.

I offered her an apologetic expression, she sneered affronted, but repeated her argument. "I believe there's a reason why human blood makes us stronger, we're meant to feed off of them, like a cat catches a mouse. When we're made, we're made for the hunt and the blood," she said it with such strong sense of conviction I could positively sense the primal essence surge inside of her as she spoke. She paused for dramatic effect, then grinned wickedly before finishing. "It's pure evolution. We're adapted to our prey and survival."

"Well, one can't argue evolution," I attempted to defend my case with a shot of humor. She wasn't amused by my discontinuation of the line of serious reasoning. I scratched my forehead nervously and tried to come up with a real resistance. "I do also believe we can retain the remnants of our past humanity. Our memories fade once we're transformed, but with active reminiscing we can keep them. I think that's true for our humanity as well, but it demands constant work."

Her face fell at this, what seemed to be a pang of torment flashed across her features before milliseconds later masked by the mask of blankness. I wanted to ask her, so badly, to tell me what she was thinking right now, what had caused her anguish just then and to banish her agony. Knowing better then to impose on her clandestine personal life I held my cravings in check.

"I'm not convinced every vampire was a better human," she breathed sadly then, saying it more to herself then to me, averting her eyes from mine as she indulged me. I reined myself from asking further questions, picking up the small pieces that was handed to me voluntarily rather then put the small confidence established in jeopardy.

She gathered herself quickly, sighing deeply again and regaining her cool composure supplemented with her trademark sly smile. "I'm really interested in putting your humanity to a test," she giggled sinisterly. I offered her no sign of possibility, controlling my blood lust was of no big difficulty anymore and temptation was easily withstood.

"If you want to have a place to stay while you carry out your peaceful business in Forks you are welcome in our house just outsides the town," I suggested kindly, trying to avoid taking offence by her suspicious glare. "Of course, you'd have to be escorted by one of us; just to be sure you don't…" I ran out of positively charged words alternative to "kill" and let my voice trail off instead.

"Eat people?" She proposed and added a weirdly placed smile to her preposterous recommendation. She took a few seconds considering it seriously, glancing dubiously interchanging between the ground and me before replying. "Ok, but I won't stay long. I'm fascinated by the fact that you've assembled a whole group of retarded vampires to follow your ideology, might as well stop by the circus before I finish my intended affairs."

Introducing this odious creature to my family presented itself as much more of a challenge then I'd initially expected. Knowing them to be kind-hearted and welcoming, their reaction faced with Bella was far from customary. From time to time we'd have visitors of our kind, plenty of them showcasing the traditional burgundy eyes, but never had there been an occurrence where they'd received anyone the way they did Bella.

I led her to the field where Alice had gathered everyone, a large open ground in the middle of the woods where we frequently enjoyed a game of baseball. She hissed behind me anxiously as we approached them, obviously intimidated by their overwhelming numbers.

Six vampires, three blonde, three dark haired, awaited peacefully in the middle for us to come closer. As we drew nearer I sensed her initial tension growing, but to my surprise she stayed next to me, easing closer with one nervous step at a time.

"I'm Carlisle, this is my family," began Carlisle after a few uncomfortable moments of silence between us. I stood on her side, like a guardian, facing the line of my family together with her.

She twitched agitatedly next to me, her eyes flying cagily from one person to the other. And she stayed in complete silence, refusing to offer her name.

"She has some business to attend to in town, she has vowed not to cause any disturbance, and agreed to me accompany her to make sure of it," I summarized to avoid her belligerent behavior if forced to expose her name. If she'd been wary with one stranger vampire made aware of it, six would doubtlessly be a problem.

I took notice of Jasper's troubles shortly after speaking, Alice's edgy eyes on him like a hawk reading every expression of apprehensiveness flashing across his face. Alice's eyes stilled suddenly, the vacant look familiar to me. She was having a vision.

I tapped into her mind to access the vision, but found myself quickly retreating to the safety of my own secluded brain. Dreadful and foul acts exploded in my head like fifty horror movies showing at the same time, all caused by the girl standing next to me.

Alice put her hand to her head and moaned in exasperation, cringing into Jasper's supporting body. "Make it stop," she begged, her eyes shut solid together as if it would keep the sights away.

"What's going on?" Rosalie asked cautiously, conveying glances of suspicion in Bella's direction.

"I can't be here, this is too much," Jasper suddenly admit defeated, his eyes filled with a staggering atrociousness I'd rarely ever witnessed.

He's too affected by her emotional state, I realized, peering over at Bella standing unaffected on my side. She eyed Jasper contemplating, clearly entertained by her effect on him.

Alice mustered up some power and willed herself to stare intensely at me, gripping desperately at Jasper's sleeve. "Look at what her maliciousness and blood thirst is doing to him!" She shouted it hysterically, closing her eyes again to fend off the visions bursting in her head. "You have to leave, now!" She commanded, pointing her finger at Bella.

Bella snorted disrespectfully, baring her teeth in a sign of aggression. I waved a hand to calm her down, frantically searching for a way to defuse this situation.

"We can't stay here anymore," Alice said frenziedly. Jasper needed no more then that, turning instantly and running away in the other direction. Alice turned to watch him escape, sent me a final pleading look and said her final words before joining her lover. "She might be indecisive, but every single scenario in her future holds nothing but unspeakable evil."

With that, she sprinted off and disappeared into the woods. The remaining members of my family eyed Bella mistrustfully; even Esme seemed repelled by the vampire in front of her.

"Edward, maybe this isn't a good idea," Carlisle started carefully, unconsciously positioning himself protectively in front of Esme.

I ran the options through my head, knowing that the reasonable thing to do was to send her off, tell her to stay away forever and hope that the aura of malevolence would never again cross pass with us. But something inside of me craved her presence, I could feel my body yearning to discover that she wasn't lost in her darkness; I wanted to see her true self. And this, absurd and unfounded emotion overruled my logic completely.

"I'll accompany her to town immediately, then she'll be gone," I announced determined. Carlisle and Esme grew agonized in front of me, Rosalie huffed while sending scorning glares at Bella. "It's night-time, there won't be many people to bump into, it's safer to get it over with now."

Emmett stepped forward, speaking firmly. "Let me come with you, if she's… It's safer if we're two."

Bella scoffed openly at him, rolling her red eyes rebelliously.

"Bella and I will leave now, I'll see you later," I replied, dismissing his offer to soothe her. I didn't trust her per say, but my reasoning was utterly overridden and I was convinced I'd seen something good in her earlier in the meadow.

Bella turned and began running towards town without any farewells. "Be careful," Esme whimpered motherly at me while crutching herself on Carlisle. I nodded stiffly to show my resolve, before darting after Bella's disappearing shape.

At first she scurried off in great haste, as if putting ground between her and my family would solve all her problems, though shortly before reaching Forks her stride took on a more leisurely tempo.

She smirked wickedly as I caught fully up with her and matched her pace. "That was quite the show, your clan knows the art of welcoming strangers," she teased, feigning a look of disappointment.

"I've never seen them like that before," I snapped back, tired of her taunting. She took no notice of the harshness in my voice, shrugging it off with a laugh.

Alice's words worried me, but seeing this marvelous girl next to me, I couldn't believe it to be true. My mind told me it wasn't her who would cause the evil, she'd be victim to it, she was innocent and pure. A nagging discomforting feeling in the back of my head told me this wasn't the case; I'd seen the visions of her possible futures when dipping into Alice's head.

But the future could be avoided, if convinced of her humanity and that doing good is the right choice, she might not have to face what Alice saw. I wanted to save her.

I followed her blindly and rather absentmindedly, busying myself with ideas to convert her from the vile path she took. My distractedness rendered me completely unable to predict her sudden halt, causing me to backtrack and catch up with her.

She'd come to a stop in the middle of the schoolyard, her face grim and holding a momentousness in her stance that caused me to halt. I stood on the other side of the ground, eyeing her suspiciously, naively expecting her to at any time smile and join my hand in merry skips on our way to her destination.

The corners of her mouth shaped into a terrifying smile then, and reality struck. Watching her now I could plainly see her fiendish nature, she displayed it blatantly, and I'd been too blinded to see it.

At the same time as she turned to run my phone began ringing in my pocket. I didn't have to check the caller ID to know it would be Alice. While at the same time stalking after Bella I grabbed my phone and answered it.

"Edward, I just had a vision, she made up her mind-" Alice's frantic voice sounded.

"I know, I'm tracking her now," I replied rapidly, seeing her turn a street corner and entering what I knew was Main Street. I shot around the corner as fast as I could, finding myself wide eyed and in the middle of a climactic situation.

My jaw dropped as I watched how Bella ran towards the upcoming lorry truck sailing through town. The driver honked furiously to alarm the girl running directly towards his vehicle; little did he know he was the one who should be afraid.

She jumped gracefully onto the side of the truck and ripped the door open. The stunned driver had managed to slow the truck to a complete stop now and was forced to face the feline creature snickering heinously at him. She reached into the opening, jerked him violently out and ripping the car belt in the process, before jumping to the ground in one fluid movement.

She held him like mother holds her child, hugging his generous body to her petite figure.

"Save him!" I heard a distant yelling through the phone, but I found myself bolted to the ground, a spectator to the macabre events unfolding in front of me.

Bella looked directly at me, ignoring the helpless squirming from the plaid covered trucker locked in her powerful grip, and yet again, her lips curved into a mockery smile of pure evil. She lifted the heavy load above her head as if it carried no weight at all, turned slowly to face away from me and then in one vicious and inhuman move she threw him fiercely into the air.

I regained conscious control over my limps and instinctively hurled myself in the direction she'd tossed him away like garbage. I had to pass her by to get to him, and as I rushed past her she whispered softly into my ear. "Goodbye, Edward."

Her plan of distracting me worked perfectly. While occupied with catching the driver she scurried off to finish her intended business in secret. She made sure of leaving her trail all over the place, darting back and forth across town and never stopping to linger anywhere special, successfully concealing her planned aim.

We never caught up with her after this; she disappeared into the woods and didn't return. Emmett was in particular annoyed with not being able to track her down, cursing her well-developed skill of escape. In silence I reckoned that exact quality in her stemmed from necessity; fleeing was of the essence for someone so private.

The driver passed out while mid-air, his body succumbing to the strain put on it by gravitational forces, and promptly placed back in his seat while still remaining in his unconscious state. I kept close to him until he left town again, watching how he stupidly walked into the police station to claim he'd been hurled out of his truck by a little teenage girl. When he departed with his lorry truck he was mentally convinced he'd fallen asleep in front of the wheel dreaming the entire situation and thanked God in silence for having such luck surviving. He had no idea.

I avoided listening in on my family's minds the following time, although frequently catching lines colored by worry, suspicion and disagreement regarding my handling of the entire Bella-situation.

It was hard not thinking of her, her being seemed etched into my mind, thoughts drifting instinctively to ponder about her whereabouts or to contemplate what in her past could be responsible for her darkness. I shamefully tried to veil the spell she still seemed to hold on me from my family, knowing they'd disapprove greatly. She would stay my secret.

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