Every night I took a dive into the confusion and darkness of my dreams. Tonight I was forced to relive the death of my mother, of my creator. I screamed profanities and fought off the vampire guards sent to restrain me, but I couldn't reach her. She died with tears in her eyes and a sad smile as she watched me struggle. After I saw that there was nothing I could do, I collapsed to the ground, tears in my own eyes. The guards forced me up, wanting me to witness what happened when you went against the Volturi.

I watched helpless, as she was ripped to pieces and thrown into a fire that been made in the middle of the road. Tomorrow the humans would gossip over what the beautiful, but somewhat threatening, nobles had been doing in the middle of the night. My pain would be represented by the burn marks on the ground and by nothing more.

I awoke gasping and immediately reached for the lamp. It was a joke of course, I could see in the dark, but having the warmth and reassuring light helped to calm me. I reached for the clock, 2 AM. Sighing, I ran my hand through my chocolate brown curls. This time my mind wandered to happier times as I lay back down.

My skirts spread around me, I was sitting against a tree in a meadow, my hair tied back at the nape of my neck, watching the river that ran by. This was before the fire, when I still had my life, still had my mother, and still had my love. The sun was soaking in to my arms and legs, and I could almost feel it from where I lay in bed. I had just begun to think he wouldn't come when someone spoke behind me, making me jump.

"Isabella", I turned to see that a handsome, young man with startling grey eyes had spoken and ran forward, giving him a kiss. "Edward", I whispered in his ear. No more needed to be said. We sat down, relaxing in the shade of the tree. I had always felt safe here, under this tree, as if no one else existed; no one else, but of course, Edward. I moved closer to Edward and he leaned down trailing kisses down my neck and murmuring my name against my skin. I leaned my head back against the tree, exposing more of my neck. Today, I could still remember how that felt, how warm and wonderful, even though it had been hundreds of years ago. But, this person in the dream, Isabella, was no longer me. For one, I didn't let anyone call me Isabella anymore. If anyone knew my name, they called me Bella. If someone did call me Isabella they knew it was a quick way to a fight that they would lose.

I turned my face towards Edward, capturing his lips in mine. We remained locked, both enthralled as we explored each other's mouths. I found it funny how he easy he could forget the fangs I hid in my mouth, and the venom. He pulled away, untying my hair and running his hands through the long curls. "Isabella", he whispered, "Isabella." He gave me a soft kiss on the forehead, "I love saying your name. It's as beautiful as you are. I love you." He caught my lips in his again.

I pulled away from him, this was the first time he had declared himself, "I love you, too." I leaned into the waiting lips, and wrapped myself in the happiness of the moment.

I awoke again, at the insistent ringing of the alarm. But, this time I awoke smiling. But that smile quickly faded away as I considered my past. Not too long after Edward and I declared ourselves we were forced apart and I've never seen him again. This is why I live; this is why I haven't let myself get caught, even though the Volturi have always kept an eye out for me. Evidence of this have been the few times they've almost managed to catch me. Ever since I found out about their desire to catch me, and probably torture me until they tired of the game, and the Volturi never get bored of something as entertaining as pain, I've made it a point of mocking them by leaving a black rose everywhere I've been, or on everybody I've killed.

I did this now, getting out of the bed I had borrowed for the night. I had charmed another man into bringing me into his home and he had been rewarded, not by sex as he had supposed, but by a quick death. Usually, I did give my victims a little more excitement before sucking them dry of their blood, but I had been very hungry, having spent quite a while without feeding. I pulled on my clothes and picked a rose out of a bouquet of flowers.

I made myself relive the feeling of piercing the man's skin with my fangs and sucking up the pounding, warm, delicious blood. Just thinking of last night made venom drip down my fangs, dripping on my tongue and then on the rose as I held it up. I never tired of watching the change. Wherever the venom touched the pure red of the rose, it turned darker and darker, until the whole rose was black. A black rose, my favorite flower, and what the Volturi had come to know as my signature. The red rose, to me, represented life and love. The black rose represented death and danger. To me, the change from red rose to black rose was like the change from human to vampire, both with the aid of venom.

Making the bed, I then undressed my dinner from last night. I placed him, naked, perfectly centered on the bed with the black rose on his chest. Every time, I left the scene exactly the same, except sometimes there was a girl on the bed, not a guy. Some would say that I had become colder than the Volturi themselves, that I was heartless. And I would say that of course I was heartless, I had given my heart to Edward that day under the tree.

I had spent a lot of time looking for him. I took all the help I could get, from many different vampires. Sometimes their tips led to dead-ends; sometimes they led to a place where I could get another tip. I had a feeling that someone was keeping him away from me, moving him from place to place, always a step ahead of me. It was infuriating. For all this time there had always been someone a step ahead of me or maybe Edward didn't want to be found by me. I shook my head of the thought, that wasn't true, Edward loved me and he had proved it.

Tonight I was going to meet another vampire who could probably help me get ahead of the game. It was dangerous to do so, it could be a plan by the Volturi to catch me. They shouldn't know I was in the city until they found the body, but I was always cautious. I cared practically nothing about my life, maybe in death things would be better, but if I died Edward would die too.

Unless he had been changed since I last saw him, which he could have been, Edward was still human. But, I had let him drink my blood and he was bound to me. This type of bond was usually made by vampires to create servants who could live as long as they did. But, I had used it to keep Edward alive.

We always met under that tree in the same place. We saw each other in the village but we couldn't talk or show that we knew each other. But, even though I was very careful, one of the guards got suspicious and followed me out into the meadow where he discovered us entwined kissing.

I was turned in and my beautiful Edward was going to be killed. I didn't meet a similar fate because I was a favorite of the Volturi. Their good friend Carlisle created my mother Tatiana. Tatiana created me and when we came to stay with the Volturi they welcomed us as part of the family. When Carlisle left, we stayed. Mostly because of that, was my life spared but, unfortunately, this luck didn't extend to Edward so, I had to make up an excuse to keep him alive.

In the end, I told the Volturi that I was going to bond Edward to myself, that I wanted my own personal slave. They delighted in this story because they had been trying to make me form a bond with someone for years. They all had their own little pets who, no matter how much they hated the Volturi, if they valued life, they couldn't kill them because that would result in their death, especially since the Volturi are too powerful to be easily killed.

Forming a bond with Edward seemed like the best idea to him. He would be able to live and he could spend all his time with me and have an excuse for it. I wasn't so sure, to be so dependent on someone else is never a good idea. But, I wasn't ready for him to become a vampire so I had to do it. That night, with the Volturi watching, I slit my wrist and held the cut over Edward's mouth, before it could heal. Reluctantly, he latched on and sucked up a mouthful of blood. I could tell he enjoyed the taste, it was only natural, and let him take more.

When I finally pulled my arm away from him he was left looking for more. His eyes were hungry and his lips red with my blood. I felt uneasy but pushed these thoughts away as I showed him to his new room, beside mine.

Shaking myself free of those memories I opened the window and easily climbed out. I had a feeling that tonight I would find out where Edward was. Now, I had a day to kill, quite literally. I put my senses on high alert, looking for signs of the Volturi, but also for a quick delicious snack. I decided to go into a restaurant and wait a while to see what happened.

Sure enough, an hour after I had entered, and walked into the restrooms, someone with the right scent walked in. I waited for the telltale sign of the door being locked and then using my nose I found the right stall. I grabbed onto the door and lifted myself up, and then I flipped over it and landed in the stall facing the girl. Because girl was what she was. She looked no older than sixteen and I felt a twinge of doubt but my body was already waiting for a kill, muscles tensed, venom dripping down my fangs, and plus, I could tell her shock was fading and she would scream soon.

I grabbed her harshly, pulling her towards me and sinking my fangs into her flesh. My venom had her paralyzed and I knew that if I dint take her blood and reclaim that venom, it would slowly spread through her bloodstream turning from something paralyzing to something very painful. So, all doubt forgotten, I greedily sucked up her blood. Then taking a rose out of my hair, I always carried two, I turned it into a black rose and placed it on her lap. I pulled myself over the stall door again and quickly left the restaurant. I repeated the same procedure in several other restaurants before I felt fully prepared to face tonight.

The rest of the day passed in a blur and finally I found myself sitting in a chair at a new restaurant in a floor length, sleeveless, silver dress. It swept grandly along the floor when I walked. I had my hair down, framing my face, and I knew I looked like the princess I had once been. I would have felt like a princess if it wasn't for the knives strapped to my thighs and my tensed muscles ready to move at a moment's notice. I was wearing the dress because I knew that Jasper appreciated appearances. He would be informing me tonight.

Finally he arrived. I had worked with him before and he always gave accurate information. He leaned down to kiss my cheek. "Hello Isa-", he cut himself off, "Hello Bella. Looking beautiful in that dress. I hope you didn't get dressed up for me." He gave me a playful smile.

"Never Jasper," I returned smirking, "You know I couldn't care less about what you think. Now about why we're here. Do you know where Edward is?" I didn't expect him to know, that would make things too easy and I had learned long ago that things were never easy. As an afterthought I added, "And why I haven't been able to find him."

His expression clouded over and then turned joyful again. But, quite seriously, he said, "Bella, you haven't found him because someone has been keeping him from you. Don't think he has been running from you. And yes, I think I know where he is. He's in this city, Bella," he handed me a card, "Go to that address and look for him. If you don't find him, look for leads as to where he has been taken." I got up to go.

"And Bella," he continued as I turned back, his expression was no longer joyful at bringing me good news, "Carlisle has been keeping him from you." With that he got up and left. I was still staring at his empty seat in shock. Carlisle had not understood my attraction to Edward but he was a friend, practically a father, he couldn't have done this to me.

I turned away from Jasper's seat and quickly left the restaurant. Carlisle or no Carlisle, to night I was going after Edward. Right now, I was going to change out of this dress. I would finally know what had become of my one and only love, my Edward.

An hour later I was climbing in through a window, knives ready, at the address Jasper had given me. It was a little house between a store and an alley. I left the bedroom I was currently in and moved to the kitchen. As I was taking a careful look around the lights were switched on behind me and I was knocked to the ground and pinned. The knives were kicked out of my hands and I watched them slide across the floor noting where they stopped. I was being held down, pressed against the floor, by a vampire. No human could take me down.

As I tensed, mentally preparing to fight back, a familiar voice spoke, "Isabella, you've changed."

I froze and without thinking blurted out, "Carlisle?"

Thank you for reading, this is my first story, please let me know what you think.