The wind tore at my eyes, blinding my vision into a blur of various hues and shapes. I felt my stomach twist and church along with the exhilaration, for the previous dread I felt when riding was beginning to fade, replaced by an exotic revelry. Perhaps it was due to the excitement Edward exuded into me as he dashed through the forest, a facile effort.

Then it was over. Edward slid me off his back gently, placing me firm on my feet. I heard the others greet us, Alice leading the group. Her facetious character danced lithely to where we stood, beaming.

"It's time," she said breathlessly.

The others caught up to her.

"You're going down," Emmett challenged, punching Edward playfully on the shoulder.

Edward grinned back. "We'll just have to see about that," he replied.

"I'll be referee," I offered.

"Funny, Bella," it was Alice who spoke, her voice tantamount to a soft, lyric euphony roused from the horn of a trumpet. "I didn't know you had super vampire-vision that allows you to catch up with our movements."

I rolled my eyes at her joke, despite the truth in it.

Thunder split the atmosphere above us, its sound resonating throughout the forest in truculent ripples. The air was in constant uproar, tearing at my clothes and blowing my hair harshly, obstructing my view. Annoyed, I pushed it away and shivered slightly, pulling my coat tighter around me.

Perceiving my frail human endurance, Edward slipped off his jacket and offered it to me. I accepted it with severe gratitude.

"Sorry," he said. "You didn't have to come."

"But I wanted to," I added in quickly. I hated him having to be incessantly encumbered by my mortal frailties. Though I knew he held nothing against me for this natural defect, I couldn't help feeling like a minor affliction barring his path.

Was this feeling a sign of weakness? I knew that if I were to confide these emotions to him, it would sound like intelligible drivel rooted from insanity. Of course he'd blame himself. Of course he'd elaborate upon his own defects that engendered these trivial emotions. What he wouldn't understand is that these feelings sprouted my own intrinsic nature, the demon within myself, divergent from him.

"Bella?" I heard a soft voice calling to me, resembling the dulcet sounds of graceful bell tones.

I looked up and saw Edward peering at me with anxious eyes, frowning. Nevertheless, his never ending solicit expressions toward me sparked a new source of warmth.

"It's nothing. Go play your game. I'm rooting for you," and I smiled back, dispelling the harrowing thoughts from my mind.

His tension relaxed, flashing his gleaming teeth to me in that crooked smile I adored. "I won't disappoint you."

Then he was gone, leaving only a trail of air whirling in the area which he stood a fraction of a second ago.

Thunder once again broke the equanimity with its vociferous roar. Esme came to stand by me as the rest of the family broke into teams and took their positions. Edward was first to bat. As he stepped up to the plate in his agile gait, he looked to me and beamed once more. I felt my face flush vermilion as I requited his smile.

Then the game commenced. The next chain of events happened in a blur, and within a few seconds Edward was at third base with Rosalie touching the base with ball in hand.

Esme's brows furrowed in concentration, and after a second of deliberation, looked up and spoke in a lucid, harmonious voice,

"Safe."

Rosalie growled while Edward straightened his posture, a triumphant gesture.

The game began once more in like fashion. My face was composed into a tight line of resolution as I endeavored painfully to follow with the violent chain of events. Esme noted my distorted expression and let out a lighthearted laugh.

Then, abruptly, it all stopped. Emmett's hand was outstretched as his pose made out as though he were to hurl the ball while Alice was halfway to home. Edward was peering hard through the forest toward an area which my human limitations forbade me to see. I felt the air alter suddenly, as the atmosphere felt strangely stagnant, petrified into a stasis. The tension in the air was almost palpable.

I looked to Alice, and as was expected, found her face in the familiar blank phase, her eyes staring off into an ethereal dimension. Then her mind found the body, and her expressions flickered to life again. She and Edward were staring at each other with fervid intent, and the impatience to comprehend what was going on nearly suffocated me.

In a split second Edward was standing by me, his eyes shrouded with fury and consternation. He held me tight to him, and then an epiphany struck me with a daunting force.

This was just like the first time. Edward was right—I shouldn't have come.

I felt Edward let out a slight growl as a slender character emerged from the woods. The shadow from the forest trees lifted itself from her face as she edged closer to our standing. The pallid gleam of moonlight was identical to the shade of her skin, contrasting with the darkness tinting her eyes. My heart sunk as I realized, bitterly without surprise, that she was a vampire.

The sublime pulchritude of her features was tantamount to that of a mythical painting. Her nose was centered perfectly midst her oval face that was slender and smooth. The natural lashes that adorned her eyes gave it the illusion of being larger and darker than it was in reality. Her hair was dark like her eyes, and it hung in loose curls just beneath the shoulder line. Her composed posture and gait gave her an air of imperious authority and filled me with a sense of foreboding. Yet her movements were tentative and equivocal, and the chary with which she approached us perplexed me. Her eyes glared at us with such enmity that it forced me to avert my gaze. Her sentient vision refused to miss any minor detail, and the moment Edward tightened his grip around my waist, her eyes snapped in our direction. I shuddered violently with fear.

She yielded five feet from Carlisle, who stood as the leader of the family.

I looked to Edward, attempting to read his inscrutable expressions in search for a source of solace and comfort, but found none.

I felt my heart's tension loosen a bit when Carlisle's voice broke the silence. His carefully composed voice soothed my hectic nerves just slightly.

"Hello. What brings you here? If you are lost, I'm sure we can be of assistance to you. The land here is familiar to us."

The vampire girl watched him with scrutinizing eyes, and it was a wonder that Carlisle did not flinch beneath the vitriolic glare.

Finally she spoke. "I'm not lost, but your help could be of assistance."

Her voice was sharp and flowed like water. Its sound was nothing like that of which I had been expecting, for it contrasted with the soft, delicate features of the generic vampire voice my ear was tuned to hear. Instead it was strong and inflexible, as though it were a beam slicing through three layers of steel. Yet synchronously, it was smooth and elegant, with a tint of girlishness mixing in with the authoritative voice.

Another roar of thunder broke the air above us, only exacerbating the gloomy situation with its savage fury.

Now Carlisle smiled, though his eyes remained hard and hostile. "How did you know where to find us?"

"We were informed that there was a doctor in town, and the description they gave us of him sounded as though he was…not the average human." Her thin lips gave way to a sardonic smile. Carlisle merely returned the expression with a slight nod.

"And you suppose that doctor is me."

"Exactly. And it's not easy to miss the sound of a typical vampire game. Therefore, it must have been you."

"But you are not a vampire."

Now the girl truly smiled, though not of joy, revealing the whiteness of her teeth. "No."

Every single muscle in me became flaccid with shock. My feet slipped from the earth as I was caught within Edward's expecting arms.

"Bella," he whispered gently in my ears.

Not a vampire? The pale skin, the graceful movement, the perfect face—No. She must be a vampire. Yet deep within me I knew Carlisle was rarely wrong, and the ability of a vampire to recognize his kin was inherent within them.

Now the girl's attention was focused on me. My blood grew cold as I fought the urge to collapse again.

"A vampire in love with a human?" Her voice grew scornful. "How…interesting."

I was filled immediately with a powerful enmity toward the vampire-like creature. Yet I was stunned by the rapid speed with which she caught on. I heard Edward growl a warning, his tone caustic and menacing.

But the girl didn't flinch. She merely stood still, her eyes on him with a virulent glow in her dark eyes. Then Carlisle's voice broke the tension, and her gaze thankfully averted from me.

"You said you required some sort of assistance," he said.

The girl's pupils shrank, her eyes filled with torrid anger, and if I surmised correctly, with some sort of remorse and guilt as well.

"Yes," she replied, her tone somewhat less sardonic. "My companions are…hurt."

I flinched. The restraint with which she pronounced the word "hurt" only aggravated the uncomfortable churning within my stomach.

"And you're companions are just like you?" Carlisle asked, his face impassive and inscrutable. It was remarkable the imperturbability of Carlisle's character, the way he wove a cunning façade to cover whatever turbulent emotions were raging inside. I envied him.

"No," the girl said. "They are different, but not human."

Carlisle nodded once, but questioned no further to my great disappointment.

"You will have to take me to them, if I am to be of any assistance," he said.

This time the girl nodded her head in assent, and spun on her heel gracefully, beckoning Carlisle to follow.

Edward reacted synchronously, appearing by Carlisle's side within half a second. He pulled on Carlisle's jacket with force, hissing hasty, intelligible chatter into his ear. But Carlisle gave him a quick, solemn look, and then turned his back and followed the girl into the depths of the forest.

Whatever Carlisle had telepathically assured him, Edward's face now looked composed and slightly more relaxed. He returned to my side, wrapping his arms once more around my waste, supporting my tremulous body.

"It'll be alright," he reassured me. "Carlisle knows what he's doing."

But the knot in my stomach extricated only merely. "This is just like the last time," I whispered. "Only there were three vampires."

Edward chuckled, though only half-heartedly. "It seems like these Games we play bring bad luck to the bystander."

I said nothing.

I heard a low, saccharine humming emanating from Edward's mouth, and after a short while realized this was my lullaby. I closed my eyes and allowed my head to lean heavily against his frigid chest, succumbing to the sweet melody.

After what seemed like hours, I felt Edward's body tense against mine, and my eyelids snapped open, gazing frantically at my surroundings. Edward saw them before my human eyes did, and there they were—all three of them.

Carlisle emerged from the thickness of the forest, carrying in his hand the burden of a young boy of perhaps seventeen. Yet his features shocked me. They were not the pale, dark eyed, impeccable shape of beauty, but a simple visage of a teenage boy. The only contrast of him to an average human was the virility of his muscles, not unlike that of Edward's. His eyes were closed, as though he were cast into a deep, halcyon sleep.

Then there was the girl. She walked with Carlisle with that same rhythmic gait and agile steps which reminded me of Alice, and next to her walked another female creature. Her hair was a shade of bleached blonde—almost white. Her eyes were large, tinted a light hue of blue. She was slender and tall, though her movements and curves were in no where near the perfection and grace of the saturnine creature to her right. Yet her delicate features painted a picture of a soft, scintillating angel. It was odd how her typical features could strike such an image in my mind.

All four yielded five feet from us. I gazed at them with weary and searched Carlisle's face for some recourse. But he merely nodded to the dark-haired girl, extricating the boy from his arms and exchanging hold with the girl, who now laid him gently down upon the grassy lane.

"The boy is deeply injured, but the other girl is only slightly," said Carlisle, indicating to the two mysterious creatures before us. "They ask us for a place to stay over the course of a few months."

I flinched. Edward's grip around me tightened immensely, and I could feel the hot wave of anger flushing through his veins in truculent movements. Whatever Carlisle was communicating through his mind was enough to keep Edward from exposing his emotions out loud.

"Well then," was Esme's voice. "I suppose you three are very welcome." Her face managed an impossible smile, though her eyes remained as stolid as a stone carving.

I was in shock. So they were permitting entrance to these three creatures just like that? Was there no debate, no discussion, no nothing?

Alice was the next to speak. "If we are to be on friendly terms, I think names are a good way to start. I'm Alice."

Jasper joined in, reciting his name. Next was Emmett, who grinned his typical bear-like smiling, revealing a line of white teeth. His smile was the only one that even approached a true, gregarious sign of affection.

Edward spoke next. He recited his name curtly, as his voice was by far the one that held the most tension and restraint. Rosalie and Esme were next.

The dark haired girl nodded. "This boy here is Everett, and the girl is Aisha."

Aisha smiled slightly, her lips closed into a strained line. Her eyes flickered incessantly toward the boy as though she were truly solicitous of his condition. The other girl, however, revealed not even a single trace of emotion behind her cool, hard countenance.

"And you?" said Alice.

I couldn't help but note the hesitation with which the girl spoke. "They call me Faye," she replied simply.

Already we were moving, and Edward half dragged half carried me through the forest. But my legs had stultified into flaccid limbs, refusing to function by their own.

This had to do with me. These creatures were here for me. Of course they were.

What else could explain the willingness in which Edward obeyed? Surely, if it were not for my safety which was of the utmost importance to him, he would have argued vehemently opposing Carlisle's decision.

Sensing my queasiness, Edward whispered in a lyric tone to my ear,

"It's ok. I'll explain everything once we get home."