The last thing I remember was that I was dying slowly and miserably before having my body feel like it was set on fire. I remember kicking and screaming and begging the people around me to kill me, but they merely apologized for my discomfort and told me it would all be over soon. Oddly enough, I trusted them. I stopped kicking and my wild screaming turned to quiet whimpers of pain. For what felt like years I continued to lie in pain looking around the room I was in but not taking in where I was or what was going on around me. My mind was a complete blank.

Suddenly it felt like the pain in my body dropped and shattered into millions of pieces. Relief had never felt so enjoyable. Finally able to focus, I took in my surroundings. I was no longer in an alley on the street curled up in a ball and dying of starvation after running away from home a few days earlier. No, I was in a large bedroom. Nothing was in it but a simple bed, the one I was laying on. Slowly and steadily I sat up. I turned my head to look behind me and there I saw eight beautiful faces looking at me. They looked cautious so as not to startle me.

"Where am I," I asked. I was shocked at the voice that came from my lips. The voice was smoother than silk and rang beautifully like a wind chime. I looked around the room. One of the walls was nothing but a window. There was a small balcony attached to it.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed. One of the visions of perfection walked towards me and held out his hand for me. Hesitantly, I took it. He helped me off the bed. So many questions were running through my head I couldn't keep up with any of them.

"We'll explain everything," a bronze haired boy spoke. "I don't how you could," I thought. He smirked and amusement danced in his eyes.

I looked around the room again and realized that I could see and hear more than I ever could before. Everything was clear and there wasn't one detail I didn't see. They led me down stairs and let me sit on the white couch in the living room. I sat in silence as they told me the story of what they and apparently now I was. I was sure they were crazy. They told me my body had changed and that that was how my voice had changed. I didn't believe I was beautiful of perfect in anyway.

The one called Emmett quickly went into another room and came back with a large mirror. He held it in front of me and I couldn't believe the image I saw. I was, in fact, beautiful and perfect. What I didn't understand was that if I was a vampire didn't that mean I was supposed to be paler than a ghost? I still looked African-American only my skin seemed to have a faint golden glow to it. My normally braided, black hair was out of its normal braids, was straight and manageable and fell perfectly into place and flowed down my back. My eyes were a deep shade of scarlet.

"I'm a vampire," I said. The words seemed too unreal to be real, but there was no doubt in my mind about any of it. It all felt like a scary dream or an oddly not as bad as it would be but still pretty bad nightmare.

I felt a burning near the back of my throat and involuntarily reached my hand up to my throat as if doing so would ease the pain.

"You're thirsty," Alice said, "Let's go hunting. Try not to ruin your outfit though it looks absolutely darling on you."

I looked down and for the first time realized I wasn't in my soiled, oversized T-shirt and dirty torn jeans. I was in a low-cut blouse and blue skinny jeans. As far as shoes go I was lost but I could recognize a good pair of converse. I was wearing black and white ones.

"Hunting," I asked finally taking my eyes off the clothes I was wearing.

"We'll explain on the way," Jasper said.

We stood only a few feet outside of the house. Alice closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. I tried to smell what she could smell and no more explanation was needed as I jetted off toward the source of blood. When I saw it, it turned out to be a doe. It wasn't a human but it would do. I preferred the doe actually. Drinking the blood of a human seemed wrong. Blood dribbled down my chin. I quickly wiped it away with my arm so it wouldn't soil the shirt Alice had given me.

I began to run toward a new source of blood not really smelling the air though. It wasn't until a horrible smell hit my nose that I stopped running. Three gigantic wolves were standing in front of me snarling. In an instant Alice and Jasper were standing next to me. I looked at them then my gaze shifted back to the wolves. A large, black wolf seemed to be leading them. On his right was a sandy colored wolf and on the other side was a reddish-brown wolf. Suddenly their snarling stopped and they were calm. The black one trotted behind some thick bushes and a man came back almost as quickly.

"You know you're not allowed past this point," he said singling me out.

"We haven't told her that yet. We didn't expect her to wander so far from home," Alice said wrinkling her nose in disgust. I couldn't blame her either. The wolves stank which is way worse than stink.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Come on Dara," Alice said turning on her heel to leave. How did she know my name? I never told anyone in the Cullen home my name.

"We aren't allowed on the reservation they live on," Jasper said.

"Oh," was the genius reply I came up with, "How do you know my name?"

"You're our newest family member. We need to know everything about you," Alice chimed.

"What happened back there, what was that all about? Why aren't we allowed on the reservation," I asked letting my curiosity get the better of me.

"Those were werewolves. Vampires and werewolves don't exactly get along but we made a treaty with them and have lived in peace for a few years. They fear we'll do something wrong like kill a human," Alice said annoyance creeping into her voice.

"You're not as bad as they think if you honestly prefer animals than humans," I said.