A/N: Hello people! This is my first fanfiction...actually, it's my first story ever. The only things I usually write are essays for AP English. This idea popped into my head the other day, and I just had to write it. Enjoy!

Vampire Legions

Chapter 1—Encounter

Bella's POV

A glacial wind—at least, what I instinctively knew was a glacial wind—blew through the trees in the distance, causing a few startled birds to take flight. Yet all was completely still and comfortable in the meadow where Edward and I lay, staring up at the mysterious night sky. In the last few years, I had become enthralled with the stars, and it had become a habit of mine to lie in an open field in the arms of my love just to marvel at the sky. I guess that's what happens when you can't—

Beepbeepbeep. My watch interrupted my thought process to announce that it was now midnight. Edward, my vampire husband, leaned over, kissed my forehead, and whispered in my ear, "Happy birthday, love."

I still felt strange thinking of this day as my birthday. To the overcast town of Forks, Washington, as well as the rest of the human population, it was my "death day." It was on this day, ten years ago, that Edward and I "died" after being mauled by grizzly bears (a tribute to Emmett) on our honeymoon. We had to disappear off the face of the earth so that we could live in peace as immortal vampires. Alice had fabricated extremely convincing evidence, going to the lengths of shredding my unfashionable clothes and placing the tattered bits alongside numerous hairs from my hairbrush around a bear den. It just goes to show that nothing, even her best friend's "death," will stop Alice from being Alice.

Of course my loving parents, Charlie and Renee, were completely devastated, which in turn broke my heart. I had said my final goodbyes and prepared myself, but it was still hard to know that I had completely torn out and stomped on the hearts of the only two full-blooded humans I ever loved. It was even harder to say goodbye to the only part-human I had ever loved, because even though he knew what was happening to me, I still would never see him again and would have to live with his inherent hatred of me for eternity. Jacob wouldn't even pretend to be happy for me when I told him goodbye; the last memory I have of him is his beautiful face twisted in rage and hatred as he spat at me, "Bye, Bells. I hope you know that no matter how much I want to, and no matter how much of me hates you, I will never be able to stop loving you. The rest of my life will be torture, and it will all be your fault."

Yeah, that was definitely hard to stomach. I cried harder over Jacob Black that day than all the other times I had cried over him combined. I would never be able to stop loving him, either. He had been my ray of sunshine in my personal dark ages; he was there for me when I was at my absolute lowest. In a world where mythical creatures were purely mythical, a world where Jacob wouldn't morph into a wolf and—shudder—Edward would have died of the Spanish influenza in 1918, I could love Jacob Black with all of my being, and we could get married, have children, and grow old and die together. But in the real world, where vampires and werewolves live among us, I belong with Edward Cullen…which brings me back to my birth/death day.

Bella Swan died on that day—human Bella, who blushed, tripped, bled, ate, slept, and dreamt. But, like a phoenix, a new Bella was born out of the old Bella's ashes. Bella Cullen, vampire Bella with superhuman strength, no sleep cycle, a diamond-like exterior, and an insatiable thirst for blood, came into being. So, yes, since my human birthday did not apply anymore, this was now my birthday. And is there any better present than spending eternity with the love of your life? I didn't think so.

Edward waved his hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my reverie. I blinked a couple times (a leftover human habit) and turned to look at Edward. "Well, good morning," he said, smiling my favorite crooked smile. I may have had a snappy comeback ready, but all of my brain functions stopped as I stared into his gorgeous topaz eyes that seemed to be made of both liquid and crystal. Geez, even after all these years, he still dazzled me on a daily basis. He smirked, obviously enjoying the effect he had on me, yet as the seconds ticked by with no awakening of my cognitive functions, he grew more and more impatient. "You know, times like these often make me fear I may truly be driven to insanity by my inability to read your thoughts." I shook my head free of his dazzling gaze and made myself stare at the sky in order to think of a response. "Well it's certainly not my fault that you make me stop thinking entirely," was my lame reply. Even as a vampire I wasn't Edward's equal in the language department. Yet I intuitively knew that he thought my lack of verbosity was cute, just as I knew that right now he was thinking about how much I dazzle him. Psh, yeah right.

How did I know this, you ask? Heightened intuition is my vampire power; well, one of them anyway. My other power is the ability to expand the privacy of my mind and share it with those around me, all the while effectively blocking mind-invading powers like Edward's, Jane's, and Aro's. I guess the glitch in my brain was so significant that it caused not one, but two of my defining human qualities to become more acute during my transformation. But hey, I'm not complaining. My intuition was certainly strong as a human, what with knowing almost instantly that Edward was somehow beyond human. My heightened vampire intuition, however, is so much stronger than I could have ever imagined. I intuitively know what people are thinking, what people are feeling, where people are, who people are connected to, and what decisions will produce what outcomes; all of this makes me as strong as Edward, Jasper, Demetri, Marcus, and Alice combined. But wait, there's more! My heightened perception lets me see colors and details that are not visible to the human—or even the vampire—eye. I can see further than any vampire, plus I can see gateways to parallel dimensions and even ghosts and spirits. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

And my other power just makes my new life even cooler. I've learned how to create a sort of mental bubble that I can place around the minds of those around me in order to block other creatures' invasive mental powers; I've honed my skill to the point that I can place a bubble around all of my family members without straining myself too much. There is a side effect, however; the mental bubbles not only cancel out mind-invading powers that can be used on a person, but also any mind-invading powers that a person has. I'm sure that this would really aggravate some people, but my family sees it as a release from the inconveniences of a certain someone's mind-reading power. Edward loves having time away from the somewhat invasive thoughts of our family, and everyone else loves having some privacy in their minds.

So, according to Carlisle, my two abilities make me the most powerful vampire in existence. No pressure, right?

Luckily, the Volturi seem to think otherwise. We figured that as soon as they checked in on us (which actually happened only a week after I was changed), they would be prepared to use any and all forces necessary to make me a part of the Volturi Guard. But all Aro, Caius, and Marcus did was ask me for a couple demonstrations of my powers, congratulate Edward and I on our marriage, and leave. My intuition told me that they were genuinely pleased for us as a couple and for our entire family, and that they did not want to break up such a union. Good news for us.

My watch beeped again. That's strange, I thought, didn't it just beep five minutes ago? I brought my arm up to my face so I could see the time. Holy crow, it's 1:00 already! I had been thinking and reflecting for an hour straight. Time really does fly when you live forever. Poor Edward, he must be dying of curiosity over what I've been thinking about. I sheepishly turned on my side and propped up on my elbow so I could look at Edward. He was already looking at me, and probably had been for the last hour. Gosh, now I was embarrassed; thank goodness I couldn't blush anymore, or I would be beet red. I opened my mouth to apologize for zoning out for an hour, but before I could utter one syllable, Edward said, "You don't have to tell me what you were thinking about. It was obviously something very intricate and personal, to have taken an entire hour. Even though I often want to tear my hair out in frustration over not knowing what you're thinking, I respect the privacy of your mind and want to give you as much personal time and space as you need."

"That's sweet of you, Edward," I told him, "but I honestly don't mind telling you what I'm thinking. I guess I was just reflecting over my change and my—" I stopped midsentence as my entire body stiffened and went on alert; I could sense something moving toward us, and fast. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, as I would be able to tell whether it was a member of our family, an animal, or a human hiker. But this time, I had no clue what it was, and that scared me. It could be anything. It could be capable of anything. Something was running towards us, and we had no way to prepare.

"—powers." I finished my previous sentence with only a split-second's hesitation, so that whoever—or whatever—was coming towards us would not sense anything amiss. The key to confronting this…thing…was to act completely normal. That way, whatever it was would not now that we were on to it, and we would have the element of surprise on our side. However, my split-second's hesitation, plus my stiffening, immediately sent alarm bells ringing through Edward's head. He pulled me in for a tight embrace, taking my cue to act normal, but whispered so that only I could hear, "What is wrong? What did you sense?"

"Something's coming towards us fast," I whispered back, "but I have no clue what it is. It's not one of us, and not animal or human." This sent Edward into full-panic mode. "Which direction?" he asked. "Two hundred yards to the west and closing, but it's slowed to a normal human pace. It probably caught our scent." Edward shifted our embrace so that he was between me and whatever was coming. He kissed me hard and passionately, sending chills up and down my spine, but I didn't need my power to sense the edge in his kiss. It was the same edge that was there when we figured out that vengeful Victoria was coming after me and had sent someone into 

my house, into my room. It was an edge that said we might not have much time left. I whispered to him, "One hundred yards and closing." He broke the kiss, but started trailing them up and down the side of my neck. To any bystander, including whatever was coming for us, we just looked like two teenagers making out, when in reality we were preparing ourselves to face and probably fight our attacker. When Edward's kisses reached my ear, he said breathlessly, "No matter what happens right now, I love you and I always will." "I love you too, Edward," I whispered back. "Ten seconds." He kept kissing my neck, but pulled us off the ground so we were standing and more prepared. I grabbed his face and crashed my lips to his. I pulled away, whispered "Three…" and kissed him again. "Two…" Another kiss. "One."

At that moment, two things happened simultaneously. Edward whirled around so that he was facing west and took up a defensive crouch around me, snarls ripping from his chest like a caged animal. I felt myself thinking about how hot he was when he was in full-on defense mode—yeah, great job Bella. You're life, or even Edward's life, might be ending right now, and all you can think about is how hot he is.

I had no time for other thoughts like that, though, because at that moment a tall, human figure strolled into view and stopped just before emerging the tree line. Had the figure come any closer, Edward would have immediately attacked. The figure's face was hidden from view among the trees, and even my enhanced eyesight could not penetrate the darkness around the figure's face. From my position behind Edward I could only tell that it was tall and lanky, yet had toned muscles that would not be visible to the human eye unless they were close. The figure was obviously a man, and his body actually reminded me very much of Edward's. He was also wearing clothes that spoke of elegance and money, yet had a flair that spoke of the American and French Revolutions. He stayed very still, obviously knowing that any sudden movement would earn an attack from Edward. The man very slowly raised his hands into the universal "Calm down, I mean no harm" gesture. I touched Edward's back, and he responded by calming down a little—and by "calming down a little," I mean the snarls ripped from his throat with less force and less frequency. They soon became mere growls.

I pulled Edward back a step with me and said to the man in the shadows, "Who are you? Show yourself." The man, keeping his hands up, took a step forward that matched the length of the one Edward and I had taken backward, so that we still remained the same distance apart. I could tell that this guy had had his share of fighting before, and knew how to handle himself when he did not want a fight. I whispered to Edward, "He does not want to fight." Edward stopped growling and slightly relaxed his defensive crouch, but he still stayed alert and ready to spring.

Now that there was less of a chance that a fight would ensue, I allowed myself to inspect the man in front of me. He had blonde hair that fell in waves to his shoulders—very beautiful hair, really. In fact, every aspect of him was beautiful. His face was extremely handsome, his eyes were a strange blue-grey color, and I could sense that he had a very confident-on-the-verge-of-cocky demeanor, but he appreciated beauty as well as humanity. But that was all that my power let me see—it was like there was a wall up in the man's mind. This must have affected Edward, too, because it was obvious that he could not read the man's thoughts whatsoever.

I could feel myself being pulled to this mysterious man, but I remained on alert because this was no species of man that I had ever encountered—he was not human, although his features were, and he was not a vampire or a werewolf. He may have been a ghost, but I cast that theory out right away, since Edward could see him.

The man opened his perfectly-formed lips and said, "I was born Lestat de Lioncourt. I am 256 years old, and I live off the blood of mortal humans. I am the Vampire Lestat."