Chapter Three

He paced. It was what Jasper did when he was angry, upset or in this case, both. I watched him pace knowing that he needed it to think clearly and I was not prepared to have this conversation with an emotional Jasper.

"You should have told me." He said as his pacing came to a stop and he stood before me. His eyes held all the feelings of betrayal and disappointment he felt, they were so potent I didn't need his ability to tell me how he was feeling, I was already swimming in it from this one look.

"I knew what you would say. This was the only way." I began to explain but was stopped by a wave of annoyance. "Care to explain?"

"Nahla is the child, I'd understand if she did something she didn't think we'd agree with and decided not to tell us. You, Alice, are my wife. This is a marriage, a partnership. It takes two of us to make decisions this big. You can't just do these things behind my back." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Absently, I noticed it was a habit all the Cullen men had adopted from Carlisle.

"You're scared she's going to hurt me."

"She can start fire with a thought. She's only ten and her mother died recently that is a recipe for disaster." He sighed again. "I cannot allow your life to be put into that kind of danger. This was a reckless decision Alice."

"Her mother was human and she never hurt her." I knew what he wanted to say but he was wise enough not to say it no matter how much he wanted me to see his way. Instead, he began to pace again. "I won't lie and tell you that her power isn't dangerous because it is, but Nahla, the little girl who that power belongs to is not."

"You don't know that Alice! Everything could change in a split second. Or have you forgotten how your visions work?" The room fell silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"I know her."

"No darlin', you know the visions you have of her. This is an actual girl. She is no longer just a possibility. She's a reality. I won't let you be in danger Alice." Her screams stunned the entire house into silence, her wailing impossibly chilling to the vampires. I gasped as I came out of the vision and my eyes locked with Jasper's. I knew it would have been wiser to tell Jasper what I was about to do, but my body moved on it own accord propelling me towards the house, up to the stairs and to Nahla's room. I ran to her and shook her awake her eyes shot open and I watched as her body glowed with flames before they enveloped us. It was a strange feeling being surrounded by flames, knowing that your body should be charred and yet being perfectly fine.

Nahla stared at me with pure terror in her eyes before retracting the flames and going limp. I caught her and eased her back down onto the pillows. Jasper's arms were around me with in the next second his body trembling as he held me close. I could almost hear his silent warning to never do that again. I wrapped my arms around him and held him just as tightly.

"Are you okay?" He finally verbalized.

"I'm fine." I looked up him and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry. I just saw what was happening to her and had to stop it. I know you don't understand but seeing her was like finding our family all those years ago. This is where she is suppose to be. She is no more a danger to us than you were to our family when we first met. Both sides were wary but everything worked out. This will work out." His eyes flickered over my head to Nahla than back to me and he nodded his head slightly. I gave a small laugh of relief and threw myself into his arms.

"Alice?" Nahla called to me. She looked around drowsily her eyes resting at the doorway where I finally noticed my entire family standing, staring disbelievingly at us. Her heart rate was racing as she looked warily at them. I went to her and wrapped her in a hug, humming a song I wasn't quite sure where I'd gotten it from. "I didn't do enough. I didn't save her." She cried into my chest, "I didn't save her." There were no words I could say that she would listen to at this point, so instead I decided t continue to hum and sooth her back as I rocked the both of us. "Everyone knows." She whispered to me. "I'm sorry they're scared. I don't want them to hate me, I won't hurt them." Her voice quivered a bit as she hugged me tighter. "I promise."

"I'm not scared of you short stuff!" Emmett's booming voice startled her and she jumped and looked over at him. "I think that little fire thing you did was pretty cool." He smiled brightly at her and she grinned back.

"I do however think it'd be best to have another exam since we now know there is more to meet the eye. Would you mind?" Carlisle asked walking towards her in his usual calm demeanor. Nahla looked up at me for reassurance before nodding at him and he extended her hand. I watched them leave before my family's eyes all settled on me and I prepared to dish out the answers to their questions.

***

"I couldn't get the results from your test. It appears that your blood boiled after I took it from your body and it's contents denatured." I understood what the boiling part meant but I wasn't sure what he meant by denatured. I was still nervous that he would realize I was a freak and therefore decided not to ask about it. We walked out of the house and into the back yard. "Would you mind showing me how it works?" I thought about it for a moment and shook me head. My nervousness was getting the better of me and if he did see me use it again I wanted the most control I could have.

"I can't."

"Remember you don't have to do anything you don't want to."He waited for me to nod my head before continuing. "Would you mind talking about it?" He asked, he seemed nice enough so I nodded my head again.

"Okay."

"How do you feel when it's happening?"

"It depends on why it's happening. Sometimes it happens when I'm scared and I feel safe when it happens, sometimes when I'm nervous I can feel it building and I have to leave because it's harder to control. But I'm really good at controlling it. My mom taught me how." We continued to walk, my gaze shifting in every direction but his. It'd come soon. He'd tell me I have to leave and I wouldn't have anywhere to go. My palms began to itch as I tried to suppress the flames that I didn't want him to see.

"You protected Alice, did you know you were doing it?" Her eyes rolled backwards and another voice began to shriek as I clutched her to me. My dream of my mother's attack replayed itself in my mind and I swallowed hard. I didn't do enough, it wasn't enough.

"I want Alice." I croaked suddenly feeling very alone even though Carlisle was walking barely a foot away from me. Alice appeared next to me and I latched onto her. She was humming that song again and I felt myself relax in her arms. "Please don't make me go." Her arms tightened around me and I could feel her shake her head.

"You're not going anywhere. No one is going to make you go anywhere you don't want to."

"Promise?"

"I promise." I pulled away from her so I could look her in the eyes. Remembering how my mom always told me you could tell if someone was lying by looking in their eyes. I wasn't sure what I was suppose to see but Alice was looking straight at me and she smiled slightly.

"Okay. I'm sorry if I scared you. I was so scared and I didn't mean to. I hope I didn't burn anything." She shook her head.

"You didn't scare me."

"Most people get scared when they see what I can do."

"You'll learn that we are not most people." I smiled at her in return before taking a deep breath and turning to face Carlisle.

"I'll show you now."

"Only if you feel comfortable." I nodded and walked a safe distance away from them. I decided to do something small, I found my center and concentrated. The waves seeped out of my body burning the ground around me, my memory bringing forth the song Alice had been humming. It was done and I stepped out to see what I'd created.

The burned marks on the ground formed the design of the sun shining, just like the one my mother had painted in my bedroom.

"It's beautiful." Carlisle spoke as he crouched down to touch the design.

"Thank you."

"How about we go inside and get you something to eat? It's four in the morning and from the looks of it you won't be going to bed anytime soon." Alice led the way back to the house and I noticed no one else was around when we go there. She made a bowl of Captain Crunch and set it before me.

"Thank you."

"No problem." She sat in the seat next to me and stared as I ate. I could feel the blood rise to my face and I looked down at my cereal.

"Aren't you going to eat too?"

"I've already eaten." I nodded and picked up the bowl to drink the rest of the milk and setting it down. Alice took it to the sink and set it down. "Want to watch some TV?" I nodded again and followed her into the living room. I sat on the couch and put my feet up resting my head against the armrest and Alice sat on the other end, she put on Disney Channel and I barely got ten minutes into the show before my eyes drifted shut and I was asleep.

**

I woke up to someone poking me gently on the cheek. I opened an eye and saw Reneesme laying on the bed next to me with her finger still ready to poke me again.

"Hi?" She smiled at me and I smiled back. She put her hand to my cheek and I saw myself getting ready. "Did you make me see that?" She nodded, showing me myself surrounded with flames holding onto Alice, it was me and Alice from last night.

"I'm special too." She finally spoke. It made me feel so much better knowing that she was special and I wasn't alone. There was someone else here that could understand. I got up and went into the bathroom to get ready, after she sent me another vision of me doing so. When I came back, clothes we were laid out for me and I noticed Reneesme was seated on Alice's lap, as Alice bounced her up and down.

"Nessie and I think today is as good a day as any for you to leave the house. Get some fresh air. What do you think?" I picked up the clothing and went into the bathroom to get dressed.

"That sounds okay." I replied from the other side of the door. I slipped on the black leggings and blue tunic before stepping out again.

"You'll just love shopping with us."

I did not love shopping with them. The first two hours had been fun, the third hour was bearable, but by the fourth hour I was ready to call it quits. Alice and Nessie, they bounced along to every store, picked out outfits and accessories and shoes, and I knew that if I had to try on one more outfit, it'd end up as embers before it actually got on me.

We were currently seated in the food court my aching feet making us stop. Alice went off to get us some food while Reneesme and I stayed with the merchandise. Our table was on the far side of the food court the furthest away from most other people. I wondered why Alice had chosen it when there was plenty of tables closer to the window and sunroof. Suddenly, I remembered when I first met her and Carlisle had been sparkling in the sun.

"Nessie, why do they all sparkle in the sun?" I asked, watching Alice in the distance, ordering from the salad bar.

"They're special too."

"What can they do?" She reached for my hand and I gave it to her, I saw the family playing baseball, they were moving at super speed. I saw Alice with her eyes blank, and Jasper in a room where people were arguing, he looked upset, soon the arguing stopped and everyone was calm just like Jasper now was. I saw Edward sitting next to someone who was speaking to him without moving their lips. The vision changed and I saw the forest, Nessie and Bella running towards something in the distance, they finally reached it and they pounced, that was when I saw that they were drinking the blood from a deer. I gasped and suddenly I was back in the food court and I pulled my hand away from Nessie.

"You're scared?" I didn't have time to respond because Alice was back, a tray of food in her arms. She sat it down before us and sighed.

"I should have known Nessie would say something before Jasper and I came up with a way to tell you." She smiled slightly at me and I think I smiled back. I wasn't really sure. So they were vampires? But they could go out in the day?

"How can you go out during the day?"

"Our skin simply 'sparkles' in the sun, we don't burn or combust." She answered as she placed the food in front of us. She gave me what looked like a tuna wrap, a bag of chips and apple juice. Nessie had a triple stack hamburger, I wasn't sure how Alice expected a three year old to be able to eat that.

"You don't eat humans?"

"No, we're vegetarian, only animals."

"What's your power?"

"I can see the results that certain decisions will lead to as long at the intention remains the same, if not the outcome changes."

"So you can see the future?"

"Yes."

"Cool." It really was cool. I wished I could see the future, it'd solve everything. We ate in silence , my worry that Nessie wouldn't be able to finish the hamburger was unneeded since she all but inhaled it and asked Alice to buy her another, which she did, and she inhaled that one too. Alice mumbled something that sounded like "stupid wolves" but I wasn't sure I heard her correctly.

"Alright, are you girls ready for some more shopping?" Nessie nodded her head as enthusiastically as I was shaking my head. Shopping was the last thing I wanted to do, going back and reading or just watching TV was what I really wanted to do. There was only so much shopping a girl could take.

"Well how about we just go to one more place and then we can go home?" One more place wasn't bad so I nodded my head and off we went.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw it. My head snapped to the side and my eyes zoned in on the beauty before me. All previous exhaustion left my body and I darted into the store. There were so many books I wasn't quite sure where to start. Well, I knew enough to take the new X-Men New Mutants copy then went in search of the original copy.

"You sure know how to break a woman's heart." Alice sighed again and I laughed, "forgoing shopping to read a comic book?"

"It's an skill." I said with a smirk, she huffed with mock annoyance. "Can I please have it?" I stressed the please and made the puppy dog eyes that I knew no one could resist. Alice just smiled at me and nodded. She then led us to the Borders across from the comic book store and I ended up leaving the store with Because of Winn Dixie, Holes, and the entire Harry Potter Series. It was like Alice knew what I wanted before I did, I realized it was probably because she was psychic, I didn't realize she'd also picked up some other books she thought I'd like and Nessie had chosen some of her own. If I didn't believe Alice was a vampire before I definitely did now as I watched her carried not only the bags of books, the bags of clothing and accessories and usher us out of the store and back to the car. She refused me when I asked to help and said she could handle it.

Once we got to the house she shifted the duty of unloading the car to Jasper and Emmett. Reneesme ran off to tell her parents all about her day and Alice and I settled into the living room.

"Thank you for all the stuff. It was really nice of you to buy it for me."

"You don't need to thank me, it's what guardians do." Guardian? I knew that Alice said I could stay here but what did that make everyone for me. Where they all my guardians or was it just Alice and maybe Jasper?

"Is everyone my guardian or just you?"

"Jasper and I are your primary guardians, the rest of the family, is just that, your family."

"So you're like my parents?" I asked slowly, testing the word out.

"Yes but you don't need to feel obligated to be a certain way with us, we just want to take care of you and make sure you're happy."

"Oh okay." I knew I probably should have said something else but I couldn't think of anything thing to say, I wasn't even sure how I felt about this. Emmett came in seconds later plopping down on the couch and giving me a noogie before turning on the TV and all was forgotten. All except...

"Hey why aren't you wearing the Cowboys jersey?"