I know I promised to answer the reviews to my last story, but it turns out I can either do that or continue writing as fast as I do… So I thank all the reviewers once again and keep up the – hopefully – good work

twilight still belongs to SM

2

Peter's POV

Four weeks left to the move, and so far nothing had happened to the apple of the Major's eye. Char and I felt like we already knew the girl, and we both liked her, which was a good thing – having him get together with someone we couldn't stand would have been awkward, to say the least. What was a bit odd, was that though she had become a really stunning girl, none of the boys at her school ever seemed to want to go out with her. Well, I mean she was bookish and so clumsy as to almost qualify as handicapped, but still… When I talked about that with Charlotte, she giggled and pointed out that it might have something to do with Jasper. Must ask him about that at the next opportunity.

Anyway, for now she was tucked up in bed, and hopefully nothing untoward could happen to her there. I turned to leave for Jasper's house, when my phone started ringing. "Yes, Jasper, she's still in one piece!" He had already checked in twice that day, which he did daily.

Now he was in the hell of a bad mood. "I'm really not sure the whole thing isn't jinxed."

"Why would you say that? She's a darling, and hopefully, once she's turned, she'll even be graceful, or at least she won't hurt herself anymore falling down."

"First the father, now that!" The last time he phoned he had just found out that Bella's father, with whom she planned on living the next two years, was the Chief of Police in the small town of Forks, Washington. This meant that the snatching idea was definitely gone: Charlie Swan would get the FBI on his daughter's tracks and cause one hell of a fuss, which we didn't need with a newborn on our hands. No, that had sealed the idea of consensual changing once and for all.

"What else have you found?"

"Vampires!"

"Eh – yes, scary beasts they are, and…?"

"A whole freakin' coven of them live here!"

"What do you mean?" The place was quite small.

"They live here, got a house and go to school…"

"Whoa, how…" Not a chance.

"I've taken a closer look, I thought they must be kiddin' me, when I saw them first, and then there were more and more. The head of the coven is a doc at the local hospital, that's probably how they feed…"

"How can he be a doctor?" Had he been having a drunk?

"How the hell should I know! What was Bella thinking when she agreed to move up here? They could drain her in no time!"

I could tell my hypersensitive friend was freaking out, but by now my head was also spinning. "Wait, calm down. How many are there?"

"Six, three males, three females."

"Maybe they're nomads and just need a little pushing along their way…" Jasper was good at getting rid of undesirables. He would just send a little fear and frustration their way, and usually the clever ones took to their heels as soon as they saw him anyway. The dumb ones were easily dealt with.

Not this time it seemed. "Ha-bloody-ha", he snorted. "I told you, they go to school here. They are said to have moved down from Alaska two years ago. The doc and his mate pass for the adoptive parents of the rest."

"Yeah, but how can they do that?" There was no way six vampires could live together peacefully.

"No idea. Can you ask someone about a Carlisle Cullen? That's the name the oldest one goes under. I need some more information to decide what to do."

"Can you take them down?"

"Maybe, though one of them's quite brawny, but you know…" He left the rest of the sentence open.

"Yes, I know, you're fed up with killin' vamps and wagin' war. OK, I'll nose around discreetly."

"Thanks, Pete."

Jasper's POV

I clicked my phone shut after the call to Peter and shook my head. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I first laid eyes on the vampires who lived here. I had thought the first couple I'd seen had been nomads, but then more and more kept popping up around the place. It was extraordinarily suited to people like us, I have to admit, sunny days were rare, and Seattle was close enough to feed if you didn't mind a brisk run with your meals. When the lady at the library had told me about the doc though, I was sure she was having me on or the contacts I had put in to disguise my eyes were having strange side-effects, but she seemed to be absolutely serious and spoke about the 'Cullen family' as she called them with high praise. "The doctor's wife is doing charity around town, and the kids are all extremely well-behaved." I still couldn't believe what I had heard.

Still wondering what to do, I turned and headed east again for Seattle, when I bumped into the big brawny guy. OK, thinking time is over. I hissed and crouched, ready to attack, but giving him fair warning. At that moment something flew at my back, and had I not been very fast in reacting, the other vampire would have been able to take off my head. As it was, I managed to tackle her – it was one of the females – down and was just about to finish her off, when a high-pitched voice close by squeaked. "Enough, he's not really dangerous…"

I stopped long enough to look up and see another vampire – a small female with spiky black hair talking to the big guy who was getting ready to attack me. I growled at him in a way that made him stop in his tracks. The woman beneath me screeched at the newcomer: "Not dangerous? Have you seen him? The scars and the way he attacked Emmett, not to mention me?"

"Yes, but he's not going to kill a defenceless woman, are you?" She looked at me directly with her huge amber eyes.

Amber? Huh? I was confused enough to let go of the female. I covered my gaffe by drawling "Of course not, Ma'am", in my Southern accent.

The huge male was not buying. He put himself in front of his companion and growled. "He'd better not." Oh dear, another one of those who won't stand down until they've provoked me to a fight. I had come to hate that aspect of my existence. Whereever I went, someone thought they would be fine picking a fight against me. As of today they had all been wrong. Maria's training and apparently some kind of talent had let me come out on top in all those fights. True, I had gotten a few more scars that way, but I had yet to lose a fight. Of course I knew that sooner or later someone would get me in a weak moment, and I really hated the killing. I sometimes wished I could just disappear into an existence where no one would be challenging me, hopefully with Bella, but I wasn't sure that time had come yet.

The small vampire was not about to let the fighting start again either: "Emmett, please, I've seen it, he's nice, and he will be our friend."

I don't know who was more surprised by that statement, me or the couple of vampires who had fought me first, but they stood down, and the small black-haired female danced toward me smiling widely. "Hello there, I'm Alice, and you're going to really like me." She had me so surprised, that I didn't even react when she planted a kiss on my cheek. As she was a tiny little thing, she had to get on tiptoes for that, and it was rather cute. I also had been abstaining from having any women since I'd found Bella, and it was starting to become a strain.

Meanwhile the tall guy had got a cell-phone out of his pocket and was talking to someone. "Carlisle, we've found the nomad. Alice says he's going to stay with us, should we simply bring him home? … OK."

After he had ended the call, he held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Emmett, this lioness here is Rosalie, my wife."

"Jasper", I said curtly. I did not shake his hand. I'm not much for touching and mistrust other vampires habitually, but he seemed not offended. His mate however was still glaring at me. "Don't you dare hurt him!" she hissed at me.

Alice was unfazed by the whole thing and chirped. "Great, let's all go home first and talk some more there!" Then she tried to take my hand into hers to pull me along. I gave her a sceptical look and did not comply, until she gave me a cute little pout. As soon as she had my hand, she smiled gladly and started running to the big house in the forest where they all lived.

I had not dared approaching the building so far, sure that they would have some kind of security, if not an ambush ready for such occasions, but I have to admit that I was rather curious to find out how they lived.

Well, it certainly looked like they had money, a lot of it. I was no poor man myself, but they were clearly out of my league. Apparently they had been at this settled living for a while yet, to be able to amass enough riches. I decided to try and stay calm and find out as much as I could about them from the visit.

Righty-ho – that's it for now. Don't forget to review!