I don't own twilight etc there was a mistake on the last chapter so I re-uploaded it, sorry. Please R&R.

CHAPTER 7: MEET THE FAMILY

APOV (Alice's Point of View)

Bella set down the crate.

'I'll leave these here for you, try to hunt only when necessary, and don't hunt in the same place. The less attention on you the better.'

Carlisle and Esme exchanged looks.

'I will fly overhead, you will follow on foot, and...Try to keep up' She smiled slyly, and with one fluid motion she crouched low to the ground and propelled herself into the air. The sun was nearly set now, giving the sky a pink hue. The last rays splashed over her wings, making them shine.

Bella hovered above us, watching as we collected ourselves waiting for her to show us the way. Edward moved closer to me, in his mind he was going through a million and one ways to approach her, each time listening to my mind to see the outcome, each time hating himself a little bit more.

Edward, she might be with someone else... Edward shot me a look that said 'Shut the hell up'

I know it hurts Edward but it will be better if you don't rush in there when she's with someone else, remember you told her that you didn't want her anymore. 100 years can change anyone...

'Yes thank you for reminding me' Edward whispered to me, aggravated. What did he want me to say? I don't want him to be made a fool of.

This all took a few seconds of course, and Bella was circling us now, clearly wanting to get moving.

'We shall go northwards!' she called over our group. And she set off ahead of us, and our whole party began to run in unison. Our movements were all different, like Emmett was taking large strides, bringing his knees up high like an Olympic runner, Esme moved like a horse, her body smoothly running without the jerking that usually came from the changing of legs.

We must look odd to any passing airplane, many sparkly vampires running at the roughly the same speed. We were like a sparkly stampede.

I guess Edward was following my train of thought, because he laughed softly to himself.

We ran without stopping, keeping to the woods and the shadows I noticed and I'm sure Edward did to. Eventually a castle on the outskirts of Forks loomed above us.

'What is this place?' Jasper said, looking up and the massive wrought iron double doors.

'My home' Bella replied, touching down next to us. Her face was alight with excitement.

'I have been looking forward to the day when I can unite the most precious people in my life. Please come in and meet my family!'

The castle looked like a conventional one, built from stone with cascades of large turrets, but the inside was nothing that I expected.

Bella stepped up to the gray door and knocked loudly. She looked up into the top right corner of the door frame.

'Emerson! It's me.' She waved. I bent forward and followed her gaze...and saw nothing.

Bella saw my look of confusion.

'Technology has significantly improved since you were last here. What you cannot see is the smallest high definition camera known to life, they are placed all around the castle.'

There was a miniscule click, which any normal human wouldn't hear. We all piled inside, and were met with a large metal rectangular room, bare except for a rug in front of another set of doors, which were also steel.

'Jeez, this place is a fortress' Emmett commented.

'Is all this necessary?' Carlisle asked, eyeing the doors.

'This and more. As I said, humans are as dangerous as other vampires now.' She looked grim when she said this.

I shot Edward a look, how can humans be that bad? He shrugged, as Bella input a code into a pad mounted next to the door.

'Come, come' she said encouragingly, and ushered us all in.

We'd stepped into a wide hallway, it was beautifully furnished. The walls were dark panelling to match the wooden floors; there were beautiful ornate frames on the walls and large windows overlooking a huge garden the other side of the castle.

'Wouldn't someone be able to just smash a window to get in?' Emmett said sceptically.

Bella laughed, it was the first time we'd heard her laugh since returning. It was loud and raw but still melodious.

'Do you think that we would have a door like that, when our enemies could just come through the window?' she continued to laugh jovially. Colour rose faintly in Emmett's face and I just had to give him a smirk. If Vampires could cry, Bella would be wiping away tears of laughter.

We walked left down the hallway, where the decor theme was continued into a large circular room that had five doors leading off to other parts of the place I'm guessing. Bella lead us through the third door, which leads to a vast meeting room.

A large oak table dominated the room; the walls were a cream colour, which blended well with the rich red carpet. The table was full of people, all of whom were talking loudly and over each other.

They stopped abruptly when we entered.

Upon closer inspection, I was utterly bewildered at the beings that occupied a table. Their scents were like nothing I've ever smelt. I didn't understand a world where sparkly, immortal bloodsuckers aren't the oddest creatures. The Denali's and the rest of my family were obviously thinking the same thing.

Bella seemed to catch on.

'Peoples!', she announced,' these are the Cullen's and the Denali's they will be joining our coven!' She boomed happily. As an afterthought she added 'they are...the common species of Vampires!' She proceeded to point out each person at the table.

'This is Myranda she's a False-beast, which is a shape shifter... so to speak' a woman who looked distinctly Latino nodded to us, her eyes were the deepest green, she would blend easily into society.

'Ah, and this is Markus, he's a Kapre...sort of a Spanish demon in ancient legend eh Markus? A very fascinating guy, but never sneak up on him at night.' Markus was short, but very wide and muscular with long brown hair. He would probably be unremarkable if not for his bluish-gray skin, glowing eyes and thigh-sized cigar that he was smoking.

He grunted in acknowledgement.

'These,' Bella gestured to a group in the corner of the table who were still muttering petulantly, 'are faeries' they were small beings, almost resembling twelve year old girls, had it not been for their very mature faces. They each had a tiny pair of butterfly wings in the middle of their backs which I wouldn't have noticed if one of them had not been angled so their back was showing to us. They all were wearing a variety of coloured dresses and flowers in their hair.

Now, their wings fluttered in annoyance, and they began to make wailing sounds.

'ENOUGH!' Bella shouted over the din. 'Don't forget our agreement; it is by my...hospitality...that you are here at all.' Her voice was silky and dangerous.

They stopped abruptly and stared angrily at all of us. Markus began to laugh heartily, it was throaty and rich.

'This way...' she added in an undertone to our group. The faeries had begun to wave their fists at Markus.

'Stay away from them, if you can help it.' She said quietly.

We followed Bella through another door that leads to a comfortable looking living area. It had an adjoining balcony that overlooked the gardens at a glorious height; I looked out and noticed that there was a fence that surrounded the grounds. There were lots of cushy sofas and recliner chairs in this room and four vampires like us, were sat around talking leisurely, when we entered, they stopped and stood.

A younger -looking one leapt to his feet. He looked vaguely familiar...

'BELLA!' he screeched and practically leapt into his arms.

'You!' Edward crouched low, baring his teeth at the vampire. 'Bella, stay away from him, he was spying on us in the jungle!' Edward spoke earnestly...please don't be a fool, Edward I thought hard at him, he shot me an annoyed look.

'Every time he got near us, he would shield his true thoughts from me!' Edward growled again, I looked around at Carlisle and saw he was close to crouching low as well. Oh god.

Utterly out of the blue, Bella laughed, quite offensively actually. I shot an incredulous look at Jasper.

'Calm yourselves Cullen's, your right...he was spying on you. On my orders.' Bella said calmly.

'What?!' Carlisle said loudly. Bella ignored him.

'This is one of my most trusted friends, Cullen's this is Alexander. He kept you safe. '

Alex's face split into a wide grin. 'I already know all of you of course.'

'And this is Sara, Abgorian and Lerina.' She pointed to each one in turn. At Abgorian's name, Edward stood, straight backed, and smoothed his face completely of emotion. Oh crap...

'Hello...' the one named Sara said timidly. She was utterly divine; I have to say I was a little jealous. Her face was timeless and her features were perfect, she had large almond shaped eyes and her hair was shoulder length and a thick honey-autumn colour. She wore a long, blue casual dress that showed off her perfect figure. It wasn't too thin, but perfectly carved. She had plenty in the bosom department. She looked like Venus incarnate.

I could see all the men, Carlisle included drooling over her. Idiots.

'Hi...I'm Emmett; you know I don't know my way around...' Rosalie stamped on his foot, hard I hoped.

The one called Lerina, also took a step forward. She was also very pretty, but not in the same way as Sara. She was black, and had very full lips, her hair was raven and in a ponytail. She wore jeans and a red camisole top. Vampirism suits her, she didn't look pale as such, and she has a glossy pallor to her russet skin. She didn't say anything, merely continued to study us.

Abgorian stood coolly watching, his gaze was specifically for Edward. I didn't like this...

He was tall, muscular and he had wings like Bella, they were tucked away. He had long dirty blonde hair and he wore all black which outlined his startling blue-grey eyes and his smooth skin. He was taller than Carlisle and Emmett and gave off an aura of masculinity.

'These are my inner circle so to speak...they are my family.' Bella beamed. She ignored the exchange between Sara and Emmett. 'You will meet others, make yourselves at home... go and explore if you wish, the kitchens are three floors down if you want some more blood.'

I looked around at my companions for the last 100 years, and beyond that. There was so much to take in, Bella alive for a start...

'I'm sure you want to be left with your thoughts for a while. If you explore do not go off grounds.' It wasn't a request.

'Shall we meet in this room...in say four or so hours? I'm offering you a place here, you can stay here, join this world. If you wish.' If I hadn't been paying attention I wouldn't have seen Bella's eyes flicker almost involuntarily to Edwards's face, whom was looking at his feet.