Chapter 6

Every morning and every night when Bella drove past Edward and Jasper's with their car gone, she couldn't help frowning. Gossip at school had pointed to them actually being out of town, and she feared she'd never see them again. On the second day she decided that even if they did come back, she really had no chance. Either they were gay, or they were old enough to make her dad shoot them. So to distract herself during trig class, she made a list of every single male under the age of twenty that she might consider instead.

Of course, since she lived in Forks, the list was rather short: all the boys in tenth grade and up, and the ones she knew at the rez. Growing up with all same people since kindergarten tended to make them far less attractive, though. Embry and Jacob were definitely appealing physically, and they seemed a lot mature than her classmates. Plus, she was fairly certain they - and Quil, who was not a mature candidate - were sort of interested in her already.

So after school, she called up Jacob. She was rather surprised when Billy answered. "Jake's pretty sick, Bells. I'll let you know when he gets better."

Well, that's that, she sighed. With no distractions available, she decided to drive by the old Lawson place one more time. She was completely taken by surprise to see someone standing in the road. She slammed on the brakes of her truck and screamed as she just barely avoided hitting what seemed to be a small woman. Bella took a few deep breaths before getting out of the car.

"Holy crow, are you okay?" she asked. Oddly enough, the woman hadn't seemed to even notice the truck. She still stood in the middle of the road and was staring at the Lawson place.

"As okay as ever," she replied. Even though it was a monotone, her voice itself was lovely. The woman seemed tiny, an inch or two shorter than Bella (who was five foot four) and probably twenty pounds lighter. She wore a white summer dress under a worn brown leather jacket, and matching leather harness boots. She still hadn't looked at Bella, who had started to wonder if "okay as ever" mean there was something seriously wrong with her.

"They're in Alaska," the woman added. "They'll be back Saturday."

"They - you know them?"

She shrugged. "I'm Alice."

"Bella." Alice had made no effort to shake hands, so Bella didn't bother. She glanced at her truck - it was dented in front, which made her do a double-take before she figured it must have already been there...

"You'll know what you know when you know it, Bella. I envy you. I already know what I know." She sounded exasperated.

"And what do you know?" asked Bella, now more certain than ever that the woman had something wrong with her.

Still in the same monotone, she said, "Edward and Jasper are ours."

Bella had been about to write Alice off completely, but now she was feeling goosebumps. "What - why do you say that?"

"Because I see it." She finally looked at Bella. "I've been able to see the future for as long as I can remember. Do I need to tell you what that means?"

Something finally clicked. That was a new dent! "You're a vampire," she whispered.

Alice nodded. "Over thirty years since I fed on a human, don't worry."

"And - you can see the future? You're a witch?"

"Right. James found me when I was human. I don't remember it, but I could do it then too. In the 'twenties that wasn't exactly kosher. He had to break me out of the asylum." Her sentences were even more lifeless than before. "But I kept seeing Jasper, my whole life, till recently. I got scared." She stared at the house again. "As long as I could see him, I felt safe and contented, but this sort of black fog appeared when he moved here. I got scared," she said again.

"Wait, so, you never saw Jasper before? I mean, like, not in person."

"Right. Just in my head," she said with a bitter laugh. "But you've seen him?"

"Yeah. Him and Edward. They just moved here last week... you saw that?"

She nodded. "I saw that, and then I saw nothing. I got scared."

"But you said they were in Alaska."

"I don't know! But I saw them going to Alaska on my way here," she confirmed. "And they'll be back Saturday."

Bella suddenly put two and two together. "So - so they're vampires too?" At Alice's nod, she felt a bit light-headed, then woozy, then she actually fainted.

When she came too, she was sitting inside her truck cab, while Alice fed her cold water. "I'm sorry. I should have known better. You're just only human," she apologized.

"I can't believe those two are vampires," Bella muttered. "And you! How many vampires are there in Forks?"

Alice started. "That was a rhetorical question, right?"

"Oh my God. Are you telling me there are actually more vampires in Forks?"

"Besides the Cullens? No."

Bella sighed. "Right, the Cullens. Is that why those two came here? I didn't think all vampires knew each other!"

"Normally they don't, but Dr. Cullen was the one who created Edward," she explained.

"Oh. Huh." Bella drank the water deeply. "So why doesn't he live with them?"

Alice hesitated. "That's for Edward to tell you, I think."

"Well, uh, thanks for helping me with the fainting and all, but I better get home." Bella frowned. "Do you need a place to stay?"

"Not really. And your dad really wouldn't understand. But thanks for the offer. I will visit you soon." And she smiled for the first time. "It was very nice to finally meet you, Bella. We're going to be friends for a long time."

And then she was gone, so fast that Bella almost wondered if she imagined it. Till she looked at the dent in front of her truck again.

"And this is where I almost hit a vampire," she said in a low voice.

That night, Alice once again scared the crap out of Bella by opening her bedroom window as she was reading in bed. "Sorry for scaring you. I figure we should hang out a bit and talk. I don't have any memories of being human, so if it's not a bother, I'd like to hear yours."

"Well, uh..." She wasn't sure where to start. "Um, I'm sort of into this boy, but he's sick right now, like, right after I decided to try to get closer to him. It's kind of annoying..."

In fact, over the next few days, she checked with Billy every day, and Jacob was still sick.

However, Alice would climb up to her room about thirty minutes before she would fall asleep, and they would talk.

Bella talked more than Alice did, for she relished details of Bella's life. She never talked about James - or any other vampires, for that matter. She was still a little off-putting, but Bella chalked that up to her being a precog that didn't hang out with humans. The Cullens had to pass every day as humans, so they were probably better at it.

Alice also didn't mention Edward anymore. It was clear that Jasper was the main reason she had come here, but only because she didn't understand the blank spots in her visions. She kept repeating "I got scared." But as Saturday came closer and closer, she got more and more excited about meeting Jasper.

Bella didn't want to pry, but on Friday night she couldn't hold back. "You did tell me that I was going to be with Edward, right?"

Alice was quiet. It was clear she didn't want to say anything, so Bella glared at her. Finally, she said, "It's going to be difficult. I have seen him killing you almost as often as not. I don't know if you really ought to - associate with him."

"Because they eat people." Her stomach churned something awful. A romantic future with a man-eating vampire wasn't as anywhere near as interesting as her initial Edward fantasies had been.

"It's a little more complicated than that," she sighed. "Right now they both have promised not to kill while in this part of the country. And even before, the two of them would only hunt the worst criminals to feed on. The problem is that Edward... Um. Shit. I don't know how to not offend you."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Offend me, go ahead."

"The way your blood smells, it's very... attractive to him. I mean, since I haven't eaten people in decades, I can be around you, as long as you don't cut yourself accidentally, but I have to admit that you do smell pretty delicious. And for Edward, it's even worse. I think they call it a singer, your blood sings to him, and -"

"Alice! That's really freaking gross!"

"I knew you'd be offended!"

Bella sighed, even though she felt so very creeped out by the thought of vampires liking the smell of her blood badly enough to kill her. "Sorry. Go on."

Alice shrugged. "That's about it. He doesn't want to eat anyone like you, but you smell almost irresistible to him."

"But you have seen futures in which he doesn't - eat me." Bella shivered.

"True. I've seen both. Just, the longer you wait, the better it'll be," she confirmed.

"Longer, as in, years?"

Alice pondered this. "Yes, if you wait two years, there's almost no chance at all that he'll kill you."

"Well. I think - I'm in favor of that."