Hey there! Here's the next installment...this chapter is a little jumpy on the POVs, but I couldn't really see any other way to do it. If you read Ignorance, that chapter should be up later tonight, Wednesday at the latest. For now, I hope that break will allow me some creative flowing; this week is my last until the 12!!!

BPOV

Alice was in a daze still, answering rather distractedly. I'd tried to get her to talk to me, but she just… wouldn't. My temper was getting shorter as time passed and we came no closer to finding the vampires we were sent down here to find, and I was stuck in a cabin with Demetri, Alec, Alice, and… Chelsea. With my only close ally being a distracted Alice, I wasn't exactly happy. At all.

I needed to hunt, I decided, glancing at the faint, muggy reflection in the window, my black eyes gleaming back.

"Who needs to hunt?" I called out, looking around the living room.

Chelsea was the only one to raise her hand. Ohm joy, I thought, inwardly rolling my eyes.

Demetri glanced up as I pulled on a coat, useless, just a simple prop. "Bella, if you're going hunting, you might as well check out the last coordinates I got for the vamps we're tracking."

"Sure," I sighed. "Maybe we'll get lucky this time… what do you think Alice?" I added, looking over at her.

"Huh?" she asked, turning around, slightly startled. "Oh… I don't know."

Sighing again, I nodded and stepped outside. It was raining, windy, and I sped to my Arrow, sliding inside, taking a deep breath unconsciously. Chelsea slid into the passenger seat and wrinkled her nose.

"God, Bella. Why haven't you gotten a new car yet? Before, you'd get a new one practically every mission. I still have yet to see a new car."

I rolled my eyes. "I happen to love this car."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she muttered, facing out the window. Muttering too low for her to hear, I quickly made my way to the large town in the west of Texas that Demetri had told me to check out. Thankfully, no one would be likely to notice a murder too much here. Large cities were full of death.

We got out of the car, Chelsea immediately complaining about the area I was in.

"Everyone here will either be high or drunk or dirty. Why can't we go to the higher class end of town?"

"Because," I rolled my eyes. "A death there will be more publicized and you know Aro wants us to be as discrete as possible."

She snorted. "No, you're just a wimp. You hate what we are, you can't accept it."

I snarled at her, then turned and began down an alley, letting my instincts begin to take over. I was perfectly fine with normal hunting, tracking down a relatively clean human….

Until I smelled honeysuckle and sunshine.

EPOV

Victoria was freaking out as we left town in the car, the last remains of the sun blocked from our skin by the dark tinted windows. I didn't understand why - she'd gotten better at blocking her thoughts from me. But I did manage to gather that if something happened, the Volturi would kill her. And I also gathered it involved me.

I'd never met the Volturi before.

Suspicion returned again; with nomads, you could never tell if someone was with you or against you. I had a feeling Victoria definitely wasn't with me… the question was, was she necessarily against me?

"Victoria, I need to hunt." I said, which wasn't exactly a lie. I tended to take more time between my hunts, in an attempt to begin to return to Carlisle's lifestyle. First, I just had to build a strength of not hunting immediately when I wanted to, to slightly dull myself to the thirst. Then, I'd start hunting animals between the times of human-hunting. And hopefully, after that, I'd be able to stop traditional methods altogether.

At least, that was what I was hoping.

She sighed. "Edward, can't you wait? I want to get to New Mexico by tomorrow afternoon."

I sent her a look again, suspicion creeping up, but keeping it from her sight. She'd worked so hard to get me away from the west coast, and now she wanted to go back. Something was definitely up.

"No," I snapped. "Now."

Groaning, she hissed, "Fine. But make it quick."

Smirking, I stepped out of the car into the first hints of night, then turned and ran back towards the town. She probably expected me to hunt in the closest neighbourhood, but I preferred to run and hunt in the downtrodden sides of a town.

I was just getting into the hunting mode when the wind changed direction, blowing rain and the faintest hint of strawberries and freesia into my face.

Flashes of green and brown and the fuzzy memory of a pale, heart-shaped face assaulted my mind, making my brain hurt, like something had built up behind a block and was nearly bursting out. I shook my head to clear it, and the images trickled away, the pain slipping off with them. But my curiosity had the better of me; this was the second time I'd reacted oddly to the smell of strawberries. I changed course, heading in the tentative direction the wind had thrown the scent from.

I twisted through the streets, wishing I had a better course of where the scent was coming from, and what. Turning another corner, I caught sight of another figure at the other end of the street, freezing just as I did.

BPOV

I was just about ready to rip off Chelsea's head and blame it on a SNV. I mean, it could happen, right? Besides, it wasn't like she didn't deserve it. The whiner complained about everything and anything, and she was probably wondering if it was a good time to kill me as well. It's not like anyone could prove her wrong, except Alice, but she could use her wonderful (not) talent to turn everyone against her.

Unlike with me, where if Alice saw me kill her, she probably wouldn't care. It's so nice when you have the psychic on your side.

I had nearly found the source of the scent. It was stronger now, and I eagerly turned the corner into another street. The rain had let up, so my vision was unimpeded when I saw him.

A vampire, a guy, was at the other end, looking just as shocked to see us as we were to see him. The first thought to cross my mind (besides "oh my lordie he's fine") was 'Please let him not be one of the vamps we're hunting down'. His wet, bronze hair was plastered to his face, his dark eyes standing out starkly against the pale white of his face. He wasn't the most well built guy I'd ever seen, but he wasn't a weakling either. He was… perfect.

"Damn," Chelsea said, stopping next to me. "He's hot."

I glared over at her, shifting my weight slightly towards a crouch. Everything in me was suddenly screaming, snarling, and at the same time, simply wanting to get closer to him.

She continued, oblivious. "I mean, I don't usually go for guys of his stature - I prefer the kind closer to how Felix was - but damn, he's hot."

A possessive hiss slipped from my lips and I glared dangerously at her. "Chelsea, shut your effing mouth before I rip it from your jaw." I smiled sweetly as I said it. The imagery was so pleasant; except that Aro would probably lock me up for a month if I did. Hmm… it just might be worth it. Especially if I could manage to set her on fire and kill her along with the jaw-ripping part.

Chelsea first seemed startled, then smirked. "Aw, does little Bella want him as well? Well, I don't think Aro would like to hear that his leader of the mission is risking everything by slacking off and fucking random strangers who may or may not be part of the group we're looking for."

Snarling, I leapt on her, forcing her to make some rather weak efforts to defend herself. Everyone told me that I fought harder, stronger, and dirty when pissed off, and I had an inkling it was true. But to be honest, every time that happened, I sort of… not blacked out, per say, but became so absorbed by the red haze that I wasn't conscious of my actions beyond the basic attack.

I pinned her to the ground and leaned close to her ear. "Insult me again, and I don't care how pissed Aro will be, you won't live five seconds after the words leave your mouth, Chelsea."

EPOV

She was beautiful, her long brown hair dripping down her back and over her shoulders. There was another girl just behind her, but I couldn't really drag my eyes from her. Her eyes were wide, making her seem just as surprised as I was.

For a while at least.

The other woman must have said something, because abruptly the brown-haired one's posture shifted, leaning closer towards one of attack than one of casualty. I listened in to the thoughts of the other woman, and quickly retreated. They were vengeful, spiteful, hateful, and lustful towards me. It was rather frightening.

The woman stepped right up in the other's face, hissing something quietly. I tried to listen in on her thoughts… and heard nothing. Shock rooted me in place, and I listened harder, straining myself but to no avail. There was nothing for me to hear, even though I could see her standing right there, looking murderous.

I broadened out my listening, and could catch the harsh, spiteful thoughts of the other woman, but not… not the brown-haired one.

Abruptly, they were fighting, the brown-haired one reminding me much of a furious lioness, her dark eyes deadly. The other woman's thoughts were frantic and frightened, and… Aro? Wasn't he… the Volturi?

What the hell was the Volturi doing around here?!

Slipping into the shadows of a side street, I ran closer towards the fighting women, keeping out of their sight and scent. I neared them just as brown-haired pinned the other to the ground, leaning close to her ear.

"Insult me again," she whispered, her voice a soft, sweet, yet deadly sound, "and I don't care how pissed Aro will be, you won't make it five seconds after the words leave your mouth, Chelsea."

Then she hopped off the other woman, and looked around. I thought I saw disappointment cross her features, and tried again to listen, hoping the lack of distance might help. It didn't. Her mind was as silent as before. The other woman's, Chelsea's, was furious, but frightened. She wasn't going to fight her in hand on hand combat again, but she was going to get revenge. Frowning, I listened more closely….

"Let's go hunt," the first woman said.

Chelsea snorted, rolled her eyes, but didn't say any of the sarcastic, rude thoughts in her head. They both ran off, and, feeling like I'd just let something slip through my fingers, I turned and left for my own hunt in the opposite direction.

Unknown POV

I paced the small room we were all locked up in. It was too dangerous to chance leaving and being found, yet I hated being locked in here. I wanted my revenge, and I wanted to put the plan into action.

The plan. The whole reason I wasn't hunting down that stupid bitch down right now was because of the plan.

The idea had come from the southern covens. They managed to overtake vast territories because of their large armies. The Volturi interfered and kept control of them, but otherwise left them as they were. But I knew we could manage to take over the whole continental US. Because our group had something none of the southern covens did.

And our success was secured.

But first, we had to get rid of a few obstacles. And that was when I'd be able to take out my revenge. Because it just wasn't enough that I knew her life was miserable now. I wanted her to suffer even more. I wanted her dead.

Aro's POV

I was extremely bored. MySpace was still resistant to my take-over. I only had that Tom fellow - or whatever his name was - as a friend… no one else would add me.

On top of that, I had no idea how anything was going until one of the groups from the mission called me. Perhaps I shouldn't have sent Alice along with Bella and the others. I liked having her visions too much.

Jane came into the room, rolling her eyes at me. "Do you know how much our electricity bill has run up with you being on that stupid website twenty-four/seven? It's stupid and insane, and if Bella were here she'd say it's 'completely fesso'."

"Shut up, Jane," I told her, browsing out new conquests for friends. I had probably seen thousand and thousands and millions of pages… all without any luck.

If only Alice were here to tell me if that would change.

Caius walked lazily into the room, also rolling his eyes at me. "I swear, Aro, you are pathetic. I'd be so much better at running this joint than you."

"Someone's grumpy," I remarked. He was always complaining about my managing skills, how he could do better, yada, yada, yada. As if he could really overthrow me.

Guesses on the Unknown are welcome, if you guess right I'll... idk, mention you in the next chapter. BUT THAT MEANS GUESSES MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA PM SO NO ONE CAN CHEAT!!! Review please!