So Sorry for the massive delay. I have been distracted and busy, not writing at all. Going to try to make it up to you soon, but school starts in a few days. enjoy - Previously – "I know what you mean."

Bella Point Of View - Walking towards the first floor, we ran into Alice, rr more like she ran into us. She wrapped her skinny arms around both of our waists, smiling up at us excitedly like a little child.

"You two are back together! Oh I'm so happy, you didn't take as long as I expected either, but long enough! Now lets go hunting, the others will be back by the time that we get back!" She started to pull us towards past the flight of stairs, up a long hallway and to the kitchen, which was were the backdoor was.

'She could have just thought her 'congratulations' because we could both hear them but Alice was to energetic for that.'

"Even I knew that." I smiled and looked at Edward. He was still smiling, as he had been since he suggested that we go hunting. I had been trying to ignore his thoughts, so I didn't know what caused that smirk but he didn't look at all sad and there was no negative emotion swimming in his eyes. I was glad for that, I hadn't liked seeing his pain, the images that he had accidently let slip when I had asked him about his time away had brought the pain back to his eyes full force, and I never wanted to see that again, the images or the expression.

"Knew what?" Alice rounded on us, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

'You know that she probably won't give up till we tell her. Right?'

"Yer." I answered his thoughts.

"Yer what?" She was getting annoyed.

"Oh nothing!" I smiled brightly and skipped towards the door, pulling a laughing Edward along behind me. We ran through the forest and I was glad that I was starting to beat him, I was actually faster than Edward. Alice was a few miles behind us, complaining in her head that we were using our speed to get away from her. I blocked her thoughts, but lingered in Edwards head. His mental voice was soothing in ways that I didn't know that I needed to be soothed. He started think about this morning, or last night, whenever it was, but the rather long kiss that we had shared on the bedroom floor. He was thinking about his reaction and I laughed breathlessly at him. He pouted at me.

"You should be trying to block the thoughts." He muttered.

"Well I am blocking Alice, I like being in your mind, it's soothing."

"That's not fair, I want to hear your thoughts too, you're still using my own gift against me."

"You already said that." I laughed back at him, I hadn't been this free in months, and I loved being able to laugh and smile again, I had missed that.

"That's why I said still." He laughed.

"Whatever." I shrugged and he laughed.

"You smell that?" He asked. A growl was my only response as I speed towards the animal.

/*&*/

We hunted for about three hours. Edwards thoughts were strange. I had managed to block the thoughts of everyone while I hunted, they stayed close to me because they didn't want to risk any humans coming to the area and me catching their scent. Though un-tuning was pretty easy during hunting, the animalistic instinct helped, I could not concentrate on anything else apart from the blood. But I would always let myself go back to Edwards mind after I had fed. His thoughts were strange, he was always thinking about me, about me hunting and then he would catch himself or something, and start thinking about the trees or an animal that he was hunting or a piano composition. Strange, was he blocking his thoughts from me? I asked him.

"Was I that obvious?" He asked, smiling lightly but he looked away from me.

"Just a lot." I smiled back, and he laughed.

"Can you pick up the feelings of the thoughts yet?" He asked curiously. I tried to concentrate on him and Alice, but she was drinking.

"I can feel Alice's thirst, but I can't feel anything from you." I frowned.

"That's because her thirst is at the forefront of her mind, and I am trying not to think about my feelings, so you can't feel them yet. After a while you might be able to pick them up without the person having to think about them." He frowned for a moment. "Now try me." And I did, and I was over whelmed with the loved that I could feel coming from his thoughts. I smiled brightly and ran to him, throwing my arms round his neck and kissing him senseless, smiling against his lips and feel his own curve up in response. Not that any of my human kisses were disappointing, but vampire kisses were great.

"Come on you two, the others are back now, can you two pry yourself off each other for ten minutes?" Alice was exasperated, but there was a slight smile playing on her lips.

"No." He murmured against my lips and I giggled, pulling away and laughing more freely at his pout, grabbing his hand and pulling him, following Alice. The run took about twenty minutes because we had ventured further away as we hunted, but there was no problem with that, running was fantastic.

The thoughts of the others started to flood my mind, and I slowed next to Edward, trying to adjust and block their thoughts. He rubbed his thumb along my hand, trying to sooth me, and it was working. "Are you alright? He asked me, frowning. I nodded and smiled at him, continuing to run at a faster pace to get back to the others, I had missed them the time that they were away and was eager to re-connect. They were all waiting in the living room fir us when we arrived. Alice skipped to her husbands side, after hugging the other three.

We all hugged and greeted, the usual pleasantries.

"So Bella, how have you been handling….the new life?" Esme was looking anxiously between me and her son, trying hard not to think. To reassure her, I took his hand and heard the joy in his mind. It made me smile. He pulled me towards him, so that I was standing in front of him and wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning his head on his shoulder. Esme started to bounce slightly, she had been spending wayyy to much time with Alice. She pulled us both into her embrace, crushing me against her and Edwards chest. I could feel every line of his body and planes of his chest against my back, and I loved it.

"Oh I'm so happy!" She was squealing, she needed to leave Alice alone.

"We can tell." Edward kissed my head after he spoke, and Esme's squealing increased. Carlisle pulled his wife away from us, giving me back the ability to breathe, and sat her on the couch.

"So Bella, have you made any improvements on your gift?" Carlisle had a calm mask on his face, but I could see how anxious he was under the mask. Carlisle was always the most involved with the newborns of the family. He changed them, trained them and took them hunting. This time, Edward had done everything. He had rescued me, bitten me, stayed with me and taken me hunting. Carlisle had become very good at blocking his thoughts, but even I could feel the impatience in his thoughts. He was making Jasper antsy. I smirked at them.

"We have, I can block other peoples thoughts now, and I can tell when they are blocking me." A sly glance at Edward, who smiled sheepishly and dragged me towards the couch, sitting me on the expensive white material. The others followed our lead before settling their gazes on me. Surprisingly, I didn't feel as uncomfortable was I usually would have. I could tell that they were all just concerned about me, they wanted to help me. "I can feel the emotions in others thoughts now, but not in the way that Jasper can, just the tenor of their thoughts."

"Can you turn the gift off completely yet?" I shook my head. Carlisle was relieved now, and the technical side of his brain was kicking in. He was thinking about all of the possibilities of my gift, what it meant, and how this was nothing like what he expected me to have.

"What did you think her gift would be?" Edwards voice was curious, more curious than a mind readers had the right to be, considering I knew that he and Carlisle had spoken about his inability to read my mind.

"I had actually spoken to Eleazar about that after we left Forks." Edward and I winced. His mind gave my not only his monologue, but the actual meeting with Eleazar. He had olive toned skin under the chalky white pallor that all vampires had. He had black hair and kind eyes. I got lost in his mind and unintentionally blocked his voice and focused solely on his mind. They were sitting in leather arm chairs next to a fire place. The scene looked homely and comforting.

"Have you heard from Edward?" Eleazar looked up from his book and addressed Carlisle, who looked older and more haggard than I had ever seen him. The expression didn't suit him

"He called a few days ago. He wouldn't tell us where he was, and Alice can't get any distinct visions. Just him running or….curled up in a ball." He voice was strange as he rubbed his hands over his face.

"Why doesn't he just go back to her?" I saw as Eleazar made eye contact with Carlisle, who broke his gaze before he answered the question.

"We've told you all, he doesn't want her to be one of us. He thinks that we are soulless."

Eleazar rolled his eyes. "But I heard Edward say that she was his soul mate." He raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"Exactly!"

"She sounds like she would have made an interesting vampire." Eleazar looked back at his book, but Carlisle could tell that he wasn't reading.

"She would have had an interesting gift. Edward couldn't read her mind. That would have had to be something extraordinary." Carlisle's voice sounded far away, as if eh were thinking about the possibilities. Eleazar tilted his head to the side. "What, do you have any theories?"

"Well, I was thinking about what that could mean. The way you explained it, how she was immune to some gifts but not others. I was thinking, there are vampires called 'shields'. They can shield themselves from with physical or mental attacks. There is a member on the guard, she is a body guard. Whenever someone comes near her or whoever she is guarding, they forget what they are doing and why they are doing it. They walk away from them. They get their memory back after they leave her range, but they gift works well in a fight.

It sounds as if Isabella would be a form of mental shield. Edward can not get a read on her, but Jasper and Alice can."

"Because their gifts affect the body, while Edwards gift affects the mind." Carlisle summarized for his friend, the wonder growing in his voice with each word that he spoke. Eleazar chuckled.

"You want to go and change her now don't you?"

Carlisle scoffed. "Edward would rip me to shreds, but Bella probably wouldn't mind."

"A shield? Well, I think that this gift is better. We can really mess with Eddie this way." Emmett boomed, he just can't let us have a serious discussion can he?

"Yer, but I can read your mind now. You have two people to block your thoughts from." I was smug, until he showed me pictures that I neverwanted to see. "Eww!! Seriously! Pedophile, does Rose know that you do that!?"

"She has no idea that he does that. I have been bribed not to tell." Edward pulled me against his chest and thought. 'But he was nothing on you, you can tell Rosalie and he has nothing to retaliate with.'

"What does he do that I don't know about, and why do I get a feeling that I need to hit him?" Rosalie started to glare at his husband, who just seemed to be realizing that he was busted.

"Rosie please…." He took her off of his lap and slowly started to walk towards the entrance hall, to the front door, and then ran away from the house. Rosalie looked back at us, raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow that plainly said 'Please explain.'

"Instead of being an adult and blocking us with a song of something, he shows us you." I shrugged.

"So, you see me all the time."

"Yer, but he shows us the un-PG rated version of you."

"I'm scared for life, I truly am." Edward chimed in behind me. Rosalie was frozen, her thoughts blank for a few moments before they exploded into various visions of causing Emmett bodily harm.

"I'll be back in a few hours." She said coolly, before gliding towards the front door, her pointy red stiletto heals clicking against the tile floor of the entrance hall, before she to reached and slammed the door, running after her husband and screaming his name.

"Anyway…." Carlisle was still looking at the front door, but turned back to us. "Have you thought about when you want to gain the new gift?"

"I want to wait until I have learned to turn them off, and I want to learn my range." Carlisle looked thoughtful, considering the options while I focused on the others. I had re-memorized Edwards face. He looked exactly the same but completely different. His eyes, which I had once thought were one colour, always had a lack background, but were covered in golden flecks, completely gold just after he had hunted and slowly, the flecks would disappear. Esme's hair had many highlights that I had never seen before, not just caramel but dark browns and gold mixed in. I could see each individual eyelash, dark and long. She was more beautiful then I had ever seen her. Jaspers scars, which were meant to be scary and intimidating, were beautiful and obviously a part of him. They helped give him personality and told a story, one that I would try and convince him to tell me. His skin was slightly darker than the others.

"Do you want to try and find the range now?" I snapped back to my thoughts.

"Sure."

The remainder of us got up off the couch and made our way to the backyard. After kissing Edward goodbye, because I was getting the gift from him, I ran east with Carlisle and Esme by my sides, with Edward and Alice going west. I could still hear their thoughts for a while, but eventually I lost Alice and felt a pang of longing when I lost Edward.

"The other two are gone." I whispered, and sensing my sadness, Esme grabbed and squeezed my hand, mentally telling me that we would be together soon. We ran for a few more minutes, after four miles, I lost Esme and Carlisle. I skidded to a halt. "Stop."

They turned and faced me, concern written on both of their faces. "What's wrong dear?" Esme asked.

"I just, can't hear you two anymore." Carlisle flipped open his phone and Edward picked up immediately.

"Stop now, she can't hear us anymore, how far away are you?"

"About four miles." Edwards voice was still amazing, even if the voice was still distorted by the distance between .

"Start heading back slowly, and we will tell you when she can hear you." I could hear him and Alice start to walk again. Esme and Carlisle's mental voices slowly started to come back to me.

"I can hear a murmur again."

"So the range must be about eight miles." Carlisle nodded..

"So can we come home now?" Edward seemed just as eager as I was, and that made me slowly start edging back the way that we came. Esme nodded and chuckled, gesturing towards the house.

"Go go, we can catch up with you." I smiled, waved and sprinted towards the house.