You Can't Always Get What You Want

by Xavier2163

New Moon/BD AU. Edward leaves Bella after their intimate relationship blossoms during the summer after Twilight. Bella is left to face the consequences of her love for Edward as her life changes drastically. NO WOLVES/NO IMPRINTS OOC ExB Lemons. New Updates after long Hiatus.

10. Chapter 10 Dark Angel

Disclaimer: Written under the derivative fan works act. All rights reserved to the original creator, Stephanie Meyer.

Title: You Can't Always Get What You Want

Rating: M for sexual situations, lemons, and hot, steamy, angsty vampire lovin', underage drinking, smoking, drug use and overall bad behavior.

Premise: Alternate Universe. Edward leaves Bella after their intimate relationship blossoms during the summer after Twilight. Bella is left to face the consequences of loving a vampire as her life changes drastically. OCC ExB Lemons

Alternate Universe: Canon pairings eventually, pretty much OOC, ExB of course.

POV: BPOV (Bella), Bella starts the story. Edward and Alice may have a say later on.

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Author Notes:

Please note that this story is rated M for a reason, if you'd prefer not to deal with mature themes, please do not read this story.

This chapter and the previous chapter were originally one very long chapter (about 48 pages), so I decided to split it up into two chapters.

Warning: This chapter includes descriptions of graphic violence and violent death. If you would prefer not to be exposed to this material, please do not read this chapter.

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Chapter 10 Dark Angel

I had talked tough to Renee and Phil about finding human criminals and taking their money to supplement our income. I knew there were predators out there that preyed on good honest hard working people. There were drug dealers, and pimps and outlaw gangs that created mayhem for the fun of it, but I understood the reality of my situation better now too.

If I went hunting predators, and played vigilante, they weren't just going to give me their money. They weren't going to reform and turn over a new leaf. I doubted they'd give up without a fight and just walk away from their money because I threatened them. I'd have to take what I needed, and I'd have to protect the secret while doing it whether I wanted their blood or not. I definitely wasn't hunting humans for blood, but if I went looking for trouble, more people were going to die.

I didn't want to kill anymore humans, but I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid situations where it was likely to happen if I followed through with this course. Hunting human predators would end in violence and death.

The real question was whether or not I was willing to accept the consequences of my actions if I pursued this course of action. I didn't see any other option.

Sure, we could just buy three different fake ID's and cheap knock off social security cards for a couple of hundred dollars a piece, but they wouldn't stand up to serious scrutiny. If somebody got curious or did a background check they'd know they were fakes. We couldn't use them to open a bank account or give them to a cop if we got pulled over. It would only be a matter of time before we'd need to disappear again when people got curious, and we'd constantly be looking over our shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I suppose there was always the cave in Alaska option if we wanted to drop out and get away from the human race for a while, but if we wanted to be able to live in the modern world and co-exist with human society, we were going to need those documents.

In the end, perhaps it was a selfish decision, but I wanted to live in the modern world and co-exist with human society. I wanted Elizabeth to have as normal a life as I could offer her. I had already torn Phil and Renee away from their lives and sucked them into my world, and I owed it to them to give them the best life I could offer. I would take every precaution I could to try not to kill anymore humans, but I had to follow through with my plan. I wouldn't kill anybody that didn't try to kill me first, but I was already a murderer and the body count couldn't go anywhere but up.

I didn't discuss my decision with Renee or Phil. I knew they would have told me it was too dangerous, and it wasn't worth the cost just to make our lives easier. I didn't consider it simply be a question of ease or comfort; it was a matter of survival. If we were going to blend into society and try to be inconspicuous, there were things we were going to need to do to make that possible. It would be hard to blend in and avoid suspicion if the Sherriff was pounding on the door to evict us, or we got pulled over for a tail light out and didn't have a driver's license to give to the cop. We'd be forced to run. We still might be forced to kill to keep the secret, and we ran the risk of incurring the wrath of the Volturi if we weren't very careful.

It was Friday night the next night when I went into the city. I'd noticed odd traces of a scent that I knew should be familiar to me over the last couple of weeks, but it was so faint that it just teased at the edge of my awareness. There wasn't enough of the scent to react to, let alone track, and it barely played across my senses. I wasn't even truly consciously aware of it, but it put me on edge and made me slightly uneasy as I moved around the city.

Manny did a double take and stared when I stepped out of the shadows. He appeared to be torn between his natural male reaction and arousal that attracted him to me, and his survival instinct, fear and natural sense of caution. He knew I was dangerous and he had seen me kill with my bare hands, but he was drawn to me the way a bird was mesmerized by a venomous snake, or the way a drug addict craved their fix even though they knew it would kill them.

I wasn't attracted to Manny, and this was strictly business, but I was wearing the mini-skirt tonight, and it had an effect on him. I was counting on that effect tonight after I was done with Manny.

"Hey, Manny, your name checked out. I met with Larry and took care of business. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"No, I guess it worked out ok… Thanks for taking care of that other business… I owed a lot of money to those gang bangers. They won't be coming to collect now."

"Yeah… Just remember I'm worth more as a friend than an easy way out for settling your debts. Here…" I made a hundred dollar bill appear between my finger tips. He snatched it away and made it disappear.

"Thanks, Bella. It's been a… experience… doing business with you… Are you going out? Maybe we could hang out…"

"I'm heading to 'The Last Resort' if you want to tag along…"

"Jesús, ¿estás loco? Ese lugar está lleno de motoristas fuera de la ley loco!" (Jesus, are you fucking crazy? That place is full of crazy outlaw bikers!)

"I'll take that as a no… Now I need another name. I need a fence where I can unload some video equipment. You got a name for me? Someone legit that isn't going to try and rip me off?"

"Sí… Give me a couple of days. I know some people. Let me ask around and I'll let you know."

"Ok, sounds good. I'll look you up next week then."

"You're really going to that biker bar? Those hombres are loco."

I shrugged. "I can handle myself. What do you know about the place? Anything special I should watch out for?"

"Gettin' killed… I don't know… The place is a coalition bar. There's guys from a lot of different clubs go there. It's a meeting place where they hash out deals and work out territory disputes. A lot of Hells Angles hang out there, but it's not an HA bar. Gonna be a lot of bikers rollin' into town now, passin' through."

Sounded like the place to be to find out about some deal I could bust to get what I needed, but I'd have to keep my ears open and be alert to whatever I could find out.

"Why? What's special about now?" I asked. "Why would there me more bikers heading this way?"

"What, do you live under a rock? July is over next week. They hold that big biker rally up in Sturgis the first week in August every year. There's gonna be like half a million bikers headed there with their ol' ladies an' kids an dogs an' anyone else that gets off on a week long drunken party. Lot's of opportunity for business."

"Good. I'm looking for a business opportunity. I'll see you next week."

Manny nodded, and I walked away into the shadows and disappeared. I ran across the rooftops of the city back to the truck and the drove closer to where the bar was located. It was outside of Rapid City proper, northwest of the city up on Highway 79. I found a secluded spot to park the truck, and then got out to approach the bar on foot. I had been here before to case the joint when I was learning about the city, but I'd never gone inside.

There were a couple of long lines of motorcycle parked out front and some cars and pickup trucks. I didn't really know what to expect. I'd never been to a bar before, and it made me nervous. I slipped the wedding ring off my finger and stuck it in my pocket. I wasn't looking for a guy, and wearing the ring might prevent guys from hitting on me, but I was here to get information. I didn't want to look like I was out looking to cheat on a husband I didn't have.

I knew I could handle anything that happened in here. The hardest part would be holding it together while I stood in a close packed room full of humans. My control was getting better all the time, but it was still a constant battle not to kill the people around me. Putting myself into this kind of situation was asking for trouble, but I felt it was a necessary evil.

I walked up to the front of the bar, and the guys at the door looked me up and down and gave me lascivious smirks, but I didn't even get carded when I walked inside. I was standing inside the door, and I wasn't sure what to do next. It felt like every eye in the room was on me.

I was in a bar; people came here to drink, so I walked back to the bar. I figured I might as well buy a drink so I would blend in better. There were a lot of guys standing around the bar and sitting on stools. Most of them ignored me and kept talking and partying. A couple looked me up and down, giving me the once over before whispering to their buddies. I ordered a bud long neck when the bartender turned to me. He nodded and got it, and I laid money on the bar.

I was more than a little annoyed that he didn't card me either. All that effort and worry and fighting, and they weren't even going to look at my fake ID? I didn't think I looked that old. Maybe it was just the bar. There were a lot of young looking girls in here, and a lot of them didn't look close to twenty-one. As long as they didn't get busted, I guess it was good for business. Besides, who was I to complain? I was only eighteen, myself, and I'd been fooling around with Edward when I was seventeen. It definitely wasn't me that had made him hold out and wait so long to make me a woman.

I took a sip of the beer and tried not to make a face at the taste. Beer was supposed to taste good, and people enjoyed it.

Don't rock the boat, Bella, just pretend to enjoy it. Charlie had always enjoyed his beer. I'd always thought it smelled nasty, and I never even sneaked a sip when I was human. Now I wish I'd at least tried it so I had something to compare the taste too now. It wasn't like it was disgusting or would make me sick, but it tasted old and foul.

Solid food was definitely out and simply didn't work with my new body. It had to come back out the same way it went in, usually expelled much more violently than it had gone down, but I had discovered that liquids were acceptable if not necessarily palatable. I suppose it made sense with the liquid diet. I had become rather rudely aware of the error of some of my preconceived misconceptions about vampires since I had actually become one.

I had assumed that the Cullens didn't go to the bathroom, or at least didn't need to actually use the plumbing the same way I did. Edward had never left to go to the bathroom, and in all the time I had known Alice, she had never excused herself to go to the ladies room. She had practically lived with me when we came home from Phoenix and we had become very close. She had to help me shower, and spent the night more often than not for the first couple of weeks, only leaving to allow Edward to visit.

I suppose it was silly to assume that they didn't use the toilet, but I never saw them leave to use the facilities. I never saw them hunt either, but I knew they did. Hunting had come up in conversation because they're diet was a major issue in our relationship. Apparently they had simply been to polite to discuss their physical functions in polite company.

The simple fact of the matter was that I did eat; only I survived on an exclusively liquid diet, and what when in still had to come out. There wasn't some kind of mythological arcane magic that canceled out the law of conservation of mass. It was just that visits to the ladies room were much, much more infrequent but lasted much, much longer.

A human would visit the facilities six to eight times a day, but then they were eating almost constantly too. Eating and sleeping took up most of their time. I on the other hand as a vampire could go a week without eating, and didn't sleep at all. The Cullens' had often gone two weeks or more between hunting trips, and I could only assume that as I got older and matured into this new life that the same would be true for me. Bathroom visits were on about the same schedule as hunting trips, but it took a day or two for the blood to metabolize through my system.

I wandered away from the bar after I got my beer and checked out the rest of the club. There was loud rock and roll music playing from a jukebox and some people out on the dance floor. There were a couple of pool tables with some guys playing pool and some more guys watching them play. There were some girls watching them too. A lot of people were just sitting in groups drinking and talking and having a good time. There were a couple of cocktail waitresses making the rounds, and there was food on several of the tables. I could smell the greasy stench of the kitchen, and I avoided it.

I gravitated back toward the pool tables and hung out pretending to watch the guys play pool while I sipped my beer and listened to the conversations. It tasted nasty, but I noticed it did give me a pleasant mild buzz. I thought you had to drink a lot more to feel like this, but it wasn't too bad yet.

After a while, I went back to the ladies room. It was a good way to pretend to be human, and I wanted to dump out some of my beer to make it look like I was drinking more of it than I was pretending too. It was going to my head, and I'd hardly drunk a quarter of the bottle. I didn't want to get drunk. I was here on business. The bathroom was empty so I didn't have to duck into one of the stalls to maintain the illusion. I dumped half the beer into the toilet and flushed it, and then stepped to the sink to wash my hands. The door opened, and one of the girls from the pool table group walked in. She walked to the next sink and looked in the mirror to check her makeup.

She was maybe a couple of years older than me. She was wearing tight jeans and motorcycle boots, a tight half t-shirt and a denim vest with a patch on the back that said 'Property of Sonny'.

She glanced over at me. "You're new here. I haven't seen you in here before. I'm Crystal. I don't know if I should welcome you or warn you. Do you know what you're getting yourself into?"

"I'm Bella. No, this is my first time here. Welcome me or warn me?"

"These guys here aren't like high school jocks or college guys, honey. They're hardcore and mean business but they're real men. They don't take no for an answer, but if you're looking for a wild ride with a real man, you came to the right place."

"How wild a ride?"

She shrugged. "First time I started running with outlaws, they asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. I got raped twice by two different dudes before they brought me back, but it was a wild party. I wanted piss my dad off back then, and hanging with bikers was my way to rebel."

"And you kept coming back? Why?"

"The freedom and excitement of the lifestyle sucked me in like a magnet. I guess I was kind of a tease back then. Once there wasn't any reason to say no anymore, it was easy to just let go and enjoy the ride."

"You liked it? They treated you like an object. Don't you mind that they treat you like property instead of a person?"

"You might not be cut out for this, Bella, if you feel that way. You might want to leave while you still can. What did you come here looking for?"

Well I wasn't about to tell the truth. "I'm looking for some excitement, and a good time, but on my terms." I lied.

"Girls don't dictate the terms here, honey."

"I guess I just don't get it. What do you get out of this?"

She smiled. "My man always has a pocket full of money, and a couple of baggies of dope. It's like a pure adrenaline rush to ride on the back of a Harley cruising at a hundred and twenty miles an hour down the highway. We party when we want, go where we want when we want, and my man don't take shit off of no one. Nobody disrespects me and gets away with it."

"And everything's cool as long as you do what you're told?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It's all about respect. You earn respect. It's not something that's automatic. It's hard to explain to somebody that hasn't lived the life."

"Huh, well thanks for the heads up."

"Why don't you hang out with me and my friends tonight? We know who to watch out for and who's a stand up guy if you're looking for a hookup. If you aren't, we can party and you can get a taste of what this is like."

"Ok, thanks, Crystal."

I followed her out of the ladies room and we went back over to her friends. She introduced them as Sheri and Dawn. Sonny was shooting pool and didn't even acknowledge my presence when Crystal pointed him out.

The girl's grabbed a table close to the pool tables and we sat down. Crystal called one of the waitresses over, and ordered a round of shooters. I didn't want any, but it would look out of place if I refused. Sheri and Dawn were both lighting up cigarettes as they waited for the drinks, and Crystal offered me one from a pack she pulled out of a purse she brought with her when we went to sit down. Well, it wasn't going to kill me. The bar was filled with a haze of tobacco smoke, and I didn't find the scent too terribly oppressive. If anything, it helped to mask the human scent and made it a little easier to be here.

I accepted the cigarette from Crystal, and leaned towards her as she lit it for me.

Wow.

This was another human vice that I had never experimented with when I was human. The smell had been disgusting to me when I was human, and I didn't have anything to prove or any reason to try to be one of the cool kids that smoked. I hadn't been part of that crowd at school in Phoenix, and it had been a non-issue in Forks. The cigarette actually smelled good to me now and the taste explosion when I took that first drag was incredible. I didn't choke or gag or turn green like I had half expected too.

I blew out the smoke, and made a startling discovery. The burn in my throat wasn't as bad. It didn't go away… I had found only one thing that would make it go away, and then only for a day or two. That wasn't worth the cost, but this helped and made it easier to deal with. Why had I never seen any of the Cullens smoking? None of them carried cigarettes, and their house didn't smell like cigarettes. The ashtray in Edward's car was pristine and unused.

There had to be more to this that I hadn't figured out yet. The Cullens had been around for a long time, and smoking and tobacco use was much more common and accepted until the 1970's in America. During many of the era's the Cullens had lived through, they would have stood out more for not smoking, and it would have allowed them to blend in more easily if they did smoke.

I wondered if this was simply something else they had given up like not drinking human blood in an effort to fit into human society. Obviously Carlisle wouldn't want to smoke in his persona as a doctor. The rest wouldn't want smoking to tarnish their perfect image as the good kids in high school that never caused trouble and were perfect students. Esme wouldn't smoke as the young doctor's wife because it wouldn't fit the image and façade they were projecting. Of course the house couldn't smell like cigarettes if anyone visited. I suppose it was easier to simply abstain than try to hide it, but I couldn't figure out why Jasper wasn't chain smoking twenty-four seven if it helped this much.

Our drinks got there, and Sheri passed them around. I didn't think it would hurt me to have a drink with the girl's. The effect the beer had had on me worried me a little, but it had been kind of nice, despite tasting disgusting. I tossed back the whiskey, and tried not to taste it as it splashed into the back of my throat and I swallowed. It wasn't bad in a paint thinner turpentine kind of way. It burned all the way down, and then it hit my stomach.

Vampires didn't have blood to have a blood alcohol level, but drinking blood was like putting gas in a car. There was no wait for it to digest as it metabolized through our systems. It instantly provided energy to our bodies. I didn't know exactly how the chemistry of vampire bodies worked, but I knew how the alcohol affected me. It instantly went to my head, dulling all of my senses. My vision blurred, my speech was slurred, my inhibitions were relaxed, and I was sure if I tried to walk, I'd actually have difficulty. I had never been drunk in my life, but I knew this was what it had to feel like. I'd be falling down drunk if I had to move away from the table right now.

It was one drink! It wasn't supposed to be like this… I was a total light weight! A human would have to drink half the night to get like this!

But I wasn't human.

I sat there at the table smoking my cigarette and tried not to fall out of my seat. I listened to the girls chat and tried to follow the conversation. They asked me questions, and I hoped I answered appropriately because I really wasn't sure what I was saying right now.

After five or ten minutes, the haze started to fade. I had finished my cigarette, and after twenty minutes I was almost feeling normal again. Ok, so liquor hit me like a truck, but at least it burned out of my system fast. I should have realized the affect it would have after getting buzzed off of a couple of sips of beer.

I ordered the next round of drinks, and got more shots for the girl's, but ordered for a beer for myself. That was safer and easier to get rid of. Besides, I could nurse it to keep a buzz going if I wanted to.

So far, I hadn't heard any conversations that related to what I was looking for. Most of the guys in here seemed pretty honest. They talked about motorcycles and runs they'd been on. Mostly road stories, places they'd been, fights they'd gotten into, partying and the women they'd had. They didn't seem like the bunch of crazed predators I'd been expecting. The girls seemed to be pretty honest too. They loved their men and didn't feel exploited or used.

It was getting late, and I was thinking about taking off and finding another place to look for the predators I was hunting when the door opened and a couple of guys walked in. The patches on the back of their cuts marked them as members of the Black Angles. From what I had gathered, the Black Angles were a local MC that was a support club for the Hells Angles.

They got drinks at the bar and asked the bartender if Black Bob was here. He nodded toward the back room, and they headed that way. They knocked on the door and then went in when the voice inside said to come in.

The walls were normal interior construction, and I could hear every word in the room if I concentrated on it.

"So, what did you find out?" The first guy in the room said. I had to assume that was Black Bob.

"We found a cooker, but he's short. He can't supply what we need for the rally. All our dealers are gonna tap out the first day if we can't find anymore shit. You have any luck with your connection?"

"Yeah, I made some calls, and called in some favors. Couple of brother's from the mother club are cruising up here on Monday to hash out the deal. They didn't want to talk on the phone."

"HA? Is that something we want to get into, man? That's some serious shit." the third voice asked.

"Dude, they control the trade. They were gonna ask for a piece of the action sooner or later anyhow if we kept growing. They can supply all the shit we need. We just gotta front the money for the buy." Black Bob replied.

"Fine, so what time Monday?" The second voice asked.

"I don't know… whenever they get here. Monday night." Bob replied.

Finally, pay dirt. This sounded like exactly what I was looking for. They kept talking for a while but moved on to other subjects. It was time for me to go before I got into anymore trouble here tonight.

"Hey, Crystal, I need to take off, ok?"

"Are you sure? It's still early. It isn't last call for another hour."

"Yeah, I need to leave. This was fun… Do you hang out here a lot?"

"We're here most nights when we aren't on a run. Do you have a place to crash tonight? Dawn and Sheri and some of the guys are coming back to our place tonight. You can come party with us if you want to."

I knew what that invitation implied, but it wasn't safe for them to be around me like that. I'd probably kill any guy I was with if I tried getting physical. I doubted I could even kiss a guy yet without ripping his throat out. Besides, I wasn't ready for that yet emotionally, even if it was casual and anonymous.

"Maybe some other time. Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. This was a real eye opener. You guys are pretty cool. This isn't anything like what I was expecting."

"Come back soon," Crystal said, sounding a little disappointed.

I hurried and left then. I melted into the shadows as soon as I was away from the bright lights in front of the bar and ran back to the truck. I pretty much had the weekend to myself before I needed to head back into the city again. I could check in with Manny on Monday evening before I went back to the bar. Then I'd have to wait for Black Bob's connection to show up to work out their deal. I didn't need to check in with Larry about the papers until later in the week.

Saturday I figured out why the Cullens didn't smoke cigarettes. I felt horrible as the burning in my chest and throat slowly built up. I finally realized my body was rejecting the tar and nicotine and chemical poisons I had inhaled from the cigarettes. I had never been sick a single day since I had woken up as a vampire, but this was a pretty good imitation of being sick. I found myself choking and gagging as I hacked up the black tar like residue of the tobacco smoke encased in phlegm like congealed venom. My body purged itself of all of the hazardous foreign materials. It was not a pleasant process.

I felt better once it was all out, but then I needed to hunt. The intense burn and absolute need for blood right now was as bad as my worst day of bloodlust I had ever experienced. I knew if I had been around humans, I wouldn't have been able to resist, no matter how long I had been trying to desensitize myself. It was better after we went hunting, but I was glad I didn't need to go back into the city until Monday. I took most of Saturday and part of Sunday before I really recovered and felt normal again.

I didn't really tell Renee and Phil what I had planned. I didn't really have a plan yet. I was flying by the seat of my pants and making this up as I went. I did talk to Phil about going to a fence to dump the video equipment. We both thought it was too risky to simply sell it to pawn shops. We'd looked up most of the gear on the internet and had a reasonably accurate idea what it was worth.

We all sat down and talked about the documents we'd need to move on and disappear. We decided on a back story and picked out a name to use, and typed up all the information we'd need to provide to get the papers created. I had pictures of us for the documents that would need pictures and had everything on a flash drive to turn over to Larry to when the time came. Renee didn't need her degrees to follow us yet. She knew she wouldn't be able to teach again for years, and we'd worry about getting her the papers she needed when the time came.

I told Phil how much it was going to cost. I knew if I told Renee she'd only worry about how we were going to come up with the money. Phil and I talked about using the money from the sale of the house in Florida to cover it, but we both knew that was unlikely to happen soon enough, and we both knew I wasn't going to leave this up to chance.

It might have appeared that I was more decisive and pragmatic since the change, and I suppose there were changes to my personality as a result of the survival instinct and the part of me that was a predator now. I knew when I was human making decisions was always the hardest part of dealing with any issue I was faced with. Once I made up my mind about something, I had always been very stubborn, and stuck to the path I had decided on with a single minded determination.

I was still just as stubborn and determined when it came to following through with the course of action I had decided to take. The decision making part of the process had just become much easier for me to process. I could look at all the options much more quickly and extrapolate and examine the possible ramifications of each possible course of action. Once I played out all the possible scenarios, it was easy to decide what I had to do to achieve the result I wanted.

It wasn't like I had some kind of mystical ability to see the future like Alice did, but I could appreciate how that might possibly work for her now. I also had a better understanding of what Edward had to have gone through when we were together. He was constantly playing out every possible scenario in his head about what could happen when we were together. Most of them probably ended up with me dead, and that had to be horribly taxing on his resolve to want to be with me.

I understood what it must have been like, but that didn't mean I forgave him for abandoning me. The one option that would have kept us together had always been available to him, but he was too wound up in what he wanted and what he thought was best to ever consider what was best for us or what I wanted. He dismissed my opinion because I was human, and thought the decisions he made for me were best for both of us.

I wouldn't change anything now even if I could. I had Elizabeth, and I wouldn't change that for anything, but I recognized just how self serving and selfish Edward's decisions were now. I had to assume that Edward had lied to me about why he left me. I could look at it objectively now and analyze what had happened.

Maybe he had done what he did to protect me from his world, but he hadn't asked me if I wanted to be protected, and he dismissed my opinion and acted on what he decided was best despite me repeatedly telling him what I wanted. He never cared about what I wanted because he was too wrapped up in the belief that he knew what was best for me.

I still couldn't truly say I was over Edward, but I had come to terms with my relationship with him. I could analyze the actions that led up to him leaving and understood the nature of what we had shared better. It was almost as if I could still feel a connection to Edward since I had woken up, but he wasn't here and I wasn't about to go looking for him. I knew a part of me would always love Edward, but I was ready to move on and live my life without him now. It had been ten months since he left me, and if he had cared about me at all, I had to believe he would have made some kind of effort to find me or at least check up on me. I couldn't believe he wouldn't want to find out if I was dead or alive if he cared about me.

If the Cullens had cared about us, Alice would have found us by now. She had to have seen what had happened to us, but they had all simply written us out of their lives. It was hard for me to believe that Edward had such a hold on all of them that even Alice wouldn't seek me out. We had been so close; she was like the sister I never had growing up. If she hadn't known me so well and what I wanted, I'd be dead now. When I wasn't with Edward, I had been with Alice, but now she was just gone. That betrayal was the hardest to come to terms with. I knew Edward's reasons and motivations, but why had Alice abandoned me? I suppose I'd never know.

Monday morning, I took Elizabeth hunting, and made sure we were both well fed. We went looking for predators, and were hunting lion, but we found some bears instead. I had caught a deer earlier so I could finish up with the predators. I didn't want the taste of the deer to spoil the predator taste, so I started off with the deer while we tracked the scent of the bears. I let Elizabeth stalk and take down the bear by herself, but I kept close to step in if she needed any help. She was an efficient and lethal huntress and we shared her kill. It was too much for her by herself, and we didn't want it to go to waste. We were both happy and pleasantly full when I took her back to the cabin so I could drive into Rapid City.

There were a lot more motorcycles on the road as the early birds made their way up to Sturgis to stake out their territory and set up camp. I was back in the city at twilight as I searched for Manny, but I made a disturbing discovery. The lingering scent that had been at the back of my mind was stronger. I crossed a scent trail as I moved across the rooftops, and I finally recognized it for what it was.

It was the days old scent of a vampire. I didn't recognize the scent in particular, but then I'd never crossed paths with another vampire since my change. Renee and Phil didn't smell exactly like me so I couldn't say I really knew what other vampires like me smelled like. Renee and Phil had a scent like vampire, but any vampire that crossed paths with them would know they were different. This was definitely a traditional vampire. I knew it was male but the wisp of scent was too old and diffuse to track. I wondered how long he had been in town. I had been coming into the city for months, and I had had the sense of the lingering scent nagging at the back of my mind for weeks now. Although this was the first time I had picked up a trace of the scent strong enough to recognize it for what it was.

I knew that I wasn't the only vampire in Rapid City now. I would have to be on my guard more now as I moved around the city.

I quickly located Manny at one of his usual haunts. It was too early for the deep shadows, and I moved off the roof tops into the alleys and back streets once I knew where Manny was. I think I surprised him just as much walking up to him on the street along the sidewalk.

"Hey, Manny, you got a name for me?"

"Sí… a fence where you can unload some video equipment, right? I got a name for you…"

"Someone legit that isn't going to try and rip me off, right?"

"Sí, Bella. These guys are professionals. They won't dick you around."

"Ok, sounds good. So how do I find them?"

Manny reached into his pocket and pulled out another slip of paper and handed it to me.

"The guy you want in Denny. His crew works out of an auto shop at that address, they chop stolen cars, but they move other a lot of other merchandise too. They'll give you a good price."

"How good a price? I know what this stuff is worth."

"Then tell them that and negotiate with them. They're gonna take forty percent off the top for their cut. If you know what its worth, they won't have to guess, and you'll get a better price. They have to sell it to somebody else to make their cut."

"Forty! I could take it to a pawn shop and do better than that!"

Manny shrugged. "Then do it. I'm just the messenger. If you could go to a pawn shop, you wouldn't be lookin' for a fence."

"Fine. I'll check them out. I'll look you up in a couple of days and let you know how it goes."

"So, did you really go to that biker bar?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, it was cool. Nothing like I expected. I made some friends. I might be heading back there soon."

Manny nodded with a slightly awed look on his face. I walked away and disappeared around the corner before I ducked into an alley to move up onto the rooftops. It was dark enough now, as twilight settled over the city, for me to run across the rooftops of the city as long as I was careful. I went back to the truck and the drove closer to the bar. I drove back to the secluded spot where I'd parked the truck the other night. I got out to approach the bar on foot again, but this time I ducked around back and jumped up onto the roof.

I didn't want to spend all night in the bar. It was hazardous to my health for more than one reason. It was early yet, and Crystal and her friends weren't here yet tonight. The crowd was lighter but rougher looking. The guys that had legitimate day jobs were starting to filter in, but I could tell that most of the guys here now were the serious one percenters, and most of them made their living by whatever hustle was available.

Not all one percenters were necessarily criminals, but they generally rejected the rules that applied to modern civilized society, and lived by their own code of honor. They could be identified by the diamond shaped 1% patch they proudly wore on their cut. The urban legend said that the one percent label was a reaction to a statement made by the American Motorcyclist Association. The story went that a spokesman for the AMA had given a statement to reporters in reaction to the 1947 Hollister Riot that ninety-nine percent of motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens, implying that the last one percent were outlaws.

I didn't want to have to deal with guys hitting on me while I hung out and waited for the deal to go down if I went inside. Hanging out with Crystal and her friends had made it easy to have a reason to avoid the guys in the bar. I knew if I went in there alone again, I wouldn't be so lucky. Chances were I'd have to pretend to hook up with some guy to get the rest to leave me alone, and he'd expect the night to end one way. I knew if I did that, he wasn't going to take no for an answer or end the night with a kiss on the cheek. Then I'd have to kill him or at least hurt him badly, and I didn't want to use people like that.

Maybe that was what I was doing with these guys I was waiting for, so I could bust their drug deal, but I had become good at rationalizing my actions. I was doing this so my family could survive, and in the process I could help out the general good by taking out some serious criminals. If I busted their deal, I'd be keeping drugs off the streets, right? My personal sense of right and wrong could rationalize that as a good thing. I knew having to take out some guy that was hitting on me after playing him so I could fit in with his buddies and avoid their advances was wrong. Hopefully Crystal would show up if I decided I needed to go inside tonight.

I knew Black Bob was there. I identified his heartbeat and recognized his voice from the other night. His two buddies hadn't shown up yet, so I assumed their connection wasn't there yet either. I was patient, I could wait.

Crystal and Sonny showed up around eleven o'clock and I thought about going in to say hello, but I had a mental picture of the inside of the club, and I could hear everything that happened inside. It was almost like being there without having to deal with all the humans inside. I recognized the sound of the heartbeats when Bob's two buddies showed up.

I moved to the edge of the roof to check out their bikes so I'd recognize them, and then settled in to listen to them talk. I could follow the sound of their heavy footsteps as they crossed the room and went into the back room again.

"So they show yet?" the second voice from the other night asked.

"If they were here, I would have called you and told you get your ass down here." Black Bob said.

"Hey, somebody has to hit the streets and take care of business. Where the hell you think the buy money's coming from? We had to shake down a lot of dudes we usually let slide. We're squeezin' pretty tight to make this happen. It better be worth it."

"It'll be worth it. This shit these guys from the mother club are dealing is so pure it's practically purple. By the time we cut it for the street dealers, we'll make back 10 times what we have to front for the buy."

We all settled in to wait after that, but we didn't have to wait long. Another couple of bikes pulled into the lot around twelve-thirty. I could watch them park from my vantage point, and memorized the bikes and their riders. They walked into the bar and asked for Black Bob, but the third guy from the other night was waiting for them. He met them at the bar and the three of them walked into the back room.

"You Black Bob?" the first new guy asked.

"Yeah, I'm Black Bob. Taco said he was gonna send a couple of guys up here to make a deal…" Black Bob said.

"Yeah, Taco sent us. I'm Joker, and this is Viking Dave. We can cut you a deal." the first new guy, Joker, said.

"You can call me VD for short," the second new guy, VD I guess, said with a chuckle.

"Ok, so what you got for us? Bob said you dealt in some primo pure shit." the second voice from the other night challenged.

"Chill out D-day, give'em a minute to sit down. So you got a sample so we don't have to take this on faith?" Black Bob said.

"Yeah, we got a taste for you. Show'em, VD." The guy called Joker said.

There was the squeak and rustle of leather on leather, and then what sounded like a baggie hitting the table

"That's some pure ass shit." the second voice, D-day said. "Mind if we take it for a test drive?"

"That's why we brought it, knock yourself out."

I couldn't say I recognized the sound of the razor blade on the glass of the mirror, chopping up the chunks into coarse powder, or the hard inhalation of breath as they lined up the drugs and snorted them, but I knew just the same that that was what was happening.

"Oh yeah! That's some good shit!" D-day said. "We can deal."

"So how much were you lookin' to buy?" Joker asked.

There was the sound of paper sliding across the table.

"This is what we were looking to buy right now if you can get it." Black Bob said.

'Yeah, we can handle that if you've got the cash." There was the sound of a pen scrawling on paper. "Here's our price…"

"That's very reasonable," Black Bob said. "What's the catch?"

"We want ten percent of the retail sales profit. We'll supply you, and you buy from us, but you deal with the street level dealers. We take our cut, and the rest is all gravy for you."

"Ten percent? How much of this shit did you guys do before you got here?" D-day asked.

"That's standard for support clubs and small timers. Patch over and talk your guys into joining up, and we'll give you the full member discount." Joker said.

"D-day, shut the fuck up." Black Bob said. "We'll take the deal. How soon can we get the shit?"

"I can make a call and meet you in thirty minutes."

"D-day, what about it?" Black Bob asked.

"We got it, but it's spread around. Give me two days. Where's this deal going down?"

"You know that abandoned strip mine and rock quarry down on Highway 79? We'll meet you there on Wednesday night. That work for you?" Joker asked.

"Yeah, what time?"

"Round' now works for me. Say twelve-thirty, one o'clock?"

"Yeah, that's cool. Let's keep this a private party, ok? I don't expect to see your whole MC come rollin' in."

"Yeah, we're cool."

It was time to go. I had what I had come for and I knew when the deal was going down. I suppose I could have called the police or the FBI, but then I wouldn't get what I needed out of this deal. I stepped off the roof to slip away into the shadows, when the wind shifted and a trace of an elusively sweet scent blew in my direction. The scent of the vampire I had sensed on the rooftop in town.

Was he following me? It was too much of a coincidence that he would show up here now.

My survival instinct flared, and I immediately changed direction. I was down wind with the shift in the breeze, and I ran away before the wind could shift back and carry my scent back to him. I moved out onto the darkened prairie and ran flat out avoiding vegetation or touching anything that might take my scent and make it linger and leave a trail. I crossed open mine pits and rocky areas, and took a miles long circuitous route back to the truck. I circled it several time to make sure he hadn't found it first, and was waiting for me.

I didn't wait any longer and got the hell out of there. I didn't drive straight back to the cabin. I drove further south until I was sure I wasn't being followed, and then drove back into the hills before I finally turned for home. My gut told me to run, but we were so close to having everything we needed. Just another couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks on the outside, and we'd have everything we needed to leave.

It was early morning when I got home and everyone was still asleep. I didn't want to create a panic so I decided to let them sleep. I slipped into Elizabeth and my room, and lay down on the bed beside her. I curled up next to her and wrapped my arm around her tiny form. She sighed contentedly and smiled in her peaceful sleep. This made it all worthwhile. I would do whatever I had to, to provide for Elizabeth and care for her needs.

Did it truly matter if it was a bear in the woods, or a deer that we took down together, or vicious drug dealers that preyed upon the vices of their fellow humans? They all had something we needed and we did what we did to survive. Did we have any less right to survive than any other creature? I knew the answer to that question. Survival wasn't a question of rights or law, it was a question of nature, and the oldest law in the world was survival of the fittest. We could survive as long as we could, and that was all there was to it.

We didn't have to worry about time or disease anymore. Elizabeth still worried me, but her growth while accelerated had slowed markedly. It was still faster than a human child's by better than two to one, but I had hope that it would stop eventually. Her scent had changed as she grew and the more the aging slowed, the more her human scent faded and she smelled more like Renee and Phil.

We would live until we died, and I meant to be hard to kill. We were truly the top of the food chain now, and we had no natural predators besides our own kind. I suppose humans could be dangerous to us in large enough numbers if they knew we existed or possibly with advanced weapons, but the only true danger we faced was from others of our own kind. It paid to avoid them all costs. I didn't want the story that Elizabeth, Phil or Renée even existed to get out, and the easiest way to avoid that was to avoid contact with other vampires at all costs.

I waited until I heard Renee and Phil moving around the cabin before I silently got up. Elizabeth was still asleep, and I left her to go talk to them.

"Good morning, Bella," Renee greeted me.

"Mornin', Bells," Phil said. "So how'd it go last night? Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Good morning," I replied. "Yes, I met with my contact, and he got me the name of a fence. He says they're gonna take a forty percent cut off the top, but it's still safer than going to the pawn shops."

"I don't like trying to sell that stuff at all, but if it's safer for you, then I guess it's better this way." Renee said.

"I'm gonna head into the city and meet with them this afternoon, and then I want to check in with Larry about the papers."

"So soon?" Phil asked with a worried expression. He was better at reading my body language now than Renee. "What's the rush? I thought you were gonna give him a couple more days?"

"Something happened last night. I don't know how serious it is yet…"

"What happened, Bella?" Renée asked. I couldn't help but notice that she looked more intently at my eyes, but then seemed to relax when they weren't red.

"I caught a scent in Rapid City last night. There's another vampire in the city. I was careful, and I'm pretty sure they didn't track me or follow me home, but it was too coincidental that they were the same places I was. Maybe they're just curious, but I'd like to avoid contact with him if I can."

"Him? Do you know who it is?" Renee asked.

"No. I know it's a male scent, but I've never met any other vampires since my change. I'm not even sure if he's alone or not, but I didn't pick up any other scents."

"You don't think it's…"

"No. It's not him. He hasn't cared if I was alive or dead for ten months. Why would he show up now? Even if it is, I don't have anything to say to him."

"His daughter might want to meet him…"

"Well then he shouldn't have left then, should he? I can't believe it's him. It's probably just some nomad that's curious about crossing paths with another vampire. A female one at that, but I don't have any interest in finding other vampires. I don't want him to find out about any of you. I think we should start making preparations to pull out and move as soon as possible."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little? How dangerous could one vampire be?"

"Do you want to fight him?" I asked Renee.

"No! I don't want to fight anybody!"

"I don't know what he wants, and I prefer to err on the side of caution. Elizabeth has to be my first concern. She still looks too young. Any vampire that sees her is going to think she's an immortal child if he sees her with us or if she does things a human child couldn't. If that kind of story gets out, we'll have the Volturi hunting us down. Another three or four years, and it won't be such an issue. If we can stay hidden for seven or eight years, she'll probably look as old as me, and we won't have to hide her anymore."

"Ok, so what do you want us to do, Bella?" Phil asked.

"Start deciding where you want to go next. Look on the internet, and see if you can find a place to move on to. Be ready to run, and if I tell you to run, you run."

"What about you?" Renee asked.

"Don't you want to be part of the decision, Bella? You can help us decide where to go…" Phil said.

"No. If I don't know where you're going, I can't tell anyone. If the worst happens, and we get separated, send a post card to the post office box in town. Send a cell phone number, or another PO Box number, and I'll find you. If I think I'm being followed, I won't lead them back to you. You have to keep Elizabeth safe."

"Momma, are you going away?" I heard behind me, and that simple question tore at my heart.

"No, baby. I don't want to go away." I turned around and picked her up and held her close and hugged her. "We're just making plans. You know we have to be careful?"

I looked at her little face, and her brown eyes were so huge and vulnerable as she stared back into my eyes. She nodded.

"I don't want you to go away, momma. We need to stay together… We're a family…"

"You're so important to me, Elizabeth. I love you and I won't let anybody hurt you. You know I'll do anything to protect you. I won't go away if I don't have too, and I won't stay away for long if I have to leave. Nothing could keep me away from you, baby. You know we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. That's how we stay safe."

"Can I go with you, momma? I can help you. We can be a team."

"We're always a team, baby, but I have to do this alone, ok? You need to stay with grandma and grandpa so I know you're safe, ok?"

"I want to keep you safe, too…"

"I know… This is something I need to do for us, ok? Now why don't you go get dressed, and we can go play. I have to drive back to the city later, but we can play until I have to leave…"

"Ok. Can we go look at town again?"

"Sure, as long as we stay hidden."

Elizabeth ran back into our room to get dressed. She liked going to the edge of town and watch the humans while we hid in the treetops or moved from rock to rock and bush silently stalking the unsuspecting town. We wouldn't let her go into town or actually play in the park there. There were playgrounds at some of the camp grounds, and sometime we went there to play. The tourists were just passing through, and wouldn't realize how fast Elizabeth changed, so it was safe for her to go play in the park there.

She was only eight months old, but she looked like a big three year old or small four year old human. The only issue with playing at the playground was when she did things a normal three year old wouldn't be capable of. We still had a lot of fun. She loved to run and was as fast as me in bursts, but I carried her when we had a long ways to go.

I turned to Phil when Elizabeth went into her room. "You know what you have to do. Keep my daughter safe." He nodded, and I went in to help Elizabeth pick out something to wear.

I drove Phil's car back to Rapid City that afternoon. I left the truck because they could pack more in it if they had to run. I didn't try to hide the car and go on foot. I brought the video equipment with me. I just wanted to ditch it now. I didn't care about the money at this point. It was just one less thing we'd have to pack, and the extra money would help, but it wasn't enough for what we needed. If I didn't bust the drug deal Wednesday night we'd be broke and on the run.

I had price sheets printed out when I went to talk to Denny at the auto shop. He was a business man, and wanted to haggle. The video gear was worth three thousand dollars new. It was used but in excellent condition. I let him talk me down and have his forty percent cut, and walked out with two thousand dollars cash.

I went to talk to Larry at the copy center next. He was surprised to see me so soon, but he had my quote. We went into the back room to discuss the work.

"I didn't think you'd be back so soon." Larry said when we walked into the back.

"Things are moving faster than I expected. What did your contacts say? Can they do my job for me?"

"Yeah, I can get you everything you need, but it's going to be expensive. Four birth certificates aren't too bad as long as you don't all mind being from the same place. They're gonna hit you for fifteen hundred a piece. Real driver's licenses for three that match the birth certificates are a little more expensive, two grand a piece."

"Ok, what about the social security cards?"

"That's the rub; they're more expensive than I thought. We're talking about falsifying federal documents and hacking a government database…"

"How much?"

"Three grand a piece…"

"That's twenty-four thousand dollars!"

"Yeah, I told you it was going to be pricey. Are we still in business or are you walking away? What about the college degrees?"

"Yeah, we're doing business. No degrees for now. How do you want to work this?"

"I need the personal information you want on the documents, and recent pictures for the driver's licenses. You pay me half up front. You pay the balance when you pick up your package."

I handed him the flash drive with the information we had prepared.

"Here, take a look at this and see if it has everything you'll need on it."

He plugged the memory stick into a port on his computer and looked it over.

"It's none of my business, and I guess I should keep my mouth shut, but if you're pressed for cash this birth certificate info for this little girl says she's four years old. You could walk into any social security office in the country and get her a social security card for the filing fee and nobody will say anything about it. They don't start investigating cases until you're an adult applying for a first time social. If it's a kid, they don't care as long as her parents are registered. That'll save you three grand, and it's safer for my contact too."

"Ok, just give me the birth certificate for her then, and drop the social. Thanks."

"No problem. I might be a forger, but I'm not a thief. They would have just taken the birth certificate and filed for a social with it, and then hit you for the three grand for something you can do yourself for practically nothing."

"Right, how soon can you get this done?"

"They like a month to process this kind of job, but if you're in a hurry, the minimum turn around is two weeks from whenever you pay me. Anything faster and I have to charge you a premium for rush service. The fastest they can possibly get it done is a week, so it's really not worth paying for a rush job."

"I've got seven grand cash on me. I can give you that and get the rest tomorrow if you can get the order moving now. Every day counts to me, but I think I can hold out for two weeks."

"I'll trust you. Give me the seven, and I'll get this turned over to my people. You can pay me the fourteen when you make the pickup."

I counted out the seven thousand dollars, and paid Larry. Then I gave him my cell phone number. I wasn't planning on keeping it after we moved anyhow.

"Call me when the papers are ready, and we can make arrangements for me to pick them up."

"Ok, I'll be in touch."

It was night by the time I finished with Larry, and I went to go look for Manny next. I parked downtown and left the car as I took to the rooftops to find where he was dealing at tonight. It didn't take long to find him and he wasn't as surprised when I stepped out of the shadows.

I knew my business association with Manny was coming to an end. The relationship was strictly business, but he had been helpful once I had forced him to trust me and laid down the law. I was going to miss him, and wanted to make sure he was taken care of.

"Hey, Manny, how's business tonight?"

Manny shrugged. "Business is good. Did you take care of your business?"

"Yeah, your name checked out. I talked to Denny and took care of business."

"Ok… So, you're back. Do you need another connection?"

"No. I just wanted to remind you I'm worth more as a friend. Here…" I made a hundred dollar bill appear between my finger tips. He snatched it away and made it disappear. "I promised you a finders fee, and I don't welch on a deal."

"Thanks, Bella. So will we be doing more business…? I can find you some work… Protection, debt collection, pest control… There are people that would pay big bucks for somebody with your skills."

"I'll think about it, but I might be leaving town for a while. I wanted to make sure you were taken care of first…"

I didn't want to burn my bridges. I could have just left town, and not bothered looking him up, but I didn't feel right doing that. If I ever came back this way, he might be a useful contact in the future.

"Anything I can help you with? I owe you one…"

"No. I can deal with this. See you round, Manny."

"Vaya con dios, Bella."

I nodded and stepped back into the shadows. Perhaps I would go with god, and he would forgive me for what I was planning to do. I didn't consider myself to be evil or immoral. I rationalized that my actions served the greater good, but I would still carry them out, regardless.

I made my way across the rooftops back to the car, and then went to go look for the mine on Highway 79 where the drug deal was supposed to go down tomorrow night. I wanted to check it out and get the lay of the land before I went there tomorrow. I parked the car and then slipped into the mine under cover of darkness.

I left the car a couple of miles away and went over the fence in one smooth motion without breaking my stride. I crossed the open pit strip mine to the entrance area. The gate in the chain link fence was chained shut and there were no trespassing signs posted. The guard shack was boarded up and locked. There were a couple of weather beaten mobile home-like trailers with an 'Office' sign on the front of them. The windows were boarded up and they were locked. There were a couple of dilapidated looking machine sheds that were empty, a water tower with the name of the defunct mine painted on the side in faded letters and a rail spur line with half a dozen abandoned ore cars

There was a dirt road that ran past the office trailers down into the open mine pit. The entrance gate was a good ways off the highway down a gravel road, and once you went through the gate and down the dirt road into the mine pit, you'd be invisible to anyone passing by on the highway. The open mining pit was half a mile wide open, and there wasn't a lot of cover for surprises.

I gave a lot of thought to how I was going to pull this off. None of them was expecting me. Was it even worth giving up the element of surprise to talk to them and make demands? I knew from experience that they wouldn't take my threats seriously. I suppose I could play it off as human and pull a gun on them, and see what happened. If I made it out with the cash, then I wouldn't have to kill them.

I didn't hold out much hope that I'd be that lucky. If I had to shoot one of them, the scent of blood in the air would probably drive me into a frenzy, and that would be all she wrote. If I did anything that exposed the secret, I couldn't let them leave alive.

At least I didn't cross the scent track to the other vampire I had caught scent of yesterday. Hopefully he had moved on, and I could take care of business. I figured I ought to at least clear enough on this job to pay for the papers and get us set up again wherever Phil and Renee had decided to move to.

Wednesday morning I took Phil hunting and told him everything. I told him about the drug deal and the bikers, and how I was planning on busting up the deal. He just nodded and took it in stride. This was what we had been planning for. It was why he had taught me what he could. He knew we didn't have any other options. The house in Florida hadn't moved, and we didn't have the money to pay for the papers any other way.

He hugged me before I left and told me he'd be waiting up for me to come home or waiting for my call however it worked out. He didn't try to talk me out of doing it. I knew he wouldn't say anything to Renee to upset her until this was over. Honestly, I didn't think he'd tell her anything about this unless she asked.

It all came down to this one deal tonight. Either I went through with it and we were set to move on and disappear, or I blew it, and we were forced to run and live like nomads until I could find some way to get a job or find another way to support us. Renee might be able to walk into a store long enough to pay for gas, or maybe not. Hopefully we wouldn't have to find out the hard way. It was all up to me now.

I drove into the city early and found a spot close to the mine to hide the car. The car wouldn't help me get away in a hurry, but if I needed to worry about hiding bodies, I wanted it close. I climbed up the side of the water tower so I'd have a clear vantage point of what went down so I'd know when to make my move.

Joker and VD showed up early around eleven-thirty, but they had a third guy with them. They used a pair of bolt cutters to open the gate, and then cruised around the mine checking the place out. Joker and VD cruised back out to the highway like they were leaving, but the third guy left his bike in the back of one of the empty machine sheds and found some cover behind some brush at the top of the mine pit to wait. I assumed he was their insurance, in case somebody tried to rip them off.

Shit.

I'd have to take him out first before I jumped the rest. Maybe I ought to just do it now, and started to move off the tower.

Then it was too late.

I froze as Joker and VD came back and rode into the yard. They went down into the mine pit, and I could see the head lights of another couple of bikes approaching down the road. I recognized D-day and the other guy from the bar. Black Bob must have stayed at the bar and sent them to make the buy.

D-day waited, and the other guy got off his bike and closed the gate. Then they rode down into the mine pit.

I had to move now if I was going to be a part of this. I stepped off the tower and landed silently in a crouch, but I was too far away from Joker and VD's backup to take him out without being spotted. If he saw me while I charged him and yelled, it could blow the whole deal.

It was chancy, but I picked up a good sized rock and threw it at him hard. It hit him in the back, and he slumped forward. His heart stuttered and missed a beat, and then started beating normally. He didn't move.

Good. Hopefully he was down for the count, and wouldn't interrupt us.

I was really hoping the noise from the motorcycles had covered the sound of the altercation, and nobody below had noticed.

I stepped over the edge of the pit and dropped down into the deep shadows as D-day and his buddy shut off their bikes and stepped off.

"Ok, let's make this happen." Joker said.

"Yeah, let me see the shit." D-day replied.

Joker opened the zipper on a travel bag strapped to the back of his bike. It was full of plastic bags of light purplish white powder.

"Ok, show me the money." Joker said.

D-day's buddy opened the zipper on a duffel bag strapped to the back of his bike. It was full of thick bundles of cash.

"You want to count it?" D-day asked.

"Nah, I trust you. Besides, if you're light I'll take it out of your ass. Let's do this."

D-day's buddy zipped the bag closed and unstrapped it from the bike while VD zipped the bag of drugs closed and unstrapped it from Joker's bike. They started to step across the open space to make the exchange.

It was time to make my move. I pulled my pistol out of the holster and stepped out of the shadows into the pool of light from the motorcycle headlights.

"Ok, freeze. I'll take that bag." I ordered as I pointed the pistol at them.

All four of them turned to face me.

"Keep you hands where I can see them." I reached for the bad of money.

"What the fuck is this shit?" D-day yelled. "You guys are ripping us off?"

"Little girl, you are so in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Joker yelled. "She ain't mine! Who the fuck did you assholes shoot your mouths off to?"

"Nobody!"

"Fucking small town amateurs," Then Joker looked up where his backup was supposed to be. "Jay, light her up."

"Yeah, about that... You're gonna have to have a talk to him about sleeping on the job." I glanced up the side of the pit where I'd knocked out the third biker.

Fuck!

It just couldn't go smooth.

Movement in the brush, a glint of starlight on blued steel, the spark of a muzzle flash before the sound could travel this far.

I was suddenly in motion.

I dove forward too fast for the humans to follow and rolled past D-day and his buddies bikes landing in a crouch.

Gunfire erupted, a staccato burst of automatic weapon fire ripped through the space I'd occupied seconds before, tracking my movement.

The enthralling scent of fresh human blood and the raw stink of feces from guts ripped open filled the air.

Jesus Christ! He had a fucking machine gun?

I turned, raised my pistol and fired without thinking into the center of the heat bloom at the edge of the pit.

Three rapid fire shots rang out, and then the body was rolling over the lip of the pit to land with a thud when it hit bottom.

His heels drummed against the rocky ground in nervous reaction but the heartbeat was already silent before he fell.

My vision was tinged pink and rapidly darkening to red. I clamped my jaws shut and stopped breathing as I rapidly surveyed the scene.

D-day and his buddy were down, bloody and bleeding. D-day's eyes were open and glassy, staring at nothing. There was no heartbeat. His buddy was still alive, but he was hit bad and moaning as he bled out on the ground.

Joker was reaching into his jacket for a weapon, and VD was still dropping the bag of drugs, but I could see the butt of a pistol in his waistband.

I didn't think. I acted.

A feral growl ripped out of chest as I pounced, covering the distance between us in a single bound. I felt Joker's bones crunch as he went down smashed suddenly to the ground as our bodies collided. I didn't slow down as I slammed into VD and took him down with my hand on his throat. I felt his neck snap when he impacted on the rocky ground.

I got up and stepped into the clean wind blowing into the pit and took several deep breaths to help clear the bloodlust from my head.

Two of them were still alive. D-day's buddy was still alive for now, and Joker was knocked out but severely injured. I was going to have to finish them off to clean this up. I didn't know how much time I'd have before the police got here. It depended on if anybody had reported the gunfire. We were a long way from the nearest house.

Well, add five more to the body count. D-day was arguable whether he counted against me. I didn't kill him directly, but he wouldn't have died if I hadn't been here. Did it really matter if he got caught in the crossfire? It was still my fault…

I considered what I had done. What I still had to do. This fight didn't have to happen if I hadn't gone looking for it. I could argue that the dead were killed by accident or in self defense, but could they even truly hurt me? I knew what they were. They were predators just as much as I was now, only they preyed upon the innocent by callously pandering their drugs to whoever was willing to pay them for them. I could not help but feel that the world was better off without them. Callous as it might sound, I did not regret what I had done…

My musing was interrupted by the sound of applause. Somebody was clapping?

I was suddenly alert as my head whipped around searching for the source.

There downwind of me. There were two figures standing on the lip of the pit. Did Joker have more backup I didn't know about?

Then they stepped off the edge of the pit and were ghosting towards me, too fast for any human. I knew what they were. They closed the distance between us, but I could pick out details as they crossed the pit.

The smaller one had an olive complexion with a chalky pallor and black hair that reached his shoulders. He was tall, hard and lean as the blade of a sword. He only looked smaller compared to his companion. The bigger one was very big, tall, and thick through the shoulders. His size made me think of Emmett Cullen, but He had a slightly olive complexion which looked odd combined with his chalky skin, and his black hair was cropped short. Their eyes were burgundy in color due to their diet of human blood.

They were both wearing dark grey, almost black cloaks that blended into the night. I shuddered when I recognized the significance of the cloaks. I knew who they were in a general sense, although I hadn't met them personally, but I didn't know why they were here.

The smaller one bowed when they stopped in front of me.

"Hello young one. I am Demetri, and my companion here is Felix. We've been looking for you for quite a while, but you have proven to be a most elusive target."

I nodded. "I'm Bella. Why are you here? Have I broken the law?"

"Good, you know who we are then. You know the rules?" Demetri asked.

"The basic rule. We don't reveal what we are. We hide the secret. Destroy evidence. Don't let the humans learn about us. Do whatever we have too to do to avoid a visit from you."

Demetri chuckled and nodded approval. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. You're very controlled for one so young. How old are you?"

I stuck to the back story I had discussed with Renee. They would find it odd if I didn't have a wound where I'd been bitten to be turned, but I did have a wound. The scar where James had bitten me was plain for all to see on my hand.

"About a year and a half," I lied.

"Who made you? Why are you alone?"

"James Witherdale. I was living in Phoenix, Arizona when he took me. He's dead. He liked to play games and crossed a more powerful coven. Victoria and I ran away, but she didn't want me around so we parted company."

"Victoria… Does she have flaming red hair?"

"Yes, Victoria Sutherland… Do you know her?"

"Yes, you remember her, don't you Felix." Demetri said, turning to his huge companion. "That coven in England Aro sent us to break up in what, 1550, 1560? He said they were keeping to many newborns. When Heidi joined us."

Felix shrugged. "She won't be looking you up anytime soon. You killed her sister."

I shuddered at their cavalier byplay, casually talking about some vampire they had killed and a coven broken up and scattered to the four winds.

"Why are you here if I haven't broken the rules?" I asked. I wanted to get this over with, one way or the other…

"We received reports that there might be an unattended newborn loose in this area. We came to investigate, but there weren't any of the usual signs of a rogue vampire. No sudden rise in unexplained deaths or violent crimes, but then we crossed your scent. We decided to stay to meet you and make sure you knew the rules. Obviously you do."

"So I'm free to go?"

"I just have a couple of questions."

"Ok…"

"Who is the human child that was riding with you in your truck?"

Shit! They had seen me with Elizabeth. They must have heard her heartbeat. That was good. It was best to try and stick as close to the truth as I could. I was a terrible liar, and I'd screw up if I tried to get too complicated.

"She's my daughter from when I was human."

"Does she know?"

"She's too little to understand."

"Why is she still with you? What are you planning to do with her? Obviously we don't expect you to hurt her, but doesn't she have family she can go to?"

"No, we're alone. When she's old enough, I'll turn her, but she's much too young now."

Demetri nodded gravely "You know the prohibitions against immortal children?"

"Of course!"

"Just so you're aware. This is highly irregular, but it isn't necessarily against the rules. It's allowed for a human to know as long as you intend to change them, but it usually happens within a relatively short span of time. You know you'll be held accountable if she reveals the secret before you can turn her?"

"Yes. Out of curiosity, just how young is too young?"

Demetri shrugged. "We're all about the blood. If she's old enough to bleed, she's old enough for us. The older she is, the easier it'll be for her to blend in. Generally anything under fifteen is frowned upon. How long do you plan to wait?"

"I was thinking eighteen. That's how old I was when I was turned, but I'll have to talk to her about it when she's older."

"Alright. Why were you buying up so much pigs blood? That's what alerted us in the first place."

"I was experimenting with it to supplement my diet. I wanted to see if it was better than deer blood."

Demetri studied my eyes and nodded. "You abstain from human blood? That's becoming more common among the younger generations. There are several large covens in the northwest that abstain, possibly one in upstate New York or New Hampshire as well. Of course your diet is your own business as long as you're reasonably discrete."

"Ok, I'll watch it with the pigs blood. It didn't work out anyhow."

"If you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity then, why were you hunting these humans if you didn't want their blood?"

I shrugged. "They're drug dealers. Nobody was going to miss them. I wanted the money. It's easier to blend in if I can cover my expenses. That's not a problem, is it?"

"No, you're right of course. Robbing criminals for startup capital is fairly common among our kind, a lot of us started out the same way."

"Ok, well I suppose I should be finishing up here…" There still weren't any sirens, but I didn't want to stay here any longer than I had to.

"You're not planning on indulging?"

I shuddered and shook my head no.

"Do you mind if we partake then? I wouldn't presume to steal your kill, but if you like, we can clean up here so this doesn't go to waste."

"Ok… I'll just take what I came for and go then…" I stepped over and picked up the duffle bag full of money.

"Don't you want the drugs too?" Felix asked. "They're worth ten times what the cash is worth."

"No. I'm not a drug dealer, and I wouldn't have put it out on the street anyhow. I would have burned it or buried it if you hadn't come along. You can have them if you like."

Felix nodded and smiled for the first time since they'd arrived.

"Good luck, Bella," Demetri said as he moved to pick up Joker's unconscious body. "We'll be checking up on you to make sure you follow through with your plan for your daughter."

I nodded and took the money and ran.

I got back to the car and tossed the money in the backseat. I got in and drove. I just wanted to put distance between me and Demetri and Felix. How the hell had the goddamn Volturi found out about pig blood purchases in the middle of nowhere? We had spread the purchases around to avoid suspicion. How had Phil figured out we were buying pigs blood?

Renee had used her credit card. The Volturi must have checked the same records. My name wasn't on the credit card. Renee's was. Maybe they'd think I had stolen the credit card. Regardless, I didn't want us to be anywhere around here if they did more digging.

I got out my cell phone and called Phil.

"Hello, Bella, Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. The deal didn't go smooth, but I've got the money."

"Are you coming home?"

"No. There's a complication. I met our friends."

"Friends?" he asked, emphasizing the plural.

"Yeah. Get out now. Don't go through Rapid City. I don't think they're following, but I want some distance between us and them. We're heading east?"

"Yeah…"

"They don't have your numbers. Skirt south around the city and I'll meet you on I-90. Then we can decide our next move."

"Ok, Bella, we're leaving now."

I got on the interstate and started driving east. I wanted to push my foot down and floor it, but I knew that would just attract more attention. I didn't think they were following me, but if they were watching, I wanted them to follow me away from Phil and Renee and Elizabeth. I kept it under the speed limit and slowly cruised east. I stopped a couple of times and made wide circles around the car, but finally I was convinced nobody was following me.

I kept driving east on I90 until I got to Kadoka, and then pulled off the Interstate into the Americas Best Value Inn. I watched the highway and waited for Phil and Renee to catch up. I recognized the sound of the truck five miles away. I called Phil's number and told him where I was.

The truck pulled off the interstate and drove into the parking lot. They didn't get out so I got out and walked over to the truck. Renee was driving and Phil seemed to be very uncomfortable. It was hard for him to be so close to a city this soon, but Renee was holding up ok. Elizabeth was asleep in the seat belt between them.

"What happened, Bella?" Renee asked.

She didn't roll down the window, but I didn't have any trouble understanding her. I knew she'd be able to hear me too.

"It was the Volturi. That was the scent I picked up in Rapid City. It was Demetri and Felix from the Volturi guard. They tracked the credit card purchases for the pig blood, and came looking for an unattended newborn. I stuck to the story, but they saw me with Elizabeth in the truck. They think she's human. I told them I was going to turn her when she grows up."

"Did they believe you?"

I shrugged. "I think so. They said they'd be checking up on me to see if I follow through, but I told them I was gonna wait until she was eighteen, so we have some time before we have to worry about them showing up again."

"Do you think it's safe to stay here?" Phil asked.

"I'd like to put more distance between us if you can handle it. I could run this far in a couple of hours, and this is the only major highway east. I'd like to keep going to Sioux City, but it'll be light out before we get that far. There'll be more humans out then. We can stop in Chamberlain after we cross the river."

Phil nodded. "Ok, we'll follow you."

I got back on the interstate and we kept going east until we got to Chamberlain. I wanted to keep going, but it was still dark out in the pre-dawn hours. I knew Phil, Renée and Elizabeth needed to rest, and it would be harder on Phil and Renee once there were more people out and moving around. I pulled into a Super 8 motel, and went in and rented a room. I knew Phil was holding his breath when he walked in the side entrance, but he was being so strong. Renee was carrying Elizabeth. I took her and gave Renee the room key. Phil relaxed a little once we were in the room.

I took the time to count the money once we were settled into the room. There was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the duffle bag. That should keep us set up for a while, as long as we could figure out how to spend it without attracting a lot of attention. We couldn't just deposit it in the bank. Any deposit over ten thousand dollars had to be reported to the IRS, and besides, we'd need some way to account for how much money we had, but we could cross that bridge when we came to it.

We kept moving east into Northwest Iowa and stayed in motels and secluded camp grounds until Larry called me. I explained that I couldn't go back to Rapid City for a while, and we made arrangements for him to send me the papers. I trusted Larry, but it still felt wrong stuffing fourteen thousand dollars in cash into a FedEx overnight express envelope. Two days later I received a FedEx overnight express envelope at the hotel desk. I took it to the room, and all of our papers were in it.

I smashed my cell phone once the deal with Larry was done. Isabella Marie Swan was officially gone and my last tie to my old life was broken. I knew we had a long way to go still, but we had successfully disappeared. We could move on now and build new lives.

Author's Note:

I know some of you didn't want the Volturi to be in this story. Let me say up front that they aren't going to be as corrupt or power hungry in this story as they were in canon. They are still harsh and draconian, but they serve as the enforcers for the rules in the vampire world. Think of them as the cops, but they enforce their own set of rules for vampires, which has little to do with human laws.

Some of you are probably wondering why Bella would know so much about the Volturi, considering that the events in later chapters of New Moon never happened in this AU. Edward only briefly mentioned them in the early chapters of New Moon, and that part of their conversation never happened in this story.

For purposes of the story, I'm assuming that Bella has had numerous conversations with many of the other members of the Cullen family over the course of her relationship with Edward. Probably including topics he would have been uncomfortable discussing with her himself like the existence and nature of the Volturi. They were together for seven months, the majority of which is not documented. It is during this period that Edward and Bella's relationship develops and matures, and Alice becomes her best friend. Jasper would want Bella to know exactly why it was so important for her to keep their secrets. He knows how dangerous breaking the rules is, and would have talked to her about them to insure Alice's safety.

If you liked this, please review and let me know what you think. Even if you didn't like it, I'd still like to hear from you. I read all the reviews, even if I don't answer all of them. If you have questions, I try to answer then without giving away too much of the plot.