Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight!

"I know you're there. Vampire."

Without a second of indecision Edward grabbed my hand and we dropped out of the tree like stones. He dragged me as we started to run back towards the forest, towards home. He was moving so quickly I started to lose my grip on his hand, and I almost tripped. In a second he had thrown me onto his back as he continued to fly forwards. As the wind whistled past my ears I wondered at the fact that, even as a vampire, I had never moved this fast.

We were half way home when he stopped and dropped me onto the forest floor. He sat down beside me and I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. His reaction had scared me more than anything, and I began to sob against him.

"We can't go home, shit, what do we do?" Edward launched into a string of profanities, while at the same time gripping me to him tightly as I heaved in terror against him.

After a moment I regained a sense of control and sat back slightly. "What the hell was that?" My voice was shaking and I still spoke in a whisper despite the fact I could sense no one near us for miles.

"I'm not entirely sure, but you know as well as I do he wasn't human."

"But not vampire either. Did you recognise the scent? What was he?"

"He thinks of himself as a hunter. A Demon hunter."

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing "Is there such a thing?"

"I don't know. I need to speak to Carlisle. We daren't go back to the house though, the hunter has a degree of latent tracking talent, there's a risk he might be able to trace us to the house if we go back there now."

Edward's phone began to ring, and I knew it would be Alice.

"Alice."

"Edward, what happened, you and Bella just vanished!" Her voice was high and panicked, I could hear Jasper trying to calm her in the background.

"Something came to the woman's house, I don't know what it was, but we daren't go back home right now in case he can track us." Edward got to his feet and pulled me up with him, I scanned around us, checking to see if we'd been followed; beside me he was doing the same. "Where are you?"

"We're on our way back from the ball, where are Rosalie and Emmett?"

"Back at the town house, I'll call them. We need to meet; now Alice. I don't know how much trouble we're in here."

"Where?"

"Same place as last night, we're already on our way." Edward had pulled me back into a run, but not in the direction of the clearing. I raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, but followed nonetheless.

"Should we bring Ness?" Alice said, I wondered if Ness was close enough to her to be able to hear this conversation.

"No." I said to Edward, I didn't want her involved in any of this.

"Yes" He answered into the phone "We can't leave her alone at the house, just in case. Tell her everything Alice." He was looking at me meaningfully as he spoke and I did not protest again. The last thing I wanted was to leave her in danger.

With that Edward hung up on Alice and dialled, a moment later he was speaking to Rosalie. "We've got trouble Rose; we're meeting up in the clearing from last night. We're on our way now, but I'm going around the long way, just in case."

"What's happened Edward?" I could hear the worry in her voice.

"When we're all together Rose. We'll be there soon; the others are on their way back from the ball. Ness is coming too."

He hung up the phone again and stuffed it into his pocket.

We continued to run through the forest, changing direction several times, going a long way out of the way of our destination in an effort to make it harder for anybody to track us. Throughout we held hands, Edward glanced at me regularly, the look on his face varying between worry and outright panic. For my part I couldn't tear my eyes away from him, I didn't know what we were running from, but I was afraid because he was.

Eventually I could bear the waiting no longer. We were still running, but now we were again heading away from the clearing, running down the middle of a narrow river to hide our scent. I pulled my hand away from Edward's and stopped, I walked slowly towards the river bank. The water in the deepest part of the river had reached my waist and I was soaked to the skin, I had time to be relieved that this did not make me uncomfortable anymore. Edward turned and was beside me on the bank in an instant.

"Why are you stopping, we have to keep going." His voice was urgent, he took my hand and started to pull me along again.

"Wait, Edward." I pulled his hand towards me and laid it on my chest. "Calm down. There's no one behind us. Just wait for a moment"

I managed to hold him there, I caught his eyes and felt the full force of the naked panic in them.

"You're frightening me Edward. And I think you're frightening yourself as well. He's not behind us, if he tracks us we'll know long before he gets near us."

He took a deep breath and looked around us. I could see my logic working on him and I felt the tension leaving his hand and arm. He suddenly gathered me up into his arms and held me close. "I can't believe I risked you like that Bella." His lips found mine and he kissed me forcefully for a moment. "Hudson is a Hunter, he thinks of himself as a Demon Hunter, but by that he means vampires. He's stronger and faster than a normal human, he could sense us up in that tree, he had a feeling in his gut sort of dragging him towards us."

"Is he a tracker, can he follow our scent?"

"I'm not sure, I think he can use the pull in his stomach to follow us, but I don't know how big a distance that would work over. I just didn't get to see enough of him." I could hear his voice getting rough with panic again, I knew we had to get to the family soon and try and work out what we did next.

"Edward, we've run a hundred miles to confuse our trail, let's go and meet up with everyone now, they must be arriving soon." He didn't seem convinced, so I tried a different angle "Maybe Carlisle will have some ideas, maybe he has come across this kind of thing before."

"Yes...... Carlisle." His face relaxed slightly again as he thought of his father figure, I could see I'd found the right argument to get him to return to the family.

I pulled away from him and tugged gently on his arm, in the direction of the clearing "Let's go, we don't want them to worry about us."

This time there was no deviation. We flew through the forest like arrows, straight towards the point at which by now our family must surely be assembling. As during the rest of our flight this evening, our hands did not part throughout our journey, Edward and I ran as one.

Eventually we reached the clearing, as I had expected everybody else was already there waiting for us. If the reason for our gathering had been different the picture before us would have been comical, standing in the forest everyone bar Rosalie and Emmett were still dressed for the ball, like the best dressed hikers on the planet. As we arrived they fell upon us, Ness reaching us first with a shriek of relief.

"Mom, Dad, oh my God I was so afraid." She threw herself into my arms and began to sob. Edward put his arms around both of us as we tried to soothe her. I rocked her in my arms as if she were a baby and made tiny clucking sounds into her hair.

"Edward, what happened?" Carlisle's voice was strained. He was within the huddle which currently surrounded us, made up of the entirety of our family.

Edward pulled away from Ness and me slightly, causing everybody else to take a couple of steps backward. Still keeping my arms around my daughter I turned to stand beside him, and again we all formed a loose circle before he began to speak.

"The detectives Rose and Emmett saw came back a little while after we got there. One was, and still is, fairly oblivious, the other not so much. Drake was the one who looked rather unwell, he didn't know what it all meant, but the body drained of blood and the completely clean crime scene made him think of another case he worked on last year."

In my arms Ness had now stopped crying, she was listening to her father speak with the same intensity as everyone else in the circle. She pulled away from me and took her own place in the ring, I realised our group of eight had become nine at that moment.

"Last year while working on something similar he met Agent Hudson, who told him if he ever came across a murder with the same basic facts, missing blood and no evidence, to contact him. He also told him not to talk about him in the vicinity of the murder, or to discuss any of the evidence. The reason Drake looked so sick today was that Agent Hudson scares the living daylights out of him, but he can't quite put a finger on why."

"And what of Agent Hudson?" Carlisle said.

"He arrived at first light. I'm not quite sure what he is, but he thinks of himself as a Demon Hunter. He doesn't smell human, nearly, but not quite, there's definitely something else about him." Edward looked contemplative as he spoke, reviewing the facts in his own mind as he related them to the rest of us.

"Like Jacob." Ness piped up. When all eyes turned to her she looked down to the ground, embarrassed, but Edward was staring at her wide eyed.

"Yes, exactly like Jacob!" he said.

"Do you think he's a shape shifter?" asked Carlisle,

"I don't think so, I saw nothing like that in his head at all, but think about it Carlisle. Like Jacob. The wolves are protectors of the tribe, I think that's kind of what Hudson is, only he is protecting everybody." Edward looked relieved to be able to attach a label to the Hunter, despite the fact that that label was far from comforting.

"That might explain why you and Bella vanished this evening." Alice said, sounding almost relieved "It was almost the same thing that happens when you're around the Quileutes."

"Could he hurt us Edward, are we at risk from him?" Jasper had been edging surreptitiously closer towards Alice as we had been speaking, I could see the stress clearly in his eyes.

"I'm not sure, I don't think he's sure actually. He knows what he is, and from his strength and abilities it is clear to him he could fight one or more of us, but-" Edward stopped and considered just for a moment. "He has clearly never seen an actual vampire. That he knows of anyway. He was wearing a crucifix, which indicates to me that he has some of the fake legends mixed up with the more factual ones. Plus he waited until daybreak to arrive......"

"Other than knowing you were there, does he know anything of us personally? Something that might lead him to the house?" Jasper had now taken Alice's hand, I suspected in an attempt to calm himself more than anything.

"I am certain he doesn't. Carlisle, have you heard of anything like this before?" Edward turned to Carlisle hopefully.

"No, I've never heard of any specific kind of protectors or Demon hunters among us, other than the Quileutes. I suppose though that their existence should lead us to draw the conclusion that other peoples would have similar kinds of protectors." Carlisle looked thoughtful for a moment "It could be that in this day and age the knowledge has been forgotten by modern man. The Google generation view us as fantasy, so the genetics of the Demon Hunters may continue, but without the knowledge that allows them to use their power."

"I don't think that makes him any less of a risk to us Carlisle." Edward was looking at Jasper as he spoke, the two of them having a silent conversation.

"We must kill him, he knows too much." Jasper spoke aloud what he and Edward had obviously been thinking about.

"I agree. I'm not sure if he can track us. If he can, even if we run, it might not be enough." Edward said. His voice was calm and full of certainty.

"No!" I shouted, immediately shouting down Jasper and Emmett who were busy agreeing with each other and Edward. "Aren't we saying this man, Hudson, is the good guy? He kills vampires, to protect people. He's the good guy! He doesn't know we're good vampires, he will only know about vampires who kill people, maybe if we can speak to him....." I trailed off when I saw the look on Edward's face.

"Bella, the reason he's here, he's going to be hard pressed to believe we're good vampires." He looked at me sadly as it all fell into place in my mind.

To this hunter we were no better than any of the rest. One of our number had killed an innocent woman named Anna Stoker, and even if he could be convinced that the rest of us were innocent, we would fight to defend Emmett. I looked over towards my brother and silently cursed him for making me guilty as well.

"Edward, listen to me." Despite everything I could not allow him to kill Agent Hudson, Edward had never killed an innocent in his life, and I would not allow him to start by killing a man who's role was to protect all innocents. "Do you remember once I asked you if you were a superhero? You answered me by telling me that you were the bad guy. Well you're not. You never have been. But if you kill this man, this protector of the innocent, that is what you will become."

A look of pain crossed his face as I spoke, he ran his hand through his hair and he glared at me. "Bella, what else am I supposed to do? I will not leave you and Ness at risk."

"You don't even think he knows how to kill us anyway, how much risk are we really at?" I could see he could be convinced. Edward, after all, would only ever want to do what was right.

"Bella," Jasper stepped in. I knew he would be harder to appease. If he believed Alice to be at risk he would stop at nothing to protect her. "Agent Hudson apparently knows about vampires, and now knows that we are here in the area. He can do more than destroy us, he can expose us for what we are, and we all know how that ends."

"He doesn't even know who we are!"

Edward interjected "I can't be sure of that. We only saw him for a few moments, I didn't get a good enough look at his mind, and even he doesn't really know what he is capable of." He still seemed to be swaying towards Jasper's way of thinking.

I was clutching at straws trying to think of something to deviate Jasper from what he already saw as his predetermined course. "Alice, can you see anything, are we at risk?"

"I can't see this man, he's as hidden to me as the wolves and Ness. All I can see is everyone else's future flickering in and out of existence as your plans change. It's giving me a headache." Alice was scowling furiously, either at the headache or her inability to see what was to come. I mentally swore at her lack of visions, often this was the last resort in swaying Jasper's course.

"We have to protect ourselves Bella, this man must die on our terms." Jasper seemed more set than ever now.

"Carlisle, have you ever seen anything like it, maybe with the Volturi?" I knew he was my last chance. Aside from fighting against my brothers and my husband, alongside this man, I could see no way to prevent them from committing a second crime, this one maybe worse than the first.

"No, I've never seen or heard of such a thing as this. I've never come across a human who would hunt and destroy vampires, how would they even have a chance?" Carlisle was looking at me sadly, he shared my distress at the thought of another murder by our family, but like me he didn't see how we could stop it.

While he was talking though, a sudden thought crossed my mind. I stopped and turned my body fully towards Carlisle and stared at him. He caught my eye and I saw a puzzled look in his eyes at the intensity of my stare.

"That's not strictly true though, is it Carlisle?" My voice sounded strange in my ears, Edward noticed it and turned to look at me curiously. I did not continue immediately, thoughts were buzzing around my head distracting me. Quickly everyone else noticed my thoughtful pose, and all eyes turned towards me, but I kept my stare trained on Carlisle.

"You do know of someone, a human, who hunted vampires. Quite successfully in fact. He caught one, and although he was wounded, his fellow hunters caught up with the vampire again while he fought it." I didn't pause, but I saw realisation begin to dawn on some of the faces around me. "How many normal humans do you think it would take to track down one of us, even with modern day weapons? Dozens? Hundreds? Would any number of them actually be able to destroy one of us? Yet, we know of one human who managed to track down and catch a vampire single handed, and not only that, but to survive the encounter." At this I paused, but still nobody else spoke. "Do you think that you might have been a Demon Hunter Carlisle? It might explain a lot about who you are."

At that I stopped speaking and looked around the circle. Most of the family were now looking at Carlisle, but he was still very fixedly looking at me.

"Human memories fade. I don't remember anything like that, but I remember hunting the vampire who changed me. I remember catching him, despite the fact that logic dictates I should not have been able to. I've always said that he turned and fell upon me in hunger, it seems the most logical reasoning, but, I've always been pretty sure that actually - I caught him."

"Has anybody here ever been caught by a human in pursuit of them before? Even close?" I whispered the question; I couldn't quite find my voice.

There was utter silence among us for several moments, until Jasper said "It changes nothing."

"It does" said Edward "It means that we now suspect, from personal experience, that this Hunter is capable of tracking us, hunting us, catching us. Who knows what else? He poses an enormous risk to all of us."

"No! That's not the point at all." I raged in frustration, how could they still believe we should destroy this being? "Look at Carlisle, he was alone as a newborn, and was still able to prevent himself from taking a single life, such was his urge to protect. He was the first to discover he could drink the blood of animals, his compassion is literally legendary, even amongst humans."

I remembered one of the first true legends I came across of a real vampire when I was a human, that of Stregoni benefici, the good vampire. "The vampire Carlisle became is a reflection of the person he was before, a good person. Maybe a protector of innocents." I looked around the clearing, catching the eyes of every one of my family in turn, begging them to hear me. "Would you really be able to destroy a being as inherently good as him?"

There was silence again. Esme was standing beside Carlisle with her arms wrapped around him, he looked winded as he contemplated the possibilities tonight had raised. The rest of us stood patiently, waiting for him to regroup his thoughts. Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were exchanging a look that told me they were still planning on hunting the Hunter, Alice meanwhile wore a blank expression, searching the future.

I turned to Edward, he was gazing at me in wonder. "In a hundred years, I have never questioned what happened to Carlisle. The way your brain works sometimes...." He smiled his beautiful crooked smile at me, and I knew that he, at least, was now on my side.

"I know. I'm a freak." I smiled back. I let myself relax, lost in his eyes for a moment, until Carlisle brought me back to focus.

"Edward, do you have any idea if he'll try to track us if we leave?" Carlisle spoke quietly; it made us all focus on him intently. "Do you think he'd be able to?"

"Honestly Carlisle, I'm not sure. All I know is that he's not actually come face to face with an actual vampire before, and he wants to. He definitely now has mine and Bella's.... I don't know how to put it..... vibe? I don't know what kind of distance that works over, I didn't get the impression he used scent at all, but I couldn't be sure." Edward was grimacing in his frustration.

"Do you think we're at risk?" Carlisle pushed him further.

"I DON'T KNOW CARLISLE!" Edward roared in his frustration, "If only there was a way I could get close to him again, but his tracking ability would mean he would definitely sense me as soon as I was close enough to read his mind."

"Edward." I called his name softly, I reached out and took his hand to calm him before I continued, he would only be upset with himself if he lost control here. "There may be a way. You don't believe he knew we were there due to our scent?"

"No."

"He said he knew a vampire was there, singular, did he know that there were two of us there?" It had seemed fairly obvious to me immediately that my shield may work against this Hunter, but Edward had been under so much stress since his arrival I think he had forgotten about it.

Edward considered for a moment "No, in his thoughts he was thinking about a vampire. No I don't think he knew you were there." He grinned at me, understanding hitting him at all once.

"So we go back and find him, the way he came after the sun was up makes me think he's operating on some of the modern myths about vampires, so he won't be expecting us to be around during the day. I can shield you, without pulling you right in so you can still hear him, as long as we stay out of sight we can watch him all day, try and learn as much as we can about him."

"And if you find that he is a threat to us?" Jasper still seemed to prefer the option of killing the Hunter outright, but I could see Rosalie and Emmett were now with us, so I hoped that would be enough to win us some time to investigate.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Carlisle's eyes flashed at Jasper. "Are you really so impetuous Jasper that you would be prepared to risk your family in a fight with a being we know nothing about?"

At that Jasper was silent, but I could sense the fury coming off of him at Carlisle's implied condemnation.

"I can't see you at all." Alice was still searching the future, her eyes were blank and she was completely still as she spoke. "Our futures have completely vanished to me, all of them....... It frightens me."

"We know this is what happens with the wolves too Alice, we will be ok. I won't take any risks." Edward tried his best to comfort her, but Alice was never more uncomfortable than when her sixth sense was blind.

"What shall we do while you're gone?" Rosalie had so far remained quiet, but I could see that not being able to help was frustrating for her, seeing as she felt the blame laid at her door as surely as Emmett's for this fiasco.

"All of you, go back to the house, we have no reason to believe that you are at any risk at the moment." Edward was mobilising into action, "It's, Sunday so there's no need for anybody to leave, we will be back before tomorrow morning. Carlisle, I will keep my phone on me, I'll call you if there are any problems, please only call me if there is immediate danger."

"Rose, Look after Ness for me." I tried to hand my daughter over to Rosalie, but she clung to me.

"No, Mom, don't I get any say in this, don't go. Let's just leave, all of us together, now." She hung onto me, but was unable to resist as I pried her fingers from my arm.

"We'll be perfectly safe Ness, go with Rosalie, don't argue!" I pushed her harshly towards Rosalie, I was also afraid to be parted from her, but I had to ensure all of my family was safe.

While this was happening I could hear Edward muttering to Carlisle. I was sure Ness was distracted enough to not hear what he was saying, but I couldn't miss it.

"If we're not back by first light Monday morning Carlisle, run."

A/N – Thank you everybody for your reviews for the last chapter! It was nice to hear from so many of you, so I decided to post this without waiting to hit 50! But now you know – reviews definitely make me type faster – bear it in mind....... Next chapter likely to be up before Friday as it's shaping up nicely. :).