Chapter 21 - Stranger danger

B-P.O.V.

Terrified that was the only way to explain how I felt.

When I heard Edwards mind realize I was not human I panicked and threw a shield around him. I sent Nate a text to meet me in a different area and take to the water because I found the scent of a vampire that was close to them.

Zora was a wreck by the time they got to me; she wanted to leave Alaska at once. It took both Nate and I to convince her that it was no big deal and probably just some nomad passing through the area. I hated lying to her, but what else could I do? We keep reminding her that Moms power would have let us know if we weren't safe, when she finally calmed we had to convince her not to tell the others. From her thoughts, I could see that she could tell I was not giving her the whole story and she was pissed, but she finally gave in. None of us would be mentioning the unknown vampire scent that I came across today.

Nate still had no clue what was going on or that I had a new power. He assumed that I was using Moms power to make the right choice. I was but that was not all that was going on.

I felt a need to make sure that Edward did not tell anyone else about what he saw in Nate's mind or if he had already told that they were not planning to run to the Volturi, with claims of an immortal child.

With no privacy it was difficult finding a way to tell Nate what happened, so I sent him an email while he sat on the other side of the room. It was straight to the point.

To: N-existance

From: Isa-B

Nate, I picked up a new power from the vamp we evaded; mind reading. The mind reader had already seen in your and Zora's minds, and knew that I was not a human child from the thoughts he had seen in your mind. We need to get close enough so I could read his mind and make sure that he will not go running to the Volturi. So far all the 'feelings' I had about this mess are ok.

Nate went pale as read my message, his mind blank for just a moment. Then he became stressed and scared just like me. I wrote a second email telling him everything I heard from Edwards mind. In hopes that he found comfort in the fact that it was Carlisle's Coven; I did. Edwards whole 'family' were animal drinkers that posed as high school students, a housewife and Carlisle was really a doctor. Clearly they were not looking for trouble and I hoped that they would not send any our way.

~*0*~

It was three days before Nate and I found a chance to get away from the rest of our family and try to spy on the vampires that lived on the other side of the of Denali National Park. Spying may have been too strong of a word; I was only eavesdropping on them using my new acquired power.

Edward's power is like being in the mall when we can hear everyone talking at once; we can focus and pay attention to what they are saying or just let it be background noise. I can see why he was so frustrated by being around his family constantly. I'm sure I would feel the same but like with mom's power of intuition; I could shut down the power when I didn't want to hear anyone's thoughts. I also found it cruel that sometimes his 'siblings' and 'cousins' pushed their X-rated thoughts at him to try to keep him out of their mind, surly they could have found a nicer method, it's not like he wants to hear their minds. At least that's how it seemed to me from Edward's thoughts.

We traveled in the trees so we could leave less of a trail and I had Nate wrapped in both of my shields so that none of the gifted vampires would sense him. As we crossed the three-mile mark my mind filled with the thoughts of twelve vampires.

Irina and Laurent were in a bedroom giving them the illusion of privacy; from their thought I could tell they were arguing again. She was now sure that he was not really her mate although she cares for him deeply. He has been aware that they are not mates from the start of the relationship and was using her as a way into the coven for protection more that anything. I hoped Edward was paying attention to Laurent's mind at the moment but I could not be sure it was still too hard to focus my mind on more than one person at a time without it all getting jumbled.

Kate's mind was busy picking out clothing to wear tonight, Tanya, Alice, Jasper, Rose, Emmett and her were planning to go to a dance club in Anchorage. Then she shifted to hoping to find some man to help her with her sexual needs; with a shutter I quickly tried to focus on someone else.

Unfortunately I slipped into Tanya's mind and that was far worse than Kate's. She was pushing her desires towards Edward forcefully, her thought were loud and very graphic. Yuck, no wonder he hates being around her.

I found the mind of someone reading, the mental voice was female, and she was completely engaged in her book, Sense and Sensibility. It seemed like a good story I only listened for a moment but I would be sure to read it myself later.

Then next mind I found was that of Jasper, he was sitting in the room with all the other Cullen's and a man named Eleazar. They were discussing the mated pair James and Victoria, possibly using an army of newborn's to attack them. Jasper mind was spinning with memories of his time spent in the South while he served in such an army. Alice's vision had him on edge; he had left that life behind and had no desire to deal with newborns of any kind.

"Alice what other information can you give about the army?" Carlisle asked, I easily recognized from Edwards mind.

"They have not yet begun to make any newborns, so the vision is very vague as I can only see that they will come for us with an army, nothing more sorry Carlisle. I'll keep looking but I won't see anything till they make more decisions." She replied.

I changed to listen to the thought of Carlisle, he was the leader of the coven, creator of most of them and I figured if Edward had mentioned my family or me to any of them it would be to him. The rest of the family continued to debate what to do next as I listened into Carlisles inner monologue. He wanted to protect his family but did not want to hunt down the pair as Jasper suggested, his mind was busy trying to find a peaceful resolution to the problem, while the others discussed ways of stopping the army.

"I don't think anything you say to them will stop this Carlisle. James thoughts were of nothing more than finishing what he started, Alice is the only one vampire or human that he has gone after and not killed, even that was a choice he made. He wanted to find her later in her second life to make it more of a challenge for him. The fact that he told Laurent about Alice only further proves his obsession with her, it's all just a game to him, he loves the chase and the fight, and you won't make him see reason." Edward stated in a soft voice.

It was the fist time any of the minds focused decisively on Edward and I finally got to see what he looked like. He has strange copper-colored hair that stuck out in all different directions; a strong jaw line and looked the same physical age as Zora maybe. I really don't know why but I was stunned by his appearance, he was very handsome more so than any vampire or human I had ever seen.

Carlisle mind seems resigned at Edwards words, he knew his 'first born' understood his views better than most and would not tell him that violence would be needed if it could be avoided. Still Carlisle hated the thought of taking a life of any kind, but was not willing to sacrifice his family to avoid it.

I then tried to listen carefully to Edwards mind, his focus was split; letting the thoughts of only those in the room with him wash over his mind and replaying the thoughts of Zora and Nate at the same time. From Zora's mind he watched Nate trying to see any detail that would aid him in discovering what I was, he compared everything to me. Nate's pulse versus mine, our skin tone, our eyes, even the color of our hair. Then he did the same with the image of Zora from Nate's mind, then came to the conclusion that Zora was really my sister, the green from our eyes was an exact match, however hers did not have the gold that he saw in mine. He also noted that all three of us had elevated heart rates in comparison to humans, but he still had no idea what we were.

He flashed to thoughts of immortal children but knew that was not what we were; he thought that my eyes held much more knowledge than a four-year-old human turned vampire. That alone would have made him believe I was not an immortal child even if he had not noticed our throbbing carotid arteries.

Then his mind found a flash of mom from Zora's mind, it was just her face looking stressed with her golden eyes looking pleadingly at Zora. He knew that she was a 'vegetarian' vampire, but not that she was my mother Zora called her Renée, and then called me her little sister. Oddly enough he hoped I was safe from the vampire in Zora's mind. It was ironic to me that I felt the need to make sure that he was not going to spread our secret and yet he worried about my safety.

He thought of looking for us in the spot by the river where he saw Zora and Nate, he looked at Alice and the focused on her mind. Its a vision showed of him not finding us but our empty cabin, and then some other vision of him and Dermott talking in our tree house started to fade to black. Alice glared at Edward and yelled to him from her mind.

You can't look for them it is not one of your choices that will cause us meeting them, just leave it alone it will happen when it happens.

Edward changed his mind and then the vision of him, Dermott and some unknown blur became clear again. She smiled and went back to looking for James and Victoria.

I move into her mind trying to understand her power, it was a lot like Mom's based on choices and when the path changed so did her visions. I did not take her power but sorta thought maybe I should, Nate thought that I was already too dependent on Mom's power and that having visions would only stress me out more.

The only fault I could see in Alice's power was that she could not force it. If mom or I wanted to know if something was good or bad choice we only needed to think about it, then we got a feeling along with it. Alice may know the repercussions of a bad choice but when she could not get a vision she was powerless.

"You could always tell the Volturi that James and Victoria are planning on making a newborn army." Eleazar stated.

The minds in the room went into overdrive and become harder for both Edward and me to block out.

. . They may help us. .

I don't want them anywhere near my family, I don't care what Jasper and Carlisle say. .

It is their job to deal with this kind of thing

. . we can do this without them

The Cullen's and a few vampires in dark cloaks stand in the same field that they played baseball clearly after the fight; there were small bon fires spread around the clearing.

"We will come for you when it's time for you to repay your debts. However, Aro wishes to have you all visit him sooner than later, he is unsure why an army was created just to fight your coven and wants to see for himself." With that they turn and leave the clearing.

Once they are out of hearing range Edward tells them.

"Aro expects us to come to him according to Jane's mind; he will be demanding that Alice and I stay with the guard for a period of time to pay our family's debt."

Edward lets out a vicious snarl at the same time Alice hisses out "No we CANNOT involve the Volturi, they will force some of us to serve in the guard if we do."

The room erupts in chaos and the thought are now too much for my mind my to keep up with, but clearly they won't be contacting the Volturi for any reason now or in the future.

On our way back to the cabin I told Nate about almost everything I heard, but went into great detail about Alice's vision and the results. I also told him that Edward was sure that I was not an Immortal child, he thought that we were all the same but had no clue what that may be, Alice was only one whom he had spoken to about us and that he hoped I was safe with Renée around.

As we leap from tree to tree on our way back to the cabin, I was no longer terrified but saddened by leaving the Edward and the other Cullen's behind. I had made the choice to try to meet them but no matter how many ways I came up with to meet them I always got a bad feeling, so I held onto Alice's vision that showed we would meet the Cullen's at some point in the future.

N-P.O.V.

Isa' mind reading power gave us a whole new way to communicate I signal her to read me then she would use Zafrina power to project her response to me. It was a relief not having to find time way from the rest of our family for our private talks anymore.

I also had her just project her mind into mine to mine sometimes, and then it was like I was a mind reader myself. While Isa' was uncomfortable listening in on people, I was not. I found it interesting to hear the thoughts around me, both from my family and the humans that interacted with us.

It has been six months since we left Alaska, and every day Isa still brings up the Cullen's at some point with our silent conversations; most of the time it was Edward she asked about, and then about two months ago I slipped and thought that maybe Edward is her mate while she was in my mind. Now she still asks about the Cullen's but never about Edward directly.

Do I think the Newborn Army attacked them?

When do I think that we will meet them?

What was the blur in the vision that Alice showed Edward?

Why would they be talking about Joham?

Should she email Garrett so he would help them with the newborns?

How can she tell Garrett about the Cullen's without telling him everything?

I could tell that she was truly worried for them; she almost has me persuaded to go spy on them again when we are in Washington. She wants to try to talk to them this time but the feelings she gets about meeting them still aren't great, not bad though. I keep telling her that we don't have to make up our minds yet because we still have least four or five weeks before we get to Washington anyway.

I never brought up the possibility of Edward being her mate again, but I think she must have asked Zora about mates. A few days after I let it slip Zora asked Dermott if he thought hybrids mated like vampires. That led to a rather lengthy family talk about mating.

"Do you think that as a hybrid we have vampire mates or humans? Maybe we don't get mates because we're all related and we can only mate with another hybrid?" Zora asked after hearing Dermott describe the mating connection he felt with Huilen.

"I doubt that you all don't have mates. I've heard of vampires mating with humans, they just end up changing them and I'm sure that would work for you all as well." Dermott answered.

"So you think we will have to change them? That doesn't seem right; I mean we're not even vampires ourselves it's not like we can change them into hybrids." Zora muttered in a disgruntle tone.

"That's not what I meant I was just saying that if you found your mate as a human we could change them so they can have immortality." Dermott answered.

"It still doesn't seem right; I don't think hybrids have mates. It seems to me if it were possible one of us would have by now."

"How would any of the others have had a chance to find a mate; they don't interact with humans or vampires really? Jennifer is the only one who sneaks into the cities sometimes for anything other than hunting. The only vampires they know other than Joham is Dermott and Huilen. They aren't allowed to meet anyone let alone find their mate." I said trying to reason with her.

"Well, I think the whole love at first sight thing would be fabulous, just imagine it Aurora, having someone totally devoted to you, never having to worry about the sorta things humans do, no cheating, no changing their minds and no worry over if they feel the same way; just pure, unconditional love." Renée sighed out in a dreamy fashion.

"Yeah if you say so, it's not like we will get a chance to meet any vampires, we live in hiding and I wouldn't want to change a human for a mate. You have even said yourself that you didn't really know what you were getting yourself into Renée, so how could they ever really understand what we would be offering?" Zora asked in a sad voice.

"For starters we would have more time to explain it to them; Renée was dying and was given a choice, a choice that she doesn't regret mind you. Besides when you meet your mate you will do anything for them and they you in return. If I had been human when I met Dermott I would have begged for him to change me. We can tell you about mating but until you feel it you just can't understand, it's not something that you can explain only feel." Huilen said passionately.

"Love will find you when you least expect it. I spent years living in Volterra, and you would think that with all the vampires I met while with them I would have found my mate then, instead I found her in the middle of the Amazon. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I found what I always needed the day I met her. I had never even given finding my mate much thought until I meet Huilen, but after I found her I knew I could never leave her side." Dermott says while smile down at Huilen, I see Zora roll her eyes.

"Yeah yeah, I hope it works like that for us hybrids as well but I'm not holding my breath." Zora says while rolling her eyes, and then she stood to leave sending Isa a strange look on her way out the door.

The conversation continues between Dermott, Huilen, Renée and I. Isa never said a word and looked embarrassed by the topic, I knew that Zora was still within hearing range, so I continue to talk about the possibilities of finding a mate in a positive light.

I think having a mate gives us a reason to live, but compared to the average vampire I have already served a purpose. For now I lived to protect my family and to try to find a way to stop Joham.

I had to hold back a snicker as we listened to Renée gush like a schoolgirl. Renée was in love with the idea of love just like when she was human, poor Isa was bright red by the time the conversation was over.

~*0*~

I focused solely on hunting as I left the campsite, just in case Isa was listening in. When I was sure that I was out of range I called Garrett. Finding him out in the wilderness around the Grand Canyon was proving more difficult than he or I thought it would be. The two of us went back and forth describing rock formations till we found each other. After we greeted each other he asked what was wrong with Zora and Isa.

"What do you mean?" I asked, as we walked at human pace towards the campsite.

"Well, they both seem a bit off from the emails I've been getting, I figured you would know what's bothering them." He answered with a shrug, I knew what was bothering them but did not expect him to notice how withdrawn they had both become lately.

"Umm, I think that Zora's done with all the traveling, she even said that she wanted to try high school when we get to Ireland and Isa is just stressed out and sick of playing human." Garrett raised an eyebrow at me and then shook his head.

"I can tell you know more, hell even I know it's more than that from the emails. Kitten's been sending short, straight to the point emails and Zora's been asking all kinds of deep questions, about the life, love and why she exists, it's like they switched places or something." He chuckled a bit.

"I'm not sure about Isa' short emails but Zora has been a bit lost ever since she brought up mates, she was wondering if we really have mate's because there are so few of us and none of us have found a mate yet. Dermott told her that he thinks we do but she didn't really believe him." It's so hard to talk about stuff like this without telling him what we are and that we are all related.

"I know how old you are but not her, how long has she been looking for this mate of hers anyway? I mean really, I'm pushing two hundred and haven't found my mate, I'm not worried, I'll find her or she'll find me at some point." He said with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"She's only eight, but I think it's not that she wants her mate now it's that none of us have found a mate, she and Renée had been on a romantic movie kick for a while. Then Isa started asking questions, I think she just has it in her head that we don't have mates the way vampires do." Isa had not let me read reads Zora's mind with Edwards power ever after that day and every time I try to talk to her about it she won't open up about it so I'm not really sure.

"Hell I don't know if you all have mates but if vampires do I don't see why whatever you are wouldn't, but I'm guessing that her point is that we don't know for sure."

"Yup and that's what's bothering her no proof that we do have mates. I don't think that she ever really worried about it until that day, now she can't stop herself from questioning it, and everything else from the sounds of your emails." He nodded and then we started talking about Isa and how she can't wait until she doesn't have to play human any more.

"I'm telling you something else is up with her too, the same week that Zora's emails changed so did hers. You don't think that she worked up about this mate business do you? I mean Zora's young but at least she's full-grown Bella's just a kid. She can't be having those sorta thoughts yet, right?" Garrett ranted. It made me smile because I know who ever mated with Zora or Isa was going to have hell to pay from Garrett, he was almost as protective as I was about them. I'll never tell him that I think Isa has already come across her mate.

Then my phone chimed with a text from Isa.

N-Come back, Mom is on her way back with company, two vampires. She just called I can't read them yet, no bad feelings but still . . . – I

"Shit, we got to hurry that was Isa; Renée is bringing two vampires back to camp with her." I shouted at Garrett as I took off at full speed.

"Did she say who they are? I hope Renee's feelings are right about them; too many leftovers down here from the Newborn wars."

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- Who do you think it is with Renee?

- Thanks for reading please let me know what you think!

*Big thank you Snowgoose, for being a great beta! *

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1/11/13

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and the twilight characters, no copyright infringement intended.