Alec POV

I stare at the small vampire in Demetri's arms. Long, waist-length gold ringlets glinting in the light. Smooth, snowy skin. Plump red lips. Slanted scarlet eyes looking up at me with a mixture of hatred, fear, and awe. This isn't just any vampire. This is my vampire. But last time I saw her, she was most definitely not in this immortal state.

"Oh, God! What the hell did you do to her!" I cry, running over to them. She looks so frail, so innocent, so weak. Until I got a foot away. She leaped out of Demetri's arms, landing ten feet away, her fingers curved into claws, legs slightly bent, back hunched over, teeth bared, ready to fight.

"Don't you ever get so close to me again." A horrible, demonic voice growls from those rosy lips that have kissed me so sweetly, so tenderly a million times.

"Eva?" I whisper. It looks like her, but this can't be her. This vicious, predatory thing can't be the girl I fell in love with. She hisses in response to me saying her name.

"Alec, I-" Jane starts, but is interrupted with a tinkling, bubbly little voice saying, "Hi everyone! What are we all doing?" Sophie, with her thin, white-blonde waves and giant crimson eyes, walks in daintily, her petite frame seeming to simply float across the floor. She flits to my side, wrapping her bony arms around my waist and leaning up to kiss my cheek. Since I am still staring at Eva's face, I watch as murder glints through her eyes. Her body tenses into a springing position.

And then I realize what is wrong. This really isn't Eva. This is a wild, crazed newborn. Even worse, a crazed newborn who was changed during a time of unstable emotions. Probably one in three hundred turn out like her. Completely insane. Eva has dropped off the deep end, and I'm not sure I'm capable of bringing her back. She is an animal now, and she sees poor little Sophie as competition. Small competition that would be easy to get rid of.

All these thoughts race through my head in a tenth of a second. Eva leaps at Sophie, and I do something I never would have expected to in a million years. I protect Soph with my body, and punch Eva in the face. She falls to the ground with a cry of pain. Everyone is in frozen shock. Eva looks up at me, and suddenly all the rage and blood-lust is gone. She just looks confused, startled and so utterly hurt. Though it may seem like Eva hates me, something in her is still telling her I'm her mate. And as she tried to get rid of the other female competing with her, I stopped her. To her, that is me choosing Sophie over her.

"Eva, I didn't.. I mean.. I.." I trail off, not knowing what to say. My voice breaks the trance everyone had been thrown into though. Hatred fills Eva's eyes again, Sophie lets out a frightened squeak, Demetri and Felix grab Eva's arms, and Jane rushes to my side.

"Alec, how could you?" Jane asks, turning me to face her.

"What do you mean? She tried to kill me! He didn't even really hurt her!" Sophie cries from behind me, obviously distraught, though I'm sure she could have defended herself against Eva. She hasn't learned all the dangers of being on the guard. And she doesn't know about my history with Eva, or Elizabeth for that matter. Jane pays her no attention, just keeps staring at me with accusation. When did she get so protective of Eva?

"What did you expect me to do, sister? Let her kill Sophie?,She would have, you know. She is a lunatic right now!" I hiss in frustration, exaggerating the predicament a bit. She is pinning me as a bad guy for protecting my fiancee from a dangerous newborn!

"I expected you to grab the girl you love and kiss her and tell her everything would be all right and you would never hurt her again! Not fucking punch her in the face!" Jane's five-foot figure is pressing closer and closer to me, her eyes glinting with anger.

"Kiss the girl you love? What is she talking about, Alec?" Sophie's high-pitched voice suddenly begins irritating me more than it ever has before.

"Shut the hell up, Sophie!" I growl turning my head over my shoulder to scowl at her. She is taken aback for a moment, and then slowly anger and hurt wrap around her, warping her face into something weird and unattractive. Like a grimace and a glare combined.

"Kill that horrid excuse for an immortal!" Aro's voice rings out above everything else, commanding my brothers of sort to kill the girl who holds my heart.

"NO!" I all but roar. Everyone pauses to look at me.

"Alec, its time to let go. She isn't the girl you once knew." Aro says in a caring and understanding voice, but I can see the impatience underneath.

"Yes she is! She is still my Eva! She will always be, no matter what!"

"No, she isn't. And if we were to let her go, do you know what would happen? She would be off like a rocket and you wouldn't see her again until we had to track her down to kill her for the attention her killing sprees begin to cause." Aro's voice has a ring of finality in it, as if he has already sealed Eva's fate though she has yet to do anything wrong. Without a second thought, I run to where Demetri and Felix are restraining Eva. And I kiss her right on her lips. That tiny spark of electricity passes between us as I intertwine my fingers into those silky gold ringlets. Her arms are incapable of wrapping around me because of my brothers, but I swear I can feel her lips responding to mine.

And then the most unexpected chain of events happen.