Annnd chapter 2! I hope you like it! As long as you do, I'll keep writing!

Thanks again to both Bex and Aya! You two are ah-mah-zing, and don't you forget it!

Chapter 2: The Fancy House And The Rules

It didn't take long for us to get going after Carlisle left. Alice explained that they had a permanent place to live a few miles away, no more than a twenty minute run. I couldn't believe it—they not only had a human around them regularly, they lived around humans, and they didn't kill them. "You'll really like it, Bree—if you stay, of course," she amended after Jasper gave her a look. I took it to mean, "Don't overwhelm her."

"Let's go, then," said the final female vampire, Rosalie. She had a brusque tone that I didn't like, but at least it got us moving. Rosalie was the most beautiful vampire I'd ever met, extremely tall, with gorgeous blonde hair. "Carlisle and Edward won't be that long you know, if the stories they tell about the dogs' healing are true."

We all took off, me in the middle so that everyone could keep tabs on me. Alice kept reassuring everyone that I was going to "be on my best behavior" but Jasper seemed to doubt this.

I was thirsty. I wanted to take off and find the closest human, but I knew that, like before, they would all stop me. I wasn't stupid, so I did nothing.

After a couple miles or so, everyone came to a stop. I kept speeding along so fast, I nearly ran into Emmett, who was ahead of me. I managed to stop myself easily enough, and I was glad because I had the distinct feeling that Emmett would think it very funny if I were clumsy. Not that that was a possibility for us.

"I think this is a good place for Bree's trial run," Jasper declared from the head of our group. He closed his eyes a moment, and the flare of his nostrils as he smelled something was so imperceptible no human would have noticed it. Turning to me, he said, "Bree, close your eyes."

Esme stepped to my side. "Jasper, are you sure? There's no one around here? Hikers sometimes go off trail…"

"There's no one, Esme," Alice assured. "You know I'd see it."

I'd have to remember to ask just how Alice's visions worked, or Edward's mind control. I'd better find out whether any of the others had any talents.

For now, I obeyed Jasper. I remembered how I'd followed his voice to the clearing as I closed my eyes. "I want you to open your senses—what do you smell?"

Experimentally, I took a deep breath. The first thing I caught was the scent of Bella. It wasn't strong, just the barest trace on the light breeze, but it was enough to send venom pooling in my mouth.

The feel of Esme's soft hands on my own brought my eyes flying open. "Bree, it's okay. You can ignore this. Bella simply spends a lot of time around here, and with us. Well, not here, exactly, but…"

Emmett snorted. "Bella, in the woods? That'll be the day."

Rosalie seemed to agree with him. Alice smirked. "She'll learn when she's turned, Emmett. She'll be amazing, I think we all know that."

Jasper regained my attention. "Bree. Try again. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Try to go beyond the initial human smell."

Once again I did as instructed. I took a deep breath. Bella's smell hit me once again, but with Esme's hands gently on mine, I did not attempt to focus on it. Instead, I went further. I could smell the trees, the dirt, and the forest vegetation. They smelled nice, like they normally did, but enhanced by my new senses. The various insects and reptiles didn't really smell like much, to be honest.

And then, I picked up a new smell. I couldn't tell what it was, but it smelled… well, not good, exactly, but there was blood in it. The smell was earthy, and while usually I didn't mind smelling like outdoors, this was nowhere near appealing enough.

"You smelled it?" Jasper finally asked.

I opened my eyes and slowly nodded. "What is that?"

"Maybe I'd be the best one to explain?" Surprisingly, it was Rosalie who came to stand beside me. She towered over me, and while I should have found it intimidating, something in her stance was calming. "We're what the majority of the vampire world calls vegetarians."

I wasn't understanding, but I recalled what Emmett had snickered at before. "Emmett said that, what does that mean?"

"We don't hunt humans," she explained. When my mouth opened to start to speak, she held her hand up. "No, that doesn't mean we can go without blood, we just get it from alternative food sources."

"Like whatever that smell was," I responded. "What is that?"

"A wolverine," Rosalie answered. "That's what we hunt—animals, not humans. That's how we have golden eyes, not red like yours. If you keep to human blood, they'll tone down to a darker red, but if you change to animal blood, they become like ours."

"I-I don't know," I said, hedging. "Do a lot of vampires do that?"

Alice shook her head. "No, we're the exception, not the rule. We have some cousins who live near Denali in Alaska. Three sisters, and two others who are mates. They hunt like us, but we haven't found any others so far."

I thought about this. Of course, Riley had lied about their eyes being like that because they were old, what hadn't he lied about? He'd lied about the sun, he lied about their abilities until the last minute… he'd lied about Diego.

"How can you handle just that?" I wondered. "I mean, it didn't smell awful, but it didn't seem like it'd keep the thirst away for very long."

"We go hunting maybe every week or so," Emmett said. "That's about the longest Jasper can last before he gets antsy."

"I'm newer to this than everyone else," Jasper said. "I had a similar… upbringing to you, Bree. I was created as part of an army, and I fed as I pleased."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say, so I stayed quiet. "So, I just… drink it, just like humans?"

"There is some technique that will make it easier to do without getting cut up, if that's what you prefer," Rosalie said. "But, for now, just go with your instinct. It's not like it can escape."

Point made. "All right, I'll try." I closed my eyes again, and quickly rediscovered the scent I had come across before. This time, instead of just smelling, I allowed my instincts to take over. I began to run, following the scent of the wolverine.

It didn't take long to finally reach the spot where the creature was, snuffling at the base of a tree. The others let me lead this time, but I felt Jasper close behind me. The wolverine's blood was stronger now that we were only yards away from it. The earthiness of the blood made me crinkle my nose slightly, but the fact that it was blood allowed me to ignore that as I pounced on the animal.

Before I knew it, I had drained it—it wasn't a very big animal, after all. I threw the carcass aside and turned to the others. They all appeared pleased, even Jasper.

"You did very well, Bree," Esme praised.

"Do all animals taste the same?" I asked. "So… weird and off?"

Jasper shook his head. "Carnivores taste the best, because their blood is the closest to humans. We all have our favorite prey—Rosalie and I like mountain lions, while Emmett prefers to go after the bears. He's thinned out plenty of overpopulated groups over the years."

Emmett grinned. "They're more fun, what can I say?"

To my surprise, Alice's eyes widened as she looked at me. Jasper came closer, clearly thinking she'd seen me running off. I had no such interest, here in the clean air of the woods.

"Bree, your outfit!" she exclaimed. I didn't know what she meant. One of the few things Riley had provided us with was fresh clothes. My jeans and sweatshirt were clean enough, maybe a bit dirty from the woods, but not so much for her to gasp at it.

I looked down, and saw what she meant. Apparently, the wolverine had put up more of a fight than I expected. The sleeve of my sweatshirt was in shreds, there were several claw marks down my front, and there was blood all over me.

"Oops."

Alice was having none of it. "We'll get to the house, and I'll get you some fresh clothes. You can shower too, if you want."

I hadn't had a shower in.. I didn't know how long. The houses Riley found were sometimes equipped with water, but the shower was always broken before I could get one. While I was on the run, the best I could do to clean up was to slip into a restaurant bathroom or something.

Alice quickly took off through the trees, leaving the others laughing in her wake. "She's going to take so much advantage of this," Rosalie remarked. "We'd better go."

We all quickly followed Alice, and once again I was in the middle of the pack. We kept running for a while, and I knew that the distance would make any human give up a while ago. Finally, we came to a river, and I watched as Esme and Jasper, ahead of me, easily jumped across it. I hesitated only a moment before I did the same, and then I was across the river and following them out into a clearing.

The house there was magnificent. It was several stories high, made from white wood and glass. It almost seemed to belong in the clearing, I couldn't quite pin as to why, however.

"Welcome to our little piece of the world," Alice said. I looked around and saw her standing on the porch. We all converged on her, and entered the house.

The inside was even more amazing than the outside. It was an open floor plan, with bright wood fixtures and white walls. I saw a floating staircase nearby that led to the upper floor.

My eyes were wide as I took everything in. I'd never been in such an amazing house. The places that Riley had for us were always run down, because that's all he could get, and because it wasn't worth it for anything nicer with so many destructive beings inside. "Wow," I breathed.

Alice was quick to grab my wrist and start to pull me upstairs. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up!"

"Alice, take it easy, this is new for her," Esme called after us. I heard Rosalie and Emmett laughing. Jasper said nothing, but allowed Alice to take me.

"Don't you want to ask me questions first?" I asked as Alice led me to a bathroom. "I'm okay in my clothes for now if that's the case."

Alice shook her head. "Nope. Clean up first. Edward and Carlisle will be back soon, and Carlisle's the one who'll be able to explain everything better. You have time to take a shower and clean yourself up. They should be back by the time you're done."

"Okay, then," I agreed.

Alice started to leave, calling back, "I'll put some clothes out for you!"

I did not get into the shower right away. Instead, I sat on the floor, the cold feeling insignificant against my equally cold skin. I wanted a moment to process everything that had happened. The most important: Diego. Diego was gone. I somehow thought I'd known for much longer, but to have it confirmed so brutally, in the midst of the confusion of battle, had been a blow. I missed him so much—his ninja jokes, his kindness, the way he'd protected me. It was going to be a long time before I could think of him without being upset.

I shook my head and stood. I didn't want to keep the other vampires waiting longer than I had to, so I turned on the water, pushing the rest from my thoughts for now. Maybe they would be able to help me make sense of everything. Maybe they could even help me find Fred.

The shower helped calm me, as I washed the dirt and blood from the wolverine off. The products in the shower were expensive and smelled nice. The shower gel was a very nice smelling pineapple.

A few minutes later, I got out, wrapping myself in a towel that hung nearby. I saw that Alice had been true to her word, as there was a small pile of clothes on the sink counter. There were a pair of jeans, similar to my own from before. They felt much nicer though—designer. The t-shirt was a plain green, and the hoodie was also simple. I was relieved, I had assumed that she'd go overboard.

Dressing quickly, I decided it was time to head downstairs and get this meeting over with. When I got down to the living room, I saw that everyone was waiting for me. Even Carlisle and Edward had returned, standing among everyone.

"I'm glad you were able to freshen up," Carlisle said as he saw me. "How did you find the trip here?"

I shrugged. "It was fine, I guess. I tried your hunting; I got a wolverine."

"Jasper mentioned it, that's a good start if you decide you want to stay with us," he responded.

"I'm still not sure how smart that is," Edward interjected. "We're going to have Bella to deal with soon, are we sure we can handle two newborns? And there's the wolves to think of. They wouldn't take kindly to that, either. We'll be lucky to avoid war with them already, we don't want to make things even worse."

"We can make it work, Edward," Esme defended. "Sam and Billy aren't unreasonable." I could tell that Esme was already determined to allow me to stay, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. She didn't look old enough to be my mother, but somehow, I felt that this was how a mother would act.

"In the end, this is Bree's choice," Carlisle spoke. "And she must make an informed decision."

"You guys stay here all the time?" I asked. "How old are all of you?"

"Carlisle is oldest," Edward explained. "Turned mid-1600s. Then there's Jasper who was turned during the Civil War. Esme and I were turned in the early 1900s, Alice in the 20s, and Rosalie and Emmett are from the 1930s."

"And none of you drink human blood?"

"Not now," Rosalie said. "Carlisle and I are the only ones that have never had human blood. The rest of them have all tasted it before, but yes, now we all drink animal blood. We do our best not to tempt ourselves, only feeding when we start to feel the thirst. We move to a different city when the humans begin to get suspicious—always a cloudy one, of course. We go to school, or college. We all have several degrees. And we get on with our lives as best we can."

I nodded. "Most of that sounds nice, I suppose. I… I don't want to hurt people, I just thought that's what we had to do."

"I thought that when I was turned," Carlisle said. "But most humans eat meat, even we had in our human lives. Some of them have, however, chosen to follow a vegetarian lifestyle for moral or other personal reasons. Why shouldn't we have the same choice? This allows us to live in conjunction with humans, even create friendships with them, however briefly."

Everyone was quiet for a while, but finally, Carlisle continued. "Bree, I was wondering if you would answer a few questions for us. Would that be okay?"

"Sure," I agreed. "I can do that."

"Can you tell us how old you are, or rather, how old you were when you were turned?"

"I was almost sixteen," I answered. "It's been almost four months since I was turned, so I know my birthday has passed."

"So young? And Riley still picked you to change? Is anyone looking for you?" It was Jasper who spoke. "I thought he was only taking those who wouldn't be missed."

"No," I said, avoiding his gaze. "No, I was a runaway. My dad… my dad was an A-grade jerk, and last year I got tired of it, so I ran away one day. I doubt he misses me."

This news seemed to sadden them all, but it was Rosalie who reacted the most. Her frown was deep set, and I wondered what was up with her.

"I'm sorry, Bree, in any case," Carlisle said. "It's our fault that your life was stolen from you so young. Victoria and Riley would never have done that if Victoria hadn't held a grudge against us."

"Why did she?"

"I killed her mate, about a year ago," Edward answered. "He was hunting my Bella, we had no choice. But Victoria decided that to get revenge, she must kill my mate."

Everything made sense now. I hadn't thought to wonder beyond the realization that the reason Riley claimed the reason we were fighting was all a lie. I could understand fighting for a loved one.

"This isn't your fault," I excused. "That was their choice, not yours. I'm sorry for fighting. I'm glad they're dead."

"You're very forgiving," Carlisle smiled slightly. "We would not have killed you all if you hadn't been drawing attention to the area. People would have eventually grown more suspicious of us. Even if you had no friends in the group."

"I do have a friend," I reluctantly said. I figured it was time to tell them about Fred. "He was going to meet me in Vancouver, he'll be there for a while. I need to at least catch him up on what happened."

"One of the other newborns?" Jasper asked. I nodded. "We can't just have him wandering around. Alice and I can go to him and bring him here if you wanted."

"I dont…" I couldn't make myself explain that he would probably hide from anyone but me.

"She doesn't think he'll let you get close," Edward said. "He has an ability to hide himself, she knows how it works."

"Do you always do that?" I asked, more annoyed than anything. "How does anyone stand it?"

Edward gave an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I can't turn it off. I do try to give people as much privacy as I can, but it's difficult."

"He cheats!" Emmett exclaimed. "Don't ever try to pull anything on him, it'll never work."

I laughed at this, and then quickly returned to the prior conversation. "He's right, though. Fred would catch your scent and flee."

"What if one or two of us went with you?" Carlisle said. "Not all of us, of course, that would probably scare him off, too. He'd smell your scent, and know you're with us, and maybe he'd stay put?"

"What's this gift of his?" Edward wondered.

"That plan might work," I agreed. "He's waiting for me, after all. And his gift… Well, he projects some kind of forcefield, and no one can look at him. If they get close to him, they start to feel sick. He can control it, at least somewhat."

"A shield," Jasper marveled. "That's a very interesting way for one to manifest. Eleazar will be intrigued."

Eleazar? I thought. There's another vampire?

"No, there aren't more of us," Edward answered my thought. "He's one of our Denali cousins we mentioned."

"Do you think he would be open to trying our hunting, as you have?" Carlisle distracted me from being annoyed that Edward had answered a private thought again. "You both would be welcome, if that's what you want?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. He wanted to check on his family, make sure they were okay, and then I think he was planning to travel a bit. I was going to go with him, but…"

"We're not forcing you to stay and join us," Carlisle assured. "If you wish, you can go with him, now that you know that you must be careful. We do at least need to tell him that."

"Oh, no, I do want to stay," I said. "At least temporarily. I just don't know what Fred would choose. And he does know that we need to be careful, we sort of worked that out just before he took off."

"Well, we will extend the invitation," Esme said. "Who's going to go with Bree to talk with him?"

"It'll be me and Rosalie," Alice said. "He'll find us less intimidating than anyone else."

"All right then," I said. "He only said he'd wait for a day, so we should probably go soon."

"No need to rush," Rosalie said. "It won't take us that long to get to Vancouver, a few hours at most. But it will probably be best done at night, so we'll leave at dusk."

"Okay, let's get ready then," Alice said, smiling, clearly excited for the trip. And despite myself, I was, too.