Hi everybody, this is the first chapter of my story. Hope you'll enjoy it. If you like, please leave a comment 'cause I'll appreciate it very much.
P.S. Of course, always remember, I don't own anything. The characters and other things are property of Stephanie Meyer.
Another P.S. I'm just learning how to use this site so forgive me and, remember, I'm not English so if you find some mistakes well... Please, forgive me.
It was the first day of spring.
Somewhat strange and unusual, the sun shone bright on the streets of Forks, making the atmosphere almost pleasant.
Despite the fact that five years had passed since we moved to Alaska, the wettest city of America under the constant cloud cover had not changed at all.
Or, at least, I hoped so.
I was walking pretty fast for a human being, but I was alone.
Well, of course, except for Edward.
"Do you say there is still?" - I asked, looking at the immense forest that surrounded us.
"Of course. How could it be no more? It's the most beautiful place in Forks!" - Edward answered by putting his right arm on my back and gently kissing my forehead.
"Well, it's been five years... a lot's changed, it doesn't mean... you know, maybe Forks has changed, too." - I said, leaning on my vampire.
All of a sudden, as we were walking, he stopped and turned to me and held my arms tightly and looked at me with those wonderful, mesmerizing honey-colored eyes.
"Bella, listen to me, it is true that these last years have been extremely difficult and hard for all of us. But I assure you, at least that hasn't changed. Look for yourself." - and when he had finished speaking, he made me turn and I was astonished to see our flowery meadow beyond the trees.
I gave Edward a mischievous smile and began to run through the thick vegetation.
Even though he had not spoken words, Edward clearly knew what my intent was: to challenge him to see who arrived first in the meadow.
In recent years we had often done races but, they were all won by him.
And yet, something told me that today I had an extra chance of winning.
He was the fastest Cullen, it's true, but... Who knows... Of course, it'll take less than a blink of an eye to reach me.
While I was extremely focused on the goal, I could feel Edward's gaze staring at me with that smile of his that could charm anyone.
Even though I put all my best efforts and all my efforts into it, he won anyway even though I reached him after a few seconds.
He held me in his strong arms and girded my life.
He kissed my lips sweetly and stood looking at me with a very sweet look.
It was the same look he gave me when I found him in Volterra.
Although eight years had passed since that day, Edward still could not understand that we were together and that we would never break up.
"And so you thought you could beat me? Ah, my Bella... I'll stay the fastest of our family for eternity!" - Edward laughed.
I, however, did not give much weight to his words, as I was too busy observing the splendor of our lawn.
"It's even better than I remember it. I don't think it's been five years." - I was so mesmerized by that show that I was not prepared for Edward's move that I was surprised.
In a moment, we were on the ground, I was on him and he held me to him laughing like a child on Christmas Day.
I couldn't find the strength to be angry with him so I started to laugh too.
Our laughter grew stronger when we began to roll in the immense flowery meadow.
After a few seconds we stopped, I was still lying and Edward got up on his right elbow to look at me.
Then he turned to me and caught my lips with a passionate kiss.
When we parted, our fronts remained united and we closed our eyes.
I wanted that moment to last forever, just me and him in our personal bubble.
Edward sat down and I leaned on him.
I started to play with a daisy that came out of the ground and I thought about all the times we went to that place.
One of the most beautiful memories that came to mind was when I showed Edward all of our best moments together through my shield.
"It's beautiful, you're right. But I think this splendor is due to your presence." - said my vampire, kissing me on the neck.
"Well, I could say the same for you. Come on, I may be a vampire, but I'm not as pretty as Rosalie, Esme or..."- I suddenly froze and couldn't pronounce my favorite sister's name.
Although I was a vampire and could not cry, I felt my eyes filled with tears and Edward held me tighter.
"You're beautiful. Never think, not even remotely, not to be. Besides, it's not just the outward beauty that matters. What really matters is the inner one and you are an extraordinary woman." - and after telling me this, she gently kissed my forehead.
Then, at that moment, something happened that hadn't happened for years now: Edward began to sob.
The only time I remember what happened was when Renesmee was born and she thought she'd lost me forever; and the last time was when... We learned of a terrible event.
We were in each other's arms, in the distance we could hear Rosalie and Emmett laugh.
"Looks like Emmett managed to catch a grizzly bear." - said Edward.
Before visiting our meadow, all four of us went hunting.
Although it had been five years since I became a vampire, unlike my husband and foster brothers, I had not yet found my favorite prey.
Several times Emmett and Edward had tried to convince me to prefer the grizzly bear and the mountain lion respectively but without results.
Every animal I found was fine, I wasn't particularly attracted to anyone.
"How about one of these days we go see Charlie? I miss him and I think he'd love to see us." - I said lying on the lawn, being imitated almost at the same time by my vampire.
"I think that would be a good idea, considering you haven't seen him in five years, but you should go alone. I'm not one of his favorite people despite knowing me for years now. I'd like to avoid some drama about the fact that I kidnapped his daughter and took her to Alaska."- Edward laughed back.
I laughed with him too. "Yeah, maybe you're right. He's not over the fact that we got married at 18. Let alone have a daughter soon after the wedding. He loves Renesmee very much but disapproves of the fact that we had her so young."- I said.
"Do you think he really believes in the whole adoption thing? I mean, she looks a lot like us, she has your eyes..."- said Edward thoughtfully.
"No, he doesn't. He made it clear the first time he met her. You're not very smart for a vampire. Yet you're a mind reader." - I said, making him laugh again.
He turned to me, smiling gently.
"How about we go home? We could help Esme unpack his bags." - Edward said, giving me his hand to help me up.
"Sure, especially your sheet music. Remember when we just got to Alaska and Emmett mixed up all your sheet music? Seriously, it was horrible, while you were playing my lullaby, a Chopin song came out!"- Edward agreed with me.
"This reminds me of one thing: I promised I would take his Playstation for at least a week... It might have slipped my mind then, but now I'm definitely going to. Rather, you wanted to challenge me first... How about we race from here to our house?" - Edward said.
Of course I agreed and so our race began.
Emmett and Rosalie were still enjoying the hunt, so they would join us later.
It wasn't a problem, since Emmett certainly wouldn't have helped much.
While we were running, I paused briefly to observe all the details of the forest that surrounded our house.
I still remembered the first time I went hunting with Edward in the same woods.
I was still running, but suddenly I realized that my vampire had stopped.
I was confused.
He reached me walking at a human pace after a few seconds. Now we were a few meters away from our house.
"Why did you stop? I want a fair race, you must not let me win!" - I said with impatient tone. Edward, however, girded my life and whispered in my ear.
"Our race can wait. There's a wonderful surprise waiting for us at home. Come on, come on." - took my hand and started to walk at a medium-fast pace.
"You know I don't like surprises, you already know what it is, so tell me." - I said in a frustrated way.
But he just smiled at me.
After a few minutes we arrived in front of our house and it was then that he understood what was the surprise to which Edward was referring.
"Renesmee?!" - couldn't say anything else so I was happy.
In the arms of Esme, in fact, there was just my beautiful girl; although I could no longer call her child, in those months when she had been away with Jacob had grown up again, seemed to be the age of a high school.
"Mom! Dad!" - she exclaimed with an excited smile and ran towards me and Edward.
We hugged so much, I could feel the tears of our daughter wet the shirt I was wearing.
It had been three months since she left, and there was not a day when I hadn't missed her terribly.
Renesmee slowly separated from us and stayed to watch us.
"You've become a beautiful young lady Renesmee. You've grown so much these past few months, you've become practically an adult." - said, sweetly, Edward.
"Well, actually now considering the age of humans, I look like a girl of about fifteen. From now on, my growth will proceed very slowly until it stops completely and I look like a 17-year-old." - laughed, Renesmee said.
Listening to those words made me feel sad because it seemed only yesterday that I had discovered I was waiting for her.
"Bella! Edward!" - I turned around and saw Jacob coming towards us.
I couldn't help but be annoyed when I saw him kissing Renesmee.
But the worst reaction was Edward, in fact he growled menacingly at Jake.
He soon separated from her and Renesmee ran to hug Rosalie and Emmett who had just returned from the hunt.
"Jake, would you please not kiss our daughter in front of us? I am a woman of peace but I do not think I could stop Edward from a possible aggression against you." - I said making everyone laugh.
Renesmee came to me and Edward again.
"So, where are the others? I've missed you all these months. By the way, Mom, I visited Grandma Renée while we were in Florida. Did you know that she doesn't live in Jacksonville anymore? She and Phil have bought a beautiful villa near the beach in Miami!" - this left me particularly surprised as my mother had never told me anything, and I also did not explain where they had found all that money... It was something I was gonna talk to my mom about later.
"Well, your mom and I are here. Rosalie and Emmett have just returned from the hunt, Esme is there on the porch, Carlisle is in hospital and... Jasper is... He is in his room and Alice."- Edward said in a tense voice.
At that moment, all of Nessie's happiness went away, giving way to a deep sense of sadness.
In a way, it was the emotion that we all shared even though we tried to do our best to move forward.
"Look, I understand his pain, I really do. But he could at least come and say hello to his niece. I don't think being in there is going to help him much." - said Jacob.
"No, you don't understand his pain, dog! He's lost his only love! How would you feel if you were in his situation?!" - screamed Rosalie.
"Rose, stop! Is it possible that you can not behave in a civilized manner with Jacob? Quarrels are not what we need now!" - Esme scolded her.
Here we go again, I thought.
Although it was a long time since they first met, there was still no good blood between them.
But as I pondered this, another thing popped into my mind: Renée had never been made aware of Renesmee's existence... Nessie knew not to tell him, because Renée could never understand how it was possible that he was so great... Edward read my thoughts because I had the shield lowered.
"Don't worry, she and Jacob didn't speak directly to her. They simply went to see her to make sure she was okay. Renée is safe and knows nothing." - these words reassured me.
The Volturi threat was always there, we couldn't risk my mother getting involved in this situation.
"Can you all calm down, please?! Renesmee and Jacob have just returned and there are already all these arguments!" - shouted Carlisle, arriving near our house.
"Carlisle but how can you not understand? Jacob was with us and knows how much we still suffer for Alice!" - cried Rosalie.
"Rose, that's enough! You have no right to attack Jacob like that!" - I shouted. Rosalie looked at me with a look full of hate.
Sometimes you and I used to get old disagreements back on.
I heard Edward growling beside me and then I saw him jump towards Rosalie, being stopped immediately by Emmett.
Emmett hurled at Edward and threw him toward a tree and we heard Esme's concerned screams and Carlisle's exasperation.
Carlisle was about to scream at Emmett and Edward, when we felt a wave of calm enveloping us all.
There was only one person who could create such an atmosphere: we all looked up to our house and I was the first to see it: Jasper looked out at the window of the main living room.
He wasn't watching us, though.
His eyes were black, surrounded by purple circles, not only due to thirst but above all to the inner pain he felt.
I didn't even know how much effort it took to project that calm.
It was a feeling that certainly did not correspond to his usual mood.
Since Alice disappeared, his mood had always been characterized by pain, guilt, loss, anger... It was as if his body had been broken in half.
A part of him was as if anesthetized due to the lack of his soul mate.
He never left the house, not even to go hunting.
Most of the time, Edward, Emmett, or any of us were forced to take his prey directly home to feed him.
In the early days after Alice disappeared, he tried to starve himself to death.
He refused to quench his growing thirst, even knowing that it would not be enough to kill him.
We had been looking for Alice for so long... In the early days, we'd set up shifts to find her.
It was two weeks after the confrontation with the Volturi when he suddenly disappeared.
For a while, I thought Alice did it on purpose, but then I realized it was impossible.
Alice's disappearance has led to terrible consequences for all of us: we moved to Alaska, near the Denali clan to look for her.
As the months went by, the hope of its discovery became increasingly dim, until it disappeared altogether.
Everyone had reacted in their own way: Carlisle had thrown himself headlong into his work as a doctor and rarely came home only to spend a little time with Esme and to go hunting with us.
Esme had lost a daughter again; she had never really overcome the pain of her son's death when she was human, and Alice's disappearance had reminded her of those memories; she sobbed every day and no longer decorated the house.
Rosalie no longer repaired cars and did not care much about her appearance.
Emmett was no longer joking, rarely smiling and had become extremely protective of Rosalie, in fact he hardly ever left her.
Edward devoted himself exclusively to me and Renesmee, almost no longer played the piano and, like Emmett, never left our side.
He was one of those who suffered most as he could hear the thoughts of all of us.
When it became too much for him to bear, he blocked our minds.
I felt terrible, Alice was my favorite sister, I lost her again but this time it was even worse than the first time because at least then I knew she was with family.
Renesmee often traveled with Jacob, mostly to distract herself.
The last time she left, three months ago, she cried because she didn't want to leave us but she couldn't bear not to see Alice anymore.
Although they had only been together for a short time, they had established a wonderful bond that everyone lacked.
But, of course, the one who suffered most of all was Jasper. Alice was everything to him and without her he felt lost.
In the early days, his room in Anchorage's house was periodically destroyed by his outbursts of anger.
Our attempts to convince him to go forward were of no use, he refused to feed and do anything, arguing that even if Alice died, then he would follow her.
Fortunately, we were able to dissuade him, but the pain of losing Alice did not seem to subside.
Jasper and I had never been particularly close, indeed.
When I was human he tried to avoid me as much as possible to avoid killing me.
Ever since I became a vampire, the early days mostly worried that I wouldn't lose control of humans, but we weren't really brothers.
In a way, I think it was a mutual feeling: there was respect between us, but that affection we had for the other family members, between us was practically nonexistent.
But after the disappearance of Alice, something was born between us: the others were devastated by that loss... But I... I was the only one besides Edward who really understood Jasper's state of mind.
Because we lost our soul mate for a time, too.
Unlike Edward who preferred to keep his distance, however, I had approached him and spent a lot of time consoling him.
As a result of this, Jasper and I had developed a deep friendship and finally we both considered each other brothers.
But unfortunately, not even my affection and Edward was enough.
I hoped that at least with the return of Nessie things could change.
What I didn't know then, though, was that the surprises had yet to begin.
As I pondered this, I did not realize that Jasper had gone away from the window and had returned to his and Alice's old room.
"Jasper will not come to greet you and Renesmee personally because he has not been fed for over a week and fears that he will not be able to curb his thirst for blood. Anyway, he sends his regards and he's glad you're back." - said Edward, addressed to Jacob.
"It's not a problem, I understand perfectly Uncle Jasper. I think it would be the same thing that any of you would do if you were in his situation so I'm not going to blame him. Rather... I don't know about you, but Jacob and I have been looking for Aunt Alice these past few months." - Renesmee said.
This attracted the attention of all of us, as we had practically stopped looking for it for months.
The worst thing was that, in recent times, Jasper had started to go out for hunting, although rarely.
On those rare dates, he kept looking for Alice.
Just before he returned to Forks, he told all of us that he had decided to look for her all over the United States.
Every week he would go to a different one and of course he wanted us to follow him, but none of us had the courage to tell him that we had surrendered.
We'd been looking for her for five years, hopes of finding her, even though we were all vampires... they were pretty slim.
"When we were in Canada, Nessie and I started a new line of research and, although we didn't get much results, we found something that we could use." - said Jacob.
"Perhaps it would be better to continue this conversation inside the house. Come."- Carlisle invited all of us to come in.
Once we entered, we all sat in one of the living rooms where I had spent practically my entire pregnancy, minus Jasper.
Carlisle was standing and sitting on the armchair next to him was Esme.
Rosalie was sitting on the other armchair and Emmett was standing next to her.
In front of the armchairs, on the couch, Edward, Renesmee and I were sitting.
Standing, in front of the fireplace, Jacob was sitting.
"Right after we went to Florida, we went to Canada. We stayed there for about three weeks and during that time we noticed quite strange events. We rented a small apartment outside downtown Vancouver. Often, during the night, from the window of our house there were flames. Nessie and I did some research and found out that there were a lot of missing citizens in the city for months. One night, Nessie and I went to one of the most important forests in Vancouver. And that's when we saw her: a woman, precisely a vampire who I assume has been around for a long time. She was feeding on humans and then throwing carcasses into the fire. But the weird thing was, she didn't kill everyone she caught, some of them were left alive and taken away with him." - explained Jacob.
"Wait... How was this vampire? Did you see her, honey?" - I said to my daughter.
"No. Jake didn't take me with him on the grounds that it was too dangerous for me. Like I was a human who needs to be protected at all costs. All this is ridiculous and you know it well!" - Nessie answered, annoyed, turning to Jacob.
"Stop it, Nessie! I didn't know what I was getting into myself, how I could take you with me. I know you can handle it on your own, but that wasn't the occasion to prove it!" - said Jacob, extremely annoyed.
Renesmee tightened her eyes, I knew that that gesture meant that she was getting angry and in fact even the pupils darkened, becoming almost black.
Then she calmed down, although for a moment I seemed to see on her face a strange grimace, as if she had a pain somewhere.
But I did not give much weight as she headed out, on the porch.
"Nessie go on, come back here!" - said Jacob, following the.
"She will come back, quiet. She's angry and frustrated with you because you didn't include her in the overnight expedition. But that doesn't mean she doesn't love you anymore. She just wants to be alone. Instead, she keeps telling us this vampire story." - Edward said, stopping Jake.
"Sure... Well, I didn't find out much anymore. I tried to follow her, but I think she left the state after that night. I couldn't leave Nessie and follow her because I didn't know where to start." - he concluded, leaning against the fireplace.
"What did she look like?" - Suddenly we heard Jasper's voice.
We all turned to him in amazement and at that moment Edward made a moan of frustration.
Sometimes I hated that she knew things before we did.
"She was tall, she had long black hair and her eyes were red. He wore a dress not belonging to this era and many jewels." - said Jacob.
Jasper's jaw tightened and tightened his eyes black as if he had not hunted for months.
Then he said a name that upset all of us, except Edward.
"Maria."- the realization left us amazed.
Of course, how could we not have thought of it before?
She had been Jasper's partner for so long, and she certainly never forgave him for breaking up with her and getting involved with Alice.
But Jasper and Alice had been together for decades... Why separate them right now?
And, above all, what was her intent?
A loud noise of broken objects interrupted my reflections: Jasper had thrown the table, which was between the armchairs and the sofa, against the wall of the fireplace.
Esme made a grimace half annoyed and half sorry.
Every piece of furniture inside the house was chosen or even built by her.
"What do we do now? Are we going to Mexico or wherever that psycho's coven was?" - said Emmett.
"I don't think that's the best move to make right now, because we don't even know where to go." - said Carlisle.
"The last time I spoke to Peter and Charlotte they told me that they knew that Maria had conquered other territories in the South, but she had always remained mainly in our old land of Monterrey. So I think that's where we should start, and I'd say there's not a minute to lose."- Jasper answered and headed to the front door.
"Jasper, wait. We can't just go to Mexico all of a sudden. Maria's coven is one of the most dangerous, lethal and numerous. I do not know exactly how many members there are, but certainly not a few and we are clearly outnumbered. Going there now would mean condemning us to certain death."- Carlisle said.
An intense wave of anger overwhelmed all of us and almost the door handle that was held back by Jasper did not shatter.
"So what do you suggest, Carlisle? I can't just leave her there! You did not live with Maria as I did, you do not know how much pain and suffering there are! If Maria forced her to become who I was the more we leave her there, the more we lose all hope of having her back. Maria is extremely persuasive, she will not let go easily and, above all, if she made her puppet she will surely have also made her a drinker of human blood. I can't let her stay there and suffer like this! You ask me, I thought you'd be the first to support me! If it was Esme... What would you do? I've been trained by you, I know all your strengths and weaknesses. I trained all of you, including Alice, to fight against Victoria's newborns. We can beat her and her army."- said Jasper with an extremely harsh and sour tone.
"Jasper, dear, it is not that Carlisle does not want to save Alice. She is our daughter, we love her with all our heart and we miss her to death, but we must also admit that we are not strong enough to defeat Mary and her army. We must first devise a plan." - Esme gently answered.
Jasper's frustration was evident and could be felt by everyone in the room.
We knew that staying there, thinking that Alice was probably suffering, was killing him but Carlisle and Esme were right.
"Think about a plan. One appropriate and precise. Then you will tell me." - said Jasper and then left the house.
"Don't tell me you're thinking of going to Mexico alone!" - exclaimed Rosalie.
"He decided to go hunting. He hasn't fed for over three weeks, he had to hold his breath in front of Jacob and Renesmee."- explained Edward.
I sighed, things were certainly not easy and they were getting more and more complicated.