DUE TO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE TWO 'ROSE'S, IN TWILIGHT AND IN VAMPIRE ACADEMY, ROSALIE CULLEN WILL BE NAMED WITH HER FULL NAME, AND ROSE HATHAWAY WILL BE JUST 'ROSE'

Chapter Five: Bella Cullen

The trip to the big white house where the rest of the Cullens lounged was much shorter than the last one. I could still tell that Rose was wary of us, but she was much more warmed up to us than earlier this morning. I picked up the pace a little, as I began to realize the time. Charlie would be at the house soon, and I needed to be there for him so he didn't freak out in the midst of all the Cullens.

He might not have known what we actually were, but he still knew that we weren't exactly human.

"Listen, I don't know exactly what your diet is like, but we're about to meet with my human father, so if you could just—" I began, turning to walk backwards and stare at the four others behind me.

I got strange looks from Rose and Christian, while Lissa and Dmitri gave me an understanding nod.

In some way that I had no way of knowing, Dmitri and Lissa were the ones who understood me and Edward and seemingly the rest of us too. I turned back to walk forwards, surprised that we were already at the river.

Without giving it another thought, Edward and I leapt over, Jacob on our heels in his wolf form as he took a flying leap. We landed about fifty yards away, turning to let the others catch up.

The others were just staring at us from across the river, mouths agape and eyes wide as they simply stared. Even Dmitri, who from the first glance I'd intuited that he was more the stronge, silent sort of man. But he looked as dumbfounded as the others.

I blushed. I'd forgotten that they couldn't move as fast as we could, nor did they seem to have the strength we did. After securing Renesmee on Jacob's back, I took a step and leapt back over the river, landing in front of the group of four again.

"Here, who wants to be first?" I asked sheepishly.

Their eyes, if possible, widened even more as I made the offer. Edward landed beside me, a smile playing on his lips as he evidently read amusing things from their thoughts.

It took a few moments for them to respond, but finally, Lissa blinked. She stepped forward and opened her mouth, but before she could respond, another voice spoke up.

"I'll go," Rose suddenly said, stepping forward. She eyed me, but there was a new flash of emotion in her eyes. Something that looked like begrudged admiration. "I'll go first."

I gave her a sort of mischievous smile, and held out my hand. "Hold on tight."

She grinned back, calling my bluff as she took my hand. I swung around, grabbing her under the arms, as I tensed my legs. Though she and I were pretty equal heights, I lifted her off the ground as I prepared the jump, calculating the best angle to land so I wouldn't hurt her.

"Uh, Bella?" she asked, sounding confused.

"Like I said, hold on tight," I said, a smile fighting to appear on my mouth.

I sprang forward.

Admittedly, I got ahead of myself and put more power than was strictly necessary in this leap. Instead of simply leaping forward, I rocketed upward.

A scream burst from Rose's lips, but quickly it turned into whooping as we began to plummet back towards the ground. I hit the ground adeptly, and placed her back on her feet, before turning and jumping back. Lissa was the next one to step forward, while Edward grabbed Christian. Both of us jumped at the same moment, and midair Lissa grabbed Christian's hand as we began the descent.

It took both of us to each grab one of Dmitri's arms. He was just so massive that even though either of us could probably have carried him with relative ease, he was simply just too big for a single seventeen-year-old-sized teenager to carry. He landed, curling into a roll as we hit the other side of the river. He came up on his feet, and brushed off his leather duster as if he had been born to participate in those sorts of jumps.

"Well, that was interesting," he said, looking up and automatically performing a headcount. "Shall we continue?"

Rose honestly looked thrilled, and for the first time since I'd actually met her, she had a big grin on her face.

"That was fun!" she said. "You guys can do that whenever you want?"

I grinned. "I know, right? Exhilarating."

Edward coughed into his fist behind me. Immediately I knew that he was thinking of the first time he showed me how fast he could run. He had described it as exhilarating as well. My weak human senses couldn't cope with the speed like he could at the time, so I'd denied this fact at the time.

Ah, how foolish I'd been.

I gave him a smirk and a wink, before walking over to Rose.

"Maybe later we can do it again," I said, giving her a grin.

Her expression, though it automatically retained some of its previous animation, became mostly business again.

"I probably can't. Lissa will need someone to guard her at all—"

"Based on how you saw us fight just a few minutes ago, do you think my family could handle it?" I asked, half-sarcastically.

Rose smiled at me, looking at me out of the corner of my eye. As we turned the corner to the house, I heard six heartbeats inside. I knew after only a few moments that they belonged to Jacob, Renesmee, Seth, Charlie, Sue, and Leah. My smile wavered as I realized Leah would be there tonight, but I was happy to see that Sue had allowed Seth to come. Even if she didn't exactly trust us enough to leave him here without backup from Leah.

We walked up to the front door, and as Rose raised her hand to knock, Carlisle appeared and opened the door to us.

"Welcome, Bella!" he said warmly. Surveying the others in our group only took a moment, but his friendly grin grew wider. "And guests, too! Come on in!"

As everyone filed in, I locked eyes with Charlie, who was staring at me intently. He didn't look angry, he just looked as bewildered as every by my subtle changes. Sue stood behind him, comforting by placing a hand on his shoulder, though she glanced worriedly at Seth, who came up and gave Edward a fist-bump. Leah scowled only mildly in her corner of the room; this was one of her better moods, whenever she came over.

Despite some of the things she had said to me while I was human, I didn't really begrudge her for it. She was doing what she thought was right at the time, even if she could've coated it in a little honey first.

I made my way over to Charlie, who raised an eyebrow at me as I approached. I didn't need to be a mind-reader like Edward to know that he was curious about our guests.

"Some friends that we found in the woods. We got to know each other, and Edward and I invited them over."

Sue clenched her hand on Charlie's shoulder a little as her eyes darted between all of us, waiting for some kind of ambush.

"You can relax, Mrs. Clearwater," Carlisle said, walking up with a warm and inviting smile on his face.

"Honestly, we won't bite," Emmett said from the other corner, looking up for a moment from his and Rosalie's game of checkers.

Before Sue could manage to bring the color back into his face, and before I could think of a way to subtly strangle Emmett, Carlisle gestured to the rest of us towards the table, which was laden with many sorts of human foods.

"Please, help yourselves whenever you get hungry," he said, his smile full of friendliness as always. "Edward made the bruschetta himself."

I watched as Rose subtly grabbed one of the appealing appetizers, and quickly popped it in her mouth. Her eyes lit up, but she kept her face placid as she chewed. I grinned. Edward really was getting the hang of cooking. Not that he would really need it, but it was always nice to have another skill.

Seth and Jacob both bounded towards the table at the same time, Jacob leaping over an easy-chair as he went, and began filling two large plates each with some of everything on the table. Esme and I locked eyes, and she gave me a playful eye-roll. She knew that having three werewolves in the house would cut into the supply of emergency food we kept here.

It also turned out that Dmitri and Rose had large appetites as well. But while Dmitri went for some of the healthier, more nutritious foods, Rose went right for the sweets. And bacon. Good lord, I've never seen anyone pack away so much bacon.

Eventually, I made my way back over to Edward. He was studying the thoughts in the room with a thoughtful look on his face as he pretended to be focusing on the piano.

As I sat down, the song transformed into my lullaby, and I closed my eyes as he played to further appreciate the tinkling lilt of the music in my new ears. I smiled unconsciously as I realized that I may never truly get over the quality of my new life.

As my lullaby ended, Edward finally having found the closing bridge on a triumphal note, I turned. He kept playing, going on to play Esme's favorite song, and Renesmee's melody, but I got to smile back at the shocked faces of our guests as they heard Edward play. Dmitri set down his plate to listen studiously, while Rose just stared on in bewildered wonder, several pieces of bacon still in her mouth.

Truly, he was a master at the piano, and had the perfect senses for timing and key that not even the most skilled humans could master. His music was weaving enchantments over the room, and I could see the pleasant tunes being as an effective relaxant as Jasper's power. Jasper was smiling widely as Alice sat in his lap and stared into the fire; he must be on an emotional high at this point.

I smiled and turned back around, to see Edward, smiling at me.

"We have an audience," I muttered, too low for normal humans to hear.

"I know," Edward said, playing a trill that I wasn't sure normal mortals could play quickly enough. "I can hear them."

When Edward finished playing, I was substantially surprised to see that while I had been focusing mainly on Dmitri's and Rose's reactions, Lissa and Christian had gone over to talk with the adults.

She only looked about eighteen, and Christian looked no older, but they were both holding their own in a conversation with the adults.

But what actually surprised me about the scene was seeing Leah sitting lightly on the arm of the sofa that Lissa and Christian were sitting on.

If any of the rest of us had sat down on that sofa, Leah probably would have gone outside. But there she sat, next to the two moroi, listening intently and occasionally interjecting something into the conversation. As she saw me staring, she gave me a look. What?

I just smiled and shook my head. Renesmee was yawning in my arms, having been sleeping for the past hour. Seeing that we were all at Carlisle's house, she giggled happily and jumped out of my arms.

Charlie was long accustomed to the fact that Renesmee could walk at such a young age. He was conforming much easier than I thought he would have. The first thing Renesmee did was to run over to Dmitri and Rose, and reach up as though she would suddenly grow tall enough to touch them on the forehead.

Though Rose did not seem to think of what Renesmee might have wanted, Dmitri was compliant, and came down to one knee. Renesmee looked at Charlie once, and seeing that he was looking away, touched Dmitri's head gently.

I sighed. She was supposed to use her voice when Charlie was over, but she still preferred to use her normal method of conversations.

Dmitri gave her a friendly smile, and in one easy motion had lifted her up and placed her on top of his shoulders. Renesmee giggled happily and daintily tucked her legs under Dmitri's arms, securing herself.

Jacob glanced over at Dmitri as soon as Renesmee wanted to be lifted up, but resumed eating when he saw that Dmitri would not be a threat to her safety.

After a few minutes, when Renesmee had had her fun being the tallest person in the room, she leaned down and touched Dmitri's head again. This time, he removed her from his shoulders and set her down. Renesmee turned to Rose, and reached up high.

This time, Rose knelt down, her eyes studying Renesmee's angelic face as Renesmee reached out. Rose automatically flinched as the hand came closer, but as it touched her face, the expression on her face transformed to one of wonder.

Chapter Six: Rose Hathaway

There was no way that this tiny person in front of me was only four years old. When she had reached out to touch my face, I was expecting the rough touch of a toddler, which often could be confused with a light slap.

But she surprised me again. This wasn't an infant's smack, but an adult woman's caress. I opened my eyes wide as she smiled at me again, her sparkling teeth mesmerizing.

I'd felt compulsion before. It felt engulfing, possessing, even corruptive, compared to this. This felt like simple questions of respect; it was my choice whether or not to do what she wanted me to, and she would not question me if I said no.

I could tell that there was no magic flowing between us. She was not casting any sort of spell on me. She was simply smiling, and it was simply entrancing.

I heard her voice suddenly in my head, her pleasant, beautiful voice echoing through my thoughts.

"Hello," her voice said, as clearly as though she were speaking before me. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you as well, Renesmee," I said, blinking.

"Thank you," Renesmee's voice said, in perfect English. "I like your necklace. It's very pretty."

My fingers found the silver chain around my neck. The nazar that my mother had given to me.

"Thank you," I said, smiling. Her smile was so contagious, I couldn't hold it anymore.

Usually, I didn't like people messing with my emotions, naturally or with compulsion. But with this girl, it didn't feel intrusive. More like she was simply wanting to know me. It was just so easy to be happy around her.

She smiled again, and the picture flashed into my mind of me, holding her at eye-level and talking with her.

Dmitri glanced down at us from the corner of his eye and smiled, before resuming a guardian-like stance against the wall, surveying the room.

I lifted Renesmee up into the air, and she perched lightly on my arm as I held her eye-level with me. She weighed more than expected, but like much of my interactions with her before, it wasn't unpleasant. She weighed enough that it took extra effort, but her smile and her kind manners made up for it.

Across the room, I noted Bella smiling proudly at Renesmee, who contentedly sat in my arms and settled herself against my shoulder, taking some of her weight upon herself to hold up.

"Your necklace is very pretty, Rose," she said clearly, in good English. Her real voice was just like the voice I heard in my head, and I smiled as she gently traced the figure of the necklace on my neckline. "Where'd you get it?"

"My mother gave it to me," I said. "Just like my father gave her one."

"That's nice of her," Renesmee said, more quietly. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes. "Do you think she might get me one too?"

I shrugged. "Probably not, but she might if she got to know you."

"Will she be visiting you while you stay with us?" she asked, just staring at the glass eye staring right back at her.

"I don't think so. She's in another country right now, and we won't be staying long enough for anyone to visit us anyway," I said, impulsively moving a bronze curl aside to get a better view of her eyes.

Renesmee frowned, and even then her expression remained graceful. "You're going away?"

I nodded. "Yes, we'll be leaving in a few days."

Renesmee looked up at me, reaching up and touching my cheek gingerly.

"I don't want you to leave us," her voice said, complementing her sad pout.

I just stared for a minute. When I found my voice again, I whispered, "Dang, girl, you practice that pout a little more and you're gonna have the guys falling over for you at age seven."

Renesmee's expression changed, distracted from her plea for the moment. She smiled, and glanced over at the large, well-toned young man who was stuffing his face with as much food as he could come across. Despite the way he was eating, he was ripped, and I was instantly jealous of his metabolism. His dark hair swept across his eyes as he locked eyes with Renesmee and me. Renesmee reached up and touched my cheek again as she smiled at the young man.

"I'll only want Jacob," she said in my mind. I gave her a dubious glance as I turned away from Jacob's staring. How on earth had this four-year-old already chosen a boyfriend for her future self?! And she said it with such absoluteness, it sounded like it was a predetermined fact that Jacob would fall for her, even though he would probably be, like, forty, by the time she was twenty.

I sighed mentally. I guess I couldn't really judge. I glanced at Dmitri, then back at Renesmee again.

"She's really something, isn't she?" I suddenly heard Bella's voice say.

I hadn't noticed but she'd gotten up, at some point while I was distracted, and glided over to me. She stood to my side, a small, slightly impishly grin on her face as I jumped. Renesmee simply shifted in my arms to smile at her mother as I rolled my eyes.

"Dang, you're so silent!" I said. It was a strange and rare occurrence that someone could sneak up on me. "A little warning next time?"

Bella laughed, a rich, high-peal of bells like her daughter's.

"Sorry. I keep forgetting that…" she said, dropping into a whisper. "…You're not exactly like us."

"Honestly," I agreed, shrugging.

"Are you enjoying yourself? Over here in the corner of everything?" She asked, standing beside me and folding her hands like mine.

"Eh. Could be worse," I said, shrugging. This was just what I was expected to do, for… pretty much the rest of my life. I'd get breaks occasionally, but it was just what I was born and raised to do. Protect Lissa. They come first.

Bella was studying my face carefully as these thoughts came through my mind.

"Is it Lissa?" she asked suddenly. I turned and gave her a quizzical look. "Why you're just standing over here, I mean. Is it because of Lissa?"

I breathed outwardly. "I don't know how you do that!"

Bella's mouth quirked into a small smile again, as Renesmee reached out for her again. She took her and began speaking again. "I may not be able to read minds like Edward—" she began.

"He can what now?" I thought, suddenly blushing. Had he heard anything embarrassing? I was mortified as I glanced over at Edward and saw him turn to me and wink, with a laughing sort of grin on his face. Oh crap. Bella ignored my comment and continued.

"—but I don't have to be to recognize your 'business face'," she explained. "Your face goes placid, and you hold yourself a certain way when you go into your guardian mode. You fold your hands and stand with your legs slightly apart, like you were about to give orders to army troops.

"But tonight, you can rest assured that Lissa will be safe. Edward, Jacob, and I took out six of those Strigoi things within ten seconds, just by ourselves. With ten of us here, I doubt even a whole contingent of Strigoi could enter this house. You can relax a little, Rose."

I just stared at her as she made this longer-than-usual speech.

"Edward can what?!" I asked again.

Bella smiled in amusement. "I'll tell you later. When my father and the Clearwaters leave."

I stared at her for a minute. She glanced back, still smiling.

"What?" she asked.

"I—" I said, wondering how far this would take me later, "I want the full explanation. Later, like you said, but I want the full story."

Bella's eyes grew serious. "It's a long story," she said, gauging my response.

"I can keep up," I said, my eyes boring into hers. I realized, possibly for the first time tonight, that her eyes were now brown. Chocolate brown. What the—

Then I saw the lenses. Oh. She was wearing contacts, probably to hide her red eyes from the humans in the room.

Bella smiled at me before turning back to the rest of the room. "If you insist," she said, making the words sound more like singing than normal speaking. Suddenly, though, another thought seemed to occur to her. "But you can't tell anyone about what I will tell you later."

She said it with a dangerous note to her voice. A shiver trailed down my spine, as I realized how dangerous Bella could be if she wanted to. Or any of them, for that matter.

"I know better than to reveal secrets, Bella," I said, rolling my eyes. "You can trust me."

She smiled again, her smile dazzling, but somehow not nearly as enchanting as her daughter's.

"Then tonight, I'll tell you as much as I can," she said perkily. "If you can stay over."

I felt my mouth twitch. "Even if I can't, you can bet I'm going to show up."

Bella flashed another glance at me out of the corner of her eyes, and laughed as she saw I was doing the same thing.

"Deal," she said, before walking away. I watched her glide across the floor, so smoothly it looked more like she was floating.

By tonight, I'd finally be able to figure out what she was. Once and for all. And if she was a threat, how to eliminate her, possibly.