I NEED YOU!

That's right, readers. I desperately need your guys' and girls' help. I'm just not sassy enough (on paper) for any good replies, quips, comments, and comebacks from Rose Hathaway. For the snarky or sassy of you out there or the "Rose-Hathaway-Response-Experts" out there, I need your help. Just PM me some things you guys think Rose might say at any given time. I'll also take suggestions that require a certain situation, if needs be. Just try to be specific if possible! Thanks so much for the support, and please leave a review to tell me what you think! :)

Chapter Seven: Bella Cullen

Rose seemed to be enjoying herself, talking in the corner with Renesmee, who was already fond of our guests. I watched from my perch at Edward's side as Renesmee eventually got down from Rose's arms, and walked over to Christian, Lissa, and Leah. Leah moved off of the couch when Renesmee approached, and sat on the arm of the couch where the adult humans were talking. I frowned. Couldn't she be a little more understanding towards my daughter? She seemed fine with Christian and Lissa!

I didn't realize I was actually growling until Edward bumped my shoulder.

"What's the matter, Bella?" he asked in a low voice.

"Leah," I sighed. "She's just… being Leah."

Edward glanced at Leah, his smile falling off his face for a minute. "Yes, but you can't expect her to change overnight."

I sighed. "I know… I was just hoping, when I saw her sitting with Christian and Lissa…"

"I know, love. I could see it on your face as you watched them," Edward said lightly, turning back to his piano.

I focused back on Renesmee, who was already chatting animatedly between the amazed stares of the four people surrounding her. Leah was glancing out the window, glaring at something or other. Christian and Lissa looked fascinated as my little girl walked over and sat next to Lissa, trying to hold herself like Lissa did, and asking her questions and talking in her perfect little voice in her perfect English. Charlie and Sue just gazed at her, which made me swell with pride.

"She's really a beauty," Jasper commented, obviously feeling my abundantly rampant emotions at the moment. I could detect some of his southern accent leaking out, as he winked. "I can see why Jacob's going to like her."

"You moving in on my girl, Jasper?" Jacob said in a low voice, chuckling.

"I already got my own, wolf," Jasper said, moving away towards Alice.

I sighed a little. I wasn't nearly ready to think about Renesmee not needing me in a few years. Subtly, I felt Edward stiffen at my side as well. We both looked at each other and gave pained grins towards the other.

We vampires that didn't eat tried to be subtle, as we occasionally grabbed something off the table, pretended to eat it, then tried to slip it back on the table, or in the garbage. The daylight ebbed quickly, fading into the various shades of twilight, and finally the sun ducked below the horizon and the stars came out.

Charlie yawned, which resulted in three giant werewolf-sized yawns as well. It was like they were trying to inhale as much oxygen in the house as possible. All the vampires in the house got a nice laugh about that.

Charlie stood up, realizing that he was about to fall asleep. "Well, I'm going to head out then. Good night everybody," he said, stretching to wake up his sleeping limbs again.

"You need a ride, Charlie?" Sue asked, turning to him. "I was just about to leave anyway."

None of the vampires were surprised. We all knew that Sue was nervous enough about coming with Charlie into a household of vampires. She didn't want to stick around without having a human to possibly dissuade the vampires from pouncing.

"Sure, Sue," Charlie said, glancing at her. I could just barely detect a blush in my father's cheeks, and I coughed. "Carlisle, do you mind if I come back tomorrow to pick up the cruiser?"

"Don't worry about it, Charlie," Carlisle said warmly. "In fact, if you want, I'm sure Bella will happily drop it off for you tomorrow."

"Yeah Dad, I can drive it home tomorrow," I piped up.

Charlie looked between me and Sue for a moment. Then he dug his hand into his pocket and threw the keys to me. He was substantially surprised when I plucked them out of the air, silently cursing my new super-vampire-dexterity.

"Er, yeah Bella, if you could," he said, before turning again. He gave us all goodbyes, including Renesmee. He said goodbye to our guests, who politely nodded and returned his goodbye in return. The werewolves left soon after, including Jacob, though he wanted to stay longer. He was tired.

Dmitri, Lissa, and Christian were preparing to leave as well when Rose walked up to me.

"I'm coming over later tonight," she whispered to me. I knew that all the Cullens in the house could hear her, while the other dhampir and moroi could not. "Don't forget."

"I won't," I said, my eyes twinkling as I realized what a surprise she was in for tonight. "Don't you forget."

"Are you kidding?" Rose asked me, giving me a half-grin. "You owe me answers, Cullen."

I smiled as I heard my newer name. I still hadn't gotten over the excitement. Edward was truly mine, even if I had already known this for several months by now. I was pretty sure I'd never get over the excitement, and I was perfectly fine with that.

The two dhampirs and two moroi eventually made their way outside. With a little help from Emmett and Jasper, we managed to get them all across the river in one trip. Rose laughed and whooped as I once again took her across, springing even higher than last time. She screamed a little, whether from fun or from fear I don't know, as we began to crash into the trees. But I simply swung from a limb, flipped, and landed us both on our feet.

"Y'know, I bet you'd make a great guardian, if you ever wanted to come see what I do all day," she said, winking at me.

"Thanks," I said, smiling in the dark, even if she couldn't see me. "But I've had enough danger for a long time."

Rose shrugged. "I can relate. It's nice to get on this camping trip, to get away from it all."

"I'll bet," I said, nodding. I wish I had been able to simply take a camping trip, when the Volturi attacked. That would've been a nice distraction.

The other three of Rose's group walked up, and began to walk away, led by a flashlight in Dmitri's hand back towards their campsite. I saw Rose subtly leave markers occasionally by stabbing a tree with her stake as she passed it. I smiled. She'd be back before too long, wanting answers.

I turned to Edward, who was holding a sleeping Renesmee in his arms, smiling down at me.

"Well, today was eventful," he said, handing me my daughter. She barely stirred as I wrapped my arms around her. "What are you going to tell her when she comes back for answers?"

"The truth," I shrugged. Edward opened his mouth, possibly to argue, but I continued my thought. "She says that she's a dhampir, Edward. A half-human, half-vampire like Renesmee. She might not know who the Volturi are, but she does know to keep the secret of our existence."

Edward frowned. "I don't know, Bella. I just don't want to risk having the Volturi sniffing around us any more, for the next thousand years at least."

"Trust me, I totally agree," I said, "but I trust Rose to do what she says. I'm sure it will be fine, Edward."

He glanced at me again, the edges of a smirk playing at the edges of his lips. "Do you know how many lives were ended, vampire and human, with those words? 'I'm sure it will be fine'?"

I reached over, smacking him with a pillow. I put a little too much strength into the strike, and the pillow ripped in two across Edward's shirt.

"Bella, the pillow didn't deserve that," Emmett said teasingly, exaggeratingly frowning at the ground and the dilapidated pillow lying there in tatters.

"You have no idea. Maybe it did. Did you ask it?" I replied quickly.

Edward grinned at me. "Now that's really what he needs. Motivation to look like even more of an idiot in front of all of us."

Emmett looked at Edward and waggled his eyebrows comically.

"I can always kick it up another notch, Eddie," he said. Edward growled at the nickname. A pillow sailed through the air and hit him square in the face. He looked over at Rosalie with a shocked and pained expression, who was standing at the base of the stairs. "Rose! How could you!?"

Rosalie just bat her eyes and put on an innocent expression. "Whatever could you mean, Emmy?"

Emmett growled playfully. "I'm coming for you next, woman."

Rosalie grinned playfully and darted up the stairs, laughing and yelping as she and Emmett crashed around on the second floor, chasing after each other.

"Don't you break my floors!" Esme shouted while she arranged some of the flowers in a vase.

"Or my study!" Carlisle added, before looking back down at the magazine in his hands. There was surprisingly less thumping and knocking about after that.

Edward chuckled, and turned to me, his eyebrow raised in silent question. "So, shall we wait for Ms. Hathaway to make a triumphant return here, or at our house?"

I stood, and handed him Renesmee, sneaking in a quick but passionate kiss as I did so.

"I think she's going to head here. You take Renesmee to bed, and I'll either meet you there, or you can come here when you're done."

Edward nodded, and took off, toting my sleeping daughter in his arms. I walked outside at a human pace, and stood by the river. I folded my arms, and waited.

Chapter Eight: Rose Hathaway

So. Many. Questions.

As I trudged through the darkness with my flashlight, I couldn't help but wonder about this, that, and the other about these Cullens. These Avalir, as Dmitri had called them. Who were they? What could they do? Were they a threat to us? Would Dmitri and I be able to defend ourselves if they turned on us?

Judging on how we 'defended' ourselves from earlier, I'd guess that we'd be stupidly lucky if we even managed to take one down by ourselves. The only one they seemed to have a healthy dose of respect/fear so far was Christian, because of his fire.

I checked the side of the tree next to me, satisfied when I saw the mark I had made from earlier tonight. I walked forward a little more.

The forest was dark. Very dark. It was kind of unnerving. A lone breeze ruffled through the forest, stirring some of the leaves at my feet. I shivered once and pulled my jacket around me a little tighter. The nights were getting colder, and longer.

"Seen any good vampires recently?" a voice suddenly said behind me.

Internally, I screamed and jumped up. I kept my face placid as I spun around, my hand automatically flying for my stake. My lips automatically pulled back from my teeth in a snarl, and my legs automatically crouched down into a fighting stance.

But what I saw before me, shining in my flashlight's beam, was Bella's husband, Edward. He just grinned at me, the light not seeming to affect his eyes at all. I scowled at him for scaring me like that.

"You've got excellent self-control, Rose," he says, before stepping forward. "May I walk with you?"

I slowly got over my crouch, breathing harder than a moment ago.

'That wasn't very nice,' I grumbled in my thoughts, knowing now that he could hear me. He laughed next to me.

"No, I suppose it wasn't. But I thought I might help you find the way back anyways," he said next to me.

"I can find my own way," I said defensively. Edward held up his hands as if in surrender.

"I'm sure you can. I saw the slash marks in our beautiful trees," he said, sarcastically. Then his face gets a little more serious. "But I just thought I should tell you something before you get the rest of your answers from Bella."

I stop and turn to him, hands on my hips. I don't know what he's about to say, but it sounds an awful lot like he would much rather I went without some answers. I didn't know really what to think about that, so for now, I would listen.

"I don't know how far your knowledge of our kind of vampire stretches," he began, "But there is a large group of vampires, considered royalty among our kind, called the Volturi."

I snorted. That's just what I needed. More annoying frikkin vampire royalty. As if I hadn't had enough of that already with the Moroi Court.

"If they find out that any of you spill the secret of our existence to the humans, then they will hunt both parties down and exterminate them. There can be nowhere to hide from them, once their tracker has met you. There will be no way to escape, once their witch twins have incapacitated your every sense," Edward says, the look in his eye deadly serious. "And while I wish I would never have to meet them again, they have been looking for ways of forcing me, my wife, and my family to become in the most basic sense more of their personal guard. Puppets, if you get what I mean."

I nodded. I knew all too well the workings of politics, even when I'd rather just walk right in and bash someone's face in until I get answers, or whatever else it is that I need.

"They need only the slightest reason to attack us," Edward said, and I could hear in his voice that he was wrapping up his point. "And I just want to make sure you know what the consequences would be, should you decide to get their undivided attention."

I nodded. "Thanks for the heads-up. You can rest easy, I won't be telling your secret. Who would believe me anyways?"

Edward raised an eyebrow. "The other guardians. Eddie, for one."

I nearly gasped in surprise, before I remembered he was a mind-reader. Right. Had to get used to that. Again.

Edward's eyebrows rose a little when I thought that. "Again?"

I sighed, "I used to have this bond to Lissa, which would allow me to see inside her head, or hear her thoughts, or feel her emotions."

Edward's eyebrows rose a little further. "That's an interesting gift."

Now I believe was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "Gift? It just happened when she—when something happened."

Edward glanced at me with a studious glance, before turning and walking, sensing that I didn't want to talk about it.

"Among our kind, we have gifts. You know about mine from Bella. Bella has a mental shield that can repel some of our kind's strongest mental attacks."

I put a hand to my forehead. This was getting too complicated. Mental attacks? This was starting to sound like a frikkin Pokemon battle. Christian uses Flame-Thrower! Bella dodges with Mind-Shield! Rose uses Silver Stake! It's not very effective…

I sighed. As if these Avalir needed more powers.

Edward laughed. "Don't worry, it often feels like that for us, as well. You're not the only one."

Light began to filter through the trees. A warm, honey-colored light of a house. Edward steps forward, and I see a dark figure standing near a body of running water. The river. I grinned. I secretly enjoyed flying through the air when Bella would help me across the river. I didn't usually like help doing anything, but this could be my exception.

Bella gave Edward another kiss, and it struck me again how much those two reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, but with a much happier ending. I stepped forward, turning off my flashlight now that I was close enough to actually see the house.

"Hi again, Rose," Bella's voice sang to me from nearby. "Ready for some answers?"

"Born ready, Cullen," I said, playfully scowling a little. Bella was much more fun than I thought she would be.

I felt her arms grip the tops of my shoulders in a gentle-yet-firm grip, before I was flying through the air again. Within a few moments, we were back on the ground. I was sure I was grinning like an idiot, but I didn't really care. That was fun.

"So," Bella began, walking at my side towards the grand white house before us. "What would you like to hear about first?"

I thought about that for a minute.

"I want to hear about these Volturi people Edward mentioned something about."

Bella nodded, her eyes tightening a little. I noted this as a good sign. These 'Volturi' were not her favorite people, that was obvious.

"Well, the Volturi kind of act as our royalty. They keep the secret from coming to light, mainly by eradicating perpetrators who betray our secret," Bella said. "But that doesn't mean that they're always—how to put it—just."

I snorted. "Sounds an awful lot like Moroi Court so far. What did they do?"

Bella's eyes tightened even more. "Well, quite a few decades ago, vampires began biting human babies, turning them into vampire—or rather Avalir—children. They were called the Immortal Children, and you only had to be around them to love them.

"But because they only had the mind of an infant, they did not know to keep the secret from humans. They were too revealing, and their thirst was insatiable. It was banned to create Immortal Children, and the practice has become a black name.

"So when a visiting vampire saw Renesmee, who was only a few weeks old, she naturally assumed that I had created an Immortal Child of my own."

I gasped, before I suddenly felt a surprising twinge of anger. I barely knew Bella's daughter, but already I was so attached that I felt worry and rage that somebody would want to hurt that angel of a child I had met a few hours prior.

"The Volturi initially came to destroy all of us, and force Edward, Alice, and I to join them and serve them as they 'kept the peace'. As a few friends of ours put it, the Volturi are vampires who like to maintain the image of wearing white hats, or to put it bluntly, to maintain the image that they are just and fair, when really they are really not nearly as fair as they claim."

I gritted my teeth in annoyance as her story reminded me too much of several unpleasant circumstances and scenarios that had occurred at the Moroi Court of my own. Tatiana and my rivalry that somehow ended in her helping me, even past my death. Christian was still rattled that his aunt Tasha had actually tried to pin me for murder, and attack his girlfriend. Heck, I was still rattled that it had been her.

I pushed the memories aside.

"Well, that's all just lovely," I said, in the most sarcastic tone I could manage. Bella snorted, making even that sound musical.

"You don't even know the half of it," she laughed. "Come on inside, I'll fill you in on more."

She walked inside with me, and I saw the energy of the house had not diminished at all. Nobody was preparing to go to sleep, and they probably didn't need it. If what I knew about Strigoi held true in most senses for the Avalir, then they didn't need sleep.

Edward chuckled, sitting down next to Bella as she curled up in his arms, tucking her feet up under her, painting a pretty picture of a husband and wife, sort of like one might expect to find in front of a fireplace.

"We don't sleep," Edward confirmed. But he surprised me by adding, "We can't sleep. We never run out of energy, we never need to rest, we never need refreshments, and we never need to even breathe."

Don't need to breathe? That was… unnatural. Even the Strigoi breathed. Mia had distracted one by surrounding his head with water, which had worked pretty well. And while I was pretty sure Strigoi didn't sleep, I didn't know if it was true that they couldn't. I'd have to ask Dmitri. Then I winced at the thought. He wouldn't like me to ask about his time spent as a Strigoi, which was still rather traumatic for him, even though he had forgiven himself like I had.

Bella looked at me expectantly. "Next question?"

I thought again for a second. "Why didn't my stake pierce your skin? As far as I saw, I didn't even make a scratch."

Bella grinned. "Ah yes, that's a good question. I don't really know how to break this to you gently, so I'm going to just show you. Can you grab me that knife on the table?"

I looked where she was pointing. There was a large knife on the edge of the table, and just by looking I could see that it was sharp, gleaming as though it had never been used to cut anything. I picked it up and handed it to her. Edward glanced away as though he didn't want to watch, as Bella placed her hand down on the coffee table between us.

"Okay, watch this," Bella said, raising the knife a little. I realized what she was about to do.

"You don't have to—!" I began, not wanting her to hurt herself just to show me something or other.

But you can imagine my surprise (and mild disgruntlement) as the knife was the thing that shattered, not her hand. Her hand didn't even have a split in the soft-looking skin. The knife was laying in five pieces in her hand; blade, handle, and three screws that held the two larger pieces together. The blade had five notches in it that looked suspiciously like knuckles had been imprinted in the blade itself.

My eyes widened. "Um… I don't really know what to say about that—"

"We're nearly invulnerable," Bella said, gauging my reaction. "We have to be extra careful about staying safe from sharp objects because it would be hard to explain to normal humans why the knife just shattered, rather than chop off my finger."

I just stared in shock for a moment. It wasn't everyday that I found something that rendered me speechless, but this was one of them.

"What else can you guys do?" I asked, curiosity overwhelming me at this point. "I mean, so far I've heard that you guys have supernatural powers, are indestructible, I've seen you jump—"

"We are insanely fast, and strong. We have to be careful around the humans to keep our strength to a minimum as well, so we don't accidentally crush something," Edward explained.

I nodded again. Both of these had been demonstrated earlier that day, when Edward had simply ripped the Strigoi in half, and when they just turned and disappeared twice in the forest. I realized they had simply been running. My mind reeled with that realization, but I shrugged it off for now. I'd be amazed later.

"So…" I said, my mind whirling with questions I wanted to ask. "How many of you are there?"

Bella glanced at Edward, who seemed to be thinking. Eventually, he said, "Oh, I'd say maybe… maybe around three hundred, maybe around four hundred."

"Are there many others with gifts like yours?" I asked. I felt my heart sink a little as Bella and Edward nodded. Now I was in real trouble. I felt like I was a kid playing with a stick, when I had once felt like a warrior. I felt like I was waking up to see the real threats of the world. All this time the most dangerous creature I had ever faced was Dmitri as a Strigoi. But now I learn that he could've been beat up easily by even one of these Avalir five times before Dmitri could blink.

Edward frowned, evidently reading my thoughts. "I can assure you, your group is safe from us. We wouldn't dream of attacking you first."

I heard the subtle message in his sentence. But we will retaliate an attack.

Bella nodded along with her husband. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Any friend of the family is welcome here."

I suddenly felt a wave of calm out of nowhere. It confused me, and felt strangely familiar. But my mind felt too relaxed to remember immediately where I had felt this sort of compulsion be—

Compulsion. That's what it felt like. I looked around. Edward and Bella obviously weren't doing it, they weren't looking at me any differently than before. I glanced around at the other vampires in the room. The short, pixie one that Bella had called Alice was over by the table, arranging some of the flowers in the vase. A blonde man stood next to her, one arm around her waist, as he grinned at me. I narrowed my eyes back at him, studying him. His grin wasn't meant as hostile, but I got dangerous vibes off of him. I could just barely see faint scars crossing over the whole side of his face.

Edward looked between me and the blonde, before sighing. "Actually Jasper, that might not help her."

The blonde, evidently Jasper, looked over at Edward before glancing back at me, a sheepish grin now adorning his face.

"Sorry, Rose," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as Alice trilled a laugh next to him.

"You know compulsion?" I asked. Could Moroi be turned into Avalir? And retain their abilities?

Edward glanced at me, sifting through my thoughts as everyone else looked mildly confused. He found what he was looking for, and gave me a lopsided grin.

"Well there you go, you aren't defenseless. If that's a common trait of moroi, they can't be powerless against us. But no, that's not Jasper's gift. He's an empath. He can read and manipulate your emotions. He was just trying to help you feel more comfortable."

"Yeah, didn't realize that you wouldn't appreciate the effort, darlin'," he said, suddenly a southern accent coloring his speech.

I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not. But I shrugged it off again. I wanted to get as many answers as possible before I had to head back to keep an eye on the others. A question that didn't so much relate to the Cullens as it did to Lissa, Christian, Dmitri, and I.

"Um, this might be an awkward question to ask, but do you know where we can find a source of blood? Are there any feeders nearby?"

Bella and Edward both gave me a confused stare in sync. Edward, reading my thoughts again as I showed them to him, snapped out of it first. He looked… intrigued, impressed, and yet also disgusted.

"There are humans who do that?" he said, his voice sounding more disgusted than intrigued. But the look in his eyes glinted only for a moment with a hungry light. Bella's and Jasper's eyes widened as they seemed to realize what I was talking about.

"Carlisle will never allow her to take a human's life, Edw—" Jasper began, but I cut him off.

"No, no no, nothing like that," I said quickly, remembering that they had called themselves 'vegetarians'; animal-blood drinkers, I think Bella said. "We don't take the life of the feeder, we just take some of the blood."

Jasper looked over to Alice, whose eyes were suddenly blank, as if she wasn't all the way there. Bella looked to Edward for some sort of confirmation, and he nodded. Alice came out of her trance and smiled.

"She won't kill anyone," she stated, and I could see Jasper's body relax. Alice trilled a little laugh. "But I see that you will have a hard time finding someone willing to donate blood around here."

I felt confused. The way she said it was like she was so positive, even if she didn't seem to know me all that well. Had she known about Dhampirs and Moroi and feeders before?

Edward chuckled again, reading my thoughts. It was starting to get somewhat annoying, but at least I was getting answers to the questions I hadn't thought to ask. "Alice has a special power, I wonder what your reaction will be to it," he mused. "She can see the objective future."

My mouth fell open, as Alice trilled another laugh. Was there anything these Avalir couldn't do?

"Not really," Edward said, answering my unspoken question. His expression was very bemused.

I sighed. I should have expected as much. I pulled out my phone to make a note to call a feeder down to Forks for the queen.

"Thank you all for your patience. Maybe next time I can tell you more about my world," I said, for the moment anyway deeming that they really weren't a threat. The Cullens, at least, were not a threat. I couldn't say the same about any other Avalir I might chance across.

With that, I turned and walked out of the house. Bella followed me, knowing I would have to get some help to cross the river separating the forest from the house. After Bella did help me across, she turned to me before leaving.

"Rose, I just wanted to say that I hope you can still look at us as friends. Your group is some of the most intriguing people I know, and I'd like to learn more about you. But if you really don't trust us, I won't hold it against you to leave. Have a good night."

With that, she bounded across the river and walked calmly back to the large white house. I shook my head, and turned to walk back to my campsite, pondering over her words as I walked.

While I had my doubts about Avalir, I could instinctively feel that they would not intentionally hurt me, or my friends. I had no doubt that they meant what they said about being vegetarians, and that they would not hurt us. So I decided that I would trust them.

For now.