"Please don't kill me! I don't want to fight!"

The strange golden eyed vampire looked at me, assessing. Eventually he decided that I must be telling the truth, that I wasn't trying to fake him out. "We wish you no harm either, child. We are just protecting ourselves." He looked sad.

A petite brown haired vampire joined him. "Carlisle, she's terrified. She doesn't know anything."

Carlisle looked at her and nodded. The fire they had piled the rest of Riley's army on raged in the background, flaring up as the other golden-eyes found pieces of our marble-like skin and tossed them into the blaze. We hadn't stood a chance – from what I could tell, I was the only one left. It was a trap. But why? Why had Riley sent us to fight a battle that he surely knew we didn't have a hope of winning? Just for her? Diego had died for nothing, for someone we hadn't even met?

I should have run with Fred when I had the chance.

"Five minutes," the dark haired, short one called out, interrupting my thoughts.

What was happening in five minutes?

"They'll kill her, Carlisle. We can't let that happen," the brown haired one pleaded, looking genuinely distressed.

Who would kill me? Not these golden eyes, obviously, as Riley had wanted us to believe; if they'd wanted me dead, they'd had ample opportunity to kill me. They hadn't wanted to fight us at all. I doubted they had been on their way to attack us. It dawned on me that we had been the real threat, not these vampires.

Only we hadn't known that. Or, in my case, hadn't figured it out on time.

We had been close to figuring it out, too, Diego and I. We'd been fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together. That's why Riley had killed him – his lies couldn't be exposed.

A feeling of loss rushed through me. If I hadn't let him confront Riley alone, would he still be alive? Could both of us had fought him off? We were younger, stronger than he was. Or would I just have gotten myself killed, too?

"Of course not." My attention snapped back as Carlisle replied to the brown haired one. "We can teach her the rules - she seems willing to learn."

I went to agree, to say that I was willing to learn the rules, but I didn't have the chance.

The golden haired one had suddenly appeared. The golden haired one had suddenly appeared, and I got my first full look at him. He wasn't quite as tall or as muscled as the dark-haired one who was still picking up pieces of vampire. But he was scarier - his whole body was full of scars, bites from who knew how many other vampires. His appeareance just screamed danger, making me want to flee. I somehow held my place, sure that I would be killed if I moved. He was crouching, ready to leap at me. I instinctually cringed back, remembering what it had felt like when Jen had ripped off my arm. This would be so much worse.

Carlisle intervened, stepping in front of me.

"She surrendered, Jasper," Carlisle told the still crouching vampire. "She didn't fight with the rest." Jasper opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by the dark haired vampire who also ran to us.

"She wants to stay and learn from us, but that won't happen if she's still here when the Volturi get here. They won't be as merciful. We need to hide her, now," she said. "What's your name?"

"Bree. Bree Tanner."

"Bree, I'm Alice. We want to help you, but you have to come with me right now if we're going to make that possible. Okay?" I nodded after hesitating for only a second. Did they really want to help me? Or was this just a ruse to lure me away and then kill me, adding my body to the carnage that laid before us?

Something about the strange vampire made me trust her though, so we took off running through the woods.

She led me to a place higher up on the mountain, where another fire was raging.

The fire was burning what was left of her, and Riley. Good. No one deserved it more than him. He had used us, lied to us, killed Diego because he didn't want him getting in the way. And it was all for her.

Alice was talking fast, already running back the way we had come. "I have to get back down to the clearing, and fast. Stay here until I come back for you, okay? I don't know how long this is going to take."

I opened my mouth to ask her what was going to happen in the clearing, but she was already gone.

I studied my surroundings as I waited. Everything from the treetops to the ground was covered in a deep blanket of fresh snow. It muffled the sounds around me, even to my excellent hearing. On a normal day I could easily hear back to the clearing, but I couldn't quite hear that far today. I wouldn't be able to hear anything unless I got closer. I was tempted to get a closer listen, but Alice's warning was grave enough that I thought better of it.

She returned about half an hour later, with the two golden haired vampires, and the bronze haired one.

"You're not in danger anymore," Carlisle began. "We want to help you. I'm Carlisle, this is Jasper, and Alice, and Edward."

"Danger from who?" I asked.

Jasper shook his head. "We've got a couple of questions for you first." He still didn't look happy. He was the only one of them who didn't seem to want me to join them.

"Why did you come here?" Edward asked. I told him the story about how Riley had found all of us, taken us to her to be changed.

"Victoria was using Riley to create them so Alice couldn't see what she was doing," Edward muttered. "Of course. She was smart."

How did they know her name? I opened my mouth to ask, but Jasper gave me a warning glare that made me think twice.

"What happened after that?" Alice asked, encouraging me to tell her.

I told her how Diego and I had found out that the sun didn't kill us, like Riley had said. That he had gone to tell Riley, and that's when we'd found him meeting with Victoria.

"Then the dark cloaks went into the old cabin they'd been in. They asked if her plans for us included a certain local coven, which I later found out meant you. She said they did, and then the dark cloaks gave her five days or they would destroy all of us, and her."

They looked shocked. "Of course. The Volturi wanted her to kill us for them."

"The Volturi?"

"The dark cloaks, as you called them," Carlisle explained. "I'll tell you all about them later. Please, continue."

I resumed my story, telling them about how Diego had never come back after talking with Riley after he confronted him about the sun, how I knew he was dead. How Riley had lied about him scouting ahead to get me to follow the rest of them to the clearing. I told them what Riley had said about their coven, how he'd given us the scent of the human they kept around and told us that whoever got to her first could have her. Then we'd taken off to fight them, and they knew the rest of the story from there.

"Edward?" Jasper asked.

"She's telling the truth," Edward confirmed. "They had all of the newborns fooled." Carlisle looked relieved, but Jasper still looked suspicious.

"You're the mind reader," I guessed. "Riley warned us that some of you had special talents, that you'd be really hard to fight."

"Well, he was right about that," Carlisle said regrettably. "Thank you for being honest with us, Bree."

"So what now?"

"Esme wants her to stay with us," Alice said. Esme must have been the brown haired one who came to my defense. "She'll be okay, Jas. She's really level-headed for a newborn."

"Exactly how old are you?" Jasper demanded, looking at me.

"Three months, maybe a little more," I replied.

"I don't like it," he said. "Step one toe out of line, and you're done for."

Carlisle reprimanded Jasper, not liking the tone he was taking with me. "Jasper, you were once a newborn too. You didn't know any better than then she does now," he rebuked. Jasper apologised to Carlisle, who turned to me. "Today must have been very confusing for you. Do you have any questions for us?"

Only like a million of them, I thought, earning a chuckle from the mind reader. "Who are the Volturi?"

"Some of the oldest vampires that exist," Carlisle replied. "They live in Volterra, in Italy. They fancy themselves the rulers of the vampire world. When someone crosses the line, they step in and deal with the situation."

"There are rules?"

"Very simple, really. One, do not create an immortal child. Two, remain discreet. Something Victoria failed to do in raising her army." Victoria, the leader we'd never met. Who operated through Riley, so the golden eyes wouldn't know she had any involvement with the newborns coming with instructions to kill them.

"Victoria. How did you know her name?"

"It's not the first time we've encountered her," Edward replied. "I killed her mate two years ago after he decided to make a game of hunting my Bella. She wanted to kill Bella in revenge and destroy us as well."

"Bella?"

"The human who's scent you were given. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should go back to her."

"How do you stand it?" I asked, remembering the delicious scent on the shirt that Riley had given to us. The ache in my throat flared again, and Jasper hissed a warning at me.

"With great restraint," Edward replied, taking off back down the mountain.

"We need to go as well. Jacob needs my help," Carlisle added. He turned to me, a serious look on his face. "We can teach you about the vampire world. Esme will be delighted to have you with us. However, we have some rules of our own that we follow, and I'll ask that you abide by them."

I agreed, of course. I wanted to learn the truth about being a vampire; I didn't want to keep believing the countless lies that Riley had told us.

And just like that, I was welcomed into my new coven.