Welcome to the creation story of the vampire.

Also, congrats to the guest who JUST reviewed and asked for another chapter as I was putting the finishing touches on it!

"Alice?" The vampire was still. "Alice!" Alice's eyes were faraway, gazing into the darkness with no recollection. Bella could hear Charlie whining from inside the house, the rising timbre of her voice causing him distress. Bella put a hand on either side of Alice's face. "Alice, hello? Earth to Alice?" The vampire didn't budge. "Shit!" Bella patted Alice down, searching for her cell phone. Her pockets were all empty. Bella turned around and pulled open the driver side door, hoping to find the elusive phone. Bella spotted it in the cupholder. She slid it open and was greeted by a smiling photo of Supergirl. Bella would have laughed if the situation didn't seem so serious. Bella spun back around and slapped Alice's face a few times. Alice remained stock-still.

Bella scrolled through Alice's very few contacts and called the only one that made sense. "Aphrodite, I fucked up."

Rosalie huffed on the other end of the line. She sounded utterly bored when she said, "Swan. To what do I owe this displeasure?"

"I don't know exactly what happened, but something is wrong with Alice." Bella stared into slowly darkening eyes. "She's not moving. She's not reacting."

Rosalie took in Bella's tone. "How long has she been like this?"

"A few minutes. Should I do something? Does she need to eat?"

"Eat?"

"You know, does she need blood or something? I don't know!"

Rosalie sighed, exasperated. She didn't sound surprised that Bella knew what they were already. "Where are you?" Bella told her. "Can you get her into her car?"

Bella tried to push Alice, who didn't budge. "I don't think so. She seems rooted to the spot."

"Okay, where are you?" Bella gave Rosalie directions. Rose hung up without saying goodbye. Charlie's barking got louder, but Bella ignored him and watched Alice. Bella wondered if she had broken the vampire. Could vampires break? She didn't remember them being so fragile when she created them. Of course, she also didn't remember them being quite like this either. They seemed to have evolved a considerable amount over the last few millennia. She had so many questions she needed answered, but Alice was in no condition to answer them. Vampires had been red-eyed, cursed. They were punished for their deeds. And yet, here was a gold-eyed vampire. How had this happened? Vampires were feral, nomadic. But Alice and her family were nothing like the roving bands of vampires that Bella knew and created. What made them different? Could they die of shock?

Rustling leaves and a gust of wind announced Rosalie's arrival. Wet leaves clung to her skinny jeans. "Aphrodite, thank goodness."

"What did you do?" Rosalie asked, taking Bella's place in front of Alice.

"Nothing. We were just talking!" Rosalie shot an angry look at Bella. Her face softened when she took in Bella's attire. She was still covered in the blood of her attackers. "What happened to you?"

Bella looked down and tried to imagine how the scene looked to Rosalie. "I was attacked by a group of men."

"Did Alice..."

"No, I did. Alice showed up just in time to get me away from there. She was fine until now."

Rosalie looked back at Alice. "Alice. Alice! Mary Alice!" She yelled as loud as she could in Alice's face. "Okay Swan, don't freak out."

"Why would I-?" Rosalie reeled back and slapped Alice across the face as hard as she could. The sound of her hand colliding with Alice's cheek reverberated throughout the woods. It sounded like a thunderclap and a boulder hitting the ground after dropping from a great height all in one. Charlie's barking ceased immediately. Alice flew through the air, launched by the contact. Alice righted herself, spun around, and slammed down in a defensive position. She leaped up, snarling, with her eyes black as night.

"There she is," Rosalie purred. "Sorry sis, you were scaring your date." Alice stood upright, and she and Bella both stuttered. "Not a date," and "what," assaulted Rosalie from both sides. "Oh my god, shut up you two." Alice's eyes were still black as coal. The image sent shivers up Bella's spine. "Alice, go hunt." Alice hesitated. "Go, tiny tornado. I'm not going to kill Bella. Yet."

Alice snarled, but she went off into the woods anyway. Charlie's barking picked up again. Bella hurried to let him out of the house. He walked out slowly, sniffing everything around him. He seemed to believe there was still a threat around, but he nudged Rosalie and demanded to be pet anyways. "So, what was that?" Bella asked.

Rosalie shrugged. "Sometimes Alice freezes."

"What do you mean, freezes?"

"Well, not normally like that. That was new. But she's fine." Rosalie appraised Bella. "So what'd you do, kiss her?"

"I did not. We were just talking." Bella looked down at her clothes again. The blood on them just made her think of the foul intentioned men who had met their end that evening. "I need to change."

"Yes, you do," Rosalie agreed.

Bella turned to go into her house. Rosalie remained outside with Charlie circling her. "Feel free to come on in." Bella didn't hear Rosalie follow her, but Charlie's snuffling announced his presence. Bella hurried to rip off her bloody shirt before she had even fully entered her house.

"What is that?" Rosalie asked, and Bella felt cool fingertips ghost over her left shoulder blade.

"War wound," Bella responded. She continued walking, not wishing to explain any further. Rosalie had seen an intricate scar on Bella's back, one she often forgot was even there. It started at her left shoulder blade and spider-webbed down to her right hip. The design looked like an intricate henna tattoo, a detailed vine that spiraled and branched out. She knew some people thought it was pretty, but Bella saw it for what it was: a nasty reminder of the things that had been. Bella left her shirt on the floor in the living room and took the stairs two at a time to her bedroom. Charlie stayed downstairs with Rosalie, walking circles around her. He seemed to think he could herd her into the kitchen where his food was.

When Bella finally came back downstairs, Rosalie was locked in a stare-down with Charlie. Neither of them turned to look at her. "Am I interrupting?"

"Yes," Rosalie mumbled without turning her head. Finally, Charlie blinked. Rosalie laughed. "Got him."

"Wow Aphrodite, you defeated a dog in a stare down. Fantastic work." Bella clapped slowly and sarcastically.

Rosalie glared. "So, are you going to tell me how you sent Alice into shock?"

"No, I am not."

"Are we not friends?"

"Alice is my best friend, so I think that's up to her."

"Damn right, it is." Alice appeared in the doorway. She straightened out her shirt, golden eyes flashing. "I am sorry about that. You uh," Alice looked from Bella to Rosalie and back, "caught me by surprise."

"Did you just go kill someone?"

Rosalie let out a short laugh at Bella's comment. "Alice, you told her what we are but not what we eat?"

"As you could see, Rosalie, we hit a little snag in that conversation." Rosalie scoffed. "I was getting to it. Anyways, you can go home. Bella and I have a conversation we need to finish."

Rosalie tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Whatever. Just be happy Edward wasn't home, or he would have been here with the torches and pitchforks."

"Speaking of, tell Masen I said hi." Rosalie rolled her eyes. Bella winked at the blonde. Rosalie scoffed again and took off into the night. Once they were alone again, Bella looked at Alice. Her eyes were bright gold again. "Sorry for the shock there. Didn't mean to send you for a loop like that."

"Animals."

"Excuse me?"

"We eat animals. Instead of humans. None of us wanted to be monsters, so we're not. We call it being vegetarians." The corner of Alice's mouth twitched up in a small smirk. "We don't kill people. It's what makes us different."

"Wow." Bella walked around Alice, looking her up and down. "Tell me more about you."

"No, you tell me more about me." Alice held a hand up so Bella would stop walking around her. "Where do we come from? There are so many myths, but right now you're telling me that you're where we came from? I need to know everything." Alice paused as a new thought crossed her mind. "And how do I know that it's true?"

"I usually don't like to show off like this, but if you insist. So, let me guess, you guys are fast, you're strong and you can jump impossibly high?" Alice nodded. "When I blessed your kind, I gave you powers that would make you superior hunters. No one's skill surpasses your own," Bella locked eyes with Alice and let her silver one's flash, "except for mine." Bella laughed. "Catch me if you can." Bella took off into the woods, running away from the surprised gasp behind her. Bella loved running. She didn't usually do it at full speed, but it brought her great job. A mile out she took a leap up into the air and landed in the branches of a sturdy oak. Bella looked up at the moon and watched the clouds try and cover the orb. The darkness slid across the woods. Bella took in the sounds of the forest around her. Two bucks were fighting just across the river. A squirrel was scrambling down the tree on which she'd landed. Bella inhaled the deep, green scent of the woods as Alice landed gracefully beside her.

"What else can you do?" Alice asked, amazed.

Bella held tight to the tree trunk and leaned forward, peering into the darkness. "Do you see that bird?" She asked, pointing at a small cardinal bouncing around on a tree branch 100 yards away. Alice nodded. "If I had my bow, I could shoot a single feather off her tail."

"Wow." Alice watched as Bella leaned back, sitting on the branch and leaning against the tree trunk. They were thirty yards up. Alice mirrored Bella, sitting in a split in one branch. She sat on the lower part of it and wrapped her arms around the upper part. "Tell me more."

Bella considered Alice, who was swinging her legs back and forth like a child. She smiled at Alice, watching her for a moment before quietly responding with, "What do you want to know?" Bella felt a warmth with Alice that she hadn't genuinely felt in a long time. The goddess found herself wanting to tell the vampire anything she wanted to know.

"Tell me where vampires come from."

"Are you sure?" Bella asked, hesitant. "It's not a pleasant story, and it shows how cruel I used to be. I've matured over the last few thousand years, but we were all petulant children in the beginning."

Alice put a hand gently over Bella's. "Please?"

Bella smiled at the contact as warmth flooded her body. She turned her hand over and gently took Alice's in her own. "Okay, but remember, you asked for it." Bella sighed. "I have a twin brother."

"Apollo."

"Right. Now, legends about us are all over the place about us, but Apollo was one of my favorite people. He's my twin, you know? Twin myths come from somewhere, and I'm pretty sure they were about us. We talked alike, we dressed alike. There wasn't as much of a hang up on who wore what when we were young. Pants for men, dresses for women, etcetera. So, we dressed identically for a long time. We styled our hair alike, we hunted together, and were essentially one." Bella sighed. "We had a lot of good times," she said with a small smile. Bella hesitated.

"Go on," Alice said with a small squeeze of Bella's hand.

"Ambrogio was a foolish Italian man. I want to say this was about 300 BC?" Bella shrugged. "Time doesn't matter too much when you have never ending amounts of it. You know that." Alice nodded. "Anyways, my brother was in love with a woman, Selene. One of many. Ambrogio came to Delphi, where we were at the time, to hear the Oracle speak of his future. She scared Ambrogio. She said," Bella dropped her voice, allowing a low, sultry tone to come out, "The curse. The moon. The blood will run." She laughed, resuming her normal tone. "The fool ignored her. The problem with the future is it's subjective! Everything you do can change it!" Bella stopped short. "I don't have to tell you that though, do I?"

Bella used her free hand to trace small circular shapes over Alice's smooth, cool skin. Alice giggled. Bella looked up at the smaller woman, surprised. "Sorry." Alice looked away, seeming to gather herself. "I know all about predicting the future. What did Ambrogio do?

"This fool walked right out of the temple and fell in love with the beautiful Selene. My idiot brother was immediately offended. Ambrogio wanted to run away with Selene. They planned to leave Delphi the next morning by boat. So, my brother cursed Ambrogio. If he went out in the sun, it would burn his skin. Painful, excruciating burns. Apollo thought this was a pretty solid punishment to keep Selene and Ambrogio apart. Ambrogio went down into the caves and begged for my uncle's help."

"Your uncle?"

"Yep. Hades. He's a really good guy, so he protected Ambrogio." Alice looked stunned, so Bella hurried on. "Seriously, he's probably my favorite relative. Definitely my favorite uncle. Much nicer than my dad. Anyways, he held onto Ambrogio's soul in the underworld to protect him from Apollo. He could stand the sun for a bit as long as his soul was safe."

"This is insane. Your brother cursed a man, so your uncle held his soul in the underworld?"

Bella smiled. It had been so long since she'd been able to tell her stories. "I know, it's crazy. The world is so much bigger than you know!" Bella gave Alice's hand a reassuring squeeze, then continued, "So uncle gave Ambrogio a bow and a quiver of arrows. All he had to do was kill something and offer it to me. At the time we were all really into animal sacrifices. But you know what that idiot did?"

"What?" Alice asked in awe.

"He tried to steal my bow!" Bella shrugged. "You don't steal from me. And if you did, not my bow! I'll show you it. As a child I carved an intricate, perfectly balanced recurve bow. It's my pride and joy. Uncle wanted Ambrogio to win my favor. Chances are, I would have removed the curse and freed the man. But he was so greedy," Bella shrugged again and spread her hands wide, "he got what he deserved. I made him something that I thought would repulse Selene and punish him. He could only eat blood to survive. His red eyes would give him away to anyone who saw him, inspiring fear. I made it so he couldn't touch anything silver, as punishment for touching my bow. I also cursed him with immortality, so when Selene died he would suffer forever without her. On top of all of this, Hades kept his soul, and Apollo made sure the sun would expose Ambrogio and cause him pain."

"But, Bella, that's so cruel." Alice pulled her hand from Bella's and looked into the woods.

"I know. So many of the things I just told you? I'm ashamed of them now." Bella didn't reach for Alice's hand again, but she waited for Alice to look at her again. When Alice's gold eyes finally met Bella's silver ones, Bella continued, "I hope that a lot of the punishments I described sound unfamiliar to you now. Ambrogio spent twenty years pining after Selene. He went out one night and he found the biggest stag in the woods. He brought it to me and begged for forgiveness." Bella's eyes begged for Alice's understanding. "In those twenty years I had only thought of him a few times, but he had been living in exile. Draining people to survive and watching Selene from afar. When Ambrogio came to me I was ashamed. But there are rules. You can't undo something another God has done. You can change it, but not remove it. I couldn't take away the burn from the sun, but I could change it. Rather than burn, Ambrogio shined. It still made him stick out, but it caused him no pain. I took away his aversion to silver, but when I tried to make him human again, he didn't want that."

"Really?"

"He had adapted to the idea of immortality and surviving on blood. He was content with that. I made him stronger though, and faster. I didn't want him to struggle as much as before."

"What about Selene?"

"She loved him, even after all that time." Bella leaned forward, and Alice leaned in too, curious. "They were soulmates. No matter what Apollo wanted, no matter how angry I was, soul mates are undisputable. So, I did something different for him."

"What did you do?"

"I gave him the ability to make Selene like him. Hard, fast, powerful. A Blood-drinker." Bella smiled. "No one should have to exist alone forever."

"And your brother just let you do that?"

"He and I haven't spoken in many, many years. The loss of Selene will always haunt him, but he can't take back a gift I have given." Bella ran her fingers through her long brown hair, shaking it out. A twig connected to a single leaf fell from her hair and floated down, twirling gentle circles to the forest floor. "I know what you must think, I am cruel, and juvenile, and don't deserve your attention, or friendship, or whatever." Bella looked back at Alice. Alice's eyes were unreadable. "I haven't met any of your kind in a few centuries, and your family is so different from those I have known so far. I just wanted you to know the truth."

Alice looked troubled. Anxiety bloomed in Bella's chest and spread out to the tips of her fingers. The cold tingling was uncomfortable, and it made Bella want to run from Forks and never return. "I just have one question." Bella waited. "So, if your uncle took the first vampire's soul, does that mean we all lose our souls? If we die, that's just it?"

"What? No, absolutely not! Selene and Ambrogio are both long gone now, and they're happy." Bella smiled wide. "When they tired of this life, they asked Hades for a way to escape it. He told them of fire, and he returned their souls. They passed together into the next life."

"Are you serious?" Alice asked. She jumped up on the branch she had been sitting on. "Tell me you're serious."

"I am incredibly serious, Alice."

"I have to go!" Alice leaped up from the tree branch and swung gracefully to the ground.

"Where are you going?" Bella dropped down next to Alice.

"I have to see Edward and Carlisle!" Alice sped away.

"Alice, your car!" Bella called, bemused.

Alice came sprinting back. "I'm faster without it, you should know that!" Alice leaped towards Bella, who caught the small vampire. Alice's arms wrapped around Bella's neck, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you!" Alice breathed out quickly. She kissed Bella on the cheek, shoved off the tall God, and disappeared into the darkness.

"Wait, do you ever eat people?"

"Never!" Drifted back from Alice to Bella.

Bella stood there for a moment staring into the darkness long after she couldn't see Alice anymore. "Gamó̱," Bella whispered to herself as her fingers traced the cool place Alice's lips had brushed her cheek.

Well hot dog, the gods and such. This is so fun for me.

Review if you'd like!