She should see the blood first.

She knows that, she knows the fresh blood that covers Emmett Cullen should have been the catalyst to the shrill bloodcurdling scream that slips from her lips. It drips from his strong glittering chin, coats his pastel green polo shirt like a child covered in chocolate syrup- unmistakably red. It is to a lesser degree on the others, a smeared thin stain on Edward Cullen's shimmering jaw, dripping thickly like drying syrup from the delicate fingers of Alice Cullen as she holds Jasper Hale's face, forcing him to focus on her and only her as she tries in vain to calm his wild eyes. It covers his gaunt cheeks from her touch, his skin dazzling like diamonds just the same as his twin sister before her.

Rosalie. It is Rosalie that makes her scream. Not because of the blood at the corners of her lips, or stained her fingers and smeared on her jeans the way grease had stained her when they worked on the truck. Jules knows the blood should make her run for her life, but she also knows that no human should shine. And they all were, every last one of them, exposed to the sunlight through the break in the trees above the narrow gorge and the break in the clouds above.

Her scream is short-lived. Rosalie's freezing cold still glittering hand is over her mouth, muffling her with furrowed brows as if the blonde was more concerned for her health than the fact she had just caught them— Jules wasn't even sure what she had just caught. Her mind struggles to catch up as her panicked eyes flicker this way and that, and it is just instinct then- her hands fly forward and that familiar push forces itself past her physical form. Except Rosalie Hale does not move an inch, not even while Jules slams back against the tree once more. It is like trying to push a ten-ton tank with her bare hands, if a ten-ton tank looked like a goddess dipped in disco powder.

This time the pain at the back of head disrupts everything, the tall brunette groaning as ink smudged fingers reach up to the back of her head. She isn't bleeding- not that she knows how different this moment would be if she were. Rosalie shifts again worried, checking her. "Promise you won't scream again? We aren't going to hurt you doll."

"Yeah because that was clearly the point of that whole demonstration." She can't help the bitter bite in her words, feeling betrayed by the blonde who she had been inviting to her house every day, to where Charlie lived, allowing Rosalie to help her up to her feet. "What the actual fuck- what are you, aliens?"

Jules jumps back a step when Emmett, Jasper and Alice disappear in a blur in the corner of her vision. Edward walks over in human speed- which Jules deems he is decidedly not- casual with a hand tucked in his pocket as he wipes the smear on his chin with his thumb. "Aliens were your second guess. You were closer with your first."

Her eyebrows furrow together at Edward's words. What can he- mon dieu, can you hear me?

"Yes." He answers her thoughts, and Jules balks. "Not every thought you've ever had, just the ones you have in my presence."

"Our arguments at lunch." She says as her heart sinks. "You knew what I was going to say. You were always prepared."

"No." Edward chuckles with a soft smile, both hands in his pockets now while he remains at a fair distance, understanding that Jules needed personal space while her mind carefully deconstructed and reconstructed everything she had just experienced, scrambling to be in control once more. "No you don't usually think in words, it's more visual than that. I find your mind a very organized place. It's almost…peaceful."

"Thanks, I think- so fairies?" Jules returns to what was her immediate concern, eyebrow up unimpressed.

"That was your first guess?" Rosalie snorts with a wicked smirk, amused. "Do I look like Tinkerbell?"

"You're the one who sparkles, not me." Jules defends snarkily, turning back to Edward. Are you going to eat me?

"No." Edward answers. "We aren't superpowered cannibals either."

"Vampires." Jules settles and Rosalie nods. "I'm going to guess from the hero act that you're not going to kill me."

"No." Edward answers once more. "We don't hurt humans. We only feed from animals. Jasper is the newest to our…diet, he lost control when he came across your scent while we were hunting."

"You weren't supposed to be here." Rosalie frowns at her. "You said you were staying home to finish your history project this weekend."

"You thought I'd need the whole weekend for that?" Jules' eyebrows shot up.

"Alice should've seen-"

Edward cut Rosalie off with a shake of his head from where his sister had turned to him. "It must have been a last minute decision. You know how impulsive she is."

"She would appreciate if you didn't talk as if she wasn't right here." Jules ducked in with her arms folding under her chest defensively, initial panic giving way for her ire. "So if you aren't going to kill me and you don't hurt people then why have you been stalking me?"

"You said you didn't wanna know why." Edward retorts with a crooked smile.

"Yeah, I think our little deal reneged when your brother almost killed me." Jules reminds him.

"You weren't supposed to be here." Rosalie shook her head. "You aren't supposed to find out like this. We were supposed to have time."

Jules doesn't understand why Rosalie sounds like she's grieving, her complaints soft as if she were still in denial over what had just happened. "Just so you know, if you guys kidnap me right now Leah and Sam will come looking for me. I told them I'd be back by sunset."

Edward barely glances down at the big watch on his wrist. "We have time."

"Call them." Rosalie tosses the phone in her direction and the instinct creeps in as her palm flies up, the phone halting mid-air before hitting her. Rosalie's lips twitch upward, and Jules focuses to bring the expensive flip-phone to her palm. "Tell them you ran into some friends out hiking and that you hurt your ankle so we're driving you home. You deserve the truth and Carlisle should be the one to explain it to you. He can check the bump on your head and if you injured your back once we get there."

"I do not think so." Jules huffed. "If it looks like a trap and it sounds like a trap then it probably is a trap. I'm not going to waltz on into a house full of vampires only to get eaten. That is not my idea of a party."

"We don't drink from hum-"

"That's what you say." She cuts off Edward's exasperated rebuttal, eyes blazing now with fear and hurt rolled into one. "But you've said a lot of things to me over the past few weeks, things that are not all true, hmm? You never wanted to be my friend, you just wanted to keep an eye on me. You made a deal with me that I would allow you to continue to do so, but my Uncle would not be put in harm's way. And yet, repeatedly, I allowed someone into the house who could have lost control at any given moment and take the only family I have left away from me. Do you understand the danger you put him in? All it would have taken was a fucking paper cut."

"You think I don't know that?" Rosalie stepped forward with a hiss. "You think I don't have to live with that fear every day of my life? That I enjoy being the monster that I am? That I take pleasure in wondering if this is the day I fuck up or one of my siblings do and people find out about us? What do you think happens when humans find out monsters are real, huh? Do you think I enjoy playing with my family's lives like that? Do you think I enjoy putting anyone's life in danger like that?"

"Rosalie-" Edward tries to pull her back, but she brushes his hold off as she stalks forward more, hurt by the brunette's words.

"You weren't supposed to find out like this!" Rosalie yelled at her in frustration. "You were supposed to stay at home, do your god damned homework for once in your god damned life, just be human for one more day! Now we don't know if you have weeks or days or hours left, so for once in your damned life trust someone else and let them be in control of the situation or you're going to get yourself killed even sooner!"

But Rosalie has said too much, and Jules is frowning, still as the trees. The clouds have shifted overhead, the girl in front of her is no longer a personified glitterball, and Jules finds her mind blank. "What do you mean?"

Her voice is soft, vulnerable and afraid like a child peeking out from under a blanket in the dead of night. Edward had feared this moment, expected it to take place- but he hadn't expected her reaction. Gone was the false confidence, gone was the sass and the drama and the stubborn mischief. In its wake was a side to Jules Rowe he had yet to see, even inside her own colourful mind. It lay dormant now, like the clouds overhead had filled her skull instead. He could see little more than a swirling grey fog, dense as a blizzard.

"We really should get to Carlisle." Edward cuts in, ignoring the silent horror on his sister's face at the words she could never take back. His tone is solemn, like a doctor with bad news- and in a way he felt this was exactly who he was. The messenger of death. "You can text your friends after we get to the house. Rosalie, would you care to carry her or shall I?"

"Carry- you've got to be kidding me." Jules' face drops.

"I'm really sorry sweetheart." Rosalie's voice is soft like the breeze, and she almost doesn't hear it as she feels her body picked up like a toddler before the wind is suddenly rushing against her, whipping her face and her bared skin. Her eyes squeeze tight. The worst part of it all wasn't that she was being kidnapped by fucking vampires, or that her one-sided crush was inexplicably holding her as if she weighed nothing while running at the same speed as a bullet train.

The worst part was that Rosalie Hale had meant her apology with every breathtaking part of her, and Jules had known then that she wasn't lying.

She was going to die.