Bella's POV

"Your creator on the other hand… I think he was trying to kill you." I froze for one never ending second at Jacob's statement and then forced myself to breathe and at least attempt to act human. I wouldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. My creator hadn't been trying to kill me I was positive of that. He sure as hell had never loved me, but he didn't want to kill me. If he had wanted to I'd already be dead – he had plenty of opportunities whilst I was human.

Unless something happened and he really was trying to kill you Bella. A small nasty part of my consciousness whispers.

No! I wouldn't believe that. My opinion of my creator had already been dinted enough with him threatening to kill me the next time we met, not loving me at all and now the whole leaving me alone whilst I was dying scenario. My creator wouldn't have a chance to kill me if we ever crossed paths again. I would kill him first for lying to me about that, on top of everything else.

"That bastard." Charlie's furious voice cut into my stunned stupor and I blink again, forcing myself to focus on my livid father. "Nobody gets away with trying to kill my daughter. Nobody. I'll kill him."

"Too late for that. Someone else got there first." Jacob mutters under his breath and I shoot him a dirty look. My father was only human, with human-hearing but I was still wary.

"Dad, there's nothing you can do." I say patiently, ignoring Jacob's muttered comment. "I need to get back to Edward. He said I was in danger."

Charlie scowls at the mention of Edward. "Me and you are going to have some words about Edward, young lady. You can't just come back to Forks and start dating somebody that quickly." I scowl when I notice Jacob laughing at Charlie's tone.

"Dad! There's a time and place. Now is really not it! Edward wouldn't say I was in danger unless he really meant it. And shut up Jacob!" I growl, turning on the still laughing Jacob.

He instantly attempts to look contrite. "Do you want a strepsil? I'm worried about what all this growling is doing for your throat." He laughs again.

"Shut up Jacob." I repeat, scowling at him. "You have crossed the line so many times today I'm surprised I haven't killed you yet. Are you going to take me back to Edward or should I go by myself?" I pester him.

His smile disappears. "If your bl… boy thinks it's important then I'll come with you." He hastily corrects himself after my warning look.

"Then we should be going." I say shortly.

I walk to the door, trying to make my movements clumsy but judging by the awed look on Charlie's face I don't succeed. Jacob follows, totally at ease, grinning like a lunatic. "See ya later Chief." He grins. "We'll be back once we rescue Bella from whatever life-threatening situation she's in this time."

"Jacob." My voice was like ice.

Charlie looks panic stricken, his heart rate increasing once again. I am instantly furious at Jacob. But what tumbles out of Charlie's mouth is something completely different. "Are you sure you'll come back? Do you promise? Bella?"

I look him directly in the eye, my anger abating. "I promise dad. We just have to sort a few things out first but I swear I won't disappear again."

He tries and fails to smile. "You better not disappear again Bella. I don't think I would be able to cope this time. You have no idea how much grief I've had to deal with in the past few months." His voice cracked.

I study him briefly and note his wide panic stricken eyes. "I think I'm starting to get a pretty good idea dad." I say quietly. "I won't leave you again I swear. I'll be back as soon as I understand what's going on, okay?"

"Okay Bella … Take care. If you need my help you know where I am." Charlie mutters reluctantly before moving in for an awkward one armed hug. We were never the hugging type, even when I was human and warm-skinned.

I briefly hug him, noting the warmth of his skin and the sound of his blood pumping around his veins. I breathed a sigh of relief that it didn't make me thirsty like it would with other vampires. "Bye dad." I whisper.

He finally cracks a weak smile, one that reaches his eyes. "Bye Bella."

I open the door and only briefly glancing back at him, exit the house I thought I would never return to. Jacob is right behind me. As soon as the door closes behind me, fury returns to me so fast I hurriedly take a few steps away from Jacob before I do something I regret. I don't turn around to look at him as I issue instructions. "Don't phase in the middle of the street." I snap. "Not many humans will be able to cope with someone turning into a wolf right in front of them."

"Jeez Bella. I'm not that stupid as to do it in the middle of Forks." Jacob tells me, his tone wounded.

"You could have fooled me!" I roar, turning around to glare at him. I knew my eyes were glowing a bright scary red through my contacts. "What the hell happened in there Jacob?!"

"I let your dad know that you were still alive in the simplest and easiest way possible. I could tell you didn't have the guts to do it." Jacob says calmly, meeting my furious gaze.

"It wasn't a question of having the guts Jacob!" I growl fiercely at him. "It was the question of not giving my poor dad a heart attack! Or does that not matter to you?"

"Of course it matters!" Jacob yells straight back at me, not the least bit afraid of my anger. "Charlie is my dad's best friend. I had his best interests at heart! And yours too!"

I ignore the last bit of his statement as I concentrate on the anger I feel. "Yeah, you would have been the one who had to tell Billy that Charlie had a heart attack and died because you phased right in front of him. And since you weren't done with that, then told him his daughter was still alive!" I scream.

Jacob opens his mouth to presumably shout something straight back when the door opens behind him. Charlie pokes his head out, his eyes wide. "Are you two going to continue your shouting match on my doorstep?" He asks evenly.

Jacob immediately looks chagrined. "Sorry Chief. Bella and I have some … issues to discuss."

I bare my teeth at Jacob, unable to help it. "Issues? You bet we have issues Jacob Black." I growl.

Charlie sighs and I even swear he rolls his eyes. "Bella, you've always had a slight temper. Calm down before I have to send Jacob home in a cardboard box."

I suck in a deep breath, mainly for Charlie's benefit. "I'm calmer now." I grind out. "And we better be going."

Charlie nods brusquely. "Yes you should. I'll see you soon Bella."

I try and smile at him past my fury. "See you soon dad."

Charlie shoots me one last smile and then, almost reluctantly, closes the door. I have to stop myself from smiling when I see his curious face appear at the window, watching us. Watching out for me. Just like he used to.

I take a deep breath and turn to look at Jacob, willing myself to get calm. "We should be going now, Jacob." I say quietly.

His expression is serious. "We should. Your bloodsucker was obviously worried."

Jacob seemed to be on a mission to try and piss me off, and he was succeeding about five minutes after we'd left Charlie's and got out of the main area of Forks he was at it again. "Bella you need your dad." He'd started casually, walking jovially down a side alley, gesturing for me to follow him. "And your dad needs you. Did you see how ill and stressed he looked? You were the cause of that."

Without really thinking about it, I turn with a feral snarl and catch Jacob neatly by the throat, lifting him off the ground and pinning him to the wall. "No Jacob. You were the cause of that." I hiss. "Don't you dare blame me for my father's stress. Don't you dare." I was so angry I was literally seeing red and when I blinked I felt my contact lenses disintegrate in my eyes.

Jacob blinked rather owlishly at me in shock. "Put me down." He orders.

I tighten my grip, giving him just enough room to breathe. "You just sauntered in there, all "I know what I'm doing" and nearly ruined everything. Did you even think about Charlie once? Did you?" I yell.

"Bella." Jacob chokes, but he's not making any move to fight me off. "How did I nearly ruined everything? You wanted to see Charlie. I made that happen."

I scowl at him. "I don't see how telling Charlie I was alive was part of the deal!" I yell. "Yes I wanted to see him! I didn't want to tell him I wasn't dead! For god sake Jacob, he's only human!"

"He's stronger than you think Bella." Jacob argues. "And he needed to know the truth sooner or later."

"I was opting for later, if at all!" I yell.

"What? So that he can believe you're dead for a little bit longer? That seems cruel to me." Jacob shouts back, not the least bit uncomfortable at my rage.

"It's not about that!" I scream. "It's that… God Jacob you couldn't hear his heartbeat! It was way too fast! I thought we were going to give him a heart attack. You could have at least been a bit more delicate!"

"Stuff like that isn't for the faint-hearted Bella. It would have been bad whatever way we did it. You can't cover stuff like that up." Jacob argues, angry now. "You were dead to him, I made you alive." His mouth twists. "Well hypothetically, since you're dead. I figured he'd still want to know you even if you are a disgusting bloodsucker."

That hurt. That hurt a lot. I dropped Jacob so fast he was on the ground before he realised what had happened. "Well since I'm so disgusting I guess you don't want to be seen with me anymore." I hiss. "That's fine. Thanks for making that clear. I'll make my own way back."

"No!" Jacob yells, scrambling to his feet. "I didn't mean to say that! It just slipped out. I'm too used to thinking of vampires in a certain way."

"It doesn't mean you have to hurt your friends!" I yell back. Then, before Jacob can answer or come up with some excuse, I run away, using all of my strength to put some distance between us.

I finally manage to lose Jacob, after fifteen minutes of long hard running. It turned out that Jacob was only faster than me when I wasn't using every ounce of my strength in anger. I had no desire right now to ever see Jacob again. A small part of me accepted that he may have been right about Charlie but I wasn't listening to that part right now.

I slowed to walk when I was sure Jacob had lost my trail and viewed my surroundings. I was on a seemingly deserted side street in Forks, just on the outskirts by the look of it.

And completely alone.

A shiver ran up my spine when I remembered that Edward had seemed hell-bent on getting Jacob to take me home and I'd completely ignored him, purposely leaving Jacob. Who completely deserved it, but still. Edward definitely wouldn't have encouraged Jacob taking me home if he wasn't badly worried about something.

But what? What could have worried Edward so much he was prepared to use Jacob for help?

A slight rustle from the other side of the street gets my attention and I look up warily, expecting to see Jacob there.

It isn't Jacob.

It's a woman. A vampire, without a doubt. She was feline, almost cat-like with her walk. Her hair was wild, untamed and as red as flames that matched her blood red eyes perfectly. Her face, although soft and pretty at first glance had an underlying feral feel to it, like she could switch from baby-like and innocent to a cold blooded killer in seconds. She hadn't made any movement towards me whatsoever but she was still scaring the hell out of me.

She most definitely wasn't a vegetarian either. I tense slightly, just in case as I make eye contact with the woman. "Do you want something?" I ask sharply. I'd learnt from experience that aggression was the best first defence when dealing with a vampire.

The woman blinks, cocking her head to the side lightly like she'd just heard something interesting. She was watching me like a predator watches their prey. "You are Bella?" She asks and my mouth drops open. Her voice was the complete opposite of the violence I could see under her surface exterior, just waiting to strike. It was warm, strangely child-like and soft like a stream rippling delicately.

Her voice unnerved me but I managed to keep my head. Barely. "Who wants to know?" I question sharply.

"An old friend of yours." Another voice sounds across the street and I glance over to see it is a male who is speaking. This one had even darker skin that Eleazar and Carmen, the darkest possible skin tone that one of our kind could have, with his olive hue and long black deadlocks that hung to his waist. His eyes were as red as the red-headed female's.

I tense my body visibly, demonstrating to the newcomer that I was preparing for defence. He quickly got the message because he stopped stalking towards me. "I don't have any old friends." I say warily.

He smiles and my skin crawls in response. "Oh but we've heard otherwise young Bella."

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" I ask, as calmly as I am able.

"My name is Laurent and this is Victoria." He gestures to the red-head who nods sharply at me. "We have been looking for you for many months now Bella. And what a happy coincidence that we have found you here, in this deserted street."

Warning bells were beginning to ring and I back away infinitesimally. "Yes it is a coincidence, isn't it?" I ask lightly, making sure that my voice didn't give anything away. I was pretty sure I would be able to take out the both of them in a fight if it came to that, unless one of them had a supernatural gift I wasn't aware of. "Such a shame too. I was just journeying back to some new friends of mine. I'm sure they'll be pleased to meet you."

The female smiles coldly. "We are not interested in meeting your friends. We want you to meet ours."

A jolt of realisation immediately hits me. "You're the vampires who have been killing the humans in the area, aren't you?" I am unable to keep the horror out of my voice.

The female's smile widens viciously. "Oh, so clever." She says softly. "We're vampires. It's what we do."

"You don't need to." I argue. "I don't."

"That's because you're a freak, Bella Swan. But I knew that anyway." Another voice, one I recognised, sounded across the street. I freeze instantly, my heart in my mouth before looking up.

Another vampire had appeared on the scene. He had non-descript features, so unnoticeable you'd overlook him easily, particularly in the vampire world, and light brown hair which was cropped close to his head. His eyes were crimson coloured and he has a slight build. I would have overlooked him as a threat immediately except that I knew this vampire very very well. And there was no way in hell I would be able to ignore him. One wrong move and I was dead. My head was screaming at me to run but I was transfixed in horror that he could be here. In Forks.

And hunting me.

"I'm not a freak." I say defiantly.

He smiles softly. "Ah Bella!" He sings. "So full of energy. Such a waste."

Fury fills me. "Because you are here to kill me, right?" I ask evenly.

"Right you are, Miss Swan." He agrees, smiling maliciously.

"I won't make it easy for you James." I snarl, immediately dropping into a hunting crouch. He smiles as he mimics my stance.

"I can see by your eyes that you're still refusing to behave like a proper vampire." He says sarcastically.

"I can see that you're still collecting females. What happened to the blonde you replaced me with?" I ask, gesturing to the red-headed vampire who instantly looked like she'd been slapped in the face.

"She outlived her usefulness." James says bluntly, with a brief glance at Victoria.

"So you killed her." I summarise. "Figures."

"What blonde is the bitch talking about?" Victoria trills, her face furious.

I laugh loudly although it isn't the slightest bit funny. "You have absolutely no idea, do you? I bet you think James loves you, that'd he'd do anything for you, don't you?" Judging by the look on Victoria's face I'd hit the nail on the head. She'd swallowed his bullshit too. "I'm sorry that I'm the one to tell you this, Victoria, but he doesn't. You must have something that makes you useful to him, that's the only reason you're still alive."

"You're lying." Victoria snarls, but she sounds uncertain.

"He's a hunter." I snarl back. "He knows more than anyone how to make himself strong. So he uses people. I should know, he tried to use me. Why do you think he wants to kill me?"

"He said that you tried to kill him." Victoria says uncertainly.

I physically stop myself from making a move towards James. "I tried to kill you? Really? That was the best lie you could come up with? Why don't we tell her the whole story?"

"Shut up bitch." James says menacingly. "You won't be telling anyone anything."

"Whatever you say, creator." I say mockingly as James lunges for me.

The fight for my life had begun.