Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer but my OC's belong to me

Chapter 4

Jane blinked once, twice. Surely she had misheard. This Iona had not just asked her to join this rag tag bunch of misfits. But no, the vampiress seemed perfectly serious, which was scary. The red haired one, Ember, looked like she had sucked a lemon and if looks could kill Iona would probably be covered in wounds and she would be a smoking pile of ash. Daniel was holding Ember around the waist, restraining her was probably a better word. Ryan just looked bored and slightly intimidating, as if her decision wasn't going to effect him in any way at all. Nathan looked the most friendly and was still smiling. This whole situation was so unreal, maybe it was a clever trick by her former masters or these were bounty hunters hired by them to kill her.

"Well?" Her eyes snapped over to Ember who still looked like she wanted to tear her to pieces. "Come on brat answer her, this is a one time deal." A scowl instantly appeared on her face.

"I thought I misheard her either that or I'm having a twisted warped nightmare staring a short tempered red haired banshee." Insulting was familiar territory for her. Ember made a move towards her but Daniel, who was stronger than he looked pulled her back and began to speak in a low whisper. She could have sworn that Mr tall dark and brooding in the corner smiled but it was hard to tell.

Iona still hadn't said anything, just continued to stare at her with those eerie white eyes. Jane had the urge to hide do anything to break out of that gaze. Her eyes seemed to be judging her; as if everything she had ever done was being examined and evaluated. What if this wasn't a trick? She knew nothing about surviving in the outside world; the Volturi had provided everything she had needed to exist and learning how to fight when she had her gift seemed pointless. But now she was on the outside and her gift wasn't working, it was either adapt or die.

The real question was could she learn to live on her own? No, at least not yet. But they were vegetarians, they fed off animals. Bleugh, still beggars can't be choosers and for now at least she would need to depend on someone to stay alive. Besides if they had wanted to kill her they would have done it as she slept. Part of her still rebelled against it, the part that held no faith in anyone but herself and Alex.

"I suppose in light of my present circumstances that I have no choice in the matter but to join you." She spat the word you with all the contempt she could muster. Ember was clenching her fists and even Nathan looked a little put out. Iona however, just smiled.

"We always have a choice Jane and you've made yours." She turned back to the others of her coven. "We'll stray here for the rest of the day and carry on travelling at night. The Volturi are searching for her but we should be safe for now. Daniel take Jane out hunting and fill her in on the situation, make sure she doesn't find a human."

"You got it. Come on little miss sunshine." he let go of his mate and walked over to her. She felt like begging Iona to let her go with someone else, hell even Embers death filled glares where better than his....friendliness. She distrusted that. Friends were people who were nice to your face and stabbed you in the back. But once again she had no choice.

They stepped out of the room and into woods. She didn't recognize the scenery; they were on a mountain of some kind, covered with trees and it was day time. Her skin began to sparkle as she stepped into the light. It had been so long since she had been outside in the sun. Daniel walked out in front of her.

"We're in the Pyrenees mountains, you've been exhausted and asleep for about a day." She nodded then frowned.

"Vampires can't become unconscious bonehead, everyone knows that." Again he didn't react to her insult which was disconcerting.

"You're right they can't. Maybe I should have worded it better, basically you're body was put under so much stress and exhaustion that it just shut down to repair itself. It was really lucky that Iona and Ember found you when they did." his tone didn't change still friendly and open as if they were discussing the weather. He had started walking in a random direction with her following albeit grudgingly.

"Wait Ember found me as in the I'm-going-to-glare-at-you-until-you-drop-dead vampire?" He chuckled at her and she went back to scowling at him.

"Hey if you keep frowning then your face is going to stick like that. Can you imagine being stuck for eternity with a frown or worse what if your face froze in an embarrassing position when you were turned." He laughed at the image and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do people actually think that you are funny?" if they did then she would have to consider surviving on her own.

"No, not even my own coven appreciate my unique brand of comedy. Tragedy really, even my mate tells me to shut up sometimes." Well it was nice to know they weren't completely insane. "Now then enough about me. We want to set off the second the sun sets so how fast can you run?" She bit back a retort that was on the edge of her tongue.

"I can run as fast as a normal vampire, my size does not effect my abilities." Daniel seemed to realise he'd hit a sore spot and waved his hands in the air.

"Whoa relax miss sunshine (she glared at his nickname for her but he ignored it) I wasn't saying that. It's just that we're nomads we travel well everywhere really and with you tagging along we might have to slow down. It's pretty tough our life." She scoffed at that.

"Really how?" her voice was dripping with sarcasm and he heaved a sigh.

"Our diet outcasts us from the rest of our kind, you yourself were and probably still are disgusted by the fact that we feed from animals. We're considered weak and compassionate for that. But that's their mistake. Did Ember or Ryan look weak to you?" Slowly, she shook her head.

"We've had to fight so many battles over t he years mostly against our own kind who want to teach us a lesson and show us how weak we are and you know what. We won each one. The fact that we kill animals doesn't make us weak but I think that resisting the temptation to feed from humans makes us strong, because it is so easier to forget that once we were just like them." His voice trailed off and there was a heavy silence occasionally broken by the cry of a bird.

"Maybe some of us want to forget." she whispered slowly into the air her shoulders hunched up. She hated to be reminded that she had once been human, she had once been vulnerable and puny.

"Just because we ant to doesn't mean we should, I was a right ass in my human days but I remember those experiences and the lessons I learned to try and be better than I was. The way I see it, we were given a second chance and I don't want to ruin mine." he said with a far away look in his eyes. She shied away from him not liking the conversation one bit. He tensed slightly and she spun around searching for what he had seen.

"Do you smell that." his voice was calm and even, his shoulders relaxed again and he crossed his arms across his chest. Taking a deep breath she took a deep breath. Hundreds of scents assailed her; the wood, the leaves, the insects, the animals which one did he mean?

"When you're out hunting remember to always keep your sense open. You have to get used to the amount of smells and pick out the specific animals scent." She blinked he was actually teaching and giving good advise. Closing her eyes she tried to sort through the scents.

"Oh and try to pick something that will be relatively easy for you to kill first time. So no going after bears or wolves K." she nodded to caught up in the scents of the wood. It felt pretty good doing something for herself. Slowly she was able to identify and organize the different scents, or at least most of them. Something easy eh? Her eyes opened and she turned to look at him.

"There's a couple of deer somewhere around here." he smiled and nodded.

"You passed lesson 1, time for lesson 2 where are they?" She began to follow the scent and her body began making adrenaline. So this was what hunting felt like, this was the thrill they spoke of. It was addicting. The smell of the deer got closer and closer she could just make out its heartbeat.

She heard Daniel move behind her but he didn't say anything his eyes fixed on her as hers were fixed on the deer. She silently lowered herself into a crouch and waited for the perfect opportunity to kill. The creature looked up and stared around with dull blank eyes but she was hidden in the trees. It pawed the ground as if it could sense something was wrong but didn't know what. It made its way to some grass and began to eat its bare neck exposed right in front of her.

Now! She lunged forward and grabbed the deers neck in an unbreakable grip, her lips pulled back and she bit down into its neck drawing out the life-giving substance that sustained her kind. Soon the deer was empty and she dropped the corpse to the ground.

Daniel, who up until then had been silent came down and patted her on the back. "Not bad for a first hunt. A little gory but you've got potential. Now to get rid of the body." He leant down and put a hand on the corpse. He closed his eyes and then a strange fizzing noise could be heard. Jane jumped back at the sight. The body was disintegrating under his touch it was both disgusting yet captivating at the same time. Soon the deer had disappeared and there was no evidence of her hunt to be found.

He stood up and laughed at her dumbfounded expression "Yeah I'm gifted." His voice turned slightly bitter. "My touch destroys anything steel, bodies, vampires. Guess it kinda fits, in my human life everything I did caused harm and pain." She saw guilt shine his eyes for a second before he smiled at her. Well that's it for today's lesson. We hope you enjoyed your crash course in hunting with Daniel tune in next week for episode 2 where we move onto killing without carnage."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "How do they put up with you."

"I grow on them I will on you to."

"Oh so you're like mould."

"Ye-No, I'm nothing like mould."

"Sure." The banter was relaxed, it was unusual for her but it wasn't completely awful. They reached the house in no time and Daniel knelt down to her level.

"If you're coming with us then you need to learn fast, those Volturi didn't teach you anything so it's going to be tough but let me assure you, we will make sure you can survive. I'll be teaching hunting, Ember and Ryan will be teaching you how to fight and Nathan will be teaching your mind as for Iona, she taught us each something special. For me it was hunting, I'm the best out of all of us. She taught fighting and weapon usage to Ember who is the best warrior, Ryan got stealth take your eyes off him for a second and he can disappear as for Nathan he's sort of the politician in the group, able to weasel out of any situation. But I have no idea what she's going to teach you." he trailed off and went to open the door. She didn't say a word and followed him inside her head spinning with what was going to happen.

Night was falling pretty quickly and the coven was getting ready to move, she was sitting on the ground just outside the abandoned house. They would leave in a couple of minutes, heading for England than somewhere else.

The stars seemed to wink down at her from up above. She reached a small hand as if to grab one.

"So I'm not the only one who likes to stargaze." Jane turned around to see Iona step over to her. She swallowed as the pair of white eyes focused on her with that startling intensity. The vampiress sat down next to her. "Amazing, I'm over 4000 years old yet still love to look up at the stars."

The number sent Jane reeling, over 4000 years old that was older than the Volturi. "W-who are you?" she stuttered out.

White eyes turned to her again. "I'm Iona, the second vampire ever created."

AN: So sorry for the update time I just couldn't figure out what to write. I'm going to develop Ember and Iona more in the next chapter and Jane's going to have to do a lot more learning. What are your opinions on my OCs? Please read and review.

Sneak Peak

Jane's eyes met Embers across the hall and she saw how much hatred burned in them, her first fighting lesson was not going to be pleasant.