A/N: So, kind of another filler chapter here. But I felt it was important. Please let me know what you guys think! I really appreciate it!

Shoutout: Thanks to wolverinacullen, Wickedgal08, and Alessandrakatrina for their reviews on the last chapter. You guys make me smile :)

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to sw1m4l1fe for her loyal reviewing and, most importantly, her awesome beta'ing. I had quite a few mistakes in this one. It couldn't have been easier for you darlin, but I love ya for it! Also, thanks for kicking my butt in gear to get this chapter out. I couldn't have done it with you!!!

Disclaimer: You've heard it once, you'll hear it again...I don't own Twilight or anything else you may recognize. I only own Rhiannon.

Chapter Four (Bella's POV)

I walked up the front steps of the Cullen home with Rhiannon in tow. I could hardly believe I had run into another vampire on the streets of Forks. This place was getting to be like something out of a fantasy novel.

Rhiannon seemed nice enough. We made small talk on the drive up to the Cullens. She told me a bit about her life in Brazil when she was still a human and I told her about Edward and me. She definitely had a lot of questions about Edward, but I guess I can't really blame her. If I was a vampire and I heard another of my kind had fallen in love with a human, I'm sure I would be interested too.

No sooner than I opened the door and took one step into the foyer, I heard a soft, melodic voice call out to us. "Is that you, Bella?"

I would have known that voice anywhere. "Esme?" I asked, heading toward where I thought the voice came from, motioning for Rhiannon to follow me.

"I'm in the kitchen," she answered. When I heard that, I quickly made a sharp left and entered the kitchen.

Esme was standing at the oven, wearing a pink apron over her clothes. She was pulling what looked like a tray of cookies out from the oven. Normally, there'd be nothing odd about this sight, but when the chef is a vampire who can consume nothing but blood, the image was a little strange.

She must have known how strange she looked, because she set the tray on the counter and turned around to face me and started to explain herself. "I figured you might be stopping by, so I thought I'd whip up some-" She trailed off when her eyes drifted from me to the Brazilian beauty standing next to me.

A look of confusion crossed her face for a moment but she quickly recovered and replaced it with a beaming smile. "Well. Who's your friend?" she asked politely but curiously.

"Esme, this is Rhiannon. Rhiannon, Esme," I said, introducing the two women to each other.

Esme studied my new friend for a moment. Recognition suddenly appeared in her eyes. "Rhiannon, if you don't mind me asking, are you…?" she asked, trying to find the best way to phrase her question.

Rhiannon looked amused. "A vampire?" she asked with a soft laugh. "Yes."

"Is Carlisle around?" I asked, remembering why I had brought her here in the first place.

"He's in his office," Esme told me without looking directly at me, for she was still studying Rhiannon.

"Thanks, Esme," I said.

Esme's eyes shifted back to me. "Anything for you, sweetheart," she said genuinely.

I loved her. She was also so sweet, always putting other people's needs in front of her own. I couldn't wait until I was officially part of her family, even though it would just be a technicality. I knew she already considered me as one of her own.

I led Rhiannon out of the kitchen, up the stairs and down the hallway until we reached Carlisle's office. The door was about halfway opened, so I could see him typing away furiously on his laptop. I knocked softly before stepping in. "Carlisle? Do you have a sec?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to disturb him from important work.

He looked up at me with a smile on his face, reassuring me that I wasn't interrupting anything too critical. "Sure, Bella," he said.

When he saw that I was not alone, he, like his wife previously, looked slightly confused for a moment, but it didn't last long.

I decided it was time for some more introductions. "I wanted you to meet someone," I said, moving further into the office. "This is Rhiannon. I just ran into her in town."

Carlisle stood up from behind his desk and extended his hand to her. They shook hands, both with smiles on their faces. Everything seemed to be off to a good start.

"So Rhiannon, where are you visiting from?" he asked, sitting back down and motioning to the two chairs in front of his desk for us to do the same.

"Brazil, sir," she said formally.

He waved off her "sir". "Please, call me Carlisle."

She smiled appreciatively. "Carlisle," she echoed, testing it out.

"So, Brazil, you say? Are you part of Kachiri's coven?"Carlisle asked, weaving his fingers together and placing them on his desk in front of him. "Surely she would have mentioned a new member to her family."

Rhiannon elegantly brushed her long dark hair off her shoulders. Jeeze. I could only hope I'd be half as beautiful as her or Rosalie when I became a vampire.

"I know her, but I am not part of her coven. I briefly considered joining, and she said she'd be happy to have me, but I did not think I would be able to live with myself if I were to continue to hunt humans as they do. I thought if I were on my own, I'd be able to show some more restraint. If I wasn't, I was going to find a way to end my existence. I couldn't bear the thought of spending the rest of eternity as a monster," Rhiannon paused, as if the memory was too painful for her to continue.

As I sat back at listened to Rhiannon's story, I couldn't help but sympathize with her plight. I could never imagine going through such a transformation alone. I knew I was lucky to have the Cullens for support and I would never take them for granted.

She took a deep breath and continued. "But then I heard about you and your family, Carlisle, and they way you practice…how would you say…" she trailed off making hand gestures, unable to come up with the correct English word.

"Vegetarianism," Carlisle supplied, also understanding why she was hesitating.

"Yes, vegetarianism. Thank you," she said, beaming thankfully at him. "Like I was saying, I heard about your vegetarianism and I must say I was intrigued. I had no idea that it was possible to be…what I am while not causing harm to anyone. It's the perfect solution for me, but I need your help. As long as you're willing, of course," she added, looking at Carlisle with hope radiating in her eyes.

I felt it was my turn to step in. "Will you help her, Carlisle?" I asked, hoping it didn't sound like I was begging. "I think it'd be really great to have another girl around here."

"I do not mean to intrude in any way," Rhiannon interjected quickly, a worried look flashing across her face. "All I'm asking is for you to simply teach me this vegetarianism and then I'll be on my way. I've never been one to overstay my welcome."

Carlisle smiled. "Don't be silly, Rhiannon. Obviously, Esme and I would be more than happy for you to stay as long as you'd like."

I jumped up from the chair excitedly. "Does that mean you're going to help?" I exclaimed.

"Of course, Bella. What kind of vegetarian vampire doctor would I be if I didn't do everything I could to help people who want to save other's lives?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with laughter.

I thought for a moment. "I guess you have a point there," I admitted, feeling a faint hint of blush rising in my cheeks.

Carlisle reopened his laptop. "I have a bit of work to finish up in here. Why don't you take Rhiannon to meet the rest of the family before we start?"

He turned to Rhiannon. "How does that sound to you?" he asked.

"I would like very much to meet your family."

"Great. I think the boys and Rose are in the garage, Bella. You could start there."

I grabbed Rhiannon's hand and tried to pull her up from her seat, forgetting of course, that she was a vampire and therefore, ridiculously strong, and trying to get her to stand would be like trying to lift the Space Needle.

"Thanks, Carlisle!" I said, finally admitting defeat and just nudging her so that she would get the hint.

It worked. She stood up as well. "Yes, thank you," she said with a polite nod.

Carlisle grinned. "It's my pleasure," he said to us before turning his attention back to his work.

"Oh, this is so exciting!" I exclaimed as I skipped quickly but carefully down the stairs. I was excited, but I definitely did not want to face plant down the stairs. I can't imagine that would make the best impression of Rhiannon. "You have no idea how much fun we're going to have together."

I turned to see her reaction. She seemed stoic, but once she saw me looking at her, she put on a smile. "I can only imagine," she said. It seemed somewhat forced, but I decided to let it go. I'm sure she was just shy.

I flung open the door to the garage and true to Carlisle's word, found Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie there, all three bent over the hood of Rosalie's red BMW M3 convertible.

"Hey, guys," I said loudly, making our presence known. Maybe I should have thought that one through because each of them jumped up in surprise and hit their heads on the open hoods. I felt bad for a second, but then I remember who I was dealing with and they were not going to be affected by a small bump on the head. So I continued.

"This is Rhiannon," I said as they gathered around me and my friend. "She's a vampire visiting from Brazil. She's going to hang out with us for a few days so she can learn about your vegetarianism."

"Rhiannon, this is Jasper," I said, pausing so Jasper could politely shake her hand.

"Em-" I tried to move down the line but I was silenced by the appearance of Emmett's gigantic hand covering my mouth.

"I'm…." he said, apparently wanting to introduce himself. But he didn't say anything else. He just stood there, grinning like a crazy person while Rhiannon looked back and forth from him to me with a raised eyebrow, waiting for some sort of an explanation, which I, for one, could not give her.

After a few moments, Jasper intervened. "Hey, idiot. What are you doing?" he said, asking a very legitimate question that we all wanted to know the answer to.

Emmett shot him an exasperated look. "It's called pausing for dramatic effect. You can Google it. It's very common," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world and that we were the idiots for not knowing what he was doing.

Why were all the Cullens seemingly fascinated with Google and what you could find on there? I pondered, remembering last year when Edward told me I could Google adrenaline rushes.

"You're insane," Jasper said, shaking his head incredulously. Okay, so maybe not all the Cullens were obsessed with Google.

"That's very true," Emmett agreed with a laugh. "But I'm also Emmett. It's nice to meet you," he said, finally extending his hand and shamelessly gave Rhiannon the "up-down."

He didn't let go of Rhiannon's hand until a loud, not-very-subtle throat clear jerked him back to reality. "You can put your eyes back in their sockets now, Emmett," Rosalie snapped.

"What?" Emmett said, turning around in surprise to find Rosalie glaring at him. If the phrase "if looks could kill" was true, and vampires could actually, you know, die, then Emmett Cullen would be a very dead man at the moment. "Oh, sorry, Babe," he said, giving his girlfriend a goofy smile, in hopes of being forgiven.

However, Rosalie didn't say anything more, just flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and rolled her eyes.

It was silent for a moment until Rhiannon spoke. "And you are?" she asked, holding out her hand, the question directed at Rosalie.

"Rosalie," she said quickly, looking at her through narrowed eyes and keeping her arms folded tight across her chest. She then sighed exasperatedly and whirled around, going back to work on her car.

Rhiannon recoiled, surprised by the animosity. "Don't mind her," I said, leaning over to whisper to her. "She doesn't take too well to new people. And she's probably also jealous because you're, like, way prettier than her."

"I see," she said, keeping her eyes on the furious blonde.

"Do you guys know where Alice is?" I asked, wanting to quickly change the subject. "I want her to meet Rhiannon too."

Jasper sat down on one of the two ATVs that were in the garage, close to where we were standing. "Alice doesn't quite seem to be herself lately," he said running a hand through his mop of curls, sounding like he was choosing his words carefully.

A less-than-ladylike snort came from the other side of the garage. "That's putting it lightly," Rosalie said sarcastically, not looking up from her car's engine.

I eyed Jasper worriedly. "What's wrong?"

Emmett sat down on the second ATV, right next to Jasper. "She's gone crazy," he said, shrugging.

"Emmett!" Jasper exclaimed defensively. This was his love they were talking about.

"What? It's true," Emmett said, unabashedly. "She just wanders around all day with this dazed look in her eyes muttering to herself about cats. My theory is that she's plotting to dump Jazz, move to a tiny cottage deep in the woods, buy like 29 cats and spend the rest of her existence writing the most romantic love poetry to them," he said, looking up at me and Rhiannon with one of his teddy bear grins.

Rosalie had pulled her attention from the car and was now listening to Emmett speak. Her head was tilted to the side, looking at her boyfriend curiously. "You know, I'm flabbergasted when you say things like that."

"Thank you," Emmett said, crossing his arms in satisfaction.

"Not a compliment," Rosalie shot back before, once again, refocusing on the car.

Jasper shook his head, staring at his brother in disbelief. I guess he chose to ignore him because he turned his attention back to us. "I think what my dear brother is trying to say," he said, with an incredulous tone in his voice, "is that the only visions Alice, who is not dumping me, by the way, is currently having all have to do with cats. She can't get them out of her mind, but she has no idea what they have to do with anything. She's completely frustrated. She can't see a thing apart from those damn cats."

My heart had begun beating rapidly while Jasper was recounting the happenings with Alice. I could feel a knot beginning to form in my stomach. I did not have a good feeling about this. "Has this ever happened before? What does it mean?" I asked, looking to Jasper for reassurance.

"To your first question, Bella, no, not like this. She's gotten visions stuck in her head before, sure, but they're usually always about someone's future and they never last for long. These visions are just like a continuous slide show of pictures of kittens. They can't mean anything. And they've been there for days now. As for the second question…none of us have any idea whatsoever," he said, eyeing my sadly.

"Even Carlisle?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. If Carlisle didn't know what was going on, whatever was happening definitely was not good.

"Even him," he answered, confirming my fear. "But he seems to think that this is only temporary, so there's hope," he said, his voice straining as he tried to sound optimistic.

"Where is Alice now?" I asked.

"She met up with Edward in Alaska. She thought maybe if she got away for a while the vision would go away."

"Did they?"

"We don't know. No one's heard from either of them recently."

My heart sank. You know that saying, "no news is good news"? Well, that doesn't really apply in the world of vampires. "Something really weird is going on around here," I said, trying my best to stay calm.

"No one's arguing that," Emmett agreed sarcastically.

I stood there, trying to go over everything Jasper had just told me. And then suddenly, with the force of a thousand tracker trailers hitting me, it came to me. I looked at Jasper, my eyes widening. "Do you think maybe, somehow, the Volturi are behind all this?" I asked softly.

"Impossible," Rosalie said from across the garage.

Emmett scoffed. "No way."

Jasper, however, seemed to take me seriously. A hardened expression infiltrated his features and, in a flash, he was by my side. "What are you trying to say, Bella?" he asked with a hand on my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine, probing me to continue.

"Well, think about it," I said, casting my eyes toward the ground. "The two people in the family with the most useful gifts are now hundreds of miles away. Maybe they're trying to see if I'm still human. And with Edward and Alice gone, we'll never see them coming. They want to catch us by surprise so we won't have time to hide from them."

When I finished, I looked at Jasper, biting my lip while waiting for his reaction. He didn't say anything. He only looked at me with slightly widened eyes. That could only mean one thing. "Oh, my God. Do you think I'm right?" I asked quickly. I hadn't really wanted to believed my theory; it was just something I came up with as some sort of explanation for Edward and Alice's strange behavior. I never wanted to be right.

Jasper let out a long, contemplative breath. "It does make sense," he admitted regretfully.

"Hang on," Emmett said, interrupting the intense stare Jasper and I had going. "The Volturi are powerful, but I doubt they have the ability to suddenly cause Edward to be insanely thirsty or Alice to have visions of fluffy kitties. And even if they did, I really doubt they would waste their time doing it."

Jasper's eyes fluttered a few times, taking in what his brother had said. "You know, Emmett might be right," he said, sounding surprised.

"Ehh," Emmett shrugged. "It was bound to happen sometime," he said with a laugh.

"But it wouldn't be a bad idea to take precautions anyway. Rose, do you want to let Carlisle know about Bella's thought?" Jasper asked.

Rosalie looked annoyed but she simply shrugged. "Why not?" she said, wiping her hands on a dirty rag and dropping it on the floor before exciting the garage.

I watched her and made sure she was far enough out of earshot before I said anything. Then I exploded. "You're going to let Rosalie tell Carlisle?!" I exclaimed, glaring at Jasper angrily. "Knowing her, she's not going to say anything and just let the Volturi come after me."

"She doesn't have a problem with you anymore, Bella," Emmett said, defending his girlfriend's hostile actions.

"Yeah, she just doesn't fully accept your plan to become one of us," Jasper explained.

Rhiannon, who had been quietly observing our conversation, suddenly spoke up. "What?" she asked, looking at me with a shocked expression.

"Oh yeah," I said, forgetting that she didn't know about the plans for my future. "I'm going to have Edward turn me into a vampire after our wedding. That way, I can spend eternity with him instead of, you know…growing old and dying," I said dryly.

"You're getting married?!" Rhiannon exclaimed suddenly, almost looking crazed.

When she saw Jasper, Emmett and I each staring at her strangely, she shook her head, and quickly recovered. "Umm, that's great," she said with a strained laugh. "When's the big day?"

I let her reaction go. Hers wasn't the first shocked reaction when we told people two teenagers were getting married. "A couple of weeks," I answered. "And I really hope the Volturi let me stay alive long enough to make it," I said, making a joke so I would seem like I was being calm about the whole situation.

"I wouldn't stress about it too much, Bella," Jasper said, slinging a reassuring arm around my shoulders.

Emmett slide off his ATV and came up on my other side, also putting an arm around my shoulders, sandwiching me between the two boys. "You've always got us to protect you," he said with a smile.

"Thanks," I said, looking at each of the gratefully.

Emmett sent Jasper a sly smile over my head. "You know what Bella needs, Jazz?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows suspiciously.

"What's that, Emmett?" Jasper asked, sounding amused.

"She looks like she could use a little bit of fun; take her mind off things," Emmett said, nodding his head off to the side, attempting to get Jasper to take notice of something.

I did not like the sound of this.

Jasper followed Emmett's gaze until he landed on what he was talking about. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked his brother, grinning wickedly.

"I'm thinking that I'm thinking what you're thinking," Emmett said laughing.

I ducked my way out from under their arms. "You guys are officially scaring me," I said, turning to them, throwing my hands on my hips suspiciously.

Emmett grabbed a helmet off the shelf that he was standing next to and tossed it to me. And suddenly, I understood.

"No way!" I said, looking from the helmet back up to Emmett, my eyes wide. "You're actually going to let me ride?! You never let me near your bikes."

"With just cause," Jasper said, also grabbing a helmet off the shelf. "You can't take two steps without injuring yourself. But you'll probably be safe as a passenger."

"Would anyone like to let me know what's going on?" Rhiannon asked, watching the three of us curiously.

"Jasper and Emmett are going to let me ride on their ATVs!" I squealed excitedly.

"Is that what those are?" she asked, nodding toward the two machines the guys were sitting on earlier.

"What?!" Emmett exclaimed, dramatically clutching his heart as if he was in pain.

"Oh no. Now you've got him started," Jasper said to Rhiannon with a laugh.

"I hope you're not telling me that you've never heard of an ATV. I hope you're no telling me that because that would be un-American," he said, sounding like he was preaching to a congregation.

"She's from Brazil," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Doesn't matter," Jasper said, shaking his head. "He's already started his tangent."

Indeed, Emmett didn't notice my statement and continued on. "How could one go through life without ever riding on one? Never feel the wind whipping around you while the sun shines hot on your face?"

"We're in Washington. There's sun, like, five days a year," I said amused.

"This is a travesty!" Emmett exclaimed, collapsing against his Jeep.

"That's it!" he said suddenly, slamming his hands against the sides of the vehicle. "You're riding with me!"

"I don't think that's such a great idea," Rhiannon said, looking worried as she adamantly shook her head.

"Why not?" Emmett asked, a classic "puppy-dog" look on his face.

"He's not going to take 'no' for an answer," Jasper said, placing an apologetic hand on Rhiannon's shoulder. "You might as well give up now."

"Well…okay. I guess," she said, looking at the ATVs hesitantly.

"Fabulous!" Emmett exclaimed, satisfied and he bounded over and jumped on his four-wheeler, bringing it to a roaring start.

Jasper followed suit and got on the other one. I hopped on behind him, lacing my hands around his waist, holding on for dear life. I whispered a silent prayer, hoping I wouldn't fall off. Rhiannon cautiously climbed on behind Emmett, looking very nervous.

Emmett and Jasper sent each other evil smiles, which I have to admit, was unnerving. Then, Emmett pushed a button to open the garage, and we took off, racing quickly into the deep forest.