A/N Next chapter up already! I'm so proud of myself! As ever, my thanks and a virtual cookie for all my reviewers; I love you guys!

APOV

I reached the house before the others, since Edward had, in his childishness, refused me a lift in his car. I had run home instead, and now stood in front of the picturesque building that was over one hundred years old, marvelling at its beauty. We'd all had a hand in renovating it a couple of years ago, and the memories of Emmett hanging from the rafters and fixing the lighting still brought a grin to my face. Sighing as nostalgia washed over me, I zipped through the front door.

I found Esme in the kitchen, contemplating the cookery channel and the steak in front of her, her head cocked slightly to the side. It truly was an amusing sight.

"Hey Mom. What's with the steak?" Smiling at my greeting, she looked up at me, her eyes twinkling.

"I figured that since Edward's supposed soul mate was here, then sooner or later she would be brought to meet us; and we must keep up our appearances! Besides, cooking could be my new favourite hobby!"

I giggled along with her as she puzzled over the herbs lying out on the counter. Then it came to me that I might do well to get in before Edward on at least one person in the coming shit storm.

"Esme, something happened today at school." I immediately had her attention.

"I hope you aren't fighting already, dear."

"Well, not exactly. The girl, her name's Bella; she didn't exactly seem too enthused at Edward's 'charm'," I brought my hands up in air quotes. "In fact, she pretty much shot him down before he even asked her out. Trouble is, I think Edward is having a hard time accepting it."

"What's this sister? Poisoning others' opinions against me again?" With immense effort, I refrained from slamming my brother's head into the ground and sitting on it. Instead, I turned and smiled sweetly at his figure, which was currently slouched against the doorframe.

"Not at all Edward, I was merely informing Esme of today's occurrences. Is that not usual?"

"Come on Bro, you gotta admit she wasn't exactly feelin' you," Emmett appeared like a guardian angel, patting my irate brother on the shoulder lightly.

"No, she just…she hasn't gotten used to me yet. After all, we are vampires," he said, as if it was the magic excuse for everything.

"She seemed fine with Alice," Rosalie pointed out as she stepped to her mate's side. Edward twisted to her.

"Whose side are you on, Rose?" he whined. My sister scoffed at him.

"Everybody present knows I voted in your favour because you would be less likely to expose us. However, everybody present also knows that I am strongly opposed to a person forcing themselves onto another person." Emmett drew in breath sharply at this. We all remembered her past.

"By all means, continue to pursue her if you really think it's going to work, but no bugging her consistently or hanging off her if she displays any negative emotions towards you. Remember Jessica?" Edward shivered. "Well the way you are going, you might start acting like the way she did to you." He started to protest.

"But that's different, she wasn't my-"

"And neither is Bella, as far as we can tell. All we have to go on is your word, which does seem to be a bit on the biased side at the moment, Edward," Carlisle cut him off as he entered the room. "Now, since everyone is in one place, I should probably tell you about some happenings at the surgery today." Our sibling rivalry momentarily forgotten, we all listened intently to our paternal figure.

"It seems that something…not human has been operating in the area. A boy was sent to me today, his name was Ben Cheney. There were severe lacerations on his neck and upper torso, although there was no sign of any drainage; the blood loss was no more than to be expected. I've never seen anything like this before, and when the patient finally came to he could tell me nothing about what happened. He could only recall darkness, he said. I'm telling you this now so that you can all be on your guard. This is not the operation of the human, that much I am certain. It wouldn't have been one of us, because he'd be well dead by now. None of the boy's values were taken, and he was left alive. That pretty much rules out anything of a human consciousness. Alice, have you seen anything in your visions about this?"

I shook my head in the negative. This was worrying. "But I'll keep an eye out." He nodded, and turned to Edward.

"And you haven't noticed any strange thoughts, Edward?" He too, shook his head.

"Well, now you all know, you're free to go. And I don't want to be hearing anything about you harassing Bella, Edward."

With that, Carlisle departed for his study. Edward stalked off to his own room in a huff, his previous state of prissiness restored. Esme had turned up the cooking channel where a bearded guy was expertly chopping onions and Rose and Emmet…had settled with making out on the couch.

"Nice," I declared sarcastically as I flopped down into an armchair and flicked on the TV.

"Just 'cos you don't got nobody, short stuff," Emmett replied. I snickered.

"That didn't even make grammatical sense, Emmett."

"So?"

Thinking to help Esme, I returned to the kitchen, but was reminded of my burning thirst when the scent of the raw steak filled my nostrils.

"I'm going to hunt."

How did I end up here again? I could have sworn I was going to sate my thirst, and take my mind off things. Not crouch on the branch outside Bella's window to watch her sleep. Crap, I'm turning into Edward. Even with these thoughts, I still couldn't take my mind off the sleeping form in front of me. She'd left her window open, inviting her scent out into the open where it was taken in by me eagerly. Is it possible for a vampire to breathe too much? Because I certainly was. I should go.

I was just turning to leave, when I heard her mumble something. Intrigued, for she was clearly still sleeping, I stayed to listen.

"No way…" What? I cocked my head to the side. Was this a nightmare?

"But if you aren't…what are you?" Oh. That didn't sound good.

"Jake! Get out of here…you don't know what you're…" Jake? Who's Jake? Bella was now tossing and turning, her heart rate speeding up. I think it's time for me to leave.

Spinning around, I launched myself off the branch and speeded away from the house.

BPOV

Edward was stalking me. He looked even more feral than usual, and he had red eyes. The exact same shade as the creatures that I hunted. But when I tried to impale him with my blades as he leapt for me, they bounced off his skin. He cackled.

"Silly Azhiya, don't you know that I'm not one of them? I'm much more powerful, you see." I shook my head vigorously.

"No way, you can't be…how do you know our name?" He laughed again.

"Your disbelief makes you a fool. Fine. Wallow in your ignorance." He turned to leave.

"But if you aren't…what are you?" His crimson eyes bored into mine, a cruel amusement dancing in them.

"But, have you not been told? We are the origins of the creatures you slay. We are known as Vampires."

I stumbled back, putting as much distance between us as I could. That just wasn't possible. Vampires we supposed to be gone.

"Bella!"

To my utter disbelief, I peered into the distance to see Jacob jogging towards me, a grin on his face. Edward growled violently and Jake's face fell.

"Jake, get out of here, you don't know what you're doing!" I tried desperately to warn him off. Instead, his body began to shake rapidly. Then he leapt forward, and he exploded into a gigantic, russet coloured wolf. Edward and Jacob then began circling each other menacingly, growling all the while.

"What the hell is going on here?" I froze, as I swung my head round to my left at that familiar voice. Alice was standing there, hands on her hips, a frown on her face. This frown was quickly replaced by fear as both Edward and Jacob leapt for her…

"Alice!"

I shot straight up in bed, calling out in panic as the very vivid dream left me drained. I shook my head, trying to clear the dregs of fear from my mind. Was this a warning? Should I not get involved with Alice? Or was it all simply a dream, a figment of my imagination? I sincerely hoped for the second option.

I checked my clock, and decided that I might as well get up and have a shower before Charlie ran the hot water out again.

Dumping my sticky nightshirt, I stepped under the blissfully warm stream of water and proceeded to wash away all the sweat my horrific dream had produced on my skin. I washed my hair too, losing myself momentarily in the mountain strawberry scent. But it's not nearly as good as Alice's.

The tension in my muscles all but gone, I wrapped myself in my towel and padded back into my room. Taking my time, I painstakingly applied the concealer to my back and dressed myself in a red and black miniskirt and white long-sleeved dress shirt.

Finally satisfied with my reflection, I sat down on my bed and once again checked the clock. Just enough time to do my homework and have some breakfast. I was quite pleased with myself.

I was just stepping out the door when I heard Charlie descending to the kitchen. I turned to grin at him.

"Overslept, Dad?" He shook his head.

"Nothin' to worry about kiddo. I'll be good to go as soon as I've got some food in me. Have a good day at school."

I settled into my truck with a smile on my face. Charlie was a good guy really; he'd just been alone for too long.

No sooner had I pulled into the lot than Eric, came jogging up to me, a frustrated look on his face.

"Bella, thank God you're here. I don't suppose you're any good at calming people down, are you? Angela's been driving us all nuts." Pausing for a moment, I recalled the girl that had been sitting a couple of seats away from me at lunch yesterday to be Angela. She was genuinely kind to me, and a good person.

"What's up?" I asked, prepared to help in any way I could.

"It's her boyfriend, Ben. Yesterday evening something attacked him; he had bad slashes all over his body. He's gonna be okay, but there was a whole load of blood, and she…she was the one to find him. She's been sobbing uncontrollably since then."

Alarm bells were going off in my head. Was this the same one from last night? I had to get some answers.

"Does Ben remember anything about what happened?" Eric shook his head.

"Absolutely nothing. Said it was all a big blank. Guess he musta been knocked out or somethin'."

"Musta been," I murmured, my mind buzzing. You idiot! You could've saved everybody a whole lot of bother if you'd remembered to take your blades with you last night! Now you're gonna have to get to the guy before…

"Hey, Bella! Anybody in there?" I was snapped out of my daze when Eric waved a hand in front of my face.

"Uh, yeah sorry 'bout that," I mumbled. He laughed.

"S'okay, I do it all the time! Oh, hey, we better get going," he said as the bell rang.

All throughout my morning lessons, all I could think about was how it was my fault that Ben had suffered, and how Angela was going through all this grief because of my mistakes. The guilt brought my mood right down to rock bottom, so much so that the others at my table started to worry about me. Even, Mike falling on his ass when somebody whipped his chair out from under him couldn't bring a smile to my face.

My stupor was momentarily broken when I subconsciously picked up on a conversation coming from the Cullen table. Wow, I was so bugged out I didn't even notice Alice enter.

"Edward, give it a rest. She totally ignored you when you tried to talk to her in the corridor earlier, and she seems intent on keeping to herself. You'll only embarrass yourself and us by doing this." I assumed that to be Rosalie, although I didn't turn round.

"Nonsense, she'll be flattered. You watch!" My teeth ground together when I heard Edward's voice. Please don't tell me he's talking about me.

Apparently he was.

"Good afternoon, Bella. I was wondering if you'd like to join me for lunch?" His slimy voice suffocated me. I turned slowly, and smiled politely at him. But my mouth? Let's just say it sort of ran away with me.

"Sorry Edward, I'd much rather stay where I am. Besides, isn't it kinda rude to just abandon your family like that?"

His mouth opened and closed for several moments. Oops.

"Dude! I think she broke him," I head the guy named Emmett whisper. I tried very hard not to laugh.

Seemingly trying to maintain what little dignity he had left, Edward gathered himself together and put on a strained smile.

"Maybe some other time then." With that, he turned on his heel and stalked back to his seat. I turned back around to find a table full of people gawking at me. Angela, forgetting her grief, was the first to break the silence,

"Bella, forgive me if I'm wrong, but did you just turn down Edward Cullen?" I frowned.

"What, is that a crime?"

"Well, no, it's just you're the first person he's even talked to outside of the family."

"And I'm supposed to be flattered and swoon at his feet, right?" Angela smiled softly.

"I see your point."

"Well, I don't! You're crazy, Bella, and if Edward is feeling lonely, I guess I'm just gonna have to go and comfort him because he was obviously grasping at straws when he invited you." Jessica stood abruptly, and after her little speech, made to go over to the Cullens. Mike pulled her back, hissing in her ear.

"Save yourself the embarrassment, Jess. We all remember what happened the last time you tried something like that." Again with the sniggering from the Cullens. Could they tell what Jessica was going to do?

"Ugh, fine." Jessica slumped into her seat once more, glaring at anyone who even looked like they were laughing.

Biology was a nightmare. Edward just wouldn't take no for an answer. I was contemplating force at one point, but decided I could really do without blowing my cover on the second day. Instead, I counted down the minutes until Gym, where I could talk to Alice again. As I shifted out of my seat at the end of class, I felt an ice cold grip on my wrist. Clenching my jaw, I ripped my arm from Edward's hand and left the room without looking back. I hoped this time he would take the hint. If not, I might have to talk to Alice about him.

I reached the gym in good time, and was ready for the torture of trying to play sports normally with super strength and super speed. Gah! Why'd it have to be dodge ball, why?

After we'd been separated into teams, the class took up their positions. I noticed that Alice was on the opposite side to me. Great.

The whistle blew, and I began to dodge and weave. It was monumentally frustrating that I could not go at my normal pace, and I'm sure I slipped up a couple of times in the beginning, but after a bit I got into the pace of things. Then a ball skimmed past my ear. I looked up just in time to see Alice grinning cheekily at me from across the way. Oh, it's on.

Catching the next ball that flew my way, I aimed it just so at the dancing pixie. But somehow, she managed to avoid it. Surprised, I continued my movements, until I managed to catch another ball. This time I put a bit more power and speed into it…and she dodged it again! All the while she was just grinning at me.

I didn't notice until a few seconds later that the field was thinning out. Time to make a convincing bomb out, I think.

Taking a dive, making it look as if I was grabbing for another ball, I jumped right into the path of an oncoming one, successfully getting hit and myself out. Picking myself up the floor, I was surprised to see that Alice had followed suit. She sat down against the wall and motioned me over. I smiled, and walked over to her, pausing for just a millisecond to let myself adjust to her alluring scent.

"Hey," I said, seating myself next to her.

"Hey yourself. Y'know, you're better than I expected; I thought you'd be clumsy." I chuckled.

"Yeah, well. Looks can be deceiving." I glanced sideways, grinning at her. She had her head tilted back to the wall, her eyes closed. "You're not so bad yourself."

She shrugged. "I'm small."

A comfortable silence fell as balls bounced across the open space.

"I don't suppose you could help me, but Edward's been bugging me a lot today; I just don't think he's got the message that I'm not interested." She turned to me.

"He doesn't interest you? Why, had someone else caught your eye?" She quirked an eyebrow. I fought down a blush.

"Not necessarily – he just isn't my type."

"What is your type, then?" You. I shrugged.

"Not guys, usually."

Silence.

"Does that bother you?"

"Not at all; I'd be lying if I said I didn't also share that taste." I let out a shaky breath. She likes girls too? Yay! Go me! She turned to me, a sparkle in her amber eyes, smirking. Then a thought struck me.

"Aren't you going out with a guy named Jasper, though?" Her smile immediately faded, and I regretted my words.

"We, um, we broke up over the vacation." She looked down at her feet.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, really. Come on, Coach wants us to go again." She got up and offered a hand to me. I took it gladly, closing my eyes at the pleasant tingles that shot up my arm. When I opened them, I noticed she was doing the same thing. Did she feel it, too?

I took a deep breath. "Come on."

Gym with Alice was good, and my mood was lifted to a state of euphoria temporarily at the discovery that she was gay, but as we said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions, I plummeted into guilt and worry once more as I was reminded of Ben Cheney. Angela had said in lunch that he was still at the hospital, recovering. That meant I was going to have to go in there. I sighed inwardly as I drove home. No sleep for me tonight.

Once I reached home I set about preparations for my night out. I texted Rick giving him and update on the situation here in Forks and asking after him. Then I rushed around the house, making dinner for Charlie and ramming some food down my own mouth. I cleaned and oiled my blades, removed the concealer from my tattoo and changed into my hunting clothes – plain black pants with black belts criss-crossed at my waist, with a sheath on each for my blades, and a black tank. I also wore black fingerless gloves. Yes I looked goth, but most of my work was done at night.

Hurriedly scribbling a note with an excuse on it to Charlie, I leapt out my bedroom window and sprinted to the hospital. By now, night had fallen, but the people on graveyard shifts were still going, of course. Crouching low outside the building, I took and experimental sniff. Ugh! Damn it! All I could smell was hospital cleaning fluid i.e. bleach. I should have thought of that! Now how am I going to find him?

Steadying myself, I coiled up, then let loose. Scrambling through the window, I dropped silently into the room, and flashed to the patient chart by the bed. Not him.

In this way I zipped in and out of the rooms, being lucky enough not to be spotted. But no Ben anywhere.

As I was entering what I was pretty sure to be the last room, I heard a distinctive thump coming from the furthest bed. There was a flash, and then…nothing. I ran to the bed. Sure enough, it was Ben Cheney's bed. But he was not in it.

The IV looked like it had been ripped out of his arm, and the equipment had been trashed. Taking a breath, I managed to detect a hint of blood underneath the bleach smell. Following my nose, I leapt up and out the window, and into the trees. A smell of rotting fish mixed with sugar assaulted me. Shit. Looks like it got here before I did.

Pushing myself to the limit, I sprinted towards the figure that came into sight. Taking a flying leap, I drew my blades and held them to its neck.

"Any last words, Vrykolakas?" I was met with a bout of vicious hissing. "Fair enough. But your days are over." With that, I beheaded the vile creature. As its body fell to the ground, I heard a whimper.

A little way off, in some bushes, was Ben Cheney. He was on the verge of consciousness, but he would not remember anything, thank God. Taking one blade, I sniffed at him until I found what I was looking for, just below the skin of his left wrist. Carefully, I reopened the wound and extracted the ball of sludge that was imbedded there. Throwing it on the pile of creature carcass, I studied the heap. It was a new one…Swiftly, I flicked a switch on my blade and set fire to it. Sighing in relief, I settled Ben gently over my shoulder and took him back to the hospital, trying to avoid jostling him too much.

I put him back on his bed, checking him over quickly for any other markings that I should worry about. I found nothing of note, apart from a tiny incision in his neck. But before I could investigate it further, I heard footsteps coming through the hallways. Frustrated, but not wanting to push my luck, I decided it was time that I headed home. Leaping back out of the window and into the darkness, I took one, last, worried look at the boy lying there, before taking off once again.

A/N So how was that? Y'know, I'm sure my writing style has changed drastically in this chapter…maybe I need more sleep. Hmm…