{

I dialed Phil's number again as I peered out of the cracked window shade, but the call went to voicemail like it had the past several tries. The sun was shining brightly outside and the sky was a deep, beautiful blue; but that was nothing but deception.

I had watched the national guard and the army and the men dressed in combat uniforms. A couple of them patrolled down the sidewalk every hour or so. I was lucky – or perhaps not – that the public schools near the downtown area were closed; I wouldn't have to call in sick again.

The whole city was in a state of panic now, though my daughter's death had all but numbed me to the sensation. People were still catching whatever sickness was unleashed at the capitol, and the symptoms were quite grotesque.

It was all over the news at all times of the day. A talk show would be discussing it – the host always brought a medical expert to explain how they thought it was transmitted and how to prevent yourself from catching it. News anchors would show the walking, lumbering corpses that used to be human beings as they stumbled toward the camera and were systematically blown away with machine guns.

I froze in place as I heard the rattling of the doorknob in the kitchen.

}

-Chapter 7: How Much Have You Noticed?-

I had just enough time after I got home from school to write Charlie a note in case he happened to arrive home before me and found me gone and the phone ripped from the wall. I collected my small stack of cash and put it in my jeans pocket after I finished writing the note. It wasn't much money, really; only about $100. The grocery money jar caught my eye and I hesitantly pulled out another hundred from the collection in case the phone was more than I had.

The sound of a snarling engine came up my street and I ducked out of the kitchen, opening the front door and waiting for what I assumed would be my ride to Port Angeles. My eyes popped in their sockets as Alice's car skidded to a halt in front of my driveway. I hadn't even seen the driver since the windows were heavily tinted, but the owner of this car was obvious.

It was an obnoxious yellow color that absolutely demanded attention. The brilliant hue contrasted heavily with the washed out, perpetually grey skies and saturated green forest of Forks. It was sleek, too; built for speed. A Porsche, the small logo signified. I was sure I would be smiling at the machine if my mouth hadn't been hanging open.

"Hi, Bella!" Alice chirped as the driver door opened and she climbed out of the driver's seat to wave. "Are you ready to go?"

"Uh…oh, yeah," I nodded and moved toward the car in a daze. Alice danced around the Porsche and opened my door for me. "Thanks," I said as I slid into the dim interior, my weight making the leather seats 'whoosh' as the air was forced out.

Alice closed her door as she slid into the driver's seat, jerking the car into drive and peeling away from my house with a burst of speed. She sped about ten miles over the speed limit while we maneuvered through town, opening up the throttle and letting loose as we reached the highway. I couldn't help but grin as we passed cars that were going the speed limit like they were barely moving at all.

I glanced over at Alice, who looked completely out of place behind the wheel of a car – her stature was similar to a 7th or 8th grader's and if she was any shorter she would have needed a booster seat to see over the dash. She looked like she knew what she was doing, though, and wore a small grin that was the companion to mine.

"So," Alice said, breaking the silence after the thrill of the speed we were traveling wore off. "What kind of phone are you getting, if you don't mind me asking?" I turned away from the window I had been staring through and looked at her. Her head was turned toward me and my eyes widened marginally at the perceived danger of Alice not keeping her eyes on the road while traveling at what was clearly over one hundred miles per hour.

"Just a plain corded phone for the house," I answered, staring out the windshield with a fixed gaze as if I could make up for Alice's lack of concentration. The car held steady, though, even though she continued to look at me; I relaxed my bunched muscles as I realized we weren't going to crash.

"Is something wrong, Bella?" Alice asked, drawing my attention to her again. Her eyebrows pulled together again in confusion as if she didn't realize driving without watching the road generally made people nervous. I shook my head at how absurd I was being – even if she did crash, it would barely hurt me at all. It certainly wouldn't kill or seriously injure me, though I had no idea if the same held true for Alice.

"No," I answered. "Apparently not." Alice sighed.

"Are you going to ask, or not?" Alice questioned, causing me to freeze as I stared at her. She swore lowly under her breath and gripped the steering wheel tighter, the leather squeaking in protest. "I hate not being able to see anything." She let out a breath and consciously relaxed herself, giving me a reassuring smile. "Sorry, it's just with Edward and Rosalie not trusting you and you obviously noticing there's something different about us…it seems quite pointless for both of us to beat around the bush."

I let out a strangled laugh at her up-front manner, though I didn't understand her comment about not being able to see. I understood her frustration all too well, though, and I couldn't help but compare Alice to the wolves. Both Jacob and Alice were…forceful, for lack of a better term, but where Jacob made me feel like an enemy right from the start, Alice seemed…I wasn't quite sure what the right word was. She felt safer, if that made any sense at all.

"Why did you invite me over to your house?" I asked. Alice gave me a look.

"Seriously, Bella?" I could almost hear the eye-roll in her voice. "If you don't want to go first, that's fine, but we both know why Carlisle wanted to talk to you." I nodded, but I couldn't shake the hesitance that had settled over me ever since the wolves had confronted me. But me asking her questions couldn't be so bad, right? This was what I came here to do, after all – well, in addition to picking up a new phone.

"What are you?" I asked simply. Alice seemed to consider what to say for a moment, though she didn't seem surprised or angered by my question.

"How much have you noticed?" Alice glanced at me before returning her gaze to the road ahead of us. I knew she didn't really need to focus all her attention on it, if her stunt before was anything to go by, so I assumed she was trying to give me as much space as she could while we were both in the car.

"You all have strange skin," I answered. "That was the first thing I noticed. It's not like regular people's skin – there're no pores or imperfections in it. You also seem to…glow or shimmer, though it's not happening much right now." I paused, recalling memories of the Cullens standing around in the parking lot. "You make the strangest sounds – hisses and…snarls; it's like something a wild animal would sound like.

"And then…well, I didn't really notice this, per say," I disclaimed. "But the wolves mentioned you and your diet of animals instead of humans – it was a pretty big spoiler that you and your family weren't exactly human." Alice's head snapped around, her eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth parted in shock.

"Wolves?" Alice asked, her face of shock melting into one of anger. I nodded.

"Yeah," I answered. "You do know about them, right? I just assumed you did, since they seemed to know so much about you – though they didn't tell me anything," I pointed out quickly. "I just overheard what they were saying to each other."

"When did this happen?" Alice asked through her teeth.

"Yesterday," I replied. "Or, well…this morning, actually." I shook my head. "I keep forgetting it's only Tuesday," I muttered to myself and turned back to Alice. "One of them found out I was different and confronted me about it with a few of his pack members. It didn't go all that well, I'm afraid." Alice hissed.

"They attacked you?" Alice demanded more than asked. I raised my hands up in defense.

"Hey, I'm completely fine. I doubt their whole pack could take me, honestly," I assured her. "And we'll talk about that later. That's all I know about you; I would appreciate some straight answers now." Alice took a breath and unclenched her hands from the steering wheel, revealing twin handprint-indents that wrapped around the wheel. "What are you, Alice?"

"I'm a vampire," Alice said simply, returning her focus completely to the road. There wasn't much buildup and it wasn't climactic; I didn't get hit with a wave of disbelief.

"Hmm," I hummed as I considered her answer.

I had considered gods, aliens, and mutants – I had even compared them to golems after I saw their strange skin. Vampires had never come up, but after hearing Alice admit what she was, it seemed to fit. The wolves had said they fed on animals instead of humans – I had assumed they actually ate their prey, but sucking their blood fit too. The whole of it resonated in my mind like the beginning of a bad joke.

So, an infected freak moves to a town infested with werewolves and vampires…

It was no wonder Jacob and the rest of the wolves hated the Cullens. Wasn't it one of those 'arch-enemies' things? I vaguely remembered the legends of Van Helsing with the werewolves and Dracula against each other. This line of thinking opened other questions: were other myths real, too?

"Bella, are you alright?" Alice asked. I realized I had been staring at the dash for several minutes and turned to look at her, wincing at the surprisingly vulnerable look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, sitting up straighter in my seat. "I'm just sort of…processing. Is it alright if I ask some questions?" Alice nodded, appearing relieved.

"Yes, of course you can."

"How are you out in the daytime?" I asked the question that came to me first, remembering that her whole family had been out and about today and yesterday. "Don't you burn in the sun?" A peal of musical laughter escaped her mouth, morphing into a grin as I looked at her in confusion.

"No," Alice answered. "That's just a myth. The sun doesn't hurt us, but we can't be out in public when it's sunny. I'll have to show you some time; it's more of a 'see it to believe it' thing." I nodded.

"So, what else is just a myth with vampires?" I asked as we reached the city limits of Port Angeles. Alice tapped her fingers on the damaged steering wheel.

"Well, we aren't repelled by holy objects," Alice huffed a short laugh. "Crosses and holy water don't do anything to us. Garlic smells disgusting, but it doesn't affect us either."

"Stake through the heart?" I shot out. Alice shook her head.

"No. Our skin is extremely hard, like stone, but even if you were able to stake us through the heart, we wouldn't die. We also don't need an invitation to enter a home and we can't turn into bats – I think that was the one thing about being a vampire Emmett was disappointed in," Alice smiled to herself. I laughed at the startlingly-real mental image of the muscle-bound man trying to transform into a bat.

"We're strong and fast," Alice continued. "And we do have to drink blood to survive, though my family is different from other vampires. We only drink animal blood, like those mutts told you. It's not as satisfying as human blood, but it allows us to keep a bit of our humanity that we lost during our transformation."

Our conversation was cut off as Alice pulled into the all-too-familiar parking lot of Walmart. The tiny vampire opted to park her vehicle at the back of the lot. I followed behind her as we strolled past the older, rundown cars, and toward the sliding glass doors at the front of the store.

Alice should never be allowed in a store.

We were nearly to Forks, though we should have been back almost forty-five minutes ago. Finding a suitable replacement phone was simple enough; the entire process of locating one what was within my budget only took five minutes. The trip to the front of the store, though, was more difficult and took several times longer.

Alice didn't like any of the clothes Walmart sold, but she dragged me to the clothing section anyway. After that, she had to inspect the meager shoe section and the arts and crafts aisle. Thankfully, she was a vampire, so she skipped the half of the supermarket composed of food, but she certainly picked her way through anything that interested her. Had I been normal, I was sure I would have been exhausted from all the speed-walking.

"Great," I groaned as we pulled up to my house. Charlie's cruiser was in the driveway. "I think we'll have to reschedule the meeting with your family." Alice nodded and looked at her phone right as it vibrated, letting out a groan of her own. The phone calls and texts from her family had started about two hours into our trip; Alice would text back quick messages, but I could tell she probably needed to talk with them.

"Alright," Alice sighed. "Esme is going to be disappointed, though; she was looking forward to meeting you – Carlisle as well." I shrugged, opening the passenger door and stepping out. The living room curtain parted, revealing Charlie's inquisitive face.

"Another time," I offered and Alice nodded, typing with superhuman dexterity and speed on her phone. "Thanks for the ride, Alice." I waved as I shut the car door and walked to the front of the house.

"I got your note," Charlie greeted me as I walked in the house. "How did you manage to rip the phone out of the wall, Bells?" Charlie tried to keep a straight face, but I could clearly see his lip quivering in withheld humor. I huffed in response, relieved that he wasn't angry at me.

"It was just a klutzy accident, dad," I said as I took the new phone out of the plastic bag, placing it on the kitchen counter. "I'm just lucky I didn't break something more expensive." Charlie chuckled and shook his head, examining the picture of the phone on the cardboard box.

"I'll set this up," Charlie nodded to himself and turned to me. "You go ahead and get yourself something to eat; I ate while you were gone." I shook my head.

"No, that's OK. Alice and I ate in Port Angeles," I lied. Charlie hummed and rubbed his face.

"Alice?" he prodded.

"Alice Cullen; I met her at school," I explained. "She offered me a ride."

"Well that explains the car," Charlie mumbled to himself. "I'm glad you're making some friends already, Bella." I smiled in agreement.

"Well, I'm sort of tired," I lied again. "I think I'm going to head to bed early tonight."

"Alright, Bells," Charlie said. "Goodnight."

"Night," I called as I ascended the stairs and entered my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

I switched on my computer and started to sort through my closet while I waited for the ancient machine to boot up. I picked my outfit for tomorrow and put it on the top of my dresser, turning back to the illuminated computer screen and groaning. The damn thing was so slow; the desktop icons were popping up one at a time in five second intervals as the hard drive disk spun like a ceiling fan inside the computer tower.

Yet another reason why I needed to find a job – I needed to buy a halfway-decent computer. I sat down in my chair and started Internet Explorer, forcing myself not to bang my head on the keyboard as the dreadful program crept to life on the screen. I considered installing Chrome or Firefox, but I wasn't sure what one of those would do to the computer if I installed one.

Deciding not to risk overloading the computer's small memory, I moved my curser to the search bar and entered in 'vampires.' Several familiar websites popped up: Wikipedia articles, Amazon books relating to vampires, and a preview for the images section of 'vampires,' which had multiple movie and TV posters visible. I sighed and scrolled down, unsurprised but still disappointed that it wasn't as easy as typing the word into Google.

After over an hour of surfing the web, I knew the plot synopsis' of several vampire books, had perused discussion boards about people who called themselves vampires, and watched several short clips on the 'mythology of vampires' on YouTube. My hand went to close out of the tab I had finished when I heard a faint growl and a responding hiss somewhere outside the house.

I closed out of the browser and darted to the window, pulling it up with a familiar squeak and looking outside. Halfway between the tree line and my window was Alice, crouched down and baring her teeth at the woods. I shifted my gaze at the cluster of trees and my eyes widened as I clearly saw the russet fur of Jacob's wolf. Alice and Jacob both shifted their heads to see me, but kept their eyes locked on the other.

I froze in place and listened, breathing out a sigh when I heard Charlie's deep breathing – he must have gone to bed while I was absorbed in my vampire research. I gripped the window edge and propelled myself out, landing on the balls of my feet and darting over to Alice's side.

"What are you doing here?" I growled at Jacob, who took a step back but didn't look away from us.

"The dog was here when I arrived," Alice sneered. "He was watching your house, Bella." I clenched my hands in anger.

"Why?" I demanded, taking a step forward and causing Jacob to let out a warning growl. "Don't you growl at me. Change back and talk or I'll cut you into pieces!" I felt the predatory thrill coursing through my limbs as my body prepared for a fight. I held my shape together, though it took effort to keep my hands as hands and not razor-sharp talons.

Thankfully, Jacob did as I asked and phased behind a tree before jogging back to Alice and me with his trademark shorts-without-a-shirt look. He seemed cautious, but I couldn't detect any hostility directed toward me. Alice, on the other hand, he full-on glared at.

"Hanging out with the leeches now, Bella?" Jacob spat toward Alice, who hissed back at him.

"So?" I prodded, ignoring his barb. "Why are you here, Jacob?"

"I don't want to be here, OK?" Jacob raised his arms and huffed. "The elders didn't like that you never showed up; they wanted one of us to watch you to make sure you didn't kill anyone." Alice growled, seeming to agree with my line of thinking in that the whole thing was ridiculous. I was living with Charlie, for crying out loud!

"You don't have any right," I shook my head to keep from screeching at him and took a deep breath to center myself. "Go home, Jacob, and tell Sam if one of you comes snooping around my house again I'll start cutting off appendages." Jacob gulped and took a step backward.

"I'll tell him, but I don't call the shots with the pack," Jacob said. "Watch your back, Bella." His tone didn't sound threatening, like I knew it could have, so I only nodded at him and watched him disappear back into the thick of the woods.

I saw Alice straighten out of her crouch once Jacob was gone, though her face screwed up into a grimace. I seemed to frown and smile at the same time as I watched her rub her hand across her nose. Alice caught my gaze and rolled her eyes, taking my hand and tugging me behind the house and toward the same patch of woods I thought I had killed Jacob in yesterday.

"I think it's later," Alice sighed. "How in the world did you piss off the entire pack of wolves, Bella?" I chuckled as we crossed into the woods, heading in a different direction than the path that led to the creek.

"They didn't exactly agree with my diet," I sighed.

"Your diet?" Alice asked. I nodded.

"I used to feed off of people," I told her, silently wondering if I was allowed to say 'used to' when I had only fed off a single animal so far. "I had no idea I was capable of eating animals too, or I would have been doing that all along." I shrugged.

"OK," Alice came to a stop and turned to look at me. "I had decided not to press you, Bella, but now I can't help but ask…what are you?" I shrugged and slowly grinned.

"How much have you noticed?" I parroted her own words. Alice smiled and stepped back, cocking her head in thought.

"You don't smell human – at all – that's the first thing my family noticed when we saw you at school," Alice said. "I can't quite explain it; it smells like sickness…but not really..."

"I smell sick?" I scoffed. Alice's eyes widened and she shook her head rapidly.

"No, no," Alice assured me. "You smell like…the imitation of the scent of a human who is sick. It's like a scented candle: it may smell close to the real thing, but there's always that undertone of fakeness." I nodded slowly.

"I think I understand what you're talking about," I told her. "You can smell that well?" I asked and she nodded.

"Your missing heartbeat was also a pretty big giveaway," Alice continued, making me sigh.

"That's one of the things Jacob noticed, too," I told her.

"You also seem to have better-than-human senses," Alice looked around at the trees. "It's dark enough that a human wouldn't be able to see much of anything, but you haven't stumbled once since we walked here."

"My vision is my most 'dominant' sense, I suppose you could say," I confirmed. "Most of my others are heightened as well, but apparently not to a vampire's level."

"So what are you?" Alice whined, appearing completely impatient. "Carlisle hasn't encountered anything like you and he's been at home, researching, since yesterday afternoon." I shrugged.

"I don't know," I admitted with a frown. "I don't exactly have a name for what I am, though I am fairly sure I can't be classified as a human anymore."

"So you weren't always like this?" Alice asked, leaning against a tree. I followed her lead and rested my back against one opposite her.

"No," I confirmed. "I was as normal as anyone else, but…I don't want to talk about it." I looked over to Alice, who nodded in apparent understanding.

"I don't remember any of my human life," Alice murmured. "None of us had graceful transformations, and I don't blame you for not wanting to talk about it." Her somber expression melted into a more-upbeat one. "So, what can you do that has the whole mutt pack scared of you?" I rolled my eyes and pushed off from the tree.

"I'll show you…but it's a bit strange," I scrunched up my nose. "I won't hurt you, though, so don't freak out, OK?" Alice eagerly nodded and I glanced down at my arms, which were bare since I left my hoodie back at the house and was wearing a t-shirt.

I let my arms shift shapes, forming into the red-and-black claws. Tiny barbs of liquid obsidian poked through the sleeves around my shoulders, ripping the fabric as they came to a point. I flexed my talons at my side, extending each point and rotating my wrist to show Alice each side of my claws.

Alice's eyes were wide – like saucers – and despite her assuring me she wouldn't freak out, she was unable to contain the fear I saw running through her features. After a few moments she was able to tear her eyes off my weapons and look at my face, though I avoided eye contact and stared at the tree beside her.

"Oh…" Alice choked out. I gave a humorless laugh and nodded, allowing my human skin to slide back into place and cover up my monstrous insides.

End notes: So, there was a huge influx of reviews for the last chapter. Which is awesome; thanks.

Another cool thing is having this story added to the Alice/Bella community thing. I was already subscribed to it and got a kick out of receiving the email saying my story was added. I have no idea if there's some sort of criteria for having a story added to the community (besides the obvious), but it felt pretty good nonetheless.

For those who want updates immediately: sorry. I would like that too, but I would never be away from my computer if that happened. I give it my best effort to finish and update a chapter once a week, so that should give you a good-enough time frame to expect a new chapter.