Chapter Five: Relieved?

(Bella POV)

I was surprised at how Alice had sneaked up on Seth and me. Her appearing out of nowhere was not what I needed after almost being killed. With her was Jasper that looked a mixture of thorough confusion and sheepish apology towards us.

The apologetic feelings I got from him had to be about him attacking me almost six months ago. He had never gotten the chance to do so for himself, so I welcomed it warmly. Jasper didn't deserve to be afraid to be around me. He was walking on eggshells enough when it came to Edward and his feelings about the incident.

The confusion, however, I had no way to place. Was he confused that I was alive? It wasn't so hard to talk down a vampire regardless of what Edward and Jake always insisted. All I had to do was appeal to Seth's humanity, or what was left of it, and he went with me from there. Edward had told me that Jasper had been especially hard on himself when it came to his and all vampires' deadly desires. Did he think so little of them all that he couldn't believe one hadn't taken the chance to kill me?

"Bella, are you okay?" Alice asked slowly.

"Yeah, but Seth…" I murmured.

"Almost killed you!" Alice exclaimed. "And worse I can't see him right now!"

I gaped. That was impossible. According to Alice no one (except the wolves as we had recently realized) was invisible to her sight. Someone disappearing either meant that they had died or were on a path that would lead to their immediate death.

But Seth wasn't on a path to death. What he had done to everyone in the backyard couldn't have done that much damage to his future! I ran my fingers through his hair. He reminded me so much of Jake but younger. I didn't want to let him go but suddenly I noticed something odd.

"Wait a second, Seth's breathing!" I exclaimed.

"Bella, that's impossible newborns don't remember to breathe–" Alice sighed.

Jasper put a finger to her lips and motioned for her to listen.

"There are two heartbeats right in front of us right now, don't you hear it?" Jasper whispered.

I moved my hand to the nape of his neck where one would normally take a pulse and waited for the sensation that a heartbeat would create. After a few seconds I felt the first thump, and I would have thought it was my imagination if another one hadn't happened three seconds later then another three seconds after that.

"It's so faint but…" Alice murmured.

"Alice, Jazz, get Bella away from him!" shouted a heavenly voice from behind me.

Edward was being overprotective as usual. It was going to take a while before he got over the need to protect me all the time.

Right behind him was Jake in human form, naked. My face reddened. In the few weeks I had known the secret Jake had 'phased' as they called it back and forth three times in front of me. Never though had I actually completely seen him. It was a bit much for a girl who had just talked down a vampire that was trying to kill her only to find out said vampire had a heartbeat.

"Edward, Seth has a heartbeat," Alice said simply as if she was just relaying the weather, but to her it probably was as interesting as the weather report.

Edward looked to Jasper for confirmation of what had been said while Jake just looked on in horror. Obviously that had to come to him as a shock since that defied all he knew about vampires

"I can't hear his thoughts either," Edward murmured. By this time the rest of the pack had joined us, and they too were confused. At least they had slipped on something to cover themselves though…

"We could hear his thoughts in the pack mind," Jake offered.

"Jacob!" Sam growled.

"That doesn't make sense either; it's like Bella's thoughts…" Edward explained. "I hear nothing whatsoever."

I jerked away from Seth, it was all too impossible for me. His thoughts were a cloud like mine. According to Edward it was incredibly rare to find at least one person like me in the world, and the likelihood of another just a town away was extremely low.

He could communicate in the pack mind. Seth was most definitely not a werewolf; he couldn't be what with being a vampire. Maybe he was gifted.

But that didn't explain why he had a heartbeat.

"Seth, stop pretending to sleep," Edward commanded.

I remembered briefly that Edward had said vampires never slept. They couldn't, which accounted for the slight bags under their eyes all the time

After a few moments we all added another symptom to Seth's oddness.

"He's really asleep,"

(Seth POV)

I've always hated First beach. First of all it was always so unbelievably gray. Even during the daytime in the summer on sunny days the beach is gray. The absence of color hurt me on the inside since colors were always a high point in my life. I always thought they were taken for granted.

Second, and this reason was the biggest, I could never swim. My dad had tried several times before with Leah to get me to like the water, but no matter what things always ended badly. The first time he tried I got swept under a wave and carried out almost past the coastal shelf. I was five so I reacted as any five year old would have, relentless fear.

Imagine my surprise at being at First beach.

I took a tentative step forward only to fall flat in a tide pool. It wasn't very deep, but I was still scared nonetheless.

"You know, you really need to get over your fear of water," said a familiar voice.

"Conscience?" I gasped, whipping my head in every direction to find the source.

The little girl's voice that had snapped me out of my linear focus of killing Bella and feeding from her was coming from everywhere and yet nowhere. I still found it odd that my conscience manifested itself as a little girl.

"Seth," my conscience giggled as I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned to see a little girl that had to be my conscience. She looked a lot like Bella for some reason with the same chocolate brown eyes and paleness that wasn't vampire level yet. Her hair hung loosely in bronze curls that looked oddly familiar too, but I couldn't pace anyway.

"You can just call me Renesmee." She smiled, thrusting out her hand for me to shake. "And you'll be seeing more of me."

I reached out to take her hand, but suddenly I was enclosed in darkness.

Yes Renesmee just made an appearance, you didn't imagine it.