Forks Academy for Special Gifted Students

by StarStrellaStar

Twins Isabella and Christabel are not your ordinary, everyday girls. At least that's what the teachers of FASGS, a magical school, say. Now, the two contrasting girls have to deal with their new lives and an unexpected secret that awaits them in the dark.

14. Facing Death and Finding Killers

A/N: Okay, first of all: I'm sorry that it took so long, but seriously this is a loooong chapter, so I hope to make all of you happy. Second: Thanks for all the congrats, now that I'm older and wiser... okay nothing really happened yet. Thirdly: You should all say thank you to Babyg14-luvs twilght

I was seriously struggling with finishing this chapter, because I didn't know what to write and when to write it and all of that stuff, but my beta was the whole time forcing me to write. At some point I was working so slow that I might as well have gone to ebd and then I got a message telling me I should update, so I sucked it up and finished it.

Oh yeah and I'm sorry for not replying to all of your reviewes, I read them all (of course) but never got to answer them...

Have fun with the chapter, I'll keep on rambling at the bottom...

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Third POV

As usual, the five people sat inside the dark room. Nightmare had brought back some interesting news to share with Master and the other minions, so they were all seated around the table, preparing to engage in a conference.

"They know," she'd hissed when she entered the room. That had alarmed Master and Houdini, who were the only two in the room at the time, and Master had been quick to declare a meeting. Blossom and Shadow had shown up not long after that.

"So what exactly do they know?" Blossom asked carefully, not having understood what Nightmare had just explained.

"They know about the prophecy!" Nightmare yelled at her heatedly.

Blossom didn't flinch at her outburst, but that was mostly because she wasn't look at the redhead. Instead, she was staring out the window, having thought that she had seen some movement on the campus. But it was way passed curfew by now, so it had to have been a teacher or one of the new security guards.

Blossom shuddered at the thought.

"How can they know about the prophecy? Hardly anyone knows," asked Houdini.

"What prophecy?" Blossom and Shadow asked in unison.

Master ignored them as he sat in his chair, deep in thought. He hadn't said anything throughout Nightmare's entire explanation.

Master took a deep breath. "As far as I know, there are only five people who know of the prophecy's existence. Possibly a few more, since the others—" he spat harshly, "—would more than likely confide in at least one person each," Master continued. "But I don't believe Alistair had been one of those few - I doubt he was trusted enough. He couldn't have been a very good Guardian, anyway. Otherwise he'd still be here," Master chuckled darkly and Blossom beamed a smug smile as she rubbed her injured arm.

"Well then how do they know?" Nightmare asked.

"Perhaps one of the other Guardians in the school let them in on the secret. You should check every person they—"

"We already did. I followed them everywhere," Houdini interrupted.

"Was there any suspicious activity?"

"No, Master."

"Well then, maybe Alistair did get it to them. But how?" Master mused.

"I didn't hear them talking about any prophecies," Blossom interfered.

"Then maybe he gave something to them," Nightmare snapped.

Master's eyes wandered to Blossom's face. "Did he give them anything?" he asked smoothly.

"I think he did, but I'm not sure what," she answered.

"Maybe they told Carlisle Cullen what they got," Shadow suggested.

"That would be rather upsetting. The original statement was not passed on to me, so I suppose someone has to break into the IDM's main office," Master said, looking at Houdini.

"I'll be on my way to Italy momentarily," Houdini practically sang as he rose from his chair, only to disappear in front of everybody's eyes.

Bella POV

To be found and unraveled, the bonded ones must return to life.

Those words kept repeating themselves in my head. Over and over again each time I looked at that stupid box.

What was that supposed to mean anyway?

To me, it didn't make sense. The bonded ones had to return to life? Did that mean that Chris and I had to die?

I sighed in frustration, but was quickly distracted by a knock on my door. I already knew who it was, so I skipped to my door and opened it cheerfully.

My smile immediately fell from my face when I saw that it wasn't who I had expected. I had felt Edward's presence, and my gut feeling was never wrong in this particular area, so when I opened the door to see our whole little clique standing in front of my door, I was shocked.

All of them wore party hats, although the guys didn't look too happy about it, and Alice, Rose, and Chris were also each holding a balloon in their hand.

Heart-shaped balloons.

When I opened the door, the first thing I had actually seen was confetti, which Emmett had thrown on me. Despite the fact that he didn't seem to like the hat, he seemed cheerful enough. Dylan and Jasper, on the other hand, looked like they were in the wrong movie.

I started to think that as well, and even Edward's charming crooked smile couldn't help right then.

"Wrong door," I grumbled and attempted to close the door.

Alice stopped me, though, by slamming her tiny self against the door. She was incredibly strong for someone so small.

"I don't think we got the wrong door," she chirped.

"Well I do. I didn't sign up for the circus," I retorted.

"This is not a circus, Bella," Chris said in a voice that made it sound like I was some silly little girl who needed things explained to her. She was smiling her Barbie smile. Well, at least that's what I like to call it.

And it seemed that all of them expected that to be enough of an explanation for me, since they all started shuffling into my room and making themselves comfortable on my cough and bed. All except for Edward. He didn't look too thrilled either. He suddenly stood behind me and snaked his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He gave me a small squeeze on my side, causing me to let out a small squeal since I happened to be very ticklish. At the exact moment I squealed, Alice was in front of us, snapping a picture with her camera.

"Perfect," she exclaimed. "You guys are so cute. One more," and she snapped another picture.

I kind of had the feeling that Edward had tickled me intentionally, but I didn't bother to comment on that. I was more concerned about the pictures in general.

"What's going on, and why do I have the feeling that I won't like?" I asked, sighing. I heard a smooth, velvet chuckle in my ear as Edward bent down to my level, his arm still around my waist.

I didn't mind it. He seemed to have trouble with not touching me, and I enjoyed every electrical brush of skin much more than I should, so I wasn't going to complain.

"We're celebrating one of the most important days in a young relationship," Rose squealed.

"Do I even want to know?" I muttered.

"I don't really think you do," Edward whispered in my ear and I did my best to contain the shiver that went through my body. I didn't think his sweet, warm breath would ever cease to cause reactions like that in me.

"It's your first week as a couple," Chris grinned, and as if on cue - which it probably was - Alice and Rose let out cheers. Dylan, Emmett, and Jasper did too, but with much less enthusiasm. I was glad I wasn't the only one who found this completely ridiculous.

Edward chuckled behind me again. He was not supposed to find this funny. He was supposed to be just as annoyed as I was.

"Wow, I didn't know that this was so important to you guys," I said slowly, my voice slightly confused.

The three girls nodded eagerly.

"And I'm really starting to wonder why you're always getting on my nerves. You didn't think of throwing a party like this when Chris and Damon got together," I continued.

"That's not as interesting. Besides, her boyfriend isn't known for breaking girls' hearts," Alice said while she threw a meaningful glance at Edward.

"That's why we want to document every moment of your relationship before it's over," said Rose.

"We even got you a present," Chris added, pulling a book from behind her back.

"Signs Your Man Is Lying or Cheating," the cover read.

Did they honestly find this funny?

"That's not as funny as you think it is, Chris," Edward told her, his chin resting on my shoulder as he frowned.

"Not to you," she retorted.

"Seriously, could it be that you're just bored?" I asked carefully.

"They are," Jasper threw in, earning glares from both Rosalie and Alice.

Chris looked entirely too happy and I started to wonder what that was all about. But even through the bond, I felt nothing but happiness.

"What happened to you, Chris?" I asked carefully.

"Nothing. Why?"

"You're extraordinarily happy."

"She's happy for you," Edward noted. Now Chris' all-too-happy expression changed to a scowl directed at Edward.

"What?" Emmett shouted in disbelief. "Chris has feelings?"

Chris chose to ignore him and instead shot me a quick grin.

"So, are we done with this completely unnecessary party?" I asked Alice.

"No," she smiled innocently as I sighed. "We don't have anything else to do," she added after a minute.

That was true. We had a lot less free-time activity options that we could do since the weather was now exactly how I had originally imagined it to be in Forks.

Constantly raining.

Neither Chris nor I liked that much. The others, however, seemed to be fairly used to it. We all thought about things that we could do with the rest of our weekend. I had no ideas.

"How about we go swimming?" Dylan suggested suddenly.

"Swimming? What for? All I need to do is go outside and I'm already practically drowning," Chris complained.

"The school has a swimming pool," Alice said.

"Is there anything this school doesn't have?" I asked in shock and disbelief.

"Not really. Since we're not allowed to leave campus, pretty much everything is here," Rose said in a disinterested tone.

I sighed. I didn't really want to go swimming, but the idea of Edward in nothing more than swim trunks made me much more enthusiastic about it. Chris grinned knowingly at me and I knew that she knew what I had been thinking about. I blushed a deep red and ignored Edward's questioning glances.

"Well then, we'll go swimming," Alice announced with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

This couldn't be good.

"But we'll have to go shopping for bathing suits first," she grinned. It was innocent enough for a smile, but when it was on Alice and it had to do with shopping, it immediately turned evil in my eyes. And I knew that it would have to do with shopping as soon as Alice got that look on her face. The look that said she was planning something.

Me and Chris, and even Rosalie groaned. But Alice ignored it and somehow managed to pull all of us along. Edward tried to fight her for a moment, but he knew that there was no point and I certainly didn't want to be in the middle of a tug-of-war. So he let go and sent me a sympathetic smile while the evil pixie dragged us with her.

"I expect you boys in 90 minutes by the pool," Alice said to them, continuing to pull us girls while she let the boys go.

"Alice, you can let go now," Chris whined after a few minutes.

Thankfully, Alice let us go. But of course she didn't do that without sending each of us a warning glance first, as if to say we shouldn't bother running.

I shuddered. She was so tiny and cute, but just so evil at the same time.

"Hey, Bella! Where are you going?" I heard a cheery voice. Irina suddenly appeared in front of us and somehow she managed to annoy me more than Alice at that moment.

"We're going shopping!" Alice squealed.

The responding smile Irina gave her was strange. She looked like one of those people who hate children but pretend to love them. Her slightly disgusted expression changed back to her usual smile quickly and she turned to me again.

"Looking for anything special?" she asked.

I heard Chris and Rose let out matching sounds of annoyance and I almost laughed. But I was able to quickly compose myself before it got to that.

"Bathing suits," Alice told her. I began thinking that she was kind of oblivious to whom we were talking, more than likely because she was probably already shopping in her mind. She didn't even look at Irina while she spoke.

"Do you want to join us, Irina?" Chris asked her suddenly in an extremely polite tone.

"Um...no, I think I actually have to go now. Bye," she muttered quickly and rushed away.

"Why is she always after Bella? She acts like a stalker or something," Rose commented when Irina had vanished.

"Maybe she is," Chris smirked. That made the two of them laugh while I simply rolled my eyes.

"Enough talking, not enough walking," Alice said suddenly, strutting away as the rest of us worked to keep up with her.

For someone so tiny with short legs, she was insanely fast.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"I am not wearing this, Alice," I protested while looking at myself in the mirror.

She couldn't have chosen something more...impossible for me.

"Oh, come on. I bet it looks adorable on you," Alice said from the other side of the dressing room curtain.

"No, Alice, this is way passed adorable. It's—" I searched my mind for an adequate word, but came up with nothing.

"Does she like it?" I heard Rose's voice ask.

"She's speechless," Alice informed her.

"Show us, Bella," Chris' voice chimed.

I sighed and poked my head out from behind the curtain. I looked around for a second to see if there was anyone else other than the three of them. The only person I saw was the saleswoman who was busily working on a tankini with her wand.

I took a deep breath before stepping out.

"Wow, Bella, you look hot," Chris commented and let out a loud wolf whistle.

"Smokin'," Rose added.

"I knew it would be perfect for you!" Alice sang, seemingly proud of herself.

"This is far too revealing," I argued.

"It's the same as if you were wearing a regular bikini," Chris said.

"Only not," I whined.

I looked at myself in the mirror again and tried to feel comfortable in this...whatever this was. It wouldn't have been to bad if I wasn't the one wearing it. But I was. It was a pretty blue and had stones in a chain connecting the bottom to the top on a diagonal.

"You know, Bella, you should totally wear this to school," Chris remarked as she started rummaging through the pile of swimsuits she held in her arms. I noticed that all of them were white.

"I think that's a bad idea. All the boys would be checking her out and poor Eddie would have to deal with the competition," Rose said to her, adorning a mocking pout. She was also carrying quite a few swimsuits in her arms, I noticed as she vanished behind a curtain after she and Chris shared a good laugh.

"Hurry up, girls, I don't wanna keep Jasper waiting," Alice said and pushed me back behind the curtain of my dressing room so I could change back.

The moment I stepped back out, Rose's curtain was pulled back.

"I think this one is perfect," she announced as she stepped out wearing a red monokini.

She was right. It was perfect for her. It showed off her curves in the most flawlessly perfect way, and the red material suited her better than anyone else I knew.

Alice nodded in approval and Rose was about to turn around to change back when Chris stepped out.

"Nice one," Rose commented before vanishing behind the curtain.

"I've always said I look good in white," Chris mumbled.

"No, you didn't. You've always said you look good in black," I corrected her.

"Well I changed my mind," she retorted as she admired herself in the mirror.

"Why? You hate white."

I'd never heard Chris, in her entire life, say something positive about white swimsuits. Or white clothing in general, aside from t-shirts. Everything else was off of her approval list because she was under the impression that all of it was see-through. Although the color looked incredible with her caramel skin.

"Not anymore," Chris sang and I was pretty sure that the slight blush that appeared on her face was not my imagination. She fumbled a little with the belt that was attached to the bottoms of the bikini, but quickly composed herself and strutted back into her change room.

I could only shrug at the questioning glance I received from Alice.

How would I know why she was so strange?

The answer came to me just a second later and I almost smacked myself in the face because it was so obvious.

Chris didn't respect my mental privacy as much as she should, so why should I?

Most of the time, I closed myself off from the bond and I knew that Chris did too. We weren't able to shut eachother out, but at least we could stay away from the other's emotions.

The passed few weeks, the bond had gotten stronger, although it wasn't as bad for me as it was for Chris. She told me that she gets pulled into my mind occasionally when my emotions are too overwhelming. And that was mostly when I was with Edward.

I slowly reached into her mind and saw that she was still watching herself in the mirror. There was a strange mixture of worry and excitement in her.

What if he doesn't like it? I heard a frantic thought go through her mind. But he did say I looked good in white. But that was ages ago and back then, he could have been teasing me. Or maybe he wasn't...God, why am I even thinking about this? It's not like I care anyway. Okay, Chris, banish all thoughts of Dylan and try to concentrate on Damon. Hmm...Damon will definitely like this bikini; he likes everything I wear. And I bet he'll look good in his swim shorts. Maybe not as good as Dylan, but— God, I have to get a grip. Breathe in, breathe out.

I almost laughed out loud at Chris' inner voice. So she was a normal teenage girl after all. Of course I had already known that, but it was still nice to hear that she freaked out over things like that, too. The only thing that really disturbed me was that even in her thoughts she was trying to make it seemed as if she cared more for Damon than she did Dylan.

There must be someway to get her to see the light.

Beside me, Alice made a sound of enlightenment.

I pulled my thoughts back into my own mind and left Chris alone with her breathing session. Alice was jumping up and down in excitement as she looked at me.

"What?" I asked her cautiously, already well aware that whatever she was thinking of, it involved me.

"I just had a vision," she whisper-yelled.

I made a hand gesture for her to elaborate.

"You're planning on setting Chris and Dylan up."

I frowned at that. Sure I was thinking about it, but I hadn't even come up with a plan yet. Although it was the direction my thoughts had been heading.

Well, maybe Alice wasn't such a bad psychic after all.

I smiled to myself as I thought of Chris and Dylan being a happy couple.

"And you fail. Miserably," Alice added in a whisper, making the smile fall from my face. "And destroy the images of Chris and Dylan sharing a milkshake."

I glared at Alice for ruining that for me.

Rose stepped out, fully dressed again with her chosen swimsuit draped over her arm. "What are you two whispering about?" she asked as she came closer.

"I had a vision of Bella trying to set her sister and Dylan up and failing in the process because Chris saw right through you," she said, turning to me while speaking.

"Does that mean...?" Rose asked, not bothering to finish her question as Alice was already nodding enthusiastically. "Nice," Rose cheered, giving Alice a smack on the butt. Sometimes I wondered if I could have chosen more normal friends.

"Does anyone care to tell me what you guys are talking about?" I asked them, looking back and forth between the two.

"In my vision, you failed to get them together because you tried to do it on your own. So basically, all we have to do to make these two idiots get together is help you set them up," Alice told me, quiet enough not to alarm Chris.

"Why do I have the feeling that this isn't going to end well either?"

"It is. Just trust us. We're in this together," Rose reassured me.

I supressed the memories of High School Musical that came to mind when she finished speaking.

"Okay guys, we can go now," Chris' voice called before she waltzed out from behind the curtain a moment later.

"Let's go pay," Alice said in her constantly overly cheery voice.

"Did you even get a swimsuit, Alice?" Rose asked her with a raised eyebrow.

She was right to question that. I didn't see Alice try anything on at all. She had been running around, throwing things at me, the whole the time.

Alice held up a paper bag. "I already bought mine," she answered.

"When did you do that?" Chris asked in confusion.

"When Bella was changing and you guys were still looking for something to wear, of course. Did you really think I'd take all of you shopping and not get something for myself in the process?" she asked, her voice making it sound like the most preposterous thing in the world.

Which is sort of was.

Ten minutes later, we were all walking through the streets on campus, hurrying through the rain. We came to a building that looked just like every other ordinary public swimming pool.

When we walked in, we saw the guys enter the men's change room.

The pool was free, since a lot of people would just use their powers to get in if they charged, so all we had to do was sign our names on a sheet. That was only because they needed to know who had been in the pool, in case it ends up a huge mess in there. After that, Alice pulled us all into the women's change room.

"You better hurry up. I wanna show Jazzy my new swimsuit," Alice clucked her tongue once before she hurriedly started changing. She was done so fast that I didn't even get to see her suit before she had already dashed out of the room.

Rose was changed and after her only a few minutes later.

"Hurry up, Bells," Chris whined, sitting on the bench and playing with the belt of her bikini. Through the bond, I felt that she was anxious to get to the boys. Or rather, Dylan.

"I'm done," I announced finally, releasing a huge gust of air from my lungs.

Chris quirked an eyebrow at me and stepped closer to fluff my hair. "Now you're done."

We walked out, into the giant swimming hall and I noticed that we were the only ones in there. The others were sitting on a bench on the otherside of the pool, so we had to walk around it to get to them.

As we came closer, I saw Alice perched on Jasper's lap, looking perfectly content.

Of course she was.

"Why do you get to wear a decent swimsuit and I get this?" I screeched, making all of them aware of our presence.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's jaw drop, so I stopped myself from further screeching. I hadn't actually been done with it, but when I looked at Edward's shocked yet awed expression, I was pretty sure it was because he liked what he saw.

"That's why," Alice answered sounding amused.

"You look...nice, Bella," Edward choked as he dragged his eyes to mine. I heard the giggles and chuckles from the others and couldn't help but join them.

Emmett stood next to Edward and hit him on the back. "No inappropriate thoughts, Eddie. This is hardly the place to be thinking about Bella naked. Even if she is already practically naked," he let out a boisterous laugh.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Why did he have to be so annoying?

Somebody should just dump him in the pool.

I looked at the smooth blue water and grinned to myself at the thought of Emmett being thrown in there.

As I looked at the water, it started to move. Nobody aside from me noticed since all of them were listening to Emmett's teasing comments.

Maybe I could dump him in the pool...or let the pool drag him in.

The thought came to me with another evil smile and I saw the water reacting in the same second. Now the others noticed it as well, mainly because the waves were hard to explain. I could feel their gazes on me, but nobody had time to say anything before the water started spilling over the edge. It slowly crawled to where Emmett was standing, and then wandered up his legs.

I saw that he was trying to phase himself out of it, but it was already at his waist.

A quick movement of my hand was all it took to drag Emmett into the pool.

There was a big splash and I released the hold on Emmett immediately, not wanting him to drown.

A few seconds later, his head appeared on the surface.

"Isabella Swan," he gasped. "You'll pay for that!" He started dragging himself out of the pool.

We all laughed at his expression. Rose sauntered toward him and pushed on his chest, effectively slamming him back into the water, before she jumped in herself.

"Come on, Jazzy, I wanna play chicken with Emmett and Rose," Alice shouted and dragged Jasper toward the pool. He didn't look like he minded much and went along.

The two of them were probably the strangest couple I've ever known.

"What? I wanna play too!" Chris called after them.

"Then find yourself a partner," Alice told her and grinned. I suppressed a smile of my own and grabbed Edward's hand to pull him to the deck chairs.

"Don't you want to play with the others?" Edward asked me, looking back at Rose and Alice who were trying to throw each other off of Emmett and Jasper's shoulders.

"I've never really cared much for that game. We can wait until they come up with a better one to beat them," I told him with a grin.

He blinked a couple of times and then smiled his crooked smile at me before scooping me into his arms.

I let out an Alice worthy squeal while he continued to strode toward the deck chairs.

"You know, I am quite capable of walking on my own," I complained after the surprise had worn off.

"Yeah, I know, but you wouldn't deny me the chance to carry around the most beautiful girl in the world, would you?" Edward replied while he settled down on a deck chair and sat me between his legs, leaning against his chest.

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my hair. Edward simply let out a quiet chuckle in response.

For several minutes, we sat in comfortable silence and watched the others throw each other into the water. Chris had paired up with Dylan, of course, and seemed to be winning the game. She didn't look like she had a single drop on her.

"You know what? I think it would be interesting to see you swim," Edward mumbled, breaking the silence. He was playing absentmindedly with my hair - something he had done quite often in the passed week.

I turned my head slightly to quirk an eyebrow at him in question.

"You have a connection with water, don't you? I was imagining you becoming one with the water," he explained.

"Interesting thought, but I'm not sure that would be such a good thing," I told him.

"Why not?"

"Because it sounds kind of strange, and with all of you jumping around in that pool..."

Edward shuddered slightly and I guessed he'd realized what I had been talking about. "Well, then I'll just have to keep you outside the water and all to myself," he murmured, nuzzling my hair while he ran his hand over my arm lightly, leaving goosebumps in it's wake.

My breath caught and I didn't dare to move. This seemed way too good to be true.

Edward's hand found it's way to my exposed stomach and he started idly tracing patterns on it.

Yep, definitely a dream.

"I don't think so," Edward whispered in my ear. "Even in my dreams, you never looked this good in a swimsuit."

I was sure that I would have fainted if there hadn't been a sudden sensation that pulled my thoughts in a completely different direction.

I felt like somebody was watching us.

I jerked my head up and started to scan the hall, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked. He sounded worried and I guessed that he wasn't able to read my mind anymore.

"I'm not sure..." I answered slowly.

I saw that Chris had also frozen in her movements, which wasn't exactly a good thing because Rose took the chance to throw her into the water.

The strange feeling faded and left me sitting with a frown on my face.

"Everything okay?" Edward asked, his voice laced with concern.

I was about to nod when I realized that Chris hadn't resurfaced yet. It hadn't been long enough to make me worried, but through the bond, I felt that Chris was struggling.

I jumped up and jogged toward the pool where the others were looking around, searching for Chris. I caught sight of her black hair first and immediately dove into the water.

I tried to ignore the overwhelming feeling of power and concentrated on getting to Chris instead. It took me a mere second, which seemed kind of impossible to me. I reached for her, but the second I touched her skin, there was this strange flash of pain. It was like the one I had felt on our first day of school.

But Chris wasn't moving and I had to get her out of there. I felt my lungs start to struggle for oxygen, so I suppressed the urge to surface to air and reached for her again, ignoring the burning pain in my hand as I dragged her to the surface with me.

As soon as my head was out of the water, I started to gasp for air. Edward was by my side instantly and started to pull me out of the water.

"Chris," I managed to choke out in between my desperate breaths.

"I got her," Dylan assured me.

Somehow Edward had maneuvered me on the edge of the pool, and Chris was laying next to me, both of our legs still dangling in the water. On her right arm, I saw a strange mark. It was dark grey and looked like a handprint.

My handprint.

I looked down to my left hand, which I had used to grab Chris. It was still throbbing painfully and now I could see the burn mark covering my palm.

Edward had been watching me and caught my hand. "What happened?" he demanded, looking at the burn.

I looked back at Chris, who was still laying motionless, then flicked my eyes back to my hand and shrugged in reply to Edward's question.

"We should get them to the hospital," Jasper suggested calmly.

I looked up at him and saw Rosalie and Alice standing beside him. Rose wore a guilty expression as she looked at the still unconscious Chris.

"It's not your fault, Rose," I told her gently.

Her eyes darted to me and she offered a tiny smile. It vanished instantly, though, when her gaze swept over my injured hand that was still being held by Edward.

He was murmuring things I didn't understand, but judging by the look of concentration on his face, I figured he was trying to heal it.

It wasn't working, so I pulled my hand away from him, ignoring his protests. I looked down at my burn mark again. What happened inside the water?

I glanced quickly at the water. It was smooth and unmoving again. That is, until I looked at it.

Small waves started building on the surface and I felt mesmerized and unable to look away.

"Let's go then," I heard Dylan's voice say. I caught a motion in the corner of my eye. It looked like he had picked up Chris.

The movement of her legs being pulled out of the water erupted a few more waves. All of them were moving toward me and I started to hear it whisper to me.

The water inside of me started to move as well, and it's whispers began murmuring to me.

Heal. Heal fast, the water whispered in different tenors. It kept repeating until it sounded like a chant to me and I lost myself in it.

The water connected with me and filled every cell of my body. A pleasant chill went through me and for a second, I felt like I was disconnected from the world.

A moment later, I was back in reality.

"Bella!" I heard Edward's voice close to my ear, sounding surprised.

I turned to look at him, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at my injured palm that I'd been holding out in front of me.

Only now it wasn't injured.

The last thing I saw was a few drops of water sinking into my skin.

"What did you do?" Edward asked me breathlessly.

"I don't know," I answered him truthfully. I was just beginning to come out of my daze and I wasn't too sure about what had happened.

Everyone was looking at me in awe but I wasn't focused on that.

My eyes were on Chris, who was now laying in Dylan's arms, still unmoving.

Now that the pain was gone, I realized something that had escaped my notice before.

There was nothing coming from Chris. No emotion, no thoughts. I tried to reach to her through the bond, but it seemed like the bond was cut off.

That scared me. I quickly jumped to my feet and to Dylan's side.

I grabbed Chris' wrist and searched for a pulse. There was a faint heartbeat, but it was almost impossible to feel.

Dylan looked down at her in concern, water dripping from his hair onto her chest.

"She's dying," I choked out, making his head snap to me instead.

It only took him one second before he was suddenly vanished from the spot in front of me.

A moment later, I finally began to comprehend what I'd said.

"She's dying!" I yelled. "I need to get to her now!"

Edward stilled my frantic hand motions by sweeping me into his arms.

"We're at our parents house," he called over his shoulder before he dashed away with me still laying in his arms.

About a minute later, he burst through a door and stopped in the middle of a light living room. I knew this room. We'd been here before, but I couldn't pay attention to that now.

Chris was laying on the couch again while Carlisle hovered over her, checking her heartbeat.

"Just do something!" I yelled at him, tears starting to blur my vision. I felt how the bond slowly started to dissolve and knew that when it was gone, there was no way that Chris would come back.

"There's nothing I can do. Her heartbeat is stabilizing on it's own, and there is nothing else that seems to be wrong with her," Carlisle informed me calmly.

Esme rushed into the room with towels in her hand. She handed one to Dylan, who I hadn't even really realized was sitting in the arm chair closest to Chris, watching her intently.

I let Carlisle's words go through my mind again. Her heartbeat was stabilizing on it's own?

But then why was the bond dissolving?

"Carlisle she is not fine. The bond is vanishing!" I cried.

Carlisle seemed to get that this was something to worry about, and leaned over her again. Then he turned back to me with a frown on his face.

"She is fine, Bella. Really. She's breathing almost normally again—" his eyes stopped at the handprint on her arm. "What is that?" he asked me.

"I think I might have done that. Oh no! I killed my own sister!" I was far beyond the line of sanity by now. I hadn't even realized that I was pacing around frantically until Edward's arm wrapped around me, pulling me close to his chest.

"Shh, Bella. Chris is going to be alright. You need to calm down," he said in a soft, soothing voice.

It helped a little, but not enough. In my mind, I was already going through different scenarios. I was coming up with different ways to commit suicide in case Chris died. The bond grew weaker again, making me - if it was possible - even more hysteric.

And suddenly, I felt calm. So much so that I was almost numb.

"She's going to be alright, Bella," Alice's voice reassured me. She was standing beside me and Edward with Jasper by her side. The sudden calm had obviously come from him, and it seemed to effect everyone in the room.

Esme, who had started to towel dry Chris, was slowing her motions, and Carlisle was no longer looked back and forth between us in worry. Dylan's pose on the arm chair relaxed, but the most surprising was Chris.

She let out a sigh, which I answered with a sigh of my own.

"It looks like it is dehydrated," Carlisle said. He had turned his attention to Chris' arm again.

"What do you mean?" Edward asked before anyone else had the chance.

"It's a dry spot. It's as if all of the water has been sucked out of the skin."

Everyone turned to look at me.

"Shh, Bella. It's okay. Try to breathe normally," Edward said, stroking my head in a soothing manner. I hadn't even realized that I was hyperventilating. I stopped breathing instantly, though, when I was hit with the full force of the bond.

It had been completely gone moments before, but now, it had reappeared so abruptly that my heart almost stopped.

A thousand emotions ran through it so quickly that I couldn't even pick up any of them. I realized that they were all coming from Chris and I let out a sigh of relief.

She stirred with a frown on her face and then a tiny flame appeared on her arm in the exact spot I had injured her. The whole handprint started burning up, and then the flames were suddenly gone, leaving her skin completely spotless and uninjured.

"Wow," I breathed.

"This is too much for one day," I heard Rose whisper. She leaned into Emmett's side and took deep breaths.

Meanwhile Chris opened her eyes and looked directly at me.

Chris POV

The sudden realization that we were being watched caught me off guard. Our little game had me worked up already, but the sudden feeling only made the force of flames inside me rise. I really needed to learn how to control this better. I only had a second to scan the room, to search for the source of this strange feeling. But I didn't see anyone. A quick glance at Bella told me that she had felt the same thing.

But before I could react anymore, Rose had decided to take advantage of my hesitation and threw me inside the water. The second I came in contact with the water, my whole body went into protest mode. I hadn't managed to push the flames back to where they usually were, so I wasn't exactly compatible with water in that moment.

The burning inside of me got stronger, almost painfully so, and I could hear the angry hisses of the fire inside my head. It was trying to get out and fight against the water. I knew that this was an instinct that I couldn't control, but it was a very stupid one.

I fought for control over the fire, but there was nothing I could do. Slowly I felt how my body was defeated and the flames inside of me started to quench. I barely even felt the hand that gripped my arms. One last time, the fire inside me burned up before it started to fade completely.

Panic rose inside of me. I knew that it was not good when the last flame died. Apparently this was known to my body as well.

I couldn't exactly explain the workings of my body in that moment. All I knew was that these instincts were not the natural ones of a human being.

We reached the surface and the last thing I really registered was taking a deep breath before everything shut down.

I felt like I was trapped. There was no feeling, no sensations. I couldn't see and I could hardly hear. Mentally, I was there, and I could vaguely hear what was going on around me, but I couldn't make myself react in any way.

There was nothing happening in my mind. I couldn't think of anything specific, and I couldn't do anything, either. I felt absolutely nothing.

But then it was there. A tiny flame deep down inside of me was trying to regenerate itself. That was the only thing my mind was focused on. But the flame was having trouble, so my mind allowed me to expand a little bit further. I could feel my body for one short moment before the feeling was gone.

It wasn't long enough for me to find out what was wrong. All of the other workings in my body that hadn't shut down, however, had realized what the problem was. Something with my legs, was all I could gather before my mind faded into total blackness.

Again, I felt the presence of that single flame inside me, trying to reach out and start me up again. It seemed like the previous problem had been solved only to be replaced by another one. One much worse than the one before. I felt it and my heart slowed down.

Something cold was on my chest and the small flame went off on it's own before it could be quenched.

And again, I was surrounded by blackness.

It seemed like an eternity before I felt the flame start flickering inside me again. This time, I felt nothing interfering. Very slowly, the fire spread inside my body and awakened different nerves.

The first I got back was my hearing.

I could hear a voice that I knew I had heard hundreds of times before, but I couldn't place who it belonged to.

The voice sounded different. Not at all how it was supposed to sound. But I couldn't think of any reasons for it to be so wrong.

Every now and then I heard other voices as well, but I didn't listen to any of them.

The next thing that reawakened were my other senses. I felt my body again and I could breathe evenly. I felt something unpleasant on my left arm, but my mind wasn't ready to deal with that yet.

Slowly, I felt myself return to normal. A sudden feeling of calmness settled over me and I knew that my mind was now working at it's full potential again.

The feeling in my arm was pain, but before I could elaborate anymore on that, I felt the flames inside me reach out to that spot and fix whatever was causing the pain.

Now I was perfectly normal again. There was nothing left to do, so I opened my eyes.

I looked straight into the chocolate brown eyes that had soothed me so many times before, only to find that this time, it was not enough.

I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath before I sat up. There was a sudden movement by my side and a warm hand on my back.

"I don't think you should move," I heard Dylan's voice advise. The comfort I had been seeking was right there in his voice.

I sighed in frustration and slumped back into the couch.

"Chris, are you okay?" Bella's wavering voice sounded as if she were about to cry as she knelt down beside me.

"I'm fine," I assured and grinned at her like I always did.

"How are you feeling, Chris?" Carlisle asked me gently as he inspected my arm.

I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"No nausea, headaches, pain?" he questioned.

I shook my head. I felt as well as usual, but something inside me longed for Dylan's touch again. I supressed that feeling but I thought I saw a tiny smile on Bella's face for a moment.

"Well, that was officially the strangest thing I have ever experienced. Does anyone care to explain?" Esme interfered.

"Chris drowned," Emmett answered right away.

"I did not drown, you big idiot," I hissed at him.

He rolled his eyes as if to say that I was overreacting.

"I'm so sorry, Chris, I shouldn't have pushed you in. It's all my fault," Rose cried as she came rushing to my side.

This time, I sat all the way up despite the protests that came from Dylan.

"It's no your fault. It's my own fault, really. I need to get a grip on these stupid powers," I told her.

"Your powers?" Alice and Jasper asked at the same time.

"What does that have to do with your powers? You fell inside the water and stopped breathing," Edward noted.

"I wasn't in control of my powers when I fell inside the water," I clarified.

Bella made a sound of understanding, probably because she was hearing the whole thing in my head, and it seemed like Carlisle understood as well.

"Of course. Fire and water are by far the least compatible things on Earth," he mused.

"Shouldn't stuff like this happen every time you two touch, then?" Emmett questioned.

"We're not using the elements the whole time, though, Emmett," Bella answered.

"So if you are both using it and you touch...what happens?" Jasper asked, though he sounded more like he was talking to himself.

I thought about it for a moment. Bella already seemed to know the answer, and a second later, I knew it too.

"That is interesting," I mumbled after I had seen the answer inside her head.

"What is?" Alice asked impatiently.

"We already had this kind of reaction, but the contact wasn't long enough to actually do anything," Bella explained to me and I nodded understandingly.

"What are you talking about?" Alice whined.

"The burn on my hand and the dry spot on her arm," Bella said. "That's what happens."

"What? But that means—" Edward started, but stopped himself.

"The two of us could kill each other. Quite effectively so," I finished for him while looking absentmindedly at my arm.

Everyone seemed to take in a sharp breath and I saw Edward's hand twitch toward Bella as if he wanted to pull her away from me.

"Well, then you know you shouldn't hug when you're currently playing around with your powers," Emmett threw in.

"I guess not," I agreed thoughtfully.

"Well, there's no need to be so melancholic. Since you are already here, you might as well stay for dinner," Esme smiled warmly at us.

"Dinner!" Emmett and Dylan screamed enthusiastically with huge grins on their faces.

"Boys, settle down," Carlisle chastised with an amused smile. "Esme hasn't cooked anything yet."

"I will need some help with that," Esme said, looking at each of us.

"I'll show Chris around the house," Dylan shouted immediately.

I looked at him in horror and was about to open my mouth to offer my help in the kitchen when Alice interfered.

"I'll help you in the kitchen, Mom," she said.

"Um, no offense, sweetie, but you know what happens when I let you in the kitchen," Esme said with a slightly horrified expression.

I could only imagine what the pixie had done in the kitchen.

I started to open my mouth again, but this time, Rose interrupted.

"Bella and I can help," she offered. Bella nodded and when I attempted to speak again, Rose added, "and Edward."

"Okay, then we have enough helpers. The rest of you can just try not to break anything," Esme looked at Emmett while saying that.

"We'll be in your room, Edward, playing PlayStation," Emmett announced as he and Jasper raced upstairs.

Edward didn't look like he liked that idea much, but he didn't protest after he cast a look at Dylan, who was standing behind me.

"Come on, I'll show you my room," Dylan told me and tugged gently on my hand.

I ignored the curious glance Carlisle gave me and followed him reluctantly.

The fluttering in my tummy didn't help matters.

Not even my body seemed to want to cooperate in my whole Stick to Damon plan, which I found highly frustrating.

We went up the stairs and Dylan pointed at the door to our left at the end of the corridor, which was just closing.

"That's Edward room," Dylan told me. "The room in front of us is Mom and Dad's study, next to that is their bedroom, opposite of Alice's bedroom," he quickly pointed at each door until we stopped at the other end of the corridor. "And this is my room," he announced happily, opening the door.

It was much cleaner than I would have expected, but that could be because he wasn't even living in the room.

"Why do you have rooms here when you live in the dorms?" I asked as I inspected the TV in the corner of his room. The shelf contained so many DVDs that I had to wonder if this was illegal. On the other side was a king-sized bed with black and white sheets on it.

Above the wall was a huge painting of his family standing on the beach. It was in black and white, but that made it all the more beautiful.

"We used to live here before we went to school, and I lived here until high school. Edward moved into the dorms a year later, and then Alice," he answered my question.

"Who painted that?" I asked as soon as he was finished talking.

The picture showed Esme in Carlisle's arms as they watched Alice and Edward splash eachother with water. They all looked a few years younger in the painting. Edward looked like he was thirteen and Alice was so tiny that it was hard to decide, but I guessed that she must have been about eleven then.

"I did. Years ago," Dylan answered. His voice sounded a bit off. I turned to look at him and saw that he was shifting his weight uncomfortably.

"It's beautiful," I told him and smiled when he looked up at me in surprise. "I didn't know you could paint."

"There are quite a few things that you don't know," Dylan said, his voice husky.

I rolled my eyes at him and turned my back to him again.

He caught my wrist and spun me around. "You really scared me today," his voice was so quiet, it was hardly even a whisper. The sudden intensity of his expression caught me off guard and my stupid heart had nothing better to do than start racing.

"I'm sorry," I replied at the same volume.

A smile played on his lips and he started to lean in. I knew that he was going to kiss me again.

Panic rose inside of me. I knew that once he kissed me, I would lose my free will.

He leaned closer and I could already smell his aloe and apple blossom scent when I flared up for a second. The sudden heat rush made Dylan let go of me and take a step back.

That had not been my intention.

"I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" I gushed right away, taking both of his hands to see if I had done any damage.

"No, I'm fine," he mumbled.

I looked up at him as he gazed down at me, his hair hanging down in his face.

I sighed. "I can't kiss you," I told him.

He didn't answer.

"It's just not right, you know. I'm still with Damon and I—"

"Why are you still with Damon?" he asked me calmly, not taking his penetrating eyes off of my face.

I looked at him with wide eyes. "I don't know," I answered truthfully, unable to lie to him at that moment. His blue eyes seemed to be looking right through me and that thought made me shiver.

"I really want you to be with me instead," his voice was almost pleading as he spoke. He closed his eyes for a moment.

The second his eyes released me, I was free to think again.

"Well, I can't be with you," I told him and looked down at him.

Dylan was now sitting on his bed, looking up at me. "Why not?"

"I don't think you know what you're talking about."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you are saying you want to be with me now, but you'll just toss me aside like every other girl a few weeks later."

"How could you think of me like that?" I could see he was starting to get worked up when he stood up and stepped closer to me.

"How could I not?"

"I'm not as bad as you seem to think I am. I care about you. It's you who doesn't care."

"Well, I'm sorry if I don't want to be hurt."

"Who said that I was intending to hurt you?"

"I did."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Prove it to me," I said intensely as I looked deep into his eyes.

I hadn't even realized until then how close we had gotten again. I was standing on my tippy toes so I could get closer to his face and his neck was craned down a little.

It had obviously been a bad idea for me to get worked up enough to get that close to him because it took him only one move to pull me in for a kiss.

That incredibly overwhelming feeling started running through me once again as I started to lift my hands, intending to bury them in his hair.

"Guys, dinner is—"

That interruption was all it took for me to push Dylan away and turn to the door where Emmett was standing, looking at the two of us in shock.

A second later, he was out of his shocked stupor and he let out a booming laugh. "I said I would be there!" he said as he laughed and pointed at us.

I wasn't even the slightest bit amused, so I pushed passed Emmett and stormed out of the room as fast as I could.

I heard Emmett congratulating Dylan as I rushed down the stairs.

"Well, don't you look pissed," Rose commented the second I entered the Cullens brightly lit dining room.

"Why is dinner already done?" I asked.

"A little magic," came Esme's gentle reply.

I frowned. I wished they had taken more time to do that.

We seated ourselves at the table moments before Dylan and Emmett strolled down the stairs and joined us as well. I made sure to sit between Jasper and Rose, and Bella sat across from me, which was oddly lucky for me, since I really didn't want Dylan near me.

Carlisle, who had seated himself at the head of the table, started to talk to me and Bella while Esme was busily filling our plates with spaghetti.

"I really must say that you scared me today, Chris. Seeing the levels that your powers reached is not exactly a comforting thought, either. I would've never thought that two regulars borns could be so...extraordinary," Carlisle said, looking between Bella and me, his eyes filled with interest and worry. "I called Laurent a few minutes ago to ask if he could arrange some extra sessions with the two of you—" he started.

"What? Private lessons? With Napoleon?" I shouted, not even bothering to let him finish.

"Napoleon?" everyone questioned in confusion.

All except Bella. She simply sighed and shook her head, then leaned toward Edward to whisper an explanation for the name in his ear. He groaned and concentrated on staring at his plate.

"Why did you call him Napoleon?" Dylan asked curiously.

At that exact second, an idea hit me. I was going to ignore Dylan until he gave me enough proof to show me that he did indeed care for me. Then maybe I'd consider breaking up with Damon. I smiled cruelly to myself.

Everyone was looking at me, waiting for an answer, but I was happily shovling forkful after forkful of spaghetti in my mouth.

Edward sighed. "She calls him Napoleon because she couldn't come up with any better nickname that is somehow associated with France."

Emmett laughed loudly at that.

Of course he did.

"Okay," Carlisle said slowly. "As I was saying, I called Laurent, but unfortunately I couldn't reach him. It seems he is gone once again."

"Another one of those tracking trips? Isn't that a bit senseless after he found the twins?" Jasper asked.

"Not necessarily. It actually makes sense to look more thoroughly now rather than before. He may find more regular borns, but I've heard that he isn't even on a tracking trip. From what I've gathered, he has some family issues that he needs to deal with. I think it was a funeral or something along those lines," Carlisle answered thoughtfully.

"Laurent has a family?" Alice asked in surprise. She wasn't the only one who looked like that.

"Of course he does, Alice. He is a human being after all. I don't believe he hatched from an egg," Esme said gently.

"Yeah, but he seems so..." she started, but was at a loss for words.

"Anti-social," Rosalie tried for her. She nodded approvingly at Rose's choice of words.

"But he is seriously badass," Emmett added.

"I like him," Bella said with one of her sweet smiles.

"Which is kind of wrong, Bella," I told her. "He's weird and annoying."

"You only find him annoying because he refuses to put up with your crap."

I shrugged. What else could I do? It wasn't like she was lying. That actually was the truth, after all, so there was really no point in denying it. At least not now.

"What I actually wanted to tell you was that you should speak to Laurent when he gets back. He should be able to help you with your powers," Carlisle said, getting back to the topic at hand.

Bella and I simply nodded.

Then I remembered something else that he'd said.

"Um, Carlisle," I said. "What did you mean by 'tracking trip'?"

"Well, Laurent doesn't only sense and analyze other gifts; he can also track them. That is why Aro has sent him out a couple of times already - so that he could search for new talents. Of course he didn't find anyone, since regular born witches don't appear very often, but the work paid off, as you can see. Without him, you wouldn't be here."

"So he just travelled around hoping to find someone like us?" I asked in disbelief. To me, it sounded like a waste of time. A lot of time.

Carlisle simply nodded.

"How long has he been doing that already?" Bella questioned.

Esme smiled gently and said, "Ever since he started teaching here. It should be about five years now."

"Who do we have classes with if Laurent isn't there?" Rose suddenly threw in.

"With Ms. Carmina. At least for the Specialized Magic classes. You'll have a free period during French," Carlisle answered and watch with a small satisfied smile as Bella, Rose, Jasper, and I all cheered excitedly for a moment.

"Wait," Alice suddenly interrupted. "We'll have classes with a demon? Daddy, I don't want to."

"Alice, she isn't going to eat you. She'll be very nice, I promise. You'll like her."

"Why is it such a big deal that she's a demon anyway?" Bella asked Carlisle.

"They live somewhere in the darkness down in Hell," Emmett answered, trying to make himself sound like a horror movie narrator.

"I heard that they suck blood," Rose added in a stage-whisper, her voice much like Emmett's had been.

I quirked an eyebrow at them as Rose and Emmett started laughing like crazy. Yep, I never thought it was possible, but apparently Rose was just as goofy as Emmett. Well that certainly explained why they got along so well.

Alice's eyes suddenly became unfocused with a sort of glazed over look. Esme, who was sitting in front of her, frowned slightly and reached forward to touch her hand.

"I thought I told you not to use your gift at the table," she scolded in a tone much too gentle to be actual scolding.

"You said that Edward and Dylan couldn't use their gifts at the table," Alice countered with a pout.

"Don't think that rule doesn't apply to you too."

Alice sighed. "How long until this wears off?" she asked and cast a pointed look at the hand Esme had just touched.

"I didn't put much force into it, so you should be able to see again in about an hour."

"An hour?" both Dylan and Edward exclaimed in outrage.

I looked back and forth between all of them with raised eyebrows.

"You always took our powers away for much longer than that!" Dylan whined.

"Yeah. Once, I wasn't able to use my powers for an entire week," Edward added.

"That's because the two of you were very troublesome," Esme explained with a shrug.

Looking at Bella and seeing the confused look on her face immediately told me that I'd have the exact look on my face too.

"Power negation," Jasper explained as he took a bite of food. He looked up briefly to find us still confused and elaborated on his explanation, "The ability to cancel the powers of others."

"Ahh," Bella and I exhaled in unison as we nodded our heads in understanding.

"Could we get back to the current topic? I wasn't done with recounting rumors about demons," Emmett complained, clearly not pleased that he had been interrupted.

"You really shouldn't listen to these rumors. Demons aren't classified as evil creatures. Well, not exactly," Carlisle told him with a serious expression on his face.

"What does that mean?" both Bella and I asked.

"Demons are more or less human, just like witches are—"

"Witches aren't human?" I asked incredulously, staring at my hands in horror as if I were waiting for a sixth finger to grow.

"I'm not quite sure about you and Bella, since your parents are both human, but the rest of us aren't. Genetically we can't be classified as normal human beings due to the magical genes. Witches have 26 chromosomes, therefore we are not human. We're also able to grow much older than the average human being. The oldest witch on record had been 369 years old."

"So you're something close to immortal?" Bella asked with wide eyes.

"No, definitely not. Immortality allows the person to live forever, mostly without aging. We do age, the only difference is that we can withstand more years than humans, thus, we live longer. The average age for a witch is 150."

"It is possible to kill a witch, right?" I asked carefully. Everyone rose their eyebrows at me but I just shrugged and paid no attention to that.

"Well, technically it's possible," Carlisle started. "It's merely a bit harder, since there are all kinds of spells to prevent that."

"What are the differences between witches and demons, then?"

"Demons are even less human than we are. They have a more animalistic side, and they're also incapable of wielding or using magic."

"Then why are we getting a demon as a teacher?" Edward asked.

"Because she's gifted. Demons aren't capable of using what we call magic, but many of them do have gifts."

"Many of them? Does that mean that some demons can do nothing at all? How pathetic," Rose said with her nose wrinkled.

"Oh no, that's hardly the case," Carlisle backtracked. "From what I've heard, demons do have supernatural abilities. All of them are capable of using some kind of energetic force, but not all of them are powerful enough to actually have gifts like ours. Also, they're much more in touch with their animal spirits. As a matter of fact, this particular branch of magic is originally from them," Carlisle looked at each of us while speaking.

"Not this whole animal spirit thing again," I muttered with a sigh.

"Do you know what your animal spirit is?" Bella asked Carlisle with interest in her voice and eyes.

"No, I've never been able to connect with it at all. It's quite a common thing among us witches, though."

"And where do demons live? Isn't it be kind of conspicuous when they start sniffing around and stuff?" I asked.

"Well, in that particular case, Emmett was somewhat right. They do live below the Earth, but—"

"Seriously? Hell is real?" Emmett shouted.

"I was getting to that," Carlisle settled him down. "It's not really Hell — I'm not exactly sure what it is. Perhaps you should ask Ms. Carmina, because I honestly don't know anymore about demons."

"Why do you know this much anyway?" Edward asked. Carlisle grinned while he tapped the side of his head. Edward rolled his eyes as if Carlisle had just told him something obvious. Which he probably had, after all Edward was a mind reader.

Sometimes, I had the tendency to forget that he could read minds, which wasn't exactly a good thing, since my shield wasn't nearly as steady as Bella's, and since I was hardly paying attention, Edward could easily enter my mind at any given moment and find out things like the other Dylan fiasco. For some reason, I wanted it to be a secret. Oh yeah, thinking about secrets, there was also—

I let the thought go as I felt this strange force in my head again. Now that I was focusing on it, I could just shut him out, so I let my shield slam down instantly. Edward hadn't even been paying attention; he and Bella were having a quiet conversation, smiling goofily at eachother as only a fresh couple could. But by slamming down on my shield like I had, his attention was immediately drawn to me. He jumped slightly and looked straight at me, seeming to be thinking for a moment before his expression turned into a grin, and then morphed into an evil grin. He leaned down to Bella and whispered something in her ear. She turned to look at me with what looked like a smug smile.

"Don't even think about mind communicating with me. I know that you'll let Edward hear it," I warned her.

Bella looked at me in surprise before she threw back her head and let out a laugh. Edward chuckled along with her while everyone else turned their attention to us.

"What's so funny?" Alice asked.

"Nothing," I grumbled.

Emmett looked at me, and then at the two giggling girls, Bella and Edward, before grinning knowingly. "I think I know," he announced.

"What do you know?" Rose asked him impatiently.

Dylan seemed to catch the vibe as well. "He doesn't know anything," he mumbled.

"Yes, he does, as do you, Chris, Bella, and Edward," Jasper observed. "And judging by—"

"Jasper, if you don't want me to call you Miss Jazzipants for the rest of your life, you better stop," I threatened in a hiss.

"That is the worst threat I have ever heard," Jasper retorted, laughing.

I moaned in defeat and turned my eyes back to the plate in front of me.

"Okay, no more teasing at the table, or I will take all of your powers away for a whole week," Esme interfered.

I sent her a grateful smile which she returned. She was just too sweet to be a teacher. She proved that once again when we all left an hour and a half later because she insisted on hugging each of us to wish us a good night. I never thought there would be the day that I'd say I had two really cool teachers. Carlisle and Esme were definitely the most amazing adults here.

"I'm tired," I informed my friends as we wandered back to the dorms.

"Aw, poor Dylan. I guess you can't spend the night with Chris then — she wants to sleep," Emmett said with mock pity in his voice.

Jasper coughed to diguise his laugh while Dylan rolled his eyes.

"Isn't that completely against school rules?" I asked Emmett sweetly.

"Since when do you care about the school rules? You didn't care when you and Damon spent the night together," Rose commented, laughing with Alice.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to leave the past behind?"

"Just like you left all of us behind to disappear with Dylan in his room?" Alice giggled.

"Whoa, guys," Jasper said. "This is the first time I've felt distress coming from Chris."

I glared at him.

"Violence is never the answer," he added when he felt a new wave of emotion come from me.

"Exactly. Chris, don't make war, make love," Emmett sang and batted his eyelashes with a goofy grin.

"Maybe should would've if you hadn't stomped in the room and interrupted them, Emmett," Rose cried through her laughter.

Right now, Alice and Rosalie were reminding me of hyenas. I glanced over at Bella and Edward. She so could have helped me out of this, if only she and Edward weren't being all lovey dovey, holding hands and talking while they shut the rest of the world out.

My shoulders slumped and I gave up with a sigh. Dylan seemed to have sensed my surrender because he was suddenly at my side with his arm around my shoulder before I could say anything.

"You know, Chris, now that we're already on the topic...I have a question," he said, sounding relaxed. I knew that when he spoke like this, there was nothing good going on in his brain.

"Ask somebody else," I grumbled.

"No, that would be a bit strange. I'll just ask you—"

"I'm sure Alice would love to answer you."

"I don't think so. Besides, I'm afraid I'll have to kill Jasper if she answered me—"

"I don't have a problem with that."

"Chris?"

"No."

"Are you—"

"Leave me alone!"

"—a virgin?"

I looked up at him in disbelief and instantly shook his arm off of me to stomp as far away from him as possible. He caught up with me, though, as did the others.

"She's reached the point of utter embarrassment. What did you do, Dylan?" Jasper asked.

Before he could open his mouth, I hissed, "Don't you dare tell them."

"You didn't answer anyway," he reasoned.

"Do you intend to punish me?"

"For what?" he asked innocently.

"For not being your girlfriend and kissing your feet."

"Of course not. And by the way, when you are my girlfriend, you will not be kissing my feet. I have much better ideas—"

"I don't want to hear it," I protested instantly.

"Chris, could it be that you have a problem with talking about sex?" Rose said in a friendly tone, one that psychologists usually use. Don't even ask how I know that.

"No, I don't. I have a problem with you guys giving your opinions, comments, suggestions, everything about my love life," I snapped.

"Ah, you have anger management issues, too. I see," Rose continued, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "Perhaps we should address these problems."

I sighed and gave up yet again. The rest of the way, I had to stand the five idiots around me asking me embarrassing things and suggesting the weirdest things while I simply refused to answer. Of course they found a way around that by getting Jasper to blurt out my emotional reaction.

I had already reached the point of blushing harder than Bella ever could when we ran into Irina.

"Bella! Bella!" she called, waving like a crazy groupie.

"Again?" Bella groaned quietly, no longer caught up in her happy place with Edward.

"Should I be worried about competition?" Edward asked when Irina was dangerously close.

"I don't think so. You're way prettier than Irina," I informed him, earning a glare from her now that she was in hearing range.

"Ah, Chris, I love you," Dylan said, chuckling and squeezing my shoulders.

Irina looked at us with a wicked expression on her face, but it abruptly changed when she looked down at my hands. After having been teased mercilessly by my friends, meeting Irina, and now hearing this complete nonsense from Dylan, my hands started blazing up. Irina didn't look too thrilled about that.

"I guess we'll see each other later," she said, sending a forced smile to Bella and a glare to me before leaving.

"Did you do something to her?" Edward asked absentmindedly.

"Not that I know of."

"Hmm...her thoughts aren't helping much. She's just insulting you in her mind," Edward said and then he flinched slightly.

"Maybe she likes Dylan," Alice snickered.

Instead of commenting, I just yawned loudly.

"Do you want me to beam you to your room?" Dylan offered.

I shook my head because I'd spotted someone.

Bella POV

Chris ran toward Damon, Dean, and Dario, who were coming from the basketball court. Or at least I assumed they were, since they were covered in a sheen of sweat and there was a basketball tucked under Damon's arm.

We all observed Dylan's reaction as he watched Damon pull Chris under his other arm while Dean ruffled her hair playfully. He didn't react at all, which was in a way, the biggest reaction of all.

"Life's rough, man," Edward said to his brother and clapped him on his back.

"Guys, we have to get to our rooms now — it's almost curfew," Alice reminded us.

I sighed loudly, but I was starting to feel tired anyway. Today had been seriously exhausting.

"See you tomorrow morning?" Edward asked, looking down at me with a small pout.

I chuckled quietly. "Sure."

His face broke into the most brilliant smile and my heart pumped so furiously, it felt like it would burst out of my chest. It was still a little hard for me to believe that this smile was mine now. Or rather that Edward had decided I was the most fitting to be his girlfriend.

"Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight!" I waved at them and turned to the door of the Blue house while the others waved back and kept walking to their houses.

Edward didn't move though, instead, he caught my arm and spun me back around.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" he mumbled and bent down to place a soft kiss on my lips.

"How could I forget that?" I whispered with a smile.

"It's a mystery to us all," he smiled back crookedly. "Goodnight, Bella."

"Goodnight," I sighed back.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

A musical chuckle pulled me from my dreams. I opened my bleary eyes slowly and turned to where the voice came from.

"What are you doing here, Edward?" I slurred sleepily when I saw him perched on the edge of my bed.

"You know, you should really lock your door at night. Someone could just walk right in," he commented rather than giving me an answer.

"Someone just did," I replied groggily.

"True, but only because someone decided to have breakfast with you today," he flashed me a crooked grin.

I frowned a little. "What time is it?"

"Almost seven."

I sighed and slowly sat up. "I'd rather keep sleeping," I mumbled and rubbed my eyes.

"I wouldn't complain — you're very entertaining when you're sleeping."

"What?" Now I was wide awake. As soon as I asked that, the answer came to my mind. Until now, the only person who ever got to hear it was Chris. And not for the first time in my life, I cursed the fact that I talked in my sleep. "What did I say?" I asked slowly.

Some unreadable expression crossed Edward's face before it turned into one of amusement. I wondered what that was all about. Did I say something bad?...but my dreams hadn't be too bad...

"You talked about Raven," Edward said. "You told her not to cry so much. You also said how much you miss your parents. You don't want it to rain today, and I'm sorry to tell you that it's already raining," he gave me a small smile. "You said that Chris is an idiot," he recounted.

I nodded slowly. It pretty much fit my dreams. I didn't remember everything, but I thought there was a short part where I had been trying to figure out what that strange text meant, the one that Chris and I found, and I had been dreaming—

I blushed the deepest red I'd ever blushed.

Edward chuckled softly. "I suppose I don't have to tell you that you mentioned my name quite a few times as well," he murmured gently.

I buried my face in my hands and shook my head in humiliation. Edward scooted closer to me and put his arms around me, pulling me close to his chest. As always when I was close to him, I inhaled his intoxicating scent.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed about that," he whispered softly in my ear. "If it helps, I dream about you too. I just don't talk in my sleep."

"You do?" I asked in surprise.

"Almost every night."

I would have blushed harder, if only a sudden thought hadn't interrupted me.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"About an hour."

"Do I even want to know what made you decide to sneak into my room at six in the morning?" I asked him with raised eyebrows.

"I was hoping you'd already be awake," Edward stated with a nonchalant shrug.

"That's never going to happen."

"Doesn't matter to me. I enjoy listening to you. The sad thing is, you keep your shield up even when you're asleep." Edward's face scrunched in frustration.

"I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not." I pulled away from him and immediately missed the warmth. I got up and gathered my toiletries and my uniform. "I'll be right back," I informed Edward with a smile. He gestured for me to go ahead.

I considered going to wake up Chris, but hearing the cursing coming from her room, I figured she had already woken up as well, so I just made my way to one of the bathrooms.

I tried to be as quick and thorough as possible. Twenty minutes later, I was decent enough to be seen by Edward. The way my hair had been before made it hard for me to believe that Edward hadn't had a laugh about it. It had taken the term 'haystack' to a whole new level.

I was still brushing my hair on my way back to my room, letting it lay neatly over my shoulder.

"Welcome back, Rapunzel," Edward greeted when I entered my room.

"Rapunzel?" I asked, looking at him in confusion.

"Your hair is just as beautiful as Rapunzel's," he reasoned. "I like it when it flows over your shoulder like that."

I rolled my eyes at the lame association, but went to my dresser to retrieve my blue scarf. I put it in a loose bow around my hair, so it was still left flowing over my shoulder, just to keep Edward happy. He appeared behind me and leaned his chin on my shoulder. I looked at him in the mirror.

"Can we go?"

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"What are you doing here?" Chris asked when she, Damon, and Dario came to the table where Edward and I were seated, enjoying our breakfast.

"Good morning to you too, Christabel," Edward greet politely.

She huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Where's Dean?" I questioned when I didn't see him around.

"Meredith and some others abducted him earlier," Damon told me casually.

"Since when do you wear your hair like that?" Chris shot as soon as he was done talking. She'd been eyeing me the whole time.

"I could ask you the same," I retorted.

While my hair was down smoothly for once, rather than up in a tight ponytail, hers was more lavish. She wore it in a ponytail that was so high that it was literally on top of her head, and for once, her hair didn't look smooth and shiny like it usually did. It looked ruffled and a little tangled, but she still managed to pull it off so that it looked great, only a little wilder than usual. It made her eyes look even more cat-like, which gave her a somewhat scary look. Basically, she looked like a wildcat; pretty, but dangerous.

"It brings out my eyes," she said, batting her eyelashes.

"You look like Panthera onca," Edward told her and released a small chuckle.

"Why don't you just say 'Jaguar' instead of throwing around unnecessary Latin words?" she threw back at him.

That made Edward shut up and me laugh.

"I'd rather know why you know what these so-called 'unnecessary Latin words' mean," Damon mumbled.

"Damon, darling, we've had this discussion already. I'm smart, just live with it."

"I'm smart too, thank you very much."

"Maybe so, but you're also a techno freak. Which reminds me, you wanted to fix my laptop."

"Do I even want to know why your laptop is broken?" I sighed.

"I don't know, do you?"

"Probably not."

"Good, 'cause I don't remember."

I rolled my eyes at her and turned my attention back to the bowl of cereal in front of me.

"You know, you never answered my question, Edward," Chris noted after a few minutes of silence.

"Is it really that important?" Edward asked and I could hear in his voice that he was grinning tauntingly at Chris.

"Yes, it is. I want to know if you just appeared or if you spent the night with my sister," she said in a tone that was much too casual.

I looked up at her in annoyance. "Chris, haven't we already had the discussion that you are not my father?"

Her eyes widened. "So he did spend the night?" she squeaked, but then she let her voice drop and turned to Edward. "Edward, have you been re—"

"God, Chris, he didn't even spend the night."

"Oh," her expression fell. "Oh." And then it changed to something I couldn't place, though I was pretty sure there was something like panic mixed into her features.

"Is everything alright, Chris?" Damon asked her carefully.

She shook her head slowly. "Someone intruded my mind last night. I didn't notice at first, but at some point I got that annoying feeling I always get when Edward gets into my head. But if he wasn't there last night...who was there to read my mind?"

Edward looked thoughtful as he kept his eyes on Chris. Judging by the way she stared back into his eyes in deep concentration—

"What are they doing?" Damon asked me in confusion.

"Chris is sharing her thoughts with Edward. Something that may never happen again."

"Maybe it was someone in the house who was using their abilities in their sleep. It seems your shield was weaker than usual at the time, therefore the person was able to effect you," Edward said and shrugg lightly. Then he turned his attention to me. "You and Chris dreamed similarly."

"Chris was dreaming about you?"

"That would be a nightmare," Chris grumbled.

Edward shot a glare in her direction before resuming to talk to me. "It was something about the bonded ones who have to return to life. I think it started like—" he stopped suddenly and eyed me cautiously. "Do I have to be worried about something?" he asked slowly.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Wanna explain to me what this is about?"

"No offense, but I don't want to interpret Bella's dreams," Dario said in a bored tone.

"Hey, it was my dream too!" Chris protested.

"That makes it even less interesting."

I ignored their bickering.

"So would you mind telling me what all of this means?" Edward asked me quietly.

"I wish I knew myself," I sighed.

"I think we should get moving," Damon said and got up.

"Yes, we should. Alice is getting closer and she's in a bad mood," Edward mumbled and looked out the window.

Alice and the others were indeed coming closer.

"Well then, let's go," I sighed as I too got up from my seat.

"Edward, I'm highly disappointed in you," Alice said as soon as we oined the group.

"Alice, I didn't even do anything," he told her with a smug grin on his face.

Disappointment showed on her face, but then she returned to her usual cheery self. "Bella, I love your hair. Oh, and Chris, I love yours too...though you do look a little scary," she mumbled the last part.

"How come none of you ever greet us with a simple 'good morning'?" Chris asked instead of commenting on Alice's last statement.

Alice opened her mouth to reply, but Chris waved her off and joined Damon and Dario who had just left the house.

"Did you do something to her?" Jasper asked, sounding a bit puzzled.

"Not that I know of," I answered, letting out a yawn.

"It's going to start raining in 7 minutes and I don't want my hair to get wet," Alice announced, starting to walk.

"Did any of you manage that Duplex Charm?" Rose asked casually. The silence that followed was all she got as an answer. "Seriously guys? That is weak," she said and shook her head.

"Did you get it?" I asked her.

She grinned sheepishly.

"Why are you already learning the Duplex Charm?" Dylan asked in wonder.

"Yeah, I haven't even learned it yet," Edward added.

"That would be Mike Newton's fault," Jasper explained. "He complained that the spells and charms we're currently learning were too easy, then he blew up half of the classroom when his Patch Spell didn't work."

"So Carlisle decided to punish the whole class. If only one person manages to perform a decent Duplex Charm, we'll be off the hook. If not, we'll have to write a five page essay on the early stages of wand magic," Rose continued, grimacing at the mention of an essay.

"You should've said something. I could've helped you with that," Dylan said. He grabbed Alice's arm and studied the bracelet she was wearing for a moment. Then he clenched his hand in a fist and held it like that for a moment. When he opened his hand, he held an exact duplicate of the bracelet in his hand. It was a silver charm bracelet with small star-shaped pendants, all varying in size. "There," he said smugly, holding it out to me.

"Why didn't you need to use your wand for that?" I asked in surprise as I took the bracelet from him and gazed at it in awe.

"Eventually, you don't need the wand anymore for little things. If I wanted to duplicate a tree or something, I would've needed it. Although this only applies to extension wand users, I'm not sure about the others," explained Dylan.

"Shouldn't everybody be filthy rich if you can just duplicate things like that?"

"Nope," Rose said nonchalantly. "It'll vanish after a while." As if on cue, the bracelet in my hand suddenly disappeared.

"Well guys, I'll see ya later," Dylan said and ran after a group of people who all looked his age.

We entered the school building and were immediately trapped in a large group of people. All of them seemed to be gathered around the notice board.

"What are they all so excited about?" Emmett asked as he attempted to look over thier heads.

"Parents day is off," Edward replied.

"And here I thought it was something interesting," Rose mumbled, sighing.

In that moment, Chris appeared. "Did you hear—"

"Yes, the parents day is off," we all answered her at once.

"I wasn't going to say that," she said. "Jessica Stanley is crying because of it," she gushed with bright eyes.

"And that's interesting because..." Edward trailed off boredly, though Alice and Rose both seemed to be rather interested.

"It's not, but it is funny. She's crying for her mommy."

"Really? I want to see that," Rose jumped up and down eagerly, hoping to see something.

Chris pulled her along and somehow, they managed to squeeze through the crowd.

"Why is the parents day off?" Alice asked and shoved some guy who had accidentally touched her hair. Poor kid.

"Because of the school's new security. Nobody is allowed to enter or exit the school grounds until the investigation is over," Edward answered.

"The Christmas holidays are coming soon anyway," Jasper said nonchalantly.

I had completely forgotten about the holidays.

"But if nobody is allowed to leave, then all of us will have to stay here for Christmas, right?" I asked, slightly panicked. If my mother found out that her little babies weren't coming home for Christmas, she'd probably have a heart attack.

"It's still a little over a month away, so if you're lucky, the IDM will give up searching for someone they can't find by then," Edward soothed.

"And if not?"

"Then you will spend Christmas with us, of course," Alice answered in a screech. Even though everyone around us was extremely loud, she still managed to silence the room with her unnatural screeching. Everyone turned to look at us. "What?" Alice hissed at the closest person, and immediately everybody went back to shoving and pushing one another.

"I guess we should somehow get to our classes," Edward suggested. We all agreed and a minute later, Alice, Jasper, and I pushed our way through the crowd in the direction of our classroom. Jessica Stanley was indeed sitting on the stairs, crying hysterically.

And even I had to admit that it was amusing to watch. Chris and Rose were at the top of the stairs giggling like school girls.

The school day started just like every other. By now, it wasn't nearly as exciting as it had been in the beginning, but Calculus and Physics had never been exciting to me.

Every now and then I saw someone frantically trying to accomplish the Duplex Charm. I didn't even care much about it, although I really didn't want to write the essay.

"Good morning class," Carlisle greeted calmly as he entered the classroom. I thought I could detect a hint of smugness in the smile on his face, which kind of reminded me of Edward.

Carlisle went straight to the front of the class and leaned against the teacher's desk. Without a word, he made a quick movement with his hand and suddenly an egg appeared on all of our desks.

"You will have ten minutes to try. If nobody manages, you'll have to thank Mr. Newton for his lack of discipline," Carlisle instructed in the same calm manner as before.

"This is going to be just great," Alice mumbled sarcastically and pulled out her wand.

She wasn't the only one, and soon the air was filled with different voices, every single one sounding desperate as they said the word "Effingo."

Knowing that I couldn't complete the task anyway, I only tried it halfheartedly. After 5 minutes, I could see that Alice was getting impatient and Rose was frustrated. Chris simply sat with her arms crossed, which was a sign that she was frustrated as well.

"This is ridiculous. There is no way that any of us can complete this task," Rose huffed and dropped her wand.

"Of course not. This spell requires a great deal of magic. The trick is not to double the item, but to create an exact double," Jasper said and tried again.

"Isn't that exactly the same?" I asked him.

"No. By creating a double, you have to push the magic out and make it take on the form that you want. You have to memorize the object you want to duplicate before you can do so."

"Jasper, you are such a nerd," Rose commented.

"So that means the only problem is that we can't create enough magic to make a duplicate?" Chris asked.

"Yes, that's the problem," Jasper answered with a nod, trying the Charm once again.

"Oh, Bella, I like your idea," Alice cheered.

"What idea?" I asked. I hadn't even been thinking of ideas. How would I come up with a solution? As if I knew how we could create enough magic to complete the spell. None of us seemed to have enough—

I could practically hear the click in my head.

"I guess she meant that idea," Chris said dryly, obviously having read my mind.

"Care to explain?" Rose asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"We could all try it together," I told them nonchalantly as I shrugged.

"You mean like all of us at once?" Rose asked.

I nodded.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. What's the worst that could happen?" Jasper seemed to be enthusiastic about my idea.

Alice swayed slightly to an unheard tune and then answered his rhetorical question. "There are two outcomes. Either we create an explosion that will throw all of us into different directions of the room, or we actually manage it."

"Two minutes left," Carlisle announced suddenly. Everyone started waving their wands faster and more panicky than before. Until now, I hadn't even noticed that some people had managed to blow their eggs up and had to fix them first.

"Okay, let's do this." Chris was rubbing her hands with dynamism.

All of them gathered around my desk and looked at the egg.

"On the count of three," Alice instructed. "One...two...three. Effingo." We all pointed out wands at the empty space next to the egg. I thought I saw a little flash of different colored light, but other than that, nothing happened.

"Well Alice, apparently there was a third outcome," Chris grumbled.

"The problem is that we did it individually. We would have to create some kind of connection for it to work," Jasper looked thoughtfully at his wand.

"One minute!" Carlisle's voice called.

"Do you have a solution?" Rose asked him with an annoyed expression on her face.

"I think so. The problem is that we all pointed our magic individually, so we have to put our magic into one and the same source for it to—"

"We only have one minute left," Rose interrupted, "so get to the point."

"All we have to do is use the same wand," Chris threw in before Jasper could continue.

"Exactly. I would suggest that we don't use yours or Bella's. It'd only weaken our magic."

"Then we take yours, but let's do it already, I really don't want to write that essay," Rose whined and grabbed Jasper's hand, in which he held his wand. We all shuffled closer to each other and put our hands on theirs.

Alice counted to three once more and after a collective "Effingo" there was actually a second egg laying in front of us.

"Oh Jazzy, you are such a genius," Alice cried and threw herself at him while Rose, Chris, and I cheered like fangirls.

Our cheering caught the attention of our other classmates, and Carlisle came up to inspect our work.

"Who did this?" he asked, looking at Chris and I.

"All of us," Rose burst out proudly as the rest of us nodded.

"Impressive. Well, since I said nothing against teamwork, I suppose this counts. Congratulations to the five of you. Everyone else, make sure to thank them for getting you our of writing the essay."

All we got was a mumbles and grumbles, along with a couple of thank yous, but that was it.

After that, Carlisle continued the lesson with the Patch Spell.

After a highly uninteresting History lesson, we finally had our lunch break. We made our way into the cafeteria after the bell rang. For once, the school cafeteria was actually pretty full compared to the previous weeks, though that probably had something to do with the fact that it was raining like crazy outside.

"It's raining men, hallelujah, it's raining men..." Chris sang for some unknown reason as we stood in line to get our food.

As soon as we were out of the line, Chris disappeared to a table somewhere on the other side of the cafeteria. I guessed that Damon was there, too, but I didn't pay much attention to that.

Emmett and Edward were already seated at the table, seemingly absorbed in their conversation.

"What's up?" Rose asked as she sat down beside Emmett.

The two boys looked up. Edward's face immediately brightened into a huge smile when he saw me.

"Edward gets to be on the chef council of the Psych class," Emmett told us.

"That means I'm part of those people who decide what the Psych people are going to do," Edward explained before I could even ask.

"You get to decide what the class learns?" I asked in wonder.

Edward chuckled. "No, I mean for the school fair. Every class will have their own part with different attractions. Last year, for instance, I was the Mirror of Truth."

"Does that mean that classification classes will start soon?" Alice asked in excitement.

"Yes, we'll start after the vacations. The council has to come up with some ideas in case students don't have enough ideas."

"That's going to be so much fun," Alice squealed.

"What did you do last year?" I asked her.

"The classification classes are only for senior high and college students. The junior high students organize the party at the end of the week and help out if needed. You know, like carrying stuff around or helping with the costumes...things like that. The elementary students start the fair with their musical. So the younger ones pretty much just enjoy the whole thing during the week, and now for the first time, I can be part of an attraction." Alice was getting so hyped up that she started bouncing in her seat. Jasper placed a hand on her arm and she calmed down a little.

"You know, I've been wondering...I don't think I've seen any six-year-olds in this school," I mused.

"That's because there are no six-year-olds in this school," Rose answered with a giggle.

"I thought the academy implied an elementary school?"

"Yes, but it would be a bit cruel to take kids away from home so early. Elementary only implies years four to six. That's why Esme isn't as stressed as Carlisle — she doesn't have so many kids to deal with," Edward explained casually.

I nodded in understanding.

"The only six-year-olds that were on campus were the teacher's children. But not all of them live here full-time. Most of the teachers have their family homes somewhere else, so it's not often that little kids are running around on campus. Except for us Cullen kids," Alice added.

"You really have been here all your life?" I asked, surprised.

Alice and Edward both nodded.

"Yes, yes, this is heartwarming and all, but you guys gotta hurry 'cause we have to get to class," Rose interrupted.

"Oh, you have your demon class now, don't you?" Emmett asked in an amused tone.

Alice let out something like a pathetic whimper.

"Seriously Alice, what are you so scared of? It's not like she's going to eat you," I told her.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Emmett said in a deep voice.

"Stop scaring her, Emmett," Jasper hissed when Alice's eyes became wide.

"Alice, for God's sake, you are a psychic. I think you'd know if she was planning on eating you," Rose said impatiently.

"First of all, the future can change. And secondly, you know I can't see everything," Alice pouted.

"Hey guys! Ready for the demon lesson?" Chris suddenly appeared at our table, looking highly enthusiastic about this whole thing.

"Let's just go," I mumbled and rose from my chair.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The whole class seemed to be excited about this new teacher, although 'excited' wasn't quite adequate. It was more like an uproar or something.

When someone started talking about how demons are known to spit fire, Ms. Carmina finally entered the room. She didn't look any different than she had at the assembly, though she was wearing black dress pants with black pointed toe heels peeking out along with a fitted white 3/4" sleeve button-up shirt. Her curly brown hair was up in a professional-looking, yet slightly messy ponytail.

She sat down on the teacher's desk, crossed her legs swiftly, and looked at us with curious green eyes. The class was awfully quiet as she seemed to be studying us. No one dared to move even the slightest bit.

"Hello," she said in a gentle voice. "I'm sure that all of you already know, but I'll say it anyway. My name is Ms. Carmina, I'm Mr. Decour's teaching assistant, but since he is temporarily off campus, I'm also your substitute," she paused for a moment to look at us. It was still very silent in the classroom. "Today we are going to talk about the progress of animalistic spirituality and the presuppositions that are needed to make use of that magical branch—"

"Actually, Mr. Decour was teaching us about physical adjustments and changes that come along when developing the full extent of the gift," Lauren threw in, sounding like one of those annoying children that always think they know everything. The kind of children that made you want to lock them in a closet and throw away the key.

Ms. Carmina slid off the desk and sauntered in a rather graceful manner toward Lauren's desk. "In case you haven't noticed, I am not Mr. Decour, so you'll have to deal with this small teaching difference," she said, still as gentle as before. Then she moved on, probably thinking that Lauren would shut up now, but that was hardly the case.

"Don't think that I'm going to listen to anything you say. The last thing I need is a demon—" she sneered the word, "—telling me about magic," she finished and I was shocked to hear a few voices agreeing to that.

Then something strange happened. The moment Ms. Carmina turned toward Lauren again, some kind of force went through the whole room, making it shake for a second.

"You know, Ms. Mallory, don't think I care about what you say. The last thing I need is to waste my time teaching a couple of ungrateful brats. Believe me when I say that I am definitely not here because I think it's fun to stand in a sweaty classroom, teaching mentally defected students such as yourself. So if you don't like my class, you are free to go. All it will do is make my life easier," Ms. Carmina's voice was still rather gentle, but the menacing edge didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

I watched as Lauren shivered for a second before collecting her things and waltzing toward the door. "I'll talk to the principal about that," she said and then left the room.

Ms. Carmina perched back atop the desk while a lot of other students began gathering theirs thing as well. They shuffled out of the room and I was pretty sure that I saw a small smile on Ms. Carmina's face as she watched nearly half the class squeeze themselves through the door.

"You know, I always thought a class of twelve people would be so much better," Chris whispered to me when the last students had closed the door behind him.

"I'm actually surprised Alice didn't run out too," I whispered back in reply.

"Well, I guess I can start now without anymore interruptions," Ms. Carmina signed contently and hopped off the desk to write something on the board.

The magic of animal spirituality was first practiced by demons, Ms. Carmina printed neatly on the whiteboard. The art to establish a connection with an animal or species was discovered by them because demons have a much stronger resemblance to animals. For witches, it is much more difficult to access this magic. Yet they have managed to expand this specific branch of magic in some aspects with the help of their own magical abilities. However, it is not possible for everyone to use this art.

"I really don't get this whole animal spirit thing," Alice whined. In a classroom that was nearly half empty like ours was, it wasn't the best idea to speak too loudly because it echoed. That's why Ms. Carmina heard her and turned around as Alice attempted to hide herself behind Jasper. When she saw the friendly expression on Ms. Carmina's face, she sat up straight.

"What is it you don't understand?" Ms. Carmina asked.

"The whole thing," Alice answered. "For instance, why most witches can't use it."

"Ah, well that is rather complicated. First of all, the spirit itself is more of an energetic force rather than an actual spirit. Every demon is born with it and some witches are too. Whether or not you can use it later is mostly determined within the first weeks of your life. If you tend to be more human than the spiritual magic will weaken — in most cases it will just vanish completely because it's unnecessary for you. But some people tend to lean more toward the animal side that all of us have that connects them with the spiritual force. By then, it isn't even an actual animal yet.

The animal molds itself to the characteristics of the related person or to the genetic predispositions. Most witches that are able to use this magic have relatives, usually parents, who are also able to access it. Whether you develop the human or animal side depends partly on just your environment. And since witches are generally more domesticated than demons, they are unable to use this branch of magic simply because they have no use for it."

"So it would be my parents' fault if I'm unable to connect with an animal spirit?" Rose asked.

Ms. Carmina chuckled. "In a way, yes. Although, in some cases the force only weakens and can be regenerated by great magical skill."

"What is your spirit?" Chris asked her.

Ms. Carmina's eyes flitted straight to Chris. "I'm part of the Firehound clan," she answered, eyeing Chris with curiosity.

"What's a Firehound?" This time, it was me asking.

"It's a mystical creature that is quite common in the Pandemonium."

"Demons really do live in Hell?" Melanie Adams asked.

"That's what you call it. Although we refer to it as Netherworld."

"But demons don't really suck blood, do they?" Rose asked in a worried tone. I shouldn't have been surprised that she was scared of her own horror stories.

Ms. Carmina's expression changed for a split second before she composed herself. "I think we're getting off topic here, but since I have yet to bite someone here, I think you'll be safe."

Should we be worried that she didn't say that she'd never bit anyone in her whole life? Chris' voice asked in my head. I thought about that for a moment. It was indeed rather unlucky wording, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

I shook my head slightly in Chris' direction. She seemed to be still thinking about it.

The lesson continued and I was very convinced that I wouldn't be one of the witches that accomplish this branch of magic.

"Now we've got a free period, so what shall we do?" Chris asked, stretching herself out on the desk after Ms. Carmina left the room.

"Sleeping on a desk isn't a half bad idea," Rose said, pushing Chris aside to make space for herself.

"Get your own table, Hale."

It didn't take long before the two of them were pushing each other off the table over and over. Jasper, Alice and I only shook our heads at them.

After a few more minutes of that, the two of them finally gave up and simply sat on the table together, Rose leaning her head on Chris' shoulder and Chris leaning her head against Rose's.

"Aw, that's cute, guys. Wait a sec, I need to take a picture," Alice cooed and immediately started rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a camera and started to snap picture upon picture of Chris and Rosalie, who both posed enthusiastically.

"Hey Alice, can the pictures move?" Chris asked when they were done with their little photoshoot.

"Move? You mean like in Harry Potter?"

Chris nodded.

"Not really. There are some artists who can make that happen when they take a portrait, but apparently it's really hard to do. Right now, there's only two artists that are able to catch movements in their paintings, I think."

"No, it's just one," Jasper corrected. "Madame Corbeaux died three years ago."

"Whatever," Alice replied with a shrug. "At least I have pretty pictures in case we ever make Christmas cards."

"Ah, Christmas is going to be great. Back in Phoenix, back to the sun," Chris sighed contently.

"We might not even go home for Christmas," I told her. Her daydreaming was abruptly cut off.

"What? Why wouldn't we? It's not because I forgot to call Mom, right?"

"No. Apparently no one gets out of here for now because of the investigation, so it just so happens that we might end up spending Christmas here."

Alice's eyes danced with excitement as she squealed, "With us."

"And snow," Chris added with a shudder. "I should have burned that green freak a bit more."

Chris was replaying the scene in her head, regretting that she had only caught the side of the person.

"You actually burned her?" I asked in disbelief.

"Um, yeah, you were there, remember?"

"Yes, but I thought you missed. By the way, I still don't know how you did it."

"No, I didn't miss. I think I even got her on the arm the second time, but I'm not sure since she was already vanishing. And to be honest, I don't really remember how I did it. It was a stress situation."

"If you hit her twice, then why didn't you tell Carlisle that?" Jasper asked, sounding a bit more agitated then he usually did.

"Didn't I?"

"No, you didn't," we all answered in unison.

Chris shrugged. "It's not like it's very important anyway. I'm sure it'd be healed by now, 'cause I'm pretty sure there's all kinds of mending spells and charms."

"True," Rose added, nodding thoughtfully to herself.

"Not true," I disagreed. Everyone turned to look at me. It was a good thing that our fellow students had decided to enjoy their free period somewhere other than the classroom. "The burns don't heal with mending spells."

"How do you know?" Chris asked me.

"When you burned my hand yesterday, Edward tried to heal the burn but it didn't work," I explained.

"There's only one fire with that trait and that's the abyssus fire," Alice chirped and Jasper nodded in agreement.

"And what does this abyssus fire look like?" Chris asked.

"Just like normal fire," Jasper answered. "It's just more dangerous because once it really blazes up, it's hard to quench."

"So how do we know that I didn't throw abyssus fire around? When I threw those fireballs, I wasn't consciously choosing to do that, I was more or less visceral. And when I burned Bella, it was definitely instinctive because I wasn't even aware of anything going on," Chris reasoned.

"It makes sense in a way," Rose commented.

"Don't you think it would be hard to miss a person with two burn marks that cannot be healed? The healers have to report things like that," said Alice.

"Who says she went to the hospital?" Chris retorted.

"Who says she's even still on campus?" I threw in. "She came out of the ground, so basically, she can be everywhere."

That was the end of our discussion as Chris went back to cursing the person because it was their fault that we might be stuck in Forks over Christmas.

Our free period was over much too soon and I wasn't the least bit motivated for gym class. But apparently even Mr. Stan wasn't in the mood for his own subject because he decided that we could do whatever we wanted. Some girls decided to play volleyball while the rest just sat around and watched. The boys, on the other hand, decided to play soccer.

On our way back to the dorms, much to Alice's dismay, it was raining.

"I'm singing in the rain..." Chris was, once again, singing. I didn't know why she suddenly felt the need to do so, but there was no time for me to figure it out as Dylan, Edward, and Emmett caught up with us.

As soon as the three boys joined our little group, Chris danced off toward another group of people in which I saw Damon and Dean.

"How did the demon class go?" Emmett asked Alice with a slight smirk on his face.

"She really does come from Hell," Alice answered dryly.

"But she doesn't suck blood," Rose added when Emmett opened his mouth to speak.

We all laughed at his disappointed expression when he realized that he could no longer tease Alice.

A little while later, Chris reappeared right after we decided that we would let the boys play pool in the Black house common room while we watched. Chris didn't seem to like the plan too much, but she didn't say anything as we made our way to the house.

Alice excused herself for a moment to go fix her hair.

A few minutes after, she came back and seemed to be pretty worked up.

"Look at that!" she shouted throughout the common room, causing every person in the room to flinch as she waved around a newspaper in her dainty little hands.

"Is there a sale somewhere?" Edward asked her, still concentrating on the game of pool.

"No. Apparently someone broke into the head of Crime Control's office," she answered.

That seemed to be much more interesting to Edward because he dropped his cue and dashed to Alice's side to snatch the paper from her hands. He read through the article quickly, his eyes hurriedly scanning over the words, before he handed the paper to Dylan, who had his hand outstretched, awaiting the paper. Dylan decided to read it out loud for everyone's benefit.

"Monday, November 8th, 1:37 PM," Dylan read. "IDM Headquarters Chaos!" he announced the headline of the paper. "It was only a few moments ago that an alarm spell was triggered here in the office of the head of the Crime Control Unit. The burglar was unfortunately seen by no one, therefore their identity remains anonymous as of now, but it is assumed that he or she played a part in the murder of one Alistair Merchile. Reason for this accusation is due to the only item stolen from the office being a specific file revolving around the murder case." Dylan looked up to see all of us staring at him in disbelief.

"Is that bad?" Chris asked carefully.

"Well, kind of. But the more shocking thing is that somebody actually managed to break in. That is said to be impossible," Alice explained quickly.

"So the green lady is trying to cover up her tracks," Rose said.

"Hopefully not," mumbled Jasper.

"Why not?"

"If that's what her intention was, then we're all kind of going to have a problem. Our names are in the file."

The silence that followed was almost deafening.

"Well I don't see any of us dead in the future," Alice announced after a long silence.

"That's not much of a relief, Alice, considering what a wacky psychic you are," Chris muttered.

Alice glared at her but Chris merely shrugged it off.

"Don't you think she would have killed us right away if that was really what she intended to do?" I asked no one in particular.

"Not if she was injured like Chris said," Jasper answered.

"What if she mended it quickly?"

"What if I really did hit her with abyssus fire?" Chris interfered.

"Then she would still be injured and in no condition to kill eight teenagers at once."

"Then why would she be in the condition to break into high security buildings?"

"Maybe it wasn't her."

"But then she would have to have a partner who could most likely kill us very easily."

I sighed. There was no way to make that sound positive.

"First of all, what is this abyssus fire talk about? And secondly, we are currently being watched by IDM," Emmett tried to reason.

"You mean the people who failed to catch her in the first place and managed to fail a second time?" Rose muttered, raising an eyebrow.

"Well then we're all going to die," Chris shrugged. She wasn't scared or anything, but I could hear her mind busily working to find answers.

She wasn't the only one.

That night, I didn't sleep well. My dreams were highly disorienting. The strange text that we couldn't decipher, the plant woman hunting me through a maze, and something with red hair. That was pretty much all that I dreamed that night within the short periods of time that I actually managed to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was so drained that I could hardly open my eyes. When I finally managed to, I saw Edward sitting on the couch. Now that I sat up, he turned to look at me.

"Now you really should start locking your door at night," he said with a halfhearted grin.

I didn't comment on that.

"Your dreams were really strange," he mumbled after a few moments of silence as he stared absentmindedly into space.

"Did I talk again?" I groaned, not really needing an answer.

"No, you didn't. You tossed and turned a lot, and your shield wasn't in place. What is that strange text that both you and Chris dream about?"

I looked at him for a while before I got up and went to my dresser to get the piece of my box that had the second part in it. When I held it out to Edward, he used the opportunity to pull me onto his lap in a swift movement and then he turned his attention to the piece of wood I handed him.

"What is this?" he asked after he read it.

"I don't know. It's a part of the wand box that Alistair gave me. Chris accidentally broke it off when you and Damon locked us in here."

"That's why she wanted her wand box," he said in realization.

I nodded.

"And you think this has something to do with you?" Edward asked.

Again, I nodded.

"Well then it would make sense why Alistair gave it to you — if he even knew about this — but I doubt it has anything to do with you."

"But Chris and I are bonded."

"Yes, but if the wands are hundreds of years old, then the boxes probably are too, so it could have applied to any of the previous owners."

"But how many of them were bonded?"

Edward sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"This is a pretty pointless discussion," I said to him.

He nodded slowly.

"Well then I guess I'll just get ready for school."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Somehow I managed to get through the first bit of the school day. None of us, not even Alice, seemed to be all that awake as we dragged ourselves into the Elemental Room for our Specialized Magic class.

"Okay class," Ms. Carmina said as she entered the room. "Mr. Decour has asked me to test a few of you to see if you've made any progress." A few people groaned at that.

It seems Lauren's little talk with the principal didn't go too well since today, the class was full.

"Ms. Adams, pick someone you want to turn invisible," Ms. Carmina called. Some students chuckled. As a group of girls giggled quietly, Melanie shyly looked around. Ms. Carmina seemed to notice the laughter and it didn't look like she was too pleased with that. "You can come and be Ms. Adam's volunteer," she said, looking at one of them.

I turned to see that it was Kate, Tanya, and Irina she was talking to. They all looked at each other, trying to figure out which one of them she meant.

"The one with the blond curls," Ms. Carmina added impatiently.

Irina didn't look too happy about that, and probably regretted curling her hair.

When Irina made it to the front, Ms. Carmina signalled Melanie to start. Melanie placed her hand on Irina's shoulder and closed her eyes in concentration. She'd made enough progress to turn herself and her clothes transparent, but not completely invisible. She seemed to be having problems with pushing her ability onto Irina, and I watched as she tightened her grip a little. Irina let out a hiss and slapped her hand away.

"Are you crazy? That hurts!" she spat at Melanie.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Melanie mumbled, bowing her head and hiding behind her hair, looking like a small servant as some of the people in the room laughed.

This time, when Melanie put her hand on Irina's shoulder, she was trying to be careful and barely even touched her. It was because of this Irina's sweater was the only thing to change at all. And the only thing that happened was it turned transparent. Irina noticed that immediately and hissed furiously at Melanie while the class laughed and Ms. Carmina worked to calm Irina down.

"What could she have done that made it so she has to wear bandages?" Alice asked in a somewhat disgusted tone.

So Alice had seen them too. Irina had her right arm bandaged as well as her midriff. I'd been wondering if it had just been my imagination.

"I seriously hate that girl," Chris hissed. She didn't seem to react too well to Irina's horrendous attitude toward Melanie. Irina was still shrieking and hissing, even at Ms. Carmina.

At least the class found it entertaining.

"Wow, she is really angry," Jasper commented with a surprised edge to his voice.

"Look at that!" Chris said, pointing at Irina's feet, but I couldn't see anything.

It took me a minute to realize that Chris had been lacking in control again and got too worked up, so she was now burning on the inside and able to use her enhanced senses. Through her mind, I saw what she saw.

Something was growing out the ground. Very tiny roots started to break through the surface of the ground of the room and wound themselves around Irina's shoes. But the magic of the room kicked in, making them vanish again.

My mind started racing, putting together different scenarios. I was still in Chris' head and for the first time, we thought together. Although it was a strange phenomenon, I couldn't concentrate on that.

"What is Irina's ability?" I asked Alice quickly.

"She can grow plants. Once, she even managed to let a flower grow out of her hand. Other than that, she just accelerates their growth—"

Chris' attention was on something else already. Irina's palms were taking on a greenish tone.

Irina is the killer! Chris and I shouted in our heads at once, staring at each other in horror.

---

A/N: Gasp! Bet you didn't see that one coming. Well, this chapter is now the new longest chapter of the story with 20,748 words. I'm so proud of myself. So, you guys know what you have to do now, while I work on a plan of what happens in the next chapter... I think it is going to be a bit less dramtic with Christmas and the fair coming up. It's actually kind of weird to write about Christmas a few days after Easter... oh well. I'll try my best to update faster, but only if I get enough reviews in which you better appreaciate that horrible "science" I made up about animal spirits. THat was really hard to acomplish ;)