A/N: Chapter 2, up! Yay! So, anyway, thank you so much for the reviews. I love reviews! They're what keep me going.

Umm, I wanna dedicate this story to my Twilight-loving friends, (Which I will just give the initials of as I haven't cleared putting their name on the internet up) NW, LL, BB (well, she's half-a-fan), HJ, and MP.

So, er, read on!

I was getting close. By the, well, smell of things, there was more than one-- seven or eight, maybe

I was swift, zooming past ferns and bouncing off of damp moss, rain washed air in my face. There was a lot of green in this place. I may have stopped to admire its beauty, but then again, I wasn't much of an environmentalist. I'd seen plenty of nature in my life, having journeyed through forests and marshes and mountains, and I didn't really have the patience at the moment to admire anything except this curious scent. I knew the smell of vampires. These were different somehow. . . .

Finally, I heard it--voices some three hundred yards away. My eyes focused on a house through the haze--a huge one, white and old-fashioned. Many expensive cars were parked in the driveway. The voices were louder, and I thought I could distinguish snatches of conversation.

". . . don't think we'll have to explain anything about Reneesme; she's looking a bit too old to be considered one of them. . . ." said a young woman's voice, one that was heavy with seduction and the faint air of arrogance.

"I hope she hasn't killed anyone in town already," came a worried voice, another young woman's. "What about Charlie?" There was badly-disguised anxiety in her voice. A gentle sort of crooning followed, a deeper, mellifluous voice that I supposed must belong to a man, but it was so quiet that even I couldn't distinguish the words.

"C'mon, smile!" said another girl's voice, high like the chiming of a bell, and her voice was more excited. "That means you, Bella. There's no point worrying--she's outside now."

If my heart still worked, it would be beating frantically, like a humming bird's wings. My pace slowed, and I walked in a catlike crouch, ferocity back. My defensive position was only half-hearted. I knew vampires, from my own experiences, to usually be rather polite to other vampires. But some were not so polite. Some were menacing and wanted nothing to do with other vampires. I knew that these strangers were not like that.

I'd taken my boots off after my feeding; my bare feet slid against the wood paneling of their front porch. I could have put them back on, but as they were all waiting for me inside. . . .

But I wasn't sure what to do. Knock? Knock and say "Hi, I noticed that you're all vampires! May I come in?" But I was saved from having to make a decision when the door opened, and a shorter, skinny girl stood in the doorway, her hair inky black and cut short in a spiky pixie cut, her beautiful vampiric face smug. The house was very white, all neutral colors, and very spacious, the entire back wall made of glass, looking out into the forest, which was darkening in the fading light of an ending day. Behind her, five other vampires stood, reading or watching television, looking more like a beautiful family than like six ferocious beasts.

Of course, they were all beautiful--all adolescence except for a startlingly handsome man with blond hair and an equally stunning woman with soft brown hair, which, though they had no aging or weakening signs, gave off an air of adulthood. They stood very close together, and I could tell that they were closer than friends.

The other three were, as usual, gorgeous, though their looks weren't as mesmerizing as they might've been when I was human. There was a tall, blond girl with an arrogant, casual countenance, talking with another blond person, a muscely boy whose eyes were fixed on me with what I realised to be a probing expression. An enormous boy with curly dark hair, whose muscular frame making the blond boy look practically wispy, sat on the sofa, his playful eyes fixed on the screen, a smile playing on his lips, the epitome of nonchalance.

What surprised me about these vampires, what positively shocked me, was their golden eyes. Gold. Not red. Gold. Were these even vampires? What was going on here? For some reason, their civility and calm, golden eyes frightened me. I cringed slightly, but I disguised it well. And I was intrigued by something else--I'd never seen so many vampires gathered together.

"Hello," the tiny, black-haired girl in the doorway said. She had a tinkling, soprano voice that sounded like tuneless singing. "Are you a friend of Carlisle's?" Her voice was doubtful. "Come in."

Hesitantly, I stepped in, my movements, though fast for a human, were slow and wary for a vampire. Carlisle? I probably looked like an idiot, staring at the girl as if she spoke a different language. When a voice sounded from the corner, I realised that there were more than six vampires here.

"Give her some space, Alice."

I whipped around, startled, and saw three forms by a magnificent grand piano, a teenage boy and teenage girl standing over it while a small, young girl sat at the bench. The little girl was watching me curiously, her engaging eyes seeming far to inteligent to belong to such a small, young girl, looking just barely six years old. I couldn't stop looking at her.

Her eyes were not red, nor were they amber-colored. They were a warm, chocolate brown. Her skin was pale, yet not as pale as the vampires'. She had bronze hair that hung in curls down her back. I sniffed the air, intrigued. She was . . . a human . . . in this vampire coven. I realised that I'd been holding my nose ever since I heard the voices. Her scent was different, though. Delicious, yet with a vampiric tint.

I had a good idea of what she would be used for. My mouth would have watered had I still been human. She looked . . . well, for lack of a better word, tasty. But her scent was both human and vampire. . . .

Standing over her was the boy, and I was sure, by his pure vampiric scent, chalky skin and amber eyes, that he must be a vampire. He was thin yet muscular, with beautiful (of course) features, long eyelashes and bronze hair the same color as the . . . thing's. His eyes were fixed on mine, and I recognized a searching expression.

The girl, also a vampire, I knew, sat on the human-girl's other side on the piano bench. She had brown hair and looked, somehow, like the human girl. A though made itself known in the back of my mind, but it was impossible, and I supressed it.

My attention was back on the human girl, and My hunger, though I had just fed, was back. I was startled when, suddenly, the bronze-haired boy growled, a ripping, snarling sound from his chest that sounded truly inhuman. I jumped.

"Edward!" hissed the brown-haired girl by the human. She looked worried and stretched an arm out and touched his shoulder. I realised that they, too, were more than friends. The boy, Edward, looked to her beseachingly, and her eyes widened in comprehension. She clutched the human close to her. She looked scared. Edward stood protectively in front of them, all friendliness gone, glaring at me.

Any words that may have come to me caught in my throat.

"Bella? Edward?" The black-haired girl looked confused, but mostly disapproving. "What? She's hungry? What did you expect? Be nice." Her tone, in contrast to them, was teasing. But I could see, under the nonchalance, she too was tensed, as if ready to restrain me from attacking the human.

My appatite was gone. I knew that they would protect the now scared-looking girl with their lives, and I was confused. How did he know what I was thinking? Had my hunger shown on my face? And why did it provoke such a strong reaction in them? Did they want her to themselves?

Another growl rent the air from the boy, this one not quite as loud, but he looked frighteningly angry at me.

"I-I won't hurt her!" I squeaked, bewildered. I looked at the others, noticably tenser, all except for the now grave-looking adults. The man had a kind of reverberating calm about him.

"It's okay, Edward," he said. His eyes met mine. There was warning in them.

I nodded at him frantically and repeated, "I won't touch the human." The others seem to relax. The giant boy continued watching TV, but his smile was gone.

"Reneesme's not human," said the tiny black-haired girl. She seemed disappointed at how this little meeting was going. "She's half vampire."

I had no idea what she meant. I tried to apologize through my eyes at the bronze-haired boy, who finally relaxed, though I could tell that he didn't trust me. I was feeling smaller, a bit upset. Something about that boy, how he had stood so protectively in front of that other vampire girl that I knew was his significant other, touched me deeply. It was pure, untainted, protective love. Something I hadn't had in some forty years.