A/N:

I've basically written this entire fic (thus far) to a soundtrack of Kings of Leon. In particular, the 'Only By The Night' album. Seriously, their songs will break your heart. For a more complete playlist, go check out my profile. I've listed the 'Greatest Hits'. Sorry, I'm stalling…

I am disclaiming and unowning.

EdwardPOV

It wasn't difficult to find them.

I followed them back to their home the next day. It was bigger than I imagined. More windows, more white. It angered me at how easy it was to infiltrate the safety of their home. It should have been harder. It should have been nearly impossible. I hated them even moreso for their failure at discretion. I hated them on principal. I hated them for making me give her up.

It all came back too easily. Without the tether of Bella's humanity holding me to the world of the living, I felt my old tendencies come rushing forward. I wanted to punish this coven as I had punished countless others who took life recklessly, without respect for the balance of predator and prey. I had instructions to leave them, to send word to Volterra as soon as I confirmed their existence, but my self-restraint was exhausted now. It was all spent on her… Staying away from her…Protecting her… Loving her.

And I loved her. I knew it now. Maybe I had known it all along.

Falling in love with Bella Swan was easy... But then again, there was really nothing easy about it was there? It was impossible. She and I were impossible.

I had no plan. Would they kill me on site? Or would I have to sacrifice myself? Would I just have to beg? Would I be unable to suppress my instinct to defend myself? Would I be able to suppress my instinct to attack? Would I win? I didn't care, one way or another, there were no more chances for redemption now. All that mattered was that I gave her a fighting chance…

It was dusk and the lights on the house came on, they were comfortable with their pretend human lives, I knew they didn't need them. The home was oddly beautiful. It was all hard lines with floor to ceiling windows and carefully chosen recycled metal trim. It sat against the backdrop of the evergreen trees: a juxtaposition of the modern and the primordial. I scoffed, Ironic.

The shadows of seemingly human forms danced and flickered from corner to corner behind the drawn curtains, their speed only just slightly suspect. I closed my eyes and thought of Volterra. This coven pretended to be a family, to the outside world I'm sure they did an excellent job of it. But how could our kind have real family? Even now, on the precipice of death I could not fathom an afterlife where I would yearn for anyone but her. If I did survive this, how could I possibly return to Volterra now? In my mind's eye I scanned all the places I had been. I saw stark white, flurries of snow, three hundred and sixty-five days with the heavy burden on winter. My heart was soothed just slightly, Antarctica then. It was fitting.

With a steadying breath I approached the house at a human's speed. I took a final step to my destiny, poised to knock, but the door opened before my hand touched the wood.

I looked into eyes the color of mine exactly and it stunned me.

"Come in, Edward," a raven-haired pixie-girl said smiling, "We've been expecting you."

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

I walked in behind her, her thoughts seemed harmless enough. She was not the least bit surprised at my presence as her greeting had suggested, and that in and of itself seemed threat enough. I thought of all the easy ways to be rid of her…

"Don't do it!" she chirped at me quickly, "Because if you do, Jasper will have to get involved… And then you'll be off on the wrong foot… And I just want you to like each other! "

The way the girl waved her arms around frantically with saucer-wide eyes caused me to hesitate for just a moment. She seemed to anticipate my plans, but her thoughts stayed calm. She didn't seem at all dangerous. Her thoughts may have even seemed… Excited?

"Nobody is going to hurt you, Edward. Nobody is going to hurt Bella either," she put a hand on my arm and I wrenched it away at the sound of her name, snarling.

A saw a body blur in from somewhere beside me and I braced myself for the onslaught, but just before I could launch into the offensive, I came to realize that the being had no interest in attacking me. Rather, I was quite surprised to see a lanky, wavy haired boy crouched before the girl, looking absolutely feral. He was defending her. I could see it in his eyes -- if I would not have also heard it in his thoughts --they were slightly darker than the girl's and mine, but they were uncharacteristically brown nevertheless.

"No! No! NO! This isn't at all the way this was supposed to go!" the girl cried, stomping her foot petulantly, "Jasper, relax! He wasn't going to hurt me!"

Ah, so this is the Jasper that she mentioned before.

I took a few steps backward, immediately wary of the strange girl. How could she be so sure that I would not hurt her? And she was absolutely positive, her mind did not waver, not even a bit. I straightened from my crouched position on the floor, eyeing the two of them with a newfound curiosity. Simultaneously, my former attacker did the same, coming to stand at the girl's side, still shielding her body from my range, just slightly.

She pushed him out of the way with tiny but insistent hands. When it became clear he was unwilling to budge, she stepped around him, sticking out her hand to offer it to me.

"I'm Alice," she chirped pleasantly, bouncing on the balls of her feet expectantly.

I growled, taking another set behind me and my back hit the door. I was not the only one who remained skeptical, his thoughts were screaming with anxiety, all of it intended solely for the girl. He was sure of his own abilities to defend himself, he was formulating plans of attack in his head, his only concern was for her. And not just her physical safety either, but for her heart. I saw him flicker over a conversation that they had already had, and it had to have been weeks ago, I could see rain falling in sheets behind a window. It had not rained in nearly ten days. I barely had time to process what I heard, he was promising her that he would stop at nothing to keep her safe.

"She's speaking to you, Boy," he choked out, interrupting my foray into his mind, the muscles in his neck protruding with the threat, "If would be best if you answered."

I felt the patronizing tone of his voice and my body tensed with the familiar desire for a challenge.

"It would be best," I answered calmly, "If you realized whom you are speaking to."

"Nooooo!" the girl whined again, jumping around wildly in her spot, "You guys are messing it all up! Carlisle! CARLISLE!"

I backed further into the door when I realized she was calling another of her coven. Three would be problematic to deal with, but if they gave me no other choice, I would handle it. A flaxen-haired man, too young to be considered middle-aged yet too old to be considered a boy, emerged from behind a nearby corner. He had been close enough to attack the entire time. Why hadn't he?

"Calm down, Alice," his voice insisted while he patted her patiently on the shoulder, "If it's meant to be, it will be."

"It is!" she exclaimed, turning her back to me, rounding on the man, "I saw it."

Saw what?

All of my internal questions were taxing on my patience, I had come here to say my peace and be done with it. If words did not appease them then surely I could fend them off long enough to flee. I only had to hear their thoughts but once to know their intentions, if I had to spend the rest of my life defending the girl or sequestered from her and them, so be it.

The girl is the key…

"Leave the girl out of this!" I sneered," She has nothing you want… It's me you are looking for isn't it? You think that eliminating me will stop them from coming for you. I can assure you now, Cullens, your precious family will never be safe whether you kill me or not …"

We aren't going to hurt, Bella…. I like Bella.

"And why should I trust you?" I spit, my mind barely able to wrap around the fact that this coven knew everything about her: her name, her school, probably her home, everything. Nowhere was safe. I cursed myself to high heaven and back to hell, I did this to her. Me alone.

"Like her?!" I demanded to nobody in particular, my eyes scanning all of the potential exits from the room, "You say you won't hurt her! I would be a fool to trust you! I will not make Aro's mistake!"

"You can hear me?" the girl said, "You can hear my thoughts?"

I watched the cautious faces in the room suddenly become shocked. In my panic I did not notice that my voice was the only audible sound in the echoing room. I had given up the only advantage that might save Bella, I had squandered it with my own lack of discipline. Idiot, I admonished myself, Stupid, selfish, miserable idiot.

I was nearly trembling with rage, it was so uncharacteristic for me, my composure before an attack had always lent itself to my cause before.

"Jazz! Relax! God, would you look at him?! He's going to kill someone!"

What was the girl talking about now?!

"I'm sorry, Alice. I'm trying!"

"Well, try harder!"

"Maybe if you took a few steps back, Alice…" Carlisle helped.

She skipped toward the opposite end of the room, throwing up her arms in frustration on the way. Almost immediately, the foggy haze of wrath started to dissipate slowly, leaking away to make room for the clarity I had not experienced since I set foot into the house. My mind was still full of Bella, a million scenarios – good and bad – racing through my mind, but now I could think.

"Sorry," the boy mumbled, though the apology wasn't sincere, "It gets away from me sometimes…"

"What the hell is going on?!" I demanded.

The man, Carlisle, came toward me. The voices in his head seemed sincere, his only thoughts were of protecting his family. The faces of the rest of his coven flashed through his mind in quick succession: A woman, she almost looked kind. A striking blond and a burly brown-haired man with a smile on his face.

"Well, Edward. It seems you aren't the only one with… Abilities."

I crouched into an attacking position again, scanning the room for new faces that I had just seen. Where were they? Hiding so that they could blindside me?

"Well then, if they have abilities, then let the, show themselves!"

"Hey, you don't have to ask me twice!"

The sound of the robust voice cut through the atmosphere of the room and I turned to see the blond and the brunette who were only just pictures in mind emerge from another corner, the older woman with the kind face right behind them.

"Hey, Man!" he said cheerily as he bounded toward me, his free hand outstretched toward me while the other dragged the girl behind him, "I'm Emmett."

"Emmett!" the brown-haired woman exclaimed.

"Oh relax, Ma," he said, "Alice said he wasn't going to kill any of us! Her visions are never wrong…"

"But they've been changing!" she argued, grabbing the blond's free hand with both of hers, pulling the pair of them backward.

"No!" the pixie-girl said, "Not this part! Not since he decided about Bella…"

"STOP!" I yelled, my breaking-point reaching a fevered pitch, "Stop talking about visions and abilities and family. Most of all, stop talking about HER!"

"Everyone just calm down!" Carlisle cried out, his thoughts screaming with his need to control the situation, his role as the leader of the group becoming suddenly apparent.

He closed the gap between us, putting himself between his family and I, leaving himself vulnerable to attack. If I killed him maybe the structure of this coven would fall apart. I thought about the logistics, it would be a suicide mission with so many of them standing around.

"Nobody is going to hurt you, Edward."

I smiled sadistically, As if my wellbeing is the thing at risk…

"… And nobody is going to hurt Bella. We only want to be left alone! I don't know why Aro wants her all of a sudden, but he can't have her. We are prepared to defend her to the death!"

"Not just ours either," the wavy-haired boy said from the pixie-girl's side, "We're prepared to take a few of yours with us."

I hated to admit my weaknesses, but I had had enough. The man was only barely thinking of Bella, his mind was more concerned with Volterra. I only thought of Bella when I finally let my attacking instincts recede, suppressing the desire to kill somewhere deep inside.

"I don't understand," I said to him finally, "Why exactly do they want you all?"

"No," Alice said, taking her hand from Jasper's, coming to Carlisle's side, "Not them. Just me, Edward. They just want me… And you're the only one that can help me…."

.

"What?" I ambled backward, pinching at the bridge of my nose with my thumb and my forefinger, "Don't you understand that they are the ones that sent me here? That I'm in absolutely no position to help you?"

"Can't?" the statuesque blond asked.

She was examining her nails as she perched on the armrest of a couch in the neighboring room, "Or won't?"

The wavy-haired boy stood up, glaring at me menacingly, "Then why did you come here?"

"Jazz…" Alice said putting a soothing arm on his shoulder, "We knew it wouldn't be easy to convince him… Even now, my vision just keeps changing… I –"

"WHAT VISIONS?!" I roared, tired of feeling that I only had half of the story.

I rounded on Carlisle, "You HAVE to explain w—"

"--And you don't have some explaining to do?" the blond chirped sarcastically, "We don't even know exactly why you're here either. Yeah, sure, the midget over there has some nice pictures in her head, but it's not exactly like we're all that in 'the know'. I still don't get what the girl has to do with any of this… She's soooooo lame."

She had not so much as shifted from her spot on the couch though she had moved on from her nails and was now examining her long blond locks for what I had to assume were split-ends.

I threw my hands up in frustration, finally certain of the fact that they really had no intention of attacking me just yet. Their minds were flooded with the most nauseating scenes of camaraderie and kinship. They really, truly considered their coven a family. It was damn confusing. I couldn't hear one clear explanation of the situation with all of them congesting my mind with so many worries; the bits and pieces of the story were only causing me to grow more anxious. The last thing that any of us needed was an extra dose of anxiety.

"You!" I pointed at the blond -- her thoughts were the most tangential, "Are quite unpleasant."

I turned to the large brunette man whom I assumed was her mate, "Is she always this unpleasant?"

He smiled at me, clapping me on the back as he walked into the large living room where the blond was sitting. I winced only slightly at the unwanted familiarity of his physicality. His thoughts were too optimistic.

"Aww, Rosie?" he said smirking, "She just takes a while to warm up to is all."

I sighed heavily, watching as one-by-one each of them passed in front of me, migrating toward the family room. The brown-haired woman was last. She stopped in front of me, her thoughts running the gamut of emotions. Worry, hope, confusion. Then finally, the same blind optimism that the meathead had.

She gave me a small smile, reaching over to put a hand on mine as it hung limply at my side. She gave it a tight squeeze and I surprised myself as I didn't jerk away immediately.

"Thank you," she said, her eyes glassy though our kind had no tears, "Really, Edward, Thank you."

She let go of my hand, following the rest of her family into the room, pausing only once to look behind her.

"Well come on," she said, beckoning me to follow her," It's a long story…"

A/N: This chapter and the next were actually one chapter, but it was a bit long and the second ½ needed some work. But since you have all been so lovely with reviewing, I decided to throw this part up here…Less waiting!