A/N: Thank you so much for my reviews. I practically squealed when I got them. Yes, I admitted that. I'm sorry that last chapter was confusing but it wasn't really a chapter, just a little peek at one of my future chapters. This one is actually a few months before the preface happened.

Sorry for all the confusion and sorry that you're probably still confused with this chapter. The next one should clear some things up. Well that's the plan anyway.

I'm going to try and update weekly but I might be able to get the next chapter out sooner. It's practically done but I need to make sure that I touched all the points that I needed to.

Sorry for my rambling and tell me what you think!

Bella took a long sip of her friends Pepsi even though she absolutely hated the stuff. She was definitely a Coke drinker.

"Come on, Bella," Jessica cried with a smile on her face as she attempted to sway to the beat of some rap song that was a distant annoyance to Bella's ears. "Try to have a little fun."

Bella sat deeply in her wicker chair that had been her companion for three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and forty seconds. Not that she was counting or anything.

"I am having fun," She protested, folding her arms across her chest. Her brow creased at the mocking head tilt. "Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun."

Jessica stopped her ridiculous hip swaying and sighed. "Do you want to go back to the hotel? I'll take you."

Yes! The word almost emerged. It burned up her throat but she shook her head with a pained smile. "No," She said, obviously meaning the opposite. "It's okay. You're having fun."

"I don't mind." But by the pitiful little smile she gave hinted that she did indeed mind.

Bella mustered up as much sincerity she could. "Really, I'm fine. Go have fun and if I want to leave the hotel isn't that far from here. I can walk."

"You sure?" Jessica was already doing that swaying thing again and Bella knew she had her sold. By now it wouldn't matter if she was chocking on one of those odd foreign appetizers that people kept trying to shove down her throat. She would most likely smile and say "Well if you're sure." And walk away.

But Bella didn't really want to test that. "I'm sure."

Jessica attempted to sway suggestively away.

Bella snorted.

She really didn't want to be there anymore. The lights were giving her a headache and the music wasn't making it any better. She's not exactly sure how she let Jessica talk her into this place.

It was their senior year of high school and each year the seniors got to take a trip together and that is exactly how Bella wound up in some kind of club thing in Italy in the city Volterra.

Well at least that's why she's in Italy, she not exactly sure how she got to the club. All she can really remember is Jessica whining that it's their last night and they haven't had any fun and Bella is being a horrible friend—Bella rolled her eyes—but Jessica knew exactly how she could redeem herself.

So maybe Bella did know how she got there after all. That didn't mean that she had to like it.

She sighed in utter suffering but slowly and as inconspicuously as possible—and she sure it would have been inconspicuous if she hadn't tripped and spilled Jessica's Pepsi all over the place. Including the woman that was snarling at her at the same time as looking mournfully at her yellow blouse—and practically ran to the exit.

Cool air brushed against her flushed face and she basked in the feel of it until she was sure that several people were looking at her with wider eyes than normal and frequently hissing, "American," under their breath. Yes, it was definitely time to move on.

The air seemed to croon in a silent song around her and with it came a soft sound that she couldn't quite distinguish off to her right. Curiosity peeked, but not nearly enough for her to go look. She wanted to get to the hotel, and then she wanted to go home.

Although she loved being in Italy—she had longed to go there for a long time— she found herself missing her small home in Forks and missing her father and his easy silence and always ready smile. They had only been on the trip for a week and she was hopelessly homesick.

She smiled grimly. She was probably never going to get out of that town.

The cool breeze had a new bite at the thought and she wrapped her thin sweater that was more for show than for actual warmth tighter around her and walked uneasily through the streets of the foreign city.

There was a sound again. Louder than the first one she had heard and her curiosity rose until her fingers were twitching.

She could just take a peek…

No, she thought to herself. She didn't know the streets well enough to go peek at anything. She only knew the way from the hotel to the club and to the theatre that was just down the road. She didn't know any of the side streets and alleys that someone who had lived there all their lives would.

She sighed and made her feet walk steadily towards the hotel.

But then she heard the noise again.

It was an odd sound, a soft mixture of laughter and the muffled sound of something falling and perhaps…crying? Bella was almost certain that it wasn't something bad, but there was a stirring of fear that someone was being hurt and she wasn't helping them.

Her feet changed direction without a decision being made and she sighed thankfully at no longer having to make the choice. If it was something bad, she would do whatever she could to help and if it wasn't…well then it wasn't and she'd go back to the stuffy hotel and stuffy room and wait for Jessica to come back and croon about what a wonderful time she had and how Bella was being a stupid friend and why couldn't she just have fun like a normal person!

She wasn't bitter…no…

Bella sighed. She was going crazy.

She took a side road that veered off from the one she was on. She was rewarded with the sound getting louder. She paused after she reached a point where she could either go left or right and took a hesitant step to the left. There was no difference in sound. She was too close to where she had last stood for that, so she continued to the left until she was certain that she was going the wrong direction; backtracking, she went the other way.

There were soft exclamations of air, as if the person was attempting to scream but too tired to force the sound. Bella's blood ran cold, and distantly she wished that it was merely her imagination, that she was making the situation far more severe than it actually was. Someone couldn't be hurt, someone couldn't be being hurt. That wasn't possible…

And then she saw it.

For a moment that seemed like eternity she stared at what was happening before her. It was odd, she thought. She hadn't exactly imagined it to be like this, not that she had really imagined it, but she had heard enough horror stories and watched the news enough to not quite expect this.

There were two people on the deserted street. It was dark with only one street light that was perhaps ten feet from where she stood. There were buildings that over looked them and maybe seven windows looked down in a kind of silent mourning that she couldn't quite grasp.

It wasn't exactly horrible…and that was exactly why it was even worse.

There was a boy, laid out on the forgotten street far—so far—from Bella's hotel and he was being cradled in mockery of a mother's embrace, in the arms of a horrifyingly beautiful woman.

Her hair was pale silver in the moonlight and her features were angular and perfect on an oval shaped face. Even though she was on an empty street and there was a fallen trash can not far from her, she appeared frozen in time, as if in a photograph worthy of a model, airbrushed and all.

But what made the picture wrong was the brownish red liquid that painted the lower half of her face, and utterly swallowed full lips.

The boy that was in her arms had his back to her chest and his neck lolled grotesquely on her shoulder. She had been licking his neck and only when Bella had turned the corner had she stopped. She looked at Bella with crimson eyes that glowed.

The woman licked her lips like a cat licking cream and she gave a terrible smile. "Well, well," She purred, her voice throaty and deeper than Bella expected. "Have you come to be my dessert?"

Bella's vision tunneled.

The woman laughed and pushed the boy away from her. His wide, horror filled eyes, stared at Bella with death's emptiness. Bile burned Bella's throat.

"Come now dear," The woman crooned. "Don't be frightened. I'll make it quick. I promise."

Bella's legs felt weak and she stumbled back with a scream lodged in her throat and the woman laughed.

"What are you?" She felt like she was underwater. Her hearing was muted and distorted and her vision swirled.

"Me?" The woman questioned, seeming honestly surprised but her smile was wicked. And then she was standing in front of her. Her frozen hand gripping Bella's wrist in an easy hold that felt like iron.

"I'm a Vampire dear."

Bella's body felt heavy and there was a curious blankness that seemed to coat her vision and swallow her thoughts. A vampire, she thought, that's interesting.

"Shauna," A new voice quipped harshly and Bella wondered if she was still breathing.

"Hm," Shauna acknowledged looking away from Bella. "What do you want? I'm busy as you can see."

"Oh, yes," He snarled. "I can see. You already had one, you don't need another."

She pouted childishly and it was sickening with the blood that still covered her face. "But Dawsten," She murmured thickly. "She saw me drinking from him; we can not leave her here."

"Shauna," he roared. "You know the rules! We are given humans to feed from! We are not allowed to pick them randomly and feed off them alone!"

Shauna laughed and released her bruising grip on Bella and without the support Bella fell on liquid legs to the unforgiving street. When they started to argue she forced her shell-shocked body to move. With limbs shaking and her breathing sharp and broken she was able to make small steps on her hand and knees that became wider and faster as adrenaline began to spike through her blood.

And then she was running.

She wasn't entirely sure when she got off of her knees but soon the street beneath her and the walls were changing, and plants were passing by but as fast as she seemed to be moving, but she knew, knew, she was going to slow.

She didn't hear them move, didn't hear them stop shouting, until there was something slamming into her left side and she was skidding down the street. Cutting herself on the cobblestones that just a day ago had thought were charming.

She tried to rise as soon as she stopped sliding but there was iron all around her. "Stop moving," The man hissed in her ear. Cold breath brushed against her face. "If you move, you die."

And Bella went utterly and hopelessly still. Her heart beat in a fluttering staccato.

"Dawsten," Shauna snarled, her lip curling grotesquely. "She's mine."

"Foolish, Shauna," Dawsten licked the words. "You've done this three times this month already. Do you think Aro will be pleased with you?"

Shauna stiffened.

Bella knew that she shouldn't speak but the words poured out of her mouth and she attempted to move again. "Please, let me go! Please!"

"She can't just go missing Shauna," He said easily. "People will look for her."

"So what," She snarled in return. "We've covered it up before. We'll give some useless evidence and the dogs will stop barking."

Dawsten's fingers touched Bella's temple almost gently and said, "I'm going to fix this for you." There was a perverse pleasure on his face. "But my dear Shauna that means that you will be in my debt."

She snarled at him wordlessly. "No!" The word was a horrible bark that was more a sound of hatred than an actual word.

Dawsten sighed sadly. "Aro will have to be disappointed in you once again. I do believe that the last time you did this he told you that it would not be so readily forgotten. I seem to recall that Jane was very interested."

Shauna seemed to pale even though her skin had already been a bone white.

There was something sharp in her tone. An undercurrent that whispered something unconceivable but the words were soft. "Very well."

The pressure on Bella's temple increased and she gasped sharply at the pain but nothing happened. The pressure grew fiercer and his finger dug at her skin but what he seemed to be waiting for was not happening.

"What's wrong?" Shauna questioned a few steps away from where she had been before.

Dawsten's voice was tinged with disbelief. "She's not responding. It isn't working."

"What do you mean it isn't working? It always works!"

Dawsten tried again, pushing his finger sharply against Bella's temple but after five shallow breaths that Bella could barely release he laughed in shocked disbelief. "It doesn't work. We have to tell, Aro."

"No," Shauna was standing before them, leering down from her height. And she was tall, Bella realized. Much taller than most of the people she knew. "You promised me you would fix this and taking her to Aro will fix nothing. We should just kill her."

Dawsten stood, bring Bella with him in his arms. She fought against him but he ceased her movement without batting an eyelash.

"I'm a vampire dear."

Bella's breath seized and came in short gasping breaths that were far too loud in the hush that covered the street. She was hyperventilating. Honestly, she was surprised she hadn't started sooner.

Dawsten spoke. "We must take her to him. I will say it was I that revealed myself and decided to give her to him to decide her fate."

Shauna hissed but agreed. "Why do this for me, Dawsten. There is nothing that I can give."

Dawsten's smile was wicked. "I believe I can think of something."

She laughed condescendingly but walked away from them and it was just a breath and then they were moving too. At some point Bella fainted—once again surprised that it hadn't happened sooner—and had only brief moments of consciousness.

They were outside for what seemed to be only a moment and then suddenly they were inside of some building that she hadn't seen them enter. It was dark, and then it light, and then there were whispers and laughter and soft muted croons that hissed along her neck and there was a beautiful darkness that would hold her for a moment—for just a moment— until it let her go.

And she mourned.

"Intriguing," A muted far away voice whispered. "No reaction at all."

"None," A familiar voice whispered.

A soft touch on her hand and a drowned exclamation of surprise. "How interesting. Yes…put….she'll be….wait…there might…potential…shall wait…"

And then movement and the sickening slide of metal.

"Looky here, we have a little playmate for you." Horrible, horrible laughter. "Come on Edward. Don't look at me like that. I thought you'd want the company."

Pain shot though her body suddenly and she cried out, feeling the impact of being dropped onto stone through every cell of her body. There was a sickening slide of metal once again and then there was silence.

Bella wanted the blankness to come again. Just so that she could wake up back in her hotel room or even better back home in her small bedroom, in her small town where nothing happened and she was safe, so safe.

"Hey," A voice whispered.

Bella started but blackness was crowding her vision and she was sobbing and she couldn't breathe. And then there were arms. Warm soothing arms that wrapped around her and a broken hoarse voice whispering in her ear that she was okay, that it was going to be okay.

She clung to this sudden warmth and soothing presence and looked up before she lost herself to darkness once more and saw red rimmed green eyes that held nothing but concern.

She was distantly aware that she was sick and there was a warm hand holding her hair back from her face and a filthy bucket that wasn't making her feel any better.

She was going to pass out again. The knowledge wasn't frightening, but a balm to the horror that kept replaying in her mind.

"It's okay, you're okay." The voice whispered again and she turned to look up at him once she was certain that there was nothing left in her stomach.

"I feel like I'm dying," She attempted to say and he gave a twisted smile.

She slipped easily from consciousness but heard him say with a whisper of bitter irony, "Not today."