AN - Huge Huge thanks to 'Obessivley Compulsive' for being my first and only reviewer for my first chapter. :o)
BPOV
I pulled out of her embrace as quickly as I could without startling the humans in the corner of the diner. "Who are you?" I asked suspiciously. I was getting anxious. Did Maria send her to find us? Why else would she be waiting for us, and appear to know us? My eyes narrowed, and I assumed a defensive pose.
"Bella," Jasper said quietly. "I don't think there's any reason to be suspicious or anxious. I can only feel love radiating off her. I highly doubt she's here to bring us back to the south or fight us."
Jasper has always been suspicious of other vampires, it's just the way he was 'raised' in the south while fighting in the wars. If he wasn't worried, I figured I could hear this little pixie out.
"Love?" I asked "Why love??" I asked, mostly to myself.
"Because Jasper is my mate, and you are my best friend." She answered, bouncing up and down with a huge smile on her face.
I raised my eyebrow at her. "Mate? Best friend? What are you talking about...we've never met before!"
"I'm sorry, let me start at the beginning. My name is Alice. I don't know when I was changed, and I don't know by who. I woke up alone." She looked down to the ground sadly. "I have visions, of the future. They're not always definite, the sharper they appear the more likely it will happen, the fuzzy ones can be affected by people decisions. If they change their mind for whatever reason, the vision will change and usually become clearer. The fuzzy ones usually mean someone is making a decision, and that is what they're leaning towards. Sorry, I know I'm rambling. Anyway, I had a vision about you two, that I could find you in this diner. I've had several visions involving us and another coven in the Northwest. Jasper, " She said lovingly, turning to him. "I will love you, and you will love me. We are meant for each other. Bella, I know you find this all hard to believe, can I just show you?" She asked, turning to me. I'd never heard anyone talk so fast. My head would be spinning if I were human. I could barely keep up as a vampire.
Suspicion grew again. What did she mean show me? There's no way she could...know. "What do you mean?" I asked, trying keep my voice light.
"Oh, Bella." Alice said, her laugh tinkling through the diner. "I've already had a vision about our future conversation when you tell me all about your powers, I know all about them. Don't worry."
"Oh," I said surprised. "Well, just to be clear, it's only ONE power, it just happens to do several things. It's all related to each other though."
She grinned at me. "Wanna see?"
I smiled back politely, and raised my hand to the right side of her neck, just below her jaw line. I felt the tug on my mind and I worked quickly, pushing out my shield to cover Alice's as well. I was instantly assaulted with her visions. I saw her and Jasper, gazing lovingly at each other and leaning in for a kiss. I pulled out of that one, not wanting to intrude on their moment, even if it hasn't happened yet. I gazed on one of Alice and I, laughing and joking and sharing things about ourselves. We really did look like best friends. And then I saw one of another coven of vampires. There were 5 of them, in a beautiful house. I saw the three of us interacting with them. They were all gorgeous of course, all vampires were, but there was something else about them, something that drew me too them. That's when I noticed the eyes, all amber, not red. . . including Jasper and I!
I snapped my hand back, slightly taken aback by the vibrancy of the vision. It was kind of overwhelming, seeing all that.
"Can I ask you a question?" I asked Alice
"We don't hunt humans." She stated, shrugging
"What?" I asked, extremely confused.
"That's why our eyes aren't red, we don't hunt humans."
"How did you. . . ? Oh, right, never mind. That's going to get annoying." I mumbled
Alice's laugh once again filled the diner. "You'll get used to it." She said with a wink.
"Why were mine and Jasper's eyes different though? We hunt humans."
"Not for long." She answered.
"Ew." Was all I heard from Jasper.
"Oh, Jazz, it's not that bad, you'll get used to it. You have to make the switch if you want to stay with me, and the Cullens. Carlisle will insist upon us all refraining from feeding on humans if we live there."
"Wait, we're going to live there?" I asked incredulously
Alice nodded her head. "Yep, effective immediately. In fact, we should get this show on the road if we're going to make it in time." Alice took Jaspers had and started leading him out of the diner. I shot him an amused look, and he just shrugged once and went with it.
I followed Alice out of the diner, and through the streets. "Where are we going?" I asked
"Home." Alice answered.
"And that is. . . where?" I asked, slightly annoyed.
"Forks"
"Forks? Where the hell is Forks?"
"Washington."
I left the conversation there, knowing I would just continue to get one word answers from her. When we reached the outskirts of the city we began to run. The trees blurred past us, and we didn't stop all the way to Washington. It didn't take long to get there, just over an hour. Alice and Jasper ran hand in hand the entire way. I was about ready to push him into a tree if he didn't stop looking at Alice that way. What happened to the soldier? The super powerful vampire? He looked like a love sick puppy. Blech I thought to myself.
Suddenly Alice stopped and started giggling. I stopped a little ahead of them, and walked back. "It's not going to do anything, Bella," Alice said to me "just break a tree."
I was confused for a millisecond and then burst into laugher when I realized that she must have seen the outcome of my thoughts of pushing Jasper into a tree. "I guess I'll have to watch my decisions with you around, even my thoughts are going to cause visions, huh?"
Alice gave me a large grin and nodded her head.
"Can I be let in on this conversation?" Jasper asked
"Nope" I said "Just a little something between best friends." I laughed.
"Let's keep going, it's just a short walk through these trees, and then we'll reach the clearing where the house is."
We walked quickly through the green forest. Being from Arizona I had never seen green like this. Everything was brown in Arizona, the grass and cacti were a muter green. The green here was brilliant, covering everything, including tree trunks and rocks.
"It's only going to be Esme, the mom." Alice said as we walked through the trees. "Carlisle, the father and leader, will be at the hospital, he's a doctor. She will call him as soon as we get there and he will come home immediately. The other three are at school, they pretend to be in high school. We'll meet Emmett and Rosalie when school is done. They are married. Edward is going hunting, so we won't meet him until sunday night, He's going to decide to stay away for the whole weekend."
"He goes hunting by himself for a whole weekend?" I asked.
Alice shrugged. "I guess so"
Just then we stepped into a clearing and before us stood the most beautiful house I'd ever seen. It was tall, three stories high, with dozens of windows on the front alone. It was a warm honey tan colour, with hundreds of colours dancing around the base in the gardens that adorned the front of the house.
"Wow." I said as we walked up the front lawn.
When we reached the front door, it opened for us before we had a chance to knock. I wasn't surprised that our presence was already known, I'm sure this Esme woman would have smelled our scents for a few minutes now.
"Hello." She greeted with a warm smile. She was absolutely beautiful. She was taller than me, with long caramel coloured hair. Her eyes almost matched the colour of her hair perfectly. She had a beautiful scent of cinnamon floating around her.
"ESME!" Alice bounded over to her, enveloping her in a giant hug.
"Oh, dear!" Esme said in surprise.
Jasper chuckled and pulled Alice off the very confused woman.
"Sorry." Alice apologized "I see the future, and I feel as if I know you already. I'm Alice. This is Jasper and Isabella." She said taking turns pointing us out. She was trying to play it cool, but her bubbly personality was busting at the seams to get out.
"I see, welcome!" Esme said, looking each of us over. "Please, come in. I'm just going to call my husband. I'm sure he'd love to meet you all." She led us into the living room and then disappeared towards the back of the house.
"Wow!" I said again. "This house is amazing. It's so open and light."
"Thank you" I heard Esme say, walking back into the room. "Carlisle is just on his way home, he'll be here soon. The kids won't be home until after 3pm."
"Except for Edward." Alice said nonchalantly. "He'll be going hunting."
"Oh!" Esme said, "Perhaps I should call them, and tell him to come home."
"No, no. You don't need to do that for us." I said, trying not to cause any trouble. "If he feels he needs to hunt, he should go. We don't want to disrupt anything too much."
"We want to live here."
"Alice!" I said, shocked. I couldn't believe she just blurted out such a thing.
"Ok, let me rephrase that. I want to live here, and Jasper just wants to be where I am. Isabella thinks she's not sure what she wants to do, but she'll end up living here too. She doesn't want to impose."
"Esme?" I heard a deep voice call from the front door. He appeared suddenly at her side, taking her hand in his and bringing it up to his lips, kissing it gently and then lowering it, keeping it intertwined with his own. He turned to us then
"Welcome to our home! It's always nice to have visitors. You are more than welcome to stay as long as you wish, but I please ask that you refrain from hunting in the immediate area. We maintain a permanent residence here, and like to keep a low profile. I see that one of you already maintains our lifestyle. May I ask you how to came to feed from animals?" He asked Alice.
"I see the future." She explained again. " I had a vision of your family as soon as I woke up. It helped me realize what I was, and what I was supposed to do. I knew I would be apart of your family one day so I immediately started hunting animals. I've never once feed from a human!" She added, obviously proud of herself.
"You see the future! Fascinating!" Carlisle responded, obviously curious. "You said you saw yourself apart of our family?"
"Yep, with Jasper and Isabella here. I waited four years for them to make the decision to leave the south and head north, I waited in and around Philadelphia. Then I waited three days in a dirty diner for them, and we headed here."
Carlisle turned to us, his gaze flitting quickly to our eyes. "If you do wish to stay, I ask that you please maintain our lifestyle. I try my hardest to save human lives, and I would prefer if my family members didn't undo some of that work."
I was surprised that he was already calling us family members. "Of course." I responded.
"I know which room I want!" Alice yelled, jumping up and bounding up the stairs.
"Is she always like this?" Esme asked
"So far, yes." Jasper answered with a chuckle.
"And you have to live with her for the rest of your life." I laughed, pushing Jasper slightly.
"Apparently" He said with a smirk.
"Apparently?" Carlisle asked.
"Apparently they are mates. So says Alice's visions. They look quite happy together in the future. Maybe you'll actually be able to calm her down, Jazz." Jasper rolled his eyes at my use of the nickname Alice had given him.
"They look happy in the future? Do you see the future as well?" Esme asked
Whoops I thought. Way to go, Bella. You're here 20 minutes and already let a hint about your power slip.
"Just tell them!" I heard Alice yell from upstairs. "You're not in the south anymore, and they're your family. You can trust them!"
I sighed. "I swear she has some kind of power that makes you follow her blindly!"
"You love me!" She shouted again. "Or, you will. You DO trust me though."
"I guess." I mumbled. "I can see in peoples minds, see their powers, and use them, when I'm touching another. I can't use them in the sense that I can attack another vampire with someone's powers, but I can see, or feel what the vampire I'm touching did or does. For instance, when I touched Alice, I could see the visions she had of us, or when I touch Jasper, who's an empath, I can feel people's emotions, but I can't manipulate them, as he can."
"An empath!" Carlisle exclaimed, looking at Jasper. "And your talent is quite phenomenal, Isabella. Can I ask how it works?"
"I have a shield. It's a mental shield at all times, although I can lower it if I wish. I can also expand it out my body to make a physical shield, and when I touch someone with powers I spread my shield over their mind as well, and can experience what they do as it relates to their power."
"So this connection only works with vampires who have powers?" Esme asked.
"Yes. It only relates to powers. I can't read thoughts or anything, just stuff that's related to their power." I answered.
"How does the physical shield work?"
"It expands out of my mind as well. When it covers my whole body, it can shield off any physical attack. It's kind of like an elastic, it moves with my body, snapping back into place when I'm done with it. I can use it to block conversations as well. Anything said inside the shield cannot be heard on the outside."
"Even by a vampire?"
"Yes."
"Facinating." He said again. "And you're an empath?" Carlisle asked Jasper.
"Yes, sir."
"Very interesting. You three are quite powerful."
Alice entered the room just then, her arms so full of cardboard boxes that you couldn't even see the top half of her. "Emmett and Rosalie will be home in 37 seconds." She informed us and then sped off with the boxes.
AN - Just a small cliffie! What do you think Emmett and Rosalie's reaction will be to everything? I know it seems like they become one big happy family right away, but they won't all be accepted by everyone, and Bella will have doubts as well, after her first hunt with the Cullens. Not to worry, next chapter won't take as long to get up. It'll be soon! Review pls!