A/N: I own nothing of the Twilight universe, which I may have forgotten to include as a disclaimer before. Oh, well. I did get one more chapter edited. Enjoy!

BELLA

We've picked off a few of the Elite Guard. Tonight's target is Demtetri and a couple new members of the guard he is training. His tracking skills don't work on us, we checked. Okay, I don't think any gifts a vampire can have work on us. Many have tried to use their gifts on us, but not one has had any affect so far. Better to be prepared for one to work than to completely discount the possibility though.

Demetri is supposedly going to track the Cullens once he makes the two new vampires run the obstacle course. I mean seriously, of all the vampires in the world, he has to be tracking them. The Volturi, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that since their guard is dwindling they need to replace them with gifted vampires that either get to join the Guard or die. However receptive the Cullens will prove to be is not something that Demetri will find out. To be honest, I can't even guess as to the answer. It's been 18, 288 days since Edward left me.

I push these thoughts away. Now is not the time for distractions. Jen and I leave a couple tracks to let Demetri know that we are coming. That knowledge adds some stress and paranoia, which leads to mistakes. We might be getting a smidgen sadistic with this hunt. But I can't say that we aren't having fun with it. Well, Jen and I are having fun anyway. We found a girl presenting magical abilities on our way to the first member of the Elite Guard we took care of. Bethany is not enjoying this. She's totally sweet, but a little jumpy. She just wouldn't stay in the safe house by herself though.

Demetri is training two new members of the Elite Guard. As far as he knows, the two members being replaced simply vanished. The Volturi are not better informed, but they are getting suspicious. Jen and I want to send a message this time. Bethany is just hoping to not get injured. She will hang back and watch. Jen thinks, and I agree, that Bethany is going to prove more talented with Healing than with Hunting. Hey, everyone has their talents. The next Healer we run across will provide Bethany with the option to go and train with them and specialize in Healing. I hope she does go with the Healer. I mean, I like the girl, but Hunting is definitely not her thing.

Our targets are getting ready to do a few runs through the obstacle course in this forest. The course itself is carefully camouflaged to not look like a training ground. They did a very good job. Anyone who didn't know what they were looking at would just see a forest. The only ones that know what if it really is are in the Volturi and us. Other vampires sometimes use this area for camping. Whenever the Cullens are in town they use this are to hunt in too. There is a group of vampires quite a ways north of us, but they are not close enough to investigate and our Seer is on personal time. It's actually a pretty large group as far as vampire groups go. There are ten of them and while they have a wide range of travel, they have not gone this far.

"Stop fidgeting please," Jen sounds annoyed, but I bet Bethany can't tell.

"Sorry," Bethany says in her small, scared shitless voice.

"As long as you stay in this tree you will be fine," I assure her

.

Bethany doesn't look convinced, but she does nod. Thankfully Jen chooses no to move to a lower branch. I follow her. We watch Demetri and his trainees come closer. The two trainees don't suspect a thing. Demetri is looking around like he thinks he's being followed. We wait for them to come into the clearing. Jen nods. I create a ring of blue flames around the clearings edge. Jen and I watch the scene below as it unfolds.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Demtetri shouts out in surprise.

The two trainees don't seem to know what to do. Demetri barks some profanities at them. The three then launches into an animated discussion. Apparently talking with your hands is a favorable quality for the Guard. Jen and I smile and somehow manage not to laugh. We let them simmer for awhile. That is until something rather surprising happens. The girl being trained proves slightly astute.

"If it's a real fire, why is nothing burning?" she asks.

"What do you mean?" Demetri responds as he goes to take a closer look.

"There's no smoke either, yet the flames radiate heat. How does that happen?" she continues like her so called teacher had not even opened his mouth.

"I told you she is too smart to be a part of the Guard," Jen says to me as we lightly jump into the clearing. I roll my eyes at her. Jen just smirks back.

"Let me assure you that those flames will consume you if you try to go through them," Jen addresses the unfortunate vampires.

"Who the hell are you?" Demetri demands.

"Wow. You know Jen, I don't think we've ever been asked that before," I snark at him. Demetri growls at me while I sneer back.

"Now, now Bella. I think we can indulge them a bit. After all we both know how this is going to end for them," Jen says calmly.

"What does that mean?" the girl asks.

"We are Hunters, darlin'. To be more precise, we are some of the best Hunters. I am not sorry to tell you that the Volturi have run out of time. All things must come to an end and all that," I inform them.

"So you are going to try and kill us," Demetri snarls as he launches himself at us.

Jen simply sighs and draws her sword. She uses it to remove Demetri's right arm just below the shoulder as she goes the one side, completely dodging his attack. He staggers back to his trainees with a look of shock on his face that is comical. The girl puts her hand in front of her fellow new member to keep him where he is. She carefully looks at us.

"This sword is infused with magic. That's what gives in the purple lines through the blade. The only reason that I am using it now is because we are not here to kill you tonight. We want you to deliver a message to your beloved bosses, therefore we need survivors," Jen explains.

"What message? I'll deliver it to the Volturi before I head back to my coven. I didn't sign on for an interspecies war," the girl comments.

"Just let them know we are coming for them. They should know what is going on then. Oh, and you are a terrible liar," Jen nods to me. I remove the flames and the vampires scamper in the right direction. Jen and I grin at each other because this is our favorite part of a Hunt.

"How many vampires does it take to deliver a message?" Bethany squeaks out, like she's afraid of the answer.

"One," Jen and I answer together. We both conjure flaming arrows. Jen's is violet while mine is sapphire. We sent them flying through the trees. All that is left are two piles of ashes.

"It's time to head on," Jen says and I know that the reason is because while we were talking to the three vampires the large group that is camping came this way and are at the edge of the clearing.

"Are you going to get out of the tree?" I ask as Bethany just looks at the ground. It takes her a moment to gather her courage and jump to the ground.

When Bethany joins us in the clearing, we take another look around the clearing and see the Cullens just staring at us in surprise. More importantly, I see a blonde vampire clinging to Edward while he holds her.

A/N: Any thoughts on who the mysterious blonde is?