"What has Alice got to do with this?" I asked, my anger & fury raging from the pit of my rather empty stomach. I was planning a rather extravagant hunting trip later on today with Esme but with these new circumstances I would much rather go locally in the forest around our house for some elk. My paranoia was most likely getting the better of me but I couldn't help it. This was the first time that Esme alone had been in any serious danger & I didn't know how to handle it.

Edward however, seemed to be getting more anxious by the minute, trying to anticipate my every move. Lucky for him, it wasn't too hard but he still seemed rather unsettled. His gaze turned to the floor and I knew at once that his reply would not be one that I would particularly enjoy. He said, "I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to disclose that information. It's a private matter and I'm not supposed to know either." This infuriated me even more. I'm past the stage of being formal & calm now and it seemed that it would be a rather long time before I'm even remotely rational. A deep growl, one I haven't used in years, came ripping through my teeth like a famished monster seeing a glorious feast before him.

"Enough with the pleasantries! She hasn't been telling us everything she knows anyway! We don't keep secrets in this house, remember?" I minute amount of anger was released after that rant and I was almost certain that my argument was too strong for Edward to deny. However, he somehow managed to find one weakness,

"Well, from your reading your mind, I highly doubt you are going to tell Esme about this, hoping she'll find out on her own, if it ever comes to that, that is. Or how about that time a few decades ago when-"I cut him off.

"SHUT IT!" My anger came back in full force. He was NOT mentioning the time when I got seduced by another female vampire, Vivienne. That was my absolute darkest hour, which I had rather successfully pushed to the back of my mind. That was a considerably hard thing to do, considering that it is almost impossible to forget anything with vampire memory and he was not going to make me relive that.

Meanwhile, Edward took a calculated step backward, leaving me space to 'cool off'. As if I could. Edward must've read my mind because he stretched out his hand towards my shoulder and said, "Look, I know this is hard on you. I've read your thoughts so I know exactly how closely bound you are to Esme. I often wish that I could love someone as much as you love her. I'd probably react the same way if I were you. I just think it isn't really my duty to tell you. I only saw glimpses of the vision anyway. She was probably trying to hide it from me."

I shrugged of his hand, though I was no longer infuriated with him. In truth, I was enraged with myself. I had lost who I was for a while and I realised the damage I'd caused. I regained myself, knowing that I couldn't let my true dark side glower and find its way through my usually light aura. I attempted to hide this trail of thought but judging by the sympathetic look on his face, I had clearly failed. He whispered, "I wish I could help you more Carlisle, really I do. I just think that this matter no longer lies with me. It lies with Alice." I understand him clearly so I tipped my head down a fraction to show gratitude and slinked away from him, again at human pace. I'd never like using my supernatural powers until absolutely necessary, even if I wasn't around humans. It seemed wrong.

I went to Alice's room, hoping that she'd be there, knowing that she had just been hunting the previous day. Luckily for me, she was, but she didn't seem to be her usual bouncy self. Instead, she seemed distant, as if she was having a vision, though judging by the fact that she was writing in her journal she clearly wasn't. I wrapped my knuckles on her ecru white door twice, still wanting to be polite. Her head snapped up instantaneously and she welcomed me with a warming smile. At that moment, a wave of calm washed over me and I wondered whether Jasper was nearby. He wasn't so I left that thought at the door, so to speak. "Come on in Carlisle," she said, her sweet melodic voice echoing in the monstrosity that was her room. "I've been expecting you." That last line took me by surprise. Then again, she probably saw my… heated conversation with Edward and knew that this is the next place I'd go.

I entered her room and became overwhelmed by the mass amount of purple and pink she had used to decorate it. I didn't often go into my adopted children's rooms. Partly, because I believe it is an invasion fo privacy & partly because I think that it is their own special place for them to express themselves and their interests. In Alice's case, her forte is fashion and design so she changed the layout of her room every year. Each set-up was more extravagant than the last and this was no exception. Her hand designed bed sheets covered her double bed, though I hadn't a clue as to why she had one in the first place. Was she as obsessive with her props as Rosalie was? Also, her room had a door at the back which led to a walk-in closet which was quite frankly, larger than this room. As well as this, everything else in her room was perfect down to the very last detail. The orchids had been freshly picked, the magazines straightened out so that they were at a right angle on the 'coffee table' and everything else in general was neat & organised. This was the opposite of, say, Emmett's room where everything was thrown in without a care in the world as to whether it was in the right place or not.

I heard a light cough come from in front of me. I looked around & noticed that Alice was, there, smiling patiently at me as if to remind me of my main intentions. Even though I'm over three centuries old, I have a limited attention span. It's larger than an average vampire attention span, but still limited all the same. "Oh right," I muttered under my breath. "There was something I wanted to discuss with you, if you have time that is." I laughed at the irony of my statement. It's not like our kind ever ran out of time. Time is meaningless to us, so we never really notice its passing.

I sat down on her luxurious divan & she joined me. Her smile was quivering with worry & anxiety. I suddenly felt an unnecessary rush of guilt which I quickly dismissed. After all, I'm doing this for Esme. As far as I know, her life is in grave danger. I just hoped that Alice's visions wouldn't be as bad as I thought they'd be. "Go ahead Carlisle. I'm all ears." I took a deep breath, and replied,

"Well Alice, I was having a conversation with Edward and… well the subject of your visions came up and… um, I was wondering whether you've had any recently." My planned confrontation ended up being a convoluted mess. Oh well. At least I said something which was along the lines of my intentions. She understood what I meant, however, which was lucky for me.

"I was going to have to tell you sooner or later anyway," she muttered under her breath. "Yes Carlisle I have had a few visions as of late but before you ask me what happened, promise me you won't start acting irrationally. You know, don't shoot the messenger and all that. Isn't that what a human would say?" Although ironic, she was correct. I would probably act irrationally but I promised myself that I wouldn't let my dark side shine through again, no matter how urgent the need was.

"Ok, I promise. Now tell me, what were visions about? I don't care if they aren't pleasant, I need to know. Give me all the details & leave nothing out." She clearly knew that I was going to ask this exact question so she tried to compose herself. However, she couldn't help but show a hint of uncertainty and anxiety on her face, the same way that Edward had done. Are they really that bad?

"Well, alright then but don't forget, you asked for it!" Alice shot me a warning glare, a 'this-stuff-is-not-for-the-faint-hearted' kind of glare to be precise. If I were human, I would've definitely taken Alice's warning on board and requested her to not tell me anything more. I hardly ever came out at night with a torch and pitchfork to seek vampires with my father. Come to think of it, I nearly fainted when I saw the coven hiding in the sewers. However, now that I'm a vampire, such things no longer scare me. Be that as it may, this didn't mean that I was completely fearless. There were still some things which 'scared the living daylights' out of me.

Alice saw that I wasn't changing my mind, so paused for another brief moment and began. "I've had four separate visions in total, each one starting with a man stamping a letter, you know, the old fashioned way with a candle and seal. Afterwards, he shows four separate plans for the future, one in each vision. In the first, he marries… Esme and… 'disposes' of you, shall we call it? And in the second…" I look of regret crossed her face and I was pretty sure she didn't want to tell me it.

"Go on Alice. We had a deal remember?"

"Oh alright. Well, he… kills you, the only the way our kind can be killed but don't worry, that vision was the fuzziest of all, so I doubt it will happen." Although I was relieved by this fact, I was still curious. Did this man know about our kind? Was he one himself? I then decided that that idea could wait. I didn't want to keep Alice waiting.

"Continue Alice."

"Are you sure? Well, the third vision, I'm sorry to report, was the clearest at all, as if I was watching it through a futuristic high definition television set." Her gaze focused on the orchids on the table and she instantly got distracted.

"What happened?" I reminded her. She shook her head slightly, as if getting refocused.

"This man was going somewhere and… well, it was slightly unclear but it looked like he was revealing who we really were to the humans. And the forth was about as clear as the second, probably because they were similar…" This is it. I didn't need Edward with me to know that she was about to tell me about Esme's death. This time however, she didn't need my encouragement. "In the fourth, Esme is killed in what seems like the most brutal way possible. What confused me after this particular vision is that it cut off mid-way. It was as if he realised that he was showing me a thought I shouldn't have seen because I didn't see anything afterwards. It was like he changed his 'frequency' or something. At least, that's what I call it." This sentence sparked a thought in my brain. Hadn't Alice always had trouble with the werewolves? In all her existence, she could never 'see' the wolves. She had never seen any of the wolves decisions in treaty matter or anything else. Was this man a werewolf as well? Was he secretly a new member of the tribe's pack in the La Push reservation has our treaty alliance come to an end?