Hunter

Hello, my dedicated readers! I have made a goal. I decided that I am going to try to reach 100,000 words by the Monday of March Break. That's fourteen days from now. This story is 80,350 words long right now, which means I have to write 19,650 words. I average 4500 words in each chapter, so that means I have to write about 4.4 chapters. I'll round it up to five. That's one chapter every two days or so. Think I can do it? We'll see, starting now…

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Renée Colt: Journal Excerpt, January 1st, 2010

New Years Day. A time of new beginnings. Just one more way the universe is reminding me that Bella is dead and the world is still spinning.

This is the first time in months that I've written anything in this damned book. I don't even know why I'm doing it now. There's nobody around to read it.

I wake up every morning and realize that I'm alone. Bella was always an early riser, even more than me. I remember all the hotels we stayed in. Me spread out on the bed, nursing a hangover or a Hunting wound. Bella, wide-awake at five a.m. on a Saturday, watching cartoons and eating cold cereal.

God, I miss her. I would do anything to get her back. I've tried calling Crossroads demons, but none of the bastards will deal.

I just want my baby girl.

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Bella's POV

I strolled over to the Cullens, down to three since Rosalie and Emmett had graduated. Jasper was here for another year, more interested in staying with Alice than moving on to college.

"Hey, Superman," I greeted, still grinning.

"You didn't tell me it was your birthday," he answered accusingly. "I didn't even buy you a present."

I glanced at Alice, but she shrugged. "I guess you weren't planning on telling us, because I didn't see anything."

"Huh," I grunted. "I guess I didn't think about it like that. Renée couldn't really afford to throw me a party or anything, so it was never a big deal to me."

Alice's eyes widened comically, and she reached out to snatch my arm in her iron grip. "You've never had a birthday party?" she demanded, astonished.

I tried to remember.

"Oh!" I grinned. "When I turned fifteen, I got my first fake I.D., so Renée brought me to a bar to celebrate. Does that count?"

Alice's horrified expression told me she didn't think so in the slightest.

She turned to look at Edward, and grinned. "That's a great idea! We haven't had a birthday party since Emmett's in 1935!"

I automatically glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. The coast was clear, of course, but it sometimes made me nervous when they spoke about things that happened decades ago. It just seemed…risky to chance it.

"Alice, you can't just take the whole day off to go prepare a party," Edward chastised, reading her intentions.

"Oh, don't be a spoilsport. She'll only turn eighteen once." Her face lit up even brighter. "Hey, you're an adult now! No more worries about child services."

I tried to smile, but it probably came out looking forced. Renée's death had made me paranoid that a social worker would come to my house and try to drag me off to some foster home. My fears were ungrounded, though. As far as I knew, only a few people on the Quileute reservation even knew that she was gone.

"Yippy," I deadpanned.

"Sorry," she replied. "I didn't mean to bring up…" She drifted off, looking apologetic.

"It's fine, Twinkle-Toes." I glanced around the parking lot. It was rapidly emptying out. "If you want to go bake me a cake or something, go ahead. I doubt you'll learn anything new in class anyway."

She laughed.

The bell rang, and Edward and I strode off to class. Alice and Jasper got into Edward's Volvo and drove away. I shook my head, wondering what would be waiting for me at the Cullen house after school.

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I had English with Mr. Mason first period, then Gym with Coach Clapp, Physics with Varner, Biology II with Mr. Molina, then a break for lunch, Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology with Mr. Banner, and finally, best of all, Free Period. Edward and I shared all the same classes, which meant we could both duck out a 2:00 p.m.

It was awesome.

For English, Mr. Mason had brought out the old classic, Romeo and Juliet, two star-crossed lovers destined to die in each other's arms because of a series of unfortunate coincidences.

Oh, somebody get me a Kleenex. I think I'm gonna ball.

As antediluvian as it was, I had to hand it to Shakespeare. He had a lot in common with my ancestors. His stories were still being read, just like my family's journals.

The language was kinda girly, though.

"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night," Edward whispered to me.

I giggled as quietly as I could, but Mr. Mason still threw me a warning glance. I held my copy of the tragic play in front of my face.

"You kiss by th' book," I replied to Edward, as soon as the teacher looked away.

He chuckled, drawing another glare from Mason. "Do I have to separate you two?" he threatened.

I smiled at him. "Sorry, sir, it's just that some of these lines are…a little flowery. 'What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!' I mean, come on!"

Mason looked offended. "Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest love stories ever written. If the dialogue is too flowery for you, Miss Colt, then perhaps you would prefer a different English class."

Half the class had stopped working and tuned in to our discussion. They shifted in their seats to get a better view of me.

"Seems like a pretty lousy love story to me. Two hormonal teenagers talk for five minutes, kiss a few times, the guy stalks her while she's hanging out on her balcony, and they get married the very next day." I held my hands up to my heart and sighed dramatically. "Of course, then Romeo goes and kills Juliet's cousin, gets exiled, Juliet fakes her death so she can be with him, but he doesn't know that, so he kills himself when he finds her body, then she wakes up to find Romeo next to her coffin, dead from poison, so she stabs herself with his dagger. I know that happy endings aren't exactly a staple in his work, but come on, Shakespeare! Throw these guys a bone!"

Mason glared at me. "I'm glad you've at least studied the play, even though your interpretation leaves something to be desired."

"All I'm saying is if they had just kept their wits for five seconds instead of rushing into everything, they could've had their happy ending."

The bell rang again, and I strode out with my head held high. I just thrived in conflict.

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By 2:00 o'clock, I was getting excited. I didn't know what to expect from Alice. The girl had a tendency to go overboard when it came to…well, just about everything. I only hoped she remembered that I was an adult, and would therefore not be interested in piñatas, clowns, or pin the tail on the donkey.

Underneath my excitement, though, there was a growing tension.

I hadn't brought up my dream, or Abby's phone call. I still had no idea what to do. How would Edward react if I told him I needed to go away and fight monsters for a little while?

I sighed internally. He'd probably freak, then remind me that I promised Renée I would keep safe.

Still, how safe was I if the world was crashing down around me?

"I think you were wrong about Romeo and Juliet."

I glanced to the right in surprise. Edward sat in the passenger seat of the Impala, looking agitated and unsure about something.

"What do you mean?"

"They did get their happy ending. They got to be together in death, for eternity, just like they wanted. I envy Romeo that."

I wrinkled my nose up in distaste. "That's a little macabre, don't you think? I mean, they killed themselves."

He smiled bitterly. "That's what I envy most."

I shot him a quick, startled glance before I turned my attention back to the road. "You can't be serious," I said dismissively.

"It's something I had to think about once," he stated, ignoring me. "When you went off to fight James…" His jaw tightened in displeasure at the mention of the psychopathic vampire's name. "I had to make a contingency plan. I knew I couldn't ask my family to do it, so I decided-"

"What the hell are you talking about, Edward?" I demanded, my voice loud and sharper than I'd intended. "You wanted to kill yourself?"

"Well, I wasn't going to live without you," he said, as if it was childishly obvious.

I stared at him out of the corner of my eye, even as I tried to avoid a collision with any other cars.

"So, I decided to do something to provoke the Volturi. They're an ancient, powerful family of vampires who live in Volterra, Italy. The closest thing our world has to royalty," he explained.

"How ancient is ancient?" I asked, remembering that Carlisle was around 370.

He shifted. "As far as we can tell, Aro, the leader, is about three-thousand years old."

I gawked at him, nearly sending us careening into a ditch. "Get outta town!" I gasped.

He smiled. "It's true. The other two, Marcus and Caius, are a few centuries younger. They, including Aro and Caius' wives make up the family."

I bit my lip. "Five, huh?"

"That doesn't include their Guard. There are quite a few of them. Anyway, you don't irritate the Volturi, unless you want to die, or whatever it is we do."

I slammed the breaks and pulled off to the side of the road. Luckily, we were far away from Forks' main streets that traffic was light. Only one car passed us as we sat there.

I turned to face him straight on. "You must never, never do anything like that, Edward. Do you understand me? You're the only person I know will still be there in the morning. My Hunter friends are dropping like flies. I don't have anyone else but you, and if I die and you ever try to irritate these Volturi dudes, I will claw my way out of hell and kick your ass for even thinking of doing something so stupid!"

I turned away and stared out the windshield as we continued on our way. "I can't believe I'm dating such a drama queen!" I mumbled to myself.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't bring it up again, ever. This is my first real birthday party and I want everything to be perfect."

He chuckled. "Anything for you, Love."

"Do I have to smack you?"

He just chuckled.

We finally arrived at the Cullen mansion. I had only begun to open the door when Edward covered my eyes with his hands. "Sorry, Bella," he said with remorse. "Alice will kill me if I let you see the house before she's finished."

"You're darn right I will!" Alice said harshly. "If you had just told me a few days in advance, I could've had this house looking perfect already," she scolded me. "And you!" I judged by the shift in her tone that she was talking to Edward now. "You bring her upstairs and entertain her until I'm done. And stop talking about killing yourself!"

"Amen!" I replied with a smirk.

Edward sighed, and I could picture him rolling his eyes in response. But I knew he would agree, if only to keep Alice happy.

"Watch your step," he cautioned as he led me to the staircase.

I snorted. "Don't sweat it, Superman. Remember, I used to hang out in graveyards in the middle of the night. Climbing some stairs with my eyes closed is not a challenge."

He chuckled again. "Whatever you say, Love."

Just because he was annoying me with the cutesy pet name, I decided to add a little more gross-out factor to my bragging.

"I'm serious! When I was thirteen, my mom found us a Hunt in Stratton, Nebraska. Some guy was found dead in his house. No signs of forced entry. From what I gathered, there was blood everywhere. So was the guy."

I could almost see Edward's disgust. "Bella, please!"

"What?" I asked innocently. "Never mind. So, anyway, this new family is already moving in when Renée and I show up. The dumb asses won't leave, so we have to wait until one of them dies before they let us in. Even then, we've got no clue what's killing them, so I go exploring and find some secret tunnels in the walls."

"And obviously you went and explored them, completely aware that there was some sort of monster hiding in the house," he said sarcastically.

"Of course." I shrugged. We reached the top of the stairs and Edward finally took his hands off my face. I spun around with a grin. "Turns out, though, that they weren't really monsters. There were two of them, and the guy they killed was their daddy…slash granddaddy." I shuddered, momentarily grossed out.

Edward's eyes went wide. "You mean-?"

I nodded sadly. "Yeah, seems the guy - Bill, I think his name was - he loved his daughter in all the wrong ways, and once she gave birth, she killed herself, and he stuck the twins in the walls."

I shuddered again. "They were living on rats. I mean, they were like animals protecting their territory. Renée dealt with them. I couldn't bring myself to do it."

My lip curled up in disgust. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: demons I get, people are crazy."

Edward's lips jerked up into an involuntary smile, which he quickly tried to suppress. I looked around in an effort to distract myself until Alice called.

"Hey!" I shouted unintentionally as I caught sight of a very familiar face in one of the paintings on the wall beside us. I stepped closer to get a better look. "Is that Carlisle?" I asked incredulously.

There, somewhat in the background atop a stone balcony that overlooked a busy street, I saw Carlisle Cullen dressed in a white, ruffled shirt, and a brown coat. The clothes looked old, like something worn during the American Revolution.

To his right were three men, obviously - to me, at least - vampires. They too wore the old clothing, although they seemed more comfortable in it than Carlisle. Two of the vampires had long black hair, while the one on the far left was platinum blond, almost white-haired.

"Yes, that's him," Edward answered, breaking me out of my reverie. "This was painted about two-hundred years ago."

I pointed to the trio of unfamiliar vampires. "Who are they?"

He answered reluctantly, "The Volturi."

"Seriously?" I asked, disbelief etched in my tone. Then my eyes narrowed. "You failed to mention that your dad was buddies with the frigging kings of the vampire world!"

He was unrepentant. "That was a long time ago. Carlisle hasn't even spoken to them in decades. He admired them in some ways. They are much more refined than the average vampire. However, they were greatly opposed to his…diet."

"Oh, so they're not exactly big fans of humans," I deadpanned.

"Honestly, Aro - the one in front, in the light gold jacket - he may have been concerned for Carlisle's safety. The possibility of surviving on animals is something that had never crossed his mind. He supposed it had its uses, if he ever found himself in short supply of…our normal food source, animals could be a temporary substitute. Still, he worried about the long-term affects it could have on a vampire."

"Are there any?" I asked, suddenly worried.

He shrugged. "Aside from our eye colour and being slightly weaker than we would be if we fed on humans, there don't seem to be any serious side effects," he reassured me.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I don't want you guys to get hurt. But, hell, if Carlisle's lasted almost 350 years, then you'll probably be okay."

He laughed. "Yes, you don't have to worry about that."

I looked at the painting again. "So…what did these guys do to earn so much respect. I mean, no offence, but most of the…normal vampires I've met didn't exactly seem like the type to be bossed around without a good reason."

His mouth tightened into a frown. "I told you about their Guard."

"Right, there's a lot of them, but aren't there a lot of nomadic vampires too?"

He nodded. "More than you could probably imagine. We take great pains to hide ourselves from humans."

"How come?"

As soon as I asked the question, I wanted to take it back. Of course they hid themselves. Their prey was so much easier to catch when they were ignorant.

"It's one of the few rules of our world. The Volturi created them, and they are willing to enforce them too."

"Oh, yeah? What are they? The rules, I mean."

His eyes swept over the picture as he listed them. "No exposing ourselves to humans, unless we're planning on killing them. That includes changing territory a lot in order to avoid suspicion, and disposing bodies carefully." He checked to make sure I wasn't freaked out. I nodded at him to continue. He turned back to the painting.

"No hunting in their city. And no creating immortal children."

"Huh?" I said elegantly.

He shifted and looked down. "An immortal child is the term used for a vampire who was turned at a very young age. They had no control over their thirst, and no understanding of secrecy, so Aro ordered them all destroyed. Anyone who creates them is executed immediately, along with the child."

I gritted my teeth. "That's repulsive! So he just burns a bunch of kids alive. Swell guy. He better hope he never runs into me," I said darkly.

"Don't get any ideas," Edward warned. "I mean it, Bella."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. I'll stay away from him if I can." I took another long look at his portrait. "You know, he looks like kinda like Michael Sheen."

Edward smirked. "Charming, Bella. I'm sure he'd be glad to know that he reminds you of the werewolf from Underworld."

I shrugged. "Hey, it was a good movie."

"Done!" Alice's excited voice carried up the stairway. "You can come down now!"

I tried to prepare myself, but I couldn't help feeling the slightest bit of dread.

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My instincts were right. I nearly groaned when I saw what Alice had done to the living room. Candles lay on every flat surface. A large bouquet of flowers sat on the coffee table, also surrounded by candles. In the corner, presents with glistening wrapping paper were stacked up until they reached Alice's nose…

…And then there was the cake.

"Alice, that cake could feed fifty. You guys don't even eat," I complained, spotting the ridiculously large vanilla cake. "Did you make Esme bake all day or something?"

"Oh, relax!" she, laughing. "It's your birthday, Bella. I couldn't do anything halfway."

I sighed. "I just don't like wasting food."

"I'll donate the rest to an orphanage or something if you'll cheer up a little!" Alice whined.

I laughed. "Okay, okay, I'm happy. What am I supposed to do first?" I asked her.

"Presents!" she squealed.

The rest of the Cullens stood off to the side as Alice handed me my first present.

I saw Emmett lean over and whisper, "Dating an older woman. Hot," into Edward's ear.

I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. "Could be a little hotter actually, but my boyfriend's a little frigid. I swear, it's like I'm making out with an ice cube half the time!"

Alice pursed her lips in annoyance. "Bella, knock it off. Open your present!"

"Alright, don't have a hissy fit." I tore open the dark purple wrapping paper and pulled out a book.

"Psychic Development for Beginners," I read, a little stunned.

She grinned. "It was the best one I could find on such short notice. Some of it is useless, but other parts may actually be helpful. The meditation, in particular, could do you some good."

I forced a smile. "Thanks, Twinkle-Toes. I'll be sure to study it."

The truth was, I didn't think I wanted anything to do with my psychic powers, or the demon that was somehow connected to them. I shuddered mentally as I remembered my dream. She's mine…

"Open this one next," Alice demanded, shoving a tiny blue box into my hands.

I set the book down and pulled out the cardboard flap on the side of the box. Reaching in, I pulled out two small slips of paper.

"Oh my God! You got me ACDC concert tickets?" I shrieked.

"That was us, actually," Carlisle corrected, wrapping his arm around Esme and smiling at me with his brilliant white teeth.

"Oh my God! I am so glad I didn't kill you guys! You are the best!" I felt myself actually bouncing in place as I gushed. "This is so freaking sweet! I can't stop yelling!"

Esme laughed. "We're so pleased you like them."

"Okay, okay," Alice grumbled, shoving another present into my hands. "This one's from me too."

I studied her, realizing that she probably didn't appreciate me playing favourites with my gifts. I opened the red box and pulled out a silver bracelet. Little charms were strung onto it. There were crosses and pentacles, but also what appeared to be a unicursal hexagram.

"Oh, wow, this is so pretty, Alice," I said softly. I'd worn something like this when I was younger. My mom made one for me when I started Hunting. I suddenly realized that I had no idea where it was. I'd worn it that night in November. Had the hellhounds destroyed it?

I smiled at her. "It's perfect. I'll never take it off." I tried to wrap it around my wrist, but the chain kept slipping, and the hook and clasp were too small for me to keep hold of.

"Here, let me help," she said eagerly, grinning from ear to ear. She took the bracelet and I held out my arm so she could put it on.

That was when everything went wrong.

One of the little charm crosses scratched against my wrist as she adjusted the bracelet. The cross was flat, and the corners of it were surprisingly sharp. I didn't know if this was a design flaw, or if it was just my bad luck springing forth again.

Reasons didn't really matter, not when my new birthday present had just torn a hole in my skin, exposing just a drop of my blood to a room full of hungry vampires.

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Okay, done! I have to get ready for school now. Did I mention that I'm learning how to play the flute in music class? It's harder than I thought, but I love it.

The next chapter should be up in a few days. Friday at the latest.

See you later.