Rosalie's POV

Everyone seemed to gather in the living-room except Nessie and the dog. I held Lilliana to my chest as Jasper sat quietly across from us. No doubt he was trying to figure out to start his story. I knew it that it must've been painful for him and Alice as the events of that day replayed in their heads.

"Her name was Karla. Emmett and I had found her in the forest after an accident." Jasper finally spoke again.

"You found her? What kind of an accident?" Lilliana's curiosity seemed to control her mouth.

"A car accident. Her parents...they...well they didn't make it. We fell in love with her immediately and debated on whether to take her to an orphanage. She became mine and Alice's world." Jasper said with a small smile.

"Well, then where is she?" asked Lilliana.

"Have you ever heard of the Volturi?" Jasper glanced at Jose.

"Yeah. We've heard of those idiots." scoffed Jose. Emmett smirked at Jose's lack of concern of the powerful italian coven.

"The Volturi are old fashioned. And old fashioned people like to make rules to control others. They...they didn't like the fact that Karla was human living with a family of vampires. According to those bastard we broke the law of exposing a human to our world and sought out punishment." Jasper's eyes got darker and Alice reached out to hold his hand.

"What kind of punishment?" Lilliana's voice was just above a whisper as she sensed the tension.

"They took her away from us," Alice continued the story, "For one reason or another, the Volturi wanted Karla to live with them. They finally allowed to go and visit her but when we got there...they...she..." Alice couldn't go on as she was pulled into Jasper's arms and dry sobbed.

"The Volturi's excuse was the Karla fell through a window and bled to death." Jasper hissed out.

"But you don't believe them." Jose's statement almost sounded like a question.

"I'm wearing her old clothes, aren't I?" Lilliana tugged at her undershirt. "That's why you got mad. Because I ruined Karla's clothes. I'm so sorry."

Lilliana turned away and cried into my neck. I gently patted her back.

"It wasn't your fault. I loved my daughter. And her clothes may make me feel like she's still with us, but I had no right to be so furious at you. My actions were irrational. It's just that, when I saw you in her clothes...I kept picturing her face on your body. And maybe having to relive that loss again made me hostile towards you. As if it were your fault she was gone. But hearing it out loud sounds incredibly childish of me. I hope you can forgive me for be so rude to you Lilliana." Jasper gave a smile at Lilliana as she stopped crying.

"I..-sniffle-...forgive you." smiled Lilliana.

"Well, since we're talking apologies here. I guess I should apologize for being hostile the other day. You guys seemed to have taken good care of my baby sister." Jose surprised us. "Truth is I was worried you guys were on there side and were going to harm Lilliana."

"Who is them?" asked Edward. "Why can't I read your or Lillian's mind?"

"Are you a shield too?" asked Bella.

"I wouldn't call it that. You see I wasn't lying when I said I was a hybrid. I'm nothing like your daughter," he turned to Edward, "The reason you can't read my mind is because of this."

Jose reached into shirt and pulled out a necklace with a small green colored stone at the end of it. I looked down and Lilliana and barely noticed her own necklace. Only hers had a pink stone.

"Why do you have a rock hanging on your neck? Why do you even have a necklace? Jewelery is for girls?" My husband commented.

I lifted his hand to show him the wedding ring on his finger. He pouted and pulled his hand away.

"This rock allows me to block all of your 'talents'. I'm only blocking Edwards because I had just met him. Alice probably didn't see me coming because Lilliana was most like unintentionally blocking her 'gift'."

"Sorry." mumbled Lilliana.

"The reason I am not like your daughter Edward is because, yes I am half vampire, except I am...a different kind of vampire." Jose waited for us to speak, but the confusion on our faces encouraged him to explain some more. "I don't believe there is a proper 'name' for our kind, but we are stronger and faster then you."

"How were you able to fling us against the wall yesterday?" asked Carlisle.

"This rock also allows me to have certain...'powers', I guess would be the better word for it. Although at times it feels like magic—without all the mumbo jumbo words."

"If you half human that must mean your mother was human. Speaking of which, where are your parents?" Esme questioned.

"My guess...probably somewhere in Central America." answered Jose.

"Why aren't you with them? Aren't they worried about you?" Alice had calmed down and seemed to have found her voice.

"They don't give a damn about me or Lilliana. I'm sure that we would be doing them a favor if Lilliana and I were...out of their lives." It sounded like Jose was going to say dead.

I quietly prayed that that wasn't it. Who could want someone as precious as Lilliana dead. That's when it hit me. I couldn't be Lilliana's mother because she already had one. But if her mother didn't love her, then I would.

I glanced down at Lilliana as her eyes seemed to have clouded at the mention of her mother and father.

"Was your mother turned into vampire after giving birth to Lilliana?" I asked.

"But how did she survive giving birth to you?" Bella furrowed her eyebrows.

"I guess the bitch just didn't want to die yet." I frowned at his use of language in front of Lilliana, "I'm not bitter though. She gave me a sister. After Lilliana was born, they just disappeared."

"They abandoned you?" Esme was appalled.

"Lilliana was about 5 when they left. I woke one morning and the house was empty. I thought that they had gone hunting, but after 2 weeks I knew we were on our own."

"Just you two in a house alone to fend for yourselves?" Esme was still disturbed.

"It wasn't just me and Jose." Lilliana broke out of her daze.

"Your friend—the one you're looking for—lived with you as well. Did he abandon you too?" I tried to connect the pieces together.

"No. He had a nightmare one night and in the morning he was just gone."

"Dude, I hate to break it to you but it sounds like your friend ditched you." Emmett shrugged.

"He didn't ditch us." hissed Jose. His face softened. "He's just confused. I went out to look for him in hopes of helping him and bringing him home."

"Earlier you said the Lilliana staying here would endanger my family. What did you mean by that?" Carlisle realized this might be our only chance to get our questions answered.

Jose glanced at Lilliana and bit his lip.

"Our parents may have abandoned us, but their hate for us remained. In fact I think they did us a favor by leaving. They...weren't the nicest of parents."

I heard Esme gasp.

"The scars? They..." Esme's eyes grew with terror. I wondered what she was talking about.

"Yes. That was them. I wasn't setting the 'proper example' for Lilliana and father took care of it." Jose's eyes became distant.

"Surely they didn't actually believe you deserved such punishment. What did you do that displeased them?" Esme spoke with disgust in her voice.

"Other than living? Well I believe that one times was because I tried to make Lilliana's favorite peanut-butter cookies and I accidentally got some butter on the counter."

Somehow we had gone from a great loss in our family to discussing abusive parents.

"That still didn't answer Carlisle's question as to how we would be in danger?" prodded Edward.

Jose sighed and turned to Lilliana.

"How would you like to go play Princess with Rosalie? Maybe even give Emmett a makeover?" His eyes went from me to Emmet and back to Lilliana.

Lilliana jumped up and down on my lap.

'Oooh. Can we Rosie?" Lilliana smiled up at me. I couldn't resist those eyes.

"Of course." I stood up and grabbed Lilliana's hand walking toward the stairs. I looked back. "Emmett. Are you coming?" I knew my husband couldn't say 'no' to playing with Lilliana.

Esme's POV

When Rosalie and Emmett made it up the stairs, I watched as Jose's face darkened.

"I'm sorry, but I just didn't want Lilliana to hear this. The only reason I know my parents are somewhere in Central America is because that is where we last saw them before we escaped."

"They're after you? Why?" I asked. What reason would they have to seek their children again? Maybe to apologize for abandoning them. Or to make up for the abuse of their son.

I winced as I remember Jose's back full of scars made from whips.

"Are they trying to kill you?" Edward's question brought fear to my un-beating heart. Where did that come from? He must've jumped to a conclusion after obviously seeing my memory of Jose's back.

"Yes." Jose answered surprisingly without fear in his voice.

"But why?" I wanted to cry.

"Again it goes back to the fact the Lilliana are not like you. We have this power that we were born with. We have our own little world that is hidden even from you. I could defeat an army of newborns on my own if I wanted to. My father is incredibly powerful and when he changed my mother, she became just as strong. My mother had survived our childbirth because my father had given her some of his power and created her own little temporary necklace. I slowly inherited my own powers with training but my father never let me get as strong as him. However I still surpassed many of our kind. My parent now wish to inherit mine and Lilliana's power."

I tried to grasp it all but is seemed so surreal.

"And the only way that will happen is to kill you?" Edwards questions seemed so brutal.

"Yes. They're looking for us. That's why I want to find my friend as soon as possible. They'll be after him too. I had left Lilliana with some trust worthy friends in hopes of keeping her safe. Didn't go as planned. The point is that if my parents were to somehow find Lilliana here with you, they will no doubt destroy you all."

"Does Lilliana know the danger she is in?" Carlisle sat down next to me.

"She know that our parents are looking for us. She doesn't know that they are trying to kill us."

"What are the chances of them finding her here?" Jasper spoke again after being silent for a while.

"Not very high. I found her by chance. Caught her sent about 50 miles away. I'm a better tracker that my parents. But still you wouldn't be completely safe."

"You just said so yourself that it's not likely they'd find her here. You barely caught up wit her. Let her stay here. If you're as good of tracker as you say you are. They you can go find your friend and just come back and pick her up later. She obviously doesn't want to stay with your friends." Alice followed up Jasper's question.

Rosalie's POV

I was vaguely paying attention to what was happening downstairs and tried to focus on finding Lilliana the perfect princess outfit.

"How's the makeover going?" I called out to Lilliana as I dug through my closet.

"I think he needs more blush." giggled Lilliana.

"I have enough blush. If you put more I look like a drag-queen or a hooker." complained Emmett.

"What's a hooker and a drag-queen?" wondered Lilliana. I cringed as I waited for my husbands answer.

"Drag-queens are boys who like to dress up as girls sometimes. Hookers...make guys happy." Emmett tried to save himself with his lame answer.

I finally found and old night gown that I used to wear but stopped because it had too much frills.

Lilliana lifted her arms up and I slipped on the night gown that barely covered my butt but was a perfect floor length for her. I faced Emmett and was taken back by the dark blue eyeshadow, pink cheeks, red lips, and heavy eyeliner. Lilliana had even put butterfly hairpins in his hair. Lilliana had made herself and Emmett tiaras out of pipe-cleaners that I had found.

"We looked so pretty Emmett." cheered Lilliana as she stood on the bed to get a better view from the mirror on my dresser.

I heard a soft knock on the door and told whomever to enter.

Jose walked in with his hands in his pocket. His face showed exhaustion but immediately vanished without a trace as Lilliana noticed his presence.

"Jose guess what? I know what I want to be when I grow up." Lilliana jumped up and down. I scolded her to stop.

"And what would that be?" Jose sat down on the bed.

"I want to be a hooker. I want to make everyone happy by being a hooker. You can be a drag-queen if you want. That way you can play dress up with me every night." Jose's eyes bugged out at his little sister's confession.

I smacked the side of Emmett's head.

"Ow. Rosie I'm sorry. I didn't think she'd repeat everything I said." Emmett pouted.

"Lilliana...I"m gonna let you stay here with the Cullens." Jose's own confession caused Lilliana to start jumping up and down again.

"Really? Oh. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Lilliana hugged Jose. Then she became sad. "How long are you gonna be gone?"

"Just until I find our friend. But you have to promise to be good while I'm gone." Jose smiled at Lilliana.

"I will I promise," she looked at me and jumped into my arms. I, of course, caught her and kiss her forehead, "You hear that Rosie. I get to stay with you and Emmie longer."

Later that day...

Jose promised to stay one more night with Lilliana before leaving.

Lilliana had her pajamas after giving her another bath. Her and Emmett had decided to play beauty salon and give each other dirt facials. Needless to say, it tuned into a mud-fight.

Alice brought up some extra blankets and placed them on the bed. Jose walked in after taking a shower—he tried to stop the mud-fight—and flung himself on the bed. He sat up quickly and grabbed a pretty blue blanket from he top of the pile and held it in wonder.

"Where did you get this blanket from?" Jose stared wide-eyed at the blanket.