I'm not going to give you a long winded author's note this time.

Thank you Pienuniek for your help, I wouldn't be here without you – go read her stuff it's fantastic. Thank you Chandra for taking the time out of your busy life and schedule to beta this for me.

I plan to update this weekly, as it is completely written but not fully beta'd and I want to give Chandra time for her life as well.

I don't own The Twilight Saga, it will always belong to SM.

Without further comment:

Chapter 1 – The Classroom

'Oh my god…he's just so hot…I wish…'

'Maybe Clara will meet me under the bleachers in the auditorium for…'

'Mr. Masen, c'mon just look, I promise…'

'Okay, history. This is the one class I gotta up my grade. He's a hard ass…'

Taking a look around my classroom, I listened in on individual thoughts to make sure all was as it should be. You would think that there would be a big difference between the thoughts of high school age kids and those of college kids, but believe me there isn't. We all get told that once you finish high school, that's it you're an adult and now you have to act like it. That doesn't mean that they think like it though. Their thoughts are quite similar…

And how did I know that you ask? Well, that's rather simple. My name is Edward Anthony Masen Cullen and I'm a mind reading vampire. Yes you heard me correctly, a mind reading vampire. Thank goodness that I can switch it on and off at will, or I would be batty. Could you imagine having to listen to the outside population all the time? I mean sure it comes in handy making sure no one is putting two and two together and getting the correct answer, but considering that I can hear everything within a three mile distance at any given time that I turn it on, there is a need for reprieve.

On any given day I wouldn't listen into the inane thoughts of my students, but this week had started out much different from any other; it began with the fact that there had been a strange pull in my chest for a few days. It had been getting stronger; but that day, it was all I could do to keep myself from following it. Believe me, I wanted to just to get to the bottom, as it demanded. Of course, that day had to be one of the few my sister had a vision – as rare as they were – and it was surprisingly clear, clear in the fact that I just disappeared from them, the family panicked.

Hmm, I see I have you intrigued now, don't I? Let me back up a few… Yes, I am a vampire, and despite popular culture such as Dracula and other off the wall comedies, we're not like the vampires in fiction. We cannot procreate that I'm aware of – at least not with other vampires anyway, despite the many who try – my second sister being one of them. So now you're wondering how I came to have a family, yes?

Well then, let me start at the beginning. First there was Carlisle Maurice Cullen, changed in the late 1600's after managing to track down a very real vampire in the times where innocent people were persecuted and then burned at the stake for that very reason; as if they could catch a real vampire anyway.

His father was an Anglican priest in England; anything that was not in the Bible was against God and all should be burned to the ground. He was a stickler for rules, emotionally and physically abusive to Carlisle when he was growing up – more so because his wife died in childbirth and wasn't around to stop him. He still believed in God and all that he created. I'm not sure his mother could have stopped him anyway, as women were seen and not heard in that day. Use the rod, spare the boy, was his motto and boy did he stick with it, but despite all that, when Carlisle came of age, he stepped into the same role as his father even though he wanted different.

Carlisle, however, was smarter than his father, and instead of just accusing anyone who stepped a toe out of line, he managed to track a real coven of vampires. One night he led his congregation into the streets and down to the sewers to where they were hiding. Once there all hell broke loose – so to say – the vampires charged, the members scattered, and Carlisle was caught by a rather hungry vampire who didn't quite finish his meal, because he was interrupted by a torch bearing mob. Carlisle was changed; once we take that first bite we inject venom to paralyze our prey. Left to spread, the victim turns into another hunter instead. Carlisle hid from the rest of the population, stayed quiet during his excruciating change – only because he had no choice, I'll explain later – then ran as far and as fast as possible.

He managed not to feed on unsuspecting humans, but fell onto a poor innocent deer instead, and thus his feeding ideals were born. He didn't want to be a murderer of humans; instead he drinks the blood of animals. He's found a few like-minded individuals through the years and the whole family followed the ideals as well – well, most of us did anyway.

You would think that because of that upbringing Carlisle would be a completely hard man to live with but you'd be wrong; he's a loving father figure who had a thirst for knowledge that rivaled any of my students, but he's hard when he needs to be, with four perpetual teenagers and me in my early 20's he had to be; he doled out punishments that he saw fit.

"Mr. Masen, as I was away from class the last two days, can you provide me the information sheets and assignments given so that I may catch up, please?"

"Certainly, Angela, we covered the information in chapters one and two, but seeing as it's the beginning of the year you didn't miss much. For now just have a write up of what you think are the important parts of chapter one in no more than four pages."

Now where was I?

Oh yeah, okay, after Carlisle was turned, he travelled around for a while and somehow ended up in Italy. There he learned that his existence didn't need to be a long and lonely one and he could be and do anything he wanted. As long as he kept his existence a secret. No human could find out about what we are. It was there that Carlisle decided that he was going to become a doctor and use this existence to help others. He spent a while there studying and learning to control his bloodlust; one day, though, he moved to the New World to continue studying medicine.

By 1918 he was working in the hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Which was where he was when the Spanish Influenza Epidemic hit. I suppose I should be so thankful, because if he hadn't been there I wouldn't be here now.

Back then I was known as Edward Anthony Masen Junior, and I was working as a brand new lawyer in Masen Law Firm. I had just completed law school when the pandemic hit; I was a loner bachelor because I couldn't find one girl back then who could see past my pocketbook or family money, plus for some reason even then – there was just something wrong with all of them. I knew what I wanted but felt as if I hadn't found her yet.

I was twenty-four years old, just moved into my own house and out from under Mother's skirts, and was enjoying my freedom. Although being that I was a momma's boy, I was there every Sunday for church, lunch with friends and family, and then dinner with Mother and Father. All while avoiding all the girls Mother attempted to set me up with.

It was that last Sunday night dinner that changed everything. We had heard news of it spreading and getting closer to Chicago, and people had even begun wearing doctors' masks to try and stop it from spreading. People were still coughing, though, or running fevers, or even just sweating a little. My father started coughing that night after looking pale for the entire day; by the time it was for me to go home, he had started bringing up blood. My mother panicked and we took him to the hospital. By that night, they'd given us no hope and promised to make him comfortable.

I took Mother home, but by morning she was sweating while feeling cold. I rushed her to the emergency room as well and stayed after they admitted her; by that night I was on the cot next to her. I don't remember much; I do, however, remember Mother pleading with the strange blond doctor to save me. The next thing I know there was an unbearable burning for which I screamed through, for how long I didn't know – I do now – and then when I woke up everything was new, bright, and painful.

It didn't take Carlisle and I long to realize I was answering his thoughts instead of his spoken word. That was the painful part, living in Chicago and hearing every voice for three miles around. We left the Chicago area quickly after that and spent roughly six years in a country house that Carlisle found. Until I trained myself, which took just over a year, and realized that I could turn it off. After that it was controlling my bloodlust. When we came back into the general populous to a place where – I found out later – Carlisle left the love of his life, praying she'd be safe, in Columbus, Ohio.

Esme Anne Evenson, nee Platt, was twenty-six when we made it to Columbus. It was unfortunate that, for her, not all was well. Esme was born to be a mother, and she almost made it too. Just as we made it back to town I 'overheard' Esme in the hospital; she'd given birth to a baby boy, but injuries she'd sustained before going into labor had damaged both her and the baby so much that he was stillborn.

After I advised Carlisle of what had happened, we made our way to the hospital because Esme was having some very disturbing thoughts. Although I couldn't blame her considering the hell she had been through, funny enough though she'd never stopped thinking of, or loving, Carlisle. That seemed to be synonymous for mated couples when one was human.

Esme had just about been sold to her abusive husband by her parents. Charles Evenson was an alcoholic but hid it well. He was prominent in Ohio and was able to cover up a lot of his, shall we say, indiscretions. It wasn't until they were married that Esme saw the real Charles Evenson. It was unfortunate that back then domestic abuse, and assault and battery of your spouse, was null and void. He was just 'keeping her in line'. She'd had enough and with the death of her boy was contemplating leaving it all behind at the set of cliffs outside of town.

Oh, but when Carlisle walked in the door, her entire being shifted. She didn't forget everything that she'd been through, but her entire being knew that she was safe, that she was loved, that although she'd lost her baby, her family was yet to come. How she knew that I'd never know, but she was right and, of course, I was just the beginning. I became the son she lost to her, and in her I found the mother whom I had lost; it was a beautiful relationship.

"All right, class, we're going to go over chapters one and two again today and get a start on chapter three. History is what you need to know so you don't repeat mistakes. Any questions... no? Then go on and study with your partner next to you."

I could feel the pull getting stronger; it wasn't there yet though. It was going to be a big change for me, there was something coming. I'd never seen or felt anything like that, and although I put on a nonchalant air in front of the others, I was concerned about what it could be.

"Why do we need to go over it again…"

"God, he's so hot, why won't he…"

"I wonder if Mr.Masen is single, surely my short skirt…"

After Esme joined us, I wanted to leave, for them to bond. They also wanted time for themselves, so I left to travel for a while. Well, if you call a decade a while. During this time I went all over the world. Saw the pyramids at night, swamps of Babylon and the boulevards of Paris. I climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower and also the London Bridge, as we hadn't been to London yet. I had been warned but I wanted to see Italy. I had read Carlisle's mind about The Volturi and wanted to meet the leaders of our kind. They were interesting and I learnt many things from them. I started out a little suspicious, but once I read Aro and found his mind a pleasant and welcoming place I didn't bother to read the rest.

I met their wives Sulpicia, Didyme, and Anthenodora; they were as motherly as Esme. The thing I noticed most about them, though, was that they didn't hunt like traditional vampires, nor did they hunt like us; I wasn't sure what they were hunting. I spent the majority of those ten years with them and eventually earned their trust. I became part of the inner circle; not that anyone knows it but the seven of us. Unsure why, they let me in on their secret about hunting and I promised not to tell anyone until my mate came along, and then she'd be the only one I'd tell. After they would tell the world about the Fourth Volturi Brother.

We decided it would be better if I went back to Carlisle until my mate found her way to me; Didyme was adamant about that. So that the world wouldn't know and use Carlisle and Esme against me, because I wasn't at full strength until I had her, we decided that I'd tell Carlisle and Esme I had a rebellious period during my decade long travels, feeding like a traditional.

A couple of years after I returned to Carlisle and Esme, we were living in Rochester, New York. Rosalie Hale was a daddy's little rich girl who could do no wrong. She thought – or still thinks rather – that she was God's gift to all vampires, humans, and otherwise. While Rosalie was made into a pretty vampire, she was actually rather average as a human.

Her parents had spent a lot of time and money trying to turn her into the quintessential debutante. It was sad that she was shorter than average and a little bit too plump around the middle, although she had other attractive attributes, such as being blonde and blue eyed. Like I said, she was pretty as a vampire, but certainly not to the level she held herself, however I also believe that her poor attitude was part of the problem. Having money does not give one class; it all comes down to how you carry yourself.

As was custom at the time, Rosalie's parents had aspirations to use her and her marriage to further climb the social ladder. Like a lot of parents, her father forced her to comply with those aspirations. He worked at the bank owned by the biggest, richest family of the time: the Kings. He had plans to put Rosalie into the path of their son, Royce King, introduce them, and then arrange a marriage between the two. He wanted to rise above his station and this was the way to do that. It was unfortunate for him that Royce wanted nothing to do with Rosalie and scoffed at her every time she was in his vicinity, and when her father approached Royce's he was laughed right out of the office.

After that night, he came home, drunk and rather violent, his aspirations shot. He took that disappointment out on Rosalie in the form of a beating with a belt. He left her bleeding then turned her out into the street; she was costing them too much money if she wasn't going to be their meal ticket. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your opinion, that night reached hypothermic temperatures. It was, fortunate for her, the reason that she didn't bleed profusely from her injuries, enabling Carlisle to find her in time. Fortunate for her, not so much for us or me. She was near death when he brought her home to change her, and from that night on Rosalie Hale became Rosalie Cullen, beloved first daughter to Carlisle and Esme and sister to me.

"Okay, class, that's all for today. Read through the rest of chapter three and take notes – there may or may not be a pop quiz on what you have read already."

"Damn, he sure doesn't waste time…"

"Maybe if I bend forward a little…"

"Clara's gonna get away if I can't catch her…"

Now to get ready for the next class, but damn that pull is getting stronger. Two more classes for the day and hopefully I can sneak out past Alice and see where it leads.

"I hope I'm not running late…"

"Damn Mrs. Hendrickson and her…."

"Right, group, let's get this show on the road. A recap of chapters one and two, start on chapter three. I want to see if you're any better than the last class."

After changing Rosalie, we had to leave Rochester to get her used to her new diet. We were spending a few years in seclusion. She'd left to go hunting in the Great Smokey Mountains, National Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee some two hundred miles from home. There she'd come across Emmett at the bottom of a ravine. He was barely alive, having been there for most of the night. She carried him home, holding her breath, and asked Carlisle to change him for her.

There wasn't a whole lot to Emmett; for someone who grew up farming he was a little… shorter than I'd imagined. While bulky, he was shorter than average standing at roughly 5'2". Rosalie had even managed to bring home his glasses – of all things – that were next him in the ravine. After Carlisle had bitten him, he asked me to go to where Rosalie had found him to see if I could find out more about him – like his name – and possibly some personal effects.

After tracing her scent back to the Great Smokey Mountains, and Emmett's resting place, I climbed up the side and found where he had been camping, but made note that he hadn't been alone. There were scents all over the place of boys whom had been camping too. They'd looked for Emmett before turning and going back to town. I followed those scents back there, as fast as I could. It had been just a few days but the tales were circling: he'd run off, been picked off by a serial killer (how that worked when the others survived I don't know) but the best one was coming from the boys themselves. Apparently one of them had heard a bear earlier in the day, so to explain his disappearance, they'd said that a bear had gotten him in the middle of the night when he went to relieve himself. It had taken a few years to get the actual truth from Emmett, and his friends weren't that far off; there was no bear, just a ravine in the dark.

I found out what I could and left some money for his parents, whom were also raising four little girls. I stole into their house in the night and took what I could, what they wouldn't notice, and left to go back home. By the time I'd returned, Emmett was awake and as angry and cute as a bear cub, hence the nickname that came about – Teddy Bear.

We'd stayed in seclusion for a while so Emmett could temper his newborn rage and bloodlust, although having Rosalie there as a distraction worked too. The part that took the longest was tempering Emmett's strength. While he'd been shorter than most, he was still bulky and that translated to a strong vampire. It was quite a surprise for us because we didn't realize he'd be that strong. The first time he smelled a human it took all four of us to hold him back. Once he'd settled down and Rosalie could handle him on her own, we decided to head back into the world.

Carlisle, Esme, and I decided to leave them there for a while so we could get some peace from his constant need to give Rosalie anything she wanted, even if it wasn't possible. By 1950 we were living in the small town of Forks, Washington. We needed a break from the sun. Rosalie and Emmett were still living in seclusion, getting closer to being ready to live with the rest of us. I'd gone out "hunting" and come home to find a pair of strange vampires in our living room. They introduced themselves as Alice Brandon and Jasper Whitlock.

Alice was kind of on the short side, even shorter than Rosalie. She stood no taller than 4'3" if she was lucky. She was thin and had long dark hair, almost to her waist. She had an extra sense too, although hers was less invasive: she had visions but more like feelings and extra perceptions. On occasion she'll get a clear vision; they were always spot on, but they didn't happen very often. However, when they did happen we took notice and always talked about what she had seen. Often, if I was not there, she would show me first before talking about it to get a second opinion on what she was seeing.

After her change she had some very strong and clear visions; they steered her course: feeding on animals, our family, and Rosalie flipping out when they lived with us when she and Emmett came home. The recent additions of me disappearing were not to be forgotten. During the time between visions, she more often than not had strong feelings or fast moving pictures. It was a wonder she hadn't lost her mind with all the changes she saw and felt every day. There were so many changes that she learned to put them to the back of her mind until she had one strong enough that it pulled her in. Those were the ones that we payed attention to, otherwise they were just background noise.

Her story is a little depressing in the fact that her one living relative – an aunt – had her committed to an asylum after she correctly predicted the deaths of her loving parents and little sister. She tried to warn them and her aunt, to no avail. When she was proven correct, her aunt put her in the asylum. The upside to that was Jasper passing by not long after she was committed and realizing she was his mate – of course she had seen a vision about that – and saving her from that awful place. He managed to turn her with help from his friends and they lived together wandering, feeding from animals for around forty years until they found us and stepped into our living room.

Jasper was another interesting character. He had no discerning extra sense, but he was very persuasive. I've seen in his memories that he had been able to talk his way out of trouble from a very young age. He used that talent of his to talk his way into joining the army at the age of sixteen. It served him well and he managed to move up the ranks. He was the youngest Major by the time he was eighteen years old. A year later he was bitten by a sadistic vampire going by the name of Maria and turned for her army in the Southern Vampire Wars. He came to realize that he couldn't be what Maria needed him to be and he talked his way out of fighting in the wars. He wandered alone for a long time, eventually meeting up with others whom had escaped the wars too, until he found Alice in the asylum when he was passing through.

She converted his friends Peter and Charlotte to feeding on animals and tried to convince them to come with them to the Cullens, but they were happy on their own. After they found us, and told their story, we sat talking for a few days. Alice declared Rosalie and Emmett's room to be her own, predicting with astonishing clarity that Rosalie would throw a fit of epic proportions, both at the fact that they took her room and that they were there at all. Since then they have been an integral part of the family. Her feelings were good for playing the stock market and keeping us in money.

Now she was predicting that I was going to disappear from the family visions and she became more and more paranoid and annoying. I mean, I was trying to teach here and she texted me every thirty minutes. I was ignoring them, but hearing that phone vibrating in the drawer drove me nuts!

"God, while he's hot he's such a hard ass…"

"Can't he take it a little easier on us? We've only just started…"

"What I wouldn't give to roll around in his sheets…"

"Right, group, this is what you need to do. I want a five page essay on chapters one and two by the beginning of next week, and please prepare for a possible pop quiz on Friday!"

Ah and cue the mental groan…

"Off you go, scram and prepare!"

"Grr… what an asshole!"

"Can you come with me, Mr. Masen?"

"Mr. Masen, I was wondering if you could take me back to your office and help me with a particular section in chapter two?" Lauren Mallory simpered, coming up to my desk on the raised dais. "I don't know how I'm going to pass this class if I don't get some extra help."

The strange pull gave a huge tug in the opposite direction of Lauren, as if to get me as far as possible from her.

Strange.

"Lauren, I will not be offering any tutoring for any of my classes. If you require tutoring, there is a signup sheet next to the door outside and there are always study groups in the library; look for the signup sheet for those out there as well. If you are not prepared to put in the effort, I suggest you drop my class," I answered, ignoring her tone and fluttering lashes.

"Hmph," she replied with a stomp of her foot, spinning and storming off.

"Oh, and Lauren?" I called, "Do not ask or attempt this again or I will be forced to report you for sexual harassment."

"Oh he's an asshole…" was the parting reply.

It was getting bigger and stronger, this pull, like whatever it was was getting closer to me, but it also felt that whatever this was going to change my life forever… again.