I stared down at my put-put.. putter? Thing? I wasn't exactly a golf fan, sue me for not knowing the exact name of it. I stared down at the stick dubiously, bewildered by the entire scenario. "So.. What are we doing, exactly?"

A ways ahead of me, Emmett used a finesse I'd yet to see him exhibit as he putted the ball along the track.

"We're having 'fun'," Rosalie deadpanned as we shared a look that obviously said we didn't feel the same way. Jasper stood a bit to the back, smirking as he waited for his turn.

"And this is supposed to be fun?"

Emmett quickly turned back to us, now out of the zone after hitting the ball perfectly, as I knew he would. "Bells, you gotta understand," he began. "We've all be living decades under the thumb of the all-knowing Cullens. And right now, you've given us a way to get around all of them. No one knows we even left school!"

I raised a brow at him. Really, they were just teenagers. "The teachers know."

"Yeah, well, no one cares about their opinions anyways."

I nodded—he had a point there.

"Anyways, we found out that around you, Alice can't see shit."

"That's a good thing," Jasper rumbled, though he looked just a bit torn. After all, the control freak was his mate, right? I guess even vampires can get tired of their mates. The thought made me just a bit sad.. and I hated that it made me just a bit hopeful as well.

"So, basically, I'm just a way to escape the pressures of coven life?" I frowned at him, uncertain if I was okay with being used as a tool.

Rosalie shrugged, pushing her blond hair back, the strands just returning to where they were displaced from. "You use us to keep the humans away, don't you?"

"..Oh, so you knew?" I asked, bashful as my cheeks stained red.

Jasper's lips quirked upwards, his smirk becoming a smile before he pats me on the head. His energy stretched out to mine, reassuring me. "This is a symbiotic relationship, right?"

My eyes strayed to where Emmett was taking a shot and decided it wouldn't hurt to.. bend the rules a bit. The golf ball rolled down the lane, straight for the windmill, when it suddenly went just slightly off course, as if it hit a bump.. or if magic had nudged it. It smacked against the mini-windmill before returning to Emmett's feet.

"Dammit, Bella!" he hollered, cursing more as he snapped his putter on his knee. I watched as he flung the pieces into the windmill, each sticking out at an odd angle, my smile widening.

I looked up at Jasper with a bright smile, "Now, it is."

.

Frost came to Forks, taking with it what little sun that managed to slip past the defenses of the clouds. The weather grew colder but it felt like nothing else around me changed. I was living in worry of Salem, forcing myself to seem like a normal girl, and fighting off any and all attempts from the humans to befriend me. There were a few that were particularly hard to shake, but spending time with the Cullens (Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper) rebuked them. I didn't care much that it made me a source of contempt for other girls—me being in contact with the Cullens meant I was superior to them since they never mingled with humans. (For good reason.)

The only contempt I was worried about was from the fifteen year old vampire—Alice—and Edward. The more I interacted with my favorite Cullens in class, the more they seemed to hate me.

I stepped outside of my house, drawing in a deep breath. The cold seared my lungs as I felt a pull at my middle, urging me to stay home. It wasn't an unfamiliar sensation, my magic flaring even through my constant suppressing. It meant there was a large enough issue that was about to drop into my lap that it would be better just to stay at home and feign sickness.

I took a deep breath, shoving the feeling aside as I moved down the steps towards the drive way. I refused to believe something of that magnitude could happen in Forks where nothing bad happens. The most that could happen was me hurting myself in gym, something my magic didn't care for anyways.

I should have known better.

.

Death was approaching, time slowing down as I quickly went over my options. Either I die a pancake or die trying to erase the memories of every student here. I closed my eyes out of reflex—either way, I really didn't want to watch myself be made into a breakfast pastry. Of course the one day I suck it up and go to school despite knowing I shouldn't is the day that something like this happens.

I wondered what would hit first—the van or my magic?

The van tires screamed, the kid in the front seat was screaming, and the crowd was gasping. And through the misdt of it all, I could feel one gentle presence reaching for me.

Just as the van was about to squash me, I felt his arm wrap around me and my hair whipped through icy wind. My magic settled around him, a silent thank you dancing along his limbs.

My body still suspended in the air, it took me a moment to realize we had stopped. My eyes slowly peeled open to find myself face to face with my vampire.

It took me even longer to recognized that I just thought of him as mine. I tried to correct myself but I already knew the deed was done and there were other matters more important than a little forbidden crush.

He seemed content to stare—and so was I—but I couldn't forget my duty.

"Jasper, I'm going to need your help."

His head tilted, brows raising before nodding, coming out of whatever ravine he'd traveled down. "Of course, Bella." He set me down carefully, hands hovering when I wobbled.

I quickly reached under my shirt, pulling a vial on a long chain out. It was the same one that my mother left Charlie over, the same one he gave me my first day of school. "Don't let me catch you doing something stupid," he'd warned. Yep. This was the definition of stupid.

I popped off the cork and chugged it quickly, Jasper watching me worriedly. The effects of the elixir were instantaneous, my pupils most likely widening to cover my entire eye as I became painfully aware of everything. We were on the outskirts of the parking lot, away from the prying eyes. The humans were screaming just as the van hit my truck, worried they'd just witnessed my murder. I could hear the silencing of insects and critters, birds in the trees taking off in fear, and the vampires that had been at the scene as well.

I reached back and grabbed Jasper's hand, his energy wrapping around me and stilling my anxiety that threatened to overwhelm at so many powerful sensations. I reveled in the icy feeling of his hand, the first and the last time I'd have the courage to do so. Born out of necessity, I reminded myself. "I'm about to expend a lot of energy. Catch me, please?"

I didn't wait for an answer—the energy boost I received from the elixir wouldn't last long. I reached out and pulled on a single thread, tendrils of steam whipping around us as the warmth of my energy melted the frosted ground. Time seemed to still for a moment but I knew I had just forced myself into a vampire-like speed. Jasper was looking at me like I was an exotic animal, but I coudln't pay him any heed as I reached out and touched multiple minds, erasing the image of myself from the last few seconds. No one would know I had been standing there, waiting for death. Just me, Jasper... and the controlling brother that was fast approaching.

I was able to finish just as time started to move again for me, slumping against Jasper as the life drained from me. I didn't want to think about how much I just sacrificed so his family could continue to live comfortably.

Jasper caught me carefully, his arms wrapped around me and I could almost image them holding me lovingly. My imagination would have to be enough. It was all I was allowed.

"Bella?" Jasper's voice was in my ear, laced with concern.

The embrace drew out an emotion- something I could not control or keep from him. His arms drew me closer until I was being lifted from the ground once more. I was limp in his arms but wished I could have held onto him, pretending once more there was something more than friendship between us. But there wasn't and couldn't be. Especially when Edward had just reached us.

He went rigid and his grip on me tightened as if he feared Edward would rip me from his arms.

All I heard was a low growl before Edward appeared and then disappeared as Jasper moved us to a safer place to have this confrontation without witnesses

"Are you out of your mind?!" Edward hissed from somewhere behind us as Jasper eased me against a tree. "You've outed us all!"

My strength gone, my head lulls to the side until it rests against my shoulder. Jasper shoots me an apologetic glance before standing before me, guarding me.

"Can you not hear their thoughts, you fool? Not one of them wonder about Bella's well-being because she took those thoughts out of their heads."

Edward looked stumped, drawing up short. And then he found a loophole—his face darkening once more. He was hell-bent on finding fault with me. "Her spells are unreliable! How do we know they won't suddenly remember? No, we must get rid of the problem."

His eyes, golden as the sun, flashed towards me, suddenly crouching like he was a creepy cat.

He wanted to kill me.

The thought shot terror through me, freezing me in place.

The bloodlust in the air was just like when I was a child, at the mercy of a creature much superior to myself. Just like then, I couldn't do anything but pull in jagged breaths.

"The hell you will!" Jasper rose to my defense, refusing to move from between us.

It happened faster than my eyes could follow and the part of me that was still barely coherent knew I'd be looking through that grimoire later to see if there was a spell that would allow me to watch. If I survived this. Edward had apparently propelled himself towards us—whether to attack me or Jasper I couldn't tell—and then a loud crack sounded as a tree was suddenly no longer there and Edward was pulling himself up.

"How dare you!" He cried. I could just barely make out his flared nostrils and barred fangs from the distance, his eyes—normally green—shined yellow like a cat's.

"Leave," Jasper bit out, and even with is back to me, I was certain he looked every bit of vampire as Edward.

The ginger disappeared for a moment, making me believe that he had taken Jasper's advice and scrammed when a loud boom resounded in my body and the force of it flung Edward further than Jasper had.

My eyes had difficulty looking up to find who I owed my life to, letting out a grateful sigh.

"You've made your choice then, Bella," Pryde rumbled standing tall as he stared Edward down as the vampire pulled himself out of the rubble of another tree.

"It was made for me," I muttered, my limbs loosening but still useless.

He 'hmphed' at me before his eyes found Jasper. "You left him an opening, old friend. One might say you're getting rusty.. or soft."

First, the shock of almost dying—twice—and now Pryde was teasing? The end of the world was nigh.

Jasper growled at him, nodding his head to me. "I will take care of my 'little brother'. Get her home."

"Alice is going to kill you," I heard Edward taunt from somewhere in front of us, his voice full of gravel as if his jaw had been broken.

Jasper replied with a growl, turning to glare at Pryde. "What are you waiting for—his permission?"

I'd never seen this particular brand of smirk on Pryde's face. It was like he took pleasure in Jasper's discomfort. "No, I simply have a command I must complete first. Whether I retreat or not is entirely up to my new mistress."

I could feel the confusion in the air, blinking as Pryde carefully gathered me up into his arms much like Jasper had. His ice blue eyes stared into mine as his fingers feathered against my cheeks before holding me in place. It wasn't until his face was nearly on top of mine that I realized what was happening, but I was already too weak to reject or stop him.

Skin to skin contact had never brought me such life. It was like a waterfall of strength and power being poured down my throat and I wasn't sure I could hold all of it. I could feel what he was offering, what he was being forced to offer and that he wanted to do this even if Charlie had forced this on him. And I knew without a doubt I couldn't refuse—I had decided to step up to the plate, but at least I wouldn't be alone.

I accepted the bond and was so much stronger for it.

He drew away, but the energy he had given me a taste of didn't leave with him, instead swirling around me. I caused my hair to look like it was underwater, flowing around my face. It was smudged with different kinds of magic, each with a different flavor from his past masters. Some I was compatible with, others not so much.

I looked around us as he set me back on the ground, not bothering to steady me. The energy he had given me was more than enough to maintain my balance.

The vampires were staring at us like they'd just witnessed a freak show, Edward looking mildly terrified. One glance at a hardfaced Pryde told me all I needed to know. Without a moment to waste, Edward disappeared from my sight.

Pryde tensed to give pursuit but I held out my arm. "Leave him," I commanded, shocked by how my voice sounded, laced with power that my new familiar could not deny.

"Yes, mistress," Pryde replied mechanically and I sent him an apologetic glance. I hadn't meant to do that.

"I will follow him, tell Carlisle what happeneded. We can't have him lying and accidentally start a war."

"Thank you," I murmured, eyes falling to the found. "For saving me as well."

He offered me a gentlemanly smile, nodding. "My pleasure."

And just like Edward, he was gone, leaving me alone with my familiar.

All this.. because I didn't want to skip school.

Author's Note:

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post- I got married! (Yay me!) But now I'm married and i don't have classes until January, so I'll try my best to post often. See you soon!

Evelyn.