A/N This starts out in Twilight right after the van incident. Bella takes a walk to think and what she finds changes her whole life. It will not follow the books or the movies after the van nearly kills her. Also Edward touched her in the lab, not the car so by the time the van happens she already knows he's cold and hard to the touch. Just letting you know. Now first of all I need to say a huge thanks to jascat as this story was her idea. I did have a similar one and so I decided to write this for her. She isn't able to do any writing and so she asked me if I would write this for her. She is my pre-reader as well for this story. A huge thanks to my very dear friend OoJasper'sAngeloO for her beta work on this chapter. Hope you enjoy this first chapter.

I still do not own Twilight or any of the characters.

Bella's POV

It was early Saturday morning and I needed to get away from the house and think. The problem is that I couldn't sleep last night. With everything going on I just needed to get away and clear my head. There's just way too much information that I need to straighten out in my head before I can confront anyone.

The first day of the new school I met the Cullens. They were beautiful and very mysterious. Apparently they never talked to anyone outside of the family unless they were spoken to by a teacher. For some reason the first day Edward Cullen acted like I killed his cat. He was so angry and it was directed at me.

He was gone for the rest of the week. His siblings were still there but he wasn't. I wanted to go and ask them what happened to him, but the blonde girl seemed to hate me for some reason as well and I decided that Edward Cullen wasn't worth the trouble. He was good looking, don't get me wrong, but he just wasn't my type. If I even had a type.

When he came back he did apologize and then started asking me tons of questions. Mostly about me and my life. He was surprised when I told him of my decision to move in with my dad after my mom remarried and understanding that they needed some alone time. It was when we were talking that stuff started to happen.

I noticed that when I first met him in biology his eyes were black. When he came back they were a golden color. When I asked him if he got contacts, he said no and then when I called him out on it he just walked away mumbling something about the lights.

I started noticing other oddities, such as they all had food on their trays, yet I never saw any of them actually eat. Maybe they were on a special diet. It must have been a good one as they all looked so perfect. They definitely weren't overweight, but why go through all of the trouble to buy food if they weren't going to eat it?

The more I studied them the deeper the mystery became. There were four of them. The blonde girl was extremely beautiful. Her hair was long, almost to the middle of her back and curly. She was dating the huge guy. He had to be the biggest guy I have ever seen and I'm guessing that he's at least six foot seven or eight. He had short curly dark brown hair. I thought of a mountain every time I saw him.

Then of course was Edward. He was about 6'1" and had wild copper colored hair. He's very nice to look at, but like I said he isn't my type. And of course the last one was a tiny girl that had short black hair. She seemed to almost bounce with energy. She always smiled when I looked at her, but I had never spoken to her.

Edward seemed to have major mood swings that were so bad they almost gave me whiplash. One day he would talk to me and then he would suddenly ignore me. For days sometimes he would act like I wasn't even there and then suddenly he would talk to me.

Then came the day in biology when we had to look at some slides under the microscope. His hand accidentally touched mine and I quickly pulled back. His touch was ice cold and it felt like his skin was hard. I knew then that there had to be something up with the Cullens. They were not normal, at least Edward wasn't.

I decided to try to get closer to Edward and maybe Alice to see if I could figure out what the hell was wrong with him. Maybe they all had some rare disease and Dr. Cullen was trying to find a cure for them. Edward had asked me to join him for lunch one day and I took him up on his offer. I figured there was nothing wrong with being his friend.

Alice came up and we were introduced. She hugged me and told me we were going to be great friends. She was also cold and hard. It was a little freaky to be hugged by a wall. At least that's what it felt like when she hugged me. I do have to say that I found myself liking her in spite of the fact that she had way too much energy for such a tiny girl. I would never be able to keep up with her.

Shortly after that I went with my dad out to the rez. He was going to watch a game with his friends, Billy Black and his other friend Harry Clearwater. I would be catching up with Billy's son, Jacob. I used to play with him when we were little, but its been years since I last saw him. We were going to the beach to hang out.

While there he told me a scary story that the elders of his tribe would tell at the council meetings. He had let it slip that the Cullens weren't allowed on their land. I had mentioned meeting Edward and Alice. He told me to stay away from them as they were supposed to be some of the "Cold Ones" as he called them. Unfortunately he never explained exactly what they were. I don't think he really knew.

I finally found the book, but wasn't able to go and get it for a couple of weeks after that because it was in Port Angeles. It was a book on Quileute legends and beliefs. When I finally did get it I had to wait until after school the next day to look at it. That was two days ago that I got it. Yesterday morning was when I got more evidence that there was more to Edward Cullen than most people knew.

I was standing beside my truck in the parking lot of the school. There was ice on the roads, but thanks to my dad I had made it safely. I wasn't really paying attention except to see that Edward was standing with his family across the lot from where I was. Next thing I know there is the sound of a car coming towards me.

It was Tyler's van and it was out of control and headed straight for me. I was about to die. I shut my eyes quickly and waited. I was suddenly knocked down and then I heard what sounded like metal being moved. I was in Edward's arms or should I say he was holding me with one hand while the other was pushing the van away from me.

He said nothing. He just got up and left. I ended up at the hospital and then I was sent home for the rest of the day. That was perfect for me as now I could take my time without my dad possibly seeing the book and asking about it. I wasn't ready to share what I did know with anyone and I wanted no one knowing what I was doing, at least until I had it all figured out. The only thing certain is that I would figure it out.

I spent the rest of the day reading and what I read matched with the little bit that I knew of the Cullens. Their foster dad Carlisle Cullen looked just like they did. I should know, he took care of me in the hospital. The problem was there was no way that what I was reading could be true. Yet I had seen exactly what they were describing in the book. Cold to the touch, fast, super strength. Yeah, everything was fitting with exactly what I had observed.

That's why I'm out here walking. I'm trying to connect what I have read with what I have seen. It still wasn't adding up. Surely the legends were just that and not based on facts. Yet I have seen with my own eyes the very things they have described in the book.

But there are a couple of things that just weren't adding up. Like their eyes didn't match what was written in the book. The book said their eyes would be blood red. The Cullens had golden eyes, all of them, at least the ones I have seen. The only one I haven't met is their foster mom Esme, I think Edward said that's what her name is.

Right now though I have another problem. I shouldn't be out here even in the day light. I have no idea where I'm headed, just that I feel like I'm being pulled. Its like an urgency that I need to go in this direction and I need to hurry. My instincts are urging me on and even though I have no clue as to why, I do know my instincts have always kept me out of trouble, unless I didn't follow them.

I'm not sure how long I have been walking for, but it was the smell of smoke that made me take stock of my surroundings. I could see smoke rising, but it was still kind of far off. I felt like I needed to head towards the fire, so I did just that. The smoke wasn't close enough to see the cause, but I could see and smell it.

It was much deeper in the woods than I thought. It took me a very long time to finally reach the area it was in, but before I did reach the fire I noticed two things, the first was that the smoke was a funny color. It was purple and had a very sweet sickly smell to it. The second thing was that the area around the fire itself had been destroyed. Trees knocked over, or completely uprooted as if pulled up by their roots. The ground had been torn up as well.

I still felt the urgency to keep looking. I have a feeling that someone needed help. I looked around and suddenly instead of feeling the urgency, I felt fear. It was extreme fear and I had no reason to be fearful. I just pushed it away and kept on searching for whatever, or whomever I was supposed to help. I wasn't going to allow my fear to stop me from helping someone if they needed help.

When I finally pushed through the last of the trees before coming into the area where the actual fire was, I had to stop. I studied the area closely. It was bare of any trees, rocks or any other type of plant life. It looked as if a huge fight had taken place. The fire was in the middle of the cleared area. While the fire was still going it was clear that whatever had been in the fire was already completely destroyed.

When I finally looked over to the trees that were close to the fire, but not close enough to catch fire, was when I noticed him. He was still far away from me, but I could easily tell that he had been one of the ones fighting. He appeared to be injured, as he was sitting on the ground and had his back against the tree. He was staring at me in shock, like he couldn't believe I was here. I started to walk closer.

He didn't say anything just shook his head no. I understood that he was telling me to stay away, but for some reason couldn't or wouldn't speak to me. I asked him if he was hurt. I told him that I would help with whatever he needed. He looked scared and just kept shaking his head no. I was beginning to think he was mute and couldn't speak.

When I got close enough to see him clearly I was shocked. Sitting right in front of me was a man very much like the Cullens. The only difference is that his eyes were just like the legends spoke of, blood red. He still was looking at me with fear in his eyes. I don't think he was afraid of me but for me.

His hair was badly messed up, but I could tell it was honey blonde with curls and chin length. There were twigs and leaves in it. His shirt was torn and barely hanging on. His jeans were dirty and torn as well. It was then that I noticed something strange about his jeans. One pant leg was torn off and it was then that I noticed that his leg was missing. I started to feel sick.

It only took me a few seconds to realize there was something very wrong with this picture. His leg was gone, but there was no blood at all. Just a silvery liquid on his pants and shirt. Something happened inside of me that shocked me. I felt both horror and pain that this man had been through something such as having his leg torn off, I also felt a rage at the ones who hurt him. I reacted without any thought to what I knew he was. I ran to his side.

As soon as I got to him I realized that his leg had been ripped off at the joint of his hip. He had put both arms up as if to push me away and I saw that he was missing his left hand as well. He also had the same liquid oozing out of places on his arms and chest. They appeared to be bite marks.

Then he spoke up his voice sounding weak and in pain, "Please, just go away. You have no idea how much danger you are in. I'll be okay, but you need to leave."

I shook my head no and reached out to touch his arm. Just as I thought, it was hard and cool, but not nearly as cold as Edward or Alice felt. I could tell he was holding his breath. Of course I was probably making him very uncomfortable being this close to him, but he clearly needed help. I needed to be the one to do it and even though I should have been terrified for my life I somehow just knew he wouldn't hurt me.

He just stared at me in disbelief. Finally I had to let him know that I was here to help him and that's exactly what I was going to do. I also needed to let him know that I knew about him, his species that is, "I'm not afraid of you. You won't hurt me. I don't know how I know that just that I do. I will help you. I know what you are and somehow it doesn't matter, I'm here for you. You sir are what us humans call a vampire and you are not the only one around here.". . .

A/N Please let me know what you think. I'm really excited about this story, and I hope you enjoy.