Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

Co-written with AmandaCullen84 - http: //www. fanfiction. net/u/1810180/

A/N:

This is a new project I'm working on with my friend AmandaCullen84 (if you don't like piecing together the addy you can check out her page by going to my Favorites list). It's going to be written from Bella and Alice's PoV. I'll be writing for Bella and Amanda will be taking on Alice. We plan on alternating chapters, though we'll both be posting all the chapters on each of our accounts. It would be helpful if you reviewed under the author of that chapter's page, but we'll understand if you don't want to go back and forth.

We hope you like the story and thanks for stopping by to check it out. Without further ado, here's TheCornerGirl with Chapter One, written from Bella's PoV.

Bella

As the vampire crumbled to the ground I heard myself groan in frustration. I'd felt my stake wedge in between his ribs as I went in for the kill and knew I'd have a hell of a time pulling it out again.

I weighed the trouble of wrestling with the stake against leaving it behind but, even as I did, I knew it was my favorite stake and that I wasn't leaving without it. It was pure silver, after all, and sleek and perfectly balanced and, if I was being honest with myself, I looked good wielding it. Not the kind of thing you just leave behind because it gets caught in some lame vampire's ribcage.

I gave one last sigh of protest before I bent over, wrapped my hands around the stake, put my boot on the now defunct vampire's body and heaved with everything I had. It took all my strength but at last I felt my stake slide loose. I took a step back as what fluids were left in his body squirted out of the big new whole in his chest - the last of his life force draining from his body. Call me insensitive, but I was thinking that I didn't want his insides marring my perfectly good leather boots.

I wiped the stake clean on the dead vampire's shirt before I stood up and surveyed what was left of him; not much. With the stake out it only took a minute before the body had fully turned to ash and blew away, dust in the wind. It's one of the reasons why I loved using a stake for the kill so much - less clean-up.

I shoved my stake down my boot and turned to walk towards my Ducati, sitting just a few feet away and, instead, ran right into a rock solid body. My balance upset, I would have landed on my ass if hands of steel hadn't reached out and righted me. I knew before I looked up who belonged to the mass of body in front of me.

"Jesus, Em. Don't sneak up on me. You can get yourself killed like that," I chastised.

He smiled down at me and I knew that I hadn't fooled him, he knew I was pissed that he had managed to come up on me without me sensing him. In my line of work, that's how you end up as vampire food.

"Oh, fuck-off you big lug. I was distracted – I caught my stake on this fucktard of a vampire and had to wrestle it out," I spat out, annoyed.

"Was it Vengeance?" he asked, referring to my stake.

"Yeah," I answered, stepping away from him as I did.

Vengeance had a reputation all of its own, one it had come by long before I had gotten around to claiming the stake for myself. Sometimes I thought my damn stake was more infamous than I was.

"What are you doing here, anyway? I mean, it's not exactly your usual haunt," I said as I looked around. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere. I had trailed my quarry into the marsh and, besides Em and I, there wasn't another living sole within miles of us.

Actually, besides myself there wasn't another living sole within miles of us. Em was a vampire, so he didn't exactly count.

People often mistakenly believed that I hated all vampires because my job involved hunting them down and killing them. Not so. It was only Rogue vampires I had a problem with - as long as the other vampires didn't try to kill me, we were generally good to go.

Em walked over to my Ducati Multistrada 1200 and looked it over, the moonlight making it easy to see even if you weren't a vampire. Like all my bikes, this one was jet black and it was fast; my two requirements for any vehicle I drove.

"New bike, I see. What happened to the last one?" he asked, avoiding my question.

"I got tired of it," I answered.

"Really? And here I thought you totaled it when you crashed it into that swimming pool last week while chasing down Shamus."

Shamus Flannigan was a Rogue I'd been chasing for about as long as I can remember. He was a slippery bastard who managed to constantly stay one step ahead of me. He'd been a thorn in my side and would have been a huge embarrassment to me, if it weren't for the fact that none of the other Enforcers were able to catch him, either.

Still, I wasn't the other Enforcers.

I rolled my eyes at Em. "Why did you ask if you already knew what happened to it?"

"With you, it could have very well been just a rumor. It's hard to pick out what's fact or fiction when it comes to you and your reputation. So, did you catch your man, then?" he asked.

"I told you before, Em, I always catch my man."

"Ha! It's about time. It only took you seven years to pin him down. It was getting to be embarrassing, Bells. You should have just given up on him years ago."

"Fuck you, McCarty. I don't walk away from Rogues. Not even Shamus," I said trying to sound pissed but failing. Emmett was hard to get mad at, even when he was pushing your buttons.

At six foot five and two hundred-fifty pounds of pure muscle, Emmett was a force to be reckoned with. Though not the smartest vampire in the world he was probably amongst the strongest. Not for the first time, I thought of how glad I was that he had never gone Rogue; but I knew he didn't have the personality for living the Rogue lifestyle.

Em liked his creature comforts and he liked living in style and underneath all the muscle he was a big teddy bear, as long as you didn't get on his bad side. Luckily for me, he took a liking to me the first time we met.

"There's more to life than chasing down Rogues," Em said.

"Not when you're an Enforcer," I answered back automatically.

"Maybe it's time you looked into a new career then."

"This is the only thing I know how to do," I said.

And it was the truth. I'd been training to be an Enforcer since I was ten years old; at this point it was the only thing I was good at.

My job entails hunting down any and all vampires who've gone Rogue and either capturing them or killing them, depending on their offense and whether they're willing to come in peacefully, which isn't very often. A Rogue vampire is one who, for whatever reason, has risked exposing vampires to the world at large. The most common offenses are feeding off of humans, exposing their vampiric strength or powers in front of humans, or any other number of myriad things that generally scream supernatural to humans.

As an Enforcer I've been physically, mentally and emotionally trained to battle it out with vampires who are much stronger and often much older than I am. It's a tough job and it doesn't always equal a long life, but it's what I know and it's what I enjoy doing.

I walked over to the Duc and bent to pick up my helmet; thrown to the ground while chasing down my quarry. I focused my attention on Emmett and thought about how he'd avoided answering me on why I was bumping into him out in the middle of a fucking marsh. I was pretty sure he was hiding something, now I just needed to figure out the best approach to finding out what that something was.

"So, Em, what are you up to now?" I asked.

"Not a whole hell of a lot, baby girl."

I narrowed my eyes at his use of "baby girl", but I let it go. The truth was, Em is the one person allowed to take liberties with me and he knew it. He smirked at me when I let the moment go without giving him a hard time over it. He knew he was finally starting to wear me down – it had only taken about five years to do.

Em and I had met when I was twenty-one years old and still a relatively new Enforcer. While chasing down Shamus, something I had already been doing for two years by that point, I found myself at the Fangri-La, a vampire bar that served as a sort of home base for American vampires.

It was my first time at the infamous bar and though Enforcers were pretty well tolerated amongst mainstream vampires - we helped keep their secrets after all - I was still nervous about being there. I took a seat at the bar and ordered a Vodka Tonic and tried to look like I belonged. I had just forced myself to relax and look casual when the vampire sitting next to me commented, "Babe, you stick out like a sore thumb."

I turned to tell him to fuck off but stopped before I'd even gotten my mouth open. He was one of the largest vampires I had ever seen, not to mention, one of the sexiest. He looked about mid-twenties but, as he was a vampire, I knew that was absolutely no indication of his real age. He had brown hair cut short, with a slight natural curl to it. His eyes were chocolaty brown and his cheeks were dimpled, which was disconcerting on a vampire of his size. Looking him over, I didn't know whether I wanted to run and hide or eat him up. I thought option number one was probably the better choice but I had to admit, I was leaning more towards option number two.

After a long pause I realized he was waiting for me to say something back. I turned and looked over the other costumers at the bar and then looked down at myself. I couldn't see anything that made me so obviously stick out.

"How so," I asked.

"Babe. You're head to toe in black leather. No one is that obvious anymore. Don't get me wrong, you look sexy as hell, but its so passé. Black leather is so ten years ago - now we blend with the humans. If you want to fit in at a vampire bar, you're gonna have to ditch the leather."

I looked down considerately at my clothes. I was in a full black leather bodysuit that left little to the imagination. My hair was pulled back from my face with a black leather head band, but hanging loose over my shoulders. To top it off, I had black leather boots laced up to my knees.

I looked around me and saw khakis, jeans, little dresses, suits and even some pastels. He was right; I stuck out like a sore thumb. Usually it worked to my advantage but, I had to admit, it wasn't helping me a lot right now.

"It's what I'm comfortable in. And call me Babe again and I'll have to kick your ass, which I don't really want to have to do," I spat out, defensive.

He raised an eyebrow at me and, after a tense moment where I knew he was debating the merits of calling my bluff, he smiled and offered me his hand.

"Emmett McCarty," he said.

Against my better judgment I took his outstretched hand and introduced myself. "Isabella Swan."

The eyebrow once again went up, this time expressing interest.

"So you're Bella Swan, huh? You've already gotten quite the reputation. I'm glad to see that at least some of it is true," he said as he trailed his eyes down my body, letting me know which part of my reputation he thought I was living up to.

I rolled my eyes at him. "If that's the best you've got maybe we should just call this quits while we're still ahead."

"And what exactly is this?" he asked, obviously amused.

"You know, the sexual innuendos, the back and forth flirting, whatever else you've got planned for this conversation," I said, aware that I was in fact encouraging the flirting.

Well, what the hell. I wasn't a nun, after all, and Mr. McCarty had a lot going for him in the looks department.

"Babe, if you only knew what I had planned out for us, you'd be running out that door right now, not sitting here encouraging me."

And before I had time to think over the wisdom of my decision, I'd grabbed onto the bar to use as leverage and kicked Emmett's stool right out from under him.

I'd honestly expected him to catch himself before he hit ground – I mean, he was a vampire after all. Apparently, though, I'd caught him more unaware than I had realized because next thing I knew he was laying face-up on the floor.

I quickly decided that panic wouldn't help the situation at all – which was good as the bar had gone deathly quiet which surely would have made the panic worse, if I had decided that panic had been the way to go.

Instead, I quickly decided that bravado was the best option and so I said, "I told you not to call me Babe, Fucktard."

I could feel the silence stretching out as the other bar patrons waited to see what his reaction would be. After a fraught minute or two where I was sure he was going to kill me, he let out a loud laugh, hopped up off of the floor, righted his stool and sat down again.

"You've got a pair on you, Babe, that's for sure."

Deciding it was in my best interest to ignore the Babe this time around, I instead answered with, "That's what they tell me."

"Ha! So you'll be happy to know you've more than lived up to all of your reputation. Now, what are you doing in here? I've never seen you here before so I'm assuming you're here on business?" he asked.

"I am."

"Who are you after? Or are you not allowed to tell me that?"

"Shamus Flannigan," I answered, deciding there was no real reason not to.

"Oh man. You should give up on that idea, Babe. You're not catching Shamus; for that matter, no one's catching Shamus. He's been avoiding Enforcers for longer than you've been alive and I'd put good money on him evading them long after you're gone."

"That's a bet I'd be willing to take," I said, curious to see how he would react.

"What? You want to bet that you'll be able to catch Shamus?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"I do," I answered.

"All right, what should we put up?" he asked.

I thought it over trying to decide what I was willing to lose. The truth was, I traveled light and didn't have a lot of choices. After a few minutes contemplation, I reached down my shirt and pulled out my necklace, showing it to Emmett as I did.

"My Emblem," I said.

"Christ, you're confident. What makes you so sure you'll catch him?" he asked.

"Because, Emmett, I always catch my man. Now what'll you put up?"

I knew it would take him a minute to come up with something equal to my necklace. The Emblem was what each Enforcer was given after their first successful capture. It was supposed to symbolize their move from trainee to actual Enforcer. It was rare because Enforcers were rare and it was worth a lot, both financially and emotionally. I wouldn't be willing to put it on the line if I wasn't so sure I'd catch Flannigan; after all, I wasn't lying when I told Emmett I always catch my man.

"All right," Emmett said as he pulled a ring off of his pinky. "My father gave me this ring before I turned. How about we do my ring for your necklace?"

He handed me his ring so I could decide whether it was a fair trade-off. Gold with a huge diamond in the center, it was obviously worth a lot of money. But it was the emotional worth I was interested in and I thought this ring would probably be as important to Emmett as my necklace was to me. I felt a ping when I thought of eventually taking it from him but, he was a big boy, he knew what he was getting into.

"All right, seems fair to me," I said, handing him his ring back.

"So, terms of the bet. Your necklace for my ring. You get ten years, from this day, to catch Shamus Flannigan – if you succeed, you get my ring. If not, I get your necklace. Deal?" he asked.

"Deal," I answered, sure that I'd be able to catch Shamus well before the ten years was up. I offered my hand out to shake on it. Emmett smiled, reached out, grabbed my hand and, before I even knew what was happening, used it to pull me in for a kiss.

I thought for a second about protesting, but only for a second. Instead, I went with it. It had been a long while since anyone had tried to kiss me and Emmett was sexy, nice and funny; a seductive combination for me.

At first, the kiss was light; I knew Emmett wasn't sure if I was going to let him get away with it. When he realized I was kissing him back he deepened the kiss.

I felt his tongue slide across my lips, willing my mouth to open for him. I smiled to myself and then complied. His tongue slid into my mouth and, slowly, I sucked on it, eliciting a groan from him. He nibbled ever so lightly on my bottom lip before focusing again on my tongue.

His left hand had made its way to my neck, his thumb lightly stroking behind my ear. His right hand was entangled with my hair and I wasn't sure whether he was trying to keep me from trying to escape the embrace or pull me in deeper. I thought, maybe it was a little of both.

After an intense minute, I felt him slowly pull away. With my sanity returning, I realized my body was plastered to his and I could feel every large inch of him. I tried to step back a safe distance but he held me close, unwilling to completely break off the contact between us.

"Babe," he said. "Why don't we continue this back at my place?"

I took a deep breathe to steady myself and think through the possible consequences. It was dangerous and it was stupid but, I had to admit to myself, I wanted to go with him. The chemistry between us couldn't be denied and I knew I wanted to see where it would lead us.

"I don't think so," I finally answered. "I should be keeping my eye out for Shamus. I got word that he'd be here tonight and I've now got a lot riding on capturing that slippery bastard."

"You can pick up the hunt for Shamus again tomorrow. For now, we have unfinished business. I promise you, I'll make it worth the trouble of picking up Shamus' trail again later."

If I was talking to anyone else, I would have thought they were just being overly full of themselves. With Emmett, from what I'd seen and felt so far, I was pretty sure he'd be able to make good on his promise.

"You live far from here," I asked.

"Fifteen minutes."

"All right, let's go."

He reached in his pocket and grabbed a twenty and threw it down on the bar to cover our tip. Then, he took my hand and we headed out the door. It was the most impulsive thing I'd ever done in my life and surely the most dangerous, but for one night I was allowing myself to let loose and have some fun. What the hell, you're only young once.

I slid onto my Ducatti and reached back to grab the spare helmet, throwing it to Em.

"Feel like heading over to Fangri-La with me?" I asked.

Em smiled like he always did whenever one of us mentioned Fangri-La and I knew he was remembering back to that first night we met. That was one of the downfalls of sleeping with someone who would eventually become your best friend; they'd be able to picture you naked anytime they wanted to.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Just get on the damn bike, asshole."

"What? I can't smile about sharing a drink with my friend?" he asked.

"Not when you're picturing that friend naked. Now are you coming, or what?"

"Yeah, but I don't need this damn helmet and I'm doing the driving; you can sit on the back."

"The helmet is so we're not stopped by cops and nobody drives my bike. Get on the back."

"You're a hard woman, Bella Swan."

"And you're an evasive man, Emmett McCarty. You never answered my question as to what the hell you were doing out in the marsh in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere," I said, trying one last time to figure out what the hell was going on.

"We need to talk, but not now. Let's go back to Fangri-La. We've got some other things we need to discuss first," he answered.

"And a debt to settle," I said, the smile reaching my voice.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have a debt to settle. Now come on, you little Vixen, and show me how fast this new bike of yours can go."

And with that, I flipped the visor down on my helmet and took off. I take challenges seriously, and this was no exception. I had my baby flying before Emmett even had time to wrap his hands around my waste. I felt him jump to stay on the bike the scramble to grab a hold of me.

There was nothing I love more than catching a vampire off guard; especially when it was this vampire.

A/N:

So, let us know what you thought *hint, hint* and thanks for taking the time to read!