I don't think I need to make it clear so I will only do it in the first chapter of my stories. I do not own Twilight or the character within the series, a few characters are my creation but all recognizable characters and instances belong to Stephenie Meyer. Thank you Lovies!

Prologue-

Hidden within the deep reaches of the city, a lone girl fights for her life. Anyone watching would see the woman as the victim, innocent, angelic really. They would never guess that she was playing the role of hunter and the large hulking male she fought was her prey. He would fake right, she would knock him back. He tried for her jugular and she stepped just out of his grasp. It was a battle of wills, and wit. More than one hundred years hadn't given the man any knowledge of how to fight. His red eyes were empty, soulless. She felt no guilt in bringing down such a beast. First she takes his left arm, then his right, before she can count to ten, he's in pieces. She feels nothing for the beast, nothing at all as she gathers the pieces, slick with venom, and throws them into a dumpster.

"Ashes to Ashes." She smirks and she drops a match into the bin.

It was the beginning, the war. She had no idea that her life could change so drastically, she never thought she would be found. She slid through the door, her home, her haven, and was greeted by the scents of those she loved. In any other place, when she stepped into the living room of the large house, the black panther on the couch would have sent her running. It was not a normal house, not a normal haven, and no one that lived there was normal. She sat down beside the panther and stroked lovingly behind her ears.

Lorraine, the only name she ever knew, she was not alone, but she was the only one of her kind. The war was raging on and the humans were none the wiser. The battles and bloodshed happened beneath their windows in the night and they shrugged it off as if two cats were fighting. The city, the only place inhuman races could battle undetected in the middle of the street. The Panther purred against her touch, then shivered slightly before shrinking down into a human female.

"You're new here, huh?" Lorraine asked the young girl.

"Yeah." The girl whispered, she was afraid.

"In this world there are things you never thought could exist. It is a world filled with naïve humans, yes, but there are things that only come out to play when the humans aren't watching. There are two categories, protectors and demons. The protectors are those that are other than human, stronger, more able, what they are is born in them. It is natural for them. They protect the humans from the demons without ever letting our secret free. The humans can never know what we are."

"What am I?"

"You are a shape shifter. You come from a long line of them, the sect of Panthers that were long thought to have died out. We've been finding many scragglers here and there, I believe it is due to the rise in vampire activity."

"What are you?" The girl asked weakly.

"Well, I'm one of the few left of my kind. Long ago the shape shifters were at war with demons. The legends say that God grew angry at the imbalance of power, evil was winning, so he sent a fleet of angels down to earth to become allied with the shifters, protectors. They battled, good prevailed, and the angels went on to grow, evolve, bear children, and so forth. Angels are born human, we have no gifts other than a mental shield that protects us from gifted demons. When we are twice broken, the transformation begins, when we encounter a vampire after that, the transformation completes. I had my heart broken twice, then I only had to walk by a vampire on the street, the next thing I knew I was doubled over screaming my guts out." Lorraine shook herself from her memory, "I'm babbling."

"An angel." The girl murmured, Lorraine turned her back to the child, showing her what looked like a very detailed tattoo of large black wings. "They're beautiful."

"They get me out of a tight spot now and then too."

An infant cried from a room in the upper part of the house, Lorraine smiled to herself as the cry came closer. Descending down the stairs was a beautiful man. His ink black hair fell into his sapphire blue eyes as he cradled the bundle of squirming blankets in his arms. Holt, the most beautiful man Lorraine had ever seen, stepped into the room. Instantly the crying changed into a delighted squeal. Tiny hands reached out from the bundle and grasped at the empty air, the child had felt her mother's presence.

Lorraine greedily pulled the babe into her arms and peppered her face with gentle kisses, "Mommy's home, love, don't you worry." She fixed her gaze with those wide, chocolate eyes and smiled. "Everyone is safe, my sweet Isabella."

The infant gurgled and smiled, fisting her mother's ink colored hair and gazing intently on those sapphire blue eyes. Both of her parents were the same in that regard, same hair, same eyes, it came with the transformation. The two were lost in the gaze, mother and child, lost in the moment. Loved, cared for, protected. Everything the two of them needed was within reach. Until the shout came from right outside.

"THEY'RE COMING! AN ENTIRE ARMY, WE CAN'T TAKE THEM ALL!" One of the guards bellowed. The house quickly erupted into chaos. Lorraine jerked to attention and looked to the child in her arms. The whole reason for the war was that the vampires were trying to wipe out the angels, they were scared, they had every reason to be. Her heart thundered in her chest and Isabella sensed her mother's panic and let out a whine.

"Quiet love, mommy is going to get you out of here." She whispered as the door shattered into a million splinters.

Holt charged toward the door, shoving out the intruders and quickly being surrounded by the enemy. Lorraine remained frozen in horror as her mate was dragged to the ground and ripped to pieces. She couldn't even make a sound, it would have escaped as an agonized scream. Isabella wriggled, trying to get free of her mother's suddenly suffocating hold. The movement caught Lorraine's attention and she did the only thing she could thing to do. She raced up the stairs, slightly stronger and faster than her enemies, she climbed out the window and leapt into the sky with Isabella cradled against her chest. As her massive black wings shot from her spine, Lorraine let out a small gasp of relief, she could save her child.

She flew high above the Earth, so she wouldn't be detected by humans. Briefly considering fleeing to the other side of the world, she decided to head west. She would find somewhere to keep Isabella out of the battle, then she would flee. She would take the danger with her, no one would know that the baby wasn't human. She found a small town and waited, keeping watch over the residents trying to find the perfect match. At last, a week after arriving in the little town, she found the fit. A married couple who were having problems, they'd lost an infant and wouldn't risk trying again. The wife was at the end of her tether, ready to leave the man that loved her so deeply.

Very early in the morning, the woman was packing her things. Lorraine took it as her opportunity to have a safe place for her daughter to grow up. She put her in a moses basket, covered her sleeping frame with blankets, and placed a letter beside her legs. Kissing the child's forehead and wiping the newly shed tears from thick mahogany hair, Lorraine turned her back on her child, to save her life. She left without a second glance behind her, if she turned, she would surely snatch her daughter up and never part with her.

That decision was the best Lorraine had ever made, for one week later, while seeking out a new safe haven for herself, the vampires caught up with her. She cried in relief that her child was safe as the monster swung to remove her head.