Yay! The sequel to The Apple Tree is up way before planned! Sorry if this chapter seems rushed by the way, I was anxious to add in the Cullens and make it juicy! R&R!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Twilight, but I do own all of the new characters you meet in the story!

Chapter One

Car Rides

I laid my head back onto the cool leather seat of the car. We were driving in a light teal 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible. We had the top down and the oldies station on and blaring. Our hair was blowing free in the wind as we drove down the empty highway that cut through vast, empty fields full of wild flowers and telephone polls.

Audrey and I were currently singing to the song "I Love Rock and Roll", and we were singing it well.

It had been seventeen years since I changed, and I had not seen my family, the Cullens, or Damien once. It was just Audrey and I. We had become best friends, basically sisters, and we told each other everything. I still had trouble dealing with the fact that the Cullens had abandoned me and that Edward hadn't wanted me anymore, but seventeen years of closure was plenty of time to move on. Partially.

I knew everything there was to know about Audrey, just like she knew everything about me.

We never used credit cards or checks, only cash. Our cash stream never faltered. In fact, just last night Audrey and I had won over five thousand bucks in cash by using our 'gifts' in a bar off of the highway.

Audrey's gift was very useful, but also grounded. She could manipulate people's eyesight; make them see things that weren't really there. Though in order for it to work, the person had to have seen the object recently. For instance, the reason Audrey had beaten Damien so easily was because she was making him see her body in a different place then where it really was.

Her power also is what makes us win cash. Last night we had bet money on a pool game between her and some thugs. She would make them see the pool ball someplace where it wasn't, and they would always miss. When they accused us of cheating, we just dazzled them and left with the cash.

My power was very flat out and straightforward. I was immune to other vampire's powers. That meant Audrey couldn't manipulate my eyesight, Alice couldn't see me in any visions, Jasper wouldn't be able to change my feelings, nor could Edward read my mind.

I could also weaken a vampire's super strength to that of a human, and I could also make them run as slow as one. That annoyed Audrey whenever we raced.

We were both vegetarians, of course, and neither of us hunted humans.

We were on our way to New York now. New York was a perfect place for us drifters. Plus, that's where our boyfriends lived.

Yes, I said boyfriends.

Around two years ago Audrey and I met some other really nice veggie vampires in Tennessee. Audrey's boyfriend's name was Wes, and my boyfriend's name was Gavin. Wes was strong and goofy, and Gavin was handsome and alluring. His skin tone was strange, though. Sort of Native American toned mixed with the vampire white. They both had bought a studio apartment in New York for all of us to settle in, and that's where we were headed for now.

Plus, New York had plenty of hole-in-the-wall bars for Audrey and I to make cash in.

We were only an hour or two away now. We were driving threw upstate New York, for we had been living in Canada.

When we got into New York we put the top up on the car and found a parking spot with relative ease. We grabbed the small amount of luggage we had and made our way up the stairs and into our apartment.

Before I had even set my stuff down, Gavin had his arms wrapped around me in a tight embrace. We kissed for a while before he set me down. Audrey and Wes were in the hall kissing, and one of them was starting to moan.

"At least get in your rooms first!" Gavin teased.

They broke apart and Audrey gave Gavin a hug. I hugged Wes.

The inside of the apartment was really nice. There was a wide-open living room and kitchen with no walls blocking them, though there was a counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. The whole South wall was a big window, though thank God for us there were big, thick red curtains.

There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The men were going to share a room and so were the females, upon Gavin and mine's request. It was impossible to get peace and quiet when Wes and Audrey were in a bedroom together.

In a couple of hours we had the place completely furnished. The living room had nice cherry wood floors. We put up a nice, big television on a stand in front of the window, with a bunch of assorted colored couches grouped around it. There were various colored coffee tables in the room, too, with assorted flowers and lamps on top of them.

We decorated the walls with paintings of all sizes and colors, along with different sized mirrors. We had a lot of flowers and plants around, too.

The kitchen floor and cabinets matched the living room floor, though each cabinet door front was glass. Instead of tiles between the counters and cabinets, there was red brick. The counter tops were made of black granite. There was a nice big silver stove which we would never use, along with an island counter in the middle, equipped with bar stools and a mini fridge.

Audrey and my room had a lighter oak colored wood floor, and the part of the wall that wasn't window was a nice vibrant pinkish red color. We had assorted color couches and chairs here, along with various pictures and mirrors. We also had our own television. And we had a little table and mirror that held all of our make up and hair products that wouldn't fit in our bathroom.

The boy's room was basically the same as ours, except with deep blue walls and different paintings and furniture.

All the curtains for the big wall sized windows were the same. They were all heavy and a deep red color, the kind you expect to see in a theatre. We loved them nonetheless.

After talking and kissing Gavin, I told everyone I was going to go for a walk and explore New York City. They offered to come, but I said I just wanted to think. Audrey and Wes agreed and hastily ran into his room, while Gavin turned the TV up loud to drown out their noise.

I grabbed my black cloak, even though I didn't need it, just to look normal. It was chilly out, not that it affected vampires in anyway. It was also cloudy, so I was free to go outside without having to worry about sparkling.

I walked around the city thinking hard, not really caring where I was going. I hardly noticed all the lustful stares I was getting from men, and the jealous ones I was getting from girls.

I still loved Edward. I had realized that more then ever when I saw Gavin. Gavin and I had never done anything by my wishes. I couldn't be sure why, though I secretly knew it had to do with Edward. Audrey told me on a daily basis to get over him, but I couldn't.

Sometimes I wondered if he was even still alive, or if he had done something to take his undead life when I went with Audrey. Even the thought of that filled me with a blistering hurt, so I just pushed that to the back of my brain.

I saw there was some kind of hold up on the street before me, so I turned down an alley. I never would've walked down and alley in my human days, for fear of muggers. But now I didn't really care.

Just as I thought that, a short man with spiked black hair and weird orange eyes pounced on me. He knocked me into the building behind me, and I fell to the ground with him perched on top of me.

"Do you know who I am?" he whispered into my ear.

"No," I said.

"Well I know who you are," he whispered.

"And who exactly am I?" I asked.

"You're the one who got away," he whispered. "But not this time. This time my very own teeth will destroy you. They are strong, and fierce, and sharp-"

I cut off his rant.

"It's really weird to gloat about teeth you know," I said. Then I used my power, put my hand in his mouth and pulled out his two incisors. "Especially when they aren't that strong."

I threw him off of me and into the building on the opposite side. He ran towards me, preparing to punch me in rage. I used my power when he punched my face. I heard his knuckles crack and break.

He screamed out in agony and fell to his knees. I grabbed him by his head and slammed him through the boarded up glass of a warehouse wall in the alley.

"Impressive," said a female voice casually from behind me

I turned around sharply and let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Another one! Can't anyone think in this city without being disturbed!" I huffed.

"Oh, I'm not hear to fight you," she laughed. "I was here to track him. He's another one of Damien's army of pathetic losers bent on destroying vampires."

My eyes widened in shock at her words. He had an army!

"So is it true you are the one who Damien didn't kill? He became a shamed recluse for years. Apparently he meant to dry a girl out of her blood, but ended up changing her," she let out a giggle. She sounded as though she had no respect for Damien at all.

"Yeah, I'm her, I guess. So are you a part of some sort of resistance?" I asked hesitantly.

"Exactly. Follow me; I'll take you to where we hang out. By the way, my name is Diem," she said with a smile.

I then noticed how pretty she was. She was sort of short with long, extremely light blonde hair. She had nice, full lips that were light, shiny, and pink.

"Okay," I said. "My name is Bella."

We took off to a vampire speed run, going too fast for anyone to notice us. We still went through a string of non-crowded back alleys, any way though.

She stopped a couple of minutes later in a dead end. It was a small alley far from the main streets with tall buildings on either side. It was rather dark except for a dinky lamp near a door. It was the only door in the whole alley, Bella noted. There were no windows either.

The alley was very nondescript; each surrounding wall was brick. The door was brown and hardly noticeable. The light was a sort of lantern that hung from the wall. There was a small green awning over the door.

Audrey whispered something fast and low through the door, even too fast and low for my hearing. The door opened. There was a large balding, fierce looking man holding the door open for us.

We went in and down a long, straight staircase. It was dark and there were no handrails. If I had been human I surely would've fallen. When we finally got down we were in a small room with a large pool table in the center.

There were three doorways, one on each side of the room. A bunch of vampires were leaning around watching the game take place. There were around seven or eight in this one room.

I heard collective gasps, but two sounded louder then the rest. I looked up to see that everyone had stopped talking to gape at me.

Diem broke the weird silence.

"This is Bella. She's the one who he changed, and she wants to be on our side," She said with a big smile.

I was still scanning the room for wherever the loud gasps had come from. That's when I saw them, standing against a doorway looking utterly shocked.

It was Emmett and Jasper, and they looked like they had seen a ghost.

I let out a small shriek.

"Umm nice meeting you all. Thanks Diem, gotta' go. Bye!" I said quickly under my breath before turning around and running full speed up the stairs.

I could feel Emmett and Jasper right behind me, so I sped up.

I was running hard but they seemed determined not to let me go. I felt Emmett's arm grab mine and he flipped me to face him.

"What!" I snapped.

They both seemed caught completely off guard at my anger. They now wanted to talk to me! After leaving me seventeen years ago!

"Bella," Jasper whispered, shocked.

"Listen, don't give me explanations. I don't need to know why you left me to go through hell and back by my own. Just let me leave, and make this easier on all of us by not telling Edward," I hissed.

"Bella, what are you talking about?" Emmett asked. He was starting to get very mad, but I wasn't paying attention.

Edward had just walked around the corner.

By the way, if you think I'm like a car know it all from my nifty little description, I'm not. I just like googled "classic cars" lol. PM your email adress if you wanna' see a picture of their exact car! Review!