This is my first attempt at a multi-chapter fic. The story was kicking around in my head for a while, and when the voices got too loud I knew I needed to write it down. I'm still working on it, but now I have some peace and quiet.

Just to let you know, Bella is not in this fic, but don't let that stop you from reading it.

Special thanks to my Betas, Kaley, aka struck_at_the_sky, and Stephanie for making sure my writing makes sense, and for helping me slowly let go of my obsession with commas and semicolons.

And please check out struck_at_the_sky's stories, "Bound to a Secret" and its sequel "Bound to a Secret 2". They're made of awesome!

Standard Disclaimer:

Things I Own: my handsome husband, many, many Super-Sticky Post-It note pads, two evil cats, and more shoes than even my husband thinks I have.

Things I Don't Own: Edward Cullen (although he thinks he owns me), and Twilight. These belong to Stephanie Meyer.

And this story is rated M for a reason…Lemons and Language.

On with the show...

Chapter 1: Visions and Hallucinations

ALICE POV

The blue car pulled up in front of the house, the gravel crunching under the tires. As if watching a movie, I saw myself yank open the front door and step onto the porch, watching the strange vehicle intently. There was no sign of fear on my face, only excitement. I sensed the others gathering behind me, as curious as I was. The driver's side door opened and a blurry figure exited the car. I could tell it was a woman simply by her shape. I couldn't make out any of her features, but the general expression on her face was one of apprehension. I could tell she was about to address us…

As always, the vision faded right before the woman spoke. I sighed in frustration, trying to keep my emotions in check, and leaned against Jasper, who gently kissed the top of my head. "You okay, darlin'? That's been happening a lot lately."

I sighed again, a human tic I had picked up. Jasper was right. It had been happening a lot lately. A freak among freaks, I was a psychic vampire. Having visions themselves weren't unusual. In fact, they were part of my daily life. But, having the same fuzzy vision over and over was not normal, even for me.

My husband divided his attention between checking on me and watching the television where he was savagely beating Emmett at Dr. Mario. Having had their fill of "challenging" video games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Gears of War, they decided to go old school and download every classic Nintendo game they could onto our Wii.

Also, Edward, our moody, mind-reading brother, couldn't use their thoughts against them with a game like that. It evened the playing field a bit, and Jasper and Emmett weren't shy about letting Edward know it. This particular evening though, Carlisle, Esme and Edward had gone hunting and our sister Rosalie was in the garage tuning her BMW, so it was just the three of us.

I smiled at him and kissed the side of his neck. "I'm fine, Jazz. But every single freakin' day for the past month I've seen the same thing and then it fades out, like some cheesy soap opera cliffhanger. It's just so irritating when someone won't make up their mind." Jasper knew as well as I did that unless someone made a concrete decision and stuck to it, I wouldn't be able to see for sure what would happen. Until then, I had to deal with my vision of the blurry-faced woman who never made it far enough along to say anything.

Jasper nodded, understanding. Being an empath, he could sense through my emotions that there was no real cause for concern. I'm sure it was hard to pick out my frustration from Emmett's… he was losing miserably.

"Well, we'll just keep waiting then. Whoever you're seeing will probably decide something soon. Both yesterday and today you've had the vision twice. That means they're getting close." After so many years together, he could read my talent almost as well as I could myself. Jasper cocked his head in my direction, but his eyes were still on the colorful pills falling on the big screen. "Has Edward seen any of them?" he whispered tentatively. Jasper knew Edward could 'see' my visions if he was reading my thoughts when I had one.

I kept my voice low so only Jasper could hear and spoke softly into his ear. "No, you're the only one who knows anything. I've been blocking Edward from seeing them. I hate having him see my visions before I've had a chance to figure them out. You know how he blows everything out of proportion." I rolled my eyes. For such a serious guy, Edward could be such a drama queen.

Jasper chuckled, partly at me and partly at Emmett, who had thrown his Wiimote out the window, swearing loudly. That was his third one of the night. Even without being able to see the future, I could see that we'd be making another trip to Best Buy soon…and we'd already bought them out of Wiimotes once in the past month.

I ignored the sore loser. "But there's one other thing. I have a weird feeling that this…well…whatever this is, has something to do with Edward. I don't know how it does," I said, preempting Jasper's questioning look. "But I'm sure we'll find out. This visitor will be very different." He nodded in agreement. Nobody ever bet against me, and with good reason.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll make sure Edward knows nothing of this, either. I know he won't find hearing the Confederate States Constitution in Japanese over and over very interesting at all." Jasper leaned in and softly kissed my lips. I closed my eyes as he lightly traced my lips with his tongue, deepening the kiss. The moment was ruined by another Wiimote meeting its end, this time shattering against Jasper's right temple.

"Jesus, get a room!" Emmett grinned at us and I stuck my tiny tongue out at him.

"Em, you suck at this game. I was able to kick your ass and make out with my wife at the same time." Jasper looked smugly at him before he turned to me, pointing accusingly. "And you should have seen that coming."

"Split second decision, Jazz." I shrugged, perhaps a little too innocently. "Plus, I was a little preoccupied." I grabbed his wavy blond hair and pulled him to me as I straddled him, our lips meeting again.

"Well, fuck this. I'm gonna go find Rose. And just so you know it's still weird when you radiate horniness, Jazz; really fuckin' disturbing." Emmett left to go upstairs, shaking his head, obviously a little distressed by the emotions Jasper was giving off.

"You know, Jazz, he really doesn't need your help in that department," I giggled. "Poor Rosalie."

He laughed and lifted me up onto the couch, handing me a Wiimote. "Best out of three? Winner takes all."

"I like the sound of that," I replied, and looked into the future. I flashed him a grin a second later. "Excellent."

"No fair, now you know who wins." Jasper pretended to pout, but he just succeeded in looking more handsome than ever.

"Jazz, I can honestly say that tonight, there will be no winners or losers." I gave him a big, flirty wink.

"Well, when you put it that way, darlin'," he said, golden eyes twinkling. "Game on."

THEDA POV

Goddammit! - This was getting ridiculous. For once, in the many years of my existence, I lived in a location I didn't despise and worked doing something I enjoyed. I even had friends…well, sort of, if you could count people who didn't instantly back away from you with subconscious fear as "friends". Hell, they even readily accepted my excuse for my freezing hands…poor circulation.

Okay, so maybe I was being a little melodramatic. This wasn't the first time I'd lived in a place I liked or the first time I'd held an enjoyable job. But it was the first time I'd felt compelled to move elsewhere unprovoked and so soon after settling in. And when I say compelled, that's a gross understatement. It felt like a giant magnet was tugging on me and I was holding on for dear life.

I lay on my couch, laptop perched on my stomach, with Internet Explorer open to Google Maps. As I zoomed in on the state of Washington, I reflected on what had been happening. This feeling had started about a month ago, and slowly developed from a nagging thought into an undeniable pull, leading me toward the extreme Northwestern U.S. During the past week, it had gotten to the point where even if I was instantly teleported to wherever I was supposed to be, it wouldn't be fast enough.

I would have to do something soon, or I would go crazy. And last I checked I was pretty sure vampires couldn't go crazy. But I sure felt that way, especially when the visions started. I'm not even sure that you could call them visions, they were more like hallucinations, but I was certainly seeing something. Somehow they were always the same, at least until recently; a tiny, pixie-like woman with black, spiky hair. She was always in the visions.

Then, as of this past week, he was in them as well. He was beautiful. Tall, with sculpted features, soft-looking disheveled hair of an unusual shade of bronze, pale skin that almost glowed, and smoldering golden eyes.

His eyes were what caught my attention first; they were the same shade as mine. But I couldn't honestly say it was just his eyes that caused the butterflies in my stomach whenever I saw him. The next time I had a vision, I made sure to pay attention to the shade of the little pixie's eyes. They were identical. Huh. Other vampires? And they seemed to share my strict, animals-only diet. It was an unusual lifestyle choice, but obviously not unheard of. I was proof of that. Maybe I was supposed to find them. Or they would find me? I had no idea.

While waiting for the webpage to load, the vision happened again. The laptop I'd been staring at gradually faded into the background as the image of the small woman dominated my mind.

The pixie woman with the golden eyes smiled and reached out toward me. It was genuine, a welcoming gesture, as if she knew who I was or was expecting me. Suddenly, without warning, a name came across to me. There was no sound… it was more of a feeling, an impression. ALICE.

The laptop materialized back into existence as the vision faded, and I suddenly knew what I had to do. I checked the clock in the lower right corner of the screen. 3:42 am. I had about five hours before I could go into work to speak with my supervisor. I did a lot of my work from home, so I wasn't usually expected in. That was probably a good thing, as it kept my contact with my coworkers to a minimum. Humans felt more comfortable communicating with me through phone calls or emails, and it was a wonderful excuse for not going in on sunny days.

I would go in and hand in my resignation. I would tell them something came up, a family emergency perhaps, which required a lot of time and travel. They would feel terrible, I imagined, but it wasn't a big deal to me. I'd had to do it many times before, just under different circumstances. I didn't need to work anyway, having bank accounts that would make Bill Gates piss his pants, although I never flaunted it. I guess that's what you get for having unlimited time for long-term investing. I just liked to be productive; to give back a little to society, I guess.

After I went in to work, I would come back and pack my car with what I could and make arrangements with my entirely-too-sweet landlady to have the rest of my belongings in my condo packed up and put in storage. She liked me a lot for whatever reason. I think she took pity on a young single gal all alone in a new city. I would genuinely miss her, but I knew I needed to leave. I had to be elsewhere, was needed elsewhere, and I had to get there as soon as possible.

Now that I'd made my decision, perhaps the pull would lessen and I'd be able to take my time. It couldn't take more than, what - thirty-six hours to get to even the farthest tip of Washington? And that's if I drove the speed limit, which wasn't going to happen. I could afford to take my time, see more parts of the country, and make a decent hunting trip. I missed the big game out West.

With the maps for my trip firmly etched into my photographic memory, I shut down my laptop. To kill time before my office visit, I began reading the Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. I loved stories with fantastical creatures; they made me feel less alone.

ALICE POV

"Well, what do you want for your reward, m' lady?" Jasper teased, lips moving in butterfly kisses over my neck. It had been close, but my strategy had paid off and I had won the first and third rounds of our Dr. Mario duel. "Because I know what I'd want if I won…" He trailed off and pressed his lips to mine.

"Hmm…give me a minute to think about that," I said, pulling back from him and gloating a bit. I usually didn't have any urge to play video games, but maybe I would have to start. Suddenly, my vision glazed and for the first time, I was able to see it clearly.

The vibrant blue sport sedan pulled up in front of the house. Once again, I saw myself pull open the front door and step onto the porch, watching the new arrival. There was no sign of fear on my face, only excitement. I sensed the others gathering behind me, as curious as I was. The driver's side door opened and a figure exited the car.

This time I could tell it was a petite woman, a little taller than me. She had beautiful, pale features. Her dark brown hair was cut to chin-length in a style reminiscent of Victoria Beckham's before she chopped all of her hair off, and she appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties. But the most striking feature was her eyes. They were topaz, just like ours. She was a vampire.

The vision faded out, but I knew I would see more later on as her plans became finalized. I let out a squeal and raced out of the room, leaving Jasper behind. I felt a wave of confusion as he followed me to the living room.

Carlisle, Esme and Edward had already returned from hunting and were sitting on the white couch and loveseat, quietly talking, which stopped the moment they saw me. Edward looked at me strangely and I began to sing Britney Spears songs in my head, some of his least favorite things to hear. He looked away immediately, his distaste obvious. Emmett and Rosalie came down from their bedroom looking rumpled but curious, sitting on the couch next to Edward.

"We were just discussing you, Alice," Edward started, noticeably eager to get some information out of me. "You've been blocking me from hearing your thoughts these past few weeks; more than usual, like you're doing now." He made a face as I finished "Oops, I Did It Again". "What's going on?"

I grinned as I addressed my family. "Ladies and gents, we're going to have a visitor."