Chapter 3

A few days have passed since that day in the Park, and I have been reading what little we have with us in the car about vampires. I would try the internet but when it comes to most vampire as well as the more popular creatures like werewolves; the lore about them online is rubbish. I know more about vampires than most hunters, mostly from having a great grandfather that is one and has been in regular contact with my father for as long as I remember.

Not long after I got back to the hotel room my uncle Fred showed up, he came as soon as he heard about my dad and has taken over a great deal of the responsibilities toward getting Charlie to sit still long enough to heal. Grandpa Charlie is spending most of his time here as well which has helped me greatly in my research but there is things even he cannot tell me. The Cullen's haven't been around since that day in the park, apparently they have all rushed off to New York because of some massive falling out between Rosalie and Emmett.

"Don't worry you'll see him soon enough," Grandpa Charlie said breaking me out of my reverie.

"See who Grandpa Charlie?" I asked trying to play dumb.

"Edward of course. I know you can't stop thinking of him."

"And why is that then?" I asked him outright. I'm frustrated because he knows something and he won't tell me, and so do the rest of my family for that matter.

"Because your his singer," he replied and smirked at my bemused expression. "No I'm not telling you any more just pointing you in the right direction, this is something the both of you need to work out yourselves. You do need to do more research though it's not common knowledge even among vampires. There is stacks of old journals in the storage lock up in South Dakota, you should go get them."

I sighed resigned that he wasn't going to give me any farther information. "I need to go to Bobby's anyway. I need a new back seat for my car, I had to dispose of the last one it had too much blood on it."

"Good to hear. Charlie already knows your going. I think him and Fred will have found a place to rent before you get back, and he's enrolling you in Forks High now he's been convinced to stay here so you'll have school when you get back as well. So can I get a lift up to the Cullen's place?"

I groaned as he smirked knowing he's won whatever game it is he's playing. "Sometimes I think you have Alice's talent instead of a mental shield."

"I can borrow talents if I throw my shield over the vampire who has that talent, but shh don't tell anyone, last thing I need is Aro finding out. That's why I frequently drop my shield around people, so Aro can't find out I have it."

"Aro?"

"A sadistic bastard of a vampire who holds the power base in the Voltaire. Anyway don't mind him you don't need to worry too much. He just likes to collect vampires with gifts he can use to increase his power."

Shrugging it off for now and filing it away in my head for later, I grab the keys to my car and follow him out the door of the motel room.

****

We arrived at the Cullen's hidden mansion home amongst the trees, to find a heartbroken looking vampire I had never seen before sitting on the steps leading up to the house, and Alice with a comforting arm around him, Edward sitting on the other side of the bear of a vampire, and Jasper standing in the background, lending comfort by his mere presence. I didn't want to intrude in what looked like such a private moment so I let Grandpa Charlie off and went on my way.

That was half an hour ago, right now I am currently at a gas station paying for a fresh tank of gas and the snacks I've bought for the road.

Walking out of the shop I got in my car and was about to take off when I heard the passenger door open and close and looked over to see Edward sitting in the seat beside me. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you are going on a road trip," he replied smoothly throwing a rucksack into the back seat beside where Scruff was currently sleeping and slept still as unconcerned as could be that there is currently a vampire in the car with us. "Only one dog I see."

"Yes Swift is staying with Charlie," I replied automatically then shook out of it. "You still didn't answer my question."

He looked into my eyes and gave me the most dazzling smile, "I can go if you prefer."

"NO!" I blushed at my abrupt answer, "I mean it's OK you can come if you like, it's no big."

"You really shouldn't you know," Edward replied exasperated.

"I really need to pick some stuff up from storage lock up and I need a new back seat rather than the bare metal shelf.."

"No I meant want me to come. I'd be alone with you, it would be so easy for me to give in to temptation and drink you dry. There is so much that could have happened to you that I could use as an excuse to dispose of the body, no one knows I'm here--"

"Get over yourself, I swear you put that vampire in 'interview with a vampire' to shame you're so emo. Listen if you were going to, you would have by now. Besides I'm no where near as helpless as I look, I know of about six ways I could kill you right now if you tried, or do you need another demonstration like the one I gave when we first met?"

I started the car and pulled out of the gas station as he gave a snort and replied dejectedly, "any normal person would have been scared by now."

I gave my own snort, "you may or may not have noticed, but my family is anything but normal. Besides you're just trying to steer the conversation away from why you're here."

He seemed to think for a moment then answered, "I needed to get away from the thoughts of my family." At the quizzical look I gave him he clarified, "that's my 'gift' I can read the minds of everyone around me... well almost everyone. I can read everyone's but yours."

"Why what's wrong with me?"

He laughed then, "I tell you, I can read minds, and you want to know what is wrong with you?"

"Good point," I conceded. "So you can read minds and Alice can see the future, what can Jasper do then? Carlisle said you and Jasper have gifts as well after explaining Alice's."

"Jasper feels every emotion other people does as if he felt them himself, he can also project emotions on people to make them feel things. He's having a hard time at the moment as well."

"That explains a few things," I muttered under my breath. "So has all this got something to do with that rather heartbroken guy I saw on your porch this morning?"

Edward winced, I hit a sore spot. "Emmett and Rosalie broke up. Rose has left the family and ran off with another vampire she met in New York. I'd rather talk about something else if you don't mind."

So we started talking about everything from our favorite color to what music we liked and disliked, hobbies, school, hunting, my family, his family, his human family, and by the time we pulled into 'Singer's Salvage' in the dead of night I had discovered we had a lot in common.

"Just be careful, I don't know how welcome you're going to be, Bobby is rather jumpy and airs on the extreme side of caution. You don't get to be an old hunter without a healthy does of paranoia. He's going to know exactly what you are as soon as he sees you."

Edward just nodded and followed me to the house as we got out of the car. "That's a 1967 Chevy Impala," Edward gaped at the black car we had parked beside.

"Yes and it's not for sale. You'd have to pry it from Dean Winchester's cold dead fingers in the fiery pits of hell. And trust me Dean's an exceptionally good hunter, it's a lot easier said than done. Also mess with Dean you got to deal with his brother Sam and that goes the other way around too; you'd also have to deal with me, Sam and Dean are family even if they don't know they are."

"Their grandfather on their mother's side and Charlie's father are brothers." I told him at the look he was giving me. "Their mother was killed in Sam's nursery by a demon when he was six months old, family curse strikes again, the cycle continues as they get pulled into this life along with their father. They don't know about the curse or that their mother was a hunter, Charlie never wanted their father John to know, it would have spoiled his memories of her and those are all he had left. We just don't know how to tell Sam and Dean though."

We walked into the house only for Edward to duck behind me as Bobby came running wielding a flame thrower and Sam and Dean looked on bewildered. "Bobby, it's ok! Look at his eyes, yellow, he's an animal drinker!"

"Bella why the fuck have you brought a vampire into my house with you?" Bobby asked pausing momentarily.

"He's Edward Cullen, Carlisle's son, and if I thought for a second he was any danger to the human population I would have torched him by now. He came with me to clear his head, he's having some family problems at the moment. Besides, see that rather weak defence of hiding behind a girl? He's that weak from the dead man's blood I introduced to his system via my knife, he can't hunt anything bigger than a small house cat by himself at the moment." I looked at Edward apologeticly, "Sorry Edward, I know you've been keeping up a good facade of health but really that guy had been dead a week before the blood was taken from him. And hate to brake it to you, you're not the first vampire I've stabbed dead man's blood into, though probably the longest I've left alive after. I know the signs and none of them was ever as weak as you where after."

Bobby put down the flame thrower, muttering about finding anti-vampire wards, then looked up to me again. "Isabella Marie Swan, you are many things but a 'girl' or a lady for that matter, isn't one of them," he joked.

I smirked then took the few steps over to Bobby and threw my arms around him for a brief hug, "good to see you again too Bobby."

The three other occupants of the room just watched us in various stages of bewilderment. Finally Dean spoke up, "uh aren't we forgetting the point of the matter here? Vampire, standing in your living room?"

"Dean don't be an idget; he's harmless he only drinks animal blood, and he's a Cullen at that, don't want to go upsetting Carlisle you may need him someday."

"I still don't get it, him vampire, us hunter, why are we letting him live even if he does only eat the odd house cat?"

"Actually mountain lion is my favorite, small mammals really aren't all that appetizing," Edward corrected as if it was the most natural thing in the world and they weren't discussing killing him.

Sam smacked Dean on the arm and joined in, "yes it does matter what he eats, he's making an effort not to be a monster. We kill evil, I really don't get an evil vibe of him, just like those vampires we saved, the ones that Gordon was hunting, remember? They only drank cow blood."

"Cow blood?" Edward asked with a grimace, "never mind," he replied curtly when the brothers looked over at him with a 'do you mind we're arguing about killing you here' look.

"Dean we're not killing him, look at him, if he wanted to kill us he could have done it by now."

Dean sighed, and sat down on a chair beside one of the many book covered desks in Bobby's living room, "fine you win Sammy, but if there is any mysterious deaths where the person appears to have been drained of all blood, I'm killing him." He looked over to Bobby and asked, "who's Carlisle?"

"Doctor Carlisle Cullen is the head of Edward's coven, they unlike most vampires only drink animal blood because they have a desire to live as close a life to human as possible and value human life. Also drinking only from animals makes them less violent and more able to coexist. Carlisle was a hunter three hundred years ago and had tracked down a coven hiding in the sewers of London. Carlisle was attacked, but something happened the vampire stopped and left him, so the venom spread and Carlisle was transformed. I don't know all the details but he became a doctor and is pretty much immune to the smell of human blood now, and he dedicates his existence to preserving human life, and is one heck of a good doctor. He helps hunters when he can if they come to him with work related injuries that would be rather hard to explain to doctors. Many a hunter including myself would be dead if it wasn't for Carlisle's skill as a surgeon, and treating supernaturally inflicted wounds."

"Anyway sorry if we called at a bad time, I was on my way to Wyoming, thought I'd drop by, need a new back seat for my car, had to get rid of the last one, it had way too much blood on it," I interrupted as soon as Bobby finished his explanation.

"You still driving that peace of junk your father built out of spare parts?"

"Hay that's my car your insulting, Dean Winchester! At least it's not as conspicuous as a 1967 Chevy Impala. I got no idea how you manage to avoid being followed in that thing."

"Hay now wait just a --" Dean was interrupted by an elbow to the ribs from Sam.

"Dean, don't start this again. She's been jabbing at you about that car since Dad gave it to you, you know she's only doing it to wined you up." I laughed and Sam came over to me and we hugged briefly. "It's good to see you again Bella. You've grown a lot since we last met."

"Yea and you got into collage, full ride, that was pretty good accomplishment. Sorry bout your Dad, I only heard a few days ago, I know you're probably sick of hearing that by now though."

"Yea well..." Sam trailed off then asked, "how's Charlie?"

"Got beat up pretty bad by a black dog, that's how I met the Cullen's, had to go as fast as I can go to Doctor Cullen's place."

Edward was looking over the spines of all of Bobby's books and added, "and I learned not to mess with Isabella Marie Swan." He pulled down part of the jumper and t-shirt he was wearing down at the neck revealing deliciously pale skin and then an angry closed wound that was the same golden topaz as his eyes, on his shoulder where I had stabbed him.

Dean let out a low whistle, "Dam she did a number on you, but just out of interest whys it that color?"

"We don't have blood of our own, we have a substance similar to our venom, but we do need blood to produce it, at least that's Carlisle's theory, we don't know exactly. The healing properties of the venom is what keeps us alive, but when injured the blood we drink travels to the part that needs to heal and it helps to produce venom at the injuries source and it comes up this color while healing. In normal vampires it's the same color as blood, but for some reason it is this color in us and vampires like us from feeding on animals, which is why our eyes are this color not red. My shoulder should heal in a few weeks, according to Jasper, he's had the same thing done to him more than once. Though it would normally have been healed by now if it wasn't for the dead man's blood; it has slowed the healing process."

I slowly moved over to Edward and winced as I took a closer look at the damage I had inflicted on him. "Sorry I had to do that to you."

Edward shook his head, "I can never apologize enough for attacking in the first place."

I looked deep into his eyes and got lost in him again, only to be abruptly brought out of it by Dean teasing his bother, "well that explains why you could never get her to go out with you Sammy, your not undead enough."

Edward growled, then caught himself mid growl, "I should go hunt," he excused himself and dashed out the door leaving me bewildered looking at the spot he occupied not two seconds ago.

I turned to Dean who was holding back a laugh. "Real mature Dean," I snarled and pounced on him, kicking him in the gut, and he defended pulling me into his chest my back facing him and wrapping my arms into a restraining hold, to which I countered by stamping on his foot, wrapping my leg around his in a sweep, leaning back and using his weight to throw him over my shoulder. Laughing he came at me again, and it broke into a round of wrestling after that. I couldn't help but laugh back as we play scuffled like we did when we where kids. He may be quite a bit older than me but Dean and me have been doing this since I was five years old.

John being naturally suspicious of other hunters trusted few with his boys, but Bobby Singer and Paster Jim was some of the few, and often when growing up I had also been staying with either Bobby or Paster Jim at the same time as the Winchester brothers, and sometimes I stayed with Sam and Dean on their own when their Dad left them in a motel and my Dad needed me looked after to go on his own hunt. And that's how Charlie got to be one of the few John Winchester trusted to leave his boys with and the same going the other way around. So as a result I have spent a lot of time with Sam and Dean growing up, and they are practically my brothers.