A/N: Yesss! I'm back! With my first ever story in the Twilight fandom! I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, The Vampire Knife!

Chapter 1: Running Away

The knife slid through smoothly, easily, even though it shouldn't have been able to. It should have stopped dead upon contact with his hard, granite skin, but it didn't. It went straight in almost silently while she watched, transfixed, in horror.

He stared at the dagger protruding from his chest, his hand suddenly weak as he tried to keep it from going any deeper. His killer paid no heed, relentlessly pushing the blade in, in, until it reached his heart. He stiffened as his hand fell away, then slid off the knife with a soft sigh as he collapsed to the floor, his blond hair fanning out.

She leapt to his side gracefully – though she couldn't care less about being graceful at that moment – her cry one of utter anguish and loss. He was already dead – she knew that – yet perhaps some part of her desperately hoped, as she held his still hand, that her will and love could bring him back to life.

"Alice? Alice? Alice!"

"No!" Alice jerked awake from her trance violently, upsetting the Scrabble® board and scattering the tiles over the table and floor.

"Alice! What's wrong? What did you see?" Jasper was holding her protectively by the shoulders, looking deep into her amber eyes.

"I –" Alice broke off, quivering as she recalled her vision. Jasper's grip tightened.

"What is it?" he asked. "Alice, tell me."

Alice buried her face into his chest, her body heaving with dry sobs.

"Alice?" Jasper gently stroked her back. "Alice, what did you see?"

"It's horrible", Alice replied at last, pulling away slightly.

"What is?" Jasper demanded in exasperation. "Alice, for goodness' sake, tell me what you saw."

"You." It came out in a whisper.

Jasper looked puzzled. "Me?"

"You died", Alice continued in the same soft voice, trying to be as detached as possible.

Jasper couldn't conceal his astonishment. "Did we get into a fight with some other vampires?" he asked gently.

"No…I don't know…I couldn't see…all I saw was that knife…he stabbed you, killed you…" Alice trembled and squeezed her eyes shut.

"A knife?" Jasper was getting more and more confused. "Alice, honey, you know knives can't kill us. The blade can't even pierce our skin."

"It wasn't an ordinary knife", Alice insisted. "The blade was bone, hard bone, and the hilt was made out of stone. I saw it, Jasper; somehow, it killed you." She looked away, unwilling to meet his eyes.

"Alice", Jasper said gently, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Hey, look at me…I'm not going anywhere, okay? I promise I'll be here. I love you."

She let him embrace her, and kissed him back when he kissed her, but her mind was already wandering far away, making plans. She was glad Edward had gone hunting with Carlisle and Esme and Emmett and Rosalie, glad that she and Jasper had elected to stay behind and spend some time together, since they had eaten yesterday; because Edward wasn't around to read her mind. Because she knew, if any of her family found out about what she was going to do, they would stop her, and she couldn't let that happen – she had to protect Jasper, had to make sure that knife never found its way to him.

"Jasper", she said presently, "Could you pack up the Scrabble®? I'm going to go get something upstairs."

"Sure." He smiled as she rose, and she automatically smiled back, although her heart plummeted inside her; would she ever see him again?

She pushed all such thoughts to the back of her mind and ascended the stairs as fast as she dared with him watching her. She could not let him get suspicious. Even as she made her way to the room she shared with him, however, she knew that if she could cry tears, at that moment, she would.

Jasper heard his family returning before they entered – not because of his enhanced hearing, but because they were joking and ribbing each other loudly.

"I still think you should have stuck to your grizzlies; there wasn't any other lion around the area", Edward complained.

"You're always saying I should try something new – I did." Jasper could hear the gleeful grin in Emmett's voice. "Who knows, maybe the mountain lion will be my favourite after all."

"You're disgusting", Edward told him.

"Speak for yourself, mind-reader", Rosalie said, coming to her mate's defence. "You should see the way you and Bella act when you're in the same room – it's sickeningly sweet."

"Now, Rosalie", said Esme, "You should be happy that Edward has someone to spend eternity with."

"Oh, sure." Rosalie flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. "It's a mixed blessing, though. I'll have to make the most out of the three weeks before Bella marries you and moves in and you start spending every single minute of the day with her."

"Well, at least Bella and I –" Edward started to retort. He stopped midway through his sentence as he picked up on Jasper's worried thoughts. "Alice saw what?" he demanded, coming to a halt in front of the table, across from where Jasper sat on the couch.

"What is it, Edward?" Carlisle asked in his smooth, clear voice.

"Alice saw Jasper being killed", Edward answered shortly, evicting worried glances from the rest of the Cullens. Then he frowned. "But it doesn't make any sense. He can't be stabbed with a knife."

"A knife?" Emmett repeated.

"Impossible", Rosalie declared flatly.

"Alice said it wasn't an ordinary knife", said Jasper. "She said the blade made out of bone, and the hilt was stone."

Carlisle closed his eyes and sighed deeply in recognition.

"Do you know this knife?" Esme asked her husband.

"Know it?" said Carlisle. "I wielded it."

"What?" Emmett exclaimed.

"It's a long story", Carlisle said.

"One that I think we need to know", Esme insisted.

"Yes", he agreed. "Under the circumstances, you do need to know. Why don't you all sit down, and I'll explain…

"I'm sure you've all heard of Mary I of England", Carlisle began once everyone was seated.

"Bloody Mary", Edward agreed.

"Well, yes. She earned that name because of her intolerance for religious views that differed from Catholicism. She had almost three hundred people burned at the stake for their beliefs and persecuted hundreds of other Protestants. But that's not the only reason she's called that. She was also the ruler who commanded the creation of the Vampire Knife, or Gideon's Blade."

"The Vampire Knife?" Rosalie repeated.

"Yes. In the mid-sixteenth century, as you know, people very much believed in vampires, as did Mary. An intolerant woman, she found our kind abhorrent. She knew how difficult we are to kill, so she commissioned the head scientist in her court to create a weapon that would work against us. The scientist tried many different experiments and came up with hundreds of possible theories. Finally, he hypothesized that the only thing that could pierce a vampire's skin was something from another vampire. He and ninety-nine others set out to try to kill Gideon, a three-month-old newborn vampire, one of the strongest around.

"Gideon was very difficult to kill. Almost all the hunting party died in the attempt. Finally, though, three brave men managed to position him in such a way that the others could get at his neck. Those men were all killed, but their sacrifice enabled their teammates to break Gideon's neck.

"The head scientist had been among those that died, so his assistant took over the task. He broke a bone from Gideon's arm and filed it until it was as sharp as any knife. Then he had a hilt carved out of stone and fitted onto the blade. Thus the Vampire Knife came into existence.

"The next time vampires attacked the city, looking for an easy meal, the knife was tested against them. It worked, and it became the only weapon in the world that could kill a vampire. The vampires were driven back, and the knife was presented to Mary, who had it sworn in as the official vampire slayer. The knife then went on to almost completely depopulate England of vampires.

"Mary tried to get more knives made, but she died before she could convince the people, and the project died with her. Her sister and successor, Elizabeth, was far more tolerant than she was, and ordered the knife to be kept away in a museum, as vampires had not come to England for over two years.

"The legend of the Vampire Knife, however, would not die, and an Englishman who was intent on killing all vampires stole it away one night. The knife was then passed to and fro between vampire hunters. My father himself came into possession of it and gave it to me to wield that night when I was turned.

"I don't know what happened to the knife. Presumably, one of my fellow hunters picked it up and continued passing it around. Over time, though, as people's belief in vampires faded, the knife's prominence diminished, and it eventually vanished altogether. No one knows where it is now, but Alice's vision might point to the fact that it has been rediscovered by someone somewhere", Carlisle finished.

"Where is Alice?" Edward asked suddenly.

Jasper frowned. "She said she was getting something upstairs, but I haven't seen her since before you got back."

Edward leapt up and dashed up the stairs while Emmett and Rosalie ran outside. A few seconds later Edward came back downstairs, looking grim.

"She's gone", he reported. "She took some money and clothes and ran."

"What!" Jasper exclaimed, leaping to his feet.

"Her trail ends at the river", Emmett added as he came back in with Rosalie.

"She's thrown us off", Rosalie said.

"She left this for you", Edward told Jasper, handing him a small note with his name penned on it.

Dear Jasper,

I'm sorry, but I have to go. I have to find the knife and make sure it doesn't come anywhere near our family. I need to make sure you'll be okay. Don't be mad. I love you.

Alice

"What is she thinking?" Jasper demanded, beginning to pace.

"What exactly did she see in her vision, Jasper?" Carlisle asked.

"She just said there was that knife…and me…and that I died." He was surprised how calmly he could say that word. His worry for Alice had eclipsed everything else.

"Nothing else?" Carlisle pressed, his brow furrowing.

"No, nothing." Jasper thought. "She did say it was a 'he'."

"Where do you think she'll go?" Rosalie asked.

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't know. It's impossible to say. Oh, I have a few theories…she might know where the knife is and could be going to get it…or she might have seen who was going to kill Jasper and she's chasing after him to make sure it doesn't happen… she might even have seen nothing more than what she told Jasper, and just needed to get away so we wouldn't be able to stop her from going if she did get more information. But without knowing exactly what she saw in her vision, we can't be sure; and anyway, we wouldn't be able to chase her. She's long gone by now."

He sounded frustrated – which was not something often heard in his voice. Esme placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Jasper could feel her – and everyone else's – worry.

"But she could be killed!" Jasper started pacing again. "Why did she go if she knew it would be so dangerous?"

"Love is blind, Jasper", said Carlisle. "Alice would do anything to protect you, even if it meant trading her life for yours."

"No!" Jasper cried, coming to a sudden halt. "No! She can't do that; we can't let her!"

"Jasper, calm down", Edward interjected. "Think about it rationally; we can't chase after her, we can't track her, we can't intercept her, and we have no idea what she might see. That severely restricts our ability to act."

"What can we do?" Emmett demanded.

Carlisle sighed and passed a hand over his eyes. "At the moment, without more information, there's only one thing we can." He looked around at his family. Edward's eyes were narrowed, knowing what his father figure was thinking.

"We have to alert the Volturi."

A/N: Ah-haha! Welcome, readers, to the Twilight Zone. (hums Twilight Zone theme). Okay, first of all, you guys know what to do, don't you? You don't? Well, I'll tell you - you click on that link at the bottom that says "Review" and write feedback. Reviews are a writer's lifeblood, don't ya know? (wink). Oh, and for all you readers who voted for Capped Murder, the CSI:NY/NCIS crossover, I'm sorry I haven't posted it yet, but I watched Eclipse the other day and the idea for this story just hit me full force like a ton of bricks. I couldn't not write it. You know how it is. Anyway, I promise I will write and post Capped Murder someday, but until then...well, at least I don't post incomplete stories, so when I finally do post, you won't have to fear a year-long hiatus midway through or something like that.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own The Twilight Saga. Twilight and all its characters belong to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer, and I would never dream of taking that beautiful owenership away. She was the one who came up with the idea that's been giving us Twihearts so much pleasure.