It was only a few days after Bella returned from Florida that I almost died.

After finishing an early morning to afternoon shift, I pulled into the driveway and made my way to the front door.

"Anyone home?" I called, shutting the door behind me. Silence answered me.

I shrugged off my coat, putting on the coat rack next to me. I caught sight of my father, asleep on the sofa, a case file on his chest.

I started making my way upstairs quietly, unwilling to wake him.

Just before reaching the top level, something moving in Bella's room caught my eye.

I frowned, wondering if perhaps she'd had headphones on and hadn't heard me.

"Bella?" I called quietly, reaching the hall and walking to her room.

Pushing the door the rest of the way open, I froze in place as the figure turned to face me. Blood red eyes glared into mine.

I panicked, throwing myself backwards from the room, rushing to the stairs. I heard the vampire laugh as his footsteps began to follow me. I had intended to run down the stairs, but I was pushed, hard.

My feet left the ground, only for my body to collide roughly with the wall. Deja vu hit me as I thought about the last time this had happened, only this time there were no wolves. I pushed myself up, watching the stranger advance on me.

My instincts kicked in and I grabbed the nearest thing to me, which happened to be a snow globe. I threw it as hard as I could at his face.

Even in the dim light of the room, I could see his face crack like porcelain as the snow globe slammed into him. He snarled at me, so viciously angry.

My deep breaths became even more panicked until he heard something. He was gone before I even heard the car door slam outside.

"Evelyn!" My father's voice called up the stairs.

I stood, running to the stairs to warn my father of the intruder in our home.

"Your sister's home," he said as he caught sight of me. "You okay?"

I nodded, trying to find my voice. "I fell, sorry I woke you." I choked out. The house was quiet and I wanted so badly to believe that the stranger was gone.

The door opened and my father turned to his other daughter. "You know, Edward could at least respect meal times." He said.

"I was just with Jake." She told him, knowing he couldn't argue with that.

If Jacob had just been here, the stranger must have smelt the wolf and left.

A knock at the door interrupted the conversation between the two.

"I'll just give you two some privacy then." Charlie said, knowing who was at the door.

Bella opened the door and Edward began to speak immediately, though from the top of the stairs, I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying.

It didn't matter, I needed Edward to know what just happened. I practically fell down the stairs just in time for both of them to look at me.

I played back what I had encountered in my mind so Edward could see it all.

He moved past me, up into Bella's room. She followed after him, looking back at me.

"Edward, what's wrong?" She asked, confused as he stood in her room, looking around and touching her things.

"Someone's been in here, they attacked your sister." He told her.

Bella swung around to look at me. "What? Are you okay?"

I shook my head, my whole body was still trembling from adrenaline and fear.

"He was in your room, I didn't see all of his face." I told them both.

Edward turned and I could see his eyes were black.

"I'm taking you both to my house, we'll find whoever it was, I promise." He said to both of us, taking Bella's hand and heading to the stairs.

I followed quickly, stopping in to tell Charlie that I was gonna spend some time with Bella and Edward and their family. He seemed surprised but let us go without saying much else.

"Show me again." He asked, over and over until we reached their home. If he figured anything out from my memories, he said nothing.

V

It seemed that Alice had seen us coming and so when we arrived, I was taken by Esme into their kitchen where she sat me down and handed me a cup of tea.

"To calm your nerves." She told me, smiling softly. I stared at her for a moment, still fighting with myself to run from these creatures. Instead I nodded my head.

"Thank you."

The warmth of the mug was slowly helping me calm down, though I refused to drink from the cup. Tea made me nauseous, but I wasn't willing to say anything.

I was taken through to the family room and sat, surrounded by Carlisle, Edward, Bella and the other 3 females of the family.

Jasper and Emmett, as I now knew their names, had gone over to our house in order to catch a scent and find whoever it was.

When they finally returned, it seemed they didn't have much more information than I did. Bella sat next to me, rubbing my arm as the family spoke.

"Who is it? Someone we know?" Carlisle asked.

Edward glanced over at me, running through my mind again. I conjured up the intruder's face, but what little I saw of it, he didn't recognise.

"This stranger, I didn't recognise his scent. Evelyn barely saw his face." He informed them.

Esme placed a hand on my shoulder. "A nomad passing through?" She asked.

"A passer-by wouldn't have left Bella's father alive and they wouldn't have left Evelyn either." Rosalie said, taking a glance at me.

I took a deep breath. "Thanks for the reminder." I muttered sarcastically.

I looked up as Jasper and Emmett joined us. "The scent disappeared about 5 miles south of Bella's house." Jasper said.

"Someone's orchestrating this." Carlisle sighed, sending my fear skyrocketing.

A blanket of calm fell over me. I raised an eyebrow over at Jasper who nodded once at me and turned away. I didn't want it to help, but it did.

"Victoria?" Bella asked, squeezing my hand for comfort.

Alice shook her head. "I would have seen her decide."

"It has to be the Volturi." Edward said.

Carlisle shook his head. "Caius would never put his mate in danger."

I scoffed and shook my head, not believing we were having this conversation.

"I don't think it's the Volturi either," Alice disagreed. "I've been watching Aro's decisions, Caius too."

"So we'll take shifts, guarding Bella and Evelyn at their house." Carlisle said, offering a solution.

"Another protection detail?" Rosalie asked.

"Rosalie." Carlisle chided.

"We're not too happy about it either." I snapped back, disgusted that our protection was something tedious to her.

"No, she's right." Bella said, causing me to roll my eyes. "You can't protect me, Evelyn, watch my dad and search for the intruder." She listed off.

"And for Victoria." Rosalie added. I noticed her eyes were just as black as Edward's and felt myself become a little more concerned.

"And keep yourselves fed." Bella finished, her sentence making me cringe slightly.

Edward shook his head. "I'm not leaving you here defenseless."

"Well I'm not gonna let you starve."

I agreed with that. "Yeah, if any of you are going to be in the same vicinity as me or her, you need to go off and get yourself some Thumper's or whatever."

Bella nodded. "Besides, I wouldn't be by myself, I have..." she trailed off, knowing that Edward already knew who she meant and wasn't too happy about it.

As Bella stood to make her phone call, I sat back against the couch, feeling exhaustion seep into my bones after the evening I'd had.

I so desperately needed this to be over, as soon as Charlie was safe, I was leaving. I'd travel until I received the call from Charlie that Bella was gone. Then I would come home and pick up the pieces.

My mind wandered to the intruder and the cracks along his skin when I hit him with the snow globe. 

Edward's eyes caught mine as he read my thoughts. Neither of us said a word, though he seemed troubled, which scared me just as much.