~ Chapter 1 ~

“Going hunting tonight, Edward?” Alice asked as she stepped into the room.

“Why do you ask about something you already know is going to happen?” I asked tiredly.

She shrugged and seemed nonchalant but I saw how smug she really was inside. It had always been like that from the very first day she had joined our coven; cover is completely different from the content. The saying ‘Don’t judge the book by its covers’ goes well about her.

Nobody knew what had happened to this strange girl in her teens and nobody really cared. We vampires have always been a more selfish kind of predator. What didn’t involve us directly wasn’t interesting for us. But Alice was interesting, at least to me, for one very obvious reason: she had a gift as well. She could see the future whereas I could look into people thoughts, no matter what species they are from. Human… Vampire… Even those menacing werewolves. As a contrary to my limitless power she had a restriction – whenever werewolves were concerned she had a mind-block, she got absolutely nothing.

Mindreading has always been a useful gift for me. Of course, right after I was changed it was difficult to adapt to this power: I didn’t know how to tune out the other voices in my own head and it drove me crazy for the sounds were really loud. I learned to control it eventually, even expanded my power a bit, now I can toy with minds. When I enter it is like a huge playground for me, just poke the right place and it reacts as you want to. It is truly wonderful. I used to practice on my prey. When the screaming got annoying I convinced them that it was only a mosquito biting them and soon it would be over. It was only a white lie, the mosquito part. It was soon over; right after the last drop of blood was gone from their bodies.

“Edward…” Alice said whiningly when I didn’t give her enough attention, “I have some news for you.”

I didn’t really want to know – she had a thing about blowing things out of proportions – but I didn’t dare to anger her. She might have look like a harmless pixie outside but we all know that pixies are actually very treacherous. Alice isn’t an exception. If you’d see her hunt, you’d understand. That didn’t mean that I couldn’t be annoyed as hell with her, though. “Yes, Alice?” I made my most convincing leave-me-alone voice.