Welcome one and all! This is a rewrite of my old Seth/OC fix that was called Nightfall is Bliss. If you're joining me for the second round, don't worry, there's a lot of fun new stuff for you to enjoy!

Prologue: Blank Space

Anna Davenport

"But you'll come back each time you leave

'Cause, darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream."

I could never have anticipated how well my plans would turn out. I had stolen away from my pathetic village and made a new life for myself. The life of a queen. To the people of Avalon, I was Queen Anemone, their beloved king's wife, and mother to the future leaders of Avalon. All seven of them. I'd never intended to be a mother to so many children. I didn't even particularly like children in my youth, but circumstances had showered the blessings upon me. No matter the tragedy.

I let myself look over the balcony of my personal sitting chamber to gaze at a small number of my children playing in the grass below. They were so beautiful. Though I had considered her my daughter since the hour of her birth, raven haired Hollyhock wasn't mine by blood. Her mother, Avalien, a childhood friend I had once called Ava, died giving birth to her. Ava refused to give a name to her child's father, and my curiosity got the best of me. I took it upon myself to tell her family that Ava had named me guardian to her child, and had raised the girl as one of my own for the last sixteen years.

Holly trailed after my oldest girl, who yelled back, "Hurry up! You're too slow!"

Holly must have inherited her viper's tongue from her mysterious father, "I am not. You're an idiot."

My youngest walked along a felled tree along the side of the clearing, "Act like ladies!"

Holly lunged at her sister, and I smiled as I watched them tussle, passing the time like their brothers would. I was always grateful for my youngest's neutrality, even though it came at a terrible price. Little Geranium was eight years old, petite and pale. She was also a Healer, one of the most incredibly rare gifts that any in our land could possess. She wasn't Rowan, with the ability to harness animal senses and take that animals shape, but she was one of my greatest triumphs. Geranium was going to live on in history because of her ability and her status.

Normally, I wouldn't have minded my daughters rough housing, but lately, Holly had been restless. Holly had always been so quiet, but now she would anger at the tiniest of things. Signs of a young Rowan nearing his or her Transition, which signaled the beginning of a bloodlust that would follow them for the rest of their lives and would help them find their Mate.

My fingers fiddled with the pendant I wore even in sleep, which housed a lock of blonde hair. Strong arms wrapped around my waist and I smiled even before my husband spoke, "Is something the matter, my love?"

I shook my head. "Non, I wouldn't seek to worry you, my King."

He smiled against my shoulder, "My Queen, you mustn't keep secrets from your beloved Mate. Speak to me of what troubles you."

I sighed, turning in his grasp to rest my hands flat on his muscled chest, "Some of the children are becoming restless."

His eyebrows furrowed, "Which one?"

A wry smile tugged at the corner of my lips, "Holly."

He sighed, running a hand through his straight blond hair. "Oh dear. I always assumed she be the first girl, but I never thought she'd Transition before Nigel, he's nearly reached majority and he still hasn't Transitioned. What do you suggest we do? You are my best and brightest council member."

I looked up into the silver eyes of the only man I'd ever wanted, "I don't know. Perhaps it's time to take them from here. It is tradition for them to live for a time among the people of the Earthly realm around the time they Transition."

He sighed, messing with his hair again, "Are you certain, beloved? It seems rash to me. Holly is just the first. Should we not wait for some of the others?"

I gazed out the window again. He had a point. The twins, Oliver and Lilly, were just barely a year older than Holly though. "Possibly, but you know that being close to someone who's Transitioning can set off others. Being there will slow it a bit. I don't think we can handle Holly and Lilly Transitioning at the same time."

He chuckled, shaking his head, "I think you might be right, the two of them would tear us apart, both stubborn as mules. I have no idea where Lilly gets that from." I raised an eyebrow at his statement. Lilly certainly didn't get it from me. No other soul in our world knew the truth, but Lilly and Oliver weren't mine. They were related to Chrys though. He gasped dramatically, taking my expression in the only way he knew possible, "Are you insinuating that I'm where she gets that from? I'm appalled. You wound me with your words you beautifully wicked woman."

The smile on my face was dark. He didn't know the half of me being wicked. I'd be dead if he did. It wouldn't matter that I was the mother of four of his children if he ever found out what I had done. "My apologies, my love. When should we leave?"

"Today." He replied instantly, "Can you have the children readied by nightfall?"

"I might. Depends on how unruly our clan is though." He grinned at me, but said nothing as I stretched up to kiss his lightly whiskered cheek. I preferred him clean shaven. He looked far too common like this. "I'll leave you to the official arrangements."

I left him alone and went to gather the children. My eldest, Nigel, was easy to find. As usual he was in his chambers, but no noise escaped the room, so he was alone, a rather unusual occurrence. No doubt he was drafting a letter to one of his numerous paramours. I opened the door a tiny bit, "Nigel? Dear one, may I come in?"

I heard his feet his the floor as he sprung off his bed like it was on fire. "Mother! Yes! Please...um, may I have a moment?"

I could only imagine what he was doing that required a momentary pause before his own mother could enter his chambers. I watched through the cracked door as he shoved papers under his bed, and had to stifle a laugh, "May I enter your domain, my Prince?"

He laughed and the sound shook my bones. He was a beautiful male. It was hard for me to believe that I had given birth to him. His brown eyes were identical to mine and his cheekbones were high and regal, like his father's, "You know you can. I just had to shove my... dirty laundry under the bed."

"Laundry, of course." I let the last word drag out just to annoy him, "You need to pack. We are going to Earth."

His brown eyes widened, "Really?"

"Yes, get busy." He opened his mouth to speak, "No questions, Nigel. Pack." He nodded and shuffled towards one of his dressers.

I was walking back down the hallway when two small bodies slammed into me from each side as I rounded a corner. "Mummy!" One yelled.

"Where are we going?" The other rushed.

I sighed, pulling both of my twelve-year-old identical twins off of my body, "What would make you think we're going anywhere? What were you doing?"

Their blue eyes widened and their heads jerked to lock stares with their other half for a few seconds. They looked back at me and both grinned wildly, "What makes you think we were doing anything at all?"

Their unison was unnerving, and I was their mother, "Ivy, Moss. Ladies don't lie."

Ivy spoke first, "But Mum, we weren't lying,"

"we were just asking a question." Moss Rose finished smoothly.

I clenched my jaw, "Mind your attitudes or I'll the both of you." They nodded solemnly. After all, all of my children were obedient, even the rebellious and defiant Holly bent to my will in the end. "We're going on a trip as a family. Do you need help or can you pack on your own? Where we're going it's rainy and cold."

"We can do it on our own." In a flash of golden blonde hair, they were gone. Hopefully to their rooms.

Lilly's twin was in his room, the door open already to reveal him asleep on his bed, a sketch pad resting on his chest, "Oliver." I called from a distance, but stepped closer to repeat myself, "Oliver!"

He jumped into wakefullness, and rolled off his bed, making a dull thudding noise on the ancient wooden floor, "What the hell?!"

"Oliver!" I chided.

He blinked up at me, his gray eyes clouded with sleep, "Mum?"

"Yes, Mum." I said dryly, "Oliver, dear, I don't need you or Lilly asking questions, I just need you two to pack up some things and be ready to leave before nightfall. I trust you can manage Lilly?"

"Why?"

I shot him a dark look, "No questions. You manage Lilly better than the rest of us combined."

He laughed, his brown hair shaking around his ears, "I don't know, Mum, Gerry's gotten pretty good at keeping Lilly in line. She hurts me now, she's gotten too damn strong."

"Just when did you get such a vial vocabulary?" I asked, pushing away the disappointment that followed me whenever I remembered that unlike his twin, Oliver was completely human. Gifted, but human.

His face flushed, "Um... Well..."

"You've been sneaking out of the castle, haven't you?" I knew he had been. The children didn't go anywhere without eyes on them reporting back to me.

"Can I pack now?" He asked, eyes diverted to the floor.

"Seems like the best use of your time. We'll speak later." I said briskly, exiting his filthy room. Gerry was racing up the stairs after her cat, but she stopped short when she saw me. I smiled at her, as sweetly as I could manage, "Sweetheart, go pack some things up, we're going to go on a little trip. Make sure Holly knows and tell her to pack as well." My youngest child looked up at me with her bright eyes that disturbingly had tears in them. She never cried, never, not even as an infant. I knelt beside her, "Darling, what's wrong?" Even though she was eight, Gerry only showed extreme emotions, a side effect to her being a Healer. In some corners of our world Healers were feared because they were cold and impartial with the rumored ability to bring back the dead. No one knew if that was true, however, because Gerry was the first Healer to live in centuries.

"Something's wrong with Holly."

"What are you talking about?"

Gerry wiped away her tears, "She attacked Lilly. We were just playing, but I think she's going to hurt Lilly."

My heart stopped beating in my chest, "Chrys!"

I heard my mate's voice in my head, one of the joys of being Mated to him, "What's wrong, my dear one?"

"It's Holly, outside in the yard." I felt my husband bolt from our chambers, "Gerry, tell the others not to go outside. Find Oliver and stay with him in his room. He'll be in pain if Lilly's hurt."

"Don't let Holly or Lilly get hurt." She ordered.

I kissed the top of her brown curl covered head, "I'll do my best, baby, I'll do my best."

I ran in the opposite direction as my youngest and burst out the side yard doors, "Holly!"

My adopted daughter's waist length black hair was whipping around her in the wind. She had her pale fingers wrapped around Lilly's neck, "Holly let her go. Fight me."

She swung her head around and I gasped. Her normally green eyes were red, not just red, but a vibrant blood red. We were too late, she was Transitioning. Her elongated teeth garbled her words when she spoke,"She wouldn't be quiet. She wouldn't leave Gerry alone." Lilly's eyes closed and she went limp.

I couldn't let Holly kill the other girl, she was more valuable alive, "She's quiet now. Just let her go. I'm stronger than she is. If you can beat me, then you'll always be strong enough to beat anyone. I promise."

Holly let go of Lilly and the other girl fell to the ground like a doll. Holly pulled back her fist to hit me as she moved forward. I stood still, waiting for the impact that I wasn't going to evade. Just as her fist started forward, Chrys tackled her to the ground, "Let me go!" She growled, and tried to reach any part of his skin that she could. My Mate was a bear, much stronger than her in any form, and he knew what he was doing.

He tried to sooth her. "Holly, calm. You don't want to hurt anyone. Calm."

I joined my husband and pinned her head in my lap, brushing stray strands of black hair from her face, "You're not doing it right, my love." I pressed my lips to her forehead and opened a vein in my Mates wrist with the tiny knife I carried with me at all times. Holly's body stilled nearly instantly, and she grabbed his wrist to lick the blood up that was welling to the surface. His blood would satisfy her for now, but she'd be searching for her own Mate before long.

Chrys let her go when she'd had enough to calm down, and she gripped my hands and pulled herself into my lap. I continued to brush her hair with my fingers as she started to bawl. "Hush, Holly, hush. It'll be okay."

My husband's hand joined mine on our adoptive daughter's head, "I'm glad we're leaving soon. She can't take much more." I nodded and after a few moments, Holly had fallen asleep. He picked her up, "I'll take her to the entrance hall. Meet me there as soon as you can with everyone else." I nodded tersely and helped my mate adjust our sixteen year-old in his arms.

Lilly was lying unconscious on the grass. She was a wolf, and therefore far more dense than she looked. I would struggle to carry her that far, "Take Lilly too?"

Chrys scowled, but nodded, "Sure."

I smiled, walking away, "I'll have Oliver pack for her." Amazingly the boy didn't fight me, he'd felt his twin's pain. He panicked a little when we all entered the entrance hall fifteen minutes later and he saw the bruises in the shape of their sister's hands on her neck. He hadn't thought that someone had actually tried to strangle his twin. My Mate shut him down quickly enough, and Gerry held her tongue.

Gerry, although the youngest, was by far the most mature and intelligent of my children. It was disconcerting to look into her violet eyes; they had an all-seeing edge to them. Sometimes, I felt like she knew all my secrets. She never said a word though. Gentility ran in her blood as well as in her name, Geranium.

Before I could ask her to, she walked to her still unconscious sister and placed her small hands over the purple hand marks on Lilly's neck. I smiled, when she pulled away, and not a mark was left on her sister's pale, thin neck.

Chrys came from behind again and wrapped his arms around my waist, "Anna, we need to leave, unless you want to deal with my mother coming out here and skinning our butts for me trying to take you away. They really do adore you."

I giggled and he kissed my neck, "I'm glad I was the first girl you fancied, your parents don't know what they're missing. Better for me, I get to be a queen." What a lie that was.

"You're the only on I'd have, Anemone."

I cringed at the name I had adopted when I had arrived at the castle for the first time. "Oh, don't call me that. It's Anna."

"It's your name."

"Blame my mother, Chrysanthemum." I stuck my tongue out at him.

Nigel cleared his throat, "Could you perhaps not flirt and let us get on our way?"

Chrys sighed, letting his body slump against mine, "I guess, but how do you think you lot came along?"

All of our conscious children groaned, except for Gerry. She did, however, wrinkle her nose in disgust. I shrugged Chrys off and hoisted my youngest up onto my hip, "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and I elbowed Chrys in the ribs. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A few seconds later, my family and I had switched worlds. A collective breath was taken as a reaction to the subtle pressure change. Lilly and Holly moaned. I'd assumed the pressure change would wake them. Their eyes opened.

Lilly's gray eyes were fully dilated, some of the blood vessels had popped, "What the hell was that, Holly?"

Holly blinked in the sunlight that was streaming through the tree canopy, her still bloodshot eyes hypersensitive, "I'm not sure? God, did I attack you?" She started gasping in horror and panic, but Gerry hugged her, easing the pain in her body from the pressure change as well as from her Transformation. Becoming an adult was never easy.

Lilly rubbed her own neck, where the mark of Holly's hands should have been, "I don't remember. Really, I'm fine though thanks for asking."

Holly snorted. "You sure sound fine, smart ass."

Lilly grinned, "It's a quality. You're just jealous." Holly rolled her eyes at her.

Chrys coughed to silence our children, "Well, guys, welcome to our new home for the next few months. Forks, Washington."

So if you read the first version, you'll notice that I'm not hiding Anna's unsavory character at all! The first major change of many!

I'll have Chapter One up sometime tomorrow! Chapter title is When Love Gets a Hold of You from a song by Reba McEntire. This chapter title was from Taylor Swift!

Chapters should come pretty regularly, seeing as I'm editing, not reinventing the wheel, so please join me on this fun (Much less confusing than the original) ride!

-Jenn