I ran my fingers through my short blue hair and sighed. Nuada turned his head and gave me a weird look which I returned full force. Without thinking I began to twist my ring, something that dear old Abe considered a nervous habit. It wasn't my fault that I was uncomfortable in this situation. When I'd joined the BPRD I had made it clear that I was willing to go anywhere but Washington. And in the end, after trips to India, China, and Ireland, here I was on a chartered plane to Seattle, Washington to investigate strange occurrences in the area surrounding Forks, the small town I thought I'd left behind. I wished I had managed to truly leave it all behind me.

"What's wrong, Swan?" Red asked.

I shook my head at him. It didn't even register to them that the place the place we were going to was my home town or that I had no wish to go home at the moment. The entire investigation would have to be performed with the cooperation of the local LEOs; aka my father, a man I had not spoken to in close to six years. We had a falling out after Edward dumped me. I had decided to take control of my life, I got a better job (away from Mike Newton), started martial arts classes, and begun dying my hair. He thought I was just trying to be different than when I'd been with Edward but that was only half the truth. Looking back on that period in my life I realized how pathetic I was. All I'd ever done was hide behind Edward and let him fight my battles for me.

That's how I got involved with magik. Not the stuff from Harry Potter where if you've got it you've got it and if you don't you don't. All humans have it but very few can still call upon its power. The guy I worked for in Seattle was a Caster, one of the few with ability to use magik. Under him I first heard of the BPRD though I'd never thought about joining until later. I graduated and moved to the East coast to college. On my own I began to test the waters with new spells. And that's when Professor Broom found, as a sophomore who had just gotten out of a cult that was in to summoning demons. He recruited me with an offer to pay my way through college if I consulted on certain missions and later agreed to work for the BPRD. Being a relatively poor college student I accepted.

"Stop being so strange, sorceress, I can feel your thoughts." Nuada growled.

"I'm not a sorceress." I growled back.

The bond between me and the exiled elf prince was nowhere near that of he and his sister but was similar. Using blood magik and necromancy I'd brought him back so that my colleagues could extract information from him. On accident I brought both the prince and the princess back. I had not been informed of the connection they shared. The plan was to lay him to rest as soon as we had what we needed but it seemed wrong to practically kill them again for one of their crimes. Because of my reluctances to kill them I was put in charge of the criminal half of the duo. Later I found out Abe and Nuala, Nuada's sister, were in love and it made things easier.

I crossed my legs as the plane began to descend. Things needed to be planned out before we landed in Seattle and for some reason Manning had put me in charge. When we landed we would meet with other agents stationed in the area in one of the empty lounges. Afterwards we would get into the vehicles the agency was providing and head to the hotel. And then tomorrow our investigation would begin along with a terrible headache. I rubbed my temples just thinking about it. As I was my phone rang. I pulled it out without saying a word.

"Agent Swan," Manning's voice stated through the phone.

"Sir, we are just about to land so I don't have much time."

"Good, I just wanted to make sure you were making good time. Do you have any idea how you're going to conduct this investigation?"

"Yes sir, I'm going to start talking to some of my contacts in the area while some of the others work with the local LEOs. At this point my main objective is to identify the creature and its numbers then determine the best way to either neutralize or detain it."

"I look forward to your report, Agent Swan. Good luck."

He hung up without mentioning any reservations I might have had about the mission. I swallowed any complaints and turned off the cell. If anything was certain about this mission it was that Manning wanted specific people on it and I was not sure if he wanted me or my charge. I looked out one of the windows to see Seattle's skyline just below a few wisps of cloud. There was a churning feeling deep in my gut. A part of me felt like I should want to be there, it had been my home once. There should have been some kind of emotional attachment but there wasn't. I had left Forks and Washington behind me when I'd left.

"I can't believe I'm back here already." I whispered.

"I can't believe you're doing this Bella. Edward left you I get that but don't you think this is a little much? You could go to a school closer to home, still be close, or you could stay with your mother in Florida but not in New York! That's just too far!" My dad yelled as I packed.

I turned sharply. "You don't get it Charlie! This has nothing to do with him! Normal people go away when they graduate. That's all I want, to go on and live a normal life away from Forks!" I yelled back.

I pushed past him and stormed into the bathroom with my duffle bag. He followed me and watched as I threw my things into my bag. It was completely silent between us except for the sound of plastic bottles hitting each other. I paused and looked in the mirror. At that time my hair was a sunflower yellow, I had hoped it would bring me happiness but like all the others had only caused a greater rift between my father and I. I sighed. There was no turning back now, though, my choice was made. He moved to the side as I went back to my room to get the rest of my things. I grabbed my bags and headed down stairs. "Just let me go." I whispered.

I passed Charlie, who was still by the bathroom where I'd left him. "Good-bye, Charlie."

Once I was out the door I threw my bags into the back of my new pick-up. I drove off and never looked back.

"Hey, Swan, wake up. We're here." Red said shaking me a little.

I got up and straightened my stiff back and neck. Rain pelted against the outside of the plane. "It's raining. God I hate the rain." Liz said as she walked out.

"It's always raining here." I said following her.