Mission Possible, a twilight fanfic

Author's Note: If you're a hardcore Twilight fan, you're probably going to have issues with this. I haven't read or seen the series in a couple years, so what I know about the characters is a fuzzy memory and what I get from character bios online. I've changed some of the personalities to fit my writing pleasures and added my own twist to some things.

This story is not meant to be taken seriously, and sadly the ending probably feels pretty rushed from a readers perspective. I honestly found this in my computer files and thought it was descent, so I decided to post it on a website. Eh. It's not terrible and is actually pretty silly.

Warnings: Language, gay themes (I don't think this should ever be a warning unless it involves explicit sex, but in this case it goes with language. Please don't be offended, it's meant to be more humorous and silly~), violence and death…

Summary: A 'romantic comedy', if you will. Two spies from a shapeshifting clan are sent to gather information about the wolf shapeshifters in Washington, and one of them falls for the beautiful Leah Clearwater. Leahxoc, lesbian pairing.

(Second Author's Note: I wrote a lot of this at different times in life, like several months in between, so if the style of writing seems different in one chapter more than another, that's probably why.

Also, if you're confused about how the 'chapters' are set up: basically each 'chapter' starts at 0. There's one time jump in particular that's a bit confusing and the only marker is really that it starts back at 0, so if you're confused about the timeline or change in topics between sections, look at the numbers.)

"Kelly." An old man spoke from his throne. He was in the middle of a line consisting of older men and women, all donning different colored robes that flowed well past their feet. On the left breast of each person was a white cut out of a different animal. "Your cousin is in Washington right now, and we'd like you to meet him there."

A young woman looking to be in her early twenties stood before them. Her gaze shifted from face to face as she attempted to determine the motives of this meeting, and as everyone in the large room waited for a response, she merely stood there. She adorned a similar robe as the others, however there was no animal on her chest and held the rare color of yellow. The others were shades of blues, purples, and reds- but none yellow.

"Will you go?" A woman to the right of the man in the middle asked. She had blond hair and mysterious brown, almost black, eyes that could intimidate the devil with just a glance. Her robe was deep crimson with a white cut out of a hawk midflight on her chest. Equally red lipstick was painted on her thin lips.

"Sean can take care of himself. If you just want me to babysit a grown man why go through the trouble of this meeting? These robes are hardly comfortable and it's the hottest week of summer." The yellow robed woman asked from her spot, now eyeing the blond woman specifically. She barely refrained from shifting in her place, the sweat accumulating beneath her robes starting to bother her.

"Because he's not the only one of our kind there." The old woman answered. "He thinks that he's found others there. He also thinks there might be vampires living in the area. I can tell he's scared and-"

"Since I'm the strongest of my generation you want me to figure out if we can form an alliance with them?" Kelly, the yellow robed woman, interrupted. "I've been training for years to kill vampires and even without my ability to shapeshift, I'm stronger than half of your clan. This job seems more like Artemis's area of expertise."

"We're not looking for a negotiator. He'd probably get killed and found out within minutes." Another of them spoke, his boredom and irritation evident in his curt and unsympathetic response. "What we need is someone to confirm that there are shapeshifters there. We need to learn about them before they know about us."

"They could be a threat." The blond woman added. "And Sean refuses to leave. The stupid boy doesn't realize his life is in danger…."

"After the vampire attack 15 years ago, we're not going to risk them coming after us. You're the best person to figure out if someone's a threat." The one in the middle stated.

"So if I think they're a threat…" Kelly started, her voice louder than before. "You plan to exterminate the species."

"After what happened to your parents I'd think you would love this." The blond woman stated.

"Your sister." Kelly added, a bit softer than before, and brought her gaze to the window on the other side of the room. She sighed. Her shoulders slumped "I'll leave in a week."

"Why the hell did you move here in the first place? Your apartment is a freaking dump, man." The brunette asked as she lounged on a beat up couch and bit into a red apple. Her feet were resting comfortably on the other arm of the couch, ankles crossing, and body took up the entirety of the furniture. The fabric itself was an okay texture and cushions borderline disgusting, but nothing compared the ugly shade of puke green it was. Stains lined the bottom of it and a large splotch of light brown glared from the back cushion.

This particular piece of furniture was the worst part of the apartment, but that didn't make the rest of it look good. The carpet was crusty and laden with bugs. Lime green walls were peeling. Cockroaches lived in the smashed fifty-year-old TV screen. It had a mold mixed with old people smell. Kitchen hadn't been cleaned in years. She hadn't even seen the bedrooms yet and was afraid of what she might find.

"Shut up." The ugliest part of the apartment stated from the kitchen. "It was the only one in town I could afford on my salary, and it's not that bad."

"Dude, I barely qualify as a girl and you make me want to clean."

"If you hate it so much then leave."

"No can do little cousin. Your parents hired me to take care of you." She stated, and took another bite of her apple. She looked around at the smelly apartment and her gaze landed on the TV. "I'm buying us a goddamn TV."

"Bullshit."

"Dude, I'm buying us a TV and you can't stop me."

"No, the first part. My parents wouldn't hire a miscreant like you to protect me."

"You told them that you found wolf shapeshifters and vampires, and you expect them to not send me? They practically raised me to be your body guard."

"True… though, in their defense, they thought you were a boy before you hit puberty."

"Do you have internet here?" Kelly asked suddenly, extremely bored with the old conversation. She'd had people pick on her for being tough and having a handsome personality since she was a young age, and although it didn't bother her when people did it, it became a rather boring come back. Especially from fruity boy over there.

"What do you think I am? A monkey? Of course I have internet."

"Good. If you didn't I'd have to feed you to the sparkles." She said with a grin. "I'm not letting you shop, by the way. I've already seen your fridge and it's full of nothing but pickles and peanut butter. Why do you have peanut butter in the fridge anyway?"

"Shut up. I was hungry."

"Give me money next time you're hungry and I'll go shopping."

"Sheesh, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were my mother." He muttered as he walked into the living room, and was met by an apple core being flung at his head. "Gross!"

"I'm too hot to be your ugly ass mother."

The brunette wasn't psychic nor had any particularly good vampire/shapeshifter finding abilities, but even she could find the ones that her cousin had found. They didn't even try to hide.

Unlike most of the shorter and bulky male and female shapeshifters she'd met in the past, these ones were tall and extremely muscular. The muscular part she expected, but these guys were tall. She'd first spotted them on the beach as she was exploring the area, and saw them wrestling and joking around with each other on the sandy shore.

There were about ten of them. All of them shared similar Native American characteristics and tattoos on their shoulder; along with their hair shorter than most of the other males in the area. She didn't watch them for long, but she did observe long enough to notice that they all had a certain animal characteristic to them. They were also all male.

When one of them noticed her staring and pointed, she made her leave and walked back to the path she had been following.

"I got us invited to a part-ay~!" Sean proudly announced. His cutesy curly blond hair was messy and framed his doll face as he stood there, arms wide and expecting a reaction from the woman before him. She merely lazed on the puke green couch, grunted, and continued perusing websites on her new computer. "Didn't you hear me?"

"Uh-huh." She replied.

"Then what did I say?"

"Something stupid."

"No! I said I got us invited to a party!"

"That's what I said. Something stupid."

"You're hopeless! You'll never get any friends like this!" The boy fussed and yelled, then stomped off into his room after slamming his door.

"Why do I need friends when I have you? You're all I need, babe." She asked, and heard a thump from the 18 year old's room followed by loud cursing. (He'd probably unintentionally shifted into his animal form and broke something.) A few seconds later the neon green door opened to reveal the face of her cousin. "Do you mean that?"

"Of course I do. How would I be able to survive without my laptop?"

With another slam of his door, the girl on the couch howled into another fit of laughter. "There's going to be free food there!" He yelled a few minutes later, and instantly her laughter halted.

"So I hear there's free food?" The brunette asked the first person she saw when they reached the official 'party area'. She could smell barbecue nearby and the smell of roasting marshmallows practically made her drool.

The guy she'd asked wasn't one of the shapeshifter suspects, but was still a good few inches taller than her. He looked a few years younger than her cousin and adorned the same surprised look. "Uh, yeah. Over there."

"Kelly, that's beyond rude! I apologize, my cousin-"

"See ya later, Nipwit. You know where I'll be." She said, ignoring his protest and patting him harshly on the back before making a bee line for the food table. Not surprisingly, the table was already surrounded by the suspects in question. Sean stayed behind and smiled awkwardly at the stranger.

For a small town, it had pretty lively get-togethers. Half the guys were already topless and it was barely sunset. There were some thirty to fifty people on this little spot by the beach, overlooking the sunset and gave everyone enough room to move around comfortably. There was a good mix of men and women and drinks weren't hard to find.

"Dude, you guys have cookies? I am definitely making best friends with whoever brought these." She said loudly and grabbing several fresh baked goods from the table. Around her, various men nodded and dove for more of the delicious sugary substances. On her right a guy with short black hair turned and tried to spark conversation with her.

"You have good taste. My wife made those." He had a surprisingly deep voice, and Kelly was caught off guard and almost choked on her food.

"Wicked. Dude, these are great. I'm going to have to have your wife and my cousin get together and exchange recipes." She said, and made another reach at the table for a second helping.

"Your cousin?"

"Yeah. He has a knack for cooking but claims he doesn't. Since I'll be living with him for a while, getting him acquainted with a good cook might get me some great food." She explained with a wiggle of her eye brows, and when she stopped talking finally stuffed a large roll into her mouth. The person she was talking to laughed, his dark eyes twinkling from the light of the fire.

"I'm Sam." He introduced while holding out a hand to shake.

"-elli." She said through a mouthful of food.

"Sorry?"

"Kelly." She said after successfully swallowing the bread.

"Kelly? Nice to meet you."

"Same here."

"So who invited you? I don't remember your face and this is a pretty small village." He asked, afterward pausing to say 'hi' to a friend before returning his attention to the newcomer.

"No idea. My cousin just said there was free food. I'm a mooch."

"Whose your cousin?"

"Sean. He's the blondie talking to the shirtless guy over there." She said as she pointed to Sean and said shirtless guy. Unfortunately she noticed that both of them were about to duke it out in a fight, and both were trembling and getting close to throwing punches. "Correction, he's the pissed off guy talking to the other pissed off guy. Watch my food." She said as she handed her plate to Sam and jogged over to the two men that were now pushing and shoving each other.

To put this in perspective for you, the reader, to understand, imagine one of those annoying taco sized chiwawas from the Taco Bell commercials trying to kick box with the gorilla from King Kong. The talking chiwawa, her cousin, would be out of the ring before the bell had even rung. Or eaten. Aren't Gorillas vegetarians, though?

"Woah, take it easy fellas, let's calm down and-" The muscular woman said as she tried to stop the impending doom that was about to happen.

"You think you can take me on, shorty?" The taller one spoke over the girl's head.

"Seth, come on, you know that you'd probably kill him if you took him on. I mean, look at him." One of 'Seth's friends said as he came over and started to pull him away, effectively pissing Sean off more and causing him to launch himself at the man twice his size.

Despite the vast difference in body weight, the female between the two males managed to move out of the way and get a good enough grip on her cousin's arm to twist and stop him in his tracks. Standing behind him with his arm thoroughly twisted and efficiently paralyzing his movements, the people around them stopped what they were doing and watched.

"Sorry about my cousin, he is 'beyond rude'."

"Stupid fa- ow!"

"I apologize for him… Seth, was it?" She said from behind her cousin and succeeding at a fake smile.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it; we weren't actually going to fight. We were just playing." Seth said with a fake smile of his own, a nervous laugh at the end.

"… Right." And with that, she released her younger relative's arm and wiped her hands on her shirt. When no one around her went back to whatever they were doing and continued staring, whispering, and chuckling, she burped loudly and shoved past some shirtless guys to get back to the table where her plate of food was awaiting her.

"Thanks." She said as she retrieved the plate of meat and baked foods from Sam. "So as I was saying-"

"Hey," Someone said as they tapped her shoulder, interrupting her train of thought and causing her to turn away from her new friend, again. She vaguely recognized the image of her cousin walking away from the group and his little rival speaking to her. "I didn't catch your name."

"Kelly."

"Kelly, do you usually take down guys like that?"

"And have such a huge appetite." One his friends added as he reached over and took a grape from her plate. She glared but otherwise ignored him.

"I've taken several martial arts classes over the years and did weight training for a while. I can kick anyone's ass." She said with a cocky smirk that made everyone around her laugh. Apparently she still had their attention.

"Oh really? You think you can-"

"So who invited your cousin?" Sam asked, moving so that they formed a small circle and attempting to avoid another fight.

"No idea. I moved in with him after my aunt and uncle kicked me out two weeks ago, and he moved here about a month ago. I really don't know anyone here so he figured I might make friends at this… party." She explained, and felt a little relieved when she realized that most of the people there had lost interest in her presence. Being a spy doesn't exactly work if everyone's eyes are on you.

"So you think you can beat me in a fight?" One of Seth's friends asked. As he spoke he straightened his posture to seem taller and the snarl on his face made him look like a fish on a hook.

"Bring it, bitch." She said, and a chorus of 'ooh's erupted around her.

Four hours later Kelly was almost drunk, had beaten four of the guys three times her size in fist fights, and was so full of food she thought she was going to burst. She had gotten to know the Quiluetes fairly well and got acquainted to what she thought were the main leaders of the little 'pack': Seth, Paul, and Sam. They all seemed to have a strong voice and the others listened to them.

She also discovered that when a Native American guy gives you a drink, giggles, and says that it is an 'initiation' drink that will make you accepted in their community, it's probably just a spiked drink. Ten minutes after she downed the thing, (everyone was cheering her on, how could she say no?) everything started getting a bit strange. If she didn't have such a great liver and tolerance it might have been a bad situation.

Infiltration: success.

At the early hours of six in the morning Kelly was awoken by an obnoxiously loud clash of pots and pans, followed by loud cursing. At the sound of both of these, her immediate reaction was to kill everything. Her second reaction was to get out of bed and actually kill everything, but the murderous headache stabbing at her head like a pick axe in caribou meat prevented her movement. Instead she crumbled back on the bed in pain. When she realized that light was attacking her red eyes from the open window, she crawled back into the blankets like a crab hiding in the sand and attempted quiet solace.

That didn't happen.

After some five minutes of hearing the obnoxious cursing and pot clanging in the kitchen, the brunette dragged herself out of bed to investigate/kill. The villainous looking girl with a blanket for a cape didn't expect what she'd find.

Sean was wearing a pink apron covered in flour and some kind of sticky green… stuff. The expression on his face resembled that of a five year old girl; pouty lips, red cheeks, teary blue eyes and an unknown food spotting his white porcelain skin.

If Kelly wasn't so hungover she would have burst out laughing and taken pictures; however, the pounding headache was pressing and made everything significantly less funny. Damn it. Her goal instead became the cabinet where the medicine was stored and the coffee brewing in the coffee maker.

"Sorry for waking you, I just-" He sobbed.

"Shhhhh." She hushed, stepping in front of him and lightly tapping his nose like his mother used to do. When she saw him relax a little she slapped him upside the head and got a mug for her coffee. "If you're making food it better be delicious. Otherwise I'm kicking your ass."

"I just… I wanted to make food so that they'd like me, and I got nervous, and-"

"I don't care."

"I mean, you hit it off so well with them, and I just managed to get in a fight. You had so-"

"I don't care."

"Much fun and-and they like food and I figure if I-"

"Shut. Up."

"Make them food then they'll be like, 'woah, this guy is cool'. And-"

"They'll say 'Woah, this guy is gay'."

"And-and the food started to explode, and the cookie dough turned green, and I made the flour go everywhere when the spaghetti exploded, and… and…" He ranted, ending in tears and quiet sobs. His older cousin didn't do anything but watch and wait for the damn coffee to finish.

Unfortunately, the sniffle monster must have thought she was a nice person or something, so he jumped into her arms and cried loudly on her shoulder.

Convincing herself that she was too tired and in too much pain to move, she just sat there and waited impatiently for her coffee to finish brewing.

-Two days earlier-

Seth and Leah sat on the couch watching TV and eating left over casserole. Their mom was gone and they had the house to themselves. A few months ago their parental unit had moved in with Charlie Swan and left the house to Seth. Leah recently returned from attending a four year college, so until she could find her own place, they lived together in the small house. Neither really minded, seeing as most of the time they weren't even home, and got along fine. They split the bills, groceries, chores, etc.

"Did you hear about that new guy that moved in near town?" Seth asked, trying to strike a conversation with her.

"Who?"

"There's some guy that's been roaming into town and trying to talk to people. I thought you'd heard about him."

"No…"

"Well, apparently he's been getting on people's nerves."

"How so?"

"Just asks a lot of questions. From what I've heard he tries too hard… shows up to a bunch of random things, walks around town a lot and starts conversations with people he doesn't know…."

"Sounds lonely and obnoxious. Why'd he move here?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. I heard a rumor that he's living with a really hot chick, though."

"Huh…. You going to that party thing tomorrow?"

"Yeah, it seems like it'll be pretty fun. You going?"

"I'm on patrol. If it's still going on when my shift ends I might catch the end of it, but otherwise I'll just skip it."

"That's too bad." He commented, and focused his attention back to the TV.

-Next Day-

Leah was bored out of her freaking mind. There weren't any vampires around, no one was in trouble, and the only other person on patrol was some kid she didn't care about knowing. Thank god they were in different packs, or else she'd have to suffer being in the fourteen year old boy's mind for the next four hours.

The sound of blasting music and people laughing could be heard from where she was, and a whine escaped her nose as she settled down on the ground. She tilted her head sideways and set one ear on the ground while one of her paws pressed down on her other ear, but it didn't do much good. It also wouldn't do much good if they were attacked…. Oh who was she kidding- ever since the stand off with the Voltori, maybe one vampire has dared venture around here in the past few years, and he was killed in not even a minute.

The chance that someone would be attacked tonight was extremely unlikely, to say the least.

She rolled onto her back and pawed at the air for a few minutes before also being bored with that, and then rolled back onto her feet. The sounds of the party were still taunting, and she usually didn't even like local bonfires. In fact, if she wasn't on patrol, she wouldn't be there anyway. Just the fact that she was stuck in the woods with a stupid teenager in complete darkness with nothing to do made her want to do anything else.

Well, they haven't patrolled the beach tonight, and if an enemy decided to invade via ocean….

'Hey Carol!'

'It's Kyle.'

'I know what your name is. Look, I'm going to go check out the beach area really quick. Stay here and if anything happens-'

'You just want to hang out with Cody~' The boy teased.

Before she could let the boy taunt her with ridiculous accusations even further, however true, she closed her mind to him and jogged over to where she heard the music blasting. There were more people than she first thought. She stayed hidden in the trees and underbrush a good ways off from the event; close enough to see and hear what was going on but not close enough to alert them to her presence.

The air was warm tonight and an unusually warm breeze was washing over the land. The calmness and good energy reverberating from the people and land made her relax. The calm darkness blanketed her form and the rest of the forest in peaceful slumber. She exhaled deeply and lay down in her spot.

'This is nice.'

Her gaze lingered on each of the people as they chatted and did whatever they were doing. Seth was trying to start a football game with the guys. Leah snorted. Sam was… well, talking to Emily. Again, Leah snorted. Paul was talking to Rachel…. And then her gaze found Cody. Leah's heart beat faster. Cody.

If she could smile in her wolf form she'd be grinning like crazy.

He had moved here shortly before she'd gotten back from college, and when she first saw him she thought he was an idiot and weakling, but over time she had started to like him. I mean, he was kind of cute, and kind of funny, and not as stupid as most of the other guys she always hung out with. Not only that, but he didn't know her back when she was lamenting over Sam.

She shuddered at the memory.

Not many guys in La Push looked her way after that.

She sighed and looked at the group of people that were drinking in the corner. She recognized the usuals; Paul, Marley, Ta…. Who was that?

Who is that chick?

Her entire body froze and she forgot how to breathe. Her mind went completely blank except for that one woman taking shots. The way her short brown hair glistened in the dim light, how her stunning green eyes shined and closed as she downed another cup of unknown liquid, they way her slim body swayed slightly and trembled as she laughed. Her beautiful tanned skin….

Imprinting: Success

That night she couldn't sleep. All she could think about was the mystery girl she had seen and the fact that she had actually imprinted on someone. Leah Clearwater had actually imprinted on someone! And she's beautiful! From what she could tell she also got along with the rest of her friends and brother, and she could really hold her liquor. The last part she wasn't as interested in, but the other things were really good.

I wonder what kind of person she is.

What is she like?

What's her favorite animal?

What's her favorite food?

What if she doesn't like me?

What if she freaks out when I tell her what I am?

At those last two questions she felt her chest contract and her eyes shut tight. She was on her bed now and for a moment she felt like she was floating in space, like she had no connection to this world and everything just started to drift away…

Except for her.

Sure, it worried her that she may not like her back, but so long as she was alive and happy, that was fine. Leah could live with that. And it's not like she is a bad person, she's a wonderful person. She has to be. She's wonderful.

"Hey Leah! You here?" The sound of her brother's voice startled her out of her thoughts and made her jump. Immediately she jumped out of bed and went to the door, hoping that she could get him to leave so that she could think more about her. Or maybe bribe him to tell her about her…

Her…

She's so pretty…

"Are you drunk or something? Why are you just standing there?" Seth asked behind the still closed door, and Leah shook her head before pulling the door open and looking at her brother. Uncharacteristically of her, she broke out into a wide smile.

"Hey little brother. What's up?"

That statement was the equivalent of watching three identical heads grow from each of her shoulders and saying 'hi'. She was never this nice.

And she is obviously drunk, Seth concluded. Or on really, really hardcore drugs.

"… what the hell? Since when do you skip out on patrol and leave a kid out in the woods by himself? Jake is pissed."

Oh yeah… I left Carly out there…. "Oops. Sorry 'bout that. Hey, did you talk to that beautiful girl at the bonfire?" Now she was slumped against the frame of the door and fiddling with her fingernails.

"Leah it isn't like you to just skip out like that. He could have been seriously hurt, even killed. The reason we have two people patrol and not one is that-"

"So you didn't talk to her?"

"I- what?"

"That girl at the bonfire. Short brown hair, stunning green eyes. How can you not remember her?"

"… you mean Kelly?"

"Her name is Kelly? That fits her so well." She said with the stupid smile inching along her face. "Kelly."

"What the hell did you drink, sis?" He asked, and her smile immediately turned to a frown. She glared. And then she smiled again.

"I imprinted." She said, and squealed at the end. "I finally imprinted, Seth!"

"That's… that's great! Congrats!" He congratulated and gave her a big hug that she surprisingly reciprocated. He couldn't help but think imprinting was incredibly weird if it could do this to a person; I mean, sure, he'd heard good things about it, but he'd never heard of it making someone act drunk. "So whose the guy? Please don't tell me it's Cody."

"No, idiot! It's Kelly!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down and hugging her brother again. She pushed him away a second later to start talking about her, not unlike moments before in her room. "She's the most beautiful woman I have even seen, and the way she moves is-"

"Woah, woah, woah… you imprinted on a girl?" He asked incredulously, and she nodded.

"Yeah, isn't she amazing? I mean she's not my usual type, but she's gorgeous, amazing, and she kicks Paul's ass at drinking and-"

"Wait… you're gay?"

"Of course not! Who the hell said I was gay?"

"Leah, you're in love with a woman." He stated, trying to get the point driven home.

"So?"

"… you're a woman."

"Your point?"

"You're gay." He said with a wave of his arms, and watched his sister's expression fall. The elated high she had just felt fell and crashed around her. Everything she knew… every way she looked at things…. "You're gay, Leah." He said again, trying to draw her out of her now blank state. "It's not like the end of the world, at all, but…"

Leah Clearwater is a lesbian.

"Oh god…" She muttered, hands flying to her mouth as she tried to register everything. Seth, not knowing what to do, folded his arms over his chest and watched her for a moment.

"We'll get through this… The guys might think this is funny, but fuck them. You're my sister, and I love you, and-" He comforted, hating to watch his sister start to fall apart just after being so happy about finding her 'one true love'.

"What if Kelly's not gay?" She interrupted, staring up at him with wide and watery eyes. "What if she doesn't like me because I'm gay? What if she doesn't like me because I love her?"

Not expecting that reaction, the tall and uncomfortable male laughed and pulled the frantic woman into another hug. "Don't worry, I have a feeling she'll like you back."

Coming out of the closet: Success.

Seth woke up the next morning to the sound of pots and pans clanging together. He also heard the distinct swear of 'fudge monkeys on fucking crack' by his dearest sister. When he looked over at his Goofy themed clock, he chose his own swear words, and got out of bed. The wood floors were cold against his feet and didn't help his mood.

When he reached the entrance to the kitchen his eyes went wide as saucers.

"I am never going to imprint." He told himself, and the sound of his voice made Leah jump high enough to hit her head on the ceiling and drop the cooking sheet she had just picked up. She turned to him with a frustrated and surprised look on her face.

"Oh, hi." She greeted, and went back to… well, whatever she was doing. There was cooking materials littered around the messy kitchen and nothing in the containers he saw looked edible.

"… what the hell are you doing at 4 in the morning?" Seth groaned, and took a seat on the only stool that wasn't completely covered in… whatever was on the other chairs.

"Well, you said last night that she had a big appetite and liked food. I figured that I'd introduce myself by giving her some. I'm trying to make a healthy lasagna."

"How the hell do you make healthy lasagna? It's basically noodles and cheese."

"I don't know but I'm fucking doing it."

"And why are you doing this so early? And so loudly?" Seth groaned as he placed his arms on the counter and laid his head on them. He started to notice that it was considerably warmer in here than the rest of the house.

"I couldn't sleep. I kind of wanted to watch her sleep from her apartment window, becauseshe'sadorableandamazingandIloveher, but that would be creepy and would scare off any sensible person, so I figure that I need to start planning on how I'm going to meet her. I know her but she doesn't know me. I'm not going to let a repeat of Sam happen again."

Seth groaned from his seat. He moved his arms a few inches and let his forehead land painfully on the hard countertop. "So that's why you're freaking out about this?"

"I love her."

"You. Don't. Know. Her." He hit his head painfully against the counter on each word for emphasis.

"You're right. That's why I need to meet her and get to know her, then she will fall into my loving food trap and we shall love each other for ever and ever." She explained in an 'evil' voice, and laughed 'evilly' at the end.

"You had coffee, didn't you?"

"Who the fuck doesn't have coffee when they're in fucking love?"

"Why are you cursing so much?"

"Why aren't you fucking cursing so much?" She asked and launched herself into another fit of 'evil' sounding laughter.

"I'm going back to bed. Can you keep the volume down?"

"You keep down the volume."

"I'm serious."

"Fine, fine. I'll try my best."

"Damn it Sean, why the hell are you dragging me along with you? It's your damn casserole and your damn apology. I'm still recovering from whatever the hell that guy made me drink last night." Kelly whined as she was dragged forcefully from their apartment. The jerk almost made her spill her coffee with his grip on her shirt.

"I need to make it right with them. Especially that Seth guy. I feel bad about last night."

"What did you do to piss each other off, anyway? And stop tugging on my shirt!" She yelled as she yanked the cloth away, and glared as she sipped on her coffee. She tried to go back into the apartment, but the door was locked, so she let out an exasperated sigh and followed him.

The male slouched his shoulders at the memory. "I don't know. I said something about a TV show and he said something about me being a fruit… and then I said something like 'takes one to know one'… I don't know what happened, really. Just something set us off."

"Gaaaay~!" Kelly yelled loudly.

"Stop saying that!" He replied, and glared at her smiling face.

It took them about twenty minutes to find and figure out where the Clearwaters lived. They used Sean's great sense of smell, attained from his bloodline, to their advantage when trying to find the place. It was about noon and both hoped that that was the acceptable time to visit someone here- well, Sean hoped, Kelly didn't give a crap.

When they got there she couldn't help but wonder why there was a plastic flamingo in their yard. It was popular in movies and cartoons, sure, but she had never actually seen one in someone's yard before. She couldn't tell whether that was supposed to be a joke or an actual decoration, and if it was the latter she was never coming here again. Other than the flamingo the house and street seemed fairly normal and boring.

Much better than the crappy apartment Sean had.

"What's with the flamingo?" Sean asked quietly as they walked up the small path leading to the house. His cousin shrugged.

"Why did you let me bring my coffee? Now I have to carry around an empty mug like an idiot." She complained as she stopped halfway to the door, but was dragged the rest of the way by the arm. As the blond rapped on the door with his knuckles Kelly groaned and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her shorts. She only wore shorts and a sleeveless hoodie and unlike the previous day, it was fucking cold.

Sean was smart enough to wear an actual jacket and pants.

It took a minute before they heard movement inside. They heard one of those cooking timers inside go off and a loud 'just a minute!'. "Of course there's a woman in the kitchen. Stupid small towns." Kelly groaned as she hopped from one frozen foot to another and pulled her hood over her head. The clouds grumbled above them and it smelled like rain was coming.

A couple minutes later the door opened to reveal a woman, probably a good foot taller than Kelly and like her cousin earlier that morning, covered in guck. She had dark brown eyes, short boyish black hair, and a slim body. If she wasn't bathed in food she might look a little attractive.

When she locked eyes when Kelly her face turned to complete shock. Her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp before… slamming the door shut in their faces.

"Kelly what the hell did you do?"

"Maybe she was entranced by my sexy looks and got shy?" Kelly answered with a shrug and yawned into the air. Sean punched her not-so-lightly on the arm.

"Look, I'm sorry if my cousin made you mad… does Seth live here?" Sean asked through the door.

On the other side of the door Leah was pacing back and forth while trying to get pasta sauce off of her face- she didn't remember that being there ten minutes ago- and attempted to straighten her clothes. She could hear Kelly talking outside… she shook her head and tried to focus again.

"Kelly is here…. Kelly is here… and I just slammed- crap!" When she realized that she had just shut the door in Kelly's face, she bolted for the door and yanked it open. She smiled awkwardly. "Hi, sorry, I just didn't expect you to be here."

"Do I know you?" The brunette asked, watching as the woman laughed loudly and shook her head.

"No, no, I just… you said you needed Seth?" She asked, turning her attention to the male at her side. Both of them exchanged a glance before returning their attention to her. Leah wanted to bang her head against the wall for acting so 'lame'.

"… yeah. Does Seth live here?"

"Yeah. Yeah, he's my brother. I'll go get him, just a sec. I'll be right back." She said quickly, and ran back into the house and to her brother's room. She didn't bother knocking and just ran in, carefully closing the door behind her. He was asleep, so she did the logical thing and jumped on the empty part of his bed. "Seth!"

"Go…. away." He grumbled as he turned away from her and hid beneath the covers and pillow. She promptly yanked the pillow out and hit him with it.

"She's here!" She squealed in a loud whisper.

"Who?"

"Kelly! Kelly and some guy."

"Is he blond?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Oh… go away." He grumbled, half asleep, and received another smack in the head with the pillow.

"I'm not going to let you ruin the rest of my life! Get your ass out of bed or else I'll torch Mr. Fuzzles." She threatened, and he raised his head from the pillow to look at her. He glared.

"You wouldn't."

"Yes. I would." She said, narrowing her eyes as well and challenging his gaze. "Your goofy clock and slippers will be next on my list too."

"Nnng… fine. I get up, see what he wants, and go back to bed. Is that good enough?"

"I love you little brother!" She said happily as she hugged and kissed his cheek. Then she ran out to rejoin the cousins on her porch, both of whom were standing there awkwardly and staring into space. When Leah reached them she wore a wide grin on her face and sparkly eyes. "Would you two like to come in? Seth will be out in a minute."

"Sure! We'd love to." The blond chirped, and the other grunted but entered nonetheless.

"What's with the flamingo in the yard?" Kelly asked as she looked around, and not surprisingly Sean gave her 'the look'.

"It was a gag gift from one of my mom's friends. We kind of just left it. It's kind of like the pet we never had and never have to feed." She explained, all the while keeping her eyes glued to the woman's face and searching for any indication of discomfort.

"Cool." She replied simply.

"Are either of you thirsty? Hungry? I just made some lasagna this morning."

"Oh, so you're an early cook like nacho-man here." She said as she pointed at her cousin. He took offense and stuck his tongue out at her. She stuck her own out back.

"I just wanted to drop this off for Seth, as a sort of 'I'm sorry' for last night." Sean said as he held out a casserole dish to the woman, smiling like an idiot while doing so, and let her take it into the kitchen. She said a short 'thanks' and as she returned, Seth walked out of his room.

"Hi." He grumbled as he tried to flatten his messy hair. He hadn't bothered to really get dressed, at all, and just wore his boxers into the living room. Leah just near had a heart attack.

"You couldn't bother to wear some pants?"

"It's fine. Look, I just wanted to apologize for last night. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"No biggie."

"I brought over a casserole, too. It's in the kitchen."

"Cool…. How did you know where I lived?" He asked suddenly, and Sean visibly paled. "I don't remember-"

"Dude, we brought the damn casserole, now accept it so that goldy locks can let me go home. He locked me out of the apartment and won't let me have the damn keys until you accept whatever it is he wants you to accept." Kelly told the barely clothed giant, and was glad that he was too tired to argue. He just shrugged and nodded.

"Whatever. Sure. I accept the apology and stuff."

"Would you like to come over for dinner later?" Leah blurted at them, mostly Kelly, in a burst of breath. It sounded as if she had been trying to say that for a while and just now managed to get it out. Before the girl could answer, her cousin was already nodding and agreeing to attend. Happy with the answer, she told them to come back over at six that night.

Both Seth and Kelly tried to object, but both were too late and pulled into the batter of a sure-to-explode cookie dough.

Later that day, after having another cup of coffee and some very burnt oatmeal raisin cookies, Kelly went for another walk around the town. Mostly in the woods and beach, seeing as the 'town' was exceptionally small and the natives were giving her strange looks, but she walked nonetheless.

It gave her time to reflect on the information she'd gathered thus far from the people she had talked to and the news. There had been many sightings of large wolves in this area, and there were also sightings of enormous men and women walking around with insane alcohol tolerance. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

They also just gave off a weird vibe… like, a non-human vibe. Usually humans act a certain way and have a certain irk or awkwardness to them, where non-human creatures have an unusual confidence and grace.

Nothing too definitive.

Kelly gave out a loud sigh and stopped where she was walking. She looked around at the dense trees and the damp greenery on the ground. It had rained a little that morning and it caused water droplets to drip from the tall trees and land on the various plant life around her, causing strange noises.

The smell of trees and nature was wonderful and untouched by civilization. Goosebumps rose along her skin as a cool breeze brushed against her exposed arms and legs. She'd been stupid to not change into something a bit warmer, but Sean was practically shoving her out of the place and she'd hoped the exercise would have warmed her up. Nonetheless the dampening smell of rain in the air was refreshing and made her nerves calms to a near still.

As she stopped to observe her surroundings, she noticed something else….

She wasn't on the path anymore.

It was almost time to meet back at the weird girl's house and she was still lost. She was lost in unfamiliar territory wearing wet shorts and hoodie, tired, cold, hungry, and being watched by something- probably one of the gigantic wolves she was sent to find.

She couldn't see whatever was stalking her; the clouds made the sun hardly any help as it was hiding behind the trees and moving fog. It felt like that episode of Doctor Who when whenever you closed your eyes, demonic angel statues would move and try to get you. Whenever Kelly looked away from where she thought whatever was out there was, she would hear it move, and when she looked it would be gone.

Of course her phone wasn't working, either. The Verizon guy's friend lied when he had said he had heard him. "Can you hear me now?" "NO. GET ME OUT OF THESE GOD DAMN WOODS." "… Goooood."

"Where the fuck is that path?" She muttered under her breath as she wandered in a random direction in attempt to locate any sign of civilization.

How she got so lost and so turned around, she had no idea. The forest in this area wasn't that big from her little knowledge of the area, and she should have been able to navigate out with her superb navigation skills.

… okay, she has no navigation skills. At all. According to her aunt and uncle, she had attained that unfortunate trait from her parents. Neither of them could distinguish the concept of West from 'left' even with her father's ability to turn into a giant cat. The only thing they could almost navigate was city streets with directions they had printed out before hand with MapQuest. They lived off of that thing and were always late even with it.

She missed them…. Back to the real issue.

All of the trees looked the same, it was getting dark, and she was being followed. She kinda hoped those wolves were friendly right now. After another twenty minutes of trampling around in the rain and mud, she huffed loudly and turned to face whatever was following her. She still couldn't see it, so she just stared in the general direction that she had heard it, and stood there for some good five minutes with her arms crossed. Goosebumps were covering her lightly tanned and trembling skin.

"Dear whatever the hell is following me: Either attack me, get your ass kicked and get it over with, or show me how-how to get out of your corn maze forest. I have a dinner to attend with some crazy chick I met five-six, hours ago." She corrected at the end, and stood there pointedly for another few minutes. Her hair was soaked. Clothes were wet through and through. Body shivered like crazy.

And as she stood there, a large mass started to move some twenty yards away. The sudden movement made her jump slightly, but it continued to move anyway, and after it was completely away from the tree she could see what it was.

It wasn't who she was expecting- that's for sure. And they sure as hell weren't going to help her get home.

Leah spent the entire day bugging her brother and getting him to help get ready for the dinner with 'the love of her life'. All she would talk about was her. All she would do was cook and burn food. All she did was move all of the furniture in the house and clean everything until she nearly rubbed the polish off of it.

Seth sat on the stool he had been sitting on just that morning in the same position. His forehead was banging painfully against the counter. Leah was running around in frantic-freak-mode.

It was the dreaded 'Sam years' all over again. "Do you think she'll like pineapple? What if she doesn't like pineapple? What if she's allergic to gun powder?"

"You put gun powder in the food?"

"Remember when dad spilled gun powder and it got all over the house ten years ago?"

"Yeah…? What about it?"

"Well, what if we didn't get all of it out? What if-?"

"Stop. Seriously, stop."

"I can't! I can't, I can't stop. I have to make everything perfect."

"You realize trying too hard might come off as a turn-off, right? She doesn't seem to go for uptight people. Not to mention how rude and obnoxious she is…" Seth asked as he raised his head and rested his chin on his palm. He started to laugh at her startled expression.

"Oh god, you're right- not the last part, but the first part. She's so great, and she wouldn't want to be around someone like me. Or such a clean environment. She's going to see how much I cleaned and-"

"God, now it's Jacob all over again." Seth groaned, and almost jumped at the death glare plastered on his sister's face. "I just… look, I didn't mean-"

"Don't ever compare Kelly to one of those blood suckers."

"I wasn't… Geez, you find out that you're gay and all you're worried about is her. I tell you you're cleaning too much, and you freak out and assume she'll judge you for it."

"I'm going insane! I have to see her." She yelled, and both of them froze when they heard something in the distance. A distinct scream echoed through the cold forest.

After wrestling with the blue haired vampire for a minute, the first wolf showed up and caused the power in the fight to become unbalance to the vampire's favor. While Kelly was about to strike a second vital blow to the creature, the appearance of a giant wolf split her attention and let the vampire gain the upper hand.

As the numbers of giant wolves rose the vampire managed to get a good grip on her. He managed dislocate one of her shoulders and wrench his hands onto her good shoulder and jaw. He stood behind her now and his mouth inches away from her pulsing neck.

It didn't take long for a good group of wolves to surround them. There were many more than the brunette would have thought, and the size of them was outrageous for their species.

No way her family was going to let them roam around like this….

The vampire looked around at the wolves, fear and confusion evident on his face as he tried to figure out what was going on. "She's my meal, not yours!" He yelled at them, trying to find an escape route but discovering none. He was outnumbered one to over thirty wolves. Make that thirty six.

A smaller grey wolf leaped forward and growled at him, causing a chorus of dangerously low growls to echo around them. "Now we're both in deep crap." Kelly said under her breath, and watched as the bear sized wolves started to close in. "Dude, you might want to let me go."

"You think I'm going to fall for something that stupid? Shut up!"

"If they're my friends, yay me. If they're not, you can get a head start while they munch on my bones. Just leave me here and-" She started to reason, and luckily he took the hint. He was gone in less than a second- the only way she knew was when the wolves left and started chasing him.

Kelly bounced back onto her feet and eyed the remaining foes that didn't run after the vampire. The grey wolf that had stepped forward earlier had run past her, so close that she could have reached out and felt her fur if she'd wanted to. The thought sent chills down her spine. The thought of being killed by a wolf was more disturbing than being killed by a vampire.

She gripped her shoulder and turned in place to watch them, suspiciously watching the creatures as they watched her. She knew they were part human; however, this branch of shapeshifting species was so different that she didn't know their eating habits or shift of personality from human to beast. There were rumors of shapeshifters born with the mind of an animal and nothing else- and there were stories of Dr. Jeckyl and Hyde scenarios when they weren't human at all in their animal form; werewolves, for example.

"… Are you going to attack me?" The woman asked them in a surprisingly loud voice. She heard a familiar bird 'caw' above her and knew that Sean was close by.

The wolves, all various shades of grey, brown, and black, turned and disappeared into the trees. It was surprising how well they blended into the scenery and yet stood so terrifyingly tall. Her head snapped in the direction of where the vampire had run, and the sound of his screams and body being ripped apart traveled in the otherwise quiet forest. Now that she stood so still she could hear her heart racing among the other sounds, creating a disturbing synchronization.

Another 'caw' from the trees made her look up and locate the bird on a nearby branch. He was one of the prettier shapeshifters, she had to admit. His feathers were a dark brown with a red glint in the right light, and white specks covered his chest. Large golden eyes with a hint of blue stared at her from his perch, and cawed again at her.

"Just a dislocated shoulder. It'll be fine in a few days…" She told him, and shuddered a sigh. "I need you to relocate it soon…"

Her attention was turned to something lurking in the underbrush a little too close for comfort. Her heart went racing again when she realized that two large brown eyes were staring up at her, and its body matched the color of the shadow it crouched in. Why it was trying to sneak up on her after saving her, she had no idea. Round two, possibly?

"Thanks for taking care of the creep. Not a fan of murder, but the red eyes were death material." Kelly joked.

The creature snorted and slowly unbent its legs and inched closer to her. It was the wolf that had stepped forward before and growled at the vampire. The forest, now alive with excitement, burst into new sounds as howls erupted into the air and more ripping of the vampire's limbs could be heard.

The hawk nearby chirped and spread its wings to fly.

The wolf froze in its place some two feet from the female and kept locked eyes with her. It didn't seem to want trouble, and from its lowered head and stance Kelly figured it was friendly enough. She grew up around enough animals to know what basic motions meant what. "Can you lead me back to civilization, pup?" She asked softly, and the wolf snorted before turning around and starting to walk away. Not sure whether or not the wolf had actually listened, she nonetheless started walking after it.

Determine whether or not species is dangerous: success.

Ever since the… 'encounter' with the wolves and vampire, Sean has insisted that she not go out as much. The dislocated shoulder had been a bitch to handle and there's no telling if the shapeshifters would change their mind about eating them.

Unfortunately, Kelly already finished her 'mission' and could leave whenever she wanted to. She could leave her cousin's dump of a place, she could leave the wolf filled woods for the safety of her home in California, she could just leave the new discovery of a new species….

Eh. California's not that cool anyway.

About three days after the incident with the vampire, they finally had the dinner with Leah and her brother. It was an awkward dinner, seeing as Kelly and Seth didn't care to be there, but it was also a chance for Kelly to find out more about the wolves. Not surprisingly they didn't give a lot of information; however, she did discover that she had a fan girl.

The Leah chick was beyond infatuated with her, and although she kind of weirded her out at times, was adorable. For such a strong and attractive person she wore her emotions on her sleeve. While serving dinner she would constantly talk to Kelly and try to get along with her- doing so by constantly giving compliments and looking out for her well being. Kelly would have to tell her to shut her yap every so often, and unlike other people, Leah didn't get offended. She would have preferred that the female stand up to her and stand her ground, but at least she didn't have a hissy fit like other girls she had met. Or like her cousin, who berated her for the 'shut your yap' comment. What was interesting was that when he started berating her for being rude to Leah, Leah would tell him to 'shut his yap'.

Anyone who told doll boy to shut up was automatically in Kelly's 'cool' book.

Other than the occasional burst of insults between the boys, the night went pretty smoothly from then on.

At the end of the night Leah proposed that they all 'hang out' again, and suggested a picnic. Seth declined, much to Sean's disappointment, and since Seth wasn't going, Sean didn't want to go either. This left the date to the two women, and both were fine with it.

Not surprisingly, Leah brought the supplies and food for the picnic. They chose the little area where the bonfire had been nights before. During the day time it was a startlingly nice place. No trash had been left behind and the view was perfect aside from the clouds threatening to rain on them. There was a little covered area off to the side they could go under if it started to pour.

"So what do you think of La Push so far?" Leah asked as they nibbled on some sandwiches. Unlike her counterpart that looked completely calm and at ease, the wolf girl was a bundle of nerves and almost trembling from excitement and nervousness. She had a high pitched nervous laugh that would pierce the air at random moments and jitters that kept her moving at all times.

"I think it's a cool place. You guys have wild parties." Kelly would reply calmly. She sat with her knees bent and arms extending behind her to keep her upright like a wooden art easel- sturdy yet thin. Although she seemed perfectly at ease with her surroundings and exceptionally calm, her mind was working like gears and trying to process a lot of information. Unlike most of her family and what you might expect of her, she can be extremely patient, cold, and calculating, especially when it came to tactics and planning. If she went to Hogwarts she'd be sorted into the Slytherin house.

"Where did you live before you moved here?" The wolf girl asked between bites, and then chuckled softly at a stray thought. She didn't share the thought but still smiled.

"I've been moving around since I turned seventeen. After learning several martial arts techniques I decided to travel around the world. I've been to Switzerland, Beijing, Berlin, a few small villages in southern Africa, India, Japan, and some of South America. Oh, also Tibet. I probably stayed in Tibet the longest." Said Kelly, who was talking between bites of barbecue chips. She hadn't really touched any of the other food yet and Leah had eaten almost all of her share.

"Wow, you actually lived in those places?" Leah asked, astonished, and the other shrugged.

"I visited most of them."

"How did you pay for all of that?"

"My aunt and uncle are pretty loaded. Between some of the trips I'd fly back to the US and do some work for them. I also have a friend in the internet marketing business, so I do advertizing for him and don't need to be in the states to do it."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty six." Kelly answered, looked over in time to see the other woman gapping at her. She laughed. "What?"

"You look more like you're twenty!"

"How old are you?"

"… twenty three." She answered after a moment, and looked down at the ground. Kelly smiled and reached over to pat her shoulder.

"No shame in that. So long as you're old enough to drink."

"The farthest I've gone is Oregon and California. You don't… you don't seem like the kind of person that travels a lot." She commented, switching the topic of her age back to her travels.

"I'm a gypsy woman. I can't stay in one place for long." She explained with a wide grin and shrug.

"I'd love to travel with you some day." Leah commented. Kelly didn't really say anything to that, and instead just stared.

Her brown eyes looked deep into the other female's green ones, and captured by each other's beauty, neither dared to look away. A still silence passed between them as they just stared, looking into each other's eyes and feeling an unfamiliar warmth brew in their bellies and work its way into their chest. It felt like an eternity that they just stayed like that, neither daring to move in order to preserve the moment.

Everything seemed dead around them, and for that one moment, nothing else existed.

A caw of a bird and growl of thunder above them broke the trance. Both looked away with a small blush on their cheeks.

Normally both were straight forward with people they were interested in, but in this case, neither felt the urge to really push each other's limits. They just let it flow.

"What are you going to tell the council?" Sean asked one day as he lounged on the couch and watched his cousin do her morning exercises and training. Every morning, unless she had been drinking the previous night, consisted of her practicing basic martial arts movements and stretches. She was in 'enemy territory', after all, and needed to keep herself ready for any kind of attack.

"The truth."

"That you're dating the enemy?"

"They're not an enemy if they're not a threat. We've only seen them attack vampires, and they even tried to save me." She explained as she punched the air twice and ended in her original stance. Her body continued to move at inhuman speeds as her routine proceeded.

"You know they're not going to see it that way." The blond spoke from his spot, and pulled out a People Magazine from under the couch. His eyebrows raised as he read the little snippets of dialogue over the faces of random celebrities.

"I haven't given up yet. Dating one of them gives me the opportunity to learn more about them and buys us more time to convince our family not to kill an endangered species."

"Endangered my ass. There's more of them than us." He spat as he flipped through the pages without really reading them.

"The council won't see it that way, and you know it."

"What do you mean?"

"Vampires have been… attacking our people constantly through the centuries." She spoke, and had to pause as she did a jump and kick, just barely missing the table that her precious breakable computer sat on. Not wanting to break anything or replace it, she decided she was done and sat down to do stretches.

"Are you going to continue?"

"They've been attacking us for centuries… and every time we find a vampire coven, we always take them down. No matter the size."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Sean, if the council thinks they're a threat, they're going to launch an attack against them."

"So?" He asked, still not getting it.

"So, like you just said, we're outnumbered and outstrengthed. I can barely take one down in their human form, and I'm one of the strongest fighters in our family. If we fight them, we will no doubt lose."

"The council wouldn't start a war they thought they couldn't win. You're being stupid." Sean concluded, not even bothering to look away from his magazine.

"The council hates vampires and anything that's not them. You know damn well that they'll find any reason to fight and they don't care about the cost." She explained, and looked up to find that he was looking at her again. "If they find any reason to attack these wolves, they will attack, and they will lose."

"We haven't lost a battle yet."

"We haven't won a battle without losing our own, either." She pointed out, and Sean looked away, thinking about what she said. One of his good friends was a casualty in an attack a few years back, and it was for that very reason that he moved all the way out here. He couldn't stand being around the people that got him killed anymore. "You know I'm right. They love battle too much to turn down a 'victory' like this. If they beat an entire pack of giant wolves with a bunch of prehistoric birds, they would be stronger than anyone and anything that came their way. This would be a challenge they couldn't refuse."

"Yeah, maybe…."

"That's why I'm only going to tell them bits of truth, and I need you to back me up." She said as moved to do some push ups. Sean snapped his attention back to her.

"What? You're going to lie?"

"No. I'm going to try and make these wolves seem weak and not worth our time; this way they won't feel like they've been challenged to fight them. I won't make them seem too weak that we can just wipe them out in one swoop, but I won't make them seem stronger than us." She explained, and Sean shrugged.

"Whatever, fine. I'll back up anything you say. Just don't lie about anything too big. I'm only doing this because I do not want to go up against them. After seeing them almost rip you apart, I would rather stay clear and out of their fur." He explained as he went back to an 'interesting' article to read.

"Fair enough."

"You seem distracted." Leah commented the next day. The brunette shook her head and refocused her attention to her current surroundings. They were leaving a small movie theater in Port Angeles and Leah had been rambling about things they could do.

"Just lost in thought." She said with a shrug.

"Oh…. Do you want to go home?" Leah asked cautiously and hoping the answer would be no. When her companion turned and smiled at her she just about melted right there and then; she also stopped walking to stare and gawk at her. She didn't realize it, but she'd been increasingly doing that more and more the longer they both spent time with each other.

"No. I like being around you, even if you keep staring at me at random ass times." She joked, and as expected, the other female blushed and looked away.

"I just like looking at you is all."

"That's another thing that's awesome about you." She stated, and reached out to hold her hand. They exchanged a glance before looking away and continuing to walk down the sidewalk leading away from the theater. "You speak your mind and you're honest. A little wound up, but honest. I like that."

It was amusing how much Leah's cheeks flared; how her tan face turned bright red from such a simple comment in a split second. She also squawked a loud laugh that caused her face to redden even more and to make the other female laugh, causing even more redness and embarrassment.

"I've traveled the world and never have I ever met someone quite like you." Kelly said, and tried to hear what Leah's reply was, but the wolf girl was too busy covering her mouth with her hand. "Nervous laughers are fun to be around- any conversation, however awkward, can be set aflame by laughing."

Their attention was turned from each other when they heard other people laughing. In the distance, not too far from them, a group of men about their age and a little older laughed and pointed. They could hear key words like 'dyke' and 'lesbo' in their drunken yells, along with a few slurred pick up lines. Since she was too used to being surrounded by idiots like them, Kelly rolled her eyes and tried to pull the taller woman away from the scene. Unfortunately, Leah was peeved and stayed where she was.

"I love kicking ass as much as the next person, but they're drunk ass holes. Let's just leave." The shorter one encouraged, but Leah didn't move.

"I'm not going to let them get away with what they're saying." She said as she started to walk towards them, but her date kept a good grip on her hand and made her stop.

"Beating them up won't prove anything."

"They're calling us 'dykes'!"

"So? I've been called worse. I only care what people say if they're people I know and care about. Then I kick their ass because they'll learn from it. These guys won't learn anything because they won't remember it because they're drunk. For all we know they're lawyers by day, drunken idiots by night." Kelly rambled as she tried again to tug the woman in the opposite direction.

"Hey ladies, why don't we try a threesome?" One of them asked as he walked towards them, staggering as he did so, and leered drunkenly at them. He wore a biker's leather jacket and stained jeans, typical jerk attire along with the messed up gelled hair.

Kelly looked at her date to find that her entire body was trembling and the grip on her hand was getting a little too tight for comfort. 'I guess shapeshifting works the same way for them- it's triggered by strong emotions.' She thought to herself as she tried further to get Leah to walk away.

"You two… are pretty hot for dykes."

"We're not dykes!" Leah argued, and let go of the girl's hand.

"Oh, my bad, you're just fu-rends. Doesn't change my off-" Before he could finish his sentence the wolf girl had socked him hard enough in the face to send him flying back and hit his head on the curb. The rest of the man's friends backed up warily and yelled things like 'that's fucked up!' 'get up, dude!' 'fuck, we've got to get out of here, man!' in the series of a few minutes. The guy wasn't moving as his friends backed up and freaked out. One of them pulled a knife and stood in front of the unconscious man's body.

"You'd better leave! I'm calling the cops!"

"I should call the cops on you!" Leah yelled back, although her anger had subsided slightly after the punch. She stepped towards the shorter man. There was blood on her hand. There was a crowd starting to form around them.

"You go call the police and we'll leave. How's that for compromise? Come on!" Kelly insisted and pulled at the woman's arm, trying to get her to follow. She staggered back but otherwise didn't move much.

"I'm not afraid of that puny imbecile."

"This is going to go on your permanent record, idiot!" She yelled, and finally got her attention. "Now get your ass moving!" she yelled at the startled woman, and was surprised to see her calm down considerably. Not saying anything, she turned and walked in the direction of her date's car. Kelly quietly followed a step behind.

Proving La Push Shapeshifters are peaceful creatures: failed.

Leah had started receiving a lot of strange stares and the occasional odd comment after she imprinted, but it didn't really start getting to her until a day or so after the Port Angeles incident. More and more homophobic comments reached her ears and it got ten times worse when she phased and could hear it in her head.

Although she knew that her closer friends and family didn't mind it, it took the rest of the pack a little longer to get used to it. She received a lot more wolf calls and whistles, quite a few sexual offers, and the very unfortunate imagery of gay porn whenever she was on patrol with one of the younger wolves. Most of the time the comments were innocent enough, but of course the occasional jerk would turn a simple comment into a gay joke. In the past just beating up anyone that messed with her worked well enough, especially in a wolf pack that was all about fighting and ranks, but nowadays they ganged up on her and it didn't work too well.

Sam and Seth stood up for her, but they were the only ones she knew about. If Jake was around he probably would as well. They claimed that it would calm down after a while and they would get used to it, but until then she was supposed to 'hang tight' and try not to get too upset.

On top of that, Kelly was peeved and hadn't talked to her in a week. This made her stir crazy and get angry a lot faster and easier than usual, which didn't make the situation any better.

Leah huffed as she lounged on her cousin's hammock. Her arms were crossed and her gaze set steady on a nail sticking out of the spider infested roof. Sam and Emily were both on a cushioned bench on the porch, only a few feet away from Leah, and holding hands. Just a month ago this small show of affection would have bothered her, but now her mind was too wrapped up in other things to care.

"Has Kelly talked to you since then?" Sam asked, and she sighed again.

"No. I've called her a couple (50) times, but she doesn't answer. I went to her place a couple (20) times too, but she wouldn't open the door. Her cousin answered once, but he wouldn't let me inside..."

"She'll come around." Emily assured, and rested her head on her husband's shoulder.

"I hope so. This week has been pure hell without her and having to deal with everyone's… ugh. I mean, I've known most of them my entire life, and now they treat me like some kind of freak." Leah ranted, and they both just nodded. "I just… I don't care what they say, but it still… it still bugs me. It's weird to spend my entire life liking men, and then I fall for a woman, and everyone freaks out. I'm… gay, bisexual, whatever. God, I just want to leave."

"Well, we're here for you no matter what." Emily comforted with a warm smile. Leah managed a fake but wide smile back.

"Thanks."

"You are driving me insane!" Sean suddenly cried from the kitchen as he watched his cousin do the same training technique over, and over, and over, and over again. She'd been exercising non-stop since her last date with Leah, and it was starting to get on the blond's nerves. Not to mention she was getting dangerously close to breaking everything.

"Well you're driving me insane! Why don't you get out and hang out with your wolf buddies!" She yelled as she stopped her moving. She was out of breath but had enough energy to yell.

"Why don't you go and make out with yours!"

"Why don't you go make out with that Seth guy you like so much!"

"You're the gay one, not me!"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately, doll face?"

"Damn it will you shut up with that? I do not look like a fucking doll!"

"Yes you do, idiot!"

"Gah! I can't stand you! Your girlfriend punches someone, which you do all the time, and you get mad at her and take it out on me!"

"How can I be with someone that doesn't listen to me? Not to mention she's a bad example of her species. I told her not to do it, and-"

"Oh boo hoo, she didn't follow your orders like an obedient puppy! From what you told me those guys had it coming and if she hadn't been there, you would have done the same thing!"

"Just… just shut up!" She yelled, and punched the wall closest to her, effectively creating a crater-like hole in the wall. "Fuuuuu-"

After fixing the hole in the wall the next day, Kelly decided to begrudgingly call the female she couldn't stop thinking about. She was surprised that the wolf girl wasn't mad or particularly upset when she called, but surprisingly chipper and eager for the conversation. They both started with an apology, both accepting each other's apology, and deciding to meet up again.

They went out for simple coffee this time, and Kelly was surprised at what a wreck Leah was in. It took her some fifteen minutes for the female to even start admitting what had been going on and who was behind it. "Look, I'm just happy that you're talking to me again. I just want to forget this week."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter." She answered, and took Kelly's hands in her own and brushed her cheek against them. "Just to have you here-"

Kelly cupped her jaw in her hand and rubbed her tender skin with her thumb. She made the woman look at her. "Leah, whose been messing with you?"

"It's nothing, all right? Just…"

"Has someone been harassing you because of me?" She asked, and although Leah's gaze wandered away from her, she forced to look back at her. "Have they?"

"I… maybe… Look, it doesn't matter-"

"Yes it does. Have you kicked their ass? Like you did with that random drunk guy?"

She looked away again.

"Cuz if you haven't, I will. Start giving me names."

Kelly pulled the woman's face closer to hers so that they were inches away from each other. It was impossible for her to look away, and her nervous high pitched laughter was sure to bubble through at any moment. They could feel each other's warm breath on their lips and breathed in the scent of coffee on their tongues.

"If you lie, then I'll know. I'm a human lie detector."

"I… yeah, I push them around a bit, but it doesn't do any good. Usually it does, but… they gang up on me and it's hard to set them straight. I don't really hurt them, I just-"

"If you ever find yourself in a pinch, don't even hesitate to call me, all right? I'm stronger than I look and I don't like people being messed with because of me." Kelly told her, and reached up to plant a kiss on her forehead. After a moment she let go and returned back to her original seat to finish her coffee. They each held the other's hand that wasn't occupied by a cup of steaming liquid. Leah accidentally snorted loudly, when she thought of how close they had been, and Kelly merely chuckled and returned to her beverage.

The pair had been dating for about a month when they were invited to a birthday party at the Cullen's residence. Leah didn't want to go, at all, but she was forced to attend, and since she was going, Kelly was going as well. Seth and Sean, over that period of time, had attained a very strange… friendship. They were both going to be there as well.

Neither of the cousins expected that they were being invited to a vampire's house, or that the birthday party was for a half breed. When they arrived they were both extremely surprised and thoroughly freaked.

Not only were there shapeshifters in this area, but there was the largest vampire coven they had ever seen. And one of the shapeshifters was dating one of them.

"What did you say about me dating the enemy?" Kelly had whispered to her cousin, and he laughed loudly and awkwardly and downed his coke. Interestingly, her cousin stayed pretty close to Seth for the majority of the time, probably because he might 'protect him' if the vampires decided to turn and attack. They fought so often she almost doubted it, but their bickering like a married couple might be an indication of the exact opposite.

Leah and Kelly stayed pretty close together as well. They always held hands, and whenever they talked to one of the vampires, they'd subconsciously move closer to each other. "So how long have you two been dating?" Alice, one of the cuter vampires, asked. Like most of the couples there she stayed fairly close to her husband Jasper's side.

"About a month." Leah answered timidly. As they started talking she snaked her arm around her partner's waist.

"What about you two?" Kelly asked.

"You know, it feels like we've been together for centuries." Alice answered with a dazzling smile and glance at her husband. He returned the look with a forced smile. Nonetheless, you could practically feel the love oozing from them, and it made Leah smile. Kelly didn't know why, but she liked these two and got good vibes from them. She trusted her instincts about them and lowered her guard slightly.

"You know you look awfully familiar, and it's been bugging me. Have we met before?" Kelly finally asked Jasper, and through his pained expression, it looked like he was thinking.

"I don't recall…" He said, and she heard a faint southern accent in the way he spoke. "I would probably remember meeting you."

"Huh… well, that's going to be bugging me for quite a while. Damn." Kelly said with an annoyed huff.

"So you're new to the area?" Alice asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I've been here for almost two months."

"How do you like it so far?"

"Much better than I thought it would be. I probably won't stay for too long, but when I do leave, it'll be to somewhere else in the US. For a lot of my life I've been traveling to various places around the world…." She rambled, and chatted with Alice for quite a while. Jasper and Leah kind of just stood there for most of the time, occasionally nodding and smiling to each other.

"Hi!" A teenage girl greeted excitedly sometime later with Jacob on her arm. She wore what looked like a very expensive orange dress and, for a human looking creature, had amazing looks. Her skin was a perfect shade of white, long flowing brown hair was curled and tied into a ponytail, and it looked like she hardly wore any make up. "Thank you for coming to my party! I'm glad you could make it!" She said happily and giddily. Something about her appearance and her age somehow didn't seem to match, and it took Kelly a minute to respond.

"Hey Nessie, have you met Leah and Kelly?" Alice asked, and the way she asked was like she was talking to a child, which confused Kelly further. Leah scoffed.

The young woman shook her head and grinned at the pair. "Hi! I'm Nessie. It's nice to meet you. Today's my birthday."

"… yeah, happy birthday." Kelly replied, wondering if this special birthday girl was actually 'special'. Not that she was prejudiced at all, but she would have thought that Leah would have mentioned it before she got there. Then she remembered hearing whispers from she shapeshifters about her being a half breed, and after connecting the dots, smiled politely.

"Happy birthday." Leah said just as enthusiastically.

"I'm glad you could be here! Are you having fun?" She asked excitedly. They both smiled awkwardly and nodded. "Would you like to see what presents I got? I got some of mine early." She asked excitedly, and before either Alice, Jasper, or Jacob could stop her, her hand was already on Kelly's face and sending images into her head.

"What the fucking fuck!?" Kelly yelled as she slapped the girl's hand away and reached for her throat. The minute her hand met the girl's neck everything stopped for a split second, and then moved into action.

First, Jacob growled and almost attacked her, but then Leah stepped forward and stopped him. Jasper attempted to calm everyone's emotions, but he couldn't calm down mother bear before she tackled Kelly to the ground and almost crushed her skull. If Kelly had been completely human she would have been killed by Bella, the mother of the half breed, immediately. Kelly managed to flip the vampire onto her back.

Unknown to most, vampires have specific weak points that unless you know a vampire's insides and outs through dissection, you'd never know about. Kelly managed to hit the certain weak points with enough force to paralyze her.

It took a while to get everyone to calm down, and when they did, the shapeshifters left growling and vampires were left shaking their heads and trying to comfort 'birthday girl'. There weren't too many casualties, luckily, but the fight stirred up a lot of old resentment.

Kelly walked away with a tear on her sleeve and invisible bruises lining her ribcage. Her hair was tussled and dirt stained her cheek and clothes.

On the car ride back- some phased into their wolf form and ran back- everything was silent and timid. Seth, Leah, Sean, and Kelly were all in the same car. Seth and Sean sat in the front seats and Leah and Kelly in the back. Leah sat with her back against the car door and Kelly safely tucked in her trembling arms. "Blood suckers." The wolf girl growled low as she stared out the window, and her brother sighed.

"Is everyone okay?" Seth asked from the driver's seat.

"A few bruises but otherwise fine. What the hell was that girl doing inside of my head? I hate it when people do that kind of stuff."

"… she's a vampire, like the rest of them. It's her 'power'." Leah answered.

"Leah-" Seth started to scold, but couldn't finish his sentence.

"What? They are. And they just attacked Kelly. Jacob tried to attack her!"

"What happened, exactly?" Sean asked in a quiet voice from the passenger's seat. He looked specifically at his cousin. She scoffed and looked away.

"Geez, you two do make the perfect couple. Fight first, talk later." Seth commented, and received glares from both of the women.

"What happened?" Sean repeated, a little louder this time.

"That kid put her hand on my face and it freaked me out. Any vampire getting that close freaks me out." The close to human girl explained, and snuggled deeper into Leah's embrace. Usually she was the one to do the hugging, but since Leah was so much taller it worked better this way. Not to mention it was warmer. "Why are you guys friends with a bunch of vampires anyway?"

"Peace treaty." Leah immediately answered. "So long as they don't bite anyone, we can't touch them. They also can't come onto our land or else they break the treaty." She lightly kissed the woman's bare shoulder and snuggled her face into the crook of her neck.

"They're not that bad, you know. You just need a chance to get to know them." Seth defended, and everyone but him rolled their eyes.

"That Alice chick and Jasper were nice to talk to, I'll admit, but the rest of them were everyday vampires."

"You didn't give them a chance."

"I don't have to give anyone a chance." She defended, and then sighed. "Damn my head hurts." She complained, and rested her cool hand against her cheek. Leah felt her forehead.

"You have a fever." She commented.

"I'm just worked up. I'll be fine." Kelly dismissed, and pulled the hand off of her forehead and gave it a light kiss. Sean was watching from the front seat.

"What I want to know is how you took down Bella like that. I watched her tackle you and you just walked away like it was nothing." Seth said after a long minute of silence, and looked at the pair through the rear view mirror.

"That's a tale for another day, my friend." She answered softly, and closed her eyes.

Discovering relationship between wolves and vampires: Unfortunate success.

"How are you feeling?" Sean asked from across the room. He sat with his legs stretched out before him and no distinct expression on his face. He just watched his cousin lay on the couch in obvious pain as she hissed and cursed at any movement she made.

"She did more damage than I thought. Fuck." She cursed as she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She was laying on the ugly couch and any movement she made, whether it be breathing or to just get comfortable, hurt enough to make her wince or yell out.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"I didn't, all right? I reacted."

"You reacted. Great. Great. Just great." He ranted as he stood from his spot and started pacing across the room. "One of the good but annoying things about us is when we get injured, our brains naturally don't relay the amount of damage we received until some time later. If we're in a particularly bad fight and someone stabbed us, it would give us enough time to kill our enemy before we bit the dust, too. You didn't feel the pain at first, but now it's all going to come back, and you're brain is going to start receiving the messages that you got your butt handed to you."

"You're rambling… get me some damn aspirin, will you?" She asked, and he went to the medicine cabinet. He also got her a glass of water.

"You couldn't have just stayed your cool and rational self, could you? Oh, wait, what am I thinking? You probably wanted to get on the bad side of the largest and maybe most powerful vampire coven aside from the Voltori that we've ever seen. You just had to-"

"It was the eyes." She said after swallowing the small pill.

"What?"

"When my parents were killed… the vampire had eyes like them, so that he'd blend in. So that they wouldn't know he was a… vampire. Fuck it's hard to see. I… I remember his eyes. I was on edge from seeing their golden eyes and when she touched me…" She was getting pale and droplets of sweat were beginning to form all over her body. "It's hot in here…."

"Great… just great… your body is trying to turn into your animal form, but you can't turn into that form because-"

"Stop stating the damn obvious…" She groaned, weakly reaching her hand up to wipe the accumulating sweat from her face.

"If this doesn't pass, you can die. If you die, the council will try and kill all of them."

"I know."

"They attacked you. They fucking attacked you." He said, all the while still pacing back and forth from one side of the room to the other. "What the hell are we going to do?" He asked. "I mean, we can't go to the council, because even if we go there, they wouldn't be able to help and would probably only make things worse. Instant war. We can't go to the wolves, because they wouldn't understand our situation or be able to help, and obviously we can't go to the vampires or human hospital… what do we do… Kelly?" He asked, and stopped pacing.

She didn't answer.

"Kelly? Kelly!?" He yelled as he got on his knees and put a hand on her neck to make sure she still had a pulse, which she thankfully did. He pressed the back of his hand against her insanely warm cheek, and thankfully, her eyes opened. "Come on Kelly, stay awake! You can get through this, just breathe and stay awake. Think about Leah. Think about how you still need to kick my ass!" he said frantically, and she gave a weak chuckle through her short bursts of breath. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to breathe.

"It'll… pass… Don't worry." She managed to say. "You should… see… the look on your… face." She breathed the last word out, unable to articulate the word in her state. He reached for her hand and held it tightly.

"It better pass. Whose going to protect me from Leah's wrath?" He joked lamely, and neither laughed. The air in the room was getting increasingly warm and Sean could see the bones beneath her skin start to shift and move. It was disgusting and looked like bugs were crawling under her skin and excreting a white liquid.

"Damn it, it hurts." She breathed out as she gripped his hand. He could feel his own hand crushing under her intense grip, but if she survived, he could live with it. He would pester her for the next month about it, but he could live with it.

The top ranked men and woman were gathered at Sam's house to talk about what had happened earlier that day and to figure out what to do. Leah and Jacob were glaring the entire time and when everyone had gathered, they didn't hold back on the insults. Even if Jacob was her alpha, she wasn't about to back down.

"Jake, Leah, knock it off. Was anyone actually hurt?" Sam asked loudly and effectively getting the attention of the other ten people there. The few people that had been there shook their heads.

"No, but Nessie was shaken up."

"Nessie was shaken up? Your ex, a vampire, tackled Kelly, a human, to the fucking ground!"

"Did she bite her?" Sam interjected.

"No, but she got some pretty nasty bruises." Leah answered, and Seth spoke up.

"Kelly and her cousin already knew about vampires." At this information, everyone turned to him. "When we said what they were, they didn't seem surprised. Did anyone else wonder how a human could defend herself against a vampire so easily?"

"So what are you saying?" Paul asked from his seat on the couch. Seth was sitting next to him.

"How are you turning this around on her? She was attacked by that blood sucker! She's the victim!"

"Watch it, Leah." Jacob growled from his seat across from her, and both exchanged equally menacing glares.

"Can someone tell me exactly what happened?" Sam asked, and Jacob spoke up.

"Nessie touched Kelly's face and she flipped. She tried to attack Nessie and Bella attacked Kelly."

"Your little girlfriend was trying to get into her head with no goddamn warning! Of course she tried to defend herself!"

"Leah." Sam warned, and she in turn glared at him. Neither spoke for a moment.

"What?" She seethed.

"What if she's not human?" Paul asked the group, and flinched at the venom in that woman's glare.

"I think I would know if she wasn't human." She defended as her arms started trembling again.

"Take it outside if you can't handle this, Leah. We understand."

"You're all accusing her of-"

"We're not accusing anyone of anything, and you need to calm down." Sam said in his 'serious voice', and surprisingly, Leah quieted again and stopped shaking. "Leah's right. If she wasn't human she, or any of us for that matter, would have found out by now."

"What if she's something we haven't encountered?" Paul questioned. "What if she has an ability like the blood suckers to disguise herself as human? She could be a Kappa for all we know."

"A what?"

"Dude, shut up. You're reading too many comic books."

"Am I? We exist, werewolves and vampires exist, what is out there that we haven't encountered yet?" Paul asked, and a chorus of 'bull shit' rang throughout the group as they rolled their eyes.

After a week, most everyone had stopped gossiping about the fight and everything went relatively back to normal. The shapeshifters, and vampires for that matter, were suspicious of the mysterious cousins but made no forward accusations or questions. Leah and Kelly went back to their regular dates and doing 'coupley' things, though Leah kept a closer eye out for any… 'not-human' behaviors.

Sean acted… differently after that night. He wasn't quite as talkative about everything or easily excited by 'friendly friend outings~' as he used to be. Whenever he looked at Kelly he'd have an almost apprehensive and haunted look in his eyes. Even Seth noticed and tried to annoy the reason out of him, but all it did was get him to talk even less.

The cousins were going to have to report back to the council soon.

Neither were looking forward to it, seeing as the 'visit' may very likely decide who lives and who dies in this small town.

(Author's Note: so, this is about where I stopped writing/put the other chapters somewhere else and consequently… lost them. So, a new ending and storyline unfolds~)

The vampire glared at her from across the small room, skepticism laced in his hostile features. He looked like a rabid animal, baring his yellowed teeth and slumped over with tattered clothing hanging from his limbs. Actually, he almost looked like a classic zombie, minus the grayed and scraped skin.

His eyes were all too familiar to her. His last prey's blood pumped through his veins beneath his porcelain-like skin. Long brown and knotted brown hair cascaded past his shoulders and framed his snarled face.

His opponent was a small girl, only 5'5", and looked at him like he was merely an annoying insect. Her thumbs were hooked into the loops of her jeans, muscular arms attached to her equally muscular torso. She looked a little more toned than an average woman her age, but in this case, looks were deceiving. Her small frown turned into a lopsided smirk.

"Come at me, bro." She challenged, stance unchanged as she stood near the door of the dirt room. The walls were bare cement, floor was compacted dirt. A whimsical light hung from the dark ceiling. Shadows were cast onto the walls. A growl filled the small room. It merely made the girl's cocky smirk widen and eyes stare in anticipation. "What, you scared of a little girl, pesky vampire?"

"This is a trap."

"No, this is a game. Or practice, depending on who you talk to." She corrected, causing the growl to grow louder.

"You're a little girl. I suggest you run before I lose control. Your blood smells so… delicious." He practically purred, and girl rolled her eyes.

"Vampires." She muttered, and finally the creature ran full speed at her. As he got closer her movements matched his speed and effectively removed one of his arms. The creature slammed into the wall and caused the room to shake. She tossed it to the side and kicked the creature back to the other side of the room. "Now, why don't you try that again, this time without losing an arm? I need a good punching bag who can actually stand a punch."

"Kelly!" A blur yelled as it ran at an unsuspecting girl holding way too many bags. As they collided the pair practically flew to the ground, luckily landing on the somewhat soft and very muddy lawn. Leah's lips found the other girl's, and after a good few seconds of familiar contact, left. Leah straddled the other girl's hips with her legs and sat up straight, a smile sneaking its way across her pink lips. "Did you miss me?"

The fellow brunette couldn't help but sigh and give the other girl an unamused stare… for about five seconds, that is. A similar smile snaked its way across her lips and she couldn't help but chuckle. "A little."

"Eeeew. Could you guys be any more gross?" The unfortunately all too familiar blond protested close by, a grossed out expression on his face as he stood by the stairs leading to his apartment. Seth punched his shoulder.

"Dude, could you be any more gay?" He asked with a teasing grin and stealing one of the bags from Sean's hand.

"Dude, that's my cousin. And your sister." He stated, and the taller boy paused and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Oh god, please, please, take your greasy frying pan and hit me over the head with it."

"It's still broken from the last time."

"Well get a new one! The images, gah, they're attacking my brain! No, they've infiltrated my mind! No! Nooooo!" He yelled overdramatically as he fell onto the stairs like a wounded soldier, hands over his head as he convulsed and spasmed, until, finally, he became still. Kelly took one of the huge metal bracelets off of her wrist and chucked it at the idiot's head, landing a huge red spot on the boy's forehead. Little bits of mud sprayed his face in the process. "…. Oooooow."

"So, what's for dinner tonight, woman?" The mud woman asked as she returned her attention to the beauty on top of her.

"'Woman'? What makes you think I'll make you anything with that attitude?" She asked as she crossed her arms. Kelly could feel her previously warm and dry clothes seep up the puddle of watery mud beneath her in not-so-comfortable places. Her elbows slid into the gooey texture behind her as she propped up the upper half of her body.

"Because I'm a mud monster thanks to you and you'll feel guilty about it if you don't." Kelly said with a knowing smirk as she studied the woman's reaction, gauging whether she'd actually comply or slap her across the face. She'd received a warning from Seth a couple of days ago that Leah was moody and pissed off a lot for no reason, probably from the teasing from the pack, but also for another reason unknown to him.

"Okay, but on one condition." She said softly, smoothly as she leaned forward and slid her hands down the other woman's arms. Kelly's breath caught as the warm body moved closer to her and nuzzled against her neck. She froze, but kept her composure as she merely gave her a suspicious look. Lips pressed against her neck, and she forced herself to keep still.

And suddenly the warm body was moving away from her, warm slimy hands slid up her arms and up her shoulders, up her neck, and eventually, slathered mud all over her face. Kelly's eyes shut closed and mouth pursed together to keep mud out. Leah giggled and they both heard the laughter of Seth and Sean by the stairs. The wolf girl continued slathering the mud on her face and any exposed skin, as well as just… everywhere.

"I'm making enchiladas for dinner. Be at my house at 7, and if you're late, you're not getting anything. Make sure you're… clean when you get there." Leah said with a mischievous, smoldering, sexy stare; and all Kelly could do was just sit there and take it. The wolf girl leaned forward again, her tan skin and pink lips so tantalizingly close to her, and after a nip at her lower lip she was gone, her body moving away and long legs carrying her sashaying hips.

She was absolutely covered in mud, but all of her attention was on those hips moving not towards her. The girl would have sat there longer if her disgruntled and bat-eyed land lady hadn't coughed loudly from nearby, standing with her arms crossed and foot tapping as she waited for either an explanation or removal from her lawn. "I, uh," She started, and suddenly noticed that her cousin and Seth had disappeared. "I slipped."

"I can see that."

"Ha, I, uh…"

"What the hell has gotten into Leah? I've been gone for two weeks and it's like she's possessed." Kelly asked as she walked into the kitchen, still drying her wet hair with a towel and eyeing the Quiluete boy. He tossed the hunk of metal from earlier to her, and she gracefully caught it.

"I warned ya. I asked her what she was eating for breakfast the other day and she dumped a bowl of cereal on my head. She nearly ripped one of the pups to shreds yesterday, and she was hugging a complete stranger this morning. If I didn't know better I'd say she was PMSing. Badly." Seth said as he leaned against the counter, occasionally moving out of the way as Sean meandered through the kitchen.

"I just hope she doesn't dump that Mexican dish on me. It'll be Christmas all over again. Burns and all." Kelly said with a scowl as she thought of that unfortunate Christmas in Mexico. "Clumsy old man…."

"Ha. I remember hearing about that. Third degree burns or something? Boys down south like their food hot." Sean laughed as he continued his adventure around the old kitchen, barely avoiding a collision between his cutting knife and Seth's hip.

"What are you two planning for the evening?" Kelly asked as she reached for an apple in the fruit bowl. "Wait, who stocked our kitchen?"

"I did, while you took a shower. You were in there for over an hour." Sean replied.

"I'm hiding here for the next couple of days. Couch surfing until Leah cools down." Seth answered, and then jumped as he barely dodged another stab at the gullet. "Watch where you're aiming that thing!"

Kelly didn't know whether to be excited or terrified. On one hand, she had been encouraging Leah to stand up for herself more; but on the other hand, her actions were unpredictable and out of her control. The woman now standing on the Clearwater doorstep didn't know if she was getting laid or filleted.

Before she could knock, the wood that would have met her knuckles merely met the air. Leah stood, holding the door open, with an almost crazed look on her face. Her eyes were wide, staring intently at the other woman's face, and fingers twitched as they gripped the edge of the door. An unusual amount of make up adorned her features, a bright red dress clung to her curves, and her usually messy and unkept hair was styled. Her nails were painted, jewelry that she probably borrowed hung from her (now pierced?) ears and neck, and… was that a tattoo?

It took a moment before Kelly managed to combine vowels and consonants together and remember how to create a coherent sentence. All the while Leah stood there, unmoving, staring. Eerily silent. "… hi." The shorter started with a smile and weak wave. "You look… nice?"

"Is that a question or a statement? You're late." Leah stated coldly, her wide eyes narrowing into slits. Kelly shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another, realizing that she was extremely underdressed compared to her. She wore jeans and a t-shirt, while Leah stood there looking she was going to the Majesty's Royal Cocktail party.

"… are you alright? You seem a bit… off."

And the door slammed shut in her face, the sound and unexpected force making her jump back in surprise and almost fall off the porch.

"Leah?"

"I spent all this time getting ready for you… and you… you…"

Shit.

Shit.

She's crying.

Why is she crying?!

The shorter woman tensed as she stood there, frozen, sheer panic washing over her as she heard her girlfriend crying inside the house. She had fought vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, humans, anything that can throw a punch and walks on two legs- but crying girls left her absolutely terrified. She didn't know what to do.

Kelly jumped when she heard Leah's body slam against the door, the sobs growing louder. "W-why are you crying? What do I do to make you stop?"

"I'm such a horrible girlfriend! You'll never love me!"

"Leah, let me in so that we can talk. You're a great girlfriend, and I care about you deeply." Kelly told her as she stepped forward and leaned against the solid piece of wood.

"Oh, is that the only reason that you're here?! So you can… can get some booty?!"

"What? No! I mean, that would be a plus, but-"

"Leave!"

"Can you just let me in, and we can talk-"

"No! Go!"

"But I'm not even late! I got here ten minutes early!"

"All you think about is sex!"

"You're the one that asked me to be here without any warning that you'd be dressed as Betty Bop, sex icon of the 60's!" Kelly yelled in exasperation, and happened to look over and see a boy standing on the other side of the street, a dog and its leash in hand. "The hell are you looking at?" She asked, and watched as he hurried down the road. "Yeah, you better run."

"I wanted to look… nice." Leah sobbed on the other side of the door, and someone might as well have punched the terrified girl in the stomach.

"You look beautiful, Leah!" Kelly said, not knowing what else to do. After another minute or so of hearing sobs and quiet murmuring that she couldn't understand, she heard the wolf girl remove herself from the door. Thinking that she was finally going to let her in, she took a step back from the door. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion when she instead heard the female walk away from the door. "… Leah?" She asked after a moment, and then heard hurried footsteps approach the door. The door opened, however, instead of just seeing a teary-eyed Leah in the doorway, she instead saw a teary-eyed pissed off Leah with a glass container of freshly made enchiladas balanced on her hand.

Kelly was too caught off guard to react accordingly, and like Christmas, very hot Mexican food became her pancho and mask.

The brunette quietly congratulated herself later on not screaming at the red clad woman earlier that night. When she walked out of the bathroom, after taking her second shower of the day, she heard a sympathetic 'oooh' come from the boys on the couch. "Damn. Should we take you to the hospital? Some of that, all of that, is, like… gross." Seth asked, his face contorting as he stared at the burns going covering her neck and expanding across her chest, to her right shoulder, and splotches across her face but most prominent on her chin and jaw. "I know a really good doctor in Forks, Dr. Cullen, I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking a look at you. He's a friend so he wouldn't charge."

"Thanks, but I'll be fine. I just won't be eating enchiladas for a while. Is there any pasta left?" She asked as she walked into the kitchen, and Seth noticed that her hands had been burned as well.

"I know it looks bad, but Kelly is pretty flame resistant." Sean assured Seth, but he didn't look very convinced. "There's no pasta left, Cuz, but there's some sushi in the fridge. This idiot failed to tell me that he doesn't like sushi until after I made it." He said with a teasing glare, and Seth rolled his eyes before jumping off the couch and joining Kelly in the kitchen. She was already getting out the delicious bundles of deliciousness before he reached her.

"It looks worse up close." Seth commented as he looked at the burns, earning an annoyed but mostly tired glare from her.

"It's a good thing I had a t-shirt on and nothing low-cut, otherwise it would have been worse. Sucked when I had to walk all the way home with it on, though. I'm tired as hell." She complained, finally stuffing one of the sushi rolls into her mouth. "Food."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow about this. We're known to have tempers, but ever since Emily, no one has gotten this hurt."

"Who hurt Emily?" She asked, not realizing until after she spoke that she really didn't care. Seth stumbled with his words, not sure what would give away too much about his 'secret identity' as a shapeshifter. They hadn't officially told them, after all.

"It's not my place to tell…" He muttered, and looked away. His gaze found a picture of what looked like Sean when he was younger. The little blondie was maybe eight years old and grinning at the camera, a man and woman, presumably his parents, behind him.

"Whatever. I'll be in my room. Eating food. Alone…. Bye." She said as she carried a plateful of California Rolls to her room.

So yesterday sucked, royally, but today was going to be awesome. Why? Because Seth invited Sean and Kelly to watch the local vampires teach the shapeshifters how to fight vampires in hand to hand combat.

"You realize that Seth only wants you to go so that the vampire doctor can look at your burns, right?" Sean asked the bubbly girl, watching as she skipped around the apartment getting her things and occasionally punching the air in excitement. "Did whatever possess Leah also possess you? We go through possibly the most stressful and terrifying things, ever, and barely persuade a war from starting, and then your girlfriend attacks you, and now you're… you're singing!" He stated exasperatedly, and she only paused to grin at the confused boy.

"That is correct! By God, Scotty, we are about to witness the coolest thing ever! Vampires teaching wolves to fight vampires! It's brilliant!" She yelled as she gripped his shoulders and shook him at the end of each sentence for emphasis.

"They don't know we know about the wolf part. You might want to put a lid on it."

"But it's so… brilliant!"

"Can you stop shaking me?"

"The brilliance! God, I hope someone gets ripped to shreds!"

Kelly lazily rested her palm against her cheek, her legs crossed, elbow resting on her knee. Her eyes stayed trained on the moving vampire, Jasper, as he easily dodged the wolf boys' attacks. His technique was fluid, efficient, precise, and worked. And, although his style of fighting was fascinating, it did get quite dull after the first half hour. These monsters were no match for him, especially the scrawny newbies that he was 'training'.

"Is this as 'brilliant' as you had hoped?" Sean whispered from her side, and she scowled.

"Maybe I got my standards a little too high. I can't see his potential against weaklings." She whispered back, and didn't miss the glance from the before mentioned vampire. His golden eyes locked with hers for a split second before he catapulted one of the unsuspecting boys into the air. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam, one of the pack leaders, scowl.

"You think you can do better… Kelly, was it?" The vampire asked, a smile dancing along his lips. A similar one danced along hers. "Seth mentioned that you studied Judo?"

"I've studied a lot more than that." She said as she jumped to her feet, her cousin giving a worried stare.

"Kelly," He started, his hand wrapping around her arm. She gave him an annoyed expression.

"Don't worry, we're just going to spar."

"But last time-"

"I was caught off-guard, this time I'm not." She said, and with a wink, jumped down from the tall roots they had been situated on and walked up to the vampire. The other shapeshifters watched in mild amusement or worriment.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt her." Jasper assured the pack leader, and although he probably should have assured him further, looked back to the fighter in front of him. She stood confident, a bit cocky, and turned her head to make the joints in her neck crackle and pop. "Just a heads up, it looks easier than it is." He warned.

If Kelly didn't know better, she would say that through the almost pained expression on the vampire's face, she saw amusement. They stood some three or four yards apart from each other.

"I'm ready when you are, cowboy." She joked, and almost immediately found herself blocking and dodging a punch. In the blink of an eye she maneuvered herself behind him and pushed him away from her, catching surprise on his face. "Oh, just a heads up, you're not the first vampire I've fought."

He charged at her again, and she swiftly dodged again. He came at her a third time, this time continuing his attacks, and making his movements faster and more complex as they continued.

It had been a while since she fought someone that was even close to matching her, and if sparkles wasn't holding back and trying not to hurt her, he might have been just that. The shapeshifters watched in amazement and disbelief as the human battled the vampire, when suddenly, they heard a loud crack.

It was fast enough that no one could verify if they had actually seen it, but Jasper managed to land a blow to her sternum. Instead of flying back she latched onto his shoulder, basically used him as a pole and swung around him to effectively get him off balance, and landed on his back with her legs criss-crossed as he fell. "We should play again sometime." She said with a triumphant smirk, and glanced at his confused expression.

She jumped to her feet and took a step back before offering her hand to help him up. Cautiously, he took her hand and stood, brushing the dirt from his clothes. "Are you injured?"

"No." She answered curtly, and couldn't help but lock her eyes with his again. "I'm sorry, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"… go ahead."

"Why are your eyes that color?" She asked, and the vampire looked away to glance at the shapeshifters around them. He could sense their astonishment, but their faces were priceless.

"I gave up killing humans a long time ago. They're this color because I only feed on animal blood."

"Huh… I'd always thought that that was a myth. A way for vampires to sneak past humans inconspicuously and get a good meal." She rambled, and slowly turned back to her cousin on the tree roots. "We should get going. I need to talk to Leah. Hopefully this time I don't get another Christmas surprise."

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"For a vampire he is actually pretty good. I was genuinely impressed."

"What is wrong with you!?"

"Quite a few things, if I do say so myself." She said as she removed her bright orange scarf, the fabric now revealing the severe burns from the day before. "I should probably rest a while before I go to see Leah. Give my ribs a couple of hours to heal."

"You practically shouted to the world what we are!" Sean yelled across the living room, watching as the woman kept moving across the room and then plopping down on the couch. "You were fine before we got back!"

"It's been a tough couple of weeks, Doll Face." She replied as she pulled out her laptop from under the couch. As she opened it, her cousin ran over and closed it.

"You completely outted us!"

"Will you stop yelling? You're giving me a headache."

"You ruined everything!"

"Did you really think that we could keep it a secret forever?" She asked suddenly, her airy and light mood completely evaporating. Her green eyes suddenly bore into his, and the boy froze. "We have to tell them, because if we don't, more of them will die."

"… what?"

"Were you there? Did you see any of the things I saw, hear any of the things I heard? I don't know how, but they know more about these shifters than we do."

"They said that they're not going to attack. My mom gave me her word."

"She also gave you 'her word' before getting your little friend killed, if I recall." She replied coolly, almost cold, and her words cut through him. "The next time we leave town, they will try to kill everyone here, and a lot of people will die. They've been planning this for a long time, and all they needed was for us to bring it to the light. If you hadn't of come here, they would have waited until someone else did. Do you know why they sent me here?"

His glossy orbs were locked onto hers, and although he tried to reply, the words were caught in his throat.

"I'm here for tactical analysis. They told me to figure out if they were a threat, and in that process, I gave them tactical analysis. By lying to them I also confirmed that I'm not trustworthy." She explained, and was already answering his question before he could ask. "They would know that we didn't give them the entire truth because there's already a spy here. They've probably stayed in their bird form and lived with the locals for months, maybe even years. We're not the only 'spies' here, Sean."

She sat there, shoulders slouched forward, face cradled in her hands and elbows anchored into her thighs. The room was dark, and the only light that entered the room was from the hallway under her closed door. Murmurs, whispers, footsteps, echoes bounced around her skull. The image was burned into her retinas.

She doesn't know how long she's been there. Doesn't know how long the echoes and whispers have been bouncing around her head. She can't remember when she stopped crying, or when she stopped shaking.

There have been knocks at her door, familiar voices speaking to her, but they all fell on deaf ears. The image is still there. The sound of her voice is repeating in her head.

You look beautiful, Leah.

I care about you deeply.

"And then I threw dinner at her." She whispered.

There was a knock at her door.

"Leah? Can I come in?" Someone asked. No answer. "It's me, Sam. Can we talk?" He asked, and slowly, the door to the girl's bedroom creaked open. She stayed still, hunched over, merely a ball in the corner of the room. The man stepped inside, peering into the darkness, and his gaze landed on her form. He paused, waiting for some kind of movement, and after a minute or so of silence, finally spoke. "Seth says you haven't eaten since… well, three days ago."

"I'm not hungry." She whispered. He nodded slowly, looking out into the hallway briefly.

"She's pretty strong, you know."

"Why did I do it, Sam?" She asked, finally moving from her spot and looking up at him. Her bones creaked and cracked at the movement, the first motion in the past three days. "I just… felt so angry."

"When was the last time you changed into your wolf form?" He asked, and her gaze lowered back to the ground. "I've been asking around, and apparently you haven't gone for a run in weeks."

"I didn't see any reason to continue."

"Because of the teasing?"

"Because of her. She wants to travel, Sam, and I can't turn into a wolf in strange places. What if she wants to live in a city for a year?" She asked softly, voice dimming as she spoke.

Again, Sam paused, looking for the right words to comfort her. Help her through this, try and give insight when he went through the same thing. "So you wanted to become human again, and you were hoping that it would be under control by the time she got back."

"But it wasn't." She choked, and rubbed the tear away from her cheek with her dry hands. The air was stale, unmoving, and Sam couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. It felt like an extra layer of clothing, stifling his movements and condemning him to the darkness. Maybe depression was contagious.

"From what Seth told me, you hurt Kelly pretty bad. But she's strong. I think if you talk to her, you'll both be all right." He said, and by the time she looked back up at his stoic form, he was already gone.

The next day, a disgruntled Kelly was on her, maybe ex, girlfriend's door step. Bags were under her eyes. Goosebumps rose along her slender tan legs and arms, her shorts and sleeveless jacket reminding her of the first time she was here. She had gotten a hair cut while she was with her family, so now only two inches of hair stuck up in random directions beneath her hood. The currently indecisive woman stood there for a moment longer, just staring at the blue door, and after taking a deep breath, knocked loudly.

She heard footsteps inside the house. When the door opened, an energetic Seth Clearwater stood with a welcoming grin on his face. "Kelly, it's nice to see you."

She couldn't help but smile back, the grin apparently infectious. "Hey, Seth. Nice hair." She commented, gesturing at his bed head. He laughed.

"Yeah, I only got up a little while ago. Your burns look a lot better…. Are you here to see Leah?"

"She's not hiding around the corner with a steaming bowl of casserole, is she?" she asked, cautiously looking around the corner, and his expression clearly saddened a bit.

"She hasn't left her room since… the incident." He said, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is she a wolf or a badger?" She asked sarcastically as she pushed past him and walked into the house, immediately making a beeline for the bedroom she'd been in only once before. Once she reached it she banged loudly on the door. "Oi, we need to talk. Wake up."

"Well aren't you just a ball of sunshine." Seth muttered under his breath as he closed the front door, and went back to the couch to watch TV.

"Hey! Badger! Face me like an adult and tell me to my face if we're through. I can hear you breathing in there!" She again banged on the door, and after waiting a few seconds, lightly kicked the side of the door frame. She attempted at taking a deep breath, and tried to temporarily distract herself with the photos on the wall. Pictures of Leah and her family cluttered the wall, a lot of them of her and her father fishing.

There was movement inside the room, and something big fell onto the ground. Kelly took a guess that it was her lamp. Good thing she had a carpet floor or else it would have shattered.

Kelly could hear the footsteps stop, but they weren't by the door. Her heightened sense of hearing dictated that she was on the bed now, the blankets moving beneath her form. "I'm not going away, you know." She yelled through the door, and when she heard no more movement reached for the door handle, but paused. Staring at her hand, she took a step back, and took another deep breath. "Are you afraid of me? Were you so threatened that you…." The brunette looked back at the wall, her gaze meeting the smiling faces in the different colored frames. "If you want me to leave, just say so."

"Go." Leah whispered.

She was gone.

"What are we going to do?" Sean asked the next day after storming out of his room. He had marched up to the woman, gently closed the laptop shut so that he wouldn't damage it, and then jumped back into an eager and confident stance.

Kelly, minding her own business, looked up at him with a confused and slightly dazed stare. "… what?"

"About the attack!" He said excitedly. "How are we going to keep it from happening? Are we going to sabotage them? Tell the wolves everything? Recruit the vampires? Pull together an armada to fight for this endangered species?" He listed off, his imagination running wild with ideas and scenarios, all completely plausible in his mind.

"Why are you asking me?"

"What? Don't you have a plan?"

"Sean… if we interfere, you'll probably die."

"What? Why me?"

"Because you're a porcelain doll that your mummy will drop if it goes out of line, that's why."

"I… I take offense to that! I'm a good fighter!"

"Too bad." She replied, and opened her laptop back up. He leapt forward, shut it again, and returned to his previous state.

"We have to do something."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I don't know, you're usually the one with the tactical things. I'm the devilishly handsome fellow that follows through with the plan and ends up on the cover of the magazine." He said with a smile.

"Trying to add humor to a dead argument."

"Ha, I see what you did there! You're so clever!" He said as he started 'laughing', his voice booming in the small apartment. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Do you seriously want to see your entire family dead? Because if you get involved, that's what you'd be contributing to. Assisted murder."

"I-I'm tired of watching innocent people die!" He stammered, his eyes darkening as he bore his gaze into hers. "Our family has killed hundreds, maybe even thousands of people over the century; humans, vampires, and shapeshifters alike. I can't stand by and watch them keep doing this. We have to do something!"

"Even if it costs you your life?" She questioned, and without faltering, the single word 'yes' tumbled from his lips.

"Hello, little one, I'm Jasper Hale… a traveler much like yourself." The red head said with a friendly smile, and the little girl grinned back at him. He extended his large hand towards her small one, and she excitedly shook it.

"Hi. Why are your eyes yewwow?" She asked, staring at him with wide and curious eyes. Those golden orbs sparkled back at her, chuckles emanated from his large form and the earring hanging from his left ear twinkled in the light.

"Because I only eat animals."

"But vampires eat people."

"Not me." He told her, and she tilted her head to the side quizzically.

"What's that hanging fwom your ear?" She asked, and he reached up and subconsciously touched the familiar piece of metal. It was a simple but beautiful piece of jewelry, silver and gold mixed together in a swirl of designs that encompassed about a fifth of his ear. Two chains dangled from it, at the end of one was a small crystal, at the end of the other was a small dragon charm.

"I think the official term is 'ear cuff'. A friend gave it to me a long time ago." He explained. "In fact, it's the same friend that I'm looking for. Do you want to see a picture of him?" He asked, and the little girl nodded eagerly.

He reached into his coat pocket, glancing up as he pulled it out to see the girls parents behind her. When she saw the picture he was holding, she let out a small 'huh'.

"He ran away some time ago, and I need to return this to him."

"But you said he gave it to you. He's pretty."

"Well, 'loaned' it would be a better term."

"And you're trying to find him?"

"Yes indeed." He said, and she looked at the picture more closely. The man in the picture was indeed 'pretty', with clear skin, short curly hair, and an old military uniform on. His eyes stared into the camera, and though it was black and white, she wondered if they were blue or perhaps a more entrancing color like her new friend's.

"Why isn't there cowor?"

"Because this photo was taken a very, very, very long time ago."

Over the next few days the odd man lived in their house. Kelly didn't know the details, or really cared to ask, about why he was here but she did enjoy his stories. He had a knack for theater, and he could make the most seemingly boring and mundane tales twist into grandeur and fame. They had even dressed in costume at one point and acted out a play that he narrated.

He seemed to get along with everyone, it seemed. He made peace with the neighbors, met the rest of Kelly's family, and she didn't know of anyone that actually disliked him. He was nice, friendly, and gave people gifts whenever he could.

"Jasper, you are so strange!" Her mother laughed one evening, her husband doing the same at her side. The fire blazed in the fireplace and the smell of pine tree made it a perfect scene. The four of them were gathered in the living room of the Stronghold home; the young eight year old was sitting on the floor amidst her presents, her parents were on the beige couch, and Jasper was on the floor closest to the fire.

"Are you ready for your last present, Kel?" Jasper asked, and the small girl looked up at him with a wide grin.

"There's another one!?" She exclaimed, and happily caught a small box that the man had thrown to her. She awed at the sparkly green wrapping paper only momentarily before ripping it to shreds, and when she opened it, found an ear cuff in it similar to Jasper's. Carefully, she removed it from the box, and watched the crystals change color and reflect against the fire's light. Her expression was one of awe, and for a moment all she could do was stare at it.

"What do you say, Georgina?" Her father asked, and she smiled.

"Thank you, Mister Jasper!"

"'Georgina'?" Jasper asked, and noticed that the little girl was glaring at her father.

"It's her birth name, but everyone calls her Kelly. She was named after her great grandmother, but her mother and I seem to be the only ones that appreciate it."

There was a funeral a month later. Kelly Stronghold stood with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents as they lowered the coffins into the ground. There was a preacher there, speaking nonsense as usual, and when he was done speaking, he was ordered to leave.

Their people have a specific way of doing funerals, since it's not very often that they occur. After a preacher has spoken, given his rants about the Lord and Heaven, the current Leader of their family steps forward and speaks.

Kelly's aunt was that very leader and stepped forward, her long black dress trailing behind her in the grass. It was a sunny day, contrasting sharply with their emotions, and most of them bowed their heads to keep the sunlight out of their teary eyes.

"Today, we watch as our loved ones are lowered into the ground." The blond woman started, her voice soft yet stern. "The vampire who did this is dead, but we must face the fact that there are thousands more of them out there. They can't be trusted."

The little girl in front wrapped her hand with the boy's next to her. The tears wouldn't fall yet.

"We will destroy any threat. We will kill all that cross our path. Two of my sisters, three brothers, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece were killed. They died because they trusted this… filth. None of our kind will die again from such ignorance."

The short brunette barged into the blond's room and smacked the back of his head, quickly waking the unsuspecting man and causing him to jump out of the covers. "Are we under attack?!" He asked, then launching himself backwards and landing head first on the carpeted floor.

"Jasper!" She exclaimed, and the boy sat up to look at her from the other side of the bed, his head peeping just above the edge.

"… huh?" He asked, his hair falling into his eyes as he watched her.

"Jasper Hale, the vampire in Forks." She said, as if it was obvious. "We need to talk to him."

"… Jasper Hale…" He muttered, and she rolled her eyes.

"The vampire who attacked us almost 20 years ago." She said, waiting for him to catch on. It clicked in his brain and he looked at her terrified.

"Oh god… I let you fight him!"

"It's not the same vampire, you dolt! Their faces are completely different, and last I checked, it was impossible for a vampire to get reconstructive surgery." She explained, a smile working its way across her face. "Don't you see? He could be the reason that your mom found the wolves. I just called him and asked for another sparring session."

"Woah, wait, what? You're going to fight him, the man that killed your parents?"

"No! I'm going to fight the man that the man that killed my parents was looking for and pretended to be, and get information from him! I need you to go into your bird mode and watch us, in case something goes wrong and you have to finish the mission."

Sean sat there, just staring at her, and slowly his body started shifting faster and faster to the right, until his upper body collided with the grotesque floor.

"… Okay. See ya later!" She waved cheerily, and skipped off to her lunch date, Jasper Hale.

"What are you, exactly?" Jasper Hale asked, his golden eyes staring into hers. A knowing smirk skitted across her lips and she turned around in place, continuing to walk in the direction they were headed.

"That wasn't exactly subtle, Mr. Hale." She chided, taking into account that he could read her emotions and attempting at keeping a cool head.

"You're not a very subtle person. I thought you would have appreciated the direct approach." He stated, his face keeping perfectly straight aside from the eyebrow that raised a quarter of an inch. People passed by them, the cool air of Seattle washed over them, and the constant sounds of traffic and music were drifting in and out of their attention.

"I like games every now and then." She replied, trying to see if he'd play along. His left hand twitched.

"You're just like my wife." He commented, and she laughed. "Why did you invite me here? Why Seattle?"

"I'm a traveler. I can't stay in one place for long. I felt like a change of scenery was needed." She said easily with a shrug, and looked around to find that they had ended up at the edge of the park. Not surprisingly the sky was a familiar ashen grey even though it was 2 in the afternoon. A group of kids suddenly ran in front of them and caused them to pause. "You didn't seem opposed to the idea. I hear you Cullens are quite the speedsters."

"I don't mind, I just find it… curious." He stated, cautious with his words. Like usual, he was tense, and she suspected that it was from being around so many humans. While he's distracted with not killing people, spilling vital information will become more likely. "How are you and Leah?"

Her shoulders slumped slightly and she sighed.

"I'm sure you'll work it out."

"I doubt it. I'll probably leave town after everything has settled down."

"Won't she be going with you?"

"Why would she?"

"Imprints generally stay with their partners, I assumed it applied to the gay ones as well." He replied, and she gave him a quizzical look.

"Leah hasn't imprinted on me." She corrected, and Jasper returned his attention to the path they had started to follow. It somehow meandered to the edge of the waterfront, giving them a beautiful view of scenery.

"So what happened between you two?" He asked, changing the subject slightly. A knot formed in the pit of her stomach.

"I came back from visiting my folks and she suddenly hates my guts." She explained with a shrug and attempt at nonchalantness.

"I can tell that she cares about you."

"I dunno. It's probably for the better. Anyway, what about you? Where are you from, Jasper Hale?" She asked, attempting at changing the topic. They both stopped and stared out at the water while the harsh wind nipped at their coats and hair.

"I'm from the south. I was a General in the Civil War." He told her, and Kelly bit down on the inside of her cheek. "I was turned, and used for my abilities."

"Your ability to control emotions?" She asked, and he nodded.

"Also my training in the field. About the same time as the Civil War, there was a vampire war going on as well."

"I heard about that." She commented, memories of the red-haired Jasper Hale flooding her mind. "When did you give up killing people?" She asked, deciding to finally look at him again. Not surprisingly, he had already been watching her, undoubtedly noticing her rapid heart beat and confusing emotions. Although kept rather tame, he still sensed them, and his inquisitive gaze was beginning to fray at her nerves.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine." He suggested, and she chuckled quietly as her attention returned back to the water.

"What's your question?"

"Why are you and your cousin here?"

"My cousin moved to that little village because he was curious about the wolves. I moved in with him because his mother paid me to be his body guard. He's his mother's pet." She answered, and he quietly nodded.

"Because I can sense people's emotions, killing people was never a pleasure for me. Only a necessity. When Alice came into my life, she showed me a new way of living, and it involved killing animals instead of humans." He answered. "What's the other reason that you were sent here?"

"I was told to look after my cousin. I'm trying to figure out the other reason."

"You're an assassin." He stated, not asked. She didn't deny it.

"Do the Vultori know your name and where you are?"

"Yes."

"What about the wolves?"

"That's two questions. What do you know about the werewolves?"

"That they're moody as hell shapeshifters."

"The Vultori found them out about four years ago, when we took a stand against them."

"Does this look familiar to you?" The woman asked as she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small metal object. Two chains were connected to a semicircle of metal, and crystals lined the designs. His golden eyes landed on the object, and when he saw it, she noticed his shoulders tense more than before. "A vampire with red hair gave it to me about 20 years ago."

"Carlos?" He questioned, staring at her face for confirmation.

"Is that his name?"

"You said he gave this to you 20 years ago?"

"Yes. He gave me a false name, and showed me a picture of you. Said he was looking for you, and that you were good friends. He had eyes like yours." She told him, and watched as his eyes darkened. "Who was he?"

"Only if you tell me what you are." He demanded, and she sighed loudly.

"That annoying question again. I'm part of the screw up species." She told him. "I can't tell you much, except that my parents had certain abilities, and because they were so different, I ended up with neither and a messed up disease. I heal relatively quickly, have inhuman reflexes, but I lack what makes my people so unique."

"And what's that?"

"If you tell me who Carlos was I might tell you."

"… Carlos…" He whispered, turning in place slightly as if he was trying to remember the face to the name. "He was about my age when I turned him. Likeable man, liked kids, and would have followed me to the ends of the Earth. He also killed when he didn't have to and had a knack for torture. I told him to leave or else I would kill him." He told her, and watched as she turned towards the water. She sighed again.

"What a mess, what a mess…." She tutted, and switched her attention to the stormy clouds beginning to accumulate above them.

"You're not going to tell me what you are, are you?" He asked, and she smiled.

"You'll find out soon enough. Well, hopefully not, but you know, who knows what's going to happen. I have a feeling shits going to start raining near Forks, Washington." She commented, and turned her feet back to the path they had used to get there.

"She's where!?" Leah screeched, her previously still form exploded into motion as she ran to the living room where her little brother had just shouted vital information to her. The boy, somewhat surprised by the excitement, turned his attention from the TV to the crazed woman only yards away from him.

"… with Jasper Hale. On a date. Or so Jacob said."

"But she's gay."

"Maybe she's bi and just wanted to come off as macho." He said with a shrug, and the woman stood there awestruck. She also stood there with a lollipop in her hair. Gross.

"Jasper is married."

"Yeah, for like, a century. They have an open relationship. Didn't you know that?" Seth asked, watching her expression turn from shock to pure rage in the split of a second. Before he could stop her she was out the door and running full speed into the forest.

"You ran off with the man who allegedly killed your parents." Sean stated as the familiar brunette entered their apartment, being lectured after not even being in the house for two seconds. "You went on a date with Jasper Hale."

"We exchanged information relating to the murder of my family. I hardly consider that a date, Nipwit." She said as she closed the door behind her and simultaneously flicked the blond harshly on the forehead.

"Ow! Hey! You could have left a note or something!"

"I did, after waking you up and asking you to be my back up in case anything went wrong." She said, pointing at the neatly written note on the counter and rushing to the couch to grab her laptop.

"You didn't wake me up." He accused.

"Yes, I did, but you fell back asleep, and I didn't have time to put up your stupidity."

"… Hey!" He yelled in response, and turned to look at what she was doing on her lap top. "The wolves think that you were on a date, by the way."

"Whoop de fuckin' doo."

"With Jasper." He added, and she groaned.

"Come on, seriously? At least tell people that I'm banging a lady vampire."

"Worried about Leah hearing the rumor, are we?"

"Hardly. I'm busy. Shut up."

"Watcha working on?" He finally asked, and crouched down beside the edge of the couch and looked over her shoulder, much to her annoyance.

"I'm trying to figure stuff out. It helps to write it out." She explained, and continued typing. It didn't help that he'd continuously point out her typing errors as she wrote.

"So we're going to kill Jasper?"

"It's a plausible option." She muttered, and continued. He scratched his head, and kept reading as she typed. So this is how she plans attacks….

Kelly was alone in their apartment that night. On the outside she looked calm, still, and merely watching a movie. Her eyes were trained on the flickering lights and images before her, but she couldn't really see them. Her mind was elsewhere.

It's a full moon tonight. Not that it makes a difference, but it is. She had watched it earlier that night. The air is warm tonight, especially in her little apartment. Cozy.

There was a knock at her door, a loud one, and it made her jump. A familiar scent made her heart sink. "Coming." Kelly stated as she propelled herself from her seat and stood, and then walked over to the door to answer it.

"So you're dating Jasper now?" Leah Clearwater, subtle as ever, asked. Blinking back her surprise, the other female tried to form a sensible response.

"… What?"

"I heard that you went on a date with Jasper Hale." She stated, as if it were obvious, and suddenly a knowing smug smile laced Kelly's features.

"Jealous? I thought you wanted me gone."

"I never want you gone, idiot." She retorted, and looked down at her fidgeting hands. Kelly leaned against the wooden doorframe, arms crossed, and lightheartedly watched the woman squirm under her gaze. "She reason I've been acting so strange is… I…" She stuttered.

"Wait… Come on." Kelly said with a sigh, and lightly took her hand in hers and closed the door. She paused by the railing to look out over the yard and into the dark forest, and then started leading Leah towards the stairs.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"… there's something I need to show you." Kelly answered after a moment, her voice sounding rigid and harsh.

"You're not mad at me?"

"No."

"I still owe you an explanation." Leah continued as they walked, not paying much attention to her surroundings. Kelly had led her to a pathway that meandered into the forest, the darkness encompassing them and the only light was the bright moon hanging above them. Goosebumps poked along Kelly's skin and the warm hand in hers began to burn.

"You don't owe me anything. Trust me."

"Yes, I do." Leah argued, oblivious to the fact that she had no idea where she was being led to. The crickets were chirping as they continued to walk and the familiar smell of her home lulled her into a sense of security. Although there were large animals in this forest, she was savvy enough to them to handle it. Both of them were walking barefoot and mud, leaves, and sticks were squeezing between their toes and working up their ankles. "Kelly, I-"

"Will you at least shut up until we get there?" Kelly asked, and she felt the searing hand in hers get heavier.

Silence overcame them, and some ten minutes later, they stopped. "What's so special here?" She asked, and her head turned when she heard a twig snap nearby. The cool hand that had been wrapped around hers left suddenly, and when she looked back at her, realized that she couldn't see her face. Chills suddenly ran down her spine. "Kelly?"

Another moment passed, and there was sheer silence. The air started to become heavy, and Leah could only stare in confusion.

"Kelly?"

Smack!

The collision of an object to the wolf girl's face sent her tumbling to the ground. She fell on a large fern, consequently crushing it beneath her weight.

"You never shut up, do you? Did you really think that anyone could care for a miserable, sniveling, little bitch like you?" The brunette asked, and her bare foot striked forward and hit the young girl in the stomach. She clutched it in pain and hissed. "Infiltrating your stupid little pack was almost too easy."

"You're lying. Why are you saying this?"

"Because I'm tired of putting up with your bull shit. Your pack is weak… and it will crumble, like all the others." She kicked the female again, and nearby, a loud growl erupted from the darkness.

Kelly ducked and dodged the giant wolf that attacked her, in the process jumping several feet away. The large wolf stood between her and the wounded woman, its mouth baring monster teeth that could easily rip her to shreds.

"Ya know, you could be a lot stronger if you'd just eat some human. They're pretty tasty." Kelly said as she licked her lips, tilting her head up slightly so that they could see her twisted face. She stood in a patch of light, the moon's glow lighting her stage.

The wolf growled again, crouched over Leah and guarding her fiercely.

"I should probably kill you two, now, since I'm done you, and this pup is getting on my nerves." Kelly stated, her voice cold and empty. The furry monster lunged at her again, this time Kelly attacked too. Her lean body twisted and her hands latched onto the fur of their belly, then with all of her strength turned in place. She used the creature's momentum against it and sent it hurdling into a tree, successfully creating a good dent.

As she stepped again towards the woman laying on the ground, who stared up at her like a little lost lamb, yet another wolf appeared and attempted to latch its teeth into her spinal column.

They could all hear back up galloping glamorously towards them. Kelly was almost surprised no one bothered to play a trumpet for the occasion.

There were at least 20 wolves on their way.

Kelly was on the menu.

She ran through the dark forest as fast as she could without running into trees.

They're after her. All of them.

It's hard to count how many feet are running when her heart was pounding like mad. Blood was spilling from her shoulder and left hip, which definitely helped the wolves, but in this case didn't help her. So many sounds, so many colors, so many scents to account for and filter out….

They're faster than she thought; one is nipping at her heels at this very moment. A quick twist, kick on a 500 year old tree, and she has successfully made a 100 degree turn to avoid a nasty bite.

Now another one is on her tale.

"Damn it."

A bird cawed loudly above her but she's too preoccupied to give it much thought. The ocean is close by- if only she can reach it….

She can feel the wolf's breath on her back. Droplets of blood are landing on the animal's fur.

"Just a little farther…." She mouthed to herself, and just before she could just, just before the wolf could snap at her head and make a clear cut- the bird following them swooped down and scratched his face.

The woman dived into the waves, her body falling into the dark abyss.

Although Jasper Hale only had that one conversation with Kelly to go on, he gave as much information to the shapeshifters as he could. The vampires and wolves had a little 'meeting' of sorts to gather information and discuss what was going to happen that week, and surprisingly, there was very little arguing.

Kelly Stronghold was a spy, possibly an assassin; and her cousin, Sean Incline, was also a spy. Given her little 'performance' with Leah, they all agreed that it is likely that there are more of her kind. It's also possible that they want to kill them, like she said.

Jasper contributed that she could have simply been acting alone, and that her family or whoever else is like her, are actually peaceful. It was possible that she was under the influence of a dangerous blood-thirsty vampire he used to know.

In either scenario, everyone was on their guard. If there was a war, they would have to be ready for it.

They heard their comrade and friend die one month later, followed by his partner and fellow friend. At least 30 wolves were on patrol that day, and instantly all of their minds were flooded with fear, excitement, and utter horror.

A third wolf went down. Fourth.

Confusion rang out- humanoid creatures were supposed to be attacking them, not animals. Suddenly a massive flock of birds were flying above them- at least 50- and instantly 2 more of them were taken down by large and snarling foxes.

But they were ready for an attack.

Gun shots rang out, more shapeshifters bolted into the forest, and even as the dozens of birds descended, they weren't a match for them.

Even with all of the voices in her head, Leah tried to stay focused on the demon foxes before her. At least 4 others had already been killed by them, including her patrol partner, and she had no intention of dying today. If even one of them got too close, she was dead.

She growled as loud as she could, her fur stood on end, and her ears were pressed flat against her head. Her brown eyes watched the creatures in front of her make similar movements, and slowly, they began to surround her. She tried to back up to prevent being surrounded, but now it was too late.

The smell of blood was burning her nostrils. The sound of her friends dying or ripping apart flesh increased her fear.

The smiling face of Kelly flashed before her eyes.

I never told her… I never told her anything.

One of the foxes lunged at her, but she swiped it away. Two others leaped forward and if they weren't swiped away latched onto the woman's shoulder or torso. Three others ran at her.

She's my imprint partner.

I love her.

And now we're dead.

She fell onto the ground, and finally gave up as darkness started to cloud her vision. As her head slowly hit the ground, her life flashed before her eyes. In the chaos she heard the distance sound of a bird nearby, and as the animals ripped away at her flesh, couldn't help but remember a bird she once saw in the forest. It was a beautiful bird with dark brown feathers and a red glint in the right light, and white specks covered its chest. It had golden eyes that were speckled with an unusual aqua blue color.

Her eyes opened briefly again, and through the pain, thought she could see the white dots of that unusual animal. Its beautiful feathers gleamed in an almost holy way against the light, and for some reason she just knew that it was Kelly. It had to be.

'My angel, only to save me too late…' She thought, sinking deeper and deeper into the cold waters below her.

Everyone dressed in black that day.

7 of their friends and family were now buried beneath the soil and rotting in coffins. The living were now huddled together in small groups; crying, sobbing, or blank stares into nothingness.

Seth stood off to the side of the group, one grave in particular before him. He couldn't believe it. No matter how many times he read the words carved into the stone or heard someone say a prayer with that name, he couldn't comprehend the meaning behind it. 'Death'? 'RIP'? Those words didn't belong with that name.

They'd been friends since grade school, and now the man was dead.

"You're evil, you know that?" A tall woman questioned in the airport. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail and her long slender legs carried her through the crowded building. She wore a pencil skirt, very different from her usual attire, and bright yellow blouse. In front of her a short woman walked, and her short hair swayed as she turned to give her a knowing smirk. Much like her counterpart, she also wore different clothing than usual; slacks, a spotted yellow and orange shirt, and stylish grey boots.

Both of them were carrying two bags with them.

"Where are we going?" Leah asked for the tenth time, and when they finally reached Gate 8, the shorter woman stopped and turned towards her. Her tanned arm reached around her waist, and the other one pulled her face down to her height. Going onto her tippy toes, she placed a light kiss on her forehead and smirked on her way down.

"I'm taking you to one of my favorite places in the world; Australia." She said, and then unwrapped herself from her girlfriend and walked over to one of the many vacant seats.

"Australia!? Why the hell are we going there of all places?"

"Sean is going to meet us there with his new boyfriend, Nick. He's doing a performance there."

"… you said that wherever we go, we're going to live there for two months."

"Yep."

"We're going to live in Australia for two months because your cousin's boyfriend is doing a performance there? What kind of performance is that great?"

"I think it's a stripper performance. Maybe a little of drag. I didn't really ask." She said with a wink, and watched with amusement as the taller woman eventually gave up with a sigh and plopped herself down in the seat next to her.

"You know that I wouldn't have hurt you unless I thought I had any other choice, right?"

"Why couldn't you have just told us?"

"If we did that, we couldn't find the other spy." She answered easily, almost as if it were obvious.

"What other spy?"

"The original spy that had been spying on you losers for god knows how long. We couldn't find him, so we had to lure him out. When I was causing a ruckus with you and the other wolves, Sean was able to find and execute him."

Leah reached her hand up and gently pushed against her chin to make her face her. "Never, ever do anything like that again. Promise?"

"Only if you promise to never stop shapeshifting. I may be a fast healer, but that Mexican dish took over a week to heal."

"Deal." Leah agreed, and they both smiled. They kissed each other, soft and gently, and when they pulled away, stayed close. Kelly moved the bag and arm rest that was between them and snuggled up under her arm. "You're my imprint partner, by the way. I can't ever leave you." Leah stated nonchalantly.

"Oh… Okay. By the way, I'm not a shapeshifter. And that bird you saw was my cousin."

"What? That's not possible. You're just lying because you're mad I didn't-"

"Also, since we're sharing secrets and are apparently destined life partners for all of eternity, which you just cared to disclose even though you've known for almost a year, you should probably know that Kelly isn't my real name."

Finne