Author's note: I can't believe this. After all the ranting I've done about Twilight (rather, how much it sucks) I'm writing a fanfic about it. Next I'll be doing something really crazy, like being nice to my brother.

Disclaimer: Let's all assume that the series and all recognized characters from the series do not belong to me.

Sometimes, Jeppeson 'Val' Valentine hated his job.

It didn't pay well. The hours were demanding. Val's life was constantly in danger, especially due to the illegal raising of his son, Beck. And his boss was probably the Prince of Hell in disguise. The company had gone to hell after Moses Campbell, the dhampir Senior Assassin who held the title for best in the league, had been forced into retirement. According to the other, more jaded Seniors said he'd sucked the life out of the company before he'd left and taken it with him.

Val didn't like to complain. Once you got your sigils tattooed at the end of training, you were the company's bitch. They beat it into your head from the time you were a young kid.

But that had been almost twenty years ago and Moses had still been working back then. Half the kids in Val's training classes were determined to be 'just like Moses' when they grew up, including Val himself. Moses would've been a much better candidate for Head Hunter but unfortunately the job fell to a dhampir named Cecil Wilberforce, the abovementioned Prince of Hell in disguise. Now the company was probably harder to get out of than a communist country and Val was slowly but surely being run into the ground.

As for the illegal childrearing, Beckett Valentine didn't exist according the computers. Val had bribed two techies to erase his files shortly after Beck was born so he wouldn't be obligated to undergo the same training as his father did. Val was trying to find a more permanent nest for the two of them, especially now that his wife was dead.

To make a long story short, enough was enough. But there was no escaping the Hunter Code.

Tonight Val was chasing a cold case with an eight year old in the passenger seat. He supposed there were worse ways to spend a Saturday night. None came to mind, though. Val wasn't a complainer by nature, but even he had his limits. It was pouring hard enough that they nearly slipped off the road a couple times. Val loudly blamed the truck, but Beck just rolled his eyes.

"You can't drive, Dad," was all he said. Val tried saved his sarcasm for later; no sense in starting a fight before they got to their destination. Beck was one of those lovely types that couldn't understand sarcasm if their life depended on it.

"Where are we now?" Beck asked, turning back to stare out the window.

"Right in the middle of who-the-hell-knows-where, in a jungle." Tried and failed. Oh well. Boredom did bad things.

Beck pouted. "Where is who-the-hell-knows-where?"

"Who the hell knows?" Beck gave his father an icy look that would've scared the Senior Assassins. Val checked the GPS. "The next town is Forks. We're in Washington."

"Oh. Are there vampires there?"

"Yeah. There's supposed to be, anyways." They were supposed to be vegan vampires, too. The Volturi had had an issue with them about five years back. What a blinking bore. The other mutts got better cases in this- and they were in Negotiations!

"Dad, have you ever let a vampire live?" Beck asked.
"No, and if I value my life I won't." Val stared at the kid. He knew the Hunter Code as well as anyone else.

"What about a werewolf?"

"I did that once, and it ended terribly."

Beck turned away.

"Worse. He might make me tell him where Moses disappeared to and then Moses would kill me." That would be a fate worse than Cecil and Beck knew it. He laughed anyways.

Val rolled his eyes and went back to staring at the road.

A person, illuminated in the truck's headlights, stared back at him.

"Holy shit!"

The truck spun. Beck screamed and Val cursed. The figure on the road—it looked like a woman from here—didn't seem bothered. She looked like she was hurt, though, from the way she was clutching her arm. In a B-grade movie moment, the truck stopped an inch away from the girl. She blinked but didn't say anything.

Damn, she's crazy! Val got out of the truck and was assaulted by the smell of wet dog. A werewolf, then? But that would be odd because she was a girl. It was more likely that she'd been attacked by one.

"What's your name?" he asked. The girl tensed, looking furtively over her shoulder. Val noticed that she was covered in blood but there were no open wounds. "Are you a werewolf?" he asked.

The girl's eyes betrayed her shock, but she wheezed a yes.

Val was tempted to dive for his gun, but he had to make sure she wasn't on the kill list. It was one of the few rules that hadn't changed: do not take innocent lives.

"What's your name?" he repeated.

The girl gasped something that sounded like 'Leah' and collapsed.

Getting Leah in the truck was easier said than done. She was heavier than she looked. But that was because of her muscles. She looked like she could tear Val's head off if she wasn't hurt as badly as she was. Val had seen things like this before; the white streaks creeping up the girl's arm meant she had blood poisoning caused by vampire venom. It was common in Val's teenage years but he hadn't seen a case this bad since he was seventeen. What happened was that venom slowly crept through the wolf's extremities, burning as it went until it reached the heart. When that happened, the heart melted. It was truly disgusting. The longest any wolf had was two or three days, sometimes less if the venom count was high.

Beck gaped like a fish at their new guest. "What's the matter with her?"

"Blood poisoning. Hand me the list." No Leah Clearwater… so now what?

"We should take her to the hospital," Beck said, poking the white streaks creeping up Leah's arm. It looked as if she'd been poisoned earlier that day. Well, shit. He couldn't do anything that would really help her. Only something capable of sucking blood could do that. As much as Val didn't want to, this was an innocent life and he was obligated to save her. Especially after nearly mowing her over with his truck.

"They wouldn't believe us if we took her to a hospital. We'll take her to Moses' house."

Sometimes, Val hated his job.

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