CHILDREN OF GOD

Xx~xx~xX

DANISHKA NEBARI

Xx~xx~xX

This was awkward.

"... This is Charlie Swan" Cindy said smiling a little and then shuffling to her left and patting Bella lightly "And his daughter, they will be joining us for dinner"
"Why?" I blurted rudely, frowning at Isabella's beaming happy face.

"Uhm..." she twisted her hands in each other, she pressed her lips together and then decided to ignore my question and led us all to the kitchen table instead "Well, this will have to serve as a dining table"
"That's okay Cindy" Bella's dad murmured in a dry sort of voice, already taking a seat like he had been here before.

"Bella, you can take a seat too" Cindy smiled at her and Bella did her nervous lip biting and blushing. I stood there, watching them like they were performing some sort of play for me in the kitchen.

"Danii?" Cindy murmured and I blinked dumbly at her. She had the chair pulled out for me, opposite Bella-all of them looking at me like I was the mad one here.

"What in the name of all that is good...?" I began and then just shook my head, frowning at all of them "You are all mad. I will not participate in this madness goodnight."

And with that, I stomped upstairs leaving a spluttering Cindy calling me back.

Xx~xx~xX

I really don't know why I let Bella in when she knocked.

Somehow since I had woken up from my little blanket of misery, it was harder to be a brat about things. Just ignoring her timid knocks had crossed my mind, but then she started talking behind the door in a soliloquy like tone and she was never one for eloquence, it was turning into a verbal chainsaw massacre with each second I allowed it and in the end I had to take one for mankind...

"My dad hasn't been happier" she said-in a nutshell, after about seven minutes of talking.

"Cindy is twenty something, not even late twenties" I stated. "Your Dad has a kid-you"

"She has you"
"I am not her kid" I said dryly.

"But they like each other" Bella protested.

"Then they can like each other at your house" I sighed, falling on my bed "Look, I am not going to get in the way of this weirdness or whatever, but I seriously don't want it in my face. I have been through a lot recently"
"We could be best friends"
"We are barely friends" I said absently and she inhaled a shaky breath and let it escape in a pathetic sound that worked on my intolerance once more. "Okay, close acquaintances..."

"Why don't you come with me to the movies?" Bella asked "It's a whole bunch of us... you can get lost in the group"
"No"

"It's not healthy to be alone when you are heartbroken"
"Don't talk about things you don't know about" I growled and she shrunk away from me.

"Please?"
"No"

"This has nothing to do with my Dad and your sister..." she explained and I cringed, she ignored it continuing with a little more conviction "I like you"
"I don't... uhm, I am flattered but..."
"Not in a romantic sense!" she blushed "Just, since I got here... you have been the one person who has been real"

"Gosh, I wish I had been more imaginary now" I said and she laughed.

"Will you come?"

"Just that once" I conceded wearily "And after that... no group anything. No formulating Lauren into my space"

"Lauren tends to formulate herself to any space" Bella sighed.

"She does, doesn't she"
"Will you come down..."

"Not in a million years, your dad is ancient and a cop" I snapped and added lightly "I have been known to hang around some questionable characters"
"I know" she whispered blushing and my insides constricted; of course, besides my being 'real' with her, I had also been close to a boy she had somehow made herself fall in love with. A boy-a young man-who had wrenched my heart from my chest and clouded my mind of what little I knew about love and acceptance.

Xx~xx~xX

It was going to be a disaster that was the only forecast I could give. Lauren would be most ruthless at my presence and I would be unable to hide the fact that I didn't want to be there...

I was the worst actress and this was the worst sort of script to ever be written. Hopeless teenage introvert amongst a group of boisterous teens... it was so played out...

"Hey"

Things got drastically worse.

"It's Jacob, right?" I smiled weakly at him, attempting not to swallow myself whole with embarrassment. Hadn't I blushed the last time we met... for this much younger boy...

"Like you forgot" he said cockily but it was that kind of arrogance that was impossible to be angered by; the mildly irritating kind that somehow managed to be endearing at the same time.

"Like I forgot" I said the words but without his slight cynicism, coating them in a sort of contemplation.

"Seems you and I stick out here" he sighed, gesturing at the laughing group in front of us; Bella was spreading herself thin as 'Movie Hostess'.

"Seems so" I breathed "Nothing new for me though..."
"Yes, you do look like the suffer in silence type" he said raising a full eyebrow; we shuffled a step forward in the movie line together.

"Do I now?" I said, half listening to him and being lost in a painful memory.

"Yeah, you are definitely the 'misunderstood teenager'" he chuckled.

"And what, your parents understand you?" I asked him, snapping out of a world were I discussed how wrong the film industry had gotten vampire mythology with a real vampire.

"My dad... he lets me be me" Jacob sighed "When he isn't trying to let me be him"

"And your mum?"
"She died" he stated. "Oh, look... it's our turn to get a bit of Bella"

"Guys!" Bella squealed "Uhm, what seats...?"

"Why don't we just give our tickets to the ticket guy, hmm Bells?" Jacob snickered, his eyes twinkling when he looked at her. She blushed, punching him lightly and stumbled into the dark cinema.

"So, still got a thing for Bella?" I whispered quickly to him and he paused abruptly in our dark trekking in the cinema and I collided with his back.

"Who said I had a thing to begin with" he hissed at me.

"Your eyes" I murmured "Very expressive globes, you have there Mr Jacob"

"You're absurd" he mumbled.

"You wouldn't be the first one to tell me that"

Xx~xx~xX

That's how it started and we became the strangest sort of trio. She would invite me to go with her to La Push-stating that Jacob enjoyed our little fights (for some unknown reason, Jacob and I were incapable on agreeing on anything, no matter how obvious the answer was).

I watched amused as Jacob's crush on Bella grew, and Bella's denial for his crush intensified in accordance to how obviously unchildlike Jacob was getting. He was about fifteen and looked nothing like it; tall, too muscled and with a certain maturity he carried to his day to day life. I only intercepted their little world during those many afternoons we did our homework together and bantered, but it was their world in the end. Jacob and Bella knew each other in a way that I could not ever hope to understand or become a part of. Their fathers knew each other, they had history and undoubtedly a future I had... I had my nights and other days alone, to ponder about him and where he was... if he had stored the memory of our time together somewhere far of and continued with his life as before.

Like I could ever forget him... how naïve he was or cruel to hope such a thing of me. Such a hopelessly cruel angel... and I didn't want to think if what he had said was true. That their being away would help me with the thirst. I didn't want to think about it as days stretched out before me and I had minor little throat sores, easily ignorable and I had accidentally smashed the glass tumbler in my hand after the loud bang of the window blowing shut had scared me. Minor incidents; nothing like killing ones cat and breaking the balustrade to a stairway...

It felt like an easier alternative to accept from the hell of wallowing in the memory of his face, voice and eyes.

"Danishka?" Cindy knocked on my bedroom door lightly "Bella is here for you..."

Xx~xx~xX

"...and he won't pick up my calls" Bella cried. "I told him I wanted to be friends!"

"Do you want to be friends?" I asked her and she frowned viciously at me, as though I was entirely retarded for asking that.

"No, he is what..." she looked away, leaning on her truck and scowling at the nearby forest like it too had accused her of being uncertain of her feelings "Fourteen"
"Fifteen" I corrected, she knew of course and of course she had thought of reciprocating Jacob's affection outwards but no matter how much a martyr for the socially ostracized Bella wanted to be; she cared about her title as one of the popular girls at school. Whether she would admit it to me or herself, it was there.

"I am miserable" she sighed, gulping and wiping away a stray tear violently "This feels horrible"
"Has uhm..." I tried to recall the odd names of Jacob's friends and then gave up, I had only met them once and Jacob and Bella spoke about them too much that I had tuned that particular chatter out.

"His friends?" I asked eventually and she sighed.

"Embry started hanging out with that gang..." Bella breathed "Quil... haven't seen him. Billy said Jake is sick with mono so..."
"So maybe he really is sick" I sighed, my patience waning.

"Maybe, but he is avoiding me" she said in a defeated tone.

"I don't know what... I can do"

"No, it's okay..." Bella sighed, entering her truck. "I'll see you at school, Dan..."

"School" was all I managed to say, watching her drive out.

Xx~xx~xX

"He still hasn't called or returned your texts?" I asked her, worried beside myself.

I wasn't really used to having such connections with other people; worrying about them and such, but Jacob... Jacob was all about Bella. It would have been a great shift in nature for him to ignore her and be away from her for a good three weeks...

"No" she murmured miserably, shuffling besides me towards our cars. It was Friday, and Cindy and her Dad were going out to someplace that I had no intention of knowing of. This Jacob thing would soon turn into me babysitting her... Bella was alright, if Jacob's wit was there to buffer out her slight self-obsession...

"And the worst thing is..." she breathed shakily, gulping back tears "I saw him!"
"So why didn't you just..." I began but she spun on her heels and pressed her lips together controlled before spewing what I could only imagine to be a good few hours of held back angst.

"He was across the hill... you know, the one where there is that dangerous turn" she said illustrating with her hand; waving it haphazardly in the air "Over the seas by that really high cliff!"

"Uh..."

"He was cliff diving with them!" She hissed. "Sam and them. And he said he didn't like them... he said he didn't like the gang and there he was, Danii!"

"Uhm"

"And I saw them twice, worst part...!" she continued "After Billy told me he was in bed sick!"
"Okay, Bella maybe if..."
"So you know what we are going to do?"

"No?" I breathed exasperated by her rant.

"We are going to go hiking to that cliff and confront him" she said impassioned, nodding her head. "Bye Danii"

"Bella?" I said dazed but she was already fussing with her seatbelt and closing the door.

We had a day to be without Cindy and Charlie and she wanted to spend it searching for Jacob in the woods. And she thought I would willingly sacrifice such freedom to be away form Cindy and her hints that if I didn't get out of my sullenness I would be going on a trip to Grandma.

"You just might be on your own there, Bells" I sighed, driving my shaking car to the library.

Xx~xx~xX

"Danishka"

"Alice... is that really you?" I whispered, peering through the shadows of my room. I moved quickly to the wall and flicked the light on. It was her, she was here... she stood before me pale and wonderful as she had always been.

"Alice" I breathed and she smiled sadly. "It is you, you are here..."
"Danii" she said smiling sadly and reaching her dainty alabaster hand out to me. I moved lethargically towards her and brushed her cold fingers with my own. "You are alive!"

"Huh?"

"I thought I was too late" she said quickly, moving to the window and peering into the dark outside and frowning slightly. "I thought he had gotten to you?"
"Who?" I asked softly standing beside her and squinting through the darkness. "Who Alice?"

"Laurent of course!" she hissed. "I tried to contact Edward but he..."
"Edward, is he alright?" I asked hurriedly gripping her arm; she frowned at my hand on her arm.

"Ouch" she smiled "A little too strong for a human there, Nebari"

"Sorry" I released her arm and flexed my fingers, the blood rushing in my ears. My palms were sweating and I could feel every beat of my heart. Edward...

"He has gone into isolation" Alice said. "I saw the vision recently; I tried to contact him... well, I decided to take matters into my own hands"
"I am fine" I said stonily. "Will you... will you leave... now that you know?"
"Yes" she whispered, looking at me sadly "I have to, eventually... I came because I love you, you understand that?"

"I... fine"

"Danii, he loves you" she whispered.

"Right" I snorted "That's why he dumped me in the forest"

"Dumped...?"
"You know how I meant it"
"I know you love him too" Alice said and I remained silent. What did I know about love...?

"So Laurent would come for me" I said "Why him... he wanted no part in everything in the end"
"I don't know" Alice said.

Xx~xx~xX

"She is safe" Alice breathed and the rest was said to fast for me to catch. She closed the phone with an easy twitch of her hand and looked sharply to her left. "I didn't see that..."

"See?" I asked her, staring at the closed blinds dumbfounded-my heart hadn't stilled since I had found her in my room.

"The Swan girl" she said turning her body fully towards the window before glancing at the door. "Someone is with her"

"How do you even..." I began but then just left it, moving towards the door and awaiting Isabella's knock impatiently. I could hear her fumbling steps and then stronger and yet more fluid footfalls resonated after her own.

The door knocked twice and I opened it quickly. She blinked at me, startled with her hand hovering in the air for a third knock and took a step back straight into Jacob's shirtless chest.

"Bella?" I said and my eyes slid from her perplexed face to Jacob's angry vicious glare. I instinctively moved behind the door, contemplating shutting it in both their faces for some unknown reason.

"There is a..."Jacob began and then shuddered, shaking his head hard before returning his acidic stare at me. "You have a guest with you"

"So" I said, quirking an eyebrow.

"It shouldn't be here..." he murmured low and Bella frowned back at him, a look of indignation on her face.

"Jacob... it?" she breathed. "Seriously?"

"You saw... you saw the..." he was shaking and shimmering. He shook his head again and closed his eyes tightly. "Bella, please leave... go back to your car. I need to talk to Danii and... The Cullen..."
"Edward is back?" Bella asked loudly and pushed forward, shoving the door and me aside and hurrying in my house, ignoring Jacob's hand trying to reach for her. She walked in rudely, turning her head this way and that and when she saw Alice standing still and neutral in the middle of the kitchen she gasped softly.

"Alice Cullen?" she asked, her eyes wide. Something about her expression gazing at Alice was off, something was wrong...

"Bella" Alice's clear voice rang through dead quiet space. She ignored Jacob's ferocious look and looked at Bella contemplatively "Alive and well, I see..."

It all fell into place then; I was supposed to go with Bella hiking today. She wanted to make it to the cliff face she had seen Jacob and his new friends jump off and confront him or something. I had needed a distraction from life. Laurent... my dreams... he had been in the woods. Bella and I were supposed to be dead...

"No thanks to you!" Jacob growled and I snapped my head from Bella to him. He smelt like the forest, like something wild and untameable. "We... we..."
"You took care of it?" Alice pieced the weird puzzle and I looked at her questioningly. "I trust our... agreement with your fathers still stands?"

"Of course" Jacob spat. "Bella, we should leave. Yes, let's leave... she wants to be here with it"

He meant me, I was the one who wanted to be here... with it? He knew, how could he know and how could he take care of 'it'... I was staring at Jacob in fear; fear of the information he held and sudden intense pain when he gave me one last disgusted reproachful look as he backed out of the house.

"He knows!" I breathed as Isabella's truck roared away from us.

"What does it matter?" Alice asked sadly "He wont tell"
"He... what?" I stammered.

"He wont tell" Alice said. "Unless he wants us to uncover the fact that he is a werewolf"

"What the fuck!?" I yelled, fisting my hair.

"A werewolf... oh, Danii please..." she appeared in front of me and tugged my hands away form my hair easily "Your hair is already in such a state, lets not let theatrics turn it into an irrecoverable disaster?"

Xx~xx~xX

The night seemed endless, with Alice there with me... telling me all the things the Cullen's had been up to. Their many little meaningless immortal trivia's and adventured. Her Jasper, Carlisle and Esme and even Rose and Emmett.

He wasn't with them. He hadn't been with them in a while... but he had phoned and that was what mattered, she assured me. Could I be assured at this point?

"I have a ticket..." I told her, letting her conduct her meticulous manicure on my nails. "To South America... well, Cindy had gotten it as a threat but I guess I really should use it now"
"Yes" Alice sighed, closing the red varnish "You really should get a change of scenery from all this rainy gloom and besides... the neighbourhood seems to have a new infestation of stray mangy dogs"

I looked up at her reproachfully and she smiled sheepishly. "He was a friend to me, you know" I told her seriously.

"Well, now he can be a pet..." Alice said matter-of-factly.

"Bella is a friend too" I whispered "And she... she likes him in her way. And they compete my little world here"
"I understand" she whispered. "But werewolves are not good company"
"And vampires are?" I challenged and she smiled a small sad smile.

"No, I guess we aren't... are we?"

"Not particularly..." I sighed, falling back on my bed and staring at the crimson colour coated on my nails. "I will see him again. I will. I am adamant about that"
"You can't find him if he doesn't want to be found" she told me.

"He wants to be found... just by the right person" I whispered, closing my eyes and pulling on an image of him smiling at me.

"And you are certain you are the right person?" Alice asked.

"You and I both know I am" I told her a little a little haughtily and she laughed. "Will you be gone when I wake up?"
"Yes" she murmured. "I will"
"Hmm" I sighed, letting the edges of sleep consume me. "Me too. I will be gone... a change of scenery and a relationship to mend... I do miss my Grandmother"

Xx~xx~xX

"Baby!" she breathed and I felt my chest tighten in a weird juxtapose of pain and comfort. She rushed towards me in her wobbling gait, her smile pulled through on her etched worn face and her eyes dimmed and shaded in the deep encasing of the folds of her eyelids.

I was vaguely aware that I had a pained smile on my face as I watched my grandmother-my aunt in truth, but that was a long story that involved many lies and secrets and I had come here to heal our relationship.

Sometimes healing meant letting sleeping dogs lie. Sometimes healing meant never knowing about your past if it was held by the one person who would always be on your side. She would always be on my side, my grandmother.

She tried to take my bags for me and I repeated for her to let them be in shady Portuguese.

"Oh, baby" she sighed and it hurt me so badly to realise I had chosen Forks over her. I had chosen Edward over her... and there was no way I could make her understand how special he was outside of his archangel devastating handsomeness because as far as she was concerned, he was a monster.

A vampire.

But it didn't matter, just like the secrets she kept from me because time had moved and everything that had mattered had past. Edward had left; he had gone away from me and finally disappeared.

"I missed you" I whispered to Pangra and she grinned at me from her short height, revealing stained cream teeth. We moved slow and easily through the airport, she had already begun telling me of the town house she had acquired-promising me that this was a far cry from the village she had been originally staying in and I would adapt easily.

"We can go and visit the village though" she murmured, giving instructions to the cab driver in quick Portuguese in regular intervals "I have a few friends who are still moving on this earth who would like to see you"

"I would like that" I told her, staring out the window at the bright lights and liveliness of Rio de Janeiro.

"How long are you staying?" she asked me-this time that odd youthful energetic quality that had been working through her ancient body lost and a wariness fell over her eyes.

"Uhm..." I stammered, staring at my hands. The red nail polish still glinted over my nails and I was suddenly terrified without reason that Pangra would know that Alice Cullen-a vampire, a monster to her-was the one to apply the colour with calculated precision.

"You never come to South America" she said after I failed to answer "I was just... it's a short visit, right?"
"Do you want it to be a short visit?" I asked her, looking at her with as much intensity as she was giving me. The driver had stopped in front of a slightly worn building with almost three floors to it.

"It has to be a short visit" she said looking away. "We are here"

"I see" was all I said, exiting the cab. I felt the hot air of this strange land on my neck, tickling my nape and alerting me that I had a sheen of sweat over the skin there. I was hot, the drastic change in weather and atmosphere made me feel queasy and lethargic-as though the heat here was draining my energy in comparison to the perpetual coolness of Forks.

I followed her up silently; she spoke rapidly in Portuguese now, mixing it with a few words of Spanish-oblivious or unperturbed that I wasn't following her as easily. Her home was quaint; small rooms lit in varying yellow and orange hues with a cool ceramic flooring.

"Do you wish to eat?" she asked me in English and I frowned suspiciously, she was switching languages to suit her.

"No, I wish to sleep" I said tetchily although my stomach growled and with it I felt the telltale signs of an itching throat-a soon to be burning throat.

"Your room is on the left" she told me softly and moved towards it.

As much as I needed to let these 'sleeping dogs' lie, they're presence between Pangra and I was grating on everything. The light went of but I lay wide awake, listening with a supernatural keenness to the surrounding sounds of life and movement around us. Every blink I made through the soft shadows of my room gave way to yellow eyes, honeyed eyes-looking upon me with an odd adoring humour from an ethereal face.

"I need to forget you, Edward" I murmured, Pangra's soft snore droning from down the narrow hallway.

"Please, let me forget you..." I mumbled, my eyes drooping before slamming shut-and nightmares of red eyed demons chased me through the night.

Xx~xx~xX

I woke up with pains in my joints. I didn't bother moving for a good few minutes, opting to lie in bed and nudge my limbs loose slowly.

"Danishka?" Pangra knocked softly on the door "I have started on your breakfast"
"I will be out" I groaned and she sighed, shuffling away.

I got up slowly, swinging my legs over the bed. My heart was still thudding insistently, my vision popping oddly at the corners. She was right, I couldn't stay long. as much as I had needed the change of scenery from the coldness of Forks-from the memory of Edward and I's blossoming 'friendship' and the family that I had never had, the Cullen's-I had left something as precious to me than a vacation from my memories.

I had left Cindy. I had left my sister, for all intents and purposes. And I had left Laurent... and his red eyes. As dead as James could be thanks to Edward... Laurent was there and I had neglected that, I had chosen to let that be with fear of what confronting it would mean to me. Jacob and Bella-how could they fair against something hard and cold and destructive as a vindictive vampire...

"Breakfast looks..." I breathed staring at the assortment of fruits under strawberry yoghurt "Healthy?"
"Hmm" Pangra smiled. "You need to be healthy, to live healthy... you start with what you eat"

I looked at her closely and she smiled the smallest knowing smile and I had to look away. Pangra and her implications, she was most good at those. You start with what you eat... I wonder what she would do if I told her I had killed my cat and quenched a rare and torturous thirst on its blood...

I wonder what she would do if I told her that her very heart beat was a distraction to me right now and I feared that in my tensed state, the lovely breakfast she had laid out would taste like dusty dry wood.

I picked the plastic spoon up experimentally, and she sat opposite me and pulled her own bowl to her.

"Mhmm" I smiled and she nodded in encouragement, taking a loaded spoon full of the fruit pieces and muesli in yoghurt. "Delicious"

"Yes, it is" Pangra greed "I am glad you are here"
"I am glad to be here" I said.

"I left Forks under..." she paused, sighing a little and looking away from me "I left... I had to leave"

"I understand" I told her, prodding the breakfast lightly and frowning at its healthy humanly goodness. "It's in the past"
"The past..." Pangra laughed lightly, derisively "Do you know how dangerous the past is?"
"I... uhm, I don't know" I mumbled.

"You have to leave soon, my love... my dear, Danishka" she said, leaning over the table and holding her wrinkled hands up. They shook slightly. "I am glad you came, but no where is as safe as Texas"

"Texas?" I gasped, pushing away from the table so suddenly and with to much force it moved forward and trapped her in her seat "Hector? What are you saying to me?!"

"You and I know you cannot stay where those monsters are!" she growled, her eyes flashing dangerously "Do not court them... do not invite them... leave them be!"

"If it pleases you, Grandmother" I almost spat-my own anger rising in accordance with her violent vehemence, her badly hidden fear of these 'monsters' "They left"
"They..." she tilted her head in confusion, derailed by my weak proclamation-suspicious of it "They left?"
"They left" I said again and pulled the table away from her easily. She stared at me for a second-I wasn't sure if she wanted to see the truth on my face or if she could see the pain of the revelation in me. She looked at me closely, her eyes softening and her expression relaxing.

"It was for the best... it is for the best" she nodded "I thank God"
"God has nothing to do with it" I snapped.

"How right you are" she smiled "They have nothing to do with God, such Dark Creations"

I remained quiet to that.

"The past is dangerous" she said softly, tired-almost as though something that had been shackling her since I had arrived had been released. She let her weariness show, fully exposed and it hit me how truly old she was. "Your past... is dangerous but none more so than your mother"

"My..." her word confused me even though a voice in the back of my mind murmured how they made fearsome sense "My mother?"
"Your mother" she repeated, looking at me carefully "Her past... and I suppose her mother's fate before her have... have put your life, my Danishka... at risk. Your life has been endangered since your birth, since your conception even! And those demons leaving Forks has given you more time, more life... and I wont be around my baby to help you stay safe" she finished softly, waving a hand over her form " I am old"

"Pangra?" I said softly, my heart hammering in my chest. I was terrified of her words. I clutched the arm of the wooden chairs tightly and ignored the roaring in my ears, begging my senses to remain focused on her.

"Your mother... was exceptional" she began softly "In more ways than beauty and her compassion..."

Xx~xx~xX

Her name had been Talia and I had her eyes.

She met a man, she met a living breathing man and she loved him and he loved her. Their love was simple and pure and had no complications save for her beauty, her angelic beauty but that too was easily ignorable in the face of such an emotion. Pangra had not been nearly as young, and she had had a daughter then.

Talia had come to her in the little jungle she had grown up in; a village coddled by thick trees and wild terrain, a village hidden to the world. She had blown her away with her beauty but it was the fire in her eyes that had let her know of the goodness within my mother. It was those eyes and the cheek bones that had let Pangra know that what Talia said of her being her relative, her sister-was entirely true.

"She was most beautiful" Pangra sighs "And I loved her. You see, my mother had died in the woods. Village men had found her body ripped by animals... she had been missing prior to that for some time. So when she came to me, when I had thought I was alone and truly damned..."
"Damned?" I asked her softly and she chuckled softly.

"Yes, my dear... damned" she said dryly "With no mother and a father lured away by the wealth and whores of Rio, I was left with nothing save for this body. And they took it. The men... they took it because it had no one to protect it or insure it. I was much a woman when I had my baby, I was also nearing starvation and death when Talia came to me"

"She came..." Pangra said wistfully "And rescued us. She helped us build a home on the outskirts, she helped care for my baby and teach her the English... and I was happy. Finally"

"And then what happened?" I asked her softly and she snorted, shaking her head.

"Then she fell in love" she said "To a man, this angel. He didn't deserve her, by God he didn't and I never let him forget it!"

"What was his name?" I asked her.

"Henry" she said indifferently "You get your skin from him"
"You didn't like him because he had dark skin?" I laughed and she pursed her lips.

"No, I didn't like him because he was 'simple'" she snapped, tapping the side of her head indicatively. "But he loved her, adored and her and worshipped her"

"They were happy" I said to myself, smiling a little. "Happy"
"Yes, until she became pregnant" Pangra murmured "And then it was obvious that Talia was not so much an angel as we thought"

Xx~xx~xX

It started with strange deaths of the livestock. Cows were found fat and whole but with only a strange ripping wound on their necks and drained of blood. The villagers were terrified, talks of demons and angered ancestors gave fuel to an inferno of suspicion and paranoia.

Amidst all of this, Talia became distant.

"She was easily angered" Pangra continued "She was skittish. She had always been most alert, most nimble but it intensified. She didn't pretend so much about her beauty and her fluid nature that Henry and I had always suspected of but remained silent to. She was our angel, she could appear suddenly before us and lift trees so easily... but she always did these things in moderation"

"But then..." she sighed "She did not hide it. She would remain in her hut, curtains drawn and refused to eat. She demanded to know of anything strange in the village or of any news of the distant surrounding villages..."
"She terrified me" Pangra admitted unwillingly "My angel, my sister... she terrified me. At times she would look at me with such intensity I thought she may swallow me whole!"
I shuddered, remembering Edward's explanation of the distinct concentration of a vampire's thirst.

"And then she started to 'speak'" Pangra breathed "She spoke of impossible things; a father who was a demon, how she knew who killed our mother-saying it had been her, in her birthing!"
"She told me of a sister of hers who had the ability to persuade beings to do her bidding, she told me of another sister who could pull out certain memories from a beings mind for good" Pangra said quickly "She told me of a brother she had found who lived with his Aunt, and that these two beings are what had persuaded her to seek me out"
"And you didn't believe her?" I guessed "Even though she gave proof to some of this; with strength so vast and speed..."

"Even though she did all these things" Pangra admitted "I thought she was a deranged angel. Understand, some Christian missionaries had made contact with our village and we were all very taken with them"

"So when did you believe?" I asked her.

"Not when you were born so perfect and human, no not then" Pangra said. "You were born and we loved you. She loved you... but Talia, she was living on edge. She was terrified of the wind and the rain... of everything. Terrified of this demon father, who she was convinced was searching for her..."

"And after three years or so..." Pangra murmured "She had a visitor. A sister, the one she told me could steal memories forever. You were talking by then, eloquently and with startling intelligence..."

She was quiet for a little while, and then she took in a breath and let it out steadily before holding my gaze.

"Time had moved, before you had been born... Danishka" she said seriously. "Henry and I, we were old enough but Talia... how beautiful she had remained. My child had gone to America with the English I never knew of and she had been scheduled to visit me at the time this one sister came to the village"
"It had been the one she spoke of, the one who stole memories forever" Pangra scowled "She came and warned Talia that her father and another one of her sisters had tracked her... that they were coming and they were not pleased with what she had done"

"Talia revealed to me her true form then" Pangra continued airily "That I had it confused; she was no angel but a demon. And she proceeded to scare them and torment half the village into leaving. And you and my child-you were my children! She had arrived, I couldn't leave you... you wouldn't leave her, you wouldn't leave Henry and then he did arrive"
"He saw you" she said "And he said..."

"Dim and Bland human" I murmured "Uninteresting and Unworthy..."
"And he killed him" she went on "And then Talia distracted him enough... and the sister..."
"The one who stole memories" I guessed and Pangra nodded.

"Yes, she rescued us" Pangra stated "He decided you were..."

"Not worth it" I murmured "Human"

"No, no..." Pangra breathed "He was confused momentarily; having forgotten why he was so incensed. But later on, the woman... she told me she hadn't managed to steal the memory of his initial target from his mind. A vampire's mind, she had explained-required more than just staring into the eyes. Like with simple humans..."
"Her eyes" I murmured, thinking on the flat brown eyes that I sometimes dreamed of, the eyes that morphed into red.

"She cleared your mind" Pangra finished "But it was done. Talia was dead and with her, many humans-Henry and my daughter included. So we were left with no other alternate than to run... far and wide... and away. Until I convinced Hector to take you in"
"Until you lied to him" I said.

"Was it so much a lie?" she asked softly but I ignored her, my insides swirling violently. "You see why they are dangerous? They are all demons..."
"I dome from then" I told her.

"No, you come from Talia!" she growled. "You stay away from them and you need to stay away from here... I am old; I am nearing the end of my days..."

"I won't leave you!" I said frowning, but Cindy's happy face flashed over my vision with Jacob Black's violent expression looming over it. I was torn; she was right, she was old and I wanted to be here with her until the end but Cindy had nothing but Bella's idiot father to protect her from shadows and demons...

"An old friend of mine contacted me from my village" she said softly, her hands shaking slightly and eyes wide "We had lost contact long ago; she had fallen on hard times... What an interesting tale she had"

"What tale?" I asked Pangra.

"She met a young man by the name of Anthony" Pangra murmured and I froze, my hands fisting over the table. She was this and she blanched. "He convinced her to show her the village she is from. She took him, and they met two other beings-South American's, but they were as beautiful as this man... this Anthony"

"Edward Anthony..." I murmured softly and she watched me keenly.

"And this man... this beautiful white and pale as death man..." Pangra said with venom "He let them leave. He left them by their village... alive"

"In South America?" I asked loudly "Here in South America... in your village, past Peru...?"
"He was with two others who were like him... in South America... a man and a woman" Pangra growled. "Her father and her sister, I am sure... he was with them and he told them about you"
"He would never..." I hissed and she raised a worn grey eyebrow.

"Wouldn't he, now?" she asked "They appear angels, my love... but they are demons"
"No" I shook my head.

"And remember..." Pangra murmured "She has a gift to persuade..."
"Not Edward!" I breathed.

"Don't let Talia and Henry have died in vain" she said and I looked away from her, hiding my shaking hands in my lap "In the end, it is those that breathe and bleed that are the children of God, Danishka"

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AUTHORS NOTE:

Firstly, I thank you for reading this! Please, pretty please... review your thoughts on things. I would be forever grateful! I know oc pairings can be tiring but please stick around! As usual, thoughts criticism is greatly appreciated

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TJ