C'est un (une?) update! Wow, people actually like this story. I wanted to update yesterday, but I had a math team meet and lots of homework due on the last day of school before vacation, you understand. So yeah.

And the chapter titles are numbers in Italian. 'Cause the Volturi are from ITALY. (Yes, I'm lame.) Italian according to Babelfish (Yahoo!), anyway. I don't take/speak Italian. (French/Korean/Russian/Chinese/Latin FTW.)

Larkaa!: Aw, thanks. That's always good to know. xD Thanks for reviewing!


The Volturi guard arrived in promptly twenty minutes since their visit had first been seen.

Edward heard them coming first… or rather, he heard their thoughts. Just a moment before, he was talking quietly to Bella and Alice. Then his head jerked up suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and his body stiffened, tense.

"They're coming," he breathed.

Within seconds, Jacob and Renesmee were at his side, the latter still clinging to the former's back. Seth dug his heels into the ground in anticipation. Leah thought he was crazy.

Oh, c'mon, Seth said. They're interesting, aren't they? And they're only checking on Nessie; they won't hurt her.

Leah chose not to dignify that with an answer.

Edward did, though.

"That's what's assumed," he said, tightly, "but you can never be sure with the Volturi. They have to keep up with their image as the guardians of the vampire world, but truthfully, they only care for their own power. If Renesmee is a threat to that power—"

But they promised to leave her alone last time, Seth pointed out.

"You can never be sure," Edward repeated.

Seth seemed dismayed at this revelation.

Wow, kid, Leah snorted. Way to go. Be disappointed that the bloodsuckers are evil. Big surprise. If that's your common perception of leeches, you're going to—

Oh, shut up, Leah—

Both of you shut up, Jacob said tersely. I can hear them now.

Leah strained her wolf ears from her position still on the ground—a bit closer to the Cullens now, but not by much—and listened, hard. Were those…? Yes. Running feet, and the light swish of clothing. And… the smell.

It was very faint, from far away, but Leah could already immediately tell the scent was different from that of the "vegetarian" vampires'. It was a bit more… wild, primal. Ferocious. Untamed. A bit sweeter, as well. She wasn't sure which scent she preferred—the Cullens smelled like choking, musty, centuries-old rotten perfume, and this new smell was like an overload of sweet candy gone bad. Both were extremely similar, yet extremely different at the same time.

The scent grew stronger as the footsteps grew louder. And then they appeared.

To a human, it would have looked as if they'd glided into the clearing, gray cloaks trailing after them wistfully in the wind created by their high speed of traveling. To Leah, they just seemed to slow down immensely from the speed at which they'd been running before, and then they approached.

Not all the cloaks were gray—the one in the center, shortest by at least two feet—was almost black. The other four figures lurked behind that one presence, watching, waiting.

Leah quickly assessed them all. The little one moved gracefully over the ground, as if she were made of air. Another figure strode calmly, leisurely, another took fast, small, almost dainty steps, yet another appeared to be taking a casual stroll, but Leah could see the predatory crouch behind it, and the last took long, unaffected strides.

The Cullens, Jacob, and Seth, huddled in one large group by one end of the large field, seemed to stiffen with the arrival. Leah would never admit it, but she suddenly wished she'd convened with the others; she was closer, but not in their protective group. She felt exposed, out in the open.

"Jane," the good leech doctor greeted the newcomers. Or rather, he just greeted the little girl in the front.

Her hood was down; she smiled beatifically, the action lighting up her pale face. Leah shivered. That smile, that face… it was unnatural. Everything about bloodsuckers was unnatural. It just wasn't right.

"Carlisle. It's good to see you all again," the little girl—Jane, Leah thought—chirped, her voice tinkly and just as lovely as her face. "You've been expecting us."

"Only for twenty minutes," Edward spoke up, dryly. "We received short-term notice."

Jane's burgundy eyes flashed to his face for a moment, then the psychic's, before returning to Carlisle's. She seemed satisfied. "I see," she said, her tone pleasant. "Then you know what we're here for, I presume?"

"You're here to check on me," a new voice spoke up.

Twelve pairs of eyes—visible to Leah, anyway; the other bloodsuckers were probably looking from beneath their hoods as well—swung to the speaker. Renesmee's cheeks turned a bit pink.

Nessie… a faint whine escaped from Jacob's teeth. What are you doing?!

Talking, Leah said.

That wasn't very helpful, Leah, Jacob snapped. You know what I mean!

What, she shouldn't draw attention to herself?

Yes, that!

One of the hooded figures turned slightly in Jacob's direction, then in Renesmee's. Leah thought she heard a slight hiss.

"Yes, little one," Jane said, and Leah thought that was funny, considering Jane's height—or lack thereof. "We're here to make sure there are no… complications in your growth."

Bella bared her teeth in distaste.

"There haven't been any," Renesmee said, the pink fading from her cheeks. Her voice turned clearer, confident. "My growth has been slowing, just like Nahuel said it would. At this rate, I'll be fully mature, like him, by the time I'm seven years old."

"Nahuel," Jane murmured. "The half-breed from South America."

One of the figures behind her spoke up. "We took care of his father a little over two years ago."

"Joham," another said.

"And how is Nahuel doing?" Jane questioned, ignoring the voices behind her. "Have you heard from him lately?"

"He came to visit three months ago," Edward said, his eyes darting to his daughter. The warning in them was clear: Shut the fuck up and let me do the talking. At least, that was how Leah interpreted it. "He, his aunt, and his sisters are doing well."

"That's good to know," Jane said, her apathetic tone completely contradictory to her words. "And how are the Cullens doing in Forks?"

"Very well, thank you for asking," Carlisle said.

It was like a chess game, Leah thought. Or something. (She didn't know much about chess, really.) Everyone was hiding their real meanings and intentions beneath false facades.

"And how long have you been in Forks, again?" Jane asked.

"Since 2003, as I'm sure you very well know," Edward said.

"It must have slipped my mind," Jane said, an offhand comment.

That was a lie. Vampires didn't forget anything.

"So you've been here almost nine years," she continued. "Aren't the humans getting suspicious?" Her tone turned sharp.

"We're moving soon," Edward told her.

Leah felt Jacob shudder slightly at this, through their mind-link. That was a touchy subject for him. If the Cullens moved, he'd have to, too, to stay with his imprint… but he had a pack—family—at home.

Leah didn't like to think about that, either. She'd never admit as much out loud, but over the past few years since she'd joined Jacob's pack, she'd grown to like him—maybe even the other L word… maybe; though she didn't want to even think it—like a little brother. (A mature little brother.) And even though she stayed as far away as possible from cheesy thoughts like the following, she'd come to consider him—and his pack—family. Maybe even Quil (despite his obsession with Claire and her Barbies) and the B-tard, as she'd nicknamed Embry.

But she'd always like Jacob more than Quil or Embry. And she didn't want him to leave. He was her alpha, and if she left, it probably meant she'd have to be the alpha, since she was currently the beta. But Leah didn't want to be the alpha. She wanted to stay the beta. And she sure as hell did not want to go back to Sa—his—pack.

So Jacob's leaving was a touchy subject indeed.

"Ah, I see," Jane said, tone bored once more.

There was a short silence, only permeated by the distant thunder in the sky. Then, suddenly, Edward hissed.

Leah jerked her head up to stare at him. She'd heard that not only was he a mind-rapist, he was the best at controlling himself, besides the doctor bloodsucker. Or something like that. So if he was angry now—

"That's not all you're here for, though," he almost spat at Jane, voice bleak and dark.

"I've no inclination of what you mean," Jane said lightly, tilting her head back. A wind blew past, ruffling her short dark hair.

"Don't you?"

"Of course not." She gave a light little laugh, a strange mixture of tinkling glass bells and hummingbirds' wings. "You'll have to be more specific."

"You know perfectly well what I'm speaking of," Edward snarled.

Leah tensed. Something was up. The mind-rapist had been right; the Nazi leeches had an ulterior motive. She didn't like it.

They're not going to attack us, Jacob said reasonably. They're outnumbered by a lot, and we have Bella's shield.

Oh, you sure about that? Leah snapped. What if they have backup somewhere around here?

Edward would hear their thoughts, then, Jacob pointed out. Hey Edward, any other thoughts in the vicinity?

"No, Jacob," Edward said.

"Ah, Jacob," Jane uttered, and Jacob tensed as well, which was understandable. Leah would do a lot more than tense if she heard her name being spoken by any leech other than one of the Cullens.

"The alpha werewolf—excuse me, shape-shifter," Jane mused. "One of them. And he has… hm, Jacob and… his Renesmee."

Bella made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snarl.

Jane ignored her. "That is Jacob, correct?" she asked, gesturing towards the rusty brown wolf as if he were just an animal, and incapable of speaking for himself. (Well, he wasn't, Leah thought, because he was in his wolf form, but that was completely beside the point.) He growled low in his throat.

"Yes," Edward said tightly.

"Interesting, very interesting, the company you keep," Jane remarked blandly. "And who are the other wolves?"

"They're other members of Jacob's pack," Renesmee explained.

The look on the mind-rapist's face practically screamed, "Renesmee!" Leah would have found it funny, but it wasn't, not at a time like this.

"That one smells different from the others," one of the figures standing behind Jane spoke up suddenly, jerking his head in a different direction. It took Leah a moment to realize the leech guard was talking about her.

I do?

You do? Jacob echoed.

"Yes, Felix, just a little bit, the difference between male and female," Edward agreed. "It's almost unnoticeable, though, unless you sniff very hard."

Sniff. Ha, he said sniff, Leah thought. And what has he been sniffing?

Mature, sis, Seth said. Real mature.

I thought so.

"I can smell her clearly from here, though," the leech who'd made the comment about Leah smelling different remarked.

"Can you?" Edward said mildly, looking faintly surprised. "It's a very subtle difference in scent."

"Not much of a difference between male and female, then?" the leech commented. "So she's not exactly a bitch?"

Snarls ripped through the clearing, and it took Leah a few seconds to realize that they were coming from her. She really couldn't help it, though; the whole "bitch" thing was still a touchy subject (not unlike the prospect of Jacob moving). It was one thing for her old pack members to call her a bitch—Paul, Jared, etc—and even for Quil or Embry (especially Embry; he did so every time she called him "the B-tard") to do so, but a random Nazi leech she didn't know?

That was just crossing the line.

Leah, calm down! Jacob sounded panicked.

"Felix…" Jane cautioned.

"Did I hit a nerve?" the leech—Felix, apparently—asked. Leah wasn't sure, but she thought his tone was amused, and almost sort of gleeful.

Fucking asshole, Leah growled. I'm going to tear his fucking throat out.

"Leah, no!" Edward exclaimed. As he spoke, another wind blew through the clearing, brushing this Felix's (as well as two other Nazi leech guards') hood back.

He—Felix—had black, close-cropped hair, and an olive complexion underneath his chalky pallor. The two skin tones clashed in a strange way. But Leah didn't care what he looked like. She just wanted to throw herself at him and rip his limbs off.

"No, Leah—" Edward began again, but even as he did so, Leah stared the rude Nazi leech guard (Felix) straight in his dark burgundy eyes, and something strange happened.

The world shifted.

There was no other way to describe it, in her opinion. The world just shifted. Only a moment ago, this blo—no, vampire—was just another rude leech, a distraction in the deadly chess (or baseball) game they were all playing in this clearing; and then, all of a sudden, he was the brightest, most beautiful thing in Leah's world. He suddenly the center of her universe. Her universe. She was connected to him, now, and that was as unquestionable as the fact that the earth revolved around the sun.

She was the earth now, and he was the sun.

Then, what felt like spots in her vision faded, and the full force of what had just happened hit her like a wrecking ball, deadly and accurate. Holy shit… she thought, wretchedly, unable to form words for what had just occurred, not even in her mind.

Holy shit, Jacob and Seth echoed, in unison.

You know, Leah thought, detachedly, I've never understood why people say 'holy shit,' anyway. I mean, it's feces. What's so freaking holy about feces?

All it's good for is polluting the environment or whatever and fertilizer, and there's nothing really holy about that, Seth put in helpfully. But you just said it yourself, Leah, and… holy shit, you just imprinted!!

I noticed, Leah said faintly.

Her eyes never once left the vampire's the whole time. He looked… shocked? Surprised? Faintly startled? She couldn't tell; his expression was nearly inscrutable.

A quick, sharp intake of breath—a hiss, really—had come from somewhere in the mind-rapist's—and the Nazi leeches', too—general direction as well, which Leah found ironic, because vampires didn't need (oxygen) to breathe. But he'd just… he'd also…

Holy shit. Holy shit, Leah repeated, and then she fled the clearing.

Silence ensued, even after her pounding paws had faded into the distance. Then, suddenly, another one of the Volturi guard—a female—flipped her hood back as well. She had long, slightly curling auburn hair, a heart-shaped face, and a tall, slim figure. Chelsea.

"Well," she said, and her voice was laced with hidden meanings, "that was interesting."

"Very interesting," another one of the Volturi guard agreed; one of who'd already had his hood brushed back by the wind. He was tall, and not as heavily built as Felix, though their hair and skin were the same color. His hair waved to his shoulders, though.

Felix seemed to have "recovered" from his encounter with Leah. "Very, very interesting," he concluded grandly, aiming a wink at Bella—or maybe it was Renesmee. "We just may have to stick around for a bit longer, to find out what happens next." As if the whole situation was just another episode of a TV drama or something.

Seth looked delighted.


Sorry if Leah's reaction to imprinting was too similar to her reaction to imprinting in NSTAHEA (No Such Thing As Happily Ever After… the Leah/Nahuel story). I tried to make it different… ish… even while the situations were similar, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded at that. xP

The last line was going to be "Bella looked horrified." I changed it. Oh well. And sorry if anyone was OOC; I tried my best~

This chapter was a bit short, probably because I omitted some stuff, but whatever. I don't need that. I seriously can't wait to write the next chapter. Hint as to why: this story's not just going to be all in Leah's point of view. Bwahaha.

Please review. :) Ugly please, with live, wriggling worms on top. ('Cause I'm trying to be original here, people.)