Chapter 4 is up! See, I'm not a complete slacker! Anyway, hope you like, I don't own twilight...


Marcus POV

I had no idea why I was wandering around Australia.

It was very unlike me to do anything on a whim, but for some reason, this felt important. When I shared my peculiar longing with Aro, he agreed that I should go where I felt compelled to go. After over 3000 years, we had seen too many unusual things not to follow our instincts.

When I arrived in Australia, I once again felt a nagging need to travel in a particular direction. It felt good to be traveling on my own. It was so rare that any of us brothers got an opportunity to go off alone, that I was planning on savoring the time I had. For the first time in a very long time, I felt alive.

After a day of travel by foot, the need I felt to travel stopped at a small town near the southern coast of the country. For some reason, the fates decided that I needed to be here, so I explored the area.

There really was nothing miraculous about this place. Just another small town full of ordinary humans. Tasty feeding, perhaps, since small town people usually had purer, sweeter blood, but nothing interesting enough to warrant traveling across the world for.

I didn't plan on sticking around, but then I caught a scent I could not ignore. It was the smell of another vampire, though it did not smell like pure vampire. A human/vampire hybrid, perhaps, though that description did not fit quite right either.

I followed the scent to a small hospital. Making sure to wear the sunglasses I carried, so as not to alarm the natives, I explored the hospital until I found the source of the scent. It still amazes me how easy it is to mingle around humans undisturbed, even in a place where strangers are normally accompanied by a nurse or doctor.

The scent was coming from a hall in the hospital that reeked of death. This was a place where humans came to die. Seemed to me an unusual place to find a vampire, since most vampires prefer healthy blood. Even the strongest human was no match for a vampire, so we have no need to hunt the sick or weak.

I followed the smell to a small room containing a very thin, sickly young female. The nurse in the room spotted me and asked if I knew the girl. I told her that I did and she left me alone with her. Humans were just so trusting. It really was sad.

I sat next to the girl, who looked to be nineteen, maybe twenty years of age, though it was difficult to tell her exact age in the state she was in. She was shockingly underweight, and was sickly pale. None of this mattered to me, though. The only thing that mattered was the bond I felt between her and myself. It was obvious that she was the reason I felt compelled to come to this tiny little hospital. The bond was stronger than any I had felt in my very long life, it was strong enough to literally guide me to her.

I took the girl's hand and was happy to see she responded to my touch. She looked at me with dark chocolate colored eyes.

"Why are you dying, little one?" I asked "You are part vampire, are you not?"

The girl seemed to be struggling to find the strength to speak. "Shifter... and... vamp... don't... mix."

Shifter and vampire? I had never heard of a vampire impregnating a shape shifter before. They were, more often than not, moral enemies. That would explain why she smelled so peculiar. I raised her hand to my nose and inhaled deeply. "Ah, yes, I do smell wolf in you." The funny part was that the smell didn't bother me. The dog like smell was there, but it wasn't offensive. Not like the smell of most werewolves.

I couldn't just let her die here, though I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do to save her. The reasons behind her illness were unknown to me and there wasn't time to research them before her demise. I could tell she only had hours left.

"Is there anything I can do to assist you?"

She lay quiet for a few moments. I could see the wheels turning in her brain. She was probably deciding whether or not to trust me or if it even matter at this point.

"Bite." she finally whispered, weakly.

I nodded, understanding what she wanted me to do. I looked over my shoulder to make sure we were alone. I then lifted her out of the bed and jumped out the window. It was well past midnight, so there was no one around to witness my kidnapping. Once outside the town, I bite the girl on the neck, lingering for a few seconds to allow a fair amount of my venom to enter her bloodstream. The girl did not scream or struggle.

I headed towards a large city I had passed through on the way here, where I would rent a hotel suite to pass by the sunny day to come.

I prayed I was not too late and the girl would make it through the night.

To Be Continued...


Woo Hoo, Marcus makes himself know...he'll be in the story more from now on. Hope you are enjoying...