(A/N) OK, forgive the weird old english talk i have seem to adopt in some of my sentences. I am currently reading Jane Austen's Emma, and its all being absorbed into my brain like a sponge. But then again Laurent's from that time, so he can be given some room to talk like that...

A week later I was sitting in an ivy covered gazebo just off from the main house. If you could call it that, a castle was more like it. The grey walls loomed up into the dark sky, their towers tickling the underbelly's of the rain laden cluds. Tania owned teh very large state of Denlia. And rolling grassy hills and a forest protected the clan from outsiders. The main building hadn't looked welcoming at first, to a new comer like me, it almost frightened me.

Laurent had brought me up to the doors late the next day. We had stopped along the way for me to hunt, but the moment we arrived on Tania's land I had no desire to hunt, for it felt like stealing. He laughed at how I had tried to scan the darkness for movement of anything other than wildlife.

"Ophelia," he sighed as he took my hand to make me run faster. "I doubt any of them are this far out from the main house."

When we did arrive at the main house, I almost turned around and sprinted back. In a flash I felt a sudden need for Edward, to have his safe arms around me. I wanted to bury my face in his chest and cry out all my anxiety. I wasn't shocked by my immediate need for Edward, But I was weirded out that he suddenly seemed so real to me, even though we were far apart. Maybe that's because we had talked of Tania's clan so much that it almost felt like a place that we had both been to many times, even though we never had.

We walked up the main stone steps to the door, and Laurent took hold of a huge roaring lion that he hit against the thick door twice. We stood motionless for a few moments, waiting for an answer. I was staring out at the huge expanse of the clean cut lawn.

Cathy had dispatched earlier on, wanting to travel freely through the woods on our new land, so as to get the feeling for it. I let her go reluctantly, because I feared not to have her close at such a special time. She promised she would return once we were settled. I felt her absence, but knew that it would do us good to test our limits of how far we could roam apart.

Tania opened the door, a look of intense interest across her face. I was automatically struck by her beauty. Her long strawberry blond hair fell over her doll shaped face beautifully. She had doe eyes that shone in the light and made the gold in her eyes look like fire. He lips were a light pink as she smiled eagerly in greeting me.

"Why, Laurent," She said loudly. I immediatly recognised a southrn american accent, possibly texan, that made her sweet voice evn more sweeter. "You brought a newborn!"

"She seemed quite keen to meet you, Tania," he replied, and she let out a giggling laugh as if I had flattered her.

"Really," she said with a small flick of her hand through her beautifully lush hair. "I'm nothing special." Then she turned around and beckoned me inside.

I walked through the house, brightly lit by lanterns that hung on the tall walls. There were people around, some of them watching as I walked by, others subtly looking the other way, politely hiding their interest. We arrived at a study at the end of the third floor corridor, Tania entered first, and she shooed out two vampires, a man and a woman, who looked ruffled and slightly flushed. I looked down in embarrassed apology, which Laurent gave me a gentle teasing about later.

Tania sat down on a large high backed leather chair, and beckoned me to the other one. Laurent circled the room, running his hand over the spines of the books that donned the shelves around us. I shifted my gaze awkwardly, fiddling with my hands and tapping my feet, as Tania stared at me as one would stare at an abstract painting.

"You are beautiful," she appraised and I gave a large scoff, which I could see had made Laurent smile. "What's your name?"

"Ophelia," I replied.

"Oh," Tania cried happily. "Hamlet's lover! Scorned by him and sent into madness that led to her watery death!"

"That's the one," I said, giving a shy shrug.

"You like Hamlet?" She asked. "All those kind of books?"

"Love them." I replied earnestly. "Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre."

Tania beamed approvingly. "A lit addict! Just like me!" She directed my attention to the books around us. "All the classics! And there is even another room just like this! Its open for anyone, but rarely anyone reads them..."

"Oh, I couldn't," I declined, shaking my head, foolishly resisting temptation.

"You have to!" Tania insisted, her southern accent strong in her passion. "If you are to live with us, its only reasonable you read these!"

I froze in disbelief, wondering if she perhaps was playing a cruel joke. But her wide golden eyes, that weren't as big as mine but still beautifully large, shone with truth.

"Seriously!" I cried, happily. "Thank you so much!"

I sprang up and we hugged tightly, I could feel Tania laughing and I let go of her quickly, forgetting my newborn strength. I beamed over at Laurent and ran up to him, punching him in the arm jestingly.

"I'm in!" I cheered, and we high-fived.

Laurent had showed me to my room, a few doors down from his own. It had a magnificent view of the river that lay just off from the house, and I loved the way it reflected the moon like a second sky. I was easily settled in and Cathy came in to my room through the window, for it was an easy leap form the shed door at the base of my wall, and then up onto my small balcony, and then into my room through the door I had left open.

Now I sat watching the rain gather on the gazebo's slanted roof's gutter, and then gush freely onto the grass below. I felt Cathy beside me, resting her senses into and odd sleep like state. I had taken up a book of all Shakespeare's Sonnets, and currently read Sonnet 116. I sighed and looked up, gazing out at the settled river.

"What's on your mind?" a sudden voice asked, and I sighed.

"Too much," I replied, looking over to Laurent as he leaned against the banister that paired the stairs that led up to the gazebo.

He came up and lifted the book I read form off my lap and read the title, he gave a gentle laugh.

"Shakespeare sonnets?" he asked. "You know all he speaks of is love."

"What of it?" I asked defensively, looking down at the pages in front of me.

"Nothing," he replied cryptically.

I sighed deeply. "I hope when I am old, I won't turn out as cryptically frustrating."

"We will see," he said even more cryptically. "Are we going to talk about the fact you're not at your lesson?"

"That's why you've come?" I asked him, looking up sharply. "Old Margret has sent you?"

He rolls his eyes and I set my jaw, turning to look away from him. "Do not be unkind, Ophelia. It doesn't become you."

"Its no business of yours." I snap.

Silence fell upon us, and with it came more thought. I owed Laurent a lot, after all he had brought me here, he had introduced me to Tania who in turn took me under her wing and allowed me stay here. But I was an ungrateful creature, for I would gladly trade it all for another vampire clan. My mind wise;y picked Laurent and Tania as a first choice, but in my heart I would always stubburnly know they were second best, and so that kept them an arm's length away. I looked over at Laurent, wondering if he sensed my anguish at the fact that I was nothing but a despicable tease, but he merely looked slightly offended by my sharp words.

"I'm sorry, Laurent," I said for many things he did not know and I would not say, and nor would I change.

"What truly vexes you?" He asked me, sitting next to me on the bench.

And then, drawing upon my many years of practicing the art, I answered in only a half truth. "Its them! They speak behind my back – I know it!"

"I won't deny it," Laurent said gravely.

"I wouldn't believe you if you did." I said back. "They all mutter about it, The Vampire with No Human Craving seems to be my new name. Forget Ophelia! They doubt me! They think I lie about something like this! The curde unbelievers."

"When you live forever, it is hard to believe in the unsuspcted, for everything eventually becomes mundane." Laurent replied in a sage voice so like Cathy's I fought a smile.

"Margret has even considered luring a human into the camp, to see if its true." I snarl in disgust. "I hate her."

"You don't," Laurent said soothingly. He placed his hand upon my own in an effort to comfort me, but I could take nothing from it but self hate at the way I played to his friendship. "Its just that it will take some time for the others to see what Tania sees! What I see!"

At this I stand up, unable to hear his kind words. I cross to the stairs where I can see the manor from. I close my eyes and plead silently for peace to find me, but still it alludes my grasping fingers. I want to cry, but I knew that I couldn't in front of Laurent, for he would then know it isn't just the rumors the convent spreads that plagued me.

"Do you even plan to go to any lessons?" He asks me, and I turn to see him looking at me from the bench I had abandonned him on. His face is guarded, as immobile as the bench he sat on, and I wondered why his manner had changed so. He looked as if he restrained himself from asking a question that was desperate to be asked.

"No. She cannot teach me patience," I mutter, still trying to figure him out. "Nor can she teach me control. As long as I am here in Denali I am at peace, and don't need the lectures."

"Seems reasonable," Laurent said as he stood up and made his way past me and down the steps. I furl my brow and watch as he takes slow steps away from me. I want to run after him, to beg him to confide in me what troubles him, but my concience stops me. How dare I ask him to confide in me when I am just one big deceit.

Just as I turn to go back to my brooding silence, Laurent suddenly spinned around with bright eyes. I observed him catiously, waiting for the next shift in mood.

"I know of a place, just a few miles into the forest, where you could escape the spreading word of your abilities." said Laurent, looking hopeful that I might say yes. "Its not perminant solitude, but an hour or two we could steal."

"You know what," I said, descending the stairs and taking his hand in mine. "I think that's may be an ideal plan."

He seems slightly taken aback by the possibility I doubt him, and so takes to the challenge like a fish to water. He speeds off in a direction, being slightly inept when it comes to travelling I couldn't tell you which direction, with an undeniable eagerness that seeps into my own bones like it always does. I am suddenly trying to beat him to the unknown destination, feet practically flying off the forest floor. I am free – just like I had been that first day I met him. The trees whiz by us at sickening speeds, but I do not reguard them like that, but merely navigate past them as if they weren't there. I laugh out with the volume of a newborn, but I know no one will come to see what excites me so, none of them care if I'm happy or not.

Finally, Laurent grabs me round the waste and throws me over his shoulder. I cry out and laugh as he finally leads me to a clearing. I am suddenly silenced by the sound of rushing water. I close my eyes and suddenly I feel as if I am jumping again. Jumping to my death.

I push myself of Laurent and ignore his look of hurt as I gaze around. With a sigh of relief I realize that I am not in fact in La Push. But still, I do not dare venture towards the edge, but turn to smile at Laurent, hoping to make up for shoving him hard.

"This is great." I said kindly, offering my hands to him. "Exactly what I needed."

This cheered Laurent greatly and he took my hands in his. Then, maybe sensing my slight hesitation to go towards the edge, he pulled us down onto a mossy flat rock, big enough for the both of us to sit and face each other.

"Why is it, do you think," Laurent began catiously after moments of silent staring. "That you don't have any craving?"

"I'm blessed, I s'pose," I said feebly, then I notice for the first time his eyes have gone quite dark, instaed of their usual red. "You haven't hunted lately!"

"How can you stand me?" Laurent asked suddenly. "You do not hunt the humans, nor do you believe in it, and yet you knew I did and excepted it easily. Why?"

I tried desperatly to cling to an answer, something that didn't reveal my past yet explained clrealy I did not hate Laurent's habbits. "I have no craving for human so who am I to judge your need to satisy a hunger I will never know?"

"You are wise beyond your years, Ophelia," he said softly. "But I am glad you don't shun me as most here at Denali do."

I wanted to credit this to the fact that it was from the Cullen's I had first been taught vampire edicit. That Carlisle had explained his peaceful practices in such a way I still see no reason for any other way of dealing with a fellow vampire. I had witnessed the Cullen's acts of kindness, such as pitying me, and I was even there when Carlisle had been so kind to Laurent – when James had tried to kill me.

Then I realised with a shock that Laurent had begun to speak of the same incident, though I hid my horror before he could recognise it.

"I have only ever seen kindess greater then yours when I chanced upon the Cullen's a year or so back." he mused, looking past my shoulder. "They offered me a place for solitude, there was a big deal going on at the time, some girl had seemed to take hold of a vampire named Edward, and they were planning to begin to fight for her life against an old ... partner of mine."

Never before had I considered that the incident in which I first met Laurent would ever come about. My luck in the fact he still didn't recognise me as Bella made me arrogant, and now I was quickly rushing to hide all my secrets from him.

He shook his head slowly. "The Cullen's made me feel unworthy, I looked upon them and measured their grace and kindness against my own and found myself soarly lacking in comparisson. And then there was their habbits, how firm and set they were in their diet. And Edward, resisting his human's devine blood just for love..."

Ah, so Laurent and I were not so different after all. We both had felt infinently less then worthy when around the Cullens. But even though this revelation comforted me, I knew I could hear of the Cullen's no more, in fear of spilling my secrets or being discovered. And mostly in fear of hearing Edward's name one more time.

"Why haven't you fed yet, Laurent?" I asked. "I do not like to think of you as malnurished."

"I wanted to make sure you were settled first, Ophelia." he replied. "You're kind of my responisibilty, I feel, being so young."

"I can handle myself," I grumbled, though I knew had he left me any sooner I would have snapped and disturbed the peace of Denali by punching out Margret.

He snorts his disbelief as if thinking the same thing, but before I can retort he speaks again. "Well, this will be tested, for I am about to leave for Vancouver Island around dusk tonight."

"You never said!" I belted out, suddenly frightened. What happens if he does leave? Will the voltures that have been circling finally descend upon me with Margret's consent.

"Don't fret, Ophelia." he chides, brushing a lock of my long brown hair behind my ear. "I am actually taking Margret with me, for she wants to see an old friend who lives up in those moutains. You will be free of us both for about a week."

"And then you will return?" I ask, trying to rationalize with the disturbing feeling of unrest in me. What if he does not return? What if he leaves me like the last vampire did? What if I never see Laurent again? Never hear his sage wisdom?

"Yes, yes," Laurent says eaily, though I feel its starined. "You will barely notice me gone since you have Cathy to occupy yourself with, and Tania, who will be more then happy to pay you attention now that the envious eyes of Margret aren't following you."

I had to be consoled by this, and I felt a smile play at my lips. Why not buy into Laurent's words? There was nothing to fear so long as I was guaranteed his return. I craved him as a child would crave her favorite teddy. He kept away the frightening night, and yet such as a childhood teddy, he had a mark upon his head, that his glamour would soon fade as soon as the child casts him away into forgotten memories of a time once enjoyed.

"Where will you hunt while you're in Vancouver?" I ask as we resolve to walking back at a human pace. It seems as if we are both trying to delay the time of departure.

"There is a club there, where homeless and dying are brought in. It is humane enough, and I do love the gossip that is easily picked up there, if you are sitting next to the right people." He tapped the side of his nose and I smiled at his playfulness, surprised that I felt no revultion about the fact that humans are brought in to die. "I sometimes even see a few vegetarians like you in there who come mainly for the gossip."

"You are as bad as high school girls," I scron lightly, the image of Lauren and Jessica flashing in my mind's eye. "I would know..."

He laughed put loud. "You do know, Ophelia, or at least more then I do on that subject, I'm happy to say."

And the moment we enter back into the house through the back glass door that has the perfect view of the lake, I see Margret whispering with Alissa, a snooty nosed vampire, both of which I know hate my ability. They stop dead when they see me enter, and with a pointed stare at me, they leave the room.

"Be careful, Laurent," I say – loud so I know they can hear me. "You travel with vultures, those who pick at a carcas till there is nothing but nothing but bones left."

"Hush, now," Laurent chides. "I don't want to leave you in ill humor." and with that he places a kiss upon my forehead. It lasts a little too long for comfort, and I notice that Margret is waiting in the doorway, watching Laurent and I with greedy eyes. "Until I return."

"Bye," I manage to say after him. "And be wary!"

He casts me a dark look, but I can see his eyes are smiling. Margret looks angry and offended, which was my intention, and so I send them both off with a pleased smile.