A/N: Hey, sorry it took me so long to update. Again: read and review!! Thanks. Sorry for the typos, or the first sentence repeated at the beginning.

I felt a hand slap the back of my head. I turned around slowly, unwilling to wake up, to see Rachel, posed like a she-wolf preparing to strike at her prey.

"Hey! What was that for, may I ask?"

"Wake up!"

"It's five in the flippin' morning!"

Rachel rolled her eyes. (Actually,) corrected Tobias's voice in my head, (it's 4:43. We got here early for the benefit of Jake and Cassie, remember?)

"Not helping," I mumbled grumpily, looking towards where he perched easily on a branch. "It's still way too early. My internal clock is way off. It's crying. I neeeed to go to sleep!"

I paused so that my companions could grasp the deep, movingness of my deep, moving speech. When neither of the two began to cry at the beauty of my words or offer me a pillow, I looked from one to the other.

"Are you used to getting up at this hour?" I demanded of them both. (Early bird gets the worm,) Tobias reminded me. Rachel just shrugged. "Since when do you eat worms?" I retorted lamely.

"It was your idea in the first place," Rachel smirked at me evilly. "Meeting at five in the morning

was not my idea!"

(Shhhh,) Tobias hushed me hastily. (Jake's here.)

We stood utterly still for too long. I began to have movement withdrawals. I was extremely grateful when Jake appeared. Suddenly, we were launched into activities. "Jake, buddy!" I strode over to him in three long steps and gave him the guy hug.

You know, the guy hug. The half-hug that us guys give. Rachel laughed into her hand at my masculine gesture.

Jake nodded to acknowledge the three of us, and then looked around as if something were missing. Then, the words I should have foreseen: "Where is Cassie?"

Cassie was about ten minutes late to Jake's fifteen minutes early. All of us were thinking the same thing: she actually has a real life to live that keeps her from coming here. It was something the rest of us all lacked. Maybe I had a sort-of life. But fame and fortune aren't everything. You never thought you'd hear me say those words, did you? Well, they're true. And Rachel? What can you expect? Two dead sisters, a pair of depressed parents, and a lover that happens not to be human. Tobias is a hawk. He loves Rachel, he really does. But again: how can you live a life as a bird with the heart of a human? Jake was empty, just plain empty. All of us were, in our own ways. But Cassie was happy, and she thought she was whole. Of course, the rest of us knew that Jake was the last piece of the puzzle; but she didn't, and ignorance is bliss. Cassie, for all her ability to read people, all her understanding, was unable to know the true value of a life like we did.

It made me angry that she was so happy. That she was so careless and fancy-free. It made me mad. But it got me focused. We had a mission to complete.

I kept my eyes on Jake as Cassie bid Ronnie a near-tearful goodbye. From our position a ways off, we could see their passionate embraces and their hastily exchanged kisses. He clung to her like a needy puppy until the very last second when she pulled away. He stood, watching her retreating back, as she approached us. Then he called out to her. She turned slowly, still smiling at him. We couldn't hear the exchanging of words, but she went back to him and bowed her head so that he could put something around her neck—a chain, I saw, bearing his family crest. Jake shot me a woeful look; his stare was full of venom. I was glad that the poison wasn't aimed at me.

I had never seen the pendant up-close, but as she walked toward the four of us in a cluster I could see why Jake hated it so much. Well, of course he hated it because it was Ronnie's way of marking his territory. (Although if Cassie had had an insight into the male psyche and realized that that was why he wanted her to wear it, there was no doubt in my mind she would have dumped him on the spot. I could hear her now—"I am nobody's territory!" The thought made me smile.)

But there was another reason to hate it. It was vilely ugly. Hideous, even.

I made a gagging face.

Rachel laughed silently. Finally, she laughs at my jokes.

"Hello, Jake," said Cassie softly.