Sam POV

It had been a few days since Fiona had begged us to kill her. The next time I phased, she seemed to have completely forgiven me, but something was still wrong about her mind. It was like she was grabbing hold of us like we were a bunch of furry life preservers and she couldn't swim. I asked her and her response was the same each time: She felt disoriented by the woods. Every time I phased she was a little bit worse. One day, she told us that she was going to stop "talking" to us because she knew she was causing us pain indirectly. Of course we all told her that this was ridiculous—in our not-so-private thoughts, we knew she'd go nuts if not for our company—but she insisted that we didn't deserve it. We reached a compromise. She wasn't going to immediately dive into the pack mentality whenever we phased, but if one of us called her, she'd come, a promise she kept with a mixture of relief and guilt. Until today. Just minutes after phasing, I heard an agonizing scream in my mind, one that made the forest around me shudder.

Fiona? Fiona? Fiona! Where are you? I howled, knowing that she could hear me without audible wolf-calls. Fiona? Nothing. Where was she? Between Jacob and I, we had made a point of making sure she talked to someone everyday. She had always answered when we called. A thought hit me. The Cullens were back. Jacob had told me this yesterday. I remembered what she had said the day she asked us to kill her. Laurent had left her body in the Cullen house. What if the Cullens had found her there? What if they had decided that the newborn vampire, although seemingly dead, was a threat? Panic gripped me as I howled for my pack. I couldn't cross the line and storm into the Cullen household, demanding to know where my friend was. But I knew who could.

Laurent POV

Hours passed. Night fell. Still, Fiona did not return. Around seven, Carlisle came back, but Alice, Jasper and Fiona did not. He looked at me sympathetically, but I could see a little apprehension there. I had sat for hours with Emmett, until he and Esme insisted that I hunt. They, along with Emmett's stunning mate, showed me their own way of hunting. I will freely admit it was hardly appetizing, but not nearly as repugnant as the thought of feeding off humans—especially humans Fiona knew—now was. We returned to the Cullen residence, but still no Fiona.
Edward came back a little while later, glaring at me before retreating upstairs. Now Carlisle was back without his two "children" and without Fiona.

"Did you find her?" Carlisle nodded, running his hand through his hair and looking uncomfortable.

"She is…very distressed. She came close to hunting a hiker in the woods, but managed to stop herself." I was shocked, true, after all newborns have practically no self-control, but I had never met one that was actually trying to restrain themselves. The Cullens were far more impressed.

"Stop herself? How?" Emmett demanded. Esme and Rosalie exchanged curious, incredulous glances.

"It would seem that she was a follower of one of the Avalonian religions, like Wicca. She had highly developed powers of sensing the souls of things while human, which seems to have strengthened since becoming a vampire." I nodded.

"That is how she sensed me…when we, er, met." They all looked sharply in my direction, only Esme realizing exactly what that meeting entailed and nodding sympathetically, pity in her eyes. I was grateful for the absence of the mind reader and the empath.

"I can still hear you up here." Called the mind reader in question. I ground my teeth. Emmett laughed. Carlisle continued.

"Exactly. It seems she connects almost automatically with humans now, so when her instincts told her to hunt, the fact that she almost shared a soul with the hiker helped her to remember herself. However, the fact that she had the instinct at all quite unsettled her."

"Where is she? Can I see her?"

"She is with Alice and Jasper. They are helping her adapt. She needed to hunt and we finally convinced her to try to hunt deer, which she managed to do without the same side effects as with the hiker, but she was…unusually upset. She seems like a very gentle creature." I'm so sorry Fiona.

"Why aren't they back here?" Carlisle looked like he was unsure of what to answer.

"She was still very upset when I left, but we knew she needed to hunt more. Until she has fed enough to be healthy and in control—who knows if her powers will help her next time?—we didn't want her too close to humans. But I think getting her to accept herself will take some doing. " He glanced upward, and as if in response, which it may well have been, Edward appeared at the foot of the stairs.

"I'm not sure what I can do for her Carlisle. She's got Jasper there." He nodded in response to Carlisle's thought—how strange!—then left.

"Wait!" Too late. I turned to Carlisle. "Can I see her?" Carlisle looked unsure again.

"I don't think that would be wise just yet."

"What? Why not? I've waited all these years-weeks. I mean weeks—for her to wake up? Why does the mind-reader get to see her while I cannot?" Carlisle studied me, waiting for my outburst to end.

"Fiona didn't wish to wake up. And she feels very conflicted about you. You needs time to clear her head. Time without having to consider your feelings."

"My feelings?" I had kissed her after all. And changed her. And waited weeks for her to wake up. She wasn't stupid. I thought. No, I barely knew her, but she was certainly not dumb. Oh. So maybe conflicted was normal. "Look, I know now that she is unhappy about being a vampire, but she was dying and she seemed so sad, and I just, I couldn't watch her die. So I changed her. I'm sure she will adjust to life as a vampire."

"I don't think it was just life as a vampire she was trying to avoid."

"She wasn't trying to kill herself! Not as you think." Carlisle raised an eyebrow. I wondered what she had told him. "She was trying to save her friend. Sari. She did some ritual that made her essentially take Sari's place."

"Yet Jasper detected very strong feelings of inadequacy, self-loathing and despair."

"Well, that's my fault! Just because Fiona is adjusting to a vampiric life doesn't mean she's suicidal! She just woke up for God's sake! Give her some time."

"I believe that is what I was originally asking of you." For a moment, we stared at each other, then I sighed, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"I am sorry Carlisle, you've done nothing but try to help and I am being most ungrateful." The unruffled leader smiled serenely. His mate came to his side, resting her hand gently on his shoulder. How nice it must be to have such devotion, and from the others, his "family." The only family I ever had died two hundred years ago, my only company, just as eager to kill me as aid me. I thought about Victoria for the first time in a while. She was threatening a member of this family which, for reasons inexplicable to my former self, bothered me.

"Bella is in danger." The whole family started for a minute, then relaxed.

"Victoria?" asked Emmett. I nodded. He growled. "And you, you came here to kill her, didn't you?" I looked away.

"I won't deny it. Victoria sent me to find the girl, and discover if you still protected her. I knew she planned on torturing her to death. I hoped to spare her the pain and kill her myself." A punch sent me sprawling. When I looked up, it was not the hulking Emmett who was withdrawing his fist, but his splendid mate. She moved to strike again, but Carlisle held her back.

"Have you any idea what we've been doing the past few days? Edward thought she was dead! He tried to kill himself. Bella saved his life! Despite the fact that he told her he didn't love her despite us—well, me—treating her like dirt! How on earth could you even think of hurting her? You bastard!" I decided that the wisest course of action was to not inquire into these actions.

"I realize now that my course of action was abominable. I truly did not see any possibility of her surviving, and I did not wish her any extra pain. I did not realize the depth of your Edward's devotion."

"You could have protected her."

"You've never spent any prolonged time with Victoria. I did not see my former companion's life as fair trade for Bella's at the time, despite her flaws. I also did not see my own life worth the risk. Victoria is deadly, but she has friends as well."

" Coward." Muttered Emmett.

"I suppose I am."

Bella POV

When Edward left, he gave his word he would be back, despite Charlie's not so subtle threat. But he wouldn't use the doorbell. Charlie had banned him from the house, so I had been expecting him to come through the window.

"Bella!" Charlie. "Bella, you have a visitor!" I was grounded. I can only think of two people who Charlie would allow to bend that rule. Alice or Jacob.

I hadn't expected Jacob.

We went out on the porch.

"Jake, I'm so sorry I-" he held up a hand.

"Save it Bella, this isn't about you," he said coldly. I tried to understand that he was hurt, to not look angry. It must have shown on my face, because his softened.

"Do you remember the girl I told you about? Fiona?"

"Yeah. Is she okay?"

"That's what I need you to find out. She disappeared. But Sam, Sam said he heard her screaming. We know the Cullens are back, and we also know that the leech left her body in their house. Do you know if they—if they killed her?"

I gasped. "They wouldn't do that Jake! How could you even think that? I don't know what happened to Fiona, but when Edward took me home, Laurent was still there, watching over her. That's why I'm here. Laurent hasn't fed…"

"Fucking leech! He's still here? Fiona told us he left!"

"She was probably trying to protect him."

"He killed her, she hates him!"

"Maybe not enough to want him dead."

"Just because you lack the common sense to stay away from things that hurt you doesn't mean we all do!" Poor Jacob. It always came back to this. "Look I didn't come here to fight. I came to see if you could find out what happened to Fiona. Because if the leeches hurt her, or that red-eyed leech bites someone, we will consider that a breach of the treaty."

"I can't go to the Cullens."

"Why the hell not? You're always eager to go see your boyfriend," he spat. This was getting really old.

"Remember how I said Laurent was there? And he hasn't hunted?"

"Oh."

"Yeah, so unless you really hate me that much…"

"I don't hate you Bella."

"You've got a great way of showing it." That was unfair and I knew it, but he was being unfair.

"Whatever, Bella. I've been here for you this whole time, and I thought you and I were really getting close, but you just go running back to him at the first chance. Doesn't how much he hurt you mean anything? Don't I?"

"Jake, it's not that simple…"

"Well, maybe it should be." We stared at each other for a minute, trying to think of words that could magically fix this. "Just let me know when you find out about Fiona. As soon as possible."

"Look, Jake, I know you're worried but they wouldn't hurt her."

"I don't believe that."

"Doesn't my word mean anything to you?"

"Not anymore."

The door opened, and Charlie came out looking sheepish.

"Sorry Jake, but Bella here—" he gave me a dirty look, "is grounded. I just wanted to let you tell her about Sam, but you'll have to go now. I let her go out to La Push when she's about 80."

"No need, sir. Have a nice life Bella." And he was gone.

"You sure this—boy—is worth burning all your bridges, Bells?"