I couldn't decide whether to look at the woman or the pendants. Both held my attention and toyed with my untamed fascination. I picked up one of the necklaces, cautious and uncertain, and began turning it over in my fingers.

'How much?' I asked hesitantly. It wasn't what I'd meant to say, but this question was, at the very least, a lot simpler.

The woman didn't reply – she didn't appear to have heard me at all. She stared at me from beneath heavy eyelids, her clouded gaze looking for all the world as if it was directed at a photograph or a statue that couldn't stare back. Now that I was closer to her, I could make out the woman's features more clearly – she had short, frizzy hair, cropped close to her scalp; sunspots darkened her wide nose and cheeks, and her thick lips were puckered into a confused pout. Standing up, she was barely as tall as my shoulders.

I tried again. This time, my question was more to the point. I pointed to the face carved into the wooden pendant and asked, 'Can you tell me about this picture?'

I was suddenly afraid of what the woman might say in reply. Perhaps she would tell me that the face was simply a stray image she'd dreamed up in an attempt to earn her living at the markets; she certainly wouldn't have been the first artist to imagine such a depiction. I tried to be positive – to believe that she held the key to my desperate search – but life had long taught me the naivety of such optimism.

Nothing changed in the woman's expression. Once again, she kept quiet. Her eyes never once left mine. I reached out to touch her hand gently, trying to reassure her. I'm on your side, I wanted to say. I didn't understand the fear and bewilderment in her eyes.

The woman started, but when her eyes looked past me, I realized that it wasn't in response to my touch. I instinctively knew what it was that had captured her attention, and I spun around to greet him with an angry snarl. If she had been too afraid to talk before, then there was no way on earth that she'd speak now. Not with Demetri hanging around. Especially if she had something to do with the other shape-shifters.

Demetri ignored me and fixed his gaze on the woman. 'Hello Tendai,' he said softly. His voice was as gentle as I'd ever heard it.

I gasped audibly when he removed his hood. The dark hair that fell around Demetri's face shielded his glittering skin from the vision of other bystanders; but he made no attempt to screen it from the woman's sight.

'Are you mad?' I hissed. Of all the stupid things to do…

The woman's voice – Tendai's voice – stopped me from continuing. 'Hello,' she whispered. She didn't look at all surprised by the light that reflected off of Demetri's skin. The crack in her voice, however, betrayed the fear that she still felt. I couldn't make sense of the fact that she was speaking to Demetri at all.

'You have met someone like me before, I think?' Demetri guessed.

Tendai nodded. 'The angel of death,' she murmured. There was a subtle hue of reverence in her voice as she pronounced the title slowly.

'What?' I spluttered. That was why she was talking to Demetri? Because she thought he was a freaking angel?

Demetri held a finger to his lips to silence me. The movement was quick enough that human eyes would not have noticed it. Turning back to Tendai, he pressed, 'Will you tell me about him?'

Tendai chewed her lower lip for a second before nodding once more. Her eyes darted to me and then back to Demetri as she sat down on the pavement and gestured for us to do the same. Once Demetri and I joined her on the ground, she started to speak. 'When I was a young child,' Tendai said, 'people in my village began to die. It happened slowly – only one or two people every few months. They always died in their sleep. Children would wake up to find their parents dead in their beds, always with the angel's mark on their throats. We heard rumors of the same thing happening in surrounding villages. People began to blame the deaths on a terrible disease – the families of the dead were kept in isolation to prevent it from spreading.' Tendai's eyes glazed over as she immersed herself in the memory. I hardly noticed the gentle tremors that began to run through my body as I listened to her tale.

She took a deep breath and then continued. 'One night, I fell ill with a fever. I left my home to go and bathe in a nearby stream, and when I returned, my father was dead. I stared at him for a few seconds – he was extremely pale, but he looked peaceful lying there on the bed. It was then that the angel spoke. He'd been standing against the wall next to the door – quiet as anything – and so I hadn't noticed him before.' Tendai turned to Demetri. 'He had skin like yours and dark hair, but he was short, like me,' she told us.

''Hello,' the angel said. His voice was mesmerizing; I knew immediately what he was – no human had a voice like that. He asked me if the man on the bed was my father, and when I said yes, he apologized. He said that he would soon make me forget. I told him thank you. I was glad that he'd killed my father and I asked him to please kill me too.

'My reply confused the angel. He said that it was unusual for his victims to embrace death such as I had done. He wanted to know why, and so I told him. I told him how my father had killed my mother, and how since her death I had nothing left in the world that made me want to keep living.'

I frowned. Tendai's story, together with the evidence in front of me, did not add up with what I already knew about the blood-suckers. 'You're not dead,' I said bluntly.

Tendai reached out and brushed her fingertip against the necklace that I was still holding onto tightly. 'The angel thanked me for telling him my story,' she said. 'And then he told me that his decision to leave me alone was proof enough that I had something to keep living for.'

I shook my head in protest. It didn't make sense. Leeches didn't let their victims live just because they'd told them a story. Demetri placed a restraining hand on my shoulder as he read my reaction. I wasn't sure exactly what he thought he was restraining me from doing, but I huffed irritably, flinching away from his touch.

Demetri quickly drew back his hand and said quietly to Tendai, 'You told him a story about how your father killed your mother.'

His statement had been a prompt for Tendai to continue and she hesitantly obliged. Casting her eyes down towards the ground, Tendai told us another story. 'One afternoon, about a year before the angel visited our village,' she began, 'my father went out hunting. He used to go out every week, but he would often come home empty-handed. As a result, my family would go to sleep hungry. That afternoon, however, he brought back a large antelope – the largest he'd ever killed. Only, I overheard him telling my mother that it wasn't him who had killed it.

'He told her that it had been killed by a lioness and that when she saw him, she dropped her prey and ran away… Every week from then onwards, he would bring home enough food to last our family until his next hunting trip. It was the lion –she would bring him her kill, and he would bring it home for our dinner.'

Tendai squeezed her eyes shut and placed her head in her hands. Her voice was muffled and I had to strain to catch her next words. 'He called her his pet. A few weeks passed, and although he kept bringing us meat each week, he stopped speaking about the lion. If my mother mentioned her, he would change the subject. I was curious and so, one day, I followed him. I watched him from behind a tree. His lion came to meet him, as he'd always described, but instead of dropping her prey and leaving, the lion took on the form of a woman… I watched my father kiss her. When I told my mother about what I'd seen, she stopped speaking. Eventually she stopped eating. She became very thin and then one day, she fell ill. Within a week, she was dead... My father's affair had killed her.'

'You told all of this to Salih?' Demetri asked Tendai when she'd finished speaking.

Tendai lifted her face to look at Demetri. Her cheeks were tear-streaked. 'Salih?'

'The angel,' I said before Demetri had a chance to answer. There was a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt as if I knew Tendai's story better than I should.

For the first time, Tendai's voice hardened. 'I told him,' she said. 'And when he asked me questions about the lion-woman and her whereabouts, I answered them. I wanted him to find her after he'd finished killing me. Like my father, she deserved to die.' A bitter smile spread across Tendai's lips. 'And now, like my father, she is dead. Thanks to my angel of death.'

I couldn't listen to any more. I leapt to my feet and took off towards a familiar street. I don't know what made me go there. Perhaps it was because it was the only place in this small town that I knew I could sit down and be alone. I didn't want to go back to the motel and this street was, at least, free of any markets. I sat down where the teenage pair had sat back to back last night. I could still smell the faint remnants of their scents.

I was breathing too quickly and my stomach clenched uncomfortably in response. I wished that I'd never spoken to Tendai. I wanted to feel numb and forget everything she'd told us. I had always believed explicitly – always known without a doubt – that we were right and they were wrong. Wolves were good and vampires were bad. The knowledge was as familiar to me as my own name. But now, I had met someone whose views – completely opposite to mine – were rooted as deeply into her mind as my own. In Tendai's eyes, shape-shifters were murderers. And vampires were angels.

It wasn't that her story had challenged my opinion – I still hated the blood-suckers as much as I ever did. But the honesty in her tale had forced me to see things from a different perspective. And that had led to something I'd never believed possible – though still set in my views, I could understand how she could hate us and love the leeches.

I picked up a rock and threw it across the road with as much force as I could muster. I hated feeling like this – I should have been strong enough to pull myself out of her tale and listen to it through detached and unbiased ears. Deep down, I knew that I wouldn't have understood Tendai's attitude if her story hadn't been so familiar. I knew what it was like to lose a parent, and I knew what it was like to lose the man you loved to another woman.

Tendai's mother. Harry. Tendai's father and the lion. Sam and Emily.

In her story, I was both Tendai and her mother. I understood their individual pains more than anyone could ever hope to understand another person's hurt. I had thought that leaving with Demetri would allow me to escape the pain I'd left behind in La Push, but it had been nothing more than false hope. Tendai was wrong, but in her position, I would have felt and acted the same way: I too would have sent the blood-sucker after the woman who'd stolen my life.

Not for the first time, I wished that the world was as it seemed; I wished that people were normal and that the supernatural only existed in the movies. If the world was as it should be, Tendai would be happy and her parents would be alive and well. I would be alive and well.

The tremors that had started during Tendai's speech were still making their way along my limbs. They became stronger, shaking my body violently and bringing with them surging waves of heat that rose slowly up my spine. I fought for control, but I was rapidly losing the battle. I was furious with myself for allowing Tendai's words to get to me. Angry tears burned my eyes, but I didn't allow them to spill down my cheeks. I despised myself for being so weak and pathetic.

I was so lost in my fight to remain human that I didn't notice Demetri until he grabbed my hands with both of his.

'Leah,' he said firmly, crouching down in front of me. 'Leah, listen to me. You've got to snap out of this. You're strong enough to beat this.'

I could see his blurred, perfect face through my tears; his eyes, though still red, were darker than they'd been when I first met him. Who was Demetri to tell me that I was strong enough? He didn't know me! I hated him and his whole blood-sucking race. If he'd stood a meter back, his words and his presence would have been the final stroke that tipped me over the edge – I would have phased. But I couldn't. Not now. Not when my hands were in his. Though I recoiled against the feeling of Demetri's icy hold, I clutched at his hands desperately. I could feel the cold from his skin seeping through my body, extinguishing the flames along my spine, saving me. My shaking slowed without any effort on my part. I didn't need self control when he was touching me. He was the antidote to my phase.

I didn't let go of Demetri's hands until I was sure that I could control myself again without him. I used the time to remind myself why I was here and why I couldn't afford to phase now and risk Jacob seeing where I was and ordering me home. Eventually my tears dried and my breathing slowed. I let go of Demetri uncertainly. I started shaking again the moment his touch ceased, but the tremors were light and superficial.

Demetri didn't dwell on what had happened. He didn't even ask if I was okay. Though it was probably because he didn't care, I was silently grateful. I was furious and embarrassed enough as it was without having him rub it in. I wanted to stalk off, but following through on my desire would only make me a coward. Besides, Demetri would probably just follow me again.

Acting as if nothing had happened, he sat down next to me and pulled a folded map from his pocket. He spread it out over his lap and ran his finger over a spot on the North-Western borders of Zimbabwe. The area skirted a large expanse of bush land that stretched out into Botswana. 'This is where Tendai said that her dad used to go hunting,' he told me.

'How did you know her name when you walked up to us this morning?' I asked. Without knowing why, I was trying to avoid a discussion about the shape-shifter. I internally cursed my thick, shaky voice – I was trying my best to also appear indifferent to the past few minutes.

'Those two kids I was talking to pointed her out to me – they said that Tendai was the right person to talk to if I wanted to hear some scary stories.' He paused, and then said, 'She couldn't understand why I wanted her to show me the location on the map. As far as Tendai is concerned, her father's lover was the only shape-shifter, and, as you already know, Tendai is convinced that she's dead.'

'You believe otherwise?'

Demetri shrugged halfheartedly. 'When Salih returned to Egypt, Amun could get just two things out of him: firstly, he'd met a group of people who transformed into animals, and secondly, it was their female leader that ripped his arm off.'

Amun. The name was familiar. But for the moment, I had more pressing matters to concern myself with. 'Do you think he killed the woman Tendai told us about?' I asked.

'Personally? I think not. Salih is not the type of vampire to voluntarily enter into a fight. He kills only to satisfy his thirst. And, no offense to you, but your kind does not smell particularly enticing.'

I scowled at Demetri's cheeky grin. Like I wanted to smell appealing to a leech!

'Yeah, well at least you can hold your breath,' I muttered darkly. Then, with a slowly steadying voice, I asked, 'Why did he go after them in the first place then? What was so enticing about a lioness that he left Tendai alive in order to pursue her?'

Demetri's face went blank as he mulled something over in his mind. Eventually, he spoke. 'I think – and of course I'm only guessing – that the answer to your query lies in the question itself. As far as vampires go, Salih is relatively compassionate;' – I snorted loudly at the word – 'although it has never been enough to prevent him from hunting humans. I can only guess that Tendai's story hit a soft spot with him. She was, of course, only an innocent, broken-hearted child at the time. Perhaps he thought that he'd be more justified in killing this new species than he was in killing humans. If they tasted like humans, then why not hunt them instead? They were, after all, only animals… I think Salih believed that killing them would remove some of the guilt he felt when he hunted humans – a sentiment somewhat similar to the Cullens' philosophy.'

The insolence in his words riled my temper. I jumped to my feet and glared down at Demetri. He seemed surprised by my strong reaction. It surprised me a little, too. Why should I care what he thought of me?

My voice was seething with anger as I choked the words out. 'We're just animals, is that it? Good enough to keep as your filthy, little pets, but not good enough to feel guilt over?'

Demetri rolled his eyes, but remained seated on the ground. 'Oh, come on, Leah!' he said. 'You heard the way Tendai spoke. To her, the shape-shifter was an animal that transformed into a woman – not the other way around. I was simply making an assumption regarding Salih's interpretation of her tale.' He paused and then said quietly, 'It's not how I view you.'

I didn't reply - my retort died on my lips as he added the last few words.

'Besides,' Demetri continued, suddenly laughing, 'you think of me as a leech – that's a worm, for goodness sake!'

It was my turn to roll my eyes. I even smiled a little in response. 'Can you blame me?'

Demetri didn't answer; he simply smiled as if he was enjoying a personal joke. Then, suddenly, he was standing next to me. One moment he was sitting on the ground, the next he was on his feet – I barely made out the blurred movement in-between. The map he'd been holding was gone; I could only assume that it was back in his pocket.

'So, you ready to go chase some lions?' Demetri asked, glancing sideways at me.

I didn't answer the question. Instead, I asked one of my own. 'Did you know that they weren't wolves?' I questioned, frowning slightly. Now that I thought about it, I shouldn't really have been surprised. As Edward had been so kind to point out, we were shape-shifters, not werewolves. Of course, that much had been obvious to me from the start.

'Aro had his suspicions,' Demetri replied. 'It probably would have shocked him more if they were actually wolves.'

The mention of Aro was a stark reminder of the hidden force that guided Demetri's actions. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that he was here as a representative of the Volturi, and that he didn't necessarily want to find the shape-shifters as badly as I did. This was a simple business trip for him. It wasn't personal the way that it was for me.

'Of course Aro had his suspicions,' I muttered. 'So, are we going today? As far as I can tell, there's not too much more information that we can gain from this town.'

'As soon as you're ready,' Demetri said. 'We'd better take some supplies with us, though – food and water mostly. It's unlikely that the shape-shifters reside exactly where Tendai's father used to hunt. We have a large area to cover; it could take us a few days.'

'Right.'

We headed back towards the main street, where we quickly found what appeared to be the town's central supermarket. Though quite large, the shelves inside the shop were left wanting. Fortunately it was the perishables that appeared to be low in stock. Demetri walked straight over to the drinks section and picked up a large, plastic-wrapped carton of bottled water. He lifted it easily onto his shoulder and balanced it there with one hand.

'Is this enough water, do you reckon?' he asked, raising his eyebrows.

'Sure,' I shrugged. Though strong enough to carry more, I didn't think that we'd fit any more bottles in my bag.

I left Demetri with the water and went to collect a shopping basket. I proceeded to fill it with muesli bars, a couple of bags of crisps, and as much tinned fruit as I thought I'd be able pack. I wasn't sure exactly how long 'a few days' was, but this was going to have to do.

At the counter, I picked up a map; it was a lot larger and more detailed than the one Demetri had in his pocket. He grunted when I gave it to the salesperson to scan.

'We hardly need that,' he scoffed.

'Speak for yourself,' I bit back, glaring at Demetri. 'If we're going to be wandering around in the middle of nowhere for the next few days, I'd at least like to be accurate about it.'

'Fine,' he replied, smirking.

'Fine.'

There were no customers queuing behind us and so, with that, I left to find the stationery aisle. I returned less than a minute later holding a couple of pencils and an eraser. I paid for the purchases and stalked out of the shop. Then, without waiting to see if Demetri was following me, I walked over to one of the market stalls that I'd noticed earlier and bought a cheap-looking plastic compass from the old man sitting beneath the thatched shelter.

I spun around at the sound of Demetri's arrogant laugh.

'Let's just get this stupid hike over and done with, leech,' I growled, shoving past him.

We returned to the motel, where I emptied the food onto the floor and began packing it into my backpack. Then, I ripped away the plastic from the water carton and started piling the bottles on top of the food.

'I can carry some of them in my bag if you'd like,' Demetri called from the other side of the room.

'They'll fit just fine, thank you,' I snapped back at him, as I struggled to fit the remaining water bottles into the quickly disappearing space in my bag.

Eventually, I gave up. I wouldn't be able to close the zipper at this rate. I turned around and began rapidly flinging the last few bottles of water at Demetri, who plucked them out of the air with ease. I pressed my lips into a hard line; I would have liked to see them hit him in the face.

We were ready to go. We locked the room behind us and went downstairs to sign out. Finally, we were on our way.

Demetri and I made our way north for a few kilometers before turning towards the west. We walked in silence. Eventually, the trees and brush around us thickened, and we began to pass fewer buildings and cars.

'We might as well leave the road now,' Demetri finally said. 'From here, it's a steady trek north for about sixteen kilometers.'

'Sounds good to me,' I replied. The bush held a lot more appeal for me than this long, winding road.

About five minutes later, when the road was finally out of sight, Demetri stopped. He was frowning. Without saying a word to me, he pulled a mobile phone from his bag and began keying in a number. He held it to his ear for only a few seconds before he turned his back and began conversing with someone in what I could only assume was Italian. It frustrated me that I couldn't understand what he was saying.

The conversation lasted less than thirty seconds. I had my hands on my hips when Demetri turned back around to face me.

'I think you can phase for this part of the journey, Leah,' he said. 'We'll make better time that way.'

I forgot about the phone call momentarily. 'Jake's not in his wolf form?' I asked.

Demetri was still frowning. 'No, he's not. No one in your pack is actually, and something tells me that they won't be phasing anytime soon.'

'What?' I asked aggressively. My hands curled into fists.

Demetri sighed. 'They're a couple of kilometers off the east coast of America,' he told me. 'So, unless they're into taking really long swims, I'd be willing to bet that they're on a plane to Egypt.'

I inhaled sharply. 'How-?' I asked.

Demetri shrugged. 'Is there any way that your brother saw where we were when you phased at Salih's place?'

'Of course not,' I retorted, slightly chagrined. 'I wasn't that careless!'

'I'm not implying that you were,' Demetri said. 'But thoughts are a difficult thing to control.'

'No,' I stated, shaking my head. 'Seth never saw where we were – he didn't even search my thoughts for that information. He was too engrossed in what Salih was writing down.'

Demetri accepted my declaration without question – that surprised me a little. He didn't seem too bothered by the fact that my brothers were on their way to find us. 'It wouldn't have been too difficult to track us from the Seattle airport, I guess – even with the fake passports. All Cullen needed to do was show them your photograph and read their minds.'

I threw my head back and groaned. 'If I scared Salih into telling us to come here, imagine what he'll tell a whole pack of shape-shifters when they find him!'

'They won't find him,' Demetri replied confidently. 'I just spoke to Aro – he's going to get in touch with Salih. Once he finds out about the pack of wolves heading his way, Salih will disappear quick smart. Your brothers won't find anything in Egypt. With any luck, they'll give up and return home.'

I wasn't all that surprised that my brothers had left La Push to try and find me. If Jake still thought I was going to see Aro, then he'd be doing everything in his power to try and stop me. Demetri was sure that they wouldn't find us, but I wasn't convinced.

'Yeah, with any luck…' I breathed. I didn't trust Demetri's confidence, but there was nothing we could do about my pack now.

Demetri grinned, changing the subject abruptly, 'So are you going to phase?'

My spirits lifted at the thought of stretching my muscles and running once more as a wolf. The idea of being alone in my thoughts made it even more appealing.

I couldn't help but grin in response. 'Wanna race?' I asked.

Please take the time to read this; there's a couple of things I wanted to say:

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, review, favorite or subscribe to my story updates - I really do appreciate it. I was actually pretty nervous about posting this story since it's the first time I've ever written anything like this. But your reviews in particular have made it all worth it - they make my day each and every time I read them. Please keep them coming - compliments/suggestions/criticism... They're all great! Remember that both members and guests can leave reviews.

Now for some bad news (or good news depending on how you look at it): Over the next four weeks, I will be writing my med exams for uni. As much as I'd love to update during that time, realistically, it's just not going to happen. Trust me, I'd rather be writing about Demetri and Leah, but studying is about to take over my life! Following my exams, I will have four days of holidays in Australia, during which I WILL update. After that, however, I am going back home to Africa for 7 weeks (to Zimbabwe actually, where D&L are at the moment). It is unlikely that I will have any any access to a computer during my stay there, let alone the internet. So, in all probability, once I've left to go home, you won't hear from me again until mid-January. I'm really sorry to leave you hanging for so long! I just hope you'll still be waiting to read the next update when I get back. If you think that you want to keep reading, feel free to sign up for story alerts (only if you want to of course) - that way, you won't have to keep checking to see if I'm back in Australia.

Thanks again to everyone! All the best xx.