Chapter 10-

When Edward and I finally returned to the house from our place on the river, it was twilight. The colours of the forest had blanched into different shades of grey, covered in the light of the rising moon. I breathed in deeply, and I could smell oak and pine tree sap, moss and lichen, and even some of the animals going about their business as the day ended. This brought on a dull ache in my throat, but nothing I couldn't handle; I would hunt tomorrow. Then, on the breeze, I caught a tinge of a different scent. It was the overwhelmingly sweet aroma of Elise's trail. She was out there somewhere, waiting until it was right to come out again. Or maybe she wasn't waiting, but had come across an unsuspecting nomad. The vampire would be clueless to her intensions, stunned like a deer caught in the headlights of her green eyes when she stepped in their path... I stopped myself from thinking, feeling an unfamiliar shiver run down my spine. The Cullen's were safe, I repeated to myself.

In the white and spotless house, everyone was gathered in the living room, having their own whispered conversations. Carlisle was in the corner with Jasper, Alice and Esme, the four of them deep in conversation.

'... More of them. Maybe if we could meet...'

'...You can't be serious Carlisle...'

'... Has a point, if we could...'

I was able pick up little bits of the discussion they were having, but the snippets didn't make much sense to me. I looked around the rest of the room and my eyes came to rest on Rosalie and Emmett. Rosalie looked like she was fuming inside. Her eyes were looking straight ahead, and her back was ramrod straight. Emmett held her hands in his massive ones. He looked like he was trying to talk to her, to convince her of something. I didn't need to hear their conversation to guess what Rosalie was angry about.

Jacob was sitting on the floor, playing with Renesmee. She still had the silver wear set Esme had given her, and she and Jacob were working together to bend the forks, knives and spoons into interesting shapes. Neither of them looked too worried about the revelations of today, but of course neither of them had any need to be. Jacob was a werewolf, not a vampire, and would hold no appeal to Elise at all. Renesmee didn't have any venom running through her veins, and so she was safe as well. She saw Edward and I walk into the house now, hand in hand, and dropped the pretzel shaped spoon she was holding. She jumped up and ran over to where we were standing, her arms held open. Edward knelt down to catch her in a bear hug, and I could see his eyes close over her shoulder. Renesmee giggled, and tried to wiggle herself out of his arms. He growled playfully at her and heaved her to his chest. There was no escape from there.

Jacob followed Renesmee, a gentle smile on his face as he looked at Renesmee and her father playing.

'Bella, I need to go back into La Push. The pack needs to know about Elise and what she is. I'm sure they would want to meet her when she returns as well.'

'Yeah, of course Jacob. Tell them their welcome to come here when they are ready. Just make sure they know that she means us no harm, we don't want to lose control of a situation like this, and it's already a little delicate.'

'Easily done Bells. I'll be back before it gets totally dark!' He was already moving out the door. I could see him taking off his clothes as he loped across the clearing, and then he exploded into a mass of russet brown fur in mid stride. I smiled after the massive dog as he disappeared into the forest.

Behind me, Carlisle clapped his hands together and strode into the centre of the living room.

'Okay, how are we all going?' He addressed everyone, and the little conversations stopped immediately. Rose's voice came through the silence, high pitched and angry.

'What are we doing even inviting her back?!' She snarled. 'She is our enemy! You can't honestly expect her to hold back from doing the thing that she is made to do! She's probably out there now taking the life of another vampire!'

Edward cut in. 'Rosalie... listen to what you're saying.' His eyes were icy.

Everyone was quiet, looking at Rosalie. She was still silently flaming, too caught up in her anger to realise the irony of what she had said.

'We are exactly the same as Elise, Rose.' Edward said quietly. 'There are a hundred human's dying right now because of our kind. Innocent humans are being killed because it is what we are meant to do. The only difference between us and Elise is that her diet is different. In fact, she is probably working for the better side, protecting the people we prey on.'

Rosalie was still while what Edward had said sunk in. Her eyes lowered to the floor, and she clasped her hands in her lap, ashamed of what she had said.

'And it is possible for Elise to resist. What does our family do every day? We resist. We find alternatives.' He circled my waist with his arms, Renesmee between us. 'Bella's existence is proof that we can resist.'

He smiled at me and rested his lips on my forehead. My eye lids fluttered closed and I savoured the feeling.

'Edward is right.' Carlisle's voice came through the fog in my head. 'Elise can hold back her instincts. She has done so for a whole day, and I know she could do it for longer if it was necessary. Does anyone else have a problem with Elise returning?'

Everyone shook their heads. Rosalie's eyes were still down, but her head swayed from side to side also, guiltily.

'It's settled then, we will invite Elise back inside when she returns, and listen to what she has to say.' Carlisle said, his tone final.

Just then, a familiar chorus of barks and howls sounded from the forest.

'I think the dogs want to meet outside.' Edward said, listening to the echo of howls through the forest. 'They don't like being inside too much, our scent makes them uncomfortable.'

With Edward and me leading the way, everyone filed outside of the house for the second time that day to meet the La Push werewolf pack. It was dark now, the moon casting an eerie light over the trees.

A line of sixteen hulking masses was emerging from the inky blackness of the forest. The biggest wolves were in the middle of the formation. The wolf in the middle, the biggest of them all, was a huge black monster. Sam Uley was the Alpha of the pack, and all of the other werewolves respected his standing. On Sam's left was Jacob, his large pink tongue lolling out the side of his muzzle in a wolfish grin. Next to Jacob was Seth, the long and lanky sandy wolf that had befriended Edward a long time ago. He was the first wolf to accept the Cullen's residence in Forks. As always, Seth's sister Leah was by his side, a slightly darker shade of blonde than her brother. Leah was the only female werewolf in the history of the Quileute tribe, and she hated that fact. She was known for her bitterness, and especially her hatred of Vampires.

At the very edge of the forest, the pack phased back into humans. In the clearing they stood before us, muscles clearly defined under their tanned skin. It was definitely an impressive sight to behold, and I felt sorry for any unwise vampire that would dare mess with the pack of cunning shape shifters. The shirtless form of Sam came forward from the line, with Jacob by his side.

'Hello Cullen's.' Sam nodded a greeting to us, and Carlisle stepped forward to meet him. Jasper and Emmet were at Carlisle's sides.

'Sam, it's been too long.' Carlisle answered just as pleasantly.

'Definitely too long. It's going to take a while to adjust to your scent again. So, Jacob has told us that we may have an ally in our plight against leeches?' Sam grinned wickedly, and Carlisle laughed.

'It seems so, my friend. Although she is quite an individual, along with her brothers and sister.'

Sam and the rest of the pack shifted uneasily at the mention of relations. It appeared that Jacob hadn't mentioned Elise's siblings to him.

'There is more than one of these... what are we dealing with again, Carlisle?'

'Someone who's kind does not have a title... yet. She isn't unlike us Vampires; just a little more deadly.'

'Then of course there is the difference in her diet...' Jasper said under his breath.

'And she is as foreign to you as she is to us?' Sam directed at Carlisle, ignoring Jasper's comment.

'Completely. In my three hundred years I haven't come across anything like her before.'

'Well, when do we get to meet this new... creature?' Sam hesitated, unsure how to title her.

'Her name is Elise, and she has been nothing but civil to us, definitely not the savage you seem to imagine her as.' Edward said, his voice holding a tinge of annoyance. 'Also, I don't think that you will have to wait any longer to meet her, Elise has already joined us.'

My head snapped up to look at Edward. 'What? She's back already?' I whispered low in his ear.

'She's in the bushes to your left, out of our sensory range. She just placed the thought in my head then that she's here.' His eyebrows knitted together, unsure how he felt about having his mind manipulated like that.

'How long has she been-' Before I could finish the question I already knew the answer. It was like I had known all along that she had been waiting in the brush when the werewolf pack had arrived. They had missed her completely, her scent, everything. She had been invisible to them.

'That's interesting...'

'It's an uncanny feeling, isn't it? Having your mind meddled with like that...' Edward said, understanding the wide expression on my face.

'I'm not sure I enjoy it.' I said, pursing my lips.

'Alright,' Sam said loudly enough that Elise could here, 'you can come out now! We don't mean you any harm.'

Jacob rolled his eyes. 'She isn't an extra terrestrial Sam. You should be more worried about her harming us, anyway.'

A bubbling, wind chime laugh echoed from the forest at that moment, and the entire wolf pack whirled around to face where the sound had come from.

Elise voice was still shaking from laughter as she spoke to us from the cover of the forest, still out of sight. 'Please Jacob! They're already a little highly strung about meeting me; don't make it any worse for them!'

Elise was right when she said the pack was highly strung. Sam was trying to look in every direction at once, his body rigid with tension, trying to see the source of the voice. Paul had crouched low to the ground, his teeth bared in the direction of the sound.

Slowly, from the inky darkness of the forest, Elise came forth. The loose white t-shirt she was wearing before had been replaced by an oversized black one, providing better camouflage for her in her current surroundings. I shuddered at the thought of where or who the new garment had come from. She still wore the light cotton skirt, her long, pale legs a stark contrast to the dark cloth covering her lithe structure. Her black hair was shimmering in the night, flowing softly down her shoulders and back. She strode through the undercover silently, her mesmerising green eyes glinting mischievously in the moonlight. I was reminded of black leopard, stalking through its territory with a deadly confidence.

A growl erupted from the back of Paul's throat when he saw Elise approaching, but it choked off into silence when he was hit by Elise's sparkling jade eyes. The entire pack had frozen, stunned and bewildered by her unintentional hunting capability. Her graceful appearance from the woods had sent a hush through the meadow.

Walking out from the cover of the trees, Elise gave a gentle smile in our direction. It was an unspoken thank you, for letting her return. Her eyes then shifted to the wolf pack, still bright with humour. All of them, except Jacob, were rattling their heads, getting rid of the fog that was evident behind their eyes.

'Well, I finally get to meet the Quileute werewolf's, after hearing so much about you all...' Elise said, bowing slightly in their direction, a wide smile still plastered on her face.

Sam was the first to recover from Elise's strange influence on him, and he answered first, struggling slightly with his words. 'It's... It's a pleasure to meet you too, Elise.'

There was a round of mumbled greetings from the rest of the pack, still wary of Elise's presence, measuring her up to their expectations. She smirked slightly when she noticed their measuring stares.

'Do I pass inspection?' She asked, her voice dripping with cheek. Elise was obviously enjoying herself.

'Elise?' It was Carlisle, an eyebrow raised, a hand resting under his chin.

'Sorry, Carlisle, it's easy to get carried away when meeting new people.' She was grinning again. 'Since we are all here together now, do you think it would be appropriate for conference time to begin?'

'That sounds like a very good idea. We have a lot of questions for you, Elise.' Sam said seriously.

'Yeah! Like do you have-' Seth burst out excitedly, but was interrupted when Elise held up her finger to silence him.

'Wait. Before your questions start, I was wondering if I could ask just one favour of you all. If you're uncomfortable with it, then I completely understand. After all, you have already done more than enough by welcoming me back here. It's just that this will make any questions you have easier to answer.'

I was sure none of us had any idea what this favour could be. I looked to Edward but he just shrugged.

'Whatever this favour is, we can try and accommodate for you.' Edward's expression was questioning.

'Well then... if you'll all agree to it...' She hesitated, 'I would like you all to meet my brothers and sister.'