Chapter 11- The odd visitor.

"That was amazing!" Stephanie announced after her first leap off the cliff, she couldn't believe the rush she felt and the wind in her face. But, most importantly, she saw Hunter again. He was running from something or someone, unless her vision was just of him hunting. Either way, she got to see him again. But she felt a horrible pit in her stomach form. Something was wrong as she could feel a great sadness in the man she loves. Chris was curious and approached her to see if she felt alright.

"I know the first jump is always the odd one, but do you feel ok?" he questioned.

Her head nodded yes, she felt fine, but Hunter wasn't well at all. They continued on for most of the day of the cliff jumps, and yet Stephanie didn't feel any better, every time she felt Hunter in her heart and mind she knew something was drastically wrong.

By the time she hit the ground for the fifth time, Chris and his family tensed up and were growled towards a bush. Stephanie approached and yet was kept firmly behind Natalya. The trees moved and the vegetation was snapped and stringed as something vast approached them. No creature moved as Kane emerged from the woods. "Stephanie?" he asked aloud.

"I thought we told you to get lost!" growled Natalya.

"Wait, he's been here? Kane? What the hell are you doing? I thought you and the family moved away because of me!"

The big man rolled his eyes. "They moved because they thought I was going to kill you, so I go issues, but I am not here to talk about that. You have to come with me, right now!" he began to approach abruptly to the group. Natalya was ready to transform as was her cousin David.

"I am warning you," hissed Chris as he felt his own jaw begin to change and the teeth grew out.

"You don't get it, Hunter is trying to kill himself!" Kane yelled aloud at the pack. "If I don't get Stephanie to him before he does something stupid, his death will be on your hands, and trust me when I say this. I will avenge him" Kane warned, his attention turned to Stephanie. "You coming with me or not?"

Stephanie froze in thought. Hunter was going to kill himself? Why? Was it because of her? But her train of though shattered when Chris turned to face her, he begged Stephanie to stay with him. "You don't have to go, and I know what he had nearly done to you. Are you going to trust him?"

She remembered the night all too well. Kane charged at her the moment she cut her finger, smelling her fresh blood in the air and wanting to take it so badly from her body. But she saw the worry in his eyes. Hunter was in immediate danger, he came to her rescue before. It was time she returned the favor. "Chris, I have to" she whispered. "Not for him, but to repay a debt"

Stephanie broke through the pack's protective surrounding and cautiously approached Kane. She stood before the big man, trying to hide her fear from him. But he gave a small twisted smile to her. "Don't hide it, there's no point," he whispered. She scooped Stephanie into his arms and began to run through the forest. Despite his size and stature, he was faster than Hunter and only proved that farther when he ran across land and sea. Stephanie could only marvel, as everything became blurs of light, yet when he ran across the water. She couldn't help but be impressed as the water mystified against her face. Not even Hunter had done such a thing, and yet Kane could.

When they reached solid land, Kane paused as he began to take in the town, trying to see if he was at the right place. "Where are we?" Stephanie asked.

"Not where we need to be, we have to get to Italy. Before it's too late"

In Italy.

Hunter knew what he had to do, so he could see Stephanie again. That was, if he qualified to be with her in the after life. Many things had occurred in his life, many he hasn't been proud of. But ever since he met Stephanie, she gave him a reason to live. As he stood before the solid oak gates of the great temple of the immortals, he pondered over his thoughts once more, to ensure he was going to do the right thing. Just as he reached for the handle, he heard a voice. "HUNTER!" It was Mark calling out to him.

"It's too late! It's already been arranged!" Hunter yelled back at him.

Mark froze as he stared at his young immortal son. He was stripped of his garments and wore only his jeans, as tradition in the vampire law, they are stripped of everything from the waist up to ensure a proper tearing of the limb would occur. "You don't have to do this, Stephanie ain't dead!"

"Don't try and talk me out of this now old man. I know, I heard Maria!"

"She's not dead Hunter!" he kept protesting and begged him to wait until Kane returned. Hunter however shook his head as he pushed open the doors and walked into the room. Mark was quick to follow as he found himself standing before the council of vampires. Elder that not even Mark had seen, but they are the ones who pull the strings.

"Hunter McCallaway" called out the head vampire. He stood tall and stared down the young immortal. Over twenty thousand years on Mark, he was the oldest immortal alive.

"Shawn, he's not right in the head…" Mark called out.

"Silence!" demanded the elder. Shawn looked over Hunter once before he turned to the other immortals, viewed as vampire royalty among their people, their word was law. And yet Shawn stared at Mark oddly. "I am surprised you had returned Mark, you would be sitting here instead of me…"

Mark said nothing at first. "Shawn, don't let this boy get himself killed, he doesn't know where his head is right now!"

"And why does he want to die?" questioned another. He appeared young and yet he carried himself well. Created in the prime of his life, John Morrison asked the proper questions when one approaches the court.

"I don't want to live anymore, I have nothing to live for" Hunter explained lowly.

Morrison shrugged his shoulders. "We're heard worst explanations than that"

"Ooo remember the one that embarrassed himself in front of his own coven!" called one from across the table.

"Jeff…." Growled Shawn. "We're not here to discuss childish remarks" Shawn rolled his eyes as he turned to Mark. "Kids"

"Tell me about it" muttered Mark. The last two on the bench who had yet to speak a word were staring at Hunter with judgment in their eyes. The youngest, a woman named Kelly glared at Hunter with uncertainty. Besides Shawn was Jeff's blood brother, Matt. Created long before his sibling though, Matt kept up with the workings of his immortal brethren, sitting in on trials, most of the time. It was he and Shawn who carried out death sentences.

"We have heard your argument Hunter McCallaway, and we see no wrong in fulfilling the request that your life end here, at our hands…." Shawn announced.

Chapter 10- Stephanie's leap of faith.

It had been a while since Stephanie had an adrenaline rush, just so she could see Hunter's face once more. But her chance came when she went rock climbing with Chris and his family. The thrall of the climb allowed her to hear Hunter's voice in her mind, she could hear he was sad and missed her terribly. It's what she had always wanted to know.

She had spent the better part of the past few weeks trying to convince her dad that there were no wolves in the forest, they weren't the ones behind the deaths of the people who had been discovered. "Since when the hell did you become a tree hugger?" her father demanded.

Stephanie shrugged her shoulders and said that Chris had told her about the forest, it wasn't a wolf's doing. "Dad think about it, a wolf wouldn't kill something and not eat it. The people you found had their necks torn open, but their bodies were in tact!" she explained.

"Don't matter, I think it's wolves and it needs to stop!" he announced.

Stephanie couldn't believe her own father, he was willing to make a mistake and blame animals (or werewolves) for the deaths of the people he had the displeasure of discovering. If only she could tell him the truth. But she knew if her father knew the truth about Hunter and Chris, no doubt she would be on a one way ticket to a crazy house. She begged him to wait and see if it was for certain the work of the forest animals. He said he would wait, but the tone he spoke to her with meant otherwise.

She joined Chris and his friends later in the day, in an instant she picked up tension among the group, Natalya in particular. She looked startled, scared even. But no one mentioned why.

Chris had decided to introduce Stephanie to a new activity. Cliff diving. It was the first time she had ever heard of doing such a thing, but at the same time she couldn't wait. The rush of it all would make her closer to Hunter than ever before, she would see him vividly and know how he is doing without her.

They spent hours, hiking to the cliffs were Chris explained there's only known to them. Apparently, cliff diving wasn't well accepted in town, not to mention the parents. And yet the idea of a new adventure excited her, she couldn't wait to take the plunge.

Meanwhile.

"What the hell do you think you were doing Kane? You know damn well you shouldn't be around people after the incident! Or are you so screwed in the head…" Kane was getting the third degree from Mr. McCallaway, and there was no sigh of him letting up. Kane tried to explain himself, yet every time his mouth opened the yelling would continue on. He sat and endured the verbal about as the others watched like kids from the stairs.

"Isn't it great when he gets in trouble" muttered Maryse who blew the whistle on him in the first place.

Batista wasn't certain. "I don't know, all he did was check on Stephanie. Why, is beyond me" he muttered back. No one however bothered to tell Hunter of Kane's little 'trip'.

In the Upstairs.

"All I want to know is what the hell is going on down stairs!" Hunter had been yelling at Maria for the past ten minutes, demanding to know what Kane was being scolded over. She tried to explain and fabricate a lie all at the same time. She stuttered over her words a few times as she nearly came across as a 'dumb blond' but then the words came.

"He went out when he wasn't suppose to, you know Kane, he was looking for something vicious to hunt. He was getting dangerously close to the zoo" Maria explained. She then paused as her mind froze, a vision was coming and Hunter knew it. He sat her down in the corner and waited for her to speak. Maria couldn't control the words from her mouth as she announced she could see Stephanie… and she was jumping off a cliff.

Hunter couldn't believe his own ears as Maria broke from the transe. "No… No she wouldn't do that! Maria, please tell me it wasn't a true vision!" Hunter begged.

It was the most real it had ever felt. She tried to tell Hunter, but he was already gone from the room. No one in the house saw him leave, slipping through the front doors and ran. Maria was quick to try and give chase but found she was too late. The whole family paused as they turned to her. "Maria, what's wrong? Was that Hunter?" Kane asked as he stood up off the couch.

"I had a vision again, it was Stephanie. She… jumped"

The room went dead silent as Kane turned to Mark, giving him a hard punch to the arm he announced. "Now whose the crazy one! I could have saved her life, but NO." he announced. "Damn it and I know where Hunter is going to go. We don't have much time!"

"What the hell makes you care about him all of a sudden?" Batista demanded.

"Judge me later when my foot is up your ass, we don't have much time, Hunter is going to do something stupid" Kane growled as he took hold of the house. Everyone had to spit up and find him before Hunter makes a terrible mistake. Kane told Mark to seek out the elders, his hunch was Hunter was going to try and join Stephanie.

"Wait, is she really?" asked Maryse.

"No, I overheard the wolves, they were taking her cliff diving…." Kane muttered. "But Hunter didn't know that, now did he?" his glare went Mark once more. The family said nothing as they went out to find him, before it was too late. Kane had to go back to the States, he needed to bring his proof….