Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Wanna thank cemicool, lttlbrat93, Liana, becauseimthefavorite, Peachymom,Kittendragon, Ripped of Sanity, Jules489, Brandon, exitlight, kuhekabir, Jude136, Stephycats7785, robpat, Isolated1, Utena-Puchiko-nyu, unique0987654321, Arrioko12, Dario Argento Syndrome, rebelwilla, xxBloodAngelxx, animelover6000, Nellwantstobeavampalso, lilli kitty, kekate's blackest blood, xXSizzlingBabeXx, Zac92Him, Black-Luna, Misbehaving Mom, parseltongue girl, Edward cullen dazzles me, frapanappy, twilight lover, WeasleyLover927, xheheitssamx, translucency for summertime, Tain Chan, Madame de Ceour, RebelxAngels, Makia Durron, zac, tutskai, and Team'EJ for reviewing the previous chapter.

Hey everyone. Sorry for not updating so soon but I had to take care of my granny (she's doing chemo right now) and go apartment-searching. Good news is that granny is doing her best to try survive the pain and the nausea, and I found a FANTASTIC apartment for a great, affordable price that's close to where my mother is buying her place! (Is Happy).

Some of your questions (about the Original Couple) are answered here…so I hope you are intrigued now! Lol ALSO, MOST OF WHAT IS SPOKEN BIBLICALLY IS NOT BIBLICALLY CORRECT, I'M ONLY USING IT BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR THIS STORY, SO PLEASE DON'T GET OFFENDED.

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When Bella fell asleep, Victoria left and went to her home. As expected, she found James lying down on the bed in Jacob's room. The vampiress frowned when she realized that he was obviously ignoring her presence, so she flopped down besides him on the bed and glared at him until he finally turned his golden gaze on her.

"This is all your fault." She decided, annoyance and frustration coloring her voice. "If you hadn't been so calm and collected, if you'd just made a move on him sooner---!"

"He'd have felt guilty for doing something like that while with Cullen and he'd have pulled away, telling me that while I was his friend he was in a committed relationship. I don't want to make him feel like that, guilty." James replied in an emotionless voice, hands behind his head. "Don't you think I thought over every scenario possible when I decided to pursue him?"

Victoria pouted. That did sound like Jacob, the infuriatingly faithful bastard. Then again, it was things like that that made her and James like him so much.

"He's a wolf, Victoria." James announced lazily. "Wolves mate for life."

Her eyes widened in horror. "Are you saying that he and Cullen--?"

He snorted. "No."

The female frowned in confusion, scratching her head of flame curls. "You're not making any sense, big brother."

He sighed before turning on the bed so that they were facing each other. "They aren't mates."

"How would you know---?"

"I don't know much about wolves, but I do know one thing." James announced, pulling the totem from under his shirt and clasping his fingers around the wooden figure. "When wolves mate, they're bound to that person till their dying day, and if they're without that person they'll wither and die. That's why we're always told to target the weakest mate if confronted with dogs."

Victoria blinked, remembering having heard that somewhere.

"If Jacob's mate had abandoned him, for seven months, he'd have gone down in a spiral of despair and probably died. Cullen knew this, and was probably waiting to see if the wolf would react to his absence as a way of proof. Not to the point of serious illness or death, but to a little sickness." James continued, serious. "But Jake didn't wither, he got stronger when Cullen left." There was a moment's silence. "Cullen is not his mate. Jake did not imprint on him. I know this, and I think, deep down inside, he knows it too."

The female was silent before frowning slightly despite the relief she felt entering her every pore. "But if you're sure that Cullen isn't Jakey's mate, why haven't you done something?"

"I have." James smiled brightly. "I became his friend."

"His friend." She was not impressed.

"I became his best male friend, I made myself his pack member, and I made myself the strength of his right hand." The vampire announced, finally sitting up as well, smiling slightly. "Who does he call to go meet Clearwater with him? Who does he trust to help him solve the problems in the pack or otherwise? Who does he come to when he wants company? Who does he spend most of his time with?" James' smile grew soft. "Who did he say calmed his wolf?"

And suddenly Victoria was getting it. "You."

The blonde nodded, leaning against the backrest. "Jacob has feelings for me, but he's denying them or doesn't even realize he has them." He grinned. "Most probably it's the last. He's extremely oblivious when it comes to matters of the heart."

"Is he ever." Victoria groaned, throwing herself down on the bed so that she was lying down next to her brother, her curls like a blanket of flames all around her. "So, now that Cullen's back…what do you plan on doing?"

"Nothing for right now." James surprised her by answering. "His lover just returned, they'll be going through the honeymoon stage all over again, and it'd be the wrong time to do anything." There was a pause. "But when it's over, he's going to realize how much the both of them have changed, how maybe they don't fit as well as he remembers they used to."

"And when that happens you'll swoop down and sweep him off his feet."

"No, that'd make me seem like a cad, swooping and sweeping when he's vulnerable." James snorted, giving her a disappointed look for even suggesting it. "I'm going to be myself with him, I'm not going to change, and when the time comes, Jake will realize what I'm telling you, and things with Cullen will end."

Victoria pouted. "So what? You're just going to be the good-guy and be his friend while Cullens tries to get into his pants?"

James suddenly smirked, making her feel once more that she was out of the loop and a couple of hundred years too young to understand things clearly.

She frowned grumpily. "I don't understand your plan, but it better work James. This is my first real family, and I won't let Cullen break it apart."

James frowned at her. "Don't you try to do anything to Cullen. This is between me and him. You stay out of it."

"It's my family as well." Victoria narrowed her eyes. "And what about Bellsy? What if the other Cullens come back?" She pouted. "She's my best friend, but if Alice and Jasper come back she'll forget all about me."

"Give Bell more credit than that." James grinned in amusement. "You're her best friend." His grin grew confident and mischievous. "Best friends have more importance than you obviously realize."

"Hmmph." And yet she smiled. "I better return before she wakes up."

"You mean before Charlie awakes so that you can ogle him a bit more while he sleeps."

A pillow was thrown in his face for that.

James laughed, and when he tore the pillow from his face Victoria was gone.

He chuckled and shook his head before putting the pillow beneath his head and sighing, telling himself that he could wait on Jacob, could give him the time to figure out things on his own without pressure…but that didn't mean it didn't hurt James knowing that the wolf was with Cullen at this very moment.

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"I can't believe that I've spent all this time in the fricken jungle and for nothing." Alice Culen usually wasn't one for foul language, but she'd been cut off from all things civilized and stylish for way too long…and it was showing. Her hair had grown out from its nice perky haircut, looking awful, she'd run out of makeup, her high heels had all gotten destroyed, and the mud would never get out of her clothes completely.

Ever.

And dammit, she was missing Bella.

"Well, at least you weren't chasing after some people who couldn't keep still and having to stop every two weeks because Emmet had found something dangerous to hunt." Rosalie announced, flicking a speck off of her impeccable suit and looking around the dingy little hut that Alice had had to live in.

Alice growled. "How does one prove their pure intentions by staying in the boonies with no comforts of life, communing with nature by having goddamned long hikes ever days (my shoes will never recover), meditating by waterfalls (the humidity just messed up my hair), and chanting mumbo jumbo for hours?"

"Obviously it didn't prove anything." Rosalie sneered. "He never gave you the wish."

"I don't think he ever planned on." The smaller vampiress confessed. "I think he was just seeing how long we'd hold out."

"You'd hold out." The blonde corrected. "Jasper seems to be enjoying it quite a bit."

Alice grounded her teeth at the reminder.

That traitor.

"Well, cheer up, we came to get you so that we can all return to our home." Rosalie announced, lopping her arm around Alice's and leading her out of the hut, towards where the witchdoctor, Jasper and Emmet were talking by the large hummer Emmet had rented. "I have to admit, I actually missed that dog and human. It'll be nice to see them again."

"Yes." Alice suddenly smiled. "I missed them too."

"Especially Bella." Rosalie wasn't asking.

"Yeah." Alice sighed. "I've been so worried about her. Can you believe this place has no reception? I couldn't call her once all this time!" And once again she was pissed.

Rosalie grinned. "Well, you're escaping now. We're all going home. You'll see Bella soon enough."

The thought cheered Alice's day immediately.

They each gave their respects one by one to the witchdoctor before mounting into the Hummer, Alice the last.

"Child." The witchdoctor surprised her by announcing in a soft voice. "The past never stays in the past, but it is forever burrowing itself towards the future."

"That doesn't sound too good." She whispered.

He just turned and went back into his hut.

Alice watched him, an uneasy feeling in her stomach, before entering the Hummer and closing the door behind her.

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When Jacob awoke the next morning, the first thing he noticed was the fact that for the first time in a long time, he'd awoken in the arms of his boyfriend. It was odd, comforting, but unfamiliar territory. It'd been so long, and Jacob was somewhat annoyed by the sense of awkwardness he felt around the one person he'd learnt to feel most comfortable with…

The one he'd thought his mate, yet who'd left like a thief in the night.

"You're awake." Edward murmured, his chest reverberating with the sound.

Jacob nodded and pulled away, sitting up, for the first time truly glad that he'd cut his hair otherwise it'd be even messier than it was now, and the wolf felt self-conscious enough as things were.

"You're uncomfortable." Edward noticed in a soft, sad voice.

"It's been a long time." Jacob defended, hugging a pillow to his chest and looking down at his toes.

The vampire nodded, sitting up in bed as well. "You changed a lot." He gaze was on Jacob's toes as well. "I've been going over the many questions I have, yet I cannot come up with an answer by myself." That dark gaze rose to the wolf's face. "But you are not the one who owes the other answers."

Brown eyes rose at that and met black orbs. "Edward." He tried. "What have you being doing these last seven months?"

Sighing, the vampire ran pale fingers through eternally messy bronzed hair. "When Sam met me that night and called me out to tell me---well, you know what he told me---I tried to put it out of my mind but I couldn't. The threat of us just being----it was driving me insane. That's why I immersed myself into studying, and then I found out that there were references to what Sam was saying. It wasn't clear, but it hinted to what that dog said was true, that the wolf didn't imprint in the truest form on the vampire, and that they killed each other when…when the wolf found someone else 'worthier'."

Something clenched in Jacob's chest, but he just nodded for the vampire to continue.

"There was a reference to a vampire who'd been alive during that time, and I asked for my family's help and they agreed. Carlisle and Esme went to Rome, and found out more information on the vampire and where he was. I went to Romania right away while Alice and Jasper, and Rosalie and Emmet had their own missions to do as a backup." Edward cleared his throat. "When Carlisle found information on the vampire, Malcolm, and his whereabouts, I went to Romania to try and talk to him, to get him to tell me what'd happened, but he wouldn't even let me into his castle."

Jacob blinked. "So what did you do?"

"I told his guards to tell him that this was important for me, and that I wouldn't leave until he gave me an audience." Edward frowned at the memory. "Every day for six months I went to that castle and demanded that he see me, but every time he refused to do so and I couldn't do anything but turn away and try the next day."

Jake smiled softly to himself at Edward's stubborn persistence. "Did he ever let you inside?"

"Yeah." Edward smiled wryly. "He got sick of me coming and realized that the only way to get rid of me was to see what it was I wanted and help me." He sighed. "At first Malcolm didn't believe me when I told him about our situation, he thought that I'd just heard about the Original Couple, his friendship with them, and was pulling a prank or something on him. But then, something about my smell got to him and he said it was the same scent. Smoked honey."

The wolf tilted his head to the right at that.

"Apparently…" Edward hesitated. "Apparently it's only a scent only certain people can smell."

Brown eyes narrowed. James had been able to catch the scent too, hadn't he? "Certain people?"

"People who are…important to this----people who are---who…" Edward suddenly changed the subject. "So with Malcolm finally convinced he took me under his wing and allowed me free use of his castle. He---I learnt a lot from him but I know that he hasn't told me everything."

"What---what did he tell you?" Jacob asked, feeling an uneasy sickness in his stomach, somehow knowing what Edward was going to say.

"We----," Edward looked away. "We didn't imprint."

And Jacob's world shattered at his feet.

"We…didn't?" Was his voice squeaking like that?

His heart throbbed painfully in his throat and he couldn't swallow.

"Jacob, you're special." Edward whispered, looking torn before pausing and then asking. "Did you know that once, a long time ago, wolves and vampires came from the same family?"

The wolf's eyes widened. "What?"

"I reacted the same way when Malcolm told me." Edward responded with a nod. "Apparently we're descendants of Cain."

"Cain?" Jacob frowned, not recognizing the reference.

Edward nodded. "It's a story recorded in the Christian bible. The first man and his wife Eve had two sons, the eldest, Cain, and the youngest, Abel. Cain was a tiller of the soil and Abel a Sheppard." He sighed. "Abel obeyed God and Cain didn't, and when he realized that Abel was favored Cain killed him, supposedly committing the first murder ever. It was said that God put a curse on Cain for murdering his brother, a mark on him and his descendants should he ever dare have them."

Having never heard this story before, Jacob was intrigued.

"Cain was driven away from his home and into the desert for his crimes, and he traveled for many moons until he came to a cave by the sea, and there he found Lilith, the queen of the demons." Edward frowned, shaking his head. "She'd been the first woman, created to be his father's wife, but she'd defied god and his sovereignty and had been banished as well. She was beautiful and cursed by God as well, and they became one."

The clock chimed somewhere in the background, but neither paid attention.

"They had a daughter and a son, both with the curses of their parents mingled in their bodies." Edward continued. "Eventually Lilith and Cain had more children, and their children had children, and they were large and prosperous for their ability to toil the soil, creating the city Edom."

"But what about the curse?" Jacob asked.

"I'm getting to that point." Edward whispered. "The first man and first woman had other children, the most important Seth. His descendants grew in number as well, yet they must have come upon Edom because its said that they realized that the females of Edom were extremely beautiful, and even though their God forbade them to take any as wife, many of them did." He paused. "And the children from that union, of the two bloodlines that were forbidden to ever cross, were born the first vampires and werewolves."

"Born?"

He nodded. "The first vampire was born as a child." Edward was silent. "Cain had taken the blood of his brother, and forever the cursed would live with the necessity for blood to survive."

"What about the werewolves?" Jacob wanted to know.

"Lilith had refused to bow to God's judgment and preferred to live out of the paradise like a dog, so he made it so that her cursed would forever be as dogs, never completely humans ever again."

Jacob couldn't believe it.

His ability, what he'd always felt was a gift, a privilege, had been meant to be a curse.

"Of course, not all of their descendants had the curses activated in them, but those who did grew strong and were fearsome together. The 'curses' made them stronger, but for some reason even Malcolm doesn't understand, they became enemies of each other and separated, the human descendants to one place, the wolf-cursed to another, and the blood-cursed to yet another."

"But---we were told---we were told that our ancestors were wolves, not some demon queen!" He was so confused.

"Let me get to it." Edward reached over and placed a cold hand on Jacob' shoulder. "There were few on each side that were always trying to reunite their forces, but it wasn't a plausible happening until the Original Couple."

Jacob went stiff.

"The female wolf thought she'd imprinted on the female vampire, and the female vampire had similar feelings for the wolf. It started the tenuous peace between the clans and the packs. It was something Lilith had done before her death, to try and reunite her descendants, but it failed. Somehow, the spell she cast went wrong." Edward frowned. "The one with the spirit of the first wolf was supposed to bring unity between the clans, and she joined with the vampire but the wolf…"

"The wolf what?" Jacob pressed, leaning forwards. "What did the wolf do?"

"There was something missing." Edward responded in an emotionless voice. "They weren't completing a part of the necessary conditions to unite---or maybe the spell had just been botched from the millennia past when it'd been cast, and she scented another she desired, and who desired her as well."

Jacob shook his head, unable to believe this, refusing to believe this.

"She spoke to the one because she did not want to betray her lover, and after the conversation she decided to tell the female vampire of what was happening. She didn't want any lies between them." Edward was paler than usual, his eyes dark as the midnight. "The vampiress, feeling threatened when she realized that her wolf had feelings for another, flew into a jealous rage and attacked the other, but the female wolf got in the way and received the killing blow instead."

Breath caught in the Native American's throat. "What?"

"Horrified that she'd killed the one she loved, the vampiress collapsed to her knees and begged the one standing there to kill her, that she didn't want to live without her wolf." There was a moment's silence. "The other vampire, enraged at the wolf's murder, did as asked, and then fled."

"That's how it happened." Jacob whispered, feeling his body going stiff. "She loved the vampiress but died saving the other from her. I knew they hadn't fought and killed each other. I knew it." He then looked up, eyes narrowed. "But how did this Malcolm know of this?"

Edward's gaze lowered. "Because Malcolm was the other vampire."

Jacob's eyes widened.

"After the Original Couple's deaths the vampires and the wolves turned on each other and massacred each other, nearly extinguishing both races. A handful of each survived, scattering. The wolves, for lack of other mates, found true wolves and mated with them, thus your legend is true, but it is younger than the Original." Edward finished.

Jacob was silent, eyes downcast, trying to digest all that he'd just learnt. "So what does this mean? For us?"

"That we're not imprinted." Edward repeated softly. "You've got the spirit of the Original Wolf within you, the spirit that the female wolf inherited yet couldn't do as foretold. You're supposed to do what she couldn't, you're supposed to unite wolves and vampires again."

Jake stood up from the bed and shook his head. "But I don't want to do that! Most leeches deserve to die! Only you, your family, James and Victoria aren't---aren't---."

"Jacob…"

"No!" He shook his head, violently, desperately. "I don't want to be leader! I don't want to join vampires and werewolves!"

"You already are!" Edward snapped, getting out from the bed as well. "Jake, you formed a pack with vampires. You have one of the Clearwater siblings in communication with you, and I can only think that that means you have an informant, a follower in Sam's pack!" His hands came down on Jacob's shoulders. "You're already the leader! You're already joining them!"

Jacob pulled away. "I---I need time---I need to think." And with that he grabbed his keys and stormed out of the house, feeling icy chills at his fingertips and his wolf snarling and pacing within.

No…

No.

No.

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Hey! I updated!

Hopefully I'll be able to load it though…my computer is giving trouble with the internet..

Review?