Author's Note: Thank you reviewers, kmddeprez1122, LehcarMarie, abstractionsofmysoul, biggest fan, Twilight Twitterer, Passion Black, emma, and lifesucks andthenyou liveforever!!

In this chapter, we run into an old friend. Apologies for the even-worse cliffhanger. Okay, I'm not really that sorry. It's fun being an evil author.


Disclaimer: The Twilight saga and all characters therein are the creation of Stephenie Meyer. No profit is being made from this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.


Chapter Eleven

Reunion

Breathing quickly, quelling my alarm at the scent of a vampire in this unexpected place, I spoke to the driver as quickly as I dared. "Could you wait for me around the block?"

He turned his mouth down even further, looking troubled. "You are all right here?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I… just want to surprise her. Old friend, not expecting me. She'll be home from work in a few minutes." The lie came easily, the story plausible. It was like writing a cheat code into a computer program.

"I will watch you from down the street," said the driver, worry in his eyes, but his job was to do as I said.

"Obrigado. I'll be fine, really."

"You need anything, you call me." He made me program his number into my cell phone. "Call for Fernando."

During this exchange I was conscious of my back, of the wind ruffling my hair, of my vulnerability in the middle of this mundane street. If I needed to fight, I didn't want this innocent human witnessing it, or worse, interfering on my behalf.

As Fernando drove away slowly, I took another deep breath. My eyes were everywhere, my ears humming with alertness. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but for that tingling scent, a perfume of aniseed and chocolate. The gate squeaked as I opened it, walking toward the house, steps light on the cracked cement.

As I approached, I realized that the scent of vampire was faint, at least weeks old. They hadn't been here since… since PeuChen91 sent me that email and then vanished off the Net.

Could this really be a coincidence? Was there a vampire preying on the residents of Rio, and my friend had been incredibly unlucky… No. I dismissed it. This was no coincidence. She sent me an email. Frightened. She thought Mendel had found her. What if he had? What if Mendel is a vampire?

I was tensed like a coiled spring as I pushed the front door open. It was unlocked and slightly ajar. The inside of the house was dark except for the patch of light on the polished cement of the threshold. Dust, old grease, human, that faint note of vampire… I was satisfied that the house was empty.

Empty, for sure. There was no furniture, not in the front room or either of the bedrooms. The kitchen was gutted except for a porcelain sink built into the wall. A bold rat scurried in through the open door and dashed into a hole where the refrigerator's power cords had been.

I paused in the back bedroom. There were scuff marks on the floor from the plastic wheels of an office chair. A lonely Ethernet cord lay like a dead snake. This, I was sure, had been where PeuChen91 had kept her computer.

I wished I knew more about her. Her age, her family…

I leaned up against the doorframe and closed my eyes, breathing deeply. There was another scent in here that intrigued me, stronger than the rest of the house. It was like some kind of tropical flower. It suffused the paint on the walls and the tattered plaid curtains on the window.

The gate creaked outside. Someone's footsteps… my driver? I told him to stay away!... no, too light to be an adult. Or a human.

I braced myself between the walls of the hallway, ready to attack whoever came through the door.

The scent hit me at the same time as the sound of the heartbeat. It was vampire, it was human, it was both, and there was the rapid fluttering of a hybrid heart.

One like me.

His figure filled the doorway, the afternoon sunlight silhouetting him from behind. His skin was the luxurious color of copper, and his hair was black and a little wild; for one crazy moment I thought it was Jacob, in spite of the obvious scent.

He wore jeans and a t-shirt with the logo of a Brazilian soccer team. In spite of my shock, and my realization that this wasn't Jacob, there was something very familiar about him yet. I felt as though I knew this man.

I took a slow step towards him. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"I should ask you the same thing." There was an unmistakable note of protectiveness in his voice… not towards me, but towards the house. His territory?

"Do you live here?" I asked.

"No. But I've been watching. I knew someone would come eventually." This time, it was anger beneath his words. "Are you one of them?"

I was so confused. I was sure I knew him, and the memory danced around my brain like a live wire, sparking but not connecting… first, though, I needed to make sure he wasn't a threat. "One more time. Who are you? And where is the girl who lived here before?"

"You tell me!" His dark eyes stared at me with a furious intensity.

Then, I knew.

"Nahuel!" I said.

He twitched.

"That's your name, isn't it? Nahuel! I – I was so young, last I saw you – but it is you! Don't pretend it's not!"

"That's my name," he admitted. "You look familiar too, but… you're not one of them?"

I didn't much like the sound of this "them" business. Clearly, we needed to talk. "Let's go in here," I said, gesturing at the bright, dusty, empty living room. I didn't turn my back to him, but rather edged into the room. He followed with equal suspicion.

In the brighter light I could see the way his skin glowed, just like mine, although a darker shade. His forehead was broad, his eyes like deep black pools, and his mouth was curved downward. Yes, this was Nahuel, nephew of the vampire Huilen, and the last time I'd seen him was in a mountain field sixteen years ago, when he testified before the elegant, deadly line of Volturi.

"You know me, but I don't know you," said Nahuel. "So you have very little time to convince me that you mean no harm."

"Actually, we've met." I took a deep breath and stuck out my hand. "Renesmee Cullen."

Nahuel blinked, tilted his head, glanced down at my hand, and then broke into a wide grin. "Cullen! Of course! Renesmee!" He seized my hand and shook it. He glanced me up and down. "You've grown up very nicely."

I flashed through my infant memories of him, that day with the Volturi and then afterward, in the old house in Forks, where he'd given us his life story.

He was startled for a moment at the unfamiliar version of his own memory, but then he remembered my gift and relaxed. "Renesmee Cullen," he said again. Then his grin got even wider. "So this means you must know about everything that's been happening! Is the rest of your coven here, too?"

I pulled my hand away. "Not exactly. And what do you mean, everything?" A million more questions hovered in my mind and I told myself to be patient.

Nahuel became serious again. "I've been watching this house, because it was the only thing I could think of… my only link to her."

There was such longing in his voice. "Her. The girl who lived here?"

He nodded, obviously miserable.

Could Nahuel be in love with my internet friend? Another vampire-human relationship? Was she his mate? And what were the odds of me being friends with the human PeuChen91, who happened to know Nahuel? "Is she… what happened to her?"

"They took her," said Nahuel. "Which is why I want to know, what are you doing here? Don't you already know that?"

"I – this seems too crazy. Sorry. I'm here because I have this friend… over the internet. She went by the screen name PeuChen Ninety-One. A couple weeks ago, she vanished after sending me an email. She was afraid someone had found her… I was worried and so I came to see if I could track her down."

A wry smile twisted Nahuel's mouth. "You. Her internet friend. Small world. She was – she loved that computer. They took everything, all evidence of her, everything except her scent."

I felt sorry for Nahuel. It seemed so unfair that he should suffer losing his mother, inadvertently turn his aunt into a vampire, have a deadbeat evil scientist vampire as a father… and now, lose the girl he loved. "I'm sorry," I said aloud. "You don't think she's… dead, do you?"

"Dead?" Nahuel tilted his head again. "No! She's not dead. I fear it's much worse than that."

It was my turn to be bewildered again. "Worse?"

"I should have known they would not have left such a prize unclaimed." Nahuel seemed to be speaking more to himself than to me.

"Okay. I'm super-confused, Nahuel." When I said his name aloud, his head snapped up. "Who are we talking about here?"

"Aylen," he said.

"That's her name?"

"Yes, Aylen. My sister."

No way. "Your sister! Your… hybrid sister! Like you and me?"

"More like you than me. She's non-venomous." Nahuel smiled a little bit. "She chose Peuchen as her name, did she?" I could hear the inflection of the proper name. "How fitting. It's the Mapuche – our people's – name for a blood sucker."

Well, I felt like an idiot. I couldn't believe I'd overlooked doing a basic search on what her name meant. Getting too cocky, Ness. "Aylen," I repeated. "But that's okay, then! If she's like us, then it's not like it's easy to hurt her. She can get out of this situation, whoever's kidnapped her, right? I mean, you don't even know what Aylen can do. She's amazing. One time she hacked into the MI-6 database just for fun. You should have seen how creative she was. They chased her all over the system but she was too fast…" I trailed off, thinking of those more innocent times.

"This isn't like that," said Nahuel.

I frowned. He seemed to know a lot more than me. "Okay. You want to find PeuChen – I mean, Aylen – just as I do. Right?"

He nodded.

"So we're going to need to share information here. You tell me everything you know, and I'll tell you everything I know. Between the two of us, we can figure out what's going on."

Nahuel regarded me for a moment. Assessing my trustworthiness, I supposed.

"Come on, Nahuel. I'm here to help. My grandfather – my coven leader – I mean, Carlisle is like the Gandhi of the vampire world. I am here to help," I repeated.

"Where is Carlisle? And the rest of your coven?"

"They're in New York. I came on my own because…" I didn't want to burden Nahuel with my personal drama, "… because I didn't know it was this serious. And I had no idea that it was anything other than a human matter. All I knew about Aylen was that she was female and that she was a great gamer."

He sighed. "All right."

"All right."

There was an awkward silence.

"I'll go first," I said. Then I was interrupted by an insect-like buzzing in my pocket. My phone. Ugh. I did not have time for emotional pleas for me to come home. I deleted the incoming call – from Alice – and said, "So, we were working on this mystery. A hacker called Mendel. He's been breaking into medical records all over the world. It was just a side project, really… See, in our world, it's about pride and reputation as much as anything. Mendel seemed like a wise guy and we wanted to mess around, see who he was. PeuChen – I mean, Aylen – she seemed to be onto his trail."

The phone rang again. "Ugh!" I cancelled the call. Alice. "Do you mind if I just show you what I know?"

Nahuel nodded. "Okay."

I approached him, hand outstretched. He met me in the middle. Our palms pressed together and I showed him everything. My emails with PeuChen91. The electronic footprint of Mendel. We thought he was in South America. She thought that he was about to find her. She said he might be worse than a hacker… I gasped. He must be a vampire, then.

"Vampire scent is here. It was strongest just after she vanished."

So we know that Mendel the hacker is also a vampire. He found Aylen and took her. This also explained why Alice had been unable to see PeuChen91 – a hybrid – and her future when I'd asked. That was a slight relief; it meant that she was not necessarily dead. I passed this reassuring thought to Nahuel, and then the rest. The code she lifted from Mendel's hard drive. My work with it… the DNA analysis, the search program for unusual medical reports, the missing London businessman Govinda Singh, the map coordinates somewhere in the middle of the Amazon. I paused my thoughts to let him catch his breath. Now it's your turn.

I lowered my hand before he did; he stood with arm outstretched almost as though asking me to dance.

I raised my eyebrows.

Nahuel smiled at me, his dark eyes all liquid warmth. "Aylen was lucky to have a friend like you."

"I still can't believe that my comrade-in-arms was a hybrid like me, all this time."

"We're a rare breed," Nahuel said.

His words quivered in my mind. I felt the stirrings of a chain reaction of thought… all the clues must be in there, they only needed to be strung together…

"I know Aylen was working on something. Many weeks ago, she asked me to come here, to Rio. I didn't receive her message until two weeks after she sent it; as you know, I live in the forest with my aunt, and I very rarely go into the town to look at my email and check my post box. Aylen told me she was in danger and asked me to help her, but she said she would not leave her computer.

"I arrived too late by a matter of minutes, I believe. The scent of the vampire was overwhelming. The trail led out the door and to the street, where they must have got her into a car. From there, nothing. The house was emptied, as well. Her computer gone. Ever since, I've been watching and waiting. This house was my only link to Aylen." His face was darkened with remorse. "I'm glad you've come, Renesmee."

"Call me Nessie, everyone does," I said.

My phone rang. Again! I glared down at it. "Alice," I muttered, and switched it off.

I took Nahuel's hand again. It was the same temperature as mine. I pushed away thoughts of Jacob and instead focused on the moment. I think we have a lead. Those coordinates. I found a satellite image of that area of the jungle and there's something there – a compound. Looks like a laboratory. It was in Mendel's computer, so maybe he took Aylen there. It's totally the middle of nowhere, though; I think we'll have to rent a helicopter.

His mouth curved upward. "I hate machines. But I suppose it is the quickest way."

You hate machines? I thought, jokingly offended.

"I'm over one hundred and forty years old," he reminded me. "I'm used to the softness of nature, the quiet sounds of the forest." He winced. "I can barely stand being in the city. Don't you find it too much – the noise, the scents, the activity?"

I see your point.

"A human is approaching," Nahuel said, pulling me toward the front window. "Yours?"

My driver. We watched as Fernando walked toward the house, his face still pulled into a frown. I guessed I had been in this deserted-looking building for too long. I should tell him I'm okay.

Then, Fernando stopped. His hands shot out in front of him, panicked, and he leaned against the chain-link fence. His face swiveled this way and that, as though he was looking for something, but unable to see.

Two things slammed my awareness into overdrive. First was the odd shimmering of the air outside, like a heat mirage. Second was the fresh, right here scent of a vampire.

Next to me, Nahuel went rigid and spun around, hissing.

I grabbed my phone and turned it on. Hurry, hurry! I thought as it booted up and dinged and showed the graphic of a butterfly and all kinds of rigmarole. Hurry! My ears and nose worked like crazy, knowing that the vampire was almost upon us. No, there were two of them, two distinct scents, two feathery sets of feet. Two against two. I hope we can take them…

There was one text message on my phone from Alice. I forced my frightened eyes to look at the message.

URGENT Ness! Whatever you're doing, stop it!! I saw Edward and Bella dressed in black at a funeral. Think it was yours. PLEASE. Run away, stop what you're doing. You're in danger. I love you. Alice.

Fresh terror washed over me. Nahuel felt it when I grabbed his elbow. We should run, I thought.

"We should fight. They might tell us where Aylen is."

Outside, Fernando the driver struggled and fell as though he didn't know up from down.

Then I heard, rather than saw, the slow approach of a vehicle on the street.

I pressed the call button on my phone, to Alice. It took a minute to connect, the signal bouncing up into space, off satellites, reaching for my family back in America…

The back door creaked, and I froze.

They were in the house. In the kitchen. The gentle swish of fabric, the slow and even breathing…

I heard Alice's voice say, "Ness?" but I couldn't speak. It was time to fight.

The speeding of our hearts was synched together, Nahuel and I, as we turned to meet them.

But when I saw who it was, I knew it was all over.

One tall vampire in grey silk, his red eyes fixed on me. I didn't know his name, but I knew who he worked for, and I knew what he did. He was a tracker.

The other I did know. He was slight of frame, ghosting across the floor, a tiny smile of delight on his pure face.

Alec.

Volturi.

I saw the shimmering of the air creeping toward me. My hand was clasped around Nahuel's, but I knew he could do nothing. I had one last thought before the world dissolved into a numb black nothingness.

I wanted my mother.