Prey: Explanations Are Probably Overdue

A/N: Oh my gosh! Have I seriously not updated since August? Sorry! And BTW, there will be Breaking Dawn spoilers from here on.

Watch out!

Disclaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer, and I'm not making a profit.

Amanda had never felt more alive since becoming a vampire. Never more...normal. Loved. The bewildering array of emotions in her system caused her to be a little sloppy, and she didn't even think about the horrible taste of rodent in her mouth, how the putrid blood dripped all over her clothes. She had people in her life. Uncle Howard. Tom. David. The Watch.

She stopped herself after making the list- now why did David keep filling her head?

Even when she was on the plane, she had caught herself imagining what life would be like if she could live normally, as a human, with a family. In the spot of the husband, there David was. David. She didn't even know him! Not the slightest! Their relations had only ever consisted of the following: She had knocked him unconscious, and dragged him to his apartment. He had tried to kill her a couple times, and then she had come over to his apartment a second time to be handcuffed and questioned. Then there was a plane ride and a meeting with Tom, which didn't involve David at all. Still, every time she smelled him when he got near and she wanted to just rip his throat out and drink from the bloody stump of his neck...

She also wanted to hold him close, and tell him how much she loved him.

Love. Not an emotion she had ever thought would figure much into her life plans. Love was reserved for humans who weren't mixed up in vigilantism. For normal people.

But she kept remembering Bella Swan- Bella and her gloriously improbable relationship with Edward. Edward, who was decades older, who told her that he wanted to drink her blood more than anyones.

If they could do it, why couldn't she? She had gotten better with her control, and he would understand her career of killing vampires. It seemed like a perfect match.

Except... how would he respond? If she were to confess her feelings, tell him that she wanted to be together forever, would he be disgusted? She was a vampire, and it was also his job to clear the earth of her scum. He might tolerate her for her decency, and maintain relations on a friendly level, but would her affliction kill any chance she had with him? Amanda remembered when she had first seen Bella and Edward together. How could she kiss those lips? She had thought. How could she not think about the atrocities brought about by his hand? But it was more probable for Bella, because she had never lost family to the creatures, never wanted to see them die, writhing in flames.


Amanda thought long and hard for a good length of time, sitting in that sewer. She grabbed another rat, staring at it with a speculative expression. Would the same mouth that loved to tear flesh and guzzle blood be capable of kissing? She wasn't sure. But she had to try. She would make it work. She would leap, and hope for all that was good and pure that she wouldn't fall.

David had his head in his hands, sitting at his hotel room. He was fighting emotions and battling with his thoughts. How?: Why? There was no logic in loving a vampire. She drank blood. She was beautiful. Marvelous. She could kill you with the lightest touch. She was funny, charming. She was the result of his biggest mistake, and would never forgive him if she knew. But how could he not tell her? As he was thinking more dreary thoughts like this, a soft knock came on the door. David tried to bring a normal look to his face before answering, and was shocked by who stood there.

Amanda, looking like Amanda, looked even paler than normal in a black coat. She took a hesitant step in the room. "Hello." She said quietly. "Can I stay here tonight? Tom gets anxious around me anyways, and I don''t want to risk getting flamethrowered in the night." Dumbly, David motioned inside with one of those mumbled "of course, of course. Come on in." She sat on the couch, and David saw that she looked more nervous than he had ever seen her. Generally she was so calm and collected. She wasn't one for displays of weakness. He sat down next to her, and groped for a topic of conversation. "How was... Hunting." he started lamely. Amanda smiled. "You really want to talk about that? It was fine, I guess."

She looked at her hands a moment, and seemed to gather her courage. "I never told you about the vampires I was tracking before I came here. There was a family of seven, and they lived in Washington." David was shocked, as you would expect. "Seven?" She nodded, warming to the story now that she had his interest. "Yeah- I was really nervous about going, and then when I got there, five of them were going to the high school. They didn't kill humans, as I learned when I went to their house to try to kill them. One of them, Edward, had a human girlfriend." David froze. Where did this story lead? Was he hoping too much that she was saying what he thought?

Amanda didn't look him in the eyes. "Her name is Bella, and she knew all about their family. They were engaged when I got there. By now they're probably married." She seemed to think a moment. "So if you ever think there's a coven of eight causing trouble, and their last name is 'Cullen' don't bother them." "I'll make a note of that." David said dizzily. Amanda looked at him, biting her lip. "I haven't been completely honest with you guys. I don't just change my appearances. I also change others. Hold out your hand." He did so, not the least warily. Amanda focused, and his hand became softer, and the nails became pink, like a womans. After a moment, it was back to normal. David turned to face her. "Why are you telling me all this?" he said, heart thumping louder and faster. She hoped that Amanda couldn't hear that. Amanda stared at him full on. "I think I- I might really like you."

David's heart stopped, and he fainted. Amanda grabbed his body, thinking she had killed him. But he regained consciousness in a second. The sudden closeness of their bodies frightened both of them, and Amanda ran to the other side of the room. David stood, unsteadily. "Amanda-" there was pain in his eyes, and fear. Amanda was repulsed by her impulsive confession. "Ugh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you. I-" But she was cut off by David, who ran across the room to her, grabbing her shoulders. "Amanda- I feel too terrible. I've been keeping secrets of my own. It's my fault your parents are dead- and that you're...the way you are." Amanda shook her head firmly. "What?" He turned towards the wall. He didn't want to see her face, the anger that would be there. He started his story.

"You had another uncle- you wouldn't know him- Stewart, your mom's brother. He was a part of the Watch, and he was really good at what he did. But he got surprised by a couple of...them when his guard was down. A week later, no one had heard from him. This was twenty years ago. Then, years later, he was found in Chicago, after he had slaughtered eleven people. They kept him in captivity- it seemed almost like he had forgotten who he was. After a while, he started to recall names. Your parents were already done with him- he wasn't their brother any longer, not as this monster. He tried persuading us that he was changed- that he would find a new path. I foolishly believed him. He said he wanted to see his only neice- your parents had pictures of you all over their office. I let him out a week before he killed your parents. I was sure that he had killed you too- I didn't know you that well, because your parents didn't want you involved in all of this. I was an orphan, brought up by Howard. My parents were killed by a vampire too." Tears were streaming down his face, hot and fast. "I blamed myself for killing your family- I carried a picture in my wallet forever after that- to remind me not to trust anything like that. You must hate me- I ruined your life, and if I hadn't you would still be...alive today."

The information shook Amanda. But she couldn't find it in herself to have any kind of ill feeling. "David," She came over and put a hand on his shoulder. He shuddered at the cold, but didn't remove it. "It was your trust and openness that saved me, when you could have killed me so easily that day in the alley. Besides, I don't know if I would have acted any differently." He turned to her, and Amanda saw that he was taller than her. It seemed as if the removal of the weight off his shoulders had added inches to his height. Amanda risked everything and hugged him to her, pulling his face towards hers.

David had expected silence, bitterness, anything but this. He leaned down to her lips, placing the lightest of kisses on them. She breathed in his face, and he kissed her again. In a swift movement, Amanda had her mouth on his neck, and was about to bite. Her control had slipped. David swallowed, and his breathing became shallow. "Amanda?" he said weakly. The name infiltrated the fog of her mind, and reminded her that she had a choice. She pulled away, sharply. "I almost- oh." David tried to make his breathing a normal pace.

Amanda frowned. "This seems to be what happens in a vampire human relationship. One's always becoming faint and woozy and the other tries to drink the blood." Then she blushed. "maybe we just need to work on that." She picked his hand up, placing it on her cheek. Then she froze. "What about the Watch? Being Amanda Post is probably not enough to make my Uncle, or anyone else for that matter, ok with this." They sat down on the couch.

"What are we going to do?" David groaned.

Amanda stomped a foot on the floor, and the lights flickered. "They'll just be so eager to buy into the whole "vampire human soulmates" thing. Amanda growled. David was startled at her use of the word "soulmates" but was secretly thrilled that she felt the same way about him. "My life sucks. Ignore the pun." David wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. Amanda's eyes closed. The pulsing blood in his veins brought some warmth to her chilly skin. Amanda rested her head against his shoulder, and both wondered about what they were going to do.


Howard routinely scanned the rooms for vampires, and got a nasty shock when he saw one in David's room. It was probably Amanda, but why wouldn't she have told anyone that she had returned? There were two figures on the screen. Both were sitting down, and alarmingly close. He decided to go in to see what was going on.

He came in to see Amanda, wide eyed and fearful, sitting with David, who seemed to be taking a nap on her shoulder. She whispered in his ear, and he woke up with a start. Howard glared. "Will you explain, please?" David blushed. Amanda spoke for both of them in a quiet voice. "We're pretty much in love." Howard didn't know what to think. In fact, the only thing in his head was a single memory. Howard had gone to work with David, his newly orphaned ward of only seven. When they got to his office, there was a family picture of all the crew, including Amanda. David had looked at the picture intensely. "Who's she?" he said, pointing to Amanda. "That's my niece Amanda." "She's really pretty." David said, admiration in his eyes. "Can I go see her?" Howard had chuckled, and for the next few years it had been an office joke that they would get set up someday and fall in love.

Now it seemed to be happening, right before his eyes.

After a few tense moments, he just shook his head in resignation. "Just make sure to invite me to the wedding." Amanda and David looked at each other, shocked. This was not how they had expected things to go. Amanda laughed shakily and stood up, hugging her uncle. Everything was going too well, Amanda should have seen. David suddenly went pale as a sheet, and collapsed on the floor in a heap.

She slapped at his face, and nothing happened. "Uncle Howard! Call the hospital!"


In the ER, Amanda fidgeted anxiously with her hair. She had the thought that she should ask the Cullens what to do- they would know a solution. She borrowed a cell phone from Joshua, who was the only other Watchperson she really knew. "Why do you need it?" he asked as she frantically keyed in numbers. "I need some vampire advice." She said grimly.

Bella Cullen had been enjoying peace since the Volturi had decided that Ness wasn't a threat to their world. It was a surprise to her, then, when she got an urgent phone call requesting her family's presence in Chicago. The call was from a girl with a beautiful lilting voice, as strained and anxious as it sounded. She didn't recognize it until she asked her name. "It's Amanda. I'm a vampire, and I need you to help me turn someone else." Bella dropped the phone. Renesmee looked up from her chair at the table next to Jacob. "What is it?" She asked in her clear voice. "A friend needs help." She let Edward into her thoughts, and the Washington coven made preparations for a long trip. How serious must it be, Bella thought, If she was willing to make such a sacrifice?

A/N: Shocking, I know. This chapter went nothing according to plan. Still, review!