AN: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

Chapter 11 Meeting

Laurent knew that Victoria was up to something. He always recognized that not only was she not James' mate but there was something extra evil about her. James and Laurent were turned under the same circumstances. When he met James in 1966, he was already with Maria for two years.

In this army, you were a servant until Maria let you go. It was his idea to just bide his time until that happened but then he'd been partnered with the tracker who had unparalleled senses and was completely lethal* but was surprisingly gentle. Even though James was a skilled tracker and a fierce fighter, he was not malicious and mostly chose to 'feed' on the dregs of society. It was for this reason that he befriended James when he was thrust into this world. It was his ties to James that helped him to make it through the last four decades.

He knew that his time with Maria was coming to an end. He had decided to run away from her. On one of their trips, Laurent had met his mate but he had yet to tell James because he didn't want Victoria to know. Her name was Irina and even though she was a succubus, she was his mate. She was different than him in that she and her coven only fed on animals. He had only heard of one other coven that lived like that.

It was about twenty years ago and Maria had sent them to procure a nomad named Bree. Bree lived in Tennessee. She was fifteen when she was turned. Her sire promised her to Maria because she was a very powerful vampire and he owed her. Bree is able to magnify any vampire's gift. For this particular job, Maria had demanded that Victoria stay behind. On this trip they came across a male vampire named Emmett.

He was in the woods wrestling with a bear. When they approached him, they thought that a fight would break out but Emmett talked to them, explained why he had golden eyes and they parted ways. He didn't want to know who they were or why their eyes were red.

Laurent had no idea what made him even think of Emmett except that when he did, he realized that the vampire scents that they had come across, one reminded him of Emmett. He quickly reminded James of that and together they decided to venture into town and follow the scents until they found what they were looking for.

Later that day...at the Cullen House

Everyone was sitting around the house having a normal day; as normal as it could be with a mixture of wolves, vampires and humans in one place. Carlisle and Esme were in their room spending time together in companionable silence as they both worked on separate projects.

Emmett had an epic wrestling match going on with Paul, Jared and Quil, some of the wolves, on the Xbox.

Edward, Bella and Seth were in Edward's room listening to music. Seth was one of the younger wolves, he had taken a liking to Edward and he already loved Bella.

Rose was in the garage with Jake and Sam tinkering on cars.

The imprints- Emily, Leah, Rachel and Kim, along with Charlotte were all in Alice's room having a fashion show.

Jasper and Peter had confronted Embry and now they were in Carlisle's study talking. Jasper could always feel this unresolved tension in the young shifter's emotions and Peter knew that something was agitating him so they agreed to coax him into talking about it. It turned out that Embry did not know who his father was. When he phased, it became apparent that his mom had lied when she said that his father was from the Makah tribe. There were four men that were suspects, three of which were married when Embry was born, (Billy Black, Joshua Uley and Quil Ateara), but the fourth man, Matthew Clearwater, Harry's brother, wasn't and never had been. Peter and Jasper vowed to help.

"Hey, man, what do you have to eat around here?" asked Paul. All the werewolves' ears perked up and their stomachs growled at the question.

"Hungry Seth?" asked Bella as she rose from the bed to go to the kitchen. She realized that she was getting pretty hungry herself so she decided to fix up something for the whole crew. On the way to the kitchen, she stopped in Alice's room and enlisted the help of the other girls. While the women were in the kitchen fixing a huge lunch for everyone minus the vampires, there was a knock on the door.

"Bella, love will you stay in the kitchen while….." Edward.

"Babe, stay in the kitchen, ok…." Paul.

"Baby, don't come out here…." Sam and Jared.

The guys all started talking at once. They were all trying to protect their mates from the two strange vampires at the door. It was Jasper and Emmett that opened the door.

"Hello", Laurent greeted Emmett at the door. "I don't know if you remember me, but….."

"Yeah, man I remember you but what are you doing here?" Emmett was not comfortable around vampires with red eyes unless he knew them. He remembered meeting these guys but he also remembered getting away from them as quick as possible.

"Perhaps we can come in and explain everything?" Laurent requested. "We mean you no harm. In fact, we think that we might have some information for you."

"Maybe we should take this conversation outside", Edward suggested. He could hear, in the wolves' heads that they were getting agitated because of the proximity of strange vampires to their mates; he was feeling the same concerning Bella. To keep down the animosity, Edward, Jasper, Peter, Emmett, Carlisle, Sam and Jacob went outside to converse with Laurent and his friend.

"I am Laurent and this is James and we work for a vampire named Maria. She sent us here to scout out and find a vampire called the "god of war." As soon as he finished his speech, Jasper and Peter went immediately into attack mode. It took Emmett and Edward to stop them. Jasper realized a few things at that moment. One, these vampires had no intention of attacking them. He felt no animosity coming from them, only sincerity and anxiety. They were actually a little apprehensive but determined.

"I apologize, when I heard the name Maria I acted without thinking. I am the vampire that you are looking for and I have no intention of going with you without a fight." Jasper informed the visitors.

"Son, please. Let's just hear what they have to say and decide from there.", said Carlisle to Jasper. Perhaps, you should just tell us what you have in mind?" Carlisle, the ever-present peacemaker addressed the visitors.

"Listen, man we understand completely. We were drafted into this army against our will." James and Laurent told their stories and Peter and Jasper agreed with them that the life they described is the one you live with Maria and the only way to get away from her is to run away.

They continued to discuss Maria and their mission to find Jasper and bring him back to her. The Cullens wanted to know what the resolution would be. Jasper vowed that he was not going back to Maria. Before the discussion was over, James and Laurent had switched their alliance. They enlisted the help of the Cullens and the wolves to help them get away from Maria in exchange for them not reporting to her that they had indeed found who she was looking for.

One thought was in the forefront of Laurent's mind-Where is Victoria? What is she up to?

*line taken from Twilight.

This chapter took some time to write because I was trying to find a way to get James, Laurent and the Cullens together. I also wanted to give some more insight into Laurent.

Sorry for the delay in updating. The next chapter is in the works but it may be awhile before I update...internet issues, that are being worked out as we speak. I will finish this story, it's just going to take awhile.

Thanks for reading. MJ