Thank you for reviewing, EliseInWonderland247, WolvePackForever and KittyPimms!

EliseInWonderland247, I hope you're better now! If not, get well soon!

WolvePackForever, Andy is in Seattle over this weekend, if you remember, so he's not the friend. Doesn't mean that the friend's good though.

KittyPimms, decadent? :D okay... I would have never described it like that. I'm glad you liked Seth's answers :)

A hard nut to crack

We kept talking about random trivial things and told each other childhood stories. In between I heard Chris and Ben moaning and complaining about the game's outcome, Silke coming home and leaving with Chris an hour later. Soon thereafter the doorbell rang.

"That must be Archie. Let's go downstairs", Julia suggested.

"Archie? As in Archibald?" I asked amused as I got up.

"Yeah, weird name, right? His brother had an old-fashioned name, too. He died last year though."

While we were going downstairs, I heard Ben open the door.

"Hey, mate! Glad you could come."

"Hi, Ben! So, you said Julia had a male visitor that is not Andy? Is she cheating on him?"

"No, I think not. He's just a friend from La Push."

"Quileute?" his friend asked kind of suspicious and slightly alarmed. Just then we rounded the corner to the hallway. At the sight of him I stopped dead in my tracks and instinctively made a step backwards. Archie was pale white, had perfect features and dark eyes. And he looked familiar. His eyes met mine and we stared at each other. There were shadows of dark circles around his eyes. I sniffed, but all I could smell was Julia's and Ben's scent and the fading scents of Silke and Chris. Archie's looks screamed vampire, but I should have been able to smell him even from this distance. I listened carefully, but there were only three hearts beating in here. My thoughts raced, trying to figure out why he looked familiar. I tried to remember all the vampires we had fought until it hit me like one of Cora's electric shocks. Archie looked a lot like Eustace. Same brown hair, same slender body, same close-set eyes. Eustace had been a member of the coven that kidnapped and tortured me. He was able to paralyze his opponent for several seconds and he had paralyzed me several times to help Cora keep me under control. The Volturi had killed Eustace along with most of his comrades. He had died one year ago, just like Archie's brother.

My heart raced like crazy and my body started shaking, announcing my close phasing. I concentrated on breathing. I could neither panic nor phase now. I had to control myself. Julia approached Archie totally oblivious to my reaction and the danger she put herself in. I restrained myself from attacking him when they hugged. He was some kind of friend of them. He wouldn't hurt her. Right? I stepped forward and tried to regain a neutral expression.

"Seth, this is Archie. Archie, this is Seth", Ben introduced. Archie offered me his hand. I flinched surprised when our skins touched. He was as warm as a human. That was confusing.

"Nice to meet you, Seth", he said politely, but rather coolly.

"Yeah, you too", I replied coldly. Ben and Julia exchanged a confused look. I slowly increased the pressure on Archie's hand, testing him. His skin was just as hard as a vampire's and a human couldn't have withstood the amount of pressure I applied in the end. Archie smiled knowingly. Even at this close proximity I couldn't smell anything. How could someone not have a scent at all? Maybe he had a gift that allowed him to hide his scent. Then again, his warm skin confounded me. No vampire could have warm skin. That was impossible. Wasn't it?

"All right, I'm starving. Let's make the pizza!" Ben announced and started for the kitchen.

"Julia!" I held her back while Archie followed Ben, "His brother. What was his name?" I whispered anxiously.

"Eustace. Why? Do you know Archie? Have you met him before? Cause it looked like it."

"I knew his brother. We weren't on good terms though… Hey, where's a bath room?"

"Right here", she pointed to a door next to the entrance.

"Thanks. I'll be right back."

I was reluctant to leave her alone with Archie, but I needed some good advice now and some reinforcement would be calming to have. I closed the door behind me and turned the water on high. I hoped the noise would be enough to cover my talking. I quickly dialed Alice's number and she picked up almost immediately.

"Seth! We're already on our way. Keep calm, don't do anything rash. Ben and Julia have to stay oblivious. Don't provoke him. Stay close to Julia to calm your nerves. As soon as he leaves their house we'll intercept him. He won't do anything today, as long as you can restrain yourself."

"Wait, what do you mean, not today? What have you seen? Will he do something in the future?"

"The future can still change, Seth, you know that. We'll take him to task later, okay? Don't worry, this will work out."

"He is a vampire, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"What about his skin?"

"What about that?"

"It's warm, like a human's!"

"Oh. Really? Well, we'll figure that out later, too. But he definitely is one of us."

"How do you know?"

"I've seen him drinking."

I tensed.

"Whose blood will he drink?"

"That vision already changed when we decided to interfere, Seth. He won't harm Julia, I promise. Now you promise me to keep control."

"Ouch!" I heard Julia exclaim, "Damn it, I cut myself."

I was in the kitchen within a second and placed myself between her and Archie, just in time to let him bump into me on his way over to her. I started shaking again, ready to phase to protect her properly, but that had to be my last resort. Archie fought my tight grip around his arms for a split second. Then he held his breath and whispered, "Lead me out of here. Don't let go of me until I tell you to."

I had to practically drag him out of the kitchen. Although his words indicated that he didn't want to drink her blood, his body clearly showed different signals. When we reached the living room, his resistance faded and he willingly moved forward. He went to a window, opened it and inhaled the fresh air.

"Okay, you can release me now."

I reluctantly let go of him.

"Thank you", he murmured. I snorted.

"You're welcome", I mocked. He looked up at me.

"Honestly. I'm glad you were there. Ben is a descendant of my brother. They're my family and I really don't want to kill them. But my gratitude doesn't change that I don't appreciate your friendship with Julia and that I loathe you and your pack mates for killing my brother. I want you to stay away from Julia. You haven't been friends for long, so that can't be that hard, right? If you stay away, I might forget that you killed Eustace. If you don't, I'll revenge him while simultaneously protecting Julia from you. I can hide my scent. You'll neither see me coming nor can your pack mates follow me to revenge you in return."

I tried my best to keep calm.

"Firstly, we didn't kill your brother. That were the Volturi. Felix, to be exact. Secondly, your brother helped to torture me, so don't talk about revenge and hatred to me. Thirdly, I, contrary to you, am no threat to Julia. Obviously you can't control yourself, even if it's true that you don't want to hurt her. Maybe you should have fed before coming for a visit. As thirsty as you look I wonder how I was able to hold you."

"I've fed recently. I can darken my eyes to seem more like a human."

"That's your talent? To seem like a human by darkening your eyes, warming your skin and hiding your scent?"

"Yes."

Ben entered the living room and eyed us curiously.

"Hey. Everything okay here?"

"Yeah, sorry. I can't stand blood", Archie explained.

"Oh, okay…" he frowned. He must have noticed that Archie's reaction in the kitchen wasn't the reaction of a person who couldn't stand blood. And he had to wonder why I had been there so quickly and why I had dragged Archie out of the kitchen although I only knew him for a few minutes.

"Guys! Come to put toppings on your pizzas!" Julia yelled. I didn't want to have my back to Archie, so I waited for him to pass me and go ahead. While passing me, he bumped into me on purpose and muttered, "Stay away from this family."

"The hell I will."

He glared back at me. Outside the unmistakable motor sound of the Porsche approached the house and died down.

"Are you okay?" Julia asked me quietly when I entered the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How's your finger?"

"Stopped bleeding. It was just a tiny cut."

I watched that I stayed between Archibald and Julia throughout the rest of the evening. To my displeasure Julia invited Ben and Archie to watch the movie with us.

When the credits ran over the screen in the end, Julia yawned and I figured that was my cue to leave, but I couldn't leave the house as long as Archie was in it. Thankfully Ben solved that problem for me.

"Hey, Archie, I don't want to kick you out, but I've got football training early tomorrow morning, so I should get a good night's rest."

Archie got up.

"That's okay", he said and continued in a low volume only I could hear, "do you leave voluntarily now too or do I have to make you?"

"I'm not afraid of you", I muttered back. However, I got up and announced my leaving. I wanted to be there when Jasper and Alice caught Archibald. We left the house together in fake peace. The second the door closed behind us the atmosphere changed into open animosity. We watched each other attentively, ready to repel an attack. We both knew that a fight in the middle of the street would endanger the exposure of our species' existence, therefore neither of us dared to make the first move. Without him noticing I directed us towards the Porsche, in which Alice and Jasper were waiting. When we were beside the car, the doors opened and Archibald found himself encircled quicker than even his vampire senses could notice.

"Hello, Archibald", Alice said rather friendly. Archibald glared at the Cullens and then at me.

"I should have known. Where a Quileute shape-shifter is, are the Cullens not far. Though I thought you'd moved away."

"Well, we're about to move back", Alice retorted.

He grumbled.

"If you're trying to clean the region from others of our kind, you'll find me a hard nut to crack."

Alice reached out for him a split second before he quickly turned and jumped over the car, but still she wasn't fast enough to catch him. Jasper and Alice rushed after him immediately. I stripped out of my clothes and tossed them into the car before I phased and darted after them. They were already out of sight, but I could smell Alice and Jasper and as long as they didn't lose sight of Archibald I would be able to catch up to him. Not for nothing was I the brother of the fastest shape-shifter.

I caught up with Alice just behind the borders of Port Angeles. Jasper had reached Archibald and was struggling with him.

"Don't kill him!" Alice begged when I overtook her. Just then Archibald let Jasper crash into a tree and I could see his skin cracking. He was momentarily unable to move and Archibald took his chance to escape. I was hot on his heels and I heard Jasper rejoining the chase after he had finished healing. I growled frustrated when Archie jumped up into the trees and continued his flight there. From my nightly checks on Julia I had gotten to know this forest quite well. And I knew we were headed towards a clearing. It was a small clearing and Archibald would be able to cross it with a well-aimed wide jump. But contrary to the dense forest I would be able to jump in between.

I could already see the open space ahead of us. I kept my eyes on Archibald as much as possible without running into a tree. The correct timing was important. I had to wait for him to actually jump as to avoid that he guessed my plan and rounded the clearing instead. I also had to foresee his air route as to aim perfectly and jump with the right force. He seemed to know the clearing too because he didn't falter at all, but jumped confidently towards the other side. I pushed myself high up into the air. My front paws landed right on his shoulders and forced him down. He managed to land on all fours but I was on his back and my weight pressed him down onto his stomach. My jaw closed around his neck, my teeth not yet piercing his skin, but close enough that he didn't dare to move.

So, what do you think? Is Seth going to kill him? What did Alice see in her vision? You'll find out on Monday!

Please review!