Leah POV

Being a werewolf, I've learned I can sleep just about anywhere. In the woods after a patrol, or in the sand on the beach. I didn't necessarily need a bed.

But when I woke up in a cell, I realized there were some places I couldn't sleep.

I couldn't remember anything at first. I looked around me and all I saw was cinderblocks and chains that were around my ankles, wrists, and neck. Then it all came flooding back, with a few fuzzy areas.

I had been at Sam and Emily's when it happened. I woke up briefly in some sort of cargo plane, before passing out again. I struggled against the chains now as I was remembering but my limbs barely moved.

"Leah?" I heard a low but frantic voice.

"Sam." I croaked, realizing my voice was weak. I looked around but found nothing but a small hole in the wall that I could hear him from. I tried to move as close to it as possible, but I felt weak and woozy. "Do you know what happened? Why can't I phase?"

"I think we were drugged. I've been trying but no luck. I don't even know how long we've been gone I only woke up a few minutes ago. Are you hurt?"

I looked down at myself. "I don't think so. I just feel like I can't do anything. Where are we?"

"I think we're at their headquarters." He said in disgust.

"The vampires?" I felt a little tremor of fear. If they had found a way to make sure we couldn't phase, our chances were low. "Do you know if any of the others are here or is it just us?"

"As far as I know, it's just us. I haven't heard anything until you moved."

"Sam what are we going to do?" I was working up to finding my anger rather than fear.

"I don't know. We have to wait until they get us and say what they want I guess. I don't even know anything about them or what they know about us."

"Terrific." I struggled against the chains for a second but I barely moved. The cell itself was small, it could only fit me. It sort of reminded me of a kennel. The irony wasn't lost.

I heard Sam struggling as well, followed by the sound of a door opening. I wasn't optimistic enough to think Sam had found a way out. He got silent like me as we waited. I smelled vampire, but for the first time I didn't visibly shake. Their drugs were good.

"Which one should we take?" I heard one of them say in a heavily accented voice.

"The girl." This voice seemed to come from a young girl, which confused me. I heard the sound of a door being opened, followed by Sam struggling with his chains again.

"Sam stop it'll be fine." I lied and tried to hide my fury as two vampires approached the cell door. One of them was large and had a fierce look on his face. The other looked like a thirteen or fourteen year old girl, and she smiled at me.

"Hello there. The masters are ready to see you now." The young girl said as the other one opened the door.

"Super." I said and tensed as the large vamp came into the cell and undid my chains. I knew any move I made to take him down would only mess things up further for Sam and I. The amount of movement I could manage made me feel like a regular human.

The vampire lifted me up and began dragging me out of the cell. I tried to memorize everything around me. I saw a small window and scowled at its size. No way to fit through that.

As I was dragged we passed Sam's cell. It matched mine and he looked a mixture of angry and terrified as I was dragged away. Just in case something was about to happen to me, I memorized him too.

I realized my feet weren't even touching the ground as I was dragged up a staircase and into an elevator. The stench of vampire was everywhere and though I felt sick and furious from it, I still didn't shake. What a neat trick.

"How did you leeches manage to keep us from phasing? I didn't think that was possible." I asked the young girl, who would have looked innocent if it wasn't for the scarlet eyes.

"A very powerful drug one of us created. It's nice to hear it's so effective."

"Oh yea I feel like a million bucks." I sighed as the elevator doors opened and I was led into a room I would have loved under other circumstances. It looked ancient and impressive with its stone carvings. The three thrones I was turned to face was also a nice touch. I always loved velvet chairs.

The little girl skipped to a boy of about fifteen, with a matching creepy grin and red eyes. The larger vamp put me in a chair that faced the thrones, and moved to the side of me.

The three thrones were occupied with some very freaky looking vampires. The one on the far left looked like he was bored, the one in the middle looked eager, and the one on the far right looked angry. Wonderful combination.

"Well hello my dear. What is your name?" The one in the middle asked.

"Pft. You abducted people without knowing their names? That's half assed don't you think?"

"Haha I love her humor. It's refreshing. We don't know your name my dear because my employees were only supposed to obtain Mr. Uley."

"Ah well now I feel rejected. So what is it you want then?"

He smiled at me and stood. "My name is Aro." He gestured to the other thrones. "These are my brothers Marcus and Caius. Do you know who we are?"

"The Volturi." I answered and he clapped like I performed a trick.

"I wasn't sure you wolves knew about us. Was it the Cullen's who told you?"

"No. The tribal elders knew about you. We don't know much just that you're a vampire authority. How western of you. So again, what is it you want?"

His smile seemed to twitch a little, like he wasn't pleased with me. "As I've said, it was your alpha we wanted but since you were there we couldn't leave you. Now that it's been done I've realized maybe it's you we should communicate with."

"Why is that?"

"Because if we end up having to kill you it will motivate your alpha to talk easier." He said as easily as if he had said his tea plans.

I smiled back. "I don't know about that. I guess it depends on what it is you want to know."

"What your purpose is."

"Excuse me?" I doubted he meant something philosophical.

"Why are you phasing?"

"It's a gene we all have, we can't exactly control it."

"But you phased in the first place because of vampires."

"Yes."

"But you've been able to control your phasing since the first time."

"For the most part." I said warily.

"So if you wanted to, you could stop."

"Yes."

"So why haven't you?" He said with a coy look and I knew whatever I said would probably trap me in some way.

"Because we have to protect the humans around us from your kind."

"And if a vampire, unlike the Cullen's, were to come through your land, what would you do?"

I saw the point of this now. I knew lying would do no good. So I lifted my chin. "We'd kill them."

"I guess you've realized what our problem is then." Caius said and I didn't even spare him a glance.

"I don't know if I'd call it a problem. As far as I've known, vampires and werewolves haven't exactly been friends. We aren't the first pack to take a few of you out."

"No you aren't. It's come to our attention though that this doesn't have to be this way. We could come to a little agreement."

"What sort of agreement."

"You have ones with the Cullen's that you won't interfere with their being there, unless they feed from humans."

"Something like that."

"We've discussed a few options. One we've all agreed on is that if we agree to make sure no vampires like us travel through your area, then your pack will do some biding for us."

"Biding?"

"Come whenever we call." Marcus supplied and I held back a growl.

"Like guard dogs? We'd what, work for you?"

"Essentially." Aro said and seemed to notice my annoyance. "As you can realize, we don't have to ask for this agreement. I feel it's merely a way we can work together happily. Otherwise we can simply keep drugging you until you see the error of your ways. It's proven to be effective."

"I think you've underestimated a few things. You may outnumber us and outgun us, but we have something you don't, no matter how hard you've tried to accomplish it."

"And what's that." Caius said with a smirk.

"Family. One we'd never leave to do your little biding or put at risk by having you in our lives. So as I see it, you have one or two choices. You can let us go and advice your kind to not go through our small area of land. I don't know why you'd want them to anyways, seeing as that will most likely make more of our kind phase, and then there's more of your enemy around. Your other option is you can kill us. And be warned that in killing us it's not just the rest of my pack that will be coming for you. It's the Cullen's too. And from what I've heard, their abilities and strength has one-upped your little crew for some time now." I gave a smile of my own. "So what's it gonna be?"

I watched all the vampires in the room look at me furiously. I wasn't sure if I had gone too far. I probably had. I couldn't find it in me to care. The only thing I cared about was the fact that my brother was most likely going to have another person taken out of his life. It made my expression bleak as the larger vampire stood to move to me.

To my surprise he didn't hurt me, but instead he dragged me back from where we came from. I wasn't sure what this meant. All I could think of was what if no one came for us. Sam and I certainly couldn't fight them off in this condition. I tried to think of a plan but all I could see in my mind was Athan's face. He probably was pretty mad at me.

Before I could clear my head I was being thrown back into my cell and the chains were back around my wrists and ankles. He neglected the neck on, making it easier for me to move to the small hole on the wall. It was as big as my palm, and I could see Sam through it. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"What do they want?" He asked and I told him everything that happened and he swore. "Leah the Cullen's aren't going to help us."

"Yes they will."

"Why would they?"

"Why wouldn't they? They aren't like these vampires. They are like us. They'll help us."

He reached a few fingers through the wall and sighed. "Then why do you sound scared."

"Because I can hide it from them but I can't from you. You're my person after all." I tapped my fingers on his and we sat there, wondering what it was we should do next.

All I could hope was that our family would help us give the Volturi hell.

Athan POV

I heard Seth whisper something as Carlisle told us what it was the Volturi had always wanted from werewolves. I had heard enough and led Seth out of the room. He looked like he could cry so I lamely searched for candy or chocolate to preoccupy him with.

"What are we going to do?" Seth asked and I braced a hand on the counter. The same question had been running through my own mind.

"I don't know. We'll think of something though." I handed him a package of cookies and he shook his head. I knelt down in front of him. "I know you're scared. I am too, and we probably won't stop being scared until she's back. But what do you think she'd tell you if she could?"

"To not worry, just relax and trust her." He said sadly.

"Exactly. She's smart, she'll find a way out of this and the others are going to help. She's with Sam too, so she's going to be ok."

"You don't know that." A tear slid down and I fought to keep from cracking myself.

"No I do. You know why? It's what I believe. I've always believed in things no one else thought was real. And technically, Leah is one of those things that shouldn't be real right?"

He nodded and I smiled.

"Well there you go. So even though I don't know if it's true, I can still believe that she's going to be ok and so will Sam. I think you should try and believe the same thing."

"I don't want her hurt again." He said. He looked back up at me and looked mad suddenly. "I want them to be hurt."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Me too. What do you say we go talk to the other people who shouldn't exist and see what they are going to do about it."

"Are you going to go with them?" He asked sounding worried again.

"No. I'm staying with you."

This seemed to be the first thing that calmed Seth, and that made me realize it was right, and that's what I'd do.

The Cullen's and the remaining members of the pack were springing into action. Kim was holding Emily's hand and tugged her over to me and Seth.

"I talked to my parents, they want me home. Emily is going to come with me. Carlisle said a couple of the Cullen's are staying in town to watch over us. Do you want to come with us? It might be easier if we are all together." Kim said and though the look on Emily's face matched mine, it was Seth I looked down to. His face decided me.

"No thank you. Seth and I will stay here."

They nodded and Kim walked over to say her goodbye to Jared. I looked back down at Seth. "Why don't you go write a little note for Leah. That way once the Cullen's and Paul and Jared find her they can give her something from you. It'll cheer her up, I know it."

Seth nodded and went to do so. I went closer to Emily and pulled her into a hug.

"We aren't going to lose them. We can't." I said and she nodded into my chest but I felt her shake.

"They've been best friends forever. Even if it's only one of them, the other is never going to be the same."

"No one would. But they are both strong apart, but ten times stronger together. They can do this."

Emily nodded again and pulled away. "I never did tell you how glad I am it was you for her."

"Thank you. Remind her of that when you see her since she has doubts."

"Not about you. They've never been about you. It's always been about her."

"Well I'll have to work on that." I said and Carlisle's son, Edward, signaled that it was time to get Kim and Emily to the house. "I'll keep my phone on, you guys text whenever you want. I have to stay with Seth and he needs to be here, but we imprints will stick together right?"

"Right. I'm sorry we can't stay but Kim's parents need to see her. I don't want her alone while we wait."

"I understand." I gave her one last hug and the two of them left. I went over to Paul and Jared. "You'll bring them back." I said it as a statement and not a question.

"Of course." Jared said but the worry in his usually happy expression made my hopes dim.

"Take care of yourselves." I said and tried not to choke up. I was finally part of a family and I felt like I was losing mine.

Seth came running in and gave his note to Paul who promised to keep it safe. "Give them hell." Seth said which made me smile.

"What the kid said." I laughed and walked them out. Edward and Rosalie were staying in town and I saw Rosalie running towards the woods to watch the house. I knew I should have taken comfort in the fact that Seth and I were safe, but my growing fear for the family kept me from feeling anything but dread.

When we turned back into the house all I could think was, what now?

"I'm not going to school tomorrow." Seth said and I nodded at him.

"I won't fight you on that. It is late though, I want you at least trying to go to sleep. We'll act like bums tomorrow."

"Can we sleep in the living room?" He asked, and I knew that was his way of saying he didn't want to be in a room alone.

"Absolutely. Pick out a movie to fall asleep to. I'll go find some blankets to make the couches more comfortable."

As I went to go upstairs to hunt up pillows and comforters I passed Leah's room and paused. I went to open the door and stood for a minute, looking inside. I went in and sat on her bed, grabbing a shirt she had absently left on her floor. Her scent clung to it, and I held it closer to me, praying soon she'd be close to me too.