Thank you very much for the reviews, Fire and Ice 22, Mrs. Calearohte, WolvePackForever and KittyPimms!

Mrs. Calearohte, I'm glad you like Leah this way. I was a bit afraid that people wouldn't like the 'nice' Leah.

KittyPimms, I needed that satisfaction of Andy getting punched, too :D

Family secret

"Would you explain how the hell they were able to gain your trust and even befriend you? I thought they were your enemies," Basti asked.

Leah and I shared a look.

"It's complicated," Leah shunned the answer. It would be difficult to explain without telling what we really were and what Nessie was to Jake. I tried nonetheless.

"Our ancestors made a treaty with them when the Cullens showed up in Forks for the first time. At that time they outnumbered the protectors of our tribe and would have easily defeated them. Because of their vegetarianism our ancestors agreed to a truce as long as the Cullens stayed off our lands and didn't bite a human. When they came back, we still weren't enough to take them on and the treaty was still valid. Bella was a human at that time and wasn't our stepsister yet. She fell in love with Edward. But she was also friends with Jacob, who's one of us. He had a major crush on her, but she chose Edward.

Unfortunately, the Cullens attracted the attention of other hostile vampires. Some of them targeted on Bella and Jacob wanted to protect her just as much as Edward, so we allied with them for the first time. We didn't really trust each other at that time which made it a difficult collaboration. There was an army of strong newborn vampires coming to kill Bella. We led them to a large clearing where we wanted the battle to take place. Edward went into the mountains with Bella because he didn't want her anywhere close to the vampire who led that army. I went with them because I was young and inexperienced and our leader didn't want me in the battle either. However, the vampire who was out for Bella left the army at the battlefield and found us together with her mate. Edward and I defeated them together. That was the start of our friendship. Having fought alongside him, both of us saving the life of the other one, I couldn't see him as an enemy anymore.

The others didn't understand that, but I ignored them and in the following six months I became quite close to Edward. During these months he married Bella and on their honeymoon she got pregnant. The half-vampire grew extraordinarily fast inside of her and made Bella sick. I'll spare you the details. Sam, our leader, was of the opinion that we should kill Bella, because we didn't know what exactly grew inside of her. Jacob was completely against it. He was the rightful leader since his grandpa had been a leader, too, but he hadn't wanted that role up to then. Sam was determined to kill Bella and so Jacob stood up to him, claimed his right not to have to obey him and left. I followed him, because I didn't want to fight the Cullens and Jacob was my idol at that time. Leah followed me although she hated the Cullens, because she was quite protective of me. So we formed a group of three and allied with the Cullens once again. We didn't look forward to a fight against our friends. Fortunately they delayed the fight and decided to kill the baby or whatever Bella gave birth to.

Bella nearly died when Nessie was born, but Edward changed her in time to let her continue her life as a vampire, which she had wanted anyway ever since she had been with Edward. Now comes the part that will be the most difficult for you to understand. When Jacob saw Nessie for the first time, he felt a bond to her. He knew she was his soul mate. He would have protected her against anything and everything. Being Jacob's soul mate, the others couldn't kill Nessie anymore. A half-vampire grows very quickly and today Jacob and Nessie are engaged. With that connection between them and us it was unavoidable that we'd become close. Then our mother married Bella's father which made Bella our stepsister. The Cullens were grateful for all that we'd done for them and helped Leah and me out with the capital for our restaurant."

Contrary to Leah who avoided looking at Basti too often, I had seen him glancing at her when I was telling them about Nessie being Jake's soul mate. I remembered what Jasper had told me about his conversation with Julia where Basti told her that I was probably the best that could ever happen to her. How much did he really know about us? Was I interpreting too much into it and he didn't have a clue about imprinting? If he knew about imprinting, did he also know what we really were?

"Last year we got into quite some trouble and the Cullens helped us out of it," Leah added. "Seth," she glanced cautiously at me and I nodded for her to continue, "and two others were captured by vampires and they helped to free them. I will be forever grateful for that. I thought I'd lose my baby brother. And now they're also helping Seth to cope with his trauma. I needed much more time to accept it than Seth, but they really are good guys and they have their thirst under control."

At the mention of my trauma Basti turned his attention back to me.

"Julia told us you have PTSD. I've been traumatized, too, after serving two years in the army. I still am, actually, although it's been seven years now, but I'm much better than in the beginning. Sometimes it comes back, mainly as nightmares, and I can't watch war movies without going back into battle mode. I guess I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. How are you coping?"

I looked down. I still couldn't talk about my issues with just anyone. I tried nonetheless.

"I've made some improvements lately. I used to have several nightmares every night. Jasper has a talent with which he can control emotions. He calms me down enough to keep the nightmares away, but there was a time when even he couldn't keep them away. When I've had a good day I can sleep well without his help now. Other than that I'm still having panic attacks every now and then and I'm sensitive when it comes to my personal space. There is a very limited amount of people who can touch me without me flinching back. Somehow Julia made it into that small group, whereas some of my long-lasting friends didn't."

"You've made more improvements than just that since Julia joined your life. You've learned to smile genuinely again and you sometimes even manage to laugh nowadays," Leah said and continued, turning to Basti, "Before the capture he was a cheerful person who smiled all the time and made us laugh a lot. Afterwards he didn't even crack a genuine smile for a very long time. He was always miserable."

Julia, who sat next to me, laid an arm around me and hugged me closer.

"I can understand that. She always found the right words for me, too, when I was having a bad day," Basti smiled at me.

"Maybe you should become a psychologist," Marie suggested her cousin.

"Yeah, I'll definitely consider it."

"What are you doing for a living, Basti?" Leah asked.

"I'm a mechanical engineer. I'm building medical machines, mainly CT scanners."

"That's cool."

"Owning a restaurant is cooler," he grinned at her. Leah laughed.

"Maybe, but the working hours are horrible and not at all family-friendly and all in all it's a lot of stress."

"Do you already have family?" he asked and I thought I saw a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

"I have three children. Nine-year-old twin girls and a two-year-old son."

She watched him carefully. I guess she was afraid that a bunch of kids would scare him away.

"What about the father?"

"We're divorced."

"Wow. You run a restaurant while simultaneously raising three kids on your own – that's impressive."

"You don't know the kids yet. They could be ill-bred."

"They aren't," I gainsaid her.

"Yeah, I guess. I've got help though. The protectors are one huge family and one especially sees after the girls a lot."

"Your boyfriend?"

Leah laughed loudly.

"No. Actually he experienced the same wonder Jacob experienced. My daughter Janelle is his soul mate."

"How do they know that these kids are their soul mates? And what about the age difference, aren't soul mates supposed to be about the same age and shouldn't they be romantically bonded?" Marie asked.

"They just know it. That's a Quileute trait. We know when we meet our soul mate. And in case it's a child they act as a big brother for the girl and only when she's old enough do they develop romantic feelings."

Again, Basti looked at Leah with that knowing look on his face. This time she noticed and she blushed lightly.

"How do you know so much about vampires, Basti?" I asked to change the subject and maybe get some answers for his extraordinary knowledge about the supernatural world.

"My father told me. It's been passed down in my family for generations from father to son."

"Then why didn't I know about it?" Marie asked.

"Because you're obviously not a son."

"Did my father also know about their existence?" Julia questioned.

"Yes."

"Your family is lucky that the Volturi don't know how much you know. They are quite sensitive when it comes to humans knowing about their existence," I said.

"Yes, I know. We've done our best to keep it a secret. I'm counting on you and the Cullens not to spill it."

"Of course."

"Wait, you even know who the Volturi are?" Leah asked incredulously.

"Yes, I do. Though I don't know how up-to-date my knowledge is. Are Aro, Caius and Marcus still leading them?"

"Yes. How does your family know so much?"

"We used to be vampire hunters, too."

"No way!" Leah exclaimed. I was also surprised. No human was able to hunt vampires. But they couldn't be like us, could they? Evolution gave our tribe the shape-shifter gene long before we came into contact with the pale-faces. There was certainly no genetic connection to the Reichenbachs. And it seemed too unlikely that evolution had made two equal species completely independent from one another. But maybe they weren't equal. Maybe they just had special abilities that allowed them to defeat vampires. However, he said they used to be. Did the gene get lost or why weren't they anymore?

"How did you hunt them?" Leah asked curiously.

"That's a family secret."

"Oh, alright. Sorry."

"How do you hunt vampires?" he challenged, yet again I had the feeling that he already knew.

"That's a tribal secret," Leah smirked.

"Do you have a lot of female hunters? Because in our family it's always only been the men."

"No, I'm the only one that's ever lived."

"And you still hunt vampires although you are – Julia, was heißt alleinerziehende Mutter?"

"Single mom," Julia replied to the German gibberish.

"Although you are a single mom to three children? What if you die?" Marie continued her question.

"I've already retired once, but I rejoined the protectors last year. We don't get us killed that easily. We haven't lost a single hunter from the current generation in battle. The only protector who was killed by vampires was captured like Seth. I want to protect my girls and my baby boy. If a vampire ever got to them I could never forgive myself. If I died protecting them, my death wouldn't have been useless and my children would still be in good care. Like I said, we're one big family."

"Have you ever been so close to losing a fight that you thought you'd die?" Basti asked.

"We allied with the Cullens against the Volturi once. That was suicidal. We all thought we'd die that day."

"Against the Volturi? Isn't that madness? How could you survive?"

"The Cullens were able to convince them that they hadn't committed the crime the Volturi accused them of. Bella had just become a vampire and the Volturi weren't prepared for her talent. The Cullens also had gathered some vampire friends who would have made it an even fight. A lot would have died on both sides if the Volturi hadn't backed out."

"I thought the Volturi had these witch twins who would win every fight for them."

"You really know a lot," Leah frowned, "Bella's talent is a mind shield that she can project on others as well. Jane's and Alec's talents attack the mind. That way Bella suspended the Volturi's two most powerful weapons – and a few others, too. Currently there is some kind of fake friendship between the two covens. Aro wants Alice and Bella to join them, but they would never do that willingly. When he learned about us he also wanted us to join them, but of course that will never ever happen."

"What would a vampire ruler want with vampire hunters other than killing you?" Julia asked.

"The vampires don't have many rules, but when one of the few rules is broken, the Volturi kill the rule breaker. We kill vampires and most vampires have never fought us before and are therefore unprepared and ignorant to our tactics. And, well, the Volturi always want to have the edge over their opponents to be confident of victory."

"Since you didn't join them, why haven't they killed you yet?"

"Because of the Cullens. They know they'd side with us."

"It's almost dinner time. We should head home," Julia announced. This time Leah didn't try to hide her disappointment.

"Oh. Already?" she mumbled.

"Julia, don't you think Leah could come with us, too? Your Mom is always cooking too much anyway", Basti asked.

"Well, why not. If you want, Leah."

Leah's face immediately lit up.

"I'd love to."

I'll try to update again tomorrow to get back to my old routine, but the next chapter is not sorted out in my head yet and I might not get it finished tomorrow. But I'll definitely try to get it up by Tuesday at the latest.

Review and tell me what you think please!