(AN) This happens after Delilah leaves and before she comes back in the last chapter. It's her wondering about what's going to happen to them and remembering things from her past. Gotta love Liley! The song is from the Fox cartoon move "Anastasia". I imagine that kids would still like it in the future. I know I did!

Interlude: Delilah's December

I remembered. I remembered silver in the air, lying on the ground. I could remember being warm, safe, and happy. It was late, the snow sparkled in the air.

"Echo." I whined, turning to face her. We were on our porch, dressed in our winter coats and boots, with a sweater over our pajamas. She looked down at me with a questioning look. "I'm tired."

She was about twelve then, but she didn't tell me to stop being a baby. She just wrapped her long arms around me tighter and whispered in my ear. He warm breath tickled. "It'll be soon, you'll wanna see, I promise."

"Sing." I demanded sleepily. She giggled, kissing my cheek before her warm voice broke the icy silence.

"Someone holds me safe and warm. Wolves prance through a silver storm. Figures dancing gracefully across my memory…" Her voice twirled with the silver, the most magical sound in the world. A wolf howled somewhere nearby, and then suddenly though the silver, I could see dim hulking shapes of monstrous wolves, three or four, appearing from the snowy fog as if Echo's song had summoned them. I grabbed Echo's arm and gasped in surprise. She giggled and continued to sing.

"Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember. Things my heart used to know. Things it yearns to remember and a song someone sings once upon a December…" The wolves moved forward as if entranced by Echo's voice, something I could hardly fault them for. I was about to turn back, to run inside, when the largest wolf stepped onto the porch, shaking the white from his red brown fur. His warm, laughing brown eyes met mine.

Instantly I was no longer afraid. I reached out, touching his nose. He snorted, his tongue lolling out his mouth. I laughed.

"Echo." I whispered in wonder, reaching out with both arms to the mountain of fur in front of me. "It's Dad."

"I know." She whispered in my ear. "The ones behind him. Those are…Leah, Seth, and Paul. That's why you shouldn't be afraid of the wolves, Liley. They're our family."

"Daddy." I whispered, entranced, running my small fingers through his warm fur. "Daddy's a wolf." I heard musical laughter in the background, laughter I knew as my mother's. She was in the doorway, her eyes dancing.

"Echo wanted to show her." Mom said softly. "She was insistent that she be here when Liley saw. Blaze went to bed."

Dad rolled one large eye and poked his muzzle gently at Echo's shoulder. She shrugged. "I wanted to be with her when she saw magic for the first time." Echo explained. I smiled brilliantly. Dad chuckled, ducking away from us and disappearing into the snowy night again. Seth stepped forward, inclining his neck so I felt compelled to pat his huge furry head. Dad appeared again, bare-chested like a fierce ancient warrior, his hair covered in snow. He ducked past Seth, scooping me up in his arms. Echo leaned forward to kiss Seth's forehead before taking Dad's hand as he led us back into our warm home, where mom slowly took off all of my layers and sent me back to bed, where I would dream for the rest of my life of that night.

"Echo." I whispered after mom and dad kissed us goodnight. She looked up and I tiptoed across the floor, crawling into bed beside her. She scooted over to make room for me and my stuffed puppy, playfully named Seth. "Are we magic too?"

"We're special." Echo murmured softly. "So are Mom, Eva, and Blaze. Even Aunt Bella and Uncle Edward."

"Why?" I asked, my eyes looking into hers. They were like mirrors of each other. She smiled.

"I dunno." She answered. "I don't think about it. The whole world is special, Liley. We're just special in a very different way 'cause we know things nobody else will ever know."

"But…the magic is good magic. Right?" I asked, wrinkling my nose.

"Of course it is. Everything out there at night, everything in the dark, loves us Liley. Nothing out there will ever hurt us." She promised. To my knowledge, it was the only time she ever lied to me.

Echo fell asleep that night before I did, but I remember clearly laying awake. I could hear Blaze's light snoring through our wall, Mom's gentle musical voice laced with Dad's rougher, huskier one in a harmony that could never be imitated, that I would always remember. We were safe in our sturdy house that was protected by layers of magic so strong I would never quite understand it. I was warm with my sister beside me, her breath warm on my shoulder, snuggled deep under the quilt. We were whole, nobody was hurt or upset. Darkness was our friend, not our enemy.

I'd lost everything. Gone like the snow before Echo's birthday. Ashes, dirt, and disease had claimed everyone. I wasn't even sure where my own wolf was. Had he come looking for me, only to find Eva's body and a furious, seething Echo?

He wouldn't have survived. I knew that. I had to change it.

I wasn't quite sure how I ended up at Sam and Emily's. It was a call that I answered, something that pulled at my soul, my second home growing up. I could remember Emily's face perfectly, the same way I remembered my mom's. She'd been beautiful, despite the scars, and so kind…

I sat on his porch, feeling the presences in the house. Sam and Emily were both sleeping, as were their children. I blinked up to the first window, balancing precariously on the edge. When I saw Emma and Abby, I couldn't quite see them as children they were now. I saw Abby, her hair cropped and wild, on the back of Daniel's bike. I saw Emma, so ill she couldn't get out of bed. I shook those images from my head, climbing to the next window skillfully. Sam didn't stir. He was slipping, I thought idly.

The next window looked into Isaac's room. I watched him sleep, my eyes wondering over his tiny form. He wasn't even a shadow of the man I knew whose eyes were always marked with a permanent tattoo of sadness and regret. I wonder if he saw the same things in my eyes when he looked at me.

I hoped he didn't.

It could still be changed.

Echo had never been afraid of the darkness, after all, not even when it finally claimed her.