AUTHORS NOTE: Okay, so I kinda sorta ran out of steam on pretty much all of my writing, takes a while to pull out of. I've been thinking about the two years that Bella spent with Mara and 'The Pack', and a few ideas came to mind, so I figured I might as well go with it. A lot of the memories I write out will probably be from scattered parts of the story, like the last chapter after Mara went darkside, this one will take place after Mara helped Adam in New York and they all saved Bella at FBI headquarters.

-xxxxx-

This world is gonna burn, burn burn burn,

As long as we're going down,

Baby, you should stick around,

Baby, you should stick around,

-xxxxx-

FOUR YEARS AGO

Bella POV

I'd spent most of the day sleeping. Agent Carver had really worked me over. Mara had to help me shower and clean off and even then it had to be short and the water had to remain cool. My skin was still burning from the alcohol, or the pain, I wasn't sure.

When I woke up it was dark, the room was bathed in a small glow from the deck lights. I could see the shape of everything, but nothing else. Someone was leaning against the bed, I rolled onto my side to face them, letting out a hiss as fire laced up and down my body. Mara turned to me, stare heated. Well, I was sure it was her. It was her silhouette and I felt her, her closeness tended to make me hyper aware of everything.

"How do you feel?"

I snorted, "Like the quiet ones are the angry ones."

She raised her eyebrows, not following. "Agent Carver, he was completely quiet for the beginning of the interview, he didn't say anything until he went Rambo on my ass."

I couldn't really see it, but I could tell that made her frown. "Angel, I'm sorry we didn't work fast enough, we-," I cut her off.

"Stop talking, get your ass over here, and kiss me," she laughed, sitting up and pressing a light teasing kiss on me.

I pouted a little, reaching up and grasping the back of her neck to keep her from pulling away. "I said kiss me, not play with me," I said, pulling her back for another kiss.

She shifted, sliding her body over mine, putting just the smallest amount of pressure on me, it wasn't enough and I pulled her flush against me. She pulled back, needing air and pressed a chaste kiss to my lips, "doesn't this hurt?" she asked, grinding into me slightly.

I grinned breathlessly, "not as long as it's you on top of me." I could handle anything as long as I had her to come home to.

She gave me a possessive look, "I better be the only fucking one on top of you," she gave me a hard, claiming kiss, for the millionth time. She brought her hands up to my hair, tugging on it slightly and making me tilt my head back, deepening the kiss and slipping her tongue between my lips and meeting my waiting one.

She finally pulled away, looking at me through heavy lidded, lust filled eyes, "your mine, Isabella. Mine. Only mine, and soon the whole fucking world is going to know that." She pulled away, standing up, and I could just hear the smirk in her voice, "but first, were going to make sure the FBI knows that."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "you broke me out of FBI headquarters, I think that says as much in itself."

Instead of answering she said, "your feeling better though, yes?"

"Yes."

"Good enough to go for a little drive?"

"Sure," I sat up, hitting a button next to the lamp and the lights came on. I blinked through the glare and looked up at my girlfriend. "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere special."

-xxxxx-

She wasn't kidding. The warehouse we showed up to, was shit. There were two cars parked in the back, hidden out of view from the street. It was Adam's Ashton martin and Brandon's audi. "What's going on?" I asked, getting a little excited, "do we have another job?" We only ever used the warehouse properties unless we had a job. The buildings couldn't be traced back to any of us, let alone the Pack, and none of their property was bought under the same name. They had privacy and were big enough to do anything but test bombs.

"Kind of," she said, pulling me into her arms and keeping an arm wrapped around me as we walked towards the building. She had a flashlight in her other hand.

She led us inside, our footsteps echoing on the concrete as we crossed the main room. There seemed to be two floors, the first being the largest. The windows were either boarded up or painted over so you couldn't see inside, though I wouldn't see why anyone would want to. It was rather dirty in here and I could hear rats.

With only the light to guide us, she led us down a corridor and then down a small staircase into the basement, which was pitch black. I could hear muffled voices and I turned to look at Mara, who looked relaxed. She caught my eye, "I figured you'd want Vincent, we grabbed the agents watching over him as well."

I smirked. Good.

Apparently, Mara wasn't the only with a thirst for vengeance. We walked into a small room, lit up with two lights. There were five people in the room. Three were slumped up against the wall, hands cuffed in front of them and black cloth bags over their heads, two wore suits, and the other one was wearing a white shirt that was covered in sweat stains. The other two people were Adam and Brandon, both of whom were leaning against the opposite wall casually, standing next to us.

They both frowned when they got a look at me, "you feeling any better, baby B?" Adam asked seriously, straightening up. Brandon just gave me a slight nod in greeting.

"Good enough for this," I said, pulling away from Mara's embrace, but keeping her hand in mine.

"The show is yours," Mara said, giving me a fond smile.

I kept her hand in mine as I led us to our captives, tugging off the black bag of one I had no doubt was Vince. He blinked up at me, eyebrows furrowed from the glare, his mouth was duck tapped and there was blood sliding down from the top of his head and smeared across his forehead. His eyes widened and he made some sort of muffled sound.

"You tried to take me from my family," I said quietly, scanning them entirely, a feeling I wasn't ready to name building up inside of me.

He made another muffled sound, and I leaned forward, ripping off the duct tape. "I-I'm sorry, I'm so so, sorry, I didn't know they would hurt you, they wanted Mara, they didn't-," I cut him off harshly, eyes narrowed.

"So you were trying to hurt Mara?"

His eyes widened in even more terror. "Bella, I didn't mean-," Mara cut him off.

"What would you like, babe? A knife? A gun? Perhaps an ax?" her voice was laced with twisted mirth, enjoying the sound Vince made in return. She turned to him, sneering in revulsion, "you knew what were capable of and you betrayed us! You'll die of course, but were going to make you suffer a little," she turned to me, smiling sweetly, "aren't we angel?"

I returned my attention to the whimpering mess Vince had become in the last thirty seconds. "We are," I purred, pulling Mara back to me and pressed a kiss to her. "But first," I said, pulling away and lifting the hoods off of the other two suited men, both of them staring at me angrily, as if that would keep them alive.

I smiled serenely, nodding to them, "gentlemen, I'm sure you understand why you're here. Vince was ours, and you turned him. You got him to screw us over and then I got arrested. Now look at me. I look like I went ten rounds with a brick wall. Clearly, I lost."

They shared looks and I turned to my girlfriend, who was watching me openly. I slid a hand under the back of her jacket, grasping the end of her gun and pulled it out. As I spoke, I turned off the safety, "people don't get to fuck with us and get away with it. Surely you must've realized that in all of the research you've done and yet-here we are. And every time you and your little friends at FBI and CIA and whoever else decides to stick their nose in our business-we're going to stop you and were going to kill you."

I raised the gun, and pulled the trigger on the one to my left. The bullet hit between his eyes and he slumped backwards, the shot echoing in the room. Vince began to mutter incoherently and the other agent was screaming at us through his sealed mouth, he was probably swearing at me. I just grinned and turned the gun to him, he froze, eyes wide and terrified and I pulled the trigger a second time.

I turned to Mara, who smiled at me crookedly, "is that your almighty plan for the government, angel? Kill them when they look into us?"

"Why not? If they can hunt us, we can hunt them," it was reasonable. I frowned at my darkened devil. "Why do you even have to ask?"

"Because there are hundreds of people hunting us right now, baby," she said, grasping my hips and pulling me to her roughly. That was another thing about Mara. She'd touch me and hurt me and soothe me all at the same time. Whenever I was physically hurt, she'd rarely hold back. If she wanted to touch me, she'd touch me. She wasn't afraid of hurting me anymore then I already was. I loved that about her, I loved that she didn't worry.

God, how I loved her.

She kissed me tenderly, "and are you planning to track them all down?" She pressed another kiss to me. "Are you going to end all of their lives for us?" another gentle kiss, "are you going to destroy all of them?" she kissed me more fiercely, speaking against my lips, her breath mingling with mine, "will you do all that, for us?" she bit my lip slightly, no doubt opening the split in it. I tasted metal on my tongue, and she licked it, giving me a look of pure want, "for me?"

It took me a minute to remember what we had been talking about. "They want to hurt us, we protect what's ours," I stated, voice hoarse. She pulled away, taking her effect on me with her.

"And thanks to the news, there are thousands of eyes on us, millions even. That's a lot of people to find, perhaps we can make a game out of it," she said thoughtfully. I perked up at that. Mara wanted to help me protect us? Of course she did. We were friends, we were bothers and sisters, we were lovers, and we were family. Most of all, we were Pack. We were six pieces that make a whole. We had people attacking from all sides and we'd fight back. Because that's we did. We fought. And we would win. We always won.

Brandon's smooth low chuckle turned our attention to him. Adam appeared to have left the room, I had completely forgotten we had an audience. "What?"

His eyes scanned us both, "you two are fascinating to watch, although, I don't suggest fucking around in here, this place is filthy. But, please, do continue." A whimper had us turning to the blubbering mess that Vince had become.

I didn't look away as I asked, "blade?" holding out my hand. Time to let off some steam.

-xxxxx-

It's all gonna shift, it's out of our hands,

Babe if you could know, you would hatch a plan,

That's my, that's my man,

-xxxxx-

We were all lazing around in the game room. There was a huge flat screen covering most of the far right wall, a black glass coffee table in front of it and then two black leather couches. Next to the door were four arcade games, and then a cooler on the other side of the door. I was currently sitting on the couch, one leg crossed over the other, Mara's head in my lap sleeping contentedly as I ran my hands through her hair.

She had been in and out of the house for the last week or so, hunting down all of the snitches in our circuit and a few of them had even taken off when word got around that the Pack was taking out vengeance on everyone that could cause problems. Once a pattern started, the search for me had increased. Though I couldn't imagine why, it was just making Mara more anxious and when Mara was anxious, she lashed out, just not at us.

The guys had been playing Call of Duty for most of the afternoon, and Mara and I were fine with just sitting with them. Even as a group, we still didn't like being separated for more then an hour, and with all of the increase in business, we rarely got to spend time together.

Even the trip to Asia had been put on hold, though they still couldn't seem to decide whether to go to Sri Lanka or Nepal in the first place. Chris wanted to go to Galle, Sri Lanka for the cliff diving, and Adam wanted to go to Nepal to rock climb. I thought the idea of cliff diving was cool, and I wanted to rock climb too. Brandon and Mara didn't care, so Adam and Chris were battling it out.

Tyler paused the game when his cell phone vibrated. He checked it, and then looked over at us, or rather Mara, since she called the shots. "There's a costume party tonight," he said. It was a question. He wanted to go out and judging by the atmosphere, everyone wanted to. But unfortunately, with all the weird changes, going out alone or even in pairs seemed like a bad idea somehow, so we'd go out as a group, which was once again, up to Mara. Strange how everything was coming back to my girl.

Mara didn't move, but somehow I knew she was awake, though I couldn't see her face. "When did you wake up?" I asked, perplexed.

"When Ty looked at me," ah. I guess we were still overly sensitive to one another as well. I wonder if we'd always be liked this. I kind of hoped not, it would cause some serious issues. As if Mara and I hadn't been co-dependent enough, throw in a strange bond between the six of us and we were screwed. "Where is it? Whose party? Will Bella be safe?"

"It's Carson's," that seemed to answer whatever questions she had. She rolled over onto her back, looking up at me with a question in her eyes and I nodded once. I could go for a party. Holding my eyes, she smiled a little, "well, angel, looks like were going shopping."

-xxxxx-

I had kicked Mara out of the room so that we could get ready. I'm sure it wouldn't take a genius to figure out what I had bought for my costume. It was a mid-thigh length, white lace, spaghetti strap dress that hugged my body, leaving very little to the imagination. I had plain white ballet flats on. There was a lot of white. I almost wondered if I'd be getting blood on my costume at all this evening.

I'd put on just barest amount of make-up, a barely noticeable bit of glitter around and under my eyes, lip gloss, eye liner and mascara. I'd curled my hair, before pulling some of it back loosely.

My mask was white lace like my dress, it was a simple elegant, masquerade mask that covered the area around my eyes and that was it. Then I had small feathery angel wings that had cost a fortune to get in such short notice. If they hadn't been bought, I'd say they were real just touching them.

All in all, I thought I looked good. And based on the look my girlfriend was giving me as I met her in the foyer, she agreed.

Mara looked me up and down slowly, her eyes trailing fire down my body and I felt my gut clench at the heat in her gaze. She was wearing a tight strap less black dress that fit her like a glove and looked more like something you'd see in a strip club rather then a costume party. But hey, it was L.A.

Her hair was straightened and she wore a butterfly mask that hugged the center of her face, masking her pretty well. The mask itself was shiny, glittery and held an array of dark metallic purples, blues, and blacks, hints of silver in it when she turned her head. She had blood red lipstick on, her eyes were smoky and dark and smoldering and I couldn't help but find myself wanting more to whisk her away to our bedroom for the rest of the night. It was tempting. It was a close call.

"Jesus Christ," she murmured, looking me over and over again, sending more fire through me until I felt like I was burning under her stare.

"Nope, but close," I said jokingly.

"Not close, better," she said, grasping my hips and pulling me to her roughly, "much better." She leaned forward, burying her face in my neck and I felt her breathe in and then out. "Fuck you smell good enough to eat," she whispered huskily.

She bit me, and I tensed up a little, surprised, and then she loosened her mouth a little, gnawing on the spot just below my ear and back some. She sucked a moment, and then bit again, before licking and kissing the spot. "What the hell was that?" I breathed, shifting uncomfortably as my underwear got wet. How on earth did she do this to me? Tonight was going to really suck if she kept it up.

She pulled back, watching at me through heavy lidded eyes. "Marking what's mine."

I rolled my eyes, trying to play it off, but it was hard to ignore the desire flaring up at her territorial tone, "is that your way of saying I look good?"

"No, that's my way of saying that if anyone stupid enough to touch something as delectable as you with my mark on you- they're going to die," she stated matter-of-factly, I shifted uncomfortably, my body lighting on fire with her territorial behavior. God, she got me so hot when she said stuff like that, or gave me the look she was giving me now.

"We ready to go?" Tyler asked, dropping down over the ledge of the stairwell and stopping next to us. He looked us over, whistling lowly. "Damn, am I glad to have some females in the house, the view never gets old, especially when you two start going at it out in the open."

"Go away Tyler," we said simultaneously. Mara turned back to me, and smiled slyly. We didn't have sex in front of them intentionally, but sometimes we got a little carried away. Well, actually, we always got carried away wherever we were. There normally wasn't anyone in the room. Though I wouldn't have been surprised to find out they'd watched once or twice. Kinky bastards.

She leaned forward, and I felt her breath and lips on my ear and I closed my eyes. In a low thick, voice full of promises she said, "when we get home tonight. I am going to rip your dress, wings and every other article of clothing your currently wearing, to shreds. Then I'm going to tie you up, and I'm going to play until your begging and when we fuck, I'm going to make you scream my name so that the whole city hears my angel come." I shivered.

With her trademark smirk in place, she pulled away, turned and went out to the car, leaving me standing there completely turned on, wet and humming with excited anticipation.

Damn.

-xxxxx-

If we're gonna die, bury us alive,

If they're searching for us they'll find us side by side,

That's my, that's my man,

-xxxxx-

"Come on, angel, were training," Mara's voice said from the doorway. I moaned a little, rolling onto my stomach and pulling the blankets over my body and burying my head under the pillow.

I kept my eyes shut, snuggling in and inhaling Mara's rich smooth scent. She smelled a lot like a freshly rained on forest and blueberries, coupled with my own smell of freesia. It calmed me and within seconds I was drifting off again.

Until someone jumped on top of me. I huffed, scowling as the pillow was pulled from my head. "No, I wanna sleep," I whined.

"You've been sleeping all day," she whined back. "I want to play."

"Then go play," I grumbled, closing my eyes again. They snapped back open when she began bouncing the bed from above me, her arms on either side of me, the blanket annoyingly keeping us from touching.

"Please, angel?" she asked quietly, and I could just see her cute little pout, and puppy dog eyes. She was like a puppy dog at first glance and rabid werewolf once you got a good look at her, you know, when she wasn't dressed up and ready to kill. Still. It was cute. And I was a total sucker for it. "Come play with me?"

I caved. "Fine."

"Yay!"

A few hours later and we'd all driven out to one of the many private properties they had. After I'd gotten arrested, beaten and rescued by the rest of the Pack, we'd laid low. The school had false information on me, and seeing as that blew up in our faces, I'd just continued with home study. It was a slow process considering Mara was my teacher. We were pretty easily distracted.

At first it was only Mara and myself going to the cabin, but as the idea of spending the weekend separated sunk in, we all wound up packing our bags. We were still in the early stages of our co-dependency, still adjusting to the strange addiction to one another.

Mara had briefly explained it, but she basically just said all of our issues, and our understanding and love of one another eventually morphed into co-dependency that was triggered by an event (bank robbery) and the adrenaline hit home. She said a lot of stuff that broke it down for us, it made sense, but I hadn't paid attention it. I was more focused on how to function and continue our lives this way. It definitely made things a little more complicated.

I hadn't planned on returning home, why would I? I had everything I'd ever need here. I had a family, a faithful, loving girlfriend, I had an endless life of adrenaline, I was learning dozens of things every week at a ridiculous speed and I had more money then I needed. But something that was quite alarming? The issues that were coming up.

We needed to be close to one another, we couldn't be apart for long right now, and all of us were beginning to wonder if we'd always be like this. What happens when one of us wants to start a family, settle down? Will the rest of us follow because we don't have a choice? How would this work out exactly? So far, we weren't planning anything long-term, absolutely nothing. The rules kept changing, so we were keeping open minds.

"For fuck sakes Bella! If you don't start hitting back, I'm going to knock you out," Adam said glaring at me.

We'd been sparring for the last hour. Mara and Adam agreed it was best he sparred with me, Mara would be too easy on me, so she was sparring with Chris, or rather, she was kicking his ass, and that left Tyler and Brandon to spar.

"I am," I snapped back at him, glaring.

"No your not, your not even paying attention. You've been spacing out since we got here," he replied irritably. Adam liked a good fight, and he was right, I was spacing.

"Fine, I'm here, let's do this." I took a deep breath, rolling my shoulders as I got my game face on. I would love to kick someone's ass right now. And what do you know. One of the best fighters I've ever met was taunting me. I blocked him out as we circled a little, a dark predatory smile creeping across my lips. Yes, this should be fun.

-xxxxx-

Mara was fast asleep in the bed, her arms and legs all tangled up with mine, much like always. We rarely went long without touching. What could I say? She was like heroine and I was a life-long addict. I blinked up at the ceiling. My muscles were still a little stiff from all of the training.

Everyone had been restless and I kept thinking about Chris's idea to travel a bit. Somehow, Asia had become Switzerland. I was excited. I'd been born in Forks, but I'd only ever gone there a handful of times during the summer. Outside of Phoenix, that was the only place I'd visited while growing up. Then it was just L.A.

I climbed out of the bed, careful not to disturb my little sleeping devil. I gazed down at her from the doorway a moment. How is it devils can sleep so peacefully when they're such a force of nature awake?

I closed the door with a light click, before going and getting myself a coffee. It was early, a little after five. I poured my coffee into a travel mug, securing the lid, and then went outside. The ground was covered in morning dew, and my feet were wet and slicked with mud quickly. I sipped my coffee, the cool morning breeze pushing my hair passed my shoulders as I walked around the side of the house to the steps of the deck.

When I got to the top of the desk, I eyed my mug a moment and then aimed at the ledge of the attic window and then tossed it. It landed on it's side, bouncing slightly and then laid still. I jumped up, grasping the gutter attached to the wall of the house and began climbing upwards effortlessly. I probably looked like a monkey climbing this way, but whatever.

Once I got to the roof, I picked up my mug, took another drink and then sat down to watch the sunrise.

I wasn't sure how long I'd sat there, but after a while I turned to watched Brandon balance on the deck railing and then jump up, grasp the actual gutter and climb up just as smoothly. We were like monkey. Or ninjas. He tilted his head at me, and then dropped down next to me, neither of us speaking.

My mind went back to Switzerland and both of Mara's and Adam's expressions. "Mara and Adam don't want to travel," I stated, not taking my eyes off of the horizon. The sun was just beginning to speak out over the hills, setting a blue hue over the world around us.

"Did she say something?" he didn't sound surprised. But that didn't surprise me either. Brandon was always so quiet all the time. He probably saw more then Mara did.

"No, but I saw the look in her eyes," I said honestly. "Do you know why?"

"Probably the uncertainty," he said thoughtfully, leaning back on his elbows as the sun reached up a little more, the sky becoming dark purples and navy blues.

"The uncertainty?" I repeated skeptically.

He nodded once, this time he wasn't the one looking at me. "We've been different for a few weeks now. We don't know if it's just the beginning of the effects of, whatever has happened, if it's temporary or permanent, if it'll get stronger or weaker or anything really. That's why Mara doesn't want us going too far from the city. She's been sending everyone else for the out of city drop-offs. I think she's worried being in unknown territory might have an affect."

"Like? As long as we stay together, I can't imagine anything happening that we can't handle," I said confidently. We were immortal together, we were impenetrable as a group, unstoppable.

"This is different. Were used to outside forces moving against us. If we were to be ambushed while some sort of internal change happens someone could get seriously hurt or killed, Mara wouldn't want to risk it," he said reasonably. Brandon had a smooth voice, it was calm and cool, much like Mara's. Only Mara's had a low threatening undercurrent, Brandon just sounded calculated, like he'd already known what you were going to say and had planned out his response.

"Do you want to go?" I was disappointed, Mara was more stubborn then I was sometimes. If she thought I might get hurt, I knew it would be virtually impossible to change her mind. I wonder if she's always been this over protective. Though she cant be that over protective, I mean, look at all the shit we pull, she lets me in on all of it.

"It'd be good for us. Were getting restless, you've noticed. We've slept less, we all seem to wake up back to back, everyone's snapping at each other, eating less. We need to do something. We need a rush," again, the pre-thought out answer. I liked this about Brandon, he was thorough, logical, despite rarely voicing his opinions unless they were strong ones. None of the others were like this. "I take it you want to travel?"

I glanced at him, before looking back on the horizon, nodding curtly. "You know," he drawled, and I looked over, seeing a mischievous glint in his eyes, smirk in place, "if you told Mara you wanted to go to Switzerland, she would take you."

"What makes you say that?"

"Bella, the girl practicallt worships the ground you walk on. She'll do anything to make you happy, if that's Switzerland, she'll take you Switzerland, all you gotta do is ask. With our girl, you say nothing and you get nothing."

Good to know.

I contemplated that for a minute and yes, what he said was true. Whenever I said I wanted something, Mara got it for me, the girl fucking spoiled me. I grinned. Looks like were going to Switzerland afterall. I was a manipulative bitch, but we all used each other. Maybe that's one of the reasons we worked so well together. We used each other and didn't seem care that we did so.

"Mara's so still when she sleeps. It's like she's not even breathing," I said, smiling slightly, recalling her expression a while ago. It was good to see her so at peace, there was always a storm raging in her, you could feel it.

"Really?"

I glanced at him, the relief in his features evident. "Yeah, why?"

"Before you came along she used to scream and have nightmares."

That gave me pause. I hadn't known that. "You don't know the reason?"

"Is it not obvious?"

I shrugged, I hadn't known she even had nightmares. You'd think she would after what Tyler had told me about his research on her. But I just assumed she had somehow evaded nightmares of whatever had happened to her growing up. I wouldn't have been able to, but it was Mara, Mara was a God in my eyes. My own personal Goddess of death, anything was possible when it came to her. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she told me she had ash colored wings and sat the devils righthand.

"We all come from shitty pasts, but you already knew that, didn't you?" I nodded. I'd always known they had bad histories. It's all in the eyes. "Our girl's no different. We used to wake up to her screaming in the middle of the night, thrashing around on the bed. She even did it when she had Alex over once, nearly killed him too. Ever since you came into the picture, she's calmer. More rational or something."

"Mara? Rational?" I repeated incredulously.

"Believe it or not, she was far more reckless. I don't know how many times we were called in the middle of the night to find out she was in the hospital. She seems to be more careful with you around."

"Wow," I guess it shouldn't have been so shocking. Mara was a fighter, plain and simple. If it could be reduced to a fight, she'd take the fight. My girl was a brawler.

"Your good for her, I don't think she's had a nightmare since you two met," he sounded quite pleased, "and contrary to popular belief, we knew something was up when she brought you back to the house that first night. It's a house rule that we never bring people to our place." I'd already known that but I didn't feel the need to correct him.

His expression fell, as he turned back to me, "if she hadn't asked you to stay, would you have eventually left, even if no one told you to?"

I contemplated that, unsure. I remembered the day she'd sat down outside with me, asking me to stay. It was before we'd even discussed our developing relationship. We'd just been friends then, albeit, friends that slept in the same bed and each other's arms, despite having separate rooms, but still just friends.

"I don't know," I said honestly, "I wouldn't have wanted to leave. But if Mara had never said anything, I would've eventually felt as though I'd worn out my welcome."

He nodded, "where would you have gone?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't have a destination. I didn't really had one when I left home."

We were silent again for a while, the sun was up by the time he spoke again. "For what it's worth, you seem to make Mara quite happy. We all used to worry about her. Never thought she'd be capable of falling in love. Sure she can show compassion," he paused, "well with us anyways."

"How could you possibly know if she was capable of love? She's a kid," I pointed out.

"You are too," he replied, I raised my eyebrows. "Do you feel like one?"

He was right of course, most days I felt like I was thirty. "Touche."

"Neither of you looks that young either. When I met Mara, I thought she was at least nineteen. Couldn't believe it."

"Why is that? Even adults don't think I'm so young when they meet me," I asked curiously.

"It's a lot of things, your demeanor, the way you carry yourself, the confidence and self-assurance," he looked me up and down, smirking slightly, "and your both pretty filled out for your age. It's those tits."

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes, of course it came down to my breasts.

"It's a compliment, and neither of you has any babyfat," he said, re-assessing me all over again. He held my gaze a moment, and then added, "mostly, I think it's your eyes, they make you look far too old and if you weren't so short, I would've guessed you were at least twenty five when we met."

"My eyes?" I repeated skeptically. Twenty five?

"Yeah," he said shrugging. "Kids aren't supposed to be broken, when you've seen and done some of the things we have, it ages you a couple years. When you experience the things we have, it ages you decades."

"You have eyes like that," I said softly, recalling Tyler's revelations of everyone's histories the night Mara had left to get Adam in New York.

"Mm. Were jaded, babygirl, that's all there is to it," Brandon said, bumping shoulders with mine.

"Jaded?" I repeated, the term unfamiliar to me.

He smiled sadly, "were broken. Six abnormally shaped, chipped, dented pieces that somehow fit together perfectly. But it works."

I thought that over and nodded slightly. I liked that. Jaded. I am Isabella Swan and I am Jaded.

I looked him over, finding-for some reason-that he seemed older then he probably was. "What about you? How old are you guys?" It hadn't even occurred to me that I had no idea how old the guys were. They were ours, their age was irrelevant. They could've been mid-thirties and I wouldn't have batted an eyelash.

"Well, Mara found Adam first," there it was again, the word 'found', as if she'd intentionally hunted us all down or something. I didn't care, it made us all feel special, thinking Mara had searched us out and brought us home. "She met me shortly after, Adam and I are both nineteen. Chris is eighteen and Ty is seventeen."

"Well, you look older too, I would've guessed you were all in your twenties. Really, were just a bunch of misfit teenagers. I like this."

He chuckled. "Now you like us?"

"No, not just now, you guys have your moments," I said lightly.

He didn't respond, and when I turned back to him, he was gazing out at the raised sun, a small, contented smile on his face. We didn't speak again until it was time to climb down and get ready to train again.

-xxxxx-

The earth breaks, it falls and save your beat,

I'd find myself swallowed, drowning in your heat,

As long as we're going down,

Baby you should stick around,

Baby, you should stick around,

-xxxxx-

Brandon had been right about talking to Mara. We'd been having a few beers after dinner and training, Mara was currently sitting on my lap, a spot I refused to let her move from for the last hour. I'd mentioned that I wanted to go to Switzerland too, and two hours later she let everyone know we were going when we were all having a drink outside by the campfire. But there would be rules. I couldn't imagine it'd be that bad, it was Mara after all.

"What kinds of rules?" Chris asked, nearly bouncing excitedly.

"For starters, were all staying in the same room," that was a given, and I think everyone thought that, based on the looks everyone gave her. "And secondly, we do everything together. No one takes off, we stay close, seeing distance even, cell phones stay on and if someone calls, answer it. And to be clear, we will spend three nights and three days there. We still have shit to handle here."

"I can agree to that," Tyler said nodding jerkily. Wow, everyone was pretty pumped up for this trip. Or perhaps we just needed to do something exciting, sitting around, dealing and doing drugs was kind of getting old.

"Now, I've been thinking. I know the original plan was to go to Asia and these trips cost quite a bit, especially for us. None of us have really traveled and I'm sure we can all agree that we'd probably enjoy new territory to play in. If the Switzerland trip turns out well and nothing out of the ordinary happens, then perhaps we can take a trip once a month, and pull a job once a month. What do you guys think?"

That got everyone's attention. "Where should we go?" Adam asked, perplexed.

"We'll take turns picking. Chris chose Switzerland. Adam can choose next. But like I said, let's wait and see how Switzerland goes." Everyone nodded along, pleased. I tightened my hold on my girlfriend and she turned over, placing a soft kiss on my forehead before returning her attention to the rest of the group.

We were kings. No one could stop us. No one. And if they tried? We would destroy them. We might even enjoy it. I sure enjoyed protecting this family.

-xxxxx-

This world is gonna burn, burn burn burn,

As long as we're going down,

Baby, you should stick around,

Baby, you should stick around.