"Okay, I'm going to go with truth." Cecilia asks, laughing with her friends.
"Oh this should be interesting… How many boyfriends, or girlfriends, have you had?" Paul asks, sitting back against the log across from Cecilia. Cecilia tries not to look at Seth as she answers, knowing her face is bright red.
"I have only had one boyfriend. Unless you count the one that I had in fourth grade."
"What? No! I don't believe it one bit!" Renesmee argues from her seat on Jacob's lap.
"It's true! I've only ever had one real boyfriend." Cecilia shrugs and tries to move on, "whose turn is it?"
"What was his name?" Paul presses on.
"That wasn't part of the question and it isn't any of your business. Quil, your turn! Truth or dare?"
"Okay, I'll go. I pick dare of course." Everyone rolls their eyes and laughs a little bit.
Cecilia grins a little bit and leans in, "I dare you… to strip to your underwear and dive into the snow for five seconds." Quil laughs and asks if that's it. "That's it. That's all you have to do. Come on!" Quil jumps up on the stump he'd been sitting on and begins to strip.
"Woo! Take it off baby!" Paul yells out to him, laughing along with everyone else. Quil strips to his boxer shorts and runs into the snow, flopping down on his back into the snow.
"Five… Four! Three!... Two!... One!" The group calls out the count down, all laughing in between the counts. Quil jumps up at the end and runs back over, trying to brush the snow off of his back.
"That is slightly chilly! But it sucks more that it's wet!" Quil grabs a handful off his shoulder and lobs it at Cecilia who dodges out of the way at the last second. The gang lapses into side conversations as Quil dries off and pulls his clothes back on. Renesmee tries to get more information about her mysterious ex-boyfriend out of her but Cecilia dodges her, standing up to go and get more hot cocoa. As she pours the cocoa, the wolves all tense up and look up towards the woods. Renesmee does the same. Before Cecilia can ask what's wrong, their cozy gathering is interrupted by three dark figures who come in far too fast to be humans. Vampires.
Cecilia barely has time to register them before she is grabbed by one of them, a hand around her neck and an arm tightly around her waist. Jacob holds up his hand and barks an order not to attack. The rest of the wolves shift into their form, making a tight circle around the imprints. Jacob and Renesmee step forward, both of their bodies tense and ready for a fight. The lead vampire steps forward and pulls down his hood, revealing a dark head of hair.
"So sorry to interrupt your little gathering. We just wanted to talk to dear Cecilia if that's alright." something about the voice sparks a memory in Cecilia, like she should know it but it sounds off.
"Let go of her and we can talk. Don't let go of her and, well we're going to rip your head off Bloodsucker." Jacob spits the last word, clearly trying to gain control of the situation.
"No, no, no. Don't worry. We aren't going to harm her. Unless one of you does something stupid. Then we'll snap her neck like a twig." The vampire holds up his hand and snaps once. The vampire holding Cecilia tightens his grip on her neck and she gasps for air.
"Listen to them!" Cecilia gasps out, grasping at the hand around her neck even though she knew it was pointless.
"Good advice as always Cee. Now, tell your mutts to back down." The vampire and Jacob stare each other down before Jacob looks away and gives the silent order. The wolves stop advancing but keep their tight circle, letting out the occasional growl. The lead vampire drops his hand and the vampire holding Cecilia releases her neck slightly. She coughs and gasps for air, knowing that her neck would more than likely be bruised from that.
"What are you doing here, Roman?" The lead vampire turns to her and sure enough, it's her friend from New York, Roman.
"So you do remember your friends from New York? Interesting because we haven't heard from you in quite some time. We've had a hard time tracking you down." His now scarlet eyes stare at her and his face smiles mockingly at her.
"Wait, Cece, you are friends with these creeps?" Renesmee asks her, a look of betrayal on her face. "You knew vampires before you came?"
"He wasn't a vampire before I left, I can promise you that. What are you doing here? Did Vincent send you? Or are you working for someone else now?" Cecilia glares at him as he takes a few calculated steps forward. Seth lets out a growl of anger and his entire body tenses, ready to pounce on him.
"Very, very good. You were always smart. It's one of the things I liked about you." He reaches out and his cold finger trails down her cheek, sending a nearly unbearable cold down her spin. "Like I said, we had a hell of a time looking for you the past month and a half. Your poor, poor Social Worker tried so hard. In the end though, we got it out of her." Roman and his goons share a laugh which holds no humor. She guessed that the other two were Evan and Tristan, his main two followers from New York.
"If this is about the money I lost for Vincent, let me go and I'll go get it from my house. I just don't have it on me." Cecilia tries to keep her voice steady, shaking to the core.
"Shh Cee. After all this time you should know that Vincent likes you. He wouldn't track you across the country for a few hundred bucks. No, this is much bigger." Roman steps away from her and looks toward Jacob and Renesmee.
"Cecilia, who is this guy? Who is Vincent?" Jacob asks the question they were all probably thinking.
"Oh, so they don't know?" Roman looks between Cecilia and her new friends, amused. "Oh this is good. This is really good. Go on, tell them."
"This is Roman Dioge, an old 'friend' from New York. I'm guessing this is Evan and Tristan, his two lackeys. Vincent… Vincent is- was-"
"Her mother's drug dealer! Dun dun!" Roman loudly reveals, grinning from ear to ear as he does so in a dramatic flourish. "And what else was he, Cee?"
Cecilia closes her eyes so she doesn't have to look at anyone as she says this. "And my boss." Renesmee and a few of the Imprints audibly gasp at this, completely shocked.
"Very good. Now, we weren't just friends, were we? We were lovers, partners in crime." Roman grins and squishes her cheeks before letting her face go.
"We weren't lovers. We dated for a bit, that's all." Cecilia glances at Seth and her heart nearly breaks. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not-"
"Being honest with us? You really think we give a crap Cece?" Renesmee asks, finding this all hard to believe. "Listen, Roman or whatever your name is, what do you want? Because the pack has very little patience for this and are about to rip off your damn heads."
"I like that one. She's feisty." Roman grins and crosses his arms, "I just came to give a nice little greeting to Cee is all - that was her dealer name by the way. Vincent says hello. Oh, Spotty does too. Who else was it boys? Oh yeah… Your mom says hi." Roman flashes his fangs as Cecilia's eyes widen in shock. "That's right, your mom isn't dead… well technically she is. Anyway, we just came to say that they'll all be seeing you very shortly my dear and just can't wait to catch up!"
"My mom-"
"Now here's what is going to happen mutts. We're going to take Cecilia here for a little run through the woods. You're not going to follow. You follow and we will rip her head from her body faster than you can snap your mouth shut. When we reach a safe distance, we'll ditch her and you can come and get her."
Jacob's fists clench by his side, "how will we know when you're there?"
"We'll let you know when. Don't you worry about that little duck." Faster than Cecilia can blink, he takes her into his arms, holding her so tight her bones begin to ache. "Chat with you lot later!" The three vampires take off at a blinding speed. Jacob shifts as they leave and barks an order not to follow, not wanting to risk anything happening to Cecilia.
Cecilia squeezes her eyes shut, her heart pounding in her ears and tears stinging her eyes. They soon come to a stop at the top of the cliffs. Roman puts her down and she proceeds to puke up all the hot cocoa she'd had into the bushes there. Evan and Tristan jump into the water below but Roman sticks around. Cecilia wipes her mouth and turns, looking into a face she once knew.
"What happened to you?"
"Now, now. You'll learn that later. We can't ruin the surprise! But I will be seeing you soon. You'll know when to come and see us." Roman grins and places a kiss on her cheek. He pulls a match from his pocket and lights a firework. He had always liked pyrotechnics when he was human. He sets it off and jumps into the water, yelling in Italian before he hits the water. The firework shoots into the air and goes off, causing Cecilia to jump from the loud noise.
"Now my secret is out… Wonderful."
