I told you not to give up on me. I would eventually come back. I just needed some time. Now, while I'm doing slightly better than I was last year when my daughter died, I'm still not, and will never be, back to who I was before that happened.

That said, though, I am writing again. I have written an extraordinary amount of shit in the last week, and will be rolling out numerous updates over the coming days. However, I have a very demanding job these days, so postings will be at the mercy of my bloated schedule.

*X*

Skidding to a stop just outside the city, Demetri dropped Bella's legs since she fully came to on the run, but kept her close to his side. His arm was around her side, his hand settled on her hip, but his eyes were locked on the vampire that blocked his path.

The vampire looked at him with a slightly maniacal expression, and his voice was cynical. "The prodigal son. Such an honor."

Head high and face clear of emotion, Demetri kept his voice level. "Benjamin."

Bella, who was looking at the boy fifteen feet from them, gasped when he held up a phone and asked if that was what they were after. "Demetri, that's the phone Jade gave me."

Glancing down at her, he returned his eyes to his venom brother, his head cocked slightly to the side. "Where's Tia?"

Chuckling in his throat, Benjamin tossed the phone in his hand into the air. "Same as I... biding time by playing with the wolf, of course."

Cocking a brow, Demetri scoffed. "You send your female to face off with a trained vampire killer?"

Benjamin didn't miss a beat. "And you summoned yours to the one place she should never come while holding another so tender and sure. Which is worse, Brother?" Ignoring the gag from the much older vampire, he continued. "After everything done to free you, after all the sacrifices made to bring you back to the surface world, you ran the wrong way."

Undeterred, and saying nothing about the jab made about the human in his hold, Demetri hummed in his throat. "Do you think so? Tell me, Benjamin; where is our sire? Do you know?" When the younger vampire opened his mouth to answer, Demetri spoke again first. "Of course you don't. You're young, so allow me to impart to you something no one ever took the time to teach me, and something I had to learn on my own. The blood of a shifter does not sate a vampire."

Holding up a finger, Benjamin grinned. "But a human's does."

As a result of the statement, Bella whimpered, and in response, Demetri swept her behind him. "This human is off limits."

A very sick feeling settled in Bella's stomach as she looked around Demetri's arm at the one he called Benjamin. It was a very blank stare, but there was the emotion in his eyes that had her shrinking back, then biting back a whimper at the words that came out of his mouth.

"My territory, my human."

Benjamin, before Demetri could respond, once again held up the phone in his grasp, a smirk on his lips. "If you want the only link to your rescue, you will bite. You will sacrifice your morals, or Amun-Ra will win."

Demetri, however, didn't move a muscle. He stood with his head high, keeping Bella behind him as he debated his choices. He did not expend the effort he did, twice now, to keep her alive only to have his back pressed into a corner. He didn't owe this vampire a damn thing, but he did owe the human, and there was no chance he was going to go back on his word of ensuring she returned to America alive. Head slightly tilting to the side, his face gave away nothing as he spoke, his course decided. "You see, the problem is..." darting from his spot, he didn't give the little bastard a chance to crush the phone in his hand before he snapped it off Benjamin's body at the wrist. Demetri's fist then planted dead center of Benjamin's face, sending him flying backwards several dozen feet.

Plucking the device from the now useless appendage, Demetri tossed it the air a couple of times as he dropped the severed hand to the sand, looking at the vampire that was holding the place his nose was a moment a go, a smirk on his own face. "I promised that human she was going home, and no one will be stopping me from making that happen. You tell that ridiculous excuse for a vampire that thinks himself God, the Devil stirs. Choose your side, Little Ben, because I will be back, and I'm bringing Hell with me."

Holding his crumbled nose, Benjamin chuckled in his throat, his eyes alight with glee at the promise in the air. "The Devil shows no mercy, Demetri. Humanity made Amun a god, long before he made either of us. You have the chance to destroy it, and yet you show compassion to one that gives him the power he wields."

A brow arched high up on Demetri's forehead. "Well, that's a little melodramatic, don't you think? Besides, I'm Greek, you daft bastard. Your pathetic little pyramids pale in comparison to Olympus, and while your Gods may have come first, they too pale in comparison."

Eyes narrowing, Benjamin growled. "They are one and the same, Demetrius; you know that."

Grinning at the idiot, Demetri chuckled. "Are they? Well, the day Amun can wield a lightning bolt is the day I bow to him as I once bowed to Zeus. As it stands, however, my mate can actually do that. It's magnificent to watch, and you best believe I worship her every chance I fucking get. So really, in a contest between the two, it seems as though The Gods of Olympus are still alive and well, merely in different forms. But where, I wonder, are the Giza Gods? Where is their stake? Where is their claim on present times? My Gods live on within us, while yours... well, I've never seen a vampire that can make the sun set. Amun is no God, merely a popper pretending to be a prince, and you know that."

Having nothing else to say, and with the link to rescue tucked in the pocket of his slacks, with no warning to her, Demetri once again hoisted his little human buddy over his shoulder, not taking even a moment more than it took to secure his grip before he was off again. Since there was, quite literally no way in any level of Hell he was going to allow the girl out of his sight after all the effort that was put thus far into keeping her alive, she was about to watch him slaughter several humans, so her physical comfort wasn't really that high of a priority. While he was positive she would have nightmares for years to come from it, remembering what happened the last time he left her behind, and knowing there was not going to be a surprise guest to recuse her in his absence again, it was just something the human was going to have square with someday.

Her physical survival was by far more important than her mental stability, because mental scars were able to be healed while a dead heart wasn't.

Getting Bella away from Benjamin, him fed, placing a call to Felix to go help the wolf, and have Jade get shit ready to get the fuck out of Dodge were the only things he could give a part of his mind to, because now that there was nothing to stop him from once again walking the halls of Volterra palace, he had to give the majority of his limited focus to how he was going to stop the guard from tearing itself apart.

*X*

With his shoulder back in the socket, Paul gave in and shifted about a mile and a half into his run, snagging Demetri's jacket he took off before hand in his teeth. While he was still faster than a regular human, he could cover a massively larger distance in wolf form. He wasn't making it fifty miles in a timely manner on two legs, he knew that, so all he could do was hope the vampire's plan to have his jacket followed instead of the vampire himself still worked because Bella's life literally depended on it.

He also had to hope that the promise of a helping hand was kept, because he might be able to make the full run, but he didn't have the ability to actually defend himself at the moment if it came to that.

Even if that meant relying on Felix.

He was no more than halfway there when he felt a familiar tingle in his mind, and he actually wined out loud when he heard the sound of Jared's voice.

Dude... what the fuck? Do you even know what the fuck happened here when you and Swan took off like that? Chief Swan has already picked out your gravesite, Man.

Despite everything else, Paul couldn't help but chuckle. If nothing else, it gave him something else to focus on other than the pain in his paws and burning of his chest. This has been, by far, the most fucked up week of my life. I will say, though, if I survive our homecoming, I am never leaving the fucking Rez again, because this is bullshit.

You not leaving the Rez might actually save you. Not sure about Bella, though. Billy is doing everything he can to keep Charlie from completely losing his mind, but, really... He's pretty close to the edge.

Between having a muzzle and a trench coat between his teeth it wasn't easy, but Paul frowned at the information. He did know his girl's old man wasn't going to be a fan of her taking off like she did, and so soon after the last time she took off like that, but to actually have it confirmed as something of a gut check.

The tenor of the voice of his mind changed, taking Jared off guard because it actually sounded like Paul felt like the piece of shit he sounded like he felt like. 'We didn't have a choice, Jared."

To Paul's surprised, the voice in his softened as well. "Sam and I knew that shit from the start, Man. I know what happened now, but Paul, why didn't you at least tell US what was going on before you two took off like that? We could have helped you two on this end, if not gone with you."

Dropping his eyes as he felt the approach of someone behind him, and thank fucking god, one coming right at him, Paul sighed through his nose. "I don't know..."

It was true, he didn't. It had honestly never crossed his mind to stop by Sam's on the way out of town and at least give them the Cliff Notes of the situation. Maybe if he had, he wouldn't be in the condition he was in, and Bella wouldn't be marked for death when, or maybe at this point even if, they made it back home. The presence behind him was closing in far faster than the one in front of him, and he was tired. No... tired was hours ago. This was far past even exhaustion, and he wasn't positive he had the last twenty miles left to go in him.

If the ones following him got to him before the one in front of him, the only half assed ally he had, there wasn't a molecule in him that thought he was going to survive.