The next month was the happiest I had yet experienced. We did not stay in the hotel, or the town, or the country for that matter. We began to travel every few days or so. We visited Paris before heading west to Madrid and Barcelona, then headed up to Birmingham and London. Then we head to Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin, before stopping off in Munich before heading south. There, our schema broke, for had it continued, we would have visited Milan before heading south to Rome, which would have brought us past Volterra. Instead, we skipped Rome and instead visited Venice before moving on. We visited Prague and Warsaw and Budapest and Sofia and Bucharest and Kyiv and Kharkiv before heading up to Moscow and St Petersburg. It was a long journey, often traveling by foot at night, when we could, but it was something I had experienced little in my life outside of time spent with my brothers; it was fun.

We did everything that we wanted that we could. We saw shows for bands that Lissette knew and loved. We went to concerts that were more my speed that she enjoyed enough to go and sometimes more than that. We bought clothes, and I let her dress me more than once, which she enjoyed nearly as much as Alice would have. Seeing her resplendent in finery was a wonder to behold. She did not know clothing any better than I did, and knew far less the names of famous designers, but her sense of style, her artistic appreciation for what worked and what did not was enough to get some of the clerks at the higher end boutiques to nod with approval.

And, I learned about Lissette. She was far from forthright with any information about herself or her past, but was constantly trailing breadcrumbs and was almost unsettlingly open about some topics.

For example, she almost whimsically told me about the first time she got her period, which, she told me in context, was less than a fortnight before her father beat her mother to death. Her mother had been coerced into having sex with her father only twice before she got pregnant and was thus pressured into a marriage out of necessity. She was less than happy with the young Lissette, who was loud and wild and carefree, all the things her mother was not. That left her with a completely indifferent bastard of a father and an envious, jilted unhappy mother. Her childhood had been hell, but had taught her how to survive the life she would one day lead.

I learned all of this through five or more conversations, all of which required a different detail of the story to explain her point in context. I learned to enjoy deconstructing the puzzle that was this mysterious young lady, learning all the little bits that lined up with all that I was seeing of her.

But in the end, she was learning about me in a similar fashion. On our second day in Paris, we were sitting in a quaint little restaurant, and I glared at the server, who seemed professional on the exterior but was have some rather graphic and aggressive fantasies about inviting her to ditch her American tourist and violate her in the kitchen pantry for all the staff to hear. I gave him a look that conveyed to both him and Lissette perfectly that I knew full well what he was thinking and if he wanted to live the night, he better keep his interest and intentions on his job. She asked me about it as soon as he was gone, and I told her what he was thinking. I don't know if she was more amused by what he was thinking or scandalized by me not telling her what I could do. We spent the rest of the evening outlining in detail all that we were capable of.

"Enthrall?" she asked as we walked through a Parisian club, speaking so that we could hear each other over the music but no one else could. She couldn't hear that better than your average human, but her ability to pick sounds out of the din could rival a vampire's.

"Yes," I said. "I can command someone to do something, anything really. It is not an ability that I relish. While they will do what I command, the further outside their normal behavior the command is, the greater the duration and magnitude of the trauma they will endure because of it. Too traumatic and that mind will break."

She nodded, looking about as we found seats.

"So," she said with feigned casualness, "if I wanted you to demonstrate this ability by, say, having one of these lovely ladies kiss me…"

I frowned, "I might permanently damage them. I would be hurting their identity by doing that, unless they would be willing to kiss you anyway."

She waved a hand.

"But you could find one who would be willing?" she asked.

I smirked, casting out with my perception.

"Yes, as it turns out," I said. "The tall brunette at the bar."

She turned, meaning her eyes, for she was staring intently at Lissette. She recognized the way her body moved, the way she displayed herself, if only subconsciously, and understood that she might not be against the brunette's continued appraisal. She liked the look of Lisette, her style and her hair. She liked the shape of her legs and her bearing. There was little doubt to her that Lissette's hair was natural, and she wondered ideally if she had any tattoos. She did not, I knew.

As soon as she met Lissette's graze, she felt herself tense. Lissette had come here with me, that much was plain, and there was every chance that she might be perceptive enough to know what she, the brunette, was thinking and be mortally offended by it. But Lissette appraised her in turn. The brunette was thrilled. She preferred women but taking a couple home thrilled her enough that she might make an exception, especially for the chance to be with Lissette who had such pretty eyes, as well as other appealing features.

"Indeed," said Lissette, shifting in her chair. "A handy parlor trick you have there."

She gave me a look, appraising.

"Would you be offended if I took her to bed?" she asked seriously.

I rolled my eyes and she laughed.

"I would be willing to share," she said, "if you cared for such things."

I smiled, "No thank you, and no, I suppose I don't mind. It isn't exactly as though I will be fulfilling that particular need for you."

She beamed and quickly kissed my cheek.

"May I use our hotel?" she asked. "I might want to impress her."

I smiled, "Completely unnecessary. She would have me too though she has no interest in me at all, if only to secure you."

She gave the girl another long look and saw her casually heading this way. She smiled at me, "A handy trick, to be sure."

And so it went. A new city, frequently in a new country; shopping and cafes with small talk that occasionally revealed details from our past or our unusual natures; music venues and the like that sometimes led to Lissette bedding or being taken to bed; frequently meeting just before dawn at our hotel room; She would sleep as I watched over her or else slept myself; repeat.

The routine was comfortable and comfortably engrained by the time the next full moon rolled around.

"Can Children of the Moon shift outside of a full moon?" I asked just before dusk. We were in our hotel room, nicer than usual, as she ate two large meals in preparation for the night's activities.

"I do not know," she said. "Luc was the oldest wolf I knew and he was not even a hundred years old. I suppose, if they were really old, or really motivated, then perhaps. But I have been in fear of my life and about to be murdered and remained myself."

"That isn't encouraging," I said.

"Have you been outside during the day?" she asked.

I smiled, "Not since before I gave up human blood."

"What happened?" she asked.

I laughed, "Not flame if that is what you are thinking. Vampires are more and more powerless as the sun reaches its zenith. We appear as something close to our true age, somewhat gray and withered, but not thinner or without vitality. It drains our blood away and can weaken us to the point we cannot escape. Enough sun can kill a young vampire. I am too old for that, but it would leave me powerless, and a powerless vampire in the hands of humans would get the Volturi's attention like nothing else."

She grimaced, "Naturally."

I looked her over again.

"Are you sure you do not want me to come with you tonight?" I asked.

She sighed with deep seeded exasperation.

"Oui, Édouard," she said. "I am sure."

"I'm sorry," I said, walking up to bump hips with her and take her upper arms as she turned away from me. "Even if we are far away from the Volturi and their agents, I don't like the idea of you out there alone."

She looked at me and her expression relaxed a bit.

"You should not worry about me," she said. "I can take care of myself."

"Of that I have no doubt," I said. "And I would sooner take out my own eyes than quit worrying over you."

She tried not to smile, but she did.

"It is pointless to argue with you," she said.

I smirked, "I do not worry because I think you are weak; I worry because I don't know what I would do without you."

Her face became tender and she lightly pressed her lips to mine.

"You are the sweetest vampire I have ever known," she said.

"I'm the only vampire you have known who hasn't tried to kill you," I pointed out.

"Both are correct," she said, returning to her food.

I laughed.

"Are you hunting soon?" she asked.

I turned away, "I was planning on hunting tonight."

She stopped eating.

"And perhaps you would just happen to be in the area where I would be hunting, no?" she asked.

"I would just be nearby," I said flatly.

"Édouard," she half cried.

"I know, I know," I said. "I am pathetic and clingy."

She made a sound like she both wanted to agree and deny it.

"You may be sweet," she said, "but you are also infuriating."

"I know," I said. "I am not great at hearing no. Not when it matters to me."

She ate some more for a moment.

"I understand that this is important to you," she said. "I just wish what I wanted was important to you too."

How could I explain?

"I know why you don't want me to go," I said.

"What is that?" she asked.

"You don't want me to see you as the wolf," I said. "You like me to see you as the girl first. You are afraid what will happen if I see you as the girl second."

She gave me a hard look.

"Nothing is sexier," she said sarcastically, "than having a man expecting to a woman what her feelings are."

"You know I am right," I said determinedly.

She gave me a dark look that might have quelled less men.

"You have no say in what I do, vampire," she growled.

She only called me that when she was particularly angry. There really was only one way to get back into her good graces.

Quick as thinking, I knelt and caught her ankle.

"Non!" she cried, half in anger, half in surprise. I pulled her, dragging her cross the floor until she was on her back beneath me as I leaned over her, her legs splayed on either side of me. I pinned her, aggressively, kissing her deeply and passionately.

She fought, and fought hard, she beat upon me and strained against me, but the undertones of her struggle changed and changed quickly. She went from pushing to pulling, from trying to escape to keep me from doing so. I knew all her buttons, all the ways to drive her libido this way and that, but never pushing her too far. I danced my hands and my mouth upon her, in all the places she wanted, stripping her of her reservations and her ability to resist my charms.

At last, our embrace loosened and she gasped, as though coming up from nearly drowning.

"Tu es mon adorable démon," she sighed breathlessly. "Comment puis-je te dire non?"

"No?" I asked, barely teasing and beginning to withdraw.

"Non!" he protested fiercely, entwining leg and limb about me, giggling and finding my lips again.

"You said something about no," I said, trying to pull away. "I wouldn't want to do anything you don't want me to do."

"Arrêter!" she said, so I stopped, as she asked.

"Non!" she complained, laughing again. I maneuver her, teasing, needling, setting, settling her just so, and just so, gauging her moods, her words, and her temperament. I positioned her to lose interest in the argument and prepared her for my final plunge.

"Let me come with you tonight," I said, firmly and with confidence, but edged with just a hint of vulnerable pleading and a tinge of eager, thinly veiled excitement. It struck just the right cord and I felt her falter under me, beginning to give, to bend.

"I will hunt," I said, "between dusk and be back to you before the moon rises. I will stay back during the change if you want. I just want to be nearby."

She let her breath go, full and all at once.

"We are going to Japan next," she said, stating plainly what she wanted out of the bargain.

"As you say," I said.

"And you are bringing me veal tomorrow morning," she said. "A lot of it."

"I could bring you some tonight too," I said and she gave me a less than amused look.

"I enjoy the hunt," she said. "You aren't taking that from me too."

I put up my hands, "Surely not."

She took another deep breath.

"It is nearly sundown," she said. "If you wish to hunt first, you should probably get going."

"I will," I said, lifting her up and setting her on her feet. She smiled at me, unable to stop herself for long.

"Will you miss me?" she asked.

I gave her my most tender look.

"I will never not miss you, Louve," I said softly.

We kissed once more, long and full and deep. She seemed dazed as we finally parted and I kissed each cheek, her forehead, and once more her lips. She all but moaned into the kiss, so I did not linger over long.

"See you soon," I said and put on a coat against the chill Russian weather. I took to some nearby woodlands, outside of Saint Petersburg. It didn't take too long to scare up some elk, and even less time to run the animal down. I did everything correctly. I took it down with a minimum of fuss, without injuring the creature unnecessarily. I carefully snapped its neck, making sure to fully separate the nerve fibers and prevent any additional pain. I sliced cleanly into the flesh of the neck with my teeth and drained the vessel of blood. And, as it was every single time I tried to drink in the last month, it was like trying to swallow tar.

I spat most of it back onto the earth, keeping less than a third of it. It left me feeling half unsatisfied and half clogged. Three more animals later, I felt barely finished. It was a mess in every sense of the word and I really had no idea how to handle the situation. I hadn't heard from Garratt or Alice or any member of my family. Alice could get me a message if she wished. I was once walking down the street in Brooklyn and a payphone rang. I ignored it until the second one I walked past rang too. I picked up and it was her. She wasn't even in New York and had no idea where I was when she called. Now, I was getting nothing, and I wasn't sure if that meant I was doing everything as best as she could tell or if she thought I was so far gone and off my path that there was no point in contacting me. I tried not to dwell on that idea as I topped myself off with a few rabbits.

I surveyed the area as the moon began to rise. Between smell and sound, I find Lissette deep in the woodlands, surrounded on three sides by some slight hills. I come close enough that I might watch.

Lissette was nude, her clothing nowhere in sight. She was half doubled over, only upright by virtue of clinging to a tree with one hand, a vice grip that she seemed incapable of letting go, as much a method of support as it is an outlet to relieve some of the pressure caused by the undeniable pain that she was in. Her face was caught in a rictus so profound, she was almost unrecognizable. I could see individual blood vessels and muscle fibers, so clenched was she. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, her teeth gritted so forcefully that I could hear them creaking. Her breathing was all laborious panting interchanged with drawn groans and muffled screams. Then, all at once, one leg changed.

It was as though the bones snapped, rather than shifting the placement of the joints, the bones themselves just broke where the new joint should be. She dropped, seeming to try and immobilize her old joints so that they might heal straight, but it obviously hurt her too much for that. Her crooked limb started to heal, straightening itself but doing so too quickly for the old bone tissue to get out of the way, and there was a great grinding as the limb corrected itself.

Her other leg followed suit, the finer bones starting to shrink and shift with the same grinding and popping cracks. Her cries became deeper in register and more frequent. As the sounds of her changing started breaking their way up her spine, her legs fell limp, twitching and clenching by the change and by reflex alone.

She began losing control of her bodily functions. She was just able to roll onto her stomach as everything that was in her alimentary canal was voided, one way or the other, violently, and it was all she could do to keep the mess off of herself. She had a time of it, crawling away from the mess, just in time for her muscle tissue to start shredding, both to lengthen her limbs but also to increase her muscle mass. She couldn't control her limbs any more and her coccyx stretched out and became her tail, whipping this way and that.

Her shoulders broadened, the bones breaking like gunshots as her ribs gave way to grow with them. Her breasts stretched and seemed to all but disappear into the strain of her skin to keep from splitting. Her hands changed drastically in shape, becoming clawed paws with powerful, dexterous if short fingers, the nails splitting her skin as they grew.

As though that were a signal, her teeth began to grow, but there was not yet enough room in her mouth for such fangs, so her skull was split as her mouth tried to to fit the new mass, forced into a mussel shape as her neck began to grow as well. The grinding of her skull as it fit to its new dimensions was immense and frightening. Her ears stretched and split in places as they attempted to fit themselves into their new placement on her head.

Then her skin began to change at last. From her extremities in, her flesh took on a dark russet color, forming pads on her paws. The reddish fur began to grow, covering the vast majority of her. The final minor adjustments were made, mostly soft tissue and cartilage making the final corrections to her wolf body. I could hear as her muscles began bunching for the first time, and she began rocking upon the earth, her limbs twitching spasmodically, as though trying to run with damaged nerves.

It was many minutes before she had regained all fours, and nearly an hour before she could remain standing as such. She began pacing on all fours, each step more sure than the one before it. Finally, after another half hour, her head whipped around towards me. She sniffed. Immediately, she kicked dirt atop the vestiges of what had once been within her body before walking away from it, perpendicularly from my direct, forcing me to follow, but in a direction that would keep me away from the filth.

She stopped once she was far enough away to satisfy her, sitting on her haunches as I came up beside her.

"It isn't pretty," I said aloud so that she could hear. "You didn't want me to see, because you want me to think that you are pretty."

I walked up to her. She turned her head, her hair standing on end, a barely audible rumble coming from her muscular chest. Still, I touched her cheek, much as I had the first time I had seen her like this.

"You are pretty," I said. "Nothing will ever stop you from being so in my eyes."

She sagged, her head bumping into me, which she couldn't have done so easily if she had been standing at her full height, so large was she now. I patted her shoulders and ran my fingers through her surprising soft and silky fur.

"You are mine," I whispered, "and forever shall be."

She gave a huff and brought her head up, then thumped it suddenly down on top of mine, heard enough to rattle my teeth.

"Hey!" I protested playfully. "Not so rough."

She set her pseudo hands on my shoulders. I got the impression she wanted to hug me, but her limbs were too long and I was too small to make that feasible. She squeezed my shoulders and nuzzled the side of my face before putting her forelimbs down and beginning to head off, sniffling the ground.

And then we were running. I had to admit, she was fast. I couldn't be sure, but I thought she was keeping to my pace. If she had wanted to, I had the feeling she could have left me behind without much trouble.

At last she caught the scent of game. I hung well back, because I knew better than to be at a predator's back while she was hunting. However, this was not like one of my hunts. For a vampire, we are really interested in only one thing, obviously. We leave a body behind, but it does take much to make it look like an accident or natural causes, particularly with animals. With Children of the Moon, the exact opposite seemed to be true.

She took down an elk, one that was substantially larger than the one I had taken down earlier in the evening. She didn't snap its neck so much as slash its throat so deeply that it severed the spinal cord. The head all but came away from its body. She ravaged the body, scooping away flesh in big mouthfuls with about as much trouble as she would have if the body was made of sponge cake. The pelt was an afterthought, but not an ounce of meat escaped her. The bones gave little resistance and were gnawed as well, if gnawing was the act of chewing them up like they were carrots. In the end, all that was left was some fluids and scrapes, of which there seemed to be more on her than on the ground.

She raised her head, and looked at me. Her neck straightened and her ears centered on me, and her mouth closed. She was the perfect epitome of having been so engrossed and was just remembering that I was there.

"You're a mess," I laughed. It was the last time I was to laugh for a long, long while.

I didn't know what happened. Something hit me, which doesn't grant the necessary scope of what happened. I had never been hit so hard in my life. I was struck from the side with so much force, I would have come apart had I merely been human. As it was, even with my vampire instinct to keep myself whole and a hundred years dedicated to doing so, my ribs came apart and every ball and socket joint on my body dislocated, and then some. Whatever it was, it didn't waste any time. I felt digging into me, something hard and sharp ripping into me, taking advantage of my ribs coming apart from my sternum to get into my chest cavity. Before I had even hit the ground nearly twenty meters from where I had been hit, what had attacked me was already pulping my heart and beginning to tear it out of me.

Before I hit the ground, there was a tremendous crash. Whatever was striking me was in turn itself struck, and the force imparted on me as its shredding invasion of my chest was withdrawn spun me and did a deal to halt my momentum.

I crashed to the ground, but the impact did little enough when compared to the injuries I had already suffered. I gathered my wits and began questing about me with my senses, attempting to learn what was amiss. It took little effort. Lissette was fighting another Child of the Moon.

It was a sight to see, if only because it was beyond mortal comprehension, literally. I had trouble following it myself, even with all my heightened awareness, so vast was the celerity and fortitude on display. They fought like demons, hurling enough force at one another that the devastation spilled out from their bodies and landed heavily on the surrounding environment. Trees exploded and stone shattered and hills were leveled. Nothing short of a meteorite impact could have done so much damage naturally.

They split each other, spilling all that was inside, often ruining limbs and leaving dismemberments in the dirt. While healing was not instantaneous, little did these wounds slow or deter them. Not ever the blast of their howling snarls did that, even when they were left bleeding from the ears and nose because of them.

They fought, and did so for long after such a battle should have ended, for not only were they quick and strong but also stalwart. These creatures were beyond anything I could have imagined. It was little wonder why the Volturi took them so seriously and considered them such inhuman fiends. Killing one when the moon was high and full would be an undertaking that a force of vampires would still have trouble with.

And, what was more, he was good. I could tell it was a he, for his masculine features were noticeable, especially when torn from his person and left splatted upon the ground not far from where I lay. He made no more sound when such a grievous injury and insult was done to him than when any other hurt was done to him. He moved with a precise economy of motion and never overextended himself. He was an experienced fighter and was playing the long game. I truly feared for Lissette for the first time since I had met her.

However, she had something that he did not; something to lose, or rather, someone. I turned my attention from my figurative heart to my literal one.

My chest was a mess. Just about every rib on the left side of my body was broken or dislocated or both. My lung was damaged, which meant little since I mostly breathed only to take in scent, but the rest of the damage was troubling. A large portion of the organ was no longer within my body, and many of the vessels around it were likewise destroyed or removed. My blood, the vampire blood within my body, mostly resides within the heart, hence why a blade piercing it is one sure way to incapacitate one of my kind. But, without the organ within the body, it is hard to heal and to make use of what blood there is left in the body. I had recently fed, so there was still time for me to use what blood I still had within me to heal, but there was a problem. As much as I wanted to kid myself that quantity surpassed the need for quality, the blood I had most recently drank was doing my body no favors. At best I could close my wound and start trying to heal the damage that was done, but I was all but finished. If the wolf came for me again, injuring me much more, I would go into a stupor from which there would be little anyone but Carlisle could do. My death had gone from a possibility to a probability.

Though, while I contemplated my pending mortality, another adage sprung to mind. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Lissette didn't fight as though her life depended on it. She fought as though my life depended on it. She fought as though losing would mean losing every last urgh of happiness in this world. She fought as though it were the difference between paradise and hell. She fought like I would have if she had been in her human form and we had been attacked by a vampire.

The wolf did not let up, always cool and calculating where she was heated and passionate. But at last, he calculated wrong. In an attempt to distract her, he threatened me. He could not attack me directly without either exposing his back or giving her time to interfere before he could get to me, so he instead ripped a large tree out of the ground, attempted to hammer her down with it and thus knock off the majority of the branches, and turned and hurled the mass at my prostrate body. It was a mistake because rather than getting blinded by rage or diving to protect me, she became wholly focused on completing the fight as quickly as possible.

She ran at him, moving so quickly I could hear it as her muscles gave out and tore away from connective tissue as she lunged at him. But instead of going for his throat, she dug her claws up and under his arms, finding enough purchase to tear them off completely. She came down on top of him, between his legs so there was little he could do with them to claw at her with the nails of his feet. She snapped at his muzzle, again and again, keeping his attention and keeping him protecting his own throat as she began tearing into him with her free hand, ripping out organs and preventing his arms from regrowing. He had no choice. He ran.

I looked at her in the darkness. She was a mass of scar tissue. It was hard to tell how many fingers and toes she might have lost, because so many had regrown or were regrowing. But what was clear was she was spent. I could see her well enough to realize her body was different. She wasn't just seemingly smaller because much of her fur had been torn away and couldn't grow back because of the scars; every bit of superfluous flesh was gone, spent as she had fought for both our lives.

She placed the clearing that their battle had made, restless and dismayed. I didn't understand what her issue was, thinking that it might be fear that our foe might return. But I was soon dissuaded from that notion.

With understandable reluctance, she bent and began eating the bits of wolf flesh still upon the ground. His arms went first, along with all his insides, but she soon was finished with the meat she knew for certain wasn't her own, then set to work eating her fill from all the other scraps upon the ground. I broke my heart, because I knew she did this only because she couldn't bear to part with me. Had she tried to move me without the aid of fully human hands, she would have done even more damage. Her arms were not well suited for careful and easy carrying of another.

And thus I lay upon the earth, healing slowly what I could as the blood became available, flowing slowly from the vessel of my stomach to that of my injured heart. It was little comfort and terribly slow going, but by the time the moon had begun to set and dawn approached, I was well enough to be moved without injury, if not without pain.

I was losing time, so weak was I. I missed it completely when she changed back. It was as though I was suddenly aware of the fact that she was knelt over me, her pinched expression full of pain and worry.

"Are you much hurt?" she asked.

"Yes," I said breathlessly.

She paled.

"What can I do?" she asked, looking terrified.

"Keep me out of the sun," I said. "There is little else you can do."

I looked discomfited.

"Do you need blood?" she asked. "I can get it for you."

I winced.

"I am already full of animal blood," I said. "More will not help."

"Why not?" she asked.

"It just won't," I said. "It is… it isn't good enough. Strong enough."

I started to slip away.

"Don't be afraid," I said, as I felt darkness begin to take me. "Get me into shelter. I will be alright."

And watched as the edges of my vision grayed, then blacked, then I felt as though I were sliding backwards down a dark tunnel. Just before I fell into total darkness, I thought I heard a scream, but whose it was, I could not be sure.