'Call it magic. Call it true. I call it magic when I'm with you. And I just got broken, broken in two. Still I call it magic when I'm with you.'

-Coldplay, Magic

Magic

Leah wasn't sure which was worse: being caught mid-sexnanigans with a random bartender by Sam and her Pack, or having to endure Embry's surly mood as he carried her back to her mother's place afterwards. The leech had snapped her beloved leg in half. In half! One of the four best legs in the pack. Leah loved her legs about as much as she had loved her new leather dress, and she'd loved that dress as much as she loathed needing anyone's help. Especially Embry's.

Embry, who had insisted on being the one to take her home. Embry - who judging by the foul mood and irritable looks - was regretting the decision to do so every step of the way. And Embry who looked intimidating as hell with his furious eyes and his face hardened in the moonlight. Well, two could play that game. It annoyed her to no end that he had proclaimed himself her keeper against her will, and then stormed into the darkness with her in his arms without saying a word. She hadn't needed his help. And she didn't needed his ominous brooding either.

But she had an unexpected problem. Leah had been caught off guard by the startling discovery that Embry Call looked rather mesmerizing in the darkness, quite easy on the eye. He looked provocative and magnetic and maybe even handsome. Her head was swimming with whiskey and venom, her body sinking into his delicious warmth, and Leah couldn't keep her eyes from glancing at his face every few minutes or so.

What the hell was wrong with her?

It was bad enough that she could feel the slight tremors in his body, that she knew that pale wolf of his was snapping ferociously against its forced captivity. She didn't know why he was so angry, but she wasn't sure she wanted to find out either. Perhaps it was a good thing that he hadn't said a word to her all night or even acknowledged her presence. Perhaps his grumpy demeanor was a blessing in disguise. Maybe she didn't want to know why she was crushed far too intimately against his bare chest.

To be honest, Leah didn't know what to make of Embry Call. Most of the time he was a teasing boy given to practical jokes; making bets and obsessing over his next adrenaline rush with Jake or Quil. Other times he was a watchful, reserved kind of guy with a friendly face and a secretive look in his darkened eyes. He could be a calm, strategic mediator when the pack needed one, or a man who pushed back hard when someone stepped on his toes. He even played big brother to the cubs sometimes, and tonight she had realized that he could be downright terrifying. The look in his eyes when that leech had attacked her had almost made her heart stop. There were too many shades to the wolf for Leah to make any clear sense of.

But even so the intense, daunting side of him she'd encountered at Emily's place had left her a little bit rattled. Those eyes, guarded and unsettling, had seemed to see right through her. Even in the past he had never been the type to cower at her glares like the others, and she he wasn't threatened by her cold demeanor. Her cruel arsenal of bitterness and cutting words barely seemed to work on him. Honestly, the man was a little bit frightening.

And, kind of sexy.

Leah stared into the moon as they made their way across the forest, to stubborn to break the loaded silence. Somehow, it made all the difference that she was feeling guilty about being caught attempting to bump uglies with the bartender. Logically, she knew that any such guilt was not only ludicrous, but also unfounded. She was a free woman. Emancipated from her three-year-long relationship. She didn't belong to anyone anymore. Still there was was something about the Call boy's manner that brought to light his possessiveness of her.

It started drizzling, not atypical for a starry mid-July night in Forks. It was her favorite kind of weather, but she was finding it rather difficult to enjoy what with her throbbing leg and the venom, the whiskey and the brooding boy holding her. Leah just wanted to get into her bed and forget that the night had even happened. She wanted to make sure her cousin was alright. She wanted to drink the vile, herbal solution her mother kept in the fridge and then pretend that none of this had ever happened.

She closed her eyes, inhaling the pale grey wolf's scent of lilies and lake water, leaning her head against his chest. She might have fallen asleep. When she opened her eyes Embry was placing her on her mother's kitchen table and pressing a canister into her hand.

'Drink.' he said. His eyes were dark, his jaw clenched.

Leah suddenly became aware that she was still half-naked, and heat rushed to her cheeks. 'Thanks.'

The grey wolf disappeared up the stairs and after a few moment she could hear him rummaging through her things. 'Where are your shirts?' he asked, 'There's nothing but crop tops in here.'

'Shit,' Leah groaned as a memory of Julie tossing out most of her comfortable, oversized clothing crossed her mind. 'Grab something from Seth's room.'

It was another few minutes before Embry trailed back into the kitchen, a worn-white T in one hand and her mother's first aid kit in the other. He held the piece of clothing out to her with his eyes averted, and Leah frowned when a small tingle shot through her arm when their fingers accidentally brushed.

He refilled the bottle with water and held it out to her.

She shook her head. 'No I can't. I'm okay.'

The medicine was bad enough without having to force cold water down her scratchy throat and into her alcohol-full stomach.

Embry didn't flinch. 'I'm not arguing with you tonight Leah. Drink.'

The she-wolf would have argued then, but something in his eyes told her she didn't to start trouble with him. She grabbed the squeeze-bottle and forced herself to swallow its contents, fighting the juvenile urge to thrown something at his stubborn head.

'What's it called when you feel a sudden, overwhelming urge to do something violent?'

'Call of the void.' Embry answered dryly. 'Why?'

When the she-wolf didn't answer, the young man's lips tipped up in a small mischievous smile.

'Don't sit there!' Leah spat out when he reached for the nearest kitchen chair.

Embry stopped, his eyes bewildered as he observed her panicked eyes and frantic heartbeat. With a frown he grabbed another seat, turning it so he could sit cowboy style. She noticed that he was still angry, his heart pounding furiously, but he didn't seem as incensed as he had been out in the forest.

'You got something to say Call?'

'Plenty.' He ground out, but the boy said nothing more.

When she finally placed the empty bottle on the table he picked her up without another word and carried her upstairs to her bedroom.

There was a reason wolves didn't hunt alone.

A lone wolf was a vulnerable wolf, but a pack was almost unstoppable.

The Alpha should have known that. Sam should not have ordered Leah to attack alone. But Imprints made wolves impulsive, and therefore, vulnerable.

Another time, Leah would have hated her Alpha for it. But she didn't that night because she had seen what that thing had done to her cousin. There had been so much blood on Emily's kitchen floor, as much as the blood that had pooled at Chenita's feet after the young warrior had killed the old, powerful witch. The blood had seeped through the red cedar floor, trickled through the openings between the wooden floor and the spilled into the land.

It set an eternal curse on the Makah and Quileute.

And so Leah's heartache had begun.

Years before she had even been born, her fate had already been set.

As Leah watched the clouds in the sky caught fire. A startling flare of orange against pink clouds and a horrible, yellow moon. There was something so horrific about the image, about watching Paradise burn. It was as thought someone had set fire to a rare Picasso. Leah could hear Emily screaming in her dream, screaming painfully. Sounding so much like Chenita did.

Leah groaned as she jolted awake. Her head was pounding, but the pain had subsided enough that she knew her mother's concoction was working. The she-wolf blinked away the blurriness in her eyes, a little surprised to feel warm, steady hands working gently against her broken leg, wrapping it up in bandages.

'That's not necessary,' she swallowed, her throat dry. 'It'll heal on its own.'

'Humor me.' Embry returned in a mild conversational tone, as thought they had been in the middle of a conversation and not glaring at each just a few moments before. 'So, you were telling me about this little love affair you've got going on with the moon.'

Leah frowned, rubbing her hand over her face, 'What?'

'Your obsession.' he said, 'You're terrified every time that it's full. It's your kryptonite.'

The she-wolf knew that he was trying to distract her, but it wasn't working. She felt like shit.

'It's a bad omen.' she breathed deeply, trying to ignore the fact that she felt like death. 'When Sam disappeared I'd wake up in a sweat almost every night. I used to dream about foxes attacking me while the moon laughed.' She rolled her eyes at herself, 'I know. Silly.'

Embry regarded her with a frown, his head tilted in a lupine mannerism. 'I don't think that's silly at all.'

Leah didn't miss the intense flash that crossed his hazel eyes. Those orbs of his were glowing in the darkness, looking more green than brown, and she had the sudden realization that he was the first boy other than Seth to sit on her bed after her breakup with her ex.

Leah swallowed, 'We should check on Emily.'

'Jared howled when you were out just now.' the wolf said as his eyes dropped back down to her leg. 'Sam's calmer too from what I can tell. I take it Emily's perfectly safe and happy.'

'Safe and happy.' Leah nodded slowly, drowsily. 'Good for her.'

She couldn't ever seem to keep the bitterness out of her voice when she spoke about her cousin these days, but she was glad that Emily was safe.

'You too. You're happier these days. Different.'

When he sent her an endearing grin, Leah realized that she wasn't breathing quite right. She shook her head in a desperate attempt to clear it of the fuzzy warmth she felt looking at his face. 'I've got a question.'

'Shoot.' he said.

'Were you angry with me tonight? Because of Nate?'

'Nathan. And that's two questions.'

'It's one question. Now stop dodging it with semantics.'

Embry flashed her one of his quick half-smiles. 'Careful what you ask Leah. You're poisoned and drunk. And I'm not the kind of guy who's gonna be afraid to answer.' When his eyes caught hers this time her heart kicked to a jump-start. 'To answer your question, I was. I was fucking furious. But I'm channeling all of that anger at Sam now. It seems to work a bit better.'

Leah frowned. 'I don't understand.'

Suddenly Embry growled, his body alive and shaking. 'He shouldn't have ordered you to attack without any back up.'

'Shouldn't is the only word I wouldn't waste on Sam' Leah narrowed her eyes. 'Not that its any of your concern Embry. I'm a big girl, and I can take care of myself. What's it to you anyways?'

Embry snickered. 'I'm a masochist.'

Leah had no idea what he meant, but something about his self-deprecating smile told her that she didn't want to know anyway. 'About the bartender... you don't get to be mad.' she sent him a long, hard look, 'or jealous.'

Embry smirked, 'That right?'

Leah's heart beat faster.

What the hell was happening?

'Look. I don't owe you an explanation okay? You or anybody. I do what I want with my body, and if you think that I can't go out and pick up a random guy at a bar just cause I'm a girl then you're living in the middle ag-'

'Damn it Leah! This isn't-' His roaring growl cut her off, and as Leah watched his eyes flashed a vivid green. Embry dropped the bandage, threading his hand through his perfect supermodel hair and leaving it a tousled mess that only made him look more attractive. It was a few moments before the shaking in his body stopped, and when he looked at her the intensity of his gaze made heat flush through her veins.

'I know his type Leah. He would have used you and then tossed you aside like trash! And you don't even see anything wrong with that. You just let him-' he stopped himself, looking guilty, as though he'd just realized he'd said something that he shouldn't have.

'Relax Call,' she said as she shoved her own anger down at his sudden outburst. 'Unless you didn't notice I was using him too. I wasn't about to go fall in love... I'm incapable of that now.'

'You think.' He said, it was a few more moments before he added. 'You compared him to Sam.'

'I compare everyone to Sam,' Leah admitted. 'What's it to you anyways? Why are you even here, acting like you fucking care?'

'I don't.' he snorted. 'In fact no one does. Not me, not Jake, not even Seth.'

Embry leaned forward with a sudden movement, his hands working again angrily at the loose bandage wrapped around her leg. 'Guess that's why we all go out of our way to keep you alive and safe. Risking our lives for your recklessness, worrying all the fucking time that you're gonna get yourself killed. Because we don't fucking care.'

'Embry.' Leah warned through a shaky inhalation. She was surprised as pain lanced across her heart. Pain she had told herself she could not feel again. 'Shut up.'

'No.' He said, eyes hot on hers again. 'No Leah. You don't get to keep pretending that any of us wanted this. You don't get to keep using your bitterness as a shield so no one will look close enough to want you again. And you don't get to push me away.'

Leah turned away from his face. From the boy burning with unrestrained fury and misplaced possessiveness. She didn't know where all of this was coming from. Or maybe she did, a little, but he was still asking too much from her, too fast. And for almost a year, she had told herself that she had nothing left to give.

'I asked you not to make anything of me Embry.'

'What does that have to do with anything?'

'You're just like him!' she hissed. 'Can't you see that I am not your responsibility?'

'Yes you are.' Embry roared adamantly, his eyes flashing dangerously. 'You honestly think any of us would have been able to live with ourselves if anything had happened to you tonight?'

'Probably.' she said miserably. 'Probably would have all been much better off without me.'

'Quit it, Clearwater.' he snapped. 'The self-pity act is beneath you, and the puppy-dog eyes stopped being cute about a month ago.'

Hissing, Leah turned away from the infuriating wolf, sinking into her sheets while the venom raked through her veins. It was far too cold and she was way too tired to be doing something as idiotic as arguing with Embry fucking Call.

'You should have let me come home with Seth.' she grumbled, shivering. She wanted him to leave.

It was a long moment of silence.

Why wasn't he leaving?

'I couldn't just leave you there.' Embry admitted quietly. 'My wolf wouldn't.'

Leah frowned at that, it made no sense. What did his wolf have to do with any of this? She wanted him to go so she could sleep and just forget that this stupid, useless night had ever happened. The venom was like ice in her veins, and she gritted her teeth as her blood went cold. Her body too.

Suddenly, Embry climbed into the bed, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her back close against his chest.

She hissed, 'Get out.'

'Shut up, Clearwater.' The boy ordered.

Leah might have put up more of a fight if his heat hadn't felt so good soaking into her skin. It wasn't long until she was taking in deep, shallow breaths of his heady scent, and against her stubborn will, her body melted against his, her hands clutching desperately at his flesh, needing his irresistible warmth. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he felt so good curled around her body like that.

Embry tangled his legs with hers, pressing his chin into her shoulder as his breath ticked the back of her neck. It was the first time in a year that someone had touched her so intimately, and her wolf whined at the contact.

If she was in any kind of mood to be honest with herself, Leah would have admitted that the scorching heat of Embry's body and the deep caring she'd seen in his eyes didn't bother her as much as it should have.

Embry's arms rubbed slowly over hers. Not in the soft, innocent ways Sam had once touched her, but in a burning dangerous way that she could feel uncurling something foreign and dark in the pit of her stomach. Every place his skin touched hers was a burn, little explosions of fire that seared through her. It was intoxicating and strange, new, a strange kind of magic.

'My wolf wouldn't allow it,' he finally whispered into her ear as his arms worked lazily against her skin. 'I couldn't just leave you there. I had to make sure you were safe.' Leah's heart quickened at the admittance. At the words she knew he was almost ashamed to say. 'And I know you're not ready. I know. That's why I didn't want to talk about what seeing you with Nathan like that made me feel, and that's why I won't ask you for anything. So just sleep, okay? Sleep. Forget that any of this ever happened.'

It was strange hearing him echo her thoughts from earlier. Something told her neither of them would be able to forget what had happened that night, not for a very long time.

Leah swallowed. 'You hurt my feelings.'

'You hurt mine. You always hurt mine.' he admitted. She felt his breath playing against the hairs on her neck before he spoke again. 'I'm sorry.'

Against her better judgement, Leah felt her fingers curl around his arms, trailing lines gently against his skin.

This felt safe.

'Friends?' she asked, because something told her that a friendship with the pale grey wolf would be easier than whatever can of worms they'd both opened that night.

'If that's what you want Leah, sure.'

Was it?

As the she-wolf drifted off to sleep, she remembered why she'd been so afraid when Embry had pulled out her father's favorite chair. It was the same one her cousin had sat in when she'd told Leah about the Imprint. The same chair her father had died in.

She didn't want that harbinger of evil and loss anywhere near Embry Call.

The graveyard where her ancestors rested was not what she had been expecting.

Leah could tell that the place had been beautiful once; a dark, muddy stream cut through the land, and she realized that it must have nourished the trees and shrubs in the clearing during in it's prime. Daka had cursed it like she had curse everything else. Her poisonous magic lingered here.

There was an old woman in the plain waiting for her. A Quileute woman with her hair in a single braid and a harsh sharpness to her face. Her dress was stained with blood, and without any introductions Leah knew instantly who she was.

The Third Wife beckoned the she-wolf closer. Come.

Leah complied, approaching the woman while observing the thousands of lost souls staring at her with darkened eyes. Their voices chanted ancient songs she had never heard before, but something about the words alarmed her. They sang songs of magic, vengeance and blood. They sang of Imprints too.

This is why you are here.

Leah turned to find her guide standing beside her. The green in Kaheleha's eyes was always so startling, and as usual he looked far too familiar for her to feel comfortable. She had so many question for him now. Why did she look like his thousand year old dead wife? Why did he feel so familiar, like someone she had known throughout eternity? Lifetimes, Kaheleha had said, so many months ago. Had he placed flowers in her hair before, in another time?

Enough, young hurricane. Does your mind never rest?

Stop calling me that.

Blood calls. He winked with a mischievous smile, and Leah realized she was sick of him saying that. Especially because she knew he meant Embry Call.

Kaheleha laughed. You really are quite quick young hurricane.

It was kind of obvious when you pushed me right into his arms, she growled.

You didn't seem to mind, the magic man replied.

So, Leah began as her hand gestured to the Third Wife. Why did you bring me here?

I didn't. You brought yourself here. I am only your guide, the journey forward is yours alone. And only you can decide what you will do with the truth when you find it.

Leah frowned when the Third wife spoke again, cutting into their conversation. Look! she ordered.

Leah looked up to see her first vision again, only this time, she recognized the people in the pictures.

She saw herself in the water, looking for something lost that she'd never find again. She knew she had lost Sam, that much was obvious? But what was it about the man and the lily she found in it's place that was so important?

Then she saw Jacob Black. The boy who would claim his own blood too late.

He will be a disgrace! The Third Wife hissed. Leah didn't have a chance to respond as Isabella Swan's face flooded her mind. The young woman ran effortlessly in the forest, glittering as she hunted a deer, her eyes a brilliant shade of scarlet.

The Third Wife and the Ancestors hissed.

He will let this happen!

Isabella made her own choices! Leah defended. Jacob cannot be held accountable for her actions!

He will be, and so will you! You will all pay the price for what you will do!

As Leah watched, Embry's easygoing face came into focus. The handsome man walked into a dense rainy forest.

He was followed by a shadow of death.