I finally had time to sit down and talk to Jane after seeing the masters. She was waiting for me in her room and embraced me as I entered, lightly kissing me on the cheek. I kept her hand in mind as she spoke.

"Brother, you took much longer abroad than I expected. What was the cause of such delay?"

I sighed.

"There was never an opportunity. A calm human life offers little danger, and so she has no use for her gift. I tried to be patient but then had to create one."

"I have missed you. You will not go back immediately, will you?" She inquired hopefully.

"I will. Right away."

She was distraught upon hearing this but I soon added:

"You are to come with me."

She smiled brightly and then laughed.

"How wonderful. I am eager to meet this girl." She did sound excited but I was a little less enthusiastic about that encounter. She noticed my hesitation. "You think I will disapprove of her?"

"You might."

"What makes you think that? You approve of her, don't you?"

Not quite, which feels more than a little conflicting.

"She is human," I shrugged.

"Not for long" she reminded me.

"She is very young."

"So are we" she smirked and I chuckled.

She went to her wardrobe and packed a few items. Not many as we would not be staying for an extended period of time. We should arrive, collect Marina and leave. The only thing that it entailed was the need to cover up her sudden absence with a death scenario for her. Nothing else would be necessary as long as she didn't know of our true nature.

"She is probably using her time away from me very unwisely" I commented as she finished her packing and we walked down the corridor.

"You scared her. Will she run? Demetri will be disappointed to miss that."

"It serves him just right for betting on my failure."

She hummed in agreement.

"Yes, I have scared her. I did apologise but she was still upset. I advised her to stay away from her boyfriend."

"Advised?" She echoed with a teasing tone.

"A mere suggestion."

"Oh, Alec. She would have left him regardless, you are by far the superior choice. You had no patience."

"And I have to hear this from you of all people."

She laughed and I took her hand again, holding it as we made our way to the car outside the castle.

"She will have more than an entire day to try and run from you if she would attempt it. How far could she go?"

"Not far enough." I countered happily. Even without Demetri she could never outrun us, she would just risk angering me again. If she happened to have the boy with her I would definitely take the chance to tear him apart.

I didn't know if she would try to escape. I suppose I frightened her but she didn't know what I truly was. Without that piece of information it seemed unlikely that she would leave her home, her job, her studies and her friends out of fear. I was sure that she would go to him though and that was enough to spark in me the desire to hurt him as much as I could.

I made my way back to the airport, this time with Jane by my side, feeling very different then when I left it to offer the proof of Marina's power to Master Aro. I was still ecstatic but I was not anxious anymore. It was all anticipation and no more doubt. A yellow light that faded to give place to a green one.

"We should be going with someone else" Jane commented pensively "I wonder why the Masters did not send Felix with us."

"They seemed to think the less the better. I imagine they don't want the attention."

She nodded and changed the subject.

"The girl's ability is of physical nature" she scrunched her face slightly. "Marina's ability" she corrected herself though I voiced no annoyance over her choice of words.

"It must be. It has worked on objects, it can't be purely mental."

"Unlike ours" she observed, "and thus, unlike ours it should not be blocked by the Cullen's shield."

"It should not."

"She is not aware of it, is she?"

"No. She is unaware of everything, to my knowledge. Although we did spend quite some time in each other's company, she must have noticed I am not like her or anyone she knows."

"It would be inconvenient if she discovered it before you left," Jane pondered looking pointedly at me "and spread it."

"She never gave any signs that she suspected anything."

"Then she either does not know or she is smart enough not to let you notice she does."

I frowned and searched her face. I had never considered that Marina suspected anything and succeeded in keeping it from me. I had always read her quite easily, the possibility never crossed my mind.

"What makes you think she knows of anything?"

"I don't. I just think we should take every possibility into account. I would not like to arrive there and find a situation we don't expect. "

I considered her words and something in my expression made her feel the need to soothe me.

"You know her and I don't. If you are certain that she knows nothing then it must be the truth."

She smiled and caressed my face but the seed of doubt had been planted in my head. I went through all of my memories of my interactions with Marina to look for any indication that she knew something. I revised all of them in my mind as we reached the airport and boarded the plane. Seeing her reacting to me with this possibility in mind was like watching her with different eyes and suddenly I was not so sure of her unawareness anymore.

"Sister," she looked at me from her seat by my side. "I am no longer sure."

She merely sighed.

Marina did attempt to run.

When we reached her town I could already tell. There was a fresh trail of her scent reaching beyond the municipal limits. It was too late for any of the residents to be out in the streets and we roamed freely in the dark, passing by innumerous bars and countless closed churches. We verified her house out of precaution and she was indeed not there. A few of her belongings were missing from her room and so I went to check the drawer where I had seen her store my necklace.

It was not there.

She must have taken it with her .

I smiled fondly at the thought in spite of the annoyance of finding she had fled. It seemed so blatantly obvious in that moment that she had known of our secret that I could not accept I had never noticed it before. She had been too careful, too reticent. When she did reach out for me it had been against her judgement, even if she had nothing but a suspicion. Her boldness when kissing me had been caused by the allure of my kind winning against her logical thinking and her fear, helped by her soft heart. She regretted it not only because of my rival but because she knew.

Of course. It was a screaming picture once Jane painted it for me.

There were other journals in her drawer, all similar to the one she had made for me. One of them had the symbol for the zodiac sign of Libra engraved on the cover and on the first page she had written "for Natalia". A gift for another friend, one she gave up on handing over before leaving her home.

"She knows."

I closed the drawer and faced Jane.

"I suppose she does."

It puzzled me how she could have known. I wondered how she figured it out and how difficult it could have been for her to convince herself of a thing like that. For how long had she known? Did she share it with anyone?

How could I have not noticed?

"This complicates things." I said and turned to leave through her window. Jane followed me and as we landed she frowned.

"You have let yourself get distracted by her" she answered the question I did not voice, as if reading my mind. "She probably did not hide it this well."

She was right, of course. I allowed my feelings to cloud my judgement and jeopardise my mission.

"Sorry for the inconvenience." I said in a light mocking tone, though I was truly sorry. I would not be the only one dealing with the consequences of my carelessness and it upset me to think I involved others in my mess.

Jane didn't answer me, she took her phone to ask for the masters' input instead.

Caius was very vocal about his disapproval of me and I listened to his conversation with Aro through Jane's phone with little interest. I had expected to be scolded, I already knew I would be when I kissed Marina. I was more interested in hearing their orders about how to proceed regarding the new problem so we could deal with it and move on to find her.

I felt venom pool in my mouth as I thought of finally drenching her in her own blood and licking it off of her.

"Find her first" Caius ordered at last, "there is no way of telling if she shared it with anyone and how many people she told without searching her memories."

"Yes, Master Caius."

When she ended the call she shot me a judging look.

"I have apologised."

It did not seem to be enough. She put away her phone and tried to lift her own spirits.

"I will still get to meet her, finally" she pondered, "and I suppose it is not that bad that we don't have to hide it from her, we don't have to censor ourselves."

I held her face with my hands and gave her a thankful smile.

"It will be fun" I guaranteed.

"Do you think she took the ex with her?"

I hope she did, I can barely wait to drain him.

"It is possible."

She smiled back at me.

"Then he must know too." She rested her hands on mine that were on her cheeks. "You should have him while I meet her. I shall keep her busy for long enough."

I grinned.

So much fun.