Jacob is gone before I can follow him. I need to find Carlisle. Early fall storms gather on the horizon as I sprint back towards the house. Carlisle and the others except for Emmett are gathered in his office, looking haggard.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Where were you?" Rosalie asks.

Edward, why were you at La Push ? Alice asks, concern in her eyes. She may be blind to the wolves, but she can see where I'll be going without any type of block. Jasper just eyes me with a knowing know and I ignore both of them. My dealings with Jacob Black are none of their concern. Especially when they're nothing more than a passing curiosity.

"Emmett called. He was on patrol with Quil when Quil smelled Seth. They followed Albion and by the time they got there, it was too late. He was gone and so was Seth. Quil tried to follow him, but it's all gone. The entire coven."

If it hadn't stopped beating a century ago, my heart would stop now. All I can think about is the way Jacob took off into the woods. Of course, as soon as he shifted, he got the full story. I have to go after him.

"Edward…" Alice warns, but it's too late. I'm already gone, running as fast as I can. It's a trap and I can't let the wolves fall for it. Especially not their alpha.

I've never been a tracker. I don't have the skills for it. Of all the damned skills to have, I seem to have picked up the most useless one. If hell was going to make me a monster, it should have equipped me with skills that would have been useful to the devil. Instead, I get the one ability that won't help me find Jacob.

I'm back in La Push before I know it and Sam's scent is strong enough that I know he's nearby. I find him within minutes, the giant wolf running beside me, but know it was a useless idea. If Sam knew where Seth and Jacob had gone, he wouldn't still be around La Push.

He snarls at me as if all of this is my fault. And maybe it is.

"How do I find them?"

Sam looks at me, mournful under the anger.

Why don't you tell me, leech ?

He only knows the faint direction. North. It's all I need.

The downpour begins as I run, covering the forest around me in rain as thunder sounds in the distance. It would be a good night to play baseball if the circumstances weren't so dire. My family is probably coming after me, but I've always been faster than all of them. At this point, we're all half-starved anyway and that should slow down even Emmett. I don't know how far Albion's gone, but he has hours on Jacob, who has at least a couple of hours on me. The only reason I could trace Albion's scent before was because he had stayed put around Seattle. Now, we're playing a whole different game.

I don't know where to start, so I start back at that gory warehouse where Albion decorated the walls with the blood of innocents. It still stinks like old iron, but there's a faint trace. Not just of Albion and his reeking scent, but of two wolves. Seth and slightly stronger, Jacob. Looks like someone had the same idea.

I follow the trail north, past the Canadian border when it goes dead. This is hopeless. Rain soaks through my clothes, causing them to stick to me and lightening is the only light that illuminates the dark forests.

I hate to do it. I shouldn't. Alice will hate me. But I don't have a choice.

I don't make it a habit to use cell phones, but there are benefits to 21st-century technology that not even I can criticize.

He picks up on the first call. There's music in the background. Heavy metal, I think.

"Edward Cullen of the vegetarian Cullens. What a pleasant surprise," the voice says. It's quiet against the music, but the mocking tone is clear.

"James, I need your help."

Laurent's coven was the last nomadic coven that passed through Forks about a year ago. They managed to kill two people before Carlisle found them. Unfortunately, it was their stay that caused the change in the first three members of the Quileute tribe, including Sam. Carlisle managed to control the situation by asking them to leave. Laurent even joined the Denali tribe, but James and Victoria, his mate, couldn't be convinced. It was in their short stay that Alice remembered that James was the reason she had been turned. It was a relief when they left our territory.

Laurent had given me James and Victoria's contact information a few months back when we had visited our cousins at Denali. He wasn't convinced that James and Victoria really wanted to live their murderous lifestyle. Knowing how James thinks, I know differently.

"What's in it for me?"

"Hunting rights," I lie. I'll have to kill him after this. And probably Victoria too. I can almost hear James' disgusting smile. To think that I was once part of it makes me sick.

It takes him longer than expected to arrive-almost twelve hours. In that time, I keep moving north. With nothing to do but to think about Seth and Jacob, I hunt. I'm going to need my strength when we find Albion.

James finds me with mountain lion blood covering my mouth and hands, still soaking wet from the rain. It seems to come in pockets now, but I feel bad for any human out in this.

"Who?" he asks without greeting.

"He hit me in the face about fifteen hours ago," I say, rising from my crouch. For the first time in days, my stomach is full.

James scowls. " That 's the trail you want me to follow?"

"Is that too hard for someone with your abilities?"

James squints and moves closer, placing his hands on my shoulder as he inhales inches from the spot where Jacob hit me in the jaw.

"You smell like a dog," he says, wrinkling his nose. "Change of diet?"

"That's the scent then," I say, ignoring his jab.

"Try to keep up." I follow him northeast, into the Canadian wilds and the storm seems to follow us. We run for hours without stopping, even when the sun rises and well into the next night. I don't even know where we are when he slows. Jacob's just up ahead, running at full speed. Even I can smell him through the rain.

"You've done your job. You have your hunting rights."

I take him by surprise and tear into his throat. Normally, it wouldn't be enough to take out a hunter like James, but I've just fed and he isn't expecting it. I take his head off in one, swift motion. I don't have time to burn him, so he'll be back in a few days, but that's the least of my worries.

I sprint past James's body and blindly into the forest, knowing Jacob's exact location from his thoughts. Rain pelts me like bullets and it's so thick that even I can barely see in these woods. Regardless, I find him. He's exhausted beyond belief, but he knows where the youngest member of his pack is. They're already sharing thoughts again and more than anything, I'm relieved that Seth is safe. It seems as though they've kept him in a cage somewhere close in hopes to lure the rest of the pack and my family towards them. I don't know if only Jacob and I are cut out for this, but we've come too far to stop now.

But first, he needs to rest or he'll kill both of us.

I slam into him and he growls at me, his teeth snapping close to my neck.

"Jacob, stop," I say.

He snarls and attempts to buck me off of him. "You need to rest."

I can't stop until all of those leeches are dead.

"You're going to get yourself killed." I'm almost shouting over the thunder.

Jacob manages to shake me off, and I'm facing his sharpened teeth as he pulls back his lips, rainwater dripping off of his muzzle.

Sam was right. We should have never gotten involved with you. All you bloodsuckers are the same.

It stings because I know part of him is right. He is what he is because another one of my kind threatened their peace. I am what I am because I was too selfish to die as Edward Masen.

"We do this together after you sleep for a few hours, or not at all."

Who's going to stop me? You? You're nothing against me, Cold One.

I wait for his anger to make the first move and my patience doesn't fail me. Jacob lashes out to my right. He's fast. Even for a shifter, but not as fast as I am. It's close with his teeth just barely missing my neck. I have to be more careful. What his kind lacks in speed, they make up for with enough strength to decapitate a vampire with one bite.

I drive my fist into his stomach as he passes me. I wince. I don't mean to hurt him-that's the last thing I want to do-but I won't let him fight Albion in this state. Hurting him is better than seeing him die on a fool's errand.

Jacob turns and snaps at me with his jaws, narrowly missing my back with his razor-sharp nails.

Enough.

He doesn't seem to understand that fighting something like me, that can read his every move will always be a losing battle.

I slam into him, taking him by surprise and driving him into the ground, but he retaliates with a wolf's feral instinct, biting into my arm. I bite back a scream and it comes out as a startled hiss, further proof of the demonic origins of my curse. Jacob drags me across the forest floor by the arm. I haven't known pain like this since my turning. I didn't think I'd feel like this again. I didn't think I'd feel anything again.

I turn to the side and kick into his ribs with everything I've got. There's a sickening crunch and Jacob almost tears my arm off as he veers away from me. The kick is enough for him to release me. I think I have a few seconds before he makes his next move, but then again, I guess I underestimated him as well. My kind has grown too comfortable in our superiority against shifters and moonwalkers when they have one distinct advantage that we do not possess-the primal ability to act in the moment on instinct without the crutch of thought.

He hits me like a truck and lands on top of me, his teeth inches from my neck.

"I'm not doing this for fun," I say, knowing that his mind has gone fully feral in his exhaustion-induced delirium. His breath is inches from my neck. "I'm not doing it for my own amusement or because I hate you. I just need you to survive this."

Why do you care, bloodsucker?

"For Seth's sake."

Jacob growls at the name, rain dripping down his face and onto mine as the heavens continue their downpour above us.

"For mine," I say, quieter. It's just a whisper, but the wolf's eyes are clear.

I feel the change take place on top of me as Jacob shifts back into his human form. He's absolutely enormous above me and the heat radiating off of him is so great that it's a wonder that the rain doesn't evaporate in a halo around him.

In this form, the dark circles around his eyes are deep. He hasn't slept in days, but he's fixated on my last comment.

"Seth is alive for now," I murmur, ignoring his thoughts. "We should find a place for you to rest. Just for a few hours until we gather the strength to take on Albion."

Jacob nods, wordlessly and shifts off of me. I find myself missing his warmth, but I don't dwell on that.

James and I had passed an empty hunting cabin about a mile back and Jacob and I amble our way through the thunderstorm until we find it. I'm perfectly fine waiting outside, given that I haven't slept in about a hundred years, but I imagine Jacob would prefer a real bed. He doesn't protest as I break the lock on the cabin.

It's a nice place. A little cozy for my taste, but it has running water, a kitchen, and a bed. Not that I need any of those things, but I imagine for someone who spends at least part of their life as a human, they're nice comforts.

"Just a few hours," Jacob repeats for the fifth time.

"He knows we're coming. He won't do anything to Seth and you and he still have a connection. Go shower. You stink like wet dog."

Jacob grunts and finds his way towards the bathroom while I explore the kitchen. I'm not very comfortable in kitchens given my diet, but I manage to find a kettle and some tea bags. I put on some hot water and by the time Jacob gets out, I've managed to make him a cup of tea.

"Thanks," he says, taking it. His hair is slick with water and he's only wearing a towel, but I've seen him naked more times than I can count. It's only now that that fact strikes me as anything but reasonable. There's a massive, dark red bruise where I caved in his ribs and a variety of cuts and scrapes adorn his face from our face. I look away from his injuries, his wet hair, and his broad chest. He's thinking more about Seth than our predicament-as he should be.

His eyes flick towards my hands and all thoughts of Seth vanish immediately, followed by a wave of guilt.

"You should sleep," I say, but he doesn't move, instead sipping his tea slowly.

"What will we do if we fail?"

"What makes you think that we will?"

Jacob's lips turn up in a smile. It's quite a nice smile, and once again, I find it hard not to stare. Perhaps this is something more than just a passing curiosity. My family would be horrified, but then again, what would they know? Carlisle has been alive the longest of us, and he spent years throwing himself into research of our kind to avoid his loneliness. Even my turning was a type of distraction from the prospect of forever. Esme changed that. Rosalie was meant to be a fit for me after that, but when that didn't work for obvious reasons, Emmett came along shortly after. Alice came paired with Jasper. None of them have known true loneliness. The only one who has a remote inkling of what I've felt for a hundred years is the boy in front of me. "You sound like you actually care."

"Maybe I do," I say, trying to keep my tone neutral.

"That would be a change." A deep silence fills the cozy cabin until Jacob clears his throat. He was thinking of all of the things his kind should never think of mine, and we both know it. "Is your kind weaker in the sun?" he asks, suddenly.

"No. Not everything you read in Dracula is true."

"So there's no point in waiting until sunrise?"

I shake my head.

Jacob sighs and rolls his shoulders, before placing the mug on the counter and stretching. "I guess it'll just be a few hours then. Do you sleep?"

I shake my head again. "I'd go hunting again to prepare, but I don't want to alert Albion and his coven. You should sleep to take your mind off it so that you're ready and healed when we face him. I'll just...wait," I say, nodding to the armchair and small bookshelf. From the looks of it, they're mostly books about World War II and Inuit hunting practices-not my preferred choice of reading, but it'll do for a few hours.

To my surprise, Jacob snorts in laughter, though I could have sworn that he was thinking about his pack. I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"What did you think I was doing on the run here? I'm glad it worked," Jacob says with a smirk. He's practically preening in his mind.

"It didn't last long."

"I'll just have to practice some more." It doesn't take a mind reader to know that this is flirting. I hate to admit it, but flirtatious looks good on him. Jacob frowns before turning back towards the back room. He leaves the door just slightly ajar, his mind filled with chatter about Quil's math test scores from middle school of all things. I take a seat in the armchair and begin to peruse the bookshelf. I end up picking one about seal hunting.

"Well?" Jacob calls out after a moment.

The book slips out of my fingers as explicit imagery suddenly passes from his head to mine. I know he's able to block me out when he focuses, so I know it's on purpose. I glance back to the room. Jacob Black is leaning his well-muscled arm against the door frame, looking at me as if he were waiting in line for a cash register, tired and irritated that his transaction has not taken place yet. I hadn't even heard him move and that thought, more so than the onslaught of thoughts of what he wants me to do to him, thrills me.

"Are you going to help me take my mind off of it?" he asks.

"That's not exactly a good idea before we face Albion."

It's times like this when I miss the normal reactions of a human. Because there's no doubt that I desire him, but my body won't react to him like I want it to. There is no pricking of skin, no racing heart as he imagines me on my knees in front of him. There are no wet lips or shallow breathing as he pictures me running my cold lips against the searing hot skin of his neck.

"Well it's the only thing around that will prevent me from thinking about Seth. So if you want me to sleep, I'll need some help." He turns back to the bedroom. "You know where I am if you change your mind."

He's confident. I'll give him that. I like confidence. It's been too long since I've met someone who demands what they want of me. Most of my kind were turned in the age when women covered their ankles and when men kissing took place in dark, drunken places. Safe to say that it's impossible for anyone to make a first move, myself included. The loneliness was not self-induced, but my more monstrous qualities and ironic Jesuit upbringing certainly didn't aid my cause.

I shouldn't. Jacob waits a moment, but once he comes to the conclusion that I'm not joining him, he finds...other ways to take his mind off of Seth and rest while he heals. I should leave him to it. I pick up the book on seal hunting once more, but Jacob's onslaught is relentless. I swallow even though my throat has been dry since my previous day's hunt.

I set the book down.

The repercussions would be unforeseeable.

I stand.

Not to mention the implications for our relations with the Quileute people.

I move towards the bedroom.

It'll only make him more tired and weaken him for the conflict tomorrow.

I push the door slightly ajar.

We shouldn't be doing this with Seth in danger.

Jacob smirks, still in his towel, sitting on a plush armchair by the window, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. Perhaps I was mistaken in what was going on in here. Maybe it was some kind of joke for his own amusement. After the game I played with his pack, I don't even have a reason to be angry, though it does irritate me slightly.

"My apologies, I thought-"

Jacob reaches up and yanks me down by the collar of my shirt. His body heat radiates outward and warms my skin for the first time in decades. "Maybe I'm just delirious from the fact that you almost broke my ribs or that I just ran for days straight, but I don't want to talk anymore."

Suddenly, I find myself helpless and nod.

His lips hover barely an inch from mine, his hand still wrapped in the collar of my shirt. Then I do something that I've only dreamed about since I turned. I bring my lips to his warm ones. I've kissed others before after turning. Tanya had kissed me in jest when we first met the Denali clan and there had been other nomads, but I couldn't bring myself to think of those as much more than experimentations. There was no feeling behind it. For the longest time, I thought that was just how my kind was-that whatever existed between vampire couples was something rare or some kind of farce to feel less like a demon from hell and more like a person.

Now I know how false that notion was.

Jacob's pulse races under my hand as I bring my hand to cup the side of his neck, my thumb brushing his cheekbones and running down his chin. The images that go through his head only make me want to deepen my kiss. Suddenly, he pulls me into his lap, his strong hands on my back, warming me.

I didn't know that breathing was something that could be induced by arousal, but it must be because my breaths are ragged and wanting. I haven't wanted like this...maybe ever. And neither has he.

We're moving too slow, too gentle.

I step back and pull him out of the chair, shoving him with enough force to push him against the wall adjacent to the bed, covering his neck with my lips. He groans and it's enough to drive me mad. I can't control it, I bite down but keep enough restraint not to let my fang pierce his fiery skin.

"Harder," he groans.

"I don't want to hurt you," I breathe against him.

But Jacob doesn't answer, instead, pulling me towards him again and I oblige, useless against this feeling. I bite into him gently and we both make a sound that feels dirty. I kiss the gentle fleck of blood against his neck and trail it down his body, leaving a trail of small red blooms.

When I take him in my mouth, it's powerful. He's powerful and he's melting against me, clutching me to keep from sliding down the wall. I pin him against it with one hand against his hip. Just as he feels close to finishing, I stop and lean back with a grin.

"Why?" he gasps, but in place of a response, I shove him against the bed.

He's confused and looks up at me with a gaze filled with worry. "Can you even…? I wasn't sure if…?"

"Yes. I can."

As I begin to undress, Jacob stops me. He's beautiful as he slowly unbuttons my shirt and unzips my pants. Without warning, he turns me around and does what he's thought of doing since we got to the cabin, placing his tongue in a place where I never thought tongues should belong. The sound that escapes my lips is ungodly, but I can feel his smile against me and I try not to pay any more attention to it.

I'm harder than I've ever been.

"Wait-" I say, unsure what to do next. I've never gotten this far before. I know Jacob's not a virgin. He's a seventeen-year-old in the body of a man. He's pleasured women before and enjoyed doing it, but this is new territory, even for him.

"What's wrong?" he asks, pulling me into his lap, where I can feel him, hard and rocking against me.

"I've-I've never done this."

Jacob raises an eyebrow and suddenly, I'm conscious of the fact that I've avoided this act for a hundred years and perhaps now I know why.

"Sex with a man? Sex with a shifter?" he asks with a laugh. "Neither have I, but-"

"No, I mean this."

His eyes widen in realization. "Ever? Hasn't it been a billion years?"

"I've never found a mate."

To my surprise, he doesn't laugh, instead, flipping me and shifting so that he's looking down on me with a focused expression. His breathing is still labored, and I know he's restraining himself. "We'll go slow. Wait one second."

He gets up and is back momentarily with what looks like a bottle of oil from the kitchen.

"Is that necessary?" I ask, reading what he's about to do.

"You produce little to no liquid aside from venom. I'm not about to tear anything that could disable you or burn off my dick. Just...relax, yeah?" I feel foolish laying there with my legs spread apart and hard as a statue, but slowly, as he slips a finger inside of me, the feeling vanishes. I can read his thoughts as he's suddenly all focus, but it doesn't detract from the immense feeling of pleasure that washes over me. Involuntarily, my calves tense and my toes tighten. I get the urge to bite something and I grab a pillow off the bed to hold back a groan as he slips one more in me.

I want more. I want it all.

"Jacob, I-"

"Are you ready?" he asks, withdrawing and taking that incredible sensation with him.

I push him back, thrilled to see that he wants me as much as I want him. Slowly, but eagerly, I lower myself onto him and his back arches under me. I know what he wants, but we have all night for him to heal. I have time.

I make the process of moving against him tortuously slow for the both of us.

"Tease," he gasps.

"Quiet."

His eyes go dewey at the command. I stick my fingers in his mouth as I move on top of him, sending waves of pleasure through both of us. He sucks on my fingers, savoring every lick and I almost withdraw before I lose it and cover him in my venom. He's been having flashes of this moment for days and I thought it was a passing fancy that all teenage boys have. Clearly being seventeen for a hundred years has done me a disservice.

I pull out my fingers and wipe his hot spit on his cheek before giving him exactly what we both need, moving on top of him faster and faster, until he sits up and picks me up, both of his massive arms under my knees. I slam against a wall, denting the wood, and he drives into me over and over again.

I run my hands down his back and bite his shoulder, just barely keeping control. When he drops one leg, it's enough for me to push him against the bed again and I hear a creak, but neither of us stop. We're facing each other, him sitting, me straddling him and he aids me in riding him with one hand, using the other to guide my fingers to his mouth again. We move together, faster and harder until he finishes, hot and so intense inside of me that I quake. He licks my fingers once more and it's enough to cause me to find that sweet release as well, leaving a trail of sticky venom dripping down his broad chest.

To my surprise, Jacob kisses me, long and hard once we finish.

"Wait right here."

I shuffle off of him and I know he's gone to get a towel. Shaking, I readjust the bed-we seem to have bent the iron bed frame as well as the far wall. I've also torn into the pillows. I straighten out the bed frame just as Jacob returns, wiping himself off.

"I see your ribs have healed."

Jacob laughs and it almost moves my unbeating heart.

"I take it that you don't sleep?" he asks, almost shy now. I know he wants to be held, to feel the coolness of my skin against the furnace that boils under his.

"Come to bed," I say, fixing the sheets before taking the towel from him. He's leaking out of me, which is a feeling that I've never thought I'd experience, but which I quite like. I clean up and pull on pants, much to Jacob's disappointment.

He's half asleep when I take him into my arms.

"Thank you," he murmurs. I kiss him once more to quiet him. Once his breathing has shallowed, I contemplate my first coupling. I doubt it could have gone any better, but the shadow of tomorrow still hangs over our heads. I look down at Jacob Black's sleeping face, now healed of cuts and bruises. The beauty of him is unlike anything I've ever seen. I ran to find him without a coven or a pack at my side and I would do so again even without his heat pressed into my side. Even if each time we met, he'd end up trying to kill me in the woods. No matter what his reaction to my presence, I couldn't imagine any other course of action. I realize then that what I first took for a passing amusement has shifted into something more than I could have ever imagined. Jacob still has a chance to find someone better, someone to ease his loneliness. Someone human.

I know this and yet, I think that tonight has made Jacob Black mine somehow, a remedy to my loneliness. And I'll be damned again if I lose him without a fight.

When I'm sure he's dead asleep, I slip out of bed and pull on a shirt.

Monster though I may be, nothing will happen to Jacob Black. Not while I stand.