Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, not me.

Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel to Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.

A/Note 2: A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.

A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.

Alpha

Book II – The Protector

Harrison Black

67. Master Key

"Hi, there! You do realize that in Italy you can be arrested for answering the door half-naked, right?" The vampire female in front of me was probably one of the most peculiar vampires I had ever seen in my life. First of all, she didn't even look like a regular vampire. She had long red hair and blue eyes. "We're in the land of the Pope!" She whispered coming forward. I instantly stepped back. Personal space was of the essence every time vampires were involved and I didn't know if she was a friend or an enemy. My bet was on the latter.

"Who are you?" I asked taking a defensive stance. She raised her eyebrows and sighed in disappointment.

"Really? You don't recognize me, Harry?" I was one hundred percent sure I had never seen her in my life. "I'm Rosie Weasley, of course." She opened her arms and twirled around for emphasis. "I even bought the Hogwarts robe and all."

I blinked twice incapable of understanding what the hell was going on. For a second I thought I was being pranked.

"Are you going to let me in or what?" Pushing me to the side, she walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind her. "Did you know there's a Convention of Wizards tomorrow?"

"What?" Season and I asked at the same time. I studied the unknown vampire carefully. She was dressed in a school uniform and a black robe. On her left hand, she had something resembling a magic wand.

"You know Harry Potter, don't you?"

"Harry Potter? You mean the kids' books?" I tried. Whoever she was, she didn't seem to be dangerous. If she had orders to kill us, she would've attacked as soon as I'd opened the door.

"Yes! I'm a huge fan. I like Ron the most... you know... red hair, freckles, blue eyes. That's why I'm dressed as his daughter Rosie. Well... a grown-up Rosie anyways. I could be Ginny too but that would be awkward since your girl's here and well we all know that Harry and Ginny are a couple."

"Okay... let's just start from the beginning... who the hell are you?" I repeated.

She rolled her eyes and grinned. Then she took off the Hogwarts robe she was wearing and made a bow.

"Jane. At your service, sir... and madam." The vampire studied Season quickly and then turned her attention to me again.

"Jane? Jane what?" The only Jane I knew was the sadistic witch that worked for Aro.

"Jane Three." She showed us her wrist so we could see the red circle tattooed on her skin.

"The Red Circle?" I asked confused. I remembered William mentioning something about that organization. They were mercenaries, hired mostly by rich vampires.

She nodded. "American branch. The European branch is way too conservative. They wouldn't have let me dress like this. They wanted someone who could somehow bond with the both of you and I thought that since your name's Harry and there's this awesome Convention going on about Harry Potter in Italy, it would be funny to come here dressed up as Rosie Weasley. It was super nice, wasn't it?"

"You're insane," I whispered. When William told me about the Red Circle I had imagined intimidating vampires, all dressed in black and with a bad attitude, not someone dressed as a book's character.

"I heard that." She complained.

"You were meant to hear it."

"Okay, let's move on shall we? I'm here to take you home. This is for you." Jane Three handed me a letter. The Cullen's sigil on the envelope was still intact. "I'm going to change clothes and then we can go. I have another job on my agenda in two days." Jane went to the bathroom and started to sing Harry Potter's main theme.

"Is she for real?" Season asked as I inspected the letter in my hands. I just shrugged.

The handwriting was Bella's. She had written a riddle. It was the Riddle of the Sphinx that Oedipus had to guess in a play written by the ancient Greek writer Sophocles. There was a painting of Oedipus and the Sphinx in Edward's family household in Chicago, Illinois. Bella was telling me to go there.

"I know where we need to go," I announced. Season raised her eyebrows.

"Where?"

"It's a safe place, don't worry."

"So... what do you think? Better now?" Jane left the bathroom wearing a white tank top and black leather pants. Her hair was blonde now and her eyes were brown.

"How did you...?" Season didn't finish her sentence.

"We're not called the masters of disguise for nothing, honey." Jane smiled showing us her perfect white teeth. "So, are you ready to leave the love nest, or what? I mean I gave you two whole days to... you know... burn some steam. I can still give you a couple of hours if you're in the mood, but I'm kind of bored so... we better get going."

Season blushed and I just rolled my eyes. This was going to be one hell of a journey back to the United States.

xxxxxxxxxx

We traveled using the conventional means of transportation. Jane knew we were being hunted by enemies and decided that it would be safer to travel during the day using regular means of transportation. It would be easier to blend in if we were always surrounded by people.

We rented a car and went to Rome first. Then hours later we boarded the American Airlines flight 136 to New York. We stopped over twice: in Berlin for two hours, and in Lisbon for one hour and a half to refuel. Season slept during most of the journey but not me. I was too anxious to let myself relax and have some sleep.

Jane had arranged us fake documents so we entered the American airspace as Sally and Andrew Potter. I frowned at the name when she handed me the passport but I couldn't do anything to change it. Season thought it was kind of funny.

I felt more at ease when we landed at the JFK Airport. After a nine-hour flight, we had yet to wait for another hour to take a domestic flight to the O'hare International Airport in Chicago.

We arrived in Chicago at exactly 9 p.m. With Jane following us in her private car, we took a cab to Edward's estate. The city of Chicago was one of the most populous cities in the US, and Edward's house was in the heart of Old Town, a neighborhood of Chicago with several buildings from the Victorian Era.

Will and I had been there four years ago with the Cullens. Edward had even got us a tour around the property. He had purchased the next door houses in the last ten years and owned now the equivalent of three baseball fields.

The main gate was already open when we arrived. A red Toyota Creos from last year was parked there. After paying the cab driver, Season and I waited for Jane to arrive and together we knocked on the door.

A man with white hair opened the door and greeted us politely. He said that his name was Ian Pratt and he was the caretaker. I didn't remember him from four years ago. As far as I knew Edward didn't have a caretaker but I figured he probably changed his mind after all the place was huge and if no one took good care of the houses and fields around, the property would gain an abandoned-look very unpleasant for the eye. It would be a waste of money for Edward.

Ian led us to a room where we found a middle-aged woman, talking on the phone. She motioned us to sit down and wait. Season and I complied but Jane remained on her feet, leaning against a shelve with books. The middle-aged woman realized shortly that Jane wouldn't simply wait while she chatted on the phone and she quickly ended the phone call.

"Good night. I'm sorry... my grandson got a cold and his mother is overreacting." She smiled at us while putting her cell phone inside her purse. "You must be Season Marsh and Harrison Black."

We both nodded.

"I'm Patricia Jenks. I represent Mrs. Cullen tonight." The woman added. "You can call me Pat."

"Do you have what I came here for, Pat?" Jane asked.

"You must be Jane."

"I am."

Pat removed a briefcase from under the desk and gave it to Jane who opened it and smiled. She turned around to leave but stopped.

"This was probably the easiest mission I ever completed and I managed to win twice the amount of what I earn in regular assignments." She said. "I should probably thank you for that but since I'm not into that sort of thing, I'm going to give you a small piece of advice. For free." She looked at me, a serious look in her eyes. "You're dealing with powerful enemies. You need to be careful and outsmart them, otherwise, you won't make it. And tell your masters that we won't be a part of this... we don't participate in wars and we don't care who's in charge." Jane winked at me and waved goodbye. A minute later we heard her car leaving.

I sighed in relief. Jane hadn't shown any sign of hostility towards us, it didn't mean she wasn't dangerous, and I was more relaxed now that she was finally gone.

"So..." Pat resumed our conversation. "I represent Mrs. Cullen and I'm here to give you this." She gave me a key. "It's the master key of the house. Mrs. Cullen said that you'll be staying here for awhile so I called someone to put things in order for you and take care of the house. Ian is a good man, he works for my family for ten years now. Anything you need you can tell him."

"So, we're going to live here with Ian?" I asked.

"Well if his presence bothers you, I can assure you that you'll hardly realize he's here. He'll be staying downstairs but he'll go home on weekends and public holidays."

"No, I meant... Are we really allowed to stay here?"

"Of course, you are. Well... you won't have access to all of the houses. Only this one." She smiled at us. "There's a car in the garage for you. Mrs. Cullen said that you can get to know Chicago a little bit more while you're here but she specifically told me to warn you that you must not leave the town." Pat waited for me to nod. Then she continued. "If you need money or something else, you call me to this number and that's it." Pat put her card on the desk and grabbed her coat.

We accompanied her to the door.

"Please just remember that this house is very old and it has hundreds of valuable objects. Try not to break any, okay?"

"Sure. We'll be careful."

"In that case, I hope you have a nice staying here."

When Pat left, Ian took us upstairs into our bedrooms. They were next to each other.

"There's an inside door between the rooms." The old man said when Season entered her room. "I'll be downstairs if you need me, Mr. Black."

"It's Harry. You don't need to call me Mr. Black."

"I'll see you in the morning, Mr. Harry."

I gave him a small smile. "Goodnight, Mr. Pratt."

I didn't even look around when I entered my room, I just used the key Pat had given me and opened the door that led directly into Season's room. She sat on the bed, her eyes fixed on me.

"What now?" She asked motioning me to sit next to her.

"Now... we sleep," I told her and she nodded. We didn't bother taking off our clothes, we just laid down on the comfortable bed and she snuggled against my chest. I kissed her hair and we were asleep within minutes.

xxxxxxxxxx

We'd arrived at Edward's property three days ago and we'd been exploring the huge house ever since. We had barely seen Ian, the caretaker. In the morning, we always had fresh bread and coffee ready for us, and the fireplace was always burning, so we assumed he was around but he knew how to be discreet.

Inside, the house was decorated with old paintings and valuable objects just like Pat Jenks had said. Some were made of silver, others were made of fine glass but there were also items with gems, and other precious stones, even gold. The office had five huge shelves with books and a beautiful desk with a black leather chair.

The living room was quite comfortable with its sofas and ancient tapestries but the bedrooms were even more impressive. Both had canopy beds with white curtains. The decoration was elegant in a classic-kind of a way with mahogany furniture and crystal chandeliers. The walls were painted in a brownish color.

Edward and Bella sure had invested a lot in that house though I couldn't possibly understand why since it was clear that they didn't have any intention of living there. Even living in a quiet neighborhood, Chicago didn't provide any sense of privacy to the residents of Old Town.

Outside things were also quite impressive. The gardens had all kinds of flowers and there was a small and beautiful lake where swans used to swim in the morning. I had seen a couple of squirrels running around too, taking shelter in the surrounding woods. There was a cemetery to the west where Edward's parents and grandparents were buried.

Things were okay for now. Season and I were safe and the fact that we were back in our home country had made us relax a bit. But we were also getting impatient. We were finding it hard to occupy our free time.

I wasn't comfortable enough to leave the property and walk around in the neighborhood just yet and in two days we had already explored everything there was to explore inside Edward's property. The master key that Pat Jenks had given me could open every door and we had been in every room.

Despite the beautiful bedrooms, the cozy living room, the well-organized office, the tidy and spotless kitchen, and the luxurious gardens, our favorite place in the house was the messy attic.

It reminded Season of the house she had shared with Hannah and the children. She missed her brother and her sister a lot and spending time in the attic made her feel more at home than in any other place of Edward's house.

There were boxes of books, papers, old television sets and computers, paintings, and many other objects. There was also a couch and old furniture that we didn't even bother cleaning. Apparently, no one had touched that room for ages and we didn't want any trouble. All of those things looked old and useless but maybe they had sentimental value.

We assumed that there was no problem being there if we didn't touch anything so we made that room our secret place. Even though Ian wasn't around most of the time, we felt we had a lot more privacy among the chaos of that small attic than in the perfectly clean rooms downstairs.

"I've never felt this way about anyone in my life." Season whispered in my arms. I was sitting down on a chair and Season was on my lap. The dim light of the sun was coming through the only window in the attic. It was almost dark outside and we knew we had to go downstairs for supper. "Are you real, Harry?"

That question took me by surprise.

"Why wouldn't I be real?"

"Sometimes I think that I'm dreaming and that I'm going to wake up any moment and you'll be gone. I've never had any luck in my life, and now I feel the luckiest girl on the planet because I'm with you."

"This has nothing to do with luck," I told her. "You could be dead or you could've turned into a vampire after Gustaf attacked you that night."

"But I was lucky because you were there and you saved me."

"He attacked you because of us. He wanted to get even and saw an opportunity. We shouldn't have let the Volturi take him. We should've killed him when we had the chance."

Season cupped my face and smiled. "If he hadn't attacked me, he would've attacked another girl, right?"

I nodded.

"Then I'm lucky. Because if he hadn't attacked me, I wouldn't have met you. Some other girl would and you would now be with her. And I would be home trying to escape Tom's advances even though I knew I would have to give him what he wanted soon because I couldn't afford the rent anymore."

"Tom will never touch you. I promise."

"What if something happens?" She asked. "What if you... leave me?"

"Why would I leave you?"

"Because everyone does. My dad left one morning and he never came back. My mother told me she would take good care of me but she married a douchebag and now she can't even take care of herself. The guys I dated left too."

"Well, the guys you dated probably didn't love you," I said. I was trying not to show that I was a little bit affected by that thought. I wasn't a jealous-type of person but thinking about Season's ex-boyfriends was something that put me on edge.

"It's okay. I didn't love them either. Pizzi had a school crush on me. He was convenient. He lived next door and when I was in trouble I'd take refuge in his house with Ryan and Norah. He never complained about it but his mother was another story. She hated me. She said that I was a bad influence on her son and that I would always bring bad luck to people. I broke up with him but we remained friends. He kept helping me after I moved in with Hannah for the first time but then..." She hesitated. "Tom scared him off. He ordered his friends to hurt Pizzi and he ended up in the hospital. A few years later I met Sam, who was strong and defiant, and I thought he could protect me from Tom and Bruce but all he wanted was money and a place to stay. I only dated him for like six months, and Daryl... Let's just say he was not as honest as he said he was. His family had money and he promised to take me and my siblings to Seattle but I guess he didn't have any intention of keeping his word because one day he left and I never heard of him."

"And now there's Harrison Black," I stated playfully. "Is there any particular reason why you're dating him? Let's see, you dated Pizzi because he lived close by, you dated Sam because he was strong, and you dated Daryl because he had money... why are you dating Harry?"

"I'm dating you for your body and sex, of course." She played along.

"Really? But if I remember correctly I've heard you say something like 'you've never felt anything like this for anyone in your life'."

"I don't remember saying that."

"Let's see if I can remind you."

I tickled her and she laughed until she was out of breath. I loved watching her laugh like that, carefree and relaxed, but I loved more when she was shuddering under my body, moaning my name.

So our clothes were quickly discarded and we momentarily forgot about where we were. We were not supposed to touch or use the things in the attic unless that chair, but the couch was too inviting and we really needed more space to move.

I knew Season wasn't with me for protecting or even sex. And I knew that because when a girl is with a guy just because it's in her interest or because she just wants to have some pleasure, she wouldn't give herself to him the way Season did. Every time I looked into her green eyes, I knew she was with me because she loved me.

She clung to me afterward and put her hand over my heart.

"I never fell in love until now..." She confessed. "And I'm so scared that sometimes I can hardly breathe."

"I've never been in love either, I admitted too.

I had decided that what I had felt about Rhea wasn't really love. It was some sort of infatuation by association. My brother had real feelings for Rhea and I had probably sensed those feelings and made my own without realizing it. Or maybe it was my wolf trying to compete with William's. Anyway, I was feeling less and less connected to Rhea White and more and more in love with Season each passing day.

"I thought I was in love once, but now that I think about it, I believe I didn't really love her."

I wasn't looking at Season but I knew she was smiling.

"I'm really happy that I was your first." She said. "And I really want to be yours forever but..."

"But what?"

"But I'm scared that the moment I finally accept that I can be happy, things will go wrong."

"A lot of things will go wrong, Season. That's how things work. Take my parents, for example, they're married for years now, but things weren't always easy between them." I told her. "I know that you know I lied about how we met. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry for lying and making up things that weren't true but I'm not sorry about staying with you."

"You did it because you wanted to make sure I was safe, right?"

"Yes. I knew your life would change after the attack and I couldn't just abandon you. Alice saw the Volturi coming to kill you. I couldn't let that happen."

"Thank you for being here for me."

"You're welcome, babe."

"Babe?" She laughed. "Are you really going to start using pet names?"

"Maybe. Don't you like 'babe'? What do you want me to call you then? Sweety, honey, dear, love, cupcake?"

"Oh my God, Harry! Shut up!" She said rolling her eyes. "Let's get dressed. We should go downstairs."

Season got up from the couch and began searching for her clothes. She threw me my shirt and boxers. My pants were on the couch's arm.

"I have to tell you something," I said reaching her and pulling her into my lap again.

"What?"

"I'm going home by the end of the month."

"That's great!"

"You can't go with me."

"What? Why not?"

"I won't stay there. I'll be just visiting for my brother's birthday because I promised him I'd be there."

"You're leaving me here?"

"I'm arranging a deal to bring Ryan and Norah when I return." I offered her.

Season was silent for a while.

"Okay, but I don't want to be here alone."

I nodded in agreement. I would never leave her unprotected. Even if it was just for twenty-four hours.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Sasha!" Season called. "Sasha! Come here, girl!"

"Leave her. Let her explore the surroundings. Dogs like to explore." I said.

Season pouted and sat down on the grass, beside me. We had decided to spend the day at the small lake, with the three new residents of Edward's big old house, three German Shepherd dogs that I had rescued from the city kennel.

"I thought we were going to train them."

"And we are, but they need to explore the property first. I want them to know every corner of this place."

"Will they protect me against vampires?"

I lay in the soft green grass and looked up to the blue sky above. No dog could fight off a vampire. Not even if it was the best guarding dog in the world. They simply couldn't match the strength and speed of a leech, however, if well trained they could sense their arrival 1.2 miles away which was not much but it would give Season enough time to follow my plan. Jane was right. We had to be smarter than the Romanians and the Volturi.

"Shepherd dogs are one of the best guarding dogs breed there is. Sasha, Duke, and Zane will protect you blindly. Especially after I train them."

"I always liked dogs... but we could never afford a pet. They're expensive."

"I've got three dogs at home: Gunnar, Hunter, and Beaver. And when we leave Chicago, we'll take Sasha, Duke, and Zane with us."

"You still haven't answered my question. Will they be able to protect me against a vampire?"

"No. Unfortunately, they won't."

"Then why did you bring them?"

"Because I don't want you to be all alone for three days."

"I'll be with Ian."

"Who's never around."

"Then don't stay there three days! At first, you told me you were only going for one day. Now you're spending three days there and..." She didn't continue. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm just..."

"It's okay. I understand. You wanted to go home but right now it's too risky. I wish you could come too. You just need to have a little more patience."

I had changed my plans after hearing from the pack two nights ago. Initially, I was only supposed to go to La Push to visit JJ on his birthday but things were kind of tense in the Reservation and William was getting quite anxious.

They hadn't been able to confirm Rhea's pregnancy yet and William was starting to be out of excuses about her absence in the training sessions.

I wanted to know what the hell was taking them so long to buy a freaking pregnancy test. I wanted to see Rhea so I could be certain that whatever I had felt for her was gone, but most of all I wanted to be sure that my brother was okay considering everything that was going on.

There was also another motive why I wanted to spend some time in La Push: the last time I had spoken to William, he had mentioned that Peter Millson, Tom's nephew, and Hannah's ex-boyfriend, had been trying to convince Hannah to take him back.

I was curious to know if that was actually all he wanted because I could sense that he and Tom had some secret agenda going on. Apparently, Season didn't know about that yet and I didn't want her to worry about it so I was going to investigate on my own.

"What if the Romanians are already there waiting for you?"

"They're not," I assured Season.

Alice had had a vision a few days ago. She had seen the moment Aro arrived at Volterra. Things were pretty fucked up since then. Aro had never been best known for his patience and when he realized that a small group of Romanian vampires had been able to enter his domains and take his wife hostage, he snapped.

He ordered everyone that had stayed behind protecting their lair to reunite in a room and he killed them with no remorse. Caius was even more unstable with the loss of his mate. He had ordered a complete lockdown in Volterra to be sure that there were no more enemies lurking.

Marcus had successfully convinced Aro that everything between them was all right. He hadn't mentioned anything about Didyme's death, Andrei's betrayal, or about having been taken by the Romanians. Aro believed him because he had no reason to suspect Marcus' words but even if he did suspect his friend was lying, Scarlett would interfere to help Marcus. She had also lied to Aro stating that Season was still with the Romanians and that by now she would probably be a vampire herself.

Alice had concluded that apparently Scarlett and Marcus were now working together on a plan to bring Aro down for good. And with Scarlett on his side, Marcus would get his revenge soon. Corin had been their first victim. Marcus had killed her right before Aro's arrival. He had told the other Elders that all of the three wives' private guards had been killed by the enemy.

With Corin gone, Marcus could be certain that no one would rat him out. Unfortunately, Alice hadn't been able to see anything else which meant that the Volturi didn't know what to do, and both Marcus and Scarlett were also on standby.

In twenty days the Romanians would realize that Aro wasn't going to meet them in Val Rosandra to be judged like they had requested, and they could open the hostilities. If that happened and Marcus and Scarlett changed sides, the Volturi could fall.

But there was also the possibility that they wouldn't attack Volterra and in that case, the war would once again be on hold.

As for the Romanians, Alice had failed to know their intents. Vlad and Stefan knew how her power worked so it would be hard for her to outsmart them and find something about their next plans.

"The Romanians will never be able to enter La Push undetected. We have more wolves now than before and they're all on alert right now. I'll be safe there. As for you... Do you remember Alice?"

"The vampire that spoke to me when I woke up after the attack?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"What about her?"

"She has a very neat power. She can see the future."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Her power has certain limitations though. She can't see the future of a shapeshifter like me or the future of someone whose life is linked to a shapeshifter which basically means that right now she can't see your future because you're with me."

"Okay..."

"When I leave, she'll see your future. And she'll warn us if something comes up."

Season nodded and she laid down beside me.

"With Alice and my back up plan, you'll be completely safe," I added.

"You better come back to me, Harry." She said fiercely.

"Yes, ma'am," I said before attacking her lips.

Thanks for the reviews: Guest(s), CentaurPrincess, brankel1, MelkiSihou, Island Mama, Weave the Magic, Kary G, almondbutter, rocklesson86, TheSlytherinQueenbee, nikkieowens, nene82743, Deadman'sGun, bonzgirl, Jazzmatazz30, sia-gomo01, FangsandDaggers, Sagal Farah, chemistrykim, Daughter of the earth, Gizmo60, EvangellaAkriti, Sarah Blackwater, lory77, Beauty Eclipsed, tcpg02, Aiyanna Clearwater, Ebble, riskingit, Ella Tremaine.

I'd also like to thank all the followers of this story and all the readers who added it to their favorites list. Thank you.

A/Note: Basically this is the calm before the storm. ;)

Take care,

Karisan