AN: I know, I know it's been a long time since last update but I've had some writer's block and gotten side tracked with family and work. 65 hour weeks suck, but thank goodness this is that last one of those for a while. I haven't had a bunch of time during work to putz around on the iPad either, which is normally how I write.

I decided to make a little change and hold off on Royal's story for a little while and do Jessamine's first. I'm still working on how dark I want to go with Royal and so if anyone is willing to let me bounce a couple of ideas off them, please PM me.

Also, there are a couple of sexually suggestive themes but other than that, I'm trying really hard to stick to thing that are no more than what one might have seen in the Twilight films, and those were all PG-13.

Chapter 4

Choices

That night seemed to drag. I didn't need to hunt but it was something to do to pass the time. Edythe and I ran off into the Olympic forest and just started picking off smaller mammals, since after an hour we hadn't found any larger predators. I had drained four squirrels, two rabbits and a mouse, while Edythe had drank three rabbits and then caught the scent of a doe and went after that.

While she finished her deer, I was thinking about how to best pop the question. Charlie had asked Renee on First Beach but that was out of the question for me and Edythe. I kept thinking about just doing it really soon, maybe even tonight but I was still kind of a coward.

Finally I was able to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Hey Edythe?"

"Yes Beau?" Even though her tone was a little mocking, her smile was absolutely dazzling, as her dimples shined. I knew that she didn't do this on purpose, but I was helpless against her. Maybe that was why I loved her so much.

I assumed that she really wanted to know what I wanted to ask her, so I just went with it. Since Edythe couldn't read my mind like she could everyone else, I normally just told her whatever was on my mind. "Are you really okay with me spending time with Julie?"

She thought for a fraction of a second, and I assumed that she was trying to think of how best to tell me that I should try for a clean break with those I used to be friends with. But I was surprised by her response.

"I wouldn't say that I'm okay with it," she said as I assumed the tirade was about to start, "but I am never going to make you choose Beau."

"Huh?" I was stunned. Here she was giving me the okay to hang out with them.

"Carine gave all of us the free will to make our own choices, even if she did hope that we'd stay with her. That's why we moved to Syracuse after Rochester for Royal. He wasn't ready to completely walk away from his little sisters. And even still, Carine let all of us choose to join the family. While it's true that there is some risk with you being friendly Julie Black and the rest of them, I will never make you choose between being my mate and being friends with her."

"I hope I never have to choose," I whispered to her as we began disposing of our kills.

"Eventually we'll have to leave Forks Beau," she said even though she sounded just as disappointed as I was about the prospect. "Carine's been getting glances at the hospital because she'd supposed to be 34, but looks as young as she does."

"Is anyone close to the truth?"

Edythe shook her head. "A couple, but those who are the closest to the truth are the ones that want to lose her the least. I think even if they did know the whole truth that they'd never out her." Another minute passed as we both sniffed the air for anything else that smelled appetizing but weren't finding much. Many animals, once they caught our scent would scatter and flee. We were about to finish up when out of the blue Edythe said, "Can I ask something personal now?"

I smiled sheepishly. "It's your turn," I answered omitting the last two words I wanted to say which were 'I guess'.

As always, her smile was dazzling. I was powerless to lie to her when she gave me this look. But this time she looked scheming, like there was something deeper on her mind than she would say. "Why did you choose me?"

I shrugged. I really didn't know. Surely it had to be something much more than her intense beauty or the fact that she was a vampire. Could it had simply been that we were soulmates? That, despite what Edythe thought on the subject, Carine was closer to the truth than Edythe, at least on this particular subject? It felt like I was thinking about this for several minutes but in reality on a couple of seconds passed; my vampire mind was really quick in thinking through several possibilities that I could say. I ended up choosing something that was probably pretty corny and had El or Roy heard it, they both would have snickered but it was in no way a lie. "Because you're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

"Is that strictly physical?" She asked as she took my wrists in her hands, pulling me into her body. When she released my hands, her arms wrapped around my neck, which made my head bury into her chest, as I was sure she had intended and her legs wrapped around my rear tightly as our private parts were only separated by the thin layers of clothes we both wore.

I don't think that I'd ever been more turned on in my entire life and even a few parts of my anatomy started to betray me. I wanted her, right here and right now in the most animalistic sense but I knew one thing more than anything else; she valued her chastity above anything else since it was really the only thing she still had left to be pure with. "Not exactly," I mumbled into her chest at which she lessened her grip around my head. Instinctively, I raised my lips to the hollow in her throat and started kissing her, ending on her lips. Several seconds passed before I pulled my lips from hers and said, "There are three things about you I can't live without, but your body is number three." This was only a slight untruth. I really didn't know what the order was and it was possible it was a tie between all three of them.

"So what are the other two?" She asked which a concerned look on her face as she unwound her legs from my midsection.

"First is your mind," I said smiling as my lips touched her forehead. "You have a beautifully creative mind Edy," I had started using the nickname that the family used sometimes. I thought of the music that she composed for everyone, including myself, as the sound of my lullaby rang front and center in my mind. "Next is your soul," I said as she pushed herself away from me.

"Can we not have this discussion right now?" She asked with a frown on her face.

I nodded. I knew her attitude on this subject and had joined Carine's and Earnest's position on the matter. Surely we couldn't be soulless monsters; not all of our kind at least. "Can I ask you why you think that?" I said hoping she would elaborate since it might provide clues as to how to break her argument.

She breathed in deeply and made her choice. "I've committed all of the seven deadly sins. Clearly there is no hope for me. And even worse some of them have had disastrous consequences for innocents."

I ran through the list in my head. There were two of them that I couldn't think that it was possible for her to have committed. "Sloth and coveting?"

"Okay, so maybe just six of seven but my gluttony cost many humans their lives."

"Only bad ones," I said trying to make her feel better about herself but she wasn't buying it. "An eye for an eye is a tenant of many religions."

"I didn't just kill murderers," her voice biting.

I pictured it again; Edythe, young to the life with brilliant crimson eyes stalking the worse of the worse that society had to offer. Surely the scales were leveled out by her saving more innocents than she took. "Maybe it equals out, maybe not," I said passing on this particular point, "but what did you covet?"

She looked deep into my eyes and I knew her answer without her having to say it. "You." Her hands shot onto my chest, and slowly moved lower stopping just above my groin. "I had no right to want you, but I still took you." An aroused, animalistic growl came from deep in my chest and for the first time I really understood what lust felt like.

"Mine," I growled as I pulled her into me to stop her hands from sinking any lower. Unfortunately I used too much strength and we toppled over, knocking a huge tree to the grown. The spruce had to be more than fifty feet high and god only knows how old, but when we stopped rolling I was on top of her, my legs straddling her hips. My lips were on hers for just a second before she turned the tables on me, quite literally. Now it was I who was trapped between her hips and my pants felt even tighter.

"No," she laughed, "Mine!" Her snarl even louder than mine had been and her hand found my belt, starting to undo my pants. But somehow I was able to find the sanity to stop her before we went even further than we had.

My hands tied her wrist like unbreakable iron manacles. "Not today," I said into her ear as I slowly wiggled out from between her legs. "But soon enough. I promise." My time was running out; I'd have to propose soon and then it dawned on me. How long would it take Archie and Earnest to do a wedding for us, or would it just be easier to go to Vegas and get married there. I answered my own question. Yes, it would be easier in Vegas, but Edythe would want an actual wedding even if it would just be Carine or another in the family officiating.

Shortly before dawn we ran back to the house after finishing disposing of the evidence of our hunt. I was surprised to see Jessamine sitting on the couch looking like she was waiting for me. She started staring at me when we walked in and after a few minutes it was uncomfortable. Finally after ten minutes of her awkward glances I'd had enough. "What the hell do you want Jess?!" I snapped with a growl towards her. Instinctively, I started showing my teeth, almost challenging her.

Jessamine actually looked surprised that I was so upset with her. Then she started growling back at me, but Edythe stepped in between us. "Cool it you two," Earnest said, trying to sound like a dad who had two children who were about to fight as he stepped next to Edythe.

I stormed up the stairs to my room and Edythe followed. I thought about slamming the door, but with my new strength that was a really bad idea if I wanted any privacy for the next week. Archie had said that one time Eleanor had gotten so pissed at Edythe and slammed a door so hard that it knocked the entire wall down. I did shut the door hard, in what would have passed for a slam if I was still human and sat on Edythe's black couch.

"Jeez, what's her damn problem?" I finally snapped when we sat on the couch. It was rhetorical; I didn't really want an answer.

Edythe however would not let it go and answered. "It's not her fault, Beau. She sees how happy you are most of the time and is just drawn to you. She's not trying to upset you, it's just that with your positive attitude, she has trouble not being pulled towards you." She chuckled before adding, "but I've got to admit it doesn't make me really happy either."

"Edythe Cullen, are you jealous over me?" I asked with just a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

She tackled me again and climbed on top of my prone position, her hips tight against mine again while my head was trapped between her arms. It reminded me of the first time she tackled me to prove the point of how scary she could be when she wanted to be, even if it had the opposite effect on me. It made me want her even more; physically that is. "What do you think?" She asked seductively, her lips at mine then my neck and shoulders. She was kissing me all over my face and I couldn't possibly have been any more aroused than I was. But I knew that if I didn't pull myself away from her now, that we might just go all the way. I had every intention of waiting until we married before we did it, but damn could she be tempting.

"Not today," I growled, my resolve strong for now despite again being betrayed by certain parts.

"You know you want to," she said seductively. I remembered what Carine said about the hunting habits of some of our kind. The truly sadistic ones; the incubus and succubus. Those who could be extra rough with their conquest of the evening before killing them. Early on, this had been the lifestyle of the Denali brothers until finally Taras finally became sickened enough with himself. It took a decade, but eventually he was able to convince his brothers. But intimacy wouldn't be a problem for us any more since we were both equal now.

"You have no idea," I said trying to slide away from her, "but you wanted to wait for us to be married."

"You don't fight fair," she complained, and her lips were back on my body as she resumed trying to take off my pants.

My hands trapped her wrists as she started to lower my jeans. I would not be swayed tonight… well not in this minute anyway. But I knew that if I didn't leave now, my resolve might wane. "I never said I did," I said trying to find a way to not offend her by refusing her now. "But I will do everything I can to protect your soul. It's far too precious to me to take any chances."

"What soul?" She scoffed. I knew her opinions to this topic, and I thought that seeing the way I had been through my rebirth might sway her some, but she wouldn't budge her thoughts.

Even though we had had this discussion in brevity earlier in the day, I still knew that she didn't see herself right. Maybe is she could read my mind, she could see herself the way I do. But how do I put that into words? "The brilliant golden one that I can see in your eyes," I answered as I gently kissed both of her eyelids.

"Beau?" She was at a loss for words; I knew that much.

I chuckled. I knew how she felt about this, but I figured that an old idiom might work better than anything else. And even better, why not attribute it to Renee. After all, she might have said it... once. "Mom always said that the eyes were the window to the soul, and if she's right"

Edythe hissed at my assumption. "We've all lost our souls!"

"I don't think so, but in either case wouldn't it be better not to take unnecessary risks with yours?"

"You don't want to make love to me?" Edythe said giving me a 'sad puppy dog' look.

I gulped, the venom I swallowed back made my throat burn even hotter than I had ever experienced, not with the normal thirst but with lust. "God Edythe, you can't even imagine how much I do, but we're going to do this right."

"Who's definition of 'right'?" She scoffed annoyed.

I knew I was winning now. "Mine. I mean it Edythe. I'm gonna do everything in the right order. Just give me a little bit of time to figure everything out." In truth, I was certain of one thing and that was that I couldn't live without her. I was more ready than ever for this; it was just a matter of pulling off the proposal.

Her smile was mesmerizing again. "I love you," she said in a voice so quietly my old ears never would have heard it, but her tone was nothing but genuine.

I couldn't hold off any longer. There Edythe was; so open and almost vulnerable. I had been thinking for a few days about how I would actually ask her, but never could I come up with the words that went just right with the moment. The ring was also a hold up. I know that Earnest had said that she would be okay with me giving her her mother's ring, but I always thought that the ring should be something from the groom's family. After a few years of Renee leaving him, Charlie finally couldn't hold on to the ring he gave her. Every day it just made him miss her even more, so in the summer when I was eight, he finally sold it. He knew that it was the final act of letting her go, even though he never completely stopped caring about her. My grandparents' rings though we're still an option. Charlie kept them in a small compartment in his gun safe. I'd have to sneak in and get them at some point, all three of them; the engagement ring and the set of wedding rings. It wouldn't be right without the set. But something caught me off guard. What if Charlie noticed them missing? I'd think of the ring situation later, but I wanted to ask now. Finally I just thought that I'd say whatever words came to my head when I was ready. The moment was now, even if not yet having the rings. I led her outside onto the bluffs overlooking the Sol Duc River.

I decided to start with another question first. I didn't really know why, but something else crossed my mind first; Archie and me in Phoenix when he told me how one became a vampire. "Hey Edy," I mumbled, but she looked up as we faced each other, our hands still entangled, "When did you first not hate seeing me as a vampire?" I just blurted it out without thinking clearly of the words.

She sighed which made me nervous. Did she still hate seeing me like this?

"I never hated it Beau," she said after a couple of seconds to gather her thoughts, "but I didn't want to curse you to this."

I laughed. I didn't know what else to do, but I wanted to know this so maybe there was a better way to ask. "Okay," I stretched it out for a second as my brain worked through another way to ask it. "Who had the first thoughts that you didn't object to?"

"Earnest," after a second she added, "It was the night of the baseball game; the night your life changed forever," she looked down in guilt but I raised her chin. I wasn't going to let her feel bad for that ever again.

"What did he see?" I asked.

"He pictured us getting married," her smile was dazzling again. "He saw the same scene that El and Roy had the last time that they were married," she said as she took out a picture of the event. The two of them were under a balloon archway, I thought for a second but realized it wasn't balloons, but thousands and thousands of white roses in an archway with a twisted streak of red ones in the center. It was so beautiful that words could describe it. "Earnest is an artist and Archie is a perfectionist," she added.

"Whoa," I gasped.

"Indeed. Earnest saw the two of us underneath the arch with two different possibilities. First he saw you still with your blue eyes."

She waited for a second but I said first, "Then with red ones?"

Edythe shook her head. "Not exactly. He saw us both with honey golden ones."

"Whoa!" I gasped again. "He never saw me as a newborn?"

Edythe shook her head, "No. He just saw you as one of the family, which meant"

But I finished her sentence, "That'd I'd be a vegetarian." We embraced again.

"And that wasn't all," Edythe said, her look even more grateful, "the way he saw your eyes, it made me hopeful."

"How did he see them?"

"They were the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. Even a brighter gold than Carine's were and that's saying a lot. I know know that it was because of the pure joy that you have from being with me."

I started laughing a little. "I'll have to thank him someday," I said thinking of how best to do it.

Edythe shook her head. "You don't need to. You've already given him the best gift he could ever have asked for in making me so happy."

"And then there was when El, Carine, and I were in Canada trying to trap Joss. El made me think about it again and even Carine double teamed me. It wasn't exactly fair."

I laughed wondering what they had said to her. Luckily I wouldn't have to wait long to find out.

"El asked me if I'd let you die before letting Carine change you. I had to be honest with myself about it for the first time; I didn't know. And to pile on, Carine said that you might choose this and I wondered if you had already known more about the transformation than I thought you did. But both of them had confidence in us, whatever we decided."

"It wouldn't have been a hard decision to make," I said being completely candid.

"And when I found you broken and bloodied at the dance studio, when Archie only saw the only two options he had thought we would have when I first realized how much I loved you. I didn't know what to do. When you chose me… I felt so happy for the first time in my life. And then you asked me to kill you"

"When?" I asked. I never remembered that.

"You never asked me in so many words but you did ask me to stop the burning," her look was intensely sad again. "Unfortunately with where you were in the change, the only way to do that would have been to kill you and I just couldn't do it. If not for Archie I don't know what I would have done."

I smiled, relieved for the first time. I was really glad she didn't do it and was definitely in an ever greater debt to Archie. I was ready now and realized just how much I loved her and she loved me.

"Edythe Cullen?" I asked as I took one last deep breath before I was fully committed.

"Beaufort Swan," she answered me sounding almost mocking, but man was she beautiful.

I slid out of her grasp and dropped down on my right knee, looking deep into her honey golden eyes. "I promise to love you forever; every single day of forever. Will you marry me?"

In this moment I knew the words were as perfect as I could come up with when I smelled Archie somewhere nearby. Of course he would know this was happening.

"Oh Beau," she whispered with what looked to be tears in her eyes, but that wasn't possible. "Yes!" She shouted excitedly as he lifted me off of my knee and lifted me to her lips and proceeded to force her lips on mine. The passion was too much for both of us, as I felt my pants grow tighter again and parts of her I never noticed before started to tremble with anticipation. But we would go no further on this day. I forced myself away from her, allowing my body to calm itself.

"Not tonight," I said into her left ear as I took her hand to lead her back towards the house. But of course the psychic would not let us get back there before ambushing us.

"What do you want Archie?" Edythe asked sounding really annoyed. "You had to ruin our moment, didn't you?"

"You know that you'll want to relive this again later," he joked holding a small video camera. Apparently he had recorded my proposal.

I shook my head at my brother and sighed, "Archie will be Archie."

"Meaning annoying," she continued.

"Come on, Edy," he protested, pulling out a small cube of a box wrapped in black velvet. "Here ya go Beau," he said suggestively as he handed me the box winking.

I looked at it for a second before opening it. Inside was a huge white gold band with a setting of seven small, but brilliant diamonds arraigned in a circular pattern, six on the outside with a larger on in the center; I ring I recognized from before. This wasn't the ring that Earnest had mentioned, but rather the ring that was my grandmother's. I recognized it from the many times I had visited her when I was younger, as she never took it off. I had assumed that she had been buried with it, until I asked dad about the small jewelry box in his gun safe when I was twelve, my last summer in Forks. "Edythe?" I asked as she gave me her left hand to slide the ring onto her third finger, where it would stay, I hoped for eternity.

"Perfect fit," she whispered. Her smile was dazzling, and my heart all but jumpstarted. "Beau?"

I assumed that she was going to ask me if I planned this, which I didn't. "Arch, when did you…"

He smiled wide. "Yesterday, when I realized you were ready to pop the question. I took the liberty of breaking into your dad's house while he was in La Push for whatever he was doing."

"Whatever he was doing?" I asked even more nervous about my dad. "As in you've been losing him?"

"Yeah thanks for bringing it up," he answered looking around, almost as if he was revealing a secret he didn't want to, "humans can be difficult, you know that and I can't see those dogs. When he goes to the reservation I lose him too."

"Archie," I growled softly, "be nice." I was getting tired of them calling Jules and her friends dogs and mutts and whatever.

He laughed, "I knew you were gonna say that," he sang out in a mocking sing-song.

"Julie's still my friend," I said explaining everything to him, "and oddly enough so are her two best friends. They're gonna be coming over here sometimes, so be nice."

"We'll never be able to get that damned wet dog smell outta here," he sang in a laugh.

I laughed again. "Yeah, probably." I thought again about Charlie. "How's my dad been these last couple days?"

Archie looked like he was terribly upset and he shook his head. "Not good, and every day he gets worse."

This was all my fault, I knew that. If I hadn't run off to meet Joss, then I'd still be with him. I'd be able to help him with Holly dying, but then I shook my head. After hearing about the conversion from Archie, this was always where my destiny was heading. The better goodbye; that's what I had hoped for, but now was there anything I could do to help him. Then it hit me.

Archie scowled at me and so did Edythe. "You can't Beau," he said.

"What?" I tried to lie to him, but that would work as well as anyone else trying to lie to Edythe.

"Neither of your ideas are possible. You can't tell him the truth, since that would expose him to the Volturi's wrath if they ever found out. And it's not just him, but anyone he might tell, including Bonnie and those on the reservation. Then there's us; we'd all be held responsible for you exposing the secret, but no one more so than your creator."

"No!" I gasped. I couldn't expose Edythe or any of them to that.

"And as far as changing him, that's not gonna happen either. Those dogs have been super cool about you, but only because they realized that there was no other option for you. Short of Charlie being on his deathbed, I highly doubt they would even let us ask him."

"Could we ask them, the tribe at least?"

Again, Archie shook his head. "We could, but remember I can't see them. I'd have no idea how'd they react, and they could view just our thinking about it as a breach of the treaty."

And again I started thinking about how to try and give Charlie a better sense of closure, but couldn't come up with anything.

Archie's face lit up after another couple seconds. "Light bulb!" He crowed. "Edythe, gimme the ring for a little bit."

She frowned disappointed that she had to take it off. I was too, but knew Archie good enough to know he had a plan. "Just do it," I said softly, "you know he's got an idea."

"Yeah," she said sliding the ring off, "but I don't like it. It's too risky."

"Arch?"

"Well, I was gonna sneak back into you house and put it back in the safe. Then tomorrow or soon enough Edythe can go over there and tell him that she would never be able to love anyone like she did Beau, and she wouldn't ever allow herself to try. She'll always feel betrothed to him, and asked if he had any family heirlooms that might make her feel connected to him. Charlie will be difficult for a few minutes, but Edythe's pleas will be with such sincerity that he'll believe her. So your dad will know just how committed she is to you, which unfortunately is the best we can do for him."

"Oh," I gasped, "that's actually not a bad idea. So what's the problem?"

Edythe answered still scowling at Archie. "Because in a few of the scenarios that he sees, Charlie tries to kick me out, and in one even does so physically. Charlie's never touched any of us other than Carine and she's always very careful. I can't guarantee my reaction either."

"You'll be fine Edy," Archie said sounding really confident.

Again, Edythe snarled at Archie. "You've seen him with red eyes!" She snapped at her brother.

"Wait!" I shouted, now completely panicked. "You've seen my dad as a newborn?"

"A few times. Carine and Earnest have both felt incredibly guilty about what was taken from you, and have talked about it with each other. But they know that it's just not feasible right now."

"It's not gonna happen!" Edythe shrieked. "Even if Beau's right about our souls, which I still am not completely confident in, I will not subject his father to the conversion just to relieve some of our guilt."

"She's right Arch," I said sadly, but knowing she was right. "We can't do that to my dad."

Archie frowned and I knew why. He wouldn't subject anyone he cared for to the change. My own transformation had been difficult enough for both of them to watch. "I know," he mumbled. But then he groaned, a kind of frustrated sound. "Those dogs just won't stay away, will they?"

"Archie," I growled back at him. "I told them to come by when they want."

A few minutes later I heard the sound of Julie's Rabbit pulling up the Cullen's drive. Archie and Edythe started to leave to other areas of the house, but I insisted that they stay. It had only been a few hours since I last hunted but my throat had a minor irritation to it. I wouldn't take any chances with it; I needed someone there to make sure I didn't do anything stupid.

Julie knocked on the door and a little surprisingly, she was on her own. I had thought that Sam wouldn't let any of them come here solo; at least that's what Quinn had let slip on their last visit. But when Earnest led Jules into the living room, it was just her.

"Hey Beau," she said as she rushed to hug me. I locked down for a minute like a statue, as my mind thought she was attacking me, but when I felt her arms wrap around me I recovered.

"Hey Jules," I answered her with my longing smile. Even thought it had only been a few days since I last saw her, it felt a lot longer. "So what's up? I mean, where are the gals?"

"Well, Quinn found someone and Em's helping her mom with the store." Emma's mom owned the little convenience store on the reservation, so this wasn't this uncommon especially on days were stuff came in. "But Sam wanted me to talk to you guys ASAP."

"Why?" I asked as I noticed the other three had slipped just out of the room, which made me a little nervous. But Edythe was right, with the way Julie smelled, drinking her blood was way far down the list of things I wanted to do.

"Well, couple of things. First, there was another leech in your house last night. Seriously, it really reeks over there right now."

"Yeah, well," I said kind of nervous to out Archie's mission over there, "that was us. Well, Archie anyway."

"Oh," Jules said, her face dropping embarrassed, "sorry 'bout that. I didn't know it was one of them," she scowled a little showing what she thought of most of the family.

"Jules, be nice," I groaned out much like I did with Archie earlier.

"Sure, sure. Well, since that's no big deal, Sam's really worried about that thing in Seattle. It's getting so outta hand that she really wants to go check it out."

"You're lying," Edythe snapped as she returned to the room. "Or should I say that's not the real reason."

Julie looked like she was a kid who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "Okay, okay. It's really Bonnie. Your dad's been talking about going to Seattle to help with the investigation. The murder rate has picked up so much that the State Police and FBI are starting to put together some kind of task force for it."

"How many?" I asked almost afraid to hear the body count. Last I had heard, the total had been about a hundred so far in the last six weeks, but the pace had been increasing.

"In the last week, 23 confirmed deaths with another two dozen or so disappearances. We can't stay out of this much longer, especially if Charlie's gonna get pulled in."

"He can't!" I screamed which rattled the windows. Thank god that we lived more than five miles from anyone else, but I still heard the shrieks from a ton of birds. "It's too dangerous."

"I don't disagree with you," Julie said as we sat on the couch, "but he might not have a choice. Bonnie said he's been putting it off for a couple of weeks, but he's almost at the point where he just doesn't care anymore. Seriously Beau, your dad is majorly losing it."

I slumped; I didn't know what else to do. I was almost worried that he wanted to go to Seattle hoping that whatever was there would put him out of his misery. I knew about his increased drinking, and him becoming more and more distant from his friends, which had only gotten worse in the aftermath of Holly dying. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to help my dad, but I didn't have any clue on how to. And even worse, it seemed that Bonnie and Saul were having, at best no effect and quite possibly were actually doing harm to his psyche. Perhaps him seeing me was the only way that we could fix this; damn the consequences.

Edythe ran upstairs in a blur and I wondered what she was up to. I knew that she didn't particularly like Julie and I couldn't really figure out why. Sure Julie tried to keep up the charade that she wanted to be my girlfriend, but I never really thought of her that way. She was my best friend, that was true, but it was nothing more than that.

I got up as Julie was walking towards the door and figured that I'd at least walk her outside. My mind kept racing about what to do with my dad. In the end, there were no good options. Changing him wasn't going to happen, telling him the truth was very dangerous, and if we did nothing it was very likely he'd take his own life. I had really screwed this one up. Stupid Joss.

"Whoa Beau," Julie gasped as I opened the door after nearly walking right through it. We were on the front porch now. "Dude, you really need to relax. We'll figure out something with Charlie. And this thing in Seattle, it's probably not that big of deal," she said with her head looking everywhere but at my eyes.

I knew she was lying; the thing in Seattle was a very big deal. Someone was creating a bunch of newborn vampires and letting them loose on the population. But why? I mean, whoever it was, was so completely breaking the rules that it wasn't possible they didn't know it. "Jules, it's almost like someone's trying to make an army or something," I said trying to think through everything. Nothing else made any sense. And then Jessamine was at my side in a flash. Julie started shaking and then burst her huge russet wolf-self, her clothes shredding in an instant. Oddly enough, even as a wolf she was incredibly beautiful. "Sorry Jules," I said and she started whining. "See you tomorrow?"

She nodded and started rubbing her snout against my side and I rubbed her head. She sighed sounding happy and then took off running.

"What is it?" Archie said as he instinctively wrapped his left arm around his wife, pulling her in closer.

"An army," Jessamine answered, the tone of her voice solemn as she put something together. "I thought I had just been mistaking the signs. There's no reason for a newborn army in Seattle. No one claims it. And other than us, who could have wronged someone so badly that someone would need these numbers they've have to deal with it."

"Slow up," I said trying to process everything, "what army? What are you talking about?"

Jessamine started to slowly roll up the sleeves on her sweater. My old human eyes would have certainly missed what she was trying to show me, but my new perfect vampire ones had no issues. Crisscrossed all over her arms and much of the rest of her skin were hundreds, thousands of teeth marks. "I haven't yet told you my whole story Beau, and I think it's time. Sure, you've heard about my creation, but I never told you why I was created by Mario."

I headed back inside since I thought this was going to be a long and in depth story.

AN: So that's it. Next time is Jessamine's story. Draft is about half done. Maybe be up next week. But anyway Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.