I hate feeling like this
I'm so tired of trying to fight this
I'm asleep and all I dream of

Is waking to you...

Alice POV

Cleaning up the party was no big deal. After Edward and Angela went out back for some of the hot chocolate that Esme had insisted on making them, Jasper and I had it done in a minute or so flat. Emmett, who hadn't picked Lauren up but instead had met her here, was saying goodbye to her. I still couldn't believe he'd done this whole thing, but it was over now and as she sped away in Jessica's car, I felt that maybe he'd gained whatever closure he needed to fully pursue his budding relationship with Kelly. At the very least, it was clear they were miserable without each other. I could think of several ways to rectify that.

I was just tying off the last garbage bag when Jasper whirled to the front door. "Stay here." He said in a dangerous voice.

Edward came bursting in through the back at the same moment. "Keep Angela away. For now." He said to me, and I dropped the garbage bag and nodded, knowing when my mate and brother meant business, it was easier to do what they asked first and ask questions later.

Angela was sitting outside, down one of the many paths in the yard, on a bench.

"Sorry about that," I said with a smile, "Jasper needed some help moving the furniture back."

Angela shrugged. "No problem. It was a nice time. I'm glad that people came."

"Me too. Any excuse to throw a party, right?"

"Typical Alice." Angela said, shoving me lightly with her foot. "So, Kelly obviously refused to talk about it, but why did Emmett bring Lauren? Not that it's any of my business," She added hurriedly.

"Who knows. Men, right?"

"Alice! In here, now!" Edward rushed out of the house, and reached for Angela's hand. "This isn't pretty, but I need you to trust me. Everything will be okay."

Angela's eyes were wide, and I followed them as Edward pulled her into the house. The smell of blood, dirt, sweat, and something horribly unpleasant, like a wet animal, invaded my nose at once. Standing by the front door were two boys and one girl from La Push- three wolves. Sam, I recognized. When we first moved to Forks years ago, there had been a treaty agreed upon by their Chief, Sam, and the head of our family, Carlisle. The others I didn't recognize, but the girl drew my interest. In any experience I'd ever had with the wolves, there had never been a female.

"My bag, Edward." Carlisle said and for the first time I saw where the fresh blood was coming. Kelly lay on the dining room table, one leg of her pants ripped off, her left arm and head bleeding profusely, as though she'd been attacked.

"Oh my god, Kelly!" Angela rushed forward, but Carlisle stepped in front of her.

"She'll be alright, I promise. We just need to give her some air. Would it be easier for you if you didn't have to watch? I don't have medications here. It won't be pretty."

Angela pressed her lips together. The color had gone out of her face, but she shook her head. "I need to be here for her."

Carlisle nodded to Esme, who lead Angela over to one of the dining chairs that had been shoved hastily out of the way.

"I need you to tell me everything." Carlisle said, taking the bag that Edward, as quick as a flash of lighting, had brought him. Together, Carlisle and Edward set up the things needed for quick cleaning and stitching.

"Wait." I said, and everybody looked at me. "Angela... She should call Maureen and let her know what's going on."

Angela nodded. "My mom would want to know...she'll want to come."

Esme took the slim cell phone she kept with her at, as we all did, all times, and gave it to her. "I promise if she wakes I'll come get you." Angela nodded, took the phone, and left the room.

"Go. And hurry." I said to Sam.

"We smelled the blood sucker as we were patrolling. Thought it might be a friend of yours, crossing borders without knowing about the treaty. We prepared to take out the enemy, and we were closing on him when we saw her on the road. She reeked of him- of the male."

"No, we have no friends visiting...and any friends that ever do, will surely honor the treaty as we do." Edward moved to hold down Kelly's shoulders, and Jasper her legs, while Carlisle poured rubbing alcohol down over her head wound. Kelly flinched wildly for a moment, but she didn't open her eyes. Carlisle started picking chunks of gravel from her hair as Sam continued.

"I sent Jacob and Leah after the blood sucker while I picked the girl up. Her head looks pretty bad, like it was slammed into the road. And her leg..." Carlisle looked up at this, his eyes meeting Jasper's for a second, before he lifted the ripped denim to reveal a single, white mark. A crescent moon, perfectly positioned over where Kelly's femoral artery was.

Jasper let go of Kelly's legs and moved away from the table as though it were on fire. "She's Marked." He said gravely, as though he were pronouncing her dead.

"Yes...we will have to deal with that later. Right now I need you to hold her legs, Jasper." Carlisle said, holding his needle ready.

"You don't understand! She's been Marked! She's another's property, we have no right to contest that!"

"If there's a dangerous blood sucker going around claiming people as his own- " the woman Quileute stepped furiously forward, but Edward talked over her.

"You said it was a male. How do you know?"

Sam nodded. "We've seen him before. Once, three days ago. On the outskirts of Forks. His scent was familiar to us tonight, that's how we tracked him so fast."

"And you brought her here because?"

"Because he's the closest doctor who can fix her. And...there was another scent on her. Not just the one who hurt her tonight. Another one we recognized."

"Emmett." I said, my stomach dropping. He'd not returned to the house. But...where was he? Damn these wolves! It was long since that I discovered my ability was hampered by the wolves and their presence. When the treaty had first been agreed upon, I was blind to what would happen. Once they had gone, my gift restored itself, strong as ever. It wasn't the only reason I preferred to keep them out of my company.

Angela came back into the room, snapping shut Esme's phone. "My mom is on her way. Actually, she said Emmett just left. He'd gone to the house looking for Kelly. She said he set one foot in the house, asked if anybody else had been there, and when she told him no, he told her to come straight here and turned right back around and bolted."

"You think he was there? At their home?" Esme said quietly, her eyes darting between Carlisle, Jasper, and Edward.

"We should get back. She's safe now." The other boy, Jacob, it must've been, said by the door.

Leah nodded vigorously and was already to the front door by the time Sam nodded in agreement. "If she's Marked as his," he said in a low voice, "you only have two choices. Give her up, or guard her well."

"And you," Carlisle said, "guard your people. We will do whatever necessary."

"As will we." Leah muttered before slamming the door shut behind her and Sam.

"Jasper, take Alice-" Carlisle began, and Jasper gave a curt tilt of his head and grabbed my hand.

"Where are we going!?" I demanded, as he gripped my hand tighter with every step we took away from the house.

"We're setting up a perimeter."

oooo

My leg was burning. I writhed in pain, but stopped as soon as I met resistance from my arm. I tried turning my head, but that hurt almost as much as my leg. What was the matter with me? What had happened? What was the last thing I could remember?

The party. I remembered that. I was talking to Edward. And then Lauren was-

"Emmett." I choked out his name, my lips dry, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. I wanted so badly to open my eyes but they were heavy, scratchy, like weighted sandpaper.

"She isn't-"

"If he wants her!"

"OUT!"

Voices whirled above me, out of my reach. I thought they sounded familiar, but I couldn't be sure. I was alone in this limbo, where I could hear but not be heard, where I couldn't see or remember much of anything. So I focused on what I did remember. I remembered Emmett, and a smile that could break any heart. I remembered strong arms and an ability to know exactly where I was most ticklish. I remembered a starry sky and honey eyes, and a feeling of elation as I was plunged into a rain-drenched forest of pine trees...

oooo

I heard nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Maybe it was. How do you measure time in the darkness?

"She can't-"

"She's with him now, she's a part of this family. We protect our family."

"The wolves have to-"

"No, keep them away! I can't see anything!"

"What would he do, anyway? Rosalie is going to come back, eventually. He'll just go back to her! Maybe it's what's best for her, and for us!"

"That's like leading sheep to a slaughter, son, and we all know it. If Rosalie was going to come back, she would have by now, and who can ever say whether she will have earned Emmett's forgiveness?"

And silence, again. Longer, this time, I thought, though I couldn't be sure, of course. I didn't want to remember that- Rosalie and Emmett choosing her and he had been in pain when she'd left. So I went back to the forest, back to the heavenly scent and cool, marble lips...

oooo

"Kelly." I heard his voice, right beside my ear. It was like a salve over my pain, over my burning leg and pounding head. It brought such comfort, such calm, that I felt myself unclench, like I had been clinging to a pole and I was finally drifting away.

"Remember when we talked about E.T.? And you said you had nightmares about him? I can't...I can't sleep. Haven't had a dream in decades. But I think I know what you meant. About being scared. About not being able to handle what you were seeing. It's my fault. I should've...dunno, gone after you. But I thought you didn't want to see me...and I thought you'd be safe...God, I thought you'd be okay...it's all my fault, I was so wrong about you and Lauren...if you can ever forgive me... "

"You need to hunt."

"Fuck hunting! I can't leave her."

"What good are you to her if you can't even control yourself from ripping her throat out?"

A door slammed, and I heard glass, glass shattering everywhere.

oooo

Carlisle POV

"She'll be quite alright. She's welcome to stay here, or if you prefer we can move her to the hospital." I said, as Maureen sipped at the tea Esme had made her.

"If she goes to the hospital...I'm afraid she won't trust me. They...after her mother and father passed, she was hospitalized for some time. She had a few injuries, from the fire, you know. But mostly, I think they kept her there because they didn't know what else to do with her."

"Forgive me if you think I'm prying, but you say her mother and father were killed in a house fire?"

Maureen nodded. "Seven months ago. The police said it must have been a gas leak that got sparked by some faulty wiring. Kelly was lucky to get out with the few injuries she did have. Angela and I were only informed of this two weeks ago. It took the investigators some time to track me down. I was her mother's half sister, and with us both being married, me several times...well, name changes and locked court records are barriers that take time to break through."

"Well, I think after a day or two, she'll be fine to go back home...but we've got plenty of room for the three of you, if you wish to stay here. I can have all the necessary equipment and medications on hand, of course."

"Thank you for your kindness, Dr. Cullen. There's actually a meeting with a social worker I have to go to, about getting all of Kelly's legal paperwork and her medical records and everything like that...I can't miss it. If Kelly could stay here just until I get back...we're meeting at a courthouse in Seattle, I was supposed to leave tonight and return tomorrow evening..."

"Say no more." Esme said, patting Maureen on the arm. "We'll take care of her and Angela both. A meeting like this is important, and we don't want you to worry."

oooo

I could feel myself breathing, now. I focused on that, on the rise and fall of what was probably my chest. And then I tried to feel outside of my body- the softness of the bed I was laying in. The gauze around my head, brushing against my cheek. The stiffness of my leg as I tried and failed to move it.

"She's awake." I heard Alice- where was she?

"You can open your eyes now. The sedative is wearing off." Edward, this time. I did as he said and blinked a few times, trying to focus my vision.

I opened my mouth to try to speak, but my throat felt bloody, raw, like I'd been screaming for hours on end. Alice helped me to sit up against the headboard of the very large, ornate bed I was lying in and held a cup with a straw to my lips. I sucked as best I could, the cold water soothing some of the ache in my mouth.

"I'm going to tell you what we think happened. Stop me if you remember something, alright?" Jasper, who I hadn't noticed before now, said.

I nodded once, then stopped. The pain in my head increased with any movement.

"You left the party. It was still light outside. You took the road that would lead you back to Forks. Some minutes after you started walking, a man-"

"No." I croaked, cringing with the dry pain in my throat.

"Edward- " Alice said, and Edward, who had been standing still against the back wall of the room, came beside me.

"Remember, I can read thoughts. Can you remember anything about that? About what Jasper's saying? I'll help string it together for him."

"Close your eyes. It will help." Alice murmured, putting her arm around my shoulder.

Okay. I could do this. What had Jasper said? The party, right. I was leaving the party... walking out of the driveway and to the road...I passed the freeway sign for Forks... I bent down, to tie my shoe. Right...I was going to run home. And then-

I gasped, opening my eyes. It hadn't been a man. It had been a vampire. His voice, the way he looked, the way he moved...and I remembered the terror I felt, the dangerous presence of this vampire, so unlike the Cullens, so unlike the calm safety I felt with Em-

"Emmett-" I whispered, looking around, pleadingly. "Is-"

"He's hunting with Esme." Jasper said shortly, but I tried to push myself away from Alice, to get out of the bed. I had to find him, to see him, I had to know that Emmett was okay. The vampire...he'd said something about "preparations"... about six of them... I was sure, at the time, that he had been talking about the Cullens, though I didn't understand why he would feel the need to them any harm.

"It's one against six, Kelly." Edward said soothingly.

"More than that, really, if you count the dogs." Alice said sullenly, her lower lip pushed out in a pout.

"The werewolves." Edward clarified. "Well, shape shifters, really. They've sort of...set up their own lookout here. It's not the most desirable thing in the world, but there is safety in numbers. Alice is mad because they dull her senses."

"All of ours actually, since we can't smell a damn thing with them around. You try getting wet dog out of cashmere." Alice folded her arms across her chest.

I shook my head, ignoring the pain, ignoring this new bizarre bit of information. No, Edward, I thought, he mentioned another. A woman... Victoria, he called her.

"Can you remember everything he said to you? Or try to?" Edward asked.

I nodded. Okay. When I stood up, I thought about Emmett...and the vampire, he was so angry about that...that I would be thinking about somebody else. He said...something about being the master. And then he said that Victoria wouldn't be happy...but that didn't matter because he was in charge...and before that, I think, he said something about me growing up...he made it sound like I'd met him before. That my blood would recognize him...and a mark. Yeah, he said he would leave something for me to remember him by.

"He did." Edward gestured towards my leg and I looked down, seeing that instead the clothes I'd been wearing to the party, I was wrapped in a plush bathrobe. Alice reached over and pulled up the bottom of the robe. On my thigh was a crescent moon, stark white against my skin.

He bit me? Jesus Christ, what am I-

"He bit you, but...he didn't allow any venom to get into your bloodstream. This wasn't for...turning you. This was a warning." Jasper, matter-of-factually, said, his eyes dark and unwelcoming. I guess I couldn't blame him too much- it didn't take a genius to understand the threat that this vampire was on the Cullens- on his family.

"Stop it Jasper, you're making her uncomfortable." Edward said. "Now, Kelly-"

But before he could finish his thought, the bedroom door swung open and Angela walked through, an expectant look on her face. How long had she been in the hallway? Had she heard any of the conversation?

"So, anyone want to tell me why a vampire," Angela paused as she said the word, her eyes traveling slowly over each Cullen's face coming, finally, to land on Edward's, "would be interested in hunting down and marking my cousin?"

Thank you SO much to everyone for their continued support of this brainchild of mine. Sorry for the delay of replying to your reviews and messages, I've had some family concerns crop up but am now getting things settled. Onward! I plan on posting frequently again, so be on the lookout for updates.

Lyrics from Comatose by Skillet.