Running Away

AN: Wow! Thanks so much for reading/reviewing last chapter, everyone!! Sorry it's taken me so long to post (again). Here's my good excuse: This chapter was actually going to be much, much longer. So, tonight, I'm writing away, and realize I'm going on page twenty (twenty!!), and no where near the chapter end. Now, that's getting a bit ridiculous, even for me. So, I picked a spot that seemed half-way decent for stopping, and here you go. Please bear with this chapter- after last chapter it's pretty boring, but now you know why! All the more interesting stuff happens next chapter (I hope...) AND that also means the next chapter will be posted ASAP because it's mostly written already.
Thanks again from the bottom of my heart for reviewing! It totally inspires me, so PLEASE keep it up!

Nearly every light in the Cullen house was blazing as we pulled up the long drive. Worse yet, our six men stood at the bottom of the porch steps, silhoutted menacingly against the brightly lit house. The headlights of the convertible swept over them as we pulled up, and the anger and worry on their features were etched into sharp relief in the harsh light.

"Here we go," Rosalie groaned as she slid to a stop mere feet away from them.

I turned my head to grimace at her, but before I could open my mouth to reply, Embry yanked open my door. He had my seatbelt undone and me out of the car and crushed in his arms in seconds. My breath came out in a pained squeak as his massive arms squeezed the living daylights out of me, my feet dangling above the damp grass, before he set me down to look anxiously at me.

"Did that leech hurt you?" he demanded as his hands ran swiftly down my neck and arms and his sharp eyes looked me over from head to toe, looking for injuries. My temper flared a little bit at that.

"No, dammit. I'm not helpless, you know," I spat out, much more bitchy than I had a right to be. But the truth was, I was helpless. Cyrus had made that abundantly clear in just a few agonizing seconds, and that scared me and pissed me off in equal measures.

Embry backed off a bit, but he didn't let go of me. "I know that, B. I just-"

"What happened with Sam? What was he doing over the border?" Jake cut over him ruthlessly, attempting to shove him to the side so he could interrogate me. Embry merely stepped closer to me again and pulled me back into a half hug, glaring at our Alpha.

"Dammit, don't yell at her, Jake," he snarled.

"Leah, you're okay, right? I tried to get them all to calm down," Seth said quietly in my ear from the other side.

I forced myself to give him a tiny smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for trying, little bro."

He grinned and tried to give me a quick hug. It was a bit awkward, though, because Embry wouldn't let me go. I found myself in the middle of a tight triangle of my Packmates as Jake and Embry argued above my head.

"I'm not yelling at her, man. I've gotta know what's happening in La Push," Jake growled.

"Then go to La Push and ask Sam. Don't drag Leah through it all again," Embry snapped back at him. I sighed and tried to interject, but my weak attempts at getting their attention went unnoticed. Dear god, they were being annoying!

I peeked through the wall of their massive bodies for help, but realized instantly none of the other girls were any better off than I was. Edward was practically smothering Bella in kisses, and if I was any judge of their relationship, I'd guess he was somehow extracting solemn promises from her never to leave his side again. Jasper had dragged Alice off into the shadows by the porch, where they were currently deep into a quiet, intense conversation. Alice looked a little bit like she'd love to burst into sobs, if such a thing were possible for her. I had to wonder if he was threatening to burn her massive wardrobe or something. Rosalie and Emmett... well, they appeared to be having some kind of silent stand-off as they stood about a foot away from each other with their arms crossed tightly across their chests, glaring heavily. Vampire or not, if looks could kill, they both would've been ashes.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Everyone stopped arguing, kissing, glaring, and threatening at the sweet, bell-like voice chiming from the forest's edge. Simultaneously, we all turned to see Carlisle and Esme standing hand in hand, obviously just returning from their little hunting excursion. The expressions on their faces were comically dumbfounded as they stared at us; Edward with his arms locked around Bella, Rosalie and Emmett in a stand-off, Jasper and Alice in the shadows, and me barely visible inside the circle of Wolf boys.

"Carlisle, are you acquainted with a vampire by the name of Cyrus?" Edward asked harshly, and Carlisle blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"Cyrus. We ran into him tonight, and he said he knew you," Rose bit out without moving her glare from Emmett. The two of them had resumed their little battle of wills, and neither one appeared ready to give in.

"Perhaps we'd better have this story from the beginning," Carlisle said, his smooth marble brow creased with concern.

Embry, Jake, and Seth looked at me, I looked around them pleadingly at Bella, she looked into the shadows at Alice, Alice looked pointedly at Rosalie, and Rosalie kept glaring at Emmett. We were at an impasse.

"The girls decided to go to Seattle tonight. Without any of us," Edward finally said smoothly when it became clear none of us were going to start the story. His tone made it perfectly obvious just how idiotic he thought we had been, too. Bella, Alice, and I gave him dirty looks, and Rosalie glared even harder at Emmett.

"On the way there, they apparently had some kind of run in with Sam Uley, who warned them that they'd been tracking a lone vampire through the reservation all day. And yet they still went on to Seattle," Edward continued grimly, despite the death looks he was receiving from us.

"I told you, he was heading the other direction! There was absolutely no danger from him when we were talking to Sam!" Alice interjected angrily with a little stamp of her foot.

"Yes, but you know how unreliable your visions are around the Wolves," Jasper replied, just as angrily. She looked like she wanted to hit him.

"And this Cyrus was the vampire Sam and his Pack were tracking?" Carlisle interjected swiftly, probably in an attempt to cut their argument short.

"Oh, yeah. It was him," I muttered wearily from inside my prison of Packmates.

"How do you know for sure?" Emmett demanded, narrowed eyes still trained on Rosalie.

For a moment, the memory of that dangerously velvety voice was so strong it was as if he was whispering in my ear again... I had to follow you... needed to find something new to hunt... I shuddered, trembled, my tired muscles aching with the need to shift, but the warmth of Embry's arm dragged me back to reality. Taking in a shaky breath, I looked up to see Edward's eyes piercing right through my thoughts.

Oh, god! I hadn't meant to show him that, hadn't wanted any of them to know... too late now.

Edward's face twisted into a dark grimace. "He overheard their conversation with Sam and followed them to Seattle... he was looking for something new to hunt, something challenging. But then he saw Leah..."

Edward could see it all in my head as the memories poured unwillingly through my thoughts. And I could only imagine the memories of the other girls when they'd finally spotted me, standing helplessly in the leech's iron-like hold while his free hand wandered where it would. My eyes pleaded with mind-reader not to say anything more, not to tell how helpless I'd been. Or how afraid. He stared back at me, and his face looked a little sickened.

Embry frowned darkly at Edward, obviously aware that the vamp knew more about something than he was going to say, before he turned his gaze back down to me.

"What happened, B? What did he do?"

"I told you, he was just curious. He didn't do anything, really," I answered quickly. Too quickly, from the look Embry gave me.

"Yeah, he let her go as soon as we..." Bella trailed off at the venomous glares Alice and I shot her way. The growls resonating through my three Wolf boys literally made the air around me vibrate. I had a brief, pleasant vision of ripping Bella's tongue out by the root and strangling her with it.

"Let go of you? As in, he was touching you?" Embry managed to snarl out, but the words were so guttural it was difficult to decipher them.

"Pinning me, actually," I replied wearily in defeat. "Kinda like you are now, Tank."

"Pinning you? So, he attacked you?" demanded Jake harshly, one-hundred percent over-protective Alpha. Seth looked at him worriedly, like he thought Jake might order us all to hunt the leech down right then.

Carlisle spoke up in an awed voice. "You mean to tell me that an unknown, unfriendly vampire pinned you, and yet you still managed not to shift, Leah? That's... incredible!"

"Yeah, well," I closed my eyes and shuddered from the memory of how close I had really come to doing just that. "It wasn't like it was easy."

"No, I can well imagine not. How long-"

Edward cut off Carlisle's questioning, putting me eternally in his debt. "What do you know about this Cyrus, Carlisle? He told Rosalie he'd met you, recognized her as one of your family by her eyes."

"And what the hell did you mean, he was looking for something new to hunt?" Jake shot at Edward.

"Cyrus... was he pale blond, tall, lean-muscled?" Carlisle asked me thoughtfully. I nodded, though the only thing I really remembered clearly about him was the frighteningly possessive and predatory look in his eyes.

"And he somehow told you he was looking for something to hunt?"

"Yeah. He said that werewolves were getting scarce, so he needed to find something else," I replied. "And he knew that I'm not a werewolf- that none of the La Push Wolves are. He made it sound like he'd come here to see if we were worth hunting..."

Even Seth snarled heavily at that, but Carlisle looked thoughtful.

"Ah, so it is him. I haven't seen or heard about him since I first left the Volturi," he said to himself quietly. Whatever memories he was reliving in his head made Edward's face twist into a mixture of dread and worry, a fact not lost on any of us.

"So who is this guy, Carlisle? Someone we actually have to worry about?" Jake demanded harshly of the Cullen father-figure.

Carlisle shook himself back to the present. "I'm not sure. If I'm right, the Cyrus you met tonight is well over a hundred years older than me, and has spent a majority of his vampire life hunting werewolves. An obsession, if you will. He was occasionally a guest of the Volturi, of Caius, mainly, while I was with them. Genteel enough in his manners, but ruthless and dangerously skilled."

"So he works for the Volturi?" asked Jasper quietly, and everyone shifted uneasily. The memories of our last encounter with them was too fresh in any of our minds to take such a suggestion lightly.

"No. At least, he didn't all those years ago. A freelancer or mercenary might be a better term. He didn't kill werewolves for the Volturi, he did it because he enjoyed it. Cyrus was- is- a hunter. And like human big game hunters, he seeks out the strongest and most dangerous enemies he can fight, simply for the thrill."

"And enormous, shape-shifting wolves would definitely fall into that category," Edward added seriously.

"You met the leech, Leah. What do you think? Can we take him?" Jake asked me, just as seriously. I contemplated for a moment.

"Individually, not a chance. As a Pack... yeah. I think so."

He blew out a breath noisily, relieved. "Right, then. That's okay. We just make sure no one's caught alone."

"What about the La Push gang?" Seth asked worriedly.

"I'll talk to Sam tonight, let him know about it. There's enough of them now that it shouldn't be a problem. I doubt Cyrus'll even be able to get back into the rez once Sam knows about him."

I groaned inwardly, hoping against hope that Jake would somehow be smart enough not to go into detail about how we knew so much about Cyrus. It wouldn't be so difficult to talk to Sam about it without bringing up my name, would it? The doubtful look Edward shot my way at that thought killed my tiny bit of optimism. Yeah, Jacob had never been really skilled at tact.

"Alice, can you see anything about his plans, where he is, anything?" Jasper asked the pixie quietly, and she screwed up her face in hard concentration. It didn't take long before she grimaced in disgust.

"Yeah, he's still in Seattle at the club. And he's planning on having a red-head for a midnight snack."

"That's a good thing, right? Not the red-head part- I meant that if he was planning anything with us, you wouldn't be able to see anything," Seth piped up hopefully.

Alice merely shrugged. "I can't see much past tonight, though. I don't think he's made up his mind one way or the other about the hunt."

"Well, he would have noticed the Pack mentality in the La Push Wolves," Carlilse put in thoughtfully. "He wouldn't have encountered anything like that with werewolves. They're lone animals, not Packs."

"And one vampire fighting a whole Pack isn't great odds," Embry added.

"Right. There's a decent chance he won't attempt the hunt at all, especially if he never finds any of you alone."

"Great. So now that we're all done freaking out, can I go home?" I asked grumpily. Everything I'd been through that night, Sam, Cyrus, the colossal effort it took not to phase in the club, had taken a heavy toll on me. I'd never felt so bone-tired exhausted before in my life. I wanted to get home, to the safety of my bed, and more importantly, I wanted a shower. My skin crawled at the memory of those icy fingers; I wanted to rip that red dress into tatters and burn it. And pray Alice didn't kill me for it.

"We weren't freaking out, B. We were just-" Embry defended, frowning, but I cut him off with a scowl.

"Yes, you were. You all were."

"Drama queens," Rosalie added, still staring Emmett down in their battle of wills. Any other woman would've withered under the glare he gave her in return, but not her. I wondered how long their little stand-off would last, considering they were two of the most pig-headed people I'd ever met.

"Well, I'm heading back. See if I can find Sam," Jacob announced with a backwards wave as he headed toward the treeline. With a glance at Embry, Seth headed swiftly after him.

"Car or shift?" Embry asked me, one arm still wrapped tightly around my shoulders. It didn't look like he was going to let me out of his sight until I got to my front door, and I scowled in annoyance. I really didn't need a blatant reminder of just how weak and helpless I was right now.

"Car," I replied reluctantly. There wasn't much of a choice, honestly. I couldn't risk being in wolf-form with them until I'd managed to closet any and all memories from tonight safely away into my subconscious where the boys couldn't get at them easily. Although... I'd definitely have to 'inadvertently' show them a few of the come-ons I'd gotten. Just to, you know, teach them what not to do.

"Bye, Leah," Alice called after me miserably. Jasper stood behind her with his arms crossed over his chest, and I got the distinct feeling she was in for a rough night. Bella was already being dragged off toward her cottage by Edward, and Rosalie didn't look like she would be giving in to Emmett any time soon.

"See you around, Alice. It was fun. At least, up until the vampire part," I returned with a half-hearted wave in an attempt to cheer her up. The fleeting smile on her face was rewarding.

I shook Embry's arm off- with some difficulty- as we headed to his beat up old Ford. I wasn't even sure why it bothered me so much. Maybe it was because I was terrified he'd find out how pathetic I was, or maybe I was just scared of my own reaction to it. I wanted his arm around me, and more than that, I wanted to wail and cry and tell him how scared I'd been. But that just couldn't happen. I was supposed to be the Beta-Wolf, for god's sake!

Embry drove in silence, and I stared listlessly out the window. A faint howl reached my ears above the noise of the engine, and I knew Jake was contacting Sam. My stomach clenched up, and I closed my eyes tightly, trying not to think about anything.

"Are you okay?" Embry asked quietly, glancing at me with concern. Anger washed over me, and my hands balled into hard fists.

"I'm fine. How many times do I have to say it?" I growled as I glared out the window and refused to look over at him.

"You're not fine, Leah, and I-"

"Just shut up, Embry! Just shut up and leave me alone! You're always pushing me! I said I'm fine, so just drop it!" I nearly shouted, angry and a little panicked. If he kept prying, I'd lose it. And then he'd know just how pathetic I really was.

His mouth snapped shut, and a muscle ticked irregularly in his jaw. He didn't say another word as he pulled up to a stop sign about a block away from my house, but his eyes burned dangerously in his carefully blank face. I couldn't take it anymore; I unbuckled my seatbelt and bolted out of the car before he knew what I was doing.

"Leah-!"

I ignored him and sprinted toward my house as fast as that ridiculous dress would let me move. I didn't even bother to look behind me to see if he was following as I yanked the door open and slammed it shut.

My knees gave out, and I sank to the floor, sucking in huge, shuddering breaths as my composure completely fell apart. I was shaking again, but thankfully not from the urge to shift. This was just purely overstretched nerves and a delayed reaction to everything that had happened. But mostly, if I was honest with myself, the way that Embry had looked after I yelled at him. Seth was right- I ruin everything.

"Leah, is that you?" my mom's sleepy voice drifted down the hallway from her bedroom, and I leapt to my feet.

"Yeah, mom. Don't bother getting up. I'm just heading to bed," I answered quickly, anxious not to be seen by anybody. She mumbled something incoherent in reply, and I knew she was already falling back to sleep.

Trembling, I made my way to the bathroom and stared at my reflection. My normally brown face looked unnaturally white in the harsh fluorescent lights, and my eyes looked back at me, huge and terrified. It felt like I should be able to see marks where Cyrus had touched me, trails of frostbite or something, but there was nothing. No marks, but I could still feel it. And it felt like fear.

Bile rose up in my throat, and I leaned over the toilet and heaved up the contents of my stomach helplessly. First Sam, then Cyrus, and then Embry. My Tank. Why had I been such a bitch to him?

Oh, right. Because I was a pathetic weakling.

Finally, there was nothing left in my system to throw up, and I could drag myself back to my feet. I crawled into the shower, wishing I could feel the hot water scalding me, but I had to settle for scrubbing my skin until it was raw and sore wherever the filthy bloodsucker had touched me. I hated the fact that it healed in mere minutes.

Seth was leaning against the hallway wall when I finally came out of the bathroom, and his gentle brown eyes regarded me carefully in the dim light. Oh, god! How long had he been standing there? He hadn't heard me being sick, had he? He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off before he could get the words out.

"If you ask me if I'm okay one more time, I'm going to rip your head off and use it as a soccer ball."

He closed his mouth and looked a little sheepish. "Uh... Jake talked to Sam, so the rez should be ready if the leech decides to show up," he said after a few minutes.

"Glad to hear it," I muttered, marching past him to my room. I had absolutely zero desire to hear any more about Jake's conversation with Sam. I could almost hear the man's gloating "I told you so!" in my head as it was.

I should've been so exhausted that I slept straight through the night and half-way through the next day, too. Instead, I jerked awake, drenched in sweat and breathing hard, after a little less than an hour. I couldn't remember what I was dreaming about, just vague pictures of scarlet rimmed eyes and icy fingers, but my stomach was knotted up into a tight ball of terror.

Quickly, I flicked on every light in my room, scanning the shadows for something I knew wouldn't be there. I felt like a silly kid terrified of the monster under her bed. There were no monsters in La Push, with the exception of me and my kind, and I knew that there was no way any leech would make it over the border now. At least not without sending up an alarm that no Wolf, La Push Pack or not, would miss.

Still, I couldn't sleep. I paced my room, laid down and shut my eyes, and got up to pace some more. It took a lot of will-power not to creep down the hall to Seth's room and curl up on the floor in there. I felt so vulnerable, so afraid, and so alone. I wanted my Tank. I wanted my Embry to put his big arms around me again and tell me I was safe and strong and worthy of being the Beta. But that wasn't going to happen, because I was an idiot and told him to leave me alone. God, he had every right never to speak to me again after the way I treated him just for caring about me. I was such a bitch.

Finally, I curled up in my window and stared out at the blackness of the thick trees. It didn't make me feel any better, but I thought about Embry. At least worrying about losing his friendship kept the fear at bay.

When the first pink rays of dawn appeared, I finally crawled back into bed, stiff from sitting so long, and sank gratefully into a fitful sleep.