CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE DESTINED

Sunday finally arrived, despite my belief it would hang ever in the distance, like a mirage, toying with a man desperate with thirst in the desert. Edward and I had hunted until it was no longer possible for me to absorb any more blood. It sat heavy in my stomach. We ran back together, only parting at the house where I put on a set of clothes that weren't torn and blood stained. He gave me a sly smile as I exited through the kitchen door, fully aware of my intentions.

La's house was perfectly dark when I arrived just before dawn. The neighborhood was quiet, the rest of the homes slumbering peacefully. Climbing the house was just as easy as it had been the first time. I hung from the eave over La's window, fingers hooked into the aluminum gutters to peer inside.

She was sleeping without the violence of my first visit. Small puffs of breath pushed her lips out on the exhale, and a trickling snore emanated from her nose when she breathed in. Her hands were relaxed and open, one draped above her head, the other hanging off the side of the bed. It was an immense relief to be able to see her again. All the tension that had built within me during my absence slipped away as my eyes feasted on her sleeping form.

Edward had suggested oil for the sticky window to reduce the possibility of waking the girl up as I maneuvered it open. My toolkit in the garage contained a small tube of mild engine lubricant meant for my Jeep. It was a bit overkill, but at least opening the window wouldn't trigger dreams about mice, as my first visit did. I put three dots into the grooves in the track above and below the pane, then gently worked the window open. When I was finished it rolled smoothly and silently.

Hesitantly, I breathed in through my mouth to test the strength of her scent after such a long separation. The pain was ungodly. I'd been away too long.

As painful as it was, the fire was flavored with relief, too. It meant she was alive, and safe. I carefully breathed in through my nose and let the fire consume me as I swung outside her window. It was horrible, but I could manage it.

With the care of a thief in the night, I climbed through the open window and crept over to the chaise beside her bed. She didn't stir.

For several moments, I sat as still as possible and simply let her scent burn its way through my veins. It was like the first day all over again, like I was desensitizing from scratch. I would probably have to do this every time I left for longer than a day or two.

As I sat, I tried to glean as much information as I could from her appearance. Humans changed so quickly!

Almost as if she could feel my scrutiny, La twitched dramatically and pulled her trailing arm into her chest. I hoped she would speak, but her dreams seemed to be silent. Even as she rested quietly, she looked tired, as though she hadn't been sleeping well over the weekend. I wondered what could have kept her awake.

It cheered me slightly that I would be able to ask her when I saw her next, though that was still a couple days away. By Wednesday, I wouldn't have to watch her from afar, like I had for so long while we weren't speaking. We could be friends now! Try to be friends, anyway, and in an effort to be friendly, it would make sense for me to ask her about her weekend.

Assuming I was strong enough to behave, and continue to excel at not killing her, we would have plenty of time to get to know one another.

Best yet, with Edward's recent consent, I felt empowered to chase her properly. I didn't realize how much his approval meant for my happiness… until he withheld it. Now that I knew, I would have his support, navigating human courtship seemed possible.

La mumbled and turned over sluggishly. She was deeply asleep. Almost closer to unconscious, than actually asleep. It made me happy that she was finally getting the rest she needed, whatever had caused the lack through the weekend. I wondered if she'd thought about me, or even missed me the way I missed her.

Hopefully, she was having too much fun with her friends on their beach trip, to think of anything else. I tried to imagine her sitting in the sun warmed sand, laughing happily with friends. It was a pretty picture, and not one I would ever see. Not at this particular beach, anyway. La had gone to First Beach in La Push, a place I was forbidden by treaty to go.

An unlikely thought occured to me. My family was forbidden to go to this First Beach because even though the wolves were dead, a few old men of the tribe still remembered the histories. They still remembered and believed those tribe origin stories, and even the newer stories about a group of vampires that fell into their midst. It was possible, La may have just spent a portion of her weekend in the one place, where our secret was definitively known by a few tired old men.

I dashed the thought away. It was so outrageously unlikely, that La would run into one of the grumpy tribe elders that knew those stories, and even if she did, they were bound by treaty to not speak of it as much as the Cullens. They wouldn't be able to share them with her even if she asked, and there wasn't any feasible reason she would ask, since there wasn't a connection between my family and the wolves of the Quileute people more recent than 80 years.

No, I could feel confident she didn't discover anything there.

She seemed to have returned perfectly whole- and of course she did! Why wouldn't she? Still, the idea of her going somewhere I couldn't made me incredibly uncomfortable.

When the sun began to rise, I forced myself back out of the window. It was frustrating that I'd been away for the entirety of the weekend, and now, wouldn't be able to speak to La for another two days, due to good weather.

It was still mostly dark when I dropped from the window sill into the lush grass in the backyard. My plan was to lurk in the trees around the house to see La off to school, but as soon as I breached the shadows I found a trace of her scent lingering on a deer path that led away from the cottage.

The narrow track swiveled away from the backyard, deep into the surrounding wilderness. I followed the scent along the trail for more than a mile, growing more alarmed as it lead further and further into the darkness. The trail ended abruptly at curve in the path that was only remarkable because it was so astoundingly unremarkable. There didn't seem to be anything out here that could make her pause, no landmark, trail marker, or visual that would mark a place. It seemed, at first glance, to be exactly the middle of nowhere.

I looked around for another trace of her scent, and found her touch on the trunks of two trees, just to the right of the path. Beyond them, was a fallen tree surrounded by tall, busy ferns. Her scent was imbedded on the trunk as if she'd taken a seat on it. I sat down to see what she must have, but there was nothing extraordinary about the view. The undergrowth was so thick, it was impossible to see anything through the tangle of branches, brush, and greenery.

Above, I could hear the cry of birds, but the trees grew so close overhead I couldn't get a clear view of the sky.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Her scent was slightly washed out. It must have been raining when she'd been out here. The sound of little feet moving around, birds taking flight, and droplets of water dripping to the ground surrounded me. There was nothing here. Why would she have come all the way out here to sit by herself, in the cold, wet gloom?

It was like she went looking for danger. Anything could have happened out here- far from any other living soul. Since she lived alone, it may have taken days for anyone to notice she was missing. I groaned. Keeping her alive may actually take more work than I bargained for.

The Cullen house was full of sound and energy when I returned home. Edward was seated on his bench before the piano playing a soft jig. Carlisle and Esme were upstairs out of sight, but I could hear Esme laughing delightedly about something in the study. Peter and Charlotte were seated on the couch each with a hand of cards. Jasper was seated on the floor opposite them, also shuffling his own hand of cards. The coffee table separating them contained three short, neat stacks that must have been the rest of the deck for use in whatever game they were playing.

Alice was on the couch with Peter and Charlotte, but rather than sit on it properly she was laying on it upside down with her legs in the air, crossed at the ankles, and her head hanging off the front. She held a fashion magazine up above her head to read, and there was a stack of several more on the floor next to her.

"Go fish," Charlotte murmured and reshuffled her cards. Jasper leaned forward to slip a card off the deck to his right.

"Really?" I tried to push Alice's legs over but she was already perched on the armrest. Instead I hopped over the back of the couch and took her vacated space next to Charlotte.

"We've never played before." Charlotte's voice was naturally soft and rather quiet. It made her easy to overlook in a room, but that would be a deadly mistake from what Jasper told me about his friends from the south.

"How many decks are you using?"

"Two standard, two transformative, and one translucent." Unlike Jasper, Peter had endeavored to lose as much of his southern accent as possible. He opted, instead, for the basic middle America one that had a way of consistently sounding both casual, and professional at once. "Would you like to deal in?"

This was a version of the game Jasper, Esme, and I played fairly often. Instead of standard books of four, the object was to build whole suits. Adding the translucent deck made it difficult even for us to know who had which sets. It could take anywhere from an hour to several days, to complete one game.

"Sure, why not?"

"Pull nine." Peter shifted to the floor to make the table more evenly surrounded.

I did as he suggested and swiftly ordered my hand by sets. I only got one translucent jack, the rest of my hand was standard. Not a great start.

"Ooh!" Alice shut her magazine with a firm snap. "You're going to Port Angeles!"

When I'd seen La off to school in the morning, Jessica Stanley had accosted her before the first class had started, with an invitation to shop in the small port town near the border. At the time she'd been unwilling to commit. I wondered what changed her mind.

I flicked my card hand closed and turned toward Alice. "Am I?"

"Well, La is going, so I assume you are." She got up and danced over to her bank of computer monitors. "You'll probably want to borrow Edward's car though."

"No," Edward supplied mildly from behind the piano. The music did not pause.

"There's nothing wrong with the Jeep," I huffed. Peter and Charlotte's eyes were flicking between us rapidly. I had to commend them for their propriety. If I were in their position, I would be asking the questions that were surely on their minds.

"Got any two's?" I asked Jasper blindly. He handed three cards over, each from a different deck. Entirely unhelpful for my hand, but it redirected everyone's attention to the game and off of my discomfort.

My obsession had become so commonplace in the household that assuming I would be wherever La would be was a matter of course. At least I could take comfort from the knowledge they were no longer judging me for it.

We continued to play the game, but my thoughts hung on this enforced absence from the public eye. I wanted very much to drop the cards in my hand, run to campus, and… and what? Lurk in the shadows like a creep? Wasn't watching the girl while she slept enough creeping for one day?

My morning watching La rush around to get to school on time had been a display of frustration. What I'd wanted to do was offer La a ride, then maybe walk her to class, or even ditch school altogether and go adventuring. The sun, of course, limited my ability to do any of those things as my family's differences became rather obvious in the light of day.

She'd somehow managed to arrive early and chosen a seat on a picnic table in the sloping green field that separated the west parking lot from campus. She looked so happy in the sun I wanted to sit with her and share in her joy. Obviously, this was impossible, so I sat in the cover of trees and eavesdropped on a conversation she shared with the Fungus instead.

He approached her from the parking lot, blonde spikes glinting in the sun. I imagined little echoes of "douche, douche, douche…" emanated from him with every step. When he called her name, she responded with so much enthusiasm I nearly growled. At one point, he even touched her hair and I was only calmed when she shrank away from him in disgust.

This reaction was in direct opposition to the reaction she had given me on Wednesday… at least I thought it was. Even if Edward swore it was just surprise, she had run away from me. Maybe she just didn't like to be touched. At least she hadn't looked disgusted.

When the annoying little twirp asked her on a date, I accidently broke the baby spruce tree I was leaning against. Thankfully, I was too far away for either of the humans to hear the commotion.

In true La fashion, she was able to redirect her suitor's attention onto someone else without too much trouble. They walked toward their building together, La moving with quick, jerky, uncomfortable strides, and the boy lost in pensive thought.

Jessica Stanley caught them right before they entered the building to invite La to Port Angeles. I immediately shuffled my plans to escort them from afar. While it was unlikely they would run into any trouble there, La seemed to be a magnet for all things terrible. Port Angeles was only less boring than Forks because it was marginally larger. It was still just another little, shit town, where nothing ever really happened.

"Have you got any jack's?" Charlotte all but whispered in my direction. Damn, this was not my game. I handed her my only translucent card, and asked Peter for some Queen's. The game progressed through the morning and afternoon, becoming heated when Jasper built the first translucent suit, doubling his points.

Before 4:30 pm approached, Alice informed me that La's plans had changed. She wouldn't be going to Port Angeles after all. That was easy. I could go by her house to check on her, then take a quick hunting trip in the evening to make sure I was safe as possible when I went back after nightfall. I knew I shouldn't be spying on her this way, but I couldn't deny myself the temptation of listening in to her thoughts as she slept on top of all the other temptations I was so adequately denying.

I ducked out through the kitchen, then trekked through the woods until I arrived at the back of La's house. She was in the little kitchen packing a picnic basket.

After a few moments of bustling movement, she exited the back door with a basket, a blanket, a book, and a fluted glass full of brown, sloshing liquid. She set everything down and chose a spot in the damp grass to spread the blanket, ensuring none of the corners were folded under or scrunched up awkwardly. Once the blanket was placed and spread to her content, she flopped on top of it, and pulled out a chunk of white cheese from the basket which she nibbled without bothering to slice. In between the occasional bite, she would stick her nose in the glass of brown liquid, then give it a tentative sip.

Her book was clearly well loved; floppy and dog-eared with a broken spine. Though it was as thick as a fist, it laid flat on the ground in front of her without need for weights to hold it open. The angle was such that I couldn't read the book over her shoulder from my position, but it was clearly one she was familiar with. A slight smile crinkled the corner of her mouth, as her eyes flew over the pages.

It occured to me that I was witnessing something very private. This was La's happy place, her favorite thing. Longing shot through me. I wanted so badly to share this moment with her, perhaps with my own book, in a meadow full of wildflowers, where the birds sing freely, and we wouldn't have to worry about anyone else finding us. Somewhere, I wouldn't have to hide from the sun.

I watched her read for several long moments. Eventually her eyelids began to droop, lulled by the ambient warmth of the day. She set her glass carefully aside, put the cheese back in the basket, and pillowed her head on her arm. She then used the basket to prop her book into an angle that allowed continued reading. She only attempted to read a little bit longer before she was happily dozing in the sunshine.

Her black curls spread around her head in blue-black rivulets, streaked with warm chestnut. At one point she twitched and woke up enough to flick a lingering curl off her face, but she fell still again quickly after that. I settled in to wait. I didn't want her to end up sleeping out here all night.

When her lips began to tremble, and soft mumbles flitted out of her mouth, curiosity overcame me. I listened hard in every direction until I could catch voices in the nearest houses.

Someone was baking in the house next door, reciting the recipe to themselves as they performed each step. On the other side, a couple was watching a soccer game while hollering excitedly at the television. A woman, across the street, was deciding which dress she should wear on a first date, leaning heavily toward something little and black.

Everyone close seemed to be occupied, and there were no cars coming down the street.

This is not a good idea, I tried to talk myself out of it. Approaching La in the sun was extremely risky, and absolutely wrong. Edward and Jasper would be furious if they found out I was flouting our strict rules so consciously, but I'd never been the responsible one, and they weren't here to judge me.

Fuck it. Decision made, I held my breath and darted out from my protective tree cover to kneel beside La's blanket.

As soon as I stepped into the sun, my skin reacted. The watery UV light reflected off the smooth ivory of my exposed arms and face, to kiss La's cheeks. I smiled at the rosy hues it brought out in her skin tone. She looked so alive! I reached out to take her book for a closer look, but as the light reflecting from my skin crossed her eyelids, she shifted and mumbled again.

I held still, waiting.

When no further proclamations came, I quickly snagged the book and rushed back into the shade. I only started breathing again when I was a safe distance away, just in case. Though, with every passing day I was becoming more comfortable with the awful pain her scent caused, the sun seemed to affect it, make it more potent. It was as if the heat sweetened it the way it sweetened strawberries in a baking pie.

My throat flamed viciously, but I savored it. For, as long as there was fire in my throat, La was alive. I swallowed, careful to get control of myself before I concentrated on anything else. Once the fire diminished, I looked down at the book in my hands. It was a complete collection of Austen's works.

The choice surprised me. We'd had an extremely memorable conversation about Star Trek at lunch the other day. From that, I assumed she would read sci-fi, as well as watch it. Austen was a far cry from Jean Luc Picard, unless he was having an encounter in the holo-deck.

I chuckled at the thought and opened the book to the page she'd last read. It was near the end of Pride & Prejudice. So far along, she must have opened the book and started reading near the end to begin with. La had fallen asleep during the scene where Elizabeth awkwardly runs into Mr. Darcy at his family estate, right after she'd made it very clear she never wished to see him again.

"Emmett…"

I hit the ground before I realized La was only talking in her sleep. Dreaming of me again. After a quick listen of the surrounding neighborhood, I stole back out into the sunshine to replace her book.

"Darcy…" she murmured. What I would give to be able to see her dreams. "Go away!" she whined, then snored loudly. I snickered into my hand to reduce the noise. I waited a little longer to see if she had any other pearls of wisdom to offer, but she seemed to be finished, so I slunk back to the trees.

I waited with her until the sun began to sink below the horizon. The long, forming shadows stretched their inky fingers toward La's prone form. I wanted to fight them back, save her from darkness' embrace, but the setting of the sun was inevitable.

As the ambient light dimmed, color drained from La's skin until she almost looked too pale. Her hair had lost the chestnut shine the sun had revealed, leaving it cold and black against the cool color of the blanket.

When the temperature started to drop with the sun's decline, and she still hadn't moved, I decided it might be time to wake her, though I was loathe to disturb her peaceful rest.

I crept back out and crouched beside her on the blanket. For a moment, I held my hand awkwardly in the air over her shoulder. I'd almost touched her, to poke her awake, but remembered her reaction to being touched earlier.

Instead, I leaned down close to her ear and whispered her name until she shifted.

"La, my love. It's time to wake up." When she grunted, I flew back to the trees. Her heartbeat was a little closer to a waking rhythm, but she still wasn't fully awake. I looked around for a thick tree branch that was dry enough to make a loud noise.

When I found one, I returned to the edge of the trees and snapped it in half. The sound wasn't as impressive as I hoped, but it was enough to jerk her out of sleep. She shot up into a seated position and blinked blearily into the encroaching darkness.

She seemed befuddled and lost as she looked around herself, and finally up at the sky, like she was searching for the sun. For a brief moment, her eyes touched the shadows under the trees where I hid. She narrowed her eyes, as though she was trying to pierce the darkness.

"Hmm," she muttered and stood to gather her things.

I waited until she was inside, then took off to allow her some privacy. I didn't want to trespass the way a peeping tom would have, though the line of distinction did seem to be blurring. I decided I would draw the line at protection, and because I couldn't seem to keep myself away, also when she was asleep. I thought about the way someone like Fungus would leer at her if he had the abilities I did, and shuddered. She deserved better than that.

Hunting first, I decided, though I wasn't looking forward to it. For this trip, I would have to content myself with smaller, more docile creatures. They didn't taste as good, and I was still over full from the weekend, but it was still safer than not hunting at all.

The Cullen household was empty when I arrived. Jasper had left a note pinned to my bedroom door.

Rugby at the Rainier Field until late. Join us!

I considered it. There were several hours available until I would be back at La's cottage when she would be asleep. It was just possible I would be able to play a round, hunt and make it back in time to catch her sleep talking. ...but it would be close, and the teams were even without me in any case, assuming Esme was reffing.

I ducked into my room to grab a pen and wrote "sorry" on the note. Jasper would be disappointed, but I could make it up to him later.

My hunting trip was uneventful and unenjoyable as I thought it might be. I rushed through it, only taking down one deer, which I forced myself to drink then ran back home where I quickly showered and changed clothes.

As soon as I was done, I headed straight back to Forks. La's cottage was dark as I expected, with the one dim light in the kitchen, and one hallway light upstairs. The antique clock in her room said it was just after midnight.

La had fallen asleep with her book on her chest, but then rolled over on top of it, until she was almost cuddling it. The position was such that it looked like some of the pages would tear if she moved again. I gently untangled the book and set it beside her bed.

Without the book, she slept as violently as the first night I'd watched her. This time, even her face showed her displeasure, expressions shifting from worried, to anger, to frightened, with every kick of the covers. She thrashed at her blankets as though they were an octopus, squeezing the life out of her with their many tentacles.

She didn't speak very much, and when she did, it was derogatory remarks on the general greenness of Forks, and the awful, plaguing rain. As entertaining as it was, I was worried the restlessness of her sleep would affect her day. I felt powerless watching her fight her bed, and angry that I wouldn't be able to comfort her on the next day if she felt ill.

The only silver-lining was that tomorrow would be the last day I would have to hide due to weather.

Her morning followed the same routine as the previous one. I left once the sun was up to check the woods around her house; there were no unanticipated scent trails this time. When I returned she was already slamming the hatch on her car and slumping into the driver's seat.

The day was warm. Warmer than it had been since fall, though, there would certainly be a big drop in temperature once the sun went down. La wore a thin black v-neck blouse over a faded pair of jeans with heeled boots. Her peacoat was already folded haphazardly in the passenger seat.

The unseasonable warmth should have made her happy, but she looked even more despondent than she did on the previous day. I frowned as she pulled out of her driveway and took off down the road. Her tires peeled out on the pavement from an uncharacteristic aggression.

I ran to campus and watched as she grumped around, speaking only when she absolutely had to. Even Fungus left her alone. I stayed only long enough to hear her agree to the rescheduled trip to Port Angeles. Angela would be joining them. This was good news. With the foul humor La was exhibiting, there would need to be a buffer between La and Jessica or neither of them would survive the trip.

The entire family was outside in the meadow surrounding the house on my return. It wasn't very often we allowed ourselves the luxury of sunshine, but with Peter and Charlotte in town, I expect Esme couldn't resist.

Alice was weaving flowers into Charlotte's hair while the two of them watched Jasper and Peter spar. Carlisle was reading a book while his partner worked delicately in a flower bed nearby.

"What's up, Pops?" I flopped onto the blanket beside Carlisle. He shut his book immediately and turned to me with a ready smile.

"You look better and better every day, son."

"People keep saying that, but I'm way too handsome to have ever looked poorly." I picked his book up to read the cover. The Odyssey. He must be feeling nostalgic about something. Carlisle only every pulled out the classic fiction when his mind was wandering.

He chuckled. "Well, it's nice all the same."

"Where's Edward?" He wasn't enjoying the sun with the rest of the family.

"In his room, I expect." Carlisle retrieved his book and continued from the page he'd left as if he hadn't been interrupted.

Instead of going back around to the front of the house, climbing the stairs, and knocking on Edward's door like a normal, I turned to the wide bank of windows at the back of the house. The last window at the second floor level, all the way to the right was open. The tinkling melodies of Debussey could be heard streaming out over the trees.

There was no point in disguising my footsteps, Edward would be expecting me. I leapt up into the branches of a tree beside the house and dove toward the open gap in the windows. I landed lightly on a plush golden rug.

Edward was seated on his reading couch with a notebook propped on his knee and a quill in his hand.

Where on earth did you find a quill?!

"What can I do for you, Emmett?" He didn't look up.

"Are you practicing calligraphy?" I asked with exaggerated astonishment, and tried to peer at his notebook. He snatched it away before I could get a glimpse.

"I'm writing a letter, if you must know."

"Super, sorry to interrupt," I said, with very real sincerity. His vinyl collection was in a bank of shelves opposite the window. I went to it and quickly sorted through until I found the album I wanted and held it up. "Can I borrow this?"

"Yes," he set his calligraphy aside and reached into a drawer beneath the record player. He quickly flipped to a record with practiced movements and pulled it out. "But this is the one you want- the late 50's collection. It has 'Love is Here to Stay' on it, which is the song stuck in your head."

"Thanks!" I added it to the stack I was collecting. "Can I borrow your car tonight, too?"

"Not the Porsche?"

"Too loud," I chuckled. Only Alice would buy a car in such a vulgar shade of yellow.

Edward smiled. "It's quite something, certainly. Is your Jeep also too loud?"

"Definitely." My Jeep had been purchased with a singular goal; destruction of everything in its path. It was a great car, but hard to miss, which made it less ideal for the execution of stealth missions. Even the humans I meant to follow would catch sight of the behemoth eventually.

"Alright then, sure."

"Thanks twice, brother!" I clapped him on the shoulder, then went up to my room where I dropped off the Billie Holiday records I'd just borrowed. From my room I could see that Jasper and Peter were still sparring in the yard. I had several hours to kill before La would be going to Port Angeles, I may as well enjoy my time.

Again, instead of taking the slow route through the house, I popped my window open and jumped straight toward the fighting figures. They each spun away just before I landed, Peter roosting in a nearby tree, while Jasper sprang back to sweep my legs out from under me.

I managed to jump away from the effort, only to have Peter at my back, executing a solid hook to the kidneys. I hit the ground and rolled away laughing.

He came over to help me up, a wide grin on his face.

"Well aimed, my friend. Want a round?"

"Hell yes!" Without a moment's hesitation, we swung at each other, in a flurry of punches and roundhouse kicks. Jasper took a break to sit with Alice and Charlotte.

Peter was an extraordinary fighter. He had an inherent quickness, that almost seemed like he knew, where I would strike before I did. It reminded me of what Jasper said about some people having a positive aptitude for vampirism. Hadn't he said the southern tribes looked for humans like that. Was it possible Peter was himself one of those?

"Do you know anything about humans that tend to…" I wasn't sure how to phrase it and fumbled the wording. "Take to vampirism easily?"

My attempt at nonchalance was made more difficult, by desperate motions to block multiple jabs, aimed at my face. Peter, didn't miss the gravity of my question, even for a second. He pulled out of a swing immediately and gave me a sharp look.

"Why do you ask?" Charlotte flitted over to stand next to her partner with the same penetrating stare.

"I think I may know one, and I just wondered what some of the implications might be." The two of them were standing shoulder to shoulder, tense and aggressive. "I've never heard of anything like it before Jasper mentioned it."

"Why do you want to know?" Charlotte narrowed her eyes.

"He's not building an army, if that's what you're thinking." Jasper had risen to join us. His posture was one of relaxed contentment that went directly at odds with his friends. Alice was only a few steps behind him.

"Then what is your interest?" Peter glared at me.

"Why are you so protective over it?" I mirrored their stance. Two could play the intimidation game, and if they had information that might be helpful to La's situation, I needed to hear it.

"They are hunted," Charlotte said flatly in her quiet, serene voice.

"You may as well tell him, Peter. He's not going to give it up," Jasper added. A wave of calm swept me. He was using his peculiar talent to help ease the sudden hostility in our dispositions.

"Why didn't you tell him yourself?"

"I thought it would be better from the three of us together," Jasper admitted. "I was planning on calling you when Alice saw your visit."

"Why wait until now?" Peter persisted.

Jasper tilted his head in Alice's direction.

"It wasn't time," she supplied. Everyone seemed to accept that without further explanation.

"We'd better start at the beginning, then." Peter motioned for Jasper to take the lead.

"When Maria started the southern wars, everything changed," Jasper began with a sigh. "You've never been down there, so you have no reason to understand the state our kind were in- especially back then. Forced to live in shadow in an area that is known for big open skies. Living away from the metropolitan areas is impossible for lack of hunting, so we were forced to live exclusively by night.

"It was Maria that declared she would no longer hide. She began to claim territories as her own and held them with brutal force. At first, it was to keep her coven fed, but she got greedy. Her territories expanded, her coven grew. Things became unruly when the other covens fought back. It became a violent race to claim the largest piece of the hunting territory."

I knew this part of the tale. Jasper's origin's story was not a pleasant one. He would tell me about the newborn armies next, how Maria was able to gain a foothold in Mexico, and even into New Mexico. He would tell me how she was only able to hold it through blatant slaughter. It got so bad, the Volturi stepped in and rained hell on El Paso. Every vampire within 200 miles had been eradicated. Jasper and Maria barely snuck out with their lives. They hid north, regrouped, and finally reclaimed their territory. This time they did it quickly and quietly.

"The most effective way to claim and hold land was with an army built from newborns," he went on as I expected. "Their strength is at its peak during the first year. So we trained them extensively for six months, then sent them to their deaths."

"As I told you, during this time Maria and I discovered there were some few that absorbed the training with ease, that could control their thirst a little bit better, and seemed to absorb vampiric existence with glee. We call them the Divenire."

A thrill traveled down my spine.

"The Divenire?" I puzzled over the word. It sounded Italian, but languages were never a strength of mine. "To become?"

The three vampires before me nodded meaningfully.

"You don't mean to imply that these people are meant to be turned into vampires?" I asked in stupefaction. We discussed this with Alice only the previous month and decided it was a ridiculous idea!

Didn't we?

I thought back to the whispered conversation between myself, Jasper, and Alice on my first day back to class after my trip to Canada.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't remember Jasper saying a word. He'd let me and Alice bicker over his head.

"Yes," Charlotte murmured. "The Divenire are thought to be humans that were meant to become vampires."

"No one is meant to become a vampire," I disagreed immediately, unwilling to believe it. That would mean La never had a choice to begin with, that all of this was preordained somehow.

"Many would disagree with you," Charlotte demurred. "We exist, therefore we exist to procreate, and some humans take to this existence better than others."

"How can you tell which humans are Divenire?"

Peter and Charlotte looked at each other wordlessly for a moment, before either of them spoke. There was a gravity in their gaze that didn't seem to sync with the question I had posed.

Peter answered. "You will find the Divenire among the restless wanderers. They tend to notice our differences immediately, but will not be bothered by them."

"During the height of the Southern Wars the Divenire were a rumor," he continued. "A fairy tale at best. What did it matter, if there might be some few humans that could be destined to join our ranks? What is destiny to the immortal? Those who have all the time in the world?

"That is until Maria got involved."

"As you know, during that period, time was of the essence," Jasper said. "We had to be quietly lethal, and exactingly effective. When Maria heard rumors of humans that might be vampire ready, it was a matter of course that she find them and turn them.

"She set out to find one immediately. It was a slow process because she didn't know what exactly to look for."

Oh my god, "And then she found you."

Jasper nodded. "And then she found me. A young military hopeful with a talent for persuasion.

"Upon transition we shine," Jasper added. "We are less confused, less chaotic, and quicker on the uptake. We absorb everything about vampirism rapidly, and wear the mantle of immortality more comfortably than any other newborn I've ever seen."

Another chill crept down my spine. This, sounded very, very familiar.

"She wasn't sure what she found with me, until I had transitioned. Even then, it could have been a coincidence, until we found Peter."

"The southern wars changed, then. She sent us looking for Divenire, sometimes tearing people from their families, even decimating entire villages to build her army."

"That's when you left?" I asked.

"Sadly no," Peter shook his head and glanced at Charlotte. "It wasn't until she threatened the life of someone precious to me that I left." She took his hand with both of hers and held it firmly.

"So what does being Divenire mean for the human? What did it mean for you?" I brought the conversation back around to what I really wanted to know; how this would affect La.

"For me, it meant only that my life was cut short," Peter said.

"Are you happier, or more comfortable?" I was grasping at straws.

"Yes and no," Peter allowed. "It's hard to say. I was not given a choice. Perhaps if I hadn't been born in blood, it is possible that things may have been different, but we'll never know."

My mind was still reeling from the implications, trying to fit pieces of a puzzle together. "If someone was meant to be something, shouldn't there be a reason?"

"Some say, the Divenire have a different purpose, to those of us that simply exist. A drive, if you will." Charlotte spoke up with a shrug. "Again, if that is true, Maria made sure anyone in her ranks was unable to know any purpose but her own. We were beaten into submission."

"Now, we only want peace," Peter agreed. "But I have wondered about those of us like Carlisle, who has dedicated his existence to a higher purpose. If there were more of us dedicated to the good, we would be unstoppable."

I blinked at him. "If we did too much of that, the Volturi would slaughter us."

"Yes," he murmured thoughtfully. "It's amazing, isn't it? All of that power, yet they've stayed hidden, secluded, in a remote tower for centuries."

There was nothing I could say to that. He was right, but it didn't seem fair that any small group of people should have the weight of changing the world on their shoulders. Predestined or not.

"How about your transition? Was it shorter, easier?"

"Not particularly, I don't think," Peter said. "I found it easier to control the thirst drive within the first year, as Jasper said. To Maria, this meant we could train earlier, which meant joining her ranks earlier. It only enabled her to use our newborn strength for a longer period of time."

"Jasper also mentioned the possibility of stronger powers, is that true?"

"Those of us that are powered are even rarer than you would find in a general population of vampires," Peter admitted. "When one is found their power is fearsome to behold."

"That's why they are hunted?"

"Yes," Charlotte narrowed her eyes. "Why are you asking? Do you really think you've found one?"

I glanced at Jasper, surprised he hadn't mentioned anything to his friends. His face remained impassive at my inquiring look.

"I think I may have," I said. "She shows no fear in my presence at all."

"Keep her safe," Charlotte's features pinched. "There are those that would take her from you."

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"We've heard whispers of a hunter in the night." Peter put his arm around his mate and pulled her close. "Whispers of one lacking morals, that flies with all haste through various cities wreaking havoc."

"Where did you hear this?" Jasper's curiosity refocused everyone's attention away from me.

"Outside of St. Louis nearly two months ago," Peter offered. I immediately relaxed. St. Louis was more than two thousand miles away. There was no feasible reason for a troublemaker to come all the way out here.

"What else can you tell me?" Jasper asked, but he was only doing his due diligence.

"Only rumors. It is said that he killed an old one, and is absolutely merciless," Peter spread his hands in apology. "We didn't want to be involved, so we're heading to Vancouver to stay well away."

"You know what can happen when rumors like that start," Charlotte shook her head.

"Indeed," Jasper agreed.

I left them to their discussions of rumors and passed the time in my room, listening to my borrowed records and reading some old comics. When it neared the time La and her friends would be arriving in Port Angeles, I put the comic back in its case and joined the family downstairs, who had moved inside as the afternoon progressed.

Jasper and Peter were rounding their conversation into the looping structures of circular goodbyes.

"Do you ever run into Maria?" Jasper asked. They were standing by the door, light packs on the backs of both Charlotte and Peter.

"Thankfully not," Peter chuckled. "It's probably for the best we don't."

Maria had turned the three of them, at different points, over the last two centuries. Jasper was the oldest, having been turned during the Civil War, and Charlotte, the youngest, in the late thirties. Maria had once looked Jasper up while we were living in Calgary. Edward and I had been about to start our journey away from the family, and were already feeling a bit antsy. Maria had come and ignited our desire for experience outside our coven, and nearly burned the whole city down in the process. It had been an eventful visit, and one that I remembered fondly, if it was a bit chaotic. The family had to move immediately, and Jasper had asked her, politely as possible, to refrain from visiting again.

Peter had been instrumental to Jasper's eventual defection from the southern wars. Since Jasper had been Maria's favorite, she'd never quite forgiven Peter for the loss. This, had always been a bewildering detail in their relationship to me. As far as I knew, Maria had planned to kill Jasper and was only thwarted by his defection. In that case, I always thought Maria should have been thankful Peter was able to lure him away with talks of peaceful lifestyles.

They shook hands with broad smiles and made promises for another visit, not so long in between this time. I offered my farewells as they exited and waited only long enough to see them running off into the woods before I was sprinting for the garage.

"They're going to go straight to Seattle, Emmett," Alice called. "You don't have to worry!"

I pretended I didn't hear her, and slammed the door closed behind me. My excuses were already so thin I was starting to wonder why I continued to pretend. Of course I was worried about La, but not really because of Charlotte and Peter. I trusted them well enough to stay away from our territory.

No, I just felt uneasy when I couldn't be sure of La's wellbeing with my own eyes. I was happy to let the women get a head start- tailing them at the crawling pace of the speed limit, would do my head in. This way, I could catch up with them in Port Angeles at a reasonable speed.

As I got into the Volkswagen, Alice's little face appeared at the door I had just slammed shut.

"Say hi to La for me!" She waved happily from the doorframe as I flipped her off and squealed out of the garage.

A/N: (02/18/2020) Thank you so much to those of you that have been keeping up with this story! As some of you may have noticed, there has been a bit of a pause in the publishing. This is due to the loss of my wonderful beta-readers. If one of you beautiful people have any interest in being a second set of eyes on this story, please PM me!