Via Red was becoming increasingly confused about Nahuel, the human who she'd found with the Cullens. Partly that was because, by the standards a human, his blood didn't smell tempting at all. Another confusing thing was that he had been with the Cullens at all. That second one wasn't as surprising as the first one. Alec had told her how the Cullens liked to keep human pets. Their role was often sexual, apparently, which made Via mentally squirm a little. How could anybody find humans desirable? Ok, she had, when she was a human, but that was before she began to really see clearly. Humans were so weak. So ugly. So imperfect. And they always gawked at her like she was some kind of angel on earth, which just made her despise them even more for how pathetic they were.

It was a shame that her role for today had to be quizzing the Cullen's latest pet human, to see what insider information she could pick up.

"So", Nahuel began as they started their walk, "are you local here?"

"Not really." Via scuffed her feet along the dirt path and then leant as close as she could to the steep fall on her right, just because she knew she could keep her balance. Childish really.

"Either you are or you aren't."

She suppressed a burst of rage. Who was this human to correct her? Maybe she should eat him after all...She stopped when she heard a noise to her left, like a vampire moving through shrubbery. Was Alec following her? Had he come to watch how she did? At the thought of Alec, Via smiled, and Nahuel, dumb human that he was, smiled back thinking she was smiling at him. Human smiles always made their faces look fat. Not that Nahuel was bad looking. Not for a human, anyway. He didn't have half so many imperfections in his face as most of them did.

"What?" Nahuel asked, laughing at her smile. But there was some kind of tension beneath the laugh, almost like he was afraid.

"Just...just everything." Via smiled some more. "How do you know the Cullens?"

"I-" Nahuel stammered, seemingly taken aback by the abrupt change in topic.

"Are you actually with them? Did you travel here with them and everything?"

"Yeah..."

"Tell me about them", she ordered in a low voice.

Before Nahuel could reply, there was an ear splitting bang and through the corner of Via's eye she saw an object hurtling towards them.

She was down on the ground, one hand pressed to her face to stop the sunglasses falling off and revealing her red eyes, before she'd even properly registered what was happening, but the odd thing was that Nahuel was down on the ground only a second later, still long before the bullet went whistling over their heads.

For a moment there was a shocked silence. Then Nahuel swore and covered his face with his hands. And Via's momentary impression of him as...well, as like her...was gone. He was just another weak human. Practically in tears.

She actually knew how he felt. It wasn't even like the bullet would have killed her if it had hit her, but it would have hurt a lot and somehow she couldn't shake the sense of terror, of being brushed by a catastrophe that almost happened. It was an odd feeling.

Nahuel jumped to his feet – and he did actually jump, there weren't many humans that could get up that fast Via noted. Then he smiled shakily at her.

"I know you're a vampire, you realise."

Shock rolled through her. How...how did he know? O.k., he hung out with the Cullens but she'd - assumed...assumed he didn't know about them, or at least didn't know the full truth. If he did, the Volturi were supposed to kill him.

Via had leapt for Nahuel before she even knew what she was doing.

"Stop!" a voice commanded and she froze, just because the voice seemed to hold so much authority. Two figures sprung through the air and landed between them, much faster than the bullet from a moment ago. Via recognised them instantly. Cullens. The guy was a big, bearlike hulk and the girl was an icy looking blonde, her beauty incredible even by the standards of vampires. Had it been them Via had heard moving through the shrubbery and not Alec after all? She felt a little stab of disappointment.

She took it out on the Cullens. She glared sullenly at both of them. They glared back, and they glared at Nahuel too, which surprised her.

"You're insane", the girl told him coldly. "You shouldn't have agreed to take a walk with her. I'm surprised she didn't try to eat you earlier."

Via didn't say a word. She didn't protest that she hadn't been trying to eat their little pet human. She didn't even really know what she had been about to do. But whatever it was, she wouldn't talk about it to the Cullens. She wouldn't try and reason with vampires so weak they took on human pets.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Nahuel's shock at what the girl – Rosalie? – had said. He obviously hadn't thought she'd been about to eat him either. And now he did. He backed away from Via, putting as much space as he could between them.

Won't do you any good, kid, Via thought to herself. I could cover that ground in less than a second, if I wanted to.

"We're leaving", the boy Cullen said to Via. "We're going back to the hotel. Don't follow us."

So now they were kicking her out of the hotel as well? Rage swarmed inside Via.

She turned away from them, perching on a rock in the hope that being lower down would protect her from more bullets. She was more upset, more indignant, than this whole situation actually warranted.

What did she care if the Cullens thought she was trying to eat their pet? If their pet thought it too? They were all nothing to her. Less than nothing.

She didn't know how long passed before Alec found her. He said her name softly, and Via turned around and buried her face in his chest. She'd never done that before, but right now even the fact that he wasn't protesting and didn't seem to mind barely registered with her.

"What is it?" he asked, and she wondered how to answer that question when she wasn't sure of the answer herself.

"Some humans almost shot me when I was walking through the forest", she said. "I want to find them and I want to kill them." She tipped her neck back finally to look at Alec and as ever, his beauty took her breath away.

"Of course." Alec gave his slow, cruel smile. "It's a service to the community really, if they're being so careless. I never understand why humans so enjoy killing unfortunate animals with those unnatural weapons of theirs. What's the fun of killing with a weapon?"

A distant memory brushed at Via's mind, from the time when she was weak and not a vampire yet, of a gun being pointed at her. She brushed it away.

"Guns shouldn't be allowed", she agreed fervently.

"Did you find out much from the Cullens pet human?"

Via hesitated.

"Not really", she admitted.

Alec nodded and didn't say anymore. Via had never met another guy as sensitive as Alec was. She pressed her face even harder against his chest.

"We'll have to make it look like murder when we kill those poachers", he said matter- of -factly. "Do you want me to numb them first?"

"I want them to feel everything."

He gave her a quick squeeze, then sprang away, suddenly a distant figure racing through the trees. Via leapt after him, determined not to seem slow. Hunting with Alec was indescribable. It was so beautiful, so natural...Via smiled at Alec and Alec smiled back and some of her earlier frustration and unhappiness seemed to drain away from her body.

Some. But not all of it.