A/N: I KNOW I KNOW, I actually came thorugh with my promise to update soon. :D Yay for unbroken promises? (:

PLEAAAAASSEEEEE review. They keep me wanting to move forward with my story. And if you like, I recommend doing it because I get unmotivated fast ):

Sadface.

Well, anyways.

No chapter song or quote this time around.

Sera (Nia) POV

"Seraphina, honey. Please, let me talk to you."

Damn.

I sighed and looked around the room. No one was home, no excuse to try to escape. I felt ashamed, standing in front of my mother like this. I smelled like weed and I couldn't look her in the eye, because I had made some grave mistakes this past week.

"Seraphina." She said it with earnest. I knew this was weird for everyone in my family. They all tried their best to call me by my full name, not Sera. I had been Sera by whole life.

But I believed that names held a lot of power. Switching from Sera to Nia was easy. It was easy to become this apathetic thing, selfish and pitiful and prone to doing bad things. I hated myself. But after everything I had done this week, I didn't know if I'd ever be able to make the switch back.

I hated to be the diappointment. I was running around, acting like a slut and a fool. I had sex with a man that I had known for an hour, and gave him my virginity. I was going out of my way to break the law and do bad things and lose the essence of myself.

My eyes started to water. I couldn't help it. After the first night, I didn't allow myself to cry much, because I didn't allow myself to feel anything. I believed life was easier that way.

I turned away from my mother, whose hands were making soothing patterns on my arm. I didn't deserve it. I had done nothing this week worthy of being treated this way.

A sob broke free.

My mother tried to console me even though she had only said one thing to me yet. She tried to bring my head down into her chest so that I could cry, like I used to when I was little, especially when he was away. She tried to tell me that everything was all right and could be fixed.

She tried. I know she did. But I couldn't bring myself to let her.

I skidded back a few steps like a spooked horse. She stopped and stood very still.

"Mom, I'm really sorry," I sobbed, wiping my tears with the back of my hand.

She looked at me with sad eyes. "Oh honey. I see so much of Jasper in you. I can see it in your eyes, you loathe yourself, and that kills me. And you think that the mistakes that you've made were forgivable, so you're punishing yourself for them. Please don't." She approached me, putting her hand on my wrist.

I drew a shaky breath. "I can't go home yet."

If vampires could cry, she would have teared up. "Why not?" This had to have been hard for her. She probably felt like she was losing her only daughter.

"I can't face everyone yet. It's been hard enough facing these three. I know that Nessie is blaming herself for my being miserable, and Allegra is so sweet. She asks me every day if I'm hungry for dinner with this h-hopeful expression, and I just keep shooting her down. I'm bad c-company." Another sob free.

"You're family, sweetie. No one will judge you for your rough patch."

I pulled free of her grasp and shook my head. "I can't. Not now. Please just let me get myself together, at least a little bit. I can't go home like this," I pleaded. She had hardly talked to me, hardly changed my mind, and I was ready on the defensive.

She looked very upset. I touched her hand briefly, and with one more sob and a mangled "sorry," I ran free from the house.

It was still light out when I ran into the forest. The forest was blurry; I was still crying. I didn't stop, I didn't look back. I kept running.

I had gotten about three miles before I decided to stop for a minute. I leaned heavily against a tree, trying to control my tears. I hated crying, I really did. Even alone in a forest with no one around to hear me. I felt pathetic enough without the tears. The high was wearing off – I guess that's part of it when you're a half vampire, you recover quickly.

I almost didn't notice it through all the crying, by my thirst made me hyperaware. A mountain lion, stalking my presence. I quickly reverted into my vampire side and jumped onto the tree I was leaning against. From this angle, I saw a mountain lion forty feet away from where I just was squeal in suprise when I left out of vision. My vampiric side did all the work. Before I knew it, I was jumping silently from one tree to the next until I was hanging directly over it. It didn't move from its spot yet –only about five sconds had passed – since it was still trying to scout me out. Unfortunately, the thing didn't stand much chance.

Silently, I dropped into freefall right on top of the mountain lion's back, my teeth aimed for the jugular- before I even knew what I was doing. It all happened so fast. One second, I was crying, and then the next, I was hunting. I must have been dangerously thirsty, I just didn't get the full impact until now.

This one didn't even put up an ounce of fight. The time it took for me to jump on its back and sink my teeth into its neck was about one second all together. When it began to rear, I snapped its neck clean.

A clean death. Probably a better fate for it than ending up as a pelt. Its blood nourished me so that I could control my thirst around humans. I never really admitted it to myself, but I knew what I was capable of.

Hot blood seeped into my mouth like a tall drink on a summer's day. I never realized how thirsty I had been until this very moment. It soothed every pore in my body.

I liked it so much that I instantly decided I wanted more.

When every drop of blood had been consumed, I cast the beast away from me. I felt calmer, clearer. It was nice to revert to the side of me that wasn't so affected by what I was feeling. When you gave into your instincts, there was no thought. Only do. And you had one objective: blood.

There seemed to be no blood on me, but I couldn't vouch for my face just yet. Hopefully there wasn't much blood at any rate since the thing hardly put up a fight.

I didn't revert back to my human side just yet. I was still in hunting mode, except I was considerably stronger.

I closed my eyes and tried a hand in something that I was trying to get better in – tracking. I let the forest fill my nose and my ears stretch for footsteps.

One mile away, a lone deer wandered the forest. I didn't need much more blood, but the first hunt tasted so amazing that I let myself be a little greedy.

My feet moved for me. I darted high-tail into the forest rather than go about my normal jumping-from-trees method. I wanted to feel completely vampire.

Getting to the thing took about thirty seconds. It saw me coming and turned to run, yet it had no chance at all. I circled it and faced it head on, darting to its neck. It tried to fend me off with its enormous antlers, but it didn't find any purchase. I sucked its blood down as easily as I had the first time.

There was still a little blood left, long past the point of death, and I really hated to be wasteful. I just couldn't stuff another drop inside me. I looked down at the stag with disdain. The mountain lion tasted better.

I decided that I had had enough blood, and ventured home. Leaving had been as easy as coming; I just followed my scent.

I got back to the house to find that the trio's car was parked in the driveway. With a sigh, I let myself into the house.

I startled Jake when I walked inside. "Oh – Seraphina – " he stammered.

I smirked, unable to find his bristling unamusing. "Did I startle you?"

He chuckled a little bit. "Yeah." He eyed me suspiciously though, like I was about to burst into flames. He sighed. "You feeling better?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I needed to hunt." As I said this, Nessie came around the corner with big eyes. "Sera? I-I mean – Seraphina – "

I tried to ignore the slip up, but I winced ever-so-slightly. "Yeah?"

"You're here. Like, here, with us. It's good to see you out and about." Nessie looked decidedly happy about this.

And of course, always happy Allegra came rounding the corner. "Seraphina!" she yelled, grinning ear to ear. I smiled a little bit in return.

"Will you eat?" Allie demanded.

My face fell a little bit. "I just hunted," I said with a small frown. I felt bad. I probably should eat something with them.

"Oh," was all Allie said, her face doing the same.

I crossed the room and put my hand on her shoulder. It seemed like one of those situations where I should crouch down to look at her, but she was almost taller than me. "I promise I'll eat tomorrow though." I said it as hopefully as I could manage.

Her face brightened a little at the idea, but she didn't say anything. I turned around to find that Nessie and Jake were staring at me with a little shock and awe, because I had actually interacted with them for the first time this week. I was a really terrible house guest.

I stood there awkwardly, feeling the hunting-high as well as the actual high fade. "Um, I'll just be in my room. I should probably take a shower anyways." With that, I darted into my room and shut the door.

I turned on the shower, but I couldn't help the snippets of conversation I caught. "Did you see that?" Jake asked with awe.

"She looked...better. But when we got home, Alice said that she had ran out of the house crying." Nessie looked unsure.

"What about Seth?" Allegra asked. His name. Ugh.

"What about him, sweetie?" Nessie responded.

"Will he ever come home?"

A moment of silence. My ear drums were pricking I was listening so closely, and I had subconciously moved to be right in front of the door. "I'm not sure," Jake finally said.

So he had left. I didn't know why this made me so depressed. I wanted nothing to do with him, why couldn't a stick to that? Why should I care?

But no matter which way I cut it, I cared. A lot. I wondered if he was hurt or fed or cold or dead...

No matter how much apathy I tried to cram down my own fucking throat, I still cared about Seth more than life itself.

"Have you talked to him?" Nessie asked.

More silence, and then an answer. "Yes. He's...not taking it well at all."

He's.

Not.

Taking.

It.

Well.

At all.

Like medicine? Did he have to take it in doses? Could he only deal with one aspect at a time? Or what about at all? Did he shove apathy down his throat? Did he care too much? Is he going insane?

And that was all I could stand listening to. With a hand covering my mouth, I tried not to sob too loudly as I ran into the bathroom and planned a very long, very hot shower.

Embry POV

I had just left the Cullen house again after a long day with Allie. Normally, I would have free reign to go to Nessie and Jake's as I pleased, but Sera was there and that was...all bad.

What I hated most was how torn up Allegra was over it. She was never one to get too down on anything, but she really loved her cousin, and Allie was the most caring person I had ever met.

At lunch time, Nessie and Jake wanted to take Allie to a movie with just them three, so I was all alone. Allie and I had been seperated more than usual recently. It was more a specific reason however, and by request.

Jake tasked me with tracking Sera.

He and Ness knew that she left the house during the day. Someone like Sera was never an indoor person. They sent me to watch her, and to make sure that she was safe.

Well folks, I could vouch for her safety, her thinking however...

I knew all about those dicks she was hanging out with. The slimy one with the pale green eyes was the one that she was hanging around with. Today though, she met his friends.

Seth was still in wolf mode. But whenever any of us were phased, he phased back right away. Jake told me to watch her but not tell him anything, because he was the only one who talked to Seth, and he didn't want it slipping through his mind to show that Sera was going down a wrong path.

The only thing I told him was that she was safe. And if she was in trouble, I was to rescue her.

I was dying to tell him all about how she had sex with this kid, about how she did drugs today, but I couldn't. I wanted to tell someone though. Sera was practically self-destructing.

My first thought was instantly Allegra, since she was my best friend, but I could never ruin her image of Sera. Sera was already depressed and Allie was taking it really hard.

My next thought was Alice and Jasper. But there would be no way that would be kept a secret from the family, and it would leak through to Jake. Plus, it wasn't my place to start a family feud while Sera was going through a rough time and her imprint was in hiatus.

I really hated the situation they were in.

I never got full details of what happened that night. The only people who know it in full is Jake and Seth and Sera, and even they don't have the other side. Possibly Edward too, but that's inescapable. Jake knows because that's all Seth thinks about, and Sera knows because...well.

Jake never phases when I am a wolf because of the information that I know, and it's none of my business anyways. It's a delicate situation, keeping things from Seth. I still am curious as to what really happened, because if it affects my imprint, it affects me. Things couldn't be truer for those two...

Sera (Nia) POV – The next day

I woke up with the sound of the front door closing. My alarm clock read 9:17, earlier than I have been waking these days gone by.

I had a weird feeling about today.

You know those days where you wake up and everything just seems...off? Not to say that in general the week has been the definition of an off week, but today in particular.

I had just been dreaming about a sandy-colored wolf running through the forest, which instantly put a glass splinter into my heart. He was wandering aimlessly, without purpose.

I stood up out of bed, but felt something unfamiliar covering my body. Shocked, I looked down, and was immediately taken aback. I had gone to bed naked, too tired to even put on the simplest of sleep clothes. I stood up wearing a large plaid shirt, a shirt I didn't even know I had.

I ran to the mirror, and looked in horror.

It was the plaid shirt Seth wore to my first birthday party.

I jumped in the air about three feet and took the shirt off immediately. I didn't even know I had it. I didn't remember putting it on, and I wasn't a sleepwalker. The fact that the shirt was lying there tugged at my heartstrings and tears welled in my eyes.

But more importantly, the shirt smelled like him. Much more potent than I would have guessed.

His scent was now saturating the room, and that was more than I could take. I picked the thing off the floor and planned to toss it in the laundry hamper.

But it wasn't the fact that I was wearing his shirt and his had smell saturating the room that piqued my interest.

No.

It was the clearly defined trail, coming in from the window and leading to my bed.

It was a foreign smell.

Someone had been in my room.

I covered my mouth with my hand, feeling all oxygen evaporate.

My limbs went numb. I looked around the room, trying to find other evidence of the person. I started to hyperventilate, started to fear that they had gotten to one of my family members.

That would be my absolute worst nightmare.

In the end, I actually found something.

It was a neatly folded note, on the edge of my dresser.

With shaking hands, I unfolded the note, and read something that made my blood run cold:

Seraphina,

Hello.

A/N: Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Violent outbursts? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review. (:

Until next time, Chels.