Author's Note: Chapter 4 won't be up for a few days. I'm going away for the weekend

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I don't even like Twilight.

Not many things scared Val. He'd taken down skinwalkers, demons, mutts, dhampirs, vampires, and once (on a mission involving a werewolf) a PETA supporter with a machine gun. However, he wasn't stupidly overconfident. Angry werewolves were dangerous. Angry female werewolves… thanks to his mother, Val's catchphrase as a kid was, "Nobody tells Mom!" He could laugh about it now, but he'd left home with a strong respect for supernatural women.

And Leah… Leah scared him.

She was shrieking about someone named Jacob, and vampires, and the Loch Ness Monster for some reason. Moses was huddled in the bathtub, half fascinated and half worried. Val was just worried. If Leah phased, she'd crush the both of them. And then she might eat or change Beck.

But before Val could do anything to stop her, Leah had crossed the room, unlocked the door, and ran.

…

Val was fast, due to the combination of werewolf and vampire genes that made him a mutt, but Leah was a real wolf. She'd actually phased before. If he could catch her, it would be like trying to hang on to the Tasmanian devil—when it was angry.

He remembered all this before catching up to Leah and trying to pull her back to the bathroom. Naturally, Leah did not like this. Before Val knew what was happening, his nose felt broken and he was on his back looking up the ceiling.

Moses leapt over him. "Wait! Ms. Clearwater, wait!"

Leah actually stopped. Val wasn't fooled by this, though. Moses really should've figured out that he wasn't supposed to know her name. She'd only told Val, and she probably didn't even remember doing that. This made the likelihood that she was going to attack a lot greater.

"How do you know my name?" She was shaking. Probably about to phase.

See? He called it.

"I know a lot about you, Leah Clearwater." Moses' little revelation didn't help at Leah's nerves all. If anything, it made her more agitated.

"Moses," Val groaned, his nose burning with pain. "Don't scare the poor girl. She's just been detoxed."

"I've been—what?"

Moses calmly led Leah over to a chair. "Go attend to your nose, Jeppeson. I'll explain everything to her." It meant get lost in the Language of Moses.

"What about Beck?" Val asked. The boy was awake now. He looked way too fascinated with the whole situation.

"He can stay here, as well. I don't imagine you've told him anything about the company, have you?"

Val was too tired and sore to explain that Beck knew a lot about the company, because Val always had nowhere to leave him when he was on missions. Moses wouldn't believe him anyways. So he took his Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card, managed to stand up somehow, and went back to the bathroom.

…

Even when standing under the running water in the shower, Val could still hear every word of the conversation.

Moses was saying, "Val found you on his way to investigate the vampires of Forks, Washington. You were poisoned very badly." For once, Val was thankful that Moses could go picking through his memories whenever he wanted to; it saved a lot of explanation on Val's part.

"I knew about the poison," Leah muttered.

"I assumed you did. Will you please tell me how it happened?" That was a weird question for someone with Moses' particular gift… unless he was just asking because he knew Val was eavesdropping.

"My alpha imprinted on the daughter of the family of vampires in Forks. She's five, but she looks like she's fifteen. I told her some of her family history and she got upset and screamed, and everybody thought I hurt her…"

Hurting an imprintee lead to bloodshed. Val knew, for he'd seen it, that a wolf would attack another wolf until they were nearly dead, if they so much as scratched an imprintee.

"The girl's parents got involved," Leah continued. Val could picture Moses nodding and leaning forward. He always did this—that is, get really, really curious about rather bizarre and often uncomfortable situations. Val found it annoying, but he found Moses annoying in general.

"And that's how you came to be covered in blood and poisoned with venom," Moses stated, as if it weren't already obvious. Val resisted the urge to introduce his face to the wall because his nose was broken.

But only because of that.

"Yes. But what I want to know is how you seem to know who I am," Leah said. Val tensed. He got an ache beneath the sigils tattooed on his stomach every time someone found out about Moses' little 'gift'. Val himself had been terribly embarrassed and nothing more, but there was an old legend that when Cecil found out about it (some seven hundred years ago), he had tried to put Moses to death. And Val knew for a fact that the Volturi wanted Moses' head because of that.

"I have the ability to read memories. If the need arises, I can know who you are, where you've been, and what makes your world turn in the blink of an eye," Moses said. And who you've kissed, when you've cried, and most of your private moments, Val added silently and bitterly. Leah wasn't speaking which meant she was most likely stunned.

"Don't worry, dear," Moses assured. "I only looked through the ones from yesterday, so I'd know you weren't lying."

Val scoffed. In the living room, Beck was saying, "How can you prove you were looking through her memories?"

Oh, dear. Another child lost to an ancient mistake. Moses would only forgive Beck after three years of muttering, "Damned Valentines always doubting me," quietly enough that people in other countries probably couldn't hear him.

"Well, let's ask Leah. Did I get it right, dear?"

Val pictured what Leah's face must've looked like by now, and made the mistake of snorting with laughter. Blood ran down his chin. He tried to wipe it off carefully, but Leah began yelling in the next room and Val jumped. More blood ran down his chin.

Damn you, Moses! You took away my ability to facepalm!

Val carefully stepped over the edge of the bathtub. The floor was slippery with water and a few silver traces of venom. Leah's tone told him that Moses would need help soon, whether he thought so or not. In the meantime, Val busied himself with the first aid kit. His nose didn't seem to be broken but it was badly bruised and still oozing a little bit.

"—hell do you think you are?" Leah snarled. Val swallowed a painkiller and put a bandage on his nose.

"I am Moses Campbell the First, the dhampir."

"Is that all?"

Oh. No. Val went straight to autopilot, getting dressed as fast as his sore nose would allow, and rummaging through the drawers and medicine cabinet for anything that could be used for a weapon of self-defense.

"I was a hunter. I kill supernatural menaces for a living." And then you retired. Tell her you retired!

Never mind. The hairbrush would have to do. Val put his hand on the doorknob and waited. One wrong move, Leah.

"What do you mean by supernatural menaces?" she asked.

"Any vampire, werewolf, dhampir, demon, shape-shifter, or mutt that endangers humankind," Moses said. Val tensed. Leah was a werewolf, or shape-shifter at the very least. That dog smell clung to her.

"What's a mutt?"

"It's what Jeppeson is. He's the one who found you last night and whose nose you hurt. A mutt is a person with a combination of human, vampire, and werewolf genes. Some phase, but most just freeze. They're ideal hunters since they don't fit in anywhere else."

Well, when you put it that way… but he was right. Val had been questioned on which species he identified as more than once, and then corrected for saying whatever he answered with. Mutt was a common term, but he'd also heard half-breed and 'fanged wolf' before, but the latter could only be applied to the few mutts who actually phased.

And since it didn't sound like Moses was in any danger, Val opened the door and went into the living room.

…

Moses was telling Leah about his Headless Horseman days. She looked rather sick and Beck looked rather fascinated. Val was tempted to cover the boy's ears. He didn't know what he could do for Leah, except-

"Do you want a ride? You know, back to your home?" he asked. Leah winced when he said 'home.'

"Are you Jeppeson?"

"Please, no one calls me that except Moses and my mother. It's Val."

"Alright, Val. No, I do not want to go home. In fact, I'll go anywhere else except Forks, if you're really willing to drive me."

"Are you at risk of death by going home?" Moses asked. Leah nodded.

"Very. Those people have no sense of familial loyalty. I didn't even hurt the stupid kid, but they attacked me and left me for dead. So, Val, does your offer for a ride still stand?"

Looking back, Val marvelled at how much trouble—actually, make that flat out physical pain—if he'd just shook his head and left the girl and Moses and carried on with his life.

As it was: "Where exactly did you want to go?" he asked.

"There has to be somewhere where there are no werewolves, where they don't like to go," Leah seemed to be talking mostly to herself.

"There is," Moses chirped. "But only because it's overrun with vampires. And anyways, I know a perfect place for you and Val and Beck to go."

This had to be serious. He used Val and Beck instead of Jeppson and Beckett.

"Where is it?"

"I cannot tell you, not here. I'll go along and give you directions."

Val had a bad feeling that this was going to be more than just a relocation trip for Moses. He had a feeling that things were going to change in ways he couldn't even imagine.

But why argue with the Headless Horseman?

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