All the usual thanks, Nikki, Dani and Angelz1114577 & Whitlocked from PTB :o)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters, they belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter 9

Nahuel's PoV

It had been a long night; I'd never known time to pass so slowly. Of course, my sisters had all been waiting anxiously for me to return. They'd never met the Cullen family themselves, so they'd had difficulty believing that I wasn't in danger when I'd gone over there the previous day. I'd taken my time returning to the apartment, knowing that as soon as I walked through the door they'd be waiting for me. I felt that I needed to get everything straight in my head first.

Renesmee had agreed to see me again, which was more than I had dared to hope for. What I hadn't foreseen at all was the complication of the werewolf. He was clearly deeply in love with her and prepared to fight for her, physically if he had to. He'd left me in no doubt of that. I stood no chance in combat with him, I was fully aware of this. I knew that the wolves were designed to destroy vampires and I had only half the strength, speed and ability in a battle.

I wondered how Renesmee was feeling about everything. On one hand, she obviously had strong feelings for Jacob as they were living together as man and wife would, yet on the other hand, I knew she had felt all the things that I had yesterday. Despite this she had still agreed to today's meeting. I really hoped that the wolf hadn't managed to persuade her to change her mind last night when she got home.

I'd been unable to relax for the remainder of the evening. However hard I tried to concentrate, my mind would continually flash back to thoughts of her. Her smell was so appealing and hypnotic, that it was impossible to identify the individual elements that it reminded me of. My stomach had flipped gently every time the breeze washed a concentrated shot of it in my direction. My memory brought me back to the way her hair bounced gently when she turned her head, the bronze colour of her curls shining brightly, and the shimmer on her beautiful porcelain pale skin when the sun touched her through the gaps in the trees. I had steered myself into her life, now this woman had sailed into my thoughts and was anchored there more firmly than I ever could have imagined possible.

Eventually I'd given up on pretending to watch the TV and was tired of the looks that my sisters were exchanging between themselves. Every time one of them tried to include me in a conversation, they had to repeat themselves because I hadn't noticed them speaking the first time. I'd climbed into bed and lay on my back, following the shadows cast on the ceiling in the dim light, knowing there was no chance of sleep for now.

I thought of Edward and his love for Bella; how he must have suffered, almost intolerably so, simply because he loved and wanted to be with her so much. I contrasted this to my father and grimaced. My mother had loved him as much as Bella loved Edward, I knew that. I was sure that, conversely, she was nothing more than a convenient distraction to him. That, at least, was of some comfort; certainly the mothers of my half sisters were even less than that to him, merely vessels capable of supplying him with the foundation of the new half-immortal race he became intent on creating. That had been the only positive thing to come out of the visit by the Volturi, the fact that they destroyed Joham and put an end to what he was doing. Well, that and the fact that I would never have known of Renemsee otherwise. Whether this was really a positive or not, I was still undecided; certainly the past few years would have been much easier for me had I still been living my life in blissful ignorance of her existence. At least I no longer felt that I was to blame for my mother's death. Edward Cullen had become a greater role model to me than my own father.

I had spent the years since the revelatory moment that I met the Cullens, promising that I would never ever treat a woman the way that Joham had. My whole life had been spent around amazing women; my aunt with her stories about my mother and then my sisters, all of them dealing with the difficult situation that we found ourselves in, accepting what we were, and on top of that the grief of losing loved ones. For myself and my aunt it was my mother; for my sisters and, to a lesser extent myself, our father.

All of this was still drifting through my mind when I fell asleep, ensuring that my dreams were filled with many of the same images. It was a restless night for me; I woke often during the night and rose early in the morning. To my relief, none of my sisters were awake when I left the apartment. I scrawled a quick note as I left, knowing that I would be unable to stay confined within these four walls whilst I waited for the time to arrive to make my way to the Cullen house again to see her.

I made a decision to go hunting, more to pass the time than for an immediate desire for the blood. When Alice, Jasper and Kachiri had first found me, I was surviving on a diet mostly consisting of human blood. Since then I had tried to abstain from this as much as possible. I had never considered feeding on animals before, but suddenly this alternative was presented to me and seemed reasonable now I had discovered that I wasn't inherently evil. I'd been trying for the past few years to live by the Cullen's philosophy. It wasn't always easy but I had managed to do it and was proud of myself for it. It was more proof that I wasn't the monster I'd always believed I was; this belief inspired my own self-hatred that had eaten away at me for one hundred and fifty years. I was still able to exist on human food too, as I was doing now, but it was really no substitute for blood.

I didn't usually struggle too much interacting with humans. I assumed this was because I was only half vampire. Huilen seemed to have much more of a problem with it than I did, but I was proud of my sisters. It had been difficult for them at first because of the way that Joham had raised them to view humans, but they were coping well now, enough to live amongst them, as we were doing for the time being.

I drove the rental car out to the forest, some distance from the Cullen house and parked up and set off to hunt, taking my time and welcoming the distraction of just using my instincts for a while. When I'd had my fill of the deer I'd managed to catch, I slowly made my way back to the car, enjoying the contrast of the land here with that back home, spending time resting in the peaceful environment. I followed a stream for a while and then sitting watching a tall, narrow waterfall as the water gushed down through the air in a never ending flow, down to the bottom where it landed in a pool, bubbling and foaming. Finally, enough time had passed and I headed for the car in earnest, eager now to arrive at my destination.

Today I parked right outside the Cullen's house, not feeling the need to arrive as surreptitiously as I had the day before. I stepped from the car, looking around as I did so. Everything was just the same as it was when I arrived yesterday, only today I had an invitation; a right to be here. I leapt quickly and gracefully up the steps onto the porch before stepping up to the door. I was about to press the door bell when the door swung open and Edward stood there, flawless as ever, his mouth even but his eyes filled with obvious angst.

"Nahuel," he acknowledged by way of a greeting, his voice low and abrupt. I eyed him warily, seeing that he had obviously not changed his own opinion of me since yesterday.

"Edward," I nodded my head and echoed the tone of his address. "I've come to see Renesmee, she asked yesterday if I would." He nodded his head very slightly, confirming that he was already aware of this, although his expression didn't change at all.

"She's not here. She's gone away for a few days, things have become a little…" he searched for a word that would adequately describe the situation "difficult for her." I immediately thought of Jacob and wondered what had happened when she had returned home last night. Countless thoughts and emotions flashed through my head, and I knew that he could read them all. Disappointment was right up there, just about at the top. "I really think it's better if you leave. I can't tell you when she'll be back, I have no idea." I couldn't be sure what he meant by 'leave', whether it was leave the house now or leave the area altogether and head back south. I had a feeling it was both although I knew that he would never admit to that. Even worse was that I knew that he heard me thinking it and he still refused to confirm it aloud, which to me was good as admitting it. Knowing that I had upset the man I respected so deeply, was hard to take. The rebuff, albeit unspoken, cut deep.

I turned and headed back down the steps, turning once to see that Edward was still standing watching me, his body as still as that of a statue. We exchanged curt nods of the head and he stepped back inside the house and closed the door. I climbed into my car, slamming the door harder than necessary and started the engine. I took my frustration out on the car and tore away from the house.

The route back to my apartment was quiet, but as I reached a bend in the highway, a red sports car pulled out sharply in front of me, seemingly from nowhere, causing me to slam my foot hard on the brake and whip the steering wheel to the side to avoid hitting it, eventually coming to a stop with the front of the car in a group of bushes. I looked over into the other car, angry now, wondering who had just pulled such a stupid manoeuvre. My heart thumped in my chest and my stomach flipped. Nothing could have made me happier than seeing the face now looking worriedly back at me from the other car.

A/N – Please review! I'm trying to write the later chapters right now and they're hard going. A little love would definitely help spur me on and stop me defecting to Twitter every time the going gets tough!