******I do not own Twilight or any of its characters..I make no money from this...I do not intend any copyright infringement...etc...******

BELIEF IN THE ABSENCE OF PROOF

CHAPTER 4: THE SEEKER (November, 1920)

Peter turned to his mate who had sat silently beside him for 2 days, before finally rousing him with the touch of her lips on his palm. His gift was a little temperamental but the expanse of knowledge that had become apparent to him the previous morning had floored him.

He had known that she was coming – this woman who would change the course of their lives – but until 2 days ago, his knowledge of her had been arbitrary. Well, it was still pretty arbitrary but it was all going to happen and it was starting now. There would be six and together they would be powerful beyond measure. It was terrifying.

He hadn't intended to tell Charlotte, but the words poured from his mouth. He wondered whether she was using her gift on him, but realized that she hadn't spoken. He just needed to tell somebody what was happening and Peters 'somebody' was always Charlotte.

Peter opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. There were no words that could sum up what he knew. "There will be six, all gifted. Aside from us we will have Jasper and the…seer. I don't know who the others are. The fifth is a Mind Reader and the sixth…I can't see her properly. I don't trust what I know." Charlotte stared at him "Tell me what you know" He took a deep breath and said "She is…everything. She will be the beginning and the end. Everything that we will become will depend on her. But I don't know how it ends..."

They lay side by side under a canopy of stars, the weight of knowledge on their shoulders. "Will we survive?" asked Charlotte. Peter turned his head and looked into her eyes "I wish I could lie to you" he whispered. She remained silent, thinking the worst. "I don't know. It all depends on her…The Sixth" he finally replied.

Peter idly wished that Jasper was here to talk this through and to calm him, but he knew that he would have to keep the truth about The Sixth from the others for as long as he could. She would be tested and forged in fire before she came to them. There was no way around it, but the others would wage war on all of humanity before he let her future unfold as it should. And Peter had seen enough to know that would change everything. Ultimately, there were two possible outcomes – both would have been unimaginable only two days ago but only one was acceptable. The other would bring hell to earth.

He turned to Charlotte "I need you to agree to something without asking questions. You can not ask me any more about The Sixth. Outcomes can still change...or be forced to change. There are things that shouldn't be known, or her destiny will be altered. She is dangerous. Do you understand?" Charlotte looked at him and simply nodded. Peter wished that she could turn her gift off – that they could have conversations where he could flatter her and sugar-coat life.

Sometimes the truth should be kept quiet, hidden behind half-truths and blatant lies. Because - as Charlotte had realized - once you knew something there is no going back. As a newborn, she had grown easily frustrated and forced Peter into conversations that he did not want to have; forced him to speak the truth when it should have remained unspoken. She had asked him about the Southern Wars and about Jasper and Maria. He had tried – and failed - to give her answers that were the truth, but not the whole truth.

She had forced him to tell her about the women he'd had, the slaughter of whole human families that he had partaken in before he knew there was another way. She had forced him to tell her about his newborn year – the vampires that he'd been forced to torture and kill just so that it wouldn't happen to him. She asked about Jasper, and how Maria had broken him and what sort of man he was. Peter had told her that it wasn't his story to tell, but Charlotte had forced him to tell her the truth. And there was no taking it back.

Peter worried about the seer. What did she already know? Had she told anybody? He knew that if they headed north they would meet her and she would be bathed in light. He cursed the limitations of his gift – because while he knew that a vampire was coming who would change the course of civilization, he needed to meet somebody now and all he knew was that he would find her one day and she would be bathed in light. He knew this woman already – the fully formed familial love of a brother had wormed its way into his heart over the last 2 days. He knew that she was alone and terrified and needed him now.

Knowing that the seer would be aware of his plans, Peter made the decision to leave their home in the New Mexico desert in one month and travel to Phoenix. They would wait there for a month and then head due north until they found her.

Peter turned to Charlotte, seeing himself reflected in her ruby eyes. She was beautiful, this woman of his. He thought back to a morning 38 years earlier when Jasper had appeared before him, holding her in his arms. He had known that she was coming, but not like this: held by his maker, already changing. Jasper had grown tired of Peters uncertainty…his watching and waiting…and had gone out one morning and brought her to him. Charlotte he was the ultimate gift, but Peter had been afraid that when she awoke she would hate him. Instead she had leapt on him, crashing them both through the wall of the small shed where she had finally awoken. She had shown him that Jasper was right: you take what is meant to be yours.

"What are you thinking about, Cowboy?" asked Charlotte, her eyes darkening. "You know what I'm thinking about" he answered truthfully, as he rolled over and pinned her to the dusty ground. His right hand held her arms above her head as he pressed the full length of his body into her, running his left hand down her throat and across the side of her right breast. He bent his head down to kiss her and she snarled beneath him and flipped them over, sitting astride him and grinding into his length. She reached for the bottom of her dress and pulled it over her head. Peter's eyes roamed across her naked body and he immediately pushed two fingers inside her, rubbing her clit with his thumb. He sat up and angled his head to her breast, taking one nipple in his mouth: sucking and licking until she came apart around his fingers.

He pushed her away from him and stood, unbuttoning his jeans as she sat on the ground looking up at him hungrily. His jeans fell to the ground and he kicked them off before dropping to his knees before her. She turned and knelt on all fours and he grabbed hold of her hips before thrusting into her roughly. Charlotte braced herself, pushing back into him as he pounded into her. Peter wrapped his hand around her long hair, pulling her until her back was pressed into him, and as their climax overtook them he bit into her neck as he had that first time 38 years ago. He had marked her here countless times over the years, but he imagined that he could still see Jaspers mark, deeper and more permanent than his.

Charlotte turned to look at him "Do you wish…" Peter put a finger up to her mouth and she didn't finish the question that she had started to ask him every day for the past 38 years.