A/N: Sorry I disappeared. Laptop broke down. Urgh.

But here you go! Yes, this is going a bit fast but I have a point I promise! :)

Chapter IV: Sickeningly Sweet

"Where are we going?" she called after me as I lead her through a series of footpaths through the forest, clearing the way for her as I went.

"Trust me," I called back, snapping a thin branch that she could get tangled in and threw it aside. I caught the hesitation in her face as I cast a glance at her. I grinned evilly, "Don't worry, no one will find your body."

She shook her head in resignation as she gave a nervous laugh. "My brother will give you your weight in gold in exchange for my safe return."

"I'd rather have an island with a fully furnished house in the Caribbean," I smirked at her, earning a sincere giggle muffled by a hand to her mouth.

We had spent a good three hours in the diner, talking and getting to know each other. I had successfully avoided mentioning her parents and her nightmares. She had told me she stopped school for a while because she felt lonely at home without her brother. Her brother had given in to her request under the condition of her promise to continue and graduate college. I told her about our garage of course, saying that we had opened even before graduating last year. It was a lie, of course. We had graduated years ago. I told her that Jake, Quil and I graduated as Mechanical Engineers. Which was actually true, Sam made sure we all had proper education.

We told each other about our hobbies; turns out that aside from surfing, she also loved hiking. It was the reason why we were in the forest. I wanted to show her the cliff face where the pack went to go cliff diving. So here we were now, trekking the dense forests of La Push at three fifteen in the afternoon on our way to one of my favorite spots at home.

"You seem to know this forest like the back of your hand," she observed. She took the hand I offered her and heaved her up a particularly high step of raised land on the path. "Do you come here often?"

"I didn't peg you to be one for pick-up lines," I teased, pausing just before the clearing to the cliff.

"You know what I mean," she rolled her eyes, stopping a few feet from me. She stared at the opening behind me and her face broke into a grin. "We're here, aren't we?"

"For your first question, yes, me and my friends always come here on our days off," I nodded. I started to walk again, slowly making my way through the opening along the tree line. As I stepped out of the forest with her following close, I dramatically waved my hand across towards the horizon, "And, yes, we're here."

"Wow," she breathed, pressing a hand to her chest as she took in one of the most spectacular views the Olympic peninsula had to offer. I watched her as she made her way towards the edge of the cliff. I made sure that I was far enough as not to invade her personal space, but close enough to quickly get to her if ever she slipped. Paranoid imprint thoughts, I know. But it didn't hurt to be sure. She let her eyes rake over the surroundings, a soft smile playing her lips.

I narrowed my eyes as she suddenly stiffened. Before I could react, she fell forwards, over the edge of the cliff face. Without second thoughts I leapt after her, praying that she didn't hit any of the rocks below. I plunged beneath the surface, forcing my eyes open searching frantically for any sign of her. But nothing, I couldn't find a single hair of her. I broke the surface, panicking. I whipped my head around in desperation, until I found a pair of boot-clad, dainty feet hanging from the side of a boulder.

There she was, smiling slyly at me, perched atop the large slab of stone. She braced her hands on the rock on each side of her body before leaning forward. "Watch out for that first step," she teased. "It's a doozy."

"Are you crazy?" I gaped disbelievingly at her. She faked the fall? "That was a fifty-foot drop!"

"No," she shrugged, lowering herself into the icy water and began to swim towards me. "I just wanted to try it out. Cliff diving sounded interesting."

"You could've at least warned me." I pressed my lips into a thin line, eying her accusingly.

"Calm down, will you?" she laughed and floated onto her back. "I looked before I leapt."

"That's not the point," I sighed.

And here I thought Claire was trouble. I remembered the time she ran off into the forest alone in the middle of the night when she was twelve, when Sam refused to let her go to a slumber party. We went out after her only to catch the scent of a leech. We barely made it, the vampire had her by the hair and held her a foot in the air. Quil was beside himself with fury, I can still feel the pain that shot through our minds when he snapped. The vampire had no chance. I wonder what type of trouble this girl would get herself tangled in. It seemed that imprints had a knack of getting themselves in a mess.

A sudden gust of wind brought a sickeningly, sweet scent to my nose and a freezing sensation shot up my spine. Vampire. To my horror, I knew the scent. I remember having caught a whiff of it back when we stood with the Cullens against the Volturi. I snapped my head upward to where the scent had come from. There! At the edge of the cliff was a figure crouching, leering at us before disappearing.

Demetri.

"Let's go," I grabbed Veronica's hand and swam for the shore.

"What's the rush?" I could feel her trying to break free of my hold, her hand twisting against mine. "We just got here."

"You'll catch your death here," Literally. If Demetri was here, Felix shouldn't be far behind.

I thought the Cullens had asked the Volturi not to hunt around here. Why was this muscle head sneaking around? Does his presence have something to do with her? Does the Volturi know what she is?

"I'm wearing my second pair of cold-water gear," she tried to reason, pulling down the collar of her blouse, letting me see her branded suit. "I'm not that cold."

"My friends are playing football at the other side of the beach," I needed to get her to a crowded area. Volturi guards would never risk exposure to that many humans. "You'll like my best friend's girlfriend; she's a surfer like you."

"Quil's?" she asked. She repositioned the strap of the water-proof pouch filled with her valuables on her shoulder and we waded through the shallower part of the beach. "Or Jacob's?

"I guess both," both Leah and Claire surfed, but the former only had so much time to surf. "But Quil's girl surfs more and she's your age."

"And you?"

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow at her question, stopping just before the shoreline, our feet still immersed in the water.

"What's your age?" She tilted her head curiously at me.

I thought I had my story in place of graduating college just last year with my two best friends. People would assume that we would be twenty-two or twenty-three, why wouldn't she? "Twenty-three," I answered with slight hesitation. "Why?"

"Which would also make your friends twenty-three," she said, more to herself than me. There was a skeptical look on her face, "Seven years?"

"We've known each other since Claire was two. He was always her favorite playmate," I shrugged, walking towards the other end of First Beach, taking her along. "You could say we expected it."

"Childhood sweethearts," she mused. "It's cute."

"Jake!" I called, spotting him as Quil tackled him before he got to the make-shift goal.

I saw that Leah, Jacob and Seth were there with no sight of Collin and Brady. They were probably off to run their shifts.

Jacob hauled himself up on his feet and jogged to meet me and Veronica. "Hi," he smiled.

"Guys, this is Veronica," I introduced pulling her over when Leah, Seth, Claire and Quil fell in step with our Alpha.

They took turns introducing themselves as Jake pulled me aside. "Volturi?" He asked, his voice low and alert.

"Yes," I answered, looking over at the cliffs. "The tracker, Demetri. And I'm pretty sure his partner will be pretty close."

"Seth and I will visit the Cullen's tonight." He ran a hand through his hair, looking over at the cliffs too. "Maybe they know something."

"He was blatant, Jake," I hissed. I looked over to her, seeing that Leah had already offered her a towel and she was wrapping herself in it. "They're after her. There's something about her. The Volturi knows what she is, I can feel it."

"Don't worry, Collin and Brady are on patrol. She's safe here. They know we keep an eye on this place," he assured, clamping a hand on my shoulder. "The twins haven't alerted us yet, so I have a reason to believe they're gone. But Sam had Jared run with them as a precaution. He'll spot the leeches if they get too close to the borders."

I know for a fact that it wasn't me that prevented Demetri from attacking. There was something more. My guts were screaming at me that she was some sort of prize to them. Her scent invaded my senses again. Does she have something the Volturi wanted? Did she do something to warrant their attention? Was she somehow here under their bidding? And that Demetri was here to make sure she was safe?

I eyed her suspiciously before shaking my head. She was my imprint. I shouldn't be doubting her. This may be the very reason why the Spirits linked us; so that I could protect her from these leeches. If so, did she posses something that the Spirits know can help the tribe, for her to deserve our protection?

As Jake joined them for the snacks Leah brought, I heaved in a heavy sigh. Something big was going to happen.

A/N: I love Demetri. Just so you know. He's not the bad guy here.

I have a little one-shot planned for him. Watch out for it! :D