A/N: This is incredible. Y'all actually convinced me to quit sobbing into Kleenex/ watching Ronaldo's fantabulous goal in the North Korea vs. Portugal match and update.

CHAPTER TWELVE- Colder Water

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her skies

-Damien Rice-The Blower's Daughter

Anger.

Anger, making my entire form vibrate, blurring the lines between human and wolf. Anger, ready to spring out of me and rip to shreds the reason I was awake at five thirty in the morning and feeling like the entire world had been snatched straight out of my hands. My fingers were curling and uncurling, and curling again, until I realized that silent tears were streaking across my face.

I abruptly stopped.

I wish I could make you believe.

In what? A vampire who preferred to run rather than weather the storm?

The voice was silent.

I growled. "Answer me!"

More silence.

My knees hit the pavement, and I knew that for the first time in my life, I was truly broken.

*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

"Well, then, suppose I quit the drama queen thing and stood up?"

Great. Talking to myself. First sign of insanity.

I obeyed myself, however. Now what?

My hand was already reaching for my phone when I paused and wondered who to call.

The law? Har har. And tell them that vampires have kidnapped my friend, and I know this through the super-senses I have because I'm a shape shifter? I'm sorry, but I prefer my home over mental asylums.

Jacob? I needed to keep this strictly unofficial, since I wasn't sure what I was up against yet. Calling Jake was the rough equivalent of beginning the supernatural face-off of the year, only with a million times more angst than last time because last time, we didn't exactly have to factor in Jake's imprint.

Sam? After our last encounter, when I'd broken his nose?

Seth? Like hell I was going to drag my baby brother into this.

One of the boys? Yeah, since they formed the majority of my fan club.

It was then I realized that out of the two people in the world I'd take on a rescue mission, one was the person who needed the actual rescuing and the other had vanished off the face of the earth.

I was on my own.

Which was just as well, now that I think about it. After all, I wasn't absolutely sure Dante hadn't escape (doubtful, I know) I needed to be sure. This was a huge accusation to make against our 'allies', a stupendous breach of the treaty. I promised myself that if it was the worst, I would call Jake.

With that slightly dubious conclusion, I set off towards our friendly neighboring village.

*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*

The walk was surprisingly long, and by the time I'd reached the outskirts of Forks, my supply of food for thought was running low and I was intensely glad I'd enough sense to grab a change into warmer clothes earlier, even if I had run the risk of waking Seth. As of late, my brother was the hardest to out-maneuver, given the whole wolfy-hearing factor.

En route, I wondered whether I should take Edward's absence the Bella Swan way: you know, going glassy-eyed for months and then making a comeback with a smash hit that involved a perfectly harmless shape shifter's life ending up in tatters. It would certainly be a great source of entertainment. So much drama. So much blood.

What I was really doing was much less gory, I'm afraid. I'd merely made my peace with the fact that the guys I fell in love with had a tendency to have burning issues. I know, I know, I should have kicked up a first-class tantrum, cut my wrists, had sex with Dante, but you know what? Maybe I wasn't that stupid.

Ground-breaking stuff, that.

But I'm serious. Sure, I have a vicious, venomous temper, and hatred seems to have scorched away the milder aspects of my nature. But I know the limit when I see it. I've finally managed to face the fact that life was terrible.

So no, I'm not going to wear all-black and mourn my almost lover.

Once I thought about it, really, I had an awful lot going on for me. Considerate mother. Comfortable home. Brother with brain capacity of a permanently-concussed tapir, who cared for me anyway.

Missing best friend.

Think first, shoot later.

*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

This is weird. I mean, I've been at the neighboring vamp household more times than I would have been proud of had not my Alpha been besotted with a half breed. And in none of those times has the house been so loud.

I mean, for most part, vampires are silent. They have their Creatures Of The Night reputation to uphold, you see. And as far as I knew, they were not fans of heavy metal. Excepting Edward, of course, who was M.I.A.

So what the hell was with the Queen of the Damned soundtrack?

Oh, is that irony I sense in the air?

I began creeping up towards the balcony of Esme and Carlisle's room. I froze, however, when I was passing the French windows of the living room.

What the hell?

I began panicking. Why the hell was Alice unconscious?

I shifted a little. Bella, Emmett and Carlisle, in the same state.

The room was a wreck. The wallpapers had been ripped and slashed, much like in Dante's place. The piano had been knocked clean out of its normal position, the sofa upturned, pieces of the floorboard ripped out and flung across the room.

I froze when my eyes came across a hideous splash of crimson.

My numbed mind made the connection painfully slowly. Vampires don't bleed.

Dante, what kind of shit have you gotten yourself into?

That was my last thought before a hand roughly closed over my mouth and yanked me from my frozen position.

*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

My eyes wandered incredulously from the pitch-black ones, livid and furious, to the cobalt blue ones, mischievous and amused.

"What are you doing here?"

My eyebrows raised themselves at Edward's anger. "I may ask you the same question. And you, too." I turned to Dante.

The latter's eyes became grimmer. "Some crap's going down, Lee."

"Wow, and there I was, thinking you were planning a surprise party for me."

Edward made a noise of frustration. "Dante, take her home."

I rolled my eyes. "Hello? Buddy? My name's Leah, not Bella. And I see you've already met."

But neither was listening. Their eyes had wandered over my shoulder, and in a perfectly-choreographed movement, they both flew back and crashed against the greenhouse. The glass shattered in an explosion of sound and light.

"Hello, Leah."

I turned around slowly. Never in my life did I expect to hear that voice in a situation like this.

The untidy brown pigtails were unmistakable.

"Hayley?"

A/N: Muahahaha. Bet you didn't see that one coming. Me neither. PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!