Hello All. Miss me? Lol. Sorry about my absence but I've been working my butt off on other things. But I'm on vacation now so I'll write a bit more. Excuse the fact that it's a short chapter, but it has to be because I had to talk about what was happening in Asima's POV before I continued to Nessie so you weren't just wondering where she was and why she hadn't came. But I won't hold you up here. So I'll just see you at the bottom ok. ;)

Chapter 14 Ruins

Sami and Rami ran past me, in their leopard forms, their thoughts painful as they leapt through the gaping hole in the gate.

"Nessie." Bella gasped looking around.

Jacob and Edward met Jasper and Alice in the middle with the ones that weren't in the city trying to salvage the wreckage. "Where is she?" Edward demanded matching Jacob's thoughts still in wolf form.

"She's gone." Alice informed.

Edward saw the scene play out in her thoughts, and he wasn't really surprised at four men and a woman morphing. The lady in the shop had already forewarned us about werewolves, but it was the way that they fought that shocked me. The fact that we came back to anyone was a surprise at all.

"You let her go Jasper?" Edward practically growled coiling back and attempting to leap at him.

Bella grabbed one arm and I grabbed the other, attempting to hold him back the best we could. "Stop Edward!" Bella demanded using a bit more force. Jasper didn't advance or retreat, he just stood as still as he always did. I suppose understanding his reactions.

Edward bucked again, and Bella and I let him go, Bella deciding a physical shield would be more effective than trying to use force. "You were supposed to be watching her. Protecting her, that is what we trusted you to do." He screamed trying to find his way out of the invisible dome that limited his movement.

"This is Alice, Leah, and Jasper we're talking about…" Emmett tried to reason. "They wouldn't just hand her over."

Alice's voice practically begged for him to understand. "We had no choice Edward…there were so many of them. It was her idea, and she was right. We needed to regroup. There was no way that the three of us could have won that battle. Even if we didn't have people to protect."

"You all should have fought harder, she is not able to be put back together, we are, and now they have taken her god knows where." Rosalie hissed, siding with Edward.

"That's not helping Rose." Emmett groaned.

Bella's emotions took her over, and in her moment of panic for Ness and her breakdown the shield holding Edward flickered off and I was once again holding him back. "Bella." I grunted through clenched teeth managing to get him only an inch back before Emmett grabbed him, yanking him several feet before I blocked him in myself.

"Sorry." She sighed looking at Edward.

She didn't want to go… Jacob argued in disbelief. He was messing with her head. Which way did she go?

"Which way did they head?" I asked for him.

"North." Jasper and Alice said together.

Jacob flew off in that direction not even pausing to hear Rosalie repeat, "We tried that there's no trail to follow."

Emmett let go of Rose's hand, "I'm going with him."

Edward looked in the northern direction and then back at me. "Let me go Asima."

"We need to get to work Edward." Bella suggested, her eyes looking over the town. "Alice, Rose and Jasper said that there was no trail to follow."

He gave her a look as if that was precisely why he wanted to go. "They could have missed something."

"Then trust Emmett and Jacob to find it." Bella cut bluntly. "We're needed here and fighting each other isn't going to get us back to her. These were werewolves Edward, and they were outnumbered. "

Rose scoffed again. "I would have fought until there was nothing left, I wouldn't have just let her go."

"Rosalie please…" Alice begged for understanding.

I grabbed Rosalie's arm taking only a few flashes to show her exactly what Alice and Jasper saw as I spoke. "You would have failed and they still would have gotten her, and then we would have just been down a person needed to bring her back. We're going to need everyone on this." I explained as I watched her eyes widen at what she saw. "Now… we're not going to do this, especially not in front of Ciyan and Rosabella and I need to find my son without thinking one of you will be in pieces when I come back."

I washed a waved of calm over her and she nodded. "What first?"

"The city, make sure no one's trapped under the rubble or seriously injured. If they are get them to the hall if you can manage it. Alice and Bella, anyone that isn't injured and their home was wrecked in the fighting put them up in the main Palace." I thought knowing that Sami, Rami, and Jabril would want that. "If there is any one that can't fit they can stay in my house."

Alice and Bella nodded blurring back into the town to get to work as well as Rosalie. "Edward, I need you to look through the journals and see if there is anything in them that can help us with Zach. Any patterns in his travels, separating things from the legend, weaknesses or whatever."

He nodded as I took the journals out of my bag and let the shield drop. He nodded taking the books from me, "I'll be back at the house."

I nodded letting him go. Jasper sighed, "You didn't even calm him down."

"Nope, he'll need the pain to work."

He came up to me, "We really did have no choice…"

"I know that Jasper. Hell Edward knows that too, he's just in pain." I explained.

He nodded. "Do you want me to take Ciyan and Rosabella?"

I shook my head. "No, they were the last ones to see Phillip; I need them to retrace their steps."

He nodded. "I'll be with Alice."

"Let's go girls." I sighed trying to figure out what to do first.

I walked through the town assessing the damage silently to myself, Rosabella and Ciyan holding my hands looking in awe. My home was ruined, my best friend was gone, and my son was also missing. It was safe to say that with three types of heartbreak piled up at once, everything I knew and loved was in ruins.

I stopped in the middle of the square, not wanting to go further. I was pained, and as much as I wanted to fall apart I didn't have time. There were people that were depending on me and the longer I waited and deferred action the worse it would get.

A warm large nose wedged into the base of my back, and traced my spine upward until it reached my neck. I would know that touch anywhere, whether in human for or wolf form without any type of abilities needed.

"I'm alright Seth." I assured barely able to recognize my own voice.

Seth whimpered aloud softly, but I could hear the thoughts behind it perfectly. This can all be fixed, and we'll get Nessie back.

I didn't respond. Ciyan ran her free hand against the side of her dad's sandy colored coat, and I could feel his jubilation as he looked her over and saw that she was unharmed. But as soon as that inspection ended he was back on edge, realizing that Phillip wasn't around to pass or fail inspection. Asima, where's Phil?

"I don't know. Ciyan and Rosabella said that he ran off during the commotion. I need you to go to the caves, and track him down from there; he couldn't have gotten too far."

He turned around to head towards the caves and I grabbed him instinctively by his tail. He seemed to know what I was going to say before I even attempted to express it. Don't worry honey, I'll bring him home.

"Don't stray too far; I can't handle losing anyone else, even if it's temporary." I admitted.

He didn't respond at first, and ran off, disappearing towards our home, and over the back wall, towards the caves. Don't worry, I can never be lost to you, we're inseparable in every way. He was right. I traced him, and he imprinted on me, and for some reason it connected us to where we would always find each other, and know if there was trouble. I'll bring our son back; you just focus on being Jennah's leader.

I nodded to myself kicking into action. "Ok… fires first." I thought to myself. It was already raining, and there weren't that many. "Ciyan and Rosabella, get under cover for me." I instructed walking into the dead center of the square. I took a deep breath attempting to clear all emotions and worry, since I needed complete focus to control the elements.

A crack of lightning shot over the sky and made me jump. "Trying to fry us all Asima?" Rosalie accused lifting the wall of the house out of the street and leaning it against the house it came from.

"I'm sorry," I gasped. "I guess I'm not as in control of myself as I thought."

The rain poured heavier, and the surrounding fires started to flicker out. I waited until the last fire was extinguished before I stopped the rain all together and helped Rose by lifting a fallen support beam out of the street.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Phillip found Carlisle, and the others and told them to come back." Rosalie comforted and I nodded. "He's a capable kid Asima."

I didn't have a chance to respond before my husband's thoughts were in my head. I found him.

He hadn't even made it to the caves before he saw Esme, Carlisle, and Jabril, the third of which had a tired Phillip on his back. "He found them."

We're coming back now. Seth reported running across the desert at top speed with the four of them on his sides.

"Told you." Rose smiled lifting another post out of the street.

They were back just as the last of the fires were extinguished. "Phillip!" I burst blurring into his direction when I finally caught his scent. Carlisle, Esme and Jabril were frozen in shock as their eyes raked over Jennah.

Jabril placed him on the ground and he collapsed into my arms immediately. "You have a pretty determined son Asima." Carlisle complimented. "We were barely outside of Jordan when he ran into us."

I couldn't help but smile at that. Jordan was only an hour run from us, so I wasn't sure how long exactly it took him, once I held him long enough to register that he was safe, I handed him off to Esme. "Can you take him to your place? Rosabella and Ciyan are already there with Edward."

She nodded slightly puzzled, her caramel colored hair windblown. "Renesmee?"

"She's gone with Zach. There were others," I explained. "Werewolves."

Carlisle's eyebrows shot to the top of his head, "Werewolves?"

I nodded saying nothing else on it; we didn't have time to waste telling the same story. "Carlisle, we have some injured in the main hall, can you take a look at them? We need to make sure no one's been bitten as well."

"Of course." He nodded before leaving urgently with Esme and my son.

Seth went to phase back into his normal form so that he could help out as well, leaving me with just Jabril. He was still stunned looking over the ruins within the dunes. "Leah?" He asked quickly.

"She's alright; she's helping Sami and Rami." I answered before he panicked more than necessary.

My words only gave him comfort for a few seconds. "This city has stood for over a millennium. Generations have come and gone, and I've always managed to protect it, to keep everyone safe. I failed."

I hugged him fiercely, for the first time missing the soft heat of our first meet, now replaced with the warm stone that matched mine. I looked him in his vibrant henna colored eyes and made sure he completely understood what I was telling him. "Listen to me nephew, you did not fail. The only time we fail is when we lose our fight. We are going to rebuild this city, get back Nessie and kill anyone it takes to get it done."

Jabril let out a tired and very weak laugh. "So much for our decade of peace."

"Nothing!" Jacob screamed putting his fist through the wall of his front room. Phillip was still asleep and we had just moved him to Jacob and Nessie's house with an also sleeping Ciyan and Rosabella. Starting tomorrow we would begin to reconstruct the gates as well as the houses that had been destroyed. Seth had phased long enough to call Jake and Emmett back because Carlisle wanted to have a meeting about what happened.

"What do you mean?" Seth asked after making no attempt to stop him from putting his fist into the wall. They always had the friendship where he knew when to talk and when to let him be.

"Nothing! We ran all the way to Israel and circled back through Egypt before coming here, and we didn't pick up her scent anywhere." He growled in frustration.

I intervened before he could put his first through something else. I washed a wave of calm over him, "The kids are sleeping, and we need to get to Carlisle's."

He nodded giving up. There was excitement in the house; I could feel it when we entered. "Please tell me we have something?"

Carlisle had just closed the last journal when we walked into their front room. Edward was still pacing in the same spot back by the piano, as he was before we left. "It was quite informative; it seems this man has been tracking Zachariah for well over sixty years."

"So what do we know?" Emmett asked leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees.

"We know that he wasn't a human that's been bitten, he was actually-" Carlisle started.

"Birthed from a human." Rosalie finished, because this wasn't news anymore.

Carlisle was thrown aback for a moment. "Well he also seems under the impression that this gives Zach a natural defense that makes him-"

"Unable to be traced by scent?" Jacob muttered already knowing.

"He most likely wants-"He started again.

Bella finished that one. "Wants her for a mate to increase the werewolf population since they were dwindled down to nearly nothing."

"The palm reader already told us that much." I explained scanning one of the journals myself. It was the journey of a man named Haji and his yearlong attempt to find his fiancé Akila. She had been entranced and lured away by Zach, becoming one of his mates. He never found her, but Zach did make a reappearance ten years later after he had already settled down and had a family. He tracked him again for two years failing to save another woman from the same fate. "This was over forty years ago."

Emmett sighed, "So how old is this guy?"

"Not as old as he looks that's for sure." I sighed glancing at the bottom of the page, noticing something signed on the very end of the book.

"Find something?" Seth asked noticing my eyebrows furrow picking up the second volume and going straight to the back looking for the same mark.

Carlisle looked over my shoulder to see what fascinated me. "It's the letter 'F' at the end of his signature."

"Last initial?" Emmett asked waiting for something relevant.

I took the third book and flipped to the back searching for the same thing. It was there again. "Another one."

"It's a letter, is really that important?" Jasper asked slightly confused.

Sami frustratingly got up and looked at it, "It is in Egypt, that's not a letter F. It's a rune."

"What does it mean?" Rami asked looking over his shoulder. "It's Ansuz."

Bella looked to Sami and Rami, then to Jabril, and last me. "And that means…."

"It means ancestor, or in this case since it's a nonliving object more of an antecedent. It was a way to let people know that there was more to come." I explained.

Jacob perked up, "So there's another journal."

I nodded. "According to this, yes."

"Then we need to go to that fortuneteller and get it." Alice concluded.

Edward groaned, "Why would she withhold the last journal?"

"It's possible that she never knew it existed." I defended, "I didn't feel she was hiding anything when she gave us the books Edward."

"You all should go back." Esme agreed.

Seth agreed. "Then we will at first light." I

"We're going to run patrol until sunrise, I don't want to risk another attack on Jennah. " Jabril announced standing up with Sami and Rami.

I wanted to tell him that there wouldn't be another attack on Jennah, because Zach had gotten who he wanted, but he needed something to do. "I'll help." I volunteered knowing I wasn't going to get any sleep, and I wasn't leaving for Egypt until first light.

"I'm going to go back to the house, check on Rosabella." Jacob muttered before Leah stopped him.

"I'll take care of them, you need some rest bro." She offered a lot gently.

Jacob declined wordlessly walking out of the house. "I don't think anyone is going to be able to sleep tonight." Esme thought aloud.

This would be the time that Emmett would crack a joke about them never being able to sleep, but the mood was way too tense even for him. "I think I'm going to get to work on rebuilding."

"It's night." Seth pointed out.

Rosalie sighed getting up, "Doesn't matter to us we can see regardless, Seth. You know that."

"Come on Jazz." Alice requested standing up with them.

Edward sighed annoyed, "Is this really the best time Alice?"

"There's nothing else we can do at the moment," Carlisle explained.

Alice agreed. "We have two priorities. Returning this city back to the way it was, and finding Renesmee. The sooner we do that the more energy we can throw into finding her."

"We can't do anything now Edward, so we can at least be useful in other ways." Bella agreed. Edward surrendered, knowing that the ones that outnumbered him were right.

So the Cullen's worked through the night together quickly and quietly as Sami, Rami, Jabril, and I silently ran over the sleeping city.

The sky was barely orange before I ventured back to Cairo. The sun prevented any of the Cullens from coming with me. Jabril, Sami, and Rami went straight from patrol to helping with the reconstruction.

The sun was bright overhead, when I finally did make it to the small shop just outside of the district. The store was quite, but I could hear movement inside. The dark haired girl was setting up for the day. The door was held open by a large brick, so I didn't feel bad about just walking in.

"You're back." She noted not looking up from her task of returning books to shelves.

I pulled the books out of my bag and placed them on the table gently. Carlisle and Edward no doubt had the contents memorized from each volume. "I wanted to return your journals, as promised."

She stopped, and glanced at the table, and then returned back to her task. "That's not why you came."

I sighed, forgetting how talented the young fortune teller actually was.

"So I take it Zach came for her." She guessed finishing her job and sitting at the table to look at me. She casually motioned for me to sit, though her heart beat and the smell of pheromones always gave away her fear.

I sat gently and nodded, quietly.

"And I take it he succeeded." She continued.

I nodded again. "There were others, and now we need to get her back. The problem is, no one can track the scent. If we can't find him, then we can't find her."

She stared at the table for a good three minutes before her brown eyes met mine. "I've given you all the help I can. What else do you want from me?"

"I have reason to believe that Haji wrote another journal." I admitted waiting.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Those are the only journals I have been given, what makes you think that there is another?"

I opened the book and showed her the symbol at the very end. "This symbol at the end is an Egyptian rune, at symbolizes something to come after. It's at the end of every journal."

"I don't know anything about more journals." She repeated again, and I could tell she was telling the truth. "He has only given me these."

"Given you?" I repeated, "Given you as in, he's still alive?"

"Yes, he's still alive."

I leaned forward urgently grabbing her hand. "You have to take me to him."

She jerked her hand back when flashes of unwanted images filled her head. "Are you out of your mind? I can't take you to my grandfather."

"All I need is a few minutes, he can help us." I reasoned.

"He's very old, and he wouldn't help you even if he could. I shouldn't even be helping you." She thought to herself a hint of questioning in her tone, mentally asking herself why she helped us as much as she did.

"You helped us, because we're good people" I answered for her, "and I need your help to save a very good person."

She sighed thinking it all over, "Your friend had a very kind soul, I'll admit that. But you don't know what you are asking of me. She is over eighty years old; I don't know what actually seeing someone like you would do to him."

"I won't hurt him." I promised.

She frowned, "You could unintentionally, and I don't think his heart can take the shock."

"He's been chasing this Zach guy his entire life, I don't think he'll be very shocked." I replied hoping she wouldn't take my honesty for sarcasm.

She thought it over more, "He isn't even in Cairo. He's further south, a two day journey from here."

"Not at my speed." I countered.

Her eyes widened and she shook her head more defiantly. "Absolutely no!"

I pulled from her mind everything that I could about her grandfather's location, before I felt guilty. "You know that I can just go on my own, right? He lives by the Nasser right, in Aswan?"

He eyes widened when she realized, "You wouldn't."

"I'm desperate." I stressed. "There isn't much that I wouldn't do right about now."

She sighed rubbing at her temples, "It will take at least a day to travel there."

"Thank you." I exhaled.

She got up from the table and walked behind the counter retrieving her purse and keys. I followed behind her as she closed up her shop that hadn't even opened. "You shouldn't thank me right away, I'm just taking you there, and it's up to my grandfather to tell you anything."

Hello again my awesome readers. Sorry again for taking so long to update. This is a very crucial part of the story so I had to keep it short. Now keep in mind that THIS IS THE PART WHERE THE STORY GETS DARKER. I have been warning you all since I started and I don't think you really realize that we haven't gotten there yet. Nessie getting upset and irritated at the drop of a hat is nothing compared to what will come. Since I am currently on sandy beaches and super relaxed I am somewhat inspired to write more for you all. 15 is already down to it's last two pages, and I have a twist coming up in the next few chapters where we'll get a visit from our past. Fun right? Pretty pretty pretty please follow my twitter ( DinishaRob) it will help me keep on track and I'll often leave alot of the story decision up to my audience. If I ever get voters. Plus I love to hear what you all think. I will see you all later this weekend. I swear on the love of my laptop. :)