A/N So sorry for the delay in posting, RL is kicking my arse of late! Also many apologies for not answering any reviews, I love to receive them and read them but just don't have much time to spare to reply!

54

Night fell as they waited, Bella was in the middle, Edward half a mile away to her right, Carlisle the same distance to her left. This meant they could easily hear each other if they needed to, but they covered a wider area than if they stuck together. They had travelled a zig-zag pattern through the forest until they were almost 10 miles from town and then turned and travelled back again, covering the whole of the area north in search of a trace of the two renegades. At last they stepped into a clearing, it was almost perfectly circular and just large enough that all three could see each other without any interference from the flora.

"How long will we patrol?" Bella asked.

"I don't know." Edward answered, "We can't keep it up indefinitely, well, I suppose WE could but the wolves have to sleep some times and we have to hunt eventually."

Bella nodded. She bit her lip and looked around the forest surrounding the clearing.

"What's wrong?" he asked, unable to put his finger on why, he just knew she was uneasy.

She had just opened her mouth to answer when Edward's phone went off.

"Tanya!" Edward said looking at his screen, Kate would contact Jasper and Irina would call Emmett. The three of them immediately came together and turned south west, heading for their cousins positions.

"What's happening?" Edward asked.

"We have the scent of the one we can track, he's headed to town, we're just behind him." Tanya's voice came through the speaker so low it was almost impossible to hear.

"Any sign of the other?" Edward asked, they sped through the trees, he was tempted to go faster, but was aware that that meant leaving Bella behind, so he limited his speed.

"Not yet. The wolves not on the reservation have circled around and made a line near town, we are driving him towards them." They altered their path to intercept the vampire close to the wolves rather than meet up with the others. A howling split the night as the shapeshifters spotted their prey.

By a stroke of luck they could not have counted on, all of them met just as the wolves surrounded him. The hapless vampire was surrounded not only by 13 vampires bent on protecting the town, but by 8 wolves as big as horses. He tried to jump into a nearby tree but Kate jumped at the same time and gave him an electric shock, he fell to the ground, twitching as if he had been tasered. Bella concentrated, her nose wrinkling in that adorable way he loved and he realised that she had extended her shield, preventing the nomad from getting back up and running away, they could all feel the hair on the back of their necks and arms standing on end with the electric of the shield.

When he recovered slightly she allowed him to get to his feet, but no further. He looked around at them as they closed in. He was dressed in what would be considered 'normal' clothes, except for the fact that they were very worn and hadn't been cleaned in years by the look. Blood and mud stained the dark jeans and black hooded sweatshirt he wore, and of course, he wasn't wearing shoes. Most nomads didn't unless they were trying to blend in.

"What the hell?" the stranger asked, crouched low to the ground, a warning growl ripped through him. Jasper sent a wave of fear towards him, he fell to his knees again, moaning in distress.

"Why are you here?" Carlisle asked, stepping closer.

"I'm just hunting!" he protested, then paused and looked around again. "What's wrong with your eyes?" he asked, his own glowing bright red even in the dark.

"This territory is claimed." Carlisle said, ignoring his question.

"We were told it was available, the hunter came through here, it should be open for anyone who wants it!"

Edward scanned his thoughts, he caught a picture of the other vampire, this one's sire. He was a medium height man, with the swarthy complexion (paled by vampirism) of someone who was born relatively close to the tropics, but was definitely Caucasian. He had dark brown hair that was shoulder length and spoke with a slight European accent. {Gioffre has betrayed me! He knew they were here, that's why he split up from me.} Edward nodded at the others and they began to rapidly fire questions at the vampire about a myriad things. Keeping him off balance while Edward silently sieved through the man's thoughts, keeping every bit of his concentration focussed on the man in front of him.

Evidently they had been together a couple of decades, since the nomad had been turned, but Gioffre's plan had been developing much longer than that.

News of James and Victoria had reached Gioffre quite quickly after they started their campaign of destruction almost 3 decades before, and he had travelled the country making newborns and after they got over their early uncontrollable bloodlust, leaving them in 'abandoned' territories as he followed the pair. His grand plan was to allow the two to take out the powerful vampires that held territory and step in behind to claim the feeding grounds left empty. He counted on his talent to avoid drawing their notice, which it had.

It was actually quite a clever plan, Edward thought. Much safer than the vampire wars that Maria and her coven had undertaken for territory as it would not draw the attention of the Volturi. He had made sure that each person he left behind knew that they were only holding the ground for him, they could feed at will as long as they gave their allegiance to him! As he could slip into their area whenever he wanted, with no one the wiser, he knew he could count on those he left behind to obey him, never knowing if he was around to catch them doing something he objected to. The vampire in front of them was the only one that had travelled with him. His own talent, for being able to see if someone was trustworthy had helped his sire to place only loyal minions in the areas he 'claimed'.

Eventually Edward had everything he needed from the nomad and he withdrew from his mind. He relayed small but relevant bits to the others and then looked at Jacob and nodded his head. As quick as lightning the wolves fell on the nomad, ripping him apart in seconds. Tanya built a fire and the pieces were quickly burnt.

Suddenly his attention was taken by a strange mind. The fleeting thoughts of the other vampire, but he could not tell by his thoughts alone where he was.

"He's close." He said in a low voice. "Alice can you see him?" he asked. The small vampire made a disgusted noise.

"You know my talent doesn't work when the wolves are close by!" she protested.

"Can you see what he will do if we were to allow him to escape?" Jasper asked.

"NO!" she almost screamed in frustration. "For some reason I can't see his future at all, it must be a part of his talent, not just no scent, he's untrackable."

"Well he isn't hiding his thoughts." Edward concentrated but he could not tell which direction the stranger's mind was in. "I want to go home." He said loudly, hoping that he could trigger a response in the nomad's mind. He got a picture of the Statue of Liberty for a second just as the mind flittered out of his range.

While Esme and Carlisle stayed behind to make sure that the nomad was totally destroyed but that the forest did not catch fire, the others split up and set out in every direction, hoping to find some trace of the elusive one.

It was frustrating in the extreme as they scoured the ground and even the tree tops, but found no trace of him. Edward was the only one with even a remote chance of finding him, but because of the range of his talent and not knowing which direction to travel in, he never got close, though once he did catch the edge of a thought as they travelled roughly east.

Eventually he lost all trace of the mind he was tracking, no matter how much he circled, he could not pick it up again. Dawn was breaking as they contacted each other and decided to go back to their guarding pattern.

Alice and Jasper ran a very wide circumference, trying to allow her talent to see past the block imposed by the wolves. The visions finally cleared when she got 20 miles east of the town, 25 miles from the closest wolf, Jacob.

She sieved through the visions, but never managed to find the nomad. It was frustrating for her, she had never been so blind in her existence.

They patrolled for the rest of that day and well into the next without a sign that the nomad was still in the area. Edward hoped this meant that the vampire had cut his losses and headed east to New York as his thoughts had indicated.

Carlisle put the phone down. He had just called Charlie to let him know that the threat to the town had been neutralised. He didn't bother mentioning the escaped vampire as they believed (or rather hoped) he was by now well out of the area.

Esme got busy in the kitchen and Seth, Jacob and Embry, who were all 'resting' from patrolling sat in the dining room and tucked into the huge meal she provided as if they had never eaten before, everyone else gathered in the living room, in view of the others through the open archway.

"So what will you do now?" Kate asked them.

"We can't just forget about him, it is too dangerous but we cannot do anything about him either." Carlisle said, looking at Edward. "Tell us again what you learnt about him?" he asked.

"Not a lot really," he said, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "He was angry at the loss of his creation." He told them. "He was also angry that the wolves destroyed him, he seemed to think that if we had it would have been a sort of acceptable loss, after all they were encroaching on our territory, but the wolves… that was another matter."

"Tough." Jacob said around a mouthful of lasagne. "They shouldn't come into OUR territory then."

"That's the thing, he doesn't believe you should have territory in the first place. He doesn't know what you are."

"I would have thought it was obvious by the fur." Embry said dryly.

"Well no, you see at first he thought you were werewolves."

"We are, aren't we?" Embry asked, astonished enough that he even paused eating. The other two also paused their forks to listen.

"Werewolves carry the werewolf venom, they have been bitten by another wolf, rather like vampires. However REAL werewolves only turn during the full moon, and they don't run in packs, they tend to be solitary hunters."

"REAL werewolves? What are we then? Figments of your imagination?"

"Fairies." Bella said under her breath, laughingly remembering the conversation she had had with Jacob in her truck.

"I heard that!" Jacob said, throwing a breadstick at her from the other room.

Everyone laughed. "No," Edward continued, "if we are being technical you should be called shapeshifters. The fact that you turn into wolves is just a coincidence. It could have been any animal."

"Yeah we would have been really frightening as dormice or kittens." Seth said, causing everyone to laugh again.

{I wonder…} Carlisle thought, Edward nodded.

"Jake, would you be willing to donate some blood?" he asked.

"What for? I thought you didn't drink it." He appeared at the doorway.

"Carlisle wants to run some tests, that's all." He said. "We know that you are not infected by the werewolf venom, but there has to be something that causes you to change."

"It's the spirits." Embry said emphatically. "They decide who changes." He didn't even crack a smile, it was obvious that he strongly believed in the folk tales of the tribe.

"I'd like to know which spirit decided to change Leah!" Seth said, "It must be one I've pissed off."

"I think we all must have pissed off that spirit." Jacob said laughing, "Let's be right, it isn't pleasant being in her thoughts most of the time, Jees, talk about PMT!"

"Yeah, I mean, of all the girls they could have chosen!" Seth grumbled. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my sister, I would just love her more if I couldn't hear her constant depression over Sam and Emily."

"PMT?" Carlisle asked. "Is Leah still menstruating?"

"I'm going back home to sleep." Seth left the house quickly.

Jacob and Embry laughed after the blushing boy. Jacob turned back to Carlisle and answered his question.

"As far as we know, she isn't." he told them. "Of course that could be just because she hasn't been a wolf long enough for us to know. The Elders think that the reason Sam didn't imprint on her was because she is infertile." The Cullen's nodded, knowing what the Council of Elders had discussed.

"I could test her if she wanted." Carlisle offered.

"I don't think so. I think it's too painful for her." Jacob said frowning sadly. "What kind of tests will you want to do on our blood?" he got back to the point.

"I don't know until I start." Carlisle said. "It must be genetic, all of those who have changed have ancestors who were also wolves." He pointed out.

"Well, I don't mind." Jacob agreed, Embry also nodded. "The Elders are just guessing anyway, I mean I imprinted on gorgeous over there, so it can't only be for breeding."

"In a way it could." Bella corrected him. Everyone looked at her and she lowered her head so her hair covered the sides of her face.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked.

"Well, just because you imprinted on Tanya doesn't mean the theory is wrong, it could be in response to what happened before." She looked around at the puzzled faces of everyone. "The last pack stopped phasing because one of the imprints died at the hands of another, right?" the two Indians nodded. "That left Sam alone when he changed, there was no old Alpha to guide him. Well the future packs won't have that problem." She explained.

"How do you get that?" Jake asked.

"You said you don't age when you phase, that in order to age you have to stop turning into wolves totally, right?" he nodded, "Well, Tanya is immortal." She looked around again and huffed, annoyed that no one else seemed to see what she was getting at. "You won't ever stop phasing. You will want to stay with your imprint as long as she's alive, and she's going to be alive forever… well we hope she is." She smiled at the blonde who was now stood next to her mate, holding his hand. "The tribe will never be without an Alpha again. You will be forever young, and forever available to train the… pups?" she waved a hand at them before they could object to the phrase. "Hey if I'm a newborn at 17 you can be pups until you control yourselves!" she said. They all laughed again.

"She has a good point." Jasper said. "It was only luck that Sam never hurt anyone until he got his temper under control." The image of Emily, her face slashed to ribbons flashed in front of Edward's mind.

"Where are you both going to live?" Bella asked, obviously trying to get attention off herself.

"I've been thinking about that." Tanya said. "When I was patrolling to the west I found a small clearing to the north of the Quileute airport, on the other side of the Dickey River. It's out of the Tribal lands, but is within a couple of miles or so of the electrical substation for the airport. I'm sure that a certain family wouldn't mind helping me pay for a house and hooking up to the supply. Seeing as how you all paid for the house in Alaska to be modernised a couple of times." She smiled at the Cullens.

"Of course we don't mind!" Alice said, jumping up and down so much Jasper had to put a calming hand on her shoulder. "Oh wow! I can see it now. It's going to be beautiful! Perfect… Esme come help me design it." Jasper grabbed her by the shoulders and mouthed 'Later' to her, she put her bottom lip out but settled back down.

"What about the rest of you?" Jacob looked at the other Denalis. "You're welcome to come and live with us if you want." He said generously.

Kate and Irina looked at each other. Edward could see that though they were reluctant to live so close to humans after all the time they had been isolated, they were even more reluctant to live without their sister. After all they had been together just over a thousand years.

"We would love to come." Kate said. "You may need us anyway if the nomads keep coming into the area." Irina nodded, Embry snorted.

"I think we can cope, but it would be nice to have you near." He said.

"You can cope," Kate agreed, "As long as the vampires don't climb trees. And there are a lot of trees around here." Embry grinned wryly and nodded at her point. If she hadn't tasered the nomad he may have escaped them, he thought. Edward disagreed, with Jasper available to make him doubt himself, Emmett's strength and Edward own swiftness, not to mention Bella's shield, he was sure they could have subdued him. However the Cullen's wouldn't be in the area forever. In less than a decade they would have to move on.

"What happened, by the way?" Jacob asked. "I would have thought as soon as he recovered from Kate's tasering he would have tried to escape again, but he just stayed there as if he couldn't move."

"That was me." Bella would have been bright red by now, Edward was sure, if she was still human. "I put my shield over him, he couldn't move."

"Way to go little sis!" Emmett grabbed her off the sofa and swung her around. She grimaced at his boisterousness until he released her and she quickly sat right back down at Edward's side again and grabbed his hand tightly. He frowned as he saw her hunch her shoulders as if trying to disappear into herself. He had hoped that with her change would come confidence. Looking at her though, maybe it wasn't a lack of confidence as much as a total loathing of being the center of attention? She had always hated it, but now she seemed to actually physically flinch from it.

"You have extraordinary control." Eleazar said, "I've never seen a newborn who could control their talent so quickly."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked. "I was in control as soon as I woke."

"Not really, well… maybe. The times you used your shield before was more instinctive than conscious."

"I suppose." Bella agreed.

"No." Edward interjected, remembering. "When we first went to the cottage Bella used her talent to close the door behind us. That was conscious."

"What else can you do?" Carlisle asked leaning forward, trying his hardest not to show how excited he was by the knowledge he was gaining.

"I'm not sure, it's just… if I need to do something… I do it." Bella wouldn't look up from the carpet.

"BELLA!" Jacob shouted loudly, throwing a bread roll at her head. The roll stopped about three inches before making contact and hovered in the air.

"Telekinesis!" Eleazar breathed, impressed. "Can you do anything else with it?" he asked, pushing the roll with his finger and finding he was unable to move it.

"Like what?" Bella asked.

"Move it around." Rose suggested. The roll lifted into the air until it was just shy of touching the ceiling then circled the room until it was hovering over Emmett, where she let go of it and it fell, hitting his upturned face.

"That is so COOL!" Emmett laughed, throwing the roll back to Jake.

"Can you move heavier things?" Eleazar asked.

"I suppose?" Edward could tell from her voice that she was getting annoyed with the attention, but she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Suddenly Eleazar floated off the ground, he stopped when he was hovering about two feet up. Then the sofa they were sat on joined him, so did the sofa Emmett, Jasper, Rose and Alice were sat on too. Bella sat. Still looking at the floor, with no sign of strain as she held all of them in the air.

Jasper pushed out calming waves, but Edward shook his head, she was already calm. She was just doing what she had been asked.

"Is there any limit?" Eleazar asked, awed.

"Well I don't know!" Bella said, and winced as she heard the exasperation in her own voice. They all floated back to the ground.

"Could…" Carlisle started to say.

"Let's leave it for now." Edward sent a warning look to his father and cousin.

"Yes, I'm sorry Bella." Carlisle said. "We got a bit excited."

"That's ok." She said softly. "I just don't know what the fuss is about." She told them. Everyone in the room turned to her with their mouths open. "I mean, Edward can read minds, Alice can see the future, Jasper can control moods, Kate can taser someone. Is my talent any different?"

Eleazar opened his mouth to protest but Kate sent him a warning look and reached over to take Bella's hand.

"You should have seen Eleazar when we first met!" she said, laughing. "He had me try and shock everyone and everything we came across. It wasn't until Edward came last year and warned us of the nomads that I even tried training my power to make it stronger. I didn't want to spend weeks as a lab rat, touching every single thing for Eleazar's curiosity again."

"She never told me that she had managed to boost her power so much." Eleazar said, looking guilty. "I suppose I do get a bit excited when I come across a new talent."

"He had me reading everyone's minds and trying to hide his thoughts when we first met." Edward told her.

"He did the same with us too, hours and hours… and hours of it." Alice said, gesturing to herself and Jasper and rolling her eyes at the Spaniard.

"I just like to know!" Eleazar protested, laughing. Carlisle was nodding his head in agreement. The two men had many conversations over the years, sharing knowledge and suggesting avenues of inquiry for the other when a puzzle or something new presented itself.

"I think we will get off now, Bella wants to go see Charlie before he goes on night shift tonight." Edward received a grateful smile for that from her as she got to her feet. They got to the front door when suddenly there was an exclamation from behind followed by gales of laughter. They turned to see Jacob holding his nose as well as the bread roll.

"I wondered if she had to see it to be able to stop it so I threw it at the back of her head, it rebounded and hit me on the nose."

"Serves you right." Bella said, pulling her tongue out at him. "See you all later."

{Don't forget to make sure she tries to hunt.} Carlisle thought at him, he nodded and they left the house.