20 - Normal life
Since I had gone to bed at a regular hour, I woke up before the sun had made it above the tree the next morning. The bright coming from the windows was still a little annoying, I would have to talk to Phil about curtains if I was going to spend any time here.
You pretty much have considered moving in for a while. That pesky voice was going to get its ass kicked, too bad it resided in the back of my head. I am only pointing out the truth. It continued to annoy me.
"I have officially gone crazy, getting into a fight with my own brain." I got out of bed, stepping onto one of the newly acquired rug. Some might consider it stealing but since I only moved it from Phil's sunroom to my bedroom I would have to call it redecorating. Too bad I had not seen any curtains, but those might have been harder to move.
I found my own breakfast, Phil had made the tactical mistake of showing me where he kept the granola. His supply would not last for long, I should drop a few hints that he needed to make some more.
I eventually found Phil on the top floor, he was going through and weeding the plants in his small greenhouse. "You are really starting to disappoint me, here you are supposed to be some awesome alien experiment and all you do is household chores."
"Are you complaining about my cooking skills?" He went to a large sink and washed the dirt off of his hands, his eyes crinkling with humor.
"Yeah, yeah. Threaten my food supply why don't you. Seriously though why am I here? Other than to keep you entertained, which apparently is my only purpose here. I can fight if that is what you need." I had come to accept the alien thing fairly easily, but now I was ready to have some sort of purpose. I got the impression that this secret was not something that was shared with just anyone and it made me wonder yet again why the heck they had included my pack. I followed Phil into the sunroom, now I knew how it had been named, the large windows let in copious amounts of sunlight. The entire room was flooded with warmth, making me want to just lay down on one of the couches and sleep the morning away. That was not an option right now, Phil was actually explaining things.
"We do not need you to fight, we just need you to set the good example. Actually it is Carlisle and his family that are here to set the good example, you are here for several reason. One of the main ones is that Nessie and Jake are imprinted and it was deemed unwise to keep them apart." I knew Phil well enough to know that he was holding out on me, there was another reason but he was not telling me. Based on the way his mouth was curling up I knew it would be useless to try to get it out of him.
"The world is getting to be a smaller place. Where before the vampires could get away with unusual behavior now people are starting to notice. It might not be good for the human race to figure out that we walk among them. My family fears that it might come out to outright war if the humans ever figured it out. We are talking Salem Witch Trials but on a global scale." He was giving me the worst case scenario, and the world he was describing was not a pleasant place to live. I could see why they were going through these elaborate plans to prevent it.
"If it came to that I could kick their asses." I told him but he must have heard the uncertainty in my voice. Being hunted twenty four seven might not make life very fun.
Phil could not help but laugh. "Princess you would not stand a chance and we both know it, but the worst part of it would be the innocent humans that would be tortured because they could be something supernatural." Phil continued to explain the possible future, while I waited to see what our role was in all of this. "That will be avoided, we make sure the secret is kept safe. Carlisle's lifestyle choice will help a great deal."
"So it is just circumstance that made you pick us, in reality all you wanted were the vampires." The knowledge that the wolves were picked just because we happened to hang out with vamps made me feel more than a little hurt.
"I am tempted to go and beat Sam into a bloody pulp, that little shit did a serious number on you." He growled looking angry, I don't think I had ever heard him swear before. "You give yourself too little credit, having your pack as allies makes the Cullen family much stronger. In the past year how many times have you helped save them from destruction?"
He did not wait for me to answer his question, instead he went on with his explanation. "What we need the Cullen to do is set the good example as to how to blend in with humans, how not to get noticed. They don't really have to preach it, just live it. We are essentially giving them the protection of the guardians so that they can survive long enough to show other vampires an alternative lifestyle that would allow them greater anonymity."
"So you just need us to help you watch the Cullen's back? And encourage others to eat more Bambi?" Helping the Cullen family to make a world with fewer human eating vampires seemed like a nice goal. But there goes any plans of stopping this whole phasing business and settling down with some nice human man that I imprinted on. Heaving a sigh I decided not to worry about it until it actually happened, it was not like I could do anything about it right now. And the way things were going I would end up imprinting on some guy who saw me and ran for the hills.
I felt Phil lightly kick my foot, "hey Princess stop thinking such dark thoughts, you are going to give yourself wrinkles."
I flipped him off, "we both know that all I have to do is continue to phase and I won't be age." That was one of the few perks of being a wolf, not having to worry that not taking the best care of my body will lead to consequences down the road. "But speaking of abilities, you never told me what yours are?"
"It depends on what the aliens did to us." Phil told with a shrug as he stood up and started to pace across the room. Again I was amazed at myself for not seeing it earlier, the grace with which he moved across the room was not something that could be achieved by a human. In all our ramblings and hikes he had never once been out of breath, that should have given me a big clue. The other fact was that not once was he intimidated by any of the other wolves, most humans instinctively knew that we were dangerous. Phil had not been afraid, even when he was faced with Sam's full on glare - in fact he had gone so far as to provoke Paul during that awful party. The problem was that in retrospect I could see all the reasons why I should have been suspicious but nothing had stood out at the time. Nothing had screamed run for the hills he is an alien experiment, Phil was right in that he was very good at blending in. I was also starting to suspect that he let down his guard around me a lot more than other people. He tended to be very playful with me, but with others he was a little more aloof. I was starting to suspect that he did not often let people in, not that he had let me all the way in. You are the only one who was invited to stay at his house, everyone else was taken elsewhere.
Phil had stopped in front of one of the infinite windows, looking outside. I got the impression he did not see the ancient snow covered trees.
"Well then tell me about you specifically." I clarified. He was still so sketchy on the details as he continued to stand there with his back to me. Not that I did not appreciate the view of his very nice ass encased in jeans but I wanted to know more about the man behind those fascinating pale green eyes. "So how did those wrapped up guys appear and disappear? Can you do that?" That looked kind of cool, especially now that I knew they were not out to get us. I could still not quite picture them as normal looking, even the way they had moved had been freaky.
"Jumping." He said in a matter of fact voice, like I was somehow supposed to know what the heck he was talking about. He turned around to look at me, and must have noticed my confused look because he continued with his explanation. "Our ability to bend space, we call that jumping. Going large distances or through time takes some calculating. But if you can see where you want to go, you can forgo your calculations and just go for it."
"What would happen if you don't do the calculations?" I remember the metal thing he had used the other night, the one that had coated his fingers in some sort of light. That must have been what he used to make the calculations.
"We call that a blind jump, sometimes when we get really desperate we do that as a last resort. If you don't get it right you can end up anywhere. And that is when the fun begins..." He turned back around to look outside but this time something had caught his attention, so he did not finish his sentence.
I moved to stand next to him, there was someone who had just cleared the woods and was swiftly heading for his front door. I did not recognize the person, they were bundled up against the cold weather. "Who is that?"
"Phila," he said without moving. I heard the front door open and close, followed by footsteps on the stairs a few minutes later.
"Good afternoon guys," Phila said with a smile as she appeared. She had removed her outerwear to reveal a cute pink sweater set matched with a pair of designer jeans. She made herself at home on one of the deep couches. "So what are you two doing?"
"Leah is trying to figure out what we are capable of. According to her I am not explaining it adequately." Phil said with a laugh.
"Good luck getting a straight answer out of him, he takes his psychic abilities a little too seriously." Phila's tone was a little frustrated, I must not have been the only one he did this to. "Your best bet is to get him at an unguarded moment and just try and read his mind."
"He is psychic? How?" It seems that Phila was more willing to answer questions so I moved to sit down on the couch that was next to hers.
"He is capable of seeing the future. He gets snippets here and there, but when his eyes go the psycho purple he sees something more detailed." Phila said pulling an ottoman closer to the couch so that she could put her feet up.
I looked back and forth between the two. "So you can see the future, like Alice?"
"No I see images, they do not come with instructions. Sometimes they are of the past, sometimes the future. It is not always helpful, sometimes it is more of a hinderance." I could tell Phil was trying to downplay this ability, he seemed uncomfortable talking about it.
"So did you see my pack or something, is that why you came to Washington?" I started to ask him. "Wait a minute, was you meeting up with me in the diner planned?"
"Not really, I was actually there trying to gather information. But when the opportunity to meet you presented itself I took it." He brought out the big guns, his dimples, I could not get upset with him especially since he seemed sincere in that he had not planned on waylaying me in the diner.
"So did you know who I was?" I asked, just how much did this family know about mine.
I heard a noise behind me, Phila seemed to be choking on something. Though I had no idea what it was, considering she was not eating or drinking anything. I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to figure out what her problem was.
"My family has known about the werewolves for some time as I told you before. Other members of the family had been keeping an eye on the situation before we took over." Phil swiftly explained, taking my attention away from Phila and her coughing. "I guess it was our turn for guard duty."
Before I could ask who had been stalking me the past few months Phila answered my question. "Phil and I were the ones to take over Josefine and Kendrick's job. In the family we tend to work in groups of two, always with the same partner. We train together, go to school together, and we even live together most of the time when we are not on the island."
"So Josefine and Kendrick are partners, and you and Phil are partners?" I turned back to her. Those were the two we met when coming on the island, the really tall tattooed guy along with the woman who would not show her face.
Phila seemed to have recovered from her choking episode. I wondered for a moment what exactly partners meant. "It is what you think it is, we work together as a team during our extracurricular activities. Sometimes we are more than partners, but it is never permanent." Phila said with a shrug. She answered my question completely without me having to ask, but then I remembered she too could read my mind.
Great so this was his off and on girlfriend, I could see how they would make a cute couple. Gag. For some reason this did not sit well with me. Maybe it was because I had been spoiled and wanted Phil's friendship all for myself, I was not very good at sharing. I was afraid that I had come to rely on Phil a little too much, but at the same time you needed a friend you could count on. One think occurred to me, it seemed Phil would not freak out and run for the hills when he figured out I was not completely human, in fact he had known all along and still became friends with me.
I had been so absorbed in my own thoughts that I forgot what we had been talking about, Phila was a lot like Phil and had not needed to fill the silence with pointless babble. I guess that was one thing I liked about her. "So where are the other members of my pack?" I noticed she had not brought them along today.
"Aunt Jazz has them in hand. Well all except Embry, he seems a little antsy." Phila explained.
"What is wrong with Embry?" I asked suddenly worried, he had seemed fine yesterday though he was a little too quiet. Here I was absorbed in my own little world and woes not even thinking about my other pack members. I had not changed as much as I would like to believe in the past few months, I was still preoccupied with my own pathetic self.
"Nothing is wrong with him," Phil quickly reassured me. "He seems to have imprinted on a member of my family."
"Really? When did this happen?" Well I guess this answered the question as to whether or not we would be hanging out with the guardians, or the family as they like to call themselves. Another tie to bind us to this group, not that I minded that much.
"You were actually there when he met Stef. I have to admit that was unexpected." Phila said with a small laugh, then she turned to Phil. "Some psychic you are, how could you miss that one?" She said this with a smile so I was thinking she was not really serious here.
"Wait, which one was Stef?" I asked before Phil could respond to his partner's taunting.
"The one with my brother, the small one with the funny markings on the face." Phil explained turning back and sticking his tongue out at Phila. For being really old Phil tended to act like a junior high kid at times.
I went through my memories quickly and tried to remember a girl with strange markings on her face, but I could not remember anyone like that. The only one that had those strange marking was the small teenage boy that had been with the huge ugly guy that had introduced himself as Phil's brother.
"She looks confused. So was Embry for a second but then he just went with it. I don't think Stef knows yet." Phila said while I was trying to put two and two together.
Wait a minute, Embry had imprinted on that small boy? I could not think for a moment, but I guess stranger things had happened, like Jake imprinting on a newborn half-vampire. I hesitantly asked if Embry was alright.
"His only problem is that Myles and Stef will not be back for a month or so. He will have to go that long without talking to his mate." Phila said with a small smile. I guess she found this slightly amusing, even I could see how it would be funny in a twisted sort of way. I used to think that all I wanted to do was imprint so that this aching gnawing feeling of love lost would go away, but now I was thinking there could be worse things. Like imprinting on a small alien boy. It also helped that the aching feeling had settled down to a throbbing dull pain, Sam was not exactly the man I had pictured him to be.
"Can't you call them back?" I wondered how upset Embry would be without his mate. I think even Quil went to see Claire at least once every couple of days.
"They are in the middle of a very delicate operation, or we would call them." Phil explained.
"They are partners?" I asked, starting to see a pattern.
"Yes, they are." Phil smiled at me, maybe he was pleased that I was starting to figure things out. Maybe he was being his overly happy self. " Speaking of obligations, I have to go take care of something at the big house. So if you want to see your pack today Phila can take you to Aunt Jazz's house."
"What are you doing?" I asked doubting that he would actually answer.
"If you want to know, I am going to check on the skin grafts that are growing for the little girl they brought in two days ago." He explained as we headed down the stairs.
"The one that was dead?" I asked.
He went through some detailed explanation about preserving brain function but stopped about half way when I gave him a blank look. "She will be fine." I guess he would know, he was the psychic. This seemed to prove he really was a doctor and hand not been faking it for the background cover story.
So we headed out into the snow, Phil was just as psycho about me wearing warm clothes, despite the fact that I told him several times that I did not get cold. Like yesterday he insisted on a warm jacket and big thick boots, as well as hats, scarves, and thick gloves. I don't think I had ever been this bundled up in my entire life. When I pointed this out to him all he countered with the fact that I had never lived somewhere this cold before. The only good thing about it that all the clothes were my size. He must have stocked up on the appropriate clothes in my size, he certainly seemed to be a guy that planned everything out. I could appreciate that and the fact that I did got to wear clothes my size.
"So what do you think?" Phila asked as we walked past an especially beautiful bush covered with bright red berries. Phil had gone in another direction and had left us with a warning to stay warm.
"Pretty, holly is it not?" I asked while touching a prickly green leaf. I had pulled off the gloves as soon as Phil was out of sight, I really did not like my hands covered. I heard Phila laugh behind her scarf but she did not say anything.
We encountered many different animal tracks as we moved through the large trees, but only rarely did we run across a set of footprints left by boots. The winter wonderland seemed undisturbed by humans, which was a little bit disconcerting. Even in the most quiet times on the Rez I could still hear cars in the background as well as the dull sounds of airplanes moving overhead. This place was nothing like that, this is what Earth sounded like before humans had come along. The other sound that was missing was the sound of water, I could not hear any brooks or streams gurgling, they must all be frozen over.
"Holly." Phila confirmed my identification of the plant I was touching.
"It is strange I feel like we are still on Earth but at the same time I don't think we are. Should the plants not be different?" I was not a biologist by any means but I would think the plants would not be the same on another planet.
"Bee liked the earth ecosystem, it reminded her of the times when she was a little girl. So when they terraformed this planet they used earth plants and animals." Phila explained.
"Bee?" The family was filled with so many people, it was starting to be hard to keep up with everyone's names.
"Berenike. My grandmother?"
"How can she be your and Phil's grandmother?" I was getting confused again, so were Phil and Phila related or were they partners. I guess they could be both but then why had Phila hinted at the fact that they were once lovers.
"Bee is Phil's biological grandmother, my parents were adopted by Bee. So I call her my grandmother too."
I could understand how that could happen. This family seemed to gather people, it was trying to gather my pack. I don't know how I felt about being another acquisition, Phila did not seem to be bothered by the fact that it had happened to her parents. Honestly though it would be nice to be around people who you did not have to hide yourself from.
"Both my parents were raised by her. Kind of creepy if you really think about it." Phila made a silly face.
I shrugged, I did not want to voice my opinion. It was kind of strange, I got the impression that Phila knew a lot more about me than I knew about her. I wondered how much Phil had talked about me, but he seemed reticent about sharing information. I somehow doubted Phil as the source of her knowledge, so she had acquired her information from stalking me. I do remember the feeling of being watched several times in the past months. I did not really like that thought, so I decided not to ask Phila about it. Ignorance is bliss about some things.
The conversation kind of died down after that, but silence did not seem to bother Phila.
We were going through the forest at a human pace, Phila was not too interested in walking any faster. Maybe this was her normal speed, but I remember Phil keeping a swifter pace on our numerous hikes. "Where are we going exactly?"
"Aunt Jazz's house, if you want to meet the pack or we can go elsewhere if you like." Phila said without changing her pace.
"Who else's house could we go to?" I asked curious not really expecting her to actually answer.
"Elvis?" Phila said with a straight face.
"You are kidding?" I said, not that I was an Elvis fan or anything. There were rumors that he went back to his own planet.
"Yeah I am," she answered laughing out loud. It echoed of the hills and became more erie sounding.
"We can see the library, or go down to the horse ranch. We can go do anything we like. If you want we can go see my parents, though they might be distracted by grandchildren today."
It was kind of strange, everything seemed totally normal, like I was not on another planet. Then I remembered my mother, she must be worried sick by now. "We have been gone almost two days, is there a way I could call my mother to tell her I am fine?"
Phila quickly reassured me about "island time". Since they bent space or whatever they did I could spend a couple of months if not years here and still be able to make it home before dinner to see my mother. I have to say I was relieved, my mother had enough things to worry about that I did not want to add to it.
We got back onto the topic of how long Stef and Myles would be gone, and what exactly they were doing. Phila did not share many details, but when she quickly explained that she simply did not know I was a little mollified.
"This imprinting thing seems somewhat strange. You normally don't see it." Phila commented.
"Do you mean it does not happen with your kind?" I asked curious. The vampires did not have anything like our imprinting either, we had always assumed it was because of our "animal nature".
"We do have something called binding in some members of the family, but we do not become as mindlessly obsessed with the objects of our affection. We would not do anything for our mate but we will go to great lengths to protect them. The only outward sign really is that we become very, very happy." Phila noted.
I laughed at her, remembering how happy Phil always seemed especially when I first met him. "I hope it never happens to Phil, because I don't think I could handle him being happier than he already is."
I looked over at Phila, was that a hint of mischief in her expression? It quickly changed to something more serious.
"We do hope something like that happens to us." Phila clarified. "Those of us with these strange green eyes we were all from the same experiment or at least one of our ancestors was. Anyway my point is that my kind does't form relationships like normal people do."
She went on to tell me about the experiment she came from, the goal of which was to make assassins that felt nothing. The experiment was not completely successful, it made them have a hard time feeling empathy for strangers but on the opposite spectrum they would get very attached to who they considered to be family. Binding was their only way to attach to outsiders in a romantic way, I did not fully understand what she was saying. She seemed nice to me, but she might already consider me family. Though this might explain why Phil never seemed to genuinely smile at anyone but me, he must have considered me family or something.
Phila was a lot more willing to answer my question, so I slowed my pace to her amble as we walked through the woods. Only once did I ask her if she knew where we were going.
"I have been walking through these woods for nearly two thousand years, even Phil does not get lost here." I could hear the smile in her voice.
It turned out that Phil's inability to navigate was somewhat of a family joke, especially since he had a GPS chip implanted in his skull.
"He thinks it is a good plan to deactivate his GPS, he tells me he is training his brain to learn how to navigate. I keep telling him if it has not worked in two millennia it certainly is not going to kick in now." Her tone was a little frustrated, I guess she had been dealing with this for a while.
"Not that I don't appreciate it but why is it that you answer my questions where Phil won't?" I finally asked her.
She made a face, for a moment I though she was going to start leaving things out like Phil had, but luckily for my curiosity it turned out she was just trying to find a way to make me understand.
Phil's mother came from a long line of psychics, not from Earth of course. In certain places on that planet being psychic was tantamount to having blue eyes. In other words it was very common. Over the generations people had learned how to live with being able to see the future, and one of those lessons was that telling people all about their future was not always the best course of action.
"I could see why you would not tell people everything, surprises can be nice at times. But Phil says absolutely nothing about the future or the past." I mumbled under my breath, she still must have heard me.
"You pretty much described most of his family," Phila said with a laugh, it still sounded perfect but it was not bothering me anymore. My initial impression that I was going to hate this woman had receded. She was answering questions, that scored major points in my book.
We had moved down the incline to a valley of sorts, and were walking next to a slow moving river. Its cool clear waters were not frozen like the rest of the area. I could see small silver fish darting in and about the rocks, they were swimming with all their might against the current as they picked algae off the rocks. My sympathies were with the fish, I know what it feels like to fight with all your might against the current of life as it tries to sweep you away. I had been swimming in my own little stream when life had thrown me into a raging river last spring. I had mostly lost the battle against that torrent, now I felt like I had been thrown into yet another creek but this time I did not know which way I was supposed to be going.
I listened to Phila as she continued her explanation.
"Imagine if a psychic told you something bad was going to happen. Would you sit around and say 'all right that is fine, so what if I die in a month?' No you would be furiously trying to do anything and everything in your power to change that future. At times it is the actual altering of your life in anticipation of the bad event that brings it on."
"So what? They have the psychic powers and they don't share their vision?" I could understand that, but what I could not understand was the utter reluctance of Phil to say anything about himself.
"Some of his reluctance is he does not want to alter your future. There was a reason we only intervened with the Volturi at the last possible minute." I looked away from the struggling fish to Phila. She had the same expression I had seen on Phil at times, one completely wiped of emotions. She was telling this story as if she had no interest in it, but I kept getting the impression that the opposite was true.
I was getting angry and frustrated, what were they hiding? Now that she reminded me of the Volturi, I would like to ask her why the fuck they did not help us a little sooner? It would have saved me days of worry and absolute depression.
I don't know if she was reading my extra loud thoughts or if it was apparent on my face what I was thinking but fortunately Phila swiftly answered my internal question.
"I do not think you comprehend just how much power this family has, we can kill most things with just a thought if we wanted to. Your pack and the Cullen family had to know what you are capable of, because if you join our family we have your back. Anyone outside of the family messes with you and no matter what it costs us we protect you. You were willing to sacrifice your life to protect your family, that is our primary belief as well. Anything to protect the family, no matter what you have to do. We needed you to know this before you joined us."
She stopped talking as we continued our trip through the forrest. She must have known I needed some time to mull things over. So this past month could have been prevented by the family but instead they let us suffer. I could get really furious with them for letting us be that miserable for nearly a month - a year or so ago that is exactly how I would have felt. The past year had given me enough time to consider their point of view, we had learned something. No one abandoned ship, when things were tough we all stuck together, even when we were facing certain death. If we were going to be navigating this whole new ocean, with its aliens and genetic experiments, we would need to know with certainty who our allies are and what they are willing to do. From what Phila was telling me it was pretty much anything, with the possible exception of exposing the family secret. In the past month I had doubted Alice when she abandoned us that one day, but I had learned how wrong my assumptions were. If she ever did something like that again I would never doubt her.
My thoughts finally settled down enough to realize that Phila had directed me away from my initial line of questioning. She had smiled when I told her this.
"I think it was you who chose to change the subject but as for your initial question. Phil is a complicated person to explain, there is a great deal to him. He has had two thousand years of experience which has shaped him into the man he is today. On top of that he has the genetics of three different experiments in him. He is somewhat of a mutt, but that is what makes him so much more powerful than I am." I don't know if this was an excuse or an explanation but I decided to use it as the latter. I could understand how hard it would be to try to explain a person who has that much history. My father used to always say actions are louder than words, and as much as Phil had not told me about himself I would have to be blind not to notice what he had shown me. He had been nothing but kind to me even when I was being a total bitch. In his shoes I would have slapped me around a little bit and told me to get over myself; I was lucky he was a lot more patient that I was. I recalled he was a father, maybe that is where he had learned patience.
"So where is Phil's son?" I asked out of curiosity. It was at this point when I made the connection, if Phil was a father, where was the mother?
"Phil's son is on another planet, he does not live here." She said leading me up a well worn path through the snow. This place had seen a great deal of foot traffic recently. There were many layers of scents, some of them were from my own pack and some I could not identify.
"Why not?" I asked almost belligerently. I was in the dark and confused about most things but I had figured out a few things. One of these was that every member of the family lived here, on the island - this was their home. I did not like having one of the few facts I knew contradicted.
"He is not family," Phila said simply, I had noticed that she would say things like I actually was supposed to know what the hell she was talking about.
"Hey, explain." I said, noticing how comfortable I had gotten around this woman. I had lost most of my initial animosity, this was partially due to the fact that she willingly answered my questions and also because she was a likable sort of person.
"Phil's son is adopted, his biological parents are dead. The boy does not have the right genetics to become a member of the family, so Phil raised him on his native planet. He was told nothing about the family, and believes Phil is completely normal."
She went on to explain about how members of the family would live out entire lifetimes with unsuspecting humans, but the one rule was they could never have kids. In order to have children they had to bring their spouse into the family, and he or she would be genetically altered so that their genes would match enough to have a viable child.
Before meeting the family I had believed that it would be insanely hard trying to explain imprinting to some guy, and it would be even harder convince a guy it was ok that I could turn into a giant wolf, I could not imagine how much harder it would be to explain to someone that they would have to go through some freakish genetic remodeling in order to actually stay together; what would happen if you were not compatible? Bella seemed happy about it, and did not seem to have any regrets changing into a vampire for Edward.
"The other reason is things can get very weird amongst us and I think we all want your family to join ours. We are somewhat reluctant to show you everything all at once." We were approaching a clearing now, I could see hints of something large through the trees. There were also more noises, people were talking but we were still too fa away for me to understand the words.
"How much freakier can you get than turning into a giant wolf?" I asked fishing for more information.
"How about sharing your mind with another...well spirit would be the best term for it?" She asked asked slowing down her steps.
"Seriously?" I stopped walking altogether and looked at her face, trying to determine if she was joking again.
"Phil is like that, it is the reason for his 'visions'. The thing inside his head takes over his mind and shows him the images. The worst part of it is that sometimes it has its own agenda, with its own needs, usually they coincide with Phil's wants but not always. That is why his eyes turn purple, the spirit is trying to tell him something. Sometimes it gets frustrated, hence the severe headaches that get so bad he goes blind with them. That headache he had, that was not the worst thing that could happen. There are times when all I can do it pump him full of pain killers and keep him semi-conscious until the spirit finally lets him loose from its grip." She was watching my reaction, probably trying to figure out if she had told me too much.
I shuddered at the memory of finding Phil sick that one morning, and now she was telling me that it could get worse. Fortunately I was distracted from my vivid visions of Phil going blind with pain by the appearance of Jake in wolf form. He made a little excited yipping sound before trying to jump on me.
After dodging the large wolf, I ran for the clearing hoping to find some sort of shelter there - instead I was jumped by my little brother. My worries about Phil were forgotten as I landed in a large snowbank. If they wanted war, that is what they were going to get. I gathered a large handful of snow onto my hands before smashing it into Quil's wolf head.
I met a lot of people over the course of the evening, including Aunt Jazz. After a while the faces seemed to blur. There was one overall impression I did get, and that was they were a family. This impression did not change over the next couple of weeks. We finally decided for certain that we would join the family, since we did not really have to do anything other than keep their secret. Jake pretty much thought we were asked only because they wanted Carlisle, he was pretty sure the family was grooming him to be the next Volturi. I did not think that way anymore but I kept my opinion to myself.
I spent a great deal of time with Phil, gathering bits and pieces from his house and adding it to my room. Phil said he was going to have to change my name to magpie. We talked about my "new" car, dorm rooms, and what classes I wanted to take during my first semester of college. My dreams were back on track, I knew I would have to work hard to make them happen, but I was not afraid. What could possibly be worse than an army of vampires?
I should have known better, I mean fate really had it out for me. How was I supposed to know that my future roommates could be more scary than an entire army of vampires.
At the end of the two weeks we went back to the Cullen's house. My half eaten sandwich was still in the corner where I had left it. Phil was not exaggerating, it was exactly the same as when we left it. My mother was waiting for us when we got home, our reassurances that everything was fine did not seem good enough for her.
Phil had been right about another thing, life went back to "normal" for me. I got Jake to check out my car to make sure it would work, I started to look for some place to stay, and more importantly for a job. I was getting a little excited at the prospect of college. It seemed surreal, here I had just spent two weeks on another planet, and I was worrying about things like how I was going to pay for rent.
A/N: That is kind of the conclusion of really the first part of the story. Leah has found a much happier place, she no longer has to hide what she is from Phil and vice versa (sort of :D). Now comes the fun times. College party time? Nah kidding.
ABarbieStory: Did Phila's explanation do it for you? No Phila will not just blurt it out, and I will explain later why that is; that might take a while longer though.
Thoshii519: Thanks for taking the time to write, Phil is a likable fellow. But he is not done yet, but I am sure you know that.
Connect2tjb: I am glad this makes sense to you, at times I know the explanation in my head but it is hard to get it down on paper without making it sound like a scientific journal article.
Ms Animegoddess: Glad you like the explanations, obviously Leah has not been told everything but Phila hopefully explained partially why Phil is reluctant.
Twilighter: I have the jailbait chapter in my head, all I have to do is spend the couple of days writing it down. I was kind of waiting for there to be a stopping point in Leah's story - maybe, Leah still is hogging most of my time.
Keither Serenity: Why she is the only female werewolf is something that will come up in later chapters, as to why she hasn't imprinted or if Phil is actually her true love? - I plead the fifth :D.