"…So that's how I first found out that fae are all around us, looking so much like regular people that it's a little paranoia-inducing – I mean, who knows how many of them I've bumped into without even knowing it, right? My freaking dentist could've been some kind of wacky tooth fairy knockoff for all I know – and Bo and I've stuck together ever since, kicking ass and saving humans from all the bad guys out there. She's like a real live Buffy, and I'm… Well, not her Willow, obviously, because I wouldn't be caught dead in that nerd couture they put her in for the first few seasons. And I don't wanna be Xander either since he's a dude…"

Kenzi's voice trailed off as she began to suspect, based on the resolute way Bella kept her eyes fixed on the silver Volvo straight ahead of her while clumping across the parking lot with single-minded focus, that she wasn't listening. "Uh, hello? I'm talking here? You could at least pretend to pay- Hey, watch out!"

Her warning came too late as Bella got one of her crutches caught in the crack Kenzi had just spotted, lost her balance, and used her broken leg to arrest her fall. A muffled whimper escaped her as the injured limb buckled under her weight; then her whole body seemed to fold in on itself, sagging toward the pavement as if in slow motion.

Kenzi darted forward to catch her, grunting softly as Bella's dead weight settled on her. With some effort, she managed to shift her so she could use her crutches to help prop her up, but keeping her upright was another matter since Bella seemed to have lost all capacity to support herself. Her limbs flopped loosely like a ragdoll's, and Kenzi was alarmed to see that her eyes had partially rolled back into her head, leaving only the lower rim of her dark irises visible.

"Hey, wake up!" She tried shaking her, but that accomplished nothing except to make Bella's head fall forward so that her face ended up buried in Kenzi's chest. Well, this isn't at all awkward, and holding on to this girl is like wrestling with Jell-O! Some fae super strength would really come in handy right about now…

Unfortunately, the only people in the vicinity who possessed that enviable attribute were still fully engaged in bickering with each other, leaving them oblivious to Kenzi's plight. Kenzi, however, had never been one to suffer in silence. "Uh, guys?" she called loudly. "A little help here?!"

Bo and Edward looked around at the sound of her voice, then rushed to her rescue, taking hold of Bella's arms and – to Kenzi's immense relief – pulling the limp girl off of her, easily holding her up between them.

"She's totally out of it," Bo observed after peering into her sister's unfocused eyes. "She needs chi, now."

"What can we do?" Edward asked desperately, his body practically vibrating with an air of barely contained panic while his eyes stayed riveted on her face, until he tore them away to give Bo a pleading look, their quarrel forgotten in the face of Bella's obviously dire situation. "Do we need to wake her up, or…?"

"That depends. Do you two have some kind of understanding about you doing things with her while she's unconscious?"

"What? No, I never thought I would need her consent for…that."

"Dude," Kenzi chided him, "consent is always super important."

"It is," he agreed, "but I didn't foresee a situation where I couldn't just wait for her to wake up."

"Well, we can't wait now," Bo said grimly, "or I don't even know if she will wake up. I can give her an emergency chi infusion – not as good as the full meal deal, but it should get her back on her feet long enough for you to work out your intimacy issues. Where's your car?"

Edward pointed it out and then, following Bo's instructions, scooped Bella up and carried her to it, placing her in the backseat. Bo sat down beside her, leaving the doors on both sides open. "Feel free to watch if you're curious." As someone who would probably be on the receiving end of a succubus feeding sooner rather than later, she figured he should have some idea of what he was in for. Then she shifted in the leather seat, angling her body toward Bella's, opened the unconscious girl's mouth, and breathed a stream of red light into her.

Bella's limp body jerked as if an electrical current had passed through her; then she came alive with a vengeance, her eyes – which were blazing blue now – snapping back into place and hands coming up to grab Bo's upper arms. She leaned closer, their lips not quite touching, and her grip tightened as if to pin Bo in place while the energy flowing between them turned from red to blue, as Bella began actively drawing it out rather than simply taking in what was given to her.

Bo let the feeding go on for several minutes, knowing how badly Bella needed it, but when she felt herself starting to weaken, she turned her head aside and closed her mouth, cutting off the stream of chi. Bella made a low sound of displeasure deep in her throat, and her fingers dug into Bo's flesh as if to pull her back, but then she seemed to come back to herself.

Her eyes slowly faded from blue to brown as she shook off her feeding frenzy…and then, once her higher brain functions reasserted themselves and she realized what she was doing, she yanked her hands back, her face once more on fire with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to… Did I hurt you?"

"Not at all," Bo assured her. "Don't feel bad – I volunteered to give you my energy, although I've gotta say I wasn't expecting you to take control like that. You're pretty strong…and I guess you really were hungry, huh? Feel better now?"

"…I do, actually," Bella said after taking a moment to assess her condition. The change was remarkable; all the little aches and pains that had plagued her with increasing frequency and intensity over the last week were gone, and even her broken leg didn't hurt quite as much. Best of all, that alien hunger that no human food could satisfy was finally sated. "In fact, I feel better than I have in a long time. Thank you, Bo."

She gave her sister a grateful smile, albeit one tinged with shame at how she had practically jumped the other woman, as if Bo had offered her a single M&M and she had proceeded to snatch the bag out of her hands and gobble up all of them.

Bo shook her head at her guilty look. "Seriously, don't worry about it. I could tell you needed the chi more than I did, and I wouldn't have let you take enough to actually hurt me. You saw I was able to cut you off when I wanted to, right?"

"Yeah, you did, I just… Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fit as a fiddle," Bo proclaimed, getting out of Edward's car and standing up to prove that she really was fine. "Although I could use a pick-me-up…"

Her voice trailed off as something in the distance caught her attention, and Bella, who had scooted across the backseat after her and was now sitting with her legs hanging out the open door, followed her gaze to see the waitress Bo had demonstrated her power on earlier coming out of the diner.

"Talk about perfect timing," Bo murmured, grinning. "And I did promise to make it up to her…" Turning back to the others, she asked, "Can you guys excuse me for a little while?"

Kenzi waved her off with an air of mock resignation. "Do what you gotta do, Bobo."

"Sure, we don't mind waiting," Bella added. After all, she couldn't exactly begrudge Bo needing to replenish the energy she had taken from her.

As Bo walked away, Kenzi flopped back to lean on the Volvo's trunk lid, spreading her arms out as if prostrate with despair or frustration. "Well, here goes another three hours of watching my life flash before my eyes," she said to no one in particular, her gaze aimed up at the sky. "Most of the time the whole 'road trip with my bestie' thing was great, but I could've done without the hours of waiting outside our latest shitty motel room du jour while Bo banged some rando…" Then she suddenly perked up, using her elbows to push her upper half off the trunk. "At least this time there's a mall I can kill the time in. Ciao, Bella and Edward."

When she started to head for the mall, however, Edward moved to block her path. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked in a low voice that held a hint of concern. "Don't you think you'd better wait here for Bo?"

"You can hang out here if you want, but I've spent so much time sitting in cars lately that my ass has a permanent cramp. I wanna walk around some."

"You don't have to sit in a car, but you don't want Bo to think you've run off, do you?"

"No prob; she can call me when she's ready to go."

"What's the big deal, Edward?" Bella interjected. "I don't think Bo's going to leave without her."

"It's not that – I just don't want her to get in trouble."

"Get in trouble? With who, Bo?" It would be one thing if Bo got annoyed with her friend for wandering off, forcing her to track her down or wait for her to come back – though it would be unfair if she did, since she was the one who'd left first – but Edward sounded like he meant something else, something more serious. "Why? It's not like Bo can, I don't know, order her to stay put or something."

Edward suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Well, actually, she can."

"Huh?"

"Look, Bella, you have to understand that humans aren't meant to be part of our world. They aren't supposed to know we exist-"

"But Kenzi obviously knows all about Bo being a succubus," Bella pointed out.

"Yes, well, sometimes a human does stumble into our world, see things they can't unsee, learn things they can't unlearn…"

"Like I did. When we thought I was human, I mean."

"Precisely. When that happens, our authorities deal with it in one of a few different ways. If their exposure to the supernatural was brief enough, their memory can be erased without causing lasting damage, and they're sent on their way, none the wiser. If not… If they have to remain in our society, they can only do so if a fae takes responsibility for them, to ensure that they obey our laws and don't expose us."

"It's called claiming," Kenzi took up the exposition. "First time I walked into a fae bar with Bo, everybody got super uptight about me being there, but then Trick asked Bo if she wanted to claim me, and when she said yes, they all went back to minding their own business. Since then no one's batted an eyelash at me going wherever Bo goes."

Bella nodded, thinking she understood. "I see. So Bo's like your legal guardian?"

"Not exactly," Edward clarified, that strange edge still present in his voice. "Claiming someone is less like taking custody of a child and more like…well…ownership."

Bella stared uncomprehendingly at him. "What are you talking about? You can't own a person – not since the Fourteenth Amendment passed, anyway. I'm no expert on Canadian history, but I'm pretty sure slavery is illegal there too!"

"That's true; humans, thankfully, are no longer allowed to own one another, but you have to understand that the fae perspective is different. To them, owning a human is no different than a human owning a dog or cat."

"How the hell am I supposed to understand that?" Bella demanded, her voice rising. "It's ridiculous and…and just plain wrong!" She gestured emphatically at Kenzi to illustrate her point. "She's not a cat!"

"Thank you," Kenzi said with an air of vindication.

"No, she's not," Edward agreed. "It's just that when you consider the power imbalance between humans and fae… Well, it's not that different from the dynamic humans share with domesticated animals. Feral cats and dogs are generally able to fend for themselves quite well, but when they live among humans, they can't participate in human society as equals, can they? They can't take themselves to a vet or buy their own food at pet supply stores."

"Of course not," Bella said, snorting at the mental image of animals doing those things.

"They need owners to care for and protect them," Edward continued, "just as humans can't be expected to navigate the dangers that come with living among the fae on their own."

Bella looked up at him with conflicting emotions written all over her face. What he said made sense, in a very twisted, disturbing way, and yet… "It still feels wrong," she said quietly.

"You're telling me," Kenzi muttered.

"Maybe so," Edward acknowledged, "but it's the way things are. Besides, most fae aren't in the habit of snatching humans off the street at random. In the vast majority of cases, only humans who've discovered our existence on their own get claimed."

He looked inquiringly at Kenzi, who nodded. "Yeah, that's how it went down. Bo got nabbed by the fae po-po for accidentally killing a guy – this was before she got the lowdown on how the whole succubus deal works, obviously, and anyway the guy was a total sleaze who roofied my drink – but they left me alone until I followed them to her initiation ritual thingy."

"Well," Bella said noncommittally, "I guess that's something." Still, the idea that a person could be forced to become someone else's property just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or just a little too observant for their own good, was deeply disquieting…and then a truly chilling thought occurred to her. "Wait a minute. You said people have to be claimed if they find out that fae exist…like when I figured out that you're a vampire. Edward… Did you ever claim me?"

"Fae aren't allowed to claim other fae."

"That's not what I asked," she snapped. "When you thought I was human, did you claim me or not?!"

"Okay, this shit's getting way too real for me," Kenzi muttered, and beat a hasty retreat toward the mall. This time no one tried to stop her, as Edward and Bella were entirely focused on each other.

After a long moment in which the tension hung so thick in the air between them that it could've been cut with a knife, he finally said, "No, I didn't."

She stared into his eyes for another few seconds, gauging his honesty, then slowly let out the breath she'd been holding as the dread churning in her stomach started to settle down. She wasn't completely sure why she felt so relieved when she already belonged to Edward anyway, heart and soul; then again, that was by her own choice. Her heart was only his because she willingly gave it to him, whereas the idea of not having a choice, of being just another thing he owned like his car or his piano, was totally different. After all, how could their relationship ever be a truly equal partnership if he saw her as a piece of property until a random twist of fate forced him to change his views?

"Good. I'm glad you didn't, but I can tell something's still bothering you. What is it?"

He shifted a little, dropping his gaze to the pavement as if afraid (or ashamed) to look her in the eye, before admitting almost in a whisper, "There was a time when I strongly considered it." He darted a glance up at her, and seeing that her face had frozen in shock, rushed to explain. "It was after the baseball game, when I realized James had chosen you as his next target; I thought, if I claimed you, maybe it would make him back off. Fae aren't supposed to interfere with one another's claimed humans, and as much as I hated the thought of it, I would have done anything to keep you safe… But then Alice saw that he wouldn't have respected my claim anyway, which rendered the whole thing moot."

Bella took a minute to digest this before speaking again. "So if you only considered claiming me as a last resort, then you don't agree with it either, do you?"

"No, I've never seen the appeal of owning another person – and my family and I do see humans as people, though there are those who disagree with us on that point – and I especially loathed the idea of doing that to you, binding you to me so that you could never leave if the day ever came when you wanted to move forward with your life-" At her scoff, he said, "Remember, I did think you were human at that point, so it seemed like a possibility. So no, I would never have claimed you unless some inescapable circumstance forced my hand…but regardless of my personal feelings, the institution of claiming has been part of fae culture for untold centuries. There's nothing to be done about it."

Bella wasn't entirely satisfied with this answer but couldn't think of a good counterargument – there was no denying that Edward was far more knowledgeable about said culture than she was – so she said nothing. He wasn't particularly eager to continue their current discussion either, and a not entirely comfortable silence fell between them.

###

Kenzi meandered back about forty minutes later, around the same time that Bo reappeared. The waitress she'd hooked up with staggered into view a couple of minutes later with glazed eyes and a blissful smile on her face, looking a bit weak in the knees but otherwise unharmed, much to Edward's relief.

Noticing the subtle release of tension in his frame when he saw the other woman alive and well, Bo raised an eyebrow at him and asked somewhat defensively, "What, were you expecting me to drain her?"

"Well, you took so long that I did wonder if you needed to make a detour to hide the body."

"Didn't seem that long to me," Bo muttered. She would've been happy to prolong the encounter for another hour or two, but had forced herself to stop when she felt the human's chi start to run thin.

"Nah, compared to Bo's usual all-night marathons, this was more like a ten-minute sprint. Clearly you've never experienced the power of succubus stamina," Kenzi quipped.

"Anyway, I haven't killed anyone since I learned to control my feeding," Bo said firmly. "I never wanted to hurt people; it's just that for a while I didn't know how not to."

Which makes you a much better person than me, Edward silently commended her. Not wanting to delve into that part of his personal history at that moment, however, he merely said, "Good to know. My parents have asked me to invite you to stay with us since our house is better suited to accommodate guests than the Swans'-"

"We only have one bathroom," Bella chipped in, bringing an almost comical expression of horror to Kenzi's face. The one-bathroom situation in the Clubhouse had mostly worked for her and Bo since it was just the two of them (plus an occasional overnight guest), but trying to do it on a long-term basis in a house they would share with two other people (one of whom was a man) was simply untenable.

"Casa de Cullen it is, then," she said firmly, to which Bo acquiesced with a shrug. It would have been nice to stay with her sister, but it wasn't worth arguing over.

"The invitation stands regardless of your affiliation," Edward continued, "but the fact that you're Light like us will make things easier."

"Who said I'm Light?"

"You're not?" Edward asked with surprise and (mostly) well-hidden disappointment. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed… I just didn't think a Dark Fae would leave a human alive after feeding on them."

"Probably not," Bo agreed, "which is why I'm not Dark either."

"I don't understand," Bella piped up, looking between Bo and Edward in confusion. "Edward told me every fae has to choose either Light or Dark."

"Well, I didn't."

"Now I don't understand," Edward admitted. "You've been part of Toronto's fae community for months now, correct?" At Bo's nod, he said, "I would have thought asking you to choose your side would be the first thing they would do when they became aware of your existence."

"They did – dragged me out to some abandoned factory and made me go through this whole gladiator death match with a couple of underfae-"

"They forced you to undergo trial by combat?" he interrupted, appalled. "That hasn't been part of the Gathering since the Dark Ages!"

"Well, they dusted off the old tradition for me," Bo said, shrugging again. "Then after I beat both of the uglies they threw in the ring with me, the Ash said I'd passed their test and I could choose my side…except after he and the Morrigan and all of their respective entourages just stood there watching me fight for my life and probably not caring whether I lived or died, I'd come to the conclusion that both sides were assholes that just wanted to use me, so I chose neither. Since then I've used this stuff I can do to protect humans from the fae."

"That is so cool," Bella murmured, gazing up at Bo in awe.

"It was a very risky move, though. The Ash and the Morrigan personally attended your Gathering…and you really thumbed your nose at the very foundation of the laws that have allowed our kind to coexist peacefully for over a thousand years by dividing us into Light and Dark, in front of the leaders of both factions?" Edward shook his head in disbelief. "No wonder people keep trying to kill you."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get the idea that I put a few noses out of joint," Bo said with as much nonchalance as she could manage given that she had only recently learned just how deep said faction leaders' resentment of her choice ran. "Still, it's not very classy to blame the victim."

Edward gave her a long, deliberating look – his first impression of her had been that she didn't look like much of a fighter, an impression that had only been reinforced when he found out she was a succubus, a species whose reputation did not include being especially fierce combatants…and yet, for her to have survived everything that had been thrown at her, there had to be something more underneath that pretty face and revealing leather attire.

"I don't think I would classify you as a victim, Bo Dennis," he said at last. "I suspect anyone foolish enough to make that mistake would soon learn otherwise."

###

When Bo concluded that there was no way her old beater would be able to keep up with Edward's Volvo, it was decided that he would go ahead with Bella while Bo and Kenzi made their way to Forks, then double back to guide them on to the Cullens' house.

"Are you sure you can find Forks on your own?" Bella asked anxiously as they prepared to depart. "It's pretty small."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine as long as there are road signs," Bo assured her. "I made it all the way from Toronto to Seattle without getting lost, didn't I?"

Bella couldn't argue with that, so without further ado, she let Edward stow her crutches in the Volvo's trunk, and they were off. True to Bo's prediction, they soon left her yellow Camaro so far in the dust that Bella couldn't even see it in the rearview mirror anymore.

"Maybe Emmett and Rose can work on it during her stay," Edward commented as they roared along at his usual insane speed. "I think they would enjoy that."

"Mmm," Bella replied absently, apparently lost in thought as she stared out the window while turning recent events over in her mind.

Sensing that she wasn't really listening, Edward went on, "Or maybe they can convert her car into a submersible, in case she feels like visiting the Mariana Trench someday."

"That sounds nice."

Her abstracted mood continued until he stopped the car, which was when she noticed that he had taken her to his house rather than hers, prompting her to shoot him an inquisitive look; she had no objection to visiting his family, of course, but they hadn't discussed it beforehand.

"I thought you'd want to be here when Bo arrives," he explained, "and I'd like Carlisle to examine you, to see how you're faring after your, ah, 'snack'. Besides, everyone's dying to hear all about your first meeting with your sister."

"Great," Bella mumbled as she pictured the entire Cullen family hanging on her every word, and having to tell them what she was. There was no way that wouldn't be horrendously embarrassing. "Well, let's get it over with."

Sure enough, they were all gathered in the living room, and every eye fastened on her the moment she walked in.

"How was it?" Esme asked at once, sounding hopeful. "Did you have a nice visit with your sister?"

"Yes, she's… Bo seems like a great person, and I think we hit it off well," Bella answered awkwardly; the words sounded lame to her own ears, but what else was she supposed to say?

"Never mind that – did you find out what you are?" Emmett asked eagerly. "I haven't wondered about anything this much since mystery meat Mondays at school."

"I think the secret there is that there is no meat in the mystery meat, honey," Rosalie told him.

"That's what I wondered about."

"She does know," Jasper said suddenly, peering at Bella through slightly narrowed eyes, his head tilted to one side as he sorted through the feelings he was reading from her. "She's reluctant to tell us for some reason… I think she's embarrassed."

"Don't be embarrassed, Bella," Alice admonished. "It's not like you're going to grow fur or a tail or anything…right?"

"No, nothing like that," Bella said confidently. After all, Bo looked completely normal as far as she could tell (apart from being extraordinarily beautiful) and she was definitely not hiding a tail in those skintight leather pants. "It's just…" She took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and spat it out. "I'm a succubus."

The Cullens' reactions, as shown on their faces and broadcast telepathically to Edward, were varied. Carlisle was intrigued, while Alice and Rosalie were simply surprised, though Rosalie's thoughts were also tinged with satisfaction at finally understanding why Edward had been drawn to Bella when he'd never shown the slightest interest in any other woman, even her. I guess not even Edward the monk could resist a succubus, though.

Esme was surprised too, though not in a good way. And Bella always seemed like such a nice girl… Then she silently scolded herself for thinking such a thing; just because succubi had a reputation for being fickle, hedonistic, and promiscuous surely didn't mean there weren't some who were perfectly nice, and it wasn't fair to judge a person by their species or buy into stereotypes when she had never actually met a real succubus before.

Emmett and Jasper, meanwhile, were both thinking the same thing, a message which they addressed directly to Edward: You lucky bastard. Emmett added an unspoken plea for him not to tell Rosalie that he had thought that, and received a smirk in response that told him he would be hearing about it for a long time, especially when Edward needed a favor.

"Well, I'm glad you finally have the answers you were looking for," Alice told Bella. "And hey, being a succubus isn't bad. I mean, it could be a lot worse."

"That's true," Bella agreed, to a general murmur of concurrence from the others.

"You look two hundred percent better than you did this morning too," Alice went on; then her eyes widened as the implications of her own words hit home. "Wait… After you found out what you are, did you and Edward already…?"

"No!" Bella exclaimed, her embarrassment flaring up again. "I kind of fainted, so Bo gave me some of her energy."

"Your sister did? Way to step up to the plate, Eddie," Emmett said with a despairing shake of his head.

Rosalie elbowed him. "She was unconscious, Emmett! It wouldn't have been right to take advantage of her in that state."

Knowing very well why consent was such a touchy subject with his wife, Emmett lowered his head in chagrin and mumbled an apology.

As Edward had anticipated, Carlisle was eager to see how Bella's condition had changed now that she'd received proper sustenance, quickly ushering her into his study for an impromptu exam.

"This truly is amazing," he declared when he was finished. "I'll need to see the results of a full blood workup to be certain, but it looks as if your nutritional deficiencies are completely resolved, and obviously your healing processes have resumed." During the course of the exam, he had asked Bella to remove her cardigan, revealing that the bruises from her many vitamin shots had vanished, much to her excitement.

Unfortunately, the chi Bo had given her wasn't enough to instantly heal her broken leg, but it did cause the bone to start mending itself again, so Carlisle decided she could trade her crutches for a walking cast after she assured him that putting pressure on the injured limb no longer bothered her.

"Are you serious?" she asked, staring at him as if hardly daring to believe her ears. "No more crutches?"

"I see no need for them now that you're back on the road to recovery and able to tolerate weight on that leg," he confirmed with a smile. "If you'll give me a few minutes to prepare my instruments and materials, I can make the necessary modifications right now."

Overjoyed, Bella readily agreed before excusing herself to go to the bathroom. Once she was inside with the door safely closed behind her, she splashed some water on her face to wash off the blush and foundation Alice had applied that morning…and then, after taking a deep breath to brace herself, raised her head to look into the mirror above the sink.

She wasn't precisely sure what she expected (or feared or hoped) to see, so it was both a relief and a disappointment to find that the face peering back at her just looked, well, normal. The chi she'd consumed had not transformed her into a ravishing beauty like Bo, but her face was no longer gray and gaunt either, which was a substantial improvement – and, in a way, a comfort.

Even though she had known for weeks now that she was fae and had certainly seen ample proof that regular food wouldn't sustain her anymore, today's events had made it real to her in a way it hadn't been before. She finally had a name for what she was, had met another member of her species…had fed on pure energy and experienced phenomenal effects as a result.

She took another look at her arms, confirming once more that all her bruises really had disappeared without a trace, a process that should have taken several days, then back at her reflection. A slight shiver passed through her as she recalled the incredible sensation of absorbing Bo's chi, which was both wonderful and terrifying in hindsight as she thought of how out-of-control she had felt, how her rational mind had been completely overwhelmed with primal needs and desires she never would have guessed she was capable of – and as her memory of those feelings rose to the surface, the eyes gazing back at her through the glass suddenly turned an unnaturally deep, bright blue.

Bella let out a startled yelp and jerked back, grabbing the hand basin's edge just in time to keep herself from toppling over backward. Holy crow! Way to give myself a heart attack!

Edward had described seeing her eyes change color before, of course, but this was the first time she had witnessed it for herself. She took a moment to calm her racing heart and gather her nerve, then peeked into the mirror again. Yup, still blue. What the heck do I do now?

It wasn't a bad change, per se – in fact, she thought the vivid sapphire hue was quite pretty – but it wasn't a normal eye color, and it definitely wasn't something she could hide from Charlie. She tried to take deep, steady breaths, willing them to change back – and then, as she watched in the mirror, they did.

The deep breath she had just inhaled left her in a shaky rush, and she clutched the basin for a moment before pivoting on her good foot so she could sit on the closed toilet lid instead, burying her face in her hands as she struggled to come to grips with the fact that for the first time, she truly felt like something other than human.

I was wrong before, she realized as her earlier thought upon first seeing her reflection came back to her. Regular old Bella isn't back after all. I'm not even sure if there is a regular old Bella anymore.

She was equally unsure how she felt about that; regular old Bella might be a plain, boring, bumbling klutz who was frustratingly helpless in Edward's world, but she was the only person Bella knew how to be. If she didn't exist anymore…who or what would take her place?

###

While Bella was in the bathroom and Carlisle prepared to redo her cast, Edward calculated that it was about time for him to meet Bo – surely even her decrepit excuse for a car should have made it to Forks by now – but first, it really would be unconscionable not to let his family know what they were in for.

At the news that Bo wasn't aligned with the Light, Carlisle paused briefly in mixing the plaster he would use to add a walking sole to Bella's cast, and everyone else froze, their expressions running the gamut from disappointed to apprehensive.

"Well," Esme said at last, "it isn't like we don't have acquaintances among the Dark."

"Yeah, but having one in the house…" Emmett started to protest, his objection trailing off into silence as Carlisle gave him a stern look.

"As long as she respects our rules in our home, it shouldn't be an issue. Dark fae have as much right to exercise their beliefs and live their lives accordingly as we do, and we must respect that whether we personally agree with it or not."

"That's true," Edward agreed with his father, "but Bo isn't Dark either."

He went on to repeat what she had told him about her initiation and refusal to choose a side after becoming disillusioned with both factions, and his family reacted in much the same way he himself had.

"But she can't do that," Alice sputtered, her golden eyes widening until they almost looked too big for her elfin face. "…Can she?"

"I suppose she can," Esme opined, though her voice held a trace of uncertainty. "If she was tested in the old way and survived, she won the right to make her choice; the Blood King's law is clear on that point, and not even the Ash or the Morrigan can overrule it. To choose neither side, though… It's certainly unprecedented."

"I think it's awesome," Emmett declared with a broad grin. "She must be a real badass."

"Awesome but dangerous," Jasper countered, frowning. "The laws are what allow us to live in peace, and if people start breaking them with no consequences…"

"Looking at it from her point of view, maybe she had her reasons," Rosalie said thoughtfully. "I know I wouldn't be too keen on joining either side if they snatched me off the street and forced me to fight to the death with no explanation."

"Besides, it's not like one little unaligned succubus is going to plunge us into the kind of lawless chaos you saw in the south," Alice added, squeezing his hand in a nonverbal apology for bringing up the horrors he had witnessed and been forced to participate in during his time in Maria's army. "Lighten up, sweetie."

"That's very good advice, Alice. If the Ash and the Morrigan both observed Bo Dennis' initiation and let her walk away after refusing to choose a side, it isn't our place to challenge her decision," Carlisle said firmly. "She's also Bella's sister, so we will all do our best to make her feel welcome in our home." He looked around to see if anyone wanted to argue but received only nods of acquiescence from the rest of the family, even Jasper. "Thank you. Now, Edward, why don't you go and show her the way?"

Edward nodded and went outside, feeling satisfied that he had done his due diligence in preparing his family for their guest – at least as much as anyone could ever be prepared for Bo Dennis.

Well, Bella just got an eye-opening crash course on human/fae relations, and Edward's starting to get an inkling that Bo's arrival may shake up his family's peaceful, law-abiding lifestyle… Poor things have no idea what they're in for, heehee.

Next chapter will have Bo and Kenzi meeting the whole Cullen family, and maybe we can finally get to the succubus 101 lessons I've been looking forward to writing all this time; I feel like this part of the story is moving a bit slower than I'd like, but it's necessary for building character development and relationships and all that essential stuff.