A/n: Sorry this chapter took so ridiculously long. Honestly, had a bit of writer's block compounded by the fact that it just didn't feel satisfactory. But I hope that it's only in my head and the chapter isn't terrible. Also, if there are any mistakes, I'm sorry. I just really wanted to get this posted ASAP.

"This never ending story
Paid for with pride and fate
We all fall short of glory
Lost innocence"

-30 Seconds to Mars, Closer to the Edge

~x~X Lene X~x~

I turned around, spinning so quickly to face the intruder that my long dark hair fanned out around me.

For a moment, I merely stared at the tall girl with sharp, but beautiful features. Even in the dark and the gloom, her tan skin seemed illuminated; it carried the faintest of russet tinges and I wondered for a moment if she was lighter or darker than I had been when I was alive.

The Native American girl had short hair that fell just short of reaching her shoulders. Dark, intelligent eyes stared dully, unafraid and dangerously unwary.

Leech, she called me.

She knew.

She knew what I was, and yet was unafraid and unsurprised.

But as I took in the cut-off shorts, wife-beater and bare feet... I knew she wasn't a regular human even without taking in her pungent scent.

"You're the wolf-girl, the one that ran away," it wasn't really a question to me.

"I'm the only wolf-girl," she scoffed, but not for a moment did she removed her eyes form me; staring at me with a deciphering expression that might have made me uncomfortable... but I wasn't afraid of her either. She couldn't hurt me.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?" she asked unexpectedly.

"Who?" I snapped, feeling my hackles rise because I knew who she meant.

"Dr. Leech."

In my mind, many scenarios ran through my head. I could simply walk away. I could tear out her throat. I could merely scoff at her and proceed to ignore her... threaten her...

But instead I found myself studying her too blank expression. The dullness in her dark eyes. And there, taint the corners of her eyes, was the barest tinge of red.

The girl was hurting and using me for a distraction from her own turmoil.

Using me... a vampire. The thing she was fated to destroy. A dangerous creature who could kill her, and yet she stood before me as if challenging me to do just that.

The girl had nothing to live for and in that moment, she reminded me so much of myself that I found myself wondering... who had hurt her like this... who had betrayed her...

"Yes," I replied simply, disconnecting completely from all my emotions because there was no other way for me to talk about it.. confirm it.

The girl blinked, seemingly surprised by my admission.

"But he's married," she spoke in slow terms, as if she were trying to confirm that he was in fact married, while simultaneously seeing if I was aware of that.

"I'm aware. But love isn't really a choice, it's a force. You can't choose who you love, anymore than you can choose to suddenly stop loving them because they hurt you, or disappointed you, or even because they stopped loving you."

The girl looked away then, shifting her weight around and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't get it. You don't seem to care much for the Cullens... but still- you came to help them. And you love Dr. Leech, even though he's married and turned you into a monster?"

"It's complicated," I replied tersely, narrowing my eyes at her for the implication.

"Tell me about it. I have all the time in the world here... I mean I have no intention to go back to the res, especially after what happened. I'm probably going to be kicked out of the tribe not to mention the pack-" the girl started to rant, seemingly becoming angrier the more she spoke. But her eyes, they were sparkling with fear, and hurt.

"Fine," I stated, because something about the girl touched me... and knowing what Edward would undoubtedly put her through, I knew she would need someone who could understand.

Turning around, I walked over to a tree and carefully sat on the ground, resting my head back and shutting my eyes, legs bent and somewhat extended before me.

"Well, I suppose you should understand something before I start- two things you need to understand," I started slowly, but not opening my eyes, though I could hear the girl moving, perhaps even sitting on the ground from the sound of it, though not sitting particularly close to me, which was fine by me. Even out here, her scent was offensive.

"I don't know just how much you know about vampires, but Vampires mate for eternity," I started, speaking in deadpan as if bored with the subject. "When they find the one person meant to be their mate they know instantly, and they can't live without that person and feel drawn to them from the moment they set their eyes on them.

"The other thing is that Carlisle has only changed people who are on the point of death when nothing else can save them..."

I opened my eyes then and tilted my head towards the girl and saw her seated at a tree directly across from me, her legs crossed and staring at me with an intense focus.

"So you were going to die when he changed you?" she sounded a bit skeptical.

I nodded my head, not taking offense at her mistrust.

"A little over ten years ago, I became very ill. I met Carlisle, some time after, in the emergency room and I suppose you can say from that point, that was it," I started.

In truth, I was being very vague on the details, not really wanting to delve too deep into the past. To tell her what really happened to me, or what even made me sick was far too unbearable as I never spoke of it to anyone.

Before I met Carlisle... before he even arrived in Chicago, I'd been in a relationship with my high school sweetheart. We were trying again thought we'd broken it off shortly after graduating... now even living together...

I thought he'd changed his philandering ways then... I suppose I was a fool. I really should have never trusted him again, but... I was so tired of being numb. I wanted to feel love again, wanted to be in love, but I'd never managed the sentiment with anyone but him. I thought perhaps I was broken.

"Carlisle didn't change me right away. I was struggling with my illness before he came to my life, and I suppose I still had a few good months left in me. In truth, I knew I was going to die and I never acknowledged while I was human that I felt drawn to him; after all, how could I allow myself to feel romantically for anyone, if I knew I had a fast approaching expiration date? It wouldn't be fair to anyone involved... it hurt enough to leave behind my family to leave anyone else behind..."

And just how can you trust anyone, when the last person you trusted betrayed you? Betrayed you so completely, he passed to you an illness that would kill you.

But to be fair, my philandering ex didn't even know he had the virus. He passed it to me unknowingly. And somehow, because life if such a complete, fucking unfair joke, my body simply deteriorated much faster than his. Exponentially faster.

"Back then, Carlisle was going through a separation with his wife. They'd been apart for something close to over fifteen years... something that would not be possible for mates. Vampires simply can't remain far from their mates for so long..."

And in fact, the Cullen clan was scattered then. Edward left and was accompanying Esme wherever the hell she went, only calling Carlisle perhaps twice a year to check in with him, though never speaking of Esme if he could help it.

Rosalie and Emmet hadn't wanted to choose sides in the marital schism, and had instead chosen to go on a prolonged "honeymoon", popping by to visit one or the other of them whenever the mood struck them, usually around Christmas.

Alice and Jasper remained with Carlisle, mostly because Jasper was still learning to control his hunger and Carlisle made it easiest for him.

Carlisle and Rosalie after all were always the ones with the most restraint and control over their thirst.

"When at last, I'd become too ill that death was imminent, Carlisle changed me. It was the single most excruciating moment of my life... and I didn't understand when it was over what happened and then, I was so angry with Carlisle for doing this to me. For changing me when I'd made peace with dying. I demanded he tell me, why he changed me..."

…

The world looked so different. Everything so crystal.

My racing mind didn't quite understand, even as it picked sounds... the rustle of cloth... the ticking of a clock on a mantle a floor above...

"Lene," a voice called softly, but my ears felt so sensitive, that I thought he may have shouted as my eyes shot around.

For a split second, I wasn't sure where I was, though I placed the voice quickly enough and I tried to remember... but my memories were all a pain-filled blur. I thought I'd died, the pain was so excruciating- I'd never felt anything like it.

But it was like some kind of fever dream... and he was there... that gentle and beautiful doctor who made my heart ache though I didn't know why.

-Why did my heart start to feel now? Why him? Why when I'm fucking diseased and dying? Why such a gorgeous man, so out of my league, even if I weren't sick? Is my heart so shallow, that it can only react to astonishing beauty?-

The thoughts had tortured my subconscious, but somehow they felt like another lifetime ago, another me.

The doctor was there, in my dreams, holding me. His soft, gentle voice, trying to soothe me. His cold hand raking fingers through my hair and placing cool lips to my burning forehead.

"What happened?" I asked, turning slowly to regard the man I sensed standing ten paces away to my right.

And it was my eyes had never truly seen him before. As if the beauty they'd captured, had simply fallen so utterly short.

The man before me was familiar, and yet even more beautiful than was humanly possible, because he was already otherworldly beautiful to me before.

But then... his eyes were golden- no trick of the light because I could see them as if my eyes were no more than a inches from them. And I could see, that they weren't contacts... and knew that I'd never seen eyes like them before.

"What are you?" I asked, taking steps back away from him, knowing now that there was something very different about him... something wrong... something not human.

And I flinched at the sound of my own voice, my fingers reaching up to my throat because that was not my voice! Though it was a richer, fuller, more musical sound, it grated against my too sensitive ears.

And as my fingers touched my throat, they traced over skin that felt.. different. Not quite rough, but not as smooth and soft as the rest of my throat.

Furrowing my brow, I touched what felt like somewhat raised skin that seemed to form a curve, almost like a crescent and before my eyes I saw a flash I thought was a dream that had morphed into my nightmare. My blurry and overheated eyes, taking in Carlisle leaning close to me... asking him what he was doing in a slurred, lethargic voice through a raw throat- a second of cool lips, pressed heavenly against my burning skin and then a twinge of pain that might have been pleasurable, were it not filled suddenly with pain and I felt my body thrash against the iron hold on me...

Looking up lightning fast, I stared with a twisted expression of confusion, and hurt... and betrayal because I was sure it wasn't a dream.

"What did you do to me!?" I cried out, my voice sounding raw with tears that built in my eyes but could not seem to shed.

...

"And?" the wolf-girl prompted, while I pulled my hand from neck, where my fingers were unconsciously rubbing at the bite scar that humans would be unable to see, but which I was sure the wolves, with their heightened senses, could.

"He told me he couldn't live without me in the world; that if I died, he wouldn't be able to survive," I responded emotionlessly, my gaze locked on the ground while I felt emotion trying to rise against the numbing cold I was putting all my effort in maintaining.

"So what happened? How come he's with his wife and you didn't come with them when they moved back here?"

I wondered briefly, as I turned to focus on the Native American girl if she felt anything... any pity, or sympathy, or empathy. But she was almost as locked off from her emotions as I was.

"I believed it, for a while... that he might be my mate- his caring, his attention, his devotion- made the hard days easier to deal with, made me forget when he was near what I'd become. But then came the day that she came back, and of course, everything went to hell. Not that it was much better before she came... the others, they made sure I didn't feel welcome. Called me everything from home-wrecker and rather implying that I was a whore... as if I asked for any of it. As if I intended for it to happen. As if I wanted Carlisle to stalk me-"

"He stalked you?" the she-wolf interrupted, sounding both surprised and extremely curious.

I couldn't help the near smile, half-grimace that twisted my lips.

"Well, Vampires are territorial, selfish and possessive by nature. The Cullens try to be as human as possible and ignore their nature, but even they can't help themselves sometimes. And a vampire is a first class stalker, from their meals to their mates."'

"That's an interesting correlation."

I smirked at her sarcastic words, agreeing with her.

"So you came back for him, then?" she asked, before the silence could become awkward.

I didn't look at her when I responded, merely shut my eyes and leant my head back.

"I can't be anywhere but near to him, if his life is in danger," I replied quietly. "I don't really have a choice."

Before she could open her mouth, and further the conversation, a howl rent the night. Both of us immediately jumped to our feet, though I was sure to be far more tense and alert.

"I think they've finally begun to wonder where I am," she stated, with a note of bitterness.

"Guess that means you must be getting back?"

Her dark gaze snapped back to my own. "I'm not going back," she stated fiercely, and I couldn't help arching a brow.

I paused for a moment in thought, but didn't mull it over too long before simply following the crazed impulse.

"Would you like to go back to the Cullen's with me?"

"What?" she asked, and for the first time, she seemed to have been knocked off balance. Her emotion showed clearly, the haze of unfeeling dissipating. She seemed at once shocked, wary, nervous and excited.

"Well if your imprinting is anything like beings mates, then that makes you part of the 'family'," I replied, with quotation marks and everything. Because I'd never seen the Cullens as family, really. They were a coven, with perhaps bonds strong enough to be considered familial, but I'd never go as far as to consider them my brothers or sisters and I certainly didn't see Carlisle and Esme as parental figures. "You're going to want someone on your side."

"And why would you do that? And what makes you think I want anyone on my side?" she spat back, narrowing her eyes with suspicion and tilting her head in defiance.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I know what it's like to be stuck with them. And I know what Edward is going to put you through, you're going to want someone on your side. But do what you will," I said in dry tones, before turning to go.

She hesitated before moving to keep pace with me. I chose not comment on it, sensing she was very proud.

"My name is Leah, Leah Clarwater."

I turned to Leah, but didn't smile. Merely nodded my head. "I'm Magdalene."

For the rest of the walk back, which really didn't take all that long, even considering we were both walking at human pace, we remained mostly silent.

I could feel her tense up when we started to near the fucking mansion the Cullens called home.

"This isn't going to be pleasant," I warned her in deadpan, just making sure that she was aware of what she was walking into.

She merely gave me a look that told me that she rather expected that and didn't really care so we simply proceeded. Almost as soon as we stepped inside the back doors, I could hear Alice, "Does anyone smell that?" she asked, sounding confused.

"It fucking stinks suddenly," Rose replied before we heard light footsteps.

In no time at all, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper were standing in the kitchen.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rosalie asked hostilely while glaring over at me as if I'd somehow betrayed them all by bringing Leah and I suppose I could see why... in a way, the shape-shifters' purpose was to destroy our kind.

I looked at her, completely unimpressed by her attitude. "Making friends?"

Rosalie glared before pointing at Leah. "Why is she here?"

"Because I invited her," I replied simply, turning to look at Alice whose face was screwed up as if she was smelling something nasty, and also looking at me as if I betrayed them. Beside her, Jasper was merely standing uncomfortably, but instead of having his arms held behind his back, they were resting at his side, as if he was preparing to act in case of attack.

"You brought a stray home!" Emmett guffawed and while his words were offensive, I'm quite sure he didn't really mean them to be.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Carlisle and Esme left together," Jasper stated stiffly, looking at me apologetically. "Edward took Bella home and hasn't returned."

"I see," I said, wondering what the fuck that meant, but shoved it aside in favor of focusing on Leah. Turning towards her, I noticed that she was about as emotionless as possible and I felt rather impressed by the fact that though she was standing in the Cullens ultra-modern and likely never used kitchen standing barefoot and completely underdressed, that she didn't look the least bit embarrassed or vulnerable.

"Well I'm bored as hell. What the do you people do for entertainment?"

X

Things were tense for a while, even as we all relocated to one of the many sitting rooms, this one simply had the largest tv and all the game systems and games nearby,a long with a vast collection of DVDs.

Neither Alice nor Rose were particularly interested in playing, and instead had chosen to sit, glaring int Leah and my direction, though, Leah was standing behind the couch where I sat.

Jasper had chosen to remain by the door and not participate, having his arms crossed over his chest and watching warily, though he was remarkably calm and didn't, for once, look as if the smell of human blood were strangling him. Perhaps because Leah's pungent, wolfy smell covered any trace of the scent of her blood. I wasn't sure as I hadn't particularly been breathing in her presence since we'd stepped inside.

"Can we talk, Maggie?" Alice had tried when Emmett had first set up the game, some war game that had a zombie killing mode.

"No," I had simply replied as I gripped the controller as delicately as possible while Emmett then proceeded to explain to me what the buttons were for. "Game graphics have gotten much better than when I was alive," I couldn't help wondering as we started to play zombie mode and I started to get the hang of it.

"You were human when games were invented?" Leah asked, speaking for the first time since we'd entered the Cullens' place.

"Oh yeah, She-wolf. Maggie here is the baby of the family. Hasn't been a vampire for more than fifteen years," Emmett stated even as he made a loud, 'BOOM' as from his half of the screen he threw a grenade down at a horde of Zombies gathered below where his character was perched shooting.

"I was born in 1973 and was changed in 1995," I explained to Leah through gritted teeth as my character ran out of amo and I had to jump out the window because I was being crowded into my corner by Zombies.

"So you were twenty-two?" Leah asked while I nodded, not taking my eyes off the screen as I dodged slow moving zombies, trying to make my way to the mystery box from which weapons could be obtained. "So you'd be like, thirty-three if you hadn't been changed?"

"She'd be dead, if she hadn't been changed," Rosalie spoke up, her voice cold and vicious, defending Carlisle's decision.

I momentarily flicked my gaze to Rosalie and glared at her, but didn't comment because she was right.

"Edward is back," Alice commented suddenly as we all heard the sound of footsteps upstairs and the sound of soft music muffled through the floors.

I was about to say something when through the large windows, sunlight suddenly streamed in, touching my right hand and causing me to leap away, holding my hand to my chest.

"Fuck!" I cursed, not so much because of the pain which was now receding but because what a sunny day meant... I would have to stay inside all bloody day.

"Still not used to that?" Emmett asked as he turned his back on the light while Jasper busied himself pulling curtains closed and Leah looked questioningly around.

"The sun thing is true?" Leah asked.

"It doesn't kill us," I replied through gritted teeth. "Just feels painful on our skin. The older you grow, the less you notice, but I'm not that old."

At that moment, Edward came into the room, all of us missing the sound of his moving about due to the sudden intrusion of the sun and my reaction to it.

"What is she doing here?" Edward practically growled as he burst into the room, remaining by the threshold form where he was glaring at Leah.

"Ask Maggie, she's the one that brought home the mutt," Rosalie replied from where she now stood, magazine discarded, arms crossed over her chest.

Edward ripped his gaze away from Leah and narrowed his eyes.

"She's practically family," I said simply with a shrug, unable to help smiling as innocently as I could muster and in a voice that was sickeningly sweet.

A growl started to form in Edward's throat in response.

"Her pack is going to wonder where she is," he stated through gritted teeth, apparently trying to keep calm and sound reasonable. "She shouldn't be here. It could start a war if they think we took her against her will."

"I didn't drag Leah kicking and screaming here. I brought her because she wanted to come."

"I doubt they even care," Leah added in, just the barest trace of bitterness in her tone as she crossed her arms over her chest while glaring at a wall and trying to maintain her composure.

At that, Edward turned to look at Leah and the anger he felt melted away. For what seemed like much longer than the seconds that actually passed, Leah and Edward held each other's gaze in a staring match, Edward looking lost, confused and intrigued in spite of himself. While Leah looked rather fierce.

Whatever Leah might have been saying in her mind to Edward, quickly had Edward's expression turning angry, but instead of saying anything he merely whirled around and marched right back out of the room, looking every bit the petulant child he tended to be.

I was rather tempted to roll my eyes, but instead found myself noticing the way that Alice was glaring at Leah as Emmett suddenly whistled.

"That was intense! I think there's trouble in paradise!"

I turned and looked at Emmett with a raised brow before shaking my head. The big oaf could be quite idiotic. Sometimes I really wondered at how Rosalie put up with him. Then again, she was a complete bitch, so perhaps it takes an idiot oaf to ignore that.

Of course, I was being unfair. I knew that Emmett was more than that...

At that moment, Esme and Carlisle strolled in, looking cautious, curious and confused.

"Hello," they both greeted in equally warm and questioning, light tones.

I tried not to react to their sudden appearance or their questioning glances, which for some reason seemed to turn to me.

As Leah greeted them in turn and introduced herself, I couldn't help the strange urge to wander away from her, just enough to not be overwhelmed by her scent and take a breath. I'm not sure if a thought had taken hold somewhere in the back of my vast, vampiric mind, or if it was the masochist in me coming out to play. But I chose to breathe in.

Immediately, my body tensed at their mingled scent that cut through all the other's scent.

I felt that violent, New Burn rage burn from the inside and my body coiled to attack. However, I crossed my arms, grit my teeth and tried to keep composure even as inside my head, the beast was roaring while my chest felt as if another vampire had used it's claws to dig through it.

Beneath my feet, the sound of wood groaning drew my attention and I watched with a stirring of annoyance that cut through the rage and pain, that my crystal gift was spreading over the top of the floor and branched out.

Gritting my teeth at my lack of control, I concentrated on dragging the gift back inside of myself and contain the flinch as my body absorbed it once more.

The rest of the room had fallen away and I paid no particular mind as I swiftly left the room, my nostrils once more shut off to the scent surrounding me.

I don't really know where I was going, but I wanted to get as far away from them as I could, while trying not to think of what it meant that their scents were mingled and what else I'd gotten a hint of.

But there was nowhere for me to really go that was far enough. But even so, even in spite of the sun and the pain that it would bring, I couldn't stay in the house.

Somehow the agony of sunlight was better then the pain in my chest that I could not hope to separate myself from. Feeling the sun as if it were a fire brand on every inch of my exposed skin, at least kept my mind of what I'd smelled... what it meant, or from picturing it all inside my head, knowing that my mind was capable of producing quite vivid imaginings as if I were seeing them happen with my very own eyes.

I didn't get far outside and away from the manor, before my knees buckled under me and the cloud of pain wouldn't allow me to go on anymore. So I merely lay on my side, curled up and swimming in that agony with my eyes shut, knowing that this was the better hell. That this I could tolerate.

X

Hands were pulling at me and I was too pain-addled to react violently to the fact that I was being touched. I really couldn't care less in that moment as I was dragged into a seated position while my arm was flung around a shoulder.

Briefly, my eyes opened and looked to see a cascade of blonde curls glowing in the sunlight and could hear the vague, annoyed mutterings as the pale arm wrapped in an iron hold on my waist was tightened before I was half-lifted, half-dragged to my feet.

Rosalie, who was bitching about me being a masochist and an idiot, at least gave me the dignity of not hoisting me up in her arms and carrying me bridal style or throwing me over her back and merely chose to drag me back inside because my feet wouldn't cooperate and take steps.

"I mean honestly, what the hell were you thinking?" she asked, as my mind finally began to function beyond the pain as it began to recede almost as soon as we were back under the Cullen roof.

I gave a side-glare to the blonde as I pulled my arm from around her shoulders. Her brow, which had been furrowed in marginal pain, had deepened after she finished her last question, almost as if she'd regretted it... probably because she knew exactly why.

"I didn't ask for help," I muttered as I straightened and was glad that although I felt weak, that I was capable of standing on my own two feet.

"You're going to need to go hunting tonight, you've exhausted your strength with that stunt," Rosalie went on, though it sounded cool and free from her previous annoyance.

"How long was I out there?"

"About forty minutes," she replied as we continued to stand in the kitchen, Rosalie now leaning against a counter while I stared at my hands.

Of course, there was no physical damage. I don't think the sun actually physically hurt us, our skin could not be marred after all by anything beyond our sire or mate's first mark, but if I touched my skin, I knew that I'd perceive a rawness that would take hours to fade.

"Why did you go out to get me?" I asked, now able to spread the numbing cold on the inside of myself while my sun-warmed skin began to slowly return to it's normal temperature.

"Everyone else is being entertained by your mutt. I figured someone ought to go check on you," she replied in cavalier tones, causing me to arch a brow at her.

"Your know, Rose," I started dryly, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're actually warming up to me."

Instead of the bitchy riposte I expected, Rose merely turned away, hiding her face briefly with her hair.

"I never really hated you," she admitted in quiet tones. "I knew you didn't make poor life choices which made you sick... I knew you were betrayed. If circumstances were different, I think we could have been friends from the start."

I couldn't help staring at Rosalie in disbelief. But then when I thought about it, none of her nasty comments had ever implied that I deserved to contract AIDS for living such a hedonistic life- that had only ever been Edward.

"But I hate change... and your presence threatened to destroy what I'd come to hold dear... this family," she went on, and yeah, I could see it now. Rose's comments against me were always about how I was going to destroy the family, because of my relationship with Carlisle- a married man. "But you do belong to this family... it took me a few years to realize it and longer for me to recognize that... I missed my youngest sister. Missed having someone else around who could be bitter, and could see and cut through Edward's crap."

"Even though Carlisle and Esme belong together and I threaten that? Marring this perfect existence?" I couldn't help asking sardonically, even as I was amazed at Rosalie's feelings and the fact that she was willing to share them now.

She looked at me for the first time since her confession started, her amber colored eyes meeting mine and she seemed reluctant, but Rosalie only bit back her tongue when she'd reveal her own vulnerability.

"When Esme left Carlisle, I never understood how she could do it... when you came along, when I saw you together... it was difficult not to see the difference but I wanted to ignore it," she replied in whispering tones, even lower than before, making it so no one but me would be able to hear it, even in a house filled with supernatural creatures.

"I'm still not sure if you're supposed to be his mate or not, but you were much closer to it than Esme has ever been. And if it's only your power that let you walk away, and is keeping Carlisle now at bay... then I think you should stop fighting it and if all hell has to break loose- then maybe it's for the best. Carlisle deserves to be with his true mate... and Esme deserves the right to find her own."

TBC...

A/n: I want to thank everyone for the reviews and for patiently waiting for this.

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