Chapter 12

"We are blessed, my child, blessed by the goddess Artemis, and bestowed upon the abilities to fight monsters. Monsters that would have normal humans run in fear. Monsters of the underworld, and who walk on Earth." She smiles down at me, running her fingers through my hair as I rest in bed. I no older than ten.

"What about daddy?"

"Your father is different than us. He doesn't need to be blessed, for he was born with the capabilities to destroy monsters."

I want to ask my mother what dad is, but my ten-year-old self doesn't need too. She already knows something I don't remember. She knows who her father and mother are, where they came from, what they are and what she is. While I lay here watching this dream go by, knowing I am stuck in the background with no choice but to wonder and pray, that someone will give me all the answers.

"Are people traveled across the land after Artemis blessed us, searching for strong female tribes so that we may learn other techniques and master the ways of fighting. From the Amazons to the Vikings." She pokes my nose playfully, "And one day, you'll learn all the skills you need to fight off demons, vampires and all the other beasties of the world. But you will be better than even I. You will be glorious."

Glorious. All I have been doing since my memories have been lost is run away. Tell me about my father. Tell me why I am different. Explain to me so that I can know myself. But the words don't come out of my ten-year-old self. She closes her eyes and starts to slumber, while the world around me darkens and start succumb to waking.

I wake up to silence. The house is dead quiet – a normal trait I notice in a house full of vampires. Majority of the time they were out about doing something, reading, studying, learning, it wasn't until recently that they started cooking for Jake, Bella and I. Something the whole family but Rosalie enjoyed. When I look around I notice Jacob isn't in the room. Usually he's still sleeping by the time I wake, snoring away on his back, he doesn't snore when he's on his sides.

I kick my legs off the couch and sit up. The fireplace is turned off and there is no smell of food lingering. I start by searching the bedrooms on the third and second floor, but no one is in, and then Carlisle's office, and the kitchen, and the multiple other rooms used for random things like the piano room and the living room. I even check down in the garage where majority of their cars were there. Maybe they went off to get something to eat? I hadn't seen them feed or leave to feed since I had arrived so it makes sense. They probably go as a family on some occasions. Yeah, that must be it. But then, where is Jake?

I head for the side door of the garage and exit the room to go outside. There is a slight drizzle with a gray overcast. The smell of rain and pine takes up majority of my sense. Other than the rain, it is silent out here too. Too quiet. No sound of birds chirping, squirrels or chipmunks roaming, or bugs. Not even the wind is blowing.

Maybe it is just a dull day. And I am looking to into things. But then I start to get a gut twisting feeling that something is off. Something is out of order, out of all of this. I should go back inside – but the house is worse than being outside. It's much quieter and lonelier. I plainly don't want to deal with loneliness. Not after learning my father and mother were slain by a vampire and I have no idea where that vampire may be.

I head for the stream Jacob and I were at the day before, blushing as I remember our little intimate moment. My fingers linger across my lips as I walk. It is unlike Jake to not be around ever since he admitted he imprinted. He's been pretty much glued to me ever since, not that it bothered me any.

When I reach the embankment I sit on a wet boulder nearby and stare off into the stream. My brain turns off for a small bit, having me think of nothing and no one while it rests. But then the image of my father circles in my mind and the picture of Apollo. Apollo, god of the sun. My heart races against my chest, and I look down at my hands and arms, remembering the bright yellow light. Could I be the daughter of a God? The daughter of Apollo? Could I be a demigod? What does that even entail?

Maybe I should go back inside and look it up. Learn about the possibility of who I am, it might jog my memory a little bit.

But when I get up, that twisting gut feeling escalates and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Something in the depths of my soul is telling me I am being watched. Slowly, I turn around for the house, ready to make a run for it when I spot a young man standing a few feet directly in front of me. My heart stops for a second.

He's a tall young man with dirty blonde curly hair that surpasses his ears and black eyes. He's pale, pale like a vampire but the most distinctive feature I notice as I see him is the smell of sulfur. This is no man. I can tell. This isn't a vampire, I know this.

I step back, and he steps forward.

"Who are you?" I ask. All of me is itching to run away but I am afraid I might be too close – that he can reach out and grab me right here and now before I can bolt.

"I've been looking for you," he speaks fluent English with no accent. Much different than the vampires that have been chasing me. He wags his finger at me, takes another step forward. I leap back off the boulder since I had no more room on it, and step into the stream. The water is freezing over my sneakers, wetting them till my toes feel like icicles. "You got away from me that one time."

"And I will get away again." I hiss.

He stops wagging his finger and grins widely. "I like your spirit, so I will kill you quickly."

Something starts to happen, a deep trembling of sorts all over his body. His chest leans forward and his arms elongate. Next thing I know, he bursts out of his human shape which turns to ash and flutters to the ground, and there stands an ugly beast. It's hairless, with long ears with torn holes, gnarled teeth that are needle-like and dripping yellow saliva that sizzles when it touches the ground. Red eyes with no pupils, gray skin like a statue, bent backwards legs that were made for running with three talons for toes and black claws for hands. It has a pair of thin bat-like wings that spread open wide. The bottom of the wings looked tattered and worn but they are large and strong. The very word 'demon' screams out to me.

I should have ran before while he was transforming but I couldn't stop watching. This sort of thing doesn't happen every day.

"Shit," I curse to myself, angry I let my curiousness get the better of me. The demon throws its head back and that's when I take my chance. I leap into action and burst further into the woods kicking up water, mud, and leaves onto my pants when I do. The demon lets out a shrieking scream that echoes to me as if he's inches away from my ears. It's so loud that immediately after, a ringing begins to vibrate in my ears and something warm and wet dripples down my ears.

I am fast. Very fast. I think faster than a human. But from the sound of swooshing coming from above, not fast enough. The demon had taken flight and is now above me, his large wings batting branches and leaves at me. I have to look up to avoid getting hit causing me to slow down to dodge the trees ahead of me.

We remain like this for what seems like minutes. Me running and avoiding being hit from either angle, and him batting his wings down at the trees, trying to break through the tree canopies. I don't know why he just didn't run after me but then I remember Jake, and the wolf pack, and the Cullens'. Everyone who can help me. They are land creatures, capable of outrunning me and probably this demon – probably capable of taking down this demon and killing it, if it was on land. That means – it has most likely been watching me this entire time.

We keep running until I reach another stream that is much wider than the last one with a deep embankment on both rocky sides. I don't stop running, but I don't think I can make it either but I have to try. My feet touch the edge of the rocky embank and my legs push off with such intensity that leap all the way to the other side, slipping on the edge when I make it. But I quickly maneuver back into running.

The moment I land I realize the ground here is different. It rumbles under my feet, a heavy pounding like something large is coming. There is the sound of howling coming from all over, and before I know it, gigantic wolves are coming out of the bushes and from behind trees. They keep to my pace, their eyes looking up above as they growl and bark at the flying demon. If only I can get that demon to land, the wolves can take over from there.

Focus. Focus. Focus. I think of the light that encircles my hands and arms, and try to will it to appear now. There are sparks that flash from my hands but not yet enflame. I think of my mother as she laid fallen on the ground, bloodied and broken. I think of my father, his head cut off as his body falls to the ground and turns into marble. My arms feel warm as the sparks turn into a yellow light that surrounds forearms and hands. I skip to a stop, aim up and concentrate on the sound of the demon. The wolves surround me, encircling my body as they continue to watch up above as well.

I pull my right arm back like I am holding a bow, and take a deep breath. When the demon is in sight, I push my right hand up into the air aimed for the demon, and out blasts a yellow beam striking the demon in a wing and forcing me to skid backwards. The demon wails and shrieks, but not nearly as loud as before, and plummets to the ground.

When he lands the wolves are on him so quick that he disappears from their bodies taking over. They tear and rip, their heads going side to side with their teeth gnashing until there is nothing left of the demon. They slowly step back with nothing but a decrepit body broken on the floor of the Earth.

Now that the demon is dead, I notice my heart is racing so quickly in my chest that I have to stop what I am doing and sit down on the ground. I bring my knees up to my chest and rest my head in between them as I try to catch my breath. The sound of shuffling can be heard in front of me, but I am too dizzy to look up right away. The sound of sniffing follows, and I realize, it must be one of the wolves. After a second of resting and gathering my sight back to normal, I look to find a reddish orange wolf lying down ahead of me. His large brown eyes watch me attentively.

No one else of the pack, but Jake, would get near me, so I safely assume it must be him. Gingerly, I reach out for his muzzle and gently place my hand against it. He's warm, just as Jacob is in person, and damp from the rain. The rest of the wolves continue to encircle us but slowly now. Their eyes watching us carefully. Slowly, I stand back up, my legs wobbling pathetically underneath my weight and as I do, Jacob's head follows me but he remains lying on the ground.

"Thank you," I say out loud for all the wolves to hear. And then I look down at Jake, "Can you take me back to the Cullen's'?"

With how weak I am currently, it'd take me a bit to walk back to the Cullen's', if I can even find my way back there. He nudges my hand that rests at my side, and I take that as a yes.

His strong, trembling muscles flex underneath me as he races us through the damp forest. A spray of mud and leaves kick out from underneath his massive paws. I lower myself against his back so the wind doesn't whip my face, the smell of rain comes off of his reddish orange fur. No matter how tight I hold onto the hackles of his coat, I still feel as if I am about fly off, a feeling I'll have to get used too.

It only takes us a minute or two to get to the Cullen's from where we were at. The other wolves having left our side the moment I asked to be taken. By the time we get there, no one was still home. Jake lowers his body close to the ground so I can slide off without hurting myself and I step a few feet away. "I guess you can't turn back without a pair of clothes." He shakes his head in agreeance with me. I look up at the Cullen's three story house and frown, I really don't want to be here alone. What if another one of those demons comes for me? Or another vampire?

"Are you going to leave?" I ask, looking back at him. He shakes his head no.