Author's Note: Chasing Away The Shadows is for all intents and purposes volume II to In The Shadow of the Day, but to avoid confusion I decided to give it a new name. I didn't want to expend too much space recapping, so if you find this story and want to understand more of the background please go to my profile page and read In the Shadow of the Day first! Thanks and welcome back all of you who fell in love with Seth and Lina the first time around, I hope you're as happy with round two as I am to write it! Please Read and Review!

Disclaimer: This story and it's prequel were inspired by the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. Thus being the case, I don't own the rights to any of the original characters. This is not intended for copyright infringement purposes.

1. Birthday Surprises

"Wake up Lina…wake up my Angel…" The voice of the love of my life penetrated my dream and pulled me happily toward consciousness. "Lina…" I felt his warm soft lips brush across mine as I felt one of his hands rub small light circles on my stomach while the other gently combed through my hair and across my forehead. I could feel the smile spread across my face before my eyelids obeyed their mental order to open, but then they slowly followed suit as the vision of my fiancée Seth leaning over me from his seat on the side of my bed fluttered into clarity.

"There are those beautiful green eyes!" Seth said with a warm smile. "Happy seventeenth birthday Angel!"

I leaned up and slid my hands around his neck as I pulled his lips to mine, quickly increasing the intensity parting his lips with my tongue and exploring happily. The giggles of my sister, Alice, standing behind him with the rest of my family informed me that we were not alone and I pulled back slightly placing another small peck on his lips before turning my smile to them. It's been nearly four months since Seth officially asked me to be his wife while visiting his family in La Push on New Year's Eve, and after that I was less and less embarrassed about displaying open and unrestricted affection in the presence of my family.

My family all stood along the back wall of the room with balloons and presents in hand, obviously not able to wait half an hour for me to get cleaned up and come downstairs before throwing me a party. "Happy Birthday!" they all shouted enthusiastically in unison and I couldn't suppress my laugh knowing that they will probably still be just as overly enthusiastic on my birthday when I'm eighty as they were today.

"Thanks everybody…but can't we hold off the party until AFTER I get out of my jammies?"

"Sorry sweetie," my mother, Esme, said softly as she crossed to hug me, "But Seth has already claimed you for the whole weekend so we only get you this morning and we're not willing to waste even one second of it!"

I wrapped my arms around my mother's cool neck looking up at Seth with a mixture of speculation and accusation in my gaze. He just chuckled lightly and fidgeted excitedly in his place on my bedside. He looked like a little kid on Christmas morning anxious to rip into the presents…except in this case he was giving the presents instead of receiving.

Each of my family members made their way over to me giving me hugs and laying presents on my lap. I didn't know why they insisted on giving presents because they spoiled me to death anyway. I have never been in want for anything in my life, and they even built and furnished a house for Seth to live in to be near me for Christmas for goodness sake! As I began to open my presents I was slightly confused by the strange theme that they all seemed to share. Each and every one seemed to be travel oriented. I got a new big purple suitcase with the nice swivel wheels from my parents, a whole barrage of new clothes from Alice and Jasper (although I'm sure Jasper had little to do with it) for warm, sunny weather, and a beach kit that included a new swimsuit, towel, sandals, and suntan lotion from Rosalie and Emmett. I blushed quite profusely at the swimsuit that would probably make Seth happy, but didn't please my parents very much…and I wasn't sure I had the confidence to wear it anyway. Edward and Bella gave me a new digital camera with a massively huge memory chip and Jake and Ness gave me a new iPod Touch already loaded with some games and a ton of my favorite songs.

"Wow you guys, thank you…but am I going somewhere?"

They all smiled and rushed over to give me one last hug and kiss and then left me alone with Seth. He smiled at me knowingly.

"Go get cleaned up and bring back your toiletries. We have to be leaving in the next hour to catch our flight."

"Where are we going?" I asked as he started packing my new suitcase with the clothes I had just received.

He turned to me and kissed my nose, "That's for me to know and you to find out. Now go get ready and don't try to figure out my surprise!"

I crinkled my forehead as I went into the bathroom ignoring his order and analyzing my gifts in order to figure out where we could possibly be going. I stepped into the shower mindlessly and got myself ready for the day as I contemplated. The clothes were warm which would imply south, the beach kit indicated somewhere sunny and with a beach of some sort, and the iPod implied that the trip might take a while and I might need some entertainment. I couldn't for the life of me think where it could be though and we really only had a three day weekend to fit it all in before I had to be back in school on Monday. Technically I was supposed to be there today, but my parents always let me skip school on my birthdays. They were always so cool like that. I finished getting ready and dried off my shampoo and conditioner and threw all of my toiletries and necessities into my little travel bag and made my way back down to my bedroom.

I walked in to find that Seth sitting waiting with the bag fully packed, I guessed Alice had come back and helped him finish to make sure he covered all of his bases. He took my toiletry bag and tucked it into a small space left for it and then turned back to me wrapping his arms around my waist and reaching down resting his forehead on mine.

"You just can't resist trying to solve a good mystery can you?" he said as he bent down to kiss me again. "I can't help it, I love driving you nuts!" I stuck out my pouty lip knowing that he can't resist and giggled as he pulled it between his to suck on it gently before placing a long sweet passionate kiss on my lips right after which always left me smiling.

He looked over at the clock and took the suitcase off the bed telling me to hurry or we'll be late gesturing for me to get dressed into the outfit that Alice had laid out for me and rushed out the door closing it behind him. I went over to examine the outfit. It was unusual for Alice and consisted of very lightweight clothes layered under heavier ones. I smiled in realization that they were designed to strip down as the weather got warmer as we transitioned from here to wherever our destination was. I threw them on and went downstairs to find that everyone was gathered to wish us a safe journey. I was especially surprised to see that there were no bags for anyone else. I knew that it would have to most likely be Jake and Ness that accompany us since the plans included sunny locations, but there was no indication that we were being chaperoned this time. I looked up questioningly and Seth smiled knowingly before making his way out to his Camry and throwing my bags in the trunk. I shrugged and hugged my family and followed him out waving goodbye as we drove off toward the airport.

"Is this some kind of trick? Where's the supervisory escort?"

"Eh, after Washington they realized that Jake and Nessie sort of suck at it and we did a good enough job keeping ourselves in check that they sort of gave up on chaperones. I think considering that we could manage to do whatever we allow ourselves to basically anywhere, including home, that they decided it was silly to even try."
I giggled a little at the Jake and Nessie comment and then listened open mouthed in shock at the rest. I finally closed it when I thought about the past few months. "I guess they have been pretty laid back about everything lately. I hadn't really noticed because well a lot of our standards are self imposed, but I guess you're right."

He reached over and took my hand from my lap and pulled it up to his mouth to kiss it and then continued to hold it as we drove on.

We arrived at the airport and checked in our luggage and made our way to the gates hand in hand. Seth would occasionally look down at me with the hugest smile on his face as we made our way through the terminal. He still had managed to make sure I was annoyingly unaware of our destination. I sat and wiggled in my seat, anxious to solve the mystery of my surprise birthday trip. After a while Seth reached over and grabbed my face between both of his hands and kissed me sweetly and lusciously, not unlike how he had done the last time we were waiting at the airport to fly back to Washington to meet his friends and family and pack him up to move near me. The only difference between that time and this is that we were far more comfortable with one another. As usual, Seth had to be the voice of reason, pulling me back from my hormonal overdrive. He pulled back and ran his fingers down my back comfortingly just as the speakers overhead announced flight two oh seven for Los Angeles boarding at Gate 3.

"Well that's us," he said with a wide smile, having sat us in front of gate 8 to Houston in an attempt to throw me off the scent.

"L.A? Really?"

He reached his arms around my waist leading me to the line with our carry on bags over his shoulder. "I promised you didn't I?"

I vaguely remembered us talking in passing about it back when he made his first trip out for the movie website when we first started becoming friends. The movie, which came out in January, was a huge success along with the amazing web design that got lots of attention. After that Seth was inundated with more work than he could ever ask for. The only bad part was that it led to two week-long trips to LA to work on the new sites and gather research, but the money was so good that neither one of us could complain. Seth spent a lot on me from time to time, but otherwise he saved like a miser and already had quite a nice nest egg saved up for our wedding, honeymoon, college tuition for me which he has been insisting that he wants to pay for in spite of my family's arguments, and to build our first family sized home when we thought we were ready…and all before I was even a senior in high school!

Sometimes it was overwhelming realizing that so much of my life was already planned out for me at such a young age, but a bigger part of me was glad. How many people are lucky enough to find their soul mate and KNOW that they belong together with no question at all. The beauty of imprinting erased all of the uncertainty, not that I would have had much besides the worry that Seth might imprint on someone else if it hadn't been me, but thankfully that was a problem that had been erased forever the first time he saw me in person.

We found our seats on the plane and settled in for the seven and a half hour trip ahead of us. First we had a short hour and a half hop to Chicago with a short thirty-minute layover and then a four and a half hour flight from Chicago to LAX. I quickly found that I wasn't in need of Jake and Nessie's distraction, which was their own little private joke regarding our last flight when we went to Washington where we were embarrassed by their unending make out sessions, public displays of affection were no longer an issue for us. We were still being good, well relatively at least, but we had definitely become more and more comfortable with the upper halves of each other's body since our engagement.

Actually it had been our drive home from Washington that led to the destruction of the shirt hem barrier. We did good the first day or so after our engagement, while still remaining as respectful as humanly possible under his mother's roof, but pretty much the first night of our cross-country road trip home the barrier was shattered. We left mid morning on New Year's Day after loading Seth's belongings. Ness and Jake drove the Uhaul and Seth and I drove his car. We made it ten hours that first day stopping in Missoula Montanta to enjoy the scenery before the bleak and nearly endless stretch we were about to face across the Great Plains. We had plans to leave around dawn and make as much distance as we possibly could, not stopping until late in the evening.

We stayed in a beautiful little hotel that overlooked the picturesque skyline, the great and beautiful Rocky Mountains in the distance. We intentionally asked to be given a room on the opposite side of the hotel as Jake and Nessie. They had gone a whole week in her grandparents' house and we had the strong feeling that distance would be a very smart thing to ask for. We sat for the longest time cuddled up in the comforter on the balcony just enjoying the view and the crisp mountain air. With the comforter capturing Seth's body heat, it was really quite cozy…but once the kissing started without the knowledge of family nearby and no unexpected interruptions to stop us, things got more than a little heated.

It was wonderful how amazing he made me feel, the simple caress of his lips on the tender flesh that had always been confined behind the tension of my bra was enough to send me into a frenzy. We were surprised when we encountered a very unexpected reaction from myself though. It seemed that my body's instinctual reaction to his lips and tongue caressing that previously forbidden area involved a very pleasant, and yet nowhere near helpful for our restraint, movement of my hips. At first we were so caught up in the thrill of the moment that we sort of went along with it for a while, Seth's body reacting instinctually with my own as his attention to the new flesh intensified and his hips moved in circles with my own, both of us releasing soft moans in response. We continued on like this for a full minute until I breathlessly moaned his name and somehow that brought us back to reality. We froze, both breathless, looking at one another with wide eyes as he lay on top of me in the bed, his arousal suddenly extremely obvious against my leg. He slowly rolled over to lay next to me while keeping his eyes locked on mine and I pulled the sheet of the bed across my torso as we both lay there unable to pull ourselves any further apart, but also knowing that we had to.

Finally I broke the silence asking if a run would be helpful to which he quickly rose and left the room leaving me alone. I also needed help cooling my overheated libido, so I jumped in the shower, hopping in the cold water and fighting to quiet my screams. Finally satisfied that I was sufficiently past my issues, I dried off and put on the most modest pajamas I could find and crawled into bed, hoping that Seth was okay and would be back soon. Thankfully he climbed into bed and snuggled up to me a few hours later and whispered into my ear, "Now that was…interesting!" I giggled and pulled his arm tighter across my waist and drifted off to sleep.

Since then we haven't crossed any new barriers knowing that the instinctual hip movements are more than enough temptation for a while, after all we still have a full year until I'll be eighteen and we will have kept our promise to one another, but in the meantime we have learned to embrace the reaction a little more. Of course on the plane in public we kept our affectionate displays to simply kissing, but we were most assuredly annoying many of the passengers on both plane trips with our incessant cuddling and kissing.

We landed in LA, grabbing our luggage and getting a Taxi. Seth gave directions and I sat back and watched the chaos of the LA traffic zoom around us out of the car window. We went north along the expressway, passing by the many buildings as we traveled. I recognized some of the tall skyscrapers, not knowing any of their names with the exception of the Empire Records tower. We traveled further along seeing the Hollywood sign as we passed, still heading north. Finally we turned off traveling toward the ocean and stopped in front of an amazing condo which appeared to sit right on the beach.

Seth paid for the Taxi and carried our bags up to the front door letting us in with a key in his pocket. I walked in to the beautifully decorated living room of the condo. I was ecstatic to see I was right, I had a viewpoint all the way through the house in order to see a sliding glass door that opened directly onto a deck that led down to the beach and the ocean beyond.

"Wow Seth, this is amazing!" I said looking slowly around the swank digs.

"Loaner from the director of the movie that I'm doing the site for. He offered it when I was down last month and mentioned wanting to bring you out this way for your birthday. You like?" He said sitting the bags down and walking back over to hug me around the waist.

"I love!" I giggled throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a long appreciative kiss.

He swept me up into his arms bridal style. "Wait until you see the rest of the place!" He said carrying me up the stairs and opening the door with the hand that was holding up my knees as he took me on a quick tour of the upstairs before taking me to the bedroom which had a huge window overlooking the surf and laid me on the bed and leaning down over me to kiss me again more passionately. "Happy Birthday Angel." He whispered into my ear as he teased it with his lips. I sighed in delight and then pulled him back to me for a long thank you kiss.

We stayed there for the next hour, enjoying the romance of being away together and enjoying the sensations of exploring one another. Finally we reached that point we always do where we have to pull away or risk breaking our promises and moved to sit cuddled up in each other's arms against the headboard to gaze out at the blue ocean beyond the large windows. He lazily ran his fingers back and forth across my arm, occasionally placing kisses on my face, as we sat for the next half hour or so soaking in the scenery.

Suddenly Seth looked at the clock and mumbled something about dinner reservations and shuffled me off to the bathroom to get cleaned up bringing me in my toiletry bag and a long garment bag that I hadn't noticed before telling me to get dressed up and put it on. I quickly cleaned up and pulled my hair up into a loose French twist the way Alice had taught me leaving a few tendrils of hair down to frame my face.

I opened the bag to find a long elegant royal blue satin gown. I was a little shocked when I put it on because the neckline and bodice showed far more cleavage than I typically felt comfortable with. I growled Alice's name like a curse as I pulled the matching wrap around my shoulders trying to find a way to wear it to help make myself feel less exposed, but with little luck. I slipped on the black stiletto heels and clipped the dangly diamond ear rings into my ears and placed the matching necklace that filled the uncovered space on my chest and narrowed down to a crystal heart pendant that dangled just above my exposed neckline. I sighed into the mirror feeling very relieved that the evening would be taking place with the one person I felt most comfortable with in the world and a bunch of strangers who I didn't know and would never see again. I shook my head in the mirror thinking of my devious sister and her sneakiness knowing I would have no other choice but to wear it and that being so far away from home I would manage to rationalize going out in spite of my discomfort. I took another deep breath and prepared myself to step out and wait for Seth's reaction.