— 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔 —
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬, 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

Aro, Marcus, and Caius sat silently in their throne room. Santiago and Afton guarded the other side of the closed door—they did not have a trial starting for another few hours. Hours would fly by quickly for a vampire, especially as they sat around the long wooden table looking akin to statues.

There was no need to make conversation at this moment in time, not when the conversation had been flowing much over the past few days. Only the Elite Guard were made aware of the presence of their mate, their most trusted.

They did not need such delicate information getting into the hands of the wrong people.

Cassandra appeared, the fae sighing tiredly and choosing to stay on the opposite side of the room. She had done her best not to dreamwalk, but trying such a thing ultimately caused her quality of sleep to go down. Therefore, she was not surprised that she had passed out on her couch while reading a book, her lights dimmed, and warm tea sitting on the end table next to her.

It was a rare night that she and Bella were not having a sleepover, not for any particular reason, simply because Charlie wanted Bella to sleep at home tonight and Sandy wanted to enjoy the comfort of her tiny home.

No one had ever bought her an entire house before, after all, she did not want it to go to waste.

Aro was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, the only sound echoing through the large room being him flipping the page to the book.

From what she could see, Caius was reading one of the original copies of the Art of War—his brows furrowed in focus as he read through the Chinese language with ease.

Marcus had chosen to read through some sort of ancient scroll, his face melancholic as usual. He was sitting between Aro and Caius—his long hair fluttering down his shoulders in waves.

It was a rare moment indeed, and Sandy could not help but swallow heavily and appreciate the beauty of her mates. For them to be sitting so still and so silently, no tasks that needed their immediate attention—no trials to be held for a small while.

For just a moment, Sandy envisioned herself sitting on Marcus's lap between the other two, reading her book. All of them simply basking in the presence of one another.

Caius and Aro would no doubt get jealous of her snuggling Marcus so tenderly, so she would need to even it out by bestowing a kiss to each of them—projecting her love via her magic to all three as strongly as possible.

What a world that would be.

Sandy found herself ghosting nearer to all of them, her eyes taken by Marcus, in particular. Despite not trusting any of them, she no doubt leaned toward Marcus the most. If only because he was the leader with the least terrifying stories behind him. Unlike Aro or God forbid Caius and the reputation he had as a vampire ripper.

She stopped when she stood just behind Marcus, the fae realizing what she had done just a little too late. Marcus suddenly stiffened, looking up from his scroll but not daring to turn his head.

It was obvious he sensed her presence.

Caius and Aro both noticed his shift in demeanor as well.

"Marcus?" Aro questioned but held out his hand, Marcus lightly touched his hand just as he turned his head around and seemed to stare right at Cassandra.

It caused her to shift uncomfortably and shy away, the girl taking many steps backward. Alas, her presence had been detected by not only Marcus now, but also Aro for his eyes snapped to her not even a second later.

Once again, they were looking through her—they could only sense her presence. Not see, hear, or even touch her. But it was still unnerving.

"What is it?" Caius asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Do you not sense her presence, brother?" Aro responded, in his familiar feather-light tone of voice.

Easily gullible people would consider it a kind tone of voice. But those not to be fooled would recognize the wolf in sheep's clothing. See him for the true serpent he is.

Caius closed his eyes at that statement, doing his best to focus before he too snapped his head in the direction of Cassandra. Now with all three vibrant pairs of red eyes on her—she was shrinking backward, her heart stuttering.

Surprisingly, as they shared looks, their eyes had softened just the slightest. Most would not notice it, but Sandy was able to spot it because she had been ghosting around them for the past twenty years or so. She now knew them better than she cared to admit.

"Tesoro, are you capable of revealing yourself?" Marcus asked out loud, choosing to be the one to speak it.

Even if Sandy wanted to, she could not. Not that she would want to. It would take an immense amount of power to project herself so that they might be able to see and hear her—it would take so much energy that she would barely be able to hold it for a few minutes before her body passed out and left her to sleep for many hours.

Moments ticked by and there was no response, so Aro decided to try his luck.

"My dear... we know you are here... please show us who you are, you will not be harmed," Aro said, all their eyes still locked in her general direction.

Sandy stayed still, frozen as her heart pounded, and yet she was not so scared as she was unimpressed. Did they seriously think that she was going to give herself up? Not only that, but they had no clue if she even could manifest herself in a way for them to communicate.

Again, while in theory, she could for just a few minutes—she never would. She would never expose herself and put herself at risk like that. Not to mention, she would not only be putting herself at risk but all her other siblings who had run away.

Cassius, Noelle, Zulon, and Nicholas. They were all spread around the globe and while they were constantly on the move, they all kept tabs on each other and had ideas as to where they were. She might be safe from the Volturi leaders killing her solely because she was their mate, but her siblings were not.

Cassandra was not confident that they would spare the lives of her siblings just for Sandy.

"Principessa, if you can reveal yourself I would recommend doing so now... you would not like to know what happens when I am irritated," Caius called lazily before the edges of his lips pulled up in a sinister smirk.

And despite the jolt of fear that coursed through at such a statement, there was also a sharp sense of excitement that unnerved her. Because goading Caius of the Volturi was one of the stupidest things a person could do to themselves.

Both Marcus and Aro sent disapproving looks to Caius but said nothing further.

They did not move from their spots. The only response they received was Cassandra crossing her arms over her chest in classic fae stubbornness whilst scoffing.

"Puh-lease," She dragged the word before forcing herself to wake up.

————————

Sandy opened her tired eyes with a yawn, the girl dragging herself from the comfortable spot she had been curled into on her couch and to her feet. She was wearing a short white nightgown, borderline a slip with a pink robe.

She was quick to turn the lights out, brewing a small spell that was known to stop dreamwalking as it relaxed consciousness completely. The only bad thing about it was that it would make her so tired that she would most likely wake up the next day and still be sleepy.

Nevertheless, as she did not want to revisit her mates, seeing as they now noticed her presence a lot of the time, she drank it and jumped into her bed. The second she was buried under the large comforters with her head hitting the pillow—she was out.

And she did not wake up until a loud banging bounced around her house. She yawned as she got up, stumbling out of bed and putting on her robe before rushing to her door.

She was not surprised to find Bella Swan standing on the other side of her screen door.

"Is there a reason you're banging on my door this fine morning?" She yawned.

It was raining, the sky a murky grey as the heavens cried. Because of this, it was nearly impossible to tell what time of the day it was just on the skies alone.

"Morning? It's 4 in the afternoon, Sandy, you missed school. I have your chem and math homework for you," Bella's teeth chattered from the cold despite the thick raincoat she had on.

Her hood was pulled over her head to protect her hair.

Sandy's brows furrowed but she was not surprised—it's why she hated taking that potion. It was a good way to catch a restful and dreamless sleep, but it always made the user sleep longer and still wake up tired.

"Damn it," She groaned, but quickly let Bella inside and shut the door to protect them from the cold air.

Bella rubbed her shoes on the mat by the door, taking them off along with hanging her wet coat on the coat rack. Sandy was quick to fly to the kitchen to prepare a snack for them; crackers and spinach artichoke dip.

Bella had already made herself at home on her couch, flipping the small television on and raising a brow at the Lifetime movie that was playing.

"So, why'd you sleep in so late?" She questioned Sandy as she came back holding snacks. "Thank you by the way..." She hummed while swiping a cracker and dipping it.

"Mmhmm," Sandy hummed back, smiling at the flavor of the snack. She had to admit that this was certainly the best era of food thus far—she could never have imagined the world would grow to have so much flavor in the culinary arts back when she was living as a slave in the 1800s'. "I took a drowsy potion to stop myself from dreamwalking, they're starting to notice my presence when I'm there and try to communicate with me."

Bella coughed at that. "Communicate? By doing what, seances? And is that actually what you call it, a 'drowsy potion'?"

Sandy snickered. "No, Bells, they just try to talk to me... and yes, what's wrong with a drowsy potion?"

"That's surprisingly boring, to both of those. And nothing's wrong with the name—I just expected something a little... I don't know? Magical? Latin?"

"Latin?" Sandy guwaffed. "Let's see, the translation in Latin would be 'Potio Dormitaverunt', would you rather me call it that?"

Bella gave a thumbs-up. "Most definitely... also Mike and Jessica broke up and Mike kinda asked me on a date earlier..."

Sandy started hacking at that, hitting her chest. Bella panicked slightly. "Ah! Put your arms up—arms up!"

"I'm fine," Sandy slapped Bella's hands away as she tried to force her to put her own arms in the air. "All good!" She breathed heavily. "Now, say that again! Mike asked you out on a date. Baby-faced and destined to live a nice little cookie-cutter life, Mike Newton?"

Bella cringed while nodding. "Yeah, and I felt bad so I said yeah..."

"What?!"

"But then I invited Jacob so that Mike realizes I just want to be friends and it's nothing more than a friendly hangout," She spoke quickly, emphasizing 'friendly'. "And it would be awesome, and I would love you more than I already do if you would come with me to put extra emphasis on the 'friendly' part..."

Sandy groaned, smacking her face with her hand. "Ugh, I hate being a teenager!"

"You mean pretending to be a teenager?" Bella laughed.

Sandy shrugged. "Eh, who cares, if 30-year-old actors can star in teenage rom-coms, then I can pretend to be eighteen for a few months... wait till we get to college, that's when life gets fun!"

Bella nodded slowly. "And you won't need to pretend to be any younger than your physical age anymore,"

"Exactly!" Sandy snapped her fingers while standing up. "Now what movie are all of us seeing?"

Bella spoke while biting into her cracker. "I was thinking Face Punch?"

"Seriously?" Sandy asked while walking to her closet. "That series is terrible—not to mention, as sweet as Mike is, he's a total marshmallow! He's not getting through that, and frankly, I might not either!"

For as much as Sandy had been through in her long life, for as much as she had seen, and as many injustices and horrid tales she had been faced with—she was soft. For an immortal, she cried at the littlest things and was rather sappy. In a nutshell, for being over three hundred, while she was not naive, she was innocent.

And again, that was innocent in terms of a three-century-old fae who had been abducted and faced with injustice after injustice for the better part of her life.

"Haha!" Bella threw her head back, a genuine laugh spilling from her lips. "I believe in you! Besides, what says Mike-you're-awesome-but-you're-only-ever-going-to-be-a-distant-friend more than Face Punch!"

Sandy wandered into her bathroom as she started changing—pulling her hair back into a low ponytail and throwing on her denim jeans.

"Bella, that kind of movie does not exist!"

"Well, Face Punch is the next best thing!"

Face Punch was, in fact, a rather strong sign, especially when Bella pulled up with not only Sandy but Jacob as well.

"Put your gun down,"

"Put your gun down or I'm gonna blow your fucking head off,"

"Both of you put both of your guns down or I'm going to blow both of your fucking heads off,"

"All right, forget it, let's do this!"

And with that the movie screen started flashing as guns went blazing and the sight of blood and gore from people being hit with bullets was shown.

Cassandra was covering her mouth with her hand, snickering throughout the entire movie. Because it was legitimately the worst thing she had ever seen.

Mike Newton was put off the entire time, and when they were barely halfway through the movie—his stomach lurched and he had to race off to the bathroom.

Sandy was third-wheeling behind Jacob and Bella as they talked, all of them following Mike out of the movie. Face Punch was not good enough to finish.

Or in Mike Newton's case: to gory to finish.

She watched Bella and Jacob take a seat on the steps, both of them speaking to each other naturally. It was hard because while there was definitely chemistry between the two—Sandy just knew in her heart that they were better being close friends than anything else.

Especially with Edward in the picture. Bella would never choose Jacob over Edward. Over her own mate.

She stayed leaning against the wall a few feet away, people-watching. Humans were so interesting: going about their lives, some with smiles, some with frowns.

She and Bella were dressed similarly: dark-wash denim jeans, a thick flannel jacket, and Chucks. They were dressed to beat the cold. Her hair was fluffy in its place and pinned down in a low pony-tail.

Sandy was doing her best to ignore Jacob and Bella's conversation. With her hearing, she could easily tune into what they were saying but she did not want to eavesdrop on something that was obviously meant to be private.

It was already late for a school night, nearing 10 o'clock. Sandy was debating skipping another day of high school.

After all, it wasn't like she actually needed it, the records wouldn't take her anywhere. She was attending under a completely false and temporary alias.

"Aye, yo, shawty—can I get your number?"

Sandy blinked in shock, looking at where the cat call came from. An idiotic group of teenage boys passed by her. The one who had tried to shoot his shot was a boy with a similar skin tone to her own. She realized then that he was also mixed. He was tall—a very attractive boy with light cocoa eyes and thick curls.

Despite his outward appearance, the words that flowed from his mouth were not so much. As much as Sandy was able to keep up with the times, the one thing she simply could not get with was how this new generation of people tried to make romantic advances. Better said—sexual advances.

Call her old school, but Sandy missed the days when she would be 'hit on' with poetic words of admiration.

Nevertheless, the words amused her more than flattered her.

"In your dreams, sweetheart," She tsked, and the group of guys made 'oohs' and other burning sounds to the guy who had tried.

The teenager only rolled his eyes, the group continuing to move past—acting extra rowdy on their way out. Sandy was pretty sure they were a group of teenagers from Port Angeles, they had been sitting in the back during Face Punch hoarsing around.

Somehow, the situation had distracted her from Bella and Jacob enough that she was jumping in surprise when Jacob stood up from the steps he had been sitting on and threatened Mike. Apparently, Mike had returned sometime in the last few seconds.

Sandy was there within a split second, placing herself between Jacob and Mike.

"Jake, Jake, what're you doing?" Bella grabbed his arm, doing her best to hold him back. "You're really hot—are you okay? I think you're running a fever."

Sandy stared at Jacob harshly, tilting her head. With her eyesight, she could easily see the telltale signs of an impending wolf transformation beginning to take place. He had mere hours before the wolf within him broke free—less if he continued to get worked up.

"Jacob, you need to calm down," Sandy commanded sternly, her voice hard as she did her best to emanate positive emotions toward him.

"I need to go," Jacob grunted, pushing away from them all and storming out of the movie theatre doors.

Bella looked at Sandy in a confused manner, but the fae only looked away. She could not tell Bella—her human friend would need to figure this out on her own.

"We should all get going," Sandy suggested, leading the way for both Mike and Bella to head out.

Thankfully, they had all driven separately, apart from Bella and Sandy who carpooled.

The drive back was filled with Bella's worried rambling for Jacob, and Sandy simply humming in response. However, she made sure to reassure her friend that Jacob would surely be okay.

Over the next week and a half: Jacob had gone MIA. Something that he never had done before, especially to Bella, and it was enough to tell Sandy that he had transformed.

Bella was, of course, freaking out—no matter what Sandy told her. Bella was becoming upset with Cassandra because she knew the fae was hiding something about Jacob from her. As much as it hurt Sandy to lie, she said nothing as she knew Bella would be able to figure it out on her own.

Billy was telling Bella that Jacob was sick with mono, but of course, she was not buying it in the slightest.

It was only after Bella went to see Jacob and he apparently broke off their friendship that Sandy began sleeping in Bella's room with her every single night. They barely stayed apart, Bella needed her now more than ever.

She was suffering both the loss of Edward and now Jacob—and admittedly, she was afraid that she was going to lose Sandy next. That would be her breaking point, she needed the fae more than words could describe, and Sandy was more than happy to be there for her.

During the nights, a lot of the time Sandy would dreamwalk, and a handful of those times—her mates would notice her presence and attempt to communicate with her. Marcus would bargain kindly, Caius would threaten, and Aro would... well Aro would just chat to her cheerfully. She ignored them, finding humor in the way they tried to get her to do anything back.

It was also slightly funny because they could only do this when they were in their own privacy or when the Elite Guard was present. Everyone else did not know they had a mate and they therefore could not compromise such delicate information by speaking out loud.

It was apparent that they were believing that she could not communicate back with them.

Which was true... to a degree.

Sandy tried to not think about it much during the day, and she especially tried not to think about how the Volturi leaders were slowly growing on her. They seemed to act more carefully when they felt her presence, not so violent or thoughtless.

It was also interesting that Sandy had not seen Sulpicia or Athenodora in quite some time. She knew they were still with the Volturi, it just seemed her mates had not visited them and they made no attempts to seek them out.

No matter what, she would always be first and foremost terrified of them.

———————

It was a rare time that Sandy was in the Swan residence without Bella. Rather, she was cooking dinner for them all while Charlie and Harry spoke quietly on the couch, watching the television as they cleaned their shotguns.

Bella had told them all that she was going to make a quick trip to the store.

Sandy had offered to go with her, but Bella denied it and asked if the fae instead minded starting dinner. Cassandra did not mind, but after nearly forty-five minutes of Bella being gone, she began to worry.

The store was not that far away, it should not have taken Bella that long.

Thinking back on it, Sandy realized that Bella had been in a rush—was she lying about where she was going?

It made Sandy sick to think about, because not only was Bella currently a danger to herself, but Victoria was also out there.

A few more minutes passed by, and when dinner was finally completed—a vegetable soup—Sandy put the spoon down and prepared to go find Bella herself. But as she turned around, the front door suddenly slammed open and Bella raced inside, her breathing heavy and face red.

"Dad! Sandy! I saw them! I saw it!" She cried furiously.

Sandy was by her side in an instant, checking her over in worry—mouth agape. "What? What're you talking about? What happened?" The fae demanded, smelling the stress all over Bella.

There was also the slightest scent of a vampire, it made Sandy shudder in horror. But there was something, something even more prominent. It was the scent of...

"Wolves! In the woods! It's not bears out there, it's giant wolves!"

"In the woods?!" Sandy clamored.

"Bella, what the hell were you doing out in the woods?" Charlie sighed, shaking his head at her.

"Guys, listen to me—they are wolves—I mean like HUGE wolves!" She exclaimed.

"Are you sure about that, Bella?" Harry Clearwater questioned, his eyes momentarily darting to Sandy.

Sandy bit her lip in understanding, Harry knew that she too was not human. He also knew that whatever she was, she was nothing that they had to fear based on her attitude and presence in Forks.

She was not like the Cullen's. She was no vampire: Sandy was not a danger to humans.

"Bella, maybe you should sit down?" Sandy tried while leading Bella to a chair, but Bella shook her head defiantly.

"No, no, Sandy, you don't understand..." She grasped her friend's hands desperately. "Giant wolves—they were after..." She trailed off, a guilty gleam in her eye that had Sandy's heart dropping. "...Something..."

It was obvious that the 'something' they were after was a vampire and not one of the Cullens judging by Bella's reaction. If Sandy was willing to guess, she assumed that a vampire was ready to kill Bella out there and the wolf pack saved her just in time.

Bella easily could have died today. And Sandy would have been far too late—but if she was certain about anything, it was that she would have found the vampire who did it and destroyed them.

She could only pray the wolves were successful in killing this vampire.

Any vampire that was not the Cullens was dangerous to humanity.

Then again, and even Sandy could not deny this, humanity was dangerous to themselves.

"Wolves?" Charlie nodded his head. "You saw them... alright well, Harry, feel like going hunting? Get some of your guys together?"

Harry hesitated before slowly nodding. "Uhm, sure, yeah..." He spoke, walking away most likely to make a phone call to the pack.

Sandy watched him go with furrowed brows of worry. Charlie followed soon after, and it left Sandy and Bella to sit at the table together. Sandy was watching Bella with her arms crossed and an unimpressed look stamped upon her face.

"Sandy, I know what I did was stupid... but by now, those wolves are no doubt dead and Laurant probably told Victoria that it's just me—"

"Laurant? That's who that vampire smell is?" Sandy cut her off. "Bella, first of all, trust me when I say that Laurant in most likely dead, and if he's not then I'll destroy him myself if he comes around again. You're intelligent Bella, think about it, those wolves are not normal... they protected you against Laurant, and they would do it again."

Bella looked confused. "What do you mean—?"

"I also need you to never do that again, please. Look, the woods aren't safe to be wandering around in general, but with Victoria after you, it's even more unsafe. Don't lie to me and tell me you're going to the store when you're not..." Sandy said quietly, tone sad and worried.

Bella bit her lip and nodded her head. "I'm sorry, and I won't, I promise..."