— 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒 —
𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐚, 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚

It... hurt.

God, it fucking hurt. She put everything she had into the jump—all her power, all her energy, everything into going as far as she could. Into protecting her family and taking them further than she had ever teleported before.

Further than she should ever be capable of.

But fear and determination can make people accomplish incredible feats. Even a feat as big as teleporting over 4,000 miles in one single leap.

It should have been impossible, but for Sandy, in that moment, she made it happen.

When they all appeared, Cassandra fell to the ground: her eyes closed and breathing sparse. Stephanie and Meadow were immediately by her side, shaking her and attempting to heal her.

Well, Stephanie was, Meadow only held onto her auntie's hand with wide scared eyes. Unfortunately, no healing incantations could help—because Sandy was not injured. She was exhausted and strained in all manners.

They were in a seemingly abandoned portion of a forest. Stephanie could sense they were somewhere in Canada... there were no humans around for many miles.

"Cassandra, please, you need to find the strength... I can't do this alone..." Stephanie huffed, putting all her might into trying to heal and push strength back into Cassandra.

But even the djinn knew it was a lost feat. While it was helping slightly, it was time that Sandy needed. Time to recuperate and bring her mania back up.

"Is she dead? Please tell me she's not dead!" Meadow was crying.

"She's not dead!" Stephanie said hotly. "Exhausted and strained—completely out of it and depleted of all forms of energy... but not dead."

With that, she stopped trying to heal and push strength into Cassandra. At this point, all it would do was deplete Stephanie of her own energy.

Stephanie was not powerful enough to bring Sandy back to the levels where she would be coherent.

Cassandra would need to get there naturally, no doubt over a lengthy period of sleep. Something which, given the situation, was very inconvenient.

Sandy may have been a fae, and the other two djinns, but they could not sleep in the forest.

Not like this.

"Fuck..." Stephanie cursed, standing up and spinning around in a frustrated manner. "FUCK!" She screamed to the heavens, her hands on her hips and tears gathering in her eyes.

She had just lost her husband and she was halfway across the globe with no clue if he was going to be alright. Her poor daughter was traumatized. And her sister-in-law was otherwise incapacitated and Stephanie had no means of helping her.

The sound of footsteps suddenly drew near at an alarmingly fast and quiet rate. So quiet that Stephanie almost did not sense it.

"Meadow, get behind me," She demanded.

And now it seemed there was another threat to deal with. Only a vampire could move so quick and silently.

Meadow wasted no time, darting behind her mother as Stephanie guarded both Sandy and Meadow. She was prepared to fight tooth and nail against whatever foe came against them. She was the last line of defense.

"Oh! Oh—I told you all, here they are!" A short vampire suddenly appeared.

She had choppy dark hair and bright golden eyes. A few more joined her in the next second, all of them standing feet away on a small cliffside.

A lengthy vampire man stood next to her with messy reddish brown hair, and just next to him was a brown-haired vampire with rather doe-like features. A golden-haired man stood next to them, his eyes hard and his body littered with small scars and bite marks.

Finally, the last to join was another man with golden hair, except this man appeared ever-so-kind.

All of these vampires looked exceptionally worried.

Stephanie did not need to see anything more before she realized that she stood in the presence of the Cullen family. Their golden eyes were a giveaway and the fact that they did not immediately attack them.

Of course, Sandy would only bring them somewhere that she deemed safe and protected. That's why they had gone so far.

Her magic appeared to have tracked down the vegetation vampires and brought them to their midst.

Or as close as she could manage.

"You're the Cullen family..." Stephanie breathed, relaxing just the slightest.

The vampires looked at her in confusion.

"Indeed we are, child," Carlisle answered. "But I am afraid that we are not sure who you are... Alice only informed us minutes ago of some visitors..."

Stephanie opened her mouth but Alice beat her to it.

"This is Stephanie and her daughter Meadow. Cassandra's sister-in-law and niece." Alice said plainly. "But where is Sandy? I swore I saw her with you two...?"

Bella's eyes widened along with the others. It was only Edward, Jasper, Carlisle, and herself that had accompanied Alice out here. Just a few miles from their new residence in a rural area of Nelson, British Columbia.

Alice had been rather secretive about who was visiting, but she assured them all that it was friendly visitors and she would not need any more than four to come with her.

It had been years since any of them had heard from Sandy. Not since Alice strolled onto the battlefield with Nahuel and Huilen eight years ago. Even then what Bella and the others heard had been second-hand.

Bella had not seen the fae since she left for Italy nine years ago. Back when she was still human.

Despite it all—Bella still considered Sandy to be one of the closest friends that she had ever had. And it was extremely sad that Sandy was not able to be in contact with any of them for so many years. But they understood, it was for her and their own safety from the Volturi, after all.

If the Volturi found out that the Cullens had contact with Sandy and did not notify them then the entire family would once again be implicated.

With that in the back of her mind, it was certainly odd for Sandy to show up out of the blue knowing the risks it posed. Nevertheless, she was always welcome. She was still a close family friend. They were in her dept after she convinced Huilen and Nahuel to witness for Renesmee.

At that moment, Stephanie looked at Carlisle desperately. So desperately that it took them all by surprise, even Carlisle who's eyebrows shot up in a concerned and questioning manner.

"Please, I know you're a doctor..." Stephanie begged before stepping to the side revealing a barely breathing Cassandra passed out on the forest grounds. "Can you help her?"

Three rush forward at uncanny speeds. Bella and Alice sat on her left side examining the fae while Carlise was on her right and immediately trying to determine how bad her situation was.

Edward and Jasper remained standing behind but they too were worried.

Edward's brows furrowed as he attempted to read Sandy's mind. Alas, it was mostly blank apart from the occasion abstract thought of color.

Now... that was very concerning.

Edward had been able to read minds for as long as he had been an immortal. And in that time there was only one mind he was truly unable to read and that was Bella's.

He had never been around anyone with powerful enough magic to put a blockade up. However, if Sandy had previously had a blockade around her mind, he wouldn't know.

Because there currently was not one.

Her mind was open—but it was comatose. Edward had only ever read a mind like that a few times, often when he was visiting Carlisle at the hospital.

It was the mind of someone who was in a coma.

"Magical exhaustion to the extreme. She teleported further than she ever has before..." Stephanie explained.

"How far?" Carlisle was quick to ask.

He did not know much about magical medical needs, let alone the physiology of a faerie. This was literally the first time he was seeing Cassandra in person, but he would make do.

"Over a thousand miles... I don't even know how she managed to do it..."

Carlisle quickly scooped the short and light faerie up and into his arms. She was so exhausted that her magical disguise had faded revealing pointed ears. He had no doubt that if she were to open her eyes—the natural odd color would be on full display.

The only thing that remained hidden was her wings and that was for the simple reason of her having put a spell on them to conceal it.

"Edward, Bella, Jasper, Alice, please escort Stephanie and Meadow back to our home. I need to get Cassandra into my care immediately." Doctor Cullen said before speeding off with the fae held close to him.

He made sure to hold her tightly silently hoping that his natural frigid temperature wouldn't make her current state any worse.

"I'll make sure that you're okay..." he quietly promised both to Cassandra and himself.

There was no way he could allow the last faerie to die on his watch. He would make sure that didn't happen at all cost.