CHRISSY ADMITTED TO HERSELF ONCE AND FOR ALL THAT SHE REALLY HATED THAT SHE HAD NO CONTACT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT SHE ONCE CARED ABOUT.

Beyond the way that she desired the love back into her life, the comfort and support. It had been a week since she'd seen anyone that she wanted to. Chrissy hated that she was so isolated from them.

She was protected, but Chrissy hadn't come out of her new room for much of anything during that week she was there. She just couldn't bring herself to. She saw the ghost of unknown people all around her, the face of her abuser in the corner whenever she was on the brink of falling asleep. Food was hard to stomach after her time in Volterra and Canada. It could be taken away at any point in time.

Things had indeed died down in the eyes of everyone else. She hadn't heard a peep from anyone. Chrissy even considered letting that man, Aro, get her memories so something could happen. He was still out there, perhaps hurting other girls in an attempt to get back at Chrissy and River or just for his sick pleasure.

The monster that lurked in the icy plains of Canada was still there. He stayed there whenever he could, even if there were other houses. That would explain the short periods of time that he left them inside. Chrissy felt delirious trying to put together whether or not her fears were warranted. In all honesty, she was on the verge of going mad with the idea that she could be taken again. Any chance of being taken brought her to the point where if she pondered it too long, she'd vomit.

Lack of connection with those who she adored, truly loved and needed to say sorry to, was doing wonders to plunge her mental health back into the gutter where it used to lay. Like a corpse, she didn't want to leave her bed, almost stuck to it like glue. Chrissy was becoming dead, more so every day that those who had formed a spark with her did not force her out of that room.

Chrissy heard things when the door to her room was open, though. Jacob was leaving today, or just going over to the Cullen House. Apparently there was a terrifying vampire after Bella. God, Chrissy didn't like the sound of her, but she knew what that felt like.

"We should get her up and ready to leave with Emily and the others," a man said outside of her door. "Who knows if Victoria will attack our imprints if she finds out we're helping the bloodsuckers. They're fucking vicious and vindictive and Emily-"

"-Sam, Emily will be okay. Chrissy will be okay. There is nowhere more safe than Forks we can send the two of them to. We can't separate the little one from her Mom," Jacob tried to reason. "Unless we sent all of them to Italy, to be housed by the Volturi. I doubt anyone would look for them there."

"That vampire that took your imprint already took her from there," Sam said back. "He would take them hostage."

"Andrei doesn't search places twice. That's what Chrissy said in her sleep yesterday. It's the best option, if we're moving them, but honestly I don't think we should." Chrissy heard Jacob sigh from just right beyond the doorway. "Leah can stay here and guard the imprints. She's strong."

"She has something to lose now."

"It's not that, Sam. She may hate that you imprinted on Emily, but she would still protect her because we're a pack, whether she likes it or not."

Chrissy felt the tension from the door, and slightly through a bit in her head that had been forming over the past week. She hated it. It felt like being watched, like the weird feelings that came up around Edward, who never stopped staring through people. Or maybe it was into people. Either way, it was horrifying.

The tension hit her head in the form of a pain right in her temple. It felt like someone was angry, but didn't want to say it outright. A passive aggressive way to get their points across.

"You need to have more trust in Leah, Sam. You know what kind of a person she is. She's rough around the edges but she's been really good with Chrissy. I can tell that this is working," Jacob defended Leah to Sam. "Be easier on her, she's very territorial."

"Yeah, aren't we all?"

Chrissy had heard this guy multiple times and she did not like him one bit. He felt too young, too bold. It was almost entirely men his age that had the audacity that he did. He was the declared alpha of the pack her mates were a part of. Chrissy wished that Jacob was the pack leader, perhaps then she wouldn't have this raging headache.

"Stop it," she heard it as a whisper in her head. Distinctly Jacob's voice, "Whoever is doing that just stop- everyone can feel it."

I can too, Chrissy thought to herself.

"Shit, who was that?" an unknown voice asked if her head. So, she was dealing with everyone being linked together, the wolves asking questions to one another.

At least the voices were faint. Jacob probably had a worse headache, or better, depending on how being a wolf worked. Chrissy was too confused with what she was doing with her life to ponder those questions. What use would it be, anyways? The supernatural is so undiscovered by her human self.

"Yeah that was weird. Maybe Leah?" Another said.

God, it sounds like there's kids in my head, Chrissy thought as she dragged herself out of her bed. Glad I can't have kids cause I'd really rather die.

"That's so fucking dark what the Hell-"

"Seth- stop-"

Chrissy's face paled as she listened to the slightly disembodied voices fight in her head. She couldn't stop her thoughts from running.

Oh fuck who hears me? Fuck stop thinking. Stop. Fuck. Fuck me why- stop thinking. Stop.... stop. Fuck.

Her brain felt like death, her mind already not wanting to be where it was. Now she was embarrassing herself by speaking into some mental link that was now carving itself out in her head. What a horrible start to this whole thing, really. A bad end to the week and a terrible way to say hello to everyone.

It reminded her of saying something you weren't supposed to in school and then feeling like you had a target on your back. She had to stop this, shut up the link somehow. She didn't want to hear the squabbles, the confusion, none of it. She said the truth of it, some of the voices sounded like young kids and she didn't want them in her mind.

Edward was bad enough now that she knew he had been reading her mind the whole time, she didn't need another form of that. She had put that behind her.

She tried to ignore them, focus on getting better clothes on. She was still in a shirt and her underwear. Leggings and a smaller t-shirt would have to do since she and Leah only shared a pants size. Leah preferred tighter fitting shirts than her. She supposed once she turned into a wolf it wouldn't matter, since those shirts seemed to go bye bye pretty quickly.

"Did anyone check up on the Cullens today?" Sam's voice got louder in her mind.

"No- were we supposed to? I thought they were doing fine."

"They're down so many people that I don't know what they're going to do. It's going to take every one of us and them to take down this army. Jasper isn't back and that's their little warlord." Sam was not happy about so many people leaving them in the dust. He didn't like them, but them being gone meant much more work for the pack.

"I doubt he's coming back. I heard Alice at training today." Another one of those young voices.

"What did she say?" Leah, her protector.

"That they're legally divorced now." The voice stopped before it continued, "God, that group is full of drama."

"How's she taking it?" Jacob asked. "They were pretty close. In love."

"Pretty badly. Despondent during training. Rosalie's mad at her too so they're not talking. That family is falling apart as we speak," Sam responded.

"Maybe that'll get them the hell off of our land," Leah posed the idea, "If they all break apart, mates aside, we could get the place all to ourselves."

"They'll get booted when Victoria is dead and we all head over to Volterra to state our case," Jacob reminded everyone. "Aro didn't like that they were just on our land with no damn reason as to why. Now that the Volturi know, we can figure this out."

"Didn't they keep your imprint hostage?" Sam sounded dumbfounded. "You want us to trust the people who kept an innocent hostage?"

Chrissy had heard enough for herself. She thought into the link as she was trying to get her shoes on, I really wasn't that innocent. I did threaten to expose them to the human world and burn them all myself. The only reason I'm alive is because their mate would be upset if I died.

"Exactly, Sam. Aro's forgiven her and now she's with us, so there's no worries of her exposing anyone for anything. He seemed pretty upset with Carlisle over the territory dispute when I was over at the Vampire house," Jacob said. "Shit, who is doing that by the lake?"

"Tweaker?"

"Since when do we have tweakers in Forks, Embry? Save that for Seattle."

Chrissy felt a shudder through the bonds, like something had been carefully pulled open. Within an instant a little thing, she didn't know how to describe it, was added. Maybe it was like planting the seed for something.

"Alright, which one of you was that?" Sam questioned the group that was still talking through the mind link. "Seth, Embry? Which one of you was it?"

"We need to get Carlisle!" the voice was frantic on the other side.

"What?"

"She needs medical attention right now!"

---

HE FELT TERRIBLE, LOOKED LIKE HELL, AND STANK LIKE DEATH IN AFTER A BATTLEFIELD.

Nothing had worked in his favor in the past four months. Moving on was unlike him. He stayed in place, trying to get closer and closer to what used to be. It never worked. He never let it. That would mean opening up his heart and throwing everything else out into the air. Talking out the pain and suffering of his past felt like a complete waste of time. Who would want to hear his woes anyways?

But that was everything underneath him. He didn't allow those feelings to come into discussion. He was a predetermined with isolation as his prize for killer instinct and venom coursing through his once plump veins. Andrei was cold, machiavellian in the ways he needed to be. The world would be his oyster soon enough, as soon as he got what he wanted from everyone around him.

That was what people felt when they got into these types of things, right? There was a use to people, to humans above all. Even vampires were cold in this way, they had to be. What kind of creature wanted to come out of their den only to show their bellies to another. For sex? You could get that out of any wandering human, damn if they lived or not.

No, vampires had one use for one another: power. It was what made Andrei glow with delight. His gift shaped that of their psyche. He was their only source of power, he took all of theirs. He reveled in that fact of his life, almost as much as he adored doing things he wasn't supposed to. Like a child, glee with the concept of never getting caught. He knew what they didn't know.

Andrei crawled through the centuries like a debased rat, infecting his peers with a gift that kept him out of their minds. He could say whatever he wanted, do whatever he wanted. They wouldn't 't remember. Nobody would remember them either, if they went searching. Nobody had power over his mind, not even that fucking Aro Volturi, a man who said he could keep vampires safe from the Romanians and humans alike.

He did not need protection. Others did, but he hadn't since his discovery of his gift. He was a cold man, just like those in his family. Unfeeling, uncaring, it was how they survived. Nobody cared about you beyond their familial obligations. His mother told him that. She also told him that nobody would ever love him, that if he wanted real love, he was searching for Jesus in Hell. He should rather find the best option, fluff his feathers like a peacock, and find a wife.

She died in childbirth when he was eight, his brother did not survive.

Perhaps that was why he wanted a way to have his own bloodline in a way that would not kill. He wanted children, sure, but he didn't want a human that had control over him. He didn't want to fake love for years just to get a child. Fake love for months? That was possible. But as the years went on, Andrei began to realize that the modern woman was unable to be tamed. They had so much control, so much power. They could leave a man, they could escape their duties, they could escape their fates.

How could his beloved mother not escape hers, but these women could?

Andrei was raised by his father to be strong. He could not be burnt, he could not be evaded. He could hunt, he could kill. Andrei could do whatever he wanted because was that not what he deserved? Vampires could manipulate those around them, it was not so rash to believe he could have a few women to himself, to find out a solution to his issue.

Carlisle Cullen had put a damper to those plans.

He'd only turned him because he reminded him of himself when he was younger. He'd been inside the church, sat in the services. In mass one day, the priest had told of how his wife had done her duty and given him a son, but at the cost of her own life during the birth.

Carlisle looked like Vitya. Blonde, like his mother. Blue eyes like his father. He'd been so beautiful in the church, so much so that it enraged Andrei. Enraged him so much that he found him one night during a raid of alleged witches, wolves, and most importantly, vampires. He'd been helping a woman before leaving himself vulnerable. The torch was in his hand.

Andrei had used his gift to remove his face from Carlisle's memory, but he knew that Carlisle would either die like Vitya, or survive. In a way, he hoped he'd die. Die like his mother. Die like the woman at the hand of the man. The father, the priest, the holy man of the community. The tale had been said before, been sung so many times that the throats of women were raw and burning. Andrei couldn't care less, they could starve, could burn, could scream until their throats closed up.

God, Andrei wanted to scream as he grabbed onto his hair and pulled. There had to be a way to fix this. Children of the Moon were holding the last chance that he had at making his plan work. He did not want to start over, he'd started over too many times. Fourteen times. Fourteen. That was only in the past two centuries.

Nothing before that time even had a hint of a chance at working, he realized this when he met Chrissy and River. The two of them had blood that made it work. He could smell it on them. Very few humans had the scent of blood like the two of them did. Cora had it but she was shivering and useless. Myrri as well. River, hers smelled the best.

He only had one of the original two that he wanted. Andrei hated this. Children of the Moon were the only species that he knew he wouldn't be able to fight. His gift would be useless against them. Damn it! He'd believed that the Volturi were thorough! Of course that blabbering idiot for a king could not even do this one important task. Andrei had waited for over three centuries to even start his plans just so he wouldn't run into the issues of a territorial wolf.

Children of the Moon were territorial, aggressive, and their bite was lethal to any vampire. Andrei would be unable to take her back.

So he spent the day pacing, ignoring the girls that he'd taken to kill and to assess. They did not matter to him during this time of shame. Andrei only had one woman on his mind, the obsession becoming a point of near pain as he slammed a fist into his wall, completely tearing through the wood and dry wall. The notes he'd written in the walls were visible ands Andrei screamed in anger.

He was only pulled from his rage by a knock on his door.

Andrei almost ripped the door from its hinges as he slammed it open, revealing none other than one of his most loyal vampire playmates. He was never fooled by her, by her sister. They were greedy things, angering things. Sulpicia was better than her sister, God rest her soul, but she didn't have the skills of her soul sister. She felt hollow when they fucked.

In all truth, she was a worse version of him. Where he did not feel much of anything, she did. He was angered, she was upset. She had sadness in her eyes where he would never, never allow such an emotion to pierce into him. She was weak to him, and she knew how he felt. Perhaps that was why Andrei couldn't fuck her properly, never showed her a good time. She wasn't good enough for him.

"I have brought what you wanted," Sulpicia said with very little soul in her eyes. "The maps."

"I do not need the maps, you idiot." He'd already mapped out the lair that was that blasted castle. The ancient castle that held the most self-righteous people to ever exist.

Sulpicia rolled her eyes as she so often did, an unfortunate trait that she'd gained from her soul-sister, and one she continued in the wake of her death. Andrei believed she was lucky that he hadn't killed her, that he hadn't simply forced her to do his bidding. She was a vampire, and thus Andrei did have a bit more respect for her than if she were human. She was lucky she was immortal, Andrei did not tolerate the disrespect from mortals.

"You do not have the lower levels, the dungeons below and the infernal pits. Nor do you have the secret passageways," Sulpicia quipped with a clear venom in her voice. "Do not be arrogant. I would not have spent my precious time coming here if I were giving you something you already know."

Untrue, Andrei wanted to snap. Too many times Sulpicia had given him information that was barely more than he knew. It was why River was now unable to be had by him.

What a useless woman. No wonder this was who Aro wished to turn. She was beautiful, but what more to her was there? Such a hollow husk of a person. Pure ambition with nothing underneath. No real goals other than wanting to fuck whoever was on the top of the pyramid of Vampire politics.

Sulpicia, forever too bland to be a leader.

He found most people bland. This woman in font of him, however, was the worst kind of bland. Never wanting to deal with the consequences of being so utterly boring. No hobbies other than being in other people's business. What a bland life. Andrei could simply never think someone with that kind of normal face, normal attitude, was worthy of his higher respects.

She should have known he had the ability to get into the castle. She knew of his gift.

"I did just fine coming through the side," Andrei snapped, his hand on the door growing rigid with his anger. He could snap it, but the weather was still unsuitable for air to go through. His little subjects would be too weathered to be assessed. "You should leave."

"There's a lot of heartbeats in your house," Sulpicia noted. "Can I have one?"

Andrei notably did not share. Not his prey, not his women. What a silly thought to express. She was trying to rile him up, get under his skin. She was so good at that. The perfect example of a bitch. His mother would agree. She hated women like this, knew women like this. Churches held these harpies, half the reason why he didn't go. The other half was his acceptance that he was hellish, demon spawn.

"No," Andrei said plainly, his eyes still narrowed and distrustful.

Sulpicia shrugged and turned around, not saying goodbye before she left. Of course she didn't have any manners, women like her never did. Too high and mighty to say a simple farewell to a man she hated. Andrei wished he didn't have to bother with her, but she was useful to him, and he would never throw away someone useful. Rather, he preferred to keep those with the most use close to him.

Close, but still under him.

Alas, he had more important things to do, people to keep quiet now that the heat was coming.

The heat always came, death comes after.