Over the next few days, Eleanor had been introduced to the tanned, spiky haired boy she had seen at school. His name was Jacob, and - according to Bella - he was a werewolf.
He seemed surprised by her uncaring attitude, to which Bella just told him to get used to it - there wasn't much that would actually cause a reaction from Eleanor.
She also met the rest of the pack, seeing as they were the ones watching over her and Bella.
Apparently her nonchalant philosophy seemed to leave a lasting impression, with the younger ones especially. Seth and Embry seemed particularly enamoured with her, flexing their abs as they introduced themselves. Eleanor shook her head as she retreated back inside, smirking as Embry called out.
"I could watch over you in your room if you want? Some one on one time?"
Eleanor spent a few hours with Jasper, over the last few days, in the daisy filled field as she practised her power. Refining the control she aimed to exercise.
Their relationship had been different, since Jasper's question. Both of them had acknowledged that they cared for the other, but now an air of uncertainty had settled between them.
Eleanor didn't regret her response, it distanced them just as she had hoped. But she couldn't deny the longing she felt to be honest with him - instead she simply embraced the numbness, drowning her feelings with it, it made it easier to be with him.
It didn't go unnoticed by Jasper. He felt the return of the emotional detachment, loud and powerful as it rolled over him - as if all the progress she had made had regressed.
He walked her home after each session, seeing as the intruder was still at large, and she relished each moment of it.
Eleanor arrived home to find Charlie and Bella in the kitchen, both looking down at a missing poster. After making herself a cup of coffee, she joined them.
"Who's that?"
As she caught sight of the face printed across it, she felt her heart momentarily stop.
It was him. The red-eyed intruder, but he looked different here. He was smiling, happy and innocent.
"Riley Biers. Local boy missing in Seattle."
Eleanor took the poster from the table, analysing each detail carefully, "You mind if I take this?"
Charlie agreed reluctantly - not sure what use she would have with it, but he had a whole stack of them in the cruiser.
"Bells, you making dinner tonight?"
Eleanor answered before Bella could, "Me and Bella agreed to have dinner with Cullen's tonight - if that's okay?"
Bella sent Eleanor a strange look. Charlie looked between them, before shrugging, "Sure - I wanted a steak anyway."
"We should probably go, actually."
Eleanor grabbed Bella's keys for her and marched out the door, Bella said a quick goodbye to her dad before following.
"What was that?" Bella questioned as they got in her truck.
Eleanor showed her the poster.
"Yeah he's been missing for a year-"
"It's him, Bella. That's who broke into our house and attacked me. It's him."
Bella's silence reflected her confusion as she drove slightly faster.
Edward was outside as they pulled into the driveway.
"What's wrong?"
Eleanor strode past him, into the living room in which the Cullen's sat watching the news. She stood before the TV, slamming the poster onto the coffee table.
"That's him."
Carlisle picked up the poster, "The intruder?"
Eleanor nodded confidently, "Riley Biers - he went missing in Seattle."
"Seattle, huh?" Carlisle looked back up to the TV.
'Seattle is in a state of terror. Police are baffled by the escalating murders and disappearances, theories range from a vicious new gang to a wildly active serial killer.'
"It's getting worse, we're going to have to do something."
Jasper spoke, "It takes more than one of our kind to cause the damage they're reporting. Quite a few more - they're undisciplined, conspicuous-"
Edward nodded, his hand in Bella's, "It's newborns."
Eleanor recalled the experience Jasper had with newborns, she sympathised wit him - it must remind him of his past.
"What like new vampires?" Bella sounded confused.
"The first few months after the change," Edward answered her.
Jasper continued, "That's when we're at our most uncontrollable, vicious - insane with thirst."
"Something to look forward to," Emmett smirked from his seat on the sofa.
"Yeah, sounds like fun," Sarcasm dripped from Eleanor's voice as she spoke, Emmett chuckled. "So what? Someone's making a newborn army?"
"No one's trained these newborns - but this isn't random." Jasper looked up at her, worry evident in his eyes.
"Eleanor's right." Carlisle nodded toward Eleanor.
"Well now we're definitely going to Seattle." Emmett stood from his seat.
"An army of vampires?" Bella's concern hidden by scepticism.
"They've been created to fight someone."
"We're the only clan even close to Seattle."
"Regardless of why they've been made, if we don't put a stop to the me the Vultori will." Worry clouded Carlisle's features, "I'm surprised they've allowed it to go on this long."
"Maybe the Vultori's behind it. In Italy, I read Aro's mind - he wants me and Alice to join him but he knows we never will as long as our family's alive."
"No army could solve that for him." Jasper's jaw clenched, his eyes still locked with Eleanor's.
Silence settled in the room for a few moments, before Carlisle stood.
"Eleanor, may I have a word."
She nodded, assuming this was about his research into her condition, which was confirmed when Jasper followed her into Carlisle's office.
"I've been researching your current situation - I've found some promising things."
He lifted a book from a pile on his desk, it was bound in navy, with a silver titled printed in Latin across the front.
"This volume details a medical condition of sorts - it's more like a rumour or theory, no real evidence or proof to it's existence. It is described in many ways - 'cum malediceret regi vitam', translating to being cursed with life, or 'adhaesit inter mundos', meaning stuck between worlds."
Eleanor listened intently, eager to hear Carlisle's diagnosis, of sorts.
"But it's most frequently referred to as 'sorte mortis', translating to chosen by death."
Eleanor's mind wandered to the shadowy stalker that seemed to haunt her - perhaps the dark figure was death itself. She had escaped his clutches after all.
"If my translations are correct, the text details souls that had escaped death. This cheating of death results in some symptoms as 'death' attempts to collect the soul he is owed, including a 'loss of humanity',"
She thought of the months she had spent without so much as a whisper of emotion or pain - only emptiness.
"And a manifestation of death's own power, which often causes elements of the humanity previously lost to return. And with each use of his power, death slowly claims the soul he is owed, like a trade."
Eleanor let Carlisle's words sink in.
She was right, she decided, she was fated to die and death itself would make sure of it.
"This is still speculation, of course. The details varied across accounts but this was the main idea." Carlisle wasn't certain how to interpret Eleanor's silence, he looked to Jasper - who had been listening from the corner.
He made his way over to Eleanor and linked his hand in her own - making sure she knew she wasn't alone.
Carlisle turned to the large bookcase lining the walls of his office, "During my time with the Vultori, for the first few months with them there was a man - a human man, named Charles in their company. At the time I didn't know why Aro was so fascinated by him, bringing him from England. But now I believe he was like you, sorte mortis."
He pulled a black leather book from the shelves, it was nearly falling apart at the seems.
"He died, I assume, after a few months but I managed to keep his journal. I thought it may be an interesting read but I couldn't make much sense of it, maybe you will have more luck."
Eleanor took the book when Carlisle handed it to her, bound in plain black leather that seemed hundreds of years old.
"So, if I keep using these powers - each time I use them death will, what claim more of my soul?"
"If these texts are correct, that's how I understand it."
"Well what am I without a soul?"
Jasper answered, his voice steely, "Dead."