Aleesia began to pull away from her deep sleep and come back to her senses, immediately regretting that decision. There was a pain at her neck that felt like someone was pressing a branding iron to her skin over and over, driving it deeper into her flesh each time. She wanted to reach up and swat at the area or push away whatever was causing the pain but her arms wouldn't lift from her side and she couldn't open her eyes or shout at them to stop because she couldn't find her voice.

On the up side, she smelt something familiar that calmed her slightly. The scent of Cinnamon and peonies, her favorite smells in the whole world. This told her that her mate's were somewhere nearby. That meant that she was not dead and that she was safe.

Alice sat beside Aleesia on the bed in their room at the main house, looking down at the injured girl as if she expected her to wake up at any moment. Aleesia lay there with a bandage secured to her throat and her left hand and ribs wrapped tightly after being set properly by Carlisle. Bruises littered the girl's torso, throat and arms from where she had fought the vampire they had been trying too hard to keep away from her. The bastard still found a way through though.

Alice felt shattered and she could feel the fury rolling off of her mate who stood against the wall by the door. His arms were crossed, hands fisted and his eyes were closed. His face was an eerie mask of calm but she knew better. Jasper wanted blood. He wanted revenge on the vampire that had dared touch his mate and threatened his niece.

Alice brushed her hand along her mate's head, feeling to see if the fever had gone down at all in the last hour and sighed when it still felt the same. It had been two days at this point and though Carlisle assured them she was doing as well as could be expected, they still worried. They didn't know what effect the venom would have on her body. So far they had discovered that it caused a very high fever and slowed down her healing. The wounds that she had should have taken no more than a few hours to heal but they had not.

Alice hated this. She hated seeing Aleesia in the condition. They should have warned her when she had the vision of an unknown vampire coming to the area but they had decided not to tell her, thinking it would keep her out of harm's way. They made the wrong decision. Instead they left her unaware and vulnerable and she had been hurt. If Alice could cry her face would be covered in tears. She wanted to scream and break something but that would only upset Esme and wouldn't fix the situation in the slightest.

She felt a sudden wave of calm wash over her and she turned to look at Jasper who had not moved in the slightest.

"Don't, Jasper. I deserve to feel like this." She whispered, the guilt building inside of her. She should have told Aleesia about the danger. She should have been there to protect her instead of hunting for the vampire.

"It's not your fault alone Alice. We made the decision as a family." He murmured and then sighed and pushed himself off of the wall.

"We should have told her." She whispered brokenly, " We should have been there. Why didn't I see this happening?"

Jasper reached and pulled her up from the bed, wrapping his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest.

"You can't blame yourself every time your visions aren't perfect, Love. None of us saw this coming. We did what we thought was best at the time. Now we know we were wrong." Jasper said in a pained whisper. He was trying to make her feel better but nothing helped.

Alice knew he was torturing himself as much as she was. The whole family was in shock. Jacob and Renesmee were probably the worst. Renesmee hadn't talked since they got home, opting to be alone in her room and Jake just stared into space or ran perimeter checks in wolf form. Alice knew the young wolf was blaming himself for not getting there fast enough after he had crossed the vampire's scent a few miles from the house.

There was a light knock on the door before it opened Carlisle entered, making his way to the side of the bed. Alice and Jasper stepped away silently, giving their adoptive father room to work. He felt for a temperature and checked her pulse before lifting the bandage to examine the wound. He wanted to make sure there was no sign of infection as they weren't really sure how strong Aleesia's healing and immune system was. They knew very little about her medically.

"Fever is still there but slightly lower. Pulse is better and her heart sounds strong. I think it will be okay as long as the venom doesn't attack her system any further." Carlisle said quietly, marking his notation on a pad he was keeping on the bedside table with her vitals on it. "Her wound seems to be healing but it will definitely leave a scar."

They both nodded and Jasper said, "Thank you, Carlisle."

Carlisle gave his son what he hoped was an encouraging smile before turning and leaving the room to go find his mate who was stress baking down stairs.

What seemed like an eternity of pain later, Aleesia forced her eyes open. She was in an unfamiliar bedroom that held very little decoration to indicate whose it was. The only furniture was the large bed she was laying on, a dresser against the far wall and a night stand table to the right of the bed. There was no art or media. Not even a TV. How boring.

She sighed, trying to ignore the burning pain at the back of her throat that signaled her thirst and the tight burning sensation at the side of her neck. She tried to push herself up so she could sit up to do an assessment of her injuries and she felt a twinge at her side that made her flinch. She figured that meant that her ribs were still healing. It took a minute of struggling but once she was sitting upright she flexed her hand to test if it was still broken or not but it felt fine and there was no swelling so she figured that part had healed at least.

She took a deep breath through her nose, inhaling the scents around her and slowly released it through her mouth. Her mate's scents were there but they weren't super strong meaning they had left a while ago. Carlisle's scent was a little stronger meaning he had been in recently, probably to check on her.

She figured there was no point in staying in bed if she felt decent enough to get up so she swung her legs over the side of the bed, flinching a little at how weak she felt and the stiffness in her joints. She glanced down at herself, realizing she had on a light gray tank top and a pair of pajama pants she didn't recognize but she shrugged it off. They probably belonged to Nessie or Alice.

She made her way out of the room and down the hall to the staircase, slowly, carefully testing each step to make sure she didn't fall down due to how weak her muscles felt. She made it to the top of the steps before someone noticed. The second her foot hit the top of the steps Carlisle was at her side, taking her arm to make sure she was steady.

"You shouldn't be out of bed yet, Aleesia. Your body has been through a lot and needs time to heal." He scolded and she shook her head.

"No, I'm tired of being in bed. Plus I'm starving like I haven't eaten in days. My stomach feels like it's eating itself." She explained and pouted, rubbing her belly with her free hand, wrinkling the fabric of her shirt slightly..

"That's because you've been unconscious for four days. Like I said, you need to rest and heal." He said, and she couldn't tell if this was his father side or his doctor side talking. Maybe both?

"I'm going downstairs, Carlisle. I'm hungry and I'm tired of being in bed. If I felt bad enough to stay there I would have stayed there. Now are you going to help me down these stairs or not? I can always try stair sledding." She suggested with a raised eyebrow while gesturing at the steps.

Carlisle sighed and shook his head before gently lifting her up and speeding down the step into the living room of the main house. He gently set her down on the couch and she looked up at him annoyed. He gave her a sheepish smile as Esme hurried over with a tray that held a steaming bowl of soup and some crackers.

She thanked her before looking down and frowning at the hospital food. She sighed but figured it was better than nothing. Her stomach probably wouldn't appreciate anything heavy at the moment anyhow. She sipped on the warm brother happily until the whole thing was gone and Esme returned to take the tray away from her.

"You rest dear, the others will be back soon." She said, patting Aleesia on the shoulder gently.

Carlisle did his thing then, moving in front of her to check her pulse and temperature. He nodded and smiled, saying," Your temperature has come down significantly and your pulse is good and strong. I'd say you're well on your way to being healed. I was worried about the effects the venom would have on you because of your genetic makeup but you seem to be okay."

"Thanks for taking care of me Doc." Aleesia smiled at him and relaxed back into the couch cushions.

"Any time Aleesia, just please don't make this a habit." He replied giving her a 'don't you argue with me' kind of look.

Aleesia grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV as he took a seat on the other side of the large couch and grabbed a book from the floor. She guessed he had been reading when he heard her at the stairs.

About ten minutes later she heard several sets of footsteps enter the house. She assumed the family was back from whatever they had been doing and looked up from her spot on the couch just as they entered the room.

"We lost him about ten miles out. He was circling the town, headed north." She heard Edward say, probably talking to Carlisle who had stood up from his seat and moved to greet them.

"When I get my hands on that vampire I'm going to-"

Emmet's rant was cut off by Alice who gasped and appeared in front of Aleesia a second later.

"You're awake! You're okay!" She cried, sounding like she didn't believe it as she cupped Aleesia's face and her eyes scanned over her. "What are you doing out of bed? Carlisle, why is she out of bed?" Alice asked, directing her attention to where he was standing near the kitchen island.

He held his hands up in surrender and said, "She wouldn't go back to bed. She threatened to try stair sledding so I carried her down so she could eat something."

"I'm fine Alice, what did Emmet mean by vampire? Were you hunting the guy that attacked me?" She asked, sitting up a little straighter and eyed the people in the room.

Alice stood up but made no move to get any further from her. Edward and Bella stood by the kitchen island with Carlisle and Emmet and Rose were standing just inside the doorway. Jasper was nowhere to be seen.

"Of course we were hunting him. We aren't going to let him get away with attacking you!" Edward said, wrapping one of his arms around his wife's waist.

"Bastard's had it coming." Emmet growled, "He keeps slipping by us somehow like he's blocking his scent or something."

Aleesia whipped her head over to Emmet and asked, "Keeps slipping by? As in, you've hunted him before?"

"Emmet you dumbass!" Rose hissed, smacking her mate on the back of the head.

Alice stepped away, looking down at her feet and rubbing her arm nervously. Emmet suddenly found the ceiling interesting and the rest of the family wouldn't meet her eyes. They knew. They had known that he was here and that he was a threat and they had chosen to keep it from her.

"How long have you been hunting him? How long have you known he's been in town?" She asked, trying to suppress the white hot rage that was slowly building inside of her.

"Aleesia-"

She cut Carlisle off, growling, "How long?"

"Since the day I brought you groceries." Alice answered quietly, guilt dripping from her voice.

Aleesia closed her eyes and took a deep breath while pressing her fingers to her temple to try to relieve a building migraine. She didn't know what to do or how to process this information. These people, people that claimed to care for her, had put her in danger by withholding information from her that put her life at risk. Now not only was she a target but so was Nessie. She doubted they had done it with the intent to harm her. She was sure they meant the exact opposite but it had still happened. Then another thought occurred to her and she felt a sharp pain twist in her chest as she realized her own mate's had lied to her. They had lied by omission. And she had nearly been killed.

Aleesia let out a shuddered breath and opened her eyes to stare at the floor. She didn't want to look at them. She didn't want to see the look of guilt in their eyes or hear the excuses she was sure would come. She was angry. She was hurt. She wanted to be alone.

She stood up to go to the stairs but Alice grabbed her arm and rushed out, "Please Aleesia, we were just trying to protect you! We don't know who this man is and he is obviously a danger! We are trying to figure this all out! That's what we've been trying to do since I had the vision of him coming!"

Aleesia ripped her arm out of Alice's hold and replied in a cold voice, "The next time my father is trying to kill me, I'd like a little warning." She heard them all gasp, sucking in an unnecessary breath but she didn't care. It didn't matter now.

She tossed one last thought to Edward, unsure she'd be able to keep her voice steady. He's after Renesmee now too. Be prepared.

With that she went to the stairs and climbed them, returning to the room she had woken up in and curled up in the bed. Then and only then did she allow the tears that had been burning her eyes to fall.