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***Christian's POV***

"Love, I don't mean to rush you." I stare at Leah expectantly. I can see her nerves rushing over her pale skin leaving a devastatingly beautiful flush of anxiety upon her flesh.

With a slow breath that looks to be painful, Leah gives a small nod of her head. Whatever is troubling my love seems to be exhausting. I just want to hear what it is so that we may work through it. I want Leah to expel the anxiety from her system as soon as possible. Her discomfort is actually physically painful for me through our bond.

"It's Josie. Well, actually, I mean it is his family." Leah sends a pitiful wave of sympathy towards both Tony and Josiah.

"What do they want, now?" Josie conveys a very frustrated dismissal upon hearing his family's involvement in whatever poses a threat.

"Your aunt has requested a peace offering of fifty thousand dollars." Leah looks apologetically at me. If money is what she worries over, she need not worry at all. That amount of money is nothing in comparison with easing my love's suffering. I would pay twice that for either my beloved or my best friend.

"Well, let's go straight home. When is the money due?" Tony all but rushes towards the entrance of the forest that we had walked through only a few moments ago.

"It is not that simple." Josie holds a hand up before bringing his fingers over the bridge of his nose. I see his eyes roll in distaste as he pinches the marble skin covering his cartilage.

"I would never call you obtuse my love, however I do believe that your family is only asking for a small purse. I would be happy to give them any amount of money in order to keep you safe." Tony slowly walks back to his previous post to slide his arm around his precious beloved.

"I would not say I am the quickest in any direction. I will say that my family will never be satisfied with any amount you give. They do not want me. That is a given. However, they would not have pursued me in the first place if they did not have an inclination that you are more than capable of giving in to their demands, on repeat." Josie looks as if he is tired from the mere thoughts that are dancing behind his beautiful blue orbs.

"We could kill them, all of them." Leah snarls the promise out with a vicious threat.

"That would be the best route." Josie raises his eyebrows with a wicked grin that should be too evil to adorn such an angelic face. It is utterly amusing to see such a contradiction within one's features.

"I would prefer if we did not." I speak up with the hopes that any of these three are listening. I already know that Tony has mentally killed the faceless cats a dozen times in the short period that we have been talking.

"Yes, Christian, we know." The condescending tone of my Sire's voice is not lost on me. Tony is more brute and brawn. I am the one who tries my best to keep blood from my hands. It goes against my nature to strike first without a true provocation.

"We could pay the bounty. We could see where that gets us. Although, I know that we are wasting our time." Leah shoots an exasperated glance in my direction. I can tell that my beloved is only trying to soothe my compassionate side. I appreciate the effort.

"Sure." Tony hisses the grunt through his teeth. I am thoroughly enjoying watching Tony make an attempt at rational behavior. Gods be damned, this man is not one to hold back his strength. The idea that he is making any progress towards a peaceful resolution is a testament to his love for his beloved.

"They would like to meet at sundown. I would assume that Josie should be there." Leah looks to me for confirmation on how we will handle the situation. I am not impressed with that idea. I do not believe that our friend would be safe as a new vampire amongst feral cats.

"No bueno." Tony shakes his head adamantly.

"I will be fine, Sir. I promise I will stand beside you. I would like a small amount of closure to this rat race." Josie bats his eyelashes while running his thumb over Tony's jaw. The light twinkles effortlessly behind my burly Sire's eyes. Josie is capable of manipulating Tony into anything.

"Josiah, I would die a thousand harsh deaths before a single curl on your head is disturbed. Do not be so childish as to believe that I will not kill your entire family before your radiant blue eyes." Tony obviously means this to be a harsh epiphany for Josie. From the smile that plays against Josie's alabaster skin I would wager that Josiah does not understand the full magnitude of Tony's proclamation.

"Either way, we are running out of daylight. I do think we should heed the deadline so we are not breaching our side of the agreement." Leah walks off without acknowledging much more of what is going on around her. I see how she is distracted. A thought presents itself that I must address, quickly.

"Leah," I call out to my beloved. Leah drops her head momentarily before swinging her softly tousled golden curls in my direction. Leah's bright blue eyes are full of wonder as she brings her gaze to face me directly.

"Yes?" Her prompt question makes me believe that Leah thinks she is in some sort of trouble. That could not be further from the truth.

Walking softly with a quickened pace, I meet my beloved at the half-way mark. My fingers travel quickly into the nape of her neck. Pulling her gently towards me, I safely tuck the love of my existence into my chest. Leah sighs heavily as she snuggles into my embrace. A tingling warmth radiates between our clothed skin.

"I am sorry." Leah whimpers pitifully with her unnecessary apology.

Rubbing Leah's back, I let my other hand pull her chin delicately towards my own. I kiss Leah's lips gently before rubbing the pad of my thumb over the slightly trembling flesh that is still glistening with the departure of my affection. Leah gives a small smile that does little to console me in the fact that she feels no less responsible for the issue we face.

"Love, I do believe that you are under a misimpression. In no way, I mean absolutely no way, is any of this your fault." My blue eyes dance back and forth trying to convey the truth in my promise.

"It just seems as though at every turn I am costing you something. I am unable to provide for myself or even protect our delicate friend. I assure you that I do not race towards conflict. Trouble just seems to follow me." Leah's voice tapers off with her realization. She is still wrong. However, I can see where it would look, to the naked eye, that Leah is a magnet for danger.

"You could say the same for me." Josie comes over to comfort my beloved. Josie kisses Leah's hand as he intertwines their fingers. I step back to see if Josiah is anymore successful in convincing my beloved that she is no more a target than any other. We have all had our share of disasters. It does not matter how many times you go to war. All that matters is that you learn from each battle. Winning does help as well.

"You were born into an unfortunate pride." Leah looks at Josie playfully.

"I would not say that you were born into any better. I am quite amused that we have found one another. I see that cats are not immune to controversy. How do you deal with the fact that your family sees you only as a purse?" Josie obviously sees the similarities between both of their former families. It is interesting to think.

The thought of Josie's family being feline finally hits me. Remarkably, I have not had much time to make the connections between the DNA. Although, now that I am thinking I see that we have an anomaly amongst our group. If all of Josiah's lineage is feline, how is our little friend so susceptible to venom that he changed without a single issue. At the very least, Josie should have had a difficult transformation. Furthermore, I do not recall a single time that Josie presented as a shifter at all. The wheels in my head become a quick cog of information transfer. Replaying the moments between me and Josiah, I would have believed the child to be purely human. I cannot recall a single time that his bloodwork nor behavior proved any different.

"Christian? You look perturbed." Tony comes to stand beside me. My Sire locks thoughts with me, bouncing questions non-verbally between the two of us. My answers are all the same. It seems that I do not know.

"Interesting." A single guffaw comes from Tony. He shrugs his shoulders dismissively. I do acknowledge that now is not a good time to have an epiphany. I file the new revelation into the back my mind for further inspection in the near future.

"I would love to know what you two are thinking. It will have to wait. We have something very important to take care of." Leah once again walks towards the entrance of the forest. This time, Leah has Josie beside her. I cannot help but enjoy the sight of my beloved and my best friend supporting one another. Whether their families appreciate them is of no question, but Tony and I love them. We are their family now. That is all that matters.

The ride home is full of chatter. Josie describes, in great detail might I add, how we could rid ourselves of this problem once and for all. His descriptions of the way this encounter could go is amusing and slightly terrifying. Now that I have presented myself with the knowledge of his ancestry, I am beginning to think that there is a side to my best friend that I either did not see or did not want to see. Josiah is slightly demented in his tales of proposed torture. The whole conversation makes me quite uncomfortable and a little queasy.

Tony walks straight into the house to gather the funds from one of our many safes. I grab a few coats just in case we need to cover up any spilled blood. I do hope we can do this peacefully. I am not one to leave anything to chance. I go ahead with packing a full set of clothes for each of us. I watch as Leah splashes water over her face in the bathroom. The weight of this meeting shows heavily in the lines of her perfect face. I hear Josie pleading with Tony to trust him. I do not think that Tony distrusts Josiah. Josie's family however is less than trustworthy. For this, I do not see Tony folding at all. Josie is going to have to stay both close and quiet in that field, at least at first.

Once we have prepared to the best of our ability, Tony goes over a few simple house rules with the newborns. I pray the day when we can all be mature enough that Tony's life becomes easier. It must be exhausting to constantly have to babysit grown adults. The newborns blindly agree although I am unconvinced that a single word of our Sire's lecture penetrated their ears.

We load into the truck knowing that the next few hours could be calm or some of the most stressful moments of our existence. My mind goes over scenarios of what could go wrong. Mostly, I feel fine. I think that whatever issues arise, our group will be able to come to a peaceful or at least acceptable conclusion. When it comes to family, nothing is more powerful than a unified front. If you are out to damage those I deem worthy of being my family, I do not believe I will bat an eyelash before stopping you by all means necessary.

Let us hope that I do not have to prove my loyalty to Josiah on this day.