Note: Many character names used were inspired by Twilight character names but were altered to fit the time and origin.

My Fair Demon

In centuries prior, people understood that Samhain was when the veil between our plane and that of the other planes were at their thinnest.

But time passed. Technology, reality, and other things made people forget. It made people stop believing. Made them stop seeing.

Only those who lived outside of the mainstream of humanity saw the things that most failed to notice.

Jake was one such being.

He was the great-great-grandson of Taha Aki – the last of the spirit warriors and the first-ever shapeshifter – great-grandson to Eframha, grandson of Wilkvaha, and son of Willemki. All members of the Quillayute

Much like his ancestor, he was able to change shapes. But unlike Taha Aki, he never bothered to stop changing. Because, unlike his ancestor, he never got to have a life with his imprint.

Or, more specifically, his imprint was stolen from her bed when she'd been a swaddling babe one All Hallow's Eve. A night when an elf appeared and replaced the young Isabella Swan with a changeling.

In the Halloweens that followed, he managed to get close enough to the elf that took her to be informed that Isabella was being groomed to be Edward's mate – another elf.

The parents of Isabella never suspected that the girl they were raising wasn't their own.

The rules of his people were such that he could never tell them what really happened.

Years turned into decades, which turned into centuries, and he watched the change of the tides. He watched as his own people forgot, much as the white man had centuries prior.

By the early 2000s, almost no one recognized the things that came out to play.

However, on Halloween of 2007, he met someone who caught his eye.

She called herself Vanessa.

…

"Tell me again what the point of the Jack-o'-Lanterns are," Sam said, looking at him.

"Carving the face into the hollowed squash and lighting it wards off evil spirits," Jake explained.

"You're the only one that believes in this bullshit, you know?"

"Because I've lived long enough to know what is real and what isn't."

Sam opened his mouth – obviously to argue – but Jake cut the young man off.

"You've seen my memories. You know I speak the truth."

Sam was the first in the tribe to change forms in generations. Jake had honestly begun to suspect that the Quileutes had lost access to the magic, but when Sam had turned into a great black wolf six months prior, it had given him hope.

Of course, in the last six months, he'd begun to suspect that his hope was misplaced.

Because Sam, in spite of sharing all of Jake's memories and knowledge, still didn't truly believe.

And if someone who could see it with his own mind was incapable of believing that there were things out there that really did go bump in the dark, then who would believe it?

The answer: no one.

At least no one who wasn't a monster him, or her, self.

And Sam wasn't there. Not yet.

Six months of shifting, of being unable to tell anyone, of breaking his girlfriend's heart again and again, and he still was far too human.

"Yeah, I've seen the memories, Jake. I saw what happened to your imprint, and I remember your conversation with the man who took her. But even though I know the memories are real, I don't know it. Not really... Or at least in the part of my head that demands such things can't be real. I was raised in a world where things like elves, demons, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, and werewolves didn't exist. These kinds of things are imaginary, fictitious, and mythical even... They're supposed to be fictitious."

Jake couldn't help but point out – "But you are one of those things."

"I know, which shouldn't be possible. I shouldn't turn into a giant black wolf. I shouldn't be some sort of monster. Hell, by your own admittance, you thought you were going to be the last of your kind."

Jake stiffened slightly, immediately defensive. "I've never said that."

"What do words spoken mean between the two of us, anyway? Any time we are both in wolf form, I know your every thought and memory."

Sam had a point, unfortunately.

"How long have you been a wolf, anyway?" Sam asked, after a moment, finishing carving the last pumpkin.

"I thought you had all my thoughts and memories."

"Yeah, I do. And I know you've been around a long time – as in hundreds of years... perhaps even thousands. But you don't think in actual years."

"Well, if you're looking for the year I was born, I don't actually know. We didn't really keep track of time the way people do now, Sam. I can tell you it was more than five hundred years after I was born that the first white men settled here. I can tell you that Carlos and René were some of the first settlers along with the conquistadors that originally named the Strait of Juan de Fuca back in the late 1700s.

"But as to my own start... I don't know, I truly don't."

Sam frowned slightly. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"Why should it bother me? You're talking about a part of my past that was ancient history so long ago that it doesn't even matter to me. Not anymore."

"I don't want to be twenty-one forever, Jake. I want to have a life with the woman I love, to grow old with her."

"And you can do that. That's within your rights, Sam. Once you have enough control, you can choose to stop shifting. You can spend your life with Leah if you want."

"And what if I someday meet someone like your Isabella? How am I supposed to ignore it?"

"That's up to you, Sam. You can see that I've finally found another love interest."

"More than two hundred and thirty years later, and you happen to find a woman of shadows that intrigues you. For gods' sake, Isabella has to have been dead for the last hundred and fifty of it, anyway."

"I sincerely doubt she's dead."

"What? It'd be impossible for her still to be alive."

"If she were here, on our plane, you'd be correct. But Sidhotora isn't the same. She's still alive. I know she is for many reasons. First of which is that some part of me feels a connection to her, even after all this time."

"Then... I don't understand."

"You don't understand how I can spend my time with Vanessa? Simply put, no matter what I do, I'll never be able to be a part of Isabella's life. She's in a realm I can't go to. And on the off chance that she ever slipped through one of the doors back to this plane – should something ever happen to the elf that claimed her for his own, or should she get curious... or whatever – what's to say she wouldn't wither away and die almost immediately. My imprint is lost to me."

"And why Vanessa? Why some shadow woman who you get exactly one night a year with rather than a human? Why not a member of the tribe?"

"I think you already stated why I prefer her. I see her exactly once a year, Sam. I only have to actually talk to her... love her, for one short day. And the rest of the year, I'm left to roam, to pretend I'm more at peace than I really am. As for why not a member of the tribe? Well, for one thing, over ninety percent of the tribe descends from Taha Aki. I was born long ago enough that I actually met him, though he was a withered elder by then. There's a certain ick factor about the idea. I've never been one for inbreeding."

"I don't know really think fourth cousins that are more than thirty times removed really counts as inbreeding."

"Then consider the fact that I'd never be able to have an honest relationship with them." Jake shook his head. "Even if I were willing to tell them about my history, they wouldn't believe it."

Sam sighed. "And I can't tell Leah."

"You can tell her all of it if you like. You just can't prove it. You're not allowed to show her your wolf form. That's what I forbade you to do."

"Which means she'll think I'm crazy."

Jake shrugged. "That is a risk, of course."

Sam sat down heavily on the floor of Jake's shack. "Do you think others will change?"

"I don't know. Back when shifting happened every generation, there was always at least three per generation – though I don't know if you can even call it that. Technically, it only lasted four generations." It was a bit of misnomer as Taha Aki had over twenty sons between three wives with over a hundred and fifty years from the first son to the last. "My first cousin, Quil, changed about three winters before me. And my older brother, Enapri, shifted approximately one winter before me. We were the last three to change."

He didn't usually think about it, having been Jacob for the better part of the last two centuries, but his own name used to be Chakobi.

"Who else do you think might change forms? If others do?"

"Jared and Paul both appear to be likely candidates. Who knows if there will even be more past that."

Sam looked around the cabin for a moment, avoiding Jake's eyes. "I'm a... going to go and drop the different Jack-o'-Lanterns off. And before you say it, I know. I'll help protect the tribe come Halloween."

Sam got up, grabbing three of the four carved pumpkins – fleeing the house as fast as he could.

…

Halloween arrived, too soon for Jake's liking, but that was more because of his nerves when it came to seeing Vanessa again. In thirteen years, he still wasn't certain how to interact with her.

Of course, who would if all the time they had with someone was a few short hours one night each year?

Jake raced through the trees toward his destination, his four giant paws pounding against the forest floor.

He'd left Sam to guard La Push. Sam was young – at least by his standards – and unbelieving of a lot of things, but he knew that Sam was good for guarding the town. Then again, once Sam was given a direct order by him, he couldn't really disobey.

Jake reached the small clearing, one that when summer came would be filled with wildflowers, but was currently a barren wasteland. The thing was, it was also where Vanessa's portal opened.

A few miles to the south was a large field where the entrance to Sidhotora appeared on this same night. And until he'd met Vanessa, it had been the main field he'd watched.

After losing his own imprint to the elves, he'd managed to prevent them from stealing dozens of others.

They weren't the only portals to different realms in the surrounding area. The door to the realm to Eodaros was just south of Tacoma, the window to the realm of Reokkiavar was found on Ruby Beach, and the entrance to the realm to Transborene – the land of blood-letters – was located near Seattle. All of which was why Washington had one of the highest per capita missing people of any state. Jacob also suspected it had something to do with the number of serial killers that managed to appear in and around the state, but had never really verified it with certainty.

He paced in the trees that circled around the small clearing as he waited.

Jake wished he had a watch.

But he was in the wrong form to carry such a fancy doohickey. Honestly, he'd never expected to come to rely on items of that variety. But he'd had to change with the times even as he almost lived outside of them.

A fine gray smoke started to rise in the field, the ground smelling hot, and then a swirling shape the size of a dime appeared dead-center in the field about three feet off the ground.

For a moment, it stayed small, just a twirling black dot. Then it slowly started expanding, first taking on the size of a baseball, and then closer to a football or even an ostrich egg. The larger it got, the more colors that Jake could see. There was a multitude of shades of gray, deep browns, dark reds, burgundies, and even occasional flicks of indigo.

There was the slightest vibration in the Earth as the portal completely formed, reaching a height of almost eight-feet and about six-feet in width.

Then the shadow creatures came out, seven in all. Five of them were men, the other two women.

The first that stepped out was tall, almost seven-feet tall to be exact, with extremely wide shoulders.

As the man stepped out of the portal, his skin was a grayish-black, almost as if he were made of smoke or mist. But once he stepped on the ground, his skin solidified into a deep tan.

It started at his feet, slowly going up over his ankles, and continuing up his legs to his thighs.

Jake's eyes were strong enough that he could see as the skin appeared, almost knitting together over the mist.

If it had been his first time seeing it, he'd probably throw up. As it was, he barely managed to watch silently.

The first man, once fully formed, had dark brown hair, which was cut short. He also had a set of eight-pack abs and was very well hung, which Jake could tell because he was also completely naked. Jake knew from previous meetings that he went by the name of Felix.

As he stepped away from the portal, from one step to the next, the man was suddenly wearing clothes.

The next two, when they stepped out, appeared to be made of something like dark lava – or maybe slime – were similar in height and size, but one was paler with light brown hair, and the other was extremely dark with long black hair. They were Emmett and Santiago.

And the final two men that came out, made more of something like ash, were a few inches shorter, both pale white, and had a more natural shoulder breadth. They both had long brown hair, one going halfway down his back. They went by Alistair and Demetri.

Finally, the first of the females came through the portal, made of dark red flames. She was as tall as the tallest of the men. And her skin knit together into a white so pale that it was almost like snow. Her legs were long, the type that in a short skirt would appear to go on for miles. And as her skin knitted over the valley between her thighs, it was bare, but he didn't think it was because she shaved – after all, he didn't see how someone could shave fire. She had a thin waist, her breasts were voluptuous, lips full, and flowing strawberry-blond hair.

In truth, if he was more into white women, he might be interested in her.

She was called Rosalie.

She walked away, and just like with the men before her, from one moment to the next, she was wearing clothes.

Vanessa stepped out next, also made of fire, but hers were black, almost like they were shadows of flames. As her foot touched the ground, her skin started forming together into a deep tan, almost taking on a Native American skin-tone – which was somewhat interesting since back in 2007, her skin had been white.

She was shorter than the rest, maybe five foot ten or eleven inches tall at the most. And she had long wavy hair that was a golden-brown in some lights, black in others.

Unlike all the rest who each took about a minute to fully materialize, it only took her a couple of seconds to form completely.

She had small breasts, a little bit of weight to her body, and her lips were dark and almost flat.

In spite of the fact that she was not the traditional beauty the way Rosalie had been, she was almost more beautiful to him.

She took one step forward, and a simple drape of cloth appeared around her, covering her so she wasn't revealing anything inappropriate.

"Jake? Are you here?"

He could have shifted back to human and dressed before stepping forward, but he knew that she appreciated his wolf form. So he stepped out from his refuge in the trees and went over to her.

"Such a beauty you are," she murmured as she ran her hands through his fur.

It wasn't the first time in his long life that he half wished he was a feline instead of a canine so he could vocally express his contentment.

After a couple minutes of rubbing his fur, she leaned forward and kissed the top of his head before stepping back. "Okay, I want my Jake now."

He closed his eyes and centered himself, picturing his human form in his mind. There was a soundless shimmer of air as he passed from animal back to human, and he stood straight and tall in front of her.

Vanessa's eyes glanced over him, admiring his nudity.

"I wish I could stay here forever," she said softly.

"Why can't you?"

"This isn't my home, Jake. And I'm not like an elf, a vampire, or some of the other creatures that I know you have seen. I require the power that flows to here through the portal to appear as I do now. Otherwise, I would not be the least bit human. More importantly, I couldn't remain here. It's not possible."

It was more than she usually explained to him, usually leaving her realm and everything about herself vague.

"And what if I followed you back?"

She shook her head. "You may well someday join me in that realm. But my realm currently isn't for you."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I should have told you what I was here for when we first met, Jake. I really should have. But you're sweet. In spite of you being hundreds of years old, there's still something innocent about you."

"I don't think I've ever been called innocent in my entire life."

"I should have preyed on your desires years ago, should have made you a deal, but I admit, I'm selfish. I wanted you for myself. I still do."

"What are you talking about, Vanessa? What deal?"

She shook her head again. "Promise me you'll be mine, and I'll tell you everything."

His frown grew more defined. They'd consummated their relationship over a decade prior. "I'm pretty sure I already am."

She stepped closer to him, going up on her tiptoes. "You promise?"

"Yeah. I guess." His words were lost as he leaned down for the kiss she obviously wanted.

Their lips touched. A chaste sensation.

Then he heard in his head, The humans call me Lilith, Jake, and I'm one of the seven princes of hell. Soon we shall start the apocalypse. Now that I know you'll be mine to keep, I need not keep delaying it.

Everything went black.