Sometimes he wondered where the feeling had come from.

Standing just inside the doorway, watching her (it seemed to be what he did most nowadays). She was pale as death, skin pulled tight over her bones, hair lank and grimy, stuck to her forehead with sweat. Bony fingers curled around and petting her swollen stomach lovingly, even as the thing inside it slowly sucked the life from her.

She was a far cry from being the woman who, just a few weeks ago, had been vibrant and stubborn and full of life.

Looking at her, he wondered how he had ended up falling in love with such a person. He shifted just slightly, glancing through the corners of his eyes at him. That twice-damned, stupid, fucking vampire. He'd been watching him a lot, too. The leech had taken to standing just by the tree line that surrounded the Cullen property, staring out into the forest, still as a statue. He couldn't bear watching his wife slowly wither and die away, knowing that it was his fault (again) that she was suffering. It was his (their) child, after all.

And, really, Jacob couldn't quite stomach seeing his enemy (rival) like that. A man on fire. Topaz eyes clouded with such despair and self-loathing that Jacob had taken a step back, breathless, when he'd first seen them.

He glanced back at the girl; she was looking at him with those big brown eyes, framed by stringy hair and deep, black circles, full of hope. Invitation, probably. Her blonde bodyguard was nowhere in sight at the moment and she was lonely - stuck on that couch and unable to care for herself. Jacob took in her bloated figure and the brief thought that she was ugly crossed his mind. Ugly and so extremely selfish.

He wondered how he'd never seen it before. (Love is blind, after all.)

Turning away from her, he noticed Edward had disappeared into the forest, so he followed after him. He was all too easy to find; Jacob just had to follow his nose. The vampire was shaking, Jacob wasn't sure with what, but he figured that the leech was probably reaching his breaking point.

"Go away," he was told through ground teeth, Jacob only stepped closer.

It was Edward who threw the first punch, which missed by only a hair's breadth, splintering through a tree instead. Another jab, which Jacob was hard-pressed to dodge - the leech was faster than him - before he attacked back. It escalated into a brawl, flying limbs and lots of curses. They were both hissing and clawing and biting at each other, rolling around in the dirt, making a real mess of themselves.

Jacob finally managed to pin Edward down. The vampire bucked wildly, eyes black and angry and hurt, managing to break an arm free and sucker punch the shifter in the face. He felt his lip split, his jaw rock in its hinges and Jacob snarled through the bright hot pain, slamming Edward hard into the ground by the shoulders.

"What the fuck is your problem?" he growled, though he knew perfectly well what the problem was. (Isabella Swann. No, it was Cullen now, right?)

They glared at each other for a long moment and he was pretty sure Edward was doing his very best to come up with some witty, demeaning retort, but it never came. The fight left him just as quick as it'd come and Edward crumpled, eyes squeezing shut and if he could cry, Jacob was sure he would've been.

"Dammit," he repeated, over and over, barely a whisper and Jacob could only watch him break down, thrown for a loop. Slowly, he let go of Edward's arms, sitting up straight, straddling his prone enemy.

The only thing he could think of saying was, "She did this to herself."

Which had Edward snarling at him again, lunging upwards and almost knocking Jacob off; long, pale fingers closing around the shifter's neck, "No she didn't! I did this to her!"

Jacob choked, sputtering a moment, "She wanted this," he grit out, wincing as the fingers tightened, "...everything that's happened to her, she's done to herself..."

He punched Edward in the ribs, so he'd let go. The vampire grunted, taken by surprise and did just that, grip slackening, which Jake took advantage of - scrambling off of Edward and back onto his feet.

"You know it's true! All she'd done is use us," he found himself slammed against a tree, which groaned from the force of impact.

"Don't say another word, Black," Edward whispered, a threat behind his eyes - those dark, dark eyes. Jacob bared teeth at him, opening his mouth to do just that.

Edward's mouth smashed against his own, all teeth and threats and curses. It was hard and rough, but Jacob found himself responding just as heatedly. Edward tasted funny, repulsive really, like stale, burnt sugar. The venom stung at his split lip, which Edward licked at, drawing sharp teeth over the soft skin. It ignited the inside of his mouth and it spurred him on to make Edward hurt, too.

The damn bastard started pawing at him roughly through the material of his jeans and Jacob growled a warning into his mouth, hands coming up to grip Edward's hips unmercifully. He felt the bones of bastard's pelvis creak and if he'd had any blood, Jacob was sure he would've quickly been sporting nasty hand-shaped bruises.

The vampire rocked his hips into him so hard that Jacob couldn't help but groan in some pain, anger rising when Edward slanted a wicked smirk against his mouth in response. Cocky bastard. Jacob decided to return the favor, brutally grinding his own hips forward, feeling obscenely smug at the full body shudder he received.

They kept on this way, hips gyrating and whirling against one another harshly and somehow carnally satisfying, their mouths were glued together, tiny rivers of blood flowing down Jacob's chin from where Edward would bite his lips or tongue. (He vaguely remembers Edward telling him he tastes terrible, "You don't taste so great yourself, leech.") Hands clawing at all skin, fingernails dragging down backsides, along spines, pulling at hair, abusing nipples - harder, harder, harder. Make it hurt more.

They both came hard and with strangled cries, bodies shuddering and twitching, panting into each other's mouths (well, he did most of the panting, honestly. Fucking un-breathing leech.)

Pressed against the poor tree, Edward's cold, solid weight against him, they basked in the smarting, sticky afterglow - anger and abrupt lust sated for the moment.

And, despite the wrongness of it all, Jacob felt somewhat accomplished. At least for a few minutes... he'd managed to take that god-awful look out of Edward's eyes. Not that that's what he'd come out here to do, but... it was a nice result nonetheless.

At least until they both managed to pull themselves back together. They'd never speak of it; they'd return to the house like nothing had happened, Edward would fall back into anguish (dead man walking) and Jacob would go back to wondering how they'd both managed to fall in love with such a selfish, selfish person.

But for now, being here like this was perfectly fine with him.


I do not own Twilight.

This was not beta-read, so forgive any mistakes.