Bella POV
As always, Jake was late. I stared up at the cliffs he had promised to take me cliff diving from. Maybe I could just go alone; it didn't seem that hard.
And I desperately needed to hear his voice again. It had been so long, and the motorcycles didn't help unless I purposely did something stupid that would get me hurt. I was getting too good.
I sighed and returned my gaze out to the ocean, and the dark clouds above it.
Jake had better come soon, or I was going to go alone. The sky suggested that it was going to rain soon.
I counted the stones beneath my feet to pass time. Jake came trotting up to me at forty-seven – wearing no shirt as usual.
"Hey, Bells." He greeted me cheerfully as I stood up.
"You're late." I accused him, playfully poking him in the chest.
"Yeah, sorry about that; the red-head showed up again, and Sam had us all split up to look for her." He explained. I shivered, as I always did, when I thought of Jake and the other Quileute boys out hunting the vampire that wanted to kill me.
He grabbed my hand, and towed me down the beach. "So, are we going to do this, or what?" I asked after a little while, excitedly impatient to be up on the cliffs.
"No." he said.
I stopped, tearing my hand from his loose grip. "What? Why Jake? You promised!" I complained, the wind whipping at my hair.
"I know,"
"Then why can't we go?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Because of the red-head, er… Victoria?" he still seemed a little weirded that vampires had names. He – and the other wolves – didn't think of them as people.
"So, we can't jump off a cliff because of Victoria?" It was hard to say her name.
"Yes." He grabbed my hand, and led me back to my truck. "We chased her away, but she got away from us." He stopped, and opened the door. I climbed in, and he went around to the driver's side.
"And?" I was more than a little annoyed that he was breaking his promise.
"Well, she escaped into the water. And I knew that you were waiting for me on the beach… I was worried that she was going to get to you before I could." He looked at me, his eyes full of pleading. "We'll go some other time, okay?" he turned the key, and the truck roared to life.
I sank into the seat grumpily. "Fine," I grumbled. He laughed at my expression.
"Come on Bella," he said, still chuckling. "Today wouldn't even be a good day for it anyway. Have you even looked at the sky? It's turning into a hurricane out there!"
I glared out the window. He had a point, though I wouldn't tell him that.
We rode in silence for a long while, as Jacob took us back to his house. I assumed that was where we were going anyway.
"So," he started, breaking the silence. "Any idea what's up in Seattle? Billy says it's getting worse." Someone in Seattle was on a killing spree. And the police were at a loss.
"Not really, but Charlie's been commenting on it a lot too. He's worried that it's going to come here because we're so close." I had read the article this morning. It was pretty much the same everyday, except the numbers just kept getting higher. I sighed. "I hope they get it cleaned up soon. I'm actually surprised that it's lasted this long." I glanced over at him; he was watching the road intently. "Jake, is something wrong?" he was watching the rain, a little too intently.
"Huh? Oh, just thinking about something…" I waited for him to continue. "There was someone with the bloodsucker today – another one; a guy." I froze. There were two of them hunting me now?
"What happened? To the other one, I mean." I asked quietly.
"I'm not sure. Sam, and Paul took off after him, but I didn't wait to see what happened. I came after you." He said, glancing at me as we pulled up in front of his house. He climbed out, and had my door open before I even had my seatbelt off, just like Edward used to do – just faster. The hole in my chest twinged slightly, but I ignored it.
I climbed out of the cab. "Get inside, and stay there." He ordered me. "I want to find out what's going on." I obeyed, and let myself into the little house as he trotted into the nearby woods to change.