((I own none of these characters. They are all Stephenie Meyer's work. However... I do take credit for any characters not in Meyer's book. And as for Bella... I take credit for her abilities. BUT – I think my idea is good enough that Stephenie Meyer might resolve the whole thing relatively like how I will, so I don't know if I want to make it all mine. Bah. Let's just say that you're not allowed to use any of my ideas, okay? If they're Meyer's, go ahead. Just don't claim anything as your own. Savvy? XD))
((Note: I'm currently on an exchange trip in Japan, and my internet access is limited to a trip to the internet cafe on my laptop every Sunday. So check back every week for a new chapter. There will be one.))
I Was Jacob
I was forced to a stop. Not because I wanted to. My whole being yearned to keep loping through the forest, leaving every bit of what I once was behind. With each step I took I forged a new piece of the identity I was building for myself. An identity that did not have anything to do with who I once was, or the people – or creatures – I once dealt with. That meant I had to erase the painful imprint ofher from the inside of my eyelids. I had to push aside every touch and mark she left upon my heart. Upon my life.
So by coming to a stop I suddenly felt my wake of memories smash into me, a force so strong it actually caused me to take a few extra steps before bracing myself. And then I collapsed. With my bleary eyes I scoured my surroundings in an attempt to understand what had forced me to stop. I could see nothing. Of course, I had no idea what I was looking for. It was only through a dull, numbed throb did I even bother to look at my feet.
My kind – werewolves – don't suffer injuries easily. And when we do, we heal them at the speed of light. Figuratively speaking, of course. So I was surprised when I saw my forepaws coated with a darkly shining mix of dirt and blood. It only then occurred to me that I had been running so long and hard that the soles of my feet were wearing thin faster than I could heal them. How long, though? Hours? Of course not. I'd been able to run for hours without falling out of breath in the slightest. Days? That was believable. Almost as believable as the fact that I was Jacob Black still, and no amount of running could push that away. That was unbelievable – almost as unbelievable as the fact that she was getting married to him.
A pained howl ripped free from my throat – now raw with the sharp breaths I must have been taking while running – as the thought of her smashed through each of the weak walls I had attempted to build up against any old and familiar thought. I never wanted to give her up – I had hoped, by freeing her from my binds and allowing her to go to the bloodsucker, she might see the true good in me. And come tome instead of him.But no – she abandoned me. Abandoned me worse than anyone could be abandoned. Almost as bad as... as bad as... when he abandonedher in the first place. Only now I had no one to comfort me, and no one to fall in love with like Bella.
I cringed upon the ground, breaking my own desperate rules as to avoid her name. My tribe had many old legends about the werewolves, most of which were true. For example, imprinting. But we had no legends saying it was possible to overcome the grief of imprinting by being rejected. Although I'd never said it out loud – or even let it enter my thoughts – Bella – cringe – was the one I imprinted upon. And sometimes I wondered if Bella had been aware of that fact despite my denials.
And the legends... was there any legend that said it was possible for a werewolf to imprint upon a vampire? Or a legend that mentioned what happened when a werewolf's love turned into a leech? Or was that legend lost generations ago?
What did it matter?
No matter what the legends did or did not say – I would always love her. Even if her current scent turned into something sickly sweet and a natural warning, I would love her. Even if her teeth were as lethal as my own, I would always wish her mouth to be upon mine. Even if her skin was stone to my fingertips – I'd always want to run them along her jaw before pushing aside her hair and leaning in to steal a kiss from her tender lips. Even if all the things that I loved about her were stolen, I'd love her anyways. I loved Bella. Nothing would ever change that. No matter how much running I did.
And as if to answer my senses, the disgusting sickly smell reached my sensitive nostrils. My ears pricked and I forced myself to my feet, blood or no blood. Surely it couldn't be... not one of themnow... not when I was by myself in this state.
I could feel the ever so slight vibrations in my paws that signaled the light footsteps of whatever it was – and I had a good idea as to what – and I shifted into the standard defensive stance.
It was running around me, just out of sight. It must have had no idea as to what I was to think I'd lose track of it so easily... to allow myself to be hit on a blind side. And sure enough, the almost silent padding of feet died out. Without the sound of breath or even the slightest movement it would have been impossible for anyone to locate this hunter. But I wasn't just anyone – I was a werewolf. The slight breeze kept rustling the surrounding leaves. I used this small piece of nature to my advantage. I could hear the wind moving arounda figure that had not been there a second before. And so I casually turned my back to this direction and tensed myself, as if going to spring in the opposite direction.
The ruse worked.
Flying at me with the speed of a shooting star, the white creature threw its deadly arms out in an attempt to rip out my exposed throat. I sidestepped the thing, then jumped down upon it as it landed upon the bed of dead and dying leaves. I placed a huge paw on each of the vampire's limbs and lowered my muzzle to its face. As always, the creature had a face of inhuman beauty; her eyes were an impressive scarlet, and her hair a soft, soft blond. She was of average height and thin build – she could have been anyone. But her skin – white beyond belief – was sending a sickly wafting sent my way. This small thing almost drove me insane. I couldn't handle this! Rearing my head back and baring my large canines I howled in triumph at this small victory-to-be before plunging my face downwards.
The next thing I knew? Pain.
The pain was so sudden that I hardly had time to comprehend exactly what it was that had hit me so hard, from my left. Then a slightly different scent – still sickly sweet – reached my nostrils, almost overpowering every other smell. The newcomer, a tall male with black hair and papery skin, helped his companion from the ground and together they advanced on me, arms extended and ready to tackle me the instant I made any hostile move. They had no reason to fear me; I was incapacitated with pain. My skull burned in the area that had smashed into a nearby tree. From the corner of my clouded eye I could still see the pieces of the trunk flying into the distance so hard was the force that I had hit it with. The poor tree. Poor me, Jacob.
"My, my, my... What do we have here?"
The female dusted herself off, looking pleasantly pleased with herself. "I don't quite know Master, but it's certainly strong enough to put up a fight. Against me anyways." She laughed lightly to herself, as if almost being killed wasn't a big problem.
"Ah, Liandria... must you brag about your weaknesses so? I would have thought this creature would be decent hunting – sport, of course... - but it's far too weak to provide me with any satisfaction just by outrightly killing it. What a pity... and what to do with it..." The male leaned towards me and ran his vile hand across my face, from muzzle to ear, as if he wasn't the least bit worried I'd bite his bloodsucking hand off. However, I wasn't quite thinking about biting his hand off. I was more focused upon the familiarity that struck me as I looked at this paper-like creature. A vague memory tugged at my thoughts, and I focused harder.
"Master, may I kill it for you?"
"Absolutely not. I'm sure my brothers Caius and Marcus would be simply fascinated if I could bring this creature back, alive."
It was now that the memory broke through. Caius? Marcus? Those were the names of the bloodsuckers that had almost killed Bella in Italy. A shudder ran through my pathetic body. The disgust was so enormous I couldn't quite hold it it.
"And I suppose your brothers would look at you, all bloody proud-like, and say, "Aro, congrats on catching a wolf, swell job, yadda, yadda, yadda"? The snarl ripped its pitiable way from my lips. Of course, it wasn't words. But if my snarl could be translated, it most certainly would have been close to that insult. I was fairly sure that this bloodsucker's name was Aro – the way Bella had described him, his picture and name wouldn't escape me easily.
Despite my insult being masked by my animalistic voice, Aro seemed slightly startled. For a long moment his foggy eyes stared at me, as if he were inwardly contemplating some issue or another. Then he looked down at a hand. The female bloodsucker's eyes widened, and she stepped forwards to stop him. "No Master! You mustn't touch some wild creature like this!"
Aro smiled, his black hair gently waving in the breeze. "But Liandria, I trust you to step forward and protect me as the situation demands. Don't worry. I'll be fine." And with that, he firmly pressed his hand upon my shoulder despite my shying away.
It was awful. I was in too much pain to attempt to fight, but it was almost worse to see this loathsome thing getting something out of touching me. I couldn't quite remember Aro's power through my absolute disgust, but I could be sure it wasn't good.
When his hand withdrew, Aro's face was lit by enlightening.
"How truly fascinating. This creature happens to be our friend, Bella's, old companion." The female bristled while I stiffened.
"Now werewolf," his voice sounding perfectly polite but the loathing still evident through the masking, "Shift back to your human form or else I'll rip off all your limbs and leave you here. And I'll make sure you don't die. Or worse yet..."
His eyes turned to Liandria's.
"I'll take you to Jane."
Liandria's eyes, despite the threat not being aimed towards her, widened and her skin whitened past its current alabaster. The first threat hadn't worried me. I was prepared to lose whatever he wanted, as no pain could ever amount to the kind I faced when Bella had left... But the second threat, after seeing the pain in Bella's face when she spoke of Ed- her boyfriend being tortured by this 'Jane', I simply couldn't imagine facing that same pain. What a true coward I was.
A moment later, Aro looked quite pleased. "Well, you are Jacob Black?"
My face was set in a contemptuous snarl. "As if you need to ask, bloodsucker."
The ancient vampire shook a finger at me. "Now, now, no need to be harsh."
I smirked wryly. "And a vampire who just finished threatening me with the removal of my limbs is telling me not to be harsh?"
"Point taken. But at least I didn't act like some barbarian."
"Youare a barbarian."
"Is that so? Who's the naked savage right now?"
"Is this a third grade insult match? Or are you an actual vampire intent upon killing me?"
Here Aro smiled and leaned brightly against a tree. "Do you wantto die?"
"You have no idea." My voice was dark with both pain and embarrassment. I felt rather exposed, laying upon the ground with everything in plain sight of the female. She was smiling at me like an idiot.
Aro looked fascinated. "You know, Jacob..."
"Who gave you permission to call me Jacob?"
"I did."
I didn't argue.
"We have a little issue with Bella that needs to be settled, and quite frankly, it would be much more interesting to have you as a piece of this game. How would you feel about you joining us?"
My stomach twisted. This horrifying piece of living dust wanted to settle something with Bella? Despite his civilized tone, all I could picture was Bella's dismembered body. Yeah, slightly graphic, but I was in no mood to sugarcoat my thoughts.
"Why the hell do you think I'd want to join you?"
"Or I could just say that you don't have a choice. If you said no, I'd knock you out and drag you back."
"And if -"
"Jaaaaay-n..." He sang out the torturer's name. I froze, paled.
Then I felt resolve take my fear's place, and I thrust out my chin. "Who cares?Bring on the pain. I can take it. I've had worse."
"Ah. You mean when dear Bella left you? Well then... what if I sent Jane to find Bella instead of bothering with this lovely long game I planned?"
My blood was as absent from my face as if a vampire had taken it.
"You wouldn't dare..." My voice was a whisper.
"Yes I would. And I will. Cooperate with me Jacob..."
I was too pained and weary to bother thinking anymore. Yes... let him take me now. Let him take me now so I could regain my strength, fight, and die like a hero later.
"Okay..."
At a nod from Aro, Liandria wrinkled her nose and took my arm over her shoulders. I could tell from the tenseness of her body that she was panicked, fearing that I would kill her without warning. It made me laugh. Aro smiled at me, obviously deluding himself into thinking I was pleased with this whole arrangement.
"Care to tell me what the issue is, bloodsucker?"
"Now, now... Don't make me call for Jane."
"Whatever."
He was silent for a minute.
"Bella came to Italy last year to rescue her boyfriend, Edward." Shot. I could feel my heart rip a bit at his name. "And if my brothers had had their way, both would have died before leaving." He chuckled at his own words. I darkly considered that it would have been best if the latter hadn't come back at all. "But I had to agree... Bella knew too much. As immortals, we vampires simply can't exist with the whole world knowing about our existence. We'd never be able to feed... Not that you have to worry. No one would bother tasting you." I growled at the distaste on his tongue as he said the word. "Anyways... We agreed to let Bella go if she was turned into a vampire. The Cullen's assured us that Bella would be vampire before long. Alice even proved it to me with her delightful, almost infallible visions. Ah yes, Bella was to be a wonderful vampire... But after a dreadful fight last year involving vampire newborns and the Cullen's, we came to realize that Bella was still – shockingly – human. Jane was shocked... Oh right," he added as he glanced into my face again. "You already know most of that story, with the battle and all, wouldn't you?"
I remained silent.
"Anyways. When you've been alive for many millennium, you get quite bored of everything. You start to turn things into games to make life – or whatever it is that we have – much funner. And so, here I am, faced with a woman who was to be vampire but hasn't yet become so, and I've got the opportunity to either speed things along, or make the whole process entirely unnecessary. Of course... Just getting Bella killed or turned into a vampire wouldn't be fun either. I plan on bring Bella home with me as a family member. She has... talent. She willbe mine in the future."
I stared. I was lost.
Aro noticed my confusion. He smiled, his teeth glittering in the dimming light. "I am going to lead her on a chase that will end with her death, or her conversion to my family. And you, my dear friend, are going to help me."
"And how am I going to do that?" I was repulsed. To think that this vampire could possibly imagine my taking part in anything involving Bella losing her life. Either option that Aro had set out for Bella involved in her losing life. I couldn't help him do that!
"Why, Jacob, you simply have to exist!"
My head whipped around to stare at the aged vampire in horror in time to see his palm fly at my face.
Everything went dark.