Author's Note: This is a one shot I started sometime back (and finally finished) based on a story that I'm currently writing, The Miseducation of Leah Uley. It's from Jacob's perspective concerning his decision to "turn" Leah. Can be read alone, but please feel free to check out the main story!
Enjoy!
Selfish
She was as good as gone.
Leaning up against the damp, stone wall, holding one to one wound, the most serious one, as the other one continued to bleed out. Her breathing was sporadic. Her heartbeat was slowing down.
He supposed he had seen it coming. Sometime earlier, she had run off without telling anyone, chasing down a vampire who would have been caught anyway. The man had only been a newborn; he knew it because he had been the one to put him done.
Jacob hadn't intended to shred the man into pieces. He had just been a minion. He could have been easily apprehended even he tried to push back the detective with his gunshots. But then, he had caught one whiff of Leah. Of her blood. Of her scent lingering on the vampire and connected the dots.
He supposed he had seen red. Experienced black-outrage. He didn't have much time to think about it. But the vampire was gone and from the looks, sound and smell of the stale air, the others weren't heading his way.
He had thought about this moment. Not her dying, but the situation when he knew he had to make a choice.
He could just leave her there, go to her side and muttering fucks know what in attempts to ease the suffering. She wouldn't make it to the hospital. Probably not even out of the area.
She was going to die here.
No, she wasn't because deep inside, he was a selfish bastard.
It wasn't going to end like this. Not at the hand of some goddamn leech. The one he had put down only moments before, a newborn free of situational awareness.
She had so much more to offer. So much to experience. She deserved happiness, not a lonely death as a shootout carried on in the tunnels beneath them. She deserved better.
She could hate him for what he was about to do, but she would be alive—
He would see her smile.
Hear her laugh and sarcastic remarks.
He would see her power through all of the bullshit whether from work or from her personal life.
That was enough for him.
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
"Yes."