Chapter 2
Secrets
Carlisle was already waiting for him, smiling as always. Esme was by his side playing with her laptop. They heard the gray Volvo practically screech in the garage and looked at each other. "He's going to have some questions for you," she said and left the room.
Edward was there and could already read the thoughts of the others. Everyone seemed calm and doing their usual thing, no worries at all. Where as before everyone was wondering and concerned what it would all mean. He was in front of Carlisle, "so…what's with the shop?"
"You mean, what is with the McNielson's?" Carlisle corrected.
"Exactly."
"Well, after we discussed are concerns before and while you were at school, I decided to take it upon myself to visit Port Angeles. I kept my distance for a moment and saw one of the young women entering, I followed her, the blonde, Sierra. At first it seemed she didn't notice me following her, but as she put the key in the door of the shop, she turned and simply said, 'I know you're there.' I had no choice but to reveal myself, she simply cocked her head and observed me and then spoke again. 'You're one of the Cullens, aren't you?' I nodded. She sighed and then surprisingly welcomed me in."
"Couldn't you have come in anyway?" Edward leaned in, he chose not to read Carlisle's thoughts, he wanted to hear everything in his own words, it seemed more polite this way. Then Edward heard the word 'barriers.' "Barriers?"
"Yes, they are witches and not just your typical ones. They are the clan of the Medula."
"Why does that word sound familiar?"
"You've heard it from time to time, they are immortal witches. Only several clans exist, keeping their numbers small like vampires."
"Immortal? So how old is Sparrow?"
"She is the youngest, and she really is sixteen," Carlisle mused. "Sierra is the oldest, one hundred-fifty, Sage is one hundred, Seraph is seventy-five. I met their mother once, Magda, she is four hundred."
"Four hundred! How did you meet her?"
"By accident…a deathly one. It was when I was young vampire and unfortunately the Medula's smell is extremely intoxicating to vampires and other creatures such as ourselves. I was extremely thirsty and let myself go without blood for some time and then I caught her scent and followed it, unable to resist. She fought me off quite successfully. We were both young then, her in her powers and mine in my blood lust, it was an almost even match. Magda realized then that I wasn't the typical vampire, my eyes were golden and she knew I was thirsty, surprisingly she didn't take offense to the attack and gave me a blood potion to satiate my thirst. I never tasted anything so amazing and it held me for a while."
Edward caught a picture of the woman in Carlisle's mind…she was absolutely breath taking, "I'm surprised you didn't try and turn her…"
"I had thought about it, but unfortunately our bite is fatal to the Medula. Where it turns regular humans into one of us, it kills them. For some reason and no one knows why, it seems to just not take. Almost like two immortals cancelling each other out, it is the best I can come up with. And it's probably a good thing considering Aro's lust for collecting those with certain talents…magic would be a definite benefit to him."
Edward seemed to tense, remembering his visit to Italy. "So now what? Are we friends to them?"
"They will be coming here in a few nights, they are also introducing themselves to the Quileute. A way for them to show they want peace…by nature they are demon hunters but like us, lead fairly normal lives. They simply had to move because people were starting to suspect their lack in aging."
"Ah, demon hunters, so that's why they want to meet with us."
"Yes, vampires tend to be a priority at times. But fortunately they had heard of us, so I didn't have to do much talking. They spotted us just as quickly as we spotted them, there is some comfort in knowing that there are some humans we can't fool."
"So, it's safe for Bella."
"Absolutely, in fact, I encourage it. I worry about her, Edward. She doesn't have many human friends, if any. I think she's a tad lonely. Even though Alice is eager to be her friend, if she hasn't fed enough, she has to leave immediately. Besides, these girls are immortals and the friendship can carry over even when she is turned and when she can be around humans."
Edwards seemed relieved but at the same time, he worried about upsetting Bella's way of life again. But he had learned by now to let her decide what was best for her.
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Bella was dropped off at her house and they said their goodbyes, promising to see each other at school. Charlie met Sparrow and gave his stamp of approval, Bella could do nothing but give an eye roll. Sparrow went back to the store and started to restock books that had just come in when she heard the chimes and two very tall young men came in, both handsome and clearly from the Quileute tribe. "Oh, hello!"
Jacob looked up and he froze, her eyes were amazing, she was more beautiful than anything he had seen, the center of the world moved to her and nothing else mattered. It took a matter of seconds even though it felt like forever. Sparrow looked at him in curiosity and felt as if something had been done to her, but wasn't quite sure what. When the moment had passed all Jacob could say was, "uh…"
She came down the stairs, "I'm so glad, I've been hoping to meet some of the Quileute tribe."
Jacob felt a jab from Sam. "What?" he asked quietly.
"Dude, you're looking at her weird!"
"Oh, uh," Jacob looked down at the little girl. "Yeah, we just came down because we heard this was a pretty cool store."
"Wow, word gets around fast," Sparrow strained her neck to look up. Jacob nearly sighed, she was just so cute and little, he wanted to pick her up and pet her. He could smell her again, the fragrance of candy and spices, other smells he picked up and one other one…one he didn't like, vampires. What were they doing here! They could hurt her! But he also smelled Bella…
"Excuse me, have you seen anyone, a girl a bit taller than you and a guy, sorta pale that was with her… auburn hair?"
"Oh, you mean Bella and Edward?"
"Yeah," he said darkly. Sam and Jacob looked at each other.
"They're really nice, I go to school with them."
"Oh."
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No…," he said defensively. Why did he have to sound like that? Jacob chastised himself.
Sparrow shrugged her shoulders, "well go ahead and look around, let me know if you need anything, my name is Sparrow by the way."
Sam smiled and started looking. Meanwhile, Jacob found himself following Sparrow's scent. She hadn't heard him come up behind her, that scent was making him half-mad. Sparrow was small to him and he could easily hurt her if he wasn't careful. The sudden urge to be with her physically was taking over. This was bad…then he heard Sam's voice, too soft for human ears to hear, "WATCH YOURSELF! CONTROL IT!" Jacob stopped, what was he about to do, he wasn't even an inch away from her and then she turned right into his chest.
"Oh," she nearly dropped one of the books.
"Uh, sorry, I had a question, looking for a book…I forgot it. Um," his communication skills were failing him miserably. Not that he was very good with them anyway.
"It's okay," Sparrow blushed.
CHRIST! He had to get away from her scent, her blushing was making it all that much worse. "Yeah…book," Jacob quickly grabbed a book on werewolves and took off downstairs, she followed and was ready to check them out. Dear God, didn't anyone else work here!
"Okay, that will be $50.43."
Jacob fumbled with his money and practically threw it at her and ran. Sam looked at her apologetically and left not far behind. Whey they were far enough away, Sam stopped him, "are you all right?"
"Didn't you smell her!"
"Yeah, so?"
"She smells so good and I…," Jacob gritted his teeth.
"I know what you almost did," Sam said seriously. "Just control those hormones around her."
"I don't think I'm going to go back there again."
"You will…you won't stay away from her now you know exactly where she is and her scent clear in your mind."
"I won't," he snapped.
"You will."
But in the end, Sam was correct. Her smell was on his clothes by accident when she brushed up against his chest. Jacob couldn't sleep with her scent near him. He finally snatched the shirt and threw it into the watching machine, pouring vast amounts of detergent on it.
Billy looked back at him, "whoa, kid, take it easy on the detergent, I just bought some."
"Sure, sure," was all he said before he tried to go back to sleep.
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The next day, as Sam predicted, Jacob was back at the store. He was pretending to look around while Sparrow was helping with a customer. They finally left with their purchase and Jacob approached her, again that scent, it was like a drug. Now he understood what Edward had said, what Sam and the others had talked about. Even if she could reject him, he would still pursue her, eliminating any competition, it was a horrible and powerful feeling.
"Hello again," she chirped.
Jacob wanted to say so much, but all he could manage to say was, "hi."
"Were you needing another book?"
"No, no….I just wanted to apologize for yesterday."
"I just figured you were in a hurry," actually she was sad in a way. She liked him and his instant running off made her wonder if he was bothered by her somehow.
"Something like that." Jacob searched her face and there was flicker of emotion, her heartbeat went up and he knew that she was maybe glad to see him? "My name is Jacob Black, by the way."
"Sparrow McNielson."
"Where did you move from?"
"Salem, Massachusetts."
"Sounds like a cool place."
"It is, it's more quiet here."
"Yeah," Jacob felt his communications skills failing him again. "Um, so have you had a chance to go around Forks?"
"Some, but not a whole lot."
"Well…what do you say I introduce you around? I know you go to school here but there's other stuff we can do." Time alone would be nice, he wanted to add.
"That would be nice," Sparrow stepped forward, reaching on her toes and getting some lint out of his hair. "Lint," she said plainly.
Her skin was soft, her hands small and delicate, it sent a shiver down his whole body. "Lint," he repeated stupidly.
The chimes rang again and Jacob almost growled at what he considered to be an intruder on the moment….it was Bella. They both froze, leaving Sparrow to wonder what was going on and looking at the both of them.
"Bella," Jacob said flatly but there was acknowledgement. He turned to Sparrow, "I'll see you tomorrow. I'd like to show you around then…around 10 o'clock?"
Sparrow wasn't sure what to make of everything. Jacob seemed hurt and angry at the same time, "okay." He left, only giving Bella a glance and nod, Sparrow looked at Bella, "what was that about?"
Bella looked down, wanting to cry, "he is…was my best friend."
"What happened?"
"He doesn't like Edward." What could Bella say, that Jacob was a werewolf and Edward was a vampire? What did Sparrow know about the whole situation anyway, she'd freak out if she knew the truth, wouldn't she, wouldn't most sane people who didn't know that there was truth to the fantasies?
"But Edward is very nice."
"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter to him," Bella said bitterly.
"Bella, I won't go out with him tomorrow if you don't want me to."
"NO, I want you to," it was a relief for Bella.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"All right, but maybe I can talk to him for you?"
"No, if he wants to be friends again, he's going to have to make the next move…besides, it's more complicated than you realize."
"Eh," Sparrow huffed. "Friends don't always see eye to eye on things, but if they are true friends, they'll come around, and Jacob doesn't seem like an insincere person."
"He's not…it's just crazy complicated, that's all."
…………………………………………………………………….
Edward paced, "is she really going to try and talk to Jacob about this?"
"I don't know," Bella shrugged her shoulders.
"Bella, you shouldn't let her around Jacob. If he loses his temper when she mentions us…"
"I know! But what could I say? She doesn't know anything about this!"
Edward stopped and wanted to laugh but he held it back, he forgot that Bella didn't know yet and instead said, "I suppose she can take care of herself."
"What do you mean? She's this big!" Bella put her thumb and forefinger together, creating an inch.
He laughed again, "what I mean to say is…maybe he'll be more careful, that's all."
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But Edward didn't leave it to chance. As Bella and Charlie had dinner, he went to the store on his own and caught Sparrow as she was about to leave. "Hey Edward," she looked a little confused, she thought he and Bella were surgically attached or something like that. Medula witches were often considered independent of their counterparts, not that they didn't have husbands and lovers, they did, and cherished them. But the clan was more female ruled than this so-called modern society which claimed it had equality but it was more of an illusion to the Medula.
"We need to talk," he said seriously.
"About?"
"Jacob."
"All right, what about him?"
"You know he doesn't like me…"
"Yes, and I talked to Bella about it. She's worried for some reason but she wouldn't tell me why."
"Well, you know I'm a vampire." Sparrow shrugged, causing Edward to wrinkle his forehead, why was every woman that entered his life now so casual about this? "What do you think would cause Jacob to not like me?"
"Maybe he feels that you took his best friend away?"
"No," Edward said sharply. "What is a vampire's mortal enemy?"
She looked thoughtful for a second, "A werewolf….OH!" Edward parted his hands with sarcastic happiness. "So that's why he's so tall. Well now, I see the complication."
"Do you understand that if he gets upset he could turn and…"
"He won't. It's not like I'm going to just spring it on him out of the blue. When he's ready to talk about it, which I'm sure eventually he will, I'll do my best to reason with him."
"Listen young lady, you're becoming one of Bella's closest friends and I don't need her upset…"
"Don't pull age on me, I have a sister that is 40 years older than you," Sparrow crossed her arms.
"Fine, just be careful please."
She seemed to ignore him and Edward watched as she pulled some vials from a drawer, "here."
Edward looked at them, it was blood but it smelled a little different, "what are these?"
"Blood potions. Take them tomorrow before we visit. Me alone, you can handle my scent, but all four of us, we're not taking the chance just yet. Once you learn to resist the smell, we'll be good." Sparrow looked thoughtful again, "we're going to have to meet the Quileute as well…Jacob is going to faint."
Edward pinched his nose in frustration.
