A/N: Hello again, my faithful readers. I hope you have had a great week. Hopefully, I'll have a new chapter up each week. That is my goal, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to keep it.
Disclaimer: Wynn, Castan, and a few other original characters are purely of my own creation. All others are that of Stephanie Meyer's. I own the story line, yet Ms. Meyer owns the background and setting and things like that.
He, who had been sleeping up until this point, jumped awake at the loud, familiar rumble of a truck engine.
"Oh no, not again," he thought, going to the door. There, with her tear-stained face, was the girl he had fallen for while her bloodsucker boyfriend had been away. He stood there, gawking down at her, for what seemed like hours.
Until, of course, she said, "Just hold me, Jake," and moved closer to his bare chest.
He stiffened, turned tense. "Bella, I told you to stay away from me."
"And since when to words stop me?" she retorted, still crying. "Besides," she sniffed, "you are my best friend, and you'll remain to be until death. I need you, Jacob Black. I really, really need you."
"Why don't you just ask your bloodsucker fiancé for help?" The words stung the girl. No more than an hour ago, she had called Edward a bloodsucker herself.
"Because I'm pissed off at him."
"Why?"
"Because Allice saw him cheating on me while he was 'hunting' today."
"Was he?"
"'Was he' what?"
"Cheating?"
"I don't know, Jake. He said he didn't do anything, but I don't know if..."
"'If" what?" Jake was prodding, looking for faults in Edward Cullen's flawless background.
"If I can trust him," Bella whispered.
"Oh..."
"And now I have yet another female vampire after me."
"How do you know?" Jake asked.
"I know female vampires' tempers, Jake."
"Ooh..."
Bella decided this was too dark a conversation for her to be having with Jake. She changed the topic. Sort of. "Can I stay here for a bit? I can't go to Charlie's, obviously, and I don't know about the Cullens' house..." she asked. Both teenagers looked out the window. The threatening clouds of the morning looked just about to break.
"Sure... we're having a council meeting later, so do you think you could leave for that?"
Bella remembered how, technically, she couldn't be friends with Jake anymore because of her relationship with Edward and his family.
And soon, she wouldn't be able to see him at all.
"Oh... right. Sure, no problem. What time's the meeting at?" she agreed.
"Around three o'clock."
"Okay. I'll be back later, maybe... five-ish?"
"That sounds fine, Bella," Jake said tersely. It was already two-thirty now. The scent of Bella's being had to have time to fade before the meeting.
"Cool. See you later then." Bella turned to leave, but Jake grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to kiss him. He'd been wanting this all summer, and now... now, he knew he'd die when she had to leave for good. Their lips met and parted quickly, but it still left them both slightly breathless. Bella flushed bright red and hurried out the door.
He had seen it all; he had heard it all before it even happened. He had tapped into Jacob Black's mind, had read what he was thinking of doing. And he was utterly disgusted. Black knew that Bella was to marry him in a month; why didn't he respect that and leave her alone?
He was infuriated.
He didn't think, as he stormed through the forest, about what he was going to do. His marble arms thrashed through the vines and pushed branches out of the way.
He let out an angry breath. He had to get that other girl off of his mind.
His need for speed just increased as his anger rose.
But he stopped "dead" in his tracks when he heard it.
Her scream.
Bella was walking through the forest, trying to forget about the kiss.
So, one could conclude that she wouldn't be paying attention to her surroundings, be it nature or people. . .or something else.
She wanted, and needed, to get to the meadow. She needed to think straight.
This entire ordeal with Jacob Black reminded her of the play Romeo and Juliet. The plot, with a few minor changes, was literally the story of her life.
She stopped when she noticed five vampires in front of her. "Oh no," she breathed. She turned on her heel and began walking back, but there were three of the five vampires standing there when she turned around.
"We said we'd come to check on you, Bella, don't you remember?" One vampire said. Bella knew him as Aro, and she nodded in reply to him. "We hold fast to our word, Isabella, dear." Aro's voice seemed distant.
"I-I...I didn't think you'd be coming so quickly," I stammered.
"Ahh, but you did know we were coming. We told you to be prepared," Aro's brother, the blonde, hissed.
"Well, yes, b-but. . ." she stuttered. She stopped and started over. "Why are you here?"
"We said we'd check to see the progress of Edward Cullen on changing you, did we not?" the other brother asked.
"Yeah, you did. So?"
"'So?' You must stop with the edge," the blonde taunted.
"We can assume, then, that he hasn't changed you yet? For you still smell like you did over the summer," Aro asked.
"We're getting married in a few months, Aro. He'll change me three weeks after that point." She couldn't control the fear and anger that had taken residence in her body. She shook with both.
"No need to get angry, my dear Bella. We only needed to know-"
"We only needed to know so that we knew to kill you or not. I choose to still kill her, Aro," a woman with long, brown, wavy hair said. She wore a blue, cotton, button-down shirt, with a tight pair of flair blue jeans. Her blue eyes sparkled with the revenge she wanted on Bella. Bella's body shook with slight fear. Why did she seem so familiar? Could it be. . .
"Yes, dear Bella. I am Wynn. I am the woman who wants your fiancé," she baited. "And I'm not going to give up. It's either I kill you, or you kill me. And, honey, I truly doubt you have the strength or ability for the last." Wynn started for Bella, baring her sparkling white teeth, and raising her hands. Bella felt a rush of air, and she was pinned to a tree, Wynn's face in hers.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Bella asked in a coseismal manner.
"Don't worry, dear Bella. This won't hurt Edward at all. You, on the other hand. . ." Wynn leered.
Bella didn't even know she was screaming.
What was she thinking? Why was she always getting herself into trouble? Why hadn't she lied?
Edward raced through the woods again, boiling with anger. Not for Bella.
Simply because of Wynn.
He realized he was right behind them, so he hid behind a fat redwood tree. He was scared, not for himself, but for Bella.
He listened carefully to the minds of those in front of him, but they were all thinking at the same time that it was hard to hear.
Edward gasped; he'd seen Bella, and Wynn had her pinned to a tree.
No. He was too late.
Edward, she thought. Edward! She'd seen him. He was behind a tree, motioning for her to stay calm and quiet.
What trouble she always got herself into.
Uggh. . .
Bella, he said to himself. It was times like these that he wished he could read her mind, or tell her what to do. Oh Bella. My dear, dear Bella. . .
Edward crept over to Aro, who was ordering Wynn to step away from Bella, to stop what she was doing. Wynn was shaking her head in protest, while Aro's brothers were chuckling and jeering at the two.
Oh no, he said quietly. He said in Aro's ear, "Stop her. Please, stop her."
"Edward?" he gasped.
"It's me," he answered.
"But, Edward, I-" Aro began. "Edward, I didn't know you were here," he finished.
"I'm here. And I warn you, stop Wynn. Stop her."
"Okay, okay. Fine."
"Thank you."
"Wynn, get over here this instant," Aro ordered.
"Why? Why do you ask this of me?" Wynn complained, not losing eye contact with Bella.
"Because, Wynn, I won't stand for it. I will not stand here and let you kill an innocent being."
"But, Aro. . .She's got my Edward!"
"Don't whine to me, Wynn," Aro threatened. "Let go of Bella Swan at once," he hissed. Edward took a step forward and bared his teeth, ready to puncture the other vampire and let her bleed to death. But Aro held him back firmly, and stepped forward instead. His eyes turned an even darker burgundy, deepening with his anger.
"Aro, I'm the one who saved this coven in the first place, am I not? Don't tell me what to do," Wynn shouted.
"Wynn, I am the coven leader, and I am ordering you to step away from Isabella Swan this instant. Don't you dare even think about taking a bite beforehand."
"Aro-"
"Must you always do this? First it was Castan, and now you're back to Edward again."
"So?"
"Wynn, darling, your time will come, but you must let Edward have a little happiness as well," Aro explained. He was suddenly the father figure to Wynn, and his eyes softened visibly.
"Fine, Aro. I'll let her go. But I'm still upset," Wynn agreed grudgingly. She turned to Bella and glared. She gave a loud snarl and let Bella drop to the ground. Wynn had been holding on to Bella with such force that when she let go, the girl dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks.
Edward rushed forward to help her up, but when Bella opened her eyes, she shoved him away as best she could and staggered to stand. Bella brushed her jeans and jacket off and hobbled away, still shaking from the near-death experience. Edward ran to catch up with her.
"Bella-" he began.
"Look, Edward. I don't know who that vampire was, okay? But I'm guessing that was the woman you were with this morning, and right now, I'm not going to talk about it," Bella interrupted, and she turned around and started to walk again.
"Bella, love, wait!" Edward shouted after her. He hated when she did this.
"Leave me alone, Edward. Let me be, and maybe later we can talk about what happened. But not right now. Let's just try to stay apart for a while, and then we'll see," Bella snapped back. "Because, in all honesty, I'm really not too happy with you right now. If I were a vampire, you'd be dead right now."
The words shocked Edward. He strode toward Bella, who was standing with her arms crossed, and took her hand. "How long is 'a while,' and when is 'later?'" he asked softly.
"I'm not sure, Edward. I just don't know right now."
This can't be very good, Edward thought. Not good at all.