CHAPTER THREE

In the light of the sun, is there anyone? Oh it has begun
Oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed,
This world you must've crossed, you said.
-Augustana-Boston

They were already there when I reached the park.

I'd been attempting to be casual, matter-of-fact until I saw them. My façade of calm dropped entirely once I went through the now-familiar jolt to my stomach that seeing them caused.

They were so beautiful that it was impossible to mistake them. Though there were benches everywhere, neither of them was seated. In the morning light, I could fully understand why my reaction to them was so strong. It wasn't like they had the sort of faces you saw in the streets daily. The sunlight filtered through the oaks and danced on Edward's bronze hair, somehow throwing his inhumanly beautiful face into shadow at the same time.

He looked up the instant I saw them, as if I'd called out to him. I shivered, even though it was a moderately warm morning. "Hello, Sarah." He said.

Jake was standing a little way off, facing the opposite direction, his hands in his pockets. He didn't turn around when Edward spoke. His shoulders were squared.

"I have a few conditions." I said, directly. I focused on Edward's eyes, which were coal-black. I frowned, distracted for a second. Could've sworn that…

"Spit it out." Jake said, and his voice was flat, almost cold.

I nodded, collecting my thoughts. "I don't want to know anything unless you have it on good authority that I -my past self, Leah, that is. That was my name, right?"

Edward nodded, his pale, sculptured face revealing nothing.

"Well, I want to be sure that I would have wanted to know." I stared at Jake defiantly, crazily wanting him to react.

Again, it was Edward who replied. "There are some things going on where you used to live that you would have been concerned about."

I couldn't help it. "How concerned?"

A ripple of some emotion – annoyance? Anger? Pain? - passed through the beautiful face a split second before Jake whipped around. I realized why Jake had turned away: he was fucking furious.

"Your motherfucking brother was murdered, alright?" He snarled, and I took an involuntary step back as he advanced towards me. His eyes were liquid fire. Behind him, Edward made a warning noise in his throat. "He was your fucking life, and now it turns out it wasn't an accident that killed him, it was cold-blooded murder!"

He glared at me, his fury almost palpable, drowning me.

"Jacob!" Edward barked. "Back. Off."

"She needs to know!"

"Jake." Edward's voice was soft, like velvet over steel. It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever heard. "Shut the fuck up, for once in your life."

Jake closed his eyes, trapping in the anger behind them with his eyelids, and stopped shaking gradually. He took a step backwards, so that my breathing became more regular. I realized that I had been reduced to gasps beforehand.

"Okay. I have another condition." I said, forcing myself to remain arrogant. I hadn't backed off from Jake's hatred, and I'll be damned if I do now. "Once you begin, I want you to tell me everything. Don't hold anything back for any reason."

Edward nodded slightly, his jaw set.

"Tell me, then." I said, resolutely. "Who am I?"

"There's something you need to see first, then." Jake said.

Edward shot him a look of pure hatred. "Jacob, no."

Jake flipped him the finger. He was smiling now, the smile of a man at the edge of the precipice, desperate and reckless. "Watch closely."

At first, nothing happened. Jake just stood there in the clearing like a young god fallen to the park.

Then, he began to change.

His entire form shuddered violently, then began simultaneously shrinking and growing larger. His jeans ripped eventually, as did his shirt. It didn't matter. Russet colored fur covered him, thick and luxuriant.

The transformation took less than a few seconds. Jake was gone. In his place was a massive wolf with his eyes.

I watched, transfixed, as Jake the Wolf turned to me with an air of inquiry. I realized that I was frozen in place. I couldn't even run. I raised a hand to my forehead. I didn't know what I was about to do. Slap myself?

I looked at Edward numbly. He was watching my reaction, his expression weary.

It took me a moment to rediscover my voice. "What the fuck is going on?"

*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

It had begun to drizzle by the time Edward paused. He fixed his eyes on me, seemingly unaware that everyone else in the park had fled from the rain. "Well?"

"Give me a minute." I said, leaning against a tree. The bark was rough and uncomfortable, much more real than the two men in front of me.

Jake had phased back, shrugging on a pair of shorts he seemed to pull out of nowhere. He was pacing nearby. The movement was dragging me closer to snapping.

"Okay." I said, presently. "I'm a shape shifter, Jake's a shape shifter, you're a vampire. Got that."

Jake smiled brightly, but Edward's forehead creased. "You believe us?"

I shrugged. "Well, the guy turned into an enormous wolf in front of my eyes. Kind of hard to refute that kind of evidence."

Jake rumpled my hair, and I jerked out of his reach. He seemed far from offended. "That's my girl."

Much to my surprise, a ripple of sheer anger went across Edward's perfect features, drawing his upper lip back minutely. Then he realized that I'd seen him, and the shutters fell down on his eyes violently, and his face settled into mask of blankness.

"What now?" I asked Jake, still watching Edward curiously. What brought that on?

"Well, here's the tough part." He said, gently. I ripped my gaze away from Edward, and looked at Jake. "You sure you want to know?"

I nodded.

"There was a… a fire at your place." Jake took a deep, steadying breath. "Your Mum was at my place at the time, so she's safe, pretty much." He grimaced. "You and your brother Seth were the only ones in the house."

"Seth died, Leah. Is it okay if I call you Leah?" He continued, cupping my face in his hands. I instinctively stepped out of his touch warily. His touch was comforting, but I didn't want any sugar-coating right then.

"It was awful. We all loved Seth, even…" He jerked his head in Edward's direction. His voice was heavy with grief. "You disappeared right afterwards. We figured you saw what happened, and couldn't take it." The apology was heavy in his voice. "But you didn't turn up for months, and we grew worried. So we came."

I looked at Edward for confirmation. He nodded, his face still set into that mask.

"Then we found you. You told us to fuck off, and we'd decided to do just that, but…" Jake's voice trailed off.

I waited, eyebrows raised.

"Another of our pack had died. Another house fire." He said, bitterly. For a second, an expression of the bitterest agony crossed his face.

"Coincidence." I whispered. "Too much of a coincidence."

"You may remember." Edward spoke up. He sounded tired. "You may remember exactly what happened." His eyes held mine. "But as a consequence, you may be forced to revisit the past you forgot."

I nodded, my throat dry. I knew what he was implying; a potential series of horrors awaited me.

"If you don't feel like…"

I shook my head. "No, I, uh, I can do it." I was trying to convince myself more than them. "Problem is, how am I supposed to remember?"

Jake smiled. "Well, we could go back, for starters."

I looked at both of them in confusion. "You mean back to where you…we… live?"

Edward nodded, reluctantly, I thought.

"You think it might just zoom back into me?" I asked, skeptically.

Jake shrugged. "Might take longer than that." Seeing my expression, he hastily added, "I can easily fix my place for you. It's just me and Billy there. My Dad."

"It would be much more convenient for her to stay in my house." Edward said smoothly, ivory face betraying nothing. "We have an excess of space."

Jake's mouth curved into a bitter, cruel smile. He raised his eyebrows at Edward, whose jaw hardened fractionally.

I watched this by-play with narrowed eyes. Not for the first time, I wondered what relation the two of them had to each other. At the diner, they'd seemed casual and relaxed, if a bit weary. Cautious friends. As much as they tried to hide it, right now their body language screamed of hatred.

As soon as I'd completed that thought, Edward's eyes flickered to me, the onyx filled with surprise.

I shivered. Where did I live, anyway? Supernatural Central?

"So, whadduya say, Leah?" Jake turned to me. "You can stay at my place."

When did he decide that?

I looked at Edward suspiciously, but he was looking away into the distance, face set into a tranquil mask. So Jake won that battle, it seemed.

I inhaled deeply, trying to clear my head. It's the right thing to do,I told myself. People could die otherwise.

Leave it all behind?

I closed my eyes and remembered Christopher. Sunlight, joy, rain. I opened them and wondered why Edward looked like he'd been kicked in the stomach.

"Yeah." I said, faintly. "We could go back."

Author's note: If you tell me Leah got too Bella-y, I will cry. Oh, and check your accounts. If you were a victim of my technology illiteracy, there'll probably be an apology for that.

THANK YOU for the lovely reviews, and toImCuPcaKe, who thinks that it's good enough to translate to Spanish. Love you :)

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