Chapter Four – Crime and Punishment

The sun rose on my second day without Emmett. I looked out our floor to ceiling window in the nook of our room, lounging back on a comfy settee, a Victorian period piece with curved mahogany legs, and a flowered pattern.

Mornings always brought on low fog, crawling across the trees like mysterious phantoms, lost and unaware of where they should be. Living forever brought on that same sense at times - the sense that the future was always untenable.

I was just finishing up Crime and Punishment. Sonia was such a lovely character. It was the last of my goal to finish everything Dostoevsky had written before I'd start up on a random author whose last name began with "E." I'd done this several times already and had started back up in the last two years. Austen took up A LOT of time. I'm pretty sure if I could have slept through Emma, I would have. I then tackled Bronte – which made me laugh when I peeked at the book in the top of my unmentionable's drawer – Bella's worn copy of Wuthering Heights. And then Cervantes was who I read in the "C's" this last year. His Don Quixote always puzzled me, as if he was never sure if he should finish the book or not. Perhaps he was the first fanfic writer…?

However, Doyle and Dostoevsky fought for my attention in the "D's" and I settled on Dostoevsky only because of the verse at the beginning of The Brother's Karamazov:

John 12:24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

There was something about that verse that was very… human. That --- and I thought over plants.

"Knock, knock, knock," Esme's voice chimed as she stood by the portal to my room.

I wore my reading glasses – the ones with no lens since I didn't need glasses being a vampire and all. I liked to act like I needed glasses sometimes – another of those strange human-like qualities I'd had at one time. It was odd that at one time I needed glasses, but didn't wear them because of vanity; and now, I didn't need glasses and longed for their humanness.

I pulled the glasses down, placing them beside me. "How can I help you, Esme?"

She smiled, so that her face warmed the entry to my room. "I have a favor to ask of you."

I didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm heading to Port Angeles with Alice and wondered if you might consider… "

I waited for her to say it. She knew that I knew what it was she was about to say.

"For the day," Esme succinctly said. "Just think… tomorrow the boys will be back. And maybe… you might consider returning that," pointing to my dresser, "item you borrowed, as well?"

She knew I pilfered Bella's copy of Wuthering Heights. Alice was such a tattle-tale some times.

However, Esme wanted me to watch over Bella for the day. She was an 18-year-old, who acted like a 13-year-old, who lived five years over 18 since vampirism, so basically, 23 years on this earth. And still – still – she needed someone to watch over her.

I simply told her, "Have fun in Port Angeles. I would have liked to join you."

"I know."

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This was some sort of Alice-future-reading-induced trip to leave me with Bella. Did they think I was this thick in the head?

Esme smiled when she realized, I realized, what they were doing.

She walked up to me, embracing me. When she pulled away, "We'll be back later in the day. Have fun."

She was gone before I could say a sarcastic, "sure."

~*~

I finally made it downstairs and was about to run out when I noted Bella working with a cross-stitch sampler in the main living area. When she lived with Charlie she cooked and cleaned – that was about it. There was no cooking to be done in our life now, and cleaning was always taken care of by Esme or Alice. They were immaculate housekeepers. I wouldn't even allow them near my room – I needed something to clean.

She spotted me and I stopped in place. Again her eyes averted past me and toward anywhere but looking directly at me. I had to admit, Bella was beautiful as a vampire. I never understood her uneasiness around me.

She placed the unfinished cross-stitch pillow down and then stood.

"Um… where you headed?" she asked.

"Out."

She squirted her lips around in that way that she did, meaning she didn't know what to do next. I reached behind to my back pocket and pulled out the ratty book.

As I brought it around so that she could see it her eyes fell back, surprised.

"Guess what I found," I said, holding out the copy of Wuthering Heights.

She then looked like she might cry, if that ability was possible.

"Thank… you, Rose." She timidly walked up to me and I handed it to her, not finding the triumphant HAH feeling I thought I would have.

"My… my mom gave this to me before I left Phoenix." She nervously laughed, "Seems ages ago now." She ran her finger through her hair and then placed it behind her ear. "Anyway, I wondered… where it went."

I stood by the door, watching her and wondering if she knew I pilfered it from her room. There was that word again, "pilfered" – I preferred that to saying I stole her book.

I opened the door and then turned to her, "Want to join me?"

That invitation might have been bred from guilt.

"Oh…." I think I surprised her, and then she answered a quick, "sure."

~*~

We walked a ways across the forest. It wasn't raining, but the usual mist floated about, dampening our light coats. Not that we needed coats in this weather, but it did protect our clothing from getting wet, and it was needed if we ran into humans who would wonder why we weren't wearing coats in 40 degree temperatures.

It was then we both stopped in place immediately, our vampire senses firing off at the same time.

"There are three," she said.

I turned to her, surprised at her quick perception.

"Yes," I added, "three of that wolf pack."

She smiled, "Oh, it's Jake, Seth and Embry."

Without a word she sprinted to the scent. I had to follow. In the distance I could see the large wolves – possibly tracking something.

We came upon one another in an instant and the russet wolf stepped in front. Jacob Black, the one who Leah said still pined after Bella. A low growl rumbled when he looked at me. I didn't care. I certainly wasn't afraid of a bunch of wolves.

Bella began petting his fur. There was something very inappropriate about that.

Another wolf suddenly joined, a smaller wolf and she looked to me, her eyes a caramel color and something very familiar about them.

"What is this?" I asked. "We are on neutral territory."

The russet wolf snarled at me and then the four walked away. Bella turned to me, "I think they're going to change so that we can talk."

"Good – it's too bad it won't change their smell."

The three boys all walked out from the trees with quickly thrown on sweats or jeans and the girl I knew – it was the she-wolf, Leah with a small cotton dress thrown over her body once again. It was the same dress from yesterday.

She looked to me, and then her eyes did something. I think she was trying to convey that she didn't want me to tell them we'd gotten stoned last night in the forest. Not like I would, nor would I care to.

"Hey Bells," the leader said. He paid me no regard, but then said, "See you're out with Blondie."

I only took a light breath, rolling my eyes, uncaring of his opinion of me.

The younger boy asked me, "Is Emmett and Jasper still gone?"

"Yes," I said succinctly.

I knew him to be Seth, the one who would visit often and made friends with my love and the other's, like Edward. He seemed like a friendly young wolf and I knew Leah was his sister. The other young wolf I had no idea of – and quite frankly, didn't care.

"We thought we caught the scent of some trespassing blood-sucker – not from your family – some stranger. Is someone visiting with you this week?" Jacob asked Bella.

"No." She turned to me. I shook my head, "no."

"Well then – looks like its open season on blood-suckers," Jacob sounded excited, as did the others as they cheered along. The only one who remained stoic was Leah.

I began to wonder what was going on with her. She seemed distant – removed from the other wolves. Yes, she was a female which would explain – only female shape-shifting wolf of their clan from what I knew – and yet, there was something else. She seemed out of sorts, once again.

I know I shouldn't care, but I did want to know what was wrong. She blurted something about killing her father last night. Why would she say that?

I looked over at Bella speaking with Jacob, realizing that might have been what bothered her. He smiled so broadly around Bella and to me it was sickening. Bella had no claim on this wolf boy and yet she acted as if she could flirt with him so unabashedly. Did she have no couth whatsoever?

"Bella," I inserted, "we should probably go. Let the wolves do their – wolfy things."

Leah muffled a snicker at my candor.

"Do you want me to help you search for those vampires?" Bella asked.

What a rude thing to say? Didn't she know I was standing here? We don't hunt down rogue vampires for wolves.

I told her, "We can't."

"Why not?" She snipped at me.

"It's not our job – or place. That's bloody why not."

"She's right," Leah interrupted, "This is for our clan – our responsibility. Go back to your home – where you belong."

Thank you, Leah.

"Leah," Jacob barked, "Don't be rude."

"I'm rude?" Leah pulled back, "I'm rude? I'm not the one fawning over a married vampire."

Seth and the other wolf-boy gasped. I felt she was very outspoken, and rightly so. She looked to the leader, Jacob, and he stared back at her. This must have been some sort of wolf confrontational thing, because they looked like two dogs, hair raised when they stood across from one another – despite being in human form.

"I'm out of here," Leah stated and then leaped in the air backward, a shimmering all around her, and then a ripped dress on the forest floor, as she leapt away on all fours.

I'd never get used to them shape-shifting like that. And that dress so needed to be destroyed.

Bella looked to Jacob, a worried expression on her face. Was that guilt? It should be. She had broken that wolf's heart and then made it a point to continue and stomp on it over and over again. When I was human even I wasn't this much of a tease.

"I'm sorry, Jake," she told him.

"For what," he nearly barked and for some reason I perked up, wanting to bite him. When did I get so defensive over Bella?

"This is my fault," she said.

She got that right.

"No – it's Leah. She's been weird all week."

"You know why – don't you?" Seth stated, his eyes looking sad.

Her brother's face piqued my curiosity further. There was something more going on here.

And Jacob Black, their fearless leader, finally looked like he had some type of awareness that someone other than Bella existed in the world.

He nodded, "Yeah – I'd better go check on her. You're right Seth."

The young boy, whose name I didn't know suddenly asked, "What about that rogue vampire smell?"

"Embry – Seth, why don't you guys check it out. Report to me what you find."

Now I had a name with a smell – Embry.

"Bye Bells," Jacob stated and only let out a quick, "bye Blondie."

He ran into the woods and I heard the footfalls change to the padding of four paws. I really wondered what was going on with that she-wolf, as Emmett called her. And that bothered me more than anything – why should I care about a female wolf?