Chapter 4
Call me crazy, but guess what I am doing right now. Don't say getting wasted. I've never drunken before in my life. No, I'm playing in a river with Leah Clearwater. Leah Clearwater. It's a strange thing to see her so carefree and… not trying to annoy the hell out of me. I always thought that there was some part of her that is still like that, but I never thought that I'd get to see it.
She's actually… not bad, despite the fact that I saved her from a vampire attack again. Sadly, I don't regret doing it. Again. Why do I not put her through hell for risking my life? Because it wasn't actually her fault. Leah didn't tell me to block the attack from her. Not in the clearing and not here. I jumped in front of her willingly, and that's what scares the shit out of me. I am supposed to hate her, to loathe her. But I don't, and if I had, I wouldn't have sacrificed myself for her twice, might I add. The world's a strange place. Of course, if it were normal, then there wouldn't be vampires and werewolves, would there?
"Jake, stop it!" Leah squeals as I fling water all over her face. She scoops water in her palms and whips it at me. We were kneeling beside the river, cleaning out my quickly healing wound when Leah dipped her hand in and chucked water at me. And like the immature person I am, I fought back.
I respond by pushing her into the running river. With shocked eyes, she tumbles into the water. When she rises out of the river, she has a mischievous grin on her face, and I begin to ponder what she's thinking. Suddenly, she jumps out of the water and tackles me. We flip three times, and I end up pinning her to the grass. Looking down at her, I remind myself that this looks really inappropriate. I immediately get off and turn my back to her.
Through the embarrassment, I feel guilt. Like I had done something wrong. I know I hadn't, but lying on top of Leah, it feels like I had been betraying somebody. But I hadn't been; I'm not in a relationship with Bella, and Leah isn't with Sam. We hadn't committed a crime of any sort, but then why did I feel so unfaithful?
Besides that, it was just plain awkward. Now that I picture it in my head, it seems weird, uncomfortable, and totally wrong. It didn't feel like it, though, recalling the moment. In fact, it feels okay, almost nice really. Now don't say that I'm falling for Leah. I will assure you now: I'm not. It's just, it doesn't feel like a bad thing to be playing around and end up in that position. I hadn't felt uncomfortable, actually, it was just my self-conscious that said: You should be ashamed. Lying on top of a girl that you're not even dating- tsk, tsk.
I look over my shoulder to see Leah sitting up, shaking the water out of her hair like a dog. Or a wolf. She glances up, the playfulness gone, and asks, "What are you looking at?"
Holding my palms up in fake surrender, I turn back around. When she steps beside me, she asks, "So where are we going first?"
I honestly have no idea. I don't know where we are or where we're going. Suddenly, I hear a car. Hmm, must be near a road. I say, "We should find the road, see if there are any signs of where we are or nearby towns."
Going behind separate trees to phase, we follow our ears to the sound of cars and trucks zooming past on the road. Jumping the river, we continue, running side by side. Unconsciously, we had been racing to the road. With a mental, show-offish scoff, Leah pulls ahead of me. Following close behind, I push my legs faster, although we are already traveling faster than any human or animal, maybe even vampires. When Leah suddenly trips over a log, I leap it gracefully and race in the lead, her complaints voicing themselves loudly in my head. Reaching the tree line, I smile in pure victory. Leah arrives only moments later, saying that it didn't count.
Ah, too bad, my friend. You know I won.
We peak through the minimal trees, seeing the green sign at the edge of the highway. It read: Spokane 200 miles. I guess that's a good place to start.
We run along the road to Spokane, side by side, not as fast as we could but not slugging either- we are faster than cars. Silently, we traveled. Approaching the city, we aren't sure where to go first and decide on the woods on the eastern side outside of Seattle. Running about 30 yards apart, we went through the forest, searching for vampires or signs of their attacks. Suddenly, a revolting, sickly sweet smell hits my nose as I catch the trail of a vampire. With Leah following, I track the scent to a remote cottage, reeking of leeches. This is our chance. Hiding in the foliage, we lie in wait of the vampires that we were sure would return, not daring to venture in the house in case they suddenly appeared. Finally, three leeches, white as snow, unnaturally beautiful, came out of the woods. One, with dark-brown hair in a pixie cut, raises its head, sniffing.
"What is that God-awful smell? It's like a wet dog…" She says disgustedly. "There aren't any dogs out here, right? I thought we are far from the city, but what if some dog followed us back? Or what if its owner is nearby? Man, that's smell is terrible. Or what if it's dangerous-"
Well, you smell a ton worst. Trust me, Leah thinks. I snort.
One of the other vampires chuckle. "Stop being paranoid, Elena. It's just some animal," he says with an unconcerned smile.
The other, with a mock-scared voice, put her hands up in fear. "Oooh, maybe it got Tyler. Yes, it attacked him and tore him apart on his trip back from Port Angeles. C'mon, Elena. It's probably just a rotting, dead animal. Besides, Tyler is only one day late."
Flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder nonchalantly, she says, "Nothing can hurt us, Elena. Except for ones of our own kind."
How wrong you are, I think.
(A.N. We all know who Tyler is, right? If you don't, I'll give you a hint. Remember how Leah got attacked by a vampire? Alright, then; moving on.)
The vampires-two females and a male- continue on inside the house. While Leah and I try to plan our attack, one came out, the lone male. Big mistake. He ran into the woods, unaware of the two wolves running parallel to him, silent as the night. Leah cut across behind him without a sound, and, by my signal, we attack when he reaches a clearing. Jumping out the bushes and trees that served as our hiding barriers, we pounce on the unsuspecting vampire. We tear him apart quickly, our teeth ripping away at his stony flesh. As Leah starts the fire, I look around for missed pieces. I see an arm, stopping just above the elbow, dragging itself across the clearing. Okay, that's just weird, I think as I collect it in my mouth and drop it into the fire with the rest. Suddenly, I hear voices- those of the other two vampires. Great. Leah and I retreat to the cover of the trees on opposite sides, and seconds later, the two female leeches rush into the clearing, seeing their comrade burning in the putrid fire. With a gasp, the one with the pixie hair steps closer, whispering, "Who could've done this? Is there another vampire around?"
The other answered, "There must be; no one else could have done this."
Leah says, Guess again. Building a plan in our minds, we stay hidden in the greenery.
"Let's get out of here," she says, backing away and breaking into a run, the other following. We run beside them, both unsuspecting that we were the mysterious vampire killer or that we were nearby.
At my command, we attack them the same way we did the male, but something went wrong. First, the pixie vampire heard Leah before she attacked, which gave her time to turn and face her opponent. I suppose everything can seem in slow motion some times in your life because I saw this while I was still in the air, in the process of pouncing on my unaware target. Second, Leah is at a disadvantage. The pixie leech had the time to put her hand up, and it made all the difference in the world. It is how she yields her "special gift". Before they even touch, the vampire has hurled Leah into a tree, rendering her unconscious. Now, back to me where I am landing on the leech. Tearing off her entire arm in one swift move, she screeches. With the slight moment in her shock, I whip to see the other attacking me from the side. Before she can use her gift to annihilate me, I use my size to make the first move: going above her and completely ripping off her head. Of course, in that time, the other was practically on my back, clawing at me with her sharp nails, crushing my bones with her one arm. She bites into the back of my shoulder blade. With a howl of pain, I fling her off where she slams into a tree. I finish her part by part, her screams echoing throughout the forest. I did not let myself feel the pain, my anger fueling me. I was so angry- at the Cullens for being so hard to hate, at Bella for torturing me so, at the pixie vampire for hurting Leah. And I took it out on the vampire in front of me.
As the last piece of white stone falls from my mouth, the pain finally makes its presence known. The cracked bones induce a pain of their own, extravagant, but even worse is the venom. The icy serpent slithers through my body, spreading agony and suffering everywhere. It goes in all different directions, making every part of me miserable, mocking my victory over the two vampires, making a joke of Leah's state.
I stumble painfully towards the unconscious silver wolf, and, ready to bend down and try to nuzzle her awake, I collapse. Hitting the ground on my side without broken bones, facing the wolf beside me, I fight against my eyes that are begging to close. I know I shouldn't let myself go into the darkness; Leah may need me. I should stand up, awaken her, make sure she's okay. But I just couldn't…
For a moment, I say to myself. I'll close my eyes for only a moment.
So I let my eyes close, and as I had known the entire time, the second I did: the blackness overtook me. I gave in to it easily, hoping I could stay like this, where there was no pain and suffering- just the darkness.
