Bella POV
"Bella," Edward said pushing my hair away from my eyes. I was sure he could the sadness in them. Poor Jake all alone and all I could do was pray that everything would work out better than I had a feeling it was going to. "You won't be able to see him you know, after…what happened I don't think he could tolerate your scent."
"But…" I searched my brain for a reason I could see him, I had missed him so much and now when he needed me most, I couldn't help. I grasped onto what my brain came up with, gravely determined to see my best friend. "But you were able to tolerate my scent! Before you even knew me! And Jacob loves me let alone knows me, he could stand it!"
"Bella it's not the same!" he said, frowning worriedly, obviously horrified at the thought of me getting within a mile's radius of Jake. "I'd had years and years of resisting the lure of human blood and I still had a hell of a time resisting you!"
I felt my face fall. I looked at the leafy, muddy forest floor of Edward's back yard I couldn't believe this. It was all my fault I shouldn't have…I didn't know what I shouldn't have done but I must have done something wrong. I let my hair fall over my face brushing away the tear sliding down my nose.
Edward growled, a corner of his mouth lifting in a snarl. "Unfortunately Bella, Jake's not our biggest problem at this point. "Victoria is."
I sighed, what horrible timing. We'd known she was coming from Alice but didn't quite know what she was planning yet.
"Go inside, Bella." Edward hissed.
"But Edward what about…you can't fight her all by yourself!" I protested, I had been included in the discussion over Victoria and knew that she was a very old, very powerful vampire, not quite as old as the Volturi, but probably only one to two hundred years younger.
"We're right here Bella, we're fighting too." Emmett said quietly from behind me. All the natural humor gone from his now-solemn face.
"Alice, Rosalie and Esme are in the house. Please go join them." Carlisle added. His robotic tone frightened me and I walked quickly toward the door of the house.
I reached for the polished doorknob but before I could turn it Alice was in front of me looking confused.
"Edward, there's somebody coming. I can't tell who, it's just, like, a glitch in my sight." She said.
"Wonderful more trouble," Emmett grumbled.
"No, it's not like that." She said still sounding unsure. "They're going to help you defeat Victoria."
"Alice what exactly do you mean by glitch in your…vision…" Edward trailed off, surprise and worry flashing across his features.
The leaves to our right moved in the wind, making me shiver, despite the 80 degree heat around us. I had a feeling from the stillness around us that Victoria was close now.
Then it hit me, if it was eerily still, why had the leaves moved. I took a step back that took me behind the now protective Alice.
A few moments later, a very shaken and very naked Jacob stepped out from the bushes. His eyes glanced over me, followed by a flicker in his face there and gone in a millisecond.
"I'm here to help if you'll accept help from a monst…me." He murmured quietly. A vein in his neck twitched then went still as he waited intently for an answer.
"Of course, Mr. Black, we'd never turn down one of our own kind," Carlisle answered warmly. Emmett tossed Jacob his camouflaged army jacket which thankfully Jake wrapped around his waist.
"He is not one of us!" Rosalie whispered loudly from behind us. Alice elbowed her in the stomach, hard, and glared, silencing her for the moment. I felt a peaceful wave rush over me.
I glanced at Jasper as a light taint of anger entered the once peaceful wave.
"She's here." He whispered.
Alice and Rosalie pulled my unmoving body in the house just as Jacob exploded into russet fur.
