A/N: So sorry for the long wait, but because my inspiration TV show "Revolution" has been off air for winter break, I've had trouble finding the proper motivation to write this story. I'll try not to let it happen again :)
Chapter 7 – Blinding
When I woke up the next morning to the sweltering heat of the summer sun, I couldn't help the disorienting wave of disappointment I felt. I was still lying on something cool and hard, unfortunately it was a large boulder instead of the vampire that I had fallen asleep on the night before.
I sat up and looked around to try to figure out where exactly I was.
"We're still in Arizona," Jacob said as he walked over to me in his human form.
"Oh…I know," I said, unsure why he'd think I had forgotten.
"You just look a little confused," he told me slowly.
"No, I'm not confused, it's just…" I let my sentence trail off. There was no way I was going to tell him that I had fallen asleep on the vampire and was disappointed that he wasn't there when I woke up; he'd never allow himself to be unconscious on our trip again. "Where is Edward?" I asked, deciding that was a better and more important topic.
Jake shrugged. "I don't know. When I woke up in the cave this morning, I came out here and found you alone sleeping on the rock. But his scent leads that way," he said while pointing towards the north.
"Oh…" I said while standing up. "Should we track him?"
He shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure he'll be back. I mean, he's had every opportunity to ditch us thus far and he hasn't, so why would he now?"
"I guess," I said absently. Unless, that is, I freaked the hell out of him by lying on him the way I did.
"Well, what do you say we try to find something to eat," Jake suggested.
"What are we going to eat in the desert?" I asked hopelessly. "Give me the forest and a bow and we'll never go hungry, but I have no idea how to survive in a place like this."
"We have water, and that's what's most important. Maybe we should just continue east and hope we come across something," he suggested.
"What about Edward?"
"I'm sure he won't have a problem finding us."
I nodded and then we began walking again. "How long do you think it'll take to get to Florida?" I asked wearily.
He sighed. "You were always better at geography than I was. All I really know is that it's to the east and it's a hell of a long ways away."
We walked silently for a few hours before we both needed a break from the terrible heat of day. "Remind me why we decided traveling during the day was better than at night?" I asked as we pulled out our water satchels and probably drank more than we should.
"Edward said there's less vamp traffic during the day," Jake replied, sounding even more exhausted than I felt.
"Why would that be?" I asked confused.
"I don't know, something about old habits dying hard. He said vamps were so used to sticking to the shadows to hide from people that many still do out of habit. Plus their senses are even better in the dark."
"I get all that, but…" I took a deep breath. "This is excruciating."
"You're telling me? My body temp is 108 in Washington weather; I can only imagine what it is here."
I smiled sympathetically. "Sorry," I told him, well aware of the fact that he was only suffering through it for me. "Maybe we should risk it and travel at night regardless of the vampires. I mean, we're never going to get there like this."
"We just need to make sure that we stay hydrated," he disagreed. "Everything about this trip is dangerous; we don't need to take extra risks by traveling at night. Besides, we need to sleep, and we both know that sleeping in the hot sun is next to impossible. Let's just power through it and then rest as much as possible at night."
"Ok, well my water is already getting low so we'll need to refill our satchels as soon as we find a lake or something."
"Yeah, mine is too. We'll just have to keep our eyes out."
We walked a little ways longer when suddenly we saw a blinding light, brighter than anything I had ever seen before. I had no idea what could be making the glare so I raised my hand to try to shield my eyes, and was absolutely flabbergasted to see Edward's form appear in the center of it.
Nothing about Edward had ever really seemed earthly, not even when I thought he was human back when we met at the wall, but the way he looked at that moment was beyond words. His beauty was unparalleled, and just like the light he was reflecting, everything else was dull in comparison.
"Whoa leprechaun, what's with the light show?" Jacob asked.
"Leprechaun?" Edward asked confused.
"The rainbows you're shooting off," Jake explained. "What gives?"
"I'm a vampire - it's what we do in the sun," Edward stated evenly.
"We've seen you in the sun before, and you've never given off beams like those," Jake argued.
"It's the desert midday heat. Not only is it the brightest place in the country, but the mirages from the heat and sand makes the reflections amplified," Edward explained. "Just one more reason why vamps don't do too much traveling during the day around here; it's annoying to us too."
"No doubt," Jake agreed. "Hey, do I smell meat?"
Edward tossed him two dead rabbits, which surprised me, I would have thought that would have been the first thing Jake noticed.
"Sorry, I couldn't find anything bigger," Edward told us.
"This is better than nothing, thanks," Jake said graciously. "You're like our own personal meat supplier."
"Well, I have to keep my pets fed, don't I," Edward said with a cocky smirk.
Jake immediately began skinning the animals, but the strong metallic smell of blood escaped into the air as Jake's hands were completely covered in red. "Uh…you forgot to drain them first."
"Pfft," Edward huffed. "I'd never drink a ridiculous bunny."
"Oh… I thought you said you couldn't find anything else?" Jake asked him confused.
"Unlike you mortals, I don't need to feed every day."
"Is this blood going to attract any vamps?" I asked concerned.
"There aren't any close enough to smell it," Edward replied evenly. "Not that they'd care about animal blood anyway."
"If you weren't hunting for yourself, where have you been?" Jake asked suspiciously, unable to move past the subject.
"Last time I checked, I didn't have to answer to you or anyone else," Edward snapped, suddenly becoming very serious and almost angry in a way that I hadn't seen from him before. Even Jacob was surprised by his sudden mood change.
"Fine, I don't care where you were anyway," Jake mumbled quietly before going back to preparing the rabbits.
I stared at Edward for a moment, unsure what I was looking for, and then I blinked and he disappeared. I was about to ask Jake if he saw where he went when I felt the coolness of his body radiating from behind me.
He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into him so that my back was flushed against his stone chest.
"If you ever pull another stunt like you did last night, I will kill you," he warned so quietly that Jake's super hearing couldn't even detect it. His tone was absolutely menacing and if I was smart I probably would have been terrified, but as his icy cold breath washed down my neck all I could think of was how good it felt. He let me go then flashed several yards away and posted himself on a rock like some illuminated statue. He was absolutely mesmerizing.
It was hard to tear my eyes away from Edward, but I forced myself to pay attention to Jacob's cooking, because the sooner we ate, the sooner we could get moving again.
"Gah, it's so hot," I said, backing away from the small fire but still not finding any relief.
"Again, I have it worse than you," Jake said while poking at the meat with a stick.
"Maybe we should just learn to eat it raw," I whined, honestly beginning to feel lightheaded. I absently pulled a string from the hem of my shirt and then used it to tie my hair away from my neck in the hopes that it would help cool me off, but before I had a chance to even secure it Jacob jumped up.
"What the hell?" he asked as he examined the side of my throat.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Holy shit," he said in quiet disbelief before turning to look in Edward's direction with pure, unadulterated rage.
"Jacob what is it?" I asked in a panic.
The next thing I knew Edward was standing in front of him with a sinister smirk on his face. "And what are you going to do about it, pup?"
"I'm going to fucking kill you," Jake seethed.
Edward took two deliberate steps closer to him so that they were only a couple of feet apart. "Try it," he challenged him.
As angry as Jacob was, Edward's angelic face had distorted in a way that made him look so demonic that even the bravest of men would back down.
"Just tell me what you did to her," Jake asked, trying to maintain his intimidating stance but failing miserably.
"What do you think I did to her?" Edward replied darkly.
Jacob shook his head in denial. "No, she would be a filthy bloodsucker if you bit her."
"Bit me?" I asked, immediately bringing my hand to the phantom cool spot on my neck where his lips were once attached.
"You have a crescent shaped mark, and your skin is all black and blue around it," Jake explained to me without taking his accusatory eyes off of Edward.
I looked at Edward questionably, and even though he didn't seem to be in the sharing type of mood he did turn his frosty stare to me – "I told you not to mess with me," he said sadistically before walking off.
"Wait, where are you going?" I called after him.
"Just let him go, Bella," Jake said quickly. "I don't know what the hell he did to you, but it's obvious he can't be trusted."
"So we're just supposed to just let him go and trust him to not go back to our home and feed on the people there?" I asked sarcastically.
"Oh shit," Jake said as he realized my point. "Well, I'm sure Sam is still on high alert protection mode, but you're right, we can't take any chances; it's time to end him once and for all." He turned to me and took both of my hands in his. "Bella, if I don't survive this, I want you to know that I always loved you…and you are definitely worth dying for."
"Okay, enough with the theatrics," I said annoyed as I pulled my hands out of his grip. "First of all, I already told you that I don't feel that way for you, and second, you're not going to die right now, cuz you aren't going to fight him…at least not yet. He didn't bite me."
"How do you know? Bella, you can't see the mark."
I rubbed the spot with me hand and chose to keep the part about it feeling cool to myself. "It's probably just from the way he was pretending to bite me. He had to make it believable. If he really bit me then I'd be a vampire by now."
"Well maybe he sucked the venom back out and sealed the wound."
"I doubt a vampire would be able to stop feeding to do something like that, especially one that hasn't had human blood in a long time. Besides, did you see his eyes? They're still gold. If he drank my blood they'd be red now."
"Oh…I didn't think about that," Jake conceded. "So what then, you think it's just like…a really big hickey?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, I guess. But frankly, I don't care. Nothing has changed. We still need him."
Jake huffed. "I know…but if he so much as looks at your neck wrong, this arrangement is off."
"Look, I appreciate the fact that you're risking your life for me, but like I told you before, we are never going to be a couple so…."
"We don't have to keep having this conversation," he interrupted me. "I heard you the first five times."
"But you just said…"
"I thought I was about to go challenge him. Regardless of how confident I am, the vamp is seriously going to be one hell of a fight. I just wanted my possible last words to be…I don't know…positive. Maybe even a little heroic," he admitted.
I giggled despite myself. "Well, I'm no damsel in distress. I'm human and incapable of protecting myself against vampires, but other than that I can take care of myself," I joked.
"Yeah, okay," he snickered. "But you should really consider me a while longer before making your final decision on our future. Who knows, you may end up falling in love with me on this trip after all."
"Don't count on it."
"We could make some pretty awesome offspring. Just think, you could be the mother of future wolf warriors."
I rolled my eyes at him again. "Every woman's dream come true…to have puppies instead of babies."
"Hey," he said offended.
"Oh, you know I'm kidding," I said with a laugh while nudging him with my elbow.
"I don't think you are kidding. You've been hanging out with that leech too much while I sleep. His terrible views on life are rubbing off." He stepped closer to me and took an unexpected whiff. "You even have his scent on you. What the hell were you doing last night? Hugging him?"
"No," I said a little too quickly. "It's just probably from when I rode on his back the other day," I told him as I brought my wrist up to my nose to try to see if I could smell Edward's scent as well. Unfortunately, my weak human nose didn't smell anything except my own sweat. "God, I really need a bath."
"I doubt we'll find any water around here," Jake replied wearily. "I really don't like this place," he added while looking around at the emptiness that surrounded us. "It's so… I don't know, eerie. Too open. I don't feel secure without the forest."
"Me either," I agreed.
We ate our rabbit meal and then threw sand on our fire before continuing on our way. Despite our little tiff with Edward, I didn't have a doubt that he'd show back up eventually. For whatever reason, I trusted him, and I truly believed he'd see us through until the end of our mission.
When the sun lowered in the sky above us, Jake and I searched out some kind of shelter for the night. If vampires really were more active in the dark then we'd need to be as obscure as possible. Luckily we were passing a fairly desolate area and I doubted any vampire would have a reason to be there, so as long as there wasn't a strong wind, we had a good chance at being ok.
We crawled into a shallow ravine and couldn't do anything but hope we'd make it until morning. Once again, Jake and I took turns sleeping. I told him to go first, and I pretty much just sat there trying to think of anything other than how badly I wished Edward was there so I could find some relief from the heat again.
But then, expectedly unexpected, Edward was back…just sitting next to me as if he had been there the whole time. He didn't say anything; he just sat with his legs crossed and his head leaning back against the rock behind him. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was sleeping.
Very slowly, I inched towards him. His threats echoed in my mind as my conscience screamed at me to stop, but I dismissed it. He didn't open his eyes as my arm wove into his, and he didn't even flinch when I rested my head on his shoulder. I really didn't understand him one bit, but I didn't care to either. I was just grateful for the break from the heat, and I wasn't about to question him on it.
Just like the day before, I woke up in the morning with Jake still snoring nearby and Edward nowhere to be found. I never thought I was a light sleeper, but somehow he managed to disappear from my grasp while I slept anyway.
He was a strange and fascinating creature.
When Jake woke, we set out again and Edward rejoined us sometime around midday. None of us commented on his disappearing and reappearing antics, it just became the norm as it continued that way for the next several days. Edward would usually return with a dead animal of some sort, occasionally it would be drained of blood, but usually not. And if our water satchels ran dry, somehow Edward would have them refilled by morning.
None of us spoke much, we just didn't have the energy to, and I would spend most of the day anxiously awaiting the sun to go down so that I could rest while lying against Edward's cool form. He didn't threaten me anymore, though every once in a while he'd give off a low warning growl from deep inside his chest if I got too overzealous with my contact. I wasn't allowed to completely lie on top of him again, but his arm and shoulder was tolerated and I was grateful; I'd take as much of his coolness he was willing to give.
Approximately a week of excruciatingly uncomfortable trekking later, we finally seemed to be getting somewhere. We came across an old sign that read Austin Texas which came accompanied with the remains of another human city long turned to rubble.
"Are there vampires here?" I asked cautiously.
"Most likely," Edward replied emotionlessly. "We should resume our previous roles from Phoenix," he suggested.
Jake huffed and then began undressing as Edward looked around for another chain.
"But, I stink," I said concerned. "And it didn't work last time, so why would it work now?"
"You're not going to pretend to be a vampire again; I meant that you need to go back to being my personal blood bank."
"Oh."
"Your eyes aren't red," Jake argued. "How the hell is that going to work?"
"I won't make eye contact with anyone," he said unfazed. Without warning he suddenly reached up and ripped the string out of my hair so it would fall around my face again. It was so hot and dirty that I almost vomited as I got a whiff, but I held it in and forced myself to ignore it.
Edward pulled up his sleeves to expose his Cullen brand on his wrist, at the same time he set his face into a cold hard mask of authority. When Jake phased into a wolf, Edward wrapped the new chain he found around his neck and then looped it around my wrist as well.
"Ready?" he asked us.
Jake and I both nodded so we began our walk into the city. There was no mating colony nearby so we weren't expecting as many vamps as in Phoenix, but a city was a good place for them to hang out and socialize with each other so we needed to stay on full alert. As we walked further down the old broken roads though, we encountered something we were never expecting….
