Hey everyone. So I was recently asked about my updating schedule, and I have to say I don't really have one. I usually just update when I finish a chapter. But if anyone would like a schedule, please feel free to contact me. I'm also thinking about a Percy Jackson/Lux novel crossover, so let me know if you're interested in that.
Thank you for reading!
The drive between Forks and La Push was about twenty minutes. After he left, it could have taken Jacob twenty minutes to call and say that he made it home safe. But it had already been a day and Jacob hadn't called. I was so worried I decided to risk it. I dialed Billy's number. It rang once before he picked it up.
"Hello?" his gravelly voice said.
"Hi Billy, its Meda," I started. "I just wanted to make sure that Jake was alright, he left last night saying he wasn't feeling too well."
"No, he's…sick," Billy said. "And it looks like it'll take a while. I'm sorry."
That was weird. Why would he apologize for his son being sick? "Oh that's alright; tell Jacob get well soon for me, please. He must have gotten the stomach flu from Mike," I said.
"I'll tell him that. Goodbye, Meda," he said and hung up. That was rude of him.
The next day Charlie told me that school had been canceled. There were lots of kids getting sick from that stomach flu, and whenever too many kids are sick, the school has to shut down for some deep cleaning. So pretty much all I had to do was watch TV and sleep. Maybe I could force myself to look at that terrible English paper I kind of threw together the other night. But like most teenagers, I procrastinated and watched TV instead. Sometimes my intelligence astounded me. Charlie had to leave for work early that morning, and he was muttering about bears and wolves as he left. The phone rang and I answered it when I saw Billy's number.
"Hello?" I asked. I suddenly had terrible images of Jake in the hospital or dead. I've heard that for some people the flu can be fatal.
"Meda?" Jacob asked. His voice was very broken.
"Oh my gosh you sound terrible!" I said. "Oh I shouldn't have asked you to go to the movie, I'm so sorry!"
"This isn't your fault, and I'm glad I went," he said. "But I don't think this is the stomach flu."
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" I asked.
"I just need some more time." He sounded like he was begging. "But I'll be fine, I just need more time."
"Alright," I said, at a loss of what to do. "Get well soon."
"Goodbye," he said abruptly, and hung up the phone.
That was the last time I heard from Jacob for about a week. After four more days I couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey dad?" I asked.
"What is it?" Charlie asked urgently. I felt bad for that, I hardly ever called him dad, and he must be worried.
"Could you call your friend Harry on the reservation, I'm really worried about Jacob," I said. "It's been a while and he still hasn't said anything about getting better."
"Of course," he said understandingly.
Charlie did call his friend, and found out that harry had been in the hospital recently for chest pains. He seemed especially worried about that, so it took some time for Jacob to be brought into the conversation. Apparently Billy had taken him into a hospital for mono, and had a strict no visitors rule in effect. I decided to wait another week or two before I called Jake again. School opened up after being closed for two days, and although some people were gone, most everybody was back and happy to be able to keep food down.
The teachers on the other hand, were happy to give us all test after test. It seemed like they were trying to get us. Charlie, of course encouraged me all the time to put time into school.
"Few more months, and you'll be graduating," he said in a mix of pride and wistfulness. I did tell him about my nonexistent college plans, and he understood, but seemed sad.
My grades, after some time without Jacob or Percy were stellar. I only had to try at math, everything else came pretty naturally. I wasn't looking forward to a long weekend without Jacob or any friends. So about a week and a half after Jake left and didn't call back I pried my eyes open and braced myself for another long and slightly boring Saturday.
But I didn't have a boring day in store for me, I was sure. There were silver, almost glowing and pulsing thin threads that lead out my bedroom door. I bent down and tried to pick it up, but my fingers passed right through it. I went downstairs and saw that it went out the front door as well. Charlie was rooting around in the freezer and taking out a package of frozen cheese.
"What are you doing?" I asked, looking from the thread to Charlie.
He looked surprised and jumped. "Harry and I are going fishing, since it's not raining. Do you want me to stay here though?" he asked.
I looked back down at the floor at the silver thread. Obviously Charlie couldn't see it. "No," I said quietly, shaking my head and looking at him with a tight smile. "I'll be fine here."
"Well if you decide to go out, stay out of the woods," Charlie said. "There was another death of a hiker a little ways east of here."
"I will," I promised.
As soon as he left I ran up to my room. This was something related to half-blood stuff, I knew. I grabbed my bow, trident, pencils and as many knives as I could carry. Was it too much? I took a minute to think about it, and ditched the bow. I kept everything else though. I ran down the stairs following the thread. I saw that it went down the front steps, onto the driveway, and down the street as far as I could see. I went back into the house and got my car keys and followed the thread onto the freeway. After about thirty minutes, I could remember the way vaguely. This was the way I drove when Edward wanted me to go to the meadow.
After I got there, I killed the engine. I took a deep breath. I didn't think so much about what I was doing here, or why I needed to come here. I focused on making sure all my knives were within easy reach, and climbing out of the car and locking it. The trident was in my backpack. The stupid thread went into the woods and I followed it, crunching some dead leaves as I went. I walked for about an hour and a half, and a sense of wrongness got stronger and stronger as I went deeper into the woods. The thread was still there, never disappearing, always twisting in one direction and showing me where I had to go. Then I saw the meadow up ahead. I rushed forward, anxious to get it over with, and stepped into the clearing.
When I looked behind me, the thread had disappeared. I wanted to scream with frustration. How could I get back? Then my stomach dropped. What if the thread disappeared because I wasn't going to go home? I looked around frantically and focused on breathing. For the first time, I noticed the state of the meadow. The green leaves and beautiful flowers had all died, and everything was dead. Then I saw the figure across the clearing. Dark skin, and a face too beautiful to be human, it was a vampire. The vampire walked slowly toward me, and I could recognize it.
"Hello Laurent," I said evenly. He didn't have Victoria with him, which was probably a good thing. I'd have a difficult time killing both of them at the same time. Maybe this is what the thread was about.
"Meda?" he asked, looking puzzled. "I didn't expect to see you here," he went on.
"I live here," I said in a hard voice. "And I thought you went to Alaska."
"I did, but I came here after some time. I was surprised to see the Cullen place empty," he said, looking at me and gauging my reaction to their name. I noted that he didn't look any different, and rolled my eyes internally. He was a vampire, why would he change in the year since I saw him last?
"Yeah, they left over the summer," I said.
"And did they leave you behind?" Laurent asked curiously. "Weren't you some sort of pet of theirs? And what about your brother?"
Oh of course he had to mention Percy. Lie, lie, I told myself. I couldn't have another vampire try to follow up on what James was going to do after he promised to kill me. "My brother… this past summer, he was in a car crash, and …died." Gods those words hurt. Even thinking about Percy dead, or even lying about it made me want to vomit. "And I'm not a pet, thank you." I said those words icily, and he seemed surprised by my tone. "So, how was Alaska?"
"It was different. The dietary restrictions were difficult to abide by, and sometimes I cheated," he said with a smile. I noticed his eyes were blood red.
"That's nice," I answered. "But I do have a question."
"Ask me anything," he said, holding his arms open like we were friends.
"Did Victoria ever find you?" I was wondering where she was.
"Yes, she did. I actually came as a favor. She won't be happy about this," he said, putting a tone of regret into his voice.
"About what?" I asked.
"Me killing you," he said simply. "You see, your Edward killed James, so this is fair. A mate for a mate. Simple."
"Hold up," I said, backing away and holding my arms in front of me. "First off, why does everyone assume we were dating? Just because he has man parts and I have lady parts does not mean we're a match made in heaven, thank you!" I said. "And secondly, you are so wrong about James." I laughed once. "And third, you are not killing me." Because I'm going to kill you first, I promised silently.
"Really," he asked, and then paused. "But I should let you know now, that this isn't personal. It's just thirst," he said and shrugged. "But I promise it will be quick. You won't feel a thing. Victoria wanted you to suffer, but I'm not so cruel."
I rolled my eyes and shifted my weight downward. Here we go again, I thought. I didn't bring out my knives yet, I needed the surprise.
"You'll fight me?" Laurent asked, disappointed. "Then it will hurt."
"Oh get on with it," I snapped at him.
He raised his hand slowly, and I shifted my weight to duck, but then his eyes grew wide and he gasped. "I don't believe it!" he said in a whisper.
I looked behind me and straightened. So apparently all the stories were true. That was ironic, so the myths of ancient Greece were true as well as the rumors that started up a month ago. Standing in the meadow was a pack of huge wolves. Their shoulders were roughly my height. The first wolf, the one that was the point of the V they formed, was snarling, and showing a row of sharp teeth. I relaxed my stance. I could take a wolf on better than I could take a vampire. There was a snap of a twig, and Laurent was backing away from the wolf, his face a picture of horror. That was weird; a vampire vs. a couple of wolves wasn't something he should be afraid of. The wolves were beautiful and deadly, but beautiful all the same.
Then Laurent ran away. The wolves followed, barking and snarling, and then I was alone. I ran back to the truck, tripping and stumbling all the way, and started the engine and went home as fast as I could. When I got back, Charlie had already gotten back from fishing.
"Meda?" he asked worriedly as I slammed the door and took my shoes off.
"I saw them," I said. "I was in the woods, and they're not bears. They're wolves. There's about five of them."
"I told you to stay out of the woods!" he said sharply.
"I had to go," I said. "I saw a thread…" I trailed off when I realized how crazy that sounded.
"Is it something to do with the…?" Charlie waved his hands at me vaguely.
"Yes, it is," I said, rolling my eyes at how he would never actually say the word half-blood.
"Well stay out of the woods from now on," he said. "I'll call the station."
I had to lie a bit about where I was, I told them that I was on the trail instead of near the meadow. It was probably a bad idea to send humans around the area where I last saw a vampire. I ate dinner without tasting it and went to sleep.
I dreamed about the vampire in ancient Greece again. The injured man had screamed for about three days straight, and his voice was shot by the end of the first day. I saw the days go in fast forward. The days and nights seemed like minutes. The old vampire just watched, but didn't say anything. He had dragged the injured man to a cave, and it was very secluded, I doubted a human could hear his screams. After what seemed like a few minutes of watching the injured man writhe around some more, he suddenly stopped. I noticed that I couldn't really say the man was injured anymore. He had healed, although there was some blood on his clothing still. The vampire looked at him, and grinned when the man staggered to his feet.
"Thirst," he whispered, grabbing his throat.
"Come," the older vampire said. It was night outside, and they both looked to the sky. "This is your life now," he told the young vampire seriously. "Hunt."
They went into the forest, and then I saw the clearing up ahead. Both of them kept to the edge of the forest, and I saw a small village was in the clearing. "No!" I said, but they couldn't hear me. "You can't kill these people!"
"Look at that one there," the older vampire said, pointing to a young woman getting water from a well. I noticed that she looked tired. She lowered the bucket and was working on pulling it up slowly. The young one rushed forward, but the old one threw his arm out and pushed him back down onto the ground with a boom. "Wait!" he said sharply.
The young woman jumped at the sound, sloshing water over the bucket. She hurried, trying to fill up the bucket and get inside, but the young vampire had already rushed forward, evading the old one. The woman screamed once when she saw him, but he broke her neck with what looked like a twist of his wrist. When he drank, he seemed to calm down a bit, and when he finished, he threw her limp body away and stood up.
"Better?" the old one said sourly.
"Much," the young man replied. Then he started laughing, standing over the body of the first person he had killed. "I win! I win! You can't touch me!" he screamed like a maniac toward the sky. He was there, cackling for a minute, smiling like a lunatic, and I was so scared for the people in that village. "You can't touch me anymore!" he kept screaming.
Then he looked towards me, with that grin still on his face, and I felt true fear.
"And you'll be next!" he said and lunged for my throat.
