Chapter Seven
A Hellish Angel
Bella was halfway to the door when Jacob came bounding out. His black hair was longer, nearly reaching his chin, his dark eyes looked heavy and tired, but his smile lit the gloom from his face and lit her gray clouds.
"Bells," he exclaimed as he swung her off her feet, but instantly let go stumbling back with his fingers a plug on his nose. "Ugh," he said disgustingly, but the corner of his mouth was turned up into a playful smirk.
She rolled her eyes. "Don't say it," she warned, knowing the words he had come too accustomed to when he was hunting vampires. That seemed so long ago... "Alice will pound you. She's here, right?"
He jerked his head to the old screen door that had a splay of duct tape over the holes it had formed over the years. "She said to expect you."
"Did she say anything else?" She felt her face burn with embarrassment. She knew Jacob had to know, Alice wouldn't keep anything from him.
His lips thinned into a severe frown and that answered everything. Disappointment, anger, worry.
"I guess I don't need to explain then."
He didn't respond, critically eying the motorcycle behind her. "Nice bike." He lips loosened from his frown. "Alice didn't say you stole it."
"I didn't steal it, Jasper let me borrow it as you very well know." She shook his finger at him like a parent would of a undisciplined brat.
Grinning he hugged her tightly, squeezing the air out of her. "I'm glad that you could escape."
"With Jasper's help," she wheezed out. "I couldn't have done it without him." She wanted to make it clear of his aid, as if it would win her points with the boy she considered to be a brother.
She owed Jasper a lot. He let her give up the time they could have had with each other so she could see her friend. She missed Jasper even then, an empty place while she was gone. It wouldn't be long, and it wouldn't be Edward's last hunting trip. He would have no choice to go and Bella needed to defy him. She needed to do what she would have done long ago if she had the guts.
He set her down again and shrugged. "You're here, it doesn't matter how."
She leaned onto his chest, his worn shirt doing little to diffuse his burning heat. She was beginning to sweat but she didn't move from him. She missed him more than she realized. It was like coming home.
How could she have let Edward keep her away for so long? Months, it had been months since she had seen her best friend. And why? Because her boyfriend had forbidden it like her father would have if she was younger.
That was that. She wouldn't let Edward dictate her anymore. This was her first step to running her own life, if her relationship with Jasper didn't count. She was her own person, and she was finally home.
***
Jasper couldn't cross that line... He would not start a war with Bella's friends... She was fine... Alice was with her... Bella needed to be with that mongrel... It was only fair... He kept telling himself those things because it was the only thing that kept him from going to the reservation.
It was a good thing Jasper and Bella weren't together. He had already kissed her once, what would they have done if he had more time? It was good of her to leave, but it didn't stop him aching for her.
The treaty no longer existed. There was no need for it since Jacob imprinted on Alice. His sister and that mutt... He shook his head as he tapped his fingers on his desk.
An hour of being home, re-organizing his books in his bedroom he received a call from the very vampire. According to her visions their dear brother would be home within thirty-two seconds. In preparation he left his desk to which he was doing nothing at but thinking of Bella, and waited against the banister, counting down.
...Four... Three... Two... One.
The door burst opened and Edward's face was livid. Alice forgot to tell Jasper that he would see the garage... Apparently Edward didn't trust him not to take Bella on his bike again.
In respect, he knew that his promises were empty. There were no promises he kept to him anymore. Much less breaking his word that he would always keep his distance from her, he took her has his own, his brother's girlfriend, his existence. He was careful as always to keep his mind clear of all of it.
"Where is your bike, Jasper," he asked scathingly.
There wasn't a good lie. He would know soon. "I lent it to Bella. Didn't think you'd mind, I'm not with her." He could hear the iciness in his own voice, taste the bitter aftertaste.
Edward took two steps forward, his breath breezing in a hiss between his clenched teeth. "I do mind. Where has she gone?"
"She'll be back." He blocked every thought of the place. He pictured his childhood home, blurred around the edges as it was with all of his human memories. There was the jagged wooden fence, the gate that had never been fixed, overgrown weeds and his mother in bent over the garden in hope.
A bolt of irritation and anger shot out. "Answer my question."
"It's none of your concern."
"Everything that involves her is my concern."
Jasper kept his emotions intact. It was for several reasons. For one, it infuriated Edward when Jasper tried to calm him. Secondly, he didn't want a brawl. Thirdly, he couldn't let him know his feelings for her and any rash action would prove just that..
"Bella is safe. Be patient, she'll come home. She has to. It's my bike she has." He tried to inject some joke but it was without warrant.
Edward's anger dissipated slightly, keeping his hold of the aura of a hellish angel. Without saying a word the said angel stormed past him to go out to the backyard.
Jasper lowered himself on the steps. He glared at the door.
Come home soon, Bella.
***
"You better go home, Bella. Edward's already there," Alice said sternly clicking the remote to the television off. She twisted in Jacob's lap where they rested on the floor against the couch. He kissed her spiky hair.
Bella sunk lower in her seat. She shook her head, but before she could voice her worries Jacob spoke.
"Let her stay, Al. This is as good as her home as yours."
"That's not the point -"
"She doesn't have to go back to Edward if she doesn't want to."
"That's not the point, Jake! She has to face up to this. It's time!"
"Who says?"
Bella saw Alice's arms tightening around his neck, the barely audible hiss she let out. Suddenly the idea of a wrathful boyfriend wasn't such a bad option compared to any harm that Alice may inflict if she stayed. Not that Alice would, not to Jacob, her mate, her world. That didn't mean that she wouldn't make life difficult for both of them.
"I'll go," she sighed, defeated.
"He won't come down too hard on you. Jasper took most of the blame."
She groaned. That was the last thing she wanted: For Jasper to have taken the blame. It was all of her fault. She shouldn't have been such a coward. It was nearing nightfall, she had stayed for supper, had kept score for the pack's basketball game, and refused to think about what was waiting for her outside of the reservation.
"Are you sure," Jacob asked Alice.
"Positive. He won't find out today." Disappointment laced her voice.
He still looked unsure as Bella grabbed her jacket off the arm of the couch and left. It was pouring rain and so she double checked her helmet and carefully climbed onto Jasper's bike. She could say that the reason she drove so slow was precaution. The truth was that she didn't want to go back. She drove at a snails pace, grateful that no one else in the town of Forks had decided to drive. She couldn't express how grateful...
Coward, she thought to herself. She emptied her mind and let the wind and rain take it away. She felt the machine's movements, the smoothness of it. It was better than her old bike, rest its engine for Charlie destroyed it.
In too short of time, however, she was there at the end of the road that led to the Cullen household. And there was Edward, blocking her way, every inch of him soaked.
She contemplated running over him, but that would only damage the bike. She turned it off, the lovely rumbling beneath her ending to be replaced by the horrible growling that Edward was giving.
When it became clear that he wasn't going anywhere she relieved her helmet and tugged off her jacket, the leather holding desperately to her skin. She packed it into the side pocket and let the rain drench her. She crossed her arms and waited.
He strolled up and snatched the keys roughly out of her hand. She felt a spark of anger at that but said nothing. Hadn't she deserved it? She lied, ran, did everything that would seem as though she was purposefully trying to tick him off.
She gazed behind him to where the house was. She would've been able to have seen it if it weren't for all the trees that were blocking it. She thought of Jasper, a hallowing opening in her chest that she recognized as disappointment. She was hoping to see him once more that night.
"He'll fetch his bike. I'm taking you home."
Wiping the strands clinging to her cheeks she glowered, but she bit her tongue. She let him pull her up on his back and let him run through the woods.
Bella buried her face into the crook of his freezing neck, her legs wrapped securely around him. She shook, but not from the cold. She shook with anger, tears flooding her eyes. He was taking her away from Jasper and she clamped her jaw shut to keep from calling out his name. Not Edward's name. Jasper's.
