Changing Tides
A/N: Ok, so if you've read my other story Equinox and it's sequel Solstice, than you know that I've liked this theme lately. (You'll understand what I mean as you read this chapter) Sorry if you hate it, but to be fair, it's in the description on the first chapter. *Thanks for all of the great reviews for Ch7 - I hope you all review again for this one.*
Ch 8 – Vampires and Other Opponents
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"Ok, I'm here as promised, lets coordinate" I said unenthusiastically, standing outside Nessie's dorm room.
She smiled, and then grabbed my hand and led the way to the shuttle stop. It was Saturday, so there were shuttles that took the upperclassmen to and from the city that ran every hour.
"Ok so, have you ever been to France?" She asked me as we were entering our third formal-wear store.
"No, but I'm sure you have. Why?"
"I thought you said you traveled a lot too?" She asked me
"Yeah, well, I kept my road trips to the US, and occasionally Mexico." I explained
"Mexico? Why are you so bad at Spanish then?"
"I said that I traveled there, not that I spoke to anyone." I said with a smile "Why are you so good at the language anyway?" I asked as I started playing with a lock of her amazing hair.
"I can speak many languages." She stated. She looked up at the dumbfounded look on my face and smiled. "What? You know my family travels a lot, it's just easier to not have to rely on translators." She giggled
"Wow" I didn't know what to say to that.
"You don't speak any other language than English?" She asked
"Uh, I grew up knowing how to speak Quileute, but that's not exactly a widely used language and it's been a long time since I spoke it, so I don't remember much." I explained
"Quileute?" She asked confused. She was so cute trying to hide her confusion; she hates not knowing about something.
"Yeah, the Native American Tribe." I said and couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at the way she was frustrated by her lack of knowledge on the subject.
"Oh. Why would you know a language like that?" She asked
"Well my grandfather only spoke that language, he refused to learn English, so my sisters and I were taught it so we could communicate with him. But after he died, we kind of lost the urge to speak it very often." I explained
"Wait, you're Native American?" She asked surprised
"Yep, one hundred percent"
"Wow, so I bet your family really wants you to marry another person from your tribe to keep the blood line pure and all of that?" She asked looking away
"No they actually really don't care, and I don't have any plans on marrying someone with my same background, in fact, I'm sure I won't." I said confidently, she looked over at me and must have suspected what I meant and blushed.
"Ok, so how about this one?" She asked holding up a men's dress coat.
"I think it's awesome." I said with false enthusiasm, I wasn't fooling her.
"Right. You have the same reaction to everything, so I'm just going to stop asking your opinion and just pick it out myself."
"Thanks" I said sincerely.
"You are just so huge; it's hard to find your size. Are all the guys in your family as big as you and your cousins are?" She asked
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Ooo this is perfect." She said pulling out a black blazer. "We can pair it with a hot pink tie that will match my dress." She said proud of her find.
"Uhhh, hot pink? Babe, I don't think that pink matches my skin tone." I said with more fear than I ever felt facing any vampire.
"Are you kidding, it's going to be really sexy." She said as she reached up on her tip toes, and wrapped her arms around my neck before planting her lips on mine. Our lips danced together for a few moments before she released me and smirked knowing I would wear whatever she wanted. She didn't fight fair.
We never talked about our relationship status; I knew that if she kissed me again, I wouldn't stop her, so we have been sharing these amazing kisses all week. I gave up on my age issue, kissing never hurt anyone, besides I had no self control when it came to her, and I knew I never would.
We went to the cashier to buy my new clothes and she pulled out her credit card.
"No way, this is my stuff; I'm not letting you pay." I told her before grabbing her card and shoving it back in her purse.
"Jake come on, I have more money than you and besides you are only getting this stuff because I want you to." She said determinedly. She was right of course, her parents gave her a limitless credit card, but I did have my own money. I still had some cash from my trucking days, and I get a monthly check from the people renting my dad's house.
"No, not happening."
"What happened to the Jake that doesn't say no to me?" She said while she batted her eyes knowing she was completely irresistible to me.
"Still not happening." I said before handing the cashier my debit card.
We went to lunch at some little café, and I started to worry when Ness said she wasn't hungry. (Of course she waited until I ordered my food before she told me that.)
"What's up with you? Sometimes you eat a ton, and other times you hardly have an appetite for days." I asked concerned about her strange eating habits.
She shrugged. "I'm just not hungry right now, what's the big deal?" She said casually
She started staring out the window that we were seated next to, and seemed to get uncomfortable. "Uh, I'm going to the ladies room, I'll be back in a few." She said before getting up quickly and disappearing.
My food came so I ate quickly because I didn't want her having to wait too long for me to finish, but after ten minutes of her not coming back I started to worry. The check took too long to come, so I just threw down a twenty and forgot the change, then went to the ladies room to check on her, but her scent was nowhere near the rest rooms. So I started really panicking now.
I followed her scent outside, but then I was hit with a strong smell of vampire and that's when I started freaking out more than I ever had before. Nessie was out there somewhere unprotected and there was a vampire around. I ran down the street and around the corner before I heard Nessie talking to someone and for some reason, I stopped to listen. The smell of vampire strengthened, but I could see Nessie so I knew I could protect her if she needed it.
"Where?" Nessie asked concerned
"At the school, you must be careful." The person told her.
"But why now, and how many are there?" She asked quickly
"They came to play football, and I believe there are four, but I'm not sure." The man talking to Nessie stopped abruptly, and snapped his head to the side looking right at me. My heart jumped when I saw that his eyes were bright red; this was the vampire that I smelled, and My Nessie was talking to him.
"HEY! BACK UP!" I yelled at him. I didn't want to phase because there were too many people around, but I would if had to in order to protect Ness, and deal with the consequences later.
"Jake!" Nessie looked surprised.
The vampire looked back at Ness, but then took off in a blur and disappeared. My instincts told me to follow and kill it, but Nessie was standing there staring at me with a look of horror on her face, and I needed to ask her some questions.
"Who the hell was that?" I asked forcefully. I usually refer to vampires as what instead of who, but I wasn't sure exactly what Nessie knew about it and how.
"Jake, calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down. You told me you were going to the bathroom and I find you out here with that…" I let my words trail off so I could calm down enough to stop shaking. I was so angry that a vampire was so close to her, but my confusion as to why was overriding everything.
"The bathroom was full and I couldn't wait, so I left real quick to find a different one. That man you yelled at was just a homeless guy asking for some money, and you scared him to death!" That's when I realized that she was actually a really good liar. She spoke with such conviction and never blinked an eye, and if I didn't overhear part of her conversation, I definitely would have believed her. I thought briefly on what else she's lied about.
"Oh Come on Ness, you can't expect me to believe that crap. This is ridiculous why are you lying to me, who the hell was that guy, and why were you talking to him?" I said angrily
"Oh, so now you're playing the jealous boyfriend card? So what if I snuck out, it's not any of your business what I do, or who I talk to." Now she was yelling at me.
"It's just common courtesy to tell who ever you are with if you plan on leaving. I was worried about you, and that guy looked…dangerous." I said to her hoping she would trust me enough to just tell me the truth.
Nessie was quiet for a few moments, just looking at me like she was searching for something, then a tear fell from her eye and she took a deep breath. "Jake…I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. I should have never got involved with you, I knew better, but I just felt such a strong connection between us."
"What? Ness, what are you talking about? This whole thing is stupid, if you don't want to tell me what's going on then fine, I'll deal with it. But now you don't even want to be around me anymore?"
"Look, I told you when we first met that I didn't want to date anyone; now were both going to get hurt, just like I knew would happen." She said and her voice broke at the end.
"No one is going to get hurt, because we're not going to be apart. If you don't want to be more than friends, I totally get that, but I can't not have you in my life." I told her with a desperate tone to my voice. We were having a great day, shopping sucked but I was with her so it was perfect, and now she wants to end everything?
"Jake, please don't make this any harder than it has to be."
"Fine." I said quietly. If she needed to break away from me, than I had to let her, but there was no way I could be completely separated from her. I would give her space but I would never stop watching and protecting her, even if she didn't know it, especially since she was talking to vamps. I was sure after some time she would get over whatever issue she had and we would be together again, we were soul mates and she would have to realize that eventually.
We rode the shuttle back to school together, but she wouldn't look at me and when it stopped, she got off and left quickly without saying a word. The rest of the week went by slowly; I gave Ness space and didn't even ask her to be my partner in Spanish class, though Embry had to suffer because of it. I thought about the things the vampire said to her, something about the school and the football team but the strangest thing that the vamp said was to 'be careful', why would a vamp care what happened to her? I realized that the vampire wasn't being aggressive to her, but that just made the whole situation even more confusing.
I was extra alert while walking through campus, but I never smelled anything off. The rest of my pack couldn't find anything out of place either, but stayed focus at all times just in case. Leah managed to save my sanity by somehow getting Nessie's roommate to exchange rooms with her, so now she was bunking with Nessie instead. Ness resisted Leah's companionship at first, knowing that she was my cousin, but with Leah being as stubborn and persistent as she is, Ness gave up and they continued to hang out most of the time. But that also meant that we spent less time with Leah to go over pack things, and sometimes Leah couldn't find a way to sneak out to patrol at night, which was fine by me, I'd rather her stay and protect my gravity anyway.
We stayed on high alert at practice time too. The vampire told Nessie there were four of something on the team that she had to be careful of, but nothing smelled out of place, and everyone was human except for the four of us of course. That's when I felt like a complete moron.
"It's us" I told Seth and Embry at practice.
"What?" They asked me.
"The vampire was telling Ness to be careful of us. Of course a vampire would think werewolves were dangerous." I told them.
"But what does Ness have to do with the vampires, and why would they care about her in the first place?" Embry asked quietly.
"Maybe she's friends with them like Bella was with the Cullens?" Seth offered
As much as I wanted to kick Seth's ass for suggesting it, I actually think he was right; that would make the most since. All the strange things she said, the whole monster conversation that I tried to forget, talk of immortality. Everything points to her actually being friends with a disgusting bloodsucker, just like Bella.
"Damn it! Why does this crap always happen to me?" I didn't mean to say that out loud, but I just couldn't control it. If Ness was friends with a vampire, and she really wanted to become immortal like she was talking about, then maybe she was planning to get her wish. She was a good liar, so I bet she didn't plan on going to college because she actually wanted to be changed after high school. But I would never let that happen, not again, not to her.
"All right boys, and Miss Harrison of course, let's huddle!" The coach called us. "Ok, big game coming up, so let's use the rest of this practice time to scrimmage, offense against defense."
We all went to our respective positions and started to play. I guess my head just wasn't in the game, because our new offensive players easily got through our defensive line and scored right away.
"What the hell?" Embry said under his breath.
Leah kicked and of course they scored again. I knew our new offense was good, we did win every game, but I never thought they were this good.
I decided I needed to focus this time, so the next play started, and again, they got through us.
"Ok, no more messing around guys, we have to stop them next time." Embry said quietly.
The quarterback threw the ball across the field, and it was caught by the receiver, who was right by me. I went to tackle him, but was shocked when I found my face planted on the ground. I just laid there for a moment locked in my own disbelief.
"Uhh? Are you ok Jake?" Seth asked as he stood over me.
"What's going on?" I asked mostly to myself
"I don't know, but their kicking our ass" Seth stated the obvious
Our next round I decided to take out all the stops and I used more strength than I should have, finally bringing down the tight end, but he narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously and got up without saying anything.
After practice, we met Leah behind the stadium to ask her what she knew about her fellow offensive players.
"Hey, I only kick. I could kick some real ass out there if the coach wasn't a sexist moron and actually let me play." She ranted
"So you haven't seen anything strange? At all?" I asked her.
"I don't really practice much with them, I'm usually by myself; practice is actually pointless for me, it's not like I'm improving." She said smugly
"Well hello boys" Greg the new quarterback came up to us. He had the receiver Zack with him, as well as Calvin the center, and the new tight end Tim.
"Hey guys, we were just talking about you" Seth said accusingly
"Cut the bull, we know you're not human." Greg said abruptly
"Really? What are we?" I said cockily
"Werewolves." Zack said boldly
Seth, Embry, and Leah all exchanged worried glances, but I refused to break eye contact with Greg, he was obviously the leader of whatever they were.
"And what are you?" I asked Greg. I figured there really wasn't a point to denying it, when it was obvious they knew for a fact.
"Well that's not fair, we figured out what you are, you should have to do the same with us." Greg said with a sadistic smile. It was odd that this was all coming out now, these guys have been here for weeks and we all actually got along really well before.
"Fine, what do you want?" I said coldly
"Hey, we're just here to play ball. But next Friday is a full moon and you dogs better lock yourselves up, or whatever it is that you do to keep yourselves from killing people, or we're going to have issues." Greg said in a threatening manner.
Seth was about to tell them that werewolves were only like that in movies, but I shot him a warning glare so he knew to shut up.
"Don't worry, we won't be a problem." I told Greg. The last thing I wanted to do, was get in a fight when we didn't know what we were fighting. I had no idea how they somewhat knew about us, but if they thought we were only a threat on a full moon, then we had some time to figure out what exactly they were. They definitely smelled human and had human heartbeats, but the kind of power they displayed on the field, was way more than human.
*Does anyone know what the offense players are without reading the description in the first chapter? Check it out if you don't remember and can't wait for it to be revealed. I hope you like the direction this is going in, Please Review*
