Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, or Harry Potter:)
Chapter Eight
Paul's POV
I dragged my feet tiredly up the front porch, eager to finally be getting a shower and then to bed. Actually…I was going to skip the shower tonight. I'd just run a three-hour patrol shift, and let me tell you—all I wanted was to get some shut-eye. I was practically drooling at the thought of my nice, warm, comfortable—
And that's when I heard the howl.
Anywhere else, a wolf's howl didn't mean too much—a wolf in the pack had gotten lost, perhaps, or the pack was reassembling after a hunt. But in La Push, a howl like that could only mean one thing.
Vampire.
Groaning, I took off running back toward the forest, and phased.
Where is it? I demanded immediately. I honestly just wanted to kill the thing as quickly as possible—if we didn't, it meant double patrol shifts. Knowing my luck, I would be the first one picked to run patrol. So, as I made my way toward the pack, I was preparing for a fight.
What do you want me to tell Scarlett? Jared was asking. Apparently I'd interrupted a conversation. Oops.
Leave Kim at home, Sam instructed. She's safer there.
What do you mean, safer? I demanded. Where'd you see the bloodsucker?
Inside Scarlett's closet, Sam growled, his protective big-brother instincts I was so afraid of flaring.
What? How the hell did it get in her room without her noticing? I practically shouted. I was so pissed…if I wasn't already in wolf form, I would have phased on the spot.
It doesn't matter how, Jared interjected. The question is, why? There are at least five werewolves in that house at any given time of the day. There is no way a vampire could miss that.
You don't just climb in the Alpha's baby sister's window to check out her clothes, Embry added. She wasn't bitten, was she?
No, Sam assured us. No, she's fine…I don't think it even woke her up. But you've got a point, Embry. Jared, I want you to take Quil, Seth, and Brady and run the border. If the leech is still in the territory, I want it dead. Got it?
Yes, sir, Jared replied, taking off with the other three behind him.
Collin, Embry, Paul, Leah, Jake…where's Jake?
With the Cullen's, Embry replied. He heard the howl and went to Nessie.
Sam started to growl impatiently, and almost ordered one of us to go after him.
He went to his imprint, Sam, I reminded him. He should have come to us…but whatever. We shouldn't need eleven of us to get this leech taken care of. Admittedly, a month ago I would have gone after Jake myself, taunted him until he went into a rage and phased, and dragged him back by the tail. But I sort of understood where he was coming from, now that—
Whoa. Couldn't think about that now—not with Sam listening. Luckily, nobody was paying any attention to me, as per usual. I returned my attention to Sam.
Fine, Sam agreed with the statement I'd uttered that sounded so utterly unlike me. Leah, Paul—circle the house, see if you can get a lead. We want to track this leech down before it can do any damage. Embry, Collin, we're running a perimeter of the town. I don't want this guy sneaking in anyone else's windows. If anyone catches a glimpse of our new friend, let out a howl.
Yes, Sir! Seth exclaimed, a little too eager for the excitement of a hunt.
With that, we all took off in our respective directions. Leah and I raced toward Sam's place at full speed, all the time sniffing for the sickly scent of vampire.
It was obvious why Sam put Leah and I on tracking duty. I had the best nose—yippee for me—and Leah was the fastest. We made a good team. I would point her in the right direction, and she would take off after the bloodsucker.
If you keep fanning your ego like this, I think I might actually puke, Leah growled.
Shut up, Leah, I replied angrily. You know it's true. We're good at this shit.
That doesn't mean you have to brag about it like this—my poor baby brother has to listen to you rambling about how awesome I am. That's just not fair, Paul.
I'm not listening! Seth replied in a sing-song voice that made both Leah and I roll our eyes.
Leah, Paul, if you two could please…Sam sighed, exasperated. Leah chuckled madly to herself. Apparently, irritating her ex never got old.
Never, she agreed.
You smell that? I asked. We were still about a quarter of a mile away from the house, but I was starting to pick up on the scent. It wasn't quite as sweet as vampires usually were…but then again, we were still pretty far away…actually, this scent was really kind of delicious. Maybe it wasn't a vampire. Maybe it was…
Yummy, Leah commented. Cookies. Way to go, Sherlock.
Yeah, yeah, I grumbled. Whatever. Let's just check out the house.
Leah sped ahead of me to the front of the house, and I made my way to the back, where Scar's room was. It wasn't hard to catch the vampire scent now—it was unmistakable this close up. It was obvious to me now that it had climbed up the side of the building, opened up the window, and snuck into the room. It had hidden in the closet, probably when Scar woke up and shrieked. The thing had managed to sneak back out the window, down the side of the house…and then where?
Hah! Take a look at this, Paul. Maybe she's not as oblivious as we thought! Leah exclaimed. I could see in her mind's eye that she was sitting right behind the line of trees, staring into the kitchen at a very tired looking Scarlett who was simultaneously pouring milk and staring back at Leah.
Leah, stop that! I growled. What if she recognizes you?
Well, don't give her too much credit, Leah chuckled. Scar's a bright kid and all…but I don't think anybody is expecting their friends to secretly be a giant werewolf. That would just be crazy.
Leah, I found the scent, I informed her urgently, already starting to follow it away from the house. Shit, it's going toward the border, I groaned. Jared, be ready, I warned him. Leah and I are coming to help hold the line.
Embry, Collin, we're going to keep near the town, Sam instructed. We have no idea what this leech will do.
Tell me about it. This bloodsucker was crazy. Sneaking into the very heart of the wolf pack? How insane did you have to be to try a stunt like that…and then get away with it? Something told me we needed to be very, very careful of this guy.
About half a mile from the border—close enough to it that I was surprised the others hadn't picked it out yet—the trail I was following went cold. Shit! I growled, retracing my steps until I found the scent again. I squinted, looking around. What was the most plausible course of action? If you were a vampire who liked to watch unsuspecting teenage girls sleep, where would you go?
I would say the Cullen's place, because that was a pretty much spot-on description of our little mind-reading friend, but something tells me Jake would have clued us in on something like that, Embry commented.
Embry, watch out! I exclaimed. I could see the flash of white coming up on Embry—I dug my claws into the earth and made a break for it. Leaping up into the air, I collided with the leech with my teeth bared. I managed to take off a hand before we hit the ground…but then the leech wrapped its arms around me…
SHIT! Newborn…! I tried to warn them, but…I couldn't breathe. It was impossible to breathe…
Sam's POV
I saw Paul hit the vampire mid-air, ripping at its limbs as they dropped to the ground. But then…then the leech got its arms around Paul's chest, and squeezed.
A loud curse and a warning were the last things we heard from Paul before he blacked out. The entirety of the pack was now murderously angry. We formed a circle around the bloodsucker, growling menacingly. Leah, Seth, I need you two to run to the Cullen's. Get the doctor, and bring him to your place, I ordered. They ran off obediently, both of them too angry about what had happened to Paul to care that I was pulling them out of the fight. Once they were gone, I gave the howl that signaled an attack, and we charged.
We took the leech down without a problem. Eight on one were nearly impossible odds, unless you had some totally kick-ass special ability up your sleeve—which this newborn didn't seem to have. Once she was dead, I had Jared phase back out and light the match. He picked Paul up gingerly in his arms. "Lead the way, Sam," Jared insisted.
I took off for the Clearwater's, knowing Sue wouldn't mind and not wanting to worry Paul's mother too much. The good doctor was waiting for us when we got there, and held the door open for Jared and Paul.
Quil, Embry, you've got the next patrol, I informed them. Make sure—
Yeah, I'll stick to your house, Quil offered.
Thank you, I sighed. Howl if you have any problems.
Will do, Sam, Embry said tiredly. He and Quil took off to make their rounds of the reservation. I phased, pulling on my shorts before I entered the house to get Carlisle's medical analysis of Paul.
"We've got to stop running into each other like this, Carlisle," I chuckled, shaking my head sadly. "What's the word? Will he live?"
"He'll live," Carlisle confirmed. "Painfully for a while, maybe…but he'll live. I've given him an anesthetic for now. It's not as bad as with Jacob, luckily—Jared jarred him enough on the way over that the bones weren't given time enough to begin healing out of place. He'll have to stay the night here, but by tomorrow evening he should be able to move around a little. Nothing too extensive though," the doctor warned. "I want you to keep him off patrol for a week, Sam."
"Whatever you say, Doctor," I nodded in agreement. "Thank you so much, Carlisle."
"Any time, Sam," he nodded, smiling.
"Sam, Mom and Leah and I can handle it from here," Seth said gently. "Go home. We'll call if we need you, okay?"
"Thank you, Seth," I smiled, ruffling the kid's hair. "Get some sleep, kid," I ordered. "You've got another midnight shift tomorrow."
Seth groaned. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he muttered. "Hey…who's going to fill Paul's spot?" he asked.
"I will," I answered. Of course I would; I was the adult, here—the rest of them were just kids…kids with two weeks of school left. "Night, Seth, Leah," I nodded to the two of them before heading out the door and starting the short walk home.
It was always a little…unnerving, being around Leah. Our relationship was the effect of one of the downsides to imprinting. Of course, now the boys use our relationship as an example—I don't think any of them have ever dated anyone but their imprint since first becoming what they are. I hadn't known about imprinting when I had been dating Leah. I'd hurt her…and I hated myself for it still.
I'd made lots of mistakes in my time. As the first wolf in La Push since the Cullen's had left Forks the last time a few decades ago, I'd had to learn as I went along. There was no manual, no instruction guide—all we had were the tribe stories, and our own experiences.
One of the biggest mistakes, for any pack member, though...that would be the loss of control. If we lost control, we lost ourselves, and that loss could have disastrous effects. Emily was living proof of these consequences. There wasn't a day that went by where I didn't regret scarring my imprint the way I had.
Then, of course, after that episode…I'd been so terrified of hurting anyone. I'd kept myself out of any and every situation where there was even the slightest possibility of me losing my temper. But then…that had had serious consequences, as well. Scarlett could have had that many less scars, if I'd just gone in and taken her away from our father. It would have been easy—Charlie would have been on my side one hundred percent. I could have done it…but I wasn't brave enough.
Why did the women I love always end up with scars?
"Sam! Sam, what happened?" Emily demanded, rushing down the steps to meet me. She threw her arms around me, kissing my face, my neck, my forehead. "Are you alright? Oh, Sam, I heard the howls…who was it, Sam? Who's hurt?"
"Paul," I sighed. "It was a newborn. It was about to break Embry's back—Paul knocked it out of the air, and saved his life."
"Paul," Emily sighed sadly. "He'll be alright, won't he?"
"Oh, yeah, he'll be fine," I nodded. "Dr. Cullen took a look at him. He should be good as new in a few days."
"Oh, good," Emily sighed. "Come inside—I made muffins."
I chuckled, kissing her on her scars. "I love you, so much. You know that?" I asked, still trailing kisses all the way down her arm until I reached her hand, where the claw-shaped scars stopped.
"Yes, dear, I know," she laughed, rolling her eyes a little. I knew she got tired of my obsession with her scars—she was over it now. She trusted me so much more completely than I trusted myself. She dragged me inside, pressing a finger to her lips before pointing to the couch where Scarlett was sleeping, a blanket draped neatly over her and her book lying on the coffee table, her spot marked neatly with a puppy-studded bookmark.
"Couldn't sleep?" I guessed.
"I guess not," Emily shrugged. "Oh, don't move her, Sam," she pleaded as I bent to pick her up. "She looks so…peaceful."
I guess she was right. I hadn't seen Scar this at ease since before Mom died. I knelt before my sister, and kissed her forehead. "You'd better appreciate everything we're doing," I murmured teasingly.
"Sam," Emily scolded, bringing me a hot muffin.
"Awe, she's a tough kid," I chuckled. "She can handle it."
"Sam, leave her alone," Emily laughed, dragging me away from the couch. "She's sleeping."
"You should get some sleep, too, Em," I suggested. "You look exhausted."
"Just let me clean up in here first," she yawned.
"I'll take care of the kitchen," I insisted, already directing her toward the bedroom. "Get some sleep."
"You have to sleep too, you know," Emily chided me. "You may be Superman, but you're not invincible."
"More like Wolverine," I teased her as we both laughed. I loved the way she had with words. "My adrenaline's going a little crazy still…I'll be in when I'm not so…" In the corner of my eye, I saw Scarlett's book fall off the table. The sound made me jump about a foot in the air. "…jumpy," I finished with a grimace. Emily just laughed, kissing my cheek before heading off to bed.
I picked up Scar's book, opening it up to the page she'd had marked:
"Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped,
"'Get away from me, werewolf!'" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 456).
I closed the book with a sigh, shaking my head. What a page to end on! I wondered what Scarlett would do when she found out. Would she be horrified? Disgusted? Disbelieving? Between the pack members' families and their imprints, we'd gotten just about every reaction in the book. I'd seen it all—and was ready for whichever reaction my sister might have.
As long as she didn't hate me when she found out…I'd be happy.
Penny for your thoughts? ;)
