Disclaimer: Twilight Saga doesn't belong to me, but this version of VampWard is all mine. ;)
A/N: All your reviews for the last chapter have made me smile like crazy. I would like to thank every one of you, who has reviewed, favorited, put on alert or simply... read RoALS. You guys make it worth my time to put my crazy thoughts in writing. Thank you.
Ready for the next chapter? Read on!
Chapter-8: The Lion's Roar
BPOV
When I got home from work, I saw a guy sitting on the front porch, fiddling with his cell phone.
"Hi, I'm sorry I forgot about this. I'm Isabella. You must be Jake?" I greeted him as I held a hand out to him.
He stood up and shook my hand before nodding. "Yes, ma'am. Jacob Black at your service," he says, pointing to himself.
I felt my eyebrows pull upwards in a frown when I hear his name. "Black? You don't happen to know a Rachel Black, do you?"
His face lit up as he nodded, making his long hair flop around his shoulders. "Yes, Rach is my baby sister."
"Sister?" I repeated in shock. "You live here?"
"Nah! I live in Seattle. I'm learning how to fix cars at the rental service. I want to open my own garage one day."
"Oh!" I dug through my pockets for the car keys and hand them over to him. He took them from me and grinned, making no motion of leaving.
We stood there in awkward silence. I knew that social convention dictates that I should have invited him for a cup of coffee or a soda, but the truth was that he was a stranger to me, even if he was Rachel's brother. Besides, the hair was kind of putting me off of him.
After one minute and eight seconds (yeah, I counted in my head) of uncomfortable silence, he tried to pick up the conversation again. "So how are you liking Forks?"
I debated on whether saying that his hometown was too cold at times would offend him, and opted for a safer response. "It's okay. It would've been nice to know at least one person though," I said politely.
His eyebrows pulled together in a frown. "I thought you've met Rachel," he said, sounding very much confused.
"Well yeah, I have, and she's nice. I just meant …" I trailed away, not wanting to share my homesickness to a complete stranger.
The truth was, even though I had found a home in Forks, I missed the people I've grown up with. I tried to push away Angela's face from my mind before the loneliness could get to me and shrugged. "I guess with time, I'll make new friends."
Jacob stopped frowning and smiled at me. "Well, if you need a friend, I'm available to fill in that position."
I looked closely at the guy standing in front of me. He was dark-skinned like Rachel and had shoulder-length black hair. Although he seemed friendly enough—if not a little too over-familiar like his sister—he didn't seem like the type of guys I'd be friends with.
Shrugging at his enquiring look, I said, "Yeah. Having friends will be … nice."
His smile widened, showing me slightly yellowish teeth and making me cringe a little. Yellow teeth were one of my pet peeves. I cleared my throat and asked him, "So will you be leaving for Seattle soon?"
"Yeah," he answered, holding up the car keys. "I was here to take this little beauty back. Nice choice of car, by the way."
Together, we walked toward the spot where I parked the car, and he lets out a whistle. "Mustangs are the cream of the crop, eh?"
I raised an eyebrow at that and replied honestly, "I actually have no knowledge about cars, except for how to drive them. This one was picked by my lawyer."
He shot me a surprised look before turning back to the car. "Jenks chose this? I have new-found respect for that ratty old bastard now."
"What? You know him?"
He nodded. "Yeah, he's a friend of my dad's. This is a small town Isabella. Everything is open secret here."
The way he said the last bit made me wonder if there was an open secret in particular that he was referring to.
However, before I could ask him, he slapped his hand twice on the hood and motioned to the side. There, I saw a yellow bike parked a little way away from the driveway. "Can you help me put my bike into the back?"
I wasn't sure I could even lift that thing, but saying so made me feel like a weakling. So with a determined nod, I said, "Sure."
He popped the back open and asked me to help him lift the bike. I gingerly laid a hand on the thing and tried to lift it. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to lift with him helping. We lifted it over our heads and went to put it inside the car. And that's when it happened.
I felt my hand slip from the grip I had on the bike and then something hit the top of my head hard. Before I knew it, everything went black.
~*~*~*RoALS*~*~*~
"Isabella? Open your eyes, please," a voice called from somewhere near my head. "Shit! Rach's gonna kill me."
I carefully opened my eyes to find Jacob Black kneeling next to where I was lying on the ground, looking like he might start crying at any moment. "I'm okay," I tried to sound reassuring.
He looked relieved as he helped me sit up. "Oh thank God! I was going out of my mind thinking I killed you."
I snorted, and slowly reached up to touch my temple. "I'm not an easy nut to crack." When I brought my hand in front of my face, I saw blood in there. "Am I bleeding?"
Jacob's eyes went wide as he took in my bloody hand. "Shit! We gotta take you to the hospital."
I tried to wave it away, but the way my head ached made me give up quickly. Maybe the hospital wasn't such a bad idea.
EPOV
I was beyond thrilled with my action plan because by the end of day-2, Carlisle Cullen looked ready to lose his shit.
I might have acted like an incompetent teenager as I carried the wash basin at one point of the day and dropped the contents puke and all on the good doctor's head.
A grin stretched on my lips as I recalled the murderous look on his face when he felt the puke drip down his face.
Priceless, Masen! I mentally gave myself a pat on the back for successfully ruffling his feathers.
I knew what was gonna happen at the end of this seven-day challenge, and so did Carlisle. I was going to leave the Cullen Family again, and this time, I was gonna go for good. I had had enough of his high-and-mighty ways, and frankly, I was getting tired of acting like I belonged here.
I've never belonged …
Amidst my thoughts I found myself back at the window, staring out at the shabby old bookstore. I could've sworn she was there. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw I had an incoming text message from my "all-knowing" sister.
It's just a matter of time, big brother. Tick tock.
What the fuck …?
I started dialing her number to give her a piece of my very frustrated mind when the in-house paging system went off.
Dr. Carlisle Cullen, your presence is requested in the ER. Please report to the ER.
Carlisle looked up at me from where he was writing notes on a patient file. "Edward, can you please go down to the ER and let them know that I'm on my way?"
"You know that you can simply call them and tell that yourself, right?"
He sighed at my response and looked at me.
Son, I know you hate this, but this can be something really good for you. Believe me, he thought to me.
I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes. As if he cared about what was good for me!
His eyes softened as he said out loud, "You are a qualified doctor, Edward. So I need you to get down there to assess the situation while I finish up in here."
For a moment, I wanted to say no to his face, but like the sucker I am, I agreed. Only because he said I'm qualified, I reasoned with myself as I made my way to the ER.
I stopped at the entrance and took a deep breath before launching myself in the room filled with the smell of blood, and that's the moment when I smelled the one thing that had called to me more intensely than blood in my lifetime … her.
~*~*~*RoALS*~*~*~
Standing in the doorway, I saw Nurse Jackie, the ER nurse fuss over a bed where I assumed she was lying.
What caught me off guard was the guy standing next to her bed. He was tall, dark and definitely not handsome.
Who the fuck is that?
I tried to read his thoughts and they left me speechless.
Fuck! What a mess! Dad's gonna kick my ass for hurting her. Maybe I should go back without going home. Yeah, that might give him time to cool off, I heard him thinking.
He hurt her? How dare he!
Anger I didn't think I could feel for a stranger coursed through me, making me want to yank on that asshole's stupid hair and rip his head off for laying a finger on her.
Slowly, I walked into the room, catching the nurse's eyes as I did.
She quickly came to me and said in a hushed voice, "Edward, dear, there's a girl who might have a concussion. Is Dr. Cullen coming?"
"Yeah, he's on his way," I responded, never taking my eyes off the fucktard standing beside her.
I looked at Nurse Jackie and asked, "What happened? Is he an attendant?" I jerked my thumb in his direction to let her know who I was talking about.
She nodded, her lips pressing in a disapproving line. "He says he's her friend."
"Hmm …" I felt better that he was just her friend and there wasn't a "boy" somewhere in there. "Can you ask him to come over here? I need to talk to him to know what happened. Dad thinks it'll help me learn," I requested her sweetly, throwing one of my charming smiles on her way for good measure.
"You're going to become a great doctor, honey," she said, patting my cheek in a motherly way before walking back to her patient.
I watched her talk to them for a moment. She pointed toward me, and soon I saw the asshole walk up to where I stood waiting.
"Hey, I'm Jacob," he said, running a hand over his face.
Watching his every move, I asked quietly, "What happened to her?"
He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "We were lifting my bike inside a car when her grip slipped and the bike hit her on the head. I saw blood and thought I'd bring her here to get looked at."
I narrowed my eyes at him and concentrated on his thoughts instead of the words coming out of his mouth. If the wind hadn't blown my hair in my eyes, I wouldn't be in this mess right now.
Hearing him think of the real reason, I felt a murderous rage take hold of me, and before I could think of what I was doing, I had grabbed his collars, and was dragging him out of the ER.
I pressed his back against the ER wall and got into his face. His eyes were wide with shock of what was happening. His fear fueled my anger, and I gave him a slow smile, showing him my teeth.
A shudder ran through him, and I looked right into his eyes so that whenever he thought of coming anywhere near her, he would remember me.
"You had her lift your bike? That was a bad move, you asswipe," I told him through gritted teeth. "You're blaming it on her while your fucked up hair is the reason she's hurt? Now that's pure cowardice."
If it was even possible, his eyes widened even more when I addressed what I heard in his thoughts. I tightened my hand on his collar, making the rough fabric of his shirt dig into his skin.
It would be so easy to sink my teeth into his neck. Ripping his head off and ending his miserable excuse for life was too easy for me. However, I didn't want to create a scene so close to where she was.
So I simply leaned in close and spoke in my most threatening voice. "If you ever even think of hurting her ever again, I'm gonna rip each and every hair on your head one by one until there's nothing but barren land left in there. Do I make myself clear?"
Looking like he's about to pass out, he nodded his head frantically.
"Now, you're gonna go up there, apologize for acting like a fucked-up weasel and leave," I said each other slow enough to drill them into his head.
"Y … yes," he sort of squeaked out at me.
I gave his shirt one last jerk, making his dumbass head knock on the wall before letting him go.
~*~*~*RoALS*~*~*~
From the doorway, I watched the asshole talk to her before making a mad dash for the corridor, looking back every once in a while.
That ought to keep that mutt away from her, I thought with relief.
"Edward, why are you still here? I thought you'd have gotten the whole history by now." Carlisle's surprised voice made me drag my eyes away from the girl lying on the hospital bed.
"She was hit on the head with a bike while lifting it to put it inside a car," I said in a monotone. "There was bleeding, and she might have a concussion."
"Good work, son," he said with a pat on my back, apparently pleased with my interest in helping the patient.
As I watched him walk into the ER, I made up my mind. I wasn't going to let this go. I need to know her history … I need to know her.
A/N: Someone's feathers are ruffled alright. ;)
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Thank you for reading.
Song rec for this chapter: Holier Than Thou by Metallica.
See you next week.
Take care.
Ann
