Rating: MA for violence
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Stefenie Meyer. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Sunday
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A clap of thunder startles Bella to consciousness, and to a freezing room. Why is there a cold breeze? She hears driving rain. It sounds much too close. She wants to burrow further under her blankets and return to room 128. Wherever that is. Instead, she cracks an eye open to find the room empty, the window wide open, rain soaking her desk. As she realizes she's alone, and in the wrong room, the hole in her chest reopens. Jacob had healed her last night, had reminded her what it felt to love and be loved. But it never actually happened because she drove him away.
She's not sure when Edward left, but he must have been in a hurry in order to leave her window wide open with a storm on the way. She recalls her intimate dream and flushes despite the chill. She hurries out of bed to close the window, and then dives back under the covers. She needs a warm, soft body in the bed to warm her up. Not a cold, hard one. She needs her best friend to warm the chill of her heart and of her body. But she hurt him. She said awful, untrue things and can't she unsay them. She wants to go to LaPush. Wants to find him and say she's sorry. Wants to kiss it better. Wants to make it up to her with her words and her body.
As she feels the ache in her chest, she feels a different ache between her legs. Jacob can complete her like no one else can. She's not sure how she knows, but is fairly certain that her dreams are accurate. Jacob would learn to bring her pleasure with the same focus and care he would take with her heart.
She's becoming aroused thinking about it. She can't help but be glad she's alone. Edward would doubtless make her feel self conscious about her body's responses, and he would (accurately) assume she was thinking about Jacob. She flashes back to the night before. She's actually a little embarrassed at how generous her imagination was with him. His length, his girth, his heat. She wonders what he really looks like. She's tempted to slip her hand beneath her waistband, but she's never sure when Edward will climb in her window. She considers parts of Jacob she doesn't have to imagine. She licks her lips as he thinks of his own. God, his mouth. It's no wonder she has conjured such explicit fantasies about him going down on her. His full lips and pink tongue were made for kissing, for licking, for biting. For whispering things in her ear to make her blush. His mouth on her body was perfection.
She has to stop this train of thought before it gets entirely out of hand. She really has no idea if Edward is coming back. She's fairly certain he left the night before due to her explicit dream, but he was also distracted before she went to bed. Something is going on. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a wolf on patrol outside her home. She wants to know what it is. Edward won't tell her, she's sure of it, and she can't exactly call Jacob up and casually ask him. None of the Cullens will go against Edward if he wants her left in the dark. Maybe she can figure out if a wolf is outside now, and drag it out of them. That is, if they're speaking with her after what she's done to Jacob. Maybe she can also find out how he is.
She wants to see him, but isn't ready to fully give herself over to him, although she's now figuring out how badly she wants to. She's torn, because she can no longer fool herself into believing that her love for Jacob is any less than her love for Edward. But nothing else has changed. The Volturi will still come. Jacob might still imprint on someone else and leave her someday. And she still has no idea how to be without Edward. Or how to give up his family. So she wants to go to Jacob, let him fill the dark places of her heart, but can't tell him what he wants to hear. She knows she's being selfish and cruel. She need to either choose him and be with him, or she needs to let him go. She has no idea how to either.
She decides to start with the hopefully simpler task of figuring out what's going on. As much as the wolves probably hate her, they're honest with her, brutally so, so she'll start with them.
She quickly showers and dresses, heading to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. Maybe she can bribe the wolf with a dry place to stay and a warm beverage. It's awful outside, 108.9 body temperature or not. Charlie is gone to the station already, so she can invite them in. First, she had to figure out who it is. Paul's not coming in, no matter what she says or does, and she doesn't think she can face Leah. So she peers out the window, intently searching the forest for signs of a wolf. It's hard to see very deep into the foliage on a good day, and in this storm is nearly impossible. She spends long, painful minutes staring before a sandy wolf appears at the treeline and tilts his head at her quizzically. Finally, some luck! She breathes a sigh of relief.
She opens the back door and calls out to him. He steps away briefly, returning in human form, and she waves him over.
"Bella, do you need something? You've been staring out here for, like, ten minutes."
"Come on in, Seth, and get dry."
He looks back into the woods before shrugging and following her in, leaving a puddle on the kitchen floor. She goes to get him a towel. She hands it to him, and he accepts it gratefully, running it rapidly over his hair. When he hands it back, she tries to plaster a fake smile on her face. "Coffee?"
He turns to look at the coffeemaker. "Um, sure. Okay."
She wonders if he's as mad at her as she expected all the other wolves to be. She had hoped that Seth would be easier to talk to, Seth who seems to like Edward perfectly well, who's usually free and easy and ready with a smile. "Cream or sugar?"
"Yeah, okay, uh, both?" Why is he asking her? She really thought it would be easier to talk to Seth.
She hands it to him, and he stares intently into the cup and sips at it slowly. "Thanks, this is good."
She decides to start on an easy topic. "It's, like, literally the least I could do. I wanted to thank you for what you did for me, Seth."
"Oh, yeah, of course. Sure. It's nothing." He's still looking into his coffee cup. This is getting her nowhere.
"It's not nothing, Seth. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead. I'm grateful to all of you, of course, but if Edward had been the only one with me on that mountaintop, well, I doubt he could have fought off both those vampires at once. You put yourself on the line for me, and I need to thank you."
He's still not meeting her eyes. "No, it's no big deal. It's what we're made for. And there's basically no situation possible in which Ja..." He stumbles over Jacob's name, "Uh, in which we would have left you up there without one of us as backup. It just happened to be me." He's still looking everywhere but at her. "But, you know, you're welcome."
Okay, this isn't going well. Seth puts the empty cup into the sink. He looks like he's trying to leave already. She abruptly stops him. "Seth, why are you guys still patrolling here? With Victoria dead, I thought you could all take a break."
He's facing the sink, away from her, but turns his head partly toward her, still not looking her in the eye. Bluntly, he asks, "Didn't Edward tell you?"
Her heart sinks. "No, he doesn't like to worry me. But I think I deserve to know, don't you?"
He looks at the floor. "Of course. I just figured you knew..." He's interrupted by a knock at the front door.
Bella goes to answer it, and is surprised to find Leah Clearwater. She thinks offhandedly that it's unfair that she, Bella Swan, would look like a drowned rat after coming in from the storm, while Leah looks like she's been in a modeling shoot involving a luxurious pool and a cabana boy. She pushes her way past Bella and into the kitchen, calling out to her brother, "I'm here to save you, kid, go on home to Mom."
It sounds insulting, but Seth only looks grateful. "Great, thanks." He finally looks up to meet Bella's gaze, and immediately blushes and turns away. "Thanksforthecoffeebye," he mumbles, and rushes out the back door.
Bella turns to Leah with her confusion written plainly on her face. Leah is smirking. "What's going on, Leah?"
"Well, you can hardly blame the kid for being embarrassed." She gestures at the open door. "Personally, I thought it was hilarious; your sparkly-ass boyfriend flying out of your bedroom in the middle of the night, looking like somebody had set him on fire. I wish I had been here to see it in person, but this is, like, the only time I've ever been happy about the pack mind. Laughed my ass off when I saw what happened. But poor Seth, he's not exactly used to overhearing girls' wet dreams, especially ones that involve his pack brothers." Bella's eyes widen. Oh God. She'll never be able to look Seth in the eye again. None of the wolves, actually. It's a damn good thing she's still planning on being turned into a vampire. They'll never want to see her, and she won't have to live with the humiliation of speaking with them ever again.
Leah continues. "I'm not blind, Swan. I get it. The boy's hotter than hot." She decides to screw with Bella for a bit. Bella really, really deserves to be screwed with. "I mean, I see all of the guys, all of the time, and they've all got serious bodies on them. But Jake, well, Jake's meant to be Alpha, you know? And it shows."
She's shocked. Leah and Jacob? Is that happening? "Is he... Are you..."
Leah crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. "So what if we were?"
"I just never..." Her mouth is hanging open a little.
"You think that because you don't want him, no one else will? Good luck with that, Swan. Other girls aren't as blind or as batshit crazy as you are. They can see a perfect 10 when one is staring them right in the face. He's been holding out for you, obviously, but your unwavering devotion to the act of suicide is getting sort of old. He'll wise up sooner or later. Probably sooner, now that he's far enough away that you can't keep stringing him along."
"Far enough away?" she asks. Now Bella is embarrassed and concerned.
"Prince Charming didn't see fit to fill you in, huh? About the vamp that got away?" Bella shakes her head. Leah rolls her eyes. "Figures. Looks like one of the newborns escaped from the battle. It's been hanging around. Jake left to take care of it."
"Left? Where?"
"North." Leah says, unhelpfully.
Bella is growing alarmed. "Did anybody go with him?"
Leah shakes her head. "Took off on his own. It's dangerous, yes, but there's not much anyone could do to stop him. He thinks the leech is after you, so he went to take it down. Sam could've alpha ordered him not to go, but I think we all know it probably wouldn't have worked. He wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind, you know. Had just gotten your wedding invitation."
Now she's mad. "What? I didn't want to send him one. I didn't want to hurt him that way. It must have been Edward," a pleading note in her voice.
Leah barks out a harsh laugh, and glares at her. Screwing with Bella Swan is fun, but she's too infuriated to talk any longer. "Didn't want to hurt him? A little late for that, don't you think? Are you kidding me?" She turns to the door and opens it.
She's halfway across the yard when Bella calls out to her, "Is he okay, Leah?"
She has turned partway around, and is obviously trying to decide what to say. She settles on honesty. "Nobody knows. He's pretty far away, so it's easy for him to shield his thoughts. I really have no idea."
She takes off into the woods.
Bella shuts the door and leans against it. Before she knows it, she's sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around her. The hole in her chest is gaping open. He's gone, and he's going to get himself killed. What has she done?
The rest of the day passes in a daze. She doesn't see Leah again, and for that she is grateful. Edward never shows up, although they were planning on spending the day together. It doesn't escape her attention that she doesn't miss him, and is glad to be alone with her black thoughts. What she really wants is to go LaPush, but now there's really nothing there for her. She even has the notion to go sit alone in Jake's garage, but rejects it as pointless and embarrassing. She would doubtless run into one of the wolves, one who was privy Seth's memory, and then she would have to jump off the cliff to escape the shame.
When nighttime finally falls, and she has an excuse to go to bed, she's grateful. The only person who can make her feel better is gone, but if she's lucky, she'll see him in her dream.
The door to the little red house again proclaims 128, and the knob opens easily. But before she turns it, she knows the room is empty. There is a chill on the metal knob that wasn't there the night before. Her suspicions are confirmed. She strips down to her underwear and climbs into the bed. She's happy to wait all night if it means she can see him. But he never comes. So she tosses and turns, and drifts and drowses, images of warm smiles, open arms, and black-haired babies flitting through her mind.
The next morning, exhausted and unrefreshed, she finds Edward sitting in her rocking chair, looking at her sadly. He gets straight to the point, asking quietly, "What do you want, my love?"
She has no answer, but she's getting very practiced at lying. "You, Edward, just you."
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Sunday
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Jacob rolls over in bed. Straight into a sticky mess rather than a soft, warm body. He heaves a sigh. Why are the best experiences of his life a figment of his imagination? And should he start taping a plastic bag around his dick before he goes to sleep? At least he is saved the embarrassment of having someone else clean it for him. This motel isn't exactly nice enough to have daily maid service. He's pretty sure that there are coin operated washers and dryers somewhere in the building. He'll have to scrounge up some of those ridiculously named coins the Canadians call loonies. Which reminds him; his debit card has enough money to last him a couple weeks here, but not much else. He's been saving up some cash from working on people's cars, but staying in a motel, no matter how cheap and dirty, isn't exactly affordable. He would just stay in the woods as his wolf, but exploring this city won't work in that form. He hopes it doesn't take long to kill this vamp. He has no plans to move to Canada.
After throwing his sheets and filthy shorts in the wash, he heads out to eat. He buys a toothbrush at a drugstore, and drops his things back at the motel and switches his load into the dryer. He heads back out to the last spot he had the trail. This city seems like a great place for a vampire to lose him.
He starts by going in generally concentric circles, gradually widening. He runs across the trails of at least two other vampires this way. He's tempted to follow them, but he's not here for them. It makes sense, he supposes. Vancouver is rainy and cloudy, so a vampire can actually go outside during the day. It's big enough to offer plenty of diversions for a bored immortal. And best of all, big cities like this are full of transients and travelers, addicts and runaways, easy victims who won't be missed. Jacob doesn't intend to become one of them.
Twice he also comes across evidence that he is in the right place. The scent is heavily degraded in the first location. It's the parking lot outside a high school. There's no shelter over the lot, so the scent was almost entirely washed away after the previous night's rain. But he explores carefully, and right against the school building, under the eaves of the roof where the rainwater couldn't strike directly, the scent is stronger. The vampire had stood up against a window. He can even smell where it pressed its hands against the glass. What was it doing? Looking inside? He would be worried about the safety of the teenagers who go to school here, but they're on vacation. What else would a vampire be doing at a high school, other than looking for prey?
That train of thought reminds him, unpleasantly, of the Cullens, and their absurd decision to go to high school for the rest of eternity. If he had to live forever, he wouldn't spend it going to high school again and again. And if things don't go his way, he could be around for a very, very long time. He desperately hopes this isn't the case. He can only think of two reasons he might have to extend his lifespan by continuing to phase. Neither is pleasant. First, that LaPush keeps being overrun by vampires, and he has to in order to protect his home. He wouldn't like it, but he'd do it if necessary. Second, and worse yet, that he might imprint on a child the way Quil has, and need to keep phasing to stay young for her. He physically shudders at the thought. To practically raise a child, watch her grow up, and then develop sexual feelings for her when she comes of age? He'd kill himself before giving in to such a thing.
He finishes exploring the school. Unfortunately, there is no way for him to tell where the vamp went when it left. So he continues in his outward spiral. If he doesn't pick up the trail again, at least he can come back and stake out the school. Maybe it will come back. He stops in a thrift store to pick up a couple changes of clothes. At this rate, he could be here for a few days.
Just as he's about to take a break for dinner, he finds another clue. Today has actually been quite sunny, so he's seen no actual vampires. But he can smell evidence of them. As he makes his circular route outward, he realizes that many trails are converging in a northwesterly direction. He doesn't distinguish his prey in particular, but the converging trails are too tempting to pass up. He follows.
The paths lead him from the southeastern outskirts of the city through the heart of downtown. In this area, there are so many trails going in different that it becomes difficult to discern if there's a pattern. But he persists and eventually reaches his destination. Upon arrival, he immediately figures out why it's a vampire haven. Stanley Park. An otherwise lovely 1000 acre park set on the northernmost peninsula of the city. It's heavily wooded, a tourist attraction, and surrounded on three sides by water. Perfect for hunting and killing humans along secluded paths, and disposing of their bodies in the water nearby. An obvious place for a hungry vampire to look for a convenient snack.
He arrives as dusk is falling. He still can't distinguish his vampire's trail in particular, but chances are good that it will pop up eventually. He can be patient, and right now it seems as likely a place to find his vampire as the high school he found earlier in the day. He finds a park bench along a well used trail and settles in. A few joggers pass by, but it's late and the park is becoming deserted.
He is about to drift off to sleep when a pretty Asian girl rounds the bend pushing a sno-cone cart. She's probably just getting off work, on her way to put the cart in storage and go home for the evening. She gives Jacob a shy smile, and he nods politely back. He's nearly forgotten about her when a breeze picks up, carrying the unmistakable, sickly sweet, decayed scent of a vampire. Jake immediately jumps up and sprints into the breeze. The sno-cone girl is heading straight for it. He skids around the next bend and is horrified to see a tall figure looming over the girl. It has dirty looking black shoulder length hair, nearly translucent pale skin, a sleazy smile, and unmistakable deep red eyes. It's grinning madly at the girl, who is bent awkwardly backward over her cart unsuccessfully trying to put space between herself and her predator. It hasn't noticed Jacob yet.
The vampire grabs a handful of the girl's hair and bringa it to its nose, taking a deep whiff. "Mmmmm. I'm not even hungry, but it would be a sin to pass you up, you lovely thing."
Jacob struggles mightily against the urge to phase. He's standing well in view of the girl and can't have her witness his transformation. He can't walk away to phase either. By the time he gets back, fast as he is, it could be too late for her.
She is shaking, terrified. She can barely get words out, but in a shaky voice says, "Take whatever you want. I earned a lot today, and it's all in the cart. Just please don't hurt me..." Her voice trails off as the vampire traces the column of her throat with a long, pointed finger.
It smiles lasciviously down at her and replies, "You can beg as much as you want, my dear. It only makes this more enjoyable for me."
Jacob makes a quick decision. If he can't phase here to take it out, and he can't leave long enough to do so, he will just have to lead it away. It's not the smartest decision, since he is no match for the vampire in human form, but he has little choice. He steps forward onto the path.
"Hey asshole! Leave her alone!"
The vampire blinks at him, startled. It grabs the girl by the waist. "Ah, and here we have a hero, eh? I'd be happy to kill you first so she can see what's about to happen to her. Nothing like a little terror to spice up a meal."
Jacob steps forward enough that the vampire can smell him. The girl is staring at him with wide eyes. "I'd like to see you try, leech."
The vampire narrows his eyes and relaxes his hold on the girl. "What are you?" he asks in a low voice.
Jacob growls. "Why don't you come here and find out."
He waits until the vampire steps away from the girl and toward him. He knows he's got the vampire hooked by the look in its eye. "Catch me if you can," he taunts, knowing full well that the vampire will easily reach him. He calculates just how fast he needs to run to reach the trees, and turns on his heel to sprint away at a speed just exceeding that of a normal human.
He manages to get into the treeline, and even throws off his clothes, before the vampire catches up with him. It probably would have caught him already, but it was so startled by the sight of him undressing as he ran, that it slowed down a bit. Just as he feels its chill of its fingers on his arm, he explodes.
He twists quickly to face the vampire. They've made it into a small clearing. The vampire is standing stock still, staring at him incredulously. "What... What..."
He distantly hears his pack brothers screaming in his mind. They want to know what's going on, they want to help him, but he's 200 miles away. He tunes them out, growls, and crouches to spring. The leech barely rolls out of the way, but he manages to take off its right hand with his first move. He spits the disgusting thing out of his mouth. This vampire isn't a frenzied, powerful newborn like the ones he has fought, nor is it an experienced soldier like Jasper, and it's alone. It was expecting an easy meal out of him, and has no idea what it has gotten itself into. It's clearly trying to decide whether to run away or stay and fight. He doesn't plan on giving it that choice.
He rushes it again while it's turned partly away from him, his large jaw wrapped around its side. It beats at him with its stump of an arm as he tears a chunk out of its chest and abdomen. It manages to get its other hand on him, but only on the fur just above his right paw, and he slides out of its grip losing only a little russett fur in the process.
The thing is screaming now. He's more worried about it attracting attention than he is about losing this battle. The vampire just doesn't know what it's doing. It has probably never had to fight for anything before. He's gotten lucky and he knows it, although he hears his pack brothers faintly in the back of his mind cheering him on wildly.
The vampire has realized that running away will only expose its back to the great wolf, so it turns to face him. It changes tactics, suddenly barrelling toward him, but doesn't bother to feint left or right, just guns straight for him. The move is much too straightforward. With just one leap and the screech of ripping metal, Jacob has its head separated from its body, and the fight is over as quickly as it began.
He efficiently tears it to pieces, but then has a new quandary. What is he supposed to do with the parts? He's in a public park. He can't just set them on fire. And he can't dump them in the water like the vampires do with their victims. They'll just find each other and reform.
He starts by moving the head far from the rest of the body, and runs to find his clothes. With his luck, he'll have saved the girl, killed the vamp, and then get arrested for public indecency. He redresses just in time to see the sno-cone girl talking to a police officer, and pointing toward the woods where he's standing. Thankfully, it's quite dark, and they can't see him at all, although his vision allows him to see them just fine. He runs back to the remains, stealing trash bags out of bins along the way.
He's irrationally irritated at the girl. She's doing the sensible thing by getting the police. She is so much more sensible than his Bella. Than Edward's Bella, he corrects himself darkly, who would have no doubt tried to befriend the vampire before it killed her. The sno-cone girl probably thinks she's doing him a favor by sending the cops into the woods after him. But really, she's just making his life difficult. Killing vampires is easy. Hiding vampire parts from the prying eyes of the police is hard.
He ends up separating the pieces into three garbage bags, and climbing up some of the more accessible trees and stashing them there until the police pass through. There are only two officers looking, though, and they have no idea what they're actually looking for. He spies at them from above until he's confident they're gone.
By then it's the middle of the night, and he only has a vague idea what to do with the vampire parts. He takes the bag with the head in it, and heads out of the park. He could easily carry all three at once, but it would look much too suspicious if anyone were to see him. Especially since the parts are wiggling, horribly. He figures he has to find one of two things. A hospital might have an incinerator for medical waste, but the likelihood he can get in and out of such a place and find what he's looking for is low. Not to mention that he has to do it three times with three bags. Better yet, he needs to find a landfill. They'll have an industrial incinerator, and will hopefully be less well guarded than a hospital.
He does eventually find such an industrial incinerator, but it's miles from the park. He doesn't get caught, although he garners odd looks from the few people out and about who manage to see him.
By the time he finishes his ugly task and gets back to his motel, the sun is rising. He's surprised to find that his laundry is still sitting in its dryer, so he drags it back to his room. He's exhausted and covered in awful vampire stench. He has to shower twice before he can no longer smell the vampire on himself. Then he tosses a sheet loosely over the bed, wraps a towel around his waist, and falls over onto the mattress. He's asleep before he hits the pillow. He does not dream.