AN: Here it is - my favorite chapter (so far)! Please let me know what you guys think of this one. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
Edward Cullen POV
"This better be good Emmett!" I growl to my brother sitting in the backseat as I pass around a driver in the downtown district of Port Angeles. "I don't have time to deal with whatever little adventure your mind has convinced you is a good idea."
"Oh chill out Eddie," Emmett says, even though I can hear his thoughts before he verbalizes them. The ability to hear the passing thoughts of others is not a "gift" I would have necessarily asked for; constantly being bombarded with the vulgar and horrid musings of everyday humans is a burden. But if it means that hearing these thoughts will aid in keeping my family's secret safe, then it's a burden I will bear. "You can get back to cuddling with your precious Bella as soon as we get back."
'Seriously man, calm down,' Jasper laughs through his thoughts, sending me calming waves as he senses my anger rising again at Emmett's comment. 'It was just a joke.'
"Alright I'm sorry Edward, no need to get so angry," Emmett apologizes, a giant smirk on his face.
If it weren't for the fact that I saw him high-five Jasper out of the corner of my eye, I'd almost take his words for actual sincerity. But then I also remember this is Emmett talking, and when it comes to making a joke about Bella's and my relationship, he's never kidding around. Maybe they've been with their mates too long to be able to recall what it feels like to have to leave them. The emptiness I feel when I'm not with the love of my existence is enough to physically make my body ache; an accomplishment considering I'm harder than marble. Jasper, obviously sensing the longing I'm emanating at the thought of Bella, shoots me stronger waves of calm and serenity. I nod my gratitude.
"Whatever. Why are we here anyway?" I ask, looking to the passenger seat at Jasper as we exit my Volvo. "What was so damn important that you had to drag me away from Bella? Charlie is fishing for the weekend and that mutt, Jacob Black told Bella he'd be busy all weekend; we finally had the house to ourselves!"
"Oh please," Emmett says, pushing aside my annoyance with a flick of his hand and an incredulous expression on his face, "it's not like you two were going to do anything anyway. You know you were going to just sit in her living room cuddling and pretending the sexual tension isn't killing you both. I know, Jasper can feel it from our house." His booming laughter fills the streets as groups of people stare at him in both awe of his good looks and his size. Next to me Jasper nods his head in agreement.
My decision to remain sexually abstinent until marriage has always been a joke among my siblings who are all very sexually ... enthusiastic. Up until I met Bella, I lived my life in solitude for almost a hundred years. Except for the relations I had with my family and another vampire coven in Denali, I had no desire to make any kind of connection with another being — least of all on a romantic level. So when I met Isabella Marie Swan last year in biology class, there was no way I would have ever imagined that she would end up being the most important aspect of my entire existence. At first, controlling the bloodlust seemed impossible; the mere thought of her blood pulsing through her veins was enough to drive me crazy. But when I came so close to losing her last May in Arizona after that sadistic vampire, James, attacked her, I realized how much of my continuance on this earth depended on her being by my side. Those few hours she was missing were enough to put a lot of things in perspective for me. Essentially from that day on, her blood has not sang to me in the way it did in the beginning. I can hold her, I can breathe in her scent and I can be with her in complete, companionable silence and virtually ignore the roaring monster in my head that wants nothing more than to taste her. She is my absolute everything and I can no longer imagine wanting to end her life in order to satiate my selfish thirst.
No, now the only lust plaguing me is pure, unadulterated physical lust.
I try to be the gentleman I know my birth mother raised me to be, but being with her and trying to curb my desire to be with her is getting more difficult every day. I love her and the thought of keeping her beautiful soul intact is a huge reason why I have pushed for abstaining for as long as we have. Bella and I will get married one day and then we'll have the rest of her natural life to be together as husband and wife. Until then, I crave nothing more than to just be fortunate enough to simply bask in her presence.
"The point dear Emmett here will eventually get to," Jasper says, cutting off Emmett from saying something else before I get too agitated, "is that we are here because we want to buy something nice for Alice and Rosalie and since you never pass up an opportunity to buy Bella a present, we thought it'd be nice to invite you along."
I stop dead in my tracks, staring at them curiously as they simultaneously block their minds with various mental images. Emmett's slide show of Rosalie in a myriad of different exotic costumes is to be expected, albeit disturbing. I've been in his mind enough times to know that it only ever really consists of two things: Rosalie, in some form or another, or bears, also in some form or another. No, it's Jasper's mind that has me on immediate alert.
A bonus of being a mind reader is that through a person's thoughts, I am able to see into their deepest musings, secrets, and desires. It is through this that I am able to really get to know a person. But since the only person I have even the slightest interest in getting to know is Bella (whose mind I ironically can't read), the only other people I have been able to put this ability to test is my family. I probably know each individual member of my family better than their significant others and that's all because I can read their thoughts. Over the years, the entire family has gotten better at blocking me and as a result of the respect I have for them, I do try my best to allow them the privacy of their own mind. Nevertheless, I have picked up on a few quirks of each family member (unbeknownst to them) and am able to correlate certain mental thoughts or images with specific emotions. Jasper, for example, only ever thinks of military and fighting techniques he learned from Maria when he's hiding something from me. I know he doesn't particularly like to relive any time period of his life before Alice and only does so when he feels it absolutely prudent that he keep his real thoughts to himself; this is especially the case when it comes to certain visions Alice has or pranks Emmett has planned to torture Bella. The fact that he's currently attempting to soothe my suspicion through his gift only confirms my assumption: there is more to this trip to Port Angeles than simply buying Rosalie, Alice, and Bella a gift.
Besides, we're Cullens and money is not an issue for us. If we really wanted to get our mates presents, we'd go to the finest and most exclusive jewelry shops in the world, not downtown Port Angeles.
"What are you hiding from me Jasper?" I question, my eyes narrowing to slits as he stares at me wide-eyed, confused as to how I know he's hiding things from me. And that's when I see the memory: Alice speaking to him and Emmett in hushed tones in the living room of our house, her excitement evident even in Jasper's mind as she tells them to come to Port Angeles today, making a strong point that they bring me with them. "Why did Alice tell you and Emmett to come to Port Angeles today? And why was it so important that I tag along?" I demand as Jasper shuts his mind down again upon realizing his mistake.
"She wouldn't say exactly," Jasper answers as he continues to walk down the street, leaving Emmett and I to follow in his shadow, his head down slightly in a show of defeat at being caught by me. "All she said was that we needed to take you with us, that it would be funny and that no matter what happens, Emmett and I are to make sure you don't get in a fight."
"Aww come on Eddie Boy, just go with it. If nothing else, think of it as much needed bonding time with your older brothers," Emmett says, clapping me on the back and glancing around him at all the humans shopping. Even though he can't read minds, it doesn't take a genius to guess what every single female is thinking. It's particularly times like these — when women think disgusting things about my brothers and me — that I wish I couldn't read minds. We're vampires, and to the human eye, we're beautiful. So while Jasper and I are stuck being bombarded with the feelings and sights of what they would like to do to us, Emmett is able to casually walk around and laugh at their gawking. "Besides, when has Alice ever led us into something that wasn't fun?"
"Would you really like me to answer that?" I growl back in response. "And you do know that I'm technically older than you right Emmett? Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway because I think I just found what she intended us to reach."
How I didn't smell it in the beginning, I don't know, but the closer we get to two teenage girls, the stronger the scent of wolf. It's obvious even from a distance that they themselves are not wolves, but they are clearly members of the Quileute tribe and are somehow closely linked to members of the werewolf pack. The slightly shorter one stops steadfast in her tracks, causing the taller girl to bump into her along with three other random shoppers who are clearly not with them. The taller girl hastens out an apology and then lightly shoves her friend for causing such a chain reaction.
"Oh. My. God," says the shorter girl as she stares at us with her mouth open and her eyes in a dazed trance. Without even intending to, Emmett, Jasper and I have managed to send the girl into a reverie, causing her to become almost immobile as she stands in awe of our inhuman good looks. A glance inside her mind causes me to grimace — the thoughts of 15-year-old girls have become increasingly more vivid and vulgar in the hundred-plus years I have been alive. "Are those not the three most beautiful men you have ever seen?"
I take a quick glance into the mind of her companion and find a much kinder and gentler thought process. She looks us up and down, comparing Emmett to a teddy bear, taking in Jasper's pained expression and my annoyed one. Emmett's size (he would be happy to know) is determined to be bigger than her brother's and his friends who (I'm not too surprised to discover) are all members of the Quileute wolf pack. But the wolves I know and the boys she knows differ immensely. Where I encounter fierce, volatile, disgusting mutts, she knows only loving, funny and gentle teenage boys who treat her with respect and kindness. Paul Chehalis seems to be her brother and the next one she feels closest to is Jacob Black. I glance at her curiously as no thoughts of Paul and his friends as wolves seem to enter her mind. Instead, the images she produces are of them hanging out around her house, laughing and joking like carefree teenage boys. Moreover, she looks at us like any normal human who does not know what we are: In awe of our beauty and grace, not disgusted or afraid as she should be considering who she has such close ties to. I smile slightly to myself: She knows nothing of the wolf pack secret.
"Kay so I know I always say that I'm in love with your brother, but I would drop him in a second for a few minutes with any of those guys," the shorter girl whispers. "Especially the one with the copper bed hair on the right."
Jasper and Emmett burst out laughing at her comment and I'm surprised to discover the taller girl takes notice of the coincidental timing of their laughter.
"Ooh I better tell Bella to watch out!" Emmett says in a voice too low for any shoppers to hear. "It looks like she's got some competition on her hands." He claps me on the back at the end of what he deems to be a witty comment, laughing loudly with Jasper.
"Bella will never have competition for my love!" I growl out, my anger rising in spite of Jasper's and my efforts to remain calm. "And if you two would just take a minute to smell the air around you, you might take notice that those two girls standing over there gawking at us have the scent of wolf on them. The taller one is Paul Chehalis's sister and both are very closely tied to the entire pack but neither know of their secret."
I ball up my fists and glance around me, sure that these two girls would not be left alone in the city without at least one of the pack members. From far off in the distance I can hear the shouting of a woman's name and the rushing sound of pounding feet on pavement followed by screams and the smashing of a door: They've caught our scent. Next to me, Jasper and Emmett give each other identical smirks.
'Well then, it would be rude not to say hello wouldn't it?' Emmett questions in his mind, leaving me standing by myself as he and Jasper set off toward the two girls.
Over the years that we've been a family, I've grown used to the ridiculous and childish antics of my siblings. The horrible 24-hour period when Alice literally whined her way through an entire day until she got her name put on Carlisle's VIP black credit card; or the time Emmett and Jasper had a video game battle and each went four and a half weeks without hunting just because neither trusted the other to put it on pause, are two events that probably stick out the most in their long list of foolishness. Of course, I haven't even taken into account the numerous times all four of them have been arrested for various acts of misdeeds; including the time Jasper and Emmett broke into a jail just to see who could go the longest without the guards noticing they had an extra prisoner. Jasper still loves throwing it in Emmett's face that he won, while Emmett still maintains that Jasper cheated by using his powers to confuse the guards anytime they would get suspicious about him. But in the decades that we have been living together as a family, none of them have been stupid enough to purposely antagonize a member of the Quileute wolf tribe. We generally try to avoid them not because we are afraid but because it is Carlisle's wish that we remain on fairly good terms with the wolves to keep the peace and our treaty intact. I've known Carlisle for nine decades and am positive he will not be pleased when he discovers this latest charade.
Yeah, this definitely trumps the time Rosalie and Alice led a publicized high-speed chase through California.
"Hi, I couldn't help but notice you two beautiful women staring at my brothers and me. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Jasper Hale and this is my brother, Emmett Cullen," Jasper says in a thick southern accent as they approach the two girls.
In spite of myself, I chuckle slightly at the use of his southern drawl. Jasper's aware of the affect it has on women and usually only brings it out when he wants to appear more charming and likable. Against my better judgment, I walk toward them and join the small circle they've created in the middle of the sidewalk. Approaching even closer from behind us are two teenage boys, one so wrought with rage the only thing preventing him from phasing in public is his fear of the girls seeing such a sight. Their footsteps begin to pound louder in my ears, their breathing coming out in heavy gasps and their minds screaming in anger and fear that nothing has touched either girls, particularly the taller one who, I learn through Jake's mind, is named Stacy.
"And this handsome devil," Emmett starts, throwing his giant tree trunk arm around my shoulders, effectively pulling me in tighter to the group, "is our younger brother, Edward Cullen. He's a little shy though. Eddie, say 'hello' to the lovely ladies."
I nod my head courteously in acknowledgment. "Hello, it's nice to meet you."
'They're not alone are they?' Jasper asks, raising his right eyebrow questioningly as he looks at me through his peripheral. I shake my head slightly in return. 'Yeah I didn't think so; the rage and fear pouring from two approaching bodies is too great to not be a wolf.'
'Oh, this is going to be so fun.' Classic Emmett, always too preoccupied with having a good time to realize that getting into a fight in the middle of downtown Port Angeles is not a good idea. Particularly when the fight involves two creatures only meant to exist in horror stories told to children.
"Well I'm Sierra," introduces the shorter girl, pointing at herself and blinking her eyelashes unnecessarily, "and this is my best friend Stacy. What brings you three to Port Angeles today?" As she finishes her questioning, she looks the three of us up and down hungrily, noting the muscular shapes of our bodies. Little by little she mentally undresses my brothers and I until her imagination has painted an image of each of us standing in the middle of the sidewalk in nothing but a pair of boxers. I almost gag at the image of my brothers not fully clothed until I catch the thoughts of a nearby child holding his mother's hand who has decided upon a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for snack. I sigh inwardly in relief — that's much better.
"Nothing very noteworthy. Our sister just suggested a drive to Port Angeles might be a good idea today. What about yourselves? Surely your boyfriends wouldn't have left you two pretty girls all alone in this town?" Emmett tries his hand at shock as he glances around him wildly, appearing to be in a desperate search for their significant others.
"Oh no, actually we're here with my brother and one of his friends shopping for our dresses for a school dance," replies Stacy, smiling sweetly as she holds up her shopping bag. "They wanted to eat while we shopped so we're actually on our way to go meet them in some diner up the street."
The contrast between Stacy's mind and her friend's is immeasurably startling. Upon the mention of the word 'boyfriend,' Stacy's mind jumps to an older boy who looks to be around 16 or 17-years-old. Nevertheless, her thoughts aren't filled with lust like that of her friend's, but rather of peaceful days on the beach and small food fights in her kitchen. For a moment it looks like she is thinking of two different boys, for the boy throwing lettuce at her and the boy walking hand-in-hand with her from the beach are strikingly different. The former is gangly and looks more like a 14-year-old whereas the latter is taller with a stronger jaw line and a more filled out body frame. She looks the same though in these scenes and it suddenly occurs to me that the boy in her mind has changed drastically. The giant growth spurt, the physical age progression and the overly enlarged muscles — he's a yet-to-phase wolf.
"Actually, that's them right there, running toward us." Stacy points over Jasper's shoulder and waves as the three of us turn together, Jasper and Emmett with giant smiles on their faces. Less than twenty feet from us are Jacob Black and Paul Chehalis, looking the most irate I have ever seen them. They halt in their actions momentarily, shock registering on their faces and in their thoughts as they finally catch a glimpse of who is talking to Stacy and Sierra. The startle doesn't last long.
"Get the fuck away from my sister leeches!" roars Paul as he and Jake shove past us with enough strength to knock aside a normal human, blocking Stacy and Sierra from our view with protective stances. "Anastasia we're leaving, now!"
"Did you just call them leeches?" Sierra asks, amusement in her tone. For a quick second, Jake, Paul, my brothers and I stare at each other; Jake and Paul, frozen in fear as Paul realizes his mistake and us three with small smirks gracing our inhumanly chiseled faces. "And what's with the strange stance? What are you a ninja?"
'Haha oh man Paul is freaking out!' Jasper directs to me. 'I've never felt so much fear and anger emanate from one person at the same time before.'
"Paul what the hell is your damn problem? These guys were just talking to us, there's no reason for you and Jake to be so rude!" This time it's Stacy's turn to be angry. She whacks her brother on the back of his head and her thoughts show how embarrassed she is for his reaction toward us. "I'm sorry you guys," she apologizes gently to my brothers and me, "but this is my jerk brother Paul and his rude friend Jacob."
"Stacy, sweetie, now really isn't the best time for this sort of thing," Jake warns, not taking his eyes off us but easing from his protective stance to stand at his full height with his arms crossed. "Besides, I'm sure the parasites here were just on their way to grab some lunch and we don't want to hold them up."
"Oh no thanks Jake, filthy mongrel has never really been my favorite item on the menu," Emmett retorts, the smirk now gone from his usually jolly face as the dogs' antics infuriate him more. Next to me, Jasper laughs his amusement while Stacy and Sierra stare at the word match before them, confused as to how two groups of apparent strangers could talk to each other in such a horrid manner upon first sight. "But hey, I did see a stick back there, do you want to play some fetch doggie? Or would you rather I take you to get your flea shots, mutt?"
'Wow, Paul has never looked hotter. Mmm ... I love it when he's mad. I think a sundae would cool him off just right.' I cast a quizzical look to Sierra at the mention of a sundae, wondering how a person could be thinking of dessert when two different mythical creatures are on the verge of a very public brawl. 'Forget the Paul sundae, I'd rather have an Eddie sundae. Yeah that's right, just you, me, a can of whipped cream and a bottle of chocolate sauce.' Sierra looks me up and down in a very disturbing manner and I proceed to block her out before she gets too graphic; I see enough of that with Jessica Stanley at school.
'Oh my goodness, what is going on here?' Stacy shouts in her mind. 'I've never seen them act like this! Oh no, Paul's starting to do that weird shaking thing again. This is bad, this is really bad. The big guy looks like he could handle his own, but I don't know about the other two — Paul and Jake are really strong. What do I do? Man I wish Dad was here, he can always calm Paul down.'
I glance quickly at Paul, just in time to see his body start to blur around the edges of his frame, the growling slowly building up from his chest as he clenches and unclenches his fists in time with his breathing. Small discernible popping sounds break the tension momentarily as Paul's body slowly begins to morph. Jake notices it at the same time and proceeds to curse at me through his mind, threatening to rip me apart if Paul blows his secret to his sister and her friend.
I told Bella wolves are too dangerous to be around.
"Alright guys," I intercept, putting my hands up before Emmett and Paul lunge at each other, "I think we've had enough fun for today. Ladies, it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope you enjoy your school dance." I tip my head slightly in their direction and give both a crooked smile. Immediately, their pulses quicken and the blood from their veins rushes to their dark cheeks as they blush at my gesture.
"I hope we meet again." Emmett proceeds to wink and wave causing Sierra to giggle and Stacy to roll her eyes at her friend's reaction.
Jasper repeats Emmett's performance before turning his disgusted gaze to the two mutts before us. "Jake, Paul. Always a pleasure."
"Come on guys," I say as I begin walking back the way we came, ushering them back to our car with a tug on each of their arms, "I want to get back to Bella."
I wince immediately, realizing the backlash my words have the potential to cause. While I may not like the revolting mutt that is Jacob Black, I don't purposely try to antagonize him by using my relationship with Bella against him. I can't stand him, but Bella has a deep friendship with him and what makes her happy, makes me happy. She would be deeply upset with me if she thought I had purposely used those words to cause her best friend pain and heartache.
My two brothers laugh at my comment, under the mistaken impression that I intended for my words to wound Jacob.
I hear a low growl coming from behind me as Jacob becomes too infuriated to form logical sentences in his mind.
"Fuck you Cullen!" Jacob yells at me from down the street where we left the four of them. Jasper begins to turn around and head back to the group, fully intent on starting a fight that would have the potential to expose us all. I grab him by the upper arm and Emmett uses his overlarge body to shove Jasper back by the chest before turning around himself to yell one last thing to Jacob and Paul.
"You're too late mutt," Emmett laughs. "Bella's already doing that!"
Emmett laughs his loud booming laughter for all of downtown to hear, making especially sure to walk backward the remaining feet to my car in order to watch Jacob's face fall in a mixture of sadness, shock and fury.
Paul POV
"Paul, you need to calm down," Jake whispers next to me as we follow the girls back to the car. "You're so close to phasing and we can't have that right now. We'll just drop the girls off and then you can change in the forest and we'll head to Sam's."
"How the fuck am I supposed to calm down Jake?" I growl. "Those fucking blood suckers were so close to her! And they winked at her ... they fucking winked at her!"
I couldn't even believe it. I had been on edge all day, allowed them to go shopping by themselves despite what my gut intuition told me was a bad idea and one of my worst fears had actually occurred. I try so hard, every single day, to keep this part of my life completely separate from my family life and I feel like I failed. The cockiness of all three of those blood suckers as they casually stood there talking to Anastasia and Sierra — like what they were doing wasn't cause enough for me to rip their heads off — literally makes me shake with rage.
I look at my reflection in the shop windows as we walk the short distance to the car and notice the blurred form I have permanently become in the aftermath of the altercation. If people weren't so consumed by their own happy lives, they might actually take notice that a 16-year-old boy is literally becoming blurry before their eyes. Greater than the rage I feel toward those bastards though is complete and utter fear.
I understand that in a sense I am lucky: lucky that the three vampires my sister just so happened to run into were "vegetarians" and only drink from the blood of animals, lucky that they are so practiced in their lifestyle as to be able to interact with humans on a daily basis as high school students, lucky that one of them happens to be involved with a human, lucky that the most important part of my life wasn't harmed. But in spite of this, I can't shake the mortification I feel deep in my bones because vegetarian or not, my sister was still face-to-face with three deadly vampires and I was nowhere near her. If anything had happened to her, it would have been my entire fault and I would never have been able to forgive myself.
I glance up ahead to where Anastasia and Sierra are leaning angrily against the car, waiting for Jake and me. I get why my sister is so furious with me. From her point of view, it looks like we were merely being overprotective, preventing three normal guys from having a friendly conversation with them and being entirely rude in the process. Even though she is probably the angriest she's ever been with me, I still can't bring myself to tell her the truth. The glare upon her face is enough to break my heart, but I'd still rather face her fury and my heartache than have her happy, normal life flipped to one of constant fear and danger. She doesn't understand it, but all of my decisions are meant to keep her safe.
"I cannot even believe you Paul William Chehalis! What the hell has gotten into you?" She's been upset with me before, but I've never seen her like this. She throws herself into the backseat of the car behind the driver's seat and proceeds to yell at me as Jake pulls away from the curb, heading toward the freeway to take us back home. "You completely embarrassed me! They were just being nice and for you and Jake to come storming up to us like that ... Why did you do that? Are you completely hellbent on me never talking to a guy? You know, you have it too good when it comes to me. I never question the outrageous things you do, I don't do things other girls my age do and I listen to you as if you were another father. But you know what? I've got a message for you: You're not my father!"
"You know Stacy, now really isn't the best time for this." Jake responds for me, seeing how I'm unable to form the right words at Anastasia's rant. A part of me is completely crushed by her words and I want nothing more than to turn around and allow her to see the hurt in my eyes, for her to see that what I did had nothing to do with keeping guys away from her. But the stronger, animal part of me has me biting my tongue, forbidding me from facing her and yelling at her, telling her that my actions are my business and she will do as I say. Instead I close my eyes and take silent breaths, clenching and unclenching my fists in time to my rapid heartbeat. "Let's just get home and you guys can talk about this later once everybody has calmed down."
"No!" she surprisingly yells at Jake, causing him to turn to me in alarm. "I want an explanation and I want it from Paul right now." She's no longer yelling, but her voice has taken on an icy tone. "And don't you dare tell me it's a guy thing because I let that lame excuse pass enough as it is. I want the truth and I want it now."
I turn around in my seat, struggling against the seat belt and take one more calming breath, praying to whoever will listen that I maintain my cool and don't explode right here in the car. "Fine, you want the truth? The truth is that those three guys are not good guys. They're dangerous and I don't want you or Sierra ever going near them again. Understand me?" They both nod their heads quietly, taking in the seriousness of my tone and knowing better than to fight me further at the moment. Anastasia has seen me angry more times than I'm proud of and knows she is lucky to have been able to scream at me in such a manner. Her eyes alight with a burning question and she opens her mouth to respond; I cut her off. "And no, I won't get into specifics so don't you dare question me." I turn back around in my seat, making it clear that this topic is not open for further discussion. Unfortunately, Sierra has never been good at picking up on signals that aren't from my sister.
"Wait, you two know those guys?" she asks confusedly. I look to Jake to respond for me. "How? I've never seen you with them before."
Jake shifts uncomfortably in his seat, his hands tightening a little bit on the steering wheel in the process. How are we going to explain how we know those leeches? 'Oh well you know, they're actually a part of a coven of vampires who live right outside Forks and Jake, the rest of the guys and I are all wolves and we kill vampires. But Jake's great-grandfather made a pact with their leader so as long as they don't come on our land or bite a human, we don't kill them. But don't worry, they only drink animal blood.' I snicker to myself, yeah, that would be a great way to break the tension in this car. I doubt they'd believe us even if we told them the truth at this point; they'd probably just think we were lying and get even angrier with us.
"Well that one guy Edward is dating my dad's best friend's daughter and those are his brothers so ... yeah." Jake finishes lamely and I can almost see the wheels turning in Anastasia's head as she formulates more questions.
"Oh you mean that quiet, brown haired girl I met at your house that one time Jake? Huh. Well if they're so dangerous then shouldn't Billy's friend know about it? It is his daughter." I can feel her eyes bouncing between Jake and me, waiting for an explanation that would undoubtedly raise more questions than answers.
"It's not our business Anastasia. I'm sorry we embarrassed you and I'm sorry you think we were rude, but please, enough." I turn my head to look at her, hoping she'll see the pain and pleading look in my eyes that begs her to just let the whole conversation drop. She nods her head once, and finally leans back in the seat, her body no longer stiff and ready for a fight. I lean my head against the window, enjoying the cooling sensation it brings to my forehead and the wanderings of my thoughts. 'She's safe.' I repeat it like a mantra in my head and close my eyes wearily, my body no longer shaking with anger, but now exhausted from a mixture of emotions as the rest of the car ride continues in absolute silence sans the radio playing softly in the background.