Chapter Eleven
Bella
When Leah informed me that Jake was back and acting strange as well as looking different, like the other guys who had gone and then reappeared, I went to the reservation to see, steeling myself for the hostility I knew would be aimed at me. She was right, Jake had grown physically, he was taller, broader, more muscular and no longer the awkward young boy I remembered. His long glossy black hair had been cut short and on his face, the radiant smile that I remembered was replaced by a bitter twist to the mouth. I got the feeling he was trying to avoid me but I made sure to cross his path as he walked home after spending most the time I was there with a small group that centred on Sam Uley. Leah had told me that Emily had recovered from the bear attack but was terribly scarred on that side of her face and I felt for her, she had always been so beautiful in my eyes. I had tried to speak to her myself, after all, we had been friends for years but now she avoided me where she could and when she was unable to she said as little as possible and excused herself as quickly as she reasonably could.
As I stepped in front of Jake he came to a halt, eyes blazing intimidatingly. Like the others in Sam's little group, he had stopped wearing a tee shirt and the huge muscles that had grown so fast were tense.
"Jake?"
His eyes fixed mine and I felt a frisson of fear shoot through me.
"What?"
"I've been worried about you. I asked Leah and Billy but no one seemed to know where you'd gone."
"I thought you were too wrapped up in the Cullens to notice I wasn't around. Besides, it's none of your business where I've been."
"I thought we were friends Jake. What's happened to you? Why are you so angry with me? Is it because of Jasper?"
His face creased into a sneer,
"I'm not angry with you. I tried my best but you just wouldn't listen so now I wash my hands of you. If you insist on hanging around with the guy who...it doesn't matter, just leave me alone."
I reached out to take his arm and it was hot like he was running a fever.
"Are you sick?"
"Yeah, sick of you, sick of the Cullens, sick of what's happened..."
He broke off suddenly as if to stop himself saying too much.
"What has happened? I don't understand Jake and I want to. I hate it that we aren't friends anymore."
Cold dark eyes pierced my soul,
"Then dump Cullen. Dump all of them and come back to the right side."
"The right side? What does that mean Jake?"
He'd finished talking, he just pushed me out of the way and ran off towards his cabin where I could see Billy sitting in the doorway watching us.
Leah couldn't explain what had happened to Jake and the others or explain his words to me but to my relief, she didn't push me away as he had. I think she found herself isolated on the reservation. There were few girls her own age living in the village and she had lost her boyfriend Sam to her cousin Emily. Although she and Emily had finally made up there was always a certain coolness between the once close friends and now things had taken a turn for the worse. Leah had been horrified at the bear attack and blamed Sam for building his home so close to a known bear trail but Emily wouldn't hear any criticism of her man and the two had fallen out again. Her younger brother Seth had been close to a couple of the guys who had disappeared and come back changed and now they had nothing to do with him, she told me he was shut out and confused. Both he and Leah had asked their father what was happening but Harry refused to explain anything and just told them they were imagining most of it.
"Sam and the others have just grown up and taken their places in the tribe. That's all you need to know so no more questions."
I even asked my dad about it again but he just shrugged,
"I have no idea what's going on but as far as I can tell they aren't breaking any laws and there's been no trouble on the res so there is nothing I can do. Maybe you're just growing away from them, maybe Jake is jealous of all the time you spend with Jasper, you know how much the Quileutes dislike the Cullens. I guess he might have decided you've made your choice."
Personally, I thought there was more to it but when I asked Jasper about it he just recited the same excuses dad had. I got the feeling he knew a lot more but was reluctant to say. Whatever the problems were between the Cullens and the Quileutes they were going to stay a mystery to me, for now at least, but I made up my mind that I would discover the truth eventually.
Jasper
Edward and I had both been approached about the problems the Quileutes had with us by the girls and had brushed the questions off as casually as we could but I did speak to Carlisle about it.
"I'm afraid it's just one more difficulty of associating with humans Jasper. So far you and Edward have managed to avoid any awkwardness, you learned to hide your true nature, but it becomes harder the longer you associate with Bella. She is intelligent and is already querying things, and as she notices more the questions will become more numerous and then you will have to make a decision whether to break things off with her, leave Forks, or tell her your secret with all the consequences that come from such a disclosure. It depends on how you feel about her."
I hadn't answered that unspoken question because the answer scared me too much. I was beginning to think I was in love with Bella. The feelings of protectiveness towards her, the empty ache in my chest when we were apart, the feeling of completeness when I was with her. Yet still I was scared, was this for real? Or merely the start of the same kind of infatuation that had led me almost to disaster with Maria? It didn't feel the same but I wasn't sure I trusted my instincts where females were concerned. I could feel that Bella was very fond of me, her joy when she saw me, her contentment when we were together and her sorrow when I left mirrored my own but was that enough?
There was a bigger problem however and one that Carlisle realised from the things I had related to him that Bella had told me. This only made me feel more confused and frustrated because I was once more scared for Bella's safety. Carlisle had called a family meeting, something he rarely did and, as a result, we were all wondering what had happened.
"I thought it necessary to call this meeting as a result of things I have heard from Jasper. Things Bella Swan has mentioned to him."
"Are we in danger Carlisle? Has she worked out what we really are?"
"No Rosalie, nothing like that, but we must be extremely vigilant and careful to stick to the letter of the treaty I made with the Quileutes. I fear that our presence here has caused the guardian gene in the young Quileute men to become active."
"What does that mean for us and her Carlisle?"
As Carlisle began to answer my question I felt my anxiety for Bella's safety rise even higher. He had already explained that the Quileutes were a guardian tribe but what he hadn't reckoned with was our presence here kick starting the phasing of their young men into their guardian form, giant wolves.
"I hadn't understood what our moving here would do to the Quileutes, we saw no sign of such phasing when we were here before but it means that when Bella visits the reservation she is among guardians, a young inexperienced pack and that is dangerous in itself without her being associated with us, their natural enemy."
Bella
Dad understood why I was reluctant to visit Billy with him after Jake's unfriendly attitude last time we met so I only went to see Leah when he drove over but even the atmosphere in her place was cooler than it had been so I was relieved when she began to visit me instead. From what she said, I understood life was difficult for her too, as she was still friends with me and I was still friends with the Cullens she wasn't very popular in the village. My decision not to visit her pleased Jasper too, for some reason, although he never said so out loud. I got the strangest feeling he was worried about my safety and I wondered if it had anything to do with the bear attack on Emily, I almost wished I hadn't told him about it.
The longer Jasper and I were together the less often I went to the reservation until I was almost never there and Leah was my only contact with the Quileutes outside of my dad. Even he was concerned about the change in the atmosphere in the village. He told me the young men, at least, those who had changed over the past few months, tended to group together, almost like a street gang although they never caused any trouble.
"I don't know Bells, they make me uneasy. There's a feeling of danger, suppressed violence, around them and they seem to ignore the rest of the people. If they were in town I'd be watching them closely, it's real odd. Young Seth was close to Jake and the others but they don't want anything to do with him now. Still, so long as they behave..."
