Hey guys! There weren't any questions this time around, so you guys get to go straight to the chapter! Thank you for your continued patience and enjoy the next chapter of "A Forgotten Love"!
Chapter 11: Ghost Stories
Isabelle stared at her phone in shock. Why the hell would he think that was okay? Sneaking around to get her phone number when she would have given it to him had he asked her. She shook her head and tossed her phone on the bed before grabbing her book bag and pulling some papers out. She flew through them rather quickly, snorting at the thought that most humans would have found the work difficult, but for her, it was literally a piece of cake.
After finishing the homework, she laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she started to slip into her meditative state. Eventually, her eyes closed and she fell "asleep", which was actually a good thing since Charlie came in and opened her door to check on her before heading to bed.
It was sunny the next day, hence the reason why the Cullens wouldn't be in school, which made sense, and she peacefully went through the day, fielding questions from her friends about her and Edward. Lauren and Jessica seemed jealous, Lauren more so, but Isabelle really didn't care. They each had a boyfriend, Tyler for Lauren and Mike for Jessica. Looked like Lauren had taken her advice on taking Tyler to the dance and they ended up getting together.
Since it was Friday, Isabelle hung around her friends after school, all of them heading to the diner in town that evidently had the best blueberry cobbler in the state. Not that she would be eating it, mind you. Hours passed and before she knew it, it was time to head home and get ready for the next day.
In the morning after hearing the honking outside, she grabbed her duffle bag that held an extra set of clothes just in case someone tried to push her in the water, and went outside, throwing it in the back. There were only two cars and evidently someone had invited two more people and people were squished against each other. Mike had invited her to sit up front with him, but because of the seating arrangements, she had managed to squeeze Jessica in-between her and Mike, which Jessica had no complaints. Isabelle honestly didn't know why they were heading to the beach, but she shrugged it off. It was just a thing that they did since they didn't really have a whole lot else to do around Forks.
Arriving at the beach, they all piled out of the two cars, laughing at a story someone told, and grabbed everything before heading to the sandy beach. Some of the guys in her group had already started gathering driftwood and placing it in a fire circle that had obviously used previously, probably for parties just like theirs. Others started to sit around and talk while others did the work and Isabelle rolled her eyes slightly before helping out with the wood, though being careful not to get too close to the fire. She didn't quite want to have to explain that bit to a group of humans.
After the fire got going and about an hour passed of everyone talking, there was a vote to go hiking around the nearby tidal pools. Isabelle immediately wanted to go, but she waited until she heard that Tyler and Eric were going to stay with most of the girls before standing up and joining the group. As they walked, Isabelle stayed next to Angela, who had decided to join them, making sure that she didn't feel left out since Jessica, the only other female that decided to hike, ditched her to go walk with Mike. They were chatting together for about ten to fifteen minutes before they arrived at the pools and they split off.
Isabelle and Angela stuck together, swapping stories of their childhood back and forth as they examined the beautiful little ocean ponds. In one pond, Isabelle watched with a smile as a small black eel with white racing stripes wove through the green weeds, waiting for the tide to return so it could rejoin the rest of the world. Eventually, some of the boys were hungry, so they all decided to head back.
Breaking through the tree line, Isabelle saw that their group had multiplied while they were gone. Copper skin and shining, straight black hair of the newcomers let her know that some of the teenagers from the reservation had come to socialize. Food was already being passed around and the others hurried to get their share while Isabelle leisurely walked back to her seat. One of the newcomers was sitting near her and had glanced at her with interest, causing her to hold back a groan, thinking he was going to be another Mike or Tyler.
Not long after everyone finished eating, people started to drift off in pairs of twos and threes, some going to the edge of the ocean to skip rocks and others planning a second trip to the tidal pools. Isabelle opted out of both things, staying by the fire, and when Angela left with the hikers, the boy from earlier came over and sat by her. She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, not knowing who he was.
"Can I help you?" she asked, not rudely.
"You're Isabella Swan, right?" His voice was smooth and slightly child-like, not quite fitting with his teenager features. She had honestly expected a rough and deep voice, not… that.
"Bella," she sighed, knowing that if she didn't correct him now, he would forever call her Isabella and she wasn't having that.
"I'm Jacob Black," he said, holding his hand out in a friendly gesture. "Your dad bought my dad's truck."
A look of comprehension appeared in her eyes. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Thank you for that! I really didn't want Charlie to drive me around in a cruiser all the time." She smiled at him, a little bit more relaxed.
He grinned. "So how is it so far?" he asked.
"Oh, I love it. It runs great," she replied, leaning closer on her knees.
"Yeah, but it's really slow," he laughed. "I was so relieved when Charlie bought it. My dad wouldn't let me work on building another car when we had a perfectly good vehicle right there."
She grinned at that. She couldn't deny that it was slow, even disregarding the fact that she was a speed demon. "So you build cars?" she asked, tilting her head. She was a little bit impressed. The conversation went from there. For about ten minutes, they talked about nothing but cars, Isabelle knowing her fair share of them. As they talked, she couldn't help but to notice that he was starting to give her looks that she immediately recognized and she wasn't the only one.
"You know Bella, Jacob?" Lauren asked, finally realizing that not all of the boys' attention was on her and not liking it.
"Not really," Isabelle replied. "My dad bought my truck from him."
"How nice." Her tone said anything but that and her pale eyes narrowed upon Isabelle's face. "Bella, I was just talking to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?"
Before she could say that she had attempted, though not entirely, someone spoke first. "You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" It came from a tall, older boy from the reservation. His voice fit what Isabelle had expected: very deep and husky. "They don't come here," he replied when Lauren answered in the affirmative, his tone immediately closing the subject.
Sensing the mood, Tyler distracted Lauren about some CD and Isabelle stared curiously at the man who had spoken. His tone had implied more than they not coming here, but more like they weren't allowed here.
Jacob asked something about Forks and Isabelle's attention was back on him. Ignoring what it was, knowing that it was about how she was finding it, she smiled brightly at him. "Do you want to walk down the beach with me?" she asked. She wanted to know why the Cullens weren't allowed on the reservation and Jacob seemed to be her best bet at the moment. Taken by surprise, but extremely happy at the turn of events, Jacob agreed and they started walking across the stones toward the driftwood seawall.
"So you're, what, sixteen? Seventeen?" she asked, glancing at him with a slightly shy smile.
"I just turned fifteen," he confessed, flattered.
"Really? I would have thought you were older." Her face was full of false surprise.
"I'm tall for my age," he explained eagerly. This was too easy.
"Who was that other boy Lauren was talking to? He seemed a little old to be hanging out with us." She purposefully lumped herself in with the teenagers, trying to make it clear she preferred Jacob. Oh the things she did to get information.
"That's Sam - He's nineteen," he informed her.
"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?" A curious look entered her eyes as she got closer to what she wanted.
"The Cullens? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation." He looked away, out towards James Island, as he confirmed what her suspicions were. She just needed to figure out why.
"Why not? They seem like a good family to me."
"I'm not supposed to say anything about that," he murmured, biting his lip as he glanced back at her.
"Oh, come on. I won't tell anyone. It'll be our little secret," she whispered to him with a smile as she moved a little closer to him. He smiled back, a torn look in his eyes before they filled with determination.
"Do you like scary stories?" he asked her, his voice huskier and lower.
"I love them," she breathed, her eyes wide. Considering she was one, it felt wrong to answer in anything but in the affirmative. Jacob strolled to a nearby driftwood tree that had roots sticking out and sat on one of the twisted roots while she sat lower on the body of the tree. She let him gather his thoughts as he stared down at the rocks, a smile hovering around the edges of his lips.
"How much do you know of our old stories, about where we came from - the Quileutes, I mean?" he began and Isabelle thought for a moment before shrugging.
"Not much, I'm afraid," she replied, keeping her eyes on Jacob as he geared up to tell her stories.
"Well, there are a lot of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood - supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, showing her how little stock he put into the so-called legends of his tribe. "Another legend claims we descended from wolves - and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.
"Then there are the stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped a litter lower and she sat there stunned. Just by that teensy bit of information, she had realized that some of the natives must have been wolf shifters. That would be the reason why the Cullens couldn't come onto their land.
"The cold ones?" Isabelle asked, intrigue coloring her voice.
"Yeah. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.
Now there was a treaty involved? This just got better.
"Your great-grandfather?" she encouraged, wanting more information.
"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf - well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You could call them werewolves." He drifted off topic for a second before Isabelle coughed to bring him back. "So, yeah, the cold ones are traditionally our enemies, but this coven that came to our territory during my great-gradfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of the kind did - they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at her.
She sat there, absorbing his story. Despite knowing the answer, she spoke. "If they weren't dangerous, then why…?" she drifted off, knowing he would fill in the blanks and she wasn't disappointed.
"There's always a risk for human to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He deliberately worked a thick edge of menace into his tone.
"Civilized?" she questioned, glancing at him. "How so and how does this fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather met?"
"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They were somehow able to prey on animals instead. And no," he said, pausing dramatically. "They are the same ones." He must have thought the expression on Isabelle's face was fear inspired by his story, not surprise over the fact Carlisle was stupid enough to come back to town two generations or so after arriving the first time.
"There are more of them now, a new female and male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time, they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before the pale-faces had arrived."
"And what are they?" Isabelle finally asked, still going along with the charade. "What are the cold ones?"
He smiled darkly. "Blood drinkers," he replied in a chilling voice. "Your people call them vampires."
And Jacob is officially introduced to the story! All I will say in regards to him is that he is going to be an important part of the story once we really get past the events of Twilight :D And we are getting closer and closer to the end of that, so don't forget to check back! As always, every review will get a sneak peak of the next chapter! Thanks guys for your continued support!
Katie