Chapter Ten
I watched in muted horror as I saw Bella throw herself off the cliff and her brown hair disappear into the waves. I threw my sweater off, my cell in the hands pocket and did a dive off the cliff after her. I pierced into the icy waves, the cold water nearly knocking the breath out of me. As I opened my eyes the stung slightly with salt of the water. Luckily most of my immunity to the salt water was still there, I could see Bella struggling in the water, and she didn't seem to be much of a swimmer. I could feel my panic and anxiety well up in my chest; I closed my eyes for a second and willed myself to be calm. Now was most definitely not to panic and have an anxiety attack. I saw Bella struggling against the waves, I dived down and grabbed her hand pulled he towards the surface. All of a sudden we were both dragged down deeper in the waves. Looking at Bella there was a mass of red hair and a very pale woman, she looked very animalistic and thrilled to have caught Bella. Her eyes were blood red and they down right terrified me.
Mustering up my courage I swam quickly to her and slammed my foot in her face, it stunned her temporarily and I was able to grab Bella and pull her up to the surface. We broke the surface just as I thought my lungs were going to burst from lack of air. Bella was unconscious, splashing caught my attention and I saw Jacob come towards us.
"Is she…"
"Just knocked out," I responded.
He nodded gathered her up and swam towards the shore; I was about to head back when I was grabbed and drug under the waves again. I was going down faster than I could imagine, looking down I could see the fiery red head cold one. She had me around my ankle and was dragging me to the bottom, I could feel the pressure against my chest and head and my lungs straining to get air. I could hear my heartbeat in my head. She drug me down a little further and wrapped her cold hands around my throat and put steady pressure, I clawed and kicked as much as I could but she was too far out of reach. I couldn't breath, spots were in my eyes and I could hear my heartbeat hitch as I was gasping and struggling to stay alive. My world went black...my chest exploding in pain…
Xavier swam past the Jacob dragging Bella ashore when he saw his younger sister's head bobbing in the water. How she managed to be in the ocean after her panic attacks he'd never know. He knew she hadn't set foot in the ocean since the accident. He growled at the russet skinned boy as he swam past him, Jacob giving him a confused look. Taking a deep gulp of air he dived in to the waves, even underwater he felt none of the sea's icy temperature, being a wolf did have its advantages. He was able to see Aiden and a red headed leach in the water; he dived towards the leach that was caught unawares. Her hands were ripped from his sister's neck and she swam further away snarling at him. Aware that Aiden was sinking he gathered her up and kicked to the surface.
The red head didn't follow. He brought her to the surface, when Aiden didn't move he felt a sense of dread in him. He lugged her to the shore, and she didn't move. He felt his pack brothers gather around and was faintly aware that Bella was now conscious, he growled as the crowded around. He began doing CPR.
"She's not breathing..." He heard Embry whisper.
This just fueled him to try harder. He blew air in to her lungs and continued chest compressions. It was a few minutes of this and Aiden began coughing and spitting up water…he let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding.
I woke up to be throwing up seawater, my lungs burned and my throat burned and ached. I rolled over onto my hands and knees. My whole body was trembling and my heartbeat pounded in my head. I could feel the onset of a panic attack. Warm hands made me look up at him at familiar eyes. Xavier.
"You calm down, you are safe."
I nodded and tried to calm myself down. I couldn't stop the shivers that wracked my body, I was likely in shock.
Xavier handed me my hoodie and my phone was still safely inside. The sweater helped but I was still dripping wet and freezing.
"We need to get them warm," Sam said.
"We need to get her to a hospital," Xavier said shortly.
"How do you plan on explaining the bruises?" Paul asked hotly.
Xavier growled at his tone.
"Enough, we'll do what we can when we get home, there's enough chaos right now." Sam ordered.
The boys quieted down but were still glaring daggers.
"I'll take Bella home," Jake said, then led Bella away from the group.
I could feel eyes on me questioning, and the disbelief on people's faces. I ignored the looks and moved closer to Xavier trying to get warm.
"Xavier take Aiden to my place, Silas will ask too many questions."
Xavier nodded and led me to the truck I climbed in the cab and he blasted the heat and I shivered slightly.
"How are you?" He asked lowly.
"I'm….terrified." speaking felt like was glass was shredding my windpipes.
Xavier's eyes flashed dangerously.
"Don't try to talk, we need to get you looked at, I hate to admit it but Lahote is right, we don't have an excuse for your throat." Xavier said.
I nodded hugging my sweater closer to me. He glanced at me then turned his gaze back out onto the road.
"I'm proud of you," he said softly.
I looked at him curiously.
"You were afraid yet you still went in,"
I didn't say anything. The selfish part of me knew the real reason I went in. I DID want to save Bella, but I was sort of selfish for the though I currently had. Part of me saved Bella so Jake wouldn't be mad at me. It was childish, but I couldn't live with the notion that he would be angry or blame me for that. We finally arrived at Emily's at almost five minutes to seven. Emily was on the porch knitting something. She took one look at me and sent me up to the shower in her room while Xavier used the one downstairs. I was wrapped in a towel sitting on a chair in the spare bedroom when there was a knock on the door. I had just shrugged on the extra t-shirt that I was given and a pair of pajama pants. I had managed to rope my hair in a bun atop my head.
"It's me,"
It wasn't the voice I had necessarily expected, part o f me had expected to hear Emily or maybe Xavier. Opening the door a crack, brown eyes looked into my blue/green eyes. Hesitating I stepped back to let him in. He shut the door behind him, he was drenched in water, and apparently it had started to rain. I sat him on the chair next to the bed and I grabbed the towel I had and began gently drying his hair. I could feel him trembling slightly, he was upset. We didn't talk and the silence was comfortable I brought his hands up and settled on my waist bringing me close to where his head was laying gently on my stomach, slowly the trembling stopped. I felt Jacob pull up my shirt slightly to rub my hipbone there; the gesture was intimate and made me blush.
"Aiden…"he said softly.
I hummed signaling I was listening.
"I'm tired of running…I'm tired of getting hurt…"he mumbled.
I understood what he was talking about. I nodded, by now the towel was on the floor and I was running my hands through his hair. After a few moments he straightened and looked at the bruises that I knew were at my neck from the leech. I had seen them while I was showering and I knew they looked pretty bad. His eyes grew dark looking at them.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
I looked at him curiously.
"I let you get hurt, she was right there…" He murmured.
I shook my head. I wanted to talk but I wasn't allowed to until I was looked at. He leaned his head on my stomach again and I flinched slightly, he must've noticed.
"Ai,"
I looked down and noticed what he was looking at. On my hip there was another bruise, somewhat lighter that the ones on my neck, but still dark. I cursed myself silently as I realized what he had seen.
"What's this? What happened here?"
Well shoot…
