Only because one of my loyal followers requested it, I'm following up rather quickly with this chapter. I know the last one was a bit of a cliffy, so I wanted to get this one out pretty fast. I'll go ahead and let you know I haven't started 22, but I was able to work on this in pieces at work under the radar, so hopefully I'll be able to continue that way for a bit. Hopefully it won't be much more than a week. Hope you're still enjoying it, and I know everyone says it, but reviews really do help to get chapters out faster. Not that we're holding them for ransom, but it's more like inspiration, and gets our creative juices flowing. Consider yourselves cheerleaders.

Alright then, on to the next.

He slammed on his brakes hard, and the seat belt caught my shoulder painfully. I hissed until I saw the reason he had stopped, and I gasped at the white figure standing in the road.

He cursed when he saw who it was, and I exhaled in relief.

Emmett.

"Really?" Jake said loudly. "She nearly pissed herself, moron!" Jake complained. Emmett walked over to the driver side and leaned down to talk to us through the open window.

"Well it's not like I have your number or anything." He grimaced. He looked over at me and smiled. "Hey Bells." I gave him a small smile and wave.

"What do you want?" Jake asked gruffly. Emmett's face fell serious again.

"We need to talk to you about some stuff, we wanted permission to come onto the reservation. I think that's probably the only place that's guaranteed we won't be heard." He spoke lowly. Jake barked out a laugh.

"Yeah, I don't see that happening." Emmett blew out a frustrated breath.

"Look, I know this far outside your comfort zone, hell, I'm not wild about the two of us being outnumbered by you guys, but for me the risk is worth it."

"Why?" I interrupted. They both turned to look at me. "Why is it worth it to you? Why do you even care?" Emmett gave Jake a questioning look, and Jake just looked forward, avoiding both our stares, shaking his head. Emmett went to speak, but Jake started first.

"Ok, fine. I'll speak with the rest of the pack. We'll meet you and, uh….."

"Rosalie." We both finished for him. He rolled his eyes again.

"Yeah, whatever. We'll meet you two here in about, well, give me two hours to round up everyone." Emmett nodded, taking a couple steps back from the car.

"What was that about?" I asked as we drove away.

"I don't know, you heard as much as me, he needs to tell me something, and the last time he told me anything-"

"No, not that. You know something and you're not telling me." He glanced at me quickly sideways, but didn't fully look at me. "Oh my God! Jacob Black, have you been lying to me?"

"No!" He rushed to say. "I absolutely have not been lying to you. I promise. He did tell me something, but I honestly just didn't feel like it was my place to tell you." He stopped, waiting for me to say something, but I just sat there with my arms crossed, glaring at him. He huffed as we pulled into his driveway. "Look, can we go inside and talk about this?"

I got out and slammed the door angrily, stomping inside.

"Will you just calm down, you don't even know what this is about." He said as I let the front door nearly slam in his face. I took a deep breath and turned to face him.

"Ok then," I said as calmly as possible, "Talk."

"Right, well keep in mind I have no proof, all I have is the guy's word, and I'm still unsure if I can fully trust him." I continued staring. "He claims to be a relative of yours." He said resigned.

"What?"

"Yeah, apparently he was your grandmother's uncle."

I just kind of looked at him, not really knowing how I felt about that.

"Ok, this is just…...weird."

"That's putting it lightly." Jake said, laughing darkly.

After he left to go talk with the rest of the guys, I called Leah up. I had only talked to her a handful of times since her change, and I was really wanting to go running. Now that my running partner doubled as protection, there was no reason for Jake to not want me to go, even though I still wasn't going to tell him. He just seemed a little too overprotective lately, and it's better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?

Thirty minutes later Leah and I were out on the shore line jogging beside each other. The only bad thing about running with a shape shifter? She's much more in shape than me now, and could run much faster and farther than I was used to.

"Geez Swan, pick it up."

"Oh shut up, I'm still a puny human over here."

"So the vampires are your relatives? That's, really…"

"Weird. Yeah, I know. But it's just one of them. Who would have thought that the descendant of some vampire would end up being mated to a werewolf. Speaking of, how are things with you and Paul?" Even from the side, I could see this dreamy look she got in her eyes as soon as I said his name. "Ugh, nevermind." But she ignored me.

"He is just so amazing." She gushed. "It's hard for me to even be away from him, so you should feel very special that I came out with you." She said smugly.

"Oh yes, thank you for blessing me with your presence." I said, rolling my eyes.

"And the sex, oh man. So far we have broken my bed, his-"

"LALALA!" I screamed covering my ears and running ahead of her. She easily caught up laughing.

"You know you can't outrun me."

"No, but I can throw up on you."

"Touche."

I stopped as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

WTF are you?

I'm a human girl. What are you?

E

Does it feel like I'm scared?

no

Then calm yourself. I went for a run.

RU CRAZY

That's rude. I might be crazy, but it's extremely rude to point it out.

You're with Leah aren't you

Of course.

I should have known, she really brings the smartass out in you. Anyway, you guys need to come on. Everyone's here. Down where we have bonfires.

Ooh! Are we roasting weenies?

I wasn't surprised to not receive a reply to that. Leah and I laughed together, turning back toward where we were supposed to meet them.

"I've always said I bring out the best in you, Swan." Leah said laughing.

"That's why I keep you around Clearwater."

Ten minutes later we jogged up to where everyone was standing. A couple guys were starting the fire, and Jake was standing, talking to Paul. As soon as Leah saw Paul, she took off in a sprint and jumped in his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. I looked at Jake and made a sick face, which made him laugh and pull me close to him.

"Should I start greeting you like that?" I joked. He wrapped his arms around my waist and gave me a gentle kiss.

"Nah, I kinda like this." He said smiling. "Besides, after seeing in his head what they've been doing, I-"

"Eww! Please stop. I threatened to vomit on Leah, I'll do it to you too." He laughed and pulled me to his side as we walked toward a bench.

After food was passed around, and Sam finally got everyone quiet, Emmett started explaining what had went on. Apparently not only had the psycho not given up on me, he was actually recruiting help. Part of the coven he was apart of, which had unlimited resources, as well as some outside help from other covens, had decided to help him on his endeavor. Jake held me tight while we were told all this, and to their credit, Emmett and Rosalie looked both devastated and furious while telling us about nearly catching him.

"I had him, I had that son of a bitch." He seethed. Rosalie gently rubbed his arm to calm him down. She continued for him.

"See, he can read people's minds. Well, almost everyone." She glanced at me. "So fighting him is very hard."

"I took a chunk out of his shoulder, but I should have killed him. Damnit!" He shouted, punching the bench, shattering it. "Sorry." He said weakly.

"That's when we found out that part of our coven is fighting with him." She shook her head. "I would have never thought they could do something like this. I was able to get the head off on one of them, but her mate got to her before I could burn her. He'll piece her back together.

"And I'm sure he's six shade of pissed." Leah chimed in.

"Yep."

"Wait, was this the girl that told you about the vision?" I asked.

"No." Rosalie said soberly, looking toward the fire. "This one, for all intents and purposes, was our mother."

I inhaled sharply at this.

"Your mother?" Jake questioned.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we all lost our families when we came into this….. this life." She said with disgust. "We have never really considered ourselves a coven as much as we did a family. We were their children, and brothers and sisters with those that weren't our mates." She looked so sad, it actually hurt my heart.

"Would it help if I left? Jake and I could just disappear for awhile! He would have to give up, right?" Rosalie shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry Bella, but nothing short of his death is going to stop him."

"Unless Bella died."

I didn't have time to turn to look at her before Jake was standing in front of me, crouched down and growling at Leah, Paul in the exact same stance in front of Leah, but facing Jake.

"Black, just calm the fuck down and listen to me! Obviously I don't want her dead, you idiot. But what if we made him think she was dead?" He stood up slowly, as did Paul. Jake eyeing Leah, and Paul eyeing Jake. I pulled on his arm to have him sit back down to avoid some kind of wolf-on-wolf fight between him and Paul.

"She has a point!" I said loudly to get Jake's attention.

"I don't know, Bella. I mean, you can't hide out forever." Emmett said.

"Only until he's killed. Then everything can go back to normal." I argued.

"Maybe if we start just thinking of ways to kill Bella," Jake started growling toward Rosalie's comment, "it has to look real in our heads!" She justified to him. "If we start just thinking it, we could draw him out. Maybe he would come for us if he thought we would hurt her."

Several hours went by like that. Ideas thrown around, trying to figure out what would work best, but we never came to a solid conclusion. The whole 'mind-reading' thing was throwing a wrench in everything. The only thing we could come up with for now was mentioned by Sam, that Jake would probably need to transfer back to my high school so he could stay close by. Of course, I was all for that idea, but for completely selfish reasons. Rosalie said she would be able to take care of the transfer for us. Apparently, being a vampire meant you were a master manipulator, and could hack into pretty much any computer system.

That night, I laid awake thinking about everything, both the big picture and the details as well. In the big picture, whatever it took for Jake and I to make it through this alive was the most important, but then I thought about everyone else involved. Particularly Emmett and Rosalie and how this may be affecting them. I had initially thought that the whole 'family' thing between them all was just a ruse to blend in to the normal population without being detected. Although why they would want to waste their time blending in was beyond me. But then she had mentioned the one female had been her 'mother' for several decades. And now just because one of them had completely went crazy, it was tearing their 'family' apart. She had mentioned later on to me that the other part of the coven, the third couple, had made an effort to distance themselves from the entire situation, which seemed to me to be the smartest thing to do. She said they had left right after school got out for Christmas, and probably wouldn't be coming back.

I hated that all this was because of me, but I also knew it wasn't my fault, I had done absolutely nothing to draw attention to myself, nothing to specifically draw him to me, and in fact, I had done everything I could think of to make him leave me alone, everything short of taking my fist to his face, which now that I knew what I knew about him, I was glad I hadn't. This was so unfair, and I just wanted to scream, but again, that would do me now good.

I closed my eyes, rolling over to snuggle against Jake, and was once again wondering what we would all be doing right now had all this crap not happened. That was what I fantasized about now, normal life. Or how it would be if Jake and I were to run away together. I would prefer a sunny shore somewhere south. Warm sun on my face, and sand between my toes. I laughed at the mental image of Jake and I attempting to surf, and I think I actually fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Unfortunately my dreams did not keep me that way. I was surrounded by black emptiness, I couldn't see anything, but I could hear a voice calling my name. It was soft and pleasant.

"Bella, I can't stay long. I just need to tell you something, I need you to know that things are getting ready to change."

"Who is this?"

"I can't say, I just wanted to give you a warning, don't mistake your dreams for reality, and vice versa."

"What?"

"And just know, no matter what happens, even though things will get bad, really bad, they will eventually get better, and you will have your happy ending."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Bella, I am trying to help you."

"Are you talking about Cullen?"

"Yes. I know you will figure it all out. You are capable of-"

"No. You want to help me? Tell me how to end this, NOW!"

"I can't, I can only tell you so much."

"Bullshit. You told me all this stuff, you know what's coming, you know the outcome, now just tell me how to skip the bad parts, and we'll all be happy."

"You can't have the good without the bad. That's how the world works."

"You know what? You can take your damn riddles and shove them up your-"

Before I could finish, it suddenly got much brighter, and I found myself standing in my bedroom at home, or something that looked just like my bedroom. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something wasn't right. I looked all around trying to figure out was was different, but I couldn't see anything off. But once I walked out the door, I realized I was right. The house wasn't mine at all, just the bedroom. It was a beautiful house though, large and bright, and it was so quiet. I walked across the landing, looking into a couple of other bedrooms and bathroom there, before going down the large staircase, which opened into a very large, very bright living room, that had those really high ceilings, with windows that went all the way up. There was a girl standing with her back to me, staring out the windows into the well manicured front yard, but I noticed I couldn't see a road beyond the trees that seemed to encase the property. I tried to engage the girl, but it was like I couldn't get her attention, like she couldn't hear me. I stepped up beside her, to try to catch her eye, and I lost my breath.

It was me, but it wasn't.

She looked absolutely horrible. Her cheeks and eyes were sunken in, her hair was dull and limp, and looked like it was much thinner, her eyes seemed dull, and she was sickly skinny. Her skin color was almost a light gray, it was horrible. I stood there shocked, just staring for several minutes, trying to make sense of what was happening, or rather, what had already happened. Is this the future? Do I get really sick? Where is Jacob?

She continued staring out the window, and suddenly inhaled sharply. I turned to look at what had drawn the reaction from her, and nearly pissed myself. Edward Cullen was walking from the tree line towards the house, his eyes piercing through the window at us. I could feel my heart rate sky rocket, and my lungs weren't working properly as I took a few steps back away from the window. I looked over at the girl, and it was like I could see her sink into herself even more than she already was, if that was even possible. Her shoulders hunched and her eyes glazed over, and I knew whatever had happened, this was someone that had long ago given up hope, and I vowed that whatever may happen, even if this was some screwed up nightmare of mine, I would never allow myself to become this. I realized he was nearly to the front door, and I began screaming for her to run, grabbing her arm to pull her away, but she was solid, and I couldn't move her. I started looking around frantically for a weapon to use against the monster, but there was nothing. Not that there was much that could hurt him in the first place. I heard beeping at the front door, and the sound of several locks unlock. My eyes went wide, and I was froze in place as I watched him enter. His eyes stayed on the girl, and slowly walked toward her. She didn't even attempt to move, or even jerk away when he grabbed her arm, though it didn't look like he was very rough with her.

"What have you done today, Isabella?"

"Nothing." She answered quietly.

"Nothing? You just sat around like a lump all day?"

"Yes."

I was absolutely disgusted that this person in front of me was actually supposed to be me. This was some weak, spineless piece of meat, and I just wanted to scream at her, maybe even hit and kick her, just do anything to get some sort of emotion from her.

"I thought you had finally understood that this is your home now. Didn't we already discuss this?"

"Yes."

Was this some sort of twisted alternate universe? Where was Jacob? Did he not exist here? My breathing became shallow. This couldn't be real, that girl, that version of me, she should never exist.

"Maybe you just need some more…...convincing." He said, with a sick smile on his face. This actually brought some emotion to her face.

"Please Edward, don't." She begged with tears in her eyes.

"Why?" He sneered. "You still think you're dog is coming back from the dead to save you? He's gone Isabella! Dead, like all the rest of them. And you would do good to remember who you belong to." He grabbed her by the hair and pushed her towards the hall. "Now get in that bedroom." He yelled, and he started to remove his pants.

I lost it. I hit my knees, screaming, crying, and shaking uncontrollably. What was this? What had happened? This can't be real, even in some alternate universe, this absolutely cannot ever be real. I would kill myself before I would let myself be put through this. And that's what I wanted to do so bad, kill that version of me. She would be better off dead than living like this. I screamed until my throat was raw, and my vision went black, and even then, I refused to stop.

When I opened my eyes again, Jacob was there, shaking me hard, yelling my name.

"Bella! Baby, calm down! It was a dream, just a dream."

It wasn't real, and Jacob was still here, still with me. As I continued gasping for air, I pulled him to me tight, and just held him and cried, while he rubbed my back and rocked me back and forth, pressing kisses against my temple, trying to calm me down.