And just as suddenly as Jake had appeared, Edward was gone. Quil and Embry took his place.
"Hey," started Quil. They both looked hale, panting slightly and grinning wildly. They thumped each other's broad backs in a congratulatory way and strode across the short lawn like conquering soldiers after a long journey. "Leah!" Quil yelped her name and started jogging up the stairs as Embry tried to elbow past him, presumably to be the first story-teller among them. I bashfully followed, afraid of Jacob's reaction to my proximity; I knew no one would take me to Forks without my consent but I was still wary of the time when they might ask me to go. I heard Leah's voice, hard and authoritative, as I broached the door.
"Who is still on patrol?" She was standing up, leaning against the wall; the brief nap had helped her werewolf constitution enormously, but she was clearly still weak. "Almost all of our fighters are here!" Her expression was murderous, but I realized the true target would be Sam, and not the men presently in front of her.
"Jared, Paul, and Seth…along with a couple of the vamps—the good ones," Quil spoke quickly. "Sam took the little boys back to La Push."
"Casualties?" Her expression hadn't altered. Jake was sitting down on the pile of blankets we'd slept in. I moved to the kitchen and began rustling together a quick meal; I knew there was enough food here for an army, even if there were no clothes or phone. The pack had its priorities well sorted. I had mine; I didn't want to know which of the children I'd seen last night may have died.
"Only injured," Quil said quickly, and I could hear the grin on his face and answered with one of my own, even if no one saw it. "Everybody's accounted for."
"There may be many more coming," Leah said, as if she were refusing an offer to relax, but Quil's smile greeted her again.
"The little one said there weren't going to be any more for at least a month. And she said when they did come, there would be fewer, more like a trickle, kinda. She didn't see us having any problems in the future."
"She told me they were unorganized," mumbled Leah, and at last she sat down with a thud I could hear all the way from the kitchen.
"They were totally unorganized! They were—"
"They were chumps! We decimated them—"
"They are, and were, the most dangerous predators of humankind." Leah's voice was final. "How did the battle go after I was bitten?"
Embry spoke, his voice deeper and more somber than Quil's. I created piles of food, stacks of sandwiches, fished sodas from the freezer, arranged plates and began passing them out, thinking of Emily the entire time. How she had done this, alone, for so many years was beyond me; no wonder owning a restaurant had failed to intimidate her. Hordes of customers couldn't eat what the pack would in just one day. I tuned in just in time to hear Leah say "Start from the beginning, Embry—I still don't know what happened last night on the highway. Everyone's thoughts were full of the present battle."
"Neither do we, really," Embry shrugged. "We got there after it was over and done with."
"Jacob," she said sharply, and turned to him. "I know you're exhausted, but I want to know."
His labored breathing answered her. He began to pull himself upright, and in spite of myself I rushed over to help him. He was too weak to shrug me away, and I took advantage of it, pulling his hair back from his face and then sitting beside him with a marginal space between us. I wanted to respect his need for boundaries at the same time I desperately wanted to pull him to me, all while fighting the urge to yell at him. He saved me the trouble, looking down at the floor and then over at my toes. It seemed too much for him to meet my eyes.
"Bella was there," he said. Everyone in the room suddenly seemed to melt away, as his rumbling voice echoed back to me. "Would you mind, Bells? I'm…real tired."
I didn't mind. I looked to Leah to make sure it was alright if I spoke, and then gently, hesitantly, moved diagonally away from the wall and his shadow and into the light beside him. His hand grazed mine lightly, and I suddenly knew that he was embarrassed for how he'd behaved moments earlier. His mercurial mood swings were still in effect; we would have to talk about it tonight. When I didn't feel like screaming. I gingerly planted the plate of food in his lap and looked at the group.
"We were in the truck, driving, and then…" I didn't know how to continue for a moment; I confessed I loved him and he jumped out of the speeding truck? Jake coughed, and then saved me.
"I smelled them, and I jumped out of the truck." I looked at his face; we'd still never clarified what had happened between us in that moment.
"The moving truck," I said, and Leah's eyebrows raised while Quil began to grin. Jacob quietly coughed again, a little guiltily, and I continued. "I didn't see the rest of them—the first one I saw was…her. Victoria. She started walking towards me from the middle of the highway." I heard my voice take on the trance-like quality Jake's had several nights ago, describing the woods. Everything felt like a dream. "Jake slammed in to her and she bounced, several times, and I ran back to the truck—which is when I saw the rest of them. I was scared, but they weren't paying any attention to me, they flew right by me and headed towards Jake. So I got in the truck and swung it around towards them and—"
"—and crushed ole Vicki flat!" Quil was grinning big, and he and Embry laughed before looking abashedly over at Jake, who tossed his hair aside so they could see him grinning back. It looked like old times.
"Yeah," I smiled in spite of myself, and watched Leah watching me. Her lips were pursed tight, but her eyes crinkled just enough for me to know she was pleased. "I guess I did." I sighed then, remembering several unpleasant things at once—Victoria's words, her gruesome face, the destruction of my beloved old machine. "And then I blew up the truck while she was pinned under it." A low whistle brought my attention back to the moment at hand.
"You blew up the truck?" Leah's puzzled expression mirrored Quil and Embry's. Jake continued to grin.
"Yeah—you didn't know it was me?" I felt my confusion melting; we'd already discussed the fact that no one had really had time to update the La Push faction. "Well, it was. I jammed something in the gas tank, lit it up and ran." I realized that the tight purse of Leah's lips had loosened and she was now looking at me with a strange recognition; we can't be friends. Well, Leah and I were going to be friends now, I thought.
"Pretty brilliant strategic maneuver, Bella," she said. "Created a pyre in the middle of the fight, disposed of a vamp and wounded two more….even with the danger of being seen, it was pretty great."
"Wounded?" I looked at her.
"Yeah—that's probably what saved all of your lives. When the truck blew it critically injured two of the vampires, making the fight more even. Well, not really even, as it turned out." She grinned widely at me. "Excellent work, vamp tramp."
"Thanks," I said, and shrugged. "It was the last thing I did besides almost get killed. I realized Edward and Alice were fighting with Jake—" I put my hand on his bare thigh and felt his skin flinch before he turned to look at me, his bright dark eyes questioning, wanting, apologetic—"after I ran from the explosion in to the woods, and one of the vamps caught up with me there." I tried to recall her exact words…they had revealed more than Victoria's frenzied hissing. "She…she said that I was the hunter's mate, and that she was going to—" savor "—kill me because he'd killed hers. Her mate, I mean." I looked at Jake. "I think….I think she was talking about you."
"How do you know she wasn't talking about Cullen?" Leah didn't spare Jake's feelings, and her tone was firm and militaristic. Jake looked down again.
"I wasn't sure what she meant, at first," I mused. "She said I was unique among, you know, humans—that I belonged to three worlds." The wolves stared at me, and I felt the blood rush to my skin. "I was human, and the hunter's mate, and loved by a vampire. So…she would've just left out all of that hunter stuff, I think, if she was talking about Edward." I looked around at them. "Surely, the Cullens must have told you guys this stuff too? I mean, Edward told me they were after Jake—the halves of the pairs that survived. That's who Victoria was recruiting." We all looked at Jake again, and his face continued to study the floor.
"I didn't really understand what they meant," Leah said, and her expression was once again cloudy. "But it looks like…do vampires imprint?" She stared at me, and Quil, Embry and Jake opened their eyes wide and gaped.