Hey.
This chapter is in two parts. You'll understand once you start reading. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: My ownage is microscopic. Only the plot.
Jacob's POV
"What happened?!" I demanded as soon as everyone was settled in the living room.
Carmen tried to answer me from her spot on Eleazar's lap, but all that came out of her mouth was a strangled sob. Tanya was also in no position to answer me. She was still clinging on to Irina, shaking slightly.
Eleazar, seeing he was the only one not crying, explained, "We don't really know."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Irina put in. She was just confused about the whole thing as I was.
Eleazar looked regretful, like somehow this was all his fault. He looked at Carmen, then at Tanya. Finally, he started talking. "Well, the game was on today. You know, the NBA playoffs. So I was watching that, and Kate walked by and told me she was going outside to read a book or something. I heard her, but I wasn't really paying attention." He stopped for a minute.
"Go on," Irina prodded, almost impatient.
Eleazar continued, "Kate went outside. And you know how she gets," He directed at Irina, "She stays out there for hours. So I wasn't really looking for her or anything. I figured she'd come in when she was ready." He paused.
But one look at Irina's fierce expression got him going again. "It had only been about thirty minutes. I heard something outside, but I thought you guys had gotten home," he explained to Irina and me. "Kate was talking to a man and a woman. Or maybe it was a girl," he added.
Apparently Eleazar was telling the story too slow, because Tanya cut in. "Then the doorbell rang!" Her voice broke, stopping her from continuing.
Eleazar started again. Faster this time. "We all thought it was the strangest thing. But I turned the TV off and answered the door. It was Jane, from the Volturi. She said she was looking for someone. But she never said who. She was in a hurry to leave too, after we told Irina wasn't here. We don't know who she was looking for, maybe Irina."
"Me," I whispered, horrorstruck.
Every head snapped to look at me. "W-w-what makes you think that, Jacob?" Carmen stuttered after a minute.
"This." I reached into my blue-jean's pocket and pulled out the note.
Tanya grabbed it from me as soon as I held it up. It almost ripped in half, she pulled it away so hard. Her eyes went from anguished to furious in the time it took to read it.
"HOW DARE THEY?!" she roared, standing up and thrusting the note at Eleazar. It fluttered in the air a moment, while we all stared at Tanya. But Eleazar recovered himself and caught it.
He and Carmen read it together. Their expressions of horror matched. Carmen quickly looked at me, her hand covering her mouth. She didn't have to speak, her eyes said it all.
Irina looked a bit left out; everyone had read the note except her. So Carmen quickly handed it to her. We all looked at Irina, waiting for her reaction.
Her face was expressionless, it betrayed no emotion while she quickly scanned the note. But I could see it in her eyes. She was past outraged. She looked murderous. Literally.
Irina turned towards me. "I'm calling Alice."
"ALICE!" Tanya squealed doing a little dance. I swear, that woman doesn't have an attention span. Didn't she remember that her sister, Kate, was kidnapped.
"What? Why?" I stuttered. Alice?
"We need to know what's happening to Kate. Alice can tell us that. And we need the Cullens' help." Irina had already gotten out her phone and was dialing. Alice must have picked up quickly, because Irina started talking almost right away. From the sounds of it, Alice had already known what was going on before Irina even explained it.
I stopped paying attention as soon as Irina told us Kate was okay. Too much was going on for me to be able to consentrate. Couldn't the Volturi just leave us alone? I hadn't done anything wrong…
But I had, I remember in horror. My brain went into overload. When I had gone to save Irina… I had brought my dad out of the Volturi's castle. He was human. He shouldn't know about vampires. I wasn't supposed to take a human away from them. My dad was the other hostage. I was sure of it. It made sense. They would track the human first, with Demetri's power, since it didn't work on me. Then they would track Irina, it all made perfect sense. But why kidnap Kate?
But since the rest of Irina's family didn't know we had even been to the Volturi, I kept my thoughts to myself.
Irina hung up the cell phone. "They're on their way."
Third Person
After Mr. Black had dropped the bombshell, things had quieted down in the hotel room. He had gone back to sleep angry without saying anything more, while Kate just sat on the bed and Demetri stood there awkwardly. He had gotten a call saying Jane was going back to Italy to get back up just in case Jacob Black tried something.
But after a while, Kate realized something was wrong with the human. His heart was beating too slowly and his blood smelled… wrong. They way it smelled made her think he might be diabetic. When Carlisle had lived with them, she had learned a lot from him. Kate had found it very interesting how Carlisle could sometimes tell what was wrong with a human with his sense of smell. This human's blood sugar smelled off.
"He needs medicine," Kate told Demetri after realizing that this human might not wake up from his sleep. "We have to go to the pharmacy. Please?" she added, seeing Demetri's questioning gaze.
"Why? What's wrong with him?" Demetri asked softly, but still firmly. Kate stood up from the bed.
"He's diabetic," she explained. Demetri's questioning look made her finish. "I can smell it in his blood."
Demetri moved to stand in front of the door, blocking her way. "I'm not supposed to let you leave." He looked sheepish.
"He could die!" Kate yelled. Or as close to a yell as Kate could get. "Don't you care about that?"
"Yeah, I do, but…"
"Then let's go," Kate stated more confidently, pushing past him and opening the door. Reluctantly he followed her down the hallway, locking the door behind him.
He had to run a bit to keep up with her while they went down the stairs. It could very easily be that she was tricking him, trying to get out of the hotel room. But she seemed trustworthy, and he trusted her. A little.
Once they were outside in the cold air with clouds covering the sky, Demetri took Kate's hand in his. She looked up at him questioningly.
"So you don't run away," he explained. But the way his hand was softly wrapped around hers suggested otherwise.
Sure… Kate didn't reply. Instead, she led him towards the only supermarket in town. How are we going to get the insulin? Kate wondered to herself. You need a prescription.
Why do I care so much? He was just another human. But he's Jacob's dad, she argued back with herself. She remembered from Carlisle that if diabetics didn't get their insulin, they went into a coma. And then died. How long had Mr. Black gone without it?
After walking at a normal pace for a minute or two, they made it into the store. The change in the air was awful for Kate. Inside, the air was stuffy and filled with the scent of humans, completely the opposite of the outside air. Her hand tightened around Demetri's, so he wouldn't be able to escape her grasp either. He wasn't 'vegetarian'.
Apparently, he got the message. "I do have control over myself." His voice was low, too quiet for human ears.
"What?" she questioned, walking towards the food section of the store. Mr. Black would need to eat when he got up.
"I may not have the same 'diet' as your family, but that doesn't mean I can't control myself."
They fell silent after that, Kate looking at the different drinks. Coke, Sunkist, Pepsi. Don't humans drink water anymore? she thought, walking down the seemingly endless soda aisle. Finally she found the water bottles, grabbing a couple and handing them to Demetri.
Food was a whole other affair. Kate didn't know what to get the human. Humans were like vampires in a way, their preferences differed. So she ended up getting him a fresh loaf of bread and a few slices of meat from the deli. She would make him a sandwich. Humans like those, don't they? Demetri just walked with her silently the whole time, following wherever she went.
Kate automatically knew that she wouldn't be able to get the medicine herself. She would have to lie to get it from over the counter. And lying was something she couldn't do. It wasn't that she didn't want to lie sometimes, she couldn't. Whenever she tried to fib, the untrue words died in her throat.
So she turned to Demetri. They were in one of the aisles on their way to the checkout. "Demetri, I need you to do me a favor." Her voice was hushed. "Can you go up to the counter and ask whoever is there for insulin? It's the medicine diabetics take," she explained. "Technically you need a prescription, but just tell them you lost it, or it's an emergency."
He looked at her for a moment. "Why can't you do it?"
"Um…" She had to tell the truth. Or say nothing. "…I can't lie. It's not possible for me." There, she said it. Against her better judgement.
He stared at her, shocked for a minute or two, before smirking at something. Then he nodded. "Okay, I'll go to the pharmacy while you buy all the food." He got out his wallet and handed her two five dollar bills. He seemed to remember something. "If you promise not to run away," he added quickly.
The thought of going home was tempting, but… "I won't run away," Kate promised. "I need to take care of Mr. Black. Since apparently you can't seem to remember humans need to eat." But the back of her mind was telling that was only half the reason she was staying with Demetri.
He handed her the two water bottles (she barely hold them and the food), and walked away, towards the back of the store. Kate went the opposite directions, to the cash registers. She could have sworn she was getting stared at the whole way there.
It was even worse at the front. All the male cashiers, were silently begging her to come to their lane. Isn't there any other women to look at? Kate wondered, dumping the food and water at the closest station. She almost wished she hadn't. The cashier looked about her age, maybe twenty-two. The guy wasn't even ringing up her stuff, he just stared at her.
"Ahem," she coughed, causing him to jump and start scanning her food. He was sweating, she could smell it. But instead of smelling appetizing, he just smelled odd. Too much cologne. He was momentarily distracted from looking at her, trying to find the bar code on the water bottle.
He's cute, she decided, looking at his pale blue eyes and dark blonde hair. He wasn't as muscular as Eleazar (or Demetri), but he was pretty close. His eyes suddenly glanced up at her, successfully catching her staring.
"So, what's your name?" he asked Kate, while she handed him the money. She couldn't help noticing where he was staring (it wasn't her eyes). Her earlier thoughts of him being cute vanished. Replaced with annoyance.
"Katrina," she answered quietly. She wanted to pick up her grocery bag and walk away. Anything to get away from him.
But the cashier wasn't giving up. He handed her the change and receipt, his hands lingering on hers longer than necessary. "I'm Nick. I was thinking maybe we could -,"
Strong arms slid around her, hugging her from behind. "Let me take that for you, honey," Demetri said loudly, grabbing the bag full of food from Nick. Kate smiled, thankful that the cashier hadn't got to finish his sentence.
"Goodbye." She waved sweetly to the boy, while Demetri held her other hand. They walked out the double doors, not waiting for a response.
"Thanks," Kate whispered to Demetri. She smiled at him. It was the first time she had smiled directly at him, and Demetri couldn't help but smile back.
"My pleasure." He gave her hand a squeeze. "Is this what you needed?" he asked, showing her the case marked Insulin on one side.
"I think so. How'd you get it?"
"I can be persuasive when I want to be," he answered softly. Kate felt jealousy for a moment, imagining him being persuasive with someone else. What is wrong with me? she thought after a moment. I don't even know him.
Kate let those thoughts go, grabbing the case from Demetri. She couldn't help but feel dread when she opened it and saw that there was a needle and bottle of liquid. She would have to be the one to inject this into Mr. Black's blood stream since he obviously couldn't do it on his own.
By the time they made it back to the hotel, she was practically hyper-ventilating, trying to take in as much fresh air as possible. This wasn't going to be easy.
This is the longest chapter I've ever written. I'm so tired. Sorry if the diabetic stuff in it isn't one hundred percent factual. I'm not diabetic, so I don't know. If anyone knows more about it, please feel free to correct me.
IMPORTANT: Billy is diabetic. Stephenie Meyer said so. It's on the Twilight Lexicon, Personal Correspondence or something like that. I don't know, I just know she said it somewhere.
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: Two things here people. One, am I the only one who stopped getting Alerts for this story? I don't even get Review Alerts anymore, and I don't know why. Is it just me? Two, I'M GOING ON VACATION!! Very important. I'm really sorry but I won't be able to update for a couple weeks. I'll TRY and get one more chapter in before I go. But if I disappear for a few weeks, please don't kill me. It's summer after all. I live in Texas and I'm going to Minnesota. If you know U.S. geography, you must realize how awful it's going to be to drive there in a freakin' car! Just saying :)
Until next time…
