Cerise waited at home for Jacob to come home. An hour passed, then two. She got up and paced around a little, an anxious Lightning watching her. She looked at him.
"Something's happened. I know it." She said to him.
He bellowed softly to her.
"I should go look for him." She said, grabbing her keys and a jacket.
She went out and locked the door. She ran to her car and turned it, praying it would turn over on the first try. Her luck was in, it did and it roared to life. She shifted the gears into reverse and turned around. She flew down the hill in the dark, hoping that if anyone or anything was in the road, they would see her coming and get out the way. She drove up the main road of Forks, knowing she must have been exceeding the limit. She didn't care. She had to find him. She stopped at the pizza place and went in.
"No I haven't seen him since he called." Jared said.
His shift was over and he was just about to leave. Cerise pulled him aside.
"Is anyone patrolling tonight?" she asked him.
He smiled, very similar to Jake.
"No, we're taking a break for a few hours." He said looking at her.
"Listen I have to go, Kim's waiting for me. Here's your pizza." He said, handing her the three pizzas.
She grabbed it and ran to her car. She opened the back door and put them roughly in the back.
"I'm sure everything's okay." He said, walking past her, towards his car.
"We'll see." She said, getting in and rushing off towards the Reservation.
She drove quietly, the silence nearly killing her. She shook her head and she hit the sand road to the Rez and turned on the music. She hoped the classical music would calm her. Her luck had just run out. They were playing Linkin Park that night. She saw a pair of red lights up ahead and slowed down. If Jake knew how fast she was going on this road, she wouldn't have to worry about having an accident. She stopped behind the car. The headlights caught the car in the beam. It was a red Rabbit. She got out and walked up to it. The headlights were on, and so was the radio. 'Numb' was playing now. She looked at the ground. There had been a struggle and she wondered who was stupid enough, or strong enough to take on a young werewolf. She followed the tracks with her eyes and saw they led into the forest. It was completely quiet, except for the music blaring from the Rabbit. Suddenly, she heard a bloodcurdling scream. A male screaming, in pain. She didn't even think twice and ran off into the forest, leaving both cars lights on, and her Audi running. She ran and ran until she got to a small clearing. In the centre was an old tree, with Jacob chained to it, a meter up, his feet dangling off the ground.
"JAKE!" she shouted and ran to him.
She touched the cold metal chain. The links were huge, something they would use to pull a jumbo jet. One chain ran across face, pinning him to the tree.
"Get out of here." He wheezed, unable to look at her.
She looked up at him. He had long cuts all along his body. She saw that his clothes were lying in a pile closely. The cuts were deep, and he wasn't healing.
"Jake, why aren't you healing?" she asked, shaking the chains.
He screamed again. She let go and look at his flesh under the chains. He was bruised black and yellow, a sickening colour on his gorgeous russet skin.
"Get away! Run!" he shouted.
She stepped back. There was something very wrong. He was getting very angry, but he wasn't shaking, wasn't phasing.
"Jacob?" she said, putting her hand on his skin.
It was normal temperature. She gasped and pulled her hand back.
"Quite amazing, isn't it?" someone else said from the shadows of the woods.
Cerise turned around and looked for the source.
"Who's there?" she asked into the woods.
A white man stepped out of the shadows. He seemed to glow in the dark. He stepped closer to them Cerise blinked twice and recognised the man.
"Johan Von Leeson?" she asked, walking towards him.
"No stop." Jacob wheezed.
She stopped and looked at Jacob. He looked at her as well as he could.
"He's a vampire." He added.
She looked at Jacob then back at the black hair man.
"Vampire?" she asked.
"You sure?" she asked him again.
"I can smell him a mile away." Jacob said, balling up his fists.
"Run Cerise. Get as far away as possible." He said as the vampire named Johan walked closer to them.
She stepped back and hit someone in the chest. She turned around and saw three other men behind her. They looked like the vampire that attacked her, tall, tanned and handsome in some odd way. She stepped back, but then turned her back to Jacob, to see vampires both sides of her and him.
"Leave us alone." She said to them, her voice trembling.
Why hadn't she told Jared to get Sam and the others? They burst out laughing. Before she could blink, one had grabbed from behind and pinned her arms to her sides. He picked her up and carried her forward into the woods. He had walked a few meters then turned her around. She was watching as the moved closer to Jacob.
"Leave him alone!" she shouted loudly at them.
They ignored her and she saw one of the tanned vampires pull out a knife. It was silver, about five inches long and glinted in the moonlight. He smiled sadistically as he pressed the sharp edge to Jake's chest, running it down his torso. She thought about the myths about werewolves and silver. It could kill them. But Jake wasn't like them, maybe it wouldn't be any different. He screamed out in pain. His face twisted into an excruciating grimace as the blood ran down his chest.
"Jake!" she shouted at them.
Her vision blurred as she felt the tears welling up. She wriggled and wormed, looking for a way out of the iron bars that held her arms to the sides. Cerise closed her eyes to push out the tears and turned her head away. They walked closer and licked the blood off him. She heard him scream again and she felt the pain he should have felt. Why was no one coming, surely they had heard this by now? The pack must be on their way. She heard the lapping up of blood and their lips clattering together as they licked them. She looked at them and saw them about to cut him again.
"Stop it, take me!" she shouted at them.
They stopped and Jacob looked at her. He knew what a woman who loved her tribe had once done to save her family and tribe. Was Cerise about to do the same thing?
"Leave him alone, he can't taste too good, but me," She smiled evilly at them.
The looked at each other and nodded. The turned away from Jacob and walked towards her.
"No need for the knife now." The one behind her said, licking her neck.
"Mmm, vanilla." He added, turning her around.
He still pinned her arms to her side. He bent down to bite her and bent her head back as far she could without breaking her back.
"No, leave her, kill me!" Jacob tried to distract them.
She heard something snap. More like break. Like a wall that had been standing for centuries, crack and fall to earth, shattering. The vampires heard it to. They stopped and stepped back. They looked confused, nearly frightened. They looked at the white vampire and he smiled. The one holding Cerise dropped her and stepped back. She fell to her knees, grabbing her head and screaming in unadulterated agony.
"Cerise?" she heard Jacob whisper.
He was so far away, how she could hear him. A bright light came surging through her skin. It was golden white, and soon others followed. Soon, the whole forest lit up in the blinding white light. Jacob gazed at the light. He could see in it that Cerise had stood up and thrown her head back. He thought that it had been snapped it was so far back. Her feet lifted off the ground and she levitated up and she floated there for a few seconds. The light faded, and the sound of deafening sound of cracking stopped. She floated back down to earth and Jacob sniffed the air. She smelt different. Like her scent was now ten times stronger than it was before. She smelt sweet, but not as sweet as the vampires. He stared as she stood motionless in the ring of vampires. The one, who was holding her, stepped forward and touched her. Her eyes shot open and she looked at him. She lifted her right hand and slapped him with the back of her hand, sending him flying into a nearby tree, snapping it in half. While she stared at him writhing in pain, anger dripping from every part of her attitude, another one walked up behind her.
"Behind you!" Jacob shouted just as he put his hand on her shoulder.
She reached back, not taking her eyes off the first vampire, and grabbed the others hand. Jacob heard the bones in his hand breaking as she flipped him over and he fell to the ground in front of her, face first. She walked up behind him, and put he foot between his shoulder blades, and wrenched his arms back. The sound of his shoulders breaking filled the forest. She looked up at the remaining vampires.
"Now," she said, turning her neck as if getting rid of a crick as she threw her eyes across the group.
"Who's next?" she asked, looking at white, black haired man.
He smiled and clapped his hands.
"Welcome back, your highness." He said, walking up to her.
"I thought I would never see you again." He said, taking hold of her hand kissing it. He stood up and looked at her. She looked just like Cerise, tall, dark haired, but she had an air of confidence about her. She acted like she was royalty.
"You have hunted down a member of the royal family." She hissed at him, venom dripping from every word.
They all looked at Jacob and one ran to release him from his chain. He dropped to the ground and steadied himself against the tree. The three Egyptians fell to their knees, begging for forgiveness. Even the one she had nearly dismembered. The white man bowed gracefully to her.
"My apologies, we had no idea." He said.
"YOU HAD EVERY IDEA!" she shouted to them.
The three Egyptians trembled with what seemed like fear. Jacob looked around and stumbled towards her. She walked past the white man and helped Jacob.
"You okay?" she asked sweetly.
He nodded as she held him up. She turned to face the others.
"If you ever come back to Quileute land, I will personally kill you." She hissed and for the first time, the white man looked scared.
"Or maybe I will let my husband's pack deal with you. They need a good hunt every now and then." She whispered.
"They won't phase when I'm around." Johan said confidently.
Cerise smiled at him.
"You have obviously forgotten how strong my magic is. If I send the werewolves after you, you won't stand a chance." She hissed in a hypnotic kind of chant.
Jacob looked at her. She was not even a little bit afraid of these monsters. Victory glinted in her eyes, even though they stood meters away from them. The Egyptian vampires stood up and ran off into the woods. Jacob knew now to send the pack after them, without the white man around them.
"Consider yourself warned, Duke." She said the title with such venom, it stung.
"Of course, your majesty." He said, slipping off into the forest.
They stood there for a few seconds just to make sure they were gone. She bent her head forward and breathed in deeply. She lifted her head and looked at Jacob.
"Reese?" he asked.
She smiled sweetly at him.
"It's me." She said.
She put her hand on his stomach and helped him to the car. He limped slowly to the car and she put him into her car. Then she went over to his car switched off the lights and music. Rolled up the windows, and took the keys out on the ignition. She locked it and came back to her car, getting in. Jacob sniffed her. She smelt normal now.
"I know, I stink." She laughed at him.
"No, you smell great." He said softly and slowly, before falling over into her lap.
She looked at him and hurried to start the car and turned around. She flew down the dark road, onto the tar road and into Forks. She imagined a werewolf showing up at the ER would be a little weird, so she drove him home. As she stopped outside her house, the rest of the pack was there, waiting for them. When they saw her coming, they got up and walked towards the car. She got out and sighed a great sigh of relief. Sam saw Jacob lying on the seat, unconscious.
"What happened?" he asked, pulling him out and handing him to the other members of the pack.
They carried him in.
"Vampires. Four of them." She said, walking after Jacob.
They carried him up into the room and laid him down on the bed.
"Paul, his clothes are somewhere in the wood. Can you go get them for me?" she asked the tall man to her right.
"Sure, be right back." He said, running out the room.
They stood and watched as the wounds healed and the red welts left behind stared angrily at them on his skin.
"He shouldn't have got hurt this bad." Sam said to them.
"The one vampire, he has the ability to stop other magical powers. He couldn't phase, not even heal himself." Cerise explained.
Jared and Embry looked at each other, and then Quil spoke out.
"How did you get out?" he asked.
She looked up at him.
"No idea." She said to them.
She knew they wouldn't believe her, even though they lived in their own little fairytale.
"He's tired, let's go. And I have the feeling we have some hunting to do." Sam said, walking out the room.
The others followed. Seth looked at Cerise and Leah spoke up.
"Call if you need us. I'll be listening." She smiled at Cerise.
"Thanks." She replied.
They left and she head Paul coming up the stairs. He came in and put the clothes on the table.
"There was a lot of blood." He said.
"A lot of it is his." She said, stroking the angry welts.
"Take care of him." He said, walking out.
She stayed up and watched him. His breathing was erratic but it slowed after an hour. He lay there, calmly, sleeping like nothing had happened. His skin had a sickly glow to it. He had lost a lot of blood. She wiped the dry blood off his body with wet cloth, careful not to press to hard. The bruises were still slightly visible. She heard the door being knocked on. She got up and closed the bedroom door. She walked down the stairs and saw a silver Volvo standing in the driveway. She wondered who that was when she opened the door.
A couple stood there. She was slightly shorter than Cerise with dark hair and eyes. Her skin was as pale as the moonlight. She was beautiful, but she looked fragile, breakable. He was very handsome, illegally so, with the same colour skin. His bronze hair flapped in the cold breeze.
"Hello" Cerise said, looking at the beautiful couple.
"Does Jacob Black live here?" the woman asked.
Her voice sounded like chimes. The sound was very calming.
"Yes, but he's not well. I'm his wife, can I help you?" she asked, wanting to slam the door shut, but something told her it was okay.
She smelt the air as it blew past them into her face. She looked at them in horror.
