If I had not felt myself burning into cinders in his arms, I would have thought I had fallen in the shower and bumped my head.
But I hadn't, and he was really here. Jacob, my Jacob, was here!
So desperate and fervent was my kiss that it took me a moment to remember that this was new: I had never kissed Jacob before. And now, my legs were wrapped around his hips and my arms locked around his neck as my naked, wet body pressed into his. He hardly pushed me away, but he was more or less unresponsive under me.
I broke our kiss and looked into his deep, brown eyes. Was he crying? Or was the water dripping from hair and falling on his face?
"Jacob, what's wrong?"
"Your eyes," he muttered softly, almost accusingly. "Why are they red again?"
I growled in my frustration as I lowered myself to the floor, picked up the sheet, and wrapped it around me.
"It's not what you think, Jacob," I answered shamefully. "Carlisle and Moira made me drink it – from a sports bottle, nonetheless. I guess Mathias was the only donor available, and they were just trying to help me get better quicker."
"Better?" he demanded, his eyes filling with concern and desperation. "Nessie, what happened? Did somebody hurt you?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, he's dead." This did not calm him in the least. Instead, he began running his fingers nervously through his short, black hair. "I mean, he died after biting me." More tense glances. "Oh, dear, I guess a lot has happened that you don't know about."
"I know we're going to war," Jacob stated. "I know that the Volturi came back for you."
"Oh, so you did meet Moira."
He returned a blank, questioning stare.
"Or not," I sighed. "Jacob listen, there's a lot to discuss. Just please, can we talk about it all later? We've been separated for so long. Oh, I still can't believe you actually did it. What put the notion into your head? Confessing to a murder you never committed?"
Jacob was taken aback by my comment. "It was the only way to protect you!"
"What makes you think I needed your protection? We would have found a way out of it. What benefit was it for you to leave me for six whole months? We've barely been apart for more than a day or two my whole life. What did you think I would do without you?"
Jacob kept his distance, but looked at me confused.
"I was more scared of what would happen if I didn't do it," he muttered apologetically. "I was more worried about what I would do… without you."
I ran into his arms again, and this time he responded in full, pulling me tightly to him in an embrace that would have crushed a human. He kissed the top of my head and stroked my cheek, pulling at the sheet at the same time closely around me.
"I did it for you," he whispered in my ear. "I did it for us."
"I know, and I love you all the more for it," I cried, covering his dampened t-shirt clad chest in butterfly kisses. "Now you're back, though, and I want to pretend it never happened. I want to just pretend you never left me, and I want you to promise to never leave me again."
He placed both his hands over my cheeks and turned my face upward to meet his gaze. The intensity burning through his brown orbs almost broke me.
"I will never leave you again. I promise." His kissed me gently, drawing his lips over mine with a reverence that only the holy should ever experience. "I love you, Renesmee, more than anything else in the world. I will never, ever leave you."
Whatever will I may have had to restrain myself evaporated in a wave of love that was almost tangible. I threw my arms around his neck and pulled myself the difference in our heights up to meet his lips. Jacob's arms encircled me and dragged my body close to his so that my feet dangled several inches off the ground. The sheet, soaked through with moisture, fell with a sloshing plop to the floor. Jacob slid his hands down my back, past my hips, and cupped each of my inner thighs to pull my legs in a wrap back around his waist. My mouth beseeched his for attention, and he answered intensely. Our knowledge of how to draw out the life from each other's lips seemed instinctive, and we exchanged nips and playful bites in turn.
Jacob's hands massaged my back side, and I felt desperately frustrated that my body was laid bare for him to peruse, while his was still selfishly fully clothed. With a quick pull and a rip, I evened the playing field a bit by tearing his t-shirt from his torso. He gave me sly smile as he walked me back towards the modest kitchenette of the cottage.
"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" he asked, pulling from my mouth for a moment in joyous contemplation.
"Only if you want me to," I answered, tilting his head back and kissing down the front of his throat. His blood, at least, held a scent that did not appeal to my taste buds, but blood was blood, and a pulse was a pulse. I felt my own pulse quicken all the more at the prospect of having his body and his blood, and worked hard to suppress the later. "I might be able to stop if you tell me to now. Otherwise you're going to have to fight me off."
"Nessie..." he moaned as his hands moved down the back of my legs still straddled around him and his mouth explored the area where my neck and body met. "There's not even a bed here."
I pulled back my face and shot him a reproachful look. "You are a wolf. I am vampire. What do we need furniture for? We'd probably just break it, anyway. Wait a minute!" I gasped, my whole body tensing stiff in his embrace. "Why isn't Edward charging in here and tackling you to the ground?"
Jacob chuckled. "Bella gave us sixty minutes of blockage time. Seeing as that was about thirty minutes ago…."
His lips curled into a devious smile as he looked down at my bare breasts and began nudging them playfully with his lips. A rush of heat ran down my spine and ignited a fire below.
"Oh, Jacob," I whimpered as my body reacted, and my hands cupped his head to pull his mouth further down over my breast. "Jake, please, I want you so much. I've dreamed of you constantly. Jacob, take me. Make love to me."
In an unexpected move, he pulled back completely, setting me gently on the counter and taking few steps back.
I felt cold and crushed. "Did I say something wrong?"
He shook his head slowly as he bit his bottom lip. He clearly had something to say, and he was clearly torn about saying it.
"I have dreamed of nothing but this for six months. And believe me, I want this, now and forever. I want you to be sure, though, that you're ready for this. Bella may be blocking him out right now, but sooner or later, whether it's tonight, tomorrow, or a week from now, he's going to know."
"Oh, Jacob, he knows how much I love you," I interrupted. "He won't hurt you. I swear, he won't."
Jacob gave small chuckle and shook his head in disbelief. "You think Eddie could hurt me? No, dear, that's not what I'm talking about."
I was perplexed. And still very naked and getting more frustrated by the moment. "Then, what?"
Jacob sighed and smiled lightly. "Renesmee, when you left, you were barely more than a child. I see you now, and you seem so grown up. You know I love you, and I've waited patiently for this day to come for so long. But, if we take this step, you have to be ready to face the consequences. You won't be a child anymore, Nessie. You're going to have to stand up to Bella, and Edward, and Carlisle, or any of them. You'll be accountable for your own actions, and accountable to yourself too."
I nodded tersely in understanding. "You're worried that I won't be able to face my parents, then? I'm not ashamed of this, Jacob. I am yours completely, and I will face the consequences of whatever decisions we make together without excuse or denial, just as long as we make them together."
He smiled lovingly at me, and I knew he understood. I had just pledged my heart and soul to him. I was his property, and he was mine. We were bound to each other in a way that neither the beasts of hell nor all the beauties of heaven could lay waste to. I threw my arms out wide and flicked the tips of my fingers coaxingly.
"Now," I said with a penetrating exhalation, "are you going to take those pants off or do I have to tie you to a tree and have my way with you?"
Sadistically, he laughed. "Aren't we traditional? I thought you pointed out the obvious? I am a wolf, you are a vampire. Is that what comes naturally to us?"
No, what came naturally was attack. Not that I had ever had the inclination to attack Jacob, and I didn't think he could ever dare to attack me. He stepped forward and swept me up into his arms in a moment. I was a little off put when instead of taking me back to the bedroom, which seemed like the appropriate course of action despite its lack of a bed, he walked us outside.
"What are you doing? Someone's going to see us!"
He kissed me to stop the words coming from my mouth. "Everyone's staying up at the house. Even the pack has cleared out for a while."
e set me on my feet just a few yards off the porch and stepped away. My confusion was steadily turning to anger.
"Jacob Black, what in the name of all creation are you doing?"
Jacob covered his eyes with his bronze hands and began steadily counting backwards from twenty. At fifteen, he paused and looked at me teasingly.
"You're not going to get too far if you don't start running."
Suddenly, I got the gist. He didn't want to just lay me on the floor of the house. That was too human. He wanted to hunt me down and claim me as his trophy. I realized then with aching need, that I wanted to be hunted.
Without another thought, I ran full speed through the drizzle and into the forest. As I did so, I heard Jacob charismatically speed up the rate of his countdown. At zero, a distant faint crack was the telltale sign that he had phased.
My instincts began to take over when I sensed that I was being pursued. My pulse raced out of control, both in irrational fear and undeniable anticipation. I took in shallow, quick breathes, surveying the air. I crossed the river (barely) in a leap, and then felt wrongly for it. I didn't want Jacob to plunge through the cold water just to get to me. I leapt back across, but the misstep had cost me precious seconds. More than his scent, I could hear his footfalls a mere thirty or forty yards away. I shifted direction and ran back up the hillside, leaving the sound of him trailing farther back. When I reached a clearing that gave me multiple choices of direction in which to bolt, I paused and surveyed the options around me, trying to determine the path that would slow me down the most and allow him to catch up with me the quickest.
The momentary delay was all he needed. His graceful, lupine figure cut through the air in my direction. I spun around in time to see the furry paws hit my shoulders and force me down to the ground. He stayed in wolf form for an instant, growling at me heatedly, before lowering his gaze and forcing himself back across the human divide.
His naked human body covered mine fully and secured it to the forest floor.
"Caught me," I whispered.
"And now, I'll never let you go," he assured me.
"Jacob, is it true that wolves mate for life?" I asked between visits to his earlobes.
"If that's how long you want me," he returned as his mouth played along my throat.
I pushed his head back and denied him access.
"No," I stated firmly. "I want you longer. I want you forever."
After our coupling, I pulled myself alongside him and laid my head on his shoulder. His arm circled around me and drew me closer.
Evening had fallen, and the rain clouds cleared for a few minutes, letting the moon in three-quarters phase to shine down on us through the disintegrating twilight. Given the overpowering sense of divine sincerity I was feeling at the moment, I was a little taken aback when Jacob began to quietly laugh.
"Well," he said as he kissed my forehead. "We didn't plan this out very well, did we?"
"What do you mean?"
"Clothes," he answered stroking my cheeks. "You don't have any."
"Neither do you," I teased.
He cast me a sideways grimace. "I can phase, you know."
I scoffed. "Well, that hardly seems fair now, does it? Well then, what to do?"
He stayed silent as he thought for moment. "We'll go close to the cottage, but you stay back in the woods a bit. I'll run inside and find you something."
"Carlisle told me he would bring me some clothes from the house when I got in the shower. Maybe they're sitting back in the bedroom."
We both sat bolt upright when the echoing of a voice from a quarter of a mile away reached us.
"Okay!" Bella's voice rang. "Time's up! You got five minutes to get back before your father sends out a search party."
"Well, screw that plan, then." Jacob laughed as he turned his head and kissed my cheek. "Time to see if you're as big a girl as you thought you were."
"What do you mean?" I asked. He eyed me knowingly. "You can't be serious! You want me to walk naked into my own house in front of my parents?"
"I told you you'd have to take responsibility for your actions," he laughed, standing up. He offered a hand to me and pulled my naked body up to his. "I'll phase and block you, you sort of crawl behind me. We'll go straight to your room. I'm sure Bella and Edward won't want to see you any more than you don't want to be seen."
"Fine!" I agreed through clenched teeth. "You're probably right. Let's just get this over with."
The tension of discomfort found my muscles again, but melted away as Jacob pulled me into his embrace again and kissed me mercilessly. My body reacted immediately, my hands traipsing about his waist line, working their way down to find him. His hands stopped mine from any further explorations.
"Not now," he cooed, stroking my hair back from my face.
"When then?" I whined. "You don't think that little tryst is going to tide me over too long do you?"
"Naughty Nessie."
I felt like a child being admonished. "Actually, I prefer Ren."
"Raunchy Ren, then."
I made to mock hit him, but he phased before I could land my fist, and took off running back toward the cottage. I was quickly on his trail, dodging trees and rocks with ease through the dark, feeling somehow more connected to the land as I ran au naturale across the landscape. Jacob stopped just short of the clearing in front of the cottage and waited for me. I could see Edward and Bella talking to someone out of sight through the front window, and saw Edward's head snap up and gaze out the window frame as we timidly approached.
"Bella, we're about to have another rutabaga moment," I heard him say silkily but sincerely. "Maybe you should, um, block me just a little longer."
Jacob had heard him too, and the wolf's head crooked to the side in curiosity.
"I'll explain later," I said, begrudging having to explain anything having to do with Mathias to him.
Bella emerged on the porch and caught a glance of Jacob and me on the edge of the clearing.
"Nessie?" she asked. "Why are you hiding?"
"Um, mom, do you think you could, um, get me some clothes or a blanket maybe?"
"Oh!" she said in realization, turning back into the house and remerging seconds later with a collection of fabric in her hands. "Jake, there are some pants here, too. Come inside as soon as you're ready."
She gracefully went back in the cottage leaving Jake and I to dress. Jacob phased back over and pulled the sweat pants quickly on. For me there was a simple full length, brown cotton dress, but no underclothes. Oh, well, I guess another shower would soon be in order anyways.
"Ready?" Jacob asked, holding out his hand to me.
I put my hand in his and pulled myself up to give him one more gentle kiss on his chin. "Ready."
He raised my hand to his lips and kissed gently. "I love you, Ren."
"I love you more, Jake."
Edward called out from inside. "Enough already. Get in here. She needs to talk to Jake."
Jacob pulled me along with him through the door and we looked across the foyer to see the four of them seated in a circle on the floor where once the piano had been: Edward, Bella, Moira, and Mathias.
Jacob pulled me closer, wrapping his arm around me possessively. Mathias looked up at me knowingly and smiled slyly. Before I could stop it, before I could control it, an image of kissing Mathias leapt to the front of my mind and crossed over our contact points and into Jacob's internal vision. I heard his breath hitch, and I tensed in preparation of his lashing out. None came. He only held me closer and kissed me gently on the crown of my head. Edward glanced quickly at us, not moving his head but shifting his eyes up only. Bella was beaming.
Moira and Mathias rose, the former tersely holding out a collection of papers to Jacob. He took them apprehensively, withdrawing his arm from around me and paging through them slowly.
"What is this?" he asked.
"It's a print out of my Wikipedia entry," Moira answered plainly. I shot her a curious look. "At least, insofar as I'm Sekhmet. I'm tired of explaining over and over who I am to wolves."
"Um," Jacob muttered, "what are all the highlights?"
"Oh, Mathias did that," she answered proudly, passing him an acknowledging grin. "Those are the things that are actually true."
Jacob looked at her perplexingly, as did I. As much as she seemed transformed in my eyes in recent days, she still had the teacher persona down. She was warm and bubbly, and much the same way I remembered her in Maine. How is she able to turn it on and off like that? One night a pleasant schoolmarm, the next a hell-bent vampire demigod?
Jacob began to mutter through the marked up document, reading aloud select phrases as he did so.
"Warrior goddess…protector of the pharaohs… led them in warfare…"
"Feeling better, Ren?" Mathias asked expectantly.
"I'm feeling splendidly," I answered a little too fervently. Edward's posture shifted uncomfortably.
"See, I knew it!" Mathias declared with a big smile, throwing his arms up in the air in a victory. "Romani blood! Strongest in all creation! It's the elixir of life, Ren, and you're welcome to have it- in moderation."
Edward mock coughed. "Mathias, maybe you shouldn't boast about the virility of your blood given current company."
"…sparkled in the sun…avenger of wrongs…. The one with bloodlust…" Jacob continued to quote. "Huh, you don't say, a bloodsucker who likes to suck blood. Well, slap me twice and call me handsome."
"Wolf, I know we have some historical tensions, but…" Moira began.
I sternly cut her off. "His name is Jacob."
"Yea, bloodsucker, Jacob," Jacob added as he continued to peruse the article.
"Now, look here…" Mathias countered. "This is a goddess you're talking to, dog."
Moira clicked her tongue. "Mathias!"
Mathias guffawed. "He started it!"
"I know her name, gypsy. It's right here in an annotated report. And see here: it says, her blood was not quelled in battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity. I call that encyclopedic bloodsucking."
"Gentlemen!" Bella exclaimed, throwing herself between Jacob and Mathias as they began a testosterone-driven stare down. "This is not the time or the place for your petty arguments. We have business to discuss."
Jacob put the papers down to his side and looked expectantly at Moira. She gave a fake cough, and stuck at her right hand formally.
"Let's start this over, shall we? How do you do Mr. Black? I'm Moira Arrashk."
"I thought you were Sekhmet?" Jacob asked condescendingly.
"I am both. If you want, you can call me Peaches and Herb, I don't care. Sekhmet is more what am I than who. I thought it might be easier for you to call me Moira. Most everyone here does."
Jacob considered the action for a moment, but finally held out his hand and shook hers.
"My goodness, you're warm," Moira exclaimed.
"It's a wolf thing," Jacob returned casually. "I guess I should say it's nice to meet you, but I think I'll hold off my opinion until I get to know you a little better."
"That's fair," Moira said. "How much do you know about our current state of affairs and what we are planning to do?"
Jacob shrugged. "Not much. I know we're going to fight the Volturi, and if that means killing any of those dumb fucks than you can count me and my pack in."
"And do you know all about Ren?" Moira continued.
Mathias muttered under his breath - pointlessly. "He knows all about her biblically given the grin."
Edward growled, and Bella gave him a reproachful stare.
"Excuse me?" I asked. "What business is that of yours?"
"None, of course."
I nodded. "That's right, so mind your manners, or I'll see what a few more chugs of your blood does for me."
Moira chuckled nervously. "Okay, kids, let's calm down before you make me upset, because I think we all know that's a very bad thing. Ren, you should show him."
"Show him?" I questioned.
"Yes, you know, whatever that thing you do is. Show Jacob what happened to us in Maine."
"I think she's talking about your mentography," Jacob added, pulling my hands up to his cheeks. "Let's do it. Any excuse to get your hands on me is fine."
Edward gave a nervous chortle. "Jacob! Please, she's still my daughter. Show a little respect to me."
"Ready?" I asked Jacob, looking deeply into his endlessly brown eyes. He nodded and perked his lips and blew me a kiss. "Don't distract me."
"Sorry."
"No, you're not."
He smiled impishly. "No, I'm not."
Pulling at mental strings of consciousness, I relaxed the images over him in quick snippets, trying to edit Mathias out from my perspective as much as possible. I showed him our first visit to Moira's house, of her telling me that my blood was poison. I showed him her revealing to us with the mosaics in the background our sorted but connected past; the anucktumai, the vampires, and wolves, and the shape shifters all products of the same genetics-bending ancients. I showed him Mathias and I watching over the security monitors as the three Volturi guard were dissuaded from their duty by Moira's quick thinking and action. Finally, I replayed the gathering a few night before, with all the vampires and Sam's pack agreeing in unison to fight the Volturi in a preemptive strike.
Jacob's breath was accelerated at the massive data download. "Whoa. Miss a little, miss a lot, I guess."
"Mr. Black, I will not offer you false hope," Moira said. "This is no scrimmage. I cannot guarantee that all your pack, or any, will survive. I believe we hold the advantage, however,and I am confident in our combined abilities to win the day. Are you with us?"
"Hell ya!" Jacob exclaimed. "Whatever it takes to keep Renesmee safe."
A burgeoning of pride arose in my chest. Not even caring if Edward would have to bite off his fingernails or leave the room in exasperation, I pressed my lips to Jacob's and thrust my tongue into his mouth.
"I didn't need to see that," Mathias muttered and twisted away. Moira gave a curious disappointed glance to him, and ran with a sigh out the front door and into the night.
"What's up with her?" I questioned to no one in particular.
Edward shot a quick look at Mathias, before turning back to me and standing up.
"They're working out some issues. Now, as for you two, we have a plane to catch tomorrow morning, so you'd better get some sleep. It's going to be a long flight, and it probably won't be that comfortable either."
"Where are we flying to?" Jacob asked, pulling me into his chest.
Mathias and Bella answered at the same time.
"Italy." "Central Europe."
Mathias looked at Bella askew. "I thought the rendezvous point was our Tuscan villa?"
Bella said, "The location has been compromised. We had to change plans."
"Compromised?" I asked suspiciously. "How did they find…. Oh. Who?"
Edward answered mournfully. "Alistair."
I swallowed back a chocked tear. "And… is he…?"
Edward simply nodded. The news of our side's first casualty came down on me hard. Jacob instinctively attempted to hold me even closer.
"So, then, where is the new rendezvous point?" Jacob questioned.
"The last place they would ever expect Sekhmet to turn up," Edward answered. "Romania."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," I muttered. Edward nodded. "I'm sure Vlad and Stefan will be all too eager to take their revenge at last to worry that the same person who led the attack against their coven will be the same leading what's left of it."
"So we hope," Bella agreed. "Now, it's late. Time for all humans, half-humans, and werewolves to get some shut eye."
