Chapter 36: Another Imprint
I woke up screaming.
My hair was a tangled mess and I was covered in a small amount of sweat.
I noticed the sheets had been kicked off the bed as well.
My nightmare was just too much for me to handle.
I carefully tried to untangle the sheet that was wrapped around my legs but I ended up landing on the floor with a thud.
Impatient, I kicked my legs like a child throwing a tantrum until the sheet came off.
Slowly, I stood up and walked out of the bedroom.
I made sure my screaming hadn't woken Billy or Charlie.
It was the last thing they needed.
Billy had a lot going on due to the fact he was an elder of the tribe and had to try and keep the boys under control.
Charlie didn't need any extra stress with his situation either.
I quietly walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed.
I sat in silence for a few minutes before I decided to try and sleep again.
The moment my eyes closed, my nightmare filled my vision.
My eyes flashed open again I sat up straight.
There was no way I was getting back to sleep.
I glanced at the alarm clock.
1:24am.
Jacob should've been back by now, surely.
I walked back down the hall and peered into his room.
His bed was empty.
It looked exactly the same as it had when I went to get my bag.
It was obvious that he had not come home yet.
I paced the bedroom floor for a moment before I walked out to the kitchen to get some hot chocolate.
I sat at the table and tried to relax.
Moments later, I felt myself drifting into unconsciousness again.
At first, everything was black.
After a moment, I could make out the silhouette of the forest.
The moonlight broke through the trees and I found myself staring into a pair of thirsty, blood red eyes.
The vampire slowly started creeping towards me but turned at the last second.
I gazed down at the ground and in front of me was the body of a grey wolf.
Clearly, they had been beaten severely but they were still alive.
I soon heard a loud howl of pain in the distance.
I found myself running towards the howl.
It was strange though as I thought I would surely trip.
I eventually broke through the overgrown forest to find my favourite russet wolf lying in the middle of the clearing.
His breathing was rapid and he was clearly on death's door step.
I watched, frozen on horror, as he took his last breath.
Again, I woke up screaming.
"Bella?" I heard the familiar, husky voice ask.
"Jake!" I cried, jumping off the chair and wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Bella, what's wrong? I could hear you screaming on the other side of the forest."
"I... I had a nightmare," I said, still crying.
"About what?"
I was hesitant to answer.
"Come on Bella, you can tell me. It's usually better to talk about these things then leave them locked up."
I sighed and looked up at him.
"You... died," I muttered, my voice breaking as more tears trailed down my cheeks.
Jacob froze for a second before his arms pulled me closer.
"Well, I didn't. I'm still here. Now, dry those beautiful brown eyes. I hate seeing you upset."
I sniffled and wiped away the tears.
"I'm surprised Charlie didn't wake up," I muttered as I glanced at his sleeping figure.
"Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't wake up all of Washington."
"Shut up, I wasn't that loud."
"Sure, sure."
I rolled my eyes and yawned.
"I think you should try to get some sleep," Jacob said as he pushed some of my hair out of my face.
I nodded and turned around.
Before I could walk away, Jacob wrapped his arms around my waist from behind me and placed his lips by my ear.
"If you need me, I'm just down the hall," he whispered before letting me go.
Once again, I nodded and walked away.
Once I was in Rachel's room, I picked up the sheet and climbed into bed.
I closed my eyes and luckily, I didn't have another nightmare.
When I woke up, I could smell eggs and bacon.
I climbed out of bed and walked out to the kitchen.
To my surprise, Jacob was at the stove.
Emily was seated at the table with a young child on her lap.
The girl couldn't be any more than two or three.
"Hey Emily, what are you doing here?" I asked, yawning.
"Sam wanted to do a quick patrol again. With the vampire that was around here last night he doesn't want me home alone so he dropped me off here."
"Pulled me out of bed just to watch her," Jacob muttered.
I laughed at his comment before walking over to Emily.
"And who is this?" I smiled as the child giggled.
"This is my niece Claire," Emily smiled as she bounced the child on her knee.
"She's adorable," I said, still smiling.
"Yes, she is. I'm not sure if she's going to look so adorable after she eats Jacob's cooking though."
"Yeah, help us all. He'll kill us!"I said, clearly joking as I couldn't hold in my laughter.
Emily and Claire started laughing as well while Jacob grumbled in the kitchen.
"I'm going to brush my hair," I said as I stood up.
I walked into the bathroom and pulled my brush out.
My hair was worse than I'd expected.
I pulled the brush through the knots for a good five minutes before my hair was straight again.
I shoved the brush back in my bag and washed my face before I walked back out to the kitchen.
I sat beside Emily just as Jacob put a few plates of food on the table.
"You know, for a guy, he can cook pretty well," I said as I began eating.
"Yeah, well he only cooked bacon and eggs. I wouldn't trust him to make a cake or muffins or any other sort of meal. He'd probably burn pancakes if we let him make them," Emily said, shrugging.
I laughed again.
We ate the rest of our breakfast in silence.
"Well, I should probably head back up to the house and start making some food for the boys. I don't want them complaining when they get back."
"I'll come help if you want," I said as I stood up.
"Are you going to come over like that?" Emily asked, eyeing my pyjamas as she picked Claire up and placed her on her hip.
"No. Let me change," I said as I quickly walked back up the hall.
I pulled on a pair of jeans, a dark blue shirt, a jacket and a pair of sneakers before I walked back out to Emily.
"Alright, let's go," Emily said as she began walking towards the door.
As I walked through the living room, Charlie began to wake up.
"Morning Dad, I'm going to Emily's."
He groaned, acknowledging me, before he began stretching to the best of his ability.
"Where's Jacob?" I asked as I followed Emily.
"He's in the car. He's going to stay with us until Sam get's back."
"Right."
We walked around the side and over to the garage.
Emily opened the back door, put Claire in her seat and climbed in as I climbed in the front.
"See, I didn't kill you," Jacob remarked as we started driving.
"A little late for that Jacob. You should've said that when we didn't die eating," Emily replied.
I laughed. "It's true Jacob, you're a little late."
He rolled his eyes but continued the short drive to Emily's.
"Alright, first of all, I think we're going to make some muffins. They guys love them," Emily said as she got Claire out of the car.
"They also seemed to love my brownies. We should make more of them as well."
"And something healthy... like fruit salad," Emily laughed.
"Oh, they'll hate that won't they," I said, laughing with her.
"Yep, but we'll make them eat it. Jared, Embry, Paul and Quil will probably be most trouble."
Emily and I got to work making the muffins and brownies.
Shortly after we started, the house was filled with a heavenly aroma of blueberries and chocolate.
I glanced over my shoulder at Claire.
Emily and I had told Jacob to keep her entertained.
Sure enough, he was doing just that.
I laughed at the sight.
Emily turned around and joined in laughing.
Claire had gotten into the flour and covered Jacob's face and hair with it.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm the flour man," Jacob said rolling his eyes.
He closed them seconds later as Claire took another handful of flour and threw it as him.
"Alright, that's enough Claire. I think Jacob is white enough," Emily said, still laughing as she picked Claire up.
"What can I do then?" she asked.
I had to admit, she spoke quite well for a two year old.
"You can help Bella and I in the kitchen,"
Emily put Clair down again before grabbing a stool and placing it beside the bench.
"You can put the fruit in the bowl. Just keep your hands away while I'm cutting," she said as Claire climbed on the stool.
She glanced at me and I walked over.
I made sure Claire kept her hands away from the cutting board until Emily moved away with the knife.
After we had finished with the fruit salad Emily and I decided to do a little more baking.
We made a few trays of biscuits and a large cake, just for something different.
Emily and I hung up our aprons and as we turned around we were hit with flour.
We glanced down at the culprit.
"Claire," Emily sighed.
I watched as Emily sat her on the bench and began dusting the flour off.
I was so busy watching them I hadn't realized Jacob had come up behind me.
I suddenly saw a puff of white fall in front of me.
"That's for laughing earlier," he laughed.
I turned around and saw his hands covered in flour.
"That's it!" I said as I pulled a handful of flour out of the bag and tossed it at him.
"Bella!" Emily shouted.
I stopped and turned to her, shocked and slightly frightened.
"That's not how you do it. You do it like this," she said as she threw more flour at Jacob.
I laughed at Jacob's face and I only laughed harder when Claire threw flour at him.
Before I knew it, the kitchen was a white mess and so were we.
"Lucky we put the food away," I said to Emily as we threw even more flour at Jacob.
He almost looked like a vampire covered in all the flour.
I shivered involuntarily and ducked before I was hit by flour.
Claire disappeared for a moment and came back with her hands wrapped around something.
"Pick me up," she whispered in my ear.
I glanced at Emily and she shrugged.
I carefully picked Claire up.
"Now take me to Jacob."
I sighed and did as she said.
I walked carefully over to him.
He had his back to us which was lucky I guess.
Seconds later, Claire lifted her arms up and smacked Jacob on the head.
It was at that point I realized she had been holding an egg.
I pressed my lips together, trying not to laugh.
I saw an evil glint in Jacob's eyes and quickly put Claire down.
Seconds later, I had chocolate icing in my hair.
"You... idiot!" I laughed.
We all gathered in the kitchen again and the flour fight continued until we were all lying on the floor laughing like maniacs.
After a few moments of laughing we heard the pack come inside.
"What the heck happened here?" I heard Jared's booming voice ask.
Emily shot up from the floor as did I.
The pack immediately burst into fits of laughter.
Emily and I glanced at each other briefly before we started throwing flour at them.
Their laughter stopped immediately and ours started again.
We looked at each of the boys but our eyes locked on Quil.
He was staring at Claire with an all too familiar look in his eyes.
A/N: Wow... longest chapter in a while hey? Did you enjoy it? Anyway... Jacob gives everyone that reviewed the last chapter cyber hugs! I think it was only one before I posted this chapter... now I'm sad... anyway, more will be up soon! Review Please!