Sakura02: Don't worry! Everything will be okay in the end!
Thanks: Noble Korhedron, XoXMaximumculleNXoX, and Live-Laugh-Love-Till-The-End for reviewing!
Katherine paced back and forth nervously. She was still wearing her dress for the wedding, though now it was completely wrinkled. Mascara ran down her cheeks from where she'd been crying and her hair was a complete mess. All in all, she looked like a wreck.
"Katherine, why don't you go rest in your room." Esme said quietly. They'd had to cancel the wedding and clear out all the vampire guest before anything bad happened due to all the blood Matthew had spat up. Alice was currently dealing with a distraught Juliet downstairs and Edward was calming Bella down. Carlisle was in his and Esme's room with the unconscious Matthew. The rest of the Cullen family was dealing with keeping the guest calm.
"Not until I get to see my brother." Katherine said, her voice cracking. She looked up when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She sighed when she saw it was Jacob and plopped herself down on a nearby couch.
Jacob gave Esme a nervous smile. "Alice wanted me to come get you. She said I wasn't helping calm Juliet down."
Esme gave a small smile. "Of course." She went gracefully and quietly down the stairs, leaving Jacob and Katherine alone.
Katherine eyed Jacob wearily as he approached her and sat beside her on the couch. "I'm armed."
"When are you not?" Jacob said lightly. He sighed when he saw just how distraught Katherine was. "Matthew will be okay. Carlisle will take care of him."
"Vampires shouldn't be vomiting up blood." Katherine said softly. "Vampires shouldn't be unconscious, or sweating, or running a fever. Something is wrong with my brother and I don't know what it is. What if I can't do anything for him?"
Jacob reached out with a hesitant hand. He was surprised when Katherine leaned into his side. "We'll save Matthew. I won't let anything happen to him."
Katherine sniffled. She felt warm and safe when Jacob put his arm over her shoulder, though that could have been in large part due to the fact that he was so warm. She curled up closer to him. "Since when do werewolves care about what happens to vampires?"
Jacob shifted nervously. "It's not really for his sake that I want to make sure he lives. One, I know it would completely destroy you if your brother died. Two, he's Juliet's imprint. If he dies, she'll die. So, since the two girls most important to me would be crushed if he died, I won't let him die."
"You werewolves are so weird with your imprinting thing." Katherine murmured. She debated on whether or not she should smack Jacob when he began playing with her hair. She decided not to, only because it was helping calm her down. "None of this means I accept this imprint crap your trying to pull on me."
Jacob snorted. "Of course not. You wouldn't be you if you didn't put up a fight about it. Besides, it makes it much more fun."
Katherine pulled away from Jacob and glared at him. "I have high heels on and I know how to use them as a weapon. You better watch yourself."
Juliet rushed up the stairs before Jacob could say anything. She looked over at the closed door and her face fell. "Carlisle hasn't come out yet?"
"Not yet." Jacob answered. He held out his free arm to Juliet and smiled when she clambered up beside him on the couch. "You doing okay?"
Juliet shook her head. "It feels like my heart is getting twisted and my stomach hurts. I want to see Matthew."
Carlisle stepped out of the room right at that moment. He looked at the three sitting outside the room. "Let me get the others together and we can talk. He's awake, but he shouldn't have too many visitors. One person can go in there for right now."
Katherine was about to get up, but then nestled herself back in Jacob's side. "Juliet, go see Matthew. I know he'll probably want to see you the most right now."
Juliet's eyes lit up. She leaned over and kissed Katherine's cheek before scrambling off the couch and into Carlisle and Esme's room. She idly wondered why vampires would need a bed since they didn't sleep. That thought was quickly pushed to the side when she saw a conscious Matthew laying in said bed. "Matthew!"
Matthew smiled weakly when Juliet climbed into the bed beside him. He snuggled against her warm body and sighed happily. He'd been feeling cold for the past thirty minutes and having Juliet's warm body next to him was a relief. "Are you okay, Juliet?"
"I'm fine!" Juliet said immediately. "What about you? What'd Carlisle say? You're gonna be okay now, right?" She frowned at Matthew's silence. "Right, Matthew?"
"Carlisle says I'm dying." Matthew said softly. "He says my Hunter blood is reacting negatively to the vampire venom."
"Why is it happening now, though?" Juliet protested, hugging Matthew closer to her. "You've been a vampire for almost two years now!"
Matthew hugged Juliet back and buried his face in her hair. His acute sense of smell was slightly weaker now. He could still smell the werewolf scent on Juliet, but it was almost completely covered by her own scent. "I don't know…Carlisle didn't know either." He blinked when Juliet held his face between her two hands.
"I'll find a way to save you, Matthew." Juliet promised, a fire in her brown eyes. "I won't let you die."
Matthew nodded slowly. He rested his head against Juliet's chest. "I'm tired, Juliet. Can we sleep for a while?"
Juliet nodded sadly. Vampires weren't supposed to be tired. "Yeah." She ran her fingers through Matthew's red hair and watched him fall asleep. It had always been Matthew that had watched her sleep, protecting her from anything that might try and hurt her. Now, it was her turn to do the same for Matthew.
"What do you mean there's nothing you can do?" Katherine hissed. She would've stood up, but Jacob had a firm grip around her shoulder which prevented her from doing so.
Carlisle stood in the middle of the living room with the rest of the Cullens, Bella, and Seth all sitting around. "There's never been a case where a hunter was turned into a vampire. There's no way to reverse becoming a vampire, and we can't stop Matthew's hunter blood from fighting the venom. He may only have a few more months to live."
"I don't understand." Bella said quietly. "What do you all mean by 'hunter blood'?"
"You can't just decide one day that you want to be a hunter." Katherine explained. "Hunters have been around as long as vampires have. Nobody knows what it is, but there's something in our genes that give us sharper senses. We may not be able to hear as well as werewolf, nor are we as strong as vampires, but we are what you would call 'superhuman'. We can do things that other humans can't. If I really wanted to, I could rip off a vampire's head with my own two hands."
Bella was quiet for a moment. "There has to be something we can do. We can't just let Matthew die."
Carlisle nodded slowly. "I will continue to research anything that may help. We will not lose Matthew without a fight."
"We'll help." Jacob declared, surprising everyone in the room. "It'll take some convincing, but I can get Sam and the others to help find a cure. If Matthew dies, Juliet will die as well. That alone should convince Sam to lend his help."
Edward shot Jacob a grateful smile. "Thank you, Jacob."
Jacob shrugged and stood up. "I'll get Juliet and we'll head back to La Push. I'll call as soon as I have an answer from Sam." He rushed up the stairs to get his little niece. When he opened the door to Carlisle and Esme's room, he found her sound asleep on the bed with Matthew. He sighed, closed the door, and went back downstairs. "Would it be too much of a bother if she stayed here the night? She's not going to want to leave him right now, and I'm not going to be the one that tries to separate her from her imprint."
"Of course." Esme said.
"Let's go, Seth." Jacob followed the younger werewolf to the front door. He was stopped from leaving the house by a hand grabbing his arm. He looked over his shoulder and grinned. "What's up?"
Katherine released his arm and crossed her arms over her chest. "I just wanted to thank you for offering to help. Also…" She bit her lip, debating whether or not to continue. "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting. I'm not saying I'm willing to buy into this whole imprint crap, but you're not as bad as I thought you were."
"That's pretty good, coming from you." Jacob teased. Before Katherine could react, he planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "We'll find a way to save your brother."
Katherine stood in the doorway and watched Seth and Jacob disappear into the line of trees. She rolled her eyes when she heard the sound of wolves howling. She'd have to remember to punch Jacob next time she saw him. She didn't need him getting all full of himself. With a sigh, she closed the door and made her way upstairs to check on her little brother and Juliet.
