DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Except for this overwhelming urge to fight smeyer. We got the kinda beef where I'll throw hands ON SIGHT. Except not really, because I can't afford a lawsuit.
You're all really gonna hate me for this one, folks. I'm sorry, but sometimes tragedy must strike to tell an interesting story. I'm really interested in hearing what y'all have to say about the coming plot twist. I've been agonizing over it for months; I wasn't sure if it was necessary or just plain mean. But I think it adds to the story and reinforces the way Bella has been manipulated/used by Edgeward. It's sort of hinted at in Leah's chapter, when Bella tells her about "the smolder," and how he used to get anything he wanted with it.
Ultimately, I want to encourage people to look at this story from their own point of view. But in my own personal head canon, (which, of course, this is; except I don't own any of it,) Eddie has mind-reading powers but also subtle mind-bending powers. Jake suspects this, as does Leah. It's how he got away with doing all his weird vampire-stalking of Bella in Twilight. Why am I telling you all this?
You'll just have to read and find out ;)
XXXVIII
"Jacob?" A voice whispered. "Jake, wake up, Jacob…"
Bella rose before I did. My eyes struggled to open against the blinding light of the morning.
"Jacob," Bella cooed, and I felt her lips on my nose, quick and soft and sweet.
My right arm was completely dead with sleep, but had started slowly coming back to life with a pins and needles feeling of static. Sunlight streamed through the tent, bathing the world in a bright white sheen. For a moment I thought this was another dream, or that we had been attacked by the red-headed leech in our sleep and died as lovers do – together – and so stayed as lovers do beyond the veil. Without telling it to, my body reacted accordingly, though I wouldn't have prevented it. My numb hand flopped onto her waist, pulling her into my chest.
I think I muttered her name, though sleep still held my eyes closed. It might have been more of a groan.
"Jacob," she hummed again. "Open your eyes, Jake."
My lips reached for where I thought her head would be, but I miscalculated and got a mouthful of her hair.
"Jake!" She exclaimed.
"'M teethin'," I mumbled incoherently, just as my toes curled up in a full body stretch. My arms reached up of their own accord and spread out across the tent, effectively spilling my body out of the sleeping bag. There was a tearing sound as the seam ripped apart.
"Whoo!" I exclaimed, falling over onto my back.
Bella laughed. "You're too big to be teething. And you just broke the sleeping bag, doofus."
"We won't be needing it again," I muttered, resting my cheek on the ground just a foot away from hers, my eyes still closed.
She was silent for a moment, so still she might not have been there at all.
"Tonight, the leeches will be gone," I said, opening my eyes.
Her face was sharply defined in the light bouncing off the snow that cast down in a light blue glow from the tarp. She had dark purple bags under her eyes the size of bruises, and her cheekbones cut sharply down to her jaw. The shadows made her look like a skeleton. I longed to reach out and make sure she wasn't a trick of the light.
"Jake…" she muttered, then bit her lip. For a moment, it looked like she was going to say something important, but then her face changed, and she shook her head. "We can break another sleeping bag when you come back," she whispered, turning over onto her side to face me with a devilish grin.
"I'm not gone yet," I reminded her. "C'mere, honey," I taunted. "Smell the morning breath."
She rolled her eyes. "I bet I could get you to stay here with me for the battle," she said suddenly, grabbing my hand on her waist.
"Do you?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"It has to do with your surprise."
"Does it?" In a moment of red-faced embarrassment, my voice broke.
"Mm-hmm," she hummed, hooking her knee on my hip.
"While I love where this is going," I assured her, running my hand up her thigh. "You should know that Seth is outside."
I had smelled him with my first breath full of fresh, crisp mountain air, blowing in with a musky, woodsy smell, and something else, something sweet.
"And Edward," I added through gritted teeth.
"Oh," she mouthed, shying away.
"But they're not bothering me," I told her quickly.
"Yeah, I know," she replied, rolling her eyes again. "I wouldn't have woken you up if I didn't have to, anyway." She ran a thumb underneath my eye, cupping her palm to my cheekbone. "Seth has been pacing outside for the past hour. I think he wants to talk to you."
"He would've howled if it was something important."
Right on cue, Seth howled.
I groaned. "Really, man?" I shouted.
Seth whined outside, scratching the tent with one of his paws.
"Fine," I muttered, balling up my knees and sitting upright, not bothering to tie my hair back.
"Be careful," Bella whispered.
I hesitated on the zipper.
"Always am."
I grinned, looking up at her for a moment, trying to memorize the way she looked in the morning light, perched on her gray cloud of blankets, like an angel riding atop a great thundercloud. I wanted to remember how the dawn lit her creamy skin crimson beneath her cheekbones; how her mouth slanted up to return my smile – the way she pushed her hair behind her ear. I wanted to be able to picture it all.
It might be the last image I'd ever have of her.
Seth panted outside, waiting for me to undo the zipper.
Without another word, I left.
Edward wasn't far, but not in sight, and as I shifted I wondered if he could still read our thoughts when he couldn't see us. He had been impressed by the distance we could manage, and the night before he revealed that he couldn't hear a thought unless you were thinking it.
So he didn't hear everything.
Geez, you think YOU hate it? Leah grumbled.
Sam and the others are getting ready in the clearing, Seth said importantly.
Come, Jacob, Sam summoned, and I was powerless to disobey. My paws were already flying over the forest floor, speeding towards the clearing.
"If I could," Edward Cullen said to Seth, and I focused in on what he was seeing.
Edward had appeared on the edge of the campsite, and now he lingered by the tent, his hands up in surrender.
Hell no, I thought. Seth, you have permission to kill him.
Seth, you do NOT have permission to kill him, Sam commanded, because Seth was getting ready to pounce.
"I just want to talk to Bella," Edward sighed, his shoulders sagging miserably.
For a second, I felt bad for him. Then I remembered the truce was over.
Don't let him in the tent, I warned Seth. She doesn't have to talk to him.
"Ahh," the vampire said, raising a finger in the air with a twisted smile. "But if she wants to talk to me, you couldn't be opposed, could you?"
The fur on the back of my neck slowly stood up, until each individual hair was fully erect, snarling even as I barreled closer to Sam and the clearing, unable to turn around with a direct order hanging over my head. I strained against it, but the psychic said there was more trouble on the way… that we'd be cutting it close…
"Bella?" Edward called gently, his voice hesitant and trembling.
Don't say anything, I pleaded with her, though I knew she couldn't hear me.
We have to stay focused, Jacob, Sam reminded me. The psychic says the Vultures are coming – we have to do this quickly, and get out as fast as we can.
Do we trust her? I wondered idly.
I guess we'll see, Sam sighed.
Embry and Quil were sparring in the field. Paul and Jared were racing the perimeter with Leah pulling ahead of them. Brady and Collin were running the worn trails around the treaty line, checking in on the cliffs, where they could see a little boat out in the distance. Seth was listening to something flutter in the tent – a frantic heartbeat.
She says the trail will work, and the young leeches will split into two groups once they catch the scent of the others. Our job is to stop the ambush before it happens.
He was so weary in that moment, utterly bone-tired, as if he'd been carrying a ton of bricks on his back with a bare plank of wood, and he'd walked for miles looking for water, and finally found a sign telling him where to find a river. Did he believe the sign? Could he trust the river ran clear? Could it really be that easy?
We'll see what they do, he finally said, but we'll be prepared for any possibility. The girls went to Seattle this morning?
Left right before Billy drove by with Charlie, Leah confirmed. I had to duck and hide from the windows.
Good, Sam nodded, so they're fishing, then?
Out on the water right now, I think, Colin said, sniffing out at the sea as it crashed into the cliffs.
Everything's ready, then, Sam sighed again. Now we wait.
I was only half paying attention to Sam.
Bella had emerged from the tent, wearing a black sweatshirt I thought looked familiar. She peered around Seth at Edward, eyes curious.
"What's going on, Edward?"
The leech smiled, showing off a full set of dazzling white pearls, his skin shimmering almost identically to how the snow fractured the sunlight all around them, throwing rainbows on the bright white backdrop like it was a canvas.
"You wanted him to stay with you," the leech said, in a low, velvety voice. "I offer myself, in his stead."
Oh, that son of a –
"I don't understand," Bella said, blinking.
Don't say it, you filthy bloodsucker, I threatened. Or I swear on my life, I'll rip you limb from limb.
Edward smiled, almost looking abashed. "I want you to know that I would be more than willing to take his place," he said, looking up at her through his eyelashes.
"What are you saying?" She breathed, completely frozen – a deer in the headlights.
"Bella, when I left you, it was the worst decision I have ever made in my entire existence," the stupid, irritating, disgusting bloodsucker began, "and if I live for eternity I shall never make such an egregious mistake again, because I will be in love with you until the cliffs have turned to sand and the sea overtakes the land, and when I burn in hell, I will be thinking of you, the love I lost."
He sounded like an esteemed actor reciting Shakespeare – dramatic and phony.
"I should no longer love you, though," he continued, staring morosely at the ground. "And I shouldn't be doing this. I'm about to be more selfish than anyone has any right to be, but I cannot bear to live in a world where you don't love me. So, say you want me to stay with you," he begged. "Ask me to stay with you and I'll be at your beck and call for eternity. Or, if you truly don't care for me the way I care for you – if I have caused you too much pain, it would be better to end it all now, wouldn't it?" He chuckled humorlessly, staring down at his feet.
Bella seemed utterly dumbfounded, standing with her mouth wide open, completely speechless. I was wondering where the leech got the goddamn nerve –
"I've complicated things, it seems," he continued. "But it doesn't change how much I care for you. Isabella, I can no longer live without you – so tell me to leave, or keep me as your own. The choice is yours, my love."
"Edward," Bella breathed, clutching at her chest the way she used to.
"I know how to redeem myself. I'll sacrifice myself, for you, my one and only love," the parasite purred. "There are plenty of ways to die in battle, and Alice can't see because of the wolves. If you don't want me here, as a complication between you and Jacob, I will willingly toss my body onto the pyre – I'll even light the match! It will be the one selfless thing I've done in my entire existence, to make up for all the other times."
I'm gonna kill that filthy, reeking, repulsive –
Jacob, STAY!
My spine trembled, torn in two. The majority of me wanted to go rip that bloodsucker limb from limb, but the other, smaller, more rational portion of me still had to listen to Sam. The two parts battled with each other while Bella regained her ability to speak.
"Oh, no, Edward! No, no, no, no," she choked out in horror. "No, Edward, no. Please, no." Her hands began to tremble.
"What's the difference, Bella? This will only make it more convenient for everyone. You won't even have to lift a finger."
"No!" Her voice got louder. "No, Edward! I won't let you!"
"How will you stop me?" he taunted lightly, smiling to take the sting out of his tone.
"Edward, I'm begging you. Stay with me." Her knees looked like they were about to give out.
He laughed lightly, shaking his head. "For fifteen minutes while I miss a good fight, only so you can run away with the dog once you know I'm safe again? Absolutely not."
"I won't run away. I've changed my mind. We'll work something out, Edward. There's always a compromise. Don't go!"
"You're lying."
"I'm not. You know what a terrible liar I am. Look in my eyes. I'll stay if you do."
His face hardened as he examined her face.
"Forever?"
Bella gaped for a moment, her jaw moving mechanically up and down without making any sound.
"Please," she finally gasped, wild, turbulent eyes bouncing back and forth between Edward and Seth.
"That's what I thought," he said, his face becoming completely smooth and blank for a fraction of a second. Then he smiled like he had a secret.
"I love you, Bella," he murmured.
"I love you too, Edward," she whispered, lips quivering.
My heart sank down to the earth's core.
He smiled again, like a magician about to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
"Not as much as I love you," he said, his voice softer than silk.
He turned to walk away, and my muscles tensed, realizing I had been pacing the length of the clearing so ardently that I'd managed to wear out a little trail straight across, cutting the land into two sections. On the other side, the rest of the Cullens had appeared, and from the look on Alice's face, she had no idea what was going on with her brother. The empath had his eyes fixed on me, like he was concentrating very hard on something.
I snarled, jumping onto the side of the clearing where the rest of the pack was standing, tense and erect.
"Anything!" Seth heard Bella cry, her voice strangled. "Anything you want, Edward. Just don't do this!"
I returned to pacing.
Edward paused, turning slowly on his heel. "I don't think you really mean that."
"Stay," Bella begged, still frozen to the spot.
He shook his head. "No, I'm going," he said, then paused, tilting his head as if deciding on something. "But I could leave it to fate."
"What do you mean?" She choked.
"I don't have to do anything deliberate – I could just fight for my family and let the chips fall where they may." He shrugged. "If you could convince me you really did want me to come back – more than you wanted me to do the selfless thing."
"How?" She whispered, fingers shaking.
"Kiss me," the leech said.
I howled.
Let him go, Leah pleaded on my behalf.
I was past words. Plenty of books had already described jealousy – in so many ways, in so many forms; in flowery ways that made me cringe and in slasher-killer ways that made me laugh; with passion and with colors and with big words I had to look up in the dictionary. But nothing could have prepared me for feeling so sad and angry at the same time.
I was angry all the time, so that was nothing new. But I was surprised by the sadness – that was something I hadn't expected. It felt like someone reached down my throat and pulled my stomach out through my mouth when I realized he had just played her like a fiddle, and now she was putty in his hands.
Either way, I was out of commission at the moment, so Leah fought with Sam while Bella stood, eyes round as dinner plates, looking like someone had just punched her in the gut.
"Ask me, Bella. He can't hurt me if it's what you want." Edward's eyes tilted down to meet hers. He had appeared half a foot away from her in the blink of an eye, one of his hands reaching out as if to touch her, but hesitating an inch away from her skin.
I was ten feet in the mud.
The worst part, the real cherry on top, was knowing I could have just stayed in the damn tent.
For an agonizingly slow five seconds, Bella nodded, and then finally said, "Kiss me, Edward."
Stop watching, Seth, Sam growled.
I howled again, scratching the ground.
Suddenly, as if my howl had signaled them, there was the unmistakable scent of new leeches, wafting down the mountain with the morning fog.
Seth howled stridently outside the tent. Bella clung to his fur.
"What's wrong?" she demanded, shaking Seth's shoulder.
The repugnant, stupid, and ridiculously good-looking leech had left as quickly as he had appeared, hearing the thoughts of the pack as they smelled the young leeches and leaving Bella a crumpled mess on the ground. If I had been able to feel anything, I might have reacted to that, but I slipped willingly – almost relieved – into the instinctual plural mind of a wolf pack on the hunt.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked again, fingers twisting in Seth's fur.
It's not fair, Seth whined, a great wad of saliva falling from his jowls into the dirt of the campsite. I can fight, too.
Shut up, Leah commanded.
In the trees, Sam said urgently. Out of sight.
They're at the end of the trail, Embry reported, already in place. They're splitting up now – just like the psychic said.
Sam took us around to head off the ambush party just as the first hoard of the undead got to the clearing. Embry was disappointed that they weren't hissing like vampires did in films. Quil noticed the biggest of the Cullens grab one of the newborns and snap its spine in half over his knee, grinning broadly from ear to ear.
The second group was getting ready in the brush, not paying enough attention to their surroundings. They hadn't heard us yet, or at least they were pretending not to. We could hear them whispering to each other, passing around a familiar red flannel.
"I've been smelling this thing for so long I think I can taste it," said a vaguely familiar tall girl.
"Ang, I love you, but you'll have to tear me off to get a piece of my meal," said a shorter boy next to her, breathing in the scent deeply.
They were an unorganized group, milling away from each other in little clumps of ones and twos, but there was one who buzzed around them methodically, like he was counting. He kept muttering things to the others.
"Whatever you do, don't let the girl escape," he commented as he fluttered by the ones with the flannel.
I growled, the sound vibrating so low I wasn't sure anyone would hear, but then one of the leeches turned their heads sharply in my direction.
Before the bloodsucker had time to realize what he was looking at, Leah had her teeth in its neck, tackling it to the ground. Sam jumped, too, and with a screeching hiss like nails on a chalkboard they were finishing it off.
Paul and I moved at the same time to the closest one. The others crouched down low in defensive stances, feinting back as they watched us with fearful trepidation. Jared leaped forward and separated the tall girl from her shorter friend. With a great snarl, Embry and Quil leaped onto a leech who was built like a barrel, taking him down with a resounding thud that shook the ground. Leah crawled closer to the remaining vampires, herding them towards the clearing like sheep to the slaughter.
As I ripped the head off what looked like a life-sized barbie doll, I heard Alice's sharp voice cut into the shrill mechanic scraping.
"Bella!" She yelled, coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the clearing, eyes linked with Edward.
My breathing cut off just as Paul ripped the leech's arm out of its socket.
Then Seth smelled it – the redhead, with one other.
Oh, no, no, no, I chanted, as if that would stop it from happening
And then my feet were flying over the ground, the wind screaming in my ears.
I wasn't alone. The mind-reading leech whom I hated to the very depths of my soul was on my heels. But I hardly even registered him. My mind was focused on the girl Seth was looking at, the one with thick brown hair and honest, trusting eyes that were sweeter than chocolate.
"What is it, Seth?" She asked, her voice shaking like a leaf as it flutters to the ground.
That was when I crashed through the trees and into the small cliff-top clearing, landing in front of Bella.
Seth and I thought together for a moment, not using words, but understanding better than if we had.
Go, Seth!
He wheeled around on his heel to take my place in the battle down the mountain.
I nudged Bella against the sheer cliff face as I turned to face Edward.
After this, no more truces, I thought, snarling.
We were going to have to fight the red-headed leech and whoever was with her. Edward would undoubtedly be involved, despite my objections, since he was here and had nothing else to do but stand there and sparkle.
Might as well make yourself useful, I growled.
He nodded.
Bella tangled her fingers in my fur, shoving her face in my neck, sobbing like a widow. I pushed her away with my nose, a sting of rejection piercing my heart like an injection of adrenaline. She put her hands on both sides of my face, holding my muzzle in her palms.
It was like I'd never left her embrace. We were back in the tent, blue sunlight slanting in from the east – back in my bed at Billy's house, back in her bedroom in the middle of the night, back in the movie theater, back in the garage, back to the day she brought the bikes – she was still Bella. I was still Jake.
And we were still two parts of one whole.
Even if she loved the bloodsucker. Even if she let him trick her and kiss her and hell, even if she ran off with him and left me in the dust, she would always be my Bella, and I would always be her Jake.
"Who?" Bella whispered, her eyes fixed on mine, shattering the thin air.
"Victoria," Edward spat next to me. "She's not alone. She crossed my scent, following the newborns in to watch – she never meant to fight with them. She made a spur-of-the-moment decision to follow my scent, guessing that you would be wherever I was."
A flurry of movement in the far-off trees caught my attention, and my body shifted automatically in front of Bella, putting myself between the red-head and her prey.
I'd like to see you try, I thought bitterly, as a real-life nightmare stalked out from the black shadows of the forest.
A/N: Ahh! The note up at the top was already really long and I wanted to mention a few more things before I left y'all with this massive cliffhanger XD. Firstly, shout-out to NeedMoreZzz's yet again for being the best beta ever and putting up with my random, awkward notes. Secondly, thank you to everyone who has commented with their thoughts and constructive criticism. As soon as all the chapters are posted I'll update them with corrections. Lastly, but certainly not least, I hope y'all are staying safe as things reopen and start getting back to a "new normal."