Chapter Eight
When I return, the seating arrangement has changed a bit. Em is still sitting with his parents and Rose still has Micky in her lap. Jackson is snuggled up next to Em and is conversing with Uncle Jasper to his right.
Embry is seated between Jasper and Alice, and Aunt Alice is chatting with Ang who is sitting with Jake on the far side from where they had been before. Old Quil has gone home, likely because it's getting late in the evening. With Harry out of commission and Billy in transition, the council no longer has a presence around the fire. Perhaps that's why the vibe seems less serious and more playful.
My first instinct is to go sit with my guys, but Em's dad beckons me over to sit with them, so I make my way to the empty chair beside him. Rose reluctantly offers me McCarty and I smile and ask, "Is he asleep?"
She nods.
I shake my head. "Keep him for now, I don't wanna wake him up."
She beams from ear to ear. "Thank you, Bella." She whispers. I nod and smile.
"So, how'd it go with the Clearwaters?" Em's dad asks me.
"It was...strange. I think there's something in the water." I laugh softly.
"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's odd. Like...you see that?" I say, gesturing to Embry, cuddled up between Alice and Jasper. "Well, something like that seems to be happening with most of the wolves."
"It is?" he puzzles.
"Yep." I nod. "Just wait, you'll see."
"Huh. Interesting."
"Very." I nod.
Jackson snaps his fingers from his spot across the fire. "Bells, I have to tell you something! While you were gone...Jake and I sorta messed up, big time. We were horsing around as wolves in the backyard at Dads' and we didn't realize Rachel had pulled up out front..."
"Oh fuck," I worry.
"Yeah, she sorta had a mega freak out about all the supernatural stuff and took off. Like...not just went back to campus...but is currently driving to Seattle to catch a flight to Hawaii. She's moving in with Becca, Bells. Dads are gonna flip," Jacks worries, wringing his hands.
"Okay, damnnn. It's not your fault though, Babe. If Rach doesn't wanna be a part of this world, that's not on you. If she hadn't seen you as wolves, she would have found out some other way eventually and the result would be the same. I'm sure Dads aren't gonna be mad at you. They might be disappointed that she left, but again, not your fault," I assure them.
"We really did try to convince her to stay," Jake adds. "She wasn't having any of it."
I smile. "I'm sure you both did your very best. What can I say? Our sisters are stubborn."
Another howl rings out from the woods a mile or two away.
"Guess I better find out who just joined the ranks." Jacks sighs, stripping, and phasing.
"Who do you think it is?" I ask Jake.
"I dunno. Could be anybody." He shrugs.
Soon, Jackson phases back, his brow furrowed in obvious frustration.
"What's the matter?" I puzzle.
"That guy has a serious chip on his shoulder." He huffs. "Always has, probably always will."
"What, are you telling me there is someone on this earth Jasper Black doesn't get along with?" Jake smirks. "This I gotta see!" He phases to find out who it is.
"Jacks...who is it?" I frown.
"Paul, dammit. Freakin' Paul Lahote."
I wince.
"That makes a little more sense now. No one gets along with Paul." I laugh sardonically.
"Challenge accepted!" Em's dad beams, rubbing his hands together as if someone just offered him a spot in some video game championship.
Jake phases back. "You do realize he heard all that through the mindlink, right? He's also on his way over here right now."
Jackson shrugs. "He knows what I think of him. I dunno how I'm supposed to lead somebody who doesn't respect me, though."
"You'll just have to give him somethin' to respect then." Uncle Jasper suggests wisely.
"How do I do that?" Jacks frowns.
"Treat him much better than he deserves. And be genuine about it. Don't pretend to like him, but show him ample kindness and compassion anyway. And if all else fails...try seeing him through his mama's eyes. It's pretty hard to hate a man if you can put yourself in his mama's shoes." Uncle Jasper grins.
"Hey, thanks! That's pretty good advice." Jacks nods, just as Paul runs up in wolf form.
Aunt Alice zooms over to him with a pair of shorts to put on. Logic would indicate that he put them on right away once he phases back. Clearly, Paul is illogical, though, because instead of getting dressed, he struts straight up to the bonfire, naked.
"Hello, All. Nice little party you got goin' here. Guess I missed my invitation. Must've gotten lost in the mail." He shrugs, grabbing a pair of campfire prongs and the wieners out of the cooler and spearing several hotdogs at once.
"You should probably put some shorts on, Paul. Wouldn't wanna accidentally roast the wrong wienie by mistake!" Jake snickers.
"That would be a tragic waste of such a beautiful appendage," Em's dad says.
Everyone seems surprised and Paul raises an eyebrow. "Did you just compliment my dick, Dude?"
He shrugs. "I could have been talking about dicks in general."
"S'okay. I know I have a beautiful dick." Paul smirks.
"And the ego to match," Rose interjects.
Seeing the writings on the wall pretty clearly, I take the opportunity to scoop McCarty up from Rose and I move to go sit between Jacks and Em. If Em's parents want to have an in-depth discussion about Paul's phallus, that's fine, but it doesn't mean I want me or my son getting caught in the middle of it.
Thankfully, Uncle Jasper is tuning his guitar and seemingly aims to provide everyone with a much-needed distraction in the form of music. Although, when the first song ends up being Triad by Jefferson Airplane, I have to wonder if distraction is the intention, or if it might be more aptly described as musical commentary.
"Seriously, what's in the water around here?" I wonder later on, to no one in particular.
"What do you mean?" Jackson asks me.
"Well, we went from being the only throuple around to one of many over the course of a day," I clarify.
"What can I say? We make it look fun." Em winks.
"You're not weirded out about that whole thing?" I confirm, gesturing to the empty seats belonging to his parents who at some point in the last hour or so have disappeared into the woods with Paul and his 'beautiful phallus', blech.
"My parents have a long sordid history of conveniently forgetting I'm in the room for large periods of time. So trust me when I say a little blatant flirting is not the worst I've been subjected to." Em shrugs.
Uncle Jasper chuckles. "Yeahhh, those two have a bad habit of forgetting anyone else is ever in the room. I remember when Alice and I first joined the family, it took a while for Alice to get used to the frequency of X-rated scenes in the living room. I was used to it though. Before that, I lived with my brother Peter and his wife Charlotte and they were much the same way."
"You have a brother?" Jackson puzzles.
"Venom brother, I should clarify. Turned by the same woman. They prefer to drink from humans and that type of lifestyle is harder to sustain living in one place for any length of time, so they live as nomads. We still keep in touch and visit fairly often, we just don't live together anymore," Uncle Jasper explains.
"When's the last time they visited?" I wonder, knowing that Jackson, as our resident history buff, would probably love to meet them.
Uncle Jasper thinks on it for a minute. "It has been a while. Maybe we oughta invite them to stop by."
He whispers something to Alice and Embry very softly but I catch the phrase "Ready to go public?" and the accompanying nods.
"Lemme go make a phone call, then." He beams, pulling out his phone and wandering off down the beach.
Jackson looks worried.
"S'up, Babe?"
He sighs. "I'm not sure how good an idea it is having human drinking vampires on the Rez. I mean, even without the treaty, our mandate is still to protect the people. Aunt Alice, can I ask what sort of humans they eat?"
Alice smiles sincerely, seeming to understand and respect his concern. "Typically, they would eat violent criminals, elderly folk with failing health, people with debilitating, terminal illnesses, etc. Basically, they look for situations where death would be a mercy, either to the individual or to those around them.
"They usually only dine in large cities, where it is easier for a disappearance to go undiscovered. And because human blood sustains a vampire much longer than animal blood does, they don't have to hunt nearly as often as we do," she informs us.
"Oh, okay." Jackson nods. "I gotta admit that's far less creepy than I had envisioned. I mean, of course, I figured they'd be somewhat humane. Keep it quick and painless, no dining on children, that sort of thing, I expected. But to be so very methodical in their choices and extremely cognizant of the impact…
"Well, I guess I had it in my head that drinking animal blood was the only ethical choice a vampire could make. But it seems to me now, I was wrong about that," Jacks admits.
"There you go throwing around words like cognizant on me," Jacob smirks from across the bonfire. "Maybe this whole mindlink thing will make me smarter by association."
Jackson laughs and shakes his head. "You're plenty smart, Jakey, you just don't always apply yourself."
"Yeah, well, I have a feeling I'd better start." He grins, gesturing to Angela who has fallen sound asleep in his lap. "I can already tell this one is a veritable genius."
"See? If you weren't smart you wouldn't be using words like veritable." I snicker.
Jake shrugs. "Ang used it earlier. I'm just borrowing her brilliance."
"Well, of all the people you could emulate I'd say you certainly picked a good one." I beam, happy that my best friend and little brother found each other. They already seem to go together like peanut butter and jam. And after her recent heartbreak, a sweet kid like Jake is a refreshing change of pace.
After chatting with Jake a while longer, he starts dozing off and is soon sleeping as soundly as Angela.
Sometime after that, Micky stirs in my lap and Jackson reaches for him. I hand him over gladly, knowing Jacks could get called away again at any moment, the next time another wolf phases. It's going to be a while before he has much downtime from these new obligations.
Speaking of new obligations, I turn to Em and ask, "Tell me what we can expect when Dads wake up. Everyone keeps saying my control is exceptional for a newborn. So if that is the case...what are most newborns like?"
Em sighs. "Bloodthirsty. Singularly focused on and obsessed with obtaining human blood at all costs. Or so I've heard. Aunt Alice can probably shed some more light on it. I've never been a newborn, and the only one I've known so far is you, so I'm not the best person to ask. All I know is what I've heard from Uncle Jasper's war stories." Em shrugs.
"War stories?" I puzzle, turning to Aunt Alice. "Like, from when he was in the Civil War?"
"He has some of those stories as well, yes." She nods. "But he was human during that war. Emmy is talking about the Southern Vampire Wars which came after. I'll let Jasper fill you in, at some point, since they aren't my stories to tell. But, in the South, new vampires are created as soldiers due to the increased strength and speed they have during the first year after their change.
"They are more animalistic and less human because no one helps them regain their humanity. So they are essentially feral and follow their basal instincts for blood and sex and destruction," Aunt Alice explains.
"Oh wow. So, if Dads were to wake up as typical newborns, they would be more like that?" I frown.
"To an extent, maybe, but waking up and being surrounded by loving family and friends has a much different effect on a person than waking up amidst a bloodthirsty war," Alice reasons. "Besides, I've seen their awakening and I don't think we need to be too worried."
"Oh yeah, you can see the future!" I remember.
"Yes, but not the wolves' future. Only humans and vampires. So in your dads' case, I can see their first few moments as vampires, but it disappears pretty quickly, due to the presence of a wolf," Aunt Alice tells me.
"Leah," I realize.
Alice nods. "I think her presence there is probably permanent," she says gently. Likely unsure of how I'll take that news.
I smile and nod. "Yeah, I thought it might be."
"It's odd," Aunt Alice muses. "there seems to be a wolf for every vampire couple, doesn't there?"
I laugh, glancing at Embry who is holding her hand. "Yep, there really does."
Uncle Jasper returns from his phone call and looks very happy. "They're gonna come visit. They'll be here tomorrow. Or should I say today, since it's after midnight."
"Oh yeah, I guess we should probably all get to bed soon, hey? I'm surprisingly not tired, though. Like, at all. It's weird." I shrug.
"Oh shit, yeah, by the way...you don't sleep anymore, Bells," Em smirks. "Like, as in, you no longer need sleep as a vampire."
"Wait...really?" I ask, wondering if he's joking.
"Really. As a hybrid, I only need like four hours a day, but as a vampire...you never have to sleep again." He beams.
"That's why you don't mind doing night duty with McCarty? Because you don't need as much sleep?" I confirm.
"Yep. Sorry for misleading you about that one." He pouts apologetically.
"Naw, I get it. There was a lot you couldn't very well disclose," I say, letting him off the hook. "But um, now that you can disclose...is there anything else we oughta know?"
Em grins. "Well, you haven't asked me my true age."
"I'm kinda scared to." I laugh. "Billy said Ephraim's Journals mentioned you, so you were alive when the treaty was made."
"Only just. I was born in January of 1936. We moved to Forks in the autumn of the same year. My growth rate was astronomical though, so I looked like a much older child," Em explains.
"That would make you...seventy-two, right?" Jacks calculates.
"Yep. Sorry you're saddled with such an old man." Em pouts adorably.
"More like, privileged to have such a font of wisdom and experience in our midst." Jackson smiles, putting a more positive spin on it.
I nod in agreement. "Yeah, exactly. And how many people can know without a shadow of a doubt that no matter how old their boyfriend gets...they're still going to find him attractive?"
Em laughs, clearly relieved. "So, you're not creeped out? Either of you?" He confirms.
"Nope, not in the slightest," I vow.
"Not at all," Jackson assures him.
"Oh thank God. I was afraid you might run away screaming. Any more questions?" Em asks, glad to be able to change the subject.
"I have one, but it's rather delicate and I'm not sure if I should ask it. I'm also not sure if you would even know the answer," I admit.
"There is nothing you can't ask me, Bells. I hope you both feel like you can ask me anything," Em insists.
"Okay, I'll admit, I'm kind of curious about your birth mother. Billy told us a little bit, but it just served to raise more questions…" I venture carefully, testing the waters.
"Yeah. That's a hard one to talk about, but I don't mind. Okay, so in the spring of 1935, my dad became a vampire. His control wasn't great, so the family chartered a plane to South America, to an island Grandpa Carlisle had purchased for Grandma Esme.
"There, they learned from their friends, the Amazon coven about a vampire named Joham who had created hybrids. You see...vampire males are still fertile, even though vampire females can't conceive. So with enough self-control, a vampire male can impregnate a human female.
"Armed with that info, and knowing how very much my mom wanted to be a mother, my dad enlisted Grandpa Carlisle's help in mastering his control. Dad went with him on every medical call for three months straight, until he was so composed that he could be surrounded by bleeding humans and not lose it.
"After that, they just needed to find a dying, willing, human surrogate, which was tough, for a few reasons. She had to be willing to make a baby the old fashioned way since back then, the technology for IVF didn't exist. She had to be terminally ill because no human woman has ever survived giving birth to a hybrid. And yet she had to be strong enough to survive to the end of the pregnancy.
"After a couple of months of non-stop searching, they found their candidate. Not only was she willing, able, and not long for this world, but miraculously, she closely resembled my mom. That's why even though I mostly look like my dad, I also have this kick-ass blond hair, just like my mom.
"Anyway, I'm not privy to the more intimate details of my conception and have no desire to be, but obviously, everything went smoothly and I came into the world just after the new year.
"Watching my birth mother die was the hardest thing my parents ever experienced and that is saying a lot, given what they've both been through in their lives. That's why I don't have any siblings. They knew they couldn't put anyone else through that. The human body isn't made to create vampires," Emmett tells us quietly.
"She must have been an amazing girl, to create a boy as wonderful as you," I whisper, kissing his hand as I twine our fingers together.
"My thoughts exactly." Jackson smiles gently.
Eventually, the introspective silence is interrupted by the cries of a hungry Micky. "Speaking of wonderful boys...I'm gonna go make a bottle for ours." Em beams, heading back to the kitchen at Dads' to prepare some formula.
"How much longer, before they wake up?" I ask Aunt Alice, referring to our soon to be vampire dads.
"The sun will be up soon, making this day two. They'll be awake shortly after the moon comes up on the evening of day three," she informs us.
"But in a few hours, the best distraction in the world arrives," Uncle Jasper reminds us. "When Pete and Char get here."
"Oh yeah, your brother and his wife are coming," I acknowledge with a nod. "Maybe if we're gonna be entertaining guests, the wolves and humans should get a few hours solid sleep before they arrive," I suggest, looking pointedly at Jackson who hasn't slept in a very, very long time.
"Hmmn, yeah, I guess that might be a good idea and Jake has been conked out for a few hours, so maybe I can have him relieve me while I grab some shut-eye." Jacks concedes.
"Good idea. And maybe when you head inside you can use your Alpha leadership skills or whatever to convince Leah to go to sleep too. Dads won't be up for quite a while and she's gonna need some rest in the meantime," I suggest.
"Okay, will do." He nods, kissing Em and me on our foreheads and Micky on both cheeks.
"Bella, do you have space at your dads' for Embry to crash out too?" Aunt Alice asks softly, gesturing to the sleepy wolf with his head in her lap.
I nod. "Yeah, with Rachel gone now, he can sleep in her room," I offer. "He knows which one it is."
"Cool, thanks, Bella." Alice beams and proceeds to gently wake Embry up and walk with him to the house while Jacks wakes Jake and asks him to take over on new wolf welcoming duty.
Jake carries Ang to the house and deposits her in his room before making himself a thermos of coffee and rejoining us by the fireside where Uncle Jasper plays soft melodies for us on the guitar for the next few hours.