Moonlight
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
A/N-thank you very much to everyone who kindly reviewed the last chapter.
Chapter Twenty-Four-Alpha Blood
The Atearas house was on the north side of the reservation, back behind the general store that was run and owned by the family. The house had a familiar layout to Jacob's but was three times the size. Bella had hardly spoken on the journey there; she was completely terrified since the latest revelation. The thought that some of James' venom remained trapped in the scar tissue on her left wrist was sickening.
The scar had become a narrow thread of silver that glowed in the weak light. It itched constantly, and ached abominably since Jacob had touched it. He held her other hand as he drove the Rabbit, doing his best to comfort her, but even his solid and dependable presence wasn't enough to soothe her frazzled nerves right now.
As they parked up outside the house, they saw someone walking toward it. Even from behind Bella was sure it was Quil. Jacob was right, he was much bigger than the last time she had seen him. He was wide and his short hair was hidden beneath a baseball cap.
"Damn." Jacob muttered. "I was hoping he wouldn't be home. He's supposed to be working a double shift at the store right now."
Quil looked up when he saw the Volkswagen passing him. His face was bleak, brooding, his forehead creased with worry. However, when he saw Jacob in the driver's seat his expression turned surly. "Hey, Jacob!" He yelled, beginning to run after the car. "You still ignoring me! I won't let you!"
"Jake, you have to stop." Bella glanced over her shoulder as Quil was left behind in the dust.
Jacob was tense, his eyes clouded with worry. "I can't." He sounded choked. "Sam's order…. he warned me to stay away from Quil. I can already feel myself wanting to pull away in the opposite direction. Dammit!" He hit the steering wheel in frustration.
"I didn't think about that." Bella murmured. "There has to be some way…." She glanced in the rear-view mirror. Quil had stopped running, his head was hanging low and he was breathing heavily. "Jake, stop the car."
"Bella, I don't…." Jacob looked at her pleadingly.
"Jake, I know its difficult. But he looks so miserable. Remember how you felt. We should at least acknowledge him." Bella reminded him.
"You are so selfless." Jacob shook his head, a small smile taking over from the troubled look on his face. "You've got your own shit to deal with and are still worrying about others."
Bella managed a weak smile in response as she stroked the angry scar on her wrist. "I'm not selfless. I'm selfish. I'm using Quil to distract myself from my problems. It helps to focus on something else."
Jacob shook his head. "You could never be selfish, Bella, honey." He said as he slowed the car down to almost a crawl, allowing Quil to catch up to them.
It didn't take long for Quil to close the gap. Once he saw that Jacob had slowed down, he jogged over to the Rabbit and rapped sharply on the passenger window. Bella quickly rolled it down. "Hi, Quil…. Are you okay?"
"Oh, hey, Bella." Quil greeted her dully. His eyes shifted to Jacob. "So, you do actually hang out with other people beside Sam Uley and his goons. How come your girlfriend gets a free pass and I don't?" He accused.
"Don't do this, Quil." Jacob said uneasily. "Not in front of Bella."
"When then?" Quil demanded. His hands curled into fists at his sides. "I saw you and Embry the other day." He revealed. "I called out to you-you ignored me, like always. You just turned and disappeared into the trees. I know Sam and his crew were somewhere around. Why did you let him get to you, Jacob?"
Bella looked over at Jacob in concern. Fine tremors were running up and down his arms. He was trying his best to resist Sam's order, but it was clearly having an affect on him. She reached out and placed her hand on the arm closest to her. Almost at once the shaking ceased.
Bella breathed a sigh of relief as she returned her attention to Quil. "You're wrong about everything, Quil. It's not what you think. There is no gang."
Quil stared at her. "You know about that?"
Bella nodded. "Jake told me."
"Whatever he told you was probably bullshit." Quil said resentfully, his voice low and rough. "He never leaves Sam's side. That's why I'm so surprised to see you with him. You should watch your back, Bella. Who knows what he's involved in now?" His eyes narrowed. "Is it drugs, Jacob? Are you and Embry- "
"Shut up, Quil!" Jacob's teeth were gritted together making the words coming out of his mouth a little distorted. "How dare you even suggest that. It has nothing to do with drugs. If you want answers than ask your grandfather."
"Yeah, right. You know that my grandfather is on the council with your dad. According to them Sam Uley is the best thing that ever happened to this place, as far as he's concerned." Quil's mouth turned down as he stared at Jacob for a prolonged moment. "I don't understand you. You didn't want to be a part of this…cult."
Jacob grimaced, the pain of fighting Sam's order and fighting with one of his best friends at the same time was proving too much for him. "Talk to your grandfather again, Quil. Make him explain things to you. I can't…." His voice suddenly cut off as if his airways were choking him.
"Jake, are you alright?" Bella whispered to him urgently.
"I need to leave." Jacob whispered back; his eyes reflected his misery.
"Then let's go." Bella said hastily. She glanced out of the window one last time at Quil. "You should do what Jacob says and try again with your grandfather, Quil. Make it clear to him just how much this is upsetting you. We've got to go now. Goodbye and good luck."
As soon as she had rolled her window shut, Jacob slammed the Rabbit into reverse before doing a complete one eighty and speeding off in the opposite direction.
Jacob swung into the parking lot leading to First beach and parked up. He left the Rabbit's engine idling. As he stepped out of the car, the heavens broke to release a torrent of rain. The downpour was so heavy that to be caught unawares meant being drenched to the skin. Each drop was as large as a cartoon tear and they fell like gravity had been turned up a notch.
Bella followed Jacob out of the car. Water washed over her skin so strongly that it felt as if she was in the flow of a river rather than a rain shower, leaving her gasping with the intensity of it. She blinked furiously in a vain attempt to keep the water droplets out of her eyes as she jogged over to his side.
"Careful, Jake. Easy. You need to keep calm."
"Yeah." Jacob panted. "Calm." He shook his head back and forth quickly. After a moment, only his hands were shaking.
"I know seeing Quil was hard…and with Sam's order…." Bella sighed. "You okay?"
"Yeah, almost. Tell me something else. Give me something else to think about, please." Jacob was completely tormented that not only had he let her down by failing to make contact with the tribal elder, but that he'd also let one of his best friends down by not being able to tell him the truth.
"What do you want to know?"
"I don't know." Jacob had his eyes closed, concentrating. "Tell me more about the Cullens. The extra stuff. We'll have more to tell Old Quil when we see him."
"Will it be safe to try again with Quil hanging around?" Bella asked cautiously. "Seeing you again might set him off."
"We'll be more careful next time. So, did any of the other Cullens have…. extra talents? Like the mind reading?"
Bella hesitated a second. She found it confronting talking about the Cullens. She was still so angry with them-Edward had assured her that he had got all of the venom out of her system. Carlisle had backed him up with his medical opinion. How could they have got it so wrong?
"Jasper could…sort of control the emotions of the people around him. Not in a bad way, just to calm someone down, that kind of thing. It would probably help Paul a lot." She added, teasing weakly. "And then Alice could see things that were going to happen. The future, you know, but not absolutely. The things she saw would change when someone changed the path, they were on…."
Bella's eyes opened wide and she began to hyperventilate. "Like how she'd seen me dying-and she'd seen me becoming one of them." She felt the lack of breath through her body as she spoke, that feeling of tiredness and lethargy. For as her lungs worked extra hard to bring in the much-needed oxygen, she felt as if she was drowning in the air. Her head started to spin-she couldn't pull in enough oxygen from the air. No lungs.
The scar on her wrist began to ache abominably and she wrapped the fingers of her other hand around it.
Jacob was totally in control now, very still beside her. "What's wrong?" He asked. He tugged lightly on her hand, the one which was bound around her wrist. "Bella, honey, talk to me."
"It hurts." Bella whispered. "Its like I can't breathe…like I'm breaking into pieces…." It all came tumbling out, her secret fears. "Jacob, what if the future Alice saw is still fated to come true? Just not in the way I imagined. What if the venom trapped in the scar tissue gets into my blood?"
Jacob blanched. He smoothed her hair away from her face. "It won't happen. I won't let it."
"There's nothing you can do." Bella descended into a full-on panic attack. "You can't help me. I doubt Quil's grandfather can help me, either." Her thoughts became so scattered that normal functioning was impossible. "I'm not a wolf like you. I don't have your regenerative healing powers…."
A strange look took over Jacob's face at her words. Then he was running away. Running so fast that he nearly slammed into the car as he skidded to a halt beside the Volkswagen. He yanked the driver's door open, leaned inside and opened the glove box. Seconds later he was back beside Bella, holding his pocket knife in his hand.
Then right in front of Bella's horrified eyes, he used the knife to slice open his palm.
Bella felt nausea rising as she saw the crimson red blood pooling from the deep cut. Her phobia cut off her airways, she turned her head to once side, losing the ability to speak entirely when Jacob grabbed her left wrist with the same hand and pressed his bloody palm against the scar.
A burning sensation seared across the tender flesh at the contact. Bella's skin took on a rosy glow, her beating heart, the strength in every limb-all of this was nurtured by Jacob's healing blood.
Bella looked up at Jacob in awe. As the rain continued to gush down on them, each droplet washed away an unseen pain, a doubt, an angst. Before she knew it, they were kissing, from the time their lips were locked together in that rush of rain, the world itself ceased to exist, blurred and indistinct as an impressionist masterpiece.
There was something so heavenly about a kiss in the rain, Bella thought. A tender moment that just won't wait. It is that burst of love that is expressed, not caring if the water soaks through to chill the skin. It is a connection that shows the strength of the feeling, the mutual need, a strengthening of the bond between them.
When Jacob finally relaxed his hold on her wrist, the cut on his palm wasn't the only thing that was healed. The scar was gone.
A/N-thanks for reading. Please review.