Chapter 56 Chapter notes

Edward is back, and ready to take on the Quileute if he has to. He's willing to take whatever consequences they mete out regarding the Cullens' banishment. He's ready to do whatever it takes to reclaim the woman he loves.

This is a long chapter told from various points of view. There's lots of action, and it was impossible to split it into chapters. Three stars *** indicates a change in point of view. And as always, Edward's POV is always first-person.

Again, the title might be prophetic.

The chapter title belongs to The Beatles

Chapter 56 Run for Your Life Thursday, November 2nd

Bella takes the drive home from school extra-slow today. Charlie told her that he'd be out all day with Maya, so there's no need to rush to get supper on the table. It's raining, so she can't do anything outside. She finishes all of her homework and tells herself a tidy lie that she's getting the hang of calculus, so she decides she'll check her finances to see if she can take Jake out to supper.

He'd told her that Billy had a doctor's appointment in Port Angeles but that they would be back by five or six. When she goes to the kitchen, she sees her phone, covered in dried coffee. The top is dented, and she thinks Charlie's coffee cup must have winged it on the way to the sink. Since Jake is still probably with Billy at the doctor's, she decides to just go up there and wait for him and bypass the waiting here and then driving up when he's finally home.

The light on the answering machine blinks patiently, holding seventeen calls from Edward, but Bella doesn't see it. She grabs her raincoat and bag and soon she's on the road, wondering what they can have for supper that won't be too expensive but still provide Jake enough food. She's seen that boy eat, and she doesn't have that much money.

The huge brown wolf wakes in the shelter provided by the humans. He remembers lying on the muddy lane, feeling very sick. Humans, standing around him, chattering. They'd brought him here, given him water and a warm place to sleep, but had penned him in. Now, though, the door is ajar.

He takes a deep breath, still wincing at some inner pain. He wonders if the humans will come and gabble at him again. They'd looked earnestly into his eyes and babbled on, looking at each other, standing with hands on their hips. Several times, he'd been visited by other large wolves. They'd gotten too near, though, and had smelled…different. He did not know this smell, so he had warned them away.

He walks to the door and paws it open. A tall man hurries down the street. The man doesn't smell human. The wolf is confused, because he doesn't recognize this smell. After the man passes, he will leave this structure and go back to the woods, to the clean smells and wild food, and he will not come down to this place again.

I've been trotting up and down these side streets, places I've never been, compiling data about Victoria's scent. It comes and goes. All I can tell for certain is that she was here at some point in the past. And it's mixed up with the terrible rotten-dog smell of the Wolves.

My eyes continually scan for not only Victoria, but anyone who might realize who I am and that I've broken or at least violated the treaty by coming onto the reservation, especially in light of the fact that my family was banished.

I have a rough map of La Push in my head, from my trespass into the Quileute's thoughts. A weathered sign for E Street looms ahead, and know that Jacob and Billy live in the last house on the left. It's a tiny dilapidated structure bordered by a makeshift garage on one side and deep woods on the other.

There's no trace of Victoria's scent here. As I glance around at nearby houses that have been rebuilt or are in the process, I hear a familiar sound, and my dead heart almost starts to beat again.

Bella sees that she's early, since Jake's car isn't here yet. She parks the ancient Chevy and twists the key out of the ignition. As she reaches for her school bag, she sees a man walking down the road. Tall, lean…untidy hair…dressed all in blue. Her breath hitches as she flings the truck door open and stumbles out, leaning slightly forward to peer at the man. Their eyes meet and her mouth falls open. He approaches her at human speed, his crooked smile melting her where she stands.

Her eyes widen and her mouth drops open. "Oh my god. Oh, my god," she whispers. After all the prayers she's said, the bargains she's made, the intense pleas to the Universe, after the tears, sobs, sleepless nights, horrible dreams, and half starving herself, drawing the ire of Charlie, every doctor she'd seen, her friends, her teachers, everyone except her mother, here stands the answer.

The one thing in the world that can make her want to do something other than die in her sleep.

Her face crumples and tears spring to her eyes. She brings trembling hands to her mouth. As he gets nearer, he speeds up, a look of intense relief on his face. She tries a few times to speak, and her mouth moves but no sound comes out.

She swallows and finally manages, "Edward?"

"Bella." His expression is tender. Sympathetic. Relieved. "Bella." It's said on the exhale, and he opens his arms to her. She's not sure he's real, and she manages to reach out a hand to touch his chest. It's firm and cold. His scent, that breathtaking, icy wave of sensual aroma that defines him is in her nose, it's on her skin, and she's breathing it in, she's breathing in Edward.

Her feet won't work and she stands completely still, thinking of all the days and nights she'd opened her window to look for him, how she'd waited for him. She stares into his beautiful face, unaware that her lips are parted in awe, that tears are slipping silently down her cheeks.

He simply waits for her, looking exactly the same as he always had, with that solemn expression. His last words come back to her, and anger and disappointment flare up. She dashes the tears away with the back of her hand. "What...are you back?"

Edward's arms drop. He licks his lips and regards her patiently. "Yes, thank god. Long story, but I've—" Slap. Bella's hand makes contact with his cheek and she rears back, feeling her hand go numb, as if she'd just pummeled a block of wood.

He frowns at her and she screams at him through her tears. "You walk out on me, and then you show up and I'm supposed to just forget about it? You said I was too much work!" She walks away for a few steps and then turns, fire in her eye, and screams through her tears, "You said you didn't WANT ME ANYMORE!"

Her throat is tight as she tries to keep from crying like a baby. The sheer relief of seeing Edward, having him this close to her, all but overcomes her anger and shock.

"I can explain it all, Bella. None of it was my idea, but we have to get you out of here." After glancing around, he tows her behind Billy Black's house, out of the middle of the street. A tiny barbeque grill and one plastic chair are the only manmade items in the cleared circle. Beyond looms the forest, thick and green and mossy.

Edward's arms envelop her and he rests his forehead on the top of her head. "I love you, Bella. I've been miserable. I'll tell you all about it but I need to—"

Bella pulls back from the hug and looks up at Edward, who has stopped talking and is staring over her shoulder. She turns to see Charlie stalking toward them, grasping a woman's hand. It looks like Maya, but this woman is bigger and more muscular.

Charlie's face is livid with anger at the man who wronged his daughter. He walks right up to Edward and pokes him in the chest, reacting to the stone flesh with a grimace. Edward steps back and puts his hands up. Charlie says, "Edward Cullen, you son of a bitch. I saw you dragging Bella back here. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'll tell you everything, but we need to get Bella away from here," Edward says. Without waiting for a reply, he grabs Bella's hand and walks her to the Chevy. Charlie is still fussing, but Bella doesn't see anything except Edward's face as he gazes at her with those warm topaz eyes.

"Don't go home," he says, as he takes her in his arms. "Go to the Lodge. I'll be right behind you. Long story, but I caught Victoria's scent. She's here, or she's been here, and it's not safe." He thinks for a moment. "Tell Charlie and Maya to meet you there. Don't go home until I arrive, okay?"

He kisses Bella once and brushes a cool hand along her face, then opens her truck door, but the wind picks up and blows a cold, sharp scent his way. A scent he's very familiar with.

In horror, he turns, grabs Bella's arm, and hustles her into the truck.

"GO!" he yells, as he turns to intercept the woman who is limping down the street toward them in Bella's pretty blue sweater.

Victoria.

Victoria knows that her mind has been irrevocably altered, damaged by the poisonous nature of the Quileute blood and flesh that she foolishly ingested. It has bored into every cell of her body and has now infected her brain.

In the hours that have passed since sunrise, she's lost approximately fifty percent of her vision. She can't make out individual leaves on the nearest trees. She can't see the ground clearly. At some point, she realizes that she's losing her sense of touch. She has to grasp the branch she's sitting on very tight to feel its rough bark against her skin.

What am I going to do? How do I get out of this tree?

As she sits, wide-eyed, mouth agape, she begins to slowly lose proprioception, the ability to feel her body in space. Panicked, she flings herself forward and shrieks as she topples out of the tree and lands hard.

Victoria struggles to her feet, but has to look down to see that they're actually touching the ground. In total alarm, she begins to walk. She doesn't know where she's going; she just keeps moving forward. She has to keep moving forward. Her only comfort is that she can still smell stinking Bella Swan on her pretty blue sweater. Hopefully it will allow her to find the girl.

As she walks, the wind picks up and leaves scurry along the road. Her hair, loose and streaming behind her, is swirled around her head. She stops for a moment to pull the wild strands back, and several scents wash over her. One is human, the other might be that musty wolf smell, but they're faint. The other two are well known to her—the cold, sharp scent of Edward Cullen and his stupid, human female, and the owner of the blue sweater, Bella fucking Swan.

Victoria stumbles across the road and turns onto E Street. A knot of people stand in front of a small, decrepit house. She tries to approach stealthily, but Edward turns and gets a good look at her.

"GO!" I yell. The truck's engine thunders to life but the truck doesn't move.

"Edward." I turn and see her, not the feral female I'd met in the baseball clearing, but a damaged creature, limping toward me with her arms outstretched. Her ginger hair is wild and matted, her clothes wet, grimy with mud and twigs, and with her staring eyes and unsteady gait, she could be a sick homeless person.

"That's my sweater!" Bella exclaims, as she rolls down her window. "The missing one! I dreamed this," she says slowly. "I dreamed that a woman with red hair was wearing my sweater."

"That's Victoria, but there's something wrong with her." Charlie's grandmother's omen comes back to me as I remember the thunder-snowstorm we had in September. Demise and destruction. Is that what this is? The culmination of that prophecy?

I take a few steps toward her and she tries to run, but staggers and falls. I turn back to Bella. "Go back to Forks! I'll meet you there later."

I trot toward the woman, still lying on the pavement. The woman pushes up from the road to her knees and then struggles to her feet. I extend my hand, mouth open in surprise. "What happened to you?"

"I need help." Her voice is a low monotone, as if she's in shock. I extend my hand and she collapses onto me. I'm not sure that she can walk. I hear the Chevy's engine idling and turn my attention to the damaged creature in my arms.

I gently disengage from Victoria's embrace and lead her to the side of the road, where she falls onto a crumbling curb. I crouch down and she peers at me through strings of tangled, filthy hair. Her expression is one of desperate sadness.

"What happened to you, Victoria? Have you fed recently? Because you smell like human blood." I can also smell some kind of food. Something green has splattered her clothing and hair. I also catch the disagreeable scent of cigarette smoke. She must have been in someone's house, and recently.

She looks confused, but that's not really possible for us, unless we're deprived of blood for a long length of time. She disregards the question and lifts a trembling hand out of her lap. I lean close to visually examine it, and am shocked to see that two fingers have been bitten off at the first knuckle.

Without speaking, Victoria lifts her pants leg and shows me two huge gouges out of her calf. They must be excruciating, and without the pieces, totally unfixable. I've never seen an Immortal body with this much damage.

"Did a Wolf attack you?"

She looks around. "Yes. It stalked me and bit me. I…am I sitting?"

The Chevy idles noisily in front of Jacob's house. I turn toward it. "GO!" I yell. The truck doesn't move an inch. Charlie and Maya still stand in the middle of the street, gazing open-mouthed at Victoria and me.

Victoria sits, looking haggard and beaten. I don't know how to help her. I don't think she can be helped. And even if I could, would I? She was James's mate. She is dangerous.

Behind us, the Chevy's engine dies and I hear the truck door open and then slam. With horror, I turn to see Bella standing with Charlie and Maya. I reach to grab Victoria, but she sails over me and behind Bella. I hear the whump of air leaving Bella's lungs as she is slammed against Victoria's chest. Bella's eyes bulge as a cold arm is pulled tight over her throat.

"Okay," she says, her tone exhausted and threatening. "Stay back or I will rip the girl's head off and throw it at you. Then we'll see how the story of pitiful human and stupid vampire finally ends."

Nobody moves. I try to figure out Victoria's weakest point. Her wounded leg? She had fallen down as she tried to run. Her hand? If I could grab it, I'm certain that the pressure would be excruciating. Her mental confusion?

"You better freeze like…blood and brains on pavement." Victoria gives a little laugh and lists to the side, taking Bella with her. They teeter for a moment, almost tipping to the pavement, but at the last moment, Victoria regains her balance and rights herself. It's inconceivable that one of us would lose our balance and fall. That sort of thing just doesn't happen to Immortals.

I don't know what's wrong with this woman.

All of Maya's senses are heightened due to her recent transformation, and she knows that both Edward and Victoria are vampires, but only Victoria seems dangerous. It's clear that she and Edward are acquainted. Even in her damaged state, Victoria could kill Bella with a minute twist of a finger, so Maya knows that they'll have to play this very carefully to get her to release Charlie's daughter.

Maya stays still and quiet. On the breeze is a scent that she knows. It's another Protector, creeping up behind them. Edward and Victoria haven't shown that they've seen it.

Inside of Maya is a boiling, bubbling spring, a pot of steaming water with a lid thrust on it, a volcano ready to erupt. It's an expansive feeling, as if she's growing some more, but Maya doesn't think this is the time for expansive feelings. If she bursts forth as the Wolf that she knows is inside her, can she get to Victoria before she kills Bella? Having never phased before?

She can't take the chance with Charlie's daughter, so she takes deep breaths and tries to calm the fire that rages within her. And she waits, knowing that if anything were to menace Charlie, she would phase and rip it into pieces so mangled it could never be identified.

The love she feels for Charlie, always pure and honest, has morphed into a huge, glowing fireball that totally encompasses her. The single-minded focus she has on this man is scary, all the more so because she knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would gladly kill anyone who threatened him.

As she watches the interplay between the characters on the street, she realizes what's happened. She's imprinted on Charlie. It hadn't occurred to her earlier, since she had spent her adult life away from the reservation.

But that's what's happened, and the overwhelming desire to keep this man safe is suddenly explained. It is hot and deadly. It is bigger than she is, bigger than she knew was even possible. She will protect Charlie at all costs. Her life, even Bella's life, comes a distant second to this man's safety.

She locks her eyes on Charlie, ready to send the Wolf forth if he seems in danger. Her single-minded focus on her objective is startling and she finds she's able to think about many things at once. But only one thing is important: Charlie Swan.

Deep breaths, Maya. Deep breaths.

Bella is turning a delicate shade of blue in front of my very eyes. I stand, frozen in place, planning moves and countermoves. It would be a lot easier if I could read Victoria's thoughts, but they're all over the place. She hasn't made a decision, and I'm worried that she'll make it a split second before she acts, and I won't have enough warning to save Bella.

Charlie's thoughts, always difficult to access, clear up when he's upset or angry. Now, I only hear his desperate worry for his daughter. His anger toward me, his love for Maya, concern for himself—those are thoughts I get pieces of. It's Bella that he would give his life for, in one flat second.

I can't let that happen.

Charlie lunges forward but I grab his arm. "No," I murmur. "Victoria will kill her. Let me handle this." He fidgets. The Forks Chief of Police isn't one to stand aside while someone else takes on the bad guy. I squeeze his arm lightly. "Just give me a minute." He gives a tense nod as his thoughts go to his sidearm.

Shit. "Chief," I whisper. "That won't work. Listen, I'll tell you everything, once we get finished here. Only—"

I'm diverted by a yell in my head. My eyes take in the landscape and I see Jacob, about fifty feet away, crouched behind an abandoned car. I parked back here. Didn't want to spook her. How do you want to play this? There's a slight pause, and then, Are you back? Who gave you permission to be on the res?

With a huff, I shake my head minutely. We'll hash out what I'm doing here later. I cut my eyes toward Jacob to advance. I'm a bit distracted, as Victoria's mind is awash in gray, fractured shapes. She still has thoughts but they are not wholly understandable, and seem to be degrading.

Before I can start talking, Victoria spins Bella around so fast that they both nearly topple over. I take a few steps toward them but Victoria holds out her hand. I stay where I am.

Victoria has a death grip on Bella's upper arm with her undamaged hand. I can see that she's squeezing. Bella doesn't react, although her breathing is fast and shallow. She leans toward Bella with a wide-eyed, crazy stare and gives her a little shake. "This is all your fault." Her voice comes out raspy, as if she's suffering from a sore throat.

She sticks her damaged hand in Bella's face. "If you had just left the vampires alone, James would never have seen you and they wouldn't have murdered him, and I wouldn't BE HERE, in this awful place, getting attacked by that wolf!"

"He h-hurt me, Victoria, but I'm sorry that it ended the w-way that it did." Bella sounds terrified.

"He hurt you, did he." Victoria's face seems to take on an inner glow of rage. "After his family came back," she jerks her chin at me, "I sat outside their house to hear what had happened. I heard Alice tell the whole family how she ripped off his head and tossed it into the fire."

She looks up at me, hovering several feet away. "You're all so stupid, hanging out with humans." She's squinting her eyes and blinking them, as if she's having trouble focusing. Bella's heart is hammering in her chest, as is Charlie's. With a slight squeeze, Victoria could shatter the bone in Bella's upper arm; indeed, she could rip the arm out of its socket.

Jacob is about twenty feet from Victoria, creeping slowly toward her.

Victoria holds her damaged hand to her forehead. "I've been up on the mountain, above this stinking place, waiting for the opportunity to kill you, Bella Swan. I've been poisoned and attacked. My leg is killing me. So don't tell me that you're sorry. None of you are sorry for what happened to James."

I hold my hand up. "Sorry. Poisoned?" What could possibly poison a vampire?

"It was that Quileute kid that I drank. The blood burned me. Look at my skin!" Victoria takes her hand off of Bella and I swoop in and snatch her behind me. Bella yelps and I feel Charlie take her into his arms and walk her back to stand with Maya, who guides all three of them around in a circle, behind Victoria. Now they're next to Jacob.

Victoria doesn't seem to realize that her prey is no longer standing in front of her. She attempts to grab the edge of her sweater, but she has trouble with it. Jacob and I glance at each other and then back to Victoria. She finally manages to pull the garment up, revealing bare skin that would be inhumanly beautiful if it weren't for the bubbling across it. Splotches of angry-looking blisters cover her breasts and stomach, looking like plastic that's been microwaved. I've never seen anything like it.

"Let me get this straight," I say. "You fed on a young Quileute and the blood made you sick, and then a giant Wolf bit you. Correct?" She nods, but her expression is tortured. "You didn't know that we're toxic to each other, the vampires and the Indians?"

Charlie chokes out something unintelligible and Maya whispers, "I'll tell you everything when we're done here, Chief."

I'm distracted by the sound of retching, and I edge a few steps to the side to see Bella on her knees, vomiting onto the pavement. Victoria turns toward the sound and catches sight of Jacob, now about ten feet behind her.

"Oh my god." Her mouth is open in horror, in anger. She balls up her fists, throws back her head and bolts straight for him. Her leg crumples under her and she crashes against the pavement on her hands and knees.

Jacob frowns. He yanks her to her feet and grabs the leather thong hanging from her neck. The roughly carved wolf dangles from it. Jacob's eyes are hard and he grits his teeth. "Where did you get this?" he hisses, as he gives a sharp tug. The leather snaps and he catches the trinket before it falls to the ground.

"You're one of those Indians, like that kid that made me sick." In her mind, there are vestiges of higher thought. She's linked Jacob and Henry by physical characteristics.

"This belonged to my cousin. His name was Henry. You killed him and his mom was there when we found his body." I see it in his head, and it's a gruesome sight. Jacob's fury is growing exponentially. The Wolf inside him is seconds from erupting.

She looks around, confused. Hesitantly, she says, "Henry?" Victoria takes a few faltering steps back from Jacob.

However, no thoughts of escape have materialized in her mind. Instead, I'm getting fractured sentences and flashes of disparate images. A stately blue house with a black door. A tall man standing next to a gleaming BMW. A smiling woman wearing a pretty dress. A little girl with flaming hair. An ambulance, driving slowly down the street.

Two figures in pajamas, staring down at a dark stain.

Pain. Loss.

Desperation.

Blood and brains, freezing to the sidewalk.

What happened to this woman before she suffered her transformation? A gray mist begins to supplant higher thought, and I can see it creeping in, like fog rolling along an English moor. In minutes, her mind is a ghostly gray desolation. I can hear echoes of thoughts, but I'm not sure she can speak or think.

Maya holds Charlie and Bella close. I glance at her. She's a shapeshifter, on the very edge of phasing. I can feel her desperate worry over Charlie's safety, and the sheer willpower she expends to stay in human form.

She doesn't know that the creature who looks like a woman is now just an empty shell.

I've edged my way around the circle until I'm standing with the others. Bella falls into my embrace, crying silent tears. I hold her warm body close, breathing in her flowery, cinnamon scent. "It's okay, Bella," I whisper in her ear. "We're together. It'll all be okay."

Jacob stands as still as a statue, regarding the helpless, pathetic creature before him. It doesn't matter to him that Victoria is defenseless, without personality or desire. She killed his cousin, a fellow Quileute, in the most heinous fashion. He runs a few steps back, shucks his shorts and explodes into the giant russet Wolf.

He leaps through the air and bares his huge, glistening teeth. His enormous paws knock her off her feet and she shrieks as she hits the road. One paw swipes her face, and as she turns her head, he takes a bite out of her vampire flesh, just below her ear.

She screams and flails as she tries to twist away from him. Jacob Wolf spits out the piece and it lands on the ground with a sickening thud. He snarls at her, and before she can struggle to her feet, he attacks again.

"Jake!" Bella whispers. I gently pull her head down so she can't see as Jacob rips Victoria's head off. He chomps hard, and his teeth grate along her impenetrable skin until they find purchase. With a rending squeal, the head rolls away, an expression of shock and surprise still etched onto its features. It looks at us, the eyes still darting around, although it doesn't speak.

And I know that I could never do this to Rosalie, no matter how much she pisses me off. Alice had seen my intention, and maybe I could have, before I'd seen this. Now, I guess we'll just have to get along or go our separate ways.

Bella kneels on the muddy road and vomits again to the screeching, ripping sound of Jacob's teeth, methodically ripping the vampire flesh into pieces. I bend over and pat her back, wishing I could have spared her this spectacle.

If I'm honest, I'm relieved that Jacob destroyed Victoria, and that I didn't have to. I'm also a little freaked out at the damage she received to her Immortal body. Could it have been caused simply by feeding on one of the Quileute?

Maya says, "Come on, Chief. We need some wood for a fire." She points to the dilapidated shack across the street. She tugs a dazed Charlie over and they begin to pull wood from the structure. In moments, they've stacked it on the road as Jacob continues to tear the body into ever smaller pieces.

They pile on the remains of Jacob's shirt and I coax a blaze. Jacob Wolf and I continue to round up all the pieces of vampire flesh. Jacob drops them at my feet and I toss them into the fire. Soon, there's a greasy plume of purplish flame rising into the air.

When the roadway is cleared of all the bits he'd torn off of Victoria, Jacob grabs his discarded shorts up in his mouth and runs behind a car. A few minutes later, he emerges, looking exceedingly pleased with himself.

In the debris, I'd found the small carved wolf. Jacob thanks me when I hand it to him. "I must have dropped it when I phased." Jacob fingers the tiny wolf in his massive paw. "Henry's dad carved it for him last year, right before he died. I'll get it back to his mom."

Bella shivers. The sun is sinking into the sea and the wind has picked up. "Where's your jacket?" I ask.

"Truck," she says, as she reaches out her hands to the blaze. She's staring at the smoke, curling lazily into the sky. It has a heavy odor, not unlike incense. In the humid air, it hangs over the street, a dull bluish-lavender.

I run to the truck and fetch her jacket. She slips it on, still mesmerized by the fire and the inky smoke that was a sentient being only seconds ago.

"What was wrong with her? Bella asks.

I'm stunned at the damage to Victoria's body and mind and say, "Obviously she was attacked by a Wolf, but I don't know what caused her mental decline."

Scattered along the edge of the road are a handful of roughly cut beads in shades of orange and red. Victoria's beads. I pick up a couple and drop them into my pocket. Bella sweeps up the ones remaining and tosses them into the fire.

Jacob gives me a level look and I hold both hands up. "I'll tell the Council what I'm doing here, but there wasn't time earlier. I got to Forks and caught Victoria's scent. It led me here. And I don't care what the consequences are, Jacob. I had to deal with Victoria."

"Yeah, yeah," he says easily. "I'm a witness. Billy too, as I left him sitting in the car." Jacob quickly pieces the story together for me. "The Council thought we should have stopped transforming because the vampire threat had gone, but three more have phased since your family left. Alice told the Chief that she couldn't see you. He knows her visions won't work on the reservation and assumed you'd never left. When a hiker, and then my cousin, were both killed and fed on, the Council thought it was you."

I pull Bella close and kiss the top of her head, breathing in the smell of her hair and her skin, pulling her scent all the way down, as far as it will go, letting it seep into all of me. Then I look at her with a frown. "Why didn't you leave like I asked you to?"

Bella takes a deep breath. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until I get some answers." She says.

Fair enough. "Let's go home," I say. "I have a lot to tell you."

Bella winces as she tries to swing her arm around, as if to loosen it. Before I can ask about it, she eyes me skeptically. "I have some things to say to you as well…." Her words trail away as we're riveted by a low growl that comes from a couple of houses down. I automatically place Bella behind me.

Two amber eyes peer at us from the garage. The door is cracked, and as we stand, a massive wolf walks cautiously toward us. Jacob sighs. "Brady," he says with relief. "Are you back?"