A New Chapter Approaches! This one goes out to Kentucky degenerates Greyhaven and their phenomenal song "A Match Where Great Fire Should Be".
Happy reading!
Chapter VII - A Match Where Great Fire Should Be
The wildflowers and fallen logs greeted her as old friends, the pleasing scent reminding her of fond times with Edward. She was joyous at the realization that she no longer held any anger toward him or his family, only an indifferent sort of fondness and wistfulness. Leah was steadfast beside her, her dark eyes wide in wonder as they stepped through the flowers.
"I can't believe this place has been out here this entire time," she said softly. "And none of us knew about it."
"It's beautiful, right?" Bella asked the older girl, a gentle smile on her lips. She drank in the wild flashes of technicolor around her, still loving how the colors mixed and swam together in the cool wind. Leah twirled around gracefully, soaking in the mild sunshine and comfort of the meadow, appreciating it for what it was.
A place out of time.
Bella took a seat where she stood, wrapping her arms around her knees a closing her eyes. She could hear Leah emptying out the duffel and separating their things, and left her to it. She would tell Bella when it was time. As it was, she wanted to soak in some of the sunshine and life in this place, for what she knew would be the last time, before saying goodbye. After this practice, she would do exactly what Edward wanted her to: move on, live a human life. And she found herself excited to do just that.
She wanted to spend time with Charlie, go and visit her mother, go to college, make friends and live. Edward had been right all along – she didn't truly want vampirism. It had been a pipe dream at best, some unattainable desire for a perfection that wasn't truly there. Being human, being changeable, fluid and expirable, was something to love and cherish.
And something Bella hadn't expected out of all of this: she wanted to spend more time with Leah, and not just because they could help one another heal. That part of their relationship was rapidly coming to a close. She enjoyed Leah, every facet of her. Even the temperamental bits, the ones that could at times frighten her, Bella embraced with open arms. Flaws didn't always last, and Bella saw Leah's as something that could be helped through with enough love and care and – if necessary – professional guidance. That someone so inherently sweet and caring could be cursed with such an abundance of inexplicable rage was absurdly unfair to Bella, and she couldn't think of anyone more deserving of her love, such as it was, than Leah Clearwater.
"It's time, Bells," Leah's smooth voice came from above her. She opened her eyes, smiling up at her friend, and held up a hand. Leah was there, strong and steadfast and sturdy, helping her up and holding her close. She'd set everything up already.
A collapsible trash bin sat in a part of the meadow that appeared to be dead and desolate, laid upon a fire blanket that Leah had had the foresight to bring along. Another of those blankets sat close by, in case the fire escaped. Bella's things, a rather small pile, sat on one side, while Leah's fairly larger set was on another.
"You wanna go first?" Bella asked.
"Rock-paper-scissors for it?" Leah responded, and Bella chuckled as she shook her head.
"You go ahead, Lee. I'm right here if you need me."
Leah squeezed her hand gently and let go, moving over to her pile. She grabbed it all in one trip, a few shirts, the odd CD or two, some cards and pictures, and tossed it all into the trash can. She grabbed a bottle of lighter fluid and squirted just the smallest amount into the can. Leah grabbed a match from the box and hesitated for a mere moment.
"I really do hope you're happy together," she said aloud, and struck the match. The moment it lit, she tossed it into the can. Bella walked up to her slowly, wrapping a thin arm around the taller girl's waist. She stared up at Leah's face for a few seconds before leaning her head on her shoulder. The fire grew, sparked and clicked as plastic and cloth and paper burned, and Bella eventually moved over to grab her 'pile'.
There were only four things left to her after the Cullens left that truly reminded her of them: her oldest copy of Wuthering Heights, a novel she had no more interest in reading, the Linkin Park CD that Phil had given her, the bloodstained radio from Emmett and Rosalie, and the dress she'd worn to her birthday party. She tossed them all into the bin one by one, every movement freeing in a way she hadn't really expected.
And as the fire danced in her eyes, she remembered some of Edward's final words to her once again.
"It'll be like you never existed," she murmured softly. And it was.
She and Leah didn't linger long after the burning. Once everything was ash, Leah threw the fire blanket over the trash bin and shook it out, stamping on it to make sure it was cool and that no embers could set the forest alight in their absence. The wind quickly picked up and carried the remnants off and away, and Bella watched them fly away with a small smile. Leah packed the bin and the blankets back into the duffel and swung it over her shoulder, and Bella walked over to her when it was time to leave. She grabbed Leah's hand and they walked together back to where they'd entered. Just as they reached the tree line, Bella threw her head over her shoulder to get one last look, and froze mid-step.
The meadow wasn't empty.
She knew who it was without having to get closer. The black hair, dark skin, oddly mismatched clothes. It all brought her back to the incident with James, and when Laurent cocked his head to the side and started to walk slowly toward her, she shook in terror.
"Leah," she croaked quietly. "I need you to listen to me."
"What's wrong?" Leah asked her, starting to turn around. Bella jostled her in place harshly.
"No, stop," Bella whispered furiously. "Look at me. Look at me, Leah. I need you to run."
"What the fu –"
"Run, Leah. Run as hard and fast as you can. Please," she begged. "Don't stop, don't look back. Just – go."
"Okay," Leah said slowly, very deliberately not looking back into the meadow. "Okay, but I'll see you tonight at the house, got it?"
"Yeah," Bella lied, smiling gently. Without really thinking about it, she pulled Leah down by her collar and kissed the girl on her lips. So soft, she thought. "I'll see you tonight," she spoke, ignoring the tears forming in her eyes as she watched Leah start sprinting away. She turned back to the meadow, her eyes locked onto where Laurent stood about thirty feet from her. She paced unhurriedly to him, her entire body going numb as she shook.
"What a surprise, Bella," Laurent said amiably, his accent deceptively pleasant.
"Laurent, hello," she said, faking happy surprise. "I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you were in Alaska, with the Denali coven."
"Oh, I was," he replied. "For a time, anyway. They are all so lovely, Irina especially. But I do find their dietary requirements a bit…restrictive."
"It can take some time to overcome, if what Edward told me is true," she agreed. Her eyes drifted up to his, and she was wholly unsurprised to find them a glowing crimson, darkened slightly from what she assumed must be the scent of her blood. Laurent was silent, and she cleared her throat to hide her fear.
"So, what brings you back to Forks?" she asked.
"Ah, well, I am here as a favor to a friend," he said jovially. "Victoria was asking about you, and I told her I'd check in on the area. Imagine my surprise at finding the Cullen home empty and you here, so very vulnerable."
"They decided to move on," she answered honestly.
"Without you?" Laurent asked. "Weren't you the red-haired boy's mate? The telepath?"
"Mate? No. Girlfriend, maybe."
He clicked his tongue at her dismissiveness and stared around the meadow. His eyes slowly drifted back to her.
"And the girl you were with?"
"Uninvolved entirely," Bella promised. "She doesn't know about any of this, I swear. There's no need to go after her, too. Please, Laurent."
She was too aware of the circumstances to carry any delusions that she would survive Laurent, but if she could get him to give up on hunting Leah, she would consider it a win. She hoped he would hear the pleading in her voice, that it would be enough to sway him. She momentarily cursed the Cullens for leaving her here, for bringing upon her the very thing they hoped to avoid by leaving. It left swiftly, leaving only hopelessness in its wake.
"I will leave her be," he told her as he approached. "If it is any consolation, you should be thankful that it is me who found you and not Victoria. She had such plans for you. I suppose she'll be put out with me for killing you."
He placed a hand on her shoulder, his palm facing her head. His smile was oddly genuine, but she could see his eyes darkening rapidly into a feral black.
"But you do smell so wonderfully divine," he reasoned. "It will be quick, I promise."
Bella watched, wide-eyed and frozen, as he lifted his hand from her shoulder, before chaos erupted in the meadow around them. It all happened very quickly, almost too fast for Bella to even track with her eyes.
Four massive wolves burst from either side of the clearing, eyes locked onto Laurent's now defensive form, and Bella was grabbed from behind and thrown back several feet, her eyes plastered onto Leah's violently shivering body as the girl sprinted headlong straight at Laurent. She barely had time to react, to scream, to do anything, before Leah's lean body exploded in a flurry of motion and sound. Where a girl once ran, an enormous silver wolf now raced at a blinding speed at Laurent's heels. The vampire was fleeing, she realized after a moment. And as much as she didn't want Leah to be hurt, to be in any danger, she wanted the threat of Laurent gone all the more.
Just before Laurent reached the tree line on the opposite side of the meadow, wolf-Leah got the upper hand and latched her gaping maw onto his shoulder, wrenched her head around in jerking motion, and threw Laurent back to the middle of the clearing. Just before he landed, one of the wolves – a truly monstrous pitch-black beast – barked loudly, and the moment Laurent touched the ground they were upon him. She could only watch as the creatures tore the vampire apart, tossing pieces away where they couldn't reattach themselves. Their action brought her back to center, and she ran to where Leah's duffel bag had ripped open, finding the matches and the trash bin. She found a bit of Laurent's leg and tossed it in, struck match, and tossed it in.
She nearly screamed when a hand touched her shoulder, whipping around to face what she assumed to be her death, but found only the boy from the bonfire – the one with the nasty grin. Paul, she remembered.
"Good thinking," he told her simply, tossing a few more pieces of vampire into the trash bin. "Wouldn't want to burn the forest down." She nodded at him, turning back to the clearing. The wolves, sans Paul and Leah, and the huge black one she guessed to be Sam, were gone. Paul raced around the meadow, picking up pieces of marbled skin and viscera, throwing them unceremoniously into the burning receptacle. Leah stood firm in the center of the clearing, glaring daggers at Sam as he barked and huffed at her. She wondered what they were saying to one another, how they could communicate at all, what it must be like. Anything to distract her and center her from the pure shock of Forks now having a pack of werewolves.
"Fucking werewolves, really?" she muttered to herself as she gathered bits of cloth and denim from where Leah's clothes had exploded. "First it was vegetarian vampires, then 'regular' vampires, now werewolves. What's next? Fucking witches and zombies? Mermaids at First Beach? Jesus Christ."
A deep, barking laugh from the center of the meadow jostled her out her mumbling, and she looked over and saw Sam Uley, now clad only in cut-off shorts, chuckling and shaking his head at her. He smiled again and waved her over, and she prided herself in only taking about half a second to comply.
"Well," he said when she met him. "You really are a magnet for trouble. You weren't supposed to know about us."
"I have a knack for figuring out shit I'm not supposed to," she said. "It's a gift."
"I can't even be mad," he sighed. "I sent Jared back to get clothes for Leah. She's taking the change surprisingly well. I expected a lot more anger."
"Is that side effect?" she asked, suddenly curious. "Of the wolf thing, I mean. Anger issues?"
"Definitely," he nodded. "It's the worst in the few months before we first phase, but it tapers off quickly after the first time."
She smiled brightly at that, turning toward the big silver wolf that held her best friend within. She walked over slowly, turning back to Sam to see if it was safe, and continued when he nodded hesitantly. The wolf was circling around, looking at her tail and staring down at her paws, taking everything in. She barely noticed Bella approaching, or if she did, she didn't acknowledge it.
"Lee?" Bella said softly, stopping several feet away.
The wolf's eyes shot up and met Bella's, and she recognized the deep black, piercing stare as Leah Clearwater's without a doubt. The wolf stood stock still, her enormous frame locked in a crouch, eyes wide and gleaming as she stared at Bella. Her fur was long and shaggy, dappled with silver and black. As she stared, Bella felt that nagging sensation once again, the odd tingling in her brain and deep in her belly, that overwhelming stirring of rightness. Tentatively, she raised a hand.
"Oh, Leah, you're so beautiful," she whispered. "Look at your fur! It's silver."
Leah pawed over to her slowly, dipping her massive head to eye level with Bella, who lifted a hand gently to her muzzle. She stopped a few inches short, letting Leah make up the rest of the distance, and she did. Bella was surprised at how soft the wolf's coat was, how silky the fur felt. She'd always thought that wolf pelts were coarse and rough, but it seemed that werewolf fur was different. She shouldn't have expected any different. She petted Leah's snout for a few minutes, laughing lightly when a low rumbling came from the wolf's throat, almost like a purr.
"Did you hear Sam talking about the anger thing?" she asked the werewolf. "It wasn't you, Leah, it never was. You don't have to feel guilty anymore about it. He said it'll go away with time. You'll be back to being just you."
Sam came up behind them shortly after, hands out in peace.
"We finished burning the leech, Bella. Jared should be here in a minute, and then we need to go to my place. There's a lot we need to talk about," he said, looking pointedly at Leah. The wolf nodded her gigantic head once and waited. A few minutes later, a deep brown wolf leapt from the forest, carrying a satchel in its teeth. He traipsed over and dropped the bag at Bella's feet.
"All you need to do is focus, Leah," Sam said. "Imagine how you look as a human, how it feels to have skin and nails instead of fur and claws. We'll give you a bit of privacy."
Bella moved to follow Sam, but Leah's head stopped her, and she turned back to see Leah shaking her head.
"You want me to stay?" she asked. "Okay. I'll just turn around. Clothes are in the bag."
She turned around and waited patiently, humming softly to herself, feeling the adrenaline draining from her system. She felt depleted, weak and hungry. After a few minutes, she heard what sounded like skin and bone ripping and snapping, and a weak whine. It stopped altogether, and then there was the sound of cloth shifting and buttons snapping.
"I'm done," Leah called out from behind her.
"Oh, good," she rushed out, turning and launching herself at Leah, wrapping her arms around her. "I'm so glad you're okay. God, I was flipping shit. I mean, werewolves, what the fuck? You know?"
"Hey, slow down," Leah said with a chuckle. "I'm good, I'm fine. See? All ten fingers, all ten toes."
"Yeah, fingers and toes," Bella repeated distantly. Leah grabbed her hand and led her out of the clearing where Sam, Jared, and Paul waited. "Well, let's get some food, yeah? I'm starving."
"So are we," all three boys agreed as they all left the clearing, the ash-filled trash bin left cold and forgotten.
A/N: Sayonara, Laurent! The four wolves - well, five now - are Sam, Jared, Paul, Embry, and Leah. Jake and Quil should join up sooner or later. Maybe Seth. Not sure yet.