Chapter 20

Sam

When I got there the first thing I realized was that Bella wasn't home. Bella hadn't been here for at least a few days. The second thing I realized was that in that moment there were three sets of vampire eyes focused solely on me.

All three pairs were a honey gold color. I was still on edge, in the presence of vampires, but internally I relaxed, even if only marginally. These were no drinkers of human blood. That meant they were either Cullens or alleys of the Cullen clan.

"Well, who the hell are you? You stink, my friend." The tall, burly one said. If his skin and eyes were darker, he could fool you for a wolf. He was about the same shape and size as Quil and had short black hair on the top of his head.

"Werewolf. I didn't truly believe they were real." One said with a southern accent. "Carlisle never let me come to the little meetings." This one was tall, not as tall as the other one or me, he was also thin. He had tufts of blond curls on top of his head and was the one to watch out for in this group. He was covered in scars that looked to be caused by other vampire bites. He was a fighter.

"They're real alright. I was there when the treaty was first made." the third said in a feminine voice. In fact, she was very feminine as a whole. She was tall, but not too tall, her blond hair was in gentle waves, with not a bit out of place. The perfect amount of curves. If she wasn't a cold one she'd be pretty hot, but as it was her perfection was unsettling.

"Carlisle thought you'd scare them Jazz." She added. My mind quickly made a connection. Jazz is Jasper, Jake had told us about him. Married to Alice. From what Jake said though, we have more to fear from Alice than Jasper as far as Bella was concerned.

"I am Alpha Samuel Uley." I finally answered. I spoke clearly and let my alpha timbre ring out. I didn't want them to misunderstand my non-response to Carlisle's belief that we could be afraid of any of these blood suckers.

"Neat. I'm Emmet, this is my brother in-law Jasper, and this babe is my wife, Rosie." The big one announced, overly friendly. He was immediately hit upside the head by the 'babe.' It looked like a fairly hard blow and Emmet rubbed his head, pouting a little.

"I'm Rosalie." She corrected, irritably. "Your name is Sam?"

I just nodded in response. I thought vampires were supposed to be quick-witted.

"Have you been… spending time… with Bella?" She asked me. Again, I just nodded, shocked. Was it possible that she was still in contact with some of the vampires?

"Where is she?" I broke the silence after a pregnant pause. I was a bit accusatory in the way that I'd asked. I didn't really think that they would hurt Bella, but you could never be too sure when it came to a cold one, no matter what kind, they all had blood for dinner.

"She's at the hospital." The big one explained. I could feel my eyes narrow and my form shake. "Oh come on, don't get so riled up, we didn't put her there."

"Charlie, her dad, called to tell us where she was. She has apparently been sick for awhile. Did you not know?" Rose cleared up. I couldn't believe she had been sick this whole time and she was even put in the hospital because of it. This whole time I thought that maybe she just didn't want anything to do with me. I needed to go visit her, make sure she's okay.

"No, it has been a few weeks since I've seen Bella." I told them honestly.

"I was living with her at the motel and helped her to find the place that she is renting now, but after she picked it out Emmet and I decided on a vacation. We've been gone for a little over a month now. I got the call from Charlie and we made our way back, we just got here. Jasper was here already by time we made it." Rose went into more detail. The only thing I still couldn't figure out was why Jasper was here.

"I'm going to be honest with you Alpha. I am an empath. I can read and influence others' emotions. I've been living with the Rest of the Cullens. My wife, Alice is a seer. I'm not sure what she saw, but it messed with her emotions pretty badly. I know you haven't met my wife before, Sam, but it isn't often that she's afraid of anything. She wouldn't tell me a word and since Edward hasn't been with the family and no one has heard so much as a whisper from him since Bella left, I connected those dots at least. The next thing I worried about was Bella. Nothing drives Edward mad like Bella does." Jasper told me his side of the story.

I felt my blood boil for two reasons. First of all, why should cold ones get the upper hand of superpowers on top of the speed, senses, and strength. The second reason was because of Bella. Nothing drove Edward mad like Bella? Hell, the girl was just trying to live out her human existence, now she might be unknowingly even more involved with the undead monster.

"Edward hasn't been with you guys?" Rosalie hissed at Jasper, seemingly shocked. Jasper shook his head gravely. "Does your wife know where he is?" She made the word wife sound dirty and horrible. I expected Jasper to defend Alice, but he didn't.

"If she knows, she hasn't let on. Whatever is going on though, we can count her as an accomplice because she certainly hasn't done anything to stop it." Jasper himself sounded disgusted with her too. If this was someone who was supposed to be Bella's friend and this is how she acted, I would have to say I agreed with the sentiment.

"Does he have anything to do with why Bella is sick?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"I don't know. Honestly, we don't have any information. We know that Edward is missing, Alice is hiding something frightening, and Bella is sick. I put at least two of those things together, but we don't even have concrete evidence for that." Jasper responded.

"Why don't we go visit Belly Bean now?" Emmet suggested, trying to lighten up the mood. Everyone sort of filed out of the house and made their way to the hospital. They all hopped in a jeep that presumably belonged to Emmet. They didn't offer me a ride and I didn't ask for one.

I wanted to remind them of who and what I was. They may be alright, alley's even, but I didn't want them to get too comfortable around here. That said I dropped my clothes and phased into the giant best I was.

Once I was on all fours and standing extremely tall, I made eye contact with the Jasper, the fighter. He needed to know that he'd have a real fight on his hands if there were any missteps made here. He may seem helpful and have a good reason to be here, but he wasn't like the other two. Rosalie seemed like she could really be friends with Bella, my gut made me believe that. Emmett was easy going and gave the impression that he could be comfortable anywhere, it was hard to see him as having ulterior motives for anything. I didn't trust Jasper though. I made sure my emotions reflected that so he would know it too.

I ran through the woods that stretched alongside the 101. I stayed far enough in to stay hidden from the regular humans on the road. my fur was a midnight black and that helped enormously when trying to be stealthy. Not all of the guys were so lucky.

While I was a wolf I was connected with Jared immediately. I was glad it was him. He was a good fighter, but a voice of reason. Ideally, I would be able to bring Paul, let him match up with Jasper. He was too much of a hot head though. Another option would be Embry, he was smart, basically a human lie detector test, but he wasn't much of a fighter.

Gee boss, I'm glad you think so much of me, the Middle-of-the-Road werewolf. Jared's voice popped into my head, interrupting my thoughts.

I'd prefer to think of you as a Jack-of-all-Trades. I thought back. Listen, I need you to come with me. We were right, it is the Cullens, just not all of them. Bella is in the hospital and I need to see her, make sure when is ok, I could use some back up, just on case. Let's have Seth come take outside while you come in with me.

Jared let loose a howl, one meant specifically for Seth. It took only a moment, then Seth's voice was in our heads too. We decided it would be best for him to bring his sister too. Leah needed to learn to recognize the stench of a leech.

All was quiet for the rest of the run to the hospital and when we got there I realized that we had beat the vamps and we had beat them by quite some time too.

Author's Note:

I was rereading some of the chapters in the story looking for some details and I read some of when Bella was with the doctor that I wanted to talk a bit about. Bella uses some words about mental illnesses. She says crazy and she mentions not being sad or nervous to say that she doesn't think she is depressed or has anxiety. I want to clear up that I realize that mental health isn't tied up in that sort of bow. The point of describing it that way is because that part was being told by Bella's perspective and she is just ignorant about mental illness. I don't want her to seem like a bad or mean person, just someone who doesn't understand it. As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression I wanted to clear that up a bit.

Aside from that, I hope you like the chapter :) It is a little bit longer than the last few and I'm really proud :)

Anyways, ya'll know I love reviews, I love constructive criticism, I'm on my own here, no beta so I know that mistakes happen, I'd love it if you've got opinions.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story! Happy reading!

Dahlia