Chapter 20

I was pretty much asleep when I heard Angela's voice. "Hey guys, are you out here? I just finished with- oh my god! I'm so sorry!" I opened my eyes just in time to see her red face as she turned around to shield her eyes. Stefan was still sleeping underneath me and I had no idea what the panic was about. Wait, underneath me? I was suddenly aware of the awkward position that we were in; my leg was draped over his legs and most of my torso was on his chest. When I tried to move, I realized that my arm was stuck under his back. The blanket I had brought out was covering our lower halves. He was snoring softly and didn't seem to notice. The morning was particularly warm and so was the night from what I could recall, so I couldn't figure why we had unconsciously gotten tangled like this.

"Stefan!" I hissed, leaning over his face. "Wake up!"

"What is it?" he said groggily, rubbing his eyes.

"Dude, move. You're crushing my arm."

"Sorry," he said, sitting up to free my trapped. He moved too quickly and ended up smashing his forehead right into mine.

"Ow! Stefan!" I pulled my leg off of his lap and rolled over, already feeling the bruise that would appear were I human. I rolled right into the boulder we had used for arm wrestling.

"Oh, sorry!" he repeated while standing up, blinking quickly and rubbing his head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I took the hand he was offering me and stood up as well. "Thanks."

"You can turn around now, Angela," he called across the yard.

She turned back to us slowly. "Uh, yeah. Well, I just wanted to say that I just finished with Bella's daylight ring. Are you guys..."

We both stood up to show her that we were decent. "Yeah, nothing, uh… happened," Stefan mumbled, blushing slightly. His hair was messed up from his sleep and was not helping with our suspicious look.

"That's nice that you made her a ring," I said, adjusting my wrinkled pajamas. "Where is everyone?" I peered through the window and saw Emmett and Rosalie talking.

"I think that Bella and Edward are out. They were excited to get out of the house now that Bella won't burn. I'm not exactly sure where Alice and Jasper are but they're not here either."

Stefan was folding up the blankets when the doorbell rang. "I wonder who that is?" I asked, watching Emmett rush to the door.

Angela shrugged. "Maybe it's Alice. Do guys need help with-"

I heard shouting from inside. "Where is she!?" someone demanded. Stefan dropped the blankets he was holding. I ran back into the house with Angela and Stefan right behind me. "What did you do to her?" At the doorway was a kid who looked around my age with dark black hair and tan skin.

Emmett spoke quietly. "Calm down, puppy. You-"

"This isn't time for jokes, goddammit Emmett!" He stomped into the house and grabbed him by the collar. "Where's Edward?"

Emmett easily pulled the boy's hand off of him. "He's out with Bella." Jacob's eyes flashed with anger and he looked around the room, finally locking eyes with me.

"You," he hissed. "You're the other bloodsucker, aren't you? Did you turn her?"

I shook my head."No, I didn't. Well, not on purpose anyway. Who are you?"

Emmett smiled. "Caroline, Jacob. Jacob, Caroline. And back there," he pointed at Stefan, who had been trying to stay out of sight, "is Stefan. You probably heard about him from Sam. He's Edward's doppelgänger."

"Yeah, I've heard of him. That's not what I'm here for. Is Bella a vampire or not?" He was practically shaking with rage.

"Yes," I said quietly. "It was my blood, but Victoria turned her. Not me."

"Victoria? Did you manage to kill her?"

I hesitated. "No, but we destroyed her entire army. She got away since we were distracted by her killing Bella."

He walked into the living room, towering over me. "So you mean to tell me that Bella became one of you for no other reason than you accidentally letting Victoria kill her?" I stepped backward.

"Okay, Jacob. We'll talk to Sam about this. Just calm down." Emmett stepped between Jacob and me.

"Calm down? You weren't supposed to turn her and now she's some weird blood filled vampire. I already talked to Sam when I saw her speeding around through the forest."

"You saw her?" Angela joined us in the living room. Stefan still stood silent on the other side of the room.

"Angela?" Jacob stared at her. "Are you one of them too?

"No!" She showed him her normal-looking teeth and I tried not to laugh. "I'm, uh, normal. Jake. So what did Sam say?"

He let out a deep breath. "He sent me here to tell you all that the treaty is broken, and you're going to have to leave."

"That makes no sense!" Emmett yelled. "We kept up our side of the deal, the only thing we couldn't do was bite a human. Caroline didn't even bite Bella, it was her blood."

Jacob shook his head. "Doesn't matter. A vampire has been turned, and therefore you can't stay here."

"You didn't make the treaty with them. It was us, and we didn't turn anyone! They're a different type of vampires," Emmett said frustratedly and then added, "no offense."

"No offense taken. But he's right. Why would that violate the treaty if it's not even them who did it?" Stefan asked Jacob. Jacob had been glaring at him more than he had been at me, probably because he looked like Edward.

"I'm just following Sam's orders," he said defensively. "And he's just following the rules that we made with Cullens."

"And we're saying that we didn't break any," Emmet yelled.

Jacob stepped towards him. "A human is turned, the vampires leave. That's the rules."

"No, it's not! It's if a human is bitten!"

Jacob glanced around at the rest of us angrily. "Even if you didn't break any of our rules, you broke the Volturi's."

Emmett sighed loudly. "It was never going to work out anyway. If we followed their instructions, we'd break yours. We'd be dead either way."

Confused, I spoke up. "Wait, who's the Volturi?"

"They're a super powerful coven of vampires in Italy that decides everything that happens with the rest of the vampires. We made a deal with them that Bella would turn. They pretty much said that either we turn her or else..." He made a twisting motion around his neck with his hands.

"So you're saying that if you turned her, you'd break the treaty with them and get killed." I pointed at Jacob. "And if you didn't, you'd break the rules with the Volturi and also get killed? Why would you agree to this?"

"We didn't have a choice," answered Emmett.

"Well, who's more dangerous? The Volturi or the wolves?" I asked.

Jacob shook his head. "You can't possibly suggest you'd go to war or something like that?"

"No, that is what I am suggesting. It's a stupid rule that we didn't even break." I crossed my arms, hoping that I looked intimidating. "How else do you suggest we solve this conflict?"

Stefan finally spoke again. "We could leave."

I turned around to look at him. "What?"

"Haven't you been wanting to? We get off of the land affected by the treaty and the issue is solved. The Cullens didn't do anything wrong, so they'd be fine," he explained. I couldn't help but stare at him, surprised by his change of heart. "I just don't want to get killed by a bunch of wolves," he added.

"That could work. As long as you stay away, Sam should be fine with that," Jacob said. "It doesn't solve your problem with the Volturi, though."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Stefan told him. "For now, we should probably get packing, then."

Emmett looked upset. "You're leaving? Can't you stay for a couple more days?"

Jacob answered him. "I think that'd be fine. As long as you're gone soon, I don't think Sam will mind." He ran his hand through his black hair. "I'll talk to him tonight."

"That's what you're going to do then," said Emmett. "You can be on your way, now."

"Fine. Say hi to Bella for me, will you?" he asked, looking at me with sad eyes. He didn't linger any longer as soon as Rosalie joined us, giving him a glare that could kill. Even after he closed the door quietly behind him, I could still feel the tension in the room.

"So, I guess we should clean up our stuff then. Not that we have all that much stuff." I glanced down at the pajamas; they, along with all of my other clothes, were the property of either Alice or Rosalie. "We never finished cleaning up outside. It's a bit of a mess."

Emmett's sullen look turned to a smirk. "What exactly were you doing last night that made it so messy?"

I blushed. "Noth-"

Stefan interrupted me. "That's between Caroline and me." Emmett's eyebrows raised so high that I swore they were about to meld with the hair on his scalp. Stefan walked out the door and motioned for me to follow him, which I did.

"It's not like-"

"I know."

I nodded slowly and tried not to smile. "So, I'll put away the blankets and pillows, and you put back the big rock, okay?" I instructed. He agreed and picked up the boulder and started walking toward the forest where it had been previously. As I was brushing the grass off of a pillow, I heard a phone ring. Stefan stopped walking; his cell phone was ringing from his pocket.

"You gonna answer that?" I asked, watching him stand around holding the boulder.

"I don't know where to set this." He was standing in the middle of a patch of flowers and obviously, Esme would not like it if he placed the rock on top of them.

"Here, lemme help." I set the blankets down and appeared at his side. He looked at me quizzically before I stuck my hand in his pajama pocket and fished around for his phone. As soon as I did, I realized the awkward situation we were in and avoided eye contact with him. I... did grasp the phone, eventually. Men's pockets are much deeper than women's, I found.

"Stefan's phone," I answered.

"Caroline?" said the familiar sounding person on the other end.

"Mom?" I laughed, overjoyed to hear her voice. "How are things?"

"Care, listen to me. Don't come here, you'll get yourself killed."

Stefan leaned over to listen in and I hurriedly spoke into the phone, "What's going on? What happened?"

I heard some shuffling on the other end. "We're in Mystic Falls," came Victoria's voice. "Either you bring Bella here by tomorrow or I'm doing exactly the same to your mom as I did to poor Bella. And this time, she doesn't have your blood to save her."

I cannot apologize enough! The school year is about to end so I've been so busy that I hadn't updated in longer than two weeks! Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll try to update as soon as I can!