Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
'To your right, Sam!'
Jacob's mind screamed its warning and a split second later Sam was diving out of the redhead's way as she slammed into the earth where he had been. When the dust cleared she was gone...after gouging out a car-sized crater in the earth.
'Aaaaagh!'
It could've been Sam. Or Leah. Or himself even. All of them were howling with rage and frustration. They had the numbers on their side but for all the good it did especially with this female leech. Time and again, when it looked like they finally had her pinned she'd find a way out of their grasp.
'Jake, they might round my corner!' Seth's voice reached him. 'I can try to surprise them.'
Jacob sped up in his direction. 'No! Don't do anything without backup. I'm coming.'
Suddenly his powerful nose sensed a shift in the air. The leeches…they were doubling back…leaping in the air... towards him!
Shit. 'Sam!' He yelled telepathically and braced himself.
'Ooomph!' Jacob fell in the dirt, rolling and tumbling around while he pawed everywhere around him hoping to make contact with something. He felt his long claws latch onto fabric and…there! That was someone's leg. Or maybe an arm. Come on, come on, just like in the stories. He needed to dig in and twist. Rip this limb off of its owner. Burn the pieces. Come on!
But just as he tightened his hold, something slammed into his head from behind, blinding him for an instant and weakening his muscles. It was enough. Whatever he had grabbed was no longer his. His claws held nothing more than cool night air. Seconds later the bloodsucker and its scent were gone.
'God damn it!' Sam yelled when he finally reached his side. There was a long gash from his neck to halfway to his ribs. Just as he identified it however, it started to fade. Jacob had yet to see a truly damaging wound on his packmates. They could heal at the speed of light, but still...they were not completely invincible. Their stories told of gruesome deaths at the hands of leeches like these...deaths from wounds too great even for their accelerated healing to overcome. He had to remember that. The all needed to remember that lest they get too cocky.
'You scared, Jakey?' Paul sneered from who knows where. 'Scared the bloodsuckers will give you a big booboo?'
As if to add color to his comment, Paul slashed out and tore down a tree so that it fell inches away from him. Jacob growled. That son of a-
'Cool it!' Sam's voice stopped his menacing steps toward Paul. 'Paul, go stand guard at the clinic. Seth: the woods by the highway. Leah-'
'Whoa, wait a minute,' Jacob interrupted. 'You're splitting us up? I don't know if that's such a good idea.'
'We don't know where they'll strike next,' Sam replied, annoyance dripping from his inner voice. 'I don't want any part of the reservation unguarded.'
'They're not after anyone on the reservation!' Jacob snapped, surprising himself. 'They've had like a million chances at that already!'
'I'm with Jake,' Leah chimed in. 'We can barely fight them with all of us here let alone one on one. Let's stay together.'
Before Sam 'spoke' a single word, Jacob already knew what he would say. Sam's emotions translated themselves into a language just as effective as words, and they reached him (as well as every member of their fledgling pack) with the force of a sledgehammer.
'We will watch over the tribe,' Sam said slowly. 'That is our responsibility and that is our obligation.'
Sam chose his words with diplomacy but none of them were fooled. When this was over he and Leah would be in quite a bit of trouble for second guessing the boss in the middle of a pursuit. The two of them had already been subject to a talk with him earlier. Sam apparently didn't like Jacob and Leah's last conversation regarding his leadership. Phasing into their wolf forms ended the illusion of privacy. Every word, every emotion, every intent was laid bare and shared with every other pack member.
Sam sounded reasonable but they all knew how he really felt. Inside he was bubbling with rage.
Despite the physical revulsion he felt when defying Sam's word, he still tried to change his mind. 'Sam, some of us are barely broken in. You might hold your own against one or two bloodsuckers, but Seth-'
'Seth is a protector of the tribe, same as me, same as you. He can hold his own.'
No, no, no he can't! Jacob wanted scream but he held his tongue. He tried and tried to rein in his violent thoughts but it did no good. The others heard and felt everything. He was scared for Seth, scared even for Leah. He was angry with his lot in life, cursed to follow this man for the rest of his. And he was confused. He was so, so lost because deep down whenever he envisioned a way to undo this wolf curse...whenever he dreamed of an escape from life as a tribe protector, he invariably pictured the likeness of the last person he ever wanted to see, Bella Swan. Somehow in his imagination, unfettered by his sadness for his mother or his indignation over her choice of friends, she always got him to fly away from his troubles. And that mortified him far more than the darkest pair of burgundy eyes.
"Rose, you don't have to hold on so tightly," groaned Bella.
Rosalie gritted her teeth but relented and loosened her grip.
"Can you see anything?"
Silence. Rosalie's eyes glinted with frustration, anger, and obstinacy.
Bella sighed. "Please?" She begged.
"I don't care what you can do-you're still human!" Rosalie hissed. "You can't see like them. You can't fight like them. You can't react like them!"
Good god, this again. Bella thought their endless arguments on the flight from Forks were over now that they were in La Push airspace but it looks like Rosalie has a skull thicker than the average vampire's.
She tried to reassure her girlfriend. "I won't let any of them come near me. I swear. Rose, please. If you won't be my eyes I'll have to go down there and I'd much rather do this from up here."
The look on Rosalie's face...If Bella wasn't 100% sure of her feelings towards her she'd be cowed with fear. The blonde was pissed off, and though Bella knew much of this was directed at her for what appeared to be her brazen recklessness, she held her ground. She was going to do this with or without Rosalie's help.
Rosalie glared down at the darkness below, and Bella waited with bated breath for her to tell her what she saw. It was taking a lot of her concentration to keep their scents from leaving their bodies, on top of keeping the two of them afloat. Bella was telling the truth when she said she'd rather not go down there, but not because of personal safety. She was worried she'd have trouble splitting her focus any more than she currently had to.
"That way," Rosalie finally whispered pointing (and glaring) north. "Half a mile."
Bella breathed a sigh of relief and sped in the right direction. The cold, hard object in her pocket flew into her free hand and she clasped it tightly. She never went anywhere without James' lighter. Feeling the hard edges on her skin, she allowed herself a moment of excitement. Tonight's the night. Tonight she'd experience the thrill of disintegrating flesh and bones, of burnt hair and sinews. Her heart was pounding not out of fear, but out of anticipation.
Her vampire nudged her a bit. "Get ready."
She nodded. If only she could see as well as her. Even with the acute improvement of her senses granted by the wind, she was useless against a vampire that moved faster than said wind.
They had one chance at surprise. It would be their best shot especially with the danger sensing Victoria. Once chance and then…
"There's a wolf down there. She's heading right for him. 42 degrees. On my mark...NOW!"
She fired. The tiny flame from the lighter came loose and with Bella's help, grew in size and intensity. Then a split second later, she hurled it straight into Victoria.
...And missed.
"Fuck!"
Despite her lackluster night vision, Bella was still able to make out a pair of deep red eyes searching the sky. She saw them lock onto hers.
"Up! Up!" Rosalie screamed.
The two of them shot up 100 feet higher just before Victoria leapt up with all her might. It was no contest this high up, and the hissing nomad landed on the forest floor without a prize.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaggghhhhhhh!"
Bella yelped herself and covered her ears with her hands but it still felt like blood were seeping out of them. Victoria's shrill scream sounded like a high pitched earthquake magnified a thousand times. Her eyes watered even as her vision started to fade.
Rosalie made a motion from beside her, and it took a few seconds for the meaning to register. Of course. As soon as Bella understood what her girlfriend was frantically trying to tell her, the offending sound stopped and she could breathe again.
"Are you ok?" Rosalie asked worriedly.
"Yeah," she gulped in large lungfuls of air...air that was blessedly empty of Victoria's monstrous screams because Bella kept them contained to the distraught vampire herself.
"We should go," Rosalie said tensely. "She won't stay anyway now that she can sense the danger. She-"
Rosalie broke off, staring hard at the surface far below.
"What?" Bella asked. She looked down too but she could barely make out the striped yellow lines of a road and maybe some treetops. "What do you see?!"
To be inside Rosalie's head right now...the blonde's bright eyes, usually steady in whatever strong emotion she happened to be feeling, flickered painfully between who knows what until she finally gritted her teeth and forced herself to answer.
"She's not leaving," she whispered. "She's...they're ambushing that wolf."
Without another moment to waste, the two of them dropped closer to the earth. Rosalie, craning her neck and extending her senses every which way to ensure no one-vampire, wolf, or human-would intercept them, guided them to mere yards of the scene. And what a scene it was…
The wolf was smaller than she had anticipated. All of her friends' stories about them had Bella thinking she'd be encountering a creature the size of a minivan. This one however, would be more aptly comparable to a mini cooper. His sandy colored fur stood at attention near his neck, indicating fear at the onslaught he was getting. And he most certainly was experiencing quite the onslaught.
Where are the rest of them? Bella wanted to ask, but there was precious little time to do anything.
She had barely gotten a ball of flame from the lighter into her hands...barely felt its warmth connecting to the heat in her own core...when the unthinkable happened.
Victoria and Laurent suddenly managed to grip the small wolf-one on each end-and for a moment the wolf disappeared completely inside their embrace. They they both twisted hard on the form between them...in opposite directions.
The cracking of bones was in some ways louder and more horrifying than Victoria's screams had been. Bella, and even Rosalie gasped from their position in midair. They almost missed the wolf's instant transformation back to his human body-it was a boy, impossibly young. But it was the expression on his face that forced Bella to act...it was an expression of a most terrible, most devastating pain.
But as heart wrenching as the sight of this boy was, what happened next was even worse.
Victoria and Laurent never stopped breaking the boy's body, now human instead of wolf. They moved in synchronous time around him inflicting more damage...faster than Bella could make out. The only clue she had on what they were doing came from the sounds of the boy's body breaking over and over again.
Finally the frenzy stopped long enough for Bella to see more than two blurs. In that moment she lit her lighter and prepared to fire...when suddenly Victoria bent down and swooped closer towards the boy's neck, her intentions as clear as the night was dark.
Bella didn't think for a second as she reacted.
A thick wall of air flew from her chest and hit the two vampires, knocking them back and away from the injured boy. In one movement she sent Rosalie flying back up in the air, while she herself touched down on the ground.
Far above she heard Rosalie screaming for her. She ignored her and instead stood over the fallen boy. His breathing came in shallow bursts but at least he was breathing. Bella didn't know much about human anatomy, much less a shapeshifter's anatomy. But she did know that they were supposed to heal pretty quickly. Judging from the body at her feet, this was not happening.
Rosalie screamed again, louder this time. "Behind you!"
She whipped around in the nick of time, catching a blur moving right for her. Again she released a blast of air from within her. Again the vampires were thrown back. But this time they got up as quickly as they fell and ran straight for her again.
Hold still, she thought in frustration. But it was no use. The nomads knew better than to pause even for a split second. Bella could repel them but sooner or later, she would slip up and they'd come crashing through.
So she settled on keeping herself and the boy at her feet safe. She closed her eyes and focused. A wall of fire erupted from the tiny flame of her lighter and shot up, closing around her and the boy. She couldn't see through it, but she hoped in desperation that the two monsters were still there, that maybe Victoria wouldn't see this coming. She sent Rosalie even higher in the sky before her power erupted outwards in every direction, burning everything, and hopefully two malicious vampires, in its path.
It's funny how her connection to fire had changed since James' death. In the past when she lost control, she was barely conscious through the actual destruction. Inside, she felt amazing, but it was like her consciousness locked itself inside an impenetrable room so that the extent of her actions always took her by surprise when she awoke. When she overcame that problem with Carlisle's help, she could control it as easily as walking or talking. But the feelings of overwhelming jubilance, along with the excruciating pain she always felt when repressing the waves that constantly battered her from the inside...dying to come out, became less and less potent.
Since killing James however, everything had changed. Now, when she allowed herself to let loose in the privacy of the north, she felt everything. Her fire was an extension of her mind, her very senses. Whatever it consumed, Bella herself felt the connection like an intimate touch. Every tree, bush, blade of grass...every tiny critter...she felt connected to them in a way that baffled and disturbed her. The feeling was especially powerful when it touched, and subsequently extinguished, living things. It was glorious.
As the power rushed out from her body, Bella again felt her earlier anticipation rise inside her. Consuming two vampires would be akin to a hit of the most powerful drug known to man. She wanted it badly.
Five seconds. Ten seconds. Nothing.
Then...something. A quarter of a mile away, she felt the edge of her flames singe something she'd never felt before.
A wolf.
Bella opened her eyes, halting the expansion of her powers. Yes, a wolf. It was singed but already healing. She glanced at the boy next to her. They're coming for you.
The opportunity was gone, she knew. The nomads had already fled, and with them Bella's chance to lose herself in their deaths.
Abruptly, Bella brought the flames back to her until they extinguished unceremoniously inside of her. She struggled not to show the effect of this-it didn't hurt per se, but it did feel like a momentous weight thrust onto her shoulders...enough to make her want to cry.
There wasn't time for any of that however. As soon as the area was clear of fire, two more shapeshifters appeared in front of her, growling and snarling at her and the boy at her feet.
"He's hurt," she whispered to them. "The nomads ambushed him."
The russet colored wolf continued to snarl at her, making threatening advances then backing off a little. The grey one however went right for the boy, licking him and nudging him, presumably trying to rouse him.
"Don't move him!" Bella stepped closer, facing the grey wolf. "I think most of his bones are shattered."
She moved to touch him but the wolf snapped at her hand and she pulled back immediately.
"I'm not going to hurt him," she insisted frustratingly, and turned around to see if the other wolf was more amenable.
But the other wolf was gone. Jacob stood in its place.
Bella nearly choked on the large gulp of air that entered her lungs. She hadn't seen Jacob since prom...since he found out the worst thing a person could find out about his best friend...that she was a killer responsible for his mother's death.
Jacob leaped forward, zipping up his shorts as he did so. He ignored Bella completely and instead went to the injured boy.
"How long has he been like this?"
The question was directed at her, it seemed. "Five minutes. Maybe a little more," Bella replied.
He touched the boy's chest and arms slightly, frowning worriedly when he felt bones in odd angles throughout his body. Bella's attention was torn between the suffering boy and Jacob. God, she missed him.
"Why isn't he healing?"
The question came from what used to be the grey wolf. In the minute of distraction Jacob caused in her, Leah (who else could it be?) had phased and clothed herself. By the panic in her eyes and voice, it was painfully clear that the boy was her brother, Seth. The Clearwaters.
"I don't know," Jacob murmured. Worry and panic started to show on his face, and Bella desperately wanted to take those haunted looks away and replace them with the jovial ease she was accustomed to.
"Carlisle can help him," she said tentatively.
Leah hissed. "A leech? He'd kill him first chance he got!"
"No, he wouldn't," Bella replied, determined. She looked at Jacob. "And you know it."
"No fucking way! Jacob, no!"
But Jacob was staring at Bella with a look she did not know how to define. Was he trying to determine her intentions? Her sincerness?
"It doesn't matter," he finally said looking at Leah. "Sam would never allow it."
Bella looked from him to the boy. The anguish on Leah's face was too difficult for her to take in. She took a chance and reached for Jacob's arm. He flinched, but he didn't move away.
"He could die," she whispered. "He needs a doctor. Who else if not Carlisle?"
Jacob closed his eyes and continued to shake his head.
"Hey!"
Oh, shit. Rosalie.
Bella gulped as she immediately brought her irate girlfriend closer to the earth. Leah, predictably, hissed and took a protective stance over Seth when she noticed the blonde vampire. But Jacob, curiously, barely reacted. He looked up at her in silence, waiting for her to speak.
"This is a violation of the treaty!" Leah yelled.
"No it's not!" Bella yelled back. "She has never set foot on your land. As you can see…"
"If you lot are done bickering over bullshit," Rosalie glared at Leah. "I suggest we move this party to the other side of the treaty line so we can help the boy."
Bella looked up at her, confused.
"I already called Carlisle," Rosalie explained. "He's waiting for us on the other side."
She and Bella looked between Jacob and Leah. The two of them, especially Jacob, looked to be struggling with quite an internal conflict. Bella sighed impatiently. Seth didn't have much time.
Leah glared daggers at both her and Rosalie, but then, surprisingly nodded to Jacob, who reached forward to carry Seth.
"No," Rosalie said firmly. "Bella, you carry him. Make sure he can't move anything."
Bella understood and gently lifted him up into the air, ignoring Leah's gasp. "Hang on to something," she said to the Indians wrily, then levitated them up too.
It didn't take long to reach Carlisle, who was waiting mere yards from the treaty line with the rest of the family.
Bella took note of Leah and Jacob's discomfort, exponentially pronounced now that they were surrounded by six vampires, and took steps to minimize it. When she cut off the vampires' scents from them they looked around startled, and Bella gently explained what she had done.
"Bella, keep hold of him," Carlisle instructed as he inspected the boy. From the corner of her eye she saw Jacob looking on, confused as Emmett embraced Rosalie. Oh boy, she thought. She sure wasn't expecting to have to explain that.
"His bones are crushed," Carlisle explained to Jacob and Leah quietly. "He's started to heal, but the bones aren't setting correctly. I'm afraid they'll need to be rebroken so they can heal properly."
"Can't we do that on the reservation?" Jacob asked.
"Perhaps," Carlisle began. "But I'll need to monitor him. And I would want Bella to assist. He's going to be very agitated and he must keep as still as possible. Bella can help with that."
Jacob slowly shook his head. "The pack won't agree to it. Because it's Sue's son they might let you on our land but…" He looked at Bella. "But not her. She's too dangerous."
It was a slap to the face for Bella who tried not to flinch at what Jacob was insinuating. But he was right, wasn't he?
"You little flee bag," Rosalie snarled. "She saved your mutt's life!"
Carlisle ignored everyone around him as he kept on inspecting Seth. "We can take him to our home." He looked up and continued. "I have suitable provisions for caring for a patient, and can get additional supplies by morning. You're welcome to accompany us of course."
He looked utterly lost. Suddenly, without warning, he phased to his wolf form. The family stepped back as one. Bella on the other hand froze in her spot. Was he going to attack? Attack her?
"He must be checking with Sam," Leah breathed, looking like hell had just frozen over. "Sam will never agree."
Carlisle looked between her and Seth. "I hope for your brother's sake that he does."
Jacob trembled with anger and frustration at Sam's orders. Bring Seth back to the council, he said. Leave the bloodsuckers at once, he said. He was to lure Carlisle across the treaty line without explicit permission from the council. That would justify an attack on the Cullens and their elimination once and for all. And the worst order, the most infuriating of all: kill Bella Swan.
He immediately phased back when the wisps of dissent gathered in his mind, not caring one bit that he was now stark naked in front of Bella, Leah, Rosalie, and the rest of the bloodsuckers (he'd regret that later if he survived the night). This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. But it was. And clearly, it can.
Was getting rid of these animal eaters worth Seth's life?
Did Seth have to die just to satisfy Sam's vendetta against the creatures that made him what he was?
Is Bella the monster everyone (everyone but these strange creatures) thinks she is?
His very being ached with the struggle of these questions, with the weight of them. But answer them he must, here and now, if not for himself than for Seth's sake. Something was happening deep inside of himself that he did not understand, but he knew instinctively that whatever it was, he had to let it play out before he took another step.
He had to. He had to…
Bella watched Jacob closely. Something curious was happening (other than his nudity), that was for sure. It shouldn't be this laborious to voice a response, but Bella could swear he was having a difficult time using his voice. What was going on? He looked like he was in pain...like the words formulating in his mind were creating a seismic shift in his being.
"All right," he finally blurted out. As soon as he said it however, his whole countenance changed. Whatever conflict happening inside his head appeared to have dissipated, and a wave of serenity settled over him. Bella glanced to Leah, and she too was watching Jacob carefully as the change occurred.
"Sam did not give permission," he said. "But we don't need it. I'll go to your home."
Leah exhaled, but she too looked a lot less tense than she did five minutes ago. "I'll go too," she said.
Please forgive any glaring grammar and spelling mistakes. It's 5am and I'd like to get at least 3 hours of sleep before I go to work so I'm gonna go over this and proofread it later. Quite a bit of action, eh? Let me know what you think in the reviews!