Dearest Readers,

I hope you don't hate this story. And if you do, why are you still reading it because I'm annoyed at the comments that keep repeating "I hate this story"- especially when the same person does it over multiple chapters. But at the same time I also enjoy those comments because it means that even though you hate it you must be oddly drawn to it which is a beauty in itself.

I'll take what I can get, I guess.

Yeeees I know some of this is problematic, but please recognize that I know it is which means it MUST be happening for a reason, which will all come to light in later chapters. This story is not complete, which means there is room for development, lol.

I hope you enjoy the small amounts of revelations & developments that happen in this chapter.

XOXO Ally Layne.

Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 18: Rise of the Floorwalkers

The next few weeks, in my opinion, were weird.

Jake had been bouncing back and forth between hanging out with me and developing our friendship and hanging out with Bella. There were two times where I noticed he actually canceled his plans with Bella to spend some time with me looking into leads about the disappearances, but that could just be because of that stupid protection detail.

If Jake wasn't looming around or eating out of my kitchen, another member of the pack was. I had half a mind to start charging them for the food they consumed, but I had to admit that it was nice to have someone else around for a change.

I definitely took that back, however, when Paul decided that he was going to move into one of the guest rooms at the house.

"I'm moving in," He told me one night, when he walked up to my door with a duffle bag and a pillow.

I had known about his own situation at home, though. Whatever happened between Paul and his father was not something I needed to know about, but it was something I understood all too well. "Sure. You can take one of the guest rooms."

He didn't look me in the eye as he nodded, took off his worn combat boots, and then trudged up the stairs.

I felt my eyebrows furrow as I watched him slowly make his way up to whatever space he'd pick, noticing the abrasions that stood out on his arms.

"What's that about?"

I turned to see Jake standing in the living room with crossed arms, looking over to the stairs where Paul had disappeared. The movie we had been watching was now paused behind him, and I noted that it was paused just seconds after I walked over to get the door.

He had heard everything.

I was actually surprised that he let me get the door in the first place, but that was a completely different story and argument that happened before. I think he must've learned his lesson from the first time he tried to get the door at my house.

I shrugged in response. "Not sure, but I'm glad he's here."

He nodded. "So am I."

Paul had become a permanent fixture at the house and tried to insist that he pay rent, too. I just told him buying groceries now and then would be enough rent, considering it was Camp Half Blood that actually had paid for this place already in full, and covered utilities and any taxes.

I definitely didn't argue when the cupboards in the kitchen became stocked with all of my favorites, including blue-icing pop tarts.

This morning, I decided to have it as my breakfast.

"Do you normally have junk for breakfast, Princess?" Paul asked from where he was sitting at the kitchen island and cramming a bunch of scrambled eggs in his mouth.

Of course, he wasn't wearing a shirt today. Just his basketball shorts.

Meanwhile, I was layered up and ready for our walk out to the beach to check in and see if anything has been heard from my favorite fishies.

"Do you normally eat like that or is this just a phase for you?" I countered.

He raised a brow. "I'm a growing man, I'll have you know."

I nodded, taking a bite out of one of the pop tarts. "Sure you are."

"And I have a high metabolism so I'm always eating," Paul added. "I literally burn off calories with my body heat."

I tilted my head. "You are practically a furnace," I admitted. "I wonder what happens when you actually do get a fever."

He smirked. "We don't get sick."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure you don't."

I put on my tennis-shoes and started to walk out the door with a sputtering Paul quickly scarfing down the rest of his food before following behind me. "What do you mean, sure you don't. Of course we don't get sick, we have crazy awesome immune systems!"

I shrugged. "Technically I did just agree with you."

"But you said it with your sassy bitch tone," he countered.

"Sassy bitch tone?"

He laughed. "Yes, that exact tone that you just used. You become this sassy bitch."

My mouth fell open. "I am not a bitch, why'd you just call me a bitch? That's all kinds of mean, you asshat!"

He rolled his eyes as we walked side by side through the woods. "I didn't call you a bitch, I just said you sounded like one."

"That's the same thing."

"No, it's not.

"Yes, it is."

"No-"

"What are the two of you doing?" Another voice interrupted.

We whipped our heads to see Embry walking towards us with a big signature grin on his face. He, at least, was wearing a shirt.

"Paul, why is it that Embry is wearing a shirt and you can't seem to find it in yourself to put one on?"

Paul rolled his eyes. "That's not what we were talking about."

"I thought the two of you were arguing, actually," Embry added, as he fell into step with us on our journey to the beach. "You both heading to the cliffs?"

"The water, actually, so Andie here can do some fish-girl stuff."

I glared at Paul. "First you call me a bitch, now you call me a fish-girl?"

Embry's mouth dropped open. "You called Andie a bitch?" He shook his head. "Not cool, man."

I threw an arm around Embry. "Thanks, Emb. Sometimes Paul can be mean to me, you know? I really just need someone who'll be nice to me all the time."

"Why, so you can bully them into everything?" Paul asked, punching me softly on the shoulder. "You're too sarcastic, Princess. You'd make a nice boy cry."

I grinned. "Who says he's gotta be a nice boy?"

Embry shrugged his answer.

"I just need a guy who will be nice to me. I don't really care about how he's like to anyone else… well, to my friends and family he should be nice, but if he's nice to me wouldn't he need to be nice to them by extension?"

Paul blinked. "You're rambling."

"No, duh. I'm just thinking out loud."

"So you haven't found your perfect man yet?" Embry asked, looking at me from the corner of his eye. "Even the one you cared about before he… you know-"

"Killed himself to save the world?" I offered, before letting out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I know. But no, Luke was great, but even in the middle of it all I knew he wasn't the one meant for me, you know? It was just nice to have some comfort in the chaos."

"Besides, considering he was trying to kill your friends and family, it sounds like he's not the kind of person you're currently looking for," Paul added, raising his brows pointedly.

"That is also true," I said dryly. "And he is dead so there's no going back to that."

The rest of the walk to the beach was spent in silence.

I definitely needed to learn how to be a little more charitable in my conversations, but to be honest, at that point I preferred to keep my thoughts to myself.

As soon as we got to the water, the boys started doing whatever it was that boys did and ran up to the cliffs and joined some of the others who were mucking around there as well.

I took off my shoes, coat, and extra layers before walking out into the ocean myself, doing my best to ignore the howls coming from the boys on the cliff face.

Quickly, I failed to ignore them and snorted when Paul pushed Jared off the cliff, wincing at the sound of his skin slapping against the waves. Luckily I knew the boys had a little extra durability because of their small furry problem, which kept me from hurrying over there to make sure he wouldn't drown.

When Jared bobbed back up against the waves, he held his hands in the air and started to taunt them to jump in after him.

Of course, the boys followed.

At the sound of their bodies hitting the water, I allowed myself to be coaxed underneath the waves and started to swim out from shore to see if I could locate one of my newfound friends for any information.

Once I was deep enough and closer to the drop off, I sighed to myself. There was nothing in my sight, just a whole lotta blue.

These waters are ones we frequent, sing to us if you want to speak again, Princess Andromeda.

I never sang for whales before, so this was going to be a first.

What was I even supposed to sing?

But my mind brought me back to the song they sang to each other, and I started to hum the tune that I knew they would recognize.

How would I know they could even hear me?

I kept humming, only to get an answer to my question just moments later when I could faintly hear the same tune being sung back to me.

I smiled.

This was so cool.

The pod of orcas who had helped me before swam into view, making my smile widen even further. "Hello, there."

We heard you sing for us, Princess, the one in front told me, before swimming around to view my form from one of its eyes. Your tone was lovely.

I couldn't help it, and started to laugh. "You would be the first being to ever tell me that," I admitted. "For humans, my tone is usually way off."

You were just like us, your Highness, another orca spoke. You sounded like another one of our kin.

"Perhaps I missed my calling as one of you."

We certainly would be honored to have you swim amongst us, Princess.

I looked to the one who had spoken. She had scratches along her sides and scars that showed she was recently being bullied by another sea creature.

"Do you want me to heal these wounds?" I asked, swimming slowly up to her side.

I watched as her eye followed me carefully. Are you able to do so?

I nodded happily. "It's one of the perks of being in the ocean, I am able to heal myself and beings around me…" my eyes widened. "Maybe I need to go to the coral reefs next."

I am sure the coral would enjoy that, the head of the pod spoke. We would be pleased if you could heal her wounds, she defended us from an attack from one of the floorwalkers.

"Of course," I told them. "Can I place my hand on you?"

Yes, that is fine.

I smiled at her warmly and then slowly placed my hand on her side, making sure not to move too quickly so I didn't stress her out. A familiar tug pulled in my gut as I focused on the water and the animal in front of me, watching as it's skin slowly knit itself back together.

By the time I was done, only scars from the attack remained.

I looked at them intently. "Who are the floorwalkers?"

They are like humans in looks, but don't breathe as they should, The pod-leader explained. When she got too close to the male, as we tried to keep him from coming to this part of the peninsula, he lashed out and scratched her.

I blinked.

"He is the one who tried to kill me," I told them. "Did he make it to this side?"

We did not allow him an easy path, and he turned back.

I did not hold back from exuding my thanks. "You most likely saved my life or that of my friends, I thank you all deeply."

The female I healed rubbed her side up against me, like a dog or cat would nuzzle a human to show affection.

We will protect our Princess.

I smiled. "And I will protect you."

.

.

.

After wading back up to the shore and plopping myself down on the ground, I was immediately surrounded by members of La Push's own dog pack.

We probably need a dog park for them, which is something I was thinking about bringing up to Billy Black next time I saw him.

I think he'd be pleased with the irony.

"Did you get to talk to any of your underwater friends?" Embry asked me before he went and shook his head to try and get the excess water out of his hair.

I winced at the feeling of the water dropping on my skin before running off onto the ground. Luckily for me I couldn't get wet.

But all the other guys grumbled at his actions, making him roll his eyes.

"You're all already wet so shuddup." He then looked at me as though I smacked him silly. "And why are you all annoyed? You're the one that can control whether or not water gets on you in the first place, Sea Queen."

I felt my eyebrows furrow. "It's the fact that you were acting like an actual dog by shaking yourself off that annoyed me."

"I still don't see how it would have any effect on you."

"It's the fact that you shook yourself off, Embry. You're literally a dog," I deadpanned.

"No, I'm a wolf," he said, crossing his arms. "There's a difference."

I raised a brow. "I didn't know that wolves pouted."

Quil cracked up in laughter. "That's a good one, Ands."

Embry scowled at his friend. "Shut up, Quil."

"Make me."

If there weren't any other people on the beach, I would've used my powers to stop Embry from lunging at Quil, but I could hear a woman walking her dog behind us so I didn't want to take any chances.

Paul and Jared looked at me with long-suffering glances as the two others started to wrestle on the beach. "So, did you end up getting any information?" Paul asked, moving on to what Embry had tried to ask before.

But of course, we all seemed to have the attention spans of goldfish.

I nodded. "Turns out there was a floorwalker aka a vampire that tried to get to our side of the peninsula earlier this week," I said, which quickly made Embry and Quil's mini-fight come to an abrupt halt. "The Killer Whale that got too close to the vamp ended up having some nasty scratches to show for it, so I helped her out and healed them."

"Damn, we'll have to make sure Sam knows," Jared mumbled. "Thanks for letting us know."

"They kept the male vamp from coming via water but I'm not sure if that just forced them to use other means," I told them as I pulled my jacket back on, shivering at the cold front that blew in over the tide.

"You think they could still be trying to get through our borders?" Paul asked.

I shrugged. "They certainly wouldn't be giving up that easily."

"Well, she's not wrong," Embry said, rubbing his arm where Quil had gotten a good hit earlier. I could tell that there was a bruise, but it looked like it was days old instead of just minutes.

Friggin dogs.

"I'll make sure Sam and Jake know. They're on patrol right now so they can make sure they're on alert," Jared said.

"I thought Jake was with Bella," I said, slightly surprised. "I mean, I guess he'd either be with her or patrolling right now, but I thought he was hanging out with her today."

Embry rolled his eyes. "Bella, Bella, Bella," he grumbled. "When is it ever going to end?"

"She's definitely using him," Quil added, crossing his arms with a frown. "It's hard to watch."

"Dude, she's leading him on until her Vamp comes back to suck her dry," Embry said. "We all know what's going to happen."

Jared perked up. "You think the vamps are coming back?"

"I'd be surprised if they didn't with everything that's going on," Embry affirmed.

"Well, I hope they come back if only to take her away," Paul grumbled. "I don't even understand why Billy lets his kid bring her round, anymore. Not with how-"

"Paul," Jared warned him, eyes darting to me pointedly.

I held up my hands. "I didn't start this gossip war." I looked at Embry directly. "I have a firm belief that if you really want to say something bad about someone you should at least have the decency to do it to their face."

Quil snorted. "And suddenly so much makes sense, now."

Paul sighed as he stood up. "We're going to go to Sam and Em's for some food before we change out patrols," he said. "Do you want to come with us or do you want to stay here and keep doing your witchy stuff?"

I blinked. "Witchy stuff?"

He shrugged. "You know, like talking to fish and stuff."

"That's not witchy stuff, Paul."

When he opened his mouth to retort, I quickly picked up some sand and threw it at his face, making him splutter and try to get it out of his mouth instead of saying another stupid thing.

The other guys immediately started to laugh.

"Note to self, never call Andie's powers witchy stuff," Jared said, while eying his friend in amusement.

"Thanks, Jared," I said, before standing up. "The pop tarts still haven't worn off from breakfast, so I don't think I need to eat for a while. Well, I'll leave you goons to go get some food while I go for a small walk for some air that's not infested by dogs."

"Damn, she keeps adding to the list of insults," Paul rumbled.

I shrugged. "That sounds more like a you problem than a me problem."

"I think it's more like an everyone problem," Quil said.

I gave him a look. "Butt out, Quil. Besides, he's the one who called me a bitch, earlier."

Quil looked over at Paul in surprise. "Really, man?"

Paul scoffed. "I only said she was acting like a bitch-"

"Dude, that's like the same thing," Jared told him, punching his arm.

His mouth fell open.

"See? I told you so," I sang out, before nearly laughing my ass off at the look of frustration that took over his face.

"She's gonna hold that over you for the rest of your life," Embry told him solemnly as they started to walk toward Sam and Em's. "You're never gonna live that down."

"Then quit letting her tell me that," I heard Paul grumble.

"What?" Jared asked. "Quit giving Andie validation that you were a jerk?"

"Exactly."

I snickered as they waved at me over their shoulders and disappeared in the woods on a well-trodden path.

And suddenly, it was just me on the beach, with no dog owners or dogs to be found.

I sighed and allowed myself to wander up to the cliffs where the boys had been dinking around earlier, and plopped myself down on the edge with my feet dangling in the air.

The sounds of the crashing of the waves against the solid rock allowed me to feel like I could relax and try to feel like life was somewhat normal.

If I closed my eyes, I could envision myself at camp, my feet dangling over the edge of the dock, listening as the water slowly lapped against the wooden boards.

I could imagine that Percy and Annabeth were off in a canoe, trying to get themselves to row straight but they kept on 'accidentally' going in circles. As Percy's sister and Annabeth's best friend, I could tell you right now that in no way was that an accident, it was just another ploy for them to spend more time together.

And when they both fell off the canoe, it never happened by mistake.

Which was all too obvious by the flushed cheeks and messy hair that they would both come up with, minutes to hours later.

I don't know how long I sat there when I could hear the waves start to crash far more violently on the cliffs, making me open my eyes to watch as darker clouds started to roll in.

A storm was coming, and I had a feeling I was going to enjoy every bit of it.

The feeling of the water in the air made my ingrained power pulse through my veins, and I took a deep breath, letting my body become completely submerged in the feeling.

Never once had I been able to see how powerful I really was. To see just how well I could control my powers, or to see if I was actually able to manipulate the water even better than my brother could.

Maybe my powers were limitless.

Or maybe they were so weak in comparison that Chiron never bothered asking me to try.

I sighed.

I was tired of being the one who was always placed second. I was the twin that was always the one who was thought of after the other, the one who was not meant for greatness, but to support my brother so that he could be the one to be great.

For a long time, I let myself believe that was fine. That I was fine living like that.

At least, until Luke tried to convince me otherwise.

But, even after Luke's death, I still find myself thinking about his words.

You were made for far greater things than being the second choice, Andromeda.

And then I came here.

But somehow, I'm still the second choice, and my brother isn't even with me. This time, I'm second in my friendship to a girl who wasn't even putting him first.

The wolf pack obviously cared about me.

But no one thought to stop Jake when he threw me out of Sam and Em's? No one thought to defend me when Sam gave me a proper dressing down in front of the entire pack?

Is all of this really my fault?

The sound of someone walking through the bushes and woods came from behind me, shocking me out of my inner self-pitying monologue.

The girl who I had found myself becoming second to walked out of the woods, eyes glassy as she took in the scenery of the ocean in front of her.

"Bella?"

She didn't respond as she walked slowly, as if in a trance, toward the edge of the cliff where I was sitting, making me stand up to try and see what was going on.

"You good?"

But she didn't respond, her eyes trained somewhere over my shoulder as she kept moving forward, forcing me to move out of the way before she rammed right into me.

I grabbed her arm. "What are you doing, Bella?"

She pulled her arm out of my grip, glaring at me as she did so, before looking back over the cliff with something akin to joy in her eyes.

"Edward."

I felt my eyes widen as she took another step- one that would send her over the edge, and I reached to grab her, only for her to grab onto my arm in retaliation, and pull me with her.

Together, we fell into the crashing waves.