Ch 27

BPOV

When Jacob returned he was not alone. Two others were with him, Embry and Quil. They were both happy to see me, but thoroughly freaked out by my eyes. They kept their distance slightly, while Jacob just waltzed in like he owned the place. He swept through the door early in the morning, without knocking, thoroughly scaring the crap out of me.

'Jacob!' I scolded when he came into view.

'Bells!' he yelled happily. Mistaking my yell of fear for happiness.

'You scared me.' I said, after he had hugged me, only wincing slightly from my cold skin.

'Why? I announced we were coming.' He said frowning at me and then looking pointedly over at Edward.

'Ah, you hadn't told him about that yet.' Edward surmised as he came over as well and shook Jacob's hand.

'Do you want me to lift it?' I asked Edward. Now the wolves were here it could be beneficial to know what was going on.

'Sure.' Edward agreed. He braced himself for a moment as I lifted my shield and the barrage of thoughts once again filled his mind.

'God Emmett! For the love of God!' Edward immediately shouted. Jacob frowned even more and looked between us confused.

'Sorry! You need to give us a heads up Bella!' came Emmett's voice from upstairs.

I rolled my eyes at that. Not even wanting to know what he had been thinking.. or doing… I hadn't seen Rose around either. I quickly shrugged that off and turned back to Jacob.

'I have a gift.'

Jacob turned his confused look to me. 'A gift? Like his mindreading?'

I nodded. 'yes, some vampires are gifted. Alice can see the future, Edward can read minds, Jasper can influence emotions.' I explained for the benefit of Quil and Embry. 'I apparently am a mental shield.'

'A what now?' Quil asked, stepping slightly closer.

'A mental shield. It protects me from mental attacks, or intrusion, such as Edward's mind reading. I can protect other people with it as well.'

'So you can block him out?' Jacob asked, gesturing to Edward with his head.

Edward nodded. 'When she was human she already had this talent. When she became a vampire she learned to expand it to take other's underneath her shield.'

'And when you're under it you can't hear thoughts anymore?'

again Edward nodded. 'Yes. I'm not under it now, though.' He added with a warning glance.

Jacob held up his hands. 'Had to test it right?'

Edward rolled his eyes but nodded.

'Alright so you're a shield. Good to know.' Jacob said, sitting down on the couch. The rest of the Cullen's were slowly starting to file into the living room as well. Jacob stretched his long legs out and propped one foot on the table. Esme stared at it pointedly and Jacob slowly withdrew his foot again.

'So' he cleared his throat. 'Sam is willing to help.'

Esme breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank you.' she said sincerely.

Jacob shrugged. 'We'll keep an eye out for the redhead on our turf. There's always a patrol going, they've been instructed to keep an eye out and sound the alarm when they spot her. if you come across her scent it would help if you'd steer us to it, then we'd know what we're hunting. He also suggested that we cooperate in protecting Charlie.'

Edward's eyebrows rose in surprise. I wasn't sure if it was because of this information or something else in Jacob's thoughts.

'He doesn't want to risk Charlie.' Jacob said. We all nodded.

'None of us do.' Esme said in a kind voice, placing her hand on my shoulder and squeezing supportively.

'We'll keep to our side though, if you take the street side?'

Edward nodded once. 'That should be fine.'

'Alright then.' Jacob stood up again. 'I guess having a phone number might be easier to do this as well.' He grinned and winked at me. I rolled my eyes at his childish behaviour.

'You already have my phonenumber.' I reminded him.

'Yeah' he snorted, 'and that worked so well.'

'what do you mean?' I frowned.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. I patted my pockets and then it dawned on me that I'd left it on the dresser in our cabin.

'You do tend to leave it lying around everywhere and anywhere.' Alice reminded me gently.

I groaned. 'fine, someone else give him a number then.' I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. Edwrad chuckled and nudged me playfully. I stuck my tongue out at him. Edward quickly gave Jacob his number.

'There was one another thing we'd like to discuss with you, if you still have the time?' Carlisle said, before Jacob could move towards the door to leave.
He looked at Carlisle with a raised brow.

'yes?'

Jasper threw a newspaper on the table between us. 'Have you seen this?'

Jacob picked up the paper and Embry and Quil crowded around him. they quickly scanned the article and then looked up at Jasper.

'vampires?' Quil asked frowning.

Jasper nodded. 'We think there's an army of newborns wreaking havoc.'

'Newborns?' Jacob cast his eyes to me.

Jasper nodded. 'Not like Bella though… these are wild and uncontrollable and very, very dangerous.'

'we think this may be connected to Victoria.' Edward said. 'The redhead.' He then clarified.

'why? How?'

'We're not sure exactly, but Alice can't see Victoria and she also can't see anything about these newborns, it seems too much of a coincidence not to be related.' Carlisle said.

'so what do you need form us?' Embry asked.

'If it is indeed linked to Victoria, she'll bring that army here, to Forks. Perhaps to kill Charlie, perhaps to completely decimate this town.' Jasper said. 'we need to stop her.'

Embry and Quil let out low growls at that information. Jacob looked deep in thought, and for a moment it was quiet all around.

Then Edward's gaze snapped to Alice as she let out a wild gasp. Her eyes clouded over and her mouth was opened in a horrified O. Edward winced and looked equally horrified as he watched alongside her. 'They're coming!' she said in a defeated whisper.

Edward had frozen beside me and suddenly his hand shot out to clutch my hand in his.

'What do you see Alice?' Carlisle asked.

'There's snow on the ground. They're in the woods. One of them has Charlie's fisihing hat.' Alice described. 'They're heading straight to Forks and Victoria is their leader.' her eyes came back into focus, and her lip started quivering as her eyes immeidately landed on Jasper. 'There's too many of them... not all of us will make it.'

A quiet hush fell over weveryone as all mate's immediately clutched at each other tightly. No. i told myself. there had to be something else. some other way... we couldn't lose anyone...

'When?' Carlisle asked in a whisper.

'It will be the first snow of the season.' Alice said. 'two weeks from now.'

Jacob, Quil and Embry stared at each other for a moment. Then they nodded.

'We're in.' Jacob said firmly. Alice gasped again and then frowned.

'Great. Now I'm blind.' She muttered, rubbing her forehead.

Edwrad still held my hand in a deathgrip but relaxed slightly. 'But it will help. We'll be fine if you help us.' He said.

'We'll make Charlie stay on the Rez.' Jacob suggested, already planning ahead. 'and we'll make sure there are wolves to protect the rez.'

'we'll all need training.' Carlisle said. 'to be able to work with each other.'

Jacob nodded once. 'when?'

'Night would be best, less chance of a stray hiker being in the woods.'

Jacob nodded again. 'text me when, and I'll make sure we're all there.'

'Are you sure Sam will help us with this?' Alice asked slightly hesitant. 'No offence against you three, but this is an acutal army coming our way. We need numbers.'

'And you'll have them. Trust me.' Jacob said grinning, and Edward shook his head slowly.

'Plus, these will be acutal bloodsuckers we can kill.' Embry said, a particularly nasty grin spreading across his face.

I suprresed a shudder. 'Are you sure?' I asked. 'This will be dangerous. You could all get killed.'

'Bella. If they don't help, we could all be killed.' Rosalie said softly.

I hung my head. There was no winning here it would seem. it was agreed then that Jacob would inform Sam and that all wolves would be at the baseball clearing at midnight today. He'd text Edward if there was anything delaying them, but he was sure they would be there. They left in the best mood and were chatting and laughing boisterously as they imagined taking down a few vampires. I shuddered. Stupid immature wolves, I thought to myself. They would get themselves killed if they didn't start taking this more seriously.

Edward pulled me against him and rubbed my back soothingly.

'It's going to be alright.' he whispered in my ear.

I sighed and tried to relax against him. but I was wound too tightly. 'They'll get hurt.'

'Bella, wolves are meant to take on vampires. They know what they're doing.' he assured me.

'And with some training from Jasper we'll all be ready to kick some newborn butt.' Emmett said, grinning widely and pumping the air with his fist excitedly.

I tried not to roll my eyes at him. 'What if Victoria changes her mind though? What is she comes sooner, or alone and kills Charlie?' my mind was working overtime coming up with different doomscenario's of how everything could go wrong.

'We'll know. We'll make sure Charlie is safe.' Esme soothed me.

'Come on' Edward pushed me away from him and took my hand, leading me to the door. 'We'll take first watch over Charlie tonight.'

'are you sure?' Carlisle asked concern lacing his voice. Edward nodded.

'Alright. make sure to stay hidden though.'

Edwrad nodded again.

We raced out of the house, sticking to the woods and quickly made our way to my house. I guess it was charlie's house now…
Edward pulled me up into a tree.

'I used to sit in this tree and watch over you, until I found that your bedroom was a much better place to be.' He turned to smile at me.

I grinned back at him. the tree did give a good vantage point into the house. Edward's hand rubbed soothing circles on my back.

'I know you're worried about him. I know you miss him.' he whispered.

'So much.' I whispered back, leaning into him for support. 'I wish I could just tell him I'm fine and happy.'

'I know.' Edward said soothingly. 'perhaps you can find some comfort in knowing he's relatively happy?'

'What do you mean?' I asked.

Edwrad nodded his head to the front of the house. On the porch stood Sue clearwater. I frowned. What was she doing here?

'Harry died a while ago. Sue and Charlie have been helping each other through their grief.' Edward explained. 'they've gotten closer and closer over the past few months. He's not alone Bella.'

my eyes burned with the sting of tears which would never fall. I watched as my father opened the door and a breathtaking smile spread across his face. He pulled sue into his arms and they stood for a moment hugging each other tightly. I let out a quiet sob, and Edward pulled me into his arms.

'Is this too hard for you?' he whispered anxiously. 'I thought it would help you…'

I shook my head. 'it's exactly what I needed.' I assured him with a trembling voice. sue and Charlie went into the house and I let out a shuddering breath. My dad was going to be fine without me.

He had Sue now. A weight I hadn't known was on my shoulders suddenly lifted and I smiled through my sobs as we listened to their playful banter as they cooked dinner together and ate their meal.

Dad was finally letting himself be happy again, and although I wished I could be there with him, I was glad that he'd finally opened himself up for love again.