Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer not me.
Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel of Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.
A/Note 2: A huge thank you for everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.
A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.
Alpha
Book I – The Third
Harrison Black
16. Goodbye Gift
"You're being an idiot, Will." I whispered to my brother who was sneaking out of the bedroom's window. We had arrived not even an hour ago and he was already leaving, against Dad's instructions. "We are supposed to be resting."
"Chill out, Harry. Granddad is asleep and I'll be back before breakfast."
"That's not what I'm talking about."
Will shrugged. Since he had become a wolf he had stopped caring about the rules. It was like he wanted to challenge everyone all the time and for the most stupid reasons.
"I'm not doing anything wrong."
"What about Lex?"
Alexis was Josiah Han's daughter, and Josiah was our instructor at Hunter Motorsports. She was also a pilot but her father had mentioned once he would never let her run for real because he didn't want her to get hurt. Lex had other plans, of course, and she began asking for Will some driving lessons, which escalated to make out sessions and a few weeks later, they were dating. Josiah was unaware of his daughter's relationship with Will but they wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for long.
"We broke up." Said William interrupting my thoughts.
I was agape. I could not believe what I was hearing. If Josiah found out that Will broke his daughter's heart breaking up with her only four months after their first date, he would flip. Actually he would probably try to kill William the next time they met.
"What? When?"
"Three days ago."
"You broke up with our instructor's daughter over the fucking phone? Are you crazy? Do you want to get fired?"
"Relax, I've got everything under control."
"Even if you broke up with Lex, she is engaged! You can't keep seeing her!"
"She was the one who called me, I'm just going to see what she wants." Will grinned and jumped out of the window silently. "Don't wait up for me."
From all of the careless things Will had done in the past this was probably the stupidest ever. I was pretty much sure this adventure would end up badly for him.
Out of the two of us, Will was the one who had more success with the opposite sex. He was bold and straight forward and apparently girls liked that in a guy. He had dated a few girls but so far only three of those relationships had lasted more than a month. Lex was his latest girlfriend but deep inside I knew, and so did Will, that just like the others, she wouldn't last.
Although it was easy for my brother to find a girlfriend, he was stuck on a girl that he had humiliated and rejected once, a girl with whom I had fallen in love with eight years ago but hadn't pursued because I didn't want to compete with William for a girl. Besides I knew she loved Will back. So I had no other option but to watch them from afar.
Things didn't work between them though and a few months later we left the Reservation to join Joe Kitt's Autosport. From that day on, we rarely saw her.
But now we were back and so was she and the moment William saw her at the beach during Old Quil's memorial, I knew he would try to win her heart and nothing would stop him. Because that was my brother's true nature: he was restless, wild and stubborn as a mule and he would not stop until he got what he wanted. So it didn't matter that she had a fiancé, and it didn't matter that our families were not on good terms.
Lying down on the bed, I tried to focus on the events of the last few hours to forget about my brother's secret date with her. We had chased a vampire, the Volturi were here, Isaac had the ability to block powers, my father had complimented us, and my muscles were hurting from running for hours.
The first time I had noticed Rhea White she was also running on our school's improvised track.
My train of thoughts changed once again to her but I didn't stop it because I missed seeing her, even from afar.
It was no shock that our school did not have the best conditions to practice sports since it wasn't a public school. Everything was improvised: the football and basketball fields, the track, the locker rooms, and the baseball pitch. That was why only the kids from Forks got sport's scholarships.
Rhea was athletic, unlike the other girls from our class she liked to play with the boys. Since she was a transferred student from another reservation, she was alone most of the times.
That day I met her at the track to apologize on Will's behalf. On the first Physical Education class, Will had been extremely rude to Rhea because she beat him playing basketball in front of the whole class.
From then on Rhea became a target to Will and our friends, who liked making jokes about her. She had a hard time making friends. Despite all of that I fell for her unaware that William's initial hate towards Rhea was also turning into love.
Unfortunately for me it seemed that the popular saying "opposites attract" was actually true. Rhea liked William too.
That was the first time I actually felt jealous of my brother.
William and I shared many things. I guess it's normal since we were twins. We had even shared our mother's womb. Sharing was never a problem for us and we had never felt jealous of one another.
Besides, it's known that twin siblings have a stronger connection than other siblings. We always did feel like we were two halves of one person. And the feeling intensified when we phased. It was something none of us could explain.
And that was not the only thing about that was hard to explain. Will and I weren't just protectors of our tribe like the others. We had abilities that everyone thought were gone. William could move objects with his mind and when he was under control his power could be quite useful, but when he was not, things could turn out to be unexpectedly dangerous.
As for me, I didn't have a power per se, I was just able to control my brother's ability and avoid his telekinesis from turning into a mass destruction phenomenon. Moving objects with the power of his mind seemed to be pretty simple to control but it happened that Will was a very unstable person. So when he was upset, anxious, sad or excited, things tended to fly over and hit anything or anyone in its way.
Three years ago the Cullens had to remodel their living room because Will wasn't able to control his ability and I failed to calm him down properly. Only Edward and Jasper knew the truth. The other Cullens believed that Will had accidentally phased inside the house.
From that day on, Edward and Jasper became our mentors and we started training right away.
On that same say Edward spoke to me privately and told me that I should never leave William's side because he could turn out to be very dangerous to the people around him.
"Your brother might be the one who possesses the cool ability but you're the one who can control it. You complete each other, Harrison." He had told me back then. "Without your control, William might turn into a threat for everyone, even your family and friends. Today we saw how destructive he can be. Yesterday he moved Alice's car, today he was able to destroy our living room, tomorrow he might be able to wipe out a whole town. You need to stay by his side. If you're with him, his power will be under control."
It turned out that Edward was right. But Will wasn't the only one who needed training. I needed it too in order to synchronize my thoughts with Will's and let him feel my presence as well as accept my assistance in controlling his emotions and his ability. Our minds would have to be synchronized as well as our emotions.
After several training sessions, and mainly due to Jasper and Edward efforts, we were able to succeed.
On ninety per cent of the times William used his power, I was able to prevent things from going haywire but, on rare occasions, things didn't work out so well. We were two different people after all. We had our own personalities, both competitive and strong, but different from each other.
So far the fact that I had to be close to my twin brother was not a problem for me. We were best friends and we shared a lot of other things: we had the same favorite color, the same favorite food, the same hairstyle, the same favorite movies, music, and sports. The list was long but there was something that we could never share. A girlfriend.
So it was actually ironic that we had both fell in love with the same girl.
Stop thinking about it, you moron. My brain warned me. You'll end up phasing inside Billy's house. You always knew she liked him, you always knew she would choose him and not you.
William didn't know about my feelings for Rhea. No one did. Actually he didn't even realize he was in love with her until it was too late because he had systematically denied his feelings for her until the night we celebrated our graduation.
I forced myself into a sitting position. It was a quarter past one in the morning and I focused my attention on the soft snore inside the bedroom next to mine. Not even an earthquake would wake Billy up so I got up quietly and took some clothes out of a drawer leaving the house in silence. I needed something to distract myself. It was not healthy to stay there thinking about the night my brother had slept with the girl I was in love with so I decided to check on the pack to see if they had managed to catch the leech. Maybe I could give them some advice.
However when I phased I only met silence.
Weird. I thought. Maybe they caught the leech. Or maybe they are unconscious. Or dead.
That thought got me worried. I decided I should check what was happening and I ran full speed towards the last location I had been with the pack when Uncle Embry, Jared, Brady, Collin and Denis had replaced us in the hunt so we could come home and get some rest.
As I approached Lake Ozette area I felt a distinctive smell that told me there were vampires nearby. I counted five of them going east. One of those vampires was definitely Alec, so I figured they had successfully caught Gustaf and they were now on their way back to Italy.
I knew for sure that Alec had already picked up my scent too, so I went to meet them. I wasn't worried about being alone because we had a pact that didn't allow mutual attacks.
The five leeches were standing under a huge oak tree. Gustaf was the last one, and he was half-hidden as if being protected by the other four.
Alec took a step forward to greet me but it was clear that he wasn't expecting to see a wolf there.
"I thought you were having a nap, pup. Isn't it past your bed time?"
I growled. Alec had a special touch with words. He reminded me of Uncle Paul, only Uncle Paul's comments were always about sex and Alec's were just plain evil.
"What are you doing here, dog?" Chelsea asked clearly annoyed. "The others went home already. Are you lost?"
If they were speaking the truth that meant the pack was okay. That was a relief but I wasn't going to let them go without making sure no one had gotten hurt.
I went behind the bushes and phased back, quickly putting my shorts on. Then I met them again.
"Came to say goodbye?" Alec mocked. "Where's the other one?" He was wondering why Will wasn't with me.
"He was so distraught about your departure he couldn't even leave the house." I answered back. Alec laughed.
"Why are you here?" He insisted and for a split second I had the impression he was concerned about my presence there.
"Just making sure you leave our lands quickly."
"I see… Your father is a cautious man." He commented. He thought I had been sent by my father.
"He wouldn't have to be so cautious if you followed the rules."
"I can sense some criticism in your words…" He grinned. "But there's no need to escort us. We have what we wanted and your pack is safe and sound."
"Go back to where you came from… dog!" Gustaf barked behind the other Volturi. "I can't believe you have an agreement with these creatures."
"It's because of that agreement that you're still alive, leech!" It was my turn to growl. "Because filthy creatures like you don't usually have second chances with us. We make sure they all go to hell."
"In that case I'm glad I left you a goodbye gift." He hissed with a sinister laugh.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's nothing." Chelsea said immediately. "He's just teasing you. Go home."
"If you go north, you'll know what I mean." Gustaf said with amusement.
"Let's go." Alec commanded and the other four vampires followed him. The last thing I saw was the smirk on Gustaf's pale face and his red glowing eyes.
I immediately recalled that when Isaac attacked him, his eyes were pitch black, an indication he hadn't feed yet. If his eyes were now red that could only mean one thing: he had fed recently and he had left a body behind.
His final victim. That was probably the gift he was talking about. We had helped the Volturi to capture him but we had ultimately failed our mission and we had allowed Gustaf to kill again.
I phased and felt almost immediately the metallic scent of blood brought by the night wind. Instead of running after them seeking revenge, I decided that it was more important to find the body of the person Gustaf had attacked because I could still feel faint heartbeats.
I didn't have to run a long way. On a secondary road there was a red car, still working, with no one at the wheel. The driver's door was open and the radio was playing a romantic song. I phased back to human to inspect the scene. The metallic scent was stronger than ever and I could hear someone breathing heavily. As I circled the car I found a girl lying on the concrete, there was blood on her blouse and her jeans were ripped because she had tried to crawl back to the car. She had her cell phone on one hand but was unable to call 911.
In that moment I had a rough decision to make. The easiest and probably the best thing to do was to kill her before she could turn into a vampire. That had been, of course, Gustaf's plan all along otherwise he would have killed her after feeding on her. Leaving a new born behind was his way to get back at us for hunting him down and almost killing him.
I could also let her turn into a leech and hand her over to the Cullens. Maybe they could adopt her too and make her one of them after teaching her how to become a vegetarian vampire.
My last option was to call the Cullens and ask them to take the venom out of her bloodstream and hope that she'd be strong enough to survive the procedure and stay human.
Making my choice I removed the cell phone from her hand and dialed Carlisle's number. It took only a second for the doctor to pick up.
"It's Harry. I need your help. I'm with a girl… she was bitten…"
"You bit a girl?" I heard Emmett's voice in the back.
"Not me, a vampire!"
Emmett could be an idiot some times.
"Oh…" He sounded disappointed.
"Is she breathing?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes."
"Can you estimate how long ago was she bitten?"
"I don't know. The blood on her clothes isn't completely dry yet. Maybe ten or twenty minutes."
"Where are you?"
"Can you locate this cell phone?"
"Yes, of course. Hang on in there. We're coming as fast as we can." Carlisle promised.
I felt relieved that they didn't ask more questions. Carlisle would know what to do once he got there. Maybe there was still hope for her.
After turning off the cell phone I kneeled beside the girl lying on the floor. She opened her eyes and flinched when she saw me. I guess a half-naked guy wasn't exactly who she wanted to see in that moment.
"Stay away from me…" She said in a weak voice. I couldn't even imagine the terror she had felt when Gustaf took her out of her vehicle and bit her so I wasn't surprised about her reaction to a stranger. She was probably thinking I was an accomplice of her attacker and that I was going to kill her.
I put a hand on her forehead. She was cold so I sat down on the floor, my back against the car and I picked her up into a tight embrace. My high temperature could help to warm her up a little.
She tried to fight me but she had little strength now since she was still losing blood. I heard her begging me not to hurt her and the rage I felt for Gustaf and for what he had done to this girl almost made me phase.
"Don't fall asleep okay? Help is one the way." I whispered.
"Who are you?" She asked in a very weak murmur. I realized she was going into shock.
"You'll be okay."
"I'm cold… I'm so cold."
"I know. Just hang on."
I asked her who she was, where she lived, what was her occupation but she was too weak to answer my questions. I had no idea what to do if the passed out.
Finally, five minutes later I heard the familiar sound of an engine pulling over.
"So what happened?" Carlisle asked feeling the girl's pulse. He wasn't alone. Alice, Edward, Rosalie and Jasper were surrounding us too.
"I believe she's gone into shock but what worries me the most is the bite mark on her neck."
"Do you know who did this?" Edward asked.
"I met Alec and the others… Gustaf said he had left us a goodbye gift. I followed the smell of blood and found her."
"Were they leaving?"
I nodded affirmatively.
Edward and Carlisle exchanged a worried look.
"You better go check what happened." The doctor told his son.
"I'm on it." Edward left running immediately.
"Where is he going?" I asked.
"To find out if this attack can turn into a war between the pack and the Volturi."
If any of the Volturi had agreed with that attack or even helped Gustaf attacking that girl, my father would probably declare war against the Italians.
"Can you save her?" I asked anxiously. "Can you do the same thing that Edward did to Bella so she wouldn't turn?"
I had heard that story so many times that I knew every little detail as if I had been present in that music studio myself when a human Bella Swan was attacked by James, a vampire who had also tried to kill Alice and was responsible for her transformation. Bella was luckier because when James bit her Edward was able to take the venom out of her body granting her a few more years as a human girl.
"You want her to remain human after being bitten?" Jasper asked uncertain. I guess this girl's chances weren't as good as Bella's back then.
"Yes. It's possible, isn't it?"
"We don't know how much time has passed since she was bitten." He answered. "It might be too late Harry."
I knew Jasper was only being realistic but I wanted them to try.
"Let her go and I'll see what I can do." Carlisle said. I hadn't realized I was still holding her close to me as if I wanted to shield her from any more harm.
"Do you think you can save her?" I insisted, reluctantly placing the wounded girl in the doctor's arms.
"Alice can you take us to your house? This isn't something I can do in the middle of a road." Carlisle said. "I'll try my best to help her, okay?" He turned to me and then he faced his adoptive daughter.
"Sure. I was hoping to invite everyone to visit my new house this summer... but I guess I can take us there." She said while she helped Carlisle to place the girl on the back seat of the Mercedes.
"Rosalie, Jasper can you take care of her car? Take it back to our house, if she makes it, we'll return it to her later. If not… we'll think of something."
Rose and Jasper nodded.
"You do realize that she can die, right?" Alice asked me starting the car.
"Yes." I confessed. I didn't know if I should be the one deciding the fate of this girl, but at the moment I didn't see any other option.
William and I had been chasing and killing vampires ever since we were fifteen. We knew the dangers we faced every day because my parents told us what it was like to live like this. We knew what was at stake. As protectors of our tribe, it was our mission to help the pack, protect innocent people and fight leeches. We had made our choice to be wolves.
But this girl didn't have any choices now. She was an innocent person who had been caught in the crossfire and she could end up either dead or turning into a bloodsucking creature. That was not fair.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked Carlisle who was on the back seat with the girl in his arms.
"Pray for a miracle." He said.
And I did.
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