Girls Night Out!
AN: Wow! Thanks, everybody, for the positive comments about Alice's make over! Now, I just hope this chapter can live up to everyone's expectations... It's long... very long. And lots of things happen, so I hope you stick it out to the end. Please let me know what you think!!! I'm trying harder to post more often, honestly I am! Remember- reviews inspire me and spur me on to write the next chapter....
Thanks to everyone for reading/reviewing! LOVE you, people!!
"I'm driving," Rosalie announced as we hustled into the Cullen's enormous garage. She flashed a set of car keys and headed to the bright red convertible gleaming dully in the dim light as Alice shrugged happily.
"Fine by me. Us short girls get the backseat, Bella," she said, taking Bella's arm and jumping in. Not seeing any way out, and not really trying to find one, either, I climbed into the front passanger seat and put my seatbelt on firmly.
Rosalie laughed. "Oh, come on, Leah. You've got that little trust in me? I'm not going to crash my baby!"
"I'm not worried about you crashing. I just don't want to go flying out if you make any sudden stops," I informed her seriously. "I'm more breakable than any of you, remember?"
"That's true. Safety first!" Bella agreed, always the cop's daughter, as Rosalie whipped the car out of the garage and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. "So, how long is this four hour trip going to take us, anyway?"
"I think I can shave it down to an hour or so, give or take," Rose answered confidently. "Damn. Should've put the top up. My hair's going to be a mess by the time we get there..."
Alice pulled out her iPod and searched it with a look of intense concentration as the wind whipped around us. Being as it was the middle of April, at night, and none of us were wearing all that much for clothing, we all should have been turning into little blue popsicles in designer dresses. As it was, with their temps hovering below freezing and mine hotter than an oven, the breeze merely felt refreshing.
"Clear roads from here to Seattle," Alice piped up suddenly as she leaned over the seat to attach her iPod to the console. "This one's for you, Leah!"
I rolled my eyes as the music blasted through the speakers, grinning in spite of myself. "Nice. Thanks, Alice."
All the single ladies! Now put your hands up!
Up in the club, we just broke up
I'm doing my own little thing...
Alice just laughed and started dancing in the backseat, much to Bella's horror. Vampire or not, she still freaked out about the pixie standing up and bouncing around in a vehicle doing well over 100. Surprisingly, Rose started dancing in her seat, too, singing along although she kept one hand on the wheel. After a moment or two, I shrugged my shoulders and joined in. What the hell, right? Alice cheered and gave me a high five before cranking the bass as far as it would go.
Rose took us on side roads to avoid going through Forks, which occasionally had us skirting the border between Cullen land and La Push. Which may have been why the strong scent of wolf didn't alert me to anything strange until I saw several enormous, shaggy shadows racing through the trees on either side of us.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed, abruptly stopping dancing to squint into the darkness. My seatbelt locked up as Rose stomped hard on the brakes, the tires squealing and smoking as we skidded to a halt.
"Now do you see why I'm wearing my seatbelt?" I asked her sarcastically, ruefully looking at the already-fading red marks the belt had left on my collarbone. Rose stared ahead with a dark glower on her beautiful face and didn't answer me.
The convertible's headlights illuminated a huge, hulking form of a man about twenty feet in front of us, and as we watched, four massive wolves detached themselves from the darkness to flank him, effectively blocking the road.
"Sam," I hissed out his name like a curse under my breath. Rosalie revved the engine roughly.
"Want me to run him over?" she offered, just loud enough for me to catch under the blaring music.
"Not yet, but thanks," I replied, quickly undoing my seatbelt and standing up to glare over the windshield at him. "What the hell do you want, Sam? Get out of the damn road- we're not going over the border!"
I reflected that my mother would've washed my mouth out with soap if she'd heard me, but I really didn't care. How was it that I went for over two months without seeing him at all, and now he kept popping up at all the worst times? I hadn't given him much thought at all today, and now here he was, crooked nose and everything, gaping at me like he'd never seen a woman before. My stomach suddenly twisted up so violently I felt like I was going to vomit.
'Cause you had your turn, and now you gonna learn
What it really feels like to miss me
'Cause if you liked it, then you should've put a ring on it...
Face flaming, I quickly reached down and switched the music off. Alice snickered in the seat behind me, and I shot her a dirty look over my shoulder.
"Leah? Is that... what the hell are you doing?" Sam suddenly exclaimed, his face unnaturally pale under his tanned skin. All the wolves stared at me with incredulous expressions, and I had the overwhelming sensation that I'd just been caught doing something horrific. And that pissed me off. Enormously.
"None of your damn business! What the hell are you doing, standing in the middle of the road like an idiot?"
"Get out of that car!" Sam roared, and I was momentarily startled by the frantic fury in his voice.
"No. Why should I?" I spat back, fingers gripping the top of the windshield so hard it creaked under the pressure.
"Get. Out. Of. That. Car. Dammit, Leah! Don't make me-"
"Don't make you what, dog?" Rosalie snarled, revving the engine again.
"Maybe you should get out and show him that slit in your skirt," Alice snickered evilly, and I wanted to smack her with one of my killer stilettos. This was so not amusing. Not even in the slightest.
"I'm not going to ask you again, Sam. What's your Pack doing over the border in wolf form? Or do I need to get Jake out here?" I demanded again. Sam glared at me, his whole body trembling, and I fought down a wild sense of panic. What the hell were they doing over the border like this? It couldn't possibly be some kind of attack on the Cullens, could it?
Sam looked like he was in danger of exploding out of his skin at any second. "Jake knows? Jacob Black knows your in that car with... with..."
"With her sisters," Bella finished coldly for him, and for once I didn't feel like grimacing at the very thought. Sam did, though. His face looked like he'd just taken a bite of rotten meat, and one of the wolves flanking him actually gagged.
"Sisters? You can't be serious, Leah. That's taking things too far-" he began furiously.
"I'd watch what you're saying, dog," Rosalie cut him off in an deadly voice that dripped acid ice off every word.
"Sam, I'm not asking again. You'd better have a damn good reason for stopping this car. Because right now it's looking like a pretty aggressive move," I snapped out. That worry, that what if the Pack was attacking, was clawing frantically at my insides now, making me tremble. I had to keep focused to keep from shifting right then and howling for my Pack.
Maybe Sam picked up on that, or maybe it was the car full of violently angry vampires staring him down. Whatever the reason, I saw him take several deep breaths to calm his trembling, although his hands stayed clenched into white-knuckled fists.
"We picked up a bloodsucker sent this afternoon on the rez-"
"It wasn't any of us," Bella broke in quickly, defiantly. The big wolf by Sam's right shoulder- Paul- snorted in annoyance. Sam silenced him with a curt wave of his hand.
"No. We know that. This one smells different. Worse, if that's even possible," he told us with a grimace, and Rosalie snarled at him. He ignored her and continued. "Picked up the scent on the beach first and played cat and mouse with him all day. We finally tracked him out here, and now we're running the border to make sure the leech doesn't try to sneak back in."
"That still doesn't explain why you stopped us, dog," Rose hissed aggressively, and the wolves flanking Sam growled low in their chests. I trembled again, ready to burst into my wolf form if any of them took so much as a step towards our car. Not that that would do a whole hell of a lot of good.
"We stopped you for information," Sam bit back, and I noticed he didn't bother to quiet the growls behind him. "Is this bloodsucker a friend of yours? Or is it somebody else that's trying to kill one of you?"
His eyes flickered to Bella momentarily with that last sarcastic taunt, and the hiss she gave him was pure venom. I had to fight a smile, despite the situation.
"C'mon, Bella. How many people have you had trying to kill you? Besides the whole newborn army, even," I couldn't resist muttering to her. Rose snickered, and Bella gave me an exasperated glare.
"Oh, thanks, Leah. Like I needed to be reminded."
"It's nobody we know," Alice suddenly piped up, breaking out of the semi-trance she'd been under while searching for the trespassing leech.
"You're sure?" Sam demanded, and she gave him an annoyed glare.
"Of course I'm sure. And he's not looking to have anything to do with my family, either. Any of them," she added pointedly, laying a hand on my arm for emphasis. Two of the wolves snarled, and a tremble ran through Sam's body again. I lifted my chin haughtily, daring him to say one word about it.
"It looks like he's just passing through. I think he'll be out of the area before dawn," Alice assured the Pack confidently.
"That's good to hear. Thanks for the information," Sam replied tersely. I steeled myself to glare back at him as his dark gaze pinned me. "Still, it would be safer if you went back home."
I knew, from the way he said 'home', that he really meant 'home in La Push', and my blood boiled again.
"Oh, like you should be telling me what's safe. You're running around outside the border looking for some vampire that you don't know anything about! How safe is that?"
"Safer than riding around in a car with three bloodsuckers and another one god knows where!" he bellowed at me. The angry hisses filling the car around me almost drowned out the growls from the Pack, and Sam passed a shaking hand over his face to calm himself down.
"Please, Lee. Just... get out of the car. Come home. Please."
Oh, god. My knees trembled at the raw emotion in his voice, and I very nearly did what he asked. Three pairs of amber eyes watched me; Rosalie's angry and hooded, Bella's anxious and unhappy, and Alice's sad and disappointed.
"But what about Seattle? Sisterly bonding?" she murmured softly to me. "We're all dressed up..."
I stifled a laugh, thinking only Alice would get so upset over being dressed up for nothing, and rolled my eyes. To hell with Sam and his stupid prejudices! Suddenly, I felt liberated. Free. Sam could get down on his knees and beg me right now, and I still wouldn't get out of that car.
"How could I walk out on that? Even if it means risking my life with vampires," I asked with a sarcastic grin. Rose smiled hugely, her white teeth glittering in the dim light, and revved the engine again.
"If that's all you've got, dog, I'd appreciate it if you got out of the road," she called to Sam, an edge of ice on her cheerful voice.
"Seattle. You're still going to Seattle when you know there's a strange bloodsucker on the loose?" Sam asked dully, a hint of incredulous annoyance coloring his words.
"He's not heading towards Seattle," Alice informed him seriously. "Besides, it's not like there aren't any other vampires in the city, anyway. There's always one or two roaming around."
Sam paled, squeezing his eyes shut. "Don't do this, Leah. Please."
I stared at him emotionlessly for a long moment. "I'm not weak and helpless, Sam. I'm not Emily," I finally stated coldly, before sitting down and firmly buckling my seatbelt. "I'd move, if I were you. Unless you want to get run over. Let's get moving, Rose."
"With pleasure," she returned with grim cheerfulness, and she stomped down hard on the gas. Tires squealing, we shot past the Pack as they dove out of the way. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I just caught Sam's massive form exploding, shreds of clothes floating in the air as he darted away into the trees.
"You okay, Leah?" Bella asked carefully. I was silent for a moment, analyzing.
My insides felt like jello, and a part of me felt like wailing and running through the trees after him. My Sam. But the other part of me, a bigger part, felt so incredibly light, that I wanted to bounce up and down in my seat and sing. I wanted to call Embry and tell him that I'd finally done it! That I'd looked Sam in the eye, and walked away from it in one piece.
"I'm fine. Really and truly, I'm fine," I answered my almost-step-sister with a shaky laugh.
"Good. That dog's not worth it," Rose bit out, giving me a hard, critical glare. "You should be grateful he didn't imprint on you. Bastard seems like an overprotective control freak."
I started to protest automatically, then snapped my mouth shut, thinking. Rose was right. Even before this whole mess, when we were just dating, he'd always wanted to know where I was, what I was doing, everything. I never minded it, because he was so sweet about it, and he'd always only wanted to protect me. But now, I could see how that tendency could've peaked to an overbearing level, given his Alpha characteristics.
"Poor Emily," I agreed, and for once, I actually meant it whole-heartedly. Still, it couldn't stop that awful, altogether too familiar ache of longing from stabbing through my chest. Sometimes, when you have nothing, even knowing it's no better on the other side doesn't make it easier.
"Shouldn't we call home? Let them know about this other vampire?" Bella asked in a timid, concerned voice. I was grateful to her for the topic change, but Rose and Alice groaned in unison.
"Are you kidding? They'd demand that we turn around this instant and get back to the house so they could 'protect us'," Alice told her.
"As if we need their protection," Rose muttered with annoyance. "They'd treat us like some helpless victorian ladies and lock us in our rooms while they strutted around preening their egos."
"So... not really any different than Sam, then," I stated, arching my eyebrow at her. She rolled her eyes, but gave me an amused grin.
"Men. They're all alike in some ways," she agreed.
"But still. Shouldn't we..." Bella interjected hesitantly, but Alice cut her off.
"NO! For goodness sake, Bella. We'll be perfectly safe. I told you he's not interested in us, and how could one vampire be a match for the three of us and Leah?"
Bella frowned and sunk down into her seat. "You're right. It's just..."
"Edward's got you trained," Rose finished for her, and we all laughed. Well, all of us except for Bella.
"Listen, Edward's got to learn sooner or later that you're not a fragile human anymore. That's what you were arguing with him about, wasn't it?" said Alice distractedly as she fiddled with her iPod again. "Stupid dogs ruined the mood..." she muttered darkly to herself.
I couldn't have agreed more. I still had to clench my hands into fists to keep them from shaking, and my stomach was still twisted up so much it was hard to breathe. On the plus side, I didn't feel like I was going to fall to pieces and burst into tears. Why, why, why did Sam have to show up and ruin everything again?
"Do you want to go back to the house, Leah? I'll turn around if you want me to," Rosalie suddenly asked me in a low voice, shocking me straight down to my Manolo clad feet.
"No. No, I wanna go. I mean, we're all dressed up anyway," I replied after a moment's serious thought. "Besides, that'd kinda defeat the point of standing up to Sam."
"Absolutely," Rose agreed. Alice hugged me (and the top of my seat) from the backseat with a happy squeal.
"Oh, Leah! That was so awesome! And his face! Like he thought we were going to eat you!"
Rose wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "Stupid mutt. I think he might be even more braindead than Jacob, and that's really saying something. Is mental deficiency a requirement for the Alpha gene?"
Bella gave a half-hearted protest on Jake's behalf, but I just laughed. The knots in my stomach eased up and my trembling slowed under their girl-support and general male-bashing. Maybe that had been part of what I'd been missing. When everything had fallen apart, my closest friend, Emily, had been the reason, and I hadn't had a girlfriend to bring Sam down and bring me up. Now, I could sit back and listen while they told me how I was better off without him, how I needed to forget him and have fun, and I could actually believe them.
Alice was dancing to the music again, and I reached down to crank it up even farther.
Guess what? I'm having more fun!
And now that we're done-
I'm gonna show you tonight
I shouted along to the lyrics like a madwoman with a huge grin stretching my face from ear to ear as Bella and Rosalie joined in.
I'm alright
I'm just fine
And you're a tool
So...
So what? I am a rock star
I've got my rock moves
And I don't want you tonight!
Talk about girl therapy! It couldn't get any better than that. It felt like such a release to scream those stupid lyrics into the wind, like I was finally blowing out all my years of pent-up bitterness and anger into the night speeding past us. My throat was raw by the time the song finished, but I felt happy. Alice high-fived me before diving back to the iPod to find a new song, and suddenly I realized that it no longer mattered to me that I was a shape-shifting freak in a car with three bloodsucking vampires. We were just four girls hell-bent on having a good time without any stinky boys around to complicate things.
"Okay, girls. Truth time. Worst pick-up line," Alice chirped, bouncing with excitement. Rosalie rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Jeez, Alice. What did you do, read a book on 'sisterly bonding games'?"
The pixie gave her a dirty glare. "Fine. I'll go first. Um... well, once when I was shopping, this creepy old guy walked up to me and said, 'Girl, you smell like Fritos. That's why I'm giving you this hungry stare.'"
"Ugh. Gross, what'd you say back?" I asked.
"Well, nothing, because Jasper made him so scared he wet his pants before I could say anything."
"Oh, yeah! I remember that. Carlisle was so angry at him!" Rose giggled.
"Your turn, Leah!" Alice chirped, and I bit my lip thinking.
"Um, 'Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see!'"
"Nice! How about you, Bella?" Alice asked, turning to grin expectantly at Bella's blank face.
"Uh, I don't really have any. I mean, nobody's ever really hit on me but Edward. And he didn't really hit on me. Not like that, anyway," she muttered uncomfortably.
"Okaaaaay. So pick something he said to you when you were first getting together!" Alice demanded. I turned in my seat to stare at her with raised eyebrows, and even Rose watched her with an expectant smirk.
Bella sank down as far as she could go in her seat. "Uh... well, once he said, 'So the lion fell in love with the lamb'. Or something like that."
Rose and I doubled over giggling, and Alice actually fell off her seat with laughter. Bella looked like she wanted to die of embarrassment.
"Oh my god. He actually said that? And you still fell in love with him?" Alice shrieked. I was laughing too hard to say anything.
"I knew he'd be pathetic at talking to a girl, but come on! That's horrible," Rose gasped out. "Oh, Emmett's never going to let him live that down. Lion. Oh, god!"
"How did you not laugh in his face, Bella? I mean, what do you even say to that?" I managed to get out between fits of laughter.
"It was a pretty serious moment at the time... It wasn't funny then!" she defended vehemently.
Alice patted her soothingly on the arm. "I'm sure it was, Edward being who he is. Rose, what's your best one? You've got to have a ton of these!"
"Hmm," Rose tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "I guess I'll have to go with the time this geeky computer guy came up to me and said, 'Hey, baby, how about the two of us get together at my place and do some math? We'll add you and me, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply'."
"Seriously? You've got to give the guy some points for creativity," I replied, laughing. "What'd you tell him?"
"Well, Emmett told him he'd love to do some math subtracting his arms and adding a boot up his ass."
I giggled, easily picturing a grinning Emmett scaring some poor guy half to death for hitting on his Rosalie.
Alice's questions didn't stop there. She grilled us on our first dates, worst kisses (which meant I finally discovered how Bella knew something about punching people), and on and on. Needless to say, I found out a lot of things about Jasper and Edward that I never really wanted to know, being as Alice and Bella's answers almost always involved them. I couldn't help giving an evil smirk when I realized just how uncomfortable I could make dear Eddie-kins thinking about some of this stuff around him. It would be even better than 'Henry the Eighth'!
The club Rosalie pulled up in front of in Seattle was definitely one of the places I'd never imagined I'd see the inside. There was a line of people stretching down the sidewalk, and the thought of standing outside in my killer heels for who knew how long did not excite me.
"Can't we go somewhere else?" I asked, looking at the line with disgust as Rosalie stopped the car at the door.
"No. This is the best place in Seattle, and I'm not going to sit around in some seedy club just anyone can get into," Rose replied. She ran her hands through her windswept hair, rearraging it back into it's perfect cascade of curls, and Alice reached around my seat to fix a few wayward spikes on top of my head as well.
"Don't worry about it, Leah. There's no way the bouncers'll make us wait in line," she told me confidently, and Bella and I exchanged doubtful glances. My skirt stretched as I got out, giving the waiting bouncers and valets a good eyeful of my thigh through the slit. The way their faces lit up made me think Alice might be right about not having to wait.
Rosalie tossed the keys casually to a dumbstruck valet and sauntered around the car to join us. She quirked her eyebrows at the bouncers, and the two beefy men nearly fell over themselves opening the door and ushering us inside.
"You beauties have any trouble, you just let me know," the bigger one told us gruffly with a meaningful smile, ignoring the protesting groans of the line of people outside. Rose favored him with a glorious smile before the door shut on him, and we ventured into the plush club.
Looks really could get you some things, like a luxurious, semi-private alcove next to the dance floor and instant service. I settled myself comfortably on the sofa as a server approached us. Why didn't it surprise me that we'd gotten a man instead of one of the plethora of women in revealing outfits serving our drinks? He introduced himself as Dan and started out with the usual polite banter.
"Anything special I can offer you ladies to start out the night?" he asked in a deep, seductive voice. I exchanged a semi-amused glance with Rosalie at the way his gaze lingered hungrily on our exposed skin. To be fair, he was pretty gorgeous- in a normal human sort of way- but it was completely impossible for him to compare to the unearthly good looks of the Cullen boys. Or the rugged, hulking handsomeness of the Pack boys.
"How about Bloody Marys all around?" I piped up when none of the other girls said anything. Bella stifled a giggle behind her hands, and I smiled innocently at him.
"Anything for you ladies," Dan returned, and he actually winked at me before striding away.
Rosalie pursed her lips together to keep from smiling. "Bloody Marys? Honestly."
"I bet we get them for free," Alice chirped happily. She swayed in her seat to the heavy techno beat pounding through the air around us before jumping up and grabbing Bella's hand.
"C'mon Bella, time to show off your new coordination..."
Bella's half-hearted protests were drowned out by the music as Alice dragged her off onto the dance floor. Rosalie and I watched in amusement as she stood awkwardly while Alice swirled and dipped around her.
"She's been a vampire for months, and she's still afraid she's going to trip," Rose snorted with indulgent exasperation. Suddenly, her beautiful eyes pierced me, and her expression grew thoughtful.
"You know, Leah, I heard about what you told Jake. When Bella was pregnant," she clarified at my confused expression. "How you stood up for me and said you could understand my position."
I shifted uncomfortably and grimaced. "Let me guess. Edward and his big mouth again, right?"
"Yeah. Nosy jerk, I know," she replied. "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate it. It's... nice to know not everybody thought I was being a heartless, selfish bitch at the time."
"Emmett didn't. Esme, either," I muttered, completely embarrassed and astonished. Rosalie gave a noncommittal shrug, and the next question tumbled past my lips before I could stop it.
"Would you really give it all up, just to be human again?"
Rose looked away from me and watched Bella and Alice dancing with vacant eyes. She was silent for so long, I began to assume she just wasn't going to answer me. I wouldn't have blamed her if she hadn't, either.
"No," she finally whispered. "No, I wouldn't. I used to think I would, but then I thought about it, really thought about it, and realized that the only way I'd truly want to do that is if Emmett was human with me. I can't even imagine being without him, or... or having someone else's children. And I wouldn't want to."
I nodded in understanding, and she continued.
"I figure it's about time I stop wishing for what might have been all those years ago, if I'd been smarter, and started realizing what I have in the here and now. Some things I don't have, some things I can't have, but some of the things I do have more than make up for it. If I'd never become a vampire, I would have never met Emmett. And I think, no matter who I would've ended up with as a human, I could never have belonged with him the way I do with Emmett. Some people seem to get everything they want out of life," both of us glanced at Bella at that, "but I'm not one of them. So I'm going to try to do what you're doing and... get over it."
As I sat there, silently astonished, Dan reappeared with our drinks.
"Here you are. On the house," he said, and my sensitive hearing picked up on the fact that he was attempting to make his voice as low and seductive as possible. His eyes lingered on the plunging neckline of my dress as I thanked him, and Rose hid a snicker behind her perfectly manicured nails.
"Looks like someone's got an admirer," she giggled as I took one of the glasses and sipped at the red liquid. Before I lost my nerve, I took a deep breath and blurted out something that had been bothering me for a while.
"I'm sorry that the Pack's over at your house all the time, stinking things up, and getting in the way, and..."
"Oh, it's not as bad as I make it sound," she interupted me smoothly. "Jacob's the only one that really stinks, anyway. You hardly smell at all, actually."
"Um, thanks?" I said, more of a question than a reply. "Rose, no offense, but what the hell's up with you tonight?"
She shrugged gracefully. "I told you. I'm tired of people always thinking that I'm a selfish bitch. That, and Emmett promised me a trip to Paris if I made more of an effort with the Pack."
"Even Jake?" I laughed, a lot more comfortable now that her behavior made more sense.
Rose smirked and got to her feet in one smooth, fluid motion. "No- I'm free to despise that dog as much as I want. In-law's perogative, right? C'mon, let's go teach Bella some moves."
"Is that even possible?" I asked with a smirk as I followed her to the dance floor.
The floor was crowded, but that didn't bother us a bit as we gyrated to the heavy beat in a tight-knit group. I hadn't danced like this since my senior prom, with Sam, and for a moment that thought stopped my hips in mid-swing. I stood there, watching Rose and Alice twirl and dip with perfect precision, even Bella relaxing enough to start enjoying herself, and downed the rest of my drink in one swig.
Just dance! Gonna be okay...
Ah, to hell with it. Sam had been a horrible dancer, anyway. I stopped thinking, stopped worrying, and dove back into the dance with my new vamp 'sisters'.
Just dance! Spin that record, babe...
We ignored the ever-changing crowd of guys that hovered around us, and laughed to each other over their overly confident and sometimes sadly pathetic attempts to get our attention. Poor guys. Too bad they had no idea what kind of competition there was waiting for us back at the Cullen house. I couldn't help but think of Embry's hulking, well-muscled frame as I detached myself from yet another would-be dance partner with a polite threat to break his fingers if he tried to touch me again.
The pick-up lines we were getting topped some of our best, too. 'This ain't a beer belly, baby. It's a fuel tank for a love machine' had Bella in near hysterics, and 'Do you believe in true love, or do you want me to walk by again?' had Rosalie snarling 'No. Just keep walking'. And poor Alice! 'If you were a Mcdonald's burger, you'd be a McGorgeous, baby'.
"What is it with me and men and food? Do I smell like a Happy Meal or something?" she'd wailed plaintively, sniffing her arm.
The worst was when a slobberingly drunk man had flung his arms around Rosalie and I and exclaimed, 'Chocolate and Vanilla! Why don't you girls twist up, and I'll lick you all night long?' About five minutes later, he was dumped unceramoniously onto the sidewalk by our friendly bouncers.
"I need a human moment," I shouted over the music to Rosalie. She nodded, and I wormed my way through the crowd to the bathroom, ignoring the looks and comments I got from the men I passed.
I hated to admit it, but all of the attention was boosting my ego enormously, despite being irritating. The nicest part was that I was getting hit on as much or more than Bella and Alice, so I didn't feel too much like the ugly duckling. Rosalie didn't count because, well, she was Rosalie.
I finished quickly in the bathroom and headed back towards the dance floor, anxious to lose myself in the music again. As I edged around a table, ignoring the lone occupant sitting half-hidden in the shadows, a sharp, icy scent caught my nose. I paused, confused, instantly aware that the smell was strongly vampire, but it didn't smell like any of the Cullens. It smelled older, stronger, more like... like the Volturi. Real bloodsucker, not a vegan. My muscles bunched, tensed, quivered, as I scanned the faces around me looking for that tell-tale vampire skin.
Icy-cold hands clamped down on my arms, propelling me around the table and into the dark shadows before I could react. My mostly bare back connected with the rough brick wall, and my breath hissed out at the force of the impact and the raw, scraping sensation on my soft skin.
My arms were pinned against the brick just above my elbows; I couldn't do more than bring my hands up to grip the frigid, sinewy arms that held me in place. Black pants brushed my bare legs, and I could feel the cold seeping through them into me from the scant millimeters that separated our bodies.
"Well, well. What have I caught? I wonder, I wonder," mused a deep, throaty, musical voice. I found myself glaring up into a pair of amused, curious eyes, completely black except for the ring of scarlet red around the irises. I struggled to breath, gagging on the icy stench pouring off of him, and couldn't manage to answer him. My whole body vibrated so forcefully from the tremors I was trying desperately to control that I couldn't see my attacker clearly. I got the impression of his face, handsome and strong boned, and a tousled head of white-blond hair. He bent his head closer to me and inhaled deeply.
"Interesting. So different... what are you, my lovely?" he mused in a thoughtful, intrigued voice. Why wasn't he disgusted? Why wasn't he gagging on my scent like I was on his?
I couldn't think about that, couldn't concentrate on anything except keeping myself together, keeping myself in my human skin. I couldn't phase. Not here, in a crowded nightclub. Besides the obvious problem of someone seeing me, how many people would I end up hurting?
Oh god! Where was Rosalie? Bella? Alice? I was trapped, helpless, infinitely weaker than my attacker, and unable to do anything but fight to keep my own body from exploding.
The blond vampire pressed his cold body against mine, pinning me even harder against the rough wall as he inhaled deeply again.
"So hot, like fire," he moaned. I closed my eyes and fought the scream clawing up my throat at the pressure I was fighting under my skin.
"You're one of them, aren't you? One of the shape-shifters," he half-whispered, half moaned, fingers sliding up my arms. "I saw you, you know. Arguing with the Alpha... I had to follow you here. But I thought you were human. I never dreamed... god, this heat! It sears right through my skin!"
"You were... on the rez..." I gritted out through my tightly clenched teeth. I was going to lose it. Any moment now, I was going to lose it and rip out of my skin...
He laughed, a low rumble in his chest, and I trembled more violently than ever before. "Oh, yes. I was... curious. Werewolves are getting so scarce these days. I needed to find something new to hunt."
I squeezed my eyes shut and bit the inside of my cheek so hard that I tasted the metallic warmth of my own blood filling my mouth. I couldn't stop the tremors anymore, I couldn't stop the transformation. I was going to ruin everything-
Suddenly, I was swung away from the wall, but pinned just as effectively when the blond vamp's left arm snaked quickly across my torso to lock both my arms down to my sides. My back was pressed flush into his chest, and my skin burned from the contact. His frigid breath ghosted my ear, raising goosebumps, as he whispered to me.
"Ah ah ah, my love. You can't shift here. Look at all those innocent people just a few feet away, completely defenseless..."
Oh, god, he was right. My wide terrified eyes stared out across the crowded dance club from within the dark shadows I was trapped in, and I nearly sobbed. All those people... I made a colossal effort to calm myself, sucking in ragged, shuddering breaths and fighting desperately against my instincts. My gaze skittered frantically through the crowds in a vain hope that I would catch one of the vamp girls' eyes. I couldn't cry out for them; my jaw was locked tight against the seizure-like tremors that rocked my body.
"A female Wolf. Unbeliavable. Incredible," my captor crooned softly, more to himself than me. The long, lean, icy fingers of his right hand traced along my jawline, then glided smoothly down the skin of my throat.
"You're a rare thing. A treasure. No wonder your Wolves were so reluctant to let you go," he murmured, and his lips grazed the skin directly below my ear as he inhaled again. "Your blood... I can smell the Wolf in you, but it's not the same stench as the others," he inhaled again. "No, you're wilder. Sweeter. What would happen if I bit you?"
My god, I was going to die. His teeth grazed the pulse point on my neck, scraping the skin but not breaking it as his ice-cold fingers trailed down the plunging neckline of my dress. With every ounce of strength I could spare, I slammed my spiky heel down on his foot. He chuckled against my neck when the stiletto snapped off harmlessly.
"Now, now. That wasn't very nice," came the silky voice in my ear, and I shuddered through my tremors.
Don't shift, don't shift, don't shift...
"Don't worry. I'm not going to bite you. Yet," he whispered, and his cold tongue licked the sensitive skin over my pulse. I had to swallow the bile rising in my throat as his wandering fingers now moved down to trace the slit in my skirt.
"You're an enigma. Spending time with vampires against the wishes of your own kind. Why?"
"LET... ME... GO..."
The furiously hissed words were the only things I could force past my gritted teeth, and the iron muscles of the arm pinning me to him merely tightened in response.
"Oh, no, my precious Lady Wolf. A prize like you..."
But he was cut off in mid-sentece as he was suddenly confronted by Rosalie in all her glory, shining with a magnificent fury. Bella and Alice flanked the blond vampire holding me captive on either side with dangerously narrowed eyes.
"Take your hands off my sister or we'll rip them off for you," Rosalie hissed, and the shock of her willingly and seriously calling me her sister barely penetrated my fogged and terrified thoughts.
Don't shift, don't shift, don't shift....
"Sister? My, my, there's more to you than I can even begin to imagine, my little enigma," the leech murmured in my ear as he dragged his imprisoning arm away with agonizing slowness. He bent his head into my neck, inhaling deeply once more, before Rosalie reached out and yanked me to her side. Even though I knew her icy grip was friendly, it didn't help to calm the tremors rocking my body, or the horrifically powerful need to shift, to rip and destroy any vampire in my reach.
Don't shift, don't shift, don't shift...
"Forgive me my presumptousness. I was merely... curious. I meant no harm," the blond vamp said smoothly, a genteel smile on his face. His sharp eyes probed Rosalie's face swiftly, and the smile grew broader.
"Might I assume I'm having the pleasure of meeting one of Carlisle Cullen's family?"
Rose's eyes narrowed to glittering slits as she clamped her jaw shut tightly. "What makes you think that?"
"I had the pleasure of meeting Carlisle once, many years ago now. All of your eyes are prescicely the same color as his were. And I had heard a rumor that he had a permanent residence in this area."
"Who are you?" Bella blurted out impatiently, evidence of a few lingering newborn traits. The blond leech's eyes darted to her momentarily before fixing a penetrating stare on me. His gaze was hungry, possessive, and disturbingly predatory.
"My name is Cyrus. Undoubtably, Carlisle will tell you the rest," he answered politely. Abruptly, he grasped my tightly curled fist and brought it to his cold, marble lips.
Don't shift, don't shift, don't shift...
He merely smirked at the hate glowing behind my eyes as he released my hand.
"It's been a pleasure, Lady Wolf."
Before Alice or Bella could stop him, he'd breezed past them and disappeared into the crowd like a spectre from my worst nightmare. My shaking wouldn't ease up, and the only thing I could think anymore was the mantra on repeat in my head.
Don't shift, don't shift, don't shift...
"Rose, get her outside, now!" Alice commanded softly, and three pairs of icy hands guided me swiftly through the throngs of people. I stumbled along like a blind drunk in my uneven heels.
"It's alright, Leah. He's gone, he's gone, you don't need to phase. Hang in there."
Don't shift!
Finally, I was outside, dragging in deep gulping breaths of the free air. The tremors shook me still, begging me to release the monster inside of me, and the icy cold hands of the vampires supporting me weren't helping.
"Let go! Let me breathe, let me..." the words were strangled and only half-articulate, but I was instantly freed from their frigid touches. Thankfully, my muscles finally began to relax with each slow, deep breath, and my shaking slowed enough for me to be able to concentrate on the world around me.
"I'm okay now. I'm alright," I reassured them as a valet brought Rosalie's convertible to a smooth halt in front of us. Nobody spoke another word until we were outside the city limits.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Alice suddenly piped up, leaning around the backseat to stare at me with concern.
"Did he hurt you?" Rose snarled at the same time as Bella asked, "How did you manage not to phase?"
"I don't know," I admitted, trying very hard not to relive the last hour in case it triggered the inevitable wolf reaction again. "He didn't hurt me. I just... I couldn't get away from him..."
My voice was low, and full of loathing. Whether it was more for the blond bloodsucker, Cyrus, or for my own pathetic weakness, I didn't know. I only knew that I had been no match for him, probably wouldn't have been close to a match even in my wolf form, and there was nothing I could've done to get away from him if Rose, Bella, and Alice hadn't shown up. I felt weak, useless, and pathetic. Not to mention dirty. The skin his cursed fingers had touched still felt cold to me. God, how I wished the boys, Embry, had been there...
As if on cue, my phone rang shrilly in the heavy silence of the car. I yanked it out of my small clutch and almost cried when I saw the caller listed as 'Tank'. I answered it without thinking, oblivious to the protests Alice and Rosalie were making.
"Embry!" I breathed in relief as the two vamps groaned in unison. I frowned at them, totally confused about why they didn't want me talking to him.
"Hey, B. Just checking in, since all the other guys are too chicken to call their wives. So, ya' know, we're all just wondering if you're having a good time, and, uh... when you'll be home and all that," Embry's rich, deep voice finished the last part in a rush, like he was expecting me to get royally pissed off at him.
Home. Oh, god. Now I realized why Rose and Alice hadn't wanted me to answer the phone. The instant his voice had flooded my ear, I'd realized just how terribly I wanted to keep this whole episode secret for as long as possible. Lord only knew how badly the boys would react to hearing about my little run-in with Carlisle's old buddy.
"Leah? You there?" Embry asked tentatively after my silence went on for a really long time.
"Home? Yeah. No, um, we're having a blast. But, um, I'm tired, so we're heading back now, actually. Yeah," I stuttered out, looking desperately at Rosalie. She grimaced and rolled her eyes, which I took to be a really bad sign. Now it was Embry's turn to give me a ridiculously long silence.
"What happened, Leah?"
Oh, shit.
"Nothing, Tank. I told you, I'm tired and we-"
Embry's growl was loud enough for everyone in the car to hear. "Seriously, Leah. Something happened, or you wouldn't be heading back to Forks after only being gone four hours."
Rosalie pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, and Alice buried her face in her hands. I worked my mouth open and shut like a fish, but couldn't form any sort of an answer. In the backseat, Bella's phone suddenly rang.
"Don't answer it!" Rose and Alice hissed in unison, but the sheepish look on Bella's face showed us that she already had.
"Nothing happened, Edward. We're all fine, really," she said into her phone after a tense minute.
"C'mon, B. What's going on?" Embry's voice said into my ear, making me miss whatever Edward was saying to Bella. I growled in annoyance and ignored him as Bella scrunched her face up tensely.
"We ran into another vampire- an old friend of Carlisle's," she finally blurted out. "What? He's going to find out from our thoughts when we get home, anyway," she hissed defensively at us as she covered the microphone with her finger. Rosalie and Alice gave her matching glares of death as their phones rang simultaneously.
"An old friend of Carlisle's... as in a vampire friend... Holy hell, Leah!" Embry exploded, and I pulled the phone away from my ear with a grimace.
"Jazz, I'm fine. We're all fine. Nothing happened," Alice was saying into her phone.
"God, Emmett. Calm down," Rose snapped into hers. It was like all chaos had broken loose inside the convertible as everyone talked at once. With everyone on the phone at the same time, it was like we were all in one room, shouting at each other.
"Look, he wasn't threatening us. He was just curious about Leah!" Bella exclaimed loudly, and suddenly the car was dead silent.
"What? What did she mean, curious?" Embry suddenly shouted, deafening me in one ear. It sounded like there was a scuffle going on the other end of the line, and Jake's voice boomed through the phone.
"What happened, Leah? What-"
Seth's voice cut over his anxiously. "Are you okay? You didn't-"
"Did he touch you?" demanded Embry loudly, snatching the phone back. Ruthlessly, from the sounds of it. I rolled my eyes and glared at Bella.
"Thanks. That really helped," I muttered to her. She gave me an apologetic girmace and mouthed 'sorry' at me.
"Good grief, Jazz! Give her some more credit than that! She didn't phase!" exclaimed Alice, exasperation in her lilting voice.
"You didn't phase, Leah? Then what-" Jake grabbed the phone to ask me, but Embry took it back before he could finish his sentence.
"Seriously, B. Did he hurt you?"
I massaged my aching head with one hand. "Jeez, guys. Shut up for a minute. Please."
Their brief pause was enough for me to catch the end of Bella's sentence.
"... just a fluke. I mean, it couldn't have been the vampire Sam told us about. Right, Alice?"
Once again, dead silence.
"Bella..." Alice groaned. Bella's eyes widened as her hand flew up to cover her mouth, realizing her mistake.
"Sam? You saw Sam tonight?" Embry boomed angrily. Once again, all chaos broke loose.
"But, Jazz, he was headed the other direction," Alice pleaded.
I sighed, ignored my Pack shouting at me, and corrected her instead. "Actually, it was him. He saw us talking to Sam and followed us to Seattle."
Jake had the phone again, chewing my ear off and spewing questions that he gave me no time to answer. I could hear Embry in the background yelling at him to stop yelling at me, and Seth trying to get everyone to calm down by emphasizing over and over that we were all okay.
"Right. I'm hanging up now," I finally said wearily when Jake took a second to breathe. "You can tell me off some more when we get there."
I snapped the phone shut before he could reply, and Rosalie did the same thing to Emmett. Alice shoved hers as deeply into her little bag as it could go with a disgusted look on her face. It took Bella another five minutes to hang up on Edward.
"Well, that's just great. There goes my trip to Paris," Rosalie grumbled darkly, scowling at the road speeding past us.
"At least your husband won't be following you around making you feel guilty for a week," Alice mumbled grumpily.
"Ha. You guys think you've got it bad? I'm going to have to deal with my whole Pack when we get home," I moaned, massaging my tired, aching head. Rose and Alice both gave me sympathetic looks, but Bella merely crossed her arms tightly over her chest with a sour look.
"Oh, please. I've got to deal with Edward," she stated darkly.
She had us trumped, there. All of us slumped gloomily into our seats, trying hard not to think too much about what was waiting for us back at the Cullen house. I wrinkled up my nose and sighed.
"Rose? Drive a little slower, would you?"