Disclaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer, I don't own any of her books and characters. I do own my own characters and my story.
Thanks to my reviewers ..existance, Emiliana Keladry, MRAJ, XMyLonelyAngelX, musicbee, snowyflake, and TwilightRox97.
Sorry about the slowish update, especially after that cliff-hanger! My excuse is that I was reading Inkdeath, which is 660 pages long.
In this chapter, I tried writing from a different character's POV. I hope that doesn't make it confusing!
Read on to find out more...
Seth's POV
My thoughts as I hit the water were 'why did Embry have to pull me off the cliff right at that moment? It was obvious that I wanted to wait and talk to Katy, instead of plunging into the sea after falling off a cliff!'
But I didn't have time to take out my anger on Embry, who was swimming back to the shore with Leah. Katy was falling, eyes closed, arms wrapped around her body as if she was trying to hold herself together.
I treaded water on the spot, watching her fall. It seemed to take an eternity for her to reach the sea. I swam a few metres away so that she wouldn't land right on top of me.
When Katy splashed into the water, she didn't come up again almost instantly as I had done. She didn't come up at all. I saw her arms and legs thrashing under the water, driving her towards the surface.
But no!
With a burst of horror I realised she was sinking, not swimming!
I took a deep breath, and dived down, cutting through the water on an angle so that I'd reach her faster.
Katy sunk like a stone.
I grabbed her arm, which was above her head, reaching upwards uselessly.
I was running out of air already!
Even though my lungs were burning, I didn't leave Katy.
I couldn't breathe, but I still stayed under the waves with her.
I had no air left, but I tried to pull her up.
It was no use.
We were coming closer to the air, but I wouldn't be able to reach it, not with her as well.
It wouldn't help if I briefly resurfaced for a breath of air. I wouldn't be able to reach the top now, it was too far away.
I didn't give up.
Even as we started to sink, despite my now feeble attempts to reach the top, I struggled for the air.
My thoughts darkened, my vision clouded.
I knew nothing more.
Leah's POV
I swam back to the beach with Embry. Seth had stayed behind to wait for Katy.
It wasn't very smart of her to follow us down here, just because Seth had jumped off a cliff.
If she'd used her brain, she would have figured that we weren't killing ourselves.
I mean, who would commit suicide with his sister and his friend beside him?
And she must've found out where we were from Sam, who obviously wouldn't let the three of us kill ourselves either. How smart can you get?
It was a good thing I wasn't a wolf, otherwise Seth would definitely be attacking me. Not that Seth could ever catch me!
When I reached land, I turned to see where Seth and Katy were.
I couldn't see them at all, there were no splashes betraying their location.
"Embry! I'm going to get Seth!" I called, not waiting for him to answer.
I ran into the waves, and struck out to where I thought they would be after falling into the water. I heard Embry splashing into the sea behind me.
I reached the spot where they'd probably sunk.
I took a few deep breaths. It may hold me up, but I needed to be prepared to spend a long time underwater. After inhaling deeply, I plunged into the sea.
With my enhanced vision, I could see them sinking.
They were both so far down!
It was easy to see that Seth had tried to save Katy, and hadn't left her, even to save himself, or to call to me and Embry for help.
Idiot, I thought to myself.
But then, I couldn't talk – I didn't have an imprint. I had never known what it was like...
I banished those thoughts from my mind.
There was no use in feeling sorry for myself, especially now when Seth and Katy were in danger.
By the time I'd reached the pair of them, I'd used almost all of my air up.
I tugged them up, up to the light. Because we were underwater, they didn't weigh very much.
It was still tiring. I persisted, despite the fact that they weren't rising very fast. I tried harder, and felt my muscles protesting.
I needed to breathe! I needed air now, or I'd drown.
Reluctantly I let go of Seth and Katy, and kicked up to the surface. I hated leaving them there, to sink again, but it would be worse if I needed rescuing too.
I'd forgotten about Embry. He dived past me, and grabbed hold of Katy.
As soon as I had a lungful of air, I swam the gradually decreasing distance between the surface and Seth, Katy and Embry. I swam as fast as I could, but I my strength was fading.
Together we hauled the pair of them back to the top of the sea. Embry and I trod water as we took a short rest. I thought longingly of lying down on my bed, and sleeping.
I forced myself to forget my exhaustion, my aching muscles, my dry throat. I wasn't back at home, there was the swim back to shore and the walk as well.
I inhaled, rejoicing that today's cliff-diving hadn't resulted in disaster. I glanced at Katy and Seth's still faces, and realised that this wasn't over yet.
As I breathed the salty sea air, I smelt something else. I tried to identify it.
Oh my God. No. No! It couldn't be, not now, not here, not that.
Embry had caught the scent too. His eyes widened in horror.
Without a word, we turned and swam as fast as we could after our rescue operation back to the safe land that wouldn't be safe for long.
My legs felt leaden, heavy as I forced them to carry me up the beach.
As a wolf, I wasn't much faster. The journey to Sam and Emily's house seemed to take forever, burdened as me and Embry were by Seth and Katy. Neither of them was awake yet.
I phased back in the forest, and staggered the remaining distance to Sam's house with Katy. Embry looked even more exhausted than I was, probably because he had to carry Seth. He may be younger than Katy, but he was surely heavier.
Most of the pack, including Bella, was there, except for Jacob and Paul. They were probably still on patrol.
Everyone was looking worried as Embry and I came in.
Sam didn't demand an explanation, he just took Katy from me and carried her to the couch.
Emily took my arm, and gently led me to chair. I was too exhausted to protest, I just collapsed onto it.
I saw Embry, once relieved of Seth, doing the same.
I wanted to rest, to sleep, to recuperate, but I had to warn the pack what we'd smelled.
"Sam." I began, my voice a whisper.
It still hurt to talk to him, even after all that time.
"You need to rest, Leah. Don't worry about explaining until you're ready to." Sam said, looking at me with concern in his eyes.
I looked away. I couldn't look back at him.
But this was important.
"When we were in the water, me and Embry... we scented her!" I said, managing to meet Sam's eyes for a moment.
Bella went pale, even whiter than I thought possible. She knew who I was talking about.
"Her?" She asked, her voice trembling.
I nodded.
Immediately Sam began firing off orders.
"Embry, Leah, you two stay here." He said firmly. "I'll send Paul back to help you protect Bella, just in case. Look after Seth and Katy."
I noticed Katy's eyes open, watching everything that was going on.
I murmured a quiet 'yes' to Sam.
It was fine by me, to stay where I was. I didn't want to do anything except sit here.
When everyone had gone, Katy asked one question. I wasn't sure if she was addressing me or Embry.
"Who are you talking about, when you say her?"
I didn't really want to answer her. I wanted to rest my sore throat instead of talking.
I spoke one word.
"Victoria."
That chapter was my longest yet, and my story has reached 10,000 words!
I've never written anything this long before, so I'm happy about the length of my story so far.
Please keep reviewing! I'd like to know what you think of me writing in Leah's POV, so I can decide if I'll do it again.
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