When earth collides with all the space between.
I'm reaching farther than I ever have before,
Leaving all who broke your heart upon the shore.
I may be some sort of crazy, we may be some sort of crazy,
But I swear on everything I have and more.
…
You make the sound of pulling heaven down.
You brought the rain's romantic pour.
Blue October – Sound of Pulling Heaven Down.
I sat up as the door to the classroom opened. Caleb entered the one class he and I shared. He sat in the desk next to mine and a smirk lit his features almost immediately. I felt the air around me stir with his scent as he inhaled deeply, grimacing slightly before relaxing again as I did. I struggled to hold in a snort of laughter. It had been two weeks since I had found out what he was. Sadly, we still weren't used to the scents. I was sneaking out a lot lately to see him at night. We would just sit and talk, not much more than that. Usually we went to a park deep in the woods where we would just sit, explain things. He was angry when I told him that my family refused to tell me my past. I had no idea why…but it was starting to bother me too.
Of course, at school, it was a completely different story. When I snuck out I couldn't really be too close to him or my family would immediately smell it on me. At school I could be as close as I wanted without having to worry about getting in trouble. That was getting to be the best part of school, I had to admit. My free hand, the one that wasn't holding up my head, was sitting on the table. Immediately, his hand fell on top of mine and traced every curve of it with his fingertips. He was so gentle about it. I didn't understand why, seeing as I was probably stronger than him when he was only in a human form, but he was still so incredibly gentle. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was wonderful to be around him.
I glanced up as I heard the teacher begin her lecture. I lifted my head and took my pen, doodling aimlessly on the front page of my spiral. He smiled next to me and released my hand, grabbing the notebook when I lifted the pen for only a second.
"Doodling in class, Miss Cullen, I might just have to confiscate this," he said in a low whisper. I heard the teacher say something and then my name and I looked up, my mind immediately scanning hers.
"A run-on sentence can be fixed with a comma and conjunction, be spilt into two sentences, or have a semi-colon inserted," I said in a monotone voice. The teacher nodded and went back to talked as she turned back to the board.
"Give it back," I muttered angrily.
"Hmm…I don't think I will," he said jokingly.
"Come on, Caleb. You can't be serious," I said, my face hardening, my lips going into a straight line. His perfect gray eyes met mine, and his smile made my self-control waver as I smiled at him. "No fair," I muttered under my breath.
"Perfectly fair," he said, lifting my face with his hand. I could see a group of girls from another table looking right at us, murmuring something about boyfriend and girlfriend. Their thoughts were consumed with different fantasies of Caleb and I grimaced in jealousy and anger. I pulled my face form his hand, and, in a very quick movement, had my notebook again. I saw abruptly his confused and slightly hurt face. His hand touched my shoulder, then traced the contour of my shoulder blade and then down my spine. "What's wrong?" he whispered. I almost melted at his touch. Had I looked at him, I would have. But I remained in control.
"Nothing," I said darkly. Those girls and their incessant thoughts would not shut up, and it was making me horribly angry. Caleb and I had never kissed. We'd never really done anything but talk and occasionally have some sort of contact, like how he had touched my back not two seconds ago. Holding hands was an occasional thing, but kissing was something we never even talked about. We weren't even in a relationship really, though so many people in the school seemed to think so. We were…sort-of-boyfriend-and-girlfriend. I don't know how else I could possibly put that. Those girls and their thoughts of making out (and things much more despicable than that) were driving me insane with jealousy.
"Something is bothering you, Claire, what is it?" he asked softly. The backs of his fingers traced down my arm, touching the bare pale skin there under my short-sleeved shirt. I sighed and let my head fall onto his shoulder. It was too hard trying to fight him. He could be too persuasive.
"I have a jealousy problem," I said with a smirk. He looked at me with shock.
"Jealous? Of what?" he asked, looking around the room.
"When I have to see certain people's thoughts," I said, grimacing again as those girls' internal babbling about relationships picked up again. I had told him not long ago about reading minds and all those things. I had to tell him to make split second decisions to block out Alice. Our sneaking out was a lot more complicated than most teenagers had it. But, where was the fun without a little adventure?
"Oh," he said softly. We passed the rest of the period talking quietly to each other and I kept my head on his shoulder. He didn't mind at all and I, of course, didn't. When the bell finally rang, I heaved a sigh and stood up. His hand slid into mine easily and gracefully and our fingers interlaced together like it was instinct. By now, it really was. I smiled up at him, glad as we left the classroom together. He walked me to my next class and ran his hand through my hair, tucking the strand behind my ear before letting me leave patting my rear end as I left, causing me to let out a laugh as I entered my Algebra II class. Morgan looked at me as though I was insane when she saw how much I was laughing.
"How was English?" she asked, nudging my elbow as soon as I sat down. I rolled my eyes at her and looked at her with a slight glare.
"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. She laughed at me again and I pretended to take notes. The class went by quickly and when I got up to go to lunch, he was already waiting in the hallway, his hand going around my waist as he guided me into the cafeteria. I looked at him in confusion; this wasn't the normal type of contact.
"Why fight it?" he asked with a smirk, reiterating the words he had spoken in the car two weeks ago. I smiled at him and then rolled my eyes as his hand slid away form me and grabbed two trays from the pile as we got in line. Morgan was behind me, watching with intensity, ready to gush out every bit of information she could decode as something great. I smiled, realizing just how silly she could be sometimes. She hated that I never had boyfriends when I was so pretty.
We got out of the line and he was still carrying my tray. By the time we got to our normal table he dropped both of them next to each other. Morgan, though my best friend, had taken to leaving us alone at lunch. I had no idea why, but she did recently. With a sigh and looked at the food on my plate and pushed it forward.
"You shouldn't waste your parents' money, you anorexic freak," he joked playfully. I smiled at him, elbowing him playfully in the ribs. It was gentle on my part. He feigned to be hurt before smiling back at me again. I looked across the cafeteria to see Keira looking at us over and over again. She seemed to be distracting the others from looking over to us at the same time. I had only met Keira a few times and I liked her already. She was definitely protective though, which I thought was hilarious. "So, what made you so angry in English…I mean…jealous…of thoughts. What in the world could they be thinking?" he asked with a smile. I stood and grabbed his hand wrenching him towards the doors of the cafeteria. We were leaving lunch so incredibly early. Oh well. I smiled as he took the lead and led me into one of the back hallways.
"What? Were you thinking what I was?" I asked jokingly.
"I have been for a while now. God, I'm glad you can't read my mind," he said in a tone that sounded how grateful he was. I smiled at him and jumped into his arms and he caught me immediately, spinning me around and then putting me back on the ground, his hands staying on my hips, just resting there as his gray eyes met my blue ones. We both seemed to be a little lost right now. I, on one hand, had never kissed a boy, not in my memory at least. I could have in my human life, but who knows about that. My eyelashes fluttered. Why the hell did I do that? Oh well. He smiled at me and raised one hand to touch the side of my cheek.
"Are we actually going to try this?" he asked as I grabbed his hand in one of m hands and held it to my cheek. The warmth flooded through me and it felt so good. It was addictive. No doubt Alice was watching this right now and ready to come to the school and kill me.
"If we don't, we'll never be able to. Odds are, someone's coming to get me right now," I groaned, but still smiling as his warmth fueled me, completed me. It was an odd feeling. For some reason I felt like I lived for him.
"Claire, do you know what imprinting is?" he asked shyly. I recalled my mother mentioning it when she talked about her past a lot. It was something I thought was ridiculous. After Jacob Black and his pack had moved away and I never met them, we never spoke of werewolves, until now at least. Either way, I knew exactly what imprinting was.
"Yes," I said. Had I been able to blush, my cheeks would have been a vibrant red right now.
"I think it happened…" he muttered softly, letting his head fall as his lips pressed to my neck. I felt a shiver roll up and down my spine as I released his hand and felt my fingers touch his perfect hair and then tangle themselves there. The warmth of his lips, the want of them, made me want, and I grabbed his face with my free hand and pulled it towards mine until our lips were pressed together. I angled my face as he moved his. It was instinctive. I knew that much. His body pressed to mine, closing the small amount of space as my back hit the brick wall of the hallway. I could feel everything but him fall away from my life. I didn't care about the trouble I would be in. I didn't care that I could hear the roar of Emmet's truck enter the parking lot at that precise moment. My eyes closed and his hand pressed against the wall, sealing me there with him. And I didn't care. If it was possible for me to have a problem with imprinting, I knew I had found my soul mate. There could be no one else, mortal or vampire.
This went so far against nature.
But I kept kissing him.
I kept loving every second of it.
And you know what?
I loved every part of him.
When I finally felt him pull away for lack of air, I smiled at him and moved my hand from his hair. He inhaled sharply and looked at me, his eyes tender, soft, perfect.
"They're coming," we both said at the same time.
"You should go," he whispered. Alice knew as soon as I got jealous that I had made my decision to kiss him. She knew everything that had been happening. She had been covering for me. She knew that the way I felt about him was just as strong as how she felt as Jasper. She knew I was in love before I knew.
"I think…I…I think I love you," I said softly, touching his cheek again.
"Me too. Now go, please. I don't want you to get into any trouble."
"They know already," I said softly.
"Go," he pleaded. I sighed and then heard the bell dismissing lunch. A smile creased my lips as I walked into the crowd pouring from lunch and he fell in not far behind me. I walked to the entryway and saw my father and Emmet standing there. My father was livid, my uncle amused. He knew my rebellious love of danger was something I picked up from him.
"Car, now," said my father. I nodded and walked away, shielding my mind from my father. He didn't need to know what I had just said to Caleb. Like my father, though, when someone was angry at me, I became angry as well. I climbed into the passenger seat of the silver Volvo and watched my uncle, who smiled at me reassuringly, get easily into his Jeep. I smirked back at him and shook my head.
My father slid into the driver's seat and slid the key easily into the ignition of the car and pulled out of the space quickly. I saw a blue viper rev its engine in the parking lot and couldn't suppress a smile. Caleb deliberately cut my father off as he tried to pull out of the school lot. I smiled as Caleb winked at me from him window and then sped off down the road, the opposite way to my house.
"Damn dog," my father murmured. I looked at him with a livid expression, my arms crossed over my chest.
"Claire. How dare you do something like that. When Alice told me you were about to kiss him I practically…actually I did rip the door off while I was leaving," he said in a perfect monotone and emotionless voice. I glared at him again. "You're grounded again. For the rest of the school year. Emmet and Rosalie will be driving you to and from school and you're living with Carlisle and Esme. Your room will be watched constantly. You won't be able to sneak out at all."
"But dad!" I almost screamed. He threw one hand up to stop me short, his palm up in the shape of a stop sign. I glared at it and closed my mouth again.
"You think that's bad. If he comes anywhere near our house or any member of that pack family of his we will hurt them. Claire I'm serious. He's no good for you. He wants you for information that's it. He thinks we're responsible for the killings in Port Angeles."
"Shut up," I said harshly. He looked at me with incredulous eyes and I knew I had over stepped a boundary. I hadn't put on my seat belt. No one in our family ever wore them anymore. I pulled the lock up on the door and opened it, jumping out of the speeding car. We were safely away from any people now and I wasn't worried about anyone seeing me land perfectly on my feet and sprint into the woods.
"Claire Rebekah Cullen, get your butt back here now," I heard my father yell behind me. I shouted out a profane phrase and heard his anger as he sped off towards the house. As soon as I got a mile back into Forks I stopped in the middle of the woods and sat down on the grass. I was on a mountain, in a clearing. There was a little pond there. I smiled and rolled onto my side, propping my body up on one elbow which also was holding up my head. I smiled and howled as loudly as I could, laughing at myself when I finished. Then I could hear the howl from someone else not too far away. I smiled and sat up, looking around as the trees shifted and a body slid gracefully between them and rushed towards me. I stood quickly and he grabbed me up in his arms and spun me around, laughing.
"I can't believe you just did that. I told you not to get into trouble and you tell something like that to your father and jump out of a moving car…Claire, what am I going to do with you?" he asked, smiling at me as he set me back down. I pursed my lips.
"Well, you can take me somewhere where my family can't go, like your house. I think Alice…my mom…Esme…Rosalie…Emmet and Jasper are combing the forest for me. My father is at Carlisle's house…Carlisle is trying to calm him down," I said, scanning the area for the thoughts around me. He sighed and slid his hand into mine.
"Alright, just keep up," he said with a laugh.
"Oh, believe me, I will," I joked and then was gone. I was running fast and gracefully through the forest towards his house. I knew where it was. I had been there before. It wasn't a terribly difficult place for me to find either. His hand fell from mine and I looked to see that he couldn't keep up with me. I laughed and just kept going until I was standing in his front yard. Not three seconds later, he was at my side, but his face was unreadable and hard.
"Claire, go home now," he said in a monotone voice. I was instantly taken aback.
"What? Why?" I asked, feeling like I had just been shocked with a cattle prod.
"I didn't know my uncle was home," he said, glaring at the window closest to us. And then I heard it. A great ripping noise split the air around me and then a horrible crash. Emmet appeared at my side and I saw Caleb shudder into a pure white shape of a giant wolf. I shrunk back and fell against Emmet's chest. The great black wolf and the great white one were glaring at each other. Caleb, the pure snowy white one, was smaller but clearly faster. The older one, the black one, apparently Caleb's uncle, rushed him too fast though and Caleb fell, the black wolf on top of him. I could hear thoughts raging in the uncle's head.
How could you bring her here. Your thoughts say you love her! How dare you! You wretched child. She's a leech. You ungrateful pup! How could you imprint upon her? His thoughts shouted at me. I shrank back against Emmet's hard stone body and I looked up at him. I could hear the thrashing about of the black wolf as it snapped over and over again.
"Do something," I pleaded with him. He stopped, seeing the fear and sadness in my blue eyes. He looked at the fight in front of us and then he was gone. Esme and Rosalie got there then and Rosalie immediately got into the fray as both she and Emmet fired themselves at the black one with the force of a hurricane and sent him into the brick wall, but he was up again. I looked at Caleb and saw his bleeding form as he fell back into his human form. I ran to him, throwing of Esme who was attempting to restrain me.
"Caleb," I said softly, afraid to touch him in case I hurt him more. My hands sort of hovered over his form. There was a cut above his right eye and numerous on his arms and shoulders where the claws had dug into him. The worst by far was the bleeding gash in his side though. He coughed and I felt dry sobbing rack through my body.
"I'm okay, babe," he said, coughing again.
"No you're not!" I argued angrily.
"Go with your family…you should have seen this."
"No…" I objected, my voice a whisper. I could clearly hear Emmet and Rosalie grappling with the wolf just ten feet in front of me but I didn't care. Alice got there then and knelt down beside me. She stopped seeing him.
"Claire, go with Esme. Carlisle and I will take care of him," she said softly, her voice incredibly fast and high.
"No," I objected, my voice angry as though she had suggested I kill someone.
"Claire…go. Maybe you haven't noticed he's naked." I froze, forcing my eyes not to look. Had I, once again, been able to blush, my cheeks would have been crimson. I fell backwards. I hadn't noticed. Why did Alice have to point it out? I heard footsteps behind me and saw the beautiful Keira behind me. She tossed a blanked onto her cousin and stepped back.
"Your father is a doctor. He'll know what to do. Call off your leech friends. We'll take care of my uncle from here," she said silently as she looked towards the front door. I followed her eyes to where Clark, Lucy, Rose, and Micah in the doorway. Immediately they were all eyes for their uncle and Clark and Micah changed. Rosalie and Emmet jumped out of their way as the two wolves, one a steely gray and the other a deep brown, ran the old black one into the woods.
Carlisle was there in an instant as the three other werewolves took off. I caught sight of only their tails as they went. Keira's a silver, Rose's a reddish brown, and Lucy was a light tan. Carlisle and Edward were busy immediately. Both were certifiable doctors and they lifted Caleb's form, wrapped in the blanket, and disappeared. Immediately I was angry. I rose to my feet and felt restraining hands grab my arms, pulling me back. I turned to see Alice and Rosalie there.
"Let me go!" I roared.
"No, Claire, we want to talk to you first," Rosalie objected. "We need you to tell us a few things…but only if you promise to tell us something in return."
"What could you possibly tell me that is more important than getting to Caleb?" I asked in anger, throwing their arms off of me and turning to face them. I knew my eyes were black now and I was hungry. It had been a while since my last time hunting…over two weeks, and I knew that. I needed something to eat soon.
"Your past," Alice said dropping her hands at her side. I froze, my face blank and expressionless. That was definitely something I would want to know.
Rosalie let go of me and Alice followed suit. I dropped my hands at my side.
"It can wait, I need to see if Caleb's okay," I said under my breath.
"Carlisle has him. He'll be fine," Alice said quietly. "I know that. As soon as the two of them decided to help he became okay." I nodded. I still wanted to see him and I was contemplating running. I was faster than them…but I didn't.
"Okay, fine," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. I looked at Alice and her mind ran through everything…the day I had been found, dying, on the streets in London. Carlisle saved me. I glanced at Rosalie and saw what had happened before that, the men running form the scene, leaving my bent and broken body there. I saw Emmet tear after them and then closed my eyes, blocking everything that was coming from them.
"I was…raped," I said under my breath. I felt a hand on my shoulder and my head snapped up like a deer in the headlights. It was Alice and her eyes were worried.
"Now I need you to tell me something," she said in complete seriousness.
"What?" I asked pathetically.
"Do you love him?" she asked. I took a step back, wiggling out of her grip and nodded slowly before sprinting off in the direction of their scents. It wasn't long until I reached the hospital.
A/N: Yay!! I made up for it with a rather long chapter, I think…okay, well review and I fully expect to be yelled at for my non-promptness. I am sooooo sorry again!!