I try to update soon, and apparently it's working! Yay me!

Anyway, thank you for reading and... I don't know what else to say other than R & R please!

I don't own anything at all... not even Edward.

Nikki

Jacob's POV

Bella was coming today. Today. I couldn't believe it. She was actually coming and I needed to be prepared at all costs. She was going to be a perfect, beautiful, hard, cold, discusting leech and I probably wasn't going to stand for any of it, but I had to try if I was to see her again.

I reminded myself to breathe through my mouth as Edward's high-end Aston Martin came down the street -- going a hundred miles an hour. It spit dirt as it came to an abrupt stop on the dirt road, and I saw my once-human best friend get out inhumanly fast.

"Hi, Bella," I said meekly. She seemed to be shy, like she was afraid that if she went too far, I would attack her or something, but at least she smiled a little.

"Hi, Jake. What's up?" She acted so casual for this kind of meeting; maybe she had forgotten that we hadn't seen each other in over four months; yeah right.

"Ah, nothing much... So how are you?" I asked her, honestly curious.

"Oh... I'm good. Very good, actually. Yeah," she told me as Edward got our of the sport's car slowly, almost like he was trying to act human. As if any of us here was. I was just lucky that I didn't phase from the anger that rushed through me.

I had almost forgotten that the original bloodsucker could read minds. It made me feel vulnerable again, like I could hide nothing. Which, you know, I usually couldn't because of the whole phasing wolf thing, but still. I was used to keeping my thoughts to myself while I was human.

Bella smiled slightly as she realized what was going on in my head. I wondered if she could read minds too.

Edward laughed loudly. "No," he boomed. "I almost wish!" I look at him confusedly, and so does Bella, but for a different reason.

"What are you two talking about? Or... thinking about, either one?" she asks. I smile a little bit at her. But then my mind goes back to the "I wish" part.

"We're 'talking' about what kind of powers you have. He thought you read minds," he told Bella. She grinned at me, unashamed of this thought.

"Well, yeah, so? What kind of powers do you have? If it's not reading minds? And what's with the 'I wish' thing?" Stuff was flowing out of my mouth so fast that I couldn't stop it, let alone understand anything.

"Yes, yes. Calm down and stop shaking! You're gonna hurt yourself!" I just loved the way that she thought she was better now -- that she said 'you'll hurt yourself' instead of 'you'll hurt me.' I missed the sweet and fragile Bella. Edward sighed, as if he did too.

"I do," he said, not even returning Bella's confused look.

"Anyway..." Bella trailed off. Then, somehow, she remembered all my questions. "No, I do not read minds. He 'wishes' that I would have a lesser power, because, quite frankly, this is kind of freaking me out. And I can talk to dead spirits, which actually allows me to talk to vampires, because they're the living dead, and yeah..." She smiles a little bit, then bites her lip.

Meanwhile, my brain is trying to process all the information. She's freaking out, she can talk to bloodsuckers and dead people?! What?

Yeah, well, Bella? Quite frankly, this is freaking me out, too.

Bella's POV

None of you have any idea of how painful it was for me to inform Jacob -- Jacob, Jacob, Jacob! -- that I could talk to spirits. I kind of felt that I was making up this whole thing myself, but I know that's not right.

There was confusion before, but now that it's all cleared up, I can nearly think straight. Almost. There was still dealing with a shaking Jake. And the rest of the pack.

Just now, I could hear them running towards the house, but only because I'm a vampire now. Jeez, do they know how incredibly loud they are? My goodness!

Sam runs across the dirt first, sniffing at me as if I'm a stranger, still in his wolf form. Then the rest of the pack follows, wondering why there are two stinky vampires here. Then they realize that it's me.

They rush back into the forest, change, and come back out with big smiles and some with disgusted expressions. Leah, for sure, is wrinkling her nose in disgust. I can't figure out why she still hates me.

"Hi, guys!" I say, and wave whole-heartedly. Sam waves back, and sprints across the rest of the space between us to give me a big hug, which is a lot more than Jacob's doing. Thank goodness I don't have total enemies. Normally, I wouldn't be able to breathe in this bear hug, but since I was a vampire now, and wasn't able to be crushed or felt the need to breathe, this was fine. I actually hugged him back, just as hard.

He laughed and then let the rest of the pack peck me on the cheek, shake my hand, hug me. It was like seeing my extended family again.

I was so happy, I even showed them how fast I was. And Edward was right -- they do stink. But none of that mattered now.

I was happy to take their offer and eat with them, even though I wasn't actually going to eat with them. They laughed at that, but it was okay.

By the end of the day, there was peace and friendship -- rather than hatred and enmity -- between me and my friends, or my family, whatever you want to call it.

We drove home -- Edward and I -- and he asked how I liked seeing the pack. "It was so amazing! Thank you so, so, so much for letting me go! I love you," I said to him, sapping it up a bit, just because I was feeling so grateful.

He chuckled. "You're welcome, sweetheart." I felt a surge of delight at that, and it almost felt like my heart gave a thump.

Then I was calm -- and that's never really a good thing. I was sucked into an alternate world.

I was calm and happy around my friends at the dinner table, too, and I got to talk to some dead people while I was there. Cool, huh? Not really.

The spirits were floating around me like they were in slow motion. "Hello, Isabella," one of them said. Many of them said hi to me, and I said hi back. This was beginning to be 'normal' for me, just as Edward reading minds was normal for him. Actually, it's better to compare me to Alice, since I get sucked into 'visions' too.

Somebody -- a spirit -- came up to me then, and I recognized him as James. A thrill of fear rattled through me, as he said, "Bella."

I stared at him with wide eyes, breathing hard. But he couldn't hurt me here. Right?

"Hello, James. How are you? Oh, wait -- you're dead. That can't be good."

He chuckled then. "Aren't you dead too, dear? Or haven't you noticed?"

He had this so backwards, it was funny. "No, no, no. Silly James. I'm a Speaker for the Dead, I guess you could say. I talk to dead people."

"Ah, I see..." he trailed off, unsure how to answer.

I was gonna tell him off soooo bad...

I'm glad James got to make an appearance! Now Bella can tell him how she really feels. As in not so good! Assume that happens, because I'm going to start the next chapter off differently, as I'm sure you've figured out with my stories.

Thank you, thank you. I love you all! (takes a bow and accepts the roses)

Nikki