Sorry, sorry, sorry it took so long. Won't ever take that long again.
Cara:
By the time I got home, all the lights in the house were off but oddly enough, it didn't look like an empty shell the way every other place I lived in tended to. Looking at it from the passenger seat of Jake's car, I realized that for the first time I was relieved to be home. Because that's where I was… home. Not just some temporary residence.
La Push and the reserve had started to feel like home a long time ago, back when I first met the Pack- and Jacob Black- and now there was something threatening to tear it all apart. Threatening to take away the one thing I had ever really cared about my entire life. I couldn't let that happen, no matter what I had to do. Sell a kidney, steal a plane, find the lost city of Atlantis.
I wouldn't let that happen.
When Jake's hand lightly touched my arm I jumped right out of my seat, my hand flew to my heart. He looked tired and completely drained of all life but he smiled sweetly and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. God, I love him. From his grin to his eyes to the grease stains on just about every pair of jeans he owns. Just the sight of him made my heart flutter and fly around in my chest.
"Welcome back to Earth" He said, his voice barely a whisper. Jake was fading, fast. Too much excitement on his first day out. "Miss me while you were daydreaming?"
"No, I was daydreaming about you" We fit together so easily, my body shaped to the contours of his. The warmth of his body enveloped me, chasing away the last of the chill from the day.
"Well, the real things always better" he had no idea how true that was. After all, could a daydream wrap its arms around your waist and hold you so close it's as if the world were ending?
Okay, well maybe it could if you had a really active imagination, but I don't so the mental image of Jake didn't come anywhere close to the real thing.
Just then, the light in my dad's window flicked on and a shadow streaked across the curtains. Please, please don't let him play detective and check my room I silently begged. The old man was on the prowl and if I wasn't at least in the house, I'd be in even worse trouble than I knew I already had waiting for me.
Jacob seemed to sense what was coming and tightened his hold on me, burying his face in my neck. Lightly, sending shivers down my spine, he trailed sweet kisses up my neck and along my jaw finally ending at my mouth. I could feel my heart pounding in my throat and breathing was totally out of the question.
"Oh boy, now I'm in trouble" I murmured. The light in the downstairs hall had just turned on, followed shortly by the flashing images from the television. I could just see my father, toe tapping and arms crossed in an attempt to look stern.
"Ugh, you're too good for me. Too well behaved" Jake pulled away with a dramatic pout that made him look like a five year old deprived of ice cream. And incredibly adorable. After a quick glance toward my house- just to make sure my dad wasn't peeking outside- I grinned mischievously.
"Oh, really?" In the blink of an eye I was in Jake's lap, straddling his hips with my fingers tangled in his thick dark hair. My lips mashed down onto his, stunning him for a split second before he recovered and his mouth was moving with mine. Before I could over think it too much, my tongue ran along his lower lip.
He froze suddenly but before he could react again I pulled away, making him pout. Grinning, I grabbed my bag- still in Jacob's lap- and opened the driver side door. It felt suddenly colder away from Jake's arms.
"See you bright and early" With a wink I slammed the door and hurried over to the living room window, peering through the thin curtains. Behind me, the Rabbit slowly eased away from the curb, light's off and disappeared into the dark.
Dad was in the living room, a bowl of chips in his hand, eyes glued to the screen. Perfect. I crept around to the back of the house and my window. I tucked my bag between the back door and the screen where I could get it tomorrow morning and stepped away from the house.
With a running start, I launched myself at the back porch, catapulting off the banister and my hands clutched the gutter- which groaned and creaked with the added weight. For a second, I scrabbled for purchase but managed to swing myself up and onto the roof.
It was too hot in my room so I left the window open and stripped off my jeans and t-shirt, throwing myself graciously onto my bed with a sigh in one of my dad's old shirts.
I was still trying not to think of how badly my day had turned out and how I had spent the last four hours as a messenger between the Cullen coven and the Pack. Sam and the others felt better with me as the middle woman instead of having Edward pick apart their minds. There wasn't a chance in heck that Jacob would do it, so middle woman it was.
The heavy chain around my neck- Stefan's necklace, given to me for safe keeping- seemed to way me down and in minutes I was fast asleep, the sound of the t.v. downstairs filtering under my door, wishing I was with Jake.
-----
I was in the woods again. Like always, the sky was just beginning to darken, the late afternoon sun casting the world in a reddish glow. I knew this forest, I'd run through them a thousand times but there was something different about the trees that night. That oak hadn't been there last time…
Suddenly, I knew I wasn't alone. Turning this way and that I couldn't find the eyes that watched me. A breeze I couldn't feel shifted the leaves high above me and the sounds sent chills along my tail.
"Cara…" I whipped around and there he stood. Pale as snow with an unearthly beauty, his eyes weren't the red I had come to fear. Gold and sparkling, I knew he wasn't evil.
I blinked and in that moment, something had happened to the strange friend. He had been thrown to the ground, writhing and shrieking in pain.
Wake up, Cara! Wake up! I yelled at the top of my lungs but all I could do was stare. What was happening to him?
Then the sun vanished, replaced by the eerie glow of a full moon that tugged at my mind like a leash. A flash of white and red and Stefan appeared over the golden eyed vampire, so much like the Cullen's. His pointed teeth sparkled when he grinned as he lowered his mouth to his victim's neck…
Oh, God… I'm going to be sick. How is this possible? My dream self stared, dumbfounded. Vampires don't have blood, right? They're not alive!
In dizzying flashes, the forest around me changed, the body of the strange vampire was nowhere to be found and yet there Stefan stood, his eyes gleaming a deep, dark red. His necklace- the one I should have- was glittering around his neck.
Blink. The chain is heavy in my hand and Stefan stared at me with angry, hate filled eyes. What is so important about a thin old chain? He tried to step towards but couldn't, straining against some invisible bond.
Was that it? Was that the secret? Without his necklace, he couldn't cross into our land? No treaty or agreement kept him from crossing, but something more powerful, something that only a small, chain linked necklace could fix.
My hand tightened around the cold metal and-
A floorboard creaked outside my door. Dad, finally on his way to bed. The clock read 3 a.m. and rain pattered lightly against my window. The sheets were twisted around my legs, my clothes stuck to my body.
With trembling hands, I reached up and touched Stefan's necklace. Was it just my imagination or were my dreams trying to tell me something? It made sense, when I thought about it. How he'd locked up and ran when I snagged the metal off his neck, how he hadn't crossed the bordering line that day.
With a heavy sigh and a shiver, I reached over and picked up my phone.
------
Two days later it all started. Just as he'd promised.
We walked through the campus, Jake and I hand in hand, Paul ambling along beside us. There was an unusual amount of students out that morning, all gathered around the main office building. They crowded together, standing on their toes to see above the throng of kids, whispering and murmuring nervously to each other.
As we got closer, the atmosphere changed. From quiet and calm to frenzied and slightly electrified. The air seemed to buzz with hidden danger. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and Jake's arm stiffened.
Something was wrong.
"Either people really don't like me or there's something going on over there" Paul muttered as a few students ran past him, anxious and almost frantic.
Amber, my lab partner, spotted me when we reached the back of the crowd and ran over. Tears glimmered in her eyes and her voice shook when she spoke. Her usual peppyness had vanished, replaced by fear and panic.
"It's horrible! Don't look… you don't want to look" Though I couldn't stand the girl, I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and threw a panicked look at Jake who stared back, equally confused. Paul ducked and dodged his way through to the front.
"Ssh.. it's okay. Everything's fine. What happened?" I asked. She shook her head, tears finally streaming down her cheeks and I didn't quite know what to do. I wasn't used to comforting people, didn't know what to say to make her feel better.
"He's dead! Jared… from English?" and as she said it, I felt his eyes on me.
Grinning, his fake brown eyes gleaming wickedly with amusement, he saluted as I finally found him, leaning casually against the side of building four. Was that a spot of blood on his collar? My stomach flipped and I knew what I would see if I had the guts to look. I knew without a doubt what had pushed Amber to the point of hyperventilation.
It had started, Stefan's game, and he was playing it one student at a time.
Okay... reeeaaaally bad chapter but it's all I could come up with. I didn't really know how to put everything into words. Sorry it took so long- seven days, yikes!- I'll update soon. I already have the next chapter almost done. Thanks for being patient and reviewing and sturrrrf. I appreciate it.