Authors Note: I'm going to apologise for this short chapter. I'm very tired but was determind to upload it tonight so thats why it's short. I do have another chapter lined up, and this was basically just a filler between the last one and the next to give it a light fluffy feel. I hope thats okay.
Enjoy:
"Jake!" Nessie squealed as soon as she saw me even get close to the Cullen house. It seemed empty, apart from Edward and the big muscled one… Emmett who were playing a game with Nessie before she came running over to me.
I tossed my head up, warning her to stand back whilst I phased. I was always so careful – as careful as possible.
She flung herself into my arms, and I glowed. I was so happy that she valued my company so much. Carrying her into the house, I got a really strong wiff of lemon. I suspected that Esme had been cleaning again – I didn't know why she did it - its not as if vampires were dirty smelly creatures (despite my natural thoughts). She had some kind of vampire obsessive cleaning thing. I'd never really gone for the clean things, preferring mess and preferring even more to make it.
"Where's Bells?" I asked Edward. She wasn't here, I couldn't smell her.
"Alice and Rosalie dragged her shopping. She wanted to see you, but she didn't really have a choice about it." Edward said with a small grin. We all knew how much Bella despised shopping, but she still never managed to get out of it. That's where they always seemed to be – maybe just to gloat about their masses of money, even though Bella still never got used to having so much whenever she wanted it. I mirrored Edwards smile as I thought about how much fun she'd be having. Emmett chuckled.
"Thanks for dropping by, Jake. She's being a bit awkward at the moment." Edward whispered, although I didn't know why. Everyone here would be able to hear him. I looked sideways at Nessie – her golden curls in a ponytail wearing a pair of denim shorts and a green t-shirt – who had a mischievous grin on her face.
"Come on then, trouble. We'll play a game." I'd been called specially to help Nessie hunt. She preferred donated human blood, ugh, but obviously couldn't always drink that as people needed it for the intended purpose - to give it to someone who needed it, who would probably die without it. My being there encouraged her to drink, so today's activity was to hunt.
"Bye Daddy!" Nessie shouted as we walked out the door. I waved too, just to be polite.
"Let's go. Ready? Stand back then…" She took steps backwards and I phased, my shirt ripping into shreds as the masses of fur sprouted out of my skin.
"Let me get on you." She huffed, and she pulled herself up by holding onto my fur. Nessie always got to choose where we hunted – I was here to encourage her to eat the food she was supposed to. I felt smug that no-one else had yet managed it, even Bella struggled sometimes.
Running into the depths of the forest that I called my home more than any other place, Nessie squealed with delight. The mud splattered as my paws landed with hearty thuds with each leap that I took, and birds flew out of the trees hurriedly as we passed them.
"Stop!" Nessie shouted, and I slid my paws into the muddy embankment causing a small ridge as I put on my brakes. She slid off me, landing beside me silently. I stayed in wolf form with my matted fur whilst we hunted – it allowed me to be fast, to be strong and to kill. I followed Nessie as she ran into the trees, blurring herself in the brown woodsy scent. I could smell where the animals were, but of course I couldn't say. Nessie would figure it out; she had a good a smell as any.
We slowed our pace as the closed in on our prey: four deer's. Nessie pounced straight away, grasping at the furry critter with her long fingers and biting hard on its neck. I didn't wait around for long, as I threw myself at one of its friends, tackling it to the floor in a fierce battle, before finally sinking my teeth into its furry neck. The limp body fell to the floor, the wound gushing blood. I phased back and watched as Nessie drank from writhing body of the still-alive deer. Seconds later, when nearly all blood must have escaped from its body, the animal collapsed in a heap on the floor in front of the small girl that I loved so much. Her brown eyes were wide as they replayed each moment of the attack. She placed her warm hand on my face and I watched the focused picture as she pounced and drank.
"I got another one for you." I said, pointing to the second deer corpse lying next to its blood-less brother. Smiling her thanks at me, she jumped energetically at it, straddling it on the ground, trying to play with it in some form or another. I think the battle was half the fun for Nessie.
She drank hungrily from the open wound, and when she'd finished, she looked up and wiped the drip of crimson liquid that had escaped her deadly mouth. She sat on the floor, playing with its paws, tapping them on the ground to make a rhythmic beat. I sat beside her and played with a tuft of grass.
"Are you full?" I asked, unsure whether as she got older she should drink more than she had when she was younger. She definately didn't drink as much as any of the older vamps. Yet.
"I want more." She grinned, jumping onto her small feet and stretching. Sprinting further ahead of me, I allowed myself to phase back into a wolf and chased after her. I dived on her, gently, making sure my weight wasn't affecting her at all and tugged playfully at her green, blood stained t-shirt.
"Jake, get off me, get off me!" Nessie squealed, pushing me off her and running away from me, glancing back with a huge Bella-like smile on her face.
She suddenly stopped, and I almost crashed right into her back. Standing on her tip-toes, she took a dramatic sniff of the air and began sprinting again. Steadily, I followed again until we came to face the two deer's. Nessie snorted in boredom, probably hoping for something more exciting than another deer. They tried to run, but both Nessie and I were way too quick for them, pouncing and biting down hard until they fell flaccid underneath us.
"Way to go, Jake." She said, holding up her tiny hand, and I held up my paw. She collided them and giggled, heading to the deer that she had killed, sinking in her razor sharp teeth and drinking again. I never got bored of watching her hunt; it fascinated me the way that she was so gentle and calm on minute, but suddenly fierce, allowing her natural instincts to take over when blood surfaced.
She moved onto the second quickly, emptying it from its blood ridiculously quickly as she lapped it. It was quite disgusting really, but at least it wasn't a human. I'd sometimes wondered what would happen if Nessie did kill a human; I knew it would never be intentionally.... but what if she just... slipped. The treaty would order me to kill her, but I couldn't. She's my imprint. Sam and I had debated what was worth more: the treaty or imprint and imprint had won. Both of us knew how everything revolved around them... But I wondered what my emotions would be towards it. I hoped I'd never have to find out.
As Nessie drank the final drop out of the deer's on the forest floor, I stood up onto all four paws. Nessie dived onto my back, scrambling onto it by tugging at my fur roughly to keep her balance.
Running back to the Cullen's place wasn't my favourite thing to do. It was quick and simple. It was becoming one of my most well-known routes but I couldn't help it that Nessie lived with the vamps.
When we arrived, Edward was playing the piano – some sickly lullaby that Bella liked. Nessie ran into him, and sat next to him. She joined in with him, playing the chords whilst he played the tune. It was sweet watching her with her dad, even if her dad was Edward. I returned to my human form before entering the house.
"Did she eat?" Edward asked me.
"Yeah, she had four deer." I replied, taking a seat on the sofa.
"Wow, that's a lot. Thanks Jake."
"Yeah, no problem. Is it alright if I come round later? Fancy seeing bells a bit, but I don't want to be around when Blondie gets back from shopping, alright?" I asked, standing back up again, not really seeing the point in sitting down in the first place.
"That's fine, Jake. See you later." Edward said, not taking his eyes or fingers off the piano.
"See you later, Ness." I called.
"Bye bye, Jakey!" She shouted from the piano. "See you later!"
As I ran out of the Cullen house, I didn't mind that she hadn't come to give me a kiss goodbye. With my clever thoughts and skills of lying, I'd just gotten myself another play-date.
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Another chapter should be on its way soon, so keep a look out :)