The wind moaned outside my window while Edward and I stared at each other in a more dramatically version the Mexican standoff. He was giving a blood curdling – no pun – stare while I stood twitching in nerves and wondering how the hell I was going to pull this lie out the hat?
"You promised –" he started, his voice a deep growl that resonated throw my bones.
"I know but –" I began.
"You promised Bella!" My heart broke as I saw pure disappointment mixed with anger written on his face. "You promised you'd stay away from him!"
"I know but…"
"There are no buts about it Bella" The paternal tone was starting to get to me.
"Look, Jake is my friend you can't-"
"Yes I can when your friend is a temperamental werewolf with an inferiority complex!"
"You think Jake's inferior!?" I said I snarl. "What exactly are you, "Mr. Prince of Darkness"?!" I was so angry I could have spat. How dare he criticise what Jake is when he is just as big of a monster as he.
"He is dangerous! I'm trying to protect you…"
"Why can't you fuck-wits get over that hero complex that has somehow inherently decided to pop up when I'm concerned?" I yelled throwing the crumpled letter onto my floor in anger. "Sure, ok, I'm clumsy and sometimes weird clumsy shit happens to me! Fine, I am prone to accidents and oddly enough know all the nurses names by heart at FCH (Forks Community Hospital), and so-fucking-what if I'm as unlucky as a black cat with a horseshoe shoved up its ass?! SO EFFING WHAT!!!" I shoved at Edward angrily. I felt as though I was going to explode. The anger inside of me had grown like having a second head that was telling me to do bad things. But this anger had seeded itself in my mind the moment Jake and Edward had become part of opposing teams. They couldn't understand that I wasn't property. Furthermore I was not a damsel in distress; I could take care of myself.
"So you and Jake and lay the fuck off because I don't know what to do with or without either one of you! I'm in love with both of you and I don't know how it happened but suddenly life is so black and white, monster and human. Suddenly we have humans that are monsters and monsters that are in love with the same human girl."
"What are you going to do?" He asked quietly. I wondered absently whether he felt like crying.
"I don't know. I guess I can't really see either one of you for a while."
There was another deep growl as Jake leaped back through the window and into my over-crowded room.
"Glad you could join us, dog" Edwards snarled. I could almost smell the venom gathering in his mouth.
"Never want to leave your side bloodsucker baby" Jake replied with sarcastic smile and a wink but his stance was dangerously low to the ground, in a manner that implied that he was going to pounce on Edward.
"Neither of you move!" I shouted jumping into the middle. "I am in love with both of you, and I want neither of you to get hurt!" I looked to both of them in question. "Knock it off…" I said, growling myself.
After another second of tension passed until the boys backed away from each other.
"Look we're just going to have to do this non-violently and try to be civil." I said, then quietly under my breath "Apparently a human trait…"
"I heard that" They answered simultaneously.
"We're going to have to take a break away from each other." I said. "I need to remember what its like to be human, Edward" I turned to Jake. "And I need to be able to survive without your acceptance and your support. I need to let you off that pedestal."
"So how about both of you just leave me alone for a while?" Before they could say another word in argument I left my room and locked myself in the bathroom. Not that a door could stop either one of them, but the principle was there. No go zone.
Weeks later, I was crawling up walls. Jessica had made it her mission to give me a make-over. We were sitting in what she called Seattle's best hair salon while an amazingly pierced man chopped away at my hair.
"Et voila!" He said flamboyantly and twisted me around in the chair to face the mirror. Jessica, who was in the seat next to mine with enough foil in her hair to call E.T, dropped her magazine and squealed – literally – clapping her hands in delight.
"Oh my gosh Bells, you look awesome!"
"She's right you know" the hairdresser otherwise known as Pierre, said a smug smile curving his lips. "This is my best work yet."
Who was I to argue?
The dark fall of hair that used to reach down to my shoulder blades, was now barely skimming my chin.
"You look like -" Jessica pondered gazing at me intently.
"Ah! I got it! Shannyn Sossamon!" Pierre nodded his head as if this was the look he was originally trying to achieve.
"You look fierce!"
"Maybe I just want to look like me?" I asked in a quiet voice, running my hands through my short, bouncy hair.
"Don't be silly Bell, you look hot." There was no arguing that. I shut up and tried to appreciate the sexy girl looking at me behind the fringe.
"Are you really sure you want to do this?" I asked again just as we were about to enter.
"For the last time Bella, YES! Eden is the hottest club in Seattle. I need to see it!"
Jessica had organised fake ID's for both of us so that a weekend of pampering could turn into an adventure.
"I don't know Jess, it looks a little shifty" Actually it looked like the coolest thing I had ever seen. Forks wasn't exactly the culture capital and the bars in Forks tended to be filled by the trucker type. The outside of Eden was black-carpeted so that after Jess passed the queue we were standing on a luxurious black carpet facing a very big bouncer and a black door. His face was grim as we walked passed him and to the door. As we reached the door a small latch opened and a girl that seemed our aged assessed our appearances.
"Ok" Her voice monotonously said and the door swung open.
"Isn't this great?" Jess whispered excitedly as we entered a very red room where we were to leave out coats.
"Okay… but I still have a bad feeling about this" I muttered to myself. We were just about to go through another door into the actual club when another large bouncer stepped up to me. And stopped me from entering.
"Leave it." He said his voice loud and booming.
"Leave what?" I asked innocently batting my lashes.
"Don't play with me girl. I can smell the metal on you." He grabbed my arms and pulled my skirt up to reveal the gun holstered to my thigh.
"Oh that… you should have said so" I said sarcastically and removed it. Jess stared at me angrily as I rejoined her at the door.
"You just had to take your gun along..:"
"You know me, Dad being a cop and all." I lied easily. The truth was that Charlie had no idea about the gun or various other tools I used to protect myself. The Volturi were edging closer and the time to be scared little Bella was over. That's why I still had the knife in my boot. "Come on" I said and grabbed her hand as we passed the large black doors and into the club.
The first thing that struck me was the music. It was loud, so loud that every cell in your body vibrated from it but it was hypnotic as well. The sound of it made you want to lift your arms into the air. Jessica's eyes almost popped out as she witnessed the hundreds of people grind against each other to the perfect rhythm of the music. Not only was the ambiance weird and mesmerising, but everyone in the club was beautiful in that avant-garde inhuman way. The bad feeling was suddenly making sense. I grabbed Jessica's arm before she could step into the throng of people.
"Jess I don't think this is such a great idea"
"No Bella" she said as if in a trance. "No this is going to be great." She gave me a mad grin before she flitted off like a sprite. I tried to follow her through the crowd but she was instantly gone.
I looked around desperately trying to see past the black leather and naked body parts. Each new scene would expand my horizons, I'd see two women wearing leather blindfolds and scraps of leather clothing, grinding each other and kissing on the dance floor. There was a rather dangerous looking guy was surrounded by a handful of naked women on one of the blood red couches. All the women had leashes that he was holding onto with one hand while puffing away on a cigar. There were people on the ground writhing in what seemed to be pleasure and pain while people on every surface of the bar were touching each other, grinding fiercely in time to the music.
"Shit." I said out loud. I heard the first notes of Fatboy Slim's 'Right Here Right Now' blasting through the speakers. Everyone in the rooms seemed to react at the same time. The song crested into the beginning and peoples hand lifted into the air, everyone was moving making it harder for me to move around or see Jessica.
"Jessica?!" Yelled and grabbed a girl by her shoulder and spun her around.
"What's your problem?" She asked her eyes flashing dangerously.
"I'm sorry I was just looking for a friend" I said moving on. But before I could go any further she grabbed my arm and pulled me to her. Her cat-like green eyes flashed once more as a hungry smile crept on her face.
"Why don't you stay, dance" She said throwing her skinny arms over my shoulders in an attempt to dance.
"How about I don't" I said and threw her arms off me.
"Hmm, Feisty. I like that in a girl" She said licking her lips. She grabbed my neck in a vice-like grip and whispered into my ear. "Let's see if you taste as good as you smell" She nibbled my earlobe seductively and gave a throaty laugh. I felt the anger boil inside me.
"There will be no tasting tonight" I said angrily as I grabbed her arm and flipped her onto the ground like I had learned in judo. In one smooth move I grabbed the knife from my boot and held it to her eye.
"Now I don't know about you, but it seems that we started out wrong. Don't you think?" I asked pressing the blade hard against her eye-lid. She whimpered softly and nodded. "A bit rude isn't it to attempt to bite me, and maybe, from a different perspective, this knife against your eyeball could be seen as hostile."
"So you're going to apologise to me and I'm going to remove this 3 times blessed - I'm a bit obsessive - silver and 100 year mahogany blade from your eye" I flipped the blade and and wedged it back into my boot. Three were a few people crowded around us trying to see what's going on. I ignored them as I lifted myself up. So did the girl. She attempted to launch herself on me from behind but before she knew it my blade was out of my boot once again and pointing at her jugular. I looked up at her from my crouched position, my arm extended in a killing position.
"You're persistent" I said. Her eyes lit up with anger as I rose and pressed another blade from my back, to her chest. "Do you really want to disappear into a puff of smoke?" I smirked. I the crowd around us was no an exponential amount. Suddenly, like Moses splitting the red sea, the crowd shifted and parted as the man I had seen at the red couches walked up to us.
"What is it that you think you're doing in my club?" His voice sounded like water rushing in a stream. It was eerily beautiful. His long black hair hung like a curtain around his face as his deep red eyes flashed evilly. He was dressed all in black and moves like he was on wheels.
"Excuse me for the interruption" I said plainly. "But this lady here doesn't seem to understand the meaning of no"
"Garbo" He said. The girl shivered slightly. I dropped my blades. She instantly ran off, humiliated by the scene. "Forgive her" the man turned back to me, "She is young" Wordlessly he ebbed away again. The crowd around him converging back together as they resumed dancing frantically.
"There you are!" Jessica yelled and waked from the balcony above. She was standing with two gentlemen that I was sure had less that chivalrous intentions. I ran up the stairs located off to the side of the dance floor. I found Jessica and a magnum of pink champagne.
"Bella! Look! Pink champagne!" She screeched holding a bottle up for my observation. Neither of the men looked dangerous. Just non-human.
"So what are you?" I asked them with a smile. Although I had been studying with the best teacher I could have, a vampire himself, I still had a lot to learn about the creatures of my nightmares.
"Heard about curiosity and the cat?" The light-haired one asked pulling an extremely drunk Jessica off the rail.
"Yeah, both good friends of mine" I replied sarcastically. "There better not be any bite marks on her otherwise I'll be making a few marks myself."
"Promises, promises" The other one said mock wistfully. A lock of brown hair flopped on his eye in a boy-next-door fashion. Out of no where Boy-next-door decides to pull out a wooden stake large enough for it to look incredibly silly. I started laughing like a mad-woman and stared at him.
"Spike put that away" Blondie said frustrated. I laughed even harder.
"What? This is the best you can get!" Spike said putting the stake back.
"She's not a vampire you dimwit" Blondie walked past him and extended his hand to me. "Kerrigan. This is my blundering friend Spike. We're human. At least I am. Spike is human half the time"
"Werewolf?" I asked my eyebrow lifted.
"Yup. One of the finest." He winked and I was forced to laugh again at his behaviour.
"So Jessica?"
"Is just drunk, we found her and decided to protect her from well, you know"
"You're hunters then?" I asked pointing at the stake.
"No" Kerrigan answered "We're more like the keepers of peace."
"Okay…" I said giving him an odd look. Before I could say anything Jessica was about to nose-dive into the dance floor bellow. Kerrigan reached her first and pulled her off the rail.
"Aww, Kerri, you're no fun" She said in a slur.
"Yeah and you're too young to die" he plopped her onto the couch and I found myself wishing I could run my fingers through his long dirt-blonde hair. His blue eyes flicked to mine like he heard what I was thinking so I quickly turned away, blushing.
I walked to the railing myself and looked around the club. I looked at the owner of the bar lying with his harem in the enclosure.
"That is Damien" Kerrigan said "Big in the vampire world"
"How big" I asked.
"Volturi big"
"Shit." What was the Volturi doing in Seattle? They were more connected than I thought.
"We're thinking that there's some bigger plan here. A lot of emigration has been happening. Vampires from all over are flocking to Seattle. We're trying to find out exactly why." Fear gripped my belly.
"Jessica! We have to go." I said pulling Jessica from boozy slumber on the sofa. Jessica mumbled in her sleep as I pulled her arm over my shoulders and precede to half-carry her out.
"Hey, we don't know your name!" Spike burst out.
"Bella." I answered as I proceeded down the steps. I looked up one last time to meet Kerrigan's gaze. He knew that I knew something. I had to get out. I looked away and left.
In the car on our way home I couldn't help thinking about what Kerrigan had said. Something shifty was going on in Seattle and something told me it went a lot further than me turning into a Vampire. Lights flashed as I sped down the roads. Once again I thought of Jacob and Edward. I had seen neither of them since that fateful day in my room. I had thought of them constantly and now that graduation was only a few weeks off, my decision was weighing heavily on my mind. Shit.
I pulled up in front of Jessica's and deftly opened the front door while keeping her upright. I put her into bed and placed a glass of water and an aspirin for her for the morning. Closing the door behind me I jogged lightly to my car and headed towards La Push.
Once there I headed to the cliffs where the dawn was slowly breaking. "Jacob!" I shouted into the wind, letting it lift my arms. I looked down at the sea and considered jumping again, just to feel the rush.
"Don't even think about it" a voice said from behind me. I turned around to find Jake in all his dark beauty. His hair had grown a little bit but still remained close to his head. His dark eyes shone in the dark.
"I wasn't going to jump Jake" I said with a sigh. His eyes smiled at mine but his mouth remained a grim, hard line.
"What do you want Bella? I thought we were supposed to stay away from each other for a while?"
"It's been a while. Now I need answers" I moved closer to him so I could see the emotion in his eyes.
"What do you know?" I asked quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean all of a sudden after several years, the wolves in the tribe are starting to grow. There must be like 30 of you in the pack now."
"So?"
"So, I think there's more to it than just the Cullen's." I sighed deeply as I thought of Alice. "Or at least the Cullen's aren't the whole part of it"
"Look its late, you're obviously not feeling tip top and your hair…" he said taking a strand of it into his big hands.
"What about my hair?!" I asked incredulously.
"It's new" he said and smiled his old smile. I knew he was trying to distract me, but I let the warmth of the smile seep into my skin and warm my soul.
"I missed you Jake" I said after a while. Feeling fresh tears sting behind my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself. Jake just looked at me with his enigmatic eyes and revealed nothing.
"I will find out Jake and when I do I'll be holding you responsible for my actions" I reached up with my toes and kissed him on the cheek. His arm came around my waist like a vice as his mouth found mine and branded me with his lips. After a while I pushed away, placing my hands on his chest.
"I missed you Bells" He said, his voice huskier than usual.
"I missed you too Jake" I whispered. With one final press of lips I was gone walking back down to the car. I looked back only once and watched him lean over the edge of the cliff and leap into the unknown.
For a moment my heart slowed to a stop in fear, but as I saw a wolf form leap out of the water by the beach it started again.
"I love you Jake" I whispered to the wind and climbed into the car.