Chapter 3: Dangerous in the best way

I yawned and gripped my thermos tighter, Bella was bouncing in excitement. Jacob had finally finished the bikes. I was indifferent; my ass was defiantly not going on one of those death traps. While Bella wound herself tighter around Jacob, I hung out with Embry and Quil playing video games, I went and helped Seth with his homework, Leah and I went shopping in Port Angeles, and Sue was teaching me how to cook. I had found amazing people in La Push, and it felt good to not have to rely on my sister for my only friend.

We were currently on our way to Jacob's so we could load up the bikes and Jacob could show my sister how to not die on one of them. I was riding along because she asked me to, and I wanted to be there to call 911 when she needed stitches. If I knew my sister, and I did, she was defiantly going to need stitches. Maybe I should become a doctor, I'm sure it'd save our dad a lot of money. I wonder how good his health insurance was as a police officer. I sipped my french vanilla coffee gratefully and tuned out my sister's insistent babbling.

Jacob loaded up both of the bikes himself and my sister hummed appreciatively, "Wow Jake, have you been working out?" He winked at her; I thought I was going to puke. On our way to a deserted old road Jacob knew about my sister cried and pulled the truck over. "What are they doing?!" I tugged my jacket closer to me and looked over at the cliffs. Four distinctive bodies could be spotted at the top of the cliffs and one by one they jumped. Embry and Quil had told me about cliff-diving, the recreational sport here on the reservation. Embry also said that only the 'hall monitors' jumped from that high up. Jacob came to my sister's side and hugged her, "Don't worry Bells, they're just cliff diving, its fun. But only Sam Uley's gang jumps that high off, it's suicidal." While Jacob explained all about Sam Uley's cult with some of the other teenagers, I looked closer at one of the bodies about to jump. I rubbed my eyes, "Is that Embry?" Jacob looked over at me in shock, probably wondering how I recognized his friend from so far away. It's amazing how much you miss when you're stuck up someone's ass. He nodded nonetheless, "Sam started looking at him funny, and then Embry got sick and missed a few weeks of school. When he came back he was one of them." We loaded back into the truck but not before I heard him whisper to Bella, "Now he's looking at me like I'm next, I'm scared Bells."

"Break!" I screamed. I winced when I saw my sister crash a few miles away on the dirt road. Jacob had spent time going over all the parts and how to break. It seemed she was getting the hang of it, even started accelerating, when she crashed and hit her head on a rock. Jake took the second bike to get to her and I ran after him. I got there just in time to see him rip his shirt off to put it against Bella's bleeding forehead. "I'm sorry…" she immediately apologized. I'm sure she was thinking back to the last time she had bled in front of someone. It was her birthday and she had almost died. Hazard of hanging out with vampires I supposed. Jacob merely laughed, "What are you apologizing for Bella? Bleeding?" He held the shirt tighter against her forehead. My sister got this dazed look in her eye, "You're kind of beautiful."

"Alright you probably have a concussion, let's get you to the hospital." I couldn't agree with the shirtless boy more.

"Bella what the hell?" Our dad came home to find out that one of his daughters was at the ER and came out with seven stitches. Bella ran her fingers over the stitches gently, "its fine dad really, I just tripped and fell over a tool at Jake's garage." I turned tail and ran back upstairs before dad could ask me to back up her story, I was a horrible liar. One look at my face and you could immediately tell I was lying. I would have been a terrible Secret Keeper in the Harry Potter world. I opted out the next time she wanted to go try out the bikes, I sure as hell didn't have a death wish. I had a feeling she was doing this to fuel her hallucinations of Edward. At least then when she came home hurt the second time, I didn't have to lie. I really didn't know what happened. Jacob was smart enough to put a stop to Bella's dare-devil persona with the motorcycles after that. If he hadn't, I would have. I really should become a doctor.

"Are you sure you don't want to come to the movies with us? It'll be me, Jake, Angela, Ben, Mike, and Jessica." Bella had arranged for a group of friends to go see Face Punch at the movie theatres. It was a more elaborate attempt at feinting off Mike Newton's advances. I stayed where I was on the living room floor. I was in my middle splits doing calculus homework. I was considering going to medical school after graduation, my dancing career is over since I chose to finish out my senior year here. Now I needed a new dream to focus on, and while I would never give up ballet completely, I had to accept that it was no longer a career option. Needless to say, I was slightly depressed and not in any mood to go to the movie theatre. I waved my sister goodnight.

"Well I'm glad I didn't go." I muttered as I held my sister's hair back while she vomited over the toilet. Everyone had gotten sick but her, Jacob, and Mike. Then Mike got sick, and then Jacob ran off claiming to be ill, now Bella was going to become very friendly with the bathroom tile floor. I fed her saltine crackers and had her sip ginger ale all night. Luckily, it seemed to be a pretty quick virus and I only had to hold her hair back for two days. It turns out Jacob's strain might be a little different.

I looked up from my English Lit homework to see my sister pace back and forth in front of me, "Hey Billy, can I talk to Jake? Oh okay." She paused and I could tell when Jacob answered because her face lit up, "Hey Jake, how're you feeling? Oh really? Oh…okay." She hung up the phone dejectedly.

"Trouble in paradise?" I teased but she looked heartbroken, "He says he's still sick and he'll call me when he feels better." I didn't think that sounded bad but to my sister it was the end of the world.

I bore witness as she called the Black house insistently every day, and every day getting more and more irritated. Nothing I said to her seemed to help, so finally out of desperation I asked dad to talk to Harry and see about Jacob. When dad reported that Harry said Jacob was still sick, it seemed to appease her for the time being.

"Come on…" I looked up and saw my sister storming around the house. It had been a week since Harry had informed us that Jacob still had mono, Bella was losing her mind. I slid on my white Keds, and threw a long sleeve grey shirt over my white tank top and black yoga pants. "Where are we going?" I didn't get an answer until we were pulled over in the forest.

"There is this meadow that Edward took me to once; I want to see if I can find it again." I rolled my eyes, neither one of us had any sense of direction. We were bound to get lost. I followed her deeper and deeper into the forest. I was sweating and Bella was covered in small cuts and scratches from falling. We finally pushed through to an opening in the woods. It was an opening about the size of two football fields, covered in wild flowers. It was beautiful, I leaned on my knees to catch my breath and Bella walked around amazed. "Did you expect to find him here?" I questioned out of breath, I really hated the outdoors. She shrugged, but her reply was cut short.

"Bella?" An entirely new voice questioned. It was smooth and silky, like honey in the summer. Bella gripped my hand and we stood side by side. The man who had spoken was a vampire. I looked at his red eyes before anything else; he seemed to know my sister. He had a dark complexion, made pale by the vampire venom. He had an accent, he wasn't from around here. He had dreadlocks and they blew behind him as he approached us. "I went by to see the Cullen's but it seems they are not here." I tugged my sister behind me, I'd be no use against a vampire, but the protective instinct was there just the same. He stalked around us lazily, "I'm surprised they left you here, they seemed very attached to you." He chuckled lightly. I could feel Bella tremble.

"They visit regularly, I'll tell them you stopped by." Well at least she was a better liar than I was.

He seemed to call her bluff, "Really? Their scent is very old. I would guess they hadn't been here in months." In an instant, he was in front of us. "Victoria will be most pleased to find out that you are here unguarded." I gulped and the action seemed to draw his attention to me and he licked his lips before turning back to my sister, "I'll do you a favor, I'll kill you right now. With me it will be quick and painless, while Victoria plans on taking you slow and painfully. If I take you and your friend here I can leave the area with no more meals."

"Laurent please no…" my sister whispered.

I screamed and Bella stumble backwards, I swear I could see my life flash before my eyes. Bella fell and dragged me down on the ground with her. I looked over into the trees when I heard growling. Laurent whirled around, "Impossible….."

They were massive, giant animals. Wolves, as I looked at them longer I realized they were over grown wolves. They growled and pounced, ready to attack Laurent. One wolf caught my eye, only because I recognized the eyes it had. Heterochromia iridium. The word replayed in my head. I caught a glimpse of one brown eye and one hazel eye. I only knew the term because Embry had explained it to me before, it happened when you had increased or decreased pigmentation in the iris. He had to explain this to me because it was the same condition he had. His right eye was brown and his left eye was hazel, much like this wolf. The condition was rare in humans, what were the odds that a wolf had the same condition? I lay on the ground with my sister in shock while the wolves chased after Laurent.

After the meadow incident, I refused to go anywhere with my sister. She kept calling Jacob, went down to the reservation to force him into talking to her. She came slamming back into the house, "He's part of Sam's gang!" She started slamming pots and pans in the kitchen. It was a common occurrence now for my sister to lose her cool when it came to Jacob Black. I looked up calmly from my seat in the kitchen chair reading the 'Scarlet Letter', "How do you know that?"

"I gave Quil a ride, and he told me. Jake is hanging around Sam now. Can you believe it? I went to go talk to him about it and he told me he can't see me anymore." She fumed. I wasn't so sure that was the whole story. It'd only been five days since our run in with Laurent. While my sister went into stalking mood, I hit the internet. Apparently the most common form of Heterochromia iridium in humans is one brown eye and one green/hazel eye like Embry. In animals, however, it was completely different. It almost always involves one blue eye. If I hadn't been almost attacked by a vampire I wouldn't have out much stock into any of this, but now? Anything was possible.

Dinner was a stilted affair since Bella was still pissed off, so conversation was at a standstill. Bella went off to bed early and I went into the living room to gather up my school stuff before bed. Dad was looking more and more stressed out recently with the animal attacks going around, he made us promise not to go into the woods by ourselves. The killings were getting close to home and it had everyone on edge. "You okay dad?" He looked shocked to see me there, he had bags under his eyes and he looked exhausted. "I'm okay Abs; we think they might be wolves. I mean that's what you and Bella saw right?" I wanted to correct him and say that was what Bella told you. As soon as she came home she went to dad telling him about the giant wolves that were in the forest. She conveniently left out the part where they saved our lives from a vampire. If they were just wild animals, wouldn't they have attacked us too? Aren't wolves' lone creatures or something? The whole thing didn't sit right with me. The wolves chose to attack and go after Laurent; I don't think normal wolves do that…do they? Needless to say, while Bella bawled to dad about it, I kept quiet.

"We're going to get together a search party, take them out before they can hurt anyone else." Dad ruffled my hair and headed upstairs to bed. If there was any chance that my crazy ass was right…

I quickly ran upstairs to throw on a pair of jeans and a black long sleeve shirt before I slipped on my black ballet flats. I grabbed my grey zip up hoodie by the door and stole Bella's car keys from the hook. I prayed the engine wouldn't wake them up while I coasted out of the driveway. I might be crazy but if there was any chance I was right, there was no way I was letting anyone hurt some of the only friends I had found here. Werewolves be damned.