How To Live With Werewolves
Rule Number Seventeen;
Take evasive action or generally roll over and go belly up during confrontation.
Last Time;
I would leave the window open.
But I would pay the price
~!~
"Hey, Billy, is Jake there?"
"Sorry Bella," his tone is generally apologetic—the one I've heard before.
"It's... It's fine. Look, can you... do me a favour?"
A long pause.
"Shoot."
"I need you to get Sam to give Jake some more... ah... jobs, tonight."
~!~
Without so much as a word, he wrapped his marble-cold arm around my waist and pulled me out the window.
He ran with me in his arms before I could cry my protest.
Like the calm before any storm, I knew what was to come. I felt it burning my insides like acid and choked on the air that barely managed to pass my gaping lips.
Realising he was going too fast, Edward slowed his pace until I could suck each lungful in like an addict.
I let him have it.
"Are you insane! Do you know what you've just done, Edward! They'll know you took me—Jake will—
He snorted. Then after a pregnant silence turned to look at me, eyebrows knitted together, reminding me of Rosalie, briefly. Only the red in his eyes made my blood run cold.
"Who?"
"The wolves, you idiot!" I snapped, shaking in his arms.
He stopped walking altogether.
"Werewolf?"
"No, your average wolf with flimsy teeth and—Of course a werewolve! Now put me down! I swear, Charlie will shoot you and then he'll hand me the gun so I can shoot you when you get up and then I'll call Sam and let him know Seth can have you as a chew-toy—this is not funny!"
He, although chuckling again, let me down.
Immediately I turned from the direction we'd come. I'd closed my eyes and now faced with the direction felt my mouth go dry.
"Where are we?"
I already knew, but had to be sure.
"The clearing..."
We fall quiet, me breathing, him not. It's not peaceful, it hurts, it's utterly heartbreaking. But at the same time... I don't care about it anymore.
He looks at me.
"You have a cast on your leg."
I nod, knowing he'd have figured it out sooner or later.
"Alice had visions of you talking about that with Rosalie... it was hard to make out at the time."
I want to laugh. I want to cry.
Maybe I was going crazy.
"They're coming, you know," I say, turning to look at him.
"Who?"
"Jake. Sam. Paul. Embry. Quil... the entire pack, if you're that unlucky."
He smiled that crooked smile.
"It's luck enough that I'm here with you."
If I didn't know the repercussions of hitting a werewolf, I would have hit him. And Jake was... softer. Hitting Edward? It was what I imagined hitting a brick wall would be like. Pointless and in the end, you would only hurt yourself.
I wanted to tell him luck didn't have anything to do with my being here, that he should take me home, we still had time.
But, of course, I was wrong.
With him now, I wanted to tell Edward that Jacob had imprinted on me. I wanted to tell him I had disobeyed his wishes by being safe and instead settled for punching werewolfs, cliff-diving, had my leg broken by a vampires severed arm. I was still alive. I wanted to point and laugh joyously as if my living had proven to him I was strong enough, that I could exist and breathe.
But he'd never said I couldn't.
He never once told me "don't move on from me, don't ever be happy again, have my voice in your head telling you things that bother you".
The point was, I was free from the chains I had unnervingly bound to myself.
This, I realised with a glum expression, couldn't have come at a better time.
Darting in and out from behind great trees and tricky bushes was the pack. Or at least three of them.
No. Five. Or was it six?
Edward went even still-er than usual and had the nerve to push me behind his back, a hiss escaping his lips in a torrent.
"Wet dog," seemed to be his favorite insult.
Just when I thought things couldn't become more difficult, I saw him.
My breathing stopped, my heart soared and my eyes watered with what I think was adoration, surprise, anger, happiness.
Jacob, (shirtless) banked by two wolves on either side, made his way towards us. His expression, by all definition, was one of a thunderstorm. He was angry. More than angry.
He was, dare I say it, pissed.
"What the fuck are you doing here—nevermind. Get the fuck out of my way."
Edward snarled and Jacob's whole figure trembled, once, twice, before he calmed down.
"I will ask you one last time, leech," he gritted out between clenched teeth "move, or I'll move you my damn self and I can guaren-fucking-tee those other leeches are going to have to put you back together with duct-tape somewhere in Mexico."
"Edward," I pleaded, hands shaking, desperately as my mind became a scrambled mess. I tried with all my might to run to him, but Edward held me back, not even breathing with the effort.
JakeJakeJakeJakeJake
"Please,"
JakeJakeJakeJakeJakeJake
"It's okay," I choked.
Jake!Jake!Jake!
Edward glanced at me, then turned back to the wolves so sharply I thought his head might just break off. I hadn't missed that look in his red-topaz eyes.
"What is an imprint?" he wondered aloud softly.
"Bella is my damn fucking imprint—MOVE!" he roared, on the very edge, eyes wild and hands clenching as he took a step forth. Sam, the black silk wolf, growled snapping at Jacobs legs in warning.
"Please, Edward, I have to..."
JAKE!
But it was too late.
Jake merely shoved the beast aside and jumped, phasing mid-air, so fast my eyes barely caught the moment. Edward, sensing something aloft, was faster. He ran and met the wolf head-on as the others descended. But the pale god threw them to the side as though annoying pests rather than the thing of nightmares.
I saw flashes of russet, then white, then russet. They blurred, danced, slowing in their fight only to start again. Edward was a second ahead, knowing Jacob's moves before he did. I felt my throat burn—I was screaming for them to "STOPSTOPPLEASESTOP!" but no one heard me. Embry jumped back in to the fight and then the others followed. Before I could scream anymore, I realised with a quick bat of my eyelashes that my human mind could keep up; I just wasn't believing what I was seeing.
Edward was going in for the kill—I could see why. Three other wolves; Leah, Seth and someone else wete running at the fray full speed.
It was always too late.
I felt the crunch, the break, before I saw it. Maybe my mind was too slow to process it.
One moment he was there.
And then he was gone.
In the sudden silence, a startling piercing sound thudded in my head.
Like the sudden quiet when you turn off a movie and lay there in the dark.
I was scared of the dark, once.
"Edward!" I cry, lurching forward.
But he doesn't answer me.
His eyes stare up at me blankly from it's place on the ground. His body, on the other hand is being torn to shreds.
"STOP!" I scream.
They hear me. The wolves back off immediately, watching with suspicious eyes as I crawl on the crushed flowers and the dead grass toward him.
Someones (mine?) voice is chanting "I can fix this, I can fix this," as my fingers meet the cracked marble of his neck.
"Nonononono... it's alright... I can fix this..."
Warm hands pulls me away.
"NO! Let me go! Put me down, dammit, put me down! I can fix this!"
Just before I'm out of reach I see his eyes. And they blink, his lips moving.
I barely manage to howl a warning before turning to the side and that same acid that had churned in my stomach burns my already aching throat as I throw up.
"Did you know?"
"What?" I smile, turning to look up at his topaz eyes, voice soft and sheets shifting between his cold body and mine.
"How much I love you?"
My lungs suddenly couldn't function.
"No. Remind me again?" and I press my lips to his—only to have him pull away with a pained expression.
"Sorry, sorry," I chant, backing up and ducking my head. I ruined it. Again.
[Not Paying Attention Here/General Hubub/Whatdoesthespacebardo Rant]
Well hello there, lovelies! Been too long, I think. As always. But if I've kept you on your toes I must be doing something right. And I really don't know what to say. I think Bella kicked ass in this one (and Bella by default does not kick ass) though she kind of surprised me near the end. Who knew the poor girl couldn't hold down dinner? And when is that damn cast coming off and JacobBella sexy times goes down?
Answer! I don't know.
I have literally lost the plot and may or may not have to smash my face on the keyboard to find it again.
Oh, wait, it's coming back to me...
In the mean time, go check out Dirty Thoughts. Posted another chapter.
To those who did not threaten to kill me with pitch forks and whatnot while waiting, I leave you many thanks. I've finally settled in and will update in my free time (relaxing here is getting very old very quickly, am thinking about signing up for a gun liscence or something). Review rant in next chapter, as it's late and thespacebarismissing.
Muchlove!
[End Rant]