Chapter 3

Trial Run

Nessie's POV

I break our kiss first. He looks at me, confused. I just smile at him.

He doesn't seem to get the hint, "Jake… my parents think we went hunting…" I think he'll understand now, and he does.

"Oh. Yeah, well Edward probably knew about my… er, plan to talk to you today, but uh we should probably actually hunt huh?" He looks adorable when he's nervous.

"Dad did probably know, but I think actually hunting is a good plan." I say with a soft smile.

"Sure thing Ness. Let's go."

We're still down by the beach in La Push, so we have to run back to the forest near our house. When we reach the cover of the woods I project my thoughts to Jacob, telling him, using my gift, that he should phase, so that we can go farther on foot to hunt.

He obliges, of course-I'd be hard pressed to remember a time when he didn't do as I asked-and darts into the trees. Less than thirty seconds later he jumps into my view as a huge orange-brown wolf. He's easily taller than I am, and the sun glints off the amber streaks in his fur. The wolf in front of me is majestic, and captivating.

I smile at him brightly, and he takes off into the forest. I follow him, quickly reaching his side. We run beside one another for a few miles, until we come across a herd of deer. I immediately target the largest buck in the herd, he would be no problem for a hybrid like myself-except Jacob selected him as well.

There was no way he was showing me up today. I decide to try something Kate had worked with me on the last time we visited them in Alaska, about a month ago. She had helped me work on projecting my thoughts into the minds of those I wished to communicate with, just for fun.

I hadn't done it well, but Kate suspected that was because I lacked motivation. I had agreed with her, and relinquished my practicing for the time being. However, being the fiercely competitive person that I am-thanks to my uncles and Jacob-I am pulling out all the stops to get this buck.

I stop running, but Jacob doesn't he's halfway to the buck, so I concentrate my hardest, trying to force my thought into his head. Jacob? I think, but he doesn't notice. Jacob? I try again. Nothing.

I take a deep breath, refocusing my attention on this one wolf going after my buck. The irritation of losing is enough to make me want to make this work. Jacob!? I all but scream the thought at him. I know a thought that potent would be enough to make my father wince. Nothing. I growl quietly, not within Jacob's earshot, in frustration. Then I think about my talent. I show people pictures, with thoughts attached. Maybe I need a picture to carry the message.

I conjure up an image of my as a baby, one that I've seen in scrapbooks, and I throw the thoughts at him again just before he can attack the deer. Jacob!? Again it's a shout, and a question.

This time, however, his head snaps up in my direction immediately. It worked! I utilize his distraction and I jump on the buck, who in all this time-about twenty seconds-had remained frozen in fear. My teeth easily cut into the skin at his throat, and I begin to drink thirstily. The blood tastes off, as always, but I'd gladly take this as opposed to the alternative: human blood.

By the time I've drained the buck I stand up, completely unharmed, my clothing still pristine. I turn to Jacob expectantly, but he's still frozen in the position he'd paused in before.

"I win." I inform him smugly.

He growls lightly, probably assuming that I'd cheated-we both know that cheating isn't beneath me, especially with Jacob.

"I did win. Mine was the biggest, and you don't even have one." I point out.

He nods his huge wolf head reluctantly, but giving me his wolfy smile. I smile back at him.

"I'll admit to cheating, but it was soo worth it." I grin at him, but his expression morphs into concern.

I think up a picture for what I want to say. I end up settling on an image of myself touching his face-his human face-to show him something. But the thoughts I attach to the image show that I 'avoided the middle man' I suppose.

The message comes off something like this, 'I put my thoughts into your head without touching you'. He absorbs this information, and then gapes at me in shock. I just nod, and turn to run back to where he stashed his clothes before. He follows me quickly.

I wait for him as he shifts back into a human. Another forty seconds or so, and he's at my side, questioning me.

"What was that Renesmee?" I smile, he only uses my given name when he's demanding something from me.

"I was distracting you." I shrug lightly.

"Mission accomplished." He grumbles.

"Awww, Jake don't be mad at me." My tone is pleading though my thoughts are devious.

He sighs, "I can't, and you know it. You're evil."

I laugh loudly at his statement. Then I try something. I send an image of myself crouched over a witch's cauldron cackling in an evil manner. The tone of my thought is joking.

As he registers my picture in his head he smiles. I fight to keep the mental picture in his mind, but it only lasts a few seconds. He begins to laugh at my thought.

"That was a good one Ness." I laugh with him. "Very frightening."

I know he's joking, but I'd like to think I could be scary, if I wanted to. Heaven knows my father could scare people, and I am biologically half him. Thankfully he isn't here right now, he'd be very unhappy with my thoughts, and probably Jacob's too, considering our close proximity to one another.

"Where'd you learn that Nessie?" He asks, genuinely curious.

"When we went shopping with the Denali's. Kate helped me work on projecting when a Coach purse store distracted Alice. I'm not really one for purses." I shrug.

"It's a neat trick. How far does it work?" He seems to be thinking over the opportunities I've created with this new element to my gift.

"I don't know," I inform him honestly. "I've only ever tried with Kate, and you of course. With Kate it was like trying to get thoughts into a rock. Almost impossible. She said everything was blurry and unclear. Seems like I'll only be able to intentionally put my thoughts into 'half-breed's' heads" I say with a grin using Alice's term for Jake and I.

"Huh. So it has really only worked with me so far?" He seems a little smug at the idea.

"I'd imagine it'd work on humans a little as well. But only about as well as it works on full vampires. It appears it would work best on the wolf pack, or Nahuel and his sisters. That's my assumption anyways."

Jacob tenses as I mention Nahuel's name, and I read his face-it's not an emotion I've seen from him before. I try out my new skill once more. I send my confused thoughts into his head, along with an image of his expression from a few moments ago.

He looks into my eyes and says, "It's nothing to worry about Ness."

"If you're concerned I am too." I'm adamant about this.

"Just think about things his way. You're the only known female 'half-breed' that's not his sister." He stops, still looking at my face, waiting for the recognition to dawn on me.

"You're cute." I say with a smug smile. "But you should know now," I step closer to him and whisper, "You are the only one for me."

He smiles at this statement, and I utilize my new talent for the forth time in one day. I pull up the mental picture of us kissing before and I send it into his head, the intent of the message clear as day, 'kiss me.'

And he does.

This talent was going to come in handy.

Hey, so it's becoming apparent to me that this isn't going to be a one-shot. So I will just have to see how far it goes. Right now my only plans go up to when Edward and Bella find out, but we'll see. Let me know what you think.

I thought that since Bella could project Renesmee should be capable of that as well. Then I thought about Alice being trapped 'by her nature' and her seeing the humans 'ok' and the vampires 'best' and so on, and I was like 'that's something that I could tie into Renesmee's talent. Cool huh?

What do you think of my Nessie anyways? She's bold isn't she. And competitive. But come on, when you grow up with a bunch of vampires (especially Emmet) those are good qualities, right? Please review. If you have another idea for Nessie's character let me know.

Thanks,

R&R