A/N: Here is it, better late than never, I guess. :D As always, beta'd by my Treacle, Mynxi. It may be worth reading the last bit of the chapter before, lol. What with me being useless at updating sooner. Anyway, I hope you enjoy...
B~E~L~L~A
"He's given me my first and only orgasms and all while he drank some poor woman's blood. That's his introduction?"
There are times when I regret waking up. Some days just aren't for allowing you to relax or just be; they're for being wrapped up in a duvet and dozing in front of the TV. Really, after my first real sleep in weeks, I should've been allowed at least a couple of hours before my world decided it best to just crash down all around me.
But no, that would be too easy.
Edward had fed from humans. Innocents. He had spent ten years with our third, ten years exploring his true nature. And then, for some reason he had yet to explain to me, he had left this Jasper Whitlock.
Introduction. That's what he had said. Standing there, looking perfect and gorgeous and so very sad. Introduction. Jasper's introduction of himself to me. I don't think I'd ever felt so angry, so confused. I had always thought that our third would be the one to balance us completely. Not give me nightmare induced insomnia and take me to the brink of insanity.
I stared at him; I tried to make sense of everything that he had just told me. I tried to calm down. But in the end, I just glared; I glared and tried to impart every single burning particle of rage that I was feeling into his forehead. And he just stood there with his eyes closed, the barely there crease that his immortal skin allowed was the only sign of expression on his beautiful face.
I stood and waited for Edward to speak, to move, to do anything. He had become so still that it sent shivers down my spine, and not in a negative, and some might say healthy, way. It was always the same whenever he did something that showed exactly what he was. Whatever it was in the human mind that was supposed to warn me away from vampires worked the complete opposite when it came to Edward, and to some extent it was the same with his family.
While becoming still as a statue may sound subtle, until you actually see a person do it, you can't understand just how unusual it is. That stillness, like a photograph or a paused image. A moment stolen and paused in time. Fear didn't leech into my feelings until he opened his eyes, the movement shocking after his stillness and his gaze fastened on to me.
Black. So black, dark and intense and boring into mine in a way that he had never done before. But I was so angry, so sick of everything, that I ignored the warning signs. I needed space, I needed time to think and calm down. To go over everything, to get it straight in my head and to let my anger out. So, I didn't waste another moment and moved to storm past him.
It didn't work out quite as I'd planned.
It all happened so fast that I simply registered that my momentum was stopped by cool hands and impossible strength. My world was redirected till I was pressed flat against the window, the glass hard and unyielding, yet feeling so much more fragile than the cold hard body pressing me against it with such strength that I barely had room to draw breath.
My hair was wrapped tightly in his hand, and Edward tugged at it, giving me no choice other than to allow my head to follow his lead. As soon as my throat was opened to him, his lips skimmed over my panicked pulse.
"How you tempt me, Bella," his words rumbled through me, his voice tainted by a growl that started low in his chest and ended with his chilled breath on my heated skin. I could feel my skin prickle with bumps. "Your beauty and innocence..." I gasped, whether it was at his words or his tongue on my skin, I wasn't sure. Wet and cold, like just melted snowflakes, the sensation dripping down my spine. "You are a mixture of beguiling sexual temptation, love."
I think I struggled, or at least I tried to. I know that I was caught between trying to run and trying to get closer. I'd never experienced Edward like this. Ever. Despite what he was, he'd always been safe. There was no safety in this, there was only danger. Intoxicating and heady danger.
"Edward?" I whispered his name in question; his answer was his hands slipping between me and the window, roaming slowly and surely over my clothes.
"Watching you night after night as you were lost in your dreams. Witnessing you writhing and panting, moaning and gripping the sheets around you..." my eyes closed as his velvet voice trailed off and his hands slid beneath my shirt, the fabric giving no resistence as it simply parted, ripping to give his hand the freedom he desired. That I desired. Hands on skin, cold against heat. It stole my breath.
"Running your hands over your own heated skin. Your sex slick as you rhythmically moved your thighs, each of your needy movements making your arousal an aromatic sweetness that filled the air, overpowering my senses."
My nails scraped on the glass as my fingers tried to find purchase, as I tried to find something to hold onto, something to ground me. Edward's hand that was still above my clothes travelled down, slipping beneath my waistband and into the front my panties. I made a sound that was caught somewhere between a gasp and a whimper, his fingers stroked my flesh in a way I had never experienced before. Experiments with causing my own pleasure had never, ever, felt like this. The heat that his fingers kindled only grew with each swipe of his cool fingertips and each word that he uttered.
"You beckoned me...tempted me...sang out to me...screamed out for me to sink into your tight, hot depths."
His fingers did as he words said, sliding inside me, a shock of cold that made my knees weak; made me cry out in both surprise and pleasure. I could barely form a coherent thought, my body working on its own as my hips moved in an attempt to gain more...just more.
"Oh, how you weep for me, Bella, heated and slick and dripping, gripping me. I could take you right now, up against this window, and you would just cry out for more, would you not?"
"Y-yes," my voice came out almost strangled, throaty and barely a word at all.
I jumped slightly as the sound of denim ripping reached my ears and I wondered whether he was going to do just as he said. But all that happened was he managed to reach further inside me, his hand having more room since my jeans gave way to his intrusion. Edward then began to grind against me, I could feel him hard against my ass, and there was nothing else for me to do in that moment, but cling to every word that he said. And to move with him, against him. Still more.
"Jasper has never fought his nature," A growl, his voice, just above a growl. "He has always taken what he wanted...pleasure and blood his driving forces. He showed me the true nature of our kind, introduced me to the pleasures of the flesh. Our existence ran red with blood, and for a decade I knew nothing but unadulterated bliss." His mouth on my neck, his icy tongue, the pressure of his teeth. Closer...closer and closer. Edward's fingers were sliding in and out of me, his thumb a constant swirling pressure over my clit. Tingling pressure was building, up and up...couldn't be contained. "That is what he wants for you, to take you into his world...both of us, the three of us paving our way through history and the future."
I moaned, loud and breathy, all there was right then was Edward's words, his promises and ministrations. His fingers, oh God, his fingers.
"Blood, Bella. That is what drives us, the satisfaction, the pleasure...nothing can sate us more. He took me like this, that first night, tasted the whole of my blood drenched body. Had me begging for him to fuck me...oh the things that I saw within his mind, what he wanted to do, what he wanted to show me. He fucked me so hard after he had watched my first kill, so eager to claim me even after he had found completion at his own hands while he watched me ravage and tear into my first human victim. My 'fall from grace' was what Jasper called it...would you like to fall from grace, Bella?"
I think I nodded, I know I tried to speak, but whether Edward understood me or not I didn't know. Nor did I care right at that moment. I clenched around his fingers with each honeyed word that poured from his lips, each sentence seemed to seep into my skin. Literary icicles that went through my entire being, a current that spread through my whole body, culminating in my clit. I was breathless with need, and so close to something that I had only ever felt in my dreams.
"Do you want us both to take you? Would you take us both inside you, moving within you, filling you to the point of insanity?"
And that was it. I exploded, or imploded, or simply dissolved. I screamed and whimpered and my whole body shook as I came hard around Edward's thrusting fingers. The world stopped for that moment, before it came back like a slap in the face.
Edward's mouth was hard on my neck, his lips tight over my skin, sucking over my pulse point, his fingers still buried inside me and his hips working slow circles at my back. I tried to catch my breath, tried to clear my mind enough to figure out what the fuck had just happened. Each and every single thing that Edward had just told me was branded into my brain and I wasn't quite sure what to make of my own reaction to it. He removed his fingers, cupping my sex instead and massaging it ever so slightly. I wondered whether he had finished, whether now would be when he would step away and regain his usual composure.
Edward, however, had more to say.
"Jasper taught me that blood isn't just about food, or just about sustenance or easing the burn of the thirst. The intimacy of the act, the closeness. You're tasting a person's life, their very essence. Taking it within you. And when you share that with someone, with your mate...the pleasure is truly out of this world."
He was sticking up for Jasper, trying to explain and excuse his actions. And I had just got off listening to him do it.
"I should wait for him, really," he said, though it didn't sound like he was talking to me, more like himself. As if he was trying to rein himself in, "I should wait for Jasper...but I can't. And I don't think you want me to wait."
What?
A thousand things ran through my head right then; what did he mean? Was he going to change me, claim me? This wasn't what we had agreed on! I wanted more time with my dad; this was supposed to happen before college, or even after. There had never been any kind of rush before. But he was right, I did want it. I was so confused right then, did I really know what I wanted? My heart hammered in my chest, but this time out of fright, my anger long lost and worn out. I panicked.
But there was no need, not with Edward being ripped away from me. I fell to the floor, sliding down against the glass and gripping my ruined shirt together, tugging at my jeans and trying to make them fasten even when there was no way that was ever going to happen again. Not without some kind of clothes pin intervention.
I looked up through my hair. Edward was pinned to the floor, Emmett's knee between his shoulder blades and Alice gripping Edward's hands behind him. Edward's eyes were on me and me alone.
"Bella, go." My eyes snapped to Alice where she looked for all the world as if she were on some sort of mechanical bull, barely keeping herself upright as Edward struggled beneath her. It would've been funny in another situation. Not so much now though.
I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay. I wanted Jasper to come through the door and I wanted to be claimed. Rational thought was leaving quickly, the look in Edward's eye the driving force. I wanted everything that he had just spelled out for me. I wanted him, I wanted Jasper, I wanted them. I wanted to take on my future, there and then. I didn't want to wait. I started to move, but towards them. Towards Edward.
"Bella! Snap the fuck out of it and get out of the house. I can't calm Edward down if you don't," Alice again. When had she got so annoying? But she was making sense, somewhere in me knew that.
Emmett was the next to try and get through to me, "GO!"
"Bella!" Edward shouted, demanded, and growled. My name, over and over.
I was so torn.
Cool leather fell over my shoulders and I looked up to see Carlisle, his eyes full of concern and understanding. He helped me stand and wrapped the long coat around me.
"They're right, Bella, let Edward calm down," Carlisle advised and he made sense, right? Sense.
I started towards the door.
"NO!" a roar. Edward. I spun towards him, I saw Alice fly backwards, and Emmett pretty much dragged along like a toddler holding onto his parent's foot.
Then Carlisle was on him, Rose a blur and wind in my hair before she jumped into the fray. All it took was another screamed plea from Alice and I was out the door, my heavy footsteps speeding along the hallway and down the stairs. A cacophony of snarls, growls and destruction was the soundtrack of my escape.
I didn't think about my car keys till I had actually reached my truck, and then the panicked checking all of my pockets that revealed what I already knew. My keys were back in there. I stared back at the house, and it took me a full minute to realise that the truck door was already open. And just another second before I saw my keys already in the ignition.
Alice.
"Thank you," I whispered, all shaky and edged with hysterical laughter.
Only me, I thought, only I could end up in this kind of situation.
Was I running from my boyfriend because he wanted to have sex with me?
"Fucks sake," I muttered and sped off down the drive, as fast as my hunk of a truck would take me. Which, let's face it, wasn't very fast at all.
"Couldn't I have just one day? One day that nothing happens?" I asked nobody in particular, my voice rising as anger once again became my driving force. "Just one day, especially after my first proper sleep in forever!"
The theme carried on throughout the drive back to my house, culminating in a prayer of thanks that my dad wasn't home when I got there. I didn't want to have to explain the new coat, let alone my ruined clothes. Front door slammed, stairs stomped on, and I was in my room. My room, that looked so innocent and safe with the neatly made single bed, plain purple comforter and the rocker that my mother used to sit with me in when I was a baby.
"Innocent and safe, my ass," I muttered, glaring at my rocking chair as if it had something to do with what was going on. Irrational and stupid, but that was what I did.
First thing first, I stripped out of my clothes and threw them down onto the rocking chair. I'd take them out with the rest of the trash, minimize the chance of my dad finding them. And then I stood in front of my full length mirror. I almost laughed at what I saw. Almost.
My bra was in tatters, snapped at the front and the lace of the cups torn in Edward's haste to reach my skin. It joined the other clothes. My panties weren't much better, the waistband was stretched and the lace torn to accommodate his hands and fingers.
Fuck.
My sex clenched at the thought and angrily I tore my own panties off, trying to ignore how wet they were as I threw them onto the pile. Naked and breathing hard, I studied myself once more. The sight made me remember a saying I heard from my mom once or twice, 'Ridden hard and put away wet'.
It seemed rather appropriate right then. My hair was a mess, tangled on one side, flattened and sticky with dried sweat against my face on the other. My bottom lip was swollen, my teeth marks indented in the soft flesh. I couldn't even remember biting it. My lips looked bruised, and I could only imagine what they would have been like had Edward and I kissed during the...what? It wasn't assault. I knew that I had I said 'no' at any time that Edward would have backed off. At least, I think he would have. Yes, yes, of course he would have. But that was the point, really, wasn't it? There was no way that I was going to say no. I started laughing, full on belly grabbing, somewhat hysterical laughter.
It started as a giggle when I saw the mess that Edward had made of my neck; love bites. They ranged in sizes and shades of red, from light to dark. Pink to purple. My laughter took on a whole new crazy lilt as I realised what I really looked like with the bruise like love bites and the damp hair.
I looked like I had been slapped round the head with a wet fish.
"Yeah, so damn sexy," I snorted, shaking my head and turning to look at my side.
Red marks where my clothes had caught on my skin before giving way to Edward's strength.
My laughter tapered off as his words came back to me. And now that I wasn't completely losing my mind to his touch, they seemed to do nothing but spell out a sinister future. Or, rather, a future that seemed wholly sinister to me. To human me. But I wouldn't be human then, would I?
Embarrassment flooded me, fuelling the anger that never seemed to be far away today, and I screamed. I screamed and screamed and screamed. It was a harsh sound, born out of frustration and indignity; embarrassment and unfairness, that and confusion. The confusion was mainly at the fact that I now have a track record of climaxing over the thought of vampiric brutality and embracing their true nature. Not to mention future family members witnessing my fall. Again.
The only thing I cared about when I tugged a shirt out of my closet was that it was a turtle neck and that it covered everywhere that it needed to. My jeans were simply the first ones that I encountered.
I stood in the middle of my room and wondered what to do next.
I contemplated hiding from the world in my duvet on the sofa downstairs. I checked my phone; nothing. No messages, missed calls, or voice mails. Nothing to clue me into Edward's current state of mind, or inquiries as to mine.
So I threw it at the wall. Just threw it. Hard. Hard enough that it exploded into far too many bits to be put back together, clattering against my desk before falling to the floor.
"Huh," I said, staring at my hand in shock and then at the scrape my cell had made against the paint on the wall when it had hit. I really hadn't meant to do that. But it had felt good. Really, really good. Cathartic.
"A bit of therapeutic destruction?" A low voice enquired. It was smooth with the familiar tones that identified the speaker as a vampire. An unfamiliar vampire.
"Who..." I began to ask, momentarily shocked silent when I actually saw him, "You."
He lifted one brow in question at my tone, no doubt. His head cocked to the side in a wholly inhuman movement of curiosity, causing his blonde curls to become free from behind his ears, "Me?"
I nodded repeatedly, glaring at him and waving my hand in his direction. "You! Jasper Whitlock, dream invader extraordinaire"
He just watched me. And that just pissed me off more.
"What? Am I not sitting waiting for you? Pining for you? Isn't this working for you, Jasper? Not enough girls to drain in front of me? No way to manipulate your sick fantasies into my head?" His expression didn't change. I didn't care. I didn't care that he was standing there, gorgeous and blonde and red eyed. I was on a roll, "Were you hoping that I'd see you and throw myself at you? Beg you to take me? Claim me? Change me?"
I waited for an answer. Any answer.
"Answer me, damn it!" I shouted and stalked towards him, three steps and I was there, staring up into his face. I poked his chest. "You invaded my dreams-" poke, "You turned them into nightmares-" poke, "YOU were warped enough to think that you had every right to do whatever the hell you wanted to me!" I stared up at him as I made my accusations, my arms falling to my sides. My eyes pricked with angry tears, but I fought them back, keeping my composure by concentrating on my anger. Then I asked the only question that really mattered, "Why?"
He frowned, looking a little amused and that damn eyebrow still cocked. "Why not?"
"W...why not?" I asked. I almost laughed. I was that shocked by his flippant reply. More so by the fact that he truly seemed to mean it. "What do you mean, why not? Is nothing sacred to you? What the hell is wrong with you that you think that all of that...that..."
"That what, Isabella?" he asked, leaning down towards me. "Tell me."
I snorted, a decidedly unattractive sound, and pointedly turned from him to pick up my ruined clothes from the chair. "You know what. You were there."
He laughed. Laughed. I looked back at him, filled with disbelief and just good old fashioned hurt. He was closer, still a few feet away, but I still felt as though he was looming over me. He was almost as tall as Edward, though they shared the same body type. Yet, while Edward tried so hard to appear human, Jasper just...didn't. I felt uncomfortable, and he wasn't even looking at me. He was studying the clothes in my hands as if they held the answers to all the world's mysteries.
"What is it?" I asked, holding the clothes tight to my body and hoping that he hadn't seen the state they were in.
"He's all over them. All over you. You both are," he said, and I didn't have to ask who he was talking about. He finally looking at me again and I could see the pain in his eyes momentarily; disappearing so quickly that I had to wonder if I'd seen it at all.
My discomfort skyrocketed as he just continued to stare at me as if he could see a whole lot more of me than I was showing. And it wasn't like he was seeing me naked, it seemed like so much more than that, but I had no understanding of what it might be. He wasn't looking at me, he was looking into me. It was somewhat disconcerting. I moved back from him, just a couple more steps, and swung around to get out of there. I needed space, air, something between us, preferably the entire Cullen family. It wasn't that I was scared, it was just too much. Too intense, too different. But he was there, in front of me, blocking the exit. Seemingly having just appeared there, no air displaced to have warned me of his movement. He was behind me, and then he was not.
"I was there, every...single...time," he said in a voice that made my mouth dry and gave me the need to convulsively swallow. So we're back to that now, are we? "And I recall it being particularly enjoyable."
I had never seen him this close in my dreams, he had always been outside of the window and I had always awoken before he came to me. Still, I took a couple of paces back and simply ignored his comment, giving myself the illusion of control, and studied him.
Where Edward's control was always an almost palpable companion to him, Jasper's seemed to be relaxed and innate. While his eyes were the most startling and obvious difference between him and Edward it was the aura of him that was most noticeable to me. His power oozed from him, his control not a fight but simply his state of being. He seemed comfortable, happy with himself and what he was. There was no pretence with him, no trying to pass as human. He just was.
Also, I was relieved to note, he wasn't like James had been. There was no feeling of menace from him, though I was absolutely sure that he was more than capable of scaring the piss out of anyone. Vampires included. That would've been an interesting gift for any vampire to have, really, considering their total lack of ability to urinate. I gave myself a mental smack round the head. Here I was mentally rambling on and there he was, taking the stride needed to truly loom over me and twist my words, my memories, making excuses for...no. No, he wasn't making excuses. He was telling it like it was. That's what Edward had said, basically. I really didn't know what to do with that, but it was strangely comforting.
Still, I wasn't about to just sit back and tell him that it was okay. Because it really, really wasn't and he needed to learn that I'm not a toy.
"From my perspective, it was horrifying. And, Mr Whitlock, I don't recall inviting you into my dreams, nor do I thank you for the assumed right you seem to be under the belief you have." My voice was strong, but I knew that what I said was only partly true. Even with the screams and the blood, and the reality when it had been returned to me once the dream had finished, I knew that it wasn't wholly abhorrent to me. And what really scared me the most was what if that was how I would feel once changed? The Cullen's admirable fight against their nature was just that; a fight. What if I couldn't win? Did I want to?
"Jeez, I need to see my normal friends. I should really call Jacob back," I said to myself, not really meaning for it to be part of the conversation.
Like Edward had made me realise, that that was reality for Jasper. Simple as. It was reality for all of them, even those they chose to deny it.
Jasper smirked, the action making my stomach flip and butterflies take up residence. "Now, now, Isabella. I know you don't believe that. And stay away from Jacob. As for my need for an invitation...that you allowed us in at all was all of the invitation that I needed," he informed me.
I ignored the smooth nature of his voice and his warning about Jake, refusing to acknowledge the very slight hint of a southern accent that coloured his voice and made it warmer, or the fact that he too seemed to be under the impression that Jake would try and steal me away. I also tried not to let it show how surprised I was that he knew about my shield, or how it put me off kilter that he held such knowledge.
I steeled myself, long since used to using my anger to keep my head clear when facing a vampire's natural dazzling nature. Even why they didn't mean to, it was far too easy for their natural prey to just smile like a loon and agree to or with anything. My glare hardened and his smirk just got bigger, his eyes alight with amusement as he breathed in deeply. "Interesting..."
"What?" I snapped, annoyed at him. Annoyance that he changed the subject, for being so annoyingly mystifying, for invading my dreams, and for just being here. For taking so long to come. And to make matters worse, he trailed off as if to just leave it at that and transferred his attention from me to the adjacent wall. "What is interesting?" I pressed again.
"Tell him that you're going out, I don't care where. I'll be waiting outside."
And then he was gone. And I was just standing there, leaning against the wall, "What the-"
"Bells, you up there, kiddo?"
Charlie. Fuck. I stood up straight, ran my fingers through my hair quickly and took a deep breath before I answered, "Yeah, dad...I'll be down in a second."
I didn't really hear if he replied or not, I just jerked my brush through my hair and made it as presentable as I could without being able to put it up. I wasn't really in the mood to chance my dad seeing any of the teenage vampire induced marks on my neck, even if I was wearing a turtle neck. I threw my brush onto my nightstand as I walked swiftly out of my bedroom.
Tell him that I'm going out, and then meet Jasper outside. Sounds like a plan.
Wait...what?
I shook my head to clear it, almost tripping on the stairs in the process, and muttering to myself, "Who the hell does he think he is, giving me orders?" I ground out, gripping the banister firmly and walking down slower. "He can wait, that's what he can do."
"Who can?" dad asked from the bottom of the stairs, looking at me strangely.
"Oh...no one, nothing. Don't listen to me, dad," I laughed, sounding completely fake and smiling nervously at my dad's completely disbelieving expression. "I was just talking to myself, ignore me."
Charlie studied me, and I wondered whether he was going to interrogate me or something. Instead, he sniffed thoughtfully; in that way that only a cop seem to know how to do. Like they all watch the same cop shows or something.
"Riiiiight," he said, drawing the word out. I kept up my smile, knowing I was beginning to look like I belonged in one of those oh so snug and special white jackets, even as he continued, "Billy called me before I left the station, he's invited us round for dinner tonight. I said I'd see if you had any plans or not, actually, I figured you wouldn't ev-"
"Perfect!" I called out, interrupting him. "Sounds perfect. I haven't seen Billy in a while and I can quiz Jake about where the hell he's been lately. No one has mono for this long, you know?" I was rambling, but I just couldn't stop. I grabbed my jacket, as well as my dad's arm and steered us towards the front door.
My mouth still working a mile a minute, "We should go now; I can help cook or something." I looked about obsessively once we were outside, dragging my dad towards his car. "In fact, I should just cook...unless they've already ordered the pizza. Oh, did you two get a good catch? I wonder if he has any of Harry's fish fry, I could work with that."
"Bells."
"Do you have your keys? I figure that we should just take the cruiser, give my truck a rest."
"Bella!"
My smile was saccharine sweet and as chocked full of innocence as I could possibly make it as I looked up at my father. "Yes, dad?"
"Can I put my gun away?" he asked. His moustache quirked in amusement.
I blushed. "Sure." I flapped. "Of course, don't need to ask me." I rolled my eyes and went to lean against the car door and going for the nonchalant look.
"I'll be right back," he said, backing away towards the house. I waved him off and scanned the tree line and road. He was only gone for a minute, but it felt like forever, my foot was going ten to the dozen, tapping away as I waited for him to come back.
I wondered what Jasper Whitlock did to those that disobeyed him. Not that he had any power over me, not like that at least. I thought back to his eyes and I just...gah. And then my mind slipped right into what it might be like with him and Edward looking at me like that. Both their eyes on my, their hands...mouths...lips...teeth. My heart leapt into my throat when my dad opened the driver side door. I spun around, slamming my knee into the car, the pain tampering down the shock and actually seeing that it was just my dad and not my dream invading mate come to teach me a lesson. Or spank me.
Where the hell did that come from?
"You gonna get in, or are you planning on car surfing?" I looked at my dad like he'd gone insane. Because, really, who wouldn't when asked a question like that. And what else could I do but wait for his explanation? "You know, car going down the road, standing with one foot on the door and one in the car. Surfing. In the car. Car surfing."
Yeah, I got nothing.
"You youngun's have no imagination," he complained as he got into the car.
I followed his example and just snorted at him. "You're the Chief of Police, dad, you're not supposed to encourage things like that."
"Surprisingly enough, kiddo, I was your age once and just as stupid as the rest of you."
"Hey, I'm not stupid, thank you very much. What happened to 'you were born middle aged, Bella'? And the fact that I had no idea what car surfing was, should be in my favour," I complained, even as I scanned the roadside for any sign of Jasper.
There he was, standing between the houses, reappearing at each one that we passed. He did not look happy. At all. I probably should have tried to look contrite. Instead I smiled sweetly at him every time he looked at me. Really, I was doing exactly what he told me to do. I was going out, I told my dad that I was going out and Jasper is outside. That fills all the criteria for the cheeky fucking orders he gave me before disappearing.
"No, you're right. You're definitely the exception to the rule, Bella. Well," he paused, glancing away from the road for a second to look at me. "Aside from running back to your mom's because of boyfriend trouble."
I winced, knowing that my impromptu trip to Phoenix was still a sore point with my dad. Especially what I'd had to say to him to get him to let me leave. Not that he knew the real reason for my flight that night, nor did he know what had really happened to land me in hospital. And he never would, if everything went as we had planned.
"I think I'm allowed one teenagesque blip on my prematurely middle aged radar," I stated. My gaze flashed from my dad's profile to the road nervously. "And...I know I've said it before, but I really am sorry for what I said to you that night, dad. I didn't mean it; I just had to get you to let me go."
"I know, Bells, I know. Don't worry," he answered me quickly. I nodded, smiling as I looked back out the window, the only thing I could see were the tall trees on either side of the road as we passed the La Push boarder, only turning back when dad spoke again, "I didn't believe you anyway, who would want to leave this little piece of paradise," he joked as it began to rain in earnest.
I laughed, "Oh yeah, who needs the sun, right?"
He grinned, laughing, "Right."
I loved my dad.
We pulled up outside the Black's house, the world outside distorted by the heavy rain clinging to the car window as it hammered against it. I relaxed for the first time since waking up. This place seemed so normal, unchanged. No supernatural anything, just old family friends and boys that I used to make mud pies with. It was safe and familiar and somewhere that I could relax for the rest of the evening, a safe haven in the preternatural shit storm that had become my life recently. A night with my human family. Just what I needed. And, thanks to my future seeing sister, I didn't need to worry about letting Edward or anyone else know where I'd gone for the evening. Considering what had happened, I knew they would understand my need for some normalcy and space.
"You coming, Bells?" My dad asked, and I nodded at him, smiling.
The opening of doors and sprinting to the house was a time honoured tradition in Forks. One that both me and my dad unequivocally threw ourselves into as we ran towards the Black's front door; my dad with his collar up and one hand securely holding my arm to keep me upright and me with my hood pulled tight over my head. We didn't knock, we never had. Family.
The Black house was a mismatch of various extensions all built on and around the original small, red structure. I'd always loved it, the way it had grown as the family had. With each visit here over the years, something else had been added on. It was perfect for Billy, Jake, and the girls.
"Bella, Charlie," Billy greeted us with a smile and open arms. I took my jacket off and hung it up before hugging him tight. "We were getting worried when the rain started."
"Hey, lifelong Forks resident here, old man. I can drive in a little rain," my dad answered with good humour while using a towel someone handed him to dry his hair.
I just laughed, shaking my head at the two of them and walking further into the small house, heading straight for the kitchen.
"Bella, sit yourself down, everything is sorted," Billy shouted to me as he came through, picking up a beer and opening it before handing it to my dad.
"Yeah...I wasn't...okay," I stuttered guiltily as I walked beside Billy and sat down with my dad.
"You were checking for takeout or frozen pizza," Billy laughed out.
"It wouldn't be the first time," I answered, laughing with him. "Is...um, is Jake around?"
Billy's smile was a little too happy that I'd asked about Jake. "He'll be here any second now."
"Oh, good," I answered, grinning. I was looking forward to seeing him. Even if he was weird the last time we spoke. Well, that and I wanted an explanation for that too. What the hell is it with the men around me these days? I took a breath to ask another question when I saw my dad's head loll out of the corner of my eye.
Billy interrupted me checking on him fully, "Bella, could you get the door for me? I think I heard someone pull up outside."
"Sure," I answered, glancing back at my dad as I stood. He seemed fine, frowning at something in front of him. I kicked myself for seeing weirdness wherever I looked and headed to the door. My hand was on the doorknob when I heard the thump. There was a very distinctive sound to a body hitting the floor. Even if the body in question had simply slid off the couch, "Dad!" I ran towards him, the door forgotten, and fell to my knees beside him as I reached to check his pulse with shaking fingers, my voice shaking, "Daddy? Billy, call 911."
He didn't move.
I stared at him. "Billy, I don't have my cell on me, call 911, please?" I asked. Still nothing. "Fine!" I didn't know what the hell was up with him, but I wasn't going to waste time finding out. The Black's phone was always set in a cradle on the wall in the short hallway, close to the door and I was kicking myself for breaking my damn cell phone as I ran towards it.
I had the phone in my hand when it was snatched from me. "What the hell are you doing?"
"He's fine, Bella. No need to overreact," the phone snatcher said, his tone of voice suggesting that I was missing the funny. I glared at Jake. Up at Jake. Up and up and up.
Have I shrunk?
"My dad just collapsed, now is not the time to prove to me just how much of an asshole you've become in the last few weeks." I went to snatch the phone, without success. The newly bulked up and supersized Jake just held it up at shoulder height. His shoulder height.
"Is everything ready, dad?" he asked without taking his eyes from me.
Safe. This place was supposed to be safe.
"Jacob, give me the phone," I demanded, my voice trembling.
"Did you imprint, son?" Billy asked from behind me, ignoring the fact that his lifelong best friend was being placed back on the couch by some other huge guy, still unconscious.
"No," Jake answered his father, not taking his eyes from me as he replaced the phone on its cradle.
I may not have the best radar for danger, or even the best sense of self-preservation. But even I have a hinky meter that works just as well as anyone else's, and it was flashing like Bruce Wayne's Batman line. I backed up, going back to my dad. He'd have his cell on him; he always had it on him. Frustration and fear exploded in my gut when my way was blocked by another of my old friends, just as newly grown as Jacob. And apparently also newly fitted with a Type A Freaky Asshole personality. I tried to get around Embry, but he wouldn't let me, his huge arm barring the way.
"This is ridiculous, I need to make sure my dad's okay. Billy, please?" I begged him, so damn confused and scared that I was close to tears.
He ignored me, still apparently in mid conversation with Jake. "Everything is ready for the ritual, son, you'll have her, you have my promise."
I've seen my fair share of horror movies...nothing good ever comes from the word ritual.
I looked around for an escape, even if I could have brought myself to leave my dad there. The whole thing was far too surreal. Yes, I was mated to two vampires, but these were people I had grown up with. People that I considered family. People I trusted.
"You don't need to call the authorities, Bella. You're safe here, so is Charlie," Jake said, making me jump. I hadn't even noticed him walking towards me.
I ignored Jake, and tried to get to dad again. With little success. I wasn't taking this, I'd had a bad enough damn day as it was. I didn't need any more crazy. Or rituals. I definitely didn't need a fucking ritual. But I was trapped. I was trapped in the midst of family and friends, trusted people that had apparently all taken the crazy pill since the last time I'd been around. I felt so small, surrounded by these boys turned men. And I was beyond terrified.
I turned to Billy, the only one that wasn't a standing ode to some bronze God of Steroids.
He smiled at me, all fatherly love and happiness. It was creepy, considering the circumstances.
"It is time to begin," he intoned and the others closed in on me.
E/N: Just remember that in this fic, the wolves are not the usual fare. Thank you, and review...I hope you enjoyed it, and questions are more than welcome.