AN: Hey y'all! VERY IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE RIGHT HERE SO READ AND DO NOT FORGET ;) Haha. Guys, after this is uploaded I am going to change my username; I will no longer be SuicidalBeyblader, but instead MidnightStarr. Everybody heard?? Everybody clear?? So guys, if you can, can you wait an hour to review this chapter? I wanna make sure I get them all. I'm pretty sure you don't need to re-fave me or this story or anything, but I'm not a hundred percent. And when you see next week's update of BTS, don't trip balls when it says from MidnightStarr instead :p hahaha. Last little notice; NEW POLL ON MY PROFILE. Click click vote guys :)
"Anything??"
"No," Quil heaved out, breathing heavily and the sweat dripped off him like rainwater outside. "Fuck I've been runnin' since like... Like..... How friggen' long have we been here!?"
"About three days.." Esme chided, wafting gracefully over to Quil's tired being and pressing a cold cloth to his face. "It's almost the third morning."
"Jesus.." The tired wolf scrubbed a hand down over his scratched up face. "Me and Jasper have been looking non-stop.. There are millions of them down there, hundreds of tunnels..! I don't think we're ever gonna check 'em all.." He sighed.
Heads doused in worry.
"Seth's been looking too." Alice spoke quietly, eyes flitting to the opening now and again as if she was willing the rocks to magically disappear. "Did you see him..?"
Quil looked down and shook his head. "..I thought he would be with-.. Yeh know." His kind brown eyes drifted toward the other chamber of the cave then. "How is she?"
No one answered him.
Quil took the hint and sighed deeply as he sat down on a stalagmite.
"Those tunnels have dragged me through hell n' back..." He murmured, wiping a swatch of blood off his knee and groaning. "..And how are you guys doin'..? Haven't felt the need yet to.. Yeh know, chow down..?"
The question turned some heads in the room indeed. The struggle with their dying sister acquired so much focus that a lot of them simply forgot the vampires' needs. It wasn't intentional of course.. Emmett actually wasn't thinking about blood at all until Quil had gone and said that.
The burly man shrugged. "I could drink, I could not. Not really 'cravin'' it as of yet." He said, crossing his arms behind his back and resting his head against the wall of the cave. "I think we're all good. Don't worry about it."
Quil nodded, took a spell for another five or ten minutes (ate an apple Esme had stuffed in a backpack), walked in briefly and kissed his dying sister on the cheek despite a growl from his Alpha and then he was gone again; off to do more exploring.
Quil wasn't about to let her die in here either.
-
Edward had been the one to sit closest to the duo in the lone room. He perched just around the corner, out of sight; but he still had a feeling like Sam knew he was there.
The man just didn't care. He kept showering Leah's tanned face with light kisses; he whispered soft words of love to her constantly; anything he felt that would give her another chance at a will to live.
Edward didn't have the heart to tell him that Leah's strength was weigning.
The Cullen sat there in deep thought; he picked all of Leah's thoughts continuously apart from when she was unconscious. He saw everything. In fact, he saw some of Sam's too...
Saw the night everything changed.
It made sense now, the images of the snow globe smashing (it said 'Family Forever') and the waves crashing and police sirens blaring.
It saddened him greatly, and once again silence seemed more than appropriate. Even Leah seemed to think so as she felt Sam's kisses pepper her cheeks; his tears wet on her naked skin and how the salt made the scratches sting.
Then Edward heard pounding footsteps behind his wall of rock.
He got to his feet quickly; flew down the beaten path and back into the lounge where most of his family had gathered.
"Seth."
Heads turned to the tunnel just as Leah's younger brother burst out of the darkness.
"I found a way out..!" He practically screamed; excitement and enthusiasm pulsing from him in waves as he huffed out heavy breaths. "There's just one problem-"
Everyone jumped to their feet at his happy announcement; faces dropped quickly when the last part of his sentence hit the tension-filled air.
"..What?" Rosalie tentatively asked; someone had to pose the question.
"It's the storm." Seth gulped. "It's still really, really bad out... If we get my sister out I still dunno how we'd get her back to Forks."
Faces hit the floor.
"Sorry to say, Seth's concern is very real. Leah is in life-threatening condition as it is.. Even her healing powers aren't working well enough as they should be. She would never make it through the storm." Edward confirmed.
"Well when's the next break??" Rosalie asked, eyes closing as she listened in tuned to the rain and thunder from the outside.
"I dunno.. I can't see because of the wolves..." Alice muttered, her eyes too closed from the sheer stress of stretching out her mind. It was like taking a gash and plying apart the edges; it was extending pain over a greater distance and as the length of time and cloudiness increased so did the agony. She had to shake herself out of the trance as Edward placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "We need to find Jasper and Quil as well. We can't leave without them."
"We won't dear." Esme soothed.
"...That's the other problem." Embry and Jared stood up.
"You really think gettin' outta here and gettin' back to Forks with Leah's gonna be easy when that mangy pack of bastards are out there just waitin' for a storm break like we are to come find us?" Jared asked, fists automatically clenching at the thought.
"Well if we run into 'em we're just gonna have to kill em. I thought that was the plan anyway??" Embry questioned. Esme laid a hand on his hot shoulder.
"We all know getting Leah out of there was the most important thing. It still is. Fighting can come later."
"But this is still good news." Rosalie interrupted. "It means all we have to do now is wait."
'Yeah..' Seth thought, 'wait and hope my sister's time can outlast the storm.'
-
'Am I dead yet...?'
The question came and gone. Every so often, she could open her eyes (bursts of strength) and saw his face; Sam wouldn't be in heaven with her, would he? No.. He would wait and die with Emily.
She was sure she was alive then.
But very, very positive her mind was playing tricks on her.
I'm here baby, I'm here. You're okay. You're gonna be okay.
God... It sounded like Sam so much. She understood that he might be wherever she was with her, but she didn't expect him.. To sound so.. Close? Wherever the hell he was, Leah was glad he was there.
It continued on and off like that.. Whispered phrases and kisses that seemed way too out-of-the-past for her to believe it was reality.
Maybe Karl was fucking with her again. Trying to drive her crazy.
Please stay with me. Leah knew for a fact Sam would never say that. That was part of what drove her insane, actually.. If Sam were saying that, then she was either dead and in heaven and for some reason God thought it nice to take pity on her and gave her Sam; or in Hell and Satan was torturing her and planning to rip away her dream again soon, or she was still in that dirty room; caked in blood and other shit she didn't wanna think about and Karl dosed her with something else or was toying around with her head.
(When she thought about it the last two options sounded suspiciously alike.)
It was just this whole crazy thing. If she wasn't so sure she was gonna be dead soon she might've been concerned about how many high school courses this personal mind-raping was knocking out.
But that was just it; ....Leah didn't have long, and with every fiber in her being she knew she was ready.
And then she saw him.
Her little brother, cooped up somewhere dark like she was and he looked so broken.. So fucked up and god that hurt her worse than anything Karl could poke her with, cut her with or tempt her with. And seeing Seth just put more emphasis on the horrible puzzle that was her 'life' right now.
Seth wasn't dead. Leah made a promise to herself years ago that she wouldn't outlive her brother. It would be too painful to have something else she loved ripped away.
So was she really alive...?
Apparently.
So, Leah made herself hold on to that hope and tried to get her head back in the game. She needed to figure out what was going on.
-
Sam and Seth were getting desperate.
"I said I'll do it, Carlisle! Just tell me what the fuck to do!" Sam hissed. BloodBinding; as Carlisle described it it was a simple mixing of mated blood. Two precise cuts, enough blood to drip and a bond to last through the ages. Supposedly. According to Carlisle, the book made it very clear that it was best performed between mated couples only. What did that even mean!? Did that mean he was supposed to have slept with her first? Was the ritual only useful in the throes of mating season?
Sam honestly had no idea. Even Carlisle found the old text hard to decipher.
But it was the last shred of hope; the last ray of sunshine in a sky filled with heavy rain-laden clouds. They had to try. (Just like Seth was all but running 'tunnel patrol' and trying desperately to find them a way out. It was harder than one would think. He'd nearly been squashed by like a dozen boulders and who knew bats were actually that sensitive?)
"Two cuts in the upper arms should do it huh?" Sam frantically asked as he reached forward and all but snatched the charred dagger out of Carlisle's hands. "I need to try."
"Samuel, I honestly think you should consider the price-"
"What price?!" Sam questioned. "What could honestly be more important than Leah's-"
"Your life with Emily!" All heads turned to Paul; an unsound presence in the room of the cave they stayed in and it made Sam nervous for some reason; made him angry.
"I already.. Made it clear." Sam seethed; heat and rage so poignant radiating from his temperate body that it warmed the room itself, "I am done with Emily."
"How can you be so sure Sam!? I remember you were pretty sure you and Leah were gonna spend forever together-"
Paul stepped back as Sam let out a growl more animal that human.
"I made that mistake once. I let imprinting take away my free will. I let it tear me away from the one thing that made living with this curse sustainable. Leah was the only reason I even came home after I phased." Sam spoke, eyes so dark with determination that Paul just lost the rest of the points for his argument like someone shook the etch-a-sketch that was his mind.
"..You're really sure about this? It could break the ties you have to Emily forever if this works.." Paul cautioned. He was trying to be real about it; be a good friend. As much as he wanted Leah to be okay, he didn't want Sam to suffer anymore either because to him his Alpha had burnt enough already for all of them.
Sam studied Paul standing in the dim light of the fire. He felt the girl in his arms shift uncomfortably and felt her fingers twitch against his chest. Sam's imprint, and his ignorance, were the causes of all of this.
"..I'm sure."
He hoped his voice didn't tell the wrong story; he wasn't nervous about losing Emily and going all Gone With the Wind on the imprint thing. He was scared because.. Because both women had already paid and given enough of themselves to him that this decision could damage them both.
And Sam knew now Emily would be doing the repair work all on her own.
Sam lifted Leah's broken hand, healed just so slightly now (because what good did it do to hurt the other one?), and slit the pad of her palm from pinky finger diagonal to the pad below her thumb. Blood ruby red trickled then steadied out of the gash and she whimpered but Sam knew he would have all the time in the world to comfort once he made sure she lived on. He supported her thin arm on his fingertips and made the cut across his own flesh; felt the burn and got hopeful.
Their hands clasped together hard, fingers intertwining, blood flowing. His hand that held her arm into place was the only source of strength keeping her arm lifted, just as his body was supporting her. The energy shift was sensed immediately by Sam and Leah. He stared into the planes of her glorious face, her russet skin enhanced by a glowing rosy flush that was spreading across her perfect cheekbones. She moaned quietly and the lashes of her midnight eyes fluttered. Sam bent his head down to place fluttering kisses on her eyelids, willing them to open. Those in the room shifted nervously, the intimacy of the moment was unavoidable and breathtaking. Sam whispered to her as she struggled to open her eyes.
I'm here, Lee Lee.
I'll always be here for you.
I love you.
Everyone heard his silent prayers, however he dropped his voice to a whisper he knew only she could hear as he murmured into her ear,
I'm sorry.
Leah felt Sam's glorious scent as he breathed life into her. She smelt the mouthwatering scent of the emerald forest on his flawless chest, the scent of rich aftershave. She inhaled deeply as she caught the scent of maple syrup, chocolate chip cookies, and the month of October. Her Sam. She stirred quietly in his arms and breathed out his name.
"Sam."
The blood trickled around their arms, swirling into an intricate pattern, binding them both for eternity. True love and reality finally conquering the fantasy Sam had been living for so long.
"Leah. Lee Lee, baby, I'm here."
His voice, his scent, his words as his breath swirled into her face awakened her. The enticing aroma and the undeniable love radiating from his deep, husky voice finally caused her to awaken. It was like a dam being broken loose, water cascading through the once sealed barrier. All of Leah's emotions, her pains, her everything, forgotten. She had to survive. For Sam, for Seth, for her family, for her pack, and ultimately for herself.
She sighed deeply as her eyes opened, and was awestruck when she realized there was no labor behind the task. Her dark eyes met Sam's midnight black ones, enhanced by the flames of the fire surrounding them. She was overwhelmed by the sensations she was feeling. His breath upon her skin, the warmth of his bare chest against her, the protection offered by his arms, the way there hands were intertwined, but mostly the look in his eyes. She saw love, happiness, admiration, and hope.
She found the will to whisper to Sam.
I love you.
"It's only time now, Lee... Only a bit more time." He smoothed her hair back, kissed her forehead. "I'm gonna get you home, and once you're all better we'll all go swimming like we used to. It'll be fun, won't it..?"
Sam Uley was the definition of a broken man. Leah Clearwater was the definition of a broken woman but they were both different halves to a whole. Sam suffered inside and wished he could feel the real pain to make it easier to process in his mind; make him hate himself less.
Leah felt that pain too... But now this tragic fuck in the grand scheme of things that was fate just had to drive another knife into Leah's chest. Hell; anything pointy with aim to hurt found it's way to her nowadays.
And her sharp words could never stand up to it.
Reaching into his pocket, Sam pulled out the sapphire heart of the ocean. The sight of the necklace brought tears to his eyes as the diamonds glimmered from the flames.
"You won't have to stand up to it anymore, Leah. Not while I'm still here." He put the heart against her chest, and his lips against her own.
Finally, Leah found the will to kiss back.