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(*) – from New Moon movie.
Chapter 9 – Revelations
Arwen didn't ask any questions last night, but she gently prods me when we settle in the kitchen for brunch.
"I'm not as Earth attuned as you are, Lana, but that wolf howl was… he sounded like he was in agony." That about sums it up. "What happened?"
"We… I trapped them, but one escaped." An image of the fierce looking silver wolf flashes through my eyes, and I sniff. "I… well, there was a moment when… he looked at me, in my eyes. I felt…" I try to show her through the mind link; she jumps, the chair falls.
"My Goddess, Lana! That… felt like…"
"Like the memories the ancient ones gave us about bonded couples. How their bond felt." I pause. "Of course, since there wasn't any consummation in my case, this feels a lot less intense, a bit embryo-like. And he felt it too."
"Who was it?"
"I was thinking about going there sometime, link with those trees, you know. He might have shifted there, or somewhere close. I have my suspicions, though. I think I know who he is, but I have to be certain." I sigh. "Shouldn't you call Jacob?"
"I already did. Billy says he can't answer me. That's not like Jacob at all, the Jacob I know would have called; I think he must have changed by now, don't you think?" I concur.
"I think we should take John down to Billy's house for a visit. For old times' sake." I don't answer, but I have a bad feeling about it.
.-.-.-.-.
Billy is a bit put out when he sees Isabella Swan thinly smiling at him, politely greeting him, holding an umbrella in a death grip; a slightly menacing vision thanks to her faithful sunglasses. When he sees John they share a manly hug and he introduces me. In the meantime, Arwen makes herself at home and barges into Jacob's room, only to find him leaving the house through the backdoor, rain pouring over him.
His flowing black hair was cut off, and he is bare from waist up, not an ounce of fat in his body.
I sense her going out through the same door, going after him; I excuse myself, making some polite remark, and head outside, cloaking my presence so as not to be seen as I move, and uncloaking myself as I look around me, hiding behind a tree.
Jacob is trying to "break up" with Bella. Whatever; I roll my eyes. As if! They weren't together in the true sense of the word, for starters. He's saying he's not a good kid anymore, yada yada yada.
Arwen tries to reason with him, tries to make him talk about what's bothering him, but to no avail. I try to reach her through the mind link, to make her retreat; to tell her he's not ready yet. Then he makes some cutting remark, because Arwen freezes. I only hear part of it, and I too freeze.
"Go home, and don't come back, or else you're going to get hurt." (*)
Jacob dismisses her, just like that, and turns her back on Arwen d'Erley. I move towards Arwen and grab her umbrella, closing it, as the rain finally stops, the sky remaining cloudy.
"It isn't time yet, Arwen." She takes her sunglasses off and hands them to me, speaking tiredly.
"He knows the Cullens are vampires."
"Werewolves and vampires are natural enemies. He'll come around." She nods. "We need to get you someplace warm." She is getting paler by the minute, and she swoons, I grab her and take her into the house and settle her on the living room's couch. Billy Black doesn't react but John blanches. I answer his anxious look, whispering.
I turn to Billy. "Could she have a glass of water, please." He turns and disappears into the kitchen. Arwen starts to shiver on the couch, John whispers to her to be strong, that everything's going to work out well in the end.
"Arwen, look at me!" She stares at me. "I have no doubt he doesn't realize how much he hurt you, but he wasn't rejecting you. He's just confused, I'll talk to him." Arwen shakes her head. "I will, and there's nothing you can do about it. Try to pull yourself together, I know it's hard but you must. For Charlie." She stops shivering, little by little. "Atta good girl. John…" I sigh. "Take her home, I'll try to talk to Jacob. I'll..." Billy Black is behind me, no doubt he heard most of it, but he gives me no indication; his face is serene.
"If you'll excuse me, I'll be going now, Mr. Black. Thank you for your time."
"So soon? Not going home with John and Isabella?"
"No." My eyes glow in an amber tone, reminiscent of vampires; I take Arwen's glasses and put them on. "I have a pack of wolves to confront." Billy stares at me and I leave.
The sky is only partly cloudy now. I jump from the porch onto the good earth and take a deep breath, hearing the whispers of the trees; I head towards the place, and I find it quickly, the pack of wolves is there, in human form. I keep some distance, noticing the soft breeze's direction so as not to alert them, discreetly joining with the trees. I'm certain now of the dark silver wolf's identity. He is there with the others; I adjust the glasses on my face and head towards the bunch of teenagers. Sam Uley is with them, I nod at him.
"Gentlemen." Hardly, they look like savages, bare from their waist up and their eyes distrustful. Haven't caught my scent yet, eh eh, otherwise they'd go berserk. "Jacob, may I have a word?"
"If this is about Bella, I have nothing to say to you."
"I see." I take a deep breath. "That's very brave of you, avoiding the problem, wolf." They all freeze.
"What are you talking about?" the wind changes direction and broadcasts my scent towards the pack, their posture immediately defensive. My little wolf takes a deep, audible, breath, filling his lungs with my scent. I want to hold him in my arms fiercely, but I control myself and avoid looking directly at him. "That wasn't very smart of you, placing yourself in our territory."
"I'm not afraid of the big bad wolves. Besides, like I said, I came to talk. Last night was just training for me and for Isabella Swan. Yes, that's right, she is the other. You just happened to show up at the wrong place and wrong time. And I hope, since you realize, now, that she's different, that we are different, she is bound to understand your predicament better than most people, and there is no reason for you to hide from her." I pause. "In fact, I hope you address her as soon as you're able. She is your mate and your little fit back there hurt her immensely."
"That's not true." Sam speaks. "They didn't imprint."
"If this imprinting business," I say, taking off the sunglasses, and finally looking at him "is anything like what happened last night, thus requiring eye contact?" he nods. "It's possible they haven't looked at each other in that way since Jacob's change. She was using sunglasses."
I hold the sunglasses in my hand, showing them to Sam; the glasses reflecting his image like a mirror.
"That might explain it. But what makes you think they're mates?"
"Perhaps we should have a seat?" I wave my hand, and moss covered solid dirt rises from the ground, shaped like comfortable seats, and I take my place, my palm up, inviting them to take their places. Sam stares a bit and sits, the pack doing the same, seconds later.
"You're an unusual woman.", says Sam.
"My human name is Lana Brown. I am 18 years old. My body is human, but my powers flow from my soul. I come from an alien people who calls themselves Soul Wanders. Earth is very far away from home, but Wanders… well, they wander." I smirk. "You get the idea, we wander through the Universe, in some areas more than others, we're curious, what can I say…"
"Anyway… I've been on Earth for quite some time now. I work on the Old Man's pub, John is the owner and my partner, Jacob's been there already, and you are all welcome there. No funny business, it's neutral ground for all of you, naturally." I look at my little wolf. "I live on the apartment above the pub." He stares intensely; this isn't going so well, the big bad wolf looks like he's going to devour me. I shiver.
"Why Earth?", asks Jacob.
"For me? Why not? Sure, in many aspects it's a backward planet, compared to other more technologically advanced worlds. But it still has a lot of natural beauty, and there are more Wanders in this world than you might realize. I chose Earth the same way you could choose another country to live in, for the culture, for love or any other reason." He looks back at me. "I'm not leaving, I'm here to stay. There has been a disease and war… it decimated the population of males among my people, and since Earth has a good proportion of males, many attractive ones I might add, apart from the other advantages… it looked like a nice place to settle down."
"Arwen d'Erley, who you know as Isabella Marie Swan, is different. The Bella Swan you knew isn't the Bella you've been dealing with, Jacob Black. The soul of Arwen occupied Bella Swan's body." Jacob jumps off his seat and snarls at me. "Please hear me out, I'm not finished and this is important. Bella was attacked by a vampire; Sam found her as you recall. Her soul had already abandoned her body and Arwen's soul took her place. Arwen did not kill Bella Swan! She, for all that matters, was as good as dead."
I get up, my seat retracting into the ground as if it had never been disturbed.
"That is all I'm going to say about the matter. Talk to Arwen, please. She cares about you, more than the Bella Swan you knew ever would, obsessed as she was with the Cullens." He starts shaking, probably preparing to phase. "She loves you, I think." He freezes. "Just because she never said it, doesn't mean she doesn't. I hope you finished the bikes, by the way. Too bad Arwen's never going to learn how to ride one." I taunt him, sarcasm now dripping from my voice. I raise my hand and ivy grows around me, in a circle; I open a portal and slide through it.
As I close the portal on the other side, I look around and walk for a bit, Arwen's house shows up, and, lucky me, she has just arrived. Charlie isn't home, his car isn't there. I walk quickly towards Arwen and John.
"I'll take it from here, John. Thanks." My arm circles her waist, supporting her as she ascends the stairs.
I share the memory of the prep talk with the wolves with her. She sniffs, faintly amused.
"Nice ending, dramatic touch and all."
"Thanks." I smirk.
"Paul looked besotted."
"He did not. He looked like he wanted to eat me." She snorts.
"Did not! He's interested. Clearly." Clearly, I daren't get my hopes up.
"This is a nice room. You did a nice job painting it blue." Talking about other stuff might help her not think too much on him.
"Yeah, I liked the color so much when I was experimenting. I kept the mirror as you can see. Took the dragonfly lights, though, and those posters have to go too."
"You could hang some paintings. I might look that up for you. The color goes well with floorboards color and…" I look at them, the ones right under the side of the bed and frown.
"What is it?" I crouch and touch them, knock on them and then start trying to lift a board, trying not to damage it. Underneath there are CDs and photographs. I place them on the bed and tip my head to the side.
"I didn't put those there!"
"Well, if you are sure, then Bella did." We look at the pictures, all with Edward Cullen or some other Cullen on them. "Or maybe she didn't. If she adored him so, she wouldn't hide these, since she didn't have time since the accident. And Charlie wouldn't either. If he had, he would have burnt these."
"You're right. Maybe Cullen?" I make a non-committing sound. "But why? If he didn't care, then why would he leave them behind, so close to her?"
"Perhaps he wanted a part of him to remain with Bella, even if he didn't."
"That makes sense. In a sickly romantic sort of way, I guess. But that would mean…"
"He never stopped loving her." We groan as one; males in this planet are the strangest thing. Trying to understand what goes through their brains is not my idea of fun; already I can feel the beginnings of a headache. "Let's discuss or do something else. How about dinner? Lasagna?"
"Sure."
We get started on it, making a special sauce and thinly slicing and frying eggplant to put on the lasagna, a little thing I once tried and that makes it delicious. When we finish it, we leave it on the kitchen counter and settle on the couch to watch an old movie from the forties, 'Out of the Past'. I love the movies, it has the most interesting lines. Such as 'Let's go down to the bar. We can cool off while we try to impress each other.' Even though it might come out as a silly one, it reminds me of human courting in many ways.
I've seen it happen many times at the pub, humans pretending to be something they are not just to 'impress each other', and then having it blow up in their faces later; so many lies and so many masks to achieve nothing at the end.
Charlie shows up and watches a bit of the movie with us. He invites me to stay for dinner; I tell him I don't want to impose.
"You impose nothing, young lady; I do. I insist you stay." I make a phone call to John, telling him I won't be going to the pub much later; Jen will be covering for me.
Dinner is a pleasant affair. We fill Charlie in about the first part of the movie, since there's nothing much to discuss and then there's the dooming question, since we went to La Push. How is Jacob? She stutters so I answer he's doing okay, just a bit affected by the stomach flu.
"Oh? I talked to Billy and he told me the kid was fine." Damn. So much for making an apology for the little idiot's behavior.
"Well, he had a minor disagreement with Isabella." He looks suspiciously at Arwen. "Nothing that won't be solved soon enough."
.-.-.-.
The night starts and I settle between my bed covers. Charlie comes to check on me and I pretend to be asleep; he goes to bed and later on starts snoring. I think about this last weekend, its already Thursday, the week passed in a breeze and still no sign of Jacob. I sigh dejectedly, get up and stare through my window. I no longer need my sunglasses, which caused a bit of a commotion in school, my violet eyes the main subject of gossip for about two days only. I settle on my desk and finish some homework, and then I hear it; someone is throwing pebbles at my window, which I slide open. Suddenly I feel this immense joy!... it's Jacob. As he starts climbing up to my room I wonder what I should tell him, perhaps apologize for being such a nuisance, for pretending to be Bella Swan, for everything and nothing.
"Jake, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, to deceive you, but…", I can't even look at him.
"I don't even know what to call you." He says, quietly. "Bella, Isabella, Arwen? Which one are you, damn it?" I close the distance between us and I feel it. A thousand strings connecting me and Jake. He looks dumbfounded, and for a full minute we remain silent.
"Did we just… how do you call it? Imprint?"
"Yeah," he answers, his voice husky, "We did." He raises his two hands to my face and caresses it, swallowing hard. "There are a few things I don't understand."
"My body is human, but my soul makes the difference. It allows me to have the powers that Lana has, although I'm more prone to manipulate Fire and Air, and I heal much faster. That's how, after Bella's soul left, I managed to survive in her body. Everything is as she was, except for the eyes. I could, to a certain point, convert the looks of this body to how I was before, but…"
"But? What kept you from doing that?"
"Sam showed up and later on I realized that, as Bella Swan, I would have a father. A father, Jake! I never had a father to call my own. Family, when all of my kin is dead. So… I couldn't bring myself to do it, to take a daughter, a loved one, from a good man like Charlie."
My eyes overflow with tears and Jacob holds me close, nuzzling my neck, his scent enveloping me.
"Jake… do you forgive me? For all this mess?"
"You're my imprint, whatever you name is." Oh, the smile is back. "Maybe it's a God sending, that it's you, and not someone else, someone who wouldn't understand my…"
"Little furry problem?" he laughs out loud, and we start. I vaguely hear dad's snores stopping and steps. Jacob leaps from my window and I look towards the woods.