"Lord, keep her safe since you can't keep her sane."

GLORIA NAYLOR

Cupid's Chokehold; Chapter Ten. Jacob.

Dad excused himself to his room to eat, leaving Bella and I alone in the kitchen, "Do you want to go out and eat on the beach?"

She nodded slowly, after we had finished working on her project she had withdrawn into herself. I wanted to blatantly ask what was wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It broke my heart seeing her so withdrawn, but it also broke my heart seeing her cry like she did before.

Bella served up the meatloaf for both of us and handed me my plate, "Are you staying on top of your homework, Jake?" she asked quietly, trying to fill the silence.

"Sort of, I'm not smart like you, Bella," school wasn't a priority for me. Bella was.

"We'll work on it this weekend," she said quietly. She sat her plate down in the sand and scooped some between her fingers, watching it drift between them and form a small pile next to her. It struck me that this was what I had done after Mom passed away and that it was extremely therapeutic.

"Do you want to talk?"

She thought about it before answering, "Not really."

She looked so sad, her plate being ignored, as she stared out at the horizon, the sun dipping into the sea. I had to fill my mouth with food in order to not pry deeper.

The sun disappeared quickly and I turned to Bella, "We need to talk, don't we?"

"Yes."

I took hold of her hand, a scoop of sand stuck between our palms, "I'm scared, Jacob. Really scared. I'm more afraid than I've ever been before. I'm more scared than I was when Renee left me at the mall when I was three. I'm more scared than when I had to give a speech to my entire school. I'm more scared than when I felt James' venom running through my arm. Jake, I knew what was going to happen then. More or less. Renee would find me eventually, I'd run off the stage, Edward would save me," she gritted her teeth, "Or I would die," she added as an afterthought.

"But, now I'm not sure. Or maybe I am and the answer scares me. She's going to kill me, she's going to kill me Jacob but she's going to take down everyone I love first. She's planning a huge Grad Nite party here and I just know something bad is going to happen. I thought that she was just at the school to scare me, to frighten me some more before she made her move," she looked straight at me, "I could rest peacefully if I knew I was the only one that she was going to bring down. But, now I don't know. I couldn't stand the thought of any of my friends being hurt because of me, even Mike or Jessica," she paused and wrapped her hand around my own in an even fiercer grip, "And especially you, Jake. I know you want to be all macho and you keep reassuring me that you'll be fine, but the supernatural has a tendency to surprise me. And I don't like surprises, Jake. I like knowing what's going to happen."

She turned away from me when she was done and began scooping up sand in her other hand, watching it float away in the wind that had picked up. I didn't know what to do, but I could see her hope floating away with that sand. I didn't know how to restore that hope, it wouldn't be as easy as replacing the hole she had dug. We couldn't just push new hope into her hole of despair. I had to prove her that everything would be okay, everything would work out.

I knew telling her that wouldn't help, I had to do it myself. I had to take down Victoria. I had to kill this vampire for Bella. If this vampire was gone Bella could be happy again, but maybe in that process I could win her heart.

&

I took Bella home and only left after she promised to call at even the slightest sight of the unordinary. I rushed home and quickly called Sam over, we needed to talk.

He opened the door and walked into the dining room, my dad was sitting at the table as well. He needed to be clued in.

"Jacob, this better be important. I had an important night planned with Emily," he sat down and ran his fingers through his hair. I momentarily felt bad, of course I would feel worse if Bella ended up dead.

"Bella's in a lot of trouble. I think we all are," I explained to him the situation. He took it gracefully and without complaint. We had been expecting some sort of backfire after the Cullens left, we had just figured that it would be the Cullens we were fighting and not a completely new vampire.

I can't say that I wasn't disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to take down that family, it was something I dreamed about almost nightly, both when I was asleep and awake. But, if this Victoria was planning to hurt Bella in anyway then I could channel the hatred towards the Cullens towards Victoria.

"Try not to worry about this, Jacob. It's one vampire; she can't escape from us. Focus on keeping Bella safe, try and see if she knows anything about vampire strength. We have the stories to go by, but if she has any first hands stories…"

"I'll try. I don't want to pressure her, Sam. I can't do that to her," she still seemed so fragile, the past few days especially.

"Do your best. If you want to help her, you might have to hurt her a little bit."

"Sam, I don't know if I can do that!" There wasn't a bone in my body that could hurt Bella, every impulse I had was to keep Bella free from any negative feeling or emotion. A goal I was steadily failing at.

"You can Jake. You're incredibly strong already. I'm impressed," he said honestly. I felt embarrassed at his sentiment, "Just keep up what you're doing and you'll be fine. Trust your instincts and listen to your body, you don't want to change in front of her. You should go running tonight, it'll relieve some stress on both forms. Anything else, Jacob?"

"Not right now."

"Okay. Since we haven't sensed this vamp on our territory yet I'll wait till tomorrow to talk to everyone. You should try and stay with Bella if she's not at school, I'll get everyone else to keep watch. Just don't forget to go running when you can. If things get bad, we'll need everyone in top shape. Besides, if you don't change regularly you'll have a harder time when you need to change. If there is a vampire near by Embry and Quil will be the next to change. If this vampire is really going to try and do some damage, we'll be covered."

The pressure of what was to come was becoming exceedingly heavy, "Thanks Sam. Sorry about ruining your night with Emily."

"Ah, it's okay, Jake. These things are important. 'Sides, I haven't actually gone home yet. Had to pick up the ring from Dad," he pulled a small silver band out from his pocket, a small purple gem of some sort was set inside the band.

"Finally tying the knot with Em?"

"Yeah," he looked up from the ring smiling, truly smiling.

"'Bout damn time, man," I laughed, clapping my hand on his back.

"Thanks Jake. Take care, kay?"

"Sure, sure," I idilly agreed. Once Sam left I changed to my almost foreign wolf form and ran to Bella's house, spending the night just outside her backdoor.

&

The next few days passed by quietly, Bella continued coming over after her school let out. Most days we would just sit at the table and do homework, Bella would always finish before me and stare at me until I consented and asked her to help me. I was amazed that she could always explain everything to me so completely and make it appear effortless.

I had yet to ask her anything about the vampire's abilities, I was hesitant to break her heart and her trust.

"Jake, could I ask you a question?"

I put my pencil down and looked up at her, "Of course."

"Remember when we saw your friends jump from the cliff and you said you would take me some time?"

I desperately wanted to take back that statement. I remembered it well and at the time I wanted nothing more than to make Bella smile and if cliff jumping was the key to that smile I was willing to go for it. But now, while my mission to make Bella smile still existed I wanted to earn that smile safely.

"Yeah, why?" I asked cautiously.

"I want to go, please would you take me?" her face was sweet and I looked down and smiled. She knew I wanted to say no. Having Bella jump from the cliff was the farthest thing from being safe, particularly where Bella was concerned.

Which was why it surprised me when I said yes.

AN: The extreme lack of reviews for the last chapter made me sad. :c So, as a more enticing treat than a quote I'll be sending out a small section (perhaps a paragraph or two) of the next chapter with my response. And the next chapter is gooooood. It's what you've all be waiting for. c: I'm serious you guys, review. Even if it's just "good chapter" I'll send you something. If you give me more than that (my ratio of unique reviews was up last time, so good job you guys) maybe I'll give you more of a snippet. c:

Ah, bribery.

(Updated again due to editing issues, sorry for any confusion.)