Wow! So many people have added my story to their favorites! I feel so...special ^.^
Disclaimer: SM owns all characters...except for mine!
The day following our shopping trip I woke to the loud sounds of a truck. With a furrowed brow, I rolled out of bed and shuffled out into the living room to see what was going on. Emily stood in the living room sipping coffee, I'd never seen her not in the kitchen or busy doing something, well as long as I had lived with her and Sam. My brain slowly realized that it was still dark outside and the light in the living room was cast by the lamps on either side of the couch. "How early is it?" I asked, Emily turned and gave me a warm smile.
"Ten past six," she answered.
"Oh my God, who the hell is outside?"
"I'm not sure, Sam is out there talking to them."
As soon as those words were out of her mouth Sam came in through the door only clad in baggy cut-offs. He gave me a brisk nod and motioned with his head toward the truck outside. "The driver said he was sent by Davis Branson." Before Sam was even done talking I stumbled out the door and into the dark, cold embrace of early morning. A large moving truck sat idling in the little drive that led away from Sam's house. My stuff was finally here!
A large, burly man with a clipboard trudged up to meet me. "You Simone Miakoda?" He boomed. I quickly nodded and he held out the clipboard. "Sign here and we can start getting your stuff into the house, unless you have your own muscle to move all of this?" I bit my lip as I signed the paper. Did I want yet more strangers touching my precious things?
"We've got this, just leave the boxes on the porch."
I nearly jumped out of my skin when Sam's voice came from behind me. I don't know what it is about these Quileute guys but they moved as silently as shadows. The driver gave a little shrug and began shouting out orders to the two men waiting in the truck. Emily and I stood aside and watched as Sam darted into the house, maybe to call some of the other guys to help, but my gaze was riveted as I watched precious possessions being brought out of the truck one by one. Some were placed on the porch but others were too big, like my dresser.
The gleam of polished wood caught my attention and I darted forward, my heart pounding as I clambered up the little ladder on the side of the truck. In the back of the moving truck sat my mother's piano. A simple piece of paper with only a couple words was taped to the cover of the keys. She would want you to have it. That was all, no name but I knew it was Davis. The truck rocked as someone climbed in, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Emily standing there a gentle look on her face. The scars should have ruined the look but they were just a part of her in my eyes, I had barely been with Sam and Emily but already I saw them in a different light.
Her hand reached up to brush against my cheek and I realized she was wiping away tears, I hadn't even felt the tears. I quickly wiped my face and gave her a little smile turning back to the piano I reached out with shaking hands to touch the polished wood. It was cold from the long drive but it still felt the same, if I closed my eyes I could pretend I stood in the living room back home instead of in a moving truck. The rocking of the truck brought me out of my fantasy. I turned and watched as the men, including Sam, started working to take out the boxes and a big old trunk that had been my great-grandmother's.
I was glad it wasn't raining as we set all of the boxes either in the living room or on the front porch, leaving room for the couple of bigger stuff. Once the truck was empty Sam made sure the truck got off the reservation safely, Emily and I took some boxes full of clothes to my room, leaving them on the bed. One rather precariously set box tumbled over and a picture frame slid across the floor, thankfully it wasn't broken but I froze as I looked down at the picture. It was my mom, smiling bright in a costume for one of her shows. Swan Lake, she had gotten the lead when I was a little girl. She looked so beautiful. Tears filled my eyes as I kneeled down and carefully picked the picture up, my fingers shaking so badly I nearly dropped the thing again.
"Oh, you look just like her." Emily breathed, kneeling down with me. She gently took the picture from my hands and walked over to place it on the table beside my bed. She returned to my side and pulled me into a hug, not saying anything else.
"Hey! Get my ass out of bed to move crap and there's no one here!"
The loud shout pulled me out of my moment of sorrow for my mother, I straightened and gave Emily a weak smile before I rubbed my face. I left my room at a brisk pace, coming to an abrupt halt in the open front door. Paul, Jacob, and Colin stood at the foot of the porch looking at all of the boxes. Paul was the one that had hollered, earning him a not so happy look from Emily as she stepped out onto what little space there was left on the porch.
"We're here, no need to shout so early in the morning."
"I know it's early, let's get this over with so I can get my ass back into bed." He growled, crossing his arms over his chest. I couldn't help myself as I let my eyes trail over the way his muscles bulged when he did that, surrounded by hot guys is kind of hard to miss, even if I missed my mother every minuet of the day. I could just see her leering about at the boys like the pervy older woman she was deep down. Mom loved herself some beefy men, no matter the age, as long as they were legal. Or, yummy beef cakes, she she liked to call them when no one could hear her.
I blushed when Paul caught me staring an raised one eyebrow, I ducked my head and quickly picked up another box. Sam came back just as I darted into the house, directing orders at the three 'volunteers' to get everything into the house. The old trunk was left at the foot of my bed for me to go through later while Sam let me oversee the moving of my mother's piano. Emily and I worked together to find a perfect place to put it, me fussing the whole while about not letting it get scratched. The piano ended up placed in a corner near a little window, offering some light. Emily and I stood back gazing at the instrument while the guys brought the last of the boxes into the living room.
"I've always wanted to have a piano in here, my own aunt used to have one in her house, Sue Clearwater, Leah and Seth's mom. But she got rid of it a long time ago." Emily said, hesitantly she reached out a hand, glancing back at me for permission. I nodded and she lightly ran her fingers over the black and ivory keys, while I held the cover up for her.
"Whoa! Look at these!" Colin's voice drew my gaze to where he was hunched over a box, he lifted out a piece of lacy, blood red underwear. My underwear! I let out a squeak and dove across the room, snatching up the underwear in his hand and tried to grab the box but I tripped and the damn thing tipped over, my whole underwear and sleepwear strewn out across the floor right at the fee of Paul!
I blushed so hard I was sure my blood would never leave my face as I rushed to scoop it all up and shove the damn things back in the box, of course Colin had picked the one box that had never even seen the light of day. Mom had made it a joke to buy me sexy underwear and stuff when I first turned eighteen for any reason at all, and that meant whenever we went to the mall and something struck her fancy. Every single piece of clothing in the box was either silk or lace or had some key areas missing. Then there were the teddies and the camisole tops and the risque nighties.
I stood up with the box clutched tightly in my hands, I looked up and to my horror stared at the tiny piece of black lacy panties, in Paul's hands. The only pair of crotchless panties I owned, and he just had to see them and pick them up. My eyes darted up to lock with his and the blood all rushed to my face once again when I saw the heat burning in those dark eyes. It made my lady bits tingle which made me blush harder. I yanked the panties out of his grasp and tossed them in the box, shooting into my room like a bullet to toss the box into the every back of my closet.
Holding my hot cheeks I stared at the walls of my closet, utterly horrified. Why oh why had that happened? I gazed up at the ceiling, as if hoping to see the answer there as to why the spirits would torment me with that! Of course, there was no answer, but I didn't exactly expect one. Squaring my shoulders I marched back into the living room. "Okay, no more opening the boxes marked closet." I grumbled, blushing when I pointedly glared at Colin. The poor boy's eyes were wide and he had to be blushing just as hard as I was but his skin was just too dark to show it.
Jacob suddenly burst out laughing, Emily covering her mouth as her shoulders shook with laughter too. "Oh God! That was priceless! I've never seen anyone blush that dark except for Bella!" He roared, holding his side. Sam joined in the laughter but he only chuckled. I huffed and sat down on the floor to open another box, as I sat there I could feel Paul's gaze like fire burning through me but I ignored him, busying myself with showing Emily the things Davis had sent over. My mother's big cosmetics box, boxes upon boxes of my clothes, and other little trinkets. Old artifacts from my mother's people. Emily was the most interested in those.
Everything in the box was a gift from my great-grandmother, one of the last few of her tribe that still loved to tell the old stories. Most of the pieces were hand carved wooden statues passed down through the generations. I handed Emily each piece, letting her hold them and turn them over in her hands to examine them closely.
"These are all so very old, they must be several hundred years old!" Eventually Sam joined us on the floor while Jacob and Colin slipped out, giving excuses to be other places, oddly enough Paul stayed but only for the promise of breakfast. But I could tell he wasn't going to be getting any food soon.
"I'll make breakfast, you can keep looking at the artifacts." I told Emily, earning a bright smile from her.
Paul sat at the kitchen table, he could clearly see the living room but he watched me the whole time as I went from the fridge to the stove top, cooking up a big bunch of eggs and bacon with toast on the side. I somewhat sat reluctantly at the table with Paul, giving his plate and watched Emily and Sam rummage around in the box. They handled everything so carefully I had no worry of them breaking any of the important pieces.
"If you have so much of our blood running through your veins, why are you so pale?" The blunt question made me blink up at Paul, he just stared right back, taking a rather loud crunch of bacon. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sam giving him a dark look but I cocked my head to one side as I gazed at Paul, tamping down the sudden urge to move closer to him. It was cold in the early morning and I could just feel the heat rolling off him in waves and I wanted it.
"My grandmother is to blame, really. She's full blooded European and that sort of fought for dominance in my mom, she got the dark eyes and dark hair but the pale skin. The same thing just happened to me, despite the blood from," I glanced over at Sam and gave him a wane smile, "our dad."
Paul sort of jammed his head onto his fist and rested his elbow on the table, "what's your tribe?" He asked and I knew he didn't mean his own, I pursed my lips as I glanced over at Sam and saw him watching us, an odd look on his face. With a mental shrug I turned to face Paul fully, it wasn't so bad talking to him. I sort of felt better sitting there and talking to Paul, even though his dark gaze was a little intense for my taste.
"They're called the Ohanko, a mountain dwelling tribe along the very lower border of Texas." It was the same thing I'd told Emily but I doubted Paul had heard the story. "We have a guardian spirit called Yaguara, or Sister Hunter as my people call her. She takes on the form of a jaguar, teaching our warriors to protect the tribe from the monsters that lived in the land."
"What monsters?" Sam suddenly asked, I glanced over at him and saw he and Emily share a look.
I rolled my eyes and stared down at the eggs on my plate, "mostly it was one type of monster that came over when the settlers did. There was never really a name for them, but the elders called them something similar to the words blood drinker in the old language." My terrifying moment in the forest flashed in my mind, I suddenly remembered the one legend great-grandma had told me! "There is one account of a blood drinker in our legends, repeated over and over with each generation as a sort of warning. Hold on, let me get my laptop! I wrote it all down on there!" I jumped up and dashed for my room, but before I caught the dark look shared between Sam, Paul, and Emily.
Okay, so I'm going to stop there cause it's late and I wanted to post this before I forget everything my muse decided to bitch slap me with. The next chapter will have the legend and maybe something else too~~