Chapter 12
Bella POV:
I stopped my breathing as I walked down the stairs because the stench was so overpowering. I registered through my mind where I had smelt the horrid smell before and I instantly remembered my journey from New York to here. Without a second thought I was sprinting down the stairs and outside the front door with Edward on my heels. He grabbed my hand and gently tugged me back to him once we were outside that Jacob wasn't even here; I guess all werewolves had the same stench about them. Alice came out a second later and gave me a weird look.
"I don't think I've ever seen you run so fast before, Bella," she whispered to me, and I gave her a grim smile. She gave me a confused look, and I whispered back to her:
"I'll tell you later." She nodded and then stood next to me. I took in everything around me then and saw that Carlisle and Esme had already been waiting outside, and Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie had filed out after us. I then turned my attention to the edge of the forest where five tall and muscular Indian men walked out from the trees and three wolves were following them. The men all had stern expressions on their faces, and they were shirtless with only jean pants on; they didn't even have any shoes or socks on their feet.
"Good morning, gentlemen. How can we be of assistance to you today?" Carlisle asked sounding like a clerk in a sophisticated store. The sternness on their faces just turned to scowls after he spoke.
"No need for the fake contentment, bloodsucker," the man in the middle said bitterly. I mentally flinched at his reference of us, but didn't want to give the satisfaction of knowing their words had any kind of effect on me, "We've had trouble with this group of vampires recently and gave to ask if your coven had anything to do with them."
"Would you happen to know any names?" Carlisle asked calmly, acting as if they had replied in the same kindly manner, "There are quite a lot of us around the country, so it would hard to know if we've even made contact with them before."
"Do you think we stop to ask what their names are when we are chasing them away from our town?" The same man asked, and spit at the ground in between us and them. I figured it was supposed to be an insult, but there wasn't any offense taken. I took my eyes off of where he had spit and noticed that the wolf on the end wasn't staring at the men like the other two were; he was staring right at me. We made brief eye contact before I turned my attention back to Carlisle speaking.
"Just making sure. Do you remember any specific physical traits about them?"
"There were two obviously in charge; a male and female. The male had long blonde hair while the female had deep red hair."
"Now, there's only one in control," I mumbled, and quickly looked down at the ground when I realized that I had spoken out loud. I felt the Cullens' all turn their gaze to me, and suddenly the harsh questions were directed at me instead of Carlisle.
"You're associated with this group?"
"No, I am not associated with this group," I said managing to have the same amount of calmness in my voice that Carlisle had maintained.
"All I can smell is her awful stench so I can't tell if she's lying or not," the man to the left of one who had been speaking the whole time said in a quiet voice. The one in the middle growled quietly before speaking again:
"You sure don't sound like it. How do you know this information?" he asked sternly. I paused and looked up at Edward, not sure of what I should say. I didn't think it was the best idea to tell them: "Oh, I'm not associated with them, I just saw the guy in charge kill the woman when they had kidnapped me." it just didn't make me look very good. The wolf on the end, the one that had been staring at me before, starting digging into the ground with his paws at my hesitation.
"It is a very long story of how she knows this, but I can swear to you on my life that she is not associated with them," Carlisle said, but we were pushing the werewolf to his limits. His face was turning pink and I could see his hands start to tremble.
"You didn't answer my question!" he yelled, almost making me want to take a step back, "How. Do. You. Know. This!" he said each word like it was in its own sentence. I dropped Edward's hand and stepped forward before I could see his look.
"You really want to know? Because if you do, you're probably gonna want to sit down." I said calmly but then totally changed my tone and took a step closer to them, "So you if you wanna know so freakin' bad how I know these things then you're going to tell your little wolves there to go into the woods and come back as men, and all of you are going to come and sit down inside our house so I can tell you that I'm not associated with Them!" I let out a sigh of relief and turned on my heel and walked into the house.
"And if we don't?" the man asked making me pause before I had made it in the house.
"What are you going to do to me if you I'm 'associated' with this group of vampires?" I asked irritated as I slowly turned around to face him, making sure I kept my eyes locked on his.
"Well, we'll have to take you with us of course," he said like that was the obvious thing.
"You're not taking-" Edward started to say, but I was at his side in a second with my hand on his shoulder, stopping him from continuing.
"Well, there are eight of us and eight of you. If you ask me, I don't think the odds would be on your side since we have seven highly trained fighters; what do you have?" I asked with attitude in my tone and stance. He sighed and nodded, but looked at me weird before saying anything to the men and wolves next to him.
"Who are you, bloodsucker?" Again I almost flinched when he called me 'bloodsucker.'
"My name is Bella, not bloodsucker," I said sharply looking straight into his eyes, and when he finally looked away I felt a smug grin come across my face knowing that he had lost the battle of dominance by dropping his eyes first. I actually made it to the door before I heard my name being called in an all-too-familiar voice. I stopped and dropped my arm to my side, I had raised it to open the door, and then felt Edward at my side. He opened the door and ushered me inside.
"No, no, no, I have to go back out there. I heard his voice, Edward!" I yelled struggling against his hold, but he held me back with more strength than I thought possible because I was still considered a newborn so I should've been stronger than him.
"Bella, calm down, it's alright. He was the wolf that was staring at you the whole time, and he was the only one who didn't have pants tied onto his leg. Now, if you promise to stay here inside I'll go get him some clothes," he said looking into my eyes. I nodded and he let go of my and was gone in a second. I turned towards the door but ran into a really big and burly man who reminded me of a bear.
"What are you doing Emmett?" I asked with a sigh.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked as he pushed me towards the couch.
"…Outside?" I asked as I pointed to the door.
"You sure don't know how to listen, Bella," Jasper said as he appeared next to Emmett.
"What is this, put Bella on lockdown?" I asked as they both picked me up and set me in the middle of a couch; they sat down on both sides of me as Edward came down the stairs with a pair of jean pants in his hand and the rest of the family came in the front door.
Rosalie smiled when she saw Emmett and Jasper on both sides of me, and Esme and Alice just laughed.
"First things first, Carlisle I'm sorry for even saying anything in the first place; that was meant to be just a thought in my head, but it kind of just came out. Then the man made me really pissed off so I guess you could say he just set my temper off. I don't have as much control and patience as you, so I couldn't keep my calm tone," I said before anyone else could say anything. I talked in a rushed manner, the words coming out too fast for any human, or werewolf, to be able to comprehend.
"No need to say sorry, it might be good to get hothead werewolves like them on our side," he replied, talking just as quickly as I had.
"Ok, then can someone explain to me what just happened? Preferably Edward."
"You told me about your relationship with Jacob earlier this morning, and I read the reddish-brown wolf's mind and put two and two together. That's why you rushed down the stairs so quickly when you first smelled them, is it not?" he asked looking at me when he talked; it felt as if it was just me and him in the room at that moment.
"Yeah, I thought I smelled him, but was grateful when you stopped me when we got outside," I said and he nodded before continuing, but I saw the hurt flash through his eyes so I beat him to the punch, "Edward you have to understand that there was never anything romantic between Jacob and me." I could see that he understood now, so I relaxed into the couch and waited for him to continue.
"Well you started talking and his thoughts changed and almost turned against you because he was beginning to get suspicious that you were 'associated' with them," I laughed when he used air quotes around associated, "But then he realized that we, our family, weren't like them and that you probably wouldn't be with us if you were one of Them.
"After you got done speaking he ran into the forest to change back into human form, but then realized that his pants had fallen off while he was running with the pack after he had already called your name. So that's why I rushed you in here because I knew you'd go right to him, but I didn't think he'd want you to see him like that so I told Emmett and Jasper to come make sure you didn't leave the house while I got him some pants."
"Well why don't you go give them to him?"
"I already did," he said confused, and I realized that he no longer had the pair of pants in his hand.
"What was everyone else doing outside?"
"That, I can't answer for you," he said sadly.
"Why?" I asked quietly.
"Because I wasn't there," he said with a little laugh.
"But I was!" Alice said.
"Care to explain what you guys were doing for so long?" I asked patiently.
"Nope!" she said with a smile, and when I just stared at her she continued, "Just kidding, of course! We were just waiting on the wolves to come back out from the forest, but when it was evident they were taking longer than necessary we came in here."
"Oh, I'm sorry again to everyone for all the trouble I've caused you guys today." I said speaking slower, not caring if the wolves heard.
"I swear Bella, you say that word way too many times. I think we should ban you from saying it," Rosalie said with a laugh, and I smiled.
"Sor-," I quickly stopped myself from saying it again, and everyone laughed, "What's the consequence for when I do say it?"
"It'll be different every time, but next time you say it Rose and I get to give you another makeover," Alice said cheerfully, and we all sat in silence, except for Edward who was still standing.
"What are they doing Edward?" Jasper asked referring to what was taking the werewolves so long.
"Contemplating whether or not it is safe enough to come in here as humans," he replied swiftly without any hesitation. I got up from the couch and walked over to sit down on the piano bench, and Edward followed shortly after me. The rest of them got the hint, that we should leave the couches for the wolves, and Emmett and Jasper disappeared upstairs and came back down with two armchairs and two love seats. Carlisle and Esme sat in the armchairs, which Jasper and Emmett had set down side-by-side next to the piano, and Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper all sat down on the two love seats, which were placed next to the armchairs.
Jacob walked in the door once everyone had sat down, and I sprang up into his arms.
"Bella!" he said in excitement.
"Oh my god, Jake! I thought I'd never see you again after you told me to come here, oh and thank you for that by the way." He swung me around in a circle before setting my feet back down on the ground.
"Bella, calm down now. You're starting to talk crazy talk," he said with a laugh, and I was confused at first but then remembered that I wasn't supposed to say anything like that around his pack.
"Oh, jeez; I guess I got a little carried away," I said with a laugh and then whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry Jake, but you smell really bad."
He laughed and then whispered back in mine: "I'm sorry to say this, but I think you smell worse." I gasped, faking to be insulted, but he just laughed and released me from the hug.
"Go ahead and sit down on one of the couches, and make yourself comfortable while the rest of your pack finds the guts to walk into our house and realize that we really don't have any coffins or dungeons," I said jokingly and went to sit next to Edward again. He sat down on the couch I had been sitting on before, and we waited while the rest of the wolves started to file inside, as humans, of course.
"Why did we have to do this in here?" the main one asked again once they were all almost seated, and I rolled my eyes and waited for him to sit down before I answered. While I was waiting, I recognized two of the men to be Quil and Embry; they used to be Jacob's best friends. I hadn't noticed them before so I figured they were the other two wolves who were standing next to Jacob.
"Because you wanted to know the whole story, so I wanted to be comfy while I told it, mongrel," referring to what I heard Edward call Jacob last night. I sensed that he was smiling at my word choice, since I had yelled at him for calling Jacob that, but I didn't dare take my eyes off of the leader.
"The name's Sam," he growled and I figured he didn't like being called mongrel any better than I liked bloodsucker.
"Ok, Sam," I said and started out from the beginning starting when I was sitting in the alley way and James had found me. I told them everything about how he made me make my first kill, and how I caught him talking to Victoria about me. I skipped over the part about me seeing Jacob on the way to Forks, and went on to how I met the Cullens. I also left the makeover and the more romantic scenes I had had with Edward, and finally stopped after I explained about escaping from being tied to the tree.
Sam spoke up when it was obvious I was finished speaking, "The part I don't get is how you 'willed' these people to do things with your mind."
"It's one of my supernatural powers that I discovered," I said not wanting to explain how Edward's supernatural power was to read minds and how Alice could see things in the future.
"She's not the only one that has them," Alice said, "I can see things happening in the future, but don't worry because I can't see any werewolves in my visions." Sam nodded in understanding.
"I also have a question for you," I started, talking to Sam, "what was your buddy over here talking about when he said that he couldn't tell if I was lying or not because he couldn't smell past my stench?"
"Some of us can tell if someone is lying or not by the kind of scent they give off, so we can't exactly smell anything but the awful odor surrounding this room at the minute.
"Yeah, the odor of wet dog," I heard Rosalie mumble too fast and quiet for them to be able to hear, but I still had to stifle a laugh.
"So now you know how I know this information, and that I'm not associated with them. So what do you want now?" I asked after they had stopped mumbling to themselves.
"What we came here for in the first place; we want you guys to help us kill them."
A/N Okay, so how did you like it? I spent a long time trying to make sure that it was perfect to make you all happy. I want to thank sghb716 for reviewing. I appreciate all of you guys for reading, and if I get three reviews I will update before the 23rd of this month. If I don't, then you'll all have to wait until most likely the 10th of July because I'll be on vacation!
-A