Chapter 28 A walk in the forest

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute and the Makah that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe for betaing – she has posted one of her Riddick stories here at fanfiction.net/u/2784897/ruadh_sidhe

Ruadh sidhe - nightmare.

Rose and Seth were looking for somewhere different to have sex. He was trying to convince her to do it in the pool at the base of the waterfall; she tried to tell him that water oddly seemed to make her drier rather than wetter. He assured her he could manage to make her as wet as he needed. He also pointed out that she will rain on them both in any case. She snorted at him and assured him that it was not that kind of wet, she was talking about.

There was a noise in the forest ahead of them. Seth took a sniff, pushed her behind him and just phased.

Seth had phased immediately and that was scary enough at the speed with which he had done it. He didn't even remove his clothes. He had just torn his clothes and shoes apart. Little pieces of them were raining down like some kind of weird snow. He had let out a howl; a signal to the pack and then he concentrated on protecting her from whatever it was in the forest.

Rose stood frozen; she stared at the scene in front of her.

It was a vampire.

It had to be. The light glinted off its skin in an odd fashion. She had never seen one before, but it was white and pale and fast; so very fast. Seth was faster. He was a sandy blur as he moved, staying between the vampire and her. If she ran, she was just going to make his job harder, she knew that. So, she stayed. She admitted to herself that she would actually have trouble running, even if she had wanted to.

She was also sure she could not leave Seth, in any case.

The attacking vampire, oddly, doesn't just run. She was willing to bet that Seth will stay with her and not chase it, so it was its best chance of survival… to run.

Then she learnt why. There was another noise in the forest and suddenly, there was a second vampire. She was almost hyperventilating. The pack will never make it in time.

She and Seth were both going to die here.

He snapped at them; he bit and growled at them. But he cannot hold off two of them.

It took her some time to remember that she was not as helpless as a normal girl was.

It was the first time she had ever tried to use her gift as a weapon. But she had a huge incentive. She thought Seth will be hurt and she did not want him to be injured. He had told her that wolves and vampires are mortal enemies. The wolves are quite capable of tearing a vampire apart; little else will penetrate their marble skin. But a vampire bite is poisonous to the wolves.

She did notwant Seth to be bitten.

She was frightened; no worse than that… she was terrified. She tried to breathe, to calm herself and then she felt a kernel of anger. She was furious at these dead things. Dead things that were trying to hurt her man… her wolf… and hurt her… when all they were doing was going for a walk in the woods… she guessed that they must have assumed they were just people… snacks to them...

It occurred to her that if they were normal… they would be dead about now.

She stoked and coaxed that tiny kernel of anger and she felt a hint of static in the air. She concentrated on the particles she could feel around her. Seth found the time to give her a quick yip.

She took it as encouragement.

She built that anger into aggravation and then into fury and then into rage.

She could smell ozone.

One of the vampires had ripped a branch from a tree… it was the size of her waist around and they lifted it effortlessly and swung it like a baseball player swinging a bat. The vampire batted at Seth. He skipped to the side but the second vamp was herding him. They ignored Rose. In their minds she was the weaker party.

She was so angry now, she was livid. The very air buzzed and crackled like a swarm of angry bees.

She called to the storm building above her. One of the vampires thought to look at her for a fraction of a second before Rose emitted a scream. It was a noise of fury and rage.

Her outstretched arm pointed at the armed vampire. Her hand was open but her fingers were bent like claws.

She called the lightning and for the first time ever, it came when she asked it to.

An almighty bolt hit the armed vamp. The branch held above their head just made it easier for her. The branch conducted electricity much better than the vampire holding it. The lightning looked for the easy path so it struck the branch first and then spread from there.

Seth danced away from them both and he moved closer to Rose.

The vampire clutched the tree branch. It looked like it is actually physically unable to let it go. It must have had a phone and an iPod or some other piece of metal, in its pockets and the charge concentrated on those. There was a flash-over as the charge spread around its body. The charge concentrated on the neck and shoulders of the vampire and it danced between the two metallic items in the two different pockets.

Seth was crouching down low to the ground. But the other vamp was still standing, staring in horror at his friend. The bolt flashed over to him. It jumped Seth because he was down so low to the ground.

If it was a normal bolt of lightning, they might have survived it, but she called the strike for probably double the length of time it would normally have lasted.

She fried them where they stood. Eventually the first vampire just burst into flames. The branch now served less as ammunition and more as fuel. The second vamp fell to the ground unconscious and Seth leapt on to him and started to tear him apart. Rose had a free demonstration of just how easily a wolf could tear them apart. He threw pieces of the vampire he was attacking onto the fire of his companion.

Rose lowered her arm and tried to breathe. She took a great gulp of air and staggered a little where she stood. Strong hands grabbed her from behind. It was Jake. The rest of the silent pack was grouped behind them. They stood in human form in complete silence. Their faces all expressed wonder.

"Are you all right, Rose?" Jake asked. She couldn't answer him so, she just shook her head. "Brady, Collin, help Seth," he ordered the pack.

They snapped out of their reverie and rushed to help Seth. Seth looked up and seemed to realise for the first time, that the pack had arrived to rescue them.

He trotted over to Rose in wolf form, leaving the vamp disposal to the youngest wolves. He radiated pride and smugness from every hair. He phased back and took her from Jake's arms.

"I am so proud of you," he told her intently. He hugged her to him and suddenly she burst into tears.

"That was fucking awesome!" Quil shouted.

"I was so frightened," she sobbed against Seth's naked chest. She clutched at him. "I thought we were both going to die," she sobbed out.

"You were fantastic," he told her. "Did you see that, guys? Wasn't she fantastic?"

"Yeah, we saw," agreed Embry.

"Super powers," Seth told her proudly. "My girl has super powers."

"That was fairly unforgettable," admitted Leah.

"I never thought I would say this," confessed Jake. "But Quil is right. That is an awesome weapon."

"Do you feel okay, Honey?" Seth asked her.

Paul and Jared came late to the party. They both phased back and come out of the forest putting their cut offs on. Seth was still naked and nobody seemed to care. Rose was plastered so firmly to his front; no one could see anything in any case.

"What did we miss?" asked Paul.

"Rose called a lightning strike and fried two vampires… didn't you Honey?" said Seth. He still sounded so proud of her.

"Fuck! Seriously? And we missed it?" Jared swore.

"Can you do it again?" asked Paul.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I feel… kind of drained."

FF_2154210_ - 9/04/2011 03:21:00 PM

FF_2154210_ - 31/08/2011 03:43:00 AM