Title: Happy Places

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters. They belong to Stephenie Meyer

Lose control
Increasing pace
Warped and bewitched
Time to erase
Whatever they say
These people are torn
Wild and bereft
Assassin is born

The smell of the rushing blood took over all of my senses. No amount of common sense or logic could have broken through my objective. I had to get to this human. My entire body was possessed with that single thought. I could faintly hear Jake's wolf snarl and feel the heat of his body close behind, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the warm liquid running down my throat.

I pushed myself faster and harder as the smell became more potent. I had only run for a couple minutes before it was overwhelming me. The tall and dense trees became thinner as I broke into a clearing. Thousands of stems of the colorful wildflowers that would bloom in the upcoming weeks covered the ground in the clearing. There was the slightest hesitation of my foot as I realized where I was; the meadow. My body halted instantly against the will of my mind.

There was a young female hiker lying at the left side of the meadow. I could see a deep gash on the side of her calve. The gooey red liquid was pouring out like a faucet for my taking. I could smell the saltiness of her tears as she panicked over her situation. Why wouldn't she panic? Her situation was about to become more terrible than she ever imagined. I wasn't going to torture her. No. I repeated mentally. I'm not like Victoria. I wouldn't torture anyone.

A searing hand on my shoulder brought me out of my thoughts. Jake was in his human form again and I could see the hundreds of sweat beads that formed on his body. My instinct was to attack, but naturally, he was expecting it. He quickly pulled my arms behind my back and brought me to my knees, kneeling beside me.

"This isn't who you are, Bella." He murmured gently in my ear. I threw my body in every direction trying to break free of his death grip on my arms while growling up a storm.. My thrashing was useless. My vulnerable state of mind left me too weak to fight him off. I thought this newborn thing was supposed to be different. "Edward wouldn't want this."

"Who gives a damn what he'd want!" I cried, throwing my body into more convulsions to break his grip. "He didn't want me."

"Go to your happy place, Bella. Anything to break you out of this." Jake's voice was frantic as he was slowly losing his grip on my arms. His words suddenly clicked in my mind as the meadow bloomed before me. The sun was shining with a brilliant light as the flowers danced gently in the wind. There were thousands of diamonds shining off of a figure from the middle of the meadow. Slowly, I moved towards it, reaching out to hold onto some of the light. As I grasped the hand of the figure, he suddenly became clear.

"Oh, Bella." Edward sighed in his beautiful, melodic voice. My knees buckled at the sound and gave way from underneath me. "Love, this isn't who you are. You will not her hurt. I know this." His voice was delicate like a feather as his hand stroked my cheek. No matter how hard I tried, no words could come to my mouth. Not a sound could escape my lips where a thousand questions were waiting for him. "Promise me you won't hurt her. Nod if you understand." My feeble nod felt like the most pathetic thing. My eyes tried to drink as much of his beauty in as they could, but suddenly he faded away.

I was abruptly back in my reality, except the gushing blood had lost all appeal. I stopped trying to fight Jake and slumped down in defeat. "I can't believe that worked." Jake murmured, more so to himself than me.

"It did." My voice was nearly a whisper as I looked up at him. I could see the pride in his eyes both for himself and me. "We can't just leave her here."

"You're right." Jake said, looking back at the young hiker. "Will you be okay if I let go of your arms?" His voice was cautious as he looked into my eyes. I nodded and he slowly released me. I kept good to my word and fought off any remaining instinct there was to attack. "Will you be okay while I help her?"

"I'm fine, Jake." I tried presenting my voice as confidently as possible to him. I truly was okay with the hiker, but I was more shaken up by seeing Edward in that dream thing that just happened. Jake stood and rushed over to the hiker. He was in shorts again, which baffled me. When did he get the time? I almost laughed to myself as I moved slowly to join him with the hiker. He gave me a warning look as I approached him, which I returned.

"What happened?" I asked her in the most calming voice I could manage. The young woman still looked terrified. Maybe it could have been being approached by a 7 foot tall half naked guy and an inhumanly beautiful looking girl. Just a wild guess. She explained how she fell down off of some bouldering rocks she was trying to climb. Jake and I helped get her back to her car where she was able to call for an ambulance. We both disappeared at the first sound of a siren in earshot distance. I couldn't risk being seen.

After we were a good distance away, Jake finally broke the silence. "You handled yourself really well back there." He said, visibly less tense.

"I'm pretty sure it could have went better." I muttered, still upset at how quickly my control had crumbled.

"Bella, it was the first time you've smelt running human blood. I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit." Jake's voice was stern, clearly wanting to get his point across to me.

"I'm just glad things turned out okay." I sighed in defeat, not wanting to argue with Jake any more than I had to. "But, we're not in the clear yet."

"Why's that?" Jake asked, his confusion apparent.

"I still have to see what the council decides about me coming onto the Rez. If they say no, I'm sure I could find somewhere in the woods to have quiet time at night. I could clean up in the river and make a living outdoors, but it'd be nice to be able to stay somewhere." My worries were making themselves clear as I expressed them to Jake. He stopped walking and put a warm hand on my shoulder.

"Bella, the council loves you. I know they do. I don't think they're going to make you suffer. Besides, you'll be on your feet eventually." Jake was full of optimism and it was refreshing.

"Thank you Jake. I know this isn't easy for you and I appreciate all that you are doing for me, more than you will ever know." I made sure Jake could hear the sincerity in my voice as I thanked him. He smiled his wolfy grin in response.

"Now let's go see what those old farts have to say." He barked out a laugh and we were off and running once again.

A/N:

Yay for an update! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating this story as much as I want to. My life is really busy and it's not a very good excuse, but it's the truth. I've also lacked motivation to write like I used to. I'm trying to come back into it, but please bear with me as it may be a slow process! I will try to update once every other week or every week, or whenever I can honestly.

I hope you all are enjoying this story! I appreciate your reviews and you taking the time to read it!

Song: Assassin by Muse