Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and do not own any of the Twilight Series characters; I'm just a fan having fun. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 34

Nessie's POV

"Jacob?"

I took my face away from his chest to look at him. He still looked awfully pale and weak, but his heart was beating, faster and stronger than it had been ever since I'd found him. The agonizing abyss his silent heart had formed a second ago was filled with the beautiful sound of the rhythmic beats it was producing now. I felt as though a huge boulder had been lifted off me, as if I'd died and been brought back to life.

Leah, Quil and Embry were silent next to me, their huge wolf faces pressed around me and looking at Jake, waiting for him to wake up.

"Jacob?" – I tried again, this time pressing closer to his face and kissing his soft fur. I needed for him to open his eyes so I could finally calm down. When I pulled back, at last it happened, he was looking at me, his eyes just the same as when he's human, so full of love that you feel like bursting. I stroked his head and his body in soothing movements, the way you'd caress a dog, causing him to whimper slightly and close his eyes. His body still looked limp and I could tell he was still in pain, but at least he was alive. I felt like crying again, or maybe I never stopped, because my face felt hot and swollen and wet.

"We have to get out of here; we need to take him somewhere safe, where he can get better." – My voice was shaky and hoarse and sounded nothing like me. I could only imagine just how desperate and wrecked I must have looked. When I turned to say this to the others, I was shocked to find that Leah had already phased back to human, wearing shorts, a tube top and a bunch of scars in the process of healing, probably from the fight. I'd never seen her look at me this way, not with the usual bravado or false contempt but with actual sympathy and even pity.

"Nessie, you're really badly hurt, how do you feel?"

Up until then I hadn't given my own situation much thought, but the second she brought it up, I realized I didn't feel so good. My vision was still somewhat blurry, I felt cold and unsteady, my body was shaking and ached from head to toe. I looked down and realized I was covered in blood and still bleeding, having no clue which of the multiple injuries was the culprit for this.

"I don't know… I feel… woozy."

Leah kneeled down beside me and analyzed my wounds, taking a shirt that was tied to Embry's leg and ripping it in two, placing and tying one piece over my shoulder and the other around my abdomen, which seemed to be bleeding as well.

"How… how are the others?" – Again my voice was not my own, but I didn't care, I needed to ask her for my parents, for my family.

"I don't know; we lost contact when the rest of us left them to go help with the werewolves. The last thing I saw was Edward arriving at the scene, right after Bella had confronted the old leech."

"So you don't know if they made it out?" – I couldn't take another surge of panic and anguish, just couldn't. Not only was Jacob lying next to me, still so very hurt, but also I knew nothing about my family. Had Seth, Rose and Emmett defeated the guards?

"Seth… is he… how is he?" – I was afraid to ask, but I knew that with the pack mind, at least that part of the battle I'd know about.

"He's fine, he has a broken leg and couple of ribs but I'm sure that by tomorrow they'll be healed… your aunt and uncle made it out alive too, they left Seth recuperating at our house and then went to be with the others."

I felt my body start to drift away, like I was losing my senses. Leah's face was getting blurrier and blurrier and pretty soon the only sound I could hear was Jacob's heart and Leah's voice, but even that was slowly drifting away.

"Nessie? Ness?"

"I… I need to take Jake… you need to go help my family."

"Ness, we have…" – She paused and gave Jake a fleeting look out of the corner of her eye, before continuing. – "orders. When Jacob phased he instructed us to come rescue you and said we were not to leave your side… he thought we'd be too late to save him."

"No… you have to help the others… please…"

Leah shifted her eyes toward Jake again, with hesitation, and then turned them back on me; I could tell she felt sorry.

"It was an alpha order."

I barely heard her say it, her words sounded so far away as her face became a blur. I could feel my body giving up and even though I wanted to fight against it, even though I wanted to make sure Jacob was safe and sound, I just couldn't.

The last thing I remember feeling were Leah's hands, as she picked me up off the ground.

Jacob's POV

"Run!" – I let go of Nessie and fell to the ground, unable to stand up. If she ran now maybe she'd have a chance at escaping. I watched with horror as a group of werewolves came closer and closer and with even more horror when Nessie, instead of listening to me, crouched over me, protecting me. The sight was unbearable, my beautiful Ness, looking so small and vulnerable next to the cluster of menacing werewolves. I hated the way they were looking at her, the way their stance suggested aggression, but most of all, hated the way I couldn't do anything about it. My body began to shake, the way it always does when I'm more than a little furious, but I couldn't phase. Ness looked down at me with pity in her eyes and I hated myself; she was about to get killed right in front of me, I was about to fail her in the worst possible way, I was about to let these fucking monsters take her away from me, unfulfilling my promise to always keep her safe. If the venom wouldn't kill me, I was sure Nessie's death would.

It was hard to concentrate on phasing when they were so close to Ness and when my entire body felt numb. Before I knew it, she was fighting them. I closed my eyes and focused, focused my attention on my body and on trying to phase. I kept opening them to see her dodging punches and bites… some she didn't dodge, making me want to kill myself. Every hit she received I received as well, as if we were connected some way, as if our bodies were not two but one. I welcomed the pain, because it meant that if she died, I would too, but of course, I couldn't let that happen.

I wasn't getting anywhere close to changing when I opened my eyes and saw that they had pinned her down. She was struggling, my poor Nessie, but they had her, one on each side of her, digging their filthy nails into her arms. I felt sick to my stomach as the third one approached her in wolf form, teeth bared and all. I knew his stance, knew his body language… he was coming in for the kill.

A jolt of electricity went through my body and I managed to pull out of God knows where the strength to phase on the spot. I was so weak I knew that even in wolf form, they'd easily kill me, but at least I could save her, at least I would make certain that was the last thing I ever did.

"Jacob? You're alive!" – Leah thought. I could see she and the others were finishing off the last of the werewolves. I could also see they were all badly beaten, but healing.

"I need you! Please! Hurry!" – As soon as my frantic mind came up with the plea, they were off, Leah, Quil and Embry, running as fast as their paws could take them toward us.

I pulled the last of my remaining strength and ran head on toward the werewolf about to attack Nessie, ramming my body so fiercely against his that I knocked him over and away from her. My force was draining rapidly, the weakness the venom had caused was resurfacing, but I had to at least make enough damage so she would be safe until they got here.

I took advantage of my surprise attack and without hesitation, bit into the werewolf's throat and ripped at whatever my teeth could find, until I felt the monster heave and exhale his last breath. As soon as I was done, my legs started to wobble and I felt dizzy, but I couldn't stop, not when Nessie's life depended on it. I turned and saw her, so beautiful and perfect, even when covered in blood and beaten, definitely worth dying for, not one, but a thousand painful deaths. I clung to her eyes a second longer, feeling the weight of the truth in my heart… this would be the last time I'd ever see her.

I growled at the werewolves, hoping they take me on and leave her alone. Thankfully they did and before I knew it, they'd crushed me to the floor. I was beyond pretending I could stop this, my body was so tired and frail that it collapsed as soon as the first one ran into me.

"Jacob?" – I could see Leah was panicked. They were close, I could feel it, but not close enough to save me, so I spoke to them before it was too late.

"I order you to keep Nessie safe, none of you can leave her side, you will die first before she does… she is your responsibility from now on." – I hadn't realized I'd given an Alpha order until I felt their uneasy thoughts. I was so beyond desperate that I didn't care, at this point I'd do anything to make sure she was taken care of.

Before I could think anything else, say goodbye to them even, I felt the agonizing pain of one of the werewolves biting me and the way the vampire venom slowly made its way through my veins, leaving a path of destruction and burning suffering. My head fell to the side, toward where Nessie was lying, my pain reflected in her eyes. I simply looked at her until I couldn't see her anymore, until my eyes went black and the sound around me mute, until I was alone in the cold nothingness with only the memory of my Ness to keep me whole.

Everything was black and empty and pretty soon the image of Nessie started to fade away. I was falling helplessly into the abyss and couldn't remember who I was or anything at all, like my entire being was slipping away and getting lost forever. The darkness was slowly filled with white light, equally void of life but far more comforting. I was getting used to seeing nothing and feeling nothing when an image made its way to me. At first I didn't recognize what I was seeing; a tall dark guy with a huge grin on his face and then a girl, equally tall but not muscular and bulky like him, slender. Her skin was glowing in a strange way and her eyes were terribly familiar, brown and almond shaped. More and more images crept inside my head, interrupting the white nothingness; the girl as a child hugging the big bulky tanned guy, then the same girl only now grown up kissing and making love to him. I felt a tingle of something in my thoughts but still didn't understand. Then came another image of the girl holding two babies in her arms, their faces the perfect combination of both their features.

That's when recognition came to me… that was me; the big muscular tanned guy was me. I racked my brain to remember the girl. It was so hard when my mind seemed to be empty and everything around me begged me to give up and fade away. The images kept coming and coming, each one bringing a new spec of understanding… N… Ne… Nes… Nessie. The moment my brain thought her name I remembered everything and suddenly, I didn't feel like slipping away into the void, I felt like struggling to get out.

WAKE UP! I commanded myself. KEEP YOUR PROMISE! I screamed out.

Pretty soon the white surroundings left me and I heard a familiar voice. – "Jacob?"

Sorry about the small chapter, but I couldn't wait to post it and the second half is still in process, so I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think, I'm a sucker for reviews!