A/N: Yeah! Another chapter! A part of this chapter comes from Twilight. Pages 124-127. It's almost a direct copy, but I changed some lines to fit into my story. The only reason I did this is because I didn't want to ruin the legend, and anything that I would write wouldn't be correct. Please don't hate me.

Enjoy and REVIEW! Please.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, they belong to Stephenie Meyer. I only own this shiny purple ring.

Chapter 8-Burning a Hole In My Head

It was finally Friday! This strange confusing week was over. I really had nothing to do. I bit of homework, not that much though, and cooking dinner for Charlie. That was just as easy as it sounded.

I pulled into the driveway, and carefully got out of the truck, not wanting to be swept away by the exceptionally powerful winds.

My truck had been in the driveway the first time I looked yesterday afternoon. I thought I would've at least heard Alice drive up.

Once inside, I made my way up to my room, and changed into warmer clothing. Contrary to the weather report, it had gotten colder and colder throughout the day, making my outfit feel as thin as paper.

I bundled up in thick sweat pants, a turtle neck shirt, two sweaters, and thick, fuzzy socks.

I placed a random CD in the player and got into my bed, pulling my sheets and blankets around my shoulders and across my waist. My teeth were chattering to the beat of some snappy show tune. This was definitely not my CD. I picked up the case and looked at the hand-written list of tracks. The song names were printed in Renée's small, curly script. This must have been accidentally put with my stuff. I would never have brought this if I knew what it was.

I desperately wanted to change the CD, but I was way too cold to get up. My teeth were chattering louder than the music, and my whole body was tensed and shaking. I lay down and curled myself into a ball, trying to lie in the warm space I'd made on the mattress.

OoooooOoooooO

"Bells, sweetie, wake up," someone gently whispered in my ear.

"Char-Dad? Is that you?" I asked into my pillow.

"What…Yeah, it's me," Charlie responded.

"What's up dad?" I asked while sitting up and pulling the blankets around my still freezing body.

"We were invited to a party down at Billy Black's place, in La Push. Do you want to go?" he asked excitedly. I looked at him, I couldn't remember the last time Charlie looked this excited about anything. How could I let him down?

"Sure dad, I'll go. But, who's Billy?" I asked.

"Oh you don't remember? He's my friend. We used to go fishing with him."

I still didn't remember. "Sorry dad, I still don't know who he is," I told him apologetically.

"Oh, well, you might remember his kids. Jacob, Rachel, an-"

"Yes, I remember them now." And I did. I could picture Billy and my dad in a fishing boat while I sat on the beach awkwardly with Jacob, Rachel, and Rebecca.

"Okay dad, lets get going," I said while standing up and pushing my feet into my boots. I struggled a little more than usual because I was wearing really thick socks, but at least my feet were warm. We walked out and climbed into Charlie's cruiser.

Charlie was lost in the excitement of seeing his friends again, and I was lost in the struggle of being warm enough to stay conscious.

OoooooOoooooO

Charlie pulled the cruiser onto a small patch if mud next to a tiny red house. There were lights on in all the windows and voices could be heard from inside. On the front porch, I could see the silhouette of a boy. As we approached the house, the boy looked up and smiled in recognition. He jogged over to us and said, "Hey Charlie. Long time no see."

"Hi Jake. You remember Bella, right?" he asked, gesturing to me.

"Yeah, of course I do." He smiled at Charlie then turned to me. "Hi, I'm Jacob."

"Hi," I murmured, my words so quiet they were almost lost in the roar of the wind.

"Lets get inside, its freezing," Charlie said. We all walked into the house, met by a wonderfully warm gust of air.

After being introduced to tons of people, most of whom I can't remember, I settled down on the couch letting the thankfully warm atmosphere filter through all my layers and warm my freezing bones. I was leaning back with my head against the pillows, eyes closed, letting my mind wander away from the quiet chatter, when I felt someone else sit next to me. I glanced up and saw Jacob watching my face closely. I blushed, looking away, uncomfortable.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," he said quietly in his gruff voice.

"That's ok, I was just thinking. Nothing too important," I said jokingly. He laughed.

"You look really tired though," he pointed out.

"I really am. I just want to lay down and fall asleep," I said while stifling a yawn.

He smiled. "Go ahead. I'm not stopping you."

I made a show of grabbing a blanket, tucking myself in and closing my eyes. I even added a couple of snores for his benefit. "Hmm," I said, opening my eyes. "I feel like someone should dim the lights and read a story or something."

He watched me and his smile grew. He leaned over and turned off the lamp sitting on the coffee table, and cleared his throat. "Once upon a time…" he trailed off.
"What happened?" I protested. "Where's the princess and the terrible step mother and the happily ever after?"

He glanced at me sheepishly. "I actually don't really know any fairy tales. But I can tell you some legends. Will that do?"

I fake pouted. "I guess so." I sighed and pretended to look dejected. He laughed again.

"Okay, I'll tell you the stories of the cold ones."
**"The cold ones?" I asked, leaning in closer.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the history of our people, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.

"Your great-grandfather?" I encouraged, not needing to fain interest.

"He was tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemy of the wolf-well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our tribe's ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

"Werewolves have enemies?" I asked

"Only one. So you see, the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did-they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the humans." He winked at me.

"If they weren't dangerous then why…?" I trailed off. I tried to understand, struggling not to let him see how engrossed I was in the legends that he obviously didn't believe.

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He sounded spookily menacing during that last bit.

"What do you mean, 'civilized'?"

"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead. At least that's what the leader, Carlisle, said. The other two males, Emmett and Edward had to prove it too."

"Emmett, Carlisle, and Edward are the names of the Cullen men," I said trying to keep my voice casual. "Are they related to the cold ones your great-grandfather met?"

"No." He paused dramatically. "They're the same ones."

He must have thought that my expression was fear inspired by his story. He smiled, pleased, and continued.

"There are more now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader. He'd been here and gone before your people even arrived." He was fighting a smile.

"And what are they?" I finally asked. "What are the cold ones?"

He smiled darkly. "Blood drinkers. Your people call them vampires."

I tried to suppress a shiver, but Jacob noticed.

"You have goose bumps." He laughed delightedly.

"You're a good storyteller," I complimented him while staring at the forest design in the quilt.

"Pretty crazy stuff, though, isn't it? It makes us sound like a bunch of superstitious natives, right?" he asked jokingly.

I looked up and smiled as normally as I could. "No. I think you're just a very good storyteller."**

"Thanks."

I yawned. It didn't really help that I was hearing all this information when I was so tired. I knew that there was something different about the Cullen's, and this fit really well, but it was just so ludicrous. I needed to go home and sleep. I would think this over in the morning.

"Hey Jacob, I'm really tired. I'm going to go see if Charlie is ready to go home," I told him.

"Oh, what, was my story too boring for you?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," I said playing along, "It put me right to sleep. I'll be right back."

I got up and went to search for Charlie. I found him in the kitchen talking animatedly to Billy.

"Hey dad, I'm really tired. I was wondering if we could, maybe, head back home?"

"Oh, ok Bells. We'll go if you really want to," he said to me with a sad face.

"Oh no dad," I said, "I'll drive back with Jacob, and he can drive the car back up here once I'm home. That way I can go to sleep and you can stay as long as you want."

"That's perfect Bells. I guess I'll see you at home."

I walked back to Jacob and told him the plan.

"Okay cool. I'll come with you," he agreed happily.

We stepped out the front door only to see that the weather was worse than before. It was pouring buckets and the wind had kicked up in overdrive. I had to yell just to make Jacob hear me.

"WHICH CAR SHOULD WE TAKE?" I asked.

"LET'S TAKE MY CAR. IT'S OVER THERE." He pointed towards the side of the house. We both started running for the car. I slipped a couple times in the mud, my pants and socks getting thoroughly soaked. I dived for the driver's door and leapt inside, panting for breath. Jacob, sitting beside me, was doing the same. I started the engine and blasted the heat, shivering inside all my soaking wet layers. "I'm s-s-so c-c-co-cold," I said, my teeth chattering.

"Seriously Bella, it's not that cold out. I'm warm and I just have a sweater on." I looked over at him to see if he was trying to be tough, but he looked sincere.

I pulled out of the driveway and started making my way back to Forks. I could barely see through the rain, so I compensated by driving a little slower than usual. We were sitting in a peaceful silence, except for the howling winds of course, when we ran over something.

"What was that?" Jacob asked.

"I have no idea. I didn't see anything, and that sounded like a big something." I started to break but the car wouldn't stop. I pressed down harder in my panic but the car just accelerated.

"Jacob!" I screamed. "The car's not stopping!"

"What the h-" But his curse was cut off by a loud crash.

A/N: He he. Sorry about the cliff hanger, but please review and maybe I'll get it up faster. *wink wink*