The next two days were hard to endure. Jacob stayed by the bed, and by Bella, every possible moment. Every now and again she would have another seizure, shaking and jerking and kicking, and always, always screaming. How much pain she must be in… How much does it hurt to turn flesh into stone? The perfect, icy white marble was inching across her skin. The change was subtle and slow, but it left obvious differences behind.
Her face changed with it, for one thing. Jacob's heart ached at the thought, but he had to admit that she was more beautiful now, more balanced… and his heart hardened against that beautiful face. Their beauty was one of their weapons - it was designed to draw you in, lull you into a false sense of security. Jacob wondered again why he was letting this false-Bella-creature survive its own birth. It was such a mockery of everything she'd been.
It won't be her… he would whisper to himself. This…thing…will wake up in what's left of Bella's body, but it won't be her. It'll be a predator, a killer. A monster you need to destroy.
But he couldn't bring himself to actually want it dead.
A member of the pack was always in the main room. The door was always kept open, and sometimes they'd bring food into the bedroom. More often than not they sat as close to the front door as they could. Bella's smell was more vampire than human by the minute, and it filled the cabin. Jacob had grown accustomed to the pain. He ignored the sweet vampiric burn, focusing instead on the lingering traces of Bella's own scent.
Whenever it was Sam's turn to stay in the cabin with Jacob, he too ignored the smell and came right into the bedroom. He sat by the door, and tried to talk to Jacob about what they were going to do, but Jacob ignored him. He knew he'd need to kill…it… but he couldn't think about that. Eventually Sam gave up attempting to include Jacob in his plans.
The third day dawned with cold gray light coming in through the window, and Jacob knew that his time with Bella was up. There was no more warm flesh left to freeze.