Hello again, readers! Sorry that this chapter took so long to write; my schedule has gotten CRAZY, especially because we're almost done with Spring term. I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of you, the readers and reviewers, because you are what keep this story alive. I'd also like to th'tank my beta and sister, Jacob's Lala, because without her undying support, endless love, and ability to make the world just a bit brighter, this wouldn't be possible. With that said, please note that I only own Evie (and any other OC's) and the plot. On with the story!

Chapter 5

JACOB'S POV

A moment or two after Bella had taken off after Evie down the hall, I heard the door close and knew that they were safely tucked away in my room, which meant that Embry and I could finally address the thoughts that had been bombarding us both.

"Damn that leech," I swore, taking a seat where Evie had been a moment ago and slamming my hand down on the arm of the couch.

Embry took a seat in the recliner. "Don't worry, Jake. We'll get her soon enough. One day she'll get careless, and we'll be right there to take advantage."

I scoffed angrily. "When is that day going to come, Embry? When? When that redheaded bitch finally gets her hands on Bella? Or maybe the moment right after she kills her she'll be so delirious from victory that we can all rip her apart but by then it won't even matter because she'll be dead!" I said, my voice getting louder.

"Shhh!" hissed Embry as he reached over and punched me in the arm. "Shut up! Did you forget that Bella and her cousin are just down the hall?! And besides, today's little incident can't be put entirely on the leech."

I growled at him. "Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Embry shrank back a bit and was just about answer me when the door opened and Paul strode in, plopping down next to me on the couch. "What did I miss?" he asked, his usual dark expression on his face.

"Nothing, just Embry being a prick." Before Embry could protest, I turned toward him. "Any news on Harry's condition?"

Paul's already dark expression got even darker if it was possible. "It's very touch and go at this point. There are tiny moments where he gets worse, and then he'll get stable. None of the doctors know what to say right now except that all we can do is sit and wait, which is part of the reason why I'm here." My face and Embry's must've conveyed our confusion because Paul was quick to explain himself. "I managed to get a moment with Sam and fill him in on everything that happened this morning," he said, giving me a pointed look. I knew that look. That look meant that he had somehow managed to get Sam to phase in and he'd seen everything.

"Damn it, what did you do that for?" I said, knowing that Sam had probably not enjoyed seeing me fawning over Bella and letting her almost expose our secret.

"You know damn well that I couldn't help that, Jake. He wanted an update; what was I supposed to do? Try and block him out and say, 'Oh, sorry, Jake was being a fuzzy hearted idiot and risked our secret and I can't let you see'? Needless to say, Sam wants to have a word with you the next time you phase in. I'd start bracing for it, because with everything that's going, Sam's fuse is very short, shorter than mine." Embry tried and failed to mask a snort, causing Paul to look at him.

"Keep it down," I said, suddenly remembering my anger with Embry. "The girls are in my room."

"Why?" Paul asked, his disapproval obvious on his face.

I scoffed. "What was I supposed to do, let them both freeze? Bella brought her cousin some clothes and she's getting changed." Paul just let out a grunt before standing and walking into my kitchen. A moment later, he'd returned with three Cokes. He chucked one at me and one at Embry before popping the last one open for himself. "Way to ask permission," I said sarcastically.

"Looks like Evie's rubbing off on you," Embry interjected, before I silenced him with a look.

"Hey at least I was nice enough to grab one for you and Embry. Speaking of, what's this about Embry being a prick?" Paul said.

I shot Embry another scathing look. "According to Embry, today's little incident was somewhat Bella's fault and not entirely on the leech."

For a second, Paul looked bored. "Well, he's right," he said, as though he was stating the most obvious thing in the world. Embry looked as though he had just won the lottery.

"Thank you! See, I'm not the only one, so start throwing your PMS'y looks at him too!" he exclaimed.

"You can't be serious!" I said to Paul angrily. "It's not her fault that a psycho vamp is after her hide!"

"You're right, it's not. But she knows the damn risk, so what the hell was she doing out on that cliff, huh? If it wasn't for her cousin—"

"Evie," I interjected.

Paul rolled his eyes. "Right, Evie…well anyway, point is that if Evie hadn't intervened when she did, who knows what would've happened to our resident vamp lover…all right, all right, Bella then. Relax, Jacob; God, you look as though I just called her Bride of Satan," he said, adding that last part after noticing my face, which was currently contorted in what I could only assume was an expression of rage.

"That's not it," I growled, standing up and shuffling around the living room, facing away from my brothers. As I said it, I couldn't help but wish that it had been Paul's dumb nickname for Bella that had set me off instead of that other notion in the back of my mind that was gnawing away at me like a mouse gnaws at a wheel of Swiss.

"Well then what is it that's got you all twisted?" Embry prodded, his voice showing his annoyance, both at the whole subject and at me padding up and down across the living room floor.

"It's the fact that he's right!" I hissed angrily as I turned and pointed to Paul. "I mean, Jesus, if she hadn't popped in when she did…" Suddenly, my mind was rocketed back to when I'd first seen her pop in, and something occurred to me.

"How the hell did…?" I mused, not bothering to finish my thoughts as my head swam with all the thoughts and images of the incident from earlier.

"How the hell did what?" asked Embry.

"How did Evie manage to get down to the beach?" I asked. Embry looked at skeptically, and Paul just scoffed, not understanding what the big deal was. "It's like one second Bella's on that cliff about to jump, and the next, there's this girl running after her and knocking into her full force."

"Maybe your back was turned, or maybe you were too focused on Bella to notice her running up," Paul said in a flat tone.

I shook my head in frustration. "No. That's not it, I know it!" I got closer to Embry and Paul. "Come on, you know that our minds are one in the same when we're phased. You both saw what I saw."

"All I was focused on was my border; until you actually sent out the 'silent alarm' that the leech was close, your thoughts were really blips on the radar. Hell, even when we were fighting, my only focus was that stupid leech," Paul said, making me sigh in frustration.

"What about you, Embry? Please don't make me seem like a crazy guy!" I practically begged. Embry stayed quiet for a minute and his face contorted in concentration. In that instant, I could see that he had gone through every moment I'd seen in my mind—moments that had become his own—and he saw that I was right.

"How could that be?" Embry said, in a voice that let me know I had every reason to be confused.

"Oh, don't tell me you're jumping on that crazy train now too!" Paul said, agitated.

"He's right! Look, I know you said that our thoughts were just blips on the radar—believe me, I wish I could make some of your thoughts blips on the radar, you horn dog—but I'm sure if you were to tap into them and stop focusing on every woman that you ever have and will chase after…"

Paul cut him off with a firm slap to the back of the head. "One, it's not my fault that they're so hot. Two, I'm sure it's no big deal."

I snorted and made my way back to the couch before collapsing on it. "Trust us, Paul. It's a huge deal."

Paul rolled his eyes, but I could see him shift his focus and much like what had happened to Embry, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, causing me to smirk in triumph. However, instead of glowering at me, attempting to slap me upside the head, or coming back with a snarky remark, Paul just sat there, stunned into absolute silence. Several times, it seemed as though he was going to say something, but instead, the creases in his forehead deepened as his contemplation continued.

"Dear God, would you say something? I'm not used to you being the serious one, leave that to Sam," said Embry, chucking his now empty soda can at Paul's head, frustrated at how solemn our usually fire-tongued, spit-fire brother had become.

After another drawn out, tense few minutes, Paul let out a breath and it was easy to tell that he was trying to mask just how perplexed he really was. Finally, after shifting his weight a bit on the couch, he managed to speak.

"You know, you'd think that seeing as how we explode into giant balls of fur, particularly when we're angry, and we have to defend and protect people from immortal, granite leeches, we'd kinda be okay with that whole popping in out of thin air but…no. No way; it's just…it's weird. And don't either of you think of saying anything close to 'I told you,' or I'll kick your a—"

"Shh, shhh, hold on," I said, effectively cutting off Paul's rather typical butt kicking threat. My ears began to prick and I focused in on the words that we had all been trying to block out for the past fifteen minutes or so.

"Jake, you of all people should that doing that is not the best idea. I mean come on, you grew up around women, you know how that is!" Paul hissed. "Leave them alone!"

"He's right," said Embry, straightening up in the recliner.

"Shut up! This might be the only way to get the answers we need!" I muttered, not giving a damn if it seemed absolutely ridiculous. Besides, they were in my house. Technically, I was allowed to know what was going on under my own roof, wasn't I?

"I wonder how you would feel if they used your rationale on us?" Paul asked, sarcasm evident in every word.

"Hey, if you don't like it, find someone else who's willing to let you mooch all their food and put up with you at the moment. Otherwise, shut up and let me hear!" Paul just scowled at me, knowing full well that going to Emily's was not an option right now. House full of worrying women versus his brother's house with two very strange ladies locked away in a bedroom? The choice was obvious. I shot him a quick smirk and tried to fully tune in to what they were saying.

"Bella," I heard Evie say. "Once again, I'm going to ask this: what the hell were you thinking? It isn't like you to be all reckless like this. What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing! Look, Jake promised that we'd go cliff diving and it ended up that he couldn't go, so I just decided that I'd go on my own."

Evie scoffed, and I could feel myself holding back one of my own. Judging by the sniggers that I heard behind me, Paul and Embry had decided to join on my listening and they too were trying to keep it down so that the girls couldn't hear and give us trouble.

"Right, Bella. And that was the best idea in the world because you are oh-so-coordinated," Evie continued, the sarcasm and disapproval in her voice extremely evident. I could hear Bella sigh. "Are you sure it's just that, Bells?"

"Positive, Ev. Look, when…Edward…and I were together, and even when he left, he said that I should…live a little. So I did," Bella said, adding the last part in what seemed like a quiet afterthought.

"And almost got yourself killed in the process!" I heard Evie's breathing become more labored, almost as if she was struggling get a hold over her emotions. "Although at this point, I can't tell if would've been cause of the cliff diving, that psycho redhead, or a combination of both. God only knows what would've happened if I…and later those scary ass wolves—hell, are they even wolves? They were as big as freakin' horses—hadn't shown up." I heard the bed creak and I knew that Evie had probably sat down next to Bella.

"But you were there…and so were the wolves. That's what counts. Isn't it?" Bella asked softly.

"If it was just the stupid cliff diving, maybe! But Bella, that psychopath wanted you dead! She was counting on you to jump and she was going to kill you. Bella, what haven't you told me?"

Paul let out a very tiny growl as he, Embry, and I heard Bella's heart begin to race. My stomach did a flip flop of worry. Would she cave? Would all of the questions and her bond with her cousin put us all at risk? A part of me knew that Bella could never do that, especially not with her own secrets about her lee—Edward—but the other part was gripped with anxiety and I sent out a silent prayer. Please, Bella…just keep your mouth shut, would you? Don't say anything, please don't freakin' say anything.

Bella's heart was still hammering away as I heard her suck in a breath. "It's funny," she said, in a shaky voice.

"What is?" replied Evie, an impatient twinge to her voice, which I almost missed due to the giant breath of relief I took, grateful that Bella hadn't spilled…yet.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Bella said, her voice a tiny bit stronger than it had been a moment before. I shared a smirk with the guys, knowing that we all had the same thought going through our minds. Nice save, Bella! Although, in Paul's case, I'm sure he would've said 'leech lover.' I tried not to shudder as I resumed my spying.

"What are you talking about?" Evie said, a slight uncertainty in her words.

"What aren't you telling me? What are you doing here?"

I heard the bed creak again and I assumed that Evie had stood up again. "It was a surprise." No shit, I thought.

"A surprise? Okay, assuming I believe that, how did you find me?"

I heard pacing now. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Bella asked, incredulously. "You're the one that showed up there. Shouldn't you, of all people, know?"

"Yeah, I should, but I just don't, okay?" Evie said, her voice suddenly sounding ragged, almost as if the weight of the entire world had fallen upon her shoulders in one giant swoop.

"I find that just a bit hard to believe," Bella countered.

"I…I don't know how to explain it. I wish I did." Evie sighed. "Look…for all I know…it's just really, really, really good intuition."

"What?"

Evie groaned in frustration. "I don't know, Bells! I just…knew you needed me. And somehow--" She sucked in a breath and let it out quickly. "Somehow, I showed up. Just in the nick of time."

"Are you saying that you magically just thought of me, and poof, here you are?" Bella asked, disbelievingly.

"I don't know! I don't freakin' know, Bells." Evie's voice was hysterical now. "You want to know what I do know? I know that all week, I've been having these incredibly accurate episodes of déjà vu, and today, I had one. Of you. You and that stupid cliff! And I know that I was worried…so incredibly worried…because I knew, I just knew that it was going to come true and that in one instant, you were going to destroy everything—yourself, me, Charlie, and hell…even Jacob…although after all the shit that he and that loser put you through, I really didn't give two hoots in hell about him—at least not until now…"

I tried not to wince as she continued. "And there wasn't a damn thing I could do. So now, .on top of being damn exhausted over this déjà vu, I was scared outta my skull because I knew that in a few hours, I'd be getting an invitation to your funeral. Then, BAM! I'm out there, on that beach, and I see you…and you know what happened then. You know what else I know, Bella?" There was a slight pause. "I know that I don't know how I got here, and that even though I am so grateful to whatever it is that sent me here, all I want…no, all I need is to get the hell outta here and sort through this giant mess. I need to go HOME!" She yelled out the last bit, and suddenly, Bella's heart rate began going through the roof. All of us heard her scuttle for the door and we quickly tried to act as though we hadn't heard a word.

Bella burst into the living room, a wild look in her eyes that I had only seen on her once before—when Paul had phased right after she smacked him (thanks to the pack mind)—and I instantly stood up and strode over to her.

"Bella," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Bella, honey, what's wrong?"

She quickly looked me in the eyes, before her gaze moved onto the other boys. Her breathing was surprised and erratic, and her next words came out in a whisper.

"She's gone. You guys…Evie's gone."

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