She stared at me, and Quil, Embry and Jake opened their eyes wide and gaped.
"Not—not exactly," I said. "From what I understand about imprinting, anyway." I gulped and looked around at them. "They still have choices, for example. But—once they bond with someone…a love bond, they change. They're altered in some fundamental way." I shook Edward's face from my mind. "If one half of an imprint didn't want to be with—"
"Would never happen," Embry interrupted me. Leah's expression was carefully guarded.
"Okay, then, if one half of an imprinted pair dies, what does the one left behind do?"
"Assuming it's the wolf half?" Leah cocked her head at me, and I wondered how many mannerisms the pack adopted from their wolf sides when confronted with unpleasantness. "I'm not sure. I think, from the stories, they refuse to phase back to human form, or they choose to die."
"Do they seek revenge at all costs?" I raised my eyebrows. Leah shrugged.
"I'm not sure they could if it would cost the pack." She looked sad, and I knew she was thinking of Sam. As alpha, he especially would be in conflict were anything to happen to Emily and retaliation would embattle the pack, needlessly endangering lives. "Usually the person who's imprinted on basically becomes a member of the pack, so they receive our protection…but if they weren't…" Her voice trailed off, and she frowned at me as her mind wandered across previously unconsidered possibilities.
"Vampires can choose to abandon their families, covens…they can do that. They can pursue revenge at any cost. And obviously, they will," I said. An air of finality was settling over the conversation. "How many vampires have you guys killed?" Quil grinned and Embry grimaced. Jake's eyes never left the floor. A long moment passed before he raised his eyes to mine, and when I saw his expression, a great sadness lingered there.
"I didn't know," he whispered. "I didn't know they were paired." I put my hand on top of his.
"You feel sorry for them?" Leah snarled. "You feel bad for ridding the world of frigging leeches?" Jake just stared back at her. He was unafraid of admitting to his sadness; I saw the difference then, in the way they mourned. Jake had moved passed anger, to bitterness; his love for me might have rekindled a sympathy for mates that wouldn't have existed otherwise, even if it was evident that he still loathed vampires. Leah's casual hatred masked a relentless fury that lashed out at anything that reminded her of her pain. I understood why Emily thought it would be a long time before they would be able to act like cousins again, and at that moment, I resolved to see it happen. It had to. For both their sakes.
"It doesn't matter," Embry said. His voice was like a balm, still and deep over the divide. "We fought about this before, and it didn't change how we ended up handling it, did it?" He looked at the others, but I felt Jacob withdrawing and realized Embry was talking about something I didn't know. Something that made Jake uncomfortable, something about how they handled…vampires? I looked up at him, and although he acknowledged my confusion with a gentle nod he shook it off and faced Embry directly. It seemed to me that Embry was Leah's second. Pack hierarchy, once again in effect. His voice took on the tone of a reporting officer. "When we arrived, Jake was—we thought—critically wounded. The boy Cullen took him here, and the girl, the small one, briefed Sam on the battle and carried Bella here, where she presumably took care of Jake." Quil smirked, and Leah rolled her eyes. "We collected the remains of the bodies and stored them in the back of the truck, and then carried the truck out towards the mountain range—"
"—Across the Sound?" Leah looked puzzled.
"No, too risky. Back up towards the islands." The image of the wolves heaving the body of my dead truck around was startling; then again, Jacob alone was nearly the size of the truck. It probably wasn't too much to expect them to be able to carry a ton of metal and granite around the state of Washington a couple of times. Embry's voice intruded on my reverie once again. "There were no reanimations in transit. They bodies were all too badly burned." I shivered and gagged a little but no one else noticed except Jake, who wrapped a massive arm around me and pulled me closer to him. I let him. In spite of our earlier conflict, I was relieved by the warmth. We were going to have another intense discussion tonight, I could tell, but I tried not to let those thoughts intrude on the present debriefing. "When we finished, we split in to factions and ran here, letting the small boys guard the house here while the three of us—Sam, Quil and I—came up and checked on Jake. While we were patrolling we caught the scent of more vampires and prepared to engage in combat. The Cullens intercepted us at the same time with the news that we were about to be sieged." Embry sounded utterly nonplussed, but it had just occurred to me that almost no one here had slept in over twenty four hours, much of it spent running and fighting. I squeezed Jake's hand, mine tiny in comparison, and rose to make more food. I knew they'd need it, especially if they were planning, as Leah sounded as though she was, on making it back to La Push tonight.
"Were the vampires on their way to this cabin?"
"The Cullens weren't, I don't think; the little one could see the other vampires coming, so they were trying to reach us and ambush them at once. I think," Embry emphasized. I thought of Sam and wondered if he had had a moment to connect with all the troops. "I think this place is safe, except, of course, that it smells like us." He shrugged. "I'm not sure we can help that though."
"Everything in this corner of the state smells like us," Quil nodded. "There's nothing specific about this cabin."
"What happened when the Cullens intercepted you?" Leah pushed the conversation back to the matter at hand. Embry's brow furrowed and he spoke after a second.
"Sam wasn't skeptical of the Cullens, which was lucky, because the rest of us were—except the kids. The kids all like Alice, the little one. She approached us and told us what was happening, and Quil and I kind of shrugged it off, but Sam immediately started organizing. He sent the kids back to La Push to get you and the guys, and the big one—Emmett?—he went with them. And then we didn't get to plan much more, because we needed to fight." He looked over at me. "Alice left to protect you, Bella, and the rest of them fought by our sides until…until he carried you back here, Leah." He looked back at Leah, and waited until she spoke again.
"She said they were disorganized, which seemed pretty obvious. Still…was anyone able to count them?" She looked over at Quil, who shrugged. She frowned, then continued. "What happened once I was bitten?"
"Well," Embry heaved a sigh, "it was almost over by then. The one that got you gave all of us the most trouble, it took Sam, Jake and I almost an hour to finish him. He was very strong…almost spooky strong." Embry's dark brow lowered in thought. "When Cullen picked you up to carry you here, I almost stopped him but Sam knew you would be okay. And the little one told us there were only three more, and she knew exactly where they were. The blonde one, the male"—Jasper, I thought—"was tracking two of them back to Seattle anyway, so Sam and Jared went after him to help, and the rest of us started burning them while Jake and Seth captured the last one. The little one—"
"Alice," I interrupted, and all four of them looked at me, sighed collectively, and then the story began again.
"Alice," Embry began, meeting my eyes and graciously keeping the sarcasm he must have felt out of his tone, "told us it was over for now. She said she didn't see any other broken pairs appearing for a while, until some of the covens of the ones we'd fought figured out they weren't coming back. And," he paused, looking at me, "she said that their bonds weren't very strong, so the chances of them coming to fight us were slim."
"The coven bonds between those kinds of vampires aren't strong," I said. "Bonds between mated pairs are." Embry nodded, but I continued. "Alice and the blonde one that tracked some to Seattle are a bonded pair. His name is Jasper." Leah rolled her eyes.
"No one else here cares as much as you do, Bella," she grunted. Quil smirked, but Embry looked at Leah seriously.
"It's good to know, though. All of this is good to know, for the future." For the first time, he looked exclusively at Jake and addressed him. "None of us knew, Jake. None of understood what the consequences might be." Jacob looked back at him gratefully and nodded before lowering his head again.
"Stop doing my job, Embry," Leah snorted, and then looked at all of us with a smirk that slowly faded. "We need to get back to La Push," she said. Quil and Embry looked at Jake and I. "But I'm uncomfortable leaving the two of you alone."
"We won't be alone," Jake said. His eyes stayed on the floor.