(Disclaimer- if i owned jacob black or edward cullen.. do you honestly think i'd be sitting here writing this?)

okay, so this is a long one--well, compared to the last chapter at least. i really hope that you don't
forget what happens in the beginning!! :D and it also might be kind of stupid. i haven't figured out whether
or not i think its dumb yet. i've read and revised it a krabillion times. but anyway, read and review, please.
and thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. :) by the way, this starts off as jake's pov, then switches to bellas.
i hope that isnt confusing when you read it.
new chapter up on MANBELLA, too

Fiends

Already thirty minutes had passed and I still hadn't let go of the door handle. It was ice cold against my palm, the condensation forming beneath the heat of my skin. Its artic burn scorched me, pained me the way that the tears on her face had pained me. It took all of my strength not to give in to her pleas and keep her here.

But I had to let her go this time. I couldn't deal with the pain.

She had hurt me too many times, and now we had a child together, though he couldn't really be called that anymore. Still, I couldn't drag him into such things. He knew things about the Cullens that not many people did, things I couldn't even be sure she knew about them. Things had changed while she was gone, and they had changed drastically.

To walk into those woods with Edward was the single worst thing she could have done to us. It was flat-out betrayal.

She hadn't meant it. She didn't know.

I pinched my eyes closed with my fingertips, pressing my back against the door. Was she still standing there in the street, streaks of moisture lining her face? Was she wandering aimlessly, unable to see or breathe through all of the heaving? Had she called him yet, told him to come and rescue her like he usually did? Or was she already in his arms, safe and warm in his stupid mansion, huddled up like a broken little orphan under the careful supervision of those murdering leeches?

I would never forgive Edward for that night. Never.

The window in the kitchen clicked open and I saw Junior peek in from outside. He blinked at me, his expression expectant. Of course he'd heard all of it. Our hearing was not quite as good as our venomous enemies, but it was better than your average Joe. I knew already that Jenna had gone home. Of course he'd sent her off when the screaming had started in the living room.

"You okay?" He asked.

No, Junior. I'm not o-fucking-kay. How the hell could I ever be okay?

"Sure, sure. She's just a girl, right?" The words sounded pathetic even to me, and I made myself chuckle to take the edge off. That might have just made it worse, though. I sunk to the floor.

Two seconds later it seemed he was pulling the door open behind me, dragging me up against his chest. I felt the dampness on his shirt before I realized I was crying. He patted my head awkwardly.

"It isn't every day that I get to console you." He commented, trying to alleviate the tension. I couldn't stop shaking. The pat, pat, pat of his hand quickened, his eyebrows connecting at the center. "I don't know what to say to make it better. You waited such a long time for this." He paused, listening to my pathetic sniffles. "You know what, Dad? Forget her. She's just a stupid bitch. She didn't deserve you anyway. You just wait, you'll find somebody better, somebody pretty like Jenna, someone who—"

I grabbed him by the collar, pulling his face to mine. "Don't you ever fucking say that about your mother again, do you hear me? Not one more word about her. She is not a bitch. And I couldn't get any better even if I tried." The snarling of my words hit him harder than a bite would have, and I felt a twinge of regret when I was done. There was too much anger here. He didn't deserve this gust of fury. It wasn't his to be had.

He blinked, rocking back a little. "Sorry. Just trying to help. What else is there for me to say? That she was wonderful and you messed up? That you should have dealt with her indecisiveness and let her flickering emotions eat at you until there was nothing left but bones? You want me to tell you that you're nothing without her, that you should have just—"

"Okay. You are not helping me." I shook my head, lifted myself off of the floor and wiped my hands off on my sweatpants. Suddenly I had a migraine the size of Asia. I wanted to sleep, but more so I wanted to find her. Junior's accusations were truer than he knew, and already my heart was reacting to them in the most painful of ways. Words I recognized flitted through my thoughts: Mistake, wrong, stupid, failure.

Go find her.

I made myself sit on the couch.

"Can I get you anything?" My son asked, eyeing me as I sprawled out like a drunk after a long day of booze.

I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead, wishing I could push away the thumping in my skull, and tried to think of something witty and sarcastic to say in response. The only thing my head seemed capable of supplying me with, though, was her name. I kept my answer basic instead, replying with something simple, something that didn't require much thought. "Nope."

"Should I leave you alone, or am I helping?"

"I don't think awkward attempts at small talk are making this any easier, really."

"I'll take that as a no. Mind if I head to Jenna's?"

"Go away."

And with a slow click of the door sliding into place, he did, and I was left alone.

When the phone rang, I nearly had a seizure jumping up to reach it. Grace lost, I pushed it straight off the table and under the couch, its ring seeming to increase in volume as it hid from me. I growled in annoyance, flipping the couch over.

"Stupid piece of crap."

"Jacob?" The voice on the phone whispered, obviously hearing the last of what I'd said. I blinked for a minute.

"You're calling me?" I didn't know why I was surprised to hear her voice. I'd known it would be her—hell I'd hoped it would be her. That was why I'd flipped the couch over, wasn't it? Poisonous Bella. She was as venomous as the crap that saturated her lover's teeth. "I told you I didn't want to hear from you again. Did I speak another language? Slip into the old Quileute tongue?"

She paused for a moment, absorbing the heat in my tone. I closed my eyes, trying to cool it.

"I couldn't think of anyone else's number." She mumbled.

My face went blank at the sound of her words. She was afraid. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. My heart sped up in my chest. My fingers went numb. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"…I think I'm being followed."

"What? Where are you?"

"…I don't really know."

I clenched my teeth, aggravated. Talking to her was like pulling teeth. "How could you possibly not know where you are? Are you on the street, the woods…near his house?"

"I told you, I don't know. The woods somewhere. I couldn't really see where I was going."

I held my breath, knowing that it was my fault she hadn't been able to see. I'd made her cry so much with what I'd said. There had to have been a better way to tell her to leave. There was no need for me to be as mean as I was. I was just so angry. Still so angry. I wanted to chuck the phone.

"Why do you think you're being followed?"

"I can hear something behind me. I thought it was Kyle at first, but I'm not sure now. I saw it. Something white…and fast."

"Stupid filthy bloodsuckers," I muttered beneath my breath. "Maybe you should just tell your idiot B.F. to quit playing hide and seek already. It isn't nice of him to scare you."

"It isn't him." Bella's voice was certain as she said this, and for some reason it made me sad. I settled in on the floor, Indian-style, and wiped a hand across my face.

"You're sure?"

"I called his name, and no one answered. I think they can hear me, Jacob. I'm scared."

My heartbeat accelerated, imagining the danger she could be in. Dammit, why was she always doing this to me? I needed to forget about her, but how could I ignore this? Could I just hang up the phone, hope that Edward found her in time? Would I find her in the obituary section of the newspaper tomorrow morning if I did?

"Shit." I said, sighing. "Hang on; I'm coming to find you."

--

I pulled my sweater tighter around my waist, shivering. It'd been almost twenty minutes since Jacob hung up on me, and I still hadn't seen him. I'd thought he'd possibly howl or something to let me know he was close, but maybe he just hadn't found me yet.

What if he couldn't find me? What if he didn't make it in time?

My bottom lip trembled even when I held it between my fingers and I couldn't keep the tears from finding my face. Fear held me rooted into place, but my eyes continued to dart around as though they could possibly find something new in the dreary green woods.

I heard the sound again, a sort of snapping sound — a crackle of muffled laughter, the crunch of a twig. These were obvious sounds, intended sounds. Whoever was out here with me surely wanted me to know, wanted to taste the fear in my breath. They were taunting me, playing with my mind, increasing my heart-rate. What did they want from me? Who was this? Emmett? Jasper? Someone playing a cruel joke?

I felt the terror rise in my throat, coming up in the form of a scream.

Someone grabbed my shoulder. My mouth opened to let the fear fall out.

"Shh!" Jacob ordered, clasping his hand over my mouth. I blinked in shock, surprised to see him in his human form, and pushed myself into the safe blanket of his skin. I knew that it was a bad idea, seeing as I could almost feel the bleeding sore I'd gnawed into his chest, but I couldn't help it. I was shaking to the point of collapse. It was so cold here.

I was blubbering.

"Bella, seriously. Shut the hell up, I can't hear anything."

I buried my face into his arm, trying to do as he said. The woods felt suddenly safer with him next to me, the cold presence gone. The snapping of twigs, the horrible laughter…all of it seemed to melt away. But still, I could feel the fear, an icy hand pushed hard against my back.

"You're right. Someone's been here." He said, voice careful and hushed. I glanced up at him, eyes wide, watching him watch our surroundings. My blood seemed to curdle and cool beneath my skin. His fingers brushed against my arms, noticing the chill. "We need to leave. Now."

"Who was it, Jake?" I whispered, trying to keep up with him as he pulled me along by the hand. It was getting darker now, the sun setting up ahead, and shadows poured down around me in threatening veils. What could be hiding in those patches of dark? What had been watching me?

He paused for a moment, throwing a glimpse over his shoulder at my face. His jaw was tight, eyes narrow. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"No, Bella. I don't know."

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"I don't need this now, Bells." He warned me, voice sharp. "Whatever that was…it was definitely not human. And my nose stings, so I'm guessing it was a fiend of the bloodsucking variety. You may have been wrong to call me, but you were right to call for help either way. The scent of that thing is all over you. It must've gotten close."

My mouth popped open and my feet stuck to the ground. A horrible chill rattled my teeth.

He looked back at me, his eyes as black as the shadows neighboring him. When his stare met mine, his face softened just a little bit, and his hand became gentle against my skin. "Bells, we really need to keep moving. I don't know what that leech wanted from you, and I don't think we should wait to find out. There isn't much I can do to save you—to save us—in my human form."

I swallowed hard, noticing the distinction he had made, changing his words from "you" to "us" so it would seem as though he wasn't worried only about me. He was trying to make his feelings clear. Trying to let me know that his feelings for me were clear—they were see-through. Imaginary. He was through with me.

I bit my lip.

"I'm scared." I admitted, shuffling to his side. "What would it want from me?"

"Who knows?" Jacob shrugged, voice sour. His eyes were on the ground again, away from my face. My chest hurt, the same kind of scorching ache you get after running for hours in the cold. My throat felt dry.

"And it wasn't a scent you recognized? Not…one of them?"

His hand tightened on mine, angrily. He grinded his teeth. "Nope."

My lips parted to apologize once more, a reflex, but I pushed them together again quickly. Jacob didn't care for my apologies. He just wanted to be left alone. I had to remember that.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked quietly after a moment.

"Where do you think?"

I paused, considering. Even when I'd come up with a plausible response, one that was probably exactly where he was taking me, I couldn't muster the courage to say it out loud. "I don't know." I mumbled instead.

He snorted, not buying into my forged oblivion. "To him." He said.

I knew that he would say that, and that knowledge, that feeling of neglect…it cut deeper than any set of nonexistent fangs could ever have managed.

I swallowed hard, lowering my eyes to watch my feet, and let a few silent tears slide down my cheeks.

I love you, Jacob, I thought. But I didn't dare say it aloud.

Without even so much as a glance at my face, Jacob sighed. "Why are you crying?" He demanded, voice gruff. I didn't understand how he could possibly have known I was crying. He hadn't even looked at me, and I wasn't making any noise.

"I'm not," I tried, but my voice was obscured with tears.

He stopped in place, turning to look at me, his face exasperated. "What do you want from me Bella? What? Do you want me to personally rip my own heart right out of my chest and hand it over to you, let you dance on it until it's just a bloody little splotch tainting your fucking party shoes?"

"I don't have any party shoes…" I mumbled. He glared at me.

"What the hell do you want from me?"

My chin quivered. I lowered my head, unsure if I could speak, but tried anyway. "I just want—"

A large white figure came flying out of nowhere, crashing into us with the weight of an eight-wheeler truck. Jacob smashed into a tree twenty yards away, grunting in pain. I heard a sickening crackle resound from my right arm, my other feebly trying to push the boulder off of my chest.

I was pinned to the ground.

"Get off of me!" I screeched, kicking futilely at the vampire. His cold white hands held hard to my wrists, a menacing grin on his mouth. His eyes were alive with blood and his black hair blew wildly in the breeze. He was stronger than I could ever have imagined. Stronger maybe even than Emmett. I couldn't breathe.

"Jacob," I wheezed, trying to search for him. My eyes found his body, so far from me, limp and unmoving. He seemed to be unconscious. My fingers burned for his.

The vampire above me chuckled, toying with my hair, sliding a finger past my cheek. "Well looky here," He mused, snickering with delight. "It seems I've found myself a little treat. And Bella Swan, of all people!" The joy was blatant on his face, a sadistic show of glee. His eyes lusted for my death. Tears fell down my face, seeming to make his grin grow even wider.

"Of course it will be a waste," He continued in a murmur, dripping cold fingers down my neck. "Such beautiful blood as yours is meant to be satisfying, meant to be savored. And I can't even have you. Hm…"

My eyebrows joined in confusion, my breathing rapid and loud. My ribs hurt. I wanted to scream. Get off me! Get off! I had no voice left.

"I'm sure they'll reward me, however. Who'd have guessed I would find you so easily? Didn't anyone ever tell you to stay away from the woods at night? Why, I'm sure someone must have. Edward, maybe?" His red eyes glinted with pleasure when I gasped.

Who was this person? This monster?

When my breathing quickened, I coughed a little, a horrifying pain twisting in my chest in response, and blood trickled from my mouth. I watched in terror as the vampire's eyes zeroed in on the splotch of burgundy, hunger replacing all else in his face. I screeched soundlessly as he leaned in for the kill, possessed by his need.

And then we were attacked.

He rolled away from me, a tumbleweed of white marble skin and russet fur. My eyes darted over to where Jacob had been, tracing the ground for his human body, but they saw nothing. I blinked in fear, looking back at the giant wolf as he tore away from the monster. Jacob was fighting this thing alone, and surely he could not win.

I couldn't lose Jacob. I just couldn't.

As if conjured by my terrorized thoughts, two more wolves sprung out from the shady trees, flanking Jacob on either side. One, whom I was almost positive was Leah, automatically drew in close, nipping at the cold vampire's appendage. Her teeth caught flesh, ripping away a forearm. The metallic grating sound scratched its way into my ears, and I slapped a hand over them, trying to protect my head from the noise.

I watched in a daze as the wolves finished the man off, Jacob going in for the aorta at the last second. The head plopped down by my feet, but I couldn't even move away from it. The pain was eating away at my center and shoulder, pulling me toward unconsciousness. I felt as though I might pass out.

"Go!" Jacob ordered his pack, suddenly human again. "Bring the pieces back and burn them!" His voice drifted in and out as he continued, reminding them to get each and every shred of flesh, to not leave one piece behind.

I was floating.

"Bella," He whispered above me moments later. I didn't respond. My mouth tasted of rust and salt. Blood dribbled past my chin. "Dammit, Bells." He growled fervently, brushing at my hair. So gently, he lifted me from the ground, careful not to disrupt what felt like a shattered rib and my obviously broken arm. His lips brushed mine sweetly, and I couldn't help the part of me that was alert enough to be happy about it. As much pain as I was in, this would definitely bring Jacob back to me, at least for a little while. He couldn't just leave me like this, could he?

Blinking sleepily, I smiled at him, hoping to receive a smile back. "You always did wear your birthday suit pretty nicely," I complimented with a laugh, referring to his state of undress. I could see the remaining shreds of his sweatpants lying on the ground behind him.

He rolled his eyes, smiling a little. "Stop being a weirdo," He said to me.

As my eyes slipped closed, Jacob's hand smoothed back my hair, his lips at my hairline. The waves of coma continued to lap at me, pulling me away from him. It was so hard to stay there.

"Killing me." I heard him whisper, so quietly I could have just imagined it.

And then it all faded into black.

(author's note: did anyone notice anything they'd like to question that happened in the beginning of this chapter??)