CHAPTER FOUR

STRANGER

Jacob drove us all the way to his house and parked in his garage.

I got off the bike swiftly and handed him the helmet, "Okay, talk."

Jacob looked nervous, "I'm sorry."

I looked at him expectantly and raised my eye brows, "For?" I crossed my arms with attitude and waited.

Jacob sighed, "For not explaining to you what happened. For trying to fight... this."

I shrugged, "I'm trying to fight it too. I told you that you deserve more. And I meant it. Not Bella. Not me. Better."

He looked at me like I was crazy, "What's better than you?" He stepped closer to me. "You're smart, beautiful. You can kick ass. You've been through so much and you still put up with more. You don't take my shit but you're nice about it. And you have a temper that keeps me on my toes. You're perfect."

When he stepped even closer to me, I took a step back, "I'm far from perfect, Jacob. You need to realize that now so you have a chance."

"A chance at what?" Jacob snapped, "A chance at life without you? A miserable life?"

I shook my head, "You were fine without me when you had Bella. You'll be fine without me now."

Jacob almost flinched at the mention of Bella. I knew he wasn't over her. "Bella …" He sighed, "I thought whatever I felt for her was love. But it was novelty. And it wore off. Like you said it would. But you..."

I averted my eyes so they wouldn't meet his.

"You're different. You're my imprint. I never should have fought it. Those weeks without you were the hardest of my life. I was just being stupid. I didn't want to be forced to love you," he sighed.

"And you shouldn't be," I agreed.

"I'm not," Jacob said, "I already loved you. I just never saw it. When we were at prom together... and you were in my arms. You were so beautiful that night. And I never wanted to let you go. And then on your birthday, you were so happy and carefree. We heard that song on the radio and everything felt right. I spent almost a month carving your earrings... you're still wearing them."

My hands shot up to my ears, feeling the small wooden wolves.

"I was going to kiss you that night. For some reason the urge took over me and I couldn't stop it. But I chickened out and kissed your cheek."

My hands slowly fell to my sides as I whispered, almost to myself, "I almost kissed you that night, too."

Jacob looked happy to hear that, "So don't you understand? I was already in love with you. It isn't the imprint forcing me to feel this way. It's just pulling my head out of my ass and showing me what's been in front of me all this time."

He stood right in front of me now and I was still looking down. He put his hands on my face and held it up to look at him, "It's always been you."

I sighed, closing my eyes to let a tear fall out, "It's not that simple, Jacob. I'm with Tyler."

At the mention of my boyfriend, Jacob started shaking. He took a step back, cautious of me standing so close to him while he was angry.

"You shouldn't be with him," He growled.

I was mad. Who did he think he was? "Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to be jealous? You don't get to spend years chasing after Bella and then turn around and get jealous of the guy I've been with in the mean time. I'm not your property."

Jacob glared back at me, "You don't belong with him. You don't even like him."

I crossed my arms... but I couldn't deny it. Lately I had felt myself gradually distancing myself from Tyler.

Jacob went on, "You're just with him because he's safe. You don't care about him so he can't hurt you. You're using him to hide from real love. From me."

"I was with Tyler long before you imprinted on me."

"But the only reason you're still with him is because you're scared of what you feel for me. You feel it too. You felt it at prom. And on your birthday. And all the times in between. But you're using Tyler to ignore it. Because you're scared of getting hurt."

Again. I couldn't deny it.

"I'm scared too," Jacob admitted. I looked up at him, surprised. "That's why I fought it. I was scared that my feelings for you were too intense. They were out of my control and I hated being out of control. I was scared and I ran away."

I turned slightly away from him, afraid I was going to burst into tears. Jacob was right behind me as he whispered, "I'm not scared anymore. The only thing I want... is you."

I shook my head, tears falling freely, "Jake, I – I'm with-"

"I know." I heard him whisper. "But I'm going to fight for you."

That night I went to sleep. I was so exhausted, mentally, physically, and emotionally that it was took its toll and I fell right to sleep when I came home.

I was running. I wasn't chasing after the bat, the wolf or Jasper. I wasn't running after anything. I was running from something. I was panting heavily and my legs felt like they were going to fall off. But I kept running and I never looked back.

I heard a rush of wind to my side and whipped over to look, stopping completely. I heard another rush of wind and something hit my arm. It flung me back a few feet and there was a huge slice in my arm. I screamed out in pain. I slapped my hand on my arm to stop the bleeding.

I got up on my feet and started running again. I ran, now looking for one of the guys. They said they would protect me.

I don't know how long I ran for. But when I got to a small clearing I saw her.

Victoria.

Draining my wolf.

"NO!" I screamed and ran towards her. She stood swiftly and next thing I knew, she was in a tree, grinning down at me. My wolf's blood dripped down her chin as she snarled at me, "You took someone I love. I took someone you love."

With that she was gone.

Tears flooded my eyes by gallons as I lifted my wolf's head onto my lap, "Please be okay."

Suddenly the wolf started moving, changing – phasing. When he was human, I saw his face.

Jacob.

"No! Jake!" I screamed harder. His skin was so pail, his eyes closed. His was barely breathing and when I felt for a pulse, it was faint. There were two large puncture marks in his neck, and they were still bleeding.

I lightly slapped his face, trying to wake him up, "Come on, Jake. You're stronger than this. Just open your eyes."

He didn't.

"He's gone." I looked up at saw Victoria – all cleaned up – and she grinned, "You couldn't save him."

I locked eyes with her as her lips lifted up into a snarl as she crouched, "You couldn't even save yourself."

With that she lunged at me, teeth bared.

I woke up screaming. But this time when I woke up, I kept screaming. My legs thrashed on my bed, trying to disentangle myself from the sheets.

Bella rushed into my room and saw me. She grabbed my shoulders and made me look at her, "Callie, calm down. It was just a dream. It was just a bad dream."

I stopped screaming and gulped for air, "She killed him. She- I couldn't save him... no! He can't die. He can't. He can't die."

Bella brought me into her arms and rubbed my back like a mother would, "It's okay. Who are you talking about?"

I started sobbing, "Victoria. She killed Jacob."

I felt Bella tense. But she relaxed for me and shh'd me, "Jacob's fine. Victoria's not going to hurt him. Or you. I promise."

I kept sobbing into her shoulder for maybe an hour. When I was done she pulled away to grab a Kleenex from my night stand and helped me clean my face up. I took deep breaths to calm myself down.

Bella sighed, "You really do love Jacob."

I looked at her and shook my head, "No."

Bella rolled her eyes, "You can't fool me. You two have been in love with each other way before phasing and imprinting came into the picture. You just need to realize it."

"No, Bella. I can't... If I let myself fall for him, he'll have so much power over me. And he could use that power to break me. No one has had that power before. To completely and totally destroy me. I can't let that happen." I wiped at the new tears on my face.

Bella leaned forward, "You can't let that stop you. It's true that if you let Jacob in, you could get hurt. But you could also be so happy. He really loves you. He always has. He'd do anything – be anything for you. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you. If you don't take this chance to be with him, you'll regret it forever."

She took a deep breath, "I know I haven't been a good sister or friend to you and Jacob. I hurt you both because of my selfishness and I'm truly sorry for that. But I can see that you and Jake belong together. You deserve the chance to make each other happy. He's willing."

Just then Edward walked in, "We have to go see my family."

So that's how I ended up at the Cullen's house near midnight. Edward was frustrated and pacing. Alice looked stressed. All the Cullens had pitch black eyes. They weren't feeding enough.

"No, Alice – it was a stranger. I didn't recognize his scent," Edward paused, "That's not helpful, Rosalie."

I groaned in frustration, "Could you guys please talk out loud?"

"Sorry," Rosalie murmured.

"A nomad passing through?" Esme suggested.

"A passer-by wouldn't have left Bella and Callie's father alive," Rosalie said.

Bella looked chilled at the realization of how close Dad can to being vampire chow. Esme wrapped an arm around her and Jasper came into the room, "His scent disappeared about five miles south of their house."

"Someone orchestrated this," Edward revealed.

"It was Victoria," I said, "It had to be."

"It has to be the Volturi," Edward said.

"Checking to see if I've been changed?" Bella asked.

"I don't think it was the Volturi," Alice interrupted, "I've been watching Aro's decisions."

"So we need to find this vampire," I said.

"We also need to take shifts at your house," Carlisle said.

"Another protection detail?" Rosalie asked.

"Rosalie," Esme chastised.

"She's right," Bella broke in, "You can't watch over us, and search for the intruder, and for Victoria, and keep yourselves fed. When's the last time any of you hunted?"

"I'm not about to let you fend for yourself," Edward said.

"And I'm not about to let you starve," Bella shot back.

She stopped when she got an idea.

Edward looked wary, "...What?"

"We can go..." she trailed off, shooting a glance at me.

It was my turn to grow wary, "Go where?"

So there it is! What's gonna happen? Dun, dun, duuuuun.

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