9. LUV

His eyes didn't leave me. My eyes were practically glued to his. I could the feel the intensity burning off of his eyes, smoldering into me. Melting me.

His dark form moved slightly as he prepared to stand. I tried to breathe.

Alice was gone before he had time to move. I turned in my seat, sitting up and getting the stupid blanket off of me. I turned back to him, and his eyes were exactly like melted onyx.

He slowly stood up. A smile was making its way across his face as he took three steps towards me. Those three steps got him to the couch before I had time to react.

Then Jacob, my Jacob, was beside me, on his knees, his dark brown eyes burning holes in my head.

And his hand was on my face. His skin was warmer than it had ever been. His eyes were bright with something I had never seen. His face looked so much younger... like it had when he was much younger. Exactly like it had before.

His lips were open in a kind of wonder, like he was staring into the eyes of God, and the edges were turned up into a bit of a smile. Jacob's long black hair was tied back into a ponytail. I reached up, my hand shaking, to touch his flawless face. The warmth was tremendous.

His hand moved from my cheek to the back of my head. I realized that I couldn't breathe.

His smile grew until his perfect, white teeth were glowing.

"Seth..." he whispered. It was the first thing he had said to me since he had found out.

I tried to breathe again, my breath shaking.

"Jacob," I whispered, trembling.

This moment could have lasted forever. It should have lasted forever. Jacob's hand moved again, to my neck now. The warming sensation from his hand was enough to stop my breathing again. His eyes were so different now. I could feel that his whole life had shifted entirely today. His entire being had shifted.

"Can we take a walk?" he asked quietly, practically mouthing the words.

The muscles of my face stretched into a wider smile. Then I bit my lip, blushed deep red, and nodded.

My angel took my hand in his. His warm, russet skin was amazingly warm. And I held his hand back. I had been waiting so long for this.

I felt like a child seeing the moon for the very first time. I was suddenly the younger, happier Seth I used to be. He was mine. And every single part of me, my soul, was his.

He stood up, pulling me gently with him. He was about a foot and a few inches taller than me. The distance between our faces didn't change the way his eyes melted into mine. Hand in hand, we walked through the living room, past the Cullens and the others, out the back door, and around the pool. My Jacob pulled me towards the forest.

He intertwined our fingers when we got to the edge of the forest, and began walking slowly. We stepped in unison. Our heartbeats were synchronized now, and both of our hearts were raging with absolute burning love. I doubted that we would ever let go of each other's hands.

It was still nighttime, but we kept walking anyway. Darkness didn't stand in our way. Nothing could.

Jacob and I walked until we were to the river. The water rushed slowly past us in the middle of the forest. Jacob sat down on the ground and crossed his legs. He never let go of my hand. I followed suit, sitting directly across from him so that I could stare at him.

He spoke, his voice soft and real.

"Well," he began, his eyes still bearing down into mine. He paused and bit his lip, looking at me with admiration. The older boy laughed.

I smiled and bit my lip too. I didn't want to screw anything up.

His finger was running all across my hand, like he was drawing something. He was still biting his lip, like he was at a loss for words.

I was definitely speechless. Jacob loved me. I had no idea what I could say.

He reached towards me. His warm, soft hand ran across my thick black hair down to my cheek again, and he sighed, his lips parted again in some kind of wonder.

I reached for the big, soft hand on my cheek and held it there. His smile grew wider yet. He tried again to speak.

"Everything's gonna be a whole lot different now," he said, still quiet. He was just as nervous as I was. "Isn't it?"

I sighed, half-smiling when I answered.

"I think so," I replied. Then I went on, whispering. "I didn't plan this, Jake, any of it."

His eyes met mine, and they looked so earnest.

"Neither did I," he said, tracing on my hand again. "Turning gay wasn't exactly on my to-do list today."

He laughed a bit, sheepishly. I smiled and laughed quietly.

Then I sighed heavily.

"Poor Renesmee," I said. Even though I knew she was happy now, I couldn't help but feel terrible.

"She's okay," he said, biting his lip a little. "She has Nahuel now."

He paused, and placed my hand on his chest. There, under the heated, hard muscle I could feel his heartbeat, in sync with mine.

"And you have me," he said, his voice thick with truth.

I let that sink in for a second. But something else smacked my brain sideways before I could think.

"Oh crap," I said, closing my eyes.

"What?" he said, getting to his knees in front of me. "Are you hurting? Is one of your ribs-"

"No, no, Jake, I'm fine."

He got back to his seating position, looking at me worriedly.

"School." I said, finally, opening my eyes. "School's tomorrow."

His face turned blank. He looked away from me before quickly replying.

"Oh... I don't care. We don't have to go-"

"Jake, you're a senior, they're bound to give you something important-"

He stopped be, placing his too-soft hand on my cheek again.

"I'll be just fine."

I tried to breathe again, but he was making it a little difficult.

Then he knocked the wind out of me.

"Seth... I love you, and I don't care who knows."

My face went blank, but then I smiled.

"I've loved you since the day of your birthday party. I've loved you so much. And if anyone thinks I care if they know, or care what they think, then they can go to-"

His lips were on mine then.

My mind went cloudy. Both of our eyes closed, and my arms were around his neck. His warm, big hand was on the back of my head, holding me too him as if he thought I could disappear any second. I didn't breathe, I couldn't. His lips opened mine so softly I might not have noticed if his warm, sweet breath hadn't been suddenly inside me. I held him there tighter, kissing him with everything I could. There was no reason to hold back. For all I knew, he could disappear.

Then I practically tackled him. My body reacted quickly, and I slowly released my lips' hold on his. His eyes were surprised, but they were happy, light, and very, very warm.

I rolled off of him, breathing again.

"I'm sorry," I gasped, trying to force my abused lungs to work again.

"Don't be," he said, holding me to his big, muscled chest. "I wish you hadn't stopped."

For the first time, I wrapped my arms around him.

"Is this going to be hard?" I asked. When he looked confused, I clarified. "Being...together and all?"

He was silent for a few seconds, and blinked.

"Probably," Jacob said. I could hear the worry in his tone.

"And the pack... what do they think?" I knew the answer before I asked.

"They... well, Leah thought it was funny," he replied, scoffing at Leah's name. "The younger ones are pretty confused. Jared was kinda stunned. Sam already knew. Quil and Embry don't really mind."

I sighed and held him closer. The temperature was cold, but the heat of our skin kept us warm. We could lay like this in a blizzard and I wouldn't care.

"School's gonna suck," he said huskily.

"I know," I sighed. "But I'll be happy tomorrow if I get to keep you with me."

"We don't have to go to school tomorrow if you don't want to, Seth," he said, stroking my chin bone softly.

I pondered this for a second, biting my lip again. I didn't really want to, but what if Jacob misses something important? But... if Jake and I held hands (or something like that) in public... I flinched imagining the taunting. Or maybe they wouldn't. Maybe Jacob's mere size would be enough to keep them away.

"No one will make fun of us, you know," I said, smiling slyly.

"And why's that?" he said, eyebrows furrowing.

"They'd be too afraid you'd squish them with one hand," I clarified, taking hold of his hand.

He held my hand tighter than I could hold his.

"I'm not afraid of being bullied," he said, chuckling at the idea of it. "I just thought you might want to be with me longer."

He sat us both up, and he leaned back against a tree.

"I know I want to be with you longer," he continued dreamily.

The way he said it made me want to kiss him in a surprise attack, but I didn't, I just smiled and blushed deep red.

"How did you do it?" he asked. It sounded almost mysterious.

I tilted my head to the side.

"How did I do what?" I countered.

"Keep it a secret from me, from everyone, for so long?"

"Well, it wasn't easy... I had to practically break my eardrums every night."

He blinked and raised his eyebrows.

"Uh... what does that mean?"

"My mp3 player. Every night I sat in my room, and listened to music. I made sure that I listened to it so loud and so much that when I phased, I would have the song stuck in my head, instead of..." I stopped before continuing. "Instead of you..."

This time, he blushed. I had only seen him blush once or twice. This was so deep red that I could see it underneath his deep russet-colored skin.

The sudden pooling of blood made me smirk and bite my lip.

"I slipped up a few times though. You're-" I stopped. I had almost said You're just too hot not to think about. "You're just too amazing for me to keep out of my mind."

He blushed again. I was fighting the urge again to kiss him insanely. Jake turned his head towards the river, watching the dark water rush by us.

"It was hard at first. Well, really it never got any better," I explained. "That week after your birthday was the worst. I really was sick for a while, but I didn't have a book report to do. I made that up. I was trying to stay away from you. It hurt. It felt like a million knives was being plunged into my heart. Like I was dying. I guess the old stories weren't lying when they said it was painful for you to be away from your soulmate."

He frowned.

"It would've been too hard for you to talk to me like nothing had happened, right?" Jake asked, looking at me.

"Yeah," I sighed.

He slumped his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Seth," he said, grieved. "If I had known..."

He stopped. He knew exactly what would have happened.

"If I had known... I wouldn't have understood."

He closed his eyes and put his hands on his face.

"I would've been a total jerk," Jacob groaned.

"No! You would've thought about it, realized how I felt..." I said. "And then you would have been a jerk."

I hugged him tighter as he leaned back against the tree, laughing. I laughed with him.

I wanted to kiss him again, wanted to so badly that I wondered if this is what thirst was like for a vampire.

My body acted on its own. I leaned up slowly and cautiously. I brushed my lips softly against his. He closed his eyes. Then my lips locked softly with his lips. This kiss was better than the first. His lips moved slowly on mine. I closed my eyes as well as he wrapped his arms around my neck.

This was something I had secretly longed for ever since the day of the birthday party. I wanted this more than anything.

Him.

My lips parted his. His warm breath filled my being again, saturated my soul.

Then Jacob stopped, and pulled away. My eyes clicked open. His face was turned away from me. His eyes were afraid, and wary.

He hopped to his feet, sudden tremors racking his being.

Then I smelled it.

The Volturi.

Violent vibration shook through my back and I jumped to my feet. Jacob phased suddenly.

His clothes blew around me in tiny shreds before the russet wolf I knew so well exploded from his being.

The vampires were there before I could phase.

The white-haired Caius was standing on a tree limb, his grin malevolent. Beneath him were two that I didn't recognize. Two of Aro's new pets.

And I couldn't phase.

"Strange feeling, isn't it?" Caius said. His voice was rough, like I remembered it, and evil. "You can thank my newest friend, Hallie, for that."

He gestured to the blonde vampire under him.

I turned to Jacob, and grabbed onto him, for no reason other than to be near him.

But he was cold. Ice cold.

I jerked back and gasped.

"Oh, and that would be Gregory's doing, I'm afraid," he said, feigning apologetics. Then Caius laughed before bounding lightly to the ground between the two other vampires.

I was helpless. My eyes were wide with terror at the vampires that stood twelve feet in front of me. My lungs had stopped working, and I knew I was alone. Jacob. He was frozen solid, his wolf face stuck in a mask of terror and hatred.

"This should be fun," Caius continued, his voice truthful. It would be fun: for him. "And I promise, you won't feel a thing." His voice was full of falsities. "Of course, we better hope your other wolf friends don't show up. That wouldn't be any fun at all. Or any of those damn Cullens. But I really would like to see them stop me from ripping you to pieces, wolf boy."

Just as Caius began to step towards me, he and his "friends" jerked their heads sharply aside-

-right before Quil's chocolate brown wolf form suddenly tore Gregory's head from his shoulders.

Quil, Iliana, and Jared were there then, ripping Gregory to pieces. Caius and Halle leapt suddenly high into the trees.

At the same moment that Jacob came back to life, a pale, dark-headed boy, about sixteen by the looks of him, appeared from the bushes. Fire exploded from his hands.

"Benjamin!" I yelled. It made me feel weird that I was the only vulnerable person here.

And then the remains of Gregory set aflame, purple smoke erupting from the ashes forming around his broken body.

"Damn!"Caius screamed from high above us, and it still sounded like music.

The other wolves moved away from the fire, and started to jump up at Caius and Hallie, who were far to high up to reach, and there weren't any branches to climb to get to them.

Then, I suddenly phased. I ripped apart into a sandy-colored wolf, and instantly heard the thoughts of the others.

Yes! One down! Quil was exuberant.

Yeah, a million to go. Iliana was furious.

Hurry! Get them! Jared yelled.

The two vampires had ran off through the trees. They were slower there than on the ground, and broke many limbs as they jumped.

Toward the Cullen's house.

Hurry! Jacob was using his Alpha tone, but thoughts of me were lingering at the edge of his mind. We can't let them beat us back! Go! Now!

And we all ran suddenly, and Benjamin was right behind us. How Benjamin got here, I had no idea, but we had to save the others first.

The house appeared within seconds. We had beat Caius and Hallie, but barely. We all turned to face them, right in front of the pool. They were standing in the trees about 30 feet up and 40 feet away.

And then they were gone.

Gone to get more, I bet, Sam barked, suddenly appearing from the trees with the rest of the pack.

Let's hope their just scared, Paul and Michael thought nearly in unison.

The Cullens and the other vampires were with us soon, looking deep into the forest.

"Caius is going to wait a little longer, I think," Edward said, his tone venomous. He must have wanted to end it today. "You all need to phase back now. We need to start making plans."

We all phased back, including Jake and I, who needed new clothes since we phased without taking them off. Leah made a rude comment on the fact that we needed clothes, and I all but ripped her freaking throat out.

When we were all phased, we went inside the house. Plans were desperately needed now.

I saw now how many we had. The Egyptian vampires, excluding Amun and Kebi, of course, were here now, along with Peter and Charlotte. The four additions to our band of freedom fighters greeted the pack warmly, especially Benjamin and Charlotte, who both liked us very well.

When we got in, Carlisle and Emmett were silently making us food. It was still late though. Jacob and I had only been in the forest for almost an hour. Although it had seemed like hours.

We all scattered around the huge living room and dining area, those who would eat blending in with those who didn't feel the need to.

Jacob and I sat together in silence, throwing smiles at each other every two seconds. We were sitting beside Tia Benjamin, who I had become good friends of last time he was here. Renesmee and Nahuel were sitting not far away with us, but they soon moved closer, making conversation with us as if nothing had passed between us. Renesmee obviously felt no hard feelings, and she seemed just as happy as she had ever been. She and Nahuel were a bit of an odd couple, but it was sweet seeing them together.

Michael, Gary, Ricky, Warren, Steven, Iliana, and Chris, the seven younger wolves, each one of them younger than twelve, were sitting in the corner. They were very silent and very afraid. Kate, Garrett, and Tanya were sitting with them, trying to keep them happy. I noticed that Garrett's eyes were no longer red like they were before, but the same butterscotch as the two vampire's he sat beside.

"I think we have a shot of winning this," Nahuel was saying. He showed no signs of doubt, but I supposed that after living one-hundred-and-fifty years, you would be good at masking your emotions.

"You better be right," Rosalie and Emmett said in unison. Rosalie sat rigidly on the couch, but Emmett was calm beside her, casually flicking through the channels on the TV.

"If the rest of them have powers like that Gregory guy, or that other one, Hallie," Alice said, still tense from being so blinded here. "Then I don't know about that."

"Don't say that, Alice!" Renesmee said, her voice dripping with hope. "We have a chance!"

"A slim chance," Leah muttered from under her breath.

"So?" Renesmee continued. "A chance is a chance! And I think we will win!"

Her hopefulness was becoming contagious. I could almost feel every heart in the room lighten, at least a little bit.

I wondered how the room felt to Jasper.

Jacob reached over subtly and took hold of my hand in his hand.

I smiled at him again.

"You're right, Ness," I said. "There really is hope."

Jacob squeezed my hand lightly and smiled.

Everyone was quieter for a little while, but the rooms were still filled with activity. Before long, Zafrina of the Amazonians was sitting with us, chatting with Nessie. Carlisle and Esmé were talking to Bella, Alice, Edward, and Jasper, probably beginning to make plans before they had a mass meeting with all of us.

Jacob and I talked while we had a few moments to us.

"You really do think we have a prayer, don't you?" Jacob said, his hand on my knee.

"Absolutely," I replied, nodding my head in a matter-of-fact way. "It's a far shot, but I know it's there, like Nessie said."

I leaned over and put my head on his shoulder.

He leaned his head on mine.

"You are freaking amazing, Seth, you know that?" he said. I laughed a little. "I never noticed anything about you for real before. And I know why you were so different after my party. Is that going to change?"

"Is what going to change?" I asked.

"Are you going to be the Seth I used to know?" he asked, turning to look at me.

I paused and smiled before answering.

"Exactly like him," I said. "But one thing is going to be different."

His eyebrows pushed together. "And what's that?"

"I get to keep you," I laughed.

I didn't even notice we were leaning toward each other until we were an inch away.

Then the front doors of the house flew open. Jacob's head, and mine, shot toward the door. Every person stood up in the room, suddenly ready to massacre our visitor. Gasps shot through everybody in the room. I knew the smell instantly.

Everyone, vampire, werewolf, or vampire-hybrid, stared at our visitor.

He had windswept, rain-soaked raven hair that was cropped short. His eyes were clouded red and frenzied. The visitor showed no sign of ill-will.

His name was whispered from many lips across the rooms.

"I bring grave news from the Seattle coven," the man said. I knew the voice.

Marcus of the Volturi.