13. Vampire Weekend

Jacob POV

It was hard being away from Bella and the baby- babies, as I didn't want to exclude her brother or sister. I wanted more than anything to leave this hunting trip to make sure she was okay but my job was here, at least for now.

How did Sam manage this? How did he manage to lead a pack and still balance his time with Emily? I had seen it in his head how it pained him the first few times when Emily had told Sam to stay away from her, how much he wanted to die after hurting her but he couldn't even do that without permission and I had seen Sam's constant need of needing to be with her even while out on patrols. Of course it got easier when they finally were together. Sam had felt confident enough to leave Emily whenever his wolf duties called since he knew she'd want him back.

'You can go home and check on them if you want' said Quil

'Yeah we'll manage this,' said Embry.

Bella was safe, that was enough for now. It was enough to put my mind at ease to continue the mission.

'Let's keep going,' I said as we continued to follow the vampire stink.

We continued on well into Friday night and into all day Saturday. It annoyed me that we couldn't cross our old Quileute lands. Sure Sam and his boys had a handle on his end but it would have been more productive if we could share the lands. The leeches must have caught on to this as they were constantly crisscrossing between the lines.

Come Saturday night we still had not been able to catch them but we had other concerns as we heard two new minds enter the pack collective.

'Leah?' we all thought at once.

This had us very confused. Never in the history of the packs had there been a girl before.

We could hear Leah's ragging thoughts as well as Seth's from a different perspective.

Leah and their mom had been arguing, Leah began shaking as was a natural occurrence before the first phase and as a result Harry had suffered a heart attack. The chaos triggered Seth's own transformation but he seemed calmer than Leah. Sue was still working to revive Harry when Leah left the house, breaking through a window in order to get out. Seth stayed.

We could hear Leah running around in the woods, her mind a jumbled mess.

'Go find Leah,' I said to my boys, 'I'm gonna go check on Sue and Seth.'

'No way!' Embry shouted, 'She's Sam's problem. Let him deal with her.'

'Sam will just order her away anyways,' said Quil.

Though Quil was still new to our pack and hadn't been around to run with Sam he did have our memories and our memories of Sam's memories. One of the curses from the pack mind.

'Not if he's smart and wants the numbers,' I said to them.

'Poaching for wolves,' said Embry, 'This isn't weird at all.'

Quil and Embry took off while I headed in the other direction to the Clearwater house. Sue was considered a neutral person to be around but I wasn't sure how Sam felt about the rest of the Clearwater's. As much as I was going to check on Seth, I was also going for Sue.

I could hear Leah's anger and wails as she heard in Seth's mind that Harry had died. Seth was saddened but nowhere near level Leah was experiencing.

Regardless of the rivalry between me and Sam, the Clearwater's needed the tribal community now more than ever.

As I got closer to the house I could still hear Seth. He was at a standstill inside the small living room in wolf form. Form his thoughts I could see Sam standing in human form.

Great.

Pual and Jared weren't around so odds are they had been ordered to look for Leah too.

I phased human. Today I was grateful for the length of string around my ankle that held my shorts.

As I got there the paramedics were all ready wheeling Harry's lifeless body on a gurney shrouded in a black cover.

"Sue," I called out as I made my way inside. Sue looked up and smiled weakly at me. She left Sam's side.

"I'm so sorry," I said as I hugged her.

"Thank you for coming Jacob. I really appreciate it."

I nodded. "It's the least I could do." I looked over at the light tanned wolf, his coat somehow resembling my own. "Hey Seth." He nodded. "You're going to be okay." I turned to Sue, "is there anything I can do?"

"Find Leah," Sue replied.

"My guys are all ready on it. Anything else?"

"Take care of Seth."

I was confused. I looked at Seth and then at Sam.

"He's made his choice," said Sam. "He's chosen to follow you."

I continued to look at Sam. The only way he could have known that was if he had read Seth's mind. Given the now extra space from the broken couch Sam most likely had phased. Since Seth was still in wolf form Sam had to communicate somehow. I'd been so lost in my own head that I'd failed to pay attention to that particular conversation.

"You don't have to follow me Seth," I said to the kid. "Sam's probably a better leader than I am anyways."

Seth shook his head to indicate 'no' and nudged his head on my arm.

"Okay do what you want." I turned to Sue. "Do you need any help with anything, funeral arrangements?"

"That's real kind of you Jacob but I'll be okay. Sam and Emily are going to help with those."

I nodded and agreed. Sam had a tendency to handle adult situations better than any of us.

"Tell Bella I'll come see her when I can."

I waved her off. "Don't even worry about Bella right now. Since the ultrasound doesn't work," I caught a glimpse of disgust on Sam's face but ignored it, "there's very little you can do. And I'm sure she'd want you to take care of yourself and your family."

Sue nodded and smiled.

"Seth, you think you can calm down enough to where you can phase back? I doubt your mom would be too happy if you broke her front door or shattered the rest of her window."

Seth looked at me with a baffled look on his face. This was his first phase of course he didn't know how to phase back.

"Right. Seth, close your eyes and concentrate. Try to feel the magic that was born in you. It's like- it's like the ripple motion when you throw a stone into a puddle of water and the air whispers around it, all in a series of waves. There will come a moment and you'll feel it, let that moment ripple down."

I could see that Seth was taking my advice. With another second he returned human on his hands and knees. Like the rest of us he would come to a point where he could phase upright.

"Welcome back, bro."

When he stood Seth noticed he was completely naked.

"Gah mom!" he said using his hands to cover his balls.

Sue and I smiled but Sam stood stoic. I reached down for a blanket that had been on the broken couch and tossed it to him.

"Come on kid let's go."

"Sweet, we off to go find those vampires?"

"The only place you're going is your new home."

We said our goodbyes and once outside I phased on instinct hoping Seth would follow. Now that he was outside he dropped the blanket and phased.

'Sweet,' Seth said now in wolf form.

'Sweet, you think this is cool?'

'You don't?'

I rolled my eyes. 'Shouldn't you be moping or something? Your dad did just die.'

'Yeah I know and I am gonna miss him but he passed the gene down right? I heard it could only be passed down by the men. That's what the legends say anyways.'

It was no surprise that Seth had heard the legends. Growing up on the reservation we all had but before the transformation we'd never really believed them.

'I just think this magic is special,' said Seth, 'Normal is kind of overrated anyways. Before this I was just a stupid kid but now I'm not.'

We got closer to our lands and for that it was gratifying. Since we'd agreed on territories it felt weird being on Sam's land. I was surprised at how much I'd come to depend on the Cullen lands as my own.

'Any word on Leah,' I called out.

'Too many. She's pissed. The chick won't shut up,' Embry said coming into view.

'And Quil?'

Rather than answer, we could hear Leah ragging out on Quil. She hated everything from Quil, Paul and Jared and the rest of us to being a wolf to the fight she'd had with her mom and being the cause of her father's death.

And now what she hated most was that she could no longer hate Sam and Emily for Sam breaking up with her. She had seen in Paul's thoughts, him explaining and showing her Sam's memories of imprinting.

The fact that we could still hear Leah's thoughts meant she hadn't chosen a pack. She was conflicted between her dislike of Sam and her dislike of my pack for protecting the vampire's spawn- another image she'd gotten from Jared and Paul.

'Can't you just order her to come,' Seth asked.

'Yeah maybe it'll control her bitching,' said Embry.

'I don't order anyone unless I have to,' I answered. 'You guys know that.'

'Would sure make this easier if you did,' Quil added.

'You wanna go back to Sam,' I barked.

'No one has to order me around,' Leah said loudly in our heads. 'I can think for myself.'

'Then think fast,' said Embry.

We lifted our mussels in the air and could smell the vampire stink. Laurent was around and on our turf.

'Do what you want Leah but you want to put that rage to something useful, take it out on the vampire we're hunting.'

'My first hunt, awesome,' said Seth.

'You'll come but you're hanging back,' I told him.

'No way!'

'You're just a kid and I won't Leah get pissed at me for getting you into trouble or worse.'

'Oh so considerate,' Leah said sarcastically.

'Leah shut up and do your job no matter which pack you're in.'

'Bella,' I said as we followed the dreads stink near Angela's house. He'd found her.

We could see him clearly in the shadows behind the trees, a mile away from the house, waiting, stalking. His face suddenly lifted up. We knew what he was smelling: us.

'Seth, stay back and watch the house. The rest of you on me!' I ordered, one of few I gave.

I had to order them. I had to lead otherwise nothing would get done.

'Embry fall back and follow me. Quil to the right.'

'What's my job,' asked Leah.

'You want in?'

'I'm here aren't I?'

'Take him from behind.'

'You got it but don't think I've chosen you as my leader.'

'Whatever Leah.' I focused on the job at hand instead of her. 'Now!'

Laurent looked at us. "That's impossible," he said from a distance.

The dreads turned around but halted as Leah came into view, growling, saliva coming out from her mouth. Good she was angry. She needed to be right now, we all did.

We could feel Seth's eagerness as he wanted in but he stayed put, occasionally glancing up to Angela's room where Bella was, himself hidden slightly out of view in case any of the girls happened to look outside.

The chase was on. He used his speed but we were a lot faster. Within less than a mile we were on him. Leah reached out for him and brought him down and the four of us were quickly over him. Easily I bit down and severed the head from the body.

The way we killed was not like vampires. We didn't have to burn their bodies after pieces were severed, we simply mangled it till there was nothing left.

After our kill, Seth came over feeling disappointed that he'd missed out.

'Thanks for the game boys,' said Leah.

Her emotions had calmed down to the point where she felt strong enough to phase. She had seen Seth do it and didn't think it could be that hard but she hadn't seen the after. Before any of us could warn her, Leah phased in front of us.

Seth whined and turned away from his sister. He had never seen her naked before. None of us had. It was an unfortunate side of pack life but one we'd been forced to accept. We'd come to view it as guys in a locker room but we'd never factored in a girl.

It was hard not to look at Leah and she was good looking but none of us felt anything toward her. Instead Embry only complained about why the fates had to include her. Of course none of us had the answers. We could only be forced to either accept it or deal.

Leah looked down at herself and began cursing like a madwoman. She let her fury of the situation take over and in no time was back to being her wolf.

She saw Embry thinking of the moment that had just happened and quickly attacked him.

'Enough!' I ordered as I got between them. I wasn't sure Leah would listen to my order but I knew Embry would. 'Leah if you want to go home then go. You boys can take the rest of the night off. Show Seth his new place and new room. With the four of us we might have to double up. I need to go tell Sam that one of the threats has been taken care of.'