Pairing: Bella(/Jacob) & Ephraim

Rating: M, for Jacob's brief, naughty thoughts

Genre: science fiction

Length: flashfic

Prompt: "Don't accept rides from strangers"

Origin

Bella tossed and turned a little, unable at first to settle enough to drop off to sleep despite being surrounded by heavy guard. Jake and Embry lay side-by-side on the floor, unconsciously curling around each other in sleep like puppies in a pile. Leah shared the queen size bed with her, automatically adjusting to having a sleeping partner by snuggling and sharing her warmth.

The heat brought her comfort even when the sleep she craved eluded her.

"Bells," Jake admonished, his voice groggy and thick with sleep, "stop thinking so loud. Relax, baby. The redhead is toast if she comes anywhere near you." His huge warm hand closed around hers, the index finger gliding up over her thumb to stroke her wrist, inadvertently touching her aching scar from James.

She hissed and pulled back.

His eyes brimming with apologies, Jake sat up and pulled her into his lap. Holding her arm up to inspect the sore, reddened skin, he asked, "How long has it been like this?"

"Since the first time we kissed. It's been getting a little worse lately, though," she admitted.

"You- you're allergic to me?"

"No! Oh, gosh, Jake, no, not at all. I spoke to Old Quil when I first noticed it. He thinks…" she smirked a little, her cheeks going pink with pleasure, "He thinks, from the kissing, some of your cells may have, like, begun seeking out the traces of venom under the skin, acting like a second super immune system to help remove it from my body. It's not bad. It's just sensitive."

"You're sure?" he watched her carefully for any sign that she was being less than truthful, but found none.

"I promise," she assured him, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.

He answered with smacking kisses all over her face, down her neck, over her shoulder, trailing down her arm. Cautiously, he pressed delicate kisses all around her scar and a heated one to her palm where he parted his lips slightly and flicked the tip of his tongue across her lifeline.

What she didn't know and he'd never admit was that he could taste her arousal from when she'd been alone in the shower earlier in the day. He ached to bury himself in the center of that enticing, delicious heat, but it would have to wait.

This was hardly the time.

Tucking her into his lap, he rolled on his side, tapping Embry and giving him an Alpha command so quiet and unobtrusive, she was sure Embry hadn't even woken up when he'd risen from the hastily made up bed on the floor and climbed onto Bella's bed beside Leah.

"Sleep," Jake insisted, lacing the word with the same benign Alpha compulsion that Bella couldn't help but respond to.

When she opened her eyes sometime later, she had no recollection of falling asleep, no memory of dropping off gradually in the safety of Jacob's arms.

Her eyes simply popped open and she found herself standing in a darkened void of greys and deep violets.

"Hello…" she called out.

"Young one," a deep bass returned, seconds before a shadowy form began to emerge from the void.

It was a man, tall like the boys from the pack, with long, inky black hair and deep bronze skin, lined with age.

But it was his smile that ultimately put her at ease.

She didn't know this stranger, but she felt like she should…

"The young Alpha, Jacob, that's why I look familiar to you," he said with a smile.

"Yes, I swear, you look just like his great-grandfather-"

"Ephraim, yes," he said, pleased to be recognized.

"Oh!" her hands fluttered nervously and she brushed them over her hair and down her- camisole and PJ shorts…?

That wasn't right.

"I … borrowed your consciousness from the dream state. We need to travel and Earthly bodies are a hindrance here," he explained.

Well, that clears that up, she thought. I must be dreaming.

Ephraim grinned as if he could hear her thoughts, but kept his counsel, turning her into his arms, "Hold tight. Don't let go. You don't have the experience to spirit-walk alone."

That seemed like a fair assessment, so Bella closed her eyes and held on for dear life-just in case.

No point taking chances, after all.

"We're here," Ephraim said, patting her back-a sign that all was well.

But when she opened her eyes, she realized that couldn't be farther from the truth.

The precipice on which they stood could only be described as otherworldly.

"Because it is, child," Ephraim agreed, turning away to take in the vast expanse that spilled out before them.

Creeping close to him to worm her way back into the comfort of his embrace in this alien and frankly terrifying place, she asked, "Where are we?"

"The origin. This is where the Cold Ones come from-their venom, at least. On Earth, it acts as a parasite, invading human bodies, crystallizing and killing them to propagate. This," he spread his hands out to indicate the scene that lay before them, "is its natural habitat. This planet evolved to sustain the venomous creatures that inhabit it. Look about. See if you can spot them."

The land was a rich red, like Virginia clay and blades that looked like grass grew, blanketing the meadow in which they stood, but the grass wasn't green like it was at home. It was a deep burgundy-almost black. Trees and shrubs grew in profusion, their trunks and branches a shining, silvery grey, their leaves the same deep burgundy as the grass. In fact, everything that ought to be green back home grew in a shade of deep red here. The sky, however, was an eerie shade of electric green. Light pink and purple ribbons of light danced across the horizon as she watched.

Nearby, web-like crystalline entities of all sizes moved, free-floating, across the planet's lush and vibrant burgundy landscape. Trees and bushes growing fruits and flowers unlike anything Bella had ever seen blanketed the open spaces and rolling hills. The low-hanging fruit, ripe and juicy, grew heavy on every branch in thick bunches, their sweet aroma carried in an ebb and flow on the breeze.

Bella was tempted to help herself so enticing was its delicious perfume.

"No," Ephraim warned. "It is not meant for our kind."

"But it looks so good. One couldn't hurt, could it? This place, it's a paradise. The fruit practically begs to be eaten here," she said with all the bravery and adventurous spirit for which she was known.

These qualities ultimately pleased Ephraim, pushing him to indulge her curiosity-if only for a moment.

"It is not fruit as you know it, child. Go ahead. There," he pointed to a bulbous fruit nearly the size of a small melon. She plucked it from the tree, the red juice within so ripe, it seeped and dribbled from the broken stem as she turned it to pull it free.

Returning to Ephraim's side, she held it up and asked, "How do you eat it?"

"Here," he offered her his knife, an ancient-looking dagger made of whale bone, the handle a delicate work of scrimshaw art. On it, the legend of the Protectors was carved in painstaking detail.

It felt wrong, using such a beautiful artifact as a fruit knife, but it was all that Ephraim had to offer her in this place and she didn't want to be rude by changing her mind to avoid using his beautiful knife.

Taking the tool from his warm hand, she set the fruit on a dark, flat rock nearby, kneeling beside it. She decided to cut it like she would any small melon back home.

With the first slice, she finally understood Ephraim's warning.

The fruit, rather than its halves parting with a delicious thunk, tore like flesh rent from bone. The juice was not juice, but blood.

The coppery tang of it tinged the air with a bitterness that made her throat ache.

This fruit was no seed waiting to drop to grow another tree. It was part of a living organism-the tree connected to the planet. She had separated it from the source, but there was no mistaking it-this fruit confirmed the horrible, fascinating truth.

Venom originated, in fact, thrived here because the planet offered in abundance that rare treasure that venom constantly sought out on Earth-blood.

Rising to her feet and turning about with eyes opened to this new truth, Bella finally saw, rather than just looking around like a tourist with a map and camera hanging around her neck.

This planet, this paradise, veritably pulsed with life because it pulsed with blood.

Bella felt faint, her knees buckling before Ephraim swept her up in a grandfatherly hug.

Note to self, Swan; don't accept rides through space/time from strangers just because they know Jake.

Rich and red and oxygenated, the blood gave life to everything here, including the bizarre free-floating crystalline entities that stopped occasionally-not to wait for the wind to pick up and carry them away as she thought at first glance, but to stop to feed as they bumped and latched onto the ripe fruits, long slick tentacular appendages snicking wetly into the fruit with a near-silent, but sickening piercing of the skin.

Ephraim turned to her, "You had to see this to truly understand just how alien the substance is, how difficult is the task to remove it from our lands. Only you are capable of doing so. You, young one, are humanity's greatest gift and most formidable weapon; you are a human who is immune to both vampire gifts and venom itself." He touched the inflamed scar at her wrist by way of explanation. "All the things that have happened to you were guided by the Spirits, the Protectors of Earth. They led you where you were needed to become who and what you are. They gave you a pack of your own Protectors and an entire coven full of powerful and well-respected Cold Ones to keep you safe until you came into your own."

Then he dropped the bomb.

"There exists within you the ability to neutralize venom."

A/N: Thanks to CayStar, BTW, for the prompt that gave me the nudge I needed to finally get this origin of venom story idea 'on paper'. I've been putting it off for way too long.