23 - Dinner Conversation
Phil's pale green eyes did not leave mine as I stood there with the deer in the headlight look - not fully comprehending what he was trying to say. Was this about my death? Is that what he had seen? My body was still half aroused from the kiss he had given me less than a minute ago, it was somewhat hard to start thinking about my possible death.
"What did you see?" Phila said as she came over to where I was standing frozen next to the counter, she put a comforting arm around me - she mistook my still excited wide eyes and quick breaths for fear. "Don't worry we will figure this out, we would never let anything happen to you."
My body protested for a moment as Phila embraced me, I wanted to be comforted but not by her. He was just standing across the room from me, horror still written all over his face; he made no move to put his arms around me again.
"I don't know," Phil said rubbing his face, finally breaking eye contact. "All I see is Leah torn apart, over and over again. It was a hell of a battle, you went down fighting. I can't see anything else. Maybe trees outside of a building I could not recognize. The furniture is nondescript, I think it is raining outside."
Well nothing like someone predicting your violent death to stop all thoughts of sex. I listened intently as they discussed my potential demise. I noticed that Phila was the cool and controlled one, she took charge of the situation. She was the one who decided to call my pack and tell them about Phil's vision.
"Wait," I tried to protest. Did we really want to involve the boys, I remembered what they did to Bella when she was in danger. I foresaw myself being babysat for the rest of my life.
Phil took a deep breath, and breathed out slowly. I could hear his heart doing double speed, I had never seen his this disturbed before. The way he was acting you would have though he had foreseen his own death and not mine. "No it would be best to call them, if there is something running around that can take you out, then they are at risk as well." I glared at him for taking Phila's side of the argument - I ignored the little voice that pointed out that he was right.
My pack came barreling in the front door with a great deal of noise. "Happy birthday Leah, what you missed us already?" Embry asked loudly, we had not told them yet what the problem was.
"Shoes off and leave them by the door. Unless you will be staying late tonight to clean my floors." Phil said to them, finally behaving like his old controlled self.
We settled around Phil's dinning room table; he quickly but thoroughly went through his vision.
"What did the place look like?" Jake asked immediately, he did not wait for an answer instead he fired a half dozen more questions at Phil.
"I don't know, there was nothing that stood out in the room that could help me identify its location." Phil answered with half a growl. Jake did not like any of Phil's answers and was starting to get a little angry.
Finally Phil touched Jake's shoulder, "do you really want to know what I saw?" "You can show me what you saw? Why the hell did you not do this in the first place?" Jake was starting to really get pissed.
"Don't blame me, you were warned." We watched as Phil closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. Jake twitched almost instantly and jumped away from Phil. The chair he had been sitting on falling over with a loud thud.
"Mother fucker," Jake went through his repertoire of curses. I was impressed, he had picked up some new ones. I wondered who had been teaching him.
"What did he show you?" Embry asked eyeing Phil suspiciously.
"He showed me his vision." Jake answered not being specific at all on the details. "All right, Leah from now on you will never be alone. We will not let anything happen to you."
I grumbled, I argued, I even pleaded. Nothing moved them from their determination to keep me safe. For a moment I wondered if Phil would show me what he saw in his vision, but I reconsidered. Jake and Phil were two of the strongest guys I knew, if they were that disturbed by this vision maybe I did not want to know. It might have made me a coward, but at least I could remain sane.
It was Seth that asked the question we did not want to answer. "Will we tell Sam?"
The pack argued in circles for a while. Quil and Seth wanted to tell Sam, Jake and I were against it, but then I had been against telling my own pack. "How are you going to tell Sam without mentioning Phil's vision? It would be kind of hard to keep the family's secret." I was pushing hard against telling the super paranoid Sam, he would try to order me back to the Rez or something. Like that was ever fucking going to happen.
I was proud of myself for stumping the group in front of me, but it did not last long - Phil came up with a solution."You might ask Alice if you can use her. Tell Sam Alice had a vision of some strange vampires coming. Leah cannot be included specifically because it is common knowledge that Alice cannot see wolves, but you can tell Sam she saw a mutilated body of a woman. That should be enough to keep him more vigilant."
"Or crap his pants," Embry added with a laugh.
"That would be an added bonus," Phil answered Embry with a cool smile. I knew why I hated Sam but why the hell did Phil seem to dislike him so much? This was not the usual apathetic way he treated most people, the slightly cool and standoffish persona. When it came to Sam it felt like Phil would have no problem giving Sam a little push if he happened to be standing next to a cliff.
"This could happen at anytime in the future, I mean it could be years. Phil's visions are not that precise. Back me up here." I looked over at Phil, hoping that for the first time today he would support me.
"That is true, but I am getting the impression of urgency here." He replied, earning another glare from me - I thought he was on my side.
"Should we stop going to school for a while and run extra patrols?" Jake was really taking this seriously, it made me almost want to ask Phil to share his vision with me.
"No need, I will call Kendrick and Josefine to warn them of a potential problem. They have been moving around those woods for years so it is not a big deal for them to watch over the place." Phila answered quietly, she had not said much during the meeting - preferring to sit back and listen. "The only question is how we are going to protect Leah? Obviously she will be moving out of the dorms and into my spare bedroom until this is resolved."
Phil interrupted before I could protest, "Phila's security system is far superior to the stupid key cards used by the dorms. She has Aurora watching over the place while the dorms have - well an open door policy."
"As an added bonus two nonhumans are better than one." Seth pointed out, even my kid brother pushing for the babysit Leah plan.
"Well I don't want to entangle you in a dangerous situation." I told Phila, trying to make her understand.
"As opposed to bringing danger to a building full of foolish young girls?" Phila gave me a dirty look before she continued. "Leah, I have not survived two thousand years because I can't take care of myself. I know you might think me a girl that prefers high heels and designer clothes but I have significant combat experience."
The planning for my future was done by everyone but me. I would return to Earth on Sunday night, and get settled in Phila's apartment. Other than a few clothes there was nothing really that I needed from my dorm; most of my textbooks were already at Phila's place.
Sleep did not come easily that night, I kept jumping from memories of Phil's kiss to his prediction of my death. Phila had been right about psychics being reluctant to tell people about their futures, it would have been almost better not to know what was hanging over my head. But I guess forewarned is forearmed.
I could not figure out why Phil had kissed me, but I noticed that he made sure to keep his distance from me the rest of the evening. For all I knew it could have been a simple reaction to seeing me dead, touch was the most basic way to make sure that something is real - maybe he needed to be certain that I was still there.
Phil had become a good friend, someone I could talk to about anything. I was afraid to try to make something else out of this relationship, I liked our friendship too much to risk it. Unfortunately no matter how I looked at it there could be nothing long term about our relationship; I had not imprinted on him and from what Phila had told me his kind did a binding thing. Even if we started something, even if I could make him love me what would happen if I imprinted on someone else? I would never do to him what Sam had done to me. And where would I be if he found his mate? I got the impression it would be a heck of a lot harder to get over Phil than it had been to get over Sam.
Sam had been a convenient place holder in my dreams,a boy who temporarily held my heart. Phil had the potential to be so much more - he would be the type of man that would leave a mark on your soul, you would never fully get over being in love with Phil.
When I finally fell asleep, my dreams were filled with Phil walking away from me and when I would chase him down all I would find were dead bodies. Needless to say I woke up afraid in the dark, sweat pouring off of me.
Feeling a little scared and unable to fall back asleep I headed downstairs to get myself a drink of milk or something along those lines. It was when I reached the kitchen that I noticed that the back door was cracked open a little, heading over to close the door I was astonished to find Phil sitting outside on a metal bench in the middle of his snow covered garden. He head was tilted back as he looked at the sky above him.
"Phil? Are you all right?" I asked in concern, what was he doing sitting out there in this cold weather. I could see his breath as he slowly breathed out.
"I am fine," his voice came out completely mellow and to my shock he lifted a hand to put a cigarette to his mouth before drawing smoke deeply into his lungs.
Phil was a complete health nut, for him to smoke was...well I could not find the words.
Phil laughed at my flabbergasted expression and unfolded the blanket wrapped around him, "want to join me?" He gave me his full dimpled smile, his normally happy mood was back after an evening of frowns.
"Just a sec," I told him while going to grab my boots, given the choice between hanging out with Phil or returning back to my nightmares - I obviously picked Phil.
Phil opened his blanket once again when I stepped outside, I snuggled close to him as he folded the warm blanket around me yet again. He place his right hand over my shoulder as I snuggled into his chest, the bad dreams faded into the back of my mind as I sat there quietly next to Phil. It was quiet for a few minutes, nothing breaking the silence of the night. There was no moon tonight but the stars shone bright enough to make the snow glow around us, everything looked pristine and perfect - I could not help but smother a cynical laugh, too bad real life was nothing like this small frozen over garden.
"I am beyond disappointed to see you smoking," I told him with a mock stern look at his face.
"This is for medical purposes," it took him longer than usual to respond to my scolding. His words made me noticed something significant that was missing, there was no stench of tobacco smoke in the air around him.
"Oh my god are you smoking pot?" My tired brain could not handle any more surprises.
He gave me a big smile, obviously the man was seriously high.
"Yeah you want some?" he lifted his, well whatever the weed version of the word for cigarette towards my mouth.
I don't know why I took a drag, probably my never ending curiosity. Phil could pretty much talk me into anything when he smiled at me like that. I inhaled deeply, mimicking Phil's earlier action and immediately started to cough.
"You never do anything by half measures, always jumping in with both feet." I kind of like the tone of admiration in his voice. "Try it again, this time take a smaller breath."
I listened to Phil and took a much smaller breath of smoke, my newfound caution had the added benefit that now I was able to taste the small puff that I pulled into my mouth. It tasted very much like grass, maybe a little extra other sharp flavor I could not recognize - it was not unpleasant, but neither would I be seeking it out in the future.
It only took a few puffs but soon I was giggling along with Phil, I sounded like a freaking fifteen year old high school girl and that was so funny that I continued to giggle.
"Seriously Phil, you are totally ruining your image?" I told him between my laughter.
"I am doing this for you," he became suddenly serious. "I am trying to force another vision, maybe I can see something more."
"It is not your job to protect me," I told him, suddenly not feeling all that amused.
"Of course it is my job." He sounded serious, almost like he was making a promise. "Though you are pretty good at taking care of yourself, but some things you can't do alone. There are situations where even I make sure to take Phila with me."
"Next you are going to tell me you would die to protect me," I giggled slightly, feeling very lightheaded. It was a foreign concept, Phil trying to protect me from harm - for almost a year it had been the other way around for me, I had been protecting everyone else from whatever went bump in the night.
"Speaking of protection I have to leave the country with Phila for the next week or so," he continued. He finally explained where he was going. He volunteered his time and services to do surgery on girls who had been harmed in various methods and did not have access to a plastic surgeon. There were places in the middle east and Africa where it was a popular thing to throw acid in the faces of girls that did things you did not care for. The list of reasons to throw acid in the face included refusing a marriage proposal or trying to go to school. Most of the time it was not just for cosmetic purposes, Phil dealt with the more severe cases where scars were so tight that the girls could not move joints, or they were unable to open their eyes.
He was very apologetic about leaving and taking Phila with him, but she was required to watch his back while he performed surgery. Some of the locals did not appreciate what Phil was doing, this was one of the reasons he did not talk about where he went or what he did. There was a risk that one of the psychos would follow him back to the states and they might harm him or someone associated with him.
"Look Phil, I might call you grandpa but your job is not to protect me. Go do your real job, I will be fine. By the way are you hungry?" The rumors that smoking pot made you ravenous were totally correct, add a werewolf metabolism to that equation and it led to some very hardcore midnight snacking.
The next day I went back to Earth, Phil threatened me with death and dismemberment if I did not carry my phone with me at all times. "It has a GPS device in it, so if you get in trouble we can find you no matter where you are." Phil had wanted to get a family member to watch over me constantly but I drew the line there. I was pretty much surrounded by people all the time, the vampires that were coming to get me were not going to grab me if there was an audience, at least that is what I told him. The Volturi were too hard core about not exposing yourself to humans.
"We are not sure that it is vampires that killed you in the vision," he reminded me quietly, I noticed could barely get out the word killed.
"Tell me Phil, is there anything else that could do that to me? Are there some mythological creatures that could take me down?" I asked with a heavy sigh.
"Not on Earth," he reluctantly agreed before heading off to pack his things to leave. We had agreed to let someone come stay with me at Phila's apartment.
My roommate Jenny was a little curious as to what I was doing when I came in and started to gather up my things.
I told her a part of the truth, "I seriously can't sleep here, I am so sleep deprived I am making myself sick. So I am going to stay with a family friend for a while, until I can get my own place." It was somewhat sad how quickly I had learned to lie, all I said was technically true but it was not my reason for leaving.
She made me promise to have a girls day out on Wednesday, I whole heartedly agreed. The thought of sightseeing around Seattle for a day was very tempting, I could pretend I was just another normal girl.
Blossom was waiting for me with a small truck right outside the dorms, she quietly helped me put all my things underneath the tarp. It did not take too long, I did not have that many things. Blossom was one of Phil's cousins, she had green eyes just like Phil but her hair was a dark brown and very long - it was twisted in some intricate pattern around her head, I did not envy the time she spent combing that mane of hers. Her features were more delicate than that of Phil but they were not really all that pretty. When I first met Phil I had noticed that his features contained more strength than beauty, the same principle applied to Blossom.
"So what do you want to do now?" She asked me in a jovial tone.
"Nothing much, go back and maybe go to sleep a little earlier tonight." My sleep schedule might have been thrown off by the use of illicit drugs at three in the morning. Phil had not seen anything else, the pot had not helped him gain more information - the only thing it did was to make sure there would be no leftovers in the fridge.
"Huh? Oh yeah I forgot how much time you humans spend sleeping." She said as she rounded a corner at high speed, while flipping stations on the radio.
"What? Don't you sleep?" I asked, come to think of it, other than the one time Phil was faking it in the woods I have never seen him sleeping. He was always awake when I went to bed and up before me cooking breakfast before I woke up.
"We sleep, we just don't need as much of it as you do. An hour here or there usually is enough for us." She told me as she accelerated. "Technically we do sleep, but we kind of do the dolphin thing, you know the part where you shut down a part of your brain while you are still awake."
"Slow down or my stuff will fall out the back." I said looking over my shoulder into the bed of the truck where my stuff was jostling around.
"What, oh sorry," I was happy to note she had slowed down some. I was interrupted from commenting by my phone ringing. Phil was checking up on me, to make sure I was all right.
"I have to go, but thanks for answering." He told me after making sure I was unharmed.
"I am not the one who never answers my phone." I replied, but I don't know if he heard me.
It was the week of Spring Break so I did not have to worry about attending class; on top of it all because most of my paper and tests had been due last week I had nothing to really study. I had to work at the restaurant but that was in the afternoon, so I wasted my Monday morning watching TV at Phila's apartment with Blossom. I managed to convince Blossom to let me take my car to work, she might have noticed I was getting pissed at being treated like a small child.
We were busy again at work, the restaurant was popular among the locals. It was not as fancy as some of the others but the food was good and relatively cheap. I did not have a minute to sit down, so it surprised me that I had enough time to think. But that is alI did all night long while taking orders and refilling water glasses. I was going about my life like any other normal human so my impending death because of some vision was not all that important right now. What was it that occupied my thoughts, pretty much one thing and one thing only - sex, sex ,sex. It had been a while since I had gotten any, and my body suddenly decided it was in dire need of some. Maybe I should have taken Bee up on her offer of a battery operated boyfriend.
My sex life had not been that impressive, Sam had been the only one - and we were both virgins at the beginning. At first I was too upset about breaking up with Sam to think about sex, then I had phased into a wolf and I had a whole new set of problems. But now even with this dark vision of my death hanging over me it was all I could think about. It was like Phil had reminded my body what it was like to have a man; and since my current chances of actually getting some was close to zero, I was not a very happy wolf. It did not help that Phil had not finished what he started, all I needed was one seriously good orgasm. Yeah right, all you would need is one, keep lying to yourself.
On Tuesday I took the lunch shift at work, so Blossom talked me into going out to dinner with her. I was a college student so I knew better than to refuse free food, Blossom had promised dinner would be her treat.
I don't know exactly what place Blossom took me to. She was following the GPS device in the car, the restaurant was upscale and overlooking water. I was not yet altogether familiar with Seattle especially when it was navigated at Blossom speed, so I quickly stopped trying to figure out our location.
The linens on the tables were the kind you had to iron and change out after every customer, unlike the place I worked at where we pretty much just wiped down the tables. The hostess was a very pretty brown haired girl with too much make-up and an overly friendly voice. I really hated the type, you could be polite and friendly without trying to treat me like I was your best friend.
Blossom asked for an outside table surprising both the hostess and me. It was a little too chilly for a human to be comfortable outside, there was a canopy to protect us from the slight misting rain but it did nothing to shield us from the strong breeze coming in from the water. I noticed that Blossom kept her jacket on, I shrugged out of mine. The waitstaff could think me crazy, I was not going to eat dinner in my heavy winter jacket.
"So why are we outside? Don't you get cold?" I asked when we were alone.
"I noticed you that you looked a little distracted, I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it. Out here we would get a great deal more privacy." She told me, staring at me with those all seeing eyes.
"So what exactly do you do?" I asked suddenly suspicious.
"Shrink." She replied with a smirk on her face, confirming my fears.
"Oh great, now I am going to spend the rest of the evening watching every word I say, just in case you are psychoanalyzing me." I told her with a groan. "Phil had warned me there was a couch loving doctor in the family."
"Don't tell my colleagues, but Freud was a quack. Most things are chemical imbalances that we just have not figured out yet - but they some can be dealt with by simply talking about your problems." She was not exactly subtle with her hints.
Luckily our waiter interrupted before I had to answer her. I was going to have to go on an offensive and make sure the topic never led to me. At this point I would probably spill my guts about being horny and wanting to jump Phil's bones. I blushed just thinking about it.
Our waiter was very formally dressed, in neatly pressed dark slacks as well as pristine white shirt with a dark tie. It would have been almost completely intimidating had he not had a quirky little smile on his face. Was it wrong to assess him as a potential boyfriend? But if I was being honest with myself I was looking for a fuck buddy not really a guy to hang out with. Too bad that I did not like the way he smelled, on top of it all he seemed to bathe in the stuff.
After introducing himself as Todd he quickly took our drink and appetizer orders. He raised his eyebrows a little at the amount of food Blossom ordered. I tried not to smile, the family members tended to eat a lot more food than humans.
"Speaking of emotions and family, how is you little brother holding up?" Blossom asked in a friendly tone, apparently nothing stayed a secret in this family.
"Oh you mean over his breakup, he is very understanding and is partially blaming himself." This kind of bothered me but what could I do about it, this was Seth, he had an unearthly ability to put himself in someone else's shoes. "I think the worst part of it all was all the lectures he got. That and Kendrick, who gave him a big scare." I finished with a laugh.
"Kendrick is really a teddy bear, there is nothing to be afraid of." Blossom told me as she joined in laughing at my brother's predicament.
"Yeah well the tattoos kind of freak me out. How did he get so many of them?" I asked curiously, as far as I could remember his entire left side along with his arm was covered. Talking about a practical stranger was much better than talking about myself.
"You know they are not real? Kendrick is death squad." She explained further when I gave her a confused look. "There are certain member of my family that are better healers than your kind. When a mission looks like it will result in death they are the ones that are sent in to investigate. When they die we piece them together and they start breathing again."
I opened my mouth to ask her about what constituted a suicide mission, but she quickly shook her head at me. I guess she would not talk about that.
"Since tattoos are ink injected under the skin, his body rejects it. So he actually uses a special paint that he reapplies every couple of weeks to get the tattoo look." She continued after our waiter left again, he had brought us our drinks.
"Wow that takes dedication." I told her trying to encourage her to keep on talking. "He must really love his tats."
"He does not love his tattoos, he does it to remember." She explained in a suddenly subdued voice.
"Remember what?" I asked, the curiosity was making me squirm in my chair.
She looked away staring at the water, the sun was setting and the clouds had thinned enough over the horizon that a few weak rays managed to break through. The clouds had changed from their regular dull grey to vibrant hues of orange and red. I somehow doubted that is what occupied Blossom's mind.
"Not what - who. Do you know anything about our binding process?" She told me, I got the impression she had made some sort of decision. Hopefully it meant that I would get more information about the family.
"Phila told me some stuff, it is kind of like imprinting but not as strong." I explained with a shrug.
"Phil and I are a great deal alike, did you know that technically we are half siblings? Our mothers are from a set of identical triplets so genetically speaking we have the same mother, just different fathers." It was confusing but it kind of made sense, what I could not understand was the way she was switching topics on me. "So anyway Phil and I are pretty much mutts, we both of course have the green eye thing that makes it hard for us to relate to outsiders. But like Phil I also have the spirit - where we share our minds with another being."
I just nodded at her, Phila had told me about this. But she had not given me any details, I hoped that Blossom would continue. At the same time I wondered what this had anything to do with Kendrick's tattoos.
"So my kind, we bind because of our green eye genetics but we also do something else because of the spirit." She told me with a laugh. "It is not as confusing as it sounds, luckily when it occurs both aspects of our makeup focus on the same person."
"It would suck if they were different people," I interrupted with a laugh, and here I though I had it bad. "But is sound like a very strong attachment."
"It certainly alters us a great deal, when we meet the right person our spirit has a practical party in our minds. I am told we get hit with image after image of our future with that person; some people can supposedly see their future children." She took a drink and then she laughed. "I am guessing one of us just fading out does not go a long way towards making a good first impression."
I laughed with her, that would probably freak most people out. I knew what was happening to Phil when he had one of his vision and it still scared me. "It sounds very similar binding to me, from Jake's memories it sounds pretty much feels like world stops turning and restarts turning around your mate."
"So what happens if they don't love you back?" Blossom asked.
"I don't know, it has never happened before. But I guess it is hard to resist someone who loves you more than anything in the world and you can practically do no wrong." Emily certainly had not taken long to accept Sam.
"That does not sound like a very healthy relationship. But I guess what the heck do I know about healthy relationships?" Her smile was a little quirky.
"I don't really know, I have not payed too much attention to the relationship the wolves had with their mates. Sam and Emily I sure as heck don't want to know about, but the rest in my current pack are all mated to children so I can't really say they are normal."
Our waiter brought out our many appetizers, interrupting our conversation. The crab dip was really good, much better than the stuff we served at work. I wondered if I could steal their recipe, but I quickly gave up on that plan when I considered my cooking skills.
"What do you mean about relationships, surely you guys have them." I mean you did not live several millennia and not have a boyfriend.
"Some members of my family yes, but others it is simply not possible." She told me around bites of food.
"How so?" My sentences were getting short too, I was busy eating one of the stuffed mushrooms. A little too much garlic but the cheese they used was divine, I think it was provolone but I could not be sure.
"Nobody is perfect, everyone has their faults, but people tend to sort of gloss over the annoying traits of their partner. We concentrate on the good and try to ignore the bad." She told me as she too attacked a mushroom.
I could agree with that, it had been what I had done with Sam.
"It is different for us with spirits. If we are with anyone other than our mates the spirit will kind of throw a hissy fit. It tolerates nonmates for a while but that does not last long; to show its displeasure it starts showing us pictures of all the annoying things our boyfriends do." She told me with a frown on her face.
"Can't you turn it off?" I mean if the spirit thing was that bad maybe they could make it stop working for a while.
"Can you turn off your ability to hear? to smell?" Blossom asked with a raised eyebrow. "It gets really annoying, especially in the middle of intimate moments. Not that Phil will ever admit it but I think he did it with one of his last girlfriends, he called her the wrong name in the middle of sex."
I don't know how I felt about Phil with another woman, but I hoped that he had not felt hurt when that relationship had ended. I listened as Blossom continued her story.
"Some members of my family tried ignoring it and instead they stayed with their lover, that was when things got really bad. You see most of our power is from our mind, the spirit can take a little bit of control of our minds, usually it is to help in some way or another. But in some instances the spirit can go apeshit and use our powers against the lover."
"Um wow, that sucks." I could not imagine what it would feel like if you lost control over your powers and hurt someone you loved. Well I had a little inkling, I had been in Sam's mind and knew how he felt about hurting Emily.
"We deal with it easily enough, we never stay with one person long and are usually unfaithful." She told me in a matter of fact tone.
Their solution to the problem was upsetting but what alternative did they really have? It was important not to let your powers hurt the one you care about but at the same time this sounded like just a good excuse to be unfaithful.
"Our method is not that much different than your imprinting, but a lot weaker. I heard imprinting described as an unbreakable chain; binding is much more subtle." She told me with a shrug.
"So what is it like?" I was interested enough that I had stopped eating, which says a great deal when it comes to a wolf.
"My mother said it most eloquently. 'You take their dreams and make them your own.' At least that is the pretty version." She took a few bites of her food before continuing. "The not so pretty version is we get very protective, and if you mess with our mates you might as well bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. We don't play around much when it comes to protecting our mates; we kill first and ask questions after."
The idea that they made their mates dreams their own was intriguing. "So what happens if your mate's dream is to be rich? Do you give them money?"
"No it is much more subtle than that, we help them find the means to attain their goals. So if they want to be rich, we give them guidance and suggestions as to how they would earn money." Blossom clarified.
"That is interesting, but what does this have to do with Kendrick's tattoos?" I asked her remembering our original topic.
"He failed to protect his mate," she told me quietly. "The tattoos are a reminder of her."
I did not need to ask what she meant by that. There were stories of what happened if a wolf lost his mate. The conversation stalled after that, but it might have been because we finally got our entrees and were too busy eating.
It was in the middle of ordering dessert that my phone went off. I answered and reassure Phil that I was all right.
"Yes I am fine, no I am just eating dinner with Blossom." The waiter gave me a strange look.
"Her psycho boyfriend." Blossom explained to the waiter in a nonchalant tone as she ordered the bread pudding.
He started to look worried as he wrote down her order.
"Don't listen to her, it is nothing like that, he is out of the country right now and calls to make sure I am doing all right." I explained to him. I was not going to go into the fact that Phil was not my boyfriend, it would only confuse him more.
"So what would happen if I did not answer my phone?" I asked Blossom after the waiter had taken my order for strawberry cheesecake.
"At this point, he would probably call the cavalry." She told me seriously. "Several members of the family would be organized to search for you. You would also manage to get a more severe lecture than your brother."
"Great," I felt slightly pissed, I was an adult, this babysitting stuff was starting to piss me off and it had only been two days.
"Think of it this way Leah, if you are dead you no longer feel anything. But the rest of the people who care about you have to go on living without you."
I had nothing to say in reply, instead but that was all right because the dessert arrived. I would allow for the babysitting duty for now, I did not want to do something stupid - as strong as my mother might be I do not think she would survive another loss.
A change of topic seemed appropriate at this point. "So if you have the spirit it goes crazy when you meet your mate, but what happens to people with only green eyes?" The green eyed ones would not be bombarded with visions since they did not get any.
"Depends on wether you are male or female." Blossom told me around bites of her dessert. "For males they see girl and instantly get all protective."
"What about for girls?" I asked wondering how it was different.
"Well the theory is that males are generally more visual. They see girl, so they want to protect girl. Kind of like your pack, they see girl they imprint. With females it gets a little different, they need to be more emotionally invested in a person before they can bind." She paused for a moment trying to get her thoughts together. "So they see their mate but they do not really bind until they enter a relationship with them."
"Oh Fuck," I blurted out when something occurred to me. "Is that possible for my kind?"
"Very likely, you are female, girls are not as visually stimulated as boys." She told me with a laugh. "I mean look at the porn industry, videos for males and mostly books for girls."
"So what you are telling me is that our waiter could be my mate, I would not know unless I dated him for a while." I said utterly disgusted, this was so unfair. Why could things not be easy? See mate, imprint, end of problem.
"Yeah something like that. But I would not worry about our waiter being your mate." Blossom told me with a mischievous smile.
I knew something was coming but I could not tell what, so I decided to ask the question she wanted me to. "Why not the waiter?"
"Because you would not get very far. He is very, very gay." She told me wagging her eyebrows at me, making me laugh.
The next morning I called Jenny to see if we were still doing something together. After the information overload of the previous night I was ready for some lighter subjects.
"So where are we headed?" I asked Jenny as we got into my car.
"I thought the Seattle Aquarium would be fun. There are not that many of those around Idaho." She suggested with a smile.
"I've got nothing better to do. Do you know the way?" I asked her, smiling back.
Turned out that Jenny could give Phil a run for his money when it came to the inability to navigate. I knew the general vicinity of the place but not well enough to drive there without directions. I had been there before with my parents when I was a little girl but not anytime recently.
Fortunately once we got close enough I could navigate using the signs. After parking and paying for our tickets we joined the other tourists walking past the exhibits. Jenny was absolutely fascinated with the tide pool exhibit.
"Ooooh, I wonder what it would be like to touch one." She asked eyeing a starfish.
"I am sure we can find an exhibit for kids, those usually let you touch." I told her laughing.
"Ha, ha, very funny. Some of us don't take all this for granted." She told me sticking her tongue out.
In a way she was correct, but I had come to appreciate the natural world around me. Especially when I had started to go hiking with Phil, he too had poked and touched everything from leaves to frogs on our rambling walks through the forest.
"I will tell you what, one day I will take you to my Rez and then I will show you real tide pools." I was feeling in a generous mood today.
"Really? Is that a promise?" Jenny asked, a big smile lighting up her face.
I have to admit even I was impressed with the 'Window on Washington Waters' exhibit. The scale of it was immense, as was the variety of fish.
"Is it wrong to be thinking about how many of those fish I have eaten?" I asked Jenny as another salmon swam by.
She looked at me for a moment before she burst out laughing. "Is that a subtle hint that we should go find something to eat."
"What? I am a growing girl. Plus it helps that my daddy was a fisherman." We decided to go ultimate tourist and go to Pike Place Market. Even on a weekday it was very busy with pedestrian traffic. We followed our noses to one of the plethora of food stalls.
We gobbled down hot fried fish and "chips" as the British like to call french fries. I finished mine quickly and was wondering if it would look suspicious if I went for another round when I heard my phone ring.
I answered it without thinking, that was my first mistake. Not checking my caller ID.
"Hello?" I said after my initial hello had gone unanswered.
"Leah, this is Emily." I heard my cousin's voice, it sounded somewhat hesitant.
There went my good mood, this was not going to be pleasant. I was wondering who I was going to have to kill for giving Emily this number.
She beat around the bush for a while, not really getting to her point. Asking about my classes and talking about mutual friends. I rolled my eyes enough times that Jenny was listening intently to my side of the conversation wondering who the hell I was talking to.
"So, I asked your mother how to get in contact with you." Well that sucked, since I could not kick my mother's ass for giving me away. "You see the wedding is in less than a month and you need to do some things." Emily told me, finally getting to what she actually called about. "Your mother told me that you were on spring break, so you could come up and get fitted for your bridesmaid dress."
The thought of spending any amount of time being fitted for a dress sounded less than appealing, but doing this for Emily's wedding I would rather face another newborn attack. At least it would be over quickly with the newborns, they would not torture me.
"Oh come on Leah, you promised. The seamstress will be here until six today." She told me with a cajoling tone. For a moment I considered lying and telling her I had to work, but my mother would kill me if she ever found out. Emily was still technically family, and my mother had raised me to treat family a certain way. Too bad Emily had not been taught the same thing, not that I wanted Sam anymore but it had hurt a great deal for a long while. Emily should have been there for me, instead she had caused me even more pain. Our friendship had died a long time ago, me being a bridesmaid was just something I was doing for family obligations.
I practically hung up without saying goodbye. I might as well get this over with. "Sorry Jenny, I have to go."
"Is everything all right?" She asked worried.
"Nothing much, I just have to go back to the Rez today so I can be fitted for a bridesmaid dress." I made gagging noises in case she did not fully comprehend that I did not want to do this.
Jenny laughed at me. "Could you sound a little less enthusiastic?"
"Did I mention it was the wedding of my former best friend to my former boyfriend?" Normally I did not share this sort of stuff with outsiders, but I was pissed that my good day had been ruined.
"Ummm, hey can I come with you? I can help you give her bad advice so that her wedding dress makes her look fat." Jenny said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Plus you can show me the tide pools."
"I like the way you think. Remind me never to get on your bad side." I told her with a laugh. Jenny was a truly good friend.
So I don't know how it happened but soon I was on the way to La Push with Jenny sitting in the passenger seat. Jenny kept up a steady stream of chatter, it helped keep my thoughts away from the unpleasant activities I would have to engage in soon. Being polite to Emily, among some of the more irksome ones.
So it did not take much convincing on Jenny's part for me to stop at a beach before we headed to the Rez.
"Look there is one, it says beach." Jenny told me excitedly. "Quickly turn onto that road."
I thought it was kind of funny, she picked the same beach Phil had chosen on our first ride.
"Wow this is so cool." Jenny hopped out of the car before the car was fully stopped. Unlike Phil, I parked in the designated areas, I did not drive onto the beach.
The beach looked pretty much the same as before, the picnic table and lifeguard tower may have lost a little more paint. I watched as Jenny ran around picking up seashells, not realizing that the most of the beach was made up of either seashells or rocks.
"So where are these tidal pools?" She asked looking around excitedly.
"I think the tide is not right for those right now." She seemed upset by the fact until I promised I would show her pretty ones soon.
It was in the middle of laughing at Jenny's antics when they showed up. Phil had been right when he had told Jake that his vision was imminent. I might not have been a psychic but I did not think I would live past tonight.
There were six of them, all with bright ruby eyes in their pale faces. Two were female but the other four were male. They did not have the worn look of nomads, these ones were different. They looked like they had access to new clothes, and a comb.
"Why hello." One of the women said in that freakish sing song voice you only ever heard in leeches.
I froze on the spot trying to think. Phil had seem me dead, he told me I had put up a big fight. I had to use my brain, I could not take on six of them, to do so would mean instant death. From their bright red eyes I would guess they were not hungry, this was about something else. Especially since there were six of them all together, from what I knew such large groups usually did not coexist; the Cullen family was the exception not a rule for how many vampires could actually live together.
"She looks like what he wanted," one of the males said. I instantly wondered who this "he" was. "Maybe she will survive longer than the last one."
"Yes, one of the natives, bring the other one too. She might be a good snack." I watched as one of the males moved at vampire speed to grab a hold of Jenny. For a moment I had forgotten about her presence, even if I could shift fast enough there was Jenny to consider. There was no way I would be able to leave her to the care of these things.
So I did the only thing I could, after some screaming and fake fighting not using my full strength I allowed them to lead me away. From the way they were treating me they did not know I was a wolf. This would be to my advantage, knowledge was power.
A/N: Wow that felt like a long chapter, but I could not seem to find a good place to break it up. Seriously though I will try to get the next chapter up soon, since it was such a mean ending but I make no promises.
I forgot who had asked earlier about the fact that Leah had not imprinted, well here is my explanation.
ABarbieStory: I was a little worried about the authenticity of the kiss so I am glad you liked it. You wanted to know if Phil's vision was more intense because of the kiss, he pretty much had vision, freaked out and then kissed her. I think this chapter answered who the vision was about.
Toshii519: Glad you liked Bee considering getting Leah a bob, girls need some loving too. :D
Connect2tjb: Don't you know patience is a virtue (...one that I don't have either.) So you might not be happy when I say that my next chapter might be a while.
Ms Animegoddess: So happy to know the kiss worked, I like Bee too - she is old enough that she does not have to conform to the usual social rules. Jeans are not awesome but they fit :D. Pretty much any recipe Phil can cook is something that I have made.
Whip cream with cream cheese recipe:
8 ounces cream cheese, left out to soften
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or you can use almond extract)
pinch of salt
Mix in standing mixer until creamy then add 2 cups heavy cream, mix again until fluffy while scrapping the sides of the mixer to make sure to get all the cream cheese to blend in with the whipped cream.
*New plan for losing weight, tell everyone around me yummy recipes so that they can get fat along with me.