"I don't like it," Nessie commented, tugging on the half-a-dozen belts of the car seat Sue had installed. "I'm half-vampire," she told me as I'd forgotten.
"You're half-vampire." I echoed, "Not a full one. I'm not willing to risk you getting hurt in a crash." I finished the last of the buckles and closed the rear door, jogging around to the driver's side. Once in, I turned on the heat and clicked the wipers, brushing away thick clumps of snow starting to fall.
"But you're okay with me riding on your back?" She commented and surprised by the snappy response, I glared wide-eyed at her through the rear-view mirror. She held the stare, eyes narrowing in challenge. I angled to face her and narrowed my own even further and edged closer. Her upper lip drew back, revealing two rows of razor-sharp pearly white teeth. Challenge accepted. I showed my own teeth – an act not nearly as threatening or primal as her own – but then Nessie laughed.
A pure, unyielding laugh erupted from her, the rich sound filling the entire car and taking up the entirety of her lungs.
"What?" I demanded and she pointed to my face.
A quick glance in the rear-view mirror confirmed I had lettuce stuck in my teeth.
I sucked it off and rolled my eyes, fighting back a smile as I put the car into drive and headed out of the lot.
I stuck on the radio and half an hour into the drive, Nessie had forgiven me enough to join in with the singing. Compared to her angelic voice, I sounded like a strangled cat, but her joy was infectious. To be near her was to love her, to want to please her and if my terrible singing meant seeing that smile on her face just a bit longer, I'd sing until my lungs ran out of air.
I was so lost in the moment I didn't sense the danger until it was too late.
"Jake!" Nessie screamed and the world around us exploded.
I launched my body through the air into the back of the car, landing atop her with enough force to break a bone, surely, but she clung to me and I to her, arms wrapped securely around her, eyes closing just in time for the semi to hit us.
The impact was colossal. Tires screeched and a horn blared, airbags exploded and burst as the metal frame of the front of the car crumpled in on itself. Glass shattered and shards fired around us. I held my breath, keeping them from choking me but I winced anyway as they sliced and tore at my hands and face. Gravity worked and, as the car flipped through the air and landed on its side, Nessie and I went with it. I stifled a yell as we hit the door – or more specifically, my shoulder blades hit the door. The blow sent a punch through my body, one that almost snapped my spine. A scream broke through as something cold hit my stomach. Her face, safely buried in the folds of my jacket, scrunched up and she screamed as we fell against the door, sparks erupted against the nape of my neck as the car, after an eternity, skidded to a stop.
The world was dark. No matter how hard I tried to open my eyes, they refused. I felt my sore limbs ache in movement, an action I had no control over. My mind drifted aimlessly, images and faces and sounds blurring together. Then I knew I was dead because I heard an angel saying my name.
Jacob!
They weren't being spoken but I could hear them as clearly as if they were in my ear.
Jacob, please!
I knew that voice.
"Bella?" The word came out in a breath.
It was when I felt that hand against my cheek, conveying the panicked message of my name, that I realised it was Renesmee. Eye-lids fluttered and opened as I tried to sit up. The world was still blurry but brilliantly white. Cold water pooled beneath me, and soft specks of snow landed on my cheeks.
As clarity and structure returned, I sat the remains of the wreck on the side of the empty, narrow road. The Volkswagen turned on its side, a crumpled, dented mess compared to the beautiful creature we'd climbed into that morning. Smoke was pouring from beneath the hood, darkening the clear white of the sky above.
I jumped at the movement to my right until I realised it was Nessie. Immediately, I ran my hands over her face, eyes scanning her small, shaking form for any sort of injury.
"I'm okay." She cried. She was. Not the slightest cut, graze or bruise. She dropped her head to my shoulder, eyes lining with tears.
"It's okay, we're good." I forced a laugh, hauling her into my lap as I tried and failed to rise to my feet. The pain that met me disabled me and I leaned back into the ground, taking a minute to breathe, to try and determine what parts of me were actually broken. I could already feel the tears in my skin beginning to heal. The throbbing in my spine lessening with each second.
I looked over her head and along the road, to the very end where the Semi had also skidded to a stop. From the back, it looked barely damaged, but smoke spilled out from its engine too.
"Nessie, I need to go check they're alright." I set her down by my side and forced myself onto my stinging hands and knees, inhaling deeply before forcing myself upright.
"Jake." She said.
"I'll be a second," I told her but she snatched my arm through the air and hauled me back.
"Jacob, I don't smell any blood."
At first, I took it to mean the other driver wasn't injured but something in her wide eyes told another story. She couldn't smell blood because the driver of the Semi never had any to start with. A screech of metal echoed along the road as the door to the semi blew from its hinges, spinning into the treeline with a thunderous crash.
A shadowed figure dropped from the seat, clad in black robes and with hair a shade darker. From the passenger side emerged another, heeled boots tapping against the now exposed tarmac as she neared; hair as red as the colour of her eyes.
Around each of their necks dangled a chain of gold, the end of which adorned by a glistening, jewelled letter 'V'.
The Volturi.
They'd found us.
Asher's Note:
In this chapter, Jacob and Nessie are found by the Volturi. There were no reviews on the previous chapter to respond to. Stay Safe.
~Asher~