Grace didn't realize how disappointed she'd be the next day when she showed up on the reservation and started running rounds with the wolves. It was at least good practice to get in with Jake and connect with Quil who had just joined.
She was disappointed because it had been almost boring. There was no sign of the redhead vampire and Grace spent the day recasting through the forest alongside Jake and Paul, only taking breaks to let Grace catch her breath every now and then. By the end of the day, she had mastered using recasting as a form of running alongside the pack. Since they travelled at or above the speed of certain vampires according to Sam, Grace was able to hold onto one of the wolf's forms in her head and recast as a flicker next them before recasting again (she often chose Jacob for this, but if Paul or Sam were closer, she'd hold onto that instead).
She kept pace best with Jacob, often recasting ahead or behind Paul or Sam which made Sam uncomfortable, thinking that she was making herself unnecessarily vulnerable to unknown threats up ahead.
As the sun dipped under the horizon, Paul, Jacob, Embry, and Grace went back to Emily's to rest. Jared, Sam, and Quil stayed out running wider loops to cover entry points that they knew the redhead had taken in the past.
Grace was thoroughly exhausted and collapsed on the small couch in the living room. Embry sat on the floor and leaned his back against the couch, resting his head on Grace's arm and Paul plopped on the opposite end of the couch, hoisting Grace's tired legs onto his lap before also leaning his head back against the back of the couch and closing his eyes.
Grace was pulling in deep breaths, trying to relax. She hadn't spent an entire day recasting so quickly like that before and she felt the fatigue pull over her. She threw her free arm over her eyes listening to the rhythmic breathing coming from Embry and Paul.
Jacob stood off in the kitchen with Emily eating a massive sandwich she had prepared. Paul and Embry were too tired to grab food when they came in. She listened to the soft voices of Emily and Jacob as he filled her in on the pack's progress.
Before she knew it though, she was fast asleep.
She found herself in an unfamiliar clearing. Dry leaves and flowers wilted around her feet. She was in a long burnt orange prairie dress that her mother used to wear when she was little and would play with her on the reservation in her bare feet.
The sky roiled above her, dark threatening clouds moving too quickly. This felt like the spirit realm, a world she temporarily touched when she would recast. Things were recognizable, but when you lingered on them for too long, they started to bleed with an eerie realization.
She could barely see in the treeline, it was masked in shadow. She squinted and took a step forward, but the sound created a reverberating crunch that made her flinch. Things scattered in the treeline, just out of sight. Her heart quickened.
Something was wrong.
She felt no warm presence around her, no wolves, no human, nothing. Just coldness. A stranger in a strange land.
When she exhaled, she realized she could see her breath and something in her began to shake. A figure was making its way closer to the edge of the treeline toward her, slowly like coming up from under deep water. The form shifted and changed shape the longer Grace looked at it until it broke through the trees.
'Edward?' Grace's voice left her mouth and floated across to Edward, shimmering a ten feet from her and echoing out around him. She kept her eyes trained on him, the coldness still not leaving her.
He didn't speak, he only looked down and to the side, the exposed skin on his face and hands glittering wildly. He mouthed something but it sounded like warbling mumble deep under water.
'What?' Grace said. She made a move to take a step forward but Edward's eyes suddenly snapped up and trained on her, intense, burning, like a predator. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt sick. Around the canopy of the rushing sound of the trees she heard birds escaping up and into the dark sky, screeching frantically, but she couldn't see them. The sound grew and as Grace kept her eyes on Edward who looked ready to pounce, she heard him clearly this time.
'You should stay away from me.' The tight line of his mouth drew back revealing a terrifying grin with sharp incisors.
The sound of the screeching birds transformed suddenly. When she focused on the sound, she could hear screams, calls in high voices. She tried to hear what they were saying, but could only make out one word: Run.
As if in slow motion, Grace turned to run just as she felt Edward push off the ground behind her and lunge for her. A dark shadow pulled over her and darkened her remaining vision as she felt the coldness descend and press down and down until-
Grace's eyes snapped open and frantically looked around her. She was still on the couch in the warmth of Emily's living room. Embry was slumped on the floor beside her and Paul was sitting at the table eating and talking with Emily. Quil was back, but Jared, Sam, and Jacob were missing. She didn't know how long she had been asleep for.
"What time is it?" Grace murmured.
Paul looked over his shoulder at her, "Almost midnight. I can take you home." Grace nodded and he stood up and rubbed his hands together to rid them of crumbs before pulling on his hoodie.
When Grace reached the front door, he was right behind her and placed a hand nonchalantly on her lower back leading her out the front door and down the steps to his forerunner. Emily looked after them concerned, but didn't make a move to stop them.
Comfortably sat in his warm truck, Grace leaned her head back on the headrest and let the dream seep away from her. Paul didn't say much and just kept his eyes trained on the dark road as he drove her home. She was grateful for this but shot him a warm smile every now and then, noticing that every time she glanced over, he seemed to be looking back at her.
When he pulled onto the side of the road just in front of her house, his eyes glided up to the lit bedroom window. Grace thought that was strange but just leaned over, gave him a hug and jumped out. He waited until she got inside, she turned to wave once she pushed over the front door, and then gave a wave before heading off down the street.
Grace pulled off her boots and walked quietly up the stairs, not wanting to wake Charlie who had fallen asleep on the couch. When she made it to the top of the landing, she stopped. She heard voices coming from under the closed door to her and Bella's room. The light was on like she and Paul had noticed when they pulled up. Grace stopped for a moment and heard the rushed and soft voices of Bella and….Jake? What was he doing here?
She crossed the landing and went to open the door when she stopped, her hand resting just above the doorknob, waiting.
"Let's just get out here. Go somewhere. Alone. Away from Sam and everyone." Grace heard Bella say. Her voice wavered somewhere between desperation and intense loneliness. Grace's heart panged.
"You'd do that for me?" Jacob replied. Grace closed her eyes tight fighting the rushing feeling pulling in and around her heart. She had no reason to feel like this. She tried to tell herself this every time she saw Jake. No reason to be overwhelmingly happy and light, comforted and safe, pulled in one specific direction, with an ache that only seemed to subside when she was near him. She opened her eyes and stared at the doorknob, trying to make herself move.
"Jake." Bella said. She couldn't do this, she couldn't just sit here and listen.
"It would be so much easier if you knew, please. Please try to remember," now Jake's voice took on a note of desperation. Grace felt cracked in two and the force of it pushed her through the door suddenly.
Her grand entrance was met with Bella and Jacob very close together, Bella's hands on his lower arms, his cradling her arms by grasping her elbows. Their heads were leaned in close, too close, to one another. Jake was shirtless and Bella was staring at his mouth.
Grace must have looked frantic, she hadn't realized that her hair was askew from sleeping on Emily's couch and probably tossing and turning from that nightmare. Not to mention the bags under her eyes from pure exhaustion after today.
Jacob stepped back slowly from Bella when Grace walked in. Cool, no shame whatsoever. She thought and then mentally chastised herself for it. Who was she? She and Jake certainly weren't dating. He was free to do as he pleased. But she just didn't know why it made her feel like this then.
Bella shoved her hands in her back pockets and looked to Grace.
"Long day?" Bella said, not meaning to cause insult to unspoken injury. Grace raised an eyebrow at her and then looked to Jake who was shifting uncomfortably.
"Paul give you a ride home, then?" Jake asked. Grace's head spun.
"Yes to both." she said. "I'll just-" she hooked her thumb behind her out the door and went to the bathroom. She closed the bathroom door and turned on the faucet, looking at her face in the mirror for a second before dunking her entire head under the cool water. When her hair was fully saturated, she flung it back, letting the water splatter on the tile and the wall. She let the cold rivulets of water run down her face and shirt and back. She winced when she looked at herself at the mirror and saw the hurt there. She heard a light thud and rinsed her face off before heading back into her room.
Bella was sitting on her bed and looked up at her when she walked in.
"You okay?" She looked genuinely alarmed.
"Yeah, long day, like you said." Grace said. "What did Jake want?"
Bella hesitated. "What do you do at the reservation all day? Are you hanging with Sam and them? Or?"
"What do you mean?" Grace's back was turned away from her as she opened her drawers and pulled on a big tshirt and sleep shorts.
"Well…. Jacob won't exactly tell me what's going on with him and Sam and that new group he's hanging out with. Which is why he can't see me now. I just wondered if you knew...what was going on?"
Grace sat down on her bed opposite of Bella and stared at her intently for a moment. She remembered the order Sam had given: Tell no one about the pack's the existence or the existence of vampires. But Grace's recent dream had shaken her up and made her look at Bella differently. Why had it been Edward in her dream? Elder Ti'Hal had taught her to never disregard a dream or vision or wondering because it usually tugged at something deeper-a truth your mind was trying to tell you.
Grace looked at Bella critically. If she brought up Edward now, Bella would crumble. She didn't want that. So she found a different way to answer the question.
"If Jacob can't tell you, then I shouldn't either." Bella's face dropped. "Not that I don't want to tell you." She didn't. "But it's probably better if it came from Jacob." It wasn't.
"Right." Bella nodded, disappointed.
"I really need to get some sleep." Grace burrowed under her covers and turned her bedside light off. Bella nodded and crossed the room to turn off the overhead light. Just as she switched it off, Bella said,
"Grace. We're just friends. I promise." She whispered the word promise. Tears finally rose to Grace's eyes as she struggled to respond.
"Okay." She was finally able to say with a measured, curt tone. She swallowed hard.
"Goodnight." Bella said.
"Mmhmm." Grace mumbled. Hoping for the sweet crushing relief of sleep, Grace closed her eyes tightly.
But sleep would not come and just outside, she could feel the warm presence of Jake standing in the forest and looking toward her house. A look of wanting filled him that she could perceive and it crushed her further, allowing the tears to finally spring and soak her pillow.
