20
If Bella had still been human, and ate human food, she would have been bent over at the waist, throwing up every ounce of food after seeing what she was seeing in that moment. Tanya and Jacob kissing. It make her stomach roll, and a quick glance at those around her told her they, too, didn't like the image of them kissing.
"What in the ever loving fuck are you doing, Tanya?" Irina screeched so loud the trees shook.
The two broke apart, at least at the lips, and when she turned and looked back at her sister, the euphoria on her face was gorgeous. Tanya had already been beautiful, but now she was spectacular. And more to that, the way Jacob looked at her, like he was seeing God himself, was interesting.
"Tanya?" Kate pressed.
"I don't. . . I don't know," the strawberry blond murmured, almost breathless as she looked from her sisters to the man holding her hand. "Hi."
"Hi," Jacob whispered, shifting to his side and bringing his hand back up to her cheek. Tanya's eyes fluttered to a close, and Jacob scooted closer, closer than he had probably ever stood next to a vampire. "Wow. I never knew how it would feel. I'd . . . I'd seen it, saw what they felt, but never thought it would feel like . . . like living for the first time."
"Me too," Tanya whispered, turning and placing her hands on the middle of his bare chest. "I'm Tanya, by the way."
He smiled wider. "Jacob, but . . . but most people just call me Jake."
"Jake," she murmured. "Would you like to come in, Jake?"
"What?" Irina snapped, and drew their attention to her.
Where Tanya rolled her eyes, Jacob visually tensed as his eyes travelled from each one of them, landing on Bella last before he turned his eyes back to Tanya. "I need to talk to Bella first."
Tanya sighed and nodded. "Okay, Jake. I'll wait for you inside."
He nodded and released her, though it looked like it took a great deal of effort. Tanya wrapped her arms around herself before she walked back up the front steps, onto the porch, and into the house with Kate, Irina, Eleazar, and Carmen following, asking the question that everyone was dying to ask: what the hell had just happened?
However, Bella closed her eyes before she turned her attention back to Jake, who stared at the door with concern, like he was genuinely worried that Tanya was going to be hurt.
"Jake," Bella said, snapping her fingers and drawing his attention back to her.
"Sorry," he muttered, though his eyes shifted to the front door again.
"What the Hell just happened?" she asked, taking a step toward him, but he moved backward. "You kissed her, who you've never met, but you're scared of me?"
"To be fair, I did watch you kill three members of my pack," he challenged, folding his arms and looking back at the front door to the house. "Is she okay in there? You know, with them?"
"I'm sure she's fine," Bella insisted. "And I didn't have a choice. Sam, Paul, Jared, they almost killed my parents, Jake. They almost killed you!"
"I know," he flinched. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not being very fair right now." He sighed, shoving his hands into the back pocket of his jeans. "Are you sure she's okay in there?"
"She's fine, Jake!" Bella rolled her eyes. "What the hell was that?"
"She's my . . . I'm her. . ." Jacob growled and dropped to his knees. Less than a heartbeat later, Tanya was out the front door and at his side, wrapping her arms around him. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too," Tanya whispered, leaning her head against the side of his.
"It was like three minutes!" Emmett exclaimed, and when everyone looked over at him, he cringed. "Sorry, but they act like they've been separated by the war."
"No shit," Rosalie grimaced. "Plus, he stinks. I'm nauseous and I'm all the way over here."
"Shut up, Rosalie," Tanya snarled, baring her teeth as she glared at Rosalie, who looked taken back by the behavior. "He's amazing and perfect."
"Okay, my bad?" She asked, shifting her eyes to Bella before shaking her head.
"I think it would help us all understand if you two would just explain what's going on," Bella said, folding her arms in front of each other. "I mean, you're acting like . . . like your soul mates, or something."
Tanya and Jacob smiled as they looked at each other.
"Soul mates?" Irina groused, causing them to sigh and look back at her. "You can't be soul mates with him, Tanya. He's a . . . he's a dog!"
"He's everything," Tanya murmured, dreamily as she looked back at him. "I've been waiting my entire existence for him."
"I never thought I would find you," Jacob whispered, bringing his hand up to the side of her face. Where most of them would have flinched when the wolf touched them, Tanya leaned into his hand. "And now that I have, I . . . I'm never letting you go."
"I don't want to be let go," she whimpered, and had Tanya still been human, she probably would have been crying as well.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Garrett grumbled.
Seeming like it took a great deal of effort, Jacob tore his eyes off Tanya, looking at each and every one of them. While he didn't look at them adoringly like he had her, he wasn't as tense or hostile anymore. "I . . . we imprinted . . . on each other."
"I'm sorry, you what?" Irina asked, revulsion on her face.
"They imprinted," Bella said, drawing Tanya and Jacob's attention to her. "I remember Billy talking about it when we were little."
Jacob closed his eyes and nodded. "He, um . . ."
"What exactly is imprinting?" Carmen asked, and when everyone looked at her, she smiled shyly. "We just want to understand, after all one of you is a vampire, and the other is a wolf whose whole existence is to fight us."
Jacob stood with Tanya in his arms, who almost seemed to melt into his embrace. It was sort of beautiful, Bella thought, the connection they had immediately. She shifted her eyes over to Edward, who was staring at her, and understood how they had to have felt. After all, she'd fallen in love with Edward the moment she saw him standing in the rain.
"Imprinting is connected to our wolf gene," Jacob said, almost dejectedly. "I had only read about it, seen it through the eyes of the other members of my pack."
"So you used some kind of voodoo wolf magic on my sister?" Irina snarled, crouching down into an attack stance.
"No, no, it's not like that!" Jacob exclaimed, trying to pull Tanya behind him, like she needed him to protect her.
"Everyone needs to calm down," Carlisle said, putting his hands in the air. "Let Jacob explain."
Jacob tilted his head in Carlisle's direction, almost like he was surprised the man could be so cordial, but then shifted his eyes back to everyone else, landing on Bella last. "Like I said, I'd only heard about it from the others, but it's exactly like they said. It was like . . . like breathing for the first time, like spending your whole life and never seeing the sun, just to see the most spectacular sunset. You see your person, and suddenly everything in your life, in their life, just makes sense, and you know as long as you have each other, you're . . . you're complete, as cliché as that sounds."
"She's your soul mate," Edward whispered, and when Bella looked back at him, he winked.
"She is, yes." Jacob cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. "I've never heard of someone imprinting on someone outside of our . . . our heritage."
"You certainly did that," Eleazar quipped.
Jacob sighed, his arm tightening around Tanya before he looked at Bella. "They're not going to stop. Billy, the rest of the pack, the elders, they're not going to stop hunting you until you're dead, Bella. They think . . . they think you're going to end the world, they think they can stop it if . . . if you're dead. Like really dead. Not the undead, like you are now."
"Because of some writings that your old man translated out of a language that only he knows?" Jasper asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Not to be the naysayer here, Jacob, but have you considered that your father might be wrong? That he's reading into these so called writings what he wants them to say? I mean, maybe it's just me, but a birthmark is not exactly red herring, is it?"
"That's a valid point," Alice immediately agreed.
"It's not just the birthmark," Jacob said, frowning. "It's the power she's able to wield."
And of course at those words, everyone turned and stared at her, except Edward, who was by her side immediately. All they had done since her change was completed a month ago was talk about her power, her power that nobody seemed to understand, or know anything about.
"I don't have any power," she lied.
"Bullshit," Jacob scoffed, his arm tightening around Tanya. "I saw it when you were changing them, Bella. Their blood . . . it burned your mouth, didn't it?"
"So?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders. "Human blood makes me sick. You make that sound like it's a bad thing. Isn't that what you want? For me not to harm humans?"
"Of course, but . . . It's part of your power, Bella, and as your power grows, you're not going to be able to control it. It will control you, and . . . and put all of humanity at risk." Jacob frowned. "Think about it, Bella. Even when you were human, before the cancer, you were different than other kids, weren't you? Shy, reserved, never felt like you belonged?"
Biting the inside of her lip, she nodded, feeling the way everyone looked at her.
"The writings talked about a girl, born with the mark of the lunar phase, or crescent moon, who would be the master of time and space. Her power, or multiple powers, would end humanity." Jacob paused. "It's why you got sick in the first place, Bella. It's why you ended up with cancer."
Bella opened her mouth once, twice, a third time before she shook her head and managed to say, "You're absurd. My power is why I got sick? I had a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball inside my head, sucking the life out of me second by second, and you're saying that was . . . that was my powers? You're ridiculous, Jake."
"Glioblastomas in adolescents is rare, Bella," Carlisle stated, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I did my due diligence when your father came to me. Your tumor was particularly aggressive, and the courses of treatments should have all but killed it. The removed almost all of it in your first surgery, but six months later, it had not only grown back, but. . ."
"But when it grew back, it was bigger," she said. "Yes, I know. I lived it, remember?"
"If, as Jacob is saying, your power is connected to the tumor, it could explain why it was so aggressive. Your human body couldn't withstand the strain your power was taking on you, and that's why you were dying, faster than . . . faster than anyone thought you would."
"And by letting myself be changed, I started Armageddon? You're saying I'm going to end the world?"
"Of course that's not what I'm saying," Carlisle immediately responded, but Jacob said, "Yes."
Bella shook her head, her hands tightening into tight fists. In that second, she felt a volt of energy spread from the tips of her toes, through her legs, and into her abdomen before spreading through her arms to the tips of her fingers.
"NO!" she shrieked, and everyone around her, every single one of them, dropped to their knees, covering their ears with their hands.
Bella stumbled backward, spinning in a circle before she whimpered, "I am not going to end the world."
And before anyone could stop her, she turned and hurried back into the house, ignoring the way Eleazar, Carmen, Kate, and Irina scattered away from her, and found herself kneeling on the floor next to the bed where her parents laid. Bella couldn't be the bad guy in her own story, could she?
Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews!