26

Bella, Edward, and Jasper stood, sharing a look between each other as they heard the sound of Jacob, Tanya, and Alice entering the house. She braced herself for the confrontation she knew was about to come at her, though if Jacob hadn't been an ass and driven the long way around, they might have gotten there before whoever attacked Billy Black, Harry Clearwater, and Quil Ateara Sr.

"Dad! Dad, are you there?" Jacob yelled just moments before he hurried into the room. He stopped cold, his eyes drifting from Bella, Edward, and Jasper down to his father, who was slumped against the wall behind them. He crumbled to his knees with Tanya wrapping herself around him in support. "Oh, my God."

"I'm sorry, Jake," Bella said, putting her hands up in front of her as she crossed the room, squatting in front of him. "There was nothing we could do."

"You could have changed him," Jacob murmured, his eyes shifting up to hers. "You could have changed him, like you did your parents."

Bella shook her head. "You wouldn't have wanted him like that."

"I wanted him alive, Bella!" Jacob cried, clenching his hands into fists, and she scooted backward. "Why did your father get to live, but mine died?"

"Billy wouldn't have wanted to be changed, Jacob. He wouldn't have wanted to be turned into the one creature he spent his life fighting," Edward said, moving so that he was kneeling next to Bella, sliding his arm around her, his fingers curving around her hip. Be careful. He's emotional. He might shift.

Bella barely nodded, letting him know they were on the same page, before she turned her attention back onto Jacob. "Jake, he's right. Billy . . . Billy wouldn't have wanted to spend eternity as a vampire."

"I can't . . . I can't . . ." Before they could stop him, Jacob turned and ran out of the basement with Tanya chasing after him.

"Well," Alice said, walking over and placing her hand on the side of Billy Black's face, tipping his head to the side. "This is a shit show."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Bella grumbled, standing and stretching her head from side to side, trying to relieve the stress she felt in her shoulders. "Who did this, Alice? Did you see anything that could tell us who attacked them?"

"You saw what I saw," she replied with a sigh, kneeling next to Harry Clearwater, tilting her head to the side. "It's weird, though, don't you think, the gruesomeness of their deaths. They were all very messy, violent. Animalistic, even."

"You think other wolves did this?" Jasper asked, kneeling next to Quil and examining the long slashes on his face and arms. "The wounds are deep. Could be a young wolf, someone who doesn't have control yet, I suppose."

"I don't know. Why would they attack their Tribal Council? It doesn't make sense," Alice said, shaking her head as she stood up. "But whoever did this they were . . . raw, aggressive. Maybe newborns, but it seems odd that newborns would just happen to stumble upon these men, doesn't it?"

"They weren't vampires."

Bella looked back, finding Jacob standing in the doorway with Tanya in his arms.

He closed his eyes, his lips trembling. "Whoever did this, whoever killed my father, Harry, and Quil weren't like you, or me. They were different. The smell . . ." Jacob shook his head. "You said I smell like a skunk's ass after a hard rain? Well, you don't smell any better than that to me. Whoever did this, their smell is different than yours. It's almost earthy."

"So we have another supernatural creature to deal with," Bella quipped. "Great. Just what we needed."

"But what? Fairies? Leprechauns," Jasper scoffed. "Chupercabras?"

Bella rolled her eyes.

"What? If it wasn't the Volturi, newborns, or wolves, then who was it?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know." Bella shifted her eyes to Jacob before saying. "Billy said they were wearing cloaks, but he couldn't see their faces."

"What else did he say?" he asked, and she could hear the hope in his voice. "Did he . . . did he say anything about . . . about me?"

"He did," she lied, feeling Edward and Jasper shift their eyes to her. "He said he never meant for you to get hurt, that he wished he could see you one more time, to tell you how sorry he was, Jake."

Jacob nodded. "Wish sorry had been enough, though."

"Me too," she said. "Whoever killed them, took his copies of the writings, but he also said he only had partial copies. He told us where the writings came from, how to find them. We . . . we need to go find them, see them for ourselves."

"We should wait," Jasper said, giving Bella a look. "We haven't heard word from the others. We need to make contact with them, and then decide what to do."

"That could be days from now," she argued, placing her hands on her hips. "By that time, whoever, or whatever, attacked them could have the rest of them. We need to get to them first, find out if . . . find out if I am the girl in the writings or not."

"Okay, let's just take a step backward, okay?" Alice said, her hands coming up in front of her. "First thing we have to do is bury these men. They died fighting, they deserve a proper burial."

"You'd give them that?" Jacob asked.

"Of course we would," Alice replied with a frown. "We may be vampire, Jacob, but we're not monsters."

He nodded. "I'm sorry. I know I haven't been fair to you. To any of you."

"Alice is right. Let's lay them down to rest," Bella said, kneeling next to Harry Clearwater and closing his eyes.

—Stay—

It took them several hour, but they managed to get the three graves dug, the bodies of the three dead Tribal Elders wrapped in sheets and lowered into the newly dug graves. Jasper, Edward, Alice, and Bella stood back while Jacob cried over his dead father, over the man who had raised him, the man who had left him to die at the hands of Sam Uley, Jared Cameron, and Paul Lahote. While he grieved the loss of his leaders, she wondered how he could cry over the men who had betrayed him.

Bella didn't have many memories of the men, just vague ones from her time as a human. Her feeling toward them hardened after they went after her parents, left them to die, but she wouldn't have wanted anyone to have to bury their dead the way Jacob Black was right then and there. Billy, Harry, Quil — they were trying to protect their people, Bella told herself that over and over. They were trying to protect their people, and in the end, they died for them. Their deaths were honorable, and nobody would ever know the sacrifice they made.

The sound of Edward's phone vibrating echoed through the air and they all looked at him as he dug his phone out of his pocket, shifting his eyes to Bella. "It's Carlisle."

He clicked the green talk button and put the call on speaker. "Carlisle, man, we were getting worried."

"Yeah, sorry, it took us a little longer than we thought it would," he replied. "We were followed."

"Who was following you?" Bella asked.

"We don't know. We've never seen then before."

"Was it the Volturi?" Jasper asked.

"No, it wasn't them. There's something . . . different about them, though. They almost look human, but not human at the same time. We think we lost them, but we want to hang out for a few more day before we head out to meet up with Garrett's contact. How are things on your end? Did you find Billy Black? Get his copies of the writings?"

Jacob turned away, kneeling next to his father's grave as Edward explained, "No, someone attacked them before we got here. Harry Clearwater and Quil Ateara were already dead. Billy held on long enough to give us a new trail to follow, though. We're, um, we're laying them to rest right now."

"What the fuck is going on?" Carlisle muttered, and Bella could almost picture him running his hand through his hair. "Is Jacob okay?"

"No," Bella replied, shifting her eyes over to Jacob. "No, Carlisle, he's not."

"That was a stupid question to ask." He paused before adding, "It's going to be a several days before we can contact you again. Promise you're going to be careful. Don't . . . don't do anything stupid."

"We promise," Edward and Bella said together.

"Bella," Carlisle said.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to figure this out, just . . . just have faith in us. We agreed to change you because we all saw that you were worth it. We stand by that decision."

"Thank you," she whispered, and had she been human, she would have been crying. "Take care of each other."

"We will. I'll call as soon as it's safe. We love you."

"I love you, too."

Edward ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket before pulling her into his arms, holding her against him.

"I'm scared, Edward," she whispered. "I'm really scared."

He kissed the top of her head. "Me too."

Bella pulled away from him, pulling her own phone out of her pocket and calling her father, needing the reassurance that he was okay. His phone had barely rang when she heard a click, followed by a hurried, "Hello?"

"Hey," she said, wrapping her arm around herself.

"God, it's good to hear your voice again," Charlie murmured. "I've been worried, honey."

Bella laughed. "I've been worried about you, too. Everything okay? Mom doing okay?"

"She's been antsy. The one named Eleazar keeps looking at her, like he's trying to read her mind or something. Makes her nervous, I guess. Carmen and Irina keep telling him to stop, but . . ."

"He's probably trying to figure out what her gift is," Bella replied. "Has he been in contact with anyone? Other than you?"

"Not that I've noticed," Charlie replied. "Why?"

Bella bit the inside of her lip as she looked behind her, noticing the way everyone watched her. "We found Billy, Harry, and Quil, Dad. They . . . Someone got to them first. Harry and Quil were already dead, but Billy . . . he held on long enough to tell us where the rest of the writings were."

Charlie was quiet for several minutes before he asked, "Did they suffer?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"Does it make me a bad person if I say I'm glad they suffered?"

She smiled. "No."

"He was my best friend, Bella. My best fucking friend, and then you got sick, and everything changed. Even before I went to Carlisle, he kept talking about letting you go, not making you suffer anymore. You're my child and he wanted me to let you die."

"But you didn't," she said, leaning against a tree and sliding to the ground. "You fought for me, Dad. You fought for me to live."

"You were meant for this life, Bella."

"Dad," she whispered, closing her eyes. "What if they're right about me? What if I'm dangerous?"

"You're not," he insisted.

"But what if I am?" she asked. "I mean, I have the birthmark, I have these . . . these powers. I . . . I'm really scared."

"I refuse to believe that you are dangerous, Bella, but if you are, if by some farfetched, unbelievable way you are the person these writings say you are, then I will fight by your side to keep you from becoming that person. I didn't give up when you were dying from brain cancer, Bells. I sure as hell ain't giving up on you now."

"Daddy," she whimpered. "I miss you."

"I miss you more. Hurry back, okay? And, um, be safe."

"I will. Give Mom a hug from me."

He laughed. "I will."

"Love you, Dad."

"I love you, too, honey."

Bella ended the call, keeping her arms wrapped around her knees for another minute, trying to collect her thoughts, calm her panic, and talk herself into the next step. All she wanted was to be alive, and it felt like all she had been doing lately is fighting for the right to even exist.

As she stood and turned and faced the others, she wasn't surprised to find them watching her, waiting for her.

"Sorry." She shoved her phone back into her pocket before placing her hands on her hips. "Here's what we're going to do. Only me, Edward, and Jacob are going to go forward in search for the writings."

"What?"

"Why him?"

"I want to stay with him!"

"Enough!" Bella exclaimed, the sound of her voice echoing. She put her hands up in front of her, trying to calm down. "Edward and I are going and Jacob is going with us because his father died for those writings. The rest of you are going to go back to Denali, find out what else Eleazar is hiding. If he alerted the Volturi, we need to know."

"You think it was the Volturi who attacked them?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But if they are after the writings, too, we need to know everything Eleazar knows about them. And I do mean everything."

"It wasn't them!" Alice insisted. "I'm watching them, Bella, and they haven't made a move."

"You can't see them when it comes to me, Alice." She paused. "I don't know if the Volturi are responsible for their deaths, or if we are dealing with fairies, leprechauns, or the chupercabras, but we need to know if Eleazar is really loyal to us, or to them."

"Fine," Jasper groused, folding his arms in front of him. "But if you get yourself killed, Bella, I'm going to be fucking pissed. Shits a lot more fun with you here, darlin."

"Um, thanks, I'll try not to," she said, smiling before looking at Jacob and Tanya, the latter with a look of pure, utter agony on her face. "Tanya."

She looked at her. "Bella, I can't . . . I can't leave him. I can't!"

"You know Eleazar better than any of us," she replied, walking over to her, placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. "If he's holding out, we need to know." She paused before adding, "I promise to bring him back to you in one piece. Just . . . We need this closure, Tanya. We need to know that all of this wasn't a mistake."

Tanya closed her eyes before looking from her back to Jacob. "If you get yourself killed. . ."

"I won't," he whispered, bringing his hands up to her face, causing her to lean into his touch. "I just found you, babe, I'm not letting you go now. I love you."

Tanya smiled. "I love you, too. Just . . . just be careful, okay? Promise me that you'll be safe."

"I promise." Jacob leaned his forehead against hers. "I'll see you soon."

"You'd better."

While Alice, Jasper, and Tanya took off on foot, saying how they'd find a new ride once they got a few towns away, Jacob, Bella and Edward climbed into the black SUV and started their journey to the Cheyenne Mountains.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews. So, what's your vote: fairies, leprechauns, or the chuprecabras?