Disclaimer: Any recognizable Twilight characters and ideas are property of Stephenie Meyer. I am not profiting from the distribution of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: First of all, a huge thank you to O2Shea for stepping in as my beta. She has been an amazing source of encouragement, and her beta skills are simply outstanding. Thanks for polishing this chapter. Don't know what I'd do without you!
As always, I appreciate those of you who took them time to review with a kind word or constructive criticism. Happy to hear that you're enjoying the ride with me. A special shout out to the PMs for the last few months just to check in. You really kept me going!
On to the icky stuff. I feel the need to apologize to those of you left hanging after the last chapter. I let some rather rough PMs and reviews get the better of me in July. Some readers were not happy that I wasn't going to update for a month and made sure I knew about it. Others were mad that I had "lied" to them about having a reveal in the last chapter. Kinda took the wind out of my sails.
It's made me do a lot of thinking. Ultimately, I love this story, and because of that, I stand by this story. At the end of the day, I write for me—to improve my craft and explore characters I love. I choose the pace. I choose the time at which I post. That's more than fair, isn't it? I really do thank you for understanding.
Now, where were we? ;)
From Chapter Twelve: The Spirit Warrior & the Mighty Wolf -
I still couldn't see anything in the woods, but that voice made my stomach turn into a rock. Every cell in my body told me to get away from that sound. Now. Just as I was bracing myself to run, a huge, burning hand grabbed hard at my elbow and made me jump out of my skin.
Jake had somehow basically flown across the fire pit and was standing right in front of me. He was shaking from head to toe, and his voice was strained and jittery when he spoke. "Charlie? To be clear, the Cullens did fake her death. Bella is alive, and she's probably on her way right now. So when I give the signal, you run into that fucking house and you keep yourself alive for her. Do you understand me?"
My breathing steadied and an eerie sort of calm settled over me. I nodded, and Jake turned back towards the woods. I knew what I had to do. All I needed now was the signal to—
"CHARLIE! GO!"
Chapter 13: Duck and Cover
Present Day
Charlie POV
The minute I heard Jake's voice telling me to run, I was off like a bat outta hell. All I could hear behind me was a whole bunch of fabric ripping and then this horrible growling. I didn't know what the fuck was going on behind me, but I sure as shit wasn't sticking around to find out.
Making it to the house quickly was nothing like the run for my life a few weeks ago in the woods. My legs never even had a chance to scream at me before the backdoor flew open and Sue and Rachel were pulling me inside.
My eyes immediately found Paul standing…kind of…against the kitchen counter, shaking as badly as Jacob and the other guys had outside—maybe even worse. Rachel slammed the door shut and bolted every last lock, but I doubted the four people or things or whatever was out there could be stopped by a few little deadbolts.
Not that I blamed her. Now more than ever, my hands itched for the gun that my gut told me wouldn't even do a damn bit of good.
"Okay, Kim…Sue…go to the nursery," Rachel said as she ran over to Paul. "Stay with Jeremiah. Everyone else, get back from the windows."
"They're in trouble," Emily said from one of the living room windows.
"What else is out there?" I asked as I crossed the room to join her.
Rachel called after me, "No, Charlie! Don't!" But by then, it was too late.
I knew my best friends' children turned into wolves. After all that's what they'd told me. I knew, years ago, that Bells had seen wolves large enough that they could have been mistaken for bears. And I knew the paw prints behind the Cullens' had to have been made by a huge animal—one much bigger than your garden variety gray wolf.
There was a lot that should have prepared me for what I saw out in that yard, but thinking you know something and having it right there in your face were apparently two very different things.
Standing on a pile of shredded denim, cotton, and mangled up shoes were six wolves.
No, not wolves.
Wolves weren't supposed to be much different from our K9 units in size. These had the right proportions, but the sheer size wasn't anything I could ever have imagined. They were huge. Huge. Easily the size of horses. Maybe bigger than that.
These weren't wolves.
Before I could stop myself, I thought the word I'd been trying to push back from the second they shared their secret with me.
Werewolves.
Werewolves? Jesus Christ, my brain needed to fucking turn itself off for a few minutes. Now I knew I had gone clear 'round the bend.
But…had I?
As much as I hated to admit it, it might be the best and only way to describe what I was seeing out in the yard. Kids—well young men—who turn into wolves? What the hell else was I gonna call it?
The huge wolves were now shifting around from paw to paw instead of standing so still the way the boys had just before I had to run into the house. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that they were actually the kids I'd watched grow up on the rez. It just didn't seem real.
What was real was the tension coming off the wolves in waves. I didn't like how antsy they were getting. The danger they'd been warning me about was obviously getting close. If my best friends' kids were actually some kind of real life werewolves, who knew what the fuck we were dealing with out there?
What the hell kind of B movie had my little town fallen into?
I didn't have too much time to stare at the overgrown wolves in front of me because four teenagers—one girl and three boys—suddenly appeared.
Literally. Poof. One minute it had just been the pack, and the next—there they were.
The wolves showed their teeth at the group of teenagers, but had otherwise stopped moving.
"God dammit, Jacob," Paul said. "What the fuck is the matter with him? Give the signal to attack. We're sitting ducks in here."
Rachel lifted her hand from his torso, which I could tell was trembling even harder than before. She and Emily exchanged looks before Rachel took a big step back from her husband. "It's okay, Paul. He knows what he's doing."
Outside, the group of kids were saying something to the wolves, but I didn't have a chance at being able to read lips from this far out. But the wolves were obviously snarling and I could see the biggest incisors I'd ever seen in a real animal. Even the lions at Woodland had nothing on those babies.
My breath was coming harder and harder the longer we watched the standoff, and every instinct in my body was screaming at the wolves to get in there and do their thing.
This wasn't right.
If these people were as dangerous as whatever I'd heard in the woods, why were the wolves just standing there? Why was nothing happening?
Apparently, Paul and I were seeing eye to eye for once. "Come on, come on, come on," he said quietly. "I swear to God, Jake really is gonna get us all killed, this time. What the fuck is he waiting for? Pounce on those fuckers."
Their hearing must be as freaky good as the wolves' because one of the boys turned towards the house and yelled, "Why don't you come on out here and say that to my face, you furry fuck!"
The way all four of them laughed at the wolves made my jaw clench. It was off. Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I was completely unsettled. At first they sure had looked enough like kids to me, but now I could tell something definitely wasn't right about them. The way those things moved just wasn't natural. They'dpoofed into the yard in the blink of an eye, and now they were just standing there staring at the wolves without moving a muscle.
My stomach started doing flip flops as I realized that their appearance almost reminded me of the Cullens. Their skin was just as pale as in the family wedding photo, and their eyes were glowing a weird sort of color I couldn't quite make out from this distance. Were they gold, too?
What the fuck are those things?
"Cold Ones," Emily whispered.
I tore my eyes off the wolves and looked over at Emily. Did I ask that out loud? Did she just give me an actual fucking answer? "Cold Ones? And are they…That's what the Cullens are, isn't it?"
"Jesus Christ," Paul muttered.
Emily nodded, but never looked away from the wolves. "Yes. And very dangerous."
"And that's what was in the woods that day?" I asked.
"Yes," Emily said. Using her head, she gestured out the window and added, "Now, shhh."
Cold Ones. The Cullens were Cold Ones.
Well, that was lovely. Didn't tell me shit. What the fuck were Cold Ones? Another Quileute legend?
The reddish-brown wolf took a step forward and caught my attention. It growled pretty viciously at the Cold Ones. Sure made my stomach drop somewhere into deep in my toes, but the Cold Ones didn't even flinch.
Dammit. I had no idea what was going on out there. I really wished I could hear what they were saying.
One of the boys gestured for the wolves to come and get them, but none of the wolves moved. My heart was starting to feel like a jackhammer in my chest. The beats were almost starting to hurt. There might be more wolves here than Cold Ones, but my gut was still insisting that they were outnumbered.
"Guys, do they have this?" I asked.
"I don't know," Emily said, watching the wolves intently.
"Which one is Jake?"
"The russet colored one in front," Rachel said.
"And he can lead them through this?"
Rachel and Emily exchanged a look that I couldn't figure out, but neither one of them seemed sure what to tell me.
Well, shit.
Meanwhile, Paul's shaking was getting worse by the second and made his speech hard to get out. "D-don't know. M-maybe."
"You don't think they can stop these Cold Ones?" I asked.
Paul's fists clenched so hard, I was afraid he was going to break through the skin of his palm at any moment. "At f-full st-str-strength—easy…Leech-ch soup."
He didn't finish what he was saying—maybe because of the Cold Ones' super hearing—but he didn't need to. The meaning was clearly implied. The boys had suffered some serious losses while they were away and were still very banged up. We were more than slightly screwed.
I looked back to the six wolves. "They're just standing there. Shouldn't they have attacked, by now?" I said.
"They're afraid," Emily said with a hand over her abdomen. "And so tired."
With teeth gritted hard, Paul managed to say, "I'm n-n-n-ot af-f-f-fraid."
Rachel took another couple steps away from him. "Paul, I think you need to go outside."
"Ch-hief's ord-ders. C-c-can't."
Paul could barely stand upright with his injuries, and the shaking seemed to be making matters even worse. He tried to lean back against the counter for support, but his hand went right through the countertop.
"Paul Lahote, don't you dare shift in this house. We're too close to you. Are you hearing me? Jeremiah is too close," Rachel snapped.
I hadn't seen the boys turn into their wolves since I had been too busy running into the house. Now, watching Paul jerking all over the place not fifteen feet away from me, I was fairly convinced it wasn't anything I ever wanted to see. The movies were nothing like this—howling at the moon, fur growing out of skin.
What was happening to Paul wasn't that. It could only be called violent.
"Uh, should we be…you know…backing away or something?" I asked.
Rachel didn't have chance to answer. We'd been so busy focusing on Paul's increasingly dangerous situation that no one was watching the windows until growls like the completely insane ones I heard in the woods suddenly all started at once. I turned my head just in time to see the Cold Ones magically transport themselves from where they'd been standing to right on top of the wolves.
And then everything happened so fast.
Paul lost his fight with his wolf at the same time Emily pulled me down from the window and shielded me with her body. From around her shoulder, I saw Paul's legs lengthen while his skin stretched and ripped apart. Thick, dark gray fur popped through each new tear in his skin. By the time his back arched over, nothing of the Paul I knew was left. In his place was a massive, too-big-to-be-real wolf like the others outside. I wasn't sure what was worse—the drool dripping out of its snarling mouth or the way he still trembled with his fur on end.
"Oh, holy fuck!" I cried out and clutched my chest.
Paul pawed at the floor and tore up the hardwood with his thick claws until something inside of him gave way. He stumbled twice running towards the door and crashed right through it.
When I'd first gotten to the house and Rachel locked the door tightly, I knew a few flimsy locks wouldn't be enough to save us, but I missed them very much now that they were gone. There wasn't anything standing between us and the same terrifying sounds I'd heard weeks ago.
We really were defenseless.
I carefully pulled Emily from my front and guided her behind me once I'd gotten my wits about me. Even though I knew that if the Cold Ones got to us I'd be no match for them, I was sure as hell going to go down trying to protect her with everything I had to give. I wanted Rachel come closer, too, but she'd disappeared.
The stone of fear in my gut weighed me down even heavier than it already had been. Where the hell was Rach? Did Paul hurt her on the way out? Did something get in... and I hadn't even seen it?
"Emily, did you see—"
A sharp yelp outside interrupted me, followed by someone screaming, "Get the fuck off me, you fucking mutt! Erica, around the back!"
I tried again. "Rachel…Rachel is she—"
"She's fine, Charlie," Emily said. "She ran into the nursery when Paul shifted."
In the chaos, I'd forgotten about Sue and Kim protecting the baby. I really didn't like us being split up, especially with the door wide open the way it was. I was about to ask Emily if we should try and centralize our location and join them when a girl's voice screamed, "Where the fuck do you think you're going?"
I could feel a tremble run through Emily, who was clutching my shoulders pretty hard. "It's gonna be alright," I said.
The way her breath came out with a tremble in it told me Emily didn't buy what I was selling and, to be honest, I sure as hell wasn't buying it either.
So there we sat, huddled up together on the floor for what felt like an eternity. I held my eyes squeezed shut for a good portion of it, like that was going to make the sounds of the fight outside disappear. I didn't know what was going on outside, but the loud yelps and whines just kept coming. It was obvious that the wolves were in pain. Just as I was thinking that there wasn't going to be any way out of this mess, the most grating sound I'd ever heard came from outside. My hands flew up to my ears. Thinking around it was next to impossible. Words couldn't really describe it. It was almost like something had pierced solid metal and was tearing a huge gouge straight through it. The T-rex in Jurassic Park ripping into the SUV had made the same, horrible sound. I could practically feel it in my teeth.
I started to pull my hands down as the noise stopped, only to have it start right back up again. "Do you know what the hell that is?" I shouted over it.
"The boys are getting the advantage."
"How do you know?"
"I just do, Charlie," Emily said. "That sound means they must have gotten at least one. Maybe more."
Emily was right. After a couple more minutes, the shredding sound was done, and I could hear one of the males screaming to his friends to help him. There was true panic in his voice. Guess he wasn't so fucking cocky, anymore.
It wasn't long after that that the horrible tearing started up again. My hands flew back to my ears. Jesus Christ, please keep those boys out there safe and let this be over with fast.
Just like that, as fast as everything began, it was over. A quiet fell outside that reminded me of the way everything became so still after a big storm. Did that mean it was safe? Had the wolves actually won?
I stuck a hand behind me as I got to my feet to make sure Emily knew I wanted her to stay where she was. "No, Charlie! Don't!" she called out.
She tried to pull me back down, but it was too late. The damage was already done because I could see out the window. I knew no amount of time would erase what I saw from my mind.
There was a pile of body parts in the middle of the yard.
And the parts were moving—twitching, reaching, wiggling.
Christ Almighty.
The wolves that weren't lying in the grass panting were busy carrying new…pieces to the growing heap. I thought I'd seen gruesome in my time as a cop, but the sight of these animals with ripped apart body parts in their mouths wasn't even close to anything else I'd experienced. My stomach lurched further as I took a closer look at something partly blocked by a twitching leg.
Oh fuck, is that a head?
Good God, that's a fucking head.
One of the Cold Ones' heads was just sitting there on the ground with his eyes wide open and not blinking. I'd only seen a completely severed head once, at the scene of a car accident, and it had stayed with me for a long time. The rock forming in my gut told me I'd be carrying this one with me for a long time too.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. An arm fell off the mound and rolled down the other side of the heap. It took me several seconds to realize that the arm hadn't fallen at all. It was moving under its own power and pulling itself towards a chunk of chest near the bottom of the pile.
Nope. Nope nope nope.
My hand flew up to cover my mouth, and I took off for the kitchen—just barely avoiding the crap all over the floor from the broken countertop. As soon as I got close enough to the kitchen sink to not make too much of a mess, I removed my hand and revisited every last drop of Vitamin R I had put into my empty gullet.
After gagging too many times, I dragged the back of my hand across my lips and tried to take nice, shallow breaths to calm my stomach down. Didn't work.
"Oh, God," I said before other wave of nausea hit and the heaving started again.
Jesus Christ, I wasn't built for this. I was a simple man from a simple town with a simple life. This otherworldly shit was just too damn much to handle. Maybe Bella was right to leave me behind. This just wasn't me.
My body was locked in a never-ending cycle of dry heaving again and again. My stomach had long since been completely emptied, but I couldn't force myself to stop. Every fucking time I blinked, the only thing I could see were those fingers digging into the ground and pulling the rest of the arm behind them. Pretty sure I was going to see that damn arm and pile of parts behind my eyelids basically forever.
I jerked when I felt a hand suddenly touch my back. Even though I still didn't have a lid on my coughing and dry heaving, I tried to turn to see who it was.
"Be still, Charlie," Sue said. "It's just me."
I nodded and tried to give her what I hoped looked like a smile. Even though a part of me was grateful to have her there, the bigger part of me wanted to crawl into a fallen log and live out the rest of my life hidden there like a crazy recluse rather than face the fact that she was witnessing this. Sue and I had never had a chance to be a thing before Bella's death, but that didn't mean the feelings I'd started to have for her had really gone away. The last thing I needed this woman to see was me puking my brains out into Rachel's sink.
Sue rubbed her hand over my back as my body's natural need to keep heaving started to calm a little with her touch. "Shhh, it's okay. You're safe. We've got you."
Sue kept repeated her mantra over and over as the heaving eventually soothed completely. I gasped for air and bent over further so I could rest my forehead against the cool metal of the sink. "Oh God," I groaned. "You did not need to see that."
"Don't even worry about it. I'm glad I was here."
As I kept fighting for my breath to go back to normal, I heard Rachel and Kim come into the kitchen. "Sue, Jeremiah is somehow already down, again. Can you keep an ear out? I really need to make sure Paul's okay."
"Of course, dear," Sue told her.
I stood up carefully at the sink and watched the girls duck out the front door with a huge stack of clothes. Before the question could even completely form in my head, I remembered the shredded scraps of clothes the wolves had been standing on before. Sure enough, a few feet away where Paul had shifted right in front of us, there was also a pile of scraps. I guess turning into a wolf wasn't exactly easy on clothes. No wonder they never wore a fucking shirt. At least that was one other mystery solved.
But there was still a big one out there. The biggest. What in the hell were those Cold Ones outside? What did that even mean?
I could see the similarities. But the Cullens couldn't possibly be the same things as these Cold Ones, could they? There had never seemed to be anything dangerous or vicious about them... Except maybe for that one look I caught on Carlisle's face at the funeral.
"Are you feeling better, Charlie?" Sue asked, pulling me out of my head.
I shrugged. "Define better. I feel like I got over by a trailer carrying about a thousand logs."
She nodded. "You're not the first to struggle with what you saw today, and you'll hardly be the last."
"Sue's right, chief," Jake said from the broken doorway.
For the most part, he seemed basically the same as he had before he'd had to send me away. At least, his injuries didn't look any worse to my eyes. "You alright, kid?"
Jake ran a hand through his hair. "Sure, sure…Uh, that wasn't exactly the way I was hoping things would go. I'm sorry you kinda got in the middle of…" He stopped and gestured out the doorway before saying, "You know…all that."
"What the fuck, Jake? Cold Ones? Seriously?"
His eyes darted back and forth between Sue and me. "You already told him?"
"Emily," Sue said. "By name only, but he saw plenty."
"Oh," Jake said. "Well…I gotta get back and help the guys clean up. You need to get some rest. You look dead on your feet. We'll talk Quileute legends when you're up."
Jake wasn't wrong. I felt like crap. All that adrenaline was quickly wearing off, and even though it was still light out, I was exhausted. "Fine." I pointed to the driveway. "Should I…"
"NO!" Jacob shouted as he took a step forward. My shock must have been clear on my face because he quickly dialed it back down. "You can't leave our sight for any reason, right now. It's too dangerous. Those things out there? Do you wanna run into them alone?"
I felt the nausea squeeze my stomach just thinking about it. "Hell, no."
"That's what I thought. The attacks are getting worse. They're coming faster and faster, and I honestly…Look, it's my problem, right now. You need to focus on resting up. Rach said you can take their bed and get some shut eye. Paul should be okay enough to crash on the couch to finish healing up."
"Alright. But I'm holding you to that talk, son."
"Wouldn't miss it," Jake said, before ducking back out the door.
Sue and I stood awkwardly by ourselves for a few long moments before I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed. "This is not at all what I expected when we were wondering where the boys were a few days ago. I knew that things weren't normal, but this is…I don't know. This just isn't what I was expecting."
"I can't imagine it is," Sue said, catching my elbow when a wave of dizziness sent the room spinning like a top. "Come on, let's get you to lay down for a little bit. You'll feel better after you shut your eyes."
Doubted that very much. I couldn't stopping seeing the pile of body parts everywhere I looked. Severed hands moving in real life was definitely nothing like Thing on The Adams Family. Less creepy and kooky and more sick and fucked up.
I let Sue lead me down the hallway without too much fuss. When we got to the bedroom, Sue cleaned some trash off the nightstand while I kicked off my shoes. She turned to leave when I sat down on the edge of the bed, but before I could lie down and try to rest, there was something I had to know.
"Sue?"
She stopped in the doorway and waited for me to continue. "I have to know. Those things…the Cold Ones…How long have they been around my town? We have a lot of good folks out there. I'm supposed to be their chief of police. How the hell can I protect them from this?"
"You can't," Sue said. "I know you feel a duty to the people of Forks, but this is beyond your reach."
"How am I just supposed to accept that?"
"Charlie, Cold Ones have been passing through our lands for generations and generations. Our young men are able to transform and protect the reservation and surrounding communities from them in ways that you simply can't."
Sue caught the grunt under my breath. "I'm sure that has to be frustrating for you, but it's the truth. Harry and Billy tried to protect you from the Cold Ones their whole lives, Charlie. Neither of them wanted you caught up in all this. Not really. No matter what choice Billy made, independent of the other elders, I truly believe that. He wouldn't have wanted you to get hurt."
"There's lots of different kinds of hurt, though," I argued. "Kinda like the pain of losing your daughter. Billy had years of lying to my face. The Cullens, they…Sue, they can'tbe Cold Ones. I know what I saw, but…"
Sue sighed and took a long moment to say anything. "They are exactly that, Charlie. No more. No less."
"But how could—"
"Charlie, I can't keep talking about this," Sue interrupted. "I am a tribal elder, and I absolutely will not stick my people's heads in nooses over any of this. What Jake decides as chief is what he decides, but it won't be on my council to say more. Make no mistake—the treaty has already been broken enough for the Cullens to wage war."
"They wouldn't hurt any of you," I said pretty damn firmly.
Even though Sue's eyebrows shot up, I don't think anyone was more surprised than I was by my words. "I just mean…The Cullens won't attack any of you. They're not anything like what I saw today," I explained.
"But they are, Charlie," Sue said. She leaned against the doorframe and held her arms around her stomach. "Please, if you won't listen to anything else I say, listen to that. They are exactly the same. Just as dangerous. Don't provoke them."
"Why?" I asked. "What are they capable of?"
"Death."
My heart thumped hard in my chest. "Death? But, they wouldn't—"
"They may not want to or even mean to, but they most certainly could."
I saw red. "Jesus Christ, Sue. My daughter spent how the hell many hours with them? She married one of them." I paused for a moment as realization slammed into me like a semi-truck. "And you knew. It wasn't just Harry and Billy. This whole time, you knew, too."
"Yes," she said.
"How could…How could you? What if something bad had happened? You let Bella go off with them again and again knowing what you knew!"
"To be fair, Billy tried to warn you about the Cullens."
"Yeah, and...?"
"Of all of us, if you weren't listening to Billy about the Cullens, who were you going to listen to?" Sue asked.
I felt the vein at my temple starting to throb, so took a moment to regroup. Wouldn't do for my old heart to crap out now after everything I'd already put it through. "Look, I get what you're saying, but I didn't exactly know the whole story, did I? Billy could have told me what was going on."
"Even if he could have gotten you to believe him and protected you from those who would try to hurt you for what you know, there is still the treaty," Sue said. "You are only one person, Charlie. And Bella is one person. We had our entire people's safety to consider, and that had to come first."
"Well, that's just really shitty."
Sue sighed, but didn't respond. I immediately felt like an ass. "I'm sorry, Sue. That didn't need saying."
"I understand, Charlie," she said. "My not telling you must seem unforgivable."
"Just might be," I said quietly.
"For what it's worth to you, Harry never agreed with any of us. He always wanted to tell you about the Cullens."
My eyebrows shot up clear into my hairline. "He did?"
"Mmm-hmm," she said. "He and Billy wouldn't have considered it before Bella came to town. It's not that they didn't love you as their brother. It was just for Quileute ears only. But it worried him that Bella spent so much time with those…with them. Harry got in plenty of shouting matches with Billy that first summer after she'd moved here."
"No kidding," I said. "They never let on."
Sue shook her head and said, "No, they wouldn't have. They were both very serious about keeping you safe. But then they left town, and Harry…"
After taking a deep breath, Sue continued, "Well, he never had the chance to finish convincing Billy. Maybe that was part of the reason why Billy did what he did after the memorial."
I had already figured everything that happened at the memorial had made Billy write that damn letter to me. If Sue was right, maybe the idea had been percolating a hell of a lot longer. "Thank you for telling me."
Sue smiled and stood up straight, again. "I thought you should know. You were very important to Harry." After a moment, she added, "To me, too," before quietly shutting the door.
I must have stared at that closed door forever after Sue left. Rather than the unholy sounds that I'd heard during the fight still playing on a loop in my mind, now all I could hear was her voice saying, "To me, too." My anger vanished like a boat into the fog. Maybe it was still out there somewhere, but it wasn't right there in front of my face anymore. I could think around it.
And right now, all I could think about was what she'd said. Maybe there was more to Sue and me than I'd let myself think.
A yawn jumped up and surprised me. They were all right; I really did need to get some sleep. I grabbed the remote and flipped to SportsCenter. I needed some rest and sitting here obsessing about a pretty girl—who was also my friend's wife—wasn't gonna get the job done. As long as the commentators laid off the Mariners' embarrassing losing streaks, the show would help me drift off in no time.
"On to SportCenter Top 10 plays for tonight and, man, did things get crazy fast. You'll see what I mean! Here we go—Number 10…"
My hand flopped around for the remote. As soon as I had it, I turned the TV off. How the hell had I been able to sleep with all that racket?
I opened my eyes and mumbled, "The fuck…"
That was my SportsCenter playing, but this was definitely not my bedroom. It was dark in the room, except for moonlight coming in from the window. When I found Rachel and Paul's wedding photo hanging on the wall, I remembered where I was.
And, more importantly, why I was there.
Embry and Collin had been killed.
The Cullens were on their way.
Cold Ones had attacked outside and been killed.
An arm moved.
And Jacob Black was a fucking werewolf.
I fell back onto the pillow. If I thought for a second that a nice, cold Rainier would stay down in my empty gullet for more than a minute, I would pound one back in a heartbeat. But that wasn't going to help anything right now. I didn't need a repeat of Sue Clearwater having front row tickets to my chucking into a kitchen sink.
What I did need was some actual food and a couple steaming helpings of answers from Jake. Knowing the Cullens were Cold Ones gave me little more than squat. I needed to know as much as the Quileutes did about them so I could try to start making sense of everything.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and grabbed my phone. Two missed calls from the number I knew was Alice's, along with one voicemail. I went right to my inbox and listened. "Hi, Charlie. It's Alice. Not knowing how you're doing is making some of us crazy. Please call me when you can to let me know everything is okay and that you got to the rez safely. Talk soon."
As much as I wanted to get a move on and find Jacob, I figured it was best to call Alice back. I knew what happened when you ignored her calls too much.
It only rang once on her end before she picked up. "Charlie, thank goodness! We've been concerned. You made it to La Push, okay? Jacob is with you?"
"Uh, yeah. He's outside with the rest of the, uh, well…with the rest of them."
Alice barely missed a beat before she said, "I see. They told you."
"They, uh, they did. Well, Jacob did. And you know about…them, right?"
"We do. That's all we need to say, for now."
Phone lines. Right. Carlisle had been worried about the same thing. "Sure. Well, I should probably get outside, anyway. There was a pretty good attack when I first got here. The, uh, well the-the…" I stopped and regrouped. Apparently, I sucked at this mystic crap. "Look, the important part is that everyone is okay, I think."
Alice was quiet on her end for a moment before she finally said, "What do you mean there was an attack? Just now? While you were there? Are you okay?"
I was about to answer when Jacob opened the bedroom door and gestured for the phone. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Hey, uh, Alice? Jacob Black wants to talk to you."
"All right," she said, not sounding like it was one bit all right.
Jake took the phone from me and asked, "How much longer?" as he left the room.
Oh, I didn't fucking think so. Whatever was being said could be said in front of me. Today I had watched kids I'd known since they were born turn into gigantic dogs and watched body parts moving all around on their own. I'd earned the street cred to be a part of whatever the fuck was going on.
I stood up as quickly as my old bones would let me and shoved my feet into shoes. As soon as I left the bedroom, I could hear Jake's end of the conversation. "Well, it wasn't like we planned it to go that way…No shit." He smirked just the tiniest bit at whatever Alice said. "Yeah, I'm sure she is, but I can take it…We'll be fine…Not yet, but I have a feeling that's coming next. It'll be okay. He's a lot like her…Yeah, got it…Yeah, I know. I've got it…He's here. Gonna give the phone back to him. Get here. Please. This isn't over. There's more. We can all feel it…Thank you. Yeah, hold on."
He held the phone out to me. "Here. She wants to talk to you."
"Alice?" I asked.
Alice sighed heavily into the phone. "Charlie, I didn't see an attack coming at all. I am so sorry that you're in the middle of all this. It's our fault."
"It's okay. I'm okay."
A pause. "Are you?"
I tossed my hand up in the air. "Well, all my parts are still attached. Maybe some scrapes and bruises. Lost my lunch back there, but other than that—yeah, I'm okay."
Jake shook his head at that one, and Alice didn't seem to buy my crap either. "That's not what I meant... and you know it," she said. "You didn't need to see what you saw, today. Jake said he thinks you're taking it okay, but it seems too easy. Please promise me that if you need space, you'll ask for it."
Too easy? Taking it okay? I guess puking my brains out into a sink was what constituted taking it easily in these parts. That was less comforting than I wanted it to be. "Yeah, don't worry about me. Took a nap for a while. Right as rain, now. I'll be fine. But if it makes you feel better, I promise to…ask for space. If I need it."
"Not sure I believe that, but thanks for saying it, anyway."
I shrugged. "We'll see you soon, I hope?"
"We're waiting for the boys to come back from their camping trip," Alice said. "They're still too far out to get a signal. They haven't even turned their phones back on, yet. Carlisle keeps trying to reach out, even though I told him he won't get a hold of them for a few more hours. Just Carlisle being Carlisle. Then, as soon as they're back, we'll be on our way."
"No chance in some of you heading this way in the meantime? Jake seems pretty desperate for some help. Although, today…it seemed to be…I don't know. They seemed to know enough about what they were doing. Right, Jake?"
I looked at Jacob, who pressed his lips together tightly and wouldn't look at me. As I was trying to get his attention, Alice sighed on the other end. "I don't think so, Charlie. Carlisle is standing pretty firm on us staying together. I know Jasper would agree with that plan. We'll be leaving around 5:00 AM, your time. It'll be okay until then. Just stay with the Quileutes. Do not leave their land for any reason."
"I won't."
I hesitated for a moment before trying to ask Alice what had been on the tip of my tongue since calling her. On her end, she must have heard my little starts and stops, because she said, "Charlie, whatever it is, just say it. Not knowing what you're trying to ask is making me crazy."
"Alright, uh. Those…things that attacked us. The Cold Ones. They can't be…They're not…I've known you all for years, and…"
"Okay, okay. Stop," Alice interrupted me. "I think I know where this is going. It's so hard to do over the phone, but…what I need you to remember is that Forks has criminals, right?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Alice. I think I heard that somewhere."
"Okay. Well, the people in Forks aren't all criminals, right?" she asked.
"Yeah, but—"
"Just…keep that in mind, okay? That's all I'm saying. For now," Alice added when I tried to argue. "Now, please go and take care. I'm sure Jake and you have a lot you need to talk about."
We said our goodbyes before I ended the call and fell onto the couch. Jake sat on the edge of the other side and said, "When you're ready, everyone is outside. We got a bunch of food together earlier, and there's still plenty left over. Sue made us promise to lay off until you'd gotten something to eat. I was just coming to wake you up when I heard you talking to that Cullen."
"You all okay out there, Jake? It sounded, uh, intense out there."
From what I could tell, Jake seemed looked pretty much the same as the last time I'd seen him. No new damage. If anything, his shoulder was moving around just fine, and his wounds may actually be looking a little better. Didn't mean the same was true for all of them.
He shrugged. "Sure sure. Physically, we're all alright. The slice through Paul's gut keeps opening up and bleeding pretty good. But he's back to being an ass, so I guess it's business as usual. Quil got here a bit ago. He was pissed that we let him miss the fight. Seems like he's alright. Minus the black and blue face. You'll see what I mean."
Jake turned to me and whatever he saw on my face made him cringe. He said, "I'm not gonna like what comes next, am I?
"You tell me, kid! Cold Ones? You wanna tell me exactly what the fuck that means? How much do you know about these things?"
"Yeah, Emily told us she's the one that gave it up," Jake chuckled. "After all the crap she's given about keeping you out of this."
My face flushed hot. "You think this is funny?"
"Charlie, I—"
"Because I sure don't."
Jake sighed. "No, I…Look, I'm sorry. It was just nervous energy. I swear, I'm not laughing at you."
"Cold Ones. They're from your legends, too?" I asked. When Jake nodded, I said, "Well, all right. So what does that mean? They're obviously not human."
"No, definitely not."
I took a shaky breath. "Do they…shift into that like you guys do?"
"No," Jake said. "That's just how they are. All the time. Our ancestors gave them their name for being cold as ice and hard as stone to the touch."
God, how many times had I thought about how Alice must eat like a bird because it felt like she was skin over bones? How many times had I shaken one of the Cullens' hands and thought about how poor their circulation must be? The signs were always there. I just had excuse after excuse for everything because who the hell expects a bunch of creatures from Native American folklore to be real and moving into your sleepy, Podunk town?
"Alright, so they're cold and like stone. And they're dangerous," I said.
"Lethal. Incredibly deadly."
"But the Cullens, they never…Well, at least I don't think they ever hurt any of you. Why do these others keep attacking you?"
"Because that's what fucking leeches do. They kill," said Paul.
Rachel followed Paul into the house, "Don't mind us. We're just coming in real quick to change Paul's bandages," she said. As she pulled her husband towards the bathroom, Rachel added, "We didn't mean to interrupt."
"Yeah, sure. Ass," Jake muttered. He looked at me and added, "Sorry," as Paul yelled, "Fuck you, Jacob!" from the bathroom.
"Trouble?" I asked in a daze.
The gears in my head were starting to turn. Leeches?
"More of the same." Jake turned and looked over his shoulder. "So fucking tired of his shit. It's been all goddamn day long. Okay, sorry. Hold on."
Jake took off down the hallway and left me with my thoughts.
Leeches.
That's the word Paul had just used for the Cold Ones.
I'd heard that before. Jake had used that word before in the past about the Cullens. So had Leah. The way I'd always interpreted it, it was a sort of slur.
Not that I ever understood why. Leech is typically used to describe someone who's a suck on society, and that was just about the absolute opposite way I'd describe the Cullens. Carlisle was a doctor, for God's sake. He could have been raking in the big bucks, but he practically volunteered at the hospital in Forks for as little as they were able to pay him. Esme was involved in several charities aside from her design work. I knew because Bella had gone on and on about it in her awkward sales pitches that last summer on how marrying Edward also meant marrying into their family.
And I guess it had worked. Wasn't that hard to do, after all. They were all good people. Even Edward had somehow wormed his way back into my good graces, though helping my daughter fake her own fucking death so she could run away with him hadn't exactly endeared him to me... again.
So why did they use the nickname, leeches, for the Cullens?
A memory pulled at me from just before the kids got married. The Quileutes weren't the only ones good at name-calling.
At the wedding rehearsal, I had been busy staying out of the way and pounding back a few Vitamin Rs. Figured I would need some liquid courage to make it through practicing giving my little girl away to that damn kid. While I was standing off to the side, I'd heard Emmett asking Jasper where "the dogs" were going to be sitting the next day and saw him wagging a rolled up newspaper in front of his brother's face.
Esme appeared out of the clear blue sky to take her son by the ear and read him his rights. One of the reasons her kids didn't cause some of the stereotypical trouble foster and adopted teens tended to get into in large groups was absolutely because of her keeping them on a short leash.
I never forgot the kid's antics. Honestly? At the time, I thought they were funny. What could I say? A couple beers will do that. And with the high stress I was under with the wedding under twenty-four hours away, I needed a few laughs.
But things were different, now. Those kids Emmett had called dogs had turned into real, oversized wolves right in front of my eyes—wolves that the Cullens had to have known about. It kinda put a spin on the whole insult. Emmett had to have been talking about the Quileutes with his little dig. If there was one thing I knew about the Cullens and the Quileutes, it was that there was definitely no love lost between them. If the Cullens' slur for the boys was "dogs," and that was pretty fucking accurate, then what did "leeches" mean?
What exactly did that make the Cullens?
My heart jumped up in my throat as I thought about all the things that fought werewolves in the movies. None of them was particularly pleasant. But there was one that I couldn't get out of my head once it hit.
Leeches.
Real leeches lived off blood.
Oh God.
Blood.
My stomach rolled. This was not happening. This couldn't be happening.
Cold Ones were the stuff of the Quileutes legends, right? They weren't…
"Uh, chief? You okay?" Jake asked as he came back into the room.
I couldn't answer him. The room was too busy closing off into black at the edges of my vision. I bent over at the waist and stuck my head between my knees.
It all fit. All of it.
Pale.
Cold.
Never ate.
Weird eyes.
Leeches. Blood.
Everything stacked together and made perfect sense.
And I really didn't want it to.
How many times had I wondered just what the hell kind of creature would a pack of overgrown wolves fight? What would be dangerous enough to hurt, and now, kill them?
It should have been so obvious. I'd had so many of the clues. Hadn't I seen all those crappy movies at one point or another? Even kinda liked the one with the hot chick in the leather.
Vampires.
Natural enemies.
Werewolves always fight fucking vampires.
Vampires that were cold to the touch.
Just like the Cullens.
Vampires that are pale.
Just like the Cullens.
Vampires that never ate human food because they ate...
Oh, goddamnit.
This is too much.
I think I was groaning. I sure felt like I was making the sound, but damned if anything was actually coming out. All I could hear was a ringing and the rush of my blood pounding in my ears.
Blood.
Jesus Christ.
All the sound suddenly came rushing back, and I jumped a fucking foot to find Jake, Seth, and Sam all suddenly right in front of my face.
Was Jacob shaking me?
"The fuck, Jacob?" I yelled.
"Charlie? Jesus, don't do that to us," he said, his voice all high and fast. "I was just about to load you in the car and haul you down to the hospital. Are you okay?"
I pulled my head back. "Uh…Yeah. I mean, no. What's going on?"
"You were just kinda doubled over, chief," Seth said. "We couldn't get you to respond."
They couldn't?
What the hell? How deeply had I been in my head thinking about vampires?
Vampires.
"Jesus. Fuck…Goddammit," I said as I dropped my head into my hands.
"Charlie? You okay?" Jacob asked.
I lifted my head back up and looked at him like the crazy motherfucker he was, right about now. "Okay? Okay? I am not okay. Why the fuck would you ask me if I'm okay?"
"Charlie?" Jake asked again.
"Is it true?"
Jake looked over at Sam for a long moment before turning back to me. "Is what true?"
"Is it true?" I asked again. "The Cold Ones…The Cullens…You've all called them leeches. Is. It. True? Is that what they are? What you've been hiding from me all this time? Just be straight with me. Cold One isn't another name for vampire, is it?"
Jake nodded. "Yeah, chief. It is."
The room spun.
"Seth, maybe we should go," Sam said as he took a couple steps away from me. "Give Charlie and Jake some space."
"Come on, Sam. Can't we just—"
"Just…give us a bit," Jake said.
"Come out as soon as he's settled," Sam said as he tapped Seth on the shoulder.
Seth glared at Jacob for a second longer and then followed after Sam. I hope they weren't gonna be holding their breath, waiting for me to come out because "settled?" Jesus. I didn't think I would ever be settled, again.
This couldn't be true.
Vampires were evil. They killed for sport. And they were apparently as real as anything else in this fucked up world. What the fuck had my little girl gotten involved in?
As I let myself fall back against the couch, I took a deep breath. At this point, my stomach was going to eat clean through my gut.
"You hanging in there?" Jake asked.
I rubbed my hands hard over my face. "I don't know, son. This is too much. Werewolves and vampires. It's like I just got dropped into a horror flick. How is any of this real?" My arms dropped back to my sides, and I leaned forward again. "I mean, goddammit, kid. The Cullens? They're fucking strange, and I'll even buy them not being human. But Jesus Christ, Jake, vampires? The Cullens are many things, but evil ain't one of them. I know them. I mean, I know them."
"No. You don't."
The chill in his voice caught me off guard. "I guess I don't."
Jake shook his head. "You know, if Bella was here, she would probably be yelling at me right about now and trying to convince you that it shouldn't change anything."
"Are you kidding me? It changes everything," I said.
"I know."
"So Bells knew about all this? Before she left?"
"Yeah, she knew," Jake said.
I nodded. Figured as much. "They didn't…brainwash her or something, did they?"
"No. They can't do that."
"But those things out there," I said. "They're killers. Please tell me the Cullens aren't like... You said a while back that you did trust them to a point. Please tell me they're not out there somewhere hurting her, or—"
"Alright," Jake said as he rolled his eyes. "Okay, as much as I hate saying this, no. The Cullens aren't exactly like the bloodsuckers out there today. Okay? They choose to live peacefully, which is the only fucking reason my great-grandpa ever let them live."
"The treaty," I said.
"Yeah."
The pit in my stomach eased slightly. "So, what exactly are you saying? Be blunt. I can take it."
Jake raised an eyebrow at me, but then answered, "All right. The Cullens don't…hurt people."
Oh thank God.
The relief must have been written all over my face because Jake said, "Don't get ahead of yourself, Charlie. I never said they weren't dangerous. Just that they don't mean to harm anyone."
"Which means they have?" I asked.
"It happens. It's their kind," he said. "That's what leeches do, even when they fight it. Why the hell do you think my dad was always so worked up over Bella being with Edward? None of us wanted to see her become like him."
Time stood still.
"What did you just say?"
Jake's eyes widened so much I half expected them to fall clear out of his skull. "Oh, crap," he muttered.
"What the hell did that mean?" I asked.
"Charlie…"
I felt my heart clench painfully in my chest and skip a beat before it lurched on with its beating, again. He didn't need to say anything. Somehow, I just knew.
Become like him.
Become a vampire.
That's why they left.
Bella was going to become like him.
I didn't say anything. Wasn't sure how to put what I was feeling into words, anyway. A part of me wanted to turn my head to the sky and just scream my fool head off. Another part wanted something fierce to clock Jake right in his fucking face for not telling me any of this sooner.
But the part that won out was the part that had just been through too damn much in the last twelve hours. It was the part that told me to get the hell outta there.
Apparently, there was only so much these old bones could take, and we'd finally gotten there.
"Charlie, wait!" Jake called as I stood and marched towards the door, somehow hanging back on its hinges like it was never broken into shards in the first place.
Jesus Christ.
As soon as I was out of the house, I started walking to my car, not really sure if the plan was to actually leave. All I knew was that I needed to move.
The group around back by the fire got completely quiet when they saw Jake walking quickly behind me. Seth and Sam stood first, followed by almost everyone else. I ignored them and started fumbling with my keys.
"Charlie! Charlie, please. You can't leave," Jake finally said. "Please, it's not safe. If anything happened to you, do you have any idea how many people would line up to kill me?"
I spun around to face him. The kid looked about as panicked as he sounded, grabbing his hair and breathing hard the way he was. "Son, I realize the position this put you in, but I just can't do this, right now. I'm sorry."
"Please, Charlie, don't go. We can't protect you if you're not here. Bella will never forgive me if something happens to you."
A spark flared up in my gut.
Bella will.
Future tense.
Because Bella has a future. A future she never lost in the first place. A future that was who the fuck knew how long now.
And a future all of them—all of them—around that fire knew she was busy living while I basically lost myself in my grief.
I wanted to leave and never come back. Just thinking about how much they all knew this whole time made the bile in my stomach churn. But the problem was I also wanted answers. Needed them. That's why I had agreed to come down here in the first place.
So here I was, stuck between that rock and hard place everyone is always going on about.
"Just, please stay," Jake tried again. "Please."
I jiggled my keys in my hands and looked past Jacob to the group that had formed behind him—Sue, Sam, Emily, Seth. They were all silently begging me to not leave. And then there was the group still standing awkwardly in the backyard around the fire, watching everything play out.
I realized that no one had left yet. They wanted to lean on each other and cope with everything that had happened to their ragtag little family.
They had all just lost two dear friends, and here I was storming off like an ass and making it about me again. How was it possible that I just kept fucking up at every turn?
"Alright, I'll stick around." I help up my hand when Jake heaved a huge sigh, "Wait, wait, wait. Not so fast. Answers."
"Answers?"
"Answers. All of 'em. If I'm staying, I need you to get everything else out in the open. Everything. I don't wanna find out the rest of this in bits and pieces. If I stay, you bring me up to speed."
Jake and Sam looked at each other for a long moment before Sam finally nodded. "Alright," Jake said. "We'll take that deal."
"Starting with what really happened in the woods."
"Two weeks ago?" Jake asked.
"No. Four and a half years ago."
After a moment, I saw the recognition in Jake's eyes. "Alright. Let's head on back to the fire. A spooky story needs a good fire."
As Jake, Sam, and Emily led the way back towards the rest of the group, all I could focus on was getting my butt down onto one of those logs and finding out the answer to almost every question I had about the Cullens—what happened in the woods, how was the treaty formed, and what the fuck had been going on with the boulders and disappearances in my town.
But there was a question that wouldn't leave me alone, and I wasn't sure if I would ever ask it out loud. I thought about my breakdown in front of her memorial behind the Cullens' place. My daughter chose to become one of them, fake her own death, and never come back.
Had her old man ever even factored into the decision?
Because knowing that my baby girl wasn't even really mine anymore…wasn't even human…was basically like losing her all over again.
But knowing that she chose it?
Well.
That was even worse.
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