Chapter 10: Orders

Charlie walked in on Bella whilst she was staring at her hand the next day. She was sitting at the kitchen table, lasagne in the oven making the entire kitchen and hallway smell delicious. She still had an apron tied around her waist. Her back was straight, not touching the back of the chair as she stared at her hand with a frown.

"Everything alright Bells?" He said as he cautiously entered the kitchen, she had already put a pot into the sink, soaking it with hot water to get the slightly burned tomatoes at the bottom to loosen up whilst the lasagne cooked.

Bella snapped her eyes up and smiled uncomfortably, "Yeah, of course dad!" She said just a bit too quickly to be believable. Charlie walked closer and grabbed her hand, all he could see was a very faint, pink spot. "Anything wrong with your hand?"

Bella pulled back her hand and shrugged, "I fell down yesterday when I was at Jacob's place."

Charlie chuckled, "You really put a band-aid on that? It didn't even break the skin."

Bella laughed tensely, "I thought it did, I guess I didn't look at it properly." She said as she moved her fingers over the slightly itching mark. Charlie nodded and moved upstairs to get out of his uniform, complimenting the smell of the lasagne which was making him even more hungry then before. Bella smiled until she couldn't see him anymore, placing her hand back into her line of vision to stare at the slightly pink spot again.

She remembered falling down, using her hands to stop her from completely crashing into the ground. There had been blood, Paul had looked at it and apologised for his clumsiness. She had driven herself home whilst her palm had continued itching and pounding, she had disinfected it in the sink in the bathroom upstairs whilst Charlie had watched tv. She hadn't even told him she had fallen down, not wanting to make a big deal out of it at first. The disinfectant had stung and the sink had coloured red whilst she had been cleaning off the dried blood. The wound itself hadn't been deep at all, mostly superficial but there had definitely been a wound.

She quickly dropped her hand when Charlie walked back in, wiping her itching palm on her jeans as the timer from the oven went off.

"Finally!" Charlie said, rubbing his hands together, "I'm starving."

He was so hungry he barely noticed Bella barely ate anything.

The next few weeks confused Bella even more. She had started her first shifts at the library and got more papercuts then she could keep count of. All would be gone by the time she woke up the next day, she would forget about most of them but once she realised they kept disappearing overnight she started worrying, constantly thinking back of spot on her palm which was now gone completely.

The uneasiness she so often experienced wherever she was got worse, she constantly felt like something was off, like these was someone or something watching her. Waiting, for something she didn't know. She didn't sleep well and her appetite was barely there, but Charlie didn't really notice. He had always eaten her leftovers, hating to waste food. He hadn't noticed Bella had started cooking less food and gave herself smaller portions, he didn't notice she stopped eating breakfast altogether when it only made her feel squeamish these days. When he noticed her heading out without breakfast once he called her out on it with a teasing voice.

"A lot of people don't eat breakfast, dad."

"It's the most important meal of the day!" He said with a grin. She rolled her eyes in return and closed the door behind her. She held the knob in her hand for a while and stopped breathing when the back of her head started itching, closing her eyes she tried to focus on the sounds around her but she couldn't make out anything out of the ordinary. She sighed, you're officially losing your mind Bella. She mumbled to herself as she made her way to work, wondering how on earth she wasn't tired even though she hadn't slept in two days.

August

"Bella?" a confused voice called from somewhere behind, making some people around her turn with annoyance whilst she was folding some newspapers in front of her.

"Jacob?" She muttered quietly.

"How have you been?" He said happily, his voice loud in the silent library as he made his way towards her from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm fine, but lower your voice." He frowned at her, she rolled her eyes in response, "You're in a library."

He grinned at her and scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, I thought they only did that in movies."

Bella laughed and motioned for him to follow her. She quickly made her way through the empty shelves, the only people occupying the library during the summer were some of the elder residents of Forks. They would come in before lunch to read some of the newspapers or magazines at the big table on the first floor. But the rest of the library was usually fairly abandoned when the sun came out during the summer months.

"When was the last time you were in a library?" Bella teased as she leaned against the wall next to a floor to ceiling window at the other side of the building. Jacob chuckled in response.

"I don't really remember to be honest."

"Really?" Bella said with a shocked expression. "Not a big reader then?"

Jacob shook his head, "We also don't have a library at the reservation. Our school has like a mini-library in some of the classrooms. Which is basically just a small shelf in the back corner of the classroom."

Bella narrowed her eyes, "Have you ever used the mini-library?"

"About once a year when we have to read a book for English."

Bella shook her head and clutched her chest dramatically. "You're killing me here Jacob."

He smirked and looked around at the shelves around them. "You're missing all the sunshine though, this August had been the warmest in a while apparently."

Bella smirked, pushing the questions about how the Cullens would have survived during times like these to the back of her mind. "I'm not really made for sunshine though." She said, showing him her pale arms.

"Damn Bella, I don't think I've ever seen anyone as pale as you." He looked her over for a few seconds, his light and teasing smirk changing into a frown of confusion.

"You look different."

Bella rolled her eyes, "Not this again," she started, "remember what happened last time?"

"I apologised for that."

"I know." She said dryly, he didn't stop looking at her with intense eyes. "What's different then."

"There's just something different about you."

"Jeez, thanks for being so specific Jacob."

"I don't know how to put in into words." He said with red cheeks, "It's like your entire being is different."

"That's oddly poetic."

"Shut up."

"Anyway, there's a reason why I came here."

"You want to borrow a book?"

He laughed again, "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out."

Bella frowned and crossed her arms against her chest, "Like campfire-hang-out-let's-see-everyone-again-and-be-super-awkward-hang-out, or let's-hang-out-just-us-hang-out?"

"Just us, promise."

Which is how Bella found herself walking through the forest, the sunshine bright and warm above her. She hadn't brought much of her "Christmas-hiking-kit", she was wearing the walking boots with her thick socks which she was kind of regretting since she felt like they were sweating buckets on the inside. She hadn't brought the jacket or any of the nifty little tools in the box. She was wearing a beige, crew-neck t-shirt with black jeans. Her phone in her back pocket.

"You're not as clumsy as I remember." Jacob said as he looked at how she stepped over obstacles, climbed onto fallen down tree trunks to jump down from them effortlessly. She didn't even sound out of breath. Something he hadn't been able to do until a few months ago.

"I've been practising." She teased.

Jacob hadn't noticed a loose hanging branch somewhere far above them snapping due to the weight of an animal lurking around, it collected a certain momentum on its way down and would've loudly hit the ground if anyone else had been standing where Bella was standing. Jacob wouldn't have been able to catch it, he hadn't been paying much attention to anything but Bella.

Bella didn't know that her old friend wasn't just there to 'hang out' with her, he had gotten a certain set of orders from a certain person in La Push. Paul had come back from Forks to complain about her, "The girl doesn't smell like she used to smell." Paul had exclaimed through gritted teeth when he had followed her through town, his nostrils flaring and his fists shaking. The fight which had erupted afterwards had been ugly and intense, Jacob's shoulder was still sensitive after Leah had helped him reset it after everyone had calmed down. And now there he was, walking and talking with his old friend, with orders from Sam to 'test' her without her knowing she was being tested.

So there he was, wondering how on earth he could test her in any other way, when the branch he was completely unaware of hurdled down with rapid speed. Bella hadn't even looked like she had noticed when she tensed and shot out her arm, catching it before it could hit the ground.

"What the hell!" Jacob exclaimed loudly, jumping back on instinct with wide eyes.

Bella stared at the piece of wood in her hand, it was thick and quite heavy. She turned it around in her hand and looked up as if to see where it had come from. "Where did that come from?" She murmured with a frown on her face.

"Obviously from a tree above us." Jacob said tensely. Bella snorted and let the piece of wood drop with a loud thud onto the ground, wiping her hand on her jeans she looked up at Jacob with a smile which quickly disappeared when she noticed the look on his face.

"Are you okay?"

"How did you do that?"

"I just caught it, do you think about how you catch things you weren't expecting." She teased.

"Stop being like this, Bella. This has been going on for long enough now."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't start-"

"You're the one who won't tell me anything. You and your friends have been making insinuations for weeks without an explanation."

Jacob's breathing changed as he saw her eyes darken visibly in front of him.

"What is it that you all want from me?" She demanded. "You can't ask me what you really want to ask me without telling me that you know."

"I don't know what-"

"Stop beating around the bush!" She yelled. "I've had it with people keeping things from me."

His chest was heaving now.

"Ask me," She said tensely, "now." Her voice demanding and cold as she tilted her head to observe him. She didn't realised how different she looked. She hadn't looked at someone like that before, her stance was more like Jasper's, but Jacob had only even met Edward so he couldn't connect the dots. The way she observed him was almost predatory, her eyes big and unblinking, her teeth clenched and her breathing sharp as she clenched her fists in a way to keep the rage which she felt building inside of her on the inside. She felt like a ticking time bomb.

"What happened to you to get that scar on your wrist." He hissed through clenched teeth, something inside of him pulling painfully as he started defying Sam's orders to keep quiet about his knowledge in front of her.

She took a few, calculated steps into his direction until she was just a few steps away from him. Close enough to see the sweat on his forehead, an angry vein visible on his forehead. Close enough for him to see the actual patches of deep, dark black seeping into her eyes as her jaw clenched. She lifted her head to look up at him since he was so much taller than her. "Use the word you've been wanting to say all this time." Her eyes were so deep, he felt like he was drowning in them. He momentarily forgot where he was or what was going on and before he knew what was happening he opened his mouth, "How did you get that vampire bite on your wrist." She only blinked when his face paled, he staggered backwards with shaking legs as he moved one of his hands to his head to clutch into his short hair.

"I thought you were never going to ask me." She murmured as she moved her hand through her hair.

"I wasn't supposed." He murmured as his face got paler and paler.

"Do you want the long or the short story?" She said calmly.

"Short."

Bella nodded and looked at the sky, the rays above her making her skin look soft and rich. "Three nomadic vampires walked in on the Cullens and me playing baseball. One of them decided to hunt me for fun, as a game. He lured me into a ballet studio in Phoenix and attacked me. Edward sucked the venom out when they found me."

"But you're not completely human anymore?"

Bella arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I don't know what to call this, you're not completely human Bella."

Bella swallowed loudly, "I don't know what-"

"Have you really not noticed anything different about yourself. Your looks, the way you act, the way you move."

"I haven't really thought of it like that before." She said, not looking into this eyes.

Jacob scoffed, "Are you serious?" His voice deepened slightly as she slowly stalked towards her. "You caught a falling branch without knowing it was coming. You pushed me in your kitchen, you-"

"I don't know if you've noticed but I bleed, like all humans do."

Jacob grabbed her arm tightly, "That was weeks ago, wasn't it."

"What you think I'm changing?" She said sarcastically as she tried to pull her arm from his bruising grip. "Jacob, please let me go."

He grit his teeth and looked her up and down again, breathing in deeply and freezing at the hint of vampire he suddenly smell in the distance. He pressed his nose against her shoulder and inhaled.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!" She yelled, she had never felt this uncomfortable before around a 'friend' in her life. He frowned when he realised the overly sweet smell wasn't coming from her, he quickly shoved her behind him, looking around the dense forest surrounding them.

He hadn't noticed how Bella almost went flying back from his force and he also hadn't noticed the sheer panic which had been visible on her face when she stumbled back, clenching her wrist against her chest. He didn't noticed how the patches of deep black in her eyes suddenly overtook the entirety of her iris, he didn't know that if he had paid attention he wouldn't have been able to see the difference between her pupil and her iris. He didn't see how her already pale skin turned even paler and he didn't see how she crouched down again, but different then before. He was trying to focus on the sickly sweet scent which seemed to have disappeared again with the next gust of wind when the slightest new hint of sweetness reached him.

The scent wasn't like the previous one and he couldn't place as he looked around with confusion. Vampires smelled disgusting to them, overly sweet and sharp like bleach. But the smell hitting him was sweet, not like humans and not like any vampire he had met. It took him too long to realise it was coming from the girl he had hastily shoved behind him and when he finally did turn around, he took a step back before his entire form started shaking out of instinct just from looking at her.

"What is your problem!" She growled through her teeth, her back straight and her eyes wide. Jacob had never encountered an actual vampire before, he had learned all about them through the stories of his pack and ancestors, but he imagined they probably looked something like she did standing in front of her with rage visible on her face.

He hadn't notice her charging closer to him until her hands pressed against his chest. Her hands felt cold through the thin material of his shirt, he had expected her to shove him and he was counting on grabbing her hands to calm her down and explain, but the force of her anger surprised him as he flew back a few steps. His instinct couldn't let him get hurt and before he knew what was happening or what he had done, his clothes lay shredded around his feet and his trembling body shifted into a different one.

The quiet suddenly surrounding them was thick and heavy, Jacob could only hear his loud and laboured breathing and Bella could only hear hers.

Bella had moved so he could only see her back, she was hunched over gasping loudly not too far from him. She looked back at him with wide eyes after half a minute of uncomfortable silence. The blackness fading into dark brown again as she turned to face him. She was clutching her right arm tightly and Jacob didn't even have to look to know what he had accidentally done, vivid images of Emily he had seen through Sam's memories flashed through his mind as he saw the amount of blood rushing down her arm.

His wolf form was still massive, he met Bella's eyes as she raised her head again, she was just a few feet away from him now, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. Her hand forgotten somewhere in front of her body, blood dripping down from her arm to her hand, she couldn't hear the sounds of the drops hitting the ground every few seconds but Jacob could in this form.

"Holy shit." She breathed out. The old Bella creeping back into the girl in front of him as she dropped her arm next to her body again.

Jacob breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself, he didn't want to loose control again with her in front of him. He didn't know what the sound of a wolf breathing did to instinct of his old friend. His old friend who didn't look or smell like her old self. His old friend who was as pale as the Cullens had once been. His old friend who should have been shaking from shock, but wasn't. His old friend who's eyes were even darker then before and whose posture changed as she crouched down lightly again, unsure of what was happening or how to react.

Bella's mind was a whirlwind of different emotions and voices, it almost hurt to the point she wanted to clutch her head and scream. She didn't notice her stance had shifted into a crouch until Jacob's wolf form in front of her growled at her, he took a step back to observe her. She closed her eyes and straightened her back again, her hands started shaking this time around. Her mind yelling at her. She felt like there was something pushing at her from the inside out, but she didn't know what it was or how to get rid of it. Her feelings were intense and overwhelming and she had a feeling she probably would've collapsed if it hadn't been for the adrenaline raging through her body.

She moved her arm in front of her again with a hiss when her arm started throbbing. The small gusts of wind moving around them reminding her of the wet blood on her arm. The cut on her arm was deep, just a few inches above her scar, and seemed to be about 4 inches long. The wolf in front of her huffed quietly, she looked up with big eyes and saw him staring at the cut on her arm. He lowered his head, was he apologising? Bella wondered. He moved his head to the area behind her, the way they had taken to reach this part of the forest. Bella looked back and forth for a while, not knowing what to do until the wolf in front of her moved carefully, putting more space between them.

She didn't remember running through the forest at a speed which should've been nearly impossible for her to reach so easily, but she did anyway. It took the feeling of the slightly warm metal of her truck underneath her fingertips for her to come to her senses again and realise she had made the long hike back on her own, without realising where she had been going. Looking at her arm she realised the cut was way too deep to just go home and put a band-aid on it. There was a lot of blood dried on her arm already but fresh blood kept seeping down her arm, she realised that once upon a time she would've fainted but she felt oddly fine now.

The message she left on Charlie's voicemail was brief and didn't entail a lot of details about what had happened, but it didn't matter anyway. Charlie was out with Billy, his phone didn't have any reception. She tried to calm down her rushing mind as she drove through the darkening streets towards the hospital. She didn't see the gorgeous orange and pink sky as the sun made its way down, she didn't see Jacob's wolf form running through the forest to catch a glimpse of her form in her big red truck. She didn't see how he stopped when her car started reaching houses, she didn't hear how he let out a loud but sad howl for the other wolves to hear.

As soon as he had let out his sad howl, over a dozen voices filled his brain, the shift from complete silence to the chaos in his brain was overwhelming and almost painful. He held off showing the events of the afternoon until he saw everyone around him. He didn't know how Sam would react, he had accidentally broken one of the most important rules.

"That's the scent of a cold one!" Paul snared as his head filled with Jacob's memories, racing through the forest they eventually found the era which still contained slight traces of the scent Jacob had caught earlier.

"It's not her scent at all though." Leah added once they finally found it somewhere deep into the forest. The trees and branches grew so thickly in this part of the forest that it was difficult to differentiate day and night at times.It was difficult even for them to navigate this part of the forest.

"There's a cold one hiding in the forest?" Seth asked.

"Could it be one of the Cullens?" Jacob asked Sam.

Sam's voice was still filled with anger, "No, I know all of their scents. It's not one of them or one of their acquaintances."

"Then who is it?" Growled Paul.

"We'll find out sooner or later."

"I didn't know what to do." Jacob added without realising, thinking back of Bella's face of complete anger and loss of control.

"I'm sorry, but we can't keep saying the girl is just human when we've seen what she can do just now." Someone said calmly.

"Perhaps it's time to invite her and have an actual conversation with her."

"Invite a leech!" Paul growled.

"I think the fact that blood was literally dripping down her arm onto the ground shows she clearly isn't a leech, Paul." Leah added without much patience.

"Yet."

"You know as well as I do that it doesn't work that way." Leah snapped back.

"Enough." Sam said tiredly. "We will invite and we will talk to her."

Sam kept focusing on the look of pure anger on the girl's face, the paleness of her skin, the force in her hands and the blood dripping down her arm. He had a lot of reading to do.