The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Seventy-One

Renesme

I was hanging on the side of a skyscraper one hundred feet above the ground when I felt the tug of my sisters' mind. Wind blew my hair around, icing over my fingers, making them stiff. Now was a terrible time for her to come knocking. I tried to shake it off, gripping onto the tiny crooks of metal with the tips of my fingers, pulling myself up, reaching for the railing of a balcony where I'd then be able to hop over and switch safely. But even as I got up on the outside of the railing, she pushed me around, knocking me out of my own body.

For a second it was black, then I opened my eyes, in the soft light of La Push. The air was thicker here, easier to breath than the freezing wind of Moscow. And I found that I was looking right into familiar brown eyes. He looked sad. More sad than I wanted to admit to myself. We stared at each other for a moment before I remembered that I just left my body hanging off the edge of a skyscraper. I hoped Stormy was smart enough to hang on... Would I feel the pain if she fell? It had been about three seconds, so she would have hit the ground by now, I think. I searched for her without prodding, not wanting to grab onto the body, a little scared that she just killed my body. But it felt fine over there. No sudden pain. She wasn't trying to switch back. She wanted me here.

"Nessie?" Jacob asked.

He was holding onto his shoulder with one hand, and a can of beer in another hand. We were in the woods, the leaves were red and yellow and orange. I took a step, crunching some, stumbling, but Jacob grabbed onto my elbow, steadying me. "Hey," he said, "Hey. Don't go. It's just me, I just want to talk." He bent with me to the side, trying to look into my eyes.

"It's really not the best time," I said.

"What's more important right now? Where are you in the world? What are you doing?"

I turned slightly away from him, looking at him from the corner of my eye. I couldn't tell him that we were tracking down impregnated women and killing Dhampir before they could cause havoc on the world and ruin any chance of getting back to normal. "I'm sorry," I said. "I can't tell you that."

"Nessie," he said, the sadness being overtaken by seriousness, his eyes darkened. "You just disappeared with no explanation. You didn't even call."

"I needed to figure things out," I said.

"You can figure things out without leaving me in the dark."

"I'm sorry, it's just... it's vampire things. You wouldn't understand."

Mentioning vampire things only made his hand tighten around my elbow. "What do you mean vampire things?"

"See, this is exactly why I didn't tell you anything. You freak out no matter how I phrase it. But I'm okay. I'm with good people—"

"People? Or vampires?"

"I'm with friends. That's all you need to know. They're taking care of me. They don't treat me like a child—"

"I'm not treating you like a child."

"Everyone here treats me like a child."

He reached his free hand toward my cheek. I flinched slightly, my hand came up, dropping the can in my hand. It fell and started blubbering out beer on the ground. "I'm not," he said, "I'm just..." he looked closer into my eyes, "Are you wearing contacts?" he asked.

I frowned, "I don't know, I woke up in a different body this morning." But as I blinked, I was more aware that there was something on my eyes. He didn't lift his hand from my cheek, he just looked more closely at me, up and down, as if this body could give him clues to where I was at. I rested my hand on his, "Jake. I'm okay. I promise."