Callas could feel the pain in her throat as she gasped for air, sitting up fast enough to cause her head to spin and a painful headache to form. Beside her, Embry woke up, breathing in deeply as he opened his eyes to look at her, after feeling the sudden shift on the bed. Her breathing was uneven as she struggled to catch her breath and regulate it, she squeezed her eyes shut while her left hand gripped at her throat, expecting to feel warm blood spurting out, oozing down her hand, or something other than the warmth of her skin that she felt instead. Callas opened her eyes and continued to calm her breathing, feeling Zeus lay his head on her lap while looking up at her, sighing to himself. Embry, being careful not to startle her, gently wrapped his arms around her midsection, resting his forehead on her right shoulder, giving her time to relax before he would ask her any questions. When she finally felt as if she could breathe, she placed her left hand onto Zeus's head, away from her throat, while shakily placing her right hand over Embry's, automatically feeling the warmth from his body on her hand.
"What happened?" Embry asked as he lifted his forehead from her shoulder, placing his chin down instead, glancing at the side of her face while she continued to stare off into nothing—although her eyes were fixated on the small, grey, knitted, throw blanket at the end of the bed that had shifted due to the movement of them under the quilt.
With a gulp, she spoke quietly, "Will. Will happened."
He moved his head slightly, still watching Callas closely as his eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"My dream," she responded. "He was in my dream again, but I don't think it was his fault, I think my mind just went there itself. Either way, it was like a bad acid trip, it was like I was experiencing what the people of Salem were during the witch trials."
"C—" Embry shook his head, nudging her shoulder with his chin as he did so. "Callas, you've never taken acid before." His expression dropped. "Wait, have you?"
"No, no, I just—" This time she shook her head. "It's just how I explain things."
"Right. Okay. Well, do you want to talk about what happened?"
Callas shook her head again. "Not right now."
Embry hummed in response, he knew that, when she was ready, she would tell him about it. He just had to wait. Callas sighed to herself, knowing that she would have to face the others about the message at some point, so she crawled off the bed, making her way to the bedroom door while Zeus, who jumped off the bed and followed her, waited to leave with her. Embry pushed the quilt off his body and rubbed a hand down his face. He stood up and stretched while Callas opened the door. Zeus began to walk out, making his way down the stairs while Embry placed his hands on Callas's shoulder and gave them a soft squeeze, encouraging her to walk out as well. With a shaky, deep breath, Callas nodded to herself and walked over to the stairs. Her hand shook with nerves as she placed it on the railing and made her way down to the others. Embry was right behind her, which might have made the situation a little less daunting for her as she finally stepped down onto the floor, glancing up, her eyes searching for Reed before anyone else. Everyone else was silent, and she figured that at least one of them—no doubt Seth—had picked up on the speed of her heartbeat.
"Callas—" Sam started, but Reed quickly cut him off by standing up abruptly, making his way over to Callas.
"You can be the alpha in a second, but for now I'm going to need you to shut up." Reed turned his head from Sam and over to Callas as he pulled her into a tight hug, resting his right hand on the back of her head, keeping her as close to him as he possibly could. "I will never let him hurt you like that, I will protect you with my life, I promise," Reed whispered to her, despite knowing that almost everyone, bar Emily, could hear him. "I love you, Callas, I love you so much. I know my actions don't always show that, but I do, and I won't let that happen to you. I love you."
"I'm not dead yet, Reed," she mumbled back, feeling crushed by his grip, her anxiety was taking over, causing her to ramble on like she had done in the past. "Save the speech for later."
"You're not going to die."
"Isn't that kinda like being a vampire? You know, living forever, not dying? Well, I suppose they're already dead. That's gross, now that I think about it. We went to a house full of corpses," Callas blathered quietly, her eyebrows furrowing. "I'm also being stalked by a corpse."
"It's okay to be scared," Reed told her as he pulled away from the hug, knowing that she often rambled when she was, he placed his hands on her cheeks, looking her right in the eyes as he spoke, smiling softly.
"I know... but is it okay to be absolutely terrified?"
Sam finally spoke, "We won't let anything happen to you. We're going to stop Will before that ever happens." Callas glanced over at him as Reed dropped his hands from her face, looking over as well, noticing from the corners of her eyes that the others were nodding along in agreement.
"You can't always protect me, Sam. Will's going to find a way."
"While you're here, nothing is going to hurt you," Sam promised.
"And when I'm not here?"
"When you and Reed are allowed back home, we will set up patrols around your house to make sure that Will doesn't get to you, or Silas and Anya. When you go back to school, the boys will be with you. The Cullens will go to the Volturi to figure out what will happen to Will. He's broken laws and he will need to pay for them. The Volturi will decide if he is to die by their hand or, if the Cullens can convince them, by ours, hoping that they don't see him as a valuable possible member of their team."
"By 'ours' you mean—"
"By Embry or Reed."
"Oh." Callas stared at him, feeling a sense of panic wash over her.
Embry placed his hands on her shoulders, leaning down to her ear to speak softly, "It's going to be okay."
Instead of replying, she simply nodded her head and watched as Reed moved back over to the table where Leah and himself had been sitting. The table still had a few muffins from earlier, and, once again, Reed had been picking one of them apart, just before Callas came down, leaving the crumbs to drop onto the small, white, circular plate, just like he had done the day he phased in front of her for the first time. As he sat down, she could notice that Leah smiled gently at Reed before she looked over to Callas and stood up, making her way towards her, and Callas realised that in the short amount of time Leah and Reed had known each other, they had become comfortable with knowing that they were each other's imprints. Embry stepped away from Callas and sat down on the arm of the chair that was pressed up against the wall, with Jared and Paul, allowing Leah and Callas to introduce themselves properly to each other. Leah, who stood taller than Callas, and loomed over her shorter height, held her hand out for her to shake. Her hand was a lot warmer than Callas first thought, but then again, she was a wolf, like the boys, so it should have been expected. Leah gently shook her hand, a small smirk on her lips as she spoke.
"I'm sorry we had to meet the way that we did, blame the boys."
"Yeah, it was a bit of a—"
"Train wreck? Yeah, you'll get used to it. They tend to act on impulse, not common sense."
"Tell me about it," Callas mumbled, her eyes looking over to Sam before she looked back at Leah and offered her a real smile. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"Likewise."
Leah smiled one last time before she moved to sit back down at the table. Callas turned to face the others properly, rather than towards the table that Reed and Leah sat, while leaning her back against the wall just by the entrance to the stairs. A sudden realisation came to her and she looked over to Sam quickly. "Would you guys be able to patrol near Henry's house next time you go out?"
Paul scoffed quietly. "And why the hell would we do that?"
Callas's eyes looked over at him quickly, all fear that she once showed was replaced by anger and disgust as she pushed herself away from the wall. "You know what, Paul? Grow the fuck up. I am sick and tired of hearing you talk about Henry like he's nothing but an inconvenience to you all when he's not! You need to understand that if anything were to happen to him I would never forgive you, in fact, it would be the same as you letting Will hurt me. I shouldn't have to tell you that a person's life has worth. He's not expendable, he's not someone that you can just leave out to die. Henry is my best friend and I shouldn't have to tell you that his life has meaning, because if I do, that just goes to show what kind of person you are, or what kind of person you're not. You claim that your job is to protect La Push, to protect the people that live here, but it's not. No, you only protect those you believe are worthy. Well, let me tell you that's complete bullshit. Henry is worthy. Henry deserves to live. He deserves to be protected. So, don't make me have to tell you that Henry is just as important as I am, because that should already be clear."
Once she stopped, and she finally allowed herself to breathe after yelling at Paul, she stood up straighter, blinking a few times, and unclenched her fists from her sides. Her lungs hurt from the lack of air getting to them because of her speech, because of the lack of pauses she gave herself due to how fast she had wanted to get every single word out that she spoke. Paul had paused, his expression had dropped from his face, not expecting Callas to have responded in such a passionate way. He realised that Callas's outburst was because she wanted to protect Henry just like he would want to protect the pack, it went without question. He cleared his throat, looking down at his hands before he looked back up at her. There was guilt on his face as his jaw clenched and his hands clasped together tightly. Callas relaxed her tense shoulders, although not by much, and her heart was beating just a little faster than normal once she realised that she just finished yelling at the one wolf who struggled to control his hot-headed temper.
"I'm sorry," he apologised quietly.
Sam looked between the two of them as the room went silent. "What the hell was that about?"
"Paul thinks Henry is a vampire which is complete bullshit, thank you very much!" Callas placed her hands on her hips.
"How the hell did you know that?" Paul looked at her in confusion as she rolled her eyes. The guilty expression he once had was replaced with confusion and a hint of anger. His hands were now separated and held out in shock with his palms facing the ceiling.
"It's not that hard to connect the dots from your comments. I'm not stupid, Paul. I know you're not the only one who thinks that he is," Callas spoke with annoyance while looking over at Jared. "You know, stupidity isn't contagious, but apparently, for you two, it makes an exception." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Did he ever show any vampire qualities, like, oh I don't know, looking like a crystal? Or having that scent vampires have to you guys? If the answer is no to both of those questions then, congratulations, you're both idiots!" Paul's expression dropped again, this time it was blank. Jared blinked and opened his mouth but decided against saying anything and looked down at the ground, blowing out some air.
From across the room, Reed laughed quietly while Sam rubbed his forehead and sighed. "We will patrol Henry's house, don't worry."