CHAPTER TEN
ᴊᴀᴄᴏʙ
After hunting one day, I returned to a phone call from Bella. It was rare that she would call me. Usually, if she needed me, I would be there within enough time to hold it off. But it was obvious, as she spoke through the phone, that she was panicked, her voice frantic and wavering.
"Bella? Calm down."
"Could you come over, please?" she asked, her voice timid.
"What happened, are you alright?"
"Please," she stumbled out. "Just come over."
Once, I'd thought Bella was a nervous girl. But she was anything but. Her bravery easily scared me, just as her wavering voice did then. If the fact that her ex-boyfriend was a vampire, didn't set her teeth chattering in fear, I dreaded to think what actually would.
"I'll be two minutes."
When I arrived at her house, Charlie was gone. There were fresh tyre tracks sunken into the sandy driveway and the burnt scent of petrol was fresh in the bitter air. I found Bella in her room, clothes littered across her floor and bed as she ruffled around her wardrobe and drawers. She stopped when she realised I'd already entered, and pulled me to sit on the edge of her bed.
I expected her to say that something had happened with Jacob or a wolf. Or both. I was beginning to suspect that those terms were mutually interchangeable. But what she said next worried me more than any boy from the reservation could.
"I saw Laurent," she said, followed by a gulp of air.
"What? You're sure?"
There wasn't a single scratch on her that wasn't caused by her own haste or clumsiness. I don't know why I expected her to be harmed- Laurent had gone to live in Alaska with another civilised family like the Cullens. His new coven was smaller, and so Bella was protected. Even if the Cullens had left.
But I knew vampires. I was one, after all, and I'd been turned by one and learned to get along well with a whole family of them. They were fickle creatures- as erratic as winter weather- and as cold as it too. They couldn't be trusted.
Bella nodded. "He talked to me."
I'd already checked, but I lifted her chin, moving it so my eyes could skim over her face a second time. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm physically fine."
"What happened?"
She swallowed. "He was in the woods. He was talking to me- about Victoria. She wants to kill me," Bella said, her voice heightening as the realisation of her situation truly sunk in. "He was going to finish me off for her. But then a wolf came and scared him off. It sounds bizarre, I know..."
I stopped her. "You're telling a vampire something sounds bizarre?"
She looked away, her shoulders still locked into the same squared shape.
"It'll be alright, Bella. Nothing will happen to you. I'll make sure of it."
I would make sure of it.
With no reason to need the night for my own, I stopped outside of her house, huddled flatly against the trunk of the tree, perched like a cat on the branch that extended past her window. Each morning after she'd seen Laurent, below her eyes darkened a shade until they were purplish, like a bruise. When she shuffled out of the front door, bag slung over her shoulder, eyes widening open as she greeted the first of the day's sun, she seemed to stare back at me in surprise as if she was unconvinced she survived yet another night.
I was too scared to leave her alone. Both because of Victoria's threat and because of the likeliness of her falling back into her depressive state. I don't think I could get through those months again, let alone Bella and Charlie. He'd been taking more shifts at the station again, because of the wolf situation, and Bella had never been more pleased and disappointed with the fact. For one, it meant he was out of the house, less likely to be noticed by Victoria. But at the same time, after seeing the wolves that roamed the trees, fear had been instilled, and Charlie was going after those same powerful creatures with a meagre shotgun.
Nights had been somewhat peaceful, without a sign of Victoria. Bella tried to sleep as much as she could while I stayed outside, watching. In the darkness, the trees looked even calmer, their branches swaying along with the rhythm of the wind. It gave me a sense of tranquillity, my arms and legs still in meditation, my head buzzing and ready to make me move at any sign of a threat.
On the stillest of evenings, my dreams came back, the same familiar feeling of slim fingers drawing outlines on my papery skin. The sensation was engrained within my head from the weeks the images had taken my mind, and so was what followed. Snow-white arms snaking around my waist. Amber eyes staring back. A twinkling sort of laugh, like bells chiming in the distance. And then she would disappear at the next jump of Bella's heartbeat that I could hear through the walls.
My hand gripped the necklace that hung permanently down my front.
I heard the click of her window before I saw her face. Bella peered out, dark brown eyes and hair almost black compared to her pale skin, cloaked a slither of silver under the moon.
"Do you want to come in? I feel awful," she whispered, pushing the window open further.
"Don't be ridiculous. I offered to stay out here," I said, leaning forward against the slope of the porch roof that her window sat on.
Bella just shook her head, moving from the window ledge so I could slip across. She sat on her bed, laying her head back against the pillows so she could stare at the ceiling. I lay beside her, on top of the blanket, after I'd closed the window behind me.
"I went to see Jacob yesterday," she said after a while. I heard a peak in her heart rate, which had otherwise been normal.
I turned my head. Her eyes were closed, her brows knotted together.
"He's talking to you now?"
"No," she said harshly, teeth gritting together. "He was angry. He's changed. He hangs around with Sam Uley, when only weeks ago he said something weird was going on with them. I don't like what's happening. I wish everything would go back to how it was."
"To when?" I asked softly, watching as her face fell.
"To September," she said. "To my birthday. I should have been more grateful. I should have told them how much I loved them, that I loved their gifts and how thoughtful they were. I should have told you how much I loved that you were my friend and I should have made you talk to Alice, no matter how much you were in denial. I should have made him stay."
I looked away, unable to bear the weight of her look or her words. I focused on the window, on the familiarness of the room, forcing myself to stay grounded, to not think of them again. Then I smelled it. My head perked up as I hurried to the window.
"What is it?" Bella asked, throwing herself to her feet in a panic.
"I smell something," I whispered.
It smelled familiar in two ways. It smelled like La Push, the earthy scent of the wolves. But it smelled, in a way, exactly like the boy I'd met at the movies with Bella. It was just as I'd feared. It was Jacob.
He stood, large shoulders squared, at the edge of the woods. His breathing was loud enough that I could hear it from her bedroom, though not lost. His hair had been cut, cropped close against his tanned skin. Jacob's muscles had swelled, filling in places he'd once been close to stick-thin. Faintly, his figure made me think of Emmet: the broad chest, the log-like arms and the firm stance. But his face didn't hold the same aloof kindness as the Cullen.
"It's Jacob," I said
He sprinted to stand beneath the window. I opened it, blocking Bella as I stared down at him.
"I think you better leave."
His face darkened. Bella rushed forward, tugging my elbow backwards. "No. It's okay. Let him in."
Before I could do anything more than give a short nod, Jacob was running forward, pulling himself up branch by branch until he was directly in front of us. I pulled Bella out of the way, watching as he curled through the air, landing inside her room with a brief clash to the floor. Bella stuttered for a moment, eyes widening.
"Can I talk to you? Alone," Jacob said finally.
I stood for a moment, glancing to Bella's curt agreement.
Jacob's glare that he aimed to me, didn't go unnoticed. Neither did the flaring of his nostrils, his obvious nervousness at the sense of difference. It was exactly how the second wolf I'd seen had reacted. Unsure but not yet aware enough to identify what I was beneath the mask.
"I'll go make us tea," I forced out, cringing as I heard Jacob's first words.
"I came to apologise."
I heard everything that was said, of course, could sense each sharp movement, and met it with wariness. His shouts of apologies made my bones grind with frustration. Why try to resolve anything? He was a wolf. At least Edward could tell Bella that he was dangerous. At least he didn't hide.
I did make tea, and as I heard Jacob readying to leave back through the window, I took it up, lingering momentarily by the door.
"The part that kills me is that you already know. I already told you everything," Jacob said.
"You heard everything?" Bella asked as I finally handed over her mug. "Thanks."
"Yeah."
"I don't understand what's happening," she sighed.
"But you do, Bella. You just won't let yourself believe the truth," I snapped. "I heard what he said about the stories, about the legends he told you."
"You know what he is Bella. Let yourself believe it."
☾
I've started to read Midnight Sun (finally), and so I've got a bit of extra insight into a vampire's personal feelings etc and how certain things work, which we didn't initially get in the original saga. Because of that, I will be going back and fleshing out a few chapters. Nothing will change in the story so you won't need to reread but I'm just editing and adding description xox