The Writer
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 03
I was up and dressed early the next morning just so that I could manage to make all the food that I knew we, or rather, Jake would need during the day.
I still couldn't get my mind off the weird way that Jake had acted when he dropped me off and I was still no closer to figuring it out. It was almost as if he had noticed something only noticeable to him. I pondered that for a moment and even though it sounded crazy, it still seemed like the only explanation. The really freaky part was that he had zeroed in on my room. That, combined with the weird VAR "We know where you live" PM's had me feeling very uneasy for some reason.
I was even kicking around the idea of telling Jake about the PM's, but then I dismissed it. I could just see him freaking out over it and insisting that he do something crazy like stay here with me. I loved Jake. I really did. A brotherly type of love, but no way in hell could I live with him. Especially not now with his newly acquired short fuse. We'd wind up killing each other.
After packing all the prepared food into an insulated bag, I made my way upstairs to put on the hiking boots that would hopefully keep me from turning an ankle. That was the idea anyway. Knowing me, I would manage it anyway. Yeah, Jake wasn't kidding about having to carry my ass back to the car. He'd had to do it more than once in the past. Poor guy. Frankly, I'm shocked that he agreed to this hike.
When I had the boots on finally, I checked out the clock and saw that I still had about half an hour before Jake would get here. Sighing, I looked around my room. Everywhere but my desk. I was avoiding it like a recovering alcoholic avoids liquor. Yeah, my computer addiction was that bad. That's the reason that my self-imposed break was only of a two-day duration; any longer and I'd probably get the shakes. Two days though…...I knew I could do it. I just needed to find something to waste 25 minutes on.
Think…...think...teeth are brushed, hair done, don't have to use the bathroom, food and drinks are packed…...shit.
There was nothing.
Slowly, my head turned and I was eyeing my computer.
I sighed. I could just check email really quick, right? Yeah, that's what I would do. Just email. Really quick. I wouldn't even open any. Just look to see the subject headings and that would be it. Yeah. I could totally do this and it would fill the 20 minutes I had left. No harm, no foul.
God, I was hopeless.
Sighing, I sat down in the forbidden chair and opened my laptop. Opening up the email, I began scrolling through slowly. Lots of likes and follows and even a few reviews for my updates. I kept scrolling and froze. Fuck. There it was. Another PM from VAR. My heart started racing as I stared at it. This shit was no longer funny. Nor was it merely irritating. It had rocketed right up to fucking scary, and I wasn't quite sure what the hell to do about it.
Taking a deep, bracing breath, I clicked on it and scrolled to read it. My heart stopped for a moment and then took off, racing so fast I couldn't catch a breath as adrenaline shot through my system, my whole body breaking out in a sweat.
Dear VampiresAreRealToMe,
You were warned.
Sincerely,
VampiresAren'tReal
Jake found me just a couple of minutes later. At least I think it was just a couple of minutes. I can't be sure. I was too screwed up to be a good judge of the time. I might have stared at that PM for a minute. Then again, I might have stared at it for fifteen minutes. I just didn't know. Nor did it really matter. What mattered was that I was now scared shitless and had no idea how to handle the situation. I needed another's opinion and Jake was the only one I could think of.
I looked up at him and I'm sure I looked like I had seen a fucking ghost or something because he was concerned the minute he saw me.
"Bella? What's wrong? I've never seen you look so scared. Tell me."
"Jake." I took a breath and tears filed my eyes. "Shit Jake. Someone is sending me messages through the site I post stories on and I just got a third one today. They're scaring the hell outta me Jake and I'm not sure what to do."
"What do they say?"
I gestured to the computer screen and he read the one there. "Okay, but what about the other two. Did you save them?"
I shook my head. "No, I thought they were a prank, so I deleted them. The first one said "You had better be careful because you're getting too close."…...and the next one said…"You really shouldn't discount my warning.
Remove the story, or it will be done for you. We know where you live."
I looked up at him. "And now this one. This one really has me freaked out Jake."
He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. "Have you checked to see if the story is still posted? I mean, if it's a prank, then they aren't likely to be able to get rid of it like they claim, but if it's someone tech savvy enough to delete your story without your permission, then we have more to worry about."
I looked up at him and he shrugged. "At least, that's the idea. I mean, I know that there are fucking 12 year old hacker geniuses out there, but how likely are they to fuck with a fan fiction writer? They're too busy hacking into government databases just to prove they can."
"Okay, let me check on the story. I have it posted on three different sites so if it's just gone from one, namely the one I get the PM's from, then it still may be a simple prank. But if it's gone from all three…"
He rubbed my shoulder. "Don't think about that right this minute. You don't need to borrow trouble if this is just a stupid prank." He gestured at the screen. "Check and then we'll freak if we have to."
I nodded and clicked on my profile. I scrolled down and my breath caught. It was gone. "Oh fuck Jake. It's gone."
"Yeah, but this is the site you get the PM's from right?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Check the others."
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, willing my heart back to a normal rhythm. It didn't work. Sucking it up, I clicked over to the other site I post on and went to my profile. I began shaking. It was gone.
My hand shook as I clicked over to the last site it was posted on. Again, I went to my profile and again, it was gone. By now, I was sort of becoming numb with shock. I actually felt cold, all over.
Jake sat on my bed. "I'm here for you Bella. Nobody is gonna get through me. I'm sure your dad will want to know about this too. He probably has the resources to find out who is doing this shit."
I held up a hand. "There's one more place that I haven't looked Jake."
"Where's that Bella? I thought you said that you only had it posted on three sites?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, and that's true, but I also had the files on my computer."
His face darkened instantly and I could have sworn I heard a low growl coming from him.
I turned to my computer and opened up the documents folder, closing my eyes in dread. All of my documents on the computer were gone. Wiped clean. I hung my head and Jake was beside me instantly. "What is it Bella?"
I pointed to the empty documents folder. "You see that folder Jake? That was full of documents yesterday before I left here. It had copies of everything I've ever written in there."
"Fuck Bella. What about back-ups? Did you have anything that you used to back up your computer?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I use the cloud."
"Well, check that. We may as well be thorough."
I reached over to my track pad and scrolled through until I found the link. I wasn't holding out hope though.
Whoever was doing this was good. Good and thorough. Sure enough, just as I had expected, the files were gone from there too.
I looked up at Jake who was now looking murderous. "This is no prank Jake. They wiped everything. Whoever did that knows what the hell they are doing."
I reached over and closed my laptop. Now that I knew everything was gone and this was no joke, I wasn't sure how I felt at the moment. Numb with shock maybe?
I got up from the chair and paced around a bit, running my hands through my hair. This was all so crazy. My life was very plain and boring. Nothing ever happened in my life that could be described as dangerous or exciting, and now this?
It sure as hell wasn't my idea of a good time or even a good way to break up the monotony.
I glanced at Jake and he was just standing there watching me pace. This was ridiculous. I needed to get out of here and clear my head. Think rationally about all this fuckery.
Grabbing my backpack from the bed I turned to Jake. "Come on. I need to get out of here and just clear my head for a bit."
He raised his brows at me. "You still want to go on a hike?"
I nod. "Yes. Why not? What good is pacing around my room and freaking out going to do? There isn't much I can do right at this moment anyway, right? At the very least, I have to wait for Charlie to get home. This isn't something that I'm willing to call him home for. He'd probably be pissed if I did."
Jake nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Okay then, let's go."
We headed downstairs, both of us silent. I wasn't really in a joking mood now and it didn't seem like Jake was either.
I grabbed the bag of food and handed it to him and we headed out, Jake stowing the food and packs in the back of his car while I locked up the house. It took me a couple of tries with the key because my hands were still shaking, but I managed finally.
Once we were in the car we looked at each other and took deep breaths at the same time. It was enough to break at least some of the tension and we smiled. I gestured forward. "Onward?"
He started the car. "Yeah, let's get the fuck outta here."
We wound up parking at the head of one of the easier trails on the Rez. I heaved a bit of a sigh at that, but couldn't really fault Jake for his choice. I was a bit of a klutz after all. Okay, maybe more than a bit, but I had gotten better.
Maybe.
Jake got the packs out and we slung them on and started on the trail. This particular one would take us up to the cliffs that Jake and his buddies liked to dive from.
My thoughts wandered as we walked and I glanced at Jake. "Why did you go up to my room last night? Charlie said that's the only place you went and then you left. What made you do that Jake?"
He scowled and looked away from me, the muscles in his jaw twitching with tension. I didn't understand this reaction at all. To be quite honest, I was hurt by it. "Jake, we've been best friends for a very long time, but I feel like there's a huge distance between us now and I don't know how to bridge it. Did I do something wrong?"
I watched him as his shoulders slumped. He looked very sad all of the sudden and I was at a loss to explain that either.
"Bells, there are just certain things that you can't possibly understand about my heritage and responsibilities now. These are things that I have learned just within the last few months and still struggle with myself, so I know that you just wouldn't get it. Besides, I am forbidden by tribal law to reveal it to you. There's nothing I can do to change my situation either. It's inescapable, so don't even try to give me the "Just walk away. It's your life and you can do what you want" speech. That's simply not true in this case. It goes much deeper than choice. You could say it's genetic. There's nothing I can do and when I think about that, it pisses me off. Badly. So I really try not to think about it."
He looked me in the eye. "So, in answer to your question, no, you haven't done anything wrong. This is my burden to bear but it does put some distance between us and I can't change that. I'll never be the same and so we'll never be the same. That's the only answer to my behavior that I can give you. Now, as far as why I went to your room last night, I didn't lie. I thought someone had been in there."
I locked my gaze with his, putting at least some of the pieces together. "And had there been?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah, there had been, but I can't share with you how I know that."
I nodded and looked down the trail. "Okay, fair enough. At least now I feel that you're being straight with me and that's all I've ever wanted between us. If there are secrets that you can't share, I'm okay with that Jake. I understand that I don't have the right to know everything about you just because we're friends. I'll take what I can get as long as you're straight with me because I love you Jake. You've always been like a brother to me and I don't want to lose that."
He grabbed me into a side arm hug and I laughed. "Careful! I have enough trouble staying upright under the best of circumstances!"
He let go of me with a laugh. "Don't I know it." He glanced at me with a smile. "Thanks for understanding Bells. I love you too, and I was torn up thinking that I would have to end our friendship over this whole mess. To know that I still have you is a relief."
I reached over and punched him in the arm and then shook my hand out because it felt like I had just punched a rock. "You'll never lose me ya big lug. And fuck, that hurt. Are you made of rock now or what?"
He grinned. "Nah, just muscle. Where do you think all that food goes?"
I smirked. "Well, I know you're full of shit, but not that full. Perhaps some goes to muscle?"
He smirked while keeping his gaze straight ahead. "You better run now Bells. I'll even give you a head start."
I looked at him, my eyes wide. "You wouldn't?"
He nodded. "For that comment? Damn straight I would. Go on, your head start is getting shorter and shorter."
"Oh fuck." I took off running. I knew I didn't have a chance in hell against him, but I sure as fuck didn't want to get tossed off the cliffs and he had done that shit before, so I knew he wasn't bluffing. I mean, he didn't just let me flounder in the water. He dove in right after me, but still that water was fucking cold. I had no desire to experience it today.
When I got to the top, I leaned over, hands on my knees trying desperately to catch my breath. When I straightened up, my breath caught. I was staring into the face of a man, standing on one of the cliffs in the distance, staring straight at me. He was gorgeous, with honey blond hair that just brushed at his jawline in a wavy disarray. He looked tall, at least six feet, with a swimmers type build. Muscular, but not bulky. His eyes, from what I could see at such a distance, were very dark. I could almost swear they were black, but that was impossible. No one had black eyes.
Jake's arrival broke my concentration on the man and I turned to him just in time to see him looking at the man, his top lip curled up in a snarl and something that sounded like a growl coming from deep in his chest.
What the fuck?
He looked at me. "Bella, get behind me."
I gave him what I knew was a look of confusion and he made the growling noise again. "Do it now!"
"Okay Jake, shit. What the fuck is the big deal? He's just some guy."
"Shut up Bells. Just stop talking for now and stay behind me. Fuck! Where the fuck are they?!"
I was concerned because he began to mutter, seemingly to himself. "Shit, I can't do this alone. Can't leave Bells. Can't phase. Fuck!"
One thing I noticed was that he never took his eyes off of the man in the distance. I peeked around Jake to see the man again and holy shit. He now had the most sinful looking dirty smirk on his face that I had ever seen or imagined anywhere at anytime. If I thought he was gorgeous before….fuck…...I think I just spontaneously ovulated. I knew I was wet. I could feel my body responding and I was baffled by that.
I saw the man lift his head and take a deep breath as if he were catching a scent in the air and then he…...Jesus…...he growled. That's the only word for the noise he made. And then he snarled, looking straight at Jake.
Jake glanced back at me as I watched the man. "Get the fuck all the way behind me Bella! And stay there goddammit!"
I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Shit Jake, no need to yell at me." My eyes teared up. I was hurt by his yelling.
I never had reacted well to raised voices ever since one of Renee's boyfriends decided he was the man of the house and decided to let everyone, including a nine year old me, know it loudly and often.
I could just barely see the man in the distance and he was now pacing and growling.
The next thing I knew, Jake uttered the words "Shit, here we go." and there was a literal explosion of scraps of clothing and fur? What the fuck? I really didn't have much time to ponder that though because whatever this furry thing was had some fucking sharp, giant claws that caught me in my side and I gasped as I hit the ground, blood seeping between my fingers that I had covering my side.
I watched as this…...fuck…..giant wolf thing went after the man who was now very close. Where had Jake gone?
I had no clue. So I watched, or tried to, as this man fought this giant wolf and won, the wolf falling dead at the man's feet, it's neck snapped.
I was fading quickly now, the blood I had lost pooling around me on the ground. I just knew I was going to die as the man scooped me up into his arms, something that sounded like a purr vibrating from deep in his chest as he held me close.
I felt him tear away my shirt and then he leaned down and began to lick the wounds in my side. When he was done with that, I realized that the pain was now gone and all I felt was a tingling sensation.
I felt very safe with him and I curled myself closer to his chest, the sounds he made soothing to me.
He sat down with me cradled in his lap and I watched with bleary eyes as he bit his own wrist and put it to my mouth.
I turned my head. I didn't want it, but he kept urging and held my chin with the fingers of his other hand, his voice commanding that I drink. So I relented and it was sweet ambrosia that, once I had tasted, I couldn't seem to get enough.
"All right Isabella. Enough. Sleep. You will heal now my mate."
Hearing those words, I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.
I was up and dressed early the next morning just so that I could manage to make all the food that I knew we, or rather, Jake would need during the day.
I still couldn't get my mind off the weird way that Jake had acted when he dropped me off and I was still no closer to figuring it out. It was almost as if he had noticed something only noticeable to him. I pondered that for a moment and even though it sounded crazy, it still seemed like the only explanation. The really freaky part was that he had zeroed in on my room. That, combined with the weird VAR "We know where you live" PM's had me feeling very uneasy for some reason.
I was even kicking around the idea of telling Jake about the PM's, but then I dismissed it. I could just see him freaking out over it and insisting that he do something crazy like stay here with me. I loved Jake. I really did. A brotherly type of love, but no way in hell could I live with him. Especially not now with his newly acquired short fuse. We'd wind up killing each other.
After packing all the prepared food into an insulated bag, I made my way upstairs to put on the hiking boots that would hopefully keep me from turning an ankle. That was the idea anyway. Knowing me, I would manage it anyway. Yeah, Jake wasn't kidding about having to carry my ass back to the car. He'd had to do it more than once in the past. Poor guy. Frankly, I'm shocked that he agreed to this hike.
When I had the boots on finally, I checked out the clock and saw that I still had about half an hour before Jake would get here. Sighing, I looked around my room. Everywhere but my desk. I was avoiding it like a recovering alcoholic avoids liquor. Yeah, my computer addiction was that bad. That's the reason that my self-imposed break was only of a two-day duration; any longer and I'd probably get the shakes. Two days though…...I knew I could do it. I just needed to find something to waste 25 minutes on.
Think…...think...teeth are brushed, hair done, don't have to use the bathroom, food and drinks are packed…...shit.
There was nothing.
Slowly, my head turned and I was eyeing my computer.
I sighed. I could just check email really quick, right? Yeah, that's what I would do. Just email. Really quick. I wouldn't even open any. Just look to see the subject headings and that would be it. Yeah. I could totally do this and it would fill the 20 minutes I had left. No harm, no foul.
God, I was hopeless.
Sighing, I sat down in the forbidden chair and opened my laptop. Opening up the email, I began scrolling through slowly. Lots of likes and follows and even a few reviews for my updates. I kept scrolling and froze. Fuck. There it was. Another PM from VAR. My heart started racing as I stared at it. This shit was no longer funny. Nor was it merely irritating. It had rocketed right up to fucking scary, and I wasn't quite sure what the hell to do about it.
Taking a deep, bracing breath, I clicked on it and scrolled to read it. My heart stopped for a moment and then took off, racing so fast I couldn't catch a breath as adrenaline shot through my system, my whole body breaking out in a sweat.
Dear VampiresAreRealToMe,
You were warned.
Sincerely,
VampiresAren'tReal
Jake found me just a couple of minutes later. At least I think it was just a couple of minutes. I can't be sure. I was too screwed up to be a good judge of the time. I might have stared at that PM for a minute. Then again, I might have stared at it for fifteen minutes. I just didn't know. Nor did it really matter. What mattered was that I was now scared shitless and had no idea how to handle the situation. I needed another's opinion and Jake was the only one I could think of.
I looked up at him and I'm sure I looked like I had seen a fucking ghost or something because he was concerned the minute he saw me.
"Bella? What's wrong? I've never seen you look so scared. Tell me."
"Jake." I took a breath and tears filed my eyes. "Shit Jake. Someone is sending me messages through the site I post stories on and I just got a third one today. They're scaring the hell outta me Jake and I'm not sure what to do."
"What do they say?"
I gestured to the computer screen and he read the one there. "Okay, but what about the other two. Did you save them?"
I shook my head. "No, I thought they were a prank, so I deleted them. The first one said "You had better be careful because you're getting too close."…...and the next one said…"You really shouldn't discount my warning.
Remove the story, or it will be done for you. We know where you live."
I looked up at him. "And now this one. This one really has me freaked out Jake."
He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. "Have you checked to see if the story is still posted? I mean, if it's a prank, then they aren't likely to be able to get rid of it like they claim, but if it's someone tech savvy enough to delete your story without your permission, then we have more to worry about."
I looked up at him and he shrugged. "At least, that's the idea. I mean, I know that there are fucking 12 year old hacker geniuses out there, but how likely are they to fuck with a fan fiction writer? They're too busy hacking into government databases just to prove they can."
"Okay, let me check on the story. I have it posted on three different sites so if it's just gone from one, namely the one I get the PM's from, then it still may be a simple prank. But if it's gone from all three…"
He rubbed my shoulder. "Don't think about that right this minute. You don't need to borrow trouble if this is just a stupid prank." He gestured at the screen. "Check and then we'll freak if we have to."
I nodded and clicked on my profile. I scrolled down and my breath caught. It was gone. "Oh fuck Jake. It's gone."
"Yeah, but this is the site you get the PM's from right?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Check the others."
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, willing my heart back to a normal rhythm. It didn't work. Sucking it up, I clicked over to the other site I post on and went to my profile. I began shaking. It was gone.
My hand shook as I clicked over to the last site it was posted on. Again, I went to my profile and again, it was gone. By now, I was sort of becoming numb with shock. I actually felt cold, all over.
Jake sat on my bed. "I'm here for you Bella. Nobody is gonna get through me. I'm sure your dad will want to know about this too. He probably has the resources to find out who is doing this shit."
I held up a hand. "There's one more place that I haven't looked Jake."
"Where's that Bella? I thought you said that you only had it posted on three sites?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, and that's true, but I also had the files on my computer."
His face darkened instantly and I could have sworn I heard a low growl coming from him.
I turned to my computer and opened up the documents folder, closing my eyes in dread. All of my documents on the computer were gone. Wiped clean. I hung my head and Jake was beside me instantly. "What is it Bella?"
I pointed to the empty documents folder. "You see that folder Jake? That was full of documents yesterday before I left here. It had copies of everything I've ever written in there."
"Fuck Bella. What about back-ups? Did you have anything that you used to back up your computer?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I use the cloud."
"Well, check that. We may as well be thorough."
I reached over to my track pad and scrolled through until I found the link. I wasn't holding out hope though.
Whoever was doing this was good. Good and thorough. Sure enough, just as I had expected, the files were gone from there too.
I looked up at Jake who was now looking murderous. "This is no prank Jake. They wiped everything. Whoever did that knows what the hell they are doing."
I reached over and closed my laptop. Now that I knew everything was gone and this was no joke, I wasn't sure how I felt at the moment. Numb with shock maybe?
I got up from the chair and paced around a bit, running my hands through my hair. This was all so crazy. My life was very plain and boring. Nothing ever happened in my life that could be described as dangerous or exciting, and now this?
It sure as hell wasn't my idea of a good time or even a good way to break up the monotony.
I glanced at Jake and he was just standing there watching me pace. This was ridiculous. I needed to get out of here and clear my head. Think rationally about all this fuckery.
Grabbing my backpack from the bed I turned to Jake. "Come on. I need to get out of here and just clear my head for a bit."
He raised his brows at me. "You still want to go on a hike?"
I nod. "Yes. Why not? What good is pacing around my room and freaking out going to do? There isn't much I can do right at this moment anyway, right? At the very least, I have to wait for Charlie to get home. This isn't something that I'm willing to call him home for. He'd probably be pissed if I did."
Jake nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Okay then, let's go."
We headed downstairs, both of us silent. I wasn't really in a joking mood now and it didn't seem like Jake was either.
I grabbed the bag of food and handed it to him and we headed out, Jake stowing the food and packs in the back of his car while I locked up the house. It took me a couple of tries with the key because my hands were still shaking, but I managed finally.
Once we were in the car we looked at each other and took deep breaths at the same time. It was enough to break at least some of the tension and we smiled. I gestured forward. "Onward?"
He started the car. "Yeah, let's get the fuck outta here."
We wound up parking at the head of one of the easier trails on the Rez. I heaved a bit of a sigh at that, but couldn't really fault Jake for his choice. I was a bit of a klutz after all. Okay, maybe more than a bit, but I had gotten better.
Maybe.
Jake got the packs out and we slung them on and started on the trail. This particular one would take us up to the cliffs that Jake and his buddies liked to dive from.
My thoughts wandered as we walked and I glanced at Jake. "Why did you go up to my room last night? Charlie said that's the only place you went and then you left. What made you do that Jake?"
He scowled and looked away from me, the muscles in his jaw twitching with tension. I didn't understand this reaction at all. To be quite honest, I was hurt by it. "Jake, we've been best friends for a very long time, but I feel like there's a huge distance between us now and I don't know how to bridge it. Did I do something wrong?"
I watched him as his shoulders slumped. He looked very sad all of the sudden and I was at a loss to explain that either.
"Bells, there are just certain things that you can't possibly understand about my heritage and responsibilities now. These are things that I have learned just within the last few months and still struggle with myself, so I know that you just wouldn't get it. Besides, I am forbidden by tribal law to reveal it to you. There's nothing I can do to change my situation either. It's inescapable, so don't even try to give me the "Just walk away. It's your life and you can do what you want" speech. That's simply not true in this case. It goes much deeper than choice. You could say it's genetic. There's nothing I can do and when I think about that, it pisses me off. Badly. So I really try not to think about it."
He looked me in the eye. "So, in answer to your question, no, you haven't done anything wrong. This is my burden to bear but it does put some distance between us and I can't change that. I'll never be the same and so we'll never be the same. That's the only answer to my behavior that I can give you. Now, as far as why I went to your room last night, I didn't lie. I thought someone had been in there."
I locked my gaze with his, putting at least some of the pieces together. "And had there been?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah, there had been, but I can't share with you how I know that."
I nodded and looked down the trail. "Okay, fair enough. At least now I feel that you're being straight with me and that's all I've ever wanted between us. If there are secrets that you can't share, I'm okay with that Jake. I understand that I don't have the right to know everything about you just because we're friends. I'll take what I can get as long as you're straight with me because I love you Jake. You've always been like a brother to me and I don't want to lose that."
He grabbed me into a side arm hug and I laughed. "Careful! I have enough trouble staying upright under the best of circumstances!"
He let go of me with a laugh. "Don't I know it." He glanced at me with a smile. "Thanks for understanding Bells. I love you too, and I was torn up thinking that I would have to end our friendship over this whole mess. To know that I still have you is a relief."
I reached over and punched him in the arm and then shook my hand out because it felt like I had just punched a rock. "You'll never lose me ya big lug. And fuck, that hurt. Are you made of rock now or what?"
He grinned. "Nah, just muscle. Where do you think all that food goes?"
I smirked. "Well, I know you're full of shit, but not that full. Perhaps some goes to muscle?"
He smirked while keeping his gaze straight ahead. "You better run now Bells. I'll even give you a head start."
I looked at him, my eyes wide. "You wouldn't?"
He nodded. "For that comment? Damn straight I would. Go on, your head start is getting shorter and shorter."
"Oh fuck." I took off running. I knew I didn't have a chance in hell against him, but I sure as fuck didn't want to get tossed off the cliffs and he had done that shit before, so I knew he wasn't bluffing. I mean, he didn't just let me flounder in the water. He dove in right after me, but still that water was fucking cold. I had no desire to experience it today.
When I got to the top, I leaned over, hands on my knees trying desperately to catch my breath. When I straightened up, my breath caught. I was staring into the face of a man, standing on one of the cliffs in the distance, staring straight at me. He was gorgeous, with honey blond hair that just brushed at his jawline in a wavy disarray. He looked tall, at least six feet, with a swimmers type build. Muscular, but not bulky. His eyes, from what I could see at such a distance, were very dark. I could almost swear they were black, but that was impossible. No one had black eyes.
Jake's arrival broke my concentration on the man and I turned to him just in time to see him looking at the man, his top lip curled up in a snarl and something that sounded like a growl coming from deep in his chest.
What the fuck?
He looked at me. "Bella, get behind me."
I gave him what I knew was a look of confusion and he made the growling noise again. "Do it now!"
"Okay Jake, shit. What the fuck is the big deal? He's just some guy."
"Shut up Bells. Just stop talking for now and stay behind me. Fuck! Where the fuck are they?!"
I was concerned because he began to mutter, seemingly to himself. "Shit, I can't do this alone. Can't leave Bells. Can't phase. Fuck!"
One thing I noticed was that he never took his eyes off of the man in the distance. I peeked around Jake to see the man again and holy shit. He now had the most sinful looking dirty smirk on his face that I had ever seen or imagined anywhere at anytime. If I thought he was gorgeous before….fuck…...I think I just spontaneously ovulated. I knew I was wet. I could feel my body responding and I was baffled by that.
I saw the man lift his head and take a deep breath as if he were catching a scent in the air and then he…...Jesus…...he growled. That's the only word for the noise he made. And then he snarled, looking straight at Jake.
Jake glanced back at me as I watched the man. "Get the fuck all the way behind me Bella! And stay there goddammit!"
I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Shit Jake, no need to yell at me." My eyes teared up. I was hurt by his yelling.
I never had reacted well to raised voices ever since one of Renee's boyfriends decided he was the man of the house and decided to let everyone, including a nine year old me, know it loudly and often.
I could just barely see the man in the distance and he was now pacing and growling.
The next thing I knew, Jake uttered the words "Shit, here we go." and there was a literal explosion of scraps of clothing and fur? What the fuck? I really didn't have much time to ponder that though because whatever this furry thing was had some fucking sharp, giant claws that caught me in my side and I gasped as I hit the ground, blood seeping between my fingers that I had covering my side.
I watched as this…...fuck…..giant wolf thing went after the man who was now very close. Where had Jake gone?
I had no clue. So I watched, or tried to, as this man fought this giant wolf and won, the wolf falling dead at the man's feet, it's neck snapped.
I was fading quickly now, the blood I had lost pooling around me on the ground. I just knew I was going to die as the man scooped me up into his arms, something that sounded like a purr vibrating from deep in his chest as he held me close.
I felt him tear away my shirt and then he leaned down and began to lick the wounds in my side. When he was done with that, I realized that the pain was now gone and all I felt was a tingling sensation.
I felt very safe with him and I curled myself closer to his chest, the sounds he made soothing to me.
He sat down with me cradled in his lap and I watched with bleary eyes as he bit his own wrist and put it to my mouth.
I turned my head. I didn't want it, but he kept urging and held my chin with the fingers of his other hand, his voice commanding that I drink. So I relented and it was sweet ambrosia that, once I had tasted, I couldn't seem to get enough.
"All right Isabella. Enough. Sleep. You will heal now my mate."
Hearing those words, I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.
DISCLAIMER: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.