No, I whispered.
Id gotten it wrong before. He didnt care about the baby at all. He wanted to hurt him. The beautiful picture in my head shifted abruptly, changed into something dark. My pretty baby crying, my weak arms not enough to protect him.
What could I do? Would I be able to reason with them? What if I couldnt? Did this explain Alices strange silence on the phone? Is that what shed seen? Edward and Carlisle killing that pale, perfect child before he could live?
No, I whispered again, my voice stronger. That could not be. I would not allow it.
I heard Edward speaking Portuguese again. Arguing again. His voice got closer, and I heard him grunt in exasperation. Then I heard another voice, low and timid. A womans voice.
He came into the kitchen ahead of her and went straight to me. He wiped the tears from my cheeks and murmured in my ear through the thin, hard line of his lips.
Shes insisting on leaving the food she broughtshe made us dinner. If he had been less tense, less furious, I knew he would have rolled his eyes. Its an excuseshe wants to make sure I havent killed you yet. His voice went ice cold at the end.
Kaure edged nervously around the corner with a covered dish in her hands. I wished I could speak Portuguese, or that my Spanish was less rudimentary, so that I could try to thank this woman who had dared to anger a vampire just to check on me.
Her eyes flickered between the two of us. I saw her measuring the color in my face, the moisture in my eyes. Mumbling something I didnt understand, she put the dish on the counter.
Edward snapped something at her; Id never heard him be so impolite before. She turned to go, and the whirling motion of her long skirt wafted the smell of the food into my face. It was strongonions and fish. I gagged and whirled for the sink. I felt Edwards hands on my forehead and heard his soothing murmur through the roaring in my ears. His hands disappeared for a second, and I heard the refrigerator slam shut. Mercifully, the smell disappeared with the sound, and Edwards hands were cooling my clammy face again. It was over quickly.
I rinsed my mouth in the tap while he caressed the side of my face.
There was a tentative little nudge in my womb.
Its okay. Were okay, I thought toward the bump.
Edward turned me around, pulling me into his arms. I rested my head on his shoulder. My hands, instinctively, folded over my stomach.
I heard a little gasp and I looked up.
The woman was still there, hesitating in the doorway with her hands half-outstretched as if she had been looking for some way to help. Her eyes were locked on my hands, popping wide with shock. Her mouth hung open.
Then Edward gasped, too, and he suddenly turned to face the woman, pushing me slightly behind his body. His arm wrapped across my torso, like he was holding me back.
Suddenly, Kaure was shouting at himloudly, furiously, her unintelligible words flying across the room like knives. She raised her tiny fist in the air and took two steps forward, shaking it at him. Despite her ferocity, it was easy to see the terror in her eyes.
Edward stepped toward her, too, and I clutched at his arm, frightened for the woman. But when he interrupted her tirade, his voice took me by surprise, especially considering how sharp hed been with her when she wasnt screeching at him. It was low now; it was pleading. Not only that, but the sound was different, more guttural, the cadence off. I didnt think he was speaking Portuguese anymore.
For a moment, the woman stared at him in wonder, and then her eyes narrowed as she barked out a long question in the same alien tongue.
I watched as his face grew sad and serious, and he nodded once. She took a quick step back and crossed herself.
He reached out to her, gesturing toward me and then resting his hand against my cheek. She replied angrily again, waving her hands accusingly toward him, and then gestured to him. When she finished, he pleaded again with the same low, urgent voice.
Her expression changedshe stared at him with doubt plain on her face as he spoke, her eyes repeatedly flashing to my confused face. He stopped speaking, and she seemed to be deliberating something. She looked back and forth between the two of us, and then, unconsciously it seemed, took a step forward.
She made a motion with her hands, miming a shape like a balloon jutting out from her stomach. I starteddid her legends of the predatory blood-drinker include this? Could she possibly know something about what was growing inside me?
She walked a few steps forward deliberately this time and asked a few brief questions, which he responded to tensely. Then he became the questionerone quick query. She hesitated and then slowly shook her head. When he spoke again, his voice was so agonized that I looked up at him in shock. His face was drawn with pain.
In answer, she walked slowly forward until she was close enough to lay her small hand on top of mine, over my stomach. She spoke one word in Portuguese.
Morte, she sighed quietly. Then she turned, her shoulders bent as if the conversation had aged her, and left the room.
I knew enough Spanish for that one.
Edward was frozen again, staring after her with the tortured expression fixed on his face. A few moments later, I heard a boats engine putter to life and then fade into the distance.
Edward did not move until I started for the bathroom. Then his hand caught my shoulder.
Where are you going? His voice was a whisper of pain.
To brush my teeth again.
Dont worry about what she said. Its nothing but legends, old lies for the sake of entertainment.
I didnt understand anything, I told him, though it wasnt entirely true. As if I could discount something because it was a legend. My life was circled by legend on every side. They were all true.
I packed your toothbrush. Ill get it for you.
He walked ahead of me to the bedroom.
Are we leaving soon? I called after him.
As soon as youre done.
He waited for my toothbrush to repack it, pacing silently around the bedroom. I handed it to him when I was finished.
Ill get the bags into the boat.
Edward
He turned back. Yes?
I hesitated, trying to think of some way to get a few seconds alone. Could you pack some of the food? You know, in case I get hungry again.
Of course, he said, his eyes suddenly soft. Dont worry about anything. Well get to Carlisle in just a few hours, really. This will all be over soon.
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
He turned and left the room, one big suitcase in each hand.
I whirled and scooped up the phone hed left on the counter. It was very unlike him to forget thingsto forget that Gustavo was coming, to leave his phone lying here. He was so stressed he was barely himself.
I flipped it open and scrolled through the preprogrammed numbers. I was glad he had the sound turned off, afraid that he would catch me. Would he be at the boat now? Or back already? Would he hear me from the kitchen if I whispered?
I found the number I wanted, one I had never called before in my life. I pressed the send button and crossed my fingers.
Hello? the voice like golden wind chimes answered.
Rosalie? I whispered. Its Bella. Please. You have to help me.
BOOK TWO
jacob
And yet, to say the truth,
reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Act III, Scene i
PREFACE
Life sucks, and then you die.
Yeah, I should be so lucky.
8. WAITING FOR THE DAMN FIGHT TO START ALREADY
Jeez, Paul, dont you freaking have a home of your own?
Paul, lounging across my whole couch, watching some stupid baseball game on my crappy TV, just grinned at me and thenreal slowhe lifted one Dorito from the bag in his lap and wedged it into his mouth in one piece.
You betterve brought those with you.
Crun
ch. Nope, he said while chewing. Your sister said to go ahead and help myself to anything I wanted.
I tried to make my voice sound like I wasnt about to punch him. Is Rachel here now?
It didnt work. He heard where I was going and shoved the bag behind his back. The bag crackled as he smashed it into the cushion. The chips crunched into pieces. Pauls hands came up in fists, close to his face like a boxer.
Bring it, kid. I dont need Rachel to protect me.
I snorted. Right. Like you wouldnt go crying to her first chance.
He laughed and relaxed into the sofa, dropping his hands. Im not going to go tattle to a girl. If you got in a lucky hit, that would be just between the two of us. And vice versa, right?
Nice of him to give me an invitation. I made my body slump like Id given up. Right.
His eyes shifted to the TV.
I lunged.
His nose made a very satisfying crunching sound of its own when my fist connected. He tried to grab me, but I danced out of the way before he could find a hold, the ruined bag of Doritos in my left hand.
You broke my nose, idiot.
Just between us, right, Paul?
I went to put the chips away. When I turned around, Paul was repositioning his nose before it could set crooked. The blood had already stopped; it looked like it had no source as it trickled down his lips and off his chin. He cussed, wincing as he pulled at the cartilage.
You are such a pain, Jacob. I swear, Id rather hang out with Leah.
Ouch. Wow, I bet Leahs really going to love to hear that you want to spend some quality time with her. Itll just warm the cockles of her heart.
Youre going to forget I said that.
Of course. Im sure it wont slip out.
Ugh, he grunted, and then settled back into the couch, wiping the leftover blood on the collar of his t-shirt. Youre fast, kid. Ill give you that. He turned his attention back to the fuzzy game.
I stood there for a second, and then I stalked off to my room, muttering about alien abductions.
Back in the day, you could count on Paul for a fight pretty much whenever. You didnt have to hit him thenany mild insult would do. It didnt take a lot to flip him out of control. Now, of course, when I really wanted a good snarling, ripping, break-the-trees-down match, he had to be all mellow.
Wasnt it bad enough that yet another member of the pack had imprintedbecause, really, that made four of ten now! When would it stop? Stupid myth was supposed to be rare, for crying out loud! All this mandatory love-at-first-sight was completely sickening!
Did it have to be my sister? Did it have to be Paul?
When Racheld come home from Washington State at the end of the summer semestergraduated early, the nerdmy biggest worryd been that it would be hard keeping the secret around her. I wasnt used to covering things up in my own home. It made me real sympathetic to kids like Embry and Collin, whose parents didnt know they were werewolves. Embrys mom thought he was going through some kind of rebellious stage. He was permanently grounded for constantly sneaking out, but, of course, there wasnt much he could do about that. Shed check his room every night, and every night it would be empty again. Shed yell and hed take it in silence, and then go through it all again the next day. Wed tried to talk Sam into giving Embry a break and letting his mom in on the gig, but Embryd said he didnt mind. The secret was too important.
So Id been all geared up to be keeping that secret. And then, two days after Rachel got home, Paul ran into her on the beach. Bada bing, bada boomtrue love! No secrets necessary when you found your other half, and all that imprinting werewolf garbage.
Rachel got the whole story. And I got Paul as a brother-in-law someday. I knew Billy wasnt much thrilled about it, either. But he handled it better than I did. Course, he did escape to the Clearwaters more often than usual these days. I didnt see where that was so much better. No Paul, but plenty of Leah.
I wonderedwould a bullet through my temple actually kill me or just leave a really big mess for me to clean up?
I threw myself down on the bed. I was tiredhadnt slept since my last patrolbut I knew I wasnt going to sleep. My head was too crazy. The thoughts bounced around inside my skull like a disoriented swarm of bees. Noisy. Now and then they stung. Must be hornets, not bees. Bees died after one sting. And the same thoughts were stinging me again and again.
This waiting was driving me insane. It had been almost four weeks. Id expected, one way or another, the news would have come by now. Id sat up nights imagining what form it would take.
Charlie sobbing on the phoneBella and her husband lost in an accident. A plane crash? That would be hard to fake. Unless the leeches didnt mind killing a bunch of bystanders to authenticate it, and why would they? Maybe a small plane instead. They probably had one of those to spare.
Or would the murderer come home alone, unsuccessful in his attempt to make her one of them? Or not even getting that far. Maybe hed smashed her like a bag of chips in his drive to get some? Because her life was less important to him than his own pleasure
The story would be so tragicBella lost in a horrible accident. Victim of a mugging gone wrong. Choking to death at dinner. A car accident, like my mom. So common. Happened all the time.
Would he bring her home? Bury her here for Charlie? Closed-casket ceremony, of course. My moms coffin had been nailed shut.
I could only hope that hed come back here, within my reach.
Maybe there would be no story at all. Maybe Charlie would call to ask my dad if hed heard anything from Dr. Cullen, who just didnt show up to work one day. The house abandoned. No answer on any of the Cullens phones. The mystery picked up by some second-rate news program, foul play suspected
Maybe the big white house would burn to the ground, everyone trapped inside. Of course, theyd need bodies for that one. Eight humans of roughly the right size. Burned beyond recognitionbeyond the help of dental records.
Either of those would be trickyfor me, that is. It would be hard to find them if they didnt want to be found. Of course, I had forever to look. If you had forever, you could check out every single piece of straw in the haystack, one by one, to see if it was the needle.
Right now, I wouldnt mind dismantling a haystack. At least that would be something to do. I hated knowing that I could be losing my chance. Giving the bloodsuckers the time to escape, if that was their plan.
We could go tonight. We could kill every one of them that we could find.
I liked that plan because I knew Edward well enough to know that, if I killed any one of his coven, I would get my chance at him, too. Hed come for revenge. And Id give it to himI wouldnt let my brothers take him down as a pack. It would be just him and me. May the better man win.
But Sam wouldnt hear of it. Were not going to break the treaty. Let them make the breach. Just because we had no proof that the Cullens had done anything wrong. Yet. You had to add the yet, because we all knew it was inevitable. Bella was either coming back one of them, or not coming back. Either way, a human life had been lost. And that meant game on.
In the other room, Paul brayed like a mule. Maybe hed switched to a comedy. Maybe the commercial was funny. Whatever. It grated on my nerves.
I thought about breaking his nose again. But it wasnt Paul I wanted to fight with. Not really.
I tried to listen to other sounds, the wind in the trees. It wasnt the same, not through human ears. There were a million voices in the wind that I couldnt hear in this body.
But these ears were sensitive enough. I could hear past the trees, to the road, the sounds of the cars coming around that last bend where you could finally see the beachthe vista of the islands and the rocks and the big blue ocean stretching to the horizon. The La Push cops liked to hang out right around there. Tourists never noticed the reduced speed limit sign on the other side of the road.
I could hear the voices outside the souvenir shop on the beach. I could hear the cowbell clanging as the door opened and closed. I could hear Embrys mom at the cash regi
ster, printing out a receipt.
I could hear the tide raking across the beach rocks. I could hear the kids squeal as the icy water rushed in too fast for them to get out of the way. I could hear the moms complain about the wet clothes. And I could hear a familiar voice.
I was listening so hard that the sudden burst of Pauls donkey laugh made me jump half off the bed.
Get out of my house, I grumbled. Knowing he wouldnt pay any attention, I followed my own advice. I wrenched open my window and climbed out the back way so that I wouldnt see Paul again. It would be too tempting. I knew I would hit him again, and Rachel was going to be pissed enough already. Shed see the blood on his shirt, and shed blame me right away without waiting for proof. Of course, shed be right, but still.
I paced down to the shore, my fists in my pockets. Nobody looked at me twice when I went through the dirt lot by First Beach. That was one nice thing about summerno one cared if you wore nothing but shorts.
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