I'd been having the same dream for several days now. It was like a cycle, repeating itself over and over endlessly. Nothing in it ever changed. Everything happened exactly the same every time I dreamed it.
The Elders of the Quileute Nation often warned us about this type of dream. They said that recurring dreams were not really dreams. They were mystical visions sent by our wolf ancestors, most likely to warn us about impending danger.
Only the medicine people were able to understand the meaning of these visions. Everyone else in the reservation was very secretive if they had them at all. We all talked about them like a thing of the past, something only our ancestors experienced. No one ever admitted to having mystical visions for fear of being called crazy.
Quite a predicament I was in. If the dream continued repeating, I'd have to tell Sam about it. Sam Uley would be the person to ask if someone didn't want to consult the healers. He knew all about the mystical secrets of the Quileute Nation.
The only obstacle was how fiercely Sam protected this sacred knowledge. He was extremely hesitant to discuss it with anyone, even the members of his own pack.
It would be hard to get Sam to trust me enough to reveal what he knew. His attitude had changed drastically the moment he found out I had imprinted on Renesmee. My friendship with him had ended that day, exactly five years ago.
Now, he was forced to trust me as his fellow werewolf, but he'd probably never trust me as his friend again. My only hope would be to convince him that my vision might, in fact, be a warning.
As the alpha of my pack, I felt a great burden of responsibility to protect my people. I always tried to be ahead of the game when it came to preventing a possible attack. For this reason alone, I'd have to swallow my pride and go to Sam for advice.
I caught him walking out of Emily's house just before nightfall. He was surprised to see me when he opened the door and saw me standing next to his car.
"Hey, Sam," I mumbled under my breath, barely looking at him.
He scratched his head and laughed, then, was about to say something, but quickly changed his mind. Emily came out to see what he was laughing about.
I waved at her. "Hi, Emily."
"Hey, Jake." She hugged Sam goodbye and closed the door.
Sam advanced slowly in my direction. "What's going on?"
"We need to talk." I made it a point to sound serious, but it wasn't necessary.
Sam knew what was going on. It's like he'd been expecting me to tell him all along. He glanced over at me for a short time, deliberating. "Not here." He opened the door to his car and got in.
I stood mesmerized for a moment. Looking at Sam's ride always had a way of getting me sidetracked. It was a masterpiece. He had restored it himself. Bought it for less than a grand when he found it all beat up at a junkyard.
My dad and I laughed the day he brought it home last year. He had to tow it into his garage because it didn't even have an engine. No one believed he'd pull it off.
Now it was a real beauty. He'd sure had the last laugh. It was a 1962 Thunderbird turned into a hot-rod racecar—state-of-the-art mods all across the board. He'd restored both its exterior and interior from scratch, then, painted it metallic-blue. But what I envied the most was the painting of a thunderbird he'd had custom-airbrushed on the hood.
In Quileute legends, the thunderbird was a mythical creature known for protecting our people in times of trouble. Sam sketched a basic design of it on paper. It was turquoise in color, and its wings spread out to the sides. He then had it airbrushed in aluminum-glitter paint on the hood. A bit flashy, I know, but I wished I'd thought of that before he did.
Sam must have figured out I was drooling over his car, because he knew just what to say to make me snap out of it. "Wanna take it for a spin?"
My jaw dropped as my entire body shook with anticipation. "Me?" This was a new one.
"See anyone else around?" he asked, sliding over to the passenger seat.
He didn't have to tell me twice. The moment he tossed me the keys, I caught them in midair and jumped in. I popped the clutch, revved up the engine, and the prodigy took off in a blaze of impossible speed. Maybe Sam and I were still friends after all.
By the time we hit the 110 the sky had grown dark. I could barely see the road ahead. Even in the middle of July, the highway to Forks lay covered in fog.
The danger lured me like a magnet; it seduced me. I contemplated the possibility of defeating death and felt ecstatic. Gambling with my life was the thrill of my existence. I knew it was contradictory, but I felt most alive when death stalked me.
I had no fear of dying, and driving fast under hazardous conditions was my way of showing it. As the beach zoomed past us in a blur, I sped on, watching how the accelerator needle pushed beyond a hundred miles per hour.
Sam hadn't said a word since we got in the car. I figured it'd let him talk first, but he just sat there, blasting some seriously bizarre music by an underground band he'd seen playing live in Port Angeles. It was one of the weirdest hybrids I'd ever heard—thrash metal meets alternative Goth with a little bit of rap vocals thrown in. Not my style at all but tolerable.
"Sam!" I finally yelled.
He turned off the stereo and turned around to face me. I gave him a few seconds to answer, but he just waited in silence.
"There's something I need to ask you." I paused and was about to continue.
But he interrupted me. "It's the girl, isn't it?"
He caught me off guard. "What girl?"
"The one haunting your dreams."
Yep, he knew about it, alright. Just like I'd thought. "You've seen her, too, haven't you?"
He smirked. "Maybe."
His careless attitude really pissed me off, so, in the spur of the moment, I decided to test the deity's drifting capability a bit. I stepped on the brakes and decelerated a little, then flicked the steering wheel slightly to the right just enough to make the car's tail swing wide. The whole car shook as its back tires locked and screeched, a dense cloud of white smoke swirling upwards from underneath it. Not bad for my first attempt, I thought proudly.
Sam didn't take it so well, though. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"How do you know about the girl?" I demanded.
"Pull over." He was furious.
But I did just the opposite. I floored it. "I want answers, Sam. I need to know what's going on." I hated doing this to him, but I was desperate. If we crashed at this speed, it would probably take us a really long time to recover, super-fast healing powers and all.
He was so enraged, so agitated, that I thought he might phase right then and there. But he didn't. Instead, he closed his eyes and gradually slowed down his breathing. Leaning back on his seat, he went into a deep meditative state.
I'd never seen Sam do this sort of thing before. The way I was driving would've sent even the most self-disciplined of monks into a frenzy. Obviously, my attempt to scare him into telling me what he knew had failed. I'd have to come up with a better strategy.
Sighing with resignation, I slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder nearest the beach. Sam remained in his blissful trance and ignored the noise when I opened the door to get out.
I felt the cool ocean breeze on my face as I strolled across the shore, my thoughts racing. The crescent moon hung low above the water, emanating a silver glow through the fog that enfolded it. Perfect night to go on a hunt, I thought. We hadn't had much action lately, but I had a feeling things weren't going to stay quiet for much longer.
I hadn't walked more than a few yards when I suddenly heard Sam's voice close behind me.
"She's a vampire," he said.
A bit startled, I stopped walking and turned around to find him standing just a couple of feet from me. He had the stupid habit of getting in my face every time he wanted to scare me. It never worked, but it annoyed me to no end.
I flinched backwards as a reflex and almost lost my balance. But I recovered quickly, inflamed by the sudden urge to beat the crap out of him. I steadied myself by throwing my upper body forward, then, started taunting him, snarling low in my throat, ready to attack.
Sam ignored my reaction with cold indifference and went on. "She's not the kind of vampire we're used to dealing with. She's a hybrid, part vampire and part something else."
I sensed a very subtle vacillation in his voice when he finished talking, and it made me realize he was just as worried as I was.
I felt ashamed, trying to fight while he was about to give me the information I needed. I composed myself and acknowledged what he'd just told me. "You mean like Renesmee?" I asked.
He shook his head no. "Renesmee is half human. Most vampires were born human and then got changed. But this girl," he paused, swallowing hard. "This girl is not human at all. She never was."
"Well, what is she mixed with then?" I asked impatiently.
"I don't know what her other half is," Sam answered with frustration, "but I intend to find out."
"How?"
"First we need to find out what she wants from us," he announced, a tinge of urgency in his voice.
I felt relieved when he included himself in the objective. This might turn out to be a lot easier than I'd thought. "Okay, so what do we do?"
He didn't hesitate. I could tell he'd been thinking about his answer for a while now. "We go to the Spirit Warriors."
I almost went mute from the shock. My relief had been premature and had crumbled just as fast. He can't be serious, I shuddered. How dare he even consider this possibility?
But my bewilderment only seemed to strengthen his determination. "Listen, Jake. There are a lot of things the elders don't tell you until you're ready."
I scoffed unintentionally, then, adopted my serious tone again. "If you're suggesting that we do spirit traveling, you are seriously delusional, man. I'll never let you do it. I'll warn the elders."
"It's the only way to find out what the girl is trying to do to us," Sam continued unaffected by my resistance.
"We have to go up to the mountains, just like our ancestors did—"
I didn't let him go on. "It's forbidden," I declared firmly.
The practice of spirit traveling had been banned many years ago by our ancestors, because it was extremely dangerous. It involved resting one's body in a secret place in the forest and then letting the spirit travel alone without the body.
Taha Aki, the last of the Quileute Spirit Warriors, had prohibited this practice after his body was stolen while his spirit was away traveling.
Sam interrupted my thoughts. "This inhuman creature, this monster, is infiltrating our dreams, Jake. Do you honestly think it's a coincidence that you and I are both having the exact same dream at the exact same time everyday?"
My defenses weakened the more he insisted. As absurd as his logic sounded, I had to admit, if only to myself, that Sam had a point. If the hybrid had found access to our dreams, we had to find out how and, most importantly, why she was doing it. "Are you saying she's a spirit warrior, too?"
"She's more of a sorcerer, I think. She conjures up evil spirits from the Underworld and manipulates their energy." Sam knew just the right bait to set for me.
I was almost buying it, but, still, I wasn't entirely convinced. "It's too risky. We could wind up stuck in the Spirit World like Taha Aki." I knew his resolve was unshakeable, but I just didn't want to give in that easily. "What if it's a trap? She could be setting us up to leave our bodies behind so she can steal them."
"We're doing it to protect our people, Jake. And, besides, the pack will watch over our bodies the whole time we're gone."
"Great, now you want to involve the pack, too." I desperately searched for some leverage. "Does Emily know about this plan of yours?"
Sam's features changed instantly, making me realize I'd just dealt him a low blow. I could practically see the retaliation taking shape in his head, so I averted my eyes, getting ready to block him if he tried to hit me. Whatever he was about to do, I'd have to take it like a man.
I knew better than to bring up Emily, the girl Sam had imprinted on. She was everything he lived for, so I expected he'd be furious about my remark. Yet, once again, his newly found discipline blew me away.
He took a few deep breaths and then spoke in a calm tone again. "I'm gonna do it with or without you. Tell the elders if you want, but I'm still gonna do it, and you won't be able to stop me."
I knew he meant it. There was no point in raising objections. "Fine, I'll do it." I paused for a second, then, reconsidered. "But I need to know what—"
I was about to bombard him with more questions when a faint stir in the bushes forced us both to go silent. Sam and I reacted briskly, then split up to follow the noise trail. But by the time we came close to the bushes, everything was perfectly still again.
I looked at Sam, and he pressed his index finger to his lips. As we both stood there, trying not to make a sound, I picked up on an unusual scent. I could tell by the look on Sam's face that he had detected it, too, but he didn't say a word about it. Instead, he raised his open palm for silence.
Before I could figure out what was going on, a sudden explosion of images hit me all at once, striking me with such intensity, that I got dizzy and had to find a nearby rock to lean on.
Sam rushed to my side as he saw that I was about to lose consciousness. "Stop all your thoughts," he whispered in my ear.
I managed to speak in spurts. "What's . . . hap . . . pening to . . . me?"
"She's attacking you. Don't allow yourself to think and you'll be fine."
Easier said than done. I could understand what he was saying, but I couldn't react anymore. My body shook involuntarily as the beach seemed to spin in circles around me. My mind felt like a stormy sea of thoughts and emotions colliding against one another. I had never experienced such a thing in my life.
"Jake, look at me." Sam grabbed my face and forced my eyelids open. "Do not think, you hear me? Block all your thoughts."
His words came out muffled. Everything slowed down. He may as well have been speaking a different language for all I knew. My ears buzzed with the barrage of questions flooding my mind. Is she here? Is she spying on us? How much did she hear about what we just said? Can she hear our thoughts?
I was doing just the opposite of what Sam had said to do. I was thinking, and the more I thought, the more vulnerable I became to her attack. I was losing control of my thoughts and perhaps even my free will.
Sam's voice seemed to have vanished. All I could hear now were random noises and echoes. I felt myself drifting fast into oblivion. This must be a small taste of what madness felt like—an overwhelming sense of helplessness, very similar to drowning.
"Stop thinking!" Sam's voice commanded again.
I tried to follow his advice but failed miserably every time. If there was a way to stop myself from thinking, I didn't know how to do it, so I stopped trying and let go. Before I knew it, a dark shadow engulfed me and I was out.
The very last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was a hallucination. It had to be, since my eyes were closed. I wasn't awake and yet I wasn't asleep, so it couldn't have been a dream. It may have been a vision, but I'll call it a hallucination, as it lasted less than a second.
I saw her. I caught a fleeting glimpse of my attacker. She showed herself to me briefly, as an apparition, much like in the dream. She was the vivid image of death, a young girl, about fifteen or less, with ashen skin and shiny black hair.
Around her neck hung a talisman that I recognized from the dream. It looked like an ancient relic and had a round, clear stone in the center, a precious stone of unknown origin. The stone was reddish brown in color and appeared perfectly polished. It shone brightly like the sun. My eyes were drawn to it like it was a magnet.
But the girl appeared as fast as she disappeared, and then everything went dark again.
I'm not sure how long I was out, but I later realized that I had at least one hour unaccounted for. The first thing I remember hearing as I recovered my awareness was a lot of random noise here and there.
Right before I opened my eyes, I felt an uncomfortable pressure, like something tightening around my arm. Using my other hand, I reached to remove it, but someone slapped my hand lightly to keep me from doing it.
"Jake, let go," a familiar female voice called out next to me.
I immediately opened my eyes to look at her and I couldn't believe it. Sitting next to me, with a blood pressure cuff in her hand, was Leah Clearwater.
"Long time no see!" I gave her a bear hug as soon as I saw her.
The cuff came undone and slid off my arm as I hugged her, so she protested and pushed me aside, pretending to be annoyed. But I knew her all too well. We'd grown up together, so I could tell she was just as excited to see me as I was to see her.
"When did you get here?" I smiled widely, wondering what I was doing on her brother Seth's bed.
"Last night." She returned my smile as she velcroed the cuff back around my arm and began pumping air into it to tighten it again.
"I'm fine, Leah." I really did feel perfectly fine, maybe just a tad dizzy, but I let her check my vitals anyway just to make her feel important. Always a good move when dealing with females.
"Yeah, that's why Seth almost had to dump a bucket of cold water on you to wake you up."
"Nah, he wouldn't do that. He knows better," I assured her with a playful wink. "So you're done with school?" I asked, forgetting she'd been done for more than a year.
"Jake!" she complained as she removed the cuff from my arm.
After graduating high school, Leah had moved out of her mom's house to attend nursing school in Seattle. I remember the day she left, she told the pack she wanted to get away from La Push for a while.
Some of her high school friends were moving there, too, so they got an awesome bachelorette pad together. Leah was dying to spread her wings to fly from the nest, so she applied to nursing school, got accepted, packed up her bags and left La Push without looking back.
"Sorry. I really wanted to send you a graduation present. I really did, I swear," I lied in vain.
She didn't believe a word I'd just said, so she smacked me over the head with the cuff. "Always the same bad liar."
"Ouch!" I protested.
She was about to hit me again but I dodged her just in time, so she just laughed it off and went to get a thermometer out of her bag. "I still have to take your temperature, so open your mouth and say 'ah'."
"But, wait." I suddenly remembered. "How did I wind up here?"
I had to ask even though I doubted Sam would have the nerve to show up to this house. It had been many years since he'd dumped Leah, but the awkwardness between them probably continued still, even after so long.
"Embry helped Sam carry you in here," Leah explained.
"Embry was here, too?"
She nodded, turning away when I said Embry's name, but I still noticed the shy pout she was trying to hide.
I'd always suspected Embry liked Leah, but I never asked to avoid embarrassing him. I wondered if he might have finally worked up the courage to ask her out now that she was back. After all, neither one of them had imprinted yet.
Leah raised one eyebrow at me, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What happened tonight, Jake?"
I paused, trying to remember. And then it hit me. The bloodsucker had attacked me on the beach. I sprung up from the bed as I realized that Sam had a lot of explaining to do. I frantically searched my pockets for my cell phone but couldn't find it anywhere.
"Here," Leah said, handing me my cell. "It fell out of your pocket when they brought you in."
"Thanks." I checked it, and it was turned off, so I powered it back on, my hands shaking with nervous anticipation. This is when I realized I'd been out for at least an hour.
"What's going on, Jake?" Leah asked, a dubious tone in her voice.
I was about to answer her when I spotted the alert message on the screen. I had three missed calls, all of them from Bella. Bella was Renesmee's mom and also my future mother-in-law—if I played my cards right.
"Bella's been trying to call me. Sorry, Leah, but I just have t—"
"Go ahead and call her back," she cut me off mid sentence. "But, after you're done, you and I are gonna have a serious talk."
I nodded and shrugged my shoulders, unsure of what to answer.
But Leah wasn't the type who forgets things. "Jacob Black, are you hiding something from me?" Looking me straight in the eye, she stood in front of me, a half smile forming in her lips.
I glanced at my cell and nodded again, this time walking towards the door. Hopefully she'd get the urgency of the situation.
"I'll be waiting." She was going to hold me to it, so I had no other choice but to prepare for her interrogation.
Standing outside on the porch, I dialed Sam's number first, hoping to find a way out of this predicament. Great. No answer. It went straight to voicemail, so he was either on the phone or he'd turned it off for the night. I was so pissed at him, that I was going to hang up without leaving a message, but then I changed my mind.
"Sam," I hissed. "Call me as soon as you get this. Bye." I figured it'd be better to keep it brief. He'd know what I was talking about.
Wonderful. Now, here I was in Sue Clearwater's house, alone and at Leah's mercy. Not even Seth was home. He'd probably left with Sam and Embry. Everyone on the rez knew Leah was a force to be reckoned with if she got angry.
And yet, knowing Sam, I felt pretty sure that he'd done this with a specific purpose in mind. I just wished I'd known what it was before coming here. It certainly wasn't because Leah was a nurse. No, that couldn't be it. There was something else. I could feel it in my bones.
Sighing, I dialed Bella's number. It was past eleven already. I hoped Edward didn't mind me calling his wife this late at night. Good thing they were vampires, so they didn't have to sleep at all.
"Hello?" Bella's voice sounded uptight. Something was up.
"Hey, Bella. Sorry I couldn't call you sooner. Is there anything wrong?"
"Jake, I need to talk to you."
Awesome. Yet another female wanting to talk to me, and not because of my charming looks.
"Shoot," I said.
"No, not now. Tomorrow, after we get there," she muttered.
I found it odd that she'd talk so low in a house full of psychic vampires. "Bells, I don't mean to be rude, but it's been a really long night and I'm exhausted. Please tell me everything's okay, unless you want me to catch the next ferry to Canada."
She forced a chuckle. "We're fine. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning and should be there in the afternoon."
Along with the rest of the Cullens, Bella and Edward had moved to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, after Carlisle was offered a promotion at a hospital there. It was close to a four-hour trip one way to get from La Push to where they lived, but I had no problem with that.
First and foremost, I cared about the well being of Nessie and her family. "You sure it's nothing urgent?" I insisted.
"Jake, please stop worrying." Bella knew full well that I'd do just the opposite, but she still had to leave me hanging.
"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"
The Cullens were all coming down to La Push to celebrate Nessie's fifth birthday with us. Her birthday was in September, but she loved the Quileute Days Celebration we had every July on the beach. The fireworks and bonfires were her favorite, so, for the past few years, it had become a tradition of sorts to celebrate Nessie's birthday in July instead of September.
"Is Nessie okay?" This time, I couldn't hide the anxiety in my voice anymore.
Bella chuckled again. "I'm her mother, Jake. Let me worry about her, alright?" After saying that, her tone of voice suddenly changed.
"I gotta go. Talk to you tomorrow." She hung up before I could ask her anything else.
I was officially worried now. Judging by the way Bella had just talked to me, it sounded like she was trying to hide her conversation from someone. But who was it? Sure it couldn't be Edward.
It had to be someone else.
The way things were going, my chances of getting a good night's sleep were slim to none, so I figured I may as well have coffee with Leah and get it over with. Grab the bull by its horns once and for all, the story of my life.
Coffee would've been nice, especially when you don't feel like staggering around half asleep like a zombie. But no such luck. Leah always had to do things the unconventional way. Nothing to be surprised about, considering she was the first female werewolf in Quileute history.
Instead of sitting down to have a normal conversation at a café like I'd suggested, she insisted on driving us up to the rain forest for a midnight hike.
"There's something up here I want to show you," she explained as she led me up a steep trail.
"Let me guess," I interjected. "You haven't phased in a long time and you can't wait to do it again."
In a flash, her expression changed from laid-back nonchalance to utter panic. She shook her head frantically and stopped walking. "There will be no phasing tonight, Jake."
Now this last one really threw me off. "No phasing? What do you mean, no phasing? I thought you were going to race me."
She glowered at me. "I'm serious."
"I'm serious, too," I fired back. "When was the last time you phased?"
"That's not what we're here for." She resumed her climb up the trail.
I rolled my eyes, following her reluctantly. "You're making a big deal out of nothing, Leah. I passed out, probably from exhaustion, but I feel fine now." But even I couldn't convince myself of what I'd just said. The more I tried to downplay the incident, the more it aggravated her.
We continued advancing deep into the rain forest, veering off the trail until we arrived at an area dense with mossy trees. Leah kept silent the whole time, her eyebrows knitted like she was pondering something.
After about two miles of off-roading, Leah finally dropped the bomb on me. "Jake," she began in a solemn tone. "You should be happy you're still alive. And you better not say I'm exaggerating."
This last one really caught me off guard. "What are you saying?"
"You survived a major psychic attack tonight."
Still baffled by her remark, I asked, "So . . . Sam told you everything, then?"
"Not everything, but I'm pretty familiar with the symptoms of psychic attacks." She tried to sound reassuring, but now the tables had turned, and she was the one under interrogation.
"So that's what knocked me out? A 'psychic' attack?"
"Yes," she replied. "The hybrid used your own thoughts against you."
I sighed in frustration. "And what does this have to do with us phasing?"
A sarcastic chuckle escaped her lips. "Isn't it obvious, Jake? What do you think would've happened if she had attacked you while we were all werewolves?"
Leah was right, of course. The attack would have disabled us all at once. At last, things were starting to make sense. The leech wanted to take out the entire pack, that's why she had infiltrated the minds of the Alphas.
"Okay, I get it now," I declared. "No phasing."
"Good," Leah agreed, sounding relieved.
I still wasn't satisfied, though. It gave me the impression that Leah had something else up her sleeve, so I set out to corner her until I got her talking. "But why did we have to drive all the way up here then?"
Leah checked her watch and was about to open her mouth to answer, when a male voice called out from a distance.
"I asked her to."
Recognizing Sam's voice, I spun around to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Just a few yards from us, Sam, Embry and Seth emerged from behind the trees, each of them holding a lit torch.
"What are you guys doing here?" I wasn't sure whether I should be mad or thankful for the surprise rendezvous they'd planned without my consent.
"There's someone you need to meet," Sam announced, then, turning to Leah, he said, "Lead the way." He lit up two more torches and handed them to us. Next, he motioned for everyone to follow Leah.
"Whoa, wait a second. Where are we going?" If they wanted me to follow, they'd have to tell me what this was all about first. "And what's with the torches, man?"
Sam checked his watch. "We don't have much time. Can we talk along the way?"
"Let's get moving," Leah demanded, "we're still quite a ways from there."
"From where?" I insisted.
"The Blindfolded Hermit's house," Seth replied and gave me a nudge to join them. "C'mon, Jake, we'll tell you all about it."
I went ahead and followed them, still feeling a little skeptical. "Who's that?"
Leah seemed to be the best informed. "He's a monk from Spain. He fled from Europe hundreds of years ago to escape a death sentence."
"Hundreds of years? Please tell me he's not another leech," I sighed.
"He's an alchemist," Seth explained. "Leah and I used to come up here to spy on him when we were little."
Noticing that Embry was much too quiet, I tried to find out if he was in on it. "You knew about the monk, too?"
Embry shook his head and sped up his pace to walk next to Leah. "Only what Leah has told me."
Leah flashed him a half smile. "Embry came up here with us once, but the hermit wasn't home that day."
As for me, I couldn't take the curiosity any longer. "But why is it so urgent to go up there?"
"The blindfold," Sam answered matter-of-factly. "He made it to protect himself from psychic attacks."
"Oh, I see," I pointed out, snickering. "So he's just going to hand it over if we ask nicely."
My remark must have ruffled Sam's feathers, because he jumped at the chance to get even right away. "You're the one who dragged us all into this mess in the first place, so it's your responsibility. You figure it out."
"So we're playing the blame game now, huh? How am I suddenly responsible for everything?"
"You've been responsible all along," Embry blurted out.
Ever so loyal to me, Seth protested through gritted teeth, "Embry!" and elbowed him hard on the arm.
Leah gripped her brother's elbow, yanking him towards her. "You stay out of it, Seth."
Sam shot Embry and Seth a fierce look, then scowled at me, "Own up to it, bro. You're the link between the vampires and the werewolves." He paused, allowing the muscles in his face to relax, then, rested his hand on my shoulder like he was giving me his condolences. "Jake, you're the target."
Brushing off his hand, I came to a screeching halt. "Leave the Cullens out of this. They have nothing to do with it!"
Seth was about to talk, but Leah beat him to it. "Sam, we don't know that for sure yet."
"You're the one who told me about Bella's phone call," Sam said to Leah.
Taking Sam's bait, I lashed out at Leah. "Were you eavesdropping on my conversation?"
"No, Jake," Leah confessed, shaking her head nervously. "I just told him she'd called you. That's all—"
But I didn't want her excuses. I felt betrayed. "Why would you do that?"
Embry stood in front of Leah in a protective gesture. "Stop yelling at her, Jake. She's just trying to help."
Just then, Sam raised his voice and yelled, "Alright, that's enough! Everyone shut up!" He waited until he had our attention and went on. "We're giving the leech exactly what she wants, don't you see? I bet she'd be delighted to hear us bickering like this. We've got to stay together."
Feeling defeated, I hung my head in shame and went silent. Maybe Sam was right about Bella's phone call. Maybe the Cullens were connected to this puzzle somehow.
Leah wrapped her arm around my back, gently encouraging me to follow her. "Please trust me, Jake. We need that blindfold to protect the pack."
My heart told me that Leah meant well, so I decided to trust her and go along with the plan. "Alright, let's go for it then. Just tell me one more thing."
"Ask away," she said, already advancing in long strides. "But we need to keep moving. We don't have much time."
I rushed to catch up with her. "How am I supposed to see with a blindfold on?"
"It's no ordinary blindfold, Jake," she declared emphatically. "Take the hermit, for instance. He's blind, but when he wears it, he can see everything."
Then, Sam added, "They say it opens the eyes of the soul and it lets you see things that human eyes cannot perceive."
Nodding in agreement, Leah continued. "That's how it helps you dodge psychic attacks. It lets you see them coming before they hit you."
As farfetched as their story sounded, it seemed to be our only hope to fend off the hybrid's attacks. And, for that reason alone, I decided it was worth the try. There was nothing I wanted more right now than to nail the leech once and for all.
A blanket of haze descended upon the forest as we approached the hermit's house. The place wasn't even a house like I'd imagined. It was just the abandoned remains of an old stone building, grey and dilapidated with a thick layer of moss all over it.
Leah and Seth were right. The hermit really was an alchemist. His lab, if it could be called that, was in plain sight, only partially hidden by a broken wall. It amounted to all sorts of dust-covered glass bottles laid on a wooden table. It'd be interesting to know which one contained the elixir of life that had kept him alive for centuries.
Sam checked everyone's torches to make sure they were all lit. Next, he went on to explain his strategy to surround the place. "Embry, you take the east side of the ruins, and Seth, you take the west. Leah will guard the north side, and I'll take the front entrance."
Yet, while Seth and Embry went to take their positions, Leah didn't move.
She stayed behind to give me a warning. "Whatever you do, keep the torch burning. He won't be able to see you as long as there's fire close by."
I nodded with visible impatience. "Okay. Here goes nothing." I inhaled deeply and made a dash for the ruins.
As I approached what remained of the front entrance, I felt chills running up and down my spine. I'm not afraid, I thought to myself. He's just a frail old man. Just a frail old man. I kept repeating it in my head like a mantra until I reached the spot where he slept.
The first sight of him filled me with guilt. How miserable he must be, all alone in this cold, humid forest with no one to talk to. I couldn't imagine what terrible crime he must have committed to deserve a death sentence. He looked so harmless, lying there on the cracked floor, wearing a hooded robe in tatters. I wondered why he'd want to continue living this lonely life for centuries to come.
I stood there motionless, just staring at him and feeling extremely torn. Who was I to deprive this wretch of his only defense? There had to be another way.
After all, Sam had suggested the possibility of spirit traveling, so we could do that instead. Sure, it was risky, but it was much better than stealing from a poor old man, alchemist or not.
I had just made up my mind to go back out empty handed, when a sudden gust of wind blew violently in my direction, almost putting out the torch. In my desperate attempt to keep the flame ablaze, I turned my back on the wind, but failed to see a metal pipe protruding from the floor directly behind me.
As I pivoted on my feet, I accidentally tripped on the pipe and fell right smack on my butt. I made such a loud thud when I went down, that I woke up the hermit.
With all the commotion, I didn't notice that a pile of dry leaves next to me had come in contact with the torch. The flames spread within seconds, and the hermit started screaming in terror, flailing his arms wildly in the air. It was clear that he was unable to see, but I was sure he could feel the heat and smell the smoke.
"Jake, the blindfold!" Leah called out.
Acting on impulse, I snatched the blindfold from the hermit. What I saw when I uncovered his eyes gave me the shock of a lifetime. It shook me to the very core.
Remorse didn't even begin to describe how I felt when I looked at that face. The area below his forehead and all around his eyes was completely disfigured by gnarly scars. There were so many, that they looked like tree branches entangled with one another. I could barely see what was left of his eyes through all the scar tissue. He had no pupils, only a grayish white film covering the front part of his eyes.
It was a hideous sight, revolting to behold, and yet I couldn't bring myself to look away. Before I knew it, Sam and the boys were dragging me away from the growing fire. As we got away, I could still hear the hermit screaming to the top of his lungs.
We had only traversed a few yards, when I stopped dead in my tracks.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sam complained.
"We can't leave him there alone to burn." I didn't wait for them to respond.
Turning around, I went back to the ruins and found the hermit. He was about to collapse from inhaling the smoke by the time I reached him, so I scooped him up, flung him over my shoulder and carried him out to safety.
"My books! Please save my books!" he pleaded in a thick Spaniard accent.
The moment I put him down on the ground, Seth and Leah came over to sit next to him. As Leah checked his pulse, Seth offered him some water from a bottle to help him stop coughing.
"He's going to be fine, Jake, don't worry," Leah assured me as she read my concerned expression.
But Sam was not a happy camper. "We need to get out of here."
I glowered at him in disbelief, then, ran back to the ruins to try and put out the fire.
Fortunately, the hermit had so much junk lying around, that I didn't have to search long. As soon as I found a blanket, I used it to smother the flames.
That's when I realized I wasn't alone. Sam and Embry had decided to help me out after all. Together, we put out the fire in no time and were able to save most of the hermit's books.
By the time we emerged from the ruins, the sun had started to come out. A great peace came over me when I saw Leah and Seth chatting with the hermit like he was an old friend. We had found an ally, alright. And not just any ally, but an alchemist, of all things. Already I could tell that this new alliance would come in handy in more ways than one.
My joy only grew stronger when Leah announced that the hermit had accepted her invitation to Nessie's party. It was then that I remembered I still had his blindfold, so I knelt down in front of him and gently tied it around his eyes. The moment a smile brightened his face, I knew he could see me.
I smiled back at him, but then remembered what I'd done and felt awful about it. "Please forgive me. I was just trying to help my people—"
"Your friend Leah explained everything to me, son. Your repentance has absolved you."
I bowed in gratitude and took his hand to help him up.
"Okay, boys," Leah chimed in. "We have party preparations to make. The Cullens will be arriving in La Push this afternoon. We have to get those fireworks ready."
The Elders of the Quileute Nation often warned us about this type of dream. They said that recurring dreams were not really dreams. They were mystical visions sent by our wolf ancestors, most likely to warn us about impending danger.
Only the medicine people were able to understand the meaning of these visions. Everyone else in the reservation was very secretive if they had them at all. We all talked about them like a thing of the past, something only our ancestors experienced. No one ever admitted to having mystical visions for fear of being called crazy.
Quite a predicament I was in. If the dream continued repeating, I'd have to tell Sam about it. Sam Uley would be the person to ask if someone didn't want to consult the healers. He knew all about the mystical secrets of the Quileute Nation.
The only obstacle was how fiercely Sam protected this sacred knowledge. He was extremely hesitant to discuss it with anyone, even the members of his own pack.
It would be hard to get Sam to trust me enough to reveal what he knew. His attitude had changed drastically the moment he found out I had imprinted on Renesmee. My friendship with him had ended that day, exactly five years ago.
Now, he was forced to trust me as his fellow werewolf, but he'd probably never trust me as his friend again. My only hope would be to convince him that my vision might, in fact, be a warning.
As the alpha of my pack, I felt a great burden of responsibility to protect my people. I always tried to be ahead of the game when it came to preventing a possible attack. For this reason alone, I'd have to swallow my pride and go to Sam for advice.
I caught him walking out of Emily's house just before nightfall. He was surprised to see me when he opened the door and saw me standing next to his car.
"Hey, Sam," I mumbled under my breath, barely looking at him.
He scratched his head and laughed, then, was about to say something, but quickly changed his mind. Emily came out to see what he was laughing about.
I waved at her. "Hi, Emily."
"Hey, Jake." She hugged Sam goodbye and closed the door.
Sam advanced slowly in my direction. "What's going on?"
"We need to talk." I made it a point to sound serious, but it wasn't necessary.
Sam knew what was going on. It's like he'd been expecting me to tell him all along. He glanced over at me for a short time, deliberating. "Not here." He opened the door to his car and got in.
I stood mesmerized for a moment. Looking at Sam's ride always had a way of getting me sidetracked. It was a masterpiece. He had restored it himself. Bought it for less than a grand when he found it all beat up at a junkyard.
My dad and I laughed the day he brought it home last year. He had to tow it into his garage because it didn't even have an engine. No one believed he'd pull it off.
Now it was a real beauty. He'd sure had the last laugh. It was a 1962 Thunderbird turned into a hot-rod racecar—state-of-the-art mods all across the board. He'd restored both its exterior and interior from scratch, then, painted it metallic-blue. But what I envied the most was the painting of a thunderbird he'd had custom-airbrushed on the hood.
In Quileute legends, the thunderbird was a mythical creature known for protecting our people in times of trouble. Sam sketched a basic design of it on paper. It was turquoise in color, and its wings spread out to the sides. He then had it airbrushed in aluminum-glitter paint on the hood. A bit flashy, I know, but I wished I'd thought of that before he did.
Sam must have figured out I was drooling over his car, because he knew just what to say to make me snap out of it. "Wanna take it for a spin?"
My jaw dropped as my entire body shook with anticipation. "Me?" This was a new one.
"See anyone else around?" he asked, sliding over to the passenger seat.
He didn't have to tell me twice. The moment he tossed me the keys, I caught them in midair and jumped in. I popped the clutch, revved up the engine, and the prodigy took off in a blaze of impossible speed. Maybe Sam and I were still friends after all.
By the time we hit the 110 the sky had grown dark. I could barely see the road ahead. Even in the middle of July, the highway to Forks lay covered in fog.
The danger lured me like a magnet; it seduced me. I contemplated the possibility of defeating death and felt ecstatic. Gambling with my life was the thrill of my existence. I knew it was contradictory, but I felt most alive when death stalked me.
I had no fear of dying, and driving fast under hazardous conditions was my way of showing it. As the beach zoomed past us in a blur, I sped on, watching how the accelerator needle pushed beyond a hundred miles per hour.
Sam hadn't said a word since we got in the car. I figured it'd let him talk first, but he just sat there, blasting some seriously bizarre music by an underground band he'd seen playing live in Port Angeles. It was one of the weirdest hybrids I'd ever heard—thrash metal meets alternative Goth with a little bit of rap vocals thrown in. Not my style at all but tolerable.
"Sam!" I finally yelled.
He turned off the stereo and turned around to face me. I gave him a few seconds to answer, but he just waited in silence.
"There's something I need to ask you." I paused and was about to continue.
But he interrupted me. "It's the girl, isn't it?"
He caught me off guard. "What girl?"
"The one haunting your dreams."
Yep, he knew about it, alright. Just like I'd thought. "You've seen her, too, haven't you?"
He smirked. "Maybe."
His careless attitude really pissed me off, so, in the spur of the moment, I decided to test the deity's drifting capability a bit. I stepped on the brakes and decelerated a little, then flicked the steering wheel slightly to the right just enough to make the car's tail swing wide. The whole car shook as its back tires locked and screeched, a dense cloud of white smoke swirling upwards from underneath it. Not bad for my first attempt, I thought proudly.
Sam didn't take it so well, though. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"How do you know about the girl?" I demanded.
"Pull over." He was furious.
But I did just the opposite. I floored it. "I want answers, Sam. I need to know what's going on." I hated doing this to him, but I was desperate. If we crashed at this speed, it would probably take us a really long time to recover, super-fast healing powers and all.
He was so enraged, so agitated, that I thought he might phase right then and there. But he didn't. Instead, he closed his eyes and gradually slowed down his breathing. Leaning back on his seat, he went into a deep meditative state.
I'd never seen Sam do this sort of thing before. The way I was driving would've sent even the most self-disciplined of monks into a frenzy. Obviously, my attempt to scare him into telling me what he knew had failed. I'd have to come up with a better strategy.
Sighing with resignation, I slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder nearest the beach. Sam remained in his blissful trance and ignored the noise when I opened the door to get out.
I felt the cool ocean breeze on my face as I strolled across the shore, my thoughts racing. The crescent moon hung low above the water, emanating a silver glow through the fog that enfolded it. Perfect night to go on a hunt, I thought. We hadn't had much action lately, but I had a feeling things weren't going to stay quiet for much longer.
I hadn't walked more than a few yards when I suddenly heard Sam's voice close behind me.
"She's a vampire," he said.
A bit startled, I stopped walking and turned around to find him standing just a couple of feet from me. He had the stupid habit of getting in my face every time he wanted to scare me. It never worked, but it annoyed me to no end.
I flinched backwards as a reflex and almost lost my balance. But I recovered quickly, inflamed by the sudden urge to beat the crap out of him. I steadied myself by throwing my upper body forward, then, started taunting him, snarling low in my throat, ready to attack.
Sam ignored my reaction with cold indifference and went on. "She's not the kind of vampire we're used to dealing with. She's a hybrid, part vampire and part something else."
I sensed a very subtle vacillation in his voice when he finished talking, and it made me realize he was just as worried as I was.
I felt ashamed, trying to fight while he was about to give me the information I needed. I composed myself and acknowledged what he'd just told me. "You mean like Renesmee?" I asked.
He shook his head no. "Renesmee is half human. Most vampires were born human and then got changed. But this girl," he paused, swallowing hard. "This girl is not human at all. She never was."
"Well, what is she mixed with then?" I asked impatiently.
"I don't know what her other half is," Sam answered with frustration, "but I intend to find out."
"How?"
"First we need to find out what she wants from us," he announced, a tinge of urgency in his voice.
I felt relieved when he included himself in the objective. This might turn out to be a lot easier than I'd thought. "Okay, so what do we do?"
He didn't hesitate. I could tell he'd been thinking about his answer for a while now. "We go to the Spirit Warriors."
I almost went mute from the shock. My relief had been premature and had crumbled just as fast. He can't be serious, I shuddered. How dare he even consider this possibility?
But my bewilderment only seemed to strengthen his determination. "Listen, Jake. There are a lot of things the elders don't tell you until you're ready."
I scoffed unintentionally, then, adopted my serious tone again. "If you're suggesting that we do spirit traveling, you are seriously delusional, man. I'll never let you do it. I'll warn the elders."
"It's the only way to find out what the girl is trying to do to us," Sam continued unaffected by my resistance.
"We have to go up to the mountains, just like our ancestors did—"
I didn't let him go on. "It's forbidden," I declared firmly.
The practice of spirit traveling had been banned many years ago by our ancestors, because it was extremely dangerous. It involved resting one's body in a secret place in the forest and then letting the spirit travel alone without the body.
Taha Aki, the last of the Quileute Spirit Warriors, had prohibited this practice after his body was stolen while his spirit was away traveling.
Sam interrupted my thoughts. "This inhuman creature, this monster, is infiltrating our dreams, Jake. Do you honestly think it's a coincidence that you and I are both having the exact same dream at the exact same time everyday?"
My defenses weakened the more he insisted. As absurd as his logic sounded, I had to admit, if only to myself, that Sam had a point. If the hybrid had found access to our dreams, we had to find out how and, most importantly, why she was doing it. "Are you saying she's a spirit warrior, too?"
"She's more of a sorcerer, I think. She conjures up evil spirits from the Underworld and manipulates their energy." Sam knew just the right bait to set for me.
I was almost buying it, but, still, I wasn't entirely convinced. "It's too risky. We could wind up stuck in the Spirit World like Taha Aki." I knew his resolve was unshakeable, but I just didn't want to give in that easily. "What if it's a trap? She could be setting us up to leave our bodies behind so she can steal them."
"We're doing it to protect our people, Jake. And, besides, the pack will watch over our bodies the whole time we're gone."
"Great, now you want to involve the pack, too." I desperately searched for some leverage. "Does Emily know about this plan of yours?"
Sam's features changed instantly, making me realize I'd just dealt him a low blow. I could practically see the retaliation taking shape in his head, so I averted my eyes, getting ready to block him if he tried to hit me. Whatever he was about to do, I'd have to take it like a man.
I knew better than to bring up Emily, the girl Sam had imprinted on. She was everything he lived for, so I expected he'd be furious about my remark. Yet, once again, his newly found discipline blew me away.
He took a few deep breaths and then spoke in a calm tone again. "I'm gonna do it with or without you. Tell the elders if you want, but I'm still gonna do it, and you won't be able to stop me."
I knew he meant it. There was no point in raising objections. "Fine, I'll do it." I paused for a second, then, reconsidered. "But I need to know what—"
I was about to bombard him with more questions when a faint stir in the bushes forced us both to go silent. Sam and I reacted briskly, then split up to follow the noise trail. But by the time we came close to the bushes, everything was perfectly still again.
I looked at Sam, and he pressed his index finger to his lips. As we both stood there, trying not to make a sound, I picked up on an unusual scent. I could tell by the look on Sam's face that he had detected it, too, but he didn't say a word about it. Instead, he raised his open palm for silence.
Before I could figure out what was going on, a sudden explosion of images hit me all at once, striking me with such intensity, that I got dizzy and had to find a nearby rock to lean on.
Sam rushed to my side as he saw that I was about to lose consciousness. "Stop all your thoughts," he whispered in my ear.
I managed to speak in spurts. "What's . . . hap . . . pening to . . . me?"
"She's attacking you. Don't allow yourself to think and you'll be fine."
Easier said than done. I could understand what he was saying, but I couldn't react anymore. My body shook involuntarily as the beach seemed to spin in circles around me. My mind felt like a stormy sea of thoughts and emotions colliding against one another. I had never experienced such a thing in my life.
"Jake, look at me." Sam grabbed my face and forced my eyelids open. "Do not think, you hear me? Block all your thoughts."
His words came out muffled. Everything slowed down. He may as well have been speaking a different language for all I knew. My ears buzzed with the barrage of questions flooding my mind. Is she here? Is she spying on us? How much did she hear about what we just said? Can she hear our thoughts?
I was doing just the opposite of what Sam had said to do. I was thinking, and the more I thought, the more vulnerable I became to her attack. I was losing control of my thoughts and perhaps even my free will.
Sam's voice seemed to have vanished. All I could hear now were random noises and echoes. I felt myself drifting fast into oblivion. This must be a small taste of what madness felt like—an overwhelming sense of helplessness, very similar to drowning.
"Stop thinking!" Sam's voice commanded again.
I tried to follow his advice but failed miserably every time. If there was a way to stop myself from thinking, I didn't know how to do it, so I stopped trying and let go. Before I knew it, a dark shadow engulfed me and I was out.
The very last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was a hallucination. It had to be, since my eyes were closed. I wasn't awake and yet I wasn't asleep, so it couldn't have been a dream. It may have been a vision, but I'll call it a hallucination, as it lasted less than a second.
I saw her. I caught a fleeting glimpse of my attacker. She showed herself to me briefly, as an apparition, much like in the dream. She was the vivid image of death, a young girl, about fifteen or less, with ashen skin and shiny black hair.
Around her neck hung a talisman that I recognized from the dream. It looked like an ancient relic and had a round, clear stone in the center, a precious stone of unknown origin. The stone was reddish brown in color and appeared perfectly polished. It shone brightly like the sun. My eyes were drawn to it like it was a magnet.
But the girl appeared as fast as she disappeared, and then everything went dark again.
I'm not sure how long I was out, but I later realized that I had at least one hour unaccounted for. The first thing I remember hearing as I recovered my awareness was a lot of random noise here and there.
Right before I opened my eyes, I felt an uncomfortable pressure, like something tightening around my arm. Using my other hand, I reached to remove it, but someone slapped my hand lightly to keep me from doing it.
"Jake, let go," a familiar female voice called out next to me.
I immediately opened my eyes to look at her and I couldn't believe it. Sitting next to me, with a blood pressure cuff in her hand, was Leah Clearwater.
"Long time no see!" I gave her a bear hug as soon as I saw her.
The cuff came undone and slid off my arm as I hugged her, so she protested and pushed me aside, pretending to be annoyed. But I knew her all too well. We'd grown up together, so I could tell she was just as excited to see me as I was to see her.
"When did you get here?" I smiled widely, wondering what I was doing on her brother Seth's bed.
"Last night." She returned my smile as she velcroed the cuff back around my arm and began pumping air into it to tighten it again.
"I'm fine, Leah." I really did feel perfectly fine, maybe just a tad dizzy, but I let her check my vitals anyway just to make her feel important. Always a good move when dealing with females.
"Yeah, that's why Seth almost had to dump a bucket of cold water on you to wake you up."
"Nah, he wouldn't do that. He knows better," I assured her with a playful wink. "So you're done with school?" I asked, forgetting she'd been done for more than a year.
"Jake!" she complained as she removed the cuff from my arm.
After graduating high school, Leah had moved out of her mom's house to attend nursing school in Seattle. I remember the day she left, she told the pack she wanted to get away from La Push for a while.
Some of her high school friends were moving there, too, so they got an awesome bachelorette pad together. Leah was dying to spread her wings to fly from the nest, so she applied to nursing school, got accepted, packed up her bags and left La Push without looking back.
"Sorry. I really wanted to send you a graduation present. I really did, I swear," I lied in vain.
She didn't believe a word I'd just said, so she smacked me over the head with the cuff. "Always the same bad liar."
"Ouch!" I protested.
She was about to hit me again but I dodged her just in time, so she just laughed it off and went to get a thermometer out of her bag. "I still have to take your temperature, so open your mouth and say 'ah'."
"But, wait." I suddenly remembered. "How did I wind up here?"
I had to ask even though I doubted Sam would have the nerve to show up to this house. It had been many years since he'd dumped Leah, but the awkwardness between them probably continued still, even after so long.
"Embry helped Sam carry you in here," Leah explained.
"Embry was here, too?"
She nodded, turning away when I said Embry's name, but I still noticed the shy pout she was trying to hide.
I'd always suspected Embry liked Leah, but I never asked to avoid embarrassing him. I wondered if he might have finally worked up the courage to ask her out now that she was back. After all, neither one of them had imprinted yet.
Leah raised one eyebrow at me, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What happened tonight, Jake?"
I paused, trying to remember. And then it hit me. The bloodsucker had attacked me on the beach. I sprung up from the bed as I realized that Sam had a lot of explaining to do. I frantically searched my pockets for my cell phone but couldn't find it anywhere.
"Here," Leah said, handing me my cell. "It fell out of your pocket when they brought you in."
"Thanks." I checked it, and it was turned off, so I powered it back on, my hands shaking with nervous anticipation. This is when I realized I'd been out for at least an hour.
"What's going on, Jake?" Leah asked, a dubious tone in her voice.
I was about to answer her when I spotted the alert message on the screen. I had three missed calls, all of them from Bella. Bella was Renesmee's mom and also my future mother-in-law—if I played my cards right.
"Bella's been trying to call me. Sorry, Leah, but I just have t—"
"Go ahead and call her back," she cut me off mid sentence. "But, after you're done, you and I are gonna have a serious talk."
I nodded and shrugged my shoulders, unsure of what to answer.
But Leah wasn't the type who forgets things. "Jacob Black, are you hiding something from me?" Looking me straight in the eye, she stood in front of me, a half smile forming in her lips.
I glanced at my cell and nodded again, this time walking towards the door. Hopefully she'd get the urgency of the situation.
"I'll be waiting." She was going to hold me to it, so I had no other choice but to prepare for her interrogation.
Standing outside on the porch, I dialed Sam's number first, hoping to find a way out of this predicament. Great. No answer. It went straight to voicemail, so he was either on the phone or he'd turned it off for the night. I was so pissed at him, that I was going to hang up without leaving a message, but then I changed my mind.
"Sam," I hissed. "Call me as soon as you get this. Bye." I figured it'd be better to keep it brief. He'd know what I was talking about.
Wonderful. Now, here I was in Sue Clearwater's house, alone and at Leah's mercy. Not even Seth was home. He'd probably left with Sam and Embry. Everyone on the rez knew Leah was a force to be reckoned with if she got angry.
And yet, knowing Sam, I felt pretty sure that he'd done this with a specific purpose in mind. I just wished I'd known what it was before coming here. It certainly wasn't because Leah was a nurse. No, that couldn't be it. There was something else. I could feel it in my bones.
Sighing, I dialed Bella's number. It was past eleven already. I hoped Edward didn't mind me calling his wife this late at night. Good thing they were vampires, so they didn't have to sleep at all.
"Hello?" Bella's voice sounded uptight. Something was up.
"Hey, Bella. Sorry I couldn't call you sooner. Is there anything wrong?"
"Jake, I need to talk to you."
Awesome. Yet another female wanting to talk to me, and not because of my charming looks.
"Shoot," I said.
"No, not now. Tomorrow, after we get there," she muttered.
I found it odd that she'd talk so low in a house full of psychic vampires. "Bells, I don't mean to be rude, but it's been a really long night and I'm exhausted. Please tell me everything's okay, unless you want me to catch the next ferry to Canada."
She forced a chuckle. "We're fine. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning and should be there in the afternoon."
Along with the rest of the Cullens, Bella and Edward had moved to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, after Carlisle was offered a promotion at a hospital there. It was close to a four-hour trip one way to get from La Push to where they lived, but I had no problem with that.
First and foremost, I cared about the well being of Nessie and her family. "You sure it's nothing urgent?" I insisted.
"Jake, please stop worrying." Bella knew full well that I'd do just the opposite, but she still had to leave me hanging.
"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"
The Cullens were all coming down to La Push to celebrate Nessie's fifth birthday with us. Her birthday was in September, but she loved the Quileute Days Celebration we had every July on the beach. The fireworks and bonfires were her favorite, so, for the past few years, it had become a tradition of sorts to celebrate Nessie's birthday in July instead of September.
"Is Nessie okay?" This time, I couldn't hide the anxiety in my voice anymore.
Bella chuckled again. "I'm her mother, Jake. Let me worry about her, alright?" After saying that, her tone of voice suddenly changed.
"I gotta go. Talk to you tomorrow." She hung up before I could ask her anything else.
I was officially worried now. Judging by the way Bella had just talked to me, it sounded like she was trying to hide her conversation from someone. But who was it? Sure it couldn't be Edward.
It had to be someone else.
The way things were going, my chances of getting a good night's sleep were slim to none, so I figured I may as well have coffee with Leah and get it over with. Grab the bull by its horns once and for all, the story of my life.
Coffee would've been nice, especially when you don't feel like staggering around half asleep like a zombie. But no such luck. Leah always had to do things the unconventional way. Nothing to be surprised about, considering she was the first female werewolf in Quileute history.
Instead of sitting down to have a normal conversation at a café like I'd suggested, she insisted on driving us up to the rain forest for a midnight hike.
"There's something up here I want to show you," she explained as she led me up a steep trail.
"Let me guess," I interjected. "You haven't phased in a long time and you can't wait to do it again."
In a flash, her expression changed from laid-back nonchalance to utter panic. She shook her head frantically and stopped walking. "There will be no phasing tonight, Jake."
Now this last one really threw me off. "No phasing? What do you mean, no phasing? I thought you were going to race me."
She glowered at me. "I'm serious."
"I'm serious, too," I fired back. "When was the last time you phased?"
"That's not what we're here for." She resumed her climb up the trail.
I rolled my eyes, following her reluctantly. "You're making a big deal out of nothing, Leah. I passed out, probably from exhaustion, but I feel fine now." But even I couldn't convince myself of what I'd just said. The more I tried to downplay the incident, the more it aggravated her.
We continued advancing deep into the rain forest, veering off the trail until we arrived at an area dense with mossy trees. Leah kept silent the whole time, her eyebrows knitted like she was pondering something.
After about two miles of off-roading, Leah finally dropped the bomb on me. "Jake," she began in a solemn tone. "You should be happy you're still alive. And you better not say I'm exaggerating."
This last one really caught me off guard. "What are you saying?"
"You survived a major psychic attack tonight."
Still baffled by her remark, I asked, "So . . . Sam told you everything, then?"
"Not everything, but I'm pretty familiar with the symptoms of psychic attacks." She tried to sound reassuring, but now the tables had turned, and she was the one under interrogation.
"So that's what knocked me out? A 'psychic' attack?"
"Yes," she replied. "The hybrid used your own thoughts against you."
I sighed in frustration. "And what does this have to do with us phasing?"
A sarcastic chuckle escaped her lips. "Isn't it obvious, Jake? What do you think would've happened if she had attacked you while we were all werewolves?"
Leah was right, of course. The attack would have disabled us all at once. At last, things were starting to make sense. The leech wanted to take out the entire pack, that's why she had infiltrated the minds of the Alphas.
"Okay, I get it now," I declared. "No phasing."
"Good," Leah agreed, sounding relieved.
I still wasn't satisfied, though. It gave me the impression that Leah had something else up her sleeve, so I set out to corner her until I got her talking. "But why did we have to drive all the way up here then?"
Leah checked her watch and was about to open her mouth to answer, when a male voice called out from a distance.
"I asked her to."
Recognizing Sam's voice, I spun around to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Just a few yards from us, Sam, Embry and Seth emerged from behind the trees, each of them holding a lit torch.
"What are you guys doing here?" I wasn't sure whether I should be mad or thankful for the surprise rendezvous they'd planned without my consent.
"There's someone you need to meet," Sam announced, then, turning to Leah, he said, "Lead the way." He lit up two more torches and handed them to us. Next, he motioned for everyone to follow Leah.
"Whoa, wait a second. Where are we going?" If they wanted me to follow, they'd have to tell me what this was all about first. "And what's with the torches, man?"
Sam checked his watch. "We don't have much time. Can we talk along the way?"
"Let's get moving," Leah demanded, "we're still quite a ways from there."
"From where?" I insisted.
"The Blindfolded Hermit's house," Seth replied and gave me a nudge to join them. "C'mon, Jake, we'll tell you all about it."
I went ahead and followed them, still feeling a little skeptical. "Who's that?"
Leah seemed to be the best informed. "He's a monk from Spain. He fled from Europe hundreds of years ago to escape a death sentence."
"Hundreds of years? Please tell me he's not another leech," I sighed.
"He's an alchemist," Seth explained. "Leah and I used to come up here to spy on him when we were little."
Noticing that Embry was much too quiet, I tried to find out if he was in on it. "You knew about the monk, too?"
Embry shook his head and sped up his pace to walk next to Leah. "Only what Leah has told me."
Leah flashed him a half smile. "Embry came up here with us once, but the hermit wasn't home that day."
As for me, I couldn't take the curiosity any longer. "But why is it so urgent to go up there?"
"The blindfold," Sam answered matter-of-factly. "He made it to protect himself from psychic attacks."
"Oh, I see," I pointed out, snickering. "So he's just going to hand it over if we ask nicely."
My remark must have ruffled Sam's feathers, because he jumped at the chance to get even right away. "You're the one who dragged us all into this mess in the first place, so it's your responsibility. You figure it out."
"So we're playing the blame game now, huh? How am I suddenly responsible for everything?"
"You've been responsible all along," Embry blurted out.
Ever so loyal to me, Seth protested through gritted teeth, "Embry!" and elbowed him hard on the arm.
Leah gripped her brother's elbow, yanking him towards her. "You stay out of it, Seth."
Sam shot Embry and Seth a fierce look, then scowled at me, "Own up to it, bro. You're the link between the vampires and the werewolves." He paused, allowing the muscles in his face to relax, then, rested his hand on my shoulder like he was giving me his condolences. "Jake, you're the target."
Brushing off his hand, I came to a screeching halt. "Leave the Cullens out of this. They have nothing to do with it!"
Seth was about to talk, but Leah beat him to it. "Sam, we don't know that for sure yet."
"You're the one who told me about Bella's phone call," Sam said to Leah.
Taking Sam's bait, I lashed out at Leah. "Were you eavesdropping on my conversation?"
"No, Jake," Leah confessed, shaking her head nervously. "I just told him she'd called you. That's all—"
But I didn't want her excuses. I felt betrayed. "Why would you do that?"
Embry stood in front of Leah in a protective gesture. "Stop yelling at her, Jake. She's just trying to help."
Just then, Sam raised his voice and yelled, "Alright, that's enough! Everyone shut up!" He waited until he had our attention and went on. "We're giving the leech exactly what she wants, don't you see? I bet she'd be delighted to hear us bickering like this. We've got to stay together."
Feeling defeated, I hung my head in shame and went silent. Maybe Sam was right about Bella's phone call. Maybe the Cullens were connected to this puzzle somehow.
Leah wrapped her arm around my back, gently encouraging me to follow her. "Please trust me, Jake. We need that blindfold to protect the pack."
My heart told me that Leah meant well, so I decided to trust her and go along with the plan. "Alright, let's go for it then. Just tell me one more thing."
"Ask away," she said, already advancing in long strides. "But we need to keep moving. We don't have much time."
I rushed to catch up with her. "How am I supposed to see with a blindfold on?"
"It's no ordinary blindfold, Jake," she declared emphatically. "Take the hermit, for instance. He's blind, but when he wears it, he can see everything."
Then, Sam added, "They say it opens the eyes of the soul and it lets you see things that human eyes cannot perceive."
Nodding in agreement, Leah continued. "That's how it helps you dodge psychic attacks. It lets you see them coming before they hit you."
As farfetched as their story sounded, it seemed to be our only hope to fend off the hybrid's attacks. And, for that reason alone, I decided it was worth the try. There was nothing I wanted more right now than to nail the leech once and for all.
A blanket of haze descended upon the forest as we approached the hermit's house. The place wasn't even a house like I'd imagined. It was just the abandoned remains of an old stone building, grey and dilapidated with a thick layer of moss all over it.
Leah and Seth were right. The hermit really was an alchemist. His lab, if it could be called that, was in plain sight, only partially hidden by a broken wall. It amounted to all sorts of dust-covered glass bottles laid on a wooden table. It'd be interesting to know which one contained the elixir of life that had kept him alive for centuries.
Sam checked everyone's torches to make sure they were all lit. Next, he went on to explain his strategy to surround the place. "Embry, you take the east side of the ruins, and Seth, you take the west. Leah will guard the north side, and I'll take the front entrance."
Yet, while Seth and Embry went to take their positions, Leah didn't move.
She stayed behind to give me a warning. "Whatever you do, keep the torch burning. He won't be able to see you as long as there's fire close by."
I nodded with visible impatience. "Okay. Here goes nothing." I inhaled deeply and made a dash for the ruins.
As I approached what remained of the front entrance, I felt chills running up and down my spine. I'm not afraid, I thought to myself. He's just a frail old man. Just a frail old man. I kept repeating it in my head like a mantra until I reached the spot where he slept.
The first sight of him filled me with guilt. How miserable he must be, all alone in this cold, humid forest with no one to talk to. I couldn't imagine what terrible crime he must have committed to deserve a death sentence. He looked so harmless, lying there on the cracked floor, wearing a hooded robe in tatters. I wondered why he'd want to continue living this lonely life for centuries to come.
I stood there motionless, just staring at him and feeling extremely torn. Who was I to deprive this wretch of his only defense? There had to be another way.
After all, Sam had suggested the possibility of spirit traveling, so we could do that instead. Sure, it was risky, but it was much better than stealing from a poor old man, alchemist or not.
I had just made up my mind to go back out empty handed, when a sudden gust of wind blew violently in my direction, almost putting out the torch. In my desperate attempt to keep the flame ablaze, I turned my back on the wind, but failed to see a metal pipe protruding from the floor directly behind me.
As I pivoted on my feet, I accidentally tripped on the pipe and fell right smack on my butt. I made such a loud thud when I went down, that I woke up the hermit.
With all the commotion, I didn't notice that a pile of dry leaves next to me had come in contact with the torch. The flames spread within seconds, and the hermit started screaming in terror, flailing his arms wildly in the air. It was clear that he was unable to see, but I was sure he could feel the heat and smell the smoke.
"Jake, the blindfold!" Leah called out.
Acting on impulse, I snatched the blindfold from the hermit. What I saw when I uncovered his eyes gave me the shock of a lifetime. It shook me to the very core.
Remorse didn't even begin to describe how I felt when I looked at that face. The area below his forehead and all around his eyes was completely disfigured by gnarly scars. There were so many, that they looked like tree branches entangled with one another. I could barely see what was left of his eyes through all the scar tissue. He had no pupils, only a grayish white film covering the front part of his eyes.
It was a hideous sight, revolting to behold, and yet I couldn't bring myself to look away. Before I knew it, Sam and the boys were dragging me away from the growing fire. As we got away, I could still hear the hermit screaming to the top of his lungs.
We had only traversed a few yards, when I stopped dead in my tracks.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sam complained.
"We can't leave him there alone to burn." I didn't wait for them to respond.
Turning around, I went back to the ruins and found the hermit. He was about to collapse from inhaling the smoke by the time I reached him, so I scooped him up, flung him over my shoulder and carried him out to safety.
"My books! Please save my books!" he pleaded in a thick Spaniard accent.
The moment I put him down on the ground, Seth and Leah came over to sit next to him. As Leah checked his pulse, Seth offered him some water from a bottle to help him stop coughing.
"He's going to be fine, Jake, don't worry," Leah assured me as she read my concerned expression.
But Sam was not a happy camper. "We need to get out of here."
I glowered at him in disbelief, then, ran back to the ruins to try and put out the fire.
Fortunately, the hermit had so much junk lying around, that I didn't have to search long. As soon as I found a blanket, I used it to smother the flames.
That's when I realized I wasn't alone. Sam and Embry had decided to help me out after all. Together, we put out the fire in no time and were able to save most of the hermit's books.
By the time we emerged from the ruins, the sun had started to come out. A great peace came over me when I saw Leah and Seth chatting with the hermit like he was an old friend. We had found an ally, alright. And not just any ally, but an alchemist, of all things. Already I could tell that this new alliance would come in handy in more ways than one.
My joy only grew stronger when Leah announced that the hermit had accepted her invitation to Nessie's party. It was then that I remembered I still had his blindfold, so I knelt down in front of him and gently tied it around his eyes. The moment a smile brightened his face, I knew he could see me.
I smiled back at him, but then remembered what I'd done and felt awful about it. "Please forgive me. I was just trying to help my people—"
"Your friend Leah explained everything to me, son. Your repentance has absolved you."
I bowed in gratitude and took his hand to help him up.
"Okay, boys," Leah chimed in. "We have party preparations to make. The Cullens will be arriving in La Push this afternoon. We have to get those fireworks ready."
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