My heart was bursting with excitement and anticipation. I couldn't wait to embark on a quest for the talisman, as I knew it would ultimately lead me to Nessie. For the first time in several days, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I'd found the Achilles' tendon of the hybrid.
Once I held that talisman in my possession, the hybrid would be forced to tell me where I could find Nessie.
Only one possibility kept haunting me now. The possibility that time might be running out. And, if I didn't hurry, it would be too late. I refused to believe what the hybrid had said about my Nessie. That she'd summoned the hybrid out of her own free will, so that she might change her into a full vampire.
Just the mere thought of this happening made every hair on my body stand on end. It hung around my neck like an albatross, weighing me down with horrible visions of Nessie drinking human blood, her eyes crimson red, and her lips dripping wet with the evidence of her crime.
Sam and the rest of the pack would never tolerate it. If Nessie were to change into a full-fledged bloodsucker with an appetite for human blood, the ancient treaty between the Cullens and the Quileutes would be finished.
Especially now, with Edward's fate so uncertain, the Cullens would be forced to extend their stay. And if Nessie killed any humans in treaty lands, a war would be inevitable then. I'd find myself in the middle of it. Forced to choose sides. Torn between defending the girl I loved and fulfilling my duty to protect my people.
Clearly, failure wasn't an option for me. The price for that would be too great, and I wasn't willing to pay it. That talisman had to be mine even if it meant going to the end of the world to find it.
I just had to make sure I did it all in time to stop Nessie from making the worst mistake of her existence. I had to steal the talisman from the hybrid before she could change Nessie into a full vampire, and there was only one way to do it.
Grabbing a hold of Old Quil's arm, I tried to help him up from the stoop, but he chuckled, shaking his head and waving his hand in a gesture of refusal.
"Let go, son," he snickered benevolently, taking his time to get up on his own. "I might be the most ancient among us, but I can still take care of myself. Go on inside." He paused briefly as he steadied himself and looked around. "The dawn is approaching."
I didn't like the way he'd lowered his voice as he spoke those last words. They carried a distinct tone of apprehension that I sensed immediately. I could tell by the way his eyes were watching the trees that there really was something out there, stalking us. It wasn't just me being paranoid.
"What is it, Old Quil?" I asked just to double-check.
Instead of answering my question, he let out a high-pitched whistle that I knew all too well. Our wolf ancestors had taught it to us so we could communicate with the pack anytime we were in human form and couldn't communicate telepathically. Each of us could hear it from miles away, no matter how scattered we may be. Our people used it only in times of trouble, and it was meant for gathering the pack.
"I'll go get Sam," I said, reaching for the doorknob.
Just then, the front door opened, and Bella came out with Sam following close behind her. He was still wearing the blindfold, but seemed to have no trouble moving around, which meant he could see perfectly fine.
As the two of them stepped out to the porch, I took a peek inside the living room and noticed Dr. Cullen had taken Sam's place in the circle. Then, right before Sam closed the door again, I caught a glimpse of everyone's faces inside. They'd all heard Old Quil's whistle alarm and were visibly upset by it, especially Seth and Leah.
I could tell they were dying to come outside, but, unless someone took their place in the circle, they were going to have to remain there to protect Alice. The front door slammed shut, but I could still hear the commotion inside. Their voices talked all together, and I could barely make out who was saying what, so my defense mechanisms kicked in, and I had to tune them out.
"Jake, we need to talk right now," Bella demanded as her eyes darted towards the wolves already starting to gather round the house.
I hesitated. "But, Bells, there's something out there. We have to go patrol the area."
"Can this wait?" Sam asked, unable to hide his impatience.
"No, it can't," she snapped, then took my hand and pulled me close to whisper in my ear, "Did you forget about Edward?"
Sam had the same super-sensitive hearing as I did, so I knew he'd heard what Bella told me. Still, he ignored it all the same and asked, "Jake, you coming or what?"
I shot Bella a quick glance, and the anguish in her face really got to me. There was no way I could say no to her. For an instant there, I realized just how deeply connected she and I were. Literally, I found myself feeling her pain. And yet, at the same time, I hated having to ditch the pack. So I simply stood there, weighing my options for a second.
Then, as I was finally ready to say something, Old Quil beat me to it. "I'm sure you boys can handle yourselves just fine without Jacob," he told Sam.
That's all it took as far as Sam was concerned. Old Quil represented everything Sam strived to become someday. Ever since I could remember, Old Quil had been Sam's mentor, role model, idol. You name it. Sam had put him on a pedestal from the day he'd found out that all the legends about our wolf ancestors were actually true stories.
"No problem," Sam muttered with a twinge of bitterness. "We'll take care of it." Avoiding our eyes, he bowed his head at Old Quil to excuse himself and then went to join the pack with the tail between his legs.
That was that at least for now. I knew I'd hear about it later, especially knowing Paul had it in for me, too. They were going to gang up on me eventually, but I couldn't afford to worry about that at this point. I figured I'd deal with it when the time came.
Bella squeezed Old Quil's hand, forcing the saddest smile I'd ever seen in a long time. "Thanks, Old Quil. You're very kind."
Grinning with satisfaction, Old Quil replied, "We're all in this together, child." Then, he went back into the house and left me alone with Bella on the porch.
"Here," Bella said as she handed me the keys to the car she and Edward had rented in Port Angeles.
I gawked as soon as I saw the label on the keychain. "Bentley GTC, huh?" Exotic sports cars were my weakness, especially convertibles. I could just picture myself driving over 200 miles an hour, outracing cops left and right, and going to the end of the world to find Nessie.
If only Bella had given me a chance to enjoy it for a bit longer than a second, though. What she told me next almost made me puke all over the keys. "We need to go find a fresh human corpse, Jake."
I examined—more like scrutinized—her face, waiting for the punch line of what I could only hope was her idea of a joke. But the punch line never came.
Bella was dead serious. "We need fresh human blood for the transfusion."
I scratched my head. "But wait, why does it have to be human blood? Can't we just go find him a mountain lion somewhere? A bear maybe?"
"Carlisle says it has to be human blood." She moved closer to me and deliberately inhaled my scent. "Fresh human blood, Jake."
I hadn't realized just how thirsty she was for it herself. While before, it was only a suspicion I had, now I knew for sure that this was the reason she hadn't been hunting. Animal blood just didn't cut it for her. Her vampire body demanded the real deal, and it seemed to me that her self-control was wearing thin.
"Okay," I sighed with resignation. "Human blood it is." I had to give into her even though I was in a mad rush to go find the talisman. After all, what good would it do me to find Nessie if I was going to bring her home to a dead father?
"Good," Bella began, and before I could so much as blink, she went on to brief me on the details of her plan. "Rose will lead us to the place. You just have to drop us off there, and we'll call you when we're ready to load the body into the trunk—"
"Whoa, whoa, wait, hold it, Bells, back up for a second."
"We have no time to waste! We have to go now!" Her voice trembled.
"Where exactly is this place, anyway?" I had to ask.
Her body language betrayed her before she could even make an attempt to explain. And, from the look in her eyes, I could tell she knew I wasn't going to like her answer. "That shouldn't matter to you, Jake. All I'm asking is that you take us there. Rose already made arrangements, and they're waiting for us. We have to hurry."
"Listen, I know you think I'm dumb and all, but I'm not that dumb, Bells. I know what you guys are up to."
She rolled her eyes like I was the stupidest person she knew. "Oh, really? And what is that?"
"You're going to a black market dealer. Very convenient, I know. You pay them an outrageous price, and they do the dirty work for you. That way you don't have to kill anyone per se, but you're still purchasing a freshly murdered victim."
She scoffed at me. "You've had a long night, Jake. Go get some rest. I'll ask Emmett to drive us instead."
"No!" I declared firmly, stomping my foot hard on the wooden floor. "There has to be a better way that doesn't involve killing humans. Directly or indirectly, it is still murder, Bella!"
One single look at her face was enough to show me that my words had gone in one ear and come out the other. Nothing I could say or do was going to get through to her. I knew it just as well as she did, and yet here we were again, pointlessly arguing in circles and getting nowhere.
She held out her hand and demanded, "Give me back the keys."
"I can't let you do this, Bells, I'm sorry." Not that I was going soft or anything, but somehow what I'd just said had come off as a sheepish plea. "You're my best friend," I added, practically begging to avoid a confrontation that already seemed inevitable.
My refusal pissed her off so badly, though, that she started fuming like a furnace. "Give them back, I said!" she insisted, her jaw clenched in a threatening gesture.
The idea of her even trying to intimidate me cracked me up inside, but I still managed to keep a straight face, as I knew that laughing would only push her over the edge. My face stern, I shook my head no and hid the keys behind my back. "Over my dead body."
But Bella was in full attack mode by then, so she pulled her lips back over her teeth and snarled as she lunged at me. I hadn't seen her this angry since the day she'd tried to rip out my throat for nicknaming Renesmee after the Loch Ness monster.
"Hey, whoa, you're gonna ruin your pretty dress," I warned jokingly.
But she didn't seem to care. Before I knew it, she had fly-tackled me down the front steps, and we were both rolling on the ground, wrestling over the keys. I knew she'd never hurt me, no matter how ferociously she tried to act. So, as she pinned me down, I couldn't hold it in any longer and suddenly burst out laughing.
Let's just say she didn't take this kindly. Not in the very least. Next thing I knew, I was seeing stars. She'd slapped me hard across the face and would've punched me, too, if I hadn't distracted her by flinging the keys far out into the bushes.
"Jake, you're such an idiot!" she protested.
I took advantage of the second it took her to follow the keys with her eyes and pushed her off me. Then, as I stood up, I felt a sharp sting in my arm. I glanced down at the spot where the sting was coming from and realized what had caused it. I'd just cut myself, and now my arm was bleeding.
I knew it would only take me a few minutes to heal, but, just to be sure, I quickly hid the wound away, hoping Bella might be too distracted to pick up on the scent of my blood.
No such luck. As ravenous as she was right now, this was a scent she wouldn't miss for the world. Forgetting all about the keys, she turned towards me, her eyes boring into mine. She gasped softly, almost longingly, and I took a step back, unable to peal my eyes off of hers.
"Stay back, Bella," I cautioned her, all the muscles in my body tensing up.
"My venom can't hurt you. Not if I don't bite, right?" The raw yearning in her voice was impossible to ignore.
"I wouldn't know that." My pulse quickened, making me feel way too vulnerable for comfort.
By now, I was breathing hard and feeling incredibly drawn to her. Where the hell were all these sensations coming from? My knees weak, I almost didn't want to talk anymore, I was so ashamed.
"You know I'd never hurt you." The tone of confidence in her voice made it all too clear. She was well aware of the effect her thirst was having on me, and it was only making things worse for both of us.
An enormous wave of guilt washed over me all of a sudden. "Don't come any closer," I said halfheartedly. Only this time I didn't move. One thing was what my words said, and a very different thing was what my body showed. I felt an urgent impulse to make a break for it, just run without stopping or looking back and put as much distance between us as I could.
Instead, I stood there and watched her advance slowly in my direction. It was pointless trying to hide it anymore. How my chest rose and fell faster with every step she took towards me. How I had to swallow hard, because my mouth was watering with anticipation. It shocked me to realize that I wanted this to happen just as badly as she did. Something inside me just wanted to reach out and grab her, to hold her and press her tightly up against me.
"Just relax, okay?" she whispered, her voice raspy with bloodlust.
"Bella." A moan caught in my throat as I muttered her name.
She pressed her ivory finger gently against my lips and said, "Shhhh."
My heart beat a million miles a minute as she took my wounded arm in her hands. Suddenly, all these flashbacks came rushing into my mind, collapsing the fortress I'd built around me over the years.
The night we'd spent in the tent, her body freezing and wrapped around the feverish heat of mine. My face flushed red hot just remembering the fantasies I'd had about her that night. I thought of the kiss she'd given me years ago, when she was still human, and we were alone up in the mountains. How she'd told me that she loved me and meant every word of it.
She loved me still. I knew that for sure, only it was a different kind of love now.
Or was it?
Had I been fooling myself all this time, thinking that imprinting on Nessie had erased everything I felt for Bella?
Time seemed to slow down as she lifted my bleeding arm towards her mouth. Her lips hadn't even touched my skin yet, and already I was feeling dizzy, intoxicated with the savage hunger I saw radiating from her eyes. I wished I could lie down next to her like we'd done that night in the tent.
I thought about taking her home to my room for some privacy. My house was just walking distance from Leah's, so we could've gotten there in no time. But in my desperate attempt to hold on to that moment, I ended up ruining it.
I should have acted faster. I should have just grabbed her hand and taken her somewhere else; somewhere we could be alone and undisturbed. But I guess some things are simply not meant to happen regardless of what you do.
Just as Bella's lips parted over my wound, the door swung open, and Blondie swept out of the house, her lower lip quivering with rage.
"Oops, sorry!" she exclaimed sarcastically. "Am I interrupting something?"
Startled out of my wits, I yanked my arm out of Bella's grasp and took a leap backwards. By the time I landed back down on the ground, I was standing at least a couple of yards away from her.
It could've been anyone who caught us in this compromising position, but it just had to be Blondie of all people. Now I knew for sure that Nessie would hear all about this, and so would Edward. If he survived, that is.
Bella hissed at Blondie. "Mind your own business, Rose."
"Forgive me, Mrs. Cullen," Blondie said with a sardonic emphasis on the Mrs. Cullen part. "But I was under the impression that your daughter was missing and your husband was in urgent need of a blood transfusion. And you're out here, doing what exactly?"
If I'd been in Bella's shoes, I swear I would've slapped Blondie for being such a viper. But all Bella did was remain silent, probably trying to come up with a good explanation for what her sister-in-law had just seen her doing.
I figured my best move under the circumstances would be to keep my mouth shut as well, and just let Bella handle it. But, as I saw Blondie approaching her menacingly, I knew I just had to say something.
I wish I'd thought about it more carefully before I spoke, though, because what I ended up telling Blondie made everyone's jaw drop, even my own. "I was offering Bella my blood," I blurted out. "For the transfusion, I mean."
Bella and Blondie cast furtive glances at each other, then turned back to stare at me, apparently intrigued by my offer.
Relieved to have captured their attention, I went on. "It won't be necessary to buy the human corpse. I can produce all the blood Edward needs as long as I take breaks in between to recover from the loss."
"What about the dog stench?" Blondie argued and was about to complain some more if someone hadn't interrupted her.
"Vampires can adapt to anything." It was Dr. Cullen. Most likely, he'd caught the tail end of our conversation and had decided to intervene.
An expression of concern on her face, Bella interjected, "But, Jake, the venom—"
"Vampire venom is only deadly to wolves if it penetrates their veins," Dr. Cullen clarified. "That won't happen during a transfusion. Jake will be perfectly safe."
By then, Bella seemed to have forgotten all about our fight and was gazing at me, doe-eyed with gratitude. "You still don't have to do this, Jake. You know that, right?" she crooned in a soothing voice.
"I just want to help Edward," I reassured her, although deep inside I couldn't help but wonder what the hell I might be getting myself into.
Dr. Cullen commended me with a handshake. "We can't thank you enough, son."
"Yeah, Jake, it's very noble of you, really," Bella added with the utmost sincerity.
Doing my best to ignore how Blondie was scowling at me, I replied, "Always glad to help."
"Alright, alright!" Blondie nagged for the umpteenth time. "Can we skip to the part where we actually start the damn transfusion?"
Ever the pacifist, Carlisle interfered. "No need to be rude, dear."
I silently thanked him with a nod just to be polite, even though Blondie's bad manners were the least of my concerns. I had to admit I wasn't exactly looking forward to having a needle stuck in my vein, not even for a short time. Yet, ultimately, the urge to get my hands on that talisman overrode any skepticism or apprehension I may have felt.
The way I looked at it, once I brought Edward back from whatever vampire limbo he was trapped in, I'd finally be free to go after the talisman. I'd bring Nessie back home safely from wherever it was that the hybrid had lured her to, and everything would be back to normal.
Compared to what was at stake, a needle in my vein didn't even seem like such a big deal after all. So I marched on forward towards the house, feeling like an enormous weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. Blondie's black market plan had bit the dust, and that was enough of a victory for me, at least for the time being.
"Has something like this ever happened before with any vampire you know?" I overheard Bella asking Doctor Cullen as the four of us entered the house.
He hesitated for an instant, like he was trying to remember something. Then, he answered, "Not anyone I knew personally, but I do remember reading about a case in a medieval book from the Volturi's private collection. Back when I was staying with them in Rome."
"What did it say?" Bella asked.
"It chronicled a series of strange attacks on vampires in Eastern Europe," he explained. "Entire clans were completely drained of blood and left out in the open to be torn apart by wild beasts."
I couldn't help but noticing that Bella's questions were making Dr. Cullen uncomfortable. He wasn't maintaining eye contact with her and kept pacing around the living room, glancing about, as though searching for something. What was it about this subject that made him so uneasy? Was he hiding something from us?
Esme, who was now standing in for her husband on the circle, must have observed the same thing I did, because she asked him, "Is there something I can get for you, honey?"
"Yes, dear," he replied. "I need you to call Sue and ask her to get us transfusion supplies from the hospital."
Sue had recently been promoted to charge nurse of the Intensive Care Unit at Forks Hospital, so she had access to anything and everything we may need in the way of medical supplies.
Yet, thanks to Leah, we didn't even have to call Sue in the end. "I'm almost sure I have a portable kit in the trunk of my car," Leah offered as she saw Esme reaching for the cell phone.
Knowing full well that Leah couldn't leave the protective circle, I volunteered to go get it, but
Blondie quickly interfered.
"Emmett," she called out, shooting Bella a suspicious glare, then, doing the same to me. "Why don't you and Jasper go out there and take a look?"
Bella was too busy rolling up Edward's sleeves to notice the expression of bitterness on Blondie's face, but I caught her intentions dead on. Ms. Barbie-wannabe was still mulling over what she'd seen the two of us doing outside. Clearly, she hadn't bought my story and, now, she'd made it her mission to keep Bella away from me. I bet she wanted to be the hero just so that later she could go brag about it to Edward.
Not in the least surprising, coming from the egomaniac we all knew her to be, what with her desperation to steal everyone's thunder and all. Yet, personally, I still found it a bit ironic, considering the fact that Blondie herself had never really gotten over Edward's rejection in the first place.
Before Bella came along, the Cullens had intended for Blondie and Edward to become a mated pair. The only problem with that was Edward's objection to their plans. To make a long story short, Edward never quite got around to warming up to Blondie, at least not in that way, so that's how Emmett had come to be her partner instead.
For all I knew, Blondie still carried a torch for Edward, and that was the real reason behind her hostility towards Bella. But these were just my own inner speculations, and I had to admit that I could very well be wrong. It's not like I cared, anyway.
The only time Blondie would ever make it to my priority list was if she actually tried to harm Bella. I knew for a fact that she'd always be there for Nessie, so I had nothing to worry about in that department. But with Bella, it was an entirely different story. Ever since Nessie's birth, I'd sensed this unspoken rivalry between them that could boil over at any second, and it always made me nervous just to think about it.
I was so deep in thought, that I barely noticed when Leah took her car keys out of her pocket and threw them at Emmett. He caught them in midair without so much as moving from where he stood, then left with Jasper to go find the transfusion kit.
Meanwhile, Bella went back to torturing Dr. Cullen with more of her questions. "So did they ever find out who attacked the vampires?"
Up until then, Dr. Cullen had settled quietly in a chair next to the couch where Edward lay, focusing all his energy on prepping his son's arm for the procedure. The moment he heard Bella's question, however, his facial gestures became visibly rattled. "Vampires," he repeated after her, his eyebrows knitted as if she'd just shaken him out of a trance.
"The clans they attacked in Eastern Europe," Bella clarified. "Did they ever find out who did it?"
Standing up from the chair, Dr. Cullen walked over to the window and checked on his other two sons. "I believe the question is not so much who, but why."
"To steal information?" the hermit asked out of the blue. He'd been standing so quietly on his side of the circle way at the back of the room, that I'd almost forgotten how much he probably knew and wasn't sharing.
Dr. Cullen nodded, unable to hide his surprise. "That's right! Information and power," he replied, then thought for a moment and added, "Did you read about it, too?"
"The gypsies in Spain used to talk about it all the time," the hermit pointed out.
Once he said that, he captured my full attention, and, before I knew it, I was the one asking the questions. "So you guys are basically saying that the hybrid sucked Edward's blood to find out everything he knew?"
Dr. Cullen fidgeted nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he eyeballed Esme. This made it quite obvious to me that the two of them were deliberately holding back information from us. And yet, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why.
"Of course!" Alice exclaimed. "It's kind of like what Aro did to him that time in Volterra. Just by touching Edward's hand, he was able to see everything he'd ever thought, every thought he'd ever read—"
Cutting her off midsentence, Dr. Cullen told her in a solemn tone, "I wish it were that simple, darling."
"Well, how much worse can it get?" Bella asked. "The hybrid knows everything about us now."
In her kind, motherly voice, Esme responded, "You're right, dear, but that's not the worst part."
Already weak by the lack of nourishment, Bella appeared so shaken by the news, that she almost lost her balance. "What are you saying?"
"The blood is the life," Carlisle began. "Even for the undead. Everything that made Edward who he is: his personality, his mind-reading abilities, his memories. Everything was contained in his blood. You could even go as far as to say that a vampire's blood is his soul. What animates us and gives us the energy to stay young and immortal is the blood we drink."
I couldn't quite predict where this was going, but now I was finally beginning to understand why Dr. Cullen and Esme were so reluctant to reveal the whole truth. Whatever it is that they knew might prove to be too much for Bella to handle.
Ignoring Blondie's watchful stare, I took Bella by the arm and helped her to a chair. Then, at the risk of making a complete fool of myself, I tried to comfort her by staying optimistic. "Don't worry, Bells, the transfusion should fix all that. He'll be back to normal in no time, I'm sure."
She smiled at me, but the anguish in her eyes remained as depthless as before. Her hand tightly gripping Edward's, she searched Dr. Cullen's face for a reaction to what I'd just said. "Is that true, Carlisle?"
"I wish I knew," he replied mournfully. "I've never done a transfusion on a vampire before." He must have felt that all eyes were on him after he'd said that, because he lowered his head and somehow managed to erase all emotions from his face.
Just then, the front door opened, and Jasper walked in with the transfusion kit in his hand.
"Where's Emmett?" Blondie asked.
Handing the kit over to Dr. Cullen, Jasper grumbled reluctantly, "We heard something prowling out there, and he went to check it out."
"And you let him go alone?" Blondie fired back as she headed straight for the door.
Jasper rolled his eyes. "Hey, chill out, sis. He can take care of himself. And, besides, the wolves are out there, too."
Mumbling something angry under her breath, Blondie opened the door and was about to leave, when Dr. Cullen stopped her.
"Rosalie, I think it's best if you wait here," he told her in a kind voice.
"If Emmett can take care of himself, then so can I." She didn't wait for Dr. Cullen's answer and went out, slamming the door behind her.
Dr. Cullen and Esme exchanged glances of disapproval.
As for me, I would have clapped and cheered to celebrate her departure, but I didn't want to be rude, so I kept it to myself and acted as if nothing had happened.
"Jasper," Esme said. "Do you mind keeping an eye on them for us, dear?"
I could tell by the abrupt change in the ambient mood that Jasper had been expecting for this to happen and wasn't exactly crazy about the idea. Yet, in the end, he still went along with it.
"Alright," he muttered as he dragged his feet on his way to the door.
Alice blew him a kiss. "Be careful, babe."
Good, I thought to myself. One less ravenous vampire to worry about. I trusted Dr. Cullen's self control, but I sure as heck couldn't say the same thing about Jasper. I'd heard the story about the night of Bella's last human birthday party at the Cullen mansion. How Jasper had to be restrained because he tried to attack her after she got a paper cut while opening her presents.
I knew that the scent of my blood was supposed to be repelling to vampires, but it was still human blood, so who knows what Jasper's reaction would have been if he were present during the transfusion. I had a sneaking suspicion that Dr. Cullen and Esme had asked him to leave for that very reason, and I had no problem with that.
As soon as Jasper left, Dr. Cullen asked me to sit back on the couch next to Edward and moved right along to give me instructions. "Okay, we're going to need a lot of blood from you, Jacob. At least ten pints. So what I'll do is I'll take two pints at a time, and then give you a few minutes to recover from it. After that, we'll repeat the process until we've collected all the blood we need."
"Wait. Two pints?" Leah protested. "I don't mean to second-guess you, Dr. Cullen, but isn't that a bit much?"
Dr. Cullen smiled. "For the average human, yes, but I think Jacob can handle donating at least twice as much as the usual quantity. Right, Jake?"
"Of course," I assured them, although inside I could feel the anxiety creeping up on me. I'd never donated blood before in my life, so I hadn't the slightest clue about how I would react to it, let alone how my blood might affect Edward. But I trusted Dr. Cullen and figured that if he wasn't worried, why should I be?
Tying a rubber band around my forearm, Dr. Cullen began tapping the crook of my elbow to find a vein. "We'll see how you do with the first two pints and then go from there. It's very important that you tell me if you start getting dizzy or feel like you're about to pass out. How does that sound?"
"Good," I replied as if it was no big deal. "I'm ready to go."
My trust in Dr. Cullen wound up making the process a lot easier than I'd anticipated. I hardly felt any pain at all. Even my worries about Bella possibly going berserk at the sight of my blood were put to rest, as Dr. Cullen's presence seemed to have a calming effect on her as well.
Still, by the time he finished drawing the second pint and asked me how I was doing, I had to admit that I was feeling lightheaded, and my limbs were a little shaky. He and Bella then helped me up and walked me over to Seth's room.
I lied down on the bed and closed my eyes, while Dr. Cullen and Bella kept watch. Even though I was half asleep, I did my best to keep up with their conversation, especially when I heard that Bella was still at it in her attempts to get to the bottom of things.
"What do you think the hybrid wants to do with all that information she stole?" she asked.
A tone of resignation in his voice, Dr. Cullen sounded like he might just finally give in to Bella's persistence and dump the whole ugly truth on her. "That depends on what she's after. If this is all about her trying to persuade Nessie to join her, she'll most certainly use Edward's knowledge to manipulate the situation and turn things to her advantage."
"What was the name of that book you read again?" Bella probed.
Dr. Cullen swallowed hard, so much so that I could hear it even with my eyes closed. "You mean the one in the Volturi's library?"
"Yes!" Bella sounded hopeful.
"Bella," he began. "There are truths in this world that are much too dangerous to learn. They could burden you. Curse you even. There's a painful price to pay for learning them. For mortals, it's all over when they die, but for us, it's for all eternity."
"We're already damned for all eternity, Carlisle," she remarked. "We're already cursed. Don't you see?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted so bad to sneak a peek, but I didn't want to interrupt her, so I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep.
"Having to hunt down and kill living creatures with our bare hands just to survive," she continued. "Having to drink living blood from an animal whose life you're ending. Having to long for human blood and not be able to drink it."
I didn't hear a sound for a while after she said that. This was probably a slap in Dr. Cullen's face. To hear Bella speak like that after he'd welcomed her into his clan and loved her like a daughter.
I had a lot of respect for Dr. Cullen and I could empathize with him to a certain extent, but I had to admit I was with Bella on this one. I could understand her agony. It killed me to realize how much she'd been suffering all these years and how she'd kept it all bottled up inside. Now I could see that her dilemma actually ran a lot deeper than I thought.
"I want to know what the name of the book is, Carlisle. Please tell me."
"I'm only trying to protect you."
"What are you so afraid of?" she demanded.
Dr. Cullen sighed deeply and kept silent for some time. Then later, he declared, "Of what you might want to do after I tell you."
This set Bella off. "I'm really sorry, Carlisle, but, if you don't tell me, I'll find out a different way. I'll go to the Volturi if that's what it takes. I know this has something to do with Nessie's disappearance and I need you to tell me what you know."
As much as I hated to admit it, I happened to agree with every word Bella had just said. Luckily, by then, I was pretty sure I had fully recovered from the loss of blood, so I opened my eyes and sat up on the bed. I may have rushed into it a tad too quickly, though, because the room immediately started spinning all around me, and the walls appeared to be closing in.
"Jacob, what are you doing?" asked Dr. Cullen. "Lie back down or you're going to pass out."
I did as he told me, but I wasn't going to let a little dizziness get me sidetracked. "The hybrid's behind those attacks in Eastern Europe, isn't she? She's the one who sucked all those vampires dry, just like she did to Edward last night."
One of Dr. Cullen's most outstanding virtues was his patience. But, at this point, it became pretty clear to me that Bella and I were testing the hell out of him with our interrogation, and he was about to lose it. "She might be one of them, alright?" he finally admitted. "But that's just a theory. It's not a fact."
"W-wait a second," Bella cut in. "Them? You're saying there's more than one?"
His jaw clenched, he rose from his chair and, at last, we got him to confess what he'd been hiding. "They're a secret order in Romania. The Order of the Dragon. That's the title of the book. They started out as a nomadic clan of vampires, but they've evolved through the years."
The moment he said that, he paced nervously around the room and then peered through the window as if he were afraid someone might be out there listening.
Everything was finally starting to make sense to me now. "So that's why they steal the blood, right? To evolve? To become more powerful?"
He nodded. "Yes, Jake, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. No one really knows just how much they've evolved, because they live underground in caves. They've been hunting down vampire clans since the dark ages, and the more powerful they grow, the more secretive they become."
"How did the Volturi get their hands on that book, then?" Bella asked.
Dr. Cullen appeared a little more relaxed now that he'd shared his burden with us. "They took it from the Romanian clan when they overthrew their empire fifteen hundred years ago. So it's an old book. Rather outdated. It only chronicles their early attacks, which were pretty sloppy. Human witnesses found the evidence they left behind, and that's how word got out about the order. Today, they are everything but sloppy."
"I take it they've refined their techniques?" I asked.
He chuckled darkly. "You have no idea. And you know what? Neither have I, because they're so elusive, they're impossible to track down. They can shapeshift and take the form of trees, rocks, wild beasts, anything. They're chameleons and can blend in anywhere."
Morning came and we were still going back and forth between doing transfusions two pints at a time, and then going back into Seth's room to talk more about this so called Order of the Dragon.
It wasn't until we reached the ninth pint of blood that all the hard work paid off. Just as the sunlight shone in through the living room curtains, Edward opened his eyes.
"Edward!" Bella cried out in excitement, clinging to his neck and pressing her lips against his. But her smile quickly faded when Edward didn't react to her and, instead, behaved cold and indifferent, as if he didn't even know her.
His eyes swept every angle of the room like he felt lost and had no clue where the heck he was. It was pretty disturbing and even a little eerie to see Edward acting this way. He had the look of a stranger who'd gotten stranded in a place he'd never been. His movements all stiff and unnatural, he kind of reminded me of Cesare, the sleepwalking zombie in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a really trippy, black-and-white film from the silent era that I'd watched back in high school.
Like a wandering spirit who'd just taken over someone else's body, Edward sat up and examined the palms of his hands first. Then, he flipped them over to see their backside, all the while ignoring Bella and everyone else around him.
This can't be good, my gut feeling kept telling me, but I didn't want to be the one to raise any red flags, so I just stood back and watched in silence. My first impulse was to try and talk to Bella. Maybe offer her a shoulder to cry on or something, but the awkwardness in the air weighed so heavily upon me, that I could hardly even move. It occurred to me that saying anything at this point would only make things worse, especially for Bella.
Everyone else in there must have been thinking the same thing as me, because no one was talking. Without calling any attention to myself, I stole glances at each of their faces, and it gave me the impression that they were all just as dumbfounded and thrown off as I was, if not more.
The first one to break the silence was Bella, who turned towards Dr. Cullen and asked, "What's wrong with him?"
"We should give him a moment," Dr. Cullen replied in a low voice, almost whispering. "His body needs some time to adjust."
Just then, the sound of loud footsteps approaching from outside sent a chill up my spine. A strong sense of foreboding came over me, and I instantly felt a sudden urge to phase. I knew it was the wolf within, alerting me that something was wrong, so I reacted quickly and headed for the door.
As I flitted through the doorway and jumped over the porch fence in one leap, Sam screamed, "Jacob, stop!" He kept shouting, frantically throwing his arms up in the air. "Don't phase! Please, don't phase!"
For the life of me, I couldn't understand why he'd taken off the blindfold and phased back to his human form. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving behind the trees off to my right. I craned my neck to get a better view and spotted Blondie tearing through the bushes like a torpedo.
"Get out of the way!" she yelled and whiplashed her head sharply to look behind her as though she were being chased.
I barely had a chance to notice the bleeding claw marks on Sam's shoulder, when, all of a sudden, a dark shadow swooped down from above and went right for Blondie. The creature seemed to have flown out of thin air, and it was such a revolting freak of nature, that just the mere sight of it made my skin crawl.
It had the shape of a woman with its body completely covered in black fur, similar to a monkey. Just like the hellhound, it had fiery red eyes, only this one had oversized bat wings that stemmed out from its back and made a thundering sound when they flapped.
It all happened so quickly, that Sam and I could only watch in shock as the monster dug its crescent-shaped claws into Blondie's shoulders and violently whisked her off the ground. Once it had her hanging through the air, the hideous bat-monkey flew up towards the sky and then disappeared into a thick layer of clouds that hung directly above us.
I got so frustrated after what I'd just witnessed, that I took it out on Sam and went off on him.
"Give me the blindfold!"
"I don't have it!" he retorted.
"What do you mean, you don't have it?" I asked defensively.
Lowering his gaze in a gesture of defeat, he muttered, "That thing took it from me."
"Dammit, Sam! How could you let this happen?" I remarked through gritted teeth.
"It's the talisman," he fired back. "As long as the hybrid has it, we don't stand a chance. Don't you see? We're getting slaughtered out there!"
"I know what to do to take it from her," I assured him.
"Tell me."
I took a deep breath to regain my composure and then revealed my plan. "I'm going to the Spirit Warriors."
Once I held that talisman in my possession, the hybrid would be forced to tell me where I could find Nessie.
Only one possibility kept haunting me now. The possibility that time might be running out. And, if I didn't hurry, it would be too late. I refused to believe what the hybrid had said about my Nessie. That she'd summoned the hybrid out of her own free will, so that she might change her into a full vampire.
Just the mere thought of this happening made every hair on my body stand on end. It hung around my neck like an albatross, weighing me down with horrible visions of Nessie drinking human blood, her eyes crimson red, and her lips dripping wet with the evidence of her crime.
Sam and the rest of the pack would never tolerate it. If Nessie were to change into a full-fledged bloodsucker with an appetite for human blood, the ancient treaty between the Cullens and the Quileutes would be finished.
Especially now, with Edward's fate so uncertain, the Cullens would be forced to extend their stay. And if Nessie killed any humans in treaty lands, a war would be inevitable then. I'd find myself in the middle of it. Forced to choose sides. Torn between defending the girl I loved and fulfilling my duty to protect my people.
Clearly, failure wasn't an option for me. The price for that would be too great, and I wasn't willing to pay it. That talisman had to be mine even if it meant going to the end of the world to find it.
I just had to make sure I did it all in time to stop Nessie from making the worst mistake of her existence. I had to steal the talisman from the hybrid before she could change Nessie into a full vampire, and there was only one way to do it.
Grabbing a hold of Old Quil's arm, I tried to help him up from the stoop, but he chuckled, shaking his head and waving his hand in a gesture of refusal.
"Let go, son," he snickered benevolently, taking his time to get up on his own. "I might be the most ancient among us, but I can still take care of myself. Go on inside." He paused briefly as he steadied himself and looked around. "The dawn is approaching."
I didn't like the way he'd lowered his voice as he spoke those last words. They carried a distinct tone of apprehension that I sensed immediately. I could tell by the way his eyes were watching the trees that there really was something out there, stalking us. It wasn't just me being paranoid.
"What is it, Old Quil?" I asked just to double-check.
Instead of answering my question, he let out a high-pitched whistle that I knew all too well. Our wolf ancestors had taught it to us so we could communicate with the pack anytime we were in human form and couldn't communicate telepathically. Each of us could hear it from miles away, no matter how scattered we may be. Our people used it only in times of trouble, and it was meant for gathering the pack.
"I'll go get Sam," I said, reaching for the doorknob.
Just then, the front door opened, and Bella came out with Sam following close behind her. He was still wearing the blindfold, but seemed to have no trouble moving around, which meant he could see perfectly fine.
As the two of them stepped out to the porch, I took a peek inside the living room and noticed Dr. Cullen had taken Sam's place in the circle. Then, right before Sam closed the door again, I caught a glimpse of everyone's faces inside. They'd all heard Old Quil's whistle alarm and were visibly upset by it, especially Seth and Leah.
I could tell they were dying to come outside, but, unless someone took their place in the circle, they were going to have to remain there to protect Alice. The front door slammed shut, but I could still hear the commotion inside. Their voices talked all together, and I could barely make out who was saying what, so my defense mechanisms kicked in, and I had to tune them out.
"Jake, we need to talk right now," Bella demanded as her eyes darted towards the wolves already starting to gather round the house.
I hesitated. "But, Bells, there's something out there. We have to go patrol the area."
"Can this wait?" Sam asked, unable to hide his impatience.
"No, it can't," she snapped, then took my hand and pulled me close to whisper in my ear, "Did you forget about Edward?"
Sam had the same super-sensitive hearing as I did, so I knew he'd heard what Bella told me. Still, he ignored it all the same and asked, "Jake, you coming or what?"
I shot Bella a quick glance, and the anguish in her face really got to me. There was no way I could say no to her. For an instant there, I realized just how deeply connected she and I were. Literally, I found myself feeling her pain. And yet, at the same time, I hated having to ditch the pack. So I simply stood there, weighing my options for a second.
Then, as I was finally ready to say something, Old Quil beat me to it. "I'm sure you boys can handle yourselves just fine without Jacob," he told Sam.
That's all it took as far as Sam was concerned. Old Quil represented everything Sam strived to become someday. Ever since I could remember, Old Quil had been Sam's mentor, role model, idol. You name it. Sam had put him on a pedestal from the day he'd found out that all the legends about our wolf ancestors were actually true stories.
"No problem," Sam muttered with a twinge of bitterness. "We'll take care of it." Avoiding our eyes, he bowed his head at Old Quil to excuse himself and then went to join the pack with the tail between his legs.
That was that at least for now. I knew I'd hear about it later, especially knowing Paul had it in for me, too. They were going to gang up on me eventually, but I couldn't afford to worry about that at this point. I figured I'd deal with it when the time came.
Bella squeezed Old Quil's hand, forcing the saddest smile I'd ever seen in a long time. "Thanks, Old Quil. You're very kind."
Grinning with satisfaction, Old Quil replied, "We're all in this together, child." Then, he went back into the house and left me alone with Bella on the porch.
"Here," Bella said as she handed me the keys to the car she and Edward had rented in Port Angeles.
I gawked as soon as I saw the label on the keychain. "Bentley GTC, huh?" Exotic sports cars were my weakness, especially convertibles. I could just picture myself driving over 200 miles an hour, outracing cops left and right, and going to the end of the world to find Nessie.
If only Bella had given me a chance to enjoy it for a bit longer than a second, though. What she told me next almost made me puke all over the keys. "We need to go find a fresh human corpse, Jake."
I examined—more like scrutinized—her face, waiting for the punch line of what I could only hope was her idea of a joke. But the punch line never came.
Bella was dead serious. "We need fresh human blood for the transfusion."
I scratched my head. "But wait, why does it have to be human blood? Can't we just go find him a mountain lion somewhere? A bear maybe?"
"Carlisle says it has to be human blood." She moved closer to me and deliberately inhaled my scent. "Fresh human blood, Jake."
I hadn't realized just how thirsty she was for it herself. While before, it was only a suspicion I had, now I knew for sure that this was the reason she hadn't been hunting. Animal blood just didn't cut it for her. Her vampire body demanded the real deal, and it seemed to me that her self-control was wearing thin.
"Okay," I sighed with resignation. "Human blood it is." I had to give into her even though I was in a mad rush to go find the talisman. After all, what good would it do me to find Nessie if I was going to bring her home to a dead father?
"Good," Bella began, and before I could so much as blink, she went on to brief me on the details of her plan. "Rose will lead us to the place. You just have to drop us off there, and we'll call you when we're ready to load the body into the trunk—"
"Whoa, whoa, wait, hold it, Bells, back up for a second."
"We have no time to waste! We have to go now!" Her voice trembled.
"Where exactly is this place, anyway?" I had to ask.
Her body language betrayed her before she could even make an attempt to explain. And, from the look in her eyes, I could tell she knew I wasn't going to like her answer. "That shouldn't matter to you, Jake. All I'm asking is that you take us there. Rose already made arrangements, and they're waiting for us. We have to hurry."
"Listen, I know you think I'm dumb and all, but I'm not that dumb, Bells. I know what you guys are up to."
She rolled her eyes like I was the stupidest person she knew. "Oh, really? And what is that?"
"You're going to a black market dealer. Very convenient, I know. You pay them an outrageous price, and they do the dirty work for you. That way you don't have to kill anyone per se, but you're still purchasing a freshly murdered victim."
She scoffed at me. "You've had a long night, Jake. Go get some rest. I'll ask Emmett to drive us instead."
"No!" I declared firmly, stomping my foot hard on the wooden floor. "There has to be a better way that doesn't involve killing humans. Directly or indirectly, it is still murder, Bella!"
One single look at her face was enough to show me that my words had gone in one ear and come out the other. Nothing I could say or do was going to get through to her. I knew it just as well as she did, and yet here we were again, pointlessly arguing in circles and getting nowhere.
She held out her hand and demanded, "Give me back the keys."
"I can't let you do this, Bells, I'm sorry." Not that I was going soft or anything, but somehow what I'd just said had come off as a sheepish plea. "You're my best friend," I added, practically begging to avoid a confrontation that already seemed inevitable.
My refusal pissed her off so badly, though, that she started fuming like a furnace. "Give them back, I said!" she insisted, her jaw clenched in a threatening gesture.
The idea of her even trying to intimidate me cracked me up inside, but I still managed to keep a straight face, as I knew that laughing would only push her over the edge. My face stern, I shook my head no and hid the keys behind my back. "Over my dead body."
But Bella was in full attack mode by then, so she pulled her lips back over her teeth and snarled as she lunged at me. I hadn't seen her this angry since the day she'd tried to rip out my throat for nicknaming Renesmee after the Loch Ness monster.
"Hey, whoa, you're gonna ruin your pretty dress," I warned jokingly.
But she didn't seem to care. Before I knew it, she had fly-tackled me down the front steps, and we were both rolling on the ground, wrestling over the keys. I knew she'd never hurt me, no matter how ferociously she tried to act. So, as she pinned me down, I couldn't hold it in any longer and suddenly burst out laughing.
Let's just say she didn't take this kindly. Not in the very least. Next thing I knew, I was seeing stars. She'd slapped me hard across the face and would've punched me, too, if I hadn't distracted her by flinging the keys far out into the bushes.
"Jake, you're such an idiot!" she protested.
I took advantage of the second it took her to follow the keys with her eyes and pushed her off me. Then, as I stood up, I felt a sharp sting in my arm. I glanced down at the spot where the sting was coming from and realized what had caused it. I'd just cut myself, and now my arm was bleeding.
I knew it would only take me a few minutes to heal, but, just to be sure, I quickly hid the wound away, hoping Bella might be too distracted to pick up on the scent of my blood.
No such luck. As ravenous as she was right now, this was a scent she wouldn't miss for the world. Forgetting all about the keys, she turned towards me, her eyes boring into mine. She gasped softly, almost longingly, and I took a step back, unable to peal my eyes off of hers.
"Stay back, Bella," I cautioned her, all the muscles in my body tensing up.
"My venom can't hurt you. Not if I don't bite, right?" The raw yearning in her voice was impossible to ignore.
"I wouldn't know that." My pulse quickened, making me feel way too vulnerable for comfort.
By now, I was breathing hard and feeling incredibly drawn to her. Where the hell were all these sensations coming from? My knees weak, I almost didn't want to talk anymore, I was so ashamed.
"You know I'd never hurt you." The tone of confidence in her voice made it all too clear. She was well aware of the effect her thirst was having on me, and it was only making things worse for both of us.
An enormous wave of guilt washed over me all of a sudden. "Don't come any closer," I said halfheartedly. Only this time I didn't move. One thing was what my words said, and a very different thing was what my body showed. I felt an urgent impulse to make a break for it, just run without stopping or looking back and put as much distance between us as I could.
Instead, I stood there and watched her advance slowly in my direction. It was pointless trying to hide it anymore. How my chest rose and fell faster with every step she took towards me. How I had to swallow hard, because my mouth was watering with anticipation. It shocked me to realize that I wanted this to happen just as badly as she did. Something inside me just wanted to reach out and grab her, to hold her and press her tightly up against me.
"Just relax, okay?" she whispered, her voice raspy with bloodlust.
"Bella." A moan caught in my throat as I muttered her name.
She pressed her ivory finger gently against my lips and said, "Shhhh."
My heart beat a million miles a minute as she took my wounded arm in her hands. Suddenly, all these flashbacks came rushing into my mind, collapsing the fortress I'd built around me over the years.
The night we'd spent in the tent, her body freezing and wrapped around the feverish heat of mine. My face flushed red hot just remembering the fantasies I'd had about her that night. I thought of the kiss she'd given me years ago, when she was still human, and we were alone up in the mountains. How she'd told me that she loved me and meant every word of it.
She loved me still. I knew that for sure, only it was a different kind of love now.
Or was it?
Had I been fooling myself all this time, thinking that imprinting on Nessie had erased everything I felt for Bella?
Time seemed to slow down as she lifted my bleeding arm towards her mouth. Her lips hadn't even touched my skin yet, and already I was feeling dizzy, intoxicated with the savage hunger I saw radiating from her eyes. I wished I could lie down next to her like we'd done that night in the tent.
I thought about taking her home to my room for some privacy. My house was just walking distance from Leah's, so we could've gotten there in no time. But in my desperate attempt to hold on to that moment, I ended up ruining it.
I should have acted faster. I should have just grabbed her hand and taken her somewhere else; somewhere we could be alone and undisturbed. But I guess some things are simply not meant to happen regardless of what you do.
Just as Bella's lips parted over my wound, the door swung open, and Blondie swept out of the house, her lower lip quivering with rage.
"Oops, sorry!" she exclaimed sarcastically. "Am I interrupting something?"
Startled out of my wits, I yanked my arm out of Bella's grasp and took a leap backwards. By the time I landed back down on the ground, I was standing at least a couple of yards away from her.
It could've been anyone who caught us in this compromising position, but it just had to be Blondie of all people. Now I knew for sure that Nessie would hear all about this, and so would Edward. If he survived, that is.
Bella hissed at Blondie. "Mind your own business, Rose."
"Forgive me, Mrs. Cullen," Blondie said with a sardonic emphasis on the Mrs. Cullen part. "But I was under the impression that your daughter was missing and your husband was in urgent need of a blood transfusion. And you're out here, doing what exactly?"
If I'd been in Bella's shoes, I swear I would've slapped Blondie for being such a viper. But all Bella did was remain silent, probably trying to come up with a good explanation for what her sister-in-law had just seen her doing.
I figured my best move under the circumstances would be to keep my mouth shut as well, and just let Bella handle it. But, as I saw Blondie approaching her menacingly, I knew I just had to say something.
I wish I'd thought about it more carefully before I spoke, though, because what I ended up telling Blondie made everyone's jaw drop, even my own. "I was offering Bella my blood," I blurted out. "For the transfusion, I mean."
Bella and Blondie cast furtive glances at each other, then turned back to stare at me, apparently intrigued by my offer.
Relieved to have captured their attention, I went on. "It won't be necessary to buy the human corpse. I can produce all the blood Edward needs as long as I take breaks in between to recover from the loss."
"What about the dog stench?" Blondie argued and was about to complain some more if someone hadn't interrupted her.
"Vampires can adapt to anything." It was Dr. Cullen. Most likely, he'd caught the tail end of our conversation and had decided to intervene.
An expression of concern on her face, Bella interjected, "But, Jake, the venom—"
"Vampire venom is only deadly to wolves if it penetrates their veins," Dr. Cullen clarified. "That won't happen during a transfusion. Jake will be perfectly safe."
By then, Bella seemed to have forgotten all about our fight and was gazing at me, doe-eyed with gratitude. "You still don't have to do this, Jake. You know that, right?" she crooned in a soothing voice.
"I just want to help Edward," I reassured her, although deep inside I couldn't help but wonder what the hell I might be getting myself into.
Dr. Cullen commended me with a handshake. "We can't thank you enough, son."
"Yeah, Jake, it's very noble of you, really," Bella added with the utmost sincerity.
Doing my best to ignore how Blondie was scowling at me, I replied, "Always glad to help."
"Alright, alright!" Blondie nagged for the umpteenth time. "Can we skip to the part where we actually start the damn transfusion?"
Ever the pacifist, Carlisle interfered. "No need to be rude, dear."
I silently thanked him with a nod just to be polite, even though Blondie's bad manners were the least of my concerns. I had to admit I wasn't exactly looking forward to having a needle stuck in my vein, not even for a short time. Yet, ultimately, the urge to get my hands on that talisman overrode any skepticism or apprehension I may have felt.
The way I looked at it, once I brought Edward back from whatever vampire limbo he was trapped in, I'd finally be free to go after the talisman. I'd bring Nessie back home safely from wherever it was that the hybrid had lured her to, and everything would be back to normal.
Compared to what was at stake, a needle in my vein didn't even seem like such a big deal after all. So I marched on forward towards the house, feeling like an enormous weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. Blondie's black market plan had bit the dust, and that was enough of a victory for me, at least for the time being.
"Has something like this ever happened before with any vampire you know?" I overheard Bella asking Doctor Cullen as the four of us entered the house.
He hesitated for an instant, like he was trying to remember something. Then, he answered, "Not anyone I knew personally, but I do remember reading about a case in a medieval book from the Volturi's private collection. Back when I was staying with them in Rome."
"What did it say?" Bella asked.
"It chronicled a series of strange attacks on vampires in Eastern Europe," he explained. "Entire clans were completely drained of blood and left out in the open to be torn apart by wild beasts."
I couldn't help but noticing that Bella's questions were making Dr. Cullen uncomfortable. He wasn't maintaining eye contact with her and kept pacing around the living room, glancing about, as though searching for something. What was it about this subject that made him so uneasy? Was he hiding something from us?
Esme, who was now standing in for her husband on the circle, must have observed the same thing I did, because she asked him, "Is there something I can get for you, honey?"
"Yes, dear," he replied. "I need you to call Sue and ask her to get us transfusion supplies from the hospital."
Sue had recently been promoted to charge nurse of the Intensive Care Unit at Forks Hospital, so she had access to anything and everything we may need in the way of medical supplies.
Yet, thanks to Leah, we didn't even have to call Sue in the end. "I'm almost sure I have a portable kit in the trunk of my car," Leah offered as she saw Esme reaching for the cell phone.
Knowing full well that Leah couldn't leave the protective circle, I volunteered to go get it, but
Blondie quickly interfered.
"Emmett," she called out, shooting Bella a suspicious glare, then, doing the same to me. "Why don't you and Jasper go out there and take a look?"
Bella was too busy rolling up Edward's sleeves to notice the expression of bitterness on Blondie's face, but I caught her intentions dead on. Ms. Barbie-wannabe was still mulling over what she'd seen the two of us doing outside. Clearly, she hadn't bought my story and, now, she'd made it her mission to keep Bella away from me. I bet she wanted to be the hero just so that later she could go brag about it to Edward.
Not in the least surprising, coming from the egomaniac we all knew her to be, what with her desperation to steal everyone's thunder and all. Yet, personally, I still found it a bit ironic, considering the fact that Blondie herself had never really gotten over Edward's rejection in the first place.
Before Bella came along, the Cullens had intended for Blondie and Edward to become a mated pair. The only problem with that was Edward's objection to their plans. To make a long story short, Edward never quite got around to warming up to Blondie, at least not in that way, so that's how Emmett had come to be her partner instead.
For all I knew, Blondie still carried a torch for Edward, and that was the real reason behind her hostility towards Bella. But these were just my own inner speculations, and I had to admit that I could very well be wrong. It's not like I cared, anyway.
The only time Blondie would ever make it to my priority list was if she actually tried to harm Bella. I knew for a fact that she'd always be there for Nessie, so I had nothing to worry about in that department. But with Bella, it was an entirely different story. Ever since Nessie's birth, I'd sensed this unspoken rivalry between them that could boil over at any second, and it always made me nervous just to think about it.
I was so deep in thought, that I barely noticed when Leah took her car keys out of her pocket and threw them at Emmett. He caught them in midair without so much as moving from where he stood, then left with Jasper to go find the transfusion kit.
Meanwhile, Bella went back to torturing Dr. Cullen with more of her questions. "So did they ever find out who attacked the vampires?"
Up until then, Dr. Cullen had settled quietly in a chair next to the couch where Edward lay, focusing all his energy on prepping his son's arm for the procedure. The moment he heard Bella's question, however, his facial gestures became visibly rattled. "Vampires," he repeated after her, his eyebrows knitted as if she'd just shaken him out of a trance.
"The clans they attacked in Eastern Europe," Bella clarified. "Did they ever find out who did it?"
Standing up from the chair, Dr. Cullen walked over to the window and checked on his other two sons. "I believe the question is not so much who, but why."
"To steal information?" the hermit asked out of the blue. He'd been standing so quietly on his side of the circle way at the back of the room, that I'd almost forgotten how much he probably knew and wasn't sharing.
Dr. Cullen nodded, unable to hide his surprise. "That's right! Information and power," he replied, then thought for a moment and added, "Did you read about it, too?"
"The gypsies in Spain used to talk about it all the time," the hermit pointed out.
Once he said that, he captured my full attention, and, before I knew it, I was the one asking the questions. "So you guys are basically saying that the hybrid sucked Edward's blood to find out everything he knew?"
Dr. Cullen fidgeted nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he eyeballed Esme. This made it quite obvious to me that the two of them were deliberately holding back information from us. And yet, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why.
"Of course!" Alice exclaimed. "It's kind of like what Aro did to him that time in Volterra. Just by touching Edward's hand, he was able to see everything he'd ever thought, every thought he'd ever read—"
Cutting her off midsentence, Dr. Cullen told her in a solemn tone, "I wish it were that simple, darling."
"Well, how much worse can it get?" Bella asked. "The hybrid knows everything about us now."
In her kind, motherly voice, Esme responded, "You're right, dear, but that's not the worst part."
Already weak by the lack of nourishment, Bella appeared so shaken by the news, that she almost lost her balance. "What are you saying?"
"The blood is the life," Carlisle began. "Even for the undead. Everything that made Edward who he is: his personality, his mind-reading abilities, his memories. Everything was contained in his blood. You could even go as far as to say that a vampire's blood is his soul. What animates us and gives us the energy to stay young and immortal is the blood we drink."
I couldn't quite predict where this was going, but now I was finally beginning to understand why Dr. Cullen and Esme were so reluctant to reveal the whole truth. Whatever it is that they knew might prove to be too much for Bella to handle.
Ignoring Blondie's watchful stare, I took Bella by the arm and helped her to a chair. Then, at the risk of making a complete fool of myself, I tried to comfort her by staying optimistic. "Don't worry, Bells, the transfusion should fix all that. He'll be back to normal in no time, I'm sure."
She smiled at me, but the anguish in her eyes remained as depthless as before. Her hand tightly gripping Edward's, she searched Dr. Cullen's face for a reaction to what I'd just said. "Is that true, Carlisle?"
"I wish I knew," he replied mournfully. "I've never done a transfusion on a vampire before." He must have felt that all eyes were on him after he'd said that, because he lowered his head and somehow managed to erase all emotions from his face.
Just then, the front door opened, and Jasper walked in with the transfusion kit in his hand.
"Where's Emmett?" Blondie asked.
Handing the kit over to Dr. Cullen, Jasper grumbled reluctantly, "We heard something prowling out there, and he went to check it out."
"And you let him go alone?" Blondie fired back as she headed straight for the door.
Jasper rolled his eyes. "Hey, chill out, sis. He can take care of himself. And, besides, the wolves are out there, too."
Mumbling something angry under her breath, Blondie opened the door and was about to leave, when Dr. Cullen stopped her.
"Rosalie, I think it's best if you wait here," he told her in a kind voice.
"If Emmett can take care of himself, then so can I." She didn't wait for Dr. Cullen's answer and went out, slamming the door behind her.
Dr. Cullen and Esme exchanged glances of disapproval.
As for me, I would have clapped and cheered to celebrate her departure, but I didn't want to be rude, so I kept it to myself and acted as if nothing had happened.
"Jasper," Esme said. "Do you mind keeping an eye on them for us, dear?"
I could tell by the abrupt change in the ambient mood that Jasper had been expecting for this to happen and wasn't exactly crazy about the idea. Yet, in the end, he still went along with it.
"Alright," he muttered as he dragged his feet on his way to the door.
Alice blew him a kiss. "Be careful, babe."
Good, I thought to myself. One less ravenous vampire to worry about. I trusted Dr. Cullen's self control, but I sure as heck couldn't say the same thing about Jasper. I'd heard the story about the night of Bella's last human birthday party at the Cullen mansion. How Jasper had to be restrained because he tried to attack her after she got a paper cut while opening her presents.
I knew that the scent of my blood was supposed to be repelling to vampires, but it was still human blood, so who knows what Jasper's reaction would have been if he were present during the transfusion. I had a sneaking suspicion that Dr. Cullen and Esme had asked him to leave for that very reason, and I had no problem with that.
As soon as Jasper left, Dr. Cullen asked me to sit back on the couch next to Edward and moved right along to give me instructions. "Okay, we're going to need a lot of blood from you, Jacob. At least ten pints. So what I'll do is I'll take two pints at a time, and then give you a few minutes to recover from it. After that, we'll repeat the process until we've collected all the blood we need."
"Wait. Two pints?" Leah protested. "I don't mean to second-guess you, Dr. Cullen, but isn't that a bit much?"
Dr. Cullen smiled. "For the average human, yes, but I think Jacob can handle donating at least twice as much as the usual quantity. Right, Jake?"
"Of course," I assured them, although inside I could feel the anxiety creeping up on me. I'd never donated blood before in my life, so I hadn't the slightest clue about how I would react to it, let alone how my blood might affect Edward. But I trusted Dr. Cullen and figured that if he wasn't worried, why should I be?
Tying a rubber band around my forearm, Dr. Cullen began tapping the crook of my elbow to find a vein. "We'll see how you do with the first two pints and then go from there. It's very important that you tell me if you start getting dizzy or feel like you're about to pass out. How does that sound?"
"Good," I replied as if it was no big deal. "I'm ready to go."
My trust in Dr. Cullen wound up making the process a lot easier than I'd anticipated. I hardly felt any pain at all. Even my worries about Bella possibly going berserk at the sight of my blood were put to rest, as Dr. Cullen's presence seemed to have a calming effect on her as well.
Still, by the time he finished drawing the second pint and asked me how I was doing, I had to admit that I was feeling lightheaded, and my limbs were a little shaky. He and Bella then helped me up and walked me over to Seth's room.
I lied down on the bed and closed my eyes, while Dr. Cullen and Bella kept watch. Even though I was half asleep, I did my best to keep up with their conversation, especially when I heard that Bella was still at it in her attempts to get to the bottom of things.
"What do you think the hybrid wants to do with all that information she stole?" she asked.
A tone of resignation in his voice, Dr. Cullen sounded like he might just finally give in to Bella's persistence and dump the whole ugly truth on her. "That depends on what she's after. If this is all about her trying to persuade Nessie to join her, she'll most certainly use Edward's knowledge to manipulate the situation and turn things to her advantage."
"What was the name of that book you read again?" Bella probed.
Dr. Cullen swallowed hard, so much so that I could hear it even with my eyes closed. "You mean the one in the Volturi's library?"
"Yes!" Bella sounded hopeful.
"Bella," he began. "There are truths in this world that are much too dangerous to learn. They could burden you. Curse you even. There's a painful price to pay for learning them. For mortals, it's all over when they die, but for us, it's for all eternity."
"We're already damned for all eternity, Carlisle," she remarked. "We're already cursed. Don't you see?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted so bad to sneak a peek, but I didn't want to interrupt her, so I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep.
"Having to hunt down and kill living creatures with our bare hands just to survive," she continued. "Having to drink living blood from an animal whose life you're ending. Having to long for human blood and not be able to drink it."
I didn't hear a sound for a while after she said that. This was probably a slap in Dr. Cullen's face. To hear Bella speak like that after he'd welcomed her into his clan and loved her like a daughter.
I had a lot of respect for Dr. Cullen and I could empathize with him to a certain extent, but I had to admit I was with Bella on this one. I could understand her agony. It killed me to realize how much she'd been suffering all these years and how she'd kept it all bottled up inside. Now I could see that her dilemma actually ran a lot deeper than I thought.
"I want to know what the name of the book is, Carlisle. Please tell me."
"I'm only trying to protect you."
"What are you so afraid of?" she demanded.
Dr. Cullen sighed deeply and kept silent for some time. Then later, he declared, "Of what you might want to do after I tell you."
This set Bella off. "I'm really sorry, Carlisle, but, if you don't tell me, I'll find out a different way. I'll go to the Volturi if that's what it takes. I know this has something to do with Nessie's disappearance and I need you to tell me what you know."
As much as I hated to admit it, I happened to agree with every word Bella had just said. Luckily, by then, I was pretty sure I had fully recovered from the loss of blood, so I opened my eyes and sat up on the bed. I may have rushed into it a tad too quickly, though, because the room immediately started spinning all around me, and the walls appeared to be closing in.
"Jacob, what are you doing?" asked Dr. Cullen. "Lie back down or you're going to pass out."
I did as he told me, but I wasn't going to let a little dizziness get me sidetracked. "The hybrid's behind those attacks in Eastern Europe, isn't she? She's the one who sucked all those vampires dry, just like she did to Edward last night."
One of Dr. Cullen's most outstanding virtues was his patience. But, at this point, it became pretty clear to me that Bella and I were testing the hell out of him with our interrogation, and he was about to lose it. "She might be one of them, alright?" he finally admitted. "But that's just a theory. It's not a fact."
"W-wait a second," Bella cut in. "Them? You're saying there's more than one?"
His jaw clenched, he rose from his chair and, at last, we got him to confess what he'd been hiding. "They're a secret order in Romania. The Order of the Dragon. That's the title of the book. They started out as a nomadic clan of vampires, but they've evolved through the years."
The moment he said that, he paced nervously around the room and then peered through the window as if he were afraid someone might be out there listening.
Everything was finally starting to make sense to me now. "So that's why they steal the blood, right? To evolve? To become more powerful?"
He nodded. "Yes, Jake, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. No one really knows just how much they've evolved, because they live underground in caves. They've been hunting down vampire clans since the dark ages, and the more powerful they grow, the more secretive they become."
"How did the Volturi get their hands on that book, then?" Bella asked.
Dr. Cullen appeared a little more relaxed now that he'd shared his burden with us. "They took it from the Romanian clan when they overthrew their empire fifteen hundred years ago. So it's an old book. Rather outdated. It only chronicles their early attacks, which were pretty sloppy. Human witnesses found the evidence they left behind, and that's how word got out about the order. Today, they are everything but sloppy."
"I take it they've refined their techniques?" I asked.
He chuckled darkly. "You have no idea. And you know what? Neither have I, because they're so elusive, they're impossible to track down. They can shapeshift and take the form of trees, rocks, wild beasts, anything. They're chameleons and can blend in anywhere."
Morning came and we were still going back and forth between doing transfusions two pints at a time, and then going back into Seth's room to talk more about this so called Order of the Dragon.
It wasn't until we reached the ninth pint of blood that all the hard work paid off. Just as the sunlight shone in through the living room curtains, Edward opened his eyes.
"Edward!" Bella cried out in excitement, clinging to his neck and pressing her lips against his. But her smile quickly faded when Edward didn't react to her and, instead, behaved cold and indifferent, as if he didn't even know her.
His eyes swept every angle of the room like he felt lost and had no clue where the heck he was. It was pretty disturbing and even a little eerie to see Edward acting this way. He had the look of a stranger who'd gotten stranded in a place he'd never been. His movements all stiff and unnatural, he kind of reminded me of Cesare, the sleepwalking zombie in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a really trippy, black-and-white film from the silent era that I'd watched back in high school.
Like a wandering spirit who'd just taken over someone else's body, Edward sat up and examined the palms of his hands first. Then, he flipped them over to see their backside, all the while ignoring Bella and everyone else around him.
This can't be good, my gut feeling kept telling me, but I didn't want to be the one to raise any red flags, so I just stood back and watched in silence. My first impulse was to try and talk to Bella. Maybe offer her a shoulder to cry on or something, but the awkwardness in the air weighed so heavily upon me, that I could hardly even move. It occurred to me that saying anything at this point would only make things worse, especially for Bella.
Everyone else in there must have been thinking the same thing as me, because no one was talking. Without calling any attention to myself, I stole glances at each of their faces, and it gave me the impression that they were all just as dumbfounded and thrown off as I was, if not more.
The first one to break the silence was Bella, who turned towards Dr. Cullen and asked, "What's wrong with him?"
"We should give him a moment," Dr. Cullen replied in a low voice, almost whispering. "His body needs some time to adjust."
Just then, the sound of loud footsteps approaching from outside sent a chill up my spine. A strong sense of foreboding came over me, and I instantly felt a sudden urge to phase. I knew it was the wolf within, alerting me that something was wrong, so I reacted quickly and headed for the door.
As I flitted through the doorway and jumped over the porch fence in one leap, Sam screamed, "Jacob, stop!" He kept shouting, frantically throwing his arms up in the air. "Don't phase! Please, don't phase!"
For the life of me, I couldn't understand why he'd taken off the blindfold and phased back to his human form. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving behind the trees off to my right. I craned my neck to get a better view and spotted Blondie tearing through the bushes like a torpedo.
"Get out of the way!" she yelled and whiplashed her head sharply to look behind her as though she were being chased.
I barely had a chance to notice the bleeding claw marks on Sam's shoulder, when, all of a sudden, a dark shadow swooped down from above and went right for Blondie. The creature seemed to have flown out of thin air, and it was such a revolting freak of nature, that just the mere sight of it made my skin crawl.
It had the shape of a woman with its body completely covered in black fur, similar to a monkey. Just like the hellhound, it had fiery red eyes, only this one had oversized bat wings that stemmed out from its back and made a thundering sound when they flapped.
It all happened so quickly, that Sam and I could only watch in shock as the monster dug its crescent-shaped claws into Blondie's shoulders and violently whisked her off the ground. Once it had her hanging through the air, the hideous bat-monkey flew up towards the sky and then disappeared into a thick layer of clouds that hung directly above us.
I got so frustrated after what I'd just witnessed, that I took it out on Sam and went off on him.
"Give me the blindfold!"
"I don't have it!" he retorted.
"What do you mean, you don't have it?" I asked defensively.
Lowering his gaze in a gesture of defeat, he muttered, "That thing took it from me."
"Dammit, Sam! How could you let this happen?" I remarked through gritted teeth.
"It's the talisman," he fired back. "As long as the hybrid has it, we don't stand a chance. Don't you see? We're getting slaughtered out there!"
"I know what to do to take it from her," I assured him.
"Tell me."
I took a deep breath to regain my composure and then revealed my plan. "I'm going to the Spirit Warriors."
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