You & I Collide

Jacob

The next day, when I woke up late in the morning, I felt a little more whole than I had before. I had seen Nessie—finally. And it was more than running through the forest around her home. We had finally been together. She was growing rapidly, almost to the size of a seven-year-old, now. My palms tingled with anticipation for when she was old enough to go about things more Sam-and-Emily style. But I was far from impatient for that. Now was perfect. She was everything to me.

I lied in my tiny bed for a few minutes, thinking about last night. My sister had seemed awful…distracted. Like she had too much to think about. ‘Course, the Italian vampire weirdo was creeping her out—and why would he not? We hadn’t actually caught up with him enough to be within attacking distance, but we’ve always been close, on the fringe. Last time, we very nearly had the filthy bloodsucker, but he slipped away.

“Jacob?” a high, bell-tone voice called. Instantly, I shot up in bed. I’d know that voice anywhere, even vampire-ified as it was.

“Bella?” I called back, getting out of bed. I walked around the open door, and slammed right into her. Felt like running into a cement wall.

“Oh, sorry, Jake,” she said, flustered.

“S’okay,” I mumbled. “What’s up?”

She bit down on her granite-hard lip, that little crease developing between her eyes. It was a sign of stress. Uh-oh.

“I know that look,” I muttered darkly. “What’s going on?”

She looked away so that I couldn’t see her face, her eyes. Eyes that were almost lightened from red to gold.

Then, finally, a word escaped her lips. A name.

“Alice,” she whispered.

I was a little slow; it took me a minute to get it. Alice…Alice Cullen? Huh? What about Alice? My stomach dropped. Oh no. Had Alice fought Amun, tiny and pixie-like as she was? Alice was so full of life, and she and Bella had a connection. It would hurt her if Alice was hurt.

But I knew Bella well enough to realize that she would be way more upset than this, even if she couldn’t cry as a vampire. Right now, she looked worried, concerned, like something ominous was coming….

Oh.

Of course. It all clicked into place, now. Right. Alice could see subjective visions of the future, so she clearly saw something that Bella was concerned about.

Oh.

“What, Bella?” I halfway snarled, my palms trembling. “Just spit it out.”

Bella steadied herself with a deep breath. She looked really pale, despite the fact that she was a vampire, and that was really saying something. Looked like she might pass out if that were possible, too.

“Alice saw…something about…Rachel.” Was it just my ears playing tricks on me, or did she say the last word all soft and quiet-like?

Then, my mind shot into action. What did the future hold for my sister? Good thing that Rachel wasn’t here to hear this. She was probably running errands or with Paul or something.

Bella drew another breath, and I was beginning to get angry. Why didn’t she just say the whole story?

“Come on, Bells. I’m losing my mind over here,” I whined.

“Rachel…is going to make a…a choice, in the future. A choice that will be rather…horrible. She’s going to hurt someone.”

My wolf instincts kicked in, and I immediately jumped to a defensive conclusion.

“Oh, no,” I spat through clenched teeth. “You can’t possibly be telling me that my own sister is going to turn into a vampire!” I yelled. “Please, please, if that’s what you’re saying…please be lying!”

She rolled her eyes. “Calm down, Jake! Yeesh, what an overreaction! Rachel won’t become a vampire.” There—she did it again. Hid her eyes so I couldn’t read her secrets. “Rachel…is just going to make a choice. Alice can’t see anything but Rachel and—because werewolves will be involved. Greatly involved.”

“Huh? What? Bell, this is total gibberish to me. How are we involved? Rachel and who?”

“I’m sorry, Jake. You’ll find out, though, eventually.”

And then she was out of my house so fast, I didn’t even have time to blink.