'Safe' Is Not A Word In My Vocabulary

K-9’s twitching stopped and he hurled. Crusher and Ammo watched with half crazed looks. Yep, I definitely lost some major trust here.

“What did she do to him?” Crusher choked and Bones watched with wary eyes. “She saved his life, she just had to change him a little to do it.” I was only half paying attention to their conversation. The other half of me was watching and listening to K-9’s heartbeat accelerate.

“Change him how?” Ammo asked.

Bones/Damien sighed. “He’s going to be like Cent now; like both of us.” He clarified.
“You mean he’ll be a werewolf?” Crusher asked and I head Damien sigh and nod.

K-9 twitched again, and screamed. I whined and nudged him.

'Just a little longer K-9, it’ll be ok.'

“What’s wrong with her?” Crusher muttered and Damien pressed his lips in a hard line. “She’s just upset about the pain she’s causing him; it hurts to change the first time if you’re not a bloodline wolf.”

At that second K-9 howled.

Not a human approximation, but actual wolves howl. I took a step back and stared at Bones.

Get them out of the way! I thought, and I was sure he could see it in my eyes because he dragged them back.

K-9 shifted.

His bones snapped and reformed while he grew several times his own size and light brown fur exploded from his body. His eyes were fading from blue and taking on a yellow tint.

He jumped in surprise and lurched to four legs. He pawed at the ground and howled again. I whimpered when he started to head towards the trees. His large head snapped up to look at me and the confusion swept across his animal face and in his eyes.

The wind blew my fur towards him and he sniffed at the scent, walking towards me.

At that moment I heard his thoughts, I sighed in relief.

He walked around me, while I sat patiently on the ground. He was still confused but recognition registered in his thoughts when I nudged his shoulder with my nose.

He nuzzled my neck and the guys watched in awe. Damien/Bones had a smile playing around the corners of his mouth as well.

Centhua? K-9 thought.

Yeah, hey K-9. I thought back.

He yelped happily and ran around me, he nipped at my tail before dipping his nose to the ground and sticking his tail in the air.

Run with me. he thought and I looked up at the moon, and then at Bones.

“Go.” He ordered, like Edward had.

Catch me if you can fluffy! I said and K-9 barked happily before we raced into the night.

XxX

Around dawn I started to run back towards the clearing. The guys were there and I was grateful someone had thought to bring K-9 some clothes.

The sun rose and I told K-9 how to phase back, turning around because he’d be naked.

His thoughts left my head a second later. “Im decent.” He said and I turned to see him sprawled out on the ground with his hands behind his head, fully clothed. I rolled my eyes and picked up my clothes in my mouth. K-9 closed his eyes and flipped onto his stomach while the rest of the guys turned around along with Damien.

As soon as I phased back and had my clothes on I turned around. Damien/Bones was grimacing and I went up and poked him in the chest.

“Explain, how your alive.” I said and crossed my arms over my chest.

He sighed sadly. “Long story, but I guess I don’t have much of a choice do I?” I shook my head and he laughed nervously. K-9 loped over and sat on the ground by Crusher and Ammo. I saw them out the corner of my eye pound his fist and give him one armed hugs, but they were listening too.

“See, I supposedly died when we were fourteen, at least that’s what you had to think.” He stopped for a second to gather his thoughts.

“I knew the vamps would come for me, and I also knew that the only chance we had was if we separated, but I knew you’d never leave me, or vice versa.”

I raised an eyebrow and muttered “Damn right.” He smiled faintly before finishing,
“So I died.” He said, like we were discussing the weather.

“I changed my image to look like this,” -he gestured to Bones’s body -“It was a power I gained a while before, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to know, and I wanted to be able to hide from you.”

He stared off into space for a second and I found myself feeling bad for him; he wanted to protect me, but he had to hurt me to do that.

And he was suffering over it, naturally.

“I kept an eye after you, of course, that’s why we’re here right now. I not only can change my form, but I have visions sometimes as well. I saw you in Port Angeles with them,”-he pointed to the guys-“And I added myself to the picture, since I was long dead, it worked. I had to make sure not to talk though, my voice doesn’t change as much as my face.”

“And that’s it, the vamps leave me alone because the think they got me already, they didn’t send as many vamps after you cause’ your less of a target.”

I waited til he finished then I groaned and punched him.

“You’re an evil manipulative jerk, y’know that.” I muttered, but my voice was sarcastic.

He grinned. “Love you too Cent.”

I stuck my tongue out.

“So K-9’s a wolf now are these vampires gonna be after him too?” Crusher asked and I shook my head. “They don’t know he’s a wolf so as long as he minds his phasing he’ll be fine. He’s already doing pretty well; phasing back on the first time takes skill.”

K-9 beamed and Ammo grimaced.

“Why are the vampires after you?” he asked in shock. I shrugged lightly.

“Racism mostly, and there used to be so many of us; we were a threat to their feeding habits cause we protected humans from them. Now that Im the last one,”-I looked to K-9 and Damien-“Or, was the last one, I think they mostly just want to finish what they started.”

I looked at Damien sadly.

“And I don’t think pretending to die will satisfy them.”

He didn’t speak, but I took it as a confirmation.

He knew I was right.

XxX

K-9 jogged home with me, he was jumping and bouncing with excitement, occasionally shouting and howling happily. We’d left Damien and the guys about twenty minutes ago after agreeing K-9 should stay with me for a while. Until he got under control, he wasn’t aloud in public.

He chatted animatedly with me as I filled him on in the werewolf fluff. He started asking about humans and the whole dating another species thing and I told him about imprinting. He asked me if I imprinted and I told him about Jacob. He was quiet for a while and I stopped walking.

“What’s up K-9?” I asked and he shrugged, looking thoughtful.

“You know, I kinda guessed there was something going on between you two the day at Edward’s, you should’ve seen the way he looked at you, when we first walked in, and then again when you said you fell.”

I shook my head sadly when he was done.

“I did see it, what’s your point?” I asked and he shrugged, walking again.

“It’s just really intense is all.” He muttered defensively. I rolled my eyes at him. “Now look who’s being all parental.” I muttered and he rolled his eyes too.

“I’m just thinking about your safety is all, I take it Jacob doesn’t know about the Cross Fire?” I winced, and he took it as a confirmation. “Nope, so don’t mention it.” I muttered.

We walked so far we were almost home again when K-9 brought it back up.

“You aren't planning on telling him.” He whispered.

I sighed, wishing he would drop it and shook my head. “I don’t want him to worry, and it wouldn’t do anything but put him in danger anyways.” My voice was sad, and K-9 forgot about it after that, talking about how strong being a werewolf would make him.

Jacob’s POV

I just got off patrol.

Of course I was thinking about Centhua, so the guys knew everything now. They wouldn’t let me hear the end of it but I let them have their fun. I hope Cent won’t be mad, but considering she kissed me earlier she probably won’t.

That was how I saw it at least…

When I got in my dad was reading and I went to go make myself something to eat. Two minutes later though, the sound of a police cruiser pulling into the driveway made me freeze. I heard Bella talking to her dad inside and my eyebrows rose. Why were they here?

“Jacob! Door!” dad called while I cussed and walked out. He had pushed his chair in front of the tv and a football game was on.

I opened it to Charlie and Bella; Bella smiled warmly at me. I gave her a small smile too. And Charlie beamed, he was blabbering before he was in the door.

“Jacob! So good to see you! You haven't been around in ages!” he drowned on and I gave half-hearted responses.

He and dad settled down to watch the game and I talked to Bella while I ate. It was hard to believe that I’d ever been in love with her, but imprinting really had opened my eyes. And with that thought my mind wandered back to Centhua…again.

“Jake? Hello, anyone in there?” Bella asked, snapping her hands in front of my face. I blinked, trying to expel the graphic thoughts from my head and said “Yeah,” before listening to her talk again.

She talked about her school, carefully avoiding graduation topics, whether for me or because or dad’s were there I wasn’t sure. Eventually though, we walked back out into the garage for some privacy.

It was getting late and the sun was still up behind the clouds. She sat in the opened passenger door of the rabbit and I sat in the drivers seat. She talked real casual for a while but I knew her well enough to know their was something on her mind.

“So, Cent got let out Saturday I hear.” She said, nonchalantly.

“Yeah,” I said and she gave me a weird look.

“What?” I muttered causing her to roll her eyes. “I was just wondering if you talked to her is all.” I took in her tone of voice and thought of Damien, was Bella wondering if I’d asked her about him?

“Yeah, but not about what your thinking about.” I said and she looked relieved. I turned thoughtful too. “You said you’d explain, about Damien, about why it makes her so sad, nows a good time.” I gestured back towards the house where I could clearly hear our dad’s talking.

She sighed deeply and muttered something along the lines of ‘me and my big mouth.’

“Ok, so what’s the deal,” I asked when it looked like she was done gathering her thoughts. She sighed alittle dramatically before talking.

“Damien, was Centhua’s twin brother. They were really close when they were kids, the moved around a lot of South America so they stopped making friends they knew they were gonna lose.”

She paused for a second, a pained look on her face.

“When they were fifteen, a vampire found their pack, he killed Damien before Centhua could stop him, and she tore the vampire apart in the most painful way you can imagine.”

Her face had turned slightly pale while she added “Or so I hear.”

The way she told it, like it was fairytale and not history, made it hard to believe we were talking about my imprint.

“Damien sacrificed himself so Centhua and the rest of her pack could live…That was probably the reason I was mumbling about it the other night, because the third wife story reminded me of him.”

She stopped and watched me as I stared out into space.

“What happened to the rest of her pack?” I managed in a whisper. Pain flashed across her face again.

“Did you know that some vampires, hunt werewolves for sport?” she said and I shook my head. “Not werewolves in particular, just children of the moon, that’s what Centhua is.”

Ah, nice to put a name to the species.

“Her whole pack was wiped out, just because some vampires wanted to have a little fun, a little bit of a challenge.”

She shuddered, and I realized this was the first time I’d ever heard her talk about her bloodsuckers with fear.

And I couldn’t even enjoy it.

All I could do was think about Centhua, and wonder how she managed to survive when everyone else died. And whether or not she was still being hunted.