The Peace Keeper

Jacob insisted on staying the night, even though the exorcism wouldn't happen until tomorrow.

Alice called, double-checking the time. I poked a bit of fun at her, saying she should already know. The little vampire was quite infuriated, enough so that she threatened to bite my face off if I brought up the fact she had a hard time seeing my future again.

As for Ed and Bec, well I had asked them to stay the night, too. They each got their own guest room, as my house had plenty. But, as for Jake...

"I'll stay in your room." He stated bluntly, taking a seat next to me on the couch in the living room.

I turned my attention away from the show I was watching on the TV to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"I'll just stay in your room tonight." He repeated from his seat next to me.

"Why?"

"You said yourself that the ghost is violent. What if it attacks you while you sleep?"

He had a good point...

I remained silent. Jake took that as a notion to continue.

"It's not like we have to share a bed or anything--" His words began to rush together a bit, "But I'll just keep watch, you know?"

I kept my incredulous look, but added a small smile. "You wanna see something?"

My over sized pet looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Reaching over the side of the couch, I retrieved my laptop from where I had left it charging. Opening the device, I powered it up, logged on, and opened the "My Pictures" file.

"Old pictures of me." I told Jake, who was looking over my shoulder while I typed. "I don't know why I didn't really realize it before, but you don't really know that much about me, do you?"

Jacob looked a bit uncomfortable for a minute, obviously silently agreeing with me. Honestly, I couldn't help but grin at his expression.

Scooting closer to him on the couch, I placed the laptop between the two of us, partially leaning on Jake's shoulder.

The picture that sat enlarged on the screen was of Victor and I (both grinning like idiots at the camera), along with a multitude of other people milling about behind us. A banner was displayed above our heads that read, "Finally 5 Feet!" The scene occurred a few years ago in our apartment, during a party.

"From ages 11 to 15, I was always measured as four feet, eleven and three-quarters inches. For the longest time I was waiting to finally turn five feet. When I did, we decided to throw a celebration."

Jake laughed, placing an arm around me. His chest vibrated with his laughter. “And how tall are you now?”

I pouted, “Five foot, quarter inch…” With a pessimistic sigh, I added, “Maybe in a few years, I can have that ‘Finally Five Foot One!’ party I’I've been hoping for…”

I switched to the next random photo. This one just had me in it, much younger than the previous photo. Next to me was an enormously tall African man, clad in a button-up blue shirt and dusty pants that had been rolled to his knees. The man's hand rested on my head, and from the way he was leaning, it looked as though he was using me as a support, much like one would do with a railing. My childish face had on a faux annoyed expression, with an adorable pout and crossed chubby arms.

"When I was nine, my family and I went to Nigeria to meet with a pack of werewolves as Peacekeeper representatives. The guy in the picture is Chioke, one of the werewolves we met."

"Why did your family have to go as representatives?"

I turned my head to look up at Jake. Our faces had grown surprisingly close, so now I was leaning on the inside of his shoulder. "Well, my ancestors used to be somewhat like royalty in the peacekeeping world. Like, we used to establish rules and stuff."

"But you're not anymore?"

I shook my head, "Not really. I mean, Victor and I are still pretty important people, but there's so few peacekeepers now, it doesn't really matter to our kind. We still have some pretty impressive connections." I clicked on the next picture. "Speaking of which..."

This picture was of my family and I with another family. My mother and father stood next to the other parent, who was a sole father. The kids, meaning my brother and I (about seven at the time) as well as two older boys took up the front row. The picture was posed, all of us holding stoic features.

"That's the Lord of the fire daemons and his two sons."

"Isn't that Benjamin?" Jake pointed to the younger son. It was an exact replica of Benjamin, looking just as he does today.

"Yep."

Jake's dark chocolate eyes scanned the rest of Benjamin's family. "Then that's..." He started, unable to finish what he was going to say.

Not that he needed to, I understood. "Mhmm, that's Aidyn, beside him," Aidyn at this time looked as he always did to me, about seventeen, shaggy reddish-brown hair, and brazen yellow-green eyes on his pale chiseled face. "Then their father, Nealon on, is behind them."

"Emma..." Jake began again. "How old is Benjamin?"

"Somewhere between a century to a century and a half."

"Fire demons don't age, then?"

"Actually, they control their aging. Like, look at their father, he looks at least forty-something."

Jake nodded again, beginning to understand, "Then how old was..." Again he found himself unable to say that name.

"Aidyn was about two-hundred, I think." When he grew silent I rolled my eyes and added, "Oh, don't be so judgmental." And flipped to the next picture.

This one made Jacob laugh loudly. I too, chuckled along with him, the memory of the day shown flooding back in a fond way.

It was more recent, I suppose I must have been about 15. I was seated in the kitchen at the apartment, Victor next to me, on my other side was Benjamin. Behind us three was Aidyn, who was doubled over in laughter. All of us were covered in flour, cake batter, and frosting. Victor and Benjamin had on identical looks of disbelief, while I just sat with a dumb grin of ecstasy, staring at the camera.

"Alright," Jake breathed through his booming laughter, "Please, explain."

I removed the hand that had attempted to hold in my giggles, "My friend Naomi was over one day, and the two of us wanted to bake a cake. Don't ask me how, but... That was the outcome." Another few 'haha's, then I added, "Never ask me to bake anything... cooking is fine, but no baking."

"Got it," Jake said as he leaned forward, to click to the next picture.

This one was of an adorable baby girl with reddish curly hair, and barely open green-yellow eyes. Her skin still had the pale baby hue, but had a tint of light mocha over it. A small red bow tied a lock of her hair, and a fuzzy yellow onesy kept her warm. In the blank space above her head, the words "Robyn Tehya Dawson" were typed in a fancy dark red lettering.

"This one's kind of self-explanatory. I got it a few months ago from Robyn's foster parents."

"Tehya?" Jake asked about her middle name.

I smiled at the picture, "It means 'precious' in Cherokee."

I could feel Jake nod again, and he reached forward to change the picture.

The two of us glanced through a few more pictures, most of them being of Victor and I, some of places or animals, a majority of others were Aidyn and Benjamin, too.

"I like this one," Jacob said suddenly.

The picture on the screen was of just me, sitting on a beach at the Jersey shore. Victor had taken it of me without my knowledge. I wore a simple red bikini and a sheer, dark green over shirt. I lounged in the sand with my head lulled back, basking in the fading rays of sunlight at dusk. My brother had driven me out to the beach to cheer me up after the drama with Robyn… This picture must be from only a few months before I came to Forks.

“I like that one, too.” I agreed.

~~~

It must have been around one in the morning when I finally decided that I was tired enough to go to sleep. Earlier that night, I had changed into a lavender colored tank top and navy blue silk pajama pants. Between the comfort of my clothes, and the comfort I always got when around Jacob, coupled with the fact I had gotten very little sleep last night, made me very tired. Jake was forced to carry me to bed.

Jake insisted on staying awake during the night, sitting on a large (and very comfortable chair) that I kept in my room. Unfortunately for him, I was in that drunken state between wakefulness and sleep that made your mind foggy and your decisions foggier. I insisted that he sleep in the bed with me.

When I first fell asleep, Jake was close. He’d lye next to me, one arm tossed over my waist, my hands curled to my chest, and the crest of my head against the inside of his shoulder.

During the night, though, the heat got to me. I was plenty snug underneath the blankets, then with Jake combined with the unforgiving humid Fork’s air, I awoke with a groggy stir, and rolled a bit farther away from my shape-shifting lover. Quickly after wards, I was comfortably asleep again.

Later during the night, I felt the warmth leave me in a sudden rush.

‘Well that’s not right…’ My still half-asleep mind managed to place some thoughts together. ‘Jake’s still here… Why so cold?’

What happened next I wasn’t expecting.

The skin of my exposed arms began to burn with a white-hot intensity, all the way from my shoulders to my finger tips. It felt as though a hundred smoldering irons were being pressed against my skin with extreme vigor. My body convulsed into the fetal position in an attempt to cope with the pain.

The pain was horrible, but not nearly as horrible as the anguished screech I gave when I finally regained my voice. Arms still burning, I managed to throw my hands to their opposite bicep. A tepid, liquid sensation seeped through my fingers. It was blood.

“Emma?!” Jake bolted upright next to me, dark eyes flitting through the darkness, trying to see what was causing me to yell out so loudly, “Emma, what’s wrong?”

Two matching patterns of running footsteps pounded on the wooden floors of the outside hall. Ed and Bec were both shouting for me. “Emma-Kate? Emma-Kate!” The pair burst through my bedroom door, switching on the lights.

Now, all three of my guests hovered over me, gazing in awe and terror at the state I was in.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, which had previously been screwed shut. Looking down at my still somewhat-burning arms, I saw dozens of thin yet noticeable scratches covering the skin from the tops of my shoulders all the way to my knuckles.

“Oh my god…” Ed breathed, hazel-gray eyes wide.

“How did this happen…?” Jake questioned in distress, obviously upset that he couldn’t prevent what just happened.

Slowly, I managed to sit up, Jacob assisting me, delicately watching my new wounds.

“She’s a lot more violent than we first thought, dude.” Bec, the only one who seemed to still have a level head in this situation, stated.

“That bitch is mean.” Ed added.

“That bitch powerful.” Continued Bec.

I finished for them, growling, “That bitch is going down.”