What Hurts the Most

I wanted to scream out his name so badly, but I couldn’t. The stupid chemical the vampire gave me had me immobilized. ‘Jacob!’ I screamed in my mind. Only I could hear it.

Tristan walked over to me and picked me back up into his cold arms. I laid limply, my body hanging flaccid. But thankfully, I could see Jacob, staring worriedly at me and then returning his gaze to the vampire. He looked ok, but I wasn’t sure he would still be after this battle. Where the others? Jake took a step closer, and Tristan traced an icy finger down my neck, staring at it admiringly.

“You know,” he began softly, still caressing my exposed neck. “I can hear her blood pumping in her neck. I can feel it, too. You have no idea how hard I am resisting going down and biting her neck and drinking in that warm, pulsing blood.”

Jake snarled. I had never heard him so fierce before; neither dog form nor human form. Tristan chuckled.

“The anticipation is eating you, isn’t it?” he said tauntingly. “Will I eat her, or not? Turn into your human form, and we’ll find out.”

Another bark and Tristan shook his head.

“Transform now or I mar her pretty little neck,” he threatened, slowly leaning closer to my neck.

I heard the familiar sound of Jake’s transformation, and my heart beat picked up. ‘Don’t give in, Jake!’ I screamed to myself. Tristan laughed again.

“She’s worried about you,” he informed Jake. “Her heart beat has quickened its pace.”

“Put her down!” Jake yelled.

I could still see him. His fists and teeth were clenched, and tiny ripples were running through his body. I could tell he wanted to transform back, but was heeding Tristan’s instructions.

“Oh, I’ll put something down,” Tristan yelled, and thrust his mouth at my neck.

In my mind, I was screaming, and I awaited the painful puncture of my neck. But it never came. I felt the warm liquid dribble down my neck, but there was no pain. No feeling of blood sucking, either. Shouldn’t I be feeling something? Anything? Was it the morphine that stopped the pain? He must’ve bitten me. Why would he be pretending?

In the background, I could hear Jake screaming out in frustration. He was on his knee, his head in his hands, and was trying to control himself. He doesn’t know? Can’t he hear my heartbeat? Wait, that’s only when he’s a dog. THAT’S why Tristan made him change back! If only I could get the feeling back in my body, I would run over to him and tell him it’s alright. I’m ok. I tried to move my body, and felt a little motion in my toes. Good. The morphine was wearing off.

Tristan removed his head from my neck, his grinning mouth smeared with blood. He slowly placed me back onto the cave floor and back walking out into the opening where Jake was lying.

“You’re too late, wolf,” he began, holding his arms out. “She’s mine now, and you’re about to regret ever entering MY territory.”

Jake lay motionless on the forest ground, curled up into a feeble position and sobbing into his arms. He was mumbling something incoherently; all I could hear was ‘no,’ and ‘gone.’

When Tristan reached the grieving wolf, he picked him up by his hair and brought Jake’s face closer to his own. His teeth were bared and his lips were curled into a triumphant smirk. Jake’s face was a look of pain; as if the reason of his existence, the reason he came to life in the first place, had been ripped and torn to pieces right in front of his very eyes. As far as he knew, it had.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I watched and did nothing.

“I’m glad you’re accepting death so graciously,” Tristan said coldly, snorting. “Allow me to finally give it to-“

He was cut off by some sort of blur tackling him to the ground to the right of the forest and out of my view. All I could hear was a struggle and numerous loud, mighty growls. I tried moving again, and managed to get my foot flexing, and then my whole left leg. After a long, and agonizing couple of minutes, a shadow covered the cave entrance, but I couldn’t tell what it was until a big black paw stepped in front of my face. It was one of the wolves. He transformed back into a human, and reached down and picked me up. It was Sam. He carried me outside, but Jake was nowhere in sight. Instead, there were four other wolves and three humans. No wait, they weren’t humans. If they were, they would be the most beautiful and most pale humans in the world. Two of them were men, and the other a woman.

“Where’s Jacob?” one of the men asked.

“He ran away while we were attacking Tristan,” Sam responded. I could hear a fire in the background and a murmur of voices, but I couldn’t tell who they were. “Let’s go find him.”

I tried to say something, but all that came out was a mumble.

“She must be getting her feeling back,” the woman said. She was short and petite, with short black hair that spiked out to the side.

“The bastard gave her morphine, huh?” the other man said, shaking his head. “What was this guy’s plan, anyway? And why did he only seem interested in Jake?”

“I saw his mind,” the first one said. “Jake entered into his territory, and he became obsessed with killing him. He was only using Nathalie as a pawn, just like those newborns.”

“How was he able to control those guys so well, though, Edward?” the woman asked.

“His ability is to be able to control them, and only them,” Edward answered. “An extraordinary gift. Too bad he used it poorly. I can hear his thoughts. He’s-no!”

Edward took off lightning fast; only a white blur to me and the rest of them followed after him. Sam managed to catch up with him easily.

“What is it, Edward?” the woman asked.

“Jacob, Alice,” he answered with a grimace. “He’s at the cliff and having suicidal thoughts of jumping off of it.”

I shot up in his arms, the morphine mostly worn off.

“Hurry!” I screamed at them desperately, and they all looked at me as if I was crazy.

Edward stopped, suddenly, and so did the rest.

“Are we too late, Edward?” the other man asked, but Edward didn’t answer. He took off in the direction of the lake and the question answered itself.

I was really panicking now. We had to get to the lake fast, before Jake...

We reached the lake in a matter of minutes, and the vampires jumped in. Sam stayed behind and held me back from going in myself.

“Let me go!”I yelled at him, tears returning to my eyes and blurring my image. “Please! I need him!”

“I know you do, but you must stay here. You’re no good to him out there. Besides, we have a couple of questions to ask you,” he said, holding me securely in an iron-tight grip.

“We?” I asked in a shaking voice.

“Yeah, he’s talking about him and I, Nat,” I heard a familiar voice answer.

“Seth!” I turned around, only slightly relieved. I ran over to him, thankful Sam let go of me, and squeezed him in a tight hug. Which he returned ten times harder.

“Well, it’s great and all that you’re glad to see me,” he began with a slight chuckle, combing his hand through my hair. “But I think there’s someone you need to be more worried about at the moment.”

I turned my head back towards the forest, with my cheek pressed against Seth’s warm abdomen, and answered, “I am.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Seth said, not letting go of me. “He’s Jake!”

I didn’t respond to him. I was too nervous to speak. Too terrified.

I saw Edward’s head pop up out of the water and swim to shore, with Alice and the other vampire following and Jake in his arm. Utmost relief flowed through me at the sight of him, which flipped back to terror when I found that he was unconscious.