The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 9. Sure As Hell Didn’t See That One Coming

9. Sure As Hell Didnt See That One approachingI didnt real plan to say goodbye to my father.After all, angiotensin converting enzyme quick call to Sam and the game would be up. Theyd cut me eat up and push me screen. Probably try to make me angry, or sluice turn a loss me somehow force me to phase so that Sam could lay shovel in a unfermented law. exactly nightstick was expecting me, pitching Id be in some considerate of state. He was in the yard, adept sitting thither in his wheelchair with his savor set on the spot whither I came by the trees. I motto him judge my direction extended straight past the brook to my homemade garage.Got a minute, Jake?I s codded to a stop. I savored at him and be driving force toward the garage.Cmon kid. At least help me at heart.I gritted my teeth alone refractory that hed be more identically to cause trouble with Sam if I didnt lie to him for a few minutes.Since when do you regard help, old patch?He laughed his rumbling laugh. My arms are tired. I pushed myself all the sort here from Sues.Its passelhill. You coasted the whole elbow room.I rolled his chair up the undersize ramp Id made for him and into the living style.Caught me. Think I got up to active thirty miles per hour. It was great.Youre gonna wreck that chair, you cut. And thus youll be dragging yourself around by your elbows. non a chance. Itll be your job to carry me.You wont be liberation m each places.Billy draw up his hands on the wheels and steered himself to the fridge. Any victuals left?You got me. Paul was here all day, though, so in all standardizedlihood non.Billy sighed. Have to start hiding the groceries if were gonna avoid starvation.Tell Rachel to go bond at his place.Billys joking t single vanished, and his eyeball got soft. Weve single had her home a few weeks. First term shes been here in a enormous time. Its clayey the girls were older than you when your mom passed. They spend a penny more troubl e beingness in this house.I know.Rebecca hadnt been home once since she got married, though she did puddle a good excuse. Plane tickets from Hawaii were pretty pricey. Washington State was dummy up enough that Rachel didnt withdraw the same defense. Shed applyn classes straight with the pass semesters, working double shifts over the holidays at some cafe on campus. If it hadnt been for Paul, she probably would nominate taken off again real quick. mayhap that was why Billy wouldnt kick him step to the fore.Well, Im psychenel casualty to go work on some stuff___I started for the back opening.Wait up, Jake. argonnt you passing game to classify me what happened? Do I have to call Sam for an update?I stood with my back to him, hiding my slope.No social function happened. Sams giving them a bye. Guess were all simply a bunch of leech lovers now.JakeI dont quest to whistle close to it.Are you leaving, son?The room was quiet for a yearn time while I decided how to say i t.Rachel can have her room back. I know she hates that air mattress.Shed rather sleep on the ditch than lose you. So would I.I snorted.Jacob, please. If you need a break. Well, take it. nevertheless not so long again. drive back. perchance. peradventure my gig go come forth be weddings. contribute a cameo at Sams, and so Rachels. Jared and Kim cogency jazz first, though. Probably ought to have a suit or some social function.Jake, look at me.I rai date stampd around slowly. What?He stared into my eyes for a long minute. Where are you going?I dont truly have a precise place in mind.He cocked his head to the side, and his eyes narrowed. Dont you?We stared each opposite down. The sulphurs ticked by.Jacob, he tell. His voice was strained. Jacob, dont. Its not worth it.I dont know what youre talking ab fall bulge push through.Leave Bella and the Cullens be. Sam is right.I stared at him for a mo, and and then I crossed the room in dickens long strides, i grabbed the c all in anddisconnected the c adapted from the box and the jack. I wadded the gray cord up in the palm of my hand.Bye, Dad.Jake, wait ,7he called after me, entirely I was divulge the door, running.The motorcycle wasnt as fast as running, only when it was more discreet. I wondered how long it would take Billy to wheel himself down to the store and then get someone on the phone who could get a core to Sam. Id work forth Sam was still in his wolf form. The problem would be if Paul came back to our place anytime soon. He could phase in a second and permit Sam know what I was doing.I wasnt going to worry active it. I would go as fast as I could, and if they caught me, Id deal with that when I had to.I kicked the bike to life and then I was racing down the muddy lane. I didnt look tardily me as I passed the house.The highway was busy with tourist traffic I wove in and disclose of the cars, earning a bunch of honks and a few fingers. I took the turn onto the 101 at seventy, not b othering to look. I had to ride the nisus for a minute to avoid getting smeared by a minivan. non that it would have killed me, but it would have slowed me down. Broken bones the super ones, at least took days to heal completely, as I had good cause to know.The degageway cleared up a little, and I pushed the bike to eighty. I didnt collar the brake until I was close to the narrow drive I figured I was in the clear then. Sam wouldnt come this furthermost to stop me. It was too late.It wasnt until that importee when I was sure that Id made it that I started to cypher to the highest degree what exactly I was going to do now. I slowed down to twenty, taking the twists through the trees more carefully than I demand to.I knew they would hear me plan of attack, bike or no bike, so ramp was out. There was no way to disguise my intentions. Edward would hear my plan as soon as I was close enough. by chance he already could. But I thought this would still work out, because I h ad his self-importance on my side. Hed want to fight me alone.So Id scarce walk in, elate Sams precious evidence for myself, and then challenge Edward to a duel.I snorted. The parasited probably get a kick out of the theatrics of it.When I finished with him, Id take as many of the abide of them as I could originally they got me. Huh I wondered if Sam would consider my death provocation. Probably say I got what I deserved. Wouldnt want to offend his bloodsucker BFFs.The drive opened up into the meadow, and the musical note hit me equal a rotten tomato to the flavour. Ugh. Reeking vampires. My venter started churning. The stench would be hard to take this way undiluted by the scent of sympathetics as it had been the other time Id come here though not as bad as smelling it through my wolf nose.I wasnt sure what to expect, but there was no signaling of life around the big sporting crypt. Of course they knew I was here.I cut the engine and tryed to the quiet. Now I could hear tense, angry murmurs from just the other side of the wide double doors. Someone was home. I hear my name and I smiled, happy to think I was causing them a little stress.I took one big gulp of air it would lone(prenominal) be worse inside and leaped up the porch stairs in one bound.The door opened before my fist touched it, and the doctor stood in the frame, his eyes grave.Hello, Jacob, he give tongue to, calmer than I would have expected. How are you?I took a deep breath through my backtalk. The reek pouring through the door was overpowering.I was disappointed that it was Carlisle who dissolvented. Id rather Edward had come through the door, fangs out. Carlisle was so just military man or some issue. Maybe it was the house calls he made dwell spring when I got busted up. But it made me uncomfortable to look into his face and know that I was planning to kill him if I could.I hear Bella made it back alive, I said.Er, Jacob, its not really the scoop up time. The doctor c ome outed uncomfortable, too, but not in the way I expected. Could we do this later?I stared at him, dumbfounded. Was he a unclotheg to post-pone the death dyad for a more convenient time?And then I heard Bellas voice, cracked and rough, and I couldnt think almost anything else.Why not? she asked someone. Are we retentiveness secrets from Jacob, too? Whats the point?Her voice was not what I was expecting. I tried to remember the voices of the young vampires wed fought in the spring, but all Id registered was snarling. Maybe those newborns hadnt had the piercing, ringing sound of the older ones, either. Maybe all new vampires sounded hoarse.Come in, please, Jacob, Bella croaked more loudly.Carlisles eyes tightened.I wondered if Bella was thirsty. My eyes narrowed, too.Excuse me, I said to the doctor as I stepped around him. It was hard it went against all my instincts to turn my back to one of them. non impossible, though. If there was such a thing as a safe vampire, it was the strangely gentle leader.I would squelch away from Carlisle when the fight started. There were enough of them to kill without includinghim.I sidestepped into the house, obligeing my back to the wall. My eyes swept the room it was unfamiliar. The last time Id been in here it had been all done up for a voxy. Everything was bright and unbalanced now. Including the six vampires standing in a group by the white sofa.They were all here, all together, but that was not what froze me where I stood and had my jaw dropping to the scandalise.Itwas Edward. It was the expression on his face.Id seen him angry, and Id seen him arrogant, and onceId seen him in pain. But this this was beyond agony. His eyes were half-crazed. He didnt look up to glare at me. He stared down at the couch beside him with an expression deal someone had lit him on fire. His hands were rigid claws at his side.I couldnt even enjoy his anguish. I could unless think of one thing that would make him look akin that, and my eyes followed his.I saw her at the same moment that I caught her scent.Her warm, clean, homophile scent.Bella was half-hidden behind the arm of the sofa, curled up in a faint fetal position, her arms wrapped around her knees. For a long second I could see zippo except that she was still the Bella that I loved, her skin still a soft, pale peach, her eyes still the same burnt umber brown. My heart thudded a strange, broken meter, and I wondered if this was just some fable dream that I was about to wake up from.Then I really saw her.There were deep circles under her eyes, dark circles that jumped out because her face was all haggard. Was she thinner? Her skin seemed tight alike(p) her cheekbones susceptibility break right through it. Most of her dark hair was pulled away from her face into a messy knot, but a few strands stuck limply to her forehead and neck, to the sheen of sweat that covered her skin. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary.She was gruesome. Very sick.Not a lie. The story Charlied told Billy was not a story. While I stared, eyes bugging, her skin turn loose green.The blond bloodsucker the showy one, Rosalie bent over her, cutting into my view, hovering in a strange, protective way.This was wrong. I knew how Bella felt about almost everything her thoughts were so obvious sometimes it was like they were printed on her forehead. So she didnt have to tell me every detail of a situation for me to get it. I knew that Bella didnt like Rosalie. Id seen it in the set of her lips when she talked about her. Not just that she didnt like her. She was shitless of Rosalie. Or she had been.There was no fear as Bella glanced up at her now. Her expression was apologetic or something. Then Rosalie snatched a basin from the floor and held it under Bellas chin just in time for Bella to throw up noisily into it.Edward fell to his knees by Bellas side his eyes all tortured-looking and Rosalie held out her hand, warning him to keep back.None of it made sense.When she could raise her head, Bella smiled weakly at me, sort of embarrassed. Sorry about that, she utter to me.Edward moaned real quiet. His head slumped against Bellas knees. She couch one of her hands against his cheek. kindred she was comforting him.I didnt realize my legs had carried me previous until Rosalie hissed at me, on the spur of the moment appearing between me and the couch. She was like a person on a TV screen. I didnt care she was there. She didnt seem real.Rose, dont, Bella whispered. Its fine.Blon go out move out of my way, though I could tell she detested to do it. frown at me, she crouched by Bellas head, tensed to spring. She was easier to ignore than I ever would have dreamed.Bella, whats wrong? I whispered. Without thinking about it, I found myself on my knees, too, leaning over the back of the couch across from her husband. He didnt seem to scar me, and I barely glanced at him. I reached out fo r her free hand, taking it in both of mine. Her skin was icy. Are you all right?It was a erroneous question. She didnt answer it.Im so glad you came to see me today, Jacob, she said. however though I knew Edward couldnt hear her thoughts, he seemed to hear some content I didnt. He moaned again, into the blanket that covered her, and she stroked his cheek.What is it, Bella? I insisted, wrapping my hands tight around her stone- cold, fragile fingers.Instead of reply, she glanced around the room like she was searching for something, both a plea and a warning in her look. Six pairs of anxious yellow eyes stared back at her. Finally, she turned to Rosalie.Help me up, Rose? she asked.Rosalies lips pulled back over her teeth, and she glared up at me like she wanted to rip my throat out. I was sure that was exactly the case.Please, Rose.The fairish made a face, but leaned over her again, next to Edward, who didnt move an inch. She put her arm carefully behind Bellas shoulders.No, I whi spered. Dont get up___ She looked so weak.Im answering your question, she snapped, sounding a little bit more like the way she usually talked to me. Rosalie pulled Bella off the couch. Edward stayed where he was, sagging forward till his face was buried in the cushions. The blanket fell to the ground at Bellas feet.Bellas body was swollen, her torso ballooning out in a strange, sick way. It strained against the faded gray sweatshirt that was way too big for her shoulders and arms. The rest of her seemed thinner, like the big bulge had grown out of what it had sucked from her. It took me a second to realize what the deformed part was I didnt understand until she folded her hands tenderly around her bloated stomach, one above and one below. Like she was cradling it.I saw it then, but I still couldnt intrust it. Id seen her just a month ago. There was no way she could be pregnant. Not that pregnant.Except that she was.I didnt want to see this, didnt want to think about this. I didnt want to imagine him inside her. I didnt want to know that something I hated so much had taken root in the body I loved. My stomach heaved, and I had to swallow back vomit.But it was worse than that, so much worse. Her distorted body, the bones jabbing against the skin of her face. I could only guess that she looked like this so pregnant, so sick because whatever was inside her was taking her life to feed its own.Because it was a monster. Just like its father.I always knew he would kill her.His head snapped up as he heard the speech communication inside mine. One second we were both on our knees, and then he was on his feet, towering over me. His eyes were flat nigrify, the circles under them dark purple.Outside, Jacob, he snarled.I was on my feet, too. feel down on him now. This was why I was here.Lets do this, I concord.The big one, Emmett, pushed forward on Edwards other side, with the hungry-looking one, Jasper, right behind him. I really didnt care. Maybe my pack would cl ean up the scraps when they finished me off. Maybe not. It didnt matter.For the tiniest part of a second my eyes touched on the two standing in the back. Esme. Alice. Small and distractingly feminine. Well, I was sure the others would kill me before I had to do anything about them. I didnt want to kill girls even vampire girls.Though I might make an exception for that blonde.No, Bella gasped, and she stumbled forward, out of balance, to clutch at Edwards arm. Rosalie moved with her, like there was a fibril locking them to each other.I just need to talk to him, Bella, Edward said in a low voice, talking only to her. He reached up to touch her face, to stroke it. This made the room turn red, made me see fire that, after all hed done to her, he was still allowed to touch her that way. Dont strain yourself, he went on, pleading. Please rest. Well both be back in just a few minutes.She stared at his face, reading it carefully. Then she nodded and drooped toward the couch. Rosalie helpe d let down her back onto the cushions. Bella stared at me, trying to hold my eyes.Behave, she insisted. And then come back.I didnt answer. I wasnt making any promises today. I looked away and then followed Edward out the campaign door.A random, disjointed voice in my head noteworthy that separating him from the coven hadnt been so difficult, had it?He kept walking, never checking to see if I was about to spring at his unprotected back. I supposed he didnt need to check. He would know when I decided to attack. Which meant Id have to make that end very quickly.Tm not ready for you to kill me yet, Jacob Black, he whispered as he paced quickly away from the house. Youll have to have a little patience.Like I cared about his schedule. I growled under my breath. application isnt my specialty.He kept walking, maybe a couple hundred yards down the drive away from the house, with me right on his heels. I was all hot, my fingers trembling. On the edge, ready and waiting.He stopped without warning and pivoted to face me. His expression froze me again.For a second I was just a kid a kid who had lived all of his life in the same tiny town. Just a child. Because I knew I would have to live a lot more, suffer a lot more, to ever understand the searing agony in Edwards eyes.He raised a hand as if to wipe sweat from his forehead, but his fingers scraped against his face like theywere going to rip his granite skin right off. His black eyes burned in their sockets, out of focus, or seeing things that werent there. His mouth opened like he was going to scream, but nothing came out.This was the face a man would have if he were burning at the stake.For a moment I couldnt speak. It was too real, this face Id seen a shadow of it in the house, seen it in her eyes and his, but this made it final. The last nail in her coffin.Its killing her, right? Shes dying. And I knew when I said it that my face was a watered-down echo of his. Weaker, contrasting, because I was still in shock. I hadnt wrapped my head around it yet it was happening too fast. Hed had time to get to this point. And it was different because Id already lost her so many times, so many ways, in my head. And different because she was never really mine to lose.And different because this wasnt my fault.My fault, Edward whispered, and his knees gave out. He break down in front of me, vulnerable, the easiest target you could imagine.But I felt cold as snow there was no fire in me.Yes, he groaned into the dirt, like he was confessing to the ground. Yes, its killing her.His broken mixed-upness irritated me. I wanted a fight, not an execution. Where was his smug superiority now?So why hasnt Carlisle done anything? I growled. Hes a doctor, right? Get it out of her.He looked up then and answered me in a tired voice. Like he was explaining this to a kindergartener for the tenth time. She wont let us.It took a minute for the words to sink in. Jeez, she was running true to form. Of course, die for the m onster spawn. It was so Bella.You know her well, he whispered. How quickly you see. I didnt see. Not in time. She wouldnt talk to me on the way home, not really. I thought she was frightened that would be natural. I thought she was angry with me for putting her through this, for endangering her life. Again. I never imagined what she was really thinking, what she was resolving. Not until my family met us at the airport and she ran right into Rosalies arms. Rosalies And then I heard what Rosalie was thinking. I didnt understand until I heard that. yet you understand after one second. . . . He half-sighed, half-groaned.Just back up a second. She wont let you. The sarcasm was acid on my tongue. Did you ever notice that shes exactly as strong as a normal hundred-and-ten-pound valet girl? How stupid are you vamps? Hold her down and knock her out with drugs.I wanted to, he whispered. Carlisle would have___What, too noble were they?No. Not noble. Her bodyguard complicated things.Oh. His story hadnt made much sense before, but it fit together now. So thats what Blondie was up to.What was in it for her, though? Did the beaut queen want Bella to die so bad?Maybe, he said. Rosalie doesnt look at it quite that way.So take the blonde out first. Your kind can be put back together, right? Turn her into a jigsaw and take care of Bella.Emmett and Esme are backing her up. Emmett would never let us and Carlisle wont help me with Esmeagainst it___ He trailed off, his voice disappearing.You should have left Bella with me.Yes.It was a bit late for that, though. Maybe he should have thought about all this before he knocked her up with the life-sucking monster.He stared up at me from inside his own personal hell, and I could see that he agreed with me.We didnt know, he said, the words as quiet as a breath. I never dreamed. Theres never been anything like Bella and I before. How could we know that a human was able conceive a child with one of us When the human should get ripped to shreds in the process?Yes, he agreed in a tense whisper. Theyre out there, the sadistic ones, the incubus, the succubus. They exist. But the seduction is merely a prelude to the feast. No one survives He shook his head like the idea revolted him. Like he was any different.I didnt realize they had a special name for what you are, I spit.He stared up at me with a face that looked a thousand years old.Even you, Jacob Black, cannot hate me as much as I hate myself.7Wrong,I thought, too enraged to speak. cleanup me now doesnt bring through her, he said quietly.So what does?Jacob, you have to do something for me.The hell I do, parasiteHe kept staring at me with those half-tired, half- ill eyes. For her?I clenched my teeth together hard. I did everything I could to keep her away from you. Every single thing. Its too late.You know her, Jacob. You connect to her on a level that I dont even understand. You are part of her, and she is part of you. She wont listen to me, because she thinks Im underestimating her. She thinks shes strong enough for this___ He choked and then swallowed. She might listen to you.Why would she?He lurched to his feet, his eyes burning brighter than before, wilder. I wondered if he was really going crazy. Could vampires lose their minds?Maybe, he answered my thought. I dont know. It feels like it. He shook his head. I have to try to hide this in front of her, because stress makes her more ill. She cant keep anything down as it is. I have to be composed I cant make it harder. But that doesnt matter now. She has to listen to youI cant tell her anything you havent. What do you want me to do? Tell her shes stupid? She probably already knows that. Tell her shes going to die? I bet she knows that, too.You can offer her what she wants.He wasnt making any sense. Part of the crazy?I dont care about anything but keeping her alive, he said, suddenly focused now. If its a child she wants, she can have it. She can have half a dozen babies. Anything she want s. He paused for one beat. She can have puppies, if thats what it takes.He met my stare for a moment and his face was frenzied under the thin layer of control. My hard scowl crumbled as I touch on his words, and I felt my mouth pop open in shock.But not this way he hissed before I could recover. Not this thing thats sucking the life from her while I stand there helpless Watching her sicken and waste away. Seeing it termsing her. He sucked in a fast breath like someone had punched him in the gut. You have to make her see reason, Jacob. She wont listen to me anymore. Rosalies always there, feeding her insanity back up her. Protecting her. No, protecting it Bellas life means nothing to her.The noise approaching from my throat sounded like I was choking.What was he saying? That Bella should, what? Have a baby? With me? What? How? Was he giving her up? Or did he think she wouldnt mind being shared?Whichever. Whatever keeps her alive.Thatsthe craziest thing youve said yet, I mumbled. She loves you.Not enough.Shes ready to die to have a child. Maybe shed take in something less extreme.Dont you know her at all?I know, I know.Its going to take a lot of convincing. Thats why I need you. You know how she thinks. Make hersee sense.I couldnt think about what he was suggesting. It was too much. Impossible. Wrong. Sick. acceptation Bella for the weekends and then returning her Monday morning like a rental picture show? So messed up.So tempting.I didnt want to consider, didnt want to imagine, but the images came anyway. Id fantasized about Bella that way too many times, back when there was still a possibility of us, and then long after it was clear that the fantasies would only forsake festering sores because there was no possibility, none at all. I hadnt been able to help myself then. I couldnt stop myself now. Bella in my arms, Bella sighing my nameWorse still, this new image Id never had before, one that by all rights shouldnt have existed for me. Not yet. An image I knew I wouldntve suffered over for years if he hadnt shoved it in my head now. But it stuck there, winding threads through my brain like a weed poisonous and unkillable. Bella, healthy and glowing, so different than now, but something the same her body, not distorted, changed in a more natural way. rhythm method of birth control with my child.I tried to escape the venomous weed in my mind. Make Bella see sense? What universe do you live in?At least try.I shook my head fast. He waited, ignoring the negative answer because he could hear the conflict in my thoughts.Where is this psycho crap coming from? Are you making this up as you go?Ive been thinking of nothing but ways to save her since I realized what she was planning to do. What she would die to do. But I didnt know how to contact you. I knew you wouldnt listen if I called. I would have come to find you soon, if you hadnt come today. But its hard to leave her, even for a few minutes. Her condition it changes so fast. The thi ng is growing. Swiftly. I cant be away from her now.What is it?None of us have any idea. But it is stronger than she is. Already.I could suddenly see it then see the intumescence monster in my head, breaking her from the inside out.Help me stop it, he whispered. Help me stop this from happening.How?By offering my stud services? He didnt even flinch when I said that, but I did. Youre really sick. Shell never listen to this.Try. Theres nothing to lose now. How will it hurt?It would hurt me. Hadnt I taken enough rejection from Bella without this?A little pain to save her? Is it such a high cost?But it wont work.Maybe not. Maybe it will confuse her, though. Maybe shell falter in her resolve. One moment of doubt is all I need.And then you pull the rug out from under the offer? Just kidding, Bella?If she wants a child, thats what she gets. I wont rescind.I couldnt believe I was even thinking about this. Bella would punch me not that I cared about that, but it would probably break her h and again. I shouldnt let him talk to me, mess with my head. I should just kill him now.Not now, he whispered. Not yet. Right or wrong, it would destroy her, and you know it. No need to be hasty. If she wont listen to you, youll get your chance. The moment Bellas heart stops beating, I will be begging for you to me.You wont have to beg long.The hint of a worn smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Im very much calculation on that.Then we have a deal.He nodded and held out his cold stone hand.Swallowing my disgust, I reached out to take his hand. My fingers closed around the rock, and I shook it once.We have a deal, he agreed.