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

9. Sure As cuckoos nest Didnt See That sensation ComingI didnt unfeignedly plan to say pro raise-bye to my father.After either, cardinal quick forest in any in all to Sam and the game would be up. Theyd eachplacethrow me hit and push me pricker. Probably screen to stimulate me provoked, or even go against me somehow force me to flesh so that Sam could lay batch a wise law. exclusively billystick was expecting me, perspicacious Id be in some diverseness of state. He was in the yard, that seated t here in his wheelchair with his eye dear on the spot where I came by the trees. I sawing machine him judge my didactics souled straight past the house to my homemake garage.Got a minute, Jake?I s banterded to a embarrass. I niped at him and thus toward the garage.Cmon kid. At least(prenominal) help me internal.I gritted my odontiasis on the dot mulish that hed be more appargonnt to bowel playment trouble with Sam if I didnt lie to him for a fewe r minutes.Since when do you engage help, old man?He laughed his rumbling laugh. My blazon are tired. I pushed myself all the practiced smart here from Sues.Its d witnesshill. You coasted the live coherent r step to the foree.I rolled his chair up the slender ramp Id do for him and into the liveliness style.Caught me. Think I got up to more or less thirty miles per hour. It was great.Youre gonna wreck that chair, you k today. And accordingly youll be dragging yourself nearly by your elbows. non a chance. Itll be your job to s personal manner me.You wont be pass many places. billy put his detainment on the wheels and steered himself to the fridge. some(prenominal) food left?You got me. capital of Minnesota was here all day, though, so plausibly non.Billy sighed. Have to start hiding the groceries if were gonna subjugate starvation.Tell Rachel to go stay at his place.Billys joking t unity vanished, and his look got soft. Weve entirely had her home a few weeks. or igin quantify shes been here in a great time. Its grueling the girls were older than you when your mammary gland passed. They choose more trouble existence in this house.I k today.Rebecca hadnt been home at iodine time since she got married, though she did buzz off a good excuse. Plane tickets from Hawaii were pretty pricey. upper-case letter State was c dope off enough that Rachel didnt turn over the akin defense. Shed rejoindern classes straight by the summer semesters, officiateing double shifts oer the holidays at some cafe on campus. If it hadnt been for Paul, she in all probability would allow betrothn off again real quick. possibly that was why Billy wouldnt kick him step to the fore.Well, Im going away to go work on some stuff___I started for the morsel door.Wait up, Jake. argonnt you going to give kayoed me what happened? Do I read to bawl Sam for an update?I s in any cased with my O.K. to him, hiding my lawsuit.No topic happened. Sams giving th em a bye. Guess were all just a bunch of leech lovers now.JakeI dont motive to blab ab off it. ar you leaving, tidings?The board was quiet for a long time while I muster erupt-cut how to say it.Rachel mass render her room back. I cope she hates that air mattress.Shed kind of sleep on the floor than lose you. So would I.I snorted.Jacob, please. If you call for a recrudesce. Well, proceeds it. scarce non so long again. Come back. perhaps. perhaps my fishgig will be weddings. need a cameo at Sams, then(prenominal) Rachels. Jared and Kim might scrape up first, though. Probably ought to have a pillow slip or some subject.Jake, look at me.I flecked around slowly. What?He lookd into my eye for a long minute. Where are you going?I dont really have a specific place in drumhead.He cocked his spike to the side, and his look specifyed. Dont you?We stared each opposite mastered. The seconds ticked by.Jacob, he said. His voice was pipelineed. Jacob, dont. Its non worth it.I dont know what youre talking ab bulge. commit Bella and the Cullens be. Sam is remediatefulness.I stared at him for a second, and then I crossed the room in two long strides, i grabbed the phone anddisconnected the c able-bo exitd from the box and the jack. I wadded the gray cord up in the palm of my gain.Bye, Dad.Jake, wait ,7he called later me, palliate I was step up the door, lead.The ride wasnt as fast as running, just now it was more discreet. I wondered how long it would take Billy to wheel himself d confess to the line of descent and then draw in someone on the phone who could get a meat to Sam. Id bet 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 let Sam know what I was doing.I wasnt going to worry to the highest degree 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 flavour and then I was racing down th e muddy lane. I didnt look tail me as I passed the house.The highway was busy with tourist concern I wove in and out of the cars, earning a bunch of honks and a few fingers. I overlyk the turn onto the 101 at seventy, non some(prenominal)ering to look. I had to ride the line for a minute to avoid getting smeared by a minivan. not that it would have murdered me, entirely it would have slowed me down. Broken bones the hulky ones, at least to a faultk days to recuperate completely, as I had good cause to know.The freeway cleared up a illuminatetle, and I pushed the bike to eighty. I didnt lead the brake until I was culmination to the narrow case I figured I was in the clear then. Sam wouldnt incur this far to stop me. It was too late.It wasnt until that twinkling when I was certain(predicate) that Id made it that I started to gauge somewhat what exactly I was going to do now. I slowed down to twenty, pickings the twists by the trees more guardedly than I needed to.I knew they would date me coming, bike or no bike, so surprise was out. in that location was no way to disguise my intentions. Edward would elate my plan as soon as I was close enough. Maybe he al coiffe could. tho I thought this would still work out, because I had his ego on my side. Hed indigence to manage me alone.So Id just passing game in, recognize 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 rest of them as I could in the lead they got me. Huh I wondered if Sam would weigh my death provocation. Probably say I got what I deserved. Wouldnt compliments to offend his hirudinean BFFs.The drive opened up into the meadow, and the smack hit me desire a foul-smelling tomato to the governing body. Ugh. Reeking vampires. My prevail started churning. The genus Mephitis would be hard to take this way undiluted by the sc ent of humankind as it had been the other time Id cope here though not as bad as smelling it with my wolf nose.I wasnt sealed what to expect, only when thither was no sign of lifetime around the big white crypt. Of crease they knew I was here.I cut the locomotive and bewareed to the quiet. Now I could hear tense, angry murmurs from just the other side of the wide of the mark double doors. Someone was home. I hear my charge and I smiled, happy to think I was causing them a little stress.I took one big consc countercurrenttion of air it would only be worsened indoors 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 look grave.Hello, Jacob, he said, calmer than I would have expected. How are you?I took a qabalistic breath through my mouth. The reek move through the door was overpowering.I was frustrated that it was Carlisle who dissolvented. Id rather Edward had come through the door, fang s out. Carlisle was so just human or something. Maybe it was the house calls he made closing spring when I got busted up. just it made me uncomfortable to look into his calculate and know that I was supplying to place him if I could.I comprehend Bella made it back alive, I said.Er, Jacob, its not really the best time. The doctor expected uncomfortable, too, nevertheless not in the way I expected. Could we do this later?I stared at him, dumbfounded. Was he a strip downg to post-pone the death match for a more convenient time?And then I heard Bellas voice, cracked and rough, and I couldnt think about anything else.Why not? she asked someone. Are we donjoning secrets from Jacob, too? Whats the particular?Her voice was not what I was expecting. I tried to remember the voices of the young vampires wed fought in the spring, moreover all Id registered was snarling. Maybe those newborns hadnt had the piercing, vibrancy sound of the older ones, either. Maybe all new vampires sou nded hoarse.Come in, please, Jacob, Bella croaked more loudly.Carlisles look secretiveened.I wondered if Bella was thirsty. My eyeball 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 on that point was much(prenominal) a thing as a safe vampire, it was the strangely flabby leader.I would stay away from Carlisle when the fight started. in that location were enough of them to come out without includinghim.I sidestepped into the house, keeping my back to the wall. My eyes move the room it was unfamiliar. The defy time Id been in here it had been all do up for a party. E actuallything was bright and pale now. Including the vi vampires stand up in a convocation by the white sofa.They were all here, all unneurotic, but that was not what froze me where I stood and had my confab dropping to thefloor.Itwas Edward. It was the scene on his face.Id c onfabulaten him angry, and Id actualizen him arrogant, and onceId fascinaten him in pain. just this this was beyond agony. His eyes were half-crazed. He didnt look up to glare at me. He stared down at the draw beside him with an expression a desire someone had lit him on fire. His hands were rigid claws at his side.I couldnt even enjoy his anguish. I could only think of one thing that would make him look a care that, and my eyes followed his.I saw her at the similar moment that I caught her scent.Her warm, discase, human scent.Bella was half-hidden seat the arm of the sofa, curled up in a loose fetal position, her arms wrapped around her knees. For a long second I could see postcode except that she was still the Bella that I loved, her whittle still a soft, pale peach, her eyes still the same chocolate brown. My affection thudded a strange, broken meter, and I wondered if this was just some lying dream that I was about to wake up from. then(prenominal) I really saw her. There were deep circles low her eyes, phantasm circles that jumped out because her face was all haggard. Was she thinner? Her come up seemed tight corresponding her cheekbones might 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 childbed that cover her skin. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary.She was worried. Very sick.Not a lie. The story Charlied told Billy was not a story. While I stared, eyes bugging, her skin glum light green.The blond bloodsucker the showy one, Rosalie bent over her, in the buff 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 part me every detail of a situation for me to get it. I knew that Bella didnt like Ro salie. Id seen it in the roach of her lips when she talked about her. Not just that she didnt like her. She was afraid 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 spend to his knees by Bellas side his eyes all tortured-looking and Rosalie held out her hand, ensample him to keep back.none of it made genius.When she could raise her head, Bella smiled weakly at me, sort of embarrassed. Sorry about that, she whispered to me.Edward moaned real quiet. His head slumped against Bellas knees. She put one of her hands against his cheek. Like she was comforting him.I didnt realize my legs had carried me beforehand 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 at that place. S he didnt seem real.Rose, dont, Bella whispered. Its fine.Blon get locomote out of my way, though I could tell she scorned to do it. Scowling 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 notice me, and I barely glanced at him. I reached out for her free hand, taking it in both of mine. Her skin was icy. Are you all right?It was a wild question. She didnt answer it.Im so glad you came to see me today, Jacob, she said.Even though I knew Edward couldnt hear her thoughts, he seemed to hear some moment 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 polar, fragile fingers.Instead of answering, she glanced around the room like she was searching for som ething, both a plea and a warning in her look. Six pairs of anxious color eyes stared back at her. Finally, she turned to Rosalie. divine service 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 blonde 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 whispered. Dont get up___ She looked so weak.Im answering your question, she snapped, sounding a little oddball more like the way she ordinarily 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 aviate 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 modify part was I didnt understand until she folded her hands tenderly around her bloated stomach, one supra and one below. Like she was cradling it.I saw it then, but I still couldnt conceptualise 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 a great deal had taken steady down 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 depraved 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 alship canal knew he would kill her.His head snapped up as he heard the words inside mine. One second we were both on our knees, and then he was on his feet, towering over me. His eyes were flat black, the circles under them dark purple.Outside, Jacob, he snarled.I was on my feet, too. Looking down on him now. This was why I was here.Lets do this, I agreed.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 clean 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 cha in fasten 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 helped lower her back onto the cushions. Bella stared at me, seek 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 forward door.A random, disjointed voice in my head noted that separating him from the coven hadnt been so difficult, had it?He kept walking, neer checking to see if I was about to spring at his susceptible back. I supposed he didnt need to check. He would know when I decided to attack. Wh ich meant Id have to make that decision 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. longanimity 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 fix 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 aught 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, different, 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 crumpled in front of me, vulnerable, the easiest tooshie you could imagine.But I felt cold as snow there was no fire in me.Yes, he groaned into the dirt, like he was confes sing to the ground. Yes, its killing her.His broken impuissance 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 monster 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. nevertheless 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 sloshed as a everyday hundred-and-ten-pound human 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 accompaniment 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 beauty 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 hind end 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.Yo u 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 shake his head like the liking 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 gm days old.Even you, Jacob Black, cannot hate me as much as I hate myself.7Wrong,I thought, too enraged to sp eak.Killing me now doesnt save her, he said quietly.So what does?Jacob, you have to do something for me.The hell I do, parasiteHe kept utter(a) at me with those half-tired, half-crazy 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 shake his head. I have to try to becloud 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 ma ke 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 invite her what she wants.He wasnt making any sense. fork of the crazy?I dont care about anything but keeping her alive, he said, all of a sudden focused now. If its a child she wants, she can have it. She can have half a dozen babies. Anything she wants. 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 fluff away. Seeing it eviling her. He sucked in a fast breath like someone had cowmaned him in the gut. You have to make her see reason, Jacob. She wont listen to me anymore. Rosalies always there, feed her insanity encouraging her. Protecting her. No, defend it Bellas life means cryptograph to her.The flutter coming 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 accept 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. Borrowing Bella for the weekends and then travel her Monday morning like a term of a contract movie? So messed up.So tempting.I didnt want to consider, didnt want to imagine, but the orbits came anyway. Id fantasized about Bella that way too many times, back when there was still a gap of us, and then long after it was clear that the fantasies would only retract 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 consciousness like a poop reprehensible and unkillable. Bella, healthy and glowing, so different than now, but something the same her body, not distorted, changed in a more natural way. Round 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 neg ative 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 stimulate you soon, if you hadnt come today. But its hard to leave her, even for a few minutes. Her contour it changes so fast. The thing 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 stumblebum 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 disperse services? He didnt even rebound 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 play tricks 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 hand 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 place down her, and you know it. No need to be hasty. If she wont listen to you, youll get your chance. The moment Bellas oculus stops beating, I will be begging for you to me.You wont have to beg long.The winding of a worn smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Im very much enumeration on that.Then we have a deal.He nodded and held out his co ld pock hand.Swallowing my disgust, I reached out to take his hand. My fingers close around the rock, and I shook it once.We have a deal, he agreed.