Twilight: What She Doesn't See...

Changements Dans L'air

They were amorphous at best. Winding and unwinding together, raveling and unraveling like sleeked braids and fraying ropes. The visions altered at a moment's notice. It was too late to undo the damage that had already been constructed by each minuscule action over the prior months, but there was one vision that unsettled her that seemed to be moments from reaching fruition...

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Static energy charged the air around them, bounding down in torrents from the overburdened skies.

"Let her go." No underlying vexation suffused his words -just a monotonous command. Despite the protrusion of skeletal bone underneath the skin of his knuckles, he forced his face into a neutral position and coerced his voice to keep a steady tone. It seemed Bella's life was hanging in the balance of Edward's apparent mood swings. Jacob wanted things to stay calm enough to get her to safety. He temporarily released Bella Swan's arm duly noting her sigh of relief and not-so-subtle massaging of her wrist using her outer thigh. The dead boy's grip had to feel like iced-cuffed steel around her other wrist.

He couldn't help the image of internal organs pouring from the defenseless body. The fragile Bella Swan would be torn in half in the ensuing moment.

"I can't do that, Jacob. I won't leave her here with you," the velvety acidic words flowed out. "If she's not safe with me, then she's not safe with you!"There was something hidden in his expression that Jacob Black had yet to adequately make put. Amusement?

The thought made his neck flush in anger. The gall!? To be amused when Bella's life hung on the balance of his disposition.

The vampire's face shifted inward, the line of his mouth hardening drastically. Jacob readied himself for whatever danger lie ahead.

Alice? Jacob grimaced, unnerved. The voice that had forcefully entered his head sounded alien to him; a humanless voice speaking over radio static; a ghost.

Bella shook herself from Cullen's grasp and stepped towards the pixie-haired girl, folding her arms into herself.

"Alice?" She scoffed in disbelief, "What-"

"I just happened to be taking a stroll nearby-needed some fresh air from school. What a coincidence to see you here, Edward!"

Her wide smile with gleaming white teeth was stiff. Jacob had a feeling that this wasn't a coincidence at all.

Bella opened her mouth, a question rising. It got stuck in her throat at the glare Edward shot her.

Jacob studied Cullen. There was obviously something unspoken traveling the air between them as he was boring a nice-sized hole through his sister's head. Edward's eyes widened as some sudden realization was thrust upon him.

An ugly, but faint scent suddenly sifted to him. A rogue vampire was somewhere in Forks.

Again.

Instinctively he lurched forward, wrapping an arm around Bella's waist.

Edward stiffened and then began advancing forward. Jacob pushed Bella behind him and approached the vampire midway until they were chest to chest.

He so badly wanted to kill the chill rushing up his vertebrae when those broken wisps of speech once again appeared in his mind.

She'll be safer with me, Jacob. I can protect her better since I'm able to read their thoughts. I'll know their next moves-

"By then, they'll be too close for comfort," he argued back in a sharp hushed whisper. "If they're smart, they'll know to stay away from my kind. Besides, my overpowering 'mutt smell' as you put it, should throw that vamp off."