Descending Star

DENIAL

Jacob careened down the road in the Rabbit, heedless of the lane markings or road signs, panicked by the rapidly deteriorating condition of Embry, in the back seat.

They'd stopped for Leah Clearwater early on, several minutes ago. She'd been trudging down the road, shivering miserably in the rain, when Jacob had stopped.

"Come on Leah, get in the car. This is crazy."

"I'm not going to her house. I'm going home. And you should get Embry there. Billy's right; the boy's gonna blow." She kept trudging along, and he had to idle the Rabbit forward to keep up with her.

"Leah, will you just stop and get in, already. It's on the way for Chrissakes." He meant that he'd been instructed to take Embry to big Sam Uley. Leah lived on the same crappy dirt road. "I wasn't born yesterday. I'll drop you at your house first, and then I'll circle back to Emily's."

"No. I'll walk. This'll clear my head."

"Sue will have my head if she finds out I let you walk eight miles home in the rain. You're the most stubborn person on earth. Just cut the crap and get in."

Leah seethed with fury. She ought to show him how much faster she could run than his dumpy old Volkswagen could drive. "Just go, Jacob Black. Embry needs help that you jerks can't give him. Take him to Uley."

So they left her behind, to trudge in the rain.

Quil rode shotgun, turned right around, alarmed by Embry's battering of his forehead against the sill with enough force to rock the entire car on its shocks. "Dude, we're getting you to help. Easy, Embry, we're getting there as fast as we can."

Jacob snarled, "Bull. Help would be in the other direction. To an actual doctor."

Quil hastily begged, "Don't tell him that, man, I'm trying to calm him down."

"This is stupid," Jacob insisted. "I should never listen to Billy. Everything out of that old bastard's mouth is senile."

Quil gasped, "You can't say that, dude. He's your Pa."

"Lucky me. How does taking Embry to that dork help him? I thought Sam was acting Chief. What is he now? The Tribe's medicine man?"

"Maybe Emily knows first aid."

"She's majoring in Aerospace Engineering, doof."

"Okay"–

"Damn it!" Jacob bellowed over the steering wheel. "This is nuts!"

They pulled up at Emily's place a few minutes later. Sam Uley ran out into the rain shirtless and barefoot, with his fly down, to fetch Embry and haul him inside. Jacob and Quil eyed Sam speculatively and wondered what they'd interrupted by pulling up and shining the headlights into Emily's tiny, well-appointed house. They also wondered with shallowly buried envy if Emily would be half-dressed, too. They'd have to be careful inside. Big Sam Uley didn't like it when guys looked at Emily. People tended to look at her partly with pity, given she was damaged goods, all but disowned by her parents and shunned by the Macah tribe for sake of solidarity. But guys in the area had other reasons for looking at her, too. She was the hottest thing to drop in on the Olympic Peninsula since that porcelain doll, Edythe Cullen.

Sam Uley had lanky six-two Embry scooped up into his arms. "Damn it, he's burning up. What took you losers so long?"

Quil Ateara exclaimed, "Hey now!"

Jacob couldn't find words.

Sam carried suffering Embry toward the house and growled, "Save it, Jake. Make yourself useful. Call Harry Clearwater and tell him to get over here."