WITCHCRAFT

CHAPTER 27

There was an incessant banging at her door that woke Lucy up the next Saturday morning. Groaning she got up and met Angela in the hallway. She looked terrified.

"Don't open it", Angela muttered.

"Eh, how bad could it be?", she shrugged and yawned as she trotted down the stairs.

"Charlie has been hunting for something that's left suspicious traces in the woods, Luce", Angela stepped up behind her.

"They're looking for a bear, Ange. I'm pretty sure that isn't a bear knocking at our door", Lucy furrowed her brows exasperatedly, "Damn, why are they knocking?"

She opened the door and the instant Sam almost punched her in the face in his next attempted knock against the door. He quickly pulled it back, "Get her."

"What?", Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, "Dude, it's eight in the morning on a Saturday. And I have a doorbell. You woke up and chose violence today, huh?"

"Lucy, your sister-"

"Is upstairs, barely awake, terrified of you, what the hell?"

Sam looked up to see Angela at the top of the stairs, looking at them in worry. He tilted his head and gestured for Lucy to come outside, "Can we-?"

She rolled her eyes, pulled her robe tighter around herself and grabbed her keys before following him out, "Now, what on Earth are you talking about?"

Sam was in a shirt and a jean jacket that would not keep your average human warm in the January weather, snow laid outside and Lucy was freezing. Sam pushed his hands into his pockets, "Listen, the Cullens are gone so no one's really been shifting recently, the pack's doing a lot better."

"They're not the only ones", Lucy rolled her eyes, "Sorry, go on."

"But Bella just bought two broken motorcycles and has been sticking with Jacob like glue. I'm worried that she'll cause disruptions."

"You're worried that Bella, a human with no special capabilities except for the worst clumsiness our family has shown in generations, might cause more of your friends to shift when nothing has happened in months", Lucy raised a brow, "Bella is human, Sam, what on Earth could she do to cause that?"

"Attract more bloodsuckers?"

"She does get a lot of mosquito bites in summer", Lucy muttered contemplatively and smirked, "Listen, the Cullens left and I hope just as much as you that they aren't coming back. So let Bella hang out with her friend because according to our dad she hasn't been doing this well since September. Please?"

"Lucy-"

"And if anything does happen, I'll drag her out of La Push myself", she added.

"You promise that?"

"Of course not", Lucy snorted, "Bella is eighteen and to her I'm nothing but her father's other daughter. We have nothing to do with each other, except half our genes."

"Lucy, this is serious. I really liked the way things have been. And she just comes around with broken motorcycles."

"So let them fix them, build a friendship, make both of them happy", Lucy shrugged, "Let's cross the bridge when we get there."

"Check in sometimes, okay?"

"No", Lucy turned to her door, "Sam, this is our second conversation, ever, Why on earth would I check in with you guys? Sorry, but, I'm good."

She unlocked her house and went back inside. She just shook her head at Angela to let her know it was nothing serious and started to get ready for the day.

Charlie was happy at breakfast, telling them that Bella and Jacob had been spending more time together. She had stopped screaming in her sleep, Jacob had had dinner with them and Bella had gotten a side job at the local hardware store.

That was progress.

Charlie left later around noon and Lucy jumped into the shower to wash off the post workout sweat. She had started working on another painting of the tree Lucille and her love always sat under when the phone rang around five pm.

"Bella's in the ER", Charlie opened the conversation.

"What? What did she do?", Lucy dropped everything, gave Angela in the armchair a look and they got ready to go.

"I don't know, she's getting stitches."

"We'll be right there."

They met Charlie next to Bella's bed where the brunette herself was sitting with a large white bandaid over her left eyebrow, "It's nothing, Dad. Jacob and I were in his garage, I was helping him with some stuff and I hit my head."

Lucy raised a brow and crossed her arms, knowing about the motorcycles she was fairly certain there was more to the story. However, she still deemed the injury small enough to not have to be a part of the conversation. The doctor assured them that Bella didn't have a concussion and should just watch her stitches when washing her hair and face, and that was the end of that.

The stitches were removed a few days later and Charlie's mood seemed to have dimmed a little. However, Bella was still very happy with her time with Jacob so he let it pass. Bella went on a date with Mike Newton and Jacob together which Angela and Lucy thought was very funny. Bella had asked just about everyone to come as well.

Angela and her friends had cancelled last minute because Mike had asked them to, seeing as this was his opportunity to bond with Bella. When Angela had told Lucy this she had burst out laughing because Jacob, too, was hoping for some alone time in a dark theatre with the girl he had been crushing on since he was a kid.

However, after that night Jacob cut contact with Bella and she got worse again. Suspiciously Lucy sat out on the porch one night in late February, expecting a certain visitor. And of course, minutes after she had sat down, Sam, in a thin sweater and shorts came out of the woods and onto her porch, scowling.

"You could at least try to hide your inhuman body temperatures, We humans don't wear shorts in this weather", Lucy remarked sarcastically gesturing to her own outfit of a thick sweatshirt, a wooly hat, a blanket covering her entire form with a steaming mug of tea nestled between her hands.

"He shifted", he greeted.

"Huh."

"Huh?", he mocked her, "We don't have to worry about Bella, huh?"

"You really think Bella caused Jacob to shift?", she snorted.

"Apparently she got him so riled up and angry that he just shifted that night after she convinced him to go out with her and some guy from her school."

Lucy raised a brow. Then she burst out laughing, "I'm sorry", she gasped for air and calmed down, "It's Bella's fault he shifted, because he has a crush on her? He got so jealous of some boy from school that he shifted, and that's on Bella?"

Sam ground his teeth, "Make sure she stays away."

"Listen, I'm not going to do anything of that sort. If you want Bella to stay away at least give her some excuse, she's devastated that he's ignoring her. She might not be into him like that but they're friends and if he's going to ghost her she deserves an explanation."

She looked down into her mug, her own words making her contemplate the unopened letter in her junk drawer. Sam left her alone and when he reached the woods she witnessed him shift into his wolf form. She frowned at the sight. Bears.