Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter Twelve

1 It wasn't like a slap to the face. It wasn't even a punch in the stomach. No. Nothing dramatic, actually. It was more like...how to describe this? Someone pulled the plug and drained her? Her heart liquefied and slowly dripped into her abdominal cavity? All the warmth got sucked out of the world? As Creepula and Alaska Blonde explained what had happened, Leah just sat there on that hideous monster of a sofa, staring blankly at their blood-smeared faces.

Embry's blood.

Jared's blood.

She'd had to sit down, because her legs had turned to rubber. The leeches who'd done this were right in front of her, their fair hair caked in red, their faces smeared, their clothes, their hands. It was all over them. They'd killed more than ten people, and now...

Embry. Jared.

They were dead. Gone. Erased from this planet. Everything they could have accomplished, every life they could have touched, every difference they could have made – it was all gone. Wiped out. Destroyed.

Forever.

Before her mind's eye, she saw them, their youthful, smiling faces. She heard their cocky voices. She watched them phase into big, clumsy wolves and playfully rough each other up. She heard them in her mind, as they all shared each other's thoughts and emotions.

They were dead. They'd been stupid enough to attack three vampires that had just gorged themselves on human blood, one of them being a literal killing machine. Jasper had snapped their necks and left their bodies in the woods to rot. They'd just been boys, kids, children. They'd had their whole lives ahead of them, and now they were gone, broken, thrown away like garbage. A few months ago, everything had been fine. Now, the whole world was in shambles. Yes, Leah had known that there was the distinct possibility of a fight ensuing wherein some of her people might get killed, but this...nothing could prepare her for this, for this hollowness, this black void she was caught in – all for the sake of protecting a half-vampire baby. What a fucking hilarious joke of cosmic proportions.

"Leah?"

"What?" She gave Esme, who was standing right next to her, a withering look. "Do I have something on my face?"

Everyone was staring at her. What was wrong with these assholes?

"You're crying," Esme said gently.

Oh. Leah touched the skin under her eyes with her fingertips. Tears. Yeah. That would explain the knot in her throat. She scoffed and shook her head. "Someone has to," she said, and pushed herself up to her feet, not even knowing if her legs would be able to carry her weight. They were. They always were. "I'm going out to see the boys, and you are not gonna stop me or follow me," she said, her voice monotonous, and slowly walked out of that wretched place.

As she went past the line of trees and into the forest, she reached into her jeans' pocket and pulled out Irina's phone. No more werewolves would die. No, she would see to it that her people would suffer no more losses on behalf of the goddamn Cullens. She called the number in question. This time, it only rang once.

"Leah? What's the matter?"

"They killed two of my friends," she whispered, leaning against a tree and covering her eyes with her free hand. "Two little boys who were stupid enough to go against a freshly refuelled Jasper Whitlock. All that bastard needed was an excuse to go on a killing spree, and Jared and Embry gave him the perfect one. They're dead. He snapped their necks. They're gone. They were alive an hour ago, and now they're just gone." Wasn't it sad that a people-eating vampire with a British accent she'd only just met was the only person she could talk to honestly, right now? Yes. Yes, it fucking was.