Chapter 15 - The (Somewhat) Calm Before The Storm
A/N: I do not own Twilight or its characters, Stephanie Meyer does. Ruby is from my imagination.
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“It’s no wonder that the truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain
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“Whoa,” Ruby laughed, jumping off Edward’s back. She combed her fingers through her hair trying to tame it after the wind pushed her hood off her head. “That was such an adrenaline rush.”
Edward laughed at her. “Here, let me take the pack from you.” She handed him the pack with shaky hands.
“Since we got here so fast,” she said bringing up her hood, “I’m going to go do something. I promised my grandma I would.”
“You go ahead but stay nearby so you don’t get lost. I don’t want that mutt on me because I lost his girl.” Ruby nodded her head. “I’m going to set up the tent.”
Ruby wandered into the woods on the right of the clearing until the snow covered ground faded away to dirt. After walking for almost ten minutes, she found another clearing, much smaller than the one she just left. Looking up she could just make out the moon through the dense leaves.
“Ok Goddess,” she began nervously, “This is my first time.” Then her mind decided to pick that moment to flash images from the night before with Jacob. “No. Not that first time… though that was fun.” She lost focus of what she was doing and smiled. “Sorry. Spaced out there for a second.” She sighed. “I just meant this is my first time doing this. If you could guide me… and maybe cut me some slack if I do something wrong, that would be great.”
She walked slowly to the middle of the clearing and took a deep cleansing breath with her eyes closed before raising her arms to the night sky, palms facing upward. She took a few moments to relax and focus on the task.
“Bewitching Goddess…,” she began slowly, only to pick up speed until she was almost tripping on her words. The instant she uttered the last word of the invocation, the wind that was whistling past her ceased. There was a long moment when everything was still and silent; the leaves did not rustle, the clouds did not shift, there did not even seem to be any animal movement.
A long moment where nothing happened then she felt a warmth spread through her, like someone poured a warm bucket of water over her. With the warmth came the feeling of something – someone? – entering her body. When she felt it in her toes, the sensation stopped but love, compassion, hope, calm and empowerment were left in its wake.
Suddenly she blinked and stumbled forward a few steps. When she looked up, she noticed the moon was in a much different position in the sky. Then she felt a presence behind her and spun on the spot.
“Eddie.” She brought a hand to her heart. “You scared me.”
“It seems only fair. You scared me first.”
“How did I scare you?”
“You were gone for almost an hour. I thought you got lost and I came to find you. When I found you, you would not respond to me. I have been here for almost thirty minutes. You have not moved the whole time but you have been whispering and you mind has been closed off. I was afraid I would have to be the one to tell Jacob you were in an impenetrable trance talking to yourself.”
Ruby was shocked with the information. To her it felt like the whole process took a couple of minutes.
“So… that means it worked. I did it. Wait until my grandmother hears that I did it.”
“Come on. Let’s walk back to the tent. You don’t want them coming back without us there.” He grabbed her by the elbow and tugged gently to get her walking since she seemed to be paralyzed with awe.
“Thanks for coming to get me and worrying, you didn’t have to.”
“Ruby, somehow you have wormed your way into my family. You managed to get Rosalie and Emmett to talk about someone other than themselves. Jasper is impressed with how well of a fighter you are and he loves that you are always in control of your emotions. He feels you are the easiest person to be around because of his gift, besides Alice of course. In addition, Alice loves that you seem to have a sense of style. Esme and Carlisle already care for you like a daughter.”
“Why? I’m nothing special.”
“Firstly, I would safely assume Jacob would not agree with you on that.”
“I meant to you guys. I’m nothing special to your family.”
“Secondly,” Edward continued as if she had not spoken, “you can move things with your mind. Thirdly, you accept us and even though you found out we were vampires, you never once were scared of us and, of course, you care for Bella and never once thought or said a bad word about her… not that I am aware of. Only other genuine person I ever met is Angela Weber.”
“I heard of her from Bella, she sounds nice. And I never think bad thoughts about anyone. Bella is my first friend since kindergarten. I love her.”
“And we all love you.”
Ruby beamed at him, as she remember how a year ago all she had was her grandmother and now she had such a huge family consisting of humans and vampires and werewolves (oh my!).
“I feel like this is an ‘aww shucks’ moment,” she said causing Edward to give a little laugh. “You all have to know by know that I love you all very much. My cup runneth over with family now.”
They had reached the tent and Edward reached out and unzipped the screened door.
“I can’t believe it’s June and there’s all this snow,” Ruby told Edward once they were inside the tent.
Actually to say it was a tent would be a gross understatement. It was more of a small apartment and Ruby knew from the time her family visited her father’s friend in New York, that it gave some of the apartments there a run for their money. It was massive and had a zippered flap in the middle so it could be transformed into two private rooms. It had a hinged door, a battery operated light that attached to the ceiling of the tent, and a screened in porch where they were currently sitting in two mesh folding chairs.
They sat in silence, watching the snow as it was blown against the tent with every gust of wind. Then Edward’s somber voice broke the silence.
“She loves him.” Ruby was sure she almost gave herself whiplash with how fast she turned her head to look at him.
“What?”
“She loves him,” he repeated calmly and even though it did not sound like a question to Ruby, he seemed to be waiting for an answer nonetheless.
“Yeah. She loves him… but she doesn’t know it and I doubt she ever will.” They were quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “Jacob doesn’t love her. Not anymore. He will always see her as a friend, nothing more.”
“I know. Still doesn’t make the first bit of knowledge any easier to deal with.”
“Tell me about it,” she sighed.
They were silent for a moment more and Ruby could see he was thinking something over.
“She loves you, more than you know.”
“More than I deserve.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but you’re not soulless.” He gave her a look, wondering if she could read his thoughts. “What? Girls talk. You’re not soulless.”
“How do you know this?” He was skeptical.
“You wouldn’t have an aura if you didn’t have a soul… and before you ask, I have seen a man with no aura before, it was creepy. At first I thought I may have accidentally turned my power off but no. I saw him again on the TV, on the news. He committed some really heinous murders and was a very sick man.” Ruby shuddered and not from the cold.
Edward was quiet, contemplating the bit of information she just gave him. He always wondered, always wanted to know one way or the other and now Ruby settled it for him and he was beyond grateful.
“You didn’t ask to be made into a vampire. You were turned. You won’t be punished for something that was done to you. Anyway, even you did ask for it, want it, why should you be punished. You’re a good being. You and you’re family are good. The only reason Carlisle even considered turning any of you was to save your lives. There’s nothing wrong with your family and nothing wrong with your soul.”
Edward thought about it. He was actually enjoying his conversation with Ruby. It was nice to speak to someone about this. “What about me? You know Bella wants me to turn her, make her a vampire. I will not be saving her life. I will just be biting her for selfish reasons.”
“I don’t think that’s true. You will be saving her life. The most obvious reason is she is a klutz. One day she may really fall down a flight of stairs and out a window. But the real reason is she loves you. I don’t think she’d be able to really live without you. You’re her whole world and without you she wouldn’t have much of a life. So you see, you are saving her life by turning her, just not in the traditional definition of life saving.”
“I still feel unease at turning her, but it’s what she wants and I don’t think I can deny her anything.”
“That right there proves you have a soul. When the time comes for us to cease to exist,” she said thoughtfully, “I know I’ll see you up there,” she pointed to the sky, “Whatever up there is. From what I hear, the gods are very forgiving. We are their favorite of the beings so they tend to be a little lenient.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. She just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching as the snow was whipped around with each blowing of the wind. The sound of a branch snapping and the crunching of rubber soles meeting snow in the distance alerted the Ruby and Edward to Jacob and Bella’s return.
Ruby quickly brought a hand to her mouth to cover her smile when she took in Bella’s appearance. To say she was grumpy would be an understatement. Bella’s hair had twigs and leaves sticking to the front of her hood. She had tearstains on her cheek from the cold and she was holding on to Jacob for dear life.
Jacob chuckled at her. “You can let go now Bells.”
“You said you were going to drop me.”
“Only because you kept saying ‘don’t drop me’ so I threaten to drop you if you didn’t shut up.” They both laughed as Jacob lowered her to the ground.
“You made good time,” Edward told Jacob.
“And she’s in one piece.”
“As is Ruby.” Edward gestured to Ruby. The girls could have sworn the boys gave each other small smiles as if they were teasing, being playful even, but they refused to bring attention to it.
“It’s late and we have a big day tomorrow,” Ruby began. “How about we get some sleep?”
They all agreed and piled into the tent, each couple taking over a ‘room’. Jacob lay on his back next to the dividing flap and Ruby cuddled next to him using her thermokinesis to up the temperature.
“My grandmother told me to tell you ‘hi’ and that she loves you.”
“How is she?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can go visit her or invite her to your house the day after tomorrow. She was acting kind of weird. I think she might be lonely or something.”
“Sure, sure.”
From the other side of the flap, Ruby could here Bella shaking and Edward’s voice sounded as if he was as far away from Bella as he could be while still being inside the tent. Ruby noticed that Bella seemed to be inching closer and closer to their side of the tent.
“Bells, what are you doing?”
“Sorry, Jake. It’s so much warmer on your side.”
Ruby extended an arm under the flap and spread her hand and suddenly Bella felt the temperature rise until it had to be around eighty degrees in the tent.
“Thank you Ruby,” Bella whispered sleepily.
“No problem,” Ruby replied before falling asleep.
Bella waited some time, making sure the occupants on the other side of the flap were asleep, before she sat up. She told Edward to shut up and let her speak. She said she was sorry about her view on marriage but she had talked to Ruby and she was open to the idea of changing her mind. Then she told him that she was willing to take baby steps as long as they went at her pace. He agreed of course, anything for Bella, and she shocked him when she threw her hand out, rolled her eyes and smiled while she said, “If you want to ask me again, I can promise you a different answer.” He did and she bit her lip until it almost bled but she said yes and he enjoyed slipping the ring on her delicate digit.
Ruby had an upsetting dream that night. She dreamt she was little red riding hood, complete with red hooded cape and picnic basket. When she arrived at her grandmother’s house, instead of the beautiful white two-story farmhouse with blue shutters, it was a small one room cottage made of dark wood. Ruby was scared of the house and was unsure as to why she was so hesitant to open the door.
When she finally summoned the courage to open the large wooden door, a colony of bats rushed her, causing her to drop her basket and cover her face with her hands. When she looked down, she noticed the basket she was carrying was full of puppies and white bats. She quickly picked them up and placed them lovingly one by one back into the basket. However, no matter how fast she picked them up, they kept falling right back out again.
Looking up she saw her grandmother sitting comfortably in the center of a massive bed. ‘Grandma,’ Ruby called out as another puppy fell, ‘help me’. Margaret gave no answer and did not move, except to smile sadly and fold her hands in her lap. She watched quietly as her granddaughter struggled with the animals.
‘Please help me,’ Ruby begged. Over and over again Ruby cried out for help but Margaret did not move. The last thing Ruby heard before everything started to slip away to darkness was her grandmother’s voice whispering ‘I am child. I have’.
Ruby woke up clinging to Jacob, choking back a sob.
“Ruby, honey, are you ok?” Ruby glanced up to see Jacob looking at her concerned.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” She brought a hand to her heart and took a few deep breathes to steady her pulse. “I got to stop doing spells right before I go to sleep. Bad dreams,” she tried to joke and laugh off the bad feeling.
“Are you nervous?”
“For myself? Sort of. For everyone else? Yeah. For Bella? Definitely.” She sighed. “I’m just trying to convince myself that you’ll be fine.”
“I know what you mean.”
“But we can’t get distracted. You know I can protect myself and I know you can fight. So instead of worrying about protecting the other how about we trust each other and just have each other’s back. Deal?”
“Sure, sure.” Ruby attempted to get up but Jacob tightened his hold on her. “Stay here a little while longer,” he whispered. She nodded softly and resumed her spot next to Jacob. She could hardly tell it was morning. The sun was completely hidden behind a sky of dull grey, clouds full with rain threatening to fall. She could hear the distant sound of thunder over the howling of the wind. It was another typical overcast morning in Forks.
She heard a shifting from the other side of the flap and remembered that they were not alone. Edward was up, that she knew for a fact but she wondered if Bella was awake yet. Were they trying to squeeze a few more minutes of love and normalcy before the battle, as Ruby and Jacob were attempting to do?
Ruby wondered briefly which couple had it worse; the couple who had to walk down the mountain and prepare to fight vampires or the couple who had to stay behind and wonder how the battle was going, if anyone they loved died.
Ruby decided not to dwell on it. In a few minutes, she would be fighting bloodthirsty vampires. All she wanted to do now was lay her head on Jacob’s chest right over his heart, his body wrapped around her. She knew this was the calm before the storm but she could not shake the feeling that the storm that was coming was not the one they were expecting.
Just as she had the thought, she smelled the familiar horrible stench; Sulfur and copper. ‘Edward trouble,’ she thought loudly at the same time she turned her body onto Jacob’s. “Get up,” she tugged on his arm. “I smell trouble.”
Jacob gracefully jumped to his feet, an arm wrapped around Ruby’s waist pulling her to his body effortlessly as he sped out the tent. He came to a stop next to Edward, a scared Bella safely tucked behind him. Edward was staring into the woods.
“What’s going on?” Jacob asked, looking in the same direction.
“We’re about to get ourselves an unpleasant surprise,” Ruby answered from her position next to both men.
Edward cursed under his breath.
“What is it?” Bella demanded.
“Victoria changed tactics at the last minute,” Edward answered. “They tracked me believing wherever I was, Bella would be too. They’re coming.”
“And soon,” Ruby added, the copper-sulfur stench growing stronger.
“There are too many for us. We won’t survive,” Edward told them. Ruby and Bella shared an uneasy glance. Ruby felt the dread bubble up in her but she fought it back. Won’t do any good to panic now, she thought.
“What do we do?” Bella nearly cried.
Edward stared at Jacob for a moment then nodded his head. “We make a run for it. We cannot wait for help. We will all be dead before everyone arrives. We have a better shot of drawing them down the mountain where everyone is waiting.”
Suddenly both Jacob and Edward tilted their heads in the same direction. In an instant, Edward grabbed hold of Bella’s arm, swung her onto his back with one arm as he used his other to shove Ruby closer to Jacob, who scooped her up bridal style into his arms.
“Run,” Edward screamed. Ruby heard faint hissing and snarling before they ran into the woods. Ruby buried her face into Jacob’s neck as the scenery sped past her in a blur. They all were aware the newborns were on their tails and Jacob and Edward pushed themselves to the limit in order to put some distance between them and Victoria. The brilliant white of the snow soon faded into brown and green and before either girl knew it, they were breaking into the clearing.
“I saw,” Alice began apologetically, “but it was only bits and pieces because Jacob was with you. By the time I figured it out it was too late.”
The pack and the Cullens were standing in a line waiting for the newborns. Edward took his place in line and placed Bella behind him. “Stay near me,” he told her. “If something happens to me,” Bella scrunched up her eyes not wanting to think about it. “If something happens to me,” he repeated, “find Ruby and get to her. She has proven capable in protecting you.” Bella nodded mutely.
While Edward was having his conversation with Bella, Jacob was further down the line putting Ruby on her feet. She kissed his neck once, taking in the smell of him before letting go of him and taking her place in line, Jacob next to her.
Bringing her hands up, she pulled the hood down and took the cloak off, tossing it aside, revealing her outfit. She was barefoot and wore a long olive green peasant skirt and what could only be described as a scarf. It was one long piece of cloth in a shimmering gold and was draped over her neck and crossed over her front covering her breast, but just barely, then wrapped around and tied behind her back, exposing her proud shoulders, the curve of her back and her taunt stomach.
“Wow,” Jacob smiled completely forgetting why they were in the clearing.
“We’re about to be attacked by vampires,” Quil told him, “and you say wow?”
Jacob shrugged. “Have you seen what she’s wearing?” he muttered.
Ruby rolled her eyes playfully. “Jacob?”
“Yeah?”
“Focus.”
“Right.”
They could hear the faint noises of the newborns now and everyone went on alert. The pack started to shake and change one by one into wolves.
“I love you,” Jacob told Ruby.
“I love you too,” she replied and watched as he became a wolf. Then they waited.
Bella, from her spot behind Edward, had a few moments of panic where she wondered if this would be the last time she saw her friends… her family. Would she ever hear Alice’s musical laugh again? Or get one of Ruby’s infectious warm smiles? Or get a bear hug from Jacob? Or feel Edward’s cool hands on her face again?
She did not have time to dwell on the topic any longer because through the line of trees came the newborns.
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“It’s no wonder that the truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain
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“Whoa,” Ruby laughed, jumping off Edward’s back. She combed her fingers through her hair trying to tame it after the wind pushed her hood off her head. “That was such an adrenaline rush.”
Edward laughed at her. “Here, let me take the pack from you.” She handed him the pack with shaky hands.
“Since we got here so fast,” she said bringing up her hood, “I’m going to go do something. I promised my grandma I would.”
“You go ahead but stay nearby so you don’t get lost. I don’t want that mutt on me because I lost his girl.” Ruby nodded her head. “I’m going to set up the tent.”
Ruby wandered into the woods on the right of the clearing until the snow covered ground faded away to dirt. After walking for almost ten minutes, she found another clearing, much smaller than the one she just left. Looking up she could just make out the moon through the dense leaves.
“Ok Goddess,” she began nervously, “This is my first time.” Then her mind decided to pick that moment to flash images from the night before with Jacob. “No. Not that first time… though that was fun.” She lost focus of what she was doing and smiled. “Sorry. Spaced out there for a second.” She sighed. “I just meant this is my first time doing this. If you could guide me… and maybe cut me some slack if I do something wrong, that would be great.”
She walked slowly to the middle of the clearing and took a deep cleansing breath with her eyes closed before raising her arms to the night sky, palms facing upward. She took a few moments to relax and focus on the task.
“Bewitching Goddess…,” she began slowly, only to pick up speed until she was almost tripping on her words. The instant she uttered the last word of the invocation, the wind that was whistling past her ceased. There was a long moment when everything was still and silent; the leaves did not rustle, the clouds did not shift, there did not even seem to be any animal movement.
A long moment where nothing happened then she felt a warmth spread through her, like someone poured a warm bucket of water over her. With the warmth came the feeling of something – someone? – entering her body. When she felt it in her toes, the sensation stopped but love, compassion, hope, calm and empowerment were left in its wake.
Suddenly she blinked and stumbled forward a few steps. When she looked up, she noticed the moon was in a much different position in the sky. Then she felt a presence behind her and spun on the spot.
“Eddie.” She brought a hand to her heart. “You scared me.”
“It seems only fair. You scared me first.”
“How did I scare you?”
“You were gone for almost an hour. I thought you got lost and I came to find you. When I found you, you would not respond to me. I have been here for almost thirty minutes. You have not moved the whole time but you have been whispering and you mind has been closed off. I was afraid I would have to be the one to tell Jacob you were in an impenetrable trance talking to yourself.”
Ruby was shocked with the information. To her it felt like the whole process took a couple of minutes.
“So… that means it worked. I did it. Wait until my grandmother hears that I did it.”
“Come on. Let’s walk back to the tent. You don’t want them coming back without us there.” He grabbed her by the elbow and tugged gently to get her walking since she seemed to be paralyzed with awe.
“Thanks for coming to get me and worrying, you didn’t have to.”
“Ruby, somehow you have wormed your way into my family. You managed to get Rosalie and Emmett to talk about someone other than themselves. Jasper is impressed with how well of a fighter you are and he loves that you are always in control of your emotions. He feels you are the easiest person to be around because of his gift, besides Alice of course. In addition, Alice loves that you seem to have a sense of style. Esme and Carlisle already care for you like a daughter.”
“Why? I’m nothing special.”
“Firstly, I would safely assume Jacob would not agree with you on that.”
“I meant to you guys. I’m nothing special to your family.”
“Secondly,” Edward continued as if she had not spoken, “you can move things with your mind. Thirdly, you accept us and even though you found out we were vampires, you never once were scared of us and, of course, you care for Bella and never once thought or said a bad word about her… not that I am aware of. Only other genuine person I ever met is Angela Weber.”
“I heard of her from Bella, she sounds nice. And I never think bad thoughts about anyone. Bella is my first friend since kindergarten. I love her.”
“And we all love you.”
Ruby beamed at him, as she remember how a year ago all she had was her grandmother and now she had such a huge family consisting of humans and vampires and werewolves (oh my!).
“I feel like this is an ‘aww shucks’ moment,” she said causing Edward to give a little laugh. “You all have to know by know that I love you all very much. My cup runneth over with family now.”
They had reached the tent and Edward reached out and unzipped the screened door.
“I can’t believe it’s June and there’s all this snow,” Ruby told Edward once they were inside the tent.
Actually to say it was a tent would be a gross understatement. It was more of a small apartment and Ruby knew from the time her family visited her father’s friend in New York, that it gave some of the apartments there a run for their money. It was massive and had a zippered flap in the middle so it could be transformed into two private rooms. It had a hinged door, a battery operated light that attached to the ceiling of the tent, and a screened in porch where they were currently sitting in two mesh folding chairs.
They sat in silence, watching the snow as it was blown against the tent with every gust of wind. Then Edward’s somber voice broke the silence.
“She loves him.” Ruby was sure she almost gave herself whiplash with how fast she turned her head to look at him.
“What?”
“She loves him,” he repeated calmly and even though it did not sound like a question to Ruby, he seemed to be waiting for an answer nonetheless.
“Yeah. She loves him… but she doesn’t know it and I doubt she ever will.” They were quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “Jacob doesn’t love her. Not anymore. He will always see her as a friend, nothing more.”
“I know. Still doesn’t make the first bit of knowledge any easier to deal with.”
“Tell me about it,” she sighed.
They were silent for a moment more and Ruby could see he was thinking something over.
“She loves you, more than you know.”
“More than I deserve.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but you’re not soulless.” He gave her a look, wondering if she could read his thoughts. “What? Girls talk. You’re not soulless.”
“How do you know this?” He was skeptical.
“You wouldn’t have an aura if you didn’t have a soul… and before you ask, I have seen a man with no aura before, it was creepy. At first I thought I may have accidentally turned my power off but no. I saw him again on the TV, on the news. He committed some really heinous murders and was a very sick man.” Ruby shuddered and not from the cold.
Edward was quiet, contemplating the bit of information she just gave him. He always wondered, always wanted to know one way or the other and now Ruby settled it for him and he was beyond grateful.
“You didn’t ask to be made into a vampire. You were turned. You won’t be punished for something that was done to you. Anyway, even you did ask for it, want it, why should you be punished. You’re a good being. You and you’re family are good. The only reason Carlisle even considered turning any of you was to save your lives. There’s nothing wrong with your family and nothing wrong with your soul.”
Edward thought about it. He was actually enjoying his conversation with Ruby. It was nice to speak to someone about this. “What about me? You know Bella wants me to turn her, make her a vampire. I will not be saving her life. I will just be biting her for selfish reasons.”
“I don’t think that’s true. You will be saving her life. The most obvious reason is she is a klutz. One day she may really fall down a flight of stairs and out a window. But the real reason is she loves you. I don’t think she’d be able to really live without you. You’re her whole world and without you she wouldn’t have much of a life. So you see, you are saving her life by turning her, just not in the traditional definition of life saving.”
“I still feel unease at turning her, but it’s what she wants and I don’t think I can deny her anything.”
“That right there proves you have a soul. When the time comes for us to cease to exist,” she said thoughtfully, “I know I’ll see you up there,” she pointed to the sky, “Whatever up there is. From what I hear, the gods are very forgiving. We are their favorite of the beings so they tend to be a little lenient.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. She just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching as the snow was whipped around with each blowing of the wind. The sound of a branch snapping and the crunching of rubber soles meeting snow in the distance alerted the Ruby and Edward to Jacob and Bella’s return.
Ruby quickly brought a hand to her mouth to cover her smile when she took in Bella’s appearance. To say she was grumpy would be an understatement. Bella’s hair had twigs and leaves sticking to the front of her hood. She had tearstains on her cheek from the cold and she was holding on to Jacob for dear life.
Jacob chuckled at her. “You can let go now Bells.”
“You said you were going to drop me.”
“Only because you kept saying ‘don’t drop me’ so I threaten to drop you if you didn’t shut up.” They both laughed as Jacob lowered her to the ground.
“You made good time,” Edward told Jacob.
“And she’s in one piece.”
“As is Ruby.” Edward gestured to Ruby. The girls could have sworn the boys gave each other small smiles as if they were teasing, being playful even, but they refused to bring attention to it.
“It’s late and we have a big day tomorrow,” Ruby began. “How about we get some sleep?”
They all agreed and piled into the tent, each couple taking over a ‘room’. Jacob lay on his back next to the dividing flap and Ruby cuddled next to him using her thermokinesis to up the temperature.
“My grandmother told me to tell you ‘hi’ and that she loves you.”
“How is she?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can go visit her or invite her to your house the day after tomorrow. She was acting kind of weird. I think she might be lonely or something.”
“Sure, sure.”
From the other side of the flap, Ruby could here Bella shaking and Edward’s voice sounded as if he was as far away from Bella as he could be while still being inside the tent. Ruby noticed that Bella seemed to be inching closer and closer to their side of the tent.
“Bells, what are you doing?”
“Sorry, Jake. It’s so much warmer on your side.”
Ruby extended an arm under the flap and spread her hand and suddenly Bella felt the temperature rise until it had to be around eighty degrees in the tent.
“Thank you Ruby,” Bella whispered sleepily.
“No problem,” Ruby replied before falling asleep.
Bella waited some time, making sure the occupants on the other side of the flap were asleep, before she sat up. She told Edward to shut up and let her speak. She said she was sorry about her view on marriage but she had talked to Ruby and she was open to the idea of changing her mind. Then she told him that she was willing to take baby steps as long as they went at her pace. He agreed of course, anything for Bella, and she shocked him when she threw her hand out, rolled her eyes and smiled while she said, “If you want to ask me again, I can promise you a different answer.” He did and she bit her lip until it almost bled but she said yes and he enjoyed slipping the ring on her delicate digit.
Ruby had an upsetting dream that night. She dreamt she was little red riding hood, complete with red hooded cape and picnic basket. When she arrived at her grandmother’s house, instead of the beautiful white two-story farmhouse with blue shutters, it was a small one room cottage made of dark wood. Ruby was scared of the house and was unsure as to why she was so hesitant to open the door.
When she finally summoned the courage to open the large wooden door, a colony of bats rushed her, causing her to drop her basket and cover her face with her hands. When she looked down, she noticed the basket she was carrying was full of puppies and white bats. She quickly picked them up and placed them lovingly one by one back into the basket. However, no matter how fast she picked them up, they kept falling right back out again.
Looking up she saw her grandmother sitting comfortably in the center of a massive bed. ‘Grandma,’ Ruby called out as another puppy fell, ‘help me’. Margaret gave no answer and did not move, except to smile sadly and fold her hands in her lap. She watched quietly as her granddaughter struggled with the animals.
‘Please help me,’ Ruby begged. Over and over again Ruby cried out for help but Margaret did not move. The last thing Ruby heard before everything started to slip away to darkness was her grandmother’s voice whispering ‘I am child. I have’.
Ruby woke up clinging to Jacob, choking back a sob.
“Ruby, honey, are you ok?” Ruby glanced up to see Jacob looking at her concerned.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” She brought a hand to her heart and took a few deep breathes to steady her pulse. “I got to stop doing spells right before I go to sleep. Bad dreams,” she tried to joke and laugh off the bad feeling.
“Are you nervous?”
“For myself? Sort of. For everyone else? Yeah. For Bella? Definitely.” She sighed. “I’m just trying to convince myself that you’ll be fine.”
“I know what you mean.”
“But we can’t get distracted. You know I can protect myself and I know you can fight. So instead of worrying about protecting the other how about we trust each other and just have each other’s back. Deal?”
“Sure, sure.” Ruby attempted to get up but Jacob tightened his hold on her. “Stay here a little while longer,” he whispered. She nodded softly and resumed her spot next to Jacob. She could hardly tell it was morning. The sun was completely hidden behind a sky of dull grey, clouds full with rain threatening to fall. She could hear the distant sound of thunder over the howling of the wind. It was another typical overcast morning in Forks.
She heard a shifting from the other side of the flap and remembered that they were not alone. Edward was up, that she knew for a fact but she wondered if Bella was awake yet. Were they trying to squeeze a few more minutes of love and normalcy before the battle, as Ruby and Jacob were attempting to do?
Ruby wondered briefly which couple had it worse; the couple who had to walk down the mountain and prepare to fight vampires or the couple who had to stay behind and wonder how the battle was going, if anyone they loved died.
Ruby decided not to dwell on it. In a few minutes, she would be fighting bloodthirsty vampires. All she wanted to do now was lay her head on Jacob’s chest right over his heart, his body wrapped around her. She knew this was the calm before the storm but she could not shake the feeling that the storm that was coming was not the one they were expecting.
Just as she had the thought, she smelled the familiar horrible stench; Sulfur and copper. ‘Edward trouble,’ she thought loudly at the same time she turned her body onto Jacob’s. “Get up,” she tugged on his arm. “I smell trouble.”
Jacob gracefully jumped to his feet, an arm wrapped around Ruby’s waist pulling her to his body effortlessly as he sped out the tent. He came to a stop next to Edward, a scared Bella safely tucked behind him. Edward was staring into the woods.
“What’s going on?” Jacob asked, looking in the same direction.
“We’re about to get ourselves an unpleasant surprise,” Ruby answered from her position next to both men.
Edward cursed under his breath.
“What is it?” Bella demanded.
“Victoria changed tactics at the last minute,” Edward answered. “They tracked me believing wherever I was, Bella would be too. They’re coming.”
“And soon,” Ruby added, the copper-sulfur stench growing stronger.
“There are too many for us. We won’t survive,” Edward told them. Ruby and Bella shared an uneasy glance. Ruby felt the dread bubble up in her but she fought it back. Won’t do any good to panic now, she thought.
“What do we do?” Bella nearly cried.
Edward stared at Jacob for a moment then nodded his head. “We make a run for it. We cannot wait for help. We will all be dead before everyone arrives. We have a better shot of drawing them down the mountain where everyone is waiting.”
Suddenly both Jacob and Edward tilted their heads in the same direction. In an instant, Edward grabbed hold of Bella’s arm, swung her onto his back with one arm as he used his other to shove Ruby closer to Jacob, who scooped her up bridal style into his arms.
“Run,” Edward screamed. Ruby heard faint hissing and snarling before they ran into the woods. Ruby buried her face into Jacob’s neck as the scenery sped past her in a blur. They all were aware the newborns were on their tails and Jacob and Edward pushed themselves to the limit in order to put some distance between them and Victoria. The brilliant white of the snow soon faded into brown and green and before either girl knew it, they were breaking into the clearing.
“I saw,” Alice began apologetically, “but it was only bits and pieces because Jacob was with you. By the time I figured it out it was too late.”
The pack and the Cullens were standing in a line waiting for the newborns. Edward took his place in line and placed Bella behind him. “Stay near me,” he told her. “If something happens to me,” Bella scrunched up her eyes not wanting to think about it. “If something happens to me,” he repeated, “find Ruby and get to her. She has proven capable in protecting you.” Bella nodded mutely.
While Edward was having his conversation with Bella, Jacob was further down the line putting Ruby on her feet. She kissed his neck once, taking in the smell of him before letting go of him and taking her place in line, Jacob next to her.
Bringing her hands up, she pulled the hood down and took the cloak off, tossing it aside, revealing her outfit. She was barefoot and wore a long olive green peasant skirt and what could only be described as a scarf. It was one long piece of cloth in a shimmering gold and was draped over her neck and crossed over her front covering her breast, but just barely, then wrapped around and tied behind her back, exposing her proud shoulders, the curve of her back and her taunt stomach.
“Wow,” Jacob smiled completely forgetting why they were in the clearing.
“We’re about to be attacked by vampires,” Quil told him, “and you say wow?”
Jacob shrugged. “Have you seen what she’s wearing?” he muttered.
Ruby rolled her eyes playfully. “Jacob?”
“Yeah?”
“Focus.”
“Right.”
They could hear the faint noises of the newborns now and everyone went on alert. The pack started to shake and change one by one into wolves.
“I love you,” Jacob told Ruby.
“I love you too,” she replied and watched as he became a wolf. Then they waited.
Bella, from her spot behind Edward, had a few moments of panic where she wondered if this would be the last time she saw her friends… her family. Would she ever hear Alice’s musical laugh again? Or get one of Ruby’s infectious warm smiles? Or get a bear hug from Jacob? Or feel Edward’s cool hands on her face again?
She did not have time to dwell on the topic any longer because through the line of trees came the newborns.
