Chapter 5 - Bronte

We were playing baseball, thunder clapped overhead and Edward was midway round a sure home run.  I screamed in excitement, he would make it surely, “Go Edward GO!” I could barely see him, a blur of speed as he took fourth base like a gazelle.

Then out of nowhere, Emmett appeared, ball in hand, head down running across the tops of the trees surrounding the meadow.  Rosalie squealed in excitement “You got him honey!” as Emmett swung down and landed in Edwards path.  They collided like two boulders and the ground shook.  I gasped, completey awe struck even after all this time.

Emmet reached out and gently bounced the ball of Edwards forehead, “Out” He grinned.

I jumped up and down, wrapped in Edwards coat, gloves and hat, “That was amazing!” Edward heard me and turned to smile, sending my heart down into my legs for a second and stopping my breath.  He was divine.  He was mine.  Lucky, lucky me.

Carlisle was up to bat then, swinging the bat around his head at huge speed which made a  whipping sound that split the heavens.  Alice stared him down for a moment, then with her trademark pitch, she threw the ball.  I couldn’t even see it, then there was an almighty bang and suddenly Rosalie streaked past like a train, leaping from one foot high into the sky, coming back down to earth with a boom, ball in hand and a smirk on her face, “Way too easy Carlisle!” She winked at me, our relationship improving each day I stayed human, and tossed the ball to her creator who caught it defly in an instant.

The storm seemed to quiet down then, clouds parted and a ray of sunshine lit up the meadow, sending my vampire family into dazzling glory.  Edward turned to me, his glittering skin giving me palpatations, “Lets go, love” 

We drove into town, and I rang Charlie on the way, “Anything you fancy for dinner?”

“Whatever you like Bells” He replied cheerily, “I’m easy”

“Okay Dad” I replied, “Edward is coming over, is that okay?”

There was a pause, “Sure”

“Okay, but he probably won’t eat with us, I don’t think I can hold him back from getting a burger now, he is famished” Edward grinned at my little lie, “Bye Dad”

Edward leaned across and inhaled my neck, “I am famished actually” He said dramatically.

“Bite me Edward!” I laughed.  

We parked at one end of town, enjoying the stroll up through the simple streets and shop windows.  It was a walk of constant pauses, Forks being so small, it was impossible to pass by people we knew, so it was a “hello, hello, hello, hello” and the occasional stop to chat.  We picked up some pasta and bread for my meal with Charlie, and were just heading home when I decided I was thirsty and coerced Edward into coming to the diner for a soda with me.  I would have survived of course, but sometimes I hankered after normality, and at that moment going for a soda with my high school sweetheart seemed the perfect idea.

Squashing into the smallest booth with him was perfect, I sipped my cherry coke slowly, while soft strains of the dukebox swirled about us.  Edward buried his face in my hair, and  whispered sweet things into my ear, sending the good kind of shivers down my spine.  I roared laughing when he emerged with a mouthful of my hair and crossed eyes, and I playfully slapped him encouraging him to hold my hands, asking to be kissed.  To anyone observing we would just look like two lovesick teenagers, and for that moment that was perfection to me.  No fear, no threat, just wonder and life in the palm of our hand.  

Mid kiss, I felt someone sit down beside me and unlocked my lips and eyes from Edward to see Jacob sitting beside us, looking his usual mix of conceit and amusement.  Edward rolled his eyes to heaven “She’s nice Jacob” he observed, reading Jacobs thoughts, “Pity you couldn’t have imprinted pre-bella isn’t it? saved us all a lot of trouble”

“Oh shut up leech” Jacob sneered, but I could see he was embarrassed.

“So its true then” I asked, cocking my head.

Jacob looked at his hands for a bit.  Edward snorted, pre-hearing Jacobs speech.

“Bella, I’m sorry, again, I have... you know...imprinted and I never really meant to dismiss what I felt for you... but its impossible now to even imagine that I felt anything for anyone else other than...”

Edward interrupted suddenly and a flash of amazement and amusement crossed his face, “Where is this... Bronte?”

Jacob frowned, “At the duke box”

I snapped my eyes across the room and took in the object of Jacobs, my Jacobs, affections.

She stood at the duke box, back to us, long white blonde hair to her waist, a pair of jeans tucked into knee high boots, a long waistcoat covering her diminutive body.

“She’s tiny” I remarked.

Bronte turned around then and I gasped sharply when I saw her face.  Pixie like and stunningly beautiful, I knew enough of them to recognise it, “Jacob!” I whispered in shock.

“I know, I know” He nodded, “I know what you’re thinking... It is such a contradiction...”

Bronte walked toward us, smooth as gliding, there was no doubt in my mind and Edwards low rumble in his chest confirmed it.  Vampire.

I took Jacob to one side, “Are you out of your mind?”

“Are you?”

“Thats different,” I snapped, “Edward is different, you don’t know this one, she could be... Jeez Jake, have you completley lost your marbles?”

“I can’t choose who I imprint on Bella”

“But how?” I was so confused, “How could your kind love her kind...?”

“Its a long story” Jacob bowed his head, “Have you the time to hear it?”

“Of course!” I nodded, looking over my shoulder, Edward and Bronte were walking behind us, quietly having their conversation, probably along the same lines.

Jacob began, “When I met Bronte, she was human Bella.  I imprinted and there was nothing I could do but follow her and guard her.  She didn’t seem to like me at first, and I was fine with that, you know, I knew I’d get to her eventually.  So I just followed her around, kept my distance, but guarding her safety as much as I could.... Anyway, she lived in Ovington, and I ran the perimeter every night, keeping her safe and in the day I’d phase back and try to make an impression that might stick.

I got a job in the record shop she hung out in, and tried to get a date, but it was tough work.  Eventually I did manage to convince her to come out with me, but she was a stubborn little thing, wouldn’t give in to my affections... reminded me of someone actually,” he chuckled, “Anyway... that same night I dropped her off at her house, and just as I was driving away I got that...”his eyes darkened in pain “smell... I raced in to her house, smashed the door off the hinges you know just in time to see one of them bite into her neck.  Bella she was so frightened, just looking straight at me, her eyes begging for help, with that thing killing her, I don’t know where the strength came from but I smashed him to pieces there and then.  I just picked Bronte up and ran.  Her mother had been gotten to first, and she has no other family so I just left with her.  She was screaming with the pain, begging me to just kill her, and I knew what she was becoming, but I still couldn’t do it... I couldn’t kill Bronte... even though I knew she might kill me herself when all was done”

“But she didn’t...”

“I kept her in the forest, I built a shelter and tried to help her, the pain was so much I could see into her soul through her eyes as they begged me to end it.  I just sat there.  Then one the third day, the screaming stopped and the soul was gone.  I was devastated until I suddenly realised that although the soul had gone from her eyes, she was still Bronte.  I still felt as I had before, and although her awakening from her state... was... difficult to say the least, I was so happy.  She was alive.”

“Did she try to kill you?”

“Sort of...” Jacob grinned, “I’d learned alot from hanging with your bloodsucker and the other leeches so it wasn’t difficult to handle, and after a while she kind of came back to herself a bit, and weirdly, Bronte seemed just as stubborn in her new state than she had been in her last, it was like she refused to be a vampire, she refused to be like he who had killed her... She demanded something better for herself.  We stole blood from the hospital, which appeased her thirst anyway, and then I knew that I needed to come home, I needed Bronte to meet Edward, and the Cullens, I was hoping...”

“They’d teach her?” Everything suddenly made sense, “You need a favour from the bloodsuckers?” I snorted a laugh.

Jacob shook his head, “It is a hard pill to swallow Bella, but I need his help”

I turned to look at Edward who now had Bronte by the hand, in a brotherly way, and I could see from his face he had heard everything.  “No problem” He mouthed, and my heart swelled.  He was so unselfish, from everything, even my worst days on earth when he had left me, he did that for me, and when I had kissed Jacob last summer, he put me first again.  Now he was putting Jacob first, his rival, to see one of his own make it through.

We all got in my car, and headed for the Cullens, I rang Charlie to tell him something had come up and that he’d need to sort himself out for food.  He guessed it was Jacob related and didn’t allow any disappointed register in his voice, though I still knew it was there.

Bronte didn’t speak much, she buried her head in Jacobs huge embrace and I guessed my smell was proving difficult to resist.  Edward turned to her and said “You won’t Bronte, stop worrying” and I knew I was right.  I did shiver a bit, wondering if Edward and Jacob would be able to stop her if she changed her mind.  

Alice was waiting in the driveway for us when we arrived at the Cullens house, with a look of curiousity and excitement on her face.

“Well well Jacob” She said playfully punching him in the arm, and skipping around him as fast as she could, “what have you brought us?”

Bronte got out of the car, looking like a frightened rabbit, and Jacob instinctively picked her up carrying her like a child into the house ahead of us all.