Chapter Text
3
Jacob’s chest rose and fell with each inhale and exhale and he furrowed his eyebrows as he turned his head.
Edward sat on the edge of the couch, his elbows on his knees and hands cupped together as his chin sat on his index fingers. He watched Jacob’s sleeping figure and raised a brow at the facial expression. Once Carlisle had extracted most of the monkshood, he had to use extra bandaging to stop the blood flow; perhaps it was because of the teen’s weakened state, but the wound had bled much more than it should have. It was a miracle that Jacob managed to sleep through most of it. The Laudicon had knocked him out, with only the occasional groan and body movement.
Edward continued to stare at Jacob before he sighed and stood up just as Carlisle came back into the room; he was drying his hands on a white dishtowel. He tossed the towel over his shoulder before glancing at Jacob, and then to his son.
“You might want to go ahead and take him back upstairs to sleep.” Edward crooked his mouth and looked back down to the young werewolf, whose facial expression softened back. “The others should be back soon, and the noise will, more than likely, wake him up.”
Edward sighed. “Fine.” Carlisle nodded. “But I don’t see why I can’t just drop him on his front doorstep.” His tone was sarcastic and partially rhetorical.
“Just take him upstairs, please.” With that, he walked out of the room.
Edward sighed and pushed himself to stand straight, looking down at Jacob. Seeming to note that there was no other alternative, and the fact that a semi-truck rumbling through the living room would not wake the teenager, Edward bent down to put his forearm under Jacob’s shoulders and his other arm right above the bend of his knees. He stood straight, picking Jacob up cradle-style and shifting him to where the young male’s head was against his chest. He exited the living room to head up the stairs, not even bothering to be careful. The up and down movement had Jacob stir slightly and try to shift, pushing against Edward and releasing a grunt. The thought ran through the elder’s head on whether or not “accidentally” dropping the werewolf would be entertaining enough to counteract the reaction he would receive.
He snickered at the thought of Jacob falling down the flight of stairs and cursing his name in every way he knew how as he hit the bottom with a thud.
His chance was gone when he reached the top of the staircase and he released a sigh at missing the opportunity. With the Cullens not occupying the house for the moment, with the exception of himself and Carlisle, it should be quiet enough to allow Jacob to continue sleeping through the rest of the morning so he would be able to vacate the house after sunrise.
He pursed his lips at the thought.
He shook his head as he reached the open door to his bedroom at the end of the hall; a sudden unwanted emotion ran through his mind. It was gone as quickly as it had come, not giving him enough time to decipher it.
Bending down, he laid the teenager back down on the couch – almost immediately, Jacob turned onto his unwounded side, his back facing the widows and front facing the wall holding the large collection of music and stereo system. The blue blanket from earlier had fallen on the floor. Not even knowing why he himself did what he was about to do, Edward picked up the fallen cloth and draped it over the sleeping figure. His golden eyes studied the other’s peaceful face and he could not help but think that something seemed strange about it.
It was only after standing in the dark and watching him for a minute that he came to the realization about what had seemed off.
It was the first time that he actually saw serenity on the young werewolf’s face. There was no writhing in uncomfortable pain from the wound; no glare of death from his brown eyes as they wanted to rip each other to shreds; no anxiety from being around his, Edward’s, kind. In all of its abnormality, it seemed…right.
Perhaps that was not the appropriate word, but he was unable to describe it.
And perhaps that was the reason why he found himself lightly touching Jacob’s cheek. Seeing him in the current state made him realize that this must be the side of the werewolf that she saw. He slightly cocked his head to the side as the thoughts drifted through his head. Not that he would ever admit those thoughts to anyone; it was strange admitting them to himself.
He pulled back his hand when Jacob moved, pressing against the couch before going calm again. Edward shook his head.
It was not right.
He turned to leave, but as he began walking away from the couch, he sighed and shook his head. The other’s thought string was becoming increasingly annoying. Tossing some items off of a chair against the window, the vampire set the chair next to the couch and sat down in it, setting his elbows on his knees as he watched the other’s reaction. Jacob shifted uncomfortably under the blanket.
The nervousness crawling through Jacob’s nerves was easily picked up on, and Edward could not help but find himself snickering.
“I can’t babysit you all night,” Edward said flatly.
“No one said you had to.” The instant response.
Edward scoffed and leaned back in the chair. “Fine.” He stood up, pushing the chair back. But when he went to move towards the door, he felt something tug on his shirt. He stopped and turned his head to look behind him and see Jacob’s right hand lightly gripping the bottom of his shirt; his brown eyes were only half open and staring blankly at the wall in front of him. Sighing, Edward turned away from the door and, after he did, Jacob let his arm fall, releasing his grip. Jacob pulled his arm back under the blanket, grabbing it and pulling it up to his chin as he shut his eyes back, trying to hide the fact that his entire body had started to tense up. Edward moved to sit back down, but instead of sitting in the chair, he sat on the very edge of the couch.
Jacob had drifted into a restless sleep several times over the next couple of hours. He would sleep for a few minutes and wake up the next; but his mind would not set itself. The only thing that made his conscious state different from his unconscious state was when he was actually sleeping, his mind was not on his current location, but rather what had happened earlier that evening: Being in the middle of woods; the one-sided fight with Victoria that left him to die; scenarios that could have happened had Edward not have found him. One of his mini-dreams included a layout of his would-be funeral – everyone was dressed in white and no one, not even Bella, was mourning his death. He continued to shift uncomfortably during that scene, and woke up a few minutes later.
He had fallen back to sleep just as quickly, only this time he was plagued with thoughts of his pack turning on him when they discovered he had spent the night in a house full of Night Walkers. He shot straight up right before he was torn limb-from-limb, his heart pounding in his chest. He held his head with both hands, running them through his hair, finding that he was covered in sweat.
The monkshood had yet to wear off, but he could feel that the effects were slowly starting to fade.
He looked across the room to the clock, but jumped when he saw a shadow-outlined figure blocking it.
“Do you have to sit right there?” he asked, tone laced with annoyance.
Edward shrugged. “It’s four-thirty.”
Moving and tossing his legs over the edge of the couch, he set his forearms on his knees, covering his face with his hands. The reminders of his small dreams kept coming to the front of his mind and he wondered if they would fade as dreams had a tendency of doing. The last dream had his eyes stinging, and he covered them with his palms.
“You’ll be fine.” He did not even bother to look up at the vampire, only chose to ignore the comment. “No one knows you’ve been here except us; and trust me. We’re not going to go around ‘bragging’ that we harbored a mutt.” Jacob’s jaw tensed, but he tried to refrain from snapping back at the insult. It was not something he was in the mood to deal with; but then, was he ever in the mood to deal with it? Edward threw his arm over the back of the chair, leaning it back on two legs. “Then again, we’ve always wanted a dog. I guess you could be sort of a…pet.” He smirked, knowing good and well he was getting under the other’s skin. “Could get you a nice collar; maybe a black one with a bell.” Continually being mocked, Jacob’s entire body was on edge and Edward was wondering how much longer he would have to be at it to gain a reaction. “Sure. We could take you for walks – you’d have to be on a leash of course. We’d have to break you of a few habits; and you couldn’t keep going around humping Bella’s leg at every chance you got—”
“Do you ever shut the hell up?!” Jacob shouted at him, taking to his feet so he was standing over Edward. His face was red and fists were clenched tightly at his sides.
Edward’s expression remained flat. “Now don’t be angry, Jacob. Come on. Sit, boy.”
Jacob released a growl before lunging at his mocker; however, he only ended up tripping over the chair as Edward quickly moved out of the way. Edward was behind him within the blink of an eye, wrapping his arms around the young werewolf and holding him back from breaking loose.
“Let me go!”
“Calm down and I will.”
“You want me to calm down?!” He ducked down and spun around, getting out of the hold and facing his enemy. Seeing Edward with a calm expression on his face just enraged the teen. Once he gained his abilities again, he would make sure to prove to the cocky bastard that no one mocked him; let alone a lowlife bloodsucker. “Why don’t you shut your damn face for five minutes?!”
Edward crossed his arms and raised a brow. “Temper, temper.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head solemnly. “It’s no wonder Victoria went after you; it’s not that difficult to make you hot-headed.”
“I’d rather you just have let me die than put up with you and your bloodsucking, lowlife family for a night!”
In an instant, Edward’s expression went from being smug to cold, and he lunged at Jacob, catching the werewolf off guard and shoving him against the wall, causing CDs to fall from their shelves and crack onto the floor.
Edward pinned him to the wall, his face mere centimeters away and eyes narrowed to near slits. His right forearm was pressed against Jacob’s chest as his left hand had the werewolf’s head pinned down to where he was immobile.
“Make another remark like that and I’ll rip your head right off your shoulders,” he spoke in a low, threatening voice. Despite the fact that his heart was pounding viciously in his chest, Jacob met the glower, hands clenching both of Edward’s upper arms. “I didn’t have to save your sorry arse; it would have been much easier for me to just let you die. The least you could do is show the slightest hint of damn gratitude.”
They stayed locked in the same position for what seemed to be ages. The tension seem to have grown when Jacob did not respond, which made Edward push him harder against the wall, as though he was trying to squeeze words out of him. Their expressions sealed together – a silent dare for one of them to say something.
Hostility building between them, the seconds turned to minutes, and neither one of them could understand what happened next; but Edward pushed forward, pressing their mouths together in an aggressive kiss. Jacob’s grip tightened on the other’s upper arms, but he did not seem bent on pushing Edward away. Both of them shut their eyes and Edward shifted his hold on Jacob and, instead, wrapped his arms tightly around Jacob’s lower and mid-back, pulling him and not allowing any space between them. Their mouths broke apart and the vampire began tracing his lips down to Jacob’s jawbone and neck, lightly biting and sucking at the skin; the motion was enough to receive a deep-pitted moan from Jacob’s throat and chill bumps form on his arms as shivers ran up and down his spine. His hands moved to cape around Edward’s back and he found himself quickly giving in to his physical reaction.
Edward reached up his left hand to grab a fistful of Jacob’s hair to pull his head back, leaving his entire neck vulnerable. He pressed his mouth against the other’s jawbone, pulling on the sensitive skin with his teeth. His other hand had started to travel up the white shirt the teen was wearing, touching the heated skin up and down the sides of his abdomen. Releasing the hold he had on Jacob’s hair, his body pressed against the other’s to press up against the wall as both hands explored the others abdomen and well-sculpted muscles and his mouth connected with Jacob’s again.
His hands continued downwards until they came upon four long, raised marks. Instantaneously, he stopped and pulled back a full stride away from the teen. They made split-second eye contact before Jacob pulled his head away and furrowed his eyebrows; his eyes searching around. They both were in a state of shock – both uncertain as to what had just happened. Without a word, Edward turned on his heel and was quickly gone from the room, the door shutting behind him.
Jacob’s chest moved rapidly up and down as he still stood against the wall, panting; his heart racing. After standing dumbfounded for several more moments, he pushed off the wall, adjusting the shirt and pulling it down to cover his stomach. The couch started to appear more appealing than it had been in the beginning, and he moved back over to it, grabbing the blanket that had fallen to the floor as he did. Sitting down on the couch, his eyes continued to trace the area in front of him, trying to come up with a logical answer to what had occurred.
He found naught and, instead, was found cursing at himself over and over again.
It should not have happened: Plain and simple.
Then why did it?
He groaned and fell sideways onto the couch, pulling the blanket over his entire body, including his face as he pulling his legs up onto it, as well. Perhaps it would make more since later on in the morning and a blatant answer would be available.
“I’m just glad we’re finally rid of that smell,” Alice said, sighing as she strode into the kitchen, ahead of the rest of the family.
“I don’t know.” Emmett inhaled the air. “I think it’s still lingering.”
The clock on the stove was showing seven forty-two in the morning in green numbering. Ten minutes prior, Edward had finally returned to his room just in time to see Jacob jumping out of the opened window, morphing and taking off into the woods. Give or take, he knew exactly what Jacob had intended to do the moment his conscious mind was online again. He had made sure to avoid the other’s leave – or to avoid him in general after the happenings earlier that morning. He had just made sure to keep a mental tab on him, rather than physically noting him. Not that he would relay the reason why to anyone.
“Next time we decide to house a dog for the night, someone please tell me ahead of time so I can make sure that I’m hunting around that time,” Rosalie commented, leaning against the wall and inspecting her nails.
“For eight hours?” Edward asked, raising a brow. Rosalie shrugged, not responding.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Jasper cut in, sitting down on the stool next to where Alice was leaning on the counter. “As long as no one hears about our, um…deed.”
The group nodded. Edward laughed inwardly, already making that clear with Jacob a few hours prior.
Alice set her chin on her hands, seeming to pout slightly. “I suppose we should go ahead and head off to class.” She looked at Jasper who nodded and the others that agreed, though Emmett did release a rather loud groan.
“How many times do we have to graduate high school before we actually graduate for good?”
“Sixty-two,” Rosalie said, pulling out the random number. Small chuckles went around the table and Alice grabbed the edge of the countertop, leaning back and stretching. “Well, let’s go, then. I really hate being late.”
The others nodded and Rosalie left the kitchen, Emmett following close behind her. Jasper spun in the stool so he faced away from the counter before standing up. He looked to Edward before walking out of the room.
“Do you intend to tell Bella about last night? She might like to know.” He shook his head when Edward said no.
“I don’t think that’s something she needs to be informed about.”
Jasper shrugged, leaving the room. Alice went to follow after him, walking in front of Edward. “If you ask me,” she started, turning and facing him before they walked out of the doorway, “you and Jacob both have really bad tempers.”
Edward stared back at her in shock and she just smiled before leaving the room, following after the others.