Several Ways to Die Trying--Part 1
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Title: Several Ways to Die Trying
Author: likexaxdove
Rating: T
Summary: Jacob has been bitten by Victoria. Bella now has three days to save him or she could lose her sun forever.
A/N:
I started writing this over a year ago, but shelved it because I didn’t think I could really do it. Now I think I can. It’s been a while since I’ve written a Twilight story that’s longer then a one-shot, so bare with me if I make any canonical mistakes, because they might happen.
If all goes according to plan this will be three parts. I cannot promise a happy or a sad ending.
**
Bella Swan rubs her thumb over her scar. The shiny skin that marks her palm still runs colder than the rest of her body, but she doesn’t mind. It’s one of the few reminders that he and his world exist, that he had been in her life at one point. She brings the scar to her cheek and briefly debates allowing her imagination to pretend that he is gracing her cheek with his touch.
Instead she shoves her hand under her blanket and turns her face to the window. It’s late, but she cannot sleep. He is too busy haunting her waking thoughts. In truth, she hadn’t ‘seen’ him in quite some time. Spending time with Jacob has seemed to have chased him off. She should have been pleased by this.
Instead, she runs over her new plan in her mind. Tomorrow she will go cliff diving, and if looking down at the ocean before her freefall won’t bring him back, she’s sure hitting the icy ocean waves would.
She hears the front door open and close, and then a moment later Charlie is starting up his Cruiser. Odd, he usually doesn’t leave the house this late. There must have been an accident or a robbery that he’s been called in to investigate.
She lies down and closes her eyes, but it doesn’t really matter.
Her dreams are not safe either.
**
A shout wakes Bella up, followed by a continuous pounding on the front door. Funny, she didn’t remember falling asleep.
“BELLA OPEN THE DOOR. NOW!”
She rolls out of her bed and stumbles towards her bedroom door. A small part of her brain tells her to stay in her room, that the person at the front door might be Victoria trying to trick her. But then, what if it’s Charlie? What if it’s Jacob? She quickly moves out into the hallway and sprints down the stairs.
A scream slices through the air as she fiddles with the lock. It’s blood curdling, and her heart nearly stops at the sound of it. She flings the door open, mind blank, fingers trembling
“Get warm water running,” Sam Uley says to her as he and four other boys fly past her and towards the couch. The forced calm in his voice is deadly.
The smell of blood hits Bella in the face. She immediately feels sick, but she pushes herself forward and peers over the side of the couch.
Jacob Black, curled up in a fetal position, lays shaking and bleeding on her sofa. He’s shuddering so badly that he looks like he’s vibrating. He’s clutching at his ankle, and blood seeps through his fingers. Without thinking, Bella reaches down and gently pulls his hand away to see what he’s hiding.
A vampire bite, white and oozing, is stamped into his skin. Bella jerks her hand back and feels bile rise up in the back of her throat.
Someone clamps their hand over her mouth before she can scream.
Jared hauls her away from the couch. He has her halfway up the stairs before she can manage to speak. “What can I do,” she asks quietly, tears already falling down her cheeks.
“Go run him a bath, Bella. He needs warmth.”
She stumbles numbly into the tiny bathroom she shares with her father. She feels sick. She can’t breathe. She forces her shaky fingers to turn on the nozzle and watches as hot water pours into the bathtub.
Sam, Jared, Embry, and Paul burst through the door a moment later with Jacob in tow. They put him into the bathtub slowly, and when the hot water hits his bitten leg he lets out a shriek of absolute agony.
The clear water begins to turn a sick reddish-yellow.
“What happened to him?” Bella chokes out, trying not to feel overcome with nausea and panic.
“Victoria got him a couple of blocks away. She was on her way to you when he tackled her.”
“Will he…will he…?” She can’t bring herself to finish the question. She’s starting to feel light headed as the water in the bathtub continues to darken.
The look on everyone’s face turns grim. Sam shakes his head. “No Bella. Vampire venom is the only thing that’s fatal to us. Jake will…”
He can’t finish so Paul speaks for him. “He’ll die.”
Minutes pass in silence. Bella’s breathing has turned shallow as her mind tries to work through the situation. But try as it might, it cannot comprehend anything.
Bella stares stupidly as the Pack pulls Jacob’s naked body out of the bathtub. His eyes are open wide, but it’s like he can’t actually see them. The pain has frozen him over. He barely moves.
“Bella, where can we lay him down for the time being?” Sam asks as he grabs Jacob’s arm and tosses it over his shoulder in order to support him. Bella motions wordlessly to her bedroom. She can’t form words.
Jacob can’t die.
Her fists form into tiny balls as she follows the Pack into her bedroom. Her eyes are open, and even though she slowly takes in Sam and Paul lying Jake down on her bed, Jared grabbing her sheets to wrap around his leg, and Embry standing off to the side looking shell-shocked, she is unseeing.
She stands still as the Pack slowly work around her until finally, one by one they filter out of the room. Sam is calling Billy to tell him that they will bring Jacob over first thing in the morning. Jared and Paul have phased and have run to Emily’s in order to let her and the tribal elders know what’s going on. Embry now sits in the living room and stares at the fireplace.
Bella takes two tentative steps towards her bed. Jacob’s breathing is labored, and his skin shines with sweat, but his eyes are squeezed shut now. Bella deludes herself into thinking that maybe he’s finding a little bit of peace in whatever world he’s hidden himself away in.
She falls to her knees and reaches for his hand. It feels cold and clammy.
“You’re not dying.”
She repeats it like a mantra. She clings onto it for her own sanity. And then she drifts.
**
He remembers having his eyes open, but not being able to see anything. He only feels the terrible cold that’s slowly seeping into his leg. It makes him miss the heat he always had to go through when phasing.
He swears to god that he can still feel that leech’s teeth sinking into his skin. He remembers tackling her into the ground. She won’t get Bella, she won’t get Bella. With little clarity he can recall the joy he had felt in knowing that Bella was safe. That this thing will never see his Bella again, or smell her, or haunt her, or be able to do anything to her at all. He had torn at her, ignoring the terrible smell and taste.
Rip. Shred.
Then it had twisted its body around in his jaws and had sunk her teeth into his ankle.
It was an awful feeling, to know that even though he had technically won, in the end…he lost.
No no no, Bella. There’s Bella…
Now he only knows that he’s screaming from the misery. But whether it’s the misery of knowing he’ll lose his life or that he’ll lose the girl he loves, he isn’t sure.