"V.
I went for a walk where I've never been and found myself where I always was. I have found that this, too, is progress."
—mvrdvrous | SEARCHING FOR MYSELF AROUND STREET CORNERS
• • •
The next few days passed by in a blur. Bored from the prosaic routine of it all, Bailey opted for busying herself with menial tasks in the hopes to pass the time. As seemed to be her go-to coping mechanism when plagued by monotony, she cleaned the house from top to bottom starting in one room before moving on to the next, and though she had been repeatedly told not to worry, all the while she constantly looked over her shoulder.
Many a time someone had called to check up on her. Whether it was Alice during her lunch break at school, Jasper on his way home with Emmett and Rosalie beside him, or Jacob and Paul as soon as they caught a lull in patrols, Bailey felt as if she were constantly glued to her cell phone. She understood their concern; truly she did. But as the excessive 'is everything okay's' and the repetitive 'call me if anything seems off's' echoed down the phone line, an increased tendency to worry easily followed alongside it. Because knowing that someone had been inside her home — more so something if one was being technical — when Charlie had been only rooms away and oblivious to it all only augmented the fact that whoever it was had a greater plan at large, and the endless possibilities of their motives simply terrified Bailey to no end. Anything could have happened — perhaps even would have had she and Bella not returned from the Reservation at the exact moment they did — and just the thought of an intruder violating her family's most personable space had her knees trembling where she stood. She hated the idea of it, hated the fact that she now couldn't sleep unless she first checked that her window was locked at least twice and her bedroom door effectively barricaded by the small desk that usually sat in the corner of her room. However, rather than speak her fears aloud or allow the newly developed waver in her tone be detected, Bailey opted for instead simply grinning and baring it. It'll be okay, she took to reassuring herself in the midnight hours or when she found herself in a room without light and that crippling anxiety and fear crept up on her once more like a thief in the night. It'll be okay, it'll be okay, it'll be okay. And though she didn't quite believe it yet, she convinced herself that even if it wasn't okay right there and then, someday soon, eventually, it would be.
So later that night after she had changed into her pajamas following the moving of her desk in front of her door as had become habit, Bailey coached herself through several sets of deep breathing. You're fine, she reminded herself. You're good. And she would have been any other night if she weren't such a luckless girl, but because Bailey Swan was renowned for her less than pleasant relationship with good fortune, a sudden rustling of leaves beneath her bedroom window had her freezing where she stood. What was that? she wondered with dread, eyes wide and chest heaving as fear pulsed through her like a straight-shock of electricity to the system. Her hands paused their fiddling on the top button of her sleep-shirt and she swallowed the thick lump of panic that swelled in her throat as every scenario under the sun ran rampant through her mind. Vampire, Volturi, Victoria. Her heart skipped a beat at the last thought and with slow, unsteady steps, Bailey crossed the distance to her window. Morbid curiosity plagued her in that moment and without even a thought to what she might do if the source of the noise turned out to be any one of those options, Bailey peeled back the curtain covering her window with quivering fingers and bated breath. She looked out into the night and scanned the backyard and the surrounding forest until her eyes stopped on a rustling of trees just a few yards away. Vampire, she almost immediately confirmed. Yet as a shadowed shape came into view, Bailey breathed a sigh of relief. Wolf, she corrected herself.
Then she did a double take and felt her heart skip a beat all over again.
I know that wolf... she thought. Because she did. She recognized it on a level so gruesome and intimate that the image of it haunted her in her dreams and made her feel like all the air had been knocked straight out of her lungs. Quil, she amended, and as if he could sense her gaze, the wolf chose that moment to look up at her in return.
For a long moment, all they did was stare. With equally wide, unblinking eyes, cerulean blue locked onto soft brown and neither pair dared look away despite the fear dulling them both. They held each other's gaze unflinchingly, unfalteringly, and only after minutes had passed by with naught but the sounds of night left to fill the tense silence formed between them did Bailey finally take a deep breath and square her shoulders. With newfound determination undermined by shaky hands, she reached for her coat and shoes, and after slipping each item onto her trembling frame, she headed down the stairs and out the front door. She rounded the back porch and paused; then, upon sight of a pair of bright eyes peering almost unbidden from between a thick bustle of brush, Bailey tentatively walked forward until she came to a stop just a few feet off the edge of the forest.
"You can come out now," she spoke stoically, employing every bit of strength left inside her to conceal the inner turmoil splaying up and down the length of her spine. "It-It's okay," she coaxed quieter, more gently, as her bravado slowly ebbed way under influence of the cold twilight breeze blowing her mass of wild curls up and off her shoulders. "I won't send you away, Quil," she reassured him sincerely. "I promise I won't."
For a second after, he looked almost as if he would run away. Despite his wolf form concealing the basis of his human emotions, she could still sense his hesitation even from so many feet apart. It was palpable — the emotion having become an almost breathing thing as it pulsed in the air between them both. It almost surprised her by how much more human it made him seem, by how deftly it overshadowed the terrifying image of his sharp claws and even sharper teeth ripping into her flesh like a hot knife through butter and replaced it with the guilty, sorrowful picture of a pup eager to repent for his acts and transgressions. It hurt her to see him that way — to see such a beautiful, strange, majestic creature appear so utterly defeated and morose — and the endless empathy in her heart had her wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms as tight around his shaggy neck as she could manage and console him until his soul no longer cried the tears his eyes wouldn't shed. And maybe it was that part of her, that incessant, ceaseless corner of her heart that housed every ounce of forgiveness she could ever possibly grant that was to blame for what she did next, because anyone else who came eye-to-eye with the protagonist of their nightmares might have taken one look and run away screaming, but Bailey Swan was different — always had been — and when faced with her greatest fear, she didn't cower or falter for even a second. She remained steadfast, and instead of bolting for the safety of her home, she took six steps forward and wrapped herself around the wolf that had plagued her sleep for weeks. She buried her face in the scruff of his neck and held tight.
Then she cried enough tears for the both of them.
If Quil joined in with her, at first she couldn't tell. With her head pressed firmly against his fur-covered pulse point, all she could feel was his big body as it shuddered against hers while low, high-pitched whines that formed in the deepest part of his chest spilled forth through his snout. Despite his size, he burrowed into her like a cub does its mother, and regardless of their shared hurt, they consoled one another silently as he did so. In gestures of comfort, Bailey's small fingers threaded through his fur and combed out the tufts of matted hair almost absentmindedly all the while Quil rubbed the underside of his muzzle back and forth across her back in much the same manner as his hand might had he been in his human skin. Then, after minutes that felt more like hours had passed them by, the two pulled away from one another simultaneously and looked once more into each other's eyes.
"I'm sorry," Bailey began softly, hiccupping halfway through the words as they left her lips in earnest. "I'm sorry things happened the way they did and I'm sorry I didn't try to speak to you sooner. I-I know you didn't mean to, I know you couldn't control it, and I know you would never willingly hurt me if you had the chance," she told him, taking his low whine as encouragement to continue. "I mean, it-it was an accident and it was a terrible one, but it's been weeks now since it happened and I've had enough time to realize that this isn't something that has to control us anymore than it already has and- and that this isn't something we have to dwell on forever because if me and you can move on from it, then everyone else can too, and now that the worst of it is behind us, I think now's when we can finally start to move forward like we should've started to a long time ago."
"But how?" Quil questioned frantically, voice hoarse from disuse and tone strained from suddenly shifting back faster than Bailey could blink as he threw on his shorts and grasped her firmly by the shoulders in his desperation. "How can we ever get over this — move on from this — when every time I look at you I see you covered in blood and crying? How can we ever 'move forward' when your leg looks like a fucking war zone and every time I see it I remember exactly what it was I did to you? How do we get over that, Bailey? How am I ever supposed to make it fucking stop?!"
"By forgiving yourself, Quil," Bailey told him earnestly, teary blue eyes staring steadfast into his bright brown ones as she cupped his crying face with trembling hands. "By accepting the fact that no matter how much your head tells you it was your fault, deep down your heart knows the truth. And-and the truth is that it wasn't. It wasn't your fault because it was an accident; and it wasn't your fault because you. couldn't. help it. There was nothing anyone could've done Quil, so- so stop thinking you're the exception."
"But I still did it," he whispered, choking on a sob as he fell to his knees and buried his face into her stomach as the weight of her words bore heavy on his shoulders. "I still hurt you and I still scarred you and- and I- fuck, Bailey, I'm so sorry! I never wanted to; God, I-I never meant to!"
"I know," Bailey consoled him. Tears dripped down her cheeks in tandem with his own and she cradled his head in her embrace as her lips formed a half-smile of sorrow. "I know you didn't and I forgive you. I forgive you, Quil. I did a long time ago."
"I don't know how," he rasped, voice cracking and desperate even as his body softened under the newfound grace gifted through her words. "But I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll never be able to tell you that enough."
"It's okay," she replied. "It's okay," she repeated. And then she kept repeating those two words until his tears stopped and he eventually rose back up to his feet with only red-rimmed eyes and pink-streaked cheeks to show for them.
"I'm sorry," he told her a final time, taking the lull in conversation as an opportunity to roughly wipe the leftover tears from his face with the backs of his hands.
"Stop apologizing, Quil," Bailey demanded softly before reaching up to gently push the matted tufts of his hair back from where they had flopped across his forehead. "I-I told you I forgive you and I meant it, so you have to stop feeling guilty now. We'll never be able to get passed this if you don't."
"I know but I can't help it," he murmured as he flashed her a pair of bright eyes filled with a sort of hopeful, desolate plea. "But, someday, we'll be okay again, won't we?"
Nodding, Bailey wrapped her arms around her middle and huddled further down into her coat for warmth now that Quil's withdrawal took his natural heat along with him. "It- It'll take time to get things back to the way they were before of course, but- but in the end we'll be okay," she confirmed. "I know we will."
Then, because she couldn't resist the urge when he still looked so distraught, Bailey pulled him back in for a hug.
"We're having a bonfire tomorrow night," Quil murmured against her hair lowly, sounding every bit as timid then as he had looked when she'd first walked out to meet him just moments earlier. "I'm sure Paul already told you about it but, for peace of mind, I just have to know..." Quil pulled away just far enough to meet her gaze and peered down at her demurely as he asked: "if I'm there, will you still come too?"
For a moment Bailey paused. They had made so much progress, found so much closure and forgiven so many wrongs. Surely this would normalize them — would open the window of opportunity for everyone else to see that they were okay, that they had talked through their differences, and that Bailey wasn't scared of him so much as Quil was still scared of himself. They had come to an understanding just now: After this night they would start to move forward. So as Bailey looked up into his big brown eyes filled with optimism too fearful to be genuine, she found herself smiling warmly for the first time since she had seen him step through the trees as she thought of finally moving back to a place of comfort when at his side now that they had worked through their shared trauma.
"Of course," she said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
And though she wasn't sure what the pack's reaction to their newly rekindled friendship would entail come the morrow, despite the scenarios flitting through her mind at the prospect of it, she found herself meaning the words either way.
---
Jacob's loud knock on the front door later that next afternoon startled Bailey from her mindless reverie. Perking up from her stance in front of the mirror, the youngest Swan sister hurriedly finished attempting to pile her wild mass of curls in a bun on top of her head before ultimately giving up when the elastic tie wrapped around the top knot broke for the second time since she'd started. With a sigh she simply let it fall to the floor, and though her hair once more resembled a lion's mane as it settled around her shoulders, she ruffled the curls with her fingers and nodded at her reflection in the mirror. You look fine, she reassured herself. Then she shook out the nervousness in her spine and nodded once again. You'll be fine. But before she could continue her mental pep-talk any further, Jacob called her name from the bottom of the stairway.
"C'mon, Bay! It's already six o'clock and sunsets' in thirty minutes!"
"Coming!" She called back as she scrambled for her knitted hat and matching scarf. Once finding them with a triumphant exclamation of 'Aha!', Bailey checked her coat pockets for her cell phone and chapstick before stumbling down the stairs and into Jacob's awaiting embrace.
"Feels like I haven't seen you in ages, Bailey-Wren," Jacob told her with a wide smirk and a tight encircling of his arms. "If I'd had to wait any longer I might've even started to miss you."
"Suuure," she giggled. "Because we most definitely haven't talked every day on the phone for, oh I don't know, only the past week," Bailey teased him with a cheeky grin.
Releasing her small body from his firm grasp, Jacob stepped back to hold her at arm's length. "Excuse my worry," he mocked in return. Then, upon a quick glance down at her fidgeting fingers, Jacob's expression turned suddenly more serious. "I was a little worried, though. The pack knows about you and Quil — saw what happened as soon as he shifted back last night. Paul was pissed at first but after he punched Quil for quote-un-quote 'getting way too fucking handsy with you', he calmed down and then they were back to messing around with each other like old times. Didn't think he'd forgive him until you did, so seeing you guys work it out helped, I think."
"O-Oh," was all Bailey managed to mumble as she took Jacob's awaiting hand and let him lead her through the house and out the front door towards Bella who was already waiting for them in her truck. "I-I didn't- I mean, I probably should've called Paul and told him..." She deduced aloud as her eyes locked on the spot behind the house wherein she and Quil had met up so late the night before. "Do you think he's mad at me 'cause I didn't?"
Shaking his head, Jacob was quick to appease her worry. "Not mad, really; maybe just annoyed. Honestly, the only thing he's thought about all day is how cute he thinks you're gonna look at the bonfire because he knows you're gonna wear a sweater — don't make that face Bay, the only thing you ever wear are sweaters — and anyway, the dude's such a freakin' sap that even if he was mad at you, he'd probably forget all about it the second you bat those eyelashes and shoot a smile his way."
Both blushing and unable to help her growing grin, Bailey bit down into the flesh of her bottom lip and attempted halfheartedly to change the subject. "Everyone else though, they're not mad either, right? 'Cause I know you all were just trying to look out for me, but- but everybody seemed so set on keeping Quil and I apart that I wasn't sure how the pack would react when they, y'know, found out we were friends again..."
"Oh, please Bay." Jacob chuckled, flashing her a fleeting glimpse of his smug smirk as he opened the passenger side door and ushered her up into the middle seat. "Why do you think Sam sent Quil to your house on lookout duty in the first place?"
However, before she could ask him to elaborate any further, he climbed up into the seat next to her and started a conversation with Bella as he draped his heavy arm across the youngest Swan's sister's sweater-covered shoulders.
"You sure this is okay?" Bella questioned warily as the two sisters and their best friend exited the rusted red pickup she'd parked off to the side of the matching dirt road around fifteen minutes later. The older girl stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and inched closer to Bailey's flank as they all began to walk along the sandy shore of the beach and into the surrounding forest. "I hate being a party crasher."
Shrugging, Jacob rolled his eyes playfully. "Technically, you're a Council Meeting crasher. But you're okay. I thought- I mean, they think it'll be good for you to hear the histories."
Stopping abruptly in her tracks, Bella's face blanched as she stared at Jacob with all the rapture of a deer suddenly caught in headlights. "Wait, the history-histories? Of the pack? Aren't they, y'know... secret?"
"We all got a role to play," Jacob dismissed, steadying Bailey with a hand on her arm when she stumbled over a fallen log in the middle of their soil-laden pathway. "And you're a part of this. It's the first time Quil, Seth, Leah, and Kim-"
Bailey looked to Bella. 'Kim?'
Bella nodded. 'Jared's Imprint.'
"-are hearing them too. But you're the first outsider." Jacob flashed Bella a mischievous look and chuckled under his breath. "Ever."
Harrumphing, the eldest Swan nudged Bailey's shoulder from her other side. "Guess us pale faces are about to make history of our own then, huh?"
"Actually," Jacob interjected with a smirk for a smile and a wink cast off to the side in Bailey's direction. "Bay's an exception. Being Paul's imprint already makes her part of the pack and, y'know, part of the tribe by association too, so, sorry Bells, but you're on your own this time."
"Great." Bella huffed. "I... I definitely should have dressed up more."
However, before either Jacob or Bailey could move to respond, a voice interrupted their conversation from across the way.
"Jake!" its owner yelled, taking the trio by surprise. Bailey followed its direction and watched as a skinny, gangly-limbed boy bounded over toward them with all the awkward, bumbling grace of a newborn puppy. He looked young having retained a fair amount of weight still in his cheeks and bearing no wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, and though his smile was bright and idolizing as he flashed it Jacob's way, Bailey couldn't help but take notice of the slight crookedness to his two front teeth as he grinned boyishly from afar.
"'Bout time you got here!" He exclaimed while trotting ever closer. "Paul's been hovering the grub with his worry-eating and won't stop whining about his 'baby' every time he grabs another hotdog and Embry keeps drinking all the juice outta the pickle jars because he says the electrolytes work just as good as Gatorade, but don't worry dude, I saved you a couple drinks and some burgers!"
"Good looking out, bro." Jacob thanked before gesturing to the two Swan sisters standing on either side of him. "Seth, this is Bella and beside her is Paul's 'baby' he was moping about — clingy fucker he is. But anyway, Bella, Bay, this is Seth Clearwater, Leah's brother and newest member of the pack."
Grinning, Seth puffed out his chest. "Newest, bestest, brightest-"
Unable to resist, Jacob mocked him. "Slowest-" Then he grabbed Seth in a headlock and the two went tumbling down into the sand as they laughed and wrestled like a couple of rowdy pups playing under the summer sun.
That is, of course, until their Alpha whistled to catch their attention.
"Come on," Seth beckoned, understanding Sam's gesture and holding out an arm for Bailey to grab hold of so he could lead her further toward the roaring fire after he'd dusted the red clay from his cargo shorts and waved Jacob and Bella off dismissively. "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna introduce this one to the elders so Paul can stop whining already." Then upon receiving no words of protest, Seth walked Bailey through the wide ring of people until he came to a halt at the natural head of the circle in front of none other than Billy Black.
"Was waiting on you to show up," the familiar man who invited her over for dinner so very often announced as he smiled at a bundled-up Bailey shifting from foot-to-foot before him. "Wasn't sure that idiot boy of mine would get you here before this pack of bottomless pits ate all the food, but I'd say you're just in time for the good part and a few hotdogs if you're lucky."
"The good part?" Bailey echoed as she leaned down to accept Billy's warm hug. She pulled back from him with a curious expression on her pretty, cold-nipped face and side-eyed Seth beside her. "What is that, exactly?"
Seth grinned. Excitement flittered through his dark brown irises and he shared a knowing look with the elder in front of him before answering: "Storytime."
"Storytime?" Bailey repeated while looking to Billy for further explanation. Instead of giving it to her however, the tribesman simply smiled and shook his head.
"Go on and introduce her to Old Quil and your ma, now." He told Seth. "Sooner you hand her off to Paul, the sooner he'll stop glaring at you." Then with a playful threatening to nick their ankles with the wheels of his chair if they didn't hurry up, Bailey allowed Seth to lead her once more as she threw a sheepish smile over her shoulder to her petulant-looking Imprint from across the way.
"Bailey, this is Old Quil," Seth introduced the ancient, white-haired man who sat looking overwhelmingly brittle on a folding lawn chair and appearing quite deeply asleep before the sound of his name perked him up rather spryly for his age. Lifting his hunched back from the chair, the oldest of the Quileute council members opened his eyes and peered over at the young Swan girl with a curious, knowing spark in his otherwise dark and omniscient brown eyes and, for a second that almost felt like a lifetime, Bailey found herself both startled and absolutely entranced by it. The elder's gaze was both warm and cold — contradictory in a way that evidenced itself through the kindness of his eyes and the simultaneous disassociation that seemed to always come hand-in-hand with omniscience. She had never had someone look at her the way he did: as if he could see right past the barrier of her skin and into the very essence of her soul. Needless to say it was intimidating to be on the receiving end of, and so as he observed her in a way no one ever had, Bailey fought hard not to fidget under the intensity.
"H-Hello," she stuttered after a beat of loaded silence carried on in the space between them. Seth shuffled on her right and brushed his shoulder against her own in what she assumed to be meant as a gesture of comfort and it gave her the courage to continue further. "It- it's nice to meet you, sir."
"Little Wrenning-bird." Old Quil greeted in a deep, gravelly voice that sounded so rough Bailey worried it hurt his throat just to breathe. "I've heard much about you," he told her ominously. His cracked lips pulled up at the corners into a wavering, leathery smile and he spoke in that slow, unhurried pace that seemed to only ever develop with age. "The spirits speak of you often." His smile grew wider and he reached out to pat her on the hand. "One more so than others."
Wide-eyed and full of incredulity, Bailey struggled for words. "I-I, um... they do?"
"You have many protectors, Little Wrenning-bird," Old Quil confirmed only to confuse her further. "Many who watch from the shadows. You are a blessing, Ashkii Dighin*, and the ancestors favor you for it."
"Always so cryptic," a female voice interjected before their conversation could continue on any longer. A hand came into view to rest on Old Quil's shoulder and following it was a woman who shared the same nose and softness to her face as Seth and the same brown eyes and angular jaw as Leah.
"Sue Clearwater," she took the liberty of introducing herself and holding out her free hand for Bailey to shake. She then gestured to Seth with a proud smile once their hands had separated and proceeded to nudge him gently with her elbow. "This one's mother."
"Unfortunately for me..." Seth mumbled under his breath. Before he could face the consequences however, he darted in for a sweet kiss on his mother's cheek and dashed away with a loud laugh.
"Lovely to meet you," Bailey greeted as she watched him go, finding herself more than thankful for the Clearwater woman's timely interruption as it spared her from further confusion at the hands of Old Quil and his lack of propriety.
"You as well," Sue returned with a kind, motherly smile and a sweet look in her eye. "Now I promise I'm not trying to run you off sweetheart, but I think Paul might blow a gasket if I hold you up any longer than Old Quil already has," she explained with clear amusement in her tone.
Looking over her shoulder in the direction the recently widowed woman referred to, Bailey couldn't help the smile that overtook her lips at the sight of Paul sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes trained solely on her back all the while Embry kept poking his cheek or tugging on his earlobe in the efforts to rile him up further. His fists were clenched against the crooks of his elbows and Bailey could tell he was reaching his wit's end as his jaw repeatedly clenched and unclenched like it so often did any time he was frustrated or aggravated in any way, so opting not to make him wait any longer than he so graciously already had in fear of an imminent explosion, Bailey smiled and turned back to face the Council members in front of her.
"He can be such a baby sometimes," she murmured fondly as she tucked her hands into her coat pockets to shelter them from the cold. "But you're right; I should probably go to him now."
"Well don't let us stop you," Sue reassured her kindly. The older woman then patted Old Quil's shoulder to once more gain his attention from the slow closing of his eyelids and bring his focus back to Bailey. "I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of you after this anyway, sweetheart."
"Of course!" Bailey promised, granting both Quileute tribe members that signature bright smile of hers as she prepared to leave. "It was wonderful to meet you both!" She echoed.
Sue smiled. "Likewise."
However, just as Bailey turned on her heel with a parting goodbye, Old Quil's voice rang out behind her. "When the time comes, watch the flame," he called lowly.
Bailey paused and peered back at him from over her shoulder as their eyes met.
"Sometimes when you look close enough Ashkii Dighin*, you see things you never thought you could before."
Then before he could confuse her any further, Sue was quick to interrupt. "You go have fun with the others now, sweetheart!" Then she turned the white-haired elder to face her and Billy's disapproving gazes and ushered Bailey off with a wave.
"Thought you would never make your way over here," Paul grumbled as Bailey eventually stopped in front of him after her cryptic encounter with Old Quil came to a close and she had exchanged hugs and hello's with each member of the pack and their respective Imprints before finally reaching her own. "If I didn't know any better, I might've thought you were just gonna ignore me the whole freakin' night."
"Don't be silly," Bailey responded as she traded stifled smiles with a shy looking Quil who had taken the liberty of sitting on the stump of wood closest to Paul that Embry had previously occupied before he'd gotten up to grab another hot dog. "I would never ignore you."
"Sure didn't seem like it from here," Paul muttered all the while eying her grumpily and scowling at a point over her shoulder like a pubescent teen trying to actively avoid his parent's gaze.
Sighing under her breath, Bailey took slow steps toward him. "Would it make you feel better if I said I missed you?" she proposed sweetly. She then unbuttoned her coat and lifted the hanging fabric of her scarf from her stomach to show the cable-knit she wore underneath just long enough for him to catch a peek. "And that I changed into my pink sweater just for you because I know how much you like it?"
Paul tried hard to retain his anger, but at the sight of the soft pink sweater he thought paired so seamlessly with the golden tones of Bailey's wild hair, he found that he couldn't hold onto it for long. He still managed to look pouty and annoyed and more than nonplussed, but as his Imprint gifted him with that sweet little smile of hers that packed more than enough power behind it to bring even a God to his knees, it all faded to a cocky sort of smugness that had his lips lifting into the barest hint of a smirk.
"It helps," he muttered.
Bailey grinned and fell face-forward into his chest in much the same way a pup head-butts its playmates. "Well I really did miss you," she mumbled against his neck. "A lot, a lot."
Grinning at the memory of those same words, Paul held her tightly to him. "I missed you too, baby."
"Oh my god, is that really what we have to look forward to, man?" Embry piped up loudly as he returned with a hot dog in each hand and passed one off to Quil after taking a seat beside him. His eyes flashed back to Bailey and Paul and he granted the couple a mock look of disgust. "It's only been, like, four days since you last saw each other and you're already going on like it's been months! I mean, seriously guys, if finding your Imprint means turning into a lovesick wuss then I don't think I'm all that excited!"
"Who you calling wuss, runt?" Paul growled while pulling Bailey up to sit in his lap with her back pressed possessively against his chest.
Offended, Embry was quick to argue back. "Hey now, if anyone's the runt here, it's Seth!"
"Please," Quil piped up with the first genuine laugh he had exuded in weeks. "Have you seen your wolf next to his? Kids only fifteen and he's already twice your size."
"Oh, that is so not true!" Embry exclaimed hotly. "I'll have you know I measured and I'm exactly six foot-"
A sudden whistle cut through his words and echoed in the air.
"Shut up guys." Seth hissed, appearing seemingly out of nowhere with Jacob and Bella in tow. Bailey flashed her sister a smile as she took a seat on Paul's left and Jacob leaned against her knees from his perch on the ground. Meanwhile, plopping down beside the latter, Seth looked to who he considered his mentor and wiggled his brows. "Your dad's about to start."
Then sure enough, he did.
"The Quileutes have been a small tribe from the beginning..." Billy spoke as a hush fell about the circle. "...But we have always had magic in our blood."
Snuggling further back into Paul's embrace, Bailey took to observing the group around her with wandering eyes as she listened to the tribe's elder speak.
"We were great spirit warriors," he continued ominously in that deep, gravelly voice of his that held the perfect timbre for storytelling. "-shape-shifters who could transform into the powerful wolf. This enabled us to scare off our enemies and protect our tribe," he explained further, and as if his words and the dying coals of the fire were a beacon, Bailey found her gaze drawn to the flames licking at the teepee of logs set up to encompass it.
"One day our warriors came across a creature..."
Staring as if in a trance, Bailey could've sworn she saw the flames move. At first it was just a flicker, then as she stared harder and recalled Old Quil's warnings, she found herself able to make out the shapes of a forest of trees and a bright burning sun overhead.
Two Quileute warriors emerged from the brush. Standing in their human forms and adorned in traditional tribal dress with markings of strength and status painted on both their chests and faces, the two warriors stared horrified at the scene before them. What looked like a man sat hunched over in a break between trees. He was pale — so pale in fact, that his skin appeared as white and formidable as snow — and his eyes, bright and brilliant as they were, were both blood-red and feral. From a distance, he seemed to have done no harm. Upon a closer glance however, the two wolf-shifters could see the bodies of two lifeless tribal girls lying at his feet.
"It looked like a man, but it was hard like stone and cold as ice..."
Abruptly, the flames moved before Bailey's eyes.
The two warriors phased into their wolves — broke through to their second skin snarling and filled with vengeance and charged at the vampire before them. The vampire was quick to counter their attacks however, and after knocking one wolf into the trees behind him, he grabbed the other and began to strangle it. Meanwhile, seeing his pack brother losing his battle, the wolf thrown into the trees lunged and sank his teeth straight into the vampire's neck. He managed to tear his head clean off his shoulders, yet the success proved to be short lived because after looking down to his comrade's still body, the now lone wolf found it came at the expense of his fellow warrior's life.
"Our warriors' sharp teeth finally tore it apart... but only fire would completely destroy it," Billy continued on as Bailey fought back the tears that arose in her eyes. She could feel Paul squeezing her trembling body tightly, but despite the comfort it brought her, she found she still couldn't bring herself to look away from the flames as they continued to act out the tale of the Quileute tribe's sacred history right before her very eyes.
"They lived in fear that the Cold Man was not alone, and they were right."
A new figure emerged from the trees. In a tattered 1700's style Spanish gown, a beautiful Vampiress glided through the long houses and scattered teepees that made up the Quileute village with all the rapture of a fallen angel subjected to earth. Blood coated her mouth and ran in rivulets down her throat to soak the neckline of her dress, and though she was beautiful and otherworldly in all of her terrifying grandeur, the trails of dead bodies and shrill screams left in her wake proved her not an angel of any kind, but rather a hellish demon instead.
"She took her vengeance on the village. Our elder chief, Taha Aki, was the only spirit warrior left to save the tribe, after his son was killed."
Taha Aki, aged to what appeared to be his mid-sixties and garbed in a beaded chest plate and a feathered headdress, stood anguished over the still body of his young son. His third wife, a remarkably unremarkable woman with beautiful locks of long ebony, wept inconsolably next to his body. Seeing both his wife's torment and overcome with a slow-building torrent of rage, Taha Aki spun toward the Vampiress and took a running leap, lunging at the killer of his son and shifting midair. The two clashed with a deafening bang! and meanwhile, the third wife watched on in horror as the Vampiress was quick to gain the upper hand.
"Taha Aki's Third Wife could see that he would lose..."
This time it was Bailey's turn to watch in horror, because as she stared harder into the flames, she saw what the third wife planned to do.
Resolute in her need to come to her husband's aid, the Third Wife pulled out a long knife from under the buckskin skirt of her chieftain dress and ran to the creature wreaking havoc on her tribe. She ran fast, uninhibited by her fear of death, and went on unacknowledged by the Vampiress who paid no mind to her impending attack.
"The Third Wife was no magical being," Billy continued, flashing a look to both Bella and Bailey — the latter of which remained oblivious to it as she stared. "With no special powers but one: courage..."
With a shrill battle cry to precede her, the Third Wife charged the Vampiress with her dagger raised high. She ran with every intention to plunge the metal blade into the vampire woman's heart; however, shockingly, at the very last second as she came upon her, she plunged the knife into her own heart. Blood flowered on her chest like the prettiest rose, and the Vampiress, unable to resist the scent of her lifeblood flowing so freely for the taking, spun toward her ravenously.
"The Third Wife's sacrifice distracted the Cold Woman long enough for Taha Aki to destroy her." Billy spoke solemnly. "She saved the tribe."
Taha Aki, now a wolf, let out a frenzied howl and leapt onto the Vampiress. He ripped her apart ruthlessly with his teeth, unforgiving and indelible in his reign of terror upon her immortal body. At the same time, his wife, content as she was in her sacrifice, lay dying peacefully off to the side.
"Over time, our enemies have disappeared. But one remains — the Cold Ones..."
Bailey snapped out of it them. Released from the flames' spell, she blinked the tears from her eyes. Her body trembled as Paul hugged her tight and as she peered around at the faces in the circle surrounding her, she paused on Old Quil when his gaze met hers knowingly. For a second she held his stare.
After the second was over however, Bailey was quick to look away.
"Our magic awakens only when they come near. And we sense it now, feel the threat in our blood. Something terrible is coming and we must be ready."
Billy looked to the two Swan sisters as their fingers unconsciously entwined with one another's while Bailey held on tight.
"All of us," he added.
Then as the flames of the fire slowly died out, the ominous silence echoed on into the night.
• • •
*Ashkii Dighin- Navajo word for 'sacred child'
• • •
Author's Note
Hello everyone! So we're finally back in the swing of things and I couldn't be more happy about it! Things have been a bit slow lately, I know, but this chapter has finally put this story back on track and there's so many exciting new things to come! Also... QUIL HAS FINALLY BEEN RE-INTRODUCED AND ITS SO WONDERFUL AND I'VE BEEN ANTICIPATING THIS MOMENT FOR SO LONG!! However, on another note, Sorry sorry sorry sorryyyyy this took me so dang long again, but there was so much than needed to go into this chapter and I really wanted to perfect it so I spent these last two (three??) weeks editing and re-editing like crazy! Anywho, long chapter, but I'm admittedly quite proud of myself for how well this turned out! All that stuff aside though, just wanted to quickly say that I love and appreciate you all and thank you so much for being patient! I probs have the best readers in the world honestly!!
—Vanillarain13