“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s just...well, there’s been another attack—the wolves again. It was real close to the resort by the hot springs—there’s a witness this time. The victim was only a dozen yards from the road when he disappeared. His wife saw a huge gray wolf just a few minutes later, while she was searching for him, and ran for help.”
My stomach dropped like I’d hit a corkscrew on a roller coaster. “A wolf attacked him?”
“There’s no sign of him—just a little blood again.” Charlie’s face was pained. “The rangers are going out armed, taking armed volunteers. There’re a lot of hunters who are eager to be involved—there’s a reward being offered for wolf carcasses. That’s going to mean a lot of firepower out there in the forest, and it worries me.” He shook his head. “When people get too excited, accidents happen....”
“They’re going to shoot the wolves?” My voice shot through three octaves.
“What else can we do? What’s wrong?” he asked, his tense eyes studying my face. I felt faint; I must be whiter than usual. “You aren’t turning into a tree-hugger on me, are you?”
I couldn’t answer. If he hadn’t been watching me, I would have put my head between my knees. I’d forgotten about the missing hikers, the bloody paw prints....I hadn’t connected those facts to my first realization.
“Look, honey, don’t let this scare you. Just stay in town or on the highway—no stops—okay?”
“Okay,” I repeated in a weak voice.
“I’ve got to go.”
I looked at him closely for the first time, and saw that he had his gun strapped to his waist and hiking boots on.
“You aren’t going out there after the wolves, are you, Dad?”
“I’ve got to help, Bells. People are disappearing.”
My voice shot up again, almost hysterical now. “No! No, don’t go. It’s too dangerous!”
“I’ve got to do my job, kid. Don’t be such a pessimist—I’ll be fine.” He turned for the door, and held it open. “You leaving?”
I hesitated, my stomach still spinning in uncomfortable loops. What could I say to stop him? I was too dizzy to think of a solution.
“Bells?”
“Maybe it’s too early to go to La Push,” I whispered.
“I agree,” he said, and he stepped out into the rain, shutting the door behind him.
As soon as he was out of sight, I dropped to the floor and put my head between my knees.
Should I go after Charlie? What would I say?
And what about Jacob? Jacob was my best friend; I needed to warn him. If he really was a—I cringed and forced myself to think the word—werewolf (and I knew it was true, I could feel it), then people would be shooting at him! I needed to tell him and his friends that people would try to kill them if they went running around like gigantic wolves. I needed to tell them to stop.
They had to stop! Charlie was out there in the woods. Would they care about that? I wondered....Up until now, only strangers had disappeared. Did that mean anything, or was it just chance?
I needed to believe that Jacob, at least, would care about that.
Either way, I had to warn him.
Or...did I?
Jacob was my best friend, but was he a monster, too? A real one? A bad one? Should I warn him, if he and his friends were...were murderers? If they were out slaughtering innocent hikers in cold blood? If they were truly creatures from a horror movie in every sense, would it be wrong to protect them?
It was inevitable that I would have to compare Jacob and his friends to the Cullens. I wrapped my arms around my chest, fighting the hole, while I thought of them.
I didn’t know anything about werewolves, clearly. I would have expected something closer to the movies—big hairy half-men creatures or something—if I’d expected anything at all. So I didn’t know what made them hunt, whether hunger or thirst or just a desire to kill. It was hard to judge, not knowing that.
But it couldn’t be worse than what the Cullens endured in their quest to be good. I thought of Esme—the tears started when I pictured her kind, lovely face—and how, as motherly and loving as she was, she’d had to hold her nose, all ashamed, and run from me when I was bleeding. It couldn’t be harder than that. I thought of Carlisle, the centuries upon centuries that he had struggled to teach himself to ignore blood, so that he could save lives as a doctor. Nothing could be harder than that.
The werewolves had chosen a different path.
Now, what should I choose?
13. KILLER
IF IT WAS ANYONE BUT JACOB, I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, shaking my head as I drove down the forest-lined highway to La Push.