Chapter 5 - Friendship

Tara sifted through Carlisle's library during the early hours of the morning, looking for something to read. She found one of her favorite classics, The Count of Monte Cristo then curled up on a couch in the den to quietly enjoy her book. Before she could finish the first chapter however, Alice appeared out of nowhere greeting Tara as she strolled in the room. "Good morning!" she said with a suspiciously, cheerful grin on her face.
"Hey Alice," she replied as she looked up and smiled, she then returned her attention back to her book.
Tara had no idea that she was about be drafted for a makeover. Alice could no longer stand to see the girl go another day in the same outfit. It also bothered her that the girl's long stringy hair hung in her face. She described her to Edward as looking quite "homeless". In Tara's defense however, Edward reminded her that up until now, the girl was in fact homeless. She felt the girl was simply just a rare gem that just needed a little polishing and she decided it would be her mission to improve on the her appearance.
When Tara realized Alice was still standing there, her eyes slowly panned up from her book. The tiny vampire stood in front of her holding dress in one hand and had a very large grin on her face. "Are you busy? I thought we'd have some girl time. You can always read that later can't you?" Alice suggested.
Tara took a good look at the dress in Alice's hand. "Um...are we going somewhere?"
"Nope, I just thought…or well, I hoped, you'd let me give you a little makeover. Bella and Renesmee let me do it all the time and they love it." Or so she believed.
"Oh, well… I don't really do dresses," she said politely while staring at the frilly item, covered in pink and white lace. “I wouldn't be caught dead in that thing,” Tara thought.
"No problem, I've got lots of stuff that will fit you. Come on, be a sport, it'll be fun! I can do so much with your hair. It will look very fashionable, I promise. I found the perfect style for you." She held up a copy of Elle with a photo of Katy Perry on the front.
Tara's eyes widened. "You wanna give me a hair cut too?"
"Yes, you're in dire need of one - no offense." Alice ran her fingers through Tara's hair, checking for split ends.
"Why? What's wrong with my hair?"
"It just needs a little attention. Don't worry, I've done this before. You'll look adorable when I'm done with you. Pretty please?" Alice gave her a pair of sad eyes as she begged.
Tara remembered Bella mentioning that Alice loved fashion and had even been to beauty school recently. She didn't want to hurt her feelings so she agreed.
Alice grabbed Tara's hand and practically dragged her into the bathroom, which looked like she'd turned it into a mini salon.
"Uh, makeup too?" Tara really didn't like makeup.
"Just a tiny bit, I promise."
Tara reluctantly sat down to let Alice go to work. She washed Tara's hair in the sink, dried it and combed it through, getting all the snarls out. Then she cut it exactly like the picture. Her hands worked very fast. Once she finished blow drying and styling it, she worked on Tara's face, sticking to her promise not to overdo it with the cosmetics.
As the transformation process began, Alice rambled on about her life speaking of her love for Jasper, and how they found each other. She also mentioned how she spent years locked in an asylum and how she thinks she chopped off her hair while she was there. Tara took notice to Alice's wild, spiky hair-do. Though the edges were choppy and uneven, she thought she managed to make it work well.
When it was finished, Tara looked at herself in the mirror. She almost didn't recognize herself, especially since her eye color started changing now. They were no longer the intense burgundy she'd always known.
The makeover wasn't the worst thing she'd experienced she thought but not something she could see herself doing daily. She liked the simpler, much shorter hair style, stopping at her shoulders and cut off evenly all the way around.
"Well…what do you think?" Alice asked.
"I think I look almost… human."
Alice laughed.
After the sun had come up…..
Seth headed to the Cullen's late in the morning. He drove the old bike Jacob had put together for Bella when Edward was absent from her life. Jacob had decided to give it to him as a birthday present when he turned sixteen just two years ago. Seth happily accepted it and got his license so he could ride it legally. It was currently his only form of transportation but he loved his bike.
In the past three years, his bond with Jacob became almost inseparable. Seth frequently accompanied Jacob to the Cullen's home when he came to see Renesmee. He'd always been much more accepting of the Cullens than most of the wolves, developing a friendship with them that the rest of the pack considered unusual. The Cullens also considered him just as much of a member of the family as their own, especially Edward and Bella who felt very grateful for everything he did for them. This time however, Seth had a new reason for visiting the Cullen house. When Esme answered the door, he greeted her with a compliment. "Hey, Mrs. C. You look lovely today." He smiled. He simply adored Esme and she also cared for him and Jacob like they were one of her own.
"Why thank you, Seth." She smiled back. "Is everything ok? You really worried me the other night, when you ran off without even eating."
"Oh yeah…sorry, I just had some business to tend to. Nothing personal."
"Well I'm glad to hear that." She smiled. "Jacob and Nessie aren't here, though. You just missed them."
"Oh, that's okay. I was hoping I'd catch your house guest here. Is she in?"
"Yes, Tara's up in Nessie's room right now. Is there a problem?" she worried.
"Oh no. I just have something for her. A peace offering, you could say. Do you mind if I go talk to her?" he asked politely.
Esme opened the door wider to let him in. "Not at all. Come in," she smiled warmly.
"Thanks." He slipped in and dashed up the stairs, heading down the hall to the last room. As he got closer he heard a voice. Someone was singing and it came from Renesmee's room. He picked up Tara's scent and then quietly as he could he peeked in, pushing on the door slightly. Tara stood facing the back wall with her iPod on and ear-buds in both ears. She sang loudly while air-guitaring to her favorite rock music. He stood by the door, silently watching, amused at the vision. It didn't take her long at all to notice the familiar smell of wolf and stopped cold, turning around slowly to see who was there. Seth's presence startled her and she disappeared immediately.
He became nervous, putting his hands up as a peaceable gesture. "Hey, easy - no need to be scared. I'm the one who saved you remember?" Before he could blink, she had already zipped across the room and stood in front of him. It took him by surprise when she reappeared and he stumbled back a few inches. When she closed in on him, her head only came up to his chest but she stood up on her toes leaning in close. Seth froze as she stared him down.
She put her face up to his chest and inhaled. "Hmm, yes it was you then, the other one smelled much worse." Still only an inch away from his body, she stared up at him as he towered over her. "And, I'm not scared…wolf." Her eyes narrowed. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Uh…not even a minute really."
"Well, don't you know how to knock?" she frowned.
"S-sorry. I was about to," he paused changing the subject. "Um, sooo… we're you just, air-guitaring over there?" he grinned.
She looked embarrassed by the question. His unusual stare made her suspicious but she noticed something else; she detected no fear of in him, no scent of it at all. His heart beat steady and calm as well. She took a step back and turned on her heels to walk back to the bed, ignoring his question.
While she bent over to pick up her sketch book off of the floor, Seth gripped the front of his T-shirt, pulled it to his nose and sniffed. He wondered how bad he smelled to her. Then Tara sat down on the bed and started working on a drawing she started earlier, before being taken away by her music.
"So, what do you want then, a personal apology? I have no intentions to hunt on your land again if that's what you came to check on," she said, not even looking up from the paper. Her hand moved very fast as she drew.
He watched her intently. "Uh no, that's not why I'm here, though a thank you would be nice."
Her hand stopped moving and she slowly lifted her eyes from the paper. "Um...thanks," she said without showing a trace of emotion though she was thoroughly confused now, wondering why he was there.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment. "Uh, right." His eyebrows scrunched up as he spoke. "So, anyway, I have something for you…." He paused for a moment before entering. "Um, can I come in?" he asked politely.
She nodded and then watched him carefully as he stepped closer to her. Her eyes widened with curiosity as he fearlessly sat on the bed next to her. She remained perfectly still, bemused, wondering what he was up to. Seth reached into his pocket and took something out. He stretched his arm out to her and opened his fist exposing the gold necklace in his hand.
"My locket!" she gasped. Her fingers brushed his hot skin as she took it from him. She quickly pulled her hand back with a surprised look and stared at him for a moment, bewildered.
He smiled at her, hoping she was pleased. She looked down at the locket in her hand, staring at it for a moment almost in disbelief, thinking it was lost it forever.
Seth decided to break the awkward silence. "The clasp was busted, so I had to make a repair. I gave it a new one but it almost matches perfe….." Before he finished his sentence though, Tara leaped across the bed and hugged him tightly. It startled him but she was so quick he had no time to react.
"Um…Wow. Okay…," he said, gasping for air as she nearly crushed him with her embrace. Her reaction took him by surprise.
Tara gasped as she felt the heat from Seth's body, noticing it was much warmer than normal skin temperature. She quickly let go of Seth and shifted back further on the bed lowering her eyes and feeling embarrassed for doing that. "Ah…excuse me. I-I don't know what came over me."
"No worries," he chuckled as he rubbed his chest. It stung from the impact of her body slamming into him. "At least I know you're happy," he added. It was a better reaction than he expected from a vampire.
Tara became overwhelmed with emotion. Her most precious treasure had been returned by a stranger - but not just a stranger, a vampire killing machine and he'd come to give her the only valuable possession she owned. "I don't understand." She gave him a suspiciously glare.
"What's that?"
"How you found this and… why you brought it to me."
"Um, well I noticed you didn't have it around your neck the other night and I thought maybe it had fallen off when Paul hit you. It was quite an ordeal looking for such a tiny little thing. It landed in a pile of leaves. Good thing your scent was all over it still. I thought the rain would wash it away."
"You actually went looking for it? Why would you do that?"
He shrugged. "Because… I just thought it might be something important to you." He watched her expression. She still seemed baffled. "And maybe I'm just a nice guy," he added with a big grin.
"Well, I guess I just don't understand why you would be so nice. I mean you wouldn't even look at me the other night and the rest of the pack doesn't seem to like me much, so it just seems odd to me."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as rude and the pack…well, they're just doing their job is all."
"Isn't that your job too?" Why did you stop your friend from attacking me?
"Yeah but I didn't sense that you're a threat and I didn't want Paul to hurt you. I mean, you were only trying to hunt that big mountain lion. You obviously didn't know about the boundaries. I can't blame you," he shrugged.
She gave him an odd stare. "How did you know I was hunting a mountain lion?"
"Um… well cuz I saw it." He lied. Then he changed the subject quickly. "I have a lot of confidence in Edward and Bella. They seem to trust you so that's good enough for me."
"Oh."
She stared into his big brown eyes, believing him for some strange reason. His stare made her nervous so she casually looked down at the locket, rubbing her thumb over the initials on the front. He noticed her staring at the locket and wanted to ask her something that he was curious about. "So can I ask you something?"
She figured she owed him that much at least and nodded.
"Well, don't get mad but… I looked inside and I wondered… who are the people in the pictures?" He took the liberty of looking inside when he found it. "The woman looks very much like you," he added.
Her expression changed to a frown when he asked about the pictures of the man and the woman on either side of her locket. He worried that maybe he shouldn't have invaded her privacy. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
Tara kept looking at the locket not speaking but then she decided to answer his question. "My parents…." She looked up at his face to see his reaction. "Those were my parents." Her expression remained sullen.
"Oh." It was what he suspected. He noticed she used the past tense, guessing they were no longer alive. He also noticed something else about the photo as well. "So you're mother was Native American?"
Her eyes focused on him. "Yes."
Seth examined Tara's facial features, trying to imagine her with darker skin like his. It astonished him because he never before imagined one of his tribe being turned but it made him realize that it was a real possibility for them.
"Hmm, I guess I didn't really notice before. You're such a pale-face now." He winked.
Tara gave him a disturbed look and he worried that the comment bothered her "Oh, I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."
She shook her head. "No, it's not that it's just… my mother used to call my dad that name, jokingly of course. It was kinda of her pet name for him."
"Well, I won't say that anymore if it bothers you."
"It doesn't. Don't worry about it. You just made me remember something I forgot for a long time is all."
"I take it they're both gone now?" he said, figuring they were probably no longer alive.
"Long gone," Tara said in a low voice, looking down again.
"Hey, I know how much it hurts to lose a parent, I can't imagine losing both."
Tara's expression softened. "My locket is the only thing I have left of them. Thank you for finding it for me…Seth Clearwater." Her eyes met his with sincerity.
It was the first time she'd said his name and he liked it. "You're welcome, and it's just Seth. I'm flattered you even remembered," he smiled.
"Well, I happen to remember everything," she said smugly as she unclasped the chain and put it around her neck.
"Looks good as new," he said smiling at her.
Seth's eyes warmed her mood. She wondered how old he was, looking at his boyish face. Based on his size and frame, she guessed he was about twenty in human years. As she found herself getting lost in his stare. Seth became a bit nervous when there was a silent lull so he tried to think of something a little more cheerful to talk about. He spotted her ipod on the bed.
"So what were you listening to there before I came in?" he said as he pointed at the tiny gadget. "Do you mind if I have a look?"
She stared at his open palm and then lifted her eyes to his. He seemed nice enough that she could trust him so she handed the tiny device over, purposefully placing one hand under his and slowly dropping the iPod in his palm with the other hand. Her fingertips tingled as she touched his heated skin.
"Thanks," he responded warmly. Then he browsed through the music list. "Hmm let's see…. Elvis eh?" He made his lip curl up like The King and she chuckled shaking her head. "Mmm, I like the Beatles too," he said but as he scrolled through a few more, he didn't recognize most of them. "Uh...Chuck Berry and the Platters?" He scrunched his face.
"Yes, I like oldies. They're all more from my time."
"So how did you get your hands on one of these anyways? I know they're not cheap and I heard you lived alone at a school."
"Oh… well, let's just say it's kinda handy when you can go completely undetected at times."
"Ah, so you stole it?" His right eyebrow popped up as he gave her a sly grin. "My-my, such a little thief, I bet some poor student is probably searching the lost and found right now, hoping some kind soul will return it to him," he teased.
"No, actually it's more like some poor employee at Best Buy is stressing over his inventory."
"Oooh, now that's a misdemeanor," he tried to say with a straight face, "Maybe I should keep my eye on you, maybe you are trouble." He teased.
"Tsk! Whatever!" she clucked, reaching over to grab her iPod from him.
He just moved away from her and turned his head looking her in the eye. "Ah-ah…hold on, I'm not done!"
She grabbed at his hand to take it but he playfully switched it to his other one. She became inpatient with him and leaped on top of him gripping the hand that held the iPod tightly.
He realized she was much too strong to fight back. "Um…ow. That hurts a little," he said as she squeezed his wrist.
She leaned into his face. Her breath was as cool as her icy skin when she spoke. "You really shouldn't tease a vampire. It's a very dangerous thing to do," she hissed.
Seth trembled under her realizing he'd pushed her too far. "I-I'll try to remember that." He stared closely at her eyes and then realized what was different about her. Her eyes were blood red the last time he saw her. They'd darkened to an almost brownish color now.
She cocked her head to the side, staring at him. Then she smirked and pried the iPod from his hand. "Don't worry Seth, I won't hurt you." She backed off letting him up.
He exhaled rubbing his wrists. "Who's worried?"
"You know, stealing is hardly the worst thing I've ever done… or could do, for that matter." She said trying to intimidate him.
He realized what she meant by her comment. "I'm sure I know what you're capable of, however I don't see you as a monster like you might think."
Tara's eyes narrowed again. "Is that so? What do you see me as then?"
"Mmm, how about a friend?" he suggested, hoping she'd accept.
"You're asking to be my friend?" she looked puzzled.
"Well yeah, I figured, since you owe me and all," Seth raised an eyebrow.
"I don't understand. Why would you want to be friends with me?"
"Um…well I guess if you're not interested…" he sounded disappointed.
"That's not what I said," she snapped.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Do I need more of reason? Look, the Cullens are my friends so I thought we could be as well…. if you want."
She stared at him silently for a moment, confused by his actions. She couldn't figure out why he behaved so peculiar. The unusual stare and silence made Seth start to feel as though he wasn't really wanted there. "If you just want me to leave, I can just take off. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you," he said sourly and started to get up and walk away. She didn't want him to leave though.
"Seth - wait!" she ordered. He turned back to towards her."I suppose I shouldn't turn you down…. since I owe you for finding my locket."
"And saving you," he added.
"Stay," she requested. He thought for a second and then walked back over to the bed, standing there nervously.
"Sit," she ordered. "I promise I won't bite." She smirked, keeping her eyes on him as he sat back on the bed next to her and slowly turned his eyes her face.
"I'm very curious about you. You're my first human...friend." She felt odd calling him that. "I never actually speak to humans."
"Why not?" he asked.
She leaned a little closer to him. "Do you ever talk to you food?" She looked in his eyes to see his reaction. He shook his head nervously.
She grinned while looking him over. "Though…you're not entirely human either," she pointed out.
Seth shook his head staring at her face. "No, I'm not."
"You smell different from humans, also."
"You mean I smell bad." He remembered her words from earlier.
"You should be thankful… I normally wouldn't tolerate being this close to a human without considering them for a meal."
Seth gulped and his eyebrows scrunched together.
"Also…I noticed your heartbeat is much calmer today," she added. "Well...at least it was up until a few seconds ago." She grinned pleased with herself.
"Huh?" He tensed up.
"The first night you were here, you're heart was racing like the wings of a humming bird. Do I make you nervous?" she wondered.
"Uh no, not really.” He lied. “How do you even know it was me anyways?"
"Because when you disappeared, the room quieted down. I knew it was you then."
"Oh ..yeah, um…I wasn't feeling well. I just needed some air." He looked away feeling awkward about it.
"I got the impression you didn't want to be around me. I thought maybe I spooked you or something."
He chuckled. "Um, no offense, but I've actually been around scarier vampires than you."
Her eye brow went up. "Is that so - and who might that be?" she mused.
"The Volturi."
Tara snickered. "Mmm, the Volturi,…yes…they are a scary bunch." She spoke in a mocking tone since she used to be one. He obviously didn't know that however. "You're all lucky to still be alive. When the Volturi show up at your door like that, you don't usually live to tell about it."
"Yeah well I think they were more scared of us. They may be very powerful but I don't think they were ready to face a pack of angry wolves that were teamed up with some very gifted vampires."
"Maybe so. Aro's not one to get into a battle, he'll avoid it if possible. He likes an easy kill, one where he has the advantage. That's why he likes to collect vampires with talents that serve his purpose," she explained.
"You seem to know a lot about them."
The corners of Tara's mouth turned down. "Let's just say I've encountered them more than I'd like to." She said realizing he didn’t know much about her past.
"Same here," Seth agreed.
An awkward silence came over the room again. Tara found herself curiously fascinated by Seth's presence and his unusual kindness towards her. She also still wondered about his unusually warm body heat. She never remembered humans being quite that hot. They were warm to the touch but Seth's skin was like a blazing fire against hers. She inquisitively reached for his hand to touch his skin. He almost jerked it away but waited, trusting her to see what she was about to do. Her fingertips gently skimmed over the top of his hand, making the hairs on his arm stand strait up. "Forgive my curiosity but… are all of your kind so warm?"
Her cool touch gave him goose bumps. "Yes…we're always like that. It's a wolf thing."
"Is that uncomfortable for you?" She turned his hand over studying his palm.
He started to relax, enjoying her inquisitiveness. "It was at first it was, but not anymore. How about you - are you uncomfortable being so cold?"
She pulled her hand away quickly at the mention of her coldness. "Uh, well no…I'm dead. Cold feels normal to me."
"Hmm… well last I checked, dead people don't talk, or sing or air-guitar," he smirked.
Tara reached for his hand and pressed it to her chest, placing it over her dead heart and holding it there. "What do you feel?" She spoke with a soft and soothing voice.
"Umm…" he paused becoming nervous and speechless.
"No heartbeat?" Her eyebrow rose.
"Uh, no," he spoke softly.
"That's because I'm not alive." She watched his expression, expecting him to become withdrawn but he didn't.
"Well that's only because certain parts of your body that have ceased to function, but you're obviously alive. Your soul is still there, right? Otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you right now. So my theory is …you're just something different."
She let go of his hand but he didn't move his. His receptiveness made her apprehensive. It was something she was not used to with humans. "You're very interesting." Her eyes narrowed.
"Really? Is that good or bad?" he asked as he pulled is hand away slowly.
"I'll let you know."
Seth smiled at her, hoping she would. "So then, what are your plans while you're here in Forks?" he pried.
Tara shrugged. "I have no plans really. I've been a little reluctant to venture off by myself since…well… you know. And since Renesmee went to the Reservation with Jacob for a few hours and Edward and Bella won't be back for couple hours… I guess I just plan to hang here for a bit at least until they return. Bella promised to show me around Forks though. I'm kinda looking forward to getting out."
"Oh… I see." he nervously looked down at the bed. "Uh, well …do you like motorcycles?"
"Sure." Tara wondered why he would ask such a question.
"Great, then… how about if I show you around Forks? If you'd like…." He looked to see her reaction.
Tara stared at him not saying anything, boggled by his amity towards her.
"What? You still don't trust me?"
She looked at him skeptically. "I'm still trying to figure you out."
"Well you can figure me out while we're getting to know each other. So, how 'bout it?" When he held out his hand to her, she looked at it like it was an alien probe.
"Umm... I dunno…are we supposed to be doing that?" Tara never thought in a million years she would befriend a human, especially one that could mutate into a giant wolf. She felt like she was doing something completely illegal.
"Yes, it's fine. We're friends now. Come on - I think Edward has an extra helmet in the garage too. Esme won't mind if we get it."
She contemplated for a few seconds. She wasn't sure why, but she was very interested in taking a ride with her new acquaintance. "Alright then, but I won't need a helmet." She put her iPod down and slowly got up from the bed. "I would like to change into something a little more suitable however… if you don't mind. Alice kinda got to me last night. She thinks I'm her new dress up doll or something."
Seth chuckled. "Oh I see. Yeah, I've heard that about Alice from Ness. You look really good though. Maybe a bit overdressed for a bike ride, but it's a good look for you. I like the hair. It was covering your eyes too much before."
"Thanks," she said, being very coy.
"I'll wait for you downstairs," Seth offered, giving her some privacy.
She slipped into Renesmee's closet looking for a top and grabbed her jeans. Tara's head nearly spun as she thought about the unusual turn her life had taken since arrived in Forks. “So much for dull and boring,” she thought.
Seth drove Tara through town showing her all of the 3.1 square miles of the small city. It reminded her very much of a tiny little town called Milton, where her grandmother lived. Then they headed south on the 101, cruising several miles down the coast of the Pacific. Tara looked out towards the ocean enjoying the feel of the cold air blowing through her hair.
Seth pulled into a tourist stop near the edge of the coast, overlooking a breathtaking view of the ocean. He removed his helmet after turning off the engine."So what'dya think?" he asked.
"It's beautiful," she replied hopping off the bike and then walked closer to the edge admiring the view. She took in every detail remembering it for later for when she could copy it to her sketch book. A light breeze hit her face and she inhaled the smells of the cool, salty air.
Seth walked over and watched her as she seemed to get lost in the scenery. He chuckled.
"What…?" She looked at him curiously.
"You should have worn the helmet. You should see your hair. Alice will be mad," he chuckled, looking at her new wind-blown hairdo.
"No problem," she said as she grabbed a hair band from her pocket. She pulled her hair back and wrapped it around the ponytail.
Seth smiled at her as she studied him. "You seem unusually comfortable around vampires. I find that odd," she said.
Seth shrugged. "The Cullens are cool. They've been like family to me. We have a lot of history."
"Yes, I saw that from Ness's visions. You defended them too. I find that admirable."
"Well after all we'd been through with them, we weren't about to let those vamps come to town and start killing our friends unjustly."
"So how do you know I'm not just like those other vamps?" Tara leaned against the railing that bordered the cliff's edge. Her face became more serious.
"Like I said, I trust Edward and Bella's judgment." Then he leaned in a bit closer to her. "Plus your eyes look different today. I think you've changed your diet."
"How very observant of you," she said, crossing her arms.
"How's that going for you?" he wondered.
"Mmm, it will take some getting used to. I feel like I have to feed more often. Edward says that will fade as I get used to it, as well as the agitation."
"Agitation?
"Yeah from the change… always feeling hungry when you're not. It'll pass."
"You seem to be handling it quite well. Is it really that difficult? I mean blood is blood right? What's the diff?"
"The diff is, it's not the same. Tell you what, try eating nothing but apples for a whole week and tell me how you feel."
"That's not so hard, I like apples."
"Heh, okay! Well I doubt you will after a whole week," she grinned.
Just then the cell phone in her pocket vibrated. It was the one Esme gave her for emergencies. She almost forgot it was even there. Renesmee's name popped up on the caller ID. "Hey Ness," she answered cheerfully then paused as Renesmee talked.
"Oh sorry, I didn't know when you'd be back and Seth offered to take me for a ride…Yeah, we're somewhere on the coast."
Another pause.
"Ok hold on…." She held the phone out to Seth. "She wants to talk to you."
"Hey Ness." he said. After another long pause he spoke to her again. "Really? Yah, we'll come. See you in a while…hey did you bring food? Cuz I'm starving."
Tara remembered how humans needed to eat every few hours. She realized what that grumbling noise she heard was now.
"Kay, see you soon," he said to her before ending the call. "Ok, come on," Seth said as he headed back to the bike waving his hand for her to follow him.
"Where we going?" she asked.
"You'll see," he grinned, nodding for her to follow and get back on the bike.
He returned to the 101 and drove several miles north, finally coming to a dirt road and turned. For a long while she saw only trees and then finally there was a break ahead, seeing patch of sky in the distance. They rode above the shore line, on top of the cliffs, bordering the beach.
Seth parked his bike, allowing Tara to hop off first. He secured his helmet to the seat and started walking towards the cliff. "This way," he said, leading her to a path.
As they got closer to the ocean, Tara heard voices more clearly. She recognized two of them for sure. As they neared the sounds, she saw Renesmee, Jacob and a couple of other boys atop of the cliff. Two of the boys hurled themselves off the cliff while howling.
"Tara!" Renesmee called as she ran over with a welcoming smile. She smiled back.
Jacob followed right behind Renesme and greeted Seth with a high-five. "W'sup guys! I'm glad you made it. Ness really insisted Tara came so she wouldn't be the only girl."
"Oh and I texted mom so she'd know you were here with us too. She also said something about the museum tomorrow..." Renesmee mentioned in a questioning tone.
"Oh, right. She must mean the one in Seattle," she said as she curiously watched Seth pull off his shoes and socks. He looked like he was going to join the other boys in jumping off the cliff. "Ah, so what on the agenda…are you all committing suicide today?" She joked.
Seth laughed. "Hardly. Just some cliff jumping. It's fun you should try it."
Just then, Tara noticed the two boys that had jumped a few minutes ago had already climbed back up onto the cliff. She figured they must be part of the pack since no human could climb those rocks with that speed and strength. Both the boys came over to greet Seth and he introduced them. "This is Embry and Quil," he said introducing the two dripping wet boys to her.
They didn't appear to be cold, but she knew the water temperature had to be glacial. Both boys stared at Tara apprehensively, knowing what she was, but eventually greeted her with a nod.
"Are you jumping?" Quil asked nervously.
"Well I wasn't exactly planning on getting wet today." She stood in a very neutral position as she spoke with him with her hands behind her back.
"Ha! Wuss! What kinda vampire are you anyway? Oh I know….you're just like Rosalie…probably don't wanna mess up your makeup." Jacob teased, happy to have a new vampire to pick on now that Rosalie was away.
Tara became annoyed and gave him a dirty look. She bent over to pick something off the ground. "Oh look Jake….." She held up a twig waving it in front of his face. Then she threw it over the edge. "Fetch!" She smirked at him. It went out so far they couldn't even see where it landed in the water. Seth and the others started to snicker.
"Cute one, Elvira. No problem, though. Why don't you just stay up here and guard our food. I know I don't have to worry about you eating any of it."
"You're right about that… I don't like kibble," she snapped back.
Jacob grinned. "Hey Tara, you know how a werewolf says goodbye to a vampire?"
Tara crossed her arms and frowned.
"So long - sucker!" Then Jacob flipped backwards off the ledge.
Renesmee rolled her eyes. "You should just ignore him. He really hates being ignored." Then she followed him off the edge into the icy water, squealing as she fell. Jacob waited for her at the bottom then they raced to climb back up. Renesme beat Jacob by a long shot.
Tara stood at the edge of the cliff, peeking down over the edge with her arms still folded. "Well? Wanna try it?" Seth pressed, nodding his head towards the cliff.
"Hmmm," She cocked her head to the side. "It's an awful long way down," she said in teasing tone.
"You're not too scared I hope." One eye brow popped up as he smirked.
"Hardly," she replied. Her mouth flattened in a straight line.
"By the way, isn't this water just a little too cold for humans?" she wondered.
"The cold doesn't bother me. I happen to like cold things," he grinned stepping towards her while looking at her reaction.
Her eye brow popped up and she cocked her head to the side. "Oh...is that so?"
"Mmm-hmm," he mumbled. "So... how about it then? Ladies first?" he gestured with his hands.
"That's okay….why don't you just show me how it's done," she said putting her hands on her hips.
"Sure, sure. Just watch the pro." Seth bragged before pulling his t-shirt over his head and tossing it on the ground. "Well ok, here goes nuthin!" he said getting ready to charge.
Tara became distracted as she stared at his muscular chest. She watched as he stepped back a little, getting ready to lunge forward. He dashed for the edge of the cliff but then quickly turned back around reaching for Tara around her waist. He wrapped his arms around her spinning her and then jumping off with her in his arms. Half-way down, she shoved him back and flipped her body around entirely doing a perfect dive into the water. When he surfaced, he looked around for her but she didn't come up to the top. He looked around frantically. It seemed like a very long time for any normal person to be under water, but not for a vampire. Jacob and the others watched curiously from the top of the cliff.
“Where is she? There's no way she could have drowned.” Seth thought. Just as he started swimming inland, he felt something at his feet. It grabbed him and pulled him down under the water.
"Seth!" Jacob yelled in a panic. He leaped off the edge, diving into the water. The others watched nervously from the top. When Jacob surfaced he looked around in a panic. "Seth!" he yelled again.
Suddenly, Seth's body vaulted up in the air and fell back down further out in the ocean, landing with and enormous splash.
Tara swam so quickly, she was already at the bottom of the cliff when his body came back down and hit the water. She leaped up on the rocks and climbed them with dexterity. Seth's head finally popped out of the water, slightly stunned but unharmed by the throw. Renesmee and the other boys just looked at each other and then laughed hysterically.
Jacob snickered as Seth swam by him. "Wow dude, guess she showed you who's Boss!" Jacob teased.
"Shut up!" Seth shoved Jacobs head under and tackled him.
When Tara reached the top of the cliff and pulled herself over the edge Renesmee held her hand out for a high five. She smiled and slapped her hand. "Nice one," she laughed.
Seth climbed back up and sloshed past Renesmee dripping wet. "That was awesome Seth, I didn't even know you could fly," she said with a big grin.
"Shut it, squirt!" He messed up her hair as he passed and then walked over to Tara. She was sitting on the ground, wringing out a sock. "Now that wasn't very nice of you," he said with his arms folded, trying to be serious.
She didn't even look up at him. "Mmm, well….you're the one who thought it would be funny to throw me over a cliff." She said angrily.
He smirked. Then turned and grabbed some towels that spotted. He walked back over to her and put one over her shoulders.
"I'm not cold," she snapped at him, shoving it off still not making eye contact. She continued wring out the other wet sock. Pieces of wet hair stuck to her face and little droplets of water dripped off her chin.
He grabbed the towel again and plopped it back on her head. "You're dripping though."
She yanked it off and then gave him a dirty look as she combed her fingers through her wet hair, brushing it back.
He smiled as he dried his head with the other one. Then he squatted down next to her. You know I kinda thought you were gonna stop me, but you didn't."
Her eyes darted up at him, realizing she wasn't even alarmed when he grabbed her. "Mmm, well I guess I just thought I could trust you…since we're supposed to be friends and all," she said, still irritated.
"Well, I think we're even now. How about we call a truce and start over?" he held his hand out for a truce.
She ignored it and looked away. "I warned you about the teasing, didn't I?" she grumbled.
"Hmm, so you did. Guess I forgot." He pulled his hand back and smiled at her still. "So how 'bout it? Please?" he said nicely.
After a moment she sighed and finally gave in. "Fine," she threw her towel at him then reached in her pocket and pulled out a small electronic device that dripped water. She pitched it at him. "But you better explain this to Esme."
"Ah, Sorry. I forgot all about your phone," he said feeling guilty now.
Suddenly, Seth's stomach growled loudly.
"What was that?" she said.
"That's my stomach. I'm starving." Seth looked around searching for food.
Tara spotted a cooler and pointed. "You should look in that box over there. I just saw one of your friends grab some sort of dead carcass out of it," Tara said in all seriousness.
"Huh?" Seth looked at her as though she spoke in a foreign language.
"Chicken, I think it was chicken." She corrected herself.
"Oh…right," Seth chuckled. He walked over to the cooler and opened the lid, reached in to grab some food and can of soda and then returned to sit sat down next to Tara. "You're right… chicken." He waved a drumstick at her. "I bet Edward made these. He's a great cook."
"He is?" Tara thought about how odd it was for a vampire to have culinary skills but then she realized he probably learned to cook for Renesme since she also consumes human food.
"Yup, sure is. Oh, looks like Ness made the cookies though." He looked at the black underside of one. Renesmee was a terrible cook. No matter how hard she tried, she always burned things. Jacob always teased her saying she obviously didn't inherit the cooking gene that the rest of them had.
Tara smiled and curled her knees into her chest as she watched the others still leaping off the cliff. Though the other boys seemed to make her feel on edge, she felt unusually comfortable around Seth. It was almost impossible for her to resist his amiable personality.
"So…. can I ask you something else? Seth became more serious.
"Are we playing twenty questions today?" she replied still looking out at the ocean.
"Um, I dunno, have I reached my limit yet?"
She grinned rolling her eyes. "No, its fine, go ahead and ask."
"Okay, how old are you?"
She paused for a second looking at her strangely curious human friend. Then she responded. "In human years or vampire years?"
"Both."
"I was turned when I was exactly sixteen and I've been this way for fifty-four years."
"Wow, seventy. That's old!" he joked.
She smiled smugly. "Actually I'm considered young, for a vampire."
"Yeah, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Jasper and Carlisle have been around a really long while."
"Yes, they have."
He paused for a moment taking a drink, thinking about asking her some more questions. "So…how did it happen?" He pried again.
"What?"
"Ah, you know…" he paused hoping she'd understand he wanted to know how she became a vampire.
"Oh…" She looked surprised. "You really wanna hear about that?"
"Only if you wanna tell me."
Tara paused again thinking as she stared at the horizon. She was a little hesitant to tell him the story. No one had ever asked her before. She sighed and her face became more serious as she began to speak. "My parents took me to Italy for my sixteenth birthday. My father wanted to surprise me with an extravagant tour of this exclusive art museum of some kind." She paused again. Pain filled her eyes as she stared ahead. "First they killed my mom. Then when one of them came after me, my father pushed me out of the way… but they killed him too."
"Who"? Seth imagined some mad gunmen or something.
She turned her head, looking him square in the eyes. "Vampires." Her face looked cold and hard and her eyes darkened with her mood. His expression suddenly changed to surprise and then quickly turned to horror as she continued on. "I was bitten, but it didn't kill me. I hid, somehow. I don't know how but I guess once the venom was in me I was changed. I just remember my father telling me to hide so I crawled under a table and laid there, watching them kill everyone in the room. The only thing that went through my mind was just to try and become invisible or something. I just prayed they wouldn't see me. They should have found me otherwise. They only did later, once the change was completed. I wandered around, confused, hungry…not knowing what happened to me. Then I finally realized… I was one of them."
Seth's heart sank looking at Tara with a sympathetic expression. He couldn't imagine what she must have gone through watching her parents be murdered by vampires. "I'm so sorry. I feel bad for asking now. I can see it's making you uncomfortable talking about it."
Tara shook her head looking down. "It's fine. Ask anything you like of me. If you wish to be my friend, you should know what I am."
Seth paused for a moment before he thought of his next question. "So, they left you alone once they knew you were turned? Did you escape?"
"No, not right away. I couldn't leave and my power was weak at the time. I didn't even know I had a gift right away. I was so confused. Aro took me in…he favored me. He admired my ability, desiring to use it to his benefit. He took me in and tamed me and then taught me how to accept my new life and how to survive. He and the others helped show me to use my gift….how to manipulate people's minds."
"Aro?" He remembered that name well. "The Volturi did this to you?"
"Yes."
Seth's blood boiled. He understood Tara's dislike for the Volturi now.
She continued on. "I didn't know what else to do. My parents were dead, I couldn't return home, I had no one and I was…. hungry. They weren't about to just let me go and leaving the Volturi is difficult. I needed to feed and the thirst was unbearable. They only fed me when I did what they wanted. Eventually I just…stayed. They treated me like I was one of their own. I just…became one of them. Once they trusted me enough, they used me to do their dirty work for them. Since I could conceal myself in the daytime they used me to lure people into their place. I brought the unsuspecting tourists right in for them. They never saw it coming." Tara looked down in shame and then continued her telling her story. "One day I finally realized I had become the monster that killed my parents and the next day that they sent me out, I never came back. I stayed in the sunlight for years living in the sunniest parts of the world hoping they wouldn't follow. Then eventually I just found my way back to home town in hopes to find something or someone I was familiar with. The hardest part was when I wandered into our family cemetery and found, not only the tombstones of my parents, but my own as well. Everyone I'd ever known believed that I was dead."
Tara glanced over at Seth who looked like he'd just finished watching a gory horror flick. She also noticed he'd stopped eating his food. "I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have told you all that. You look like you're about to puke."
"Uh no, no. it's okay. I can handle that part. I just can't imagine what you must have gone through. It's the most tragic thing I've ever heard."
Tara still looked puzzled by his compassion. "It was terrifying, like a horrible nightmare I couldn't wake up from. I didn't even know what it was that attacked us. To think such creatures even existed, was unfathomable. The only vampire I'd ever seen in my life was in an Abbott and Costello film, which was a pretty silly portrayal of Count Dracula."
"Abbott and who?" he asked, unfamiliar with the actor's names.
"Costello." She giggled. "Don't tell me you never heard of them."
Seth shrugged. "Um, no…should I?"
Tara shook her head in disbelief. "It's a Classic. You'd get a kick out of it. It's got a wolf man in it too."
"Heh! Really? That sounds good. I'll have to see that one." Seth was thinking he'd probably sit and watch the weather channel with Tara if she was even the slightest bit interested. He continued with his questions again. "So, you just stopped hunting humans once you left?"
She shook her head looking away. "It wasn't that simple. For a while, to avoid killing the innocent, I went to prisons and jail houses. I felt less guilty about killing criminals. Only problem is, it started gaining attention. Too many prisoners were missing or found dead. I was drawing too much attention to myself so I had to move around a lot. Then I just decided that blood banks would be the simplest thing. It kept me out of trouble."
"Makes sense," he said. "So how long has it been...since you've um…" He couldn't get the word out.
"Killed?" she finished for him.
"Yeah."
"You're a very curious creature. Why do you wish to hear all of this?"
"I'm just trying to understand. Do you mind?" His eyes looked soft and sincere.
"No…I don't mind." She took in a deep breath before continuing. "It's been about twenty-three years for me, with one only accident and then never again since."
He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. He seemed to want to know everything so she didn't stop. She was curious at how much information he could take in before he became disgusted with her.
"There was a rapist on the campus a few years ago. He was killing his victims. I didn't bother to get involved or anything. It's not my place to interfere with the humans but one night I heard the screams. I was curious so when I went to see where they came from and I then saw him. He was strangling a young girl in her dorm room. Don't know what came over me but I just….attacked. It was that last time I ever fed on a human. I was too late to save the girl's life though."
"What about the rapist?" Seth wondered.
Her eyes darkened. "They never found his body. I made sure of it." He detected a hint of pleasure when she spoke of the event. A chill surged through Seth's spine. "Am I'm freaking you out yet?" she asked.
"No."
"No? None of this bothers you?"
"You rid the world of a killer. Why should that bother me?"
"Because, I killed a human being!"
"Anyone that can rape and murder a young girl doesn't really qualify as a human being to me. Maybe you just did the world a favor."
Tara stood up, frustrated. "Don't talk like that. I can't justify killing people no matter what they've done. Don't make me sound like a hero for it." She started to tremble. His reactions were not what she expected.
Seth stood up and touched her arm. "Hey, I'm sorry. I've very opinionated and I think a little differently than the others but you're right, I shouldn't justify it. All I'm trying to say really is that I understand. Don't be angry, okay?"
Tara focused on his hand the moment he touched her. His skin blazed against hers. Looking back at him she tried not to think about it, and nodded. She stared at his face looking as though she wanted to speak, but hesitated.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You have a good soul. You're honest."
He smiled at her. "Thanks. So does that mean you trust me now?"
"Perhaps," she smirked.
He decided to change the subject and lighten the mood a little. "Okay then... how about we go jump some more...since you're already wet and all."
Tara slowly turned her eyes in his direction and gave him a crooked smile. All her frustration and irritation left as he spoke. "Ok, but last one down get's the back seat on the way back!" She sprung up and began to run.
"Oh hell no!" Seth charged after her.

Later on…
Tara was trying to get Seth to let her drive the bike home since he lost all the races she challenged him to. Seth was already on the bike ready to head out. "Come on! I beat you six times. A deal's a deal!"
"Um… I don't recall actually agreeing to your little bet."
"Then why did you keep racing?" She had her hand on the handle grip right next to Seth's.
"Cause you kept making me!" he complained.
"Please?" she begged.
"No."
"Fine….I'll just walk back to Forks." She turned to leave.
"Tara, you don't even have a license!"
She jumped back over to him, cupping her hands together. "Ok, just to the interstate then?"
Seth sighed and dropped his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this." He moved his arm so she could hop on scooted back on the seat. Her eyes lit up and she jumped on the bike. Seth just shook his head. As he put his arms around her waist, he inhaled a whiff of her hair. It smelled sweet like fresh strawberries and honey, he thought.
Tara let up on the clutch and pulled back on the throttle. She didn't wobble at all and kept perfect balance as she drove up the dirt road several yards. The small engine revved into a high-pitch sound, barely climbing above twenty five miles per hour. Seth put his lips up to her ear though he knew her perfect ears would be sufficient enough to hear him. "Uh, have you ever driven a motorcycle before?"
"Of course. I stole one in Italy, once," she shouted over the whining buzz of the engine.
"What kind was it?"
"A Vespa, why?"
"A what? Ok wait, stop…stop...STOP!" Seth reached over Tara and grabbed the handles taking control. He sighed. "Ok, this is not a scooter, you have to change gears."
"Oh yeah…that's this over here by my foot right?"
"Yeah, um...maybe I should take over now," he suggested worrying about his bike.
"No, no, come on really…I can drive it." She nudged his fingers away from the handles.
Looking at her for a moment, Seth tried to decide whether he wanted to risk his bike and possibly his life, to please the adorable being he enjoyed hanging onto, even from the back seat of his own motorcycle. He groaned losing the battle with himself and gave in to her. "Please don't kill my bike," he said with a sigh.
She smiled as he grabbed onto her tighter when she sped off. Tara flipped through the gears, speeding up to sixty miles per hour trying to push the bike harder. She weaved in and out and around the path following it with such perfect precision that Seth wouldn't have known she'd never handled a real motorcycle before had he not asked.
"That's the highway up there," he cautioned, "Slow down. Tara... TARA!" She stopped the bike instantly just a few yards short of the interstate.
Seth's body flew forward, slamming into her stone-hard back and he instantly gripped her tightly to keep himself from falling off. "You make a horrible air bag you know."
She turned her head. "Well you're still in one piece aren't you?" she smirked.
"Can I have my bike back now?" Seth started sweating, even though it wasn't even warm out.
Tara spun off the bike, keeping her eyes locked on Seth the whole time with an enormous, confident grin on her face. Then she waited for him to scoot forward and she leaped on, behind him.
"So, you like to go fast?" he asked looking half way back at her.
"Of course," she replied.
Seth grinned and then peeled out onto the Interstate. He showed off a little by exceeding city speed limits on the trip back to the Cullen home. He figured it's always handy when your mother is dating the Chief of Police and you wish to bend the rules a little.
When they arrived at the Cullen home, Tara jumped off the bike and Seth cut the engine.
"So, you wanna come in or do you have to leave?" she asked.
"I've got nuthin to do," he said gladly, shrugging his shoulders and implying for her to lead the way.
As they went in the house, they heard Edward playing a melody on the piano. Bella sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. They were the only ones home. Carlisle had left for his shift at the hospital and Esme was busy doing volunteer work in town. Seth remembered to be careful to guard his feelings while around Edward so he immediately began thinking about food, which was pretty easy because he was hungry.
Tara passed a mirror in the hallway and caught a glimpse of herself and gasped. "I should probably do something with my hair before Alice sees me." He smiled at her wild looking appearance.
Though her clothes were nearly dry from the ride, she decided to change into something clean. "I'll be right back…I'm gonna change out of these."
"Okay…um…I'll be around." Seth thought about wandering into the kitchen to see what Esme had stocked in the fridge.
While Tara was upstairs, she put on a pair of fresh jeans and a tight fitting, hooded shirt. Then she raked a brush through the snarls in her hair and headed downstairs to find Seth, peeking in all the rooms trying to follow his scent. "Hey Edward," she said as she passed the music room.
"Kitchen," Edward chimed when she passed, knowing exactly who she looked for. Tara chuckled and headed back upstairs to the kitchen. She hadn't thought about that one. She only saw the kitchen once during Esme's tour and never needed to be in there since.
She found Seth nibbling on some pizza that Jacob had brought over the other day. "Oh, I'm sorry…I forgot you needed to eat again huh?" she said.
"Yeah, I was feeling a bit shaky. You know, I think Jake and I are the only ones who use this kitchen, except when we get Esme to cook for us."
Tara strolled over to the fridge and peeked in just out of curiosity. She scrunched her nose at the smells that hit her as she opened the door.
"What's with all the eggs?" she wondered as she counted six dozen stacked neatly on the top two shelves.
"Ness really likes eggs. I don't know why," he shrugged. "And since she hates cooking, Edward has always volunteered to do it for her. He says he misses not being able to cook for Bella anymore."
"Hmm, interesting," she pondered the thought, "So…what shall we do after you've consumed your curd-covered-carbohydrate?" she asked as she watched him chewing on a mouthful.
Seth nearly choked on his pizza, laughing at Tara's odd descriptions for his meals. "Do you have to keep talking about my food that way?"
"I'm sorry," she grinned. "So, how is your...pizza anyway?" She slowly pronounced the word.
"Not bad, it'll do the trick. I'm sure it's not as good as mountain lion," he winked.
"Probably not," she laughed.
"What about you? Do you need to um….eat?"
"Are you offering me a snack?" She leaned into closer to him. Her eyebrow popped up as she displayed a devilish grin.
"Umm…." Seth leaned back an inch.
"Relax," she chuckled. "I'm kidding, I'll eat later…when it's dark."
"Do you need an escort?" he offered.
"Absolutely not!" she snapped.
"Oh…." Seth felt a bit rejected.
"You'd scare away all my prey!"
"Oh. No I wouldn't. I go with Ness and Jacob all the time. It's pretty hilarious to watch that tiny little thing take down a giant grisly."
"Mmm… hilarious. Yes, that's exactly how I wish to portray myself when I'm killing something," she said sarcastically.
"You know wolves hunt too."
"They do?" She didn't think they'd need to, especially when there's human food available to them.
"Yup, we've had to resort to it a few times in the past when it was ah…inconvenient for us to phase back."
"I see, but pizza's much better though, right? She grinned.
"Definitely!" Seth swallowed his last bite.
"So, do you miss it at all?" He said nodding at the empty pizza box next to him.
"Do I miss what?"
"Human food... eating normal stuff."
"Drinking blood is normal stuff to me. I have no memory of eating human food, so I guess the answer would be a no." She paused. "You have an awful lot of questions."
"Sorry, does it bother you?"
"No, I'm just wondering what the motivation behind it is."
"Curiosity," he shrugged, hoping she'd accept his excuse. Seth became lost in her eyes as she stared at him. He snapped out of it before he got too carried away, remembering Edward was still in the other room. He started thinking of things they could do to distract his mind.
Tara wanted to pry more into his head but her attention became distracted by the tiny vampire that just hopped off of a tree branch and sprung through the kitchen window. It was Alice, followed by Jasper right behind her. "Hi guys!" she sung cheerfully. Her mood quickly changed once she got a glimpse of Tara's hair though. "Ugh! What have you been doing all day, chasing tornados?"
"What? I brushed it out," she shrugged, running her fingers through it. Then Tara looked at Seth. "Is it that bad?" she asked.
Seth shook his head quietly and smiled. He liked her hair. Then his attention suddenly turned to Jasper and they exchanged a friendly nod as he remembered to guard his feelings around him as well, a task he found to be very difficult. Since his feelings of hunger had passed, he began to think about work as a distraction, tuning Alice out for a moment.
She still rambled on about Tara's appearance. "…..and of all the clothes in Nessie's closet you managed to find one of Bella's old outfits. You guys are just killing me!"
"Well it looked comfy. I might hunt later though, maybe I could slip on an evening dress and some pumps and seduce some unsuspecting animals tonight," Tara said with sarcasm.
"Really? Seth asked.
Tara turned towards Seth and gave him a No, stupid, that was just a joke, kind of look.
"Are you mocking me?" Alice's eyes narrowed.
"Why no, I would never do that to you Alice." She sung in an innocent voice with a smile.
"Tsk! Whatever! Well I suppose if you're just gonna hang out with a bunch of wolves anyway, there's no need to fuss over you." she huffed before exiting kitchen. Jasper loyally followed behind her.
"Uh, thanks Alice," Seth replied, but she was already gone in a flash.
He turned his attention back to Tara still trying to think of something they could do. "So…do you like watching movies? The Cullen's have like, tons of them."
"A movie? Hmm, that sounds good. Let's just see what they have then, shall we?"
Seth took her to a room that had a seventy-inch plasma TV. Normally when Emmett was there he dominated the television with his sports. Tara picked up three different remotes trying to find the ON button. Seth knew exactly the right one being that he spent so much time watching sports with Emmett or Jacob. As the screen came on, it was already tuned into ESPN. Then he went over to a large cabinet opening the doors, exposing hundreds of DVDs. "Wow," Tara uttered.
"Yeah, I know. It's like having a video store in your own home."
She sifted through the movies looking at the titles. "Gosh…someone really likes horror," she noticed
"That would be Emmett. He collects them all…zombies, vampires, werewolves, aliens…."
Tara looked through the names of each one, all organized alphabetically. "Hey, what'ya know!" Tara said as she pulled out the copy of the nineteen forty-eight movie, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein."
Seth observed the cover which showed pictures of a very vintage-looking Frankenstein, Dracula and wolf man on the front. "So this is the one eh? Oh, hey ya know, I think my dad use to watch these guys when I was little…it's um, black-n-white eh?" he recalled from a memory.
"Yeah that's right," she said. "Cuz, ya know…I'm old and all," she nudged him with a cold elbow.
Seth chuckled. "Ok, let's watch it then." He opened the case and placed the disk in the player, waiting as it whirred up. Tara plopped herself on the floor even though there was a couch. She wasn't used to furniture though she knew what it was for. The floor was just fine for her and she liked looking up slightly at the TV from a lower angle like being at the movie theater. Seth turned the surround sound on and then once the opening credits began, he sat on the floor in front of the couch next to Tara. She curled her legs in towards her chest and wrapped her arms around them and smiled as he made himself comfortable. He was used to sleeping on the floor in wolf form so it didn't bother him much either.
After a several minutes into the movie, Seth put his elbow up on the couch and then propped his head up with his hand. He glanced over at Tara often during the movie, trying not to be too obvious. Though she'd see the movie a dozen times as a kid she still enjoyed it like it was her first time. It amused him when she would laugh at the two slapstick comedians on the screen and he'd laugh with her. About half way through, Tara noticed he wasn't laughing anymore. She peeked at him through the corner of her eye and noticed he'd fallen asleep. His head was resting on his stretched out arm that laid flat across the couch. She cocked her head to the side, curiously staring at him as he slept. He looked very peaceful, she thought. Tara reached her hand out towards his face and paused, yearning to touch his skin. She debated with herself for a moment and then she slowly stroked her finger tips across his warm soft cheek. His skin felt like burner of a stove under them and an efflux of energy pulsed through her arm. She never intimately examined a human this way. She pleasantly enjoyed it, very much as she studied his face intensively, copying all the features to her mind. One of her fingers pushed back a few strands of hair that hung over his forehead. When she realized she was getting too much enjoyment from the experience she pulled her hand back, nervous about the sensations it gave her to touch him. She distanced herself a little, perching herself up on the couch so she just could watch him sleep. She was so absorbed in the moment she didn't even notice when the music had stopped playing down stairs or when Edward entered the room. "So are you supposed to be watching the TV or the sleeping human?" he curiously asked.
"They're so interesting when they sleep," she said as her eyes shifted back to Seth's face.
Edward smiled. Her observations reminded him so much of his days of watching Bella sleeping. He started to notice the way she looked at Seth. It was more than just curiosity that she was feeling. Edward was intrigued as he listened to Seth's dreams. They exposed the enigma in Seth's mind that he could no longer conceal as he slept.
Jacob and Renesmee's voices carried in the hall now. They both stopped to talk to Bella before heading their direction. As they approached Edward met them in the hall and greeted his daughter with a hug and a kiss on the forehead. He only gave Jacob the usual manly nod acknowledging his presence. Then he wrapped his arms around his wife and gave her a very gentle kiss on the lips like he used to do when she was a frail human. Bella took notice in his use of restraint. "Um, that was awfully reserved of you," she commented.
He sighed. "Oh well, I was just having an epiphany…and a bit of DeJaVu. How about we head home?" he suggested.
"Home? Already?" Bella asked. She wasn't thinking about leaving so soon now that her daughter finally returned.
"Yes, I was just having the sudden urge to cover you in feathers." Edward winked.
Jacob seemed to recall a remark about feathers once before, except it was Bella's remark that time. He knew it had to be about something personal and just rolled his eyes.
Bella didn't wait another second. She yanked his arm nearly dragging him behind her as they he sped out of the house.
Tara heard them down the hall speaking. She wasn't quite sure what he meant by what he said but she figured it was code for something very private. She remained quiet at Seth's side just staring, not wanting to wake him just yet. Her mood was spoiled when she heard Jacob's giant feet clomping towards the room. As soon as Jacob entered he noticed his friend passed out next to her. It startled him at first and he frowned but when he realized his friend was only sleeping his mood lightened up. "I see you put him to sleep," he said as he turned his attention to the TV. "Well no wonder, what kind of nonsense are you watching?" Lon Chaney Jr. was transforming into the Wolf Man on the TV. "Wow, what lame special effects!" he laughed.
"It was made in nineteen forty-eight, Rin Tin Tin. It's a Classic and it's supposed to be funny."
"Yeah it's a classically lame movie. Look… it didn't even entertain the poor guy enough to keep him awake." They all stared at the unconscious boy.
"Well he's got the right idea anyway, I'm ready for bed," Renesmee said.
"Okay, I'll tuck you in. Go get your PJ's on." He smiled at her with his big warm eyes. When she zipped up the stairs, Jacob walked over and shook Seth's arm to wake him. "Hey Seth, you moving in or what?"
Seth snorted when he woke up and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at everyone in the room as they stared at him. "Oops…sorry, I guess I passed out." Tara smiled at him until Jacob spoke again with a tone that was starting to really annoy her.
"Yeah well I would too I was watching that snore-fest," he teased.
"Guess I missed the wolf man huh?" Seth said to Tara as he stood up stretching.
"Nah, you didn't miss much," Jacob interrupted.
Tara just rolled her eyes and clicked the off button on the remote. She was trying to ignore him like a pesky fly that buzzed around her head. She badly wanted to take a swat at it though.
"Hey Tara, do you know why Dracula has no friends?" She gave Jacob another dirty look, not saying a word. "Because he's a pain in the neck."
"Wow, that's hilarious," she said in a flat tone. "Where'd you get that one, stupid-vampire-jokes-dot-com?"
Seth snickered.
"No, I made that up.” Then paused thinking. “Hey is that a real site?" he asked making a mental note to google it later. Tara just shook her head rolling her eyes again.
"So, I guess I'll see you around," Seth touched Tara's arm gently taking her mind of her irritation.
Jacob chuckled. "Yeah, real soon I'm sure." He grinned. "Good thing you napped, eh?"
Seth gave him a dirty look. "Weren't you just saying you were leaving?" he grumbled.
"Yep. I just wanna make sure you don't stay up too late. I expect to see you on time to work tomorrow."
"Thanks Jake, I already have a mother…and a sister." Seth grumbled.
Jacob grinned. "Right. See ya." He said just before he disappeared.
Seth shook his head and rubbed his face still feeling a bit groggy. "I better take off. I'm sorry I missed the movie. Maybe we can finish it another time?"
"That sounds fine," She smiled. "I'll see you around then."
"Seth nodded. He knew that was all too true.
Later that night, Tara left the house to hunt on her own. She finally captured the mountain lion that managed to get away from her when Paul attacked and scared it away. After being satisfied by her meal, she perched herself in the limb of the tree overlooking the forest. She didn't so much as even blink, staying perfectly still for nearly an hour just watching and listening. As she inhaled the crisp night air she smelled the scent of fire wood burning several miles away. A gentle breeze lightly flickered through the leaves and the light from the moon peeked through them, illuminating the forest. As the cold air shifted, she picked up a familiar scent. Looking deep into the forest thought the trees, she spotted the source. Tara remained perfectly motionless and silent as she observed the large furry creature. It circled the area several times, sniffing the air. Then it put its muzzle to the ground, tracking a scent like a bloodhound. She grinned, curiously tilting her head to one side as she watched it getting closer. After a few moments, it became frustrated until finally it let out a whimper and laid down under the tree folding its paws, resting it's head on them.
Tara stood on the branch and silently tiptoed to the edge. As she leaped down to the ground, her body spun around, landing in front of it. She then slowly stood up making eye contact as it lifted its head and snapped up on all fours. She slowly walked forward until she stood face to face with it. Her eyes widened with amazement of its size. She never examined a wolf so closely, let alone one this large. She recognized the scent and the eyes immediately. "Seth?" she whispered.
The wolf nodded stepping closer.
Tara's eyes widened with amazement as he towered over her. She stepped back cautiously and Seth picked up on her fear. She looked around for others and then looked back at his big brown eyes. Something about them stared right through her.
He stopped moving and shook his head, hoping she wouldn't take off. She paused for a moment watching him.
"You won't hurt me will you?"
He shook his head again.
She stepped closer wanting to see him up close. She slowly reached out her hand to touch his pelt and caressed his head, running her fingers through his fur. "Wow," she gasped as she closely looked him over.
He closed his eyes tilting his head in towards her hand. The corners of her mouth turned up as she put her other hand to his face and pet his soft fur coat. He was in heaven.
"You're so soft," she said. "You know, you're actually kinda... cute." She grinned.
Seth let out a low grumble.
"Oh sorry, I mean ferocious looking. Really, really ferocious," she corrected "But what are you doing out here so late?"
Seth looked down to the side, slightly embarrassed.
"Are you looking for something?"
Seth nodded, then put his nose up to Tara's hair and began sniffing. It tickled, making her giggle. "Ah, you tracked me, but why? Am I doing something wrong?"
He shook his head.
She sighed. "Could you change back to a human so you can talk? This is kinda frustrating."
His eyes widened, remembering he ran all the way from the reservation not thinking he'd need a change of clothes. He groaned and shook his head.
"Why not?" Tara looked up at the sky. "Is it the full moon?"
Seth let out a loud wolfy laugh and shook his head.
"Okay, okay. Come on, I'm new at this. She tried to think of a reason why couldn't change back into in front of her. Finally the light bulb came on in her head.
"Ohh," Tara snickered. "I get it, you're… naked!"
Seth put his paw over his face.
"It's okay," she said still giggling. "Looks like I'll just have to do all of the talking." As she continued to pet his face, his eye lids fought to stay open. His body swerved back and forth, feeling woozy. He plopped down on the ground curing up into a ball trying very hard to keep his eyes open while Tara talked. She sat close to him, gently stroking the fur on his back.
She prattled on for a while about herself and all the places she'd been up until she returned to New England. She talked about the museum, about how her and her mother loved art and how her parents had planned to send her to Dartmouth once she had graduated high school. Before long, Seth finally lost his fight to stay awake and could no longer hold up his heavy eye lids. She looked over at him, watching him sleep peacefully. She caressed his back a few times, running her hands though his soft coat. After a while she rested her head on his back and gazed up at the moon and the stars.
Tara stayed with him till the sun rose. In the early morning, a variety of birds sung their melody. Seth lay for an hour more until his ears picked up the sounds around him. He opened his eyes and looked down at Tara, curled up into his side. She watched him sleep, still playing with his fur. They sat silently looking at each other for a while before Seth's stomach started to growl. "I take it that means you're hungry again?"
Seth thought about it for a moment, not really wanting to get up but then he shook his head.
"We should head back. I don't wanna worry them. I have been gone all night."
Seth stood up and leaned forward, putting his arms out front and stretched his long back, then shook his body like a dog waking from a long slumber. "Ready to go?"
Seth nodded .
"Okay, then let's see how fast you are. Race you there!" Tara suddenly vanished. She was merely a blur moving through the forest.
Seth chased after her taking long strides and leaping over vast amounts of terrain. He thought he'd almost lost her when the blur disappeared but then something made him stop abruptly in his tracks. He saw the vision of white wolf standing in front of him. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Tara standing in spot where the white wolf was.
She let out a playful snicker and disappeared into the trees again. He stood there in shock for a moment but then started chasing after her once more. Running as fast as he could he finally caught up to her. Then he leaped over her head and completely passed her. He stopped at the edge of the woods just behind the Cullen home, skidding in the dirt spinning around right in her path.
Tara stopped instantly, just inches from him. "You beat me," Tara grinned from ear to ear. "You had to work really hard to do it though. You're winded."
Seth let out a big sigh as she reached up and touched his face again. He closed his eyes as she ran her fingers though his thick fur.
"This is very strange for me, but I really have enjoyed spending time with you. Thanks for making me feel welcome here."
His eyes lit up when she smiled.
"Well… see you around." She fluttered her fingers at him then quickly spun on her toes and dashed off. "Oh and uh…don't be late for work." She winked.
He let out a snort. Then he watched as she headed for the house. She stopped and turned to look one last time before entering and then shut the door.
Seth finally turned and headed home. But as he dashed though the forest, he picked up on an intruder following him. "Damn," he thought, as his sister Leah ran up beside him.
"What the hell are you doing!" she demanded to know.
"Nothing!" he grumbled.
"I warned you not to do this Seth!"
"Just mind your own business Leah."
"This is nuts! She's…she's …not even human. She's a vampire. You can't do this!"
"I know what she is, and you know I have no control over the situation. It's just happened. Besides, I don't mind so much. She's actually very sweet and if and if she'll accept it, I wanna be with her".
"You're going to tell her? How? What if she doesn't take it well, Seth? You could be risking your life."
"I haven't figured it out just yet. I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to tell her just yet."
"Then don't!"
"Just stick to our deal and keep Sam's pack out of this for now. Jacob promised he'd do the same".
"But they can protect you."
"I don't need their protection. I don't think she'd hurt me. I protected her, remember?"
"Don't remind me. It would have better if you just let Paul kill her. Problem solved! I don't like this at all."
"Just shut up Leah, It not even your problem anyway!"
"I'm just worried. I don't want you to get hurt."
"Well stop worrying. I can handle it."
"Mom's not gonna be happy, did you even think about how this will affect her?"
"Yes, and in fact, mom's engaged to Charlie, whose daughter is a vampire also, and F-Y-I - that would make Bella our step-sister."
She thought about it for a moment. "Damn…this is all getting so…. weird."
"Not to me. I'm totally fine with it."
"Well, that's great for you but what about the rest of us?"
"Look I'm sorry you don't like it but I can't change it."
"Oh, well fabulous! As long as YOU'RE happy!"
"I told you, it's not a choice but I don't care. I want this. It doesn't matter to me that she's a vampire. Maybe there's something different about me. Maybe there's something different about the both of us. You haven't even been imprinted on yet."
"Yeah well I sure as heck don't wanna get stuck with any vampires! It's gross."
"That's your opinion!" he thought as he grumbled.
"Well, this isn't gonna fly Seth. You're gonna have the others in an uproar over this one".
"You have to keep this to yourself. Promise you'll keep the others out of your head okay? Just till I can figure this out…. Please?"
"Fine." She huffed. "Figure it out soon though." Then she disappeared

Chapter 6 - Trust

Tara began feeling more comfortable with the Cullens as the weeks went by. Edward and Bella took her around to some of the neighboring cities. They visited the Museums in Port Angeles and then drove to Olympia and Seattle to see some of the art museums.
Esme and Alice insisted on taking Tara on a shopping trip for new clothes since she only owned the one outfit she arrived in. Though Renesmee and Bella already gave Tara free rein of their closets, Esme decided she should have her own things, hoping it would make her feel as though she belonged there. She even considered redecorating one of the extra rooms in the house to give her privacy, but she held off on presenting the idea after seeing how well the girls bonded. They both seemed to enjoy sharing a room with each other for the time being.
Each day Jacob came by to see Renesmee, Seth tagged along. He desired to become more acquainted with Tara but tried not to make it too obvious. The Cullens didn't suspect anything since they were used to Seth always being around Jacob so his frequent visits didn't seem out of the ordinary to them. Tara took a liking to his presence, developing a fascination with him she couldn't explain. She hovered when he and Jacob came around and her bond with Seth grew stronger each day.
Eventually it became too difficult for Seth to control his thoughts around Edward however. He began to doubt his ability to keep the mind-reader out of his head, worrying about the reaction the Cullens might have to the imprint on their new family member. He worried most about Tara's reaction though and as much as he desired to tell her, he still could not bring himself to do it just yet. Not wanting to take the risk of Edward exposing him, Seth completely avoided visiting when Edward came around. It didn't take long for Tara took notice Seth's absences. His constant avoidance made her wonder if he'd lost interest in their friendship. She wasn't quite sure why it mattered, however. The emotion she sensed frustrated her. She tried to convince herself it wasn't in her best interest to care, though she knew deep down she really did.
Seth's ability to refrain from seeing Tara didn't last long. He craved to be near her and knew he would need to find another way to get closer, even if it meant bringing her to the reservation. Knowing his best option would be to find her when she was away from the other vampires. When she went off to hunt would be the best opportunity, he thought. Seth patiently waited for his opportunity to follow her.
Hunting animals appealed to Tara even more now. As she headed deep into the Olympic forest, she encountered a large black bear that satisfied her thirst. She understood why Emmett and Renesmee enjoyed hunting those most soon as she discovered that bears put up an entertaining fight. When she finished her meal, she curiously roamed through the forest following the sound of running water in the distance and came across a large body of water. A giant cascade spilled into the pool below. The remote area seemed completely secluded, hidden behind a dense cover of trees and vegetation. The water looked inviting. Upon deciding to take a swim, Tara removed all of her clothing under the assumption that she was completely alone. Once the rain passed, the clouds shifted and the moon lit up the sky and forest. Its light beamed off the surface of the water. She dove deep into the pool and swam all the way to the bottom, staying immersed under the cold depths for a long while.
Seth remembered to carry extra clothes with him this time, as he tracked her scent through the forest until he reached the waterfall where her trail ended. Sensing he was near her, he morphed and dressed quickly. He crept up to the water hole and searched for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Feeling confused and worried, he started to turn away, but out of the corner of his eye he captured a glimpse of a head appearing out of the water. Silently creeping forward to get a better look, he realized it was her. He slowly crouched down, remaining completely motionless as he watched her dive under and resurface over and over. Then swam towards the waterfall and leaped out onto the rock basin allowing the water to beat down on her face and head. Seth froze and his eyes grew wider as he immediately noticed her lack of clothing. "Oh crap," he thought. He felt his heart pounding inside his chest and became fluster as he stared at her naked body. Feeling guilty he turned his eyes away, realizing his bad timing. Sweat began to stream down his forehead and his shallow breaths suddenly became deeper and more rapid.
Tara hadn't taken a breath since she resurfaced but even through the crashing noise of the waterfall, she heard the pounding of a heart beat. She stepped out of the current and inhaled deeply. "Wolf", she thought letting out a low deep growl. Immediately upon realizing she wasn't alone, she vanished.
Seth decided it would be best to leave. He knew this would be a really bad time to make his presence known to Tara but as he slowly began to stand and turn, he noticed she no longer stood in the waterfall. He snapped his head around, frantically searching for her. A feeling of uneasiness came over him and he stood up abruptly, ramming his head into a tree limb. His eyes closed as he stifled a yelp, reaching up to his head with both hands and clenching it tightly where he'd bumped it. He rubbed the sore spot while trying to straighten his legs so he could turn and leave. As soon as be spun around, fully opening his eyes, he came face to face with a dark figure standing only inches from him. He gasped upon realizing it was her.
Tara stood directly in his path, fully dressed again though droplets of water dripped from the strands of hair that hung over her pitch black eyes. Her angry eyes stared him down as she growled . "Oh shi...," he started to say just before she gripped his throat and cut him off.
"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" she hissed through her teeth. "Were you just peeping at me?"
"No!" he gasped, trying to get enough air to speak. He effortlessly grasped at her hands on his neck, trying to pry her fingers loose. It was like trying to bend iron.
"I should rip your eyes out you filthy mongrel! How dare you!"
Seth managed to suck in a breath of air to speak again. "Wait!... lemme… explain…" Tara only cut him off again as she tightened her grip. She was so blinded by fury she never saw the wolf as it came barreling at her with a furious rate of speed. Jacob snarled just before he knocked her flat on her back, leaping on top of her. Seth coughed as the air filled his lungs again when she released him.
Tara kicked her feet upward, throwing Jacob off and hurled him over her head. She leaped back into a standing position ready to fight. She quickly noticed a large gash on her arm that ran from her right shoulder to her elbow. Within seconds, the wound closed up, healing perfectly without even the trace of a scar. Her head snapped back in Jacob's direction, angered by his attack. "That's it Jacob Black! I've had just about enough of you! You wanna pick a fight with me? Let's go!"
Seth jumped in front of Tara before she could attack. "Stop!" he ordered in a raspy voice, trying to gain back his vocals. She just hissed at Seth and she shoved him out of the way, headed for her target.
Immediately another wolf appeared. Leah, who came with Jacob, had been standing just in along the border of the trees waiting for her opportunity to intervene. Jacob ordered for her to stay back until he gave her the word however she wasn't about to wait any longer. She protectively leaped to Jacob's side, letting out a violent roar, heeding a warning for Tara to back off. Neither Jacob nor Leah really wanted to start a fight, knowing there would be consequences to face if they harmed the girl. They only wanted to protect Seth.
Tara also wasn't so sure she would be ready to face two wolves at the same time. She hesitated but stood ready. "What the hell is your problem? This happens to be neutral territory so why are you threatening me?"
Jacob quickly transformed back to his human form so he could speak and Tara threw her arms up at the sight of him, trying to obstruct the view of Jacob's frontal extremities. "Ugh! Jacob, gross! That's way more of you than I ever wanted to see!"
"Hey, this is what I am so get over it! It's not like we can wear clothes over our fur out here."
"Well go grab a leaf or something! I'm not about to stand here and talk to you like that!" Just then, Seth's shirt hit Jacob in the face. He took it off so Jacob could use it to cover himself.
Leah decided against phasing back to human form. She didn't trust Tara and remained in her wolf form to protect her pack.
Seth tried again to plead his case. "Tara, please just listen to me …" She turned and looked at him with a pained expression. Though she felt humiliated and angered she still decided to listen. "I had no idea you were swimming in the...um…the nude." Seth paused between words looking over at Jacob and Leah's reaction. Then he focused his attention back to Tara.
Jacob shook his head. "Huh?" he said, looking confused. "What's going on here?" How come you attacked Seth?"
"Because your wolf-boy here was peeping on me while I was taking a swim, and no, I don't own a bathing suit, so of course I was naked. Furthermore, I had no reason to think there would be anyone out here at this hour!" she shouted.
Jacob just shook his head again and chuckled, realizing there had been a misunderstanding. "Wow, well that's um, quite a story there Seth. I guess you have some explaining to do." Then he hesitantly turned to Tara, unhappy that he had to apologize to a vampire. "Sorry about the misunderstanding but you attacked my friend and I can't allow that. We were simply defending our own," he grumbled.
"Okay well, fine, I got it. That doesn't explain why you all feel the need to follow me around still! How long is this going to go on for? Are you all planning to track me for the duration of my stay or are you just hoping you'll run me out of town eventually?"
"No, that's not our intentions. I think we can safely assume for now that there's no immediate danger here, but that doesn't mean we can just let our guard down. You need to understand that. I'm only doing my job," Jacob warned. Then he looked at Seth who had a shameful expression on his face. "But as far as answering your other question, I'm just gonna leave that one up to Seth." Lastly he turned to Leah. "I think we're finished here." He nodded for Leah to follow him. She growled not wanting leave just yet.
"It's fine Leah, let's go," he ordered. "Seth can handle this. It's his mess." Jacob took one last turn back to Tara. "Can I trust you won't be harming my best friend then?" he asked for Leah's benefit.
"Yeah, I've pretty much calmed down now. You can go so Seth can beg for my forgiveness." Tara's eyes narrowed as she stared at Seth. She folded her arms across her chest.
Jacob figured he could leave safely now. He grinned as he handed Seth the shirt he used to cover himself with but Seth shoved his hand back with a grimace. "Uh yeah, you can just keep that now."
"Whatever!" Jacob threw it at him the he turned in a flash making a running leap into the air as he shifted back to a wolf. He and Leah ran for the tree line. Leah stopped just before entering the forest and turned her head looking back at Seth one more time before she disappeared into the green umbrage.
Seth looked back at Tara. She stood with her arms folded, silently waiting. He could see the variations of emotion in her expression. "I'm sorry," he said finally.
"What on earth were you doing? How did you know I was here? Did you track me again?"
"Uh, y-yeah," he confessed.
"Why? What are you stalking me or something? I don't get it….First you say we're friends, then you ignore me, and now you pull this! I thought you trusted me - I thought I could trust you!"
"I do...you can… it's …it's just… complicated."
"Well, what the hell does that mean?"
Seth let out a sigh. "I…I followed you because I wanted to see you, I mean... I didn't want to see you naked..." Tara's eyes grew wider as Seth put his foot deeper into his mouth as he continued to talk. "Not that I'm saying that you look bad naked or anything." He stumbled over his words nervously. Tara just frowned. Though his story didn't seem to improve the situation, he continued to ramble on. "But I had no idea what you were naked until I saw you come out of the water. I just thought I would surprise you and gosh did I ever but I just missed you and just wanted to come see you and that's all, I swear."
Her expression softened. "Y-you missed me?" Tara said surprised.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Well, couldn't you have just picked up a phone and called me? I could have seriously hurt you! I don’t see or hear from you in days and then you just show up out here spying on me like some sort of pervert."
"I know. Calling would have been the smart thing to do. I just…” he sighed. “I haven't been able sleep well and next thing I knew I found myself heading to your place but you were gone when I got there." Seth cautiously took her hand in his as he tried to apologize. "I really am sorry."
His hand felt warm and comforting. She found her anger slipping away but she didn't want to let him off the hook so easily. Nor did she want him to know how much she enjoyed his touch. She yanked her hand away. "You should be. What if I had hurt you? You didn't even fight back. Why didn't you change when I attacked you?"
"Because I didn’t want to fight you."
"So you would have just let me rip you to shreds?"
"No, I wouldn't have let it get to that point. I just hoped you'd let me explain first."
Tara shook her head. "That was very foolish of you." She frowned.
"I didn't want to hurt you. You saw what Jacob did to your arm. You're not as indestructible against us." Tara glanced at her shredded sleeve. She started to think Seth was right and that maybe she might not have fared so well fighting with Jacob.
"I won't hurt you Tara. Not ever. Do you understand?"
"No, not really." She shook her head.
"Why, what don't you get?"
"You're behavior! You're niceness towards me. It's not normal."
"Well what do you want me to be, a jerk? I'm your friend, how else do you expect me to treat you?"
"I dunno. I suppose I expected you to act like the others so towards me. I expected you to treat me like they did when we first met but you're different. I'm just really confused. I mean... you said were friends but you just stopped coming around, so I thought maybe you changed your mind."
"Is that what you think? I'm sorry, I had good reason for not coming by but it wasn't anything like that. I promise." Tara gave him an unconvincing look. "So, do you not want to be friends anymore?" he asked.
"N-no. I like being friends with you …even though I think it's a little strange."
"Okay, then tell me what's bothering you."
"I just thought you trusted me. I thought I could trust you too."
"I do trust you, and you can trust me."
"And them? She referred to Jacob and Leah. "They followed me too."
"No, actually…. they followed me," he confessed.
"You? But why?"
"They're just a little worried about me spending so much time with…you ...alone. They're just being over protective, especially Leah. It's hard for her not to."
Tara's expression shifted. "They're afraid I'll hurt you." she realized.
"Yes."
"Then I suppose it didn't help that I lost my temper in front of them."
"Don't worry about that. It's hardly your fault. I shouldn't have snuck up on you."
"No, you shouldn't have."
"So, how about it then? Will you give me another chance? Can we still be friends?" he hoped.
She sighed. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? Maybe it's not so healthy for you for have a vampire for a friend."
"I'm not worried."
"Well, you're friends are."
"They'll get over it." He persisted.
"That's not very reassuring. I don't like being followed when I go out."
"I know… But maybe it would help if they just saw more of you."
"Honestly I don't think they want to see more of me."
"Maybe so...but I think it would help." Seth paused, thinking. "I have an idea."
"And what's that?"
"Come to La Push with me this weekend. A few of us are going surfing and … "
"What! The Reservation? Are you kidding?"
"No I'm serious. What? ..can't you surf?"
Tara rolled her eyes. "Yes I can surf, but that's irrelevant. I can't go waltzing down there. The Pack will want to eat me alive!"
"Jacob already gave you permission to come on our land. It'll be a good way for them to see you and get to know you better. I'll be right there with you to make sure nothing bad happens." She stared at him like he was crazy. "You want to be trusted right?" he asked.
"Well, I don't think that's the best way." She folded her arms.
"Don't you wanna hang out with me anymore?" He used the puppy-faced guilt on her.
"Well yes, but…."
"Are you afraid?"
"No!" That got under her skin. She didn't like to be accused of being afraid of them.
"Okay then, I'll pick you up around nine."
Tara sighed, giving in only because she knew deep down she wanted to be with him. "I don't know how I'm letting you talk me into this," she said shaking her head.

The next morning. Somewhere after 10am…
Tara shoved a towel into her back pack, along with a hair brush and a change of clothes. She hadn't remembered ever needing so many items for a small trip before. She always lived very simple and carried few things with her. Now she needed to get used to the idea of being seen. For the first time in a very long time she, paid attention to her appearance.
Alice gave her a body suit to wear since she didn't own a bathing suit. She preferred to wear one since it covered her albino-like complexion. Alice also predicted bouts of sunshine throughout the day giving her another excuse to cover herself up. She didn't know how Seth would react to seeing her glittering skin and she promised not to disappear on them while she was on their land. Tara planned to keep her word.
As she sat on Renesmee’s bed waiting for Seth to arrive, she became engrossed in a novel she'd found in Carlisle's collection. The smell of axle grease and dog gave her the indication that Jacob had arrived. She jumped up and zipped into the bathroom. "I think your ride is here," she informed her. Both Alice and Renesmee looked up. "Hey, that looks cute," she added, complimenting Renesmee’s hairstyle. Alice had skillfully weaved it into a long French-braid.
"Thanks," Alice replied, taking credit for her work. "I'll do yours next," she offered going back to her work to finish quickly.
"Thanks Alice but I'm only gonna get it all wet anyways, how about tonight after I get back?" she said feeling guilty for rejecting her.
"Well, Rosalie will be here by then but... maybe I could squeeze you in."
"Oh… right." She remembered. Tara heard a variety of things about Rosalie, especially the jokes Seth and Jacob made about her. Their comments left her with the impression that she was quite vain.
Just then, Jacob popped his head in. "Hey beautiful, you ready yet," he asked.
"She's all yours." Alice said, releasing her.
Jacob nodded at Tara."Wuz-up Morticia?"
"Hey ..Cujo," she quickly snapped back. Tara squished the urge she felt to slash his tires. She glanced over Jacob's attire. He wore only a pair of swim trunks and a Tee.
"Looks like your boy is late. Get used to it, he's always late," he told her.
"No biggie," she shrugged.
"You sure you don't wanna ride with us? He can just meet us there," Renesmee offered.
Tara didn't have the least bit of desire to sit in the back of Jacob's Rabbit however, nor did she want to go to La Push without Seth at her side. The idea of being on wolf territory made her anxious, but being with him gave her a more guarded feeling. "No thanks. I'm in no hurry."
"Worried?" Jacob grinned.
"About?" she questioned.
"Being on the Rez. You look nervous." He grinned. Jacob liked the idea of putting some fear in her.
"Not at all." She lied. "Do I have a reason to be?"
"Nope, not as long as you behave," he warned.
"Of course." She said, giving him a stern look. Jacob's attitude towards her was getting on her last nerve. As he and Renesmee turned to leave, Tara called out to her. "Oh hey, Ness... do you know how to stop a dog from howling in the back of the car?"
"Um, no… how?" Ness asked.
"Put him in the front," she replied.
Renesmee giggled at her joke. Jacob just rolled his eyes and smirked as he led Renesmee by the hand. They disappeared out the door and headed for La Push. Alice however, still had her sights on Tara. "Last chance beauty call," she said, pointing at the little chair in front of her.
"Thanks Alice, but I'll be getting on a motorcycle in a few minutes and then heading to a beach. There's really no point."
Alice sighed. "Well you should really wear a helmet at least so least it won't get so wind-blown. I could give you some cute little braids that would stay in, even while you’re swimming."
Tara pondered the thought for a moment deciding she really didn’t want to be bothered with her hair too much so she plopped herself into the chair in front of Alice. She figured she had some time to kill anyways. Several minutes passed before she heard the hum from Seth's bike coming up the road. Alice sensed Tara becoming anxious to get up. "Almost done, sit still please." Her fingers were a blur as she weaved her hair in and out, working very fast.
Seth parked his bike out front and hurried into the house. When he opened the door, he heard the light melody of a piano that echoed though the rooms. The music suddenly came to a halt the moment he headed for the stairs. Before Seth's foot touched the first step though, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Edward staring at him with a stern look on his face. "Edward," Seth jumped, startled to see him. He stared at him waiting, wondering what he wanted.
Seth's thoughts were no longer a secret to him. He leaned in close to his friend. "Be very careful." he said in a low, almost inaudible tone.
Seth's face changed. He tried to interpret what Edward meant. "I intend to. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on things and make sure nothing goes wrong, if that's what you're worried about."
"I'm sure you will, however, that's not what I'm referring to." Edward didn't even blink once as he spoke very seriously. He glanced up at the stairs, listening to Tara's thoughts. "It's obvious to me that she knows nothing. I understand what you're doing, so I've been patient and kept my silence. However...I don't think you understand what you are dealing with. I just want to caution you. You're my friend, and I don't wish to see you hurt, in any way."
"Thanks Edward, but I got this one, okay? I think I can handle it."
"I hope so, for your sake." Edward nodded and stepped back, letting Seth continue up the stairs to get Tara.
As he headed down the hall he spotted Alice just coming out of the bathroom. "Hey Alice," he said to her in a friendly tone.
"She’s all yours…" was all she said, but before leaving, she turned back quickly to give him a word of advice. “Be sure you keep that pack of yours under control. I'm trusting you'll keep her well guarded for us."
"Of course Alice, you have my word on that," he assured her.
"Good," she said smugly then continued walking.
Seth almost passed the bathroom, until he spotted Tara looking at her hair in the mirror. She immediately turned towards Seth. When he entered she reached for her bag, swinging it over her shoulder. His grin grew wider while staring at her new hair style, admiring the braids Alice put on each side. Her new look made her look like a Native American porcelain doll, he thought.
"What?" she wondered as he kept staring.
Seth ran his finger under one of the braids. "I really like this look on you," he said as his finger reached the end of her braid and let it fall back in its place. "You know… you're very pretty…for a vampire that is," he added with a wink.
"Thanks, I think." They both smiled.
"Sorry I'm so late. I tried to power nap and I just ended up oversleeping."
"Hmm, well maybe you should try sleeping instead of lurking around the woods at all hours of the night. It's dangerous out there. You never know what creatures you might run into," she teased.
Seth laughed. He was happy to see her in such a light mood. "You're right and I'll have to think of how I can make it up to you."
"Oh, don't worry, I have an idea," she said before quickly disappearing before his eyes. He only felt the gush of air as she dashed out of the house.
Seth ran after her to see what she was up to. When he came outside she was sitting on the bike with her hands at the handles waiting for him. "Umm, what are you doing?" he asked as he got closer.
"Letting you make it up to me for being late. Hop on," she nodded her head at the back of the bike.
"I am so not riding on the back of my bike to La Push. I have my limits and that is definitely one of them!"
"Hey that's not right you owe me! You even said..."
"No way! Have you looked at me? Do you have any idea how silly I would look holding onto you on the back of this thing? An isolated trail is one thing but I do know people in this town and I would never hear the end of it. I'll take you riding off-road another day, I promise, okay?"
Her lips turned down into a pouty frown.
"Come on...Pale-Face, let's go while it's still high tide," he said, holding onto the clutch, refusing to give in.
She smiled when he called her that name. Then she let out a small sigh. "Fine, but you better! I won't let you forget either." She let go of the front of the bike and scooted back allowing him to hop on in front. Then she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"I'm sure you won't," he grinned, shaking his head.
Tara recognized the route they took through town as Seth turned out unto the 101 interstate. He drove north until he came to a turn. She read the sign at the intersection: La Push Road. They crossed over a long river then continued on for several miles more. Tara smelled the briny air as Seth turned his bike onto a dirt road, much like the one that led to the cliffs. The road was edged by beautiful dense green forests.
He pulled into an open lot that appeared deserted except for Jacob's car. After pulling up next to it, he cut the engine. Tara hopped off the bike and waited while he removed his bag from the back and swung it over his shoulder.
"This is it, there is a small trail this way," he said. Just as she started to turn and follow the path, he stopped her and reached for her backpack. "Wait," he said as he slid it off her back, gesturing to carry it for her. He began walking again and she gave him a funny look, not understanding his actions. When Seth noticed she wasn't moving he looked back. Her odd stare made him do a double take. "What's wrong?" He wondered.
"You realize I could easily carry you on my back, right?"
"Well, that doesn't mean I don't have to be a gentleman does it?" he replied.
"Oh." Tara wasn't used to that kind of treatment since she always had to be very independent.
"Does it bother you?" he asked.
"Oh.. no, I'm just not use to that sort of thing...I think I could get used to it though," she smiled.
"Good." He smiled back.
Leading her through a long trail, he thoughtfully held all the branches out of her way along the path and even offered his hand to her when she had to leap over a fallen tree. She played along with his chivalry. As they broke through the confines of the forest, she saw the rock shore in front of them. A thin border of sand edged the water, turning into millions of large smooth stones and drift wood trees. A brisk, cool breeze came in off the waves. As she looked out toward the ocean, she spotted Jacob and Renesmee out in the water already, but no one else. "Where are all the people?" she asked looking out at the empty beach figuring on a day like this there would be a mob of people there.
"Oh, this is our private spot. We always come here. Too many tourists and kids on the other side."
Tara suspected that was more for safety rather than privacy. She accepted the conditions since she was glad it would only be them - actually preferring it. She noticed something else, though. She was quite sure she smelled more than one wolf nearby. Even through the thick salt air, their scent was very strong. "So... how many of them are out there?" she asked.
Seth stopped walking and turned around to face Tara. He didn't expect that question from her.
"I know they're watching me. I can smell them," she added.
He sighed. "There's six of them that came...I'm sorry...this is a first since Renesmee and they're a bit nervous about having you here so close to their families."
She nodded figuring that was to be expected. "Well aren't you too?" she wondered.
"No, I told you….I trust you."
She shook her head, still perplexed by Seth's trusting nature.
He dropped their things in the sand where the group had set up a small camp. Two blankets lay on the sand with piles of towels and a few bags filled with a variety of items for the beach. Two large coolers sat off to the side, little closer to the edge of the forest filled with enough food feed a pack of wolves. A single surf board stood erect out of the sand. She assumed it was left for Seth. "Guess we're short one," she said looking at the board.
"Oh yeah, well when they come in I'm sure you can use Ness's board, unless you wanna take mine now...I'll hang back for a while, I don't mind."
"No...that's okay...I'd rather wait for you."
Seth smiled. "We'll wait then."
Tara didn't mind the idea of spending time alone with Seth without the others, in fact, she desired it. She studied him closely and quickly observed a familiar look in his eyes. "I'll bet you didn't eat this morning did you?"
He seemed surprised by her observation. "Actually, I was in such a rush, I totally forgot. How'd you guess?"
"Because I know hungry when I see it." Her eyebrow rose up.
"Hmm, well I guess I'd better take care of that then." He walked over to one of the coolers and opened it pulling out two sandwiches wrapped in foil then opened and sniffed it. Ham and cheese, something he liked. Then he grabbed a soda from the other cooler.
He watch as Tara stepped over to examine the surf board while he sat down to eat. "I wish I could offer you something. I feel rude eating in front of you all the time." he said, peeling away the foil from one of his sandwiches.
"I'm good. I don’t mind watching," she admitted, circling the surf board. "So is this one yours?" she asked.
"Yup," he said just before taking a bite.
"It's nice. These are expensive." She ran her hand down the side of the board.
"Thanks. It was a graduation present from Charlie. He told me if I graduated with honors he'd buy it for me. I don't think he knew what he was getting into when he offered but he stood by his word."
"Charlie?" She looked puzzled.
"Yeah...um, Bella's dad." He explained. Though Tara knew who Charlie was, she didn't understand the connection or why he would give Seth such an elaborate gift.
"That was nice of him. Are you close to him or something?"
"Well yeah, ..he's dating my mom." He explained in more detail.
"Oh." Tara paused, thinking again. She didn’t know there was that close of a relationship going on. She then wondered about Seth's father. "So…are your parents divorced then?" she asked bluntly.
Seth turned his head down. "Uh, no." He said shaking his head slightly. "My dad passed away." His voice faded at the last two words.
Tara noticed Seth stopped eating. She didn't think it was good sign. Then she remembered when he said he knew how painful it is to lose a parent but she hadn't realized he was talking from personal experience. In a flash, she was crouched in front of him. "I'm sorry, were you close to him?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Yes...very."
"What happened?" she pried again.
He just stared blankly at his sandwich though not answering. He hadn’t spoken about his father in quite a while. She noticed the obvious silence and the sadness in his eyes . "If this makes you uncomfortable, we can talk about something else." She worried the question might have upset him too much.
"No, it's okay. You answered all my questions and told me about what happened to your family. I don't mind, it just that I haven't talked to anyone about it, except Leah."
Tara sat curling her legs in and wrapping her arms around her knees, waiting patiently for him to speak. Seth paused, taking a few sips of his soda before he spoke. "My dad had a heart attack. The doctors said it was his diet, but I think it was something else that brought it on because….it happened just after he found out about Leah and I… when he found out we were both wolves. I think he was really upset over it and that's what I believe really caused his death."
"You blame yourself?" she asked but he didn’t reply.
"Seth...look at me," she said. His glossy eyes turned in her direction. Her face was stern. "It's not your fault. It's not something you could control."
"I just… always have. I don't talk about it though, except with Leah. She feels even worse. It's why she's become so protective over me."
Tara kept her gaze focused on him. She liked that Seth confided in her enough to talk about something so personal. She didn't like to see him in pain though. It really bothered her. She felt it was time to put the subject to rest. "So, you haven't always been like this…been able to change?"
"No, I was fifteen when it happened."
Her golden eyes widened with curiosity. "What was it like for you?"
"Scary, at first. I didn't know what was happening to me. I was pretty young for the change to be happening. Leah was already nineteen. Apparently it has something to do with the vampires being here though. It made all of us change."
"All of you?"
"Well, all of us that have the gene for it. After a while I was pretty excited about it. I thought it was cool ya know?"
Tara smiled. "So, how old are you now?"
"Eighteen," he replied.
Her eyebrows rose. "Oh, you're younger than I thought."
"Why, how old did you think I was?"
"Mmm, well I guessed about twenty. You and your friends are all very ...large." Tara was glad to see Seth continued to eat his sandwich.
"Well, I'm the youngest out of the whole pack but... I'm still older than you. You're just a sweet sixteen."
"Uh, wrong..." she rolled her eyes. “I’m seventy remember?"
"That's just a technicality. But in that case, you do look great for an old lady," he winked. The comment made her chuckle. "So anyway...where did you learn to surf?" he wondered.
"While I was in Australia."
"Australia?" His face was full of surprise. "How did you get there?"
"I swam," she said as though it was as common as doing laps in a pool.
"Uh…you swam...to Australia?"
"Vampires don't tire easily, unless we're weak from not feeding. Nor do we need to breathe... I could literally swim forever if I wanted."
"Wow, even still, it seems like a lot of work. Couldn't you have just did that cloaking-thing and smuggled yourself on a plane?"
"Sure I've done that before but have you ever been to the bottom of the ocean?"
"Um, no."
"Well I have, and it's actually quite spectacular. Nothing like you what you see in pictures. You'd be amazed at what's down there – creatures that never come to the surface."
"Like what, the Loch Ness Monster?" He looked at her completely serious. Tara just laughed hysterically shaking her head. Seth smiled, continuing on with his barrage of questions. "So... you were in hiding in Australia right? Because it's sunny?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Bet the others are jealous that you can go anywhere, huh? I mean, you can feel more normal."
"Well, being invisible doesn't really make me feel normal. It gets very lonely after a while."
"So, can you look human too?" he wondered.
"Of course, anything I want really…human….wolf…." She winked. "I could make you disappear too, or even make you look like a goat if I wanted." She chuckled, thinking about it. "Maybe I'll try it on you sometime, just for fun.”
He laughed. "That's neat. I didn't know you could do all that. I'd rather you didn't make me look like a goat though."
She chuckled followed by a sigh. "Oh alright, ruin all my fun then." They both let out a nervous laugh.
"So, why did you hide all the time at the college? I mean if you can look any way you want you can just blend, right?
"Yes, but looking human doesn't change what I am. I'm cold, don't sleep or eat and...I drink blood...I can't mask those things...eventually people would sense the difference. It was easier for me to just hide and never been seen."
Seth thought about it for a moment. "So you've been alone for a long time then...since you left the Volturi?" he asked.
"Yes. You have no idea how happy I was to meet the Cullens. I never would have thought there were Covens such as theirs. Carlisle and Esme are pretty amazing. I feel really lucky to have them take me in like that."
"I'm really glad that they found you too." Seth smiled at her.
Just then, clouds separated, exposing a large patch of blue and the sun broke free from its captivity. Tara's skin glimmered in the sunlight. Her eyes looked even more golden as the sun lit up her face. "Wow," he gasped as he stared at her.
"Oh, yeah .. freaky huh?" she said feeling embarrassed of what he must think of her sparkly appearance.
"No way! That's so cool!"
"Seriously?" she asked with a smirk. Her tone sounded unbelieving.
"Yeah. Totally!" He studied her curiously, wanting to touch her skin. "Um, may I?" he asked nervously as he slowly reached his hand up to touch her face.
Tara nodded silently allowing him to touch her face. His fingers moved along her shimmering cheek. It was cold and smooth like a stone. She closed her eyes, taking pleasure in feeling of his warm skin against hers. His burning touch, triggering a sensation that made her nervous. She clenched her fists, staying perfectly still. "You're hands are so warm," she exhaled in a whisper.
"Is it uncomfortable when I touch you?" he asked, noticing how tense she seemed.
"No. That's not exactly how I'd describe it."
"How would you describe it then?"
"Mmm, it's more like a static current." She felt the hairs on the back of her neck, stand straight up.
He pulled his hand away. "That doesn't sound pleasant."
She opened her eyes. "You'd be surprised at what I find pleasurable."
He smiled. "Are you trying to freak me out?"
"No, it's true. But I am a freak," she winked.
He chuckled. "Well, aren't we all? I mean, none of us are exactly normal."
"Well to be honest, I like being around you because you make me feel more, normal. I think you're fun to be around. I can't even remember the last time I laughed before I met you. Thank you for that."
"You're welcome." He stared at her longingly. He desired more than anything to kiss her but the fear of how she might react stopped him.
"I wish…" she stopped mid-sentence looking away.
"What?" he wondered.
"Nothing." She shook her head.
"Now you've got me curious. Please tell me what you're thinking."
"I just wish I wasn't... what I am. It doesn't matter though. There's no changing things now."
"Well, other than the obvious, is there some other reason you're thinking that?" he pried.
"I guess…it would just be nice not to have certain, limitations."
Seth tried to interpret her cryptic answer. It wasn't quite what he was hoping for but it seemed like a subtle hint. "You know, if you weren't a vampire, I would have never known you. I mean technically you shouldn't exist right? So, that's a positive way to look at it anyway."
She smiled. "Yes. I am glad I met you."
"Me too." He smiled back, thinking about reaching for her hand when his plan was interrupted Jacob and Renesmee.
"Hi guys!" Renesmee said with a pleasant tone as her and Jacob walked over.
"Late much?" Jacob said to Seth.
"I'm so glad you came.” Renesmee plopped herself down next to Tara and hugged her. “So what'dya think of our beach?" she asked.
"It's great... I love the ocean. I never tire of it."
Jacob already began rummaging through the cooler. He pulled out a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for himself and an egg salad sandwich for Renesmee who made a scrunched up face at her food when he handed it to her. It wasn't a grisly for sure. "Eat,” he ordered. “You need the energy." Then he grabbed a large blanket and wrapped it around her body for warmth.
Tara observed how Jacob always cared for her. At first she watched Renesmee pick the pieces of egg out of her sandwich, eating only the whites. Then she shifted her attention to the ocean watching the waves crashing on the shoreline, silently hoping Seth would take her out to the water soon. She no longer wished to spend time near the forest, sensing one of the wolves had moved in closer. It made her uncomfortable.
"Hey Ness...you mind if Tara uses your board?" Seth said as he stood up, brushing the sand from his shorts.
"Not at all. You guys gonna head out there?"
"Yup." Seth stretched his hand to Tara. She paused at first then put her hand in his palm and she felt him pulling her to her feet. "Ready?" he asked giving her hand a squeeze.
"Yes, " She replied but forgot to let go of his hands as he tried to move.
"Uh, I kind need those." He chuckled.
"Sorry." She said nervously and released him.
Then Seth pulled off his shirt and removed his shoes before grabbing his board and walked with her into the crashing waves to paddle out. They both disappeared into the water for a long while.
Leah, Quil and Embry became very hungry as they waited and watched, guarding their territory. Finally they emerged from the forest, unable to resist the temptation to grab some food from the coolers. They sat with Jacob and Renesmee while eating and monitored the situation still. Everything seemed to be going quite smoothly until suddenly something caught Leah's attention out in the water. "What the hell?" she blurted as she looked out at the water's edge. They all jerked their heads around to see what the commotion was about.
"Something's wrong!" Jacob shouted as they all turned and saw Tara pulling Seth's limp body from the water.
"Seth!" Leah shouted just before she started running towards them. Jacob chased her and the others followed.
"I knew bringing her here was a bad idea!" Leah snarled.
Jacob crouched over Seth. Blood streamed down his face. "What happened?" He examined Seth's body while trying to keep Leah back.
"His board pearled and he went under. He hit his head on the reef." Tara explained.
Renesmee and Leah gasped when they saw the gaping wound on his forehead near his hair line.
"Seth! Hey Seth can you hear me?" Jacob tapped at his face with the back of his hand. He seemed unresponsive.
Tara knelt next to him. The red fluid dripped down his face and into the sand. Though she heard Seth's heart beating, she didn't hear him taking any breaths. As soon as she tried leaning in close to his mouth to check his airway, Leah lunged at her and tried shoved her back.
"Hey!" Tara hissed at her.
"Back off, bloodsucker! This isn't meal time for you!" Leah snarled as she hovered over her brother.
Tara became furious. "He's not breathing you idiot! You gonna start CPR or would you like to let the brain damage to set in first?" She hissed.
They all looked at each other, not moving. Tara growled and let out a huff. She inched closer Seth's body and shoved Leah back. Leah started to lunge again when Jacob grabbed her and stopped her.
"Wait," he told her, holding up his arm to keep her back.
Tara gently lifted Seth's neck and put her ear to his mouth. Nothing.
She turned her face and carefully pressed her mouth to his blowing a breath of air into his lungs. She stopped and listened again. Still nothing. As she began to blow another breath of air into his lungs, Seth’s arms reached his arms around her body and held his mouth against hers. Her eyes opened wide as she realized she'd been tricked. She shoved him breaking his grip on her and he let out a laugh.
"Ugh!" Tara blurted aloud. She balled her hand into a fist and punched Seth in the sternum but only hard enough to knock the wind out of him.
"Agh!" Seth gasped, grabbing his stomach and rolling over on his side. "I can't breathe!" He winced in a raspy voice.
"Good!" Tara huffed as she stood up and walked back to where her things were.
"Tsk!" Renesmee blurted out rolling her eyes. Then she followed after Tara.
"Smooth move dude," Jacob said grinning at him, helping him to his feet.
"Yeah man, what were you thinking? Why'd you go and kiss her like that? You're lucky she didn't bite your face off," Quil said.
Seth could barely speak. He stood hunched over, his hands on his knees gasping for air. "What?... All I know is I come-to and I have a girl pressing her lips to mine."
"No, a vampire. You had a vampire on your lips." Leah corrected him.
"Ick!" Quil blurted out.
"Hey shut up already." Jacob spat. His attachment to Renesmee made him more sensitive to the vampire comments.
Once Seth came to his senses, he looked for Tara and spotted her near the tree line grabbing her bag. He dashed after her before she could get out of his sight. "Tara wait….Come on please," he pleaded, following her.
She considered running off, but figured he'd still follow. Seth reached for her arm to get her attention but she pulled it away. She finally stopped and turned to face him with a scowl.
"Don't be mad. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened back there." His head was still spinning and he stumbled trying to catch up with her. Tara grabbed him quickly to help him get his balance back.
She could no longer avoid looking him in the eye. Taking a deep breath to calm herself first, she finally spoke up. "Seth… tell me. Are you… insane?" Her eyes became narrow as she spoke in a cool tone.
"Well that would certainly explain a lot," he mumbled to himself.
"What?" she snapped back.
"Nothing," he shook his head. "No I'm not insane, though I know I have been acting pretty crazy."
"Yeah, ya think?" Tara waved her arms in the air in frustration. "Do you have any idea what kind of situation you put me in back there? I mean seriously thought you drowned and then you go and pull a stunt like that on me?"
Seth' eyes widened when he suddenly noticed the blood all over Tara's hands. He hadn't realized his head was cut open. "W-why are you covered in blood?" he froze.
"You hit your head stupid." Tara reminded him.
He felt the stinging now. His hand touched his forehead feeling the oozing wetness that seeped from his wound. Then he pulled his hand back, seeing the bright red blood on his fingers. He quickly tried rubbing it on his shorts realizing that the smell must be driving her crazy. "Shoot! I didn't know. I'm so sorry."
"You apologize an awful lot you know." She put her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, I seem to be screwing up a lot around you." He looked at her with his big brown eyes, hoping to gain some sympathy.
She spotted a tiny piece of coral still stuck in his head that needed to be removed. "Don't move." She ordered.
He stood still as she stepped closer to him and slid one hand behind his neck so he couldn't run, then she reached up with her other hand and pinched the coral with her petite fingers and pulled it out.
"Ow!" Seth howled.
She held it up to his face so he could see what it was she pulled out. He barely saw the tiny rock covered in his blood. She dropped it to the ground. Then unzipped her backpack and pulled out a towel. "Here - and you should probably get Carlisle to look at that," she said tossing it at him.
"Thanks," Seth said, pressing the towel to his head. "No need for that though. I'm a fast healer."
"If you say so." She shrugged. "Well I should go. I think I've had enough excitement for today." She said coldly then started to turn towards the road to head back. Seth reached for her arm and grabbed it this time. His hand nearly set her arm a blaze. It started her and she turned.
"Wait, at least let me take you back to Forks. Don't run off… please?" Seth warmed her over with his eyes again.
Tara frowned at him trying to decide if she should let him. She finally caved. "Fine," she sighed and she began to walk back towards his bike.
"Isn't the blood bothering you at all? You seem pretty impassive. I'm impressed," he said, while keeping up with her.
"No it's not too bad. Though human blood is very appealing, I've worked on desensitizing myself to it over the years. You're blood however… it doesn't seem to bother me."
"Why's that?" Seth asked almost hurt.
"It just smells… different. I don't know how else to describe the scent really, and no offense or anything but, your blood is more like vampire repellant."
"Oh…great." Seth wasn't sure if he should feel insulted or relieved by her remark. It was certainly for the best that she didn't desire to drink his blood but he didn't like the idea that anything about him repelled her.
"You sure you're okay to drive?" she asked when they got to his bike. "Perhaps I should drive you," she suggested.
"Nope perfectly fine," he said pulling the towel away. "See? The bleeding has stopped." She pouted, watching him climb on his bike. "Hey you know, I think we're even now," he said.
"Oh no…." she huffed climbing on the back of the bike. “You still owe me."
When they pulled into the Cullen's driveway, Tara hopped off. Seth shut the engine down hoping to talk to her but Tara just started to walk towards the house without saying anything. "Hey wait! Am I forgiven yet?" He took off his helmet and jumped off the bike chasing her.
Tara stopped and twirled around on one heel and started to stroll back towards him. She gave him a cooked grin and sighed. "Well I suppose I shouldn't hold a grudge, you did smack your head pretty good out there. I'm sure it must have been what impaired your sense of rational."
"Ah no, I don't think so."
"Well why the heck did you kiss me then?" she said in an irritated tone.
"All I remember is, I was on my board and then the next thing I know you had your mouth on mine. I thought it was a dream or something."
"You thought you dreamt of kissing me?"
"Y-yeah, guess so," he admitted shyly.
"Well you scared the hell out of me. You stopped breathing and it certainly didn't look like your friends were about to save you."
He chuckled. "Yeah well I think even they have their limits. Where did you even learn to do CPR anyways?"
"I sat in a lot of classes at the college, just observing…. and I also catch a lot of TV when I'm bored. Baywatch was one of my favorite shows.
"Oh yeah…great, cause TV is a really credible tool for learning life saving techniques," he joked.
"Hey! I think I did pretty good, next time I'll probably just let you drowned!" she swatted him.
He ignored the stinging sensation where her palm impacted his skin. "Next time? Does that mean we still get to hang out?"
"Mmm... I dunno, you sure that's a good idea? Your friends seemed to think I was gonna have you for lunch out there. Aren't you worried?"
"Uh nope…I believe you said I smelled like …uh, what was it again? Oh yeah, vampire repellant." Seth placed a lot of emphasis on the last two words.
She shook her head. "Gosh, you say that like you're insulted or something. Honestly it's for the best. I certainly wouldn't want to be worried about wanting to bite you all the time. I mean I suppose if I was hungry enough I'd eat you. Does that make you happy?"
"Ah no, but I think I see your point, biting me would not be good, your venom is deadly to us."
"It is?" she gasped.
"Yup, deadly once it reaches the heart."
The corners of her mouth turned down. "Seth, you should have told me! I wouldn't have done that today if I had known….. I could have killed you!"
"Well apparently ingesting it isn't dangerous. I'm still alive."
"You're just lucky." She frowned. It pained her to think she could have hurt Seth or worse…killed him.
"Was it so horrible…kissing me?" he asked.
"Well, no I wouldn't say it was… horrible…interesting maybe. I just wasn't expecting it at all. I thought I was saving your life."
"Sorry. I promise not to scare you again but thanks for caring about me."
Tara just shook her head. "Just try to watch what you're doing next time," she warned. Then she looked at up at the spot on Seth's head where he'd hit it. She reached her hand to his cheek and turned it so she could see the spot where the gash had been. The wound was completely healed. Only a small, hint of a scar was left with a little bit of dried blood covering the area. "Oh, you really do heal fast," she said reaching up to touch it rubbing some of the dried blood away and exposing the fresh pink scar. She gently traced it with her fingertips.
The cool touch of her skin gave Seth goose-bumps. His eyes closed for a moment as he slowly, exhaled. His heart beat began to speed up. When he opened his eyes, he looked right at her face, focusing on her lips thinking about his next move. As she ran her fingers along his temple, he reached up and placed his hand over hers, holding it. There was a silent moment between them when their eyes met. Still holding her hand in his, he inched forward and reached his other hand up to her face and then slowly leaned into her lips.
Tara stood perfectly still, lowering her eye lids as he got closer until he was kissing her. His lips were pleasantly warm to her and very soft. She could hear the sound of his heart like it was trying to break out of his chest and she found herself fighting back a strong craving. Within seconds she became nervous and leaped away, looking him in the eyes with a rigid stare.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes."
"You look terrified. You're all like...tensed up. Are you nervous?"
"Sort of…you did it again."
"What?"
"You kissed me again."
"I know…I meant to this time though. I'm sorry if it startled you." Tara's stare fixated on Seth. It worried him. "Tara, you look frightened." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "I swear I would never hurt you. You know that, right?"
"Of course." She still stood frozen.
"What's wrong then?" he asked, inching closer to her.
"I'm not scared of you…," she paused. "I'm scared of …me."
"Huh, why? I thought you said my blood doesn't bother you."
"It doesn't…..I don't want your blood." Her eyes were wide and dark. She displayed look he hadn't seen before, as if she was restraining herself.
"I'm not sure I understand." He stepped closer to her and took her hand in his, then reached up to touch her face with his other hand and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers caressing her cool skin.
She closed her eyes. The feel of his hot skin on hers was surprisingly pleasing to her. She tensed up again and squeezed his hand tightly.
"Ow…ow…OW! Tara! You're crushing my hand."
She shoved him back, scared that she might hurt him but that's not how he interpreted her reaction. He stumbled catching his balance. Her black eyes pierced right through him.
"I have to go. ..inside….right now," she said coldly. She turned quickly and zipped in the house.
Seth sighed as he watched disappear. He looked at his aching hand and rubbed it. "Nice going dumbass," he thought.
Then he stomped over to his bike and threw his leg over, hopping on. He sat for a moment, staring blankly, deep in thought, toiling over what happened. He realized that he probably ruined his last chance to confess his feelings to Tara. He didn't get the reaction he'd hoped for from her. After taking one more look at the house, he put his helmet on and sped off.
Tara stood at the door, looking out the stained glass window watching as he drove away. Suddenly she noticed the voices that came from behind her. She wasn't alone.
The voices quickly came to a halt and she nervously turned to see who was there. All of the Cullens stood there staring at her, including two new faces. The expressions on their faces changed when they instantly saw the blood all over her hands.
"Oh crap." she thought. "This looks pretty bad right now," she realized. She'd come back from her first visit to La Push with blood on her hands. Not good.
Esme gasped.
"Tara, what happened?" Carlisle asked, immediately worried.
"It's nothing. Seth had a little accident."
Suddenly they realized the blood stunk of dog. It had no appeal to them. Their tensions relaxed, though they curiously wondered what happened still.
"Is he alright?" Esme asked. She adored Seth and hoped no serious harm came to him.
"Yes, yes he's fine now. He just hit his head on some coral. I had to pull a piece out and that's how I got blood on me. He's okay though…he even escorted me home." She explained, leaving out several details. She couldn't stop the recent events from racing through her head though. Then she glanced over at Edward, realizing he was probably listening the whole time. It was suddenly obvious from the look on his face. "Great." she thought and hoped Edward wasn't going to say anything.
Emmett spoke up suddenly. "So are ya switchin' sides on us or what?" he asked Tara.
"Oh no!" Tara thought wondering if they saw the whole event outside. "Um…excuse me?" she mumbled in confusion.
Esme realized they hadn't been properly introduced just yet and spoke up. "Tara I'd like you to meet two other members of our family. This is Rosalie and Emmet,." she said. They had both just returned from a long trip to Kodiak Island in Alaska, where the bear population is at an historic high. They also just finished their second year of college.
Emmett threw his hand up and gave her a short wave of his fingers accompanied by a friendly smile. "Hey I'm just kiddin'. The others were telling us you got to go to La Push today. So what was that like?"
"Whew," she felt relieved. Everyone waited for her to say something. "Oh, well uh… it was interesting, to say the least." She stumbled over her words nervously.
Rosalie's expression didn't change. The idea of mingling with wolves still seemed revolting to her. She tolerated Renesmee's relationship with Jacob but she had no love for the wolves still and didn't like the idea of collaborating or socializing without good reason, or force. When Tara spotted the displeasing look on her face she knew. Even through her grimace Rosalie was even prettier than she expected she thought. Rosalie reminded her of a movie star.
"You're back earlier than we expected. Where's Ness?" Esme asked.
"Still there. I uh… didn't want to hang out anymore," she lied.
"Couldn't stand the smell huh?" Emmett asked.
"Yeah….wet dog." she chuckled, playing it off. The others laughed. Tara had very little to talk about at the moment. She politely sat and listened to the Emmett and Rosalie as they returned to their conversation they were having about school and their trip with the other. Tara hoped the distraction of them being there would keep them from asking her any more questions.
Before long, Jacob and Renesmee returned to the house. Jacob made sure to bring Renesmee back early enough to spend him with Rosalie and Emmett before she was too wore out from the day. He was almost too late as she'd fallen asleep in the car on the way back. H opened the door to his Volkswagen and softly rubbed her arm to wake her. "Come on sleepyhead. The blonde ice-queen is waiting for you."
Renesmee opened her eyes to Jacob's smiling face. He swept the long curls that fell in front of her face with his fingers. Her face lit up when she realized she was home.
As they came through the door, Renesmee squealed with excitement seeing Emmett and Rosalie, and ran over to give each of them a hug. Emmett lifted her off the ground with a giant bear hug.
"Aunt Rose! Uncle Emmett! How's school and the bears?" she asked once he put her down.
"It was quite an adventure. Still got your puppy I see. Is he housebroken yet?" Rosalie snickered.
Jacob interrupted before she could reply. "Hey Rosalie... know what the blond said after she finished college?" She ignored him as usual but Jacob continued on with the punch line. "Will that be paper or plastic?"
Rosalie hissed. "Don't you have some escaped convicts you should be searching for, dog?" she snapped.
"Nope," he said popping his P on the end. "I'm not a bloodhound."
Tara felt glad she wasn't Jacob's target for the moment. She had too much on her mind to get into a battle of wits with him right then.
"I've missed you Rosalie. I've got a ton of jokes I've been saving for your visit," Jacob said, provoking her.
Renesmee rolled her eyes at the two of them, but when she saw Tara staring out the window in a fog she focused her attention on her. She walked over and poked Tara's arm. "Hey are you still upset? You don't look right."
"Upset? About what?" Rosalie instantly became nosey.
"Seth nearly drowned and Tara gave him mouth to mouth. Then he kissed her and she hauled off and punched him. It was comical," Jacob said chucking.
Tara scowled gave him the, "shut the hell up" look. She wanted to turn invisible now.
"Ha! Really?" Emmett chuckled. "You didn't tell us about that part. Is that when he hit his head or did you help him hit it on the coral?"
"Uh gross! You should have ripped the little fleabag's face off!" Rosalie sneered.
The others knew Seth had a playful side to him but they were surprised he'd be brave enough to attempt to kiss a vampire, even as a joke. It seemed a little odd, even for him. Carlisle seemed pleased that Tara had been a good sport about it. He knew it could have ended violently, even if it was a playful gesture.
Jasper also seemed impressed by her self-control, but as he hovered her he sensed an unexpected emotion from Tara. Glancing at Edward, he wondered if he was right about his intuitions.
"Nah you wouldn't do anything to your buddy like that, huh Tara?" Jacob said.
He and Renesmee seemed to be the only ones not entirely disturbed by the event.
"Oh? Are you so sure Jake? I seem to recall you examining him for bite marks when I pulled him out of the water," Tara argued.
"Well, I had to be sure. Just doing my job." he shrugged. "I thought all that blood might be too tempting for you."
"Ick! I'm sure Tara has better taste than that!" Alice perked up.
"Well, it seems you handled the situation quite well Tara," Carlisle commented. Though he would never wish any harm to come to Seth, he felt the accident was a fortunate event for them. The new vampire not only made a save, she ignored a bleeding head injury. He saw it as a good move on her part and hoped it reinforced the Pack's feelings about his family and their values.
Tara wanted nothing more than to hide at the moment. She couldn't stop thinking about the warm sting that still lingered on her lips from Seth's kiss, nor could she ignore the fact that she enjoyed it. That part worried her the most.
"Why would Seth even do something like that?" Alice questioned.
"Uh who knows…. maybe the lack of oxygen got to him. I think he was already low on some brain cells anyway," Jacob said jokingly, trying to divert the issue.
Everyone laughed except Rosalie who took the situation more seriously than the others. Jacob fixed his eyes on her. "Hey Rosalie, know how to make a make a blond laugh on Saturday?" Rosalie stood with her arms folded, gritting her teeth together. "...tell her a joke on Wednesday." He finished.
Emmett tried to hide his smile. He got a kick out of Jacob whenever he provoked Rose. She only behaved herself for the sake of her niece but her patience with Jacob grew thinner. Emmett and Jasper had a bet on when she would finally snap. "Hey, maybe Seth has crush on our new vampire," he said jokingly.
"What? That's absurd! He really does have brain damage if that's true," Rosalie said.
"Or a death wish," Alice added.
"Well I always suspected he seems to like vampires too much. What do you think Tara?" Emmett asked.
Everyone stared at her waiting for an answer. It made Tara uneasy. Though they all seemed to accept Seth as a friend, she didn't think they would find it feasible for a vampire to respond kindly to his bizarre display of affection. The conversation was starting be too much for her. "I think he's definitely got a death wish. If I knew he was going to pull that kind of stunt would have let the stupid dog drowned," she retorted in a nasty tone.
Edward knew she was lying but the others laughed. Jacob looked at Tara, square in the face. He took her words very seriously. Tara wondered if it was for the best. What could possibly become of them anyway, she wondered. Wolves and vampires don't mix well. It was a foolish thought, or at least that's what she tried to convince herself. "Well if you'll all excuse me, I'd really like to shower and get this smell off me." Tara excused herself, eager to leave the room.
As she departed, everyone turned their attention back to Rosalie and Emmett, except for Edward and Bella whose eyes, bore into her back as she walked away. Before she made it the shower, Bella stopped her. "Are you okay Tara?" she asked.
Tara stopped and turned to face her. "I-I truly don't know Bella." She said quietly.
"Tell me then, I might understand," she said as she put her hand on her shoulder.
"When you and Edward were together, when you were human...you two had a ..um…physical relationship?" she wondered.
"Uh… yeah…we had a baby together," she said rolling her eyes.
"Oh..right." Tara felt foolish for forgetting. It was just something that seemed so unreal to her. "So then, it's possible?"
"Tara…do you have feelings for Seth?" Bella asked.
She nodded. "But I shouldn't. It's all wrong."
"Does your mind tell you it's wrong, or your heart?"
Tara grimaced. "I have no heart."
"Course you do. If you have feelings, you have a heart. Just because it stopped beating doesn't mean you don't have one. Do what your heart tells you. Don't worry about what the others might think."
Tara exhaled and smiled. "Don't tell them though, please?"
"I won't."
"Edward already knows though, doesn't he?"
"Yes, probably more than you think." Tara's eyes widened. "Don't worry, he won't say anything either. He's been keeping this secret for a while now. It makes him nervous though. He's noticed the way you look at Seth. It reminds him of when he was falling for me when I was a human. He just has concerns, having experienced it before. That's why I wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah, it kinda frightens me too. I don't know how this works."
"Don't worry, it will work itself out. Trust me."
"Thanks Bella."
"Welcome." She hugged her and then zipped off to be with the family before she was missed.
Tara threw her backpack on the floor of the bathroom and jumped in the shower. As she undressed, the sand fell from her clothes into the basin. She shoved them into her bag so she could wash them later then pulled curtain and turned on the water. Tara stood there for a while allowing the water to beat on her head. Seth's blood ran down her leg and washed away into the drain as she stood in the stream. She closed her eyes and when she did, she kept seeing him leaning in to kiss her. The image ran through her head over and over. After a few minutes, new images ran through her head, ones that hadn't happened but she was imagining they would. She turned the water to the coldest setting.
"Damn! Wish that worked", she thought.