chapter 27: stubborn

When we got back to our house after saying goodbye to everyone and promising to come back tommorow, I absent mindedly sat down, curling up on our cushiony grey couch. Human habits die hard. Kale decided to buy the beach house since we both loved it so much. I was staring again and of course Kale noticed.

"You caught their scent too?" He asked, sitting down next to me and pulling me against him. I nodded.

"I think the others did too, but no one wanted to say anything." My voice was softer then I thought it was going to be. He nodded now. "There's alot of them this time." I stated, trying to keep the fear from my voice.

"Persistent monsters...I don't want you going out alone anymore." He frowned.

"No problem." I pressed myself closer against his body, not needing to be reminded as to how strong the werewolves were.

He was playing with my hair again, twisting it around his fingers. His face becoming blank as he began to think deeply, looking past me. Finally his eyes wandered back to mine. His eyes were blazing like little blue fires. He let my hair fall threw his fingers and took my face in his hands.

"I don't know what I'll do if they do that to you again..." He spoke between his teeth, seeming to get angry as he stared at me.

I grabbed his hands, still gripping my face. After so many years he was still like this, still protective and willing to do anything for me. His hands were tense until I had grabbed them.

"They'll try but they won't be able to." I assured him. He pulled my face closer to his.

"We can't underestimate them, Jamie." He sighed, blowing the hair out of my face, causing my body to tremble. I love that he still has that effect over me.

"I'm just saying that I'm stronger then I was back then. I'm not a newborn anymore." I shut my eyes so I would be able to speak without tripping over my tounge as he gazed at me.

"Sweatheart," He brushed the hair out of my face as I opened my eyes. His smile was crooked as if amused. "You may not be a new newborn, but you're still a newborn."

"How do you figure?" I frowned at him. His hand had dropped into my hair, the other rested on my collar bone. He was studying my face.

"There's still alot you have to learn." He shrugged. I sighed now, blowing my breath against him. He shut his eyes.

"I'll give you that one, not that I'll learn everything anyways." I muttered.

I pressed my forehead against his, shutting my eyes now. His skin was so soft and warm against mine. He moved his arms around me, pulling me even closer to him. Neither of us ever felt close enough. There was always a way to get closer. Neither of us moved, neither of us breathed. We focused all of our attention on eachother.

"Love you." He finally broke the silence. One of us always did eventually.

"Love you more."

He laughed. "I'll let you believe that..."

It didn't take long for his lips to brush up against mine. They moved very slowly. He knew I hated that because it drove me insane, but he did it anyways. He let out a small laugh when I managed to pull myself into his lap. I crushed my lips irritatedly against his. There were things that I knew how to do to drive him insane too. I'd get him back soon. I nipped at his lip until he flung me back, nearly destroying the cough, but surprisingly he actually didn't.

~Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....~

That night we both opened our eyes from one of our dreams. Why we did that while we were right next to eachother beats me. We never got sick of eachother, we always had to be near eachother. Was that strange? I think it is. After so long shouldn't we be wanting to strangle eachother sometimes? I guess we just had one of those rare relationships. Even though there were times we did fight, we never really got sick of eachother.

We both finished getting dressed just as his phone went off on the dresser. As soon as he picked it up, I heard Shane's voice.

"They're getting closer...Emily's with them. I'm going to go--"

I grabbed the phone now, having to stand on my tip-toes. I put the phone to my ear, interrupting him.

"Don't go alone, Shane. Wait for us."

He sighed as if expecting me to take the phone from Kale.

"It's about time I keep my promise and leave. Not only to protect you, but our whole family."

I glowered at Kale for a moment, Kale had made Shane promise he would leave if things got too dangerous. I took my anger out on Shane.

"It's not even about me and Emily anymore! Kale killed Ulrich, all of us, at one point, managed to break something on at least one of them each, I nearly killed Milo. There's nothing you'd be able to do anymore. Maybe Emily would stop coming after us, but the others won't. We caused too much damage in the past for you leaving to fix anything." I tried the best I could to talk sense into him. He muttered something under his breath.

"See Shane, that's the worst idea you've ever thought of." Jake told him in the background.

"Where are you two?" I asked him.

"At Jason's. We came back to make sure Nathan didn't try to go after them. He's never been around werewolves like Emily or Milo." By this time Jacob and Shane had moved in together as roommates in a decent sized house not too far away from Jason and Anya. Kale wouldn't allow them to move in near us.

"Stay there..." I ordered him slowly between my teeth.

"Jamie--" He began to complain.

"If you don't then it's not just Emily's pack you have to worry about..." I snapped at him.

"You're not scary, Jamie." He was nearly snickering at me.

"Maybe not," I glared at the pillow that was torn up on our bed. My fault, not Kale's. Why I glared at inatimate objects all the time was beyond me. "But Kale might have something to say about that."

"We'll be right here." He finally gave in reluctantly after a moment.

I hung up before he could change his mind and turned to hand Kale his phone back. He took my wrist rather then the phone with a wide, turned on grin on his face. He pulled me against him, leaning in for a kiss. Pay back time.

"We'd better go..." I breathed slowly when his lips just barely touched mine. I pulled away, pulling my wrist out of his hand, dropping his phone into his hand and headed toward the door.

"She did that on purpose." He muttered to himself. I looked over my shoulder at him with a grin. "You're going to make me lose my mind!" He pouted. I continued to smile at him then headed out of the room.

"Even?" I asked, hearing him come quickly behind me.

"Yes!" He threw his arm around me, kissing my hair. That game never got old.

It didn't take long to get back to Jason's. We ran rather then taking the truck, thankfully. I won that game too.

"I let you win." He admitted as we opened the front door.

"Awwe," I sighed over-dramatically. "As always." He ran his finger threw my hair and chuckled.

The house was clean, no decorations or balloons as if Nathan's birthday didn't even happen. Jake and Shane both came down the hall. Both looking even more anxious then Shane had been last night.

"Here we go again." I murmured.

"I'm surprised it took them this long." Shane answered my murmur as Jason, Anya and Nathan

walked into the room.

"Where's Will and Anabelle?" I asked anyone who would answer.

"They went with Maverick and his pack. They're around the perimeter somewhere." Anya was the one to answer.

Like William, Anabelle eventually lost her scent over the years. They were both good at surprising anyone and everyone.

"Who exactly are these werewolves? What's going on?" Nathan was frowning, confused.

"Nothing for you to be concerned about." I met his gaze. He didn't need to be dragged into a ten year old fight. His frown deepened. He crossed his arms in a pout. I ignored him, looking at the others. "We have to go back to the canyon. Roy's clan can help us."

"Roy's clan." Jason and Shane both winced uneasily.

"We need everyone we can get. They're coming back for revenge. I'm sure they've probably been planning for years." Kale agreed with me, even though he hated Roy too.

"Anabelle won't be happy about that." Jacob muttered.

"She'll get over it." I said, taking Kale's hand.

"Bring your pack. We'll go get our clan." Kale started to pull me out the door as Jake and Shane followed.

"Where to?" Jason asked.

"We'll meet at the Ruins and go to the canyon together. Be quick." He said over his shoulder. "And bring your cars."

"Leave your son." I added. They both nodded, grabbing Nathan's arms. He wasn't happy about that. He would understand in a few years, I hoped.

As we sat in the scion, driving back to get the truck, I began fiddling with the triple-heart necklace around my neck that was given to me at our wedding. It still had that same sparkle to it, even now, although you could still tell it was about 10 years old.

"Go faster." Kale complained, irritated as he took my fidgetting hand.

Jake sighed heavily. We were already going over a hundred miles per hour. But still, Jacob did as he said, nearly pushing the scion to it's limit. Kale didn't like not driving, let alone having to sit in the back seat. I had a feeling he took my hand, not nessasarily to calm me down, but to calm himself down.

"We should have just ran." He continued to complain under his breath. I nodded in agreement.

"I can't go any faster." Jake retorted. "If I do the XD will blow up."

Kale glowered at him.

"Alright then." He muttered, edging us toward the door. Both Shane and Jake looked back at us with shocked expressions as he opened the door.

"We'll beat you there." Kale challenged.

Jacob smirked. "Doubt it."

He sped up a little as we threw ourselves out of the car, landing with grace on the pavement. Without faultering, we took off towards the house. We did manage to beat them. Because we were just as fast as the car and since we were running we were able to cut across the valleys, forests and other natural places that didn't have pavement.

We got in the truck just as they pulled up behind us. Kale shot them a cocky grin and jumped in the truck. They pulled back so we could pull ahead of them. Kale took off, going over 130 MPH in seconds. They followed behind us, trying to keep up.

As we drove, his phone went off. Even though he was perfectly capable, I reached into his pockets, grabbing his phone, ignoring the sudden movement of his body towards me.

"Focus on driving." I scolded him. He gave me an are you serious? look. Then he looked back at the road. "What's going on, Jacob?" I asked, putting the phone to my ear.

"I just filled Jared in. The clan's headed to the Ruins so we can go straight there. Maverick's pack is with Jason and Anya now--"

"What about Nathan?" I interrupted him.

"They said they left a few from the pack with him at the house. There's no way he'll get away." He assured me.

"Alright. Thanks for the update."

"Anytime."

We hung up and I gazed at Kale for a moment.

"Is it safe or are you going to try and attack me again?" I raised my eyebrow at him. He shot me a small smile.

"Go ahead. I'll try to control myself."

I hesitated a moment then slid the phone into his pocket. His body moved toward me again.

"Kalsaban!" I pulled back. He glowered at me. "I don't care if you are a vampire, you know we can't do that when you're driving....I shouldn't even be this close to you right now..."

"We only crashed once." He reminded me.

"Once is enough. That wasn't even our car!"

"I bought Jacob a new one and his scion needed an upgrade." He murmured. Then he looked at me and flashed his handsome smile. It was so hard to resist. I looked away, crossing my arms.

"Don't give me that look."

He snicked beside me. After a moment I gave him a look I knew he couldn't resist. He completely lost it. He grabbed my arm and effortlessly pulled me against him, crushing his lips against mine. The car didn't even swurve. It took me a moment to pull away from him though. I shook my head as I fell back into my seat. I slapped his hand away as he reached for me again.

"No. Remember Emily's pack is coming. We can't stall. Focus."

He sighed, looking back at the road. He sped up with a grin still on his face. My phone went off now. I answered it before Kale had a chance to reach for it.

"Hi Anabelle." I answered a little breathlessly.

"Jamie, are we seriously going to Roy's canyon?" She sounded anxious. I sighed.

"I know it's not somewhere you want to go but they're the only ones that truly know how to fight the werewolves, aside from Shane."

She let out a frustrated groan.

"I'm sorry, Anabelle." I apologized slowly.

"It's fine. I think I can handle it." She sighed heavily now.

"I know you can." I assured her.

She let out a laugh. "Thanks. Well, see you soon."

"Right." I hung up after a second. I sighed, sinking back into the seat. "I can't believe we're going threw this again." I murmured, irritated.

Kale reached over, taking my hand and squeezing it. He went from being the crazy hornball I saw every-so-often to the normal Kale I saw everyday.

"Hopefully this is the last time we ever have to see them." Now he sighed.

His warm hand in mine made it difficult to think anything bad could ever happen. I couldn't help but smile at him. He glanced at me.

"What?" He asked but smiled back. I shrugged.

"Nothing. You just make me feel safe."

"You know I'll always protect you, my love." Then he laughed. "What happened to me being overprotective?"

"Well, you can be but at the moment it doesn't feel like that at all."

He let go of my hand and ran his hand threw my hair. He wasn't paying attention to the road anymore. Again. In just a couple hours we wouldn't be alone again for a long time, might as well make the best of it now.

It didn't take long to get to the Ruins but it took longer then it normally would have considering we kept getting distracted. By the time we go there everyone was waiting. We only slowed down enough so they would follow us. Then we sped off again. When we arrived at the enterance of the canyon, Kale stopped the car, looking over at me.

"Ready?" He sighed.

I nodded. "Let's get this over with."

We jumped out of the car, everyone else doing the same. Maverick got out of his car with a few from his pack. Most of his pack, Jason's pack and our clan decided to run instead of take their cars. I wanted to run too. But Kale had his reasons not to. Anabelle and William got out of the car with Jason and Anya. Jake and Shane jumped out of the scion XD now too. Everyone was here.

Without saying anything we began to move into the canyon. We didn't go far before Roy and his clan were in front of us. The original five were there, along with five new faces with red eyes. Two of which were females. Kevin's eyes were instantly on Anabelle. William pulled her closer to him, sneering at Kevin.

"Well now, how long has it been?" Roy asked us holding out his arms as if to embrace Kale.

"Ten years." Kale murmured.

"What brings you here?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. Kale and I looked at eachother in unison. Roy knew, he just wanted us to say it. He wanted Kale to say it. We all knew Kale wouldn't say it.

"Emily's pack is back." I spoke so Kale didn't have to.

"Awe, are you asking for my help? Another mess to be cleaned up?" He eyed Kale with a smirk.

Kale cringed, grinding his teeth together. His fists were clenched at his side. I worked my hand into his fist. He opened it to grip my hand but he closed it tightly when our hands were connected. His grip probably should have hurt me but of course it didn't.

"Not for your help, for your whole clans help. We can't do this alone--" Kale began.

"Alone?" One of the females looked around, gazing mostly at the packs warily, or maybe hungrily. I wasn't really sure.

"Emily doesn't have ten members of her pack. She found others, ten more. We need everyone we know." Jake answered her.

Then he sent her a wink. She smiled at him shy-like. I looked wide-eyed at Shane who seemed to be the only other one to catch the little exchange between the two vampires. His jaw hung open as he looked from Jake, to the girl, to me.

"Wow..." I breathed out.

"What?" Kale looked down at me. I shook my head.

"I'll tell you later." I looked at Roy now, who was staring at Kale. "Please help us."

Roy sighed, looking at me. "Always." He nodded. His whole clan turned around, heading further into the canyon.

"We'll hang back. Watch the perimeter." Maverick spoke for both packs as the majority of them nodded, looking uneasy. Jason and Anya nodded too.

"We'll stay back with them too." William agreed. Kale shrugged.

"Do as you please." He squeezed my hand and we followed behind Roy's clan.

When we got into the canyon, the only thing that changed over the ten years was more tents were added. I understood now what I couldn't understand in the beginning, the reason why tents were so necessary, why beds and places to "sleep" were wanted was because we loved to dream. It brought us back, for a short time, to mortality.

The two females were now talking quietly amounst themselves, about me;

"That's her."

"Who?"

"Jamie Vandera."

"As in Kale Vandera, Vandera?"

"You didn't recognize him?"

"I never met him, only heard of him. You know him?"

"No." The girl that sighed had short dark hair pulled into two small ponytails. She had short bangs across her forehead, just above her red eyes.

"Oh wait, she's the one that was turned out of love." The other girl had carmel colored hair that looked naturally crimped, sort of wavy. She was the one Jacob winked at.

"Exactly."

I pulled Kale's hand, dragging him toward them with me. As I walked past Jacob, I grabbed his hand with my free one, dragging him along too. They stopped talking and turned to us. I smiled at them.

"You two seem to know who we are," I pulled Kale beside me, he shot them a confused smile. "But have you met Jacob?" I pushed him in front of me.

"We have now." The short haired girl grinned at her friend who smiled at him as she did before. "I'm Stephanie. This is my sister Melissa." She pushed her sister in front of her as I had done with Jake. Stephanie smiled at me, we made a good team.

"Steph..." Melissa muttered as she ran into Jacob. "Sorry."

They both took a step back, staring at eachother.

"I'm uh Jacob...I mean, Jake. Jamie calls me Jacob, so does Shane but that's because they're my best friends. Kale calls me Jacob sometimes, but that's because he likes to be an ass. You can call me Jacob though. I don't mind but I do prefer Jake but if you want to call me Jacob--"

"Jacob!" Kale and I snapped him out of his rambling in unison, trying not to laugh. Melissa did laugh though, which made him smie at her, obviously liking her laugh.

"I like Jake better then Jacob actually." She told him.

"Really?" His smile widened as she nodded and that's when we left them there.

"Do you think he's over me finally?" I asked Kale quietly when we were far enough away from them. He laughed.

"Not a chance! Neither of them will be over you, Jamie but he seems distracted enough to finally give up on you."

"Really?" I asked excitedly.

He smiled and kissed the corner of my mouth. One down, one to go. I was feeling lucky. And speaking of the devil himself, he was walking beside us now.

"Whoa! I wasn't expecting that!" Shane let out.

"I know! Me either!" I looked up at him.

"She just smiled at him and BAM! He's hooked!"

"Right?! It's crazy! Who would have thought, someone from Roy's clan would catch his attention."

"She's actually pretty too, for a vampire anyways, even with those red eyes."

We spoke only like any best friends would talk about another of their best friends when they meet someone they're obviously into. We hadn't gotten a chance to talk like this yet. Kale laughed at us, rolling his eyes but seeming just as excited as us, only he wasn't exactly showing it.

"And it kind of makes me realize that if I keep my eyes open I might just meet someone." He shrugged then laughed as if the thought was ridiculous. Right after that he looked at me anxiously. Not anxious like he was when we first caught Emily's scent, but an anxious that seemed vaguely familiar to me. I stopped walking. Kale glanced at me momentarily, looking impatient. I squeezed his hand then let go. He sighed.

"I'm not going in there alone." He muttered. Roy had disappeared into his tent before we could really talk to him.

"Just five minutes." I pleaded.

He nodded after a long pause and walked away from us, finding one of Roy's clan members to keep himself distracted. I turned to Shane now.

"What's going on in your head?" I asked. He looked over at Jake and Melissa in the distance, taking in a deep breath.

"I don't..." His voice trailed off. When he didn't continue I took his extremely warm hand.

"You can tell me." I encouraged. He looked at me, smiling only a little bit.

"It's just that, I don't want to lose my best friend." His voice was so small and pained.

I bit my lip, holding back an awwe that would only make myself sad.

"Why do you think that?" I finally asked.

"He seems like the type to be consumed by a girl. Whenever you weren't around, we still had eachother, but...I mean..."

"I won't let that happed, I promise. And besides, there's noway that could happen anyways, he loves you too much." I interrupted him. He laughed.

"Let's not say that outloud...ever again." He muttered, taking in a deep breath. Now I laughed at him.

"It's true. You love him too. Neither of you will admit it but you don't have to, we all already know." I grinned. "But really, don't worry, he'll still be here for you and me and the rest of our family." I pulled him closer and wrapped my arms around him in comfort. He let out a sigh, actually I think he let out the same breath he had taken in earlier. "Now come on, Kale needs our support." I pulled away and we headed back towards Kale and one of Roy's vampires.

When we got up to them, Roy's vampire looked at me, smiling half-heartedly. I smiled back, he turned around leaving. Kale took my hand.

"About time. I was just about to go in there alone." He turned to the tent, letting out a sigh.

"He already agreed to help us." I reminded him.

"Yeah. But he's so hard-headed, it's hard to work with him." Kale muttered.

Shane gave him a quick pat on the back, trying to comfort him, showing him that we are here for him.

"I heard that." Roy said, coming out of the tent. Kale tensed. I forgot just how much he truly hated him.

"I was counting on that..." Kale informed him, irritated. "You've dealt with Emily's pack before, right?"

Roy nodded, crossing his arms. "It's easier to fight them one on one. Your next question, I'm assuming, is asking about their weakness. Well, there strength is in numbers. I hope you already know our bites are fatal to them. Don't worry Kale, I will help you protect your dear friends and get rid of these muts. Is that all?"

Kale stared at him for a moment, obviously annoyed.

"I think you've covered everything." He murmured.

"Good. Good." He nodded as if that were the "right" answer.

"We need to gather everyone soon. The pack is coming fast." I put in before either of them could walk away.

"Just name the time and place, Mrs. Vandera, my clan will be there." He smiled at me. Kale tensed again. I squeezed his hand.

"I want everyone in the main tent in an hour." I demanded. "It is big enough, isn't it?" I glanced behind me, eyeing the big red tent closest to the mouth of the canyon.

"It is." Roy nodded. "Again, we'll be there."

I looked back at him, nodding. He glanced at Kale, who was still tense, then he went back into his tent.

"Shane, will you--" I began.

"Already on it." He interrupted me, spinning on his heels to tell the clans and packs of the gathering.

Kale turned his attention to me now as I led him away from Roy's tent.

"Why in an hour?" He asked as we past Jacob who glanced our way only for a split seond before turning his attention back to Melissa. I felt a slight irritation and feeling of abandonment until Kale's voice snapped me out of it. "And why are we leaving the canyon?"

I looked up at him now. He hadn't taken his eyes off of me yet since he turned to me.

"Because, Kalsaban, you're tense and because I know you so well I can tell you need to get away from here for awhile."

He winced at his name but then smiled at me and squeezed my hand. He leaned down without missing a step, kissing me softly.

"You know me too well, Jamie." He grabbed my hand tighter. "Let's get out of here."

And then we sped off out of the canyon. I let go of his hand because I was trying to race him. He kept pace with me. We ran perfectly insync now, it was hard for either of us to actually win. The wind was whipping through my hair, twirling it around behind me.

The rush I get from running always felt like a new adventure for me, always. We didn't have an actual destination, we just ran. That was our means of getting away. The canyon was barely a speck in the distance, we were miles away but we could still hear the soft murmur of talking, laughing, even arguing from the packs and clans.

It didn't take long for me to skid to a stop. The desert was peacefully quiet under the night sky but now there was a crashing pang inside me that disturbed that peace. Kale stopped beside me, eyes wide. Mine must have been too.

"Ohh my God..." I breathed, staring up at him. Kale was now snarling.

"I'm going to kill him!" He growled.

"I won't stop you." Usually I would try to calm him down, but I was just as angry as he was...