Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

42 - ꜱᴛᴏʀɪᴇꜱ

BILLY DID not take the news well whatsoever.

Like at all.

He didn't take his anger out on her or Sam (well some of it was taken out on him when he heard about the confrontation thing) but the Cullens - like usual. She just sat there and listened, giving reasons why he was being insane when he was and taking the few rare points he made into consideration. She knew why the wolves hated the cold ones, having been to many a meeting before, so it didn't surprise her whatsoever when he could rant for days and days about them.

The few days following the incident in the woods, Athena was just about to get into the bath when Jasper knocked on her front door and ruined her plans for the perfect relaxing evening. Bella's house had been broken into by some sort of immortal being that no one recognised the scent of. So she, Jasper and Emmett, went to Bella's and spent about an hour in search of the intruder. Jasper managed to catch the sent before anyone else did and Athena managed to catch the very snippet of a thought that showed the need to hunt. All of this was reported back to the rest of the family and Bella through a meeting and ever since then she had spent her days watching Bella, hunting for Victoria or the intruder, hunting to keep her thirst under control and checking on Billy when she knew Jake wasn't in.

-

As darkness overswept the town, Athena walked the short length to Billy's house after just swapping with Alice for the watching of Bella's house shift - she wasn't there but Charlie was. She happened to find herself taking a detour where she sat at the mouth of a river and just thought for a while, enjoying the peace and stillness of the firest after one of the busiest weeks of her existence that was spent in Forks. By the time she pulled herself from the river and all the thoughts that happened there, night had fully set and she was a few minutes late to the meeting she had promised to attend the day previous. So she pulled her ears with fast-paced music and ran, going as fast as her body would let her. She made it in a minute and smiled at the burning fire in the middle of the circle of people, all-devouring various different burgers with different fillings. She appeared sat next to Embry without anyone noticing, to begin with and enjoyed the calm atmosphere that surrounded them as they took it in turns to talk about their lives.

Once Bella and Jake pulled up in her truck, that conversation stopped and everyone fell into little groups of chatter. Embry complained about being too warm from the fire so she jokingly pressed her hand to his head, pretending to cool him down. Apparently, it worked somewhat so she stayed there for a second, feeling like a fire burning beneath her palm. He made a joke about them being like fire boy and water girl, a joke that she did not understand at all but was too distracted by Bella to want to hear an explanation.

She looked paler than usual like something was going on within her body that she wasn't aware of yet. Maybe she was just hungry? Suddenly she was glad that Seth, the newest and sweetest member of the pack, had saved them some food. Bella's gaze fell onto Embry and Athena without their knowledge and she raised a brow at how close they were, to her it almost seemed like it meant something a little more than friendship. Not that it did at all, Embry was fixated on a girl at school and would not shut up about it even if Athena complained about it constantly. And Athena, well she didn't date Wolves. "Honestly do you ever stop eating," she grimaced as he took another humongous bite from a burger, wiping the sauce within it from his chin. He chuckled when she looked away, the discomfort from the whole situation causing her to grimace even more. Food to her, of course, tasted like dirt but this meal weirdly smelt like it too - the scent filled her nostril and it felt inescapable. So she just stopped breathing, sitting still but still blinking so no one got too freaked out.

He laughed, "Don't shame me cause food tastes like sh-" he trailed off, looking to the elders and finding them all staring at him with a frown on their faces. "Like dirt to you," he corrected, semi saving himself from a later lecture about his language use.

Athena just laughed and punched his arm, wondering what it would be like to eat mortal food so freely and be able to experience what they actually tasted like. That was another reason she wanted to remember mortal life, to remember the mortal experiences.

After a few minutes of further chatter as Bella and Jake settled in, Billy began the awfully familiar recalling of the Quileute past. He spoke very formally and slowly, taking on his storytelling voice that coursed waves of nostalgia to flow through her body, "The Quileutes have been a small tribe from the beginning. But we have always had magic in our blood. We were great spirit warriors, shapeshifters, that transformed into the powerful wolf. This enabled us to scare off our enemies and protect our tribe."

Athena zoned out as he went into the story about the vampires, her head swirling with various book ideas that she had been thinking about for a while. But due to how many there were, she couldn't focus on one long enough for it to develop any further than an idea. And she didn't feel too bad about zoning out as she could recall any moment from that recall without even thinking too deeply. At this point, it was engraved in her mind.

"Over time, our enemies have disappeared. But one remains the cold ones. Our magic awakens when they're near. And we sense it now, feel the threat in our blood. Something terrible is coming and we must all be ready. All of us," Billy finished and she snapped out of her daze, finding that she had been numbly staring at the fire for the entire time. No one seemed to notice though.

"This cold one's not a threat though. She's so timid," Embry added, earning sniggers from the surrounding wolves. However, Seth remained silent, peering at her with such wonderment. He hadn't technically met her before so the confusion for him was deep, he couldn't quite understand why she was here.

She grew a grin, looking Embry in the eyes, "Oh you want to go Call?" He chuckled, refusing to meet her stare. She laughed then, tapping him on the shoulder as if it would catch his full attention, "Come on then, too scared a 'cold one' is going to beat you?"

With that Embry could not back down. So a fight engaged between the two of them, a very jokey fight where she laughed the entire time. Only when Embry started to get the hint of an edge she pulled out her not so secret weapon and stopped his movement completely.

"Cheater," he exclaimed as she moved out of his reach, looking at his stance with a tilted head. She was going to just leave him frozen for a few minutes but that comment had her slightly aggravated so, Embry started a perfectly poised ballet routine that had spins and ended with him doing multiple cartwheels on the grass. "Athena stop! I get- it!"

"I like her," Seth whispered to Jake as she laughed.

"Apologize Call, say I'm better than you are and I'll stop," she responded, changing his movements so he stopped then started doing an extraordinary impression of a robot. At that point, everyone started to laugh, even Billy though he would never admit to it.

"I'm sorry!"

"And..."

"You're better than I am," he seethed, keeping his glare on her fixed despite the motion in his body. He sighed out of relief when his arms dropped back down to his sides, cheeks burning pink once he realised the entire pack was laughing at him.

She smiled at him as he sat back down, struggling not to laugh at the flushed expression and clear lack of breath that he had developed. A conversation about something completely different stuck up amongst the pack members so she went into Billy's head, so they could talk without interrupting anyone. She could easily tell he wanted to talk to her due to the look of disappointment on his face, she could tell it was fake though. She had known him to belong to be fooled by something as simple as that.

"Don't look at me like that," she spoke in Billy's mind, trying to escape his fixed line of sight.

"You're such a child," he replied, struggling not to let a smile crack his stern expression.

"I know. Thank you for noticing grandpa," she replied with a soft laugh returning her focus back to the dancing flames. She had never had such fun at one of those meetings and felt almost disheartened when she had to go home.