GODS AND MONSTERS ↝ P. LAHOTE

[26]

Lark lay awake in her bed, tossing and turning for what felt like the hundredth time that night before finally settling on lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling where a white patch of moonlight shone through her bedroom window.

After Paul and the others left Billy's, the rest of them had been in no mood to celebrate, after the news brought from the happenings at the Cullen house. Lark and Leonora had sat with Alicia on Billy's couch while the young girl sobbed in mourning of her cousin, their thoughts all swimming with the possibilities of what could happen that night to either the Cullens or the Pack, and whether or not the baby Bella had been carrying had managed to survive, which was a high possibility. She knew the wolves were strong, but whether they could hold their own against the Cullens and Jacob, Seth, and Leah, as well as the potential monster Bella had been carrying, nobody could quite tell.

And of course, the words Paul had spoken before leaving her outside Billy's house had followed her all the way home, through sneaking past where her parents lay on the couch in the Hudson family's living room so they couldn't see the horror written across the girl's face from the events of the evening. Lark had called a quick hello to them when she was already halfway up the stairs, escaping up to her bedroom where she'd spent the remainder of the evening, pacing back and forth around her room while she waited for something, anything to tell her Paul was okay before deciding to try falling asleep as the hours went on.

He loved her.

Of course she loved him too, she'd known for a while that she had, even if neither of the two teenagers had yet taken the first step towards saying the words to each other. For Paul to utter them before leaving that night, Lark knew there were two possibilities.

Either he'd been working up the courage to say it and it finally slipped out.

Or he knew there was a strong possibility he wouldn't be making it out that night.

A dull thud sounded at Lark's window, causing the girl to quickly pull herself into a sitting position, eyes trained on the window for any further sound. When a sharp rapping sound came next in the form of a fist pounding against the glass, she jumped out of bed, crossing the room and looking outside to see Paul standing in the tree next to the window, watching her.

Lark sighed in relief as she pulled open the window, gesturing for the boy to climb inside. As he did, Lark's eyes anxiously raked over his shirtless body, searching for any sort of sign he'd been hurt in an altercation with the Cullens, and sighing in relief as she found nothing, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck in a hug, her face burying itself into his chest.

"Well hi there," Paul said with a smirk, arms wrapping tightly around her in response, the heat from his body already beginning to radiate onto her.

"I was worried," she said, voice muffled against him, and she stepped back from the hug, surveying him once more. "You're okay?"

Paul nodded reassuringly. "I'm okay." he insisted, taking a seat on the edge of her bed, where she sat next to him. "You'll never believe what happened."

"Are you all okay?" she asked, laying her head on his shoulder and looking up at him intently. "What about the Cullens? The baby?"

"They're all fine." he assured her. "By the time we got there, the Cullens were ready for us. We were about to fight when Jacob came running out of the house. He imprinted on the baby."

"He what?" Lark demanded, her jaw dropping at his words.

She'd known it was possible for a wolf to imprint on someone much younger, as was the case with Quil and Emily's niece, Claire. Werewolves aged much slower than normal humans, so by the time Claire was old enough that she might choose the imprint as a romantic relationship, Quil would still appear to be the same age as he was now. But for Jacob to imprint on what they'd spent the past month fearing, if not considering to be a monster like half the Cullens and most of the Pack had, she couldn't quite get a grasp on what that meant for their futures.

"It's a baby," he said in disbelief, shaking his head. "That thing, it's really a baby. A little girl. Renesmee, that's what they named her. But since Jacob imprinted on her, we can't harm her. So whatever comes next, if she turns out to be some bloodthirsty beast, then we can't touch her."

"But it's true?" Lark asked then, her face falling. "About Bella, I mean. She's really gone?"

"We don't know." he said then, his voice turning dark. "I saw her die through the window when I was on patrol, I know I did. Edward injected something into her, his venom, I think, but she was so still, it didn't seem to work. According to Carlisle, she just needs time for the transformation to be complete."

Lark's heart dropped into her stomach as the words registered in her head. It had happened, Edward may have managed to actually turn Bella at the last second. Her thoughts moved to Charlie, and to Alicia and Anastasia's parents, Richie and Elizabeth, who now had lost a second girl to undead immortality. If Bella would turn out to be another funeral with an empty casket, Lark couldn't be sure, but for their sakes, she hoped they'd manage to find some way around it. She didn't think they could take losing another one, leaving Alicia alone with the three adults.

"So Bella's a vampire." Lark concluded, and Paul sighed, nodding.

"It seems crazy, right?" he asked. "For as long as I've known her, for some reason that's all she's ever wanted. Now that it's actually happened, it doesn't feel real."

Paul and Lark sat in silence for a moment, both of them pondering the events of the evening. After a minute, Paul nudged his shoulder against Lark's, causing her to look up at him, a cheesy grin on his face.

"You were worried about me," he said, and she sighed in response, rolling her eyes.

"Of course I was," she said, "I love you too, idiot."

"Well, I'd hope so." Paul said, leaning his head on top of Lark's. "We're sort of bound for life and all, you and me."