Believe Me Chapter 10

Wolves howled from one side of the river. From the other side, the leader of the Cullen’s and one of the members ran after him. Laurent mentally swore as he barely managed to jump from the wolves side of the invisible line, narrowly missing the attacking teeth. If Victoria was with him, he was sure he would have a much better chance of surviving; as it were, he was actually nervous for the first time in a very long time.

James had left him because, as James had put, he had homework to do since Victoria was no longer of any use to him. He had left to Arizona to look up information on the girl. Apparently that was where the girl came from before she lived in Forks. So James was hoping there would be better connections in Arizona to trick the human. Now he was stuck in this God forsaken land that hand angry mutts and aggravating vampires all trying to kill him because his friend wanted to hunt a clearly protected human.

He didn’t even want to get started on Victoria and her abandonment. She had chosen her side and she would have to live with the consequences.

Laurent cursed out loud as he was tackled from behind; his thoughts of his newly dubbed former coven mates had distracted too much.

Laurent used all his strength to pry a blonde haired vampire off of him that he hadn’t even realized had been chasing him. He should have known the blonde vampire that clearly had the most fighting experience wouldn’t have been left out of his hunt. The coven, while not really impressive to Laurent, at least they had one or two members that seemed to know what they were doing… and he wasn’t talking about the coven leader.

Laurent barely managed to get out of Jasper’s grip seconds before Edward was able to catch up to help. Jasper had to be careful using his gift to make sure it didn’t affect anyone but Laurent and that was easier said than done. Jasper was hoping that with the three of them, they would be able to kill Laurent and have one less headache to worry about. He wasn’t their main target, but it was the best they had. Especially since Alice confirmed that James, the tracker, had left the state and didn’t seem to have made many plans outside of running south of Forks.

“You have permission to go on our lands.” Carlisle yelled towards the wolves. They had previously asked for permission to go on their lands to help them with catching either Laurent or James. Now that it was just Laurent, Carlisle was no longer worried about if they were allowed on their lands or not. If they could all work together to get Laurent, Edward would be one step closer to protecting his chosen human. If it made Edward happy, then Carlisle was willing to do all he could to make it happen, even if it meant having the wolves on their land but not vice-versa.

Unfortunately, the only response Carlisle could understand were more growls and howls. He wasn’t even sure if any of those sounds were directed towards him or not. Thankfully, he had Edward with him.

“Son, what did they say?” Carlisle asked, sending Edward a gentle smile. He was always happy to see Edward, even while they were running in an attempt to capture a vampire to kill.

“They don’t want to go on our lands.” Edward grunted as he tried to pick up his speed to catch Laurent; unfortunately, the French vampire jumped sides to the wolves’ side of the lands before he could catch him. “They think it’s a trap.” Edward said with a growl from frustration about how blind and ignorant the wolves were and his frustration of not being able to kill Laurent. He needed to kill the vampire and protect his mate. What kind of mate would he be if he couldn’t protect her? He had to keep her safe; that was his job, that was what he was made for.

“I swear to you, that we will not retaliate in any way.” Carlisle yelled so the wolves could hear him. “We need to stop this man, he is hunting a human. Please, feel free to go on our lands to help us stop him.”

Edward didn’t bother translating for Jasper or Carlisle as one of the wolves, Leah, jumped across the border and snapped at Laurent. Edward could hear that while most of the wolves didn’t want to get involved with vampires or step foot on their lands, a few of them, Leah being one of them, didn’t care as long as the vampire was killed before he could hurt someone.

Leah narrowly missed Laurent, Laurent having incredible luck to miss her jaws, but Jasper took advantage of their near collision to tackle Laurent himself. Laurent kicked at Jasper, to get him away from him, but in kicking Jasper away, he didn’t have enough time to dodge out of the way from Leah. Instead of dodging, Laurent wrapped his arms around the wolves jaw and swung himself to the wolves back and hugged the wolf as tight as he could.

Laurent smiled as he heard the crack of what he assumed to be the wolves’ ribs. His smile grew wider as the wolf howled in very obvious pain. He may not have believed he would be able to come out of this confrontation alive, but he was happy to at least have caused someone pain.

Laurent knew it was coming, but he couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. He knew he wouldn’t survive the fight and anymore running would still result in his death. But if he held on as tight as he could, he could hopefully cause some permanent, hopefully the lethal kind, of damage to the wolf.

He felt two hands land on his shoulder, pushing him to the ground. But Laurent held on to the wolf, happy to hear the breathing of the wolf become more and more labored.

He then felt two other hands grip his head and he knew he only seconds left.

He knew without a doubt, that James had set him up. He knew he was being used as the scapegoat, or at least as a distraction while he did whatever it was he was doing. Laurent just hoped that James’ luck would run out sooner rather than later.

Edward pulled Laurent’s head from his body and was grateful that at least part of his hunt was over. One third of the threat was dead. He was sure the other two wouldn’t be as bad now that they would realize Edward wasn’t as easily fooled as they likely thought.

Edward threw the head towards Jasper, confident the ex-soldier would be able to handle the burning on his own. Carlisle was quickly by his side and helped to extract Laurent’s body from the wolf, from Leah. Already the wolves were surrounding them, growling and snapping in agitation. Sam had already phased back into a human, barely managing to put on pants as he ran closer to his injured wolf.

“Leah!” Sam yelled, clearly as distressed as the rest of his pack.

“She needs to go to a hospital.” Carlisle said, already having a fair assessment of her injuries from just looking at the wolf. “Her ribs will definitely need to be reset and she needs to be checked to see if her lungs were punctured.” Carlisle explained, placing a hand on Edward’s shoulder in silent congratulation’s for getting his kill.

“She can’t shift back while in this much pain.” Sam said with a frown, already knowing how much his pack was going to hate what he was about to suggest, but they didn’t have many options and he wasn’t about to lose one of his wolves to something that was treatable. “She also can’t go to our hospital, they don’t know about us.” Sam said with a frown, looking Carlisle in the eyes and hating every word he was about to say.

“Carlisle can treat her at our home, he had a full set up for Bella after she had gotten into the accident when she first got here. It wouldn’t be a problem at all.” Edward interjected for Carlisle since he already knew what the two were going to say.

Immediately the wolves surrounding them growled in anger, not wanting their pack mate in the coven’s home where she likely wouldn’t be safe. With the other two vampires still on the loose, they couldn’t go with her, they had to protect their people that couldn’t turn into wolves and protect themselves.

As the others howled and Sam did his best to mentally get them all to shut up, Seth crawled forward on his belly, whimpering in pain at seeing his sister so hurt. He gently moved from very, very gently nudging his sister with his nose to nudging Sam, trying to voice his opinion without phasing back to a human and having to flash everyone.

Sam nodded, his message clearly understood.

“Can you please take her and Seth and help her?” Sam asked with a frown, just simply asking for their help left a bad taste in his mouth. He wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t turn back and demand things because of their assistance, but Leah needed the doctor’s help. None of them had actually met anyone other than Carlisle and Edward, Carlisle because he reinstated the treaty and Edward to translate for them, so he didn’t know the rest of the coven outside of the rumors they heard from the townsfolk. He just had to hope that the doctor was a good person like they frequently liked to claim.

“We will, my wife will be there, she has several nursing degrees. Between both of us, I’m sure we will be able to get Leah back to normal soon. I have your number, I’ll make sure to keep you updated every step of the way.” Carlisle assured.

Sam momentarily thought about following them to make sure both Seth and Leah at least made it to the Cullen’s safely, but the sooner he got word back to Leah’s father and the council, the better. This would also make sure that none of the wolves accidently let slip what happened and piss the council off even more by making them assume Sam was keeping something from them. The sooner Sam talked with the council and tried to convince them he was right in having the Cullen’s help, the sooner it would be too late for them to demand Leah go to their hospital.

“Good.” Sam said, sparing Leah just one final glance before leveling Carlisle with his sternest stare, causing Edward to bristle at the disrespect. “If I find out you did anything to hurt either of them, there will be no place on this planet that you could hide from us. Do you understand?”

Edward couldn’t help but growl at the threat, but Carlisle’s gentle pressure on his shoulder calmed his anger.

“I understand.” Carlisle said with a serious look, understanding just how serious Sam was taking the whole situation and Carlisle didn’t blame him. If it was Edward, or his wife, that needed the help, he would be just as nervous and anxious. “I will get her back to perfect health, I swear it.”

Sam nodded once more before bursting into his large wolf form just out of range from hitting any of the vampires and raced off, using his Alpha Voice to stop the arguments from erupting.

“Jasper, call Alice and Esme and have them prepare my office. Then all three of us will need to carry Leah so we can make sure we don’t jostle her too much. Once Leah is in my office, you can call Rosalie and let her know it’s okay for them to come back. With James gone, I’m sure we don’t have much to worry about anymore.” Carlisle said with confidence.

While Edward wanted to call Rosalie sooner and have his Bella back that much sooner, he understood Leah needed the help more. “I understand.”

“I called them.” Jasper said, already having sent the text. “But I don’t think James is completely out of the picture Carlisle.” Jasper cautioned, “He is a tracker after all.” He had met trackers, and hunters, in the past. They were nothing to take lightly and simply assuming they had quite the game was foolishness.

“I understand your hesitance, but you heard Laurent yourself. James left the state; he wouldn’t do that if he was still on the hunt.” Carlisle assured as they all positioned themselves to lift the injured wolf, Seth still on his belly but slightly farther away. He wouldn’t be of any help until he managed to calm down enough to phase back.

“If you say so.” Jasper said, not wanting to get into another argument with them about it. Judging from Edward’s frustration towards him, Edward was on Carlisle’s side and Jasper wasn’t up for fighting with both of them. For now, they would focus on Leah and getting her healed.