Red Moon ~ Chapter 15 ~ Revelations

Chapter 15: Revelations

I walked into the room and jumped as Nessie startled me.

Nessie was just coming out of the bathroom, humming to herself. She was wearing a red, sleeveless dress. I turned in the direction she was heading when I noticed someone else in a grey cloak sitting in an armchair.  He looked up and I saw his face. It was Jacob!

“Jacob! Hey! What are you doing here? And at seven in the morning?” I asked as I cocked a suspicious eyebrow and giggled.

“Well, I had, let’s just say that I got the day off from my guard dog duties and I came to see you two,” he answered with a smirk and then winked at Nessie.

Wonder what is going on with these two?  I was only asleep for three days…huh?!

“Guard dog duties? That’s what they wanted you for then?” I said trying to hide a giggle at the sound of the ‘guard-dog-thing’. I was unsuccessful and burst out laughing. Jake frowned but continued anyway.

“They just want to keep me occupied while I am here and they know there will be some complications if they kill me… Aro knows that really, I can’t leave and I’m doing what they ask me to, which is not like me at all, but they will kill you both if I don’t do so,” he said almost frantic. Nessie walked over and SAT ON HIS LAP! Then she stroked his cheek and whispered something in his ear which seemed to calm him down. 

Hmmm…they really like blackmailing us, I guess. Is it a Volturi hobby or something? What is with these people? And what is going on with Ness and Jake…I gotta get that girl alone and get some information.  Plus, I am dying to talk to her about Cole. I sighed outwardly at the thought of Cole. 

“Hey, haven’t you said you can ‘talk’ with the rest of your pack in your wolf form?” I quickly replied to get my thoughts back under control and get some more info from Jake, who seemed awfully distracted at the moment with Nessie on his lap. He was twirling her hair with his fingers as he looked over at me.

“Already tried, it doesn’t work. Actually, I can hear them but it’s like we are talking on a bad phone line. I can catch only some words, bits and pieces, and it gets even more confusing. So, no, the distance is too much to contact them right now,” he said sounding frustrated.

“That is not good… right?” I asked with a frown myself.

“Don’t worry, at least they know we are alive and I am sure they are working on a plan to come and get us back. If I can hear them, even a little, they can hear me. They probably have gotten enough to know where we are at least,” he said. I was not sure who he was trying to convince, us or himself. 

“Hello! I am here too ya know!” Nessie finally said and stood up and came over to give me a hug.

“Eshe, you woke up!” she shrieked as she gave me a bear hug.

“Yeah, I think it was time. How have you guys been doing these last three days? Actually, what have you been doing?” I asked with a slight chuckle.

“Good. I’ve been hanging out with Dawn… This Phillip guy is really weird… Too silent… Creepy… and of course, any moment I can steal with Jake,” she said and smiled back at Jake over her shoulder.

“Hmmm, maybe Aro’s giving him creepiness lessons…” I said with a grin trying to lighten the mood. “I need to remember to ask Cole about him next time,” I continued without thinking.

“Cole? Why? What does he have to do with Phillip?” Nessie questioned giving me an odd look.

“I will ask him and then we will see,” I said nonchalantly, not telling her about Cole's psychometric ability. I am not even sure if he wanted her to know…so for now, I will keep it to myself.

“I haven’t spoken much with him either. He spent an awful lot of time waiting for you to wake… But he seems to be a nice guy,” she said with a quizzical look, as if she was baiting me for more information.

No way Ness, you are not getting any info about Cole in front of Jake. You will just have to wait.

“Yes, I know,” I said with a huge smile. Nessie was back on Jacob’s lap and he wrapped his arms around her.

“Hey, I think I am missing something here. Did anything else happen while I was out?” I finally asked, no longer able to contain my curiosity.

“Yeah… kinda… uh huh…” Nessie didn’t say more, just blushed and had a huge grin on her face, as well as Jacob. It didn’t take much and I started putting the parts together… Without thinking I went to hug them both.

“I’m so happy for you two guys! This is great news!” Nessie blushed even more. “Why are you blushing? This is fantastic! Seriously! Now all we have to do is… find a way to get out of here…”

“Yeah, little details, you know…” Jake joked. We all laughed.

“Hey, do you want to meet the others, Jake?” Ness asked him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Why not? Hmmm, you have told me a lot, especially about this Dawn girl, he said then he directed his next question to me.

“Seriously, Eshe, she is talking all the time about her. Dawn this and Dawn that.” Nessie looked annoyed. “I’m joking, you know that right sweetie.” He stroked her hair and looked at her lovingly.

“Okay, guys, get a room! You can do that later!” Nessie giggled and Jake smirked and kissed her, but not on the cheek, a soft kiss on the lips and Ness turned twenty shades of red.

We went to the opposite direction from the stairs leading to the garden past a door with a silver handle and spiral shapes on it and continued to the next door that looked exactly like ours. We stepped inside. It was outfitted in dark wood and emerald green details. There was a huge bed with a wooden canopy over it and a separating, emerald colored curtain covering it. The floor was made from dark wood and there were some beautiful paintings on the walls. Around the room my eyes caught little decorations with details made of silver and with big green jewels, probably emeralds all over the place.

You had to give the Volturi major props for decorating… every room was so beautiful and they loved dark woods and emerald greens, deep purples and vivid details. I was really enjoying taking in all the detail when my thoughts were interrupted by Dawn’s sweet voice.

“Hello! How are you doing?” Dawn asked and Melanie waved from the sofa she was sitting on.

“Hi!” I greeted them. I walked near Melanie. “Hey, little girl, how are you? Did you miss me when I was playing my rendition of Sleeping Beauty?” I asked with a smile.  

“Very good. Why were you asleep all those days? And since you were Sleeping Beauty, who’s ‘True Loves Kiss’ finally woke you up?” she asked seriously with an adorable look on her face.  

Huh! If you only knew….well maybe not a kiss, but mesmerizing eyes for sure. I figured I would keep that to myself since I got the feeling that Melanie really had a crush on Cole.

“I don’t know. I was tired and I just woke up, no kisses for this girl.” I shrugged although I was wondering the same thing myself.

“Oh, okay,” she said, satisfied with my answer she moved on to the stranger in the room, Jake.

“Dawn, Melanie, this is Jacob,” Nessie said with a huge smile and a twinkle in her eyes.

Wow! Ness had it bad and it was written all over her face.   

“Hi, you two,” Jacob greeted them with outstretched hands.

“Oh, hi,” they both said in unison and shook his hand as they greeted him.

“You are like us too? You smell a little weird…and wow! You are so warm!” Melanie giggled.

“Yeah, I guess I do. I am half human, half wolf… uhhh… shape shifter… I have nothing to do with vampires or any part of them in me,” he said and looked over at Ness.

“Well, I do like one vampire at least, maybe two… maybe more soon…” He pulled Ness into a hug and smiled at me, but stopped talking before he put his foot further down his throat.

“Then what are you doing here?” she asked her eyes glistening with curiosity.

“Making sure, you all are safe.” Well, this is kinda true…

“Where is Cole?” Dawn asked.

“He fell asleep. We were hanging out but he got tired and I left him there on the couch,” I answered without even thinking of the implications.

Stupid… hopefully no one will ask why I was there when he fell asleep. I don’t want to talk about it to anyone until Ness and I have a chance… alone.

“What are we going to do now?” Melanie asked, jumping up and down excited.

There was someone at the open door. He knocked even though we could all see him.

“Ummm… can I come in?” Phillip asked, in weird, heavily accented English accent.

“Sure, Come on in,” we all said.

“How are you?” Dawn asked with a smile.

“I’m okay. You?” Phillip replied.  I think that was the most I had heard him say so far.

“Good.” She said. “Come here and sit. We won’t bite you! Unless you want us to…”

Haha. That is so ironic. Good one Dawn!

“How come you decided to finally talk to us?” Nessie asked curiously.

“I thought it was rude not talking to you,” he added.

Dawn placed her hands on her hips and said, “It was. Actually, why weren’t you talking to us?”

“I was in some kind of depression… I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone, but now I decided that I have to snap out of it…it is doing me or anyone else any good,” he said with a slight smile. 

Wow! He really is kinda cute when he smiles. And his eyes seemed to just change colors, I think.  Interesting. I wonder what his gift is??

“You know you could have told us earlier. We would have tried to help,” she said sincerely. 

“I couldn’t, okay? It is not in my nature now to trust people.”  He frowned and sounded a little angry.

Huh, I really do think his eyes looked different…I will have to ask Cole about Phillip for sure.

“Okay, don’t get mad,” Dawn said and raised her hands apologetically in surrender.

“Would you like to know more about me?” Phillip asked shyly.

Everyone nodded.

“Okay. I was living in Germany with a vampire coven. They actually found me by accident; I didn’t know anything about my past or my parents. Still really don’t actually. I eventually bonded with them, especially with the leader, Petra. She was like a mother to me. We met another boy like me.  He stayed with us for a while, but then he decided to leave. We were all fine and actually living a somewhat happy existence until the Volturi came about a year ago.

“They killed all six of Petra’s coven and they brought me back to Volterra. I was in shock for a long time, and didn’t speak to anyone. Then others came here too; Cole, Dawn, Melanie. I acted like they didn’t exist… A few days ago the Volturi took me with them when they would go to find others. I tried to run away…” he whispered.

“What?! That’s crazy! Pure insanity!” Dawn interrupted.

“I found that out on my own. I tried to slow them down to give me more time to escape,” he explained.

“Slow them down? How?” she interrupted again.

“You all here have a gift. Well, so do I. I can manipulate the weather. I tried to create a snowstorm.” He chuckled at the memory.

“Did you do that five days ago?” I asked, starting to combine weird things that had happened the last couple of days.

“Yes, it was nighttime. I hoped I could make it hard for them to see me and I could run away,” he continued.

“You made it snow! I knew it didn’t snow on its own in the middle of May! Seriously it was you?!” I said again, shocked.

Wow. And I thought my gift was weird…

“Yeah. I was the one who did it. But I was stressed and I couldn’t make an actual snowstorm and they caught me again. Now, I am stuck here again and under close watch. I doubt they will take me out of here again.” He sighed.

No one spoke, just stared. Cole then stepped in the room and was perplexed by the looks on all our faces.

“Hey, guys. Good morning?” he said as more of a question than a statement.

The others murmured “Morning” to him.

I turned to look at him, cocking my eyebrow and smiling. “You already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Of course, since I first came here,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders in response.

“Oh really?” everyone kind of said at the same time.

He sat next to me. My body tensed at him being so close to me again. “So what’s new?” he said with the most gorgeous smile. 

Not again, brain to mush… act naturally Eshe… you don’t want any curious questions. Too late, I noticed Ness looking back and forth between the two of us and a slight smirk covered her knowing face.

“Except from Phillip's story?” Nessie said as she kept an eagle eye on Cole and me.

“Yes. Jacob you haven’t been able to talk with your pack right?” Cole said as he turned to Jake.

“Do we know each other?” Jake asked as he started to get up but Nessie put a hand on his shoulder to keep him there.

“No, sorry. I can see stuff from your past and I feel like I already know you,” he explained.

“Oh, okay…I guess.” He gave him a suspicious look, shrugged then said, “No, I couldn’t, they’re too far,” he answered simply. I guess he had seen too much weird stuff that announcing you have a special power was more or less ordinary for him.

“Aha… Dawn, since Phillip told us his story, why don’t you tell the others what your power is?” Cole said as he looked at her and smiled encouragingly.

Dawn stared at him annoyed. “I can hypnotize people. I tried to hypnotize Aro though and it didn’t work. I guess I am not strong enough to do that. If I was, we would be already far away from here…”

Ahhh… that must be why I thought her voice is hypnotizing, because it is… Interesting…

“Really? That is so cool, Dawn!” Nessie and Phillip said together.

“Nah… I am too weak, especially if the others can’t understand what I say… If I spoke more languages it would be cool though,” she said frustrated.

“I still like it,” Ness said and smiled at her.

“I like it too!” Melanie chimed in. I had almost forgotten she was there.

“Eshe, can I talk to you?” Cole leaned in and whispered to me.

Eshe… calm… quit thinking about how good he smells and how warm his sweet breath is and how easy it would be to just kiss him right now with him so close… girl stop! I am so glad that Ness is not close enough to touch me and hear my thoughts right now. Crap…I can feel my cheeks getting red already!

“Sure. What do you want?” I asked turning to look at him and trying to not let my thoughts betray me. I know he could tell already that my heart was racing and see my cheeks betrayal.

“I mean, can we talk in private…” he barely whispered so no one else could hear.

“Oh, okay. Sure,” I whispered back.

Agh! I looked like such an idiot! How didn’t I think that? And what does he want to tell me? Ah, now I am nervous again… Perfect!

“Um guys, I think I need some fresh air. Cole, would you mind showing me how to get back to the garden from here?” I said, trying to act all natural and cool, but I know that everyone there could hear my heart racing and see how nervous I was. 

Everyone nodded except Nessie, she replied, “Suuurrre Eshe, I am sure that Cole would be happy to show you how to get to the garden from here.” She smiled so big and Jake nudged her in the shoulder because they were holding hands and he could hear and see what she was too. Obviously, our whispers did not fall on deaf ears…

I followed him to the room next door, the one with the handle with the spires. The room was colored in navy and ice blue tones. All the furniture was made from light colored wood and there was a bed on the side, next to the left wall. It had ice-blue bedding that matched perfectly his eye color. He took my hand and seated me to a sofa and then sat right next to me. I was looking at him, without saying anything. I was so nervous, if I made any sudden moves I would start shaking, I was sure.

“Are you okay?” he asked me concerned.

I nodded since my brain had all but checked out at this point...

“Then why did you change your eye color five times?” he snickered.

What? Did I change my eyes without noticing?

“They became green, then dark brown, light brown, golden and now they are sky blue again…” he explained.

I still couldn’t speak. He put his hand around my waist. I shivered. “Are you cold?” he whispered, so close I couldn’t help but inhale deeply his intoxicating scent.

I shook my head no, again… brain and speech not working together.

“Then?” he inquired patiently.

This silence thing was getting on my nerves.

“I don’t know what you want me to say Cole,” I finally said obviously frustrated.

He took my face in his hands and forced me to look at him but I quickly closed my eyes so they would not betray me again. Suddenly, his lips were pressed against mine, soft, sweet and warm. My lips shaped around his automatically as if they were meant to be his, only his. He moved his head back, looked at my face for some sign and then pressed them back to mine once again. I gasped for breath, opened my eyes and was taken in by his ice blue ones that were looking straight into mine.

“Better now that we finally got that out of the way?” he asked, his voice was overwhelming me; so sweet, so seductive.

I nodded trying to find my voice.

This was weird… Why did he kiss me? I liked him, I knew it, but he liked me too? How didn’t I notice that? Or did I and I just was afraid to admit it, to accept it, to allow myself to trust someone so intimately that I had only known a few short days.

“Good.” He stroked my cheek and just smiled at me.

“I… I… I need to go. I will see you later,” I finally choked out.

Nice Eshe… you finally find your voice and all you can do is stutter and then run away. Well, that should make him want you even more… idiot girl!

I got up and quickly walked out of the room. When I was out of his view, I ran into my room. I didn’t know what I was feeling. I sat on the bed and just rocked back and forth, without thinking, feeling, just to do something. And then tears came… I also didn’t know why… but they did. 

‘What happened? Are you okay?’ Nessie said as she opened the door and saw me a blubbering mess on my bed.

“No. No, I am not,” I cried.

Nessie sat next to me, without saying anything, just waited for me to get it all out of my system and was ready to talk about it.

“I don’t know anything about him! He knows so much about us all, but he hasn’t told me anything about him! I barely know him! And he kissed me! And I LIKED it, I WANTED it! What is wrong with me?!” I started sobbing all over again.

“Eshe? Look at me!” She grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“You didn’t give him any time! You barely know him, but you didn’t give him the chance to tell you more about himself! You left him standing there thinking he had made the biggest mistake of his life by scaring you and never got the chance to finish his conversation. Now wipe your eyes and go back there and talk to him!” Nessie commanded as she handed me some tissues.

“Wow, this imprint thing made you want to send loooove everywhere!” I joked, feeling much better already.

“Okay, enough, now go to him. He is really worried that he hurt you and it is killing him. You may not understand or realize it, but he really cares about you already. He doesn’t have a choice and I don’t think you do either. You have to learn to trust your heart with this one Eshe.” She stood up, pulled me to my feet and pushed me out of the room.

“Okay, okay, I will go, stop pushing me, I can move my feet on my own, thank you very much!” I scolded her.

“Good luck,” she said and then looked down the hall at Jake waiting patiently and waved for him to come on over; the coast was clear of girlie hormones for now.

“Thanks.” I smiled back at her and watched her close the door behind her and Jake then I went back to Cole’s room.

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