CHAPTER TWELVE:
WHAT COMES AFTER

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AS IT TURNED OUT, it wasn't Embry that revealed the whole truth to Maggie, but Jacob. For a good six weeks, Paul and Embry avoided her at all costs. They would sit as far away as possible in any classes they shared and in the cafeteria. They got to school at the last minute and left before the final bell could even ring. Maggie would be lying if she said it didn't hurt but they didn't seem too happy about it either. Embry would always watch her sadly, like he wanted to break the ice again but physically couldn't. As for Paul, he didn't so much as acknowledge her existence, though Maggie soon noticed the exhausted rings around his eyes and the way he seemed to be constantly at war with himself. For truth be told, Sam had given Paul permission to tell her if he really wanted. She was his imprint and Sam couldn't do anything about that. But Paul had chosen to stay quiet, terrified to cross that line, and nothing the pack said was enough to change his mind.

Though none of it mattered, in the end. Not Embry's regrets, or Paul's inner turmoil, or the pack's disapproval. For unintentionally, Maggie had dragged him over the line, kicking and screaming, by getting close to Bella Swan out of nowhere.

It started with Bella contacting her about Jacob.

I think he's ignoring me, she had said through the phone when Maggie answered. We went to the movies last night, he got upset and stormed off.

What was meant to be just Bella asking one of Jacob's friends if he was alright turned into a sort of dependence on each other. Not quite friendship but a habit of picking up the phone when the other called to rant, or meeting up at First Beach to walk Maggie's dog. Even Hayden came along a couple of times but her outspoken nature was a bit much for Bella, who was not quite her old self but somewhere in the stages of healing after her breakup with Edward Cullen. Maggie was just the kind of mellow she needed to keep her head above water, to breathe easily for a second.

Which was why she said yes when Bella asked her to go on a hike together. She hadn't been sure at first. Something in her gut felt uncertain and foreboding, like she was a mouse approaching cheese in a trap, but the thought of being stuck inside with an arguing Vera and Dakota (they'd been at each other's throats a lot more lately) was so much worse than whatever problems could possibly come from spending a day in the woods with Bella Swan.

Or so she thought. But fate had a funny way of proving Maggie Sullivan wrong.

Bella came by to pick up Maggie right after breakfast. The Sullivan house was in its usual state of disarray. Vera and Dakota were arguing about who got to use the shower first while Zeke sat between them typing away on his phone. Maggie had changed into comfortable clothes for the hike and was helping Wren wash the dishes while she waited. Energised by Vera and Dakota's raised voices, Scooby had started to bark up a storm as one of their neighbours paused their morning run to have a chat in the yard with Everett, who was busy fixing an issue with Wren's car engine. All in all, the chaos was a pretty common occurrence for the Sullivans but it was something that Bella obviously wasn't used to in her own home with just Charlie around. She seemed shyer than usual when Everett led her inside, her hands tucked deeply into the pockets of her grey hoodie.

At the sight of her, Wren immediately dried her hands and rushed over to hush Vera and Dakota. "Would you two be quiet? We have a guest." All eyes shot to Bella, which did nothing to help her nerves. "Good morning, Bella. Are you here for Maggie?"

"Yes, ma'am," she nodded, shuffling awkwardly in place as Maggie hurried up the stairs to grab her shoes. It wasn't that she didn't like Mrs Sullivan but the pressure of her questions, Vera and Dakota's matching stares of suspicion and Zeke Sullivan's amused laughter wasn't what she'd expected when Everett warned her that his house was a bit much.

Fortunately, Maggie didn't take long, briefly pausing to kiss her aunt on the cheek before she was bounding over to Bella's side. "You two be careful, won't you?" Wren called as she followed after them. "And call us if you need anything, Maggie."

"I know, I know," she waved her off with a laugh. Wren waited until both her and Bella were safely inside Bella's truck before disappearing back inside, prompting Maggie to shake her head and smile apologetically at Bella. "Sorry about that. I probably should've just gone to yours instead."

"It's alright," Bella said as they set off down the road. "Your family's nice. Yeah, they're a bit..."

She cut herself off with a frown, unsure of the right word to use. Maggie laughed and settled back in her seat. "Crazy? Overbearing?"

"I was going to say energetic."

"I guess that works, too."

For a while, they just sat in silence. Bella had opened the windows as they reached the open road and Maggie rested her head against the frame to watch the trees flicker by in smears of green. There was no music, something Bella had struggled to properly explain when Maggie asked her why the radio was off, but she didn't seem to mind as she focused on the wind roaring through her hair. Radio music could be a bit repetitive, anyways. It didn't seem too strange that Bella didn't like it.

It was only when they parked the car just off a weather-beaten dirt track that the silence was broken. "So, what is it that we're looking for again?" Maggie asked as she closed the door behind her, sneakers crunching through fallen leaves.

Bella was already a few metres ahead of her but she hung back so the two could start the trek together. "A flower field," she said, with a hint of despondency in her voice. If she was anyone else, Maggie wouldn't have caught it, but Maggie was slowly getting used to the way Bella showed her feelings. She was quiet and reserved but her eyes and the small hitches of her voice when she did speak always gave her away. "I'm not sure if the flowers are blooming right now, but I'll know it when I see it."

"Okay," Maggie shrugged, and off they went.

For a good hour or two, there were no signs of Bella's flower field. At first, Maggie held out hope, telling the other girl stories of a flower field she remembered her mother bringing her to when she was five. Most of her memories from that time were long forgotten but that moment had always stood out amongst the blur. Delilah's auburn hair curling in the wind, Maggie's young fingers tugging at the ends as she weaved the stems of white daisies into the red. Delilah's wide smile as she chased Maggie and Zeke through the tall grass, eventually scooping the two wiggling children into her arms and laughing as she carried them over to where Vera was painting Dakota's nails on a red and white picnic blanket.

Bella smiled at the story, eventually telling Maggie of the field that she and Edward had labelled as their own. She refused to mention him by name, simply referring to him as an old friend, but from the melancholic glint in Bella's eyes, Maggie knew she wasn't only sad about purple flowers and days laid out across a sunlit patch of grass.

By the second hour, the two girls were slowing down in defeat. They were deep into the woods now and they hadn't seen anything but trees so tall that their branches seemed to shatter the cloudy sky into pieces. The path had gotten narrower, and soon Bella was breaking away from it in a desperate haze. Maggie quickly followed after her.

"Bella, wait," she exclaimed, panting as she pushed through a cluster of prickly bushes. "Bella—"

She burst into a clearing and felt the words die on her tongue. The grass was a fading brown, no flowers in sight, but Maggie knew they'd found what Bella was so determined to rediscover. The girl in question had sunken to her knees, fingers clutching strands of grass like she could will the colour back into them if she thought hard enough. Nothing happened, though, and soon Bella was letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Let's just go," she muttered, hands now pressing to her stomach like she was trying to put pressure on a wound.

"But we just got here?" Maggie frowned.

A flicker of movement and a deliberate snap of a branch caught her attention. She turned and her chest seemed to cave in as all thoughts of breathing faded. Everything was the same, his dreadlocks and the way he watched her curiously, like a lion assessing his newest prey. The only difference with the man of her nightmares was the absence of crimson staining his skin. Maggie swore her blood had run cold, stilling in her veins until her head started to spin.

Bella hadn't noticed him yet but she had seen the way Maggie's face paled, pure fear almost tangible in her eyes. Bella spun around confusedly, eyes locking with the new presence. Instinctively, she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of him, but Maggie didn't seem to hear it. Something was wrong. This had to be another nightmare, a dream she could wake up from unscathed.

"Laurent," Bella stated. In a blink, he had closed the distance between them, quicker than humanly possible. The trees seemed to morph around him, bending to his will. Maggie shrieked, her gaze locked on the bright red hue of his eyes. No, no, no... "Hey, Maggie, it's okay—"

"No, it's not," she wanted to scream but the fast thumping of her heart had blocked out her sense of reason.

"I didn't expect to find you here," the monster, Laurent, said with his head tilted attentively. "I went to visit the Cullens but their house is empty. I'm surprised they left you behind. Weren't you a sort of.... pet.... of theirs?"

"You could say that."

"And do the Cullens visit often?" he asked, all sinister pleasantries, like he was inquiring about something as simple as the weather.

Neither Bella nor Maggie spoke for a moment. The Swan girl was staring into the empty air on Laurent's right, and Maggie was too focused on calming her breathing to really question how on earth he knew the Cullens. She felt out of place, like someone had handed her the parts to a thousand-piece puzzle but deliberately kept them out of order. There was nothing missing, and yet she couldn't find the right words, the ones to get them out of this alive and whole.

When death came knocking, Maggie Sullivan certainly knew about it.

Suddenly, Bella flinched and nodded, her panic poorly hidden. "Absolutely, all the time. I'll tell them that you stopped by but I probably shouldn't tell Edward, 'cause he's pretty protective."

"But he's far away, isn't he?" Laurent smirked as he slowly began to circle around them, herding them closer and closer together. Easier to kill. "Your little friend seems to think so. I can hear it."

Hear it? That didn't make any sense. Maggie shot Bella a wide-eyed glance, reaching out to squeeze the other girl's hand for dear life. She didn't care if Laurent saw her fear. She needed something, someone, to ground her, to hold her up when she desperately wanted to fall. She thought back to Delilah and Carson, of what they had said before Laurent and his companions caught up to her.

Find them and make them pay for what they did.

Well, she'd found her chance, but Maggie felt blind-sided, like her soul had vacated her body, the roots of the earth holding her down.

Bella didn't like the way Laurent was looking at Maggie, like he knew all her secrets. She squeezed the girl's hand back and said, "why are you here?" with as much confidence as she could muster.

"I came as a favour to Victoria," he admitted, a name that did nothing to phase Maggie but seemed to terrify Bella. "She asked me to see if you were still under the protection of the Cullens. And that's when I found your friend. Maggie Sullivan, yes?"

"How do you know my name?" she demanded, though she was all bark and no bite. He flashed her a deadly smile, and she knew he wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

"Well, I knew you a long time ago, of course," he said simply. Maggie dropped Bella's hand out of shock, hot tears pricking behind her eyes. "You were a lot younger then but Victoria remembers your scent from the night James came across your mother. I suppose you could say she's taken an interest in playing with her food ever since she lost her mate." Food. Mate. Killed. The words looped around and around in her head like a broken record but Maggie had lost all sense of reality at the mention of the blonde-haired man's name. So her mother's murderer had a name. James. "Now, Victoria also feels it's only fair to kill Edward's mate given he killed her's. An eye for an eye."

"Edward would know who did it," Bella insisted, quick on her feet. "And he'd come after you."

Maggie couldn't be sure if that was true or not but she knew Bella Swan had people to avenge her if she and Maggie didn't make it away from Laurent. Maggie, on the other hand... her family would never know the truth. She'd be just another cold case, the girl who lived and died like her mother. Wasn't it funny, the cruel jokes destiny could play?

"I don't think he will," Laurent murmured. "After all, how much could you mean to him if he left you here unprotected?" Bella's face dropped and Laurent grew triumphant. "Victoria won't be happy with me killing you both. She staked a claim on Maggie when we first found her again. But I can't help myself. You are so mouth-watering."

"Please don't!" Bella cried.

She barely got the words out before Laurent closed the gap between them, one hand hovering on one side of her face while the other reached for Maggie. The girl was shaking, the first of her tears finally trailing down her face.

"Don't be afraid," he soothed, and the sheer belief in his voice that he was doing the right thing made Maggie's sobs get louder. "I am doing you a kindness. Victoria plans on killing you slowly, painfully. Whereas, I'll make it quick, I promise. You will feel nothing. Maggie, you can be with your mother again."

Maggie clenched her eyes shut as Laurent gripped her jaw and drew his teeth closer to her neck. It was Delilah's memory she would lose herself in as she welcomed death. Maybe if she thought hard enough, she could convince herself she was dreaming, that she was back in her mother's flower field surrounded by her family. The pain would be hard to ignore but Maggie Sullivan had gotten awfully good at smothering all her aches and sorrows.

But the killing blow never came. Laurent suddenly gasped, distancing himself from Maggie as he whispered, "I don't believe it."

She wouldn't have opened her eyes were it not for the echo of heavy footsteps. She saw nothing but Laurent's red eyes at first, then the shadows of the bushes moved and time seemed to slow to a stop.

Maggie didn't have the right words to explain the phenomenon before her. An otherworldly being made out of the shadows themselves stepped into the light. It looked like a wolf but was ten times larger than one. Its fur was completely black, the only flash of colour being its bared teeth and the whites of its eyes. Behind him were a row of slightly smaller wolves. One with dark silver fur was snarling, barely able to hold himself back as he glowered at Laurent's hands that were still outstretched towards Maggie's face.

In an instant, the vampire was spinning around and sprinting into the trees. He was gone before Maggie could so much as blink, the dark silver wolf tearing forward to lead the others after him. For a moment, one hesitated, its russet fur glinting in the afternoon sun as he stared at Bella. But then a howl was heard, and he huffed and disappeared too.

The two girls didn't hesitate. Hands finding each other again, Maggie and Bella ran and didn't look back, allowing one monster to kill another.