CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
DEATH'S COLD HAND

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MAGGIE HADN'T SPOKEN TO Paul for an entire week. Now, this was a decision she was confident in at first; after all, finding out that the boy who'd been lying to her just so happened to be her soulmate (and was far from happy about it, or so she thought) didn't exactly encourage Maggie to glue herself to his side — for 'protection' as he called it. But with each of the seven days that came and went, it got harder and harder to breathe through the gaping, empty feeling that had festered in her chest, like blood around an irritated wound.

It was safe to say she'd underestimated the power of this whole imprinting thing, by a lot. Once she was aware of it, could feel it forming on her heart like a bruise, her whole perspective shifted. She was left with no choice but to wonder if this was how Paul had been feeling; like part of her soul had been split from her body and swapped for half of his, like her whole purpose on this earth had changed. One person, who was so inconvenient in the grand scheme of things, had managed to hook, line and sinker Maggie Sullivan's heart and she hated it.

So she ignored him. Which, as it turned out, was definitely a stupid move with a vampire merely a hair's breadth away from catching her.

That fateful day in March had started out like any other. Maggie, who was feeling overwhelmed lately, to say the least, had decided to schedule an additional appointment with her counsellor that Wren had dropped her off at on the way to one of her teachers meetings. For one painful hour, Maggie had sat in a stuffy office that used to be her safe space, really only going in circles as she tried to avoid the fact that the supernatural was very real and causing her a great amount of stress. Somehow, she didn't think Roisin — her overly observant therapist — would believe her if she even tried to dive into the truth.

Which led to her deciding to walk home through the woods, just wanting a moment to clear her head. Wren wasn't answering her phone, neither was Zeke, and the rest of her family were off doing God only knew what, so really she had no other option but the dirt track she hadn't stepped foot on for several months now. Even then, it still felt like yesterday that Maggie had braved the spot where Carson died.

Nothing seemed that different — at least, not at first glance. The rain had long since washed away the blood stains that previously marked the ground. Birds continued to chirp overhead, their calls a mere echo on the wind. But it wasn't the same, and no amount of lying to herself would ever convince Maggie otherwise. Every crunch of rock beneath her feet sounded like the shatter of bone beneath harsh fingertips. The birds were sending her a warning with every one of their shrieks, the scratch of branches like teeth bearing in her direction. The second Maggie Sullivan stepped on that path, she was trapped to its mercy, and boy did the memories have no remorse.

With a frantic edge to every movement, she searched the pockets of her jacket for her phone. Somehow, without even seeing the screen, she knew it would be useless. And she was right. In the hour she spent in Roisin's office, her battery had drained and died almost as soon as she switched on the device. Maggie cursed to herself, shoving her shaking hands back into her pockets and forcing herself to breathe.

It'll be fine, Maggie, her brain insisted, despite the erratic pounding of her heart that longed to burst out of her chest. Just stop panicking.

But that was easier said than done. Especially when she heard the sudden howl of a wolf — no, wolves.

A warning. A promise of death.

"Oh, shit," she cursed under her breath. She would've started running but found it was rather pointless when she turned around and came face-to-face with the woman of her nightmares. "Victoria..."

"You know my name." Every movement was calculated. The way she smiled was slow, pleased to hear the fear in Maggie's voice, like a lion waiting to pounce now that it knew it had the prey cornered with no escape in sight. One of her hands moved to tuck a curly strand of hair behind her ear. Already, she was messing with Maggie, wanting to show her she'd always have the upper hand. "What are you doing out here alone? Hasn't your dog of a boyfriend taught you that this part of the woods isn't safe?"

For a second, Maggie's mind lingered on Carson's face, on his lifeless stare caught on the trees. They were the last thing he had ever seen; his murderers and the forest. Would this be Maggie's final resting place too? Attached to the hip with her best friend, even in death?

"I'm not alone," she protested just as another howl was heard, this one closer than the last. Still, Victoria didn't seem phased. She laughed as Maggie repeated herself. "I-I'm not."

"You know, your little friend said the exact same thing," Victoria smirked, her keen eyes tracking the tick in Maggie's jaw. "He pleaded for you to come help, Maggie. Until his dying breath."

Maggie would never know if this was true. It might've been, but Victoria was the type of evil that wormed its way into your head through the weakest spots. She saw Maggie's pain and wanted to use it to her advantage. But she wouldn't. Even when Victoria closed the distance between them, tackling Maggie into the dirt right where Carson had laid, she kicked and screamed beneath her.

"You smell just like your mother," Victoria cackled, a rough hand grabbing Maggie's jaw while her knees pinned down her stomach. Spots formed at the corners of Maggie's eyes, her head starting to spin. Victoria smelled like something sour; dirt from a freshly dug grave, blood from a wound, the decaying remnants of a life spent weightless in time. Maggie knew that if she miraculously made it out of this alive, she'd be haunted by that scent forever. "I wonder if you'll taste like her too."

She pushed down on Maggie with all her weight then, suffocating the life out of her as teeth grazed against fragile skin. The beat of Maggie's heart was so loud she didn't hear the frantic thumping of feet tearing through the trees — rather, she felt them just as Paul and two other wolves tackled Victoria away. Immediately, her breath came rushing back, leaving her to splutter as her mind, so wrapped up in death, struggled to accept the fact she wasn't really gone.

"Maggie!" Paul's terrified voice exclaimed as he dropped to her side, softer hands cradling the marks Victoria had left behind. He pulled her into a hug, panting into her hair, as Maggie clung to his shoulders. She wasn't sure how much time had passed but Victoria had disappeared along with the two wolves Paul had been with. Paul had also managed to find shorts to wear and was already pulling his phone out of the pocket. "Mags, can you hear me? Are you okay?"

"Fine."

It seemed that the sound of her voice was enough to snap him out of his reverie. He reared back, eyes narrowed as he snapped, "What the fuck were you thinking walking out here alone?"

"Paul..."

"You could've died, Maggie. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I-I wasn't thinking—"

"Clearly," he scoffed, but was quick to fall quiet at the sight of tears building steadily in Maggie's eyes. All at once, the anger drained from his face, leaving behind a painfully vulnerable boy who looked like he'd just gotten his heart stomped on. "Why didn't you call me?" Silence. She couldn't find the words that would make any of this better. "It doesn't matter if we're talking or not, or who's angry at who. I would've come, Maggie. You should've called me."

"I'm sorry."

He sighed but didn't say anything more. Instead, whatever he might've replied with was interrupted by the wounded howl of a nearby pack of wolves. Paul's face tightened at the sound, prompting him to turn back to the phone forgotten in his hand.

"I need to go," he said, despite the fact that Maggie was still clinging to him like her life depended on it. "I'll call someone to take you back to the Clearwaters."

Maggie frowned. "Why the Clearwaters?"

Something dark settled across Paul's face as he waited with the phone to his ear, the faint sound of a call ringing echoing back to Maggie. "Harry Clearwater had a heart attack because of Victoria. He's gone now."

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MAGGIE WAS CERTAINLY SURPRISED when Everett's truck pulled up on the side of the road. Paul seemed to trust the man behind the wheel, for he nodded once at him before letting go of Maggie's hand. Then, he disappeared back into the woods, without so much as a glance back at the shaking girl standing between the place she'd almost died and her uncle, someone who clearly knew more than he was letting on.

"Uncle Everett?" she frowned once she opened the door, her hesitance obvious as she slipped into the seat beside him. The second she was situated, Everett took off, his knuckles white around the wheel. "What's going on? What do you—"

For a moment, he met her eyes, grim and knowing, and realisation struck.

"You knew this whole time?" she chuckled but the sound wasn't one of amusement. There was nothing amusing about knowing your niece's mother was murdered by a vampire and never saying anything. "Oh, my God."

"There are things you don't understand, Maggie," Everett insisted. He sounded exhausted but Maggie couldn't bring herself to feel anything other than anger. He knew, he knew, he knew... who else was keeping her in the dark? "And before you ask, no, Wren doesn't know. And neither do your siblings."

"Just you," she scoffed.

Everett glanced at her then, eyes narrowed, before forcing his gaze back to the road ahead of them. "Of course I know, Maggie. My ancestors were shifters. My nephew's going to phase any day now—"

"Quil's going to phase?" she gasped, her heart dropping. She didn't want this for him. "Is there any way to stop it?"

This time, when Everett looked at her, his gaze was one of pity. Maggie didn't know which one was worse. "Oh, Mags. So long as vampires are around, the Quileutes are always going to have a role to play in protecting the town. Quil's got no choice. None of them do. Please remember that the next time you ignore your imprint for a week."

"You know about that too?" She didn't even know why she bothered to ask. She already knew the answer. "Unbelievable. And you're taking his side—"

"There are things you don't understand."

"So you've said," she snapped. "But how am I meant to understand them when people are always leaving me in the dark? You knew about what happened to my mum, Everett. You saw how much I struggled."

"It wasn't an easy decision to make, Maggie, I promise you that," he said. "My wife had just lost her sister, and suddenly we had four heartbroken kids living with us." For a moment, neither of them spoke. They turned down a cul-de-sac, the headlights of Everett's truck lighting up the busy Clearwater driveway. "I never got to meet your mother but from what Wren has said, I know she was a brilliant woman. A woman who didn't deserve to die, and whose kids deserved to live a normal life."

With that, he put the truck into park and hopped out to hug Sue Clearwater just as the sobbing woman stumbled outside. Maggie went to follow him but paused as Everett's phone buzzed in the centre console. Once she saw Zeke's contact on the screen, she reached out to answer.

"Everett? Thank God! I've been trying to call you for ages. I think something's wrong with Maggie, she's not answering her phone—"

"Zeke?" she breathed out, causing the frantic boy to fall silent. "Zeke? It's me."

"Maggie?" he exclaimed with a surprising amount of anger in his voice. "Why the fuck isn't your phone on? You scared the shit out of me!"

"It died. I'm sorry."

Zeke sighed, a strangled sort of sound that indicated to Maggie that he wanted to say more but was holding himself back. "Look, just tell me where you guys are. I heard about Harry and I don't want Everett to be alone."

With a glance at the front porch, which was now crowded with not just Everett and Sue but also Sue's screaming children, Maggie muttered, "I, uh... don't think that's a good idea, Zeke..."

"Bullshit," Zeke scoffed. "Tell me, Maggie."

This time, she didn't hesitate. Call her selfish but Maggie wanted her big brother to hold her, to tell her the nightmare that was her life would be over soon. That — while it definitely didn't seem like it — she'd be okay sooner or later. So Maggie told him, prompting Zeke to quickly hang up the phone.

Give me five minutes, he had said before leaving. Five minutes, okay?

But as it happened, five minutes was enough for everything to go horribly wrong.

Almost as soon as Maggie stepped out of the car, something changed in the way that Leah and Seth Clearwater were grieving the news of their father's death. It was almost like they could smell Victoria on her... Their bodies began to shake, just like Paul's, to the point that even their mother couldn't calm them down.

Maggie didn't realise what was happening until it was too late, until two wolves appeared on the front porch of their home with their sights set on her. The second they caught her scent in the air, heard the rapid beating of her heart, they froze, confused that the girl who smelled like a vampire was clearly very much human.

And that was when Zeke arrived.

"Maggie?" he shouted, prompting both Maggie and Everett to spin around with wide eyes. "What the — Maggie, run!"

Instinctively, the two wolves snarled at the newcomer, struggling to get past their mother as she stood in front of them with her phone pressed to her ear. At last, the smaller of the wolves slipped past, leaving Sue to sob the name Seth as the boy met Zeke's eyes and froze in a way that Maggie knew all too well now that she was told about imprinting.

Well, fuck. This certainly complicated things.

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A/N: Okay, I'd just like to make one thing very clear now that we've reached the end of this chapter. The relationship between Seth and Zeke as imprints is going to stay platonic forever. There is never going to be a romantic relationship between them, for Zeke is very much in love with his boyfriend and Seth is almost three years younger than him. For an upcoming story of mine that features Seth as the main love interest, I wanted to portray a relationship where the wolf still imprints but is with someone else. Frankly, I hated how Stephenie portrayed imprints as something that has to be romantic, especially since she gave not only Jacob but also Quil an imprint that was a freaking baby. So just to reiterate, do not ship Zeke and Seth. They are besties, your honour!! Seth is going to be like Zeke's annoying little brother and we wouldn't have it any other way!! Anyways, apart from that, thank you for reading, please let me know what you think! We're almost at the end of New Moon and I'm so excited for what's to come in Eclipse.