[ Chapter Three—three looks ]

My eyes were trained on the door, adrenaline beginning to course through my body, preparing for round two of the fight. Immediately, my eyes started to glow bright blue my teeth growing in size. Putting the phone on speaker, I placed it on the couch.

"Hello? Are you still there? Who is this?"

"The red-eyed guy is back," I muttered and yet it was somehow loud enough for Carlisle to hear.

"What?" He sounded panicked. "What is happening? Please explain—"

"He's a vampire, isn't he?" I growled lowly, my voice much deeper and more animalistic than normal.

The reply that came from the phone was drowned out by the sound of the twisting doorknob. The vampire had gotten the key and was slowly opening the door.

"Greetings," the familiar dark-haired monster smiled as he entered, though his smile looked strained and extremely angry.

"Back for round two?" I growled.

"I'll send you to hell, dog." The vampire hissed before launching at me with impossible speeds.

However, I was fully prepared and used my own speed to match his. Thunderous growls and hisses bounced around the living room, our bodies flinging through the air as we fought at top speed. I did everything in my power to keep the fight centered in the middle of the room so nothing broke.

Mom would kill me if we broke something.

"Are you alright? What's happening?" I heard Carlisle's frantic voice as the vampire managed to throw me out of the living room and into the kitchen.

Landing on my back, I wasted no time in leaping to my feet. The vampire flashed into the entrance of the kitchen baring his teeth. Turning around, I ripped open the knife door before grasping a cleaver and whirling back to face the vampire.

Chucking the cleaver with immeasurable power, the vampire let out a scream of pain as the sharp knife hit him directly in the center of the head, causing multiple cracks to appear. However, it seemed to do nothing other than to make him even angrier as he came barreling at me.

It seemed as though I had no control over my actions, it was so natural. As the vampire came, time itself appeared to physically stop as the vampire stopped mid-run frozen in time. I had no time to ponder on this anomaly though as the loudest most beastly roar erupted from within me booming around the house.

It was so loud that I had no doubt that the entire street heard it. Time started once more, the vampire barreling into me and yet as our bodies collided the sensation of something extremely warm and sticky dribbling from my mouth overcame me.

As hard as I could, I followed my instinct in sinking the razors I called teeth into the vampire's shoulder. Despite his hard coldness, I easily broke through the skin creating many cracks and earning a scream of pure pain and panic from the vampire.

Allowing the warm sticky fluid to flow my mouth and into the vampire, I remained clamped down for a few more seconds before retracting myself and pushing the vampire away. The vampire cried out as he was pushed away falling to the ground while clutching his shoulder.

His red eyes stared up at me in shock, his features converting into something of pure pain. Cracks appeared all around the area of his bite, the pale skin around his shoulder becoming inflamed.

I stood, unsure of what to do as the vampire rolled around on the ground screaming his head off. After a few minutes, the dark-haired handsome monster started gasping as if choking. Before when I was around him, there was no sign of a heartbeat, nothing that indicated he was even alive other than his own movements and consciousness.

Now, as he gasped and choked, I heard it. Slowly but surely, the sound of a heartbeat filtered into my hearing, the vampire shaking as he convulsed on the floor. My teeth went back to normal, my eyes changing back to brown from blue as I watched the vampire.

Seconds pass by before the heartbeat that only beats weakly a few times died out, the vampire, giving one last gasping breath before his eyes turned unseeing and unblinking. His body went still and I knew for sure that he was dead, and this time it was apparent he would not be coming back.

"Holy shit!" I jumped in the air, a hand coming up to cover my mouth. "I just killed somebody!"

"What!?" It was then I remembered my phone still sitting on the couch.

Shaking my head, I carefully moved over the body while eyeing the cleaver, which was still stuck in the center of his head. Racing back into the living room, I wasted no time in picking my phone up from its place on the couch.

"Hey so I'm alive but now I need to get rid of a body, any ideas?"

My body melted into the couch, the television was now blaring the ending credits to Fresh Prince. Another episode would no doubt be playing next.

"She killed someone?"

"Hush, Emmett!"

Emmett Cullen, I remember him. He was that really big buff brother of Edward's who played with me at the wedding.

"Listen," I ran a hand down my face, my heart pumping wildly, "my name is Jaclyn Harvelle, Bella's cousin and—"

"Yes, of course, I remember you," his voice had taken on a much kinder and welcoming tone now, "why didn't you say so?"

"It's been a long night, Carlisle." I sighed, everything taking a toll. Frankly, I was just fucking exhausted.

There was a noise of shuffling from the other end and I vaguely heard a familiar voice.

"Jaclyn?" The phone seemed to be taken from Carlisle and Bella's voice filtered through.

Memories flashed by. I was a little girl who adored her older cousin, her older cousin who always babysat her, who played with her, who talked with her, who did everything with her. Sunny days lounging around and swimming at the local waterparks and public pools, baking cookies together, playing dress-up, singing karaoke in the living room when nobody else was home.

"Hey, Bella," I mumbled, a small grin eating at my face. Even with all the years of separation I still adored my older cousin who was more like my older sister. "I've kind of gotten myself into a sticky situation."

"Jaclyn..."

And like that, I was rushing to explain how the vampire had attacked me in a flurry of words. Confusion overcame me as I asked about why the vampire would call me one of the Cullen's dogs.

"Wait, wait, wait, you're a werewolf?" Bella's voice was shocked, her tone going higher pitched.

"That's awesome!" I heard an unfamiliar angelic voice in the background.

"Yep," I sighed, "and I'm assuming you have something to do with the supernatural seeing as a vampire knew your family just from looking at my bracelet! What the hell, Bella? Tell me what's happening, because I have a damn dead body on the kitchen floor and I am kind of freaking out!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, listen to me." Bella soothed causing me to breathe out while nodding my head even though she could not see me. "Are you calm?"

"Yes,"

"Alright the others and I are vampires like the man who attacked you..." whatever else she was saying blurred out, her previous words ringing like bells in my head.

'Vampire. Vampire. My family and I are vampires, bloodsucking demons of the night, also known as the mortal enemy of werewolves.' Her words were airy and yet clear as day at the same time.

Pale skin. Red eyes. Perfect but deadly feature. A beautiful monster. And at that moment the image of the vampire lying dead on the kitchen entered my mind.

"...Jaclyn? Jaclyn, are you alright! Hey, answer me! Carlisle, can werewolves go into shock?" Bella sounded frantic before Carlisle's voice once again entered the call.

"Jaclyn, answer me? You must remain calm..." Calmly I took the phone away from my ear and pressed the end button watching as the call faded away.

Immediately, my phone lit up as the Cullen number called back and I tossed my phone on the couch as my face remained blank. Turning away from my ringing phone, I pursed my lips and slowly meandered toward the center of the living room.

Standing in between the television and the couch, I began pacing back and forth shaking my head.

"No, no, no! This is all wrong, my cousin can't be one of those... of those... monsters," I spat and to be fair my knowledge of vampires had only stemmed from that man tonight.

That cruel man who did nothing but attack me then follow me home only to attack me again.

Clutching my fists together, I fell to the floor pounding my fists to the ground in anger. Once again that famous short-tempered anger that came with being a werewolf acted up.

"This is shit, what the fuck!" I screamed rolling on the ground as though I was having some sort of fit. "What the fuck is my life...!"

After a good five minutes of having a mental breakdown which, admittedly, ended with me slapping some sense into myself (literally), I finally got the courage to calm down and walk back to my phone.

I had ten missed calls, seven from the Cullen phone, two from Bella, and one from an unknown number. Just as I was about to call back, another call came through from the Cullen family number.

Breathing a deep sigh, I coolly answered the call bringing the phone to my ears. "Yello?"

"Jaclyn, oh my gosh, are you okay—?"

"Do vampires pee?" I randomly asked, telling myself to stay calm.

There was a pause. "Uhm, what?"

"Do vampires pee?"

I could tell they all the question was odd but I was genuinely curious.

"No! But I wish I could, I miss the sensation of peeing!" I heard a booming voice in the background.

"Don't worry, you're not missing out on much," I heard another voice, the same angelic high-pitch one from earlier.

"You guys are so strange," that voice was new, but he was male.

"Nevermind that," I huffed, "just talk, please. Explain everything cause I really don't want to freak out again."

"We're vampires, yes, but not the normal kind. We don't drink the blood of humans, we respect human life far more than normal vampires..." and I learned all the basics of vampires, "...Edward and I, our story started fourteen years ago just after I moved to Washington..." then came Edward and Bella's story, a story I found pathetically romantic and binge-worthy.

Honestly, you could make a few movies out of it.

"...Renesmee is special, she was born as one of the very few of her kind, she's actually only fourteen but she looks seventeen..." now was the story of Renesmee and how they were trialed by the apparent leaders of the vampire kind because of her existent. A small feeling appeared in my chest as they spoke vaguely about the leaders who were called the Volturi, but not much more was said about them.

"The vampire that attacked you, yeah we think that was a nomad that came across our land last year. We hunted him out of town because he was attacking the locals and he was not very happy about it, he was even more upset about Jacob being around," Jacob being a shape-shifter had been explained, though I was happy about the fact that his species were so close to my own, I was also disheartened at the fact that he was truly not like me. He was not a real werewolf.

"His name was Patrick-John, and we believe based on your description that is who he was. He must have been hunting when he stumbled across you..." Bella explained and I listened to everything avidly.

Of course, I realized the supernatural world probably went further than I knew, but I had no clue it went this deep. There was so much history, so much more to the world than meets the eye.

"So you almost died giving birth to Renesmee?"

"Yeah," her voice was soft, "but it was so worth it. And if I had the choice again, I would choose the same every time."

A strike of guilt went through me for a reason I still could not bring myself to think about. Memories of being fifteen flashed through my vision before I quickly banished them. Damn, I need some pot.

"Holy shit," I mumbled, blowing a breath causing my hair to fly up, "that's a lot."

"I know," I could hear the smile in Bella's voice.

"You know, vampire abilities aren't all that different from my own,"

"Oh?" The question in Bella's voice apparent and suddenly Carlisle was on the line as well.

"May I ask how exactly? I am just extremely curious as there are not many Children of the Moon left in existence so there is not much known about them." Carlisle said causing my eyebrows to furrow in concern.

Not many left?

"Well, hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch all increased. My speed, stamina, and strength did as well, not to mention, I'm actually hot now. Obviously, there are a few other things but before I go into that, what do you mean Children of the Moon are...?"

"Nearly extinct? That is a story better explained in person, perhaps you should pay a visit to us this summer?" Carlisle spoke softly and Bella was quick to agree with him.

In the background, George Lopez was now on the television doing a toe touch.

"That's nice of you guys and yeah, I would love too," it was true, what else was I going to do over summer? Sit on the couch all day or learn about the supernatural world with my cousin in Maine? The choice was obvious.

"I already bought the tickets!" An excited high-pitched voice came from the background. "I'll email them to you! The flight is the day after tomorrow at nine a.m. I figured seeing as Maine is three hours ahead of Arizona currently you would not want to get in too late here!" The phone was quickly taken over by an excited female chattering away.

"Alice," I heard Bella groan before she took the phone back, "give me that. Sorry about that, but apparently we bought your tickets for the day after tomorrow—"

"You did not need to buy me tickets..." I scolded, "how much was it? I'll pay you back."

"Nonsense!" It was Carlisle along with another unfamiliar gentle-sounding female who spoke. "We're perfectly capable of covering you—"

"And don't bother to buy tickets back yet, you'll be staying all summer long!" Alice yelled into the phone and I vaguely heard Bella shove her back.

"All summer?" I questioned hesitantly.

It was not that I was against it, but I could not imagine they would want me in their lives for the next three months.

"Don't feel obligated, but we would love to house you over the course of the summer..." The voice who had spoken with Carlisle said before who I could assume as Renesmee spoke.

"Yeah, plus school is out, so like it's chill time. Beach days, sleeping in late, eating out all the time, fun times! All the rest of them, except Jacob, can't even go in the sun, so it would be great to actually have a girl who can join me outside!" Renesmee was talking avidly in a manner eerily similar to Alice.

Bella laughed, "Renesmee, take it easy," she said before her voice came through once more. "So, what do you say? Summer at our place?"

Now, I know I had not talked to Bella for a long time and at this point that I really didn't know her let alone the rest of her family, but something about them simply called to me. As if that was where I was supposed to be.

"What do I say? Hell yeah, I need to get out of the valley! The heat here is great but terrible at the same time, you know how it is Bella," Bella agreed with that.

It suddenly occurred to me just why Bella refused to go anywhere. She still looked eighteen and going in the sun was not possible for a vampire.

"But seriously guys, what do I do with the vampire's body?"

———————

The next morning came with an immense amount of chores and errands. However, my top responsibility was the fact that tonight I had to take the vampire's body which was still lying dead on the kitchen floor and burn it in the middle of the desert.

I sat at the counter overlooking the body while eating some colorful cereal. Cracks were visible on every place of his skin now, and honestly other than the fact that his eyes were staring lifelessly at the ceiling he did not look much different from when he was kicking.

His corpse was showing none of the normal postmortem signs. It was freaking weird.

Cringing, I slowly got up from the counter bringing my bowl of cereal with me. Awkwardly meandering past the body, I quickly placed the bowl in the sink before rinsing it out and putting it in the dishwasher.

Turning around to face the body once again, I hesitantly padded over until I was standing directly above it. Crossing my arms, I frowned while examining it. Still incredibly beautiful.

It was interesting because from what I could tell, werewolves and vampires were the same in the sense that after transformation the looks seemed to increase by a thousand. However, it was also a different type of beauty. While I actually ended up getting more tan than I had ever been in my life, based on this man vampires appear to actually get paler.

Then again, it could just be this man but based on the way the Cullens referred to the sun and if I remembered them correctly from when I was younger, then being pale was simply a vamp thing.

The beauty was also different, it was hard to explain but it was almost as though vampires became more striking in appearance while werewolves were more of a softer prettiness. This could also just be me as I was currently the only werewolf I knew.

Squatting down, I paused before putting my hand on the vampire's cheek. He still felt deathly cold, perhaps now even more so than before, and his skin was still rock hard. Another difference, my temperature rose while vampires' seemingly fell.

My skin, while it was durable, was not this hard either. Moving my hand toward his mouth, I once again paused.

"No balls," I whispered to myself, a phrase which pushed me into lifting his lips causing his mouth to fly open so I could see inside.

No pointy teeth, there weren't even fangs. Moving away from his mouth, I closed it before puffing out a breath allowing my gaze to slide down the rest of his body. Dark wash jeans and random tee-shirt. His shoes were nice though, they were rocker boots from what I could tell. They looked relatively new as well.

For a second I considered taking the boots off his body and using them as a gift at a later date.

"No, too weird," I murmured, shooting down my own idea.

It was a shame, the nice boots would simply need to burn with the body I guess. Patting the dead vampire's thigh, I shook my head mockingly at him.

"You're welcome, I'm not stealing your shoes Patrick-John, they'll burn with you," allowing my gaze to rack down his body, my eyes stopped at his crotch.

Averting my gaze, I thumped my fingers onto the floor. After a few seconds my shoulders with defeat, my own curiosity was eating away at me.

"No balls," I said again, wasting no time in pulling his pants and the boxers he wore underneath up so I could get a clear view of what was hiding.

Wow, vampire nuts, you don't see that every day. Not half bad either.

"Must have been quite a ladies man, Patrick-John," I stated while putting his pants back in place and standing from my squatting position.

Walking out of the kitchen, I made my to the living room checking the time. I did not end up getting to bed until around two in the morning last night and even then I had trouble falling asleep with the knowledge of Patrick-John lying on the kitchen floor.

It was about eleven o'clock now, so I had gotten around nine hours of sleep. I woke up later than I wanted to though as I still had many errands to run.

I had to stop by a few stores to grab a few things before I traveled, prepare the house for nobody living in it for the next few weeks, pack my bags, and, of course, still burn the body. All that and I had a nine a.m. flight to catch tomorrow, I would need to leave the house by 6:45.

Ugh, great... getting up early.

My pajama shorts swayed as I walked, the tank top making me feel extremely hot. It was already in the hundreds outside and even with air conditioning, I could feel it in here. All it made me want to do was lounge around the house in my underwear and nothing more.

Dropping down onto the couch, I held my phone to my chest breathing in deeply. A second passed before my phone suddenly lit up and began vibrating, it's pop ringtone filling my ears.

Looking at the screen, I groaned seeing Mom calling. Of course, how could I forget about the biggest factor?

Mom.

I would need to tell her I was going to visit Bella for the summer and she didn't freak out when she realized the house would be sitting untouched for the next two months. She was also probably going to chew me out about not calling as soon as I got home last night, but I had bigger problems to deal with then.

Memories of Patrick-John hissing appeared in my mind.

Shivering at the recollection, I quickly pressed the answer button bringing the phone to my ears.

"Hey..."

"Jaclyn Harvelle why the hell didn't you call me last night...!" And that was how the next five minutes passed, with my mother scolding me about calling her when she says.

After that, the next ten minutes went by with me explaining my summer plans and Mom freaking out about the house being untouched. Then she calmed down when I told her about the cruise Aunt Renée was planning in the fall. Mom was excited and said she would be calling Renée right after me to catch up and for more details about the trip.

As my parents have aged they had surprisingly gotten more adventurous and travel-ready. While most people calmed down with old age, it seemed that as soon as I left for college my parents were taking trips left and right, with a bank account that had apparently been sitting and collecting money for when I left and my parents were once again on their own.

Yeah, I'm still pretty sour about it. I mean growing up, the most interesting trip we took was literally to Bella's wedding when I was four. After that, vacations consisted of a long three-year gap and then we would either go to the Grand Canyon or California for a few days.

Mom then proceeded to tell me about how much she and Dad loved Europe. Italy and Scotland were their favorite places so far.

"Wait, isn't Italy and the rest of Europe in lockdown cause of the coronavirus?" I scratched the back of my head hearing Mom scoff in reply.

"Not as much as earlier this year, but still..." I listened for the next twenty-minutes as Mom explained that barely anyone was outside because the world was still recovering from the pandemic.

That was when Dad got on the phone and saved me by asking me about the drive down from Flagstaff.

I lied, of course, I mean what was I going to say. "Yeah, just got attacked by a bloodsucker the usual, anyway how is your day so far?" Ha, I think not!

The call ended with my parents laughing at me as I complained about the intense heat, both of them saying it was no more than the mid-seventies where they were.

As soon as the call ended I wasted no time dialing Drake. He was home and wouldn't be leaving for his own summer vacation for a few days.

"Dude," I sat up once Drake answered, "I have some serious fucking tea."

Okay, so it wasn't like the Cullens were very detailed in their story of Bella and Edward. I knew you technically weren't so supposed to tell anyone about the existence of vampires, but like fuck that. I am not a vampire so I refused to follow their laws and Drake was my best friend.

As long as he kept it on the down-low we should be fine... hopefully.

All in all, he freaked when I told him everything. And that was why him and I were currently standing over Patrick-John.

"I always knew you would need me to help you burn a body," Drake sighed placing his hands on his hips while I only shrugged.

"Honestly, I knew too,"

"You know," Drake pursed his lips, waggling his brows, "this guy is really fucking hot. Like hotter than Nathan the coffee worker, it's a damn shame he's dead."

"He tried to kill me!"

"He's still hot,"

"True,"

We were both silent again as we took in Patrick-John.

"Did you check his package?"

"Yeah," I snickered as Drake looked in his pants as I did earlier, his eyes widening at what he found.

"Wow, vampire cock, never thought I'd see the day," Drake murmured as I patted his shoulder with a nod.

"Me neither,"

"Alrighty, so let's go run your errand and then at night we'll go into the desert and burn the body," he sighed sadly looking at the vampire, "damn, this seriously sucks, he's so hot."

I rolled my eyes but wasted no time in quickly pulling on a pair of leggings with a random shirt. Flipping a hat back on my head, I smiled at Drake who rose a brow.

"I swear that 3 looks TikTok literally defines you," Drake stated.

Smiling, I danced around a bit while singing, "I've got 3 looks, and that's it! I've got a homeless man, a twelve-year-old boy, and a hooker! And that's all I know how to do!" I quoted as Drake laughed shaking his head.

"Bitch, are you high?"

"Yeah," I said honestly, I had smoked a little bit of pot while I was in my room changing.

"Girl, I swear if you're not addicted," Drake scowled while I only laughed.

Hey, I won't deny it. There was a good chance I was addicted to weed and even alcohol somewhat, but I'm not getting into that now. Besides, it all started when I was fifteen just like most issues in my life.

"Life is life, man." I shrugged as we walked out the front door and into the blazing heat of Mesa, Arizona. "Anyway, where are we trying to go first? Target?"

"Yeah,"

We hit up Target, Walmart, the mall, stopped for lunch, and continued shopping from there. We were getting things for both our summer trips. After shopping, Drake helped me pack.

"You are going to get arrested," his eyes were wide as I placed my bong, some joints, and multiple bags of weed at the bottom of one of my two suitcases. There was also a bottle of tequila in there. "Like no joke, this isn't smart Jackie, you need to leave this crap here. Buy more when you get there or shit but don't try smuggling it on board."

"I am not paying over a hundred dollars when I have plenty here, plus it's legal recreationally there. I'm checking this bag on anyway so it should be fine," I excused while placing a good amount of clothing and shoes over it.

"You are so dumb, this is not going to work," Drake shook his head while I ignored him.

"There we go," I zipped up the bag.

An hour or two later, Drake and I managed to get the body in the back of my car without much struggle. Drake was tall and muscular and the vampire was leaner and shorter than him. However, Drake did mess around making the corpse pretend like it was talking.

Once the mouth fell open though Drake screamed and dropped the body causing me to fall over in laughter and Drake to curse me out.

"I feel like we should say a few words," Drake mumbled as we overlooked our small bonfire where the body was laying.

We had not yet lit it as Drake was memorizing every detail of Patrick-John's face.

"Yeah," I lit a match, "Patrick-John, fuck you for attacking me and I'm not sorry for this, but you do have a nice dick," with that I threw the match on the body causing a huge bonfire to light up and the body to begin burning.

"Holy shit, you're so rude," Drake rolled his eyes.

"Aren't we all?"