Bella dropped the bombshell that she was finally going to meet Edward's family. She seemed excited, or at least as excited as Bella can be when she isn't thinking about books or why the sky is gray. She wanted me to go with her, but since I already worked with Esme and spent half the day in that house, I didn't see the point in going as the "escort brother." Besides, I had more important things on my mind. My training in the sea had become an obsession.
So, while she was getting ready for her family date, I grabbed the Chevy and headed for the reservation. I needed to train more; I needed my shield to withstand more than just a single blow.
I reached a secluded area of the beach, where the rocks cut through the water and almost no one ever shows up. I dove right in, activating my shield to cover my body and then expanding it into a bubble of about two meters. I submerged myself until the bottom disappeared and only the dark blue remained. I stayed there, floating in the silence, feeling how thousands of gallons of water tried to crush my bubble. It was the perfect exercise: my mind against the ocean.
I had been down there for a good while, focused on maintaining the shape of the sphere, when I suddenly felt brutal impacts.
BAM! BAM!
They weren't waves. They were solid hits, as if someone were hammering my shield with steel mallets. Pain shot through my head instantly; every blow to my barrier translated into a sting in my temples. I opened my eyes and saw three human figures swimming frantically around me. They were hitting the barrier with a force that no human should have.
What the hell...? I thought, swallowing hard.
The pressure of the sea plus those external blows were killing me. I decided enough was enough. I deactivated the large bubble, kept only the shield tight against my skin, and swam toward the surface with a rage burning in my chest.
I came out of the water dripping, my breathing heavy and my head about to explode. On the shore, the three guys were already waiting for me. They were huge, with bronzed skin and harsh features. The one who looked like the leader, a guy with a presence that commanded respect, approached me shouting before I could even say "hello."
"Are you crazy?!" he roared. "What do you think you're doing down there?! You were under for an eternity! Were you trying to kill yourself?!"
I wiped the water from my face, trying to hide the pain. "I wasn't killing myself," I lied shamelessly, using the first excuse that came to mind. "I was just practicing my breathing. There's a swimming competition soon and I need to improve my lung capacity."
The three of them looked at each other. They didn't buy a single word. One of them, a boy who looked like he was about to explode from pure nerves, got too close to me. "No one holds their breath that long underwater without gear, kid. Don't lie to us."
The guy tried to grab my arm to force me out of the area, as if I were a small child. I don't like being touched without permission, especially when my head already hurts. I gave him a hard shove in the chest. "Get your hands off me!" I snapped.
That was like throwing gasoline on a fire. The boy started to growl. But it wasn't a human growl; it was something deep, a sound that came from his gut. He began to shake violently, as if he were having a seizure.
"Paul, relax," the older one said, trying to calm him down. "Take a deep breath, you have to control yourself."
I started backing away. These guys were out of their minds. But then, the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life happened—and keep in mind, I've already seen a vampire. Paul's body began to break and stretch. His hands became paws, his feet elongated, and in a spasm that sent his clothes flying in shreds, there was no longer an annoying boy in front of me. There was a giant wolf.
He was a beast about two meters long, dark gray. His head reached my shoulders and his fangs... God, they were like butcher knives. He growled at me with pure hatred and lunged directly at me with his jaws open.
I covered my face with my arms out of pure instinct, but I didn't move. I felt the impact. His teeth—his jaw clamped onto my left arm and back—but the shield on my skin, the one I hadn't deactivated, protected me from being torn apart. The wolf squeezed and shook his head, trying to shred me, but he only managed to destroy part of my shirt. Frustrated, he gave me a shove and threw me back into the sea.
I fell backward into the water. As I sank a few meters, I expanded a part of the shield around my head in the shape of a tube toward the surface so I could breathe and, while I was at it, listen to what those crazies were saying.
"You're insane, Paul!" the older one, Sam, shouted. "Look at what you did! You killed a kid because you couldn't control yourself!"
The wolf let out a growl, but Sam was still furious. "I don't care if he started it! He's just a human!"
"Sam, you know Paul is new to this," a third voice said. "He has less self-control than we do."
"That doesn't change the fact that he killed a poor kid," Sam responded, sounding desperate. "Now, what are we going to do?"
"We have to get him out," Jared said. "His body must be torn up by Paul's marks... we'll say a wild animal attacked him."
No, not a chance, I thought underwater. I wasn't going to let these "dogs" get away with it.
I imagined my shield becoming translucent, curving the light around me. I had read about how to make things invisible by refracting light, but I had never tried it. I concentrated so hard I felt a sting in my mind from the effort. I could feel it working. I came out of the water slowly and approached the shore, being an invisible blur in the landscape.
When the water was at my knees, I saw Sam and Jared approaching the water to look for my "corpse." I focused on the gray wolf, who was standing there looking very proud of himself. I created a solid force disk and threw it with all my might against his side.
WHAM!
The wolf went flying several meters through the air until he crashed against some dry logs. Sam and Jared spun around, horrified. "Paul!" they both shouted. "Jared, go see how he is!" Sam ordered.
At that moment, I stopped refracting the light and made myself visible right in front of Sam. The guy almost fell backward from the shock. "You...? How is it that you don't have a single wound?" he asked, stunned.
"Surprised?" I said, wiping away some blood that was already leaking from my nose from the effort. "Not as much as I am to find out that, besides the bloodsuckers, there are also people who turn into giant dogs."
"We are not dogs," Sam growled, regaining his composure. "So you know there are vampires..."
"I know enough," I replied. "And why the hell did that mutt attack me?"
"I already told you we are not dogs," Sam repeated. "The transformation is tied to our emotions. Paul didn't know how to handle himself."
Just then, the gray wolf (Paul) came limping back a bit, followed by Jared. The wolf looked at me and let out a fierce growl, baring his teeth again.
"Shut up, Clifford," I snapped at him. "Unless you want me to send you flying again."
Paul didn't wait. He lunged at me with a roar. "Paul, no!" Sam shouted, but it was too late.
I extended my left hand and, while he was in the air, I created a force field around him. He crashed into the invisible barrier and I let him drop into the shallow water, enclosed like a hamster in a cage.
"So you think you're so tough just because you're a big puppy?" I told him, clenching my fist. The shield shrank, pressing him against the wet ground. I began to drag the sphere toward a deeper area and left a small opening at the top so the water would pour in and soak him. The wolf began to whimper and cry, trying to free himself from the increasingly smaller space.
Sam and Jared on the shore grew tense. Their bodies began to shake; they were about to transform as well to save their friend. I couldn't take much more. The headache was killing me and I wasn't going to be able to handle three of those things at once.
I extended my right hand and, before they could change, I enclosed them both in another force field, squeezing them so tightly they didn't even have room to stretch their arms, much less turn into wolves.
"Please, let him go!" Sam shouted from inside his prison. "He learned his lesson... we all did. We have nothing against you if you're human. We only hunt the 'cold ones,' the bloodsuckers. Let us go and we'll explain everything."
His voice sounded sincere, and the truth was I was about to faint. With one last effort, I lifted the shield holding Paul, pulled him out of the water, and tossed him onto the sand next to the other two.
I shattered all the force fields. Paul turned back into a human instantly; he was naked, shivering from the cold and with a look of absolute terror. He was definitely "team flesh" from the little I could see before Sam and Jared rushed to cover him.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked him.
I approached the shore staggering, trying to keep my eyes fixed on them. "Well... seems like we have a lot to talk about," I said, my voice slurred.
"Kid, your nose is bleeding a lot," Jared said, with a look of real concern.
I only managed to nod. I felt the world spinning, the light in my mind went out all at once, and my knees gave way. The last thing I saw before blacking out was Sam running toward me to keep me from hitting the rocks. The effort had been too much.
The world returned to me in the form of smells: smoky wood, recent rain, and the pungent aroma of something cooking—something with a lot of grease and spices. I tried to open my eyes, but it felt like a steamroller had been run over my brain.
"He's waking up," I heard a deep voice. Sam.
I opened my eyes and found myself in a simple but cozy room. I was lying on a leather sofa that felt much too small for my body. I sat up slowly, letting out a groan as the movement made my head spin.
"Easy, Mael," Sam said, handing me a glass of water.
I looked around. We were in a warm, wooden house. Jared was sitting in a wooden chair, observing me with a mixture of curiosity and a respect that wasn't there before. Paul was in a corner, wearing oversized shorts, staring at the floor with a look of shame that almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost.
"Where am I?" I asked, drinking the water. It was cold and helped settle my stomach. "And how do you know my name?"
"In my house, on the reservation," Sam replied, sitting in front of me. "We brought you here when you collapsed on the beach. You were out for a couple of hours. Everyone on the reservation knows Charlie's kids."
I couldn't find a flaw in his logic. I touched my nose. It was clear of blood, but my skin felt sensitive. My shirt was in tatters, so someone had put an oversized gray hoodie on me.
"You threw me through the air," Paul blurted out from the corner, breaking the silence. His voice was no longer aggressive, it just sounded confused. "And then that... that wall and the water. I couldn't move. None of us could. What are you?"
I stayed quiet for a moment, letting my mind finish stabilizing. "I don't know exactly what I am," I admitted, being honest for the first time. "I only know that after an accident, I started being able to create these force fields. And that the more I use them and the more I push myself, the stronger they get."
"What you did isn't normal, even for our kind," Jared said, leaning forward. "Sam is the strongest of us and he couldn't break your bubble when you were underwater. It was like hitting a diamond wall."
Sam nodded with a serious expression. "Mael, we need to speak plainly. You said you knew about the 'bloodsuckers.' How much do you know about the Cullens?"
I felt my mental shield tense out of instinct. "I know they're different from that guy I found in Port Angeles," I replied, measuring my words. "I know they don't eat... well, that they don't eat us. I work for them; Esme hired me to help her with some architectural blueprints."
"You work for the 'cold ones'?" Paul took a step forward, but Sam stopped him with a look. "They're parasites, Mael!"
"They're neighbors," I retorted, regaining my firm tone. "And so far, they've been kinder to me than the mutt who tried to rip my head off a while ago."
Paul turned red and looked at the floor again. Sam sighed. "We have a treaty with them. As long as they don't hunt on our lands and don't bite a human, there is peace. But we are the protectors of this area. The transformation..." he pointed to the boys "...happens when they are near. It's a response in our blood to protect us."
"Well, your 'response' almost killed an ally," I said, getting up from the sofa. I felt weak, but I could walk. "Listen, Sam. I have nothing against you guys. In fact, it helps to know I'm not the only freak in this town. But my priority is my family. My sister Bella is... very involved with Edward Cullen."
Sam and Jared exchanged a worried look. "We know. We've seen them," Sam said. "It's a dangerous situation, Mael. For everyone."
"That's why I train," I said, walking toward the door. "That's why I go underwater and why I almost burst my brain. I'm not going to let anyone, vampire or whatever else, lay a finger on my sister."
Sam got up and accompanied me to the exit. Outside, the Chevy was waiting for me. Jared and Paul stayed inside, still processing that a "human" had brought them to their knees.
"Mael," Sam called out before I got into the truck. "You have an incredible gift. If you need a place to train without anyone asking questions, the reservation is your home. Paul just needs to learn to control his temper, but now that he knows what you're capable of, he won't bother you again."
"Thanks, Sam. I'll keep that in mind," I replied.
I drove back home under the usual rain. My head was still throbbing, but the blue sun in my mind shone with a new confidence. I had subdued three werewolves on my own. My power was scaling to a level that even I didn't understand, but I needed it. Because if the wolves were this nervous, it meant something bigger was coming.
When I got home, I went in trying to look normal, despite the giant reservation hoodie. Bella was in the living room, waiting for me.
"Where were you?" she asked, but then she saw my exhausted face. "Mael, what happened to you?"
"I ran into Sam Uley and the guys at the beach," I said, simplifying the story. "They got a little intense with a wrestling game and I ended up in the water. They invited me to their house to dry off. They're... interesting people."
Bella looked at me with suspicion, but she was so distracted by her own secrets about Edward that she didn't push it. I went to my room, collapsed on the bed, and before sleeping, I tried to visualize my shield, but my head began to hurt a lot. So I took some pills and settled in to sleep for a bit, but I could already feel it getting bigger. I was getting better.