We drove south out of town. The dirt road wove in and out of the forest—sometimes there was nothing but trees, and then there would suddenly be a breathtaking glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, reaching to the horizon, dark gray under the clouds. We were above the shore, on top of the cliffs that bordered the beach here, and the view seemed to stretch on forever.

I was driving slowly, so that I could safely stare out across the ocean now and then, as the road wound closer to the sea cliffs. Jacob was talking about finishing the bikes, but his descriptions were getting technical, so I wasn’t paying close attention.

That was when I noticed four figures standing on a rocky ledge, much too close to the precipice. I couldn’t tell from the distance how old they were, but I assumed they were men. Despite the chill in the air today, they seemed to be wearing only shorts.

As I watched, the tallest person stepped closer to the brink. I slowed automatically, my foot hesitating over the brake pedal.

And then he threw himself off the edge.

“No!” I shouted, stomping down on the brake.

“What’s wrong?” Jacob shouted back, alarmed.

“That guy—he just jumped off the cliff! Why didn’t they stop him? We’ve got to call an ambulance!” I threw open my door and started to get out, which made no sense at all. The fastest way to a phone was to drive back to Billy’s. But I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Maybe, subconsciously, I hoped I would see something different without the glass of the windshield in the way.

Jacob laughed, and I spun to stare at him wildly. How could he be so calloused, so cold-blooded?

“They’re just cliff diving, Bella. Recreation. La Push doesn’t have a mall, you know.” He was teasing, but there was a strange note of irritation in his voice.

“Cliff diving?” I repeated, dazed. I stared in disbelief as a second figure stepped to the edge, paused, and then very gracefully leaped into space. He fell for what seemed like an eternity to me, finally cutting smoothly into the dark gray waves below.

“Wow. It’s so high.” I slid back into my seat, still staring wide-eyed at the two remaining divers. “It must be a hundred feet.”

“Well, yeah, most of us jump from lower down, that rock that juts out from the cliff about halfway.” He pointed out his window. The place he indicated did seem much more reasonable. “Those guys are insane. Probably showing off how tough they are. I mean, really, it’s freezing today. That water can’t feel good.” He made a disgruntled face, as if the stunt personally offended him. It surprised me a little. I would have thought Jacob was nearly impossible to upset.

“You jump off the cliff?” I hadn’t missed the “us.”

“Sure, sure.” He shrugged and grinned. “It’s fun. A little scary, kind of a rush.”

I looked back at the cliffs, where the third figure was pacing the edge. I’d never witnessed anything so reckless in all my life. My eyes widened, and I smiled. “Jake, you have to take me cliff diving.”

He frowned back at me, his face disapproving. “Bella, you just wanted to call an ambulance for Sam,” he reminded me. I was surprised that he could tell who it was from this distance.

“I want to try,” I insisted, starting to get out of the car again.

Jacob grabbed my wrist. “Not today, all right? Can we at least wait for a warmer day?”

“Okay, fine,” I agreed. With the door open, the glacial breeze was raising goose bumps on my arm. “But I want to go soon.”

“Soon.” He rolled his eyes. “Sometimes you’re a little strange, Bella. Do you know that?”

I sighed. “Yes.”

“And we’re not jumping off the top.”

I watched, fascinated, as the third boy made a running start and flung himself farther into the empty air than the other two. He twisted and cartwheeled through space as he fell, like he was skydiving. He looked absolutely free—unthinking and utterly irresponsible.

“Fine,” I agreed. “Not the first time, anyway.”

Now Jacob sighed.

“Are we going to try out the bikes or not?” he demanded.

“Okay, okay,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the last person waiting on the cliff. I put my seat belt back on and closed the door. The engine was still running, roaring as it idled. We started down the road again.

“So who were those guys—the crazy ones?” I wondered.

He made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “The La Push gang.”

“You have a gang?” I asked. I realized that I sounded impressed.

He laughed once at my reaction. “Not like that. I swear, they’re like hall monitors gone bad. They don’t start fights, they keep the peace.” He snorted. “There was this guy from up somewhere by the Makah rez, big guy too, scary-looking. Well, word got around that he was selling meth to kids, and Sam Uley and his disciples ran him off our land. They’re all about our land, and tribe pride…it’s getting ridiculous. The worst part is that the council takes them seriously. Embry said that the council actually meets with Sam.” He shook his head, face full of resentment. “Embry also heard from Leah Clearwater that they call themselves ‘protectors’ or something like that.”

Jacob’s hands were clenched into fists, as if he’d like to hit something. I’d never seen this side of him.

I was surprised to hear Sam Uley’s name. I didn’t want it to bring back the images from my nightmare, so I made a quick observation to distract myself. “You don’t like them very much.”

“Does it show?” he asked sarcastically.

“Well…It doesn’t sound like they’re doing anything bad.” I tried to soothe him, to make him cheerful again. “Just sort of annoyingly goody-two-shoes for a gang.”

“Yeah. Annoying is a good word. They’re always showing off—like the cliff thing. They act like…like, I don’t know. Like tough guys. I was hanging out at the store with Embry and Quil once, last semester, and Sam came by with his followers, Jared and Paul. Quil said something, you know how he’s got a big mouth, and it pissed Paul off. His eyes got all dark, and he sort of smiled—no, he showed his teeth but he didn’t smile—and it was like he was so mad he was shaking or something. But Sam put his hand against Paul’s chest and shook his head. Paul looked at him for a minute and calmed down. Honestly, it was like Sam was holding him back—like Paul was going to tear us up if Sam didn’t stop him.” He groaned. “Like a bad western. You know, Sam’s a pretty big guy, he’s twenty. But Paul’s just sixteen, too, shorter than me and not as beefy as Quil. I think any one of us could take him.”

“Tough guys,” I agreed. I could see it in my head as he described it, and it reminded me of something…a trio of tall, dark men standing very still and close together in my father’s living room. The picture was sideways, because my head was lying against the couch while Dr. Gerandy and Charlie leaned over me….Had that been Sam’s gang?

I spoke quickly again to divert myself from the bleak memories. “Isn’t Sam a little too old for this kind of thing?”

“Yeah. He was supposed to go to college, but he stayed. And no one gave him any crap about it, either. The whole council pitched a fit when my sister turned down a partial scholarship and got married. But, oh no, Sam Uley can do no wrong.”

His face was set in unfamiliar lines of outrage—outrage and something else I didn’t recognize at first.

“It all sounds really annoying and…strange. But I don’t get why you’re taking it so personally.” I peeked over at his face, hoping I hadn’t offended him. He was suddenly calm, staring out the side window.

“You just missed the turn,” he said in an even voice.

I executed a very wide U-turn, nearly hitting a tree as my circle ran the truck halfway off the road.

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I muttered as I started up the side road.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

It was quiet for a brief minute.

“You can stop anywhere along here,” he said softly.

I pulled over and cut the engine. My ears rang in the silence that followed. We both got out, and Jacob headed around to the back to get the bikes. I tried to read his expression. Something more was bothering him. I’d hit a nerve.

He smiled halfheartedly as he pushed the red bike to my side. “Happy late birthday. Are you ready for this?”

“I think so.” The bike suddenly looked intimidating, frightening, as I realized I would soon be astride it.

“We’ll take it slow,” he promised. I gingerly leaned the motorcycle against the truck’s fender while he went to get his.

“Jake . . .” I hesitated as he came back around the truck.

“Yeah?”

“What’s really bothering you? About the Sam thing, I mean? Is there something else?” I watched his face. He grimaced, but he didn’t seem angry. He looked at the dirt and kicked his shoe against the front tire of his bike again and again, like he was keeping time.

He sighed. “It’s just…the way they treat me. It creeps me out.” The words started to rush out now. “You know, the council is supposed to be made up of equals, but if there was a leader, it would be my dad. I’ve never been able to figure out why people treat him the way they do. Why his opinion counts the most. It’s got something to do with his father and his father’s father. My great-grandpa, Ephraim Black, was sort of the last chief we had, and they still listen to Billy, maybe because of that.

“But I’m just like everyone else. Nobody treats me special…until now.”

That caught me off guard. “Sam treats you special?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, looking up at me with troubled eyes. “He looks at me like he’s waiting for something…like I’m going to join his stupid gang someday. He pays more attention to me than any of the other guys. I hate it.”

“You don’t have to join anything.” My voice was angry. This was really upsetting Jacob, and that infuriated me. Who did these “protectors” think they were?

“Yeah.” His foot kept up its rhythm against the tire.

“What?” I could tell there was more.

He frowned, his eyebrows pulling up in a way that looked sad and worried rather than angry. “It’s Embry. He’s been avoiding me lately.”

The thoughts didn’t seem connected, but I wondered if I was to blame for the problems with his friend. “You’ve been hanging out with me a lot,” I reminded him, feeling selfish. I’d been monopolizing him.

“No, that’s not it. It’s not just me—it’s Quil, too, and everyone. Embry missed a week of school, but he was never home when we tried to see him. And when he came back, he looked…he looked freaked out. Terrified. Quil and I both tried to get him to tell us what was wrong, but he wouldn’t talk to either one of us.”

I stared at Jacob, biting my lip anxiously—he was really frightened. But he didn’t look at me. He watched his own foot kicking the rubber as if it belonged to someone else. The tempo increased.

“Then this week, out of nowhere, Embry’s hanging out with Sam and the rest of them. He was out on the cliffs today.” His voice was low and tense.

He finally looked at me. “Bella, they bugged him even more than they bother me. He didn’t want anything to do with them. And now Embry’s following Sam around like he’s joined a cult.

“And that’s the way it was with Paul. Just exactly the same. He wasn’t friends with Sam at all. Then he stopped coming to school for a few weeks, and, when he came back, suddenly Sam owned him. I don’t know what it means. I can’t figure it out, and I feel like I have to, because Embry’s my friend and…Sam’s looking at me funny…and . . .” He trailed off.

“Have you talked to Billy about this?” I asked. His horror was spreading to me. I had chills running on the back of my neck.

Now there was anger on his face. “Yes,” he snorted. “That was helpful.”

“What did he say?”

Jacob’s expression was sarcastic, and when he spoke, his voice mocked the deep tones of his father’s voice. “It’s nothing you need to worry about now, Jacob. In a few years, if you don’t…well, I’ll explain later.” And then his voice was his own. “What am I supposed to get from that? Is he trying to say it’s some stupid puberty, coming-of-age thing? This is something else. Something wrong.”

He was biting his lower lip and clenching his hands. He looked like he was about to cry.

I threw my arms around him instinctively, wrapping them around his waist and pressing my face against his chest. He was so big, I felt like I was a child hugging a grown-up.

“Oh, Jake, it’ll be okay!” I promised. “If it gets worse you can come live with me and Charlie. Don’t be scared, we’ll think of something!”

He was frozen for a second, and then his long arms wrapped hesitantly around me. “Thanks, Bella.” His voice was huskier than usual.

We stood like that for a moment, and it didn’t upset me; in fact, I felt comforted by the contact. This didn’t feel anything like the last time someone had embraced me this way. This was friendship. And Jacob was very warm.

It was strange for me, being this close—emotionally rather than physically, though the physical was strange for me, too—to another human being. It wasn’t my usual style. I didn’t normally relate to people so easily, on such a basic level.

Not human beings.

“If this is how you’re going to react, I’ll freak out more often.” Jacob’s voice was light, normal again, and his laughter rumbled against my ear. His fingers touched my hair, soft and tentative.

Well, it was friendship for me.

I pulled away quickly, laughing with him, but determined to put things back in perspective at once.

“It’s hard to believe I’m two years older than you,” I said, emphasizing the word older. “You make me feel like a dwarf.” Standing this close to him, I really had to crane my neck to see his face.

“You’re forgetting I’m in my forties, of course.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

He patted my head. “You’re like a little doll,” he teased. “A porcelain doll.”

I rolled my eyes, taking another step away. “Let’s not start with the albino cracks.”

“Seriously, Bella, are you sure you’re not?” He stretched his russet arm out next to mine. The difference wasn’t flattering. “I’ve never seen anyone paler than you…well, except for—” He broke off, and I looked away, trying to not understand what he had been about to say.

“So are we going to ride or what?”

“Let’s do it,” I agreed, more enthusiastic than I would have been half a minute ago. His unfinished sentence reminded me of why I was here.