Act III
Chapter 29 ━━ Vampire Magnet

━━━━━━━━☆★☆━━━━━━━━

Shelley makes herself out of the bathroom after changing into a loose shirt dress only to run into Jacob. He holds her close to him and nestles his head in the crook of her neck. Her stomach growls loudly as she wraps her arms around him. "I'm hungry." 

He let go only enough to scoop her up and walk her downstairs. 

"Jake, I can walk." 

He just ignores her and carries her all the way into the kitchen. Once he makes it to the kitchen and sets her in the chair and kisses her cheek. 

"Stupid mutt." She mutters under her breath. 

"I can hear you." He says with a playful glare and she giggles. 

"You can cook?" She asks as he looks into the refrigerator with a stressed look. 

"Yeah?" He sounds unsure of his own words. But then again, he closes the refrigerator and sighs. "Okay. I suck at cooking stuff." 

"Pizza sounds good." 

There's a frown on his face. "I'm a bad mate. I can't even cook you a meal when you're not well." 

"Hey, it's okay. I can't even cook. We're equally screwed on that subject." 

"I'll make it up for you." He says, then pauses before he sniffs into the air and his face turns cold. "Your friendly boyfriend is here." 

"Oh." 

"Here." He takes off his shirt jacket and hands it to the blonde. "Wear this or change your outfit to a less revealing dress." 

Shelley is not wearing a bra underneath my shirt dress because of her giant bandage and she thought he didn't notice. Okay, she is embarrassed now. She quickly grabs the shirt jacket and puts it on, too lazy to change into another. It's larger than her small figure and hugging up to her mid-thighs. It smells like Jacob. 

"I'll be back." He grumbles under his breath before jogging out of the house from the back door and into the woods. 

The front door opens and Esdras walks in with two bags. One of them is full of books and the other is…

"Are those cheeseburgers?" Shelley squeaks, pointing at the paper bag with a print of a burger on it. 

He nods and without thinking twice, she snatches it out of his hands and digs into the burgers like a pig. 

"Congratulations! We're best friends again." 

Once she's nice and full, she looks at him to see him leaning into the counter with an amused smile. 

"Done?" 

"Yup." 

"Get your ass here and give me a hug then." 

"You aren't supposed to say bad words, Ezra. You're a good guy. Gosh, I feel like a bad influence." She groans but hugs him anyway. 

He chuckles, hugging back. "Everyone knows that you're a bad influence." 

"Haha. Very funny." She rolls her eyes dramatically but decides to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I missed you, Ezzy Boo. You gotta stop being an asshole and stick by my side." 

"I'm here now. Aren't I?" He smiles and places the bag with the books. "Here come the notes you missed." 

"Thanks." She looks into the books and scowls. "Looks like I missed a lot." 

"Yeah, you did." He eyes the shirt jacket for a while before talking. "Where's your dog?" 

Shelley shrugs off his rudeness. "He left." 

Esdras's face is showing all the disgust he's got for Jacob. "You smell like him." 

"Stop being mean." 

He scoffs and pulls out a chair, taking a seat. "How's your injury?" 

"It's all good. I don't even feel any pain." The blonde shrugs. She honestly doesn't feel anything anymore. 

He raises an eyebrow at her response. "Nothing?" 

She shakes her head. "Nothing." 

He opens his mouth to speak when the back door opens and Jacob emerges from it with a bag. "Oh! There he is." 

Jacob ignores him and places the bag on the table and takes out a box. "I brought you food." 

Since Esdras is not eating any human food, she takes a mental note that he just spoke to her. 

Esdras's jaw clenched in anger as he turns to Jacob with a death glare. "You kept her staving all this time?" 

Ignoring Esdras's existence, Jacob opens the box and pour the mac 'n' cheese into a plate and places it in front of her with a fork. 

"Both of you. Don't fight." Shelley says and inhales the sweet smell of the mac 'n' cheese plate as her mouth water. Her stomach is already full but it'll be a shame if she let Emily's delicious food go to waste. So she decides to find some space in her little tummy to store another bulk of food and starts to dig in when Esdras's phone begins to ring and he excuses himself. 

Jacob takes his place without a word and stares at her with a smile. "How's it?" 

"Delicious. You want some?" She asks him, knowing he hasn't taken breakfast yet. 

"Nah. I'm good." He says, pouring some water into a glass from the jug and taking a sip. 

A random question pops into her mind and she looks at Jacob from her plate. "Are you a virgin?" 

Jacob nearly chokes on the water. He sets the glass down as she pats his back. When he calms down, he looks at her incredulously. 

"What?" He asks, shocked. 

She only shrugs. "Is it a yes or a no?" 

"Yes, of course. I waited for you. What made you think I'm not?" 

"Nothing." The blonde says and continues to eat when Bella walks in with Edward. 

"Hey." Bella greets but pauses as she notices the mac 'n' cheese. She quickly grabs a fork and joins her and moans at the delightful taste of Emily's food. "This is perfect." 

"I know right." She says when Esdras rushes in with a hurry. His face is deadly serious and there's also a hint of worry in his eyes. 

"Shells." 

She places her fork on the plate, giving her full attention to him. "What is it?" 

"It's about your blood." He announces and everyone's eyes are glued to him. She raises an eyebrow and stares at him as if asking him to continue. He takes the signal and continues. "Carlisle found a difference in your blood. So he took a sample of your blood to test the difference during your time in the hospital. And the results showed that your blood is a little far from normal human blood." 

Her blood is far from normal human blood. What the hell does that mean? 

Knowing there's more, she inquires. "What do you mean?" 

"It's only been two days and the injury must still be raw and painful. But you said you don't feel any pain anymore, right?" Esdras questions her carefully. 

"Yes?" She replies, gently placing a hand above her bandage which is laying underneath two layers of clothes, having no idea where this conversation is leading. 

"It is because you're fully healed by now." Esdras asserts. 

"What?" 

"You're a Nymph, Shelley." Edward states, reading his brother's mind. 

Shelley discovers Jacob tensioning at it. But she dismisses it and darts back her attention to the twins. "What the hell is a Nymph?" 

"Your blood can heal any wound by itself." Edward responses. 

"Is that a bad thing?" Bella asks, curiously. 

"Vampires used to drink Nymph blood to bring human features back." Edward replies. 

"I mean, I don't mind donating a little blood for someone's happiness." She declares, not taking the thing very seriously. 

"A little blood won't make it work, Shells. No vampire in this world has been able to resist the blood of a Nymph. If you taste a little, you want more. It's like a drug. That is why Nymphs are very rare to be found. They were all killed by these filthy bloodsuckers." Jacob grits his teeth as his eyes throw stakes at the Cullen twins. 

Shelley veers her gaze from Jacob, who's trying his best to control his anger to the Cullen Twins. "If it is true, why didn't I realise this before?" 

"Nymphs are known to be kind, gentle, loving and enchanting creatures. Their genes normally start to kick at the age of 18 or after. I guess it makes sense." Esdras tells with rare emotions flowing all over his face. There's something more he's hiding. But the blonde decides to pass it for now. 

She bites her lips, trying to take in all the information concurrently. "So I am a target of the whole vampire community now?" 

Esdras sighs. "I'm afraid you're." 

Soon, Shelley finds herself in her bedroom with Bella and Jacob to check on the blonde's wound.

"I'm staying." Jacob says, not moving a muscle from his spot on her bed. But after hearing the whole Nymph situation, he's acting overprotective and it's annoying her.

"No, you're not." She crosses her arms over her chest. 

"What? It's not like I haven't seen anything before." He shrugs, laying on the bed. 

Bella gives the blonde a look. A look that says, 'what the hell did you do?' Great, she thinks that her little sister slept with Jacob. Charlie once gave a huge lecture about this subject for the twins. He thinks that every girl should wait until marriage. Bella is the first to agree with the concept. And there's Shelley, who does respect it as one cannot just screw around with virginity, right? It's something every girl brings from birth that makes them pure. Untouched. If one loses it once, they'll lose it forever… And it is a must at least wait until the right guy. Yes, that's the thing. Shelley honestly sometimes doubts if Jacob is the right guy even though they're connected with a bond. He can mess everything up so quickly and turn into a big disaster. This guy really needs to work hard on stuff. Especially when it comes to her. 

"I swear, it's not what it sounds like." She defends herself, not forgetting to shoot a glare at Jacob, who grins back. 

"Whatever." Bella says. 

"Jake, can you wait outside with Eddie and Ezra?" The blonde asks him with a pleading look. "Please?" 

He sighs giving up. "Fine. Just shout my name if something goes wrong." 

Even though she has an urge to roll her eyes at his overprotective ass, Shelley decides to pull him into a deep kiss. 

He pulls away breathlessly and stares at her. "What was that for?" 

She smiles at the response and decides to pull a joke on him. "That was for listening to me." 

He smirks. "I should listen to you more often." 

"You should… Jakey." She pats on his back before he pecks on her lips once again and leaves. 

Bella closes the door and locks it, not trusting Jacob. It takes her everything to not laugh. "Ready?" 

"Yeah?" She nods and begins to take off Jacob's shirt jacket, her shirt dress to leave me with her undergarments. Well, there's no bra though. 

Bella helps her to take off the bandage carefully and slowly. Her hands are shaking. She's nervous. As Bella fully takes it off, the blonde looks at the mirror to see the reflection of her injury used to be. No sign of an injury other than a faint scar. 

"It is fully healed." Bella confirms. 

"Great." The blonde mutters, knowing she's officially a vampire magnet now.