Chapter Twelve: Le Morte d'Laurent

Bella makes the very difficult decision to warn her best friend that he might get shot, even though that might make him continue killing people, thereby making a half-dozen assumptions that will all be proven wrong by the end of this chapter. She heads over to Jacob's place, where he's still asleep -- being a werewolf is apparently both time consuming and exhausting. She waits for him at the beach, and he soon joins.

Jacob isn't surprised that Bella's figured out he's a werewolf, but it takes him a while to figure out all the things she's gotten wrong. Bella has some wrongheaded ideas that make Jacob think she's a hypocrite for loving sparklepires and hating werewolves. Bella thinks the pack is doing all the killings; Jacob explains that they're not. Bella thinks he's worried about the hunters (including her dad) because a) they might shoot him and b) the wolves might eat them, and is wrong on both counts; it's because something else might get them first.

It turns out that Bella actually doesn't have any problems with werewolves. She's a progressive girl in this crazy mythological world, and doesn't hold any prejudices against vampires, werewolves, or even zombies, though she has no reason to believe they exist yet (I expect one to show up in the third book in the series, Eclipse, as a teenage male zombie who is nearly perfect in every way and manages to control his need for eating human flesh). She just hated that her friend was eating people, and since he isn't, it's all good.

But if they're not eating hikers and tourists, then who is? It is, of course, what the werewolves were born to fight -- a vampire. Bella assumes Laurent is still out there.

Stupid, stupid Bella.

Of course, Jacob's pack chased down Laurent and kicked his ass. As Jacob puts it, one vampire isn't even close to a challenge for a pack of wolves that rolls five deep. Werewolves exist and are specifically made to kill vampires. It's what they do.

So naturally, Bella doesn't get it. How could one of her precious sparklepires, even an evil one that wanted to eat her, be killed by anything? It simply cannot be! Sure, she's never even seen a werewolf in action, and her only time seeing the two in one place ended with the vampire running as fast as possible in the opposite direction, but sparklepires are invincible!

Look Bella, I know you're in love with Edward and think he's the most perfect thing that ever did sparkle, but is it that hard to believe that a werewolf might maybe be impossibly strong and fast too? They're not supposed to exist either. They're freaking people who turn into giant wolves! You might want to give them a little credit for that. Even if you think vampires are stronger, is it that hard to believe that multiple werewolves could work together to kill a vampire? I don't get what's so hard about this for her, but this isn't just her initial reaction -- every time Jacob and his pack are possibly going to encounter a vampire, she's worried about him, or thinks that the vampire(s) could easily kill them. Giant shapeshifting wolves, Bella, come on!

Jacob finally feels like he can explain why he can't be around Bella. I was disappointed to read that it wasn't because Jacob couldn't stand her anymore. No, Jacob's real concern was that he might flip out, end up in wolf mode, and kill her. I'm not seeing the downside, but okay.

Bella then realizes she knows who must be killing people in the area now -- it's Victoria, still looking to avenge James' death. Remember him, from way back in last book? Yeah, I don't really care anymore either. She's trying to evade the werewolves, with some success. Bella is scared, but even more afraid of Jacob running into Victoria while trying to protect her. Geez, Bella, enough with the anti-werewolf sentiment! They already killed one vampire seconds before he was going to eat you, what else do they have to do?

Jacob explains that the werewolf pack has a special power: they can all read each others thoughts at all times. Bella mentions that Edward had that power too. But more importantly, every time Edward's name comes up, Bella feels the need to grab her hole. Yeah, insert your own joke there -- it pretty much writes itself. Also, Sam being the Alpha wolf gives him even more power; if he makes a command, the rest of the pack is compelled to follow it. That was some useful exposition, thanks Jake!

After being chatty for a few more pages, including a few more Edward mentions that have Bella playing with her hole (you and your dirty mind, stop it!), Jacob takes Bella to meet the rest of the pack. At the end of the chapter, Jacob sarcastically asks "who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?"

According to Bella: not a sparklepire, that's for sure. Laurent probably just let them win to be nice.