New Moon

Another week goes by with no call from Jacob. Each morning, Bella awakens, surprised that she and her dad are still alive. Her jumpiness worries Charlie; he concludes it’s because she misses Jacob. Bella wants to go to La Push but fears she’ll draw the vampires to the reservation. If she stays home and Victoria finds her, maybe the vampire will be satisfied with killing her and will spare Charlie.

It strikes Bella that Jacob must have been pulled into Sam Uley’s cult. If Laurent and Victoria haven’t killed her by now, she’s not a priority. Finding Jacob and trying to help save him is worth the risk. She drives to his house and parks, waiting. Shortly, he’s at her window, asking why she’s there. He’s bigger than ever, his face older, his hair close-cropped. His eyes are angry.

Behind him are other large, powerful, angry-looking boys, watched over by Sam. Suddenly, Bella wishes she were a vampire so she could scare them. She tells Jacob she wants to speak to him alone. Sam says something in Quileute, and he and the other boys go into the house.

Bella and Jacob walk to the woods. He tells her his father and Sam were right, and things have changed for him and the other boys. Jacob insists he’s not a good person anymore. She begs him to tell her what’s happening; he hints that it has something to do with the Cullens but won’t say more. He hurries back to his house.

She drives away, feeling a second hole open next to the one she feels in her chest for Edward. At home, she tells Charlie what happened; he gets on the phone to Billy, and they argue. Bella overhears him angrily denying that Bella would lead Jacob on. She realizes that Billy is covering up something much bigger than she thought.

That night, Bella dreams that Jacob slowly turns into a vampire.

Something scratches at her window. She looks out and sees a looming shape. She fears it’s Victoria, but it’s Jacob, hanging from a tree limb, its branches scraping against the house. He swings and launches himself through her window. He lands with a thud; they wait, but Charlie keeps snoring in the next room.

Bella tells him to leave, but he says he’s there to apologize. Dog-tired, Bella flops back onto the bed. Jacob sits with her and says he wants to keep his promise about not hurting her, but he’s caught with a secret he must protect. He says, though, that she already knows everything because he already told her and that if she figures it out, he won’t have betrayed the secret. He reminds her of the day they met when they walked on the beach, and he told her stories about the Quileutes and vampires.

Jacob asks her to contact him when she figures it out. He hugs her, then sneaks down the stairs and leaves. Bella goes back to sleep and dreams that Jacob turns into a giant wolf, the one that stared at her in the meadow. She awakes screaming, as always, but now she knows that Jacob is some sort of werewolf. Thus, she’s had two close friends who are mythical creatures.

She rushes downstairs on her way to see Jacob, but her father stops her and says another visitor’s been killed, and hunters are preparing to search for the wolves responsible. He leaves to help them. Bella sits, wondering if she should warn Jacob or if Sam’s pack members are cold-blooded killers.

Before dawn, Bella arrives at Jacob’s house and pounds on the door. Billy lets her in. She demands to talk to Jacob, to warn him about the hunters, but Jacob is snoring away in his room, so she drives down to the beach to wait. She finds the old driftwood log where she and Jacob first sat and talked a year earlier.

Jacob shows up, and they argue until he makes it clear the wolves aren’t killing visitors but trying to protect them from vampires. He says they killed the “black-haired leech” from the meadow before he could kill her (310). She realizes with great relief that Laurent thus is no longer hunting her. The killings have continued, though, which means Victoria is still there. Terror strikes her anew, and she nearly throws up from fear.

Jacob confirms that a red-headed vampire has avoided the wolves but keeps trying to enter the region. He asks if Bella knows what Victoria is trying to find; Bella answers, “She wants me” (314). Bella explains Victoria’s quest for revenge. He disappears, then returns, saying that, in wolf form, the pack can hear each other’s thoughts, so he changed briefly into a wolf and called for a pack conference so Bella can tell her story.

They drive to the spot where they practiced with motorcycles. Jacob admits they won’t like that he’s brought an outsider, but Bella’s knowledge of vampires will help them hunt Victoria.

The pack of tall boys, along with Sam, emerge from the trees. Immediately, they’re angry that Jacob has brought an outsider. One of the boys, Paul, berates Jacob; his anger overwhelms him, and he bursts into a huge wolf with silver fur. Jacob leaps up, transforms instantly into the russet wolf Bella remembers from the meadow, and fights Paul. They snarl and snap, but Jacob, bigger, butts Paul back into the forest. Sam orders the other boys to take Bella to his fiancée Emily’s house; he kicks off his shoes and runs after the fighters. The noise in the forest quickly stops.

The other boys joke about the shredded clothes left by Jacob and Paul; they make bets on which fighter will leave a mark. Bella looks faint, so Embry drives, and Jared hops in the truck bed. They drive to Emily’s; she’s cooking breakfast. The right side of her otherwise beautiful face is scarred by three red gashes from an accident involving the wolves. She hands Bella a muffin. Sam enters and gives Emily a long, loving kiss. Jacob and Paul walk in, kidding each other like they hadn’t fought at all.

Jacob says Victoria is hunting Bella. The group immediately alters its strategy to leave holes in its patrol of the region, gaps that might lure Victoria into a trap. Bella agrees to spend as much time as possible in La Push.

Bella spends the day at Jacob’s house. Charlie, unaware he’s been invited to dinner to protect him from Victoria, brings pizzas. Later, he and Bella caravan home. That night, she dreams of the werewolves.

Over spring break, Bella spends a lot of time at La Push. When not on patrol, Jacob spends time with her. He explains his super-warm skin is because werewolves run hot, 108 degrees Fahrenheit or so. Their wounds heal very quickly. Quil soon will transform; usually, anger sets off the first change. Jacob was happy about Bella, so his change took longer.

Bella spends time sitting with Billy, but he’s pretty quiet. She visits Emily one afternoon and enjoys her company, but she leaves after Sam arrives, and their loving contentment reminds Bella of what she lost. Often, she goes to the beach and paces, thinking about the complications in her life and feeling in her chest the emotional hole that never heals.

Jacob finds her curled up on the beach, pulls her to her feet, and says she needs some fun and that he’ll honor his promise to take her cliff diving the next day. Bella hasn’t heard Edward in her mind in some time, so she agrees, hoping the fear will make his voice return.

When she arrives the next morning, Jacob is off with the pack chasing a new vampire scent. Bella walks down to the beach. The weather is cloudy but warm; a storm is coming. Bella strains against the ongoing agony of missing Edward. Desperate to hear his voice again and wracked by guilt because Jacob is out risking his life to protect her, she finds her way to the cliff edge where the wolf boys had jumped off. Edward’s voice pleads with her not to jump. She thinks, “You wanted me to be human […]. Well, watch me” (358). She jumps.

Falling, she feels no fear, only exhilaration. She hits the water—it’s very cold—and for a moment, thinks it’s all too easy. Then a powerful underwater current sweeps her away. In the dark water, she doesn’t know which way is up. She thinks she’s going to drown. Edward’s voice urges her to keep swimming, but her arms and legs grow numb in the cold, and soon they’re spent. Edward’s voice, angry, urges her on, but she doesn’t care. She remembers his face perfectly, and his voice gives her peace. She’s happy to die now.

The current slams her against a rock, pushing the air out of her. Water chokes her. She thinks, “Goodbye, I love you” (362).

Bella’s head breaks the surface. The waves push her against some rocks, slamming her over and over. Water gushes from her lungs. A voice yells, “Breathe!” It’s Jacob; the rocks are his hands pushing the water from her lungs. She’s lying on the beach; her lungs hurt. Sam stands nearby.

Jacob picks her up and carries her back from the beach. She looks back and sees something red bobbing in the ocean. Jacob berates her for jumping when he’s not there; he tells her to do “stupid” things only when he’s nearby. As he carries her, he reports that the pack chased Victoria into the ocean, which brought him back home, where he followed her truck’s tracks to the cliff and pulled her from the water. He also says Harry Clearwater had a heart attack; Charlie and Billy are at the hospital.

At his house, Jacob sets her on the couch and commands her not to go anywhere while he gets her some dry clothes. He returns with some oversized duds, sits on the floor next to her, and they both fall asleep.

She dreams of random things—her mom, a quilt, a flame on the ocean, Juliet on her balcony—then wakes, wondering what Juliet would have done if Romeo had left her. Would she ever have gotten over it? Would she have married Paris? What if Paris were her best friend? Maybe she would have loved him, not as much as she loved Romeo, but enough to marry him. She decides it would never happen: “‘Juliet gets dumped and ends up with Paris’ would have never been a hit” (371).

Bella begins to regret her rash cliff jump. Given Harry’s illness, not to mention what would happen to Charlie if Bella died recklessly, she feels guilty and irresponsible. Billy arrives with sad news: Harry didn’t make it. Bella feels terrible for Billy.

Jacob drives Bella home in her truck. He parks it and holds her close. Bella decides that, though it’s a pale echo of the love she feels for Edward, she owes it to Jacob to give what feeling she has to him. She’s about to kiss him when she hears Edward’s voice saying, “Be happy.” It stuns her.

Just then, Jacob senses the presence of a vampire. He guns the engine and turns the truck around to drive Bella away from the danger. Bella sees a black car parked on the street. She cries, “Stop!” It’s one of Carlisle’s. Astounded and hurt that she wants to visit with a vampire, Jacob exits the car. He’s on their territory and must leave; he dashes into the woods.

Alice returns to her house. Opening the door, she realizes the flame on the water was red-haired Victoria, swimming toward her. She walks inside and finds a visitor.

The visitor is Alice. Bella hugs her joyfully. In her visions of the future, Alice had seen Bella jump from the cliff. She returned to Forks thinking she’d be helping Charlie deal with Bella’s death, but instead, she’s alive. She assumes Bella was committing suicide, but Bella assures her it was just a stupid idea, and she hadn’t considered that the water might be more turbulent than she could handle.

Alice sniffs Bella’s shoulder and says, “You smell awful” (387). Bella explains that her friend is a werewolf, and they rise up when vampires are nearby. Alice clucks at her, saying she’s courting yet more trouble by hanging out with dangerous creatures. Alice warned Edward that bad things would happen.

Bella defends Jacob, explaining that he and his fellows saved her from Laurent and Victoria. She brings Alice up to date on recent events. Alice agrees to watch over her, but first, she must hunt. She’s back quickly, her eyes again dark gold.

Charlie returns, saddened by the loss of his good friend. He’s glad to see Alice, a dear friend. She’ll help him by keeping Bella company while he works on Harry’s funeral arrangements. Bella and Alice sit on the couch, and Bella promptly falls asleep on Alice’s shoulder. She wakes early the next morning and overhears Charlie telling Alice about Bella’s struggles after Edward left her and how much Jacob’s friendship has helped her mood. He doubts, though, that Bella will ever get over the loss.

After Charlie leaves, Alice catches Bella up on the Cullen family. They’ve moved to Ithaca, New York; Carlisle teaches at Cornell, and Jasper is there, too, studying philosophy. Emmet and Rosalie are in Europe. Alice learned more about her past, including her death certificate and grave marker, which have the same date as her admission to the insane asylum where her parents sent her. She also had a sister whose daughter now lives in Biloxi.

The next morning, Charlie leaves for the funeral. A while later, the doorbell rings. Alice, who can’t see werewolves when she sees the future, guesses it’s Jacob. She says, “It wouln’t be a good idea to have me and Jacob Black in a room together” (403), gives Bella a kiss on the cheek, and disappears out a window.

Jacob hates the smell of vampires around Bella’s house. Bella assures him that Alice isn’t inside; they go to the kitchen, where Jacob gruffly asks if Alice will be there for a while. Bella, defiant, says Alice has an indefinite invitation. Jacob warns that he can’t protect her on Cullen territory if Alice is there. He asks if the Cullens will return; Bella says no. He walks out. Bella feels terrible that she and Jacob have grown apart so quickly.

She puts her face in her hands. Jacob walks back; she looks up, tears on her cheeks. He apologizes for again breaking his promise not to hurt her. She takes the blame but wonders why she can’t be friends with both him and Alice. Jacob seriously doubts if that would work. Bella leans against his chest, saying, “This sucks.”

Jacob also doesn’t like Alice’s smell on Bella: It’s “sickly sweet.” Bella says Alice didn’t like his smell on her, either. Jacob says he’ll miss her; he bends down to kiss her, but the phone rings. Jacob picks it up; it’s Dr. Cullen, asking about Charlie; Jacob says curtly that Charlie is at the funeral, then hangs up. Bella protests, but Jacob suddenly goes on alert: It’s Alice, standing at the food of the stairs, looking deeply troubled. Bella goes to her. Alice says, “Edward.” Bella wobbles; Jacob puts her on the couch and demands to know what Alice did to her. Alice briefly talks him down, then calls home and learns that Rosalie told Edward about Alice’s vision of Bella on the cliff and that Bella killed herself.

Bella says that Carlisle just called; Jacob says he told him that Charlie was at the funeral. Alice, horrified, says that it wasn’t Carlisle but Edward. The call effectively confirmed in Edward’s mind that Bella is dead. Alice says Edward will go to Italy, where he’ll irritate the Volturi into killing him. If they hesitate, out of respect for Carlisle, Edward will try something public and dramatic, and they’ll have to hurry up the execution. There might be time to stop him if she hurries.

Bella insists on going with Alice. She grabs her things upstairs and hurries back to find Alice and Jacob snarling, accusing each other of putting Bella in danger. Bella shouts, “Stop that!” They all walk outside. Alice starts her car; tears flowing, Bella hugs Jacob, kisses his hand, and then runs for the car.