CHAPTER 7
THE COLD ONE

"IT'S just a story," Jacob Black had said.

Margo hadn't been able to get her conversation with Jacob off her mind. The next few days after La Push were a blur, involving Margo either studying for her big English exam or thinking about the "scary story" Jacob had told her. She was losing sleep. Her brain, Courtney, wasn't allowing her to. She had to figure out the problem surrounding her little town. If she didn't, Margo was sure she was going to go insane. Not knowing the answer to something was her biggest pet peeve, and Margo had to know everything. The legend Jacob had told her didn't seem like such a "stupid, scary story," and if it was, then why did his ancestors hold it in such high regard? Margo was determined to find out the meaning behind it.

She held her steering wheel firmly as she drove to her house. The sun had just set, and she was only now leaving school. She agreed to help out the Drama club with decorating the theater for their big production of Beauty and the Beast. She helped string up lights and fake candles around the theater, and tape paper roses to the walls.

Margo ran a hand over her face, but when she looked up at the road again, she noticed flashing lights at the Forks Police Department. Usually, that would never alarm her, seeing as the cruisers were at the police department. But as Margo stepped on her brakes just a bit, she spotted her aunt's truck parked beside the flashing cruisers. "What?" Margo's eyes went wide, and she immediately turned into the parking lot of the police department.

A million thoughts ran through Margo's head. She thought the worst, of course, even though it physically pained her to think about it. She hoped to god that her aunt was alright. She didn't know what she was do without her. If she was gone – oh, shit, Margo wasn't going to think about that as she jumped out of her van. It was hard not to think these thoughts though, especially with the odd circumstances that had been surrounding Forks as of late.

Margo approached the small, dimly lit building quickly. As she sprinted inside the entrance, she glanced over her shoulder to see – weirdly enough – Edward Cullen's car pull up. Margo swallowed hard as she ran to the secretary desk, asking, "Um – hi, is Jenny Fowler here?"

The secretary held a phone to her ear as she pointed to Margo's left, and when she turned around, she spotted her aunt walking down the department's hallway of offices with Doctor Cullen by her side. Jenny fast-walked towards her niece, almost caught off guard when Margo wrapped her arms around her. "Shit, Jenny," Margo muttered. "I saw your car here and I – well, I just suspected the worst."

Jenny leaned back, smiling softly towards the niece. She squished her cheeks together and ordered, "Hey, no swearing." This caused a quiet laughter to emerge from both their mouths. "Why are you driving during the night?"

"I was getting back from school late. I helped out the Drama club." Margo glanced towards Jenny's coworker next to her, Doctor Carlisle Cullen. "Nice to see you, Doctor Cullen."

"Please, call me Carlisle." He said, shaking Margo's hand and patting them together. His smile was bright and even.

Margo looked back at the array of cruisers outside with blinking lights. She also saw Edward Cullen and Bella Swan standing idly for Carlisle outside, and Margo lofted a brow. She turned to ask the two adults, "What's going on here? I thought you'd be home by now, Jenny."

"Waylon Forge was found out in a boat near his place," Carlisle explained. "We just examined his body."

Jenny nodded to her coworker's statement. "He had wounds covering his neck, shoulders, and wrists. Nothing on the rest of his body."

"What?" Margo blinked rapidly. "Isn't this, like, the third body found in weeks?"

"Essentially, yes. Between our hours at the hospital and these weekly investigations, your aunt and I have been held up more than usual." Carlisle replied, looking to Jenny, who seemed like she would start drooling any minute. Margo couldn't blame her, especially when she looked into Carlisle's warm, honey-colored eyes. "We believe this one, like the others, was animal attack."

Margo rubbed at her eyes. "Do you think this is the same animal from the other attacks?" She asked, which caused Carlisle and Jenny to nod. "Don't you think we should –"

"Hey, hey," Jenny shushed her, placing her hands on her shoulders. "What we should do is get back home. It's been a long day."

Margo nodded slowly. Jenny turned to Carlisle as he thanked her for her exceptional work today. Margo waved goodbye to Doctor Cullen as they headed out the door, but when she looked at him, she saw something different. Carlisle only gave her a curt nod, but just from that action, Margo saw everything. He had to know something, or at least think the same as Margo: that these issues weren't animal attacks, but perhaps something worse. Was there a masked murderer roaming around Forks? Or could the animals be the shape-shifting wolves from Jacob's legend. Margo didn't know, but she would soon.

•••

Margo needed sleep that night more than ever. She had her big English exam on Orlando tomorrow, and yet here she was, tossing in her sleep every five minutes. Her brain wouldn't rest, when that was all she needed at the moment. Finally, Margo sat up and held her face in her hands. The room was eerily quiet as she rubbed at her closed lids.

She checked the time on her phone: one AM. She also received a text from Jacob Black. Margo almost forgot she'd given him her number before they left La Push so they could hang out again. She didn't know what he had in mind – either a date, or just hanging out as friends – but Margo enjoyed Jacob's presence, so she didn't mind at all. She'd answer him in the morning. With a sigh, Margo grabbed her laptop from her desk next to her bed and slid it onto her comforter.

Plucking her glasses from the desk, Margo slid the pair up on her nose. She usually wore them to read her laptop screen or watch TV, even though they were meant for all reading. Margo didn't like wearing them in public, thinking them to give her the stereotypical "nerd look," and she did not want that.

Her laptop was already opened to Google when she turned it on. Margo's fingers tapped on her leg anxiously before she typed into the search engine: Quileute treaty.

Instantly, a few links popped up. Margo clicked on the first one, which redirected her to a website on Quileute legends. This one, specifically, was on the Treaty of the Tribe and the Cold Ones. Margo scrolled down the page, squinting her eyes at the small text before her. She pushed her glasses up her nose when they began to slide down.

The cold ones had trespassed onto Quileute lands in the past, and were therefore passed off as an enemy to the Quileute wolves. In 1936, cold ones again entered the Quileute land. They were different from the vampires who had come before. Their coven was larger and the eyes were golden, rather than red. The leader somehow knew that the wolves had human intelligence. He told the wolves that they meant no harm to them, the Quileute tribe, or any other humans. He offered a treaty between his coven and the werewolves. The three werewolves in the pack were outnumbered, so the vampire leader had no need to make this offer. For this reason, Alpha wolf, Ephraim Black, believed he was making a genuine offer. Ephraim insisted on two main points to the treaty: the vampires could not injure any humans (either by hunting them for food or by transforming them into vampires, as the Quileutes viewed this transformation equal to murder), and the vampires were never to trespass on Quileute land. The cold ones agreed to these terms and proposed adding the concept of mutual secrecy: the Quileutes would not be able to tell anyone the true nature of the them, and vice-versa. Ephraim agreed, and they worked out boundary lines for their respective lands. As the years pass, younger members of the Quileute tribe begin to think of the treaty between the cold ones and the werewolves as part of a legend, not factual truth.

Margo closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again to read over the last sentence. She leaned forward, resting her chin in her palm. Margo hit the back button on her browser and thought over the legend again, contrasting it from Jacob's short version of the story. She swallowed down the lump in her throat before searching: the cold ones. Another set of links, and she clicked on the first one, her sleep-deprived brain thinking it to be the most reliable.

The Cold One is a relative term to the Apotamkin. This creature is unlike most from vampire folklore because it's exclusive to the Native American people. The Apotamkin was a genuine vampire, however it held all the abilities and super strengths of other vampires throughout history. It was believed among Native Americans that the Apotamkin would feast on the blood of any animal or human. It got its name just the way you would expect – Apotamkins were very cold to the touch, due to them being, physically, dead bodies. Like most vampires, sometimes they are fast and they have incredible strength. Although, it has been said that the Native American people never really believed in the Apotamkin, and that it was a cautionary tale told to children. This was used especially when warning children about wandering off by themselves with no supervision.

"You've got to be kidding me," Margo whispered to herself. She shut her laptop and put it back on her desk, along with her glasses. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "What am I doing?"

Margo's mind wandered recklessly as her head hit her pillow once again. Jacob said the Cullens might've descended from the cold one's clan, but was that true? And if it was, did that descent make them part of the cold ones. She shook her head and groaned.

The coven's eyes from the legend had a golden hue, rather than red. Margo had looked into the Cullens' eyes from time to time, seeing nothing but a subtle gold. Apotamkins were very cold to the touch, one website said. Margo remembered back to her first day of junior year, the only day she was Edward's biology partner. She remembered when her fingers faintly touched his as they passed each other vials during an experiment. She felt a shock, almost a weird shiver when their skins had touched. It felt like she had touched ice with her bare hands, but she quickly dismissed it.

"It was so weird," Jessica had said weeks ago in their English class. She was explaining the Tyler's accident for everyone to hear, though there were only a few people in the room. "I didn't see him anywhere near Bella's car, but maybe he was just a fast runner. He saved her though, somehow. I don't know. When I looked at Tyler's van, there was this, like, big dent in it. Like someone had pushed on it with their hands, but I assume it was just from hitting Bella's truck. Who knows?"

Margo's eyes opened then. Like most vampires, sometimes they are fast and they have incredible strength. No, she was not thinking what she thought she was thinking. Oh, but she was, and suddenly, the assumption wouldn't leave her brain. It couldn't be. Or it could. I mean, she really didn't doubt any weird theories anymore, especially with the current dead body count her town suddenly had. Maybe it was true; maybe it wasn't.

Margo released a breath of relief, and for the first time in days, she slept soundly.

•••

"You think the Cullens might be vampires?"

Margo shushed Melinda loudly. They left their math class together to talk in the bathroom, because Margo kept annoying Melinda that she really needed to tell her something. The bathroom on the second floor was empty, and Margo made sure to check, but inevitability that someone could hear them scared her. She didn't care that no one was near them; they had to talk in low voices.

"The evidence is all there, Mel," Margo whispered. "They have gold eyes. They're cold to the touch. They're fast and have better strength than any of us. Bella's friend from La Push, Jacob Black, even told me that their family is descended from this 'enemy clan' that are called the cold ones, which are vampires."

Melinda blinked. "So you think, just because some cute Quileute boy told you a legend that kinda connects to the Cullens, that must mean they're related to Dracula."

Margo shook her head. "No, no, it's just –" She sighed. "I found all the research last night. Why is this so hard to accept?"

"Because you clicked on the first link on Google, Mar, and you thought that was reliable." Melinda replied with a narrowed gaze. "You're smart enough to know that if you're gonna research something, Google – of all places – isn't where to look. And I highly doubt you're gonna find any scholarly research articles on 'the cold ones.'"

Margo's mouth fell open. When she really thought about it, Melinda did have a point. Margo was tired during her late night research at one AM. She didn't think that out of all search engines, she used Google. Jacob had said that the legend was just a scary story, but when all the articles she read fell into place with that, she guessed she just became ... gullible. She really had thought that the Cullens were vampires.

"Shit," Margo muttered, slapping a hand on her forehead. "You're right."

"I know I'm right."

Margo glared at Melinda for a moment. "That still doesn't explain why there's been so many weird things happening around Forks lately. My aunt just examined a third dead body in the time span of a month. That's not normal."

"It's not your problem to find out everything, Mar," Melinda said, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "For once, chill out."