Bella can't get in touch with her new fix... for 8 pages. Yes, it adds to the dramatic tension if Jacob is offscreen and Bella doesn't know why. It's not really dramatic irony because while I don't think we're meant to know he's transforming into a werewolf, given all the hype and setup it'd be tough not to figure this out.
Jacob is sick.
Jacob has mono.
Jacob isn't there.
Billy runs the gamut of excuses, then stops taking Bella's calls altogether.
Finally, Bella decides to do some meadow searching without Jacob. She's jonsing for a fix and without either monster-man in her life there's only so many dangerous activities left. She can't go motorcycling anymore, it's too safe.
When she reaches the meadow, there's no magic. No hallucination. No sparkles. It's a dramatic moment of loss and despair, and I actually liked it. What Bella does find there is Laurent, who doesn't sparkle (cloudy day) and who is equally surprised to see Bella. They begin a conversation in which Laurent is trying to get information from Bella while she slowly realizes just how dangerous her situation is. Making it worse is fake-Edward in her head giving her (generally awful) advice all the while. Aside from that, Laurent plays a smooth game of cat and mouse with Bella and ends up revealing quite a bit:
- He's been to Alaska and Denali.
- He has been with Tanya and her sister Irina
- He "cheats", that is he eats people.
- Victoria is looking for Bella to avenge Jame's death.
- Laurent is working for Victoria as a scout
Before Laurent can hurt Bella, five werewolves appear out of the woods. They're described as common looking wolves scaled up to bear-size. With all the clues we've had so far, I'm not sure how anyone doesn't know what these are. There are 5, which makes Sam's pack (spoiler) one larger to include the recently-converted Jacob (spoiler). So according to my list from back at the cliff-dive, that's Sam, Jacob, Embry, Paul and Jared. The werewolves chase Laurent away, and Bella is terrified and confused.
I'm willing to let this slide for a short bit given her acceptably hysterical condition, but honestly, Bella, you've accepted vampires into your reality and Jacob spelled this out last year. Even Edward gave you a pretty solid confirmation during the car ride back from Port Angeles when he marveled at the tribe's extraordinary century-long memory. Those are werewolves. You dated a Wahmpire and were chased by Vampires. You know for a fact that Vampires will kill a bear single-handed and eat it. You don't have to expect fairies and goblins, but they're BEAR-SIZED Wolves that all but dismissed you as a meal/threat and chased away a Vampire and likely killed it. The moment a Vampire flees from a giant wolf, assume "wolf" is now just a descriptive term. When you finally meet Edward again, demand he spell out whatever other supernatural creatures exist so you have a handy checklist.
So Bella flees and gets lost in the woods and finally makes her way home. There she tells Charlie about the wolves and goes to bed terrified that Laurent is going to pounce her at any moment.
There's a big issue here. Bella tries desperately to imagine that the (were)wolves could have been able to kill Laurent, sparing her from being hunted down by Victoria and or Laurent, but she can't. She can't imagine that Laurent isn't still out there and won't kill her personally or report here whereabouts to Victoria. But what, exactly, is Laurent going to report? Bella is living in the same place she was living before? Same house. Same room. Maybe she moved the furniture around. How is Victoria not a risk even if Laurent is killed? Wouldn't Victoria start by looking for Bella there, especially if Laurent disappeared while scouting the area? Bella ignores what she personally witnessed, five monstrous wolves chasing an obviously terrified -vampire- into the woods as if it makes any difference. Ugh.
SumUp C+
Laurent's verbal undressing of Bella in the meadow was sweet, sweet nectar. He was intelligent, inhuman, detatched, aware and destroyed Bella's feeble mental defenses. Steinbeck's belt-buckle, that was wonderful stuff. The natural descriptions were vivid the werewolves are bestowed hair and teeth and claws in the correct abundance and they feel like a valid threat.
Bella, however, once again undermines the whole operation. The broken but outgoing and determined Ms Swan of the last few chapters is again reduced to helpless damsel, now haunted by the obviously dead Laurent, Victoria and a pack of giant Wolves. This is our protagonist, ladies and gents, the ever at risk Bella M Swan and her amazing powers of getting others to protect her.
As for the new mystery, Bella seems to be waiting for someone to (again) spell it out to her. We, however, can start to put some puzzle pieces into place. Victoria is going to return to kill Bella. This actually answers our "Do Vampires Have Sex" question a bit, they at least pair off heterosexually as "mates", whatever that may involve. In any case, Victoria has returned, Laurent is (presumably) now dead and the Werewolves are defending Forks & Bella from her attack. So it seems like the last piece Bella needs is labeled "Werewolf".
As for me & my Edward theories, I have a new piece, too. I suspect Victoria might use Bella in the same way James did, as bait. It would be an awfully similar premise to the first book, but that hasn't stopped Ms Meyer yet. The other option is the Romeo and Juliet ending, which I'm dreading. If Edward thinks Bella is actually dead because Victoria tricks him, then that whole scene about the Voltari and Edward's suicidal tendencies comes into play.
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