My beating heart

Chapter 4 - Unexplained

I stood there like a fool, watching my brother. Lukas looked at me strangely, wondering if he got the wrong person. But as he glanced over my features he knew he had found his sister.

"You look…human. That's new." He laughed and pulled me into a tight hug. I looked at my brother. It had been so long. He still had the same black skin, the same, red eyes, and the same black hair. But did I really expect him to change?

"What? No welcome home, Lukas?" then he looked at Kyle. Kyle growled and Lukas swung me behind him, tense to fight. Was I ever going to have a day where no one was going to fight anyone? As I thought I figured that wasn't going to happen.

Skylar stepped in between them both, facing Lukas. Skylar looked over Lukas, not seeming to be able to connect the dots.

"Your brother is…" Skylar began.

"Black. Yes, I'm black. Good job figuring that out captain obvious." Lukas's tone was playful; he was just like a brother should be. Only he ditched me as did the rest of my family.

"And you're the reason Claire is not with us anymore."

Skylar grinned. "Yeah I wish you would have told me what a handful she is. Maybe I wouldn't have followed her." Skylar winked at me and smiled at Lukas. Well at least they were getting along.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked, stepping back over to Jason's arms. He didn't like me being in a vampire's perimeter with the way I smelled.

Lukas looked from Jason to me, ignoring my question. "Got yourself another one?"

Jason growled.

"Relax, dude." He sounded almost Australian. "As long as you hate Cody too, you're alright by me. As long as you don't break her heart too." Yes, Skylar was my closest brother, but not even he could fill the role Lukas was, and he had only been here for 3 minutes. I hadn't realized how much I missed my brother.

"To answer your question, mom and Lindsay are still in France. Dad went AWOL about 130 years ago. He was getting too frustrated with you leaving with…Skylar, right?"

Skylar nodded.

"So I get you all to myself." Lukas picked me up and swung me over his shoulder. I knew it was no use trying to fight it, but I hated this position, even when I was human a while back.

"Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Nick asked, growing really impatient. Lukas sat me down on the sand.

"I was just visiting my little sister. But if you want me gone…" he shrugged and looked at me.

We spent another hour talking about my old life. We told everyone how I changed my whole family in grief from Cody and we spent our lives together. But when Skylar came along I wanted to go with him, but my family wanted nothing to do with another boy. I told them how he was different, but they still didn't believe me.

"Then I watched my family ditch me as I stayed by Skylar' side the whole time. And the rest is what I made after they were gone." I finished, sitting on Jason's lap. He still didn't seem to like Lukas, but I knew he made an attempt to be nice.

"It killed mom to see her stay from some human, but we had to go." Lukas said. I think he figured out that Jason didn't like him because he always followed him around. Right now he was sitting right next to him.

"You guys didn't have to leave." I pointed out, playing with his short black hair.

"True, but wait until I tell mom that you're human and you're with some mutt hybrid." Lukas said, taking my hand and putting it with Jason's.

Then Lukas leaned next to my ear. "So…have you yet?" he did that funny eyebrow thing that made me know what he was talking about.

"Lukas!" I shouted, slapping his face. He didn't even flinch. "That is my personal life. But no." I said a little slower. Skylar was trying not to laugh, Nick was already rolling on the ground with Ben, Taylor had her head turned away, but she was shaking, and Angel…well I didn't really know what she was doing.

"No? Wow that's a shock." Lukas winked at me. I was already mad at him, now I was just plain pissed. He tried to look innocent at my glare.

"So who are the Cullens?"

"How did you know about that?" Angel asked, after she stopped laughing.

"Oh it's just the family Claire lived with for a while before Skylar. Her best friend killed her sister and she hated him, but she's cool with him now. She made some new friends with two wolf packs and a half human half vampire."

Lukas's jaw dropped. "That's…that's really something. Jeez your life is exciting isn't it?" I didn't want to answer. I folded my arms and looked away.

Lukas rolled his eyes.

After our little chat we returned to Jason's house and stayed a little bit for a party. His dad kept wondering why Kyle was in such a bad mood. He just kept saying he doesn't think talking about it would help. Jason had to put his hand over Ben's mouth to keep from talking about vampires.

He went with us to the Cullens. Edward was really shocked to see my brother. Carlisle had a million questions about me being human. Jacob was just like Skylar, he couldn't stop with the human jokes. Just wait till I was a vampire again. Then they were going to get it. Renesmee was upset that we couldn't run anymore and Bella was just the same in my memories. It hurt to look at her.

"Pryor Wolf?" Jacob said after we told about what happened in the past couple weeks. "That's awesome." Of course Jacob would think that was awesome, he was a wolf anyway.

Seth was literally bouncing for joy when he came in to see what the fuss was about. Lukas did intimidate him though. His face was priceless.

Edward kept looking at me with the same expression.

"Why didn't you call us to fight?" Carlisle asked. "We wanted to help." There was a squeal from Angel as her and Rosalie did something upstairs.

"There wasn't any time." I told him. It was the truth, but more of it was that I couldn't think right. Jason was gone and I had only a few minutes to save him.

Edward raised one eyebrow.

Get out of my head, I growled internally.

"So Lukas, do you do anything special?" Jacob asked. Once Jacob sat down, everyone seemed to migrate to the couch. Jacob held Nessie in his arms, eyeing Lukas with that you-touch-her-I'll-kill-you look. Lukas seemed to get the idea, besides he just wanted to bug Jason. I didn't understand why Jason didn't like my brother because it seemed like everyone else did. Edward didn't even pick up anything bad in his mind either. I wonder what his deal was?

Lukas thought for a moment. "Not really. Not that I know of at least." His eyes darted around like he was waiting for something, but then he calmed down. Edward didn't look tense so I wasn't going to freak out.

I started yawning after about two hours of talking about my old life so Jason decided to take me home. Esme said I was welcome to stay as long as we wanted, but for some reason Jason wanted me out of that house, and he wanted me out of it now.

He set me down on our bed and paced the room.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. He paused on his 27th step and looked at me.

"I want him to leave. Now."

"Who?"

He glared at me. "Lukas. That's who." He began to pace again. I saw his body twitch every few seconds.

"Why? He's my brother!" I got up and grabbed his arms, bringing him to a stop. Well I didn't, but he saw me and slowed down.

"I don't trust him. There's something about him, Claire, and it's something I don't like."

I groaned. This was just what we needed, a fight about my family. "Well you can't like everyone in my old life." I told him, trying to get him to look at me again.

"It's not about liking someone; this is about how I feel. He's trouble, Claire, why can't you see it?" he looked at me, just in enough time to make me wish he hadn't. There was something in his eyes that made me want to kick my brother out at this exact moment, but I just couldn't. Lukas was family and he had come to see me.

"All I see is my brother, Jason. Someone who loves me. Is this because he's black?" what a time for someone to be racist. I loved my brother, no matter what he did or what color he was. Why couldn't others?

"This isn't about his damn skin color!" he shouted. And before I could do anything, Jason threw me up against the wall. He held my arms there and curled up his fist. He brought it back and then punched me square in the jaw. He repeated that a couple times on both sides, before I heard a c***k and he heard my cries of pain.

He let go of my arms-which I was sure I was going to have bruises there-and I slid onto the floor, tears spilling over my cheeks. I looked up to see his face. There in his expression was the most tortured look I had ever seen. It looked worse than I had when he cheated on me, when Shadow died, when Edward killed Sierra and when I saw him for the first time in a year.

When he saw me he leaned down and put his hand to my face. But before he could get it there, I flinched. I couldn't believe the own reaction in my body. I didn't know how I moved so fast, but I knew it hurt him. It hurt me more.

He I sat. Terrified of the one I love.