Hardly a Feast
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all rights to Twilight and all its characters. This work does not intend to infringe upon any of those rights.
... Alice crouches on one knee, poised expectantly, next to Jasper's lifeless body. The freezing night mist lay a dusting of frost over her cold petite form that glistened in waves as the moonlight shone through breaks in the passing clouds. In compliment to her glacial blue eyes was a twinkling of ice baubles clinging to the tips of her spiky, platinum hair. Alice is the image of a crystallized pixie, adorned only in a white cotton slip and pumps on her little feet. She gazed over him, just as she had only hours before.
Alice
Alice silently stalks precisely between the trees and through the brush of a forest high in the hills. Her steps, though swift, are so light and skillful there's almost no trace left behind in the fresh crisp snow. Her last kill over a week ago had been a hugely satisfying, healthy stag, but having so over-indulged that night she'd passed up on the ease of opportunistic snacking since and is now ravenous.
Those chance feedings had become scarce throughout the last few days and Alice was certainly not prepared to scavenge vermin. She would much rather run to a town and whip a human away. As the time passed, the thought of doing just that tickled her.
Well, it has been a while, she told herself.
Almost a year. She pondered the memory, the taste.
The risk in taking humans did give Alice a thrill. But that's exactly what it was - a risk - and in territory unknown to her no less. She was naturally averse to civilization, preferring the safety of feeding on animals, rarely leaving the countryside as she travelled.
So begrudgingly forced into hunting, for now anyway, Alice was following and hoping the faint and fast disappearing tracks of a small deer would lead her to an equally sizeable meal. The quietness in the air gave her the feeling something predatory could be near; quite a catch if it's already had the deer she was following.
Yes, something special she thought. Maybe a nice mountain lion. Oh, a meat eater, please. Her eyes light up as images flash through her mind, and her pace increases to a mere blur.
Though the air is cold and heavy, a distinct warm aroma rises through the wispy threads of mist creeping in with dusk, instantly teasing her senses. Stunned, Alice stops dead, snaps her eyes shut and tips her head back filling her lungs deeply with swathes of air laced with the delicious lure of blood.
Oh my, its human, and it's so close, she thought excitedly, almost salivating while sampling the odour over her tongue.
Now wide-eyed and attentive, Alice leans forward instinctively taking a predatory stance. Her pupils dilate as her eyes dart about searching the dark shadows, training on the slightest of movements and sounds.
A leaf springing up as snow slips off it snatches her attention. She turns, then twists again as a tiny rustle in a bush turns out to be nothing but a small rodent.
Alice darts to her left behind the shaded side of a tree, from there pouncing up the side of an old thick oak. Scanning the area ahead, off to her right, she sees a small clearing in front of a large granite rock. There, in the center, a few feet in front of what appeared to be a small dark cave, is a bloodstained man lying face down in the snow.
She fixes her excited eyes on him.
Oh dear, it's so weak, hardly a feast, she mused, giggling inwardly. But its blood will do me nicely. She tilts her head smirking, mentally planning her advance. Alice springs and skips from tree to tree then to the jagged rock just a couple of meters above him. Clinging there she pauses, taken by surprise by the scuffled prints leading into the rock below; dragged slowly, rather than placed steps of claws.
Alice seethes within, recognizing them and the stench of dog she was picking up as belonging to an old hybrid wolf-vampire, an intellectually inferior species. They were unable to reproduce or evolve, since their creation twenty or so thousand years ago, leading to their near extinction.
Alice has had little contact with other vampires over the years. Her knowledge of vampirism was limited mainly to what she had seen and observed. Apart from screams and cries of horror heard from her own victims, mainly during her unskilled early days, she was rarely spoken to, let alone having vampirism explained to her.
Though Alice is now well-travelled, she watches closely and learns quickly. Hardly a word has passed her own lips since the night she herself was attacked by a nomad vampire while walking home from work. That day, venom coursed through her veins attacking her humanity from within, freezing her heart.
With a penchant, more than a necessity, for theft, Alice grins. Merely seconds later she drops daintily to the crisp ground next to him, glancing but once into the cave before readying herself to attack.
Just as her lips curl back, revealing her small but prominent canines, his head lifts limply.
She freezes, pursing her lips.
His eyes moist with a reddened hue, flicker open and, for what feels like the longest time ever, he looks deep into hers. Seemingly these eyes are begging his saviour in her and in these few surreal moments she is truly shocked to her core, instantly quelling her craving for his blood. Alice becomes overwhelmed by a sense of his soul melting into hers, and as if attracted like a magnet to steel, she's involuntarily drawn in closer. So close she can feel his erratic breaths on her skin.
She forgets herself, audibly gasping through her teeth when her skin begins tingling and a commotion of feelings abruptly invade her mind.
Pain, desperation, weakness.
Her mind can't process it all at once.
Fear, loneliness, helplessness.
Oh Christ, stop! Her mind squeals.
Jumping back, balanced on her toes and curling into a ball, she pulls her knees tight to her chest. Unable to take her eyes off him, they quizzically follow his face as the side of his head slumps onto the snow.
The fingers of his relaxing fist roll back, leaving an open palm; a hand just asking to be taken and held.
Before Alice could make sense of it all, her attention was struck by eerie whispers echoing from the darkness of the cave.
Damn - there's two of them. That makes things tricky, she thought quickly. Instinct kicks in and she launches herself back up into the trees leaving him where he was lying. From her viewpoint her eyes remained transfixed on his wounded body.
Alice knew from a previous encounter, this kind were once vicious abominations and will want their meal back. It was apparent from the wounds, mostly dry, they'd had him a while. She surmised that whilst still dangerous in a group, they could be so old and weak they weren't even venomous anymore, as she had seen happen before in pure vampires. But she could not understand why they hadn't drank him dry.
Confused, she continues staring at him, listening to the hissing and incoherent whispering behind him.
Quietly slipping deeper into the thicker branches, Alice waits with silent deliberation. How many are in there? Can I take on two or more of them, especially having not fed for a while? And, what the hell did that man just do to me? Men don't look at me like that. She smiles. Especially lookers like him. Alice is rarely seen prior to her attacks on men, when she bares her teeth with vicious intent written over her face.
She curls up, wedged into the tree and watches carefully.
Jasper
Jasper Whitlock spent weeks at a time roaming the countryside living off the land, taking photographs or sometimes sketching. Compiling portfolios of beautiful scenery and animals, he would drift around selling his artwork. His appreciation for the beauty in nature came from his travels during his stint in the army.
As a war journalist, Jasper carried both camera and rifle into battle, but never fired a single round in anger. Fighting just wasn't his thing, though he was quite adept in defense. It hurt him so much to see anything injured or needlessly killed.
His father was a Major and his father before him, so the army was his expected calling. It didn't lie well with his staunch unfeeling father that Jasper hadn't risen through the ranks, but he had fulfilled his father's wish and did his service before taking to the hills, so to speak.
Upon his release he packed a rucksack and disappeared into the wilderness. For the past few days he had camped on the fringe of woodlands that had an unusual abundance of wildlife. Jasper had successfully compiled quite a catalogue with the extra light available, but became intrigued as to why these normally shy animals weren't deeper in the woods. He made his mind up to investigate.
After gathering a few supplies, he set off and delved further in. Several hours in, he had become aware of the deafening silence around him. The woods seemed empty of all but the tiniest of creatures. As the night began closing in, there were strange noises. The chilly air was still and yet faint winds seemed to be whispering in the distance as though two crosswinds meeting and speaking in passing.
Not voices though, because there surely wasn't anyone else out here. From what Jasper could tell, no human had been in this bleak wilderness for years.
All his senses were nervously heightened and he figured they were playing tricks on his mind.
"Quit ya fussin' Jasper, ya just ain't used to all this silence," he told himself.
It was getting late and Jasper needed to cool off and rest his legs. Seeing his opportunity ahead, he stops walking at the edge of a small clearing and over to his left, a very large rock. Spying a split at the rock's base, he could see the small mouth of a cave with evidence of some recent movement in the dirt.
Thinking there should be some life in there that he might get some good shots of, he unhooks his bag from his shoulders. Placing it down, he then takes off his jacket and folds it neatly onto a small rock. He eases himself down on top of it, supporting his weight with his hands on his knees, and groans a little. Jasper shuffles his ass, getting comfortable as he leans over his rucksack and rummages around looking for his mini tripod and best camera.
"Well I'll just set m'self up here," he mumbles into his bag. "Then I'll..."
A growl, the pitch and depth of which Jasper had never heard before, rattles the hair on the back of his head. With only a shirt between himself and the elements it was already cold, but the breath buffeting his neck ran a deeper chill down his spine. Jasper knew this was, not going to be good.
He takes two slow, deep breaths, while wrapping his hand tightly around the legs of the tripod. He then pulls his arm out barely ten centimeters before a vicious set of teeth rip into his shoulder. Letting out a terrified cry as he is yanked up and backwards off the rock, he catches a glimpse of two emaciated creatures snapping and snarling in front of him like deformed, rabid dogs with furless pale flesh and deathly black eyes. Jasper thrashes around, kicking out furiously; his free arm punches upwards at the one tearing at his shoulder.
"How's that feel?" he shouts when his fist smashes into its eye.
The creature emits a strange heavy grunt before dropping him to the floor. Jasper falls heavily. A short clang rings through his head as it hits the ground hard, the taste of metal fills his mouth as the sky starts spinning. His body goes limp when he passes out.
As though Jasper's words had cursed the weak vitiated venom secreted into his bloodstream when he had hit the wolf, it had transferred a wave of pain over its skin, into its psyche. It causes confusion amongst the hybrids as they all bite at him while he lies unconscious. Their confusion turns to a sick curiosity; poking and nipping at his skin; taking pleasure in the sensations, which they wanted more of.
The three ancient wolf-vampires drag him into their lair inside the cave. Once through the small entrance just big enough to crawl through, a dark damp cavern opens out and falls gradually about twenty feet below ground level. These hybrid abominations crawl mainly on all fours, grotesque looking animals driven into the wilderness by early settlers. They'd survived hiding in caves like this for thousands of years, living almost solely off the blood of animals.
Jasper lies unconscious partially submerged in stagnant water. He gasps, then screams out as he wakes in excruciating agony. Pain rips through his limbs and burns across his skin as he kicks out wildly in defense of an attack already over. He feels like his heart is beating its way out of his chest, thumping so hard and erratically.
As his fight burns out, the frantic kicking and splashing stops. Jasper sits still, although shaking with adrenaline and cold. He desperately tries to focus his eyes through the pitch dark, images of a skinned dog interrupting and flashing through his mind.
When he could finally hear through the deafening pounding of his own heart and desperate breaths, haunting whispering begins echoing around him. Jasper looks back up at the arch of dim light showing the exit; he couldn't move quick enough in his panic in trying to scramble backwards. Suddenly, the wind seemingly punched out of him as he's yanked by his ankles, his head slams back against the rock, knocking him unconscious again.
Hours later, Jasper crashes back into consciousness. A brilliant white flash seers through his head as tortuous agony rockets up his thigh. He arches backwards jerking vigorously, his lungs empty completely, screaming out.
"Je - sus!"
While recovering his breath sharply, Jasper hears loud cackling growls as the teeth tearing viciously at his flesh detach. Without vocally repeating the obscenities his mind is screaming out, he tenses up holding his breath, both to listen to his tormentors and subconsciously playing dead.
After a second-by-second minute ticks by, he begins exhaling as slowly and quietly as he is capable. The pumping of Jasper's heart causes a jerky hiss through his lips as his next breath is too desperate.
Then… nothing but silence. No attack comes.
He tries to keep calm and gather his thoughts, though his heart is still pumping hard. For some time it was all he could hear in his pounding head and his eyes felt like they were popping out on stalks as he stared intently. He keeps perfectly still and as quiet as possible, tries to control and hide his breathing. There was near silence in the darkness.
After a few painfully shaky minutes and intense staring, Jasper starts to make out contrasting shapes against the walls. He very slowly scours the cave floor around himself hoping for some sort of makeshift weapon, keeping his eyes fixed on the moving shadows. His hand slips into the bitingly cold rancid water searching blindly through what he assumed to be a few light sticks and pebbles but finding nothing heavy enough to throw. Grabbing the thickest one he could find, his stomach turns when he begins to recognize the shape and texture as bone, letting it slip from his grasp when he shudders within. He curls his fingers around another, then scrapes his thumb across its sharp, splintered end and decides to keep a firm hold of this one.
He waits, fighting to subdue the terrible pain and dizziness.
Somehow Jasper falls asleep. When he wakes up in agony to his leg being gnawed on, he tries feebly to stab it with the bone, but a rat just squeals and scampers off. Collapsing back, he sees the rodent get whisked up and bitten by the silhouette of one of the creatures in the cave entrance, holding what looked like a small deer in its other hand. It was limp but alive. Jasper could see steamy air snorting out from its nostrils.
Hand. Claw. What is that god-damn thing? Jasper thinks.
Two more of these things scurry in after it but then they all disappear around him into darkness. He hears a small bleating cry cut horribly short by a crunch before he slips out of consciousness again.
Jasper grunts deeply coming around to sharp teeth biting into his leg. He tries again to swipe the bone at it, but this time empty-handed, having let it go whilst passed out; far too weak his fist just slaps against its ice cold skin. It seems to almost laugh with a raspy growl, but backs off. Jasper looks up towards the cave entrance and rolls over. He knows he shouldn't turn his back on his enemy, but in delirious determination he starts crawling towards the night sky he could see outside.
I just gotta try, he thinks, I'm gonna - die - if...
It all goes black again.
Hours later, outside under the moonlight, snow covers the ground beneath him. Frostbite set thoroughly into his hands, he has no feeling left in his fingers. Jasper now has hyperthermia and is perilously close to death. He doesn't know how long it had taken or how many times he had passed out, tortured with pain and on the brink of death. Not sure if he is hallucinating even, but it seems he had made an escape.
Although Jasper can barely move he manages to lift his face from the snow. Opening his eyes slowly they meet the striking blue eyes of what he imagines maybe an angel - a strange pixie-like beautiful angel. He could do nothing but stare through his frost encrusted lashes.
For a few soul searching moments his fears and pain subside, feeling relief in the acceptance of his impending fate, his transience definite. His breaths become slight and laboured, then falter as he whimpers within when she disappears. Jasper's head falls to the snow, feeling momentarily lost and abandoned.
Aww sh-she sure was p-pretty, he thinks, with even his inner voice stuttering as shivers run through his frozen body. J-just like in the movies.
Jasper replays her image as his sight begins fading into blindness. He knows he doesn't have long left now but his heart feels a comforting warmth when he pictures her coming back, taking his hand and guiding him to the gates of heaven. For a few minutes in his darkness Jasper thinks he's in the hands of his angel, healing hands stroking the wounds on his body. He feels no pain now. He can just feel her kissing his eyes.
After a while, feeling coldness wash over his body, Jasper's hand lays open waiting for her to take him as his eyes well up.
Jasper gasps for his last few breaths.
"Now..." he whispers vaguely through his frozen lips. His heart barely pumping, Jasper blacks out; his life beginning to slip away.
...
Perched high in the tree Alice sees Jasper's body shiver with each scarce, faint breath he takes. The whispers coming from inside the lair become snappy and agitated. Alice cringes back and freezes as three hybrids slink out.
These appear older and more grotesque than the ones she'd seen before, with veins visible all over their pale bare skin. They crawl over and around him throwing their heads back and sniffing the air then at the ground where she had been. They start nudging him with their snouts and licking the congealed blood from his wounds; pulling away then snapping back at his skin before quickly shaking and tipping back their heads as they moan in the most disgusting manner. Dark crimson red eyes roll back in their sockets.
Keeping perfectly still, Alice watches bemused as they start writhing around over his body, eerily moaning and growling. Eventually they roll him onto his back. As the larger one hooks its nails under Jasper's eyelids they each take turns looking at his eyes before returning to lick at his wounds. Alice wrinkles her nose in disgust.
"Eew," she squeaks, quickly covering her lips with her fingers, luckily unnoticed. She suspects they also feel the pain emanate from him, assuming the tingling sensation is more powerful when he is touched, as if getting some sort of sick erotic pleasure as they tortured him.
The repulsion in Alice's perplexed eyes turns to a still, vacuous gaze through and beyond the scene below her. A flattering image rolls like a movie through her mind's eye of them walking hand in hand; Jasper looking at Alice with a cute smirk on his face. The short lived vision disappearing in a haze, she blinks as her focus returns to see his eyes open but blank, tears filling them while his hand is openly begging. Feeling a thump in her chest as though her frozen heart had missed a beat, she almost reaches out to him.
Oh Alice Brandon, what are you doing? She questions herself, tilting her head slightly.
As Alice absorbs his handsome features she finds herself feeling like a young lady again, like the girl she once was, with a warm beating heart that yearns to be held safely in a strong man's arms. Though now she is feeling something for this particular man that she has never felt before, as if he was always meant to be the one. Alice could still smell his blood but wanting it was far from her mind, she wanted him, but in a completely different way now.
After a few minutes all three hybrids slowly withdraw and crawl back into the cave leaving him where he lay.
Alice stares, frowning in contemplation, at him for a while. Enduring the look on Jasper's face as he takes his final desperate breaths is too much. The decision is made.
The next ten seconds were awash with a blood spilt, bone crushing attack rained down on the wolf hybrids by Alice.
She lands deliberately heavy against the rock face, a thunderous cracking echo steals the silence with both of her feet slamming hard, recoiling away in a somersault as chunks of fractured granite fall into the mouth of the lair. She springs straight back from her landing behind Jasper, onto the first head to appear through the half-collapsed cave entrance, her foot stamping its neck onto the rubble.
The claws of the second one to follow she grabs before they attach to her legs, severing them from the howling owner when she yanks its body into the narrowed jagged gap in the rock; it retreats back inside screeching wildly. Alice dispenses with the torn off claws, grabs the head she has pinned down, then tears it off taking it with her she jumps backwards.
The last one, evidently the strongest of the three, viciously rips its way through the remains wedged in its path, pushing the rocks aside emerging fully, snarling and rearing up just short of Jasper's feet. Alice launches forward, her hands attaching to its neck as she sinks her fingers into the flesh. She pivots around it, her feet swing out landing and running along the rock face. The bones in its neck snap and crush loudly as she spins, twisting its head around one hundred and eighty degrees. She curls her knees up to crash into its chest when she finishes her full circle.
Alice falls down to the ground next to Jasper with the wolf still in her unrelenting grip above her. She coils her legs back then kicks its front legs apart, its ribcage splitting open as the carcass flies backwards and slumps into a pile against the base of the rock.
Alice pays no heed to the whining of the one hybrid left inside, having no claws and bleeding to death. She had a more important task ahead. Alice scoops Jasper's limp body up into her tiny arms. Wasting no time, her legs carry them quickly through the woods not even looking back at the grizzly scene left behind.
When they reach a clearing near the edge of the forest she lays Jasper down. He is so close to death. Alice hurriedly crouches next to him, then softly tilts his head and places her hand over his heart.
"Forgive me," she whispers.
In a fraction of a second she's at his neck. Her venom mixes into his system, rushing through his veins and arteries, attacking Jasper's humanity.
Alice desperately struggles to stop biting, fine pink threads creep across her blue irises with his human blood coating her mouth. After a few unsure moments she manages to physically push herself off his neck throwing her head back. She looks to the sky as she tries to compose herself then leans forward lowering her eyes to gaze upon Jasper's lifeless form.
Waiting, impatiently.
"Please," Alice says quietly. "Oh, please come back."
~x~
Please be kind and review. Thanks to beta, HiddenAllie.