Jasper and I both got out of the car in the way that people did when they needed to be somewhere soon but didn't really want to go. We shut the doors of my bright yellow car firmly. I took a deep breath and looked at the airport entrance sadly. When we finally walk into the airport, I will have to walk Jasper all the way to his gate and say goodbye to him for two whole weeks! If I could I would burst into tears right now! I'm going to miss him so much; how am I supposed to live for two weeks without the love of my everlasting life?
"Ali, I know what you were thinking; it's only for two weeks. Don't be such a drama queen!" He said with mock frustration. But I knew he actually loved it when I was like this. I smiled up at him and snuggled deeper into his side. I loved how perfectly we fit together when we were like this. Our hands were the perfect size for each other to hold, our necks perfect for the other's face, his arm just long enough to reach down and hold my waist. We were absolutely perfect for each other; I've know that since I first saw the vision of him sitting at the old diner in Philadelphia. We've been together since 1948. Man, when I say it like that, it sounds like we're some sort of company. You know, one of those 'Established Since 1948' things. I laughed to myself and Jazz looked at me oddly.
"So, where do you plan to stay in South America?" Neither of us wanted to talk about it, so we had accidently/on purpose saved it to the very last second possible. For example: walking into an airport and heading to security.
"I plan to find a very tall tree and sleep there." I groaned and looked way up at Jasper again.
"You're going to sleep in a tree?" He chuckled at my expression and nodded.
"You don't think people are going to ask questions on why I'm staying at a hotel with absolutely no bags? Plus, this way I'll be as close as possible to the Amazons."
"I still don't like the idea of you in a tree!" Jasper quickly pulled me into his arms and held me tight enough to strangle a human. For vampires, it still wasn't tight enough to portray the absolute love you feel for your mate.
"Ma'am, Sir, I need to see your boarding passes." I looked up to see a young man; probably 25 tops, staring at us.
"I don't have a boarding pass; but I just want to walk my boyfriend to his gate." I looked up through my eyelashes and batted them at him. I smiled sweetly at him in a way that has gotten me many things that I've wanted over the years. I could see a small battle going on behind this guy's eyes. On one hand he needed to do his job by making sure I didn't get past him; but on the other hand he wanted to make a pretty young girl, like me, happy.
"Er, go on ahead." Score! Jasper handed him his boarding pass silently and we both moved through security as quickly as possible. We fought our way through the thick crowd and found his gate. He pulled me close to him one more time and buried his face in my hair. I held him just as tightly and desperately wished I could go with him.
"I know, Ali. I'll be back before you know it, I promise. I love you." I sniffled and pulled my head away from his chest.
"Love you too, Jazz. Come back as soon as possible!" He slowly kissed me and let go of me reluctantly.
"By the way, Ali; you scared the shit out of the security guy." I smiled. Then I frowned.
"But I thought I wasn't being scary!" I pouted. I was so not being scary!
"You showed just a little too much teeth for a human." I grimaced. I can't believe that I forgot that! I haven't done that in forever. Jazz leaving must be having more of an effect on me than I thought it would. The speaker person at the desk by the gate called the last call for Jazz's flight. He spun around and started to shove his way through the crowd. Do these people ever actually get on a flight or do they just decide to mill around and block all the gates? It seems like there are always people in the way when you need to get somewhere.
"Good bye, Jasper! I love you! Good luck in South America!" I called to him one more time before he left and he turned around and smiled. Then, he was gone from my view and getting onto the large plane. I kept my eyes trained on the windows until I saw him settle into his seat. I felt a sharp pang of jealousy when I saw a very tall blonde sit next to him wearing an extremely low cut shirt. Jasper turned and made a disgusted face out the window, knowing I would see him. The tall blond said something, and Jasper quickly adopted a blank, unfriendly face and turned to respond. She leaned back with a shocked, disgusted face and quickly pulled out a magazine from her bag. I chuckled to myself at her expression, and then sighed longingly for Jazz.
I felt myself being ripped in two as I watched the plane take off into the endless sky. Jasper was my other half; and without him, I couldn't focus as well. I didn't get as excited about things or function as well as I would if I knew that he's just one state over hunting. That's why I believe it was a bad idea for me to be the one to talk to Jacob, and later Sam, about fighting the Volturi with us. Everyone from the Cullen family was going off to different continents to talk to the covens that our family was mostly sure were friendly. The day after tomorrow, Rosalie is going to fly to Europe and talk to the covens about rebelling and tell them to spread the word. Emmett's going to Africa and then to Asia. Jasper's down in South America for a week then he's going over to Australia for another week. I'm talking to the wolves and traveling across America to talk to covens. I headed out of the airport and quickly walked to my car. I couldn't exactly run because people would know something wasn't quite right with me; although the one time I forgot, the look everyone's face was absolutely priceless. I started the car and headed to the road while thinking.
We're hoping to get as many vampires and covens as possible to agree to join us in the Rebellion against the Volturi; even though whoever would agree would have to be an idiot with a death wish. Nobody had tried to fight the Volturi for thousands years since the Romanian coven was almost completely destroyed. They have only two surviving members; we are already sure that they are going to help us. They have agreed and are still so angry that they lost their whole coven. I shivered thinking of how vivid and scary their rage still is. We promised if this revolution works that there can be new rulers. We would forever be in their good graces and justice would be restored to our family. We are willing to risk everything to try to take them down. Realistically we know that a sneak attack is our only chance at actually winning.
We have already suffered a great loss due to the Volturi. They killed my sister, Bella, and my newborn niece, Reneesme. Irina, a very good friend of ours from the Denali clan, mistakenly told the Volturi that Reneesme was an illegal immortal child; and because she was a misinformed idiot she got Reneesme, Bella, and my mother Esme killed! That was going to be my one and only shot to be a real aunt and actually know about it! Reneesme was really a human-vampire hybrid. A human-vampire hybrid is highly unusual and the human mother dies every time, except for this time. We were able to plan ahead and save Bella by turning her into a vampire the moment she gave birth. The Volturi came and went to kill Reneesme first. Bella ran forward to save Reneesme. She almost died giving birth to Reneesme; it makes sense that she would want to save her beautiful child. The Volturi had assumed at the time that she was the creator. They destroyed both of them. And then Esme, sweet, motherly Esme, broke away from the group toward the Volturi and tried to fight them in a blind frenzy that was extremely unusual for her. She had no more luck than Bella did.
I shook off the ugly thoughts and turned my mind to what I had to do today. I sighed when I realized that I had to go see Jacob today. I've been there so many times to talk to him in the last few months that really I didn't want to go back for a long time. He was just so depressed! I get it, we all missed them. We all really wish that they hadn't died like that. But we all deal with our pain and loss in private. We try not to actually show it to anyone else. It just hurts everyone and it doesn't make you feel any better in the end. The kid doesn't seem to understand this though; he just throws out his pain and misery so everyone else can feel it too. Poor Jasper can't even stand to be in the same house as him because his emotions are just so intense!
But that didn't matter. Having two packs of werewolves fighting with us might just give us the advantage we need. So, with great reluctance, I was going to La Push to talk to Jacob and Sam about the possibility of their respective packs of mangy dogs fighting alongside us. I sighed and pulled into the driveway of the little red house that belonged to Jacob and Billy Black. I slipped out of my car and cautiously shut the door. My car's my baby. I wouldn't dare do anything that might make her mad at me. If she got mad at me, she probably would just quit running and God knows that I have no idea what to do in that situation. I looked at the front door of the Black house and sighed again. I really don't want to do this today; I didn't want to do this ever if I had a choice. I glided up to the door anyway and tested the knob. It was open. I shrugged and pushed open the door, Jacob was expecting me today anyway. I stepped carefully around a pile of books on the way to the living room, and stopped dead in my steps when I saw Jacob crying on the couch.
I watched in stunned silence for a moment and without thinking I ran to his side and wrapped my tiny, pale arms around his waist. He jumped and reflexively stiffened; trying to get away from me most likely. But he's still just a kid no matter what, so in the end his emotions took over. He leaned against me with all of his weight and I almost toppled over. This kid was that heavy; even taking into account that I had vampire strength. I held onto him until he stopped crying, which must have been a good 20 minutes later. During those 20 minutes though, I thought about how bad I felt for him. At the same time I envied him so much! I wanted to be able to cry. I wanted to be able to kick, scream, sob, yell, and punch; and just be able to blame it on being a human. I don't think he understood quite how good he has it to be able to feel them the way he does. Only after he mumbled thanks to me and hurried off to find something to dry his eyes with did I realize that the werewolf stench wasn't too noticeable if you didn't pay attention to it or try to recognize it. In fact, during the whole 20 minutes I was holding him I didn't wrinkle my nose or flinch at the smell.
20 minutes gave me a lot of time to feel uncomfortable or try to pull away; but I didn't. I stilled when my mind forced me to think about whether or not I actually liked comforting him. Because, I think I did; but that may have been motherly instincts that I never had a chance to express. And it's not like I have a chance to comfort Jazz in the same way; he almost never breaks down and when he does he doesn't let go to the extent that Jacob just did. But this doesn't mean I like Jacob, does it? Because I know it can't mean that. I love Jasper; he's my one and only. he always has been, and he always will be. It's a simple fact; like how the world spins on its axis, water is always wet, and fire is always hot. There's just no way around it so why am I suddenly doubting it after comforting a crying kid for twenty minutes? These feelings were way too extreme and dramatic to even take seriously, I resolved to myself. Jacob came back into the living room just then and noticed my still form on the couch.
"Alice? Are you okay?" I heard his voice crack, as if seeing me reminded him of whatever it was that had set him off earlier. I slowly turned my head toward him and lost my breath when I noticed his eyes for what seemed like the first time. His eyes were puffy and red from crying and he looked exhausted, but it was the color of his eyes that really made it hard for me to breathe. They were a rich, chocolate brown. I knew that if I looked deep enough into them that I could possibly lose myself in them forever. The longer I looked into them the harder it was for me to think. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing real eye colors. All I've seen for years is gold, black, red, and eyes on humans that always looked faded and washed out since I became a vampire. I loved how absolutely pure and dark his eyes were, they were nothing at all like most people's eyes. I mentally froze that train of thought and turned my head quickly when I thought that. I couldn't love anything about him. It would destroy my very soul if I admitted to myself that I did. I knew who I loved and it was definitely Jasper, not this dog.
"Alice? What happened? Did you see something?" I clenched my teeth and turned to face him. I struggled to break through whatever spell I was under and try to explain why I came. The only thing that I told Jacob earlie was that I wanted to discuss a possible battle alliance between the packs and the vampires. Jacob pursed his lips in concentration and suddenly all of my thoughts completely drifted away from my mind. I was just as mesmerized by his lips as I had been by his eyes a few moments ago. I swallowed as the minutes went by and I couldn't tear my gaze away from his full lips.
"Alice? Why are you staring at me like that?" I watched with fascination as his lips moved and formed each individual syllable. I saw him dart to the mirror that hung in the living room and check to see if he had anything on his face. I shook my head and felt my mind start to race with alarm. This could not be happening to me. What was wrong with me? I've never so much as think about a man the way I have about Jazz since we first met and suddenly I'm being overwhelmed by feelings in the space of not even half an hour?
"Alice? Seriously, are you having a vision or something? You're really starting to freak me out!" He walked back and sat down next to me on the couch. I panicked and tried to scoot away, but he wrapped his long arms around me and tried to hold me until I quit freaking out. I jumped and struggled to get away from him. I felt electric shocks shoot up my arms where his bare arms met my bare skin.
"Shit, oh shit, I'm in trouble!" I jumped out of his startled grasp and looked for my purse. I swore again when I couldn't find it anywhere. Jacob swiftly got up and blocked the door. When he realized, somewhat late, that I wasn't headed for the door right away he ran to me and locked me in a restraining embrace again. By this time, I was delirious with panic and started to mumble.
"Jasper just left, this shouldn't be happening!"
"What shouldn't be happening? Damn it, Alice! Answer me!"
"I'm here to talk battle plans; not sit here and stare at you!"
"Stare at me? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Jasper just left an hour ago! Why am I sitting here staring at you! Damn it; don't touch me! I love Jasper! I can't have any feelings for you I just can't! Get away from me!"
"Alice! Alice, tell me what's wrong! Please!" I wrenched away from Jacob and frantically headed for the door. "Alice!" He took two long steps and caught up to me and grabbed onto me again. Stupid idiot. I propelled my arm up and hit him across the face in desperation. He grunted and clasped both of my wrists in one of his freakishly huge hands. Damn him. He pushed me to the ground and kept me pinned down with all of his weight. I struggled for a few minutes before I finally stopped moving. Something just wasn't right between us. I could feel it.
"Jacob, please let go of me! Let me leave!" He took in my panicked face and finally nodded. I guess he sensed that he wouldn't get any information out of me right now.
"Will you come back and explain everything to me? Cause you're being freaky and scaring the hell out of me!"
"Jacob, I have to go! I can't be here right now! I'll be back tomorrow or I'll try to send someone else tomorrow!" He finally got off me and handed me my green purse which he had found a few minutes ago and had kept behind him. Asshole. I snatched it and bolted for the door. I got outside and collapsed onto my knees. What the hell just happened in there? I have never felt feelings as intense as those around anyone else. Not even Jasper! What the hell could make me feel that? It's not love. It can't be. Not love or anything even remotely similar to that. Right? I glanced to the window and saw Jacob watching me worriedly. I took several deep breaths and struggled to breathe.
Finally, I had no choice but to get up and head for my car. I wound through all the winding roads through La Push and Forks before I got home. I immediately ran upstairs and paced. All night long I paced in my room until Rosalie asked me to go along with her on a hunt. I flew downstairs and saw Emmett lacing up his 'I gotta be fast' boots. I licked my lips in anticipation when I thought of what that meant. We'd be running south and only stopping at southern California. At least. We made it down to Mexico once on an all-day hunting trip; I doubt we'll go that far today. We've all got something we need to do tomorrow; so the farthest we can go is probably southern California like I originally thought. We raced out the door and into the night; expecting a great hunt tonight. I was too busy worrying about what I had to do tomorrow though to fully enjoy myself.
While we were running I decided that I just had to talk to Sam and Jacob tomorrow. Sam about imprinting and fighting and maybe Jacob about both too. I cringed when I thought of the scary I-word. I didn't know what else it could be honestly. It scared the hell out of me when I thought that I might have been imprinted on by a werewolf. And Jacob at that. He's probably the worst to imprint on! But he can't even imprint twice right? That's impossible so that can't possibly be the answer. Besides, even if it was we've seen each other all the time! Especially since everything that happened with the Volturi. There were so many meetings since then that surely one of us would have felt something about the other. Or Jazz would have picked up on any weird feelings. I felt a pang of hurt and surprise run through me when I thought of Jazz. I never wanted to do anything to hurt him and if this is anything close to what I think it is then he's really going to be hurt.