Chapter Two- A shared hell
Jasper POV-
"Alright," I growled, "find her."
Emmett coughed, "Dude, you're the best at tracking here so…" He trailed off, irritating me. I turned to face Nessie,
"What did she look like?" Nessie frowned,
"Straight, light brown hair… um, taller than Alice, shorter than Rosalie, paler than most of us, black, black eyes… Jasper?" She looked up at me,
"What?" I snapped, pacing up and down.
"I know you think she's dangerous, but I think she needs help." My father took a step closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder,
"What kind of help Nessie?" He said,
"She seems… sad, like she's lost." Nessie frowned, Edward shot me this look, like, 'Don't do anything stupid' I sighed.
"Fine, you know what," I paused, "I'll… I'll go easy, and I'll be nice." Everyone was quiet, "Look, we're wasting time. Every second we stand here is a second she could be getting farther away!"
No one said anything.
I turned to face Jacob, last resort, "A second she could be hunting any one of the humans in La Push." I was growling, and I hoped it would set him off. It did, he started twitching and convulsing.
"Jake, calm down…" Nessie warned him.
"We're going. Now." I spat and took a deep breath, picking up the scent of the kid. It didn't go into the village, which was good. It ran along the coast, toward a small cave created by waves pounding into the cliffs.
Our footsteps echoed in the water and against the stone. I paused, there was another sound, I held up one finger to silence my family behind me. I heard it again, breathing. Shaking and quivering, someone was crying.
"Great. Who made the new girl cry?" A familiar voice behind me said, very familiar. Alice!
"Alice!" I said, "What are you doing here?"
"Well," She said hopping down into the ankle deep water, "I had this vision that there was a girl who wound up Forks… and you think I would miss out?!" She pouted. Emmett burst out laughing, the sound echoed off the walls and bounced around. The faint crying stopped.
Alice zoned out, before I could ask what she spoke, "Someone catch her before she gets into Forks and goes on an accidental murder spree."
I looked at Edward, "I may be the best a tracking, but you're the fastest." He smirked and took off after the kid.
Once he was gone, I faced Nessie, "So, who the hell is this anyway?" I growled, she shrugged,
"Said her name was Alex, and not much else, I just noticed she had scars like yours." She shrugged again,
"Well, whoever she is, let's hope Edward stops her before she finds someone of the human persuasion." I grumbled angrily.
Edward POV-
So I was the fastest, I already knew that. It was easier to follow the sound of running feet than try to focus on the image of the person at these speeds. I didn't know exactly where these little caves led, but the smell of Forks was getting stronger the further we went. The smell of human blood was getting stronger.
I was catching up to the kid, gaining ground; I couldn't be more than six feet off her tail. Tail? Never mind, six feet away from her.
Just a couple more inches and we could end this game of cat-and-mouse. Cat-and-mouse with vampires thrown in! I could here my family faintly behind me, not running as fast as I was, but trying to catch up. The kid was so close now, and so was Forks. There was a light, a hole in the cave, leading up to the boundary line of La Push and Forks.
This had to stop now, before someone innocent got hurt. I chanced it and jumped, throwing myself forward. Growling burst out, echoing of the walls, hers and mine too. We where both standing in less than one quarter of a second, I was blocking the way out, the kid was stuck between me and my family coming up behind her.
This was the first time I actually got a good look at the kid. Her hair was brown, but lighter than Bella's and pin straight, not wavy. She was pale, even for a vampire, her skin was covered in scars like Jasper, eyes where pitched black. To top it all off, she looked like she was about to keel over. She was soaking wet and trembling head to toe.
"Hey," I said, not knowing where to start, "look, no one wants to hurt you, but you have to co-operate." The kid just stared. What was her name? Oh, right, Alex, I remembered, Nessie had told me.
"Alex, we're just making sure no one gets hurt on our land. We're protecting our secret, you can understand that right, and you speak English?"
No freaking duh I speak English. She snarled in her thoughts. No, I speak Yiddish, don't you? Sarcasm, gotta love it.
"Look, we just want to make sure no one gets hurt." She glared at me,
No one gets hurt? Really? I bet that to you it looks like I would kill any living thing that came by?
"Sort of, wouldn't that be normal though?" I wondered,
Save it mind reader. I won't hurt any of your humans. I'm just passing through.
"How did you know?" I growled. Could this be her gift?
How did I know about the mind reading? Same way that you can read minds, and there's a lot more than just knowing you can pluck thoughts from peoples heads. She sneered, and I bet she was resisting adding a snide comment, with some difficulty.
"Where are you passing through to? Where did you come from?" I asked as Carlisle and the others appeared behind her, stopping just ten feet away. There was no way Jasper was going to risk it on this one.
"Does it matter where I came from or where I'm going? In my opinion, all you need to know is that I won't be staying here." She spoke aloud for the first time, probably making a point for my family. Emmett coughed behind her,
"Well, if I where in your situation I would tell him where you're from and where you're going, but that's just what I would do. It's totally up to you whether or not you want to be stupid or cooperate." He shifted his weight a bit, almost crouching, we where waiting for a reaction.
The kid's knees where shaking, my guess was from exhaustion. She looked around to try to find a way out, but what her eyes found was three other vampires besides me, specifically Jasper.
"God damnit…" She muttered, I hope you're happy. She glared at me with accusing eyes.
"It's not our fault you showed up here." I said calmly.
And it wasn't my fault I had to leave my home… These thoughts where not the ones she wanted me to here.
I saw what she was seeing, what she was remembering, for a brief second. It was chaotic, people running everywhere, the grey cloaks of the Volturi swirling ominously in the wind, someone screaming for 'Sara' and the last thing was the worst of all. She thought of a boy, not older than her, standing on the shore as she swam, telling her to go.
He waved. The way she thought about this boy, I shivered. Whoever this kid was, they had recently been separated from or lost their mate, and their sister to the Volturi. The memory was colored with sadness and loss, and I knew Jasper felt it to. He looked at me,
You see whatever went with that feeling? Jasper thought, I nodded slowly.
"What are we missing here?" Carlisle asked, clearing his throat.
"Well…" I said slowly, "I know why you ran," she glanced around at all of us, "but I don't know where you ran from."
"Europe."
"What?!" Can't tell you who said that, it might have been all of us. "How could you be from Europe? Your memory… you swam here!" I said astounded,
Carlisle stepped close to Alex, putting one hand on her shoulder, "That's a very long way to go without stopping." I was about to warn him, but Alex didn't react violently, she sighed, it sounded sad, like she had been defeated.
"I know," She said very quietly, "it was a very long way, for almost a week, all I saw was blue, all I heard was water and…" and those damn Volturi zombies following me.
"The Volturi followed you to Forks?" I demanded as soon as I heard what she was thinking.
"No," she stated quickly, "whoever was chasing me turned back before I smelled the earth of the shore."
"You must be tired." Carlisle said, I wonder… "You must be thirsty." Carlisle was wondering what she hunted, humans or animals. Her eyes where to dark to tell, but it was an interesting thing to think about. I should have thought of it.
"Yeah, I am." Se shrugged like it was no big deal,
"Do you hunt humans?" Jasper asked, never once looking away, tracking her every move.
That's short and to the point. "No." She smirked, "From here, it looks like you don't either."
"No, we're vegetarians." Alice chimed in pleasantly.
"Vegetarians?" Alex laughed, "I've never heard it put that way before." The kid smiled. Alice was already planning a shopping trip.
"Whoa Alice," I said, cutting off her thoughts, "before you plan a whole new wardrobe for the kid, why don't we find out if she's even sticking around." Nessie giggled a little, peaking out form behind Jacob. He was protective, almost as protective as I was. I wouldn't call it bad, but I wasn't sure it was good either. She was my daughter after all.
"Oh, she's staying." Alice said grabbing Alex's hand and towing her out towards open air, "I saw it!"
"Um…" Alex stammered, "Where are we going?" Alice smiled,
"Shopping."
Help me! Alex thought desperately, lucky for her Jasper cut in,
"Before we do anything else, she goes hunting." He said, pointing at the kid. "No way she's not thirsty if she's so tired her knees shake when she stands."
No one had noticed that before. This kid was so exhausted from thirst she couldn't stand without shaking! That's about as bad as it gets. I sighed, and we all headed out towards vampire territory, and the hunting grounds,