A/N okay I know this took forever. All I have to say in my defense is that a few brain cells where missing. I think they are back again. Now that I am trying to cure myself of staying up till 5am. So I am going to post this and try to make myself sleep....
This ending was a surprise for me, so I hope you like it. Cause I think there are going to be a lot of surprises, this thing seems to have a mind of its own... I will be nice and say that next chapter is going to have a flash back to human Bella. So if you have any ideas for that, or anything else for that matter let me know.
Once again I own nothing. Enjoy!
Maria smiled as she stalked towards me, brushing past a still stunned Jasper, as if he didn't even exist. I started to back away, trying to keep a steady distance from her. The now fuzzy images of Maria stalking me like this. Right before sinking her teeth into my shoulder played in the forefront of my mind, and I was more on edge then I had ever been before. Even when this had happened as a human.
"Oh don't be such a child, I thought you where much to mature for that." She purred. Taunting me. She quickened her step, and so did I, though I was starting to worry about the wall of vampires at my back. So instead of continuing backwards I began to side step, inching my way closer to the passage way out.
"Jasper relies on his gift far to much, its a weakness of his I'm afraid. Lets see if you can go up against someone with a little bit more skill. Shale we?" Sinking into a crouch as she spoke, she gave me no chance to respond before springing herself threw the air. Her hands wrapped around my neck as she flew at me with so much force that I was pushed back several feet before my heals hit a large rock and I toppled over. The rock turning to powder at the force of my fall. My head hit the ground hard as she crashed down on top of me. I hissed as her teeth once again sunk into my shoulder. The new image overtaking the fuzzy one.
"Thats to remind you to always be prepared." Maria whispered in my ear before standing up and glaring at Jasper. "It would seem like you both have some work to do Major. You have a week."
"Yes Maria. Although her shield may take longer. I have never seen one as strong as hers. She has a sound mind but a gift that powerful may take her some time to get a hold on." He replied quietly the disease plan on his face. She waltzed over to where he stood head bowed arms at his sides. Before tilting his face up so she could see into his eyes.
"Ah well then I guess it's a good thing that I was not referring to her shield. Isn't it darling" she said sweetly before placing her lips to his. She kissed him tenderly for a moment, sending a sting of something I didn't understand straight to where my heart should have been beating. Before I could analyze it to closely however she pulled away whispering so lowly that I had to strain to hear her words. "Remember who you belong to and who you are, I would hate to have to lose you...." before turning on her heal and sending a smug look my way as she brushed past me and headed for the crowd at the back of the cave.
The mood was tense as she scanned the group. However it only took her a a moment to decided who she wanted. There was a collective sigh of relief as she settled her gaze on one of the smaller males, though it was plane that he did not share the others enthusiasm.
"Kurt, come with me." She ordered as she turned and headed out the small exit, a reluctant Kurt just a few steps behind.
All was silent for a long moment after their departure. Then the next second all was just like before, the groups where reformed and the pointless arguing started up once again.
Jasper finally wiping the shock off his face, rushed over to my side.
"Here let me see that." he said motioning toward my stinging shoulder. I nodded and pulled my mess of tangled hair away. Baring my neck to him I draped my hair over my other shoulder and started working threw the tangles with my fingers.
Jasper studied the wound for a moment, before meeting my gaze. "The wound is deep, but I am going to show you how to fix it. Alright?" I nodded curious to see what he would do.
"Our saliva acts as a bandage, it fuses our wounds and allows them to heal, it also helps with the sting but that affect happens slower then the rest." Slowly placing a finger in his mouth he pulled it out and moved his hand towards my bitten shoulder.
"May I?" he asked glancing from my wound to my face and back. I nodded stilling my hands but still leaving them in my hair. Slowly Jasper ran his finger down one side of the bite mark before returning it to his mouth and repeating the process, on the other the other side of the wound. He studied my face carefully as he did, and I smiled slightly in thanks as I felt the fluid take affect.
It was then that it occurred to me how odd this was, being healed by saliva, but then I realized that like everything else in this new world my saliva had changed.
Into a bonding agent?
How had this all come about? I had originally assumed that Maria had changed me by simply drinking my blood, but that made absolutely no sense. If it where that simple there would be a great deal more of us running around. Since the others felt a massive thirst, the numbers would grow exponentially. Our saliva was a sealant, but it must also be more then that. What would it do to a human? The answer was all to clear, and also explained that hideous burning. I had no need to ask. I knew that I was right, besides that conversation would only serve to destroy my small hold on sanity. By the look jasper was giving me he would want to know the reason behind my rapidly changing emotions, so I asked the first thing I could think of to divert the conversation before it started.
"Jasper is there any place that I can go to clean up? I am covered in dirt and God knows what else." I glanced down as I spoke and for the first time noticed the dilapidated and barely hanging on condition of my dress. If I had been human still I would have been bright red at the sight of that. In fact it surprised me a bit that I wasn't blushing anyway. Yet another question for the list.
My dress was for lack of a better word dead along side me. Giant tares ran all up the front, and there appeared to be claw marks in various locations as well. The skirt was only attached on one side and hung limply down to almost my knees. If it hadn't been for my severely damaged undergarments I would have been completely exposed. I couldn't make my self look up as I pulled up the lose end of my skirt and attempted to tie it to a lose strand of what used to be fabric only to have that to fall to peaces in my hands.
I added in a whisper, "And is there anyway that I can get a new dress, the condition of this one is just humiliating."
Jasper laughed a little at that but reigned it in when he noted the squinting of my eyes as I stared at him, he gulped and nodded.
"Certainly follow me." He paused momentarily staring at the group at the back wall. They shied away from his gaze, he nodded to himself and then lead the way out of the large cavern.
We wound are way in what appeared to be the main passage as it was the only way out of the cavern that seamed to be the main 'living area.' There where other passages veering off from this one to. One smelled overpoweringly of sulfur, and I could hear the sound of water running smoothly over rocks come from the darkness.
"You can clean up down there, but let us get a dress for you first." Jasper said pointing down the dark smelly way.
"Down there? But it smells horrid!" I felt as if I would have been sick had I still been able to.
"Then don't breath." his comeback caught me off guard, and I couldn't help the fit of hysterical laughter that swept threw me. Though it didn't take an empath to know I found nothing humorous in any of this.
I could feel myself losing it, going mad. My hold had been lost.
I don't have to breath.............. I started hyperventilating just to see if I still could. It was useless.
I don't have to eat..............wait dose that mean there is no more use for the outhouse!
I laughed some more. A strange demented laugh that sounded mad. But at least I was laughing and not completely broken, like I had been in the field.
All the while Jasper was just standing there wide eyed, unsure what to do, and looking pretty concerned for what I would do next.
"What is different?" I managed to get out threw the manic laughter. At his quizzical look I added more. "What are things that have changed about me? I don't have to breath! Or eat! Or use the outhouse, I suppose. I can run like the wind! I climbed a wall, and flew threw the air! I need to know the differences. What makes us different?" Sadness had taken over my frame as I spoke, and I sank down to my knees. Completely forgetting the stench that surrounded us.
Dry sobs racked my now marble form, as Jasper knelled down in front of me and placed my face between his palms. I could feel him once again trying to calm me as he raised my face so it was level with his. Looking into my eyes, he answered my question.
"You are an immortal. You will never age and you have the ability to live forever. The only things that can harm you ever again are other immortals and fire."
I had been expecting the truth to be something to that effect. But nothing could have prepared me for the blow his words sent to my heart. The pain at this truth was unbearable, and the look on Jaspers face said that he felt the pain every bit as much as I did. Whether it be his gift absorbing my feelings, or his own letting them selfs out for the first time, I do not know. But as we sat there we wrapped our arms around the other, and held on. It felt as if the storm of emotions we where sending the other would tare us apart like a tree caught in a flood. Roots clinging desperately to the disintegrating soil being washed out from under them.
Dry sobs issuing from the both of us now, and I felt a closeness with Jasper. A sudden kinship. He was just as lost in this world as I was. Suddenly I knew that I couldn't leave this place without him, and I was filled with purpose. I would save Jasper, and I would stay in this hell for as long as it took.
