DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. As usual.
Thanks goes out to my beta Aylienne and my reviewer TheWolfGirl-08, who reminded me that I had labelled this romp as a romance. I promise to amp up the romance in the next chapters!
Song for This Chapter: Vampires (DOMENICA)
~JASPER~
"Bella! Bella! Wake up, please wake up!" I shout, shaking her shoulders. Her eyes are closed, and she looks like she might be sleeping – if it hadn't been for the horrible bite mark on her throat. Edward had run into the trees, amazingly, but I'm not focussing on him, all I can see is Bella. "Please, Bella!" I plead. A whimper escapes her lips and her eyes start darting beneath her eyelids.
She's already changing, and there's nothing I can do for her. Trying to suck the venom out won't work – she's already too far along. All I can do now is hold her hand and try making her hurt a little less. Why did I have to be so weak? I could have saved her if I had been stronger, if Edward hadn't taken advantage of me not wanting to hurt him . . .
"Bella!"
Wolf. There's a wolf here, running towards us. I don't move – I don't want to leave Bella, even if this werewolf kills me. He slams into me, but I stay strong – for her, only her, and the pain I'm preventing with my power. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? YOU KILLED HER THE DAY YOU TOLD HER –"
"I'M NOT EDWARD!" I scream back. "I DIDN'T DO THIS!"
He jumps back a pace, eyes darting wildly. He's young, maybe in his mid-teens, but built sturdily. I can't seem to place his face. "You didn't do this?" he asks slowly, eyes jumping to Bella's prone form.
"No. She's changing. She's going to be a vampire soon."
"Who are you?" His eyes narrow. "I don't know you."
"You do," I say, tiredly, "I'm one of the Cullens. Jasper."
"I'm Seth," he sighs.
"You're dead," I reply.
He gives me a strange look. "You're dead."
We sit in silence, listening to Bella toss and turn on the gravel. Numbly, I scoop her up in my arms and move her to the grassy part of the ditch. Seth follows. "I'm not leaving," he informs me. "Bella was like a big sister to me, when she hung out with Jake . . . before."
"I'm not leaving either," I say. "I tried to kill her once, you know." Seth quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't comment. I decide to continue. "On her eighteenth birthday. She got a paper cut. You know how clumsy she is. Was. Anyway, I was stupid and uncontrolled. I attacked her, but Edward stopped me."
"Must suck – you trying to stop Edward but failing." Normally, I would have snapped at those harsh words, but the way Seth phrased them – more musing than bitter – didn't make it sound like an insult. His emotions, too, weren't vengeful, more worried and concerned for Bella.
"Yeah, it sucks."
Bella cries out suddenly and I increase the level of calm I'm sending her. Seth looks worried. "How long does this take?" he asks, glancing over his shoulder at the road.
"Two days at the most," I reply grimly.
"We should move to the forest, then," Seth replies, equally grim, "I don't think this will be pretty, will it?"
~BELLA~
Of all things hanging in my mind, all I can think of is how many times I had wished for Edward to turn me. But karma shows her true colours more often than not. So I can't help but laugh internally, knowing that Edward turned me after all, even if I didn't want it anymore.
Pain is not new to me, but this is.
Pain does not describe it properly, this horrible, agonizing sensation crippling my entire body. Everything hurts, and I honestly want to die. Is this Hell? Have I gone to Hell for loving them? The vampires?
Is God really that cruel? Is there even a God? If so, why did he take Edward away?
I'm aware of screams escaping my lips, but I can't hear them. All I can hear, feel, is the pain.
~JASPER~
I wonder if Edward would be able to recognize Bella now. She's willowy, graceful. The painful thinness about her has been softened, replaced by a healthy, if slim, physique. Her hair has turned even darker – it's now a dark chocolate colour, barely shades away from black – and is cut below her chin, like the night we first met. She looks even more achingly beautiful than before.
"Hey, sorry I snapped at you before," Seth says. His voice is hoarse – he only went to rest and get food once during the two days we've been here, deep in the forest, watching and waiting over Bella. At least, now, her screams had died down. She's reaching the final stages of the change.
"It's no problem."
"I'm just really angry at Edward," Seth explodes, his emotions suddenly turning furious. His hands start tearing out patches of grass. I'm tempted to tell him to stop, but I know it'll only make him angrier.
"Why?" I ask.
"He's the one we have to take care of! Every single fricking day! It's Edward we have to baby – I mean, we all got over it – but he's stuck in a rut. Killing humans whenever it 'gets too painful'. We all got over the pack dying – " Seth halts, glancing at me, "– but they didn't die, did they?"
I shake my head. "We were told you had died. You, Alice, Edward, Esme, Jacob."
"By the Volturi, right?" More anger. More grass. "Assholes!"
I laugh bitterly at this. "Let me guess – they told you we had died?"
"Bella, Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, Sam, the enemy vampires, Quil, Embry, Jared, Leah, Brady . . . the whole lot."
"So what did you do after that?"
"Left town, set up in Crook's Hollow, five hours from here. Esme helped – a lot. Well, her diamonds did. She sold the whole lot."
"That must have been hard on her. They were from Carlisle."
"I think she wanted to scrub the memories away, y'know. Try to, anyway."
"And . . . what about Alice and Edward?"
"We all had our bad moments . . . Alice's didn't last long. Edward's . . . well . . . still in his nightmare. If it hurt too much, he'd hurt someone, and we'd be left to pick up the pieces."
Bella shifts again, closer to me. I move my hand to her shoulder, fingers tracing patterns onto her ivory skin. Her heart is still beating, but very . . . very . . . faintly. She didn't have long.
"Gosh, she looks like Bree," Seth comments. My head jerks up from studying Bella's face. The worry is still present in him, but now there's something tender there too – love, perhaps? Fondness, affection . . . something along those lines.
"Bree?" I ask. His emotions take a softer tone, and there's no mistaking the love there.
"I imprinted on her. In the middle of the battle. Some kind of stupid, huh?" Seth chuckled. "Vampire and all . . . Jacob would have hated it if he hadn't imprinted on Alice."
"What!?"
Numbness returns. My Alice . . . imprinted on? Was she even my Alice anymore? Hurt – the wound reopens again. Seth realizes he's done something bad and he frantically tries to right himself. "What's wrong? Alice? Jacob?" Realization dawns on him. "You were Alice's husband before, weren't you?"
I nod and shift Bella's head onto my lap as if she can offer me some sort of solace, some sort of relief. Her hair is soft on my fingertips as I continue tracing patterns on her face. Honestly, it doesn't hurt as bad as I would have expected, finding out Alice fell in love with another.
Seth's face softens. "I'm sorry, man, but it doesn't look like you're doing that bad right now." He gestures at Bella. I close my eyes and, to his credit, Seth doesn't continue.
"She's still sad, you know," he whispers. "They're all still sad. Can you guys . . . come and see us after Bella's changed?"
I nod again. "Of course."
Almost as if on cue, Bella's heartbeat sputters to a halt. Seth starts to his feet but sighs and sinks back down to his sitting position. "It's done," I announce.