AN- Sorry it's been a while (again!), I think this'll probably be the final chapter, do you think I should do an epilogue? Anyway, hope you like this chapter, and more importantly, Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Frohe Weinachten etc!

I ran as fast as I could (which is actually quite fast) in their direction, swatting the branches as they threatened to knock me over. After at least 5 miles, it could have been more, I stopped dead.

"Alice!" She was stood about 2 metres from me, totally still. I knew Maria was nearby; it would be too simple for her to just leave. Alice clearly sensed my unease.

"It's OK, Jasper. We're going to get rid of her." Alice said as she walked towards me. I quickly met her, and pulled her into a tight embrace that could have lasted forever.

"Alice, I'm so sorry" I whispered into her hair, and even then I had to lean down a considerable amount.

"You don't have to-" she began, and stopped suddenly.

I turned to face Maria for what felt like the fiftieth time today, although it was probably more like the third, and waited a moment. She was truly striking: glossy black hair, hung in elaborate ringlets; deep crimson eyes that matched her scarf; surprisingly pointy nails which I had seen make a particularly effective weapon. She was the perfect hunter, and she had come to hunt me.

I could deal with that, I decided, so long as Alice was not harmed. I felt awfully guilty for dragging her into this when she had done nothing, but I was grateful for her presence as I felt it calming me whilst I prepared myself.

A look in my eye must have given me away, because Maria's emotions abruptly changed to become pleading and frightened.

"Jasper," she begged, "Jasper, please don't."

I looked straight ahead, trying to block out everything that would sway me from my decision.

"Very well." Maria snarled, and clicked her fingers once. Almost immediately, two vampires sprung from the shadows.

"Laurence, come and help me with this one!" she yelled, "and Pearl, take care of the little one." They were startlingly obedient for vampires of their age.

It was as I was thinking this that the male and Maria began to advance towards me, eyes flashing with anger, teeth glinting dangerously. I was already anticipating the moves Maria would have instructed Laurence to make, and had seen Maria fight hundreds of times. So long as I didn't make any sudden movements I would be OK.

Laurence came at me first, leapt from fifty metres away to stare threateningly into my eyes. This was Maria's most cliché tactic, and I laughed in his face, taunting him before quickly tearing his arm off. He howled for her now, and she sprang just as close to me.

"You'll wish you'd never left me, Major Whitlock" she sneered.

I would have replied, but decided instead to buck the trend and attack her as I had only dreamt of until now. After five minutes, her face and neck were covered with crescent shaped-scars, as mine already was because of her. I swiped at her as she crept up on me, and sent her flying for miles.

OK, I exaggerated. 200 yards maybe?

She was soon coming back though, having reunited with Laurence. Alice and the other vampire were nowhere to be seen, although I was fairly confident that Alice wouldn't have too many problems.

This time, Laurence came from the left and Maria from the right, so I sped forwards and laughed as I watched them run into each other with an almighty crash that made the ground shake. Now they were both (albeit temporarily) incapacitated, I dealt with Laurence first, thankful that I had thought to bring a box of matches with me when I left the hotel room so many days ago. I struck the side of the box once with a match and watched as it sprung into flame. Excellent. I tossed it onto what remained of the male vampire, and proceeded towards Maria.

She was pleading again; clearly Laurence had been one of her stronger ones. I remembered how she once said that some people were born to be vampires, and he was probably one of them. Poor soul.

"Jasper," she began again, when I heard Alice's terrified scream for the second time in as many hours.

I practically flew to Alice's side, quickly throwing Pearl's remains onto the gently crackling fire. A hand still crept toward us, an amethyst bracelet indicating that it had belonged to the female. As the pair in the fire burned, we watched curiously as the hand withered and dropped onto the forest floor. This time it was Alice who threw it onto the fire.

"Alice, are you OK?" She looked pale, even for a vampire, and felt subdued and shocked by what she had seen. Still, she nodded quietly in answer to my question, her eyes focused on Maria, who I realised was still alive...well, you know what I mean.

"Wait here a minute," I said and Alice nodded again.

"I've not finished with you yet," Maria stated from the recently created clearing.

This was it. I was about to destroy the only person I had known for almost a century, to save a vampire I'd barely known a week. I'm still not 100% sure why I did it, as examining the reasons it should almost certainly have been the other way round, but I knew that it was the right thing to do, even if it was immediately obvious to the majority of the Southern vampires who weren't too happy with me in the years that followed.

I looked up to see her stalking up through the bushes and sighed as I sprang over to her.

I'll spare you the exact details, but it took longer than I thought it would to destroy her, but soon enough the fire glowed purple and spat smoke into the air as the last of the thunder rolled overheard.

Once this was done, I ran back to Alice and embraced her tightly, not wanting to let her go. Alright, we kissed for a bit, but it started to rain again, so we decided that now would be a good time to head West, look for these 'Vegetarian vampires' Alice had seen, while the humans were inside. I agreed with her because, quite frankly, I'd agree with anything Alice said now.

As we crossed the Nebraska/Wyoming border a week or so later, I stopped to look at her beautiful face. She knew what I was going to say before I said it but allowed me to continue anyway, a (very slightly smug) smile on her face.

"I'm so glad you found me Alice," I said, my hands shaking a little, how embarrassing! "And, I love you."