Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with Twilight
Authors note: I had my advanced biology prelim today and bloody hell it was hard! Oh! And guess what, guys? It was snowing today! Yay! There's about four inches of snow at my house so far. I really hope it snows some more though.
Oh, and a shout out to the three people that guessed right! faerie kitten! strgaze! mfrancesj!
I hope this chapter's ok because it's actually my first time at writing Jasper's pov and the pov's change a bit in this chapter but it's completely necessary.
Don't mess with me
Jaspers POV
I could barely force myself to sit still, I was so panicked. I pulled Alice tighter to me as she buried her head in my shoulder and I felt her warm tears soak through my shirt. It had been three long hours since Bella left and a few minutes less than that when she disappeared from Alice's visions.
Alice was in a complete state when Bella left, yelling for her to come back as tears streamed from her eyes but it was completely useless. Bella would have been at Cullen's fort within a split-second of her leaving. I had tried to calm Alice, to get her to tell me what happened but was only when, a few minutes later, she got another vision she told me what happened, what she had seen Cullen doing and that Bella had disappeared from her visions.
Bella, being a young light, had been placed in mine and Alice's care and she was more like a little sister than anything else. Because Bella had disappeared from Alice's visions, she didn't know where she was so I couldn't even follow to get her back. I had been trying to comfort Alice with the thought, the possibility that Bella could be in the company of the wolves, but even that wasn't a certainty.
I felt Alice's small body tense beside me and her grip on my hand tightened. I titled my head to look down at her, seeing the blank look on her face for a second before she came out of her vision and looked at me with wide eyes.
"It's Bella. She's alive." I let out a sigh of relief, relief which didn't last long when Alice spoke again. "But barely… Jasper, you have got to help her." She stood up, but because of her small height, her face was just level with mine. "She's in the woods but I don't know where. You have to go find her and I'll get stuff ready here, ok?" She spoke quickly, desperately and I nodded before disappearing out the door to our cottage and into the surrounding woodland.
I knew what Alice meant when she said I had to search for Bella; I had the speed of a vampire so I would be able to find her quicker than it would be for a light to teleport continuously.
The trees flashed by me in a blur as I ran, straining my ears for any sound of movement from Bella. I had to get to her quickly and get her back home if she had any chance of surviving. Alice had said Bella had managed to teleport seven humans, from the very heart of Cullen's castle, and since she returned to us, I assumed she had gone to the wolves' house, at the edge of the city.
Honestly, it was amazing she was still alive. That kind of teleportation would exhaust even the most experienced of lights and she was so young. Not only had she managed that, but she had then teleported herself back here. Using teleportation was extremely draining, mentally and physically. It wasn't too bad for me because I was a vampire, I didn't tire, but I could only hope I would get to Bella in time.
I froze when I heard the sound of whimpering, someone crying and mumbling. I turned sharply to my right and ran at my full speed towards the sound. In a matter of seconds I was standing over Bella, curled in the fetal position, with her eyes closed and tears streaming down her face.
I bent down and lifted her gently in my arms. She began to struggle feebly against me, with less strength than she usually could have, and I tightened my arms around her to stop her from moving. If she carried on squirming I would be likely to drop her.
"I'm here, its ok; I've got you." I said softly to her and her body relaxed immediately, her small hands clinging to my shirt.
I closed my eyes for a split second and when I opened them I found myself standing outside our cottage. I kicked the door open with my foot and carried Bella into the house as she lay limply in my arms. "Alice?" I called and heard her movements from the other side of the house before she managed to reply.
"I'm in Bella's room. Bring her in here." She spoke softly and I was in the room just a moment later. "Put her on the bed." I did as she asked and stood back as Alice busied herself with checking Bella's vitals.
Bella's breathing was coming in quick shallow gasps and her heart beat was slow and weak. I immediately moved to the head of the bed she was lying in and placed my hands on either side of her head, closing my eyes in concentration.
I felt the warmth, which was my life force, flood from my torso down my arms, to my fingertips and into Bella's sleeping form. It was another gift we lights had, besides being able to teleport and our other unique abilities. It was a form of healing, moving energy from our being into that of an injured one. It was usually used on humans if we got to a fight too late to stop it, to save them. But it was much harder to use it on creatures of the light which was why I did it instead of Alice, who would be absolutely exhausted if she had.
I removed my hands and stepped back, relieved to hear Bella's heart take on a steadier pulse and her breathing return to normal. I looked towards Alice who was standing beside Bella, gripping her hand.
"Will she be alright?" I asked as I moved towards her and placed my hand on her shoulder soothingly.
"She should be. She just needs rest, and a heck of a lot of it." Alice said with a small smile as she tilted her head towards me. I returned her smile and placed a small kiss on her lips.
I looked down at Bella's still form as she lay on her bed. We had been assigned to train her, like all young lights were trained, and to protect her, to look after her. I had failed on that, hadn't I? She was absolutely exhausted, near death, she had just witnessed the first, most violent thing she had seen in her life and had almost killed herself by teleporting all the humans at once. If I had taken better care of her none of that would have happened. I knew it was a bad decision letting her try to stop Cullen. I knew what he was capable of and yet, I had let her go anyway.
He would pay for it. Cullen. This was his fault. He had almost killed her and I would make sure he would never, ever, hurt her again.
"Jasper," Alice spoke softly, breaking me out of my thoughts and I looked back at her. "Be careful." She said, and I knew she must have had a vision of my decision.
"I'll be fine, Ali. You know that." I said softly.
"I know. It's Edward I'm worried about." She said and continued to speak when she saw the scowl on my face. "He's important to her, Jasper. I've seen it. He plays an important role in her life." she said with a fond smile as she looked down at Bella.
Without another word, I teleported to him. Let's see how Cullen could handle himself against me, not fragile and vulnerable like Bella, but a trained killer, another of his kind.
Edward's POV
I let out a loud growl as I launched myself at yet another tree, reducing it to dust. I managed to reel in my anger and glanced around to survey the damage; a wide circle of the forest cleared within the few seconds I had been here.
I stood there in the silent forest, completely frozen as I thought over what had happened just a few hours earlier. How could I have been so stupid? Of course she would have been able to save them without actually having to give her life for them.
A blinding white light appeared out of the darkness to my right and, for a split-second, I thought it might have been Bella. That is, until I felt myself flying through the air backwards and crashing into one of the few trees still standing in the area, causing it to buckle with the force I had hit it with.
Before I had a chance to react a light flashed again, directly in front of me and I felt two hands grab the collar of my shirt before lifting me up and ramming me into a near by tree. I felt wave after wave of fear and guilt wash over me and I realized who this being was before I focused on his face.
"Jasper," I hissed through clenched teeth.
"Edward." he snarled, and shoved me against the tree again, simultaneously increasing the fear he was forcing upon me.
"Come to join me, Hale?" I asked snidely, struggling against his tight hold on me. I knew he was a much better fighter than I was but that didn't stop the instinct that threatened to overwhelm me, to fight him as my anger surged through me.
He growled and moved his hand around me neck, lifting me further in the air. "I will never join you, Cullen, especially not after you hurt her." His voice was low and deadly. I felt a surge of fear wash through me and narrowed my eyes at Jasper, knowing he was controlling my emotions. Why else would I be scared of him? He was a light for fuck's sake.
"Hurt who, the light that corrupted you?" I growled at him and his hand tightened around my throat, the second the words were out of my mouth, preventing my unnecessary breathing.
"She didn't corrupt me, she saved me. Although I may look different and act different, I'm still the same creature I was, just underneath the surface. Never doubt that. She showed me love and patience but I still have some of that darkness left in me. I'll never escape that. Remember that, Edward; I may look and act like a creature of goodness, but if you ever hurt her again I won't hesitate to destroy you." he said in a deadly whisper, his black eyes boring up into mine.
"Hurt who?" I managed to choke out through the tight grip on my throat.
"The light that came to stop you. The light that you tried, and very nearly succeeded, to kill. Bella." he hissed at me and I felt a wave of worry wash through me - I had some inkling that it wasn't anything to do with Jasper; it was my own worry for Bella.
"What?" My voice came out in barely a whisper, concern irritatingly obvious.
"She almost died today and, believe me; if she had you wouldn't still exist right now. Because of you, she could have died. You almost killed her." He said viciously.
"Killed her? I didn't even have the chance to try-." I was cut off by Jaspers hand, contracting round my neck, preventing me from being able to talk.
"You had that fucking ridiculous plan to lure her in by killing those humans. When she tried to get them out to safety, it almost killed her." His face was just inches from mine, clouded in fury. My body was starting to shake with the different emotions he was forcing upon me, unable to cope with the sudden switch from fear to guilt to worry and back again. "If you even think about hurting her again, you wont live another second in this world. I promise you that, Cullen." he growled and stepped away from me, causing me to land back on my feet.
Just as he released me from the emotional torture he was bestowing on me I felt a rush of pure anger and lunged towards him a split second before he disappeared in a blinding white light. A loud growl ripped from my chest as I looked around my empty surroundings. I was angry, not only with Jasper, although that was at the forefront of my mind, but with me. Even though I had planned to kill her, discovering that that had almost happened sent an unnerving sense of guilt and the fear at the knowledge that I could have lost her.
Bella's POV
I groaned and my eyes slowly fluttered open. My eyes darted around the room before finally landing on Alice's concerned face hovering over me, at the side of the bed I was lying on.
"Oh Bella, you gave us such a fright." she said as a smile spread across her face and she pulled me into a hug. I tightened my grip around her as the images of blood and death floating into my mind. A small sob escaped my mouth before I could stop it and before I knew it I was clutching desperately to Alice as my tears soaked through her shirt.
"Bella…shhh…it's ok." She comforted me as I managed to calm my crying but kept my face buried into her shoulder.
"Bella?" I jerked my head off of Alice's shoulder when I heard that voice and my gaze landed on Jasper standing just inside the door to the room.
"Jasper…" I whispered and reached my arms out towards him, pulling him into a hug when he was within my reach. "Thank you." I said softly and rested my face against his chest. I was glad he had saved me, that I would be able to have the chance to save humans in the future, to make up for the ones that I had lost.
A/N: heehee, Jasper threatened Edward! Yay! I just want to reinforce the point that Bella is as innocent as a child…an innocent child. She has never experienced death before that, not even the death of a pet gold fish so she is badly affected by it. And Edward is still evil so there's definitely not going to be a lemon within the next few chapters, if I'm even going to have one.
My prelims are officially over! Wooo! And I got an interview at a Uni I applied to so I wont be able to update that often…
I finally got a beta, yay. Thanks readinangel!
Oh, and the poll on my profile wasn't working so I deleted it and made a new one. Please vote!
I got 9 reviews for the last chapter so I'll update when I get…7! So it should be easy…
Thanks for reading! Please review!
Thanks to all my reviewers too: dominiqueanne, 55, faerie kitten, strgaze, abby85, mfrancesj, zeyica, lc4life and dvorndran
