Chapter 7

Maria

Texas was much warmer than Forks had been, even at night. The air was much drier. The place they found Maria in was a safe haven of canyon rock that made a wall around their camp, shielding them from sight. It was safe for them to be in the sun here.

" Jassssper, how lovely to see you again!" Maria hissed as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Glancing at Alice she threw her a wicked grin. This made Alice's cold blood run icy, and then boil in her veins. Jasper was a statue unmoving, unfeeling under Maria's arms.

" What is your plan, Maria? You cold-hearted demon from hell." Jasper growled loudly, unamused as he threw her arms quickly but gently away.

" This must be your pretty wife!" Maria grinned as she looked Alice over.

" Leave her alone Maria, you want me remember." Jasper snarled.

" She isn't much to look at is she? Not very threatening. Not very good for our purposes, is she Jazzy?" Maria prodded, maintaining a very fake innocent voice.

" Maria, your just asking for me to kill you, and for once I would actually happily oblige! So I suggest you shut your mouth for once in your miserable life." Jasper growled through bared teeth, as he stepped in between Maria and Alice.

" Oh isn't this special, You've fallen in love! So is she as good as I was? Would you do anything for her? Die for her, Jasper?" Maria laughed, letting her voice slip into a more sinister sound.

" She is better than you could ever be! I would die for her many times over if I had too, unlike you, you coward!" Jasper said, trusting nothing Maria said.

" You can relax Jasper, I am not going to hurt anyone. At least not now, but I would still watch what you say or you just might have to die for her." Maria looked toward the mass of Newborns gathered in different locations. " If you make a deal with me, I will promise to let everyone leave unharmed. I will explain it when the sun goes down." Maria said losing interest in the conversation. Walking away she began barking orders out to her army.

" Alice I am so sorry I got you into this. Are you alright?" Jasper asked, feeling the confusion and jealousy Alice was glowing with. Looking him in the eyes Alice let him see the hurt in hers. Wrapping his arms protectively around her, Jasper kissed her softly.

* * * * *

" I thought you were going to kill her!" Bella laughed lightly from her seat on the ground beside a small fire lighting the night. The night air had cooled slightly, but was still very dry. Only dust covered the ground for several miles. The sky was very clear, and the stars shone brightly.

" Maria is not one to trust. Don't take anything she says or does for granted. She is still dangerous and will mislead us if she can." Jasper said quietly, from his own seat by the fire. Alice lay silently stretched across his lap watching the flames from the fire dance.

" Edward, was Maria hiding anything?" Bella asked her husband who had been quietly muttering to himself all day.

" No, she knows a lot about us, she was very careful what she thought about." Edward said blankly with little interest.

" So my friends….." Maria greeted everyone as she joined them around the fire " Jasper here is my deal. I brought you here because I need you. Gabriel just helped me to get Alice here, because I know you wouldn't have come without her." Maria explained, as she tossed some small sticks in the fire. " You have always been the greatest fighter I have ever created! The wars are getting harder to win, and I need you to rejoin me. With your help again, I will be unstoppable!" Maria yelled, throwing her arms up in the air, her voice echoing off the canyon rock.

" Forget it Maria! I am through killing for you, and I refuse to do it again. I am not a monster like you!" Jasper shouted as he jumped to his feet, being careful not to jostle Alice too much.

" Then you leave me no choice. I must give up on you." Maria said plainly. Standing up she shrugged and walked away, hiding a wicked glint in her eyes.

" Is it me or was that way too easy?" Ivy asked Jasper, hugging his arm for comfort.

" Yes little darlin, it was. She is planning something and it cant be good." Jasper said sitting back down, gathering Alice back up into his lap.

" Uh Edward? Why are you making weird faces?" Ivy asked while giggling making Alice and Bella laugh too.

" No offense Edward but from here it looks like you have an itch your just too embarrassed to scratch." Alice said bursting out into laughter again.

" You know we don't get itches. Anyways it was this stupid song Maria was singing in her head. ' See see, soon they'll see. See see, soon they'll see' It is stuck in my head now! Gah!" Edward sang for them groaning as he did so. Jasper's serious expression never changed.

* * * * *

Late that night everyone had separated to hunt. Jasper had just caught the scent of a wild bison when a familiar scent hanging in the air caught his attention. Completely alert, he followed her scent to a small cave nearby, unaware that Alice was following him.

" Ah Jazzy, I see you noticed the scent trail I left for you." Maria said in a seductive tone. " Oh how I have missed running my hands over your muscles, and twisting my fingers into your hair." She said running her hands down Jasper's chest.

" Maria don't! What we had back then was ancient history now so forget it. See these scars? They are your doing, because it was for you I fought all of those newborns. These are the nightmares I must live with because of you." Jasper said running his fingers over two matching scars on his right arm.

" I am sorry for that, but isn't my love enough to convince you to stay here with me?" Maria asked, kissing his cheek.

" You know that deep down I still love you on a certain level but you can never replace Alice!" Jasper said pushing her away and taking a few steps back.

" Just one more time for old times sake?" Maria begged wrapping her arms around his neck. Quickly she moved in for her mark and kissed him square on the lips as he tried to shove her away.

Alice who had been silently watching from the shadows finally stepped into view. " Jasper! How could you!!?" She yelled, letting every ounce of anger and pain overflow so that he could feel it. " Go home Jasper, just go home and forget about me!" she said through dry sobs before disappearing into the woods, her tiny figure shaking as she ran.

" Alice!! No, wait!!" Jasper said knocking Maria to the floor when he wirled around toward the cave entrance.

" Jasper forget her! She doesn't matter anymore." Maria said standing up and brushing herself off.

" Shut-up Maria! Alice is everything to me, she matters more than anything in the world and she is broken now because I was too blind to see your plan!" He growled, sprinting off into the woods after Alice.

* * * * *

" Edward, Bella please take Ivy and go home. Find Jasper and take him with you if you have to drag him. Tell him that I will always love him." Alice said dropping to her knees beside the pile of ashes that was their smoldering fire. Hiding her face she buried it in her hands.

" Edward? Is it possible for an unbeating heart to break?" Bella asked remorsefully as she watched her sister fall apart.

"An unbeating heart is just a heart frozen in time and when its damaged it doesn't break, it begins beating again only for a minute or two before shattering." Edward explained, finding for once he was almost at a loss for words. Silently they watched Alice as she continued to tremble like a child who lost a parent. As they continued to stare they noticed a small twitch in the left side of her chest. Looking at her now uncovered face, they could see the tears making rivers down her cheeks, glistening as the moonlight reflected off of them.

" I thought vampires couldn't cry?" Bella asked, confused by the conflicting logic.

" When the heart starts beating for those few brief moments the body regains the ability to feel and cry along with it, making the pain that much worse." he answered numbly.

" Oh Edward! She really loves Jasper doesn't she? Wait? What happens when the heart shatters?" Bella asked, starting to panic with a death hold on his shirt.

" Nothing really, vampires are already dead in a matter of speaking, so it doesn't really effect much in that sense. Except the overwhelming feeling of numbness and emptiness, along with the idea that nothing matters anymore. If the subject vampire gives in to those feelings completely though, they eventually forget everything and just live as an empty shell like a statue for the rest of eternity." he sighed. Taking a seat by Alice, he wrapped his arm around her and rocked her back and forth singing a song Bella didn't recognize. No idea what to do, Bella took a seat on Alice's other side and joined in on the hugging. As the hours passed and Jasper continued to look for Alice, night turned into day while she continued to sit motionless under Edward's arm.

* * * * *

" Your plan is ruined now, Jasper will never rejoin you." Gabriel groaned.

" Not exactly. I still have Ivy and his precious Alice don't I?" Maria grinned, as she watched the vampires below from her seat on top of the canyon wall. " As soon as I threaten them, he will come running. Either way, I will kill Alice anyways, which will make convincing him even easier!" Maria cackled, enjoying the moment a little more than she should.

Thanks everyone for continuing to read. Thanks for all the comments you gave. The final chapter will be posted real soon so be looking for it!