Vampire Haunts

BPOV

"What now?" he asks, voice much quieter than he'd normally speak. We're walking through London's Heathrow Airport, away from arrivals, each holding a rucksack. He's not taken off his sunglasses since Seattle. Admittedly that caused a fuss at Immigration at Seattle airport, but I paid off a few guards and got us on a plane. When we got here, I got him through Customs simply by running past them. They may ask questions about the attractive couple who got on at Seattle and failed to reappear at Heathrow.

"We get out of this airport. Immigration at Seattle saw us both, and we both got on that plane. They'll have us on CCTV getting off it, but we didn't appear at Customs here. I can't bribe everyone, and there is no way you can take the sunnies off. We get out, find a backstreet. And then we start plotting."

"Sure." He's spoken in monosyllables and nothing else since we left.

I let him sulk until we hit a suitably deserted backstreet.

"You need to snap out of it. And we need to find something else for you to wear that aren't sunnies. It's fucking raining, you can't walk around with the shades. Hand them over. I'll get you some contact lenses or something. I can't keep smuggling you past Government officials."

"Yes, you can."

"No, I can't - or won't, pick whichever suits. When you've lost control before, is this how you get? Some dark pit of self-pity?"

"Self-pity?"

"Yes, self-pity! I can help you, but I'm not helping you until you accept that losing control is not something exclusive to you, and that every vampire has done it! Except me and Carlisle, but we aren't the norm! We're the fucking freaks of the vampire world! Rose, Edward, Alice, Esme, Tanya, all the Denali clan, they've all made mistakes! You are strong, you are so strong, but until you see that there is nothing I can do! You survived Maria, the Vampire wars of the South! And after everything you've been through, the fact that you are standing here with me now proves that you are still fighting! You're still going, you're still determined to succeed! You're strong enough to do this, just realise that!"

"You still believe in me?"

"I never stopped. I believed in you when we were ten, and you promised me we'd see each other again! I believed in you when we stood at the top of that waterfall and you promised me you wouldn't let me fall! I believed in you when you told me you loved me when you gave me a bunch of half-dead daisies and a dandelion and some flipping weeds for my eighth birthday! And I believe in you now, right here, today, I believe that you are strong enough to beat this!"

"What's the plan?" The smile is a ghost of the one before, the voice still not his old voice, but he's making progress. He takes his sunglasses off, and he hands them to me. "Where to, in our journey?"

"Jaybird," I whisper, and wrap my arms around him. "My brave and handsome hero. We're going to my home. There's somebody you need to meet."

We run, and then we get on a boat, after one pit-stop to get Jasper some brown contact lenses from a fancy dress store.

"You couldn't at least get blue?"

"You want purple eyes? Come on, we're getting on this one."

"Norway? We're going to Norway?"

"Yes. We're going to Norway. I wasn't entirely truthful to you when we first met. I'll explain when we get there."

I look at him whilst we're standing on deck, watching the Norwegian coast approaches. He's not back to being my Jay yet, but I still think I can get him there. I refuse to think about what I'll be forced to do so very soon. Jasper will think it means I don't trust him. But I'm determined to let him make the decision.

JPOV

She lets us in to a peaceful chalet, halfway up a snow-capped mountain. I can tell why she brought it, it's isolated and lonely, and the nearest village is two miles down a very difficult path.

"Welcome to my former home. I lived here for three years, when I first got changed. I built it myself. None of the villagers ever came to see me. They thought I was a ghost."

"Vampire haunt?"

"Couldn't be bothered with the turrets and the drawbridge shit. Too obvious. No, they thought I was some kind of evil spirit. It's been empty ever since. Local folklore has it that I placed a curse on it. I'm something of a legend, apparently."

"So, what did you lie to my family about?"

"James. I always knew for certain that that was what his name was, I didn't kill or injure him during my transformation - and if Emmett did indeed meet James, that scar had fuck all to do with me. His venom was on my clothes because I was apparently rather uncooperative during the biting. I bled out, and apparently quite a bit of venom came with it. I didn't wake up alone - I woke up with a woman named Victoria sitting with me in my New York apartment. She explained what I was, who I was. And then she left. She died, quite recently. She got into a fight with some of Jane's henchmen, and lost. Which is a shame, because it's about time Jane got a good beating. I'm in touch with a vampire named Laurent - James' …well, I'm not very sure what the relationship is. Brothers in arms, I suppose. I heard from him about a year ago, and he told me James was in Finland."

"Lovely. So you do know who your creator is. Why'd you lie?"

"James is impossibly powerful, Jasper. Much, much more powerful than me, and I have powers that you can only imagine. He can change the weather, manipulate the elements. He can control air, water, earth, fire. He can hypnotise vampires. He can manipulate any vampire anywhere into doing exactly what he wants, by planting his thoughts into their heads. He's a fearsome fighter - if he challenges you, you aren't going to walk away from it. He can sense other peoples powers simply by being in a room with them. He has powers I know nothing about. I am a fraction of him."

"But you've never met him - as a vampire, I mean?"

"Nope. And he scares the absolute shit out of me."

"Yeah, Bella, whilst I'm happy for you, and I'm glad, why are we talking about him?"

"Sit down, Jay. Sit down."

She sits me down in the living room, and then she lights a fire.

"Gee, Bells, you going to give up and throw me in?"

"No, don't be daft. I just like fires, is all."

"Pyromaniac vampire - bet that's a first."

"Probably. Look, I told you about James because we're going to go find James. He alone can help you - this is well beyond me."

"Is there nothing you can do?"

"All I can do now is put a bind on your bloodlust."

"You what?"

"I have a power - I can literally bind your bloodlust."

"Why didn't you do this before?" I'm so angry, so blindingly furious. She knew, she knew I struggled, and yet she sits here now and she tells me she could've helped all along. "Why the hell didn't you do this straight away, when you knew how much I struggled?"

"Because I couldn't even consider this without there being no other option! It's risky, you don't understand how risky! I wouldn't just bind your bloodlust, I'd bind your mind! You'd become nothing but my shadow, with no option but to do exactly as I said. If you don't trust me completely, there'd be part of your mind screaming at you to fight me, and it's impossible! The voices in your head would drive you mad, and you'd literally burn up. I have used this power only once before, and the vampire I used it on died, because he didn't trust me! I have to know that you trust me."

"I trust you. God, girl, I bloody love you! I'd hope I trusted you!"

"Well, it's nice that you say it, but I need to make sure."

"OK, I'm going to amend that to I'll trust you if you promise you won't make me do something stupid."

"Jay, I need to read your mind."

"You can do that?"

"Yes - but like Aro, I have to be touching the person in question. He sees every thought - but I can search your mind for anything I want, find it in seconds, as opposed to having to sift through hundreds of years to find the thing I want. It irritates the hell out of Aro that I have his power, but better."

"Bet Jane loved you."

"I have my own reasons for hating Jane, and she has her reasons to hate me. I pray for the day when I can kill her myself."

"You going to tell me what she did to you?"

"No. Tomorrow, we'll talk about the bind. Right now, I'm taking you hunting. There are eagles up here, and I'm telling you, you haven't lived till you've tried eagle."

BPOV

Dawn breaks in a red fire of glory. His hair is bronze in the light, his eyes still red and glowing in the pre-dawn.

"You ready, then, my darling?" I ask him, gently. He turns to face me.

"Yes."

"You know I have to -" He catches my hands in his. He kisses my fingertips.

"I know what you have to do. I know why. But I trust you. I know that you would never do anything to hurt me."

So I read his mind, I see his trust. Other things leap out at me, but I deliberately ignore them. All I need to know is whether or not he trusts me. Everything else he can tell me in his own time. I see the trust he has, and as I look, I see the trust I need to see, the fact that he trusts me more than he trusts anyone else.

I reach out my mind and enter his. He doesn't even flinch away from me, his eyes staring into mine. I don't know how it works, I can't describe it. But I wrap my mind around his. He does not fight. His last conscious thought that he can claim as his own is that he loves me.

When I take step back from him, his eyes are blank. Linked mind to mind, I can speak to him without speaking. I'm close to sobbing. Never, ever, did I want to do this to him.

-Jasper, I want you to put these contact lenses in.

He reaches out a hand. He does as I tell him

-Take three steps to your right and one forward.

He does so.

-Follow me. We're going to find James.

A/N: Apologies, I know it's been a while. But I'm back at college AND I have exams this month, so updates will be shaky until they're over. PLEASE review, especially since I have finally revealed two of Bella's many powers, which you've been badgering about! Love you all!