Leather and Lace

Far Away

Travelling with a playful coven of vampires is actually very fun. Being the sole human, and had I still been with Edward, I'd probably be worried that they were going to eat me. They wouldn't, though. Jasper was a human-drinker again, reverting back to the stage of his life that he had the most strength and power. When I thought about it that way, I realized three things about the Cullen family: One—because they starved themselves from the blood that they so wanted, they made themselves more vulnerable to bloodlust. Two—they really weren't that strong. Peter and Charlotte were stronger than Emmett and Carlisle combined. Three—they were so obsessed with not eating me that they never had fun around me.

Peter, Charlotte, and now Jasper were showing me that vampires could, in fact, have fun with a human. Peter had quickly adopted the big brother role in my life, stealing it away from Emmett with an ease that I'd be worried about were it not Peter. Charlotte was taking the big sister/best friend role, and Jasper… I wasn't sure about the role that Jasper played in this new life of mine. It was a major role, and without him everything would've fallen to pieces many, many times. And…

Without him, I'd not have been able to give up my illusions of life with Edward. After the flower thing in the New Orleans cemetery, when I'd tried to escape, Jasper had caught me. "It's the same thing for you, Bella," he said, and I'd looked at him with shock. What did he mean?

He picked me up and ran me back to the grave that we'd been sitting near, and pulled a brilliant yellow sunflower from behind a stone. He smiled sheepishly at me. "Your past, a sunflower. You came from Phoenix, Arizona, a place where the sun is almost always shining. You lived there, grew up there, and enjoyed all of the sun a person can enjoy there. Your present, a red rose. You were swept up into a whirlwind romance with the wrong guy, and it broke your heart. The red rose means 'I love you', but today, the red rose weeps with your heart." A red rose took its place beside the sunflower. I looked at Jasper, curious now to see the next flower. "Your future, a white rose. White itself is a magical color, waiting to be painted to fit your life. The rose means romance in its simplest form, and one day there will be a man who will haunt your mind as the ghost of a rose."

After that, I hadn't really been sure of how I was supposed to act around Jasper. "Bella?" I snapped back to reality at Char's gentle voice. "Bella, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Char," I said, trying to reassure the worried vampire. "I was just thinking about something." She laughed and ruffled my hair.

"Don't worry about anythin', sug," she grinned. "Me, Petey, and Jasper will do all the worryin' for you when it's time." I smiled.

"Alright, Char, if you say so."

I didn't want them to worry for me. I wanted them to be happy, carefree, and worry-free. I'd been causing them a lot of worry, it seemed, and I hated it. They were my friends, my family—they shouldn't worry.

Telling them that was like telling a log that it shouldn't be a log. It just wasn't going to ever work. In the first place, logs don't have ears; they can't hear. In the second place, a person can't defy who they really are, even if that's the only way to save their life. "Where'd you go, muffin?" Peter's voice broke into my thoughts, and my face flamed. Oops, I hadn't planned on getting lost there.

"Into outer space and home once more," I cracked, and Peter's booming laughter filled the cab. "On that note, however, where are we going now, Peter?"

"Well, unless we get lost along the way, we're headin' to Atlanta."

A long, cool arm snaked around my shoulders and I turned to look at Jasper with shock. "Go to sleep, Bella. It's a long drive."

"But what if Mar…?" I trailed off sleepily.

Before sleep hit me like a tidal wave, I swore Jasper said, "I won't let Maria hurt ya, darlin'." Dreams of haunted red eyes and cool black ones stalked me in my dreams that night.