Swiftly typed to get this bunny out of my brain all for you :)
"Edward what's wrong?" Jane murmured softly as she finished dropping matches onto Dimitri's funeral pyre. She had enjoyed forcing her power onto the man; it brought her a sense of atonement, as if in killing just one man she had saved many lives and made a start on atoning for her own sins. She could only imagine how she'd feel by the time she'd finished.
"Nothing. I was just thinking." His brow was furrowed and he was sat on the grass, legs crossed. "Musing on things that could have been." Edward pulled a golden engagement band from his finger and flipped it in the air, watching the pale moonlight glint across the metal.
"Bella." Jane didn't need the young man's power to know what he was thinking. Sometimes his eyes would go completely blank and it scared her. It actually scared the ex-Volturi guard and that in itself was terrifying. She couldn't reach him when his eyes were blank but she knew that he was thinking of his sister and his fiancé. Of what they could be doing now that he had left. "You're just torturing yourself." She laid a hand on his arm but he jerked away.
"A little torture is good for the soul." He gave the crooked grin that Bella had loved so much. "You told me that once." Jane watched the feverish look in his eyes with a thrill of emotion; fear and excitement coalesced into one and she advanced on him again, intent on getting through to her unlikely ally.
"Bella and Alice won't last. Bella will leave her just like she did you." This time Edward whirled on her, smashing his forearm into the girl's chest and throwing her into the cliff face.
"Don't you dare blame Bella for what had happened. She did nothing. Alice is the one who will die and Bella will be mine again." He was breathing heavily when he let her go and it was that single burst of anger that Jane finally realised exactly how far Edward had fallen. He was long past obsession and was firmly within the realms of insanity. She needed their third member to arrive quickly because no amount of artificial pain pumped into Edward's skull could stop him if he decided that Jane too must die. She immediately set to calming him.
"I'm not blaming her Edward. I was just saying that maybe she'll see sense." When he didn't turn to her she felt she should continue. "She'll see Alice isn't good enough for her and it's you she really loves."
"You're lying." Edward muttered, cross-legged on the sparse grass with his head in his hands. "You'd think you'd be a better liar after working with the Volturi."
"You would wouldn't you?" She sat beside him. "But I always found pain was better that speech." Her patience had run out and as if on cue a shadow appeared on the fringe of the forest. Jane smiled cruelly; happy to drop her façade and focused the full focus of her power on the man beside her. Edward screamed once and slumped to the side, unconscious. "You're late." The shadow stepped into the orange light of the merrily burning fire.
"He ready for a touch up Janie?" The newcomer's smoky voice asked while the owner knelt beside Edward, a hand stroking his porcelain face.
"Of course Dante. Could you do something about the blank periods as well; they're unnerving."
/
Alice kept a secure, but not painful, grip on Bella's arm as they walked into Forks High School. It had been two days since Edward's departure and neither of them had been to school since. Naturally the rumour mill was well and truly salivating at Bella's return but with a Cullen by her side, Bella doubted they would even get close. Jasper and Emmett were following them closely and that would probably deter anyone brave enough to take Alice.
It was lunch however that posed the problem. She had managed to convince her vampires that she was perfectly capable of getting her lunch on her own and by some stroke of luck all three of them had sat with Rosalie at their usual table. Jessica accosted her in the line. "What happened with you and Edward?" Bella cringed inwardly and sought out eye contact with Alice. The look in golden eyes told her in no uncertain terms that if she needed her she need only say. Bella looked back at Jessica feeling slightly braver.
"We broke up." It was a much-shortened version of the story but it was all the girl needed to know. Dark eyes dropped to her neck and Bella was suddenly very aware of the still healing wound there.
"What happened to your neck?" Jessica moved as if to touch it and she flinched back. Suspicion now clouded those dark eyes. "Did someone hurt you?" She'd forgotten that Jessica had been with her the last time Edward left her. The time she'd gone through the self-destructive phase. She supposed it was a natural conclusion for her friend's brain to jump to.
"An old friend got a new puppy. She's teething and likes to chew. She got a little over excited when I picked her up the other day." Bella didn't dare look at Jessica to see if her lie had any effect but she could see Emmett and Jasper chuckling silently and knew that they'd heard her. "It's nothing."
"Oh…cool." Inside Bella cheered. Outside she just smiled her agreement. "So who are going to prom with now Edward's gone?"
"I'm not going to Prom Jess." Bella loaded a tub of salad onto her tray in an attempt to ignore the other human's gasp of horror.
"You have to go Bella. It's like law." Bella rolled her eyes but Jessica didn't drop the subject. "Hey you could go with Jasper; I heard him and the pixie broke up." Jessica didn't notice Bella bristle at the pixie comment, just as she didn't see said pixie giggle.
"Jasper's not exactly my type Jessica." She was blushing profusely and Alice's raucous laughter was not helping the red fade from her cheeks.
"Then you won't mind if I ask him out." There it was. Jasper's smile fell from his lips like a stone. The whole reason for their conversation.
"Sure, go for it." Bella knew she was setting Jessica up for disappointment but the look on both hers and Jasper's face made her entire day as she wandered over to the Cullen table. Jessica went to sit beside Angela, no doubt to discuss tactics. Bella began to pick at her salad in silence.
"Jessica? Bella, seriously?" Jasper's voice had risen a few octaves. A fact that sent laughter rippling around the table. Even Rosalie indulged in a little giggle.
"Prom? You'll be fine Jasper. You might even enjoy it." Emmett elbowed his brother in the ribcage with a Cheshire grin on his face; there was no way the giant of a boy was going to let this go any time soon.
"You could always go with me." Alice whispered, eyes downcast; she didn't dare look Bella in the eye. The whole table froze, each member trying not to look as if they were listening. Bella knew they all were and that made what she had to say so much harder.
"I'm sorry. Alice I can't." The tiny vampire nodded slowly, still looking into her lap. "It's not that I don't love you, I do. Really." She took a deep breath. "But I still love him too."
"I understand." Alice's voice was soft but somehow she'd managed to force some cheerfulness into it. "It was just a suggestion, so neither of us had to go alone." Too late Bella realised that prom would be something Alice would love to go to, no matter how many she had already been to and that she had broken up with Jasper and therefore had no one to go with. Bella wished she could take back what she's said but Alice had already risen from the table and was dancing away, her voice floating over her shoulder. "I'll be in the gym; I need to see Jet. I'll see you guys in class." Jasper and Emmett rose wordlessly and followed the girl, leaving Bella alone with Rosalie.
"You need to decide." The blonde stated bluntly. Bella frowned and golden eyes rolled. "Alice chose you over Jasper. You think that was easy for her? She hasn't asked you to do the same because she's too nice." Rosalie's voice sounded almost bitter. "But if you don't choose, you'll lose both of them.
"I-" She held up a hand to cut the human off.
"You already broke Edward's heart. It you break Alice's again then you have to answer to me." Bella's spine straightened and an amused smile pulled at the vampire's perfect lips.
"Alice can look out for herself you know." Rosalie laughed; a cold laugh that completely opposed her beautifully formed features and warm smile.
"I'm not saying she can't Bella. But while Edward will hunt you down for hurting him, Alice will just shrug it off and act like it doesn't matter. Push it all down and pull out that cheerful face of hers. Just like always." Bella wanted to ask what 'just like always' was supposed to mean but the blonde was already half way across the cafeteria leaving Bella alone with her salad.
Yeah I thought it was time for an OC you'll see why soon enough and can we get a cheer for Rosalie defending Alice? I think she's rapidly rising into my good graces for that stunt :)
