I don't own any of this, SM does. Yeah, yeah, yeah...

A/N at the end, so it doesn't interrupt the mood.

Chapter 11

Jasper spun around to face the cold voice, dropping into a crouch and growling. Part of his mind realized that he'd crushed the phone in the process, and he allowed the crumbled mass to fall to the ground. Standing there, looking at him with mild curiosity, was a man…that wasn't a man.

He couldn't quite pinpoint what was off – just human body odor, smoke from the cigarette, the faint stench of vodka, which seemed to permeate every human in this god-forsaken part of the world - but no trace of the offensive odor those others had had on the peninsula. The emotions coming from him – curiosity, amusement, and below it all, hatred – seemed very human. But he knew. This creature before him was most definitely NOT human. His glance went briefly to the cigarette in the man's hand and the bottle in the other, before returning to his face. Carlisle's information had been correct on many aspects. He ceased growling, but did not rise up out of his crouch.

"Jealous, vampire?" the man asked, a smirk in his voice. He deliberately brought the bottle to his lips and took a deep drink, followed quickly by a long drag on the cigarette. Jasper did not respond. "As you can see," the man continued, his English difficult to understand through his thick accent, "I perhaps have the best of both worlds, whereas you only have the one." Jasper still did not respond, and the man sighed. "Come, now. Are you not going to speak to me at all? Ah – perhaps it is because we have not been properly introduced. My name is Mstislav. And you are?" He moved the cigarette to the hand holding the bottle, offering his now free hand to Jasper.

Jasper responded with a growl. "Will you, perhaps, kill me outright?" Mstislav asked, dropping his hand. "That is what you've been taught to do, no? That is what your Master demands of you, am I right? Will you not even ask questions of me first? Are you not, perhaps, interested in what I might be able to tell you of your mate?"

That made Jasper speak. "My MATE is far from here, you filth." Well, technically she wasn't, but old habits of speech die hard.

Mstislav looked puzzled. "Have I been misinformed, then? You are not, after all, looking for the small female with the long dark hair? The crazy one?"

It was Jasper's turn to feel puzzled, though he did not let it show. This was the second time one of these things had referred to Bella as crazy - for he was sure that it was Bella the creature spoke of.

"She is my sister." The words slipped out before he could stop them.

"Ah. Your sister. You are very odd for a vampire. You claim to have a mate, but she is far away, and yet here you are, running up and down my land, looking for your…sister." He took another swig from his bottle and dragged on his cigarette, absently flicking the ash away. "I will say, I have had both a mate and a sister, and I would never waste my time leaving one to look for the other. And I wouldn't have thought a vampire would, either. Are you sure that is the only reason you are here?"

This thing knew about Bella. He had to control himself and not kill it. At least, not before he'd learned more.

The creature must have read his mind. "And before you think any more about killing me, I must tell you, I did not get up here to your little private phone booth by climbing the stairs, and I have no intention whatsoever in allowing you to kill me. It would not be the easy task you no doubt imagine it to be, and you might find it causing you no little damage, yourself. It would serve your purpose better to leave me alive.

"What do you know of my purpose?"

"I don't know anything about YOUR purpose - other than you claim to be looking for your sister." The thing snorted in disbelief. "Although, I suppose I must believe that a bit, on some level. You definitely are looking for something, and at one point you were hot on her trail. Although, now you have lost it, have you not? Since crossing the water, you merely wander. I know nothing of your claimed purpose, and I care even less. But I DO wish you to take a message back to your master…"

Jasper cut him off with a hiss. "I HAVE no master, and I am not your messenger boy."

"Really? Because that's not what your SISTER said when I spoke to her last week."

Jasper cocked his head a bit, taking in that information. Perhaps they were not talking about the same person. What in the world had Bella told this thing? "She was here?" he asked. "You spoke to her? What did she say?" He didn't want to sound eager, but if this thing could make his job any easier, he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Running aimlessly around Siberia held no appeal to him, especially since it seemed to be crawling with werewolves - who appeared to be in contact with each other, since this one had information about him already.

"Ah... Not so eager to kill me now, eh, Vampire? Drink?" He held out the bottle to Jasper, who ignored it. "No? I didn't think so. I don't suppose you have any American cigarettes on you, either, eh?" He shrugged when Jasper went silent again. "A shame. Yes, she was here. For a day or so. Lurking around. Like I said, she is a crazy bitch. You should be glad she is not your mate. If she is truly your sister, perhaps you should consider killing her for the sake of your family's honor, or whatever it is you call it back in your city in the sun. She is causing trouble for you all, and you would do well to stop her before she brings down worse on you. She was here one week ago. She left, and I followed her trail for a while. She came from the southeast, and when she left she was going southwest. I followed her for a day. I do not know where she was going. I doubt SHE knew where she was going. She is mad, as I am sure you already know. I tell you this so you can find her and take her from here. It is a week until the full moon, Vampire, and then WE will stop her. And you, too, should we find you still on our lands."

Quicker than Jasper would have thought possible for a non-vampire, the thing had flung the bottle at him, hitting him in the face. It startled him so much that before he could launch himself at the beast, it had jumped over the low wall of the roof and was gone. Jasper ran to the edge and looked over, but the thing was already running towards the city center - not as fast as a vampire, but certainly faster than a human. Jasper briefly considered chasing after him, but decided the likelihood that he would run into an ambush was strong. And running into the unknown was not his cup of tea. No, clearly these things caused concern in the vampire world at any time of the month, so he would take no chances. Not right now. And the threat he'd offered…that had been clear enough. He had a week to find Bella and get out, or they were both in deadly danger.

No, right now he'd steal another phone, call Carlisle again, give him this interesting update, and then take off in the direction the thing had told him and find Bella.

* * *

Once again, Jasper was running through the mountainous woods. The second phone call to Carlisle – leaving the American's another phone short - had been much briefer. Jasper had not mentioned the fact that apparently, in the werewolf world of Siberia, Bella had managed to gain the reputation for being crazy. He didn't know quite what to make of that himself, and he'd begun to - on some level - almost dread what he was going to find when he finally caught up to her. They'd argued a bit when Jasper told him he was going to follow the creature's directions on where to find Bella's trail. Well, more than a bit, if Jasper was honest with himself. Carlisle was convinced it was a trap and that he was running right into it. Jasper argued that if they'd wanted to, the group on the peninsula could have taken him down - even in their human form (not that he knew that for sure - but, neither did Carlisle). In the end, they'd agreed to disagree, Carlisle telling him that he would trust Jasper's evaluation of the situation. Jasper told him that he appreciated the vote of confidence, and didn't bother pointing out that it didn't really matter, since he was in Siberia and Carlisle wasn't.

He'd left the town far behind him, running in a zigzagged search pattern. He was thinking Bella's straight-line running might have been replaced by some other pattern of movement, especially if she was behaving erratically, as the werewolves seemed to think. He spent a lot of time wondering why they had not killed her - or him – already. Did they feel they were unable to? Or did they really want her - and him - to deliver their message?

Whatever that message was… The thing had never told him. And the thing on the peninsula? Well, that had been as cryptic as shit. He had to assume that if he really was who THEY seemed to think he was, that it would have made sense. Shit. That didn't even make sense to him.

Mstislav had been right. Jasper quickly picked up Bella's trail in the direction the werewolf had told him she had gone. He worried again that it might be a trap, but, really, what choice did he have? The trail was leading northeast, though, not southwest, and Jasper's hopes rose – surely this meant she was heading home again! Maybe she'd gotten over the shock she must have experienced after encountering the werewolves, and was now heading home.

His hopes were dashed several hours later when the trail slowly turned north, then back to the west. What the hell was she doing? The trail wasn't even accommodating terrain half the time – he was doing more than his fair share of scrambling up and down hillsides that she could have easily gone around. There were no other scents on her trail – no signs that anything had been trailing her. No reason for her erratic behavior at all.

After following her west for several hours, he came upon a reindeer carcass drained and laying near a stream. Good for her – at least she seemed to be eating properly. Soon after, her trail turned back to the east again.

What. The. Fuck.

Doggedly, he turned back east. Was she LOST? She wasn't going in circles, though – she was going in zigzags. Maybe… Was she trying to establish a territory? Jasper briefly considered the possibility. It wouldn't be totally out of the question for one of their kind – especially one that hunted animals. The land abounded in wildlife. It would make a more than suitable home – if one discounted the complete isolation...and the werewolves. He could understand her need for isolation – perhaps after losing her mate she craved the isolation. She'd certainly stayed in that cave long enough. But the werewolves – THAT should be a real-estate deal breaker in anybody's book.

Well, he wasn't going to get any answers until he caught up to her. He seemed to be gaining on her as he ran - the scent trail was gradually getting stronger. She made another turn to the west, and then another to the east before Jasper stopped again, aggravated. Enough of this bullshit – he was wasting time. He had less than a week until the next full moon, and he needed to have her with him before then. He headed straight north, away from the trail - cutting up a small river valley, which provided some fairly flat terrain in the mountainous area.

His hunch paid off, and sure enough, within 50 miles, he crossed her trail heading back to the west. He smiled to himself. 'Gotcha', he thought, and continued north. The next time he crossed her trail, it was nearly fresh – maybe only hours old. He wanted to do some sort of victory dance – he knew Emmett would have – but felt silly. Instead, he turned east and followed the trail, quickly gaining on her.

It was only a couple of hours later when he caught up to her. He topped a hill and saw her in the valley below, chasing down a reindeer. Hmm…he surely wasn't going to interrupt her hunt. He wasn't that stupid. He needed to follow her for a bit first, and see if he could determine her mental state before he approached her.

He flew down the hillside and climbed a tree near the clearing where she'd taken down the deer. She was crouched over her kill, feeding slowly, stopping every so often to swing her head around and examine her surroundings. He wondered if she'd heard him, or had just learned to be cautious of her surroundings. He suspected the latter. He knew from past experience how close he could come without being detected, and unless she had some talent they'd been unaware of when she'd left, he was nowhere near that close.

She looked…bad. Decidedly the worse for wear, Jasper thought. The clothes she wore were several sizes too big for her, and had definitely seen better days. Her hair was nothing but tangled knots on her head, her waist-length tresses barely passed her shoulders now. She looked decidedly feral, Jasper thought, and was thankful for his decision to approach slowly and carefully.

When she'd finished feeding, she stood and examined her surroundings again before trotting off to the east again. Jasper dropped to the ground and chased after her. He wasn't going to hide his presence now, but neither was he going to get within striking distance. Let her see him first, and get accustomed to his presence.

He could tell when she realized he was there because her stance stiffened slightly and her speed picked up. He continued at the same pace, not wishing to trigger her flight response. When she realized that he hadn't sped up and was drawing no closer, she slowed back down to her previous speed. Every so often, he WOULD speed up a bit - briefly - drawing closer to her little by little. They continued that throughout the night, and by sunrise he was actually only a few hundred feet behind her. As she broke out of the trees into a meadow, she suddenly halted and spun to look at him.

He immediately stopped also, remaining in the shadows of the tree line. She carefully scanned the trees before her eyes stopped on his position. She took a few hesitant steps towards him, and Jasper, moving equally slowly, stepped out of the trees and into the light. She froze and looked him over. Only a hundred or so feet separated them now.

He held a hand out towards her. "Bella," he said softly. "Come here."

She growled, baring her teeth and crouching. Jasper sighed. He was afraid it might be like this. He stopped moving, but left his hand out. The growling didn't stop, but she slowly stood back up.

Using his sixth sense, he felt for her emotions. Nothing. It wasn't the same nothing he'd felt from Alice after the…incident. This was the absence of everything - not a stirring or twitch of any sort of feeling. It wasn't a numbness; it was an absence. Her shield. Erratic when she'd left with Edward almost two years ago, it was a brick wall around her now. He tried pushing feelings of reassurance and safety at her, testing to see if he could break through it, or if she could at least feel it.

She clearly DID feel it, and considered it to be an attack. Before he could blink, she'd howled in anger and lunged at him. Knocking him over, she bit him hard in his shoulder, almost taking a chunk out way too close to his neck. Before he could react, she was gone – disappearing at full speed back towards the west.

"Son of a BITCH!" he shouted, grabbing the wound with his hand. He held the chunk of himself that she'd nearly dislodged tight to his body, waiting for a moment to make sure it was going to fuse alright before taking off after her. So... That was how it was going to be, eh?

He tried to get rid of his anger while he chased her. Rationally, he KNEW she wasn't to blame for what she'd done – she clearly was not in her right mind. But her reaction to him triggered its own set of responses in him, and his initial reaction was to chase her down, take her apart, and bring the pieces home for reassembly later. It was how he had treated valuable newborns for Maria, and it had worked quite well - more or less.

He slowed to a walk, and then stopped. Shame washed over him. He couldn't do that – she was his sister. She sure as hell didn't need him adding to her obvious trauma. He no doubt needed to move slower with her – but the days weren't going by any slower, and they had a definite deadline. He needed another plan now.

She knew he was there, now, behind her somewhere. And she obviously considered him a threat. Ironic, since he'd been so sure Emmett would have met with the same problem if he'd come after her instead of Jasper. So, back to square one. This time he didn't approach her when she slowed down and stopped to hunt. He was surprised at how soon she'd stopped – it had been only hours since her last hunt. He was pretty sure she was aware of his presence, though, because she lifted her head from the carcass every so often, sending soft growls in his direction. He decided, based on the burn in his throat, that he should hunt, too, while he had the chance. He could catch up with her when he was done feeding.

An hour or so later he'd finished a caribou and was following her again when she slowly turned and headed back to the east. Her zigging and zagging was growing shorter in duration, and he wondered if it had anything to do with his presence behind her. Or…maybe she was just wandering around Siberia because she liked it.

Again, there was only one way to find out, but he was starting to doubt her ability to answer any questions he might ask her. Jasper followed her into a valley, picking up speed now that he had a scent to follow. Up through the valley, over a pass, and down through another valley. Soon the trail - once again she was running in a straight line - was heading down out of the mountains. This side of the range was almost treeless, the tundra stretching out before them. He was close enough that he could see her far down the slopes below him, only a mile or so in front of him. Open tundra. NOT an easy place to stay hidden. He wondered where exactly they were.

Maps. Damnit! While he'd been swiping cell phones at that hotel, he should have looked for maps, too. He'd forgotten. The encounter with the werewolf must have shaken him up more than he'd realized, to make a vampire forget. To make HIM forget something as important as maps. He was starting to think he was running more and more on instinct. His 'find Bella, go home' mantra had slowly taken over his whole being.

A couple of hours after the sun set, the moon rose over the mountains to his right. To his horror, it was almost full. He only had a day, maybe two, to catch her before it was full, he realized. Catch her and…what? Hide? How far would they have to run to escape what that thing felt was its territory? There would be no stealing cars here - no roads. Running was the best - and fastest - way for them to travel in this part of the world. And they might not even have those two days - Carlisle had said it was the days AROUND the full moon that the change occurred. Did the change start ON the full moon, or before? Too many questions unanswered. Well, he could just shove those concerns back a little bit and concentrate on the more immediate concern of actually catching up to her first. Damn, she was fast. She'd pulled further away from him while he'd been thinking. She may have been living under a rock for the last 18 months, but the last few weeks had obviously restored some of her strength.

'Or maybe,' part of his mind said quietly, 'It's the madness driving her to run so fast.'

He soon hit the flat land of the tundra, unable to see her anymore. There was nothing between him and the North Pole now, just endless tundra between him and the Arctic Ocean. He stopped and squinted, looking for signs of movement in the direction her trail had led. The rising sun glinted off of water - winding rivers, ponds, and lakes that dotted the landscape. Movement caught his eye, but it was herds of the ubiquitous reindeer, seemingly everywhere out here in the wide open spaces - nothing that looked like a solitary runner. And no signs of panicked running deer, either. At least her trail was still fresh.

It was late morning when he knew he was close again. So close. If he knelt to the ground, he knew he'd be able to taste her in the dirt. He DID kneel to get a better smell, but he refrained from licking - that was just weird. She was running barefoot, like him, and he had started finding the occasional print left behind in the patches of bare dirt and sand. The wind was coming in from the north, and it, too, was bringing the scent of her to him - fresh, achingly familiar. Reminding him of home and family. Get Bella. Go home. It continued to whisper through his brain.

In spite of the fact that he knew she was near, it startled him to come through a small copse of bushes to discover her crouched on the ground over the carcass of a still twitching deer, sucking it dry. If he was startled, though, it was nothing compared to what SHE was.

She looked furious. Furious, and angry, and completely, totally feral. This time, at least, he was prepared for her reaction. Standing crouched over her kill, she hissed at him threateningly, no sign of recognition in her red eyes. No sign of ANYTHING in her eyes - just anger at having been interrupted, furious at the interloper in her feeding territory. He reached out to see what she was feeling, and again he felt nothing. He didn't make his mistake from earlier and try to influence her emotions again.

Jasper backed quickly away, his hands raised in a very human gesture. He had seen the same look in her eyes before - too many times - in his century of training newborns for Maria. Bella may be in there somewhere, but she was definitely not in charge right now. He hoped it had more to do with her feeding frenzy than anything - interrupting a feeding vampire was never a good idea, even at the best of times. He lucked out - she continued to hiss, watching him back away from her deer. She didn't relax her posture, or stop hissing, but she also did not attack him again, which was a good sign, as far as he was concerned. Reaching the bushes, he squatted down on his heels, hoping she would see that he was no threat to her or her meal. He also averted his eyes from her. His peripheral vision would be enough to let him know if she either launched herself at him or tried to flee from the clearing.

To his relief, the hissing finally stopped, and with one last angry look at him, she bent to finish her meal. The whole exchange took 15 seconds.

* * *

She quickly finished and dropped the carcass back to the wet ground. Jasper still had not looked directly at her again, but he tensed to run after her as she dropped the deer if she chose to run. But she didn't run this time. Instead, she approached him where he squatted on the ground. He tensed even further, expecting her to attack him now. He wasn't worried about himself - he knew without a doubt that he would come out the winner in any confrontation – now that he was prepared for the possibility of very un-Bella-like behavior. But he didn't want to damage her accidentally. He could hear her growling softly, but even with all his experience he couldn't tell if she was growling aggressively or not – he'd gotten spoiled by using his powers all the time. It was driving him crazy not being able to feel her at all. He turned his head slightly to get a better look at her facial expressions, and she froze. But the sound did not stop. She didn't LOOK aggressive or angry. Not anymore. She looked, well…

She looked pathetic. That was the only word Jasper could come up with. Pathetic and sad. It tore at him. Her clothes were rags. Even though she'd just eaten, her eyes were still dark red. The circles under them were large and dark. Her hair was knotted and filthy, worse up close than from a distance. And it was impossible to tell how pale she was, as she was covered in dirt on every inch of exposed skin - and with the state of her clothing, there was a lot of exposed skin. The sound continued to pour from her, and she crept a little closer to him. He finally recognized the sound. She wasn't growling at all.

She was purring.

"Bella?" he asked quietly. "Bella? It's me. Jasper."

The purring increased in volume as she crept closer yet. If he'd reached out an arm, he could have brushed her with his fingertips. But he didn't move. He did, however, continue to talk quietly.

"Bella, baby, it's Jasper. Do you remember me? Come here, baby. Come here." He reached out his hand now, slowly. She'd stopped moving forward, but slowly, slowly, her hand came up to his. He moved to hold his hand palm facing upward, and slowly she copied his movement, facing her palm downwards. Slowly, slowly their palms touched.

As soon as their skin made contact, Jasper felt a current shoot through his body. The next thing he knew, he was flat on his back with Bella on top of him, gripping his shirt and crying his name hysterically.

"Well," he said quietly, smiling. Sitting up slowly, he pulled her closer to him so that he was holding her tightly in his lap. "I guess you do remember me."


A/N I'm dedicating this chapter to my wonderful Beta, JaspersDestiny, and catonspeed (author of "The Last Mile" - go read it if you haven't done so yet), who helped me to truly envision my new character. Not. At. All. I must say, mixing "Cats" with "Twilight" is just wrong, on so many levels. I'll leave you, the reader, to figure that one out...or if you leave a review, I'll help you out a little!

That being said, I hope you like our new friend.