The bispecticalled young man watched the pair as they explained what had happened, at first thinking it to be some sort of prank. Yes, they were concerned and alarmed by the occurrence, but also calm. Surprisingly calm.
"What's on, Seymour?" An elder, broader man asked, appearing from the office with an unlit cigarette between his lips. He slapped the younger officer on the shoulder in greeting, but the man visibly felt uncomfortable. "We have a reporting of an animal attack fatality 5 miles out," he explained with his weak voice, and the older officer sighed in exhaustion. "Not another one, name?"
"Rowan, was it? Yeah, Rowan Dawlings," he said, checking with Jasper for the name. He hadn't bothered to write it down yet.
"Let's get going, then," his colleague sighed exhaustedly, as though he were ordered to do chores rather than check out a body.
"Does this happen a lot?" Alenia asked uncertainly. She and Jasper were back in the car, the officers Seymour and Bolston, as they had discovered upon brief introduction, following in the cruiser behind.
"There are a lot of large animals here in Forks," he explained, and Alenia shifted uneasily. While Rowan was a creep, he didn't deserve to go that way. She felt nauseated at the very thought, the guy who had leered at her like nobody's business suddenly gone. She thought of his family, the reaction his passing would have on a small, seemingly sleepy town such as this.
They turned into the lane, and stopped at the very spot they had moments before first discovering the body. Alenia argued against Jasper silently and climbed from the car.
"What made you kids stop?" Bolston inquired, Seymour close behind, speculative eyes on the pair. Alenia spoke first, a bold choice.
"You know when you get a strange feeling, like intuition?"
Seymour, young and inexperienced, frowned at her like she were crazy, but Bolston on the other hand nodded, understanding in his wrinkled face. "You get to relying on it in our work," he mused, before stretching his back and following the pair to the small opening.
"There was a smell," Jasper began, removing the leaves he had replaced just 30 minutes before. Alenia looked away in repulsiveness as his face was unveiled, pale grey and staring ahead. A moment later, Seymour bolted ahead to throw up.
"New to the job," Bolston explained impatiently, over the sounds of his friend's violent lurches. "I'll call the ambulance to come and take it away, its clear what happened. The Dawlings, nice couple," he sighed sadly, pulling out a cell and dialling a number. Jasper motioned Alenia away quietly, passing a heaving Seymour, one hand supporting his weight against a tree.
"Hey kids? Would you mind holding on a few minutes? Just precaution," Bolston called, and the couple waited inside the car, the movie sadly rescheduled.
...
Alenia lay on her bed that night, her mind raking over the details of the eventful day, trying to place where her unease began. She found that it started just before Jasper stopped the car, when she felt something was eerily very wrong.
A tap at her window broke her thoughts, but it was light enough to be nothing but a tree branch. She began to return to her musings, when again, though slightly louder, another tap.
Just the wind, she told herself, but her breath became shallow and caught.
Another tap, hard enough the hear the slight scrape against the glass.
She climbed out beneath her covers, pulse steadily increasing, and made her way to the window. Deja vu came over her, the same situation only a few nights previous, as she inched open the curtains.
Blackness greeted her, but her eyes caught a slight movement, just to her right, in one of the trees.
He's dead, she chanted to herself, but the familiar itch returned to her arms, the gooseflesh reappearing.
"He-ello?"
A rustle, followed by a tiny, mechanic laugh. She imagined his voice, his face, grinning insanely.
"You should know not to say that," a whisper taunted, out from among the branches, and her breathing hitched. Her head was spinning.
"Y-your-re...d-dead," she said as she trembled all over.
A force smashed through, and the first things she saw were his clenched, glistening teeth, followed by his blood red eyes. The wind was knocked from her as she slammed against the floor, and Rowan's face contorted with mockery. "Down so easily," teased, and caressed her throat. The look in his eyes however, was not lust.
Hunger.
Vampire, her mind whispered. To her shocked, logical mind, she knew.
...
"It's a poor idea, Jasper," Esme's soft voice advised, but she and Rose were alone in the disagreement. Even Carlisle agreed it was best, after Jasper admitted that he knew she was his mate. Carlisle had been there. They all had, now, so it was only a matter of time before they saw sense.
"Dear, if Jasper is correct about her, I see no reason for her not to know. You and I have been there, as have Edward and Bella, who took it extremely well," he argued, and Bella smiled at the memory in the forest.
"The worst thing that can happen is that she wish not to talk to him again. Of course, that cannot be fulfilled," Carlisle added, looking at his wife with something of a pleading in his eyes. Her own slowly softened with his words.
"I would like to meet-" Esme was cut off by Jasper bolting into a stance.
"Something's wrong," he murmured, and shot out into the night. Edward raced to keep up with the older vampire.
They ran the whole 4 miles that separated the Cullen household from Alenia's, and soon they sensed it. A third vampire.
Jasper's unbeating heart thumped as the house came into view, her window smashed through, the purple curtain flowing through the hole in the breeze. Her voice screamed, and he didn't stop.
...
The weight was suddenly yanked from her body, Rowan staring in angered horror as his limbs were held back. He was, however, resisting the struggle.
At the back of her mind, she sensed another, one that was saving her rather than trying to drain her. Jasper's face came into view behind her eyes, for the thousandth time since the attack began a few seconds ago, and her eyes searched frantically for the light switch. All she could see was the two fighting silhouettes dive from the window, followed by a few grunts and a snap.
All went quiet from the snap.
Racing to the window, her chest beat desperately as she searched the ground signs of life. Out from the trees emerged a figure, one that made her heart race with excitement and nervousness rather than blind panic.
"Jasper," she whispered, as his face was lit by the moon. He looked up to her solemnly.
"You alright?" He asked, and he jumped from the ground and grabbed on to the window sill securely. She flinched and darted back, her eyes wide. But the motion alarmed her, not the man.
Things began piecing together.
"Just doubting my sanity," she commented dryly, and Jasper looked down sadly. "Because to my apparent sanity, I'm not as surprised as I should be."
She motioned for a shocked Jasper to come into the room, and he appeared behind her, his face an unreadable mask. "You haven't had time for it to register," he stated, avoiding eye contact. But as alert as she was, as many times as she repeated the words through her head, she wasn't frightened.
"Jasper," she whispered, and placed a hand on his cheek. His eyes softened slowly, and finally found hers. Even in the darkness, the liquid gold iris's shone with warmth.
"You're an unusual woman, Miss," he answered, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, and she felt one place itself on her own lips. "Hypocrite," she replied lovingly.
