Last Week on "Chaotic Dynamics":
"Peter and Charlotte will stay here with me?" Bella asked.
"Yes. They'll protect you." Jasper regretted the words as soon as they'd left his mouth. No matter how comforting they were to him, he knew Bella would hardly agree with him on that front.
Bella snorted. "I hardly think I need protecting, Jasper," she said, rolling her eyes. "I was just wondering if I need to prepare myself for a night of card games while we wait for you." Jasper laughed. They were all right again.
Bella turned to open the door but then stopped and turned back. "Jasper? What would you have done if I'd not agreed to stay?" she asked, curious.
"Reminded you of your promise to me back in Alaska."
Bella nodded. "All right... But what if I'd gone all 'Crazy Bella' on you – or worse, waited until you left and then followed you?"
Jasper narrowed his eyes at her, probing her emotions to see if there was any intention of acting out on the idea she was talking about. Finding none, he relaxed but didn't answer.
"Jasper?" she prompted.
"I trust you, Bella. If you say you're not going to follow me, I believe you," he said, nodding his head once. "We are a team, Bella. We just need to always remember that."
"Good. You trust me…and I trust you. That's all we need."
"That's all we need," Jasper agreed, pulling her close and kissing her hard before opening the door and joining Peter and Charlotte back in the hotel room.
Chapter 14
Peter, Bella, and Charlotte all stared at each other silently for several minutes after Jasper had taken off into the night.
"So..." Peter began. "Should I, uh, should I take you out to hunt or anything?"
"No, thank you," Bella said, trying to remain polite and not be insulted by his question. "I'm perfectly capable of hunting by myself when I need to."
"Oh, 'course you are," Peter hastened to reassure her. "I didn't mean any disrespect, Miss Bella. I just didn't know how often you needed to hunt, you being still young and an animal drinker and this being sort of a stressful situation and all... I didn't mean nothing bad by the question."
"That's all right. No offense taken, Peter. We do need to hunt more when we're stressed, especially when we're surrounded by so many humans... Is it not the same for, um, human drinkers?"
"Um, a little bit, maybe. We don't have to feed nearly as often as...Carlisle's coven members. We – Charlotte and I at least – feed once a month or so, unless we're, uh…well, stressed or active. We fed on the way down here, though, not knowing what we'd run into when we got here, so we're probably good for at least a week if it comes down to a fight or something like that."
"Ah...well, Jasper and I just fed this morning. And we fed the night before, just before we went down there to Maria's. Normally we only eat once a week or so. I guess I never knew how much other vampires needed to eat. The only time I'd been around human drinkers for any time was in Volterra. I was there with Edward and Alice on St. Marcus' Day several years ago when I was still human. They had a woman named Heidi that led, like, a tour group or something into their feeding chamber..." Bella's words faded away as she remembered the screams coming from the feeding chamber that day long ago. They had burned into her memory and carried over into her knew life.
Peter snorted. "Those pansies," he said. "We've heard of their little 'celebration' day. Damn wops."
"I don't think they were actually Italian, were they?" Bella asked.
Peter looked taken aback for a moment. "No, I don't suppose they were. Well, they were still pansies. Couldn't be bothered to go out and get their own damn meals..."
"Is that how they got all their meals?" Bella asked, realizing she might finally have a source that was willing to answer some of her questions – questions she wasn't comfortable asking the Cullens or Jasper. Her curiosity about human feeders always made her feel slightly guilty around the Cullens and she hated reminding Jasper about something he'd struggled to give up. "You'd think it would have raised suspicions…you know, if people kept disappearing on tours of Volterra. I mean, wasn't that the point of St. Marcus' Day to begin with - that there were supposedly no vampires in the town? Edward said it was probably the safesttown to live in – at least for the humans."
"To live in, yes," Peter said, nodding to himself. "But to take a tour on that particular festival day? Probably not. My impression was that it was a rather "symbolic" hunt for the Volturi on that day. They would lure foreigners into their keep and feed on them."
"Oh. That makes sense, I guess. So, they only ate once a year?" Bella asked.
Charlotte giggled and Peter snorted in laughter. "No, are you crazy? I mean, I suppose it would be possible, but no, they didn't. The feeding is always quite good in Volterra, by my understanding - regular meals, delivered to their feeding chamber…" Peter snorted again. "Yeah, they lived the good life in Volterra, I'll give them that - much better than we ever had under Maria, and she was always sure the blood flowed freely, at least to her 'preferred' soldiers."
"But how...?" Bella asked. "How could that many vampires be in one place and go unnoticed?"
Peter shook his head. "No idea. Not too long ago – a couple centuries or so – I'd say they just had a good tie-in with the slave trade. There's always a trade in humans, Miss Bella, even amongst humans themselves. The Volturi obviously had their ways. Aro and company were powerful – very powerful – even in their ties to the human world." Peter snorted. "Ties that they condemned in anyone else. Damn hypocritical wops…"
Silence descended again as Bella considered Peter's words. There was something in what he'd said...some idea fluttering in her head...too unformed for even her vampire brain to grab on to. It didn't help matters that Jasper had been gone less than forty-five minutes and she already felt like crawling out of her skin.
"How long…?" she started to ask.
"Nervous already?" Peter asked, smirking a little.
"No," she snapped.
"Don't lie," he said. "It doesn't change anything."
"All right, yes, yes I am. Happy?"
"Not particularly. It'll be all right. He'll be back before sunrise. You should be able to control yourself for that long, even as young as you are, Miss Bella. He's expecting that from you."
"I know that," Bella snapped again. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay right here," she bounced on the bed for emphasis, "just like he asked me to."
"Good girl."
Bella couldn't decide if she'd rather flip him off or roll her eyes. She finally settled on ignoring him and turned to Charlotte instead. "So...did you bring any playing cards?"
Charlotte's eyes lit up. "I did! Would you like to play something?"
"Um...I don't know too many card games," Bella told her. "But Jasper taught me how to play poker."
"Of course he did," Peter muttered. "All right, poker it is. Any preference?"
"Uh...the only kind I know is Five Card Stud."
"Figures. It always was his favorite. All right, then. Charlotte, darlin', get those cards out. Miss Bella, got any money on you?"
"No."
"That's all right, we'll play with toothpicks. We can settle up with cash money later."
"Okay..." Bella said cautiously. "Jasper and I never played for money-"
"Well, I ain't playing for kisses. Your mate would kill me. It's gonna have to be for money between us, darlin'," Peter drawled, shuffling the cards that Charlotte had produced from somewhere. A box of toothpicks had appeared on the table as well. Charlotte dragged the table over so that Bella could sit on the bed and she and Peter could sit on the chairs, Peter never faltering in his card shuffling as he shifted across the room with the table.
~CD~CD~CD~
Four hours and several hundred dollars later, Bella threw her final hand down. "I'm done," she announced.
"You mean you fold," Peter corrected her, not looking up from his own hand.
"No. I mean I'm done. I don't want to play anymore. I suck. I don't even know where I'm going to get the money to pay you what I've already lost."
"Yeah, you definitely don't have a poker face. And I'll take a rain check on the money – I know Jasper'll be good for it. Maybe you can get me a new phone since mine don't work anymore."
Bella wondered if Peter had been using a phone stolen from one of his victims. If he had, it had probably finally been turned off. If that was the case, he'd probably unintentionally led police or investigators on a merry chase first, thinking they were tracking the original owner, who'd gone missing. Or maybe the battery just died. Or maybe he didn't realize you had to pay money for more minutes. The possibilities were endless…and mind-boggling.
She shook her head, thinking how confusing the modern world must seem to any older vampire that bothered trying to figure it out. Carlisle had said that even Stefan and Vladimir had decided to re-think their desire to re-establish themselves as any sort of rulers of human subjects, as they had been so long ago. It had taken some fast-talking by Richard in the wake of the Volturi's destruction, but he'd finally convinced them of the very real dangers of modern day weapons and their possible effects on vampires. Deciding that napalm and bunker-busting bombs were not something they were ready to handle, they'd decided instead to fall back and re-group once more. Carlisle also said that while Richard might have the know-how to do some serious 'empire building', he apparently lacked any desire to do so. He appeared to be content living in the forests that he'd loved so much before his change. He was still living with Stefan and Vladimir, helping them re-build their castle and happy to do their bidding – to an extent – but he was making no suggestions to them on how they might go about becoming 'modern day despots', as Emmett had put it. Ranger Rick, indeed.
Bella watched as Peter and Charlotte drifted from poker into playing some card game she didn't recognize. Her mind wasn't really on it – rather, it was on Jasper and what might be going on out there in the desert with Maria. Alice hadn't called at all since he'd left, so she took that to mean there was nothing worth reporting. Maybe. But what if Alice couldn't see anything? What if Maria was tricking her visions?
Bella started to feel a bit panicked. Peter had pointed out to Jasper that, in his opinion, Maria would be more than capable of 'fooling' him and his empathic abilities. Well, she knew Alice, too, didn't she? What if...what if while she was visiting all those years ago, she'd figured out how to get around Alice as well? Victoria had done it – Bella remembered that much – and Victoria had not had anything but secondhand knowledge from Laurent about Alice's abilities. What if...what if Maria fooled them all? What if Jasper was walking into a trap?
She was at the door with her hand on the knob before she realized she'd even moved. Peter was at her side, though, before she could open it. He put his hand over hers on the knob but didn't attempt to move it.
"Come on, Miss Bella," he said softly. "Come sit back down. You don't want to be doing that..."
"What if…what if he walked into a trap, Peter?" She didn't move.
"Now, Miss Bella," Peter tightened his hand on hers a little bit. "Jasper can handle himself just fine. Maria ain't gonna be able to trap him. That's just your pull to him bothering you. Come on, now, come sit back down..."
"I don't..."
"You promised him, Miss Bella. You promised him you'd stay here and wait for him," Peter said, his voice a little firmer but still not enough to panic her or put her on the defensive.
Bella hesitated. She had promised. She'd promised back in Alaska that she'd listen to him and do what he told her to. She'd promised the same thing over and over again during the trip. She'd promised him right before he left that she'd stay here. But...he was in trouble, she just knew it, call from Alice be dammed. But...she'd promised.
She looked at the door, then down at their hands on the doorknob. She then looked at Peter, who was keeping his face carefully neutral. She glanced back at Charlotte, who was looking worried.
"You'd do more harm than good going after him right now, Bella," Peter said, his voice stronger, more commanding. "You'd play right into her hands. Don't do that to him. Keep your promise. Come back and sit down."
Bella gave a sharp nod of her head. She'd stay. She wasn't sure if it was the right decision...but Peter might be right too. What she was feeling might just be the pull of separation. They'd never been separated before, not like this – not by more than a mile or two. She just wasn't sure enough to make her break her promise to Jasper.
She crossed the room and sat back down on the bed before lying back on it with a sigh. Once he seemed sure that she wasn't going to go for the door again, Peter followed her and flung himself back down on his chair.
"Times like this I wish I could still drink whiskey," he said, commenting to nobody in particular, except maybe the dirt on the ceiling, which he'd seemed to have developed a fascination with. "I gotta say, Miss Bella, this whole thing'd be a damn sight easier if Jasper'd just man-up and tell you straight out to park your ass here and not move it instead of all the pussy-footing around the promise bullshit."
"Excuse me?" Bella snapped, sitting up and glaring at him. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounded like. The way you two are carrying on, the way he's mollycoddling you…it's downright foolish."
"I don't see how what goes on between Jasper and me is any of your business," Bella growled. "And I resent being called foolish."
Peter lifted his head to look at her. "It's my business because I'm here now. Whatever happens from here on out is part of my business."
"Yeah, well you don't have to be here. You can just…just…take your stupid Prius and go back to Butte."
"Can't do that. I told Jasper I'd help and I'm gonna help. I keep my promises, too."
"Well, maybe you can start helping by shutting up about our private life. And he's hardly 'mollycoddling' me, whatever the hell that means. We're equals – he told me to listen to him and do what he says because he knows more than me about how to handle Maria. And I trust his judgment, so I'm staying right here like I promised." She nodded, pleased with her explanation – ignoring the fact that a few moments earlier she'd been ready to forget her promise and take off out the door after Jasper.
Peter snorted. "You're hardly 'equals', whatever else you might be, Miss Bella. Jasper is an experienced soldier. And before now, I've never known him to make a mistake."
"And you're saying he's making one now?" Bella snapped, although a little shiver of unease ran through her. Had they missed something, something that Peter had noticed? Had Jasper made some sort of error?
"I'm saying he shouldn't have come here, bringing you along. I know he didn't have a choice. Believe me, I know. You're mates. New mates. A separation of that kind ain't possible. So he should have sent somebody else instead. Carlisle should have sent somebody else."
Bella snorted, thinking about Emmett being here now instead of them. "Who, Peter? Who could he have sent? You? You didn't even want to come with Jasper, much less instead of Jasper. And Maria specifically asked for Jasper. We know all about me being a weakness in this equation and we're doing the best we can to work around it."
"You're still a loose wire," Peter said, digging his heels in the conversation. "He shoulda made you stay here – for the safety of all of us. I don't care how much he 'loves' and 'respects' you." Peter's voice was a perfect imitation of Jasper's when he spoke.
"Jasper treats me with 'love' and 'respect' because that's the kind of man he is. He can't make me do anything, Peter. Welcome to the 21st century." Bella glanced pointedly at Charlotte. It seemed to her like Peter was just looking for a fight…and she was in a bad enough mood now to give it to him – anything to kill time and distract her.
Peter snorted. "He can make you do any damn thing he wants to, Bella. Welcome to being a vampire."
"I'd like to see him try," she muttered.
"Believe me," Peter said with a snort again. "I would too. And the sooner, the better."
"You know, Peter, I think I liked you a lot better back when you were afraid of me," Bella snapped. "What happened to that?"
"Yeah, well, Jasper assured me that your shield wasn't nothing that affected most people – it just worked against vampires' special powers. And I ain't got no special powers, Bella, aside from my strength and fighting ability. So, I'm not so worried."
"Yeah, well...I can fight too, you know?" Bella said, letting loose a little growl.
Peter laughed. "Forgive me if I'm not too worried about that, either, Miss Bella."
Charlotte was looking increasingly nervous, her eyes darting back and forth between the two arguing vampires. Bella, for her part, felt like the bickering was quickly moving away from 'friendly' territory and heading straight into 'seriously pissing her off' land.
"Well, maybe you should be."
"I don't think Jasper'd like it much if he came back and found us tearing into each other."
Bella thought he was probably right, but she couldn't stand the smugness behind his statement. "Well, piss me off enough and maybe Jasper will be right there with me," she retorted.
"I doubt that."
"Well, you shouldn't."
Bella's cell phone rang, the shrill chime cutting through their argument and silencing it. Bella scooted back up the bed to the nightstand to grab the phone, never taking her eyes off Peter.
"Alice?" she said, hitting the talk button.
"You need to leave, Bella, right now," Alice said, her voice came through loud and clear. Peter's and Charlotte's eyes zeroed in on the phone in Bella's hand.
"You need to get out now! Just...go...all three of you! Quickly! Take Peter's car and drive south on Highway 83 before it's too late! Jasper will be waiting for you at Mile Marker 203. I'm calling him next. Just...go!" There was a click signaling the end of the call from the other end.
There was total silence in the hotel room for a moment and then Bella started moving. She and Jasper hadn't had time to unpack yet, so she grabbed both duffel bags and was at the door in an instant. Peter and Charlotte hadn't moved yet.
"Well?" she snapped. "Let's go!"
"What?" Peter asked. "She says hop and you just jump?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. Now, are you coming? Because if you're not, give me the fucking key."
Peter still didn't move, and with a frustrated growl, Bella was at his side, her hand darting out to rip the front pocket of his jeans open, grabbing the key to the Prius in the process. She was out the door before he could respond to the attack.
He caught up to her in the parking lot though.
"Let me drive," he growled, reaching out to snatch the key from her.
"Shotgun!" Bella yelled, shoving him out of the way as he opened the door. She flung herself over the center console and tossed her bags in the back seat in one move.
"I guess you better get in the back, Charlotte," Peter growled again, glaring into the car at Bella as he opened the back door for his mate. A couple seconds later he was in the car himself and they were pulling out of the parking lot, tires squealing as the Prius fishtailed its way onto the highway.
Bella was impressed in spite of herself.