Stephenie Meyer's holdin' all the cards, I'm just peekin' over her shoulder.

Chapter Fourteen:

I'd never really had a liking for contacts. As a human, I'd been forced to wear them in order to correct my eyesight. I'd hated glasses, infuriatingly so. I was too active for the frames to settle just right on my face at all times. Plus, I hated having anything on my face, my nose constantly itching whenever the simple silver frames rested in front of my eyes.

Now I was having to wear them for an entirely different reason. Shortly after my conversation with Carlisle, I'd locked myself up in my car to think about some things. It wasn't fair for me to continue using the Cullens' money to fund my excursions. I had no idea how much I'd already blown through as I traipsed through the countryside between Hanover and Valdosta, then back again. I'd been in town again for nearly two weeks now and had even managed to secure myself a job.

It was probably the riskiest thing I would ever do, obtaining a human job when I was anything but. The lure of human blood was constantly around me as soon as I entered the rundown little bar I now worked in. A secret call to Jasper had given me the paperwork needed to secure the job. I knew he hated to keep things from Alice so I wasn't really concerned when he mentioned that he would be telling her all about my favor. I wasn't about to become the reason they began keeping secrets. Besides, doing something like that around a family as gifted as the Cullens was not the most feasable of objectives. Alice had already seen me striking out on my own financially, fearing for my tolerance as I did so. And Edward, who was back with the family after finally returning from Valdosta, could just pick the entire situation right out of Jasper's thoughts.

So when I got the call from Alice, begging me to reconsider my course of action, I'd expected it. I needed to have a tie to the human world. Even though I was almost close to my year-mark, I still needed a way to keep my abstience up. Maybe if I remembered what it was like to be human, to be in their world as much as I could, then I could continue on with my bizarrely perfect self-control. That was what the Cullens were doing anyway with Carlisle working in the hospital, Esme becoming active in the community, and the 'children' attending school. Their own way of staying connected and busy. The temptation was never going to completely fade, but it was still so easy to completely overlook. Just as long as I kept myself filled with animal blood.

Walking into the small bar now, I smiled shyly at a few patrons I recognized. Even without perfect mental recall, I wouldn't have been able to forget the small group of guys that came in every night after work. They always ordered the exact same thing, leaving right after consuming their third pitcher of beer. My gift of catching lies came in handy at times while I was working. I didn't have to rely on IDs or any form of identification to tell a person's age. It was clearly written on their faces, something I'd picked up after about two days behind the bar.

I'd lied about my age as well, claiming to be twenty so that I could act as a bartender and not be in any law violations. I didn't want to get the guy running this place any grief or shed some light on the shadier sides of his dealings. He'd get caught eventually, he laughed to himself often, he didn't need me helping things along.

I also wasn't Piper Cullen when I stepped into the bar. I'd needed a whole new identity, which was why I'd decided to go to Jasper for a new completement of documentation. The name on my driver's liscence had come from Alice's own mind. Giving her a way to help had assauged her a little, making things somehow a little easier for her to bare. If she felt included then she was less eager to come and stop me. She knew what was coming, it would be stupid to think otherwise. But she was giving me what I needed most. She was letting me do everything I needed with the hope that, once I was done, I would return to her family.

That was something I was still flipflopping about. I still didn't feel like I deserved to be apart of such a big, strong coven of vampires. Even though they loved me and even though the one who'd made me was the head of that family, I still had some lingering insecurities. Those were probably never going to go away.

But I had no idea what would happen once I finished my little plot of revenge and attempted to talk to Edward. Communication between us was still nonexistant and probably would be until I finally reached the point of breaking down and coming face-to-face with him once again. Alice was convinced that talking was needed on both sides. I still didn't know what he'd done when he left Hanover for that week while I prepared to strike out on my own as well. But it involved Bella Swan...Black, I was sure of it. I didn't need Alice to confirm that for me.

"Aren't you supposed to be at home with your wife?" I teased one of my regulars, a fortyish man with graying hair and a sun-wrinkled face. His name was Earl Nolan with a wife and three kids at home. If I remembered right, the youngest of his children wasn't even out of diapers yet. That helped fight against my very nature, knowing tiny details about my customers to keep me from taking them from whatever loved ones they had waiting for them at home.

"Eh," He shrugged my words off as I tied a short, simple black apron on over my worn jeans. "Janie knows where I am. She'll call if things get too rowdy at home."

I just shook my head then nodded, knowing that I would end up being the one calling his wife so she could come pick up her drunk husband. It always happened, without fail. Earl Nolan didn't really know his limits when it came to alcohol. And since Jack Daniels straight was his drink of choice, that line was usually closer then he figured. His drink was poured out with no thought or hesitation from me, and set in front of him before I went to check on the others milling around the bar.

A couple of unfamiliar guys stood by the left corner of the waist-high bar, talking quietly to one another as they held their bottles of beer close to the chest. My eyebrows puckered as I leaned over the cooler filled with various beer labels, hearing every single word flowing between them perfectly.

"I'm tellin' you, John. Something's out there killing the wildlife. How else do you explain the bodies that have been poppin' up all over the place?"

"You know how people are around here. There's no such thing as 'official' hunting season. We hunters just go out whenever the mood strikes. Besides, it's pretty damn convienent if you ask me. No one needs to be drivin' home late at night and smack into a deer while it tries to cross the street."

I nearly snorted aloud in amusement, knowing that the 'threat' in question was me. Valdosta wasn't exactly known for it's wilderness, but there was just enough that I could hunt inconspicously. And if I needed to, I always went to other areas in the south to satate my thirst. After all, I wasn't the only southern vampire in existance. Jasper's stories of the wars during the first years of his vampire life had confirmed that.

It was a little scary to think of that now and know it to be the truth. Even though a vast majority of that had happened long before my birth, concentrated around Texas and Mexico, there were still some immortal creatures that remembered that time and the grudge still tugging on their dead hearts. The South wasn't nearly as peaceful as the North. Or as domesticated. Covens just didn't exist down here anymore.

Probably because I was already thinking about it, when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, my entire body tensed all over. I didn't need to look up in order to know for sure that their heart wasn't beating anymore. I couldn't detect a pulse anywhere in their body as they settled at the bar, hands clasped together with eyes trained on me. I just wasn't sure what color their eyes would be when I looked up to acknowledge them.

I had a part to play, even if my cover was possibly already blown. I had to keep up appearances if I wanted to keep this job and continue paying for the hotel room I'd secured as soon as I crossed the Valdosta city lines.

"What can I getcha?" I asked in my best drawl, smiling brightly with one hand fisted on my hip. The young man sitting in front of me was clearly a vampire. His features were frozen in pristine conditions, making him look no older than twenty. He didn't have any real defining characteristics that would put him in the same category I had for the Cullens. His hair was dirty blonde and cut close to his scalp. He hadn't bothered hiding his brilliantly red eyes from onlookers either. Nomad. I would've bet my undead life on it. This vampire didn't live the same way I did, not even close.

"For starters," He drawled and his accent represented New Orleans to the fullest. "You can tell me what a beautiful girl like you is doing in a place like this."

I had to work to keep my eyes from rolling around in their sockets. The contacts obscuring my vision were even more irritating when I did that and ever blink brought me even closer to having the venom wash away all traces of the flimsy little quarter spheres that turned my eyes from a dull gold to murky green. There was no confusing the double meaning he'd attached to the world 'girl', but I was grateful that he'd at least attempted to disguize his original question. Pretending to sigh, I leaned my free hand against the lip of the bar and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Only if you tell me what it matters to you. I don't even know your name."

His laughter was pretty intoxicating, or at least I assumed it would be if heard by a human's ears. How had the Cullens been the first vampires I came across? I was honestly surprised this world had been opened up to me when it had. And while I was in a northern state. "My name is Adam. Does that earn me enough points to get your name?"

One glance down the length of the bar gave me everything I needed to make a decision right then. I didn't want this vampire, this nomad, to know anything about me. For all I was aware, he could get me alone then dismember and torch me before I could stop him. He looked much older than a newborn so maybe I had a couple of things on my side. Still, I wasn't going to press my luck with no one watching my back.

"Nice try." I winked at him then carefully pushed off from the granite countertop. I could already feel the strength beginning to wan in my veins as I used up the human tissue still left in my body. It was weird, and a little disconcerting, but I knew I would have all the strength I needed for whenever I chose to go after Jason. I kept my pace even as I walked out from behind the bar and began to check on the patrons that had settled into the wide, square wooden tables set up all over the plank floor beneath my sneakered feet. The atmosphere was so relaxed in here that I'd needed to make no changes to my wardrobe. Alice probably had a fit when she saw that but oh well. I was getting back to my roots, in a sense. Plus I hadn't chosen this place at random.

The vampire at the bar was all but forgotten about as I started slinging drinks, my hands coated in the sticky, brown liquids from beer taps within minutes. The smell of alcohol helped defuse the aroma of human hearts pumping blood, giving me another scent to concentrate on as I worked. All the little tricks I could find were put to excellent use. I held my breath when I could, but I always had a back-up plan in case someone wanted to spill their guts to the 'hot bartender'.

"Hey Sadie?" I looked up instantly at the sound of my phony name. The same guy at the bar, Earl, smiled kindly at me as I drew closer and waved his empty glass as a silent plea for more.

Sighing, I just smiled sadly at him and twisted my body through the only entrance into the back part of the bar. I had to be mindful of my actions as I refilled his drink then set it down before him. Once he had that, a happy sigh as the amber liquid slid down his throat, I was abruptly reminded of my other bar patron. One I didn't forsee leaving for quite some time.

My expression was patient as I moved to stand in front of him again, both hands bracing my tiny body against the low counter. "You aren't going to go away unless I talk to you again, are you?"

The vampire sitting before me just smiled then closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. I already knew what he was tasting in the air, pausing in his enjoyment long enough to go through the motions in pulling from the beer I'd set in front of him shortly after he arrived.

"No." He answered and set the dark bottle down in front of him before folding his short, stubby fingers into each other. "I'm strangely facinated by you, Sadie."

I rolled my eyes involuntarily when he used the same name Earl had, hating that he now had the means to address me. "Nothing special about me." I retorted, my raspy voice a little sharper than normal. "I think it's about time you left before someone realizes that you're just wasting good brew."

I'd said it all so quietly that no one but the two of us had a hope of hearing. The smile that spread across his thin, almost waxy lips was sardonic as he lifted his bloody eyes to meet mine. And in that second, I didn't even care that my contacts had just disintegrated against my eyes, leaving the dark gold irises undiluted.

"We both know this isn't 'good brew'." He replied just as quietly as I was speaking, but perhaps with a little more patience than I was currently possessing. Adam leaned closer to me then, most of his weight coiling into the muscles of his arms. I could see faint outlines stressing against the front of the plain black tee shirt he wore. But none of that was distracting. I knew exactly what to focus on and what not to.

He wasn't Edward.

The thought of his name, flashing across my mind without any prompting felt like venom was poisoning my system all over again. Even though I only remembered the very end of my transformation, there was enough to make the analogy true and usable.

"You need to leave." I repeated and pushed away from the bar once again. Human bartenders didn't stand for too long in front of one customer. No matter what the vampire sitting in front of me had on his agenda, I wasn't about to risk letting him blow my cover. Not if I was to get closer to Jason so that I could ultimately destroy him.

My mind raced on ahead of me with this new train of thought as I worked. How was I going to steal Jason's life from him? I didn't look much like the human girl that had stolen from his house in the dead of night, with their daughter clutched tightly to her chest. Maybe that would work in my favor. If he did happen to think I was still alive, he was probably forseeing someone who looked nothing like me. My hair was forever going to be short, never reaching past my shoulders as it had before Jason attacked me with a pair of scissors. People had always said that my most beautiful feature was my hair, dyed dark red since the moment I turned fifteen. I'd even dyed it again right before the impromptu haircut and my subsequent transformation.

Maybe he assumed that my hair would be back to the honey blonde that I'd been born with, but masked so that I didn't have the same hair color as my father. I'd inherited his hair almost perfectly, honey blonde with just enough body to slightly thicken the ramrod straight locks.

Thinking about my hair now shot a surge of pain through my system. Carlisle had said it best; never changing, never aging, never moving forward with the future that had been stolen from me.

All because I kept choosing to love the wrong person.

Was that what I was doing now by not letting Edward in and keeping him close? Was I condemning myself to the path I'd been stuck on before I died? It was no secret that Jason North was the worst mistake of my life, even though he had given me Colby. I'd always thought that I had been a pretty good judge of people, knowing exactly who to stay away from because of the monster I shared a house with.

But I was wrong. It wasn't that I knew who to stay away from in order to protect myself from getting hurt. It was the polar opposite. I didn't know how to hang on to the good people in my life. I had no idea how to give someone a legitimate reason to stick around.