When we last saw Jasper and Company:
Jasper merely turned his head a bit to look at her. "Killing is not torture. I've never been a fan of torture, Charlotte. And certainly not since you and your mate saved me all those years ago. I did what I had to do. There was no saving them – not easily, not quickly…probably not at all…and certainly not in the time frame I'm working under here. I have to get to Bella. Now. Peter, help me spread those explosives we saw in the other warehouse. It's time to leave." He strode across the compound toward the smaller warehouse, not looking back to check if they were following him. Peter looked down at his mate. "Well? Shall we?" She nodded. "I hope he's gonna be okay," she said softly. "He will be. As soon as we get his Bella back."
Chapter 25
"I wonder if that Alice saw any of this," Peter wondered aloud, watching the sky to the east lighten. He and Charlotte had quickly dragged all the bodies into one of the buildings before dousing the area liberally with fuel. They were only now waiting on Jasper to reappear so they could light a match and get going. He'd gone back into the house one last time to make sure he couldn't find anything that might be important – whatever the hell that meant.
Peter wasn't sure if they would be following their fearless leader on the next leg of their adventure or pointing an unstable weapon south, releasing it, and then following the path of destruction it left behind.
"We can just call and ask," Charlotte said. "Jasper told her he'd have his phone turned off. I really doubt he's checked for messages in all the excitement of the last half hour."
Peter turned to look at her. "My phone ain't working, remember? I tossed it out back in Kansas somewhere."
She grinned slyly. "But Jasper's is." She pulled it out of her pocket. "I took it from him before he went to get cleaned up. In his present state, I figured he might not remember to set it aside before he got in the shower."
"Clever woman," Peter said appreciatively while taking the phone from her. He looked it over carefully, turning it over and over in his hands before looking back up at her. "It's broken," he said.
Charlotte took it back from him. "Are you really that clueless, Peter? Don't you ever pay attention to what the humans around you are doing?"
He shook his head. "Not when it comes to their little toys. That behavior doesn't figure heavily into my meal selection."
"Good Lord!" She sighed. "I swear, it doesn't matter what the species, men only ever think about food and sex. Look!" She flipped the phone open and pushed a button. The phone came to life with a soft 'ping' that would have been almost unnoticeable to human ears.
"Nice," Peter said, taking the phone back from her. Before he could dial the number he knew was Carlisle's, the phone started buzzing. He jumped, almost dropping the phone in the process.
"It's ringing," Charlotte said softly, leaning over to push the green button to accept the call.
Peter put the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he asked tentatively.
"It's about time one of you answered!" came a snippy female voice.
"Nice to hear you too, Alice," Peter said.
"Jasper?" Carlisle's voice replaced Alice's.
"Uh...no, sir. It's Peter."
"Peter? Where is Jasper? Is he all right? Alice has been having the most appalling visions about him... About all three of you actually."
"Uh, he's fine. Fine as can be, I suppose. He's, um, checking the house one more time before we head south again," Peter said, hoping Carlisle would just drop the subject of whatever visions Alice had been having.
No such luck, of course.
"Peter...I need to ask…Alice's visions...well, she saw Jasper trying to feed from humans and you stopping him. But she also saw you being unable to stop him and Jasper killing a large number of humans in some fairly horrific circumstances. I need to know what really happened and what was just a possibility."
"Uh...all of it?" Peter asked. "Do you really need to know this shit? I just wanna know if Alice has any warnings for us with what we're heading into..."
"Yes, I need to know this 'shit', Peter. Jasper and his well-being are my responsibility and I might not get the chance to talk about this with you when he's out of earshot again. I don't like to be blindsided by things if I can help it, and what Alice saw...well, Jasper might need help down the road dealing with these things."
"Oh..." Peter felt like he was starting to sound like a complete idiot, and he struggled to find words more than one syllable long with which to reply to Carlisle. "Well, in that case...yeah, all of it. Probably whatever she saw happened. I was able to stop him at first, but then...well, really, there's no stopping him if he doesn't want to be stopped, ya know?"
"I know," Carlisle said quietly.
"And the other stuff...the other humans...I don't know what he did because he did it alone. But it was bad, I'm sure, just from what I saw before he took over. But we gotta stay on task here, ya know, Carlisle? I'd love to chat some more with you about Jasper's future mental stability, but right now, I think that ship has sailed. We – Charlotte and me – well, we're just sort of at the 'aim and release' stage right now. We'll follow him and do what needs to be done to protect his back, but it ain't gonna be easy."
"Right...were you able to find out anything useful there?"
"No...not really. The head fucker – excuse me, the head, um, warlord guy, killed himself before Jasper got anything useful out of him. Jasper's pretty put out about that – not even using his powers helped. The guy just pulled out a gun and 'BANG', it was all over. I don't know...interviewing humans is a lot different from interviewing vampires. He's never had to try to get information out of a human before. It really didn't go well. There was only one vampire in the compound. We think Maria knew what was coming and abandoned things here to retreat south."
"Do you think she knows you're following her all the way down?" Carlisle sounded concerned.
"Jasper doesn't think so. He figures she assumed that he'd destroy things here, just as an act of petty revenge. He's still convinced that she doesn't know Bella's his mate."
"And you? What do you think?"
Peter looked over at Charlotte. "Well, sir, if she had my mate, I wouldn't assume nothing."
"Don't let him–"
"We're not going to let him do anything stupid..." Peter cut Carlisle off but looked around him at the mess left in the compound. "Well...I take that back. Charlotte and I will keep our eyes and ears open for any sign that we're being expected. And we'll do our damnedest to make Jasper listen to us. I think, at this point, that that's the best we can do."
"It'll have to do, Peter. And it's more than I could have asked for. I'm so glad you and your mate decided to help him out with this. Really. When this is over…anything you want, just ask for it. If it's in my power–"
"I don't want nothing," Peter cut him off again, a little angry. "I just want to get my mate, and my friend and hismate, out of here in one piece."
"All right, Peter," Carlisle said gently. "I will put Alice back on. Take care, please. And good luck."
"Thanks," Peter said quietly. "We're going to need it."
"Peter?" Alice said, her voice soft now. "I don't really see what happens from here."
"That's no surprise," Peter said. "Jasper's flying by the seat of his pants and we're just getting sucked along for the ride. Anything on Bella?"
"Yes, actually... Nothing really useful, aside from the fact that it lets me – us – know that she is still alive and well. In my vision, she's spitting on somebody."
"Wait. Ain't that what she was doing the last time you saw her in a vision?" Peter asked, confused. "Are you sure you're not just seeing the same thing again?"
"Quite sure. Different surroundings. This time she seems to be trapped somehow, as opposed to being restrained by other vampires. She had to have made a deliberate decision to drop her shield and spit on this vampire. This tells me she must know when it is safe to drop the shield and when it is not. She is aware of her surroundings and is still capable of making decisions – useful decisions that may help her situation."
"She sure does like to spit a lot."
"Well, we all do what we can, Peter. And apparently that's all she's capable of right now."
"Could you tell who she was spitting on?"
"Nobody I recognized. Nobody from any of my other visions of situations involving Maria either."
"Great. We just keep adding more and more folks to this already crowded cast."
"Yes, well, be careful! And good luck. I see you all getting in a black truck and driving off, but after that, nothing."
Peter looked at the truck Charlotte was now leaning against, the keys dangling in her hand as she swung them back and forth to get his attention.
"Yeah, I'm looking at it now. Anything else? How 'bout Maria? Are you familiar enough with her to get a read on her?"
"Not so much, no – unless she's involved with someone I know well. I've only met her once. If she's near Bella, I'm not seeing any decisions she's making regarding Bella. Maybe because of Bella's shield? I don't know... It's very frustrating, Peter. Believe me, I know," Alice growled a little into the phone. "I actually did get a glimpse of her…feeding. Totally useless, I know, but that's all I've gotten so far."
Peter sighed. "All right, then. You're doing your best. We all are. I'm going to let you go – Jasper'll be back out in a minute and I gotta be ready for whatever kind of shape he's in."
Alice laughed. "I don't see him right now either, which means he's probably running on instinct."
"Tell me something I don't know," Peter grumbled.
"Okay, then, I'll text again if I see anything more."
"Text… Right." He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it. "Text. You do that, Alice. We'll check every so often."
"Good luck, Peter," she said quietly.
"Thanks, Alice."
~CD~CD~CD~CD~CD~
"Who was on the phone?" Jasper asked, striding out of the house and over to the truck, which was now idling with Charlotte behind the wheel.
"Alice," Peter said cautiously, not sure what shape Jasper was in.
"Great," Jasper said, appearing to be perfectly in control once more, although his eyes were still black – whether from anger or blood lust or something else, Peter wasn't sure. His friend seemed to have his emotions on lock-down, not leaking anything that might help him figure out where he was coming from. Peter really didn't trust his calm – it was too unnatural.
"Did she have anything useful for us?" he continued while looking around the compound, a puzzled look coming over his face.
Peter quickly relayed what Alice had said, leaving out all of Carlisle's inquiries and the subsequent discussion it had led to about Jasper's mental health. When he was done speaking, he found that he was looking around too, trying to figure out what exactly Jasper was looking for.
"Good...good," Jasper said, clearly distracted now. "If she's spitting, that's good."
"Yeah," Peter said. "That's what everybody keeps saying. What exactly are you looking for, Jasper?"
"Do you hear that?" Jasper asked instead of answering Peter's question.
"What is taking you two so long?" Charlotte called from truck.
"Just a second, babe!" Peter called back to her. He stepped closer to Jasper, moving slowly so as not to startle him. "Hear what, Jasper?"
"That buzzing. Don't you hear something buzzing? More of a hum, actually. I thought I heard it earlier a few times tonight but wasn't sure over all the other noise. But it's quite clear now..."
Peter listened for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe..." He too was looking around now, trying to pinpoint where the noise might be coming from. He was also trying to figure out why it was so damn important. "Look, we need to get going–"
"Yes, yes..." Jasper said, clearly not listening to him. "Ah HAH!" he said. "There, Peter! See that pole?" He pointed to a light pole on the other side of the compound, its light extinguished from when they'd cut the electricity to the outer compound earlier. "Are there any guns in that truck of yours?"
"I have no clue," Peter answered, staring at the light pole. "Charlotte got the truck. I haven't even looked at it yet."
Jasper strode over to the vehicle and opened the back door to the bench seat. He dug around for a moment before stepping back, holding an assault rifle. Swinging it up to his shoulder, he aimed toward the pole and pulled the trigger. A split second later, a satisfying explosion of sparks brought a smile to Jasper's face.
"Nice shootin', Tex," Peter drawled. "Happy now?"
"Not really," Jasper said, lowering the gun and turning to him. "That was a camera."
~CD~CD~CD~CD~CD~
"Shit. Shit, shit, shit!" Peter said, kicking the flat tire for good measure before turning to take in their surroundings – a whole lot of nothing, which would be just fine if it weren't for the fact that it was 9 am, the sun was up, and the sky was a beautiful clear blue.
"There's no spare," Jasper said, standing up from where he'd been looking under the truck.
"What now? Run?"
Jasper looked around at the deserted landscape and dirt road they'd been on.
"I guess so. We can take to the hills. Not much chance of another vehicle coming along for us to steal, not on this back road. Might be faster than driving on these back roads anyway. And, at this point, I don't really care if somebody sees me sparkle or not."
"Yeah," Peter agreed. They'd taken the truck in order to avoid being seen during the day, and they'd stayed on the back roads to further avoid detection by humans. So here they were, three hours later, stranded on the side of the road and only halfway to their destination. It was a trip that should have taken less time if they'd been able to stick to the main highway, but now they were stranded on the side of the road and sparkling like freaks in a side show. Jasper was growing increasingly nervous the longer he was separated from his mate. It didn't matter that the pull had stabilized and they knew Maria had ceased moving Bella southward.
"Wait..." Jasper said, seeing a truck kicking up a dust cloud on the horizon. "I think our luck just changed. Back in the truck!"
"It'd be quicker to just run back and meet it–"
Jasper rolled his eyes. "If we do THAT, they'll see us coming!"
"So?"
"What if it's a truck full of kids from the local orphanage, huh?"
"Fine…"
They climbed back into the truck and rolled the tinted windows back up, waiting for the other vehicle to draw closer. It took almost 20 minutes for it to get close enough before they could decipher it from its accompanying dust cloud. It was a late model white SUV – suspiciously out of place on the deserted back road.
A lot like their own vehicle.
"I'm thinking it's not orphans," Charlotte said quietly.
"I'm thinking you're right," Jasper said. They could see the driver now, as well as his passenger. Both were no-nonsense looking men. A third figure in the back seat was not as clear.
"But it could be our next ride…and our lunch," Peter said, his venom starting to flow at the thought. He'd not eaten in a while, and the stress from the activities in the compound earlier in the day was starting to get to him.
"Yes," Jasper said. "Wait for them to come to us, Peter, just in case it's somebody we don't want to kill."
Peter couldn't imagine who fit that description. He couldn't think of any humans he wouldn't gladly drain right now.
Well, scratch that. Orphans. Or any children for that matter. Nuns, maybe. Old women. Old men. Pregnant women. Women who weren't pregnant.
Okay, he had a fairly long list after all. But two men driving a late model SUV in the middle of nowhere in Mexico? Definitely lunch material.
The SUV pulled over, stopping about twenty feet behind them. The man on the passenger side stepped out carrying a gun. The driver remained in the vehicle, quite clearly training another gun on them out of his open window. The passenger in the back didn't move either.
"Not a friendly bunch, are they?" Jasper asked quietly from the back seat.
"No. Not so much."
All three vampires could smell the fear coming off the man walking towards their truck. Peter cracked his window a bit for appearances, although all three could hear perfectly well through the glass.
"Looks like you're having a bit of trouble," the man said in Spanish, glancing back at the flat rear tire.
"You could say that," Peter agreed pleasantly, also speaking Spanish.
"Maybe we could help."
"You probably can," Peter said, neither moving to open the window further nor the door.
"You work for Heriberto?" the man asked suddenly, turning back to Peter, squinting as he tried to catch a glimpse of the interior of the truck. His eyes tightened further when sunlight managed to make its way through the barely opened window, reflecting off the skin of the vampire sitting behind the wheel.
"Uh..." Peter hesitated, not sure how to answer. He glanced back over his shoulder at Jasper.
"Fuck!" Jasper said, glancing out the back window towards the other truck, the movement there catching his eye. "Run! Get out!" he shouted, diving for the passenger door. He went through the window, not bothering to stop to open the door.
Years of training – and reflexes honed to obey that voice, never forgotten in their vampire minds – drove Peter to follow immediately with Charlotte close behind. They were barely ten feet away when the truck exploded in a ball of flames, the concussion from the blast sending them flying through the air.
"What the FUCK was that?" Peter shouted, jumping up from the ground and dusting himself off.
"That, my friend, was probably an RPG." Peter looked at Jasper blankly. "I'll explain later – but we better hurry. Our ride is getting away."
Peter turned in time to see that, sure enough, the SUV had spun around in the dirt road and was flying back in the direction it had come from.
"Oh, I don't thinkso, asshole!" he muttered. "Charlotte?" He took off running, Charlotte right behind him. Jasper followed quickly, not bothering to warn them further about possible weapon's fire from the vehicle that was making a hasty getaway. Nothing could hit them at the speed they were running – at least, nothing aimed by humans.
A second later, Peter was beside the SUV, his fist punching through the glass of the window before he grabbed the driver and pulled him out of the still moving vehicle. Left without a driver, the SUV careened wildly off the road and quite a ways into the sparse desert before coming to a halt.
Peter had immediately latched on to the driver's throat, desperate to drain as much blood from the man before he could bleed out from the various wounds caused from being yanked out of a moving vehicle at a high speed. Charlotte didn't even glance at her mate as she ran by; she concentrated on the vehicle instead. It had barely come to a stop before she had the door open and the third man pulled from the back seat.
A quick check with his senses told Jasper there weren't any more humans in the vehicle. Another check of their own – now smoking – truck told him that the man who'd first approached them was dead too – a burning bit of smoking flesh next to the smoking charred ruins and a crater.
A couple minutes later, Peter and Charlotte approached him where he still stood in the road, watching the remains of the truck continue to smolder. They were carrying the remains of their meals and they both quickly threw the corpses onto the remaining flames.
"That was impressive," Peter said, walking around the destruction. He was, Jasper noticed, finally feeling a bit of apprehension and fear at what he was seeing. "If we hadn't gotten out of there..." his voice trailed off and he looked over at Charlotte, "it might have killed us. We might have been destroyed...by humans."
"Yeah, exactly," Jasper said, sighing. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. The cattle have grown teeth, Peter. Lucky for us, people don't usually drive around armed like this."
"He knew what we were," Peter said.
Jasper shrugged. "Maybe. I didn't get that kind of fear or apprehension from him – at least not from the guy that walked up to the truck. I don't think he knew what we were. He sure as hell didn't know he was going to die alongside us. But the driver and the gunman in the SUV? There was nothing but determination coming from them. They knew to shoot first and run like hell afterward." He ran back to the SUV, Peter and Charlotte behind him.
"How did they find us? This wasn't just a lucky – or unlucky – encounter, was it?"
"I don't think it was. But what triggered the encounter...? That's another question. Did they work for Heriberto or a rival gang? Were we attacked because they thought weworked for Heriberto? A crime of convenience, perhaps? We were in the wrong place at the right time? Or did our little outing this morning trigger the attack?"
"You said there was a camera on the light pole back at the compound. Still working, filming us...even though you'd disconnected their main surveillance stuff."
"Yeah. A back-up system maybe, or...a private system? Maybe one that only Heriberto knew about? Maybe some sort of fail-safe system was triggered when he died."
"You're thinking about his threats, there at the end..." Peter said, eying Jasper thoughtfully.
"I am." Jasper nodded. "And look here..." He reached into the SUV and ripped something off of the front windshield. "A dash cam." He crumpled the box in his hand and dropped it into the dust.
"Somebody just saw all of that," Charlotte whispered, frightened.
Jasper nodded again. "At least the parts that took place in front of the vehicle." He pulled out his phone and cursed. "No signal. Hopefully maybe Alice saw some of that. The sooner Emmett and Rose can get online and work their magic, the better. I should have called about the other camera, but I'm not thinking straight right now."
Peter chose not to comment on that last part. If it was him separated from hismate, he'd be in a lot worse shape than Jasper was. "They're gonna be busy trying to wipe out all this evidence if that compound really was wired with a second system. Do they ever have time to do anything else?"
Jasper shrugged. "It's usually not a problem. We – the Cullens – make every effort to blend in. Aside from when it is time for us to disappear and the cyclical formation of new identities, we have very little to hide from the humans. All it takes is lots of practice – lots and lots of practice. If we fed from humans, it would be another story altogether." He stared at Charlotte and Peter for a moment. "I would suggest that you two be even more careful in your hunting. There are cameras everywhere."
Peter nodded thoughtfully. "We will. Well, shall we?" He gestured at the SUV. "I'm sure it runs good enough still to make it along this road for a while. And now we know not to trust any other vehicles we might run into."
"I wonder what sort of greeting committee will be waiting for us in Monterrey..." Charlotte said thoughtfully, going around to climb into the passenger side of the SUV. Jasper climbed into the back, letting Peter drive again. To their surprise, the vehicle started right up and he was able to pull back onto the road.
"Let's hope it doesn't involve shit that can blow us up," Peter muttered. "I'm sort of partial to being in one piece. I don't want to be turned to ashes any time soon. And I sure as hell don't want it to be at the hands of some damn blood bag. It's downright insulting!"