I swore quietly, yet ever-so-creatively, to myself. Time had officially stopped. I murmured another four letter word and deeply hoped Esme wasn't religious or easily offended. She snapped the cell phone shut and I felt remarkably unobservant for not noticing she'd answered it in the first place.
"Can we go?" I asked, feeling hopeful, anxious and impatient. It was probably a good thing Jasper wasn't there; I probably would have caused him to short circuit.
The motherly vampire chuckled at me. "Yes, they're finished. We can go. And everyone's fine, just like Jasper said they would be."
I made a mad dash over to the Mustang. I usually prided myself on being the mellow, sensible one who didn't freak out when separated from her fiancé for more than ten minutes, but this was pushing it. But no one else's fiancé just fought off a group of crazed, newborn vampires…except for Bella's. And I was still probably the mellow, sensible one compared to how she was undoubtedly freaking out right about now.
"It's faster to run, hop on," Esme said. Before I could act, she had taken my arm and slung me up onto her back. Of course, she was anxious to get back too, to see Carlisle and her family and the pace she was setting proved it.
"Are you doing okay?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Peachy," I answered; thanking all the gods I had sworn at earlier that I wasn't prone to motion sickness.
I hadn't realized how far we had been from the meadow; it took several minutes for us to reach it, even with Esme's lightening speed. She darted between trees and suddenly we arrived in the clearing. Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie and Alice were standing around a burning heap. The flickering flame made them sparkle faintly. I scanned the meadow for Jasper.
He was lurking on the other side of the fire; his body was rigid with concentration. His back was to me, but I could sense that he was glaring intensely at the figure in front of him. I didn't recognize who it was through the haze of the smoke.
I slipped off onto the ground and took a tentative step forward and the figure, now obviously female, shrieked horribly and stared at me. Her eyes flickered between me and the newly arrived Bella. Jasper sank into a crouch. Carlisle came over and said something to the other vampire. He also said something to Jasper, who stood up and glanced back at me.
The next thing I knew, Jasper was right in front of me and I was scooped up in his arms. I sighed in relief and buried my face into his neck. I couldn't tell if the relief cascading over me was my own or his. But I didn't care.
The girl, who I had deduced was one of the newborns, screamed again. Jasper turned so his back was to her, as if to shield me should she run toward us. I rested my chin on his shoulder and watched her. She clawed at the dirt and stared at Bella and me in bloodlust with piercing red eyes. Our eyes locked and for the first time I understood exactly why Jasper had been so worried about my safety. She was an out of control, bloodthirsty animal with no other want in life than to end mine.
"You're fine?" Jasper asked as he set me down on the ground, glancing over me. His soft amber eyes were a stark contrast from the newborn's red ones I had seen a second before.
"What happened to you?" I asked. I took his hand and held his arm up to better examine the angry red gashes that were scattered on his forearm.
"It's nothing, I was just bitten a few times. Not a big deal."
I stared at the bite wounds. It was the first time I had seen any coloration on his skin.
"Is it as bad as it looks?" I asked.
"Nah, it just burns," he answered. He used the arm I had been studying to swipe his hair out of his eyes, trying to take my attention off it. I knew he was being less than truthful, I remembered he had told me that venom burned like hell. I imagined he was in a lot more pain than he was letting on, undoubtedly downplaying his injuries, but I decided not to nag.
"Overprotective fool," Alice laughed as she breezed by.
Jasper shrugged sheepishly and draped an arm over my shoulder. "I couldn't let any of them get away." I rolled my eyes but still smiled. Overprotective fool, indeed.
The inferior vampire shrieked and jerked violently. She was obviously trying not to give into her instinct to kill Bella and I. Jasper took a step forward and angled himself in front of me. I tried to imagine Jasper out of control like that, with the creepy red eyes and clawing at the ground. I couldn't do it. He might claim to have been like that once, but nonetheless, I couldn't picture it. Not the Jasper I knew now.
"She surrendered," Jasper explained quietly to me. I raised an eyebrow. "It was all Carlisle's idea."
"I could believe that."
"You smell horrible, by the way."
"That was the idea, wasn't it?" I smirked.
"Amanda!" Emmett boomed as he strolled over to us. "You made it out in one piece!"
Jasper glared at him.
Emmett opened his arms as if to hug me, but stopped before he enveloped me in the steel grip I knew so well.
"Not happening," he said and sniffed the air. "You stink way too bad, babe."
I smacked him on the arm. Emmett rolled his eyes and head back to stand with Rosalie.
"Ow," I murmured and rubbed my hand. One day I'd remember not to strike vampires. Jasper laughed at me and I suppressed the urge to smack him, too.
"The Volturi are on their way," Alice said to us quietly, appearing out of nowhere.
"Shit," Jasper grumbled.
I let loose such a glorious stream of mental profanity that Edward actually turned around and looked at me. Under any other circumstance it would've been funny. Sadly, this wasn't one. I mentally apologized for my colorful vocabulary. The group began to morph into a loose line.
"They'll know if we take off," Jasper began. He took my hand and started leading me toward Esme at the end of the line. "I think they probably know about you, but we can only hope that Bella gets all their attention. Just stay close to Esme."
"And try to be unassuming?" I chortled. There it goes again…reverting to humor in a dire circumstance. It really was a disease.
Jasper smirked. "Try your best, my dear." He dropped my hand and took his place in the middle of the line between Carlisle and Emmett.
I glanced around and knew why he wanted me with Esme. Bella, Edward and Alice were the farthest away from me, on the other side of Carlisle, Emmett and Jasper. He had once told me that the Volturi desperately wanted Edward and Alice to join them, so they would probably be in the center of attention. Bella being right beside them certainly wouldn't help.
"Just relax, the worst is over now," Esme smiled warmly, earnestly attempting to be reassuring.
I nodded and took a deep breath. This was almost over. Things could go back to normal. Or as normal as possible when your fiancé is a 200 year old vampire. After this the biggest thing to deal with was leaving for Cornell in August, and compared to this, that a cakewalk. Ooh, cake. I had to remember to ask Grandma to make one of those caramel cakes I'm obsessed with. Since Jasper had decided to become my personal chef it wouldn't be a bad idea to get him to learn to make it, too.
The emergence of shadowy figures creeping into view snapped me out of my mental ramble. I briefly wondered if Edward had been listening. I glanced over at Jasper, who looked way too tense to be healthy. The surrendered vampire screamed again and I scowled at her. Really, shut up already…we all knew she wanted to kill Bella and me, it was old news. It didn't scare me like it had a few minutes before; I figured the odds of her getting through seven mature vampires, including a very protective Jasper, were pretty minimal. Hell, compared to what the Volturi were capable of doing to me, to us, she wasn't scary at all.
I took a deep breath and tried to put on an air of confidence. I wasn't expecting to fool the ancient vampires, but I had hoped they wouldn't notice me if I didn't have a spaz attack. I shoved my hands into the pockets of Jasper's leather jacket and tried to practice being a chameleon, which was hard, because I'd never tried to before, as the foreign vampires descended on us like a mist.
