Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the authors. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. This is just a tribute.
As always, a massive thank you to my very helpful beta, willowbae :)
Chapter 45.
Leo – one step forward
The bear hunt was definitely a good idea. The bear's blood tasted better than most animals, but more importantly, the hunt broke the ice between Kathy and me. We returned to Nessie and Jake on much better terms.
As we jogged back across the valley, Kathy actually looked happy. This surprised me, but I was really pleased, especially when she glanced up and gave me a small smile.
"That was fun."
I couldn't agree more; it was exactly the way it used to be. We had always had an intuitive connection when we hunted. It had been like that from the very start of our relationship, even when nothing else was going right, and that bond hadn't diminished with time or separation.
I looked down at Katherine and grinned. "You haven't entirely lost it. You can almost keep up with me."
This drew a reluctant laugh from her. "You keep telling yourself that, Leo."
I liked hearing my name on her lips. I smiled as she cautiously lifted her eyes to mine, and held her gaze until she glanced away, looking slightly self-conscious. It was nice being with her like this again. I still couldn't believe that she was prepared to be friendly to me. I must have been the luckiest guy in the world, because I knew perfectly well that I didn't deserve it. But I wasn't complaining!
Nessie and Jake came jogging towards us, carrying the backpacks. Nessie's cheeks were glowing as she burst out enthusiastically.
"Wow! That was awesome…! For a minute, I thought you two were going to have a massive fight!"
Kathy looked a little confused. "Um… ok."
"But, I'm really glad you didn't," she added hastily, handing Kathy her backpack.
I saw Jake trying to fight back a smile, and I couldn't resist saying.
"Maybe you could've refereed us, kid."
Jacob choked and Red looked a slightly abashed. I took my pack from Jake and retrieved my shirt from inside. Katherine had already found hers, and was pulling it on.
I was glad that she was covering herself again. Not because I wouldn't have been perfectly happy to spend every minute of the day gazing at her gorgeous body. But I didn't know if I could handle it right then.
I had been completely unprepared when she removed her shirt before the hunt. I'd deliberately looked away while she was striping off her layers of clothes, I didn't want to make her uncomfortable by staring. But when she'd finished, and was packing away her shirt and jacket, I glanced in her direction.
Kathy was crouching down over her backpack and her face was hidden by thick waves of hair. Her tight tank top showed off her beautiful figure, but the only thing I really noticed were the faint scars on her arms and shoulders. I realised with a sickening jolt that they were bite-marks.
GODDAMMIT…!
How in the hell had she got those?
For a second I was so angry that I could barely see. It took absolutely everything I had to keep me from exploding there and then. Just knowing that someone had done that to her, filled me with such bitter rage, that I knew without a doubt that if I ever found out who it was, I would track them down and make them pay. I wouldn't care how long it took me.
But somewhere under my fury, lurked a feeling that was infinitely more painful, a terrible sense of guilt for my own failure. Katherine's scars confirmed all my worst fears about our separation; they were the living proof that she had suffered in our time apart, that she had been in danger. This should never have happened. She should never have been left unprotected. When Kathy was under attack, where the hell was I?
I couldn't afford to expose my feelings right then, and I really didn't want to upset her, so I fought to keep my expression calm. I didn't entirely succeed, but it was the best I could manage. Of course, when Kathy raised her head she immediately noticed that something was wrong.
Her reaction was just what I needed to cool off. The way she looked into my eyes, and the steady tone of her voice, helped me to gain mastery over my anger. The red haze subsided and I could breathe again, but there was no way that I could admit what was wrong.
It was funny; I could tell that Katherine's resentment towards me had died down, because even though she had caught me glaring at her, she didn't make a big deal of it. She wasn't even scared. But maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised, she hadn't been afraid of me since our very first weeks together.
The bear hunt took the edge off my anger, and afterwards, when her scars were hidden, I tried to force them to the back of my mind. I really didn't want to spend the whole day brooding. That wouldn't make a very good impression on Kathy.
After the bear hunt I was pleased to notice that the tension between Red and Jake wasn't quite as bad as it had been during the morning. Not that it was completely gone. I could see that things weren't great, especially for Jacob.
When it came to Nessie, it seemed that Jake's emotional autopilot was complete and unquestioning devotion. He just didn't know how to handle the fact that she was lying to his face, so one minute he was pretending like nothing was wrong, and the next he was snapping at her over the slightest thing. I hoped that Nessie would tell him the truth soon, if only to put the poor guy out of his misery.
But however badly things were going for Jake; it seemed that they were looking up for me. Just before we started moving again, we discussed heading straight towards Mount McKinley, so that Kathy could get to Nessie's cousins' home as soon as possible. But Kathy just said that there was 'no real hurry', which was her way of saying that she was happy to travel with us for a little longer.
I didn't say anything. I just played it cool and tried really hard not to grin like an idiot, which was surprisingly difficult, because I was so happy that she wasn't going away.
By the afternoon, we had covered plenty of ground on our journey south, and so we took a break on a rocky hillside. We brushed the snow off several boulders and sat down to enjoy the scenic view. It was still sunny. A few narrow strips of cloud streaked the blue sky and the air was very cold. Kathy sat near me, sparkling in the sunlight, as she gazed out over the snow-covered hills.
"It's beautiful here." She sighed.
I had deliberately avoided talking to her since our hunt. I didn't want her to feel crowded. But since she had been the first to speak, I felt as if it would be ok to engage in a conversation. I kept my tone relaxed.
"Have you been to Alaska before?"
She glanced in my direction. "No, have you?"
"No, this is my first visit. I guess I've never got around to it. I usually go where the trails take me and none of them have ever led here. And if I'm just tracking for food, then I generally stay in California, because it's easier and I like it there."
I didn't add that I was especially attached to all the places where I had hunted with her. But I was pleased when she said.
"I love the forests in California."
I met her eyes questioningly. "Do you think you'll ever go back?"
I hoped she would say 'yes', but she just gave a gentle shrug and turned her face back to the view. "I don't know… maybe someday."
Katherine fell quiet as she gazed out across the wilderness. I had a perfect view of her elegant profile, and I watched her admiringly, while trying to work out what she was thinking. Her expression was hard to read and after a moment, she turned back to me and asked.
"So have you been in the States this whole time?"
"Mostly… There's not really much to tell about my life, nothing changes." I smiled. "But Jake told me that you've been abroad."
"Yeah. I left the States in the sixties, and this is the first time I've been back since then."
"Where did you go?"
She told me about her travels in Asia and her aid work. I knew plenty of vampires who gravitated towards human war zones – everyone knew that they made easy pickings – but Kathy was the first I'd known who had gone to help with the humanitarian relief work. It was just typical of her. I had to ask the most obvious question.
"Weren't you ever tempted?"
I thought she might be offended by the very idea, but she was too honest for that. She just frowned thoughtfully. "Not often. Very occasionally I would be tempted… but I never gave in to it."
I knew perfectly well that she was telling the truth. But I couldn't resist narrowing my eyes and asking suspiciously. "Are you sure…?"
Katherine knew that I was joking, because she rolled her eyes and answered in a weary voice, as if she was humouring a five year old. "Yeah, I'm sure." But a second later she gave an apologetic smile, adding truthfully. "But there was one time when it was a close call."
Nessie and Jake were sitting together on a nearby boulder, idly watching the scenery and not really paying much attention, but this remark caught their interest and they glanced towards us. Nessie looked a little worried. She stared at Katherine with wide eyes and whispered.
"What happened?"
"Don't worry, Nessie. I didn't touch a hair on his head." Kathy reassured her, before adding cryptically. "Though sometimes I wish I could forget his scent."
She registered our curiosity and began to explain. "I was working in Laos and he was brought into the hospital one evening, just a young guy who'd broken his arm in a motorcycle accident. I was on duty that night. I never knew that blood could smell so intoxicating. The perfume filled my mind so that I could hardly see straight. I wasn't in the same room when I caught his scent, but I could see him through the hospital screen doors.
"Those doors probably saved his life. If he'd been in the same room as me, I doubt that I could have resisted. But that tiny barrier gave me a chance to get a hold of myself. I stopped breathing and tore myself away. I still don't know how I managed it." She shook her head, with a mystified expression.
"I'm sure that if I hadn't already been desensitised to the smell of blood, then I wouldn't have been able to. As it was, I could never go back to that hospital. As soon as I got myself out of the building, I went straight home, packed my bags and the left the city."
Nessie looked confused. "But… couldn't you have gone back once he was discharged from the hospital?"
Kathy met her friend's gaze and slowly shook her head. "No. A part of me was too shocked and ashamed to return, but my biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to stop myself from hunting him down, if I ever caught his scent again. I didn't believe that I had the strength to resist it twice.
"This happened forty years ago, but that scent still haunts me. I'm just thankful that I never crossed it again. Who knows if he's still alive? I just wish that I didn't still wonder if he was... You know it's actually a relief to know that someday his mortal life will end and it will be too late for me to kill him."
I listened to Kathy's story with real sympathy. It was painful enough to deny your thirst at the best of times, but to resist a singer was practically impossible. Most vampires lived in hope that they would find theirs. But all she could feel was a sense of shame, despite the fact that she had resisted what must have been an almost overwhelming temptation.
I wanted to make her feel better, but I had a feeling that pulling her into a passionate kiss might not be the way to do it, though it would probably take her mind off her memories. Before I could come up with a less drastic solution, Red distracted me with a random comment.
"The hospital must have been worried when you just disappeared."
This seemed a particularly irrelevant statement. I mean, who gave a damn what a bunch of humans thought, forty years ago?
I was surprised when Katherine lowered her eyes and replied remorsefully. "I know…"
My instincts were instantly on the alert. Not even Katherine was that conscientious, so it was safe to assume that was something more to this story. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt this, because Nessie gave Kathy quick glance and asked in a casual voice.
"Were you very sorry to leave?"
"Yes, I had some good friends there. I was really sorry to go…" Kathy trailed off and bit her lip. "And I never saw them again. I felt awful about it. One of them was the best human friend I ever had. I was really sad to leave him."
Him…?
My eyes narrowed and I folded my arms over my chest. Katherine continued to describe her best 'friend' to Nessie and didn't notice the change in my expression.
"He was a doctor. We got on well from the very start, and even though I'm sure he knew that I wasn't normal, he never said a word about it. He was never afraid of me, he was always just kind." She added with a shy smile. "It seems strange, but we also had a lot in common."
Nessie nodded appreciatively. "He must have been really nice."
I frowned at this ridiculously naïve comment. Yeah right!
What on earth was Red talking about? Doctors were always taking advantage of vulnerable nurses. Everyone knew that. It was the oldest trick in the book, and one that I never would have believed Kathy could fall for. She was usually pretty smart. But here she was, forty years later, still mooning around over this… this... Dr Love!
Nessie couldn't have been more wrong in her opinion of him. The guy wasn't nice. He was disgusting!
I was already feeling pretty sick of this exasperating story, so it was unlucky that Katherine was really starting to warm to her theme.
"Yeah, he was great," she said enthusiastically. "We talked all the time."
I rolled my eyes and Jake glanced at me with a thoughtful expression. He was probably thinking the same thing as me; that Kathy was a complete idiot to have been so impressed by some sleazy doctor. Nessie carried on asking questions about this medical Casanova, and unfortunately, Katherine continued to answer them.
I had to hear the story of a heroic doctor, hardworking and underpaid; who could hardly go for five minutes without saving somebody's life, but miraculously found the time to talk to Kathy for hours. Jake just listened to the discussion without saying much. I didn't blame him. Couldn't Katherine and Nessie see how boring they were being?
What was wrong with these girls? Nessie listened sympathetically to Kathy's tale and neither of them seemed to understand that it was a good thing that Katherine never saw the jerk again.
Even though she was just talking about some pointless human – who, with any luck, was dead by now – there was something about Kathy's story that made me feel surprisingly annoyed. I knew that I couldn't actually be jealous of a human. I hadn't sunk that low. But I wished that her words weren't quite so heartfelt. It was impossible to ignore how much she cared.
So I sat quietly on my boulder for another fifteen minutes, listening to Katherine's reminiscences about their wonderful conversations, without passing a single sarcastic comment. I thought I was handling the whole thing fairly well until Nessie asked.
"Did you get the chance to say goodbye?"
Kathy shook her head, regretfully. "No, I didn't speak to him. I wanted to call… but I had no idea what to say. How could I explain? I knew I had to move on and make a clean break. But I did write him a letter. I didn't want him to think that his friendship wasn't important to me. I hope he got it. I didn't have a forwarding address, so he couldn't write back and tell me that he had…"
As I heard these words, something inside me twisted painfully. I could cope with everything else, but the thought that she had written a letter to this guy, saying goodbye and telling him how much he meant to her, really hurt. When Kathy walked out on me, after travelling together for months, she didn't leave so much as a note!
No, she had made it abundantly clear that she didn't give a damn. Our friendship, or more specifically I, meant nothing to her. And there wasn't anything that could have highlighted this fact more sharply than her relationship with the noble doctor.
As this humiliating truth sunk in, I was hit by another glaring obvious fact. I suddenly realised that not only could I be jealous of a human, but that I actually was. I was completely and crushingly jealous of some weak human male who Katherine hadn't seen for forty years. And it was the final degradation.
On the flight to Alaska, I had suffered furious jealousy when I'd thought that Kathy had found a vampire mate, but this was so much worse. My anger had been replaced with a feeling of worthlessness. She didn't want a vampire at all. I knew that I could have snapped the doctor's neck like a twig, but what good would it have done me? Would it have made Kathy like him less and me more?
No. She had enjoyed his company.
She had missed him.
Not me.
We'd had some reasonable times together, but they weren't good enough. Those memories meant something to me, but not to her. Because she wanted something that no vampire could give her, she wanted humanity.
I didn't really want to admit that she might be justified in feeling this way, but somehow I couldn't escape the truth. The doctor probably hadn't been that bad. I couldn't even really justify hating him, because I knew in my heart that he'd been kind to Kathy. He probably deserved her friendship, and I couldn't honestly say the same about myself. And most of all, he was human and I wasn't.
I wondered if she was in love with him, but quickly shied away from the idea. I just couldn't face it. Just the thought that she liked him was bad enough. I was well aware that Kathy didn't love me, but it didn't seem so bad if she didn't love anyone else either.
But if she really loved him, then nothing could reverse that. Vampires didn't change when it came to true love. It wouldn't matter if the guy was dead, Kathy would never stop loving him. And that would be the final proof that there never was, and never would be, any hope for me.
And all the time, Nessie and Katherine kept talking and I had to pretend that their words were of no interest to me. At least I'd had years of experience of hiding my feelings, because I really needed to draw on it. I just kept my expression blank and prayed that they would find something else to talk about soon.
Unfortunately they didn't, and Nessie decided to ask the one question that I really didn't want to know the answer to. She glanced cautiously at Katherine.
"So… did you like him?"
I held my breath, trying not to listen to Kathy's reply, but at the same time, I was absolutely riveted. Katherine looked slightly confused, and I braced myself.
She nodded. "Of course I did…" My heart felt like a lump stone in my chest and all my pathetic hopes shattered before my eyes, but then she added artlessly. "He was my friend."
I almost huffed with exasperation. I couldn't believe that Kathy was being so slow. We all knew she liked him as a friend. She'd just spent the last twenty minutes painstakingly explaining the fact! Luckily, Nessie realised that she would have to spell it out to her galactically obtuse friend.
"I mean… you know. Did you date him or anything like that?"
Credit to Red; this time she worded it in a way that even Katherine couldn't misunderstand. I waited for Kathy to try and avoid answering the question, but instead she just looked stunned. I don't know why she was quite so taken aback; it wasn't such an outrageous thing to ask. Pulling herself together, she turned to Nessie.
"No, it was never like that," she said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I mean we were close, but it just wasn't that kind of relationship. Neither of us felt that way. Thank goodness."
There was no question that she was telling the truth. I couldn't believe how relieved I felt. My heart soared and all my shattered hopes quickly rebuilt themselves. She wasn't in love with some stupid human.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Nessie seemed surprised. "I thought that maybe…"
Yeah, she wasn't the only one.
But Katherine interrupted her. "You must be kidding, Nessie." She laughed at her friend's earnest expression and shook her head in disbelief. "I can't think of anything worse. What kind of vampire would date a human? Can you imagine the risk? I wouldn't want to accidentally kill…"
Out of nowhere, Nessie gasped. "Katherine…!"
I had been feeling too relieved to be paying much attention, so this interruption didn't make any sense to me. The weirdest thing of all was Kathy's response. Her eyes flew wide and she froze midsentence.
This immediately caught my interest and I watched closely, as she bit her lip and threw me a sideways glance. She only met my gaze for a split-second before looking away in confusion. She then turned to Nessie, who was also staring at me in dismay. I couldn't understand what the hell was wrong with these girls, and why they both looked so mortified. I glanced at Jake, hoping that he could enlighten me, but his countenance was completely unreadable.
I was completely mystified until I saw the apologetic look that Katherine threw Nessie, and I suddenly understood the reason for their discomfort. Nessie's own father had dated a human girl, and the relationship had ended Bella's mortal life. No wonder they were both so embarrassed by Katherine's tactless comment.
For a moment no one said anything. Katherine sat perched on her rock, staring at the ground in miserable silence and I felt bad for her. She hadn't been trying to hurt Nessie's feelings deliberately, and it wasn't her fault what had happened to Bella. No, the blame for that lay entirely at Edward's door.
Anyway, Kathy had a good point; it would be very reckless to date a human. I could never have done it, just look what I did when I got into close proximity with Kathy. I had lost control in about three seconds flat. I guess I was just lucky that no one brought up that little episode!
As the silence continued I decided that it was up to me to say something; after all, it was a mistake that anyone could have made.
"I have to say…" I kept my gaze fixed on Katherine. She jumped at the sound of my voice. Her eyes flew to mine and their expression was so apprehensive that I almost felt guilty. I gave her a reassuring smile and ended. "It sounds like you did the right thing."
"Well, I don't know about that," she said, looking relieved.
I looked into her golden eyes. "I do."
I should know. I specialised in doing the wrong thing.
This small exchange seemed to unfreeze the other two, and they visibly relaxed. But Kathy didn't look away, her beautiful eyes remained fixed on mine, and she returned my smile with a shy one of her own. For a moment it seemed as if she wanted to say something, but she suddenly became aware of her surroundings. Quickly glancing away, she asked in a detached voice.
"So, Leo… you still track?"
I had to smile at this abrupt change of subject, what Kathy lacked in finesse, she made up for in determination. I was glad to accommodate her – anything to improve the tense atmosphere.
I shook my head slowly. "Humans, no." I then added with a wide grin. "Vampires, yes!"
She raised her eyebrows in amusement. "I guess some things never change, huh?"
"True." I nodded cheerfully, and somehow stopped myself from adding, like my undying love for you.
I noticed that Katherine didn't ask why I had stopped feeding on humans, but I wasn't about to raise the subject, I was still trying to keep the mood light and impersonal. Instead, I told her about the four vampires that I'd been tracking on my way up to Forks. Both Kathy and Jake seemed curious to hear about them.
Jake was particularly interested in the possibility of four hostile vampires heading north. He looked relieved when I told him that they had turned east. I said that I would pick up their trail again after leaving Alaska. At this point, Nessie's curiosity got the better of her. Raising her wide eyes to mine, she asked.
"Why do you track vampires, Leo?"
"Well…" I looked into her innocent face and faltered. Was she really ready to hear this stuff?
I remembered the time I had spent with her family in New Hampshire, and how carefully they sheltered her from the darker realities of their world. Like the way that Jasper spoke about his military experiences in front of her. She probably had no idea how heavily he censoring his anecdotes. He made his time in the army sound like a scout camp. But I wasn't fooled. The scars on his body, and the look in his eyes, told me everything I needed to know.
So I had the uncomfortable feeling that however much I tried to keep my answers safe and inoffensive, I would somehow end up saying something that would seriously disturb this young girl. I didn't really want to tell her, but I wasn't sure if I was being a little overprotective.
I glanced at the others, in the hope of guidance, and caught Jacob's eye. Its message needed no interpretation. He didn't want me sharing my horror stories with Red. I was more than happy to go along with Jake's wishes, so I shrugged and replied hazily.
"It's complicated…"
Jake gave an approving nod, which Nessie didn't see, and I noticed that even Kathy looked relieved. Only Nessie seemed dissatisfied with my response.
"Oh." She frowned in confusion. "But…"
I hoped that someone else would intervene, and I didn't have long to wait. It was Jake who interrupted her. Maybe he was still feeling irritable about the fact that she hadn't confessed to him yet, because he was slightly more abrupt than he needed to be.
"Come on, Nessie. Let it go," he said impatiently.
She flushed with embarrassment and turned to him. "What do you mean?"
He met her eyes with a frown. "It's obvious that Leo doesn't want to talk about it."
It was clear from these tactless comments that Jake's restraint was wearing more than a little thin. I put it down to stress. But all the same, I wasn't exactly thrilled that he was dragging me into his lovers' quarrel. I wanted to keep as far out of this one as possible. So I just pulled a blank face and kept my mouth shut.
I needn't have bothered, Nessie wasn't paying any attention to me anyway; she was too busy glaring defensively at Jacob.
"He didn't mind talking about tracking with Katherine."
"That's different…" Jake answered evasively.
If Jacob was going to get away with giving his girlfriend an answer that was that vague, then he'd have to be the first guy in the history of mankind to do so.
Red proved my point.
"How?" She demanded, and glanced from Kathy to me, trying to understand what Jake was getting at.
Jake gave in to pressure and attempted to explain himself. "Ok… for a start, Katherine's been surviving on her own, as a vampire, for how many decades now? She's been around and she's more experienced than you. Besides which, she's actually travelled with Leo for months, and understands his lifestyle."
I didn't think much of Jacob's youth psychology. I mean what teenager wants to be told that they are young and naïve, especially when they are being compared with a friend? Two spots of colour burned high on Nessie's cheekbones as she shot him a resentful glare.
"I'm not a baby, Jacob," she said, lowering her eyes in humiliation.
He gave her a long look and then spoke more evenly. "I never said that you were." She bit her lip and didn't look up, so he added. "I'm only trying to protect you, honey."
"Fine," snapped Nessie, without a hint of gratitude. "Thanks."
She looked unmistakeably sulky, which was unfortunate, since she was trying to claim that she wasn't an immature kid. And although Jake's handling of the situation left a lot to be desired, I still felt really sorry for him. Just in the short time that I'd spent with them, it had become apparent to me that he always had to be the adult in their relationship.
Katherine smiled kindly at Nessie, and saved us from what would have been a very awkward silence.
"Don't worry, you're not missing much. Why do you think I had to learn how to sleep? It was the only way to get a break from Leo and his tracking."
I appreciated what she was trying to do, so I followed her example and added in a light tone. "Personally, I think sleep is overrated." I met Kathy's eyes and grinned. "I don't know what some people see in it."
She threw me a superior smile. "That's because your mind is like the proverbial blank page, Leo. So you don't actually need to clear your head."
Nessie gave a small smile and I knew that we were on the right track, so I said in a smug voice. "There are plenty of people who spend years trying to attain this blank state. They'd call it being 'spiritually advanced.'" Katherine just rolled her eyes and so I added provokingly. "I could always give you some pointers, Kathy; after all, it was me who taught you how to sleep in the first place."
She refused to take the bait and flashed me an innocent look from under her dark lashes. "That's true. Listening to your constant bragging really helped me switch off."
"I'll have you know, all those stories were true." I laughed as she raised her eyebrows. "Except the one about vanquishing the Green Goblin, I kind of borrowed that from Spiderman."
"What about your fling with Catwoman?"
"No, that really happened."
"I was right, some things never change." She shook her head and gave me an unexpectedly friendly smile.
This made me feel totally elated. My secret hope was that Kathy would forgive me for our last big row, and we could become friends again. I knew that the whole romance thing wasn't going to happen, but I did think that a possible outcome of our reunion was that we might stay in touch. I would prefer to see her occasionally, as a friend, than face the desolation of a lifetime's separation.
Just being with her like this made me feel so happy that it almost scared me. Kathy was still the only person who could make me feel complete, and I had to wonder how I would live without her if she went away again? What would I do if she didn't even want to be friends?
Well, I would have to make damn sure that she did want to see me again. I wasn't going to mess it up again. This was my second chance. Kathy had agreed to travel with us for a few extra days and I was going to use that time to prove that I was someone she could trust.
When we finally started running again, neither Nessie, nor Jake, seemed to be in a very forthcoming mood. Jake's side had fully healed and so he phased into wolf form, which meant that he couldn't talk, and Nessie was completely silent, lost in thought. On the other hand, Katherine seemed to be feeling quite sociable, and since I was the only other person who was prepared to speak, she ran alongside me.
I couldn't believe how quickly she had thawed. It was really nice. We chatted about what we'd been doing in our time apart, and even talked about our time together. I was surprised to discover that Katherine had plenty of good memories of those months, as she cheerfully recalled our travels. She remembered events that I hadn't thought of in years.
When I looked back on our travels, more often than not, I would think of the sad or guilt-inducing episodes. But Katherine talked about our happier times. A few of her stories reminded me of the dumb things that I'd said or done, but she never made any reference to the really bad stuff. She was too nice for that.
I was grateful, but it did make me feel a little guilty when I thought about what she could have chosen to discuss. I tried not to dwell on it though. Instead I tried to concentrate on the fact that at least she was smiling now. She wasn't sad, or bitter, and her eyes were shining as she teased me about the time I misjudged a leap and went over a cliff.
"You were really upset, because you tore your shirt," she joked.
"I loved that shirt." I tried to justify myself. "It was a classic."
"Hmmm… if you say so," she replied sceptically, raising her beautiful eyebrows and throwing me such a playful look that my thoughts were thrown into chaos.
It was lucky that I couldn't decide whether I should pin her against a tree in a fierce kiss, or just cut to the chase and propose marriage, because in the time it took me to choose which was the better option, I came to my senses and realised that they were both equally insane. Several minutes passed before I was capable of rational thought, by which time Kathy had changed the subject. And even then, all I could muster were a few nods and mumbles.
It was disconcerting to know how powerfully she still affected me. Everything about her drew me in. The way she smiled, the way she talked, her unbelievable scent, her very soul, called to me. It wasn't her fault, but I didn't like feeling so out of control. To be honest, it scared the hell out of me. Especially since I had no idea what was going to happen when this trip was over.
I tried putting my worries out of my mind. I didn't want to let them spoil our time together. Let's face it; I wasn't going to charm Kathy by exposing all my emotional hang-ups. So I buried my neuroses and spent a really great afternoon running alongside the most amazing girl in the world.
By the time we stopped to make camp, Katherine and I had spent several hours in friendly conversation. It was a shame that the same couldn't be said for Jake and Red. As the day wore on, the atmosphere between them seemed to have become progressively more strained.
Nessie looked tense and – dare I say it – guilty, and Jacob just looked pissed off. It was obvious that he wasn't going to hold out for much longer. If Nessie didn't confess soon, I was pretty sure that Jake would take matters into his own hands.
I could predict an unpleasant scene. It was quite nice to know that, for once, it wouldn't be between Kathy and me. I only hoped that when the accusations started flying, they wouldn't sour my improved relations with Katherine. I knew that I was taking a selfish attitude, but I only had one shot with her and couldn't afford any screw-ups. Whatever happened I was going to stay out of their arguments.
When we stopped to make camp that evening, I was glad to notice that Kathy's presence seemed to have a calming effect on Nessie. I hoped she would use her positive influence to stop Red from flying off the handle with Jake.
It was only when I considered this idea, that it occurred to me what an unusual vampire Katherine actually was. It wasn't just her lifestyle, it was her. Most vampires had their behaviour and characteristics completely fixed when they transformed, but Katherine hadn't been frozen like that. She was open to change and I could see that she had matured in our time apart. She was fundamentally the same person, but she had more depth, she was wiser.
She was just that bit more out of my league.
As I watched her across the campfire, I couldn't help wondering if just maybe there was still a chance that we could be friends. I knew it was a longshot, but I couldn't help hoping.
Author's notes:
Just to say a big thanks to everyone who reviewed this story last week, or added it to their lists :) And a quick extra thanks to NessieJake4eva14 because I can't PM you.
Thanks for reading, have a lovely week, Mad :)
p.s. I finally managed to post the next chapter of The Black Pirate yesterday, which can be found via my profile page.
