(Bella's POV)
Time played tricks on me now. It seemed to pass very slowly as I waited for Angela to arrive. With a noisy Charlie still on the phone in the background to keep me company, I lingered by the window. The truth was it had only been 10 minutes since I spoke with my friend, but to me it felt like an hour. The torturous slowing down of time was made all the worse when my mind began showing me faint images of Jasper, injured, dismembered, with orange flames engulfing his motionless body. I hadn't seen Edward this way, but it was a mental picture I saw during my lowest of points. Now it was replayed to me … only Jasper took his place. After a few minutes his likeness began to blur around the edges until it disappeared completely. Then another vampire took shape, Carlisle, which then shifted to Esme until my brain left me mentally spent at having seen the whole Cullen family devastated.
I shuddered as I tried to will away the horrible pictures. This could be avoided. I just needed to get to them before Sam did. If he saw that I was unhurt, I knew I could reason with him … far better than a vampire could or even Jake, who by all accounts had probably been found out by now. I doubted Sam would stop and let any of them talk. It was up to a human to put sense into him. I was sure of it. I just needed Angela to get here, so I could keep my mental imagery from making the leap out of my head and into reality.
"Bella?"
With my mind completely occupied with all that could go wrong, I hadn't noticed Charlie. He had stopped speaking on the phone and made the move from his desk to stand by my side. His sudden presence caused me to jump and whirl around. When he saw my stunned response a large grimace spread across his mouth, "I suppose that's a normal reaction for someone in your condition." He reached out a hand to place on my shoulder and then squeezed.
"No, really Dad, I'm fine. I was just thinking and you caught me off guard." I tried to explain my actions away, but Charlie wasn't buying it.
"Well, it should please you to know that they finally found that ass … er um jerk who tried to uh …"
He was stumbling with his words again. This wasn't an easy topic for him and I decided to come to the rescue, "They found Daniel?"
"Yeah, apparently he's in the hospital with an injury to his … uh, area … that is … his groin." Charlie blushed at having to use such a provocative word, at least for a father to say to his daughter, and I found myself drowning in embarrassment as well.
But, I also had to stifle a laugh. Daniel had an injury that I could only assume had been given to him by a vampire. "Well, that's good to hear." I replied and truly meant what I said.
I was glad to know that Jasper had given him pain in the exact area he needed to feel it. Hopefully this would keep the perp from repeating what nearly happened to me earlier.
"Yep," Charlie said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, "So, I suppose we should get you to the ER to be drug tested now. We will need that evidence in court."
I groaned. Here came the part I had been dreading. I was going to have to tell him that I had no intention of doing this tonight. "Um … Dad, do you mind if I take a pass on that until tomorrow? I think I just need to be with Angela. She's home and after everything I've been through I need a girl's perspective on stuff … no offense."
Charlie seemed to struggle with my words at first. I saw his brows furrow with concern as if there was an epic resistance to my suggestion battling inside him. "Bella … I don't know. I just …"
"Wait," I interrupted knowing exactly where he was heading and wanting to cut him off before he got himself worked up, "I get it. Some seriously bad stuff could have happened tonight, but it didn't, because of Jasper. It isn't nearly as bad as you've imagined it."
One of my dad's fists clenched and he raised it enough that I thought he might smash it into the window I leaned against. "If that boy had …" His voice faltered at the horrible idea of the almost-rape he couldn't speak of.
"But, he didn't. He didn't and I have Jasper to thank for that." I pulled down his clenched fist and then clasped my hands around it.
Charlie looked down at the ball my fingers created over his fist and I saw him begin to slowly relax like a weight was being lifted off of his shoulders. Eventually his hand followed suite and the tension left his clenched fingers, "Yeah … Jasper …" His voice came out in a mutter that I assumed meant he was talking to himself, "That boy's alright, Bella." Charlie's eyes came back up to meet mine.
"Yes, he is. He's done more for me than you can possibly imagine."
He nodded in response and I figured this was about as much as I would get from him concerning an approval for my relationship with Jasper. He had to have figured it out by now that I was dating another one of Dr. Cullen's adopted children. He may have been in denial about it before, but at this moment even my dad couldn't ignore the love he saw radiating from me when I spoke about Jasper.
"Dad …" my voice was quiet at first since I was still debating if I should continue with the subject I was about to broach.
"What is it, Bells?"
I gulped down a mouthful of saliva and continued, "You know I love him, right?" My eyes darted downward.
Charlie didn't say anything and I looked back up at him for reassurance. I knew I would continue to be with Jasper regardless of how my dad answered, but none the less the little girl inside me wanted her daddy's approval.
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out. What do you want from me … a blessing? Bella, I'm not going to be happy with any man that threatens to take you away from me, but …." He paused for a minute and the irritated voice he had been speaking in took on a soft spoken and encouraging quality, "if I have to say something positive about him it would be that you picked one of the good ones." He was uncomfortable with the ooey-gooey quality our conversation had taken and to break the tension, Charlie reached out and honked my nose like I remembered him doing when I was a kid.
"Stop it!" I hit his hand away and we both shared a quiet laugh.
"I guess I'll just make an appointment for you to see Dr. Cullen in the morning. You go on ahead and be with Angela tonight." Then Charlie tilted his head towards the window indicating that I should look out, "Your friend's here. Go. I'll be alright, just please, call me later to let me know everything is okay … do it for your old man."
I turned to look through the clear glass behind me and saw Angela's tiny Saturn parked out front with her sitting patiently in the driver's seat, "Of course." I replied facing Charlie once more and then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before bolting towards the door. "Bye."
"Bye." I heard him reply as I raced outside, the door closing behind me.
"God that seemed like it took forever." I grumbled while taking a seat beside Angela in her car.
My friend rolled her eyes in response, "15 minutes tops. I sped all the way here too, figuring your dad is really the only cop that enforces the speed limit rule to a T and he was otherwise engaged. So, where to?"
I clicked my seatbelt into place and turned to face Angela, "The Cullen house; it's the only location I can come up with right now. I think if I get there then we can pick up some clues as to what's going on."
Angela half smiled as she pulled out onto the road and replied, "I'm sorry, I know how serious this all is, but why do I feel like I should be driving something called The Mystery Machine right now and your name should be Daphne."
I returned her smile with a smirk of my own, "Honestly, at this point in my life, with vampires and werewolves all around, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if I learned you were part of a group called The Scooby Gang and your BFF was a talking Great Dane. Which reminds me … were you going to tell me exactly how you knew …" I gestured with my hands in the air trying to come up with the right word, but failing and settling on something generic, "about this."
I hadn't pushed the subject when I was in the police station with a nearby Charlie who might just happen to overhear, but now that I was alone with Angela it was something that I needed to know. How long? How long had she been aware of the truth?
Angela cleared her throat and turned the knob down on her car stereo until only a mumble of the song playing could be heard, "Well, it wasn't something that came to me all at once." Angela began, her eyes still focused on the dark road in front of us, "I always knew something was wrong with them … the pale skin, the golden eyes … it didn't seem natural, but I never felt comfortable talking with anyone about it. The consensus was that they were freaks, but if I suggested anything beyond that, well, I wasn't about to give people another excuse to look at me weird. I was already considered a nerd … psycho wasn't a term that I wanted too."
"Who called you a nerd?" A sense of loyalty for my friend filled me and the urge to kick the jerk that had used such a hurtful word followed … it was probably Lauren.
Angela shook her head, "It's okay. I am a nerd. It doesn't bother me when I hear people say it behind my back." She stopped suddenly and then chuckled to herself, "I suppose that would make me Velma, wouldn't it?"
I smiled at her comparison to one of the 'Scooby Doo' characters, "Just don't drop your glasses on the ground while we are out searching for vampires."
"Vampires … yeah right." Angela playfully scoffed, "You know as well as I do that old man Jenkins who runs the skeevy carnival is the one behind all this nonsense."
We both burst out into fits of giggles that lasted for a good full minute. It felt so nice to have someone that I could joke with about all the incredibly complex issues going on in my life. Edward had never been able to find humor in any of it and even though Jasper was less tightly wound than his brother my boyfriend's attitude was much of the same, "So, what eventually tipped you off that they were vampires and moreover that werewolves existed." I asked when our humor died away.
"Well, you actually." She turned to quickly glance at me with raised eyebrows, "I never moved beyond the mindset that the Cullens were extraordinary until you and I started hanging out. Bella, I was around you more than I had ever been in school and after awhile I began to pick up on things. Then when we became roommates it was like all these sporadic clues I had been collecting over time began to fit together into a clearer picture. Because, of your break up with Jasper you were unable to keep everything hidden inside anymore and it showed. Your well formed front of semi-normal life cracked and you became an open book. Unintentionally, I found out from you what I always suspected and then some."
"Me?" I gasped, "Oh, what a burden to give you. I'm so sorry. I never meant for you to know this … to be subjected to what knowing this means."
Angela removed one of her hands from the steering wheel and placed it over mine, "No, I'm sorry that you had to go through this all alone for so long without any outside confidant. I can't imagine what it must have been like, especially after Edward died and before Jasper came to you. Don't feel sorry for me. I can live with this knowledge, but I can't let you fight whatever is going on with these werewolves and vampires alone. I'm here for you, Bella."
"Thanks, Angela. I appreciate everything you have ever done for me and I mean that!" I said.
She playfully winked at me, "No problem … now you'll have to remind me just exactly how to get to Jasper's. I've only been there once and that was in May for our graduation party."
"Sure, but I don't want you to go all the way down the drive. I'd like to make my entrance through the trees. Jasper's not expecting me and it's hard to fool a vampire. I want to be as cautious as possible." I said which was followed by a sigh as the memory of that party came back to me.
So much had changed since then and, yet so much was actually the same. Back at the party, I was with Edward and his family was on the verge of fighting against an army of newborns. Danger was in the air. Now it was one rogue werewolf to contend with, but even with the numbers of our enemies diminished the situation was still just as threatening,
(Jasper's POV)
I could smell the blood mixed in with dog as soon as I was near enough to the house. Carlisle hadn't said anything to me about an injured Jacob and I had talked to him on the phone a mere five minutes before. Either my family wasn't aware yet or whatever was going on had just happened. It didn't matter which one was the case, because both meant human blood was spilled nearby. Even if it was saturated with the awful smell a shape-shifter like Jacob gave off, blood from a human was just that and everyone in my family, aside from Carlisle, was susceptible to its aphrodisiac-like pull.
I raced up to the front entrance and forced open the door as I yelled out Carlisle's name. My quick pace stilled at once when I realized my feet were suddenly standing in a tiny pool of blood which continued to smear along the hardwood floor and out of view into another room. My vampire senses wanted me to move forward and continue on in such an overpowering way that I literally had to force myself not to walk any further. I tried to focus on the here and now, pulling my mind from the dark place it instantly found after seeing and smelling the blood. A burn in my throat flared letting my instincts take hold, pushing me deeper into the house, urging me to make a search to find the main source of this spilled blood. If I found that then I could drain all of it. The fluid could be mine and I would fight anyone that tried to stop me.
"Jasper! Get out!"
My eyes had not moved away from the dark smears of red on the floor since I first noticed them, but at the mention of my name a slight recognition of who I was and the ethics I lived by returned to me. I looked away from the stained wood and saw Esme standing a few feet from me. Her usual concerned and loving face was now horror stricken and directed straight at me.
"You have to get out!" She ordered and then rushed at me.
The sight was somewhat disconcerting to see. Esme was usually such a gentle creature and here she was ready to fight a vampire that had many more years of undead on her. It almost made me smile at the ridiculousness of it all. If there ever was another one of my kind besides Alice who could pull me from the depths of my true nature then it was the tiny creature moving in my direction ready to take me out. When her body eventually crashed into mine, I reached out my arms and wrapped them securely around her in the tightest of embraces, "You don't need to do this, Esme. I'm fine. Seeing you kept me from reacting to my blood lust."
"But, your eyes were so black. Let me look at them." She was still fighting for me to release her even after my words of reassurance and I decided that if she needed proof then I would give it to her.
Moving my hands from around Esme's body, I placed them gently against the sides of her face and brought her eyes up to see mine. "Oh." She said quietly after holding my gaze for a few seconds, "But, just to be safe, Carlisle would like you to wait outside until Rosalie and Emmett can clean this mess up. We need to talk about what's going on."
"Is the smell not bothering them?" I asked letting go of her.
"Not like it normally would. It helps that the blood is that of a werewolf. All of us are too repulsed by the sickening stink it has." Esme informed me, taking hold of one of my hands and leading me outside onto the porch.
"The blood doesn't bother anyone, but me?" I sighed, frustrated with this revelation.
Esme's face returned to its usual concerned appearance. She was always so full of love for everyone and when she saw that I was upset she tried to ease my suffering, "But, you were able to come out of your need for it very quickly. That shows you right there that a lot has changed for you."
"I know … it's just that I figured after all this time with Bella … well, I had hoped she would have desensitized me some." I hung my head.
I could sense Esme was readying to answer my self pity with another heartfelt sympathy, but I needed to stop the course of this conversation and veer it back to what was truly important … Jacob's blood? My silly self loathing could wait. "Esme, what's with Jacob's blood? Why is it all over the front of the house?"
Esme wrung her hands fretfully, "He's badly hurt. Carlisle isn't so sure he will make it, but he managed to come here and warn us, at least that's what we think he's saying. It's so difficult to understand in his condition."
"I need to talk to him." I stated.
This wasn't something I was not going to waste time arguing about either. If Jacob had little time left then I needed to see him, so I could learn more and to also let Bella know that I had been at the side of one of her closest friends when he passed. She would need that comfort.
"Jasper, you can't." I heard Esme's voice behind me, but it was already too late.
I followed the trail of blood into the kitchen where I found Carlisle standing over the table there. My eyes instantly zeroed on the figure my father was attending to. Esme hadn't been overstating the seriousness of Jacob's condition. His blood was everywhere and when I walked up beside the table to look more closely at the dying boy it became clear to me just how much damage had been done to his body. Deep lacerations were carved out all over his bare chest where his vital fluid continued to mushroom forth. A bit of his red discolored the material of my sleeve as I reached out to touch his shoulder, which normally would have given off a searing heat, but now felt a temperature similar to my skin.
"I tried to stop him." I heard Esme whimper from somewhere else in the room.
"Don't worry. It will be okay.." Carlisle replied to his wife and then he turned to me, "If you have anything to say do so now. His life is coming to an end."
I was not able to respond to my father. The picture of misery in front of me filled my entire being with such grief that my attention could only focus in on Jacob and what his death would mean to Bella. "Jacob, who did this to you?" I asked, but already knew what his response would be.
Jacob's dark eyes rolled back in his head as he struggled to answer. Blood was spilling from his mouth when he finally found the last force of strength inside himself to push words out, "Sam … you have to protect Bella from Sam."
"Why … why would Sam hurt Bella?" I yelled.
But, there was no response … only a sigh and then my ears heard the sound of a beating heart coming to a stop.
Author's Note - Sorry I had to do this, but a little epiphany bird told me to. It's not just me playing w/ your emotions either. This will help move the plot forward. Trust me!
