Online Predator Chapter 63

Unknown Number: We need to meet

Jasper couldn't stop the growl from coming forth.

"What is it?" Bella asked, snuggling closer to her mate's chest.

He didn't answer her.

"Are you talking to someone else on Twitter?" she joked. "I knew I wasn't the only one."

"They want to meet," Jasper told her.

"Who?"

"The one who keeps messaging me, the one who seems to know things."

Bella sat up. "Are you going to meet them?"

Jasper started growling again. "That's foolish and I'm no fool."

"Is it really though?"

Bella took Jasper's phone off him and read all the messages the unknown number had sent him.

…

Unknown number: You could bring the fight to her

Jasper: Fuck off

…

Unknown Number: You need to bring the fight to her

Jasper: Why should I take the fight to her?

Unknown Number: Because if you don't, she'll bring it to Forks, and no one will survive. The whole town will be wiped out

Bella gasped at that thought and Jasper held onto her tighter.

Unknown Number: She doesn't know about Forks, not yet, that's why you need to bring the fight to her

Jasper: What stock do you have in this fight?

…

Unknown Number: We need to meet

…

While Bella tried to process what little information there was, Jasper was still growling, albeit, lowly now.

"Do you mind?" Bella motioned to the phone.

Jasper grunted out his indifference. She could do whatever she wanted, he didn't care. Her first message amused him.

Jasper: Fuck off

"I thought you had a way with words," he said, pulling her closer and nuzzling her neck.

"I do," she said, "but I'm trying to emulate you."

Jasper smiled into her neck, wanting to see where this all went.

"Do you think they'll reply?" she asked.

"They don't seem to unless they want to tell me something," he said. "But maybe you'll have better luck."

"Hmm," she said, thinking it out. Then, she sent her next message.

Jasper: Where would we meet?

Jasper's growl was back.

"Relax," Bella said, "I'm not agreeing to anything, I'm just trying to get information out of them."

Unknown Number: The reservation

"They're local," she said.

"Or, they have a gift," Jasper countered.

"No way, they're local, they wouldn't have called it that otherwise." She sent off another message.

Jasper: Are you human? Vampire? Some other supernatural being?

"They're not going to answer that," Jasper said, "and if they do, they're probably lying."

Unknown Number: Human

"See," he said, "it's clearly a lie. No human could be this powerful."

"What about Alice?" Bella said.

"It's not the Seer," he growled, "she'd just tell me this to my face, or get Garrett to. Whoever this is, is hiding, but why?"

"Because they're human," Bella said, "and you're a vampire, you might eat them. …And, I was talking about Alice's gift, it's already so powerful, so why couldn't it be the same for this human."

"Stop calling them human, they're not human."

"How do you know?" she asked.

Jasper's growl was back fully and Bella decided to let it go. She knew trust would most likely be one of Jasper's issues post-Maria. There's no way Maria created any trust with him and neither would've the newborns. It was natural for him to be wary, but Bella, maybe foolishly so, felt good about whatever this is.

"I can come," she said.

Jasper gripped her tighter. "No fucking way."

"Then you'll go," Bella said, "maybe you can take Garrett or Peter."

As Jasper thought it out, his phone buzzed in Bella's hand.

Unknown Number: You come alone or I'm out. And this is it, this is the only chance I'm giving you. I'm not afraid to run away if it comes to that. I will let you, Bella, and the rest of Forks be destroyed, as long as me and mine get out

"You need to stop growling," Bella said, but Jasper didn't.

Who was this… human? How dare they make such claims?

"You need to meet them," she said, "it's the only way. If it's a trap, then I'm sure you can fight your way out of it."

Jasper was still growling.

"How about some kind of system," Bella suggested, "like, if you don't contact me in thirty minutes or something, I send Peter and Garrett after you."

It wasn't a terrible idea, not the best, but not the worst. Jasper thought through it all. He was sick of whoever this was, he was sick of yet another unknown factor. Maybe he could meet this human, find out what they knew, and then kill them… If they were even human.

He stopped growling, just.

"So?" Bella asked.

"I'll go," Jasper said, "alone," he added, "and, if you don't hear from me, then you can send Peter and Garrett."

"I really do have a good feeling about this," Bella said, "they don't seem hostile and I trust them when they say they're human."

Jasper let go of Bella and stood up.

"You're going right now?" she asked.

"There's no point in waiting."

"Wait," she said, hugging her mate, he could feel her love, "you know," she said, "just in case."

"Just in case of what?" he asked, trying hard not to growl.

"It could be her," Bella said, "if it's a trap, and you might go back with her, you might. I wouldn't blame you, I understand now, you were with her for such a long time, Maria and that life is all you know."

Jasper was growling again. He picked Bella up by the arms and held her off the ground, so they were eye-level.

So, now she understood? But she didn't, not really. No one did.

"I am not going back to her," Jasper said. "That life is not all I know, not anymore. You have shown me so much, my place is with you, I know that now, I can feel it. I don't care what she says or what she does, I will never go back to her. She… She never felt one ounce of the way you feel towards me. There was no love, there was no affection, she didn't care about me, not any more than a soldier who was useful to her. I'm… I'm not an object to be used for your gains, I can feel that, I can see the difference. You love me, all sides, and I have no fucking idea why, but I can feel it and it's the best thing I've ever felt. I would be a fool to give that up."

"Please put me down," Bella said and Jasper complied.

That one declaration was the most he'd ever said at one time as a vampire. It made him feel exposed, and, as he waited for Bella to say something, he tried to get a read on her emotions. Unfortunately, they were muted, so he was going into this blind. He didn't regret what he'd said, it was all true, but how would she take it, would he scare her off? He hadn't yet, but he probably would. He wasn't a prince, he wasn't good, he was covered in scars; both inside and out. Bella deserved better than him.

Her emotions cleared up and Jasper felt all the love he'd just been talking about. Bella loved him, he knew that, he'd felt that, but he wanted her words. He took her love and pushed it aside, she seemed to get the message.

"I don't know how you expect me to back that up," she said.

"Please," he said, "I fell in love with your words, if anyone can do it, you can. I'm not expecting much."

It was a lie, he was expecting everything, especially if this ended up being a trap.

"My words are only good after I write them down a million times and then rewrite them, edit them. It takes several times and it's never out loud."

She was stalling. Jasper started growling.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "The best thing I ever did was reply to your message on Twitter. I don't know if you realize that, or if you feel it, but all of this, I don't regret it. A friend once told me that if I didn't move to Forks, if that tweet didn't spark your interest, then we never would have met. You would've stayed in the war and I would've died as a human. My father, Edward, Maria, this whole mess, I wouldn't trade it because it hurts my heart so much to realize how close we came to never interacting. I didn't want to talk to you, I thought you were weird with no information, no tweets, a blank profile. If I didn't reply, well, you'd still be in the wars. 150 years was too much time, but, it could've been longer."

Bella started crying, she couldn't help it. Jasper didn't deserve the life he got. 150 years, it was unimaginable. It was decided in her mind.

"You need to kill her, Jasper, you need to kill that bitch for everything she took from you."

The words Jasper once wanted to hear from her, held no meaning right now. Killing Maria was a decision he needed to make on his own.

"It wasn't that bad," Jasper said, "it didn't seem like 150 years, and your friend… Without Maria, if I hadn't been changed, I wouldn't be here today. We do owe her that. I know you'll never fully understand and I know my perception is warped, but it wasn't terrible, not all the time. I had my downtime, I had Peter, and I did like parts of it. There was bad, I recognize that, all the lives I took, Maria's manipulation, all the scars, the fighting." Jasper paused, he had no idea how Bella got him to open up like this. "I don't want to talk about the past," he said. "I want to meet this human, find out all they know and kill them."

Bella protested. "You can't kill them if they're human."

"Why not? They are a threat to me."

"Jasper," Bella hugged him, "please, you don't have to be like this, you can let them live. If they're bad, kill them, but you need to go in there with an open mind. Don't let her manipulation continue to rule how you live your life. Answer me this, would you drink their blood, or just kill them?"

"Kill them."

"Exactly," Bella said, "you don't need to kill humans anymore, not unless it's for blood, and you have my blood for that… Just… Please come back to be safe."

Jasper grunted his agreement, he could see where she was coming from, but this human needed to die, didn't they? Once Jasper had the information then there was no use for them to live… Right?