All characters from The Vampire Diaries belong to L.J. Smith as well as all characters from Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing except my version of events.
Chapter 35 Found
It had been a week since I'd seen Jasper, I had asked Rose how he was doing and she told me he was doing fine. He had gone on a quick trip to see his old friends in Texas and would be returning today. I was hoping I would get a chance to see him soon.
In the meantime, I was in the library reading one of my ancestors' journals to learn everything I could. I've been practicing my magic a bit more excessively since Elijah arrived, I knew he wasn't happy I had threatened him and I needed to be prepared in case he retaliated. He didn't look like the kind of guy to be threatened often and I had done something many were probably too scared to do. I also had the feeling that something big was coming but I didn't know what it was so I decided to prepare just in case danger came lurking.
I was so focused on reading that I didn't hear anyone come into the library until a quiet voice whispered in my ear.
"You never stop. Do you Darlin'?"
I jumped in surprise, turning my head to find Jasper smiling happily at me.
"Jasper!" I yelled as I jumped up on my seat and threw my arms around his neck. "I've missed you so much!"
He chuckled as he hugged me back. "I've missed you too."
I pulled away from him and asked. "So how was Texas and your friends? Tell me everything!"
He chuckled again at my reaction and conceded to my request. "It was fun. Peter and Charlotte were initially mad that I had ignored them for so long but when I explained my situation they quickly forgave me. Though Peter was mad at himself and his power for not having alerted him about my predicament."
"He has a power?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah." He said as he walked around the couch to sit next to me. "I don't really know what to call it actually, precognition? He senses when things are coming or when he needs to be somewhere. Peter refuses to admit he has an ability at all and argues that he just has a really good sense and intuition but it's definitely more than that."
"Sounds cool, but why won't he admit he has a power?" I asked, confused by the idea because I absolutely loved my gifts.
Jasper shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Peter is just peculiar in that way, I don't really know how Charlotte puts up with him."
"Charlotte? Are they mates?"
"No. They dated for a while after he helped her escape from Maria's army but they're not true mates. They're just best friends now, kind of like you and Paul. They're both pretty nomadic so they travel together most of the time except when they get mad or sick of each other then they travel apart."
I laughed at his description, they sounded like a fun pair. I had placed my head on my hand that was draped on the back of the couch, just watching him talk about his friends. He looked very happy and I was happy that he was happy.
"I feel like I'd get along with them."
He laughed at my words. "Peter said the same about you."
"You told him about me?"
"Of course, you're an important part of my life Bella. Plus you also appeared as the savior in my story, you did remove the control over me so technically you are. He's grateful for what you did for me."
I rolled my eyes at his response, I am no one's savior, I'm just trying to live life the best way I can.
"Don't roll your eyes Darlin', it's the truth no matter how you look at it. Anyway, they're planning to come visit in a couple of months. I was trying to convince them to come back with me for the holidays but they don't celebrate human holidays like we do. They barely even know what month it is."
"Well I'm excited to meet them when they do decide to show up." I announced.
We stayed quiet for a bit longer until Jasper broke the silence.
"I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye." He said quietly, frowning down at me. I could tell he regretted how he had left things but I didn't blame him one bit.
I held on to his hand and kissed the back of it. "Don't be sorry. I sprung it on you out of nowhere and I understand you needed time for yourself. I'm just happy you're back now and that you don't regret being my friend."
He was already shaking his head in disagreement as I spoke. "I could never regret being your friend Bella, and yes it came as a surprise but we both knew it was temporary. You were clear about that when we started our relationship." He leaned forward and kissed me on my forehead.
I knew he was right. He had agreed to our arrangement but it still hurt him when it ended. I couldn't help but feel bad about that. I loved him and I never wanted to be the person to cause him pain. After all, his pain was my pain.
He reached over with a teasing smile on his face and rubbed the spot in between my eyes. "Stop frowning. Neither one of us is at fault and our friendship is what really matters and I can honestly say it is fully intact."
I smiled in response and nodded in agreement.
"Alright I gotta go." He announced as he stood up. "I came here first as soon as I arrived and Esme is waiting for me as we speak."
I stuck my bottom lip out in a pout but nodded. "Ok then, say hi to Esme for me."
"Will do." He said as he walked out of the library, leaving me alone once again.
I was happy he was back and not upset with me anymore, I was secretly worried that this would change our friendship for the worse but I'm happy it didn't.
I released a sigh in relief and closed my book, feeling the need to move around. It was too cold outside to go for a run so I did the next best thing. I went up to my room and changed into leggings and a sports bra, then went down to the basement which I had converted into a gym when the temperature outside became too cold.
I had just finished my run on the treadmill wiping my face down with a towel when my phone rang. I picked up and quickly answered.
"What's up?"
"Elena's been taken." Damon said in a panic, breathing heavily.
"And?" I asked, wondering how the hell that was my problem.
"Bella, I need your help. Elijah shot me with vervain and took her."
Ok I can see how it's my problem now, I told that fucker not to hurt my friends and he did it anyway. "Where are you?"
"At the boarding house but don't come here. Find Elena."
I made a noise of complaint, "But I don't want to." I whined.
"Bella! Please! I know you don't care for her but if you don't find her then Stefan will try to and he'll get hurt and then I will have to go and rescue him and we both know I am no match for Elijah."
I huffed out a large breath, I felt like I was being blackmailed into it. He was lucky my witchy powers were telling me this was important or else I would have refused. "Fine. I'll find her." I said shortly as I hung up on him.
I needed to do a locator spell so I teleported into Elena's room, and found her brush with her hair still stuck on the bristles. Gross, did this bitch ever clean? I thought as I surveyed her messy room. I closed my eyes and focused on Elena, it was hard for me since I didn't really care whether she lived or not but I tried to think of her as just any normal human… well any innocent normal human, though she was anything but. Finally I felt her and when I opened my eyes I felt a pull in the direction where I can only assume she was in. I teleported into the woods behind my house and floated inside of my shield following after the pull. I wasn't about to run for that bitch.
I quickly made my way to Mystic Falls High… what the hell? Why would Elijah bring her here? I thought to myself. Shaking off the confusion, I placed myself in a shield so that he wouldn't hear me coming.
I entered the school following the direction of the pull my locator spell had made and followed it through the halls of the high school. As I made it deeper inside I found the body of Elijah with a stake in his heart looking pale and gray. Well that can't be good, I thought as I walked around his body but I backpedaled when I suddenly felt bad at his current predicament. I had a feeling he wasn't dead, though he did look it, so I retraced my steps. Once I reached him I bent down and removed the stake from his heart, placing the stake in the back of my leggings knowing it was somehow important. Once I felt my conscience clean I walked around his body once more and followed down the hall reaching a pair of double doors. They had windows at the top so I peeked through to get a glimpse of what I would be getting myself into, the scene before me had me pausing in shock.
Elena was sitting strapped to a chair in the middle of the school gym with some tubes coming out of her. I soon realized it was her blood being drained… what the fuck?
She appeared to be alone but I knew whoever took her would not leave her unattended so I took a more careful scan of her surroundings and found a blonde man leaning on the far wall, looking casual and not at all disturbed by what he was doing. He appeared to be alone and that was even weirder, I could see his lips moving but couldn't hear him and I'm pretty sure Elena couldn't either because she might be dead. Well her head was hanging down, too weak to lift her head up on her own and she looked unconscious. She was a dramatic human so who knows, she was probably fine.
Deciding there was no way around this and there was no other way in, I made myself known, pushing the door open and walking in like I owned the place.
"You know they say talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity." I said casually. Looking around the room and pretending like I wasn't seeing her or him but I didn't miss the growl he sent my way.
"Who are you? How didn't I hear you coming?" He asked as he stood up straight and took a few steps toward me.
"The name is Bella and who knows? Maybe your hearing is getting faulty with age." I said cheekily, finally turning to look at him straight on but once I did I froze… actually we both froze.
I found him, I had finally found my mate. On the inside I was completely ecstatic but on the outside I tried to appear as unmoved as when I'd initially entered. He stared at me in wonder, almost not believing that this was actually real.
We stared at each other for god knows how long until he finally opened his mouth to speak.
"I knew I'd find you here." He smirked devilishly at me.
I smiled back, "And I knew you'd find me." I stated but continued on speaking. "Unfortunately it is not in the best circumstances, you see, I'm going to need this back." I said, pointing at Elena.
He narrowed his eyes at my announcement, "That's not going to happen, love." He threatened but I continued to smile.
"Actually, it is. Sorry I have to thwart you on our first meeting but it must be done." I said as I walked closer to Elena. "We need to talk about this…" I said pointing to him and Elena "and this…" I said, pointing to him and I "another time and I suggest you bring me flowers when you do, but for now see you later, handsome." I said, as I wiggled my fingers in goodbye and teleported myself and Elena to the boarding house.
I giggled as I appeared at Damon's. Oh man, he's going to be so mad at me but I was going to enjoy making his life difficult. He had no idea who his mate was and there was no way I was going to make it easy on him.
"What the hell?!"
I heard someone yell near me, I looked down and found Damon lying on his couch looking pale and weak.
"You look like complete shit." I commented as I sat on the coffee table in front of him.
"Bella! What the fuck happened to Elena?!" Damon yelled, ignoring my comment.
I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know." I said as I glanced in her direction. "I think she's still alive." I mean, she didn't look dead.
He shook his head at me in disapproval and got up, with difficulty might I add, and walked to her removing all the tubes coming out of her. He picked her up and placed her on the couch.
"What do we do?" He asked.
I scoffed, "You mean what are you going to do? Cuz I could care less if she survives or not."
He looked at me in disapproval once again but didn't say anything. Instead he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed, once the other person answered he spoke.
"Bella found her, come to the boarding house." He said quickly as he hung up, I could only assume he was talking to Stefan… another worry wart.
I teleported to his basement, got some blood bags and made it back to the living room handing Damon said blood bags.
"Thanks." He said as he took them from me and quickly polished them off. Once he was done he immediately bit his wrist and placed it on Elena mouth to drink from.
Gross, I always thought it disgusting when they did that, I've always been squeamish with blood and the thought of drinking it completely grossed me out.
"So what happened?" He asked when he was feeling better.
"She was at the high school… super original setting coming from the original vampires by the way. Anyhow, I walked in and found Elijah with a stake in his heart, he looked dead but he wasn't so I removed the stake from his heart." I said as I pulled out the stake from my leggings to show him. "I'm sure he'll recover soon. Then I went into the school gym and found a blonde hottie there with a hot ass accent and a hot ass too, who was holding this one like that." I said waving my hand at the chair she was sitting on when we first arrived.
'I have so many follow up questions but hottie? You find our enemy attractive?"
I rolled my eyes, "Well yes I did. He is hot." I said again, shrugging my shoulders. "I have eyes."
He looked at me in confusion, "Sometimes I don't even know how to respond to the crazy that comes out of your mouth."
"Rude!" I argued back, I looked around and realized there was nothing left to do but to sit vigil waiting for Elena to wake up… and I was definitely not about to waste my time like that. "So I'm heading out now. My work here is done, plus I'm expecting a visitor soon and I need to be ready. I'm casting a spell to protect your house from the kidnappers so when they show up just send 'em my way." As soon as I finished speaking I quickly got up to walk outside. I touched the wall of the boarding house with my hand and used the energy surrounding it to cast the protection spell. Once I was done I quickly teleported home to take a shower and change, I couldn't wait to see my mate again.
I was putting the final touches to my appearance when my doorbell rang. I quickly made it downstairs and opened the door, finding my mate standing there looking angry.
"You took too long to get here." I complained. I figured he'd want to come after me quickly.
He narrowed his eyes at me and placed his hands on the doorframe, leaning forward to get as close to me as he could.
"Invite me in." He said, trying to compel me.
What? I felt slightly thrown off by his sudden approach. I figured he'd be angry with me for taking Elena from him but being my mate I never thought he'd try to compel me. "No can do. You see, I told you to bring me flowers." I said, and then deliberately looked around him pretending to look for them when I knew he didn't bring any. "I see none, therefore, you cannot come in."
He pulled back from me completely confused, wondering why the hell his compulsion didn't work on me. "How did you…?" He started to ask but I cut him off.
I crossed my arms over my chest and spoke. "I can't be compelled… I'm also disappointed in the fact that you would even try." I frowned at him because even though we didn't know each other I figured he would never try to manipulate me to get his way. I thought wrong.
He lost his anger with my words, I think realizing for the first time that he had done something wrong. He stood there staring at me for a while, not knowing what to say or how to handle me.
"I should warn you now that I'm not like any woman you have met thus far. I know you know who I am and I know who you are to me but just because we were fated together does not mean I am guaranteed to you… I suggest you think about that long and hard." I instructed him, hoping he'd listen to my words this time but just to remind him I added. "Remember to bring flowers and introducing yourself to me properly the next time we meet." I finished. Backing away from the entrance and shutting the door.
I'm not gonna lie, I was incredibly disappointed… and hurt. I imagined meeting my mate in a completely different way. I should have known better though, nothing in my life ever came easy to me. I felt unbelievably sad at this sudden turn of events, why the hell couldn't the world give me a fucking break?
I didn't know what to do now. I stood there staring at the door for who knows how long until I felt something falling onto my shirt. I looked down wondering what the hell it was and realized it was my tears. I tried to blink them away but I couldn't.
Without another thought I teleported to the one person who understood me better than anyone. Once there I made a beeline to his bedroom, I could tell he wasn't home so I did the next best thing. I pulled the covers from his bed and laid down, curling onto my side and hugging his pillow. Just getting the smell of him was enough to calm me down and bring me back to the present. I felt so tired, too tired to even think any longer and let my eyes drift closed as I finally found the one place that guaranteed me safety.
I felt an incredibly hot body pulling me into him, I smiled as I nuzzled his chest and breathed him in. The smell on his pillow was nothing compared to the real thing.
"This is a nice surprise." His voice quietly said.
"Mmm-hmm." I said lightly, not wanting to speak. Instead I held on to him, remembering why I was here in the first place and the waterworks started once again. My tears silently fell and once Paul felt them landing on his chest he tensed up and turned on his bedside lamp to get a good look at me.
He pulled my head up and when he saw my face his face hardened. "What happened?"
I didn't know what to say so instead of saying anything I just climbed on top of him and pressed my face into his neck, holding onto him for dear life.
"Bella, you're scaring me. Please talk to me." He said worriedly.
I knew he was confused but I felt so crushed I didn't know how to express myself properly.
"Was it Jasper?" He asked. He knew he and I had not left things on good terms and he also knew he was coming back today. He probably thought things didn't go well between us. "I'll kill him." Paul growled.
I shook my head, "No it wasn't him."
Paul grabbed me from my shoulders and pulled me away from him to look into my eyes, probably trying to make sure I was telling the truth. When he assured himself I wasn't lying he asked again, "Then who?"
I bit my lip as I tried to get my tears under control. "My mate." I finally whispered out.
He stiffened at my words, his mouth opened like a gaping fish and his eyes widened in surprise. If I weren't sad I think I would have laughed.
"You found him?" He finally asked.
I nodded my head sadly. "Yeah… and our first meeting was nothing how I thought it would be." I said sadly, proceeding to tell him about it.
When I got to the compelling part he looked furious. "Mate or not I'll still kill him Bella."
I shook my head, I didn't want his anger. I wanted his love and understanding. "I don't want that. I want him. I just never expected for things to start this way. I just want to be happy Paul, I've been waiting for him for so long, it feels like an eternity and now that I have he's not at all what I expected... Although I guess it could have gone worse, I mean, at least he didn't try to kill me."
Paul still frowned at me. "And it's a good thing he didn't, or whether you wanted me to or not he'd be getting a visit from me right about now."
I shook my head again. "I should have known this wouldn't go smoothly for me. My life is always so hard and my grandmother warned me I would have to bring him into the good side… still… I can't help but be hurt and disappointed." I said sadly.
He pulled me into him and hugged me. "I'm sorry, B." He whispered into my ear as he brushed my hair with his fingers.
We stayed that way for a while until he spoke again. "Make him see you Bella."
I pulled away from him with a frown. "What?"
He cupped my face with his hands and spoke. "Make him see he can't fuck with you. Technically you already kind of did but follow through. If he doesn't bring you flowers then he doesn't deserve to be in your presence. It's something small and unimportant but it will send a clear message. What you say goes. You're strong and independent, he'll have to learn that his old ways won't work on you. I mean he staked his own brother Bella. He's not a very nice person, definitely not good enough for you but if he's your soulmate then he was meant for you somehow. Do what your grandmother said and bring him into the light. Your love and compassion will bring him to you, don't lose hope." He said fiercely as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "When he gets to know you he won't be able to resist you, but he'll have to earn your love first if he wants to be with you. Accept nothing less."
Paul was right. I had set my boundaries from the get go. I wasn't the one to fuck with. I thwarted him in his attempt to get Elena, I doubt anyone has ever done that before so it's reasonable for him to be furious about it. He knew who I was though so he still shouldn't have come at me like that. I'll just have to teach him. I warned him I wasn't like any other woman he's met. I'm gonna force him to see me for who I am, I didn't lie when I said I was not a guarantee. Mate or no mate he was going to have to earn my love. I would never lay down for anyone, especially not my mate. If I wanted to have a long and beautiful life with him then he needed to learn that his old ways would never work on me. He could be a crazy killer with everyone else but not me. Fuck that, I was in control and there was no way I would relinquish that.
A smile broke out on my face and I kissed Paul on his forehead, pulling away with a smooching sound. "You're right! I'm strong and independent, I can handle anything. My mate might not be nice now but once I'm done with him he'll learn I won't be the meek powerless girl he's dealt with before. Fuck that, I'm Bella fucking Swan!"
He smiled lovingly at me and chuckled. "I almost feel sorry for the guy. He doesn't even know what he's gotten himself into."
My smile became even brighter as I thought, my mate has no fucking idea.
