I don't own any characters. They belong to Stephenie Meyer.
The year was 1942 now. Jasper and I parted ways with Peter and Charlotte a few days after the fight with James and Victoria. I knew that finding Mary would be hard. I didn't even know if I would recognize her after all these years. Her most recent picture, which I stole from my parents' house, was always with me. The United States has just entered the second World War a year ago, so we had to move more often. Our preferred suburban areas were starting to resemble ghost towns. Most of the population were moving closer to the big cities in order to find a better-paying job. Our diet slowly started to include mostly women. A big number of men were sent to fight. Females tend to spend a lot of time together; having no husbands at home, they were seeking comfort in one another. That made hunting a lot more complicated and drew Jazz and me further into the forests. Neither of us anticipated that we, being on top of a food chain, would have to hide away from humans.
That was the time that made me question a special diet that Mary's creator was following. I spent most of my time trying to understand how was it possible for him to be in such close proximity to humans without killing them. I myself was very interested in that for one particular reason. I could still remember having a house, my own room filled with pictures, books, and memories; a bathroom with hot water and soft towels; a living room with comfortable sofas and armchairs. I wanted to have that. Settling down somewhere, creating connections, buying my own property sounded like a dream. However, in order to do that, at least one of us needed to have some self-control.
Growing up I always dreamed of doing something more. Get me a degree in literature, find a job in a publishing company. I never saw myself as a housewife, even though that was the future that my parents imagined for me. Oh, how nice it would be to learn new things, have a place to call my home.
About a few weeks ago I acquired a pair of pants. These were the first pair that I've ever worn in my entire life. They felt strange on my legs; however, they were so much more practical. Running in them felt great, I never had to worry about my undergarments showing again or a piece of skirt getting tangled on the branch of a tree. The material was strong, and so far, I didn't get any rips or holes in them.
Jasper and I were staying in a bushy forest area in the north of Idaho now; right next to the Canadian border. We were both starving, having had no blood for more than a week now. It was too risky to get close to any town because of the infestation of humans. We were sitting on top of the tree, just staring at the white snowflakes that were slowly covering the forest floor. I was always amused by the presence of the snow. Growing up in Mississippi it was a very rare occurrence, except for 1899 when the worst blizzard ever hit the whole state, even the south Biloxi was covered. Now, of course, I couldn't feel the cold, so I was able to sit and enjoy this beautiful phenomenon.
I heard a noise coming from behind me. The smell hit me at once. Blood. Being so hungry, I didn't really think about what I was doing. In less than a second, I jumped down from the tree and ran towards the smell. I saw a pack of wolves; they were ripping apart some rabbits. My actions didn't have any thought behind them, a pure animal instinct took over, and I jumped on one of the bigger wolves. It reacted in a pure animal way, trying to scratch and bite me. The rest of the pack went running in different directions. Their instincts were telling them they were in danger. I sank my teeth into the wolf's neck, and I felt warm blood dripping into my throat, the burning was still intense, but it was getting better with every sip that I took.
After I was done with a wolf, my thoughts started running in my mind. I just killed and drank blood from an animal, and although the taste wasn't as filling as one of a human, it could suffice. I looked at my blouse and noticed that it had a few rips that the wolf left while trying to scratch me, and the fabric was slowly becoming redder. I looked messy. The excitement of my hunt led me back to Jasper. He was now standing next to the tree that we were sitting on prior to my spontaneous disappearance.
"Where the hell did you go?" questioned he.
"I think I just found a new way for us to feed." I pointed at my shirt. "It is a bit messy though," I told my brother everything that happened and he looked amused.
"I never even thought about it," Jasper said after I finished my story.
"You want to try it? I can definitely use some more blood too." I proposed.
"Meet me at this place in a few hours?" he asked, I gave him a nod, and we both ran in different directions.
I stopped about fifteen minutes later and closed my eyes. In a few moments, I heard a noise and followed it, trying to watch my step as to not scare away the animal. My eyes focused on a giant moose. I've never seen a creature that big. Around 7 feet tall, it was towering over me. It was harder to make it fall down to the ground than a wolf, even harder when it started kicking me with its hooves and horns. This beast definitely had the power to kill a human. Mortals were lucky they were not a part of these species' diet.
An animal that big took more time to drain. It didn't taste as good as a human, even the wolf tasted better. But that was blood nevertheless. I took some snow from the ground and cleaned my hands and face with it. It immediately turned red from the blood. I wondered if it will absorb some of it from my blouse as well, so I fell on the ground face first and waited a few minutes. My skin was too cold for the snow to melt underneath me, but my cotton blouse was mostly wet now. It helped a little bit, but I had a feeling that it would take more than that to completely get rid of the stains.
I decided to go back to the tree where Jasper and I parted and wait for him. He came back when the first stars started to appear.
"So, how was it?" I asked eagerly wanting to know his thoughts.
"It was different. Definitely not what I expected though." He started and then laughed. "It reminded me of my human life actually."
"How so?" I asked laughing.
"Well, it was kind of the same feeling as expecting to have a steak for dinner and instead being served a salad." He replied.
"So, drinking from animals makes one like us a what? Vegetarian?" I laughed again.
"I suppose so." He chuckled. "It was a pretty nice experience for me to be frank. Animals don't have emotions, or at least I can't sense them."
"Maybe we can switch to this diet if it makes your life even a little bit nicer," I suggested.
"You would do this for me?" he asked surprised. "Won't you miss human blood?"
"I will do anything to make your life easier, Jazz. I started to consider you my brother a long time ago. You are my family, and family does everything for each other." I smiled at him.
He gave me a tight hug; the top of my head wasn't even reaching his shoulders.
"You know I feel the same. I would do anything to make you happy, and not only because I am your sire."
"You are already doing it. You came with me on this hopeless search for Mary without question. I always admired your loyalty." I whispered into his chest.
"Hey, this search is not hopeless, we have forever to find her. Time has no limit over us, sister." He said and ended the hug, so he could look into my eyes.
"What would I do without you?" I smiled.
"Probably become a hermit. Lock yourself in some house and just read all day." He grinned.
"Hey!" I jokingly punched him in the shoulder.
"What? Are you saying that's not true?"
"No, you're right, that would probably be the case; however, I don't appreciate you ruining this beautiful moment with such an awful joke."
"Alright, point taken, Ma'am. I can't promise I won't do it again though."
"I know I can never ask for such drastic change in your behavior, brother." I smiled at him.
"I guess the question now is where would you like to celebrate New Year this time around?" he asked. It was a new tradition for our little family. I despised Christmas because of my disappearance right on the Eve of this holiday, so the only winter celebration that I felt comfortable celebrating was the beginning of the year. It gave me hope for the future. Maybe this year will be different, maybe this year I'll be able to find Mary.
"Are we eating turkeys?" I joked, considering our new experimental diet. That made him laugh.
"We'll see, I guess. So did you think about the place?"
"How about Alaska?" I asked. "There are still a couple of days left before the holiday, that will give us time to travel there and maybe even find a house with a fireplace. Also, it feels right to celebrate New Year with a little bit of snow."
"Maybe you wanted to say a lot of snow? We are heading so far North, remember?" I shook my shoulders. "Alright, Alaska it is then."
Before starting our journey, we had to acquire some new clothes. Switching to this new diet will definitely require some training for both of us. We can't afford to lose our clothes every time we will have to hunt. Jasper's jeans were ripped in the knees, and one of the sleeves of his shirt was now hanging loose on just a few threads. The closest town to us was Bonners Ferry, so its residents would have to be the unlucky individuals who will find themselves missing some of their garments the next morning. Acquiring new clothes in winter wasn't easy; the cold weather didn't exactly help in drying out fabric, so humans tend to hide them in their warm houses.
We traveled along the forest line, never really leaving the thick parts of the bushes. Traveling throughout the night also helped, it was not as there were a lot of humans in the area anyway, but it was definitely safer that way. We reached the first house in about twenty minutes. It smelled like oak and chamomile. Its inhabitants were probably drinking their evening tea right now.
"Would you be alright going inside yourself? I don't want to slip again." Asked Jasper. He still didn't have much control of himself around humans. Even when we started hunting only the sinful humans, he slipped a few times. Those accidents were usually followed by my brother's regret for his actions and his self-hatred. I was most often a witness to both and hated that he was feeling that way.
"I would be alright with that." A moment later I jumped into the second-floor window, opened it, and closed it behind me, only to find a little boy in his bed, staring at me with his big blue eyes. I immediately froze and stopped breathing. Damn it! Why didn't I check if the room was occupied? How can I even deny that I am an accident magnet now?
"Are you my tooth fairy?" the little boy whispered after a minute. I straightened up and gave a boy a toothless smile, no need to frighten him. I would give up everything right now for the absolute lifesaver that was this little human's imagination.
"Oh yes I am, indeed, but you must absolutely not tell anyone about me or I and all of my fellow tooth fairies are going to have to disappear," I whispered back.
"I swear I won't tell anyone." The little boy said. "Can you show me how you fly?" Damn again!
"Um…" my mind started running at 100 miles per hour. "…we can't fly, we just move very fast." I smiled at him again. And ran to the door of his room. "See."
"Wow." That was everything he said.
"Now, you little man, have to go to sleep or I wouldn't be able to give you a present for your tooth, alright?" If I was still human, I would have definitely started praying that this boy will follow my request. He nodded his head a few seconds later and closed his eyes. A quiet breath of relief left my mouth and I waited for the boy to fall asleep. As his breathing got calmer, I quickly opened the door to his bedroom and proceeded down the hall of the house. One of the open doors led me to the master bedroom and, naturally, the closet. I took two pairs of pants and two sweaters. The trousers are going to be baggy on me, but I will manage. That should be enough until we get to Alaska. I also looked through the drawers and found 25 cents in one of them. That should suffice for my "tooth fairy" gift to the little boy. I hoped that was enough nowadays. In my time this coin could buy oneself a lot, but 40 years later, I didn't know.
I listened to the boy's breathing before going back into his room. It was slow, so he was most likely deep into his dreams. I walked in very quietly and quickly exchanged a tooth for a coin. Holding a real human tooth in my hand wasn't pleasant, but that was necessary.
"Welcome back, my tooth fairy." Jasper greeted me after I jumped back down.
"Haha, that wasn't funny. I would love to see what you would do in that situation."
"Don't be mad, I simply think that it was very nice of you to make the kid believe in fairies. Good thing he didn't take you as his fairy godmother" He continued laughing. "I think that's what I'm going to call you from now on. I am going to ask you to get rid of that though." He pointed at the tooth that I was still holding in my hand.
"That I have no problem with, but we can talk later about how I feel about my new nickname." I smiled at him and gave him the clothes that I managed to steal.
"Thank you. Ready to start our journey?" he asked.
"Yes, I suppose so."
We changed in the forest. That and getting rid of our old clothes only took a few minutes, so we were ready to go. Just like our previous traveling, it would be done at night time. We still had a few hours left before the sunrise, so we started running. By the time the sun started to come out we reached the North-West part of British Columbia. The number of forests and national parks in the area made it very easy for us to hide from the sun.
Nature was magnificent, having yet to be touched by humans. Trees, bushes, flowers released the most amazing scents. Jazz and I found so many rivers, ponds, and small lakes around the place where we decided to stay. I couldn't help myself, so I jumped into the water. Having grown up in Biloxi, swimming was my favorite activity. We used to go on family outings to the waterfront weekly, and parents would let us swim during the summer with the other kids.
I spent most of the day in the water and only came out about two hours before the sun came down to let my clothes dry a little bit in its still warm beams. The western coast didn't get as cold as the Eastern one, that's why I wanted to go more North than we usually did. I hoped there would be a lot more snow in that area.
After the sky went dark, we started moving again only stopping once near a small town of Talkeetna in the north of Alaska to hunt. The Last Frontier was also full of forests and parks. I managed to get a couple of deer and an elk. As soon as I finished the last one my eyes focused on a female that was standing just a few feet away from me in the bushes. She was a little taller than me, maybe an inch at most, her rose blond wavy hair was flying in the wind, but what caught my attention was her eyes. I've never seen anything like them. I could clearly tell she was a vampire; however, her eyes were pure gold. I never lost eye contact even when I saw her coming closer and closer to me.
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