I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You

Chapter 6

We were flying through Phoenix now at least twice the speed limit in a stolen car. It was a nice car too, a Porsche something-or-other, but it was in a terrible shade of bright yellow. Maybe after this was all done I would be able to convince Alice to buy one of these and I could borrow it some time. I didn't particularly want a car, I didn't drive them all that often. I needed to focus.

Bella had managed to slip away from me in the airport. I had failed at protecting her. Alice told me not to let her out of my sight. But Bella had made a run for it. She wanted to get some breakfast and had asked me to come with her because she was feeling a little- something. I wasn't sure exactly what she was feeling. It was a chaotic mess of emotions and it wasn't normal. So I went with her. As we walked passed a few cafés she needed to use the bathroom and quickly ducked in. Then my phone rang.

"Jasper, she ran out the other door, go, catch her!" Alice pleaded with me. So I did, I ran. Unfortunately I had to run at a quick human pace, but I did run straight through the women's bathroom to save the extra time it would take to run around the part of the airport it was in.

Unfortunately that attracted the attention of a security officer standing outside the door on the other side. And coupled with my running, he assumed I had done something. And just as I saw Bella run into the elevator, three other security officers surrounded me. Fuck.

I managed to smooth talk my way out of that, but by that time we had lost Bella and the other's flight was landing. Alice stayed inside to find them, while I found us a car. I didn't care that there were too many of us to properly fit in the car, I just cared that it was the fastest car around here and people could sit on top of each other for all I cared at that point. I just needed to find Bella.

Edward punched me in the back of the head as we all piled in the car. I didn't care, I deserved it for letting her out of my sight, exactly what Alice told me not to do. Edward took the driver's seat, and Emmett got the front passenger because of his large size, and Carlisle, Alice and I squeezed into the back. It was a good thing that we were a close family.

By the time we reached the dance studio that Alice had seen, and we had all read the letter she left for Edward, apologising for her death that we were now trying to prevent. As we raced out of the car I heard the sound of shattering glass and a scream, followed by a feral growl. A scream was good, it meant her lungs were functioning enough to keep her alive for now. We weren't too late, yet.

We rushed in, Emmett and I ran straight for James, who was looking far more feral than he had been when we first saw him, and with a growl we pulled him into the room next door, away from the blood, where we were able to start to pull him apart. He said only one thing before we removed his head.

"Too late freaks, I already bit her!" And he was dead, I threw his head in the fire, like so many others I had killed before.

Emmett and I returned to the room where Bella was, and holding our breath began to destroy evidence. I found a video camera with a blinking light showing it was recording, so I turned it off and threw it to Emmett to keep, he threw it in a backpack that I hadn't noticed him wearing before. Then I turned to look at the small cluster of people at the other end of the room.

Bella was weakly thrashing about on the ground, muttering about fire in her hand, but other than that she didn't seem entirely lucid. Carlisle was quickly suturing a large gash on her head, just inside her hairline which she must have cut on the mirror fragments that were everywhere. Alice had used a couple of people's belts and a piece of wood to splint Bella's leg which looked like it had a nasty break, and was now applying pressure to stop the bleeding. But what shocked me most was the sight of a bite mark on the inside of her small, pale wrist.

I would have noticed the shape of a vampire bite mark anywhere, I had enough of them covering my skin. Every time I looked at my own arms or at my face in a mirror, the bites where the first thing I noticed. And now Bella would have one to mar her beautiful skin for all eternity too. By biting her James had left her with a permanent reminder of her own personal hell which was this past few days of running and hiding, and know this scene in the ballet studio that should have held good memories from her childhood.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the conversation over Bella's withering body.

"…back out, there is still time." Carlisle gently spoke, his calm voice never wavering in the crisis.

"What if I can't stop?" Edward questioned.

"You have to, you are strong enough." Carlisle answered. Alice wasn't speaking, clearly holding her breath out of both concern for her new best friend and worry over losing control.

Then it hit me. They were talking about sucking the venom back out. It could work, if they got the other bleeding all over her to stop. But they were talking about Edward doing it. He had the self-control to do this under normal circumstances, he had trained as a doctor a few times and would even be a brilliant surgeon. But Bella was his singer. Carlisle and Alice were trying to keep the bleeding controlled, and couldn't do it, so it had to be Edward. I spoke up from where I stood at the other end of the room, taking care to not breathe in any of her scent.

"You have to Edward, and I'll pull you off if you can't stop." I had really come to care for Bella, and knew this was the best way. She would probably end up being a vampire in a few years, but she had too many loose ends to tie up before making the transformation. She deserved more time, and not to be transformed in such a state of terror.

"Thank you Jasper." He replied before picking her hand up gently and whispering into her ear that he would make it go away, before he placed his mouth gently over the existing bite mark and reopened it.

I sent as many positive, reassuring emotions at him as I could, even trying to mask the thirst he felt towards Bella. But there is only so much you can do when a vampire tastes the blood of their singer.

"Stop Edward! It's gone, she's clean!" Alice spoke for the first time. I ran towards them, knowing he wasn't stopping.

"You're killing her!" Carlisle was slightly panicked now, he didn't want to lose his newest daughter. I decided to step in then.

"Edward!" I growled as I grabbed his wrists, "It is time to stop, you will kill her!" I sent as much fear as I could to him and it was enough to break the contact between his mouth and her delicate wrist. I pulled at his wrists, trying to get him to let go, and successfully removed his right hand from her, but he struggled then, and in the process of me fighting for control over him, I heard Bella's wrist snap.

Then something in me snapped at Edward and I sent so many negative and lethargic feelings towards him he slumped and I dragged him out of the front of the building. Emmett was out there and I thrust Edward towards him.

"Run north east to Tonto, there are bears. He needs to hunt, now!" I growled at my brothers before heading back inside to assess the damage caused by our family.

The building was all but destroyed and the other room now heading towards becoming an inferno, so I went back to Carlisle.

"You need to get out of here with Bella. I'll destroy all the evidence here, burn it down." I wasn't messing around. We had eliminated the threat and now I was sincerely concerned for Bella's wellbeing.

"Jasper," Alice addressed me, "You need to go with Carlisle, we have the bleeding stopped and you wouldn't be able to hurt Bella even if you tried. Trust me. You need to get her to the hospital near the hotel, and I will fabricate the evidence there to say she fell down the stairs and through a window. I'll see you soon." And she danced out of the dance studio, off to cover more tracks.

Carlisle picked Bella up gently and carefully moved out of the studio, into a car Emmett seemed to have found for us. It was a simple, black Ford. No frills, no one would question it, unlike the one we stole to bring us here. As he placed her in the back seat laying across the seat and his lap, I quickly lit a few more objects on fire and ran to the car for the drive to the hospital. At least now we were all safe.

…..

A.N.: Sorry it's a bit short, but the next chapter or so acts as a sort of epilogue slash ending to this part of the story- the end of Twilight essentially. A lot happens there and it wouldn't work together with this one. I'm not really any good at visualising and writing fight scenes, so sorry there aren't any more details about it.

xx