-GUNNER-
It was easier than I thought it would be to get Mom on board with me and Leah going to Alaska together. Actually, I hardly had to do any of the work. I had Ava to thank for that.
"Maisie didn't buy me a ticket?!" Ava asked when I brought the subject at dinner. Her little voice was so incredulous that I almost laughed. Dad did chuckle. He made no attempts to hide the fact that he thought Ava was hilarious. More than once, Dad had been in trouble with Mom for laughing at something Ava did when he should have been punishing her.
"Maisie knows you're scared of planes," I covered quickly. "And you have to take a plane to get to Alaska."
Ava nodded with all the sage wisdom you would expect from a monk, not a six-year-old. "See, Mama? Maisie knows. She's smart. She's good at taking care of things, not like Gunner."
I rolled my eyes at her while Dad busted out laughing. In Ava's book, I really couldn't do anything right, from putting a bow in her hair to making macaroni for her. "You just can't catch a break with this one around."
"Don't remind me," I grumbled, taking a bite of my green beans. Ava plowed on ahead, ignoring Dad's laughing at us and the way Mom's eyebrows had started to knit together.
"Also, Maisie loves Leah and Leah's not scared of planes. So they should go, 'cause it's not nice to keep sisters from each other when they're both not scared of planes."
"Sisters?" Mom asked incredulously. She was still getting over the fact that Maisie lived in Alaska, alone, with Jasper. We had all heard her comments about how they were moving too fast, their relationship becoming too serious for their young age. Ava proclaiming Leah and Maisie 'sisters' made her cut her eyes at me. "Does Ava know something I don't?"
I held my hands up, palms out. I'm innocent. "I don't know what she's talking about, either."
"Leah is my sister, too," Ava asserted. She folded her arms across her chest, still holding a forkful of roast. The meat slid from the tines, not even making it to the floor before Ava's dog, Pepper, managed to snatch it out of the air. "But Jasper is not my brother."
This made Dad burst into another fit of laughter. It was a wonder that he was making it through dinner without choking on anything. "Explain the logic behind that one to me, Ava Bug."
"The world just doesn't need more brothers, Daddy."
"There you have it, hon. The ruler of the realm has spoken." He held his hand out to her, passing the conversation—and the final verdict—to Mom.
Mom exhaled, long and loud, through her nose.
Play the 'I'm eighteen now card', I heard Maisie's voice in my head. If that was the only thing that would get me to Alaska, I would stoop low enough to use it. I opened my mouth, but Mom beat me.
"I suppose," she began, speaking as if each word was glass cutting her mouth, "that we shouldn't waste Maisie's money, since she bought the tickets before you could even ask. Don't even try to tell me that my sneaky older children weren't in on it, either."
All my breath rushed out of my lungs. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath until now.
"Thank you," I breathed out.
"There's going to be rules, though. I hope that house has more than one guest room, or you might be sleeping on the couch for a week, Gunner. I'll call that sister of yours tonight."
I didn't know why Mom was going to bother with trying to lay rules down for Maisie. I think we both knew that Maisie wasn't going to listen, no matter how agreeable she might sound on the phone. Dinner ending couldn't come soon enough. Rushing back up to my room after, I grabbed my phone off my bed.
Alaska is a go, I typed out to Maisie. Then I tapped on Leah's name, hitting the call button.
"Hey," she answered almost immediately.
"We get to go to Alaska!" The words tumbled out of my mouth.
"I was going even if you weren't," Leah said, laughing. I liked her laugh. She was so serious most of the time, and hearing her laugh was like earning a special treat. "Sorry to break that to you."
"I figured you would," I admitted. "Just be happy we get to go together."
"Of course I'm happy." There was something there, something she hadn't said. I waited a moment to see if she would tell me. "Will you go with me to the Cullen's house tomorrow? Sam wants me to talk to Carlisle."
"What for?" I asked. Then I remembered to add, "Yeah, of course. I'll go with you."
"He's just difficult. He could go talk to Carlisle himself, but he's lazy, and Emily doesn't like for him to step foot in the Cullen house. She's convinced he'll never come back out, no matter how many meetings we've had."
She was quiet for a beat. There was always tension between Leah and Sam, but I wasn't sure why. I always assumed it was because Leah was the only girl—a lot of the guys in the wolf pack didn't like that.
"Oh!" Leah must have realized she never actually answered my question. "There's been a vampire hanging around the edges of the territory line. We haven't seen them. They're quick, and they visit a lot. Sam wanted to see if Carlisle had noticed anything, and if he would come out there and see if he recognizes the scent."
"Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Listen, I better get this project done before we leave in a week, or my mom will never let me hear the end of it."
"You know," Leah mused, "they always said we would miss high school once it was over, but I just can't say that I do. Have fun with your homework, love you."
"Love you, too," I barely got out before the line went dead. Leah was always go, go, go. Sometimes I got tired just watching her.
It wasn't until I had hung up with Leah that I realized Maisie had replied.
!
I told you so, Gun
I liked the Cullens a lot. They had always been good to my sister. Plus, they had saved my family before Maisie even started dating Jasper. Not to mention their help with Maria.
I wouldn't say they saved my life in that instance, though. That was all Maisie.
We went to the Cullens' a few days before we left for Alaska. Their huge house felt empty, two quiet, with all the 'kids' gone. It was too much house for just Carlisle and Esme.
"Hey, Dr. Cullen," I greeted when he opened the door at our knock. He was rubbing at his eye, like we had interrupted his sleep, but I knew that was impossible. Vampires didn't sleep.
"Hello, Gunner, Leah. I apologize, it seems nobody's vision is immune to eyestrain from laptop screens, not even a vampire's. Please, come in." He moved to the side, opening the door for us to pass through.
Esme stepped into the house through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the back wall of the living room. She had always ben a hugger, and today was no exception. I didn't mind at all when Esme wrapped her cool arms around me. Unlike Leah, I didn't think vampires stank. Esme smelled like fresh powder and flowers, not the sour smell Leah and Seth had described to me.
Leah did a good job soldiering through her own hug, though. "What a surprise! I'm sorry I don't have anything for the two of you. I don't keep snacks on hand, now that Maisie isn't often here."
The same sadness that I saw in my own mom's eyes was reflecting in Esme's when she said my sister's name.
"That's okay, Esme." Leah waved her concern away with her hand. "We're going to see Maisie in a few days."
"Yes, that's right. Your mother called, Gunner, to see if there was anything we needed to send along with you for Jasper. We do have something, if you wouldn't mind tucking it away in your suitcase. I'm hesitant to send it by mail, you see."
Carlisle disappeared into his office. He returned a moment later with a small, leather-bound book in his hand.
"Hopefully Jasper remembers his Latin lessons, or else Edward will have to help him translate." He pressed the book into my hand. It felt dry and brittle against my skin. "Something to aid him in his research. I've already read through it, but I'm curious to see if he comes to the same conclusions."
"Conclusions?" I asked. I knew we weren't there for asking questions about Maisie, but I couldn't help myself.
"Yes, as I'm sure you know, Maisie is not the first human to have vampire venom in her system long term. This book is actually a diary, it seems. I've marked the pages for Jasper where our friend from the past discusses a…dietary schedule to aid in maintaining health. The trouble, I suspect, will come in getting Maisie to agree to it."
"She's stubborn," Leah immediately agreed. "But if anyone can talk Maisie into something, it would probably be Jasper. And if he can't manage to do it, Gunner will."
With hardly a pause, she turned to Carlisle. "I know there's been a lot of vampires come through lately, but I was wondering if either of you had noticed a... lingering vampire?"
Carlisle's eyebrows pulled together, Esme's expression mirroring his. "No, at least not on this side of town, nor at the hospital. Have you noticed anything in Port Angeles, love?"
Esme shook her head. "Where have you encountered this, Leah?"
"I haven't…" She admitted. "It hasn't been happening on my patrol area. But Jake and Embry have noticed a pattern. Every few months, they'll catch scent of a certain vampire, but every time try to catch sight of them, they're gone."
Carlisle cut his eyes toward the windows and I followed his gaze. A heavy rain had stopped barely ten minutes before me and Leah had headed over. Looking out the window, I realized that Esme was bolstering drooping plants with rods out in the garden.
"The spring rains are torrential. We'll have to act fast if Sam would like Esme and I to check before the scent gets washed away again. Here, allow me to write down my cellular phone number. Please let Sam know I would like him to call me as soon as Jake or Embry report the scent again."
"Of course." There really was no other reaction to have to Carlisle beside agreeing with him. He just had this way of phrasing things; there was definitely a reason why he was the leader of his family. Sometimes I thought about Jasper, about how he had led a armies at two different points in his life, yet he was subservient to Carlisle. I knew most of it had to do with respect and love, but I was certain part of it was the way Carlisle talked, too.
He sent us on our way with the phone number in Leah's pocket and the book for Jasper in my hand.
A handful of days later, Leah and I found ourselves on a plane headed for Alaska. It was the first time Leah had ever flown, but she wasn't nervous at all. Actually, she spent most of the flight asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. I tried to nap with her, resting my head on top of Leah's, but it was no use. I just couldn't drift into sleep with the low buzz of conversation from everyone else on the plane.
Instead, I flipped aimlessly through Carlisle's book while Leah slept, careful not to disrupt her dreams. I didn't understand a word of Latin, so it was useless to understand any of the journal entries. But there were drawings in there, too.
I wanted to look through the book, or at least I thought I did. Jasper was the head researcher in this endeavor and Maisie downplayed everything happening to her. Even if I could read the words on the pages I could at least inspect the drawing and try to glean some meaning from them. Carlisle had said that whoever owned this journal and written it had knowledge about people like Maisie. I wanted that knowledge, too.
A few were wounds, flesh torn open in jagged pieces that made me think of the scars left behind on my wrist. Carlisle had reassured me more than once that it was psychosomatic, but sometimes I swore I could still feel a dull echo of the burn Maria's venom had caused there. Phantom pains, Carlisle called them.
I didn't have to read the captions on those drawings to understand they were depicting vampire wounds.
In almost the perfect center of the book was a detailed drawing of a human heart. I didn't know what century the book had come from, but I could guess that medical knowledge was not that advanced at the time it was drawn.
Maybe whoever wrote this did some grave robbing, I thought to myself. Or they were a murderer. Or an old timey mortician.
Toward the end of the book, though, was a set of drawings that really caught my eye.
These drawings depicted a man with shaggy dark hair. In the first drawing, he was smiling, lips curling under a heavy mustache. His cheeks rounded with his smile, crinkling the sides of his bright, clear eyes. He was happy, healthy. To my surprise, under the drawing of his face, there was a date. 1632.
The next drawing was dated 1636. Only four years after the first, but the man in the drawing looked significantly older. His hair was cropped short now, his beard shaved away. The etching beneath his eyes conveyed dark circles. His cheeks were drawn hollow, his mouth closed and downturned, eyes no longer bright but rather murky and sad.
1639's drawing was a shadow of the man depicted in 1632. His skin looked stretched tight over his bones. Whoever drew the picture no longer colored his hair in dark now; it was speckled white with age. Despite it being only a drawing in an old book, those eyes stared hauntingly up at me.
There were no more drawings after 1639.
It doesn't take a genius to guess why.
