I do not own Twilight.
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We stand frozen together.
His eyes are filled with confusion, disbelief. I do not know how much he remembers of his human life, but something in him recognizes me, that much I am sure of.
I go about running my hands down the sides of his face, tracing the high cheek bones, the invisible scar that used to mar his right eyebrow. My fingers run along the length of his sharp jaw in wonder and pure joy.
My loss of control is not acceptable to me, I know this, but for some reason, the immense peace his presence brings me is over riding everything.
His own hands have moved as well, one rests lightly on my raised arm while the other has found my long hair that he is now playing with.
I am not the only one purring either.
Contentment rings out around us, neither of us seem to remember that we should be warily dancing around one another, questioning the other, tense and prepared for a fight.
Finally, he lifts a lock of hair to his nose and inhales deeply. It makes tracing more of his lovely features somewhat harder, but it really makes no difference to me. My hands are still touching him, and that is plenty.
When his eyes open, he's staring down at me in wonder.
"I know your face." His voice is velvet, it wraps around me like a blanket, further obscuring my reasoning skills.
Confusion colors his features again. "But it was just a dream."
I however, perfectly recall that night, and I know it was no dream.
I don't say anything though, instead, I let my hands fall, and finally find myself able to step away from him. The space between us feels like an eternity, but my mind snaps back into focus now.
We are not alone.
Three more come out of the trees, and because we are downwind, I catch a scent I know.
The doctor.
Beside him is a bear of a boy, with dimples and an impish grin. Flanking the good doctor's other side is a man I know all too well.
Dammit.
The Major.
His own signature cowboy grin is in place, and he looks much more put together now than last I saw of him.
"Well, look at what good ol' Eddy found!" The big one is gleeful.
Edward growls at the nickname and inches closer to me, but I push past the satisfaction of it and sink into my instincts.
I don't trust the doctor or the big one, and the Major knows too little too much of my talents.
Before Edward can close the last few feet between us I'm back by my coat, causing everyone to drop into a more defensive stance. Though the big one seems to be having trouble viewing me as a threat.
A mistake if I've ever seen one.
"Don't be shy, we don't bite." He chuckles at his own joke, so does the Major.
Edward is the only one who, like me, does not crouch. Instead, he follows my movement with interest.
As much as I would like to stay, everything in me is screaming to run.
So I slip my coat back on, real slow and confident before addressing the big bear.
"Oh, I'm not shy, and I do bite." I smirk over at him, letting me teeth gleam. "And I do promise you this, I'll leave a mark."
The doctor tenses now, even Edward does. I've just dropped the façade. I can feel it seeping from me, I can feel the shimmer of my shield around me, dropping away from me.
It takes away the pretense of innocent young woman.
Now I stand before them, in full view, my scars and all.
Like I've said before, when I was young, I didn't understand my allure to vampires, and it has cost me.
Wallowing in self-pity will get me nowhere however, so instead I direct my gaze at the good doctor.
"You changed him."
He straightens a bit to answer me. "He was dying, and his mother asked me to save her son."
He scents the air once more before smiling slightly at me. "You were a visitor to my hospital at the time. I never got the chance to introduce myself."
Back then, I didn't grasp the extent of my gifts, I probably still don't, but hanging around with the right people has certainly helped me in the exploration of them. For example, the handy little trick of weakening my own distinct scent most of the time.
I wave him off and offer a small bow of my head, just enough to be respectful but not enough to lose sight of possible enemies.
"Carlisle Cullen. I was curious."
He nods, smile still in place. "Yes, I thought you might have been. It is a pleasure to meet you, miss?"
Giving them my last name is not an option. Not with Charles so close by.
"Isabella."
He waits a moment longer to see if I'll add on, but when I don't, he nods again. "Miss Isabella."
Major Whitlock smirks, standing back to his full height.
I remember perfectly well asking him to call me Bella during my short stay with him, Peter, and Charlotte.
Still, he says nothing, and I'm certainly not going to bring it up here.
"Small world huh?" Bear says. "I'm Emmett, nice to meet ya Isabella."
His dimples are on full display. I imagine to many, it would be charming, and while he isn't exactly hard on the eyes, I don't find myself drawn to him or the others the way I am Edward.
Edward.
He's staring at me now, his back to the others, and his face is stony.
"How do I know your face?"
There's less softness to his voice this time, instead it's replaced with a steely determination, and frustration. I could ponder the reason for the second emotion later, because while it's perfectly understandable, I find myself unhappy with the change of mood.
I preferred the purring.
So I do what any hormone ridden silly girl would do of course.
I stepped closer to him, and slowly, ran my hand through his hair while I whispered my only words from that night.
"I'm Bella."
His eyes fluttered closed and I took my retreat, swiftly.
I don't know if they followed.
0o0o
Foolishly, I did not leave.
I should have.
I should have gone back to my car, passed the police station, only slowing enough to confirm that Charles was inside with what I picked up of his scent from the house, and left town.
However, my ties to family bind me tightly.
I cannot. I will not run.
So here I am, on the cliffs that overlook the ocean, watching waves crash angrily against the rock, demanding a submission they will never be given.
Much like my common sense and my former humanity.
Staying here in a place that I now know to reek of vampire and wet dog is dangerous.
Drawing any attention to my human descendent is dangerous.
Yet I stand here.
Listening to the trees behind me, the water before me, and the swift movement of a marble body coming straight towards me.
I sigh and settle my hands into my pockets.
Twenty four hours is more than enough time to disappear.
Foolish.
That's what I am.
"That's a mighty handy trick you have there, being able to obscure your scent like that."
His southern accent is just as strong as it was when I first met him, with my mess of bites and pile of body parts he helped me burn. Of course he would also notice the initial lack of smell from me, it's a marker completely unique to a vampire, human, any creature really, and unfortunately I've let that particular cat out of my bag of tricks. Strange though, that the girl at the door still knew me to be there.
His footsteps come to a stop right next to me.
"Been a while Bella."
He smiles down at me, real big and easy going.
I roll my eyes but don't hide my smile.
"Hello Jasper."
He sighs.
"It's been a while. This is the last place I expected to ever see you. Miss Swan."
I cringe.
Next time I should factor in completely unlikely scenarios just like this one when giving my name to a potential friend.
He laughs. "Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what drew you here. I'm going to go out on a limb here and blame that same curiosity that obviously had you by Edward's deathbed."
"Curiosity did in fact, kill the cat." I mumble.
He snickers again. "You're a bit more durable than any cat. I've got the scars to prove that one."
I huff. "I already apologized to you about that, although how much sense does one have to be lacking to jump into an unfair fight from behind said victim?"
He throws his hands up, and to anyone who doesn't know him, it would be a sign of irritation, but Jasper Whitlock I do know, and he's loving every bit of my sour mood.
"Here I am minding my own business when I come across a damsel in clear distress. I offer aid, and how am I received? With a big ol chunk with outta my shoulder! If I'd been anyone else it would have been my neck!"
I grin, teeth on full display. "And what a delightful chunk it would have been."
We both laugh now. He turns towards me, relaxed as can be.
"You know, you've had Edward in knots since you took off. I've never seen him act like that, if I didn't know any better, I'd say someone has found their-"
"Don't you dare. Finish. That. Sentence." I growl out.
He puts his hands up in surrender. "Don't shoot the messenger Miss. Swan. I ain't the one who decided to make you two mates."
I growl louder and he barks out another laugh.
"You're just as bad as your brother Whitelock."
He winks. "Nah, I'm worse."
I let out a loud sigh. That is the god's honest truth.
"He'd like you to come back to the house."
I shake my head.
He sighs.
It's quiet between us for a while, before I decide to be a complete idiot and throw all caution to the wind.
"You've already deduced what brought me here Jasper. Allowing more to know would be dangerous, for my nephew more than anyone. Besides, the good doctor does not strike me as the type to willingly put his coven in harm's way for a passerby."
He shrugs. "So don't tell them. At least, not yet." I raise an eyebrow. "Look, that's your business, and I don't have to let anybody know I know you well enough to know your last name. Besides, we both you know can't just walk away from Edward. Not now."
When I don't say anything he throws an arm over shoulder and steers us away from the cliff.
"Believe me Miss Swan, having a mate ain't all bad. My own turned out to be my saving grace."
I gawk up at him. "Who would have ever sentence some poor unsuspecting woman to be your mate Whitlock?"
That southern boy grin is back.
The run through the forest is calming, it brings me back to center, back into a barely there control I fool myself into thinking I have.
I have left all thought of that dying boy laid to rest for so long. I couldn't bring myself to turn him, instead, I sought to comfort his ragged body in his last hours of life. I mourned his passing in silence after I left, but resolved that his soul was at peace, in a way mine would never be.
I may not agree with what was done to me, but it doesn't mean I'd willingly give up this existence. No, I'll leave this world kicking and screaming, just as I came into it. The first time.
Over a century later however, I find my mourning to be for a human life, one that transitioned as I did, and was born anew, into marble, into the predators we all are underneath.
I wonder what pieces of his humanity he keeps close to him, what bits of faded memory does he cling to when he feels weakness?
I've never truly experienced the blood lust and rage that drives most of us, I awoke to this life with my memories fully intact, with the sharp, crystal clear visions of my family, my sister, and my humanity. They haunted me through the years, whispering quietly when I should have faltered and given into the thirst. Alas, I have never lost myself to the scent of human blood, I do not even feed regularly as most have to.
We come to a stop just inside a clearing, water in a stream is close by, tall grass reclaims its home near the tree line, but the proud white house in the middle stands out above all.
Out in the open, proclaiming itself to the world around us.
A beacon.
They live in plain sight. Clever.
Again, I store my inner musings away, it's time to pay the piper as it were.
I ground my teeth together, trying to reason out the positives of doing this.
Naturally, Jasper notices.
"Now or never Miss Bella."
One foot in front of the other Swan.
Jasper hums quietly while we cross the clearing, making our way closer to the beautiful structure. Their scents, along with three females are all over it.
They live here together, as a coven.
Interesting.
The front door swings open and a blur of pale skin and raven colored hair races down the steps and straight into Jasper.
"Jazz! You're back!"
His current beaming smile puts earlier ones to shame. So this would be his mate.
She unwraps herself from Jasper and drops a good foot and a half to the ground.
Her bright eyes are on me as she smiles. "You must be Bella, it's so nice to meet the girl who's finally caught my dear brother's eye!"
Before I can react, her little arms are tightly wound around me and an instant later, they're gone.
Her expression has changed as well, she's frowning. "You're also why I couldn't see them on their hunt this afternoon. I can't get a single glimpse out of you."
"Alice, honey she's just gotten here. Calm down."
Alice whirls on Jasper, whose poker face is second to none.
Too bad she's onto him the minute he spoke.
"Yes, she came back with you of all people Jasper Whitlock. Why is that?"
She's like a dog with a bone.
When he doesn't say anything she steps closer, real slow and deliberate.
"You wouldn't be keeping secrets from me would you Jasper?"
It's almost comical to watch the great Major produce a nervous twitch of his lips and shake his head a little too fast.
A well-made match indeed.
"Jasper and I go way back, don't we Whitlock?" I smirk at him. "He helped me out of a nasty spot and in return I didn't finish what I started when he jumped in. Uninvited."
Better to give her something, than have her digging for everything.
Jasper knew my secret, and like Garratt, he swore to protect it. My gift was solace to those who truly needed it, but I didn't go around advertising, and mate or not, I wasn't about to spill everything here.
Luckily for me, Jasper is quick on the up-take.
It takes him all of one second, if that, to jump right back on that train.
"I told you woman, I was trying to help! It took me over an hour to find that piece of my own shoulder in that mess!"
I grinned while Alice threw her head back in laughter. "Imagine that! Someone got the best of Jazz." She whirls on me again. "I like you Bella, I think we're going to be great friends."
Without any further preamble, she loops her arm through mine and walks us both up the stairs with Jasper trailing behind.
"I love your coat by the way! It really is a lovely shade of blue against your skin and hair."
I can hear Jasper's grumbles all the way inside, but he's projecting mirth. Good save Whitlock.
Bella's got quite a colorful history, so of course Jasper would pop up in it. As for her gift, I'm sticking to the general shield idea, but broadening it a bit for the story. Next chapter has more of her and Edward, promise!
I love hearing your thoughts, until next time.