Hi all!
Welcome to the next chapter! I'm thrilled that people are still enjoying this story! I was especially glad to know that people were happy with how the boiler situation resolved itself, I've been building towards these events for so long now, it's a relief to have them on paper and to hear what people think! Please keep letting me know your thoughts!
Thanks as always to the crazy busy JaneyGWF for taking the time to beta for me!
Enjoy!
It took a lot longer than Jane would have liked to find a way out of civilisation. She was solely focussed on finding a source of blood for Maura, since that was the only thing she could think of that might help. As she wasn't game to try breaking into a blood bank or hospital, and using a live human was completely out of the question, she was trying to find a forest, any forest, as long as it had animals.
She breathed a sigh of relief when the highway she was following passed a large patch of green, and she turned into the trees. She ran a few kilometres into the forest, wanting to make sure they were really in a deserted area before she risked trying to hunt. She had been warned enough times about a vampire's hunting instinct by the woman still lying unresponsively in her arms, and Jane didn't want to risk either of them accidentally hurting someone.
When she was satisfied that they were alone, Jane carefully put Maura down on the ground in a small clearing, with overhanging trees shielding them from the sun. Maura hadn't made a sound the entire time Jane was running, and she didn't react at all to being put down, even when Jane gently shook her shoulders. Maura simply lay where she was placed, her eyes open but unfocussed, her skin chalky and dead. Jane carefully lifted the bottom of Maura's shirt, inspecting the wound sites where she'd been impaled, and realised that the wounds hadn't closed at all. In fact, there was one particularly large one that allowed Jane to see the ground through Maura's shattered body.
Jane looked at Maura's face again, a small noise of distress escaping her when she took in Maura's appearance. She didn't look sick, or injured. She looked dead. Jane touched Maura's face, her other hand finding her shoulder and frantically shaking it again, but there was no response. Maura's eyes continued to stare blankly, with no sign that she would ever move again.
Jane was starting to panic, but she decided to stick to her admittedly basic plan. Find something to hunt, catch it, bring it to Maura. She shook off her grief, anguish and fear with a grim determination, promising herself that she could fall apart after she'd somehow made Maura better. There was no other possible outcome worth considering, so she pushed them to the back of her mind and focussed on her next move.
However, as soon as she stood up, Jane realised that her plan was going to be more difficult than she'd thought.
She had no idea how to hunt.
Jane remembered Maura explaining how she'd learned to hunt via smell, so Jane sniffed a few times, hoping to detect something useful. She caught a brief impression of something warm and big, but the scent was gone in an instant as a small breeze blew past her. Jane followed the source of the breeze, hoping that the animal she'd smelled might be in that direction, but after a few minutes she had found nothing.
She stopped again, freezing in place, and tried to use her hearing in concert with her nose. She heard creatures moving in the trees, but the sounds were all around, and obscured by the symphony of leaves brushing together, branches creaking, and a small river bubbling nearby. Jane huffed in irritation, struggling to understand how she'd managed to screw this up. This should be literally impossible for a vampire to screw up. Every vampire was supposed to be good at killing things, but she couldn't even manage to find something to kill, much less subdue it and bring it to her dying friend.
In a last ditch effort, Jane closed her eyes, hoping her second vision might lead her in the right direction. He was immediately assaulted by an explosion of colour, with each living thing nearby bristling with energy. The trees drew shimmering pulses of bright light down from their canopy, through their trunks and into their roots. The roots tangled with other plants, their configuration carefully managed to share the energy coming from the rich soil. Little grubs and insects scurried on and under the earth, their cold shells covering intense little powerhouses of light, brightening and fading as they ate and worked. There were small animals among the trees too, hiding in the branches, the trunks, or the undergrowth around the roots. Jane could see everything, in exquisite detail, all of the life in the forest.
But there were no big animals that could help heal Maura. Jane opened her eyes, feeling a bit more hope, and ran to another part of the forest, keeping her ears open to no avail. She stopped again and closed her eyes, finding more of the same. She repeated the process three more times, passing deeper and deeper into the forest, before she finally found what she was looking for.
It was a bear, much like the one Maura had once saved her from, revealing her inner monster in all its terrible power in the process. The bear was rummaging through the undergrowth, sending insects and rodents scrambling from its intrusion into their lives. Jane couldn't help feeling like an intruder herself, having observed the balance of the forest and the cohesion of all the parts of it, but she knew she needed to grit her teeth and get on with it.
Jane stepped up to the bear, feeling like she should growl or something, but the predatory instincts she'd seen in Maura just weren't there. Instead she paused awkwardly, wondering how to go about subduing a bear almost a head taller than her. Her instinct was to grab its arms and wrestle it to the ground, like a suspect, but she reconsidered that approach when it turned to look at her, standing up and lowering its head aggressively while roaring in her face.
Jane stepped back in surprise, noticing just how sharp the bear's claws and teeth were. She knew in her head that her skin should be strong enough to protect her, but it was another thing to believe it. She really just felt like normal, human Jane, about to get mauled by an angry bear.
She didn't get a chance to overthink it more than she already had. The bear growled again, before charging at her. Jane dropped into a defensive crouch, taking the impact of the bear against her shoulder. She was surprised when she didn't fall over. Instead, she managed to stop the charge of the bear and knock it to the ground. It looked angry, and roared at her again before standing to its full height and taking a swing at her head.
Jane huffed impatiently, ducking the swipe easily. She knew she needed to get this over with, since Maura needed help now. Jane waited until the bear straightened, looking at her in confusion, before she stepped in close and delivered a vicious uppercut to its chin.
The bear howled and staggered back, falling in a heap as it passed out. Jane stared for a moment, amazed by the incredible strength now at her command. She then chuckled at the realisation that she'd just punched out a bear, before awkwardly gathering the bulky bear into her arms and setting off back to where she'd left Maura.
The poor woman still hadn't moved when Jane found her again. Jane was extremely worried at this point, not knowing if it was already too late to heal whatever was wrong with Maura. She resolutely pushed her doubt to the back of her mind, instead manoeuvring the bear so its throat was right over Maura's mouth.
Maura still didn't react. Jane held the bear in position for a few moments, hoping the scent would trigger some survival instinct, but nothing happened. Sighing, Jane realised this wasn't working, and that she needed to go a step further than she'd wanted to.
She dropped the bear for a moment and patted around her clothes, looking for anything sharp. She didn't have a gun, or a knife, or even her badge. Apparently someone had disarmed her at some point. Resigned, she picked up the bear again, raising her eyes to the sky as she wished to be anywhere but here.
Jane lifted the bear towards her own mouth, taking a bracing breath before sinking her teeth through the layers of fur and into the soft flesh of its neck. It took a few moments, but her probing teeth finally found the artery she was looking for, and blood flowed into her mouth.
It tasted good, and felt as right as eating human food used to feel, but there was no overwhelming bloodlust. Jane swallowed a few mouthfuls cautiously, and found herself perfectly in control. She stopped drinking after a few seconds, feeling her body react pleasantly to the intake of the blood, before moving the dripping wound over Maura's mouth instead. Jane shook her head in wonder, still amazed at the entire experience despite Maura's possible explanation for her control. Drinking blood had felt no different to sipping a cup of coffee and feeling that comfortable satisfaction. Knowing she had other concerns at the moment, she resolutely put the realisation aside and turned her attention back to the issue at hand, making a mental note to explore her reaction to blood at a less crucial moment.
Jane swallowed the last remnants of the blood, watching carefully as the first drops fell into Maura's slightly open mouth.
Finally there was a reaction. Maura's eyes slipped closed, her head lifting off the ground and closer to the source of blood. She sniffed once, her whole body stiffening before her eyes snapped open and focussed on the bear.
Jane suddenly felt a fist collide with her chest, and realised she was flying through the air. She flipped and landed on her feet, looking back at Maura in surprise.
Maura had latched onto the neck of the bear, no longer seeming slow or drained. She ripped into the bear, making a huge mess of its neck as she fed as fast as possible. Jane could only watch in horrified fascination as Maura drank, thankful that she obviously wasn't dead, but more than a little afraid, despite being a vampire herself. Jane had already understood why she couldn't watch Maura feed as a human, but now she understood why Maura wouldn't have wanted to let her watch even if it had been safe. Seeing Maura act in such a murderous and animalistic way was completely terrifying.
Maura finally dropped the carcass of the bear, her face and neck covered in blood and fur. Her eyes fixated on Jane, and she let out a territorial snarl, rolling into an aggressive crouch.
Jane immediately put her hands up and backed away, not quite knowing what to do. "Maura? It's Jane. Remember me? Jane?"
Maura continued to glare at Jane, letting out the occasional growl, until her legs suddenly gave out. The stalemate was broken as Jane darted forward, her entire being panicked as she tried to help Maura. Instead, she jumped back in alarm when Maura snapped at her hand, snarling defensively even though she was obviously having trouble keeping her head off the ground.
Jane stepped back in shock, not understanding what was going on. "Okay. Okay, Maura, listen. I'm going to go find another bear, or something. You'll be okay once you eat some more. You'll be okay. Don't move, okay? I'll be right back."
Jane didn't wait for a response, not expecting one anyway. There was no trace of intelligence or humanity in Maura, just the violent predator. A predator who knew it was injured, but didn't know how to let someone help it.
Jane found her next prey much more quickly, as she ran in a different direction and encountered a herd of deer. She grabbed the first one she found, slinging it over her shoulder and ignoring its flailing limbs as the animal tried to escape.
She found Maura trying to crawl away, her legs apparently not working. Maura's eyes immediately fixed on the deer in Jane's arms, her body lurching towards the new food source before it failed and Maura dropped back to the ground.
Jane didn't waste any time, practically throwing the deer at Maura and getting back out of the way as soon as Maura's teeth found its neck. Maura seemed slightly calmer this time, still glaring at Jane while she drank but not making any move to get away or attack. When the deer was drained, Maura let it fall to the ground and continued to glare, her teeth bared and her posture defensive.
Jane decided to try talking again, even though it looked like her Maura was still noticeably absent. "Are you feeling any better? Can you move?"
Maura didn't react to Jane's words at all. Jane sighed and dropped to her knees, having no idea what to do now. She could keep feeding Maura blood, since that seemed to have helped her body, but she had no idea what was going on in Maura's head.
Remembering the faint energy that she had seen in the boiler, Jane closed her eyes to check if there had been any change. She immediately noticed the difference between Maura's energy and everything else in the forest. There was an obvious colour scheme for plants, another for insects, another for mammals, and a completely foreign one for Maura. The vampiric energy seemed completely out of place, almost unnatural, since it moved and looked completely alien from everything around it.
Maura's energy definitely looked brighter than the last time she'd seen it, but Jane felt that it still wasn't right. The colours pulsing between her cells looked wrong, uneven, and it seemed like there wasn't enough energy flowing around her body. The colours were brightest near her stomach, where she could see the cells rapidly drawing energy from the fresh blood, but her head and legs looked almost dead in some places. It looked like there was still a lot of damage to repair, and Jane had no idea if the blood was going to be enough.
She opened her eyes to find Maura still looking at her angrily, but the strength of her glare seemed to be fading. Jane thought Maura, or at least the instinctual creature currently driving Maura's body, might be starting to trust her, since she was the one bringing it food. With a sigh, Jane decided to do one more hunt, to see if that would be enough. At the very least it might stop Maura from attacking her.
After a few unacknowledged 'stay put' gestures that she hoped would get the message across, Jane set off again, finding the same herd of deer and capturing another big doe. This one struggled as much as the last, but quieted just as quickly once Maura got hold of it. Jane dragged the first deer and the bear away from Maura as she finished her latest meal, feeling morbid about trying to have a civilised conversation surrounded by the corpses of animals she'd just fed to her best friend.
Maura dropped the last deer as inelegantly as the first, allowing Jane to drag it away with no argument. Jane moved it next to the other bodies, then sat down a few metres away from Maura, studying her movements with a sense of desperation. Maura had pulled her legs up to her chest, holding them protectively close with her arms. She seemed healthier, at least physically. Jane couldn't see any cracks emanating out of the wound sites, and her skin had regained its previous consistency. However, she was still watching Jane intently, with no sense of recognition, only a wary defensiveness that demonstrated her primitive state of mind. Jane didn't feel quite as panicked, since a quick glance at Maura's energy seemed to suggest her body was healing, with the dark spots in her legs almost gone. However, she had no idea what to do about Maura's mental state, and if the remaining damaged patches of her head were any indication, there was a lot to repair.
Jane had no idea if this instinctive state was related to Maura being so badly injured, or if it was from overuse of her abilities, or if it was related to something else that had happened which Jane hadn't noticed or seen. Maura was never good at being honest about things that were hurting her, especially if it would make Jane feel bad to know what had caused them.
Thinking over Maura's hypothesis about Jane's incredible control, or more precisely, lack of violent instincts, Jane wondered if something like the opposite had somehow happened to Maura. If vampire reactions were a response to pain, then maybe Maura's mind was protecting her from the pain of her injuries. If that was the case, then Maura should re-emerge as soon as her body finished healing.
But that didn't seem to be happening. It was as if Maura was completely gone, and sating her physical needs hadn't changed that at all. Which meant that something else was wrong, and it was up to Jane to figure it out.
With a sigh, Jane closed her eyes to start trying to work through the problem. "Maura, I really wish you were here. I could really use your help to save yourself."
Maura didn't react, continuing to stare, and her energy remained stable. Jane frowned in frustration, not seeing anything useful, and opened her eyes, carefully examining every inch of Maura's appearance for any clues.
Jane stared at Maura for an unknown amount of minutes before slowly standing up, deciding to try a more direct approach. Maura tensed, but didn't move as Jane slowly walked over to her. Maura bared her teeth again, growling softly in warning, but Jane kept coming, kneeling in front of her and reaching out towards her face.
Right before Jane's fingers made contact, Maura let out a fearsome snarl and lunged forward, tackling Jane to the ground and snapping at her face. Jane reacted barely in time, bracing Maura's chest and holding her just far enough away to avoid her teeth. Jane pushed with all her newborn strength, throwing Maura off and into some nearby trees.
The impact knocked enough trees over to let the bright sun in, instantly bathing Jane in the warm rays of late afternoon. She was caught off guard at the sight of her own skin glittering in the light and unthinkingly paused to marvel at the sight. Maura had been right, the sight was particularly beautiful, more so with vampire sight than with weak human eyes. Jane habitually looked to Maura to share her wonder, and was greeted with the sight of her best friend leaping out of the trees, her teeth aimed at Jane's throat.
Jane rolled backwards, catching Maura and using her momentum to throw her in the other direction. Maura crashed into another bank of trees, but didn't seem bothered, simply climbing to her feet and preparing to pounce again. Jane kept her eyes fixed on her this time, bracing herself in preparation for the imminent attack.
Maura proved how absent her intelligence was when she repeated the same attack a third time, lunging directly for Jane in a frontal assault. Jane waited until the last moment before grabbing Maura's wrists, spinning her to the ground on her front and jumping on her back, pinning her completely with all the vampire strength she could find.
Maura bucked wildly, seemingly uncaring about her joints and limbs as she twisted in Jane's grasp. Maura was snarling fiercely, her face distorted in animalistic fury, but Jane stayed strong, even though it was breaking her heart to hurt Maura.
Bending over slightly, Jane yelled into Maura's ear, her cracking voice illuminating the stress she was feeling. "Maura! Stop! Calm down, it's Jane! It's me! I'm not going to hurt you, I'm trying to help!"
Maura kept struggling, so Jane kept holding her, keeping up a continuous stream of reassurances. The sun had become tinged with orange and had moved several metres by the time Maura finally stopped thrashing, and Jane sighed in relief when she felt her friend collapse to the ground.
Jane maintained her grip for another few minutes, ensuring that Maura wasn't simply pretending to be done. Maura turned her head, meeting Jane's gaze with a glare, but she didn't recommence her struggling. Jane frowned in frustration, still feeling a bit lost, but decided to allow Maura to get up, if only to see what she would do next.
When Jane released her arms, Maura pulled away, tucking her arms back around her legs and curling into a ball. She still glared at Jane, but the fire was gone. Jane sighed forlornly, her hope that Maura's mind would return on its own fading with the last ray of sunlight. She crouched down next to Maura, moving slowly but firmly as she reached for Maura's face once again.
Maura flinched as Jane's fingers touched her cheek, but she allowed the contact with a baleful glare. It seemed weird touching Maura now, since their skin was now the same temperature. Maura didn't feel like a stone statue, she felt warm and real. Jane looked into Maura's eyes firmly, not giving any sign of weakness. Maura met her eyes stubbornly for a few moments, before dropping her gaze and slumping in submission.
Jane smiled thinly, before gently pulling Maura into a sideways hug. "I'm going to fix this, okay? You've saved me, now it's my turn. It's how we work, right? We help each other out. We always have."
Jane pulled back, looking forlornly for any sign that Maura might have understood her. When Maura just looked back at her blankly. Jane sighed again, placing her other hand on Maura's cheek as she closed her eyes to concentrate.
The contact seemed to make Maura's energy easier to see, and Jane focussed on the tiny details of the colours and shapes. Where her hands touched Maura's face, she could see tiny transfers of energy, jumping both ways between their skin. She could still see the blood being absorbed by Maura's system, the rate gradually slowing as her body adjusted to being well fed rather than starved. Jane had no idea when Maura had fed before the ball, but it had been more than four days since then. Even if Maura hadn't been through a traumatic injury, her body would have been screaming for blood.
Jane could also see faint scars left behind by Maura's exposure to Volturi venom. There were two injuries, one on her back where she'd been bitten by Jane during the mob war, and the other down her throat, where Alec's venom had attacked the lining and left small discontinuities in the flow of energy. The scars looked like small dead spots, which distorted the energy moving through Maura's body and scattered it slightly. Jane felt as if neither wound would particularly trouble Maura, as there were plenty of healthy cells around the sites, but the undeserved blemishes on Maura's innocent form still bothered Jane greatly.
Jane concentrated on Maura's head, trying to understand the specifics of the dark patches. The parts of her brain near her spine seemed to be mostly working, but the parts closer to the top of her head were either dim or completely black.
One particular section seemed particularly ominous, a large black section near the centre of Maura's brain. It seemed to have several dark tendrils extending into the surrounding sections of her brain, and the energy around the area was being drawn in before disappearing. Jane was no doctor, but it definitely looked like she might have found a possible cause, although she still had no idea what she was looking at or what to do about it.
There were faint sparks of energy all through Maura's head, probably just enough to keep her moving and reacting, but Jane had a feeling she should have been seeing a lot more activity. Jane remembered various random explanations from Maura about lobes, neurons and hemispheres, and something about the limbic system. If she was remembering right, it seemed like only the oldest, instinctive parts of Maura's brain were working right now, with most of the rest of her neural energy being absorbed by the alarming dark area.
Jane opened her eyes, meeting Maura's vacant stare with regret. "I don't know. I can see there's a problem, but I don't know what to do."
She brushed her hands over Maura's face, cleaning off the dried blood as best she could. Maura allowed it, her eyes drifting over Jane's face uncomprehendingly before staring off into space once again. Jane felt a lump of sadness settle deep in her gut as she comprehended just how lost Maura was, and how lost she was without her.
Jane let herself settle back onto the ground, pulling Maura into a hug. She knew Maura didn't understand, and wouldn't draw any comfort from the gesture, but it comforted Jane to know that her friend was at least alive, and calm. The sight of Maura practically dead on the ground had scared Jane more than she could articulate, and she was grateful to have Maura back, in any capacity.
Jane sat in that position for several hours, thinking furiously. She hadn't felt the urge to move, her new body incapable of growing fatigued or sore. Maura had barely moved either, seeming content to sit placidly in Jane's arms as the light faded and night enveloped the forest. Jane noticed that her vision made the forest seem much less frightening than when she was human, as she could see all the nocturnal animals going about their business, their small noises understandable and unthreatening. Her second sight was unimpeded by the fall of darkness, illuminating everything around her in great detail.
Jane hadn't come to any promising conclusions about how to help Maura, but she had considered a few ideas. She had also spent a lot of time trying to process everything that had happened in the last day. Her elation at being able to get Frankie out alive had been almost completely overshadowed by her guilt, since Maura had obviously paid the price for that miracle. Jane kept coming back to how unfair her transformation had been, since she had gained all of the benefits of being a vampire while avoiding the major pitfalls. She knew that if Maura had been given that same chance, things would have turned out so much better. But her friend seemed to keep getting dealt losing hands, culminating in her current state. The fact that the smartest, kindest and gentlest woman she'd ever met had been deprived of her intellect, her memories and her soul was tragically wrong. It just wasn't fair.
But, Jane knew she needed to stop moping, consider her options and make a decision.
The first idea was to keep going as she had been, feeding Maura more blood in the hope that her mind would eventually heal on its own. The plan seemed unlikely to work, but it was the easiest to enact.
The second idea was to try human blood, from a blood bank. Jane was reluctant to try stealing blood on her own, still somewhat gun-shy about being near humans, despite all the evidence that she could handle it. The stark reminder of what an out of control vampire near blood looked like had shaken her confidence. In addition, she wasn't sure how to convince Maura to stay behind and not wander, especially since her second sight had shown that Maura's body was now fully healed, with the exception of her brain and some slight scarring down her throat from the venom.
Her third idea was to take Maura to the Cullen property, back in New York State. It was possible that one of the Cullens knew something that could help, or maybe even one of their powers could be useful. At any rate, they might have more ideas than Jane, and she was in desperate need of more ideas, since hers all sounded futile and desperate.
The only problem was getting Maura to come with her, and not run off and attack humans. Jane was certain that they would encounter humans at some point during the journey, since they were several hundred miles away from the property, and they needed to cross more than one major highway to get there. Despite being a newborn vampire, and despite winning their earlier battle, Jane felt very little confidence in her ability to restrain Maura if she was in a feeding frenzy.
Jane sighed in resignation, knowing that she would achieve nothing by remaining where they were. "Okay. Maura, we're going to head out. I'm going to take you to see some friends. They're your friends too, do you remember the Cullens? Carlisle?"
Maura remained still, as unresponsive as she had been since submitting to Jane's touch many hours ago. Jane sighed again, getting to her feet and pulling Maura up with her. She grabbed Maura's arm, pulling her along as she moved into the forest.
Maura followed along in a docile manner, trailing after Jane with no protest and staring at Jane's back blankly. Jane frowned, unsure whether this was progress or a step backwards, but pushed on regardless.
She knew she was out of her depth, and needed help.