Yeesh... long time, right? Sorry! I've been too busy writing to... write. Yea... I'm so sorry!

I must thank each and every one of you with every ounce of me! I've never written a fic that went over 100 reviews! I've read every single one over and over and I cherish them very much. Y'all are all so kind and your insights make me blush and want to try even harder for this fic.

On a side note, I must insist on promoting myself (becuase I'm a poor, smol little bean)... I wrote some erotica... yeah, I know, I know. And I'm not sorry- it was a lot of fun- I highly recommend writing it some time. A few short little stories on kindle. PM me if you want a link. ;)

Please enjoy! Expect an update soon to make up for my hiatus.

-iva

"What did you do?"

Bella's eyelids fluttered and she wriggled in her bed, pulling her covers over her head blearily.

"Bella?" A familiar voice snarled. "What did you do?"

"Mngh?" she groaned.

All at once, she was torn from her bed and dumped unceremoniously on the floor.

Edward stared down at her, holding her wrist high above her head, his looming and menacing figure immediately chasing away any remaining vestiges of sleep.

"What did you do?" he snarled again.

She'd never seen him so angry and, as pain lanced up her arm, she fought the prickle of tears threatening to fill her eyes. "What," she gritted, "are you talking about?"

His eyes were obsidian, glittering not with joy nor amusement as she'd come to associate with him but feral indignation. "You're a liar!"

"You're scaring me!"

"I'm scaring you? Me?! Not the feral freak you decided to feed? How'd you do it, huh? I can smell human blood all over the basement but it's not yours. Whose is it, Bella?"

She'd known it was inevitable- the exposure of her decision to favor Jasper's health over her boyfriend's 'command'. No matter how careful she'd have stepped, no matter how quickly she'd have stolen away, there was no hiding her scent.

He saw the sinking realization dawn on her face and grinned maliciously. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"

"No…" she said, barely above a whisper. She was lost for words in the face of his rage. Her arm throbbed and she twisted it in his hold futilely.

Edward suddenly kneeled down, taking her chin in his hand ungently and forcing her to gaze back into his own creased in rage. "Where is he, then? Tell me."

"Where-...?" Bella blinked slowly, trembling despite herself.

The hand on her chin tightened and she swore she felt the bone creak beneath the steel bands of his fingers.

A cry of pain escaped her, one he sealed away with a fervent kiss that twisted her stomach nauseatingly.

She tried to turn her head away but he held her still, smirking humorlessly when she took his bottom lip between her teeth and bit viciously. He didn't even flinch.

Slowly pulling away from the passionless kiss, he spoke in a more sedated tone. "You are mine. You know and I know that we are mates. You cannot let this come between us."

Bella trembled, choked down a sob, and refused to meet his eyes. "You're hurting me," she rasped numbly, still reeling from the assault.

And just like that, his horrid grip on her released and he stepped away from her, a startled look on his face.

Holding her swelling wrist with her hand, she ducked her head and shivered against the nauseating current of fear filling her veins. This creature… this wasn't the one she'd come to love.

"Bella…" he whispered softly.

"Get out."

"I didn't mean to-"

"Get out!" she screeched, as vicious as a raging mountain lion.

Edward looked aghast, paler than normal, as his lips moved but not a sound left him.

He hesitated but when she lifted her chin and leveled her watering, burning eyes on him, a look of anguish crossed his face before he disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The curtains fluttered softly from his retreat.

Bella shuddered a breath, turning her face into her bed at her side and stifling the sob that wanted to leave her.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she managed to build a flimsy dam against the raging river of emotion threatening to flood her. It held, but just barely.

Composing herself, she forced her erratic brain to concentrate. She needed to focus. Now wasn't the time to cry.

'Where is he?' Edward had demanded.

A faint tingle started in the tips of her fingers as realization flooded her.

Jasper had escaped.

He streaked through the obsidian forest, a mere blur beneath the avid gaze of the full moon.

The stretch of his muscles as he sprinted, the harsh breaths filling his lungs, the feel of sodden earth beneath his feet. What a wonderful, blissful feeling.

The newfound strength coursing through his long deprived limbs made a purr threaten to overtake him but he swallowed it down- overtly aware of the sounds within the near-silent forest.

The coven would be coming after him soon enough. He knew not why they pursued him so restlessly- what was he to them? Why did they despise him so? He wished they'd stay within their little marble-enclosed cage and leave him alone.

As he leapt across a ravine, he knew he'd be useless in the face of their numbers. Perhaps one on one he'd stand a chance, but even that was questionable. He still had many more meals to go before returning to his former glory- the very same glory that had doomed him in the first place.

Like dust in the wind, the rare moment of lucidity passed and his past was once more lost to him.

Shaking his head, he focused on the task at hand.

Escape.

But where?

He didn't know. Just away.

And the girl?

The girl?

The sweet-smelling, gentle, life-giving girl- the girl.

He came to a sudden stop, dragging furrows through the dirt with his feet.

The girl. How could he have forgotten? His mind was a tangle, a knot of strings that refused to unsnarl. Gripping his head, he held onto the memory of her with a white-knuckled grip.

He couldn't forget her- he wouldn't.

In his chest, a terrible pain took root. His lips peeled away from his teeth and his movements became frantic, picking up a speed he hadn't thought his body capable of.

The pain in his chest had a strange pull, like a piece of thread connecting him to some unknown tether.

He was helpless but to follow.

Bella paused at the edge of the front door's threshold.

What the hell was she doing?

Was she just going to go off and wander through the forest, balefully calling for Jasper?

Yes, she realized with dawning confidence.

Was she an idiot?

Yes to that as well, she conceded.

Something beyond her was begging, crying for her to go forth and follow this… feeling. A strangeness of thought that made her chest literally ache.

What was wrong with her?

Just as she was taking a step forward and out into the night, a force collided with her front and brought her stumbling back into her house.

Gasping fearfully, she inhaled to scream when a familiar scent filled her nose and lined her tongue.

"Jas-…per…" she realized, reaching up to grab his shoulders.

He was hovering over her, staring with blood-red eyes intently into her own. His hands gripped her hips not ungently, fingers curling into the gentle swell there.

He heaved for unnecessary breath, his hair tousled and shirt torn.

"God, Jasper, come here." She ushered him inside, shutting the door with her foot and glancing out the windows.

Thank goodness Charlie was away on a fishing trip. It was doubtful he'd have taken the appearance of her feral… friend? –no that didn't sound quite right… acquaintance?... nonetheless, it was safe to say Charlie wouldn't be pleased.

As she turned back, Jasper suddenly dipped forward, resting his nose against the hollow of her throat and breathing deeply, holding her still with his newly renewed grip upon her hips.

She shuddered at the warm exhale against her neck, instinctually canting her head to the side so as to give him better access.

Her submission brought a purr rumbling to life in his chest, a sound that curled her toes.

The warmth suffusing just beneath her navel made her rub her thighs together and only then did her mind catch up with her body.

Bella's breath shivered as she gripped his shoulders, rising to caress his neck and his jaw.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?" She gently tugged him from her and he went willingly. Looking into his scarlet gaze, she made her fond, worried gaze as open as possible. "Please answer me."

He dropped his gaze, caressed her waist with his thumbs. "No…" he muttered hoarsely.

His voice made a heady, dizzy feeling flood her mind. Shaking her head, she took a steadying breath. "They're looking for you. Edward-"

At once, his face creased into a snarl and his eyes turned a haunting obsidian.

Holding in her breath and fighting the frightful gasp wanting to leave her, she stilled in his grip.

"Is that…" he murmured, "is that… the scent on you?" The bridge of his nose furled in rage. "He touched you."

Far more delicate than she would've ever imagined, he held her wrist within his hand, inspecting the darkening purple already spreading across the abused limb.

Silently, she bit her lip and fought the sob wanting to rise from her chest.

A sharp hiss left him as he watched her struggle.

Holding her wrist between both of his own, he dipped his head and brushed his nose against her own.

She held her breath, petrified. His lips were but inches away, an inversed mirror of where Edward had been but an hour ago.

But this… was different. He was hesitant, gentle before her. His eyes flashed, not with rage, but fierce indignation.

Where Edward had been possessive, this 'feral' before her was protective.

"Can I…" he swallowed thickly.

Tangling her hands into his locks, she tugged ever so gently and that was all the answer he needed.

Chaste, he brushed their lips together as gentle as a butterfly.

Her stomach bucked and twisted and she held onto him for dear life. Oh, if just this touch inspired such a reaction, what potential lay ahead?

Her mind went dark as his tongue, hotter than a fireplace poker, swept across her lower lip. Over and over, he lapped there.

Where Edward had captured her- she realized. He was replacing his scent with his own.

Growling fiercely, he brought her closer until her throbbing breasts rubbed against his chest.

When she gasped at the sublime pressure, he took the opportunity to invade her completely. Tangling their tongues together, their teeth clacked in a feral battle of passion.

He, claiming her and she, fighting to keep her head afloat.

She'd never been kissed so fiercely before- so passionately. It made her want to howl as that ever-present ache in her chest that had faded in Jasper's presence reappeared, though much lower than before.

Squealing as he nipped her lip, she pressed further into him.

Strong hands grabbed her hips, effortlessly raising her and urging her to wrap her legs around his lean hips. Due to their height difference, she ended up squeezed around his taut abdomen.

Whimpering, she bucked futilely against him.

His hands tightened, nearly dragged her down his body, but something, some damned thing, made him go completely still. He slowly pulled away from her, gasping for breath. Pressing his face into her neck as she whined with frustration, he snarled and pressed the fronts of his teeth against her neck.

Going utterly still, they both fought to regain their breath, each muscle tense against the other.

One by one, her senses returned.

Bella opened her eyes, unaware of when she'd closed them, and looked to find Jasper in the same situation.

… what the hell was that?

Never had she felt such an intense need… even now, as he slowly released her to stand on her own, she ached terribly with a foreign need, one that beat in time with her heartbeat.

Fighting for strength, she leaned bodily into him and he, for his part, stood firmly for her as she regained her wits.

"They're looking for you," she said slowly, pushing away to look up.

His eyes were still dark, lidded with an emotion that made her want to both press closer and run away at once.

"We… we need to leave," she murmured. Yes, they needed to leave.

He was, for all intents and purposes, a newborn- the same as the tales Edward had told of their kind. Slaves to their ever-changing emotions, unaware of the new world around them.

She couldn't leave him to face it alone, not when she could help.

And what of you? Her mind inquired. Did you happen to forget school? Your father?

School paled in the face of this man, lost and displaced.

School would always be there, waiting for her to return, always welcoming.

But Jasper?

He needed her now.

And Charlie… Charlie would commend her, she liked to think, helping a man in his time of need.

Edward only made her decision that much easier. His assault… she shuddered and replaced those cold lips with the warm feeling of Jasper's kiss.

Yes, it was time for them to go. Go where? Anywhere.

A thrill filled her as she gripped his shoulders fervently, pushing those confusing, lust-filled feelings away for the time being- now wasn't the time.

"We're leaving tonight."