The radio was having a hard time of keeping up with the faster-than-light speed at which the tuning knob was being spun.
Bella watched out of the corner of her eye as Jasper fiddled with it, wide-eyed and hunched over in the passenger seat as the glowing green lights indicating the station number switched sporadically.
She cleared her throat as she turned onto the main highway that would take them out of Forks. "There's music, talk shows, all sorts of stuff on there."
Jasper made no indication that he heard her and she resigned herself to the quiet drive. As the yellow stripes zipped by and her truck faithfully ate up the pavement mile by mile, a sedate panic was beginning to sink down her throat and into her stomach.
God, she was really doing this, wasn't she? She was leaving town, ditching it, so-long-see-you-never gone…
Was this a good idea? Was it? Oh gods, she'd acted impulsively and now… and now! It made her sick to her stomach but a traitorous voice raised its ugly head in her mind and venomously whispered 'Is he worth all of this trouble?'
She shied away from the thought, gritted her teeth and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
Of course he was. Of course… but… but what if-? Oh gods… what-
"I like music…"
Softer than a breath, just barely heard over the a/c spluttering comfortably warm air into the cab (another invention that had taken some time to explain when they'd puttered out of the driveway. And of course, that only happened after she'd gotten over her recent bout of blushing that came about whenever she so much as looked his way).
Surprised, she turned and watched him.
He was a quiet one, that was for sure. But the way his eyes darted nervously towards her and back to the radio, it was obvious he was making a valiant effort to open up to her, no matter his nerves. In a way, it was like a child making conversation with another. Vague and general statements meant to open up the other to a possible friendship.
He obviously didn't know where to start, what to say, and so he said something as trivial as his affinity for music…
Endearing, she mused.
Cautiously, like reaching for a kicked hound, she reached for the radio which he still fiddled with.
"If you'll let me…" she ventured to say, and he immediately sat back, ceding the radio to her. She tuned it into a frequency that began emitting a gentle acoustic guitar, the calmest music she could find. Wouldn't do to start him off with electric guitars or dubstep- the poor man would have a heart attack. "Do you like country? It can be soothing."
He sat back in his seat, intertwined his fingers and rested them on his lap as a thoughtful look crossed his face.
As the song filled the truck, he dipped his head and looked out of the window.
Bella turned her gaze back to the road. Get out of Forks. As far away as possible. And then… then she'll decide where to go from there. With a valiant effort, she was attempting to not make any solid decisions. Although Alice had proven to be somewhat trustworthy, there was still a small, niggling worry in Bella's mind that there was something beneath the surface of her best friend, unspoken and worrying.
"What year is it?" Jasper wondered, still in that same whispery-soft voice.
Bella knew he was not from this time by his fascination of normal things- the truck, the a/c- common things for this day and age that he instead found extraordinary. But to hear him so plainly confirm it was jolting.
"2005," she murmured, watching warily as his shoulders tensed.
"Who… who won the war?"
She grimaced. "Which one?"
Jasper let out a shaky breath and she was again reminded of the feral man she had first met. He was but a child in this world, unknowing and naïve.
Obviously older than a hundred years, given his lack of knowledge of even electricity.
Gods, a hundred years old at least. She looked at the young man beside her underneath her lashes. What a geezer.
If only she could just answer all of his questions. She could see them brimming in his eyes, clamoring over one another in a rush to be asked. But he refused to speak them.
Did he not trust her yet?
Or… did he not trust himself?
The sound of the window rolling open brought her from her thoughts. Jasper jerked his hand back from the button, looking guiltily at her.
Chuckling, she said, "That's alright. It's supposed to open. If you keep holding the button it'll go down further."
He turned back and, with an ounce of hesitation, sent the glass sliding down. And up. And down again.
Chewing on her lip and gritting her jaw, she refused to laugh. She doubted he'd appreciate it.
Jasper sat back as a cool wind entered the open window. He crossed his arms only to uncross them when yet another thing caught his attention. This time, the overhead visor. He opened it and closed it, watching the small emergency light click on and off.
When that lost its entertainment value, he sat back in his chair and shifted. Evidently, he was easily bored.
Tapping his fingers against the door, he rolled his neck and looked back out the window as verdant forest flew by. Sticking a hand out the window, he wriggled his fingers through the fast breeze.
Goodness, he was like a child on a long road trip. She should have brought a little movie player along to keep him distracted, she thought with some humor.
…No, that'd probably raise even more unvoiced questions.
Books, then.
As Jasper took to fiddling with the radio again, sudden inspiration struck.
"I have an idea," she chirped happily, grimacing and rushing to turn off the radio when he unwittingly settled on a screeching, death-metal band.
A homely woman made her way out of the building, too busy fiddling with her phone to notice the two figures peeking at her from the old truck in the corner of the parking lot.
As the woman got into her car and puttered off, Bella grinned and almost tapped Jasper on the shoulder before hesitating. Perhaps he'd prefer it if a human didn't keep poking and prodding him? Though he hadn't been discouraging of it before, a voice whispered. She jerked away from that train of thought.
Keeping her hands to herself, she instead cleared her throat. "Jasper?"
He turned from where he'd been watching the woman drive away, as fascinated by vehicles as he had been the first time he'd seen one.
"Are you sure you're up for this? It's ok if you're not."
He shook his head and turned a steady glare on the building. Only hesitating a moment, he opened the door and got out.
Bella followed dutifully, trotting behind his long strides.
"There might be an open door somewhere around the back of the building…" she mused, peeking up at the windows.
But when she looked back down, Jasper already had his hand on the front door's handle.
"No-!"
He jerked it open, the glass front shattering onto the pavement and the metal frame crumpling like a piece of paper.
Bella waited with baited breath for an alarm to start screeching.
Nothing.
Jasper was already prowling inside, stopping short at the sight.
Bella sighed and promised herself to give him a full lesson on basic security and its ability to notify the police later.
For now, though….
"I've never seen so many books in my life," Jasper murmured quietly, always quietly.
Yes, the library was quite impressive. Rows upon rows of musty, worn tomes just waiting to be read, two floors full of knowledge.
"The history section is this way," she said.
Bella stopped pretending she was reading an hour ago.
After all, the sight before her was too riveting to not watch.
The pages flew by in a blur, waving before his unblinking eyes as he sat as still as a predator. Each book was progressively finished in thirty seconds or so, set aside in a steadily growing pile that was getting to be taller than her.
He'd yet to say a word, steadily advancing from the Neolithic era to the Norman Conquest, from the Incas to the Native Americans, from the Civil war, the cold war, all the way up to Desert Storm.
She wondered idly from which time he came from, her chin propped in her hand as she reclined in a comfy, padded chair. It was impossible to tell- he was as mysterious as the first day she'd met him. Perhaps he was a settler. The thought of him in a pilgrim's hat brought her some short-lived amusement but it quickly faded. What if he was ancient? One of the first?
It floored her to think of the decades he might have seen, of what knowledge he held.
As the clock ticked and the pile continued to build, her eyelids became heavier and heavier. It was peaceful here, surrounded by knowledge and the faint light of streetlamps peeking through the windows. A fan hummed gently from the help-desk, accidentally left on for the night. The white noise had her sinking further into her chair, comforted by the sounds of rustling pages. He was safe. They both were. And for now, that had to be enough.
Her book slipped from her limp fingers and she fell eagerly into sleep's embrace.
"Miss. Miss."
Bella jerked awake, a startling beam of light blinding her for a moment. Holding her hand up, she blinked back to consciousness.
A man in a security uniform, his cap low over his eyes, was pointing his flashlight in her face, standing over her chair.
"Get up," he growled, "I'm calling the police."
His words meant less to her than a passing gnat. It was still nighttime though the stack of books had multiplied since she'd been asleep. But one thing was missing…
Craning her head every which way, her heart beginning to quicken, she looked for a familiar mane of wild blonde hair.
"Hey," the guard snapped, reaching down and grabbing her shoulder with a meaty hand. "I told you to get up. Who the hell breaks into a library?"
The moment his hand closed around her, a sound akin to a mountain lion sounded from the shadows.
The security guard whipped around.
"Who's there?" He whispered, unsettled. Slowly, the beam of his flashlight went to the location of the demonic growl, illuminating her wayward charge.
The moment she saw him, she immediately remembered the first time they'd met. The unhinged, wild look in his eyes, the barely repressed, predatory tension that stiffened his shoulders and lent him a menacing, wild aura.
Terrifying, for sure. A true predator in his own right.
But Bella noticed, not his lethality, but his eyes- wide as saucers- and his hands that trembled so violently.
Huffing, he clapped a hand over his mouth and nose even as he unconsciously took a step forward.
His eyes bled black in the flashlight's gaze. He was fighting with every ounce of strength within him to resist his natural instincts.
"Jasper," she murmured softly, pitching her voice as soothingly as she could. "You need to fight it. Don't let it overwhelm you. This isn't who you are."
"On your knees, now!" the guard shouted, unconsciously tightening his hold on her.
A soft, muted groan sounded from behind Jasper's hand as his brow knit.
"Jasper-"
Bella didn't complete her sentence.
The guard, having tired of the stand-off, shoved her aside so that he could use his free hand to reach for the can of pepper spray hanging off his belt.
Landing roughly against the cheap carpet, she got her knee beneath her only to stop short.
The flashlight had landed across the room, just barely providing enough light to illuminate the horror scene before her.
Jasper crouched, knees on either side of the guard's shoulders, hunched over himself and mouth firmly attached to the man's broken neck.
A mixture of growls and snarls poured from his chest, eyes closed in bliss.
It had all happened in a split second.
She fought herself for a moment. Gone was the gentle, reserved man that had fiddled with her truck's radio. In his place, a man run on instinct and instinct alone.
Would that instinct have any leniency for her survival?
Best not to find out.
So engrossed in his meal, he didn't notice as she crept to her feet. When he didn't attack her, she took a step backwards. Then another, and another. If she could just get out of the library and give him some time, maybe he'd come to her clear-headed and back to normal. One could only hope.
But as she made it to the shattered door, a stray piece of glass crunched beneath her shoe.
She didn't even have time to blink before a force was plummeting into her side, sending her tumbling to the ground in an ungainly tangle of limbs.
A warm weight pressed to her chest kept her from immediately getting up.
Jasper, with eyes as black as the sky outside.
Her breath left her for a moment. Even bathed in blood, even lost as he was to animalistic instincts, he was beautiful.
A perfect predator, enamoring his prey even as he went for its throat.
But this predator… well, he did go for her throat. But instead of sinking his teeth into the delicate skin, he merely nuzzled deep into the crook there and stayed.
The harsh scent of blood reached her nose and she gagged, turning her head away from him. He merely followed, grabbing the side of her face and dragging her back to him.
Fighting to calm herself, she wound her arms through his and over his back to clap them over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. Calm down, she thought. Just calm down. This is Jasper. He won't hurt me.
Peeling her eyes open was, unfortunately, a big mistake. Locking eyes with a mangled corpse isn't, in fact, good for one's mood.
Lurching up against him as her fight-or-flight took hold, she grabbed his shoulder with one hand and dug the front of her teeth against his neck as fearful gasps left her. If she nestled closer to his hair, she could escape the bloody scent and smell only him.
She did so, taking deep breaths as if she were drowning. Her heart hammered away, begging her to run.
His arms tightened around her, dragging her up into his chest as he bowed over her.
Together, they became slaves to their own instincts. Hers, from fear.
And his- a will to dominate.
AN: I have a very serious problem. I'm a perfectionist. There are some things I'm not satisfied with in this story and I've been torn between scrapping it or just leaving it alone forever. But then I punched myself, forced myself to sit down and write, and made a promise- I'll simply rewrite this whole mess when I finish it. So THERE. ;)
Thanks for all of the support, I wouldn't have come back without it.
-iva
stupid ass guard was gonna mace the god of war lul.