5.
Jasper got out of Edward's car about five blocks away from their destination.
"See you in half an hour," he said, not the least bit surprised when Edward responded with nothing more than a slight nod.
Walking towards the bar they had chosen as their base of operations for the night, Jasper's senses were alert. Based on what Edward had heard from his attackers the night before, Jane and Alec Volturi were in the vicinity. He thought it was a perfectly viable plan to draw them out by making himself especially visible. Jasper didn't entirely agree, but consoled himself that at least he'd be there as back-up. He also felt a lot better when Edward agreed to let him go ahead and survey the bar and surrounding area beforehand.
He was within three blocks of the bar when he picked up signs of Volturi presence. His years of military training, both as a human and as a vampire, had honed his senses far beyond his powers as an empath, though it had been some years since he'd had to use them this way. At least those years were good for something, he thought a little bitterly. For a moment he considered seeking out the Volturi guards he had located, and ending them. But he had promised Edward he wouldn't do anything hasty, so he hunched his shoulders and kept walking, just another nondescript man planning to spend a few hours at a neighborhood bar.
The bar was sparsely populated, just as Edward had predicted. A couple of large screen TVs were telecasting a football game, probably highlights from last week. Most patrons were huddled around the TV at one end of the bar, while a few sat scattered in the small booths that lined the wall. In all, there weren't more than ten people there. None of them posed a threat.
Jasper took a seat at the dark end of the bar, signaling the bored looking bartender for a beer, pretending to be completely absorbed by the game on TV. By the time Edward arrived, he had managed to isolate the energies of each of the eight vampires who were tailing his friend. Using the techniques he'd been practicing all day, he was easily able to follow their movements and tap into their emotions as they circled around outside.
He took a moment's break from his dedicated tracking to appreciate the sight of Edward walking into the dark bar. Edward was one of the most objectively beautiful people he had ever seen, but he never seemed to smile. He didn't even seem to lose his temper much, or show the slightest irritation... anything that'd show a change in his facial expressions. Jasper pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes in contemplation. Maybe that was a good thing. He was bad enough with this boring poker face. The world probably couldn't handle the devastation of his smile. Or a smolder, or a hot frowny annoyed glance, or...
He blew out a breath and turned away. A few sips of his drink and he managed to bring his heart back to a normal beat, turning his mind back to the work at hand. He was just in time, as it turned out, since the moment he focused on the vampires outside, he sensed a shift in their energy. There was a new vampire in their midst, possibly someone they had been waiting for.
Jasper sat up and asked the bartender for a whiskey. That was his signal to Edward, who was probably monitoring the situation on his own as well. He still thought it would have been so much easier for Edward to have just listened in to his thoughts like he used to. But Edward had insisted it would be distracting, so Jasper hadn't pushed it.
Edward's eyes met his for a fleeting moment, and then he was up, making his way to the back of the bar where the restrooms were located.
Jasper thanked the bartender and sipped his drink, outwardly relaxed. He patiently counted out three minutes, then followed in Edward's footsteps. At the back of the bar, he kept going past the restrooms, pushing open the backdoor that led to a quiet alley. Outside, he sighed, leaned against the brick wall and dug out a cigarette from his pocket. In the light of the match, reality seemed to waver for a brief second.
Cigarette casually dangling from his fingers, he flicked away the spent matchstick. It was so quiet out there that even a normal human being would have suspected something was wrong. Whoever was trying to maintain the illusion wasn't very skilled at it.
As one minute stretched to two, the edges of the illusion started to waver, much like the smoke from his cigarette. Jasper estimated that it had been long enough for Edward to have done his thing. All it took was one moderate blast of uncertainty directed at the creator of the illusion for it to shatter.
The scene in the alleyway suddenly looked a lot different. The eight vampires he had sensed earlier were stationed at different points, three each near the two exits to the alley, and two right in front of him. He recognized Jane and Alec, but in that moment they were far too focused on Edward to notice him.
It might have been amusing at any other time to watch a very human Edward hold back the powerful gifts of disorientation and pain that the twins were infamous for. Jasper didn't waste any time, though.
In one smooth motion, he tossed aside the cigarette and blasted the vampires with a heavy dose of crushing despair.
Before the vampires could recover from his attack, Jasper was standing alongside Edward, their talents feeding off each other to amplify into a force too strong to resist. In the aftermath of the first wave of energy, only Jane was able to stagger to her feet, red eyes blazing with anger.
They waited till she cast her painful energy at them; Jasper watched Edward manipulate it right back at her. Jasper turned his attention to the others then, using the vampires' own churning emotions to systematically annihilate each member of the guard with ruthless precision. Meanwhile, Edward delved into Jane's mind, searching for more information on what they were planning.
Their work was almost done, when a sudden rumble alerted them to a new presence.
"It's him," Jasper whispered.
Edward had no time to respond, for the clear sky was suddenly covered with heavy clouds, and a howling gale swept past, tossing aside anything that came in its path. Edward immediately brought Jasper within his shield, a tangible energy field that completely neutralized the sudden violent storm.
"It's Benjamin," Edward said.
Jasper nodded, shut his eyes and focused solely on isolating their attacker's emotional energy. It took him a few seconds, because Benjamin's storm was as elemental as it was emotional. Wading through the mess of fury and chaos, Jasper found at the core a small mass of confusion.
He pushed and pushed, till he reached the centre of the creature's motivation. There he paused, because all he felt was a deep grief, a complete lack of will to live. This vampire was suffering, and the Volturi had somehow found a way to use that pain to serve their purpose. The pain felt familiar, and in that moment Jasper felt truly sorry for the guy.
"What is it?" Edward asked in a slightly strained voice.
"We need to get him to Carlisle," Jasper said with certainty. "I'm going to need to be a little closer to him, though. Should we wait here, or..?"
"He's moving closer," Edward said, "I can flip my shield to trap him in with the storm if you need."
"You can?" Jasper was almost distracted by how cool that would be, but the persistent tug on his emotions kept him grounded. "No need just yet, but maybe do that once we nab him."
Edward nodded, and Jasper closed his eyes once again. This time he reached into Benjamin's core and started manipulating the grief into acceptance, the anger into compassion. It wasn't easy, and he probably would have failed if at the heart of it Benjamin hadn't had a thread of kindness. Fortunately he did, and Jasper used that energy to calm the vampire down from within, while enveloping him in a dense cloud that sapped his angry energy.
The storm gradually shifted from a frightening gale to sporadic thunder, to a gentle rain, before finally clearing away into nothingness.
Jasper watched the slight figure tumble down from the rooftop where he had been perched. Before he hit the ground, Edward's shield swept around him, slowing his descent and bringing him to a gentle stop where he lay on the ground, unmoving.
"Go in and pay your tab; I'll deal with this lot," Edward said, turning to Jasper.
Jasper nodded and returned to the bar. It had only been fifteen minutes or so that he had been gone, but when he reached his barstool, he suddenly felt drained. Waving at the bartender he asked for another whiskey and nabbed a few peanuts while he waited. His whiskey arrived at the same time that Edward did.
Not sure why he was back, Jasper watched as he walked right up to him, grabbed his whiskey and downed it in a couple of gulps.
"Hey, that's my drink," Jasper protested, but he didn't sound very convincing. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sexy bob of Edward's Adam's apple, and then he didn't have the chance to think of anything else, because Edward put down the tumbler and bent slightly to kiss him.
It was a brief kiss, hard, fast, and thorough. They weren't even touching except for the lips, yet every single cell of Jasper's body seemed to come alive. Edward pulled back, and Jasper blinked up at him, slightly dazed.
"Thanks for the drink," Edward smirked and walked out.