Chapter Two
Alice's Hell
In the curved bay window, Alice sat, months later. She watched the stream of water rush over the rocks, cutting slightly into the woods. She listened to the should-be calming melody, the song the birds sung in harmony. She smelled the apple pie Esme bought for Bella, as well as the repelling scent of the cardboard box it came in.
Alice tried to focus on her assaulted senses, but she couldn't help but tense, waiting for a vision of Jasper calling her, but in his future there were endless lines of school work, homework, and books. He never thought of her the way she thought of him.
Fifty years together as mates, and there they were, thousands of miles away from each other. She couldn't bring herself not to miss him. There was his sweet scent, his confident smile, his knowing gaze, and she missed it all, every bit of it. What was wrong with being happy?
"Pretending that you were," Edward answered for her.
In the corner of her expansive mind, she had registered hearing her brother and soon-to-be-sister pulling in front of the house. She didn't respond, she couldn't muster a smile. In such a short time, she had gone from one extreme to another.
"Alice." Bella spoke her name softly. Without any concern to approaching a depressed vampire, she sat beside her. "I'm sorry. Can I do anything?"
Her first thought was no, but then, she had an idea. "May I borrow your motorcycle?"
She paused in surprise. "Sure, Alice."
"Rosalie tweaked it last week," Edward informed darkly. He hated anything that put Bella in danger, and not being fond of motorcycles in the first place, their mechanical sister had improved ones speed for his human.
"That's perfect," Alice said. Like the rest of the Cullens, she hated driving slow.
She strolled to the garage and climbed lithesome onto Bella's old bike. She moved her hands over the rubber-covered handles recalling how Jasper loved his sleek silver one. She jumped, revved, and sped out.
Dirt kicked up into dust, surrounding her like a shield. Her spiky black hair flew behind her, pushing the bike to its limits. Even with Rosalie's help, the thing was decrepit and slow, but she wasn't speeding for the reason that her best friend did - or at one crazier time had. She just wanted a piece of Jasper .She never rode with him, though he asked. She had been too preoccupied with her designing. She regretted that.
The vision could have been self-prophesying. The vision showed Jasper leaving and therefore she made no effort to keep him. It was not the future's fault or her visions fault, it was her own. At least, that is what she feared was true.
As she neared a bend in the road she was blinded by the sight of Bella. She was screaming, horrified and heartbroken, her translucent face splattered in blood. Her own blood, someone elses, it was impossible to tell, but then, it flickered out like an old film. When Alice regained her sight it was too late, her front tire colliding into something that was screeching to a sudden halt, her knuckles denting metal. Her gray and white newsboy hat flew off as she flipped onto what she saw to be a red hood, it forming to her shape, not harming her granite body.
The glaring sun cascaded on her, revealing her face into a spray of sparkles. Shaking the vision away, she looked to her right, through the windshield. She would simply hate having to kill however it was. She made her fair share of slip-ups in her vampire existence, but she wouldn't allow herself a meal based on an accident.
However, seeing the man that hit her erased all ideals of murder and most especially eating. The very person (creature) that hit her smelled God-awful, and she knew from Edward's tales who it was.
Jacob Black sat stunned behind the wheel, his dark eyes locked on her golden ones. He peered at her in a way no one - not even Jasper - had before. He was lit from the inside out, and it burned her in the most delicious way. She came alive, somehow, in some way. Threads of her mysterious past were clipped, Jasper, her family, her designs, her whole world, and all that was left was a pull to the man that would not break their connective stare. The world had shifted, and it revolved around him.
The part of her that had been gone for only a few months, the sunshine rays inside of her were beaming again. She was gleeful, and it was an odd sort of bubbling. She felt the way she should have with Jasper.
She snapped her gaze to the baby blue sky. Something had happened in that split second, but the clarity of the sun did not change anything. Her body was still whirring in an odd way. She had never felt that before. She remembered Bella and Edward talking about imprinting. That must have been what it was, unless the dog had more powers than they gave him credit for. Yet, no, magic didn't exist, no matter how set Bella was on him being pure magic.
Jacob Black was her soul mate? He imprinted on her? The thought was not as disgusting and horrifying as it should have been, the way she imagined it would be. It was strangely freeing. Jacob Black was her wolf.
When she returned to him, he was seething, his bright white teeth bared. He growled as he got out, storming in front of her. "Way to go, leech!"
She wrinkled her nose against his wet-dog odor, though it didn't seem to bother her the way that it should have. In fact, she was very aware of the game that he was playing with her, and she played it back.
"I think I did you a favor." She waved her hand over the chipping paint. "It's the worst color of red too. Burgundy?" She shook her head in despair.
"Get. Off. My. Car." His tone lacked menace.
Daintily she shrugged, hopping down. "You should watch where you're going."
"You're the one who was in my lane."
"Hmph," she huffed, smoothing her hair and clothes.
"Great argument, bloodsucker."
"Were you going to see Bella?"
"What's it to you?"
"Tell her I'll buy her a new bike. A better one than she had."
That was when he took a good look at what he had hit, his mouth parting in offense at the mangled metal. "This - this is the bike I fixed!"
"Rosalie made improvements," she bragged.
He rounded on her. Nearing six foot five, he towered over her, but he didn't scare her, and now that they had a change in fates, she would never be scared of him. "Why were you driving it?"
"She loaned it to me. It's none of your business either way, Jacob Black." She picked up what was left of he vehicle and tossed it to the side of the road. Again, the dog growled.
"You have some nerve, psychic."
Her lips stretched, her mind remembering, but her body unaccustomed to the feel. She was smiling, her back turned vulnerably to what used to be her worst enemy.
"Alice," he breathed.
He had never called her by her name before. The game was over. She turned to him. "Jacob?"
He held out his arms, as if knowing her most inward desire.
She jumped into his arms then. His hellish heat blanketed her, but it was intimate and beautiful. He was her hell, everything that was bad for her, and everything she wanted.
His lips landed on hers, an overwhelming smoky taste, as if they were on fire. She felt as though she would burst from the seams, that nothing could stop her. She was at the highest peak in the world, the whitest cloud. Every sadness that was inside of her, melted from at the touch of his lips.
Time was lost, and years could have past when he leaned back, her face between his large hands. "I can't believe it's you." He shook his head, "it doesn't make any sense. You're poison to me."
He meant that literally. If she bit him, it would kill him. That mere thought sent her insides in spasms.
"I won't hurt you."
"I know."
She backed out of his embrace, the memory of her vision itching its way forward. She could see it, past the shining happiness she found in him. "Jacob... I have to go home."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I'll find out when I'm there."
"I'll come with you."
"No. Not yet. I want to tell them alone." It wasn't for his safety, she doubted that any of the Cullen's would start a war over it, but it would be easier telling them rather than them witnessing it first hand.
"At least tell me what's wrong, Ali."
Ali. She smiled at the sweet nickname. No one had called her that before. "Ali?" She raised her brow at him.
He smiled a brilliant smile. "You look like an Ali to me."
"Let me find out," she said.
"See me later?"
"Right here."
He squeezed her hand, and released her, ducking inside of his car as she started towards the woods.
He was hot, she was cold. He was poor, she was rich. He was dark, she was pale. He was a werewolf, she was a vampire. They were immortal - mortal enemies, but not anymore.