Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for a reason.

Chpt 8 Friend or Foe?

BPOV

I rest my hands on the balustrade and take a deep breath, hoping that Jasper won't freak out at the abrupt change of plan, I wasn't supposed to move out of his sight.

After a moment quiet footsteps join me on the balcony and a set of pale hands appear on the balustrade next to mine. Together we look out over the busy street.

"Well this is a surprise." I comment dryly.

"For me too." Is the quiet response.

Silence.

"Is Jasper with you?"

I shake my head. "No. He's d . . . . he's gone."

Silence and a long sigh. "I am so sorry." The voice is tinged with regret. "I had hoped, somehow . . . ."

"Where is Edward?"

"I don't know."

"Isn't that a little . . . ." Words fail me.

"Yes." A sigh. "I am ashamed but the longer this has gone on the harder it has become to do the right thing."

Silence.

"Why are you here?" She asks.

"I came to see your husband."

"Why?"

"Even though Jasper is . . . . Despite what happened my family are still being hunted an' watched. He is the only person I can think of who would do that."

"My husband, my mate, would never do anything to deliberately hurt me." She sighs. "However I do not think he quite appreciates yet the many things that would do so. We are also in danger."

"I don't know who to trust." I say after a long pause.

"Neither do I."

"How much do you know?" I ask.

"Of some things a great deal, of others, not so much."

I sigh. "Without bein' able to trust each other it is difficult to know what information to share."

"Yes." Her voice is thick with sadness. "I have to go. My husband will be worried about me."

I nod. Jasper must be going nuts by now.

"This is my private e-mail address, it cannot be traced to me." A white sliver of card is edged along the balustrade towards me. "Perhaps we can find a way to help each other. I will not tell him I have seen you but he may recognise your scent."

"No." I shake my head with a small smile, as her steps retreat into the Ballroom. "He won't."

I count to one hundred at vampire speed and then follow.

Immediately I spot Jasper practically hopping from foot to foot on the other side of the room. The Major may be officially dead but if looks could kill I'd be up in a little purple curl of smoke by now.

After checking that Rutilio is back at his table I head for the exit, a few strides down the hall Jasper falls into step behind me. Quickly I make way down to Reception.

"Ms Northman, can I assist you?" The concierge asks, recognising me from earlier and appraising me surreptitiously. Behind me I hear Jasper's quiet growl and I fight back a giggle, this is the first time I have experienced for myself the effect we have on humans and I bet his emotions are making my mate's non-existent blood boil.

"Yes. Please can you call me a cab? I am ready to leave."

He nods and makes the arrangements. As soon as the cab pulls up Jasper hands me in and then instructs the driver to take us to a club while Pete an' Char sneak in from the other side.

"A club?" I ask surprised.

"It's private to talk." He murmurs. "An' we can make our own way home without bein' followed."

The driver deposits us at an upscale club several blocks away, for which, miraculously Pete has a VIP card, and we scoot inside finding a booth in the noisy depths.

As soon as the waitress has brought our drinks I fill them in on what happened.

"Shit." Pete exclaims. "Alice is Rutilio's mate? How fucked up is that?"

Jasper runs his hand through his hair, careful not to dislodge his wig. "What a mess." He sighs, echoing my own thoughts.

"Cheer up J." Pete laughs. "At least she won't be askin' ya for alimony, he's probably got more money than you have."

Jasper's fist flashes out, connecting with Pete's jaw an' knockin' him against the back of the booth with a crack which is just covered by the loud beat of the music.

Char and I roll our eyes. After all this time I'm starting to get used to Pete's method of cheerin' Jasper up, its strange yet effective.

"Brilliant." Jasper laughs suddenly. "Now we've got even more questions an' we still don't know shit."

"We've got two leads." I chirp up. "We need to talk to Jenks an' Alice gave me an e-mail address I could contact her on."

"The problem with e-mail is you can't tell who you're talkin' to." Char warns.

"So we'll arrange to meet somewhere." I press.

Jasper grips my hand a little tighter. "An' what if it's a trap?"

"Well we'll pick somewhere we have the upper hand." I reason. "If she agrees to that then maybe we can start to trust her a bit. Jasper I know it's risky but we have to start somewhere, maybe she knows things that can help us."

"It's too dangerous." He insists stubbornly.

"Jasper." I sigh. "We're good at this stuff, we Whitlocks. Its more dangerous for her, them, than it is for us."

"She's right J." Pete says. "If Alice is prepared to tell us somethin', even if it's only why she an' Rutilio are in danger, it might help. We've vulnerable right now, I can feel it, there's somethin' goin' on. We need to know what it is."

"Fine." Jasper growls. "But I don't fuckin' like it."

"We could set up a meetin' with Alice while you're in Seattle." I suggest.

"No."

"No?" I ask, raisin' my eyebrow.

"No." With a sigh he pulls me into his lap and buries his nose in my hair. "I may not be able to come with you, seein' as how I'm dead an' all but there is no way you're doin' anythin' remotely dangerous without me at least bein' close by."

"Okay." I rub my face against his heart scar. "We'll contact Alice an' try an' set up a meetin' next week. Then you an' I can go see Mister Jenks."

"Jenks might be a trap as well." I feel him stiffen around me. "I don't want you . . . ."

"Jasper." I whisper into his chest. "Didn't we agree a while back that whatever we do, we do it together?"

Sighing again he relaxes. "Yes we did."

"Good." Pete chimes in happily. "Now that's settled I'll get us four seats on the next flight to Seattle."

"Four?" I ask.

"Yep, lil' sister. After what happened last time, i.e. you scarin' the shit outta us with J's death the whatever we do, we do it together bit means all of us."

Despite everything that's going on, or not going on considering we don't know much, I smile because it's good to be part of this family.

The guys fall to discussing the things we do know in their slightly obsessive way so Char and I make our own way onto the dance floor. It's been so long that it almost feels intoxicating, and we dance with an enthusiasm that soon attracts a crowd of admirers. Deftly we dance away from the bolder ones but as ever my luck holds and eventually I find myself face to face with one particularly ardent admirer, basically a drunk arrogant bully in a $2,000 suit.

"Would you like a drink?" He asks, literally addressing' my cleavage as he looms over me.

"No thanks." I turn to move closer to Char.

Suddenly he grabs my arm and pulls me towards him. "Don't be like that. I only wanted to have a drink with you. You modern girls are all so high and mighty but I know what you really want." He licks his sweaty lips an' leers at me.

Appalled I look up into his face, unsure what to do. His scent is a nauseating mix of sour alcohol and sweet, sweet blood. Gently I try to pull away from him but he tightens his grip. The moment stretches out, it is the strangest of things, to feel vulnerable as a vampire. Terrified of overreactin' and tossin' him through a wall I stand powerless to do anything as he towers over me, his mean eyes fixed on mine, his fingers digging fruitlessly at my upper arms. One part of my mind is at least it thankful he's too drunk to notice he's attemptin' to molest a stone.

"Is this man botherin' you?" A cold voice asks.

Instantly I relax.

"We're dancing." Mean eyes growls, makin' the enormous mistake of not looking round to see who he is talking to.

Over his shoulder I watch a small smile appear on The Major's face. Reaching out he taps my 'dance partner' none too gently on the shoulder. I suppress a wince, that's gonna sting like a bitch in the morning.

Turning slightly mean eyes compounds his error by slurring. "Fuck off four eyes, the woman and I are busy."

Abruptly my arms are released as The Major lifts him a good foot off the floor. "Say goodbye to the nice lady." He says cheerfully, seemingly amused at my ridiculous inability to defend myself. "You're leavin'."

I wave happily, enjoying the comical sight of his wide eyes and frantically kicking legs as The Major carries him off towards the exit.

Char appears at my side. "Why didn't you sock him one?" She asks, surprised.

"I was afraid I would accidently knock him halfway across the room."

She laughs. "Tomorrow mornin' I'll walk you through usin' human strength for repellin' persistent drunks. I learnt the hard way, the first guy that grabbed my ass ended up goin' through a window, fortunately nobody except Pete saw what hit him."

I giggle, I can just picture my petite centrefold sister tossin' a drunk out of a window.

"Come on sugar." She takes my arm. "Let's go pretend to get a drink while we wait for J to come back."

Jasper returns a few minutes later.

"What did you do to him?" I ask, a little bit of former cop creeping in.

"Nothin' he won't recover from eventually." He shrugs.

Pete howls with laughter. "Ah sweet thing you do amuse me. Armies of vampire bad guys beheaded without a second thought an' yet one measly drunk human an' you go all girlie on us an' have to be rescued by ya boyfriend."

Grinnin' I flip him the finger.

"Come on." Jasper says offering me his hand. "Lets go home before somethin' else goes wrong."

Instead of exiting by the door we head out of a fire escape into the stairwell and start up the stairs. At vampire speed we quickly make our way onto the roof of the 30 storey building.

"Wow." I breathe. "Look at the view."

"I love New York." Char sighs.

"It is lovely but I thought we were goin' home?" I ask, my libido in a hurry to get there, apparently it has missed The Major a lot.

"We are darlin'." Jasper drawls. "We thought since it's your first night in New York an' it hasn't exactly been much fun we'd teach you the fine art an' adrenaline rush that is roof hoppin'."

He releases my hand and with a pure shout of exhilaration charges forwards, spreadin' his arms out wide an' leapin' from the side of the buildin' into the night.