AlicePOV
White. Flight cancelled. Roads too much to drive, foot after foot of snow. Andie's eyes swimming with unshed tears. I shook my head as the vision ended, deciding that we'd have to leave a day before scheduled if Andie wanted to see her father for Christmas. Jasper was looking at me with his head tilted to one side, asking silently what I had seen. "Weather," I grunted, pulling out my phone to text Andie and tell her about the vision.
"Your trip to see Andie's father? Are you cancelling?" he asked concernedly, leaning forward. Sweet Jazz, my hero.
I shook my head, sending the text, placing the phone next to me on the sofa. Rosalie gave a snort from behind me, where she and Emmett sat on a recliner, cuddled up and whispering to each other about betting on college football. "What, Rose?" I asked wearily, tired of her constant stream of comments and scoffs whenever Andie was brought up.
"I still don't understand the pull of a human," she told me, rolling her eyes, flicking her hair. "I thought we'd learned our lesson with the Bella fiasco, and here you go falling in love with another one. Cullens Love Humans, act two, scene one: Alice meets Andie."
"Fuck off, Rose," I said just as wearily, too worn down from three days constant bickering between us about my mate. I smiled a little, thinking about how I'd finally found my mate, my eternity... well, my next 70 years, if I were lucky. I hated to be away from her for any longer than necessary, and even then I had toyed with the idea of asking her to quit her job. I figured that was a bit much, and Jasper agreed: don't smother the girl just yet.
"Alice, I'm sorry, I really am," she repeated for the thousandth time (okay, not literally). "Maybe if I knew she wanted to be with you, and not fucking die and leave you here. I don't like that shit at all."
"She wouldn't be leaving me here," I murmured, not looking at any of them, as this was the first time I'd given any clue to my plans, post-Andie's life. "And besides, aren't you the one always arguing for the human to remain human?" I went on, raising my voice so she could hear me clearly. "A bit hypocritical, Rosalie."
Rose looked away from me, biting her lip against her temper, but she knew I had her on that one. "It's different," she muttered, still not looking at me. "Bella had options. She could have went the other way. She didn't, she went the way I advised against, and it ended up okay, after everything was over. Andie... She doesn't have those... options. She's the girl that would end up alone, if she did not have you. You would be a devastated husk for eternity, if you did not have her. It's just that... why does she have to be an intelligent human that weighs her life and the prospect of literal eternal love on a grand scale? The one time that it would make perfect sense to give it all to you?" She finally looked at me, giving me a tiny smile. Rosalie approved of Andie. She just didn't like the fact Andie had no plans to change for me. "But, what did you mean by she wouldn't be leaving you here?" She asked this with a brusque tone, and the sweet side of Rosalie disappeared as quickly as it had come.
I jumped at the question, and looked down at my lap. "You all know. It's the same thing Edward planned to do. Only, this time it makes more sense to me than when he was going to do it. I understand his position completely." I would not live another hour after her demise. There would be no point for my existence without hers.
"You know we couldn't allow that," Emmett said softly, sadly, shaking his head at the thought. "Besides, Andie could always change her mind."
"You would have no choice, Emmett," I answered him, looking him directly in the eyes. "I would never give up trying to go be with her in the real death. Never."
My phone went off beside me with that tone that told me it was my Andie. When should we go, then? I have to pack, I haven't even started, I read silently, smiling at her procrastination; I'd been packed for two days already.
We should leave in the morning. I'll go to your place right now and pack your things, and start dinner for you. I just need to hunt first. I sent the text and got to my feet, sliding my phone in my pocket. "I'll see you guys in a bit. I'm going to hunt, then going to Andie's to cook her dinner. She'll be home in four hours."
Rosalie laughed. "You're a housewife, Alice," she pointed out, and I gave her the finger.
"Am not, stop it," I whined, ducking out of the door to head down to my car. I would drive out to the state park and leave it there while I ran deep into the woods for some quick grab and go.
By the time Andie got home at six-thirty, I had her clothes and accessories packed and by the front door, her baked chicken and rice on the table with a cold glass of sweet tea, and the dishes from making dinner washed and put away. Okay, so maybe Rose had a point. I was just like a housewife. "Alice, you really didn't have to do that," Andie said, blushing at the sight of the food on the table. "It probably smells horrible to you."
I shrugged, grinning. It didn't smell like something I would put anywhere near my mouth, but she didn't need to know that. Her blush, however, smelled just as divine as it always did, and I took a big whiff of that, smiling gently to myself. I opened my eyes when Andie gave a snort of laughter and gave me a stink-eye. "Okay, Countess," she joked and I rolled my eyes as I pulled her chair out for her, swooping in to peck her cheek as she sat down.
"Funny," I told her in a tone that clearly said otherwise, taking a seat across from her. "So, I'm going to drive down, if that's okay with you. I figure we can be there fairly quicker with me behind the wheel." I jumped right into my thoughts from earlier, not wishing to draw it out into a big thing, but the way she looked at me with her mouth full told me I was getting the long haul, anyway.
"What are you trying to say?" she asked me after she'd swallowed and wiped her mouth on a napkin.
"Nothing," I said quickly, reaching over and putting a hand on her forearm. " I just thought that since I don't have to sleep and you do, I should drive." Lame, and I knew it was.
Miraculously, she didn't argue further, just gave me a suspicious look as she continued eating. I gave a tiny sigh of relief, though I knew that the conversation was most likely not over. She finished her meal in peace, and I swept up the dishes before she could lay a finger on them, and left her laughing at the table as I swooped with vampire speed around them counter and washed them. "Show off," she called me, and I giggled at the truth in her words. Maybe I did like to flaunt just a bit in front of her.
I glanced over at Andie, sleeping like a baby against my arm, and shifted into fifth gear a we hit the Interstate. I saw no reason to wake her, as I had spent all night lying in bed next to her on my lap top, planning my route, and had only left her to load her things into the trunk of the BMW. I wrapped a blanket around her and carried her down as well, buckling her into the passenger's seat, and then we were off. In the last hour, her head had come to rest on my shoulder, and I minded not a bit, leaning and kissing the top of her head, nuzzling her. She sighed in her sleep, and I smiled once again at my good fortune.
She finally woke up around eight-thirty that morning, opening her eyes, shutting them again, only to have them fly back open and sit up straight as a rail. "Alice! Where are we?" She whipped her head around in confusion, finally looking at me with a sleepily disoriented look.
"Somewhere in Virginia," I said absently, glancing down at my GPS, not that I really needed it.
"Somewhere in Virginia?" she asked incrediously, her mouth falling open. "Alice– what– when did we– what the hell is going on?"
I giggled, and she threw herself back against the seat with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "Where are my glasses?" she grumbled, not looking at me, but I knew this attitude would pass. I opened the glove box and handed her silver framed lenses to her and she muttered a thanks as she slipped them on. "You could have given me a forewarning," she said to me after a few minutes silence.
I shrugged, not sure why she was making a big deal out of it. "I just figured it would be faster for you, if you slept through some of it. I couldn't sleep, anyway, so it's no big thing," I joked and she didn't say anything.
"I still didn't like waking up like that," she went on moodily, and she shifted in the seat until she was back against me. Why was she so grumpy? Wait. Oh no. What was that smell?
"Andie," I said with my teeth clenched, "back away." I held my breath as she scooted back to the door, looking at me warily. She had started her monthly, and didn't know it, yet.
"Alice?" she asked uncertainly.
I couldn't answer her, I couldn't open my mouth. The windows in the car were up, the scent I had only just registered was swirling all around me, filling up the air that was inside with us. I felt a violent tremor rip through my muscles as I fought the predator, who was aching to sniff the air, to taste the scent in its mouth, and stupidly, Andie touched my forearm.
"Don't!" I snarled at her, making her jump, and I swallowed the next bout of anger and said in a hiss, "I'm sorry, Andie. You've... you're bleeding." I felt horrible for snarling at her, for scaring her, but there was nothing I could do, just fight the demon, fight the instinct, and for all that was holy, not rip my mate's tender throat out and drink her dry. All the air I'd held in my lungs was gone with that short explanation I'd given her. I took a small breath through my nose, growling at myself for it when my throat set aflame. I jerked the car off the road and came to skidding stop on the shoulder, bolting out of the car and into the woods, dredging deep pulls of fresh air in through my nose and out of my mouth to wash away the lingering scent of Andie's sweet flow. I needed to hunt. I needed to hunt badly before returning to that vehicle and sitting in that enclosed area with just me and Andie and her blood.
Screeching tires, the squeal of metal on metal, wrenching together unnaturally. The tractor trailer jack-knifed, folding over on the black sedan, and I heard a scream, a voice I knew well. And the smell of the blood I knew even better. I tore the car apart to find her, broken, her glasses still on her shattered face, her purple eyes glassy, seeing no more...