Hi Kids - sorry for the delay in updating! I've had a really shitty few weeks but it was nice to finally escape my world for half an hour to write a bit of vampirey stuff :)
******I do not own Twilight or any of its characters..I make no money from this...I do not intend any copyright infringement...etc...******
BELIEF IN THE ABSENCE OF PROOF
CHAPTER 6: THE CANYON (April, 1923)
Peter ran through the desert, zigzagging across vast areas as he had done every day for 2 years. Charlotte had accompanied him on-and-off, sometimes returning home to check whether Jasper had come to find them. She had been gone for 2 weeks this time, and he felt her drawing him south like a magnet.
His gift had told him that he would not find the seer for a long time, but he knew that he needed to search regardless. He had followed every vampire scent that he came across whether they were familiar or not, but none of the covens had any news on the tiny female that he was seeking.
On his travels, Peter had met a number of relatively new vampires who had left the southern covens that had forged himself and Jasper – there was no news of Maria and queries after Jasper were always met with blank looks. The first group of vampires that Peter had encountered told him that the southern covens had been decimated some 40 years earlier and their leaders were either dead or scattered to the four corners of the globe. The formerly warring groups now functioned as one coven that no longer sought out new territory, but when challenged they would fight to retain their existing territory.
Peters still heart clenched with fear for Jasper – it was only the vague knowledge of his makers continued existence that allowed Peter to continue looking for the seer. As it was, he was torn between three vampires: his mate, the seer and his maker – all entirely unrelated, but tied to him by the silvery thread of venom and love and a future. Earlier that day, Peter had met three travelers from the southern coven who spoke of the enigmatic, scarred leader that they willingly served and returned to after brief sabbaticals in the north. It seemed that this new leader – The Major – had never lost a fight.
As Peter ran, he thought back to his years with Jasper – Jasper had changed him in 1866, when he was barely past his newborn year himself. At the end of the Civil War, Peter had found himself wondering from county to county. He could no longer settle; he had seen death, but then he knew that thousands of other men had seen just as much and been able to settle back into their old life. He supposed that the greatest issue wasn't that he had seen death; it was that he had seen it coming. He had known from that first day who would make it through and who wouldn't; who would win and who would lose.
On the night of his change Peter had sat slouched against a wall under a glowing moon, his eyes were suddenly drawn to a pair of feet in worn boots that stopped a few feet from his prone form. He hadn't heard the man approach, but he wasn't surprised because this was another thing that he had seen coming. He looked up, his brown eyes catching red and holding them. "You're finally here, brother." Peter said, as the man held out his hand to help him off the ground.
His mind returning to the here and now, Peter realized that it was time to hunt. He knew he was close and had been ignoring his thirst, focusing only on his desperate need to find the seer and bring her home to Charlotte. He waited on the outskirts of a small desert town before slinking through the roughly packed dirt roads under the cover of darkness. He waited at the rear of the local brothel listening to the grunts and thundering heartbeats within. As the first glimmers of sunrise touched the sky, a man staggered out reeking of alcohol and sweat and sex. Peter slipped up behind him and snapped his neck before draining his body of blood. With the body thrown over his back, Peter ran toward the horizon.
As he buried the remnants of his meal in a shallow grave, Peter suddenly knew where he should go: a third pull formed in his body, urging him North East. Peter ran like he never had before – he hadn't realized that he'd been heeding the inescapable pull toward Charlotte and had ventured much further south than he intended. Peter ran through the desert, avoiding towns and maintaining a speed that would leave him virtually invisible to the human eye: a cloud of dust the only evidence of his presence. He ran through any obstacle that got in his way, refusing to deviate from the path that would lead him to the seer – as if one false move would break the thread of awareness that currently linked them. Logically, Peter knew that once these links were forged they were permanent and unbreakable, but he was running on instinct and the usually appealing call of logic was lost on him as he flung himself through rivers and scrambled up sheer cliff faces.
Stopping in the middle of a dry riverbed, Peter noted a narrow opening in the rock that rose up in front of him. The opening was barely wide enough for him to fit through and he turned sideways to squeeze through, before looking around him at the smooth, high walls that rose on either side of him. The pathway wound through the solid rock and breaks in the ceiling allowed seemingly solid beams of light from the midday sun to touch the sandy ground. The pull was growing stronger and beyond a curve in the path Peter found what he had been searching for. A brilliant beam of sunlight lit up a section of the stone walled cavern and in it sat a tiny, starving vampire whose skin shone so brightly that the sunlight appeared dim in comparison.
Peter fell to his knees and crawled toward the unmoving woman: he stopped before her, searching her face for some glimmer of awareness before holding out his hand for her to take. She lifted her head and took him in with her jet black eyes. "You kept me waiting for a long time, brother." she said, before placing a ring in his palm and closing his fingers around it.
Alice is at Antelope Canyon, which I visited last year - I've been to lots of places and it's truly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You should google it!