A/N: Holidays are over, so my updating will slow down a bit from now. You've been spoilt the last few weeks, really. :)

Apparently I'm getting good at this cliff-hanger thing. Although this one isn't anywhere near as bad as the last two. As much as it's wanted you guys to get a new chapter sooner, it's made me want to write faster, so cliffies have their advantages, it seems...

Right... enjoy!

Previously:

With a roar I launched myself at him, latching on to his leg and pulling with all my might. I heard the screeching sound of it separating from his body just as another sound I really didn't want to hear shattered my very soul: the sound of the car window smashing.

He had made it into the car.

"Bella!" I cried in terror.

Try not to scare her too much. She's human. That much fright could cause her heart to stop.

While carefully sending Edward lethargy, being careful for it not to hit Bella, I lunged for him again, grabbing him by the waist. Inside the car, Bella was screaming. I ignored the drain using my power was causing and pulled my brother back out the window only milliseconds before he had a chance to grab her. His fingernails scratched a deep gouge into the frame of the door as he attempted to hold on, but I was too strong for him. I threw him to the ground, the momentum making me tumble down with him. He got a few swipes at me while we wrestled. I was faster to get away from him and back on my feet, though, and grabbed the leg I had just ripped off. Like his arm, I let it fly like a discus. It would take him a few minutes to find the limb and even longer to fuse it back on.

At that moment I had a choice to make. With only one leg and one arm remaining, he was a sitting duck. I could try and finish him off, or I could jump back in the car and get Bella as far away from him as possible.

Everything in me told me to kill him. He was a threat to my pereche. And I had warned Carlisle that I would kill his golden boy if it was necessary to protect Bella.

I took a step toward him but hesitated as I looked into the face of my brother. He was trying to scramble into a standing position with just one leg. His determination was quickly fading, and fear and a smidge of resignation were creeping in.

Bella has seen enough horrific actions from you already. She doesn't need to see you kill someone on top of that. Protect her.

"Jasper!" Bella screamed in panic. That sold it for me. Get Bella out of there and tend to her. That was my priority.

I kicked Edward in the stomach, sending him flying into a tree, which toppled from the force. "You come near her again, and I will end you," I called at him before climbing back in the car. Before Bella, I didn't think I would have shown such mercy.

Bella hadn't moved from where she had scrambled to as Edward had lunged at her, and was plastered up against the driver's door. I tapped on the window to get her attention and she moved a few inches so I could open the door without her falling out. I picked her up and cradled her in my lap as I sped away. Speed limits didn't matter anymore. I was getting as far away as possible as quickly as possible.

She was trembling in my arms and trying not to cry. I pulled as much of her pain and fear out of her as possible as I pressed the gas right to the floor. I could smell blood, but had no idea where it was coming from. There was glass from the shattered window in her hair, and there were scratches on her face and hands, but they weren't enough for the amount of blood I could smell.

"Bella, sweetheart, where are you hurt?"

She whimpered. "I'm fine."

"You're not. You're bleeding."

She held up her arm. Her shirt was ripped and there were blood stains around the wrist.

"Can you roll the sleeve up?" I asked gently, trying not to betray my fury that she had been hurt.

The wound would probably be okay without stitches, but I needed to get it bandaged as soon as possible. What worried me was how she received it. It didn't look like it came from the glass.

"Baby, he didn't bite you, did he?"

Her look of shock that a bite was a possibility answered my question. "No. He grabbed at me I think. It was really fast," she said quietly.

That was a relief. No venom got in her system. It was just his nails. Just, I scoffed internally. Those same nails which had torn through the metal of the car had also ripped through her flesh. Her unmarred, human flesh.

"No bruising? No broken bones?"

She took a few seconds to mentally assess her body before shaking her head.

At top speed, we were able to make it to Lake Quinault in twenty minutes. It was quiet in the village, so I pulled off the highway and parked near the lake's edge. There was a light dusting of snow on the driftwood and sand leading to the water.

Opening the door, I sat her sideways on the driver's seat and crouched on the ground in front of her.

"Let me wrap that up for you."

She nodded and held out her arm.

I ripped the sleeve off my shirt, tore it into strips to act as bandages and wrapped her wrist.

"Thanks." Her voice was emotionless.

After I placed a soft kiss on her palm, she pulled the arm back and cradled it to her chest.

"I'll just be a few minutes, and then we can get back on the road."

I worked quickly to clean the interior of the car of broken glass and ripped a patch of leather from the back seat. I used that and some electrical tape from the breakdown kit in the trunk to cover up the broken window. It would have to suffice until I could find us a new car.

"Your chariot awaits, my lady." I gestured to her glass free seat with a flourish and helped her in.

Just as I was about to start the car back up, my cell phone rang.

Alice.

"He doesn't deserve the clemency I granted him," I told her by way of greeting.

"I'm proud of you for not killing him. Esme thanks you."

"Yes, well. There will be no second chances." Although I couldn't help thinking that today was his second chance. I itched to go back and end him.

"We're almost to Forks. You're not coming back yet, though, are you?"

"Not a chance. I suggest you get to him before his limbs have time to fuse back together and stop him from following us. If you're fast, you might be able to confiscate his leg. That should keep him from getting too far."

Alice sighed. "I've seen him. He's calmed down. The loss of venom will do that to you, I guess."

I growled lowly. "I don't care about him."

"He's your brother!"

"No, he's the one who tried to kill Bella. When you do get to him, I suggest he be put to death. But know that if Carlisle decides not to do that, he better be kept on a much shorter leash. We're not coming back until he is no longer a threat."

There was quiet on the other end of the line for several seconds. "Jasper?" Alice's voice was soft.

"Yeah?"

"Just remember to stop in a hotel for the night. Bella needs to sleep and shower and all those human things."

"I will."

We hung up, and I looked across the center console at Bella. She was curled into a ball on the seat next to me, obviously upset. I artificially altered her mental state to try and cheer her up, but she still would barely look at me.

Despite my best efforts, I've scared her. How will she trust me now? How will she love me now?

"Bella? Are you okay?"

She nodded but would neither look at me nor verbalize anything. Broken hearted, I set about getting as much distance as possible between us and Edward.

I couldn't relax until we crossed over into Idaho almost four hours later. Bella had not moved from her position and had just been staring straight ahead for hours. She had only said a dozen words since the fight, and her emotions were similar to grief, which I didn't understand. She almost seemed like she was comatose.

I checked us in to a Holiday Inn and led her up to our suite, my hand resting comfortably on the small of her back.

It was closing in on midnight, but after she used the bathroom and changed, she didn't go to sleep. She simply curled up into a ball, like she had in the car, and positioned herself in the corner of one of the beds. She didn't cry, she didn't say a word and she didn't look at me.

In an attempt to give her a few minutes privacy, I went into the bathroom. The mirror was steamed up from her shower, so I grabbed a towel and wiped it off.

What I saw staring back at me made me somewhat understand why Bella didn't want to look at me. I was surprised that the desk clerk had given us the room with how terrible I looked. My hair was matted and knotted and made me look like something from a black-and-white horror movie. I could have been related to the Creature from the Black Lagoon at a stretch. Dirt, grass and mud caked my clothing, and there was a quickly healing crack along my hairline on the side of my neck.

I was a mess, a terrifying mess.

I stripped my clothes off and piled them in the corner of the bathroom. They would need to be disposed of. There were stains on my pants and the sleeves of my shirt from the venom that leaked out when I severed Edward's limbs. My arm was the most injured part of my body. Edward had gotten quite a good hold on me when he bit me, and it would definitely leave a scar. The wound was knitting itself back together, and after the hours we had spent in the car, it was almost healed, a jagged silver line crossing the myriad of other scars that marred my arm.

There were a few other gashes on my body, but they weren't bad enough to scar. The skin hadn't been broken, so they would be gone by morning. The healing powers of venom were impressive sometimes. I spat in my hand and rubbed the venom onto the wound to speed up the process a bit. I had received hundreds of bites like this one in my time, and I knew all the tricks.

I listened out for Bella as I stepped into the shower. There weren't any sounds of her moving around, and her emotional state hadn't changed since we arrived in the room. Quickly washing my body and hair, I wrapped a towel around my waist and quietly returned to the room. Grabbing a clean shirt and jeans from my duffel bag, I dressed faster than a human could. As much as I wanted Bella in every way, sexually included—I was a man, after all—I didn't want to make her uncomfortable by parading around half-naked.

Clean and dressed, I sat in the desk chair, watching her and trying to decipher her emotions. She didn't seem to acknowledge that I had been moving around at all.

After half an hour, I gave up and crawled onto the bed in front of her.

"Bella, sweetheart? Please talk to me."

She continued to stare at her own knees.

"Please? I can feel you're hurting, but I can't help you if I don't know why."

As my words registered, she became confused and her forehead crinkled as she looked up at me. "What do you mean you can feel I'm hurting?" she asked with an accusatory tone.

I had promised that I would tell her everything. It seemed quiz time was starting right now. "I can feel and manipulate people's emotions. Some of my kind have special powers, and that's mine."

"You've been manipulating me? You made me feel these things? You made me like you?"

"No! Not at all. The only times I've used my gift on you was when you really needed calming down. When you were freaking out, for example."

She focused her gaze on the beige wall. "How can I trust you on this? From what I saw today, there is a lot I don't know about you."

My eyes widened in fear. She sounded like she wanted to leave me. "But, sweetheart, the other day you told me you didn't care what I was. You knew there was something different about me, but it didn't bother you. I know that what you saw today was scary, and I'm willing to tell you everything. I swear. I'll answer whatever you want. Nothing will be left out."

Seconds ticked by, and she didn't say anything or move from where she was studying the paintwork.

"Please, Bella?"

She sighed heavily and turned back toward me. "What are you?"

There it was. The question that could make her run screaming from me.

"I would never hurt you. I can promise you that. I physically couldn't even if I wanted to."

"What are you?" she repeated, looking right at me.

I sighed. "Vampire."