Chapter Eighty Five

Charlie

We stopped a couple of times for me to rest and eat, Bella accompanying me but only having coffee

"Don't you eat any longer?"

"Not really, just occasionally, my diet is like Jaspers now but I still have a weakness for a good coffee."

"Are you really happy Bella? Happy with your new life and me joining it?"

She leaned across the table to touch my arm,

"Yes Dad to both questions, now come on eat up the others are waiting"

I thought it had more to do with Bella not wanting to be away from Jasper more than anything so I finished up and we went on, finally stopping at a cabin high in the hills, miles from anywhere.

"This is home?"

"Yes, I know it doesn't look much but we love it"

"I think its great, plenty of hunting round here, I should have brought my gun."

"Ah Charlie you won't need your gun soon"

"Yeah that will take some getting used to. I can still see Emmett come in to the house in Forks with that elk slung over his shoulder."

I smiled at the memory, it had seemed fantastic then but now I guess the fantastic would become the norm.

"So how do we do this?"

"It's very simple Charlie. You relax this evening, do anything you want and then I will bite you, inject my venom into your blood stream and you'll burn for about three days on average and come out of it like us."

"Three days, is that all?"

"Believe me Charlie, they will be the longest three days of your life, it's not pleasant but once its over you'll never feel pain again."

"And my lungs?"

"Just as I said, they'll be healthy, everything will be just as if you were new-born as an adult."

"Will I remember everything?"

"Most vampires only have a hazy recollection of their human life so if there's anything you really want to remember try to think of it if you can over the next couple of days"

I looked at Bella,

"You'll be there when I wake up?"

"Yes Dad, we all will and you'll recognise us"

Jasper

Charlie spent the afternoon and evening with Bella talking about her childhood and his life in Forks. I knew he was scared, with good reason but it was the only way to keep him in Bella's life. By about seven o'clock in the evening he was getting up tight so we decided to get it over with.

"Charlie this is your last chance to pull out, once I bite you there's no going back."

He nodded,

"I know and it's what I want, I'm just scared of being out of control I guess. We Cops don't like that feeling"

"Ex Cop Charlie."

"True, OK let's go for it."

He was self-conscious going upstairs with me so Bella held his hand talking to him as he got ready. He changed into a clean loose shirt, exposing his neck and sat on the bed.

"This feels really awkward, I've never laid down with a man before"

"Then don't look on me as a man but a monster attacking you."

He shook his head,

"No I'll look on you as the man giving me back a life and with my daughter still in it."

He lay back and closed his eyes, his hands grabbing the sides of the bed tightly and swallowing nervously. Bella stood back watching as I leaned over and as quickly as I could bit down on the artery in his neck. He jerked with the pain bringing one hand up to push me away but he didn't have the strength to achieve that, no human did. I injected as much venom as I could, resisting the urge to drink his blood as I tasted it in my mouth. I pulled away and Bella put her arms around me,

"Thank you Jazz"

"For what? Being the monster I always said I was"

"No, for saving my Dad for me."

We watched for a few minutes as Charlie became restless then agitated and I knew the venom was burning through his body.

"You go now and I'll stay with him. I can help make it a little less unpleasant."

She didn't want to leave us but I knew the sight of Charlie in agony would only upset her, I'd seen it so many times it had no power over me and Peter came up pushing her out the door.

"Charlotte wants your help, Charlie will need a new wardrobe, his clothes are all worn out so you go with her to the city and come back when he's ready to wake up."

She started to shake her head so I fixed her eyes with mine,

"Go Bella. You don't want to hear Charlie in pain and there's only so much I can do"

She went reluctantly leaving Peter and I alone with Charlie. He was writhing on the bed and crying out but not so loudly yet. The screams would come closer to the end when the venom burned away the final remnants of his human body.

"You think he's going to be difficult?"

"Does it matter? We're used to the difficult ones"

"True but it would be nice not to get bitten again"

I looked down at my arms, shirt sleeves rolled up,

"True but there's so many I don't think I'll notice a few more"

"You'll fucking feel them though and you know as well as I do that bites from a newborn hurt more with the amount of blood still in their system."

"It won't be for long. If Bella is anything to go by Charlie will be controlling himself pretty quickly"

"But she's not his"

"Oh I think there's a large part of Charlie in Bella, they are so alike in many ways"

"You mean you think she might be part Charlie too? How fucked up is that!"

"We'll never know but if Charlie and Renee were having sex at the time then just maybe..."

"I guess everything about Bella is crazy, that's why I like her so much."

Bella

Char and I spent two days away and I hated every second away from Jazz, it was like a part of me were missing.

"You get used to it Bella"

"No I'll never get used to being away from Jazz"

"No but you get used to that strange feeling you've left a part of yourself behind. Trust me, I know, Peter and I were separated a lot before we came to Forks."

"Of course! How did you cope with it, you were apart for months at a time?"

"We went two years once but I'd never do it again. It got too uncomfortable in the end and The Major had to step in, put us together for a while."

"Do you still see him as The Major? Even now, now its all over?

I think there's something you should know Bella, it's not over. It will never be over, this is just a respite until

the next time"

"Someone else will start to build an army of Gifted Children?"

"No, but someone will decide they have a new way to defeat the Volturi, or the vampire world. A new threat will come and he'll be there ready and waiting to keep things on an even keel. The good thing to me is that he'll have you at his side."

"Yes he will. I just hope any budding Napoleon give us a few years together before they start scheming."

"They might but it will happen eventually"

"Why Jazz though? Why does he have to be the one?"

"Who knows? Maybe he feels he owes the humans something after all the lives he took, maybe he doesn't want to live in a world populated only by our kind and human cattle. Maybe he wants a peaceful world we can all live in together, side by side. You'd have to ask him that question."