.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended.
Special thanks to Gredelina1, Augustmoon and Mary-Alice-Brandon-Cullen for pre-reading this.
This was pre-read by jtmd24 and beta'd by Maxipoo1024 from Sparkly Red Pen. Thank you ladies.
Chapter Twelve — She's Back
Jasper POV
It had been three months since I watched her ride away, and every one of them wore heavily on me.
My thoughts were consumed with Isabella: how she was, what she was doing, whether she was feeling the same desperate ache I was―without her.
We moved to Forks and started our 'new' lives as high school students. Admittedly, the weather there was some of the best suited for our needs that we had ever found, but there was a price in the form of the people. Whether because of the scarcity of new faces, or they were somehow more susceptible to our predator charms, they descended upon us like rabid dogs.
The school day was torture. Not only did I have to deal with the scent of human blood tempting me, I had to deal with overly friendly teens lusting after me and my family.
Esme and Carlisle were the only ones that seemed happy with the new town. Carlisle liked the small hospital; his skills were making a real difference here. Esme was pleased to find that contrary to many small towns we had lived in, the locals were accepting of her. She was invited to have coffee within our first month.
The one fly in the ointment was Seattle. There was a spate of deaths and missing persons that pointed to a rogue vampire in the area. I was hopeful that the threat would draw the Volturi, and thus Isabella, but before that could happen, the death toll reached a level Carlisle was unable to abide.
We spent a week preparing ourselves. We hunted for strength and practiced our combat skills before we headed into the city.
Most of the disappearances seemed centered on the Pioneer Square area in the west of the city, so we went there first. The scent of vampires, both new and old, was thick in the air. There had to be at least ten of them claiming the area.
We had not expected this and were forced to gather and plan again. If it was a new coven that claimed the area we could be heading into a fight with the odds stacked against us.
Carlisle thought they may not know the rules. He suggested we approach them on friendly terms, explain the need for secrecy, and tell them ways of hunting without exposure. I was less optimistic. Ten vampires against our seven, most of whom had never fought a hostile vampire didn't seem like a good idea to me. I was overruled though, and in hindsight it was a good thing I was.
We followed the scent to the docks, where I found a new and most welcome scent: Isabella. Losing all caution, I raced toward the source, my thoughts focused only on getting to her side.
Her trail led me to an industrial area. A wave of horror swept over me as I recognized the smell of burning vampire in the air. I pushed myself even harder, noting the presence of others of our kind but not caring. My family called after me, but I ignored them.
There was a group of black cloaked vampires standing outside the warehouse where the scent was thickest. I scanned them for the familiar form of Isabella, but she was not there.
"Isabella!" Her name was torn from me without thought.
One of the cloaked figures turned to me and shed his hood. He had inky black hair and a slight olive cast to his pale skin.
"You must be the empath," he said.
"Where is Isabella?" I demanded.
"Long gone," he said carelessly.
My knees buckled and I sank to the floor, gripping my head in my hands.
"Not dead, you fool," he said scathingly. "Long gone, as in she drove away after taking out a pack of newborns. Jeez, you're a dramatic one, aren't you? No wonder you caught her."
I looked up at him, desperation clear in my eyes. "You mean she's not dead?"
He snorted. "Of course she's not. Don't you know her at all?"
I was beginning to wonder that myself.
"She's fine. Even left me a note. See?" He gestured to the steel door of the warehouse where a message had been etched into the metal.
Better luck next time Demetri. 10-1
Isabella.
"She must have felt me coming," he said. "I wish she'd stuck around. Aro is going to be angry that I missed her."
"What does the ten one stand for?" I asked.
"Ten vampires to one leader," he said. "When we are working a mission we use the numbers to show how many we killed, so we know if there were any that evaded us. Hello, Carlisle."
The rest of the family had caught up to us now. Alice yanked me to my feet and hugged me.
"Are you okay, Jasper?" Esme asked.
"He's fine." Edward answered for me. "He jumped the gun a little and had a little breakdown. Isabella is fine too. She took out the vampires and all is well in the world again."
Esme shot him a scolding look, and he adopted a rueful expression. I was certain she was using her thoughts to give him a piece of her mind.
Carlisle greeted Demetri and another guard he knew, and now asked for news of the Volturi.
"Things are a little… tense should I say?" Demetri answered. "Isabella has been gone a while, so the ancients are on edge." He turned to look at me. "You've certainly provided us with enough conversation topics to last a few decades."
"You know what has happened then?" I asked.
"That you hit the jackpot in the mating department? Yeah I know. We all do. Aro was looking for a little support after their blowout and spoke to a few of us."
Alice frowned. "Blowout?"
He snorted. "You should have heard it. She was beyond mad; she actually threatened Aro. It was an eye-opener. None of us had seen her like that before."
He was still talking, but his words were white noise to me. She was so horrified by our mating that she had threatened Aro. This did not bode well for me.
"So what were you doing here, anyway?" Demetri asked. "Did you know the rule breaker?"
"No. We deduced what was happening here and came to see if we could deal with the threat ourselves," Carlisle said. "We were concerned by the amount of human lives being lost."
He nodded understandingly. "Unfortunately, for us all, Isabella reached the place first." He clapped his hands together. "Well, it was nice to see you again, Carlisle, but we should be leaving. Aro will be impatient when he knows Isabella is in America. You may want to prepare yourself for a visit if he decides to come and look for himself. He really is most anxious to see her."
He shook Carlisle's hand and then led his group away into the maze of alleys.
"Seeing as we aren't needed here, I think we should go home, too," Esme said. She did not like being in such close proximity to the Volturi guard.
We started back towards the cars, Emmett grumbling about missing the fight, and my heart heavy from missing Isabella.
xXx
Three days later I got the most welcome phone call of my existence. Alice had warned me that something was going to happen, so I remained at home while the others went to school.
When the phone rang I pounced on it.
"Hello."
"Jasper, it's Eleazar. She's come back."
I didn't wait for another word but dropped the phone back in its cradle and swept the watching Esme into my arms.
"She's come back," I cried, losing all dignity and spinning her around. "She's back. She's back. She's back."
"Then you'd better go to her, shouldn't you," she said, patting my cheek affectionately. "I will tell the others where you have gone, and I will keep them away."
Esme knew me far better than I thought. I wanted this reunion to just be for Isabella and I, without my family's involvement. I had no idea how she would receive me. If it went well, I wanted to be able to spend the time together we needed without interference, and if it went badly… Well, they had seen quite enough of my humiliation already.
"We will need to contact the school," I said, rushing about the room and grabbing up the keys to Emmett's jeep and my wallet. "I don't know how long I will be gone, so you'll need a good excuse."
"Don't worry, dear, I will take care of it all. You go to your Isabella."
My Isabella. It was a wonderful thought.
I kissed Esme's cheek, hugged her for a moment, and ran out of the door.
I was pulling out of the drive when I heard a muffled sob from the house. I faltered for a moment, wanting to go back and tend to her but also needing to get to Bella as soon as I could. I reached out for her with my gift and found, instead of the sadness I expected, she was ecstatically happy.
I pondered, wondering what the trigger was, and realized she was happy because I got so carried away with my joy I had been exuberant in my affection for her.
If I had known it was so easy to make her happy, I would have done it a long time ago.
xXx
When I arrived in Denali, the excitement that had sustained me through the journey turned to caution. I had to tread carefully here. One wrong move and I could destroy it all.
I slowed as I drove along the drive and toward the house. Eleazar waited for me at the door, and instead of holding it open for me, he stepped out to meet me.
"Shall we walk?" he asked.
I wanted to get to Isabella, which he knew, so there had to be a good reason he was asking me to delay.
I followed him out into the park. We ran for miles until we were definitely out of range of earshot, or Isabella's gifts.
"I called as soon as I heard her coming," he said. "I didn't think about her reaction. I was just thinking of how you must be feeling without her."
"What's happened?" I asked.
"She is different. I told you how she was when I first knew her. She is like that again. She didn't even speak to us. She just parked her bike in the garage and scaled the side of the house to her room rather than passing us."
That wasn't surprising really. Eleazar had betrayed her trust. I wouldn't want to look him in the eye either. But it didn't explain why she had returned at all if not to see him. As unpredictable as she was, I didn't think she was one for taunting. Something must have happened to drive her here again.
"She won't talk to any of us," he said. "She locked the bedroom door, and none of us have the nerve to break it. Carmen and Tanya have both tried to talk to her through the door, but received no response. I don't know what to do. Do you think I should call Marcus?"
"No," I said firmly. "She is not a child; she can decide who and when she speaks. We saw Demetri and some of the guard in Seattle recently, and he told us that when she returned to the castle she threatened Aro."
"She actually threatened him?" he asked incredulously.
"Apparently so. He said she was furious. I have no idea how she will react to me, but I think if anyone has a chance of making her speak it is me."
Eleazar's panic forced me to be calm. I felt an assurance that I could reach her, merely being close to her again soothed me. I was hopeful the mating bond would have affected her in our separation. I didn't want her to be hurting, but I wanted her to want me.
I ran back to the house and let myself in. Calling greetings to Tanya, Kate, Irina, and Carmen, I climbed the stairs and followed the scent of Isabella to the third floor.
I paused at the door to her room, weighing my options of breaking the door down or knocking when the lock clicked.
The moment between the turning of the handle and the door opening seemed to last a millennia. Then she was there, standing in the doorway a small smile on her face.
"Hello, Jasper."
Thanks for reading. If you would like a teaser of the next chapter let me know in a review or a PM.
Simaril x