Chapter Twenty Three

Peter

The Major was wound up tighter than a coiled spring but now, at least for a while, he'd dissipated some on me. This Bella really was the one, he'd never defended Alice Cullen so fiercely, her being a vampire not withstanding. The fact Jane Volturi was toast didn't surprise me, it was her or the Major, although I'd be interested in how he did it. Darius had told us he'd sent a backup but I didn't know Christos myself. Garrett said he'd heard of him as a good fighter and it seemed he'd been right. Now all we had to do was keep ahead of the Volturi guard long enough for the Major to change Bella in safety and just hope she had a kick ass gift. Without it we didn't really stand a chance in the long-term. Demetri could only stall so long before Aro would send another tracker for us along with Alec probably, then we really were fucked. Still life with The Major was never dull or boring.

Bella

I was tired, I hadn't slept properly for days now and I'd been living on my nerves so my eyes started closing on their own and I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder pulling me close until I rested my head on Jaspers shoulder,

"Thank you"

"Sleep darlin', you're safe with us"

"I know, I just wish you were all safe with me"

"Bella don't sweat it. We all know what we're doing, well except Garrett but I'll draw him some pictures, he'll soon get the idea then"

I heard Garrett's rude reply to Peter as I slipped into a warm darkness with no monsters hiding to ambush me.

Jasper

Once I knew Bella was asleep I turned to Peter,

"So what's the plan?"

"Darius will contact us when we set down, he's going through unofficial channels to make sure our flight isn't on record and he's organising a safe house. It'll be out in the wilds, not Denali obviously, the Cullens have eyes there. Then its up to you. Are you serious about changing her?"

"Yes, it's what she wants."

"What happened with Edward? Or would you rather not say?"

"He made a deal with Bella, marry him and he'd change her."

"Don't tell me, she did, he didn't"

"No, we found out that he's been waiting to get her pregnant, he wants the child for himself"

"Why? They make a lot of noise and they're bloody annoying, at least the ones I've seen are"

"It's a power thing, he can have absolute control over something"

"Fuck that's sick, even for Cullen. Besides there's Bella too."

"No Bella would either die in childbirth or soon after, some kind of accident."

"So how did she end up here with a reprobate like you?"

"Alice, and before you start it was Alice who saved Bella's life. She gave her medication so she wouldn't conceive and then arranged for Bella to be on a plane that was going to crash."

"So Malice finally did something noble, I guess even the most obnoxious of us has a tiny glimmer of good. So what's she up to now?"

"She's sticking with Edward to make sure he doesn't find out what really happened."

"And if he does?"

"If he comes looking for her he's a dead man Peter. Pure and simple."

"Sounds like a plan to me but what about Aro and his merry band?"

"Once she's changed she's no use to Edward and depending on her gift once she wakes Aro will either be desperate to get hold of her or lose interest"

"Well we can hope for the latter but the way our luck runs we should make arrangements for the former. We can't fight Alec though and he's gonna be extremely fucking pissed off that you turned his sister into a crispy critter."

"What else could I do Peter? She was threatening Bella"

Peter

I watched as he spoke and it was easy to see the love he felt for this human girl, he really had found his mate and as expected it wasn't going to be straight forward. She slumped against him, her head on his shoulder and his free hand stroked her hair without even realizing he was doing it.

"Well it ain't gonna be easy but what the hell, life was just a bit too slow and quiet on the ranch. It's about time we saw some action again before we get too rusty."

He looked up at me and I noticed something that hadn't registered earlier.

"You gone back to hunting humans Major?"

He looked ashamed,

"No, but after running miles to reach Bella before the Volturi did I used up all my reserves. I had no choice but to hunt in the city. I was hoping it wouldn't show up too much, I don't want to scare Bella."

"Hey, if she's your mate she'll understand Major and let's be fair, for a human she seems pretty blasé about our presence."

He nodded and smiled, a smile I'd never seen on his face before, one of pure contentment and I just hoped we could keep that expression there.

My phone went off then and I saw it was Charlotte.

"Hi darlin', please have good news for us."

"Why? What's happened?"

"Well we met The Major and his companion who not only turns out to be human, just as you suspected, but his mate to boot. And as if that weren't enough the Volturi are after us."

"We knew that Peter."

"Yes but they didn't have such a motive as they do now."

"Oh? What did you do?"

"Me? Why do you always assume its my fault?"

"Because it usually is Peter."

"Yeah well not this time Char, this time its The Majors fault. He took out Jane."

"How the hell did he do that?"

"I didn't ask but we really need somewhere secure."

"Darius found somewhere perfect for us. How is The Major?"

"He's OK, sitting with a look like the Cheshire cat on his face. We'll be landing in an hour, can you be there to pick us up only I don't want to be hanging around. Someone might see us."

"Don't worry, I'll be waiting and I've got supplies ready for the human. The weathers turning Peter, so get here as quick as you can or we might have problems getting to the cabin."

"OK, I'll speak to Jerome but I think he's pushing it as fast as he can. See you soon Char."

Jasper

I was lucky having friends like this, it made keeping Bella safe that much more likely although none if us had any illusions that it would be easy. If we could just find a good hiding place and Bella would agree to being changed quickly then it would make things more simple but I wouldn't push her, Bella was wound up enough, she'd been through too much and was in a fragile state of mind. She needed peace and security to unwind, to realize she was safe, or as safe as anyone would ever be with Aro Volturi looking for them.