Chapter Forty Three

Bella

I knew the guy talking to Jasper was asking about me but I was too wound up about the coming fight to take much notice. The new vampires I was meeting were as wary of me as I was of them. They all had vivid red eyes so hunted humans but they kept their distance curious as to my relationship with one of their kind and such a dangerous one. Charlotte stayed close, giving me a feeling of security and support, both of which I was grateful for. We were listening to Annora telling her story of the guardian wolves she had encountered,

"I thought the guardians were supposed to protect humans. Why did they kill your family?"

"Humans in general come second to protecting their own and we were caught up in the middle of a particularly bloody fight between them and the vampires, our house just happened to be in the path of the battle. Once the guardians start killing they tend to go for anything moving without a fur coat. So my mother and father and my little brother were killed because they were in the way. I was savaged but still alive when Dallas found me under the bodies and changed me. I vowed any opportunity I got I would kill Guardians and there are often fights between our kind and them in their many guises. Each one I kill is payback for my family."

I had never thought of the guardians, the wolves, as being dangerous to humans but I understood what she was talking about, it was like the blood-lust of the vampires. Edward had told me that when they smell or taste blood a kind of frenzy takes over, it was the same with the wolves, once they started killing it was difficult to stop. Something that Charlie didn't know and I just hoped he wouldn't find out the hard way.

Garrett

We went a way off so the others couldn't hear us,

"So, Alice told you about the problem. Did she say why she was telling you?"

Hawk shook his head,

"No, and I didn't bother to ask her. I knew she saw things and was happy to help, I hate those guardians, always making out they are so much better than us. If not for us they wouldn't exist."

"I think that's why they hate us Hawk. They'd rather be human."

"You think so Garrett? I've never heard of a single guardian complain as he kills our kind. I think they enjoy the fight, the killing, as much as we do but they have the advantage"

"Advantage?"

"Yeah, they can blame us for their existence, make us the bad guys."

"Hawk, have you been reading psychology books again? Who gives a fuck what they like or what they do. Just kill them they're a pain in the ass."

Hawk laughed and thumped Peter on the shoulder.

"You haven't changed old friend. OK let's get ready to rumble."

We walked back to the others and settled down to wait. I wondered if Alice would ring and warn us they were getting close, she was something of an enigma and I missed her company. When she'd told me her real story, long after we left the Major and joined the Cullens I was able to understand her much better, even feel sorry for her.

"I was alone for so long Garrett, as a human and as a vampire, not knowing who to trust, who cared for me rather than my visions. My parents hated my gift, they said I was touched by the devil and had me committed to an asylum. It was dark and cold and frightening. We were tortured by the doctors and orderlies all in the name of treatment, cold baths, electroshock therapy, bindings, beatings, it was a good day when we were left alone for the visitors to mock. I remember their faces, their laughter, and some of the young mens lust. The orderlies used us and rented us out until we no longer remembered who we were or why we were there. My parents never visited and I found out after my transformation and escape that they told everyone I was dead. That the demon inside me had finally killed my human body, they even had a funeral for me, the date on my headstone was the date I was committed. No one loved me, everyone wanted something from me. I don't remember the vampire who changed me I just remember waking up to this life, a burning thirst in my throat and a need to escape. It was easy to get out of my cell and away with my new speed and strength. The rest of my life has been spent looking for something very much like Jasper's. Unfortunately we were both looking for something that didn't exist. The difference was that I saw his future and I knew he had to wait a long time, a time when the feelings could destroy him too soon, so I tried to help him but then I saw it would be wrong, I would only make matters worse by taking him to the Cullens. You see the fates don't like their plans being altered so I had to send him away."

"What could possibly be worse than what he went through?"

"He would have been turned to an animal hunter but the Volturi would have been made more aware of him and Aro would not like The Major so close to his friend Carlisle Cullen so the Volturi guard would have been sent to collect or kill him. Either way he couldn't fight them and would be lost to his mate. I couldn't tell him obviously, and I know he never understood my actions but he's safe now and he'll find his mate very soon."

She was trying to put things right for him now by sending us help and I hoped she would find her own mate at some point although when I asked her about him she just shook her head,

"I don't see anyone in my future, not a mate at least. I think I'm destined to be like the Vestal Virgins. I can see the future but I'm not allowed to have one of my own or at least not a real one. There will be companions like you Garrett but then they will get close to their real mates and I must set them free to fulfil their own destiny. It's enough to know I'm able to help even when it doesn't seem like it.

It was a sad future for a beautiful and loving young woman but no one said life, even vampire life, was easy or fair.