Chapter Nine

Bella

When we finally pulled up it was at a motel in Olympia a little under half way to Forks. She parked and grabbed my bags before skipping towards one of the doors on the ground floor which opened before she reached it and I got my first look at the guy Alice was traveling with. He was devastatingly handsome as most vampires were and his smile at seeing her was genuine. She left Peter to get my bags out of the trunk and went to greet Darius throwing her arms around him and giving him a sweet kiss.

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

I elbowed Peter,

"Remember we're all working together."

He grimaced as if he had really felt my elbow then smiled and suddenly he was a different person, younger, more light hearted and almost boyish.

As we reached the couple Alice turned beaming to introduce me,

"Darius this is Bella Swan, the human I told you about and as we thought she's got herself involved in our world yet again."

He put Alice down and looked at me gravely,

"Do you have an active death wish or are you just incredibly unlucky choosing your friends?"

As he said the last he glanced at Peter,

"It certainly looks like it if that reprobate is your companion."

"I love you too Dar, its been a long time."

"Nowhere near long enough and don't call me Dar."

"OK, I see your sweet temperament hasn't altered."

"I was happy until I saw your face, funny that."

Alice took my arm and dragged me inside,

"Ignore those two, they love each other really."

"I'd rather sleep with a dead dog."

"I thought you did Dar, after all you'll never get yourself a woman with those looks and that temperament. You should let me give you a few pointers."

"Just get inside before I decide to kick your skinny ass out of the state."

"Now see, noticing guys asses won't get you anywhere, you're looking at the wrong sex."

Going into the room I stopped, gazing around me in amazement. The room had been turned into some kind of hi tech computer buffs fantasy. The bed had been pushed to one side and both it and any other horizontal spaces were full of computers, screens, modems, and a lot of stuff I couldn't even identify.

"Welcome to my world Bella Swan."

"You're a computer whiz?"

"Nah he just likes to pretend."

"You could say that. I earn my keep through information. If anyone needs to know something I can supply it for a fee, human or vampire. I'm an equal opportunities kinda guy."

"They call him other things too you know."

I flapped a hand at Peter to shut him up,

"Information? Illegal information I assume?"

"Assume all you like but you'll find it helpful finding your professor."

"You know where he is?"

"I know where he's headed for now although I have no idea why as yet."

"Where are they taking him and who by the way are they?"

"It's a couple of bounty hunters, trackers who find people for a price. Rather like James who I understand you knew."

I nodded shuddering as I remembered the fight in the ballet studio.

"So who is so interested in JW?"

"JW? Oh right. They're headed south for now but that could change at any moment. I'm still trying to track down who paid Angus and Deidre, the bounty hunters but that's proving difficult as they don't have any visible bank accounts."

"So they were paid cash?"

Darius smiled at me shaking his head,

"I said no visible accounts, that doesn't mean they don't have them. I just have to trace them that's all."

"But you have no idea why he was taken?"

"I haven't been able to hear anything relevant as yet."

"You have their plane bugged?"

"In a way, I have a spy satellite working for two masters at the moment but the CIA are none the wiser so they won't worry. It's listening in to all communications to and from our friends."

"Bella tell him what you told us about this paper the clon...JW wrote."

"He published a paper?"

"Yes, calling into question Jasper's bravery and the story of his escorting the party of women and children to safety."

"Idiot, I'm amazed The Major didn't take him out personally at the insult."

"Nah he'd ignore the stupid fucker as not worth his time but I think we need to get him here."

"Well, whatever is going on involves his clone and that concerns me too so I agree. What about you Alice?"

She glanced at me a little uncertainly then nodded,

"I guess we should, what do you think Bella?"

"I think we need all the help we can get to rescue JW and as Jasper is the best fighter in your world we need him."

"Oh good a unanimous vote, how democratic. So shall I contact him?"

"Do you know where he is?"

"He's my best friend Dar...ius, of course I do, Stop asking stupid fucking questions and see if you can work some magic with all this shit and find out where the clone is being taken and why."

"Well I might be able to find out if the paper he wrote has anything to do with it."

He went to his keyboard and sat down, his fingers a blur over the keys as he started searching.

I turned to Alice grabbing her cold hands in my anguish,

"We have to get him out of there before something happens to him, he has no idea how much danger he's in."

"I think we need to know who and what they're planning as well as where exactly there is before we rescue him, sorry Bella."

"What? No, you can't do that."

She frowned thinking hard.

"What I don't understand is why anyone in our world would want a history professor who knows nothing about our world or even his ancestor."

Something struck me then,

"Maybe Jasper's at risk too."

Darius laughed loudly at that,

"Now that I'd like to see, The Major in danger? I don't think so Bella."

"I know you all say he's the best fighter in your world but he's not invincible."

"Oh really? A lot of people have made the same assumption Bella and they're all dead now. I know you think you know Jasper but you don't really Bella, you only know Jasper Hale and he's a different person altogether. Major Jasper Whitlock is feared by every other fighter in our world, even the Volturi guard. He's tough and ruthless and almost impossible to slow down let alone kill. You can't see the real man with your human eyes but I can tell you that just his presence is enough to chill the blood. Jasper is covered in scars, hundreds of them that scream danger to any other vampire because each scar is proof of a death. Each one was inflicted by a vampire who met his death soon after, almost like notches on a gun's grip."

I could hardly believe this coming from Alice, the woman who was married to him for so long but she was speaking earnestly as if trying to drive the point home to me.

Peter

I left them to their chatter and walked outside to contact THe Major. I didn't know where he was but I did know that he would never ignore a call to this number, it was our emergency contact number and sure enough a couple of minutes after I left a message he was back to me,

"Problems Peter?"

"A shit load, I think you'd better get yourself here. We're gonna need you."

"Where and who's we?"

"Fucked if I know, just a minute."

I checked the motel address and passed it on.

"I'm here with Darius, your delightful ex and Bella."

"That's quite a mixture but Bella? You mean Bella Swan?"

"That's the one, it seems she's got herself caught up in something vampire related again. It would appear you have a double that someone is interested enough in to arrange a kidnap."

"A double?"

"Yeah he's a descendant of yours, looks like you, even carries the same name, now how fucking weird is that?"

"OK I'm on my way, it'll be tomorrow afternoon before I get there."

"That's OK it'll probably take Darius that long to figure out what the fuck is going on."

He didn't reply, just cut me off and I knew he was already on his way but I wondered why, was it for his clone, us, or maybe a certain human? I thought Alice suspected something but I couldn't see it myself. The Major and a young human girl? Nah! Then it struck me that Charlotte would want to be in on this so I rang her too, and sure enough she was headed here straight away.