Chapter Seventy Nine

Jasper

The mock battle was good as far as technique went but both men had something to prove and in their eagerness to win they made silly mistakes which could have cost them dearly. The fact it didn't just proved how skilled they really were. Eventually after much going back and forth Caius came out on top but he had most of his own men badly injured which in the real situation meant he would be vulnerable. Despite this they all seemed happy enough with the outcome and the ability of the men but no one congratulated me, I was more or less ignored which suited me, I was still fretting about a way to contact Edward and the others with the latest information.

Caius and Stefan sat discussing the encounter and how things could have been handled differently to get more from the men. Their biggest problem was that they didn't care what happened to their force, either of them. The only thing that mattered was winning, the number of casualties or deaths was immaterial.

Bored I wandered over to my men who were restless and thirsty. They needed to hunt and that gave me an idea. I would send six of the freshest to round up humans for the others and take the rest out to the training ground to wait. Caius had provided us with a large panel truck for just such an eventuality. They merely nodded when I explained my plan and I took the majority of the men with me back to our usual haunt hoping Edward would still be there waiting for more information but it was impossible to tell, they were well hidden if they were there but then I saw another stone with some carving on it and knew Peter was responsible.

It showed the figure of a man and the moon rising and falling over and over which I took to mean they were there full time until I had given them everything I could.

I looked around just in case there were more carvings, maybe telling me how Bella was and eventually at the very edge of the area I found another of a butterfly, so she was OK and now a vampire. God how I wished I were with her right now but I pushed that feeling to the back of my mind, I needed to be focused and I trusted the others to keep her safe from harm. I ran through my head everything I'd heard and knew reminding myself this was probably the last time I would have anything useful to tell them and remembering I might not get another chance to get out here.

Edward

We had been out here for what seemed like ever just sitting and watching the few birds that flew overhead. I had to fight Peter for time to hunt, he was afraid Jasper might turn up while I was gone and eventually we came to a compromise, he would drive out of the valley and catch me something.

"Elk, deer, fox, rabbit."

"Hey this isn't a fucking high class restaurant, there's no menu. You get whatever the fuck I can find first and make do. Or I could grab you a human if you prefer?"

I glowered at him and he laughed,

"Yeah I thought not. Just sit tight and stop fucking moaning."

Good as his word Peter had returned with two deer and a bobcat.

"Boy he put up some kind of fight. Maybe your diet can be more fun than I thought."

The animals were stunned and I drank greedily, I hadn't realized just how thirsty I really was.

"Is there any word from Carlisle? About Bella I mean?"

Being stuck out here with no communications for fear it might be picked up by the "enemy" I had no idea what was going on in the outside world.

"Yeah, sounds like she's kicking Cullen ass. Took Emmett out and almost demolished the house. Carlisle thinks it's all to do with the gift that stopped you reading her mind when she was human."

Right, well beating Emmett as a newborn probably wasn't that unusual, they were stronger and faster than older vampires and I'd seen the damage Emmett did to the houses when he was a newborn but Bella? It hardly seemed possible that the shy slight little human I had once thought I was in love with could do all that. Then I remembered Alice and it didn't seem quite so odd after all.

Jasper hadn't turned up and I wondered if it meant something was wrong but I got word via Peter that Darius and Hunter were still watching the compound and the men were all there along with Jazz, Caius, and the two Romanians. Maybe they were ready to move out and he wouldn't get an opportunity to warn us. My concern grew steadily worse, especially when Peter took a risk to plant the stone where Jazz usually stood to watch the men go through their paces. So I was mighty relieved when I saw them coming, looking more like a unit and less like a band of stragglers now.

As soon as the men stopped I could see they had been involved in as fight already and instead of their training routine they threw themselves down and seemed to be waiting for something. I watched for Jazz who saw the stone and glanced at it before crumbling it to dust and scattering it on the ground. Then he started to stroll in our direction and I waited with bated breath for him to get within range so I could read his mind. When I did I understood just how important this was. Darius needed to know as quickly as possible so he could warn Aro. Caius was ready to move and now we knew exactly how he intended to get Aro in a position whereby he could ambush him and his guard.

I really wanted to let Jasper know I was here and heard him but of course that was impossible, especially with so many fighters close by and Peter my only protection. I could fight sure, but I couldn't beat that many good fighters. For the first time I saw Jazz as a fighter in his natural element and he was a different person from the one I had known.

Gone was the quiet demeanor, the reserved scholarly front he put on when he lived with us. Instead there stood a warrior and one who scared the hell out of me, he looked dangerous, lethal even, and I knew why he had the reputation he did. What was it that Bella saw in him? Surely not this monster? No, she did as she had always done and seen below the surface to the very heart of a person. If Bella loved him then he was indeed a deep and complex being.

We couldn't move until he took his men back to the compound but before that happened I was forced to watch as a large panel truck appeared throwing up dust from its wheels and came to a halt in the center of the open area. This had never happened before and I wondered what it meant.

Only too soon I was to see, the back doors were opened and I saw a group of people struggle down out into the baking heat of the day. I smelled their scent, their warm blood and understood this was dinner for the soldiers. I closed my eyes but I couldn't stop myself hearing the screams of the people as they understood their fate.

Worse still was that Jazz was still in range and for the first and I hoped only time I heard what he was feeling. The sickness and pain that tormented him as the humans died in terror, ripped apart and drained of their blood. I might hear it and think that my imagination could fill in the rest but Jasper actually felt everything and suddenly I understood what he had been through and wondered at his personal strength surviving such horrors. I would look at him in a different light from now on.