[Edit: 8 Sept 2021]
I clear my throat and the vampires in the room turn to face me.
"I have to leave,"
Edward nods. They don't seem surprised or even remotely fazed by my words. Alice, her small frame swallowed up beneath Jasper's chin, bobs her head causing the man to bob his as well.
"Where would you like to go?" The girl asks, her eyes wide and guileless. I remind myself she cannot see into my soul.
"Not to the reservation."
"Of course not," Jasper says and his head tilting in that almost feline way, golden hair reflecting the stray beams of sunlight filtering through the trees outside. "You needn't go back there, no one will force you."
My lips twitch, technically Sam could force me, but that is inconsequential. The goal is to put enough space between the alpha and myself that I might get away with never having to return, escaping the way Jacob had done before Bella and Edward were married. Distance should lessen the bond, break the ties. Perhaps I'd even lose the ability to change all together.
"I know," I direct my eyes to Alice, uncertain as I ask: "Have you… seen a place? Seen me?"
The girl's nearly black eyes soften and her mouth tilts at the corners, the fluttering of dark eye lashes making it hard to know if she is thinking about it or contemplating how to reply. "No and yes," she sings eventually, the smile apologetic.
I can't bring myself to be upset over it, merely inclining my head in a bid for her to continue.
"Alice cannot see a future for you, she cannot see the wolves in general really. I'm not sure if Jacob's ever told you, her visions become-"
"Static," the girl pipes up, I nod remembering vaguely such a conversation. "Like a television with poor signal. It's not unheard of. Some visions of humans do it too, most of the time because the future does not exist for them. I cannot see what doesn't exist."
I twitch and shuffle in my seat. "Is there...nothing?"
"No!" She sits up straight and Jasper pulls her back, tucking her under his chin again. For a moment she stares at him, utterly besotted. "No, it's complicated. I'm sorry, Leah, I wish I could tell you, but I barely understand it myself sometimes."
"It's fine," I say, not feeling it but willing to lie to myself anyway. I don't want to go back to Sam, I don't want to live my life the way I'd been living it the last few years. I planned to burn these feelings and I would do it. But I'd prefer to do it far away from here.
"There is something though," Edward says. He casts a glance at Alice – questioning in the way only a telepath can.
Alice wrinkles her nose. "I had a vision of a town that harbours some wolf packs and a vampire coven or two." She shakes her head "It wasn't very clear, possibly because of the presence of the wolves – so I can't say for sure if it's suitable. But if you're willing to try it I can tell you as much as I know. Jasper's really great at researching vampire lines, so the least we could do is find out whether the Volturi have a liaison there."
I lick my lips, tasting coffee and jam. "What's it called?"
"Mystic Falls," Alice and Edward say.