Jasper's dark eyes scanned the woods while his entire body was alert and ready to move.

He hadn't wanted to leave Bella this morning, but when he heard the familiar voice calling out to him from the forest behind her house, when he'd sensed the vampire he thought he knew like the back of his hand—Jasper had no choice.

Because he would never let Edward near her again unless she said so.

"Quit with the theatrics," Jasper finally snapped, tired of waiting for his brother to show his face. He didn't have to throw out threats. His tone was lethal enough to say he would hunt Edward down if he didn't show his face soon.

It didn't take long.

Edward appeared behind one of the trees, a grim expression on his face as he stepped out onto the trail before Jasper. Even from here, Jasper could see that his eyes were still black as night, the dark circles underneath were stark against his pale complexion. His clothes were the same as they'd been when he last saw him, a plain black t-shirt and dark jeans. Though he did notice they were slightly tattered. He looked...awful for lack of a better word.

And that scent...

Edward greeted, "Jasper."

"What do you want?" Jasper demanded, the strands of his hair brushing along his cheek as a breeze brushed past him.

"I'm not here to fight," Edward bristled, nostrils flaring. Whatever he'd been about to say was long forgotten as he chastised, "Her scent is all over you. You're careless around her."

"Why do you care?" Jasper snapped. "Last time you showed your face you taunted her. Hurt her all over again. Don't tell me you had a change of heart because I'll tear it right out of your chest."

Edward's lip curled into a snarl, "She didn't need us in her life. I wanted to give her more than what I had to offer. Than what you can give her." At that, Jasper involuntarily released a growl. A low rumble of warning that was punctuated by the wave of barely controlled rage that fought to bubble up to the surface until it was drowning Edward in all of it. "My mistake was trying to keep her for myself. If I'd been wiser I would have convinced all of you to leave Forks long before I grew attached."

Attached.

He speaks of Bella as though she were a prized mare. Not a human being with emotions as fragile as her heart. It enraged Jasper to hear him speak of his mate in such a way.

"Spew your excuses and self-righteous bullshit all you want. I see now that you're only here to waste my time. Get out of my sight." With that he made to turn away, already knowing that Edward wouldn't allow this conversation to end when Jasper wished. It never was easy with him. If Edward didn't get what he wanted, no one could. There had once been a time where Jasper found this particular trait amusing. Now it only upset him more to think...that he'd been so easily fooled by his brotherly affection for him.

"I didn't come here to fight you," Edward said as he suddenly appeared in front of Jasper to cut him off, taking a step towards him only to stop when he heard the menacing growl once more. Edward frowned, "you would choose someone you barely know over your own brother? A breakable creature that will barely last more than a breath for us."

"You once claimed to love that breakable creature. You tried to break her and she didn't let you, I didn't let you. I wonder how you could throw around a word such a love when you so easily looked down on Bella the whole time. Manipulating her the same way you did to everyone else. You're a liar, Edward. I always knew it, to some capacity. But for some reason, I chose to trust you anyway." Because I loved you like a brother. I trusted you more than anyone else besides Alice, and you threw it all away because you were a selfish spoiled brat who wanted what he could never have. And never will.

The rest he didn't say out loud, wanting to keep himself from losing the control he carefully kept wrapped around him. Remembering how he'd lost it in their home and the only one who could pull him out of the lethal darkness of his mind had been Bella. His Bella.

Edward released a snarl, readying himself to lash out at the empath who clearly struck a nerve.

Jasper readied himself for Edward to attack, knowing there was no turning back. Not when Bella's safety was concerned.

Edward made to charge for him and Jasper was about to launch himself forward when he heard Rosalie's sharp command suddenly ring out, "Enough!"

Before either of them could turn toward the direction she was coming from, Rosalie was shoving Edward back, hard enough that he slammed into one of the trees with a grunt. Jasper halted, stunned to see his sister here. He half expected her to continue her assault on Edward but instead she spun to look at Jasper, her panic and rage as clear as day on her face as she said, "Get back to Bella's house, Jasper. Now."

He frowned, "What?"

"You have to get back. Carlisle and Alice are already there. Go!"

Dread pooled in his chest and he barely paid any mind to Emmett arriving next, moving to restrain Edward with a grave expression of his own. Something was screaming at Jasper, a warning that drowned everything else out: wrong, wrong, wrong. The latter making no move to attempt to escape, before Jasper was running through the forest and back to the Swan's residence. The moment he shot past the tree line, he came to an abrupt halt as the scent of blood immediately greeted him.

Bella's blood.

He practically ripped the back door off it's hinges as he rushed in, "Bella!"

Alice and Esme turned to face him with grim, worried expressions as he stormed into the house, eyes scanning every inch of the kitchen and living room until they landed on Charlie. The man was barely conscious, laying on the floor where shattered glass and the remnants of the destroyed coffee table surrounded him. As if he'd been thrown across the room and it had broken his fall. And yet he tried to push Carlisle's gentle hands away from him. Trying to prevent him from applying pressure to the large gash on his leg.

"Let me up! Bella...I need to find Bella! Call 911."

Jasper followed the scent of his mate's blood to the front door where he found droplets of red on the hardwood floor. His eyes wide and desperate trailing the blood down the porch steps and away.

Gone. She's gone. Gone.

Jasper stalked back into the living room and knelt beside a frantic Charlie, feeling too much all at once as he said urgently, "Where is Bella? Charlie, look at me. Bella, where is she?"

"This is going to need stitches. Charlie I need you to stay awake, alright?" Carlisle said, looking to Esme who ran to grab his bag. "I think you might also have a concussion."

Charlie barely seemed to hear the doctor, instead he looked at Jasper. His bloodied hand clutched Jasper's arm, "Jasper, call the station...need to...find her."

Jasper, despite his blinding rage and knee-buckling fear, shared his gift to calm the man.

"What happened here?" He asked Alice without tearing his gaze away from Charlie.

Charlie said, dazed by the pain and blood loss, "There was this woman with...red hair. She wasn't normal. Wrong. She had red eyes."

"Rest, Charlie. We'll find her," Carlisle said and with Jasper's help, they watched as Charlie fell unconscious. "I'll have to take him back to the house. If he knows about us now, there's no telling what he's capable of saying to the authorities at the hospital."

Alice nodded grimly, sorrow laced in her dark eyes, "Victoria. She was here. I saw too late, somehow she knew how to get around my visions. By the time I saw her, saw what she did to Bella, it was too late."

"What did she do?" He asked with menacing calm.

After Alice told him in detail how Victoria shoved Bella hard enough to draw blood where her head met the wall, how she struck his mate rendering her unconscious. And finally, how she picked Bella up and ran—away from the house and into the forest.

No one could stop him even if they tried. Not as he disappeared and bolted through the forest. Not stopping until his fist was burying the side of Edward's face against the splintered bark of the tree he'd been leaning against.

Neither Emmett nor Rosalie could stop him from cracking Edward's perfect porcelain skin as Jasper hit him again and again. Fast and vicious. Deadly. Only this time, the Major hadn't come out. No, this was all Jasper.

Edward don't so much as try to defend himself this time. He read his mind, knew everything that had happened. And that fact that he wasn't surprised meant he had something to do with Victoria and Bella's kidnapping.

Finally, when Jasper finished unleashing his wrath upon him, he snarled, a noise that was so animalistic, it reminded him of when he'd been the Major all those years ago. A lifetime ago. Killing newborns and following Maria's every word. No better than a beast.

He would gladly become one again, if it meant finding Bella.

"Where the fuck is she?"

He would have taken anything Edward said to him. Anything at all.

The last thing he expected was for him to say through gritted teeth, pain laced across his features, "I don't know. She ran off on me last night. I've been looking ever since. I didn't think she'd come for Bella."

"You never did, isn't that right? You never thought about anyone but yourself." He shoved away from him, turning to face an endless forest of nothingness. An endless trail that led everywhere and nowhere at all.

For the first time since Bella entered their lives—his life—Jasper knew Edward was speaking the truth. He didn't know where she or Victoria were. The honesty radiating from him was the only thing preventing Jasper from tearing his head clean off.

Jasper felt a shaky breath escape him as it finally struck.

The realization that Bella was...

Gone.

She was gone.

And he'd failed to do the one thing he always swore he would do—protect her.


Something wet and cold dripped onto Bella's cheek, rolling down the side of her face. The unpleasantness of it stirred her awake from a deep sleep.

Pain shot through the back of her head and she became acutely aware of a throbbing on the right side of her face. She hissed when her fingers gingerly touched the swollen patch of skin along her cheekbone.

The dizzying sound of birds singing in the creaking tree branches overhead, high above the trees, sent shivers down her spine.

It was an effort to stand on her own when a wave of dizziness hit her. She swayed on her feet, bracing a hand on the nearest tree until she managed to steady herself.

For a moment, the only things she could hear were her shallow breaths and the sounds of the forest. Until suddenly, even the forest stilled.

Silenced by the presence of a predator.

Bella swallowed the bile in the back of her throat as she heard the sound of slow footsteps approach. Something she was sure Victoria did on purpose to spark fear in Bella.

Her prey.

Bella forced herself not to show how frightened she was, not for her well-being though, but for Charlie's.

Charlie.

Where was he? Where was she? How long had she been out and...Jasper...he must be frantic by now.

"I'll admit you woke up faster than I expected. And here I thought I'd have to wake you up myself." Victoria sighed, as if bored. Bella stood perfectly still while the nomad walked up behind her, trailing her long fingers along the girl's arm and shoulder until she was standing mere inches before her.

If she expected to find a frightened expression on Bella's face, Victoria was noticeably disappointed when she stared into blank brown eyes.

Bella leveled Victoria with a flat stare, "What do you want?"

Victoria slowly slid her hand away from Bella's shoulder, tilting her head to one side curiously. Her wild locks cascading to one side with the movement. The color reminded Bella of a blazing fire, roaring to life as it consumed everything it touched.

That's what Victoria was, she realized. A flickering ember in the wind, refusing to turn to ash, always seeking to spark a flicker of destruction.

"What do I want?" Victoria circled Bella, slow and calculating in everything she did. Graceful and deadly like a viper. "What do I want? I know you're a human, but are you really that stupid, Bella? Did you really think I wouldn't come back to finish what you and Edward started? Killing my mate!"

Hands shoved her forward suddenly. A dull pain swept over her back instantly at the touch but she braced herself before she could slam into the tree in front of her. Her palms burned upon the impact and she grimaced.

Bella realized that if Victoria had wanted to kill her, she would have done so already. Which meant she was going to make this a slow agonizing death. One that'll leave Bella begging or thrashing like a wild animal the same way James had done before Jasper and the others killed him.

That was her plan.

This was a game and Victoria was the one with the winning hand.

"No, Bella," A hand sank into Bella's hair and she gasped as Victoria yanked her back. She whispered sweetly, "I'm going to make Edward see exactly what happens when he takes everything from me. When he uses me for his own selfish need for rebellion and discards me when he's done. You have no one to blame but him for what I'm about to do to you."

"Rebellion..."

What was she talking about? Edward was...with Victoria this whole time?

He willingly went to her...

"I'm not going to kill you yet. I'm going to make you go through the same thing I did," Victoria murmured before the sound of voices in the distance made her look over her shoulder. Bella followed her gaze, to the couple hiking along the tree line. The two smiling as they made their way on a trail. Both oblivious to the monster who was currently grinning maniacally at them. Bella's heart sank as Victoria said, "Starting with those two."

"No..." Bella barely managed to whisper as Victoria suddenly disappeared.

And then—

The sound of a woman screaming filled the air, making goosebumps invade her flesh. She took two steps, stumbling as she saw Victoria sink her teeth into the man's neck while her hand clutched the woman's. The sound of a bone cracking silenced the woman immediately.

Bella watched with horror as her limp body sank to the ground, only held up because Victoria still held onto her. Blood spilled from the man's neck in dark red rivulets. An endless stream of red running down his neck and over his grey jacket. Not once did Victoria falter in her feeding. Even as her blood-red eyes stared at Bella while she killed two innocent humans. All because of her.

Bella couldn't do anything if she tried.

She knew that. As much as she hated it, she knew she was no match against Victoria.

There was nothing she could do.

And yet, she could hear Jasper as clear as day. Screaming in her head. Warning her.

Run, Bella. Run! Now!

"I'm so sorry..." she murmured, still watching the couple being drained of all life. Tears blurred her vision as she took a step back, then another.

Then Bella did the only thing she could do—she ran.


Thanks for reading x