Chapter 42

Mama4Dukes is owed a debt of gratitude for being my Beta. Love you, Honey!

Song for this Chapter: When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down

So I sat outside with my mate in front of me. His quiet presence was wonderful, but that didn't stop old issues from firing inside my brain. What ifs were firing off one right after the other?

She'd been the first and only human that I could trust with all of my baggage. She hadn't judged me. She hadn't thought I was insane. She'd helped me when no one else could.

Inside of me, there was a hurt and damaged little girl who didn't know if she'd be able to deal with losing someone who'd been the talisman of her human life. I wanted to leave Ava and my thoughts of her behind, just how they were.

"Jasper, what if she hangs up on me? What if she says she's going to tell someone that I'm now a vampire? What if she says she is going to go to the authorities to say I'm still alive? We'd be dead. She and some of her tribe would be dead as well."

He never said a word. He just grabbed me and held me to him. We sat outside until well after sunset. I just couldn't do it yet. I needed to be able to think about what I'd be giving up if she didn't want anything to do with me.

Jasper moved away from me. He went to the wood box and started a fire in the little ring out here. Char, Peter, and Dad all came out as soon as they smelled the smoke.

We all sat like that, thinking. No one spoke. Sometimes, someone would look up at the stars. Wood was added at regular intervals. Dad and I were both given a double bag of blood throughout the night. I watched as the morning sky turned purple, and I was still so unsettled.

"Honey, listen to me, okay?" Dad broke the silence.

"Why don't we use one of those disposal phones that you use to call me on? They're not traceable. Believe me, I tried more than once to trace you. She won't be able to tell it's you calling her. I know you're worried about all of our safeties, but we believe that you were on to something when you talked about the imprints from the past. And I hate to say this, but Peter was right. Somehow, this all seems to be connected. Alice… Ruth… Ava..."

"Hey Chuck, what did I ever do to you?"

"You bite me. Cleaned me up. Then wiped my ass. Just to clean me up again. Now shut up and let the girl think!"

"Wiped your ass?" I questioned.

"Later… Now, what do you say? It's 7:20 am. Sunday, June 14th, do you think she'd be up by now?"

I raised my eyebrows and nodded. I watched as Peter ran into the house and back with a disposable cell.

I looked at my real phone. Pulled up her number, and she answered on the first ring.

"Izzy, I thought you'd never get back to me." To say I was shocked…

"Ava?"

"Oh, sweetie, it's alright. Mark told me what happened in Washington. I'd just had a feeling about you and your father that he was wrong. You've got too special a soul for this world to lose."

"How?"

I was so stunned that I was talking in one-word sentences. Her laugh filled a place inside that, until this moment, I didn't know I needed to fill.

"Sweetie, just call it a good guess…"

"Now, I'm glad you called. I have a few things that you need to know."

She knew things that I needed to know. What the hell?

"You sound as if you've always known I was going to be… what I am?"

"Vampire! Say it, Izzy. You're not going to scare an old woman like me off by speaking your truths." and she laughed again.

"Tell me what you need from me. I'm an open book. But remember, I need to talk to you as well. So don't go off on a tangent I can't recover from."

"I've got a list here. Do you want me to start?"

"Shot!"

"Did you help a girl like I was in 1939?"

"Honey, I'm old but not that old. My mother was making the antidotes then." Her voice sounded sad.

"In 1939, I was five years old. Momma had been brewing up her stuff since gran quit doing it in the early 1910s. Like I'll pass my knowledge to my granddaughter.'

"I didn't think you'd ever had any kids?"

"Not my biological children, no. But Mark, my nephew, has a daughter. She and her father are as good as mine since I've helped raise them both."

I couldn't fight her on that one.

"Anyway, momma left her log book to me. You know, back in the early 1900s, there weren't these fancy contraptions like computers…" I could hear going through some paperwork on the other end of the phone. "And these cell phones get smaller and smaller… Yeah, here we go."

"What names are you looking for?"

"Just one… a young girl from LaPush? Her name was Ruth Mehta…"

There was silence on the other end of the line, and I thought that she might have lost the connection or hit a button.

"Ava… Are you still there?" I heard her softly crying into the phone.

"Ava… are you alright? Talk to me." I was standing up. Readying to run the almost 400 miles that separated us. I was doing the math in my head and came up with the idea that I'd be there in less than 2 hours. "Should I call someone to come and help you? Do you want me to come up there?"

I'd do it too. It would take everyone here, including my dad, holding me back.

"Noo, sweetie. It's just that I haven't heard that name in many years… brings back some bad memories, that's all. Just give me a second."

I could hear her softly blowing her nose and whispering a little prayer as I waited. I retook my seat and lit up another smoke.

I could hear her as she put the phone back up to her ear. Her poor heart was about to beat out of her chest.

"Ava, you're breathing too hard. Take deep breaths in and out slowly for me, please. There ya go… Slow it down… In… out…"

"Do we need to get off of here and call Mark?" I'd risk it.

"No. No…" So I waited some more. "I don't need the log book for this one… My momma had helped that poor girl. She was young… really young. She talked about her new husband. She never mentioned his real name… Someone from her family was originally from the Makah tribe. They had heard of what my mother and grandmother could do…"

She stopped talking and took a deep breath. "After she'd been married for less than a month, she snuck away from her husband and somehow ended up here in Texas… Her skin was still yellowed from the bruises he'd left on her face. My mother made the antidote without even questioning the girl. Ruth… She took it, and we never saw or heard from her again…"

"That's when everything went in the toilet. In early February 1940, we were outside beating the rugs. I don't believe mom ever saw it coming. A tall young man walked up to Mom and just snapped her neck as my brother, and I watched. We were too stunned to even move… I watched as momma hit the dirty ground…"

"The man walked right up to us. He bent down and said, "Tell anyone about this, and I'll come back to end you both."

I didn't know what to say. I was at a total loss for words.

"Izzy, are you there?" Ava sounded so timid.

"Yeah… I'm still here… Ava… I don't eve…"

"Don't go there, Izzy. This wasn't your fault." I had to swallow the lump in my throat.

"Do you know who that man was?"

"Yes. I believe we do." I was looking at my family. "Ava, I'm so sorry." I was overwhelmed. "Quil, that's that man's name," I said after a beat.

"There's something that you need to know… John Pompey, do you remember him?"

"Yes, he was the guy that headed the committee meeting back in Forks."

"He knows sweetie. Mark said he'd told you that some people officiating that meeting knew about the wolves… Well, John knows about the man who ended my mom's life. He knows about the wolves as well. I have a question for you, though."

"Ask me anything."

"Does the man still live? And now that I think about it, who killed all of the shifters of LaPush?"

"Yes, he's still alive. My friends saved me and my dad that day in Forks. He's a vampire. Lives kind of close to you… he"

"Blonde-headed, his wife has a beautiful smile. Patrick? No… Peter? Yes, that sounds right."

"Do Mark and John know about me and Dad?"

"Who do you think helped distract the bureaucratics and the ABC boys while you left a mess all over Washington state?"

"Ava, how do you know all of this stuff? Vampires guard their existence very carefully."

"Well, it helps that vampires aren't the only ones with fortune tellers. Come and see me sometime soon…" I heard her laugh as she hung up the phone.

"Well, shit!" I was staring at the cell.

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