✓ | 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍, j. hale [1]

XIX. Darkness and Flames

It was painfully easy to slip away from Alice and Emmett unnoticed, as if this was how it was supposed to happen all along; nothing they did could have prevented them from losing their lives at the hands of James.

Evelyn and Bella had left only a moment after Bella had told James that they would meet him at the ballet studio. The girls left all of their belongings except for their phones and Bella's pepper spray in the room, and Evelyn led them down a back stairwell to hopefully give them more time before Emmett or Alice could figure out where they had gone. They had no clue if the pepper spray would be useful or not against a vampire, but Bella figured she should bring it, just in case.

They knew Alice would be in the lobby, so they exited the hotel from the maintenance entrance at the back and ran around the building to the valet and drop off area at the front. Evelyn was worried that they would have to wait for a cab, but just as they came to the front they saw a couple exiting a cab in front of the hotel. Knowing she was faster than her friend, Evelyn sprinted to the car and slid into the backseat before a family of four, who was waiting patiently at the hotel's front door, could enter first. All she could do was offer an apologetic look to them before Bella slid in next to her. She slammed the door immediately.

"Mimi's Ballet Studio, please. It's in Scottsdale, on Cactus," Bella told him.

"Scottsdale?" The cabbie complained, clearly annoyed at having to drive more than a few minutes away from the hotel. Evelyn rolled her eyes and held up a wad of twenties that Alice had given her.

"We need to get there as soon as possible." Her voice wasn't loud or demanding, but anyone could tell that she was deadly serious. She wished he would stop complaining and just go before Alice or Emmett saw them leave.

The cabbie nodded, conveniently swayed by the offer of money. "Sure, no problem." He quickly put the car in drive, and in seconds they were blending in with the busy street as the hotel disappeared in the rear view mirror.

Evelyn felt her fear bubbling up to the surface again, and she closed her eyes to try and prevent herself from throwing up. How many times had she been faced with death before this? She had never been this scared before, but maybe that was because she had somehow known that she would live. Today was the day that she was going to die, and this time, there would be no one there to save her.

She thought of Jasper, who would be arriving at the Phoenix airport ready to take her in his arms and whisk her away to safety in mere minutes. She wished she could have seen him one last time; their final moments at the Cullen house had truly been their last. She could just picture the agony on his face when he realized what she had done. Her chest throbbed at the thought of breaking his heart. Their love was far from perfect, but it was theirs, and Evelyn knew that even though her life would be cut short, she had been forever changed by Jasper Hale. She prayed that one day, when the pain subsided, he would find it in his heart to forgive her.

Evelyn knew Marie would be more than heartbroken when she found out, but if her death meant that Marie would get to live, she would do it over and over again without hesitation. Her aunt had become a mother, father, and friend to her all at once; she was her whole family, and she was going to do everything she could to protect her family.

They arrived at the studio much too soon, and with a deep breath Evelyn forced herself out of the car and into the artificial light of a nearby streetlamp. She gave the cab driver all of the money she had with her, which was way too much to have been the actual amount the they owed, but at this point it didn't matter. Nothing did. The sound of her heart drumming loudly in her ears was beginning to give her a headache as she and Bella stood outside of the studio.

"Evelyn, I'm so sorry about this. I wish you didn't have to be involved," Bella told her, her brown eyes sad and frightened as she looked into Evelyn's green ones.