A Life Worth Dying For: Book Two: Two's More Than Company - Alice and Jasper

The missing puzzle piece

I decided I should tell Jasper about my knowledge of his friends. I presumed he would be happy to know we would meet them.

I was right he was thrilled. He asked me if it was possible for me to find them, bring the friends a pleasant surprise.

We stopped during the brightest part of the day. I reckoned we were near to Michigan, we could walk so much faster than the humans.

The weather wasn’t as sunny as it had been when I had first woken. It was better this way. I was thinking of persuading Jasper to let us go amongst the humans soon. I needed new clothes and he could do with some as well. He had been wearing the same stuff for nearly 100 years, it was defiantly time to hit the shops.

I tried my best to search for Jasper when we stopped but it wasn’t easy, they had moved around since the last time I saw them and were about to move further North again, they were miles ahead of us.

Jasper no longer treated our walking as a mission and our questions as an interrogation. He was beginning to enjoy my company. It felt good to feel his happiness.

I wasn’t sure if he knew but I picked up on his emotions, if we were close to each other I could feel little transmissions from him, I guessed it was a sure sign we were made to be with each other- in more ways than to just be friends.

He watched me with hunger in his eyes. I knew he wanted to get closer to me, but he was shy and unsure and I wouldn’t dishonour him by making the first move myself- I’d thought of doing it many times, believe me!

We were just on the edge of Michigan, the north border into Canada when I had a warning vision.

I saw the area we were heading into and another vampire. This man reminded me of something like a scorpion. He had wide crimson eyes that are like two rubies. His thick, straight, obsidian hair is medium-length and is worn in a utilitarian style. He's got a beard and moustache. He is short and has an average build with a little less muscle than Jasper. He is dressed with clothing found on an early American settler.

I became aware during this vision that Jasper had become considerably closer to me. He ever so gently lifted my little hand with his and stroked his thumb over the top of it. I could feel his eyes burrowing into me.

The moment my eyes opened he dropped my hand but he noticed my smile and realized he had been caught. He looked away shyly, and said nothing.

“We are entering another vampire’s territory. We’ll have to be careful,” I warned but continued walking.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Jasper cautioned jogging after me to catch up; (despite my size I have been told I have quite a speedy gait) I nodded.

“It looks safe and if we are going to get to Peter and Charlotte then we have to keep this speed up if we get there before they start to move again,” I muttered quickly.

Reluctantly Jasper followed anyway, I wasn’t lying when I’d said he would never stop following me. Soon we were on the border between America and Canada.

“A place I’ve only ever read about,” Jasper whispered as we came up against the border.

To a human the border was almost impossible to notice without it being sign posted but we could smell the difference, the way we could every few states. Each race of people had a different scent- not to be confused with their blood type- that made it clear we were entering a place heavy with Canadians, i.e. Canada.

The time of year made its self less obvious here, it was either cold or snowy for a large part of the year, but then again the summers could be marginally warmer.

I was no longer sure about temperature, I didn’t need to be. At this time the air smelt cold, very cold there was ice covering some parts of the ground but no signs of snow yet. The weather matched exactly the weather we had just came through.

I knew from what I’d seen that snow would soon arrive, the first snow that both Jasper and myself  had ever seen.

We walked for miles through dark forest, talking again about what Jasper knew and remembered from his previous lives.

The scent caught after ten miles or so. The scent of the other vampire was stronger than I had expected. I was thrown into another vision. The other vampire had been hunting and caught our scent. He was very territorial and wanted rid of us entiertly.

But the time I re-awoke it was clear there wasn’t enough time for us to get away.

“I’m sorry, he found us,” I told Jasper.

He froze, staring at me, he blinked.

The sound of a vicious growl rose behind us, Jasper turned faster than I could. He was in front if me in less than a blink of an eye. At the same moment the other vampire entered the clearing. He saw Jasper’s possessive crouch and sunk back himself, he bared yellowed teeth and snarled something in French.

Jasper lunged at him, the other vampire was happy to join the fight for space.

If Jasper lost the battle we would likely be killed, I tried to keep him back but that prove impossible, he ripped out of my grasp, tearing the waist of his shirt in his haste. I watched as the male threw himself at Jasper. I growled myself, it was the first time I had let Jasper see that I wanted to protect him as much as he did me.

The two boys became a blur, barely visible like water on the windscreen during a hurricane. The raindrops lunged at each other then dived back out the way. They jumped back and over.

They growled, competing for dominence like lions over a pride. The guttural cries rang out over each other like howler monkeys. I imagined it was fascinating to watch but I was on edge ever second, I wanted to help but knew Jasper would never let me near them. I watched with my breath held tight in my chest every time the unknown vampire got near Jasper. I had to keep my jaw tight, keeping my impossibly sharp teeth behind my lips.

Mr. Anonymous was on him. I saw his lips peal back and his unclean pallid teeth inched towards the skin, his eye-teeth pierced the material of Jaspers shirt and began to plunge into him. I snarled, bearing my teeth and ran at him. I stopped when Jaspers tactics flashed into my mind. He had escaped the grip of  the vampire and was now back with me, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me down so my chest was flat on his muscular shoulders. He continued to bare his teeth and slowly walked backwards, keeping me right behind him. As soon as we were into the edge of the trees he let go of me and told me to run, and keep running till we were out of his territory.

I did as he asked kept going for as long as I could.

Once we were off the territory, and only then did I see the superficial damage and the missing puzzle piece was revealed.