Luminosity (Book One)

Chapter 29: Things Left Behind

I was wandering through the vicinity of Nashville, taking an uninhabited route to avoid being seen in the sun. I was starting to get a little thirsty, and my necklace and rings were on my locket chain, where they were less likely to be damaged by the one-sided fight between me and a coyote if I happened across one. When I went over a shallow rise, I saw him, clearly a vampire, from a few hundred feet away.

It took me longer than it should have to recognize him. He was alone, for one thing; no Alice. His outfit was nothing like the style that had been typical of Jasper before. When he was facing away from me, the hair was enough to make him look Jasperlike in spite of that - it was a little shaggier than I'd last seen, but the right color and type. But when he turned around, having heard my approach, his eyes were red.

Figuring I'd been mistaken, and this vampire merely resembled Jasper, I stepped forward. I would have needed to run from Jasper before being recognized, lest he get in touch with the family and let them know I was alive. A stranger, on the other hand, I could interact with in relative safety. I hadn't encountered another nomad in all my wandering, but imagined it was customary for me to find out what this vampire's territory was so I could keep out of it or arrange to peaceably pass through.

By the time I was close enough to see the web of scars on his face, and understand that it wasn't just some doppelganger, it was too late: he'd had the chance to see through my new hairdo.

"Bella," I heard him growl.

"No," I lied, and then I turned to run. I had a head start and I retraced the steps I'd taken, so I wouldn't be caught off guard by strange terrain. It took him almost twenty minutes to catch me. But catch me he did.

He took my arm off, easily, still the consummate handler of newborns. Holding it hostage, he sprang back. "Bella," he said again, keeping out of my reach as I lunged for my limb and hissed at the pain.

"Give it back." I looked him in the eye - what had he and Alice been doing? What would have possessed them to return to eating humans?

Where was she?

"No," he drawled, voice full of his native Southern accent. "I could use some news from home and you don't seem so inclined to give it."

"I don't have any. Give me my arm." I looked at the limb, trying to use vision instead of confused kinesthetic sensation to make it attack him; it just flailed wildly. I couldn't even tell if I was really controlling it or if it was just twitching on its own.

"You're looking rather well," he said. His tone was somehow harsh and languid at the same time. "The cancer patient look suits you."

I launched myself at him, trying to grab my arm away. I actually managed it, through some fluke or just the power I could still put behind a leap, and I took off one of his hands off in the process. I ran again once I was clear, licking the severed edge of my arm so it would seal properly and attaching it back to my shoulder. I flung Jasper's hand away, hoping to distract him, and kept running.

From what I could hear, he wasn't even going after his hand. He was just chasing me. "Bella, dear sister," he called. "It's only me, Alice isn't here to stop me now." What waswrong with him?

Where was Alice?

I asked him that: "Where is she?" I yelled, over my shoulder.

That stopped him in his tracks. "You don't know?" he asked, barely loudly enough for me to hear over the wind in my ears.

I stopped too, and looked over my shoulder. "No," I said.

"She's dead, Bella," he said, sounding so lost that it was like he wasn't a powerful, leonine fighter missing a hand and covered in proof of his ability to take me apart. "Alice is dead."