Morning must have come, judging by the sounds I heard. I heard several people walk up and down the hallway, doors opening and closing, voices. I heard my door creak open and I tensed, then I felt a small hand stroke my hair, I looked up to see Alice.
“We’re getting ready to leave soon.”
I nodded.
“I think we’ll all feel better if you saw us off. Jasper especially, he’s been a mess all night.”
I nodded again, and let out a small “ok.” and followed Alice downstairs. I went out the front door, and towards the gathered Cullens, minus Jasper. I met all of their sympathetic faces. Alice was closest, so I hugged her first, and whispered, “Good luck!”
“I’ll see you in… two to three hours, give or take.” she said, confidently.
I smiled. Next was Edward and Bella since they had to leave.
“I’m so sorry for you, Brighton. This seems so unfair that I get to be with Edward, yet you can’t be with Jasper. I probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.” Bella whispered.
I think the Cullens pretended not to hear. Edward hugged me next, assuring me they’ll all be fine. After that, Carlisle and Esme. “We’ll see you soon, dear.” said Esme.
Then, Rosalie and Emmett. Rosalie gave me a loose hug, and smiled at me. Emmett was the complete opposite. He gave me a bone crushing hug, while saying, “I’ll look after him for you.”
I let out a muffled, “thank you.” Lastly, I turned to the door. Jasper stepped out, with a slight spring to his step. Seeing him caused my hand to fly to my mouth, and a choked sob to escape. He looked at me for a minute, then a second later his arms wrapped around me. I sobbed even more, my hands grasping his shirt.
“Shh… Brighton… I’ll be ok. We’ll all be ok.”
“How am I supposed to know? I won’t be there to keep an eye on you!” I wailed.
“Brighton, I’ll be fine, you’ll see me later. I’ve done this before.” Somehow these words didn’t comforted me, and I sobbed more. He buried his head in my hair, while I continued to sob, his hand rubbing my back. He let out a slight sigh and pulled me closer, before putting both hands on the side of my face.
“Brighton, look at me.”
He pushed my head back, taking his thumbs to rub the tears off my face.
“I love you.”
I stopped crying. Did he really say that, or was I hallucinating? I mean, it was always understood that Jasper and I loved each other, but neither of us had ever said it. Come to think of it, I don’t think he’s ever asked me to be his girlfriend either. I heard Edward laugh, but it seemed so far away.
I sniffed before saying, “I love you too.” My voice was still shaky and wobbly.
A smile spread across his face, causing one to form on mine as well. He kissed me, before leaning back.
“I love you. I’ll see you later.”
My frown came back, but I nodded. He walked me back to the front door of the house, and kissed me one last time, before letting a devilish smile appear on his face. He jogged back to his family, who all waved to me, then they all ran off at lightening quick speed.
I went back inside, feeling as if I had been trodden on. I didn’t know what to do, the house was silent, something I’ve never experienced at the Cullen house before. I flicked on the TV, but found I was too distracted to pay attention. Frustrated, I threw down the remote, and went upstairs.
I went through Carlisle, Jasper, and Edward’s extensive libraries. I love libraries, they always seem to calm me down. Anyways, I found a thick 500 page book about medicine in Carlisle’s. I finished it in an hour, but I couldn’t tell you what it was specifically about.
I paced. I don’t think I have ever paced this much in my life. A million thoughts ran through my mind, all focusing down to, what should I do? What should I do? What should I do?
“Right.” I said to myself, and went downstairs, and out the door. I ran towards the clearing, trees blurring in my peripheral vision. Following Jasper’s scent, I reached the clearing. I passed through the last line of trees, and was stunned by the sight. It was hard to believe that this was the baseball clearing, I had been at a few days ago. Bodies laid strewn everywhere, mainly, body parts, dismembered heads littered the ground. The dogs and the Cullens were doing well… I hope. What if that arm had belonged to someone who was precious to me?
I searched for someone I knew, but it was hard, people were blurs, except for the hairy things flying through the air, large teeth snapping at their vampire opponents. One newborn had caught my scent, his red eyes pierced my gold ones, he slowly came towards me. I instinctively crouched down and snarled. The young vampire launched himself at me, I moved quickly to the side, and caught him off guard, snapping his neck, and then decapitating it.
I saw Alice, twisting and turning, fooling the vampire she was fighting with every step. In a blink, she had overpowered her and killed her. She saw me and smiled, running towards me.
“Brighton! About time! We’re doing fine, but we could use the extra help. I was going to go get you, but then I saw your decision. Last time I checked Jasper was over there.” she said pointing to the other side of the clearing.
“Thanks Alice!” She nodded, and ran back to continue fighting.
Esme was in a rare state, her fangs showing, looking menacing. She was busy fighting, and didn’t see the other one approaching from behind her. I knew she was more than capable of handling it, she would realize him, eventually, but I decided to help anyways, wanting desperately to fight.
I raced to the vampire, punching him in the stomach, then jumping on him, bring him to the ground, before killing him.
“Thank you, dear.” breathed Esme, “I just saw Jasper over there.” She pointed into the same direction as Alice.
I nodded, running that way, stopping once to fight again, while fighting I caught a glimpse of Jasper. He was quick, able to analyze a whole situation, and act upon it. He still hadn’t seen me yet, which was good. I wasn’t quite ready to deal with him… yet. I started running again. Emmett was teasing the vampire he was fighting, hitting him, then moving before the vampire could react, a huge smile on his face.
“Play nice, Emmett!” I shouted, as I ran past. His huge, booming laughs echoed off the mountains.
I came to a halt, watching Jasper speed around the newborn. I heard his snarls and growls as he and the vampire fought, blocking his hits. It was painful to hear, I was itching to go and help him, but knew I couldn’t. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two newborns skulking towards him. I crouched down, eying them, tensing my muscles, and then leaning slightly back on my feet, and sprung. I landed on the one on the left, breaking his neck in the process. I turned to take care of the other one, but met the face of Jasper instead.
“Brighton!” he snarled. It was horrific.
“I’m sorry but…” I broke off to fight the vampire advancing behind him. I had a new found confidence that I never really had before when fighting Jasper. These newborns seemed to be easy to take down, than what Jasper was, but then again, he had a century of practice. We turned around to face each other again.
“But, I couldn’t stay there, and plus, Alice said I would be helpful.” I rushed all of this out before I would be interrupted again.
“We’ll talk about this later!” he snarled, before going after a vampire that must have been coming behind me, “I wish you didn’t come, now I have to worry about you, as well as the rest of the family! What were you thinking?”
“Fine!” I shouted, before smirking at a vampire coming towards me. I stood there, while sending my thoughts into her head, startling her.
“Are you going to kill me now?” I asked.
“Yes.” she snarled, wondering how I did that.
I slightly shook my head back and forth.
“I don’t think so.” I said.
“Brighton! Don’t tease them, just do it!” yelled Jasper.
We both sprung at each other. She was quick, but I was quicker, and had thrown several punches at her. Our snarls were all I could hear, I had her constantly spinning. Then I appeared, as if out of thin air, in front of her face, she slightly stepped back. “Boo!” I whispered, then grabbed her face, and broke her neck, and killing her.
I took a quick survey of the scene around me. Our numbers were small, but with the help of the wolves we had eliminated the majority of the newborns, only a handful were left, it wouldn’t be too much longer until they would be dead.
I caught a scent, unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. A musty perfume, that would have probably given me a headache at one time. The imaginary wheels in my mind clicked.
“Victoria…” I hissed.
I took one quick look at the clearing again, everything seemed to be going okay. I broke into a run, dodging vampires and wolves, and started climbing the mountain.
“Oh no.” I whispered.
Bella. She had found Bella.
I pushed myself to run faster. I arrived at Edward and Bella’s camp site. My suspicions had been confirmed. Bella was backed against the side of the mountain, while the young wolf, Seth, I think, fought against a young male.
Her wild, red hair was unmistakable, flying around, as she was fighting Edward. She shoved him, making him fly back quite a distance, then turned to me.
“I should have known.” she hissed.
“Yes, you should have. Big mistake on your part.” I snarled.
I sprung at her, and her towards me. Our bodies met with a loud crack, causing it to reverberate against the mountains. My punches were weak, but I was only keeping her distracted from the quiet Edward, enclosing her from the behind. He grabbed one of her arms, breaking it off as if she was a Barbie doll.
“Away from Bella.” he murmured.
I nodded, and we moved into the woods. Her eyes were wide, knowing she was going to die. Edward went to break her neck, further immobilizing her, before killing her. I grabbed his arm, he stepped back, letting me take over. I grabbed a fist full of her hair, and bent down so I could whisper into her ear.
“Thank you.” Then, I yanked my arm down.
Edward took over from there, wanting at least one kill, during this fight, he would gain more satisfaction in this than I would. We gathered the body parts, and threw them into a pile, before lighting then. I watched the flames dance around, entranced by the moving colors, while Edward went to comfort Bella.
Hoping they would be done, I went back to them. Edward’s face was slightly contorted.
“What’s wrong?” My lips moving fast, and low so Bella couldn’t hear.
“Jacob.” he replied in the same way.
“What happened?”
“He got bitten, going to save Leah Clearwater. Bella hasn’t figured it out yet, so keep quiet.”
I nodded quickly, before we both broke into a run down the mountain. Seth had already bolted, Edward informed me that the Volturi were coming. Edward and I conversed while running, as if this were a leisurely jog.
“You do know Jasper is practically shouting?” Edward asked, “You’re in huge trouble, I mean huge.”
I winced, “Is it really that bad?”
“Well, he desperately wants to either slam you into a tree, or shake you till you come to your senses, but won’t because…” Edward smiled, “he can’t bear to see one scratch on your beautiful face.”
Bella glared at him. Edward shrugged slightly, “His words, not mine.”
Bella’s expression froze into fearing one, her face turning white. She had pieced together what Edward told her. She was intelligent, but slightly delayed.
I stopped abruptly, “Edward she knows, look.” I nodded to her white face.
“Jacob?” she whispered. Edward slowly nodded. She then went limp in his arms. Edward grew worried, and placed her gently on the ground.
“Move.” I said. Good Lord, all she did was faint. I leaned down to pick her up before Edward protested. I ran quickly, so Edward wouldn’t kill me. He caught up with me, before we reached the clearing, and grabbed my arm.
“Let me have her.”
“No.”
We emerged from the woods, into the clearing, arguing, causing the whole Cullen family to look at us.
“Brighton, let me have her.”
“No, you’ll overreact.”
Carlisle was at my side immediately, “What happened?”
“She fainted, I used to have fainting spells a lot when I was a kid, she’ll come to in a few minutes.” I assured Edward, before gauging his reaction, and placing her into his arms. I stepped back, allowing the rest of the family to go to Bella.
I turned around, looking for Jasper, he was crouched down, next to a fire, similar to the one Edward and I had made, except slightly bigger. I was dying to go run up to him, to touch him again, make sure he was ok, but was hesitant because of the trouble I was in.
Bella came to, like I said, I ignored their conversation, focusing more on Jasper. Why was he crouched? A loud, audible gasp escaped from my lips, it was a child! I almost began to step forward to tell Jasper off for scaring her, when I saw her eyes, this was no child. Her eyes stood out, shining a bright crimson.
I listened to Edward explain while still watching Jasper and the little girl, “She surrendered.”
Jasper rubbed his arm, my heart broke, he was hurt. I slowly walked towards Jasper. The girl screamed, as if throwing a tantrum. Jasper growled, causing her to shy away, then she began thrashing. I was by Jasper, crouched down, within a second, Carlisle came up behind me. Carlisle asked if she changed her mind.
“How can you stand it? I want her.” her child like voice, screamed.
I snarled, Carlisle placed a hand on my shoulder. I slowly rose, going to stand next to Jasper, his jaw set, and lips together in a thin straight line. I was at an odds what to do. Should I acknowledge him, or continue to ignore him? Just exactly how mad was he?
I didn’t get to decide, because Jasper grabbed my arm, roughly, and began pulling me back. We formed a line in front of Edward, Alice, and Bella. Well, I tried to, but Jasper shoved me back, and when I went to step back forward, he let out a low growl, so I pretty much stayed put, not wanting to upset him anymore.
Hooded figures, slowly made their way towards us, as they appeared out of a mist.
“Welcome Jane.” Edward said.
“I don’t understand.” said the woman, who must be Jane, to Edward.
“She surrendered.” Edward said, as if it were obvious.
Jane’s head snapped to Edward’s position. “Surrendered?”
“Carlisle gave her the option.”
“There are no options for those who break the rules.” she said, slightly reprimanding us.
Carlisle spoke in his calm, hypnotic voice, defending the girl.
“That is irrelevant.” Jane’s voice was clipped.
“As you wish.” Carlisle sighed.
I was surprised as much as this Jane person, but I must say, I did a better job at hiding it. They began talking about a man named Aro. Who was he? He seemed to be a friend of Carlisle’s. How could Carlisle be friends with these people? Jane then asked how many there were.
“Eighteen, including this one.” Carlisle replied.
She seemed shocked, “Eighteen?”
“All brand new. They were unskilled.” Carlisle continued.
“Who was their creator?” she asked.
“Her name was Victoria.” came Edward’s slightly, tired voice.
“Was?” She’s good, I would have never had caught that. Edward nodded towards the smoke hanging in the mountains.
“Who dealt with the creator?”
“I did.” came Edward’s prompt reply. No way was he doing this alone.
“As did I.” I spoke up, my voice unrecognizable. Jasper looked at me, eyebrows raised in question.
“Who are you? I’ve never heard about you with the Cullens before?”
“My name is Brighton Montgomery. I was turned over a year ago.”
“By whom?” her voice sickingly sweet.
“Victoria…” At the mention of her name searing, aching pain shot all over my body, causing my eyes to roll back, and my knees to slightly buckle. I grabbed the closest thing next to me, which happened to be Jasper’s hand and squeezed, tightly.
“She turned me before this, as a sort of revenge, but didn’t complete the transformation…” I slowly said, trying to focus on the words instead of the pain.
“You can stop that!” Edward demanded, but the pain didn’t let up.
I continued, “The process was finished by the Cullens.” My voice came out evenly, but the Cullens weren’t fooled by my act. I saw the worried glances of Alice and Esme.
The pain let up as she turned to interrogate the girl. The little girl spilled the plan, in hopes of being saved. I kept my gaze straight ahead, still tensed, in case the pain came back. Carlisle, again, tried to save the girl. It didn’t work. Apparently, you do not break rules with the Volturi, I’ll have to remember that. No wonder Jasper didn’t want to tell me about them. In my mind I was pleading for them to leave. I hoped no one but Edward could read minds, otherwise I’m screwed.
“Take care of that Felix. I want to go home.” Jane lazily said.
The little girl screamed, realizing her fate, then was quickly torn apart, and burnt. Then the Volturi disappeared into the growing dark mist, that had brought them.
Unable to fight off the mental exhaustion anymore, I dropped to my knees. Jasper was at my side shaking me yelling, “Brighton! Brighton!”
I looked up at him, my eyes dead, then everything came down on me.
“Oh my God!” I hugged him, “You’re alive! I mean, I knew you were but…” I cut myself off, realizing I was rambling. I started kissing his face.
“Are you sure you’re ok? Are you hurt?” I asked between kisses. “Your arm? Is it ok? I grabbed it, and saw the teeth marks in his skin, slowly fading, I ran my fingers over them, he flinched.
“Sorry.” I mumbled.
He laughed, the sound was lovely, deep and thick, like molasses… or something. He buried his face in my neck.
“I’m really sorry…” I started, “but I was going insane inside the house, not knowing anything…”
“We’ll talk about it later.” he muttered, “Right now, let me enjoy the face that you’re ok.”
I looked up to see the rest of the Cullen family smiling warmly at out reunion.
“Come on.” he said, while getting up, the holding out his hand, “Let’s go home.”
I smiled and grasped it, standing up with a slight bounce. As we began walking to the edge of the clearing, I grinned widely, remembering earlier.
“What?” he asked.
“I love you.” I replied.
He put his arm around my shoulders, and pulled me into him. “I love you too.”
We broke apart to run the rest of the way home, I kept glancing back to Jasper, watching his face fall. I knew what he was thinking, what would he have done, if something had happened to me. By the time we got home, his good mood was gone. Everyone else was waiting for us. Alice and Esme hugged me tightly.
“I was so worried when Jane started attacking you!” Esme breathed.
“As you can see, I pulled through, I’m fine Esme.” I said, lightly patting her shoulder.
“Brighton, upstairs.” Jasper quietly said.
I looked to Alice, she smiled a weak smile. I grimaced. I followed Jasper up the stairs to his room, taking my time, not really wanting to have the conversation. He closed the door behind me, as I entered.
“Brighton, what were you thinking?” he said, exasperated.
“I was thinking that I couldn’t stay in this house, knowing that you were in danger.”
“It was dangerous! Do have any idea how more worried I was after you got there?”
“Stop trying to guilt trip me, Jasper.” I inaudibly said.
“I’m not trying to, but maybe I should, so you don’t do something stupid like that again!”
“Shut up Jasper! I was needed, and I would have ended up there anyways because Alice was going to come and get me. If I wasn’t there, it would have taken longer, and you didn’t have the time with the Volturi coming!” I shouted.
I don’t know if it was the slight, near death experience or what, but our lips met together forcefully, and we ended up falling down onto the bed.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again!” he panted.
“I can’t make any guarantees.” I said, before pulling him back towards me.
“I say they’ve pretty much forgiven each other!” laughed a voice, that I recognized to be Emmett’s.
“Emmett, go away!” I yelled, he laughed, as usual, Emmett found a lot of things funny.
I looked at Jasper, leaning back to kiss him again, but he pulled back. I pouted.
“I believe I have a question to ask you.” he said.
“What?” I was confused.
“Brighton, will you be my girlfriend?”
“How did you… oh, Edward.”
He nodded, “So?”
“No.”
“What!” he shouted.
I laughed, “God, Jasper, I’m just kidding. Of course I want to be your girlfriend!”
He smiled, and laid his head down next to mine. Emmett had pretty much killed the mood now. I’ll have to kill him later. Right now, I was too content to get up.