CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Bella's POV:
I haven't seen Jacob since he professed his love to me a week ago, and I broke my hand punching him in the face. Hermione, thank god, fixed my hand with a handy piece of magic, but I still have to wear the brace Carlisle gave me so the Cullens don't realize it's healed.
Hermione and Alice have officially started dating, and yesterday Alice decided to spring on me the fact that we're apparently going to have a graduation party, after finals, which are in only a few weeks- something Hermione's acutely aware of: in fact, it's turned my sister into a mad woman.
When I turned to Harry out of concern, he just assured me that it was totally normal behavior for her, and that she'd be fine once finals were over. I really didn't understand her fervor- she'd already graduated from the equivalent of high school, and this was merely supposed to be a bit of fun for her, a way to unwind and experience life outside the Wizarding world.
Hermione, as it turns out, doesn't understand my logic, and she nearly bit my head off when I tried speaking to her about it and gave me a colossal lecture about the importance of the high school finals.
Since then, I've officially decided her panic is contagious- because now I was starting to panic too.
It felt like time was rushing by and I had this massive pile of studying to do that I was terrified I wouldn't even get halfway through in the handful of weeks I had left before finals. I found myself seriously cursing the fact that even though it turned her into a mad-woman, Hermione clearly inherited the studying genes and family smarts.
-
When I came down for breakfast on Monday morning, Charlie was already gone and Hermione was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal, with her nose buried in the newspaper. Hearing movement, she jerked her head up, and I was surprised to see her face was tight with stress. "What's the matter?" I asked her, surprised, and she pushed the paper in front of me. I frowned as I caught sight of the thick black headline, of the front-page story.
SEATTLE TERRORIZED BY SLAYINGS! SECOND SERIAL KILLER AT WORK?
With police already hunting for the unknown serial killer dubbed 'The Green River Killer' a beleaguered Seattle must face the possibility that it could be harboring a second and even more horrifying monster at this very moment.
The police have stated that they do not believe the recent rash of homicides and disappearances to be the work of the Green River Killer, though they have yet to confirm or deny that they believe it to be a second serial killer. Sources say that this is because they are reluctant to believe so much carnage could be the work of one individual. This killer- if, in fact, it is one person- would then be responsible for 39 linked homicides and disappearances within the last three months alone! In comparison, the approximate 50 deaths police have linked to the Green River Killer have spanned over the last nearly 20 years.
While the Green River Killer is preying on female prostitutes, the selection for these new murders appears random. The motive seems to be killing for no other reason than to kill.
As I scanned through the horrifying article detailing bodies so badly mutilated that only dental records could be used to identify them, the sick feeling in my stomach grew and grew. It actually took me three attempts to read the last sentence, and I realized the problem was how badly my hands were trembling.
Only one conclusion is indisputable: a new, second monster is stalking Seattle.
Yes, a monster is stalking Seattle. And only Hermione, myself, the Cullens and other vampires know exactly what that monster is.
"Bella?" I was so focused, Edward's touch made me jump, sucking in a startled breath. I hadn't even realized he'd walked into the house, and my heart was beating too fast. Hermione scowled at Edward over her coffee, and an apologetic expression crossed his face. "I'm sorry, did I startle you?" he asked. In answer, I hold up the newspaper.
"Have you seen this?" I ask, in a soft, pained voice. A frown creased his forehead.
"I haven't seen today's news yet, but I knew it was getting worse. We're going to have to do something... quickly." He said.
"No shit." Hermione hissed angrily under her breath, before getting to her feet and stalking into the kitchen to refill her cup. Edward shot her a look I couldn't decipher, before turning to me.
"Did you have a strong desire to attend class today?" He asked.
"I think we can live without school for the day." I say, ignoring Hermione's acidic;
"You do realize it's almost finals?"
"What are we doing?" I ask.
"We're going to have a chat with Jasper." Edward said, simply.
"And we can't do this, I don't know, over the phone? Or after class?" Hermione demands, striding over so she's face to face with Edward. I grab her hand.
"Hermione, it's one day, and this could be really important!" I tell her. She shoots us both a truly spectacular glare, before nodding shortly.
"Let's go now, then." She basically orders, "if we get this over quick enough, we might get to school in time for the last few classes." I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her, until she's turned her back. Edward tries not to smile.
We went in Hermione's new car, at her insistence, so that she could drive to school afterwards. By the time we'd arrived at the Cullen's house, we found Carlisle, Maggie and Jasper watching the news intently. As we walked in, Emmett ambled through the kitchen door, seeming perfectly at ease. Nothing ever bothered Emmett, I thought, amused.
"Why, am I seeing what I think I am? Hermione Granger-Swan is ditching?" He mock-gasped, "And here was me thinking I'd seen everything!" Hermione gave him a truly dark scowl, and Alice blurs into the room, and wraps her arms around Hermione.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure we catch up on anything we miss." The small vampire promises Hermione. Hermione relaxes, somewhat, and kisses Alice, gently, on the lips. Alice tangles her fingers in Hermione's hair, deepening the kiss. Neither of them seem to mind the audience. Emmett wolf-whistles, and Edward just quirked his mouth into a slight smile, and then and tossed the paper to Carlisle, face going serious again.
"Did you see they're considering a serial killer now?" He asked. Carlisle sighed in response.
"They've had to specialists debating that possibility on CNN all morning."
"We can't let this go on." Edward says.
"Let's go now!" Emmett says, with sudden enthusiasm, "I'm dead bored!" A loud hiss echoed down the stairway from upstairs. "She's such a pessimist." Emmett muttered, and Hermione struggled to hide her smile. Rosalie appeared at the top of the stairs and descended slowly, her face smooth and expressionless.
"We'll have to go sometime." Edward said, in a heavy voice. Carlisle shook his head.
"I'm concerned. We've never involved ourselves in this kind of thing before. It's not our business. We aren't the Volturi." Hermione visibly stiffens at this, and her fierce glare is turned on Carlisle. I wince for him.
"Whether or not you are the Volturi, it's not fair for all those innocent humans in Seattle," she just about snarls, her voice as cold as ice, "and I'm assuming you don't want the Volturi coming down here with Bella still human." She adds. Edward basically cringes at this, opens his mouth to say something, and then turns his head sharply in Jasper's direction.
"Oh!" He exclaims, voice sharp, shocked. "I didn't think of that. You're right. You're definitely right. This changes everything." I wasn't the only one looking at him in confusion, but I think I was the only one who didn't look annoyed. "I think you better explain to the others." Edward told Jasper.
Alice frowned from where she still was wrapped around Hermione. "What is he rambling about, Jasper?" She demanded, "What are you thinking?" Jasper didn't appear to enjoy the spotlight, and Maggie flitted over to his side, threading her fingers through his.
His gaze moved from Maggie's, slowly around the circle, before meeting mine. "I don't think Edward has ever told you about my past." He says, in a soft voice. I try not to squirm uncomfortably.
"Um, no." I admit. He smiles, softly.
"I'm not surprised. It's not the nicest part of vampire history. Quite the opposite, in fact." Across the room, I note Hermione's eyes sharpen on Jasper, and I can basically see the gears moving in her brain. I think back over the vampire books she gave me, trying to figure out what Jasper might be talking about.
Jasper helps answer this for me, walking over to one of the lamps, rolling up his sleeve, and holding his wrist up close to the light of the naked bulb, tracing his finger across a raised crescent mark on his pale skin.
It took me a moment to understand why the shape looked strangely familiar. "Oh!" I breathed as realization hit. "Jasper, you have a scar exactly like mine." I held out my hand, the silvery crescent more prominent against my cream skin, than against his alabaster.
"I have a lot of scars like yours, Bella." He said, and his face was unreadable as he pushed the sleeve of his thin sweater up his arm. At first my eyes could not make sense of the texture that was layered thickly across his skin. Curved half moons crisscrossed in a feathery pattern that were basically impossible to make out on Jasper, just visible under the bright glow of the lamp.
I looked at my own solitary scar- and remembered how I'd received it. I stared at the shape of James' teeth, embossed forever on my skin. And then I looked up at Jasper, my eyes wide. "Jasper... what happened to you?" I breathed out, horrified.
"The same thing that happened to you," Jasper answered, his voice quiet, calm, "repeated a thousand times. Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar."
"How?" I breathed in horror, feeling rude, but unable to stop staring at his subtly ravaged skin.
"I didn't have quite the same upbringing as our adopted siblings." Jasper said, "my beginning was... it was something else entirely."
As Jasper spoke up, his story unfolding, I felt horror build up inside me. "The day I was changed, I was just nineteen." Jasper said, face grim. "After evacuating women and children from a battle site, I was riding back to Galveston, when I ran into three female vampires, whose names I learnt were Maria, Lucy and Nettie. They'd recently lost their respective territories to other covens, and were planning on building an army to win back their territories. Maria recognized from my suit that I was in the military and changed me into a vampire in hopes of utilizing my training and experience to create an efficient army.
"When I was first Turned there were six of us, later more were added. We were all male- Maria wanted soldiers. I was always quicker then the others, better at combat. Maria was pleased with me, and rewarded me more often, which made me stronger. She was a good judge of character, and decided to put me in charge of the others. It suited my nature exactly. The casualties went down dramatically and our numbers swelled to hover around twenty." He paused here. "I won't go into great detail, but the other newborns and I helped Maria reclaim her territory and later claimed dominance over others. Nettie and Lucy gained territories of their own, but when they, at one point, tried to rebel against Maria, they were killed." Here, he sighed again.
"Like you already know, Bella, Hermione, when I became a vampire, I gained the ability to feel and manipulate people's emotions. What you didn't know, was that it was very useful in controlling the younger newborns. The great strength of newborns begins to wane around the year mark, making them useless to Maria. She made me was responsible for disposing of them, something I felt a great deal of remorse about- thanks to my Gift, I could feel their pain when I killed them... just as much as I could feel the pain of all the humans I fed on." I had to suppress the urge to shudder, at this point, and tried to school my emotions so Jasper couldn't feel how horrified I was.
"Overtime, the pain and cruelty of such existence depressed me to no end. Decades later, I ended up befriending a newborn named Peter, whom I managed to persuade Maria to keep past his first few years, claiming it was because of his advanced combat skills, but really more for his kindred spirit. Peter was... civilized, in a way. He didn't enjoy the fight, though he was good at it. It was during the purge time, when I learnt about Charlotte. She was a newborn who I was supposed to kill, but instead he yelled at her to run, and he ran after her. I could have pursued them, but I didn't. I felt... lifted, I suppose, by the love Peter and Charlotte felt for each other. They had mated, you see, and kept it a secret as Maria didn't allow for mated pairs in her army.
"Five years later, Peter snuck back for me. He told me about his new life with Charlotte, told me about options I'd never dreamed I had. In five years they'd never had a fight, though they'd met many others in the north. Others who could co-exist without the constant mayhem. In one conversation, he had me convinced. And I returned with him to where he had been staying with Charlotte.
"But despite having left the South Wars, I was still depressed. Every time I fed, I felt the emotions of my victim, and my mood went on a downhill spiral. Eventually I left Peter and Charlotte, wandering around on my own for a while. And then in 1948, I went into a diner in Philadelphia, where I first met Alice and Maggie." Alice beamed, as her part in the story is brought up, and Maggie smiled warmly at her mate.
"I knew who Maggie was, the moment I saw her. The mating bond is... undeniable. And then Alice started speaking to me. As it turned out, Alice had run across Maggie and had a vision of her, with a tall vampire with honey-blond hair. Maggie always knows if someone is telling the truth, so when Alice told her that if she followed her she'd find her mate, Maggie followed. At first I was overwhelmed; I was puzzled by this vampire with bizarre eyes and odd, familiar behavior around me, and by this red-haired vampire, with amber-orange eyes who I could feel an intense pull towards." Jasper said, nudging Alice gently, "but nevertheless, their joyful emotions helped me greatly. As it turned out, they had been waiting for me for quite some time. Alice and Maggie took me outside and Alice told me about her visions, the ability to survive off animal blood, and of a coven in the Olympic who did so.
"I was skeptical, but her strange golden eyes provided proof that what she was saying just might be real, and Maggie believed her whole-heartedly, and I already knew I never wanted to leave Maggie, so for the next two years the three of us searched, with the aid of Alice's visions, for this mysterious coven, and eventually we joined them in 1950. I changed my surname of Whitlock to my adopted sister Rosalie's surname of 'Hale', so I could pose as her twin due to our physical similarities, and Alice and Maggie did the same, both adopting the surname Cullen, as Carlisle's nieces."
It takes me a few moments to realize why Jasper has revealed his tragic history, and when I do, when I manage to put the puzzle pieces together, my breath gets caught in my throat.
Because there's a vampire army in Seattle.