What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
I DONT OWN ANYTHING
by Kristen Elizabeth
Everything he thought he knew about hell was wrong.
Hell wasn't a burning purgatory like the sermons of his youth had claimed. Hell wasn't a blood-soaked battlefield strewn with the twisted bodies of your friends and enemies in grey and blue. Hell wasn't the excruciating burn of a vampire's venom as it slowly killed what had made you human. Hell wasn't even denying yourself the one thing in the world that would ever truly sate your thirst.
Hell, Jasper now knew, was seeing the beautiful, irreplaceable, supposedly indestructible woman you loved lying unconscious on the very bed in which you'd made love to her only hours earlier.
Frozen with both hands braced on either side of doorway, it was all Jasper could do to keep from tearing the frame away from the wall. "Alice," was the only word he could form.
"I don't know what's happened to her." Standing over Alice's unearthly pale, absolutely still body, Edward answered Jasper's unspoken question. "But she's still here...somewhere. She's not..."
The wood beneath Jasper's hands splintered under the pressure of his angry grip. "Don't even think it," he snarled. Before Edward could reply, Jasper was kneeling at the side of the bed. "Alice?" He took her cold hand between his, as if he had body heat that might warm it. "Alice, open your eyes, darlin'. Please..." Jasper swallowed heavily. "Just open your eyes."
He felt a hand on his shoulder, too large to be Esme's. "Jasper." Carlisle's voice was quiet, but firm. "Let me look at her."
But he couldn't move, couldn't let go of her. What if he released her and she slipped away? What if she never opened her eyes again? How could any of them just expect him to trust them with the most important thing in his world? What did he have to live for if he didn't have Alice?
"Jasper, please." A much smaller hand gently touched his other shoulder. Esme leaned down, surrounding him with the faint scent of flowers. Her hair was soft against his cheek as she gently urged him to his feet. "He'll take care of her," she murmured. "We love her, too."
Just as their fingers had remained entwined until the last second that morning, Jasper held Alice's delicate hand until he'd backed up too far from the bed and could no longer hold on. Her arm dropped back to her side as Carlisle took his place and began examining her.
"Tell us exactly what happened, Edward," he asked his son.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I couldn't see anything. It was like her mind was a blank slate. In class, she was...she just started screaming. And then she just...collapsed." Frustrated, he plunged his hands into his hair, ruining its careful styling. "I know it sounds impossible, but she was in pain, Carlisle. Real pain."
Esme held onto Jasper as he tried to jerk forward, desperate to reach Alice again. "Shh," she tried to soothe him. But the anguish he projected was palpable; she could feel despair seeping into her heart.
As gently as he could, Carlisle pried Alice's eyelid open, revealing nothing but dull yellow without a spark of life. What can I possibly do for her?
Edward stared at him. "There has to be something," he said out loud.
But what? Carlisle reached for her wrist. She has no pulse to check, no breath to maintain, no reflexes to test. She's quite literally a dead body.
"Maybe that's all some of us are," Edward said quietly. "But not her."
"Stop it!" Despite the woman's strength, Jasper pushed his way out of Esme's arms. "Don't do that! Don't fucking do that!" He pointed an accusing finger at Edward. "Don't stand around, having some goddamn mental conversation while Alice is..."
"Jazz?"
All eyes in the room immediately shot to the woman on the bed as her lashes slowly lifted. Alice blinked several times as she searched for his face. "How come you're at school?" she asked him.
Ever the doctor, Carlisle put a hand to her forehead. "You're not at school anymore, Alice. Do you remember what happened to you?"
Her perfect lips pulled into a frown. "We were in history class. Mrs. Baker was talking about the battle of..." She thought for a second. "Concord. I had...I think I had a vision."
"Of what?" Edward asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know." Panic slapped her across the face. "I don't know!" She sat up frantically. "Jazz...I can't remember!"
He had her wrapped in his arms within seconds. "It's all right, Alice." Jasper held her tight as she buried her face in his chest. The great wave of relief that washed over him had the others unconsciously relaxing as well. "Everything's all right now."
For him, it was the truth. Alice was awake and aware and it would be a long time before he let go of her again.
But Carlisle wasn't as easily placated. He glanced at Edward. This doesn't feel over.
Edward closed his eyes for a second, silently agreeing.
Did anything else odd happen today? Anything at all?
After a second, Edward jerked his head ever so slightly towards the hallway. Carlisle glanced at his wife and waited for her nod of understanding before discreetly following his son out the door.
In the hall, Edward briefly described their incident on the road to school that morning. "Alice barely saw it in time. But the fact that she saw it at all..." He glanced back into the room. "Didn't she tell us that her visions are based on what people decide to do?"
"That's what she said. Which would mean, whatever..."
"Whoever," Edward corrected him.
"It was a decided, deliberate action," Carlisle finished. He paused for a long moment. "Do we know where Emmett and Rosalie went?"
Edward shrugged. "Some lodge in the Catskills. I think Esme has the name of it."
"Let's see if we can telephone there. Have them come back."
"Carlisle, what do you think is going on?"
His father shook his head slowly. "I don't know. Maybe nothing. But I'd feel better if we were all together right now."
"I was terrified."
Jasper's voice broke the silence that they had lapsed into hours earlier, when Esme had quietly left them alone. They had barely moved since then, neither one of them ready to let the other go.
Alice curled her fingers around the lapel of his shirt, her cheek pressed against his collarbone. "I'm sorry, Jazz," she whispered.
He kissed her hair. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. I just...I've never had to really stop and think about what my life would be like without you." Jasper stared across the room, seeing nothing but image of her deathly still body that had been burned into his memories. "Today I did. And it was..." He stopped to collect himself before his leftover fear could affect her. "I could lose everything else, Alice. But if I lost you..."
Drawing back, she pressed her fingers to his mouth before replacing them with her own lips. It was a soft, chaste kiss, but far from passionless. "You're never going to lose me," she promised.
Jasper touched his forehead to hers. "I want to believe that. But you know better than anyone that the future isn't always clearly defined."
"It's defined by what we decide," Alice reminded him. "And I decided a long time ago that you and I will never be apart." Her nose crinkled merrily; it was an expression that never failed to make him smile. "So, that's that, okay? Today was...I don't know what today was. But I don't see it happening again."
"You didn't see it happening before, either." Her sudden frown made him sigh. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
Alice lowered her eyes. "I'll keep a better eye on the future from now on. Maybe I could have seen it coming." Jasper cupped her face in his long, slender hands. "I am sorry," she said again. "For scaring you."
He gave her a long, slow kiss. "Forgiven."
Although Alice would have been fine kissing him for the rest of the night, a week without blood had left her with a painful thirst that, perhaps as a result of her ordeal, suddenly seemed overwhelming.
Breaking the kiss, she took his hand and entwined their fingers. "So, will you come hunting with me?"
"Do you really feel up to that?" Jasper asked, smoothing her dark hair back from her temple. She nodded emphatically. "All right," he agreed.
Alice gave him a peck on the cheek before scrambling off his lap. "Just let me change first. Can you tell Carlisle?" Heading to her closet, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over her dressing table. "I didn't even get to wear this a whole day," she pouted, touching the beautiful grey wool skirt.
"You can always wear it again, Alice."
She stared at his reflection in the glass. "I've already worn it once."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Can't it be washed?"
Alice frowned as if this was a foreign and, frankly, unappealing suggestion. "But...I've already worn it," she repeated.
"Of course." At the door, Jasper looked back at her with a smile of love and amusement. "What was I thinking?"
"Stay close to the house," was Carlisle's only request when Jasper informed him of their hunting trip. "I realize that sounds paranoid, but..."
Jasper held up his hand. "No, I understand. We won't go far." With a nod, Carlisle returned his attention to the papers on his desk. When he noticed that Jasper hadn't left, he glanced back up. "I was...upset earlier," Jasper said stiffly. "I lost control. Spoke without thinking." He cleared his throat. "I want to apologize, especially for cursing in front of Esme."
It was Carlisle's turn to stop him. "Had I been in your position today, there's no telling what I might have let slip." He smiled. "Apology accepted."
Jasper lingered for another moment, as if he wanted to say something more. But at the last second, he changed his mind and left the study.
Edward was seated at the grand piano in the far corner of the living room when Jasper entered. Although the boy's hands rested on the keys, he had yet to play a single note. He watched Jasper cross all the way to the stairs before he spoke. "Do you have any enemies?"
Jasper turned to him slowly. "Just what do you mean by that?"
"Enemies," Edward repeated, playing a few somber notes. "Anyone who would want to hurt you." He hit a C chord with more force than necessary. "Through her."
"Why don't you look in my head and find out?"
Ignoring Jasper's dangerous tone, Edward kept playing. "The first day I met her, Alice told me I was going to love her. And she was right." He looked up at Jasper. "She's my sister now. I will defend her with my very life. But it would help a lot if I knew exactly what I might be up against."
Jasper approached the piano silently. "I'm only going to say this once, so let me be clear. If Alice is ever in any danger from me or anyone from my past, I would rip my own limbs off and set myself on..."
"Jazz?" Alice came down the stairs, dressed in form-fitting khaki riding breeches and a dark blue blouse. "Are you ready to go?"
Still locked in an unblinking stare with Edward, Jasper inclined his chin. "Yes, ma'am."
Alice glanced back and forth between them. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Edward looked away first, returning his attention to his piano. "Be careful out there."
Jasper reached for Alice's hand. "Come on. I'd like to be back before dark."
As they started for the door, Edward launched into a jaunty rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," unable to bite back a grin even in the wake of Jasper's deadly parting glare.
The elk put up a good chase, but in the end, it was no match for Alice. She took down the much larger animal like a lioness on the wild fields of Africa. By the time Jasper caught up with her, she had already drunk her fill, having only spilt a few red drops on the still-pristine snow.
"Did you catch your panther?" she asked, licking the corner of her lip. He nodded, unable to speak as a surge of lust jolted his whole body at the sight of Alice's tiny, pink tongue.
Her golden eyes grew wide as a vision of their naked bodies rolling on the snow suddenly appeared in the near future. "You don't think we can wait until we get home?" she asked.
Grasping her waist, he hauled her body up against his. "I think..." Jasper lowered his lips to her ear. "I want to be inside you, Alice."
He spoke with enough raw need to make her shiver. With her own senses so highly strung from hunting, she needed no further coaxing. Her arms looped around his neck. "As long as you promise..." He interrupted her with a kiss. Pulling back, Alice finished, "...we'll be back by dawn. I'll need time to get dressed for school."
Jasper's reaction was quick and left little room for interpretation. "You're not going to school tomorrow."
"I'm not?" Alice looked up at him in cool surprise. "When was that decided?"
"Right around the time Edward carried your unconscious body home." Jasper shook his head. "There's no way you're going back there until we know exactly what happened and are sure it won't happen again."
"Do I get a say in this?" Before he could answer, Alice went on. "Because as much as I love you and respect your opinion, we're not married."
"Yet," he added.
"And even if we were, this isn't 1860. If I can vote now, I can certainly decide when or if I go to school." Stepping away from him, Alice folded her arms over her blouse. "I know you think you're protecting me, but..."
"How can I protect you when I'm not with you?" he demanded. "You're away all day, five days out of seven, with Rosalie and Emmett and Edward." The last name came out on the tail end of a snarl. "You have this entire life that I'm not even a part of!"
His anger, his hurt, his frustration...she could feel each one coursing through her body, filling her with equal amounts of fury, pain and exasperation. Prompting her to shoot back, "You could be a part of it, you know! If you really tried, instead of just moping around, acting like a child who's lost his favorite toy!"
She regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. They'd come out of nowhere; she'd never, even in the darkest places in her soul, so much as thought them before. But from the look on his face, it was too late. The damage had already been done.
"Something's going on," Alice whispered. "I don't...I can't see..." She took a breath. "I didn't mean..."
"Go back to the house, Alice." His tone was stone cold.
She took a step towards him. "Jazz..."
Although it was hard, Jasper turned his back to her. "I love you too much to talk to you right now." When she touched his shoulder, he started running, leaving her behind in the cold, wet woods.
Less than fifty yards deeper into the forest, a woman turned to her companion with a satisfied smirk. "That was almost too easy."
"While I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, my dear, let's not get overconfident." The man pulled at his chin. "They have complex minds, much more so than most, and a very strong bond. You've strained it. You haven't broken it."
Her red eyes narrowed. "Give me time."
"That wasn't a challenge," he said with more than a little warning. "We proceed as planned, no exceptions. Understood?" He waited for her reluctant nod before he turned to the girl on his other side. "She'll be in school tomorrow. You know what to do."
Bundled up in so many layers of clothes that her scent had all but disappeared, Marjorie nodded. "I'll try my best."
"There isn't any trying," he said, his voice sickly sweet. "There's succeeding and there's dying." He lightly bopped her exposed nose, like she was a very small child. "Those are your only two options."
She swallowed heavily, all too aware of her choices. "I won't let you down."
"Good." He smiled, showing off two rows of perfectly deadly teeth. "That's what I like to hear."
I DONT OWN ANYTHING
by Kristen Elizabeth
Everything he thought he knew about hell was wrong.
Hell wasn't a burning purgatory like the sermons of his youth had claimed. Hell wasn't a blood-soaked battlefield strewn with the twisted bodies of your friends and enemies in grey and blue. Hell wasn't the excruciating burn of a vampire's venom as it slowly killed what had made you human. Hell wasn't even denying yourself the one thing in the world that would ever truly sate your thirst.
Hell, Jasper now knew, was seeing the beautiful, irreplaceable, supposedly indestructible woman you loved lying unconscious on the very bed in which you'd made love to her only hours earlier.
Frozen with both hands braced on either side of doorway, it was all Jasper could do to keep from tearing the frame away from the wall. "Alice," was the only word he could form.
"I don't know what's happened to her." Standing over Alice's unearthly pale, absolutely still body, Edward answered Jasper's unspoken question. "But she's still here...somewhere. She's not..."
The wood beneath Jasper's hands splintered under the pressure of his angry grip. "Don't even think it," he snarled. Before Edward could reply, Jasper was kneeling at the side of the bed. "Alice?" He took her cold hand between his, as if he had body heat that might warm it. "Alice, open your eyes, darlin'. Please..." Jasper swallowed heavily. "Just open your eyes."
He felt a hand on his shoulder, too large to be Esme's. "Jasper." Carlisle's voice was quiet, but firm. "Let me look at her."
But he couldn't move, couldn't let go of her. What if he released her and she slipped away? What if she never opened her eyes again? How could any of them just expect him to trust them with the most important thing in his world? What did he have to live for if he didn't have Alice?
"Jasper, please." A much smaller hand gently touched his other shoulder. Esme leaned down, surrounding him with the faint scent of flowers. Her hair was soft against his cheek as she gently urged him to his feet. "He'll take care of her," she murmured. "We love her, too."
Just as their fingers had remained entwined until the last second that morning, Jasper held Alice's delicate hand until he'd backed up too far from the bed and could no longer hold on. Her arm dropped back to her side as Carlisle took his place and began examining her.
"Tell us exactly what happened, Edward," he asked his son.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I couldn't see anything. It was like her mind was a blank slate. In class, she was...she just started screaming. And then she just...collapsed." Frustrated, he plunged his hands into his hair, ruining its careful styling. "I know it sounds impossible, but she was in pain, Carlisle. Real pain."
Esme held onto Jasper as he tried to jerk forward, desperate to reach Alice again. "Shh," she tried to soothe him. But the anguish he projected was palpable; she could feel despair seeping into her heart.
As gently as he could, Carlisle pried Alice's eyelid open, revealing nothing but dull yellow without a spark of life. What can I possibly do for her?
Edward stared at him. "There has to be something," he said out loud.
But what? Carlisle reached for her wrist. She has no pulse to check, no breath to maintain, no reflexes to test. She's quite literally a dead body.
"Maybe that's all some of us are," Edward said quietly. "But not her."
"Stop it!" Despite the woman's strength, Jasper pushed his way out of Esme's arms. "Don't do that! Don't fucking do that!" He pointed an accusing finger at Edward. "Don't stand around, having some goddamn mental conversation while Alice is..."
"Jazz?"
All eyes in the room immediately shot to the woman on the bed as her lashes slowly lifted. Alice blinked several times as she searched for his face. "How come you're at school?" she asked him.
Ever the doctor, Carlisle put a hand to her forehead. "You're not at school anymore, Alice. Do you remember what happened to you?"
Her perfect lips pulled into a frown. "We were in history class. Mrs. Baker was talking about the battle of..." She thought for a second. "Concord. I had...I think I had a vision."
"Of what?" Edward asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know." Panic slapped her across the face. "I don't know!" She sat up frantically. "Jazz...I can't remember!"
He had her wrapped in his arms within seconds. "It's all right, Alice." Jasper held her tight as she buried her face in his chest. The great wave of relief that washed over him had the others unconsciously relaxing as well. "Everything's all right now."
For him, it was the truth. Alice was awake and aware and it would be a long time before he let go of her again.
But Carlisle wasn't as easily placated. He glanced at Edward. This doesn't feel over.
Edward closed his eyes for a second, silently agreeing.
Did anything else odd happen today? Anything at all?
After a second, Edward jerked his head ever so slightly towards the hallway. Carlisle glanced at his wife and waited for her nod of understanding before discreetly following his son out the door.
In the hall, Edward briefly described their incident on the road to school that morning. "Alice barely saw it in time. But the fact that she saw it at all..." He glanced back into the room. "Didn't she tell us that her visions are based on what people decide to do?"
"That's what she said. Which would mean, whatever..."
"Whoever," Edward corrected him.
"It was a decided, deliberate action," Carlisle finished. He paused for a long moment. "Do we know where Emmett and Rosalie went?"
Edward shrugged. "Some lodge in the Catskills. I think Esme has the name of it."
"Let's see if we can telephone there. Have them come back."
"Carlisle, what do you think is going on?"
His father shook his head slowly. "I don't know. Maybe nothing. But I'd feel better if we were all together right now."
"I was terrified."
Jasper's voice broke the silence that they had lapsed into hours earlier, when Esme had quietly left them alone. They had barely moved since then, neither one of them ready to let the other go.
Alice curled her fingers around the lapel of his shirt, her cheek pressed against his collarbone. "I'm sorry, Jazz," she whispered.
He kissed her hair. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. I just...I've never had to really stop and think about what my life would be like without you." Jasper stared across the room, seeing nothing but image of her deathly still body that had been burned into his memories. "Today I did. And it was..." He stopped to collect himself before his leftover fear could affect her. "I could lose everything else, Alice. But if I lost you..."
Drawing back, she pressed her fingers to his mouth before replacing them with her own lips. It was a soft, chaste kiss, but far from passionless. "You're never going to lose me," she promised.
Jasper touched his forehead to hers. "I want to believe that. But you know better than anyone that the future isn't always clearly defined."
"It's defined by what we decide," Alice reminded him. "And I decided a long time ago that you and I will never be apart." Her nose crinkled merrily; it was an expression that never failed to make him smile. "So, that's that, okay? Today was...I don't know what today was. But I don't see it happening again."
"You didn't see it happening before, either." Her sudden frown made him sigh. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
Alice lowered her eyes. "I'll keep a better eye on the future from now on. Maybe I could have seen it coming." Jasper cupped her face in his long, slender hands. "I am sorry," she said again. "For scaring you."
He gave her a long, slow kiss. "Forgiven."
Although Alice would have been fine kissing him for the rest of the night, a week without blood had left her with a painful thirst that, perhaps as a result of her ordeal, suddenly seemed overwhelming.
Breaking the kiss, she took his hand and entwined their fingers. "So, will you come hunting with me?"
"Do you really feel up to that?" Jasper asked, smoothing her dark hair back from her temple. She nodded emphatically. "All right," he agreed.
Alice gave him a peck on the cheek before scrambling off his lap. "Just let me change first. Can you tell Carlisle?" Heading to her closet, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over her dressing table. "I didn't even get to wear this a whole day," she pouted, touching the beautiful grey wool skirt.
"You can always wear it again, Alice."
She stared at his reflection in the glass. "I've already worn it once."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Can't it be washed?"
Alice frowned as if this was a foreign and, frankly, unappealing suggestion. "But...I've already worn it," she repeated.
"Of course." At the door, Jasper looked back at her with a smile of love and amusement. "What was I thinking?"
"Stay close to the house," was Carlisle's only request when Jasper informed him of their hunting trip. "I realize that sounds paranoid, but..."
Jasper held up his hand. "No, I understand. We won't go far." With a nod, Carlisle returned his attention to the papers on his desk. When he noticed that Jasper hadn't left, he glanced back up. "I was...upset earlier," Jasper said stiffly. "I lost control. Spoke without thinking." He cleared his throat. "I want to apologize, especially for cursing in front of Esme."
It was Carlisle's turn to stop him. "Had I been in your position today, there's no telling what I might have let slip." He smiled. "Apology accepted."
Jasper lingered for another moment, as if he wanted to say something more. But at the last second, he changed his mind and left the study.
Edward was seated at the grand piano in the far corner of the living room when Jasper entered. Although the boy's hands rested on the keys, he had yet to play a single note. He watched Jasper cross all the way to the stairs before he spoke. "Do you have any enemies?"
Jasper turned to him slowly. "Just what do you mean by that?"
"Enemies," Edward repeated, playing a few somber notes. "Anyone who would want to hurt you." He hit a C chord with more force than necessary. "Through her."
"Why don't you look in my head and find out?"
Ignoring Jasper's dangerous tone, Edward kept playing. "The first day I met her, Alice told me I was going to love her. And she was right." He looked up at Jasper. "She's my sister now. I will defend her with my very life. But it would help a lot if I knew exactly what I might be up against."
Jasper approached the piano silently. "I'm only going to say this once, so let me be clear. If Alice is ever in any danger from me or anyone from my past, I would rip my own limbs off and set myself on..."
"Jazz?" Alice came down the stairs, dressed in form-fitting khaki riding breeches and a dark blue blouse. "Are you ready to go?"
Still locked in an unblinking stare with Edward, Jasper inclined his chin. "Yes, ma'am."
Alice glanced back and forth between them. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Edward looked away first, returning his attention to his piano. "Be careful out there."
Jasper reached for Alice's hand. "Come on. I'd like to be back before dark."
As they started for the door, Edward launched into a jaunty rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," unable to bite back a grin even in the wake of Jasper's deadly parting glare.
The elk put up a good chase, but in the end, it was no match for Alice. She took down the much larger animal like a lioness on the wild fields of Africa. By the time Jasper caught up with her, she had already drunk her fill, having only spilt a few red drops on the still-pristine snow.
"Did you catch your panther?" she asked, licking the corner of her lip. He nodded, unable to speak as a surge of lust jolted his whole body at the sight of Alice's tiny, pink tongue.
Her golden eyes grew wide as a vision of their naked bodies rolling on the snow suddenly appeared in the near future. "You don't think we can wait until we get home?" she asked.
Grasping her waist, he hauled her body up against his. "I think..." Jasper lowered his lips to her ear. "I want to be inside you, Alice."
He spoke with enough raw need to make her shiver. With her own senses so highly strung from hunting, she needed no further coaxing. Her arms looped around his neck. "As long as you promise..." He interrupted her with a kiss. Pulling back, Alice finished, "...we'll be back by dawn. I'll need time to get dressed for school."
Jasper's reaction was quick and left little room for interpretation. "You're not going to school tomorrow."
"I'm not?" Alice looked up at him in cool surprise. "When was that decided?"
"Right around the time Edward carried your unconscious body home." Jasper shook his head. "There's no way you're going back there until we know exactly what happened and are sure it won't happen again."
"Do I get a say in this?" Before he could answer, Alice went on. "Because as much as I love you and respect your opinion, we're not married."
"Yet," he added.
"And even if we were, this isn't 1860. If I can vote now, I can certainly decide when or if I go to school." Stepping away from him, Alice folded her arms over her blouse. "I know you think you're protecting me, but..."
"How can I protect you when I'm not with you?" he demanded. "You're away all day, five days out of seven, with Rosalie and Emmett and Edward." The last name came out on the tail end of a snarl. "You have this entire life that I'm not even a part of!"
His anger, his hurt, his frustration...she could feel each one coursing through her body, filling her with equal amounts of fury, pain and exasperation. Prompting her to shoot back, "You could be a part of it, you know! If you really tried, instead of just moping around, acting like a child who's lost his favorite toy!"
She regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. They'd come out of nowhere; she'd never, even in the darkest places in her soul, so much as thought them before. But from the look on his face, it was too late. The damage had already been done.
"Something's going on," Alice whispered. "I don't...I can't see..." She took a breath. "I didn't mean..."
"Go back to the house, Alice." His tone was stone cold.
She took a step towards him. "Jazz..."
Although it was hard, Jasper turned his back to her. "I love you too much to talk to you right now." When she touched his shoulder, he started running, leaving her behind in the cold, wet woods.
Less than fifty yards deeper into the forest, a woman turned to her companion with a satisfied smirk. "That was almost too easy."
"While I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, my dear, let's not get overconfident." The man pulled at his chin. "They have complex minds, much more so than most, and a very strong bond. You've strained it. You haven't broken it."
Her red eyes narrowed. "Give me time."
"That wasn't a challenge," he said with more than a little warning. "We proceed as planned, no exceptions. Understood?" He waited for her reluctant nod before he turned to the girl on his other side. "She'll be in school tomorrow. You know what to do."
Bundled up in so many layers of clothes that her scent had all but disappeared, Marjorie nodded. "I'll try my best."
"There isn't any trying," he said, his voice sickly sweet. "There's succeeding and there's dying." He lightly bopped her exposed nose, like she was a very small child. "Those are your only two options."
She swallowed heavily, all too aware of her choices. "I won't let you down."
"Good." He smiled, showing off two rows of perfectly deadly teeth. "That's what I like to hear."