Sign Of The Times || Jasper Hale

chapter 69

"Okay," Bella frowns and looks down at the board. "So what do I do now?" She looks up at Peter for help as he was the only one around at the moment.

Charlie had wanted for her to be around people more and she was. She was hanging out with Jacob, fixing motorcycles. She was even playing games with the Spure siblings, who were in the best of graces with Charlie due to Alex finding her and helping Charlie with fishing sometimes when Billy didn't want to.

"You kick his ass of course." Harvey says as he walks out of the house, holding a tray filled plates and silverware. "At least, that's what I always do." Bella still had to get used to the fact that the guidance counselor in their school was actually not as old as they said he was and friends with the two remaining strange beings in the area. She did not know exactly what they were and she had an inkling that she was not going to find out due to them.

"Oh do you now." Peter scoffs. They hadn't played games with Harvey in ages because Peter always seemed to win. Only Alex knew how badly her brother cheated and she did too, it made their games fair.

"Well I mean-.."

"Dinner is served." Alex walks outside with a few trays lined up on her arms, slightly impressing Bella with her skills.

"Not yet." Harvey quips.

"Shut up." She quickly replies before placing a few trays down on the table and motioning for Peter to move the game out of the way so she can place the rest of them down. "Go on." Alex gestures towards the food when they all stare at it instead of taking a bite.

"What is it?" Peter asks as he frowns and looks slightly disgusted before sniffing it.

"Dude, just because it doesn't look like something does not mean that you should be judging it. I'm not doing that to you." Peter looks offended and Bella coughs trying to stiffle a laugh while Harvey is full on laughing.

"No, but seriously, what is it?" Harvey asks as he grabs a plate and starts to fill it up.

"I just added some new spices but it's something that Jay taught me." The two men stiffen and look at Alex as she takes a plate and puts some of the food on it for Bella.

"Who's Jay?" Harvey and Peter glance at one another, waiting on Alex' reaction. Bella being here was already taking a huge step of faith in Alex' abilities to control that side of her - though the vampire side appeared to stay dormant - but talking about these kind of things could set off anything. Her hunger, her anger..

"Jay is a letter." Alex replies before taking a bite and though Bella had become rather curious, she took the hint and let go of the apparent sensitive subject.

"But what is the name?" Harvey quickly asks, hoping to ease the tension.

"Polenta with a little twist." Alex smiles as she sees Peter taking a bite and his widen in delight.

"This is actually really good." He raises an eyebrow and looks down. "You've never made this before." He narrows his eyes and looks over to her. Alex shrugs and takes a bite before taking a large sip of her drink. She drank more whenever Jasper wasn't around. Somehow it made things easier.

"It's Italian right?" Bella asks and Alex nods.

"We lived in Italy for a small while. All of Europe actually." Peter replies and he points his fork at her. "Did we tell you about Austria?" Bella narrows her eyes and it only rakes a small shake of her head before Peter launches in a conversation about something that happened with Harvey when they were in Austria. Of course they had to make things less spectacular as Bella still somehow thought that they were only vampires.

Alex had been able to be around Bella for a while now. They started to train it and even though she sometimes had fallbacks, most of the time she was doing great. It was a good thing that they had made nice with the wolves though. If she was to go of the rails, they would be able to help.

"You don't have to say it," Alex mumbles as she leans her chin on her arms while her elbows lean on her knees. She was in the company of both Billy and Sam. "I know you were right." that was the one of the things that went back to normal when the Cullens - Jasper - left, Billy and Sam accepted her back as if she never left. "Got something stronger?"

Billy holds out his flask filled with whisky out for her and she takes a sip before handing it back. "What do you need help with?" She narrows her eyes and leans her right cheek on her arms as she looks over to the man in the wheelchair. He knew what she was and he still accepted her.

"Bella is Edward's singer." Billy's eyes harden and his jaw tightens. She didn't have to explain what a blood singer was, he knew almost everything about vampires. Not so much about hybrids. "She seems to be mine as well." His head whips towards her and she purses her lips.

"What-.."

"I am doing my best to control it and my wolf side is in control and that helps but I want to protect her.. do you have any idea how many times I followed that red headed woman? I need to become friends with her.. or at least somewhat acquainted." Victoria seemed to be adamant to get her revenge on Bella.

"What do you want me to do?" Sam asks her as he leans back.

Alex was a tough one and while she had killed many, all of them were either under command or somehow deserved it. Even if she didn't particularly like the girl, being someone's singer does not make you deserving of death.

"Do whatever is necessary to protect her."