Sign Of The Times || Jasper Hale

chapter 106

The snow started falling and everyone decided to get closer to the field where it all was supposed to go down. They sat up camp and Jacob brought some wood to start a fire. Benjamin does the honor and produces a small bit of fire at his fingertips and throws it on the wood.

"That's what I'm talkin' about. A little pre-battle bonfire. Telling war stories." Jacob sits next to Benjamin and looks across the fire and sees the other vampires just standing around. "Or just standing there like frickin' statues."

Alex sits down beside Benjamin and holds her flacon up to Jacob. "Sip?" He shrugs and grabs the bundle and takes a large sip before scrunching up his face and coughing a little. "Didn't say it was soda."

"How do you get that down?" He splutters and Benjamin slaps Alex' shoulders with a smile.

"She had years of practice." She sticks out her tongue towards him and smiles at Garrett as he sits down near the fire. He looks at Jacob and narrows his eyes.

"Name any American battle. I was there."

"Little Bighorn."

Garrett puts his fingers close together. "I came this close to biting Custer. But the lndians got him first." Alex keeps her laugh to herself, it was easy to say that kind of stuff but she knew it to be true. Kate spins in and sits next to Garrett.

"Try Oleg's assault on Constantinople. He didn't win that one on his own."

Liam - one of the Irish - smirks as he leans in. "lf you're talking battles, you're talking the Eleven Years' war. No one does rebellion like the lrish."

"You lost the Eleven Years' war." Garrett frowns.

"Aye. But it was one hell of a rebellion." Alex starts to laugh heartily and the Irish clan can't help but join her.

It takes a little while but the rest of the vampires started to ease up and join the merry crew. Alex somewhat merrier than the rest.

Alex listens closely when Vladimir starts talking to Jacob when he asked about them. "When we ruled, everything came to us. Prey, diplomats, favor seekers. Such was our power. But we never put on white hats and called ourselves saints."

"We were honest about what we were." Stefan adds and Alex nods knowingly. Jacob glances to the side, wondering a lot about her past. Edward notices and Jacob narrows his eyes at him, but Edward simply shrugs. It wasn't his to tell.

"We sat still for a very long time. We didn't notice we were beginning to petrify."

Stefan snorts. "Perhaps the Volturi did us a favor when they burned our castles."

Vladimir looks around the camp and over the vampires. "We've been waiting 1,500 years to return that favor. We have been ready to do battle for ages."

Alex sits with them for a small while before she feels herself getting tired. She makes her way to the tent that she and Harvey had set up, him having to hunt and just let go for a moment before they would have to stand against the Volturi.

She lays down on the mattress and hears the vampires mutter among themselves. Conversations about how it would go. Amun asking his wife if they should run. Bella trying to console a crying and probably terrified Renesmee. Rosalie catching up a little with Kate and Tanya. The men exchanging war stories and more. And Alex can't help but feel alone. She knows she isn't. She can just walk out of the tent and sit in a conversation and everyone would be okay with that.

But they weren't Pietro. They weren't Harvey. They weren't Jasper. Even if some of them were what she would consider close friends. It was different.

Her chest starts to ache and she softly starts to cry. Making sure no one hears it. She hears the zipper of the tent move and quickly wipes away her tears.

"Alex I got-.." Harvey stops once he sees Alex' face and his heart drops at the sight of her. Though the two had a strange and tumultuous past, he would never be able to find the connection he had with Pietro and Alexandra ever again. It was a bond forged through familiarity, pain, love and hard work. "Come here." He opens his arms after he scoots in the tent and closes the zipper behind him.

He knew that she didn't want to talk, otherwise she wouldn't be crying silently because of the people outside. He knew her well enough.

She crawls towards his open arms and lets herself fall into them, his arms fitting around her easily. She lays down on her side and he starts stroking her hair softly before gently kissing her right temple, letting her know that she was not alone and incredibly loved.

She grabs his hand and holds it close to her chest, wanting to feel the warmth.

Harvey didn't really understand why Jasper had left her all alone or why Alex didn't just go with him. Why she felt the need to be able to protect the child and her parents so much. Why she didn't tell Jasper that she needed him. But he understood her well enough that at the moment, Alex needed Harvey. Kind and sweet Harvey. The one that she first encountered so many years ago.

Harvey was sure that he was going to tell Jasper off for leaving her when he had decided to leave her once again too.

"I'm angry." She whispers so softly that he leans his head closer to hear her better. "Do you think he'll be there tomorrow?" Harvey knew that she wasn't asking about Jasper and he simply purses his lips. He knew what the Volturi had done and he also knew how the bastard decided that he'd rather be a vampire than be married to Alex. Something that had hurt her terribly.

"I don't know." He replies and squeezes his arms tightly around her. "But if there's a fight, I'll promise that I'll take him down."

Okay, so only a few more chapters to go. I hope you'll like the ending, it's a little different than I think anyone would imagine.