Stellify; Jasper Hale. (Book I)

---Chapter Twenty Two---

A/N - I'm so sorry for the hiatus! I've not been in the best of mind lately but I realise I kind of abandoned something I really care about: writing! Also thank you so much for 800 reads!!! It means more than you will ever know xoxo

What honey was to bears was what Evangeline's voice meant to Jasper. it was painstakingly addictive; her velvety sobs crackling through the line playing his heartstrings like a violin. In beauty, she was magnificent. In torment she was agonisingly alluring. 

When he had picked up a random call, he was in the midst of driving like a maniac through the main roads of Venice, Italy. Irregardless of Carlisle's orders to wait until further notice to help Evangeline, Alice and him had taken off to perform grand theft auto in Europe. 

Sobs wracked through Eve's ribcage, pouring straight out of her lips and stabbing Jasper's thawed heart.

"Eve? Eve, where are you at darlin'? Are you hurt?"

Questions hung in the air, unanswered.

"Eve?!"

"Jas...Jasper," hiccups. "He, he was going to - I didn't want to - I, I couldn't. I-"

"It'll be alright honey, just tell me where you are. We're on our way to get you, I promise you."

"I'm sorry."

The phone went silent. He was scared it cut off.

"I killed a man. I didn't want to, I swear Jasper, I didn't mean to."

Those four words hung themselves in the air, striking chords in the both of them. It was if the past hours of stumbling and fleeing for Evangeline had been a lie until those four words cemented themselves. The autonomic response to fight and flee was draining into the realisation of her actions. And shattering the illusion of the gravity only cut her deeper.

His reaction was far different.

Fury couldn't even begin to describe the vexation seething through his entire being. His onyx irises seeped with venom, knuckles whitening against the steering wheel. 

When we see a poor puppy raised to fight other dogs, or lash out in defence, it saddens us. Something so sweet at heart, forced to destroy its gentle nature in order to survive. That puppy never knew kindness, and when backed into a corner what else can it do? Domesticity and morality is swept under the rug when the only option we have is to survive. But when that puppy grows into a scared and violent dog, people decide to put them down. We would rather believe something has the ability to choose its own actions, instead of acknowledging our own vice in the destruction of a sweet animal.

So Jasper's revelation that he couldn't have protected the gentle Eve left him angry at himself. He swore to protect her. He wasn't going to put her in such tormenting situations.

He let her down.

-----.-.-.-.-----

An hour or so after the call with Jasper, Evangeline found herself jittering around the city. In her haze of irrationality, she ended up near a fountain. The water looked as if it was blessed by the sky, shimmering stars bleeding into the beams of holy water.