Alice: Recovered Memories

"Checkmate."  I smiled triumphantly at my brother Edward.  

He rolled his eyes.  "Cheater."  

I squinted my eyes and stuck out my tongue at him.  "Like you have room to talk."  Chess games between psychics and telepaths were interesting and mostly mental.  I saw a sudden flash- my husband Jasper following a female student outside, tracking her.  Following her scent.  We were both students at Peninsula Community College in Port Angeles and, among our family of vampires, he had the most trouble with the natural temptation that human blood held for us.  Our family of nine was not really related, not all of us anyway, but our respect for human life bound us more than genetics ever could.  

I darted up the stairs and found him in the library, head stuck in a thick history book, a pencil tapping against the desk nervously.  I sneaked up behind him and threw my arms around him.  I gave him a quick peck on the cheek.  He laughed quietly.  "I'm in control, Alice.  Just an intriguing new scent, but nothing I can't handle."   Jasper turned around in his desk chair and I sat in his lap.  "I'll go hunting with you if it will make you feel better, though."  He stared at me with his eyes, which were becoming darker around the edges, a sign of his growing thirst. 

I tapped his nose with the tip of my finger and then smiled.  Then I froze.   It was a face that I didn't recognize.  He had jet black hair and blood red eyes.  A tall female trailed him, long, flaming red tresses flowing behind her.  Though their red eyes indicated that they feasted on human blood instead of animals, I could tell that they meant us no harm.    Jasper stood up and grasped my hand.  "Let's go."  

He and I ran up the steep hillside, zipping through the spruce trees.  I was winning the race.  I was faster than him, more agile, but he was stronger and a more experienced fighter.  At the top of the hill, I closed my eyes and inhaled.  Black bear.  I climbed up a tall fir tree.  The bear had no chance of hearing me.  I sprang off the branch.  I giggled as I wrestled it.  Its claws didn't faze my diamond hard skin.  I sank my teeth in and drank the warm, sweet blood.   I thought about how strange it was that a 250 pound bear didn't stand a chance against a ninety pound female like myself.   

Jasper caught up to me, wiping blood from his face.  "You murderous pixie, you," he growled in his southern accent.  "You think you're so tough."  

I raised an eyebrow.  Before he knew what was coming, I slammed into him, tackling him.  I kissed his face, his neck, his pouty lips... and the the next thing I knew, we were rolling down the steep hill, laughing all the way.  We came to a stop and I had him pinned.  He flipped me and held me there. 

"I win," he declared.  

I saw another flash of flame red hair in my mind, with pale skin and red eyes.  Two minutes, maybe.  A stranger, but not, at the same time.  I looked down at my pale grey cashmere sweater.  My silly husband had ripped its collar.  I growled.  

"Relax, Alice.  You can buy another closetful of sweaters."  

I sat up and began picking pine needles out of Jasper's chin length honey blonde hair.  "It's not that.  We're not alone."