Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XIX. Vampires Here, Vampires There, Vampires Everywhere!

"Gwyn, what happened? Are you still there? Gwyn! Talk to me!" I found Angela's voice, talking to me out of my phone.

"I-I... see you l-later, Ang!" Not knowing what to add, I ended the phonecall. Afterwards, I bowed over the man's lying body. Fortunately, there was no blood on the road - that was a good presage - and besides the broken glass of my windscreen, there were no signs of accident on the road either. I could eventually get out of this without having my driving license confiscated.

"Sir, can you hear me?" I exclaimed, kneeling down next to him. I pushed his right shoulder down, to get him to lay on his back. My right palm automatically fired towards the artery on his neck, however, I hadn't felt anything, besides the general coldness of his skin. Shit! We were taught how to give first aid for a hundred times, yet, nobody ever prepared us for the possibility of the victim's death. Seth was right... school sucked.
"Fuck!" To ensure myself that there wasn't any chance for him to be alive, I gripped his wrist, palpating the other, most audible artery.

The moment I did so though, the man opened his eyes widely, making me scream out in shock. In the next moment, he was standing on his feet, grabbing my arm roughly. He pulled me up, standing behind me, just like robbers and murderers in detective series did, when they caught a random person in the street and made him or her shield them from the police.

"Mon Dieu, Those are rather strong words, for such a beautiful young lady," the man behind me whispered into my ear, pressing his nose to the side of my neck. I was stunned, for that, I hadn't replied. Feeling my heart beating excessively fast, I was wondering silently, about what the hell have I done, that someone in the heaven felt the urge to throwheavy stones in front of the legs of my life.
"Ma cherie, we shall have fun soon," the man continued to talk, "What is your name?"

"You think I'm stupid enough to tell you?" Hoping the lunatic wouldn't hear me, I pronounced the only rhetorical question that reached my utterly washed-up brain. To my huge dismay, he heard me, growled in anger and tilted my head to the side violenty. Once he pressed his finger to the side of my neck, and his sharp nail brushed over the skin, I realized who he was - well, what he was - and why he was so fascinated about my neck.
"Oh my god..." I whispered breathlessly, "Y-you must be a... a vampire!" It would explain everything - the coldness of his body, his not having a palpatable heartbeat, the lack of blood on the road even.

"You know my kind," his announcement sounded more like a question, "My, my. My dearest vegetarian friends revealed the secret to you, didn't they? Where are they now? How is it they don't protect you?"

"Cullens didn't tell me anything, I had to find out myself," although I knew complaining wasn't the right thing to do, I couldn't help myself, "W-what do you want from me? My blood?"

I heard the vampire chuckle, "More candid than the other girl, aren't we? I like it," he said, amused. "But not yet. At first, you will help me."

"Help you with what?!"
The answer to my question was to come far too soon though. I hadn't even managed to deal with the fact, that I hit a vampire with my car, when I noticed big, furry beasts, running towards me. In that point, I understood why the vampire hid behind me. It was a truly scary picture, seeing six excessively large, incredibly fast and very hungry-looking wolves, running towards you.
Fortunately, all of them stopped moving a few inches away from me. I liked to think they did so because of me, but something told me that I overestimated the animals' intelligence.

"Here they come. Right in time for the greatest fun," the vampire behind me smirked, as the largest and darkest of the wolves (who seemed to be their leader) bared his teeth dangerously; as if he understood what he was saying. Alright, the situation was becoming more and more strange.
"Ho, ho, hush, filthy beast," Good point there, I wouldn't have used more accurate words myself, "If you make another step forward, I'll kill her right in front of your eyes."

The vampire's fingers clutched on my throat, and I barely managed to gasp. This time, the wolves started growling menacingly. For some reason, it felt good - somewhat satisfactory. No matter how much I wanted to believe that I could rely on the wolves, it wasn't an option. I had to find a way out of this by myself. After all, I'd bet that the moment the vampire would disappear, the wolves would try to attack me. Because I would surely have attacked me, if I had been a wolf...
My left arm fired back, to the vampire's thigh. I was well aware of that I wouldn't do any serious damage to his skin, if I buried my long, artificial nails into his skin. Yet, it was worth a try. I wished my nails would pierce through his dark skin, and imagined the vampire, shouting out in both surprise and pain. I wished he would release my throat, so there I could breath in again.

And out of a sudden, it happened. I felt my fingers, dig through something tough, yet, not tear-resistant. I soon found out that it must have been the vampire's flash, since I felt the wet warmness of his blood on the tips of my fingers. Not having enough time or strength to wonder, whether vampires were able to produce blood, I literally enjoyed his shocked growl. The last thing I managed to do, was hitting the vampire in the stomach, with my elbow. He howled in pain (alright, in this point, I started asking myself about what was wrong with his vampirism), releasing me. The moment he did so, I started running for my life. Honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me, that it might have been me who did such a huge damage to him right then.

Once again, my hands were trembling, and I felt tears on the edge of becoming visible. The six wolves ran around me. I watched as one of them - a ginger one, who had somewhat familiar, chocolate brown eyes - jumped into the air, with a widely opened muzzle. His sharp teeth then clenched around the vampire's chest, while another wolf - a lighter one - struggled to bite off the man's pelvis. Both of the wolves succeeded, and suddenly, the vampire was cut into three pieces.
It was a disgusting view I wouldn't have wished for my worst enemy. I mean, in the action movies, things like that looked much... nicer? Yeah, that was the right word. In natura, nevertheless, it was unbearable. My stomach twisted upside down, even though there wasn't any blood, splashing from the vampire's body.

The fact, in the end, made me think about what was the wet thing under my fingers, that I managed to palpate, when my nails pierced through his skin. I lifted my hand to the level of my eyes, to ensure myself that it was just another stupid figment of my imagination. However, what I saw made my head spin. The tips of my fingers were covered with a dark, crimson liquid, that reminded of human blood more than would be nice. I blinked at my left palm for a few times, in order to ensure myself that I saw what I saw for real. After my brain admitted the possibility, that the liquid on my fingers might have been blood, my body reacted the only way it could, after all those awful things I had witnessed. The world started spinning in front of my eyes, and since there wasn't anything for me to catch on, I just fainted.
***
Waking up at home was good. Although our super modern sofa wasn't the most cozy piece of furniture the previous owner of the house had bought, it was still better than waking up in the middle of a forest. Well, at least, that was what I remembered; my having passed out because of that the incredibly large wolves cut the vampire, who deserved to be killed anyways, into three pieces, and because I made the vampire bleed. Alright, put up like that, it sounded as if I was going crazy. Which, most probably, wasn't even far away from the truth.
In moments like that, I realized how much I missed someone to talk to. Someone, who would tell me what was going on, someone who would understand and hear out my thought processes. Like Alice... Or someone who would hug me, press a kiss into my hair, and let me rest my head full of questions against his shoulder. Like Jasper. Damn, I had to stop thinking about them. They left, and it was the right time for me to finally accept their decision.

"Damned vampires," I mumbled grumpily, since I thought no one was around. But that was a mistake. Sitting up, I recognized two familiar faces. The first one belonged to Angela Weber, who was happily sleeping in one of the armchairs around the coffee table, with two pizza boxes on her lap. The second, more suntanned one, belonged to Seth Clearwater, the boy who was supposed to currently hate me.
"Uh..." I huffed, as I tried to sit up slowly. My head hurt though, so there, I assumed I had hit myself hard when I fell down earlier that day. Seth was on his feet immediately, helping me.
"Thanks," I beeped. He hadn't answered, therefore, I continued talking, "What are ya doing here? I thought my most favorite, Indian mastermind called you."

Clearwater furrowed his eyebrows, however, managed to supress any expressions of dislike. "Actually, you should thank Sam for that you're here. It was him who told me to go and check on you. Once we... heard that you fainted on the road, because the animals attacked you, he was raving."

"Hang on," I frowned at him, "By the animals you mean those enormous wolves, that saved my life? Because those certainly weren't common animals. More like beasts or... monsters."

Seth gave me an odd look. For a moment, I thought it was a hurt expression, but when he grimaced and waved my words off, it was the Seth I knew once again. "One way or another, I wanted to apologize for my behavior," he stated sincerely, and I patted the space on the sofa next to me, for him to sit down, "I was stupid. You were right, Gwyn, in everything you said. Without Physics, I wouldn't pass the graduation exams, and my mom would certainly kill me."

"Oh, Sweetie..." I moved over to him, wrapping my arms around his torso as soon as he sat down. This time, he had a T-shirt on, which was a pretty pleasant change. "I'm sorry too, for having shouted at you. I shouldn't have done it, it's just that... I couldn't stand you, acting as if you didn't care about anything. You're my friend, I care about you."

"It's alright, I was an ass," he patted my shoulder and I pulled away from him. Although it took me plenty of self-denial - Seth was always so nicely warm that I often wondered how it was he hadn't been diagnosed a permanent fever, or something like that, yet.

"Seth, can I tell you something, without your becoming mad at me?"

"That depends on the context," he crossed his legs in front of himself. I bit my lip, Seth laughed at my irresolution, "Come on, you can tell me anything. I promise I'll do my best."

"Okay..." I pronounced slowly, "Don't take any offence, but I think Sam and his gang have a bad influence on you." After that, Seth frowned again, breathing in to argue. I hadn't let him though. "No! Before you reproach me, let me finish the thought, alright? When I started tutoring you, you told me you didn't like him. That was why I started to like you. I told you how he kicked me and my aunt out of Emily's B&B and you understood my reasons."

"But I don't order you to like him. Sam is my friend, as well as you are, Gwyn. Above that, he has been helping me a lot lately."

"With what exactly?" I asked, more violently than would be necessary. "What is it he's helping you with, Seth? Tell me. Perhaps, I could help y-"

"No," Clearwater stated resolutely, his amused grin turning into a serious expression, "I love you Gwyn, as if you were my sister, for that, I'll tell you what I told Leah. This is my life, my decisions, my choices. Sam and his friends are part of it now. Deal with it, because it would kill me to have to choose between the two of you."

With that, he stood up, asking me if I wanted a cup of tea. I wasn't able to answer though. For the first time in my life, I was utterly speechless. Staring at his back in awe, I couldn't help myself, but kept asking when did his opinions become so strict. The boy I had met when we moved to Forks, was happy, mischievous and playful; the young man who left me sit on the sofa, however, was very different.
Dammit! I should have been the more mature one of the two of us! It was my duty to act reasonably, not Seth's. When the hell did I turn into such a protective prude? No matter how much I wanted to protect him from people like Sam, he was right in everything he said. It was his life, while I had no right to force him into anything.

Sighing over the irony of the situation, I leaned back down. Fortunately, the silence of the living room didn't last much longer, since Angela woke up soon. She asked me about what had happened, I told her everything (of course, avoiding the fact that a Rasta vampire planned to make his dinner of me) and she took the seat next to me, hugging me tightly. Seth came back with the tea in less than five minutes, joining us in our chatting. Although I thought the evening would be a disaster only a few whiles ago, the three of us happened to be good companions.