I got up slowly, making no movements that could be considered threatening.
"Carlisle?" a male voice cal ed.
And then another yel ow-eyed vampire joined us. Any sort of safety I'd felt with these strangers vanished as soon as I saw him.
He was blond, like the first, but tal er and leaner. His skin was absolutely covered in scars, spaced most thickly together on his neck and jaw. A few smal marks on his arm were fresh, but the rest were not from the brawl today. He had been in more fights than I could have imagined, and he'd never lost. His tawny eyes blazed and his stance exuded the barely contained violence of an angry lion.
As soon as he saw me he coiled to spring.
"Jasper!" Carlisle warned.
Jasper pul ed up short and stared at Carlisle with wide eyes. "What's going on?"
"She doesn't want to fight. She's surrendered."
The scarred vampire's brow clouded, and suddenly I felt an unexpected surge of frustration, though I had no idea what I was frustrated with.
"Carlisle, I..." He hesitated, then continued, "I'm sorry, but that's not possible. We can't have any of these newborns associated with us when the Volturi come. Do you realize the danger that would put us in?"
I didn't understand exactly what he was saying, but I got enough. He wanted to kil me.
"Jasper, she's only a child," the woman protested. "We can't just murder her in cold blood!"
It was strange to hear her speak like we both were people, like murder was a bad thing. An avoidable thing.
"It's our family on the line here, Esme. We can't afford to have them think we broke this rule."
The woman, Esme, walked between me and the one who wanted to kil me. Incomprehensibly, she turned her back to me.
"No. I won't stand for it."
Carlisle shot me an anxious glance. I could see that he cared a lot for this woman. I would have looked the same way at anyone behind Diego's back. I tried to appear as docile as I felt.
"Jasper, I think we have to take the chance," he said slowly.
"We are not the Volturi. We fol ow their rules, but we do not take lives lightly. We wil explain."
"They might think we created our own newborns in defense."
"But we didn't. And even had we, there was no indiscretion here, only in Seattle. There is no law against creating vampires if you control them."
"This is too dangerous."
Carlisle touched Jasper's shoulder tentatively. "Jasper. We cannot kil this child."
Jasper glowered at the man with the kind eyes, and I was suddenly angry. Surely he wouldn't hurt this gentle vampire or the woman he loved. Then Jasper sighed, and I knew it was okay. My anger evaporated.
"I don't like this," he said, but he was calmer. "At least let me take charge of her. You two don't know how to deal with someone who's been running wild so long."
"Of course, Jasper," the woman said. "But be kind."
Jasper rol ed his eyes. "We need to be with the others. Alice said we don't have long."
Carlisle nodded. He held his hand out to Esme, and they headed past Jasper back toward the open field.
"You there," Jasper said to me, his face a glower again.
Chapters 15
"Come with us. Don't make one rash move or I will take you down."
I felt angry again as he glared at me, and a smal part of me wanted to snarl and show my teeth, but I had a feeling he was looking for just that kind of excuse.
Jasper paused as if he'd just thought of something. "Close your eyes," he commanded.
I hesitated. Had he decided to kil me after al ?
"Do it!"
I gritted my teeth and shut my eyes. I felt twice as helpless as I had before.
"Fol ow the sound of my voice and don't open your eyes. You look, you lose, got it?"
I nodded, wondering what he didn't want me to see. I felt some relief that he was bothering to protect a secret. There was no reason to do so if he was just going to kil me.
"This way."
I walked slowly after him, careful to give him no excuses. He was considerate in the way he led, not walking me into any trees, at least. I could hear the way the sound changed when we were in the open; the feel of the wind was different, too, and the smel of my coven burning was stronger. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face, and the insides of my eyelids were brighter as I sparkled.
He led me closer and closer to the muffled crackle of the flames, so close that I could feel the smoke brush my skin. I knew he could have kil ed me at any time, but the nearness of the fire stil made me nervous.
"Sit here. Eyes closed."
The ground was warm from the sun and the fire. I kept very stil and tried to concentrate on looking harmless, but I could feel his glare on me, and it made me agitated. Though I was not mad at these vampires, who I truly believed had only been defending themselves, I felt the oddest stirrings of fury. It was almost outside myself, as if it were some leftover echo from the battle that had just taken place.
The anger didn't make me stupid, though, because I was too sad - miserable to my core. Diego was aways in my mind, and I couldn't help thinking about how he must have died. I was sure there was no way he would have voluntarily told Riley our secrets - secrets that had given me a reason to trust Riley just enough until it was too late. In my head, I saw Riley's face again - that cold, smooth expression that had formed as he'd threatened to punish any of us who wouldn't behave. I heard again his macabre and oddly detailed description - when I take you to her and hold you as she tears off your legs and then slowly, slowly burns off your fingers, ears, lips, tongue, and every other superfluous appendage one by one. I realized now that I'd been hearing the description of Diego's death.