The vampire on the ground started to get slowly to her feet - moving awkwardly, almost like she was some clumsy human. The breeze shifted, blowing the smoke across me and Jasper. For a moment, everything was invisible except for him. Though I was not as blind as before, I suddenly felt much more anxious, for some reason. It was like I could feel the anxiety bleeding out of the vampire next to me.
The light wind gusted back in the next second, and I could see and smel everything.
Jasper hissed at me furiously and shoved me out of my crouch and back onto the ground.
It was her - the human I'd been hunting just a few minutes ago. The scent my whole body had been focused toward. The sweet, wet scent of the most delicious blood I'd ever tracked. My mouth and throat felt like they were on fire. I tried wildly to hold on to my reason - to focus on the fact that Jasper was just waiting for me to jump up again so that he could kil me - but only part of me could do it. I felt like I was about to pul into two halves trying to keep myself here. The human named Bel a stared at me with stunned brown eyes. Looking at her made it worse. I could see the blood flushing through her thin skin. I tried to look anywhere else, but my eyes kept circling back to her.
The redhead spoke to her in a low voice. "She surrendered. That's one I've never seen before. Only Carlisle would think of offering. Jasper doesn't approve."
Carlisle must have explained to that one when my ears were covered.
The vampire had both his arms around the human girl, and she had both hands pressed to his chest. Her throat was just inches from his mouth, but she didn't look frightened of him at al . And he didn't look like he was hunting. I had tried to wrap my head around the idea of a coven with a pet human, but this was not close to what I had imagined. If she'd been a vampire, I would have guessed that they were together.
"Is Jasper al right?" the human whispered.
"He's fine. The venom stings," the vampire said.
"He was bitten?" she asked, sounding shocked by the idea. Who was this girl? Why did the vampires al ow her to be with them? Why hadn't they kil ed her yet? Why did she seem so comfortable with them, like they didn't scare her? She seemed like she was a part of this world, and yet she didn't understand its realities. Of course Jasper was bitten. He'd just fought - and destroyed - my entire coven. Did this girl even know what we were?
Ugh, the burn in my throat was impossible! I tried not to think about washing it away with her blood, but the wind was blowing her smel right in my face! It was too late to keep my head - I had scented the prey I was hunting, and nothing could change that now.
"He was trying to be everywhere at once," the redhead told the human. "Trying to make sure Alice had nothing to do, actual y." He shook his head as he looked at the tiny blackhaired girl. "Alice doesn't need anyone's help."
The vampire named Alice shot a glare at Jasper.
"Overprotective fool," she said in her clear soprano voice. Jasper met her stare with a half smile, seeming to forget for a second that I existed.
I could barely fight the instinct that wanted me to make use of his lapse and spring at the human girl. It would take less than an instant and then her warm blood - blood I could hear pumping through her heart - would quench the burn. She was so close -
The vampire with the dark red hair met my eyes with a fierce warning glare, and I knew I would die if I tried for the girl, but the agony in my throat made me feel like I would die if I didn't. It hurt so much that I screamed out loud in frustration. Jasper snarled at me, and I tried to keep myself from moving, but it felt like the scent of her blood was a giant hand yanking me off the ground. I had never tried to stop myself from feeding once I had committed to a hunt. I dug my hands into the ground looking for something to hold on to but finding nothing. Jasper leaned into a crouch, and even knowing I was two seconds from death, I couldn't focus my thirsty thoughts. And then Carlisle was right there, his hand on Jasper's arm. He looked at me with kind, calm eyes. "Have you changed your mind, young one?" he asked me. "We don't want to destroy you, but we wil if you can't control yourself."
"How can you stand it?" I asked him, almost begging. Wasn't he burning, too? "I want her." I stared at her, desperately wishing the distance between us was gone. My fingers raked uselessly through the rocky dirt.
"You must stand it," Carlisle said solemnly. "You must exercise control. It is possible, and it is the only thing that wil save you now."
If being able to tolerate the human the way these strange vampires did was my only hope for survival, then I was already doomed. I couldn't stand the fire. And I was of two minds about survival anyway. I didn't want to die, I didn't want pain, but what was the point? Everyone else was dead. Diego had been dead for days.
His name was right on my lips. I almost whispered it aloud. Instead, I gripped my skul with both hands and tried to think about something that wouldn't hurt. Not the girl, and not Diego. It didn't work very wel .
"Shouldn't we move away from her?" the human whispered roughly, breaking my concentration. My eyes snapped back to her. Her skin was so thin and soft. I could see the pulse in her neck.
"We have to stay here," said the vampire she was clinging to. "They are coming to the north end of the clearing now."
They? I glanced to the north, but there was nothing but smoke. Did he mean Riley and my creator? I felt a new thril of panic, fol owed by a little spasm of hope. There was no way she and Riley could stand against these vampires who had kil ed so many of us, was there? Even if the howly ones were gone, Jasper alone looked capable of dealing with the two of them. Or did he mean this mysterious Volturi?