46 | RUNAWAYS |

IT TURNED OUT, EVEN ON THE RUN, LIFE WENT ON QUITE NORMALLY. Rory stared at her skin, warm for once under the heat of the summer sun. The refraction of the light bouncing off her skin mesmerized her, it sounded vain, but she never really noticed it that much before, having spent most of her immortal life in the castle of the Volturi where it was definitely not a good idea to expose her skin anywhere during the day, or in Forks where even in the summer, the rain and cloudiness was a constant.

But just past the border of Mexico, holed up in a pretty much isolated villa near a nameless town, Rory had the freedom to lay out in the sun like she was any normal teenager enjoying the heat. Instead of a smoothie, she carelessly sipped at a glass of warm O-Positive with a swirly straw.

The book that she had brought was little long forgotten as her only companion the last week joined her outside in only plain black shorts and a white tee.

It was weird to act as though they were on a summer vacation in a nameless town in Mexico, knowing Rory was being hunted down by the Volturi.

They had spent the first three days making their way down the west coast, trying to throw the trail off by making insipid phone calls they knew the Volturi would notice. As they traveled further from Forks, the sun became a problem which cut the time they previously spent running in half as they continued to make sure they covered their tracks.

They finally arrived in a small nameless town in Mexico just five days after the wedding. The villa they had conspicuously bought under a fake name and fake story the day before was larger than necessary—four bedrooms, a uselessly big kitchen, three bathrooms, a library, and two offices—all that wrapped around the private courtyard Rory and Jasper spent their days in.

It was far enough from town so that no guests came around unless invited, and close enough to the desert for Rory and Jasper to hunt the ocelots, coyotes, and other small animals that prowled the region. They also had a sizable storage of blood bags, which meant their eye color stayed on the more orange side of gold than straight up ruby red.

Rory thought it would be weird to run away from everything she's ever known with a man she had barely seen in the last year, but it was a man she shared so much history with. She loved him and he loved her—they settled together as easily as water and the sea. Like the last eleven months were a nightmare and they were finally awake with nothing stopping them from being together, well, except for the Volturi.

She offered him a smile as she watched him mow the overgrown grass of the villa's courtyard. There was something beautiful about a man doing dirty work.

"Ma'am," he tilted his head down once as he passed her spot next to the pool.

A giggle escaped her lips. So he wanted to play that game, huh? "You missed a spot," Rory called out as the lawn mower's engine cut off and Jasper ran his hand through his wavy hair.

He flashed a grin towards her, "I sincerely apologize, ma'am. If you'll point it out, I'll fix it right away."

Rory smirked and beckoned her two fingers in a "come-hither" motion, balancing her body on  her right elbow in a half sitting position.

He growled and leaped onto her, his mouth landing on the spot he had missed.

➖

There wasn't much for Rory and Jasper to do other than talk about the time they spent apart.

Rory tried not to go into too much detail of the dark months following their initial breakup. She told him of her first months as a vampire in the Volturi, focusing on the hours she would spend just painting or the difficulties she had with her bloodlust. He wished he had been there to help her through it.

"And...Alec? How did you and him meet?"

Their faces pointed to the stars and moon above, lying side by side, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, as they spoke. With no need to sleep and having hunted just the day before, time seemed to be endless under the cool desert night sky.

"Well, he won't admit it out loud, but he was going to make me into his meal until he realized I knew what he was," Rory shook her head at the dull memory of the night she met Alec Volturi.

"What?!" His head whipped towards hers, sending a small wave of sand and dirt her way, which she quickly shook off with a wince.

"Yeah, he sort of knocked me out, kidnapped me, interrogated me and tried to get me to drop your family's names," she explained nonchalantly, still staring up at the swirling galaxy above, despite his bewildered expression. "I blamed Victoria for exposing the secret, which in hindsight, was a terrible excuse."

He raised himself up on his elbow, his palm holding his head as he stared at her tranquil face. "And then what? He didn't leave you alone after that, clearly. Is that when he turned you?"

"No," she snorted, remembering the first days and weeks spent with the sadistic vampire, time revealing both of their messes, his loss of purpose and her loss of self. Now everything was different. "He kind of just...stuck around. We came to an understanding early on. He'd spend his days in Volterra and then come back to me in Florence to bother me and..."

"You were involved then?" He stumbled over the words, feeling like he was swallowing daggers.

"Is that jealousy, I see, Hale?"

A sudden sense of dark envy washed over her and she knew it stemmed from the still-lipped vampire beside her.

She shook her head with a small endearing smile, "Truthfully, Alec and I were never really involved that way. I really think Alec was lonely and tired of the Volturi lifestyle—he's spent a millennia with them—and he could tell I was lonely as well. We were each other's breath of air."

Rory frowned as she realized how truly selfless Alec had become, helping her leave. He needed me to feel a sense of purpose again, I needed him to remind me to live. I didn't realize he fell in love with me until he changed me."

"And you?"

Rory sat up entirely, needing Jasper to see her face fully, not wanting to hide any truth of her emotions, "We were both held back by a lot of things. He had his twin and his duties. I was an amnesiac newborn. Not really the most romantic setting. Maybe in another life, one without you. Even without my memories, I couldn't fully go through with it, I guess my heart was elsewhere." She smiled at him, placing her hand over his chest in show of her true place in the world. "I'm sorry. Are you mad?"

He measured his words carefully. "Well, I can't blame him for falling in love with you. And I should thank him for being there for you, saving you and protecting you. And it's my fault really for letting you go. I shouldn't have left."

"Yeah," she nodded simply, "But we're together again now. Like we were always meant to be."

Jasper told her of his much bleaker, dull experiences apart from her. He really didn't do much other than mope about with his family or with Peter and Charlotte. "I worked on my control—it wasn't nearly as hard after what happened. I volunteered at the hospital Carlisle briefly worked at in New York. I was more motivated than ever to get a handle over it, I know even if I slip, it doesn't define me."

She smiled widely, "I'm proud of you," she said, her tone pausing as if she had something else to say.

Jasper knew her more than enough to prod her curiosity. "What are you wondering about?"

"It's just...you didn't find any rebounds?" The phrasing was stilted and embarrassing, but Rory had to ask. "I had Alec to distract me while you focused on working on yourself. I feel a little guilty in all honesty even if nothing happened."

"You were lonely in a country across the sea and no one you knew to be there for you," he said understandingly, "I had my family and Peter and Charlotte."

"You really didn't meet anyone else?"

He cupped her cheek gently. "Sweetheart, the moment I met you, everyone else in the world ceased to exist."

➖

"Why do we still have to search for this bitch?" In the darkness, the two cloaked vampires, one of a much lighter shade of grey and the other near to charcoal, paused behind a cover of trees from the dirt road. "This should be Alec's job. Bloody entitled prince, is he?"

Demetri exhaled deeply, wishing Aro had picked Felix or Yuki or any other low ranking guard member that wasn't as irritating as Santiago to accompany him on the mission. Demetri supposed his master did so on purpose, for "allowing" Aurora to slip out of the country.

"Whatever Aro wants, we don't question." They waited for a four-wheeled vehicle carrying three humans to pass by before stepping out of the shadows.

"I'm sure we can find a replacement," Santiago snorted as he followed the tracker.

"You say that as if mind controllers are lining up at the castle doors," Demetri shook his head. "Aurora is a threat if we don't find her."

"Why didn't we just check with that Cullen coven? Since she loves them so much..."

"Because she isn't an idiot."

"Well, you're supposed to be the best tracker in the world," "We left Volterra two weeks ago."

"She did something to me, I know she did," Demetri growled angrily, running a hand through his hair and further spiking it up. "But she can't hide every trace."

"Yeah, and we've checked the last five locations her phone pinged." Santiago scoffed at their futile sojourn down the west coast of the United States. "Dead end."

"Yes, but we know she's bound to be heading south."

Demetri sniffed the air again, assured that the humans patrolling the area were far enough.

"So, what are we looking for here then?" Santiago asked as Demetri jumped over the high fence that divided the two countries, knowing no humans would—or could—stop them.

"Drained animals." The vampire narrowed his gaze across the barren landscape. "Lots of them."

➖

Their little haven quickly turned to hell when they received Alice's phone call. Neither were sure exactly how Alice had managed to find the landline number, but they were grateful nonetheless for the warning. Rory now knew for certain she wasn't over exaggerating her circumstance—they weren't going to let her go so easily.

Their next stop was the Appalachian mountains where Jasper knew his oldest friends would be staying. She was a little nervous to meet Peter and Charlotte for the first time.

"Jasper is the biggest idiot in the world for leaving you," were the first words that the ruggedly handsome vampire said to Rory when they stepped onto the front porch of a modest sized cabin high up on the mountain range near Atlanta.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rory," she laughed. "I have to agree, he's lucky he's cute after the bullshit he put me through," Rory said playfully, wrapping her arm around Jasper's chest while he rolled his eyes.

"And you're absolutely divine!" A beautiful vampire with chocolate skin and a mega-watt smile appeared behind the tall, muscular male. "I'm Charlotte." She had an accent like an old southern bell, it was charming to say the least.

"I'm Peter, in case it wasn't obvious," the brunette grinned, realizing he hadn't formally introduced himself. "Last time I saw this smuck, he was all mopey and whiny. He was pathetic for majority of the last year, let me tell you sister, so I'm beyond grateful you took this poor man back..."

"Hey—how do you know it wasn't the other way around?" Jasper retorted.

Peter and Charlotte exchanged a furtive look.

"It was a mutual realization actually," Rory interjected with a sheepish smile, thinking of all the time she wasted. Jasper lifted her hand to his lips, their eyes caught and softened.

"Anyways," Peter interrupted the love-locked stare as Charlotte stepped aside from the door, clearing a path for them to enter in the warm interior, "y'all come on in to our humble abode."

"It's very cozy," Rory complimented the cabin. It was very old, the exposed wood and brick was evidence of the cabin's true age, but some pieces of furniture like the couches and television were brand new.

Peter led them to the sitting area. "Yeah, we don't like to stay too long anywhere, but uh, but this cabin was the first place Char and I had after escaping. Stayed in this place—back then it was barely a shack—for a whole week, hopin' that she wouldn't send the whole army after us for defecting."

"Maria?" Rory looked to Jasper to find his expression hardened instantly at the mention of his old lover and former commander.

"Yeah, that power-hungry bitch," Charlotte scoffed and that was the end of the subject, before she offered Rory and Jasper glasses of O Negative like aged red wine, the conversation quickly slipping into an interrogation.

Rory was glad she had regained her memory for she was forced to recall even the slightest of facts about her at the unyielding curiosity of their hosts, from her preferred taste of blood to her favorite couple in Star Wars.

To Rory's surprise, she had learned the two were legally married of all things. The topic had been brought up when the red-eyed couple questioned the location of a diamond ring missing on Rory's left hand. Rory had assumed vampires didn't follow the human tradition for frivolities like marriage considering they had left the human world long ago.

"Where we came from, engagements were established as soon as after the first meeting of a lady and gentleman," Charlotte hummed, showing off a beautiful platinum band. Ot was Of course, back when I was a slave before my Change, I hated the thought of any metal binding me to another white man. Being a vampire changed things, I too didn't see the need for human traditions until I met Peter."

"I knew right away I had to marry this woman, even if she gave quite the chase. She ripped my arm off once, did you know?" Peter revealed with lighthearted laughter. He wrapped his arm around Charlotte with a smug grin, "But eventually, she listened to her heart and accepted my family ring, which luck would have it was on my possession when I was turned. My own ma' and pa' had been ushering me to get hitched, made me carry the ring 'round just in case I found wandering about the town."

"Sentimental, I know, right?" Charlotte smiled at the look on Rory's face. "There was no Kay Jewelers around back then, rings were passed down from generations." The curly haired woman's eyes cut to Jasper, who was doing his best not to look put on the spot, but failing miserably. "In fact, after the Major himself left the army, I distinctly remember traveling to his ol' hometown in Houston for his mother's ol' wedding ring, of course, she had passed decades before, but the Whitlock's had held onto it until he went back for it."

"You stole your mother's ring?" Rory asked the abashed man by her side with an amused grin.

"She left it for me in her will, actually," Jasper corrected with a pout. He averted his gaze away, "Just so you know, I, uh, didn't exactly have time to get the ring before we left so..."

"It's quite alright, Whitlock, I enjoy living in sin," Rory teased him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing an assuring kiss to his jawline.

Having spent the last week and a half on their own, living with Peter and Charlotte was interesting in a matter of the word. The couple was very amorous and not subtle about it in the least; Jasper and Rory purposely hunted a lot more than necessary whenever the empath caught onto Peter and Charlotte's mood. It was nice to be amongst other people again, they had isolated themselves after the wedding, for both Rory's safety and their reconciling relationship.

Jasper was different among Peter and Charlotte, he clearly loved them as much as the Cullens, but it was a different kind of love. A bond waged in battle, a family welded in spilled blood.

Noticing Rory's clear unfamiliarity with their past, Peter took it upon himself to explain further a few days after they arrived to Jasper's chagrin. "Maria never let newborns live past the first year serving her. Paranoid we would stage a coup once we realized blood wasn't all there was in the world. Had patrollers all 'round the compound every hour of the day in case any of us tried to make a break for it."

"How did you get away?"

"Jasper helped us," Charlotte chimed in with a raised brow as Rory shot the blond an impressed and surprised stare.

"You didn't tell your mate you were quite the Harriet Tubman for a little while?" Peter mused. Peter and Charlotte weren't the only vampires Jasper had helped escape from the South.

"I wouldn't compare me to Harriet Tubman considering she never killed any of the slaves she freed," Jasper muttered self-deprecatingly. It was still a black hole of self-hatred, his first few decades of immortality filled with death and blood and pain. "I may have helped a few, but not the hundreds and thousands of lives I ended, both human and vampire. Pain and death were my vice and I, the nightmare between. I was not a hero, I was the devil's right hand and for a long time, too long to ever truly atone for my sins."

Peter and Charlotte were crestfallen at his state, remembering the time the Major was a very different man indeed. The scars that glinted in the fire's light was proof of his war waged past. But the way the once deadly Ares looked upon his embodiment of Heaven, it was clear the darkness could seldom keep away the dawn.

"We're all our own monsters." She ran her hand through his golden waves, his chiseled face cast away from hers in shame. She turned his face towards hers until their gazes met. "I've never been scared of monsters. Only losing you."

➖

They had just settled into their new routines in the cabin when Rory's burner phone, the wedding gift she had given to Bella, went off. This was cause for immediate panic, thoughts of the Volturi coming for her family or someone had died surmised her mind as she answered the call.

"Hello?" The voice of her friend was unusually meek and tinged with fear for some odd reason, immediately causing Rory to frown.

This didn't sound like a newly wedded woman enjoying her honeymoon. Her hand froze mid-stroke, causing the blond lying across her to frown. Rory sat up fully, the sheets slipping away from her, "Bella? What's wrong? Is Eddie being a dick again?"

"No, its..." Bella paused as if she had to look around to check for any eavesdroppers, lowering her voice even more, "Y-You're the only person that would understand...I know you have your own problems, and I didn't expect this to happen, but you're the only one that could...help me."

She exchanged a look with Jasper, who had been resting his head in her lap with a book held up for him to read. The second Rory had stopped playing with his hair, he had been paying strict attention to the conversation and he could sense the human was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

"Of course, anything, tell me what's going on."

"I'm pregnant."

➖

After a month of deliberation and much needed break, I have indeed decided to finish out the plot and have fleshed out the last ten chapters of this story. Expect new chapters to be dropped within the next few days, but Crimson will officially be finished by Christmas of this year.

I love yall and I love this story, I can't let it go just yet. 🤧❤️

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