In the Pathless Woods by Rigel

[rigel_7]

Title: In the Pathless Woods
Author: Rigel
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Twilight and Women of the Otherworld
Characters: Alice Cullen, Elena Michaels
Warnings: None
Spoilers: Up to New Moon by Stephenie Meyer and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
Word Count: 4809 words
Written For: not_from_stars
Prompt: Sometimes you find what you really need in some of the most unlikely places
A/N: not_from_stars requested Savannah Levine as the character from the Otherworld series, but I only have up to book 4 where she’s still a young girl. I hope she won’t mind that I substituted Elena :)

Summary: The eyes withdrew, but the beating heart remained.



I ran, swift and sure-footed through the dense underbrush, my feet skirting the delicate ferns and moss-covered logs that littered the forest floor. Only the trembling needles on the spruce trees betrayed any evidence of my path. The moon was hidden behind a bank of cloud, but I needed no light to show me the way.

I caught the heady scent of our prey, borne on the northerly wind that whipped at the feathered ends of the scarf that I had wrapped around my throat.

It smelled dark and loamy, rich with life and the coppery promise of satiety. I knew my eyes were black with need and hunger, and I longed for the moment when I would finally drink my fill.

The thrill of the hunt was all-consuming.

I cleared another fallen trunk without breaking my stride, only to be distracted by the sight of a familiar blue shirt half-hidden in the shadows.

Jasper darted ahead of me, pausing for a fraction of a moment to glance back at me, the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. I admired the grace in his movements, the fluid way in which he could turn from predator to lover.

He brought his passion to everything that we did together.

The caribou were closer now. I could hear the panicked thudding of their hearts and their blood calling to me. Desire burned me, my mouth felt as dry and parched as the dunes of the Sahara. I tilted my head and listened for the telltale sounds of their movements as they fled through the forest, seeing ahead, the uncertain paths of future now coalescing to a point.

I knew where to find them.

I crouched down, low to the ground, my nails digging into the leaf litter for a momentary purchase, before I sprang up into the canopy. A morass of greenery surrounded me, the feathery tendrils of spring growth brushing against my bare arms as I leapt into the void, trusting my instincts to catch at the swaying branches in time.

From high above, I could finally see the herd as they ran blindly towards the trap we had set for them; the steep culvert near the river would trap the unwary.

I marked out one of the young bulls for myself. The dappled markings on its coat had a pleasing symmetry to them and it looked strong and healthy. Its neck snapped with a satisfying crunch and then there was at last the warm, wet blood staining my lips as I drank deeply.

Only when I could no longer feel the burning need at the back of my throat, did I sit back and take the time to enjoy the sights and sounds of the night in the taiga forests of Denali.

Jasper had dragged his own kill into the copse, and was even now tearing into its flesh with his teeth. I smoothed the palms of my hands down the flank of the caribou at my side. It still felt warm, but its eyes were beginning to glaze, they already had the blank and empty stare that death brings.

The wilds of Alaska were stark; beautiful in their own way, being so untouched and still remote. It was certainly far from what could be termed civilization. It was also easy to see why Tanya’s family and many members of my own loved it, and were so drawn to it. There was something about the wide open sky and the contrast with the almost primeval forests and their ancient trees.

Edward had often spoken of how quiet it was, and that without so many humans around he didn’t have to worry about eavesdropping on their thoughts. It was a welcome break from the burdens of his talent at times. I didn’t find it like that at all; my gift was for seeing the future, which unfortunately didn’t depend on proximity.

I could appreciate Denali for its beauty, but the isolation only annoyed me. I missed my banal creature comforts - like my extensive wardrobe (living out of a suitcase could hardly be called living), and the constant parade of new faces and new situations. Jasper often made jokes about my frustrated desire to be a social butterfly. If I was really honest with myself, I would admit that a lot of my pent up feelings were to do with missing Forks. It was one of the few places that I had been able to call home.

Thinking of Forks brought me back to Bella.

There was still so much pain there. Especially the bitter knowledge of what might
have been. I had seen so many bright futures for her and Edward, only to have the bleak reality of what had actually happened rudely dash them away. It was so hard to leave it alone. It was like a scab that itched and itched until you finally picked at it.

Edwards last words to me, before he left had been to tell me not to look, to leave Bella in peace. I hadn’t purposefully searched out the paths of her future, but she wasn’t a person I could ignore either. Our lives had meshed for a while, and now she was someone who was familiar to me when I looked into that other place.

I had caught only glimpses; one time it had been more fully formed. She had been sitting out a rotation in Gym class, and I had seen her tuck her hair behind her ears as she always used to do when she was nervous about something. It had made me smile, even as I longed to jump into my car and make the long drive out to see her.

Reminiscing was making me maudlin, so I reluctantly pushed the old memories aside. I stood up, intending to make my way over to Jasper when I heard a heart beating. It was a slow and steady thrum, my instincts crowed at me to follow it, but having fed so recently it was only a passing whim.

I turned my head, seeking the source among the rustling leaves. A pair of bright eyes tracked me from the edge of the copse.

A wolf.

The breeze picked up again and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a musky odor that clamored wrong, wrong, wrong.

It wasn’t the clean scent of an animal. It was something else.

Something unnatural.

I froze, holding my body to that stillness that only another of my kind can imitate. Still the eyes watched me, flickering up and down and then gazing directly into my own.

I felt an intelligence there and the thought of it unnerved me. I chanced a glance back at Jasper, only to discover he wasn’t there. He was gone, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

Tension began to creep into me. I tried to force it down, to tell myself that he had just slipped away; that this was just a hungry wolf drawn to the scent of a fresh kill; that I was overreacting and reading too much into things.

I looked forward, into the future for reassurance, but the paths were all broken. Frantic, I cast my net wider, to look beyond the immediate. But I found it the same; dead links and uncertainty, like a cloud had come down and turned everything to a murky fog.

It was as though I were cut off from one of my vital senses. I felt like screaming.

I was terrified.

Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. For my whole memory of life since I awakened as I am now, I’d always had the ability to see things more clearly than others. I could predict consequences. Free will allowed the future to always change, but I had been able to stay a step ahead of disaster.

My instinct told me to run. No predator could keep up with my pace; I could reach the relative safety of Tanya’s house in minutes. But I didn’t move, some insane reason kept me there, standing in the middle of the clearing like a frightened rabbit that was too paralyzed with fear to move.

A small amount of curiosity was there as well. I had to admit that to myself. The wolf that watched me so intently from the tree line was no wolf at all. We stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. I noted the subtle coloring in its fur, the layers of gray bristle mingled with a darker tawny overcoat.

The eyes withdrew, but the beating heart remained.

I trained my entire focus on it, hearing the steady thud thump, and the liquid whoosh of blood as it pushed its way through the vascular system. I could hear the panted breaths that the creature took; the click of the jawbone as it closed its mouth; and the dry crackle of the dead leaves on the ground as it moved over them.

The undergrowth rustled again and a woman stepped into the clearing.

I blinked twice, almost in disbelief. She was as naked as the day she was born, with only her long blonde hair to protect her skin against the sharp night air. In some ways she reminded me of Rosalie, they both had the same proud and severe air about them.

For a moment I was confused, and looked again for the wolf, before I realized that the pulse at her throat was the same heartbeat that I had been concentrating on.

She regarded me warily, but without fear. She was balanced forward on her toes, a stance that I took as being primed for an attack.

“I know what you are,” she said. Her voice was clear and self-assured. In fact, everything about her radiated confidence.

Her eyes pierced me again.

I made no reply.

“Vampire,” she said calmly.

There was no dramatic overtone, no hysterical accusation. Just a calm assertion of what was, after all, the truth.

I met her gaze unflinchingly, but made no other move to either acknowledge or deny what she had said.

“I’ve met your kind before.” This time she betrayed an expression. It was a fleeting upturn of the lips, an almost-sneer that was stifled before it was really formed. It told me at least that her opinion of us was poor at best and most likely worse than awful.

I looked away, disconcerted by her frank assessment. I still felt that small amount of shame for what I am. No matter our “vegetarian” lifestyle, we are still drinkers of blood.

In that moment she lunged towards me. I was ready for her attack and stepped aside. But, to my horror, she saw through the feint and blocked me. We were a blur of motion, as we exchanged blows faster than any human could ever have dreamed.

I was shocked. Not only were her reflexes as fast as my own, but her strength more than matched my enhanced abilities.

We sparred like pit-fighters for a time, circling each other and striking when any opportunity arose.

She was good. Very good, and it pained me to admit that she might even be better than me. I had lost any advantage that my future sight might have given me. I’d always had my gift to help me, but now I was a blind person, fumbling in the dark morass of the present.

Lightning fast, she slipped under my guard and pinned me. I resisted, but she twisted my arm behind my back, pushing at it until it felt as though something might break.

Fear began to leech at my resistance. In my entire memory as a vampire, I had never broken a bone; even my skin was harder than any known substance. Nothing made of man could harm me. The venom in my system would heal any poison or disease. To be a vampire was to be both invulnerable and immortal.

The woman pulled me against herself, one arm snaking around my body until her hand was at my throat. Her skin felt shockingly warm, even through the silk of the scarf. It pulsed with life, but I felt no desire to drain her; everything about her physical self repelled me. It was an instinctive reaction that puzzled me.

“If you move, I will kill you,” she said into my ear. “I can do it you know. My kind were made to hunt down prey such as you.”

A finger traced the curve of my cheek and then lifted away. To my horror, it began to change; lengthening and then thinning until it was a wickedly curved claw.

The claw moved to my shoulder, and I strained to follow it with my eyes as it moved to my wrist. The woman pressed down and my skin parted like a knife drawn though butter. It began to heal immediately, but she had made her point.

“I’m listening,” I grated out. “What do you want?”

“The man who was with you, where is he?”

I stiffened. I could be afraid for myself, but Jasper was another thing entirely. I couldn’t even imagine being without him. I wasn’t about to tell her anything.

“Why?” I asked, hoping to find out at least why she was so determined to hold me.

“I can smell him on you,” she said.

“But why?” I pressed. “What’s he to you?”

“A killer,” she said. “And more than that.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, and twisted around. “Jasper is not like that. We’re not like that.”

“Jasper. Is that his name then?” she mused. “No matter. A name makes no difference to something you need to put down.” The claw was back at my throat again.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I said, outraged.

“At first we thought it was a Mutt, because, of course, no Pack wolf would be so stupid. All the police reports mentioned bite marks and determined that it was animal activity.” She snorted at this. “But we knew it wasn’t one of our kind as soon as we found the seventh one.”

“You’re not making any sense,” I said, annoyed at her assumption that I would know what she was on about. “Wait, you said seven? Seven what?” Did she mean bodies?

“Don’t play the innocent with me.” She shook me a little. “You know exactly what I mean. All those convenient hikers, but you made a mistake when you took the child.”

“I don’t know who you are, or who you think I am. But I have never…”

“I didn’t say it was you who killed her,” she said, cutting me off.

“You can’t think it was Jasper.”

“I know it was him,” she hissed.

“I don’t believe you,” I said vehemently. “It’s not possible.”

“I'm a tracker,” she said. “Once I know a scent, I can follow it to its source. I can smell him all over you. It's there behind that over-sweet stench that you all have.”

“You’re mistaken-”

“I don’t make mistakes. I haven’t forgotten a smell yet; it’s what makes me useful.” She bared her teeth at this last comment and then let me go.

I stumbled, which was strange. I usually prided myself on my ability to move deliberately. I rubbed at the wrist where she had marked me; the scar had already begun to fade.

“So, did it give you a thrill to see a helpless child have her throat torn out in front of you?” she taunted, her eyes narrowing to slits.

“I wasn’t there, and you’ve got this completely-”

“Maybe you weren’t there, but your friend certainly was.”

“Stop interrupting!” I snapped. “I’m trying to tell you that you’ve got this all wrong.”

“And how exactly are you going to explain a dead four year old away?” she said sarcastically.

I sighed. This wasn’t going well. “We - I mean my family and I - we’re vegetarian.”

The woman raised an eyebrow and glanced pointedly at the carcass of the caribou that was still lying on the grass.

I rolled my eyes. “I mean we don’t eat humans. We survive on the blood of animals.”

I could tell she didn’t believe me, at least not entirely. She seemed to digest my words for a while, her fingers tapping a steady rhythm against her crossed arms. I wondered if she was finally feeling the cold.

“Have you never had human blood then?” she asked finally, a curious lilt to her tone. It seemed that she was at least open to the possibility of a non-murdering vampire.

“No,” I replied. “I woke to this life and saw what I had to do-” I broke off, searching for the words. “It’s hard to explain, you’ll think I’m crazy.”

“I doubt that,” she said wryly.

She had a point; after all, we were both examples of supposedly mythical creatures. I toyed with the edge of my scarf, turning over in my mind the best way to say things.

Finally I decided that the bare facts were really all that I could offer.

“I can see the future,” I said. “So I saw what would happen to me if I chose to kill. So… I didn’t.”

“You can see the future? That’s-”

“Interesting?”

“I was going to say a burden, but I guess interesting is the right way to look at it as well.”

“It’s what I do.” I shrugged. “I’ve never known any different.”

“What about the other one then? This Jasper of yours?” she asked.

“He’s a vegetarian as well,” I asserted.

“And I suppose he’s never drunk human blood before either.”

“Well, no. But that was before he joined our family. And he hasn’t had any since then.” I hastily reassured her.

“You know this for a fact do you?”

“Of course,” I said indignantly. “I’d know. I’d see it.”

She inspected a nail, making a show of nonchalance. “And you’ve never been wrong about anything have you? Seems to me that you didn’t exactly see me coming now, did you?”

“I… I… That’s different.”

“You’re telling me that no-one’s ever managed to hide anything from you before?”

Bella.

She was right, in a way. Bella had hidden her decision to confront James from me. The future wasn’t set in stone. People could always decide to do things differently; it was what made making predictions difficult when there were too many variables involved. I’d never thought of myself as infallible, far from it, but I had thought that I could at least know the more likely paths of those close to me.

It was arrogant and Bella had showed me how wrong and just how dangerous that assumption could be.

But Jasper?

I had known Bella for scarcely a few months, but Jasper and I had shared a lifetime together. It hardly seemed possible that he could keep that kind of secret from me. I’d always known that he found it harder than the rest of us to keep to our lifestyle. I could sense when he was tempted; I’d even seen a few futures where he did break his promises - but none of them had ever actually eventuated.

Or had they?

I hated the niggling feeling of doubt that was at the back of my mind.

I had dreamed of Jasper before I had ever met him. I had known that we were meant to be together, that he was the one person in this world who was my perfect match. My soulmate. I knew the terrible despair that he had felt during his years of wandering; he had shared his darkest secrets with me - there were no barriers between us.

“I just can’t accept that he would do such a thing,” I said finally, into the silence that had stretched between us. “I’m not naïve enough to believe he isn’t capable of killing, but I know him, I know the way he pushes himself to be a better person, how much he wants to put his past behind him.”

Pity was etched across her features. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Truly I am. You can love someone and believe the best about them, but reality can sometimes really be a bitch.”

“There’s just no way,” I insisted. “You can’t hide something like that with our family. Somebody would notice.”

“Somebody did notice,” she said pointedly. “Why else do you think I would have tracked you here. I’ve followed you across half the continental US; Port Angeles, Ithaca, Biloxi, and now here to Denali.”

I took in her list with a growing sense of despair; all of them places we had lived in or visited in the past few months. She was right to be suspicious; I would have been in her place.

“We first picked up the scent in Tulsa. I’ll never forget it; it was like an over-ripe apple had mixed with something indescribably foul. It couldn’t be a wolf, but it wasn’t human either.”

“Tulsa,” I seized on this small piece of hope. “We haven’t been there in years. I don’t know how I could prove that to you, of course, because it’s not like you’re going to take my word for it. I wish I could show it to you with my own eyes.”

I stopped speaking as a thought had occurred to me. Eyes.

Of course.

It was so simple to explain now.

“Look, you’re not making this any easier,” she said. “I’ve found what I was looking for; I can smell him all over you. I was sent here to take care of this, and I’m going to, even if I have to kill you to do it.”

“Oh no you’re not,” a voice, as clear as a bell, called out from behind us.

We both whirled around.

“Jasper!” I cried out. “Get out of here now.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Alice,” he said calmly.

He began walking toward us, his palms turned outwards to show that he was unarmed.

The woman bared her teeth. “You didn’t think I was stupid enough to come alone, did you?”

She made a gesture with her hand and a man stepped forward from the shadows. He was also naked and appeared completely unconcerned by that fact. I almost envied them that; obviously when they transformed, they couldn’t keep their clothing, but it must have been a little bit thrilling; to give yourself so completely over to that savage animal side. When I went hunting, I was more likely to be wearing Dior couture than anything else. I’d always wanted to keep that veneer of civilization over myself, even as warm blood stained my lips red.

“Is that him then?” The man asked.

“Be careful, Clay,” she warned. “He’s not some dumb Mutt you can just chase down.”

“I don’t know about that, Elena. He looks like he’d at least lead me a pretty dance - for a while at least.”

They both laughed.

I felt my mouth flood with the bitter tang of venom; I wasn’t about to go down with a fight.

But then, just as quickly as the urge to kill the werewolves had come over me, a feeling of peace settled in. This was all just a big misunderstanding; there was no reason to rip out anybody’s throat over something so trivial.

The woman and the man; Elena and Clay, relaxed as well. Elena looked a little bit confused, but she lost the combat-ready stance she had been holding.

I felt completely happy; as if the last few minutes had never happened at all. It was then that I realized that Jasper was using his gift.

He had the ability to manipulate the emotions of those around him. When he was newly born as a vampire, he had used it to beguile his victims; now he exerted himself to prevent a fight to the death from breaking out.

He approached Elena, still wary, but he moved with a slow grace that had her mesmerized.

“I am not the one you seek,” he said and extended his hand.

Her nostrils flared as she took in his scent. She closed her eyes for a moment and tilted her head back.

When she opened her eyes again, they were filled with disappointment. “No,” she said, and her shoulders slumped.

I knew the exact moment that Jasper released us, because I was filled with the urge to punch him in the arm for being so monumentally stupid.

Elena turned to me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was so very sure that it was him.”

“It was a mistake,” I replied. “No harm done. This time>” I couldn’t quite help but add that little sting in the tail to my acceptance of her apology.

I shrugged out of my jacket and held it out to her; I did feel a bit guilty for being so ungracious. Esme would have given me a long lecture if she had heard me.

“Here, you have to be feeling cold.”

“Ah, thanks, but no thanks,” she said, backing away as she gave a sheepish smile. “No offense, but the both of you smell awful.”

I sniffed the air, slightly offended at the implication. “You’re the ones who smell strange,” I retorted.

“I think we can agree that everybody stinks,” Jasper interjected before things could get heated again.

Elena took my jacket, surprising me. She smoothed her hand across the lining on the inside.

“I can still smell him - the one we’re looking for,” she said.

I frowned. “This jacket isn’t mine, I borrowed it off Irina.”

“No, the scent is distinctively male.”

“Laurent,” Jasper said. “It has to be.”

I nodded in agreement. “He and Irina were together for a time.”

“Where is he now?” Clay asked.

“He left Denali a few weeks ago. Tanya said that he was restless and had decided he couldn’t live like us.”

“Can you tell us where he is, or even where he is headed? If you used your gift it would be really helpful to us,” Elena said eagerly.

I concentrated, but there was still nothing. The paths were all closed off.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “This has never happened before - but I can’t see anything.”

“Alice?” Jasper sounded concerned.

“Don’t worry,” I reassured him. “Maybe it’s only a temporary thing. And if it’s not - well we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Elena sighed. “Well, I knew this one was never going to be a cakewalk. What about if you had to guess?”

“I think he’d try and find Victoria; she was a member of his coven,” I explained. “And a nasty piece of work too.”

“And do you know where she is?”

“No, but she might have headed to South America.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because my brother killed her mate. She would want her revenge and that’s where he is at the moment.”

She nodded “Right, well it’s not much to go on - but I guess it’s better than nothing.” She held out her hand. “We’ll be going now.”

I took it. It was warm, so very warm and I felt her repress a shudder.

“You have to leave so soon, but-”

“This Laurent killed someone we both knew,” Clay explained. “Besides, Elena and I have to keep moving before the trail gets cold.”

“But what if I see something that could help you?”

Elena bit her lip. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to wait. But if you do find out anything you can call and ask for Jeremy.”

She told me the number where I could reach their Pack leader and impressed on me that even the vaguest predictions could be vital to their search. Then they both melted away into the shadows just as quickly as they had appeared.

“Well, that was… odd,” Jasper said as he put an arm around my shoulders.

“Werewolves,” I breathed. “I never thought I’d meet one in flesh so to speak.”

“And what flesh!”

I elbowed him. “She was beautiful, but very focused, very hard and closed off. I wish Edward had been here so he could have told me what she was thinking.”

“Why would you even want to know?”

“I’m not sure, but she was fascinating in a way. She was right. I never saw her coming at all.”

“Aren’t you glad I was here in time to rescue you?”

I snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. I had it all under control.”

“It didn’t look that way.”

“Trust me.”

I looked into his amber colored eyes, which held no trace of the tell-tale red hue of a drinker of human blood.

“I see you.” I said.

“Of course you do, I’m right in front of you.”

“I see you now, and I see you always.”

I kissed him as the paths of the future opened.