Chapter Text
January 17th, 1886.
The new camp was disgusting, a demon filled cesspit in the middle of the forest. But Bella had her own room so she couldn’t really complain.
Well, more of a tree than a room. But it was taller than the other trees so Bella could at least pretend to have privacy, despite the lack of winter leaves.
All she really did was sit up there. Nothing really happened. The newborns trained and talked and hissed at each other. Every few days a load of humans were carried in and Bella had to climb to the very top of her tree to get away from the smell. There was nothing for her to do that wouldn’t traumatise her for life. The camp ran around her and her tree like the world’s most boring hellhole. She just stayed in her tree and tried not to invoke Jasper’s wrath.
He was so very obviously suspicious of her. He had only spoken two words to her together since they had set up in this new camp. “Evenin’ Bella.” Not exactly a conversation but it had given her some hope at first, until she responded with her own “Evening, Jasper.” and he looked at her like she was the devil incarnate. She kept out of his way after that. She kept out of everyone’s way.
She vaguely remembered a phrase she knew from her human days, half of war was waiting. Thus far, all of war was waiting. Future Jasper’s instructions rang in her mind whenever she had the urge to jump down and tell him everything.
Like a good little soldier, she was following her orders to a T.
I know you will want to grab me and get out of there as quickly as possible. Resist the urge. I will most likely be on my guard around you. Stay out of my way. If you do anything too suspicious I will be on you faster than you can run. You need to wait until I am comfortable enough with you being present to do anything that might draw attention, including talking to me.
I will most likely be comfortable once I am willing to leave you in the camp without me. But you need to use your intuition. I don’t need to tell you what will happen if I think you’re a threat. Promise me you’ll be careful, Bella. Don’t underestimate me.
She waited for 16 days, 5 hours and 17 minutes until finally there was progress. Jasper was leaving the camp along with Peter, Anton and four newborns to round up some humans for dinner. He had been refusing to go, preferring to send an older newborn in his place and ‘guard the camp’. Meaning keep an eye on her.
He hadn’t wanted to go this time, but Maria insisted. Bella heard snippets of their conversation through Maria’s tent. The newborns took too long without him, Maria was getting hungry.
Maria was always hungry, the newborns too. Bella didn’t remember being as famished as they all seemed to be when she was first turned. Then again, her life hadn’t revolved around feeding like all of theirs did. The camp was built around their feeding patterns. A huge pit was dug out in the middle, all the tents surrounded it. It was called the feeding pit. When humans were dragged in they would be pushed into it so they couldn’t escape and blood wouldn’t splatter on everything. It was smart, but gruesome. It had Jasper’s clever brain written all over it.
The dirt from digging the pit was piled and packed into a mound that towered over the rest of the camp. That was what Maria’s tent stood on, high enough to look down on everyone else there. The Queen and her kingdom.
She looked around at it as she sat on a lower branch of her tree, clearly in view. The newborns gave her a wide berth like they always did, strange and intimidating as she was. She got dodgy looks from them all the time, she guessed since she so obviously didn’t belong there and there was no way they all knew what made her so useful that she had been allowed to stay. They probably all thought she was spying. But Maria had made her a lieutenant - the title given to members of the coven that had a higher status than the rest. Messing with her meant death, so their looks had gone from aggressive and suspicious at the beginning to vaguely fearful and confused.
She didn’t like feeling their eyes on her, but she had to stay in view so Jasper could see her and hopefully calm some of his anxiety. She really needed this to work. She hadn’t had a proper meal in too long, being forced to stick to birds and rodents too stupid to avoid the camp. That was almost worse than starving. She couldn’t leave just in case he and Maria thought she’d run back to Johan. It was getting difficult to ignore the burning in her throat.
Besides that, she hadn’t contacted Carlisle yet. Her plan was to send a note to him while she was out hunting. Garrett should have built a shelter in their safe place by now, and he and Kate had said they would check it often. Carlisle had been told to be patient at first while she settled in, but there was only so much time before he would get too antsy and set off for Texas. She needed to tell him she was okay, asap.
Jasper would be gone for at least five hours, which was plenty of time to do everything she needed. They would get to Austin within half an hour, but once they rounded up all the humans they needed they had to carry them back or make them walk at human pace. The newborns hated it, it always took forever.
Bella wouldn’t take her full five hours though. She was allowed to wander off, Peter did it all the time and he had even less status than her. But this was her first excursion out and she really didn’t want to get caught sneaking off while Jasper was gone. Twenty minutes to get there and back, ten more to catch a deer or something on the way. That would have to do.
She quietly moved to a lower branch as she heard Jasper prepare to move out. She would make sure to be in exactly the same spot when he got back, catch his eye and then dart back up the tree before the bloodbath started. Totally fine, perfect plan.
Just as he was about to leave, Jasper turned and looked at her. He was much nicer to look at once he’d had a wash in the river nearby. Nicer to smell too. Maria had sat him in between her legs a few days after they had arrived and worked the tangles out of his hair with her fingers. Bella tried to block out what they did afterwards.
He didn’t look as furiously suspicious as he had before, he had definitely gotten used to her. Bella even got the feeling that at this point he might rip her limbs off as a warning if she crossed him, as opposed to just killing her outright. An improvement indeed. Still, he was looking at her very intently, and Bella started to feel concerned that he might change his mind, stay at the camp or God forbid make her come with him. She had managed to avoid actively participating in the murder of humans so far.
About ten seconds later, although it felt like a lifetime, Anton shouted his name. He made an abrupt turn and joined the troops at the front of the camp. He barked at them to follow him and they moved out. Bella almost sighed with relief, she would be free to go after all.
Once the sound of thundering footsteps faded away, Bella climbed back up to the very top of her tree. She stayed out of sight and waited until someone started making noise in the camp to drop soundlessly to the ground and run south.
Bella began to run in a straight line through the trees towards the safe space, but she soon caught a whiff of Jasper’s newborns far to her right.
She decided to circle around in the opposite direction, it would add five minutes to her journey but at least she would avoid detection.
The pleasant familiar scent of Kate and Garrett reached her soon after her little detour. Her empty chest warmed with the comfort of family nearby. The rough soil trod path to the clearing was marred with their footprints. They lead to the door of a tiny wood cabin, a shed really. At about three feet on each side, it was just big enough to stand in. The clumsy ramshackle door had been painted butterscotch yellow, the colour of her eyes. Bella tentatively creaked it open and found a single shelf before her with a single envelope lying upon it. She greedily snatched it up to read its soothing message.
Little traveller,
I hope you enjoy our little post office! It has been a while since I built something with my bare fair hands so I certainly had a wonderful time. Katie, of course; supervised.
We are currently wandering about to the north should you need us. We will tell you when we change direction, just in case you have to make a run for it. You are not to worry, we are being careful avoiding all the other covens. Your friend’s maps have come in very handy. Be sure to thank him for me!
Wishing you good luck my friend!
Garrett
P.S. Do try not to get mauled, dearest. - Kate
Okay so maybe it wasn’t quite as soothing as she wanted it to be. Still, it was good to know where her friends were and from the smell of things they had been there no more than two days before. It stung a little to know that they were having a good time while she was risking her life and sanity in a God forsaken war camp, even if it was her decision.
Bella tucked the little letter in her bag and replaced it with a note she had scribbled out in her tree.
Everyone,
I’m okay! I’m in the new camp, exactly where Jasper’s letter said it would be.
I’ve spoken to him. He’s different from the man I knew, but I think that’s just because of time. His anxiety is certainly still there, I can only get out to the post office now because he’s been watching me like a hawk for ages.
Peter is pretty great. I’ve been trying to avoid talking to people while I’m building up trust, but he’s difficult to avoid. You’ll all love him.
You’ll love Jasper too, it just might take a while.
But anyways, I’m okay, I haven’t had to kill anyone yet, and Maria’s scary.
I love you all,
Bella
She knew it was silly to think that addressing a letter to her family like a postcard from camp would calm their nerves, but what was she supposed to do? Tell them how disgusting it was? Tell them how during feeding time she had to clamp her hands over her nose and mouth and wait hours for the smell to dissipate? Tell them how she watched the man she was trying to save rip off someone’s finger and keep it? Not going to happen, she would settle with pleasantries and hope they would do.
Begrudgingly, Bella turned to leave. By her calculations she had been gone for 17 minutes, it would take 15 more to get back to camp if she needed to take a detour again, not to mention catching something to eat. Every second counted.
On her way back she kept an ear out for some kind of animal, but there was nothing. The smell of the newborns had really done a number on the wildlife population, the area was empty and deadly silent. Bella was forced to turn and run west from the camp, hoping that the further away from the camp and Austin she got, the more wildlife she might find.
It took 20 minutes of running until she finally heard a deep wet thudding of a heartbeat. She hoped for a deer, but ended up stalking a sleeping coyote from her perch on a nearby oak. She had never tried coyote before, it almost seemed like foreign cuisine.
Bella leapt from the tree, careful not to catch any of her skirts on the branches or splash any blood on her delicate collar as her teeth slid into the predator’s soft neck. It was dead before it even had time to wake up. It had a mildly spicy flavour, nicer than elk but not as good as bobcat.
She straightened from her position hovering over her prey and lifted it gingerly away from her clothes to drop it in a hollow under a tree, hopefully to rot and feed the soil one day. She had a think and realised she had been away from the camp for half an hour longer than she intended. Immediately, she turned and sprinted back to camp. She knew she was close when the background noise of the forest faded away and dead silence overtook.
Her tree was right on the edge of camp, nice and thick and gnarly, with wide flat branches at the top for her to put things on. It was close enough to the tents that she was visible to Jasper, but far enough to not have newborns nipping at her heels. It was perfect. Needless to say, she was very attached to this tree. She had even considered chiselling her name into the trunk to lay claim, but thought it might be too conspicuous.
She reached it after 13 minutes of running, as she sprinted back through the detour and knocked two minutes off. Careful not to make any noise, she leapt to a thick branch 6 feet up and began to climb to the top.
There was a very particular branch that was the perfect size for Bella to settle on, shielded from view by branches and close enough to the top for the sun to dance on the dewdrops in the morning. It was Bella’s favourite.
And a snarky blonde vampire was lying on it.
“Oh good morning Belle,” Peter grinned. “So nice of you to join us!”
Bella panicked. Peter was supposed to have gone with Jasper. She never would have left had she known he would stay. If he turned her in they might follow her scent and find the post office, her cover would be blown and she would never get Jasper out of here. She had to negotiate this situation extremely carefully or she could lose everything and everything she had gone through so far would be for nothing and-
Peter snorted. “Well it’s clear you were up to somethin’! Your eyes are so wide I can see into your skull!”
Bella shut her eyes immediately, for no logical reason.
“Calm yourself, Bella.” Peter grinned at her as she peeked her eyes back open. “I won’t rip your head off, promise.”
“Then what are you doing in my tree?” Bella asked, hoisting herself up onto an adjacent branch.
“Oh it’s your tree is it?” He didn’t fit quite as well as Bella did, he had to have his legs bent up onto the trunk. His feet rested on a knot at the very top, the branch shook as he stretched. “I don’t see no sign or nothin’.”
“Knew I should’ve carved my name into it,” Bella smirked. She was desperately trying to project some calm. If Peter was back, that meant Jasper might be too.
“You think newborns read? Honestly, you’re better off just spitting on it.”
Bella couldn’t believe she had never heard about this vampire obsession about spitting on or licking things until she came back to the past.
“Okay,” She said. “What are you doing in this unowned tree?”
“Waiting for you!” He stretched his arms back behind his head. “Since you decided to go walkies.” He drastically lowered his volume to where Bella had to strain to hear him. Her chest relaxed, maybe this meant he would keep her transgression a secret.
“Are walkies not allowed?” she replied in the same volume.
He shrugged, “For any other lieutenant, sure. For someone who waltzed into camp a couple weeks ago and freaked out the Major? Bad idea.”
“He’s that scared of me, huh?”
“Don’t tell him I told you this, but the man is easily spooked.” Peter’s easy grin didn’t falter as he whispered. “Takes a lot to make him care, but once he does he gets protective and upsets very easy.”
“Anxious, almost.” Bella replied, thinking of her own Jasper.
“Yeah.” Peter looked at her curiously, “Where were you anyway?”
“Why? You gonna tell on me?” Bella held her breath.
“Well the Major did send me back to keep an eye on you. He got a weird read on you as we left the camp, then it took him five whole minutes to drive himself into a frenzy and make me come back.” He grimaced. “And now you’re refusing to tell me where you were? I probably should tell on you.”
“But if I do tell you, you’ll keep it a secret?” she asked.
“Sure,” Peter’s smirk reappeared. “You got a lil’ double life goin’ on kiddo?”
“Everyone has layers,” Bella smiled. Peter was way too easy to trust. “I have family up north that like to be updated. I send them letters so my father doesn’t come barging into a war camp to make sure I’m okay.”
Peter’s smile turned a little wistful. “Lucky you. Though maybe I should tell and stop you goin’. Your father marching in here and going toe to toe with Anton on how his baby girl is being treated sounds mighty entertaining to me.”
“You wouldn’t!” Bella’s breath caught. “You will keep this secret for me, right? My father isn’t the fighting type. It would be a bloodbath.”
“Yeah yeah, keep your panties on!” Peter grinned. “I’ll tell the Major you were good as gold, hopefully he’ll get used to you soon. I lost first pick of dinner ‘cause of you, that’s a big sacrifice on my part.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.” Bella’s ears pricked at a strange sound in the distance. Like a mixture of crunching and scraping that she couldn’t attribute a cause to. “The hell is that?”
“No idea,” Peter looked confused too. He jumped down to the forest floor and Bella begrudgingly followed. “Should probably go check. Come on.”
The sound quickly grew louder and louder as they walked to meet it halfway from the camp. It took Bella a while to realise the strange sound was of wheels struggling on the uneven forest floor. She and Peter exchanged a look before venturing out from behind a particularly wide tree and coming face to face with the Major.
He smirked, “We hit the jackpot.” He gestured to the spectacle behind him.
A bedraggled stagecoach carriage stood there. It was in bad shape. Scratches marred its sides where it had been scratched up by trees, the wheels were caked in mud, twigs and leaves, and, Bella noted with amusement; it was being pulled by two newborns instead of horses. They did not look happy about it either. That must have been how they got back hours earlier than she’d expected. As Jasper lead them to the other side of the stagecoach, telling Peter all about how they had come across them on the road like a prepackaged dinner, she noticed one of the back wheels had been torn off and another newborn was crouched down there, supporting the axle with his own shoulder. He also looked furious. Despite the horrific circumstances she had to suppress a laugh.
That laugh died in her chest when she chanced a look at the carriage window, where seven terrified humans stared back at her. She assumed there were five passengers and the two drivers stuffed in there, so close they couldn’t move.
“We tried to bring you back a snack,” Anton sneered. “But the horses ran off pretty sharpish.”
Bella tried not to roll her eyes. “It’s the thought that counts.”
“It was my idea to keep the carriage you know.” He bragged.
Peter rolled his eyes in Bella’s peripheral vision; she suppressed a snort. “Really?”
Jasper slapped the back of Anton’s head, “Just get the humans into camp, the carriage won’t go any further. I’ll get Maria.”
“You better not steal the credit!” Anton called after him, receiving only a withering look for his efforts.
Anton grumbled for a moment, then turned and clicked the carriage door open. It was so full that a man fell out before the steps could come down. Bella caught him by instinct and winced as he recoiled away from her cold skin.
“Please…” he whispered. “I beg you, please spare us.”
Bella let him go like a shot and dashed back to where Peter stood. She couldn’t save him, but that didn’t stop the guilt eating her alive. She averted her eyes as the other humans were pulled from the carriage, the last one held on to the seat with her nails, kicking and screaming for mercy.
It was hopeless, of course. That last human had to join the single file procession marching into camp. Anton gave her a shove in the back for struggling. She stumbled against a tree, snivelling.
It took a second for Bella to realise what she was smelling, the sound reached her first. A sharp gasp and a rip as the skin of the victim’s palm scraped on the tree, leaving dribbles of precious blood smeared on the bark.
All Bella’s feelings of guilt and morality didn’t matter now. The savoury scent of blood filled her nose and clouded her mind. Her vision turned red. Only the deep red smears on the woman’s sleeve were important. All she could hear was that heartbeat, deep wet and panicked. She wanted it, she needed it. Ambrosia. Life force. Perfect. Beautiful. Worth killing for.
But before she could get further than a few steps, the mouthwatering smell was blocked by Peter’s applejack scent clamped over her mouth. As her mind cleared, she realised there was an arm pulled in an iron grip around her arms and torso, pulling her backwards into the forest.
Peter’s face appeared before her, frantically observing her eyes as they turned back from black to butter yellow.
“You stopped me,” She whispered as his hand peeled away from her nose and mouth. “Why did you stop me?”
He shrugged, “I dunno. I just had a feelin’ you needed me to. There’s more to your eating animals than just enjoying humans more isn’t there?”
“Yes,” She figured there was no lying to Peter. “Y’know you have pretty good intuition.”
“Sometimes I just know shit,” He smiled carefully. “C’mon. You might not partake in dinner, but the Major’ll be chompin’ at the bit to see if his little insurgent caused any trouble. Best you’re in view.”
Bella took a second to shake herself, then followed her friend back into the hellhole of a camp. She quietly suppressed this new shame, the memory of the time she almost killed a woman for scraping her hand.