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The Poet and the Pendulum	By : TwilightScribe Category: Twilight Series > Slash Views: 4180 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Part Title: Interlude IV [ you're always in my heart ]
Pairing: Jasper/Jacob
Rating: pg13
Words: 3320 words
Disclaimer: The Twilight series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

Interlude IV
. you're always in my heart .

A sense of general unease had settled into the pit of my stomach, and it made all of my senses that much more sharper while I tried to figure out what it was. I didn't have much to go on, because what my sixth sense was giving me from the battlefield and forest around me did not match up with that feeling, which told me that it was my own. But then I gave it a little more thought as Emmett easily dealt with the last newborn.

Ever sense Jacob had imprinted on me, and we'd been spending more time together, I was getting much more input from him then anyone else. My ability had always been affected by distance, I needed to be in the same room, or just very close by, in order to feel whatever it was that they were feeling. When it came down to affecting others, I needed very close contact, physical contact made it strongest, to work that part of my ability. But with Jacob, it was... different.

If I wasn't too careful, then I'd often get 'glimpses' of whatever it was that he was feeling at that point in time. It was never anything very concrete, and never lasted very long, but it was enough to give me an impression as to his well-being.

When I suddenly fell to my knees, feeling an excruciating pain that I didn't know, wasn't familiar with, I just knew that something was wrong. Horribly wrong. But what? The newborns had all been dealt with, there shouldn't have been any threat here, it had been dealt with and no one was hurt. Already I could hear the wolves shuffling about in the forest, bringing parts of the decimated newborns to add to the growing heap.

Then something else flashed through my mind, something that I'd never seen before. It felt as though someone was reaching out for me, desperately, and immediately everything clicked into place and I knew with startlingly cold clarity what was wrong.

Jacob was in pain, something had attacked him.

Then another thing clicked.

He was dying.

Before any of the others could stop me, or even ask questions, my legs were already carrying me at blindingly fast speeds towards an area that I had a very faint impression of. I didn't care if I was breaking with the plan, the plan didn't matter right then, because it wasn't important anymore; I had to get to Jacob, I needed to make sure that he was alive. I couldn't lose him.

Scents bombarded me as I ran, and I was horrified to realize that I recognized one of them. Victoria.

Something cold and sharp lodged itself in my heart, and I knew that we had somehow miscalculated. Victoria would have known that Jacob was somehow important to Bella, and that would have been enough incentive for her to target him.

I wasn't ignorant or naive, I knew from what little Edward had given us about Victoria was that she and James were mates. Having killed James, Victoria would have been willing to go to any lengths to make sure that Edward knew her pain before she destroyed him completely. That was why Bella was the target; Victoria's plan all along had been to hurt Edward through her, the final blow being her death.

That was something that I'd known, something that I'd taken into consideration along with everything else that I knew of Victoria.

I hadn't thought of the target that would have been cast over anyone and everyone who was close to Bella. I hadn't thought that she might, slim as the chance was, that she'd go after Jacob. That she had gone after the one person who made my world, who was my world, brighter, a better place to be... it left a strange mix of feelings in me. Anger and desolation, and a desperate hope to make it to him in time; there had to be something that I could do for him!

The scents were getting stronger, more concentrated. I was getting closer, but the scents weren't fresh, I could tell that much; they were a little stale. Victoria and one another had been there, but they'd long since moved on; probably to go and find Edward and Bella, the real targets. A surge of vengeance welled up inside me, but the worry that was still coursing through me was pushing it aside; my revenge could wait, Jacob needed me at that moment more.

If I could save him, if I could do anything for him, then I wouldn't delay. I wouldn't lose him, I just couldn't.

A smell greeted me, one among the other stale scents that dominated the wind which was blowing towards me. It was one I recognized, I knew it so well, only it was so much more potent then how I usually smelled it. That only made me push myself to go faster.

I could smell, I could taste, Jacob's blood.

That only infuriated me more. I was nearly overcome at that moment with bloodlust; I hadn't ever had the chance to taste his blood, no one was supposed to have that honour but me. I'd held myself back for a number of reasons, the largest one being that I had no idea of what my venom could do if I introduced it to his system. Of course, there were theories (of which Carlisle had plenty), and he strongly believed that our venom would either prove fatal, or it would mess with their bodies in such a way as we hadn't seen before.

Would Jacob be dead when I found him? Or would he be too far beyond my reach to save? Or... would he become some other creature? The possibilities were only making my worry, my concern, that much worse.

As I drew closer, I could make out the faint sound of a heartbeat, along with the scent of blood. I skidded to a stop at Jacob's side, falling to my knees at his side.

His body was crumpled on the forest floor and he was as white as a sheet as he gasped for breath and weakly thrashed around. There were gashes in the ground from where he'd clawed at it in his spasms, and his eyes were squeezed shut as he arched off the ground again, letting out silent screams of pain. At that moment, he seemed weak and small; so tiny and fragile.

A small trickle of blood was escaping from his neck, in the perfect shape of a bite mark. Victoria's scent hung over the clearing, along with the scent of that unfamiliar vampire which I'd scented alongside it. The venom which remained on Jacob's neck glistened in the waning sunlight.

Slowly, I gathered him up into my arms, cradling him to me as I desperately tried to think of something, anything, that could save him. He thrashed about in my arms, blind to everything but the pain, and it was close to overwhelming me, making it difficult to think, to concentrate.

“Jake...” I murmured, pressing my lips to his in a vain effort to calm him. I pulled up every defence that I could think of to block out his pain, but it wasn't completely successful. It kept seeping through my barriers, no matter how strong they were, no matter how much of my mental energy I threw into them. “I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.”

Suddenly, a memory popped into my mind. Of a similar situation that had occurred over a year earlier. A clean bite, the venom hadn't spread too much if he was still screaming, if he was still thrashing about, then there was still time. I could still save him.

The bite was clean, it would be possible for me to suck the venom back out. But there would be no way to repair or undo the changes that could have possibly been done already. If he was different... would that change anything?

I desperately hoped not.

“I'm sorry... I don't want to hurt you anymore... but I have to do this.” I leaned down, brushing my lips quickly over his before tracing them down the side of his neck until they hovered over the bite which marred his neck. Taking a deep breath to steady my frayed nerves, made only worse by the constant stream of pain which was being fed to me from him.

With painstaking care, I bit down, and quickly began to suck. I could taste the bitter tang of the venom (there wasn't as much as I'd feared), as well as the sweet taste of his blood. That alone was nearly enough to undo me, but I resisted. I couldn't kill him now. I could never kill him; it would be the same as if I'd killed myself.

Slowly, the taste of the venom began to fade, until the only taste which remained was that of his blood. I forced myself back, to stop, and with a strength of will that I didn't know I had, I managed it. The wound was still oozing blood, and I knew that he was already running dangerously low. He'd lost quite a lot of blood before I'd arrived there, and I had taken quite an amount as well in my effort to save him.

Ripping at my sweater, I tore it off, ripping it into strips which I lashed about his neck tightly, but not too tightly as to strangle him. The blood flow needed to be stopped, and Jacob was in desperate need of medical attention; I had to get to Carlisle as fast as I possibly could.

He was floating somewhere between conscious and unconscious as I swept him easily into my arms, cradling him against my chest gently. His forehead came to rest against the side of my neck, his breath cool and sticky against the hard skin there. But he was alive, and that was what was most important to me.

I could still feel the faint beating of his heart in his chest, the sound of his breathing rushing in and out of his lungs. He was alive. He was alive and I could still hold him in my arms.

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.

Everyone was at home when I arrived, minus Edward and Bella, and for that I was grateful. The last thing that I needed right then was her hovering over my shoulder with all of her worry and her concern about her best friend. My own emotions were running haywire with me, and for the first time in a very long time, I actually felt exhausted from the emotional turmoil that I was feeling.

Carlisle and Alice shot up from the couch and were on either side of me in moments. I was so lost to my instincts to protect Jacob, that I growled at Carlisle when he attempted to take Jacob from my arms. There was no way that I was letting him out of my sight, not now, not when he needed me the most.

He gave a short nod, racing into the small clinic that he kept in the house for such emergencies (that were usually all related to Bella). I followed him, Alice at my side, her hand resting comfortingly against my arm. I was glad for her presence, her strength gave me strength. She calmed me down from the frantic urges that I had been subjected to since Jacob had been attacked.

I laid Jacob gently on the examining table, brushing aside his hair from his too pale face as I slid onto the table beside his head. Carlisle began checking all of his vitals, ordering Alice to help prepare a blood transfusion for the young wolf after checking his medical files. His hands were moving quickly from Jacob to his instruments and back to Jacob again. A frown creased his mouth, and suddenly I was overcome by another wave of panic as Carlisle ordered Alice to bring him a syringe for a blood sample.

Oh god, what have I done?

What if in my efforts to keep the venom from hurting Jacob, I'd only pumped my own further into him? His blood had tasted clean, clean and so sweet, when I'd pulled away but what... what if there'd already been damage done before I'd gotten there? I had no idea if the venom could have worked whatever fatal consequences it could have on him before I'd gotten there.

Carlisle worked furiously while I became a statue at the head of the examining table, Jacob's head resting in my lap as I wordlessly stroked his hair.

There was an unfamiliar pressure behind my eyes, which had started to sting, and I found myself praying to any and every god that might exist in the hope that they'd be able to bring Jacob back to me just as he'd been. He was everything to me, and losing him would destroy me. If he came out of this and hated me, hated my kind, for what had happened, then I could survive. As long as he was alive, then nothing else mattered.

If he pushed me away, if he never wanted to see me again, then I would be fine with that too. It would hurt me more then anything else, short of him dying, but I'd leave him if that was what he wanted. I couldn't bear knowing that I'd put him in danger, that this was my fault; I should have thought about Victoria's need for revenge, that she would do anything for vengeance.

I hoped Edward had killed her, because if he hadn't, then I would do it myself.

The minutes slowly ticked by, turning into hours, and the frantic pace which Carlisle and Alice had been working over Jacob with calmed, until it was only Carlisle in the room with us. He was monitoring Jacob's heart rate, his breathing, but was also frowning over the blood tests that he'd been running for the past, I glanced at the clock, hour.

My fear was still clawing at my insides. Had something happened? I needed desperately to know.

“Carlisle...” My voice sounded pitiful, broken. “Is he...?”

“He's lucky that you got there as quickly as you did; you managed to suck all of the venom back out,” Carlisle explained. “He'll live, Jasper.”

A huge sigh of relief slipped past my lips, and I let myself smile just a little. I was just so happy to hear, to know, that he wasn't dead. Jacob was alive, I hadn't gotten there too late. But the greatest relief was that I'd been able to control myself when faced with his blood. I had been worried greatly about that; I was under no allusions that I was the weakest member of our family, the one who was most likely to slip up. In saving Jacob, I'd proven that I could control myself, even when presented with such temptation.

“Will he wake up soon?”

“He's lost a lot of blood Jasper,” Carlisle replied, still frowning over his test results. “But his kind recover quickly, I would give him a few more hours before he wakes up on his own. They're a remarkable species, truly they are.”

I looked away from Carlisle, turning my attention back to my mate who was now, apparently, sleeping peacefully on the uncomfortable examining table. He would be sore when he woke up, I mused, and he'd demand an explanation for what had happened. Idly, I wondered if he would be mad at what I had done to him, or if he'd be proud of me for demonstrating that I really could control that darker part of me. Or would he ask a stupid question to lighten up the mood?

Really, I had no idea of what to expect.

I wasn't given much more time to think, because the unmistakable noise of Bella's truck could be heard pulling up outside of the house. Even from where I was in the house, I could still make out her shrill demands to be told what was going on, what was wrong with Jacob. I wished that she could have come later, when Jacob was awake, because I wasn't too sure how to handle her.

The front door opened with a loud crash, which was quickly followed by Bella stomping her way angrily into the house, demanding that Edward take her to Jacob. I could hear Edward softly ask that she calm down. I could feel the fury, the pain, the worry, all of it rolling off of her even though I wasn't even in the same room as she. That was how strong her emotions were at that moment.

She didn't take long to figure out where we were, and she threw open the door with another resounding crash, making me growl at her and the noise. Unfortunately, she didn't take the warning to stay away.

“Jake!” she shrieked, and made as if she was going to throw herself at him.

I was already hunched over him, ready to pounce if she were to make a wrong move. It didn't matter to me if she was his best friend, she was still the reason for why he was here, like this. As irrational as it was, I blamed her for what happened to him, even though she couldn't have done anything to have kept this from happening. I blamed her, I blamed myself, I blamed Victoria. But I would stay at Jacob's side until I was sent away.

Edward stopped her before she got too close, his arms firm around her waist as she tried vainly to pull away to get to my mate. A threatening growl slipped from my throat; a warning to stay back if she valued her life.

“What's going on?!” she snapped. “Tell me what's going on!”

Carlisle stepped between us, “Bella please calm down; now isn't the time for you to be overly emotional.”

“But Jake –” She was interrupted.

I growled again.

“Bella.” This time it was Edward who was trying to talk some sense into the angry and irrational human girl who had no idea of what the consequences of letting her near me and Jacob would be. “Listen to Carlisle. Going near Jacob right now isn't a good idea; Jasper's instincts are going haywire right now, if you do anything that he thinks might be a threat, he'll kill you.”

“I'm not a threat! Damn it! Let me go Edward!”

“Jacob will be fine, Bella,” Carlisle assured her, giving me a warning glance. “Jasper managed to get to him in time, he'll survive. But right now he needs rest and you need to calm yourself down before you can see him. Wait until he wakes up.”

Slowly, Edward and Carlisle were able to herd Bella from the room, something that I was grateful for. As Carlisle had said, my instincts were going crazy at that moment to keep Jacob safe and close to me. I had only let him treat Jacob because of Alice's calming influence, along with his own. There were things that Carlisle could do for Jacob that I couldn't, and I trusted him to be able to help him.

Before Carlisle was out of the door, he turned back to me. There was something lurking under the calm veneer that he was wearing, something that I recognized as wary fear but it wasn't of me. His eyes flickered from Jacob to me and then back again.

“When he wakes up, there's something that I have to tell both of you.”

Then the door clicked shut, and Jacob and I were left to ourselves.
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The Poet and the Pendulum