Vegas is a city that never sleeps, just as they say. It is perfectly suited to our kind, perfectly suited to long hours spent on the streets, the aimless wandering of a restless mind. I am back where I belong, at the side of my lovely wife. I wanted to go to Mexico, wanted to pick a fight with Maria to unleash some of this anger and grief. When I hit Oklahoma, I turned back. As it turns out, my missing Charlotte outweighed my desire for a no holds barred, no strings attached fight with that Southern devil. I went back to her, flew into her arms, and promptly found out how big a mistake my leaving had been.
Without my knowledge, the love of my existence had been taken from me. Another Southerner with a grudge, a too powerful vampire named Cassian, had snatched Charlotte, creeping up on her in the moment she let her guard down. She should have been able to let her guard down, should have had that moment to completely relax, to think, to grieve. Instead, she was thrust into terror and something I would have called betrayl before all this. Charlotte refused to help Cassian in his attempt to re-claim territory in the South. He was looking for veterans, those who had seen battle before, who would know how to follow orders, how to give them. She told him Jasper was still in Forks.
It bothered me at first, knowing my wife had turned Jasper in, until I remembered his skill at hand-to-hand combat. I almost called him, intending to issue a warning, at least let him know what might be coming for him. Had his combat readiness died so swiftly in his time of following such a strange way of life? Even if it had, he would recieve a warning in advance thanks to his own mate. Alice.
Of that entire bizarre group, Alice was the only one I’ve never spoken out against. She was Jasper’s mate, his wife, his other half. That alone protected her, kept her off my radar, and kept her out of harm. I knew that, had the situation ever called for it, I would have willingly protected her, protected any of them, because they were important to him. Not anymore. I want nothing more to do with any of them. Its time to sever these ties completely.
Vegas is wonderful, a thrilling place to be when surrounded by other nomads. I need to start doing more with the group. That will give me less time to think. I’ve kept my promise as much as possible, staying with Charlotte while letting her enjoy herself and have her own space. Its time to move past all this insanity and get back to the way things are supposed to be.
