Karma's A Witch

Twilight © 2005 by Stephanie Meyer

bellaandedwardaddict and synphilia beta'd for me. Thank you both.

Prologue

11:45 pm, Saturday

September 13th

I haven't had a pivotal moment in my life for over ninety years. The human mile markers have been long forgotten or so fuzzy; I can't tell what had truly happened. As far as growing went, that's over for me. Physically. But in an instant, a small witch girl changed everything. She kissed me, and her warmth stayed on my lips, as I was ripped away before I could do any damage to her trembling body.

I tried to drink her and she gave me a first. After a lifetime of monotony, this was the first warm kiss I'd ever had. She reminded me what it was like to be surprised and she brought light into my life for the briefest of moments. She had reminded me what it was like to be alive.

Jasper and I have been tracking a rather nasty werewolf across the states. Together we have been atoning for our own sins by saving potential victims of human-bitten and changed Weres. Since they have similar day time restrictions, we don't have to play catch up when darkness brings the monsters forth in the bitten, and protects us from bursting into flames. We've killed plenty of her offspring, and caught a glimpse of her crazy twisted face twice, but she surrounds herself with her expendable children and leaves us to clean up after her.

We saved the witch girl from being torn to threads. She'd been cut, and her delicious blood, an accidental distraction, we managed to bring down the maniacal Werewolf. I replayed the little I'd seen of the girl, her running for her life behind the warehouse. She had tripped, landing on all fours and sliding in the dirt. She hadn't seen us yet, her head turned back to see her attackers, but Jasper and I intercepted them. It was three on two, not counting the useless witch; she didn't even mutter a protection spell she just backed away from the scene, bloody from Jasper tearing the arm off the newly bitten Were. The leader Were had thrown her offspring at him and the spray of blood from the open wound and arteries, his heart pumping so rapidly it covered her and the surrounded earth.

She didn't run, her eyes closed and I remember her shaking, biting her bottom lip as Jasper and I finally took out the last target that kept us chasing for almost four months. The knowledge that once again, we were left without a purpose left me anxious for more substance, for something more in general.

'Satisfactory. What shall we do now?' Jasper thought to me as other things crossed his mind. That he would like to leave this place, he'd like to feed, and that the chase had been too long for such an easy end. His thoughts turned to the girl; we weren't moving away quick enough and her blood was starting to get to him. I knew just what he meant, what he was feeling. Even with the stink of were blood and death, I could smell the sweetness of the girl.

If I remember anything from my human days, it was that I liked sweet things.

I acted before my movements registered, Jasper's dull surprise and then calming words drifted to me, but I already pressed myself against the girl. I dipped my nose into her hair, the smell of strawberries with the sweetest hint of earth and growing seedlings. She smelled how I remembered the sun to be, her warmth seeping into my core and I felt my fangs stiffen, the hardness of them pressing against my upper lip as they parted.

She trembled for me.

'Think Edward!' Jasper's voice echoed in my head. 'She has done nothing wrong, a young girl, barely a teen I'd say. I understand the appeal but she does not deserve death!' I considered his words, holding on to them as I slowly, centimeter by centimeter, backed away from the girl. She had been barely breathing, her light brown eyes wide and terrified. Jasper could see I was disentangling myself from the girl and kept talking me back from the ledge, so to speak.

I can't tell you how surprised I had been. Now that I think back on it, it was nice. Years and years have passed since I felt such an emotion. Even Jasper pondered and held on to the feeling, reacquainting himself with the ambience of something new, something long forgotten. The girl, shaking in her skin, covered in werewolf blood, had kissed me.

She kissed me right on the mouth.

I focused on the girl, wondering what the hell she could be thinking… and I realized I had no idea. The shock redoubled on itself and I instantly wanted to be alone with the girl. I wanted to hear nothing, as I had company and I wanted to taste the girl's salty flesh and drink from her saccharine veins. I wouldn't hear her thoughts of the one's she'd leave behind. I wouldn't hear her last regrets as the spark of her life drained into me. I might be free from my guilty thoughts after killing her; she'd seem less real, without her last thoughts running through my head.

Yet, as I fought the urging and need of my vampire self, a tinge of sorrow spread from my dormant chest. I didn't stop to think about why and I let myself experience her. Her tiny frantic heart making her that much harder to resist, the flush of her cheeks and her nervousness after her sudden impromptu kiss, I wanted her more than I had ever wanted anything. If it made her feel any better about dying here tonight, I'd remember her for the rest of my existence.

Jasper lunged and pulled me from the girl, I didn't fight, I let him pin me as he called out to the girl. "Run!" I laid limp, my back to the asphalt and Jaspers forearm across my chest in a crouch. Her clear brown eyes reflected the moon as she stared into my own eyes; it took her a moment to realize she'd been told to get out of here. The girl took off, and I watched her retreating form as my mouth snarled, my fangs stayed extended. I could still smell her here.

"I get the rush of the battle, but calm the hell down, man. We just saved the girl, and now she'll fear vampires anyways." He gave me a half smile. Jasper kept a mental tally of almost everything, including each of our slip ups and kills. He enjoyed adding numbers to my tally, since he was almost twice as impulsive, according to his thoughts. "Aren't we supposed to be paving the way for a new sect of vampire, I think we had one fan, and then you tried to eat her."

I snorted, sitting up as Jasper moved off me. So many sensations surrounded me that I lost track of how long Jasper and I sat encircled by pieces of Werewolves and blood. My fangs didn't retreat, and I often glanced in the direction the girl ran. Jasper stayed as silent as he could with his mind still rambling, before time caught up with us.

Ironic, that the eternally timeless had limited time.

"Twenty-three minutes to day break, we need to find somewhere dark, Edward." I nod, taking in her fading scent one last time before picking myself up off the blood soaked earth. Jasper turned opposite her direction purposefully and my logical mind agreed with him. I struggled with myself, to move farther away from the girl and after a moment, I followed my friend. He had a place in mind, an old flour plant not a mile west of us.

My fangs were still stiff, as the sun trapped us in a musky basement. I'd like to say we were dead to the world when the sun is high and daunting but no. It would be too kind to sleep, there is no possibility of dreams and no possibility of rest.

Vampires have little restrictions, but waiting out the day, in a damp, abandoned basement each night is tiresome and tedious. There is nothing to keep you busy, vampires can't stay in one place long, and having worldly possessions losses its meaning. The days seem longer than the nights, and the prospect of Alaska and six months of night is inviting, if only there were more food options up in the blistering cold.

The both of us found no reason to move. Stillness filled the day, and the girl overwhelmed my thoughts. I hadn't been this obsessed since my making; my siblings and I teamed up to kill our maker. My lips had cooled as the rest of my body had but her scent had followed me. My fangs didn't retreat until the sun was on its descent downwards.

I would find her again, come twilight.