The Destiny Concept | Jasper Hale

Chapter 17 ✔️

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—Althea
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We arrived in Phoenix, taking up camp in a hotel during the day, knowing that it was safe for now, and to keep Alice and Isaac out of the sun.

I have no idea what is going through everyone's heads. Isaac has not once left Alice's side, his arm tucked around her waist while Bella has not done so much as whisper since we got here.

Her silence has to be more unsettling than a full blown spiral, which I have entered.

"Thea, please sit down. You're going to make yourself throw up if you keep walking in circles." My brother states, only to receive a brief glare before I proceed to pace. I think I stopped feeling my feet about 5 minutes ago.

"I have too much pent up nervous energy right now, sitting down is quite literally impossible. Tout est le chaos." I retort, throwing my arms down at my sides, only to bring my hand back up to my mouth, tapping my bottom lip anxiously.

"And, she's speaking French." I hear my brother utter before whispering something to Alice. She gives him an approving nod at whatever he said before bringing himself to his feet and over to me, grasping my shoulders gently, but tight enough that my movements are immediately brought to a halt.

"Qu'es-tu faire?" I ask, wondering what he was doing.

"Stressing yourself out is not going to help, please, just sit down." He speaks softly, but authoritatively aswell to make it clear that I needed to get my shit together.

"The tracker, he just changed course." Alice spoke, causing mine, Isaac's and Bella's heads to spin around, facing Alice.

"Perfect timing, Frère." I roll my eyes, brushing his hands off my shoulder and kneeling beside Alice while Isaac took seat beside her, pulling out a piece of paper and charcoal, which he keeps on hand so that he can see her visions.

"Where will it take him, Alice?" Isaac asked, handing her the charcoal stick and placing her hand over the paper while Bella joined me on the floor.

"Mirrors. A room full of mirrors." Alice said, staring into nothing as her hands moved, drawing the image she saw in her vision.

"Edward said the visions weren't always certain." Bella stated in confusion, tapping her hand slightly on her knee.

"She sees the course people are on while they're on it. If they change their minds, the vision changes." Isaac summarises, causing Bella to bring herself to her feet, growing more panicked by the second.

"Okay, so the course that the tracker's on now is gonna lead him to a ballet studio?" Bella sounded confused, but it caught all of our attention, even pulling Alice out of her vision.

"You've been there?" I asked, tapping the paper harder than necessary.

"I took lessons as a kid. The school I went to had an arch just like that." She speaks, and I move quicker than I thought possible to get to my feet, suddenly growing more anxious that before.

"Was your school here in Phoenix?" My brother asked, his hand around Alice, but his eyes flickering between me and Bella.

"Yeah—" she replied, but was cut off by her phone vibrating in her pocket, which she answers as she walks to the other side of the room for privacy.

Once Bella is out of my earshot, I take a deep breath, shaking my hands at my sides in hopes that it would help. It didn't.

"Thea, come with me." Alice said, standing up and wrapping a gentle hand around my wrist, guiding me out into the hallway of the hotel room.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, thinking Alice wanted to tell me something."

"That's what I want to know. You've been on edge since we got here, and it's worrying. You've never been so on edge according to Isaac." She spoke softly.

"Bella is one of the few people I have ever connected with. She is my best friend and she is literally being hunted by one of the most dangerous types of vampires. I am going to be worried." I say, harsher than I meant to. This isn't Alice's fault, so there is no need for such an attitude. "Sorry," I apologise for snapping.

"It's okay, but I'm going to need you to calm down and do what you do best." I nod in response. "Identify the trackers' weak points from prior knowledge of their capabilities and let us know of the ways to exploit them. Can you do that?"

"Consider it done." I received a smile from Alice as we headed back into the room and I got to work.

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"Shit." I cursed, slamming my laptop shut and threw myssssq head into my hands in frustration.

"What's the matter?" Bella asked, placing a hand on my shoulder, rubbing it gently as if to comfort me.

"The only thing I have found to get the upper on the tracker is pissing him off to the point that he fixates so that he can be overpowered by lack of awareness because of sheer, unadulterated rage. Whoever takes the brunt of his rage will certainly get hurt. It is a risk that cannot be taken. C'est trop à traiter avec." It is too much to deal with. I rambled in exasperation, yanking myself onto my feet, almost flinging the chair I was sitting on across the floor.

Before Bella could say anything of comfort, both of our phones rang, at almost exactly the same time.

"I'm going to check what Isaac and Alice are doing. Don't go anywhere." I warn before stepping out of the room, finally answering my buzzing phone. "H—"

"Thank God you answered." Jasper cut me off before I could even utter the word, Hello.

"Hey, is everything alright? I ask, walking towards the elevator, holding my phone between my ear and my shoulder while I searched my bag to make sure I had everything on me.

"Define okay," he said over the phone, to which I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, yes. Stupid question. I mean, are you okay?" I clarify, slipping my phone from between my ear and shoulder and holding it to my other ear.

"We're all fine, I just want to know that you are okay." He responded, and I couldn't help but smile at his concern.

"I'm doing just fine." I lied, hearing my voice as if it wasn't even mine.

"Why are you lying?" Jasper asked, immediately making a wave of guilt flush over me.

"I'm not. I'm doing fine and you don't need to worry. I'm in one piece, so is Bella and so are Isaac and Alice." I assure, hating how easy it felt to lie to Jasper.

"Al—"

"Sorry, Jas. I've got to head back to the hotel room, I forgot something. I'm sorry we couldn't talk longer. I'll see you soon, okay." I deflected quickly, feeling even more guilty than before.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you s—" I accidentally cut him off with a sharp, loud gasp when I walked back into the hotel room and Bella was nowhere to be seen. "Althea?" Jasper asks, significantly more panicked than before.

"Bella's gone." I exasperate, looking into every room in hopes to find her, but to no avail. Before Jasper can say anything, I hang up the phone and rush down to the lobby to where Isaac and Alice were.

"Isaac! Isaac. Have you seen Bella?" I ask frantically, my eyes wild and mind running a million miles per hour.

"She's up in the hotel room." Isaac responds, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, but quickly realising what my panic was about. Shit.

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a/n: Hi, guys. I am so sorry for not publishing any new chapters in so long, I've been extremely busy with other projects and needed to take a break.

Coming back and seeing that my story has over 1K reads is truly amazing to me and I can't thank you all enough. I know this chapter isn't much, but a new one will be out as soon as possible.