DESTINED, jasper hale [book 01] ✓

xix. the return

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𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃

❀ 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯

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𝐤𝐚𝐲𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞

     THE INSTANT KATHLEEN AND Kaya step into the cafeteria of Forks High School, they're bombarded with the scents of over a hundred humans. Kathleen visibly tenses at her mother's side, and Kaya takes hold of her daughter's hand and squeezes it tightly, reassuring her. Taking a seat beside an empty table with five chairs, Kaya reclines in the annoying metal seat and Kathleen's brilliant red eyes dart around in search of the people giving off the scents of the Cullens.

     "Hey Mikey!" an Asian boy exclaims, drawing Kaya's attention. "You met my home girl, Bella."

     A boy with light brown hair gives him a disbelieving look. "Oh, your home girl?"

     The first boy agrees and then everything goes to hell at that table. A dark skinned boy rushes over and kisses a long haired brunette girl on the cheek before pulling the chair out from underneath 'Mike', causing the teenager to hit the ground. It's not even a second later that he scrambles up from the ground and chases after the dark skinned boy — Tyler, apparently.

     The remaining other student at the table shuffles closer to the new girl. "Oh my god, it's like first grade all over again. You're the shiny new toy."

     A girl with a camera and glasses appears and blocks Kaya's view for a second as she takes a photo. "Smile! Sorry, I needed the candid for the feature..."

     "Feature's dead, Angela," the Asian boy from before almost snarls. "Don't bring it up again."

     From there, Kaya zones out of their conversation about editorials and possessive boys over the new brunette in their school. Turning to Kathleen, Kaya makes a throwing up motion and she nods, grinning as she agrees, poking at the red apple on her lunch tray. Glaring at her, Kaya picks up the almost spherical object and throws it into the trash bin across the room, drawing narrowed borderline envious eyes from the basketball players, and wide astonished eyes from those who are not.

     Kaya's interest returns to the table a second after she makes out the forms of the Cullen family as they walk past the window.

     "Who are they?" the new girl — Bella — asks.

     "The Cullens," the lighter haired girl — Jessica — almost sneers.

     "They're, um, Dr. and Mrs. Cullens' foster kids," the girl with glasses — Angela — informs. "They moved down here from Alaska a few years ago. They kind of keep to themselves."

     "Yeah, 'cause they're all together... Like together together. The blonde girl, that's Rosalie, and the big dark-haired guy, Emmett."

     Emmett and Rosalie smile at each other lovingly, and then their eyes dart to Kaya and Kathleen. Their golden eyes glimmer in delight, and sit at the table beside the female vampires.

     "They're like a thing. I'm not even sure that's legal."

     "Jess, they're not actually related."

     "Yeah, but they live together... It's weird. Okay, the little dark-haired girl is Alice. She's really weird, and she's best friends with Jasper, the blond one who looks like he's in pain."

     Alice's fingers are loosely linked with Jasper's, and it causes jealousy to rear its ugly head within Kaay. That is, until she sees the struggle he is having being around all these humans — even after all the years he's lived with them. They sit beside Emmett and Rosalie, Alice giving Kaya a wide grin, and Kaya notices that Jasper hasn't taken his eyes off her since he walked into this building.

     "Dr. Cullen is like this foster dad-slash-matchmaker," Jessica almost drools. "Maybe he'll adopt me."

     "Who's he?" Bella asks suddenly, drawing the day-dreaming girl from her thoughts.

     Looking up, Kaya spots the telepathic bronze-haired vampire walk into the room.

     "That's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, obviously," Jessica fangirls. "But apparently nobody here is good enough for him. Like I care. You know. So... Yeah... Seriously, don't waste your time..."

     Edward smiles at Jessica's words, and it grows larger when he sees Kaya.

     "I wasn't planning on it," Bella reassures the lighter haired girl, but her eyes don't leave Edward as he sits with his family.

     Moving her gaze from Bella, Jessica, and Angela, Kaya grins over at the Cullen family. With their mirroring smiles, Kaya jumps out of her seat and into Emmett and Rosalie's awaiting arms. Ignoring the eyes on them, the vampires hold onto each other for dear life as Kathleen rushes around the table to pull her girlfriend into a bone-crushing hug. Almost in perfect sync, the mother and daughter switch people — Kathleen hugging Emmett and Rosalie, while Kaya pulls Edward and Alice into a giant hug. Once that's done, Kathleen hugs Edward before standing awkwardly behind Kaya as they face Jasper.

     His honey blond hair is shorter than it was in 1960, but longer than the time Kaya cut it short for him in the early twentieth century. His eyes are no longer a golden orange, but are now a molten gold colour, and, while Kaya misses the brilliant red eyes she came to adore, this colour suits him more than she will ever let on. They're full of pain and anger, but there's happiness and love growing within them as his pathokinesis allows him to read both Kaya's and Kathleen's emotions right now. As soon as his lips quirk into a smile, Kathleen launches herself into his arms.

     "Father," she breathes, digging her fingers into his shirt. "I've missed you so much."

     He closes his eyes and hugs her back. "I've missed you too, little Leena."

     "You and mother need to talk."

     "I know — and very badly."

     Kathleen pulls away from Jasper and gives her mother a teary smile before walking over to her adoptive aunt and uncles, and her girlfriend — who could also be counted as an adoptive aunt, but let's not go there. To keep her thoughts from wandering to her daughter's relationship with an older woman, Kaya meets Jasper's golden eyes, tucking her dark brown hair behind her right ear and nervously nibbling on the inside of her lip. What appears to be either hesitantly or reluctantly, Jasper opens his arms, inviting Kaya — no, beckoning her — to come to him.

     As tears sting her eyes, Kaya moves faster than she should in a room full of humans, but she cannot care less the moment the arms of the man she has loved for over a century encompasses her in the tightest hug he's ever given her. Everything ceases to exist as his scent wraps itself around Kaya and blankets her in familiarity. Despite him being over a foot taller than her, Kaya can't help but feel as though they're the same height. She feels safer than she has in three decades in his arms, and she would not trade anything for that.

     "Miss Kaya, I have missed you," Jasper breathes, his deep voice still sending shivers down Kaya's spine after all these years.

     "I've missed you more, Mr Whitlock."