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The mysterious Ashley Greene stood before him smiling her peculiar little knowing smile with the wind whipping her hair across her sharp face. Set against the background of the school's vast grounds she could have been from any place in time; which he sometimes thought she probably was.
"I realise I haven't always been totally honest with you," Jake nodded, no; she hadn't. "But you deserve better. I know very well of you're affections towards me and I wish I could as kind in return." He noted once again the way she switched from sounding extremely old fashioned to modern in a single sentence.
"My past is a mystery to everyone and I wish it to stay that way. But, I'm going to give you some of the truth at least" Ashley held up a small clock hung on necklace, similar to the ones worn for fashion by a lot of girls his age, "this is the fabled watch. The one that you've probably heard of. Everyone has. Notice the latin enscription? And the dove carved into it's back?"

Jake looked and then his brain began to spin wildly in shock. How could she have the watch? The watch was a legend. A story. This small watch was said to be so powerful. That all of time could be controlled by it. Hewn by angels and sourcerers, the one who had the watch wielded it's power. Unless they were a gaurdian of it. He could scarce believe either idea looking at the slim, black haired girl before him. Her freckled and pale face held eyes with such a bright emerald green in them that most tended to falter when talking to her. Ashley, the fittest girl in his school, turned out to be way more out of his league than any of his friends could ever have dreamt. She was either a guardian of The Watch of Time, or intent on using it for bad because no one ever wanted the retched thing without either reason as insentive.
"What?" Was all his brain could conjure for him to splutter in response.
"It's not what you think. The watch was my parents. They were human and didn't know what it was, or the power it held; they just thought it was a nice family heirloom. And they were killed because of it." In that moment Ashley looked like a child, hit with too much reality too soon. "I was only a baby and the immortals took me in."
"Seriously?" The immortals were a magical race sustained by alchemy, a kind of Philosophers stone; they lived isolated in thier own village, cut off from even the rest of the magical world.

"Yes, aprently they sensed something important about me. They kept me a baby for nearly a hundred years; waiting untill the time was 'right'. Then they gave me to a mortal family to raise me when the time came."
"But you said..."
"That they were abusive and cruel? Yes they were. That's why I ran away, to find a memory of the people I barely knew. All I could picture was their watch. So I found it. Nearly died in the process mind you."
"How is that possible though? And you can touch it. No one is able to do that, not even the guardians, it doesn't let you."
"I don't really care. I have my parents when I have this near me."
"Maybe thats it! No ones ever wanted it for unselfish reasons! They say that the watch would one day choose someone to become itself entirely, ummmm, what was the poem?" Ashley began to recite it perfectly.
"Wars will be fought around me,
All shall fight in name of me,
No owner shall there be,
until one as white as the angels who blessed me,
and as powerful as those who wrought me,
will earn the right,
for love not spite.
And from my casing I should move,
too my keeper, so that I can prove,
That time is of the essence."
"Huh. That's wierd. Time is of the essence? What does it mean?"
Ashley's eyes seemed slightly watery but when she spoke her voice was as steady as her gaze, "too remind us that time is running out."
"What do you mean time is running out? For who? Not you surely? The watch keeper lives don't they?"

Ashley didn't answer. He had been told enough but didn't need to know the whole truth of what was happening in the world he lived in. The lies that surounded both magical and human gouvernements and other secret orders which were meant to watch over the world. It would have been unkind to do so. Ignorance is bliss.
Instead she took a step closer and put her hand in his; smiling her little smile.
"There's time enough for some things." Ashely said looking into Jake's beautiful blue eyes with her own startingly green ones.
"What do you mea...?" She cut the idiot of by kissing him in answer. Her glorious soft scent enveloped Jake as they stayed locked together, her clutch round his waist seemed to be growing tighter and her kiss more urgent; as though time was really running out. That moment seemed to last forever as the pairs hearts leapt at the knowledge that the other felt the same. But just as drmaticaly as it had started, Ashely suddenly broke away; her face slid into an even paler shade as she glanced over her shoulder.
"Ive got to go."
"What?" Confused and slightly hurt Jake reacted angrily, he was fed up of her running from him. Especially now it appeared that he'd finally got her.
"I'm sorry, I truly am." She came back to him and kissed him once again, softly this time as if she could pour all her sorrow into that one gesture.
"But death is coming for me, one way or another." With that Ashley was gone before Jake could ask a bewildered 'why?' In return.

It was in that moment. As he watched her flee into the distance from some unknown enemy that a frightening truth hit him like a battering ram.
He loved her.
The crafty woman had made him fall for her.