((12 pages in Micrsoft word, enjoy))
J.P.O.V.
Alice was at the bottom of the staircase. I knew this with out turning around, she’d been there for a while now and it pained me to see her this way, but she said she was ok. I watched the news with Carlisle and Esme, thinking of every possible way this could happen. I faintly heard Bella and Edward come in, but they were the least of my worries at the moment. They kept discussing everything the news had come up with.
“Let’s go now,” Emmett said with a new found enthusiasm “I’m dead bored.”
I heard Rosalie hiss.
“She’s such a pessimist,” Emmett muttered.
Edward agreed “We’ll have to go sometime,”
I heard Rosalie come slowly downstairs.
Carlisle’s voice this time “I’m concerned.” Of course Carlisle, tell us something we don’t know. “We’ve never involved ourselves in this kind of thing before. It’s not our business. We’re not the Voulturi.”
Edward again “I don’t want the Voulturi to come here. It gives us so much less reaction time,”
Esme, but softer than the others “And all those innocent humans in Seattle. It’s not write to let them die this way.” Speak for yourself.
“I know,” Carlisle sighed.
Edward, have you ever considered newborns? I thought.
“Oh,” Edward said and I felt his eyes on me I turned around and stood up. “I didn’t think of that. I see. You’re right, that has to be it. Well, that changes everything.”
Everyone looked at me with confusion and annoyance.
“I think you better explain to the others,” he said to me. “What could be the purpose of this?” he started to pace, and I knew I wouldn’t be hearing from him for a moment or two.
Alice was now beside Bella “What’s he rambling about?” she asked me. “What are you thinking?”
I hesitated, Thanks Edward. I hated being in the spotlight. I read everyone’s face in the circle and then stopped on Bella’s.
“You’re confused,” I didn’t ask it, I stated it quietly.
“We’re all confused,” Emmett grumbled.
“You can afford to be patient,” I told him trying to sound stern. “Bella should understand this, too. She’s one of us now.” I’d never thought I’d see the day I call a human one of us. I thought.
Her confusion was interrupted by surprise briefly.
“How much do you know about be, Bella?” I asked.
Emmett sighed dramatically and fell onto the couch to wait with over-exaggerated impatience.
“Not much,” she said.
I looked over at Edward, why not? I thought. He looked up to meet my gaze “No,” he said “I’m sure you can understand why I haven’t told her that story. But I suppose she needs to hear it now,”
I nodded thoughtfully; my story was not one you would tuck in a child with. I began to roll up the sleeve of my sweater, not to anyone’s surprise but Bella’s.
She was curious and confused, no doubt trying to figure out what I was doing. I put my wrist to the lampshade, realizing she couldn’t see them the way I could, the way any of us could. Horrible marks of my past. I traced the scar there.
She took longer than I expected to recognize what it was, she didn’t catch on fast, did she?
“Oh,” she breathed “Jasper, you have a scar exactly like mine,” I wished it was just a scar one scar.
She held out her arm showing me, as if I had forgotten.
I smiled faintly; she was so naïve “I have a lot of scars like yours, Bella.”
I pushed the sleeve higher up my arm, had she been a vampire she wouldn’t have needed me to do this, she would’ve seen my neck, my jaw, my face, never letting me escape my past.
She took another long minute, and then looked at her arm.
And then, she really got it. She gasped “Jasper, what happened to you?”
“The same thing that happened to your hand,” I answered quietly. “Repeated a thousand times,” I laughed a little ruefully and brushed my arm “Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar.”
“Why?” she asked still not taking her eyes off my arm. I couldn’t blame her, it wasn’t something you see everyday.
“I didn’t have quite the same… upbringing as my adopted siblings here. My beginning was something else entirely.” My voice turned hard as I finished. More different that she could imagine.
She gaped at me.
“Before I tell you my story,” I said, “you must understand that there are places in our world, Bella, where the life span of the never-aging is measured in week, and not centuries.”
Everyone moved back, they realized they weren’t going to get any new info until later. Except for Edward, the oddball, he was totally absorbed.
“To really understand why, you have to look at the world from a different perspective. You have to imagine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedy … the perpetually thirsty.
“Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere. Picture on it every human life as a small red dot. The thicker the red, the more easily we – well, those who exist this way – can feed without attracting notice.” I corrected myself on the we, quickly.
Bella shuddered. I went on without pausing for her to recover.
“Not that the covens of the South care much for what the humans notice or do not. It’s the Voulturi that keeps them in check. They are the only ones the southern covens fear. If not for the Voulturi, the rest of us would be quickly exposed.”
Bella frowned, probably from me saying the Voulturi’s name with gratitude.
“The North is, by comparison, very civilized. Mostly we are nomads here who enjoy the day as well as the night, who allow humans to interact with us unsuspectingly – anonymity is important to us all.
“It’s a different world in the South. The immortals there only come out at night. They spend the day plotting there next move, or anticipating their enemy’s. Because it has been war in the South, constant war for centuries, with never one moment of truce. The covens barely notice the existence of humans, except as soldiers notice a heard of cows by the wayside – food for the taking. They only hide from notice of the heard because of the Voulturi.”
“But what are they fighting for?” she asked like a child during a history lesson.
I smiled at the thought “Remember the map with the red dots?”
I waited and she eventually nodded.
“They fight for control of the thickest red.
“You see, it occurred to someone once that, if he were the only vampire in, let’s say Mexico City, well then, he could feed every night, twice, three times, and no one would ever notice. He plotted ways to get rid of the competition.
“Others had the same idea. Some came up with more affective tactics than others.
“But the most effective tactic was invented by a fairly young vampire named Benito. The first anyone ever heard of him, he came down from somewhere north of Dallas and massacred the two small covens that shared the area near Houston. Two nights later, he took on the much stronger clan of allies that claimed Monterrey in northern Mexico. Again, he won.”
“How did he win?” she asked her curiosity wary.
“Benito had created an army of newborn vampires. He was the first one to think of it, and, in the beginning, he was unstoppable. Very young vampires are volatile, wild, and almost impossible to control. One newborn can be reasoned with, taught to restrain himself, but ten, fifteen, together are a nightmare. They’ll turn on each other as easily as on the enemy you point them at. Benito had to keep making more as they fought amongst themselves, and as the covens he decimated took more than half his down before they lost.
“You see, though the newborns are dangerous, they are still possible to defeat if you know what you’re doing. They’re incredibly powerful physically, for the first year or so, and if they’re allowed to bring strength to bear they can crush an old vampire with ease. But they are slaves to their instincts, and thus predictable. Usually, they have no skill in fighting, only muscle and ferocity. And in this case, overwhelming in numbers.
“The vampires in southern Mexico realized what was coming for them, and they did the one thing they could think of to counteract Benito. They made armies of their own…
“All hell broke loose – and I mean that more literally than you can possibly imagine. We immortals have our histories, too, and this particular war will never be forgotten. Of course, it was not a good time to be human in Mexico, either.”
Bella shuddered.
“When the body count reached epidemic proportions – in fact, you histories blame a disease for the population slump – the Voulturi finally stepped in. The entire guard came together and sought out every newborn in the bottom half of North America. Benito was entrenched in Puebla, building his army as quickly as he could in order to take the on the prize – Mexico City. The Voulturi started with him, and then moved on to the rest.
“Anyone found with the newborns was executed immediately, and, since everyone was trying to protect themselves from Benito, Mexico was emptied of vampires for a time.
“The Voulturi was cleaning house for almost a year. This was another chapter in our history that will always be remembered, though there are very few witnesses left to speak of what it was like. I spoke to someone who had, from a distance, watched what had happened when the visited Culiacan.”
I shuddered. This was one of the few moments I had ever showed fear, or horror.
“It was enough that the fever for conquest did not spread from the South. The rest of the world stayed the same. We owe the Voulturi for our present way of life.
“But when the Voulturi went back to Italy, the survivors were quick to take their claims back in the South.
“It didn’t take long before covens began to dispute again. There was a lot of bad blood, if you will forgive the expression. Vendettas abounded. The idea of newborns was already there, and some were not able to resist. However, the Voulturi had not been forgotten, and the southern covens were more careful this time. The newborns were selected from the human pool with more care, and given more training. They were used circumspectly, and the humans remained, for the most par, oblivious.” If only I had been one of the oblivious. “Their creators gave the Voulturi no reason to return.
“The wars resumed, but on a smaller scale. Every now and then, someone would go to far, speculation would begin in the human newspapers, and the Voulturi would return and clean out the city. But they let the others, the careful ones, continue…”
I was now far away, Texas to be exact. I was in one of the many fights I had participated in, in my mind.
“That’s how you changed,” Bella whispered, and that’s what brought me back to the living room.
“Yes,” I agreed. “When I was human, I lived in Houston, Texas. I was almost seventeen years old when I joined the Confederate Army in 1861. I lied to the recruiters and told them I was twenty. I was tall enough to get away with it.” And I was. Still am.
“My military career was short-lived, but very promising. People always… liked me, listened to what I had to say. My father said it was charisma. Of course, no I know it was probably something more. But, whatever the reason, I was prompted quickly through the ranks, over older, more experienced men. The Confederate Army was new and scrambling to organize itself, so that provided opportunities, as well. By the first balled of Galveston – well, it was more of a skirmish, really – I was the youngest major in Texas, not even acknowledging my real age.
“I was placed in charge of evacuating the women and children from the city when the Union’s mortar boats reached the harbor. It took a day to prepare them, and then I left with the first column of civilians to convey them to Houston.
“I remember the night very clearly.” Too clearly, I wish I could push it from my memory.
“We reached the city after dark. I stayed only long enough to make sure the entire party was safely situated. As soon as that was done, I got myself a fresh horse, and I headed back to Galveston. There wasn’t time to rest.” I should’ve. If I could go back and correct my error, I would’ve waited until morning before I left.
“Just a mile outside the city, I found three women on foot. I assumed they were stragglers and dismounted at once to offer them my aid. But, when I could see their faces in the dim light of the moon, I was stunned into silence. They were, without question, the three most beautiful women I had ever seen.” I prayed silently Alice wouldn’t take that personally.
“They had such pale skin, I remember marveling at it. Even the little black-haired girl, whose features were clearly Mexican, was porcelain in the moonlight. They seemed young, all of them, still young enough to be called girls.” Although, I was still young enough to be called a boy. “I knew they were not lost members of our party. I would have remembered seeing these three.
“‘He’s speechless,’ the tallest girl said in a lovely, delicate voice – it was like wind chimes. She had fair hair and her skin was pale white.
“The other, blonder still, her hair just as chalky. Her face was like an angel’s/ She leaned toward me with half-closed eyes and inhaled deeply.
“‘Mmm,’ she sighed. ‘Lovely,’
“The small one, they tiny brunette, put her hand on the girl’s arm and spoke quickly. Her voice was to soft and musical to be sharp, but that seemed the way she intended it.
“‘Concentrate Nettie,’ she said.
“I’d always had a good since of how people relate to each other, and it was immediately clear that the brunette was somehow in charge of the others. If they’d been military, I would have said she outranked them.
“‘He looks right – young, strong, an officer…’ The brunette paused, and I tried unsuccessfully to speak. ‘And there’s something more… do you sense it?’ she asked the other two. “He’s… compelling.’
“‘Oh yes,’ Nettie quickly agreed, leaning toward me again.” The whole ordeal had seemed odd back then, wondering why they were sniffing me.
“‘Patience,’ the brunette cautioned her. ‘I want to keep this one.’
“Nettie frowned; she seemed annoyed.” I know now that she had wanted me as a snack, rather than a traveling companion.
“‘You’d better do it, Maria,’ the taller blonde spoke again. ‘If he’s important to you. I kill them twice as often as I keep them.’
“‘Yes I’ll do it,’ Maria agreed. “I really do like this one. Take Nettie away, will you? I don’t want to have to protect my back while I’m trying to focus.’
“My hair was standing up on the back of my neck, though I didn’t understand the meaning of anything the beautiful creatures were saying. My instincts told me that there was danger, that the angel had meant it when she spoke of killing, but my judgment overruled my instincts. I had not been taught to fear women, but to protect them.
“‘Let’s hunt,’ Nettie agreed enthusiastically, reaching for the tall girl’s hand. They wheeled – they were so graceful! – and sprinted towards the city. They seemed to almost take flight, they were so fast – their white dresses blew out behind them like wings. I blinked in amazement, and they were gone.” I only wish I would’ve been strong enough to sprint away from that spot, right then.
“I turned to stare at Maria, who was watching me curiously.
“I’d never been superstitious in my life. Until that second, I’d never believed in ghosts or any other such nonsense. Suddenly, I was unsure.
“‘What’s you name solider?’ Maria asked me.
“‘Major Jasper Whitlock ma’am’ I stammered, unable to be impolite to a female, even if she was a ghost.
“‘I truly hope you survive, Jasper,’ she said in her gentle voice. “I have a good feeling about you.’
“She took a step closer, and inclined her head as if she were going to kiss me.” I would’ve given anything for that to be what she wanted to do. “I stood frozen in place, thought my instincts were screaming at me to run.” I wish I would have.
I paused thoughtfully. “A few days later,” I edited because of Edward. I didn’t want to spare her feelings, maybe that might even change her mind about being a vampire, despite the fact I didn’t want to want to kill her. Oh well, “I was introduced to my new life.
“Their names were Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. They hadn’t been together long – Maria had rounded up the other two – all three were survivors of recently lost battles. Theirs was a partnership of convenience. Maria wanted revenge, and she wanted her territories back. The others were eager to increase their… heard lands, I suppose you could say. They were putting together and going about it more carefully than was usual. It was Maria’s idea. She wanted a superior army, so she sought out specific humans who had potential. Then she gave us much more attention, more training than anyone else had bothered with. She taught us to fight, and she taught us to be invisible to humans. When we did well, we were rewarded….”
I paused editing again, only because I knew Edward would be mad if I didn’t.
“She was in a hurry, though. Maria knew that the massive strength of the newborn began to wane around the year mark, and she wanted to act while we were strong.
“There were six of us when I joined Maria’s band. She added four more within a fortnight. We were all male – Maria wanted soldiers – and that made it slightly more difficult to keep from fighting amongst ourselves. I fought my first battles against my new comrades in arms. I was quicker than the other, better at combat. Maria was pleased with me, though put out that she had to keep replacing the ones I destroyed. I was rewarded often, and that made me stronger.” And made it that much harder to change lifestyles.
“Maria was a good judge of character. She decided to put me in charge of the others – as if I were being promoted. It suited my nature exactly. The casualties went down dramatically, and our numbers swelled to hover over twenty.
“This was considerable for the cautious times we lived in. My ability, as yet undefined, to control the emotional atmosphere around me was vitally effective. We so began to work together in a way that newborn vampires had never cooperated before. Even Maria, Nettie, and Lucy began to work together more easily.
“Maria grew quite fond of me – she began to depend upon me. And, in some way, I worshipped the ground she walked on. I had no idea that any other life was possible. Maria told us this was the way things were, and we believed.
“She asked me to tell her when my brothers and I were ready to fight, and I was eager to prove myself. I pulled together an army of twenty-three in the end – twenty-three unbelievably strong new vampires, organized and skilled as no others before. Maria was ecstatic.
“We crept down toward Monterrey, her former home, and she unleashed us on her enemies. They had only nine newborns at the time, and a pair of older vampires controlling them. We took them down more easily than Maria could believe, losing only four in the process. It was an unheard-of margin of victory.
“And we were all well trained. We did it without attracting notice. The city changed hands without any human in the city being aware.
“Success made Maria greedy. It wasn’t long before she began to eye other cities. That first year, she extended her control to cover most of Texas and northern Mexico. Then the others came from the South to dislodge her.”
I brushed to fingers down the pattern of scars on my arm.
“The fighting was intense. Many began to worry the Voulturi would return. Of the original twenty-three, I was the only one to survive the first eighteen months. We both won and lost. Nettie and Lucy turned on Maria eventually – but that one we won.
“Maria and I were able to hold on to Monterrey. It quieted a little, though wars continued. The idea of conquest was dying out; it was mostly vengeance and feuding now. So many had lost their partners, and that is something our kind does not forgive….” If someone killed Alice, I would kill everyone in the clan who had done it and then offer myself to the Voulturi so I wouldn’t have to live without her.
“Maria and I always kept a dozen or so newborns ready. They meant little to us – they were pawn, they were disposable. When they outgrew their usefulness, we did dispose of them. My life continued in the same violent pattern and the years passed. I was sick of it all for a very long time before anything changed….
“Decades later, I developed a friendship with a newborn who’d remained useful and survived his first three years, against the odds. His name was Peter. I like Peter he was… civilized – I suppose that’s the right word. He didn’t enjoy the fight, though he was good at it.
“He was assigned to deal with the newborns – baby-sit them, you could say. It was a full-time job.
“And then it was time to purge again. The newborns were outgrowing their strength; they were due to be replaced. Peter was supposed to help me dispose of them. We took them aside individually, you see, one by one… It was always a very long night. This time, he tried to convince me a few had potential, but Maria had instructed that we get rid of them all. I told him no.
“We were about halfway through, and I could feel it was taking a great toll on Peter. I was trying to decide whether or not I should send him away and finish up myself as I called out the net victim. To my surprise, he was suddenly angry, furious. I braced for whatever his mood might foreshadow – he was a good fighter, but he was never a match from me.
“The newborn I had summoned was a female, just past her year mark. Her name was Charlotte. His feeling changed when she came into view; they gave him away. He yelled for her to fun, and he bolted after her. I could have pursued them, but I didn’t. I felt… averse to destroying him.
“Maria was irritated with me for that…
“Five years later, Peter snuck back for me. He picked a good day to arrive.
“Maria was mystified by me ever-deteriorating frame of mind. She’d never felt a moment’s depression, and I wondered why I was different. I began to notice a change in her emotions when she was near me – sometimes fear… and malice – the same feelings that had given me advance warning when Nettie and Lucy struck. I was preparing myself to destroy my only ally, the core of my existence, when Peter returned.” I again prayed Alice wouldn’t take that personally.
“Peter told me about his new life with Charlotte, told me about options I’d never dreamed I had. In five years, they’d never had a fight, though they’d met many others in the north. Others who could co-exist without the constant mayhem.
“In one conversation, he had me convinced. I was ready to go, and somewhat relieved that I wouldn’t have to kill Maria. I’d been her companion for as many years as Carlisle and Edward have been together, yet the bond between us was nowhere near as strong. When you live for the fight, for the blood, the relationships you form are tenuous and easily broken. I walked away without a backward glance.
“I traveled with Peter and Charlotte for a few years, getting the feel of this new, more peaceful world. But the depression didn’t fade. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me, until Peter noticed it was always worse after I’d hunted.
“I contemplated that. In so many years of slaughter and carnage, I’d lost nearly all my humanity. I was undeniably a nightmare, a monster of the grisliest kind. Yet each time I found another human victim, I would feel a fain prick of remembrance for that other life. Watching their eyes widen in wonder at my beauty,” goodness that sounded vain “I could see Maria and the others in my head, what they had looked like to me that last night I was Jasper Whitlock. It was stronger for me – this borrowed memory – than it was for anyone else, because I could feel everything my prey was feeling. And I lived their emotions as I killed them.” I resisted the urge to shudder again. All the horror, it was terrible.
“You’ve experienced the way I can manipulate the emotions around myself, Bella, but I wonder if you realize how the emotions in a room affect me. I live every day in a climate of emotion. For the first century of my life, I lived in a world of bloodthirsty vengeance. Hate was my constant companion. It eased some when I left Maria, but I still had to feel the horror of my prey.
“It began to be too much.
“The depression got worse, and I wandered away from Peter and Charlotte. Civilized as they were, they didn’t feel the same aversion I was beginning to feel. They only wanted peace from the fight. I was so wearied by killing – killing anyone, even mere humans.
“Yet I had to keep killing. What choice did I have? I tried to kill less often, but I would get too thirsty and I would give in. After a century of instant gratification, I found self-discipline… challenging. I still haven’t perfected that.” As an example, Bella’s birthday I thought to myself.
I was back to the story absorbed; it was coming to my favorite part too. I smiled peacefully.
“I was in Philadelphia. There was a storm, and I was out during the day – something I was not completely comfortable with yet. I knew standing in the rain would attract attention, so I ducked into a little half-empty diner.” Oh how optimistic, Jasper. I thought. “My eyes were dark enough that no one would notice them, though this meant I was thirsty, and that worried me a little.
“She was there – expecting me, naturally.” I chuckled once. “She hopped down from the high stool at the counter as soon as I walked in and came directly toward me.” Which she was doing now, except from the stairs.
“It shocked me. I was not sure if she meant to attack. That’s the only interpretation of her behavior from my past had to offer. But she was smiling. And the emotions that were emanating from her were like nothing I’d ever felt before.
“‘You’ve kept me waiting a long time,’ she said.”
“And you ducked your head, like a good Southern gentleman, and said, ‘I’m sorry, ma’am.’” Alice laughed at the memory.
I smiled down at her “You held you your hand, and I took it with out stopping to make sense of what I was doing. For the first time in almost a century, I felt hope.” I took Alice’s hand as I spoke, as if we were back in the diner in Philadelphia.
She grinned “I was just relived. I thought you were never going to show up.”
I smiled down at Alice, getting lost in those incredible, beautiful, indescribable eyes. I realized that I still had more to tell so I looked back at Bella.
“Alice told me what she’d seen of Carlisle and his family. I could hardly believe such an existence was possible. But Alice made me optimistic. So we went to find them.” Alice always made me optimistic no matter how bad things are.
“Scared the hell out of them, too,” Edward said, rolling his eyes at me before turning to Bella to explain. “Emmett and I were away hunting. Jasper shows up, covered in battle scars towing this little freak,” he nudged Alice, I hate he called her a freak, though, aren’t we all? Anyway “who greets them all by name, knows everything about them, and wants ton know which room she can move into.”
Alice and I laughed in harmony.
“When I got home, all my things were in the garage,” he said.
Alice shrugged, “Your room had the best view.”
We all laughed now, except Bella.
“That’s a nice story,” Bella said.
Alice, Edward, and I questioned her sanity silently.
“I mean the last part,” she said quickly. “The happy ending with Alice.”
“Alice made all the difference,” I agreed. “This is a climate I enjoy.”
The lightening in the mood didn’t last.
“An army,” Alice whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
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