I'd firstly like to say thank you to everyone who has continued to follow my stories this year, especially as I haven't been in a position to update as regularly as I would have wished. Hopefully, next year things will begin to return to normal. This is my Christmas present to all of you. A new story I hope to post in batches over the next week or two. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Festive greetings to everyone else. Love Jules xx

Chapter One

Jasper

I should have seen it coming. Edward blamed me for his decisions regarding Bella and when he lost face succumbing to my superior fighting skills he was never going to allow me the final word. I guess I never thought he would stoop so low as to get others to do his dirty work for him but then this was Edward, he was capable of anything if he felt he'd lost face.

Leaving the family after the fight to cool down had been the right thing to do, the alternative was to rip his head off and burn his body and that wouldn't exactly have endeared me to the others however much they might back me up in this situation.

I had planned on going back when the situation had cooled, I was just waiting for Edward to take off with his tail between his legs like the whipped cur he really was but he stuck it out longer than I had anticipated.

I guess it was during this time that I came to understand that I didn't love Alice, not in the way I should and when she didn't try to find me or beg me to come home I knew she felt the same. We liked each other, were very fond of each other and it may have been enough if we'd stayed together but now, alone, away from her influence I understood that I wasn't missing her with the kind of intensity I should have.

From the moment we moved to Forks I sensed something had changed, she was on edge and as time moved on she became more nervous and tense. When I questioned her she would just smile and shrug.

"Oh, there's something in the wind, Jazz and it's blowing in our direction."

But that's as far as she was willing to go with explanations and then Bella Swan appeared in town and I had thought I understood. Our world indeed turned upside down as Edward became infatuated with the girl. Did he truly love her? I had thought so along with everyone else until that day he told us we had to leave and of course it was all my fault. He was never going to accept that I had been aiming for him, not Bella when the blood was spilled. I felt his overwhelming thirst, his need to drink from her, a thirst he had fought with at the ballet studio and won but only because I helped him. Of course, he never knew that. I never said anything and even Carlisle only gave me a slightly suspicious look as if he suspected. At Bella's party, it was different, there was just so much blood and so many people all feeling the lure of its rich aroma. I couldn't take his away, all I would do was to try and ease everyone's so they would act independent of it and do as I had hoped they would and absent themselves.

I felt Edward losing it and went for him hoping to tackle him to the ground but the others misunderstood my motives and it was me that Emmett tackled instead. I had been so focused on their thirsts and stopping Edward that I had let my guard down and ignored my big brother.

I don't think the others really believed I was a threat once the situation had calmed enough for everyone to think clearly, no one except Edward that was. He had to believe his version of events or admit he was a threat to the girl he professed to love more than life itself so he blamed me.

His bitterness grew and grew along with his resentment and a yearning to have back what he thought was his by right, Bella's pure and complete love. He had simmered while I kept a low profile but then one day completely without warning he had launched an attack on me. What made him think he stood a chance I have no idea although he did pretty well for an amateur. Unfortunately for him, he was doomed to lose, fortunately, I didn't allow myself do what would have been natural and kill him. Instead, I allowed him to live to walk away, that was my first and most basic mistake. Edward was at his most dangerous when he had been thwarted and he did what he should have done in the first place and used his brains rather than his brawn while I stupidly thought the matter over. He'd tried for revenge and failed, now he would move on.

Instead, here I was slowing coming out of the fog of non-existence I had been held in for almost three years now. I knew it wouldn't last, as soon as they realized that I was becoming aware of my surroundings I would be put back under. I managed to move enough to scratch a mark on the wall above my head, it was my only way of tracing the passage of time. Each mark represented an awakening and I had remembered Carlisle telling us about the twins and their gifts, how Alec's was so much more frightening because it would put a person into a coma state for almost a month at a time if necessary. I figured he would use it at maximum strength to keep me safe and so he didn't have to visit too often and raise any suspicion.

I didn't think Aro was aware of what his little creepoid was doing, this was between Edward and Alec, the two who had been friends ever since Carlisle introduced them although what they had in common besides arrogance and a sense of entitlement I had no idea. Alec was careful and cunning and I was sure he had found a way of keeping Aro from finding out his most important secrets, he'd had long enough to practice.

When I had first become semi-conscious Alec had kicked over a note with a savage smile.

"This is from Edward."

I had tried to focus on it although the words appeared to float in and out of my vision.

"Dear brother,

Did you really think you would ever best me? Brains will conquer brawn every time. You should remember something Tacitus once said.

"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure."

You may have fooled the others into believing your pathetic lies about me but Bella and I know better. Even your pathetic plan couldn't keep us apart forever.

Now you have an eternity to think about the better man.

Edward."

So Edward and Bella had been reunited and both blamed me for their break up. I could believe Edward was capable of taking such vicious revenge but Bella? Her treachery hurt much more deeply.

I knew now that they never planned on letting me go and Alec was enjoying his power too much to become bored, at least in the short term. Unfortunately, by taking away my consciousness he also took away my best chance of help. Peter wouldn't feel my danger because I was in no immediate danger, I felt no fear, I felt nothing at all. So, if I was to have any chance of getting out of this it would have to be by my own hand and when I did. Well, Edward and Bella would discover the true meaning of that quotation before I killed them both.

I heard a soft scraping outside my door as the iron grill was moved aside so Alec could observe me. I braced myself but as usual, there was no warning, I was just no longer th….

It seemed to me that I was being left for longer periods which meant that my mental faculties were coming back to me and I was able to think for longer at a time. My situation was pretty dire although I knew my life was not at risk, at least in the short term. If Edward and Bella had wanted me dead I would have been on a pyre long ago. No, they wanted to punish me, he might even be allowing me longer periods of consciousness so I could contemplate the terror of my fate but if so they had made a huge tactical error. Give a warrior time to think and he will work out a strategy for escape which is what I was trying to do.

I was kept weak but given enough blood to sustain me, human blood which was their first mistake. After living on animal blood for years even a few drops of human blood acted like an energy drink. If I could find a way to store what they supplied I would have kept my supply for months and then taken a huge jolt, enough to give me the energy to take down my guards, whoever they might be, with my gift and get free. The trouble was that human blood didn't keep long and while I was under the influence of Alec's gift it would be easy for anyone to search my cell and find it. I had to rely on the energy the small amount I was allowed would give me.

The best hope for escape would be just before Alec arrived, if I could get free then I stood a good chance of getting out and finding food for myself. That meant slaughtering innocent humans but by now I was out of options and desperate.

Whenever I did begin to come to I would find my blood ration waiting which meant someone had to come into my cell. What I needed was to fool them into assuming I was still under when they arrived so slowly I began to feign the effects of Alec's gift even when I was awake and aware of my surroundings. The scent of the fresh blood when it was delivered almost drove me crazy but I forced myself not to react and my time as Maria's commander helped, she could be cruel and torture me with the scent of fresh blood while ordering me to stand down. She said it made for a more controlled warrior and of course I knew she was correct although it didn't help me much at the time.

I had to be ready to move as soon as my jailer came into my cell which meant I needed all my faculties and it took longer to fool them into giving me more time which of course also gave Alec the opportunity to arrive and put me back under which happened on one occasion but while at first suspicious he eventually put my longer recovery time down to the number of times I had been subjected to his gift.

The biggest problem would be my weakness but I was a soldier, I would suck it up and force myself to act through the pain of my thirst. I couldn't wait much longer, no one would be coming on a rescue mission, no one knew where I was or what had happened and I suspected even if Peter had felt a stirring of unease it had probably vanished when Alec sent me to limbo or he would have been here by now storming wherever this was to free me. So, the next time I woke would be the….

Alec

I watched as the Major's head dropped back to the floor, he was under once more and luckily the effects of my gift appeared to be cumulative which meant I wasn't forced to visit so often. It wasn't easy sneaking away with all the watchful eyes in Volterra and I had become more and more concerned about being discovered.

It was easy for Edward, he didn't have to do anything except make contact now and again just to check everything was OK and even those calls had tapered off after the first twelve months. I don't think either of us had really thought this thing through, it had just seemed a good idea at the time. I guess I had assumed it was going to be a short-term thing, I mean you couldn't possibly keep someone a prisoner indefinitely, not without getting caught or someone noticing a change in your routine and it was this that was laying heavily on my mind. What would happen if someone noticed I was suddenly absent from Volterra on a regular basis? I was beginning to regret getting tangled up in this business but I couldn't for the life of me see a way out.

These days it wasn't even easy to speak to Edward, half the time his phone went straight to voicemail and then he didn't return my calls. The rest of the time he seemed reluctant to talk about what we had done and he certainly wasn't going to put himself out to visit Italy. He seemed preoccupied and I could only assume it had something to do with the human girl who was behind all this. Personally, I doubted she could possibly be worth the effort but what did I know? I'd never had a serious relationship and if I did it certainly wouldn't be with a human.