Disclaimer: I own nothing Twilight related. No money is made from this story nor do I claim any rights to anything other than details not created by Stephenie Meyer.
This story is half OOC and half Canon. I've taken certain liberties for certain reasons but some things remain the same.
Chapter One
He stood majestically atop a hill, surveying the carnage below him. Dark pillows of violet smoke plumed toward the night sky as if escaping from the desolate scene were most important. There was no sound beyond my breathing and I did my best to keep it under control. I sat at his feet with my legs out in front of me as I lounged. Had the scenery been the ocean and beach my posture would have made more sense to anyone looking in from the outside.
Jasper was my love and love him I did. My beating heart meant nothing the moment I laid eyes on him. His face was streaked with smoke and pain but I was not deterred by the feral, animalistic emotions I saw underneath. His red eyes had roamed every available inch of my body as I stood still, waiting for him to break the skin along my neck…but he did not. Instead he had threaded a filthy hand through my dark hair and slowly pulled my head to the side. He ran his nose up and down my exposed neck ever so slightly. I had been his immediately.
I realized I loved him when we began to work as a team on the hunt. He didn't need me but watching me, effectively lure his dinner to him was arousing to the both of us. It was unheard of, a silly human helping a vampire earn his dinner but no one would dare speak ill against us for fear of losing their life.
"Bella." I turned my head north to look him in the eye. His eyebrows furrowed and he smirked in the most evil way. "I neglected to say earlier that you look stunning this evening."
The smell of roasting vampire assaulted my nose however I was more than used to the stench. "Thank you." I turned my head forward with a satisfied smile.
He extended a hand and helped me to my feet before brushing the loose grass and dirt from the back of my dress. I leaned into his solid chest, allowing him to dote on me and fully enjoyed the attention. It was intoxicating, his power.
"You must be famished," he suggested as we left the field of war behind.
"I could say the same for you my love."
His cool lips met the back of my delicate hand. I could feel his laugh against my warm skin. The nights were beginning to warm quickly which meant a new army. The previous army was nothing but ashes behind us.
"Maria suggested I start recruiting. The summer is almost here."
The last recruitment came to mind as I walked one step behind Jasper to our home. The thought of what I could do…what I would do for him made my skin flush. "I cannot wait."
"We will go tomorrow after dark." Jasper stopped and spun quickly. "I can feel your need. It pleases me." His hands, cold and strong, grasped either side of my neck as I breathed in the scent of smoke and death on his firm skin.
"And what of Maria?" I asked in a gentle tone. A frown touched my lips just slightly.
"She does not decide what I do with you and when," he said with a low growl. "Let her test my patience."
Life with Maria and the newborns was hazardous to my health and had not been for Jasper; constantly guarding me my life would have been stolen long ago. We walked the remainder of our journey in silence. Jasper was often silent and I basked in his quiet confidence.
One night, just one ordinary night, everything changed.
I woke suddenly to hear a storm raging outside. My chest was heaving and I sat up in bed to try and calm my pulse. A streak of lightening crossed the window, lighting up the room. I saw her then, standing motionless and vengeful in the corner. She came toward me in the blink of an eye.
"Where's Jasper?" I asked with a sharp tongue.
"Jasper is not here to protect you sweet Bella. You are destined to a world of pain." Maria tilted her head back and forth as she spoke. "I've waited months for this moment. I knew he would leave you vulnerable sooner or later."
I narrowed my eyes and swung my feet over the side of the bed. My heart was a traitorous organ, beating wildly against my chest. "He will end you, Maria. If you end me, he will end you and all of your disgusting minions."
She tsked me with a click of her tongue. Her smile was pure poison. "Do you think he loves you?"
I hesitated and she began to cackle.
"He's infatuated with your beating heart and the smell of your blood. When I take that away from you he will become bored and leave you behind. Jasper is a Major dear girl. He runs my army with precision and hate. He is so very valuable to me."
I stood from the bed with my fists curled at my sides in anger. "You are just jealous and it is eating you alive. You are his own kind and still he has no interest in you." The words left my mouth at such a rate I was almost spitting at her.
Maria rushed forward and grabbed me by the neck. My back collided with the wall behind my bed, knocking the breath from my lungs with a whoosh. Pain radiated from my rib cage, suggesting I had more than one fractured bone. She stared me in the face almost curiously.
"I will never understand why he let you live but tonight I make the decision for him."
I squirmed and fought against her stone grip. My will to live was kicking in.
"Goodnight Isabella. May your eternal sleep be restful and do not fear; I will care for your beloved."
Her grasp on my neck loosened but my vision had already begun to waver. I swept in and out of consciousness, waiting for the inevitable call of death. Instead, there was a commotion in the room though I hadn't realized Maria was no longer holding me down. My limbs were numb from lack of oxygen and my body felt broken. Even without her deadly kiss to my neck I would die from such injuries, only much slower. The noise around me was confusing so I tried to block it out as blood flow returned to my throat bringing the pain.
"Bella, can you hear me?" His voice was an angel's in my heightened sense of self.
There was no way for me to answer him. I was no longer in control of my own body. Jasper had come to my aid, just too late. I would die without ever seeing his crimson eyes again.
Then there was a burn.
My skin was on fire but it lasted very little time before sinking further in and settling in my bones. Surely I would be a pile of ash with the rage of warmth that was coursing through my body. I seized and convulsed with the immense agony the fire brought upon me. All thoughts of Jasper disappeared as I screamed, begging for death to take me. Perhaps I was in hell. Perhaps I was banished to eternal hell fire for abandoning my Mother and Father like I had.
I thought of my Mother's face in an attempt to quiet my calls for an end. She had been so angry with me for sneaking away in the middle of the night. My Father thought me kidnapped and murdered when my bed was found empty the next morning. When I returned home, my clothes tattered and my face dirty Father threatened a punishment with his belt. He demanded to know who had stolen my innocence, which had turned his sweet, obedient daughter into a common whore. His rant went on for twenty minutes while I stood and silently accepted all he had to say.
Jasper knocked on my door that same night in full Confederate garb and a conniving smile. My Mother called my Father and a verbal war ensued. I listened intently from the second landing. There was no shouting, just attacks thrown back and forth between the two men. When I was bored of eavesdropping I made myself known by descending the stairs and taking my place next to Jasper. My Father called him a devil, most likely because of his brightly colored irises.
"You are against God," My Father growled. "Isabella, do you dare go against God?"
Of course the answer to that is obvious. Jasper had taken my innocence and with it I had given him my loyalty. I was young, just seventeen. I went away him that night and never looked back. I had seen my eighteenth birthday with my vampire and never regretted a day.
The invisible flames were licking at my insides and I could no longer occupy myself with thoughts of my family. The pain was unbearable; so much so I blacked out. My dreams were an amalgam of the gruesome things I had witnessed to the smiling, loving face of my Mother. As my agony intensified, even the dreams stopped.
Time meant nothing to me any longer. I had regained consciousness just as the agony of being burned alive was ebbing. My heart was thundering along at an alarming speed and I could barely hear the voices in the distance over the sound. Slowly, the fire began to fade away and I could flex my fingers and toes. My nose was registering scents I had never been aware of before and I realized; Jasper had bitten me. I was changing into the very thing he destroyed. The heart in my chest was beginning to falter and the voices came closer. I recognized the second male voice as Peter, a rogue vampire who Jasper had allowed to escape with Charlotte. Charlotte was a newborn destined for extermination though spared by the very epitome of cruelty; Jasper. The newborns, though I was never allowed near them, feared and loathed my vampire equally.
I noticed Jasper's calming effect settling over my suffering body as my heart began to stutter and one of the most important organs in the human body slowly ceased to beat. There was no finality to the event because I had no need to breath or even move. I just was.
When I opened my eyes for the first time the world I was used to had disappeared. Everything was ornate with details, especially my Jasper. He stood, holding my gaze as I rose from the table in record speed. The action shocked me and I gasped. Peter shoved his wife, Charlotte behind him in a protective way. Jasper stood strong, a proud smile on his face.
"She is quite calm," he said without turning to Peter.
"What happened to me?" I didn't recognize my own voice. Jasper realized my surprise and moved closer to me.
"You are nothing like the newborns I have experienced, Bella."
Peter allowed Charlotte to move closer though he kept a close eye on us both. "She is remarkable, Jasper. Her control is impeccable."
"Thank you," I said to Peter with a bow of my head though it happened much faster than I expected.
All of my movements were accelerated. There was a catalog of questions and thoughts running through my mind and I had no issue keeping every one of them straight. Jasper brought a hand to my face and caressed the skin there ever so softly. His skin was warm and it was pleasant.
"I have never come across a woman like you. I should have known that your vampire self would astound me just the same." He brought my right hand to his lips and kissed me, never breaking eye contact.
"You changed me. Why did you change me? Where are we now?"
Jasper moved away and clasped his hands behind his back. "Maria has made all this possible, unfortunately. We will not be returning to Texas, my love."
I wanted to know everything right away but I knew Jasper did not work that way. He would release to me what I needed to know in good time. Charlotte gave me a timid smile as Peter and Jasper marveled over the extensive control I was administering.
"You must be ravenous," she suggested.
I had not been hungry until she mentioned the prospect. There was an uncomfortable burn in the back of my throat and I tried to recall the times I had helped Jasper in his quest for dinner. My human life was dull and fading even though I had only just been reborn.
Jasper stopped his conversation and turned to Charlotte and me. "Are you ready to hunt?"
I touched my throat daintily and nodded. "Yes, I believe I am."
A wicked smile crossed Jasper's face. "Peter, Charlotte." He nodded at both while gathering my hand in his. "Bella and I will return tomorrow. We'll be out for the evening."
Charlotte winked at me when we left. I could only guess how the night would go.
"The possibilities are endless, Jasper. You do not have to just accept things the way they are. There are other options, other ways." Peter was lying, with his eyes closed in an open field. The sun bounced off of him creating a prism effect on the small river I was wading in.
Jasper and I were struggling. He was having a hard time hunting and feeding without allowing all of the emotions of his victims to envelope him. I had taken to hunting with Charlotte because when Jasper lost control he forced all of those same emotions onto me. Peter had heard tales of covens up North that lived differently and though I agreed that Jasper needed some intervention, I did not like the idea of living with vampires again.
"How do we know if these others can be trusted?" I lifted a stone from the waterbed and crushed it with no effort at all.
"Bella is right, Peter." Jasper flashed me a secret smile. "These covens, how do we know if we are welcome?"
Peter rushed to Jasper. "What have you got to lose?"
We all exchanged a silent look. Charlotte took my hand and led me away from the men. We walked at a normal pace through the ankle deep water.
"Do you think Jasper will go?" she asked politely. "He seems to be warring with himself over the idea."
I knew why he was hesitant. It was the same reason he was growing tired of living with Peter and Charlotte. We had spent an entire night, wrapped around each other and void of clothes while discussing our endless future. Jasper wanted to break away from his friends and continue on, just the two of us. He wanted to explore the things he had yet to know. I just wanted the look of doom and general unhappiness that crossed his face most days to go away. I wanted the powerful and self confident man that I had abandoned everything for to come back.
"I can't force him to do anything, Charlotte. You know that as well as I do. He will do what he thinks is best for us."
"Do you miss your human life?" She scaled a tree and sat gracefully on a thick branch.
I remained in the stream, watching the tiny slivers of sun breaking through the trees light my skin. "I cannot really remember my human life. I remember my Mother and Father. I remember that I loved Jasper. That's enough for me."
Charlotte smiled and jumped from her perch. She landed easily on her toes but splashed the water all over me anyway. She giggled and I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Now, now ladies. You do remember what happened last time Bella and you played around, don't you?" Peter chuckled as he came to a stop near his wife.
"I just do not know my own strength yet," I said, defending my prior actions.
Jasper lifted me from the stream and set me down next to him on the grass. I looked at him, asking him questions with my eyes.
"Bella and I are leaving tonight. We need to go off and settle into our own."
Charlotte and Peter nodded in understanding. I was excited at the prospect of spending my days with Jasper doing nothing but making love and roaming the world. There was a slight hitch in Jasper's statement though that I suspected had something do with the covens in the North. Without him saying so directly, I saw in his body language that he had decided to look for them.
Our journey to the northern part of the United States was uneventful. We stopped to hunt twice and as usual I spent the moments after consoling Jasper. The fear and death was getting to him. He stopped touching me and I was shattered. He was my world and quite literally all I had left in the world. Without him I would be lost.
We reached the city of Philadelphia at our own pace and for reasons unknown to me, Jasper held my hand as we walked the busy sidewalks. Maybe he expected me to kill one of the passersby and expose us for what we truly are. My throat was on fire and it was a battle to not take someone but I held myself together. I did not need to give my love another reason to push me away.
The city was full of scents and distractions which was pleasing to me. I had been squirreled away in Peter and Charlotte's cabin for so long, almost six months. When the sun began to set I felt the need to eat. Dinner would be easier to obtain but harder to hide in the city.
"There is so many of them," Jasper murmured as we watched people milling about on the sidewalks.
I surveyed the diner across the street, watching the door for candidates. "The diner is almost empty. It looks safe enough. Of course, I could go with you."
He turned to me. I hated the look of dread on his face. Jasper was not good with groups of humans but then again, I probably wasn't either. "Bella, you stay right here and I will take care of this."
"All right then."
He took a deep, unnecessary breath and then kissed me roughly against the cheek. I watched him slip across the street and into the diner. I could hear the bell above the door announcing his arrival. Through the window I could see him sitting, back straight, at the counter. His posture baffled me but then I noticed her, the tiny black haired vampire who had been watching Jasper since he walked through the front door. She left her table and slid onto the empty stool next to him. Before I knew what I was doing my feet were pounding the pavement, taking me toward the front door of that run down diner.
A/N: Please take a moment to let me know what you thought. I appreciate feedback, very much.
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