Beyond the Pale Contest
Title: Vigilante Justice
Pen Name: tuesdaymidnight
Characters: Edward/Jasper
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters. No copyright infringement is intended.
Image that Inspired You: Eight
To see other entries in the Beyond the Pale Contest, please visit the C2 page:
www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/community/Beyond_the_Pale_Contest_Entries/83159/
WARNING - WARNING - WARNING:
This contest is described as: A contest for one-shot stories inspired by images that imply secret desires, habits, and happenings. Fetish and deviance. The forbidden. The socially unacceptable. What goes on behind closed doors only. What pushes beyond the pale. The otherwise untouchable. The taboo.
This story fits that bill.
Even if you like my other stories, you probably shouldn't read this. Seriously. This is DARK. It contains rape, murder, necrophilia... and technically a threesome. Oh, and blood play. Um... it's also kind of a love story.
A huge thank you to OnTheTurningAway for her incredible beta work, and her undying support of my perversions.
That said, consider yourself warned.
There was a violence in Jasper Whitlock's heart.
There was an innate and unwavering sense of duty as well, but the perverse motto "by any means necessary" was very much ingrained in his psyche. His human life was now only a shadow of a memory, and so it was the first years of his new "life" that shaped him. Training newborns was a dark art in itself, but it was the ease and finesse with which he grew able to snap their necks and tear them apart without hesitation that haunted him.
Part of him now was making up for those past wrongs. Part of him simply still craved the kill.
It was time.
Jasper straightened his collar.
I'm going in, he thought, knowing Edward would hear from his stakeout position in the coffee shop across the street.
Jasper pushed the door open. The attached bell jingled, signaling his entrance. Like a good soldier, Jasper did a quick survey of the room. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Sterile. Metallic. As one would expect a tax office to be.
A frazzled young woman appeared from the back, her eyes out of focus as she adjusted her pencil skirt. Jasper could smell her perfume, a light gardenia, unsuccessfully masking her own scent laced with fear rolling off her. The reason for her fear was obvious. Mixed with it all was the musk of another, a man.
Their target.
Jasper memorized the scent and attempted to describe it in his thoughts. His power didn't work at a distance to confirm it, but he knew Edward would be getting angry, especially if he had been able to hear the target's thoughts just minutes prior.
"Can I help you?" the woman finally stuttered.
Jasper shot her a winning smile. "Why, I do reckon you can. I'm getting audited, and I need to make an appointment with Mr. Wallace."
Her hands shook as she clicked through to the appointment calendar on the computer.
"He's booked all week."
"Well, now," Jasper said slowly, trying to ease the woman's eye up to meet his. "I work 9 to 5. Is there anyway he could meet with me after hours?"
The girl nodded.
"This time of year he often extends his hours. The fee will increase-"
"That's not a problem," Jasper interrupted with another winning smile.
The woman was finally making eye contact. The fear had subsided and there was definitely some lust as she looked into his green contact-lensed eyes.
"Okay, then. Will next Tuesday work? At seven?"
Jasper quickly calculated. Tuesday would give them four days to get everything together.
He smiled genuinely, hoping she didn't catch the predatory glint, "Tuesday would be perfect."
Her hands poised above the keyboard as she spoke, "I'll need to get some preliminary information from you, Mr..."
"Hale," Jasper finished.
He set the pile of file folders he had been carrying onto the counter.
"Everything you need should be here. I need to be on my way."
Before she could respond, Jasper had turned and was heading toward the door. Mr. Wallace was exiting his office, and Jasper didn't want to risk being seen. The secretary would remember green eyes and his gentle Southern drawl. Once the data on the surveillance cameras had been destroyed, it wouldn't be enough for even a police sketch if it came to that.
He met Edward in the coffee shop, where he was sitting with his elegant hands wrapped around a cup of tea he only pretended to sip.
"What have you learned, love?"
"Five employees. He stays late. Did you hear-?" Jasper began, but was cut off by the icy look in Edward's eyes.
"We should go," Jasper murmured. "Your contacts are starting to dissolve."
Edward acquiesced with a stern nod and rose. Together they sauntered out of the cafe and toward the parking garage.
Jasper climbed into the passenger seat wordlessly. He was too old to feel comfortable behind the wheel of a vehicle powered by a combustion engine, and his mate was more than happy to drive. Instead, he peeled off the wig of dark hair that was masking his own blond waves. He knew Edward's anger was not directed toward him, but at the vile thoughts he heard inside Wallace's office. They must have been harsh for Edward not to share.
"Let's just say he's a more than adequate target," Edward said through gritted teeth in response to Jasper's thought.
Jasper filled the car with calming energy, and Edward's foot lifted slightly from its heavy position on the accelerator. Edward exhaled and reached his right hand out to rest on Jasper's thigh in silent thanks. After nearly sixty years together, the way they complimented each other was almost involuntary. A reflex. Jasper put his own hand on top of Edward's and squeezed.
It had taken years for Jasper to understand Edward's needs, and vice versa, but each had come to accept, even cherish, the other's flaws. Even when true understanding would never be reached.
When they arrived at their apartment, a penthouse on the waterfront, they immediately got to work. The hunt was planned, but there was preparation to be done before then.
Of course, they often had help. Others of their kind assisted with the details, though none really knew just what their role was in the grand scheme of things. Edward and Jasper were careful, meticulous. If they showed up at the home of the Cullen coven and Jasper needed a disguise, Alice would lend her assistance and would transform the pallor, the scars, the thirst, into a businessman, a charmer, a cad.
Carlisle would take Edward into his study and provide information to his fledgling. Even though his golden eyes would flicker up to Edward's scarlet ones in disappointment he could not mask, he had somehow always known that his own life choices would never be fulfilling for someone so tormented. No one would ever really have any idea what it was like, to hear a constant cacophony of voices unwittingly revealing to him the secrets they would never voice.
Jasper was the only one who came close, and though Carlisle masked the thought from Edward's mind, he thought, probably, Jasper had it much worse.
Most human beings chose their thoughts.
No one could help how they felt.
Jasper knew when someone felt no remorse.
When Edward left Carlisle for Philadelphia, Carlisle knew he wouldn't return. It wasn't a matter of blood lust for the boy forever seventeen. No, he needed to do something, either to compensate for his monstrosity or to embrace it, Carlisle was never quite sure.
He was the only one who had even a guess as to what Edward and Jasper accomplished. Even the Volturi had no idea, that's how careful the two young men were at covering their tracks. Carlisle wasn't exactly sure to what use all the information he gave them was put, and he preferred to keep it that way. He should have tried to talk Edward out of it. He didn't relish the thought of killing any creature, even those who were cruel and vicious.
It was selfish, he knew, but he didn't want to lose what little contact he still had with the boy.
So he didn't ask questions.
The more intricate details were accomplished by a team of humans. Easy to bribe. Had a tendency to only be concerned with the consequences for themselves.
J. Jenks was a master at forging documents. Jasper had been trying to convince Edward that they should turn him ever since he forged passports for them five years ago. Creating identities was an art form and Jenks was discreet, meticulous and far too mortal to Jasper's liking.
Edward appeased him by insisting they would talk about it in a few years.
Whereas Jenks was practically on payroll, everyone else took bribes. Cops were often the easiest to get information from. They had no problem talking about rap sheets or complaining about the legal system that would put whoever they caught back onto the street in obscenely short turn around time. Breaking into a police station was exceedingly easier than one might think, because cops had the gall to think no one would try.
Of course, the advent of the internet helped tremendously as well. Hackers were more trustworthy than anyone. When the means to obtain the information were highly illegal, there were no follow up questions. Identities could be erased with a few clicks. It was a fitting end for most of their prey. Lives not worth living were deleted from the record books by people afraid of living.
At the bottom of it all, every human being was just a number.
Any number times zero is zero.
It was just that easy for them to be erased.
Surveillance, of course, they did themselves. Agreeing on the prey was easy. They looked in seedy areas of cities. Dark alleyways and dive bars. Edward listened and Jasper felt, focusing in on anger, hostility and usually a lot of fear. Gang-bangers were high on the list. Gangs often reminded Jasper all too much of the vampire armies he helped create and destroy at the end of the 19th century. They had a blind allegiance and unfounded loyalty to which Jasper could all too well relate. When they took one of these as victim, it was almost a chance for self-flagellation. Jasper fed on their anger and turned it in on himself.
Edward, on the other hand, was a protector of the weak and the young. Robbed of his own youth, he loathed the men who took it from others. He had long since come to terms with Carlisle for ending his life and paralyzing him in this condition, but he never truly reconciled his monstrous condition. Killing was in his new nature, and he strove to keep perilous control over who he chose to target. The dominion his victims thought they had over the innocent and the helpless was inexcusable. And so Edward made it his task to punish them.
An eye for an eye.
The irony was not lost on Jasper, but he never said anything.
Edward needed it, and that was enough for Jasper..
They had both become what they hated, but the passion they took from their work all but erased that burden.
Given all that technology could accomplish in the 21st century, it was almost too easy, but it was their game. The game that had brought them together in the streets of Philadelphia.
The game that even Carlisle didn't understand.
The vampire who had never killed a human. Who had only briefly tasted human blood, able to stop himself when the cure for death had been administered. Who had never given in to that craving shared by all creatures of the night. Carlisle rationalized it by claiming they were acting out in the name of justice.
It was more accurate to say they were acting out for the thrill.
They had met while stalking the same prey – a hit man. Getting involved with the Mafia was always a complex matter. Hit men especially walked the fine edge between life and death, but when one of them did turn up missing, there was always someone to blame. It often resulted in more people getting killed. This never mattered to Jasper, but to Edward, it was just one more thing he had no control over.
When Edward strode into the Italian restaurant he immediately sensed another of his kind sitting in the back. He focused on the thoughts of the other creature, and he knew at once they had the same target in mind. He crossed the restaurant almost too quickly, in order to confront the other, to warn him to back off, to find a different territory.
Intention vanished as soon as he saw him.
Tall, broad, blond and with a devilish smirk. Colored contact lenses didn't exist back then, and so he wore glasses he didn't need in order to distract human eyes. Not that it mattered, looking at Jasper Whitlock, the last thing anyone would notice were his eyes.
Edward knew immediately he would not be warning this vampire away.
He knew this was his other half.
He also knew that while part of Jasper's thoughts were still focused on the kill, he was aroused.
And so their game began.
They were physically compatible and almost perfectly happy in each other's company, but it wasn't quite enough for either. It wasn't just blood lust or the need to satisfy the instinct to kill. It was desperation.
A quest for complete and utter sexual gratification.
Gratification, they found, that could only be reached together.
The game took them across countries and continents. Early on there were some close calls, but as the game went on, they got better, more refined. It was only recently they found they could stay in one place for an extended period of time. There was no shortage of depraved souls in the city, and with Edward and Jasper patrolling its streets, Seattle had never been safer.
Safer for the innocent, anyway.
Alonzo Calderas Wallace was an accountant by day.
He was quiet, unassuming, even a little antisocial.
But, he wasn't harmless at all. Especially if you were a teenage girl.
His computer was full on images of girls in compromising and disgusting positions. He had lost custody of his daughter and a restraining order had been issued against him two years prior. His ex-wife refused to take child support from him.
He could have been put in prison. Ownership of child pornography. Statutory rape. The rape charges would have been difficult to prosecute, however, and the punishment for child pornography would have amounted to him registering as a sex offender. He might have felt mildly ashamed when he had to inform his neighbors.
But, that wasn't enough.
He needed to suffer.
He had robbed girls of their innocence and never felt a drop of remorse. They wanted it. They asked for it. Wearing short skirts and tops that rode up, revealing milky skin. They were all just sluts to Alonzo Wallace.
It was these thoughts that struck Edward the night they found him in a bar. The absolute pleasure accompanying those thoughts was all Jasper needed to confirm him as their target.
The world had no use for a man completely incapable of guilt.
When Jasper walked into the tax office Tuesday night, he knew that Wallace had been looking at pornography. Lust hung in the air, and the scent of semen lingered bitterly in Jasper's nostrils. The secretary was luckily out for the evening, so it was Wallace himself who came out of his office in a rumpled suit.
"Mr. Hale," he greeted, ushering Jasper forward.
They entered the tiny room where Wallace worked. It was revealing of his character that it contained no personal effects. No photographs. No mementos from travels abroad. Edward would be pleased. An empty life was easier to erase.
"Sit," Wallace gestured.
Jasper could sense Edward's presence in the building then, grateful he didn't need to stall. He never minded making small talk with the prey, but they were usually so mundane he'd rather forgo it.
Luckily, Alonzo Wallace wanted to get down to business and back to his perverse hobby.
"I've looked through your file, and honestly, I can't think of any reason why you are being audited," he spoke with a bored tone.
"She's not interested in you," Jasper said shortly.
"What?"
"She's not interested in you. She fears you, and yet, you still take advantage of her."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hale. I have no idea what you're talking about."
Except he did know what Jasper was talking about. His heart began to pick up speed and Jasper could smell the sweat beginning to bead on his forehead and under his arms.
"Does it make you feel powerful? Does it make you feel like more of a man? To overpower girls who are repulsed by you?"
"Who- who-" his voice broke.
"Your receptionist was hired right out of high school. She just turned 19. She's only had two boyfriends before in her life, and only one of them reached third base. She goes to church every Sunday and confession once a week. She cries herself to sleep every night because she feels dirty, unclean, but she needs this job and so she takes it." Jasper's voice grew forceful.
"Look, you-"
"The woman at the bar you took home last week. She was intoxicated and yet you still took her home. But she wasn't enough, was she? She was too old and even the darkness couldn't hide the stretchmarks on her stomach. The laugh lines around her mouth. You need them to be helpless, frightened, untouched. You are just the kind of monster that doesn't deserve to breathe this air!"
"I don't-"
"Your daughter! Your own daughter!" Jasper's voice was near the point of being too loud. "You couldn't keep your hands off her, you sick fuck. She was yours, you thought. Made just for you. To do what? Scar her? Sully her? Ruin her life?"
"The cameras are disabled," Edward's velvet voice cut through Jasper's rage, immediately pulling Jasper back.
Edward liked to watch Jasper's confrontations as his lover fed off the fear of the victim, turning in into the rage he poured back. But, they weren't isolated enough that someone wouldn't be able to hear were Jasper to shout any louder.
Anyway, it was time.
Jasper encouraged the fear radiating off Wallace as he sat at his desk, scrambling for purchase on his desk phone. It wouldn't have done him any good. The line had been disconnected. For a second, Jasper was impressed that he still had enough sense to try and get help.
There was always some denial of death.
Even when it was blatantly inevitable.
Alonzo Wallace didn't make it this far without some fight. He was about to scream when his voice caught in his throat.
The two red eyed vampires approached him slowly, stalking. Disastrously handsome and the most frightening pair of predators walking the planet. Their skin glowed under the buzzing fluorescent lights and their shiny white teeth glinted as they shared a smile.
"Do you think we should give him a taste of his own medicine, love?" Edward asked.
In a flash, Jasper was behind the man, gripping his hair and pulling his head back, exposing his pulsing throat.
The scent, the thoughts, the begging were finally too much for Edward. The red of his eyes was nearly black. Edward could hear the beating heart grow louder and faster as he stalked toward the prey. Wallace's thoughts were a jumble of fearful, desperate wishes.
Please, God, get me out of here. Who? What? Get me out of here. Oh God. Please.
Edward laughed, and in a swift move was at Wallace's other side.
"You did this to yourself, you know," Edward said calmly. "God has no place for you."
It was a carefully orchestrated dance between two lovers. The third party was almost irrelevant. Jasper held him in place while Edward watched the final bits of fight drain out of his body. In a state of pure shock and terror, there was nothing else left for Wallace to do.
It was perfect.
Edward couldn't hold back anymore.
I have him, Jasper thought. He's ready for you.
Jasper kept his hands on Wallace and moved even further to his side so Edward could move into position behind the desk.
Jasper watched his lover's eyes burn with lust right before he moved.
Edward tore Wallace's pants off, shredding them. He looked at the pale, slightly flabby flesh of a man whose life was spent sitting, pushing numbers. The self-loathing it must have taken to invent a need in underage girls originated from this weak and brittle human shell.
The sight wasn't aesthetically arousing, but it was appealing to Edward's sensibilities. Wallace was still trembling slightly, but Jasper would take care of it.
He always did.
Edward spit into his hand and used his venomous saliva to coat his member. The venom would burn as it sunk into the accountant's hole. Edward wasn't a sadist, but he rather enjoyed the moment where the steady stream of thoughts was cut off by only one – pain.
It was that sweet moment when the game truly began. It was that moment where Edward's gift and Jasper's gift came together. They were most united in that moment, when the victim's head and heart were in the identical, agonizing place.
Edward pushed inside, while Jasper covered his palm over the man's mouth to muffle the scream.
In that sweet, precious moment of blinding pain, Jasper could never rein in the pure joy. He leaned over Wallace and placed a searing kiss on Edward's lips.
"Love you," he whispered.
"Always," Edward murmured back before straightening.
Jasper watched with an involuntary smile as Edward thrust into Wallace.
All the while, Jasper calmed the prey. He soothed him. He caressed the man's skin and ran his icy fingers through his hair. Edward needed it this way. He needed complete control and submission. No matter how much Jasper gave, no matter how much he would take whatever Edward gave, no matter how much they loved one another, it was never quite enough to fill that need.
As much as Jasper did this for Edward, he did it for himself.
While he calmed the victim, he listened. He listened to the each heart beat as it slowed steadily under his touch. He felt the carotid artery pulsing under his hand. He smelled the sweet, indescribable aroma of human life. Jasper never could understand the appeal of drinking the blood of animals. Hunting them was a game he could find some entertainment in, but there was truly no comparison. All of the stupid things humans did. All the wars. All the crimes. All the violence. It was all made possible by the current of life that flowed through tangled webs of veins and arteries.
Everything about it was appealing. It's heady scent. It's viscous texture. The power of life you could feel searing through your body even after the first drop.
It was too much.
I need it, Edward, Jasper thought.
Edward quickened his pace, wordlessly telling Jasper it was okay. That he was ready, too.
With that, Jasper sunk his teeth into Alonzo Wallace's neck.
The kill.
The revenge.
The justice.
The blood spurted into his mouth and he drank it greedily for a moment. He knew he needed to slow down and share, but he afforded himself those perfect few seconds where it was just instinct. Where they didn't have to justify their reasons to anyone or to themselves.
Where the game reached its apex.
He looked up at Edward, knowing he had almost gone too far, but Edward only smiled down at him. Edward leaned down to meet Jasper face to face. He flicked out his tongue, sweeping away the evidence of Jasper's meal that had escaped his mouth and ran down his chin. He plunged his tongue into his mate's mouth, swirling it around, reveling in the taste of the bastard's blood.
Edward could live on animal blood, and had for awhile when he stayed with Carlisle. It was no substitution, but it was okay, the rational choice.
Truth be told, though, it just didn't compare.
Edward pulled away from Jasper's lips, the hunger growing too great after the tiny taste.
So, Jasper grabbed Wallace's wrist and held it up to Edward.
You need to feed, Jasper thought.
Without stilling his hips, Edward took the wrist and plunged his sharp teeth into it. Jasper watched transfixed as Edward's lips closed down and he began to suck.
It was only then that Jasper grew fully aroused.
"Finish it," was all Edward said, once he had taken his fill.
He released the wrist, which flopped down heavily, and used that hand to hold onto something else instead. He dragged it through the quickly coagulating blood first, getting enough to slick his hand. Jasper knew it was coming, so he unbuckled his trousers in a flash. He was just in time to not get any blood on them, as Edward's strong hand was there, grabbing his cock.
Jasper muffled his moan by bringing his teeth back to Wallace's neck. His pulse was faint, and it wouldn't be much longer now.
Edward was thrusting harder and deeper into the tight channel, bent over the prey, all the while stroking his lover. Watching Jasper take the last drops of life out of the bastard below him was almost too much. Jasper was savoring it, yes, but it was more than that, there was something other than the hunt, the taste, that aroused him. It was the only time he let go of his gift.
It was always watching Jasper feed where Edward found him most attractive.
So he watched.
And he felt the last bits of life drain out of Alonzo Wallace. He heard the heartbeat slow and felt the chemistry of the body below him changing. He had to release his lover's arousal in order to grab Wallace's hips, repositioning him so he draped over the desk. Jasper didn't mind. Watching Edward take control was enough to sustain his arousal.
That, and the kill.
Edward groaned the second the heartbeat stopped. The second that there was no more fight. The second that there was no response or reaction.
He thrust relentlessly into the rapidly cooling form, pounding in an out of the unresponsive figure, while Jasper lazily stroked himself, the blood still smeared on his prick. No matter how much Jasper would submit to Edward when it was clear he needed it, he could never submit this much. There was always the chance that Jasper could move, disagree, or spout words of love at the wrong moment.
He could never give Edward this, and it was beautiful to watch.
Edward's back arched and Jasper watched his perfect ass cheeks clench as he shot his release.
As soon as the act was done, Edward came back to himself and remembered his mate. He turned to see the red eyes that had so terrified Wallace looking at him with complete and utter adoration. In less than a second Wallace was carelessly thrown down across the desk and Edward was on his knees, taking Jasper's dick into his mouth. He laved at the blood, the taste of victory, of dominion, mixing in with Jasper's own.
He let Jasper fuck his face.
So beautiful, Jasper thought as he looked down at Edward. His hard skin flushed slightly from the feed. He was relaxed and satisfied as he hollowed his cheeks, taking Jasper deep down his throat.
So fucking beautiful, Jasper thought again as he looked deeply into Edward's darkened eyes right before he came. Edward squeezed every drop out of Jasper with his tongue before Jasper was pulling him to his feet and crushing him to his chest.
The room was a flurry of emotions as Jasper came down from his high.
Even Edward drowned in the feeling for a moment.
There was nothing in the world right then but the two of them, their darkest desires sated, and their love.
Eventually the room calmed and Jasper thought, We should finish this.
Edward nodded and they got to work.
Disposing of the body was the least pleasant part of the experience, but Edward and Jasper knew enough to leave no trace. They often borrowed crematoriums or stole powerful acids. They melted hard drives. They scraped the VINs off cars. They paid to have birth certificates and social security numbers erased.
They didn't just kill.
They annihilated.
Some people just didn't deserve to be remembered.
Jasper turned to do a final sweep of the room. Wallace's personal effects were cleared. His desk was empty.
It was as if he never existed.
"Ready, love?" Edward asked quietly as he took his mate's hand.
"Ready," Jasper whispered.
-fin-
