Happy Saturday everyone! Hope ya'll are having a wonderful day! Here is a chapter!

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If I didn't reply to you it's because I'm writing furiously. Not angry furious. Fast furious.

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Chapter 3

"What in the actual fuck, Jas?" Peter was stunned that the visit with the Cullens had escalated so easily into a violent encounter. "You threw our plans right out the window, didn't ya'? What happened to goin' in with a strategy, and followin' through?" They were only supposed to drop by for a visit, accidentally bite the girl, and then be on their merry way. "It's not the God damned 1800's anymore, you just don't go around challengin' people to a duel."

Peter's voice was loud and accusing, and he was making Bella nervous.

"Now I'm stuck in the truck with sweet and juicy."

"Stop it Pete, you're upsettin' the human." Charlotte, who sat between her irate husband and the girl decided to make introductions. She held out her hand and offered it to Bella. I'm Charlotte, this is my husband Peter, and he's Jasper.

As Bella shook hands with the petite, friendly vampire, her small strange dog leaned over and began to sniff at her. Tater approved of Bella, and gave her a small welcoming lick.

Although nervous, Bella tried her best to smile. "I'm Bella."

Tater stood on Charlotte's lap; her small feet pranced as her tail wagged happily from side to side. "See guys, Tater likes Bella, she's a real good judge of character. I'm sure glad Jasper decided to keep her." In her opinion Jasper had been alone and on the road long enough. She thought having a newborn would be good for the Major and hoped he'd take this girl as a mate, hopefully make him a little less surly.

The dog crawled into Bella's lap and lay down across her legs. "What sort of dog is this?"

"A damn ugly one." Peter huffed in irritation as he rolled the window down in an attempt to lessen the burn in his throat. He had agreed to help dispose of the human, but now they were going to keep her, and possibly have to deal with the Cullens again. He felt like he had been hornswoggled.

"Ignore him, he just needs to hunt. He gets cranky when he's hungry." Charlotte rubbed the soft tan fuzz that covered Tater's head. "She's a Mexican hairless, I guess. I found her starving and covered in fleas, out in an alley way in a little border town where Pete and I hunt sometimes. She wasn't scared of us, so I took her in and fixed her up, but she never did grow any hair. I call her Tater 'cause her skin is smooth and brown and warm, like a baked potato."

"Is it difficult having her around? I mean, do you ever struggle not to drink from her?"

All three vampires laughed loudly as though Bella had told a joke. She hadn't meant to be funny, and the sound took her by surprise.

"Hell no. You couldn't pay me to bite that little stinky thing," Peter chuckled. "You on the other hand, are drivin' me insane." He swallowed thickly and his eyes grew dark as he focused on the throbbing pulse in Bella's neck.

Jasper growled in irritation and pulled off the highway. Things seemed to get real serious all of a sudden. "Go . . . hunt . . . now, Peter. That's an order."

"The war is over Jasper, you don't order me anymore, and I hunt when I want to," Peter scowled at the Major. "It just so happens, I feel like huntin' now, so if you'll excuse me. Char?"

"We'll be back shortly. Watch after Tater for me," Charlotte was unfazed by the men's nasty attitudes. She was used to their bickering. It was one of the many reasons that she refused to live with the both of them under the same roof.

They ran off into the dusk, leaving Jasper and Bella in an awkward silence. They knew absolutely nothing about one another, and Jasper wasn't about to try to make polite conversation. He'd had a rough day. Seeing Alice after so many years and finally having a chance to confront Edward, there had been so many emotions to deal with. He was at his wits end after feeling Peter's growing blood lust, and now he was dealing with his own because the sweet smelling human was right there beside him in his truck sighing, breathing, and fidgeting. Every once and a while she'd turn to him and burn a hole through the side of his head with her large inquisitive chocolate brown eyes. Jasper purposefully avoided meeting her gaze but he felt her mood shift multiple times between curiosity, despair, wonder, fear, and awe. Her emotional instability was unsettling.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her fear subsided and was replaced with courage and she spoke. "So, are you a truck driver?"

"Yep."

Bella sighed again and returned her focus to the small dog in her lap, who was taking a nap. The windows were open and the cool evening air felt soft on her skin, the chorus of crickets was the only sound to break the silence, besides the occasional car that sped by on the highway.

Jasper could feel that Bella was full of questions. Questions she was, more than likely, afraid to ask. "If you get tired, you can lay down on the mattress back there. It's clean. I never use it."

"S'O.k., I don't think I can sleep."

Jasper reached across and turned on the radio. He found a country station; the song was a mournful one about a man who had lost his lover. He felt Bella's mood drop, so he changed the channel. Nothing else good seemed to be on, so he turned the radio back off. "Peter and Charlotte will be back soon, then we can go and get some fuel, and maybe, if you're hungry, you can get something to eat."

"Are you going to kill me?" The words seemed to spill out of her before she could stop them.

"I'm going to change you."

Bella felt relieved.

"I don't have much of a choice. We aren't allowed to show ourselves to humans. What Edward did was foolish and put his whole family in danger. It also put you and your loved ones in a predicament. Rosalie called me in to take care of the situation before it got outta hand."

"So you just came to take out the trash."

"I don't feel that way, and I sure hope you don't think like that about yourself. I have a gift, I felt your feelings for Edward, back at the house, and I think you're worth keepin'."

His quietly spoken admission shocked Bella, and she felt all at once embarrassed and grateful for his complement. "How does your gift work?"

"I can feel emotions and influence them."

"You calmed me down before. Didn't you?"

"Yes."

Bella was surprised that his power worked on her, when Edward's had failed. "He couldn't hear my thoughts. I think he enjoyed that." Her lips almost curled into a smile, but her face looked more solemn than happy.

"He didn't have the same sort of feelings for you that you had for him."

"I figured. I realized that when he tried to kill me." Her fingers caressed the tender black and blue finger prints his hand had left behind. "Thank you, by the way."

"You are my responsibility now. You don't have to worry about him hurting you again."

"How much longer?"

Jasper turned and studied the girl. She was holding her bottom lip between her teeth.

"I will be responsible for you until you are able to care for yourself. You will have to learn our ways, our laws, how to hunt—"

"No. I meant to ask, how much longer do I have before you change me?"

"As soon as we get to my place in Colorado. The sooner the better. My brother Peter wants to eat you and it's really startin' to piss me off." Jasper wasn't sure why he was so edgy and protective over the girl, and he hoped the feeling would dissipate as soon as she was changed. He figured the beast inside him had staked a claim on her blood when he had won her in the fight. She had submitted to him and he owned her now. Anyone who tried to come between them would be asking for a beating.

Jasper turned and looked out the window. Moments later, Peter and Charlotte came into view. Tater got up and pawed at the door, and Charlotte lifted her out, so she could go and do her business before they resumed their trip.

"I feel better now," Peter grinned at Bella and crossed his arms over his broad chest.

Bella felt nauseous when the realization that these vampires killed humans, not animals, sank in. They were nothing like her beloved Cullens, and Edward's words danced through her mind and played at her conscious. Monsters. Is that what she was destined to become? She would prove Edward wrong. Deep inside her she made a promise, that no matter if she changed, she would be strong enough to retain her humanity. If Edward had made the choice, why couldn't she? Determined not to worry over it again, Bella decided the path for her own eternity. Maybe she could become a skilled surgeon, just like Carlisle. Maybe not, but either way, she vowed to never lose sight of who she was. She wasn't a monster. Not now and not ever. What had Edward told her? . . . Ah yes, mind over matter. Her vampire boyfriend had preferred to slay her rather than let her become one of them. He didn't even give her a chance to prove her worth. He had so little faith in her. Regardless of the way it happened, she was grateful, that now she could see Edward Cullen for what he truly was. Bella had given up her mortality to spare a monster.