Disclaimer: You guessed it, all imaginary credit goes to Meyer

Chapter 3

Cloud Nine

"Ladies first", Jasper said and made a gesture towards to door of the small cottage. Though he was still a bit tense, he managed to send me a crooked smile.

"Aren't you supposed to check if there's any danger inside?" I asked, chuckled and then opened the door before he could answer. The inside was in a well shape, despite the fact that it probably hadn't been used for a long time. It was only one room, walls, ceiling and floor were all in wood, and a single window was placed on the opposite site of the door. Two chairs where placed around a small table and a bed was to find in the corner. I assumed that the light didn't work, but didn't bother to check. The darkness only made everything different colors instead of shading the sight. I turned around to drag Jasper inside and he closed the door behind him. He took of the jacket that he was wearing and threw it over one of the chairs.

"This is a nice place", I said cheerfully. Jasper nodded, as he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. I went to sit on the bed, and watched him for a couple of minutes. None of us moved an inch.

Jasper sighed and opened his eyes. He stared into space for a short second and then turned his head to look at me. There was something in his eyes I couldn't quite interpret. I winked him over and he came to sit on the bed beside me. I looked at him with question in my eyes.

"I feel quite odd", he said, and I opened my mouth to once again defend his behavior an hour ago, but he continued, "those feelings… the vibration of the emotions I get from you, they make me sort of anxious," I was about to interrupt him again, but he stopped me, "please don't misunderstand me, Alice. I couldn't be happier to have you than I am. But you must understand that completely new feelings affect me in a strange way. The first time I felt something entirely new, was when I saw Maria and her 'friends' the first time. Though I was only human at that time, the sight of their beautiful faces, the way they looked at me made me feel the danger. And now there is you. You are without any doubt the most beautiful person I have ever seen, counting every single vampire I have ever looked at. And those things you make me feel are so different from anything else… I don't have good experiences with changes" He eyes moved to the scars on his arm, and then he looked at me, probably to see how I reacted to his words.

Somehow this didn't surprise me much, but I was a difficult person to surprise after all. I couldn't believe though, that he would actually think something bad was going to come out of this, but I wasn't angry with him for feeling that way. It wouldn't be hard to change his mind on that part.

"Do I really have to convince you that I'm not going to hurt you in any possible way?" I asked him teasingly, and he murmured something like "I can't help it" in respond. I chuckled and he looked up at me in surprise. Well, if my emotions couldn't tell him what he needed to know, I might as well just show him. I hesitated for a short second, then leaned towards him and touched my lips to his.

Very much against my will, I pulled away again to read his reaction. At first his face was expressionless, as if he was thinking of how to react on my kiss, but then his eyes lightened up in a whole new way, and he send me a dazzling smile, making my breathing uneven. He leaned slowly towards me and stopped a few inches from my face in a short hesitation. I could feel him breathing into my face. It stunned me in a thrilling way and I closed my eyes to fully appreciate it. Then our lips met again. His lips were so far the only parts on him that was completely scar-less and they were so soft against mine. My brain stopped working and I was only able to concentrate on this new, dizzying touch. I had looked forward to this exact moment for least a decade, and it reached my high expectations to perfection.

This was new for me too. The more he kissed me the more desire did I feel. I twisted a little closer to him, and let my hand stroke his neck and cheek, then let it run through his soft curls. He smiled through the kiss, then put his arms around my waist and pulled me into his lap, without leaving my lips for a second.

After a while – a minute, a second, an hour, I had no idea, I had completely lost track of time – he pulled a little away, as if he needed a short thinking-break. I knew well now that kissing and thinking wasn't easy at the same time. I opened my eyes to look at him. It was hard to believe that this was actually happening after waiting all these years. He was so beautiful, and he would still be, even if his whole face was completely covered in battle scars. He had opened his eyes too, he looked at me with a delighted expression, and I just smiled in respond. I let a finger run down his face, touching every scar on my way. He closed his eyes again and breathed a happy sigh. I leaned down to kiss him again, while my fingers continued down his neck and unbuttoned his shirt to feel his bare chest. No scars where to find here and his skin was soft as silk.

The need for more closeness became stronger as I touched his body, so I moved as close to him as possible and locked my arms around his neck. I felt his hand moving up my back and shoulder, to my neck, then my face. His sweet touch felt so appealing. I could feel the desire waving through his body; all the tension was completely gone. At this moment I couldn't really remember where the tension had come from in the first place, kissing Jasper made it impossible to think.

Desire and craving began to take over completely and the kissing became stronger. With a thrill I parted his lips slightly to feel his tongue and I felt the current run through his body when I did it. He followed me eagerly and this new kissing was too much for my brain to handle. It was as if my mind left my body. We soared away into cloud nine, leaving the cottage, the forest and everything else behind us.

We had spent many hours in the small cottage. Maybe too many, we needed to reach the Cullens soon after all, but I wasn't able to bother. It was already near noon, I guessed from the small beam of light reaching trough the window. We lay silent on the bed, as if we were sleeping. My head rested against his silky chest, and I could feel him breathing into my hair. The scent of him was dizzying at this moment and I wasn't sure if I wanted to move ever again. I still couldn't believe how natural the presence of my Jasper felt and it thrilled me to think about the past hours we had spent in this cottage. That memory was going to keep me alive forever.

Jasper moved his arm from under his head down to me and stroked my arm, as if he had heard what I was thinking, which was almost true in some way since he could read my emotions as if there were his own. All the confusion about my emotions that he had told me about before seemed to be entirely gone. I could have sworn that he could have read my mind during those hours, if there had been anything to read. I hadn't really thought that much about anything.

Jasper played with a strand of my short, black hair then his hand moved back across my face, and lay still. I breathed a sigh of pure happiness.

"Alice?"

"Mmm?" Was all I could manage to say.

"I love you too, you know." I smiled. I didn't say anything; I knew he didn't have problems interpreting my responding feelings this time. Instead I stretched up my head to kiss his throat, and stayed there. He wrapped his arms around me and we were silent again for a couple of minutes.

"Alice?"

"Yes?" I breathed.

"I want to try soon. Hunting like vegetarians, I mean."

"We can start next time you get thirsty if you want?"

"Yes." Silence again. A noisy silence, I could almost hear him think about his own words. And I knew that a part of him wanted us to move now, though the other wanted to stay right here with me and never move again. No emotion-talent needed to figure that out, I knew him too well for that to be necessary.

"Hm, we should get going soon", he said. I wished I hadn't been right this time.

"Yes, we should", I agreed and got up slowly. Even though I wanted so badly to stay for a moment more, I couldn't make myself hold Jasper here against his will – or a part of his will at least. He still had an addiction to fight.

We both got up and were ready to go in a few seconds. Jasper grabbed his jacket on the chair then he stopped, and sighed as if he was deciding something important. A vision was about to show me his decision, when he turned around to me, bent down and kissed me. I smiled stunned through the kiss, and pulled him closer. I was about to give in completely, when he pulled away again. Annoyingly wise of him. Instead I just beamed up at him and danced out of the door that he held open for me.

We still had a long way to go so without further words we started running. First we found the place were the hikers had been, to figure out the right track. Then, without mentioning the memory of the place, we located it and changed to the right direction.

Silence came upon us again as we ran. Hours went by. I could feel that Jasper was in a hurry to get the Cullen's place soon. Though we could start his diet on our own, I thought to myself that it might be something more. He wanted to see with his own eyes how that the existence of peaceful, vegetarian vampires was possible, not that he didn't trust my word. I couldn't blame him for finding it hard to believe, though. It had been hard for me too, it was very unusual after all, but I had had my visions to convince me. Personally, I was looking forward to have people around me, and especially this family. And it wasn't like Jasper and I wouldn't get time to be just the two of us. The others – except Edward of course – were couples too, they would understand that. Besides, I had seen that Esme had built a house for Rosalie and Emmet, so they had a lot of privacy. We would build one for ourselves it that would be necessary.

While we ran, I made sure to look for any sign of humans coming our way. Though Jaspers eyes were still bright red, which meant he wasn't thirsty yet, I didn't want him to be distracted by human scents.

"How do they all feel about the vegetarian diet?" Jasper suddenly asked, "The Cullens, I mean. I can guess that Carlisle likes it, but what about the rest?"

"Well, they all seem okay with it. Though all of them have slipped sometimes, and tasted human blood, oh, except Rosalie. But she has killed humans. But they're all trying their best to live the vegetarian style. Not that different from you", I told him, adding the last part with a smile. He was going to try. I knew it, I had seen it already. Just a tiny glimpse, but enough to assure me.

"You can't say that. I have been living on nothing but human blood in almost a century", he said. He suddenly seemed upset, though he tried to keep his voice calm.

"Yes, I can say that, and I mean it. If you had had the option to not kill, you would have taken it."

"I was in the army. I joined the army and in armies, you kill", he insisted, a dark expression shading his beautiful face.

"You joined the human army", I reminded him. "You were forced into Maria's." I met his tense gaze. Why did he have to take all this on himself? I knew he was still a military man inside, and because of that he hated loosing the self-discipline by hunting humans whether he wanted or not. But why blame himself for that part? No wonder he got depressed so fast, when he thought it all was his entire fault. I knew the reason why his depression was there, I just couldn't figure out why he couldn't let it go now that his diet was changing soon. And I couldn't stand him being depressed. I had been watching that for way too many years already.

He sighed and nodded slowly.

"True, but I wished I had known another way to live than with the newborn army. If only Peter and Charlotte had found each other earlier, then I would have left earlier too along with them. Maybe I would have run into you earlier, too", he said, smiling a bit at the last sentence. I got the feeling that he wanted to change the subject.

"Maybe", I agreed, letting it go. I smiled back at him and took his outstretched hand. His palm felt soft as he held my hand. He stroked it with a finger; the touch was compelling. I could feel the intensity he put in this contact. Cloud nine was calling for me. Besides I wanted him to think of something else. I slowed down a little, and then stopped, forcing him to stop too. He looked at me, with a questioning expression on his face. I didn't answer, I just looked into his sparkling eyes for a long moment, just watched the facets in the shining crimson iris, and he began to understand.

"Alice, we need to move…" he began, but I pressed one finger against his lips, to make him stop talking. He fought a smile.

"Just a short moment. I need you to be at ease", I said, and he surrendered, the smile breaking through. One tiny moment wasn't a very long time in vampire world. He chuckled at the sight of me. His hand was at my face again, caressing my cheek. With a huge smile on my face I locked my arms around his neck and stretched up to him in the same moment he bent down to me. I felt his breath reaching my face. Our lips touched, and the surrounding area disappeared…

We kissed for a long, blissful moment, and then went back to reality. With a beam I looked up at my Jasper, meeting his intense, mesmerizing gaze.

It was sort of funny to experience how a person could be so irresistible. When he looked me deep in the eyes I had a hard time focusing on anything else. When he touched my face I couldn't think straight. When he kissed me I didn't feel present at all. How was I ever going to focus on anything when he was this close?

I realized that I didn't really care. I was immortal after all, I would probably live forever, which meant that I had forever to do what I wanted in life. So what's the haste?