Jasper and I hunted for a good long while, finally getting back to the Buick sometime shortly before sunrise. I knew we'd have to hurry to make it to the hotel in time and thanked the heavens that the streets would be near empty and I could speed back. A bunch of people had cars in Philadelphia, but many of the people outside of the city were still stuck in that metal-saving rut, even after the war's end. I pressed the pedal all the way to the floor, knowing that if I did so we would be just fine. In spite of my vision, Jasper kept sneaking nervous glances out the back window to the east.

"We're going to be fine," I assured him, quickly zooming around a bread truck going about 20 miles an hour.

Jasper nodded. "I trust you, I just don't like the sun."

"Don't we all feel the same way?" I asked, raising one jet eyebrow quizzically.

"It's different in the south," he explained. "There is no possibility of going out in the daytime, the sun's always out and there're no woods to hide in. If you did go out in the sun…if you were spotted by a mortal…there was no question of survival. You had to kill."

I said nothing, only came to a screeching halt at a red light. Jasper observed my face carefully.

"You're numb again," he murmured.

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I felt more numb with Jasper than I had ever recalled feeling before. Strangely, it wasn't a bad feeling, this numbness. He said so many shocking things, this handsome blond man, that he just took my breath away.

"No need to apologize. You ought to know the truth, if we're in this together." He turned to look out the back, expecting the sun.

"You know, Jasper," I began, trying to return from my state of numbness, "if we're in this together…there can be no more humans."

"I knew you were going to say something like that." He sighed a little. "But you know that I'm willing to try."

I smiled at his eagerness, especially if it was for me.

"Besides, this coven I'm…we're…searching for is filled with animal hunters," I explained.

"Vegetarians?" Jasper said laughingly. "So that's why you're so adamant I change, isn't it?"

I laughed at the humored expression on his face. "Partly."

We had arrived at the hotel with a few minutes to spare. I got out of the car and handed the keys to the attendant, turning around to see if we were in any danger as he peeled off. Far away at the horizon, the sky was just beginning to pink, a sight I hadn't seen in quite a long while; the last time had been an accident after I had gotten caught up in the hunt and headed home too late. Luckily, my cabin had been rather deserted and no one had seen me but the sun.

I heard Jasper at my side sigh at the beauty of it.

"It's been so long since I've seen it," he breathed, his voice barely higher than a whisper. I couldn't say anything, especially after his hand brushed against mine, setting off that spark again. He felt it too and stepped away slightly, allowing me to clear my head.

"We should go inside," I murmured, turning my back to the sun and heading in the door. We trudged up to our room, both of us pondering when we would see the sun again. I closed the curtains and sat down on the hard little sofa while Jasper lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.

If it were possible for a vampire to be tired, Jasper looked so. I took this opportunity of his drowsy ignorance to get a closer look at him. He was very handsome, exceedingly so. His jaw was strong and square, giving him a masculine look, counterbalanced by the beautiful, near-feminine air his Grecian nose gave him. His large eyes intrigued me in both their color and their expression; had I his gift, I would hardly need it, his gaze was so expressive. Skin the color of milk and hair the color of honey; he seemed almost seraphic when his eyes were closed.

"You're peaceful," Jasper murmured, his eyes still shut. I smiled.

"And happy," he added. I tried to scowl, to see if he could read that as well, but he shook his head. "You can't fake emotion, Alice, not truly."

"Show me what you can do," I requested. He cracked one eye open and stared at me. To determine if I was worthy of seeing such power? To decide what to do first? I waited anxiously as he closed his eyes again, my anxiety building and building until it was an all-consuming panic attack.

Then, just as soon as it as started, it stopped, replaced with a feeling of unconquerable joy.

A flash of hatred.

A sudden pang of sadness.

My own feelings of shock almost masked the next charge of emotions, a wave of intense lust that filled me from head to toe. Jasper laughed, and the peacefulness I had begun with returned.

"You're horrible," I said, playfully scowling.

"And you're a tease," he shot back and opened one red eye to give me a joking wink.

It grew to be one of his favorite things to do, to send me some sort of inappropriate feeling and watch my reaction before he was so doubled up with laughter that it rebounded back to me, both of us ending up in hysterics on the floor.

We had decided to stay in Philadelphia until I had gotten a better idea of where the mysterious Carlisle and his family were located. Jasper still wasn't fond of going out among a lot of people, so most of our time was spent in the hotel room, talking about endless and various subjects.

We were curious about each other, to the point of almost being like children. Question and answer sessions lasted long into the night and the next day (our record being four days long). Only a few subjects were carefully avoided; Jasper shied away from anything having to do with his change (I assumed to keep from bringing up the painful fact that I knew nothing of my own) and I didn't bring up the subject of our meals, knowing very well that he had a tough time keeping from attacking each morning when the maid came to bring fresh towels and sheets (we had denied all other services, just to stay on the safe side).

"So, tell me about this coven of yours," Jasper prompted me one morning after we had returned from our second hunt together. I had been sitting curled up at the top of the bed, my notepad of information about the family written out before me while Jasper was tossing a ball to himself, running back and forth across the room to see if he could catch his own toss. He had only missed once.

"I don't know much about them," I said hesitantly, "but I don't think they're a coven, per se, more of a family."

"A family?" he repeated, running like lightning towards the dresser and catching the ball deftly.

"There's an obvious leader…Carlisle," I began. "He's handsome and tall and wise…I think he's quite old, though he looks about 25. There's a woman around his age, I didn't get her name, but she was soft-spoken and kind. I think she was Carlisle's wife, they both had rings on."

"His wife?" Jasper gave me an incredulous look. "I've never heard of any of our kind getting married."

"Well, they were, so I'm sure it can be done," I insisted, relying on the brief vision I had had of them over two weeks ago.

Jasper shrugged his shoulders. "Go on, then."

"Let me think…." I quickly scanned my memory. "There was another woman, younger, around my age. She was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"You're overreacting," he scoffed funnily. "I'm sure I've seen better."

"You've been around more vampires, though, haven't you?" I bantered back. He gave no response. "Anyway, she was lovely, and the other woman called her Rosalie."

"And were there any others?" Jasper asked. I began to answer.

Carlisle and the unnamed woman were sitting on a plush, red velvet upholstered settee, both reading enormously thick books. Across from them sat a handsome young man with coppery hair and the same yellowish eyes as Carlisle, his wife, and Rosalie, who was strangely absent.

"Edward?" Carlisle's cultured voice broke the silence. The godlike boy looked up from his newspaper. "Esme and I were thinking you should return to school after Christmas. We can't have them thinking you're ill much longer."

"I refuse to be put through the menial distractions that school likes to call lessons," Edward murmured casually. "Measles takes a while to get over, and that easily explains the pallor."

"Edward, dear," the woman, Esme, said as she reached across to touch his knee in a motherly sort of way, "please, they'll be getting suspicious soon. We can't leave again so quickly, especially with the wedding coming soon. Think of Rosalie and Emmett."

Edward huffed a small sigh and lifted his newspaper, speaking softly from behind it. "Then we'd best get to work at finding a new school."

"Of course," Esme replied as she happily took Carlisle's hand. "How about we enroll you in-"

"Alice? Alice?"

Jasper was shaking my shoulders, drawing me out of my trance-like state. Disappointment flooded through my body; I had been so close to finding where they were!

Jasper realized my frustration. "What is it? Did you see anything? Do you know where they are?" I shook my head, still a little angry that his movements had caused me to surface so quickly. He realized that too. "I'm sorry, it was my fault, wasn't it?"

"A little," I admitted testily.

"But you did see something?" he asked. I nodded. He leaned forward and took my hand, ignoring the spark that still flickered when we touched. "Please, Alice, forgive me. I'm sorry. You know that you want to forgive me."

And he was smiling that smile and his thumb was rubbing the pad of my hand just like he had in my vision of him and I couldn't stand it much longer. Perhaps it was best not to try anything like this just yet. My focus had to be on finding that family. I withdrew my hand from his, putting it gracefully in my lap before speaking.

"You won't be lonely," I began. "There's a boy close to your age living with them, Edward. He's a…vegetarian too. And it seems as though Rosalie is getting married to someone named Emmett."

"And is he one of us?" asked Jasper.

"I couldn't see him, but I would assume so," I said.

"I suppose marriage is an option, then," he said, an impish smile cropping up on his face that made my lungs stop again.

I tried very hard not to feel anything but friendship for Jasper, knowing that any step further than that would just distract me from my goal of finding Carlisle and his family. Besides, such a man of the world like Jasper would never be able to settle for a simple girl like me, a tiny, odd thing who had no past and knew all the terrors of the future. Still, living in such close quarters with such a literally breathtaking man was difficult, and I began to search for an opportunity to get out and clear my head.

The opportunity came a few weeks later on one overcast morning when the weatherman predicted a full day-and-a-half of rain. We had hunted about eight days before, and Jasper and I were given the rare chance to venture safely out among the people of the city.

"So, what should we do?" he asked me as he once again practiced his catching skills by running back and forth across the room. I sat quietly in thought, knowing the idea would come to me if I waited long enough.

Bright lights, spinning wheels, the crash of waves of the shore.

I sat bolt upright. Jasper stared anxiously.

"You know," I said coyly, "Atlantic City is only an hour away."

Jasper cocked a blond eyebrow. "With the way you drive? I'd say thirty minutes."

I scowled and socked his bicep playfully. Had my hand not been made out of the same marble as his arm, I would surely have broken several fingers.

"Well, are you going to come or not?" I asked. Jasper leaned back, placing his chin in his hand as if truly contemplating the thought before nodded excitedly. I squealed with glee and stood to thumb through the wardrobe.

Jasper shook his head, bewildered, as I pulled a blue tea-length, cap-sleeved dress out of the closet. "Are you really going to spiff up just to go to a casino?"

"Honestly, Jasper, you can't join a high-stakes table without looking halfway decent," I chided. "Haven't you ever played poker before?"

"Of course, in the army, we…." Jasper trailed off, looking upset with himself as he often did when talking about his past. I could hardly bear to watch his face and took that opportunity to ask him to pack my things while I ducked into the bathroom to change into my dress, running a brush through my hair for good measure, emerging only after giving Jasper a few good minutes to settle down.

I could feel his still-red eyes sweeping over me as I slipped on my black kitten-heeled shoes, his gaze nearly piercing through me once I stopped to look back at him. I had never seen such a look on his face, intense and strong, and its unfamiliarity made me look away, embarrassed and unsure of what such a look meant. I had heard whispers of vampires who needlessly slaughtered others of their kind…was this how they looked before taking their brother's life, heated and fierce?

Jasper came out of whatever semi-cannibalistic trance he had been in and stood up next to me, making me realize for the millionth time just how tall he was.

"W-we should go check out of the room," I suggested. "You'll like Atlantic City." It wasn't so densely packed with delicious-smelling humans.

Jasper nodded. "Shall we?" He turned and offered me his arm. I took it lightly, hoping that such a gentle touch wouldn't incur our usual shocking effect. It did; the tingles that raced up and down my arm, spreading through my body, didn't lessen a bit. Strangely, neither Jasper nor I made any move to separate. The strange feelings we had when touching was not much compared to the pain I felt when we were apart.