When my alarm went off only a few hours later, I groaned. Unfortunately for me, when I rolled over to ignore the alarm I fell out of bed instead of back to sleep. Huffing at the terrible start to what was bound to be a crappy day, I managed to untangle myself from the covers and made my way to the bathroom. Not bothering with another shower I brushed my teeth and used the toilet. When I got back to my room I brushed my hair and threw it into a high ponytail. I applied winged eyeliner, mascara and light pink lipgloss before pulling on the clothes I'd hung on the closet door last night: dark blue skinny jeans; a pale pink, long-sleeved t-shirt and a thick white cardigan. I pulled on my tan ankle boots and went downstairs. My parents had left a note reminding me that they would be back on Monday and that there was food in the fridge that just needed reheating. I scrunched my nose at the thought of eating breakfast and grabbed my car keys.
The Cullens had beaten me to school again judging by the Volvo that was parked next to my usual space. I pulled into a free space three rows down to avoid them, not sure if they'd be waiting in the car. I walked as quickly as I could to my locker, sorting through my books for the day and then practically sprinted to English. Alice wasn't there yet so I sat down and read quietly, hoping that she wouldn't get there too early. Luck was on my side and Mr. Mason walked in right behind her. Unluckily, we were working in partners today. Damn. I turned to Alice, ready to get it over with as fast as I could, only to see her golden eyes already watching me.
"Alice?"
"You know," she said quietly.
I tried to control my breathing. "Know what?"
"About my family."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I insisted. I had planned on talking to Jasper but apparently Alice had other plans. She raised her hand, luring the Mr. Mason over to our desk.
"Yes, Miss. Cullen?"
"I'm not feeling well, sir," she said, placing a small hand on her stomach and mimicking a pained expression. "Is it alright if I go to the nurse?"
"Oh, well, um," he hesitated. "Sure, I'll, ah, write you a pass."
"Do you mind if Davina walks me there? Just in case." Alice looked at the man with wide, innocent eyes and he caved immediately. Once Mr. Mason had given her the hall pass, Alice grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the classroom. I huffed, trying to shove my books back in my bag and walk at the same time. She led me outside to my car and gestured for me to unlock it. I did and she hopped into the passenger seat. Slowly, I joined her in the car.
"You know that we're vampires."
I made a surprised noise in the back of my throat, my eyes widening. "Uh…"
"It's okay," Alice said. "I knew you'd figure it out, I just didn't think it would be so quickly." My voice was still failing me and she frowned. "Are you okay?" I shrugged and she smiled kindly. "We won't hurt you, you know? Is that what you're afraid of?"
I bit my lip. "Kinda…"
"Well, don't worry about it. My family are all vegetarians."
"Vegetarians?"
Alice smiled again. "A tongue-in-cheek expression. It means we only drink animal blood." I took a deep breath at the word blood and she frowned again. "You're not going to be sick are you?"
I shook my head and finally looked her in the eye. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"You're important to Jasper," she said matter-of-factly. "That means you're important to the rest of us. Even Rose and Edward, though they are being a bit difficult about it for the moment. But they'll come around."
"Why am I important Jasper?" I asked, confused.
"That is something Jasper has to tell you," Alice said. "But don't worry, I think he's going to tell you soon."
"Okay…" I trailed off, resting my head against the window. "Well, my plan clearly didn't work."
"Well, when I saw that you planned to confront Jasper in History I also saw you having a panic attack about it so I decided maybe I was best if I just told you straight up."
"Okay," I said again. "Wait, you saw what?"
"Oh, right, you don't know," Alice giggled a bit. "Some vampires have extra abilities, you know apart from the super strength and speed and immortality stuff. For example, I can see the future."
"So, did you see me before any of this happened?" I asked.
"I've been having visions of you for decades," she explained. "I met Jasper a couple of years after I became a vampire; I'd seen a vision of him in a diner and I waited for him. I knew that we would be better off with the Cullens' way of life. Once I saw him in person, I started having visions of you. So I told Jasper that if he came with me he would eventually meet you. He's been waiting years for you."
My head grew light and I took another deep breath. "But why?"
"I'm sorry, Davina," she said. "But Jasper wants to be the one to tell you." She looked out the window at something and I followed her gaze to see Jasper standing by the door to the front office. "Go on. "You two should talk." Alice opened the car door, bouncing out of the car and passed Jasper. She stopped to whisper something in his ear and the blonde never took his eyes off me. When Alice went back into school, Jasper made his way over to my car.
He hesitated for a minute before climbing in to the passenger seat. His butterscotch eyes never left my face.
"So you know." Like Alice, he didn't ask, he just stated it bluntly.
"Yeah," I sighed. "I know."
"How much did Alice tell you?" he asked.
"She said that you guys only drink animal blood and that I'm important to you for some reason," I told him. "She wouldn't say why though."
Jasper nodded. "Feel like skipping school?"
"Where are we going?"
"Just drive, I'll tell you where to go."
Eventually, after twenty minutes of driving, we were on an empty road leading to the edge of town. Jasper told me to take a left turn that I hadn't even seen coming up. As I drove, a huge house appeared between the trees. It was gorgeous. I parked my car in front of the garage. "This house is amazing," I gushed. "This is where you live?"
"Yeah, Esme loves interior decorating and architecture so she designed and decorated it herself. It's one of the few places we can be ourselves." Jasper got out of the car and before I could even reach for the handle, he had appeared at my door. I jumped and he grinned as he opened the door. "My apologies. I didn't mean to frighten you."
"You didn't." I locked my car, following him up the front steps. "I just wasn't expecting it."
Jasper smiled again, leading me into the house and up the stairs into the massive, open living room.
"Wow!" I gasped. "This is stunning." The back wall was completely made of glass and revealed a striking view of the forest that surrounded the house.
"Esme will be happy to hear that you like it." Jasper was still standing in the doorway, his hands behind his back in a slightly military pose; almost like a soldier standing at attention.
"Jasper, are you okay?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm fine." I slowly walked over to stand in front of him. "I need to tell you some things, Davina. And I need you to please listen. When I'm finished, if you want me to leave you alone then I will. But you have a right to know."
I nodded. "Okay." We sat on the comfortable white sofa and I waited for him to start.
"I wasn't created by Carlisle like most of the others," he began. I listened as he told me about his past: Jasper had joined the Confederate Army before he turned 17, lying about his age. In the following 2 years, he was promoted to major in the army and became the youngest major in Texas. After evacuating women and children, he rode on his way back to Galveston and met the vampires, Maria, Lucy and Nettie, who had recently lost their respective territories to other covens. Maria knew from his suit that he was in the military and changed him into a vampire in hopes of utilizing his training and experience to create an efficient army. When he became a vampire, he gained the ability to feel and manipulate people's emotions which was very useful in controlling the younger newborns. He and other newborns helped Maria reclaim her territory and later claim dominance over others. Nettie and Lucy gained territories of their own, but when they tried to rebel against Maria, Jasper sensed their malevolent emotions and teamed up with Maria to kill them. Jasper and Maria seemingly shared a short romantic relationship but she never got over her deceased mate. Jasper commanded Maria's newborn army that participated in the Southern vampire wars. Since Maria wouldn't keep vampires after the first year of their transformations, Jasper was responsible for disposing of them, something he felt remorseful of because he could feel their pain when he killed them just as much as he could feel the pain of his human victims. Overtime, the pain and cruelty of such existence depressed him to no end. While in the army, he befriended a newborn named Peter, whom he persuaded Maria to keep because of his advanced combat skills and kindred spirit.
When Peter ran off with his mate Charlotte, a newborn that they were supposed to kill, Jasper allowed them to escape. After this incident, Maria's feelings for him changed: he could sense how fearful - and somewhat mistrustful - she was toward him, and knew that she would plot a way to destroy him. He began planning how to destroy her first, despite his reluctance to the idea of destroying the one person who mattered to him, but his years in the coven had affected him so deeply that he almost became a savage.
In 1938, Peter came back and told Jasper about the way vampires could coexist up North. He immediately left Maria and her coven to join Peter and Charlotte. However, he did not find peace, since he could still feel the emotions of his human victims, which deeply depressed him. Eventually, he left Charlotte and Peter. He tried to kill less often, but the thirst always grew overwhelming.
In 1948, he ran into a diner in Philadelphia and met Alice Cullen. At first, he was puzzled by her happy behaviour around him, but nevertheless, her joyful emotions impacted him greatly. As it turned out, she had been waiting for him. When she told him about her visions of me he said that he had felt an unfamiliar emotion for the first time: hope.
She also told him about the ability to survive off of animal blood instead of human blood, as well as their future with Carlisle Cullen and his family. He didn't know such a thing could exist but he followed her. With the help of Alice's 'sight', they searched for the Cullens, and in the meantime, learned to adjust to vegetarianism. Finally, they located the family in 1950 and quickly joined them. I giggled a bit when he told me that Alice had moved all of Edward's stuff into the garage and stolen his room because it "had the best view".
Sometime after that, by Carlisle's suggestion and due to their physical similarities, Jasper changed his surname to that of his adoptive sister Rosalie's to pose as her twin. He mentioned that Maria sought him out when they were in Calgary. The encounter prompted the family to move again, and Jasper politely asked Maria to keep her distance, because he had no interest in rejoining her coven and lifestyle. I was happy when he told me that; I'd been a little jealous when he told me that they had been romantically involved and then I'd been embarrassed when I realised he could probably feel that.
When Jasper finished his story I leaned back into the sofa, watching his face. The pain on his face when he talked about his past, especially the part about Maria and killing all those newborns, his struggle with drinking human blood, was just heart-breaking.
"Are you alright, Davina?"
"Hmm?" I focused back in and saw Jasper watching me as if I might bolt any second. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"May I ask what about?"
"I was just thinking about how hard it was for you. You didn't deserve any of that; well, except for finding Alice and the rest of the family."
"Davina, you don't need to worry about that now." Jasper smiled softly. "I'm fine, I'm happy here. Especially around you."
"But why are you happy around me?" I asked. "Don't I make you thirsty? I don't want you to be uncomfortable. And why has Alice been having visions of me for years? Why am I so important to you?"
"Davina!" Jasper interrupted my mini panic attack. "Breathe, okay, calm down."
A wave of calm washed over me and I was suddenly able to breathe. "Is that you?"
Jasper nodded. "Yes." After a few minutes he spoke again. "So, you've heard of the concept of soulmates, yes?" I nodded. "Well, for vampires, at least, it's true. We call them mates and every vampire has one. It may take years to find each other but when you do you just know."
"Okay, but why do I need to know all of this?"
"Because," Jasper said. "You're my mate."
My mouth opened slightly in surprise. "Oh."
"I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to take in," he continued. "And I just want you to know that I don't expect anything from, you. It is completely up to you what happens now."
"I don't really know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything."
"I- can we just be friends?" I asked. "For now at least? I just- I don't want to jump right into anything and I am attracted to you and I love being around you. But I want to get to know you first. Is that okay?"
Jasper looked surprised at first and then he smiled. Not a cheeky grin or the little smirk he did sometimes but a genuine, happy smile. "That is absolutely fine, Davina, much more than I was expecting."
"Did you expect me to run away screaming?"
"Well, maybe a little." Jasper chuckled a bit and I smiled.
"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you."
"It's understandable," he said.
"No, let me talk," I said. "I was scared when I first figured out that you're a vampire. But now I realise that you're still you and I feel so stupid for ever being scared of you. The idea of vampires actually existing is a frightening, life-altering one. But I am not scared of you. Or your family."
"Even after I told you everything I've done?"
"Jasper, you didn't know any better. It wasn't your fault. Maria manipulated you into doing all those things when you were in her army. And you said yourself you struggled with human blood because you could feel everything they did. You're trying now, with the animal diet, you're trying and that's all that matters to me."
"Thank you." Jasper looked as though he could cry but all I could feel was a sense of euphoria and I knew he was projecting his own feelings. I slid across the sofa so that I was right next to him and wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his chest.
"Is this okay?"
His arms came around me, holding me to his chest tightly but not enough to hurt me. His chin rested on my head and he sighed, content.
"This is perfect."