Family Of Killers
Chapter 7 – The Hunter
JASPER'S POV
I was crouched over my kill, a mountain lion, sucking the blood from its jugular, when I heard the crunch of foliage breaking under human footsteps. Dropping the drained carcass I honed in my senses and listened closer. A group of fifteen human men were running in my direction. I wiped the blood around my mouth off with my shirt and waited for them to step through the tree line.
The group were clearly hunting, in an area where the culling of animals is illegal. Each of the men had a shotgun slung over their backs and looked to be between twenty and thirty. They circled around me in a way that was supposed to be intimidating.
One let out a snort of laughter, "Look boys, we got ourselves a queer one."
The others chuckled in a gang sort of way.
I raised an eyebrow in question but remained quiet.
The leader stepped forward, "And I thought vampires were supposed to be smart."
A sprinkling of snickers sounded.
Alarms were going off in my brain, they knew about vampires and yet they 'crept up' on one. I was confused; did they not know the dangers of doing so?
My military training kicked in and I scanned the area for danger.
"Your kind is not natural and I will happily spend the rest of my life killing you leeches." This statement was met with applause and catcalls.
I could feel my demon rattling the chains on its cage but I suppressed the urge to let him be free.
"Well, you have certainly chosen the wrong vampire to mess with," I paused, letting the humans digest my speech, "I am the most feared vampire in the world. I am the God of War. I have spent years slaughtering both your kind and mine, you cannot harm me."
I let out a threatening growl and saw them visibly flinch. Some were paralyzed with fear and I think at least one had pissed himself as the smell of ammonia filtered through the air.
The leader raised his gun and pointed it at my chest.
It was my turn to laugh, poxy human weapons, "Bullets will not hurt me."
The human smirked, "This is no normal gun."
The gun fired and the bullet shot through the air faster than normal. I went to catch it in the air but as soon as my fingertips made contact they began to burn. The pain made the Major push against the bars of his cage and the pain of the bullet tearing through my marble skin let the monster out, sending me straight to the cage. Two more human males pulled their triggers and shot me where my beating heart would have been. I screamed but the Major didn't.
The Major let out wave upon wave of a mixture of pain and fear to the humans. They all collapsed to the floor in agony and began to writhe about screaming on the forest floor. He chuckled at the sight and quickly increased the intensity of the fear so that they literally scared themselves to death.
There was one man left and the Major toned down the fear so that he could talk to him.
"Who sent you?" He growled.
The man quivered in fear as he soiled himself, "I don't know, two vampire women, one with red, one with black hair."
"What's in the bullets?"
"The bullets are silver and coated in werewolf venom. Please don't kill me."
The Major contemplated this new information, "Why silver and why werewolf?"
"When inside a vampire the silver will burn you from the inside, were-venom is the only known thing to penetrate vamp skin. I'm sorry I won't do it again, please don't kill me. Please. I'm sorry."
My eyes widened in fear but the Major remained calm. He grabbed the guy quickly flicking his head backwards breaking his neck, before running faster than he ever had in his life towards the Swan's house.
"Oh my god, the Major's back, get into a submissive position then he might not kill you." Peter growled as he sat cross-legged on the floor, everyone else followed his advice, including Charlie, who was clueless in this aspect of my life.
"Captain, get up. I am more worried about the bullet holes than who's a threat to me." The Major stated clearly.
"What the hell do you mean by...Holy shit...What the fuck happened?" Peter yelled.
The Major had ripped my shirt off, deeming it useless with three scorched holes in it. I was howling in pain in the cage he had sent me too.
"Can we do this later Captain, I need these bullets out now before my venom dissolves them. You and Lieutenant cannot do it, the werewolf venom on the bullets will burn your fingers to pieces and the Chief can't do it because I can't guarantee his safety. Bella, will you please do it, out of everyone, you are the safest here?" He said quickly.
I agreed with him, Bella was the one person we wouldn't kill in this room.
"Like hell she will be doing that. Especially if you think you might hurt me." Charlie yelled.
Captain growled at him, "Back down Charlie, the Major I used to know would have killed you when he noticed you were in the room, don't push him."
Bella nodded, "Yeah, I'll do it, but for my father's sake, if you feel your control slipping tell Charlotte and she'll get me out, ok?"
My Major nodded, "Peter and Charlotte will have to hold me down, but I would never, could never, hurt you. Can we start now, I can feel one breaking?"
"What do I do?" Bella said scared of her responsibility.
Peter answered for me, "You need to get all of the bullets out, whole, if they splinter, the silver they are made out of will kill him, burning him from the inside."
Bella freaked, "I can't do this..."
The Major sent her a wave of confidence and Bella smiled slightly then began her task. She took the first two bullets out without trouble, but the third bullet had already slightly dissolved.
"Oh no I'm so sorry." Bella cried.
"Not your fault darlin'," He said soothingly, "Peter let go of my hand, I'm going to get it out, Bella, get some water, I need to wash out the venom."
As she scurried off, the Major reached into the third wound and pulled out the entire semi-dissolved bullet, grunting in pain as the tips of his fingers dissolved. The pain had lessened, but the foreign venom was still burning its way through my body. Bella returned with a sponge bath and proceeded to wash my hand first and then the bullet holes.
"It is clean darlin', the venom's gone, you can stop now." The Major relinquished command and let me back in, he stayed at the back of my mind instead of returning to his cage, but this time I didn't mind.
Charlotte and Peter then started to lick my wound, in an attempt to replace the lost vampire venom and speed up the healing process.
I detected a hint of jealousy from Bella before it disappeared.
Looking down at my new wound, I pushed myself off the table and attempted to stand. My legs failed me as memories flickered to the front of my mind like a dam had just broken.
There was so much pain. I couldn't concentrate. All there was were flickers of my past. I was in agony; it took everything I had to not scream. I could feel the metal scorching through my skin, tearing through what I had thought was impregnable. Licks of flame burnt though my mind as I tried to ignore the torture.
After a while I managed to compartmentalise the memories, after gleaning the important information from them.
I hadn't noticed that I'd closed my eyes, but when I opened them, everyone had surrounded me looking concerned.
"Get me a fucking mirror." I growled, feeling sick for the first time in my afterlife.
Peter shot off and soon returned as I was pulling myself off the floor.
I turned slightly, trying to see my back in the glass.
There were two large round scars just under both of my shoulder blades; they hadn't healed like my other wounds. How could I have not noticed that?
"I don't feel at all well..." I breathed as I placed a hand on the table to stop myself from collapsing again.
"Jasper, what's wrong? Did we not get all the silver out?" Peter asked frantically.
I couldn't think. If I were human I would have been throwing up but...
Warmth seemed to engulf my face. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. Bella's scent was helping calm me but my thoughts were still all over the place. I wasn't used to not being in control.
"God damn it Jasper, what just happened?"
Peter grabbed hold of my arm and spun me around; I couldn't bring myself to tear into him for manhandling me.
"Maria tortured us and I forgot about it." I breathed, my lips barely forming the words as they escaped.
"We all know...what do you mean you forgot? What else could have possibly happened?" He replied softly, his voice fluttering slightly with fear.
"All myths are based within facts. Maria heard about silver staking and decided to test it out...on her soldiers."
"What?" My venom brother had frozen, fear clear in his eyes.
I pushed my panic down to focus on looking after my kin.
"Take off your shirt and trousers Peter, you too Charlotte."
They quickly complied with my order.
"What the hell is going on?" Charlie shouted, confused as to why they were stripping off.
I couldn't help the growl that left me but I had more important things to attend to than his bewilderment.
"We have a big issue at the moment. We could do without interruptions, unless you want me to forget we are allied." I said dismissing him, I could hear him grumbling behind me but I couldn't bring myself to care.
Peter was the first to stand in front of me in just his underwear. I quickly checked his body for anomalies and was relieved when I didn't find any.
"You're clean."
Charlotte was next; I dreaded the outcome of her examination. Peter would not handle it very well if she had been subjected to this.
Her back was only covered with teeth marks, but her front was mottled with, now, obvious attempts of poisoning.
"Char, honey, you're going to have to take your bra off. I need to be sure."
I heard Peter snarl behind me, and I quickly shot him full of calm before he attacked the humans present. I moved to stand right in front of her, so that no one but me would see, knowing that she wasn't one for showing her scars to anyone but Peter and I. She slowly slid her bra off, her hand shaking as she did so.
A burn mark, about the size of a dollar, between her breasts angled towards her heart made my nose flare. What had they done to her?
"You can put your clothes back on now, Char."
"What is happening, Jasper?" Bella asked softly.
I stood back in front of the mirror and instead of looking at specific scars, this time, I looked at them all altogether. What I had previously thought as the rougher bite marks were now clearly burns, I shivered at the thought of all that pain. For the first time in a very long while, I was glad that my Major was there to protect me from most of it.
"Charlotte and I have repressed memories. Our captor Maria used us to test weapons on. When I was shot, I still didn't remember but looking at the burn marks flooded me with my memories. She tested them on us. Charlotte, I am so sorry. I should have protected you."
Her grief hit me like a train and I scooped her up in a hug, aware that I couldn't help with my power at all if she were to heal. I continued at a faster speed, not wanting Charlie to know everything.
"Your scars have healed a lot better than mine, which leads me to think that yours were inflicted when you were being changed. Can I send you a pulse of the change and see if you notice anything different? Feel free to say no, honey, I don't want to hurt you."
"If you think it will help us understand then ok." She replied timidly.
I sent her the emotions and quickly pulled them back.
"That was the change?"
"Yeah..."
Char was silent as she contemplated her answer, "I remember it being worse."
It was like I'd been shot again as the pain in my heart flared.
"It shouldn't have. You should be dead; your heart should have stopped if you were in any more pain than that, as you were still partly human. You are so unbelievably strong my dear, no wonder you can put up with Peter." I said, trying to dispel the dark emotions that were swirling about the room and threatening to take hold of me.
Charlotte giggled at my comment and escaped my hold to return to her mate.
I turned my attention back on the room as a whole. Charlie and his daughter had sat down at some point in our conversation and were looking awkward as they had been forcefully removed from the discussion.
"Sorry, I was rude. But my family's safety and well being trumps anything, even the host's favour."
"Do you usually converse secretly?"
"When it is needed; yes. And when it's about our past - always." I answered the Chief.
"Is everyone ok?" Bella asked gently.
"Yeah, Charlotte would never have known that she was being used. Peter was never used like that. So I am the only one with actual amnesia, who'd have thought." I said bitterly.
A building growl diverted my attention. Peter was obviously trying hard to not let his demon rage get the better of him but was losing the battle.
"Captain!"
No answer.
I hated to use the sire bond like Maria had abused hers, but Peter needed it if we were going to get him out of the house without casualties.
"Captain, as your sire, I order you to go hunt."
I dug my fingernails into the crook of his neck, where I had bitten him to change. The difference was noticeable instantly. His eyes had returned to his normal red and he had stopped growling.
"Yes Major." He saluted, before tearing out of the house with Charlotte.
I pulled a shirt from my bag by the sofa and waited for the inevitable questions from Charlie.
"What was that Major thing Peter was on about and why were you calling him Captain and what's a sire...and does that not hurt?" Charlie enquired slowly, as if to not overwhelm me.
He surprised me; I was expecting to be questioned furiously about Maria, but I was thankful that he didn't go in that direction, I still hadn't quite gotten all my thoughts in order.
"The Major is my defence mechanism, if I am feeling threatened then the Major comes into play and kills everyone who I deem a threat. Peter has a split personality like me, except his is called Captain, because we spent so much time in captivity we spent all of the time as our demon side so our demon side associates the person with the name, it doesn't matter if we are demonic at the time; that is our name in their eyes. Plus Peter is my second in command, always has been. I am both Peter's and Charlotte's sire as I created them. Thanks for your concern, but I have had a lot worse, Charlie. Anyway, it should heal in a matter of hours." I answered truthfully, too tired to even attempt to test out his power.
"I see..." He trailed off, going back over what I had said.
I pulled Bella by the hand and led her outside, leaving Charlie to continue to ponder in peace.
Charlotte was waiting for me outside with a Thermos flask filled with the blood of a mountain lion.
"Aww, thanks Char," I kissed her on the cheek and tipped my hat, "Where is your husband?"
Peter broke through the tree line with a smirk on his face, "Someone call? I found the destruction caused by the Major by the way. Their blood was much better than that crap you're drinking. Cleared it up for you as well. And sorry for before. Do you think you could get Charlie to look at the guns?"
"Thanks Pete," I grinned, "And it's fine. We understand. That's a great idea."
"I told you not to call me Pete." He whined, charging towards me.
I threw the flask towards Charlotte and took up a defensive stance.
"Tone it down Pete, human's present." I winked.
He growled and threw a punch towards me and it had started. The play fight was just faster than human speed but not fast enough to freak people out.
"Hey Dad, come check this out. It will show you how safe I am from Edward." I heard Bella shout behind me.
Peter grinned at me, clearly planning some way to distract me and become the victor.
I winked, "Come on Pete, I'm getting bored."
I was ready for just about everything he could throw at me; after the Southern War's this would be a piece of cake.
Peter growled at the use of my nickname for him and looked back at his wife before smiling and closing his eyes. I wasn't ready for him to use my gift against me like he did; the lust pouring out of him reminded me of Maria, as it filtered through my mind, waking the Major from his slumber.
Within seconds I had my hand wrapped around his throat as I pushed him deeper into the ground. I was growling as the Major attempted to take over again. My darkened eyes showed Peter just how close I was to ripping his head off.
Swallowing back venom I whispered eerily, "Peter, how many times have I told you not to use lust as a weapon against me?"
The fear rolling off of him wasn't helping me keep my demon at bay.
"I dunno...A lot?" Peter said slowly, "I thought you just found it annoying and was gunna use it to distract you, I didn't think you'd try to kill me though."
I closed my eyes and tried to relax, "It's not me that's trying to kill you Pete, it's the Major and I am trying so hard to convince him that you aren't El Diablo. ¡Basta ya!"
His nervous movements made the Major uneasy.
"Stop fucking moving!"
I could sense a person moving towards me, they had a heart beat. I growled at them, until their freesia and jasmine smell made me stop. Bella placed a hand on my cheek and I visibly relaxed, the Major calmed and went back to his hole. Strange...Only a mate would be able to calm the beast.
...Oh shit...
Letting go, I said, "Lo siento Peter," as I collapsed to the floor, suddenly exhausted.
He straightened himself out, running a hand around his neck uncomfortably, "It's not your fault, I should have heeded the Major's warnings. I know they are for good reason. I am sorry, I didn't realise just how screwed you are."
Peter was grinning by the end of his little speech, which showed his constant ability to bounce back. It's one of the things that made me open up to him all those years ago. But Charlotte obviously didn't think that was the time to joke about my mental issues and swiftly slapped him around the back of the head, hard.
"Oh you have no idea." I chuckled, extending my hand out and receiving a fist bump from my brother.
Peter shuffled in embarrassment, "So how is the angel who resides in you, does he still think I have boobs and long black hair?"
"No he's fine, gone back to sleep..." I froze, "The guy said 'two vampire women: one with red, one with black hair'."
"What guy?" Bella said slowly.
"One of the ones Peter just cleared up. ¡Mierda! Black hair. It can't be," I stuttered in disbelief, "Of all the times to come after us, why now and why would Victoria be with her?"
Peter asked confused, "Who the hell is Victoria? How the hell have you made new enemies whilst in a 'peaceful' coven?"
I chuckled, "The red-head that evaded you the other day is Victoria. Meet danger-magnet over here, a vampire called James wanted Bella and created a game for himself of hunting her down. The Cullen's wanted to keep Bella safe so they shipped her off to Phoenix with Alice and I, whilst the others hunted him down. Except they are truly shit at tracking and lost him. James then came to Phoenix and tricked Bella into meeting up with him, with a ruse of releasing her kidnapped mother. She slipped away without us noticing and almost got killed and turned. James had bitten her," I showed them the scar on Bella's wrist, "But Edward sucked the venom out while I killed James. Victoria was James' mate."
Charlie's voice startled me, I had forgotten he was outside with us, "How many times have you saved my daughter's life and why the hell did you not tell me about this, Bella?"
"I have saved her life every time she was around the Cullen's, I took their thirst away so that there would be no accidents. Bella didn't tell you because she can't. In normal circumstances if a human is to be told what we are, they die. It is law, that we don't show our existence to humans, but our royal family, the Volturi, have a soft spot for Peter and I because they know we can kill them if we so desire." I said slowly, waiting for him to catch up.
"...You're not human..." Charlie stated knowingly.
"Yeah, I'm also not technically twenty-one."
"And you had a niece. You trained in the army. You were kidnapped by Maria. Peter isn't actually related to you, which is confirmed by the eye colour, yours, Jasper, are golden but Peter's are red and it doesn't look like contacts, but he is still your brother, so you met him in one of the Armies. I am thinking you met him when you were kidnapped, so you were forced into Maria's army, which is where you became not human. You aren't technically twenty-one, so you are older, which makes me think it wasn't an army of Child Soldiers. Am I correct?" Charlie said, systematically, using his knowledge to decipher the truth from the white elephants we had told him.
"Yeah that is mostly the truth, except I became non-human when I was on duty for the first army, which is why I was in the second. And I suppose technically we weren't child soldiers but we were newborns." I said slowly, waiting for him to answer the next question.
"Newborn what?" He asked, with no fear lacing his voice.
I was impressed that he wasn't even apprehensive at discovering a new species.
Peter spoke slowly, in what was supposed to be a scary ominous tone, "We are...vampires!"
Being the idiot that he is, he actually did the wavy arm movements too. I would not have been surprised if we'd had been inside, he'd have turned the lights off and shone a torch from under his chin.
Charlotte growled at her husband and berated him for his silliness in a serious situation.
"So...Really?" Charlie wondered.
It was up to me to sort out the situation (as usual), Charlotte was really giving Peter a piece of her mind, not that it mattered to me, but it was making the Chief not believe us, the longer it continued the more disbelief clouded his thoughts.
"Char, please kill him later, just calm down for now. Charlie, you should not know this as you are human. The one rule we have is not to expose ourselves to the living. It's set by our rulers, the Volturi.
They are three powerful men who have a guard of about twenty skilled vampires. If I was a normal vampire your lives would be forfeit for knowing what we are but if one good thing came from our time with the Bitch, it's that we have a good relationship with the kings. After the Southern Wars we spent time there on their guard, but had a habit of scaring or killing most of the guard so they let us go and just call us when they need us."
I could feel the confusion from the Swan's and doubt from Charlie.
"What are the Southern Wars?" Bella inquired quietly.
Peter decided to answer, "In the South there are vampires who fight over the best territories, the vampires create armies to destroy the other armies, or at least they used to. The best territories have the most humans in, i.e. the most blood. Maria's army was the most lethal, most feared and for good reason. The Major honed us into vicious killers because that is all he knew; most vampires don't remember their human years. A couple weeks in Maria's army makes even the most loving person lose their humanity.
Jasper here was nowhere near as evil as he could have been; he set us rules, we weren't to hunt children, we couldn't force ourselves on humans, we were to prioritise hunting criminals and no one was to touch mates. He is the only reason we survived the wars because he'd take most of the punishments meant for us = the soldiers, from that bitch. That is where most of his scars are from, when he was protecting us. Jasper wasn't just the one who enforced Maria's rules and his own, he's the one who protected us from her wrath. We survived because of him alone and because of that, we all trusted him.
You have to remember that we had no idea that we could live any different. Maria had not told us of any other way to live. She didn't tell us about the Volturi or the laws, because of her we were at risk of being killed from another source and we didn't even know it. Jasper's laws helped us because we stayed off their radar for over a hundred years.
He was the deadliest part of her army, he is still feared by so many because he is that good at killing. He used to single-handedly take out half the opposing army which meant that there was less for the rest of the army. We got fewer injuries because of him, less deaths on our side. Maria used to punish us if too many of us got killed. If anyone can protect us it's Jasper."
"So what does Victoria want with Bella?" Charlie asked slowly, still coming to terms with the existence of the supernatural.
"The vampire who was after your daughter in Phoenix was mated to Victoria. She blames Bella for his death. It's actually vampire law to take out both in a mated pair but the Cullen's wouldn't let me track her down, no matter how hard I tried to make them see the light. Mates are more than human couples; we only have one mate, our soul mate; ripping them apart and leaving one to live without their other is a fate worse than death. The longer she is allowed to live, the more deranged her mind will turn; killing Victoria would be a mercy." I explained.
Peter cleared his throat, "But that doesn't explain why Victoria and Maria are working together."
"Victoria wants revenge, who better to partner with than a raging sadist who knows how to lead an army. I need to call Aro."
I left Peter in charge of telling the Swan's what they needed to know. I made my way into the woods out of hearing range before I rang our leader.
A.N. – This chapter is the only one I've had all the way through this story, it's the one I've been trying to work towards, after this update I haven't got anything anywhere near ready, could be a while. Hope you like anyway
