A/N: VERY IMPORTANT: MUST READ! Right, the first bit of this chapter is one of the reasons this story carries the M rating. Please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT read this without being fully prepared for graphic. Jasper POV

And So It Begins

PREVIOUSLY…

I turned away from her laughing, and that's when it happened. I saw him just a second before I smelt him. The man in the green jacket, with his back to me, kissing someone I couldn't see properly. And then their scent hit my senses, my throat burst into flames.

And I leapt forward…

I saw it all through my eyes like I was walking in a dream: like I was there, but not. I leapt, one graceful arc, and then I was pulling him back, my hands on his jacket. My hands looked so very pale on the green of the jacket. I never heard the girl he was with stumble. All I could see was his pulse, that delicious beat, the throb and the thrum of blood. My mouth pooled with venom as I breathed his scent in. oh, but it was glorious. I ran my fingers over his pulse, felt him stiffen beneath my touch.

"Don't, friend. Don't struggle…" My voice was almost a snarl, something feral something wild. His heart rate increased, and the pounding in his neck would have been visible to a human. I lowered my nose to his neck, inhaling. The venom was overwhelming. "I'll be quick…"

I ran my nails down the side of his face, enough to cut him, enough to give me his flavour. My tongue traces those marks, the scratches I have made and how wonderful he tastes. His little whimpers of fear makes no difference to me as I take all the blood those shallow cuts could give me. Then I turn back to that pulse and I bite. His flesh offered no resistance to me as my teeth sank into his neck. And then blood! oh, the blood. Delicious, mouth-watering, flowing down my throat, quenching fire with the delicious mouth-watering wet, hot, heady, thick, perfect. He had so much to give. I drank from him, my teeth tearing, ripping, hands holding him still, my desperation, his blood, that scent, a crack as some bone somewhere broke as I held him and he thrashed to escape, the blood, the blood, the blood…

Delicious, a scent, his struggles ceasing as his blood slowed to a trickle. I cleaned his neck, chest, face, the blood splatters, taking every drop, every single bit of life, all that richness. He was clean, dry, lying at my feet and I was sated at last. All those years of suppression! All those years of denying my thirst, when this, this was what awaited those of were immortal! My right, my prize, my life's blood. I could still taste him on my lips, licking them slowly, gently, savouring him.

His companion lay on the floor near to his body. Her eyes were wide and horrified and somehow a little shocked, as if taken by surprise. Dead then. So who killed her. I started towards her, knelt beside her, touched her. Oh, still warm. She'd still have it, that wonderful drug, it would still be in her veins, not congealing yet. If I acted fast, she'd make a lovely dessert. Traces of her scent still lingered - like fine wine, an appreciable bouquet. Not as tempting as he had been, but a dessert-worthy piece nonetheless. I wrapped arms around her shoulders, and her head flopped oddly. A broken neck. Odd. I prepared to bite her too, take her as mine, brushing dark hair from her arms when suddenly she was gone from my arms.

"NO!"

My head was full of a red haze, a fury. It tampered with my vision, blocked my senses, prevented me from seeing her.

"You'll not tamper with the dead, Jasper Whitlock!" The voice was female and familiar. It was also high with - fear?

"Stand aside, bitch, and give me back what is mine!"

"I shall not! You forget, my Jasper, you forget who you are!"

"I know that you are between me and my meal, so stand aside, before I force you from my path!"

"Please, Jasper, don't do this. Think, think about your life! Think about your soul!"

"My soul? I have no soul - I am the undead, the immortal, a soldier of the night. Killing you would not bother me."

"But it would! Don't you know me?"

"No. I do not. All I know is that you are in my way."

"She is already dead, Jasper. She has nothing to give you now."

"It's not too late -"

"Scent her, Jasper. Search for her." The delicious scent has faded, the voice is right. The burning bloodlust frenzy is dying. The red fog in front of my eyes is dying.

And realisation crashes over me. I crash to the floor. No. No. Lost control, I think, numbly. Lost it again, again, after all my promises.

"She is dead."

"Are you an angel? Why can't I see you?"

"Behind you." The vampire has mahogany curls framing a pale face, and she has dark amber eyes, like someone who has begun hunting but not finished. "Oh, my beautiful Jaybird."

Bella's heartbreak is what clears my head. I look around the scene in the clearing. The dead man. The dead bear. What she'd hunted and taken down before the whole thing went to hell and back. The dead girl. The dead man. I look down at myself. I am covered with blood, and I know it is his blood.

"Bella," I gasp out. She doesn't turn and leave me, disgusted by me. I stumble towards her, helpless, bowed down by my regret and fall at her feet. "Forgive me!" She drops to her knees and she reaches out and she takes me in her arms and she hugs me close while I sob tearless sobs.

"You've got to come with me now, Jaybird."

She drove us home, adhering to the speed limits. And as she drove, we talked.

"Alice will have already seen what happened. There were no other humans in the area. There is no need for them to leave."

"I lost it. Again. I've let Carlisle down."

"It's happened to them all. Don't beat yourself up."

"You said they wouldn't have to leave."

"They don't have to, but they will."

"How do you know that?"

"It doesn't matter how I know it. I am telling you - they will leave. But we won't be going with them."

"Why?"

"I am taking you to see someone."

"Going to lock me up in some cage strong enough to hold a vampire?"

"Don't be bloody stupid. I'm not taking you to see some vampire psychologist. I'm not sure whether they exist. Right now, it doesn't matter who we're going to see. The first thing I have to do is get you back to the Cullen's." She floored it then, drove much too fast along blind roads, and left me to dwell in the pit of my own memory.

APOV

I waited for them on the steps, watched as her car flew up the drive. She got out first, then he did. Red eyes, bloodied shirt and jeans, and something so terrible in his face.

"You're packed." She said it as a statement, not a question. I didn't ask her how she knew. I just nodded, and stepped aside. "Jay, go and change, and pack a bag. Alice - I need to talk to everyone."

"Of course. Come in."

She sits on the loveseat, and we gather. Emmett and Rose stand by the windows at the back. Edward and I sit on the couch, and Carlisle and Esme sit beside us.

"You know that you don't have to leave, Carlisle. Nobody saw us, apart from the girl, and she is not a threat."

"We will go nonetheless. In support -" Carlisle answers her, his eyes shadowed.

"Jasper would prefer it if you stayed."

"I know. But he won't want to come back here." Esme says, her face closed.

"I am going to take him with me, if you don't mind."

"No, we don't mind. You can help him?" Esme virtually begs, her face anguished now.

"I can't, but I know someone who can. Don't tell me where you'll go - I will find you, don't worry about that. I swear to you, Esme, I will bring your son back home." Bella's face is earnest. "And I am so sorry I didn't find a way to stop him. I am so sorry I failed in that."

They left, got on a plane to England. And then Bella drew her veil over them both, shielding them both from my gaze, from whoever else might be watching. She hid them, keeping them ultimately safe. The image of Jasper getting out of her car is ingrained in my memory.

A/N: I know this chapter is short. I know that. Simply because this is the right place to end this chapter. It was hell writing it, so please don't say it's short. PLEASE REVIEW as this is the most graphic death scene i have ever written, and i want feedback!