A/N: So this is the last update for a month, as I will be traveling all July. I hope this leaves you eager for more without the desire to rip off my head at the wait. At least I'm warning you this time! It includes one of my absolute FAVORITE scenes, so make sure you review and tell me what you thought!

Reminder: * indicates POV change.

Picking up right where we left off...


"Goodbye, Edward," I said.

Edward pushed the door closed and I immediately drove away at a normal speed, as opposed to how slowly I had to drive in the immediate Forks area.

"Do the words 'speed' and 'limit' mean anything to you?" Alice said when she caught sight of the speedometer. Her voice cracked a little bit, and I felt some real fear coming off her.

"I won't get caught, if that's what you mean."

"No, what I mean is that you're going a hundred miles per hour on a wet highway."

"This is a good car. Don't you trust me?"

"This might be pushing it." Her fear was accelerating nearly as fast as I was. I sent a wave of calm toward her.

Her priorities were in an interesting place. There she was, sitting in a car with the most dangerous being in the state of Washington, and she was worried about how fast I was driving. "So you trust me not to suck your blood more than you trust me not to crash?"

"Yes."

I studied her closely for a moment. A small, almost child-like face, framed by her short black hair. It was an interesting cut for a girl. Her eyes were pale blue, and staring straight into mine. I wouldn't hurt her. I couldn't. "I'm not going to betray your trust," I said.

She nodded, eyes wide. Suddenly, they broke contact and flicked to the window, where the highway was rushing past. "Eyes on the road!" she cried, panic welling up and pouring out of her. Her body curled into the default position of protection, her legs pulled up against her body and her arms wrapped around them. I pulled over. Her anxiety at my driving was more than just initial shock. Somehow, I hadn't realized that. I had been so hung up on the idea that she trusted me, I hadn't noticed. It was obvious, really. Her mother had been killed in a car accident. In a normal situation, someone driving the way I did would end up the same way. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this.

"Alice?" I said softly. I sent waves of calm over her, not enough to create artificial feelings, but enough to keep her together. It was difficult work to keep her calm while I was being torn apart by guilt, which was not a typical occurrence. I rarely had to use my gift on myself, but I was trying. If I could feel calm, she could feel calm.

"Alice, I'm so sorry. I was stupid. I should've realized that my driving would upset you. I can't even explain how horrible I feel right now."

She uncurled a little, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. "Don't feel horrible," she said. "I'm just oversensitive to stuff like that, I guess."

"Then I should be over oversensitive. I should've realized what was going on."

She wiped her eyes. "Really, it's okay. I mean, I'm fine in normal cars and stuff. I guess I'm just paranoid about reckless driving."

"You know, it's not really reckless driving," I said. "Reckless driving indicates that there is a risk of crashing. My reflexes are faster than your eyes can catch. My vision makes an eagle seem blind. When I drive, there is no way that I'm going to crash." Still, I wanted to make sure she felt comfortable. This was our first date, however odd that was, and I wanted to make it as damage-free as possible. "If it bothers you, though, I could drive slowly."

She nodded. "I'd like that…at least for a little while. I'll try to get used to your driving." She smiled. Her smile was an adorable paradox. She was like a child, but without naïve innocence. "Come on," she said. "I've got a curfew."

*

The trip went smoothly after the driving incident. I ended up telling him more about my family and my mom's death, after asking him to dull the pain a little bit. His talent was really coming in handy. I told him about the wedding as well.

"So you want to work things out with your dad?" he said.

"Yeah," I said. "It's worth seeing him remarried—ugh—to try and make things okay between us."

"So you're not really happy about it?"

"It's just weird…I mean, he's got every right to move on."

"And you've never met the bride?"

"No," I said. "I don't know anything about her. I mean, I don't think she'll be some sort of wicked stepmother. My sister likes her, at least. She's the one who'll have to live with the woman."

"What if they want you to live with them?" he asked. "Would you go?"

I allowed myself, just for a moment, to imagine going back. I would return to my old school. I could graduate with the friends I grew up with. I would have a real family again: a dad, a sister, and a sort-of mom. I would never have to worry again that maybe I was imposing. In Forks, at my aunt and uncle's house, I was always trying to be good, and polite, and not abuse their kindness. I didn't have a lot to complain about, but sometimes I just wished I could. With my own family, I wouldn't have to always try to be a good kid. Guilt and gratitude wouldn't stop me from speaking my mind.

"Alice?"

But then I remembered why I'd left. If Dad had listened to me two years ago, I never would have come to Forks. And I'd still rather live here than with someone who I still believed was responsible for Mom's death.

"No," I said quietly. "I made a choice."

He dropped the subject, and soon after, we arrived in Port Angeles. "So where are we going?" I asked.

"What are you in the mood for?"

"I don't know," I said, then automatically, "You? Oops."

He merely laughed in his quiet way. "Whatever you want is fine with me," he said.

"Um…" I wracked my brains, trying to think of a restaurant in the town. "There's a good Italian place that Mike and Jake and I sometimes hit when we're here." Not exactly sometimes. Once, actually. Usually when we came to Port Angeles, we just went to McDonald's, but one time, the year before, it had been closed for a few days because somebody found fingernails in their fries. We'd just kept walking until we got to the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be La Bella Italia. The food was good, but it was too much of a strain on our meager allowances to go there every time we saw a movie.

"Italian it is," he said, and found it easily. He led the way in. The hostess at the podium's jaw dropped when she saw him.

"T—two?" she stuttered.

"A secluded table, if you don't mind," said Jasper

"Sure thing," she said, and led us to a corner booth. I could almost feel her resisting the urge to turn around and stare at the god walking behind her. She seated us, then sped off to the kitchen, probably to gush to a waitress or something.

After a waitress came out and took our orders (Jasper waited until I ordered, then just asked for the same thing). We sat for a moment, me playing with my napkin, him staring at me. When the waitress put our drinks down in front of us, I looked up at him. "I've told you a ton about me. What about you? Didn't you say that you were around for a while before you met up with your family?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked. "It's not a pleasant story."

"Try me," I said. "I've been doing well so far."

"I was born in Texas in 1843."

I choked on my drink. "I warned you," he said as I coughed.

"It's not that," I said when I caught my breath. "It's one thing to know someone's that old. It's another thing to have them sitting in front of you, looking like a teenager."

"I'm physically twenty."

"You know what I mean."

"Would you like me to continue?" he asked. I nodded.

"My name was Jasper Lawrence Whitlock. The handkerchief I lent you wasn't my mother's. It was mine," he said.

"Oh!" I said. "I have that!" I went to rummage in my bag, but he said, "Keep it. I don't have any use for it."

"Oh," I said. "Okay then. Thanks."

He continued his tale. I listened carefully as he related his story: the vampire wars of the southwest; how he had joined the Confederate army and been changed; his time with Maria and her army; Peter and Charlotte's escape and return; and finally, his departure. At some point, our food arrived, but I wasn't really paying attention to it as I ate. I was enthralled by his story.

"It wasn't difficult to leave Maria. She was already starting to consider turning on me; I wasn't the strong, ruthless fighter I'd been before. I was tired of the fight. It all seemed so futile: what did it matter who won and who lost? The next day, there was always another battle to fight, another enemy to conquer. Everyone would be destroyed someday; where was the point?

"When Peter and Charlotte returned, and told me about a peaceful north, I left, and I've never looked back. I traveled with them for a while, but my depression refused to lift.

"The problem was that because I was no longer fighting, hunting allowed me to focus completely on my prey. Their emotions affected me. It's very difficult when you feel their awe, then fear, then nothing… I tried to hunt less often, but restraint was difficult. It still is. But in my state of mind, I didn't know I could stop completely. The torture continued.

"That was how Edward found me, in Vancouver. It was night, and I was hunting. I was lurking in an alley, waiting to ask some unsuspecting passerby for directions. I was thinking rather dismal thoughts, trying to figure out how long this meal could last me. I was almost to the breaking point right then.

"Then a voice came out of the alley behind me. 'There's another way, you know,' he said. 'You don't have to kill them.' I turned around, and Edward was standing there. He'd heard me thinking. He offered me a salvation I didn't know existed. I went home with him and met Carlisle. He explained that animal blood satisfied the craving without the torture I went through every time I ended a human life.

"Edward had just finished the first fifteen years of Bella's vampire life. To him, I was almost like another newborn: I had little restraint and less reason to try. But try I did. He was able to keep tabs on me by my thoughts. Whenever I got close to quitting, he knew what to say to save me. Without him, I don't know where I'd be now."

The waitress dropped off the check then. While he looked it over, I took a minute to process what he'd told me. It was so unbelievable. His was the sort of story I expected to see between the covers of a book. If I hadn't seen him in action, I wouldn't believe it.

He paid, and we left. We were silent until we got in the car. He turned to me. "Did I scare you? Was that too much for the first date?"

Date. I was on a date with him. "No," I said. "It was fine for the…first date." It was a testament to my self control that I didn't break out in giggles.

"That's true," he said. "You're very happy. Effervescent." He smiled, his real smile. "It's contagious."

We drove for a little while, him just smiling. I stared at him a little bit. It really lit up his face in a way I'd never seen before. Something about him just oozed pain. It reminded me a little bit of myself the first year after my mom died. Hurt, but continuing; enjoying the little things, but unable to escape the big picture. But this was different. He was really, truly happy, riding in a car with me.

He walked me to the door. We stood there for a moment. He positively glowed under my porch light. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then leaned down and pressed his lips to mine for an instant. They were hard and cold, but the kiss awakened something in me. Before I could really react, it was over. He smiled and walked back to his car. Shaking a little, I opened the door. I looked back.

The car was gone.

Aunt Karen was waiting in the living room, watching TV with Uncle Pete. "Well?" she asked. "What happened?"

I shrugged. "We went to that little Italian place and came home."

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah. It was great."

I could tell she wanted juicy details, but there weren't any that I could share. I didn't feel like fibbing. As far as she knew, it was a good, but mundane, date.

"I'm a little tired," I said.

She said goodnight, and I went upstairs. I got ready for bed and lay down, but I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was the kiss. The joy it brought me was almost as intense as the fear. I was mortal, and Jasper was not. He'd come close to killing me at least twice. Where could romance between us lead?

*

I kissed her. I came closer to her than I'd ever been to a human since I'd fed on one. And she was alive. My confidence was boosted tenfold. I'd given in to my buried human desires and resisted the monstrous ones. There was hope. It would be difficult, but I knew that it was possible.

I pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car. There was one thing I wanted to try while I was still somewhat used to her scent. I was worried that if I didn't try it tonight, I wouldn't ever be able to. I was pushing all my limits. I could only pray that this wasn't going too far.

It was easy to tell which window was hers. It faced the backyard and the woods. There were pink curtains at the window. Her silhouette moved in the light beyond. I watched and waited until the light went out. I don't know how long I stood there; I waited for every room in the house to go dark and every person relax into the emotional low of sleep. Finally, all was quiet. I climbed up the back wall of the house and alighted on the window sill. Very slowly, I lifted up the window. She hadn't locked it. I should have warn her about it the next time I saw her, but that would involve telling her what I was doing, and that was a conversation I didn't really want to have.

I slid through the window and touched down softly on the wood floor. Her bed was across the room, on the same wall as the closed door. Everything was a dark shade of pink. She was lying on her side, the covers up to her chest. Her bare arms were sticking out above the covers. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt. She shivered at the cold wind that blew in through the open window behind me. I closed it.

Alice asleep was different from Alice awake. She was less worried, less weighted. When she was asleep, she looked years younger than she was. Her face was even more childish without the maturity she commanded in consciousness. How could I hurt her? What kind of monster could do that?

Whitlock growled from within me. If you can't do it for her, I thought at him, do it for yourself. However much you crave it, you'd be devastated. He couldn't deny it. I was infatuated, heart, body, and soul.

I stood there, me, myself, and I, until it was about the time that I should get home in order to change and be ready for the school day. When I got home, I was still thinking about Alice. Edward was waiting for me on the porch in the predawn light. "Those are thoughts I never imagined you would have," he said, his amusement flowing into me.

There is nothing worse than having someone privy to all of your most embarrassing thoughts.

"There is nothing more fun than to be that someone."

Having fun with a talent is a two way street.

"You wouldn't," he said, hearing my intentions, but it was too late. I allowed myself to delve into the deeper feelings I had at my disposal, stolen from when members of the household experienced moments of passion. And none were more intense than those of Rosalie and Emmett.

The effects on Edward were instantaneous. "You're a monster," he growled, and ran into the house. I followed in time to see him grab Bella and run upstairs. Carlisle, Emmett, and Rosalie stared after them in wonder.

Emmett looked back at me. "Do you have any idea…?" He noticed the wicked smile that was spread across my face. "You bastard," he said. He held up his hand, and I slapped it. "Best. Payback. Ever. Man, I wish I had a superpower."

Rosalie snorted and Carlisle tried to look disapproving, but both of them were almost as amused as Emmett was. Yes, revenge was sweet.

"They'd better be quick," muttered Rosalie. "I don't want to be late for school."


A/N: Haha. I always thought Stephenie Meyer should have utilized Jasper for more than putting people to sleep. Not that I'm the first person to use him like this either.

Anyway, no updates for a month, but please review anyway! I'll try to respond, but I'll have very limited computer access, so I'm going to have to be a bit more selective in my replies than usual.