A small smile spread across his face and he laughed, "What am I? So you know that I am not like you. I'm not human."
Definitely not, not even close! He was like Superman.
My own personal Superman.
He asked me in a whisper, "And that doesn't bother you?"
I confidently answered, "Not at all."
That was a lie, of course.
I don't know what he was, but he was something not human.
Of course it bothered me a little bit.
I was trying to be open minded though.
Jasper sighed deeply and dodged a solid answer, "I am dangerous, Bella. You need to know that, you need to understand that. I was designed to be a predator. The world is my prey."
His eyes locked with mine and he pointed out, "You are even prey."
Little thrills of fear and wonder in equal measures darted through my nerves. I was almost terrified, and yet, I was too amazed to truly register that fear.
I asked softly, "You eat h-humans?"
He smiled, and I felt my unease and hesitation being wiped away as I looked at him.
"No, I don't eat anything. I can drink, though."
He lifted my wounded hand and whispered to himself, "I'm sure you can guess, now, what it is I drink. What I am, what my whole family is."
He pressed his nose against my scraped flesh and sucked in deeply. I watch in a horrified fascination as his golden eyes started to swirl into darker amber shades, finally turning that black I first knew them as.
He drinks blood.
He's pale, fast, strong, cold…
He drinks blood.
Was he a vampire?
That's crazy, though! I mean, vampires can't exist, right?
Besides, that's impossible!
Vampires only come out at night, and they're supposed to be gray or something, not pale.
My thought process was broken when Jasper's tongue slid very slowly across my hand. A deep, pit bull-like, growl rumbled out of his chest.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
Alice's sharp voice startled me, I had forgotten she was here, "Jasper, be careful!"
Before I had seen him move, he was on the other side of the room, standing tensely in the open space between the living room and the kitchen.
His eyes were closed and his chest wasn't moving.
I wanted to just sit there and think, but my curiosity was too great.
I couldn't help but ask, "Why are you telling me all of this? It's obviously a secret, because no one else in Forks knows."
Alice's tinkling laugh made me look at her.
She informed me, "You would have started asking about us through some acquaintance. Your La Push friend, he knows more then you think. Jasper wanted to be the one to tell you."
Jacob knows about them being vampires?
Wait, what?
I demanded, "How do you know I would go and ask him?"
I hadn't even known!
She glanced at Jasper, who nodded.
Alice crossed her legs as she turned to face me and smiled, "Some of us, Bella, have an extra ability after we are turned into vampires. Mine is the ability to see into the future. It's very suggestive, of course. Destiny, fate, it's ever changing. The butterfly effect is true you know."
For whatever reason that was harder for me to grasp then knowing my two closest companions were not human.
I've known for longer then I realized that they were something else.
Too beautiful, too graceful, the eyes, and how they never eat at lunch. I never noticed that until just now, when I was thinking about it, but it's true.
But know that she can see into the future?
Like a physic?
It was hard for me to grasp. It figures that's what I have a hard time coming to terms with.
Wait again…
I asked, "Turned into vampires? You're not born this way?"
Alice smiled, "Vampires can't have children, Bella. Nor do our bodies age, so it would be impossible to bear one."
Jasper added, "We were all humans first. Other vampires, if they don't kill us, turn us into one of them."
I asked, "What for?"
Do they just randomly choose? Is it a family member or something?
Jasper sighed ruefully, "For many different reasons. Carlisle is unlike many, though. He only turns those who are going to die. He saves them."
Suddenly, this felt like too much information for me at one time.
I demanded, "Just slow down, okay? Don't tell me about anyone right now. Just… Just tell me about you in general. For starters, why can you go to school? Doesn't the day time hurt you?"
Jasper laughed and slowly made his way back over to us. His eyes were some dark shade of amber again.
He sat down with me and smiled, "There are many myths about us, to try to make humans feel better knowing we live in their world. Silver bullets, wooden stakes, garlic: none of it truly hurts us. Nothing a human can do will be harmful."
Like trying to run you over.
I readied myself for ultimate weirdness and demanded, "Okay, tell me everything."
(Sorry, guys, I'm not re-telling all of this, it'll take too much time.)
So an hour later, I knew everything.
I knew about what was myth, and what was fact.
Jasper had explained Alice's gift, his gift, and told me Edward had one too. (However, he didn't get into details on that one.)
I had started to get extremely brain-deficient after that hour.
Today had been an extremely long day.
Almost hit by a car, having to go to the hospital, deal with my stressing mother, learning that the two people closest to me were ultra-predators and all that.
Jasper pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms under my back and legs, then stood up.
He smiled, "You need to sleep, I can feel how exhausted you are."
Sleep was good.
It would give me time to think and try to make sense of all this.
It would give my brain time to absorb the information and come out of the shell-shocked state it was in.
I was out cold in his arms before he reached the top of the stairs.