-Chapter Ten-
Maisie greeted Jasper on Monday afternoon with a big smile that brought out the dimple in her cheek. Her mood actually brightened when she laid eyes on him.
That was definitely a first for Jasper, as far as humans went.
"Did you have fun camping?" Having spent four days away from humans, the morning and lunch had been a struggle for Jasper. He hadn't spoken all day, because that required breath to carry his words. He also hadn't breathed all day.
Maisie's different kind of scent, and her proximity to him, helped drown out the smell of the other humans in the room. Jasper took his first breath—a relieved one—only once Maisie was beside him.
The more Jasper was around Maisie, the more accustomed to her scent that he became. Rather than igniting his thirst, Maisie soothed it away. There was almost something familiar about the smell, the more he took it in, but Jasper could never quite place it.
"It was nice to get away." Jasper found that he couldn't help but smile in the presence of this human girl. He reached across their table and drummed his fingertips on her cast. "When does this come off?"
Her blue eyes shined up at him. "Saturday morning! Finally!"
Then the excitement in her eyes turned conspiratorial. Maisie's voice dropped to a whisper. Jasper leaned in on instinct, even though he knew he didn't need to be closer to hear her.
"Hey, did you hear about what went on while y'all were gone?"
Maisie meant the deaths. Three in Port Angeles, and another three in Forks. It was huge news for Forks…and, of course, it wasn't good news. Not for Maisie, not for the other humans, and not the Cullens, either.
"Didn't Chief Swan's statement say they were animal attacks?" Jasper knew better. His whole family did. The crime—and the air in Forks—reeked of vampires. He tried to deflect Maisie away from the speculation she was trying to bait him into.
"I guess that would make sense," Maisie allowed. She twirled her pen around in her left hand. "The papers say no bodies were found, but they're still being ruled as accidental deaths."
It was obvious that Maisie didn't believe the story they were pushing. Jasper doubted that Chief Swan believed it himself. Yet, that's where the population of Forks stood on the matter. Accidental deaths. No bodies as proof.
Jasper shrugged, smiled, and pushed a wave of calm towards Maisie, hoping it would erase the thoughts from her mind. "I guess we'll never know."
Maisie pursed her lips at his mimicking. They trudged through their Spanish exercises and made plans for that weekend to work more on their project. Usually, Jasper enjoyed class with Maisie a lot more. If she noticed how distracted he was, she didn't let on.
He couldn't help it. His mind was on more exciting things. Jasper, Edward, and Emmett had plans after school to do a sweep of the town, to try to find the unwelcome guests who had rolled in. Just the thought thrilled him. Jasper couldn't help that, either. All those years out of Maria's army, and he still loved an upcoming fight.
Only Esme and Rosalie stayed behind, in the end. Carlisle decided someone had to in case these other vampires happened upon their house. There was a shared hope, between Carlisle and Esme, that things could be handled peacefully.
Emmett and Jasper didn't share that sentiment, but that was neither here nor there. Both of them were itching for a go at someone who couldn't read their mind, like Edward could. There were three distinct, unfamiliar scents. Which meant there were three distinct, unfamiliar vampires in town. One for each of the brothers.
If Carlisle let it come to that. Which Jasper doubted that he would. He was far too diplomatic, his adoptive father.
Edward and Alice acted as their navigation.
"They've already fed," Alice informed the others. "I don't see them moving any time soon. They're kind of just lounging around."
"They aren't even thinking about moving," Edward confirmed. "Which is good news for us. They're right next to the Quileute territory border, right, Ali?"
Even moving on foot, it didn't take them long to make up the difference between them and the strangers. Once they were close enough, Jasper knew exactly why the three nomads had no intention of moving.
The scent of human blood hit him like a truck. He hated the way that he felt when this happened. Head light and swimming, stomach turning, throat burning. Jasper stopped breathing immediately.
You could have warned me, Jasper snapped at Edward. There was no time for him to reply, not if they didn't want the nomads to hear them. Jasper knew that his anger was slightly misplaced; Edward had only heard their thoughts, but Alice had seen them. She would have known that they still wore the fresh blood from their hunt.
Everyone slowed, letting Carlisle take the lead. There were indeed three of them: a large, dark-skinned male, a thinner, taller blonde who held himself like he might be the leader, and a lithe female with hair as red as the blood she wore like messy lipstick around her mouth. It appeared the three were about to clean themselves up in a stream.
"Hello," Carlisle called out to them. Emmett, Jasper, and Edward fell in line behind him, with Alice shielded in the back. Not that she couldn't handle herself—she could, but all the brothers were from time periods where girls were to be protected. "We don't mean to startle you."
Jasper's assessment had been right. The thin blonde stepped away from his companions, stopping about six feet from Carlisle. Not bad, as far as precautions go, but Jasper knew if anything turned bad, this man wouldn't anticipate Edward's mindreading.
The stranger's dark red eyes sized each of them up. He stood his ground, but the tense set of his muscles was obvious. His companions moved forward to flank them.
"Hello." There was a long pause between Carlisle's greeting and the leader's response. "We haven't encroached on your territory, have we?"
The way all three bore their gaze into their faces was not lost on Jasper. Apparently, they had never run into sedentary vampires.
Carlisle smiled, but cut his eyes at Jasper. Immediately, Jasper started pushing a calm wave toward the nomads. He should have done that sooner, but he had been caught off-guard by the human blood. Instead of doing his part, he had been averting his gaze from the stains on their faces and clothes.
"Just a bit," Carlisle kept his tone light. "More importantly, though, I wanted to warn you that you are very close to our allies' territory."
Never would Jasper have called the Quileute werewolves their allies, but it was a good move on Carlisle's part.
"You see, my family is a bit of an anomaly in our world. We practice an…unusual diet, in addition to having a peace treaty with the local werewolves. Unfortunately, this treaty only covers my own family, and I would hate to see some of our own involved in a battle with our neighbors."
Jasper would have loved to have known what the nomads thought about this diplomacy. Had he the courage to brave breath long enough to ask, he would. But now was not the time nor the place.
"I'm Carlisle, by the way." When the silence grew too long, Carlisle was quick to fill it. "These are my children, Edward, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper. My wife, Esme, and our other daughter, Rosalie, are at our house. I would love for you to be our guests."
Perhaps it was because Carlisle had revealed the size of their coven. Perhaps it was the kindness in his voice. Perhaps it was Jasper's manipulation of their moods. Either way, something gave, and the leader of the nomads gave a smile that was more chilling than joyful.
"Thank you for the invitation. My name is James. These are my companions, Victoria and Laurent. We accept your hospitality and apologize for any boundaries we have overstepped during our time here."
So, it was settled. Thankfully, Carlisle insisted that their new friends clean up before heading to the house. Jasper and Emmett took the lead, with the nomads in the middle, and Edward, Alice, and Carlisle following behind. It was their tried and true formation. Between Emmett's brute strength and Jasper's experience, there was no getting past them. Retreat wasn't an option, either. Edward and Alice were lethal with the way they could work in tandem given their talents.
The nomads had the good sense not to try anything. Everyone made it back to the Cullen house peacefully.
"We have human neighbors." Alice piped up from the back. Of course she would be the one to think of the Thompson family. "It would be beneficial if we're all inconspicuous."
Jasper knew that what Alice really meant was don't eat them. He could hear them, just across the way. Maisie's parents were trying to barter with Ava, to get her to finish her vegetables. Someone had just walked out the door—likely Gunner taking out the trash, none the wiser that ten vampires were so close to him.
And Maisie. Jasper could practically see Maisie in his mind, singing along to the radio while she worked on her homework in her bedroom. There was no time to focus on Maisie, though.
"How do you handle that?" The other male, Laurent, asked. "Living so close to humans?"
Emmett held the front door open for everyone.
"It has to do with our diet," Carlisle explained. "I told you it was unusual. We don't feed on humans. Instead, we hunt animals, and drinking their blood helps us learn self-control, which allows us to blend into the human world."
Apprehension at Carlisle's words rolled off the leader. The other male was appreciative; the female was bored. Their covens' way of life was not impressive, apparently.
"How often must you feed?" Laurent asked. "More than on a human blood diet? Less?"
His questions broke the ice—and the tension. Jasper was able to relax, if only slightly. Carlisle extended a hand as an offering for their guests to take a seat in the living room with Esme and Rosalie. It was a command to his children, as well. Even if they were only playing at hospitality, they needed to put up the front.
"More often." Carlisle took a seat beside Esme on the couch, wrapping his arm around her. It was both a loving and protective gesture. "The animal blood doesn't offer as much sustenance as the human blood."
"Seems like a waste." The female was restless. She didn't sit, like her male companions. Instead, she slinked back and forth in front of the back wall of windows.
Jasper took a seat in an arm chair close to the same windows. He didn't like the way Victoria stayed in motion, as if anticipating a fight despite their efforts at civility.
"Tell me, what is the point? If the animal blood isn't as sustaining as the human blood?" James chuckled, showing just how ridiculous he thought the whole thing was. Jasper almost couldn't blame him. A handful of decades ago, he would have had the same opinion.
Victoria cut Carlisle off before he could speak. She had her nose pointed upward, as if smelling the air. "You don't ever feed on humans?"
Up until then, Edward hadn't revealed his ability to read minds. He pinned Victoria with his gaze and growled. "That's barbaric."
The strangers' eyes widened, turning toward his brother. Carlisle's eyebrows rose. "Edward is gifted. He can hear the thoughts of others. Do you care to share what you have on your mind, Victoria?"
Her voice held an undercurrent of a hiss. "You say you do not feed on the humans, yet that human girl neighbor of yours is marked."
She said the final word with such aggression that the room fell silent. The heavy solemnity settled over them, and Jasper didn't dare try to alter it. Not yet. Not when Edward had just exposed himself.
"You'll have to explain further. We are not lying. We don't hunt humans, so please excuse us for not being knowledgeable about this strategy." The way Edward glared at Victoria made Jasper uneasy. Only the fact that Alice seemed unconcerned kept him from moving from his chair.
"Ah, marking." Laurent appeared to be the peacekeeper of the group. "It's something we learned about during a jaunt down south. Remember, James? In Mexico."
Jasper felt his family's eyes slid to him. He shook his head, but barely so. This is news to me, Edward.
Truly it was. He had never heard of 'marking' before.
"Yes." James drew the s into a hiss of his own. "In their wars down there. It was a new method of recruitment. Property, I guess you could say. If a leader saw a human they liked, that they wanted to change, they left a mark on them. A cut, typically, sealed with the most minute amount of venom, so that human would not change but would instead bare that vampire's mark."
"And why not change the humans immediately?" Jasper asked before he could help himself. If this was something Maria was doing, it didn't seem like her. She had great self-control when recruiting for her army. There was no reason Jasper could see for her—or the other Southern armies—to wait.
"Future planning. Humans were marked as children and given time to grow, so that none of our laws could be broken."
It took Jasper longer than it should have to connect all of the dots.
Maisie had said once that she was from New Mexico.
The silvery, almost shimmery scar on her cheek.
Her smell, which in the last few weeks, Jasper had realized was almost familiar.
"Number insurance," Jasper muttered aloud, but his mind was racing. If Maisie was marked, was she marked by Maria? What did that entail? Was his family safe here? Was Maisie safe here?
"I can assure you that if any human in this town is 'marked' as you say, that it wasn't by our hands. The treaty I mentioned earlier forbids it. Peace exists between my family and the werewolves only because we do not kill nor change humans. Which is why I invited you to my home, to explain that you are free to hunt as you need so long as it is outside of this town. That is our territory. We cannot protect you from any consequences the Quileute choose to take if you hunt here again."
Jasper hoped that would be the last they saw of those nomads. Laurent was actually intrigued by their lifestyle and was heading north to try his hand with the Cullens' cousins—another peaceful coven in Denali.
Victoria and James were headed east. When all three had left Forks, it was like a sigh of relief for all of the Cullens. In their wake, the nomads had left several questions for the family.
"You never heard of that tactic?" Emmett asked once the nomads were long out of earshot. He pulled Rosalie into his lap and nuzzled her ear. As always, Emmett wasn't truly all that concerned or worried.
"Never. It must be something more newly implemented. It wasn't ever something we used." Jasper well knew that he wouldn't be able to, either. He never had that kind of control, and he wondered if he ever would.
"No wonder her scent isn't as strong." Alice tilted her head quizzically. She had already pieced it together that Maisie was the marked human the nomads were talking about. "I guess that does make sense. But I thought any venom in the blood stream led to a change?"
Carlisle shrugged. "Perhaps I was wrong."
He had personally changed Edward, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett.
"You recreated your own wounds for me," Edward was stumped by this revelation about their own kind. If anyone could work it out, it would be Edward and Carlisle.
"Yes. I had to use even more venom for Esme, Rose, and Em, due to the blood loss." Alice didn't recall her own transformation, nor her human life. Vampire life was the only one that she knew. "Do you recall your own, Jasper?"
"One bite," he mumbled. "I don't know how much venom that would be."
"If she's marked, whatever the hell that means, it better not effect us." Rosalie, of course, was not happy about the news.
"I suppose it could work like a poisonous agent in the blood," Edward mused, as if Rose hadn't spoken at all. "Perhaps such a minute amount had some short-term effects, but nothing major."
"Jasper," Esme spoke quietly, an aside from the main conversation taking place. "You have a friendship of sorts with this girl, don't you? Do you think you could ask her about it without revealing us?"
Just the thought put a pit in Jasper's stomach. He hated to be tasked with it, but he hated the thought of disappointing Esme more.
Jasper swallowed. Hard. "I suppose I could try."
A/N: Yes, yes, I know I played a little loose with the way vampires work in the Twilight world. But this is fanfiction, so I'm allowed! I hope you liked the way I incorporated the OG Twilight baddies into this story!
Thank you for all the kind reviews I have received. I hope you continue to enjoy this story!
