A/N- Sooo…. Yeah. Sorry for the super long wait. I have a million excuses but who really gives a shit? I thought not. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own a single thing. Damn. Oh, and because its been soooo long, I'll put in a refresher from last chapter for ya ;)

Previously:

Jasper! Don't you dare think for a moment that I think you are a monster! Jesus! Patrick had his hand down my pants and wasn't going to let up until I killed him. You saved me the trouble, and I thank you for helping me out when I needed it. Jazz, I will never think of you as a monster, so you better understand that and accept it. My mental rant had started out harsh but softened with the last sentence. I sent him a wave of thankfulness, affection, and acceptance to illustrate my point.

His face relaxed and his lips lifted up in a tiny smile. I was going to walk towards him but a movement from behind Jasper stopped me in my tracks. Maria, in her signature long, dark skirt and tight blouse floated towards us. Her face was set in anger and I could it along with a flurry of other negative emotions; shockingly there was a trickle of fear mixed in. She stopped short of Jasper and growled before speaking.

"What is going on here?"

Bella

Panic. Mind-numbing panic set in for a moment that stretched too long for my liking. I saw Jasper freeze in a second that was like an hour to me, but undetectable otherwise. Maria's anger was quickly mounting and the surge in wrath served to help me snap out of my momentary panic. I shot a quick glance at Peter, who was unobtrusively darting his eyes between Maria and I and tapping his head in signal. Thank god for Peter.

I linked my mind to Maria's quickly, something I had never done and hoped to never have to do again. Her thoughts were a snarl of complicated and rapid Spanish, hard to decipher even with my knowledge of the language. The building blocks that made her mind were easier to read, and the tenor of her mind was inescapable. Evil, greed, lust, power hungry…the list of negative emotions could go on forever.

I focused on trying to decipher her thoughts and was blessed when she recalled what just occurred from her own perspective. She had seen Jasper dismember Patrick with a quickness that astonished even her, but she had not seen the cause for the conflict. She was disappointed that she had lost the spy she had been cultivating. A spy! That's why Patrick had been off. Who she planned on using Patrick against was shrouded in her own confusion and paranoia.

While the process of panic, mind reading and realization seemed to take hours, in reality it had only been a few seconds from the time Maria had made her appearance and asked her question. I quickly linked my mind to Jaspers and sent him a wave of calm and whispered in his mind.

She didn't see anything of importance, only that you killed him.

Jasper was the quickest thinker and best strategist I knew and I trusted that he could handle the situation now that he was aware of what Maria had seen. I was not disappointed.

"The newborn began attacking others and was resistant to my power. When I intervened, he did back down as he should have, so I disposed of him." Jasper's calm was radiating out of him and his eyes were blank as he gave his report to Maria.

I avoided moving, not willing to draw Maria's gaze to my own. She wasn't stupid, and if she even suspected that Patrick had been attacking me and Jasper had intervened to protect me, she would watch us like a hawk.

"Major, are you telling me that you could not simply subdue him? I find that hard to believe." Maria's tone was as hard and cold as ice but her eyes were shooting fire at Jasper's stoic form.

"Of course I could subdue him. He was an example, one I have made a hundred times before. No one attacks me and lives. It will serve to keep the rest in line." Jasper was radiating power to an extent that even had Maria's emotions flickering between anger and wariness. He was the epitome of an Alpha male and Maria knew it.

"Of course." She tinkled. She was still wary, but as I flashed through her mind I saw her recalling incidents similar to the one with Patrick; Jasper dismembering anyone that didn't respect his authority or wouldn't back down from him when he ordered them to. She saw those incidents as tantamount to her control over Jasper, because the newborns were usually on their way to attack her and when Jaspers attempts at manipulating their emotions to be calm failed, he would automatically destroy the threat.

In this instance she was torn between glee and paranoia. Her mistrust of her sisters had her doubting Jasper's loyalty, and she couldn't quite place if this was proof of his loyalty to her or an example of how her hold had weakened. I once again jumped out of her head and focused on keeping still, silent and ready for anything.

Jasper and Maria seemed to be locked in a stare down. Jasper was still sending out calming vibes but I detected a burning anger beneath it. Maria's emotions were cycling between mistrust, anger, wariness, pride, and lust so fast it was hard to keep still. She finally settled on acceptance and tore her eyes away from Jasper's and turned to flounce back to her tent. She seemed to pause at the entrance of her tent and turned back to him.

"I will be leaving to find my sisters. They seem intent on taking over Mexico City and are watching Alphonso's troops. As you know, Alphonso has the rights to the outskirts of the city. Perhaps we will take them from him, if only to appease my dear sisters." She spoke softly, but Jasper, Peter and I heard and understood. The rest of the newborns barely spared her a glance. She entered and exited her tent swiftly, a small bag clutched in her bony hands as she emerged.

"Keep them in line and train. In three days time, you will meet me on the ridge that is outside of Alphonso's territory. We will attack after my sisters and I do some observations. Take them to feed, I want them strong and ready to fight when they arrive." She turned on her heel and leaped away, her hair catching in the wind and flowing behind her.

After a few minutes, I allowed myself to blink and finally move from the tensed position I was in. Peter visibly sagged with relief and Jasper's shoulders lost the hard, tense line that had been in them. I let out a breath, unaware that I hadn't been breathing since I first heard Maria's voice call out in the aftermath of Patrick's demise. I could still smell Patrick on me, but I took comfort in the fact that his scent was disappearing altogether from the face of the earth as he was turning to ash in the fire that was still emitting a purple plume of smoke. The newborns were growling quietly as they had been since they caught the word 'feed' come from Maria's mouth.

"Fall in!" Jasper's voice almost made me jump in its unexpectedness. Every newborn complied swiftly. When the customary lines had been formed He spoke again.

"We will be training for the next 48 hours, after which we will go into Monterrey to feed. Before we feed, you will be given instructions on how to behave. Make no mistake; those who do not listen will be destroyed on sight. For now, split into pairs and spar." His words brought an instant surge of excitement and bloodlust. I shielded myself quickly and fell out of line to see who would challenge me to a fight.

A male, with dark brown hair that kept falling into his blood red eyes pounced on me quickly and the brawl began. He was far from gentle, but he seemed to be holding back and it confused me. I ducked a punch, and sent a kick to his ribs which had him doubling up for a moment. He retaliated by sweeping my legs out from under me and before I could jump back up he, brought a leg down to crush my chest. I rolled quickly, narrowly avoiding the move. He tried to kick up and catch me in the side, but I had leapt up to my feet swiftly and launched myself at him, gathering him in my arms in a fierce hold that he was trying in vain to break. With one arm wrapped around his neck and the other reaching around him to lock his arms down I felt his corded muscle bunch and release in an effort to break my grip.

I could have brought my mouth to his pale neck, signaling his defeat, but instead I continued to hold him. He was still making an effort to break my grasp, but the sense that he was holding back reappeared and I delved into his mind to figure out what was going on. I sent him wave after wave of calm and lethargy to ease his struggles so that I could examine his thoughts with little distraction. His thoughts were less coherent than Patrick's had been, but more coherent than most of the newborns. I couldn't read any specific train of thought but I understood some things very clearly.

He was holding back; he respected me too much to try and hurt me. Images of me in battle, my face a mask of fierce protectiveness disabling and killing the enemies that came across my path floated from his mind to mine.

He was thirsty and confused for the most part, unable to understand why we fought all the time, only knowing that if he didn't fight he would die. He respected Jasper and Peter and was fond of them and looked to them as lights of clarity in the otherwise confusing world he found himself in. He was fond of me as well, he thought I was pretty and he revered me as the protector of his heroes (an image of me killing Emilio before he killed Jasper explained that feeling).

I saw Maria in his minds eye switching from his vampiric recall to a hazy, obviously human, memory. He had been stalked like myself, and killed while he traveled from his Mother's home to his Father's home. I was under the impression that his mother was a Mexican citizen while his father was an American, living in Arizona.

I was aware that I had been holding him for a few minutes, neither of us moving much, my lips were near his ear, open and breathing lightly into the shell while I focused on his mind. It could pass as oddly intimate to a casual observer, but I was too focused to care.

I gleaned that he sensed the power that radiated from Peter, Jasper, and I and it seemed that he had a stronger version of Maria's gift. I knew that one day he would be able to sense what a vampire's gift was, as opposed to simply knowing it was there. The fact that he could sense our power made him revere us even more and the pedestal we were on was far above our Mistresses.

I yanked myself from his mind when I felt a few overwhelming emotions hit me from different directions. My eyes had been closed as I tried to wade through the snarl of confusion and thirst that dominated the newborn's thoughts, during which I had lowered my shield. My eyes snapped open and I glanced to my right, where amusement, worry and curiosity were warring for dominance in Peter. He was glancing between me and something to my left with a smirk on his lips.

I shifted my gaze to the source of the ball of emotions that were switching almost too fast to process. Jasper. He was emitting strong waves of concern, jealousy, anger, protectiveness and much more that I couldn't get a read on. I quickly brought my teeth to the newborns neck and released him. He seemed to hesitate in front of me, meeting my eyes and nodding before he turned away from me and went to find a new sparring partner. His name was Alexander.

Before I could find a new sparring partner, Peter had sidled up to me and gathered me into a hold much like the one I had had Alexander in. I fought back, with no real intent to dislodge him, knowing he wanted to know what had just happened.

"Have a nice cuddle?" He whispered into my ear. I threw my head back into his nose in retaliation to the jibe, satisfied when I heard a crunch. I felt bad almost immediately and decided to make up for it by linking my mind to his and showing him exactly what just happened. I recalled everything quickly and I could feel his curiosity lessen and his pride expand. Apparently he liked the ego boosting knowledge. His amusement also peaked, especially when I caught the reason why.

I was right to think that the position I had held Alexander in was a bit too intimate for a battle field. Peter had glanced at Jasper while I was still deep in Alexander's mind and had caught his facial expressions change several times before it had gone deceptively blank. Peter seemed to think I had sparked some territorial part of Jasper, while I scoffed at the idea.

I severed the link before he picked up on just how much I wouldn't mind Jasper getting a little territorial over me. I had explained the situation and I knew Peter would pass it along to Jasper soon, especially since it was clear that Alexander would fight for us when the time came. The more, the merrier.

Jasper

If my long silent heart were beating it would have stopped the moment Maria's tinkling voice rang out with chilling clarity. I froze for a fraction of a second, in fear- honest to goodness fear.

I hadn't felt that emotion since my early days as a vampire, and I thought it would never resurface, after all, I didn't fear my own death. There were times that I even welcomed the thought of my own demise.

No, this fear was not for me. It was directly linked to Bella. I froze in fear over what Maria would make of the situation, what she would do if she realized that Bella triggered that response in me and not her. I was scared of losing Bella.

Immediately I dismissed the notion, irrational as it was, because the truth was that I would kill Maria or anyone who tried to take Bella from me- from us, I corrected myself. Fuck waiting for the opportune moment. If Bella was in serious danger, I would eliminate the threat. End of fucking story.

Maria's ice cold ruby red eyes were boring into my own, an attempt at intimidation that was clearly failing. How did this cunt ever have power over me? I felt a wave of calm that wasn't my own brand of manufactured emotion come from behind me, suffusing me with a peace that was not manufactured.

She didn't see anything of importance, only that you killed him. Bella's sweet voice ghosted over my mind and a course of action formed instantly in response to the little kernel of knowledge.

I told her that I had been disrespected and was reasserting my authority over the newborns, something I had done a hundred times before with every single batch of newborns that had ever been sired into this fucking mess. Usually it was after Maria did what she did best; showing just how much of an inhuman monster she was and had destroyed the newborns mentally. In their grief, anger, pain and confusion, they usually attacked her and I was forced to dispose of them.

Sometimes I envied those I destroyed, sometimes I grieved for them. Every time I destroyed one I hated Maria a fraction more. This was the first newborn I had killed with no remorse. If that makes me a monster, I will gladly hold the title as long as I can spare Bella the pain of violation.

Maria was still watching me and though she tried to mute her emotions, they were still within my reach. I caught a strong wave of wariness, the closest to fear that Maria was capable of and I triumphed inside. Her acceptance and dismissal of the issue was not surprising, she didn't give two fucks about any newborn in particular.

Her parting words about possibly taking Alphonso's territory were startling. Alphonso had held that territory for a quarter of a century with no challengers. He was smart, driven and had practically helped write the book on the South's territory wars with newborns.

Apparently Maria had officially lost her damn mind. Either that or she was trying to stave off the seemingly inevitable coup from her sisters. My bet was on the latter, even if the idea of messing with Alphonso was fucking stupid. I hoped that if she followed through with her half-assed plan, our losses would be minimal. Wanting to ensure the best possibility for survival for each of my soldiers I split them up quickly so they could spar.

I used the opportunity to release some frustrations on a burly motherfucker that reminded me vaguely of a rhino. His hair even had cowlicks resembling horns. I grinned almost manically at the thought. While sparring with him I tried to correct his form, forcing him to quicken his pace and use his bulk as wisely as he could. He got a couple good shots in, and instead of it raising my ire I shot him a wave of pride. I still kicked his ass, but after my teeth announced my victory against his throat and I had released him, he shot me a half smile that I returned.

I glanced around, watching everyone's progress and sending out waves of focus and determination. Peter was across from me, also watching the newborns fight ruthlessly, waiting in the wings in case one got too carried away and tried to kill their opponent. I felt his emotions shift from the usual focus he radiated in situations like these to concern and curiosity. I followed his line of sight and felt the same for a split second before new emotions began to bubble and claw at my long empty stomach.

Bella had her pale arms wrapped around a tall, handsome, dark-haired newborn. He wasn't struggling much, if at all, in her hold and she didn't seem to be doing much aside from holding him to her chest with her eyes closed and plump raspberry red lips parted and nearly brushing the shell of his ear. His eyes were unfocused and half-lidded in a look that could be taken many different ways, depending on how dirty minded you were. Since my mind is fucking filthy, I was hit with just how fucking wrong I found the sight to be. Bella wrapped around another, meaning someone who wasn't me. What the fuck.

Before I could move in their direction-to do what? Rip the motherfucker away from her and wrap her around me? I honestly didn't know- her eyes snapped open and darted to Peter who was smirking like a fucking asshole and glancing at me with that knowing fucking look. She spared me an indecipherable look before bringing her teeth to the newborns throat and –finally! - releasing him. He seemed to hesitate leaving her and I suppressed the growl that had sprang to life from those damn bubbling emotions in my dead stomach. He left her after he gave her a nod with soft eyes and an almost smile.

I clamped down on my emotions and tried to refocus on my soldiers, but in the back of my mind the confusion continued. Confusion to my reaction, to my emotions, to the snarling beast that had been born in the moment that my eyes had taken in the sight of Bella and that fucking newborn. It was all new to me and I didn't know if I liked the surge of new emotions. Sure, I liked the feelings of affection she threw out at me. I liked the warm feelings she inspired more than anything on this earth. But the emotions that she inspired at this moment? Not so fucking much.

"You gotta take the bad with the good, brother." If I hadn't been a fucking vampire I would have jumped at the sound of Peter's voice coming from my right. He was standing shoulder to shoulder with me, eyes trained on the action on front of us.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I hissed quietly. He chuckled and I elbowed him in the ribs so hard I heard one crack. He grunted and mumbled something about his family not being able to take a fucking joke, simultaneously rubbing his nose and rib and I couldn't suppress the laugh that erupted. He looked at me again with happy eyes, despite his injury.

"See? That right there. Laughing? How many times have you laughed, really laughed since you've been a vampire?" Peter raised an odd point. Neither of us laughed too much, if ever. Maybe a chuckle or a scoff, but even those moments were so infrequent I could count on one hand how often they had occurred. Huh.

"What is your fucking point?" I replied impatiently, unwilling to let on he had struck a nerve. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the smug look gracing his features. Bastard.

"That's Izzy's doing. Plain and simple." Call me dense but Peter was the one who had caused me to laugh. I didn't catch the correlation. Peter sensed my confusion and elaborated.

"You and I both know this life is hell. Fuck, it would be hell even without the fighting; it's all fucking repetition and monotony. Newborns feel and radiate thirst and lust and anger and not much else. You know that shit better than I do. Now Izzy is here and she sends out calm, hope, protectiveness, affection and all those other warm and fuzzy feelings that have you wanting to say 'aww!'." Peter was grinning like a damn fool.

"So…" I prompted, sensing he wasn't done.

"So suck it up and deal with the jealousy that she inspires in you. Own it and use it. If your gonna be a territorial or possessive son of a bitch than be one, don't pussy foot around and try to ignore that shit and pretend it's not there. If you ignore it, you just might never own up to how you feel about her overall, trying to delude yourself into being the boring, albeit deadly, motherfucker you have been for the last 60 years." Peter had lost his grin and was radiating concern.

"Who the fuck are you calling boring?" I dodged his assessment. Jealousy? Plausible, but still foreign. But upon a quick assessment, I had been feeling flickers of it here and there when it came to Bella, especially when Patrick had tried to fuck with her.

"You, brother. Boring. As in, never feeling anything besides what the damn newborns throw at you. Never doing anything besides what that cunt tells you to do. It just may be time to you know, grow, or change or some shit." Peter took his life in his hands with that statement. I had killed fuckers for less than that insult.

"Vampires don't change, fucker." I let him live and replied gruffly.

"Are you sure about that, brother? You seem to have changed pretty damn quick after our Izzy joined our ragtag group of killers." He was as serious as I had ever seen him and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was right.

She had changed me. Emotions I hadn't felt since I was a human were suddenly common and had an even stronger meaning than when I had felt them before I lost my pulse. I had been changing since I first laid eyes on the woman and in the back of my mind I acknowledged it. Fuck, if I thought about it, I had been subconsciously been referring to her as mine in my head. And then there was the bath tub conversation and kiss. And the hard-on I had to will away with help from the icy water.

Peter was right, I needed to stop avoiding the changes, stop pretending nothing had changed when everything had. I needed to just admit to myself that I fucking wanted her, all of her.

Fuck it; I want her to be mine. There! It's acknowledged.

I guess the question was, what was I gonna do about it?

Peter moved, readying himself for a fight with a newborn that was slowly losing control.

"By the way, brother… She practically knocked him out with lethargy so she could read his mind for us. He likes us; you and I are like his gods. She wanted to make sure he would fight with us." That fucking smirk was firmly back on his lips. He leaped into a fight as graceful as a jungle cat. But not before throwing something over his shoulder that had my venom boiling.

"He also thinks she's very easy on the eyes and he's also very fond of her."

A/N- I sincerely hoped you liked it. Reviews will get me going quicker than you would imagine. I'd love some feedback, good, bad, ugly, what the fuck ever. I just got back on the saddle for this fic and I need to make sure it's still cohesive.

Thanks for reading!

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