1865

Maria

Excellence was not something I strived for, but something that I lived on a day-to-day basis. I never accepted anything less in not only myself, but the people that were in my army, even in the blonde fools that only scraped by in their duties. Unfortunately, their battle skills were too strong to kill them off just because I didn't like them. The countless headaches were worth it when it came to the way they fought. In my six decades that I walked the earth, besides Jasper and myself, no one fought as ruthlessly as Nettie and Lucy. They fought not unlike newborns, except with more precision, more patience, more controlled and fatal power, rather than the savage way I watched my soldiers obliterate everything in their path. Lucy and Nettie were some of the best fighters that I had ever seen. Despite their ignorance, it was easy to see exactly why they had survived their own fights.

Jasper was in a completely different league than either of them, however. He was decades older, but had a whole new level of skill that even I found hard to process sometimes when I would watch him train and discipline my soldiers. He was slow and steady, but never once could you doubt that Jasper could kill you in seconds if he dare wished. Not only was he incredibly skilled as a fighter, his knack to twist and bend an emotional climate was vital to making it out of a battle as brutal and bloody—excuse the bad pun—as the ones that he was fighting. He was able to not only make sure that the pre-battle casualties stayed down, but he had the capability to perfect the emotions in the heat of battle to drive the craving to kill in my soldiers and weaken that same lust in my enemies. It was absolutely brilliant.

The day that I was able to take Monterrey back was possibly the happiest day in my life. Never before had I seen a more merciless fight, but very few of my own men were the victims. It was only my innocent, unknowing enemies that had taken the blunt of the fight. This was in December, only three months after Jasper had been changed, but he was much more civilized as a newborn. He still had the impossible-to-please thirst for blood, but he was able to rein it in just enough to be able to fight and to train. It was beautiful, watching him in battle. He killed with expert precision that struck fear into every single one of the eleven vampires we faced. Twenty-three newborns, Jasper included, plus Nettie, Lucy, and I, against only nine newborns and two older vampires…it almost didn't seem fair. I almost felt sorry for them as I was tearing apart their bodies, killing them all. Almost.

In a simple hour, my home was back and my numbers still remained practically the same. My men, especially Jasper, were rewarded plentifully. Never before had I been more proud of a fight—never before had my craving for another battle been so strong and dominant in my mind. Immediately, Nettie, Lucy, and I started surveying again for some more recruits while Jasper worked hard at perfecting their organization and skills. Nettie and Lucy, as usual, tended to kill more than recruit, so I was trusted again with the job of changing any human we came across. I stayed with my decision, though, to only change men. The Civil War was still going on in the south in America, so there were plenty of troops camped out. I was able to steal and pick a few promising ones—sometimes three or four in a single night. About half of my chosen ones made it through the difficult bite, but I was still pleased. Not only was I getting better at self-control when it came to changing them, Jasper was getting better at keeping them together.

I was able to gain a huge amount of territory with Jasper. Surprisingly, Nettie and Lucy seemed to be slightly less annoying to me the longer that Jasper stayed around. One fight came after another, practically, but everything remained fairly calm for the amount of vampires that were being forced to be together. There was a point to the fighting that it was almost non-stop, though. It was getting to the point where I had to stop replenishing my soldiers because I was too afraid that the Volturi would step in. While I was ruthless in my killings, I was nothing compared to how the Volturi treated anyone who stepped out of their carefully-laid boundaries.

Of course, I purged every time that someone was reaching their one year mark, except for Jasper. While he was losing his strength, he was staying unwaveringly loyal to me and his amount of unsurpassable skill was growing to make it up for his lack of newborn power. Others grew jealous that I kept Jasper around and they tried to kill him, despite the fact that they knew Jasper could end them in a seconds—which he did every time. I never asked him, though, to do the purging, like Nettie and Lucy did, when it came that time. He was too busy with training.

In the end of Jasper's first eighteen months as a vampire, things came and went. Nettie and Lucy being two of the things that had 'went'. They became greedy for the amount of territory that I had won and tried to take me down from the inside. Jasper had killed Nettie—I had killed Lucy. We ended up being able to hold onto my former home, keeping about a dozen newborns at a time. They mean nothing to me, but Jasper was slowly changing—something I had secretly feared and something that I'm still unwilling to admit.

It was his gift with emotions, his deadly charisma that slowed down his hunt for the kill. I watched him as he started to slowly deteriorate. It was nothing absolutely major—Jasper stayed just as lethal, just as unforgiving, but I could see it in his eyes. There was a reason I lead my army well—I could read people easily, plus I had luck with evading death. Jasper wasn't exactly losing interest in fighting; I could just see him quivering just barely inside. It was a vague hint of a slight whiff, but it was something that I stayed true to.

Finding a solution to stopping Jasper from sliding down so far that I would have to kill him was harder said than done until I realized the exact thing I needed to. I knew Jasper had always been attracted to me, and he responded in strange and codependent ways of the emotions around him. It hit me straight in the face one night, a few weeks after Nettie and Lucy had been killed—I could not be his leader anymore, but his lover. While Jasper was oddly gentlemanly, he was still a man. It was as easy as attracting a newborn to blood.

"Jasper, come here," I whispered in the wind one night as I stared into a fire that I had set. Jasper wasn't on duty at that time, but still keeping a vigil on the newborns via their emotions. The fire was simply a constant threat to my murderous pawns that I could kill them anytime I wanted and it not only would it be easy for me, but it would be quick and swift.

Jasper came immediately and dutifully. He stood to my left, just a few steps behind me.

"Yes?" He refrained from calling me 'm'am' or 'madam' years ago when I had nearly clawed his face off for calling me that somewhere around his one-year mark.

"Jasper, were you ever in love as a human?" While there wasn't a caring bone in my body, I knew had to captivate and I knew how to be coy. Jasper took the bait easily.

"No," he answered, clearly confused. He was also a smart boy and didn't ask why I asked.

"That is strange. Since you are so handsome, Jasper, I thought you would have dozens of women on your arm," I flirted, keeping my eyes on the fire. I'd look at him just right when he would begin to soften in my hands.

"Well, dozens of women tried. Dozens of women also failed. None of them really suited what I was looking for." Perfect. Jasper was even giving me the right lines to make it easier for me to bait him. It was almost as if the entire scene was perfectly scripted by a playwright.

"What about me?" I looked over my shoulder, but down at the ground, trying to look not so domineering. There was no point in trying to be innocent, but I could at least tone down my inner power.

"What do you mean?" He stepped forward and I turned around towards him.

"Am I what you would be looking for, Jasper?" I looked him straight in his burgundy eyes that never had a chance to turn black.

"Mar-" I didn't give him a chance to speak before I kissed him. The move was a risky one, but I was used to chance and probability. Jasper froze under my lips, but soon melted as he embraced me in the dark moonlight. There was a reason I liked Jasper—not only was he incredibly skilled in combat, but he also almost had a sixth sense in knowing exactly how to walk directly into the traps I laid out for him.

That was just the start as well. The game was a tiring one—always having to be kinder to Jasper killed me, especially when the newborns would cross me for some reason or the other. Jasper made it very simple for me, though, in a lot of aspects. He completely melted into the mold I had shaped and crafted for him. Only a month after I kissed him was I able to get him to say he loved me. Two weeks after that, Jasper killed five newborns after they were over twelve-months old. It was impossible for me to stop his power messing with his head slightly, but he still fought for me and killed when I asked him to kill. He was all mine, and I didn't even need to try. That was probably the best part of it. Jasper did everything that I asked.

God, I completely love, yet totally hate Maria. Oh: playing video games online and failing constantly is a good way to get in the mindset of her. Don't ask me why. x D

Grr. Anyways. Anyone wishing that Alice was here yet? Yeah. Me too. D:

Reviews, dolls?

OH: I need to thank all of you! I bet by the time that I get this uploaded with the rest of the chapters, I'll have 900 hits. I just wanted to thank people for reading this story. It's the reason that I even keep writing it in the first place. Also, I owe a shout-out to jilly611. She's given me a review for almost every single chapter and it's been amazingly appreciated!