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Long Road to Ruin
Chapter Nineteen: The Pixie's Past

Jasper.

Or not.

"Jazzy, sweetie, supper's ready! Tell your friends!"

Shit. I thought, looking over to the doorway that led into the kitchen, my eyes scanning to where my mother stood, wringing her hands on a dishcloth and looking me and my friends over. I quirked a brow and said, "I think they heard you, Ma."

"Oh, right." Mom said, her face coloring with blush, "Silly me."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, and I sighed, "Right."

I rose from my seated position and stretched slightly, looking at the three vampires seated so casually in my living room. It seemed that my house was now the one way stop for all things supernatural. I wouldn't be surprised if a werewolf or a ghost came wheeling by just about now.

I saw Edward smirk at me, as if he had heard what I had been thinking.

You're just paranoid. I told myself, closing my eyes and reveling in the momentary darkness it granted me. After a few simple seconds, I looked to my mom and grinned, "Let's get this show on the road then!"

Mom grinned at me and motioned for us to make our way to the kitchen. We did, and sat all around. Bella was beside me, and on my other side was Edward, while Alice sat just beside him. My mom moved all the food onto the table, arranging it around us. The smell wafted from what she had cooked and I felt my mouth water.

She grinned as she looked at me, obviously loving the fact that she could cook for a numerous amount of people at once. I smiled back, not being able to resist my mother's infectious grin. I guess that's where I inherited it from.

"Will you say grace, Jazzy?" Mom asked with a grin, as she linked hands with me and Edward, who was on my other side. I felt my hand slide into Bella's cool, hard palm and felt the resulting chills erupt on my skin.

"Sure, Ma." I told her, closing my eyes and bowing my head. I wondered if Bella and her family believed in a higher power. My family, growing up in the South, was very religious, even though it was only me and my mother for most of my life. I grew up raised like this, so it was natural for me. I said a few choice words and then closed the prayer.

We all dropped hands and I sighed, picking up my fork. I felt eyes on me and looked over at Bella, who was giving me a small smile. I felt another pair of eyes on me and looked at Edward, who was giving me a look that was quite strange. It was both envious and loathing at the same time. I fought back a confused expression and dug into the food that surrounded us.

The whole supper itself was quiet and nice. Mom made chatter and I saw her eyes drift to Bella and back to me again and again, as if her instincts were kicking in. It felt awkward, like she could see through me. But her smile was ever-present and gentle when directed to the brunette.

The conversation was light and friendly. Strange, considering everything that had been happening to me lately, but it was a welcome reprieve from the weight that had been settled on my shoulders. It was almost alien, foreign, talking about things that were so mundane, such as school and football.

I helped Mom put up the dishes afterward, while Bella, Edward, and Alice made their way to the living room. I told them they could go up to my room if they wanted, and they obliged.

Mom turned to me and smiled softly, "My little Jazzy's finally found a girlfriend."

Oh God. I knew it would turn to this sooner or later.

"She's not technically my girlfriend, Ma." I told her in a lazy drawl.

"Well, have you kissed her?"

I felt my face color, and then I heard Mom's scoff in approval, "I thought so."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean anything…I…"

"It means that she likes you like you like her." Mom said, a note of wisdom in her words, "Obviously if she didn't want you to kiss her, then she would've struggled and it wouldn't have happened. And you wouldn't kiss anyone against their will. I know that much." She laughed after that and I sighed. She was right. About everything.

"Do I have to give you the birds and the bees speech, too?"

"No!" I shouted, my face now flaming to the color of a ripe tomato.

She dried the last plate with a dishtowel and laid it to dry on top of another towel. Looking at me, she just smiled like a mother would and said, "I hope it works out, hon."

I was taken aback by her sudden change of topic. I smiled back at her. "I hope so too."

Later, my mom sat on the couch, and I tried not to think about how I would never find that room safe again as I made my way up the stairs to meet with the three vampires that currently occupied my room.

At least they're the good kind. I thought to myself as I walked up the stairs. The old, wooden planks creaked under my feet before I walked to my room. Opening the door, I expected to find them irate, not wanting to reveal their secrets to a human. But when I appeared, Bella looked at me with relief and Edward and Alice turned to me, smiles on both their faces, their white hands twined together.

No one said anything for a long time.

I guess there wasn't much to say.

Then, Edward spoke, rising from his position on the windowsill next to Alice, and said, "I guess we'd better get started."

I quirked a brow, "What?"

"There's a bunch to tell you, Jasper." Bella's soft voice called to me from my bed, where she was seated. I tried to push inappropriate thoughts from my mind and only focused on her eyes. The topaz color of them penetrated the fog of my brain and made me listen.

"I suggest you sit down." Alice spoke, her light and tinkling voice sounding quite different, as if she knew how all of this was going to go.

I pulled up my beanbag chair and flopped in it like only a guy could. "Then let's get started."

Edward gave me a crooked smile and Bella rose from the bed, making her way over to me.

"There's so much…" Bella said, her eyes sad and compassionate.

"You're vampires. I know that much. Now fill in the blanks."

Edward looked shocked at how casually I said the word, and Bella only smiled at me, reassuring and kind.

"You wouldn't be so casual about this if you knew we could kill you in less than a second." Edward said, his voice cold.

"I saw what Bella did to those thugs in the alley." I said, looking over at Bella, who no longer was looking at me, but at Alice, who had risen from the windowsill and was walking to Edward.

Her small hand clamped on Edward's forearm and she sighed with a light smile. "Edward, don't you use those same scare tactics on him that you used on me. It's obviously not going to work."

That caused me to quirk a brow, but I didn't say anything.

"You're going to ask how our eyes are different than Victoria's." Alice said, as confident as I'd ever seen her. Which was saying something, because she was pretty confident most of the time.

I stopped as soon as I processed her words.

She was right.

That was the first question I had thought of, and she had nailed it on the head. How can she know that?

"And you're thinking, how can she know that?" Edward said, wrapping his pale arm around her tiny shoulders.

My eyes widened, and I looked to each of them, wondering how in the world this was happening. I guess I should've known that weird things were in abundance with the Cullens ever since I learned what they truly were, but this was ridiculous.

"To answer your first question," Bella started, kneeling beside me in the beanbag chair. It looked to be uncomfortable, but she didn't even look bothered by the strange position. "we don't drink the blood of humans, so our eyes aren't red."

"Then…what do you drink?"

"Animal blood." Bella gave me a small smile, her topaz eyes twinkling as if to prove her point even further.

Something lifted from my chest. I had thought all this time that Bella and her family were killing and drinking from humans, but now that she had cleared it up - the fact that she drank from animals helped me more than I ever imagined. I didn't even realize that the fact bothered me, but once I had the thing disproved, I felt better than ever about how I was feeling about Bella.

"Oh," Bella said, as if she just remembered, "Edward can read minds and Alice can see the future."

My jaw dropped open. I didn't even care who saw. This was the thing that happened in movies and science fiction novels. Vampires that could read minds and see into the future. This was beyond insane.

"Some vampires have special gifts, I suppose you could say." Bella said, smiling, "Something that could be enhanced when they were human. Alice had visions when she was human, and…well, Edward must have been a fluke."

Edward rolled his golden eyes at her.

"Me?" Bella said, pointing at herself, "Edward couldn't read my mind when I was human. Other vampires couldn't use their powers on me - the ones that focused on the mind. And when I was turned, I got the ability to extend the shield I had kept over my mind onto other people."

I gaped at her.

"A lot to take in, right?"

"Hell yeah."

I was still kind of confused, frankly, but I figured I would understand with the more time I spent with the Cullens.

"Anything else?" Bella asked, smiling at me.

"I can't find anything…" Edward said. Somehow, I felt a little too exposed now that I knew he could read my mind. Awkward…

"How do you…" I spoke, the words sounded hesitant and uncertain. I heard Edward intake a sharp breath, as if he didn't like where this was going. "become one of you?"

Bella looked like I had physically assaulted her. My heart lurched at the sight. I hated to know that this question was probably the one I shouldn't have asked. But I couldn't help it. Curiosity killed the human, I supposed.

"Bella, you shouldn't have to tell him." Edward said, looking at her sharply.

"No." The brunette said firmly, fixating her gaze on Alice, "I'm not going to keep it from him like you kept it from Alice for so long. Because you know that caused nothing but more problems."

Edward looked bitterly at his feet and Bella sent her gaze toward me. It took a while before she spoke, "Venom. We have venom inside our bodies…keeps everything lubricated and working, as well as helps turn others…"

"Venom?"

Bella nodded in a hurt manner, "One bite is all it takes to turn a human. The venom works its way through the body and makes you like us." She took her fist and rapped on her skull. It sounded like boulders clinking together, "Hard, invincible, like a stone. Never aging. With a bloodlust that would rival every carnivore on this planet."

She paused, then continued, "It takes three days. The pain is excruciating. Almost like you're being burned alive."

I stared at her and took a breath. It filled my lungs gratefully, and only then did I realize that I had stopped breathing during her monologue.

I had no more comments on that. So, I started on the more pressing matters, "And what about Victoria? Why is she so intent on giving me hell?"

Alice softened her gaze and walked to kneel beside Bella, while Edward kept his position standing up, almost at a constant vigil over all of us, as if something was going to go wrong. As if he expected the aforementioned vampire to come in the room after I spoke her name.

It looked like this was Alice's story to tell now. So Bella stood, stretching her joints, though I knew this was unnecessary, if what she told me about vampires was true. And I knew it was. Every single bit.

Her tinkling voice met my ears at once, "I was born in Mississippi about forty years ago. I don't remember much about it, but that is what I am aware of. My birth parents are a mystery…they abandoned my once I told them about my visions. Left me at a mental institution to rot, I suppose. Thought I was genuinely crazy."

I saw Edward wince at her choice of words. Almost like her pain was his own, bundled together and twined together. He hated hearing her talk about this, I already knew before she was halfway through her story.

"I stayed there, went through the insulin shock treatments. I might not remember much, but I do remember that. Never felt a worse pain until I was turned." Her eyes were drilling into mine, and I found it difficult to look away. "I also remember the first time I saw Edward."

Alice's voice turned loving at that, and I smiled at her gingerly.

"It was a cloudy day. Actually, most days around the sanitarium were cloudy, considering all of the trees that surrounded the place. Edward just walked onto the grounds - it was a time when they let all the patients out. He connected eyes with mine and there was just…this spark. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like everything I had been working towards had built toward meeting him. Ridiculous and stupid, I know, but that's how it was. Surely, it was the same when you met Bella."

I felt my face blush, remembering the first time that I saw Bella. Even through all my years in middle school through high school, I couldn't shake that first encounter. I felt like I wouldn't be complete until I saw her again. Alice's emotions toward Edward were completely understandable.

"But, yeah…" Alice sighed, clearing her mind of that memory and moving on to another part of her story, "Soon, Edward started visiting me. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't mind. No one really visited me, so I didn't complain. Not that the fact that I was head over heels for him without even knowing him had anything to do with it, but it did. We got to know each other more and more, and…he saved me."

The atmosphere in my room changed, the weight of the silence almost suffocating. No one said anything for a while.

"How?" I finally croaked after much deliberation.

Alice smiled, "Thought you'd never ask."

Edward had moved now to sit next to Alice, who was still staring into my eyes as she relayed her story about how her life as a Cullen began. Bella was just as enraptured as I was, though I was sure she'd heard this story plenty times before.

"There were other vampires, of course. I knew Edward was…different since the moment I laid eyes on him, but I just didn't know how different. He didn't tell me what he was until there was…how do I put it? Competition?"

Edward snorted in embarrassment.

"There was a vampire named James. Turns out, that was who Edward had been looking for all along. James had attacked the Cullens and Edward was hunting him down so they wouldn't rise up again. Noble, Eddie, really." She looked toward the bronze haired vampire and then turned back to me, "I guess James was looking how to get revenge on them. They had killed one of their clan members…Laurent, I think. That left him and Victoria."

Hearing the name caused me to hold my the shudder that rippled down my back.

"James was looking to kill me to get back at Edward." Alice said it so simply that it caused yet another series of chills to race down my spine. "He wanted to cause Edward the worst pain imaginable - killing the one he loved. He almost succeeded, too. While Edward was away for just a millisecond, tending to things with his family, James found me in my cell."

Her mate's hand found hers and squeezed tightly.

"He had killed so many people to infiltrate there…someone would just think that a psycho escaped. We had so many at the asylum that it wasn't rare to have someone murdered… I had been awoken by screams. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I figured someone had sharpened their toothbrush or something of the sort and used it as a shank. Wouldn't have been the first time. So I waited for the screaming to stop, but it went on for a while. Seemed odd for a patient to be giving so much trouble at such a late hour.

"After what seemed like hours, my cell door opened. I wasn't sure what was happening. They rarely visited during the day. But it wasn't anyone I knew. No, it was something far different."

I gulped deeply. The chills never seemed to leave my body.

"His eyes glowed red. Blood dripped from his lips and stained the entire front of his pristine white shirt. Hands, feet, hair…everything was covered in blood. He smiled at me, blood dripping from his lips and pattering against the floor in small droplets. I knew that there was something wrong, and a wicked image - one of my lying on the floor, screaming and writhing in agony, the bone sticking out of my leg - passed through my head."

I noticed Edward give Alice's hand a squeeze after she paused for a while, remembering quite well what happened. The two of them were bonded in a most inexplicable way, and I could almost feel it radiating off of them. Their adoration and caring for one another pierced my skin like razor wire.

"I knew that was a vision of what he'd do. He had decided upon it, and was sure he'd let it come to fruition. My visions are subjective, though. So I didn't put into account Edward, who was racing to me at that moment. He was almost too late, though. When he got to me, my leg - like I had seen in my vision - was broken. I was losing so much blood. He had gotten a piece of glass from the shattered windows and cut at my wrists…

"I was drifting in and out of consciousness, the pain was so severe. I hardly had time to register and be thankful that Edward had arrived and was fighting the man that had come to destroy me.

"I wasn't sure how everything went down. My vision was black. I couldn't see anything. I could only hear Edward's voice in my ear, 'Alice. I can save you…do you want to be saved?' His voice was desperate and very unlike him. It was strange. I didn't know what I was agreeing to, but I nodded my head. His teeth pierced my neck, and then I started to burn…"

Bella shook her head slightly, all the images playing in her head as they were in mine. It was a lot to take in.

"I woke up three days later. And started my life as a Cullen."

It was quiet for a while after that, in which we just stared. Alice looked very emotional, after just baring her soul to me for the first time. Bella looked somber, and Edward looked like he was in pain. Guilty.

"Edward thinks he stole my soul that day." Alice said after a while, and I saw her tiny hand squeeze his, "But he doesn't know that by doing what he did…he gave me everything I never had."

If Edward was capable, I was sure he'd be blushing at that.

"Then…why is Victoria here?"

"To avenge the death of her mate and Laurent." Edward said simply, "She knew she couldn't take us all on at once, so she decided to wait, I guess. For what, we don't know, but now she has an opportunity. By killing you, she'd avenge everything that we have done. That makes sense to her mind, I guess."

"What do we do, then?" My voice sounded shaky and I cleared my throat, as if that would help.

"We kill her." Bella spoke, her voice fierce, "Before she can get to you."

I looked around the room. The room that was victimized by this vampire bent on revenge. I let out a shaky sigh and then felt Bella's hand wrap around my digits. The coolness soothed me, but I still felt uneasy about this whole situation.

Something told me that killing Victoria would be easier said than done.

End Chapter Nineteen.

And there ya go! There's chapter nineteen, but technically this fic has twenty including the prologue. It's hard to believe that I started this fic almost a year ago, and already I have so much written on it!

I am so glad to have so many loyal reviewers that enjoy what I write. It makes writing this fic that much more fun and I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter!

Thanks for reading!