-Chapter Twenty-

If it weren't for the telltale bruises staining my shoulder, left from the kickback of the shotgun, I might have dreamed the whole day that James died. Instead, the bruise served as a physical reminder that it was real, not some fantasy I had come up with.

I, Maisie Thompson, sixteen years old, was a regular Buffy Summers. Though my weapon of choice—or Edward's choice, more accurately—had been a shotgun, not a spike. And, like Buffy Summers, I had kissed a vampire.

The problem was that I didn't like to think of Jasper that way. It was hard for me to think of any of the Cullens vampires. That word conjured up villains, of recluses who live in dreary, damp castles, of dark figures stealing through the night and stealing femme fatales from their beds.

Maybe I had watched too many old movies with my grandparents when I was little.

Either way, the word vampire did not really fit, in my mind, any of the Cullens.

Not Carlisle, the kindly young doctor.

Not Esme, who I had only met briefly the night James had broken into our house, with her kind eyes and sincere smiles.

Rosalie's haughty beauty certainly defied the word, as did Emmett's booming laugh and dimpled grins.

Certainly not Alice's way of dancing down the halls at school, or Edward's boyishly reserved manner.

It definitely didn't fit the courteous, confident, attentive boy with the bright smiles that I had come to find under Jasper's shyness.

James, yes. James was a vampire in my mind, with his red eyes and his sickly sinister smile. Maria, with her fingernail cutting into my cheek, her tongue licking my blood from her lips. That was vampiric.

Despite all that Jasper had told me, all that I had seen, I was unable to correlate the two in my head. Perhaps I should have spent more time mulling over all of this, especially since Edward was still in Alaska and my thoughts would be safe for now. But I was also a teenage girl who had been kissed by a beautiful boy, so once Jasper had returned to his house, I changed out of the clothes I borrowed from Alice and texted Jessica instead.

Guess what? I pressed send. Almost immediately, I got a reply from Jessica.

I'm going to push Bella Swan into the Pacific Ocean? I giggled despite myself. Mike is having to work double time to get her attention. One of the guys from the reservation is equally in love with her.

You can't go to jail for murder, I texted back to her. I need you to bear witness to something else.

Only if you'll defend me at my trial.

Hush. I'll just tell you if you aren't going to guess. My thumbs felt clumsy in my excitement as I typed out the words. Jasper kissed me today.

Jessica's first response was a stream of capitalized gibberish: A;LSKDFFNIJTJKMFASLM.

Her second was full of expletives: Shut the fuck up. You're kidding, right? Damn. Was it great? Tell me it was fucking fabulous. Distract me from my hell, please.

I couldn't contain the wide smile that overcame my face. I rolled on my bed so that I was laying on my stomach, typing quickly.

It WAS fabulous. I typed away, telling her all the things that made it fabulous, like that it was an out of the blue surprise and how he had cupped my face with his hands and every other little detail that I knew would make Jess swoon.

And I reveled in my bragging, because first and foremost in my mind, Jasper was nothing more than a teenage boy with a quietly sweet demeanor that I liked. A lot.

I had forgotten that I had told Jasper he could come back, so we could talk, until there was a light tapping on my window.

My first reaction was for all of my senses to be set on edge. I had to remind myself that James was no longer a concern. Honeybun, laying on my rug like she liked to, lifted her head toward the window and her tail started wagging.

"Don't bark, okay? No barking," I gave her a scratch between her ears when I passed her on my way to the window. My family was settling in for the night, I knew. I hoped, quickly, that Mom hadn't turned the security system on yet.

When I pulled my curtains back, it revealed the image of Jasper lounging casually in the tree outside my window. He was still wearing the same thing he had been earlier—a reddish orange sweater, jeans, no jacket or gloves despite the falling snow. I thought the smile he gave me might just be enough to light up the night outside.

Opening my window didn't set off the security alarm, thankfully. Jasper slipped in easily and closed the window behind him, sitting on my window seat as he did so. Honeybun made her way over, resting her head on Jasper's knee and waiting for pets.

"That's a first," he mumbled to himself more than me. Tentatively, he sunk his hand into Honeybun's thick fur and rubbed her head.

"Don't feel too special," I teased him. "Honeybun here loves everyone."

"She's very…trusting." Jasper held his hand out for Honeybun to sniff. After giving it a good investigation, she licked at his fingers happily.

"Oh," I said, realizing suddenly. "Is she going to bother you? I can take her to Gunner's room."

We had been speaking in whispers because, of course, I was not advertising the fact that I had a secret boy in my room. It was only 9:30 at night, but I knew my family was hunkering down after our eventful week—not that they even knew the half of it.

Jasper laughed quietly. "No, she's fine. Animals don't even smell appetizing. I was just surprised she didn't go to raising hell. Usually, animals sense us as dangerous."

"Even tamed animals?" I was rolling up a blanket to wedge in the crack between the bottom of my door and the floor. I didn't want to take the chance of our voices carrying. This was a trick I used a lot, during late night phone conversations when I was supposed to be asleep.

"Yes. They can smell the difference between humans and…others. I suppose it doesn't matter much to Honeybun, though."

"I don't think much matters to her, so long as she's getting attention." I flicked off my light and placed the blanket in the crack.

"It doesn't bother you to be here, either, does it?" Jasper scooted along the window seat to make room for me. I tucked myself in beside him. Honeybun, apparently satisfied with the amount of petting she had gotten, returned to her spot on my rug.

"Not as long as you're here, too. It's much easier to handle, the thirst, when you're around." We sat with our backs to the walls, facing each other, our legs in a tangle in between us. I left the curtains open, giving us some light. Snow always glowed at night, somehow, even when the moon and stars were hidden behind the clouds.

"Is that why you like me?" The whole point of Jasper coming over was for me to ask questions. That had been Jasper's idea.

His smile that he gave me was sheepish. "I won't say it's not a positive, especially considering my track record, but, no. I thought you were kind, first, the day you told me to leave class."

I had forgotten about that stormy day. "It was hard for you, that day?"

He nodded in the moonlight. "Yes. The humidity and the lights going out and all the anxiety from everyone around me…it made the atmosphere close and thick. I wasn't prepared for it, and it was getting to me. I would have made a huge mistake if you hadn't told me to go."

Reaching across our legs, I took his hand into mine.

"Does it happen a lot for you?" I was asking not because I was scared—it was already solidified in my mind that Jasper wouldn't hurt me—but rather because I felt bad. Pity wasn't exactly the right word, but I didn't like the idea that Jasper was always struggling. It wasn't fair.

"I've been working on it since the forties," his tone was almost casual, as was the little smirk playing on his lips, but his eyes told a different story. "It's slowly getting better. Undoing all the damage from serving in Maria's army is like moving through molasses, but it's possible."

Like moving through molasses.

"I'm sorry it's hard for you," I couldn't help but say. Jasper gave my hand a little squeeze and shrugged.

"It's okay. My family's always been a great support. Even Rosalie and Edward, most of the time." I smiled at him in the dark, hoping it was reassuring. The dark didn't last long—it had stopped snowing, and the clouds had started to break apart. This was a usual weather pattern for Forks. I had seen the moon many more times than I had seen the sun since moving to Washington.

"Alice said you can change people's moods?" I studied him in the moonlight. It reflected off the snow so strongly that I could see more of the scars Jasper had told me he earned from his time in Maria's army.

They crisscrossed his neck, bleeding onto his jawline. A few were misplaced along his face: one on his temple, just shy of his eye; another next to his mouth, cutting through his lower lip. It was amazing to me that they healed so well. You wouldn't ever guess they were there, if you didn't know what you should be looking for.

"Yes, and feel them. The emotions are more potent if I know someone well…which makes all of Rose and Edward's spats a lot of fun." His smile here was rueful. "But it makes being around Esme wonderful. When Esme loves you, she never lets you forget it."

"How does that work? Changing someone's emotions?"

"Do you want me to show you?" Jasper quirked one eyebrow upward.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but Jasper had yet to fail me, so I said 'sure'. The change was subtle, at first. I had been calm before, maybe even a little sleepy, but it had been a long week. Slowly, I felt more and more awake, like I had drank a considerable amount of coffee and the caffeine was worming its way into my bloodstream. I started to feel jittery, too, like I wanted to tap my fingers or pace or just some kind of movement because I had too much energy in my body.

"Okay, stop that," I said when it became too much for me. Jasper chuckled softly and immediately the jittery alertness drained from me, replaced with the comfortable sleepiness I had felt before.

"I don't like to use it on people I care about, unless I think it will truly benefit them. If Edward were here, for example, I might flood him with calm and tranquility to help him with Bella Swan's smell."

"Will it make it harder for you, when Edward comes back?" The way his eyes widened, and his eyebrows shot up, let me know that Jasper hadn't even thought about that.

"Undoubtedly," he conceded softly. "I can't turn it off. This isn't a choice for me, to feel everyone else's emotions. And the more familiar I am with someone, the more intensely I feel their emotions. I don't know how you could stand the stitches, I could barely handle all the pain and itching in class."

"You could feel all that and you didn't do anything about it? Rude." He picked up on my teasing, that smirk returning to his face.

"That's twice in a week you've called me rude. You were hurt before all of this, before everything changed. I also try not to interfere with the emotions of people who don't know what we are. One of the biggest rules of our kind is to not draw attention, remember, and that leaves a lot of gray area for myself, Edward, and Alice, as our family chooses to assimilate with humans."

"Do y'all ever interfere?" In the moonlight, I watched Jasper nod.

"We have before, when we've felt it necessary. When we've been able to do it quietly. It's easier for Edward and Alice; they've always been better at interacting with humans than I have been. Carlisle is really the holy grail, though. He's done so much for so many people over the years. We try, but Carlisle's always going to have us beat."

Jasper was the one who could hone in on other people's feelings, but it was obvious that he loved both Esme and Carlisle from the way he spoke of them. He said that living among humans created gray areas for them, but I realized I was in a gray area myself. The Cullens were not evil monsters in my mind, but James was. Maria was.

Humans could fall anywhere on the range from good to evil. Vampires, I decided that night, could too.

I was getting sleepier the more Jasper and I talked. His whispered words, the dark, the quiet, snowy world outside…all of it was conspiring to lull me to sleep. And Jasper knew it, too, as he could feel it as much as I could.

"You need to sleep," he told me, ignoring my protests. "You've had a long week, Maisie."

After a few minutes, I gave in to Jasper's insistence that I should go to bed. "I guess."

Jasper laughed while I yawned. He carefully untangled himself from me, sitting upright on our shared window seat. I sat up, too, getting ready to stand up and cross the room to my bed.

"Can I kiss you again, now that you're not wearing my sister's clothes?" He was teasing me, making me blush and giggle. I turned my face upward toward him. Jasper kissed me first on the lips, softly and sweetly, and the again on my forehead.

When Jasper positioned his hands under the window sill to open it, I nearly knocked myself over to grab onto his sweater sleeve to stop him.

"Jasper! The alarm, remember? Let me go turn it off before you open it."

"Don't worry," he told me with a wink. "Go to bed, sleepy head. I'll be too quick to trigger the alarm."

I had my doubts, but I also had no chance to voice them. Jasper was true to his word. He was on the other side of the window before I could even blink, giving me one more farewell wave from the tree.

"Show off," I grumbled, knowing he would be able to hear me. I waved back to Jasper and closed my curtains, stepping over Honeybun to get into bed.

Monday morning dawned so bitterly cold that Gunner and I spent the morning trying to gas each other up to make the trek from the doorway to my car.

"You have fire hair," I told Gunner. "Use your ginger powers to get us there."

"I already told you, I'm not carrying you to the car. This is sibling solidarity, we're both freezing."

"You two better get out there before I push your both out of the house and lock the door," Mom threatened, tying on Ava's snow boots.

"The snow's going to be to my knees!" I protested.

"Your father was out before sunup, shoveling the drive way so you can back out and get to school."

Neither of us had a retort for Mom's guilt trip. Gunner blew his breath through his nose, steeling himself, and grabbed my gloved hand in his.

"We'll make a run for it." I was glad for Gunner's hold on my hand. I would have turned around and ran back inside if he hadn't pulled me to the car. We wasted time shivering inside, waiting for the heater to warm us up, before heading to school.

This made us later than we had been in a week. Other people were actually in the parking lot. Like the kind sister that I was, I parked as close to the gym as I could for Gunner.

"Watch me. Make sure I don't freeze to death before I make it to the doors."

I did watch him, laughing at the way he let his limbs flail through the snow in his haste to get to the gym. The cold was a stealer of dignity, it seemed. After Gunner was safely inside and not instantaneously frozen, I myself rushed to the closest building.

My first class was in a different hall than this one, but my desire to be warm won out over my desire to not be late for class. Cutting through this hall, though, put me right in the path of Bella. She was much paler than she usually was, her eyes darting around. I gave her a polite smile as I tried to walk past, but Bella's arm shot out, stopping me in my tracks.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Her voice was soft, but urgent.

"Um, sure." I honestly thought it would be something about Mike or Jessica. I let her pull me aside, where there was a break between two rows of lockers. It made for a little pocket of privacy in the hallway.

Bella was several inches taller than me. The shadows of our location made the dark blotches under her eyes more obvious. She looked like she had a rougher week than I had, and I had assisted in killing a vampire.

"So…what's up?" I prompted when Bella bit her thumbnail instead of saying anything. The bell was going to ring soon. Gunner would never stop making fun of me if I got a tardy, since me and Dad had spent all weekend teasing him.

I wasn't prepared for the words that Bella blurted out. "Do you know what the Cullens are?"

"Alaskans?" I was grappling for something, anything, to cover my surprise. How could Bella know? Edward surely hadn't told her—hell, he was still in Alaska himself.

She seemed to deflate at my feigned ignorance. "They're dangerous."

"Is there some kind of rivalry between Arizona and Alaska that I don't know about?" My heart was pounding in my chest. I kind of felt like I was going to throw up. I hadn't expected to be confronted so blatantly about the Cullens.

She leaned closer to me. I wanted desperately to leave, but Bella was blocking my way. When I took a step forward, so did she, keeping me boxed in.

"You don't understand." The words came out like a hiss. "They aren't regular people."

"Listen," I said, decided quickly that defensive denial was the best way to go. "I don't know what kind of water y'all were drinking in Arizona, but you're not making any sense. Move."

Bella opened her mouth to speak, but a different voice interrupted her.

"Excuse me." It was the first time I had heard Rosalie speak. She loomed behind us, lovely even with her severe glare. "I hate to interrupt, but I need Maisie here. It's urgent."

Rosalie didn't give Bella a choice. She reached past her and took hold of my elbow, pulling me carefully but quickly away. Her touch was cool and light. She didn't even glance back at Bella. I fell in line beside Rosalie, the sound of the heels on her boots clicking even louder in my ears than my own heartbeat.

"Thank you," I said softly. I wondered where the rest of her family was, where Jasper was.

"It was nothing," Rosalie snapped at first. Then, more softly, but with an air of begrudging her own words: "You helped my family when you didn't have to. So, I helped you."

She walked me all the way to the double doors at the end of the halls, well out of Bella's sight.

"Play stupid if she approaches you again. I can't believe this. You knowing is bad enough, but this girl? This stupid girl? This might be the time I really do kill Edward."

Most of what Rosalie said was to herself rather than me. I thanked her again, not bothering to remind her that Edward couldn't have told Bella. I had no idea how she had found out, but I figured Rosalie didn't either, and I didn't want to stoke her anger further.

I nearly collided with Jasper when I opened the door.

"I was coming," he said apologetically. Turning his gaze above my head, he looked at Rosalie. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw her angrily tapping away on her phone. "Giving Edward a piece of her mind, no doubt."

"Did I say anything wrong?" I asked. Jasper was shaking head before I even finished my sentence. He placed a hand on my back, leading me toward a different hall, where my first class was.

"No, you were fine," he promised. "Always deny, like Rosalie said. We can't even be sure she really knows unless she says the word."

I wanted to ask about Edward, if he would be able to know if he came back, from reading Bella's mind. It hardly seemed like the time or place, though, so instead I let Jasper walk me to class. His face wore a pensive look the whole way there.

Outside the classroom door, Jasper dipped his head like he might kiss my cheek. Which he did, but he also whispered to me, "Everything will be okay. Well, maybe not for Edward. I've never felt Rose this mad."

Jasper left me with a reassuring smile, but I'm sure he felt how nervous I was over Bella's confrontation. I was still getting my feet wet in this new world I had stepped into, and Bella had made me unsteady.

I was deathly curious, as were the Cullens, I was sure, how Bella had become privy to the secret. If she was privy to it.

A/N: Hello, sweet readers! I just wanted to give a quick thank you to everyone for their kind words last chapter 3 I hope you continue to enjoy the story as we progress!