Disclaimer: Don't own. Any of it. All Stephenie Meyer's.

Chapter Twenty-One- Flesh Meets the Spirit World

"When the flesh meets the spirit world
Where the traffic is thin
I slip from a vacant view
I should have thought of that
And the sound of tomorrow
Like a black-hearted vile thing
Like the silence of tension

It's too many lonely nights
I can't tell good from bad
I can't pass you by
Too exchanging
You've been around
But you've changed me"

-David Bowie ft. Gary Oldman- "You've Been Around"

Edward couldn't stop thinking about Jasper; Jasper's eyes, Jasper's abs, Jasper's honey colored curls, Jasper's lips, Jasper's voice. Jasper, Jasper, Jasper. He couldn't help himself. Ever since their kiss, he was all Edward could think about.

It's wrong to think about him, Edward told himself. That didn't stop him from fantasizing about the vampire. Even if something did happen between us, it won't last very long, he told himself. His mind flashed back to what Jasper had told him about vampires and their human lovers.

"Emotions are more intense for vampires. When a vampire loves, it is more intense than when a human loves. When a vampire loses their chosen mate, it takes decades to get over it, if they ever do…." Jasper's words replayed in his mind.

"When Melanie died, Mathieu couldn't handle the thought of her not being in his life anymore. He met the sun the next morning…"

Edward didn't think he could have that big of an impact on Jasper's life, but that thought scared him.

He was also a little mad at the vampire. It had been four days since he'd seen him. Four days since their kiss. Four days since Jasper learned Edward had read his mind, and surprisingly hadn't tried to kill Edward for it.

The vampires took turns sitting in Edward's room every night. The night after their kiss, Edward hoped Jasper would be back, but Rosalie came to him that night, Emmett was there the next night, Luke the night after that and then Rosalie again last night. Where was Jasper? Edward wondered.

He didn't have time to worry about it anyway. His final exams were starting and he had to focus all his time and energy into studying. He was glad that vampires were the ones sitting in his room with him every night. Since they gave off no brainwaves, he didn't have to work to shut them out. Vampires also seemed to go into a sort of downtime.

Edward had witnessed it for the first time a few nights ago when Rosalie was with him. She was sitting in the corner, eyes open wide but not really seeing. Edward called to her, but she didn't answer. He ran to her and shook her. Rosalie had jumped up ready to attack whatever threat was in the room. She explained to Edward then that vampires went into downtime.

It was a vampire's way of recharging their energy at night when their daytime rest was so far away. She did seem more recharged afterwards, Edward thought. Emmett and Luke had done the same thing when they were there as well, only now Edward wasn't freaked out by it.

Edward sat down at his desk and glanced out the window. The sun was going down. Soon, one of the vampires would be arriving. Who will it be tonight, Edward wondered. Probably Emmett, if they kept to the rotation.

There was a knock on the door. Edward didn't move from his spot on the bed and called out rather gruffly, "Which one of you is it?"

"Jasper," said the knocker.

Edward's heart leapt into his throat and a smile found its way across his face before he realized it. "Uh," he cleared his throat and tried again. "Come on in."

The door opened and Jasper stepped inside. Has he always looked this good? Edward wondered. Then he mentally slapped himself on the forehead. Of course he has, he's a vampire, he's looked exactly the same for nearly two centuries.

Maybe it was his outfit that made him seem so much more attractive to Edward tonight than in the past. He was wearing simple blue jeans and a black button down shirt. He sat down in the corner, where the vampires before him had sat. Edward noticed he hadn't bothered tucking his shirt into his pants and the top two buttons were undone. Edward almost groaned.

Jasper smirked. "You're sexual arousal can't be good for your concentration."

Edward dropped his pencil in surprise. "Stay out of my emotions!" he demanded.

The empath laughed. "I can't help it. Your arousal is so strong it's choking me. Control yourself, my little telepath."

Edward rolled his eyes and picked up his pencil. He turned to his laptop and started typing his paper.

"What are you writing about?"

"Plasma physics," Edward answered. That was a lie though. Edward found it so difficult to focus with the eye candy in the corner that the only thing he was typing now was the alphabet.

"What is that?" Jasper asked, genuinely curious.

"Plasma physics is concerned with the study of highly ionized gases- that is, gases that have been separated into positively and negatively charged particles."

"What?"

"Never mind." Edward shook his head. He knew that confused look Jasper had on his face. Pretty much anytime Edward opened his mouth around normal people, they got that look. They didn't understand him, he knew that and understood that.

Edward snuck a look at Jasper. The vampire seemed to be in downtime. His blue eyes wide open for Edward to see. He turned back to his computer. Write, dammit, he commanded himself. The window was open, letting Chicago's cold night air flowed into the room.

Edward was focused on his paper now. Then, a breeze from outside blew Jasper's scent into his nose. He smells like lavender, Edward thought. He almost laughed at the thought of a man who smelled like lavender. And just like that, all thoughts were wiped from his mind.

He'd typed the alphabet once, now he was typing it backward. "zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba".

"Fuck," he groaned. His hands grabbed his hair in tight fists. There was no way this paper was getting finished with Jasper in the room. And there was no way Jasper would leave Edward alone. What to do, what to do, Edward thought.

He spied his iPhone lying on the desk in front of him. An idea crossed his mind and without thinking it through, he picked up his iPhone and snapped a picture of Jasper. At the sound of a picture being taken, Jasper looked up.

"What did you just do?" he asked suspiciously.

"Took a picture of you," Edward answered sweetly.

"Why?"

"So I could add it to my TwitPics."

"Your what?"

"TwitPics."

Jasper stared at him. "What is that?"

Edward sighed. "You are so last century. A TwitPic is a picture that you upload to your Twitter account."

"Twitter?"

Another sigh from the human. "Twitter is a website that allows you to tell the world what you are doing at that moment. Oh, look at that! HalesBellsFF thinks you have sex hair and wants to know what we've been up to…" he trailed off at the end.

"What are you talking about?" Jasper's voice was confused and slightly amused. Edward crossed the room and took the seat next to Jasper. He gave him a virtual tour of Twitter, explaining how the website works.

Edward let the vampire play with it a little, asking questions as he discovered something new. Edward was leaning over Jasper's shoulder when he suddenly realized how close he was to the vampire, close enough to smell that his hair was coconut scented. Edward swallowed.

Jasper cursed. Edward laughed nervously. "Maybe you could use it better on the computer." He stood up and went to his computer, quickly closing out all of his windows. The vampire sat down and the human left him to explore the website.

The telepath sat down on his bed and started to read one of his favorite books- 1984 by George Orwell.

A curse from Jasper caused him to look up. "What the fuck is this?"

Edward looked at the screen and laughed. "You got the Fail Whale!" He guffawed.

"Fail Whale?"

Edward quickly explained what the Fail Whale was to a confused looking Jasper. He snickered. "Sign me out, would you?"

"How do I do that?" the vampire asked.

The telepath sighed. "You click the button in the corner that says sign out."

"How do I click?"

The human groaned. "Are you kidding me? What did you do a moment ago to get the Fail Whale?"

Jasper looked at the computer. "I moved this thing and pushed this and then it just…came up!"

Edward tried to hold in his laughter at the bewildered expression on the vampire's face. He stood up and assisted the technologically challenged vampire. "There, I'm signed out."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

Jasper stood up slowly, eyed the computer and then went back to his corner. Edward laughed and sat down in the chair that Jasper had just been occupying. He had a flash when his butt hit the seat. Normally when you sit in a chair after someone else has gotten up the seat is warm, but when Edward sat down after Jasper got up, the chair was cold. He shivered and tried to distract himself. Studying was pretty much beyond him as long as Jasper was around.

Suddenly, his mind flashed back to the last conversation he'd had with Jasper about vampires and their human lovers. Those cryptic words played over in his head for the second time tonight. "When Melanie died, Mathieu couldn't handle the thought of her not being in his life anymore. He met the sun the next morning…"

"Hey Jasper," Edward called. He'd just had an idea and needed to ask Jasper right away.

"Yes?" the vampire said, looking over at Edward.

"The other night when we were talking about vampires falling in love with humans, you told me about Mathieu and Melanie and how he met the sun after she died because he couldn't handle it."

"I did," Jasper said, raising an eyebrow. He wasn't sure where Edward was going with this.

"Well, I was just wondering if the emotions are that strong between them, does the human feel like that as well when a vampire dies?"

Jasper thought. "I've only heard of this a couple of times. Sometimes vampires and humans form what is called a blood bond. This happens after the vampire and human exchange blood three times."

"Humans drink vampire blood?" Edward asked.

Jasper nodded. "It happens in relationships between human and vampire. The blood bond enables you to know the other's emotions and sense the other's general location. That's one of the things that makes it so difficult for a vampire to lose their human.

"When the human dies, the blood bond is literally ripped from the vampire. Mathieu was with Melanie for so long, that after her death he felt as if his soul were in pieces. He was in physical pain, not just emotional. And mentally he couldn't live without her. Hence the reason he ended his life," Jasper said.

"I didn't know vampires were so emotional," Edward said with a chuckle.

Jasper narrowed his eyes. "Normally, we aren't. Some vampires never take a human for their partner due to the fact that it makes them weak. If a vampire has an enemy, the human can be used as leverage or even injured to force the vampire into doing what his enemy wants. No matter how strong or guarded a vampire is, they know that their partner is their weakness. Some vampires go to great lengths to keep their partner secret from other vampires, especially if a blood bond is in place. Vampires are very cautious whom they form a blood bond with. They only do it once, if they ever do it at all. Some vampires don't believe humans aren't worth the risk. You understand."

"Yeah, I get it." Edward nodded as he spoke.

"Going back to your original question, if the human has a blood bond with a vampire and then the vampire dies, yes they do feel the pain as well. Same as a vampire, it feels like their soul is being ripped apart. Sometimes after their human dies, a vampire is able to move on, as they are used to death and loss. As I said the other night, it takes a few decades and sometimes a century. Humans never move on if their vampire dies," Jasper explained.

"What about vampires?" he asked, thinking of Rosalie and Emmett. He didn't know Emmett all that well, but he would hate to think what they would go through should one of them meet their final death.

"For vampires, the feelings are intensified. I explained this before. Vampires can form blood bonds, but if one of them should meet their final death, it would destroy the other one as well," the vampire said. "That is why it is looked down upon for vampires to have a relationship with other vampires. It is dangerous for both."

Edward nodded, taking in all the information Jasper had given him. "You guys are complicated," he said.

Jasper chuckled. "There's more to being a vampire than drinking blood and hiding in shadows."

"I can see that," Edward said, laughing.

Jasper nodded. "Now, stop asking me questions and get back to work."

"Okay, okay." He turned back to his computer screen.

"You may want to delete the alphabet you typed, though," Jasper said.

Edward poked his tongue out at him. "I would be getting more work done if you weren't sitting over there looking all sexy," he said honestly.

Jasper smirked. "I can't help it, just comes natural."

"Cocky bastard," Edward mumbled.

The vampire laughed. "May I ask why you are so interested in the ways of a vampire's relationship with a human?"

"Just curious," Edward said.

"Are you sure?" Jasper raised an eyebrow.

Edward nodded. "Pretty sure." Of course, he didn't tell Jasper about how he fantasized about being his human lover.

Jasper nodded. "If you say so."

"Well, I do."

"Okay, then."

"All right."

"All right," Jasper repeated.

Edward turned back to his computer and started working on his paper again. A loud buzzing sound in his ear drew him back to reality. He sat up in his bed and turned off his alarm clock.

"Seven o'clock?" He scratched his head. "What the hell?" Light from the early morning sun streamed in his windows. The last thing he remembered was sitting at his computer with Jasper in the corner. How did he end up in his bed? He looked down and realized he was almost fully dressed still. His pants from last night were hanging on the back of his chair in front of his desk.

Edward closed his eyes and said out loud, "Jasper put me in my bed and took my pants off and I wasn't awake for any of it? Fucking mother fucker." Gathering up all his strength, he climbed out of bed to begin his day.

Emmett was waiting in his room when he got back from the library. "Hello," the vampire said with a smile.

"Hello, Emmett," Edward replied, smiling as well. "So you're my babysitter for the night?"

"I prefer the term bodyguard. Babysitter makes me think of some teenage girl whose just coming into puberty sitting with toddlers and getting chased up the stairs by psycho killers. But then, bodyguard doesn't really fit either since bodyguard makes me think of people guarding a dead body. In this case the dead body is guarding you."

Edward turned around slowly to look at the vampire, who was still smiling. "Uh, okay, Emmett," Edward said. He was beginning to wonder if vampires could be retarded, if they could, Emmett should definitely get checked out.

Edward went over to his computer and sat down to finish working on his paper. He couldn't fall asleep this time, like he had last night. An hour later, he was finished. He even asked Emmett to read over it for him.

When Emmett finished reading it, he just stared at Edward and asked, "You understand this stuff?"

Edward laughed. "Yeah, it's all fascinating to me."

Emmett nodded. His eyebrows drew together. "You're kinda weird, aren't you?"

"If that's your opinion, then I can't change it." He laughed. Another hour later, Edward had showered and was climbing into bed.

"Good night, little human," Emmett whispered from his place in the corner.

"Good night, big vampire," he responded. He closed his eyes and was asleep a minute later.

A/N: So this is a little shorter than normal, but what are you gonna do about it? Also, I know I cockteased you with that last chapter, but I withheld the information for a reason. You'll find out what happened after their kiss in a few chapters. Be patient, my lovelies.

By the way, Edward really does have a Twitter now! Follow him at: FuckYeahImSpace And if you want, you can even follow me: JLL_Muser

Always, JLL