A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! They really make me happy! :) Enjoy this next chapter!
Jasper and I ran back to the Cullen house, holding hands the whole time, only stopping to steal a kiss every now and then. When the front drive came into view, I saw that my car was in the drive; Melody and Antonio must be waiting for me.
"You'll do wonderfully," Jasper assured me. "I'll feel if it gets to be too much for you, and none of us would let you hurt them."
"I trust you," I said, but I was still afraid I would lose control.
We walked inside and were welcomed by Carlisle and Esme.
"Gwendolyn, you look beautiful, dear," Esme said with a big smile, pulling me into a hug.
"Welcome to the family," Carlisle said, and I hugged him, too.
"Is everyone here?" I asked, but then realized that that was a really stupid question since I could hear everyone's voices.
"They're in the living room." Carlisle winked. "It's a lot to get used to, but it seems that you're doing very well." He looked to Jasper for confirmation.
"She's even more controlled than Bella," Jasper said, and I could tell he was proud of me.
"It seems like we really know how to pick our future family members," a familiar voice said, and I whirled around to see Alice. "Glad those clothes came in handy after all." She gestured to what Jazz and I were wearing.
"Oh, um, yeah. Thank you," I said, now really embarrassed.
She smiled. "Melody and Antonio are dying to see you."
I looked at the others, but I was addressing Jasper more than anyone. "Will I be okay?"
"Don't worry!" Alice flitted over to my side and took my hand. "You won't hurt them. I've triple-checked the future and they're one hundred percent safe."
"Okay, then." I nodded to her and she began dragging me towards the living room, Jasper following us, along with Carlisle and Esme. I just knew that Carlisle was curious about how I would react around human blood. I was quite the scientific experiment for him.
"Guys! Look who's all better!" Alice announced as we walked into the living room, and all eyes turned on me, followed by a round of applause.
"All right!" Emmett looked like he had found a particularly irritable grizzly to wrestle. "Do you know how much I've missed you these past three days?"
"I'm sure." I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Hey, I'm stronger than you now, aren't I?"
That took Emmett's enthusiasm down a notch. "Well, that's debatable-"
"I could kick your ass as a human and I can kick your ass as a vampire, Em."
"Finally! Someone can put my husband in his place, besides me," Rosalie added, coming to stand beside us. "Even though this wasn't the path I wanted you to go down, Gwen, I really am glad that you're here with us now," she said seriously.
"Thank you, Rosalie. That really means a lot to me." I gave her a hug. "I'm glad to have you as my sister."
Rose was quite touched, her eyes filling with gratitude as Emmett put his arm around her waist.
But the two people that I had wanted to see the most had not come over to me yet, and that's when I realized that the Cullens had formed a barrier between me and the two humans in the room.
Jasper took my hand and said, "She won't hurt them. She's very controlled."
Alice backed him up, but she didn't seem as encouraging as she had just a minute ago, and I could understand why: putting a newborn and her mate in the same room wasn't a very good situation.
"That's it. I've had enough of this waiting around shit." Melody's voice was determined. "Gwendolyn, I want to see your vampire ass right now."
I giggled at my cousin's attitude and Emmett and Rose stepped aside so I could see her. She was standing on the other side of the couch, but as soon as she saw me, she hopped over the sofa and threw her arms around my neck. I stiffened, the beating of her heart and the warmth of her body causing my instincts to go wild; I immediately stopped breathing.
Jasper squeezed my hand, helping to ground me. "It's okay. You won't want her blood. Trust me," he said so that only I could hear.
So I took a deep breath…and almost threw up.
"Dear god, Mel, you stink!" I shouted in surprise, and no one was laughing harder than Emmett.
Melody let go of me and crossed her arms. "I'll have you know I took a shower this morning, and I am wearing perfume and deodorant! I smell like a flower garden!"
"You smell like a dog that got into a flower garden!" I corrected her. "Is that from Seth?" I asked the vampires around me.
"The dogs stink, and unfortunately their imprints also tend to pick up the scent from long-term exposure," Rose said.
"And with that scent haunting your nasal cavities, how about you get reacquainted with Antonio?" Alice suggested, flitting to the sofa to pull him towards me. It seems any shyness that the two had had around each other was gone.
"Tonio?" I asked as my friend stood in front of me, his brown eyes wide.
"So it's really you, Gwendolyn?" he asked.
I held out my arms. "It's really me."
He started forward to hug me, but Alice held him back. "Perhaps a little sniff first?"
Antonio stepped back and I slowly approached him, Jasper still holding my hand, Alice in a position to step between me and Antonio should things go wrong.
I stood half a foot away from him, and I inhaled deeply. He wasn't like Melody; there was no wolf scent on him. He was more like Tasha- I could smell all the individual scents on him that made him up: the cinnamon Altoids he always ate, the clean scent of his deodorant, and now a certain sweetness that I recognized as Alice's scent. And although his blood did spark the burn in the back of my throat, it wasn't unbearable. I could live with it. He could live around me.
"I'm fine," I informed everyone. "I don't want to eat you, Antonio."
A relieved smile broke on his face, and Jasper and Alice stepped back so we could hug.
"I was so worried about you, Gwendolyn," he whispered in my ear. "I couldn't live without you in my life."
"I love you, too, Tonio," I whispered back, making sure not to hug him too hard.
When we ended our embrace, we noticed that only Melody, Jasper and Alice were in the room with us.
"We have more visitors coming," Mel informed us, her phone in her hand. "Seth, Leah and Jacob are on their way."
"How is Seth?" I asked her eagerly. "How bad does he feel?"
"Well, he was pretty shaken up, obviously," she said. "He's been coming by every day to check on you and-"
"And to check on you," I guessed.
"I was worried sick! How the hell am I supposed to know how this," she gestured to my whole body, "goes down?"
"Seth looked after Mel while I looked after Antonio. He was more concerned than she was," Alice told me, her voice too low for either of the humans in the room to hear.
"That's Antonio," I replied, shooting her a quick smile, and she responded by taking one of his hands in hers.
I then heard barking coming from outside, and before I had registered the noise in my brain, I was already on the back porch, three great wolves coming out of the woods in front of me.
"Now, their presence might throw your defensive instincts into action." Jasper appeared next to me. "But they won't hurt you."
I didn't understand why the three of them were still in their wolf forms instead of their human ones. I kept forgetting that I was dangerous now.
"I won't hurt you!" I called to them, giving a friendly wave.
Seth's sandy-furred ears pricked up and he began to trot forward, and I came down the porch steps to meet him. Leah chided her little brother with a sharp bark, and he walked slower towards me, his ears flicking back and forth between his pack and Jasper and I.
"I'm fine, Seth. Look at me. Not a scratch." I smiled.
He cocked his head to the side, and then took a step towards me, sniffing me. He then proceeded to sneeze.
"Hey, I smell better than you do!"
He gave a rasping bark, and he then sat down in front of me. I patted his head, practicing the same strokes that Jasper had taught me the night before on Tasha.
"Now Seth will finally stop whining," Leah said, now back in her human form. "None of us could stand the guilt constantly filling our heads."
"You would have felt guilty if it had been you, Leah," Jacob said, and she glared at him. "Hey, Gwen."
"It's great to see you, Jacob," I said, and neither of us knew whether we should hug or not.
"I really don't want that smell on my clothes," I told him.
"And you don't want to piss off, Leah, right?"
My mouth dropped open, and he laughed. "Yeah, Mel said you had found us out." He gestured for Leah to come over to us, but she held back, wary of me.
"Leah, she's safe, isn't she, Jasper?"
"She's even more controlled than Bella," Jasper said. "Absolutely tame."
Seth, still sitting at my feet, gave his sister an encouraging bark, and she reluctantly walked over, arms crossed. Jacob put an arm aound her waist, giving her a smile that said, "Now was that so hard?" She wasn't happy, but she did lean into him, her muscles relaxing.
"Hey, what's up with your eyes?" she asked, her own dark eyes narrowed, staring at me.
"What- what do you mean?" I asked. "They're red, like all newborns' eyes." Although it dawned on me that I had not yet seen what I now looked like.
"Um, no, they're not," Leah said, but she was silenced by a stern look from Jacob and Jasper saying, "Leave it, Leah."
"Jazz, what's wrong with my eyes?" I turned to him, panic building within me.
He took my face in his hands, and he sent calming waves through me. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes, darlin'," he said. "They're just unusual for a vampire."
"Let's face facts, Gwen," Jake said. "You're unusual period."
That did make me feel better, and I calmed down a bit.
"Leah, what did I tell you about her eyes?" Melody's voice sounded from behind me. "I told you not to mention it, and you did."
"I couldn't help it if they're freaky," she shot back, but she backed off when Jacob told her to. He was a good influence on her.
"Alice told us all that your eyes would be different," Mel informed me. "I think they're pretty, as does everyone else, right, Seth?"
The wolf in front of me barked his agreement and wagged his tail, and Mel gave me a kiss on the top of his head.
"I'm heading to La Push now, since you're all right," she told me, climbing onto Seth's back. "If you need me, call me."
"Okay, Mel," I said.
"Antonio, you coming?" Melody shouted to the house, and I cringed at how loud that sounded. Damn superior hearing.
"Actually, Melody," Antonio started, appearing at the back door with Alice by his side," I think I'm going to stay here." He smiled down at Alice, whose face lit up.
"Suit yourself," Melody tried to say nonchalantly, but the huge grin she had betrayed her excitement.
"Come on, Leah," Jacob said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "We should let Gwendolyn have some time to adjust."
Leah muttered a "see ya" to me, and she turned away and phased into her wolf form, following Seth and Melody into the woods. Jacob gave me a friendlier goodbye before taking off after her.
"Jasper, I want to see my eyes," I told him, and he led me back into the house, where Alice was waiting with a hand mirror in the kitchen.
"I'm really jealous," she told me. "It's really boring to share your eye color with six other vampires."
I took the mirror from her, not sure of what I would see. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, which did not have the cleansing effect it once had since I no longer needed oxygen to survive, and I held up the mirror and opened my eyes.
My mouth fell open in shock. I wasn't sure which of my features to focus on, since they all looked so…different. My skin was pure white, not a single blemish marring my face. My hair had become a darker black, and was fuller than ever. My teeth were a brilliant white, and they shined from the venom that was now my saliva. I had never seen so many eyelashes in my life.
And then I saw my eyes, and knew why everyone couldn't help but stare. Instead of the bright red eyes I was supposed to have, my eyes had become a richer shade of green, much more like Tasha's than my human eyes. But within the green were specks of bright red, hundreds of little spots that made my eyes seem Christmas-themed.
"Oh," I said after a few minutes of staring at myself.
"You're beautiful, aren't you?" Jasper asked, putting his arm around me.
"It was my magic, wasn't it?" I asked him.
"Most likely," he replied. "Those red specks will turn gold once your body is no longer fueled by your human blood."
"Gold and green." I tried to imagine what that would look like, but it was a lot to wrap my mind around. I set the mirror on the counter and noticed that Alice had left us; she was on the back porch with Antonio, chatting with him about his childhood.
I suddenly felt homesick, and turned to Jasper, whose brow was furrowed by my sudden change of emotion.
"I want to go home."
He smiled softly. "Okay then. I'll get your keys."
A/N: So I am sad to say that there are only three chapters left of Jasper and Gwendolyn's story. I'll do my best to get the next chapter (or chapters) out in late December (I have finals coming up). So in the meantime, please review!