Previously:

She looked at me indecisively, which was a look I couldn't stand. I reiterated. "Six months. Do we have a deal?"

Her eyes focused on mine. "Are you dazzling me into this or something?"

"Why?"

"Because there's something in me that wants to say yes."

Jasper

Elise brought up the conversation a week later with the whole family. In front of the Cullens, she took the commitment to commence her change in six months. I stood in the corner and watched as the family rose up to welcome her. They were gaining a member, but they were also saving their skins.

"Six months is actually a great amount of time," Emmett chuckled. "We'll do all the things you need to experience before everything becomes tasteless and safe."

Elise smiled warmly. "You'll go cliff diving with me and watch as I devour three boxes of Oreos?"

"Hell yeah, sister." They high-fived.

As long as she made the six months and her soul was still inside her body, I didn't care what else she did. The deal was done, and I would have her burning in no time.

It was a good day until Edward pulled me aside. He requested a hunt. Only me. Shit.

When we ran further from the house, I watched him carefully. Edward and I didn't get along well, and any quality time together had an ulterior motive.

"Why did Alice leave, Jasper?"

There it was. I dropped the drained carcass of the mountain lion. It landed with a thud near our feet. "I don't know. Why don't you ask her?"

"She's cryptic with her answers. She won't even tell me where she is."

She was in Alaska. "Then, leave it. She probably knows what she's doing."

He stood before me. "It's about her, isn't it?"

"Who?"

He frowned at my ignorance. "Elise."

She was useful in so many ways. Two could play mind games. "Why do you think that?"

He stirred himself in the direction I wanted him to go. I barely had to do anything. "You think about her a lot. Alice has visions of you two together. Closer. Too close."

I gave him a sad smile. "Jealousy is bitter, I'll give her that."

Edward didn't like that. "Who would have thought you out of all of us would end up with a human."

I scoffed. "We're not together. Alice is stupid to think otherwise." I restrained myself from making any jabs regarding Bella. It was hard, but I did it. "You know me. I'd kill her in seconds."

He laughed bitterly. "I'm surprised you haven't. She must be driving you insane. Whenever I look in there she's always on the surface."

And that's where I would keep her if it would just keep him on the surface.

"She wants me to help her adjust, Edward. I've been doing that for her."

"You don't do anything if it doesn't equally benefit you."

Birds, leaves, trees. Fuck. "I enjoy her presence." Too much.

"Too much is right," he said. "The family's getting closer to her and they like her. But you're too involved and your motives are unclear."

I thought about her and took Edward on the ride with me. "She's powerful and it's peaceful to be around her. Do you see those curious brown eyes? She doesn't know half the potential she has. Her shield is incredible, and she has this fight in her that ignites everything around her. She's astounding."

The stick up his ass couldn't have gone up further. "I'm not an idiot. I know you're blocking me, and I hope that for her sake she stays away from you."

"I haven't done a thing to the girl."

He started to walk away. "Yet. Whatever Alice must have seen, it ticked her off enough to leave."

When I could no longer see him, I regained my thoughts. If you wanted a brain workout, just try linking your thoughts in an endless loop, hoping none of the underlying inner monologue slipped through. Bella was lucky to be dead. Edward was exhausting.

The real reason Alice had left was because of the alliance. Her visions came randomly and the closer I was to the cause, the harder it would be to dissect those visions around Edward. She made the good call to take a break from the family.

In fact, I shot her a quick text. I appreciate your discretion.

A quick reply came back. Always.

My fingers lingered on my phone. Updates?

The reply took longer than usual. You'll be leading compound efforts in Arizona. They'll announce it during the next meeting.

Arizona was closer than Louisiana. Good. I tapped away. Elise agreed to turn in 6.

I didn't get a reply. I got a phone call.

"I know," she said. "You might be onto something with her shield."

"Explain."

She took an unnecessary breath. "Because either her shield grows to cover you, or you're dead in six months. Either way, I can't see you."

It had to be the first. My mind buzzed in anticipation. This was a lead, and a very important one.

"Hold on," she said cautiously. "What are you doing? No. No. Jasper, you can't tell Peter."

It wasn't on the top of my to-do list, but things were falling into place. "I told him we had to find a shield. I'm starting to think Elise is proving herself to be very useful day after day."

I could almost see her shaking her head. "I understand that you want to support the cause, and it's beneficial to the Cullens to overthrow the Volturi, but you can't dangle her life in front of the alliance."

Where was this sudden interest in Elise stemming from? "We finally have a date. A concrete, beautiful one. In six months, maybe six and a half depending on her adjustment period, I could deliver her cleanly into their service. She wouldn't be alone. We would do it together."

"That's a terrible idea."

I switched the phone in my hands. "If I could sit the whole family down and explain what I plan to do with her, do you really think they would push back as hard? No. They want Aro gone. They're just too scared to do it themselves."

"As they should be. The Volturi have been in power for this long because they know how to crush groups such as the alliance. You think Elise wouldn't be scared?"

She would have no reason to be. "She'll be trained."

"She's human. If you think you can create an equal to yourself within the next six months, you're delusional."

I rested my back against a large, rough tree trunk. "She's strong enough to handle anything I throw at her. Though, her moral code could use a little work."

"Your moral code could use a little work," she muttered. "You can't push her too far, Jasper. She's still a living, breathing, fragile creature."

A creature that would surpass anyone I had ever met.

Elise met me outside as I entered the Cullen premise. She had a look of indifference on her face. "Is Edward one to hold grudges?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"He just came by and told me to keep my distance from you. Is he still upset about Bella?"

No, his melodrama showed when I actively blocked him. "Obviously."

"He thinks you're going to kill me."

"Carlisle will be the one doing that."

She paused to think, then smiled mischievously. "He's scared of you."

"Can we talk about anything else but Edward? I'm too old to analyze the fears that stem from his childhood trauma or his parental neglect."

She grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards the woods. "Let's talk about mine, then. You've never asked about my parents."

"Should I have?"

She seemed hurt by my lack of interest. "You want to get to know me, don't you?"

"I already know what I need to know. Your parents are dead."

Three lines formed on her forehead. "How callous. You can learn a lot about a person from their past."

"I'd rather focus on the present and the future."

"Is this your way of telling me you don't care?"

I ran a hand through my hair. She really wanted to hear it. "You know I care."

"You're pretty bad at showing it."

Did I have to? "I have a lot on my mind."

She intertwined her fingers with mine. Comfort. What an odd, unfamiliar feeling to associate with a human.

My phone buzzed quietly in my pocket. I expected Alice, but it was Peter. They pulled the meeting to tomorrow. Arizona.

That meant that something happened. As I examined the message, Elise tried to peek. I slid the phone back into my pocket.

"Maybe you should talk about it," she suggested.

"About?"

"Whatever's bothering you."

Bother was the wrong word for it. "I have newfound obligations."

"To?"

"Myself."

She swung my hand gently as we walked. "Obligations you can't share with the Cullens?"

"Yes. Except for Alice."

She nodded. "I'm sure that you've figured this out by now, but I'm mentally impenetrable. Anything you tell me stays with me."

I smiled. "If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be telling you anything at all."

Her eyes were hungry for information. "Tell me more, then. Where do you go?"

Her lips had always been tightly sealed with anything I had told her. Admitting any sort of trust that I felt for her was hard. But somehow, I knew for a fact that she wouldn't betray it. "There is a war coming, and I need to consolidate which side I will be on."

She thought for a moment. "What are the deciding factors?"

"The only deciding factor is which side will win."

"The people on either side don't matter? Do you have friends fighting in this war? Which side will they be on? Will the Cullens be fighting?"

She was too eager to find out. "None of that matters. Always align yourself with the strongest side. Guarantee your survival."

This was difficult for her to swallow. "You're fighting for a common cause, though, right? You'll fight with the side your values align with."

"That's the type of thinking I probably had as a human. Did you know that I fought for the Confederacy?"

She didn't hide the shock in her expression. "That's hard to believe."

"Believe it. I joined the Confederacy to defend the Southern values. What a fucking waste of time. If I had been smarter, I would've analyzed both sides and weighed my options before throwing myself into a blind war."

"You can't choose what you're passionate for. Don't you want to fight for that?"

I pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Sweet Elise, you're either alive or you're dead. You'll realize that you have a lot of control over your longevity if you just use your brain."

She disagreed. "Some things are worth dying for."

"Enlighten me."

"Love, freedom, the greater good."

In other words, romanticism and blind passion. "Dying for love is the silliest tropes in literature. If you care about someone that much, why damn them to an eternity without you? That isn't love. Freedom. You'd be dead before you got a taste of that. And what exactly is the greater good? You can be selfless all you want. The world won't reward you for it, and you will die unremembered. More importantly, you will die and that will be it. You won't ever be able to see the outcomes of your decisions. Nothing is worth dying for."

She shook her head. "Is there anything valuable to you besides yourself?"

"Should there be?"

"Yes," she fumed. "If the world were more like you, I would hate to live in it."

There was the fire I was looking for. "Before the Jovu, your only job was to eat, sleep, and study, am I correct? A high school student. You didn't have to make any important decisions. Hell, you didn't even need to think about what you were going to have for dinner the next day. Human life is a fairy tale. Thus, I understand and pardon your ignorance. The life you're stepping into comes with far more difficult challenges than a mathematics final."

She refuted my claims immediately. "You're wrong. Humans deal with their own shit, but our problems are just as important as yours. I don't care what vampiric justice system looms over you to make you so bitter. I don't care that you have to hide from your coven just because you have more in common with Ted Bundy than the average Joe. Suffering isn't a singular, defined line. It's different for everyone. You might be preparing to go into war, but the world doesn't stop so you can fight it. Suffering continues on all levels."

I took a step back to look at her. "Your points are valid."

"What?" Did she not expect credit where credit was due?

I validated her thoughts. "Suffering is unique for everyone. The world won't stop based on my decisions. Solipsism isn't welcome here. I agree. But my point is that you need to be able to handle more conflict than you've had to endure. This world is a lot more cruel and degrading."

She sighed in frustration. "That still doesn't explain why you don't care about anything. You don't have one thing you're passionate about? One thing that you will fight for?"

"I can fight for a lot of things, but I will never die for them," I grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in her eyes. "Listen to me. People will try to use you. They'll come at you with pretty words and rile you up with empty promises. You cannot let yourself fall prey to that. They will play on your passions and values like they know exactly what you want and they will draw you in and let you die for them. Then, they will walk away like nothing even happened."

Alarm was the tone I sensed in her voice. "Who are they, Jasper?"

"Everyone you will ever meet."

She stared at me for a moment, then let out an incredulous laugh. "Everyone is out to get me?"

The alliance. The Volturi. Me. "Yes. The sooner you see yourself and your worth, the sooner you'll learn to protect it. No one will save you. If Bella knew that, she would be alive."

My phone buzzed again. Elise eyed my pocket. "So, which side will you be picking?"

I drew out the phone. "Mine."

A/N: Is she learning and absorbing everything Jasper wants her to? In my opinion, this is incredibly out of character for him. He should just throw her to the alliance and never look back, right? At least that's the logical thing to do...