ok, so this is the last chapter after which there will be a final epilogue. As always: have Fun reading and reviewing 😊

Ch. 19

J POV

I woke with something strangely moving inside me, no eyesight and a most unvampire-like clumsiness. It took me quite a long time to realize that what I was feeling was a heartbeat and hunger for food.

"But …but…but…how?" Peter kept saying while Charlotte rushed ahead into her kitchen and started preparing breakfast. A heavenly scent was wafting back to me.

I shook my head. "No idea. Eh – hungry as I am… could you give us a minute?"

When I had become fully aware of my state, I had seen Bella beaming at me, but even though the memories of the battle were slowly coming back to me, I needed to be sure.

"Bella?"

She rushed into my arms. "I am so sorry. I never meant to cause you such pain and then get you into that fight…" She was crying quietly against my chest.

I frowned. "You don't need to be sorry. You were the one who was kidnapped. Several times. And who got thrown into the middle of all this vampire business." While I wanted her to stop blaming herself, I really did not mind having her in my arms. After savoring that for a while, I moved back and lifted her chin. I had to know. "Did you mean it when you told Rosalie you wanted me back?"

Instead of an answer she kissed me, and had it not been for Charlotte shouting that the bacon was about to be cooked out of existence we would probably have kept kissing and talking for hours.

Now however, we faced a different problem: While my rational mind told me that Peter and Charlotte and the others were my friends, whom I had known for decades, my instincts went into full alarm mode at being in close proximity to lots of vampires without the ability to protect Bella.

Peter caught on to my mood first. "Jasper? No one here is going to hurt you. We wouldn't dream of drinking Bella. Or you", he added as an afterthought.

"At least not before we know how this happened. But you really smell nice", quipped Alec, looking at me with interest until Charlotte slapped him.

"No eating of human guests in my house!" She pointed to a laid table. "There. Tea or coffee?"

I shrugged. "No idea." I had not had either – or human food – in so long.

Charlotte waved my insecurity away and poured two cups which she placed in front of me.

I sniffed and took coffee. "That one."

Bella smiled and joined me, which led to most of the other sitting down at the table as well. At a distance.

After eating my way through Charlotte's excellent food – and from what I gathered from Bella's expression – quite an inordinate amount of it, I pushed my chair away from the table with a satisfied moan.

"Are you ok?" Bella asked at once in a worried voice.

I smiled. "Yes, just… well… for the first time in over a century I am completely sated."

All the vampires in the room nodded with understanding or envious faces.

"Right", I said. "Does anyone have any idea how this happened?"

"Alora", Felix started. "I have been doing some thinking while you feasted. When I was still in Volterra, hundreds of years ago, I remember asking Marcus why Caius was always so careful about keeping his turns at a distance as soon as they started mating – he even made it a law at one point." He looked at us as if everything should be crystal clear, but no one looked any the wiser.

"See!" said Alec. "It isn't just me who does not get the points of your cryptic stories at once."

"Do go on", said Charlotte in such a sweet voice it was clear she was going to throttle Felix if he did not comply.

Felix blinked, but went on. "There was a rumor, more like a legend, Marcus told me, that if a vampire killed his sire for the sake of his mate, he would be rewarded or punished – depends on your point of view – with becoming mortal once more. No one in Volterra knew if it was true – and how should they, hardly any vampire is strong enough to go up against his sire and survive it, but obviously neither Caius nor Aro was eager to find out." He looked at me smiling. "Now we know."

I blinked away my emotions and took Bella's hand. "Indeed, we do."