Chapter 10

Far and Wide

Dracula had invaded her thoughts. Not so much the vampire himself but just vampires in general. Maybe that was the reason as to why she found herself having a small, minor freak out one night as she tried to sleep. Jasper couldn't be a vampire, could he? They weren't real. They were a horror stereotype.

Sitting up abruptly, Willow sat against her headboard going through the list of characteristics for a vampire.

Cold? Well, they were technically the undead so yes?

Sunlight? Never seen him in the sun, even at his place. They all seem to be out of school when it is sunny though.

Eating? Willow thought back to all the times they were at lunch or on a date, she didn't think they ate or drank anything. Sure, they brought things up to their mouths but never had she seen them chew or swallow anything?

Blood?

Shaking her head, she crept out of her bed and moved towards her laptop. Glancing at the time, she grimaced at the 0142 that blared back at her, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. Bringing up Google, Willow found herself going down the rabbit hole of vampire lore.

Hours seemed to go by like sand in an hourglass. Dawn had just broken when she found herself on a page of Quileute legends and folklore, specifically 'The Cold Ones'.

'Wait,' she muttered to herself, 'if they are vampires, why the fuck are they in Forks?'

Seriously, they had everywhere else in the world and they chose fucking Forks. The town named after a fucking utensil. What person sees that name on a map and goes 'Oh yes, that's the perfect place for us to live'?

Scrubbing her forehead, Willow made herself read the page on the Cold Ones and everything clicked. 'Holy fuck…my boyfriend is a vampire.'

If someone had asked her what she had learned in school that week, let alone that day, Willow wouldn't know what the fuck to tell them? Her brain was just in a constant loop of 'WHAT THE FUCK?'. There wasn't a handbook to read like 'What to do when your partner's an actual fucking vampire' or something.

What did that make her then?

A weirdo? A necrophiliac – well no because she and Emmett already went through that?

Holy shit what else was real?

Was magic a thing? God, she fucking hoped so. But then why was there the Harry Potter series if they were a thing? Was it to put off the muggles? Like, psych them out or something?

Willow kept coming back to the fact that the Cullens were in high school. She understood why Edward and maybe Alice were in there, but she knew Jasper had a faint shadow of stubble under her hand when she kissed him. And Emmett had already been harped on by Coach Clapp in joining the football team so he and Rosalie were definitely not high schoolers. So why the fuck were they in school? They could've been in college, doing actually entertaining subjects instead of listening to their teachers drone on and on about things they had probably already witnessed. Was that technically cheating? What would they say to defend themselves, 'Sorry, I already lived through this? Because I'm an immortal being?'

The eyes were weird too. The Cold Ones legend said that they had red eyes so why the fuck were the Cullens' yellow? Was it a genetic thing? Like different people had different eyes when they were human so they would have different eyes as a vampire?

Her alarm caused her to jolt and land in a heap on the floor. After calming her heart down again, she knew she had to get ready.

Holy fuck, she had been kissing a vampire.

Willow had a feeling that the Cullens knew something was going on because they were unusually distant with the four of them that week. Jasper still kissed her and gave her affection but when it was home time come Friday, she not only had come to a solid conclusion that whilst she'd probably be labelled a psycho or something, Willow needed confirmation from Jasper himself, and loitered outside her truck. Scott and Georgie had to go to Port Angeles because the Forresters were going out for dinner so she didn't have to drop them home.

'C'I talk to you?' she grabbed Jasper's cuff and tipped her head to the truck. 'It's nothing bad.' Hopefully. 'And I'll drop you off at your place after.'

'Yeah okay.'

'Bye guys.'

Why did Alice look like she'd just been given pure caffeine by IV? That was mildly concerning.

They ended up back at the Hall of Mosses but they went down a more secretive route, ending at a small babbling brook off track from the car park. They sat down beside each other and Willow spoke after a few minutes. 'So…uh, I need to ask you something and I hope you answer me as honestly as possible.'

She could see him watching her out of the corner of her eye as she tried to gather up her courage to look him in the eye because if he laughed at her she didn't know what she would do. Taking a breath, Willow locked eyes with him. 'Are you a vampire?'

'Yes.'

The laugh was borderline hysterical when it came out of her chest. Maybe it was from exhaustion or anxiety but fuck she hadn't been expecting him to answer too quickly. A few minutes went by and Willow had her forehead on her knees. 'Holy fuck my boyfriend's a vampire.'

'You seem awfully calm.'

She snorted loudly. 'I haven't slept basically all week. I finished Dracula after my homework Tuesday and then things kept popping up as I was reading it, so it's been stewing for a few days. Also, I did some research and some legends are making sense too so really this has been about four or five days of the build of a meltdown so I'm surprised tears haven't happened yet.'

Jasper nodded slowly. 'That makes sense as to why you've been fuzzy all week.'

'Oh yeah, when I'm like this, my happy tablets don't do shit.'

He took her in. The shadows seemed to be purple even under the concealer on her face and there was a slightly frazzled pace to her heart and frizz to her hair. Something in his chest tugged at the idea of his Mate not sleeping over something that he had caused, and he felt ashamed by it. 'I'm sorry.'

'About what? The fact that the supernatural world is now real or the fact that my mental state's a toxic waste dump – Jesus Christ, I need a nap. I only tend to blurt everything out when I haven't had a couple of good nights of sleep.'

'I noticed.' She had particularly chatty come the end of Hell Week. 'And you're not…scared?'

Willow thought on it. Whilst she had been freaked out and rightfully so, some part of her – as cliché as it sounded even to her – knew that he wouldn't hurt her. That didn't mean that the rest of the Cullens wouldn't, just that Jasper wouldn't. Maybe she was being naïve, maybe she had blinkers on. Maybe there was a part of her still living in denial that he was technically something that shouldn't exist. But over the past two months, all she found was herself wanting to spend more and more time with him like they were two magnets, drawn together. A part of her felt more settled than it had in a while when she was around him, her thoughts seemed less scattered, her heart less frantic, everything was just turned down to a more manageable level.

She turned and scanned his face. 'Are you giving me a reason as to why I should be? Of you?'

His golden eyes were so expressive at that point – pained and worried. 'I would never set out to make you scared of me, Willow. I would never set out to cause you pain or hurt you.'

Willow gathered her courage and reached out for his face, fingers ghosting over his jaw. 'Then I have no reason to fear you. Maybe that makes me naïve, maybe that makes me stupid but until you give me a solid reason and evidence, Jasper Hale, I'm not scared of you.' Her thumb smoothed his cheek, feeling the marble-like texture, 'If anything, I'm happy that you don't have to hide who you are anymore to me.'

He kissed her then. Hands held her, wrapping around both her neck and her waist, pulling her into his lap. His kiss was frantic as if Jasper had been preparing for her to run away screaming in panic and fear and was near crying in relief that she hadn't. Maybe that made her weird? Maybe that was just another thing to add to the Toxic Waste Dump in her skull. Any normal person would run from him, from them all. But she'd grown to know the Cullens as people rather than vampires first. Willow knew that when Jasper was frustrated, he twirled his pen or leant on the desk as though looking at a battle map. He was almost militant.

Wait…

Pulling back, she was gasping a little, hands tangled in his hair. Blinking a little, it took a second for her eyes to focus on his features. Jasper was almost drinking – heh – in her face as she stared at him. Willow licked her lips, tasting him, before she spoke, 'So when you were talking on our first date about having family in the Civil War…that was you?'

Jasper grimaced, contrite. 'Hindsight really is 20/20. Race really doesn't matter when you're immortal. Especially with where I was changed, an able body was an able body. Neither are any of the other human concepts people are still fighting over. That doesn't mean we don't see that others still struggling because of their race or their background, if anything, we see it more, some more so than others.'

Willow leant her forehead against him for a moment before pulling back. 'I take it, immortality is just a motive for the evolution of thoughts.'

Jasper nodded. 'I was proud of my rank – I was the youngest Major in the Texas Calvary at the age of nineteen – but the reason for the war,' he shook his head, 'even now, it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.'

She nodded. 'Wait, so that thing that you just said, 'some more so than others' what did you mean?'

He shifted her so she was sideways on his lap rather than straddling, and his voice vibrated through her. 'Sometimes, when we're turned, aspects of when we were human feed into our immortal selves. I was apparently charismatic, it was the reason as to why I rose threw the ranks so quickly so when I was changed, I became an empath.'

Willow blinked before it clicked, causing her to straighten. 'So, you can feel emotions? I must give you whiplash.'

His laugh was bright in the trees. 'I try not to influence emotions of those close to me unless it's either one of two reasons – one, there's a fight about to break up, mainly around Rosalie and Edward, or two, because I've been consent to do so. There is a startling amount of anxiety in you though.'

Willow shrugged, tugging at her sleeves. 'I have an anxiety disorder so that's probably why. Also, just a head's up, I guess, depression too. That's a wild ride.'

Jasper huffed a laugh against her temple. 'Thank you for telling.'

'Well, I wouldn't want you to worry. Okay so, if you're an empath, does anyone else have powers?'

'Alice can see the future, it's why—'

'—she zones out. Oh cool. I mean, the others and I chucked around ideas as to why she does that and I will say being a seer was a joke but turns out we weren't, nice. And who else?'

'Why do you think there's someone else that has a power?'

'Because when you tease people, you smirk a little.' She poked the crease at the side of his lips.

'Edward can read minds.'

'...I'm sorry?'

'Edward's a telepath.'

'So…so,' Rolling out of his lap, Willow began to pace back and forth on the stones, hands on her hips. 'Everything that I have thought of, he's read. Like, everything.'

Jasper did the leaning thing on the fallen trunk behind him and Willow really hoped he wouldn't do that. It drew her eyes to his arms and shoulders and she really did not need that. Adding the smirk on his face and Willow turned on her heel to pace with her back to him. 'Why, you got somethin' you don't want to share with the class, darlin'?'

Jesus Christ. Just when she thought he couldn't get any more attractive; he went and did that. With the accent and everything. God damn it. 'Oh yeah, I've just spent the last month or so thinking of ways to get you into my bed – no. I've spent the last few weeks, especially last week thinking in detail about Phantom and other musicals so…'

His laughter echoed throughout, and she turned to see him leaning forward onto his knees, absently pushing his sleeves up. Arms. Wait, pay attention. 'He actually said he found your thoughts insightful. Very few of us actually have the patience and want to go into detail like that. It is not to say we wouldn't but all of us have our own vices. Edward's very music-based.'

'What's yours?'

Jasper motioned her back over and Willow found herself curling up in his lap again. 'I deal with a lot of the legal and technical parts of our coven. IDs, death and birth certificates, stocks, bank details, stuff like that, but I do enjoy the occasional instrument and read a fair bit. I also enjoy going on motorbike rides.'

Willow laughed. 'I've always wanted to go on a bike but Dad always says 'over his dead body' and I can understand why.'

'I'll take you out one day.' His pocket vibrated and Willow pulled it out. Alice. 'Yes, Alice.'

She couldn't hear the conversation but going from the fact that he tipped his head onto her shoulder, he didn't want to go anywhere. 'You needed at your place?'

Checking his watch, Willow did the math, 'Dad's not back till eleven tonight.'

'They want you to come over.'

'They being?'

Jasper gave her a flat look and handed the phone over, more than happy enough to cuddle her close. 'Hello, Jasper's phone.'

'The rest of us want you to come over. Now. Please.'

'Hello to you, Trelawney.' She drawled and decided to roll off. 'We're on our way.'

'I know.'

Jasper must have seen her face or something because he took his phone back and hung up without so much as a 'goodbye' and stood. 'Alice's visions are decision-based. They change depending on what a person decides to do. Or sometimes they come to her as a warning or for her to influence someone into making the best choice.'

'Oh…okay.' Something occurred to her as they traipsed back to the truck. 'So wait, if you were in the Civil War, that means you were born in 18…'

''44.'

'Talk about one hell of an age gap.'

'Which is why,' he cocked an eyebrow down at her, 'we won't be doing anything physically until you're of legal age.'

'Which is on November 5th by the way.' She pointed up to him. 'So is Rosalie not your twin then?

He shook his head. 'No, we play twins to not cause so much drama. I was born Jasper Whitlock.'

Jasper Whitlock.

Major Jasper Whitlock.

'Hale seems too…proper now that I know your real surname.' Her nose scrunched up and she had to push her glasses up again. 'Is Hale Rosalie's then?'

'Yup.'

She tossed him the keys and clambered up into the passenger. 'I have more questions and I won't be able to concentrate. So, you can drive.'

'Fire away.'

'The eyes, the legends said you had red eyes, so what's that about?'

'Different diets.' He reversed easily, 'We have yellow eyes because we drink animals, you could call us vegetarians. When we drink from humans, our eyes are red. No one knows why the change in colour, but it allows us to stay longer.'

She blinked on that. 'So, instead of brown eyes, Peter and Charlotte drink from humans?'

He nodded slowly, glancing at her. 'They drink from criminals and rapists and serial killers.'

'Good for them.' Jasper looked at her, 'There's enough scumbags in the world that ruin people's lives. Police don't do enough to fix it. The law sometimes lets people slip through the cracks because they can act like any other regular person. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, they were both serial killers, but they were charismatic, drew people in, made them feel special. If to feed themselves, a vampire feeds off the absolute scum of the earth, therefore, in turn, making the world a better place for innocent people, why should I feel revolted?' Something clicked. 'Did someone eat Hitler?'

'Unfortunately, no one I know has.' He grinned over to her, feeling her excitement and resolution, 'And I never thought of it that way.'

Willow reached over to touch his arm. 'Just because I know what you are now, doesn't mean you have to spill how you became what you are. None of you does. I'll wait till you're ready to tell me.'

She blinked when emotion swelled in her. Comfort. Thankfulness. Hope. Warm fuzzies that had her kissing his cheek as they stopped at one of the last lights out towards their house. 'You're welcome.'

Willow nearly had her heart come up her throat when Alice suddenly just appeared from a pocket dimension. Her pulse jumped and she resisted the urge to vomit as the ground swayed a little. Shaking off vertigo, she came back to them all with Jasper's cold arm around her waist and on her neck, the startling temperance a grounding technique. 'Sorry. I don't do well with being jump scared. Horrors are not good for me.'

'No, don't apologise.' Alice denied, grasping at her hands, 'I should've realised and not run over.'

'You're good, Trelawney. Just, make a noise so I don't end up having a panic attack.'

'C'mon.' Jasper murmured into her hair, their bags in his free hand after he released her neck. The smell of the lavender and petrichor was comforting and she found herself relaxing as she toed her boots off and stepped in the house.

'Ey, she knows.' Emmett boomed as she saw him in the living room, though her nose got distracted by really good food. She did a Merry and followed it into the kitchen where fresh cookies were being put onto a cooling rack.

'Are they for me?'

'Well, none of us can eat so yes.' Esme chirped from the opposite side of the island. Willow resisted the urge to do a happy wiggle. Then it hit her.

'What do you mean you can- wait, I've never actually seen you lot eat anything so a vampire thing then, okay. Sleep, yeah or nah?'

'Nope.' Emmett sauntered in with Rosalie. 'But that doesn't mean we can't use beds.'

She had a feeling she knew what he was talking about and waved her hand to brush it away. 'As long as it is safe, legal and consensual, I don't care what you do.'

Rosalie leant over and high fived her. 'Everyone should have that idea.'

'Most people weren't raised with a parent in the medical profession who strove to make everything as comfortable as they could.' Willow pointed out and glanced at all the vampires around her. She was surrounded by vampires. Well. Fun.

There was a snort in the hall as Edward came swaggering in. 'Your thoughts—'

'Welcome to the Anxiety Express.' She grinned at him as she waited for the cookies to cool. Maybe if someone ran with them for a bit, they'd cool faster. Oh, or they were just put in the fridge? She could risk scalding her mouth and throat. She blinked and they were gone. My cookies…

'Come, into the living room and you can ask us questions. Carlisle should be home soon.'

'Oh cool.' She followed them into the living room and took the really fluffy blanket off one of the sofas, wrapped it around her and plonked down beside Jasper. He pulled her into his lap. 'Okay, we're doing that then. So, a blanket statement here, already said to this one,' she cocked her head to Jasper, 'you don't need to tell me your…stories? Unless you want to, you're not obligated to tell me just because I figured it out.'

'I fought a bear and lost.' Emmett grinned and Willow stared at him.

'Why am I not surprised that? Wait, this was a grizzly?'

'No. A black bear.'

Jesus Christ. She took off her glasses and began to clean them. 'Human!You didn't realise that these guys, whilst smaller, still can kill someone?'

'Probably forgot with adrenalin.'

'I can see why you're a vampire.'

'Yep. I did think I was seeing an angel though.' His gaze flicked to Rosalie and absently Willow was glad she hadn't eaten that cookie. She had hard enough trouble accepting the compliments Jasper gave her, let alone other romantic gestures from other couples. It was cute though, they were cute.

'Carlisle changed me,' Edward spoke from one of the leather sofas. 'In 1918, in Chicago from the Influenza. He was working as a doctor there.'

'Oh, the joys of modern medicine.'

Alice flittered over to the sofa and sat opposite her. 'I don't remember what happened to me. All I remember was waking up in a meadow and then I got a vision and they told me my name.'

Willow wanted to give her a hug. So, she wiggled out of Jasper's grip and crawled over to the fae-like vampire. 'I'm sorry. That must suck.'

Alice smiled; her eyes still bright if a little dim. 'My visions brought me here. Brought us here.'

'Wait,' Willow looked back to Jasper as she moved back over, the fabric moving through her fingers absently, 'how?'

'Before I met Alice,' Jasper squeezed her, 'I was struggling with this life, I thought there was only the one way. We met in Philly in 1948, in a diner and we came here.'

'I told him I'd meet his Mate.'

Why did it sound like there sound be a Capitalisation with that?

'Because,' Edward leant forward, 'vampires have a sort of soul mate of sorts. Someone that compliments them and completes them. When they meet, they become inseparable, neither wants to be away from each other for extended periods of time as it causes a sense of restlessness. If you kill a Mated pair, you have to kill the other because it will drive the other mad with the thirst for vengeance.'

With that in mind, she glanced at Emmett and Rosalie, remembering how they seemed to gravitate towards each other, circle the other like planets, always in the other's orbit. Then Carlisle and Esme came to mind, 'Okay. So, Emmett and Rosalie are obviously a pair and you and Dr Cullen,' Willow nodded to the matriarch who smiled. 'And, what if half of the pair is human?'

'They feel the draw softer. It is still there, they want to be near their Mate, that sense of calm. It would heighten when they change and even out then.'

Willow didn't need Jasper to tell her what she had already worked out. Her chest felt warm, cosy, and she held back a smile as she wordlessly sank further back into him. The idea of being an immortal hadn't sunk in yet. She couldn't say that it didn't appeal to her. Being able to do anything, not being held back by age and time was something many would never get a chance to grasp.

Yes, that meant potentially losing her dad, Mother very really saw her anyway, finding Eve more stimulating, so that wouldn't be such a heartbreak. And it wasn't like-

'You don't have to choose now,' Jasper got her attention and she blinked back, finding herself enraptured by the contrasting textures of his cuff and the soft blanket she was wrapped in, 'not until you're ready. You do get a choice in this.'

'If it saves my life?' she focused on Jasper, 'Do whatever you have to.'

He took in her expression, the resolution and determination in her hazel-green gaze and nodded, kissing the side of her head. 'On a happier note. Why high school? And is that not cheating?'

Rosalie spoke up, 'The younger we start a school, the longer we can stay.'

'Emmett is built like a shit-brick house.'

'Puberty.'

'Or steroids.'

'Good genetics.'

'Or you, dead at…' she took him in, 'twenty?'

'That too.'

'On the cheating note,' Jasper spoke, amusement in his words as she sank back against him. 'every teacher lectures differently, so sometimes you learn something new.'

'But the same core subjects over and over again?' a shudder of horror rolled through her. 'The idea of The Handmaid's Tale again – yuck.'

Laughter went through the room before everyone retreated to their separate areas. It began to rain and Alice opened one of the windows. The overhang of the home allowed the porch to remain untouched by the rain so the smell of wet fir wafted into the room. 'C'mon.'

'Where we goin'?'

Jasper wiggled his fingers for her to take and began to pull her up the stairs, the blanket coming too. He guided her to his room and she immediately moseyed over to his bed, scrambling into the middle of it after depositing her glasses in his inset shelf. The mustard of her jumper was a warm spot in his charcoal sheets. He did what Alice had done downstairs and pushed one of the smaller windows on the side of his room open, allowing the sound of rain and its smell to come in. He flashed over to her and scooped her up. The two settled under the covers and after a while, Jasper spoke, fingers gliding through her hair. 'You didn't freak out about us being…Mates.'

Willow could vaguely see him – more like a golden fuzz – as she propped her chin on his sternum. 'The way Edward explained it, explained why I was feeling the way I was around you. Like, no matter how blah I feel, it – as cliché as it sounds – doesn't seem quite as scary or overwhelming when you're around. Like it's still there, but it's like someone has just muted it. I feel…safe.'

Willow wasn't very good at articulating her feelings. Dr Florence said it was from years of repressing things around her mother – oh, that meant Edward knew everything. So, if you could keep quiet about that, that would be great, Professor X. But she hoped it made sense to the empath she was laying on. The kiss he rolled her over for answered that.

'What do you do when I'm asleep then?' she spoke, words a whisper in the room as she ran her fingers over his features.

'Read mostly. Hunt as well. Work.'

'You never get bored?'

'When you are away in New Hampshire, I get antsy, agitated.'

Her fingers moved to his hair, the golden, oaken and corn strands curling around the digits. 'Well…I can't really do anything to fix that, but I can give you time to prepare?'

'You said the first two weeks of summer and Christmas switches between that and New Year's?' She hummed. 'Peter and Charlotte said I was welcome to come down there for two weeks in the summer and we've decided to go up to Denali when you're not here in December.'

'It's not that I don't want you to come,' Willow defended herself, feeling a more than a little guilty at the thought of causing him distress. 'it's just my mother can be a lot and I wouldn't want that on anyone, let alone you. I doubt her emotions would be nice to be around.'

He copied her as his chin rested on her sternum, brows furrowed. Willow reached to smooth it away. 'You feel conflicted when you talk of her.'

A heavy sigh left her, a tired one of a decade long battle. 'My relationship with her is…complicated. I don't want to get into it now.'

'Okay.' And that was that. No cajoling, no badgering, just acceptance.

The rain on the roof, the comforting weight of Jasper and the cosy little nest they'd created in his bed along with the lack of sleep she'd gotten those few days had caused her to doze off. Jasper just lay there, listening to her heart against his ear slow a little in her sleep, before rolling her back to their first position. She was like a little hot water bottle and a smile came on his face as she toed off her socks into the mass that was his bed. He'd realised she didn't like sleeping with socks on the first time she'd napped on him. Her feet were nearly as cold as he was but Willow never seemed to care.

Kissing her gently on the crown, he shifted them both so that they were with their heads on the pillows and just basked in her emotions. The concept of having his Mate finally knowing what he and his coven were, and whilst she had freaked out – rightfully so – she hadn't run for the hills, had unmentionable weight ease off him. Tucking his nose into her hair, smelling the pomegranate and mint of her shampoo and conditioner and enjoyed just having her close.

NOW SHE KNOWS. SHE IS IN THE KNOW.

Hopefully, you lot like this chapter better than the last update, and I hope I didn't offend anyone with Jasper's words about his change in the Vampire Wars. Let me know and I'll undoubtedly rework that paragraph.

Again, another message I want this story to get across is 'Consent is NECESSARY!' As I've said before, just because Willow now knows about the Cullens et al, does not mean that she is entitled to their stories unless they offer them up first. She knows that they are entitled to their privacy and with her own very much invaded in New Hampshire, she's firm to stick by that ideal.

I took about a week off from writing this ngl, mainly because chapter 19 is kicking my ass - it feels a bit bleh rn - but hopefully when i get it done i can get to the good stuff. Also bc I got my ass reamed in front of my entire unit cohort for my Documentary - which was SO MUCH FUN - and mentally, I just wasn't in the right mindset to write Willow. Lowkey though, can't wait for the drama that is Twilight bc ngl, Willow will be like 'WTF? AND YOU THINK HIM JUST LOITERING IN YOUR ROOM LIKE A PSYCHO IS CUTE? EDWARD, BOUNDARIES! THIS IS 2004, NOT 1904! JFC!'

and i can't wait.

Anyway,

Enjoy,

K x