Previously:

If he needed time, we had time. We had time until he sun finally exploded and destroyed us all.

So, I made the decision to walk away. But right before I did, I reached up to grab his chin and tilted his head down towards mine. "Thank you for what you did today."

I left him near the clearing, and headed back to base.

Jasper

Eyes and lips moved around me in stares and whispers. My agitation was probably readable not by my projections, but from my face. I stalked through base a day later after drinking my fill of at least half a dozen humans the night before.

My senses were almost painfully aware of Elise's whereabouts. Her scent was everywhere, but was more prominent towards the direction of her room. I wanted to see her, but it was damn hard to think around her. Her questions were too much. Her presence was unbearable. Nothing made any sense around her.

Before I could even make a decision, Peter met me halfway through the center circle. He kept his voice low. "You need to head to Arizona."

Those weren't the words I wanted to hear. "Now?"

He gave me a curt nod. "You heard me."

Maria's queen bee behavior was getting old. "I owe no explanation."

"No," he said. "But it might just be better if you go."

No amount of blood could have calmed my rage at that instant. I couldn't even figure out what exactly I was mad at. Elise? The bond? Others who sought answers for my actions? It was nobody's damn business. Certainly not Maria's.

As quickly as I had entered base, I left. My run to Arizona did nothing to clear my mind.

I arrived at the small base and found Maria under a red cloth tent. She sat in a chair with her feet propped up on a large, wooden desk. Her tent was half a mile from the nearest training site.

She liked her privacy.

Today, no delegates were with her. She must have sent them away.

"Birdies are talking to me, Major."

Her choice of words irritated me. "That doesn't sound healthy."

She kept her face smooth, devoid of annoyance or negativity. "Would you care to tell me yourself?"

"I prevented a recruit from losing her head."

She cocked her head to the side. "Do you know why you are a great liar? Because you tell just enough of the truth, and leave just enough out." She folded her arms across her chest. "I know you, Jasper Whitlock. I've known you. I've created you. There is nothing that you can hide from me."

Nothing? "You sound confident."

"Because I am. I've made you who you are today. I know enough to understand that this ordeal is probably a great stressor for you."

"What ordeal?"

"Finding your mate," she stated simply. "But, it's been a while since you've found her, hasn't it? You've sentenced her to our cause long after you knew what she was to you." She got up and put her hands on the table, peering up at me. "I bet you didn't even believe in it."

I didn't take my eyes off of her as I stepped forward and leaned over on the table before her. My hands knocked off a few chess pieces on an enlarged map. "What do you want, Maria?"

She straightened. "I want you to change your perspective. The girl is powerful. The girl is your mate. She will stay with you no matter what happens. I think we have a clear advantage here."

I stared at her, but I wasn't even looking at her. Her words fell on me hard and I felt enraged by how similar we were. Strategizing the existence of my mate was all that I did.

"So," she drew out. "I want the girl to continue training and remain with the alliance until Demetri is dead. After that, do with her what you will. I think that's a pretty fair deal."

She directed my attention to Demetri, set a clear goal, and emphasized her needs clearly and concisely. Her ask wasn't terrible; even without it, Elise would have stayed with the alliance so as long as I was a part of it.

But what worried me were the details beyond her request. The leverage she would have over me would always be in the back of my mind. This was one request. There would be more to come. Because Demetri would not be the alliance's only problem if the Volturi had any gifted that we were unaware of.

"It's a fair deal."

"Is it? How do you really feel about it?"

I ignored her, and picked up the three chess pieces from the dirt I had knocked off. I placed them back to their pointers on the map.

"What is it that you don't like about me, Major Whitlock?"

Her voice. Attitude. Opinions. Everything about her pissed me off.

"I've given you so much power, land, status," she mused. "It's hard to see just what ticks you off. I've made you a fighter, and a killer. All wonderful things. You've survived this long under my watch, with my venom, and my direction."

I stared hard at the map. "We have a deal."

"We do. So why are you so angry?"

She never cared that I didn't respond. She pushed anyway. "I'll lay down my theory. I took you from the people you loved. The mighty Whitlocks of Texas… torn apart by the loss of a son. 1863. A fresh, new start for you. A sad, grim story for your family. And something about your reaction tells me that you're scared I'll do it all again."

The table creaked just a little under my weight. "We have no correspondence outside of the alliance. I owe you nothing, and I don't dwell on the past."

"But you do. What you say is never what you mean. It's a clever defense mechanism, but it won't work on me." She paused, then smiled icily. "You used to be so pleasant. What's turned you so bitter? And don't tell me my venom… that's gotten old."

My fist slammed into the table. "You call me to your feet. You insult me. You threaten my mate. You're just hiding behind your own wounds, Maria."

She delightfully watched me retrieve my hand from within the cracks of her table. "Oh, my dear. Aren't we all? And I'm not threatening your mate. I'm just bringing us to a common understanding. You will do anything to keep yourself alive, and you will manipulate your mate the way you need to. It's simply in your nature, and it shouldn't make you upset."

"Maybe if you payed this much attention to all of your other newborns, most wouldn't have turned on you."

She didn't even flinch. "I pay attention to you, because you are valuable." She walked around the table to stand before me. "And valuable things must always be watched and given attention. If not, they grow restless and wander off on their own."

She was close enough that I could easily twist her neck and tear off her tiny little head. Her arms would go next, then her legs. I'd burn all of her limbs first, and leave her eyes to watch.

"It's been a long time, Maria. I shouldn't be valuable to you at all."

She picked up a black pawn from her table and held it up. "You'll never lose your appeal, Major Whitlock. You were one of a kind." She held up a white pawn beside it. "And now, you're two."

Her threats weren't verbal, but the implication behind her words hung in the air like a deceptive fog. I fought hard to contain my displeasure, but Maria knew me all too well.

Her eyes widened slightly as she watched me, and her smile softened. "But don't worry. If you've learned anything that I taught you, you should be okay. You shouldn't care what happens to her."

She dodged my right arm, but my left hand caught her by the throat. The table gave when I slammed her into it. Her hands clawed at mine, but the smile never left her lips. How badly I wanted to burn it off of her face.

I had expected her friends to show up. But it wasn't who I anticipated. Instead of her crew, I felt a firm hand on my shoulder, and a very familiar scent.

"Jasper, stop," Peter said calmly.

My hands tightened on the bitch's throat, part of me wishing she were human. I needed to hear her struggle, to writhe, to fight me back and lose.

But her red, taunting eyes stared me down even though it was my hands around her windpipe. And her expression weakened me, because I knew what she knew. She could lie in the splinters and chess pieces with a crushed throat, and still overpower me.

"Does she hate you as much as you hate me?" She croaked lightly. I felt her throat vibrate with her question, and it burned me. I pushed her harder into the ground, then released her. My shoulder brushed past Peter's, and I stalked away.

I wanted to throw him into a tree for interrupting. Why had he followed me? Why hadn't I realized that he was coming with me in the first place? Where was my head?

But it wouldn't have mattered. Maria's status as my maker overtook everything. She knew everything. She could anticipate my every move.

She had created me.

Elise

Once again, Kate had barely held her temper when she quietly told me to stay out of today's session. I sat by the sidelines and watched the rest of her students fight for the second day.

The wind shifted, and I knew instantly that Jasper had returned by the wave of his scent flowing through my senses. I hadn't seen him since I left him in the woods two days ago.

He prowled through camp with his jaw set and eyes burning with unspoken rage. He stood before me, and I expected fire to erupt from his voice. But his words was barely there. "Gather your things from your room."

I could feel Kate's gaze on us. I could feel everyone's eyes on us.

"Where are we going?"

"We aren't going anywhere. You're moving."

He bent over to grab my hand, pulling me to my feet. He escorted me out of vicinity of the circle and towards my room. When we got there, he leaned against the front wall. "Quickly."

I frowned, but did as I was told. I didn't have much, but the duffel bag of items from my parents' house was my most prized possession. I stuck George Orwell's 1984 and my journal into the bag, and draped it over my shoulder.

When I came out to meet him, he eyed the bag, then took it from me. We walked a few sections over—closer to the center circle. These cluster of rooms were bigger, and faced the battle area head-on. When Jasper stopped in front of a door, realization dawned on me.

"I'm moving to your room?"

He opened the door and dropped the bag on the ground. "It is what is expected, and so it will be."

I peeked in beyond him. It wasn't much different than what my arrangements had been. Except the desk was instead a full table with four chairs around it. Various documents were littered around it. No bed, just a dresser. The room was about twice the size of mine.

I turned to him. "What does this mean?"

Jasper's eyes went from mine to scanning each and every individual around us. He then stepped forward and grabbed my face in his hands. I felt his lips brush over my forehead.

"Why aren't you training?" His question was a murmur on my skin.

"Kate turned me away."

I felt his attention divert to the center circle. And his touch was gone in an instant. Jasper headed directly to Kate.

The two paired fighters stopped their routine when they saw him approach. Kate held up her hand towards them, then spoke with pure ice. "Major Whitlock."

"Kate," I heard him acknowledge. "Is Elise untrainable? If so, I would like to know."

"Not untrainable." She swiped a glance at me. "Her mate is a danger to my group."

Ouch. I looked around the room, feeling incredibly awkward at the mention of our bond.

"That might be a good thing. Seeing as I peeled that one's arms off like a sticker." He gestured to the vampire he had disarmed. "Threats have always yielded better performance."

Even from a distance, Kate's stance told me everything about her feelings. "I am not training your mate."

"You are. She'll hopefully learn to be a little more careful with her head."

"Are her arms fair game? Legs?" She sneered. "What part of her can my students threaten that you won't kill them for?"

Jasper hadn't killed Bryce. But it sure looked like he wanted to.

I watched as he clasped his hands behind his back. "Perhaps if you trained her better, we wouldn't have a problem. She resumes tomorrow."

Kate looked like she wanted to retort, but her mouth slammed shut. Jasper strode back towards me and addressed the room. "It's not much, but it's not that much more than what you've had."

I didn't care about the room. "It's fine. Are you okay?"

He didn't acknowledge the question, but there was something very off about his behavior. For one, he wasn't denying anything about us. He hadn't put Kate down for referring to me as his mate. Besides that, he was closer, and more in my space. When he stepped into the room, he pulled me in with him. When he began to look over some documents on that table, he patted the chair next to his for me to sit.

While he examined the papers, I examined him.

"Why are you looking at me like I grew two heads?" He finally asked, his eyes fixated on a thick paragraph.

I looked away immediately, realizing that my lips were parted. I felt out of place in this room. With this man. There was something very weird about him.

"I asked you a question, Elise."

"I'm just absorbing today. That's all."

"Absorbing," he tasted the word. "How is that going?"

"I'm not sure."

He put the piece of paper down, then got up abruptly. He went around to the other side of the table and unlocked a drawer. He pulled out more pieces of paper—these ones were folded over in half. He laid them out in front of me. "I believe you were missing these."

I glanced down at the sheets. I could already make out my handwriting through the thin pages, and the jagged edges implied that they were torn. The pages he had ripped out.

Now that we had entered this weird dimension of the bond we shared, I could only guess why he removed my memories. "The pages were about us," I stated. "Our bond."

He went back to looking at his documents. "You wrote beautifully about it."

I didn't touch the pages. "You thought you could keep it from me? That's why you ripped them out."

"Does it matter anymore?"

I supposed it didn't. But I still had the right to be mad about it. "It's unfair. You shouldn't feel that you have the power to withhold my memories from me."

"I'm not withholding your memories from you anymore. You're welcome."

He was unbelievable. "Does hurting my feelings mean nothing to you?"

His hand that was scribbling on something stopped momentarily. Then resumed. "I can't feel what you're feeling."

"That doesn't give you the free-pass to ignore my emotions."

He sighed, and turned to me. "You're a blank wall to me. I don't know what could upset you, or what could make you happy."

Was he serious? "It's called common sense and basic decency. You lie to me, and I will not like it. How hard is that to understand?"

"I have my reasons for why I do the things I do, Elise."

Frustrated, I got up. "Then include me in those reasons. Include me in your thoughts. I'm more useful if I'm aware."

He got up to stand before me, and his hands lightly inched alongside my neck and shoulders. He was examining my skin. And I immediately realized why.

"The cracks are gone," I told him, referring to the slight breakage of my skin from Bryce's attempt at decapitating me. "Dinner last night helped."

He nodded.

I looked out the door and towards the circle where two partners tackled each other. "You really don't have to intervene next time. If you just told Kate that you wouldn't, maybe she wouldn't be as angry."

My head snapped back towards Jasper when I heard the hint of a chuckle.

"Oh, Elise." His fingers brushed over my jawbone. "Kate knows that if any part of you ends up detached from your body, she would lose a student."

Lose a student? Did I hear that correctly? "You mean you would kill them."

"I would have to."

No. I shook my head. "No. You don't have to do anything. Just let me train."

His smile was there, but his eyes hardened fiercely. Two fingers came down my neck, as if measuring the flesh. He was barely touching me, but it felt like electricity down my chest.

"I've taken this vow of protection ever since I knew what you meant to me. I don't expect you to understand that."

"I understand it."

"You fight me at the mere mention of killing. I don't think you do."

What I didn't understand was how protecting me had to involve certain death. "You disarmed Bryce, and that probably taught him something. You can't teach someone a lesson if they're dead." His fingers moved down to my shoulders, then lower towards my chest. I slapped his hand away. "Are you listening to me?"

Amused, he looked at me. "I'm listening, but you're not understanding. No one lives if they harm any part you. Any venom you lose, I will feel the pain."

I thought back to the time where I had pulled his arm from its socket. I had felt that disarming sensation through my body, even though my arms were perfectly attached.

"I will train, and I will make mistakes. If you protect me, I will not learn."

Conflict washed over his features. He had talked freely about me losing a few limbs before. It hadn't bothered him then. Now, it seemed too much.

"Well, if you're so worried about Kate's students, this gives you a reason to take them down first." He snuck closer to me and tilted my head up. "Train harder. Save lives."

"That's insanity."

"It's reality. If anyone got behind you like that in battle, you'd be dead."

His threat to the recruits felt increasingly like a threat to me. If I didn't work hard enough, the consequences would bite me as well. The lives lost would be on my hands.

I looked at him decidedly. "I want to go back to Zach's group."

He was touching me again. His hands ran down my shoulders, down my arms, to my hands. "I wouldn't expect you to make such a cowardly move."

My chest boiled with pure anger. "You're making me do this. You're threatening me as much as you're threatening them."

He pulled my hands to his lips. "I would never threaten you."

As he kissed my knuckles, I felt dizzy. His words and his actions were entirely contradictory. He couldn't think around me? Well, I couldn't think around him.

I withdrew my hands slowly. "Don't kill anyone who doesn't need to die. I won't let you."

He reached for me again, but I took a step back. He watched me closely. "Where were you when I killed the six men and women last night?"

His words squeezed my heart. "Six?"

"Even one is too many for you, I imagine. Unless they're criminals. Even with that, why should you be the judge of who gets to live or die? If a man steals bread to feed his family, that still makes him a criminal in the eyes of the law. You'd drain him in a heartbeat."

I swallowed thickly. "I wouldn't."

"Really? I never understood your scales of justice."

He stepped towards me, and my feet took me back. I collided with the table. He leaned into me and I had to set my hands down behind me to avoid touching him. He put his hands on the table, trapping me in between.

My gaze slipped to the open door. Jasper had never displayed any sort of affection openly. But now, he didn't seem to have any care in the world.

His breath was a whisper on my face. "You're so distant."

I was actively leaning away from him. One could say I was. "Not distant enough."

"You were begging to talk to me a few days ago. What happened?"

His eyes lingered on mine when I didn't answer. Then I saw his gaze drop to my lips.

I saw his right arm shift, and I saw an opening. I ducked under his arm and escaped from between him and table.

He didn't seem bothered by this in the slightest. "You don't want to talk to me. You don't want to touch me. I thought it could be different between us."

Us.

I shook my head. "If you intervene during training or harm anyone in the group, you'll just have to train me yourself. I will not risk the lives of others because of a stupid power trip."

His stare was intense. "No one who harms you gets to live."

And I wanted to laugh. "Then I really don't understand why you're alive."

A/N: Things are different. With a special bond between them, Jasper and Elise are surely going to be treated differently around base.

We are getting closer to the end of the year. I anticipate one more update to be published this month.