After only an hour, we caught a scent. Three deer, two miles South.
"Only three." I said
He nodded. "You can have them if you want. I'm sure you're starving."
The hands reached up and grasped at my throat, scraping at its walls and pulling it tighter and tighter. Through the pain, I said, "No, it's okay, you should have them. I should help you anyways, it can be pretty tricky."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, really." I took a deep breath of the air, searching it for the familiarity of human blood. A faint musk reached my nose, causing the hands to squeeze, but I barely noticed it. "You're far enough away that the humans' scents won't bother you. Just relax. Trust your instincts."
Jasper shifted into a crouched position, poised and ready to strike. He sprinted to the deer, with me in tow, and perched on a large stone just feet from them. His face relaxed and he concentrated, letting his hunting senses take over. Just as he was about to strike, his head jerked to the side.
"Jasper-"
My exclamation was stopped short by him leaping off of the rock and bolting into the forest, straight towards the tempting smell that didn't seem to bother me earlier.
"No! You can resist, just try to hold back. Jazz, you can do it. I know you can." I tried shouting at him as I ran, but my words were no use.
I caught up to him seconds later, but I was already too late.
He stood motionless over a woman laying limply on the ground. Blood dripped from his mouth.
"I'm sorry, Alice." His voice came out as a whisper through his set jaw. The crimson eyes that I admired so much were hardened into something much more painful.
"No, don't be sorry. It's ok. Don't worry."
Jasper didn't move, but I walked over to him and put my arms around him. He didn't move, but I felt him relax ever-so-slightly under my touch.
"I felt it." He said after a while. "She was scared at first, and then she was disappointed. Disappointed that it had to end this way."
I released my hold on him and looked up into his eyes. He looked back this time, and I saw those pained eyes once again. "It's going to be okay."
His head nodded, but I knew that he didn't really believe me. His face was stone cold.
I quickly drained the herd of deer, though he stayed with the dead woman. The blood soothed my choking throat, but I wasn't fully satisfied. I couldn't be, not when Jasper was like this.
I returned as soon as I could, but he still stood there with the cold face and damaged eyes.
"I was the youngest major in the Union." He said suddenly.
"What?"
"1861, age seventeen. I was a very good persuader as a human." I fell silent, finally understanding what he was telling me. "I was issued to the South for a couple of months, and during that time I encountered three women on the road. Being the gentlemen that I was," He cleared his throat. "Being the gentleman that I am, I approached them and asked if I could help them. They started talking about something strange that I didn't understand, but soon they seemed to come to an agreement. One of them came forward and pulled my face down towards hers. I thought that she was going to kiss me. But instead, I felt her teeth sink into my skin and spread venom through my veins."
I tried to stay quiet, but a gasp escaped my mouth before I could help it. He ignored it, though.
"She stayed with me for the transformation. Her name was Maria." Jasper shuddered at the name. "She was quite the charmer - after I recovered from the bite, she convinced me that I was her one and only. Her true love. She told me that she was creating an army of newborns, new vampires who are hard to control and much stronger than other vampires. And she manipulated me into helping her."
"That's horrible. I'm so sorry."
"If only that was where the story ended." He said sadly. "I became her second in command. I fought and trained the newborns, using my combat skills from my human life and my new supernatural abilities. Many of them died. I never lost a fight. But overtime, my violent and bloodthirsty lifestyle revealed it's flaws. I felt every emotion that my victims did, and so I found myself carrying an enormous weight of all the harm that I'd caused. Eventually, I worked up enough courage to leave Maria. I left Texas to become a nomad." His face brightened faintly. "And then I came here, and I met you."
I stayed silent for a moment, trying to process all that he'd told me. No wonder his mind held such great pain - he'd been through so much.
"I...I had no idea." I finally said.
"You had no way of knowing. It's okay, really. You can't change the past." He responded.
I didn't respond, staring off into the forest with him. The quiet chirping of birds and cool breezes helped me untangle my thoughts.
Through Jasper's story, I hadn't been paying attention to the images flitting in and out of my mind. I hadn't noticed the specifically clear scene playing out in my mind, set only a week from the future.
I stood up suddenly, watching the vision carefully. Jasper took notice and immediately became tense.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I...I just got a vision. It's really clear, and it's not far from now." I said absentmindedly, still concentrating on the four people that filled the scene.
"Is everything okay? Or is it going to be?"
"I think so. I'm seeing five people, all of them vampires."
Jasper stood up as well and shifted into an attack position. I tried not to notice how familiar he seemed with it. "Are they going to attack us?"
"No, I don't see them fighting us. It's strange...there's a sense of...love. I'm not sure how, though."
"What are you saying?"
I break my focus and look at him with a small smile. "They're going to love us."
I'm very excited for these next chapters...I always find the Cullen family very fun to write about, so getting to include Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward will be much more entertaining for me personally. Also, since my other story, Solstice, just ended, I will be focusing on updating this story much more. Chapters will probably be out every two days, so you may want to check for updates more often now.
