(Jasper's POV)
Standing on the roof I watched the warehouse Alice lead us too. The area we were in was mostly abandoned. The walls of the nearby buildings were covered in graffiti, windows busted in, but most importantly no human traffic. Em stood at the other end of the roof in view of Jared. We had discussed a plan on the way over.
I would watch the warehouse while we waited for a sign that the newborns were really there. The wolves would make sure to stay down wind, so the newborns wouldn't smell them. Once we were sure we were in the right spot Em and Jared would go off in search of Victoria. Em knew her smell and once he caught it would point it out to Jared together they were a hell of a pair. Em was all brute strength but Jared could make a plan on the fly. Em knew that strength had to bow to wisdom, and easily followed a plan. Between the two of them I had no doubt they would capture their prey.
Leah and Alice would team up as soon as we got into the warehouse sticking to the edge of the fight in order to make sure no one was able to run off. Alice was also watching for a change in the girls back home. Leah was making sure nothing happened to her while she was distracted.
While I was sure Alice could watch the girls and fight it was nice knowing she had someone watching her back. Leah also seemed more at ease with little Alice on her team than any of the rest of us. She falsely felt she could over power Alice if the need arose, but Alice wasn't worried when I voiced my thoughts. If she was sure Leah and her were the best team up then so be it.
Sam was staying out of the warehouse entirely. His sole job was keeping an eye on his pack, and offering backup where needed. He kept watch on what each member was doing and the vampire they were with. That thankfully meant if the girls were attacked he would know and could rush to help them. Or if Em and Jared somehow failed we would know much sooner.
That left Paul with me as our main fighting force. I would enter the building first pushing a tidal wave of anger and distrust at the newborns. Hopefully this would make them turn on eachother, and cause in-fighting. If it does we'll wait to see how many they can take out themselves before sweeping in to clean up the rest. All in all it should be over in ten minutes tops. If the plan didn't work they would know where I was and the others would move on to plan B.
Paul would fall back to Alice and Leah so that they could enter the warehouse from behind. With the newborns focused on me it should be simply for the three of them to pick them off from the rear. The core of both plans was to keep our group from getting hurt.
"Alice." I glanced at her when she giggled.
"The girls are fine. Emily went with Rose and our parents to get food. Bella and the others are looking for something to read in my room." The smirk on her face told me she was leaving something out of her report, but as long as they were all safe at home I didn't care.
"Why are they in your room? Bella knows where my study is." Alice giggled.
"You don't have what they're looking for." Rolling my eyes I let it go. All they would find in Alice's room was fashion magazines and trashy romance novels. To each their own, but I hadn't pinned Bella as a trashy romance type of girl.
I watched as the doors to the warehouse opened. Her flaming hair was easy to spot even in the dark. Watching her run off I nodded to Em. He shot after her Jared on his heels. My brother was out for blood. This woman was gathering an army to fight our family, and I knew Em would show her exactly why that was a bad idea. The fact she was attacking our human sister only made her crime worse.
I quickly slid into the warehouse pushing the agreed upon cocktail of emotions out. I was careful not to let it hit anyone in my own group. Our trust was fragile enough without my messing with it. The effect was immediate. They turned on eachother like starving animals fighting over a fresh kill. In the span of a human heartbeat their numbers had been reduced by half.
I could hear Alice opening the door for the others to come in. Paul glanced around before snarling and jumping into the fray. Feeling his excitement I stayed back and let him have his fun. Alice danced over sitting at my feet waving for Leah to join her pack brother.
"This was easier than we thought it would be." Her head fell against my leg, and I ran my hand through her hair. I nodded. They had no training at all. This was nothing like in the south.
"Better that than harder. Give me a flawless plan over a shitshow anyday." Laughing, she stood up.
"Come on, let's go gather the pieces up before they start reforming."
Alice went one way while I went the other way meeting in the middle. Tossing everything that wasn't a head or torso into a large pile we lit it on fire. Leah and Paul were tossing a head back and forth happy as children in a candy store. Alice joined once the fire was going strong. Sitting with my back to the flames I watched them play.
The pack really was mostly children forced into the role of protractor by our return. Sam stood in as a father figure for them, but he was barely older than them. Did their families even know what they were doing? Could they even tell them? Why was I worried about them?
Well the answer to that was easy. Bella. She loved the pack. Jacob and Sam were her brothers the same way Em was. Her heart was so big. Always ready and willing to make room for the people she met. Her childlike mother, loving but distant father, a family of misfits she hadn't even spoken to. I remembered the first time she saw us.
Flash Back
"Who are they?" The new girl, Chief Swan's daughter, asked, looking toward our table. A childlike curiosity in her.
"Oh those are the Cullen's." I tuned out the rest of what the human by her side said. There was no need for me to listen to this again, but I kept an eye on the new girl's emotions. For some reason she was filled with a protective feeling at the other girl's words. Glancing over I could see a small fire in her eyes nearly smothered out, but still clinging to life.
She was filled with awe, love, and joy. Not what the rest of the school normally felt when hearing our story, but she seemed determined to see the best in us. Something most didn't bother with. Looking back out the window I wondered if I would overhear why she felt the way she did.
Emotions were always a little hard to decipher. What one person called love could really just be lust or wonder. Joy to one could simply be plain happiness. Anger could truly be fear or hatred. In order to understand a person you first needed to understand how they viewed emotion.
The girl watched our family until Rose caught her eye. Something about my twin scared the girl. Whatever it was Rose was happy with the girl's reaction to her.
Flash Back End
Sam sat next to me at the fire's edge. He wanted to talk to me about something, but for some reason he was holding back.
"Why are we keeping the heads and torso?" His eyes were on the other's as they added more heads to their game.
"If we put them back together we can ask them questions. I'm just waiting for confirmation that their leaders dead before I burn them." Alice hit a head up like a volleyball passing it to Paul.
"I see. Well you'll be happy to know that Jared and your brother caught and killed the redhead."
"Good. One less thing for Bella to stress over. Honestly why are so many people out to get her?'' I could hear the whine in my voice. My instincts were always screaming that she needed to be kept safe, and it was a tad overwhelming.
"Wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that!" He laughed, tossing his head back.
"At least we have this threat handled." He nodded before facing me fully.
"Jasper." The tone of his voice and emotions made me turn to him. "Do you care about Bella?" His eyes stared deep into my own.
"Because I know she cares about you, and as her older brother I don't want to watch her get hurt. Over the years we drifted apart, but when I see her I still see that little girl who hid behind me. We might not be as close as we once were, but she's still family."
"I do care deeply for Bella. However I don't know if she feels the same or is even ready to be in a relationship. That said, if she came to me I would love to discuss it with her. Whenever that time comes I will do everything in my power in order to make sure her heart is never broken again. Having spent more time around her and gotten to know her more I believe we could be mates, but with her still being her human the bond is muted. I feel a pull to her, but the bond is incomplete and I have no intention on completing it without talking to her first."
Sam thought about my words. I could feel him slowly coming to terms with what I said. The easy acceptance shocked me. There was no anger at the implication that we would still change her if she wanted. Just happiness for the girl we both cared about.
"Good. Talk to her. The girls are most likely helping her think through her own feelings, but I worry about the plans they might come up with. While Bella is level headed if you put her with friends she tends to let them drown her voice out."
"Yeah I wanted to talk to her about that. I was hoping we could work on it together." I worried about how easily she let others speak over her. It could just be a by-product of living with her mother for so long. She might not know how to voice her thoughts in a healthy way.
"That would be great." He looked behind me to the entrance of the warehouse. I heard the door open.
"Jazz-man we got her!" Em's booming voice filled her space. "You can finish burning the others now. Yes we kept the head and torso."
"Good." I stood moving to take the two bags from him. "I'll let you finish up the burning. Sam want to help me question her?" I held up the smaller of the two bags. He moved to my side.
"Of course. Let's make sure this was all this leech had planned." His smile was cold.
"Alice, Jared, we're leaving you two in charge." I called over my shoulder as I left. Alice's laughter followed me out to the street. I lead Sam a few warehouses over. There wasn't a need to go too far out. Sliding through the back door I tossed the large bag at Sam.
"Gross." He commented on taking the torso out of the bag. He leaned it against a nearby pillar. Tossing her head back and forth I waited while Sam got used to the smell.
"Alright ready to stick her head back on?"
"Wait how does this work? I know you guys don't die unless you're burned, but we only have half of her. How is she supposed to talk to us?" Ah of course he would want to know the how of it. If Carlilse where he could explain it better, but he wasn't.
"That's a great question! A vampire's body works differently than a humans in many ways, and one of those ways is much faster healing. Once we put her head back on it'll fix itself as if it was never removed in the first place. There's next to no wait time until she's able to speak. Her body will acted as though she only lost her arms and legs." I leaned on the piller next to the body while Sam processed the information given to him.
"That's helpful." He blinked head tilting to the side.
"Very much so. Unless there's fire involved vampire's don't have to worry about very much."
"But you can scar." His eyes roamed my form lingering on the spots where the scars were thickest. I sighed. Of course we were going there.
"Yes we do. When another vampire's venom enters the wound it will scar, and if that vampire isn't your mate or sire it will hurt like hell." I shrugged, dropping the head to the floor. This might take longer than I thought it would, but I had nothing to hide from Bella's brother.
"So those scars?" He was equal part's curious and sympathetic.
"I had a very different introduction to this life then the rest of my coven." I paused, feeling his confusion. What did I say? Oh. "Coven is the term most vampire's use rather than family. Unlike the others I never really went back to human terms, and honestly I feel more comfortable using vampire ones." I waited to see if that was the problem. Most of the packs information was coming from Bella, and her's was coming Edward who used more human terms.
"Okay. I'm following again. Is this different upbringing why you knew how to deal with this little army?" He crossed his arms.
"Yes. I was changed to fight in an army in the south. I was already a soldier in my human life and my sire thought that could help her fix her army." Rage flooded him so fast I braced for him to shift. While I didn't want to fight Bella's brother I wouldn't just let him hurt me.
"Wait hold on! You're telling me that some bitch changed you solely so you could fight a war for her! That's so fucked up! And now your new family has you acting as their main protector? Do they not see how fucked up that is? I'm pretty sure fighting in a vampire war is traumatic! Did you even have time to recover from that? Plus your gift lets you feel emotion! Fighting must be so hard for you. Are they at least helping with the emotional backlash this must be causing you?" He paced as he ranted tossing a glare toward the warehouse the others were in. Watching his mannerisms I could see the same care Bella put into the people she loved. His arms flew over his head whenever his emotions reached a high point. Did she learn that from him?
Overwhelmed, I mentaly turned to my other half. Gently nudging him I asked what to do. While I could feel the blinding rage rolling off Sam in waves he seemed to be in no danger of shifting at the moment, but if he wanted to talk about my emotions I was about to be dangerously out of my comfort zone. My question was met with laughter and a shrug. It seemed my other half was just as lost as I was. Wonderful.
"Well I did travel with my coven for a while before finding Alice and joining the Cullens." He paused his pacing at my words.
"Your coven? Is that not the Cullens?" The abrupt change in emotion caused me to pause.
"No. My coven consists of a mated pair I had to change during the wars. When it was time to kill the woman I found I couldn't hurt my brother that way, so I let them run away. A few years later they came back for me. They gave me somewhere safe to recover from my time with my sire. Even though I'm not with them they still view me as their coven leader, and when life here gets overwhelming I retreat to the safety they offer." My words seemed to bring back the rage from before while also smothering it.
His emotions seemed to be an ever changing fire. I heard the children of Forks talking about the huge bonfire's they would make on First Beach. Flames reaching for the stars, and the warmth of it felt across the beach. That seemed to match Sam. A bright light leading his people, and keeping away the chill that seemed to have its hold on this sleepy town. It was no wonder that a young scared Bella would have found her way to his side. He seemed to draw in people who needed his warmth.
"I see. These two help you deal with the bullshit everyone else tosses your way?" His voice could cut a diamond.
"Yes, but I choose to protect the Cullens. I've always been good at fighting, and this way I know the people I've come to care for are safe. Esme didn't have to take me in when she welcomed Alice to this family, but she did. Called me son even after hearing my story. She-" I paused remembering.
Flashback
"Oh! You did? That's wonderful Jasper! What did you pick out?" Esme's full focus turned to me. Carlisle quickly grabbed the rest of the bags rushing off.
"Not much. I picked up a new desk for my room along with two chairs. One for my desk and one for Bella's study. She felt very relaxed sitting in it, so I thought she might like it. I also picked up a bed for her room, because she's been wanting it for a while. We still need to pick up a few things for her room, and I wanted to order a custom gaming computer."
"Oh? What do we still need?"
"Navy blue curtains, fairy lights, some soft pillows, and fuzzy blankets. Oh and a T.V."
"I see." Esme was looking me over. Her emotions were calmer now than they were on the drive back home. She felt less worried. Was the idea of Bella having a room she liked here that helpful?
"When are you going to order your computer?"
"I was going to make the order tonight. I thought we could let Bella use my room till we got hers set up." I felt Esme calm down farther. I raised my eyebrow. Why did that relax her more? Of course, I wouldn't make Bella sleep in Edward's room, or Alice's for that matter. She wouldn't get any sleep in either room.
"Thank you, Jasper."
"Of course. She wouldn't be comfortable in Edward or Alice's room, so it just makes sense to put her in mine." Esme smiled at me, feeling amused by my answer. She moved to hug me. Showing her intentions in slow movements giving me time to pull back if I wanted. I opened my arms easily for her, letting her wrap me in her embrace. I felt her try to push her love for her children at me. Smiling I easily wrapped the feeling around the both of us adding my love for the family as well. Smiling, we both moved into the house.
Flashback End
Oh I was the reason she was worried. She was calmer because I showed her I wasn't planning on leaving. She was worried about me. The way I spoke calmed her further, because it also showed my intention to stay with the family.
"I'm her son." The words though I knew them to be true felt forign(sp). She was showing me her love for me. Suddenly I felt the need to rush to her side, and ask for an explanation. Didn't she know the things I had done? I wasn't like her other children. I had killed because I wanted to, and still I slipped up far more than the others did. Didn't she see I was more monster than man? How could she want me when there were times my eyes still shined red?
"Jasper?" He placed a hand on my shoulder, so wrapped up in my thoughts I didn't hear him walking over. His flame was softer, more of a cozy fireplace than a raging bonfire now.
"She sees me as her child. She loves me." I felt his confusion grow, but so did his understanding.
"I mean that's how parents normally feel toward their children. However I think this right here is more about how you feel about yourself. Esme welcomed you into her family with open arms, ready to love you. The question is, are you ready to forgive yourself and start the road to self love?" I looked over at him. My emotions were a raging storm. I didn't have the time to work though.
We had come over here to question Victoria, but somehow I found myself seconds from bolting. I had nowhere to go. Even if I ran to Peter he would just continue the conversation Sam had started here. Besides, I didn't want to leave Bella. I needed to find a way to backtrack to where I was in the right headspace to deal with the threat to my mate, but I wasn't sure I could.
"We don't have time for this right now. We need to make sure there's nothing else that Victoria has planned for Bella. I can deal with my emotions after that." I tried to sound sure, but I could hear a wobble in my voice.
"Of course, Jasper. I'll tell you the same thing I told Bella. There are people in your life who care about you and want to help you, but it's up to you to reach out and let them help. We can offer a shoulder to lean on, but you need to tell us if you need more than that. Maybe when we all get home tonight you should call your brother." His emotions were calm. I let them lull me into a sense of safety.
Was this how he kept his pack calm when needed? How he helped frightened young shifters change back to their human selves? Taking a deep breath I stood up. When did I sit down? I was a vampire, how did I miss this much?
Sam grabbed her head and tossed it to me. I held it to her neck and waited for it to fuse back together. Her eyes opened, glaring at me.
"Hello, Victoria." She looked around the room spotting Sam to my left. She snarled at him, but without her limbs she was harmless. Sam smirked.
"What are you going to do leech? The only reason you're even still alive is because we wanted to talk to you." He lends forward carefully to staying away from her teeth. "That said how about you make this easier for yourself and just answer our questions honestly." I could feel a shift in his emotions. They were wilder almost like my own when I let my vampiric side loose. Could it be that he was letting his wolfish side have more control even in his human form?
"What do you want? You already won!" She hissed. I leaned over her, hand resting on the pillar behind her.
"We just want to talk. This little army of yours was far too easy to take out, so I thought a girl like you would have a better plan." Smirking, I felt her fear rising. She knew if she didn't have a bigger plan I'd kill her now.
Her eye's raced around the room and I enjoyed increasing her fear level. She couldn't seem to think straight. Her breathing was irregular.
"You don't have a bigger plan do you. You were banking on the army working weren't you?" Sam shook his head.
Watching her emotions I knew he was right. There was no more danger from her. If she had longer to plan then maybe, but Alice saw her too soon. She never stood a chance against us.
"There's no bigger plan. If there were, she wouldn't be so scared.
"You can burn her now Sam." My voice calm. He smiled, pulling a lighter from his pocket and flipping it in the air.
"Pull off her head. There's no need for you to feel her emotions as she dies. She's not worth that much." He met my eyes and I heard what he wasn't saying. I won't let her hurt you. I removed her head in shock. Cutting off the screaming we had been tuning out.
"Thank you."
He lit her torso waiting until it was beyond repair before tossing her head in. We sat watching her turn to ash before smothering the fire. Bella was safe. From this at least.