Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just playing with her characters. Also, I did not come up with Jasper as the God of War. That idea belongs to IdreamofEddy.
A/N: Thank you to my awesome beta Laurie Whitlock, Belle Du Jour and Arones, the betas from Project Team Beta, my pre-readers AlwaysJASPERsLOVE and Shadman, and my beloved sister Shelljayz who also happens to pre-read for me. :)
Thank you to Ellie Wolf for the beautiful banner she made for Longing and to Laurie for surprising me with it. I will be setting up a link in my bio so you can view it.
Thank you so much to everyone who have favorited, put this story on their alerts, or taken the time to review! You are all awesome! :)
I should probably also mention that my posting schedule will be on Sundays unless something comes up.
Finally, the chapter you all have been waiting for - Bella meets the rest of the Cullens!
Just a reminder: Edward's gift is a bit different than usual. Not only can he read minds but he can also put his thoughts into other people's heads as well as do something akin to a 3-way phone call. It's not limited to three people but, essentially, he and anyone of his choosing can have conversations that are completely silent through his gift. To denote this, conversations that take place through Edward's gift are in "italics with quotes" while Jasper's individual thoughts are in plain italics.
oOo
Late July 2080
JPOV
"Sweet Jesus!" the girl exclaimed. "Are you planning on feeding an army?"
We all turned to look at her from our various locations in the kitchen, and my eyes widened the slightest bit. As vampires, we had perfect memories, vision and hearing. I had both seen this girl and heard her voice through Edward's gift, but as perfect as all those aforementioned things were, none of them had done her any justice.
My God, she's beautiful, I thought.
If I hadn't been able to hear her heartbeat and feel her warmth from all the way across the kitchen, I would have thought she was a vampire; that's how beautiful she was.
What. The. Fuck?
I didn't give a shit about humans. I never gave them a second glance, and I most certainly didn't think they were beautiful. It was her scent. She smelled too damn good, and it was messing with my mind. I couldn't be held responsible for the shit that ran through my head when I was dealing with the bloodlust of five other vampires on top of my own. It didn't mean anything. Thank God I had shut Edward out as soon as our conversation with Carlisle ended. I would never have heard the end of this if I hadn't.
Carlisle grinned at her and came up behind Emmett, who was standing next to the buffet counter, clapping him on the back. "Emmett here is an army unto himself."
Emmett grinned back at Carlisle and then returned his attention to the girl. He pulled out all the stops, I noticed. That grin was his most charming and boyish, his dimples on full display. He was the only one of us who could manage to smile at someone with a heartbeat and not manage to make them shit themselves.
"Hi," he said brightly, his excitement palpable. "I'm Emmett."
The girl studied him for awhile, as she'd done with Carlisle and Esme the night before, and then gave him a look of mild annoyance. "Are you always this chipper in the morning?"
"It's nearly afternoon, Storm," Emmett informed her, his grin dimming somewhat at the realization that she didn't seem to share the same enthusiasm for meeting him as he did for her.
The girl cocked an eyebrow at him. "Storm?"
"You won't tell us your name," Emmett said, his tone infinitely good-natured. "And I'm not about to call you 'honey' or 'dear,' 'cause Rosie here—" he continued, slinging an arm around Rosalie's shoulders—"is my one and only honey."
Despite Rosalie's sour mood that made her smile.
"Since Mom and Pops found you in a storm, I thought it was appropriate," he explained. "Plus, she's one of the most badass X-Men chicks ever. Of course, she's got nothing on Rogue, but she can't help that."
"I suppose since it implies that I'm badass, I'll allow it," the girl said, ignoring the latter part and sounding amused. She gave Emmett a little smile, and that smile made my chest feel strange.
"Awesome!" Emmett cheered, throwing his hand up in the air in an exuberant fist pump. The girl … Storm now, I supposed, though that name on her didn't feel right to me … just smiled. Edward, Alice, Rosalie and I all rolled our eyes.
Esme and Carlisle's happiness at Storm's acceptance of Emmett invaded the room like a flood. It was a nice distraction from the weird thoughts I couldn't seem to shake.
"Storm," Carlisle cut in. "This is Rosalie." He gestured to Rose, who scowled. "Edward," who nodded at her. "Alice," who bounced on her tiptoes and waved at Storm excitedly. "And Jasper."
I gave her a nod that was just barely a twitch of my head, and she nodded back at all of us in turn. Once she'd acknowledged us, she turned her attention to the food but made no move to dish any of it up for herself. The look on her face was longing, hungry, and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth as her stomach growled, yet she still just stood there staring at it.
I wanted to suck that lip out from between her teeth and bite it.
Goddamnit, Jasper! Get your head out of your ass. It's the bloodlust. That's all it is. It doesn't mean anything, I reminded myself because it didn't.
Esme came up behind the girl … Storm … and pressed her hand gently between her shoulder blades. "Help yourself, sweetheart."
The girl … Storm … flinched as though she'd been burned. Apparently, she liked being touched about as much as I did, and I found myself wondering why. No, no, I was not curious why she didn't like being touched. It didn't matter why because I did not care.
Storm still made no move to grab a plate.
Carlisle then took the initiative and picked up a plate himself, piling some food on it and turning on the tea kettle. Esme went next. Emmett, catching onto the idea, grabbed a plate and piled it high since someone his size would no doubt be expected to. He didn't know this girl from Adam, but I could tell from the affection radiating off of him and the way he was trying so hard to convincingly act human that he genuinely liked her. I began to wonder if he would be just as heartbroken as Esme and Carlisle were going to be when the girl left.
Alice was next, and after her, Edward went. Rosalie begrudgingly fixed herself a plate, though her choices were much more sparing than everyone else's before her. I was last to pass through the buffet, and even though I was now a vampire, the Southern boy in me couldn't pass up the biscuits and gravy. I added two fried eggs to my plate for good measure, filled a mug with coffee and took a seat at the dining room table next to Alice. The girl finally grabbed a plate as soon as all of us had finished filling ours. She chose French toast, an omelet, oatmeal, hash browns, sausage, bacon, fruit, hot chocolate and orange juice.
When Storm entered the dining room, she went to the chair at the foot of the table and pushed it over toward the corner of the room with her hip as she prepared to sit. I expected her to right it once she was seated, but she didn't. It was where I would have sat if I'd been in an unfamiliar place with a bunch of people I didn't know. Her back was facing two adjoining walls and wasn't left open to attack, she was closest to a means of escape—the patio door—if she needed one and it left her open to observe everyone in the room. The placement of her body was a tactically sound move, and it made me wonder if she'd positioned herself that way on purpose. Since there'd been seats open next to Emmett and I, there was a good chance she had. Of course, that could have been a coincidence.
Storm picked up her fork in one hand and cut into her French toast, popping the bite into her mouth. With her other hand, she kept absently twisting the chain of a silver necklace around her index finger. Then she turned her gaze to Rosalie and watched her just as she'd watched Esme, Carlisle and Emmett. This was a pattern with her, I'd noticed. I knew it was only a matter of time before she did the same thing with Edward, Alice and I, and it made me more certain that she'd sat at the foot of the table and positioned herself the way she had on purpose. Storm was sizing us all up, trying to figure out if any of us were a threat to her. If she determined that any of us were, she needed to know who to keep the closest eye on. It was smart.
The room was filled with the sound of forks and knives scraping plates and the slurping of juice, coffee and tea. The vampires were, for the most part, doing our best to push the food around our plates, only taking the occasional bite to save ourselves as much discomfort as possible. Storm had tried to eat slowly at first but soon inhaled her food and moaned just a little bit. That did nothing to dispel the thoughts I'd been struggling with since she'd entered the kitchen a few minutes ago. I tried to focus on something else, anything else, but her scent was everywhere, that little smile of hers had had my dick as hard as a rock since I'd laid eyes on her several minutes ago. Every time she moaned, I kept picturing her underneath me moaning for a completely different reason. It was the bloodlust, nothing more. Bloodlust often led to lust. It didn't mean I was actually attracted to her. I had to repeat that over and over in my head to dispel those images, once again thankful that Edward wasn't inside my head and also that I had a firm grip on my projection today.
Even as Storm inhaled her food, she continued watching us all, but if anyone noticed, they didn't give any indication of it. When her eyes fell on me, I stared right back, my eyes meeting hers in silent challenge. I'd expected her to avert her gaze immediately because humans always shied away from vampires. It was a natural survival instinct whether they were aware of it or not, and out of all of us I'd been told I was the most intimidating. I always pretended like that was news to me, but it wasn't. I was the Major, the God of War, the most feared vampire in the South, perhaps in all of North America, and my reputation wasn't bullshit. I was a scary motherfucker when I wanted to be.
But she didn't drop her gaze. She met it head on and held it, accepting my challenge as if it were nothing. It made me respect her, but it also pissed me off. I had earned that reputation through a lot of pain, suffering and bloodshed. Who did this insignificant human think she was undermining that? I wanted to wrap my hands around her neck in that moment and squeeze, but then the strangest thing happened: I got lost in those pretty brown eyes of hers. The whole world faded away, and it was just the two of us. It only happened for a second, but it left me in a daze. Thankfully, she seemed just as out of it, but that only lasted for a second as well. I didn't know what the hell it meant, but I didn't fuckin' like it. I cocked a brow at her in question as if to ask, What the fuck are you starin' at?
Storm blinked and turned her attention back to her food but otherwise seemed unfazed.
"How did you sleep, dear?" Carlisle asked, breaking the silence.
"Very well, thank you, Mr. Cullen," she responded politely. "That bed … there are no words for that bed."
"Please call me Carlisle," Carlisle told her with a smile.
"I'd rather not, sir," she told him seriously.
Carlisle frowned in disappointment, not understanding why she would refuse to call him by his first name. I imagined it was because she didn't understand why Carlisle and Esme were being so nice to her after she'd broken into their home. Sometimes, my adoptive parents forgot they were a rarity.
"In that case, it's Dr. Cullen." He sighed, trying his best not to show how disappointed he was and almost succeeding.
"Well, that explains the hulking monstrosity," she mumbled. Only Edward, Esme, Carlisle and I understood what that meant, and she'd whispered it low enough that no one could ask for her to clarify without raising suspicion even though I knew the others wanted to desperately.
"So," Alice chirped, changing the subject and starting the inquisition. "How long have you been in Forks?"
"Twelve hours," Storm answered succinctly.
"Where'd you come from?" Edward asked next.
"South."
"How long do you plan on staying?" Rose asked, her tone hostile.
Storm just looked at her. It wasn't a measuring look as it had been before, just an acknowledgment that she existed. "Not long."
"Where are your parents, honey?" It was Esme this time.
"Not here," she responded vaguely.
"What kind of stuff do you like?" Emmett asked, his eyes bright.
"Lollipops and candy canes," she said sarcastically, clearly losing her patience with the twenty questions game.
Emmett's and Alice's faces both fell in disappointment. They really wanted to know more about this girl, and since they hadn't been privy to Esme and Carlisle's memories of how they met her, they'd had no idea they were most likely going to hit a brick wall when they tried.
Storm noticed this and took pity on them, which wasn't something I'd been expecting.
"Motorcycles," she said, surprising everyone that she'd answered at all and willingly at that.
Against her better judgment, Rosalie's interest was piqued, and she hated it. She didn't want anything to get in the way of her hating this girl, and seeing as cars and motorcycles were one of Rose's intense passions that had the potential to do it. She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, but I could feel that there was a little crack in the ice now.
"Any kind in particular?" Edward questioned this time. I was sure he was asking more for Emmett, Alice and especially Rosalie's benefit than his own. He couldn't care less about cars, aside from owning a nice one, and Rose was too stubborn to ask the question even though she clearly wanted to know the answer.
"Anything that goes upward of 150 miles per hour. Anything less is a waste of time," Storm answered.
God, that's hot, I thought, a flash of heat shooting to my groin. I wondered what the girl would do if I pinned her to the wall. Fuck! You will notpin the human against the wall. You will not pin the human against the wall.
With difficulty I managed to shove that shit out of my head, pretending that my dick wasn't currently trying to bust out of my boxer briefs, and focused on her emotions, which I'd been ignoring up until this point. Trying to feel this girl out was like trying to watch a TV with shitty satellite reception. Her emotions were flickering in and out so fast I couldn't figure out exactly what they were. I knew it wasn't because her emotions were actually shifting that fast. No one, not even vampires, were capable of feeling that much at such a rapid rate. Something was blocking me, but I didn't have a fuckin' clue what that something might be. I would have expected that her erratically pulsing emotions would make me dizzy. Instead, they just made me itch.
"Can you feel her?" Edward's voice echoed in my head, loading his spoon with oatmeal and bringing it to his lips. He swallowed like it was painful. I was honestly surprised he hadn't asked sooner.
"It's hard to get a read on her, but I can feel something," I told him, pushing a bit of egg around my plate.
"And?" The fact that it wasn't Carlisle asking told me that Edward hadn't included him in this conversation. I suspected Carlisle wanted to give the whole of his attention to the girl at the moment since she seemed to be handing out some details about her life, vague though they might have been.
I wasn't looking forward to sharing what I'd felt from the girl, but I knew I had to. I swear to God, if that emo fucker teases me for this, I'll rip him apart and burn the pieces, whether it hurts Alice's feelings or not.
"She feels …" I began hesitantly.
"She feels …" He trailed off impatiently.
"Itchy," I said, my tone daring him to say something smart.
"Itchy?" Edward said incredulously."What does that even mean, Jasper?"
"How the fuck should I know?" I snapped, echoing his words from earlier.
"Maybe you should ask her," he suggested, sounding completely lost. He had no idea what to do with my answer. Neither did I.
I just barely restrained myself from snorting out loud."And how exactly do you propose I do that, douche? 'Hey Storm, how are you feelin' right now? Itchy perhaps?' Maybe I should just ask her if she has the clap."
Edward, who'd just taken a sip of orange juice, promptly choked, spraying that shit all over Rosalie, who sat across from him. Her mouth fell open in shock, her eyes squeezing shut to prevent juice from getting in them. Now she was really pissed. Her glare at Edward a fierce one as she pushed her chair back roughly so she could go clean herself off. It was funny as hell.
Edward couldn't stop coughing, and it sounded like he was trying to hack up a lung. Alice smacked him on the back in the hope that it would help him, but it didn't do much to relieve the situation. The human, the only one at the table who didn't know about Edward's gift and that he'd most likely reacted to something he'd heard in one of our heads, looked at him like he was a crazy person. Everyone else, besides me, looked at him either in concern or curiosity.
Several seconds later, Edward managed to get out a hoarse, "Excuse me," and left the table. Even though he went to the furthest bathroom from the dining room every vampire in the house could still hear him laughing his ass off.
oOo
"Come on!" Alice said, grabbing for the girl's hand.
Most of us had migrated into the living room now that breakfast was over with and the kitchen had been tidied.
Even though I was playing a video game with Emmett, who had tried and failed to convince the human to play with him, I couldn't seem to stop myself from watching the two of them out of the corner of my eye. I knew Alice well enough to know she had gotten some sort of idea in her head. I assumed this idea of hers was designed to get the girl to warm up to her since breakfast had been an epic failure on that front. Whether I was right or not, Alice was really excited about something. The hope and confidence she felt was pretty much slapping me in the face. Ordinarily, I would have liked that since hope was an emotion I rarely felt. On a day like today, however, when I was in such a shit mood, it should have annoyed me, but it distracted me from the itching that hadn't stopped since I'd tried to read the human's emotions, so I didn't care.
The girl jerked her hand out of the way at the last second and shoved both of them in her pockets. Alice's face immediately twisted with hurt, her bottom lip poking out in a pout, and her eyes took on that wounded puppy look that could break even the most hard-hearted person. At first, the girl looked completely unaffected, but the longer she looked at Alice, letting the puppy dog eyes sink in, the more uncertain her expression became.
Edward, who'd still been in the kitchen, came up behind the girl on his way to get to Alice. His footsteps had been nearly soundless as he still wasn't used to the idea of having to play the human charade in the one place we weren't supposed to have to pretend. Somehow she sensed him anyway. Her whole body tensed at his presence, not relaxing until Edward had passed by and her back no longer felt unprotected, or that's what I assumed. I couldn't really say I'd seen her relax the whole time she'd been in our house, but she relaxed as much as she seemed capable of in a strange environment. No sooner had he passed her than she shifted so that her back was to the wall, and I knew I was right. I had to admit that confused me because it hadn't been done out of mindless fear. Her demeanor hadn't been frenzied or panicked. Her movements had been calm and precise, measured and deliberate. It was another strategic maneuver. She didn't trust us, but even though I couldn't feel her emotions properly, nothing about her body language suggested she was afraid of us, and she should have been. She was afraid of something, though, and I couldn't help but wonder what.
No, I reminded myself, you do not care why she might be afraid. You do not care about her. She's a human, Jasper. She does not matter to you. She does not matter at all.
When Edward finally reached Alice's side, he pulled her into his arms in a distinctly non-fraternal hug and pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead. Alice smiled up at him tenderly before returning the puppy dog eyes to the human.
Edward turned to the girl. "I wouldn't even bother trying to resist the puppy dog face. No one has ever been able to."
The girl considered this for a moment before replying, "What is it that you're expecting me to do, Tinkerbell? Because I have lines I won't cross."
Knowing better than to try to touch her this time, Alice smiled radiantly and motioned the girl forward, dancing the rest of the way into the living room. The girl gave her a wary look but stepped forward to follow her anyway. The next thing I knew, the human was sitting next to me on the couch and Alice was pulling the plug on Emmett's and my video game.
"What the hell, Ali?" Emmett protested in indignation. He'd been kicking my ass since I'd only been half paying attention. There was nothing he loved more than beating people, especially Edward and I, at any sort of game; except for Rosalie, the sex with her in particular.
Alice just turned the puppy dog look on him, causing Emmett to curse under his breath.
It turned out that Alice's idea of bonding was to make us all watch The Notebook. The movie had come out decades ago but was still her favorite. She must have made us all watch it a thousand times by now. The human didn't seem particularly enthused about Alice's choice of activity, but she didn't protest either.
I wanted to kill my midget sister, rip her into itty-bitty pieces and hide them all over Olympic National Park or possibly somewhere sunny because after she'd popped the movie in, she'd made Edward sit next to the girl and then taken a seat in his lap. The rest of the family had taken up the remainder of the chairs in the living room, so there was nowhere else for the human to go unless she wanted to sit on the floor. I was seriously tempted to shove her there, and the only reason I didn't was because I knew how much it would have upset Esme and Carlisle.
The next two hours of my life sucked. The human was two inches away from me the whole time, her heat and scent seeping into my pores. She smelled like sweet peas, lilies, caramel apples and fresh cotton. She smelled like home, and she kept twisting that silver necklace around and around her fingers, making me wish she was twisting her fingers around and around my cock. It drove me fuckin' crazy, and I honestly couldn't decide what I wanted more: to sink my teeth into her or fuck her.
I do not care. I do not want to eat the human. I do not want to fuck the human. I do not care. I repeated this over and over again for one hundred twenty-three minutes. I swear it was the longest one hundred twenty-three minutes of my life.
Carlisle and Esme needed to kick this girl out already.
oOo
A/N: Alright guys, what did you think? Up next, more JPOV. Will Bella continue to drive him crazy? I guess you'll just have to read to find out. :)
