Rain: Hello all! I am back with a brand new chapter for The Crimson Eyed Drifter: Distance Between Hearts and as promised, this is a pure Jasper-centric chapter so sit back, relax and enjoy!

Mario: Here we go!

The Crimson Eyed Drifter: Distance between Hearts
Chapter Eight

Las Vegas
Jasper Hale Whitlock

The Bellagio Hotel looked great at night.

When Peter said that we were just going to have a low-key road trip, I was expecting something like some old-fashioned hotel rooms but this was great.

"I figured since this is our first time together in years, I wanted us to start it with a bang, and what bigger bang is there than the Bellagio?" Peter said with a rather goofy grin on his face.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and said, "Plus, he knows that despite being with the Cullens for ages, you've never been to Vegas so he wanted to make our first outing together a memorable one for you."

"Such a softie," I teased with a grin but to be honest, I was truly grateful for him being so thoughtful about me and as we entered the hotel building, I was truly surprised at how vast and beautiful it was.

Though there were what looked like flowers on the ceiling above me and that was just weird. Once we checked in, the three decided that we would take the stairs to our presidential suite which honestly…Was a lot bigger than what I expected.

Overall, the place had a damn solarium, an indoor garden and fountain, fireplace, and L-shaped bar.

The suite that Peter had got us was the Presidential Suite and this thing was huge. It had two master bedrooms, private bathrooms within each bedroom with whirlpool tubs and steam showers, along with a conference room that won't really see any use.

Not to mention, it was damn gorgeous.

"So, where should we hit up first?" Peter asked as he sat on one of the beige/crimson lounge chairs in the suite. "Casino…Movie Theater…Cirque du Soleil…?" Peter suggested with to the two of us.

"Actually…" I started, feeling that familiar burning sensation at the back of my throat. "I need to hunt…" I stated.

Charlotte and Peter looked at each other then back at me where Peter said "Well, considering that there aren't a lot of critters here in Vegas, you're looking to break the Cullen diet?"

"I realized that the Cullen diet wasn't for me so I decided to take myself off of it and return to my original diet," I told them with a rather small grin on my face.

"How come?" Peter asked. "I mean, the last time we spoke about this subject, you were firmly on their diet and wasn't going to change for anything."

I nodded at this and replied "I did say that but a while after that, I slipped up. Nearly took someone down. I realized that in drinking the blood of animals, I had gotten complacent around humans, and thus, my control over my bloodlust for them weakened. If I returned back to our natural diet, I can learn to control my hunger better."

Peter nodded with his all-knowing smirk, which made me instantly annoyed. Any time he gave that smirk, I knew that he knew the true reason why I'm giving up the diet but he didn't pounce on the chance to make me look like the fool.

Instead, he gave a shrug and said "Alright. I'll take that answer. Welp, if we're going to hunt first, let's go to the seediest place in Vegas and find our marks."

I nodded and soon, the three of us were out of the hotel and prowling the rooftops of Vegas, in search of our prey. Admittedly, I had a blast looking for our prey but I did have a hidden worry.

Would I be able to do it?

For such a long time…I was told that humans were not my prey and that their lives were wanted so to unwind that learning was going to be a challenge.

Like always, Peter managed to ease my worries and told me "We don't hunt down people indiscriminately. We hunt for the bad guys. Killers, rapists, drug dealers, things like that. So there is no guilt to be had."

I smiled in relief and soon, we found ourselves in front of the seediest looking strip club we could have found. The three of us looked at each other before I said "Well…Let's get on with it then…"

The three of us walked into the place and I was immediately hit with feelings of lust, sadness, loneliness, and contempt. These feelings were so strong, I was momentarily taken aback by this but I decided to press on.

"So," Charlotte whispered low enough for only me to hear. "It's time to choose your target. Peter is already working on his and I basically have a buffet," She chuckled softly and I managed to look over her shoulder to notice a lot of men and women staring at her but I didn't need to see them at all honestly.

I could feel their lust for her before my eyes saw them.

"You can do it, brother…If you don't feel up to it, roam the streets for a while for some gangs or mobsters. There are plenty," Charlotte told me before pecking my cheek and going on her way.

Truth be told, I was feeling that this was the wrong place. Sure, a lot of the people here were scummy but the women stripping looked forlorn to their fate and I could feel the sadness flowing from them.

It wouldn't feel right.

I found himself taking Charlotte's advice and texted both Peter and Charlotte that I'm going to hunt elsewhere before I ducked out of the strip club and back onto the streets but after several blocks of walking about, I heard a woman screaming along with the feeling of hopelessness, panic and a large amount of fear.

"Get away from me! Help!"

Before the sounds of muffled blows being landed along with the feeling of pain

With narrowed eyes, I quickly ran to the alleyway where I saw two men roughly grabbing at the clothes of a rather beautiful woman attempting to do something very vile that made the venom in my veins burn with anger.

I found my targets.

I wasted no time from that moment on. By the time they noticed I was there, I had already had them to the ground. One of them decided to pull out what I realized was a gun but immediately made sure to crush it beneath my feet…along with his hand.

The man screamed in panic and pain as the other man decided his partner wasn't worth it and began to run. I grabbed the man on the ground, after removing my foot from his broken hand, and tossed him towards the running man, sending them both to the ground.

I saw them rising to their feet in an effort to run but then I decided to pull out an old trick from back during my time with Maria. I hit them with a heavy dose of lethargy along with weakness and the same amount of hopelessness the woman had felt and they were out like a light.

I looked at the woman, who was still shaking up, and asked, "Are you alright?" The woman nodded her head shakily before I said "You should leave and go home. I will deal with them." I sent her a massive dose of calm, which managed to lower the shaking of her body.

I then gave her a disarming smile before she rushed out of the alleyway. I then turned my head back to the two men. They hadn't stirred at all.

I walked up to the men and picked one of them up and as if he knew, the man's head fell to the left, revealing the right side of his neck.

But then I decided I paused.

Once I do this…There is no turning back for me…Once I feed off a human, I can't feasibly go back to the Cullen diet. And once I do submit to this human's blood, I need to work on my control for good so when I'm around living humans…especially around Bella…I don't attack them.

No turning back now.

Just then, I saw the police car coming towards the alleyway I was in and swore "Shit," before I dropped the man and ran off as quickly as possible.

I was now back on the roof where I saw the two men I had put down getting arrested and despite being glad they were going away, I was truly annoyed that I was unable to get my first taste of human blood but as I stood on the roof, I felt that something was off…But what?

"So Major, did you do it?" Peter's voice came from my right, which caused me to whip around sharply to see the joking grin on his face, which made me frown.

"No. The police came and I had to stop. There must be another place I can feed," I replied with a frown on my face.

Charlotte smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder and said "Well maybe we can do run through until we find something."

"That's a good idea…Let's do it," I replied with a grin before the three of us began run and leap from roof to roof, searching for our desired prey but as we scoured around the city, I began to notice something strange with a lot of the people in Vegas.

The reason I felt so guilty about taking human lives was because of my abilities, which made me feel their emotions at all points in time, including the moment where I would take their life but it seemed that the further we went, the emotions just died.

There was nothing to be felt.

Humans…Humans are emotional by default, with the very rare bunch being unemotional but to have blocks filled with people with no emotions…That rings strange to me.

"Guys, something isn't right," I mentioned to the two as I stopped my run onto the next roof. Peter and Charlotte looked back at me, the two of them following my lead by skidding to a stop.

"I don't feel any emotions for anyone down there…" I told them. Peter and Charlotte looked at each other in surprise while I walked towards them with a frown on my face.

"I could sense many emotions during our trek but the farther we go, I sense nothing and there are plenty of people down there," I said to them while I crossed my arms in thought.

"Come to think of it…" I continued slowly. "I noticed a faint scent of a single vampire around the entirety of Las Vegas from the moment we got away from the hotel. Something isn't right."

Charlotte looked concerned as well but she stated "I noticed the scent as well but it's so faint, I thought I imagined it for a while."

I shook my head and looked down the dark alleyway beneath me and felt that familiar burning sensation that was in my throat rising. I took a breath and said, "This is something we can investigate at a later time."

"You're right as always Major," Peter stated, finally talking after being silent the entire time. "We need to make sure that you'll get under control after taking human blood after so many years without it."

I nodded and we quickly leaped off the roof and into the alleyway, where the three of us slammed to the ground feet first before we walked out into the streets of Las Vegas nonchalantly.

The three of us walked around for quite some time, waiting for the perfect group to mark until we heard it.

It was the scream of, "Fuck you, let me go you damn fucking clowns!" from a woman, which was quickly muffled. The three of us looked at each other before we ran in the direction of the scream, which led us into an abandoned building.

As we ran up the stairs, I could hear the sounds of punches being landed on her body along with the muffled sounds of the woman grunting in pain but by that point, we were already at the floor where the sound was coming from.

And from what I saw made my blood boil.

Laying on the ground was a rather pale-skinned girl who looked no younger than eighteen with Honey blond hair being relentlessly punched by a male dressed in all black clothing with his face hidden by a mask.

Around them were ten other males that were just watching this, dressed in the same attire.

But as I looked at this sight of this helpless woman being beaten within an inch of her life, she looked at me with her large brown eyes.

And the minute she did, I didn't see the woman anymore…I saw Bella's face…Her teary-eyed face looked back at me as she managed to whimper "H-Help…" before the black-gloved fist of the man collided with her face.

And then…All I saw was red.

Las Vegas - Abandoned Building
Charlotte Whitlock

So…This was a violate situation. We came up into this place and we came in to see a woman getting the mess beat out of her and without any warning, the Major snapped.

He ran at the criminals like a bat out of hell and wasted no time in slaughtering the men. I've never seen him so enraged like that before. Limbs and heads were sent flying all over the place.

The last time I saw him like this was…

Well…

Back during our time with Maria during his time as her soldier.

I could hear the screams as well as the ricochet of bullets hitting the wall as they fruitlessly tried to strike him but one by one, they all fell to him.

In the end, there were only one of those men left and he was huddling in the corner with a pistol in his hands with Jasper, hunched over with the blood of all of those slain men dripping from him.

"D-Don't kill me. P-P-Please. We were just following orders of Remy Etienne LeBeau and Anna Marie!" The man wailed but even at this distance, I could see the pitch black eyes of Jasper.

But my eyes widened, as did Peter's and from where I was, I could see Jasper's eyes widen a bit as well but then he let out a low growl while his eyes seemed to darken further.

There was no mercy for anyone that caused those eyes to become pitch black.

Those two names were very familiar to us and it would explain why things felt muted here for Jasper.

They were Maria's top vampires.

But why were they in Vegas?

I could see Jasper lick his lips clean of the blood that fell down his face before a crazed grin appeared on his face and just as Jasper lunged, the male wailed in white-hot pain as Jasper's teeth sunk within the man's neck.

I could see the man's life force being drained from his face, his once copper-colored skin fading into pale husk as Jasper greedily took his blood and when Jasper was done, he leaned back and let out a rather loud roar that could have shaken the building.

The only thing we could hear was the raspy breathing of the woman on the floor. Jasper suddenly turned around, his eyes still pitched black with hints of red within the inky black irises, and began to walk towards the downed woman.

He kneeled down on the ground and for a moment, I thought that he would lunge down at her and take her blood as well but he didn't. I was a bit surprised honestly but Peter instantly grinned.

"Back when he drank animal blood, his control was shaky but with him being back at human blood, his control will be better…His only problem is his lack of confidence due to what happened with the Cullens on the night he left…" Peter said to me as if he could read my thoughts.

Such a smug face, I could just kiss him.

Despite Jasper's eyes slowly returning from pitch black to some gold/red hybrid, I could practically smell the fear coming off of her but she could not move away from Jasper's grasp due to her weakness.

I watched as Jasper placed his head to her chest, presumably to listen to her heartbeat before he turned to me and said "Peter! Charlotte, I need you here yesterday!"

Peter and I exchanged looks before we dashed over to Jasper and that was where we got a good look at her.

Well…Isn't that interesting…She looks just like Jasper…I turned to Peter but once again, I saw a small grin on his face.

Did he see this coming?

"We need to get her to a hospital as quickly as possible," I said softly while kneeling beside Jasper, who had a blank look on his face.

"She won't make it in time. Her injuries are too severe," Jasper replied softly while he shut his eyes.

"Then there is only one thing we can do," Peter responded softly.

I looked to Peter and then to Jasper only for him to ask her "What is your name?"

The woman coughed violently before she managed to wheeze out "Jessamine…T-They…can't get away w-wi…"

Jasper nodded and said "Save your strength Jessamine and just listen…My name is Jasper Whitlock…And I am a vampire. You are currently dying right now and despite our speed, you will die before you get to the hospital. However, because of what has occurred…If you want, I can make you like us…To live an immortal life."

The woman, Jessamine looked towards Jasper weakly and it was really subtle but I saw her head nod just a bit. Jasper turned to me and said "I don't think I can change her without feeding off of her. Please…"

I nodded and quickly took her and said "This will hurt," Before I leaned down and clamped my teeth down on her neck and pumped as much venom as I could. The more venom I get into her veins, the faster it will go.

I quickly pulled back and said, "We need to get her back into our hotel room quickly."

Jasper nodded in my direction before he turned to Peter and said "Charlotte, you get her there. Peter, you and I have to investigate."

Peter nodded at Jasper and with a quick kiss on the cheek from Peter, we all quickly separated.

Things are going to get bumpy.

Rain: And that is the end of this chapter. So it seems Jasper and his gang have been thrown into something but what? The next chapter will deal with Jasper and Peter in Vegas along with Alice and Bella in Forks so until then...

Mario: See you next time!