Jasper had decided to go hunting on his own.
The silence of the forest was nice compared to the chaos that was going on in the house right now. From what he heard, another coven was coming to visit. Vegetarians too, for what Alice told him, and safe to be around . Carlisle assured him that he had explained the situation to them, and that he had nothing to be concerned about.
Not that that reassured him.
While he had no issue taking down vampires, he didn't feel like taking down people the Cullens liked.
It felt wrong.
He sighed and fixed the sunglasses on his face.
The forest was quiet, and it felt almost soothing to his senses. Still . He needed to get back to the house, for Alice had told him to not take long; the other coven would be here any minute now.
But the house was so chaotic.
From what he was able to gather, Edward wanted to run off to Arizona in order to avoid one of the females, Tanya, who, if Emmett's comments were anything to go by, was very interested in Edward.
An amusing issue, if he was being honest, considering Edward was the only one who was single in the entire coven.
But, of course, Carlisle didn't want him running off because that would be rude, so Edward should stop acting so childish. He should be the mature one.
Jasper stepped on top of a boulder, looking up at the rustling leaves as the trees danced in the wind. The sun wasn't that intense, but the light still bothered him from time to time.
The burning thirst at the back of his throat had subsided to nothing but a persistent heated ache now which left him feeling better than he had in a while. He had managed to drink his first entire mountain lion.
That was something that had him feeling quite proud of himself if he was being honest. He had taken Carlisle's advice to add am extra sip each week and so far it had worked like a charm.
It still unsettled him how understanding and patient the man was. Maria would have never been so patient and much less understanding. The few times he had refused to feed she had done great at reminding him who was in charge.
He can still remember her hands. The feeling of teeth clashing against his own. Choking on blood. Suffocating. Burning. Pain . He shuddered at the memories and pushed them back. Thinking about that never led to good places.
He was about to step off the boulder when the hairs at the back of his neck stood up, and he was quick to dodge the vampire that had lunged for him. Grabbing it when it flew above him; he slammed it against the ground with a feral snarl.
-Feisty.
Her words caught him so off guard, along with the emotions she was exuding, that he faltered in his attack. She was amused, rather than scared, by the fact that she was being pinned by a perfectly capable assassin.
In fact.
There was lust.
That made him jump back from her with a sharp shudder of disgust.
-Jasper, I gather?- The sudden voice made him turn with tense shoulders, a growl at the back of his throat as he stepped back.- It's alright; we mean no harm.- Assured the man.
And then he noticed it.
Golden eyes.
Ah.
The Denali coven.
There were five of them, four females and one male, and from the way they stood, it was clear that the female with the curliest blonde hair was the leader. She was agitated, gazing intently at the female he had pinned, possibly her sister, judging by their similar coloring. The last blonde, another female, was looking between the two, though she occasionally looked at him as well.
The lone male was likely mated to the only brunette female, judging by the way he stood in front of her. His stance was that of an experienced fighter; not someone who had only fought in small brawls but someone who had fought in battles. He was a soldier. And, even though he is smiling right now, Jasper knows it is just to be polite; his guard was up, and he was ready to act if necessary.
-You may have to forgive Kate; she can be quite the impulsive one. I'm Eleazar. I believe Carlisle informed you about our visit?- The male one, Eleazar , offered his hand for a handshake that he didn't return.
In fact.
He took another step back with a growl. He knew that the Denali were harmless. Alice had told him about them but that didn't kept him from feeling anxious at being surrounded. He got to get used to being around five unknown vampires thanks to the Cullens which diminished some of his anxieties towards a group of vampires so big.
But he still found this like too much. Unnerving. Unsettling. Threatening .
He wasn't stupid; he didn't miss Eleazar's stare upon the scars that littered his skin as he dropped his hand.
-I have never met an empath before.
Right.
Alice told him two of them were gifted.
One could tell others' gift with a single look, and another one could give electric shocks or something of the sorts.
He tried to not let it bother him, the fact that his gift was now in the open, but he still had and would forever have a trick up his sleeve.
Not that he would risk using it.
He had to trust Alice. The Cullens had turned out to not be a threat.
The Denali may not be a threat either.
~~~~~~~~~~
Scratch that.
They were a threat.
Kate, to be more precise.
The woman wouldn't stop hovering over him despite Alice and Eleazar's warnings to leave him be. Emmett had acquired a second person to tease now, considering Edward wasn't faring that well with Tanya either.
He tried to crush her lust but God, this woman was persistent, and the fact that he was more worked up than he had been in a long time was making it difficult to focus on his gift.
Plus, he was also attempting to help Edward to get rid of Tanya.
What he should at least be grateful for was that he was quicker than Kate, and he was doing great so far at avoiding her attempts to get too close, or even touch him.
He had tried everything to get rid of her; he could understand why Edward would get harassed, considering he was single, but him? Him? Was this woman blind? Deaf? Stupid? He had told her over a hundred times by now that he was very happy with his mate, Alice. Alice . Who he knew was starting to get annoyed with Kate.
But she kept on.
He was starting to grow agitated with her persistence. He was anxious from having her bleeding lust all over him, and chasing him, and she wouldn't stop chasing him.
It wasn't until her lust started to get tangled in his own emotions, making him begin to consider her in kind, that he decided to put an end to it, and thus, he ended up hissing at her before running off to hide on the roof. Hopefully she would get the message and leave him be.
He sat there for a while, fighting to calm himself down and get his emotions back under control. He sighed in content when he finally managed to get rid of the emotions clinging to him that weren't his own yet still fought to merge with his.
But that didn't last long, for there she was again. He ignored her with a scowl, but never took his attention off her.
She crouched at his side and poked his cheek. Amusement with a flicker of lust rolled off of her when he gave her a warning growl.
No one but Alice should touch him with lust. He hated it. If it wasn't her, it did nothing but bring up bad memories.
So, when she poked his cheek again with a stronger flicker of lust, he did the first thing his instincts told him to do.
He punched her.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Esme, Rosalie, and Alice were talking with Carmen while Eleazar spoke with Carlisle, and Emmett was watching Tanya flirt with Edward. Irina hanging in a corner with a bored look.
Kate and Jasper had disappeared a while ago.
Carlisle was talking to Eleazar about his newest son in hopes of diminishing his nervousness and mistrust over Jasper. He was not dangerous. No matter where he came from or the kind of background he had, he was making an effort to change.
That's when the calm atmosphere was broken by the sound of a loud thud and an oddly familiar buzz coming from the roof, followed by a snarl and the sound of something crashing outside and a shout from Kate.
Everyone was on their feet in less than a second.
Surprise and alarm hit them like a wave at what they saw outside.
Jasper had Kate against the ground, crushing one of her arms with his knee and biting the wrist of the hand that was touching his face. His hands crushed her throat with the intent to kill despite the fact that she was using her gift on him, and he shouldn't be that unaffected.
Tanya snarled and lunged at him without a second thought.
-Don't!
Alice's shout fell on deaf ears, and the second Tanya came within his reach the second Jasper brought her down too.
A wave of unadulterated fear hit Kate and Tanya with the force of a tsunami and the might of an earthquake. It flooded them from the inside out, and it tightened their chests until it felt like their skin itself was ripping apart. It crushed their throats and made them gasp, choking them until there was nothing in them but absolute desperation and horror.
It crawled down their throat and stuck there; it was like an unforgiving sea of bitterness and madness. Slamming into them over and over again until their minds threatened to collapse under the pressure of such unforgiving and maddening emotions.
And then the void spoke back at them with a voice that could very well have belonged to the devil itself.
-Approach meh again an' that'll be the last thin' ya do. S' not a threat. S' a promise.
And with that the sudden loss of the pressure in their souls hit them like a whiplash. It was so unexpected it rattled the earth beneath them and shook them to the core. Making them gasp loudly and claw for the sky as the ground nearly muddled beneath them.
Lesson learned.
Never mess with an empath.
~~~~~~~~~
The Cullen house was quieter than it had been in a long time.
After what happened between Kate, Tanya and Jasper, Carlisle had seen it wise for the Denali coven to leave. That was, of course, after getting Kate's full side of the story; she had confessed that she had thought Jasper was the kind of empath who needed touch in order for his gift to work.
She had been chasing him around with her lust on full blast, so that when she finally managed to touch him, he would be startled. She hadn't meant any harm nor to offend either Jasper or Alice. It was just a stupid game to throw him off.; the same as it had been when she caught him on the roof.
She never meant for things to take the turn they did.
Jasper hadn't been at fault.
And while the situation with the Denali coven had been solved, that didn't mean it was over for them.
Carlisle came to the realization that maybe letting the Denali coven visit so soon had been a bad idea.
Jasper was just starting to relax, and now, because of this situation, he could go back to square one. Carlisle, as both the father and leader, was supposed to protect them, and still, he had failed Jasper.
Kate had been harassing him in more ways than just a chase, and the fact that he had let it happen made him nauseous. Even if he knew she hadn't had bad intentions, it had still been wrong of her to do something like that. Even more so when she knew Jasper already had a mate. She should have never taken her teasing so far, let alone going so far as to touch him.
Six months and it was just recently that he seemed to start to attempt testing touching someone that wasn't Alice. So, for some random vampire to come up and start touching him, of course that would make him lash out.
On top of all that, there was his reaction to Tanya.
How quick he took her down and with the abnormal ease he managed to keep them both down and frozen in his hold. That prickling terror in the air as both Denali gasped and looked as if the devil itself had taken hold of their emotional state...
It had been unnerving. Yes.
But none of that could compare to the voice that came out of Jasper. His position along with the promise of death had fit him like a charm. He was kneeling on the ground but as he had met Carlisle's gaze he had seen it.
The void in his gaze and the slight echo in his voice. The thickness of the accent and how rougher his voice had sounded. How he held himself in general and the glimmer in those two sockets of darkness.
That right there had been no soldier.
That was a general. A natural born leader. An Alpha who held no quarrels whatsoever over taking down whoever dared to cross the line. He demanded respect and submission with his voice, his eyes, with his very presence . No wonder he had gotten Rosalie to yield to him before.
Dominant vampires weren't as rare as one would think but Carlisle hadn't come across one since he left Volterra. And even then, something about this one seemed twice as lethal, dangerous. Dominant vampires were for the most part great leaders but would become extremely aggressive and brutal when it came to dealing with other dominants.
Specifically, dominants of their same gender.
It was natural for two dominant males or two dominant females to clash. Fight until one of them submitted or died. It was one of the vampire instincts Carlisle hated the most.
Still.
What had amazed Carlisle was that their gazes hadn't held for longer as Jasper looked away and released the Denali. Submission .
Then he had disappeared into the forest.
Kate and Tanya hadn't been able to stand, at all, something about how they could still feel the fear crawling under their skin similar to aftershocks following an earthquake. Limbs too sluggish to obey.
Despite it all, Carlisle couldn't help but be amazed. An empath with that kind of potency... God, he had known Jasper's gift was strong, but he never expected it would be to that level.
And now he pondered if the reason he hid his scent was because Maria was hunting him. If this was why The Major had favored him. That kind of potential... That was the kind of potential that would definitely catch the Volturi's attention.
God Carlisle prayed Aro was to never meet Jasper nor Alice, he was obsessed with Edward as it was, were he to know about his newly acquired and highly gifted children things could become awful.
But Carlisle knew such things weren't possible.
Sooner or later the Volturi would come visit.
And Carlisle hoped he was able to protect his children.