It broke through me then. A confusing wave of emotion, often felt in others but never myself. Dry weeping rolled through my cold dead flesh sending static through every venomous fiber.

I couldn't place its origins, not in the midst of it at least. Wholly unfamiliar to the beast deep within me, a torturous sensation. An unnecessary breath caught deep in my throat—snarls erupting from inside. I began to shake then, long drawn out breaths coming faster and more rapid now.

I could feel Alice's emotions lighting around me, l clung to them. My salvation.

"Jas?" her delicate voice clawed into the panic. It fought against her begging her to remain in this utterly safe unconscious state. Frozen I felt utterly helpless. Carlisle's discoveries long buried now. Emotions, anxiety included, long stored to a time lost to history found their way to the surface.

The memories of war and my time with Maria flashing in front of me at violent blurred speeds, the figments of human cognition barely tangible. I longed now for them, my saviors. They understood the trauma of war better than most, Peter and Charlotte.

How long had it been since they dragged me from those deep dark depths.

"Jasper..." she begged as her sleep heavy limbs tangled around my shaking core pulling me to her centering warmth. I focused in on her now. Pleading the beast to obey I reached for the lilac tether between us. The caught breath finally releasing sending a soothing balm over my electrified nerves.

A broken smile found its way to my face as I leaned into her, my anesthetic.

"Jasper, what's wrong?" her voice wavered steeped in fear and confusion.

I kicked myself now for alarming her like this. I had more in this life to be thankful for now more than ever.

I shook my head to disarm her worry, squeezing my eyes shut begging them not to betray me. I needed to be her strength anything less would hardly be fair.

"What is it baby?" her voice cracked. An all too familiar salty scent filled the space between us while the unusual pet name dug its claws into my desire. I reached for her face slowly, preparing myself as best I could for its burning heat. My hand lingered, anchoring my immortal existence to her soft flesh, pulse bouncing with feavour.

I savored it, reminding myself what this was all for. What her existence and partial mortality stood for in this instance. Even so much as thinking back to Bella's sentiment regarding fate and its realignment of our souls. The second chances now afforded to us.

"It's beautiful really," I paused again to collect myself before continuing. "It's not a promise, but it is a safety, a security that we never thought we had really."

"What is it Jasper, you're scaring the shit out of me." Her breath forced raggedly, I could see the tears flowing now saturating her cheeks and neck. Instinctively my gift pushed around her blanketing her in comfort and love and protection. I tried several times to start to no avail. The situation was unique especially in those involved. How much does one share about another's life without destroying them. No, not her. Not my Alice. She was strong, different I reminded myself.

"I think that you already know. I think that you know a lot more than you even realize that you do." It was true. The remaining secrets were locked inside of her, only accessible to her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean." she pushed hard against my chest, the pain shooting into my soul. My gift snapped back in me now detecting her discomfort.

"It's you Alice Darlin'…You're you." My head swirled with all that I wanted to say to her. "Oh baby, how I've missed you." Venom surged to the surface of my face and bridge of my nose, burning its way through the skin there.

She fidgeted now, obviously overworked from it all. She ripped furiously at the dark hood around her delicate face. It had been casting delicious shadows on the sharp features of her face, blending into her already raven black hair. Having never seen her in such attire or color pallets, I watched her closer, intrigued. It suited her.

Her pain stricken eyes locked with mine, pleading. Curved brows softening the intensity of her beautiful face.

"Carlisle is still processing most of the data, but from what we've seen…I'm not sure how to put it I guess." I admitted honestly having not processed it entirely myself.

"You're much like Nessie really. I know that you have had limited experience with her, she's off with Jacob somewhere in Canada I think…You're like her, but more like us." I tried to gather the scrambled thoughts more decisively. God did this woman have an indescribable hold on me.

"It doesn't promise us forever yet, it certainly removes any chance of us making that choice for you. Carlisle thinks that your cells…they are working towards something. An end goal of some sorts. Seems much like Nessie's were, reaching towards a permanent…"the look on her face now fractured every hardened fiber of my rugged existence. She finished for me, choked by her own tears burying herself into my chest. "immortality."

I encapsulated her within my being, not willing to allow a millimeter of space for intervention in our reunion. Having the answers, the certainty…it changed things. It changed me.

I could feel the familiar swirl of her emotional spiraling like the precursor of a tornado forming. "We don't need to know everything just yet Darlin'. This much is enough for now." I breathed to serve as a reminder for the both of us.

"We have time." She mirrored.

"We have time Alice; we have all of the time now." The words echoed around us, hanging densely in the air.

She disappeared momentarily, a vision pulling her from me. I thought better of pushing her to share any more of her already divided self.


The time past and I dared not move and break her thoughts. She deserved this time. It proved useful for me as well, taking clues every now again from her emotions as to the stage of her grief and emotionality. I imagined it wasn't an easy task accepting your own mortality after only three days ago learning of the very possibility.

With the first rays now casting their influence against her contorted face, her hands flexed loosely against my chest, my shirt still balled within them.

As they finally released their confines she brought them to her face slowly rising back onto her knees now straddling my hips. I traced her own gesture with my own hands pausing slightly on the now reddened areas of delicate and bruised skin just under her eyes.

Something unexpected surfed in the air around her. I waived it off granting her the emotional privacy after so long encroaching within her mentality.

Her hands lingered at the base of her face, blocking my perfect view of her. I slowly yet firmly wrapped my hands around them offering them a gentle kiss before placing them back on my chest. My own thoughts hesitated in an unruly direction before they were interrupted by the sound of her stomach beckoning for sustenance. "So early" I thought internally making note of her unique internal schedule.

"Right on time," I laughed lightly, enjoying the shift in her weight this caused.

"Is mortality that predictable?" She whined while burying her face into my shirt, hands tucked under her still.

"Edward never thought so, but then again I was always the more…worldly…of the siblings." Having absorbed her essence and processing I felt different now, lighter. Was it even possible for my old scarred soul?

"Hmm." She purred in an alluring way sending my thoughts yet again in a forbidden direction.

I angled our bodies adding some unwanted distance between the two of us craving an unobstructed view of her face. Continuing my study of her reactions in their entirety especially her lips that now pouted for an unspoken reason.

"All mine," I allowed myself before bringing my observations to a more definitive level. Slow and controlled I brought myself over her, eyes fixated on her lips now. A small freckle just above the right side of her lip intrigued me now. I wondered if it too offered another earthy fragrance of its own. My lips met hers in utter curiosity.

I felt her liven as her lips began to move with mine, a still unspoken desire hanging from them. Her hands came to my face, fists still covered in the rough fabric of my hoodie. They traveled sinisterly to the nape of my neck latching into their claimed spot. My hair entwined into her hands as if by some magic-will of hers, a true life of its own.

Acting out of curiosity and mere instinct my body urged contact with hers starting at my knees colliding with her inch by inch as my back arched into her will and arms lowering around her shoulders.

Her own body not faltering in response, spreading eagerly to accommodate my mass. I breathed in deep gauging her every response bringing my hand to the back of her neck as an anchoring point. Using this I guided her head with mine, deepening our kiss and providing me the excellent opportunity of tasting her in the ways I'd craved since our encounter last night. My free hand grazing her body and finding its place on her wondrous and well defined hip.

We laughed gently together, a feral response of relief ringing between us at the release.

"Its nice to not have to be as reserved, though I suppose I should still be respectfully mindful of your pristine virtue." I dripped venom-coated into her mouth.

"Who's to say its pristine?" Her body betrayed her in its reactions as it clung tighter to me, pleading.

I played along, pulling away from her observing the tell-tale signs of lies deep within her.

"Kidding." She conceded as she urged me back into her spell.

I moaned deep within her mouth as a form of punishment, feeling the very obvious ways this affected her. There was nowhere to hide when our bodies were connected in this magnitude. I couldn't help myself, I pressed tighter into her reactions. Beseeching her body to do it again, a request it complied with wholly.

Becoming entirely too intoxicated by her, a twist of fate brought me back to unearthing sobriety.

I could feel the rumble intense now against my own stomach, wondering for a fraction of a moment if it wasn't myself that was the source.

"I suppose we should really remedy that hunger of yours." I offered reluctantly wanting to make contact with her ever swelling lips just once more.

"Precisely what I was thinking…" she tortured as a feral response rippled through me. I looked towards the exit of the room wondering just how long it would possibly take to remedy this situation. I settled myself resigning to the fact that the moment was more than over at this point. Her hands roamed freely over me, pushing me to the verge of altering my decision.

I could see the dark shift in her eyes before she began. "Now, I have been genuinely curious—Perks of vampirism or the rough life of a soldier?" She palmed at the defined planes across my torso and arms.

While I certainly wasn't as well defined as Emmett my physique was far from ordinary itself. "Both I suppose, though the cowboy rancher lifestyle may have had a greater hand than the confederacy did." I drew towards her wandering gaze.

"Oh, really now, that's too bad that I missed Halloween with you then. It would have been a really nice chance for you to show me that side of yourself."

The thought rattled and morphed within me dangerously. Something my previously reserved self may not have even been able to entertain.

"Let's find you something to eat my Darlin', before you find yourself placed on my menu" I redirected for the last time before stealing one last kiss from her awaiting mouth with a brief intensity I could sense we both desired. I stopped short of becoming engulfed in her flame.

Oh, how I craved to be swallowed whole by her magic.