We made one main pit stop for Jane and I to get some more clothing. I went with what I knew was comfortable and agile enough to withstand battle and quick movements; tight cargo pants, combat boots and many tank-tops and hair ties. Jane went with dark jeans and dark shirts with cute graphics on them.
"Putting my hair up makes me feel more like myself than clothing does." I laugh as we leave the shopping mall in Idaho, continuing on to Washington.
"You look more like yourself with your hair up. And Isa, I apologize for my actions back in Tennessee. I shouldn't have disrespected you by implying that you would become feral. I'm just shocked that you're alive and want to know what happened to you." Peter leans across the armrest into the back of the suv to touch my knee.
"I understand Peter. I will not apologize for my reaction though. It's been many years since I've been around more than one friendly vampire, my social skills are a little rusty." He laughs loudly and turns the radio up on a rock station and I lean back watching the scenery go by as we get closer to my big brother.
"Jasper, please. You can't go off to war and not tell Daddy! We're gonna have to sell the farm, Daddy, Clay and I can't take care of it all on our own. We never had any damn slaves, let those who have join in the Calvary." I sob into his shirt, knowing my words have no effect on his decision.
"I'll be able to send the money I'll get back here and you can pay for the rest of Mama's funeral, and you won't have to sell the farm. It'll be fine, I'll be back before you know it, Isa." Jasper kisses me on the forehead and walks out the screen door, to the barn and rides off into the night, leaving me with the burden of telling our family that he went off to fight in the war.
Months have passed since Jasper went off to fight in the war, and his letters are few and far in between, but they tell of his rise in rank, his charisma of keeping his men in good spirits, and some of the battles that he had been in. But after almost a year, we get a letter that tells us he had gone Missing In Action around the Galveston area, and I lost my mind. Our father and older brother arranged a funeral for Jasper, knowing that he is more than likely dead than being a deserter.
The day of the funeral, with an empty casket paid for by the town's mayor, I couldn't make myself go. While the rest of my family got ready, I got my own horse ready and made the decision to look for Jasper in hopes that he was just injured and couldn't get himself back to his camp. If I only knew that night would change my whole existence.~~~
"Isa?" Jane shakes my shoulder, pulling me out of my memories. I look around to see we're in a very green and wet little town.
"We're only a few miles from the Cullen mansion. Are you ready?" Char asks from the driver's seat. I smile a genuine smile and nod as I add layers to my mental shields as Peter tells me of the few gifts the Cullen's have. In a few moments we pull up to a glass and polished wood house, with the Cullens standing on the front porch.
"Hello Peter, Charlotte. Who have you brought with you?" Carlisle asks as they step out and open my door.
"Jane and Isa Swan. Friends of ours." Peter says wrapping his arm around my shoulders as I scan the Cullen's, looking for weaknesses and potential dangers.
"Why have you brought one of the Volturi twins to our home?" A bronze haired teen with an air of authority demands, and I let out a subtle growl. The pixie is glaring at me so hard, I'm shocked her eyes haven't popped out of her head, the bronze haired teen also has a look of frustration.
"I can't read their minds, Carlisle." He says and Carlisle looks us over once more and his eyes widen in shock, instant recognition in his eyes.
"We came with them just for a little visit. I'm an old friend of Carlisles, and of Peter's. They wanted me to meet your coven and see if the diet suited me. And Jane decided to join me, shes claimed me as her maternal figure." I tug Jane close to me, feeling her agitation at being stared at.
"You cannot be here Isabella." Carlisle growls pulling his phone out of his pocket. In the blink of an eye, his phone is shattered on the ground and he is hanging by his throat.
"You'll never have any authority over me, Cullen." I snarl in his face and push my shield into his mind, wrapping us both in a bubble of mind reader proof silence.
"You call or contact the Volturi, I will destroy your little family, starting with your mate and ending with you. Blink if you understand." He blinks and I release him, ignoring the growls of the others around me as I walk over to the others and smile sheepishly.
"I apologize. I needed to have a little conversation with your coven leader, we didn't really see eye to eye the last time that we were here." I smile and Carlisle brushes off his mate's concern and offers us entrance to their home. As I follow Carlisle, I feel three different gifts probing at my shield and smile to myself. I know the bronze haired teen is trying to read my mind, along with his father figures. Yet, I know that he'll never be able to hear what I told Carlisle, because I placed a small shield around the memory of what I did, to where the only person that can see it is Carlisle.
"Please, sit. " Carlisle says, his voice filled with barely concealed anger. I sit ona very plush white leather couch with Jane sitting at my feet and Peter and Char standing behind me, unknowingly falling back into patterns that were established almost a hundred years ago in the war.
"As you know, I am the coven leader Carlisle. This is my wife Esme. Our oldest son Edward a mind reader. Rosalie and her mate Emmett. Alice a seer, and her mate Jasper an empath. He served in the Southern Vampire wars, with Peter and Charolette." Carlisle introduces us to his large coven and I am semi-shocked at the lies that are intertwined in this coven. I can tell that they are lies, simply from the human trait that Carlisle has kept over his long life; His eyes darted down and to the left almost every time he talked about the relationships in his coven. The only truthful things that he said, was that Edward was the oldest of his changelings, and that Esme was his mate.
"I am Isabella Swan. I'm from Tennessee, and I am almost as old as your Jasper." I smile at my brother, and almost giggle when the little pixie Alice growls at me.
"He is a taken male, if you weren't listening." She says haughtily and moves to sit in his she does so, I take stock of my brother, and almost lose the tight hold I have over my beast. There is very little of the fire that I looked up to left in his eyes; His honey blond curls are dull and limp. He hides almost all of his scars behind cardigans and dress slacks, nothing like the carefree brother that I knew, which seems so long ago now.
"I know that he is a taken male, that isn't why I was looking him over. I was taking stock of some of the scars that I can see. I truly think I have more than he does, honestly," I smile and pull off the light jacket that is over my tank-top, revealing more scars on my upper body than Jasper has on his entire body.
"I was also in the Southern Wars, except I was there in the very beginning of the wars, in a different camp. I was part of Diego's army for many years before it was destroyed by Maria's army. The only reason I wasn't burned was I was out hunting when the battle began." The lies slipped over my tongue like hot glass. I hated lying about my past, but I know that I have to get Jasper into a tussle or a spar before I have any chance of giving his memory back to him. His so called mate would be all over him any other time, looking out for instances where he would slip up from their little animal diet.
Jasper fed on humans easily and without the guilt when we were together, simply because we had trained ourselves in not killing our prey. The guilt he has over his small slip ups comes from some of the memories that I placed instead of the memory that I took. I couldn't take my brother's and sister 's memory of me away and leave a giant blank space in their memory of the wars, so I planted new ones.
Instead of them peacefully being able to leave the army like they actually did when I was captured, I altered their memory to Peter and Charolette leaving Jasper behind after a battle and then coming back fifty years later to get him and showing him the rest of the country, before he then came here.
"Isa?" Peter rumbles, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look around with a questioning look on my face.
"I asked if you would like to spar? It's been many years since I've sparred with anyone with a similar background as mine." Jasper whispers, and when I look into his eyes, I can see his own beasts flame igniting in his conscious, as his beast recognizes me.
"Hell yes."