Chapter Two

EVE - 2020

"Eve… Eve… GUINEVERE!?" My eyes fluttered open only to find Alice hovering over me, her face clouded in intense panic. "Eddie! Hurry up!" Alice's shrill, bird-like voice pierced my ears. Edward, the brunette man came into my line of vision moments later with a rabbit in his hands. Alice shoved the rabbit up to my face and demanded that I drink.

"Alice, I would quite literally rather do anything than feast on that poor creature" I said pushing the rabbit away from me while pulling myself up from the now damaged floor.

Jasper, the man who had caused all this trouble, crouched down next to me. If I had thought Alice looked worried then Jasper looked absolutely distressed. "You took quite a spill there ma'am, are you okay?"

My whole body shuddered under his intense gaze. "I… I am fine," though no one seemed to believe that lie. Over the last four hundred years I had been in perfect health, vampires can't get sick, and yet, I now had the most ear-splitting-headache in the whole history of headaches. "Alice, maybe I will take that rabbit…" I relented, trying to come back to my senses. The whole room spun around me, my body felt colder than ever, and the ringing in my ears grew louder and louder by the second.

I drank the rabbit while Alice left the room to call their patriarch. Edward went out to find a more sustainable animal to quench my insatiable thirst, but Jasper refused to leave my side. He helped me to a couch in the living room and grabbed pillows and a throw blanket to make me comfortable.

I sank down on the couch and felt like a dramatic Victorian woman being nursed back to health after taking a terrible spill on a warm summer day. The imagery of such a thing happening felt surreal. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but every time they fluttered shut I was overtaken by a rush of emotions. "I know you. You're familiar to me-"

"You feel like home," Jasper finished my thoughts. I looked up to see he had moved back to my side after lighting the fire. "I have thought of you everyday for seventy years, and now in this moment I know that my life has purpose."
I laughed loudly, a confused mask fell over Jasper's face. "I hate romance, and feelings, and anything that resembles love and caring," I explained in a whisper. Embarrassed to tell this man that I was incapable of loving anyone after years and years of heartbreak and regret.

Jasper was about to say something when Alice dashed back into the room. "Everyone is coming back home," she announced before looking bashful, "I've interrupted something serious haven't I?" Before either of us could answer she was back out of the room and moving around somewhere further into the mansion they call home.

"Jasper," I said looking up. Testing the way his name sounded on my lips, the way his hand felt in mine as I held on tight. "I'm not home, trust me. I am a nightmare."

It was Jaspers turn to laugh now. "I've heard plenty of horror stories from Alice. Seventy years of stories to be honest. I was starting to think that when I met you you would be nothing but a story. Someone Alice made up to con me into becoming a part of her family. Here you are…" He trailed off quietly. If vampires could blush I know his whole face would be the color of blood I had drained from the poor rabbit.

"I don't know what to say." My eyes fluttered shut again as the ringing grew to a new high. My head felt like it was cracking into a million pieces. I squeezed my eyes as tight as possible right as a wave of shock took over. My mind raced as a memory, which I had buried somewhere very deep, resurfaced.

EVE - 1820

I stood on the Mexican-American border with Afton and Demetri just as Aro ordered. We were tasked to take down an unruly vampire who began raising an army of sorts. Benito, the vampire we had been tracking was bouncing between the border to recruit members for his army. Demetri was focusing on tracking the reckless man's next move. Meanwhile, Afton and I hung back slightly and people watched from the fringes of the forest we took cover in. "Why did you join?" Afton asked.

He was one of the older members of the Volturi, but he had no respect or standing when it came to impressing Aro. Chelsea, his mate, was the only thing keeping him alive. I felt bad for Afton, he was clearly unhappy, and yet was bound to Volturi by love and loyalty. "I did NOT volunteer for this mission," I snapped. I made a gesture for him to be quiet as I listened in to the mutterings coming from a small town near the border. "Hungry?" I asked with a devilish smile.

We both looked over to Demetri who was still focused on pinpointing Benito, "we have to be quick." I nodded in agreement as we took off in the direction of the town. The sun had set an hour or two ago, and there seemed to be a few stragglers reluctant to head home after a celebration of sorts. "It's their unlucky day," Afton laughed and grabbed me by the hand.

We staggered into the celebration, Afton putting a fake slurring onto his words and hanging onto me as if he was too drunk to stay upright. "Oh, I am sorry, but can someone help me get my husband into our carriage outside?" I asked, fluttering my eyelashes for good measure. I typically made it a rule to never feed on someone who didn't deserve it, but to be fair, I was bored and grumpy. A few men, drunk themselves, looked at me and my 'husband' up and down before escorting us back outside.

"Let me help you there ma'am," one of the more sober men said as he pushed Afton to the ground. Afton fell with a grace that to someone more observant would have broken their suspension of disbelief. Luckily for us I was the center of attention now. Two men came up behind me and grabbed my arms. "You sure are a pretty thing," one of the men slurred in my ear. His hot breath wafted over my face, it smelled of cheap whiskey and regret.

"How sweet of you to say, but I really need to get home with my husband," I said pulling weakly against the grips. When they began tracing their grubby hands over my corset I felt a fire deep within ignite. I tend to have a little problem with anger. I ripped my arms from their grasps, knocking one of the men onto the ground with a sickening thud. Before either of the other men could make a sound Afton and I had our mouths clamped on their necks.

Blood painted my face and dress in a beautiful deep crimson pattern. Afton wiped his mouth with a pristine white handkerchief, but it did nothing more than smear the blood across his stunning face. Two of the men lay slumped in a heap, their necks ripped out and drenched in their own vile sweat and blood. The other man was still crumpled on the ground a few steps away. Blood trickled slowly from a gash on his head. I bent down and slapped his contorted face. "Do you always try and rape women in front of their husbands?" I asked as sweetly as I could. His eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything as he opened and closed his mouth like a dying fish. "Well I feel like being nice," I said looking up to Afton.

"I think you are very nice, dear." Afton came to crouch down next to me. We looked at the dying man in front of us, "I don't think it would be nice to leave him suffering though…" Afton and I loved to play little games before killing someone entirely.

"Oh!" I exclaimed with a laugh, "I am so sorry, I think I may have confused the two of you…" I pushed myself up from the ground, "Afton, sweetheart, you are right, I am nice, but not to rapists… I want to be nice and take him out, make him suffer like he makes other people suffer."

Playing along, Afton stands and laughs on his own, "sometimes I worry that without you I wouldn't have a brain dear Guinevere," he said tracing a cool finger down my cheek. "Of course that's what you meant!" He turned to look back at the man who was now crying. "We are going to have our fun with you!"

We dragged the man off to somewhere with more cover while taking turns beating him, but being careful to keep him alive. Afton and I were a good team, we both hated being in the Volturi, but knew that we were forced to play along with Aro's little fantasy. I had been with Aro since 1619 when he turned me for my gifts. However, over the past two hundred years I had grown to hate him.

We continued our game of torture until Demetri found us and snapped the mans neck, he was never very fun. "We have a job to do." Demetri stormed off with Afton and I following in tow.

EVE - 2020

I dry heaved at the memory. Jasper's accent reminded me of the men I had killed in Texas. It had been a long while since I had reverted back to my more psychotic way of existence, sometimes I missed the power and rush of adrenaline it gave me, but I knew that torturing humans, even the worst ones, was not right.

"Guinevere?" His voice drew me back to the present. He was tenderly holding my face in his hands, "what is going on?"

Jasper sounded so worried, I didn't know how to explain to him that I was a monster. "I have no idea…" I trailed off when Edward finally arrived, a mountain lion dragging behind him.

"Dinner is served," he laughed as he pulled a table up beside me and laid the beast on top. I finished the lion in record speed, and finally started to feel a little more grounded. Alice joined us all in the living room as we sat and watched the fire, waiting for the doctor to arrive.