Chapter Seven

EVE - 2020

Jasper's southern drawl spoke clearly through the phone, he sounded upset, confused, and hurt, "what is he talking about, Eve?" My heart broke, I knew this man for a few hours, but somehow he had an affect on me that I hadn't felt in a very long time. The silence between us felt deafening.

"I don't know what he said, Jasper. Knowing Carlisle, he was honest and fair," I said after a few minutes. Silence stretched between us again, I could hear running water in the background, birds chattering to each other; it all seemed calm, but I felt far from calm. "Jasper?" His name felt like fire on my lips, I felt parched and began to notice just how many humans were wandering around the reservation, their blood pumping loudly.

"I need to see you, hear your side of the story," he said eventually.

My throat burned fiercely. "Maybe we could meet somewhere neutral?" I dreaded the idea of coming face to face with any of the Cullens any time soon. I suggested a lounge that was attached to the hotel I planned on checking into for the time being, Jasper agreed to meet me there in an hour. I had a little time to find someone to eat before my meeting, but doubted that there would be someone deserving of it in this small of a town. I decided to make my way to the hotel, park, and then run up to Port Angeles, the closest large town to Forks.

I checked in to the hotel and made arrangements to stay for a month, figuring I can extend my stay later if needed. I left my car in the parking lot and changed into a pair of sneakers and an oversized hoodie before making my way to Port Angeles. The vast woods were good cover the whole way up, it took less than twenty minutes to make it to the center of the city, but I knew finding a meal would take a little longer. I checked my watch and noted that I have maybe ten minutes to find someone, eat, and then make it back to the hotel to clean up before meeting with Jasper.

It was nearly getting close to five, so rush hour traffic made it a little harder for me to hear the conversations taking place on side streets. I moved off to the side of the sidewalk to make room for people who were walking quickly from to store to store. Straining to focus I listened in to random conversations, most seemed normal, a lot of high school kids talking excitedly about upcoming sporting events, and some people planning a date on their way home from work. I was beginning to lose hope when I heard someone say no in a determined voice. It could be nothing, but going off my only lead I decided to head in that direction. I turned down an alley to see a young waitress arguing with a busboy. "I said no, Daniel, what part of that do you not understand?" The waitress pushed away from him and turned to walk back into the building.

Daniel, the busboy, grabbed her arm, "Clara, I'm not asking anymore." The boy tightened his grip on her arm as he snarled out the threat. Clara pulled at him, but she was much smaller than Daniel, who towered over her by nearly a foot. "You are going to do as I say, I need this job, and you're not going to fuck it up." I waited in the shadows for my chance to strike.

"You're not the boss of me, Daniel!" Clara twisted out of his grip and threw a bag at his chest. "I am telling Riley that you're selling drugs to customers, it's wrong!" In that moment Daniel pulled his fist back, before he could punch the girl she swung her own fist and he doubled over as her hand met his soft midsection.

"You BITCH!" Daniel spat out, but Clara was smart enough to take this moment and make her escape. She ran inside, and I heard her frantically call out to their boss. Seizing the moment I ran to Daniel in a flash. I grabbed him by the collar and clamped my hand over his mouth. I had him down a different alley in less than ten seconds, I was rushed for time, so I skipped my self-serving heroic dialogue and sank my teeth into his pulsating throat without a second thought. I hated losing out on my spiel about treating women with respect and picking on someone your own size, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I finished my meal quickly, draining his body until there was nothing left of him. I checked my watch again and saw that I only had three minutes before I needed to get back to Forks, to Jasper. I listened for the sound of moving water before flying through alleyways with Daniel dragging along behind me. I found a small creek and tossed his lifeless body into the shallow water with a splash. The rain had entirely let up at this point, making it easier to run through the woods back to Forks.

I made it with just enough time to change into something a bit more decent, I could hear Jasper making his way up the road on foot. I flipped open my one and only suitcase and grabbed out a new pair of jeans that weren't covered in sand, and blood. I slipped off my hoodie and replaced it with a long sleeve shirt and a cardigan. The weather had turned even cooler since this morning, though I wasn't affected by the change in temperature, I still tried to keep up with appearances. I heard Jaspers quiet footfalls make their way into the small lobby and then into the bar that was attached off to the left. The brochure said it was a small lounge cocktails and live music, but as I made my way inside I noticed that it was nothing more than a conference room with a few sofas and a piano chucked in a corner. There was a bar, but it looked like their specials were beer on draft, or beer from a can, no cocktails as far as the eye could see. Still I made my way to the green sofa Jasper was sat on and cleared my throat, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Jasper questioned, not even bothering to turn to look at me. I made my way around the sofa and sat next to him, his feet were crossed on the small coffee table in front of us, his cowboy boots muddy from the earlier rain. His arms were crossed too, his body language screamed 'get lost,' but I knew he wanted to hear my side of the story before he told me to take a hike.

"For my past, I guess," I stopped talking as the bartender came over, he took a look at Jaspers muddy shoes on the table, but said nothing about it before handing us two menues and making his way back behind the bar. "I know you said Alice had told you stories, but Alice only knows what I have told her, and what she's seen since us parting ways. She doesn't know the true horror stories."

I waited to see if he would answer, but he kept his eyes focused on a drab painting that hung from the wall across from us. "I don't want to make excuses, there aren't really any excuses that would work," I laughed, dying inside due to his complete disregard for me.

"Jasper?" I put my hand on his arm, he turned to look at me, the wall he had been trying so hard to maintain came crumbling down. He sighed and pushed himself up on the couch, he tucked one of his legs under him as he turned to face me, his arm resting on the back of the stained sofa, hand dangling inches from my face.

"I'm just trying to understand what your play is here?" He looked deep into my eyes, as his face now betrayed his age. He looked older than the world itself, but I knew he was still younger than me. "Why hurt Carlisle? Why come here at all?" I didn't know what to say, I knew that I never meant to hurt anyone, and I had no idea Carlisle was even here. But, sitting under Jaspers intense gaze I tried to figure out how much of that was true.

"When I first saw Carlisle, after he changed, I was shocked that he didn't recognize me. I mean, after what I did to him, I don't know how you could forget that. I was in a bad place, not that that's an excuse." I felt the need to tell him everything, and it was easy to do as he sat there watching me, his face devoid of any expression. "I was working for the Volturi, making potions for Aro, most of them were made so that he could control everyone who came in. It was like everyone around us was a zombie, their thoughts were driven entirely on what Aro wanted. I saw Carlisle and figured I could continue my torture, I wanted him to suffer for the mistakes of his father and his father's followers."

The waiter came back to take our order, "two beers, whatever's on draft," Jasper said, waving the man away just as quickly as he had come over. "Continue," he said, settling back to hear the rest of the story.

"I had plans, after introducing Aro and Carlilse, I wanted to use Carlisle as a guinea pig of sorts. Test all of my potions, crystals, and whatnot on him first, but Aro found Carlisle to be useful. He forbade me from hurting him, I grew distant from Aro, after being his right-hand-man for over forty years I was hurt. Carlilse had stolen Aro from me, so I decided to steal him from Aro. I spent as much time with him as possible, but over that time I grew to love him. He was sweet, docile, he wasn't filled with hate and vengeance, and I wanted to be free, like him."

The waiter put our drinks out in front us, seemingly happy that Jasper no longer had his shoes on the furniture. "Let me know if you need anything else," he said before making a hasty exit back to the bar where he was not so discreetly looking at dating apps.

I picked up the glass just to have something to do with my hands, "you loved him? So why didn't you ever tell him the truth?" Jasper pulled the glass out of my hand and set it back down.

"I didn't want him to hate me," I laughed thinking back to his face when he saw me. "Guess it doesn't matter now, cats out of the bag." I looked back to the beer to avoid eye contact, but Jasper nudged my knee and motioned for me to keep going. "When he proposed… well I hadn't felt love since my first husband was killed, back when I was still human, or whatever I was. I knew I couldn't marry him, not without telling the truth, but I wasn't ready to do that either, so I drugged Aro and helped Carlisle escape. They can't track him, he's safe now, and that's the best I could do at the time." At least that's what I had been telling myself, but looking back there were a lot of different options.

Jasper looked at me for a long time, like he was really seeing me. "You need to have this conversation with Carlisle." I groaned, he was right, but that didn't mean I liked it. "Plus, we still need to figure out what happened earlier, that's not normal."

I laughed, "is any of this normal?"

Jasper laughed too, "no, I guess you're right." He took my hand in his, "I want to know everything about you, the good, the bad, the ugly. I have a messy past too, but we have to be honest and make it right."

I nodded. I knew nothing about Jaspers past, but something tingled at the back of my mind. "Messy how?" I questioned, I felt like I was on the edge of making sense of this mess.

"That's a very long story, Eve," he said pushing a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He stood up and dropped a lump of cash on the table before making his way to the door, "we will talk later, I promise, but right now I need to go home before Alice has a conniption." Jasper gave me a warm smile before disappearing into the lobby and through the front door.

I thanked the bartender before heading up to my room. It was small and dimly lit, but it felt warm and homely at the same time. I ran a hot bath and turned on the tv for background noise, sinking into the scalding hot water. I let my eyes close and conjured up images of Jasper and his golden eyes. For the first time in a very long time I felt loved and safe. Of course that thought was insane, I had just met this man, but something about him felt like home; a second chance to be human.