For those of you before, this is mainly the same story. For those of you new - Jasper and Edward met during Edward's rebellious years, and joined the Volturi Guard. So they've never met Alice. The other big change is that Charlie got custody of Bella after the divorce, as he should have, so she only spends summers with her mom. And here we go!
Chapter 1
If he had to explain what his power was like, Demetri would say something to the effect of "like recognizing a face, but not by sight." But then, he wasn't especially apt with words, so when he met the first person ever that his power didn't register, he was at a loss.
Fortunately, Edward Masen didn't need words to understand. He had once encountered a vampire immune to his - and Aro's - power, but she had not been immune to Demetri or any other of the rest of the Volturi Guard's powers. And, since she had broken their law by creating an immortal child, her closed mind had not been the most important thing.
Immune to Demetri, mused Jasper Whitlock, Edward's unshakable partner in the Guard. They had seen quite a lot in the seventy years they'd worked together, and heard of more, but this was new. Demetri pictured the human - a girl barely in her teens, small, brown hair, brown eyes - as he'd seen her on the beach of the Dalmatian coast.
At first her mother had tried to flirt with Demetri, but all his focus was on this girl he saw, but couldn't detect. He managed to corner her after sunset, and she was terrified.
"I told your mother, I only wanted to speak to you."
"But you aren't human," she whispered, so softly that he probably wouldn't have heard if he had been.
"I am not. And you?"
"What? Of course! What the - of course I'm human!"
He chuckled at her indignation. "As I suspected. You look and smell quite human. Enticing, to be frank, but I promise, all I want is to know how you do it."
"Do what?"
"I suppose you have no idea."
"I don't even know what you mean."
"Hmmm. How do you know that I am not - human?"
"I wasn't sure, but when you touched my shoulder..." She shivered. "Uncle Billy tells stories of the Cold Ones. But that's what they call - vampires," she said, the last word a whisper.
"Stories. Hm. Well, I suppose you know that people - vampires and humans - can have special powers? We call such witches, and I am a witch. I can find people after having met them once. Like faces, but without seeing. I can tell if I've met someone before, and if I concentrate, I can find anyone I've ever met before, except for you."
She wrinkled her nose. "So, you think I don't have a face?"
"Ha! I can see you, but I can't, well, feel your presence the way I feel everyone else's. If you aren't doing anything on purpose, I suppose it is your witch power. To be undetectable. By myself, at least. I could try to see if others could detect you, but -"
"Oh my God! You aren't going to kidnap me for your vampire coven, are you?" Her heartbeat was hammering in fear.
"Of course not. But you I must swear to secrecy." He moved behind her, quicker than a human's eye would notice, and lightly grasped her shoulders. "If it were known that we spoke, you would die screaming, I promise."
"I won't tell anyone. No one would believe me, you know."
"What of this man who told you of vampires? Uncle Billy?"
"He's not really my uncle, and I wouldn't tell him anyway. He doesn't even tell me the good stories, I'm not allowed to -"
He gently squeezed her shoulders. "Enough," he said, and then he was gone. He had meant to find out her name, so he could track her by the more usual channels, but when he followed her mother to their hotel, they already had been checking out.
At the end of the recitation, Edward said nothing but, "Huh!"
"Very helpful, Edward."
"Well, what do you want me to say? 'Oh yes, Bella Higgenbotham, I'm quite familiar with her!' Please."
"Yep, I never met 'er, neither," added Jasper, grinning.
"Renee Higgenbotham flew to Boston by way of JFK, but her taxi driver said she was alone," complained Demetri. "And if I have someone ask her about her daughter, no doubt she will be as suspicious as she was last week."
"What else would you expect? Mothers aren't as guarded as they used to be, but even so, they still don't trust strange men with their teenage daughters," said Edward.
"Even if they do look like you," Jasper added with a grin and a wink.
"I'm not in the mood, Jasper," said Demetri tightly. "Aro wants her for the guard, and he's terribly wroth that I let her escape."
"But she's too young to turn," said Edward, alarmed. True, Alec and Jane were the youngest vampires ever turned, but even they were fourteen, and they had only been turned because they would otherwise have been murdered by suspicious neighbors. Even Edward was considered young, at seventeen, to have been turned.
"Yes, I convinced him that it would be better to wait five years, then convince her to join us. If her power is to be undetectable, her neighbors will hardly try to lynch her."
Jasper snorted. "Aro does realize that it's the 21st century, don't he?"
"Humans are humans," insisted Demetri. "If either of you had the same powers as humans as you do now, do you truly think your peers would have been kind to you?"
"To me, sure," quipped Jasper. "Hell, I'm surprised they never did try to stone Eddie, I'll say that for sure."
Edward reached over and pinched Jasper. "It hardly matters. So, hopefully in five years you will find the girl, is that it?"
"That's it. I know you two are stuck in Canada for a while, but do keep an eye out, will you?"
Five Years Later
Edward drove his Aston Martin out of Seattle at a speed even Jasper found too fast. He kept quiet, which gesture Edward appreciated.
Of course, after all these years, Jasper was quite good at suppressing his thoughts. Edward only heard Love that built-in radar detector before he started singing along to the album playing on the stereo. Jasper had purchased The '59 Sound only because of the title - he had a sincere love of the decade, and gravitated to anything hinting of it, be it a car or song - but he and Edward were now quite fond of the Gaslight Anthem. Maybe they had just been a bunch of frat boys jamming and playing Springsteen together, but they were good.
Still, Edward's thoughts were elsewhere. The main office ought to be in Seattle, of course, but Forks was enticing. They could buy or rent something, and easily run to the city. Besides, Forks had even fewer days of sun than Seattle, around 35 compared to 100 a year. They both had other reasons for preferring a small rural town to a big city, of course: their powers.
After the album finished, Jasper pulled out Edward's iPhone - his cell didn't have data at the moment - and began scrolling Forks White Pages. Not a terrible idea, to have everyone's name, address, and phone number in a vampire's memory. Edward was focusing more on driving, but one name caught both his and Jasper's attention:
CULLEN, DR CARLISLE
"Hey, isn't that your sire?"
"Yes," replied Edward in a low tone. He had ... mixed feelings about Carlisle Cullen.
He quickly Googled the name. "Holy shitfire, the humans actually think he's a medical doctor," laughed Jasper. Easy way to feed.
Edward rolled his eyes. Had Jasper really never listened to Aro lamenting Carlisle's deplorable habits? Their leader certainly didn't keep his thoughts about him private. "Uh, Jasper? He really is a doctor. That's how he turned me, he was ministering flu patients in 1918, and my mother and I died in his care. Well, I didn't die, but you know."
Jasper might not have even noticed, but Edward did, that he was reminded again that Edward had been born less than a century ago. Jasper was so prejudiced against "young'uns" that he tended to forget Edward was one rather than change his mind. "Oh, that's right. So. He's a real doctor. And he doesn't - ?"
"Never. In fact, I think I was the only human whose blood he'd tasted. Well, and his mate," he amended. "I don't know if he's turned anyone else after that, but I would guarantee that he's never fed on anyone else."
Jasper was incredulous, but there was also a small bit of envy. For Jasper felt the terror every time he killed, and he didn't like it much. That fear was the one thing Jasper's power couldn't touch, and Edward could relate. He hated reading the minds of the ones he killed so much that he ate animals as often as he could bear to, but animal blood was insufficient for quenching that unrelenting thirst. In retrospect, he was amazed that he lasted as long as he had with Carlisle. He and Jasper to this day only hunted monsters, even when in Italy not joining the typical feeding sessions. Still, though those humans they killed barely deserved the label, they did still fear death.
"Maybe he'll have some tips for us," Jasper said, breaking through Edward's musings.
"Well, remember what I told you, though. He hated the thought of being what he was." They both knew that Carlisle had tried to starve himself because of that thought, but neither of them had been religious, and both of them rather liked being vampires. They were proud of their abilities, proud of being important members of the Volturi. "Still, I think we ought to stop outside of Humptulips and feed on raccoons or something."
Jasper snorted like a schoolboy at "Humptulips," but nodded his agreement. "And change. Get into character." Their black suits with black ties made Jasper think they looked like Feds, but Edward knew they looked like mobsters. Denizens of the underworld, so to speak. He didn't want to attract any attention in Forks. So, after passing Humptulips, then feeding, they changed into thick, high-waisted, unflattering jeans, flannel shirts - Jasper in a blue and Edward in a red - with sheepskin jackets over. It wasn't exactly cold enough in September for the jackets, but they wouldn't attract attention. At least, not because of their clothing.
