Author's note: I know vampires are supposed to be "frozen" mentally at the time of death, but that would make Jasper a horrible racist. So they can change their minds, but just like humans, it takes either a notable event, or a lot of thinking.
Chapter 4
Edward rolled his eyes at Jasper. "Oh, I was distracted with the whole singer thing, but the Forks police chief also thinks we're a couple."
Jasper chuckled. "Good thing we're gonna go establish your bonafides with the Denalis this weekend, huh?"
Edward hesitated. "I know I've asked you this before, but..."
"What's it like to suck a cock?"
"My God, you're so childish sometimes."
"Hey, you're the one who said the Chief thinks we're queer."
"What I was going to ask was, have you ever been in love?"
"Oh! Hm. Nah, I don't think so."
"Ah. Well. Neither have I."
Jasper stared at him. "You're embarrassed. Why would you be embarrassed about that? I just said I hadn't been in love - or did you mean while human? I did have a lady when I was human, a girl I was courtin' before I joined the service."
Edward faked a laugh. "I wasn't really thinking of girls back then. My mother had her hands full convincing me not to run away to Canada to join the army. Why didn't your mother care about that?"
"You trying to say something about my mother?" Jasper's projecting of emotions didn't usually happen unless he tried, but the one exception was if someone asked him about his human family.
"Jasper! Calm down!" Edward snapped, feeling the feedback of Jasper's anger.
"Oh, dammit, sorry." He was still a bit angry, but he managed to project calmness again. "There, how's'at?"
"Better. I didn't mean to impugn your mother, Jasper, you know that. I was more curious about the opinions she held, culturally speaking."
"A'right, well... you told me once you're an only child."
"I ... I was..."
"Parents tried to have more kids?"
He nodded. "I remember something from when I was very young - I think my mother had a miscarriage."
"That explains why she wanted you to be a vampire, then."
"Jasper! You know she didn't actually think that!"
He tossed off his most charming grin. "Course not. First vampires I ever saw, I almost thought they were angels. Boy, was I wrong!" He flinched from his memory of Maria and her coven.
Edward decided to help distract him. "You see, I didn't realize it at the time, but most Americans were very against joining the First War. Even the Second, until Pearl Harbor, I think. But at the time, I was never sure if my mother was an Isolationist, or just worried about her only child."
Jasper nodded slowly. "I was stupid enough to think that it was a State's Rights issue. I didn't know anyone who owned slaves anyway, but I thought that the Confederacy didn't ought to belong to the North if it didn't want to. Still don't really know how I feel about it, except that no soul can be owned." Being a slave will convince you of that.
"And that was what your parents thought?" asked Edward, anxious to keep the topic off Maria. "States' Rights, I mean?"
He shrugged. "White rights for whites, anyway, and I was the third son. They wouldn't have wanted Obadiah to join the Army, I'll admit that, but then he was already married. I know it would have been shocking for you to do it, but joining at sixteen wasn't such a big deal then, especially since I'm such a charismatic cocksucker."
Edward's phone rang. Jasper wondered who it was, as did Edward, and they laughed when they recognized the number as Carlisle's office.
"Hello?"
"Hello, sorry, I forgot to ask for the number."
Edward rattled it off. "Was there any particular reason you wanted it?"
"Well, yes. You see, after Emmett joined us, we moved here to Forks, in the 1930s."
"And someone's still alive who recognized you?"
"Well, yes, actually. Quil Ateara, one of the Quileutes - the local Indian tribe in La Push - which is the main point. You have to keep out of La Push. I'll show you a map when you come by tomorrow."
Edward tried not to laugh. "Is this one of those things where indigenous people have true legends about vampires, so we have to keep off their land in case they recognize us?"
Jasper was sniggering too. "Pale face is very, very pale!"
"That's very rude, Jasper, I can hear you. And it's much worse than that. When we got here in the 1930s, there was a pack of werewolves."
The laughter stopped dead. "You're not serious."
"I suppose they wouldn't be considered traditional werewolves, but shape-shifters, as they aren't affected by silver and the moon, but they were in fact humans who could change into giant wolves."
"What the FUCK?" mouthed Jasper.
"So, tribal magic? Just a coincidence that they change into the only thing that can hurt vampires?"
"Well, you see, that's the thing. Emmett was attacked by one, and -"
Edward dropped the phone.
Jasper picked it up.
"Hello? Hello?" Carlisle was saying.
"Well how 'bout that," Jasper drawled, "you finally got Edward Masen to shut the hell up."
"He's surprised, isn't he," fretted Carlisle. "I shouldn't have just dropped it like that."
"I don't really think there's any other way of saying that Emmett was attacked by a damn giant wolf that wasn't actually a werewolf, though, do you?"
"Perhaps not." Carlisle was quiet for a minute. "The magic could have turned them into bears, or coyotes, or mountain lions, but it turned them into wolves. I truly did think it was a coincidence, but -"
"But it's a good thing you never told Caius about this here 'coincidence', if you don't want the whole damn tribe wiped out, ain't it?" asked Jasper in his drawl.
"Well, it is true that they can damage vampires, and are faster, but..."
"Holy sheeeee-it! You're telling me those 'shape-shifters' are faster than a vamp?" Impossible!
"There were three of them, and four of us. If I hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened," said Carlisle in his quiet, calm voice.
"Why Carlisle Cullen! Did you actually make a treaty with them folk? Them folk that tribal magic created purely to kill vampires?"
"Well, yes," he admitted. "That's why I called, to tell you two about the treaty."
And so he explained the boundaries that held either of the two groups, and the main thing: no one who signed the treaty could bite a human, else they forfeited their lives.
"Well thanks fer tellin' us that part."
Edward nodded, frightened. If they hadn't already agreed to keep "vegetarian" - if they hadn't had practice -
"Wait," said Edward. "This was in the '30s, after I was gone, right?"
"Yes, 1937, actually," said Carlisle.
"And one of them is still alive? Or - wait, don't tell me, they have extra-long lifespans."
"Why, yes, how did you know?"
Edward groaned. "Oh, I just thought, what's the worst that could be true, and there it was."
Carlisle coughed. "I believe it is possible for them to quit changing into werewolves, and then they resume a normal human lifespan. That is to say, only one of the old pack is still alive, and he is a rather old man. But if you're trying to find out if there are any werewolves at all present now, the answer is yes."
"Oh, so you were wrong, Eddie, that's the worst possible news. Thanks, Carlisle."
"I'm sorry, I just -"
"It's fine, it's better to know than not," interjected Edward with a glare at Jasper. "Do you know how many?"
"As far as I know, three."
Three. Everyone in Carlisle's coven had signed the treaty, so that meant, if it came to a fight, it would be two versus three. "But there could be more."
"It is possible. During the summer, the new alpha came to me, to ask if we wanted the treaty to still hold. But since then, who knows what may have happened?"
"Would they tell you if there were more?"
Carlisle hesitated. "It isn't part of the treaty. And I am fairly certain that it is the actual presence of vampires that triggers the change in those of the line."
"But since y'all've been keepin' to the treaty, it had to be some random vamp that triggered 'em in the first place, right?"
"That is what Uley suspects, yes."
"I mean, did they kill this guy or not?"
"Not the first one, no. There was almost a year between the first trigger and the second, so it's probably not the same one."
"Can't they tell?"
"Jasper, you have to remember, the whole tribe was fully human - as far as they knew - till the first vampire passed through their land. While they now can distinguish vampires by their smell, they couldn't before changing fully."
"Makes sense. Sorry, I don't really hang out with humans so much to remember that kinda thing."
Vampires all smelled differently to each other, and they could also differentiate humans by scent, but of course humans couldn't do such a thing. It wouldn't have been that crazy to think werewolves - even pre-changed - could do so, if it was something they inherited.
"Well, I did ask, and no, they only attacked the second one, and that was mainly because he'd actually attacked the tribe rather than just passing through."
"And they killed him."
Pause. "Yes."
"Do you think we should tell Caius about this?"
"Well, I would prefer it if the Volturi didn't wipe out the tribe," he said wearily. "The treaty worked the last time we were here, and we probably will be leaving in another year or two. You two plan to have the main outpost in Seattle proper, correct?"
"Yes, it's just easier for us to live in a low-population area," said Edward.
"Then if you keep to the treaty, there shouldn't be a problem."
"Well, thanks for the warnin', Carlisle. See you tomorrow night."
"Goodnight then."
Edward stared at Jasper. "You think we shouldn't tell Caius?"
"Hell, I don't know, but I didn't want to tell Carlisle that. Besides, we have something more important to worry about right now."
"We do?"
Jasper sighed, and replayed the meeting of the Swans. Your singer, remember?
"Oh. Yes." His singer - and the second person ever to be immune to him.
