I'm doing two stories at the moment, this and Boss From Hell!, and now I've finished this chapter I'll get to writing Boss From Hell! again. I've already done like half the chapter of that one. It'll be out soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
(This is a pretty action-filled chapter, if you ask me, lol).
Note: Please read the stories written by Beatless-Heart, she is a great person. I will tell you more about her and her new story in my Boss From Hell! chapter. This chapter is dedicated to her in thanks for her banner made especially for this story!
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JPOV:
I only realized later, down in the basement watching over the newborns, (Peter had gone to hunt, and as this was his usual job, I had been chosen to fill in), that anybody felt any animosity towards me on account of my special treatment with Maria earlier. I had not known they were even aware of it. But I was sure when I saw the sideways glances and the shifty looks, when coupled with the hostile climate around me, that this was indeed their feeling towards me.
I leant back against the cold stone of the window seat and planted my feet against the wall in front of me. I had always liked sitting in this little nook in the wall— I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the feeling of having my back covered. I wasn't exposed in this position.
I closed my eyes and yet I wasn't tired in the slightest, but somehow weary of the sight of the thirteen newborns in the room with me. I knew the life expectancy for them was little over a month, and if they survived their first year— through skill or strength or intelligence, or even if they had a gift like mine— then maybe they would live a little longer. Their chances grew if they survived the year mark. It usually meant they could defend themselves aptly. Or that Maria had taken a liking to them.
If unfortunately she hadn't, then she asked me to destroy them. I did so without question, because she was my master, and she had saved me. Yet I never did shake the feeling that maybe it was a waste.
I suppressed this irrational feeling at once. I always felt like this after feeding. Deflated somewhat, rather than satisfied. But that was only after I had calmed from the frenzy I always felt when faced with a human to drink from. And especially the sweet gifts Maria kept for me— the most delicious blood came from young women and girls, and she always saved them for me. I felt unusually gratified by her reward this time. It had been so much greater than all the other times.
The newborns seemed to sense this too. Though they did not know what she had given me this time, they knew that for me to be this contented after killing it meant it had been good. They were jealous. Maria was the only female in the coven, because after Lucy and Nettie had turned against us and we had defeated them, she had been the only one left. She didn't 'create' women. They were too weak for her conquests. And some of the newborns desired her— I could tell it. They were envious of the favour to which Maria showed me. They could sense her growing attachment to me and they resented me for it.
I found this strange. I had always been well liked— it could have been on account of my manners, or perhaps it was that certain charisma that lingered around me like a weightless cloud. It was even more potent now I was a vampire. So it surprised me to be the focus of such negative attention.
When it carried on late into the hours of the night, and began to evolve into a little more than just hostile glances, I became annoyed. The hatred in the room was distracting. How could I think when their emotions affected me so? And when one of the disruptive newborns who had edged closer and closer to me through the hours looked at me with one more angry stare, I snapped.
A fierce, bass growl ripped from my throat as I leaned towards him— hissing. My lip curled around my flashing teeth in another snarl as I stared him unwaveringly in the eyes, a challenge on my lips.
He shrank back like a wounded puppy but didn't answer. The others turned away, and dropped their gazes. And now that I had reasserted my dominance over them, they didn't bother me again.
The cold silence of the room was broken when in the distance the sprinting footsteps of another vampire came into earshot. And a few seconds after hearing, we all smelt him— but it was just Peter returning home from his hunt. He reported straight to Maria, but was down in the basement again within a minute. He greeted me with a smile. There was no trace of his feed on him: not a spot marked his clothes, not a droplet had been left on his chin or mouth. The newborns were never quite so civilised.
When the newborns also looked at him with envy, I realized I had failed to tell Maria they were thirsty, too. In the confusing midst of my reward, I had forgotten. This had never happened before.
When I left the room, Peter took my place.
"Jasper, I was just about to call on you," Maria said as I entered the room. A smile lit her face as I felt the soft glow of cheerfulness about her. She was pleased.
"What did you require, ma'am?" I asked, coming forward to kneel at her feet. She took my hand when I rose again.
"No, lets hear yours first!" she giggled.
I lowered my face. Her emotions were now laced with interest. I felt a warm glow inside that she would pay such attention to me. She would be disappointed at how ordinary my news was. "I came to tell you that the newborns are thirsty, lady."
"Oh, are they?" she said, raising a sharp eyebrow. She became displeased almost at once. "And what made you think that they deserved to feed?"
I was just about to speak when she opened her mouth again, and I fell silent.
"I reserve that luxury only for those who please me," she said, her fingers curling around my hand that was in held in her small one. Her touch was firm. She stroked her finger over the back of my hand, and like before, it felt strange. My hand looked massive in her tiny one. Too big. As if it didn't belong there. Her actions surprised me greatly.
I tried to pull my hand back from hers but she didn't allow me. Her nails began to dig into my hand, and though it didn't hurt because I couldn't feel pain, it was uncomfortable.
"Why did you want me, ma'am?" I asked her, staring at our hands. If I had been surprised before, when she touched my scar, I was even more so now. She was holding my hand in hers.
Her voice became low and sultry. Her emotions now were sluggish with desire for something, (I didn't know what); though at the same time they were sharp and warning. She was cautioning me.
"I requested your presence," she began, lifting up my chin with a long finger so that I was forced to look into her eyes. They were dark and swirling, capturing. "Because I wanted to show you how... delighted... I am...", —her other hand took my other and held it close to her still heart—, "That you belong to me."
My voice was almost a whisper. "As opposed to...?"
She dropped my hands as if they were burning coals. Dark clouds of anger drew around her, and her voice was as cold as ice and burst from her, "As opposed to in the company of my enemies!"
I could hear what she wasn't willing to say— I will make sure you are destroyed if you ever leave me. I will search for you till the end of the world, and when I find you I will tear out your heart.
And then as if a strong wind had picked up and blown away all her rage, it abated. She became filled with a worry so strong that it made my heart ache, too.
Her voice was as fragile as a child's. "You wont... ever l-leave me, will you, Jasper?" Her eyes shone with tears she couldn't shed. "You know how much I count on you..."
"I would never leave you," I swore. I couldn't even imagine doing it— what would there be, out in that world, for me? Where would I be without Maria? How would I find my way?
"Oh, Jasper..." she wailed, looking more distraught than I could bear. Her small frame shook with sobs.
I didn't know what to do, how to react. My human instincts would have told me to comfort the lady, but how would she react to that? When her sadness only got worse, and she had pulled me under with it too, I took her in my arms. Her tiny head rested against my chest, her dark hair messy across my stomach. She had almost no substance— I could feel her tiny frame against mine. She looked dwarfed next to my muscled alabaster. She felt like a child in my arms.
Her arms snaked around my back and dug into my shirt. I could feel her nails ripping through the fabric as she shook with tearless wails. Her words were muffled and came out as nonsensical cries, yet I could feel the vibration of her lips against my chest. She clung even tighter. My arms felt heavy against her back, and my throat felt filled with stone. Her sadness permeated every cell of me.
We stood like this for many minutes, and nothing changed. I told her again and again that I wouldn't leave her, that I would not be able to bear to leave her here, all alone, with the newborns... yet it made no difference. She fell into a depression so deep I was drowned with her.
When finally, as dawn was breaking, her hold began to loosen, she mumbled to me... "I thank god every day for you, Jasper Whitlock."
I felt too numbed by grief at this point that I couldn't manage gratitude.
She let me go, and my arms slid to my sides.
At once her voice was hard. "I have a task for you Jasper. You must travel north of here and scout Houston. I want to take it as my own. You must map the territory for me, so we can find the best point to attack. You will do that for me, won't you, Jasper?"
At first I thought I had misheard her. She could not have meant those words. Yet, when I asked her, she repeated them the same, a slow smile stretching across her face.
"You want me to go alone?" I asked in a low voice. I wasn't scared, no, that was not it. Disbelieving? I knew already that what she was proposing was murder. That was travelling into another vampire's territory, without any backup. I would be killed at once.
Her eyes were bright with excitement already. The fog of grief in my mind began to lift, and when it did, I began to wonder— had that guilt attack on my conscience just then been so that I would not refuse her this favour? For if it had, she had not needed to. I could not refuse her anything. I would do anything— wasn't she aware of that?
She could not have meant for me to go alone, yes, surely she had just not yet mentioned the army that I would take. Would she be so foolish as to send her best commander on a suicide mission? Had she... gone mad? Had I misinterpreted her rewards and favour towards me in the recent weeks?
Her lips stretched wide in a smile. "Yes." Her lips curled back over her teeth. "I want you to go alone."
JPOV:
I bowed my head, burying the feelings of confusion. Had I not heard her perfectly clearly? What had I to be confused about?
I prepared myself mentally for what I knew to be suicide. I would not return from this mission. Yet I was willing to go nevertheless.
"Prepare yourself, Jasper Whitlock. You will leave at dusk."
"Yes, ma'am," I answered her, my voice even this time. I had always been a good master of feelings. I had contained mine now.
"Oh, and Jasper?" she crooned, her voice now at my neck, as she had sped across the room at breakneck speed.
I turned to face her, "Yes?"
"I want you to destroy my newborns, before you leave."
Destroy them? All?
"Will you do that for me?" she purred. I could feel her breath against the front of my neck.
I bowed my head. "Whatever you ask, my lady."
I expected her to go back to her chair, but she spoke again after a moment. She was laughing now. "Is that so?" There was a pause. She leant closer, until there was little but an inch between us. She opened her mouth, her breath blowing across my lips, "Then I want a kiss."
I was frozen again, my eyes wide with disbelief. Not once in the decades I had been with her had she ever made a request like this. After the loss of Nettie and Lucy, was she becoming lonely? Where had she found this new attachment to me?
Firstly, those brief touches of her hand on my neck. Then the caresses in the bath... and now she wanted me to give her a kiss?
I was still, not even my chest moved. I stopped breathing, trying to think, to find some idea of what to do... but nothing came to me, and she was becoming impatient...
"You said you would do anything I asked," she murmured, looking up from under her lashes. Her lower lip pouted gently against the top one.
I shook my head once, slowly...
Her pout turned into a frown, her eyebrows drew together with rage, and a low growl built in her throat.
Before her emotions could get too dangerously out of control, as I knew they could, I took her face in my hands and pressed my lips once, gently, to hers. I began to draw back, but her hands shot up to hold mine in place with firm pressure. I could easily break her hold, with one flick of my wrists, but what would be the consequences for me if I did? And how could I do that to Maria, who had looked after me for so long with kindness? How could it be so wrong to return her favour with one kiss?
"I asked for a kiss, Jasper," she snarled, furious now, "Not just a touch of your lips."
I looked into her eyes, so close to my own. I looked into them, saw all her dreams, her expectations, her hopes, all which she had shared with me... and couldn't refuse her.
She tangled her hands in my hair to give me a bit of encouragement, and forced our lips to touch. It was not a kiss, not like I had heard one would be like— it was a battle for her to show her power over me. An when our tongues touched, mine would not be gentle, because I had not wanted this, I had not started it... and hers forced back at mine with all her rage. How could it be contained in one such small body?
And then she yanked my head back by the hair, and both of us were shaking with anger, panting with exertion... her spindly yet strong fingers pulled my head back so I was staring at the ceiling. I did not like this position— it was an instinct not to bare your throat to a hostile vampire. Yet I did not pull back because I was too angry. Her fiery rage had affected me too, and now I took it as if it was my own. I had never been so furious in all my existence.
So when I felt her damp lips on my neck, still panting, and she said— "Come back to me, Jasper, and then you shall have your reward,"— I did not reply, but yanked myself out of her grasp and swept from the room.
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I am expecting you guys to have a lot of opinions about this chapter, LOL!
What did you think?
Alice will appear in a couple of chapters, but you have to understand Jasper's history before you can understand his relationship with Alice and his emotional status when they meet.
Don't worry, there wont be much more like this with Maria (unless you want it!). That was kind of the knife-edge for Jasper— the point he begins to doubt his life with Maria and begins to wonder if she really is so great.
I know none of this was mentioned in the book, but Stephenie gave no idea as to some off the stuff he went through, so I am writing it. And I have a pretty good idea of where it's going, so its not just some weird slash-smut.
Please review...? (Thanks for all the ones I got, I truly appreciate it guys. But I didn't get many... – does pouty Alice face--)
CullenLove