A/N

Fr333bird thank you for beta'ing it. You are best. Im_not_a_lizard (rhythm junkie) – you are my constant fear-of-posting filter :)

Pic for this chapter: bit(dot)ly/uy6NE9 . And one more for previous one: "menacing waves" bit(dot)ly/urQ06P . I tagged all pics for this fic as "UTW" on my TL.

5. The Curse

The heater seems to do wonders for Edward who finally abandons his corner and moves around the place a bit, even cleaning up after himself.

"So, how did you become one?" he asks, trying to repair the toilet flush while Jasper watches him in growing awe and disbelief, because plumbing is a form of magic for him.

"A vampire?" Jasper tries to clarify.

"Yes. Or were you born like this?"

"No." Jasper laughs bitterly. "You don't get born into it, you die to become like this."

"How come?" Edward is looking expectantly at Jasper, his eyes clear and shining, his interest genuine. The look Jasper to feel like he's melting inside just a bit, making him uncomfortable and irritated but flattered and kind of important at the same time.

That's how Jasper finds himself drawn into the longest conversation he's ever had since he's become what he is now. It should feel like an inquisition, Jasper thinks, but it doesn't. And in the middle of this Jasper is surprised to find that it's evening again and they've spent the whole day talking about why he doesn't go out when it is sunny – no, I won't burn, or if he can turn into a bat – are you serious? Or if he's immortal - yes, it's possible that he's more than 150 years old. Or whether there are others like him, or if it's true that young virgin's blood tastes better…

"Can I see?" Edward asks suddenly, sitting back on his spot and lighting a cigarette.

"See what?"

"You know, how you… hunt?" He makes a stabbing move with his cigarette.

"You want to see how I kill people?" Jasper asks horrified.

"Yes."

Jasper stands up and then sits again. There is no way he'll ever be able to understand humans.

"Okay," he agrees and immediately regrets it. "I'll take you next time I go."

"When?" Edward lies down and looks in the ceiling. He takes another drag of his cigarette, making the red circle glow in the falling darkness.

"I don't know. In a few days I guess." Jasper shrugs and lies down next to Edward on the floor, listening to the boy's breath deepening and smoothing while he falls asleep. Jasper finds it comforting – just like the tides of the ocean he's used to – the slow rhythm of intakes and outtakes of breath marking the time intervals, and the little movements of Edward's body giving him the reassurance of something alive next to him.

"***"

Jasper's still unsure whether this is the best idea when he and Edward march down the street together. He has no clue how Edward will react, or how he will react to Edward's presence for that matter. Will he be able to do this with Edward next to him? Will he be able to control his urges enough to not turn against Edward, to kill him and drain him along with the victim? However, Jasper tries not to think about it - he's come to the point where he doesn't care much anymore. Plus, he's a bit curious about it, the thought of having a companion in this is intriguing, even if it's also dreadful.

"Just keep quiet and don't get in my way," Jasper orders when they enter the club.

It is a pretty dull place, definitely not a stylish club, more like a second chance one for those who are too lame or not rich enough to get into the more fancy places.

"What now?" Edward asks when they've ordered their drinks.

"Basically what I do is just wait. I pick at their feelings and choose the one who is angry, or lonely, or unhappy, or just, you know, not a nice person. Like… this girl there," Jasper points to a girl sitting at a table in the corner. She's clearly bored or resigned, playing with ice in her empty glass. She's got round face, curly chin-length brown hair, sweet lips and big brown eyes and she reminds Jasper of a sweet chocolate muffin – or at least he thinks that should be the smell and image of a muffin, as he's never had one.

"What's wrong with her?" Edward inquires quietly.

"Nothing. She's just… not wanted," Jasper makes a movement with his hand that is supposed to describe the unhappiness of the girl and fails. "And she smells nice."

"She does? How can you tell from that distance?"

"Oh, believe me, I do smell her. Stay here," Jasper says as he goes toward the girl. He smiles at her, asking for a permission to sit, pays her some innocent compliments and works her up with his gift – just a bit at the beginning and then some more, until she's ready to leave with him. The whole thing doesn't take more than ten minutes. Jasper motions to Edward in the corner and the girl shakes her head laughing, but Jasper insists, "Come on, this will be fun, we'll worship you, make you feel really good, come on," and the girl laughs again, her eyes shining, cheeks red as she nods and follows Jasper to where Edward stands.

Normally Jasper wouldn't take anyone home, but he's not sure Edward would be able to get out of some hotel quick enough after they're done. So he leads the girl to his place, constantly molding her emotions, so by the time they enter the room she's practically rubbing herself over him. She doesn't notice the lack of proper lighting, the mess, the dirty mattress. Jasper helps her to take off her shirt, careful to not touch her skin just yet.

"Do you want…?" he trails off looking at Edward, not sure what is he really asking Edward about – if he wants to fuck the girl, undress her, kiss her, help him kill her?

"No," Edward says like he's reading Jasper's mind. "I'll just… watch." He sits by the wall, opposite the mattress and looks at the girl who's now taking off her boots, her eyes half closed, lips parted. Jasper keeps her wound up in desire while she grabs his shirt, pulling him closer, trying to kiss him. He evades her lips easily, placing his hand on her leg on the way and the girl shivers.

"God," she says. "Please, please…"

"What do you want?" Jasper asks gently, trying not to think about how it'll end for her, or about Edward who's still by the wall, wide-eyed and if Jasper is reading him well, aroused too. This makes Jasper feel both disappointed and elated.

"I don't know," the girl responds. "Just… Whatever you want, please."

Jasper takes another glance at Edward, who's staring at him now and suddenly Jasper can't contain himself any longer, so he pushes the girl to the mattress, grabbing her wrists tightly and pinning them to the ground. He straddles the girl's hips, his jeans rubbing against her white cotton panties with Do you want to eat me? printed on them. Jasper notices the sentence and can't help but chuckle before he catches himself, wanting to slap himself in the face for his dark sense of humor. He grinds into the girl, making her squirm, while he emits more and more desire. He's caught up in it too, full aware of Edward watching them. He thinks that maybe he's more perverted than he thought he was, because he's clearly getting off on being watched by this boy.

He tries to get his attention back to the girl, still keeping her tightly pressed to the mattress, while her whole body is arching, and she's pushing up her breasts covered in the girly, gray bra with pink lace. The girl is a bit plump and Jasper likes it - he thinks she looks really, really delicious - with her creamy, soft skin and small dark dot right above her breast. He knows he shouldn't, but he leans down and almost, almost presses his lips to it. He catches sight of Edward and gets the boy's feelings – the strange mixture of fear, excitement, disgust and lust. Jasper leans even more, opens his mouth, scratching his teeth over the girl's skin, not cutting it yet, but making her gasp and tremble. And when he grinds once more into her, a bit harder, sending yet another rush of arousal towards her, she whimpers, making funny shrieking noises and she comes hard, her cheeks and chest flushed.

At the sight of it Jasper is done – he isn't able to hold it anymore. He almost crushes the girl's wrists in his hands while his teeth dig into her flesh, blood flowing dark, thick and excruciatingly sweet. She doesn't notice it at first, she's still gasping for breath, legs shaking, fingers curled tight, but then she feels that something isn't right and opens her eyes wide in horror. Jasper keeps her still with more force while she cries and kicks her legs, trying in vain to free her hands. At this point Jasper isn't able to control her emotions anymore, so he welcomes her pain and fear, closing his eyes, letting go of the girl's hands when she stops struggling.

After that all is quiet. Jasper sits back, staring at the wall in front of him - anywhere to avoid the girl's empty gaze right now. He swallows the last drops of blood in his mouth and hangs his head, his hair falling on his face and he stills, wishing the world to still with him and vanish.

"***"

Time passes and Jasper feels some movement behind him and then a warm hand is placed on his shoulder blades. He turns around in a swirl and before Edward can realize what's going on Jasper has him crashed and pinned to the wall with his hand on Edward's throat.

"Don't. Fuck. With me," Jasper hisses through gritted teeth and pushes Edward harder against the wall. Edward's eyes dilate in fear but he says nothing. And then Jasper smells it. The rusty and deliciously sweet scent of Edward's blood. Apparently he pushed Edward too hard and he must have banged his head against the wall and cut the skin.

Jasper grips Edward's throat harder and leans over close, so close to Edward's neck. One more inch and he'll be in ultimate paradise, or hell, depending on how you see this. But then he feels Edward's hands on his wrists and he looks up to see the calmness in the green eyes and he focuses on that warm feeling before releasing Edward from his grip.

"You really have a death wish. Get yourself cleaned up," Jasper says coldly, not looking at Edward and trying not to breathe in any more of the scent of Edward's blood. He grabs the girl's limp body and rushes out.

No one sees him while he drags the girl to the pier, dumps her into the water and walks back to the town. He's so angry – with himself, with Edward, with the girl - that his hands are shaking. He wants to destroy everything that's around him and beat Edward until he's just a pile of smashed flesh and blood wiped into the floor. But he knows he'd regret that, so instead he's directing all the anger inside him while he's walking down the streets, not registering where he's going. He thinks bitterly that if he talked aloud now he'd be like one of those sad crazy people who stop the traffic, mumbling to themselves and carrying dozens of plastic bags along.

He usually tries to tame himself, but this time he allows the waves of anger to flow and crush him. The pain of it is almost unbearable and Jasper wishes he could just run as fast as he can - straight into the wall to make his body crack into thousands of pieces, just the way his soul is breaking up right now. But he knows it would be useless. The wall would surely break, but he wouldn't feel the pain he yearns for. He grabs his hair tight in his fists up to the point of ache and closes his eyes really tight, hearing the buzzing of the anger in his ears and almost feeling the heat of it in his cheeks. He's nauseated and shattered.

Slowly, after an unbearable amount of time and miles of walking through the town, the anger subsides a bit. The last waves of wrath come back again, but each one is weaker and weaker until they all finally go, leaving him exhausted and empty, still shaking.

Jasper stops walking when he finds himself back at the pier. He sits down on the ground, trying to focus on the waves in the bay and find some pacifying pattern in their cycles as they crash into the shore. He'd really love a cigarette right now, he thinks, at least he could occupy his hands with something.

"***"

When he comes back he finds Edward washing something in a plastic bowl in the shower. Edward's eyes are red, like he's been crying, but he's calm.

"What did you do with her?" he asks quietly.

"Dumped her into the water," Jasper responds and leans back on the wall. He's so fucking spent.

"You okay?" Edward asks, making Jasper gasp, because it really should be him asking Edward this question.

"Yeah. Just… tired. I'm really tired," Jasper repeats as he sits down and places his head on his hands.

"Why do you do that?"

Jasper's confused – he thinks he's made it clear enough earlier why he kills. But he doesn't have the energy to become angry again, so he just sighs and asks, "What?"

"Why do you have sex with them?"

"I don't have sex with them," Jasper disagrees sulkily.

"Well, not physically, but it's still sex," Edward insists, finishing with the container and drying his hands, before he walks to Jasper and sits right in front of him.

Jasper remembers this little, slim, androgynous girl whom he stalked down the docks so long ago. It must have been the 50's or something, he reckons. He'd stalked her for a long while, following her sweet scent, wanting to grab that unusually short pale brown hair and sink his teeth in the thin skin on her slim neck. She turned around to face him and he felt… fear – yes – but also underneath it, very clearly – desire. She was looking at him with big round eyes while she licked her lips and started to slowly back up from him until she hit a wall behind her.

Jasper moved closer, cutting her way of escape, placing both of his hands on either side of her head, leaning down. She tried to kick him and whined when she bruised her knee. When she'd understood there was nothing she could do she looked up at him and very deliberately placed both of her palms on his chest. Jasper pushed more into her, leaning down to her lips, kissing her roughly. She was the first and only human he ever kissed. He shoved his tongue in her mouth and bit a little on her lips, drawing the first drops of blood, tasting her. She moaned underneath him, her breath hitching, as she tried to get closer to him.

"Hit me," he heard. Her voice was high and childlike but somehow flat, devoid of any of the emotions that Jasper knew she was experiencing. She almost scared him.

From what she was feeling, he understood that the girl must have been getting off on the violence, so he twisted her arms painfully, and dragged her to the ground. She was emitting more and more arousal and Jasper got lost in the urge to possess her – also in sexual way, which was new to him.

"Jane," she said. "I'm Jane, you fucker."

"Why would I care what your name is?" Jasper asked, digging his nails deep into her skin, drawing more blood.

"So every time you do this, you'd remember me." It was said like a curse and Jasper shuddered at the cruelty in her voice.

When he finally bit into her hard, then bit again, and again, sucking on her blood, she trembled and moaned tugging on his hair so forcefully that he almost felt it. Suddenly he sensed wetness on his thigh and realized he must have come in his pants while the girl was having her climax and dying underneath him.

Never before had he hated himself as much as in that moment right after, the girl long gone and his underwear and pants still wet with his cum. I'm a fucking pervert, he thought. But anything was better than the unbearable fear and loathing – all the tragic feelings that he usually took on himself from the people he killed.

So Jasper answers Edward, finding the only explanation he can, "It's just… better this way. For them. And for me too."

A/N

Thank you so much for all the reviews. You really don't know how much they all mean to me.

I will try to do 2 more updates before Xmas.