**So i know jazzy had a rough time last update, but it's slowly getting better. Actually, we are flying through this story so quick that i might be leaking less...long chapters. Maybe. Anyway, i think you will like this one. Hopefully! **

Ch. 5--Without a Comrade

After Peter had left, I changed. I became more tolerant to Maria's little affection games, for I knew he wouldn't be there to talk to afterwards. Brennan didn't hang around the house anymore, either. His free time was spent hunting or whatever else the forest held for a vampire. I only saw him on the battlefield, being a mindless killer.

Maria would reward me for my good attacks and such, and I tried my very best to see it as the opposite of a punishment. After a couple nights, she would even let me stay after the sun rose for a while. We never talked in the daylight, in the pools of scarlet silk, but I assumed that was a good thing. What would I say to her?

I decided that we would never be lovers in the sense of the emotion. I don't think anybody loved her like that--only in lust, and I didn't even partake in that.

It was not long until Maria changed as well.

Her emotions were bitter and big headed and power hungry. I tried not to notice, but it became painfully clear one night as I spoke to Nettie and Lucy.

"Jasper Whitlock?"

I stopped in the hallway and immediately straightened at the sound of a female's voice. Lucy was leaning out from Nettie's room, her silky white-blonde hair tumbling over her shoulder. I could taste her unease. "Yes, Ma'am?" I asked politely.

She smiled for a moment. "Come in. We must speak with you."

I did so, but I couldn't help but feel worried. Was this another plat to seduce me…?

"Have you felt anything odd or new around Maria? Emotions, I mean." Lucy asked me fiercely. I clamped my jaw and couldn't help but remember the way she felt around these two very women.

Thirsty for power. Plans of betrayal.

"We need to know, Jasper. Is she planning to harm us?" Nettie rushed to Lucy's side. Their eyes were huge and red and hypnotizing, and I could only say, "Perhaps."

They could see I wasn't about to give away much more, because I was Maria's lap dog, after all. They sent me out.

I sat on Maria's bed, waiting for her. She was in the bathroom. I couldn't help but feel those bitter emotions more and more frequently, and it worried me, to be quite honest. Why was she thinking that around me--her lover? It didn't make sense. Nothing did anymore.

The door softly creaked open, and she pattered across the wood floor silently. She wore a sheer white robe type of thing--her favorite. She thought it was mine, too, but she was wrong. Nothing looked good on her anymore.

I looked away and did not speak as she tore at my buttons. I closed my eyes and let my mind escape the horrid blood-red room as she laid me down. I bit my lip as I felt her hands on my skin. It was a long night, and I could only feel her barreling lust and my own shame.

--...--

The morning sunshine was rather gorgeous, and warm, too. I supposed I should be happy, but I could barely notice the brightness…and there hadn't been an attack in weeks. I was getting used to greeting the days without the stiff pain of the bites.

Maria had gone. She would often do that these days--leave me in my zombie like state. I wasn't much of a conversation anymore, not that we ever spoke in the mornings in her scarlet bed sheets.

It must have tapped five times before I recognized it. Someone was tapping at the window. I stiffly rose and ghoulishly floated to the sill, barely caring that I only bore a sheet around me.

When I saw who it was, all the emotions I had left behind pounded my body, but not in a bad way.

"Peter!"

My friend perched outside, his fingers digging into the wood sill. He smiled, then rose his eyebrows at my appearance. I could care less. My friend was back.

"Peter! Come in, come in!" I grabbed his wrists and hauled him in, even as he nervously looked around for Maria. I suppose I was too excited about his arrival to tell him she wasn't around.

"Where have you been, my friend? Tell me of your life." The happiness I hadn't felt in so long was so pleasing. I could feel my eyes sparkle--could feel Peter's amusement as I changed from an empty shell to excited adult vampire.

He smiled. It was something I missed. "Charlotte and I have a great life, Jasper."

"Charlotte is your…mate." I said, pleased I could recall that from that bleak night. He nodded.

He leaned forth, his eyes burning. This emotion, it was again a pleasant first. "You are very happy, Peter." I noted.

"Come with me, Jasper."

I was silent. I blinked, and suddenly took in what I was. A vampire dressed in his mistress's red sheets, and this vampire despised every night wit her. I yanked the sheet upwards more.

"It is so much better, my friend. No wars. Peace…Charlotte and I have a nice home and we can feed well without getting discovered--"

"Wait…the feeding." I whispered. Even before he left, he knew I had trouble with that. It had grown worse, actually, and I had to take a few hours to myself to recollect myself from the raw emotions my prey felt. He nodded.

"We will help take care of you, Jasper. Wouldn't you like to be among friends, and not Maria?"

My eyes locked to his. His were red and sincere--it was different than Maria's.

"Take me there."

He did.

**Yayyyy Jasper has a happy moment for once!**