Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Rated M for a reason.
Chpt 19 Up Close and Personal
BPOV
"Edward Cullen?" I squeak. "What makes you think he's with The Volturi?"
"I keep up with the Italian gossip Bella. I still have friends in Volterra."
"How? When? How long?"
"He is quite recent I understand. Aro's favourite new pet by all accounts. His ability is weaker than Aro's but more flexible." He chuckles. "I am given to understand he tries my old friend's patience from time to time."
"Your old friend?" Pete asks before I can fire my next question in.
"Caius." Gus explains. "He has an appreciation for how talented vampires can accomplish his military goals but he regards them all as prima donnas and has very little tolerance for them as a result. Aro is always having to intercede to prevent Caius from destroying his pets."
"Caius keeps you informed of events in Volterra?" Pete barks, an' I feel Jasper tense beside me. Hasn't he told us he fell out with Caius?
"No, no." Gus raises his hands placatingly. "Sorry. Caius would tell me nothing except what time I am scheduled to die but I do still have a few contacts in the Guard. I sired many of them and some of them are resilient enough to remain my friends."
"Edward?" I press.
Gus regards me quizzically.
"I'm sorry." I shake my head to clear it. "The last we heard he had disappeared in Rio, with Alice, looking for Rutilio."
"Perhaps there is a little more to your story than you have already explained?" Gus prompts.
Mentally I grit my teeth, super edited version only. "Edward and I were friends, many years ago. He le . . . . He went . . . . He broke up with me and the Cullens moved away. He wasn't very pleased when Jasper and I got together a few years later. When he became aware of the situation with Rutilio, an' since he knew him, he an' Alice went to see him in Rio. They both disappeared, we assumed they were dead. We still don't know if they went to help Rutilio or to help us."
Jasper pats my thigh comfortingly, he understands that the whole Cullen experience still makes me a little crazy when I have to think about it.
Gus waits patiently for me to spill the rest.
"Carlisle blames me for losin' two of his children, he still doesn't know that Alice is in New York with Rutilio and I'm pretty sure he doesn't know Edward is alive and with The Volturi."
"Hmm." Gus considers. "Interesting. Carlisle may very well not know. It would not be the first time someone has been pressganged into serving in the Guard against their will. What of Alice?"
"She claims to not know what happened to Edward." I shrug, understanding his question.
"Families are very complex." Gus observes sagely.
I snort. I've never had much of one in the past and the one I have now seems very simple to me. We love each other an' occasionally we irritate the tits off each other, sometimes not even deliberately.
The silence lasts for a few minutes until Gus, Jasper and Pete fall easily into planning and hashing everything over again. Harry an' Carla take Char on a tour of the house, which I cry off, while Jonathan rushes away muttering about preparing for the trip.
At a loose end I wander out into the courtyard and sit myself down to watch the sunlight glinting off the water in the fountain. The warm dry air reminds me of home and I wander happily around the human memories it provokes in my head, all the time aware of Mr Disagreeable hovering in the background.
An hour or so later I can still hear the quiet murmur of the men still talking in the house and the occasional laughter of the womenfolk who are now exploring the gardens. Finally I've had enough and I turn to face Matthew who is still glowering at me like I've kicked his puppy.
"What?" I growl.
"You are the weakest link." He observes. Voice sounds sane, words? Not so much.
"Excuse me? You want to talk about crappy game shows?" I bait him. Stupid I know but I've had a very stressful few weeks and unnecessarily narky vampires will hit the right buttons.
"You are the youngest and the weakest, The Major is very protective of you. If there is a fight you will be a problem." Spoken like a great truth.
I laugh. "Okay, if you say so."
"You should be tested." He intones seriously.
Peripherally I am aware that Gus, Jasper an' Pete have emerged from the house and are watching us both.
"You want to do a pop quiz?" I ask with perfect sarcasm.
He snarls at me.
What the hell is going on? Is he nuts?
Gus takes a step forwards as if to intervene but Jasper puts his hand out with a slight shake of his head, motioning for him to be still. Gus sighs heavily and relaxes.
"Are you pickin' a fight with me?" I snort in disbelief.
He shrugs, smirking at me.
"Is that a good idea? Haven't we all just made friends?"
Still smirking.
With a sigh I climb to my feet brushing the dust off my jeans.
"Listen Matthew." I begin my voice now calm and steady. "I don't know what your problem is an' if I've done anything to offend you then I'm really sorry. I really do not want to get in a fight with you, verbal or physical, I want our covens to be friends."
Still smirking.
Great, I can feel myself getting annoyed again. I narrow my eyes at him feeling them go black as he stalks menacingly towards me.
"I don't want to hurt you Matthew." I warn him, looking across to Jasper for guidance. He's smiling benignly at me.
"She won't hurt him will she?" Gus murmurs.
"No." Jasper responds quietly. "She has much better control than she used to."
"I feel like I should warn him." Gus whispers back.
Jasper shrugs. "She already warned him."
Gus sighs again.
"Matthew, stop." I command.
With a shout of glee he leaps at me. I dodge him easily, my newborn speed hasn't waned yet.
"Are you insane?" I scream whirling to face him again.
"Only some days." Someone comments dryly behind me causing a ripple of laughter.
"I don't like you." Matthew snarls.
"No shit." I growl. "What did I do?"
"You are weak and soft and fluffy." He says disdainfully as he begins to circle me.
I watch him warily as Pete starts laughing in earnest.
"Me?" Fluffy? Fluffy? He's completely out to lunch.
"You." He confirms, charging at me again.
I wait until he's right on top of me and then reach out grabbing the tops of his arms and flipping him over my head. Its child's play for me but I have enough experience now to know that he is actually reasonably skilled and my superiority is about ability and extremely good training.
Howling in frustration he flings himself at me again and this time I use his momentum to shove him forcefully down into the dirt. In the same movement I grab his arms holding them tightly behind his back as I none too gently throw myself on top of him, my razor sharp teeth at his neck.
"I don't know what your problem is." I hiss. "But I handed in my fluffy card about eighteen months ago. Don't mess with me, I bite."
"She did not use her shield." Gus observes.
"She doesn't need to." Pete informs him proudly, strolling over to assist Jonathan with restraining Matthew who is now on his feet an' wriggling around like a lizard on a stick.
I step away and eye the onlookers nervously.
Gus walks forwards until he is standing before Matthew, with a sigh he places his hands on either side of his face.
"Matthew." He says simply, closing his eyes an' placing his forehead against his son's.
Gradually Matthew's struggling begins to subside, the rest of us look on silently as he calms down until, eventually, he is still. Jonathan releases his arms and motions for Pete to do the same. They move away leaving father and son embracing in the sunlit the courtyard.
Harry flaps her hand and taking the hint the rest of us follow her into her house. As soon as we cross the threshold Jasper pulls me into his arms and drags me to a shadowy corner, holding me tightly against him.
"I'm so sorry." She begins, wringing her hands anxiously. "Matthew has many problems. He's a very troubled young man, the war, well he had a very difficult time. He should never have been changed. We try to live as quietly as possible, if everything is calm he can be, well he can be very nice.
Change and new people are very hard for him, he can become unreasonable and difficult to control. Gus is the only one he really responds to when he is like this."
"Most coven leaders would have destroyed him by now." Pete states and I gasp in shock.
"Yes." Harry agrees softly, surprisingly unoffended. "But he is basically a good man and Gus does not believe he should die as a result of events that weren't his fault."
Everyone is quiet and it dawns on me that there is a lot I still have to learn about vampires.
"Bella." Carla offers me her hand. "Please take a walk with me. It sounds like we have a lot in common."
I wriggle out of Jasper's arms and take her hand, keen to mend some fences.
She leads me out into the gardens and tucks her arm through mine.
"You're the only other vampire I've met who chose this life for love." She says. "Everyone else I know was changed for necessity or against their will. How did you meet Jasper?"
"I met him at high school originally. He was living with Edward's family, married to his sister Alice. Edward and I fell in love, I wanted him to change me but he wouldn't, he believes vampires are soulless monsters and he didn't want to condemn me to this life." I snort and she laughs lightly. "There was a little accident one night and I was bleedin', Jasper tried to attack me. Edward, in his infinite wisdom, decided that they should all leave so that I could lead a normal human life. I was miserable.
Eventually I moved to LA and became a cop like my Dad. I was making an arrest one night an' I looked up an' there was Jasper starin' down at me from a roof like the Marlborough Man."
"Did he speak to you?" Carla gasps.
"No, I pulled my gun out to shoot him an' he ran away."
"I was a waitress." Carla giggles. "Not quite so exciting. What happened next?"
"Pete an' Char made him come to my local bar later that night. Pete was the first vampire with red eyes I'd seen up close for a long time. He scared me half to death. I fainted an' Jasper took me home. He was, is, the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on. We went out again the following night an' the rest is history, as they say."
Carla sighs happily. "I felt exactly the same way about Jonathan. It was like he was lit from within or something, an angel. He used to come into the diner where I worked almost every night and sit in the corner booth reading. I served him coffee and a danish every time and most nights when it was quiet we would talk." She giggles. "I never noticed that he didn't eat it, how ditzy is that?"
I laugh with her. "It took me ages to work out what Edward was too, despite the fairly obvious evidence that he wasn't anythin' normal. In the end I had some help from the local legends an' I made him tell me. How did you find out about Jonathan?"
"I saw him in the sun." She holds her free arm out and turns it over, sending sparkles darting through the shrubbery. "I never get tired of sparkling. Anyway, my car broke down on the way to visit my parents, stupid thing left me stranded in the middle of nowhere and even though I should have more sense I didn't have my cell or any water with me. Just when I was about to lay down at the side if the road and have a pity party Jonathan showed up, twinkling away like a disco ball. Did Edward and Jasper used to follow you around when you were human?"
"Edward did. Jasper didn't."
"He couldn't fix my car so he carried me home, I used to love it when he ran with me on his back, it was exhilarating. Of course he explained what he was but by then I was so crazy for him I couldn't have cared less what he was."
"How did you come to be changed?"
She laughs again. "It took two years. He wanted to change me sooner but I wasn't ready to give up on my parents and my friends. He played a very successful human and attentive boyfriend for all that time and eventually he asked me to marry him.
We had a lovely wedding, in the evening of course. And then there was a horrible accident on our honeymoon, our boat sank and our bodies were never recovered."
"Do you miss your family and friends?" I ask quietly.
"Every day." She says with a sad smile. "But Jonathan is worth it."
I smile an' nod in complete understanding. I would have stupidly given it all that up for Edward but it would have been worth it for Jasper.
We stroll on swapping human with vampire stories and comparing notes on our newborn years until Pete finds us and herds us inside because it's to leave.
Arrangements for them to join is in New York have been completed in our absence so we bid them farewell and run back to the park through the gathering darkness to collect our car before returning to the hotel.
Back in our room Jasper lowers me onto the bed with a happy sigh, covering my body with his.
"You did very well this afternoon." He whispers into my hair.
"What do you mean?" I ask, surprised. Matthew was easy for me to handle.
"You tried to resolve the situation without resorting to violence." He chuckles. "And you only used necessary force to restrain him. You're growing up."
"You threw me to the wolves didn't you?" I ask him incredulously. "That was some weird vampire method of cementing friendships?"
"No darlin'." He burrows his nose deeper into my hair. "I wouldn't have let him hurt you if it turned out he was capable, although it was useful for Gus to see. To be brutally honest I thought kickin' his ass would cheer you up a bit."
"It did." I laugh. "Does that make me a bad person?"
"Not to me darlin'." He chuckles. "I love every part of you, even your mean ass temper."
"He really irritated me." I sigh. "An' now I feel bad because he's not well. He hates me."
"I doubt it darlin'." He attempts to reassure me. "Who knows how he'll feel about you by the time he gets to New York."
"He likes you." I huff. "The Major."
"Yeah." He mumbles, squirming and ceasing the movement of his lips in my hair.
"Jasper?"