A/N: Hey all. New chapter up. Hope you all enjoy it. Please read and review. As always, feel free to comment or ask questions in any way.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
Reviewer Response:
Atthisvelocity: Thank you as always for the compliments. :) Yes I do in fact have a little plan tucked under my belt for this one. Read on.
MishyFish: Well that's because you don't like blondes my dear! I'll include a few brunettes and redheads for you if I can :D. OCTOPUS. IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU.
-Knowing One's Own Strength-
Sasha gripped the steering wheel of the truck with such a barely controlled intensity that the reinforced material let out a warning creak, threatening to mold to the shape of her slim hands. Only just able to stop herself from literally trembling in fury, she turned her head with a lightening fast intensity toward the other vampire, her crimson eyes flashing dangerously. A low snarl ripped from her vocal cords, long since made feral by her transformation.
She could feel her lip curling- an automatic reaction she had when in a situation such as this. Pure animalistic instinct- make a nasty face, and the attacker might be intimidated. But that wasn't her intention at the moment, modern science and biology studies be damned. All she wanted was to rip that man from nape to navel, and get the hell out of here.
"What," Sasha spat venomously, "do you want."
The blonde chuckled lightly. He seemed to relax even more in the soft passenger seat of the car, but Sasha wasn't fooled- she saw the tiny spots of tension that tightened his jaw and eyes.
"No need to be rude, honey. I'm just escorting you from the premises," he said softly, looking at her presumptuously with his sunny golden eyes, a tiny grin perching on his face. "Dr. Carlisle's orders."
Again, he shifted slightly, making Sasha aware for the first time of his torso, long and lanky, clad in a fitted black v-neck long-sleeved shirt. Her attention, after wandering for all of half a millisecond, snapped back to his pre-Raphaelite face.
"Why aren't you just following me in the woods, like you did before?" she asked him coolly, calmly continuing to drive down the dark path. Like hell was she going to let him distract her.
In fact, she gained a small amount of satisfaction from seeing his face falter for an instant before melting back into the smug mask.
"I'm surprised you know that that was me you saw," he said lightly, turning his eyes to her hands on the steering wheel. "It could have been any one of us."
If Sasha had been human she would have blushed; she'd been bluffing. But she kept her face smooth. "You didn't answer my question."
The other vampire rolled his eyes and used his slim, yet powerful looking hands to push back his hair from his face, seemingly in frustration.
"We were instructed that you would probably react in a negative way to what Carlisle had to say; obviously he was right. Edward instructed me to follow you in close quarters. And, to be honest…" he turned those piercing eyes on her again. "I was deathly curious."
Sasha smelled something odd about the situation. How would he have known about her reaction? Sure, vampires could hear things from far away, but she hadn't smelled this one's particular scent anywhere near the house when she'd been there.
"And is your curiosity satisfied?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. She knew hers wasn't, but damn her if she was going to let him get the upper hand.
"Well now, I hadn't asked a question!" he laughed, the drawl seeming to be more pronounced in his amusement. "All I know is that we… our family, I mean… can usually see things like this coming a long way off." He looked at her again, this time with a strange expression likened to awe but mixed with trepidation. "And for some reason, you've done gone and missed our radar."
Sasha had no idea what he was talking about, but assumed she would find out eventually. However, she was tired of dealing with these weird vegetarian vampires, and silently thanked the powers that be when after a long silence she pulled up to her apartment building. She turned the car off and sat in the dark, waiting for the other vampire to say something.
"I guess this is your place, now isn't it," he said softly, looking the building up and down. Then he gave her a heart-stopping stare that pinned her eyes to his. "Goodbye, Miss Sasha. We'll be watching you."
Sasha narrowed her eyes, not affected by his attempt to intimidate her.
"Are you going to give me your name? Or should I just know you as B.B.?"
He looked confused for a fraction of a second. "B.B?"
"Blonde Bastard."
The corner of his mouth twitched. "Call me whatever you want, Slick. But my name is Jasper."
Sasha smiled graciously at the newly christened Jasper, and proceeded to tell him to get the fuck out of her car. He did so after a gentlemanly bob of his yellow head and a flash of his white teeth.
Slick, her ass. That boy was gonna get his veggie-loving lanky butt whipped if he didn't buck his ideas up fast.
Sasha climbed up to her usual spot on the weather vane to watch the sun come up. This situation was going to turn into a hot mess at one point or another, and she was going to enjoy riding it out.
Maybe that was why she was had always been so suited to army life.
--
Jasper ran as fast as he could back to the house. That girl gave him the chills, and he couldn't figure out whether that was bad or good, or both. The anger coming off her as she'd glared at him with those mesmerizing red eyes had been tangible, nearly visible- he'd wanted to reach out and catch it with his fingers.
Nimbly hopping from tree limb to tree limb, he considered how she'd seemed so controlled compared to most other normal vampires. She hadn't leaped to attack him even though he'd surprised her- though Edward had told him his own attempt had borne no fruit, he wanted to see her resolve tested a second time. Once bitten, twice shy.
He smirked darkly at his private joke as he arrived at his front doorstep, and opened his arms as a small figure barreled down the stairs and into his embrace.
"Jasper!!" gasped the short girl with the cropped, spiky black hair framing her heart shaped face. "I couldn't see you the whole time… please don't do that again…"
He looked down tenderly into her eyes, stroking the skin of her cheek. "Don't worry Alice. She's no danger to me. Surely you know that."
Alice pulled away, glowering. "How do I know? The only beings I can't see are the werewolves. And they're dangerous- even to you."
"Only in a pack of five or more," he reminded her gently, swooping down to kiss her pouting lips. Surprisingly, she lightened a little at his morbid joke.
"Carlisle and Esme want to talk to us," she intoned softly, leading Jasper into the brightly lit living room, where the whole family was standing as still as statues- as was the way of vampires. Esme shifted a step towards them as they came in, a relieved smile breaking across her gentle face.
"Thank goodness you're alright."
Jasper sighed.
"Of course I am. Need I remind you all I'm the most frightening predator here?"
The rest chuckled fitfully. Edward frowned.
"We all know your strength, Jasper. It is just that when something comes to Forks that Alice cannot see- and happens to be so powerful that she needs to leave the vicinity to be comfortable- we are concerned. Not even the werewolves have that kind of potency."
Rosalie nodded, and Emmett squeezed her shoulder in acknowledgment.
"It was extremely uncomfortable to be at school with Alice absent," she said, looking pointedly at her sister. "Edward had no way of knowing possible dangers. And that could have been disastrous, especially with Bella present."
Alice grimaced. Edward's face contorted slightly, showing his concern for exactly what Rosalie had said. Jasper in turn glared at his brother.
"Do you think it's Alice's fault that being around that girl makes her blind and lightheaded?" he growled. "Learn to stand up and fight for your mate on your own, Edward. It would be good for you."
Edward just stared at him, reading his thoughts, and after a few minutes he seemed to understand, though the old expression of self-hatred darkened his features soon after the light of comprehension.
"For God's sake, don't take that to mean you're a monster for not protecting her better," sighed Jasper, mentally banging his head against a wall. "Just learn to do it on your own."
Edward nodded- a short, clipped motion that assured Jasper that he would be beating himself up emotionally for the next few days. Jasper only barely stopped himself from rolling his topaz eyes. Go watch over her. You'll feel better if you're by her side, he thought to his brother.
He then offered, ever the gentleman, a hand to Alice. She grinned and put her hand in his, and they flew up the stairs.
Damn him if Sasha wasn't fascinating, but he had something far more occupying right here.
--
Tossing her mane of dark hair over her shoulder, Sasha buttoned up her pea coat against the cold night air of autumn in Seattle. It was about midnight, and she was on her first shift at work, only a day after her first meeting with the Cullens. She put her hands on her hips, looking at the full moon from her position on one of the higher floors of the skyscraper being built, the skeleton of the building black against the navy blue of the night sky.
Her taskmaster looked at her apprehensively, his strong heart beating steadily under his human ribs.
"You need to wear these, Ms. Baryon," he said, apparently trying to sound firm. "It's a matter of liability for the company."
Sasha's lip curled as she looked at the neon-orange vest and hard-hat he had in his arms; but she held her hands out for the ugly garments with a sigh of acquiescence. She could hardly tell him that her vampire skull was stronger than the hard-hat would ever be. The vest was almost too big for her, but she secured it tightly around her slim waist with the straps.
The foreman pointed her to her workstation- a large pile of metal struts and other heavy equipment- and grinned.
"Now I know you're strong, but if you have any trouble," he winked at her playfully, "just call me and me and the boys will help you out."
Sasha smiled slightly. He wasn't so bad. She'd had some real assholes for bosses in the past- and she could feel the good-natured vibes coming off of this guy.
"I'll be fine, Mr. Eckerd. Really."
The foreman nodded and turned his back to go and do something on a lower floor, leaving his new hire to her own devices. What a stroke of luck to have found someone to work for who didn't ask any questions. When she'd told him her "albino" story, he'd looked at her straight in the eye, as if he could see right through her, and said he didn't like prying into his employees' private lives.
"All I want," he'd said with a conspiratorial wink, "is some good, honest work. And I think my kids appreciate that."
The slim vampire hefted a long steel bar on her shoulder, making sure not to knock anything over as she walked to the other side of the floor and put the thing in place, making sure of its correct fit.
After about two hours of lifting long bars and supports of steel and other metal alloys, she smelled something that made the hair on her neck stand up slightly in the cold air. Not that it was a bad scent. It was warm and sharp, like Texas clover and sun, but with a dash of sweet spring water.
Sasha carefully put the piece of metal in its place before dusting herself off, turning around slowly, and standing up straight and proud.
Sure enough, there was that scruffy blonde bastard, standing on the end of a long support that jutted out beyond the perimeter of the floor of the building. The bone-white moon framed his tall form, cutting out a stark silhouette; the soft glow illuminated his ethereal face, around which floated his light golden hair. An archangel come to send her back to hell. He could have been at the end of a diving board, bobbing up and down, and not have looked any less enthralling, Sasha's bedazzled brain told her, but she quickly dismissed the errant thought and concentrated on her dislike of him.
She paced gracefully to the point at which the slim metal support was attached to the building and turned her large blood-red eyes to him. Her black hair whispered around her shoulders- at which point she remembered her odd-looking orange vest and hard-hat. Damn it.
"What do you want?" Sasha asked him for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.
"Must you always be so rude?" he bit right back, smiling coldly as he took a few steps toward her. "I'm surprised you only just noticed me. I've been watching you for the last hour and a half."
Sasha narrowed her eyes, annoyed at that she hadn't become aware of his presence sooner- he wasn't lying. Sasha could always tell a liar; she'd uncovered many double agents in her time. It was an essential part of being a good spy herself.
"Staying downwind doesn't make you a genius," she said pointedly, hoping to prick him in a soft spot. It worked.
Jasper's face dropped into a scowl. "I've found, madam," he said in a low voice, "that it works in a tight spot."
Elated at her strategic victory, Sasha grinned widely. "This is a 'tight spot'? I'm flattered."
She would regret her words. Before she knew it, a hiss erupting from his throat the golden-eyed vampire was behind her, restraining her arms to her sides with arms like the steel bars she was working with. Vampire strength and all, Sasha couldn't budge an inch in his death grip. However, she stood still and calm as a stone, determined not to let him know she was intimidated.
She felt his breath on her smooth neck as he whispered in her ear.
"If you have any degree of intelligence, my dear, you'd be a tad more respectful. If this is any type of tight spot…" he breathed onto the nape of her neck, making her hair stand up again, "it's yours to get out of."
And just like that, the arrogant bastard was gone. Uncomfortably rubbing her arms where he'd crushed them to her sides, Sasha returned to work with a grimace on her face and the idea of revenge stewing in her heart. He'd pay for that.
And sure enough, after four more hours of lifting the dusty metal struts and plotting payback, Sasha wasn't tired at all, but raring to go back to school in a few hours. An evil grin spread across her face as she sped back to Forks.
Jasper had no idea what was in store for him.
--
A/N: Whee! Please review, my lovelies. I respond to all my reviews. Hope you enjoyed it. ;)