**I don't own Jasper, Maria, Nettie, or Lucy**
"Revenge?" I looked into Maria's large red eyes, now narrowed in anger. "Revenge for what?"
"For destroying everything!" she spat. "For taking my lands from me!" I could feel myself growing angry as her voice became louder. My lip curled back over my teeth and a low growl emanated from my chest. Maria noticed this and immediately calmed herself. The fury left me quickly and I sat back on the bed gently.
"From us," Nettie corrected smoothly.
Maria rolled her eyes at the girl all the while keeping a smile on her face. "Sorry, from us. We created you to help us."
I nodded, understanding the need for land. "Why me?"
"Because of your military background," Lucy replied, speaking to me as if I was a child.
"What Lucy means," Maria began to pace around the room, "is that we need soldiers. Soldiers to help us get my lands back."
I was silent for a moment, taking this all in. My whole life had been permanently changed by this woman. I still wasn't sure if it was for the better or the worse, but I did like the idea of still being in some sort of an army. I was comfortable with the army. I understood it. It made sense to me. And my upbringing did dictate that I help a woman in trouble, no matter which woman. No matter what they did to me, what they turned me into, I would always be a gentleman. That could never be taken from me.
"You see," Maria purred, "our lands were taken by us unfairly, and now we're fighting to get them back."
"And you need my help to fight," I added. At her nod, I frowned. "Why me?"
"Because of your military background," Lucy explained again, impatient this time.
I sighed back in exasperation, but again I wasn't sure why, as I wasn't feeling particularly edgy. "Yes, but there are hundreds of other soldiers. Why me?"
"I think you will be an excellent asset to our coven." Maria sat back down on the edge of the bed next to me and picked up my hand. An unidentified sensation washed over me. Lust? I thought. No, more like...jealousy?
"Coven?" I asked, shaking my head and pushing the weird feelings out of my body. "How many more are there?"
Maria smiled and stood up. "Come, we'll take you to the rest of our 'family' and you can see for yourself."
Obediently I stood, watching in disbelief as the three women jumped out of the window, Nettie and Lucy carrying the dead bodies of the two drunk men we had killed. I peeked my head out and widened my eyes at the distance they had fallen to the ground. Nettie and Lucy ran ahead, but Maria stood underneath the window looking up at me. "Let's go!" she insisted.
"I can't jump down there," I protested. "Why can't I just go through the saloon?"
I saw her toothy grin in the darkness. "We can't exactly have you walking through a roomful of humans in your current condition, now can we?" A strange fluid filled my mouth at the memory of the luscious liquid that flowed through human veins. "Trust me," Maria reassured me.
A feeling of relaxation spread through me and I suddenly trusted her completely. I stood on the window sill and pushed off, landing gracefully on the ground fifteen feet below. Shaken, I looked back up at the window from which I had just dropped.
"Come on," Maria coaxed, taking my hand. I allowed her to lead me away from the saloon, too busy noticing the speed at which we traveled to care where we were going. This new life was certainly fascinating!
Several minutes later, we stopped outside of an old abandoned barn in an empty field. I could hear growling and snarling inside the building and so was hesitant to step through the large doorway when I couldn't see the enemy. That was just smart military training. I didn't see Nettie or Lucy anywhere, so I looked questioningly at Maria. "Go ahead inside," she encouraged, gesturing to the door.
Taking a deep breath-once again marveling at the strange sensation of breathing without lungs-I stepped through the entryway. A feeling of rage and hatred enveloped me immediately and I reflexively crouched, ready to face these new opponents. There were eight of them-all male-in the barn before me. I turned around to look at Maria, but she was nowhere to be found. Confused now, I approached the rabble of vampires. They weren't attacking each other, but from the feelings in the room, it was only a matter of time.
"Who are you?" I heard an insolent voice ask from behind me. I whirled around, a rumble erupting from my chest. The young vampire I faced was shorter than me, maybe 5'8", but he was bulky. His chalky complexion stood out against his dark hair and he glared at me from beneath a wide brimmed cowboy hat. He didn't appear to be a threat however, so I calmed myself.
"My name is Jasper Whit—Jasper," I answered, remembering that I no longer had a last name. "Who are you?"
"I'm William," he answered, pushing himself away from the wall. As he approached me, I could feel anger pouring into me again, but not from him. I turned to face the others and was immediately struck by a heavy object in the chest. I flew through the barn doors, ending up on my back outside in the grass. Snarling, I bounded to my feet, ready to face this new enemy. One of the other newborns flew towards me, hands outstretched, teeth bared. I jumped out of the way just in time to see the redheaded vampire sail past me and land about twenty feet away. Grisly roars spewed from my lips as I crouched down, ready to spring. We faced each other, neither of us moving. I was still conscious of the human side of my mind, confused and unsure as to why I was being attacked. But the monster inside of me was growing stronger and louder by the second and my vampire instincts were beginning to take over.
The redhead charged me and I waited for a split second before jumping out of the way again. My enemy emitted a frustrated screech as he charged me again and again, and again I kept leaping out of the way. It occurred to me as this dance continued that I wasn't getting tired or breathing heavily as I had when I had fought battles for the Confederacy. I had no sweat on my face, and I was still as energetic as I was before we started.
The hatred for this vampire oozed out of my every pore and I didn't understand why, but I had to kill him. I didn't just want to. I had to! As soon as I came to this realization, the redhead lunged at me yet again and my strong hands whipped out quickly to grab hold of his arm. I dug my fingernails into his skin and whirled around. With a loud screech, the arm ripped free of his torso. I stood in the darkness, his arm still clutched in my grasp. I dropped the limb, horrified at what I had done. The loathing filled me again and I completely forgot about the arm. I spun on my heel, the spurs of my boots tearing through the ground and confronted my adversary.
"I'll kill you!" the redhead shrieked, his left arm seizing the back of my neck. I hissed and backed away, but I wasn't fast enough and his teeth latched onto my throat. Gasping, I wrapped my arms around his head and twisted at the waist, ripping his head from his body. For a moment I paused, my newborn brain unable to wrap itself around what had just occurred. I looked at the thing I had in my hands and growled as I stared into a face. I threw the head away from me and backed up, ready to take on anyone else who approached. As soon as I was free of the redhead's influence, however, the hatred quickly vanished and instead I felt despair. Despair at what I had done, at what I had become, and at what my future held.
I fell to my knees, staring at the lump of a corpse in front of me. "What has happened here?" I was dimly aware of Maria's beautiful voice penetrate the inner fog that surrounded me. I didn't look up when I saw her feet in my line of vision. "Major?" she asked, hesitant to get too close.
I lifted my head to look at her, my eyes hollow. "What have you done to me?" I whispered.
Maria started to smile, but as she looked into my eyes, her grin faltered. She backed away from me, a slight frown on her face. Before I could ask, she turned and ran back to the barn where the others still stood, watching me.
As I knelt in the field, aware of all eyes watching me cautiously, my throat began to itch severely. Absentmindedly, I scratched the marble skin and was surprised to feel a perfect set of bite marks etched deeply into my skin. My despair gave way to curiosity as I poked around the bite mark, aware of the stinging sensation as I scratched at it.
"What do you think of him?" I heard Nettie ask Maria.
"He's a magnificent fighter," she responded. "Did you see how fast he dismantled that other newborn? But I was right, there is something else about him that is very intriguing. I will have to separate him and figure out what it is. This one is interesting." I looked up at her words and realized that I could hear every conversation that was occurring more than fifty yards away! I smiled at that, and pulled myself to my feet, the dead vampire forgotten from my terrible newborn attention span. Or at least, I thought he was dead. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his arm twitching and the hand opened and closed as it clawed it's way through the tall grass.
"If you leave it alone long enough, it might figure out how to put itself back together," a voice came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Lucy walking towards me.
"How do we die?" I asked simply.
"You had it half right," she responded.
"What's the second half?"
In answer, she held up a match and threw it on the pile of limbs. I jumped back as his clothes immediately caught fire. A strong sweet smell overtook us as the smoke billowed into the cool night air. I looked away from the carnage and Lucy caught my eye. Smiling, she held out her hand and taking it, I felt calmness again. She pulled me towards the rest of the group, all of them still standing quietly watching me.
Maria waited until I was once again amongst the group-one less now that the redhead was dead-and turned to face us all. "Now," she spoke, "I would like to explain what is going on here."
All eight of us stood quietly as Maria spoke of the current situation. She explained about a vampire named Benito who had created armies of vampires and had control of nearly half of Mexico and parts of Texas. But because they were causing too many human casualties in one region, an Italian group of vampires named the Volturi stepped in to destroy him and nearly every other vampire in the southern regions. She explained in a very irritated tone that her lands had also been taken during that time and her coven had been destroyed. There was an undercurrent of annoyance that ran through our group as her voice grew angry.
"So you see," she finished, gesturing towards Lucy and Nettie, "we have created you to help us."
"What do we get out of this?" a black haired vampire asked.
"The rewards will be great, never fear," Lucy piped up. "We will teach you how to fight and you will be disciplined and organized! No more fighting amongst yourselves." With this last statement, she made eye contact with me. I bristled as she pointed me out. I wanted to defend myself, saying that I didn't start that fight, but the last vestiges of the gentleman that I was wouldn't allow me to argue with her.
"First, we will be teaching you how to fight," Maria explained. She motioned to me. "Major, since you already seem to be a natural, could you help me if you please?" I obediently separated myself from the small group and stood about ten feet in front of her. Maria faced me, her eyes narrowed as she studied me. I watched her, unsure of what to do next. "Attack me," she ordered.
"Excuse me?" I asked politely, unsure of what I had heard. She wore a long blue silk dress with white kid gloves and tall black riding boots. Her long black hair was swept up and pinned on the back of her head and covered with a black lace mantilla. Surely she wouldn't fight in that getup?
"Come at me," she commanded again.
I shook my head at her. "Sorry, ma'am, I can't do that."
"Stop being a gentlemen," Maria demanded. At my continued refusal, she decided to try another approach. Before I could blink, she dove at me, her hand reaching out to slice through my gray coat. I looked down as the front of it was suddenly in tatters. I spun around just in time for her to hit me in the face with her elbow and I went down on my back. As I landed on the ground, the beast inside me awakened unexpectedly. With a vicious snarl, I threw myself to my feet just in time to catch Maria's throat in my hand. I caught her look of surprise as I lowered my teeth to her neck. But before I could hit flesh, I was thrown off of her by three of the other newborns.
The monster inside of me immediately switched my attention to these new adversaries. They were tall, all three of them at least my size, but as we began brawling, I realized that I was much faster and a far experienced fighter. As the first one-a burly Mexican-charged me, I ducked under his arms and lashed out with my foot, catching him across the back. I heard a loud snap as his spine broke under my boot and he shrieked loudly, falling to the ground in agony. Another one, the black-haired one from earlier, tried to take advantage of my inattention and grabbed for my head. I pushed off the ground with my powerful legs and jumped over him, landing lightly on his other side. Wrapping my arms around his chest, I squeezed with all of my newborn strength. He struggled for a moment, but began to weaken as I crushed every rib in his body.
I dropped him and turned to face the third vampire. To my monster's amusement, he had backed away in self-preservation, hands held up in surrender. I stopped my attack, growling deep in my chest. "Major, I think that's enough for now." My head snapped to the right to see Maria standing with her arms folded across her chest. Closing my eyes, I fought against the rage, taming it for now. The smell of burning flesh caused me to open them in order to see the two newborns disintegrate in the fire. I had won again.
Nettie approached me cautiously and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Okay, are we ready to learn now?" Instinctually, I snapped to attention and became the perfect soldier once again. After shedding my destroyed jacket, I focused my attention on Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. They stood in front of us, our numbers now at six. There was William, a brown-haired man named Nathan, a black man named Charles, another blond named Stewart, a teenage boy named Jack, and me. The women paired up with us and continued to take us through common battle tactics until the sun came up. As the fiery globe peeked over the horizon, a new jolt of excitement hit us all as we saw the strange reaction our skin had to the light. I was staring at my arm, fascinated with the diamonds on my skin, when the wind shifted and flames ripped through my throat again. Suddenly, we all smelled and heard a family walking along on their way to Sunday church in Houston.
Acting purely on instinct, the six of us advanced on the family, ignoring their screams as we fought each other in an attempt to be the first to reach them. Since I was the strongest and fastest, I beat the others and reached the humans first. I went after the father, since some small part of my human brain was still telling me to stay away from the woman and four children. Not that it particularly mattered, since the minute I sank my teeth into his flesh, the other newborns were tearing apart the rest of the family anyway. Somewhere far away, my mind heard their cries and pleading as we decimated them all in a matter of seconds.
When I finished feeding, I released my prey and jumped away from the others, breathing the smells around me. Reaching up to wipe my mouth, I was proud as I realized that I hadn't spilled a single drop this time.
All too soon, we were looking at the six bodies in a pile in front of us, unsure of what to do with them next. Maria answered the question for us and quickly disposed of them in the same manner as the other vampires from the night before. "That," she spoke, turning away from the massacre, "is your reward for your good practice last night. Just remember that for the future."
Good fighting equaled more blood. As I grasped the meaning of her words, I stared at this woman who was quickly meaning more to me than life itself. I looked up at the blue sky and realized that maybe this life wasn't going to be so bad after all. Little did I realize, the monster within was winning...
***Please remember to leave a review! :) Stay tuned for Chapter Four: First Battle ***