Alice watched Jasper staring out into the night air from the roof of their Texas house. She wondered what he was thinking about. She knew he seemed deeply, mentally and physically scarred from what he had experienced in the war, and she wanted to make it all go away, not easy for a vampire, but she wanted to try, at least for one night.

She daintily flittered down and sat beside him on the roof tiles and took his hand. He broke concentration and looked down at her and smiled a little.

"I want to know what you saw, I know you don't trust many, but please, I want to know what made you so guarded"

He looked away and was silent a moment, then spoke, still holding onto her hand.

"I've seen a lot of things, horrible things I wish I could take back, but those images will always stay in my mind, even many decades don't erase those kinds of images"

"Like when you were turned? I don't remember much from when I was human, probably all the meds they kept me on" she turned away from him, Jasper felt her flinch as she spoke about it, he knew, she too, had scars that would never heal, and she couldn't laugh it off.

He quickly turned towards her with concerned and worried eyes, he looked over her face to make sure she was ok, he stroked her hair.

"What happened to you?" he asked, his hands on either side of her pale and delicate face, she was delicate even for a vampire.

Alice looked up into his almost-almond-coloured eyes and spoke; she had only recently introduced him to her diet of animal blood.

"I was institutionalised for witnessing the murder of my family. I tried tracking him down for years, the killer. Until one night he found me in the hospital, he was a vampire and he was my sire, he turned me, he could've killed me but he chose not to. I was 22 years old"

"Have you been able to track him down again? Have you been looking? If not I think I can help"

"No Jaz its ok, you don't have to" she said, patting his hands, reassuring him that he didn't need to worry about it.

"No Alice, please let me help, I want to help you, I love you" stunned, she looked back up at him again, he stared back at her with warm, kind eyes then leaned forward and buried her face in his chiselled marble chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I love you too Jaz"

He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Let us go see this guy, I've delt with him for years, he can help us track this guy down. It's going to be ok Alice, trust me"

"I trust you." She sat up, hands still on his waist, "And I want to introduce you to someone too. You see, back in the hospital, there was this doctor, he was also a vampire, but a good one, he would do no harm or evil, he believed in life not death, he only turned others into vampires if they were close to death. I was living with his coven for a while before I met you, we should go see them"

"Um no offence Alice but I don't like living in large covens of our kind"

"Please Jasper, you can't be alone down here. Please come back with me to Washington, I promise you'll like it, Washington is very vampire friendly" she gave him her pleading puppy dog look she knew he couldn't resist. He chuckled and pulled her into him.

"Let's go to Washington"