An hour later Jasper, Izzy and I were back in the air, Iz overly stuffed silly and a little withdrawn. She was sitting in the seat next to mine just staring out the window at the clouds as they passed by. She hadn't said anything since right before we left the royal city, and all she said then was for Aro to watch his back, that there was something in the shadows lying in wait. When she was asked what that meant, she shrugged, having no idea only that it was a potentially lethal idea for him to let his guard down.

No one had pressed her for anything more than that, Aro indulging her yet again and told her he would keep that in mind. While no one said anything OUT LOUD, Jasper and I glanced at each other and, after we both recalled her knowing that there was a lethal cocktail falling out of the sky paired with that, we both came to the conclusion that her sire had passed her gift of 'preservation' on to her.

Victoria, from what I have been able to understand, was gifted with an over the top self-preservation, where she can get out of things that no one else would have been able to; probably why the leader of the small coven kept her around. When she injected her venom into Izzy, it was passed to her and morphed into a more rounded gift, including others and not just her.

While Iz was staring into space, I was once again looking into the two properties that I was going back and forth over trying to decide on which one we were going to go to once we left Texas. Each one held plenty of reasons to go to, but I was leaning more towards Colorado since that was usually where I was this time of year, and it was in a better location for a growing vamp, but New Mexico had more overall outside land for her to run around so she wasn't inside doing that, and breaking shit.

When I figured out that I wasn't going to be able to make the choice, I nudged Iz and waited until I had her attention, and handed over the printouts I was looking at. She raised a brow at me but took them none the less. When she read what was there, she lifted her eyes from the paper, a curious smile on her lips, "What is this?"

Smiling back, "Those are two properties I own that I thought you might like a little more than the Canadian tundra. Pick one."

She blinked at me before looking back at the papers in her hands, "Just like that?"

I nodded, "Just like that."

She snorted a little before dropping her head back against the seat, looking at me with a bright smile and laughing eyes, "Seriously, what the fuck do you do? You spend a million dollars in six months, have three houses that would accommodate fifty people without them ever seeing each other, and still have money leftover to buy a plane. What the hell do you do?"

Now I smirked, "I actually own a lot more than three houses, Sugar. These were just the ones most suited to your needs. Once you get older and not so temperamental, you'll see them too."

"Seriously, what the fuck do you do? I mean, I know you've been around a little while, but come the fuck on? How do you really afford all this?"

I shrugged, "Like you said, I've been around awhile… and so has the stock market and Las Vegas. I know how to play the system and there is no vampire alive that will get caught counting cards; well, most won't. I went with this guy about ten years ago and that little fucker had to be the worst bluffer ever born. Either he was the biggest idiot known to creation, or he was doing that shit on purpose."

She just giggled a little before looking back at the papers in her hands, taking a little more time going over what they said. After a few minutes she handed me the one for the Colorado house. "I like this one better I think." Then she cocked her head to the side and pulled the picture on the New Mexico page a little closer to her face squinting at something. After a moment she pointed to it and looked at me, "Who's that?"

I didn't need to look at what she was talking about; I knew what it was and sighed a little as I took the page anyways, "Charlotte."

Izzy's head cocked a little more as she looked over my forearm at the picture again, "The girl you got all pissed off about before?"

I nodded, "Yup, that's her."

She lifted her eyes and looked at me through her lashes, "You never did tell me about her like you said you would." She didn't sound upset, just curious.

Sighing lightly again, I threw an arm around her shoulders and told her all about the little whore, starting from the beginning to when I torched her ass, along with an entire house full of her little playmates. She listened to the whole thing, only asking two questions over the five hours, and once I was done, she went silent again, her thoughts swirling in her eyes. She still wasn't upset or even irritated, just thoughtful for a few minutes.

After she ordered her thoughts, she glanced up at me, "Do you miss her?"

I snorted, "About as much as the ability to get STDs. Char was something of an acquired taste, demanding and damning, easy to piss off and quick to point out other's faults, while thinking she didn't have any."

She nodded and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, her brows drown, "If she hadn't done that and was still alive, would you still have helped me?"

I tightened my hold on her and lifted her chin with the side of a finger, "Without question, Sugar." Then I smirked a little and dipped my head and whispered into her ear, "Still would have bit the shit out of your neck too."

At that she just giggled. Adorable little demon. Then she snuggled into my side and set her head on my shoulder, "So, about these little assholes, the ones that hired the redhead, how are you going to find them?"

There was a snort behind us prompting her to roll her head on my shoulder and look up at Jasper as he leaned on the back of our seats with a brow cocked. Jasper glanced at me before looking at her, "we're not. They're heading into the territory of someone you don't fuck with unless you want to die."

Her lips pursed a little, "who's?"

At that he sighed a little, "my sire, Maria. She is a cold hearted little cunt that would sooner take your head, than look at you."

Izzy's eyes widened a little at that, "then why…"

He cut her off, "vampire courtesy. We know that by the time we get to her, the Cullens will be well within the borders of her territory. All we are going to do is inform her of a coven encroaching on her land and let her deal with it. There is nothing that we could do to them that she cannot top, and in much shorter order. Maria doesn't do sharing, be it land or humans. The Cullens don't eat humans to live, but I highly doubt that she is gonna care. If there really is close ties to one of them in her territory, she doesn't know about them or they're human.

"Either way, she won't care. If they are humans, they are hers by right of territory and if they are vampires, they are trespassing on her land. She has held the same very large section of southern Texas and northern Mexico for over three hundred years and is not about to let anyone else reap the benefits of her work to keep it."

Iz looked at him a long moment, thinking over what he said before nodding, "but, I was under the impression from the story Peter just told me, that it was dangerous for you two to go back."

I snickered and Jasper shrugged, the confident Major that I have always known coming out and settling in a self-assured mask, "The bitch is in fact no to one to fuck with, but neither am I or Peter. There was a reason she didn't try and stop me when I left. She knew she couldn't."

At the look that Izzy gave him, Jasper walked around and sat across from her, lacing his fingers together in front of him and leaned on his forearms on his knees, "It's about time you learned a little something about us. You know that vampires have extra abilities that humans don't right?" She nodded and he continued, "There are a few vampires that extra abilities above and beyond those. You recall when Aro said something about gifted vampires back in Italy?" Again she nodded, "Both Peter and I are among the gifted vampires he spoke about, you too from what it looks like. Peter can explain his gift to you another time when he figures out the best way to do so, because his is a little hard to understand. Mine on the other hand is pretty straight forward.

"I'm empathic, meaning that I have the added ability to manipulate the emotional climate to whatever the fuck I want, with no more than the will to do so. I can also feel the emotional climate of those around me. Take now for instance; you are confused, intrigued, a little scared and it is getting close to time to feed you again because you're getting thirsty."

Her eyes went a little wider and filled with innocent wonder as he listed off what she was feeling. After a moment, she shook her head, "wow. Are you ever affected by the things you feel?"

He nodded, "I can be if taken off guard, or the emotion is strong enough. That's what caused me to try and attack you a few years back. Since I can feel the thirst of those around me, when you cut your finger in a closed area with six other vampires, one of which you were the singer too, their thirst combined was enough to break through my defense. I felt that and acted accordingly. Had you cut yourself with only me present, it never would have happened."

She blinked at him, "What's a singer?"

He smiled at her, "That is something in our world that no one understands. All I can tell you is your blood sang to him, smelled better and more potent and more delicious than any other human on the planet."

She made a noise at that but didn't comment on it. There was really nothing to say to it so she moved on and looked at me, "What about you? What extra ability do you have?"

I hummed in my throat a little as I thought of the best way to explain it. Finally I tisked, "I guess you can call it 'intuition'. I hear voices in my head that tell me different things, ranging from little details about the best place to catch a meal, to more important things about my life. If it has nothing to do with me personally, I don't hear a word, but if there is anything that affects me in even the smallest of ways, the little fuckers start talking a mile a minute and I am left sorting it out. It's what led me to finding you, actually. It didn't tell me what I was going to find, only where to go and when to be there."

Both her brows were in her bangs by the end of that. It was far more involved than that but it was the easiest way to explain it. She then started looking back and forth between us, "and what do you think I got that others don't?"

"Preservation; that is the only way you could have known about Alice, and the little bombs she dropped on our heads, and that there was something up that Aro needed to know about. We think that you got it from your sire. She had an over the top self-preservation that allowed her to find her way out of tight spots that no one else could have. Yours evolved from that, to include others around you."

She growled a little at the mention of her sire, but over time she is gonna learn that she got a lot of her vampiric abilities from her. Just like humans, we got most of our DNA from our parent and no matter if you like 'em or hate 'em that was the way it was.

After we covered Izzy's little racial lesson, I fed her before pulling her into the onboard 'office'. The plane was originally built for CEOs and big wig corporate executives but I saw her and fell in love at first sight. It wasn't a huge plane but it fit what I was looking for at the time.

Once I closed the door, I pressed my mate up against it and pressed myself against her, pressing my lips to hers. I told her we were doing this before the sun hit the horizon and I damn well meant it, and if Jasper did anything to prevent me from completely claiming my mate, I was shoving his ass out over the Atlantic.

Taking both her wrists in one hand, I held them above her head and used my free one to unbutton her shirt before running my hand over her bare skin. God she was soft. Lowering my hand, I gripped her hip and pulled her harder against me, groaning lightly at the feel of the wetness I could already feel, the scent driving my desire right on up there. Lowering my hand just a little more, I grabbed her thigh and lifted it up over my hip, her responding beautifully and hopping up to wrap the other around me as well.

Pulling away from the door, my lips still on hers, I carried her over to the couch and laid her down, once again holding her hands above her head so her perfect set of tits pressed a little harder against my chest when her back arched. I debated quickly about the amount of foreplay we were about to partake in, but when she rolled her little hips, that decision was made for me; not a lot. Growling in approval to the action, I nipped at her lips and entered when she parted them, growling a little louder at once again tasting her perfect flavor on my tongue.

Pulling away only long enough to pull my shirt over my head, I looked at her as I tossed it off to the side, a smirk coming to my lips as she stared unabashed at my chest. A lusty little growl in my throat, I bent back down over her, "See something you like, Mate?" She licked her lips, the smallest of nods moving her head making me chuckle lightly. Dipping my head to hers, I nuzzled her nose lightly as I just tore her bra off, "touch me."

Her touch was soft and unsure at first, her fingers running over the planes of my pecks, down to my stomach, the tip of her tongue bitten between her teeth as she explored, her eyes following everywhere she touched. After a moment she became a little more confident, pressing the pads of her fingers a little harder as they glided over my skin. My upper torso was absolutely covered in scars and teeth marks, hundreds if not thousands of teeth impressions making what would have been smooth stone bumpy and ragged. I was a scary lookin' fucker to our kind because every mark was a token left behind by a vampire I destroyed. I have hundreds, more than any other vampire I have ever met, Jasper included.

My little Sugar however, didn't seem to give a fuck. With every ridge she touched, her eyes darkened a little more, the scent of her arousal growing in the room to the point that I couldn't even smell myself over her want. Once her fingers glided over every inch of my exposed skin, her eyes lifted to look in mine, orbs of darkness so black that the sky before dawn would be jealous.

A cocky ass smirk lifted my lips as I saw pure and perfect lust and desire swirling in the inky depths. Another growl sounded in my throat as I once again took her lips with mine, holding myself up with one hand as the other one slid down her side to her pants that were in my fucking way. Rising up to sit on my hunches, I had her bare to my eyes in no time, once again trying to decide which I wanted more, her essence on my tongue or on my cock. Taking into account that this was her first time doing this as a vampire, I figured that it would be better for her to have her tight sheath as lubricated as possible because the start of this was not going to be pleasant.

That and I was hard enough to feel actual pain in my loins.

Her eyes locked on my hands as I moved to undo my belt, eyes going that much darker once it was unbuckled and I unbuttoned my jeans. Removing them as well, I flashed a teeth filled smirk at her when her eyes widen to owlish size at seeing MY captain standing at full and complete attention. Her eyes moved to mine for a split second before moving back, one of her little hands reaching out and very lightly touching the tip of it.

Then she looked up at me, "That ain't gonna fit."

A throaty chuckle rumbled my chest as I leaned back over her, locking eyes, "Wanna bet?"

"It's bigger than I am."

Well, this girl certainly knows how to boost the male ego, don't she? Another growlish chuckle sounded from me as I dipped my head and nuzzled my mark on her neck before scraping my teeth across it making her gasp and buckle her hips a little, the tip of my cock in perfect position to slide just inside her opening. Glancing at her out of the corner of my eye, I pressed my lips against my mark before sliding my teeth into it, her hips bucking again, far harder this time and sheathing me deep enough to break her barrier and I took it from there, rolling my hips once until mine were touching hers. She choked on the scream from the pain that caused her, and I stayed still until she adjusted.

It took her a moment, but she eventually shifted her weight a little and the moan told me that she was good to go. The pace I set to start was slow and sensual, getting her used to the feel before I began to speed up a little at time, each stroke more forceful than the last.

Her head tilted back as far as it could with my teeth still in her neck, her mouth dropped open, little meows and gasps coming out when they didn't get stuck in her throat. Her legs shifted and rose higher on my hips, opening her more and allowing me deeper inside her body. Her arms going around my neck and fingers digging into my back, I found her hidden oasis of pleasure. She tried to keep up with my movements but whenever she got a feeling for them, I would change my speed or angle making her tremble and shake with her pleasure.

The knot in my gut began to tighten since it had been a while since the last time I got laid, but she was going first, and more than once if I had a say. Slipping one hand between us, I found the glorious clit and pressed a finger to it before pinching and rolling it once with a bit of roughness. That was all it took for her clamp down around me like a vice, squeezing so hard that I was nearly unable to move at all as she screamed my name. Dear Jesus, I hope she stays this tight for the rest of eternity. That would be fucking fantastic.

It, however, had its downside, because all I did after that was pump my hips one more time and the strength in which she was strangling my dick when I tried for one more pulled me with her into the abyss of paradise. With a snarl, I bit down on her neck harder, my venom entering my mark again as well as filling her southern chamber, burning the stone hymen away to nothing, and scaring the passage slightly so it didn't come back. This also cemented our mating bond. Females don't bite during sex so we were as connected as two vampires are able to be right now. Also, at this point, there was probably more of my venom in her than her own; my more potent venom burning hers away so she lost her scent nearly completely.

I didn't really have the time before to appreciate the taste of her venom, but now I did and dear fuck, it was like ambrosia. Since she was only a month old, her venom still tasted like her human blood because, to a point, she still had it; it was what made newborns so fucking strong. They still had blood in their veins and not just absorbed into their muscles after eating. It takes a year to thirteen months for our venom to completely destroy our humanity, and by then, she would have so much of my venom in her, you wouldn't know I wasn't her sire if you didn't know otherwise.

As it is, you could barely tell now, and that was exactly what I wanted by the time we reached our destination. I wanted there to be absolutely NO mistaking who the fuck this girl belonged to around however many males Maria had in camp.

After pumping a suitable amount of venom into her neck, my dick quit pulsing and her walls loosened their grip on me, I pulled out of her and removed my teeth from her neck, licking at my mark to sooth it again before nuzzling and licking it for the hell of it. After my mating mark was showered with enough attention, I pulled back and looked at my mate's face, taking in her closed eyes and trembling lips as she gasped for air she didn't need.

Once she opened her eyes and looked back at me, I smirked at her, "Told ya it would fit."

She snorted hard before she started laughing; the ecstasy riddled sound bouncing off the walls making me smile down at her. She really was fucking adorable.