Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story line, SM owns the characters I'm just having fun with them.
Jasper POV (finally, I know)
As Peter and I ran north toward what I hoped was another state with more cities we could get lost in, I couldn't stop thinking about what the little mind-reader had told us. I had been a vampire for a long time and while I had a lot to feel guilty about, my feeding habits had never been an issue. I was a little more particular than others about choosing my victims- I never drank from children, not out of any sense of nobility, more out of the fact that they just weren't that filling. And you had to be careful to drain them completely because if you screwed up and let one change you'd be in a heap of trouble with the Volturi. I also didn't drink from pregnant women, because I grew up on a farm and I knew the importance of breeding. We would never slaughter a cow that was still carrying a calf- that's just wasteful. So I carried the same beliefs over to my new diet when I was changed.
Peter was a little choosier than I was, he wouldn't drink from a woman at all, he said they all reminded him of his late wife, Charlotte, who had died giving birth to his first child. That had led to his depression and drinking which is how I ran across him passed out behind a bar in a dirty little border town in south Texas. His soul-wrenching misery had drawn me in originally but when I looked in his eyes I felt the mating pull and changed him on the spot. I was pleased he ended up such a good soldier and asset to the army because I would have had to fight Maria for him much sooner if he hadn't shown any promise. As it was it took her years to discover he was my mate; it was much easier for both of us when she just thought he was my Captain, my best officer, and favorite lover. It was only her sharp eyes on me during a particularly intense battle that led her to discover our connection.
I had seen Peter go down with ten newborns piled on top of him and I abandoned my own post and went to dig him out. He was hurt pretty severely and after guarding his body for the rest of the battle I took him away to tend his wounds. She immediately tried to order him killed, we normally didn't waste time on the critically injured, but after I snarled and snapped at her enough she realized he meant more to me than she had thought. That was about five years ago and when she started plotting his destruction. If she knew anything about mates she would have known she was planning her own destruction and not Peter's, but she never did waste a lot of time on intelligence, that's what she had her officers for after all.
Speaking of connections, that was the other reason I couldn't get those yellow-eyes out of my mind. When I was about to tear that girl apart, the boy was oozing such fear and grief for her that I would have thought they were mates as well. But they both only held familial love for each other, something I had only seen in humans, never vampire covens. He called her his sister and based on his emotions that was truly how he viewed her. I was reminded of the three little curly-haired girls at home with my mama when I rode off to join the army. They were 6, 8, and 10 at the time and I loved them so much it physically hurt to turn my back on them when I left. I can still see their tear-stained faces in my mind but their names are lost to me forever. I couldn't imagine holding another vampire to that same level of affection and esteem that I placed on my biological sisters.
So what made this coven so different? How did six vampires, at least two of them gifted, escape the notice of the Volturi? How did they develop such deep feelings of love for someone other than their mate? And why did my heart clench each time that boy referred to his father? I didn't remember my father much. He died while my mama was carrying my youngest sister. I was helping him with the horses and he wouldn't let me break the newest mustang we had brought in. He was afraid I would get hurt and instead he fell and broke his neck, leaving me the man of the house at just ten years old. I'd never had a strong male role model after that. Mama never remarried while I was home, and after I joined the army they promoted me quickly so I had to step up and be in charge instead of following orders like everyone else. Maria took me under her wing when she changed me but she had a very strict tough love approach, and I killed the other vampires with me until she moved me up in rank as well.
I didn't realize I had slowed down until I came to a stop and felt Peter's curiosity drift over to me. He was patiently waiting for me to finish thinking, he always knew when I was, and he would never push me to share before I was ready. As I looked at him I thought about what he had told me of his own father. He had been an alcoholic who beat his mother and Peter until Pete was big enough to fight him back. When he was twelve Pete took a knife to him and killed him in his sleep after the bastard had beat his ma unconscious and killed Pete's little baby brother. The kid was only 2 and was crying because there was no food in the house. To say Peter had no use for a father would be an understatement. He told me he had bowed to no man until he met me, but he had no trouble submitting to me in every way. I guess it's a mate thing, but we seemed to be just what the other one needed. I wonder what he would think if he knew what I was considering.
"Peter- I don't know what to say right now..." I drifted off trying to compose my thoughts.
"You want to know how that boy has a father and whether you could submit to another's authority over you." Wow, that man really does know me better than I know myself.
"I, well... yeah. I just... I don't..." Still can't get my mouth to connect with my brain right now.
"Look Jasper, I know all about you. I know you've never had anyone to look up to. I saw how that boy idolizes his father and I know it had to get your curiosity peaked. I just don't know what you want to do about it. It's not like we can knock on their door and ask if they take in stray war veterans as orphan wards. To be honest with you, with their weird yellow eyes and animal blood diet they sound more like a strange religious cult than a vampire coven. But even if they are normal people, nobody is ever gonna be able to look past our scars and our history and take us in like their own. You know that, deep inside, you know that."
I did know that. I knew my reputation would precede me and my body spoke for itself. You don't get this many bites and survive unless you're the most dangerous creature out there. I thought back to the one person besides Peter who actually saw me for myself and gave me hope there might be more to life than blood and war. Garrett had crossed my path when Pete and I were on our way back to camp one day. He had escaped from a neighboring warlord and made the mistake of falling into the viper pit that was Maria's territory. Despite all that, despite the recognition in his eyes when he caught sight of me, he never once feared me, never once tried to run from me. He stood still and submissive and just started talking to me. He told me about life in the north, about his history starting in the Revolutionary war, he complimented me on my record, both in the War between the States, and the Southern Wars. Instead of seeing me as a rival vampire, he treated me as an esteemed colleague.
I had felt Peter's respect and curiosity as he talked and that, along with my own, was what spared his life when Maria told me to kill him. I walked him to the border, gave him a new set of clothes, and burned his old ones along with a lock of his hair to give me enough smell of smoke to make her think I'd done my job. I didn't tell Pete because I didn't want him to think me weak, I should have known he would appreciate the gesture for what it was though.
There was this small sliver of hope that Garrett had begun, our escape from the South had nurtured, and our brief run-in with the yellow-eyed vampires had caused to sprout. I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of a family, even public school like they had talked about. I looked young enough to pull it off and I had never been to school past the 6th grade so many years ago. I had this big vampire brain, what would it hurt to fill it up with some knowledge of something outside of war? I turned to my mate again and looked into his eyes but before I opened my mouth he spoke.
"We're goin' back to Springfield aren't we?"