summary: Peter and Victoria and their plan to take over the world starts in New York.
baby's breath
| to reach our unpredictable pass |
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Peter and Victoria should not be allowed near children.
It's a fact, just like the sun that will rise every morning or that she needs the blood in her mouth to live. Both of them are two of one kind, so much in sync that she wonders sometimes if they weren't tied to the hip in a previous life.
Charlotte never bats an eyelash at them. She's so used to it by now and sometimes, when she thinks no one is looking, the blonde will have an amused smile on her lips as she watches the two of them plot world domination. Bella hadn't known Peter before all of this, but she thinks that Charlotte enjoys his new-found eagerness.
"What are you two whispering about?" Even with superior hearing, the two still manage to speak in hushed tones so no one can understand. They've even developed a secret language, the kind that makes no sense whatsoever. Jasper looks at them warily like he always those when they want to hide something.
Everyone is sitting in the living room, Jason seated carefully away on the couch between her and Jasper. Charlotte is trying to cook – again. And both Victoria and Peter seem deep in conversation.
"Oh, just our next plan for world domination." At that, Bella rolls her pretty red eyes. In the beginning, she used to think it was all a joke. But Peter's a homicidal joker and Victoria oozes revenge out of her pores.
"Can I be a part of it?" The ten-year old's eyes light up like Christmas lights. No one would think he's his age. He already looks like a pre-teen, his brown hair styled short on his hair. He has her nose, but everything else is Jasper – the cheekbones and the jaw and the way his lips turn when he's curious.
"Of course you can." Bella narrows her eyes at Victoria, the redhead sending her the most innocent smile she can come up with – it doesn't work. The brunette is far from an overbearing mother, and while she trusts Victoria with her life, she doesn't trust whatever plan the vixen is concocting behind closed doors.
"Don't give him ideas." She warns the vixen with a hard stare. But Bella might be a vampire, Victoria is a loose cannon with much more experience than her.
"Oh please. Admit it, we've all been bored." At that, all the eyes turn towards Peter. It's easy to see why he and Jasper can pass as brothers. They both have the same shade of hair and the sun-kissed skin. "It's been a nice ten years and all, but it's the perfect time to strike, I know it." And the worse is, he would know.
Charlotte peaks into the living room, a raised eyebrow at her husband.
"Yes, Peter's right." Said Peter sends an appreciative look towards the redhead. "I mean, we have Jasper, empath extraordinaire, Peter the know-it-all." He grins. "Bella who can basically shield us from anything coming our way, Charlotte who can manipulate anyone to clean their rooms." From the doorway, Charlotte sends her the finger. "And me, the best fighter anyone has ever seen." Bella rolls her eyes, but still not denying it.
"What about me?" Peter grins, staring at the boy on the couch with a feral grin.
"You're our secret weapon." At the moment, Bella notices that her son's eyes shine with something else than innocent happiness. Even is his early years, Bella had noticed the cool amusement in his eyes, calculative and precise. She sighs, no air coming out from her lungs.
And this is precisely why Peter and Victoria should not be allowed near children, especially one half-immortal.
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There's smoke coming out from his mouth. After years in Texas, the sight of the pale sheet of snow covering New York is a welcoming change. Jason tightens the coat over his shoulders, mostly for show, not feeling the cold.
Students around him shiver in the wind and he catches pieces of conversation coming from everywhere. They talk about classes and exams, about their holiday plans and the next semester. For someone who's been homeschooled his entire life, the bustling campus is slightly overwhelming.
Not that anyone would know he's sorely out of place. He even has a backpack thrown carelessly on his shoulder. Smells waft in his nostrils, the many food carts surrounding him making him hungry. Unlike the rest of his family, he can eat actual food. And while his diet still contains blood, he makes a note to try one of those falafels from the cart around the corner.
He's just turned thirteen, and while he looks almost nineteen, everything about this is new. His mother likes to comment that he looks more and more like his father. Not that he minds, the man is rather handsome. And except for the hair color and the nose, anyone can see the resemblance.
He loves his parents very much. He knows his mother gave up her life to have him, becoming a starved creature just so she could watch him grow up. And his father always tells him that he's the best thing that could have happened to him.
But his favourite are still Aunt Victoria and Uncle Peter. Those two make every moment exciting and there's never a dull moment when he's with them. Separate them, they are still awesome. But together, they are a force to be reckoned with, always a new plan or a way to turn boring everyday life into something amazing.
Which is why he finds himself in New York in the first place, standing in from of Columbia University. Victoria has carefully masked her scent, but he knows she's watching. She's awfully protective of him and his mother and he knows for a fact that if it weren't for her, he wouldn't have been born into his odd little family.
He's sure that most people would think his world is disturbed, that having the kind of family he has would turn the most save person completely mad. Aunt Char says that this is the most fun she's had in years, while pushing chocolate cake down his throat and Jason munches happily on the food, agreeing with her completely.
His attention snaps back into reality, the scent hitting painfully and so out of place. He doesn't know much about the Cullens, only having heard bits and pieces of conversations. Jason's come to understand that they are not the nice kind of people. And while the feed on animal blood (he makes a face, that sounds disgusting), they'd abandon his mother and killed Aunt Victoria's former mate.
Edward Cullen, as he catches sight of the copper haired vampire making his way through the crowd, is for all intents and purposes very handsome. He'd scoffed when Uncle Peter had told him that the man was every bit as handsome as he was a control freak, but seeing him up close – well, Jason can certainly understand.
He's out of place in the midst of humans, almost ephemeral. His hair is no shade he's ever come across and his eyes are a pale gold, still very noticeable in the middle of the night. He walks with ease, his clothes obviously very expensive and even as he walks, people turn to stare at him.
He can read minds. Victoria had warned him thoroughly, which gave him an advantage beyond any. His father had told him lightly that he used to think about knitting to keep him out of his mind and when he'd asked his mother what she did to prevent him from entering her mind, she'd shrugged her shoulders and told him that he hadn't been able to.
There's so many around separating the two of them that Jason knows he has to think of something that will make the man pause and look for him. There's only a single word in his mind that echoes – vampire.
It works surprisingly well, the man stopping dead in his track and eyes narrowing as he looks around the campus of mingling students to find who thought this so loud. Jason keeps the triumphant grin away from his face. He has half a mind to look slightly scared as the man's golden eyes roam around.
And finally, after a minute of searching, cool and distrustful eyes land on him. So, the man isn't as stupid as he looks, but it's not like Jason's made it hard for him. He's standing in plain sight, has been for at least fifteen minutes. Jason blinks his eyes, innocence pouring out of him as he tries to be genuinely fearful.
His father comments one time that he guards his emotions very well, but sometimes the tiniest bit of mischief and playfulness with rolls off, shattering his whole innocent act. And then his father will tell him that he spends way too much time with Peter and the thirteen-year-old will roll his eyes.
'How does a vampire end up enrolled in University?' He asks in his thoughts, fully aware of the other vampire dissecting him carefully not too far away. If the man's eyes narrow more, they'll turn to slits. 'Crap, he's looking at me'. And with that, Jason cocks his head, fully intent on walking away. He must play this part well – he's rehearsed.
He's about to make his escape when he feels the wind blow past him. He must have really pissed him off if he's using his power in front of everyone. As Jason knows, blending in is very important to the Cullens.
He looks up with a twinge of fear at the man who is now standing close to him. He's even better looking up close, perfect porcelain skin without any blemishes. He tries to be intimidating, but Jason's slightly taller and also has grown up with an Aunt like Victoria. It takes a lot more than that to scare him.
"Don't kill me." His voice is raw, the words stumbling out. It's not like the man could, especially not with Victoria and Peter on his side. But he has a feeling that if he's harmed, it won't be those two who'll take him out. His mother is a whole another brand of scary, cool and calm until she rips out your head with no warning.
He understands that she wasn't always like this, that the change had transformed her clumsy and soft nature into the woman he's come to know as his mother. You could never quite know what the woman was thinking and, until she held your still beating heart in her hand, her features stayed passive in the most disturbing way.
"I won't." His voice drips with honey and venom, his eyes studying him. "I don't kill humans. That's why I don't have red eyes." Jason nods feverishly, not dropping the act once. Aunt Vic would be proud and she probably is from her unknown location not too far.
"I didn't think you'd notice. I'm not going to say anything, I swear." It's almost too easy and the man's eyes soften, looking at him like he's really just a poor simpleton who happened to guess. "I just didn't expect a vampire on campus." He whispers the word even if no one is paying attention to them.
On the surface, if anyone bothered to look, they are just two students having a small conversation.
"It's been a long time since anyone's figured it out." There's a sort of nostalgia on his face, his features not so hard anymore – Jason thinks that his mother had been the only one dumb enough to look into it. "I read your mind." He adds as an afterthought, which would explain to anyone else how he'd known in the first place.
"You're a mind reader?" Surprise can be read on his face, blood rushing in his face. Jason plays the part so well he's starting to forget that it's an act. "That's amazing! It's like you have a superpower." It's genuine, the excitement in his face. The man let's out a surprised laugh.
"I never thought about it that way." He shrugs his shoulders, the move still with much more grace that anyone could manage. Jason can certainly see the appeal he has. "You remind me of her a bit, the girl who figured it out years ago." It's the like man sees him for the first time. "You even have her hair." Well, yes that's perfectly understandable since he's her son.
"Well, I should probably go. Don't worry, I won't tell…" But the man cuts him off with a smile.
"Are you busy? We could go for some coffee. It's been so long since I've interacted with someone else than my family." If Jason did not know any better, he would blush at the attention. When the man smiles at you, it's almost like the world disappears and you can't concentrate on anything else.
"Um, I guess that'd be fine. I'll just text my aunt that I'll be home a little later than usual." And then his eyes light up. "Oh, can we stop at the cart by the entrance. I'm starving and I really want some falafel." The man nods, eyes clearly amused at his behaviour. Jason has a mental high five with himself – checking off falafel off his list of things to try.
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"I'm sorry, what?" Bella stares at Peter, her brain not quite wrapping around the words he's just said. "Jason and Victoria are where?" From the couch, Jasper's stopped reading, the book opened in his lap as his eyes trail between the two.
"In New York. They're hunting down the Cullens." He repeats what he's said with no care in the world, feet propped in his chair and looking like a child. "Well, the mind reader anyways." He adds as an afterthought.
"You call her right now and tell her to abort the plan." When the blonde doesn't move, Bella blows a piece of hair from her face, the action not doing anything because she doesn't breathe. "Of all the stupid things to do, getting him mixed up with Cullens – I said move mister."
"Bella, you're overreacting." Red eyes narrow at Jasper, who shrugs his shoulders when she glares at him. He doesn't look all that bothered with the news and if it would hurt him, she'd punch him. And then it dawns on her.
"You knew! Everyone knew but me." Charlotte isn't that far away, not paying attention one bit. It's clear that the blonde woman knows too. Finally, the other woman rolls her eyes at Bella's disbelief.
"Well, it's not a surprise. I mean, Victoria always said that she'd hunt down the mind reader one day. And clearly, Jason can help her. They won't be suspicious of him since he's only part vampire and no one in that family knows him."
"And besides." Bella's eyes turn back to Peter. "If we want to take over the underworld, we can't have the Cullens and their coven playing against us. It makes perfect sense to take them out." She feels a hand on her, turns to give her most menacing look to Jasper who is clearly not intimidated by her.
"Bella, you know Victoria would never put Jason in harm's way." It's three against one and if she still had an ounce of blood in her, it would freeze in her veins. "Besides, your son is much more capable than he looks and I'm sure he knows fully well that if the Cullens touch a single hair on his head, his parents would vaporize them." She pouts, crossing her arms around her body.
"I still don't like this one bit." But her resolve is slowly being crushed. She knows fully well that Jason is in no danger with the vixen near and that Victoria would die before she let the Cullens touch him. Besides, the redhead had pushed down her vengeance for years because Bella had needed her.
"Rest up, buttercup. You're going to need it when we take on the Volturi." Peter says this without a care in the world, earning three stunned pair of eyes his way. At this, he rolls his eyes. "What? You didn't think we'd stop at the Cullens, right? World domination people, get on board."
If Bella was still human, she'd be getting a migraine right now.
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True to his word, Edward takes him out for coffee.
Jason never liked the taste of it and instead finds himself ordering the biggest hot chocolate they have on the menu, with extra whipped cream and a piece of pumpkin pie, topped with a dollop of fresh cream.
"I like sweets." He explains as he reaches for his wallet. But Edward, being the charming asshole that he is, hands money to the cashier with an amused glance his way. The girl at the counter actually blushes at both of them, obviously finding them both attractive. Jason's only thirteen and has a family of homicidal vampires, he's not quite interested in girls just yet.
They find a table near the back, which is probably good since people would send them looks if they heard them talking about vampires and Jason's obsession for anything sweet. Throw around the word blood enough times and people think you're crazy.
"You're very odd." Edward's ordered the same thing as him, not that he's going to eat it. And Jason's already thinking about how he'll get to eat his share. He almost feels bad for plotting the man's demise – almost.
"Says the vampire in a coffee shop." It's extremely easy to be here. He wonders if his mother has already figured out what he and his aunt are up to. She must be having a field day with the information. Edward sends another amused glance his way, eying him as he stabs his plastic fort into the pie. It's not overly sweet, which is fine because the hot chocolate is.
"You have a point." Jason grins in his hot chocolate. "How'd you know? I'm curious." Jason Swan-Whitlock has made Edward Cullen curious. He's patting himself on the back. "You're not a vampire, but you don't smell human either."
"I'm only half human." He says, biting off another piece of pie from his fork. "My mom was human and my dad is a vampire." Now, Edward is really curious. Jason can see it by the way he leans into the table, so close to him. "I'm not really sure how it works, but I'm guessing they had sex and my mom got pregnant. She died giving birth to me – that's why my aunt raised me."
He lies so effortless. Victoria and him had rehearsed the lie until it became second nature. And it's mostly true, because his mom had had to die in order for him to be here.
"That's the first I here of this." Jason raises an eyebrow at the dumfounded vampire.
"I'm not the only one." He says in defense, because he's not a freak of nature. An anomaly, sure, but Aunt Char had researched the whole thing years back and had found another just like him. It had answered a few questions they had, like why did he grow up to fast and could still eat human food.
"I'm sure Carlisle would love to meet you – he's been around for longer than I have and is always curious." And the Edward looks at him. "Do you know your father?"
"Nope, never met him. My guess is he didn't know it could happen either." Jason thinks his father would roll over if he ever heard the lies he's spouting off. The man feels awfully guilty to have left his mother to fend for herself the first few months of her pregnancy.
"And your aunt is human?" Absolutely not, no one in his family is.
"Yep. Came as quite a shock too when she had to mix my powder with blood." He's almost done with his pie and sends the most sheepish look towards Edward. He doesn't even have to say it out loud before the man slides the plate towards him.
"Help yourself."
"I'm still not used to the whole mind reading thing." He says, starting on the second piece. He's not bothered at all in truth. His father can control emotions and his Uncle always has the knowing twinkle in his eyes and his mother can create literal force fields around her.
Jason doesn't know how long they actually spend in the coffee shop, but at some point, he yawns, finishing Edward's hot chocolate in a huge gulp. He's full and content and can't wait to crawl in his bed.
"Yes, you must be tired. I think it's time we leave." He nods, throwing away the cardboard plates in the trash. The cashier who is wiping the counter as they walk out waves at them. Jason doesn't really know how to make it seem like he wants to see the other man again without coming off as desperate.
"Can I see you again?" But he doesn't have to. The other man acting exactly as his aunt described him. "This is probably the most fun I've had in years. I'd really like you to meet my family." Jason has a boyish smile on his face.
"Well, you did buy me cake, I guess this counts as a date. But meeting the family is a tad early, don't you think?" Again, the vampire sends an amused smile his way.
"Pardon my forwardness, but like I said, meeting you has been fun." Jason congratulates himself for his act, the other vampire already exactly where he wants him. Maybe his mother is right when she says he's manipulative.
"Well, I'm not doing anything tomorrow. I guess you can buy me lunch – who am I to deny free food?" The vampire snorts, the sound completely out of place coming from him. Jason grins. "I can meet you here, say noon?"
"I look forward to it. Do you want me to walk you home?" Jason would roll his eyes. He can certainly see why his mother had fallen for him. He's like a gentleman from the nineteen twenties.
"I'll manage. See you tomorrow!" He sends the man a last smile before turning to walk away. The last thing he hears as he navigates the streets of New York being the man wishing him a goodnight in his deep, amused voice.
When Jason finally reaches the apartment, (better than a hotel, Victoria had said, at least no one can walk in) he's glad he doesn't have to put up with the act anymore. His face hurts from smiling so much.
"Mission accomplished." The vixen appears in the doorway, a coy smile on her pretty face. He throws the backpack on the ground and rolls his eyes at her hand up in the air. But he high fives her nonetheless.
a/n : I really wouldn't put it past Peter to plot world domination. I don't know why, but I see him do exactly that. Jason is a delight to write and he's manipulative as hell, Bella really is right. Now, I know Bella and Jasper aren't much in this chapter, but the next one will be full of them. Gears are set in motion. I want to thank everyone who reads this story, you guys are simple the awesomest. I mean, the feedback is amazing. Do let me know what you think of this chapter, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed and till next! (PS : Happy Holidays!)