Chapter Eighty Two

Peter

"So here's where it stops being a fairytale of Goblins and Ogres and starts being a real one hundred percent Gothic fucking horror story".

I saw Jasper raise his eyebrow

"What? I'm just setting the scene here, like one of those over eighteen warnings they put on movies".

"Just get on with it" groaned Char,

"Hey I'm a story-teller so just shut up and listen, Philistines! Anyway, as I was saying, Maria sent us into the village with a slash and burn directive and a dozen blood crazed newborns. Benito's soldiers knew we were coming so they were in well defended positions and it was a really bloody battle as first they killed and drained the humans they'd taken then dripped the blood down the house walls sending our soldiers even more crazy. In the end they turned on each other and us, and we were forced to kill the stragglers ourselves. Then it was us two and about six or seven of Benito's best soldiers, his elite. We overpowered them in the end one at a time. They just didn't have our training so thanks to the Major, we finally killed the last two and burned the pieces. If I remember rightly a fair few scars were earned that day. Anyway, you'd think that was the end of the story wouldn't you? I did but the major here wasn't satisfied, he'd always had a nose for trouble. We pulled down all the houses in the village, only mud huts really, and set fire to them. I was ready to go but no we weren't finished yet. We rounded up all the livestock, poultry, dogs, fuck you name it we slaughtered it, throwing the bodies onto the fires. Then I thought great we go home, and we heard a noise, real faint from underground. We followed our noses and under the smell of burning flesh he caught a whiff of humans. We'd missed some hidden somewhere underground in a cellar, so we searched the burning remains and found a trapdoor under a pile of rubble".

Bella

It was a terrible story but I couldn't blame either of them for what they'd done even as I knew it was going to get worse before it was over. Char had laid her head on Peters thigh and closed her eyes. This story was new to her too, but it didn't worry her any more than it did me. Both our men were products of their environment, they'd been created to fight, but more than that, to fight and win, every fight. Maria had chosen Jasper for his fighting ability and she'd nurtured it, giving him no choice in how he acted or reacted. She'd turned a young man into the most deadly killing machine in the Southern Covens and he'd done exactly what she asked of him without question. His blood lust as a new-born had made it so easy for her and by the time it settled he knew no different, humans were for food or to kill and it was only as he started to feel their pain and horror every time he killed that he started to question what he was doing. By then Maria had realized something was wrong and his time was running out. If Peter hadn't come back for him I wondered if he would be sitting here now, or would he have been murdered by her or destroyed himself with his feelings. I would be eternally grateful to Peter and Charlotte for saving him, showing him there was a more peaceful way to live. My reverie was interrupted as Peter began to speak again.

Peter

I could see Bella was listening and thinking about what I'd said but she must have known he wasn't responsible for what he'd done.

"Anyway we found this trap door and opened it. Inside a tiny cellar were all the children and a few young women looking after them. It was one of the younger ones crying that had alerted us to their hiding place. The Major decided these would be an excellent lesson for Benito and any other covens who fancied their chances against us".

Jasper looked at me and I could see the horror of the memory burning in his eyes.

"So we pulled them out one at a time until they were all standing petrified together in a huddle, there were about twenty all told I guess, mainly kids, young ones and three young women trying to keep them calm." "Peter just get it over. It's not something I'm proud of now but I did it and Bella deserves to hear the black side of me."

Bella

I felt the tension in Jaspers muscles and heard the shame and loathing in his voice. I twisted to look up at him,

"Hey Jasper, you did what you had to at the time. You aren't that person any longer and whatever Peter tells me wont make any difference to me."

He looked skeptical and stayed tense as Peter started to talk again.

"So, one of the kids tried making a run for it, a boy about six years old. He didn't get far. I picked up a rock from the floor and threw it, cracked his skull open and he dropped, dead before he hit the floor. The others panicked then and we killed them all, the kids that is, and I think the girls ended up wishing they'd had such a swift end. You can imagine what we did with them but eventually they died and we strung their bodies up just outside the village as a warning to Benito. So there girls is the story Edward wanted you to hear, the atrocity at Los Paulo."

I looked at Charlotte who had opened her eyes to gaze at me. She got up and pulled Peters hands until he stood,

"We're going for a walk" she said as they left the house.

Jasper

I guess Peter had put it as well as possible but I was still unsure of Bella's reaction to finding out that her husband was not only a rapist but a child killer too, Edward had chosen his warning well. I felt Bella move and opened my eyes to see her standing between my legs. Her face gave nothing away but she took my hand and I stood, was she going to kiss me or kick my butt out the door? She pulled me close and put her mouth to my ear,

"If you are looking for me to make you pay for what you did then I'm sorry to disappoint you, but as I said your past is just that your past. I only care about the present and the future. Just answer me one question, Have you ever regretted that day?"

I had to be honest with her,

"No. I followed orders the best way I knew. If I started regretting all the things I did on Maria's orders I couldn't function, that was me then, not now."

She smiled and kissed me,

"That's what I expected you to say and I'm proud of you for saying it. Now you have a woman here dying to be taken to bed, and as you are the only available man here would you mind obliging?"

The tension left my body as I smiled,

"I never disappoint a lady ma'am" and I swept her up in my arms and carried her up to bed, my lady who loved me, even the monster from my past.