I woke up to sunlight. It was just as bright as yesterday, streaming through the gap in between the curtains, creating pretty patterns on the pale wooden floor.

Stretching, I swung my legs off the bed and they hit the floor before I heard a crack. And then I felt the slime.

"Ew!" I shrieked as raw egg seeped between my toes. "Ew! Ew! Ew!"

I stood on one leg and shook the other to get the egg off. Unfortunately, I hit my foot against the bed before I slid off the other foot onto the floor, getting egg on my clothes and in my hair and probably bruising multiple body parts.

"Emmett!" I screamed, knowing only he could do this. I heard his booming laugh coming from somewhere.

I got up and hopped towards the bathroom on my uninjured foot, disgusted at the clear goop drippied on everything.

When I came back out after a shower, I saw that someone had cleaned the egg. I sighed and limped out of the room. I was going to kill Emmett.

I found him still laughing at my misfortunes in the kitchen. Reaching out, I slapped his arm. It would've hurt him, but I had momentarily forgotten that he was a vampire, and therefore he was pretty much indestructible.

He laughed harder at my weak attempt at revenge.

"Shut up," I muttered and stalked away to find someone else to talk to, someone that would not try to prank me.

That someone ended up being Jasper. Last night, while walking around the island, Bella had told me more about all her family members, including him. Apparently, he used to fight in the Civil War and was part of some vampire war, too.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly as I stormed into the library.

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Don't worry. Emmett does that kind of stuff to everyone."

"Really?"

"No," he said. "It's mostly because you're human."

"Great," I sighed.

He laughed quietly. "I'll help you get him back."

"Thanks," I said, oddly touched.

"Any more visions?" he asked after a short pause.

"No," I said. "They're not always accurate. The James one must not be real."

"Maybe."

"What's your story?" I blurted randomly, curious to hear more about it from his perspective. Bella's version had been filled with holes.

He hesitated before replying. "It's...long."

"We have time," I said. I didn't know why, but he fascinated me. I wanted to know his past.

"Well..." he started. "It was 1861 when I decided to fight in the Civil War. I was only 17, but I lied about my age and got in. Even then, my persuasive skills were above average. I was originally from Texas, so of course I would fight for the South. Just like any Southerner of the time, I thought we'd win easily.

"I was wrong, of course. But I didn't find that out until later. I went through the ranks, and soon became the youngest major in all of Texas.

"During one battle, my job was to escort the women and children to safety. As I rode after completing my task, I came across three women- they seemed strange to me, at the time. They had blood red eyes and ghostly pale skin. I was a little wary, but not afraid.

"Still, like the good Southern gentleman I was, I got off my horse and greeted them. Their names were Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. They were discussing whether they should change me or not, but I didn't realize that at the time.

"Finally, Nettie and Lucy went to hunt and Maria bit me. After the transformation was over, I realized that she was trying to form a vampire army, to gain more of the human population to feed on.

"At first, I went with her plan, creating newborns and expanding the army. I learned about my power, and I used it to control the newborns.

"Newborn vampires are usually out of control, easy to anger, extremely powerful, and most of all, thirsty. As a result, they ended up destroying each other most of the time. Maria and I were a team, in charge of the army.

"The job I most hated was destroying the newborns who were no longer of use to us. Being the way I am, I could actually feel their terror in those last few moments before death. As a result, I was miserable most of the time.

"Once, I had to dispose of the newborns with a vampire named Peter. He was surprisingly mature, and I soon befriended him.

"He tried to convince me to let some of the newborns live, but I paid him no heed- Maria's orders were to destroy them all. We went on, killing them.

"Finally, Peter snapped. He told the newborn we were about to get rid of, Charlotte, to run and he ran after her. Though I could have caught them, I let them escape.

"After Peter left, life just got worse. I hated killing. I even felt bad for killing the humans whose blood I thirsted for. Their last moments of despair and terror stayed and haunted me, like ghosts of the past.

"Peter and Charlotte came back for me in 1938. I gladly left Maria to join them. I was...not much happier with them. I was free from killing my kind, but I still felt the guilt from taking human lives every time I hunted. I tried to hunt less, but eventually the thirst would overpower and I'd give in. I soon left Peter and Charlotte, and wandered aimlessly by myself.

"I was in Philadelphia in 1948 when I met Emma. She was unlike any vampire I'd ever met. She was beautiful, of course, and an extremely good actress, though I didn't know at the time. I wasn't the only one who had fallen for her little charade." By now, he was snarling the words, hatred filling the room like a cloud of heat. I was confused why he would talk about his mate this way. He continued. "She convinced me that she loved me. A lie, of course, but she absolutely radiated love.

"I later learned it was a love for power, not for me. She told me about the Cullens, a group of vampires who lived like a family in a permanent spot, and drank animal blood instead of human. I was intrigued by this coven, so the pair of us set off to find them.

"She used me. She wanted to take over the Cullen coven, one of the biggest covens known besides the Volturi, and was going to have me use my power to convince them to follow her.

"I always knew inside that I didn't love her, and she knew, too. A constant string of tales about the Cullens was really the only thing which kept us together. To be free from the blood and violence, and to actually have a family, sounded too good to be true. I wanted the life she had described more than I could've imagined.

"I saw through her plan when we weren't that far from our destination. She had slipped up in hiding her true feelings, and I turned on her. I wanted to kill her, for using me, for trying to use the Cullens.

"She ran away and escaped. I continued on towards our original destination, and I've been living with the Cullens since," he finished.

I was speechless. I knew not all vampires were kind, but it seemed like Emma just wanted power, not even caring about the blood. I didn't want to think about what would've happened if she did gain control over the Cullen coven- she probably would've gone on to try to take over the Volturi, if she was willing to risk that much. "Wow," I finally murmured. "But Bella...she thought Emma was your mate."

"So does everyone else, besides you and Edward," he said.

"Why didn't you tell them?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"And why are you telling me?" I asked.

"I don't know," he murmured, his gaze landing on my eyes, as if he would find the answers hidden in the deep brown.