Hope y'all enjoy!

January 1st.

They crossed dangerously close to the edge of Johan's territory on the way back, wanting to take a shortcut to get back to Maria quicker. An unusual scent hugged the line, like soap and flowers. The kinda thing bath houses smell like. It followed them through the quickest route to the camp too closely. Jasper was immediately on edge.

It was another vampire, going directly from Johan's territory to Maria's camp. Johan had sent an agent to Maria, she was in terrible danger.

Jasper barked an order at Peter and they doubled their speed, racing towards the camp at record pace. Johan's agent, a woman, was in the camp, chatting with Maria in her own tent. Jasper growled and somehow ran faster.

"Major!" Maria called once she'd noticed him. "Come here! I have someone I want you to meet!"

He entered the tent and kept going, went straight for the agent's throat and thrusted her up and away from his mistress. He snarled into her face, not noticing any features or information about her in his clouds of rage. She stayed still in his fist, dangling like a rag doll.

"My major, what an angry boy." Maria giggled. "What are you doing?"

"I caught her scent on the way here," he growled. "She came from Johan's camp. She's a spy."

"Oh she's no spy, my sweet!" Maria came close behind him and started to stroke the hair at the nape of his neck, something usually guaranteed to calm him down. "I interrogated her myself. She is our new friend, and the key to defeating Johan."

He took a deep breath and his frenzy retracted just a little under his mistress's skilled fingers. Thoughts and observations came back to him, although his gift evaded him and coloured everything murky grey. He looked at the agent. This close up the smell of soap was even stronger on her, it almost overpowered the flowers, like a summer bouquet. Her chestnut hair was clean and untangled, her clothes intact; skirt long, shirt stark white, skin unblemished. She was not of this place, she didn't belong here.

Until that moment, he had not truly comprehended that there was a place for vampires other than here.

Once he finished scanning her body his eyes darted back up to her face. She had the same face all vampires seemed to have: symmetrical, perfect, smooth. Like a newborn before their first fight. She couldn't have been a newborn though, she didn't struggle even as he threatened her life. She stared directly at him as she dangled from his fist, face carefully blank. It was a level of control no newborn should have been able to display. But it was her eyes that caused the true alarm. They were yellow, like a hawk. Other. A threat.

"Her eyes," he whispered, "what's wrong with them?"

"She drinks from animals!" Maria lifted herself up to her tiptoes and nuzzled the crook of his neck. So much smaller than him, so delicate. "Isn't that intriguing? Devious too, she says it makes human blood all the sweeter. But you should talk to her yourself!"

She put her soft hand on his jaw and turned his eyes away from the girl and back to hers. "Put her down, my love."

Jasper hesitated a moment, transfixed by the swirling ruby red irises before him. His hand relaxed and the girl tumbled to the floor. His peripheral vision caught her staying down, strange eyes carefully watching him. Good, at least she could recognise a threat when she saw one.

"Who is she?" he asked Maria.

Maria wasn't ready to tell him yet, she waved a hand and pushed the subject aside until later.

"First, tell me what you found on your travels. You returned earlier than expected."

Jasper was not ready to just dismiss the danger sitting on the ground, getting dust all over her clean skirts. His eyes flit from the girl to Maria and back again, not sure where to settle. Maria caught his gaze and held it. The effect being near her took hold. She was so beautiful, so special. He couldn't take his eyes off her. The clouds of rage were pushed away as if by a gentle gust of wind. So long as his mistress was safe, nothing else mattered.

His gift started to work again. He noticed Anton standing in the corner, radiating jealousy. Maria looked as she always did; confident, thirsty, wanting. Swirls of beautiful darkness surrounded her as they always did.

"I didn't want to leave you too long, considering the circumstances." He sighed. "I am glad you're still unharmed. I found a spot near-"

He sensed movement in his peripheral vision and his eyes couldn't help but snap to the culprit. The girl was pulling herself up off the ground, with a lack of grace unusual for a vampire. His gift was in full force, taking comfort from Maria's familiar colours. He wasn't expecting the girl's.

She glowed.

That light in Peter that he'd thought burned so brightly flowed through her unrestrained. It bled through her fingertips and lit the murky air around her. She met his eyes as he inspected it and her light exploded into a gleaming gold the likes of which he never dared hope to see again. She flooded with a warmth that he didn't recognise, the safety he coveted from Maria mixed with the clarity he feared from distance.

It was paradise, the best feeling he had ever experienced. Simultaneously invigorating and terrifying. But he had no idea what it was.

She searched him. Eyes skated over his battleworn form until they settled on a point just above his eyes. Her colours jolted. A flash of bright white light that lifted her heart and his along with it, clenched their chests and settled in their bellies. That one he knew. Many years ago he had paused before biting a human to speak to someone else. The human jolted white with hope. Every human jolted white when it looked like they might stand a chance at surviving. Every vampire jolted white when it looked like they might get a fresh meal, although usually it was drowned out with black bloodlust.

Surely this was no soldier, no person who had any place in this camp. There was no space for hope here, with no blood in play. Why should she feel hope when she looked at him? While she stood in this place? This place was cold, dark, as was he. She was warm and bright.

He felt it invade his darkness, the light reaching out to him in tendrils. He didn't know what to do, he didn't like how it cut through him and infected him with its heat. Too warm. Hot. Burning.

Without truly noticing what he was doing he turned and tried to walk towards her. Would he hurt her? Would he speak? Would he shake her and demand answers? He honestly didn't know, and only went a step before Maria stopped him again.

"Major! You were telling me about the new location?"

He turned back to her. Her comforting presence settled in again and pushed the burning away.

"Yes, my apologies, Ma'am. Since we need to lay low and replenish our numbers, I scouted a place near Austin. It's still within our territory, but Johan would never expect it, not without villages we can destroy. We can pick people off without much suspicion inside the city and on the roads, not as conspicuous."

Maria pouted. "You wish to starve me?"

"No!" How could she ever think that? He took her hands in his. "I just want you to be safe. If we are found, Johan will come back and wipe us out. I can't let that happen."

"But still…" her lip wobbled, "no running out the villages? How will I entertain myself?"

Jasper smirked despite himself. Powerful warlord she may be, to him she was so cute.

"I'm sure we can find something to get your urges out."

Spew green disgust flared out the corner of his eye, he ignored the girl and kept his focus on Maria.

She smiled sweetly and leaned into him, he cherished her weight in his arms.

"You are sure this is the only way?"

"I'm thinking in the long term," he brought her knuckle to his lips and kissed it slowly, "imagine the power you'll gain when you take Johan's territory, and the pleasure when you rip his head from his shoulders."

"That does sound delicious," she purred. "But I must insist on one last raid. I will miss it so. Besides, the newborns haven't fed in such a long time, we don't want them to go rabid near the big city - do we?"

"No, we don't."

"Excellent!" She turned towards Peter, who stood by the tent entrance. That's what he always did when allowed near Maria's presence, linger respectfully behind.

Maria snapped her fingers. "Go rally the troops, boy. We leave in a few minutes."

Maria laughed as Peter bowed and left the tent, her colours teeming with excitement. He found himself distracted, until he remembered the girl glowing in the corner.

"Wait," he said, "Maria, you said this girl would help us?"

"Oh yes!" Maria ran back to the girl and stroked her tiny fingers over her cheeks. "She's a shield! She can protect others from mental powers, and has offered to help us against Johan's little weapon! Isn't that excellent?"

Jasper frowned, he had heard of such things from passing nomads but never seen one himself. "A shield? You're sure?"

Anton cut in. "I tested her. Are you doubting my abilities?"

"Not currently, but-"

"Now, who will guard the camp while the rest of us are gone?" Maria interrupted, peacekeeping as always.

Jasper suppressed a sigh, the tactical possibilities of having a shield on side were something he wanted to linger on. "Peter and I will. We fed on the way here."

"Perfect," Maria turned back to the girl. "Will you come with us, Belle?"

Belle, the girl's name was Belle. He searched her colours while she wasn't focused on him. The gold was gone, thank god. Her colours swirled in a mixture, so bright and open to him. She was green with disgust, blue with sadness, clouded through with ugly orange fear.

"Thank you, but no," she replied, a smile stretched on her lips. "I fed earlier today."

"Oh!" Maria patted her cheek. "Denying yourself for your next human meal? How devious. I can't wait to see the look on your face the next time you taste human blood!"

There was a beat of nothing, then black bloodlust bloomed within the girl, drowning out all the other colours. Her face stayed perfectly still, but he heard her hold her breath and the blackness froze in its tracks and retreated in. She had been offered a free meal and held her need for it in. So controlled, but why? What was the point? Jasper had only seen that level of bloodlust in newborns desperate for their first meal, or ones they had starved for months at a time; too rabid to speak. It must cause her physical pain, why do it?

This girl got stranger and stranger.

"How excellent!" Maria replied, sweeping out of the tent, totally unaware of the girl's inner trauma. "You three can guard the camp and Jasper can get to know you, Belle." She reached out and cupped Belle's cheek. "I hope you grow to be great friends!"

Unlikely, but Jasper had to appreciate her optimism.

Maria left him and took the army with her. The feeling of comfort she always brought left him and suddenly he was open to the elements, unprotected. He turned to the girl and inspected her from head to toe, a strange girl with strange eyes and a strange voice. Northern, he recognised the accent from Union soldiers he had turned decades ago.

He may as well try to get some of the information he craved while he had the chance.

"They say you're a shield?"

She almost jumped, a ridiculous human-like reaction.

"Yes," she said, "against mental gifts."

He could almost laugh at how quickly her lie had crumbled.

"Then why," he stepped close, towering over her, intimidating her, "are you not blocking me?"

Her colours swirled as she looked into his eyes, gold mixing into darker hues he could better recognise. "No clue, what's your gift?"

Silver deceit slithered through her. He could read her more clearly than anyone he had ever seen.

She stepped back away from him, defensive, fearful. He grumbled.

"I can feel your emotions, and manipulate them."

"Well, are you sure that's mental?" she asked.

"What?" he sneered. "What else could it be?"

"Well your emotions aren't all in your head, are they? You don't just feel them in your mind, you feel them in your body too."

He stared at her, this girl who tried to know more about his abilities than he did.

"Like maybe…" she continued to ramble, "maybe when you make people feel fear, you don't make the brain think it's afraid, you trigger an adrenaline rush that feels like your reaction to fear."

What?

"Adrenaline? The hell is that?"

Panic. Fear. Regret.

"Chemical that just got discovered," she said too quickly, "it's what your body releases when you're afraid. Don't you get newspapers down here?"

She grinned, a blue shield of fake confidence materialised around her. A manipulation of his gift that she should not have known enough to achieve.

She didn't answer the question.

"Don't deflect me."

"Well, think of it this way." She met his eye and smiled. Deceit. "You don't feel fear in your head. When you're scared you can barely think. It's like a haze, right? You feel a clenching in your stomach, a tingle in your spine. Eyes cloud over. That's all physical."

She thought she was so clever. Purple pride mingled through the swirls of her colors, the false confidence became real. The positivity fed her light, it glowed through the fear again. The gold ran through the swirls like trickles over rocks. She was so open to him, the wall most people naturally had to push him out was completely absent. She trusted him. Why would she trust him? What possible reason could she have?

He stepped close, closer than before. He breathed in her clean scent and stared into her strange eyes. This close he could see colours within them, the flecks of brown that streamed through the sunshine yellow. So innocent, so stupid. He took a second to imagine her the way she should have been; covered in the blood of her victims and gleaming with satisfaction instead of joy. Red instead of gold.

He had the power to make her that way. He had the power to break her.

"I see… Just like anger."

Panic. Wonderful.

"Anger?"

"Mmhm." He nodded. "Your muscles tense, fists clench."

He allowed his colours to mingle with hers, ignored the way they surged towards him like they were desperate for his touch. He pushed her light back with his darkness, an emotion he could only imagine her feeling. The deep red rage he knew too well invaded her arteries and cut through the blue confidence.

Her arms locked up, her hands clutched into fists.

He was drunk on his own power, drunk on the feeling of her pulling him in. More, he needed more.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, felt her soft hair tickle his lip. "Your chest pushes out, you can't release your breath."

He leaned back a little and she gulped. Rage enveloped her fear. Her clarity drained away. Still she pulled him in.

"You can't think of anything but what you're focusing on."

She was rigid, her eyes trained on him so tight that nothing else could shake her. He wasn't sure anything could shake him either, pulled in so far that they were entwined.

More.

He stepped in again, hovered as close as he dared. His chest touched lightly to hers. She was taller than Maria, he only had to tilt his head to look her in the eye. The gold still grasped for him, desperate for him. He intensified his rage and it was almost covered. Good. He wanted to destroy it. He carefully placed his fingertips on the smooth surface of her forearms. The red rage intensified and flowed through her as brightly as everything else she felt. She jolted, but he wasn't sure she noticed.

He couldn't help but taunt her further. "Your ears ring, your face burns."

The rage had taken over. Finally she was understandable. Finally she was controllable. Her colours thrashed in their red confines like a newborn who couldn't understand themselves. He lost control. He revelled in his triumph. He broke her, this silly girl who was made of light.

He wanted to stay forever. Touching her, breathing her air, feeling her feelings as if they were his own. He drank in his power over her.

A shy beam of golden light crept out and touched his face. His skin warmed. If she wanted, she could have the same power over him.

Stark clarity washed over him, what was he doing? What would Maria think?

He snatched back the rage. Her eyes focused. She blinked. She lit up, but just barely. The fear came back, the panic shone through. But it was covered with a thick cloud that was rare in a place like this.

Why would people ever feel betrayal in a place with no trust? Disbelief. Her own brand of anger, weaker than his.

She had expected better of him.

How dare she expect anything of him.

She took a step back, pulling herself away from his touch. "Don't… do that."

His fingertips tingled in bereavement but he pushed the feeling away. He had never done that before, never integrated himself so deeply with someone else. No one had ever trusted him like that, no one but Peter had ever trusted him at all. He had never been fully allowed in, let alone pulled in by forces he didn't understand. He had let himself fall so far into her that he lost sight of the surface.

"Maybe you're right," he turned away from her, "maybe it is physical."

Peter saved him, as he so often did.

"You hazin' the new kid, Major?" He grinned and walked towards them. "Didn't think it was your style."

"Funny." He took his opportunity to get away from her and set off down the camp.

His brother had always been better with people. He introduced himself and started chatting about some inane thing. She opened up instantly, trusting him too. They already had her name wrong. Her name was Bella. He decided to call her Belle anyway. He noticed her light brighten from the corner of his eye. He couldn't help but look, expecting that gold.

None.

Warmth. Feelings that he recognised from Peter sometimes. Feelings that he had for Peter sometimes.

Why? How? He swallowed a growl, he didn't like his brother being so close to a person he couldn't understand.

Peter finally asked her the question on everyone's lips.

"What's a well to do Northerner doin' all the way down here?"

She glanced at Jasper. Fear, worry, concern, gold.

"I'm looking for someone," she slowly replied, "figured the best way to find him was to integrate myself into the local 'culture'."

Deceit, perhaps? The swirling streak of silver was too vague to be sure.

Jasper walked away, out of her eye line. He didn't want her probing eyes on him, not when he couldn't understand her. He couldn't help but fear her. He wanted to kill her.

But they needed her.

He had to live near her for as long as it took, perhaps forever if Maria found her useful enough. How long could he keep it up? How long could he stay separate from her when she insisted on pulling him close. What if they were wrong? What if she did want to hurt Maria?

The newborns came back, which thankfully drew his attention. He ordered them to take the tents down, using watching them as an excuse to keep his eyes off her. They were still fresh from the hunt, blood stains littered their raggedy clothes and the tips of their fingers, too deep set to be sucked out. His throat flared at the smell of all the blood they had spilled without him, despite him feeding earlier.

He heard a pole snap. Unacceptable. Tents were precious and hard to get ahold of. He turned and sprinted to the head of the camp, ripped off the perpetrator's arm without missing a beat and watched him clatter to the ground.

It was a newborn named George. Large man, decent fighter, two and a half years turned. Less valuable than a tent.

"Sloppy work," Jasper growled. "No care taken."

He started to smother the man in fear and remorse. If he wasn't sorry he would make him sorry.

George started to cry. "Please! I'm sorry!"

In his peripheral vision he saw bright pain flare out and beckon towards him. Belle was close by.

"Are you?"

He ripped the second finger off the poor idiot's hand, mainly to scare the girl. The man screamed, feeling the pain from his detached limb like it was still connected to his body.

"Yes! I am! I'll be more careful! Please!"

Belle had distracted him, George looked like he might suffocate. Jasper decided to have some mercy for once.

"Good." He threw the arm at George's head, it landed with a satisfying thunk. He held up the finger. "I will keep this until you prove that."

The idiot stayed on the floor, crying even as the waves of emotion Jasper threw at him depleted. Laziness. It only took one harsh look for him to get off his ass and do his job. Jasper turned and ran back to the head of the group about to move out, he didn't look at the girl.