A/N: Can y'all tell me if this counts as a cliffhanger? You know I don't like leaving you with those but from some of the chapters of Fate, I think our definitions don't match, lol. If you think it's a cliffhanger, I'll post the next chapter today.
Otherwise, thanks for reading! ~ M.
Walls and Floors
Bella had just sat down to eat a plate of scrambled eggs with cut up broccoli and spinach when Jasper's phone buzzed and there was a knock on the door. Looking at the display as he opened the door to Peter and Charlotte, he saw a text from Rose.
Walking into the castle now.
"They're here," Jasper told the other three as they joined Bella at the table.
"Was that Rose?" Bella asked, and Jasper nodded. "How long do you suppose before someone—" Bella was cut off by another knock on their door. "Summons us," she finished with a laugh.
Charlotte hopped up to answer it and came in with Chelsea, who smiled at everyone. "Hello, Bella. How are you feeling?" she asked as she looked at her plate. "Is that spinach? And eggs? Dark leafy greens and lean protein are very good for you," she nodded, pleased that her little human friend was eating well.
"How many books did you buy?" Charlotte asked, trying to be pissed but way too fuckin' amused at the Volturi to pull it off.
"Only six," Chelsea answered. At Jasper's raised eyebrow, she laughed. "You should see the pile in Caius' office."
"They bought out every damn book in the city," Charlotte grumbled while trying to fight a smile.
"Are y'all seriously doing pregnancy reading of your own?" Jasper laughed, shaking his head in amusement. "I'd like all the books when y'all are done please. No way are any of you beating me and my mate at that quiz now."
"I thought you and I were competing against each other," Bella smiled, realizing that the Volturi were reading up on her condition. "Now it's us against them?"
"Hell yes it's us against them," Jasper nodded. "You're lovelier than I can ever say and I think you're hands-down one of the best beings on this entire planet… but sweetheart, your brain can't compete with an entire castle of vampires thousands of years old."
When Bella just shook her head with a laugh and went back to eating her eggs, Jasper acknowledged to himself that it was a good thing his mate didn't take herself too seriously or that could've really ended badly for him.
"The Cullens have just arrived," Chelsea said. "Would you all come to the throne room in about fifteen minutes? Will that give you time to finish, Bella?" she asked.
Bella looked at the last two bites left on her plate and forced down a laugh. She didn't want to offend the woman who'd been nothing but kind to her. "Yes, that's perfect. Thank you, Chelsea."
"You're welcome," Chelsea smiled and turned to leave.
"Wait, you aren't going to tell them I'm pregnant, are you?" Bella asked quickly.
"Of course not! That's not anyone's business but yours," she answered. At the three skeptical looks she got, she smiled and let out a little laugh. "Okay, and some of us in the castle," she admitted. "But it's definitely not the Cullen's business."
"Thank you," Bella laughed and shook her head at how bizarre her life had become so quickly. She had the supposedly evil Volturi researching human pregnancy while trying to hide it from the people she once considered family. "We'll be along in a few minutes."
Chelsea nodded and left, and the four Whitlocks looked at each other and started laughing.
"Did they seriously buy out the whole town?" Jasper asked, just as baffled by this bizarre world as Bella was.
"They did," Charlotte nodded. "I wanted to be pissed about it but I honestly can't. They're so fuckin' excited they went and shopped for themselves. Caius was in the last book store we went in! Do y'all hear what I'm sayin'? Caius," she enunciated it extra hard just in case they missed it. "One of the kings of our entire fuckin' world went into a book store of his own volition to buy books about human pregnancy."
"Wild, huh?" Peter laughed.
Bella and Jasper both laughed as Jasper took Bella's empty plate and got up to do the dishes.
"Anything we need to know before we step in that room, Peter?" Jasper asked.
"Nothin' I'm aware of," Peter shrugged. "But that doesn't mean you should let your guard down."
Jasper looked at him a little incredulously, making Bella laugh. "What makes you think I would let my guard down? Even if Bella wasn't my mate or wasn't pregnant, I would never have let my guard down when she's in the same room as those assholes. As it happens, she's both of those things. So don't worry, my guard is most assuredly as up as fuckin' possible."
He honestly probably would have looked a little scary if he wasn't elbow-deep in soap suds.
Bella smiled as she got up to go brush her hair and make sure she didn't look awful. When she passed Jasper, she tugged on his arm so he would bend down a little so she could kiss his cheek. "Thank you."
"Of course," Jasper smiled.
After making herself as presentable as she could, Bella and the three vamps headed for the door, ready to go find out exactly who knew what and when they knew it. Just as she was about to follow Charlotte into the corridor, Bella stopped in her tracks and turned to Jasper, who was behind her.
"Damn it, why do you have to be so freaking tall?" she grumbled under her breath.
"What?" Jasper laughed, not at all sure what the hell she was talking about. He felt her determination and resolve, but didn't know its source.
Bella hesitated for a second before figuring, fuck it. It would either be really great or she was about to make their future super awkward. "I'd really like to kiss you before we walk into that room, Jas. How would—"
Bella was cut off by Jasper very gently cupping her face and kissing her, moaning at the feel and taste of his mate's lips. He slid one hand from her cheek to the back of her head and the other went to the small of her back to pull her closer. Bella let out a moan of her own as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself even closer to him. Annoyed by the height difference between them, Jasper pulled away from Bella's lips long enough to let her take a breath or two, and picked her up so that her face was even with his.
Bella squeaked in surprise and then started laughing and wrapped her legs around Jasper's waist. "Yeah, that's definitely better," she smiled as she leaned in for another kiss.
Kissing got a little harder when you were smiling and laughing, but Bella and Jasper were devoted to their mission, so eventually the breathless laughs became breathless moans.
Jasper honest to god had no idea just kissing could feel that good. He'd kissed plenty of people over the course of his long life, some of whom he actually loved, and kissing his mate for the first time was so far above and beyond even the best kiss of his past.
Bella was having similar thoughts of her own. Her kisses were limited to Edward's weird chaste ones, Jacob's unwanted one, and some drunken ones she didn't remember all that clearly. These kisses with Jasper were miles apart from any of those. And hadn't Edward said they couldn't kiss this way because of his venom? Jasper didn't seem all that worried about it.
She really hoped that meant it was safe and not just that he didn't mind if he killed her.
It was only a throat clearing to her left that forced the two to pull a little bit apart. Their mouths anyway. Bella hadn't even realized that Jasper had pressed her against the wall until he removed his lips and tongue from her person. That's how good kissing him was - she didn't notice the hard wall pressed against her back. As she wiggled a little, she couldn't, however, fail to notice a different hardness altogether pressed against her front. She was also absurdly pleased that his breath was coming out in the same raspy gasps as hers.
"Y'all know we have somewhere to be, right?" Peter asked dryly, then punched Jasper in the ribs. "And get a hold of your gift, asshole, unless you want the whole castle bangin' instead of paying attention to keepin' your mate safe in that room."
Bella snorted a laugh at the look on Jasper's face. "Don't kill him, Jas. He's right, we should probably get going."
"Fine but y'all need to give me a damn minute," he snarked as he thought about every gross thing to get his dick to behave politely enough to be around company. The taste of coffee did the trick. He gave Bella one last gentle kiss and then set her on her feet. "Alright. I'm ready," he nodded, then noticed Bella's shirt was a little crooked and crumpled so he straightened it out, then nodded again.
When they walked into the throne room together, the Cullens found themselves face to face with the four Whitlocks, all with beaming smiles on their faces. Jasper and Bella for the obvious reason, and Peter and Charlotte for their brother's happiness.
Much to Edward and Alice's dismay, Bella's lips were also a little bit swollen, which gave away the reason for the smiles.
While Carlisle looked a little angry, Emmett, Rosalie, and Esme looked surprised and a bit confused. Alice and Edward just looked furious, and two low growls echoed around the chamber.
"Bella! Get away from that monster," Edward snarled.
As he took a step towards them, Jasper immediately dropped him on the spot and he was suddenly writhing on the floor.
"Jane!" Carlisle shouted, looking around the room for what he assumed was the cause of his son's agony. When he saw that her eyes weren't locked on Edward, he frantically looked around the room. "Who's doing that? Stop it right this instant!"
"I'm not sure that you're in a position to tell us what to do, old friend," Aro said with entirely false friendliness. "And I assure you, Edward's current predicament is not our doing."
Carlisle glanced around again but no one was looking at Edward, then he saw the smirk on Jasper's face as he stared Carlisle down. "You," he growled. When he took a step forward, Jasper dropped him, too.
It didn't escape a single person's notice that Esme made no move to help him.
"I could keep this up all day, y'all. You really want to keep trying to come at us?" Jasper said calmly. When he heard Alice let out a low growl while glaring at Bella, his eyes snapped to her. "How about you, Alice? You wanna try? I'll drop your ass faster than you can blink and I'll make every ounce of misery you suffered in that asylum look like a day at the fuckin' beach."
Alice huffed and crossed her arms over chest, then turned her head so she was glaring at the wall.
When Jasper heard light laughter ring out, he looked at his sister, who also had her arms crossed but she had a smile on her face. "Brother," Rosalie drawled. "You always were one for a dramatic entrance."
Jasper shrugged. "If they could control themselves they'd be just fine," he said, then looked around at all the vamps in the chamber. "I'll just go ahead and tell every single one of you in this room. You try to come at Bella, and I'm putting you down. I don't give a shit who you are."
Bella rolled her eyes and laughed, then tugged on his sleeve. "I think you can exempt some people, Jas. The kings, for instance. Chelsea," she added, smiling at the blond woman across the room, who gave her a smile and a quick wave.
"Yeah, alright," Jasper laughed. "Y'all four are safe."
"Would you mind letting them up?" Aro asked Jasper with a smile. "Questioning them becomes difficult when they can't speak."
Jasper nodded and pulled back his gift. Edward and Carlisle gasped a few times and then got to their feet, glaring at Jasper.
Aro looked at the telepath for a few long moments. "Edward, you called Jasper a monster when he walked in. From reading you, I know that part of that is due to his actions in the south - which, I'd like to point out, were forced upon him by his sire, who lied to him about our world - but also because he followed our traditional diet for so long. Yet you followed that same diet for quite some time, did you not?" he asked.
Edward bristled at the reminder. "I used my gift to only feed from human monsters," he answered arrogantly.
Aro nodded and then turned to Chelsea. "What was it you told me this morning about Afton?" he asked her.
Chelsea smiled. "That I was going to take both his hands off if he didn't stop leaving his shoes in the middle of the room," she said with a playful glare at her mate, making him laugh and shrug.
"And did you have any intention of removing your mate's hands?" Aro asked with a smile.
"Of course not!" she laughed.
"Jasper, what is Chelsea feeling right now?" Aro asked him.
"In this moment, amusement," Jasper answered. "A moment ago when she was talking about her mate leaving their suite messy, amusement and fond exasperation."
Aro turned back to Edward. "If you heard that thought in her head… that she was going to effectively dismember someone, would she have been one you executed in your 'rebellious' years? You believed you knew a person's heart because you could read their thoughts. Do you believe anyone who thinks about murder should be executed? Even if they have no intention of ever actually murdering someone?" he asked the petulant boy. "You can't read their emotions, Edward. Your gift gives you no insight into strangers. 'Hearing' Chelsea think about removing someone's hands without feeling the accompanying emotions of amusement or slight exasperation gives you only one impression of someone. A false one, in this instance. And I'm willing to bet in many, many others as well."
When Edward opened his mouth to object, Aro held his hand up. "You don't have the floor right now, young Edward, I do."
Edward snapped his mouth shut with a scowl.
When Carlisle opened his mouth, Aro turned to him. "Are you going to attempt to speak on his behalf? Because if that is your plan, I'll caution you not to. You may be his sire but Edward is over a hundred years old. He doesn't need his 'father' fighting his battles for him. I'd even go so far as to point out that your tendency to do so has done him no good. You took what was an already arrogant boy and turned him into an even more arrogant… well, I was going to say man, but Edward is still very much a boy based on his worldview," Aro shrugged casually as the others laughed.
Marcus looked at Jasper and Bella, then at everyone else, stopping on the Cullens. "Before we get into more detail about why you're here, I'd like to make something clear to everyone in this room. Jasper and Bella are mates," he said, holding his hand up at the growls from Edward and Alice and the surprised gasps from Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme. "Please control yourselves, Edward and Alice. Aro may be kind enough to offer you a suite, but I assure you, I am not," he said coldly, then looked around the room again. "You all know what my gift is, and those of you who know me know that I would never be anything but truthful, especially when it comes to mates and bonds."
"Jasper, Bella," Aro started. "I'd like you to know that none of the three in question knew you were mates," he assured them. "Emmett, Rosalie, and Esme didn't know, nor were there even any suspicions in their minds. In this instance, they are completely innocent."
Jasper and Bella both let out sighs of relief. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow to find out that the entire family had plotted to keep them apart.
"And Carlisle?" Rosalie asked Aro, looking at her coven leader with suspicion.
"He did know," Aro answered with a nod.
All three innocent Cullens looked at him in disgust and anger and took a few steps away from him. There were now three very distinct groups: Carlisle, Edward, and Alice in one, then Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme, and finally the four Whitlocks.
"I'd like to hear what happened the evening of Miss Swan's birthday party," Caius said. When Edward and Alice both opened their mouths to reply, he held up his hand. "From a neutral party, please. Perhaps Rosalie or Emmett."
"I'm happy to explain," Emmett offered. When the kings nodded their agreement, he continued. "The day of the party, Alice had Jasper working nonstop at one thing or another. When he told her he wanted to go for a quick hunt before Bella arrived, she laughed and told him he would be fine. When he pushed the point a little, not rudely or anything, she told him she'd already looked and had 'seen' that he'd be fine. Just before Bella arrived, Jasper managed to speak to me and Rosalie alone briefly. He told us that something felt off and to keep on our toes," Emmett explained, glaring at Alice when she let out a low growl.
Aro cut in then. "I'll remind you yet again, Miss Cullen, that if you can't control yourself, we will have you escorted from the room," he said coldly, then turned back to Emmett. "My apologies, please continue."
"Thank you, sir," Emmett nodded respectfully. "When Bella cut her finger, Jasper immediately held his breath. I was right behind him, he was perfectly in control. Who wasn't in control was Edward. Jasper felt Edward's bloodlust shoot up and let out a warning growl, which Edward overreacted to. He shoved Bella backwards into a pile of glass plates that Alice had set out on the table. It was the additional injuries to Bella that overwhelmed all of us, not just Jasper. Jasper purposefully sent me his panic, which I knew was my cue to get him out of the room. Which is what I did."
"May I add something, sirs?" Rosalie asked, then nodded when they gave their agreement. "Emmett didn't force Jasper out of that room. Jasper allowed it. With Jasper's history, if he intended to get to Bella, not a single person in that room could have stopped him. I'm not sure that all of us in that room could have stopped him if he was motivated enough."
"And yet you went and stood in front of Bella to protect her," Alice sneered. "Why would you do that if you were so convinced Jasper couldn't get to her?"
Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme all looked at her incredulously. "Rose wasn't protecting Bella from Jasper, Alice," Esme said. "She was protecting her from Edward."
"It's true," Rosalie nodded. "Jasper sent me his panic as well. Since Emmett was already getting him outside, I knew it must have been panic for Bella's sake. That's why I went to protect her."
"Please," Edward scoffed. "You've all believed that monster's lies for too—"
"Edward, have you forgotten what my gift is?" Aro interrupted. "You seem to be suffering under the delusion that you can control what I see. You and Alice both, actually."
When Caius saw the shock on their faces, he laughed coldly. "You have no secrets, either of you. You can't manipulate us the way you have tried to manipulate the others so often over the years."
"Let me just quickly clear this point up so there's no confusion further down the road. Edward was, indeed, close to losing control that night. It was only seeing Rosalie standing guard in front of the human that kept him from lunging for her," Aro said, smiling a little when Edward hung his head in shame. "No need to feel ashamed, Edward. This is a surprise to no one in your family. They were already aware of this information. While you, Alice, and Carlisle thought you'd managed to talk the others around to seeing it your way, I assure you, none of you were successful."
"So what was the plan, Alice?" Marcus asked. "Was Jasper meant to kill her, which would explain you not giving him adequate time to hunt? Was Edward meant to succumb to the call of his singer's blood when it was spilled?"
"Does it matter?" Alice sneered. "If it was Jasper, it would've been a little sweeter because he would be responsible for killing the home-wrecking bitch, but Edward would do just as well."
Alice had barely gotten the last word out over the shocked gasps of everyone in the room when she screamed and hit the floor.
"Jasper!" Carlisle shouted, glaring at the empath.
Jasper laughed and held his hands up. "Don't look at me. I'm not doing that."
"No, I am," Jane snarled.
"Alright, Jane. You can release her," Aro chuckled.
Jane released Alice from her gift with a nonchalant shrug and Carlisle immediately bent down to help the gasping seer. "Aro! How can you allow this? That was an unprovoked attack," Carlisle admonished him.
"Unprovoked?" Esme echoed. "Carlisle, look at me. At me, not your precious Alice," she snapped when Carlisle continued to tend to the psychic drama queen. Carlisle sighed and turned to his wife. "You don't think Alice should be made to tolerate less than ten seconds of pain for what she tried to do? She set the man up to unknowingly kill his own mate, Carlisle. Do you not find that outrageous?" she asked.
"I don't believe that's true, Esme. Alice would never do something like that," Carlisle snapped. "Besides, Jasper was her husband. She had every right to want to hold onto him."
There was a stunned silence in the room as everyone attempted to process that.
"Which is it, Carlisle?" Bella asked calmly. "Either Alice would never do something like that, or she was justified in trying to hold on to her husband."
When Carlisle ignored her, Marcus repeated the question. "Before you answer, I'd like to add that the two of them were only married because you pressured them into it, Carlisle. You felt a couple living together without being married was morally wrong, so you forced your own beliefs on them," Marcus said. "I'd also like to add that you are speaking in terms of a husband and wife. Period. Not a pair of mates. Every single person under the Cullen roof knew from day one that Alice and Jasper were not mates. So was your viewpoint that because he was already married to Alice that finding his mate was somehow irrelevant?"
The room froze in shocked silence at the next coldly-spoken words.
"Do you have something like this planned for when I find my mate?" Esme asked Carlisle, then laughed at the shock on his face. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not quite the stupid, blindly-devoted woman you, Edward, and Alice think I am. I've known we weren't mates since just after Emmett joined our family and I saw how he and Rose treated each other. So I'll ask again. Did you have some scheme in the back of your mind to 'hold onto me' when I found my mate?" she asked, then her face turned fierce. "Or did Alice see them already and you got rid of them so you could 'keep' me?"
As one, the room turned to Marcus, who gave Esme a genuine smile. "You have an intact mate bond. Whoever he or she is, wherever they are, they are very much alive."
Esme gave him a grateful smile, but before she could say anything, Edward cut in.
"Are you saying you wanted me to kill Bella?" he asked Alice. When she just sneered, his face scrunched up a little in confusion. "But I thought the whole point of this was so I could have her for myself?"
"I'm not a fucking pet, Edward," Bella huffed.
Edward frowned at her. "Is that type of language really necessary?" he asked, making just about everyone in the room roll their eyes.
"Right, because that's the most pressing problem right now," Bella said with a hard eye roll of her own.
Edward shook his head at her in disapproval and turned back to Alice. "Well? I thought Bella was supposed to be mine. Now you're saying you didn't care if I killed her. So which is it, Alice?"
"I wanted her dead but I wanted her to suffer first. Let her feel the love of a 'mate' and a family and then rip it away from her the way she tried to rip my happiness away from me," Alice snarled.
"The way I… Alice, I never took a single thing from you!" Bella said incredulously. "When Jessica told me Jasper was in a relationship with you, I never looked at him as anything more than a friend after that!"
Emmett looked at Alice, eyes blazing. "So you're the one responsible for ripping our family away from Bella? For ripping her away from us?" he growled, then turned to Edward. "Did you lie to us, brother? Did Bella really tell you she wanted us gone? That she would turn us in to the Volturi if we didn't leave town without so much as a goodbye?"
Edward looked around the room frantically, but couldn't find a single ally. Carlisle was looking at him in surprise and dismay, and Emmett, Esme, and Rosalie were looking at him as if he was the monster in this scenario.
"He told y'all that?" Jasper asked, a combination of furious and confused. He'd never heard that excuse from the wonder twins. Being in contact with Bella himself, he knew she'd said no such thing. "When did that happen?"
"After he got back from dropping Bella off, when you were still out hunting," Rosalie answered, looking at Edward suspiciously. "Which was the only time he could tell us. If you were there, you would've known he was lying. Isn't that right, Edward?" she asked, sneering his name as if that alone was an insult.
"Damn, y'all are a more fucked up trio than I already thought you were," Charlotte said, shaking her head. "And shame on you, Carlisle. You invited this girl into your family, acting as if she was the mate of your favorite 'child' and yet you just took Edward's word for it that he was tellin' the truth? It was your responsibility as the coven leader to speak to Bella yourself."
Carlisle looked at her in sneering disdain. "Alice had seen that Bella—"
He was cut off by Peter's very loud, very derisive laughter. "I think that right there is the source of all your problems, Carlisle. Always takin' the word of the two most manipulative in your 'family'. You already knew they were scheming to keep Bella and Jasper apart. You already knew they'd been lying all that time. So what the fuck could possibly make you believe they were tellin' the truth this time?"
"There is that," Rosalie nodded. "But Carlisle was doing a little lying of his own at that same family meeting, weren't you, Carlisle? You told all of us that Edward had every right to tell us to leave because Bella was his mate. That if we went against him and tried to contact her, we would be the ones in violation of the Volturi's law about getting in between mates."
"Holy shit," Bella laughed. "I'm so glad I'm a Whitlock and not a Cullen. No offense," she added, looking at Emmett, Rosalie, and Esme.
"None taken," the three replied in unison. And then, as if in a pre-choreographed move, they all took off whatever accessory they were wearing with the Cullen crest on it.
Carlisle watched Emmett's cuff, Rosalie's necklace, and Esme's ring hit the floor of the Volturi's throne room and could do nothing but stare in horror as the family he worked so hard to create disintegrated before his eyes.