„…and then do you remember when she took the, like, what was it, a McDonalds straw..", Caius started one of our funny family stories, but was instantly interrupted by loud laughter.

„That was disgusting, no really!", Aro roared with laughter.

„..and I came in and I'm like, are you really, like, are you seriously draining this guy through a McDonalds straw!", Caius slammed his hand on the table a few times, laughing.

„It was that serial killer, the paedophile, you know the one who lured the kids by promising them McDonalds?", I tried to defend myself. Not that I felt any guilt at all – I loved killing depraved humans. We actually had a world-spread network for catching criminals that were not detected by human forces. When we caught them, they could only wish for human mercy, because we showed them none. For us, those individuals were nothing but food, and food that we were allowed to play with. But still, it was the first time for Jasper to be hearing this kind of stories, and maybe it all would seem a bit creepy to him. I turned to look at him, and instantly caught his beautiful red eyes. He was smiling at me, sensing my minor insecurity.

"As long as you don't get any ideas with me, I mean, I'll know to run away from you if I ever saw you approaching with a straw…", my dear Verena said, and earned another round of laughter, and then she continued, "But knowing Thalia, that's really not her usual cup of tea. Usually, she's just like.." and then she started mimicking small laps, like a small animal would do when drinking water.

The room erupted with laughter at my expense. It was very well known that I was a light drinker, taking only small amounts of blood, kind of sipping a nice cup of tea through the afternoon. Verena served that purpose just perfectly. We would usually spend many afternoons together, just reading, talking and then her eating while I was..well, drinking from her.

"Lucky you! Because my one", Stefano nodded his head towards Jasper, "is more like a.." and then he started mimicking long, deep slurps.

"No wonder you look like you got mauled all the time!", Aro commented, and we all laughed again, including Jasper.

"Although, dearest Thalia, you did try out your mate's former diet?", my beloved Father asked me, smiling. I knew this was his way of friendly taunting me.

"Oh God, I had fur in my teeth for days!", I dramatically rolled my eyes, much to the collective amusement.

"Well darling, you should have had listened to me", Jasper smiled, "Didn't I tell you to go for the buck?"

"Yes, you did.", I admitted sheepishly.

"And what did you go for?"

"…a squirrel.", I confessed, and the entire Volturi family screamed with laughter.

"..it smelled nicer.", I rolled my eyes again and then joined the laughter. I was delighted to see Jasper joining in the laughter and also fitting into my family.

"As if you didn't have your amount of embarrassing moments when you started here!", I playfully slapped Jaspers arm, and he grinned.

"Oh please, enlighten us", Aro asked, giggling already.

"The first dozen humans all fainted, he nearly sucked them dry!", I laughed, "And then we had Father standing behind him and smashing one of his heavy books over Jasper's head when he was taking too much!"

"But I didn't drain even one.", Jasper said, defending himself.

"No, you didn't", I was so proud of him, "That's more than most of us can say about ourselves. Well done, my love."

Jaspers eyes always lit up when I called him that. I was known for using endearing words to my family and friends, but "love" was reserved for Jasper only.

"I wouldn't have made it without you", he kissed me and I felt all his warmth and love for me, "And Encyclopaedia Britannica, apparently!", he glanced at Marcus, who laughed yet again.

"And then finally I came in!", Stefano announced, "And I fainted only once!"

"Eh, what can I say. You're a big fella, it seemed as if you'd hold on longer!", Jasper smiled and shrugged with his shoulders.

"I knew you would make a good pair", Marcus nodded, "I hand picked you from a thousand humans. All for my son-in-law. I knew you needed someone special, with you being an empath."

"Thank you again, Marcus", Jasper nodded, "I am truly grateful. For everything."

…

We went back to our house near Volterra, one we bought very soon after I finally stopped acting half-crazy. I can't help but feel embarrassment when I remember how poorly I treated my mate. I kept him waiting, I keep him wondering if there's something wrong with me, or with him, or we're both cursed…it actually took for him to leave me so I could finally wake up and realize I'm messing this up big time.

"You're thinking about it again, aren't you?", he smiled his crocked smile as he drove our Lamborghini.

"Yes.", I admitted, "I'm so…"

"Don't say it!", he interrupted me, "Seriously, don't. That's behind us, baby."

"I love you; you know that?", I said. What a stupid thing to ask an empath. He just smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"No, I mean, do you know that I love you? It's not only this mate mumbo-jumbo, I actually love you, mate or no mate, I really love you, you as a person.", I explained.

"I feel the same for you, darlin.", he said, and I realized I even loved his manner of speaking: short, truthful and significant. He wasn't someone who wasted words.

"And I'm so happy that you accepted my family, too. You see now that we are not some kind of a menacing killer organization.", I added, "I would really like for your family to get to know us in this light, too."

"Aww, babe, I dunno.", he slowly shook his head as if he was telling me "no".

"That's ok. I just wanted you to know, if you want to contact them or meet them, I'm ok with that, and I'd like to meet them, too."

"All right.", he said while parking the car. I was just about to ask him if this "all right" was a "all right, let's go and see my folks", or "all right, the Lambo's in the garage", but he would have none of that. He quickly scooped my in his arms and jumped us both directly through the open bedroom window.

"Oh?", I giggled.

"It just that…Verena gave me this idea when she described how you liked to drink..", he smiled as he started taking my clothes off.

"What..? Oh. Oh!", I giggled as soon as I realized what he had in mind, "You have a very dirty mind!"

"You can thank me later", he stated matter-of-factly as he already placed himself between my legs. This is going to be one long night, and I was absolutely positive I would be thanking him later!

….

Although we cannot sleep, we love our bed. It's a place for not only love-making, but an intimate place for us to bond. We spent days and days in there, just looking at each other, talking, cuddling. I love listening to his deep voice, especially when he spoke with a slight twang – I found it both sexy and cute. It's been only a few years, but being old as we both actually were, a couple of years was really an insignificant amount of time. We both felt as if we were newly-weds. He often caught me staring at him, and once he confessed how lucky he is that he was an empath, because he knew that I was staring because I was admiring him. This confused me, and then he addressed all the scars on his body. He wasn't exactly ashamed of them, but he knew that they weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing, especially with perfect vampire vision. But the truth is, the scars made him perfect. To me, they were a constant reminder that he was strong, undefeated, aggressive, male. All those things that made me feel scared before, now were a huge turn-on. I couldn't get enough of his body, and I loved watching him, mostly in bed, but I also watched him when he started training with the Volturi guard. Once I got so hot and bothered just from watching him that he felt my arousal from across the training hall. We had to find a secluded place in the castle asap.

It was during one of such mornings, when we were laying in our bed, gently caressing each other and just talking softly, when the phone rang. We actually had one of those old-school phones, cords and everything.

"You pick it up.", I said, playing with his hair. I loved his locks.

"No way. It's surely not for me.", he smiled smugly.

"It could be Felix. He said something about training", I suggested.

"It's probably that scientist that's been waiting for you for the last three days.", he fired back.

"Ugh, string theory. Sounds boring. Tell him to try it with string cheese", I giggled. The phone still rung.

"You keep on ignoring your duties as a muse.", he mocked me lightly. The phone finally fell silent.

"I have other duties..", I started kissing his chest, and kept on going lower and lower. Just as I licked the tip of the very aroused Major, as I called my Jaspers favourite part, the god-damned phone started again.

"Do. Not. Answer.", he managed to say, and I giggled around him. The vibrations made him even harder and I started pleasing my mate in earnest. The phone kept on ringing and ringing…Jasper suddenly got up, and in the next second the phone was ripped from the wall and flew through the window. Then Jasper got back in his previous position, and with all the peace in the world, looked down at me and said "Proceed, darlin". And proceed I did…

But half an hour later, there was a knock on our door. Jasper, only in his very low rising jeans, answered the door to no one other then my Father, who was carrying our phone!

"I found this in the bushes", he handed the phone to Jasper while I giggled in the back. He took one look at Jasper, his unruly hair and general out-of-bed- appearance and rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, Father!", I ran to his awaiting arms. I took the whole two seconds I need to put my clothes on in order to appear respectable.

"Nothing to apologize about. I am glad you and your husband are happy.", he said, and I swear both Jasper and I would blush if we could have.

"I am sorry we did not pick up the phone, we were about to call you back..", Jasper said, and then realized he was holding a broken phone in his hands, "Well, we'd use a cellphone. To call…somebody. Since the phone you called us on got thrown out of the window."

Marcus smiled and then said, "I would laugh out loud, children, at this situation. But I'm here to tell you something, and that is no laughing matter."

We both instantly sobered from our sex-induced haze.

"What is it, Father?", I asked.

"Esme called."

Jasper stood dead in his tracks.

"We need to go to America. Our friend Carlisle is dying."