The sound of Bella's bedroom door slamming shut created a deafening echo throughout the house.
Jasper stared up at the ceiling, listening to his sister's racing heartbeat and feeling her anguish—her anger and grief and confusion—transcend through the walls and straight to him. He'd never seen her look so...betrayed before. Jasper never would have thought he'd be the one to put that new expression there. That his family would do the same.
"You knew?" Her small quivering voice, her words, they were like a dagger to the heart.
He ran a hand over his face, "Fuck..."
"I'm so sorry. If I'd known how she would have reacted—" Alice began, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked as if wanting the earth to swallow her whole.
Only to be stopped by Edward as he stepped around her and sneered at Peter, "You should leave. I think you made enough of an impact on her."
"Edward, manners," Esme exclaimed, clearly taken aback by the events that took place moments ago and her typically kind son's attitude taking a drastic turn.
It perplexed Jasper as he frowned at his brother and then at his friend who made no move to leave. If anything, he appeared to be waging a war with the mind reader as Peter narrowed his dark eyes.
Edward's trepidation and rising discomfort made Jasper finally speak up, "What's going on?"
Edward was glaring at Peter now, not an ounce of their friendship showing as everyone gathered around. Even the Denali's had heard the argument as they trickled in.
"Why don't you tell them? See how it goes," Edward growled with a challenge.
"What the hell is going on?" Emmett finally snapped as Rosalie came downstairs with a solemn expression on her face, taking in the room from the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes, it would be nice to have some inkling as to what's going on," Carlisle added, clearly troubled by Bella's storming out of the room. By the way she rejected his touch...
"Peter...maybe we should tell them after all?" Charlotte said gently.
Peter didn't say a word. He merely clenched his jaw, a muscle popping in his stare down with Edward. Whatever he must have heard inside Jasper's best friend's head, clearly hadn't been good.
That sent a wave of worry within him.
"Peter, did you sense something? Is that why you're really here?" Jasper asked as he stepped over to Alice and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Peter's eyes shined beneath the dim lighting as he shifted his dark gaze from Edward to Jasper, "In part, yes. But before I tell you, I need you to hear me out, Major."
Major. So it's one of those talks then?
Charlotte glanced nervously around the room, her subtle shifting closer to her nomadic companion not going unnoticed by Jasper. As if she were preparing for the worst. Like an attack...
"Say it," Jasper snapped this time, unable to calm his roaring emotions let alone everyone else's concern and Bella's sorrow. He'd fucked up with her. Failed her.
He knew that.
Knew it the moment he hadn't gone to her rather than towards the nomadic vampires that shared such a stark resemblance with the filth that tormented her as a child. How he could get her to talk to him again would be another test of strength he didn't know he needed to possess.
Peter ran a hand over his mouth, silent for a long while before saying, "If it could be anyone else, I'd take it. I wouldn't dream of jeopardizing her life if things could be different. Jeopardizing our friendship, Jasper. I had to come here and see her though, to know if my...gift was leading me astray or if it was the truth. After seeing her...looking into her eyes and hearing her heartbeat—I know my gift wasn't wrong."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Emmett was pacing now, clearly not putting two and two together the way Jasper was slowly understanding what his best friend was saying. The implication of his words that were laced together delicately before Bella's overprotective family.
Edward cursed under his breath, fighting off a humorless laugh as he sank into one of the stools by the island.
"You can't possibly mean...Carlisle?" Esme placed her hand over her mouth while the other went to Carlisle's shoulder. The former sporting an expression of utter bewilderment.
Peter's grim gaze met his best friend's.
Jasper was moving before his mind could catch up with his feral instincts.
Alice called out his name as he shoved Peter against the wall, his body slamming against it in a deafening crack as the paint splintered and crushed into rubble at his feet. Peter grunted when Jasper's forearm pressed against his neck and a bone-chilling growl emanated from his chest.
"No," Jasper seethed, fangs out.
"I can't stop it, you know that." Peter said, placing a hand over Jasper's shoulder and pushing him away long enough to get some space.
"She's a child! I'll be dead before I let you near her."
Peter readied himself for another attack, this time his gaze darkened at the empath's threat. This time, he would be ready to retaliate if it came to that.
In a flash, Charlotte stood between them before Jasper could lunge once more, her voice placating as she pressed a strong hand against Peter's chest, "Boys, please. Don't do this. As much as you may not like it, he has a right to see her, Jasper."
"The hell he does," Emmett muttered, earning a pointed look from Rosalie to shut up.
"I wasn't planning on staying nor approaching her," Peter said, gathering his rage and composing himself once more, "I just wanted to see Bella with my own eyes and know if it was true. To know."
"We'll be leaving the US for a while. Peter has sensed there is much to do before we can return." Charlotte said despite the reproachful glare he shot at her.
"And where is that?" Carlisle asked.
Peter sighed, "The nomad you told me about. The one who...did that to her." That being the trauma which caused Bella to lash out the way she had and run away. Jasper had confided in him and Charlotte long ago, shortly after they'd taken Bella in, needing someone to talk to that wasn't his immediate family regarding worries of bloodlust taking over and jeopardizing his sister. He'd told them about the nomad that killed her parents. And now he was going after him? What had changed?
Peter's voice was a stern promise, "My gift will help me find him."
"Find him? Without a scent nor an inkling of who he is? How is that possible?" Tanya Denali questioned.
A chill ran through the room then and it had nothing to do with Jasper's icy emotions roiling within him.
Peter slowly turned his head in Tanya's direction, assessing her with a predatory look. "Where are Laurent and Irina right now?" He asked the leader of the Denali Coven with keen interest. "Why aren't they with you?"
"They decided to take some time away from us, nothing wrong with that. You know how it is with mates. It's hard to keep our hands off each other," Garrett said as he kept a hand draped over his mate, grinning at her with a suggestive arch of his dark brow which earned him a glare from Jasper, Edward, Emmett, and Peter. He clearly didn't understand why they took his insinuation to heart as he shrugged, "What?"
"Idiot," Rosalie shook her head, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.
"They're in Italy last I heard. Irina's obsession with renaissance culture never ceases to amaze me." Tanya said with the roll of her eyes, nonchalant as can be as she looked down at her perfectly painted nails.
"She's also the only one who isn't the least bit afraid of running into the Volturi, despite all our warnings," Eleazar added, Carmen agreeing beside him.
Jasper took Peter in the entire time the Denali spoke of their two missing members. Something seemed to darken his friend's already sullen mood. Solidifying his determination into something bitter, something full of disdain.
As if she too could feel the nomad's emotions, Tanya grew serious, "Why are you asking about them?"
Peter and Charlotte shared a glance before he said, "Because I have a feeling their going to Europe now of all times wasn't a coincidence nor a random trip. My gift is rarely wrong about these things."
"Irina and Laurent couldn't possibly know this nomad you speak of, that's far too much of a coincidence." Kate said, frowning at Peter's not so veiled accusation.
He tilted his head to the side, musing as he said, "Perhaps. But until I find out for myself, I wouldn't put it past them."
"I still don't understand why you had to come all the way here to see Bella," Jasper said, clearly not liking that Peter of all people was mates with...his sister. His little sister to make things worse. "As for the nomad, why not just tell us and let me or Emmett handle it?"
"Jasper..." Alice tried to reason with him only for him to direct his glare at his wife, knowing full well that she knew about this. To make things worse, she hadn't told him either. They would talk about this later, she could count on that.
"How would you feel if you had a mate out in the world only to find that you couldn't see her without stirring some unresolved trauma? That you're the cause of starting that potent fear in her eyes?" Peter arched a brow incredulously. "Knowing that you can't so much as look at her because she's nothing more than a child...believe me Jasper when I say this isn't something I wished upon myself. Or her."
Jasper was silent but clearly unswayed. If that were true then how long has he known or sensed that Bella was his mate? Years? Months? And he never told him...
Peter continued, "I'm not going to ask you to understand. Hell, I don't even understand what I'm feeling. Her being so young isn't exactly making me leap for joy either. But I needed to know. To know her, Jasper."
"You know how hard it's been for us, Jazz. You all have your mates, but those of us who haven't had the privilege? It's a lonely eternal existence," Charlotte said, the pain laced in her voice as Edward grew uncomfortable, running a hand through his hair as he looked out towards the window. "Please don't hate Peter for finding his mate. He had no way of choosing."
The two males stared each other down for a long time, Peter's stubborn demeanor masking the lament he was sharing with Jasper. He couldn't bring himself to accept this though. Not as he knew Peter's many comings and goings, his lovers over the years that shifted like the tides. The only exception has always been Charlotte, though that may have more to do with the latter's interest in the same sex rather than her and Peter's friendship. That was a lie though, of course. Peter cared for Charlotte ever since they first became friends shortly after Maria had turned the girl who'd clearly never been ready to fight or wish to do so. In a way, it didn't surprise Jasper that the two had grown close, depending on each other for comfort in their blossoming kinship given all Maria had made them do.
Charlotte had also been the reason they'd ultimately left Maria's coven. The reason Jasper had chosen a different life for himself, rather than continue killing newborns—innocents—endlessly.
He also knew Bella like the back of his hand. Timid and far too smart for her own good. A kind heart that rivaled Esme's while still stubborn in her ways. The blossoming love between her and Flynn that sparked so much joy it was all-consuming in the house. She would never have Peter as her mate if presented with the question, Jasper knew that better than anyone.
After tonight however, it wouldn't be a surprise if she didn't want anything to do with any of them...
"I'm going with you."
Peter and Charlotte both blinked at Jasper in surprise, the same way the rest of his family stared at him in stunned silence.
"Jasper..." Esme began, only to pause when he shared a reassuring wave of his gift.
"If anyone's going to end that miserable piece of shit's existence, it'll be me. I owe that much to her."
Alice turned to face him, "You'll have to tell her. Or she'll think it's her fault you left without saying a word."
"I'll tell her, and then you and I will have a long conversation," Jasper said to Peter as he turned and walked away from the nomad that had become so much more than a brother. He'd been a lifeline in all those years of searching for peace and forgiveness for the sins he committed under Maria's rule.
"Can't wait," Peter grumbled sarcastically under his breath while everyone else appeared to release a collective sigh of relief that Jasper had let Peter walk away without so much as a scratch on him.
Bella had just started to doze off—her head tucked beneath her pillow and body drowned in the covers—when her bedroom door opened.
Alerted by the soft footsteps approaching her bed, Bella's whole body tensed.
"Darlin'," Jasper's voice sounded muffled to her ears but she knew he was crouched by her side, waiting for her to acknowledge him.
"Go away..." She mumbled, fighting off the new onslaught of tears that gathered in her eyes.
Everyone knows...they all know that I was the cause of Renee and Charlie's deaths. That I never made him up in my head.
Jasper was silent for a long time before his hand slowly rested over her shoulder. Bella was up before he could touch her fully, whipping the covers off her as she pushed away from him. Jasper stared up at her tear stained cheeks and pink cheeks tinted with all the hurt and anger she had swirling around inside her heart. Bella glared at him as she rose on her knees in the middle of the bed. When she flung her pillow at his head, Jasper closed his eyes and didn't make any move to avoid it. The pillow bounced off the side of his head weakly, falling to the floor as Bella seethed, "You told them."
"I didn't-"
"You did! I told you about my dreams in secret when no one else was around! So they couldn't have just overheard me right? But they always knew, didn't they? I'm not stupid Jasper!
Jasper hung his head before looking at his sister again, "I know you're not stupid, darlin'. I know that. We should have told you about the nomad when we'd first explained the true nature of our lives. It was a misstep on all of our parts in an attempt to protect you. You're still very young to know all there is to know in our world, Bella."
"Protect me? From more lies?"
A sharp sting of hurt shot through his heart, hearing her tired voice as she told him how she truly felt.
"All this time...I thought I could trust you to keep my secret. All this time I thought I made him up, that he was just a nightmare I created to make up for what happened to my parents. Because it was my fault..." Tears streamed down her face as she poured her heart out to him. Jasper felt his own eyes sting as he listened and never once looked away from her. "But to never tell me that he was real? You all let me think I was crazy? You liar!"
Another pillow hit his head, this time it was done with a little more force. When she hit him again and again, Jasper rose and stepped closer. Bella threw her pillow as hard as she could at him before trying to crawl away. He caught her by her little arms as he sat on the bed, pulling her closer. Bella pushed at his chest as she said over and over again through her tears, "You liar, liar, liar, Jasper!"
"I'm sorry," His voice was hoarse as he felt Bella eventually melt into his arms despite her anger. The betrayal she'd never once felt towards anyone before. Jasper felt his own tears drowning him from the inside-out as Bella cried against his chest, "I'm so sorry, Bella.
"I don't forgive you." She sniffled.
Jasper kissed the top of her head, "I know. It's okay."
"It's not...I don't want to feel like this with you or anyone. I hate it."
"I know. I promise I'll make it up to you. I'll make sure no one ever hurts you again because of him. I'll make sure he can never go near you again."
Bella looked up at him, frowning as he leaned back, "What do you mean?"
"Peter and Charlotte think they know where he'll be. I'm going with them to find him, and take care of things."
"You're leaving with them?"
Once again that ache of betrayal was back and he fought the urge to override that emotion. He couldn't do that to her now when she was clearly in her right to feel however she wanted to.
He brushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, "Just for a couple of weeks I suspect."
"And you're coming back..."
"I promise, darlin'."
Bella gave him a reluctant nod, "Okay."
He could see the moment she shut him out as the light dimmed in her eyes and she turned out of his arms. She laid back down, pulling the covers over her shoulders and rolled onto her side.
Jasper sighed, "I love you, Bells."
He rose and made his way out of the room, only pausing when he heard her teary voice say weakly, "Love you..."
Jasper swore he heard his heart crack in two when her soft barely audible cries followed him down the hall.
Thanks for reading x
Jasper and Bella's scene made me tear up a bit lol
I'm pretty sure your many questions about Peter have been answered after this chapter ;) but given his conversation with Jasper and the Cullens, it'll be a good long while before anything can come of his connection with Bella.