A week has passed and Jasper is beyond fed up.
After Rosalie declared her love for the house Emmett and Esme designed, the matriarch became a hard taskmaster. With me human, Rosalie pregnant, Carlisle mostly at the hospital and Edward and Alice still in Denali, Emmett and Jasper are the only family members able to do any of the hard labor on the house. Esme herself is naturally required to oversee the proceedings, so can't help out with the manual work.
Emmett is of course perfectly delighted to obey every order, and has already happily dug the entire foundation by hand at vampire strength. Jasper, who is not at present mated to a pregnancy hormone riddled female vampire, lacks the incentives behind Emmett's enthusiasm.
I had come over today to watch the men work and brainstorm about the interior decorating with Esme and Rosalie.
Jasper had to argue Esme into being allowed a break from bricklaying, against her insistence that since vampires do not get tired he should be able to finish the entire wall in one go. When she finally relents we hide out in the kitchen where I cook us both an omelet.
"I called in some reinforcements.", he quietly confides in me. "A few old friends expressed interest in trying our new diet, and I figured they might as well give us a hand with this stupid house. The sooner it's done the better, though I expect if we work faster Esme and Rosalie will just come up with extra things to add to it."
"Will I finally get to meet Peter and Charlotte then?", I wonder.
"Yes, they are quite curious about you. A nomad called Garett as well. He is an old friend of Carlisle's who knows Peter and Char through me. They just happened to run into each other when I called."
"What a coincidence.", I remark.
"Not really.", Jasper smiles. "Peter has this very strong sense of intuition that he refuses to call a gift. Sometimes he just knows something, like that he needs to be in a certain place. He and Char rarely leave Montana, but they were in Garett's favorite stomping grounds in Downtown Boston when I called."
Jasper stills to listen to something outside that I cannot pick up without vampire hearing.
"Looks like we will have a full house.", he says. "Esme was just on the phone with Kate Denali. Apparently having Edward and Alice sulk in their home has been driving the sisters nuts and now Kate is asking to stay with us for a while."
"She might change her mind if Esme puts her to work.", I remark drily.
Jasper gets up, signaling that break time is over. "Believe me, at present I would gladly build a hundred houses to avoid their guests. Even if Esme and Rosalie keep yelling at me."
Again I wonder just how bad things had been between him and Alice, but I don't want to pry. Instead I crack a few more eggs into the pan to make another omelet for Emmett.
Kate is the first to arrive. She had apparently already been well on her way when she called Esme, figuring that she would not be turned away if she was already there.
I am the one to open the door for her, as I am the only one in the main house. After Rosalie commandeered Emmett's omelet due to a sudden craving I went back to make him another one.
I had not met any of the beautiful Denali sisters before, but I quickly take a liking to Kate as we chat walking over to the building site human speed.
Jasper purposely radiates his frustration when Esme urges Kate to sit down with her and Rosalie since they have not been able to catch up in so long.
"Oh hush Jasper.", she says. "The wall won't look uniform if we are messing about with it with multiple people. You better finish it yourself."
He glares silently and seems to consider pointing out that with their vampire precision they are perfectly able to continue the wall exactly as he has. In the end he decides the argument is not worth it and just continues. I park myself in a chair next to Esme to enjoy the view.
Over the past week I have learned that Jasper doing manual labor is the most distracting thing I have ever encountered. Since he does not need it for protection he chooses not to wear a shirt, to save himself the laundry. His muscles flex impressively whenever he picks up something heavy. The focused look on his face when he puts another brick in place with absolute precision feels very intense. In the occasional faint, watery sunlight he glows ethereally, no longer sparkling blindingly thanks to the new diet.
I had never seen so much of his skin, and am convinced I would not have if Edward and Alice had still been around. The rows and rows of teeth marks stand out faintly on his back when I look closely.
Frankly I have stopped trying to hide my lust for him, at least when I am watching him work. The first time I spotted him shirtless on the building site he made to cover himself up the moment he noticed me looking. He clearly tried but not quite managed to stop his gift from projecting his shame to me. It was then that I decided that no matter how much it embarrassed me, he should know how hot he looks to me. Since feeling my lust he seems less self-conscious about exposing his upper body around the family, though he still experiments with different styles of facial hair to cover the scars in his neck.
The day continues pleasantly, with me quietly revising my biology notes for the upcoming exams while observing the work and occasionally contributing to the conversation between Kate, Rosalie and Esme.
Then, just as the sun is setting, Jasper suddenly jumps into a defensive crouch, then relaxes again with a look of surprise on his face. A moment later a growling vampire dashes into the clearing, grabs Kate from her chair and tumbles into the forest with her. The women jump up and Emmett roars, but Jasper ushers them to stand down.
"We're so sorry!", we hear from the other end of the clearing, where two more vampires appear. One a tall man, the other a petite woman, both pale blond hair. I have an inclination who these are. "All of a sudden he just went nuts and ran off before we could grab him. What did he do, take a human? I don't smell blood." The man, presumably Peter, says.
"No, I felt his emotions.", Jasper answers. "He felt a mating bond form. The wind is this way, so he must have smelled Kate before she could."
The vampires eyes go wide, and Emmett breaks into booming laughter. "Damn, Garrett and Kate, who'd have thought."
"Wow is it always so intense when mates find each other?", I wonder.
The newcomers introduce themselves, indeed as Peter and Charlotte, and we settle into a discussion of mating bonds. In a situation with two adult vampires and no outside threats this is apparently the normal way to claim a mate. Peter and Charlotte tell their own story, that with Jasper as their sire instead of the deranged Maria they were able to form a bond immediately, but that it was weaker at first with Charlotte still being a newborn and the chaos of the war camp around them. Esme and Rosalie explain that since in their bonds one party was human and dying when the bond formed, survival took precedent. Rosalie and Carlisle had instinctively known that it was their mate they were saving, but needed to get them to safety and transformed before being able to claim them. Jasper's story I already knew of course.
It would not be until a few days later that Kate and Garrett emerged from the forest again. They sheepishly walk up to the porch where Peter is standing with a bloodshake in his hand, obnoxiously sucking on the straw to make a loud sound. Seeing how well Jasper is doing had been enough to make Peter and Charlotte love me, and I had been prepared to adore them in return for all the support they have given him in the past. With such determination on both sides we had become fast friends in those few short days. We look on in amusement as Kate and Garrett stand squirming under our scrutiny.
Carlisle and Esme then emerge from the house to greet the new couple. Esme hugs Kate, while Carlisle sternly addresses Garrett.
"Garrett, you may be one of my oldest friends, but Kate is as a cousin to me so in the absence of her own coven I feel the need to make you understand what will happen if you ever hurt her. Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie are going to explain this to you."
Garrett's red eyes wander from Emmett's bulging muscles to Jasper's scars and the murderous glint in the eyes of the by now visibly pregnant momma bear Rosalie. He seems to settle on her as the greatest threat, to Jasper's clear amusement.
"Like I couldn't handle him myself!", Kate says, playfully zapping Carlisle with her power to give electric shocks. When he doesn't flinch her eyes go wide. She zaps Garrett to check, and he falls to the ground yowling in pain.
"Oh right.", Carlisle says, "I think we did not get around to telling you that. On the processed blood diet you become immune to the special powers of other vampires, at least to Edward and Alice."
"Give me one of those fucking bloodshakes right now!", she demands. We all chuckle.
"Likely your power will work on us again when you join the diet.", Jasper says. "At least mine has kept working on both us and regular vampires all along."
"You were the first to start the diet though.", Carlisle interjects, "Therefore you were never able to try your power on a converted vampire while you were still a regular one yourself. It might matter that Edward, Alice and Kate's gifts all are mental in nature while yours has a physical component. Bella's shield ability has never stopped you either after all."
Jasper shrugs. "One way to find out I guess."
Kate chugs down a bottle of strongly concentrated bloodshake in one gulp, clearly eager to try.
She experimentally gives Carlisle a light shock, which he says he is able to feel. She then gives him a harder shock which sends him to his knees.
She frowns. "Hmm, funny. When I gave him the stronger shock it felt weirdly wrong."
Carlisle makes a high pitched noise, that clearly tells her his opinion about it being wrong to give him electric shocks.
Jasper however nods thoughtfully. "I noticed something like that too. For example when I want to send someone some peace to calm them down it feels no different from before I started the processed blood diet, but when I try to make Emmett feel terrified or anxious for a prank it feels sort of disgusting. I think it is because we become so much more human now, that our gifts develop a kind of conscience as well."
Esme claps her hands. "Well, that is enough revelations for today. Kate and Garrett I have assumed that you will want to stay here with us for the foreseeable future, so let me show you the room I have cleared out for you."
Our family was growing again, and I could not be more thrilled.
