Another Fate
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 11
Caius hissed quietly, gritting his teeth against the pain as Aro helped reattach his arm. They’d just been attacked right here in the throne room and they were all still reeling at the audacity of this latest attempt on the platinum King’s life. “This has gotten completely out of hand,” Aro commented as he held Caius’s arm to his shoulder while it knit.
He’d taken on no less than five of the assassins himself while everyone else was busy with the rest. “What were their numbers?” he demanded from his raven haired brother while rubbing his brow with his good hand.
Aro glanced up from the knitting wound. “We’ve yet to get a final count, but somewhere in the vicinity of thirty.”
“Thirty!,” Caius growled. “How the fuck did they infiltrate the castle?!”
Aro sighed. “Very good question brother and one that will be investigated thoroughly, I assure you. One thing not in question is their target,” the raven King said with a pointed look at his pained brother.
“Yes, Aro, I am more than aware,” he snapped, his quick temper even quicker as the days without his mate wore on. Aro continued to fuss over the injury and Caius finally waved him off. “You may let go now, I believe it’s set, and you have some vampire heads to read.”
Aro lowered himself in his throne, keen red eyes watching as their guards finished with the clean up, piling said heads neatly in front of the dais. “I fear the outcome will be the same as the previous three attempts on your life brother.”
“That may be, but we must know for sure. Perhaps whoever is behind this is desperate enough to make mistakes now.”
Aro nodded slowly, his gaze cast into the distance. “I can’t quite believe they attacked you here, brother.” He turned his head to look at Caius who was rubbing his healing shoulder. “We must find the source of this threat and eliminate it.”
Caius snorted a laugh. “What I wouldn’t give to find the fucker behind this because I’m certain if we do, then we’ll also find my mate shortly thereafter.”
“Yes,” Aro muttered, “I also believe it’s connected. The timing of the attempts is too coincidental to be anything else.” He looked at his brother and brushed back some strands of raven hair that had come loose during the fight. “I guess I’ll get to reading so we can get this unpleasantness burned and cleaned up.”
Caius nodded and stood, gratefully accepting the panicking human Marcus had just brought. “Thank you,” he said while pulling the wide-eyed, babbling human close to sink his fangs into her neck. Her warm blood rushed over his tongue and down his throat, but like most things he used to take pleasure in, he hardly noticed. He did it to survive, to stay strong, in anticipation of the day he’d be reunited with his Tesorino. Until then, there was no pleasure to be found in anything for him.
When he’d finished, Marcus took the body and handed it off to a waiting guard who took it away. “The blood did you good,” Marcus remarked while eyeing his blond brother. Both he and Aro had become more and more concerned with Caius’s demeanor as the years without his mate passed. The once fiery Warrior King was becoming despondent between his bouts of foul temper and neither of them knew how to help.
Especially now that they’d convinced him to stay within the castle walls. Both he and Aro had been alarmed at the three attempts on their blond brother’s life. He’d fought his way out of them and had obviously been victorious, but each attempt had escalated in intensity, and both of them had feared it was just a matter of time and numbers of attackers.
Unfortunately, after seeing todays events firsthand, they knew they’d been right.
They’d done everything they could think of to find their missing Prince, even sending another letter out worldwide after never hearing anything back from the first. Caius though, had remained adamant they keep Jasper’s true identity out of the missive to keep him safe. They knew, if one of their many enemies got wind there was a Volturi Prince Consort out there, without benefit of the Volturi’s protections, he would be a prime target. And so they’d sent the letter searching for a guard, waiting in vain for any word or clue.
Additionally fruitless had been their search for another talented tracker. Eleazar, their former talent scout, had never shown for his summons, and then had come the call from the scout’s mate with word that he was missing. Needless to say, they’d never found him, and now, after these attacks on Caius, Marcus was quite certain what’d happened to the scout. He was ash, and their search for a tracker was made that much more difficult without him.
With a weary sigh, Aro slumped into his throne while rubbing his temple. “Nothing of use,” he said before glancing at his brothers. “Like all the others, they were hired by an unknown and paid by wire transfer from the same account that proved untraceable to us in the past.”
“So, whoever it is, is the same from the other attempts,” Marcus muttered and Caius slammed a hand on his throne arm, cracking the polished wood.
“Of course it is!” he snapped. “I could have told you that without Aro’s input.”
“We had to know for sure, brother,” Aro muttered while rubbing his brow.
“Useless,” the platinum King growled. “It’s all fucking useless.”
“Try not to despair, brother,” Aro murmured. “We recently received word on a potential tracker in America. He’s a nomad, but our contact promised to speak to him the next time he sees him. He knows the tracker’s in his area, so it should be soon.”
“Is his ability similar to Demetri’s?” Marcus asked and Aro shook his head.
“Unfortunately, no, but I am told he’s rather good at what he does. According to our contact, the vampire enjoys tracking as a sport and has honed his skills over the years that way.” He shook his head. “Such a waste, when he could be using it for more noble pursuits.”
Marcus hummed his agreement. “Let us hope he will agree to work with us.”
“If he even calls,” Caius muttered darkly before looking at Aro. “Why not simply send the guards to retrieve him?”
Aro scrubbed his face with a hand. “His mate is also gifted brother. Seems she’s able to evade capture, so we have to go about this delicately and woo him to our services.”
“When will something go our way?!” Caius growled. “I feel as if the world is conspiring against me and I’m fucking tired of it!” he roared while rising to pick up his throne and hurl it at a marble pillar. As it showered pieces around them, Caius vanished out the back entrance, the door closing with a bang.
“That went well,” Marcus remarked dryly.
“It went about as well as I’d anticipated,” Aro muttered. “But I can’t say I blame him. It’s been five and a half years and still, we are no closer to finding Jasper.”
“At least we know he’s alive, and as long as we have that, we will not rest,” Marcus said.
“No indeed, brother. Not until our Prince Consort is back with us,” Aro agreed.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
After a scalding hot shower, Jasper slipped into some comfortable sweats and settled on his bed, legs crossed and hands resting on his knees as he began his rhythmic breathing.
After the slip Carlisle made in the car about mates and what that bitch Alice had said just a half hour ago, he found it difficult to let go of his thoughts. They clung to his mind like sticky webs, echoing over and over as the resultant pain they conjured pulsed in his chest just over his dead heart.
God, how he missed Caius. How he longed to breathe deeply of his mate’s intoxicating scent and feel his skin under his hands as they tasted each other, moved together…
He growled, his red eyes snapping open to stare around the room as his hands clenched into fists. He needed…needed…fuck…he needed his mate, but something else would have to do.
Rising from his bed, he stood, his head lowered as the growl rattling his chest deepened, his fangs descending as he slowly lost control to his vampire.
“No,” he muttered as his eyes squeezed shut, fighting his instincts with everything he was. He couldn’t lose himself so much that he risked having Maria come back. Just the thought terrified him, and he knew, should he lose himself to his vampire and should his vampire cause him to try to run, the seer bitch would see before he ever made it out of town and would stop him. Or rather, she’d have the family stop him, and he hated to admit it, but Edward was faster than him. He knew he was able to kick his ass in a fight, but the mind-reader was able to stop him long enough for the whole family to catch up, so he just couldn’t risk it.
“Blood,” he muttered as his shoulders heaved with unneeded breaths, his whole body on edge as he fought against the swelling rage his situation had summoned within him. He needed blood—fresh blood and more of it than he could get from the sorry thermal cup he’d been subsisting on every day since the last time he’d ‘slipped’.
Before he could really think about it, he strode to his balcony door, opened it and jumped, pouring on every ounce of speed he could muster the moment he hit solid ground.
Mindlessly, he ran, not thinking about where he’d end up, but rather going by instincts alone, so it was a bit of a surprise when he ended up at the back of a house right in the main part of Forks, drawn there by the now obvious scent of fresh blood.
“Shit,” the familiar blond girl muttered, examining her hand before sucking the bead of blood from her finger while eyeing the garden gate. “Fucking thing,” she grumbled. “Said he was gonna fix it…”
Jasper stepped from the trees, not bothering to be quiet as the forest debris beneath his feet rustled enough for her to hear. Her head turned and her eyes went wide at the sight of him, standing there in nothing but a pair of sweat pants. “Jay Cullen?” she said, her voice a bit breathless as she stared, a smile she probably thought was coy finally curving her lips as her brain caught up to the unlikely, yet undeniable situation. She turned to face him fully, her head canting to the side as her smile grew. “What are you doing here?”
He smirked as he felt his eyes change, his fangs and gums aching as he took in a huge breath of her scent. “Lauren, right?” he purred, stepping toward her as she nodded.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
He grinned as he watched her gaze glide over his chest and down to his abs.
“Liking what you see?” he asked as he reached out to rest his palm on the side of her neck, her pulse now wildly throbbing under his hand.
“I do,” she said, her lust heavy gaze now rising to meet his as she smirked, her hand gliding over his defined pectoral to rest there.
“Good,” he growled, “because I’d just hate to disappoint you in your last moments.”
Her brow creased. “Wha…” she began but he yanked her forward and buried his fangs in her neck, drawing a startled gasp from her as he sucked viciously, her body already weakening as she whimpered, confusion pouring off her mingled with the first tendrils of fear. By the time her brain caught up with what might be happening though, she was much too weak to scream and his satisfied growl gently rumbled under her hand as it slowly slid off his chest to hang there limply as he drained her.
“Jasper!” a voice hissed behind him just as the girl’s heart stopped. With a low growl, he turned his head, his lip pulled up showing a pink tinged fang as he eyed the intruder. “Son,” Carlisle said, his eyes sad and tone soothing as he held up his hands. “Come with me now. I’ve come to take you home.”
Jasper snarled while clutching the limp girl, her head lolling to one side as he backed away a step. “Please, son,” Carlisle soothed, “Esme is worried…won’t you come home for her?”
Esme…
The coherent thought penetrated his instinctual fog as he slowly returned to himself. She loved him. He knew that and he’d come to love her too… His growl tapered off and he glanced down at the cooling body in his hands. “Esme…” he muttered.
“Yes, Jasper, come and we’ll go home to her. She’ll be relieved to see you.”
Jasper blinked, his eyes narrowing on Edward and Emmett as they moved to stand behind Carlisle, their emotions purposely subdued but undeniable. They were feeling anger and disgust, Edward more so than Emmett.
“Esme never judges me,” he murmured and Carlisle smiled sadly.
“No, son, she would never do that. She loves you unconditionally.”
Jasper’s head tilted to the side. “She does,” he agreed with wonder at the thought. It was true though and she was the only other being beside his mate to ever feel that way about him. It was a different kind of love—a mother’s love—but it was no less genuine and he didn’t know how he would’ve made it through the last few years without it. Carlisle had come to love him too, but there was always a reserved note to it—something cautious about it, which in turn, made Jasper a bit wary.
Carlisle held out a hand. “Ready to go home?”
He looked down once more at the girl’s body before nodding. “I just need to…”
“Edward and Emmett will take care of cleaning up.” The Cullen patriarch motioned with a hand and Emmett stepped forward, not meeting Jasper’s gaze as he took the girl from his hold. “You got blood on your…” he motioned at his own face and chest before shrugging the body over his shoulder.
“We’ll see you boys back at the house,” Carlisle said as they vanished into the woods. “Come on son, we need to leave. I hear a car approaching.” He turned and walked into the trees, pausing there to wait for Jasper to fall into step with him which he did a second later.
“What prompted this, Jasper?” the doctor asked as they walked together. “I thought you’d been doing rather well on the bagged blood.”
Jasper smirked. “Therapy time, Doc, really? Still trying to figure out what makes me tick? How to make me fit into the nice, neat little box you’ve built for yourself over the years?”
“Jasper,” Carlisle breathed out with an exasperated sigh, “no, I’m not trying to fit you into some imaginary box, son. I am however, trying to help you settle into some sort of peaceful life. It worries me—and Esme—that you always seem so unsettled and it just seems to be worsening as the years pass, which is rather unexpected, to be honest.”
Jasper’s expression went blank as he stared ahead. “I needed blood…needed a kill, nothing more to it than that.”
Carlisle rubbed his brow. “You know, you’ve put us in a bad spot? You not only killed, but did it locally. If the Quileute learn of this, we may have to move.”
Jasper shrugged. “One place is as good as any, so it really doesn’t matter to me.”
Carlisle side-eyed him, his expression unimpressed. “We just moved, Jasper, and I can tell you now, Rosalie is going to be livid over this.”
He shrugged. “Yeah? Well, good thing she has the same panties to get glad in, isn’t it?”
“You know, a bit of remorse on your part would go a long way toward appeasing tempers here, don’t you think?”
Jasper scoffed. “Remorse?” he questioned as anger swelled in his chest. “What the fuck do I have to be remorseful over? I’m forced to be here, Carlisle, do you get that? I’m just along for the ride, so forgive me for not really giving a fuck if Barbie’s pissed because she might be inconvenienced.” He snorted and shook his head. “Boo-fuckin’-hoo.”
“It’s really a bit more involved than being inconvenienced. This is our way of life and has been for many decades. What you’ve done today and in the past, upsets that balance, and we are just as captive to it all as you are.”
Jasper’s brows shot up as he looked at the Cullen patriarch. “You can’t be serious.”
Carlisle nodded. “I am. We care for you, Jasper. You may feel you’re here against your will, but we’ve come to love you and can’t imagine our lives—our family—without you. Everything you do affects us—Esme, especially so.”
“Not the same,” Jasper growled, “not even close. You have your mate, Rosalie and Emmett have each other and now Edward has found his.” He threw a scowl at the coven leader. “I don't see anyone tearing any of you apart and forcing you to live that way, so don’t ever fucking compare yourself to me.”
“Alice loves you. If you’d only…” Carlisle began, his tone tentative but a vicious snarl from Jasper cut him off.
“Don’t speak to me about that conniving bitch!”
Carlisle stopped short as Jasper got in his face. “It may not be today or even ten years from now, but someday Carlisle, someday I will tear her apart with my bare hands and feed her into the hottest flames I can conjure, piece by tiny fucking piece with a smile on my face, do you hear?”
Carlisle studied the young vampire a moment, startled to see yet another facet of personality that’d been hidden all this time. “I do,” he murmured as Jasper held his gaze, his eyes glowing with so much anger and hatred the coven leader had to stifle a shudder. “But I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Jasper didn’t even blink. “I’m not. The only thing I’m sorry about was ever having to meet the bitch in the first place.”
Carlisle blinked then nodded. “Shall we go home?” the shaken coven leader asked, breaking the stare-down with his newest son. Jasper looked away and smirked, but it was bitter, matching perfectly the swirling anger and resentment he could feel coming from the young empath.
“Home…” Jasper muttered. “I would love nothing better,” he said as he began walking and somehow, Carlisle knew, the young one wasn’t speaking of any home he’d ever shared with his family.
Caius hissed quietly, gritting his teeth against the pain as Aro helped reattach his arm. They’d just been attacked right here in the throne room and they were all still reeling at the audacity of this latest attempt on the platinum King’s life. “This has gotten completely out of hand,” Aro commented as he held Caius’s arm to his shoulder while it knit.
He’d taken on no less than five of the assassins himself while everyone else was busy with the rest. “What were their numbers?” he demanded from his raven haired brother while rubbing his brow with his good hand.
Aro glanced up from the knitting wound. “We’ve yet to get a final count, but somewhere in the vicinity of thirty.”
“Thirty!,” Caius growled. “How the fuck did they infiltrate the castle?!”
Aro sighed. “Very good question brother and one that will be investigated thoroughly, I assure you. One thing not in question is their target,” the raven King said with a pointed look at his pained brother.
“Yes, Aro, I am more than aware,” he snapped, his quick temper even quicker as the days without his mate wore on. Aro continued to fuss over the injury and Caius finally waved him off. “You may let go now, I believe it’s set, and you have some vampire heads to read.”
Aro lowered himself in his throne, keen red eyes watching as their guards finished with the clean up, piling said heads neatly in front of the dais. “I fear the outcome will be the same as the previous three attempts on your life brother.”
“That may be, but we must know for sure. Perhaps whoever is behind this is desperate enough to make mistakes now.”
Aro nodded slowly, his gaze cast into the distance. “I can’t quite believe they attacked you here, brother.” He turned his head to look at Caius who was rubbing his healing shoulder. “We must find the source of this threat and eliminate it.”
Caius snorted a laugh. “What I wouldn’t give to find the fucker behind this because I’m certain if we do, then we’ll also find my mate shortly thereafter.”
“Yes,” Aro muttered, “I also believe it’s connected. The timing of the attempts is too coincidental to be anything else.” He looked at his brother and brushed back some strands of raven hair that had come loose during the fight. “I guess I’ll get to reading so we can get this unpleasantness burned and cleaned up.”
Caius nodded and stood, gratefully accepting the panicking human Marcus had just brought. “Thank you,” he said while pulling the wide-eyed, babbling human close to sink his fangs into her neck. Her warm blood rushed over his tongue and down his throat, but like most things he used to take pleasure in, he hardly noticed. He did it to survive, to stay strong, in anticipation of the day he’d be reunited with his Tesorino. Until then, there was no pleasure to be found in anything for him.
When he’d finished, Marcus took the body and handed it off to a waiting guard who took it away. “The blood did you good,” Marcus remarked while eyeing his blond brother. Both he and Aro had become more and more concerned with Caius’s demeanor as the years without his mate passed. The once fiery Warrior King was becoming despondent between his bouts of foul temper and neither of them knew how to help.
Especially now that they’d convinced him to stay within the castle walls. Both he and Aro had been alarmed at the three attempts on their blond brother’s life. He’d fought his way out of them and had obviously been victorious, but each attempt had escalated in intensity, and both of them had feared it was just a matter of time and numbers of attackers.
Unfortunately, after seeing todays events firsthand, they knew they’d been right.
They’d done everything they could think of to find their missing Prince, even sending another letter out worldwide after never hearing anything back from the first. Caius though, had remained adamant they keep Jasper’s true identity out of the missive to keep him safe. They knew, if one of their many enemies got wind there was a Volturi Prince Consort out there, without benefit of the Volturi’s protections, he would be a prime target. And so they’d sent the letter searching for a guard, waiting in vain for any word or clue.
Additionally fruitless had been their search for another talented tracker. Eleazar, their former talent scout, had never shown for his summons, and then had come the call from the scout’s mate with word that he was missing. Needless to say, they’d never found him, and now, after these attacks on Caius, Marcus was quite certain what’d happened to the scout. He was ash, and their search for a tracker was made that much more difficult without him.
With a weary sigh, Aro slumped into his throne while rubbing his temple. “Nothing of use,” he said before glancing at his brothers. “Like all the others, they were hired by an unknown and paid by wire transfer from the same account that proved untraceable to us in the past.”
“So, whoever it is, is the same from the other attempts,” Marcus muttered and Caius slammed a hand on his throne arm, cracking the polished wood.
“Of course it is!” he snapped. “I could have told you that without Aro’s input.”
“We had to know for sure, brother,” Aro muttered while rubbing his brow.
“Useless,” the platinum King growled. “It’s all fucking useless.”
“Try not to despair, brother,” Aro murmured. “We recently received word on a potential tracker in America. He’s a nomad, but our contact promised to speak to him the next time he sees him. He knows the tracker’s in his area, so it should be soon.”
“Is his ability similar to Demetri’s?” Marcus asked and Aro shook his head.
“Unfortunately, no, but I am told he’s rather good at what he does. According to our contact, the vampire enjoys tracking as a sport and has honed his skills over the years that way.” He shook his head. “Such a waste, when he could be using it for more noble pursuits.”
Marcus hummed his agreement. “Let us hope he will agree to work with us.”
“If he even calls,” Caius muttered darkly before looking at Aro. “Why not simply send the guards to retrieve him?”
Aro scrubbed his face with a hand. “His mate is also gifted brother. Seems she’s able to evade capture, so we have to go about this delicately and woo him to our services.”
“When will something go our way?!” Caius growled. “I feel as if the world is conspiring against me and I’m fucking tired of it!” he roared while rising to pick up his throne and hurl it at a marble pillar. As it showered pieces around them, Caius vanished out the back entrance, the door closing with a bang.
“That went well,” Marcus remarked dryly.
“It went about as well as I’d anticipated,” Aro muttered. “But I can’t say I blame him. It’s been five and a half years and still, we are no closer to finding Jasper.”
“At least we know he’s alive, and as long as we have that, we will not rest,” Marcus said.
“No indeed, brother. Not until our Prince Consort is back with us,” Aro agreed.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
After a scalding hot shower, Jasper slipped into some comfortable sweats and settled on his bed, legs crossed and hands resting on his knees as he began his rhythmic breathing.
After the slip Carlisle made in the car about mates and what that bitch Alice had said just a half hour ago, he found it difficult to let go of his thoughts. They clung to his mind like sticky webs, echoing over and over as the resultant pain they conjured pulsed in his chest just over his dead heart.
God, how he missed Caius. How he longed to breathe deeply of his mate’s intoxicating scent and feel his skin under his hands as they tasted each other, moved together…
He growled, his red eyes snapping open to stare around the room as his hands clenched into fists. He needed…needed…fuck…he needed his mate, but something else would have to do.
Rising from his bed, he stood, his head lowered as the growl rattling his chest deepened, his fangs descending as he slowly lost control to his vampire.
“No,” he muttered as his eyes squeezed shut, fighting his instincts with everything he was. He couldn’t lose himself so much that he risked having Maria come back. Just the thought terrified him, and he knew, should he lose himself to his vampire and should his vampire cause him to try to run, the seer bitch would see before he ever made it out of town and would stop him. Or rather, she’d have the family stop him, and he hated to admit it, but Edward was faster than him. He knew he was able to kick his ass in a fight, but the mind-reader was able to stop him long enough for the whole family to catch up, so he just couldn’t risk it.
“Blood,” he muttered as his shoulders heaved with unneeded breaths, his whole body on edge as he fought against the swelling rage his situation had summoned within him. He needed blood—fresh blood and more of it than he could get from the sorry thermal cup he’d been subsisting on every day since the last time he’d ‘slipped’.
Before he could really think about it, he strode to his balcony door, opened it and jumped, pouring on every ounce of speed he could muster the moment he hit solid ground.
Mindlessly, he ran, not thinking about where he’d end up, but rather going by instincts alone, so it was a bit of a surprise when he ended up at the back of a house right in the main part of Forks, drawn there by the now obvious scent of fresh blood.
“Shit,” the familiar blond girl muttered, examining her hand before sucking the bead of blood from her finger while eyeing the garden gate. “Fucking thing,” she grumbled. “Said he was gonna fix it…”
Jasper stepped from the trees, not bothering to be quiet as the forest debris beneath his feet rustled enough for her to hear. Her head turned and her eyes went wide at the sight of him, standing there in nothing but a pair of sweat pants. “Jay Cullen?” she said, her voice a bit breathless as she stared, a smile she probably thought was coy finally curving her lips as her brain caught up to the unlikely, yet undeniable situation. She turned to face him fully, her head canting to the side as her smile grew. “What are you doing here?”
He smirked as he felt his eyes change, his fangs and gums aching as he took in a huge breath of her scent. “Lauren, right?” he purred, stepping toward her as she nodded.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
He grinned as he watched her gaze glide over his chest and down to his abs.
“Liking what you see?” he asked as he reached out to rest his palm on the side of her neck, her pulse now wildly throbbing under his hand.
“I do,” she said, her lust heavy gaze now rising to meet his as she smirked, her hand gliding over his defined pectoral to rest there.
“Good,” he growled, “because I’d just hate to disappoint you in your last moments.”
Her brow creased. “Wha…” she began but he yanked her forward and buried his fangs in her neck, drawing a startled gasp from her as he sucked viciously, her body already weakening as she whimpered, confusion pouring off her mingled with the first tendrils of fear. By the time her brain caught up with what might be happening though, she was much too weak to scream and his satisfied growl gently rumbled under her hand as it slowly slid off his chest to hang there limply as he drained her.
“Jasper!” a voice hissed behind him just as the girl’s heart stopped. With a low growl, he turned his head, his lip pulled up showing a pink tinged fang as he eyed the intruder. “Son,” Carlisle said, his eyes sad and tone soothing as he held up his hands. “Come with me now. I’ve come to take you home.”
Jasper snarled while clutching the limp girl, her head lolling to one side as he backed away a step. “Please, son,” Carlisle soothed, “Esme is worried…won’t you come home for her?”
Esme…
The coherent thought penetrated his instinctual fog as he slowly returned to himself. She loved him. He knew that and he’d come to love her too… His growl tapered off and he glanced down at the cooling body in his hands. “Esme…” he muttered.
“Yes, Jasper, come and we’ll go home to her. She’ll be relieved to see you.”
Jasper blinked, his eyes narrowing on Edward and Emmett as they moved to stand behind Carlisle, their emotions purposely subdued but undeniable. They were feeling anger and disgust, Edward more so than Emmett.
“Esme never judges me,” he murmured and Carlisle smiled sadly.
“No, son, she would never do that. She loves you unconditionally.”
Jasper’s head tilted to the side. “She does,” he agreed with wonder at the thought. It was true though and she was the only other being beside his mate to ever feel that way about him. It was a different kind of love—a mother’s love—but it was no less genuine and he didn’t know how he would’ve made it through the last few years without it. Carlisle had come to love him too, but there was always a reserved note to it—something cautious about it, which in turn, made Jasper a bit wary.
Carlisle held out a hand. “Ready to go home?”
He looked down once more at the girl’s body before nodding. “I just need to…”
“Edward and Emmett will take care of cleaning up.” The Cullen patriarch motioned with a hand and Emmett stepped forward, not meeting Jasper’s gaze as he took the girl from his hold. “You got blood on your…” he motioned at his own face and chest before shrugging the body over his shoulder.
“We’ll see you boys back at the house,” Carlisle said as they vanished into the woods. “Come on son, we need to leave. I hear a car approaching.” He turned and walked into the trees, pausing there to wait for Jasper to fall into step with him which he did a second later.
“What prompted this, Jasper?” the doctor asked as they walked together. “I thought you’d been doing rather well on the bagged blood.”
Jasper smirked. “Therapy time, Doc, really? Still trying to figure out what makes me tick? How to make me fit into the nice, neat little box you’ve built for yourself over the years?”
“Jasper,” Carlisle breathed out with an exasperated sigh, “no, I’m not trying to fit you into some imaginary box, son. I am however, trying to help you settle into some sort of peaceful life. It worries me—and Esme—that you always seem so unsettled and it just seems to be worsening as the years pass, which is rather unexpected, to be honest.”
Jasper’s expression went blank as he stared ahead. “I needed blood…needed a kill, nothing more to it than that.”
Carlisle rubbed his brow. “You know, you’ve put us in a bad spot? You not only killed, but did it locally. If the Quileute learn of this, we may have to move.”
Jasper shrugged. “One place is as good as any, so it really doesn’t matter to me.”
Carlisle side-eyed him, his expression unimpressed. “We just moved, Jasper, and I can tell you now, Rosalie is going to be livid over this.”
He shrugged. “Yeah? Well, good thing she has the same panties to get glad in, isn’t it?”
“You know, a bit of remorse on your part would go a long way toward appeasing tempers here, don’t you think?”
Jasper scoffed. “Remorse?” he questioned as anger swelled in his chest. “What the fuck do I have to be remorseful over? I’m forced to be here, Carlisle, do you get that? I’m just along for the ride, so forgive me for not really giving a fuck if Barbie’s pissed because she might be inconvenienced.” He snorted and shook his head. “Boo-fuckin’-hoo.”
“It’s really a bit more involved than being inconvenienced. This is our way of life and has been for many decades. What you’ve done today and in the past, upsets that balance, and we are just as captive to it all as you are.”
Jasper’s brows shot up as he looked at the Cullen patriarch. “You can’t be serious.”
Carlisle nodded. “I am. We care for you, Jasper. You may feel you’re here against your will, but we’ve come to love you and can’t imagine our lives—our family—without you. Everything you do affects us—Esme, especially so.”
“Not the same,” Jasper growled, “not even close. You have your mate, Rosalie and Emmett have each other and now Edward has found his.” He threw a scowl at the coven leader. “I don't see anyone tearing any of you apart and forcing you to live that way, so don’t ever fucking compare yourself to me.”
“Alice loves you. If you’d only…” Carlisle began, his tone tentative but a vicious snarl from Jasper cut him off.
“Don’t speak to me about that conniving bitch!”
Carlisle stopped short as Jasper got in his face. “It may not be today or even ten years from now, but someday Carlisle, someday I will tear her apart with my bare hands and feed her into the hottest flames I can conjure, piece by tiny fucking piece with a smile on my face, do you hear?”
Carlisle studied the young vampire a moment, startled to see yet another facet of personality that’d been hidden all this time. “I do,” he murmured as Jasper held his gaze, his eyes glowing with so much anger and hatred the coven leader had to stifle a shudder. “But I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Jasper didn’t even blink. “I’m not. The only thing I’m sorry about was ever having to meet the bitch in the first place.”
Carlisle blinked then nodded. “Shall we go home?” the shaken coven leader asked, breaking the stare-down with his newest son. Jasper looked away and smirked, but it was bitter, matching perfectly the swirling anger and resentment he could feel coming from the young empath.
“Home…” Jasper muttered. “I would love nothing better,” he said as he began walking and somehow, Carlisle knew, the young one wasn’t speaking of any home he’d ever shared with his family.
DISCLAIMER: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.