purple rain | jasper hale

thirty three

II. MARCUS

Marcus is a reader.

He was young when I met him – young but tired, young but not seeking power; he was simply seeking control of his own life, thinking that maybe, just maybe, by seeking control of everyone else, he could finally became the leader of his own life.

His gift was too interesting to ignore. He could read emotional ties between people, which gave us a fair advantage on trusting – or not – on other Covens and other vampires. It also gave us the power of manipulating powerful vampires and their mates. If they didn't want to join us, then they would both be a threat to us – and they would have to be eliminated.

Marcus was, and still is, a very powerful vampire and leader. It's just a shame that he has become so depressed due to-

Her thoughts were still lingering on the book. She was reading the chapter dedicated to Marcus when Gianna entered her room screaming bloody murder about some tourists that asked her if they could buy a cloak; apparently, Valerie's outings in the city were suddenly making people aware of the living situations in the castle.

The sound of Marcus' fingers turning the page made her snap again, and she decided to ask a question to pretend that she was interested in his words.

'Why?'

Fuck, he really looks like a grandpa.

The girl hoped that he doesn't have a weird gift on mind reading or something – that would have been truly weird, if an ancient vampire like him could read her mind and figure out that she was calling him grandpa. But fuck, he really looked like one.

Maybe an almost dead grandpa – fuck, he was so pale after all –and maybe a creepy grandpa with red eyes but still-

Still a grandpa.

'They thought that infants didn't feel any pain.' Marcus pointed graciously to a picture of an open-heart surgery being done on an infant – apparently, back in the days, they didn't use anything to numb the pain since they thought that children didn't feel any pain. Valerie realized how long and pale his fingers were and she could almost imagine the amount of blood that those fingers had touched. It was almost ironic that he was talking about barbaric acts. 'A rather ancient thought, if you ask me.' As she didn't answer him, not really wanting to discuss about ancient thoughts and cruel practices to a bloodthirsty vampire, he decided to continue on his lesson. 'As you can see in this picture, this is a ventricle and-'

And she shut down her thoughts. She couldn't handle him talking about hearts, and blood circulating through veins, and blood loss, and death, when he was literally the image of death itself.

'Do you have any more questions?'

Why are you here?

He knew so much. Perhaps, Valerie thought, he knew more than Carlisle about Medicine, about Health, about humans. Valerie was so conflicted about him.

'I think I just need to study it a little more.'

'I'm not talking about those kinds of questions.'

Valerie didn't know why; the only thing she knew for sure, was that she didn't know why something called her to trust Marcus. Perhaps she trusted Marcus because he had made a face when Jasper joined them – a very characteristically unpleasant face. Marcus also didn't kill any of the vampires in the bloodbath that was the execution, leaving the job to Caius, Aro and Jane, and he even avoided looking. Fuck, he even looked bored.