purple rain | jasper hale

thirty six

Ever since the arrival of Alice, The Volturi have been quiet.

It's easier with Alice, and now Valerie understands why Aro wanted her so bad to join The Guard; being a king and being able to predict the future – your nation's future – is something that Aro had wanted to badly. And now he had it with Alice by his side.

Valerie never saw Alice around. She didn't talk to her and Valerie didn't talk to her either because there was simply nothing she could say to her. 'I'm sorry that I stole your boyfriend?' well, that didn't look that good of an excuse, did it?

"I think we can take the stitches now." Marcus said, Valerie almost forgotten that they were both sitting on the library, him looking at her shitty stitched arm. "You did a pretty good job."

It looked like a werewolf had tried to murder her, but she didn't care. Marcus would say anything to make her feel special because he was almost kind like that.

"Are you sure you're a vampire?" She replied, rolling her eyes. He scoffed as he removed stitch by stitch with the help of a scalpel, surgical scissors and his cold hands. "You're almost too nice to be one of them."

Marcus seems to be thinking about what she's saying as he keeps working on her arm.

"It was a very brave thing, what you did back there."

When she came back and saw Alice Cullen standing there, Valerie Addams was left heartbroken. Not because she hated Alice, no; after all, she didn't even know the girl, but because she was ashamed – she was ashamed of what she had done in the past. It was her fault that their whole life was now upside down. It was her fault that The Cullen's were separated after such a long time of living together as a Clan – as a family.

"I didn't do anything." Valerie shrugged. "I was just scared of dying."

"I'm sure you didn't do it only because of you." Marcus reasoned, and she shrugged again; talking about the fact that she was terrified that Jasper could die surely wasn't her favorite subject to discuss. Marcus paused, his fingers lingering on her skin. "I can't help but feel rather touched when I think about you two."

Valerie raised an eyebrow.

"Why's that?"

"It reminds me of something I felt too long ago." He answered. "It reminds me a lot of my relationship with my soulmate."

Valerie was touched by his words. The more she spent time with Marcus, the more she understood that there was something wrong with him – wrong on a vampire level. He was always sad and moody and he looked like he had been dead for a long time; he looked like he had died when he had lost his mate. And Valerie still didn't understand how that happened.

"I'm really sorry about Dydime, Marcus." She whispered; she truly was. She had never met the woman, but she felt sorry for the man in front of her – the only person that was capable of bringing her some comfort between those dark walls even though he was in a position of power. "Is there anything I could do to help you?"

Marcus sent her a sad smile as he finished patching her up.

"Dydime was just like you – she was fierce, and strong, and mad at the world, and she was the coldest woman I have ever met. To be fair, she was always a little cold towards me too, even though I was her love. She wasn't infatuated by young love, new love, no..." Marcus paused. He realized he had never told that story to anyone else. "She always took her time on falling in love, never living and thriving on the adrenaline of young love. But when she did love someone, she loved them with all her heart. And I truly think she was capable of loving behind all her stone cold façade. Truly, deeply loving, even though she was scared to show it." He seemed to be back on time as he looked at Valerie. "I like to think you're the same."