purple rain | jasper hale

thirty eight

At midnight, Valerie, Gianna, Jasper and Renesmee were enjoying the moonlight.

Valerie usually stayed in the Castle at nighttime, coming outside only for her cigarette breaks; she hadn't had the energy to explore Volterra's nightlife yet and what it had to offer (especially by herself) but the fact that she had to take Renesmee out of the Castle for long periods of time (in order to protect the kid from being murdered) had made her take a like on chilling at night.

So there she was, sitting around a table with her three new friends – Gianna holding Renesmee, of course, and helping her drink water from a cup – while Valerie smoked her cigarette and sipped on her coffee.

Jasper was aware of his surroundings; he was never the one to enjoy coffee shops, but at least they were outside and he could breathe fresh air; he was eyeing the other tourists that were currently enjoying their late night coffee and drinks, sitting at their own tables and chatting along with each other as they laughed out loud and spoke in foreign languages. It was the last bit of normalcy that he was expecting to find in Volterra outside those castle walls.

"What's the next step?" He eventually asked; he didn't like to be around the kid and just wanted her to be gone and reunited with her parents again. She had become Valerie's responsibility, which had made her his responsibility as well.

"I'm meeting Aro first thing in the morning, I'm taking her with me." Valerie answered, her jaw clenching as Renesmee coughed the water that she was drinking. "Marcus and I have written a full report on her health, changes and development ever since she's been here. She's growing, but not as fast as we thought she was."

Jasper nodded; that meant that maybe, just maybe, she was an actual child. How was that possible, that he didn't know. He also didn't care either. One thing that he knew for sure was that Valerie was starting to challenge Aro a little too much – even disrespecting him, proving him he was wrong in front of everyone. And she still had a family and friends she cared for.

He wondered how wrong things could go.

"She seems to be pretty chill around other humans." Gianna stated as she looked around. And that was a fact – for a vampire, Renesmee hadn't tried to bite Gianna yet – or any other human, for the matter.

"That's also in our report. For a newborn vampire, she is in absolute control of her thirst and needs, which means that maybe... maybe she's just a child."

"But you're not sure." Jasper stated back. "She's been with us for a short period of time. We can't promise she won't suddenly snap and kill someone."

As much as Valerie wanted to tell Jasper to fuck off, he was right. She couldn't promise Aro the future, but she could try to promise the present and that she would always be there to guide Renesmee along the way.

Problem was, always being there meant forever.

And Valerie Addams didn't want to live forever.

No, not at all.

Renesmee started crying suddenly like she sensed that something was wrong, trashing on Gianna's lap. The human girl tried to comfort her, but there was nothing she could do as Renesmee trashed around, her little limbs colliding with the human's body.

"Fuck, she's strong." Gianna muttered. Gianna was trying to handle it like she would with a human kid, but Renesmee wasn't a human kid.

A tantrum could kill an entire village.

Valerie's and Jasper's stare lingered on each other for a while like they could read each other's minds. Renesmee was throwing a tantrum – her first tantrum – and her face was going red and her screams were resonating through town; people were starting to stare and Renesmee was only getting more and more worked up.