Head Above Water (Twilight)

Chapter 37

Jasper smiles faintly. "I have a lot of scars like yours, Bella," he says. His face is unreadable as he pushes the sleeve of his sweater up a bit higher to show Bella more of his scars.

Bella gasps when she notices them all. "Jasper," she breathes, "what happened to you?"

"The same thing that happened to your hand," Jasper answers in a quiet voice. He is telling this because Bella needs to know, and he wants Kelsea to know, too. "Repeated a thousand times." He laughs ruefully and brushes his spare hand over his scarred arm. "Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar," he states.

"Why?" Bella asks. She breathes in horror, feeling rude but unable to stop staring at the scars all over Jasper's arms.

"I didn't have quite the same... upbringing as my adopted siblings here," Jasper says. "My beginning was something else entirely." His voice has turned hard by the time he finishes talking.

Bella, appalled, gapes at him.

"Before I tell you my story," Jasper says, "you must understand that there are places in our world, Bella, where the lifespan of the never-aging is measured in weeks, not centuries."

Carlisle and Emmett turn their attention to the tv again. Kelby starts playing some music on the piano all over again. Alice moves over to where Rosalie and Kelsea are. Kelsea snuggles between the two, her now golden eyes locked on Jasper. Alice loves how hooked on Jasper Kelsea seems to be, she loves him as much as she does Kelby.

"To really understand why you have to look at the world from a different perspective," Jasper continues. "You have to imagine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedy... the perpetually thirsty. You see, there are place sim this world that are more desirable to us than others. Places where we can be less restrained, and still avoid detection. Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere. Picture on it every human life as a small red dot. The thicker the red, the more easily we - well, those who exist this way - can feed without attracting notice."

Bella shudders at the image in her head. She feels goosebumps forming on her arms at the soft tune Kelby's playing in the background of Jasper's storytelling. Jasper, not being as overprotective and controlling like Edward, isn't worried about frightening Bella. He continues without a pause.

"Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not. It's the Volturi that keeps them in check. They are the only ones the southern covens fear. If not for the Volturi, the rest of us would be quickly exposed."

Bella frowns at the way he pronounces the name - with respect, gratitude. Kelby continues playing the emotional tune.

"The North is, by comparison, very civilized," Jasper continues. "Mostly we are nomads here who enjoy the day as well as the night, who allow humans to interact with us unsuspectingly — anonymity is important to us all. It's a different world in the South. The immortals there come out only at night. They spend the day plotting their next move, or anticipating their enemy's. Because it has been war in the South, constant war for centuries, with never one moment of truce. The covens there barely note the existence of humans, except as soldiers notice a herd of cows by the wayside — food for the taking. They only hide from the notice of the herd because of the Volturi."

"What are they fighting for?" Bella asks while Kelsea sits up, listening intently.

Jasper smiles a little. "Remember the map with the red dots?" he asks.

Bella nods because she notices that he's waiting.

"The fight is for control of the thickest red," Jasper says. "You see, it occurred to someone once that, if he were the only vampire on, let's say Mexico City, well then, he could feed every night, twice, three times, and no one would ever notice. Hs plotted ways to get rid of the competition. Others had the same idea. Some came up with more effective tactics than others. But the most effect tactic was invited by a fairly young vampire named Benito. The first anyone ever heard of him, he came down from somewhere north of Dallas and massacred the two small covens that shared the area near Houston. Two nights later, he took Jon the much stronger clan of allies that claimed Monterrey in northern Mexican. Again, he won."