The New Guy in Town

Chapter 3

*Aunt M P.O.V.*

Jasper finally fell asleep with poor Cora on his lap. She lost so much lately and now she has to leave her school because of me. Why did I ever agree to taking her in? I'm just glad I never told her I found her father's body drained of blood. I can't believe they thought I did it! Filthy hunters. They know I survive on animal blood. They choose now, of all times, to come after me and have their annual "check ups." I look in the mirror to see Jasper frowning in his sleep, like he's having a bad dream. Then he holds Cora's hand a little tighter causing her to smile.

Is it possible their souls found each other before he even turned? I really hope so because she is perfect in every way for him. They both lost so much, it's only right they gain something together. I thought to myself. If only their was a way to tell the truth without tearing them apart. As much as I hate to admit it, Kane was right. I should have told him earlier.

*Kane P.O.V.*

She killed him! Like it was nothing! All I did was threaten the boy! Didn't even wait, just stole his knife and killed him! And the way he is so protective of her. It was only a simple knockout... wait...oh I see now....before he has even changed, found his mate. Well now this is going to get interesting....

"Oh boys! We got us some mates to split up! Grab your weapons! It's hunting time!"

*Jasper P.O.V.*

I dreamt I was chasing her. We were laughing, running in a field, yet every time I got close, she would disappear and show up far away. It was really getting frustrating.

"Why won't you just stay close!" I yell.

"What fun would that be!?" she answered.

Out of nowhere, she appeared right in front of me, deathly pale with bright red eyes. I screamed and she laughed at me.

"Oh poor baby. Got scared did we? Can't handle a few weak hunters or a scary nightmare. You know you can't protect her. Yet your soul wants her. You feel it don't you? She's your mate!" At the last word she got even scarier, her face morphing into a gruesome creature and she lunged at me. I jerked awake and immediately looked at Cora, seeing if she showed any signs of waking up. She didn't but she was frowningand squeezed my hand a little in her sleep.

I was lost in thought watching her sleep when Aunt M surprised me by speaking, "She hasn't woken up yet. Though I can tell your worried about something. Nightmares?" I nodded. "That's usual for our family when so close to 18. Tell me about it, everything." So I did.

"Aunt M, what does it mean?"

"Exactly what you said. She is your mate. Maybe it would be best to start at the beginning."

Our family is a cursed one. Long ago, one of your great ancestors fell in love with a witch. He had no clue at the time that she was, but he broke her heart and left her for another woman, who he married. She was so upset with him, she cursed his family forever. Now, a witches' curse cannot be taken away, and only powerful witches can cast one; so to make a witch so upset to cast one, is unthinkable. So she cursed our family with the worst thing she could think of. Immortality. I know your probably thinking "oh that's not so bad, live forever." But no one can live forever without a price. She told him that every family member, including himself, shall change into an immortal creature of the night on their 18th birthday, a vampire. She said that we would be able to travel in the sun, but it would hurt our eyes; we could have kids, but only with another vampire; we age, but slowly, I'm over 300 years old yet I don't look older than 55 in human years; we need blood every few days to survive, otherwise we dry out from the inside out, I've seen it happen and it isn't pretty, mostly vampires take human blood but a lot of us have learned to survive on animal blood and if you kill someone the hunters have a legal excuse to kill you so I stick to animal blood or homeless people, but I don't kill them; all the family must live by the rules set by the head vampires who are all older than a thousand years old; and all male descendants shall have what's called a mate already chosen for them, they just have to find her. Some of the time, it takes a couple decades to find her, and she's not always a vampire already. Sometimes it takes less than a hundred, but only a few times have I seen what you both have. Your souls found each other before you even turned. And she is yours, I smell it on her. That's another thing, woman or men who have been chosen as a mate to a vampire, whether they be vampire or human, always have a certain smell that tell other vampires they are taken even if they don't know it. That's why when you brought her over to stay with us, I thought she smelled funny. The smell kind of protects the human mates from being killed I guess since killing someone's mate, especially before they find them, is against vampire law. Now on to the subject of your parents, your father was the original vampire and your mother was his human mate. Your father was a couple hundred years old so he was excited he found her, so excited he turned her without explaining anything at all to her. She freaked and fled for about fifty years before finally deciding to come back but the only way she would stay was if they had a kid together, you. Their death wasn't an accident, they were tired of living immortal lives, afraid that a hunter would barge in and kill you. Your mother didn't know the risks of having a baby when she told your father, which is why they were so protective of you. Legally by the treaty us vampires have with the hunters, they cannot challenge you before you turn 18 but vampire babies are so rare nowadays, couples just don't want their kids going through what they do, that and on the hunters illegal black market they sell corpses of the babies. Vampires know about the black market where they sell the dead bodies of famous vampires who died of "drug overdose", belongings of vampires and trophies from anyone they killed yet the council does nothing. If the leader of the hunters knows about this, he doesn't say or do anything about it. Your parents had friends in many useful places like the head of police, the morgue, the coroner's office things like that. The morgue was how they got human blood, they didn't kill the human so they couldn't be killed. About a year ago, your parents called to get together with their friend at the police station, the coroner, and myself. They told us their plan. The papers would say car crash involving drug and alcohol abuse but we knew better. Of course we would print it since all the hunters would still be trying to find them but what we didn't expect was that some of the hunters knew about you. That's why you live with me. I insisted you did since I could protect you. I've had the most experience with hunters out of all the remaining family.