Edward Cullen's Little Sister

Chapter 12 - Realisation

Edward rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored his Emmett like the rest of us do the majority of the time.

Edward tossed the paper to Carlisle."Did you see that they're considering a serial killer now?" he asked.
Carlisle sighed. "They've had two specialists debating that possibility on CNN all morning."
"We can't let this go on."

"Let's go now," Emmett said, sounding
enthusiastic. "I'm dead bored."

We could all here Rose's hiss from upstairs. "She's such a pessimist," Emmett muttered more to himself than the rest of us.
Edward agreed with Emmett. "We'll have to go sometime."

Rose appeared at the top of the stairs and slowly descended, her face smooth and emotionless.

"I'm concerned. We've never involved ourselves in this kind of thing before. It's not our business. We aren't the Volturi," Carlisle said, bring some degree of reason to this discussion. I agreed though at the same time I wanted to go so I could make sure Kyle was safe. And then Jasper would help me find him.

Edward's head snapped in my direction at that, his expression confused.

"I don't want the Volturi to have to come here," he said, turning back to Carlisle. "It gives us so much less reaction time."
"And all those innocent humans in Seattle," Esme murmured. "It's not right to let them die this way."
"I know," Carlisle sighed.
"Oh," Edward said sharply, turning his head slightly to look at Jasper. "I didn't think of that. I see. You're right, that has to be it. Well, that changes everything."

Everyone stared at him, except me. I already knew what he'd just thought, which caused Edward to look to me too.

"Experts remember," I muttered to Edward. "All the signs are there."

"I think you'd better explain to the others," he said to Jasper. "What could be the purpose of this?"

Edward started to pace, staring at the floor, lost in thought.

Alice stood up, making her way over to where Bella stood. "What is he rambling about?" she asked Jasper. "What are you thinking?"

Jasper's gaze travelled over everyone in the room before landing on Bella.

"You're confused," he said quietly to Bella. It wasn't a question but then it didn't need to be. If Jasper said Bella was confused, Bella was confused.
"We're all confused," Emmett grumbled.

"You can afford the time to be patient," Jasper told him. "Bella should understand this, too. She's one of us now."

Bella seed surprised by Jasper's words, obviously not realising he thought of her that way.

But Bella was one of us now, and she was about to hear another of our stories. Only this one wasn't quite like what she had been told before.

"How much do you know about me, Bella?" Jasper asked.

Emmett sighed theatrically, and sat down heavily on the sofa to wait, exaggerating his impatience.

I didn't mind hearing the story. I knew it already, more so than any of the others no matter how many times they had shard it. Edward could see it through our thoughts but it wasn't the same as being there. You couldn't understand until you had seen the army first hand, been a part of it.

"Not much," Bella admitted.

Jasper turned to Edward, the two meeting gazes for a moment. "No," Edward answered his thought. "I'm sure you can understand why I haven't told her that story. But I suppose she needs to hear it now."

Jasper nodded thoughtfully, and then started to roll up the arm of his ivory sweater. I could see how confused Bella was by the action.

He was showing her his battle scars, the scars I lack due to my gift.

Jasper held his wrist under the edge of the lampshade beside him, close to the bulb, and traced his finger across one of the scars, taking the shape of a pale crescent moon on his skin.

"Oh," Bella breathed after a moment as she recognised the scar for what it was - a vampire bite. "Jasper, you have a scar exactly like mine."

Bella held out her hand, showing off her own bite mark.

Jasper smiled faintly. "I have a lot of scars like yours, Bella."

Jasper continued to roll up his sleeve and even I was shocked by the number of scars there. I had never seen the full extent of Jasper's battle scars and the sheer number astounded me. How had he survived so many fights?

Jasper sent a small smirk in my direction as he picked up the tenor of my emotions. I rolled my eyes at him.

Bella gasped as her eyes travelled over the marks and Jasper's expression turned somber once more as he turned back to Bella.

Bella sounded both shocked and curious when she spoke. "Jasper, what happened to you?"