Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XXXIII. Surprise Called Callaghan

The worn-out northern lights, after their gleam has fled,
The untuned harp, whose strings distil no more delights,
The deeds of time gone by, quenched starlight overhead,
Heresy's pilgrimage, the loving, lovely dead,

- K.H. Mácha, May

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Calm down. Jasper didn't even have to say that for me to take a deep breath. A wave of calmness flooded me as I lost the need to protest. Here is the point on which you can see the progress of my handling the anger. Only a few months ago, I would have jumped out of my skin at his attempt to manipulate my emotions. Now though, I was accepting the fact with stoic calmness. You can see what half a year with vampires does to reasonable humans. My advice? Stay the hell away from them, as long as you can. But when you're to far in a relationship with them, be careful, they can still kill you or worse - make you one of them.

"Ms. Callaghan, welcome. I am glad you came to witness this exceptional moment," Aro started speaking, however, my brain turned his voice off. Instead, I started thinking about why Jasper was here. Did they threaten to kill him or his family? It wouldn't surprise me. Did they want to make me suffer through bringing him here? Well, that wouldn't surprise me either. Actually, it would make sense. Volturi adored drama, while at the same time, they hated me. Put the two aspects together and... voilá, a let's-destroy-Gwyneth's-peaceful-life plan was made!

"Naturally, we are immensely flattered and full of enthusiasm for that Mr. Whitlock decided to join us," Aro stated, obviously excited about the fact that Jasper was staying... Wait up, staying?! He was... what?! Nah, I surely heard that wrong. "Due to your having passed the long-time training in Confederate army, Jasper, we would like to offer you the post of Marcus' personal guardian. I would also like to offer you the opportunity to train the guards. Considering your combat experience, you are an invaluable help to our army. The salary level would rise accordingly to every duty added to the list of your job description."

"I'd ask you to let me thank you for the great offer. I am pretty much certain that I'd say I'm grateful for the opportunity even, Aro. If only that was the truth," Jasper said in his low-pitched, turn-all-women-on voice, as his piercing gaze moved to me. Yes, me, of all the goddamned people in the goddamned room. Instantly, I was as red as beetroot, wrapping a strand of my hair around my finger nervously.

Caius shifted on his throne violently, as if he wished to get on his feet and punch Jasper; but honestly? Who could blame him? If someone whom I invited to my house and to who I offered a job said something like that to me, I'd want to punch the hell out of him too. Nonetheless, Aro stopped his blonde brother from doing so by laughing humourlessly.

"Have you gotten the impression that you are in a possition in which you could say things like that, without getting killed?" Even though Aro grounded him earlier, Caius still needed to vent his anger somewhere.

"My brother actually summed the point up well. I shall put all formalities away now," this time, Aro waved his hand and suddenly, Felix with Demetri appeared from somewhere; need to point out that by my sides.

"Ugh, not again! Go away!" I shrieked, desperately. Not that I wasn't used to that kind of behavior; every time I came to the Throne Room, Felix and Demetri would always appear next to me. Hashtag welcome to my world...

"I am here because of her," Jasper said and my heart started pounding heavily.

"Do you hear the ticking? That is my patience and you are running out of time," Aro stated moodily.