𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎:
Jasper Whitlock
"JASPER, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Bella gasps, staring at Jasper's arms littered with bite marks.
"The same thing that happened to your hand," Jasper answers her rather quietly.
"Repeated a thousand times." He laughed a little ruefully and brushed at his arm. "Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar."
And quite uncomfortable that Eloise was not by his side when Bella asked about the bite marks.
Eloise had headed back to New York and asked if she could take a leave of absence for two weeks, which she was confident that the head admin would agree to since they were urging her to take a paid leave for ten years since Eloise had been hands-on in her job, accepting every offer they gave her.
She'd be back by tomorrow.
"Why?" Bella breathed in horror, feeling rude but unable to stop staring at his subtly ravaged skin.
"I didn't have quite the same... upbringing as my adopted siblings here. My beginning was something else entirely." His voice turned hard as he finished.
Bella gaped at him, appalled.
"Before I tell you my story," Jasper says as a reminder, "you must understand that there are places in our world, Bella, where the lifespan of the never-aging is measured in weeks, not centuries."
The others had heard this before. Carlisle and Emmett turned their attention back to the TV again. Alice moved silently to sit at Thalia's feet.
Cordelia continued painting yet wanted to listen. But Edward was just as absorbed as Bella was; she could feel his eyes on her face, reading every flicker of emotion.
"To really understand why you have to look at the world from a different perspective. You have to imagine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedy...the perpetually thirsty. You see, there are places in this world that are more desirable to us than others. Places where we can be less restrained and still avoid detection." Jasper begins as Bella, intently listening to everything he says.
"Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere. The 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 shuddered at the image in her head, at the word feed. But Jasper wasn't worried about frightening her, and he wasn't overprotective like Edward always was. He went on without a pause.
"Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not notice. 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 how he pronounces the name - with respect, almost gratitude. The idea of the Volturi as the good guys in any sense was hard to accept.
"The North is, by comparison, very civilized. We are mostly nomads who enjoy both the day and the night and who allow humans to interact with us unknowingly-anonymity is important to all of us. 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 there has been a 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."
"But what are they fighting for?" Bella asks. Jasper smiled. "Remember the map with the red dots?" He waited, so Bella nodded.
"They fight for control of the thickest red. You see, it occurred to someone once that if he were the only vampire in, let's say, Mexico City, well then, he could feed every night, twice, three times, and no one would ever notice. He plotted ways to get rid of the competition." Jasper tells her with a clenched jaw.
"Others had the same idea. Some came up with more effective tactics than others. But the most effective tactic was invented 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 on the much stronger clan of allies that claimed Monterrey in northern Mexico. Again, he won."
"How did he win?" Bella asks with wary curiosity.
"Benito had created an army of newborn vampires. He was the first one to think of it, and, in the beginning, he was unstoppable. Very young vampires are volatile, wild, and almost impossible to control. One newborn can be reasoned with, and taught to restrain himself, but ten, fifteen together are a nightmare. They'll turn on each other as easily as on the enemy you point them at. Benito had to keep making more as they fought amongst themselves, and as the covens, he decimated took more than half his force down before they lost."
"You see, though newborns are dangerous, they are still possible to defeat if you know what you're doing. For the first year or so, they're incredibly powerful physically, and if they're allowed to bring their strength to bear, they can crush an older vampire with ease. But they are slaves to their instincts and thus predictable. Usually, they have no skill in fighting, only muscle and ferocity. And in this case, overwhelming numbers." Jasper stops, then sighs.
Memories flash before his eyes.
"The vampires in southern Mexico realized what was coming for them, and they did the only thing they could think of to counteract Benito. They made armies of their own...All hell broke loose - and I mean that more literally than you can possibly imagine. We immortals have our histories, too, and this particular war will never be forgotten. Of course, it was not a good time to be human in Mexico, either."
Bella shudders.
"When the body count reached epidemic proportions - in fact, your histories blame a disease for the population slump - the Volturi finally stepped in. The entire guard came together and sought out every newborn in the bottom half of North America. Benito was entrenched in Puebla, building his army as quickly as he could in order to take on the prize - Mexico City. The Volturi started with him and then moved on to the rest."
"Anyone who was found with the newborns was executed immediately, and, since everyone was trying to protect themselves from Benito, Mexico was emptied of vampires for a time. The Volturi were cleaning houses for almost a year. This was another chapter of our history that will always be remembered, though there were very few witnesses left to speak of what it was like. I spoke to someone once who had, from a distance, watched what happened when they visited Culiacán."
Jasper shuddered. Bella realized that she had never before seen him either afraid or horrified. This was a first.
"It was enough that the fever for conquest did not spread from the South. The rest of the world stayed sane. We owe the Volturi our present way of life. But when the Volturi went back to Italy, the survivors were quick to stake their claims in the South. It didn't take long before covens began to dispute again. There was a lot of bad blood, if you'll forgive the expression. Vendettas abounded."
"The idea of newborns was already there, and some were not able to resist. However, the Volturi had not been forgotten, and the southern covens were more careful this time. The newborns were selected from the human pool with more care and given more training."
"They were used circumspectly, and humans remained, for the most part, oblivious. Their creators gave the Volturi no reason to return. The wars resumed, but on a smaller scale. Every now and then, someone would go too far, speculation would begin in the human newspapers, and the Volturi would return and clean out the city. But they let the others, the careful ones, continue... " Jasper was staring off into space.
"That's how you were changed." Bella's realization was a whisper.
"Yes," he agreed. "When I was human, I lived in Houston, Texas. I was almost seventeen years old when I joined the Union Army in 1861. I lied to the recruiters and told them I was twenty. I was tall enough to get away with it." Jasper chuckles at his way of persuasion.
"My military career was short-lived but very promising. People always...liked me, listened to what I had to say. My father said it was charisma. Of course, now I know it was probably something more. But, whatever the reason, I was promoted quickly through the ranks over older, more experienced men. The Union promoted me to spy in the Confederate army, and I accepted. The Confederate Army was new and scrambling to organize itself, so that provided opportunities, as well. By the first battle of Galveston - well, it was more of a skirmish, really - I was the youngest major in Texas, not even acknowledging my real age and motives." Jasper shakes his head with a grin and continues.
"I was placed in charge of evacuating the women and children from the city when the Union's mortar boats reached the harbor. It took a day to prepare them, and then I left with the first column of civilians to convey them to Houston." Jasper's voice became low and dark. That was when Bella knew that his story could get worse than it was.
"I remember that one night very clearly. We reached the city after dark. I stayed only long enough to make sure the entire party was safely situated. As soon as that was done, I got myself a fresh horse, and I headed back to Galveston. There wasn't time to rest."
"Just a mile outside the city, I found four women on foot. I assumed they were stragglers and dismounted at once to offer them my aid. But, when I could see their faces in the dim light of the moon, I was stunned into silence. They were, without question, the four most beautiful women I had ever seen." Jasper tells Bella as he recalls the first time Eloise Hareton caught his full attention.
"They had such pale skin. I remember marveling at it. There was this woman. Her beauty was ethereal, like porcelain in the moonlight. They seemed young, all of them still young enough to be called girls. I knew they were not lost members of our party. I would have remembered seeing these four." Jasper tells her that he remembers his changing as if it were yesterday.
Jasper paused, his face thoughtful. "A few days later," he finally said, And Bella wasn't sure if he had edited his story for her sake or because he was responding to the tension that even Bella could feel exuding from Edward.
"I was introduced to my new life. Their names were Eloise, Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. They hadn't been together long - Maria had rounded up the other two - all three were survivors of recently lost battles. Eloise became her second-in-command as soon as she was changed. Theirs was a partnership of convenience. Maria wanted revenge, and she wanted her territories back. Lucy and Nettie were eager to increase their...herd lands. I suppose you could say. They were putting together an army, and they were going about it more carefully than usual. It was Maria's idea. She wanted a superior army, so she sought out specific humans who had potential. Then she gave us much more attention, more training than anyone else had bothered with. She taught us to fight, and she taught us to be invisible to humans. When we did well, we were rewarded..." He paused, editing again.
"She was in a hurry, though. Maria knew that the massive strength of the newborn began to wane around the one-year mark, and she wanted to act while we were strong. There were six of us when I joined Maria's band. She added four more within a fortnight. We were all male - Maria wanted soldiers - and that made it slightly more difficult to keep from fighting amongst ourselves."
"I fought my first battles against my new comrades in arms. I was quicker than the others, better at combat. Maria was pleased with me, though put out that she had to keep replacing the ones I destroyed. I was rewarded often, and that made me stronger." Jasper says with pursed lips and continues.
"Maria was a good judge of character. She decided to put me in charge of the others - as if I were being promoted. It suited my nature exactly. The casualties went down dramatically, and our numbers swelled to hover around twenty. This was considerable for the cautious times we lived in. My ability, as yet undefined, to control the emotional atmosphere around me was vitally effective. We soon began to work together in a way that newborn vampires had never cooperated before. Even Eloise, Maria, Nettie, and Lucy could work together more easily."
"Maria asked me to tell her when my brothers and I were ready to fight, and I was eager to prove myself. I pulled together an army of twenty-three in the end - twenty-three unbelievably strong new vampires, organized and skilled as none before. Maria was ecstatic. I was desperate to prove myself to Eloise," Jasper shakes his head as Bella notes to ask who Eloise was and why he never mentions that name and briefly mentions it now.
"Success made Maria greedy. In Eloise's first year, Maria began eyeing other cities. Then the others came from the South to dislodge her." He brushed two fingers along the faint pattern of scars on his arm.
"The fighting was intense. Many began to worry that the Volturi would return. Of the original twenty-three, I was the only one to survive the first eighteen months. We both won and lost. Nettie and Lucy turned on Maria eventually - but that one we won."
"The Mexican Coven managed to get a hold on the whole South and were able to hold on to Monterrey. It quieted a little, though the wars continued. The idea of conquest was dying out; it was mostly vengeance and feuding now. So many had lost their partners, and that is something our kind does not forgive..."
"Maria and Eloise always kept a dozen or so newborns ready. They meant little to us - they were pawns, they were disposable. When they outgrew their usefulness, we did dispose of them. My life continued in the same violent pattern, and the years passed. I was sick of it all for a very long time before anything changed..."
"Decades later, I developed a friendship with a newborn who'd remained useful and survived his first three years against the odds. His name was Peter. I liked Peter; he was...civilized - I suppose that's the right word. He didn't enjoy the fight, though he was good at it."
"He was assigned to deal with the newborns - babysit them, you could say. It was a full-time job. And then it was time to purge again. The newborns were outgrowing their strength; they were due to be replaced. Peter was supposed to help me dispose of them. We took them aside individually, you see, one by one...It was always a very long night. This time, he tried to convince Eloise that a few had potential, Eloise tried, but Maria had instructed us to get rid of them all."
"We were about halfway through, and we had already decided on a plan for their escape, and I could feel that it was taking a great toll on Peter after Charlotte was called. He yelled for her to run, and he bolted after her." Jasper tells her he remembered Eloise telling him what she had planned for their old friends' escape, and he agreed.
"Maria was irritated with me for that... Five years later, Peter snuck back for me. With Eloise's signal. He picked a good day to arrive. Maria was mystified by my ever-deteriorating frame of mind. She'd never felt a moment's depression, and I wondered why I was different. I began to notice a change in her emotions when she was near me - sometimes there was fear...and malice - the same feelings that had given me advance warning when Nettie and Lucy struck. When Peter returned."
"He and Eloise had a plan. Yet, I couldn't go if I was going to leave someone behind, Eloise, she told me to go to leave the bloodshed behind, and I did. It was the hardest thing to do. I'd been her companion for as many years as Carlisle and Edward have been together. The bond between us was strong like no other. When you live for the fight, for the blood, the relationships you form are tenuous and easily broken." Jasper closes his eyes as he again, remembering the memory of him leaving Eloise.
"I traveled with Peter and Charlotte for a few years, getting the feel of this new, more peaceful world. But the depression didn't fade. I didn't understand what was wrong with me until Peter noticed that it was always worse after I'd hunted."
"I contemplated that. In so many years of slaughter and carnage, I'd lost nearly all of my humanity. I was undeniably a nightmare, a monster of the grisliest kind. Yet each time I found another human victim, I would feel a faint prick of remembrance for that other life. Watching their eyes widen in wonder at my beauty, I could see Maria and the others in my head, what they had looked like to me the last night that I was Jasper Whitlock. It was stronger for me - this borrowed memory - than it was for anyone else because I could feel everything my prey was feeling. And I lived their emotions as I killed them."
"You've experienced the way I can manipulate the emotions around myself, Bella, but I wonder if you realize how the feelings in a room affect me. I live every day in a climate of emotion. For the first century of my life, I lived in a world of bloodthirsty vengeance. Hate was my constant companion. Regret for my decisions followed me. It eased some when I left Maria, but I still had to feel the horror and fear of my prey."
"It began to be too much. The depression got worse, and I wandered away from Peter and Charlotte. Civilized as they were, they didn't feel the same aversion I was beginning to feel. They only wanted peace from the fight. I was so worn out by killing - killing anyone, even mere humans."
"Yet I had to keep killing. What choice did I have? I tried to kill less often, but I would get too thirsty, and I would give in. After a century of instant gratification, I found self discipline...challenging. I still haven't perfected that."
Jasper was lost in the story, as was Bella. It surprised her when his desolate expression smoothed into a peaceful smile.
"I was in Philadelphia. There was a storm, and I was out during the day - something I was not completely comfortable with yet. I knew standing in the rain would attract attention, so I ducked into a little half-empty diner. My eyes were dark enough that no one would notice them, though this meant I was thirsty, and that worried me a little."
"She was there - expecting me, naturally." He chuckled once. "She hopped down from the high stool at the counter as soon as I walked in and came directly toward me. It shocked me. I was not sure if she meant to attack. That's the only interpretation of her behavior my past had to offer. But she was smiling. And the emotions that were emanating from her were like nothing I'd ever felt before."
Alice chimes in. Bella didn't notice that the woman was behind her, "You had me waiting long enough. I had a vision of Jasper ten years after I changed. He needed a friend, and I needed a friend too,"
"Alice told me what she'd seen of Carlisle and his family. I could hardly believe that such an existence was possible. But Alice made me optimistic. So we went to find them." Jasper continues
"Scared the hell out of them, too," Edward said, rolling his eyes at Jasper before turning to Bella to explain. "Emmett and I were away hunting. Jasper shows up, covered in battle scars, towing this little freak" - he nudged Alice playfully - "who greets them all by name, knows everything about them, and wants to know which room she can move into."
Alice and Jasper laugh in harmony as they reminisce on the memory of when they arrived and joined the Cullens.
"When I got home, all my things were in the garage," Edward continues.
Alice shrugged. "Your room had the best view."
They all laughed together now.
"That's a nice story," Bella says.
Three pairs of eyes questioned her sanity.
"I mean the last part," Bella defended herself.
"Alice has made all the difference," Jasper agreed.
"It's her thing," Cordelia adds with a smile while gazing at Alice lovingly, Alice winking in her direction.
"An army," Alice whispered. "Why didn't you tell me?"
The others were intent again, their eyes locked on Jasper's face.
"I thought I must be interpreting the signs incorrectly. Because where is the motive? Why would someone create an army in Seattle? There is no history there, no vendetta. It makes no sense from a conquest standpoint, either; no one claims it. Nomads pass through, but there's no one to fight for it. No one to defend it from." Jasper starts.
"But I've seen this before, and there's no other explanation. There is an army of newborn vampires in Seattle. I'd guess it's less than twenty. The difficult part is that they are totally untrained. Whoever made them just set them loose. It will only get worse, and it won't be much longer till the Volturi step in. Actually, I'm surprised they've let this go on so long."
"What can we do?" Carlisle asks.
"If we want to avoid the Volturi's involvement, we will have to destroy the newborns, and we will have to do it very soon." Jasper's face was hard. Knowing his story now, Bella could guess how this evaluation must disturb him.
"Eloise and I can teach you how. It won't be easy in the city. The young ones aren't concerned about secrecy, but we will have to be. It will limit us in ways that they are not. Maybe we can lure them out."
"Maybe we won't have to." Edward's voice was bleak. "Does it occur to anyone else that the only possible threat in the area that would call for the creation of an army is...us?"
Jasper's eyes narrowed; Carlisle's widened, shocked.
"Tanya's family is also near," Thalia says slowly, unwilling to accept Edward's words.
"The newborns aren't ravaging Anchorage, Thalia. I think we have to consider the idea that we are the targets."
"They're not coming after us," Alice insists, and then paused. "Or...they don't know that they are. Not yet."
"What is that?" Edward asks, curious and tense. "What are you remembering?"
"Flickers," Alice says. "I can't see a clear picture when I try to see what's going on, nothing concrete. But I've been getting these strange flashes. Not enough to make sense of it. It's as if someone's changing their mind, moving from one course of action to another so quickly that I can't get a good view..."
"Indecision?" Jasper asks in disbelief.
"I don't know..."
"Not indecision," Edward growls. "Knowledge. Someone who knows you can't see anything until the decision is made. Someone who is hiding from us. Playing with the holes in your vision."
"Who would know that?" Alice whispered.
Edward's eyes were hard as ice. "Aro knows you as well as you know yourself."
"But I would see if they'd decided to come..."
"Unless they didn't want to get their hands dirty."
"A favor," Rosalie suggested, speaking for the first time. "Someone in the South... someone who already had trouble with the rules. Someone who should have been destroyed is offered a second chance - if they take care of this one small problem...That would explain Volturi's sluggish response."
"Why?" Carlisle asks, still shocked. "There's no reason for the Volturi -"
"It was there," Edward disagrees quietly. "I'm surprised it's come to this so soon, because the other thoughts were stronger. In Aro's head, he saw me at one side and Alice at the other. The present and the future, virtual omniscience. The power of the idea intoxicated him."
"I would have thought it would take him much longer to give up on that plan - he wanted it too much. But there was also the thought of you, Carlisle, of our family, growing stronger and larger. The jealousy and the fear: you having...not more than he had, but still, things that he wanted. He tried not to think about it, but he couldn't hide it completely. The idea of rooting out the competition was there; besides their own, ours is the largest coven they've ever found..."
Bella stares at Edward's face in horror. He'd never told her this, but she guessed she knew why. She could see it in her head now, Aro's dream. Edward and Alice in black, flowing robes, drifting along at Aro's side with their eyes cold and blood-red...
Carlisle interrupted her waking nightmare. "They're too committed to their mission. They would never break the rules themselves. It goes against everything they've worked for."
"They'll clean up afterward. A double betrayal," Edward said in a grim voice. "No harm done."
Jasper leaned forward, shaking his head.
"No, Carlisle is right. The Volturi do not break rules. Besides, it's much too sloppy. This...person, this threat - they have no idea what they're doing. A first-timer, I'd swear to it. I cannot believe the Volturi are involved. But they will be."
They all stared at each other, frozen with stress.
"Rosalie, call her," Edward insists, and Rosalie's head snaps towards him with anger.
"No!" Rosalie disagrees. "I would not let my wife be in danger, and she is far better in another country. No one argue with me, and it's my final decision." Rosalie says, her tone indicating finality.
Author's Note:
➵ This is the book version where Jasper told his past to Bella.
➵ Also, giving a valid excuse why Rosalie's wife isn't here yet.😌
➵ Eloise has her moment to tell Bella her version of the past. That's why Eloise isn't in this chapter.
➵ This is such a slow burn, honestly, but I feel like it's also the right amount you read the progress of their love and growth, unlike my other Jasper Hale fics that are instant love. It's pretty new for me, and I felt good writing it.