September, 2013

In the time I've lived with the Cullens, I've come to appreciate the stability and security that doing so gave me. They have a climate about them that I enjoy, but even so, even with a handful of brothers and sisters, I am lonely. You would think after over a century I'd be long used to the feeling.

Sometimes, I cannot help but wonder if Alice was mistaken about me. Mistaken about the part about me finding a mate. Maybe my time with Maria ruined my chance, between all the humans and other vampires I killed on her orders or killed just for sustenance. Maybe, just maybe, my mate had been among them and I didn't know.

Edward kicked me out of the main house, telling me that my depressing thoughts was interfering with his music composing. Well, bully for him!! At least he has someone to compose for!

He, Alice and Peter have been acting weird lately, but for Peter, it was even weirder than his usual. And it all started with that vision that Alice had, but absolutely refused to share. Then a couple of days ago, Peter turned down a spar with Emmett to play Houdini and disappear all damn day.

That really pissed Rose off.

I pretended to ignore the looks shared among my adopted siblings as I left, slamming the door behind me. That's how I found myself wandering around aimlessly. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going, but my feet had led me to a spot in the woods I had found by chance when I first moved here with my family. To my working knowledge, no one knew of the place and that worked to my advantage. I liked to get away sometimes, especially now, with me living as the only single individual in a house of mated pairs.

If not for her heartbeat, I would have never noticed her. The woman was perched on a boulder beside a pond, with her feet dangling below. She sat incredibly still for a human with her left hand outstretched in front of her, all five fingers splayed out. She had golden blonde hair that framed her oval face and fell down the side of her arm, almost to her waist, and lightly tanned skin, but pale enough that I could see the blood coursing through her veins.

Her eyes looked up from the water and she spotted me. I was confident she couldn't see me well enough to tell my eye color from the distance between us, but her emotions showed she found what she could see to be attractive. She gave a soft smile and then went back to her task at hand.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I crossed my arms across my chest and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree. She held me entranced by the sight of her. Her lean, long legs were encased in dark skinny jeans. Her shirt was a dark red and loose around her body, it hung off one shoulder, revealing her delicate collarbone and the curve of her shoulder. She was beautiful. I picked out the scent of her blood from all the animals in the forestry and let out a soft growl. She smelled heavenly, a mix of something fruity, floral and so thoroughly exotic that I couldn't identify it. Her scent seemed to fill all of the senses and I knew.

She was mine, and I would have her. Forever.

I wanted nothing more than to strip her bare, lay her flat against the ground and bury myself deep inside of her as I left my physical claim upon her skin. My very nature demanded it of me, but my rational side knew that wasn't the time. I knew I'd have all the time in the world for that.

I watched the woman, my young mate, with her arm still stretched out above the water. I was tempted to ask her what she hoped to achieve, her actions made no sense to me. That is, until I got my answer, a few seconds later. Where her hand was outstretched, I saw the water in the pond start to separate, rising up slowly in the air in the form of droplets. My enhanced sight could make out ten perfectly rounded spheres. All of them floating under my mate's hand. My mouth fell open in shock.

Well damn.

Several things I was absolutely certain. First, my mate—as poetic as it seemed—was human. Second, she was a gifted human. I knew if I found her when I still served under my sire and sometimes lover, this would have seen her immediately turned and put to use. Third, there was a part of me—and I was well aware of just how dominant that part was—that wanted to fuck her like the animal I knew I can be. And finally, I would fight to the death for her. I had not said two words to her, yet I knew I would love her for the rest of my days.

The silence was comfortable. Pleasant. I continued to watch her practice her gift by levitating the droplets of water, then she switched to the pebbles laying on the ground.

"Enjoying the show, stranger?"

She'd spoken in such a soft whisper, I wasn't certain my vampire ears heard her correctly. I asked her to repeat herself.

"I asked if you were enjoying the show."

One corner of my lip tilted upwards in a lopsided smirk. "That I am, ma'am." And I swore I heard her snicker when I called her ma'am.

At that moment the sun chose to shine down in the space that separated us, and I was stuck in the shadows of the branches of the cluster of trees I stood under. I watched her jump down from the boulder and begin to walk in the opposite direction through the treeline. She turned around slightly to grin—and I swear the act hit a little close to home—over her shoulder at me. "See you around, stranger."

The sun stayed out long enough for me to lose sight of her, but I followed her scent across a small stream and to a clearing where a house sat.

She disappeared into the house that sat in the clearing. I took note of the police cruiser in the yard, as well as the car and truck in the driveway. I followed her on the porch when I heard a male's voice inside and a different voice belonging to another female. As I listened to the chatter, I learned from the other voices inside that her name was Roxanne and she didn't live alone. She lived with her sister and father. When I first heard the male, it took everything in me not to kick down the front door, tear him to shreds, then take my mate and bolt.

When I saw that she was safe at her home, only then did I return home.

Peter was on the porch, waiting for me naturally, when I reached the yard. He gave me a devilish smirk. "I take it that you found your beautiful surprise? The one woman who will finally erase that terrible brooding emo shit from your psyche."

I sat down in the wooden rocking chair and propped my feet up on the porch railing. I shrugged as he stared at me, waiting for my response. "Fuck you, but yes, and I really oughta let Major out to kick your ass for not telling me about her." From inside, Esme yelled out about my choice of words but I ignored that.

Peter gave me one of his trademark smart ass grins and mimicked my position in the second chair. "What's she look like? Don't leave anything out. I hope it ain't nothing like that one blonde sister that practically drooled all over you."

I laughed at the thought of Tanya, one of the sisters that used to live with us before moving to Argentina. The strawberry blonde vampiress poured her desire out to me. Her reputation as a seductress and, alongside her sisters, being the origin for the succubus legend made her bold and confident, but she wasn't very strong. Beautiful yes. I didn't desire a companion that couldn't be my equal in every way, and my past history with having a lover that wasn't my mate turned me away from that concept. The only lover I ever had turned out to be a manipulative, cruel, bitch. After leaving Maria, and witnessing what true love and devotion befitting a mated pair was, I had decided I wasn't going to settle for anything less.

Roxanne, on the other hand, checked all the boxes.

"She's beautiful, Peter. I would have never noticed her if I had not heard her heartbeat in the forest. We were alone and she was sitting on a boulder beside a pond. She's got light colored hair, long, and the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen. She's small, but damn, she's a gifted human capable of moving things with her mind. I..."

"Have it bad already and she doesn't even know your name," He finished for me. "And I, uh, already know about her gift."

"I do know her name, it is Roxanne, but damn it Pete. I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do. It's not like she's a vampire and she knows. She's human, a human with a life, a family, and that should mean something, but damn it if I'm not a selfish bastard that don't give a damn if I steal her from it. We only said a few words to each other, and damn it all if I don't know how to properly approach her."

Peter calmly listened to my jabbering, something I hadn't done since I was an awkward human boy. Wherever they were, think God our brothers weren't around. Emmett would never let me live this down, and neither would Edward. Here I am, the God of War, world's most feared and ruthless vampire, jabbering like an awkward schoolboy meeting girls for the first time.

"Hey, ma'am,—and lay on that southern accent thick—, my name's Jasper Whitlock and you're my mate. I'm an empath that can give you the greatest orgasm you'll ever have. Oh, and by the way, I'm a vampire and I'm going to bite you so that we can live our immortal lives together forever," Peter said in that sarcastic, smartass tone that made me want to smack the hell out of him.

I swung my arm out and my hand connected hard with the back of Peter's head. "Your smartass mouth's gonna get you killed one day."

He snickered. "I only run for my life when Ares comes out to play, Jasper don't scare me that much."

It had been a long time since someone had called me Ares, after the Greek God of War, a moniker Maria had given me during my time spent controlling her newborns and fighting to keep her territory in the late 1800's. At any rate, my newest discovery made me excited for the first time in a long time to attend school.

From what I gathered listening to her conversation with her sister and father, she's going to be starting at the local school on Wednesday, the same time as my siblings and myself.

I couldn't wait.