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"THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND," Jasper answered in a quiet voice "Repeated a thousand tihed a little ruefully and brushed at his ar that leaves a scar"
"Why?" I breathed in horror, feeling rude but unable to stop staring at his subtly ravaged skin
"I didn’t have quite the sa was so else entirely" His voice turned hard as he finished
I gaped at him, appalled
"Before I tell you my story," Jasper said, "you must understand that there are places in our world, Bella, where the life span of the never-aging is measured in weeks, and not centuries"
The others had heard this before Carlisle and Eain Alice moved silently to sit at Esme’s feet But Edas just as absorbed as I was; I could feel his eyes onevery flicker of emotion
"To really understand why, you have to look at the world froine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedythe 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
"Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere Picture on it every human life as a small red dot The thicker the red, the more easily ell, those who exist this way - can feed without attracting notice"
I shuddered at the ie in my head, at the word feed But Jasper wasn’t worried about frightening me, not overprotective like Edward alas He went on without a pause
"Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not It’s the Volturi that keep 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"
I frowned at the way he pronounced the naratitude The idea of the Volturi as the good guys in any sense was hard to accept
"The North is, by comparison, very civilized Mostly we are noht, who allow huly - anonymity is important to us all
"It’s a different world in the South The iht They spend the day plotting their nexttheir enemy’s Because it has been 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?" I asked
Jasper smiled "Remember the ht 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 tiet rid of the competition
"Others had the same idea Some came up with more effective tactics than others
"But thevampire named Benito The first anyone ever heard of him, he came down from somewhere north of Dallas and massacred the two shts later, he took on the er clan of allies that claiain, he won"
"How did he win?" I asked ary curiosity
"Benito had created an army of newborn vainning, he was unstoppable Very young vampires are volatile, wild, and almost iht to restrain hihtmare They’ll turn on each other as easily as on the ene st 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 knohat you’re doing They’re incredibly powerful physically, for the first year or so, and if they’re allowed to bring 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, onlynumbers"
"The va for the they could think of to counteract Benito They made armies of their own
"All hell broke loose - and I ine We immortals have our histories, too, and this particular ill never be forgotten Of course, it was not a good time to be human in Mexico, either"
I shuddered
"When the body count reached epidemic proportions - in fact, your histories blame a disease for the population sluether and sought out every newborn in the bottom half of North A 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 as found with the newborns was executed i to protect themselves from Benito, Mexico was e house for almost a year This was another chapter of our history that will always be reh there were very feitnesses left to speak of what it was like I spoke to someone once who had, from a distance, watched what happened when they visited Culiac��n"
Jasper shuddered I realized that I 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 for our present way of life
"But when the Volturi went back to Italy, the survivors were quick to stake their claian 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 fro They were used circumspectly, and the huave the Volturi no reason to return
"The wars resumed, but on a so 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" My 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 Confederate Army in 1861 I lied to the recruiters and told theet aith it
"MyPeople alwaysliked me, listened to what I had to say My father said it was charis h the ranks, over older, more experienced anize itself, so that provided opportunities, as well By the first battle of Galveston - well, it was est e
"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 theht 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 three wolers and dismounted at once to offer theht of the moon, I was stunned into silence They were, without question, the three most beautiful women I had ever seen
"They had such pale skin, I reirl, whose features were clearly Mexican, was porcelain in the h to be called girls I knew they were not lostthese three
"’He’s speechless,’ the tallest girl said in a lovely, delicate voice - it was like wind chimes She had fair hair, and her skin was snohite
"The other was blonder still, her skin just as chalky Her face was like an angel’s She leaned toward me with half-closed eyes and inhaled deeply
"’Mhed ’Lovely’
"The sirl’s arm and spoke quickly Her voice was too soft and musical to be sharp, but that seemed to be the way she intended it
"’Concentrate, Nettie,’ she said
"I’d always had a good sense of how people related to each other, and it was ie of the others If they’d been military, I would have said that she outranked the, an officer’ The brunette paused, and I tried unsuccessfully to speak ’And there’s so moredo you sense it?’ she asked the other two ’He’scoreed, leaning toward ain
"’Patience,’ the brunette cautioned her ’I want to keep this one’
"Nettie frowned; she seemed annoyed
"’You’d better do it, Maria,’ the taller blonde spoke again ’If he’s important to you I kill them twice as often as I keep thereed ’I really do like this one Take Nettie aill you? I don’t want to have to protectto focus’
"My hair was standing up on the back ofof anything the beautiful creatures were saying My instincts told el had ht to fear women, but to protect thereed enthusiastically, reaching for the tall girl’s hand They wheeled - they were so graceful! - and sprinted toward the city They seeht, they were so fast - their white dresses blew out behind theone
"I turned to stare at Maria, atching me curiously
"I’d never been superstitious in hosts or any other such nonsense Suddenly, I was unsure
"’What is your name, soldier?’ Maria asked me
"’Major Jasper Whitlock, ma’am,’ I stahost
"’I truly hope you survive, Jasper,’ she said in her gentle voice ’I have a good feeling about you’
"She took a step closer, and inclined her head as if she were going to kiss hat htful "A few days later," he finally said, and I wasn’t sure if he had edited his story forto the tension that even I could feel exuding from Edward, "I was introduced to my new life
"Their naether long - Maria had rounded up the other two - all three were survivors of recently lost battles Theirs was a partnership of convenience Maria wanted revenge, and she wanted her territories back The others were eager to increase theirherd lands, I suppose you could say They were putting together an ar about it more carefully than was usual It was Maria’s idea She wanted a superior arht out specific huave usthan anyone else had bothered with She taught us to fight, and she taught us to be invisible to the humans When we did well, ere rewarded"
He paused, editing again
"She was in a hurry, though Maria knew that the an to wane around the year
"There were six of us when I joined Maria’s band She added four ht We were all htly ht ainst my new comrades in arms I was quicker than the others, better at coh put out that she had to keep replacing the ones I destroyed I was rewarded often, and that e of character She decided to putpromoted 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 atan to work together in a way that newborn vampires had never cooperated before Even Maria, Nettie, and Lucy were able to work together an to depend upon round she walked on I had no idea that any other life was possible Maria told us this was the way things were, and we believed
"She asked ht, and I was eager to prove ether an army of twenty-three in the end - twenty-three unbelievably strong new vaanized and skilled as no others before Maria was ecstatic
"We crept doard Monterrey, her former home, and she unleashed us on her enemies They had only nine newborns at the ti them We took the only four in the process It was an unheard-of in of victory
"And ell trained We did it without attracting notice The city changed hands without any hureedy It wasn’t long before she began to eye other cities That first year, she extended her control to cover most of Texas and northern Mexico Then the others caers along the faint pattern of scars on his aran 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 on
"Maria and I were able to hold on to Monterrey It quieted a little, though the wars continued The idea of conquest was dying out; it wasnow Soour kind does not forgive
"Maria and I 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 tied
"Decades later, I developed a friendship with a newborn who’d reainst the odds His name was Peter I liked Peter; he wascivilized - 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-tiain 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 oneIt was always a very long night This time, he tried to convince me that a few had potential, but Maria had instructed that we get rid of theh, and I could feel that it was taking a great toll on Peter I was trying to decide whether or not I should send him away and finish up myself as I called out the next victiry, furious I braced for whatever his hter, but he was never a match for me
"The newborn I’d summoned was a female, just past her year ed when she caave him away He yelled for her to run, and he bolted after her I could have pursued the him
"Maria was irritated with me for that
"Five years later, Peter snuck back for ood day to arrive
"Maria wasframe 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 - sos that had givenwhen Nettie and Lucy struck I was preparing myself to destroy my only ally, the core of my existence, when Peter returned
"Peter told me about his new life with Charlotte, told me about options I’d never dreah they’d met many others in the north Others who could co-exist without the constant mayhem
"In one conversation, he had o, and somewhat relieved I wouldn’t have to kill Maria I’d been her coether, yet the bond between us was nowhere near as strong When you live for the fight, for the blood, the relationships you form are tenuous and easily broken I walked aithout a backward glance