Stained Glass Windows || Jasper Hale

Twenty four

They reached Aro at the same time as Bella and Nessie. Edward immediately moved to stand at his daughter's side as they drew closer. Jasper gently squeezing Jem's hand as they stopped a few feet away from the red eyed vampire. "Ah, young Bella", Aro drawled her name. "Immortality suits you". Then he turned his gaze to the hybrids. 

A shrill high pitched laugh of surprise filled the silence. "I hear a strange heart. Two of them". Jem flinched slightly at the noise. Aro grinned as he reached down to extend a hand to Nessie. Renesme glanced at her parents before stepping forwards. She was very brave, Jem thought, or still too young to truly understand the danger she was in. She glanced down at the extended hand before lift her own. 

"Hello Aro", she greeted just as she placed her hand on the man's face. There was a slow dawning look of wonderment as whatever Aro was seeing filled his mind. 

"Magnifico", he breathed as Nessie stepped back. Bella reaching for her and drawing her in protectively. "Half mortal, half immortal", he announced with audible surprise. "Conceived and carried by this newborn when she was still human". 

"Impossible", Caius snapped. Aro's smile vanished. Bella and Edward began quickly moving back to the safety of their side. Jacob growling once more at the volturi before following. Jem wished to go with them but he was still standing, waiting for his turn to be assessed. He couldn't leave until Aro was finished with him.

"Do you think they fooled me brother?" 

Caius was silent and Aro smiled again, turning back to Jem. "Jem, wasn't it?" He asked, though  he had never given his name. It was probably plucked from Edward's head. "You're another one, like her. A hybrid. Except you're all grown up". 

"I'm here as a witness", Jem voice, and he was glad it didn't shake. "To prove that the existence of my kind is not a threat". 

"A threat? To what?" There was a line of steel in Aro's tone and the smile had faded from his face. 

Jem took a breath. "A threat to your way of life". 

Aro's gaze was sharp enough to hurt as he extended his hand. Jem held himself still, willing not to shake as he reached out his own and took it. It was a singular moment that seemed to last eternity as his fingertips touched dusty marble. His whole life playing out in front of his eyes. Blood, decay, snow, mud, fire, warmth, clear skies and the chatter of people. Children screaming, the taste of blood, a ship creaking, learning to write, talking in broken English. Towns and villages, warm bodies on his, blood on his teeth.  Red hair, a face familiar and full of seething hate, a woman screaming as he ripped her open, San so small in his arms. Annabelle leaving. San growing like a weed, San calling him brother for the first time, long nights trying desperately to feed his son, rain in a forest and a mob of people screaming, cold houses, long jobs, school. Then finally the Cullens and Jasper glowing golden. 

The contact must have only lasted a moment but Jem was shuddering and pulling back as quick as he could once it was over. His own head felt full of information. His gift working overtime to process every information, every background on every person Aro had ever touched all streaming at once through his mind. He'd never had a headache, but he guessed that this was the closest he could get. It was an exhausted, piercing pain as he struggled to absorb all the information. 

"Fascinating", Aro's voice brought him back to the present. "Your gift is powerful. Both you and your brother". 

"Are they a threat?" Caius demanded, interrupting. 

Aro straightened. "No. This one has lived for over two hundred years admits humans and they never knew he existed, neither did we. These, hybrids, eat human food and drink blood. They age up till they reach full grown and then they stop. They can blend in with both worlds and yet, they are neither". He paused and his gaze seemed considering. Jem recalled what Edward had said about the man craving powerful gifts and felt a stab of fear again. Did he want San? San's gift was very useful. 

"Really?" The craving for violence in Caius' tone had changed. He seemed almost curious. "I shall love to have one to test. Do they bleed?" 

Jasper took a warning step closer to Jem's side, twisting his body to block him from the other blonde's gaze. "We do", Jem answered much more calmly than he felt. "We can also drown". 

"Fragile compared to us, yet still half vampire", Aro hummed. It didn't feel good. 

"Bring forward the informant!" Caius called and two robed vampires dragged a woman with golden ringlets from their ranks. They were restraining her by her arms, holding tight enough to crack marble skin. 

Jem made to step back and retreat back to his brother when Aro held up a hand. "Wait there. I am not finished with you yet". Jem stopped and felt Jasper bury a snarl in his throat. His mate pressing in even closer, as if to shield Jem from the volturi around them. 

The informer, Jem knew she was a sister of the Denali clan but he had never gotten her name, glanced towards her sisters before facing Caius. The volturi leader pointed. "Is that the child you saw?" 

"I'm not sure". Her voice was shaky. 

"Jane?" It was a warning. 

"She's changed! Grown". 

"Then your allegations were false, as my brother has just proved". 

"The Cullens are innocent. I take full responsibility for my mistake", she spoke desperately. She turned to her sister and spoke quieter. "I'm sorry". 

"Caius no!" Edward's voice broke the air just as the volturi moved. Two guards ripped apart the woman's arms as another broke off her head with a sharp cracking sound that made Jem flinch. Another guard handed Caius a burning torch and he pressed it to the body. The woman went up in flames as the Denali sisters screamed. 

"Irina!" 

Jem watched her burn and distantly recalled that he did know her name. It had just been lost under the headache of information Aro had dumped on him. That had never happened before. If the information was there, it was not a struggle for him to remember. His gift must still be processing, or he was going into shock. That had happened a few times before. Human parts meant that human functions still worked too. He had gone into shock after killing his father and that had been a surprise. 

A struggle broke out amidst the Denali sisters fought to attack the man who had just murdered their sister. Jem paid little attention to it as Aro turned back to him. The Cullens must have stopped them, as Aro's face took on an expression of grim dissatisfaction for a moment before he was gazing at Jem once again in curiosity. 

"I still cannot believe that hybrids like you have existed for so long without us knowing. Half us, half human", his tone was musing. "I wonder how alike our species truly are". 

unedited