Mourning Doves • J.H

Chapter 10

"GET A whiff of that. Here come's the human." Someone said as Bella and Edward entered the kitchen. Dove waved with a huge smile as Bella looked around the room awkwardly. Bella smiled back, giving a half-assed wave in return. Esme's smile returned to her face.

"Bella!" She exclaimed, "We're making Italiano for you."

"This is Esme, my Mother for all intents and purposes." Edward introduced Bella to Esme, Bella nodded and smiled.

"Bongiorno. " Bella greeted, Esme replying in Italian.

"I hope you're hungry." Esme stated in English, Bella's face fell slightly as she tucked some hair behind her ear.

"Oh, yeah, totally." Bella nodded, Edward frowned a little.

"She already ate." He mumbled, causing the glass bowl in Rosalie's hands to shatter, Dove jumped little and stepped away from the glass on the floor, Jasper keeping a hand on her arm, guiding her from it in-case she cut herself. The food and glass was left on the floor for the time-being.

"Perfect." Rosalie snarled, her eyes darkening in anger.

"No, it's just, I know you guys don't eat, so." Bella stuttered, trying to explain.

"No, of course." Esme butted in, "That's very considerate of you." She said, glancing over to Rosalie.

"The problem is, you and Edward are public now, not so much with Jasper and Dove, but.." He shrugged

"Emmett," Esme cut him off, but Rosalie shook her head.

"No, they need to know. The entire family will be implicated if this ends badly." Rosalie snapped, looking between Dove and Bella. Dove backed away a little, bumping into Jasper, who held her to keep her still.

"Badly, as in.." Bella trailed off, "We become the meal.."

Her words caused them to laugh a little, making the situation a little less daunting. At that moment, Alice entered again, through the window, walking over to Bella and hugging her.

"Hi, Bella.." She said, still hugging her, "You do smell good." She stated, then looked over to Dove, "Just like Dove."

"Alice." Edward shook his head in disbelief, Jasper just chuckled a little, knowing what the small vampire was like. Edward just scoffed and grabbed Bella's hand, leading her out the kitchen as Esme ordered Rosalie to clean up the glass and food from the floor. Jasper thought this would be a good time to lead Dove away also, away from the cleaning up and glass, so he pressed a hand to her back and lead her away from the kitchen, Emmett's laughter behind them as they walked away.

He let her walk up the stairs in-front of them before taking the lead and guiding her to a door at the end of the corridor, he opened the door, pushing it opened before letting her walk in first. He cleared his throat as he watched her look around.

"This is my room." He said as he walked in, still watching her. She slowly walked around, taking in the details of his room, the vast amount of books, the sofa - but no bed?

She quickly turned to him, "No bed?" She voiced her thoughts. He chuckled.

"We, uh, don't sleep. " He explained, and she nodded. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the books, he just had to know though, "What are you thinking?" He asked her. She smiled.

"How I wished I had this many books, and a view from my room like this." She said, pointing to the forest just feet away from them. One of the larger windows were open, so when Jasper picked up Dove, he shot out the room with no problem, landing on the ground and running into the forest with ease. He stopped for a moment, letting her know her surroundings for a moment.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked, still in his arms. He grinned.

"Just up the mountain so I can show you something." He stated vaguely. She furrowed her eyebrows but squealed when he took off running again. He placed her on a large rock, before running around a tree to hide himself for a moment. She was breathing heavily from excitement, being with Jasper as he was running was exhilarating.

"Why are you hiding?" She tilted her head in confusion, "I thought you wanted to show me?"

"I'm just.. Preparing myself I guess." He said. She sat on the rock and waited until he was comfortable enough to come out and show her what he was like in the sunlight. She didn't have to wait long, a minute later, he stepped out into the sunlight, his skin glistening, just like diamonds would. Her breath hitched as she watched. He wasn't looking at her at first, gazing down at the ground, almost as if he was afraid of her reaction. She stood and slowly walked towards him, stopping when she could reach his face, touching his skin, still watching as it reflected.

She then lifted her other hand, touching his other cheek, smiling encouragingly at him. He in return, grasped her face and pressing his lips to hers, still standing in the sunlight.

They slowly stepped out the sunlight after another minute, she didn't want him to be uncomfortable to just show her something. She turned as he was re-buttoning his shirt, but then noticed some scars scattered up by his neck. She slowly ran her finger across them, causing Jasper to shiver slightly.

"What are these?" She asked, still running her fingers over them. Jasper gazed down at her, a weary smile on his face.

"Battle scars." He called them, "I was the youngest major in the calvary. One day, I met Maria, an immortal. She was beautiful, and she was with two others in the middle of the night, I offered my aid, and she turned me. Turned me into a monster who just barely controls himself." He nearly hissed.

Dove shook her head at him.

"You may have bad days, but you're not a monster." She disagreed, and pressed a kiss to one of the scars. He shook his head before continuing with the story.

"I was her second in command. I thought what Maria and I had was love, but I know better than that now. I was a puppet. She was creating an army of newborns, what our kind called newly created vampires. The newborns were useless to Maria beyond their first year as a vampire, so she had me kill them. I could feel everything they felt." He explained, his voice sounding more pained than she ever heard it before, "It was excruciating, feeling the terror they felt before death. I left eventually, Alice was waiting for me. She'd seen me coming." He smiled slightly, cupping Dove's face with a hand before pressing a kiss to her lips, "Then she saw you and Bella, just a week before you arrived."

"She saw me?" Dove questioned, Jasper nodded.

"She has a gift. She can see the future, based on people's decisions." He explained to her as he buttoned the rest of his shirt, neither had really paid attention to the fact he was still half naked. After that, they took to staring at each other, as if their eyes could say what their mouths couldn't let out.