Disclosure:  Twilight and Vampire Diaries are owned by their respective braianics that thought of it. 

Pre Edit Count –   2,178 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Roar by Katy Perry.

Previous:

Elijah raises one eyebrow as he looks at Damon, and then looks at his daughter.  She is an Elemental too?  This information is surprising to him, and he wonders if she is the Elemental, or if it is part of the sharing of powers Sage had mentioned.  Then he shrugs.  It really doesn’t matter in the long run.

Bella has picked up on the byplay, and she doesn’t bat an eyelash.  She is still staring down Jasper, waiting for his answer. When he doesn’t react, she prods him. “Well, cowboy?  What is your answer?  You going to get yourself in gear or you going to skedaddle out of here like a yellow belly coward?”

 Now:

Jasper stares into the eyes of the woman who, the last time he had seen her, had been a toy, pet for his so-called brother.  She had allowed him to walk all over her, and in return he had laughed and joked about it to Tanya in Denali.  That is why he had been chained up for a month – he had dared to defend the life of a pet.  There had been no other reason from what he could tell, but that had been enough for him to break and leave that shit.  He had only waited for the chance to do it with no one the wiser, and had drained some drug dealers he had come across.  He was done.

Jasper had felt a pull to Bella from the first time she had walked into the cafeteria.  But at that time his eyes had been blinded by Alice and the rest of the family.  In Phoenix, she had broken through the rose-colored glasses he had still been wearing, letting him see clearly for a short time.  That was why he had told her that she was worth it.  Then for her to escape him, all to prevent the suffering of his so-called family and rescue her witless mother?  That had astonished him.  It had broken those glasses completely.  He had started to wake up and notice things.  This human was not normal.

But nothing he had thought back then would have prepared for the tiger before him now.  She had been a kitten then, but now she had the strength to back up that will of hers.  And she had toughened up.  While he had killed for her, he could see that living knowingly with the threat of being found and killed at any time, had toughened up her. She had lived through it all, and the fire that that was the supernatural world only burned out the useless stuff, leaving a woman any male would desire.

She is beautiful, and he is proud of her. She has gone through so much, and now she is here, standing before him, showing that strength. So why is he so ready to try to subdue her?

His eyes have never left her, but he also watches the ones he thinks are the real threats.  Neither of them are doing a thing to defend her, instead allowing her to stand up to him, a century old vampire who has gained strength as he grew older.  This confuses him, so he is stalling to try to find out why they would allow her to possibly be hurt.  Especially Damon, who he can still feel being very protective of her.  If she was his, he would not allow her to be standing up to a vampire like she is with the possibility of being hurt.

Bella stands her ground, staring down the vampire in front of her, and her anger is growing.  She refuses to be treated as she once was, and that is how she sees Jasper trying to handle her.  She wouldn’t back down to her own Mate or Father, why would she do it for him?

The clouds swirl above her and became angrier.  Damon’s growl actually ceases as he begins to grin.  His Bella is going to be a handful.  It had taken him much blood and time, and so much pain, to master what she is effortlessly calling up.  But then Sage only realized he was an Elemental when he had become angry with her and the wind had pushed her away from him. Anger seemed to be a trigger for Elementals if he and his Bella were any indication.

Now he manipulated the elements with great skill.  Even the storms of the past day were controlled, but then what could be expected when one discovers that their other half was almost dead so many times, and otherwise kept as a…pet?

No, he is all for letting Bella handle this.  Let Jasper realize that she isn’t the same person he had known in the past.  He needs a lesson in learning how to treat a woman the right way.  He and Demetri need to learn there is more to life that what they had thought, and his little tiger will be perfect to teach this lesson.

Jasper stands up and glares down at her.  He doesn’t understand what is going on, but Bella needs to learn to listen to others that may know better.  This attitude of hers is amazing, and he is proud of her, but she is taking it too far. Standing up to him?  Why?  What is that going to prove?  If her own mate is not going to correct her, he will.  He didn’t kill all those Cold Ones to allow her to die by thinking she is more than she really is.

But when he bares his teeth and starts to try to dominate her, a lightning strike rips up from the ground near them, close enough that he could feel the electricity in the very air around him.  It is enough to fuel his anger, and he snarls at her, ready to spring. Any thoughts of Jasper are fast disappearing; the Major is coming out to make the newborn before him submit.

Then, all of a sudden, she pushes him out of the patio area, and while he catches himself outside, she is standing a couple of steps from him.  When he starts to spring at her, the lightning strikes again, surrounding him in eye searing light.  It actually seems to be caging him, dancing along an invisible bubble around him.

Bella walks up to his cage of lightning and with a disgusted look on her face, tells him, “That is enough!  I am not a pet, nor am I a little girl, Jasper!  I know what is out there, better than you do.  I do not need you to protect me, I can do that very well as you can see!  And if I need someone else to defend me, my Father and Damon can do the job better than you.  One is an Elemental Master, stronger than any vampire on this planet, and the other is the original vampire?  What can you really bring into this that would make you worth the effort?” The end is said with an eyebrow raised, waiting to see what retort he would make.  Did he not think she knew all the legends, the ones that evidently he had no knowledge about, even being half of those?  She may not have believed them, but she knew more than most.

Jasper is still snarling at her, standing in the middle of lightning, and even when Bella tightens the circle, he doesn’t budge.  He tells her, “This.”  He waves to himself and his surroundings. “I have been trained and participated in many battles.  You think this is something new?  There is nothing new under the sun.  Ever.”  Then he tries to send her a cocktail of emotions, and is shocked when they ricochet back onto him.  Luckily he can control them, and it only caused him to falter for a second. But it is enough to have him hesitating.

Bella laughs at him. “C’mon Jasper.  Think.” She walks around the enclosure, inspecting it to see what she can learn from it, the vampire inside no longer interesting her.  She knew she was doing this; she can feel it pulling something from within her.

He growls at her. “So your mate is surrounding me with lightning and you are shielding.” He has turned enough to watch her and not letting those he thinks are the threat out of his view either.  He is almost disappointed in how cocky she is being.

She laughs as she came to her previous place and stops. Then she tells him simply, “Nope, this is all me.” She crosses her arms and taps her foot as her mind runs through all the applications of the cage in front of her.

He stares at her, trying to read her.  He may not have his power, but all those years should give him some insight into the woman in front of him.  He finally sighs.  She is calm, and no longer mad.  She is simply showing him that she doesn’t need him.  And that causes a pang deep inside of him.

“How?”

She blinks, not anticipating the question.  “How?”

He nods. “How did you stop the rage you were feeling?  How are you controlling this?” How is she not a rampaging newborn, how is she able to act like herself?

Elijah decides this is enough. He is tired of the insubordinate attitude of the hybrid towards his daughter.  He and Damon walk up and stand on either side of Bella.  Damon stands close enough that they are touching.  But he stands beside her, not defending her, but showing his support.

Damon is proud of his carissima.  She has not taken anything from this asshole, and he smirks at the hybrid in the cage and waves his fingers at the man.  He can’t help it, the idiot seems to bring out the snarkiness in him.

Jasper stands straight and doesn’t flinch though the bubble shrinks again.  He stares into Bella’s eyes, searching them as she does the same.   He looks, and there in her eyes, he sees the truth.  She is no longer that teen he remembers.  This woman can fight on her own.  And not only does she know it, but her mate and father both know it, and now…finally, Jasper does too.

Then his phone rings.  Still holding her eyes, he answers the phone. “Whitlock.”

“Finally you have pulled your head from your ass.  Took you long enough.  Did you really want to know what lightning would feel like hitting you?  Cause I can tell you, you probably wouldn’t live through that shit.”

Jasper growls. “Peter.” The asshole who started all of this.

“And that shit about her being yer Mate?  I never said that.  I just said to defend the person you felt the pull to.  She is your fucking great grandbaby!  How fucked up would have that been if you had fucked her?  I just saw that she needed that time to grow into herself, and I figured you would be pissed if you found out later she was alive and you did nada to save her life.  Fucking A, Major! How fucked up can you be?” The voice is very irritated; he had never thought that Jasper would take it to these limits.

Bella can’t help the laugh that comes out of her mouth as she hears this guy reaming into Jasper.  Damon leans down and asks her, “Are you going to let him out now, mia carissima?” His breath ghosts on her skin and causes her to shiver, and he cannot help the grin that appears on his face with her reaction.

She huffs.  “I want an apology, and to know how he is my great whatever.  I am not going to be stepped on anymore.  I may not have your experiences, but I have my own.  They count just as much as yours do!  When it’s something that you guys know more about than I do, of course I will listen to you.  If it is something I know, I expect the same courtesy.” She stares over them all, the indignation she feels over the implied insult plain for all to see.

Damon sighs and he wraps an arm around her.  Leaning down, he whispers, “But mia carissima, we didn’t doubt you.” He sends her his love and how impressed he is with his little mate.

Jasper has heard everything she said and what Peter is saying.  Growing irritated with how he looks like the bad guy in all this, he finally tells Peter, “Enough.  You could have told me and I would have listened.  Sometimes you are just as bad as the pixie, Peter.” He knows Peter hates to be even mentioned in the same sentence as Alice, but the truth is, he would have done anything to protect Bella if he had known she was the last living relative of his.

A stunned silence came from the phone.

Jasper smirks, finally feeling somewhat in control again. “Oh yeah, your gift is telling you that I am right.  A lot of this misunderstanding comes from your cryptic shit. If you had told me, I would have done as much as I did already.  Maria killed my family.  My wife.  And she told me that she had killed my sons, too.  So why would I not want to know?” He ends softly as he remembers the pain of thinking that his entire family was dead, and how that thought had caused to him to shut down a lot of his humanity.  He will admit now that he had tried to get killed, but the beast inside him was too strong, and he instead emerged more and more powerful as time went by.

He looks out at Bella, turns his phone off, and puts it back in his pocket.  “I apologize, Bella.  I truly thought you were my mate, and I was confused.  I felt the same pull to Damon, and thought that maybe you were both my mates.  As Peter said, this is truly fucked up.” He shrugs, feeling as though he is back in control now.  He knows what is going on, and they can move forward.

Damon shakes his head at the entrapped vampire. “And that’s it?  You think Bella is going to forgive you because it was a misunderstanding?  She wasn’t mad at you for the mate thing, that was mine and Elijah’s issue with you.  She just refused you.  But it was the pushing you did, treating her as a pet, that made her angry enough to pull lightening. That is the hardest element to control, but you pushed her hard enough that she did it without any problems.” By the time he is done, he is glaring at the idiot who pushed his mate that far.  He is lucky; a lot of Elementals are burned out because they don’t control the power correctly.

Elementals have to make sure that they are grounded when they call the elements.  When he called Wind, he instinctively had the equal pressure against him that he pushed out.  Otherwise, he would have been smashed.  With Lightning, the most dangerous, you literally have to ground yourself.  The lightning actually comes from you, striking you and flowing through you to reach your target when you use it as Bella is.  And to have it surging continuously? Damon shudders.  She could have fried before he could have gotten to her to take the charge himself.

Jasper just stares into the eyes of his great granddaughter, searching for anything to give him a clue.  He knew it had to be her mother.  There was no way Charlie was his.  But then, Renee didn’t do such a grand stand job of raising Bella either.  He sighs.

Bella returns his stare, and finally tells him, “You were treating me like Edward did.  That shit needs to stop.  Decide what you want to do.” And with that she pulls the lightning and shield back into her.  Instead of melding like she expected it to, it instead came around both Damon and herself.  It glows brighter around them, then flashes before sinking into them.

Elijah grins. “Well, it is confirmed. You are both Elementals.” He almost wanted to rub his hands in glee.  His family, his heir and her mate, are safe.  It would take a lot to take them out on their own, and he will be bolstering their strengths with as many spells and anything else as he can.  He doesn’t want there to be any chance of anything happening to his daughter.  He loves Elena, but he has waited for Bella for over a millennium, though it wasn’t like he wouldn’t do the same with his mate.  His family is going to be powerful, and he will ensure that everyone will think twice before messing with any of them.

Damon and Bella just stare at each other.  They’d had a close bond to begin with, but that flash just downloaded a lot into their heads.

Bella suddenly exclaims, “Shit.” And with that, her eyes roll back and Damon catches her before she hits the ground. He swings her into his arm and his eyes meet Elijah’s as both worry about his mate.

Damon carries her into the family room, and is kneeling by her head when she comes to. He grins at her. “Hello there, mia carissima.” His relief is almost crippling.  If they had been alone, he would have her in his arms and he would be checking over every inch of her.  But for now, he uses the information they have gained to check over her.

She smiles, but winces as her head throbs. “I didn’t think I would have headaches as a vampire.” Her voice is wry and filled with her pain.

He smirks as he opens his wrist and gives it to her.  “Normally I get them from witchy, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore.” He cannot stop the purr erupting out of him as he feels his mates lips on his wrist, then the sensation of her drinking from him makes his eyes go dark with lust.

She smiles as she drinks, then licks his wrist when she feels her headache receding. She meets his dark eyes with her own, and the promise in them has him grinning.  He kisses her forehead and then rests his own on hers, relieved for the break from all the drama for the moment.

Elijah had been pacing, and he is relieved to see her here in the moment with them, but asks, “What happened?” He wanted them to have time to  themselves, but everything just seems to revolve around them.  They are living several lifetimes of excitement in the span of less than a week, and he is worried for both of them.

Looking up at him as Damon helps her sit up, she informs him, “A huge download of information.  Seems we share everything.  He has my shield and anything else I will develop as time goes by, and in return, I have his vampire abilities and anything else that he will develop as time goes by.  We also need to get hold of Elena and the bitch who tried to fry me with her powers.  Bennet needs to grow up.  She was given the power to keep Klaus away and hopefully kill him from the Other Side.  That is the worst thing we can do.  He is needed.  Badly.” She looks back to Damon, and he holds her close as he reassures her that if they have to, they will fight everyone to save Klaus, even her father if need be.  The future was that bleak without Klaus.

They all stare at her in shock. “Why would Bonnie get the power from the Other Side then?” Elijah asks, trying to understand what is going on.

Damon looks up at him. “Cause your mother wants you dead.”

Final count:  3,362 words.

Fairfarren~Wendy

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