To Please the Monster Inside [Carlisle/Jasper][Chapter Twenty-Seven]
Title: To Please the Monster Inside [Chapter Twenty-Seven]
Pairing: Carlisle/Jasper, Jasper/James
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Characters owned by Stephenie Meyer.
Summary: The monster inside Jasper lusts for human blood. When the desire is too strong to resist, there is only one who can help. Carlisle tamed this monster once, and now he must try again.
Carlisle stood alone on the porch, gazing at the stars with a shadow of exquisite loss in his eyes.
Not only did the doctor mourn for his son as if he were dead - he also harbored a great hatred for himself. Nobody else blamed him for what was happening, but he blamed himself - knew that he should have done everything in his power to help Jasper before he reached breaking point.
Esme could repeat herself for the rest of eternity, assuring her husband that this was not his doing - but it was, plain and very, very simple. It was his fault.
Alice blamed herself too, and that was something Carlisle understood - maybe even agreed with. After all, she was right about one thing, if she hadn’t blocked out visions of Jasper’s future then she would have seen this coming.
Aside from himself (and Alice), Edward seemed the most disturbed by what had transpired. He was virtually mute every second of each day and night, and when Carlisle dared to ask him what was wrong, he had shook his head and whispered, “I read what was in his mind… You cannot even imagine the evil residing there. It was easily the most frightening thing I have ever read in any mind.”
“What was it? What was he thinking?”
“It can’t be put into words, Carlisle. It wasn’t coherent thoughts. It was just… like a lingering malevolence in the back of his mind - I don’t even know if he was aware of it at the time… but he will come to know it eventually.”
The conversation had sent shivers down his cold spine, and chills through his heart. Had he been wrong to believe Jasper would return to them?
Carlisle knew only time would tell if his hope was foolish.
Until then, it was all that he had.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
His hands, wet with blood, slid over the young man’s skin. The hot body beneath him grew weaker, struggled less, with every second.
The pulse began to soften, fade.
Muscles relaxed, limbs dropping to his sides.
A quiet gasp as the final breath was released.
The pulse slowed. Slowed. Slowed.
Stopped.
Pushing the warm, battered corpse away, Jasper stood and looked over his shoulder.
James was watching, his form close to glowing with glee.
“Enjoy the show?” Jasper muttered, wiping his hands on his shirt, and his mouth on his sleeve.
“Naturally.” James smirked.
“Good. Because I want more.”
James’s smirk lifted into a vicious smile as he strode toward the empath. Standing behind him, chest pressed against his back, he mumbled, “Try not to make such a mess of the next one.”
Jasper sighed. “Okay.”
“Good boy.” James moved away, walking swiftly out the back door.
Four days had passed since James had fed from and killed the small girl and her mother. The image of the child in the vampire’s arms, blood dribbling down her heck, had yet to fade from Jasper’s memory.
Despite such haunting imagery lodging itself in his brain, the empath was quickly giving in to James’s way of life. He would hunt with the other vampire, and feed with him, and revel in the afterglow of their meal.
But James had yet to test Jasper by offering him a child again.
Jasper followed him as he headed down the street under the cover of night, sniffing the air for something he liked.
Several houses down, James stopped. “Can you smell that?” he turned to Jasper who stood with his nose in the air, inhaling long and deep.
“Yes. Lovely. I want him.” He whispered.
“Of course.”
They entered, as always, through the back door.
Once inside, the vampires followed the scent into a bedroom. A teenage boy, no more than 17, sat cross legged on his bed, attentive only on the video game he was playing.
He didn’t hear or see as Jasper and James entered his room, and remained unaware of their presence until James cupped a hand over his mouth, squeezing tight.
Immediately the boy struggled against his attacker. Squirming and straining in the vampire’s iron grip. His pulse quickened, heart pumping blood faster and faster through his veins.
Sitting back on the bed, James pulled the boy onto his lap, holding him against his chest, eyes locked on Jasper. “He’s all yours, sweetheart.”
Moving slowly, Jasper crouched on the bed behind James, bending over his shoulder to reach the boy’s neck.
Pressing his nose against the supple flesh at the curve of his neck, Jasper breathed in, trembling with hunger.
His teeth sunk through each layer of skin, breaking into thick, pulsing veins. Hot blood instantly flooded his mouth, warming him as soon as he swallowed.
His hands dropped to James’s hips, clutching tight as his nails cleaved at the hard flesh beneath the leather jacket.
James groaned, laughing low and husky as his back arched, head bowing forward, mouth latching onto the boy’s throat.
The vampires shared their prey, bodies heated from blood and passion, eyes closed as they sucked vital essence from the veins beneath their lips.
Slipping his arms around the boy’s middle, Jasper embraced both vampire and human, allowing the slow, weakening beat of the boy’s heart to vibrate throughout his being.
Breath becoming ragged and forced, whimpers spilling from his mouth, choking on his own panic, the boy crawled closer to death.
Closer and closer.
Jasper and James felt it.
The fading of the pulse, the vanishing heartbeat, the final breath.
Any remaining blood became more difficult to draw out as the heart stopped pumping it through the veins.
Drinking in what more they could, the vampires pulled their teeth from the wounds.
James let the boy’s body drop to the floor, turning to Jasper with crimson black eyes. “Still hungry?” he whispered, wiping a drop of blood from Jasper’s lip with his thumb.
“Not for blood.” Jasper murmured, letting James’s thumb slip between his lips.
“For what, then?”
“Sex.” He groaned, flattening his chest against James’s back.
James laughed softly. “You want me?”
“Mhmm…”
Jasper tried to lean forward, tried to claim James’s blood-reddened lips.
The other vampire leaned back, his hand gripping Jasper’s jaw, restraining him with a smirk. “And if you had me, what would you do with me… hmm?”
Inhaling a shaky breath, clinging to the wrist of the hand at his jaw, Jasper bit his lip, suddenly intimidated by the intensity of James’s eyes. “Take you… and leave my mark…”
Grinning and shaking his head, James put his mouth to Jasper’s ear. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“I wouldn’t?”
“Not a chance.” James chuckled.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t submit. Ever.”
Jasper stayed silent, the only sound he made was that of his quickened breathing. “But I need -“
“I said no. If you need release, I can find you a pretty human.” James stood and glided from the bedroom.
Jasper could hear him chuckle as he left.
Growling softly, Jasper clutched his head with his hands, closing his eyes as he slowed his breathing, forcing his arousal to subside.
After a time, he crawled off the bed.
He found James waiting outside, standing motionless as he stared at the stars. “Want to go for a run?”
“Where to?”
James turned to Jasper and smiled. “New York.”