?After a series of tragic deaths in Shadow Swan's family, the young ginger finds herself being shipped off to Forks, Washington. A town that Shadow hasn't stepped foot in years. Here she finds the prospects of a fresh start awaiting her and the chan...
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SHADOW DECIDED TO SKIP out on the trip to LaPush, much to the dismay of Eric and her cousin.
For as much as she desired normal, the Swan girl found that there was an even stronger reason to fight it. His name was Jasper Hale. He had a pretty smile and an eagerness to be near her when school was no longer an excuse.
It was the weekend now. Charlie was busy at work, while Bella had left on a trip to Seattle with her friends. With nothing else to do, the ginger had decided to spend time at the Cullen house, where she'd been promised a lesson on control.
She was sat in Jasper's room, waiting patiently while Esme cooked lunch. Jasper himself was prepping Shadow for the taxing lesson she was about to endure.
"I don't even know how to scream on will," she muttered, fingers clasped tightly together. The idea of trying alone was enough to exhaust her.
Jasper watched her from his seat by the window. He hardly seemed phased by her nervousness. "You'll figure it out."
She cut him a scalding look. "Your unwavering faith in me isn't helping." In fact, it only made her feel worse.
Jasper smiled, "Trust me, Shadow, nothing you do could disappoint me."
She huffed, rising from her seat. "You better still be saying that later," she told him, letting her eyes wander the intimate privacy of Jasper's room.
Why he decided to let her in now wasn't a thought she wanted to dwell on. She already knew why, she just wasn't ready to say it. Not yet. Shadow couldn't breathe it into existence.
Instead, she let herself linger at the shelves of books in Jasper's room. History and theory, for the most part. Some were on strategy, too. It made her wonder what his past life was like, for him to have held so much interest in these kind of things.
It also made her not want to ask.
She did anyway. "Why are you so interested in this stuff?"
Jasper let his gaze shift from her to the books. The expression on his face was pained. Like those histories held memory.
"Because it was all I used to know," he admitted. Soft, as if it might frighten her. "Being a soldier was all I had when I was human."
Shadow furrowed her brow, but said nothing. She had never thought to ask about how he was turned. Or the life he had lived before becoming a vampire. It was such a selfish realization.
