First Sight

Teeny Tiny Twilight

Jasper

Muscles coiled, pray in sight, there is nothing but the forest floor that we both stand on, nothing but the wind that ruffles through the great elk's hair and touches me with the scent of the pulse of thick, hot blood. Nothing but predator and pray.

Except the angel that stands yards from me with her own pray in sight.

I tried to bite back a sigh as other distractions interfere with my hunting. Once you let one in, the rest are soon to follow. I purposely snap a twig under my foot and the unappealing buck with the even less appealing blood jumps and takes off into the forest.

And then my emotions are morphed, they are taken from me and bent, twisted into other emotions and shaped back inside me uncomfortably.

It isn't so uncomfortable this time. Not since the manipulator is Bella, and ever since her change, she had been a brilliant beacon of joy. It was a pleasant feeling this time. The irritation and aversion to the pray I should enjoy—or be able to pretend I did like the disagreeable beasts, like the rest of my family did—all of which added up to the feeling of my inadequacy.

Even Bella, a new born vampire, was able to stomach the animals without complaint. Particularly since she was able to turn down the mouth watering aroma of human blood that should have consumed her. Especially during the hunt.

Maybe if Bella didn't carry such a bright disposition. Maybe if I didn't like her as a person. Maybe if she didn't make my brother happier then he had ever been before. Maybe if she didn't make our family more exultant, more full then it had ever been before, I might be jealous of her, might not like her because she was so good at all of this when I was so staggering horrid.

As it was, I silently thanked Edward each and every day for choosing Bella. Like how we thanked Rose for Emmett. They each deserved a brilliant medal for perfect judgement.

Especially now that the chaos with the Voltury had passed us.

I took the time—because I liked Bella—to let her pleasant alien emotions sooth over me before I turned them back into my own.

Awe. Awe so deep it screamed through me and brought the core of all wonders to light within me. Love, adoration, and finally a smug satisfaction that had my own face twisting into the expression with out my consent.

I turned to see what inconsequential had set Bella's world alight this time. Would it be dust motes again? Maybe the light that filtered through all the brilliant leaves, turning them to gemstones in the sapphire sky.

But it wasn't anything I would have expected.

It was just Edward…hunting. She was watching him with so much admiration, so much raw love that never went anywhere these days with out the accompanying lust. It seemed like the world was completely centred on Edward's coiled spring.

My confusion over what Bella saw that was so majestic about a simple hunting trip twisted my emotions back into my own, and I lost the pleasant feelings….Not for long though, eventually Bella would become fascinated with another everyday object that I would have passed over without a thought. Having Bella and Renesmee was like being a child myself again.

Edward drained his pray, and then his head flashed in my direction, having heard my thoughts this whole time. I smiled and looked away politely as his new pray became his new wife, his objective to knock her to the rough forest floor and plant a variety of kisses over her face while she laughed under him. Reciprocating his show of affection.

There was no confusion in him at why she felt that way. I was irritated—again—as knowledge eluded me. No vampire liked feeling confused. It went against our nature, and usually when things escaped us, it meant we were about to become the prey.

As usual, the feeling of danger triggered my protective instinct for self preservation, and I looked towards the only thing I could never live with out.

Alice.

She wasn't watching me; instead she had identified her next target, her graceful limbs curling to spring. It was like watching grace personified, like watching a mystic work a magic that superseded the miracles of life.

Alice was a mystic of course, and she brought the most wondrous miracles to me with her every breath, her smile, her gaze…

This was different some how. It was more powerful then the future, it superseded time and reason. It couldn't be fashioned into words, couldn't be explained into something that could be reasoned.

And then as Alice sprang, her full, mesmerizing lips parting over glistening white teeth, the whole of the universe was pulled inside me. Each distant star, each blazing sun and vibrant supernova was condensed to fit inside me, leaving no room for empty space. The feeling was so satisfying that I thought I might explode with it.

In this great compression, heat exploded through me, turning into a brilliant light that made me see a considerable piece of myself that I had thought had been lost long ago. A redeeming quality that over shadowed all of my inefficiencies of trying to fit into this new life and the horrendous scars that I carried of my old one. This brilliant light lit it so that I might never question its presence ever again.

My soul was on fire.

Alice noticed my stare and looked up at me. It was light first sight all over again without the haunting past or burgundy eyes. I liked that Alice saw me with my golden eyes that sang the truth of who we were to the stars that now all resided within my breast.

She laughed, and it was like a bubbling stream of liquid silver. It nearly brought me to my knees to worship whatever being had been able to remove the lustre from ever brilliant gem and dancing light to fashion this perfect being. This wondrous seraph whom had stood at the brilliant golden gates and led me from a life of consequence to one of compensation.

It was this brilliant angel that had purged me of all my wrong doings through that great redeeming cleansing of love. She had given me back my soul, and if it was animals that I needed to hunt to keep this astounding being next to me, then I would dine on the dull scents of the unappetizing creatures and smile.

Alice's smile widened as I continued to stare at her in a way that was completely inappropriate of me…and I was unable to look away, helpless as I was to her golden gaze. Hypnotized by her splendid loveliness.

"What are you looking at?" she wondered with a subtle tilt of her head. The new angle let the sun glance off her unspoiled skin and shatter into a million perfect suns, dancing along the comparatively dull leaves and forest floor which had previously looked to be of the rarest of gems, now leached of their beauty in her presence.

And it was then, looking into her deep timeless eyes—both wise and old, energetic and young—seeing that she was, without a doubt in my mind, the most amazing and beautiful obsession ever to grace this earth, that my chest filled with the same awe and love that Bella had carried, multiplied by hundreds and thousands in intensity, that I whispered. "Everything."

And it was like first sight all over again.