Guys bear with me. I had written this chapter out and it had been beautiful written, as well written as an amateur writer can write without a beta, and I lost it. I'm sure it's somewhere on my laptop...somewhere. It has to be. It was full of witty and sarcastic dialogue that flowed easily. I'm sure one day it will turn up again. I tried my best to get this out before I lost it. I hope you enjoy what I can give you.

"What did you call me?" The room they were in wasn't the biggest and at the moment Jasper felt it coming in on him. He didn't remember how long it had been since he had felt this….human. Powerless and confused.

Maddox smirked in Jasper's direction, "You seem to be taking this quite well." He did look like him Jasper thought. He had the trademark Whitlock sideburns, his smile, his eyes when they used to look human.

Jasper tried to form a question but nothing intelligible came out. It irked him that Maddox seemed to find his struggle amusing.

Maddox leaned back against the same wall Jasper was resting, the steel bars separating them. "My father was your brother James."

"I searched for living family, there was a death certificate for James' son." Jasper remembered curiously searching for the remaining Whitlock's and finding that his second youngest brother had a son who had died of what he presumed was old age. Apparently he had been wrong.

"Well I did die," Maddox joked, "just not like father thought."

Jasper's back still hurt, normally the pain would have faded by now but the lack of blood was making it linger. He tried to concentrate on Maddox's words.

"I hated you growing up. I lived in the shadow of uncle Daniel and my father's brother. The only ones who didn't look up to you were aunt Emily and Emma. They had to stick around after the war took so much from them. Their father and brother and then sickness took another brother. I don't even remember my grandmother, your mother. She didn't last long after you were 'gone'. I swear I would catch my father sometimes staring out of our living room window hoping to see you riding into our lawn with your horse and uniform.

He hated that he had been too young to join you. And then I came along and ruined things further. He met my mother, loved her dearly I've been told but she died giving birth to yours truly. I think the only reason he didn't abandon me in a ditch somewhere was because of her. He did send me away often, hence the accent." Maddox waved his hand around dismissively. He was so caught up in his story he hardly noticed Jasper trying to hold himself straight on the wall. He was sliding slowly down the wall.

"Your death certificate said your birth name was Thomas," Jasper breathed barely able to hold his eyes open. He needed blood, urgently.

"Yes well Maddox was the name of someone I met in school. Father had a friend who would send his bratts to Oxford and I would come along. Father paid my tuition by herding and selling cattle. He created quite the empire for himself."

Jasper wasn't surprised by the turn of events in his brother's life. He regretted that his death had caused a rift between him and his son but there was nothing he could do about that. He'd had his own problems back then.

"How did you turn?" Jasper asked finally closing his eyes but listening intently.

Maddox shifted and Jasper had the feeling that he was keeping a close watch on him. Perhaps he wasn't totally oblivious to Jasper's current state.

"Her name is Maria," Maddox said and Jasper forced his eyes open. He stopped breathing, not that he needed too but even if he had wanted to he didn't think he could have. "She said she didn't have to do it but she could sense I would be important, that I could help a friend of hers someday. I thought she was crazy, beautiful, but definitely crazy then three days later I was this and I was alone."

"Maria," Jasper said. He had hopped he would never have to hear her name again. It hadn't been so long ago that he had thrown her into a fire. "That's impossible."

Maddox shrugged clearly not finished, "I was alone, I didn't know what I was. All I knew was that I wanted blood and revenge on her. I managed to control myself when I hunted, even then I knew that I was exhibiting an enormous amount of strength, I could have killed hundreds. I could feel the hunger consuming me but I compartmentalized it long enough to not draw attention to myself. I didn't know about gifts or powers then. Then a year after she had changed me she turned up again, this time with you and I instantly recognized your face. I was confused and hurt but I waited until you returned to camp to approach her. She wasn't surprised to see me. I think she always knew I'd find her, maybe she looked forward to it." Maddox was lost again in his story, "We were in New Orleans, she had on a beautiful red dress, her eyes were clouded over in crimson and I could feel how dangerous she was. I didn't know why I hadn't felt it when I was human."

New Orleans 1884

The street was bustling with horses and carriages, a couple street vendors were calling out loudly so that they could be heard over the ruckus of the night. He had followed her into a bar near the old french market. Her hips swayed as she headed for an upstairs bedroom, many eyes followed her but no one called out that this wasn't a place for a young lady who was clearly not in the business. The place was dilapidated and sketchy. Maddox had been around long enough that he knew this was still the best place in New Orleans for a good scotch and a good lay.

He saw her enter a room at the end of a long hall and he hoped that the noise from the bar and outside had been enough to muffle his quiet steps as he traced her path into the room. He waited for a second considering his options before pushing the door open.

"Took you long enough sweetheart," she said not turning to look at him. Her back was to him and she was facing a large ornate window that looked down on the street. She was taking off her small delicate hat and gloves. "It's been awhile hasn't it?" The room was one used for professional girls so there was a large bed in the center and on the far end of the room a vanity. He didn't want to think what went on in here or how Maria knew this particular room would be empty. Earlier he had seen her and his uncle talking about bringing men into this bar to gauge whether or not they would be valuable to their army. Had he not had vampire hearing he would have missed their conversation.

She turned to look at him and eyed him from the head down. He had managed to steal the suit off of a man he had killed while hunting and he'd be lying if he didn't say he had chosen him because of his suit size.

"You clean up well Maddox," her tan skin glowed in the light of the moon and her deeply red eyes told him he was in over his head with her.

"How did you know that was my name now?" Maddox asked approaching her slowly. "You didn't even know my name before you killed me."

"Of course I knew your name Thomas," Maria laughed light heartedly. "I know you saw Jasper tonight, I'm glad you didn't approach us. He's not ready to meet you. He didn't have much of a choice like you. I'm sure you've realized that."

"What did you make us into?" Maddox asked, his accent filling the room and clearly having an effect on Maria. She bit her lip and gave him a once over again.

"Have you not met others yet?" Maria smiled, "Of course not and you're careful too, to not turn anyone."

"No one deserves this curse."

"No I agree but once you learn to control what you are you won't see it as a curse. Already you have surprised me more than you could think." She turned away from him and stood in front of a mirror in the opposite side of the room. She was examining her features. She glanced at him once over her shoulder and winked.

"What am I?" He asked her trying not to lose his patience with her.

"A vampire darling," she was fixing her hair in the mirror, "a special one at that. Your eyes remain the same like they did when you were human. You don't glow in the sun, you're not cold, animals don't fear you. Am I missing something?"

"By the looks of you and my uncle I assume this isn't normal?" He paced the room once or twice and then settled for sitting on the bed trying to not imagine what had gone on in those sheets. "Why did you pick us? Are we the only ones?"

"Oh God no," Maria said stepping in front of him, he was taken aback for a second, "There are hundreds here, thousands more over seas too. I've kept most of them away from you, if they found you they would never let you go." She reached up and touched his jaw gently with one finger. She trailed it down his neck and hooked it against his collar. "I'm sorry you were born Jasper's nephew, I'm sorry this is the way things have to be."

She met his eyes and he must have been crazy but he saw genuine sorrow in them. "I'm not that evil I promise," Maria smiled, "A little but believe me one day you'll see why I had to do this to you."

He grabbed her hips and brought her the rest of the way to him. Their lips met in a heated embrace. He hadn't done this yet, he had wanted to just as much as he had wanted to drain anyone with a beating heart but just like his thirst he had compartmentalized. He couldn't help it. He hated her but he knew he wouldn't break her. He stood up and took off his jacket as she clung to him. He turned them around and pushed her onto the bed. He made quick work of the rest of his clothes as she did the same.

He reached up and pinned her wrists to the bed, "I'm used to being the dominate one," she sighed as she reached up to meet his lips again. When they parted he positioned himself not bothering to check if she was ready. He wanted this just as badly as he wanted to punish her. Perhaps he could do both at the same time.

He entered her with a loud grunt and was met with one of her own.

They were in that room until dawn broke. Even this early in the morning there was soft music floating from the street. He clutched her close to his body but not in an endearing manner. He was afraid she'd walk out without giving him more answers.

"You said you were keeping vampires away from me," he whispered in her ear. She responded by turning in his arms and nodding. Her long dark hair splayed over her pillow. The sheets were bunched around her hips and he didn't like it. He let go of her long enough to throw them across the room. "Much better."

"I can't explain yet," she said kissing him softly, "but take this and run with it. Literally."

"I'm a monster," Maddox responded, "I kill people and sometimes…"

"Sometimes you like it," Maria smiled, "so does Jasper."

That made him go still. He stared long and hard at Maria. "What do I do?" He wasn't sure he wanted an answer, he wasn't sure he wanted to leave the only source of answers he had come across in the past year but holding her in his arms was harder to do. Shutting off his emotions and silencing the beast in him was becoming harder. She was making him want to do awful things.

"Follow your true nature Maddox," he closed his eyes as she kissed him one last time and just like that she was gone.

Present Day

"This is a lot to take in," Bella said at the window of the living room in Jasper's Texas home. Half way through his story she had stood walked to it to look out. Dawn was breaking and she wondered what the start of a new day in New Orleans would look like. She imagined it through Maddox's eyes in 1884.

"I know," Jasper said still standing in the center of the room. Most eyes were on him, others were gazing off into the distance, perhaps putting themselves in the center of his story. Watching his nephew as he lay dying in a cell all those years ago.

"He referred to Maria in the present," Peter said.

"He knew she was alive, he didn't know I had tried to kill her. I didn't know it then but I should have. I would have known a lot sooner that I hadn't actually killed her."

"What do you mean?" asked Charlotte looking between the two grim faces of Jasper and Peter. "What do you mean you would have known?"

"Oh," Carlisle said coming to the conclusion at the same time the rest of the vampires in the room except for Bella did.

"We were bonded to her," Jasper said simply, "we had been all along. We didn't know, we didn't know a god damn thing about vampirism. You can't kill a vampire you're bonded to."

"That's why you didn't kill her?" Peter said standing up looking if possible more pale than normal.

"I didn't try," Jasper said feeling like he had so long ago in that cell. "I didn't try, I don't think I really wanted too."

Fear not the next chapter will explain what bonding really is. If you've read the Southern Vampire Mystery Novels you already know. If you know me then you know I love those vampires and they are truly some of the most badass around. I've been watching Sherlock and it has fueled my love of cliffhangers so I apologize if you are not a fan of those. Also I fear some of you may think Maddox is some kind of filler but I truly do have a plan and deviating to set that up kills me but it's important. Plus family issues is fun to write about when it's not about you and your family. These guys have slept and been manipulated by the same woman. What's so special about her? Will history repeat itself? I wonder how Jasper feels about all of this.