#there are a lot of vamps with e names in Twilight

[gongju-juice]

6. Once Upon A Southern Night

I Won’t Hesitate

Warnings: the usual, language, some rAuNcHy InTeRaCTiOn

You laid sleeplessly in his bed. These days were so lonely, Jasper and the wolves were always fighting, and in the daytime, Ava trained you in magic. 

You’d made quite a bit of progress, but it always drained you physically. Being a witch was not as easy as they made it out in the movies. It was about refining your energy, making sure a face-full of gravity didn’t hit you in the face and incapacitate you. You’d done that a couple of times already.

The limits of being a witch was still undefined. Because you and your sister were only half—as were most modern witches—there were still so many things and spells you couldn’t access or perform. Still, Ava knew how to do just about everything.

She could fly and shadow travel for short distances, was completely impervious to all human weapons, could breathe without oxygen and create breath-taking illusions that could completely fool and take down an unsuspecting vampire. You barely even knew how to affect the temperature around your body, much less create fire—the new skill she was trying to get you to master.

You would never be ready by the time Preston and Maria arrived.

Uncle Carlisle contacted some of their old friends. The Denali clan came down from Alaska, Alistair from the English countryside, and the Egyptian coven from the east. The shapeshifters were not thrilled to have vampires trespassing near their land, and Edward kindly informed them of the coming wave of newborns. 

Jasper took control in training everyone to fight, though it seemed some of them already had prior experience. He showed the wolves how to avoid the crushing arms of a vampire and how to mobilize their forces to focus on a specific target.

Meanwhile, you were on the sidelines wasting all the time trying to make a leaf catch on fire. You felt like you were doing nothing—and what was the point? Ava could’ve been training by herself, honing her own skills. Instead, she was beating you with a stick everytime you failed—which was every time.

That was until her friend, Zacarias, arrived.

He was tall and very well-defined, like he’d been lifting heavy tools all his life. His skin was the color of dark chocolate, eyes a metallic bronze. He arrived just before you were about to give up, just before you caved in front of a group of fully capable vampires.

“So this is the little bear,” he said, chuckling. “Wow, you always described her like she was so tiny. She’s bigger than I thought. 

“Little bear?”

“That was your nickname,” Ava explained, “Because you had thick curly dark hair.”

“Who gave me that nickname?”

She faltered before walking away. You knew who gave it to you, even if she refused to say his name.

“I heard you’re having trouble with your magic. That’s okay, it’s expected for the first few weeks. You’re only a half-blood, after all. But now you’ve got me, and I’ve never had a student fail,” Zacarias promised. 

Suddenly, he launched you straight into the air. You were hovering in place, your body stuck where the tip of the trees touched the sky.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jasper demanded, dropping Eleazar, his opponent. His eyes glowed protectively. The Major had taken control. “Put her down immediately. And trust me, you don’t want to make me have to do it.”

Zacarias dusted off his hands. “It’s part of her training, Whitlock. Try not to be on edge, alright? Trust me, her instincts will kick in if she wants to get down.”

You struggled in the air, flailing your arms and trying to move your body. But the air was so stiff around you, like gravity had the opposite effect. Birds flew past you, cocking their heads at you with their curious beady eyes.

“She doesn’t need no training!” Jasper insisted.

The witch rolled his eyes. “Fine, if that’s the way it’s going to be. I’ll put her down.”

Now you were plummeting down to the ground. You screamed, shielding your arms over your face. I’m going to die, you thought. And in the most embarrassing way.

Jasper, climbing up a tree, was preparing to catch you. But now you were no longer hurtling down to the ground. The grass stopped about a foot from where you hovered above the ground, and you felt something like electricity buzzing in your veins.

“I told you, I’ve never had a student fail,” Zacarias smirked. “Works every time.”

“If you ever try some shit like that without my permission—” Jasper started.

“How else is she supposed to protect herself? If Preston decides he wants to snap her neck, what’s she supposed to do? She’s a witch, Whitlock. More powerful than any of you standing here. But the only way she’s ever going to unlock that power is by coming out of her comfort zone. This isn’t the Civil War anymore, Major. You aren’t the leader of this circus.”

That night, surprisingly, Jasper made it to his—your temporary bedroom. His room was filled with shelves of books, little collectables and trinkets from over the years. He’d never even had a bed until you arrived, but he made sure to buy a big enough mattress where you both could fit on it.

“Jas?”

He stopped just inches from the bed. “Thought you were asleep. You’re so quiet up here.”

“Where are the others?”

“Carlisle and the family took the others to feed outside of Forks. The wolves are back in human form in La Push, and the witches are at the hotel to rest for the night.”

“Jasper?”

“Yes, darlin’?”

“Can you please get in with me?”

He was hesitant for a moment before giving up and climbing in the covers. He held you tightly to his body, your head resting in the crook of his neck.

“There’s so much we have to talk about,” you whispered.

“I know, and I’m not going to lie, I haven’t been the most doting in the last few weeks. The wolves have never fought any vampires since their ancestors last battle, they have so much to learn. And your sister’s done a pretty good of keeping you busy as well.”

You were quiet before sitting up in his arms. He was so beautiful under the lamp light. If you blocked out all your other racing thoughts, you could imagine the two of you somewhere else under different circumstances. Maybe you’d be married by now—after all, high school wasn’t an option right now anyway.

If he were human, he’d be just coming home from work—and you’d be in the kitchen cooking dinner. He’d come up behind you and wrap his arms around your waist, whispering all the naughty things he wanted to do to you. . .

“That was a swift change in your emotions,” he said, eyebrows raised. Now that you were a witch, Ava taught you how to turn off the different powers of the vampires around you. But you liked having Jasper being able to read you, it kept a sense of honesty between the two of you. “Tell me what you’re thinking about.”

You shook your head. “No, I’m getting off track. I wanted to talk to you about something different. . .about the past.”

He tensed, sighing. This conversation was inevitable anyway. You both knew that.

“Ask anything you want.”

You paused. “What was your life before you became a vampire?”

“I. . .there’s a lot I can’t remember. But from what I do remember, it wasn’t much. I had a little brother named August and a Ma and Pa. Pa was just a poor farmer, and we didn’t have much of anything. And Ma came from a pretty well-off family, but they never accepted Pa, so they moved away from her family’s house, penniless and in love.

They had me about a year later. By the time I could walk, I was out on the farm helping with the chores. We had a little barn with chickens, and we had a mule—not a mare—named Buttercup that pulled all the carts. And the bulls in the field were not our own. We tended them for a wealthy planter several miles away.

August was born about three years after I was, and by the time the recruits came to our house for the war, he was only fourteen. Times were hard and I knew my parents could barely afford to keep food on the table. I left home and lied about my age to get into the army, and I left all my savings so I’d never have to look back.

I quickly moved up the ranks—Carlisle suspects it's the trait that carried into my vampiric life. When I was nineteen, I was finally promoted to Majorial status, and I was sent to Alabama where I had to collect men who were drafted.

That’s where I met Preston. He was smart, quick on his feet. It wasn’t long before I made him my Captain. I had no idea about you, for he was quite private about his personal life. We were friends, I trusted him with my life. But that’s when we met Maria.

We were on a mission escorting refugee women and children from Galveston. We saw Maria, Nettie, and Lucy all walking by themselves, dressed in the finest clothes. They were some of the most beautiful women we’d ever seen, and we stopped to give them our aid.

Working for Maria was pure hell. We trained her newborns, and I had the job of disposing of them. We fought other covens for territory, and all for what—a few days of dominance? After a while, she started a rift between me and Preston. He fell in love with Lucy and wanted to establish his own coven elsewhere. They wanted to overthrow Maria and all of us, but I sensed their aggression.

We planned a surprise attack and destroyed all of them. Preston got away, I couldn’t bear to see my long-time friend die. Eventually, I left Maria and went to live with my friends Peter and Charlotte. But I met my sister Alice in a diner, and we left together to join the Cullens.”

It was so much to process. Jasper had lived nearly two centuries before you, and lived a long, full life.

“Were you in love with her?” you whispered.

He lowered his eyes. “I thought I was. I thought she loved me, but she didn’t. I’d just convinced myself otherwise.”

He lifted your chin to meet his gaze. “But the only woman I love right now and will forever love is you.”

Your lips touched and you wrapped your arms around his neck. Whenever you kissed, you never wanted to separate. His tongue pushed into your mouth, and the taste of him drove heat straight to your core.

“I know you want me,” he growled onto your lips, “but there are several feeding vampires nearby. I can’t stand when any human men are around you, much less witches and wolves and vampires. Besides, this is not how I imagined our first time to be.”

“I don’t care about any of that,” you breathed. “I want everyone to see that I’m yours.”

Jasper smirked. “As tempting as that sounds, I believe a real lady deserves to be pampered and pleasured just like a queen. I want to take you to some beautiful island so the sun can shine on your pretty skin. I want to make you my wife before I. . .take you in that way.”

You blushed into his chest, hiding your face in the fabric of his shirt. Not even a few moments later, you heard the front door bust open.

Jasper groaned. “The family’s here.”

Emmett suddenly appeared in the doorway, a stupid grin on his face. “Aren’t you guys so romantic? Jasper’s gonna take to a farm so y’all can get married surrounded by the ducks and chickens.”

“The sad part is, that isn’t very far from what he was thinking,” Edward cried. “God, I hate being in the house with a bunch of immortal, horny teenagers.”

When they were back downstairs, you turned back to your boyfriend.

“So. . .what are you going to do when Preston and Maria arrive? Will you try to talk them down, come to some kind of agreement?”

He stared off towards the mass of dark trees visible through the window. 

“I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to kill anyone. But if he comes between us, I won’t hesitate to do just that.”

wHoOoOoO cHiLe, ThE hEaT. Only three more chapters folks.

Part Four    Part Five   Part Seven

#jasper hale #jasper hale imagines #jasper hale x reader #twilight #twilight imagines #twilight scenarios #twilight x reader #edward cullen #carlisle cullen #emmett cullen #esme cullen #rosalie hale #alice cullen #there are a lot of vamps with e names in Twilight

[icontainmvltitvdes]

eventide.

The story so far: Bella’s first name stays the same---for now---but is otherwise reworked and pretty much completely disconnected from the rest of the Twilight story and characters. I’m not sure if she’s lesbian or bisexual yet, but she’s absolutely a wlw. A lot of this is still very much up in the air, though. 

          Bella’s story begins in the fall of her freshman year of college (circa 2005), all the way in Eureka, California. She’s going to either College of the Redwoods, a community college, or Humboldt---one of those things I haven’t decided yet. Her car is a tiny Japanese make---most likely a Honda---that’s just as old if not older than she is, that she bought with her own money. (She wanted a VW Bug, but couldn’t find one in her budget, so she settled for the more reasonable option). It’s painted bright yellow because Bella wants to be 100% sure she won’t lose it. 

Undeclared major, I think? Or English Literature lol

She shares a dorm with three other girls. I want to say that their names are Sarah, Danielle, and Emily? It doesn’t really matter; they have about as much impact in her life as og Bella’s classmates in Forks. Also, Bella is Literally Dying due to lack of sunlight because it’s foggy and overcast all the time and she’s not used to it at all. A v homesick gal. 

Anyway, she has a few run-ins with Jackie*---this mysterious woman who might be going to college/uni, but is definitely not local to the area. (Bella’s roommates suspect she’s involved in the drug trade). They meet mainly at parties, but sometimes in other places: cafes, libraries, on nature trails through the redwoods. Jackie is aloof and a little sarcastic, runs between hot and cold so fast that it gives Bella whiplash sometimes. 

Jackie has a boyfriend---maybe. There’s a guy, anyway, who seems to have a lot of power/influence over her. He skeeves Bella out, though most people who first meet him seem fairly charmed. Alan* is a fairly gorgeous guy who knows how to work a room, but there’s something a little off and Bella is the only one who seems to notice?? 

Anyway, if he’s Jackie’s boyfriend, he isn’t a loyal one---he hits on basically any girl he comes across and doesn’t care if he does it to Jackie’s face. She doesn’t seem to be particularly jealous or anything, but she is a little uncomfortable about it??? Jackie especially doesn’t like when he flirts with Bella---there’s, like, enough Moments(TM) where shippers of a Certain Type think that Alan/Bella is The Ship, but they’re not valid. It probably isn’t helped that he confuses her and at least one person tries to convince Bella that her aversion to Alan is because she has a ~crush on the guy. 

There’s also this thing about people going missing in the nature trails, people leaving for break but not coming back, etc. Maybe??? an attack on campus ??? Leading to a very cute scene where Jackie walks Bella back to her dorm to keep her safe---when Bella asks her how she’s supposed to be safe walking back to her place, Jackie says that she’s definitely the strong enough to handle herself. 

Spoiler alert: Jackie and Alan are both vampires. And they’re both, uhhh, suspicious in their own ways?? Not sure if there’s other vamps hanging around near them though. 

---There’s a whole ass ~intently staring into each others’ eyes moment that ends with them Actually Kissing and that’s also the first time that their subtextual attraction to each other crosses into Actual Text. I want to say that one of the roomies (or another girl?) walks in on them kissing and they awkwardly split apart. 

Whether that girl’s reaction is positive, negative, or neutral is unknown to me RIP. I think it would probably a more interesting choice to have her reaction be negative, but not for homophobic reasons. 

God I’ve been here for hours and this is all I’ve done and I’m exhausted. This is winding down, but this isn’t all that I’ve got in me lmao

Note that the Jackie/Bella relationship is starting to really get going into something that’s More than just flirting, though they’re still pretty secretive about it. Not only is Bella still closeted, but Jackie seems to really not want Alan to know that they Have Feelings and are getting into a Relationship. So it’s, like, bittersweet in certain parts, but it’s also explicitly romatinque. 

Roomie/dorm mate girl goes missing or gets attacked by like a “cougar” or smth?? And that’s the end of, like, part 1. She isn’t, like, explicitly dead if she’s attacked, mind you. 

____

fun facts: Edythe is totally a valid name and spelling for Jackie in her ~dob, which I kind of find hilarious. 

Also, if there’s any interest, I’m willing to create, like, commentary about equiv characters and choices or w/e. 

#* bella hc. #* bella canon. #[ i did nothing but write this and waste time RIP ] #[ * no names set in stone ]

[thecatandthekindle]

Review: Slayer (Slayer #1) – Kiersten White

“So Slayer, at last we meet!” – Harmony (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 episode 2)

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

I already had this book on pre-order when I spotted it on Netgalley so I can’t tell you how excited I was to get a pre-pub copy to read. I love Buffy and have followed the new seasons as they have come out in graphic book form. The chance of meeting a new slayer was just too good to pass up. Though I have to say, having seen some other recent reboots and remakes I was worried it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Instead, it excelled them.

*****SPOILER ZONE RECAP: BUFFY SEASONS 7 & 8*****

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: in Season 7, the First Evil blew up the Watcher’s Council, and tried to exterminate the slayer line by killing all the Potential Slayers, Willow helped Buffy to activate all the Potentials into Slayers and the hellmouth was destroyed. In Season 8, a mysterious entity called Twilight lead Buffy into being an Uber-Slayer, and a new dimension was created but this lead to an apocalyptic invasion of numerous huge demons into our world. Buffy destroyed the Seed of Wonder, which was the source of all magic in our world, sealing off the hell dimensions from us, but trapping many of the demons here. During the fight, the Slayer scythe was broken and Giles was killed by a possessed Angel.

******END SPOILERS*****

I thought this book would be set in a different time frame to Buffy so it felt a bit strange to find out that Buffy was still around with her slayer army, though our hero Athena Jamison-Smythe is not part of that army. If the name Jamison-Smythe sounds familiar to Buffsters with good memories, that is because Athena and her twin sister Artemis are the daughters of Buffy’s first Watcher, Merrick Jamison-Smythe and this not the only familiar name in the book by any means.

Athena (Nina) and her twin Artemis grew up with the Watcher’s Council, the remnants of whom are now in hiding. Nina hates Buffy, whom she blames for the death of her father, among other things, so she is less than happy with the realisation that she is a newly activated Slayer herself. She has been trained as a medic, not a fighter. She has issues with her mother who is keeping secrets and her activation as a Slayer causes a divide with her sister, Artemis. Nina must learn to be something that she hates, connect with the other Slayers and learn that being Chosen means making some heartbreaking choices. Like Buffy before her, she must eventually choose between someone she loves and the safety of the world.

The new Slayer is engaging and her ambivalent feelings are relatable, though I did get quite frustrated and her lack of assertiveness. It seemed to take far too long for her to begin standing up to people. At one point I actually flung my e-reader down in annoyance. There is a lot of scope there for character development.

This insight into the Watcher’s Council next generation is fascinating, unlikely as it was that almost all of the remaining Watchers have surnames we’ve already heard of. Cleverly, the absence of magic renders the previous generation of Watchers obsolete giving the newbies a chance to step up. Similarly Demons and zompires (vamps created after the link to hell was severed) have to be fought the old fashioned way, with weapons. Slayer strength, strategy and wisdom are suddenly so much more important. No magical shortcuts any more.

Buffyverse is a place where the internal history will always be important. Story threads will are often drawn from past events, but there is enough going on here to draw in a new generation of fans. Knowledge of the series is not a pre-requisite for reading this book. I feel, though, that existing fans will welcome the chance to revisit this world and few of them will be reaching for their box sets in a burst of nostalgia.

And my favourite part “Slayer #1” which indicates that there is more to come.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#@kierstenwhite #slayer #athenathevampireslayer #netgalley #buffy the vampire slayer #buffyverse #ya fantasy #ya fiction #books in 2019 #book reviews #@catandkindle #the cat and the kindle