The next chapters in Eclipse in Edward¶s point of view.Enjoy everybody.

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- And I did not write it ± but it¶s so awesome that you alldeserve to read it and love it!

Newborn - EPOV

With one final glance in my direction ± a look filled with both reassurance and apology ± Jasper began his story. He knew what I was afraid of, of course he knew. He could

feel

my fear. Not sincethat first day when I'd brought Bella home and told her about our history had I been so afraid of frightening her away with too much truth. She'd teased me that I was waiting for her to scream andrun away, and while she'd always assured me I wasn't as much of a monster as I made myself out to be, there was no denying that, at least for a time, Jasper

had

been. There was more murder and bloodshed in his history than the rest of us combined. Even in my darkest days, I hadn't been a partof anything anywhere near as atrocious as the things Jasper had been surrounded by on a daily basis.Bella had heard Rosalie's story, and while it was brutal and terrible, what she'd experienced onlyshowed the horrors that man was capable of. Jasper's history encompassed the worst of our kind. Ashe spoke, I watched her expression carefully, ready to stop him the moment I thought it was toomuch for her. She needed to understand where he was coming from, but I could hear all that Jasper was prepared to confess. There was no need to give her more nightmares than she already had.He spoke carefully, reading Bella's emotions as much as I was reading her expression. He paintedthe picture of the world as it was, as it still is for so many of our kind. A world where humans arenothing more than our food source, red dots on a map as he put it, highlighting the most populated,and therefore most desirable areas. The more humans in one area, the easier it is to feed withoutanyone noticing.

Like Seattle,

he added silently, his eyes flickering for an instant in my direction.

I wish it wasn't starting to feel so much like the old days, believe me. But I know how they think. If someone had suddenly tried to claim such a busy city as their own, then why not build an army to defend it? And

with humans always finding some explanation, no matter how mysterious the deaths, even an armyisn't really risking exposure.

³Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not,´ he said, bothcontinuing his story aloud, and finishing his silent thoughts to me. I didn't want to admit it, but it allmade too much sense. And if it was an army of newborns we were up against, I wasn't sure wewould be able to stop them before the Volturi stepped in.³It's the Volturi that keep them in check,´ Jasper said, having come to the same conclusion asmyself.

And thank goodness for that,

he thought, then quickly added,

sorry

when he felt my anxiety.Jasper had always been grateful for the existence of the Volturi, and even knowing that they wouldcome to destroy us, to destroy

Bella,

couldn't take away his respect for them.³They are the only ones the southern covens fear. If not for the Volturi, the rest of us would bequickly exposed.´ He was still speaking to Bella, but for a moment it felt more like he wasdefending his feelings toward the Volturi to me. To some extent I could understand. With all thehorrors he'd seen, it must have granted him at least a certain amount of peace, knowing there was anend ± that there were still rules and limits to what would be tolerated among the power-crazed,ravenous villains he lived with.Bella listened silently, her breathing steady but shallow, as Jasper explained how different thecovens in the South are, compared to those who live up North. They truly lived as vampires, thekind from humans' stories and legends. They came out at night, and had no regard for human life. Ikept watching, gauging her reactions, but her expression remained undeniably relaxed, and it wasn'tuntil Jasper spoke of war that she spoke.³But what are they fighting for?´ she asked, her voice barely a whisper.³Remember the map with the red dots?´ he asked her. She nodded nervously, and Jasper sensedhow greatly I wanted him to stop.

She's fine, Edward. I've been keeping a steady calm flowing in her direction, but she barely needs it anymore. She's... fascinated.

f course she was. When was I ever going to learn that Bella handled the realities of our world far better than I gave her credit for? Still, the way Jasper had been speaking ± and I'd appreciated hisdoing so ± everything had sounded distant and story-like. It wasn't until he gave a name to one of the characters, that I saw a flicker of fear in Bella's eyes. When Jasper explained the way Benito hadwiped out several covens for the sole purpose of claiming the most populated cities for his personalfeeding ground, I heard Bella's heart start to race.³How did he win?´ she asked, voice shaking.³Benito had created an army of newborn vampires. He was the first one to think of it, and, in the beginning, he was unstoppable. Very young vampires are volatile, wild, and almost impossible tocontrol.´I instinctively took at step closer to Bella, anticipating a reaction, though I still wasn't sure what itwould be. Would she be scared, knowing that such a thing as a newborn army could exist, and thatit was very likely what was causing so many deaths in Seattle? Would she be upset that I'd never told her about any of this? Would she be wondering what

her

first years would be like, and whether or not she would be as wild and unstoppable as those Jasper was describing?I waited, yet she said nothing.

n the surface, she remained the picture of composure. If it weren'tfor her pounding heart and uneven breathing, I might have believed she was completely unfazed.Jasper told her about the subsequent armies created to battle the army that had already done somuch damage. He told her of one of the darkest times in vampires' long history. He told her everything, and she listened with what appeared to be a sort of morbid curiosity.It didn't escape my notice that Bella visibly flinched every time Jasper mentioned the Volturi, andwith good reason. Thinking about them was surely the most difficult part of the story, because while perhaps she could picture, to some extent, the things Jasper had described, the Volturi were alreadyvery real to Bella. And while I could assure her we would know long before they came for her, shestill feared them above all else.Still, the Volturi had done their part, and even I had to agree with Jasper when he explained to Bellathat we owed them for our present way of life. I couldn't even imagine what would have happenedif they hadn't stepped in when those first wars broke out. No city would have been safe, and