I looked back at my own small, solitary scar - and remembered how I'd received it. I stared at the shape of James's teeth, embossed forever on my skin.

And then I gasped, staring up at him. "Jasper, what happened to you?"

"Well, it seems that she's concerned about you," Esme smiled.

"I would expect nothing less from her," Jasper returned her smile.

"That was the end of the chapter," Carlisle said, handing the book to Rosalie.

Chapter Thirteen

Newborn

"Newborn," Rosalie read.

"The same thing that happened to your hand," Jasper answered in a quiet voice. "Repeated a thousand times." He laughed a little ruefully and brushed at his arm. "Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar."

"So, do you think if one of the werewolves bit our hand off and we put it back on, there wouldn't be a scar?" Emmett asked.

"Actually, I'm not sure about that, but I don't think so," Jasper said. "I think our skin would just reattach itself and there wouldn't be any visible scarring."

"Why?"I breathed in horror, feeling rude but unable to stop staring at his subtly ravaged skin.

"It's not so subtle," Emmett laughed.

"It is to her," Edward smiled. "It doesn't matter how perceptive she is, she still can't see like we can."

"I didn't have quite the same . . . upbringing as my adopted siblings here. My beginning was something else entirely." His voice turned hard as he finished.

I gaped at him, appalled.

"Before I tell you my story," Jasper said, "you must understand that there are places in our world, Bella, where the life span of the never-aging is measured in weeks, and not centuries."

The others had heard this before. Carlisle and Emmett turned their attention to the TV again.

Alice moved silently to sit at Esme's feet. But Edward was just as absorbed as I was; I could feel his eyes on my face, reading every flicker of emotion.

"That's got to be annoying," Alice muttered.

"And useless since you know that I would know what she is feeling anyway," Jasper said. "And would know what it was as soon as I did too."

"To really understand why, you have to look at the world from a different perspective. You have to imagine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedy . . . the perpetually thirsty.

"You see, there are places in this world that are more desirable to us than others. Places where we can be less restrained, and still avoid detection.

"Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere. Picture on it every human life as a small red dot. The thicker the red, the more easily we - well, those who exist this way - can feed without attracting notice."

I shuddered at the image in my head, at the word feed. But Jasper wasn't worried about frightening me, not overprotective like Edward always was. He went on without a pause.

Edward narrowed his eyes at Jasper, who just shrugged in return.

"Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not. It's the Volturi that keep them in check. They are the only ones the southern covens fear. If not for the Volturi, the rest of us would be quickly exposed."

I frowned at the way he pronounced the name - with respect, almost gratitude.

"Well, they do have their good qualities," Jasper muttered, looking a little embarrassed.

The idea of the Volturi as the good guys in any sense was hard to accept.

"The North is, by comparison, very civilized. Mostly we are nomads here who enjoy the day as well as the night, who allow humans to interact with us unsuspectingly - anonymity is important to us all.

"It's a different world in the South. The immortals there come out only at night. They spend the day plotting their next move, or anticipating their enemy's. Because it has been war in the South, constant war for centuries, with never one moment of truce. The covens there barely note the existence of humans, except as soldiers notice a herd of cows by the wayside - food for the taking. They only hide from the notice of the herd because of the Volturi."

"But what are they fighting for?" I asked.

"Oh, Bella," Edward smiled, rolling his eyes.

"It's funny what she doesn't notice... when you think of all that she does," Alice smiled.

Jasper smiled. "Remember the map with the red dots?"

He waited, so I nodded.

"They fight for control of the thickest red.

"You see, it occurred to someone once that, if he were the only vampire in, let's say Mexico City, well then, he could feed every night, twice, three times, and no one would ever notice.

"I still don't get it," Esme frowned. "The world is big enough...there is so much that they don't really need to do all that fighting."

"Most of us didn't realize that this wasn't the way it was in the rest of the world," Jasper said.

"I know, I know," Esme sighed, they had had this conversation before. "I just think it's sad that that is the way that they have to live their lives."

He plotted ways to get rid of the competition.

"Others had the same idea. Some came up with more effective tactics than others.

"But the most effective tactic was invented by a fairly young vampire named Benito. The first anyone ever heard of him, he came down from somewhere north of Dallas and massacred the two small covens that shared the area near Houston. Two nights later, he took on the much stronger clan of allies that claimed Monterrey in northern Mexico. Again, he won."

"How did he win?" I asked with wary curiosity.

"Benito 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 to control. One newborn can be reasoned with, taught to restrain himself, but ten, fifteen together are a nightmare. They'll turn on each other as easily as on the enemy you point them at. Benito had to keep making more as they fought amongst themselves, and as the covens he decimated took more than half his force down before they lost.

"You see, though newborns are dangerous, they are still possible to defeat if you know what you're doing. They're incredibly powerful physically, for the first year or so, and if they're allowed to bring strength to bear they can crush an older vampire with ease. But they are slaves to their instincts, and thus predictable. Usually, they have no skill in fighting, only muscle and ferocity. And in this case, overwhelming numbers."

"The vampires in southern Mexico realized what was coming for them, and they did the only thing they could think of to counteract Benito. They made armies of their own. . . .

"All hell broke loose - and I mean that more literally than you can possibly imagine. We immortals have our histories, too, and this particular war will never be forgotten. Of course, it was not a good time to be human in Mexico, either."