POV Seraphina

We finished our group work right after breakfast and I was now back on the couch with Emmett who was trying to beat me yet again.
Almost as soon as Alice closed her laptop and I began to stretch, he appeared behind me and I tried not to fall off my chair in shock.
He seemed confident in himself again and of course I couldn't say no to a challenge.

The living room filled up rather quickly after the first defeat he suffered and now all the Cullens were present except for Esme and Carlisle who were loitering elsewhere in the house.
Jasper of course, sat next to me again and watched the match between Emmett and I with amusement. The Corner of his lips ever so slightly twitched upwards as I defeated Emmett again and again.

I didn't know why but somehow I was hoping to impress Jasper a little too, even if it was just a mere game.
Normally I didn't care about such small things, but with Jasper it seemed different.

"Now honestly, how do you do that? You must have some kinda trick!", Emmett finally gave up and looked at me in defeat.
It was almost fun to see him beat up because of a few losses.
I just shrugged my shoulders and grinned, "You have to be born with it Emms, it's not that easy to reach my level."
He looked at me almost in disbelief and then stared back at the screen that marked his defeat.

I had a huge advantage but of course he and all the others couldn't know anything about it. Maybe I would tell him about it sometime so he could work out the secret and feel a little better about himself.
But right now I liked to drive him crazy with it.

Suddenly my smartphone rang and when I saw Micah's name I briefly excused myself to accept the call.
It was still relatively early and he wasn't the most active on weekends either.
Confused as to why he was calling me and not just leaving me a message, I took his call once I was further away.

"Phina, where are you?", he almost yelled sounding out of breath like he'd just run a marathon.
"Hey to you too brother. I'm with the Cullens as I told you", I said back a little more quietly and could have sworn the living room suddenly went completely silent.

"Okay listen to me, we have to go right now! It's about Aaron, he got wind of your visit and he's gone, he's in trouble. I'll bring your weapon and pick you up at the Cullens, think of an excuse or something", he rattled off and confused I let his words sink in.
I tried to follow him as best I could, but what did Aaron's disappearance have to do with my stay with at Cullens?
"Wait what? Where's Aaron?", I asked quickly but Micah only said that he would tell me all the important details later.

He hung up on me and I stared at the black screen on my phone before putting it away.
Aaron was actually always the one who could keep his head out of the gutter no matter how heated the situation was.
An uncomfortable feeling immediately formed in the pit of my stomach and I was worried about my team partner.
His wounds were still relatively fresh, and from what Micah told me, the whole thing really didn't look good.

Fuck!

I arrived back in the living room a little tense and all eyes were on me.
It pained me deeply that I had to lie to them, but my priority now lied with Aaron and to help him.
"Um, so there was an incident at home and I have to leave earlier", I ground the lie between my teeth, hoping that everyone would buy it.
I looked up again and noticed how tense everyone seemed until Jasper suddenly rushed towards me with almost black eyes and was quickly stopped by Edward.

I looked at Jasper in shock, who never took his eyes off me and finally catapulted Edward away with inhuman strength, causing him to fall onto the coffee table and it shattered.
Jasper, who was almost in front of me, was stopped by Edward again. Almost within a second he was back up on his feet to fight Jasper.
Emmett helped him now too and Jasper growled menacingly at them, "I have to protect her, she can't go away!"

Eyes wide, I took a step back and jumped when Carlisle's hand settled on my shoulder. Jasper's black eyes didn't leave me for a second. 
His blonde curls fell slightly in his face as he tried to reach me again. 
Like a predator guarded it's prey, that's exactly what was happening and explained the situation almost perfectly.

"W-what's with Jasper and how does he know about my conversation? I wasn't even in the living room... how did he...", my brain tried to process what had happened and only while stuttering could I ask my question.
Even though I was far away from the living room, he could overhear my conversation, how could that be possible?

Carlisle gave me an almost apologetic look and tried to explain everything as calmingly as possible, "I know this is pretty sudden and you should have found out some other way, but Jasper and everyone else are vampires."
I immediately faltered after taking in his words and my brain started rattling.

Vampires...

Everything was slowly starting to make sense.
The cold skin and that I never saw either of them eat anything, then that Jasper could hear my conversation, of course!
How had I not thought of that before?  The way Jasper's eyes changed color should have opened my eyes.

At the Academy the topic of vampires was only mentioned briefly, since we never really had any contact and they wouldn't be helpful in the fight against shadows anyway.
Nevertheless, I followed the course with great interest.
"Of course, how could I not have noticed that...", I murmured under my breath but when I looked up I only saw astonished faces.

"You know about vampires? How?", Rosalie asked first but before I could answer, Jasper growled again and looked at me almost longingly.
I knew that vampires reacted differently in certain situations, but his reaction just didn't make any sense to me.

I looked back at Carlisle who just nodded at me, "he wants to protect you because you're his soulmate, that's also why he was so upset about your bandage."
Shocked by this second message, I looked back at Jasper who was trying to reach me with all his might.
Jasper felt the urge to protect me without hesitation because I was his mate. I briefly read about such connections but I would have never guessed to be the mate of a vampire.

Convinced of my thesis, I gathered my courage. If I was indeed Jasper mate then he would never hurt me.
I confidently walked towards the blonde vampire I had kissed less than a day ago and before anyone could say anything I raised my hand to indicate that everything was fine.

Jasper stopped to try and break free from Edward and Emmett as he saw me walking towards him voluntarily.
His expression softened a little and he seemed impatient for my arrival.
I gently placed my hand on his cheek and he inhaled my scent, which seemed to soothe him in an instant.
With my touch, he gently closed his eyes and leaned towards me to be closer.
"Jasper, I'm fine I won't be harmed", I told him calmly and he slowly started to regain control of himself, causing his eyes to turn golden again.

"Please don't go", he almost begged softly, looking at me with a heartbreaking gaze that made me melt.
My heart contracted a little at this sight and I almost toyed with the idea of ​​giving in until I reminded myself that this was about Aaron.
"You have to trust me on this, I'm not as fragile as you think", I continued to calm him down, but he didn't look completely convinced.
Jasper was released after he regained control and immediately stood close to me.

"What do you mean by that?", asked Emmett who had put an arm around Rosalie's waist and was pulling her towards him.
Jasper in particular was trying to figure out what exactly I meant by my sentence but seemed to get nowhere.
His cool hand found itself almost imperceptibly on my back and he pulled me a little closer to him so that our bodies were in contact with each other.

Everyone was now looking at me expectantly and since I now knew that the Cullens were also part of my world, I could confide my secret to them without any problems.
In fact, I hadn't revealed my secret to anyone before, and suddenly it almost felt like a confession.
I took a deep breath and then looked at them with a big smile, "I also belong to your world."

Again, surprised looks met me and Jasper seemed to think about my statement, "what do you mean Darlin?"
Of course, my first reaction to his question was that the word 'Darlin' sent a pleasant shiver down my spine and only then was I able to fully perceive his sentence.
His eyes tried to meet my blue ones and he seemed to search for an answer within them.

"She can't be a werewolf, we would smell that, no matter if it was muffled or not", Edward said thoughtfully and Carlisle shook his head too when Edward looked at him questioningly.
Apparently I seemed to be a mystery as the vampires still didn't know exactly what I was. All eyes slid back to me and I couldn't help but grin.
It seems like we had done a pretty good job of staying hidden.

"I'm a Shadowhunter", I finally dropped the bomb and saw Carlisle's eyebrows shoot up, who was now standing next to me.
Based on his reaction, I realized that he had probably heard about it before, if only fleetingly. 
As a vampire he must have gotten around a lot and who knows how long he's been walking this earth already.
"I thought that was just a legend, some kind of myth", he murmured looking in my direction with interest, "I never thought it was possible that they really existed."

For many years, the Shadowhunters covered their tracks to be left alone and to do their jobs in peace. 
There was a rumor that there had been a tragic incident but no one ever talked about it so I assumed no one knew why exactly we were blurring our tracks.

At the Academy, the topic was left out almost on purpose. It was kind of the rule not to talk about it and just go with the flow.
Since this incident was years ago, I had never really thought about it and simply accepted the whole thing, after all the whole story had nothing to do with me.  It was just a simple tale to explain why the Shadowhunters walked in the dark and no one knew of them.

The cluelessness of the vampires only confirmed that the tactic had worked and we were now considered a myth.