Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just borrowed the characters for fun.

A.N: after a lot of years of inactivity I started reading fanfiction again. I came up with this story because I read one fanfiction that suggested that Carlisle collected gifted vampires. I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the story but if anyone knows please write to me and I will give it its due credit. From that idea, it came to my mind a Bella/Jasper story in which Bella was chosen by the Cullen due to her gift as a shield and not out of love. I have never written a Bella ending up with a vampire story, my main ship will always be Bella/wolf pack (I plan to add to the burning darkness story soon.) So here it is, my new story. I have no beta so all the mistakes are mine and I'm Italian so English is not my first language. Let me know what you think as long as it's constructive criticism.

It is our choices that show what we truly are

far more than our abilities.

Professor Dumbledore

A choice to make

PROLOGUE

Jasper's POV

The Cullen was a coven of vampires that always called themselves a family.

I had no experience with a family due to my premature death and subsequent years as the leader of a newborn army; still I did not think that they should have used that word to describe us.

Family to me was an abstract concept, which paired up with words such as love, affection and selflessness. The Cullen didn't possess any of those feelings towards each other, there was respect and friendliness after all those years together, but nothing that ran deeper than that.

The paired mates such as Carlisle and Esme, and Rosalie and Emmett were connected deeply between themselves, but they would sacrifice the other members of the 'family' should the need to protect themselves arise.

Alice, Edward and I were the odd ones out.

Alice and me, the last addition to the family were the last ones to join. We were allowed to stay due to our gifts. Reading the future and controlling emotions were very useful and powerful tools for defence and survival.

When I met Alice, she had tried to make me believe that we were destined to be together, but with my gift I knew better. I might have not known what love was, but I knew how it felt. Peter and Charlotte had taught me that. Therefore, me and Alice only shared the desire of a quiet life after years of turmoil and never got beyond the friendship that had deepened during our years together.

Edward, the mind reader, was destined to be alone only because he could read everyone's mind and obviously, he couldn't stand certain thoughts going through the minds of the women he met. In addition, he was turned when he was only seventeen and his mental growth had stopped there. Edward was the beloved son that could do no wrong, high up on his pedestal, and when he fell from it, it was harder to deal with.

Carlisle looked like the benevolent father, but the years he spent with the Volturi left him with a more jaded and calculating perspective on life and survival. He had collected gifted vampires and he kept a tight rein on all of us by imposing a vegetarian diet so very unnatural for us.

As usual, on Sunday we met to discuss their week, it was more a way to know at all times what everyone was doing and to check that no one was ready to leave or betray the family. That Sunday started like any other meeting, but halfway through Alice got a faraway look indicating that she was having a vision.

Edward concentrated hard to be able to grasp everything and then analyse with all of us if or how the vision was relevant to our life. When he got serious and then swore, I knew that this wasn't an ordinary vision. Something big was coming our way.

"What is Alice seeing?" asked Carlisle.

Edward passed a hand through his hair nervously. "The Vulturi are going to come for us. Someone there that even Alice can't see will convince Aro that we want to overrule them and get to be new royalty. He will send a small army of gifted vampires to destroy us."

Carlisle was shocked. "What shall we do then? Is there a way to change their mind?"

Alice had come out of her vision and was trying hard to see what could change that outcome. After a while she smiled. "We need a shield. We need to find a human with this gift and turn him. If we have someone like Renata, Aro will not try to destroy us because he will risk losing some of his best fighters."

"Alice, there must be another way! We cannot just find a useful human and condemn him to this life!" Rosalie snarled and a scowl marred her beautiful face.

Emmet nodded. "I agree with her. We need to find another solution to our problem."

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "We will think of other options, because there is still time, but if we can't find anything else, we will go with Alice's idea."

Nobody asked me, I didn't care one way or another one as long as everyone would be safe. The idea to ruin someone's life and bring him onto eternity wasn't appealing, but at the same time if it needed to be done then it would be done. "How are we going to find this human?" I asked.

Alice whispered. "We cannot ask Eleazar for help or we will get caught by the Vulturi. We will have to move around towns and go to school. I'm sure if someone is a shield one of our gifts won't work on him."

"Haven't you seen a place or a face Alice?" Esme asked.

She shook her head. "If he is gifted I might not see him in my vision. Not until he enters our life."

Emmet smirked then. "And what if it's a she?"

Alice looked at him thoughtfully. "Yeah, it could be. Still we won't know until we meet him or her. And then when we know his identity, we will decide what to do."

It was agreed that Emmet and Alice would enrol into University while Edward, Rosalie and me would go to high school. A sigh escaped my mouth, high school was the worst place for me to be in. All those humans and their tempting blood would not make my hunger or my control any better.

Alice patted my shoulder in sympathy. "Come on Jasper, you will make it. I trust you."

I shook my head ruefully, if Alice said that I wasn't going to maim and kill humans in a cafeteria I would try to be helpful and do my part.

So, it was decided that the first city would be Itacha and then we would move to Forks.

I hoped that we would find soon this shield because the idea of feeling all the girls' lustful longing directed to me, Edward and Rosalie was going to drive me mad.