It wasn't until the year 1937 that things began to change for the pair. Yes, Adeline was still locked in the barn, with Jasper carrying on, unaware of her presence. But this was the year that he defied Maria for first time. It was once again time to cull the newborns that were no longer of use and as he was getting ready to destroy his final one, his friend Peter rushed in to save her. He begged Jasper to let them go, to let them escape. Through his gift (though it was hardly needed since anyone could see it on their faces) he could feel an all-consuming love. One similar to the one he had held for his old childhood friend, turned sweetheart. And so, practically drowning in thoughts of his lost love, who must surely be dead of old age by now, he let them go. Peter promised to come back for him, but he held no hope for that or even looked forward to it.
By now he had realized that Maria had lied to him all those years ago, he was not her mate and never was. If ever a monster like him had had one, it would have been his sweet innocent little Adeline. But she was gone, lost to him now. If she was even still alive then she most likely would have forgotten all about him, married a man that took her to see the world, and had his children.
Yes, there was no place in her life for a monster like him, which is why he never tried to find her and see how she was doing. He knew that it would have been too painful for his search to end in a graveyard, with her already dead and buried. But at the same time, he thought that it would have been just as unbearable to instead find her happily married surrounded by a loving husband that wasn't him with plenty of children and even grandchildren. He didn't think he would have been able to stop himself from attacking the man if he saw him place his hands on HIS Adeline, and if that made him a possessive bastard, well, he was already a monster anyways, so why not be that too.
Either way, both thoughts hurt too much to consider, so instead he had allowed Maria's war to consume him, sinking into his role as her soldier and allowing the Major, his other personality, to take over. But even that was becoming too much. Even the Major was growing tired of these pointless battles. He had no doubts that one of these days, in one of these endless battles, he would simply stop fighting and allow some newborn to finally do what so many others had failed to and end his miserable existence.
Time carried on and in a blink a year had passed, much like all the others, save for one thing; Maria no longer trusted him. After he had allowed Peter and Charlotte, his mate, to escape she had become wary of him and he knew she way trying to figure out how best to dispose of him. Which meant that he had two choices: stay and fight Maria, either killing her or dying himself, or go off to find Peter. He had come back as promised and when he did, he told Jasper that not everywhere was like the South.
In the North, vampires lived in relative peace, mostly as small nomadic covens travelling from place to place. If Jasper was being honest, he was intrigued with this notion. That a vampire could live without a constant need to fight and was tempted to take off and experience it. To see if it would free him from the awful thoughts that plagued his mind right beside the terrible mix of emotions he was forced to feel every minute of every day thanks to his gift.
So he decided he would leave Maria's coven and the South all together, but before that, he would try and find some manner of leverage. He was not fool enough to think that Maria would simply let him walk away. He knew too much and his reputation discouraged more than a few coven leaders from trying to pick fights with their coven.
Which meant if he was going to leave, he needed something to ensure that she would not come after him, and what better place to start looking than the barn that no one had been allowed to enter for as long as he had been apart of the coven? All he had to do was wait for his chance, when she would leave to go find replacements for the newborns she had him dispose of. That would give him ample opportunity to slip in unnoticed and find his leverage.