Jesse was born to Miriam Reeves, a seventeen-year-old girl who was raped by an older unidentified male. Miriam, seven months pregnant with Jesse, was driving a car when she got into an accident. Miriam was killed in the crash, but Jesse miraculously was aborted from her mother's womb and survived unharmed. She was taken to a hospital and remained unnamed and neglected for two weeks until Maharet, a vampire and a distant ancestor, claimed her as a relative of the old Reeves family. Maharet took Jesse to live with a rich couple, Matthew and Maria Godwin, in New York.

 

     Jesse exhibited supernatural powers from a young age. For example, she frequently saw ghosts of people and places long since destroyed. Jesse was afraid of these apparitions and disturbed that no one but her could see them. At sixteen, she saw the ghost of her mother, Miriam, in her bedroom, who told Jesse not to be afraid of ghosts, since they could do her no harm. Jesse confided her worries and fears to Maharet, whom she thought of as an aunt, through letters. Maharet explained to her that seers of spirits were common with women in the Great Family, and that it was a gift that seemed to come with the attributes of green eyes, pale skin and red hair. She urged Jesse to write her whenever she would be frightened by it.

 

     Maharet wrote frequently and always bought her plane tickets to see other members of the Great Family in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Maharet also gave Jesse an apartment in New York and provided money for her tuition at Columbia University.

 

     Jesse was living in London when Aaron Lightner, one of the leaders of the Talamasca, came to her house. Over dinner, he asked her to join the Talamasca, a secret organization investigating supernatural occurances around the world.

 

     Maharet wasn't thrilled to hear that Jesse had joined the Talamasca order, but after Jesse said she would not tell them about the Great Family or the strange things that happened in the Sonoma compound, Maharet decided that she couldn't refuse Jesse to join the order if it made her happy.