Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephanie Meyers.
**The parts in bold are Alice's visions of the future.**
Jane's Visit
The vampire stalks through the forest of evergreens, eyes bloody red, and hair of spun gold shining in the sunlight. Her footsteps are silent despite the thick snow on the ground. A few feet in front of her, another vampire is crouching over a kill, his back toward his enemy, and completely oblivious to her presence, focused as he is on the feeding. She scrunches up her nose in disgust as a cool breeze sends the bloody scent of the kill towards her. But despite her distaste, she moves toward it and the other vampire.
I ran. There's still a little time before she reaches him, I might just make it. At the treeline, I started to climb, jumping from one branch to another, one tree to another. I jumped when I was high enough, aiming for a tree in the distance. I landed perfectly, the branch bends, showering the ground below with the snow it's collected, but it doesn't break, it was strong enough to support my weight. I had chosen well, of course I did, I could see ahead of time which branches would break. I bounced back up with the motion of the branch, and rode it down again. Three dips of the branch, and on the third uplift, I took off, aiming for a branch on another tree further down the slope. Again and again I do this, jumping from tree to tree down the mountain to where I knew I would find Jasper, hopefully before Jane could catch him unawares.
Half a mile out, I dropped from the tree and continued on foot, so she wouldn't hear me in the trees. I approached from behind her, downwind, so she wouldn't catch my scent. She was still watching Jasper feed, and she's too close, I won't be able to intervene in time if she decided to attack. I moved closer, but the snow crunched beneath my feet and she turned toward me. Alice attacks, leaping toward Jane, but she screams mid-jump as Jane's power falls upon her and she lands in Jane's arms writhing in pain. Jane drops Alice on the ground and the pain is suddenly gone.
"I'm not here to look for a fight." Jane says.
"I'm not here to look for a fight." Jane said when I hesitated to attack her, and raised her hands in a gesture of peace.
Jasper started from his kill and turned, just noticing Jane's presence now.
"Then why are you here, Jane?" I asked. "This is our land."
"I was just passing through," She answered. "Thought I'd make a little visit."
"Just passing through, yeah right." Said Jasper, he had wiped the blood from his mouth by now, but he didn't move otherwise so Jane was now between the two of us, and if there was a fight, we'd have a better chance attacking from two directions than from one. Though, keeping in mind her power, our better chance was only just better than no chance.
She smiled mysteriously, "Believe what you will," Jane said, "But I do have a message for Carlisle from Aro, so you might want to take me to the rest of your family."
I look from Jane to Jasper and caught his eye, he shrugged, sometimes I forget that he can't sense deception, since it wasn't an emotion. He was usually very good at reading expressions, even vampire expressions, but since Jane was facing me, he couldn't see hers. I hesitated for a moment, but there don't seem to be any fights breaking out if I took her home, so I said:
"Fine, come on then. Jazz, do you need to finish?"
Jasper glanced at his prey on the ground, "Nah, I'm okay."
I nodded, "Then let's go."
I led the way home, with Jane behind me, and Jasper bringing up the rear. It was a strategic move, I was the one who could see the future, so I would see it coming if Jane decided to stab me in the back, both literally and figuratively. And Jasper had my back too if she tried anything, but it still made me uncomfortable to have my back to her.
Rose and Emmett were watching a movie on the couch when we came in, but I could tell they weren't really paying attention, and they weren't as relaxed as they appeared on first glance, they were too still, and forgetting to appear human. They were expecting us, expecting Jane, Edward probably warned them we were bringing her back with us. Edward himself came down the stairs a second later. I caught his eye and showed him what happened in the forest, how we found her, and asked him silently if she was telling the truth, that she's not here to make trouble.
Edward gave me a slight nod, and, Alice pulls Edward aside and asks:
"So? What's she doing here?"
"As far as I can tell, she's not here to stir things up," Edward replies, "Her assignment is a bit vague, and she's not thinking about it right now. I've told Carlisle and Esmee that she's here, they'll be here when their shifts are over, they told us to entertain her until they do."
Edward came down and shook Jane's hand and said, "Jane, welcome, it's an honor to have one of the Vulturi guard visit our humble home, I've informed our parents of your arrival, unfortunately, they can't make it back for a few hours yet, so why don't you make yourself comfortable in the meanwhile and put the official business to the back of your head until they get back."
I smiled inwardly at the nudge Edward gave Jane to get her thinking about her assignment, and I peeked at the future again as Jane thanked Edward for our hospitality.
"So? What's she doing here?" Alice asks.
"Her assignment from Aro was to 'pay us a little visit', and 'wish Carlisle a merry Christmas from him' and ask if we're getting along with our new neighbors." Edward says.
What is that supposed to mean? "Pay us a little visit." Why would Aro send one of her most trusted lieutenants on such a pointless trip?
"I don't know what it means either." Edward admits.
Jane strolled around the living room, nodding to Emmett and Rosalie in greeting as Edward sat down beside them, they nodded back, but otherwise barely gave her a glance to show how they really felt at having her here. Jasper joined her as she stopped to examine one of the handful of contemporary paintings we had hanging in the room.
"What do you think?" he asked.
Jane shrugged, "I don't know, I don't really get it."
"Me either," Jasper said, "I don't really get abstract art, but Carlisle seems to like it, and Alice says it's a good investment."
"It is a good investment," I put in, "We bought that a couple years back for a few hundred dollars, but in ten years, it'll be worth ten times that, and after the artist dies, its value will skyrocket."
"Isn't that a bit of a materialistic way to view art?" Jane criticized.
"It's a pragmatic view, for those of you who are too shallow to get the less substantial aspects of it." I teased.
Jasper smiled, I gave him a wink and went upstairs to take a shower and change my clothes.
The warm water felt nice after being out in the cold of Alaska winter, and though our bodies don't feel cold the same way as humans do the contrast of the warmth feels fantastic after becoming accustomed to the cold.
By the time I got out of the shower, got changed and went back down, Carlisle and Esme were just coming in the door.
"Hello Jane, good to see you again." Carlisle said as soon as he stepped through the door, offering his hand.
Jane shook it, and replied, "Likewise, it's always good to see you and your family. Esme."
"Jane." Esme nodded, shaking hands with Jane.
"I trust that our children made you welcome?" Carlisle asked, inviting Jane to sit down.
We all moved back to the couch and sat down, Emmett and Rosalie turned the TV off and Edward went into the kitchen and poured a bag of human blood in a wine glass for Jane, no doubt in response to a silent request from Carlisle.
"They were very friendly." Jane replied, glancing toward Jasper. "Jasper gave me a little tour of the house, you have a very nice place here." She thanked Edward for the blood and took a sip.
"So Jane, is there a particular reason that you're here or are you just dropping by?" Esme asked with just a hint of hostility, she never liked the Volturi, the way they coveted Edward and me.
"I'm just going around, checking up on the covens that have a permanent address, but you are missed, Carlisle. Aro in particular has been thinking of you."
"Please pass along my respects then, they are in my thoughts too." Carlisle replied.
"Actually, Aro asked me to wish you a merry Christmas from him." Jane took another sip of the blood, then asked casually, "And how are you getting along with your new neighbours?"
"We're getting along fine, actually," Carlisle said, "But I do think there's not enough game around to feed two covens, so we'll probably be moving soon."
"We are?" Emmett asked, and he wasn't the only one who was surprised, Esme and Rosalie were as well, and even me, since I didn't bother peeking at this conversation. But Edward wasn't surprised, and neither was Jasper for some reason. And Carlisle had said this so matter-of-factly, as if we had discussed this many times before, that I was sure that this answer was important. Rosalie seemed to grasp this too, she elbowed Emmett in the ribs.
"Ow! What was that for?" Emmett complained.
Rosalie glared at him and Emmett shut up.
"Yes Emmett, we are," Carlisle said gently, "But we do still have a lot to do before we move."
"Well, don't forget to write when you get to your new place," Jane said. "I'd love to come visit some time."
"Of course." Carlisle said, smiling courteously.
Jane didn't stay the night, she left after a couple of hours of small talk, and we all sat down and looked to Carlisle. It was Rosalie who spoke first:
"So are we really moving?"
Carlisle nodded.
"Why?" Emmett asked.
"Because the Volturi will make trouble for us if we don't." Jasper answered, "They sent Jane to ask how we're getting along with our neighbors, they're afraid we'd make an alliance with the Russians, in which case we'd be strong enough to start a war with them if we want to, where they would have no assurance of their victory."
Jasper, always the strategist, of course that would explain why Aro sent one of his most trusted, most powerful lieutenants with such a meaningless mission, because it's not meaningless.
Our family was the second largest coven of vampires after the Volturi, with seven members, and the Russians are almost as large, with five, and some of us have powers like Edward and me. If we did make an alliance, it would be enough to not only threaten the Volturi's position, but we'd have a real chance of overthrowing their rule. With other covens they probably wouldn't care if two were in close proximity, but the fact that both our covens abstain from human blood makes it a problem. Normally, with vampires who drink human blood, they are less inhibited and less compassionate, and they are very territorial, and any two covens that come in to close proximity with each other would enter a territorial war until only one coven is left. But since we don't drink human blood, we are less territorial, and have better control over our instincts and that, I think, is what threatens the Volturi more than anything else.
"So we'll be moving." Carlisle said, "It's about time anyways, we've been here for a long time, time enough for people to notice something strange about us."
"But we've only talked about some choices," Esme put in, "We haven't even made a decision on where we'll go next yet, never mind the preparations."
"I know," said Carlisle, "But we have no choice, if we delay too long, the Volturi will get suspicious again and start moving against us."
"So where are we gonna go?" Edward asked. Carlisle must really have no idea which option is the best if Edward can't get at it.
Carlisle thought for a long while, then said, "Forks."
Author's Note: Hello all, I'm posting again, this one is in a completely different fandom than my last one. With my last one I wanted to practice writing in the third person limited POV, with this, I'm trying to figure out plotting. Plotting is a little harder for me, especially with Alice's visions of the future, so I might be needing a Beta reader, if anyone is interested and has the time, please PM me.
In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, the idea for this story came from a suggestion in a review for a story I saw a while back while browsing. The suggestion was made by vampwriter, and the review was for a story (Alice's Feline) by magikedforyou. I was intrigued by the supernatural creature Vampwriter suggested Bella should be, I looked it up, and a series of implications began to spin out in my mind. I haven't been able to get the idea out of my head. Vampwriter also suggested a premise of a story with the idea, but it's completely different from my own idea and the premise of this story. I'm not sure yet how big of a spoiler Bella's nature will be (i.e. what supernatural creature she is), so I didn't want to come right out and say what she was, but if anyone wants to find out, you can just look for the review in the story I mentioned.