Author's Note : Ahem, well, first of all, I'd like to thank this fanfiction's first follower and reviewer, alexc1209. Truly, it's glad to see that someone's still interested in a Twilight fanfiction, and it definitely encourages me to write more! Well, this author's note is fairly (and mercifully) short, so I won't bore you anymore and just get right down to the story! Let's see what happens!~
Oh, and, before I forget, I've finally got a cover image for this! Yay! ^^
Chapter 2 – The Irish Coven Tale
"The Volturi?" Bella repeated, looking from Edward to the Irish vampires, neither of which contested his conclusion.
Edward nodded, keeping his eyes on Siobhan. "Now I see why you were so cautious before; you were afraid that you were being followed and you wanted to be sure to tell Carlisle before anyone else found out."
Siobhan nodded. "He is the only one we can trust, our only true friend. He and your family have stood up to the Volturi before, and so we thought that you might be able to help us this time."
"You owe us that much," Liam grumbled, attracting a glare from Siobhan. "What?" he exclaimed indignantly, managing to look both ashamed and annoyed at the same time. "You know it as well as I do! That's why we came to Carlisle in the first place!"
"Perhaps you'd better explain this to us first," Carlisle said patiently.
"They think that you're partly to blame for what happened to Maggie," Edward said casually, now reading the vampires' minds like an open book.
"Edward, stop it! What they have to tell us, they can tell us themselves!" Esme scolded.
Siobhan nodded. "Yes, thank you. However, I'm afraid it's just as your son says: both myself and Liam consider you to be responsible, to some extent. The Volturi would never have known about Maggie if…"
"If we hadn't called you to witness for us four years ago," Carlisle finished for her.
Looking only slightly more relieved at not having to state this herself, Siobhan nodded again. "Exactly. That's why we also thought that it should follow that you help us."
"We'll do the best we can, but first we need to know the specifics," Carlisle promised.
Liam sighed. "I'd better tell it then. It all started about a year ago…"
It was during the middle of March, nearing St. Patrick's Day, and of course that meant that the Irish were in full celebration mode. Green decorated every store window, thousands of celebration trinkets were being sold, and of course the tourists were flooding in as well. For Siobhan, who had been born and raised in medieval Ireland, this was a purely religious festivity though, but, also, an excellent opportunity for feeding.
"We'll go out after the parade in Dublin this year," she said, turning to Liam and Maggie who, as usual, stood behind her as the surveyed the territory. "Less noticeable that way."
Liam licked his lips. "Good turnout this year. Must be cause the population's growing."
"That just means more food for us then, doesn't it?" Siobhan agreed with a smile. She took in a deep breath, the smell of blood already reaching her keen nose. "Mmm, yes."
"Make sure not to get carried away and start going after children or anything," Maggie warned, as usual brutally honest and vouching for "justice" much more than was necessary. Like her coven mates, she too was quite bloodthirsty when it came down to it; however, unlike the two of them, she tried to go for the "less innocent" prey. To Maggie, that meant anyone that happened to be telling a lie, and she would always be able to tell. For instance, last week she had hunted down someone who had promised his wife that he loved only her, when in truth he was cheating on her with at least two other women, one of them pregnant because of him. From Maggie's viewpoint, the wretch deserved to die, and didn't deserve his funeral that came afterwards at all.
"Of course not. Wouldn't want to upset you, Mags," Liam said, rubbing her on the side of the head.
Siobhan took in another deep breath. "It'll certainly be worth remembering, this year…"
How little she knew just how right she was about that statement. For, barely a day later, a message from the Volturi arrived for Siobhan. After having opened the letter and read it, the outraged vampire had quickly torn it up and then burned it to ashes, keeping its contents a secret from the rest of her coven. Two weeks later though, another letter arrived, and then another and another, until, around mid-November, a messenger from the Volturi guard, Chelsea, arrived herself. Both Liam and Maggie were surprised to see her, but Siobhan herself was just terrified. As the Irish vampire stepped forward to meet their unwelcome visitor, Maggie looked at her questioningly, suddenly sensing that something was off. Siobhan had never lied to them directly before, so she couldn't tell before, but now…
"What do you want with us? We have broken no law," Siobhan declared boldly to the Volturi vampire.
Chelsea grinned pleasantly. "Oh, I think you know. Or haven't you told your darlings yet?"
"Told us what? What is it, Siobhan?" Liam asked, moving to his mate's side.
Siobhan ignored him. "Leave us. I think that I've already given my answer to Aro's…inquiry."
"Yes, I'm afraid he was quite displeased with that," Chelsea replied with a sigh. "The least you could have done was officially write back, not just ignore the messages sent. You must have quite a death wish, Siobhan; keep it up."
"What's she talking about?" Liam pressed, gazing fiercely at Siobhan.
His red-haired mate looked worriedly back at Maggie instead of him though. "Come here, my dear," she said, extending her hand.
Maggie, however, hesitated in accepting it. "What's going on, Siobhan?" she asked.
Siobhan scrunched up her face, making an excellent show of looking as though she were about to cry. "Aro…the Volturi…they want you."
Maggie blinked in surprise, and then turned to Chelsea. "Why?"
Chelsea shrugged coyly. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why. All I know is that Aro's going to be conducting a series of questioning, and he'll need someone like you to make sure that everyone's telling the truth."
"Can't he just look into their minds and find out for himself?" Liam spat, now hostile.
Chelsea's smile dropped. "Aro can read minds," she said, stating a fact that practically every vampire in the world knew by now. "But he can't tell for certain which thoughts are the truth and which are not; people can often repeat falsehoods to themselves so many times that they become more prominent than the truth sometimes, even in mind reading. That's why he needs her." And she pointed a sharp-nailed finger at Maggie, smiling beckoningly. "I'm sure that you'll be quite honoured to have her render her services unto us."
"No!" Siobhan and Liam both exclaimed at once. "We will not let it happen!" Liam snarled.
Chelsea again dropped her smile, this time looking more annoyed than downcast. "I see. I thought as much, but Aro insisted that we do this 'diplomatically' the first time. We'll be back for her later, though." And before either vampire could ask what she meant by 'they', Chelsea had already taken off running, but neither Liam nor Siobhan went to chase after her. Instead, they glanced at the petite vampire between them, her face twisted in an unpleasantly sour sort of way, her body tense.
"I won't let them take me," she said after a while of standing very still, causing both adult vampires worry. "Siobhan," she called, and the red-haired vampire shifted accordingly. "You may have lied to me this time, but I forgive you, now that I know what it was all about. But promise me this: even if something that might separate us comes up again, you won't ever lie to me about it or keep it a secret from me."
Siobhan nodded vigorously, ashamed of herself for breaking their trust of honesty with each other, and not able to meet Liam's eyes, which she was sure were looking just as betrayed at that moment. "I promise," she choked out.
And by the look of certainty on Maggie's face, she knew that the girl knew that she meant it. No more lies.
Five months later, at the end of April, Chelsea proved just how honest she was as well, as she, accompanied by Jane and Demetri, came to claim the prize they originally thought theirs: Maggie. With Demetri to track them down, there was nowhere on earth that the Irish Coven could hide, and so they were preparing to confront the Volturi instead. Having shifted locations to northern Scotland, thinking themselves more isolated than before, naturally they were found, Liam and Siobhan read for a showdown in order to protect their little treasure.
But with Jane's power at work, it didn't last long, the adult vampires having no choice but to surrender so as not to be killed. Maggie herself insisted that she be taken, but only as a result of Chelsea's power coming into play, working around Maggie's bond to justice: because her bond to her own coven couldn't be disrupted as easily by Chelsea's power, instead the Volturi vampire persuaded Maggie to see justice as joining the Volturi so as to save her coven from the worst fate of death. In the end, all three Volturi guards proved effective, and Maggie was gone.
"And that's the way of it, all of it," Siobhan concluded after Liam described the events fully, sniffing slightly and blinking rapidly, as if trying to bring herself into focus.
"So they took her. And she's in Volterra now?" Carlisle clarified.
"As far as we know," Liam said. "We haven't gone there ourselves to find out. After Maggie left, we fell apart, going mad trying to come up with a way to get her out of there without bringing the wrath of the Volturi on us…"
"As it is, we may've already done enough damage, refusing to hand her over in the first place," Siobhan lamented.
"You didn't do anything wrong," Esme assured them. "We would have done the same for anyone in our family." Of course she was thinking of both Edward and Bella when she said that, and especially Alice as well.
Liam shook his head. "We don't know what exactly it is they're making her do, or what Aro's got in mind, but we're certain that our little Maggie would want no part in it if she had another choice."
"Of course not," Bella agreed. No one who had another choice, except of course a sadistic few, would want to be in the Volturi, right?
"What I still don't understand is what you meant earlier by saying that we're responsible for it," Edward said testily. "Just because he saw her once that day doesn't prove anything about his knowing about Maggie's powers."
"It isn't hard to guess how he might've found out," Siobhan sighed. "Aro would never have known about Maggie at all if not for that incident, it's true, but ever since then it's obvious that he's been doing his research. There are others there that he would've wanted: Kate, Zafrina, Benjamin, and especially members of your own family. Just because a battle didn't break out that day doesn't mean that he isn't preparing himself for another one soon enough. Maggie may only be the first one he's taken."
It was a heavy statement that hung over their heads, but only because of how probably it seemed. Edward, who was the only one who could read Aro's mind and thus knew his personality best, had to admit that it sounded exactly like Aro to go after a prize once he set his mind to it, nevermind the time it would take to get it. For all they knew, Maggie really was only Aro's first step forward; too bad they didn't have Alice there to keep an eye on him and find out what he was planning.
"So," Edward breathed, leaning back as he regarded the two Irish vampires, "what do you expect us to do?"
Siobhan and Liam glanced at each other, and then at the Cullens directly. "We want you to help us get her back."
Author's Note : Just a little bit of backstory on the Irish Coven, which I think was necessary for this story, just to give us some exposure as to what's going on. I'm not going to explain what Aro's "big plan" is just yet, but let's just say that: A) you'll need to have read the books to be able to figure it out before I outline it, but it's ok if you didn't, and B) it is big. I wanted to build an exciting fanfiction around this after all, and not just focusing on romance alone, so I hope you're excited for that portion of it as well.
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