As I regained consciousness I did it the way I usually do, I snapped awake suddenly, but things were different. When I opened my eyes I could see as if I never had before. I was able to focus on dust motes in the air above me, even slow down time as I examined them minutely. I could hear the traffic from the highway, which was some miles distant, and I could smell the blood in my cat's veins as she sat in the camper. Wait, why wasn't I in the camper? Ta was standing over me and I was a little distance from the camper on the ground. I jumped up and Ta grabbed my arm and started pulling me with her up the service road away from the camper. I was hungry beyond belief, my throat burning as if it were on fire, and glad I'd been distracted, because Missy's blood was currently smelling good to me. Ta had another bear nearby, one she had trapped and kept from escaping while I had undergone my transformation.
Once I smelled that it was all over. First off I was more than a little annoyed with bears at the moment, and beyond that I was famished! I wanted that bear more than anything I'd ever wanted in my life, poetic justice and breakfast all in one. I saw it nearly a hundred yards off, focussed on it...and suddenly I was standing next to it. That surprised both myself and the bear. He tried to move away but instinct took over and I grabbed onto him and bit him around where his carotid artery would be and a warm gush of salty goodness greeted me. After a few seconds it occurred to me to wonder how I'd gotten to the bear. I didn't remember running over here...
Ta came running up as I finished draining the sizeable bear dry. She said, "I knew it! I knew you had some kind of 'gift'. I thought to myself You mean besides the gift of getting into really really bad situations? I told Ta "We really need to have a long, involved conversation right about now." She agreed and proceeded to tell me a few tidbits I hadn't known about her and her situation. Firstly she was about the same age as me, having been born in 1969. She'd been turned into a vampire at Ohio State as a sophomore, making her apparent age around 19 or 20. Things hadn't been going well for her in life and she'd been pretty shy and awkward, eventually she was diagnosed ADHD or Asperger's in high school. When she went to college it was her first time away from her family and she'd hardly gotten settled before a guy named Matt had taken a shine to her. She hadn't been aware of this until he had snatched her up from the campus parking lot late one night on her way back from the library. He'd fixated on her as his future mate and turned her into a vampire to make her compatible.
He actually expected her to be grateful and fall in love with him, but she didn't want to kill people and discovered she could survive on animal blood when she'd come across a stray dog in the park where he'd taken her to transform. He had kept her under his thumb, telling her she was "defective" and that the other vampires wouldn't let her live if they discovered her. Only he would allow her to continue to exist and she'd better be grateful. Typical manipulator behavior. Cut people off from any other influences and carrot and stick them. Prince, this guy, I thought.
She stopped her story briefly, saying "But how did you do that? You just appeared over here, you didn't run," I told her I hadn't the faintest idea, but I'd test it again. I still had fresh in my mind what I remembered about it...I had wanted to be somewhere, sort of gathered energy, and mentally flipped a switch...and then I was there. I decided I really wanted to be at the trailer to console Missy, who had seemed very distressed when I was hurt in the camper. I gathered energy, flipped a mental switch...and pop! I was at the camper door. I heard Ta yell "Wait!" so I didn't go in right away, she sounded concerned about something. She ran up to the camper which was only a hundred or so yards away from where the bear was and said, "Be careful, you're really strong now and you might break something or hurt Missy if you're not really really delicate about touching anything. I had noticed that when I grabbed a hold of the bear I'd nearly squashed it, but I'd not been trying to be gentle at the time. Ta also said, she was a bit worried I'd not be able to avoid the lure of blood in a live animal if I was too close to it and I thought Perish the thought! I'd never hurt my little fur baby. I carefully opened the door and Missy was there meowing piteously. I scooped her up gently, making sure not to do any more than cradle her and held her next to me to console her. She seemed a bit disconcerted at first, but eventually settled down as I cuddled her.
Ta came inside and sat at the dinette while I sat on the couch stroking Missy. She tried to dig her claws into my left shoulder, as was her habit, but wasn't able to break the skin this time. Well there's one upside to this vampire thing already, I thought. Ta was distraught, apparently thinking I'd blame her for what happened. I told her the bear charging me was certainly not foreseeable and I didn't blame her for it. As to saving my ass, well, I was willing to let her have credit for that. I was curious about the bullets not turning the bear and asked her if she'd seen where I'd hit it. Mostly in the head and most probably eventually fatal, but not immediately so, she told me. Well, considering how undergunned I'd been it wasn't all bad. I really hadn't expected bears this close to the highway and people in general, chalk one up to experience. Fortunately, thanks to Ta, I got to survive it. I told Ta to give me the vampires 101 course, quick and dirty, "no shitter" style. I had to explain what "no shitter" was. That's when someone sits you down and gives it to you straight, without any sugar coating, and you typically say...wait for it…"No shit?"
So, I was now immortal, able to run 100 miles or so an hour, just about invulnerable to attack, and didn't need to breathe or sleep anymore. Oh, and I could teleport...didn't see that one coming. I'd need to keep myself pretty well fed if I wanted to be around people for a while, unless I didn't mind killing them, which I did. I would only have to have a meal like the bear or deer every week or so, and the big bear that killed me...seemed strange saying that...would keep her pretty well for a week or two. "It was lucky he was so big," She said, "If he'd been too small I might not have been able to turn you without accidentally draining you dry."
I actually felt really good. I was clear headed, thinking faster than I ever could before, and even though my sensory processing issues hadn't been removed, my speed more than made up for limited throughput in my estimation.
Ta told me Matt had kept her afraid and hidden, probably to keep her from leaving him, for a long time, nearly thirty years. When he'd become too demanding and controlling she'd finally decided there was only one way to escape him. She'd killed him. I thought, Geezus! Remind me never to piss this girl off. She'd lured him in close and twisted his head off, then tossed him into a fire to be sure. Apparently that was the only way to kill a vampire, beyond what any animal on the planet could achieve, and probably most armies, come to think of it. I could think of a few ways to take out a vampire given my military knowledge, but one would have to be set up and ready to deal with one in advance to have any chance at success.
Ta told me the Volturi were a sort of law enforcement organization that made sure the vampires didn't come to the attention of the humans and kept the peace between vampires. Ta also told me that there was only really one law...not to be noticed by the humans. The Volturi were the threat Matt had used to manipulate Ta into putting up with his abuse, so I wasn't too sure they were actually real, but she assured me they were. In fact, the reason she was going to Seattle and then North was to try to find a group that had been visited by the Volturi and survived it. This was the first time this had ever occurred. Any time the Volturi moved in force, the coven or group they had targeted were always wiped out, unless a member had a special gift, then they were forced to join the ranks of the Volturi. I wasn't a big fan of "join us or die" ultimatums. Usually I considered a third option...Kill.
Fortunately I'd not been faced with choices so bleak to date. What was I thinking...I'd been given that choice three days ago, but it wasn't out of malice. I asked Ta "What about the 'defective' angle, do you think that's true?" She said, "I don't know, but I think the smartest way to find out is to talk to the group that had recent contact with the Volturi and survived to tell the tale." Made sense. If anyone knew what the Volturi were likely to tolerate it'd likely be them, and they weren't likely to turn us in to the Volturi to curry their favor, since they'd just faced them down and come out on top. Ta also told me there had been an incident she was pretty sure was a rogue group of vampires in Seattle that had attacked the coven that had defeated the Volturi and the attackers had been wiped out completely. That's what she wanted to check out in Seattle. She knew they had left from there and been active there so she hoped to find some trace of them. Maybe even a straggler or survivor.
Ta asked me if I'd had any special talents before becoming a vampire, and thinking back I told her that I had been able to move things with my mind back in my ESP experimental days. I had a ball bearing I'd carried around in my pocket, and I could make it steer around on a flat surface once I'd started it in motion. I'd stopped messing around with that when people in the cafeteria had seen me doing it at high school and it freaked a few folks out. I had also been able to manipulate energy, like ethereal energy, such as one might find at a haunting or some such. I told her the teleporting thing seemed a lot like the energy manipulation. Then I decided to try some telekinesis just for giggles. I wasn't sure I'd remember how to do it...it was sort of like a cross between asking the thing to move and pushing it along. An odd combination, but when you got the balance right, it worked.
I put Missy down and gave her a few treats to occupy her while I went outside with Ta. I lined up on a rock on the side of the road and tried to coax it into motion using my old ball bearing technique. No effect. Then I got irritated and developed an energy charge sort of like charging a capacitor, and released it at the rock in frustration. The rock exploded into pieces which flew forward as if propelled from a shotgun. Well, no finesse but certainly success of a sorts. Apparently my instincts were able to do it just fine as long as I didn't overthink it.
I got to thinking, here I was with all this firepower and I no longer needed a bit of it. That would certainly make visiting Canada less of a hassle. I'd just stash the firearms somewhere and quit worrying about my safety, that was pretty much assured as long as the Volturi didn't decide to off me as a "defective". I did need to determine whether or not that was a concern and how to deal with it though. I told Ta her mission had become my own and we'd find out together whether the Volturi were a threat to us. We'd also find out as much as we could about being a vampire without killing anyone that didn't absolutely need it. She broke in "Oh I almost forgot, the group in the North, they don't eat humans either. That's another reason I wanted to make contact with them." Well I certainly considered people of like mind better candidates to be our first contacts in the vampire world than any randoms, so I was on board with that. I asked Ta if she'd ever really met any other vampire than Matt, and she said she'd only observed them from a distance when he'd met with them.
Ta also mentioned to me she'd heard that the coven that stood against the Volturi had allies with them...werewolves from the nearby Indian reservation who were capable of killing vampires. I thought, Great, now we have two potential threats. She said they were friendly toward the coven so it was hopeful that we could meet with them without any hostility. She'd been told they didn't like vampires that killed people...which did not include us so while we'd have to be careful as to how to approach them, making sure they knew we weren't hostile to them or humans, we might be able to come to an arrangement.
I decided to rethink our strategy. Visiting Seattle to find traces of the vampire group there, what with the possibility of running across them and giving ourselves away to people we weren't sure of, didn't seem to make a lot of sense anymore. I felt that the least risk involved method of proceeding was to go to the reservation and approach with caution. We knew where the reservation was, and we didn't know where the coven was, but we knew the people at the reservation would know where they were. Given the werewolves weren't allied with the Volturi, indeed might even be considered their enemies, it was unlikely they'd out us to them. Also the werewolves were likely to be territorial and wandering about looking for traces of the coven we were likely to cross their territory and perhaps irritate them. For sure it wouldn't be a meeting under the best of circumstances if they found us somewhere they felt we weren't supposed to be.
The reservation was on a map, and the approach to it was a road, we could simply drive there and initiate contact in a fairly low key way that would at least give us time to explain ourselves and establish that we weren't the kind of vampires they were unkindly disposed to. It wasn't lost on me that going in at the main entrance would mean potential witnesses and they'd not be as likely to attack around witnesses. Ta agreed that it was a bit risky to sniff around Seattle looking for vampires that might turn us in to the Volturi if we ran across them.
Ta told me that one reason she was traveling with me, rather than simply running where she wished to go, was that in an enclosed vehicle her scent would be harder to detect to other vampires, and also vampires are reticent to be witnessed and therefore might not attack her with people around. In essence I both lowered her profile, and made her an unattractive target if they were inclined to attack. "I really didn't plan to put you in any danger, and I certainly didn't think of turning you into a vampire when I joined you for this trip," She told me. "I had planned to part company with you before making contact with either my own kind or the werewolves. I really hope you believe me, I am not like Matt." I told her to relax, I was ok with how things had worked out, at least so far, and it wasn't as if there were many other options. I was grateful that she'd saved me and pretty sure she'd not intended for things to go the way they had, but since they had we needed to work together now as I was in the same boat as she was.
The plan was for us to use the truck to make the reservation, meet with the Indians there, and hope to make contact with the werewolves in a peaceful way. I figured driving in there they'd not be able to pick up our scent, but once we left the truck it'd be obvious to them what we were. At that point they'd know we were specifically looking to make contact with them and not sneaking around, so hopefully they'd be receptive. It'd be a trifle risky, since they would likely be a tad bit surprised at first, but I couldn't think of a less intrusive way to introduce ourselves. If I'd still been human I could have gone ahead and made contact without arousing any potential suspicions, although I wasn't entirely sure they'd have been wanting to discuss their tribal secrets with some random guy that showed up and asked about it. I decided to drive there that night and time our arrival for morning the next day. The long drive wasn't likely to be uncomfortable for us, I hadn't experienced discomfort, aside from thirst, since I'd awakened as a vampire, and since we didn't need sleep anymore it made the most sense to get there when there was likely to be someone awake to talk to, as well as potentially some activity and witnesses to keep things cordial.
When we rolled up to the group of buildings at the reservation we got some funny looks but nobody seemed alarmed. I figured maybe they just don't get many visitors. When we got out of the truck, however, things changed. A long haired man in a wheelchair came out of one of the houses, flanked by a very fit looking young man with short hair and a tattoo on his shoulder. Another fit looking young man also with short hair and a matching tattoo joined them as they approached us. Ta and I stepped away from the truck on either side and stood waiting for them to make the first move. "Hello there," I said. "We're not looking for any trouble, just information." I continued "My name is Jeff, and this is Patricia, she hates being called Patty."
The guy in the wheelchair said, "I'm Billy Black, and this is Jacob and Sam. What brings you to the reservation?" I told him we'd heard about a local group like ourselves that lived nearby and didn't hurt people, that they had, along with some people from the reservation, recently repulsed an attack by the people like ourselves that did hurt people and that we were trying to get in contact with the locals through the reservation, since we didn't know where to look for them and were sure the folks at the reservation did. Billy told me I needn't hold anything back, everyone here knew what we were and we obviously knew by scent what they were. I relaxed a bit and said, "Ok, well...Ta here has been a vampire for about thirty years, but I've only been at it for about thirty hours. We've both agreed we don't want to hunt humans and will stick to animals for food, and want to hook up with the local...coven do you call it? for some tips about how to best avoid any unfortunate incidents. Also we're interested in finding out more about our own kind, since Ta was changed against her will by someone that tried to imprison and manipulate her and we figure anything he told her was to further that goal. We drove in this way so you would see us coming and know we weren't hostile. I figured if we cast about looking for the other vampires we'd likely run across you as this is your territory and we wanted our first meeting to be a bit more circumspect and chill than some random trespass." I said, "Before we get too long in the tooth here, would you mind if I pop up my camper and put the cat into it so she isn't cooped up in the truck?" "I can give her something to eat to occupy her while we talk and I'm sure she'll be much more comfortable in the camper, she's sort of used to it." I could see everyone's attitude soften a bit, which surprised me somewhat. Billy nodded and I tossed up the camper in record time, while Ta answered questions about Matt. I could see that her treatment by Matt annoyed them as much as it angered me.
One of the boys came over to me and said, "You have a cat?" his eyes big. I frowned and said, sure I had a cat, why was that so unusual? I'd had her long before I'd become a vampire and wasn't about to abandon her now. I guess you could say I died for her, in a way. I wasn't going to let that bear eat my cat. Actually, I'd had the bear just about buffaloed when he got a whiff of Ta and decided to steamroll me, not that I was going to let her take the blame for it. Ta told the story about how she'd changed me into a vampire to save me from dying. Everyone seemed a bit more friendly after hearing about Matt and the bear. Go figure. Billy told me he'd call Carlisle Cullen, the local doctor and coven leader, and he'd likely drive to the reservation to meet us. Billy also told me he appreciated how we'd shown respect coming in the way we had, and they'd discuss adding ourselves to the terms of the treaty they had with the Cullens as long as we didn't kill or bite any humans. Billy told me he wished more vampires thought like we did and didn't kill humans. Apparently some of the vampires that had stood against the Volturi had not been of the same sentiment and had still been tolerated. Here I'd thought we might be walking into a fight, perhaps their recent joint exercise against the Volturi had made them a bit more charitable toward our kind.
Carlisle, a youngish looking blonde man with short hair and pale skin, showed up in a black Mercedes with tinted windows and Billy made introductions. I indicated to Carlisle that while I was relatively full and the scent of wolf was keeping me from getting too out of control with thirst, I would appreciate being away from so many temptations as soon as reasonable. He invited us to follow him to his home to discuss their way of life and then he would answer our questions about our kind. I put Missy in the truck, tore down the camper and we followed him to their home.
It was a very good thing we were following Carlisle, I'd never have found their driveway any other way. Carlisle told me I could bring Missy inside as she'd be perfectly safe there, so we all worked our way in the front door, me holding the cat. Missy seemed to want down and immediately after I set her down she shot behind the couch to hide. She didn't take to people too quickly and more than one at a time was even more of an adjustment for her. I figured she'd be ok. A young girl looking to be about ten or twelve started trying to coax her from behind the couch as we sat down in the living room to talk. Carlisle sat us down, made introductions and said, "I am sure you are full of questions about us and our kind, what would you like to hear first?" I said, "First off, this is an amazing house you have here, all glass and timber, it's absolutely stunning." It was too, I wasn't just making conversation or buttering him up, we aspies don't do ulterior motives. If an aspie says something, it's because they really and truly believe what they're saying. We also don't respond 'properly' to compliments paid to us, since we see it as a simple statement of fact and not requiring any reciprocation, we typically just nod and maybe say thank you if we think of it.
Carlisle introduced us to everyone, starting with his wife Esme, a tall nurturing brunette with long slightly curly hair, then his son Edward, who was a brooding looking young man with movie star reddish brown hair and a stunning wife Bella. Bella was a dark haired slender girl who didn't look old enough to have a daughter Renesmee's age. Renesmee, a slight curly haired girl that looked ten or twelve, was busy playing with the cat only barely acknowledged Ta and I, which was sort of cute. I guess pets weren't really a thing in the vampire world. Alice and Jasper were a couple, Alice being a very slight girl with spiky hair and a bubbly personality, and Jasper being a very southern looking gentleman with the sort of hairstyle you might see in civil war pictures who seemed good natured in a wry sort of way. Emmett and Rosalie were also a couple, Emmet was a bigish athletic looking guy with short dark hair a laid back sort of personality, while Rosalie was a bit standoffish and wistful girl who had the classically beautiful looks that made many a model's career.
Foremost in my mind was the whole "defective" issue so I jumped right into that. At my question, Carlisle assured us that the Volturi wouldn't consider us "defective" and try to destroy us outright, that had been a lie told by Matt to control Ta, as I had suspected. He did mention that our abilities could cause us to want to avoid the Volturi though, as the Volturi tended to try to acquire any abilities they could to increase their power. I asked about the recent events and was told that Bella was a recent addition to the vampire family, they called it a family, rather than just a coven. Interesting….Also, Renesmee was a very rare half vampire, able to eat human food as well as to exist on blood, and was rapidly maturing. She'd be fully grown at the ripe old age of seven. I could tell she was warm blooded as it were, being able to hear her heartbeat, but fortunately she didn't really have an appealing odor, at least as far as food was concerned. Everyone had their own scent, and hers was pleasant, in the way that you smell vanilla perfume on a woman and it smells nice, but doesn't make you want to eat them.
Carlisle told the story about his transformation and subsequent desperate discovery that vampires can exist on animal blood, rather than human, which mirrored Ta's discovery when Matt tried to get her to kill humans by bringing her into close proximity of them at a park when she was a newborn.
Now that I was satisfied there were no immediate threats to us, I asked Carlisle what he felt we needed to know first. I said, "We want to avoid killing or harming humans and to learn as much as possible about our kind, especially the Volturi since there seems to be some threat from that quarter even now. Let's start with Bella's story, since it's so fresh in her mind becoming a vampire and avoiding hurting anyone, any tips would be appreciated." I said. About this time I noticed Edward and Carlisle exchanging a look that seemed to convey something and asked what that was about.
Carlisle told me about Edward's ability to read people's thoughts, which explained how he knew we had any abilities, and Alice's ability to see the future, dependent on the decisions a person makes if she's watching their decisions. Jasper, it seemed, had an ability to sense and influence emotions, and Bella was able to shield both herself and others against any mind related powers others had. Apparently Edward was telling Carlisle we meant what we said and could be trusted with that look they exchanged.
I was a bit nonplussed that my thoughts were not exclusively my domain around Edward, but figured they were used to it so I could live with the embarrassment in exchange for the fast track to the Cullen's trust. Renesmee had the ability to communicate by touching a person's temple and projecting her thoughts into their mind.
I told them about my ability to teleport and the telekinesis I had experimented with when I was younger. I said, "I think I will have to spend some time learning what I can do before I can be really sure what I'm capable of, so far I've not been able to duplicate the telekinesis successfully." I shrugged and continued, "I destroyed the thing I was trying to move, though that ability in and of itself could come in handy. Ta here, can tell when someone else has a gift and sometimes even get an inkling of what kind or how it works, though she couldn't exactly tell what sort of gift I had when I was human, she could see that I had some kind of gift."
Ta said, "I can tell my ability to discern people's gifts is becoming a lot more sensitive and selective, since so many of you have abilities and now I know what they are...it helps to have a point of reference. All the people I detected abilities in before were at a distance since Matt wouldn't let me actually meet them." Alice said, "Hey Ta, I love your outfit. I think we're the same size, if you want to borrow anything, let me know." Ta answered, "I usually wear the same thing all the time…" Alice cut her off with, "Oh that won't do at all, come with me and I'll show you a little about fashion!" and with that she grabbed her by the hand and ran off to her room, presumably to play dress up. I chuckled with amusement and wondered if Ta would enjoy or just endure the session.
I saw my reflection in a large hallway mirror and was shocked to see how much I'd changed since becoming a vampire. My hair, which had been thinning on top was now full but the grey that had been starting at the temples and in my beard and mustache was still there. I guess I wasn't going to have to start shaving my head eventually after all. Beyond looking younger, my features looked, while similar to my previous appearance, more angular so someone that didn't know me well might not immediately recognize me. Another thing I noticed was that I was much more muscular looking than I'd been in years. I had been fairly athletic looking when I'd been in the Army, but it had been decades since then and I'd not kept up any kind of exercise program since.
Edward and Carlisle coached me on appearing human so I wouldn't incur the wrath of the Volturi. I seemed to have improved my multitasking ability, previously pretty much nonexistent. I had the extra capacity to sort of set subroutines in my mind to do things that would work on their own and not require conscious thought from me. I set one to keep me from moving too fast or exerting too much force around humans so as to remain incognito as a vampire, which was pretty important. I also had to remember to blink and appear to breathe even though I didn't need to anymore. These things became automatic for me thereafter...I suppose it helps to have a programming background.
We needed to come up with a plausible explanation for our presence in town and in association with the Cullens. I put forth the suggestion that we tell everyone I was a relative of Carlisle's, since we both had light blonde hair, it was pretty believable. Maybe a brother or cousin, perhaps estranged and now renewing ties. Ta looked enough like Alice to be a relative of hers but I was having a hard time figuring out how to explain two unrelated relatives showing up at the same time. Ta suggested we just tell everyone as much of the truth as possible, she was a hitchhiker and traveling companion and came along when I came to visit. I was told that humans typically didn't look too closely into vampires stories, something in their instincts warned them not to pry, which made it possible to brazen out things that would seem fantastical if viewed entirely logically. I had experienced this before with people, but being an entirely logical creature simply didn't identify with it. For instance, I had just about figured out something was off about Ta early on in our association, but didn't let on or get freaked out by it.
It was decided that I'd be Carlisle's distant cousin and had come across him doing genealogy research and decided to look him up. I'd have to keep as much of my history intact so I could easily remember and project it, but subtle changes had to be made to keep me somewhat anonymous and to mesh it with the history Carlisle was claiming. Since I wasn't yet appearing too young for my age, I didn't have to falsify much to keep things believable. That would change in the future, so I'd have to come up with something for later, but for now I could remain myself, as it were. Since Bella and Edward had their cottage, Edward's room was empty and even though we didn't need to sleep, we did need to keep up some appearances so I took the room, and Ta was said to be bunking with Alice for the time being. Carlisle suggested I stay close to the house and avoid contact with humans as much as possible to avoid losing control and harming someone and I wholeheartedly agreed. Not killing anyone was a top priority to me. I'd be around a long time to regret it if I did and I didn't want that on my conscience.
We'd tell everyone I was some kind of nature lover, and was always off camping or hiking, hunting, or some other outdoor activity and that I was a bit of a hermit, which was pretty true, given my Asperger's. I could only take so much social activity before I became overtired and drained. This was less pronounced now that I had the extra capacity becoming a vampire had given me, but even so I liked being alone a lot of the time. Previously I'd have felt like a weekly dinner with a few friends was more than enough social activity to satisfy me. It'd be easy to avoid people if they thought I was a hermit, and they might even avoid me. I needed to contact friends and family and come up with some reason why they wouldn't be seeing me for some time. Given I was on a retirement road trip, that wasn't too difficult. I simply told everyone I had found a place I was really enjoying and was planning to stay an indeterminate amount of time but would keep in touch by phone etc. Having the camper and pickup helped sell the idea I was some kind of nature lover and would often be gone for long periods and I already had a lot of camping and hunting gear so I could look the part through and through. We settled in and met some of the locals, Charlie, the chief of police and Bella's father being one. He seemed gratified to see a relative of Carlisle's that had aged to some extent, we made light of it joking about our genetic agelessness and that when it eventually fails it really fails. The visit seemed to go well, he didn't seem to be suspicious of anything.
We settled into a routine of keeping busy, myself mostly practicing with my gifts to increase my control. I got to a point where I could push things gently, rather than violently, it was a matter of judging the amount of force needed to move something and applying that and no more. I also improved my ability to teleport, using everything from pictures to television images to surveillance camera footage to jump to locations at will. I worked on being able to move multiple objects at the same time, since I might be called upon to defend myself should the Volturi decide to require me to join their ranks involuntarily. I had jumped back to my own apartment to get certain things I needed that I hadn't packed for the trip, since this was turning into a more long term stay than I had intended when I left home. Distance didn't seem to make any difference, I could jump anywhere I could clearly see in my mind. I had tried to jump to people, but that didn't seem to be the way it worked. I resolved to have people send me a picture or video of a spot they felt I could jump to near them if they needed me to teleport to them. I had been able to teleport someone to me when I saw them on a video call on the cellphone, which might come in handy if someone needed a quick extraction from a sticky situation. I was honing my hunting skills with a little help from my new friends, but I was still concerned about avoiding killing anyone.
Not having ever tasted human blood as a vampire I asked those that had about the experience, and how hard it was to deny the thirst. I was told that animal blood was sustenance but not satisfaction. I got to thinking, human meat was said to taste like pork by those that had eaten it in survival situations such as the Andes plane crash...and endocrinologically humans and pigs were pretty compatible, which is why pig insulin worked in humans. I was thinking maybe pig blood might taste just like human blood, or be a close substitute. In addition there were feral hogs that were invasive, and since they'd been mating with pigs raised for their meat, they had become very large and dangerous to humans. If we were to feed on those, and there seemed to be an unending supply of them since they were spreading, we'd be doing everyone a favor, and keeping ourselves well fed at the same time. I resolved to experiment with that and bring along another vampire that had tasted human blood to make a comparison. Emmet volunteered and Ta, Jasper, and Alice came along both to keep me out of trouble and to assist in the hunt.
There was a county to the East with a feral swine population so on the appointed day we ran there to begin our hunt, avoiding any populated areas. Emmett was partial to bears, and given my personal experience with them, I wasn't inclined to argue the point, but we needed to know how close it was to the real thing and he'd agreed to help so we stuck to the plan. We found some swine in a wallow, it wasn't hard to follow their scent, but even if we'd not been so equipped for hunting their swath of destruction would have been pretty easy to trace to their burrows. We hunted at night to avoid anyone seeing us and all wore dark clothing both to avoid being seen and to hide any blood we might get on us during the hunt from casual observation. The smell was pretty enticing, and I could see everyone getting more enthusiastic as we closed with our prey. Emmett struck first, pouncing on a particularly large pig of several hundred pounds and the look on his face was one of disbelief when he finished draining the beast. He ran back to us and clapped me on the back saying, "Jeff, that was the best idea I've heard all year." "They don't taste exactly like human blood, but it's a lot closer than it anything else, this will really help those of us that have tasted human blood to avoid any backsliding. I wish I'd known about this before I ran into my singer", he said wistfully.
Ta, Jasper, and Alice spread out to find their own kills and I targeted one just beyond where Emmett had found his. We all four found animals fairly close together since the swine were arranged in a series of burrows near to each other. Jasper said that human blood was better but that this was nearly as satisfying, and would help him immensely to remain true to the Cullen's way of life. Ta swore it was the best thing she'd ever tasted as a vampire and everyone was pretty enthusiastic about hunting swine instead of other animals, even Emmett, who usually prefered bear to anything else, mostly due to his bad experience, and I could totally relate. When we returned, Carlisle received our report with some excitement, saying maybe we could get other vampires to swear off killing humans if we could interest them in this alternative. We brought some blood back for Renesmee to try and she declared it an acceptable substitute for the donated blood she'd been weaned from as she'd grown. This gave me the greatest hope, since packaged blood would allow us to have a food source in the house if for some reason we couldn't take time to hunt. I resolved to teleport some animals into a canyon they couldn't escape from near us to have a sustainable source more nearby. These were invasive and destructive animals, so making sure they didn't get loose was a high priority. Carlisle told me about some small islands nobody ever went to nearby that we could use and we settled on that as a solution.
I was starting to settle into my new vampire life, making progress at keeping myself fed without harming anyone, making progress with learning my gifts, both teleporting, and moving objects, I had practiced destroying multiple objects at the same time, and it seemed if I could visualize the desired result clearly it would happen, but if I didn't have a clear view or couldn't see all of the objects at the same time, some would get lost. I worked on my finesse, being able to juggle objects in the air, regardless of size and weight up to the largest objects I'd dared try to move, some huge redwood logs. I wasn't sure why weight seemed to be no impediment, perhaps because it was all in my head. It did take me a bit longer to gather enough energy to move something larger, but if I was willing to "charge up" enough I could theoretically move an object any size or mass. I didn't have the patience to try anything larger than the hundred plus foot logs, but it was good to know the limits of my ability. I learned everything I could about the Volturi, names, gifts, personalities, rank structure, anything I could glean from anyone who'd stood against them when they'd visited recently.
When it came time to discuss the recent Volturi visit in earnest, we held a meeting in the Cullen's large living room. Edward asked Renesme to simply show me the whole thing from her perspective. Renesmee came over to me and sat on a stool placing her hand near my temple and suddenly I could see Alice dropping a vase and announcing that the Volturi were coming for them. The scene changed and Alice and Jasper's apparent abandonment of the family was being discovered. The scene changed again to some training taking place with Bella trying to protect Edward from a taser like shock by some blonde vampire I didn't know. Then the scene changed again to the field of the almost battle between the Volturi and the Cullens and their allies. The Volturi seemed to be reaching for some excuse for a fight, and when Caius (Edward was naming people as the scene unfolded) killed Irina, in what seemed to me to be an obvious attempt to provoke an attack and then justify the destruction of the Cullens I felt a cold blanket fall over me. To kill is bad, to kill a sentient is worse...to kill an immortal, especially with such flimsy justification...unconscionable!
Here Irina had done what the law demanded, granted she was mistaken, but Aro had made the same mistake when he'd seen the same thing Irina had through her eyes. It was an understandable mistake, and that she had informed on her friends and family in spite of her reservations is something the Volturi should be pleased about, not punishing. She had done right by them, although perhaps not right in the way of right and wrong, and her reward was to be killed outright as a sacrificial pawn to kick off a war the Volturi obviously wanted so they could get Alice and Edward to join them and increase their power. (Edward explained a lot of what he'd read in their thoughts as the scene unfolded).
I froze, unable to move or speak...I was so furious I began to tense up and shake as a wave of hot rage overcame me. Edward looked at me with concern and Renesmee stopped showing me her display, Jasper looked shocked and made as if to restrain me and Bella pulled Renseme behind her as if to protect her from me. Edward said, "He's in control, he's just very angry." Jasper said, "I have never felt such raw fury before, I don't know how he can be in control." I let the wave of rage wash over me, letting my mind wander as I decided what to do with it. Jasper said, "I have to get away from him, I can't calm him down and he's starting to affect me with this overwhelming rage." He and Alice moved outside while I thought of my abilities, and a sort of loose plan started to emerge. I hadn't decided on the particulars, but I had decided that I was not going to let this stand. The Volturi had been invulnerable for so long, and able to threaten anyone who opposed them so thoroughly that nobody had dared for a very long time to so much as disagree strongly with them. That was about to change. My ability to teleport anywhere allowed me to avoid their wrath should they choose to direct it at me. My ability to destroy the rock when I was trying to move it would also allow me to destroy a vampire just as easily, not that I really wanted to, but the option was there. I might be the only person that could strongly and publicly disagree with the Volturi with impunity, and disagree I did!
I suppose some explanation is in order here...you see as a person with Asperger's I have been targeted by bullies my entire life, most of it without even knowing why. I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until I was 37 years old, long after it had wreaked havoc on my life. I hate bullies, and the Volturi were bullies with a capital B. They took bullying to new levels I hadn't even imagined. My mind raced and I had a flurry of individual thoughts that were swirling around and coalescing into something more coherent. When I get into this brainstorm mode I tend to blurt a lot whatever is coming to mind, some of which is useful and some of which is just something I consider and discard.
Alice came back into the room with Jasper and in a shocked voice announced "He's decided...he's decided to destroy the Volturi!" I gave her a sharp look and said, "Well I have decided they need to be destroyed, but not, as yet, decided how to go about it. Let's just say I recognize a need and that my gifts may have placed me in a unique position to fill it," I said, "As of right now it appears they are 'in check' and not actively causing any problems for anyone." I continued "I have a very long time to work out how to effect the downfall of the Volturi, as long as they don't catch wind I'm plotting their demise." I looked meaningfully at Edward and Alice before continuing "I want to consider all possible options before deciding on a course of action, and I'll need every piece of information I can get my hands on about the Volturi in hand before I can even begin to formulate any plans, let alone select one to implement."
"I also recognize that any actions I take could involve risks for anyone associated with me and so will not do anything unilaterally, but my nature will not allow me to do nothing about this situation. It's beyond my ability to ignore or endure such a blatant and obvious injustice of this magnitude," I said. Edward chimed in with "I hadn't realized how you would be affected by this, and I'm sorry to have dragged you into our troubles. He's telling the truth though, he's just not capable of letting this pass. He's compelled to do something about it and is searching for the best course of action." I said, "Ideally I want the course of action with the least loss of life...zero is the goal here, though that may not be achievable." I said, "I am also prepared to disassociate myself from you if you feel it will be safer for you but I don't see how I can avoid moving forward with this in some way. Right now I intend to do a lot of information gathering and I'll have to be careful not to let the sources of the information get any inkling of what I'm planning. If the Volturi got wind anyone was plotting against them they'd probably move against them at once and certainly be a harder target from that point going forward." I continued, "I will ask that if any of you intend to be anywhere where the Volturi, and particularly Aro (who I'd been told could read your every thought at a touch) could come into contact with you that you inform me immediately."
Carlisle gestured at me and said, "I don't necessarily think destroying the Volturi is a bad idea, particularly if you mean what you say about loss of life, but have you thought about what this 'mission' of yours is going to entail?" I grinned and said, "Not really, but my nature doesn't let me consider any other course of action...once you've pegged my injustice meter...I come for you." "I have perhaps hundreds of years to come up with a viable plan and implement it as long as the Volturi don't figure out they have a new enemy, and the fact that they don't even know of my existence, let alone my abilities, certainly works in my favor," I said. Edward tapped my arm and said, "I don't want you to do this for me, for us, it's not something I would ask of anyone. You have no obligation to fight our fight." I grinned again and said, "I hate to burst your bubble Edward but I'm not really doing it for you, or your family, or even Vampire kind as it were...I'm doing it because it's who I am. I have no more choice about it than I do about having blonde hair. I suppose it's not really a virtue when you have no choice about it, but I'll take credit for it if you're offering it. To my mind it's a simple matter of applying my unique gifts in the most positive and effective way I can think of."
Edward and Carlisle looked at Alice who said, "I can't see yet whether he will be able to do it or not. I think he'll have to make a more specific decision about how to go about it before I can really see the result, and a lot of things can cause the vision to change. Right now, I see a sort of kaleidoscope of images and outcomes that hasn't solidified yet...but I haven't seen anything yet to make me believe he's going to fail." Emmet punched his fist into his hand and said, "It's about time somebody stood up to those guys." Rosalie pulled at his arm and told him "We just barely avoided a fight for our lives less than a year ago and you want to start another one already?" "What if the Volturi get wind of this 'plan' and decide to come back and finish what they started?" Alice said, "I'll be watching their decisions and know if they decide to come back, we'll have plenty of warning." I added "Add to that they don't have instantaneous transport and it will take them some time to get here, whereas I don't suffer from that limitation, so I could potentially do something as rude as popping into their little castle and making off with something they wouldn't like to lose...like a wife or two." Emmet laughed a deep resounding laugh at this and the others looked somewhat amused as well. Even Rosalie seemed a bit less stressed about the situation. I said, "I think if we had their wives here as our guests when they showed up they might be persuaded to reconsider doing anything, shall we say...precipitous. Of course I'd have to test my ability to take someone with me to some place they cannot escape from before that becomes a viable option, but it's a possibility I intend to explore as soon as possible. I need to find out the limits of my abilities and to practice and try to extend them before I can consider any specific plan. Toward that end I want to try an experiment." Carlisle's pig island idea was giving me another thought.
I looked at Alice and thought about what I wanted to do, waiting to see how she'd react. Edward's eyes got wide and he gulped. I went to a computer, getting an image from the internet of the moon, no wait...no air on the moon, and no weather so my footprints would be there forever...no Mars would be better, there's weather there, so the footprints and any sign of my being there would be long obliterated before humans set foot on the red planet. I looked up Curiosity images from Mars, picking a spot where Curiosity had been a long time ago and was unlikely to ever visit again, and imagined myself teleporting to that place, I imagined myself standing on the surface of Mars and then returning. I looked at Alice and waited for her to say something. Her eyes were wide when she opened them, and she nodded and said, "Yes, it'll work, you'll make it back fine...bring me back a Mars rock if you don't mind." I told everyone "Wait here, I'll be right back." I walked to the computer and concentrated on the image of 'Ireson Hill' on Mount Sharp, Mars and visualized myself standing there, gathered energy and flipped a switch in my head and suddenly I was standing there on the surface of Mars.
I'd like to say I was awestruck by the thought of being on another planet, actually being the first person to be on another planet, but I really wasn't. Call it the Asperger's but I was on a mission and didn't have time to smell the roses. I picked up an interesting looking rock and teleported back to the Cullen's house. Everyone seemed startled to see me back except Alice, who apparently knew when I'd return. Bella said, "That's going to take some getting used to, you popping in and out like that." I grinned and handed the rock to Alice saying "I probably wouldn't have dared to try that without your insight, and a promise is a promise." I said, "Now I need to see if I can take someone with me when I teleport somewhere...any volunteers?"
Renesmee said, "Take me to Mars, I want to see it!" I thought about it...vampires don't need to breathe, but Renesmee was warm blooded and I didn't want to risk hurting her, also there was no guarantee this would work. I said, "Well, maybe some other time Renesmee, this is a little risky and I'm not sure being in that kind of air would be good for you." Alice said cheerily, "Well I'm sure you can do it, and I wouldn't mind seeing it for myself, be right back everyone." I walked up behind her and put my hands on her shoulders, looking at Jasper to make sure he wasn't going to object, and visualized both of us standing there where I'd just been, then gathered energy and flipped the mental switch. This took a bit more concentration than before because of multiple elements in the vision, but didn't seem to take any more energy than before. We were standing there on Mars before you could register the change. It appeared to be instantaneous. Alice looked around and said, "Wow, this is so much nicer in person than the pictures." She scanned around a bit and then said, "Let's get back before the others get too nervous." I teleported us both back, this time without having touched her shoulders and it worked the same. Apparently I didn't need physical contact to transport someone. Good to know. Everyone was relieved when we appeared back in our original positions in the living room. I said, "Well, that's enough experimentation for one day. I have a lot to digest and a lot to learn. The most important decision you have to make is whether or not you want to distance yourselves from me so that if I fail or if the Volturi get wind of my intentions they won't associate you with me and come to destroy you along with me."
Edward chimed in "The Volturi want Alice and my abilities more than anything they've ever wanted, they will use any excuse to try to destroy this family and take those abilities for the guard, and now that they know the extent of Bella's power, they want her perhaps even more than the two of us. Bella is what made it possible for us to stand up to them and cause them to reconsider. If Bella hadn't been able to protect us, they would have attacked us and recruited us with Chelsea's ability to bond us to the Volturi," I interjected, "That really concerns me, if Chelsea has the ability to bond people to the Volturi, they could potentially do that to me, and I really don't want to think about how Aro would use my abilities." I continued, "Looks like you and I are about to become BFF's Bella. I don't want to risk that under any circumstances so keep that shield of yours handy, because if the Volturi had me on their side they'd probably use me to assassinate anyone they wanted out of the way." I looked meaningfully at the Cullen family one after another in turn.
Carlisle looked around at everyone and said, "I think I speak for everyone when I say firstly that I think that your chances will be significantly greater if we work together on this. Alice will be able to tell you if a plan of yours is viable before you attempt it, and Bella will be able to prevent the Volturi from learning of it before you're ready to move. Secondly I think that it is high time the Volturi stopped amassing power and abusing it. They were ready to obliterate us simply to get what they wanted. Their law enforcement function has taken a back seat to their ambitions and I don't see how we can allow them to continue to increase their power any further," He said, "That said, I think we'll have to be very careful and take our time about this and I'd appreciate it if you didn't try anything without discussing it with us first."
I replied, "Well with Edward here rummaging around in my head all the time I hardly think I could do anything without consulting you, but I wouldn't anyway. Hell, I'd have to be out of my mind not to run it by at least Alice before I committed to any course of action." I continued, "I would never put your lives at risk without giving you a say in the matter anyway. I considered just popping into their chambers and dropping them commando style, but I'm not certain I'd be able to take so many, even with the element of surprise. I'll consider that the 'nuclear option'...only to be used as a last resort. Maybe an incendiary device would improve the odds of success a bit, I'll have to give that some thought. My ideal solution would end the Volturi without any of them being killed at all, at least by me. I've got an inkling of an idea about how to do that…Alice can you start watching Chelsea's decisions and let me know if there is a window of opportunity to get her alone in a place I can get to? Alice nodded.
I turned to Carlisle and asked, "Can a vampire starve to death? I mean unlike your situation when you turned and came across a deer, if there were NO food around at all?" Carlisle shook his head and replied, "I really don't know, but I suspect that they'd just have less and less energy until they went totally dormant, sort of like hibernation. What would happen after that I have no idea, what were you thinking?" Edward grimaced and told him, "He's thinking of marooning them on Mars, where they can't get back here no matter what and won't be able to hurt anyone." Jasper smiled a thoughtful, almost approving smile and Alice looked a little shocked. Carlisle and Esme looked a little pained, but Emmet chuckled and said, "Boy, remind me never to get on your bad side, that's pretty harsh, even for the Volturi. Not that I don't think they deserve it but...ouch!"
About this time Jacob Black came in. He was at the house most of the time, since he'd imprinted on Renesmee he couldn't be separated from her for long. He'd been gratified to hear the results of our swine experiment, especially the fact that Renesmee had found a satisfying food source that didn't involve human blood, even donated blood. Jacob said "Ouch what?" Bella and Edward said they needed to get Renesmee to bed as it was getting late and, being half human, she still slept. They went home for the night and left Jacob behind to be brought up to speed. After he was told what was going on he nodded in my direction and said, "Well anyone that stands against the Volturi is ok in my book, they almost destroyed us all when they were here." He sneered a bit and said "They even wanted to try to take the pack as slaves, which was not a big hit with us. Is there anything the packs can do to help?" I told him I'd keep them in mind and let them know when I had a more solid plan of action. For the moment I had to find out everything I could about the Volturi and vampires, to include their weaknesses, so I could come up with a solid plan.
I said, "Another thing to consider is we have to replace them with something. I mean we can't just wipe out the cops and hope everyone behaves after that, now can we? No one person should be able to make decisions about life or death unilaterally and we have to think about other ways to deal with transgressors of the law besides destroying them. I think some kind of council is the best solution, maybe with an odd number of people on it to prevent ties. The trick is who do we put on it..." I continued, "I vote for Carlisle, he won't let anyone die unless they really need to, and I suppose I have to be on it, because I'll very likely be the person having to implement the decision of the council. Who else do you think would be good for it?" Carlisle chimed in, "I think we should ask Garrett. He knows a little something about how to avoid being a tyrant, since he fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. He also is adopting our 'vegetarian' way of life with the Denali coven so he'll be better able to cooperate with us," I answered, "Yes! That sounds great. From what you just said I get the idea that vampires that exist on human blood are more susceptible to their baser instincts, I think I may be able to weave that into the plan I'm starting to form in my mind. If Chelsea were to stop actively strengthening the bonds between the guard and the Volturi would their bonds eventually weaken?" I wondered if the Volturi could be compelled to stop consuming human blood if it meant they could continue to cooperate with one another in order to maintain their power. Especially if the pig blood alternative was offered to them.
And so began the plot to end the Volturi once and for all.