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Chapter 4,

"I swear to god Fox if you are kidding me I will kill you myself!" Spider cried.

"No sir, James told Aro that Edward Cullen is alive!"

Spider looked so happy he could burst. "Do you know what this means?! If people find out..."

"I don't think we should tell anyone just yet," I said.

"Why not?"

"To give them hope only to have it taken away. Aro has his finest men on the case. If we tell people that a Cullen is alive they'll expect him to take back the house..."

"Which he probably will..."

"And what if he's found by them first?" I asked. "They'll slaughter him and then the people will realize how much power the Volturi has."

"What if we find prince Edward and keep him safe ourselves?" Jake asked. "He might even want to help us take down Aro and his family. I know I would! Hell if that bastard took my entire family from me..."

"It don't think we are to assume what he wants," Ripple said, "revenge might not be what he wants."

"Are you kidding! I lost my mom and sisters to some sick bastard and I would love nothing more than to pay him a little visit!"

"Calm down," Billy said, putting his hand on Jacob's shoulder. "We aren't going to discuss what the prince wants or doesn't want. We need a course of action."

I noticed that Ripple stood up and walked out of the room. Spider made a move towards him but he didn't do more than that. After thinking it over he stopped. Ripple wasn't going too far anyway, just into the other room. I saw him through the crack in the door. He put his face in his hands.

--

"So what do you make of the situation?" I asked after the meeting. Ripple sighed and looked at me.

"I don't know," he said, "I think it's a lie."

"So you don't think Edward Cullen is alive?"

"Nope," he said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"How old was he when the House of Cullen was destroyed?"

"About ten or so," I answered.

"And do you think that a ten or so child could really escape Volturi's army?"

"I think a ten or so child did," I said hotly, "I think he's alive and waiting to take his place."

"What do you know?" Ripple growled. He pushed me aside and walked out.

If he wasn't so freaking hot I'd hate him completely!

--

I think Spider knows when I don't want to be around someone, and it is precisely that instinct that keeps him joyful. He proved it as he assigned Ripple and I to the same assignment.

"Have fun," Jake said the morning we left.

Yeah. Fun. Killing runners was always fun. A regular blast. I hated my job.

--

We didn't learn much about our target beyond where she was going. Gender never bothered me like it did Billy. He didn't believe in hitting a woman unless it was someone like Aro's little freak, Jane. Or Leah when she was being an asswipe, but even with her it wasn't hard, more like a playful thing. That was probably why he wasn't assigned on this one.

Grey was a few years older than I was. That was the problem with this job. It didn't allow for anything else. You could leave, sure, but only with permission or dismissal. I would be trapped in this business until the revolution was complete or until I died. I knew too much. I was a skilled assassin and I knew a lot of the cell's secrets.

Just like dad.

"You ready for this?" Ripple asked as we walked down the street to Grey's apartment.

"You always ask dumb questions?" I sighed.

We were working with someone else from another cell. A friendly cell. Her name was, Tanya, code name, Denali and she was vicious. She was recently sent over to our cell when she had to change her location. I didn't like her very much. We jokingly broke assassins into two main groups. The wolves and the vampires. I was a vampire and so was Ripple. It simply dealt with how we killed. Tanya was a vamp too. We were careful about our kills. Leave no blood, no evidence. Even if we were making a point with our assassinations, it was a bullet to the heart or the throat (or a slash across the neck when it came to Ripple who had a thing for knives). Quick and clean, as if they were killed by a shadow.

The wolf style was a bit more...messy. The room torn to shreds, the victim in question had the shit beaten out of them before death and it was usually bloody. Jake was a wolf. He liked to rough them up before killing them.

Which is why he was made a spy. He was a sneaky little thing.

"Ah, Ripple, we meet again," she purred.

She slept with him. Skank. Tanya too.

"When you two are finished flirting we have a job to do," I sighed.

"Aw, is Shadow jealous?" Ripple teased, tugging on my hair lightly. I slapped his hand away.

"Oh grow up you jackass!"

"Don't worry, I still hold a special place in my heart for you."

"You're exhausting," I sighed, pulling a clip of bullets from my bag and tucking it into the pouch I kept on my thigh. I put a knife in there as well and another small blade on the inside of my boot. It was a warm night. I was glad I wore my tank top instead of the long sleeves Billy suggested (something about exposing my breasts and being whorish). Tanya was in jeans. I hated jeans on missions. But whatever works I guess.

"Let's go," Tanya said. We walked into the apartment building and up the stairs. Room 201. We didn't waste time. We kicked the door down and went in.

Nobody was there. We figured as much. The living room was bare but there had been signs of a quick escape. My mind flashed back to my own escape with my parents. How the house must have looked. I shook my head and crept down the hall. Jake was one of the spies watching the area. He would have alerted us if she made a run for it.

"She isn't here," Ripple said.

No. She was here. She was hiding. Tanya checked the bedroom and covered Ripple as he checked the bathroom. I looked around. My heart was pumping. I didn't know why. Adrenaline perhaps? Maybe deep down I knew something was going to pop at me with guns blazing. With Tanya keeping a cover on me I slowly reached for the closet door. I grabbed the cold knob. Was she hiding inside with a gun waiting?

I opened the door. Something grabbed my shoulder. I yelped and the door flew open. It was empty. I whirled around and punched Ripple in the jaw.

"Stupid jerk!"

"Damn girl ow!"

"Be glad it was just my fist," I growled, pushing him into the wall and storming past.

"She can't have gotten far," I said. I hesitated. What was below this apartment? I remembered seeing it. A janitors closet was right below us. Or maybe something else, but I know for sure it wasn't an apartment. I jerked my head and we ran from the room, down the stairs and to the room directly under hers. An escape route.

We opened the door and sure enough there was a hole in the bottom. I jumped down and turned on my flashlight. I heard her running. We ran after her.

It was hard for me to breathe. I told myself that she was a traitor and needed to be killed for the sake of the revolution. Tanya fired two shots and we heard a cry. She wasn't hit, just knocked back or something. We came to her. She was at the end of the long tunnel. The ladder she was climbing had been broken by Tanya's shots.

I pulled my gun and prepared to fire. But then I saw it. Her reason for escape.

"Shadow! Come on!"

I froze as I looked into her terrified eyes. She was holding a gun at me but her hand was shaking ever so slightly. She was calm and collected, crouched on the ground. She didn't have amo. She was hoping that she could make us back down. We wouldn't. Her reason held her tight with little hands. Her daughter looked at me with scared brown eyes.

"Shadow! What are you waiting for!"

I saw my father looking back at me. Holding a little girl. Everything he had left. He was willing to give his life to save me. But I was as cold as ice. I killed no matter who it was.

But the little pair of brown eyes bore into me. I was locked in my stance.

"Please," Grey murmured, "please just let me go. You can come with me, just let me take her to a safe place and then you can take me back and do whatever. Please, Shadow! She's my baby!"

"Enough," Tanya growled. She grabbed my shoulder, threw me down and put her gun to Grey's head, "you knew your punishment."

It was over. The little girl screamed and Grey fell. I saw my father in my mind. Taking his last breath and I was crying over him.

"Send for a cleanup," Tanya said into her phone. "In a tunnel under her apartment."

She snapped the phone shut.

"Mama? Mama wake up!"

"Daddy! Daddy don't leave me!"

The girl couldn't have been more than a few years old. She was crying.

"Let's go," Ripple said quietly.

"We have to clean up first," Tanya said. She pointed her gun at the little girl. I wouldn't allow that. I pointed mine at her.

"Pull that trigger and I'll blow your fucking brains out," I snarled.

"Shadow!"

"Our mission is done. We don't kill children for the fun of it."

"Spider will agree with me," Tanya said, "and he'll have you punished for this."

"She's a child," I snapped, "she hasn't done anything wrong."

Tanya looked me over. Wondering if she could take me. She lowered her gun and I did as well.

"What are we going to do?" Ripple asked.

I knelt down and reached for the girl. She nervously came to me and I picked her up. "We're going. We'll figure something out. But we can't just leave her here."

"Aw, the ice queen does have a heart," Ripple cooed.

I hit him again.

TBC

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