Capture

Chapter 7

The Brothers Cullen

Summary: Alice, Bella and Rosalie have been picked up in a scoop of humans by the Volturi to be used as slaves and for various businesses they have in their dealings with humans. Bella and Rose are chosen as sex slaves, while Alice is chosen to be eventually changed for the bureaucracy due to her potential to see the future. What will happen to them? Will they eventually escape to freedom, will they be turned into vampires, or will they be drained of blood and killed?

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: We're going to take a trip into the past and find out how Edward, Emmett and Jasper became vampires. This chapter and chapter 8 deal with the Brothers Cullen. Chapter 9 gets back to the "present" day.

~o0o~

Chapter 7

1812 New Orleans:

History says that the British didn't burn any private buildings, when Washington D. C. was set a fire, but the Cullen's entire neighborhood burned to the ground as a result of those fires to the public Capital buildings.

Carlisle Cullen, father of Emmett, Jasper and Edward, didn't trust banks. The entire family fortune was hidden in a safe, in the basement of the house.

That safe would have been spared in the basement, had the entire house not fallen into the basement and melted the safe, burning the cash and all it's other contents. True, the Cullen Family own timber lands in Georgia and Alabama, as well as farm lands in Ohio, however, all the deeds were in the house and didn't survive the fire.

Those living in that neighborhood were shot as they tried to escape the flames. The official reports stated that the people that were shot while fleeing the neighborhood were killed as a direct result of them firing upon the British troops

Rumor was that the homes had been looted and then set afire to cover the crimes by those very British troops.

~o0o~

Carlisle Cullen's brother, Edward Masen, who was also quite wealthy within his own right, lived in New Orleans in a beautiful ole style Southern mansion in The Garden District. The Masens welcomed the visiting Cullen sons with open arms and introduced them to the best of New Orleans high society.

Many of the Masen family's friends hurried to introduce their eligible daughters to the boys since the Cullen boys would inherit large sums of money from their father's estate.

When word got to the Masen Family and the Cullen sons in New Orleans about the tragic deaths of Carlisle and Esme Cullen, the family was grief stricken. The Cullen boys had been so close to both their parents that they particularly took the news badly.

To escape their shared pain, Emmett, who was the eldest, Jasper the middle son, and Edward the youngest, turned to drink as well as regular visits to the opium dens to "chase the dragon." They also visited only the best bawdy houses available.

Their New Orleans relatives worried about the Cullen boys, but not enough to confront the young men with the family's cares and fears. Once all the cash had been spent by the brothers they were asked to leave their uncle's home. They were then forced to find lodgings elsewhere.

It was only when the three of them sobered up enough and realized that they'd been turned out into the streets with their luggage scattered around them, did they realize how much trouble they were in.

They managed to locate a room that the three of them could share for awhile. It was not the comfort they they were accustomed to, but they realized, albeit too late, the damage they'd done to themselves in their grief.

~o0o~

Eventually, they managed to find jobs either on the docks, or working as bar backs in saloons. Emmett, since he was the strongest, worked as a laborer loading and unloading cargo from the steam boats that were now both coming to and leaving from New Orleans regularly.

Jasper worked 4 nights a week in 3 different saloons waiting on tables and keeping the bar stocked. He had strawberry blond hair, was lanky and probably stood around 6 foot 3 inches in height. He wasn't skinny nor was he heavy. His face was very pleasant to look upon, but it was his manner that won everyone to him. He always seemed to know how everyone was feeling and just his presence set people at ease. The saloon owners realized at once that the nights Jasper worked, the income for the saloon was increased greatly.

Edward found work on one of the many paddle wheelers carrying the cargo that Emmett helped to load. Of the three boys, Edward was the most beautiful with his unruly auburn hair, sharp jaw line and twinkling jade green eyes. He was easily 6 foot 2 inches in height and almost too thin.

Edward discovered that he had a pension for gambling and soon began to earn his way with ship supported card games. Edward was able to know with uncanny predictability who had what cards. Everyone thought he'd found someway to cheat, but of course they were unable to prove it.

On one of the runs from Natchez to New Orleans, Edward caught the attention of a vampire.

One of the gamblers who'd lost a great deal of money to Edward, accused him of cheating. Edward insisted that he be searched and he was stripped down to his bare skin.

Edward did not call the one who said he was a cheater, out onto the field of honor, but asked only that he only pay all the money he owed Edward. The boat's Captain, however, had the man thrown over board while the boat was still moving. That was the way people who disrupted the tranquility of the boat were dealt with.

The vampire who was watching Edward through out, had the ability to sense special talents. He thought that Edward was probably a mind reader. If correct, the vampire would turn Edward into a vampire also and make Edward join his family. Time was needed to see if what the vampire suspected was true, so he watched and waited.

Several weeks later, after following Edward through the city and seeing him interact with his brothers as well as everyone else, the vampire made his presence known to the Cullen brothers.

~o0o~

It was not too often that the brothers all had the same night off from work so they decided to make a night of it together drinking, and generally having good fun with one another.

The best and the also the worst place to drink was Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. Men gathered there to sell and trade goods on paper and to drink, as well as gossip about the current news of the War and other things going on in New Orleans and the world at that time.

Edward, Emmett and Jasper were sitting huddled together in the small area dedicated to the drinking public; and they were having a right good time with each other also. They were all laughing about some scene that Jasper had witnessed in one of the drinking establishments he currently worked in. They became aware of a looming presence at their table and looked up to see a man of about six foot standing there.

"I could not help but over hear your story, friend, and you all sound so happy and carefree. I was wondering if I might join you and stand a round of drinks. I do not wish to be rude and will leave if my suggestion is unacceptable to you. Oh, forgive me, my name is Eleazar Volturi, I come from Spain and am newly arrived in your city." His smile was almost blinding in the dark room which was lit only by the candles standing on each of the tables.

Jasper, ever the polite one, accepted Eleazar's offer and motioned for him to sit down.

Once seated, Eleazar caught the barman's eye and indicated he wanted a bottle and four glasses.

The rest of the evening was spent in the brothers spinning their tales for their newly found friendship with the Spaniard.

There was a very dim light working its way across the floor when the brothers decided it was time to go home and try and get some sleep.

They had just barely said good night and good bye before Eleazar was gone. At first they thought it peculiar but thought no more of it and stumbled to their shared one room. They argued all the way about who's turn it was to sleep in the bed and whose it was to sleep on the pallet on the floor.

Little did they know that this would be the last argument they would have with each other as humans.

~o0o~

A/N: Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop is a site in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La. It's a tavern today located on the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Philip Street. The tavern's building, built sometime before 1772, is one of the oldest surviving structures in New Orleans and has been called the oldest continually occupied bar in the United States. According to legend, the pirate Jean LaFitte once owned the building; though as with many things involving Lafitte, no documentation of this exists.