By my word count this is the longest chapter so far. As I have said when asked my chapters will get longer as we go.
Chapter 11
I ported myself to the guardhouse to see if Jasper had pulled in. I had no clue what type of vehicle he was driving.
"No Misttress" Timothy said standing and bowing, "He has passed the gate but has not passed me."
"Good" I smiled "He is driving a rental so you might want to put him in the temporary parking"
"Aye I can do that" he nodded "Not to question you Mistress but why are you down here?"
"Jasper is joining the guard and someone needed to show him is room." I replied.
"Yes but that is the job of his mentor and you don't mentor"
"Just because I haven't in the past doesn't mean I don't. I think it might be time."
"Then I hope he understand the honor of this." Timothy said coming around.
"I think he will" I smiled as I heard the car coming our way, "don't tell him I am here" I said turning slowly invisible throwing up my shield along with blocking my sent.
"As you wish" he said.
"Thank you" I said kissing him on the cheek. 'Now get to work' I sent hoping on the counter of the guardhouse as a car pulled into view.
"This area is restricted" said Timothy stepping to the driver side.
"I am aware of that" replied Jasper "I was told at the gate to drive down here." He passed his pass out the window.
"So you are a new guard member?" asked Tim looking at the pass as Jasper nodded. "How come your mentor is not here?"
"My what?" asked Jasper confused. I silently smacked myself in the head, obviously I forgot to mention that earlier to him.
"Your mentor" Tim said again "The person to show you around, tell you where to go. Basically someone to show you the ropes."
"No one has said anything to me."
"Wait here then" said Tim "I need to find out what to do with you." He said walking back into the guardhouse. I watched as he picked up the phone. 'Mistress are you still here?' he sent to me.
'I am actually in front of you' I sent smiling
"This is Tim down in the garage and I have a" he paused looking down at the pass in his hand "Jasper Cullen here. He seems to be on his own." He paused pretending to listen into the phone "Yes I know he is guard." He paused again.
'You really are a goof ball today' I sent him giggling 'Just tell him to park somewhere and go to the front desk to wait for more instructions.'
"Okay will do" he said then hung up the phone and went back to Jasper.
"I am suppose to meet Bella here" said Jasper as soon as Tim came to a stop. I cringed again, no one calls me Bella but my brothers and a select few. It was either, Mistress or Mistress Isabella…I truly was not sure how Tim was going to take this.
"You are new so I will let that slide but I should warn you only a select few have the right to call Mistress Isabella leader of the guard by that name. Three of them sit in thrones next to her, the others are in the inner circle of the elite guard."
"I meant no disrespect but she did say she would meet me here." replied Jasper with a sigh.
"Well as you can see Mistress is not here and as far as I know you are to go to the front desk and await instructions. Please park your car over there" he pointed to the right. "It is the temporary lot." With that Timothy turned around and went back to the guardhouse. I watched as Jasper pulled his car to the right. Then when I knew he would not see anything I picked up a clipboard from the wall and smacked Tim in the arm with it. 'Way to be nice to the new guy' I sent walking away.
'At least I did not beat him up for being rude and using the wrong name. He needed to learn his place' thought Tim.
'Here is some news for you Tim' I sent as I stopped and watched Jasper start to get a couple of suit cases out of the trunk of his car. 'I have known Jasper before I was Mistress Isabella, long
before I joined the Volturi. If anyone has the right to call me Bella it is him.' I sent then cutting the connection of our minds as I hit him again with the clipboard.
I watched Jasper as he closed the trunk as he went around to grab something from the backseat. I started to chuckle to myself as he started to mutter to himself as he pulled out a box. I sent just enough power to the box. I was about to make Jasper jump and I would feel bad if anything of his things got broke.
"You know even as a vampire it is odd to talk to yourself" I giggled as I faded visible. I started to laugh as predicted he jumped forgetting the box that he carried.
"You almost gave me a heart attack" he said taking a deep breath "which I should remind you is very hard to do."
"Hmm I do what I can when I can" I shrugged walking to his suitcases "You sure didn't bring much with you did you?" I placed my hands on his bags.
"The rest is still with the family. I just took what I really needed, Carlisle promised to look after my things until I either came home or found myself somewhere." He said laying his hand on mine.
"Alright let's get you settled." I said reveling in the electricity that came from his touch. "You take this" I sent his box to hit him in the side "and I will take these" I tapped the bags.
"I can take those" he shot a glance at Tim sitting at his desk.
"Okay let me make this simple for you" I said calmly "Who knows their way around here?"
"You do but…"
"Who knows where you are going to be staying?" I asked cutting him off
"You do but…
"And who can teleport to your room faster then you can get to the front desk to ask for your key?" again I cut him off.
"I understand that but…"
"Are you really going to argue over this with me?" I raised an eyebrow waiting for a response. When none came I continued "I can get your bags to your room quicker, that way I can show you around a little tonight. I thought you wanted to talk and hunt?"
"Alright alright you win" Jasper threw his hands up in surrender
"I knew you would give in" I smiled "I bet I can get your bags to your room and be back at the front desk before you"
"What's the wager?" Jasper crossed his arms.
"I don't know" I shrugged " I just say that if I win you owe me one and if you win then you can ask 5 questions you want of me and get a straight answer without any jokes."
"Have you not been giving me truthful answers?" he asked
"Oh I have but in all honesty I have edited my answers a little. Now do you agree with the terms?"
"Yes" he put out his hand "Now where do I go?" he asked as I shook his hand.
"Simple just take that elevator" I pointed to the right "Push the 3 floor button, the one with the star next to it. After the doors open head to the right, the front desk is at the then end of the room." I smiled as he finally took the box that was hitting him in the side. "On three then?" He nodded. "One…Two…Three…" I watched as he ran to the elevator, as soon as the doors closed I ported to his room.
As soon as my feet hit the floor in Jasper's new room I got to work. I pushed his suit cases into the little alcove behind the door. I also took the time to inspect Gianna's cleaning crews work. They really did do a good job, they had turned most of the lights on but left them low plus there was soft music playing in the background. After listening for a second I realized that it was one of my CD's, but Jasper wouldn't know that. I quickly checked the bedroom, and again there was no need to worry, the crew had it nicely set up and ready. I sprinted to the last important room, Jasper's office. I scanned it too and was again was pleasantly surprised at their diligence. I was just about to leave when something on the desk caught my attention. There was a large book and a note sitting there when there shouldn't be. I instantly appeared in front of the desk to look at the book and the note. To my surprise the note was addressed to me. Grabbing the note I ported to the entrance hall.
Once in the hall I was pleasantly surprised that Jasper was still not out of the elevator yet. I took this time to read my note.
Mistress,
I took the liberty of leaving Mr. Cullen our book of vehicles. I remember you mentioning that he has a rental and I am sure that he would like his own mode of transportation. Also I am sure that you remember but Mr. Cullen still needs the guard books and if he is to be part of the inner circle then he needs those books as well.
Have a good hunt and I will see you in the morning unless you need me sooner.
Sora
Well crap I had forgotten about those books. I knew that there was a reason why I kept Sora around, without her I think I would lose my head somewhere.
"Gee Jasper" I walked to the elevator as soon as I heard the ding of the doors opening and putting my note in cloak "You took forever"
"I think that elevator needs to be looked at." He grumbled as he stepped off the elevator.
"I don't think so" I laughed "It was just inspected a couple of weeks ago."
"Whatever" he continued to grumble as he shifted his box to his other side
"Oh here give me that you big baby" I said taking his box from his hands "I will be right back" I turned and ported back to his room and placed the box with the rest of his stuff.
"You really are a show off you know that" Jasper said once I returned back to his side.
"I do what I can" I smiled taking his arm leading him into the actual room.
"Can I ask you something?" He whispered in my ear. I just nodded. "Do you think it is safe to have a human at the front desk in the evening?"
"Do you mean safe for her or safe for us?" I replied looking at him stair at the front desk now maned by Lorie
"Both actually"
"Look around Jasper what do you see?" I said
"Well" he looked around "There are new guards at the main entrance" I turned to look to, the guards saluted me with their right fists over their hearts. "Also there are two guards now behind the desk" those guards also saluted me "So in other words you doubled the security."
"Well your answer is what I would expect an attacker to think." I said, then turned him around to face the front of the room. "You see the three people sitting across from the elevator?" He nodded "They are also guard, they actually have one of the few jobs that requires them to be out of both their cloaks and dress code" I smiled as I turned us back toward the front desk. "If there is any type of issue those three have two tasks, they are to get Lorie out of here and to start lock-down."
"What is 'lock-down'?"
"Something we can discuss in a bit" I whispered to him as we walked up to the desk. "Good evening Lorie"
"Oh good evening Mistress Isabella" said Lorie standing. "You must be the new guard member?" she looked to Jasper.
"Lorie let me introduce Jasper Cullen to you." I said with a smile " and yes he is the new member"
"Well it is good to meet you Mr. Cullen, let us hope that your time with us is safe" she shook his hand. "I expected your mentor to be escorting you around though." She said sitting back down.
"Excuse me?" asked Jasper
"Never mind" I waved off his question then turned back to Lorie "We have come for Jasper key to his room."
"Of Course you did" she said handing me the key "I am sure you want your notes too?" I just nodded "Well George will see Mr. Cullen at 8:30 tomorrow morning instead of 9" she crumpled a sticky note "And I have conformation that Mr. Cullen's id card and phone will be ready before noon tomorrow as well" she crumpled another note.
"Well it's a good thing you won't need to wait for your card nor your phone, but I can't say I am thrilled about the early visit with George." I sighed "Although it is not my visit so it shouldn't be that bad."
"Is there something wrong with this George?" Ask Jasper looking at me.
"Nothing is wrong with George" Stated one of the guards behind Lorie.
"It is not a secret that George would like our Mistress to be the center of attention and that clothes would help in doing so." Said the other guard.
"Thank you Franklin and Kyle" I sighed then turned to Jasper. "Picture Alice at her worst, then add the puppy dog pout" I smiled as he shuddered "This is worse, George is human that looks and acts like a grandfather. He knows how to play me like a fiddle."
"Oh someone who wants you to look your best, I could see how that would be bad." Snickered Jasper
"Shut up Jasper," I playfully slugged him. "You two are an example of why I am thinking about making the Entrance Guards like those in England." I pointed to the two of them "You know the ones that can't talk or move or anything!"
"Where would be the fun in that?" asked Franklin with a little laugh.
"I am sure you would find it somewhere" I smiled back, "Anyway" I looked back to Lorie, "Is there anything else?"
"Nope that's it" she said looking around the desk.
"Good then we are out of here" I said taking Jasper's arm again and turned away "I have my cell if anything comes up"
"Of course Mistress" replied Lorie
"Would you really change the guard so they couldn't talk?" asked Jasper as we walked away.
"No" I smiled then added louder, " but I could always dream" I listened to the laughter as we exited the room.
This evening was going better then I was expecting. I know he wanted to talk later but right now it was all easy questions. I nodded to a human who bowed as she skidded out of my way. Normally they only bowed when I had my blue lined Volturi cloak on, only guards bowed when I had the red lined cloak.
"Why does everyone bow to you?" asked Jasper like he could read my thoughts.
"The guards always bows or salutes with their right hand over their hearts" I demonstrated "It is a sigh of respect to me as leader of the guard."
"But everyone is bowing." Jasper stated.
"That only happens when," I looked down and noticed the blue, "Well crap that's why."
"What?"
"I am wearing my Voluri cloak" he looked confused. "As in my Volturi Leader cloak." He still looked confused, I just sighed. "Okay let me try to explain… I have a couple different cloaks for different jobs. In this cloak" I pulled the edge of the cloak up showing the blue lining, "I am in Volturi Leader who is incharge of the guard mode. In this mode everyone bows because they have to. The cloak I would rather be wearing, if I had to wear one, is just like this but where this one has blue the other is red. That one is my leader of the guard cloak and only the guard bow or salute."
"Why do you dislike wearing the Volturi cloak?"
"Because it puts me in the spotlight!" he raised an eyebrow at my raised voice, "It makes me feel strange." I started again after a calming breath. "I work very hard to make people understand that just because I am odd even for a vampire I am just a simple person."
"So I am guessing if you had your way you would be in the shadows somewhere?"
"I would love the shadows" I sighed as another human and visiting vampire bowed while stepping to the side.
"You still don't see yourself clearly do you?" chuckled Jasper.
"You think I am bad now? Wait and see me play Princess Isobail" I laughed "Okay any other questions beside my strange self-esteem issues?"
"Explain lock-down."
"Easy. If the alarm is set off either in someones room or the entrance hall we go into lock-down. If it is in the entrance hall, guard members get the desk person out while trying to keep the threat in one place. While they do that all the exits are locked and barricaded, the only way to get in or out after that is to teleport. If the alarm is set off in someone's room then the guards assigned to that building or area plus me and the inner circle converge onto that area and take care of the threat."
"What happens to the other leaders or yourself when you are one of them?"
"We get shoved into separate rooms, surrounded by guards until the all clear is given."
"That doesn't sound like fun." Stated Jasper.
"It isn't, but that is the life of the Volturi" I shrugged, "It is another reason I like being in red!"
"Where are we going?" asked Jasper after we turned another corner.
"I thought I would kill two birds with one stone as it were. I need to get something out of my office so I figured while I was at it I would show you the guard center."
"Are we almost there?"
"Yupe" I turned another corner " The center is open for public use from 8am to 5pm everyday. If there is a guard meeting of any kind or a guard training during those times the center becomes restricted to guard only. After 5pm the doors close and again it becomes restricted to guards only."
"How do you know when someone comes in?"
"Easy" I stopped infront of two double doors. "This is the entrance to the center, as you see these doors are not locked" I said pulling the doors open "But these doors are" I gave them a tug and a push, "locked"
"Bella" he said slowly "locked doors are nothing to vampires" he said as if I was a child.
"Alright smart ass try to get them open!" I gestured to the doors and stood back to watch. I was not disappointed! I watched as he put his weight into the door and shoved, I had to stifle a laugh at the look of confusion on his face. Trying another tactic he grabbed the handles and leaned back using his weight to pull the doors open. I quickly turned my laugh into a cough when one of the handles came off in his hand causing him to stumble.
"Are you done breaking my doors?" I giggled when the doors still would not budge. I grabbed my phone quickly dialing Lorie "Lorie could you have someone from maintenance come and repair one of the doors in the center?" I listened to her giggle about Jasper not knowing his own strength. "Thank you" I said once she had calmed down.
"How did she know?" asked Jasper when I put my phone away.
"Part of the security" I smiled "there are hidden cameras that link to the desk and my office once the detect movement in here." I gestured to the ceiling "And those locked doors are reinforced a few times with metal and iron plus some other things. The glass is from the space shuttle, very hard to break even for vampires."
"Then how do you get in if the doors are locked and you are suppose to be in there?" he pointed inside.
"Well I was going to point that out but you decided to break the door first." Jasper just hung his head. "This is where the id cards come in" I moved to the right "Lets see if your temp card works."
"Excuse me?"
"How is this hard Jasper?" I pulled out my id card "Each guard member has a card that has their picture, name, rank and which guard group they are in. On the back is a strip that has the same info on it." I gestured to the small black rectangle on the wall to the side of me. "This is a card reader, we swipe the card like this" I swiped my card "Then we wait for…" I paused and waited, within seconds there were four distinct clicks "and now the door is open" I grabbed the door with the handle still attached and pulled the door open, then let it fall back closed. "Now let's see if your temp card works."
"Why?" he asked pulling his card out of his pocket.
"Because tomorrow after you are finished with torture" I snickered as he swiped his card, "I mean meeting with George you need to join me here, but because I will probably be working out the door will be locked" I said pulling the door open. "Well it is good to see that is one thing I don't need to worry about."
"I am happy to help out" grumbled Jasper following me in "Wow Bella" he said finally seeing the center clearly "This place is huge" He spun to take it all in.
"It is." I smiled "This main room is about the size of a football field plus a half. It needs to be big so that there is plenty of room for group practices."
"How many are in the guard?" he asked still staring.
"In the Castle Guard there is 100 and in the Elite there are 26 counting you and I. From the Elite there are what I call the Inner Circle which includes myself and 5 others."
"The Inner Circle?"
"They are the guards that are in the thrown room during decisions. They also are the ones I go to for advise. They rank the rest of the guard."
"What's over there?"
"Weapon cabinets" I shrugged "I find that depending on the ear the vampire is turned whether they use some sort of weapon to aid them in a fight or at least as a distraction." I laughed a little "So I have the Castle Guard trained in the basics in most hand weapons and the Elite could put a master to shame."
"It is a good thought but I think it is a waist of time" Jasper shook his head sadly.
"How so?" I was stunned… not even a full day in the guard and he was already questioning my decisions.
"Because there is no weapon that can hurt a vampire but our teeth" he said down to me again as if I was slow.
"Oh like a locked door can't stop us either right?" I snapped "Did you ever think that I might know what I am talking about? That maybe just like the door our weapons are reinforced? It might not have crossed your thick skull that using the skill with a weapon it might allow us to contain an issue without a fight? Not every mission is to kill someone! If we can disarm someone without resorting to threatening death we will." I took a deep breath trying to calm myself, I could feel Jasper trying to send calming waves but they just bounced off my shield. " A couple things you should know Jasper. One…This is my guard and I have been doing this for some time. Maybe not as long as you were with Maria, but I think I have fared pretty well. Two… As you will see in the morning the weapons are different, stronger then normal. Three… As stupid as you think learning weapon skills, it is still my decision and I don't do anything for the guard for the Hell of it, everything is thought out. And lastly something you should really consider even if you should leave the guard….It is not a good thing to piss off someone who is more powerful then you!" I turned toward my office, "I am going to take a few minutes to calm down in my office, then if you still wish I will take you to your room" I finished walking away.
This should be the last for the evening but I should get more up tomorrow.
I wanted to take a quick moment to thank all that have reviewed they always make me happy to see.