This is a work of speculative fanfiction. No profit was made nor was intended to be made. All rights to to Twilight and it's sequels and prequels belong to Stephanie Meyer and Little Brown Publishing company. I make no claim to ownership on any of those rights nor to any intellectual property of Stephanie Meyer.
AN: Well, here it is. Writing time has come far easier to me lately, editing time... not so much. I never post anything unedited, and yet STILL the typos get through somehow. Thank you so much to everyone who reviews my work. It means a lot to me to see what you think, like a sort of nice and happy way to start my day after posting. Even if it's critical, I enjoy seeing it. Also, head on over to my author page, the lovely Essathetwerp made Shrapnel a lovely banner. Go to her author page, she posted one of the funniest poems about the bad sides of imprinting that I've ever read. HILARIOUS!
Chapter Nine:
Charlie Swan sat and looked over the desk that had belonged to Dorothy O'Grady. This room contained the only remaining evidence that she had lived, that she had gathered people to her. The pack was burning this place down. Scorching the earth as it were... this room in back of this insane church was all that was left. Charlie was saving it all. No matter how disturbed O'Grady had become, the woman had managed to track down these vampires cold, with no information other than what she had seen as a child hiding in a tree. He knew the pack protected La Push and that the Cullens protected Forks... but still... if they ever weren't there, if they ever turned on him... he wanted the tools with which to protect his community, Sue's community. So he took all of it. He took things that would have brought the Volturri back down upon his town if they knew. Charlie felt it was worth the risk... one never knew when there was a spider in one's midst.
Besides, he would never be able to forget what he had seen tonight.
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As Ingrid stood waiting, the first wolf stepped out from the trees and into the moonlight. It was Jake, his massive head nearly staring her down. She let the weight of his dominance settle over her and her eyes slid to the side, acknowledging his rank. Then she walked over to him and brushed her leg against his side. All wolfblooded knew how to communicate with the packs... it was ingrained in them, they were not part of the packmind... but it was like they could read wolf body language like a child's book. Hilde used to like to joke that it was as though they were psychic in their own right. They weren't.
Her head jutted backwards. "The church is right up the center, the barracks are on either side... like a gauntlet. Father Rossi and Sister Joseph live in the church basement I believe and the back room to the church is where O'Grady lives."
Jake's ear twitched and his paw shifted, the muscles in his muzzle wrinkling and then smoothing out. Ingrid tilted her head.
"No, there shouldn't be any real threats in those barracks. The true believers are closer to the church, those with families, children, they're closer to the chow hall and the fence line."
Jake nodded that massive head and then turned and looked back at the trees. The rest of the pack stepped out. Ingrid immediately could pick out Seth, Leah was easy as well seeing as how she was smaller than the rest. It was the last person to step out that shocked her. Amongst all the wolves, a human man stood. Chief of Police, Charlie Swan.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but what the hell are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I'm here to help you get these people out of here while they" he gestured to the wolves. "kill the... vampires. This is in my area of jurisdiction... and I'm not sitting it out."
Ingrid nodded and looked at Charlie's pistol. "That's going to do fuck all against any vampire if you have to shoot."
She had grabbed her pistol from it's hiding spot while waiting for the pack to appear, untucking it from her waistband and racking a bullet into the chamber, she handed it to him.
"It's MUE-SOC M-45 Browning. Single action, semiautomatic with a customized chamber and bolt feeder. The bullets are made from vampire bone, stronger then steel. They'll punch through a vampire, but won't kill them. There's really no way to make bullets do enough damage to kill a vampire. However, they'll hurt and distract them long enough for you to get the hell away."
Charlie took the gun. "What are you going to use then?"
She held up her knife. "It's made of vampire bone too. I'm going to hazard a guess that I'm better at hand to hand then you are, so you get the gun. Though... neither of us should get into any fighting unless something goes wrong. Since there's two of us, you should get the families out, they're more likely to trust you because of your uniform. Make up some disaster for the reason that you're there. I'll try and evacuate the hardliners. The true believers know me... I have a better shot than you of getting them out."
He nodded and looked at the red wolf that was Jake. Ingrid looked at her wolf. She was starting to think of him that way, as her wolf. This would be their first time backing each other up, the first test to see if they could build some sort of working partnership. For better or worse, by the end of the night, Ingrid was going to know exactly how much she could trust and rely on Seth. She met his eyes and then slowly blinked once, he dipped his head down the slightest bit and flicked his ears. Then Jake stepped forward and walked through the gate and the time for thinking and planning was over.
The wolves hugged the fence line, choosing to circle around the barracks as opposed to walking straight down the gauntlet. Everything about this assault was geared towards as little collateral damage as possible. If all went according to plan, the only casualties tonight would be the two vampires. If all went according to plan.
Ingrid watched Charlie make his way to the first of the three barracks he was to evacuate, then Ingrid walked into the first of her two barracks. She was hoping she could get them all out, but she wasn't stupid. This was the tier of believers that had the least chance of survival. The ones that, should they be returned to their families, would face years of intense therapy to undo the brainwashing they had undergone. For some of them, it wouldn't help. She knew that some of these people may become Dorothy O'Gradys themselves. Too broken and too brainwashed to function normally in society. The best thing that could happen to them would be to have their families declare them incompetent and institutionalize them.
There was no way she was going to get every last one of them to leave. She was just hoping for most of them.
She flicked on the lights, and started yelling. "WAKE UP, SHE'S MISSING!"
One of the men stared at her and blinked rapidly in the bright lights, shocked into wakefulness. "Sydney? What do you mean she's missing?"
Ingrid pointed out the door. "Chief Swan's outside, something happened down the road, he's evacuating the compound! But no one can find Dorothy, she's missing and Charlie said the gate was open, we have to find her!"
It was a flimsy lie, that, had she tried it during the day with a group of fully awake people, would have crashed and burned faster than a helicopter with a blown tail rotor. But it was nighttime, they were still mostly asleep and they could hear the panicked sounds of children and others running out of the area. Whatever Charlie had told his group... it was effective. Those people were running full tilt boogie past the fence line.
One of the men nodded. "Alright! Kenneth, you and Sydney get the others up, we have to find Dorothy. The rest of us are going to go try and find her in the woods. And Syd... make sure some of the guys from the other building go with the families... we need to stick together and make sure no one separates."
Ingrid nodded affirmatively and ran out with Kenneth. It wasn't hard to get them up and out. By now, horrendous noise was coming from the church. The pack had found Father Rossi and Sister Joseph, she'd be surprised if the structural integrity of the church survived that fight.
When some of the men tried to go to the church, to go to Rossi and Joseph's aid, Ingrid grabbed them, using her superior strength to push them back. Thankfully they were too worked up to notice.
"NO! You have your orders! We HAVE to find O'GRADY!" she yelled.
For the most part it worked. Three people slipped by however and Ingrid gave them up as dead. She had promised Jake to stay the hell out of the fight... even if that meant that there were a few unfortunates that couldn't be saved. As they entered, the screaming began and then was abruptly cut off. Either the vampires had devoured them, or they ended up being collateral damage in the fight going on in there.
Kenneth stared horrified and looked at Ingrid. She shoved him back. "GO!"
The front vestibule of the church nearly exploded when Leah and who she thought might be Paul came flying through it. Shaking themselves out, both wolves bounded to their paws and leaped back in. Kenneth took two steps backwards, mouth agape and then he turned and ran.
As Ingrid started to head back to the others , to check in with Charlie she heard something she really didn't want to hear.
"Sydney! Where's Sydney? I can't LEAVE HER HERE!"
It was Lydia, breaking away from the group, running as fast as her heavily pregnant body would allow, back into the chaos. Ingrid watched as she slipped out of Charlie's grasp and headed in her direction.
"Shit..." she murmured.
Then things went from bad to worse. Two vampires, she had told the pack there was only two vampires here. Albeit they were two insanely enduring specimens of a vampiric subspecies... she had told them two. So when a third popped out of the trees, Ingrid nearly swallowed her tongue. It was heading towards Lydia, it was heading towards all those soft humans behind Lydia, it was heading towards Charlie Swan who wasn't trained for this shit. And Ingrid was alone... the pack was in the church. She had no time, no time to run for the pack, to get their attention. It was headed towards Lydia.
Charlie Swan saw it too, Ingrid watched as he ran towards the woman. He wasn't going to make it, he wasn't fast enough. He brought up the pistol she had given him and squeezed out three rapid fire shots. Two of them hit center mass, and for most things that would have dropped the man to the ground. But he was a newborn created vampire. Those bullets only slowed him for a fraction of a second. Pregnant blood was very rich, had an aroma... and the vampire's eyes were black from hunger and bloodlust.
Ingrid processed all this in about five seconds. She was close enough, she was fast enough to get there. So she ran. She pulled out her knife and angled herself to intercept the vampire. Lydia was standing still, she was standing still! Ingrid screamed at her to run and then she had about a split second to get in the way.
This was going to hurt.
The vampire collided with her like a freight train, her head snapped back and she went up into the air. If she had been human her neck would have broken and she would have been dead before she hit the ground. The ground... Ingrid was going to hit it, hard, so she angled her body to the right. She was left handed, she'd sacrifice her right shoulder to keep a hold on her weapon. She had to keep a hold on that knife, it was all she had, it was all she'd be able to use to protect Lydia behind her.
Dagonet's words from her long ago training once again echoed in her mind. "Never lose your weapon. You're wolfblooded and your weapon is your life. If it comes down to you and one of them, if you have no backup when you face a vampire down... fight. As long as you can fight, you have options. If you give up, you lose those options. So cling to that weapon in your hand... whatever it is... and fight."
She nearly bounced she hit so hard and she felt her shoulder give way. But she popped up to her knees, held her knife out in front of her, kept her ground.
The last thing she did before facing the confused vampire again was snarl at Lydia to run. Charlie reached her by that point and dragged the now compliant Lydia away.
Reaching within her psyche she grabbed blindly for the thing that crawled and pushed inside her. The thing that made her half crazy sometimes. 'Come on you bitch... free reign... take it... I fucking need you!'
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Half a world away Magnus Jarlsson stopped short and closed his eyes. His twin... he knew... he always knew...
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Seth was fighting what felt like an unending battle. It was ten on two for shit's sake... but it felt like it was them versus an army! Ingrid hadn't been kidding when she said that newborn created vampires were hard to kill. It seemed like nothing they did slowed them down. They healed so fast that it was like they were tearing into the same marble flesh over and over again to pull off the same limbs. They had to dismember them to get the kill. Bite sized chunks she had said. He was starting to wonder if perhaps maybe they should have called in more help. If they should have called the Cullens back to Forks from Denali.
He saw the three people come running in. Two fell to the female who literally drank them like they were a happy meal with a straw sticking out of them. Another had died when a ceiling beam came crashing onto him. It was bloody, it was messy and it was everything the newborn battle of six years ago had not been. Vampires don't bleed... they crumble. Their guts don't spill out and putrefy. Humans do.
When Leah and Paul leaped at the female as she dropped the second body, her arm whipped out and sent them flying through the vestibule wall. Through the massive hole Seth could hear the screaming of panicked people. But with the exception of those three, they seemed to be running away from the church, not towards it. Ingrid and Charlie were doing their job.
When the two 3rd ranked wolves leapt back in, they seemed to share rank more and more these days when in combat, Seth joined them along with Quil and Embry. The five of them combining their attacks with greater efficacy than before. Seth and Leah had always fought seamlessly together, it came as naturally to them as breathing. But lately she and Paul had been pairing up more and more, becoming the team that nature seemed determined to make them become.
The three of them did the main attacking. Embry and Quil cut off her escape routes. Every time Sister Joseph seemed to be about to get away, Quil and Embry were on her, forcing her back to the waiting jaws of Paul, Leah and Seth. It seemed to take forever, in reality it only lasted a few more minutes after they got their strategy down. Soon she was in pieces, the five of them tearing, biting, nearly chewing in their frantic desire to get her into pieces small enough.
"OVER HERE!" Collin yelled.
He had phased back and started a fire. Quil and Embry phased back as well and frantically began flinging the pieces of vampiric nun onto the blaze.
Jake, Sam, Jared and Brady were facing off with Father Rossi. The priest looked badly damaged, but unlike Sister Joseph, he did not scream in inarticulate rage. He calmly stared at them.
"I am chosen by G-d! I will not fall."
The look in his eyes, the way he held himself aloof. Seth could tell that Ingrid had been right. He believed his own hype. However he had made no effort to get to his female companion when it had become clear that she was going to die. Seth suspected that, at heart, the man had never really cared what happened to the deranged nun. The priest had been a trapdoor spider, pulling at all his strings to make his tiny little absolute kingdom where he was a god and all others served him. The only thing that surprised him seemed to be that his G-d had not smote the pack down when they appeared. He had not even flinched when his compatriot died for him. Sadly enough it had become clear almost immediately that she had been conditioned to do so.
Survival of the fittest... of the smartest. Seth wondered if the priest had always believed he was chosen by G-d or if eventually the delusion had somewhere along the line become the truth for him. If he had fallen victim to his own lie.
"NO!"
The scream behind the priest startled everyone. The bleach and sugar smell of the vampires, the smoke from the fire. It had masked her scent. There stood Dorothy O'Grady, shuffling toward her injured messiah, her arms outstretched.
"You cannot kill him, Don't you understand?"
Collin yelled from his place by the fire. "Lady, you need to get the hell away from him! Or you're gonna be food!"
O'Grady's expression was rapt with worship and joy. "Take what you need... it's all I want!"
It was like nothing and no one else existed for her but the man before her. Maybe they had both died that day in the camp 77 years ago. Maybe there was no other place any one of the three could possibly have ended up besides where they were.
Jake didn't stop her. Sam didn't stop her. None of them did. And for years afterward none of them could truly put into words why. The closest they came was to say that it was inevitable, that in the moment it seemed like only possible outcome. Maybe it was a little bit of pity as well. But mostly they would try not to talk about it. Try not to think of all the ways that the supernatural world could destroy someone besides just merely killing them.
O'Grady opened her arms to Rossi and he yanked her to him so fast it was a blur only the wolves could have tracked. She let out a sigh of deep fulfillment, like her life suddenly had been given meaning that it previously had not had. Her eyes closed and she murmured something so softly that not even the wolves could hear it.
It was over quickly and her body was let go with indifference. The man that she had so clearly worshiped had only faked his attachment to her. She was food, part of his herd. An important part, but still... merely cattle.
Then the pack leapt at him, even Quil and Embry phased back to join the rest. Seth was about to join them when he suddenly skidded to a halt.
Ingrid.
Something was wrong with Ingrid, she felt... different. Something was hurting her, something was.. she was... Holy shit! His imprint was fighting a vampire... by herself!
Seth didn't think, he didn't do anything but run, straight out through the hole in the church wall. He didn't need to track her down, he just knew where she was.
Leah turned her head, seeing her brother go careening out of the church. Images of Ingrid, some faceless vampire and blood slamming into the packmind. She too turned and nearly as quickly followed him out. Paul paused for a second and then chased after the Clearwaters. The three of them racing to where Seth was convinced his imprint was.
They found her up against a tree, making a long slash across a male vampire's face with her knife as his mouth neared her. Her eyes were nearly completely dilated and her scent had spiked, she was screaming in a rough and rage filled voice. She was like she had been that night in the bar those months ago... except worse. Then they were on him.
Ingrid fell to the side, crouching, her right arm dangling mostly useless by her side. She backed away from the snarling mass of fur, her eyes were still dilated and she shook. Small snarls and growls came out of her mouth. Unblinking she watched as the three wolves tore the vampire apart with a fury that would have been awe inspiring to see if she had been in a mental place to properly appreciate it.
When they were done, there wasn't much of him left. Leah phased back and yelled for Charlie to come and light a fire. Seth turned to face Ingrid, but when he did... she was still trying to hold in her aggression. This wasn't like the last time. He could tell she was holding on by a slender thread. Then he remembered. Wolfblooded were the basis for the myths about berserkers. And his imprint was about half a step away from completely going on a rampage. It was like the woman he knew wasn't even in there anymore. What he had witnessed at the bar when those loggers had upset her was nothing in comparison to this. He had no idea what to do and a call to her brother wasn't an option anymore, so Seth decided to go on instinct. The wolf inside him urging him to go to her and calm her by any means necessary before another packmate saw fit to do it themselves.
He went to her, paused before her so that they could be nose to muzzle. Something telling him not to phase back. She snapped her teeth at him, yelled aggressively, her scent continuing to spike as she shook. The shaking scared him, it looked like a phase stuck somewhere in the middle, but he knew it wasn't. Still, she shook. He got closer and she did a damn good approximation of a warning growl. Then Seth just placed his enormous head over her, pushed down on the back of her neck and using his superior weight, forced her to lay down. Then as much as he could without frightening her, or setting her off, he curled a bit around her.
With any of the other imprints this would not have been alright. The risk of injury was too great. After Sam had scarred up Emily's face the whole pack hardly ever phased in front of the humans in the know. Not even the imprints. Sure Emily, Kim and Claire knew what their imprinted wolves looked like in wolf form, but that was the extent of it.
But Ingrid wasn't human, or at least she wasn't nearly as human as the other imprints. And Seth just had a gut deep feeling that this wasn't as dangerous to her as it would have been to them. His wolf knew it too and he just kept her on the ground, with him as she shook, growled and slowly came back to herself.
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Jake and Sam surveyed the damage. The only thing left was the remnants of the church, everything else had been burned. Charlie was leaving with a stack of information that he had curtly told Jake was necessary for him to have if he was going to do his job. Jake sighed and had let him leave. He had made the decision to let Charlie in on the secret and if that meant that the man was going to make himself more informed without Jake's help, than that was just going to have to be something that the pack and eventually the Cullens would have to except.
He turned to his beta. "Burn it, burn it to the ground. Everything else is already gone, I want that church to be nothing more than a black mark on the dirt."
Sam nodded. "It's not your fault Jake."
Jake just scoffed. "Yeah it is. We got too insular Sam, too worried about our own backyard to even notice what was going on next door. This should never have happened, not on our watch."
"We can't patrol everywhere Jake. Besides, the council..."
Sam never got the chance to finish what he was going to say.
"I don't give a good goddamn about the council Sam! I'm the alpha and I say we start looking out for the area around the rez. It can't just be Quiluete lives we care about Sam. It can't... or you're going to have to tell me how that sort of selfishness makes us any better than the Cullens refusal to go away, even though they know their presence makes it hard for us, just to keep Bella happy."
Sam held up his hands in supplication. "I'm not disagreeing with you Jake. Just telling you what they're going to say."
"Too bad for them." the alpha spit out.
Leah and Paul came back, both phased human and stinking of bleach and smoke.
"How's Ingrid?" Sam asked.
"She's with Seth, she's almost completely calmed down. Did Charlie tell you what she did?" Paul asked.
"Yeah." Jake said. "Something tells me that unlike when Bella hit me, if she did... she won't nearly break her hand."
Leah shook her head. "Charlie's going to take her back to his place when she's calmed down. Fix her shoulder. Seth says it's dislocated and we can't bring her to a hospital, too many questions and Carlisle isn't here to fix her."
Sam leaned against the fence. "She really took a bodycheck from a vampire?"
"Yep." Paul popped the p.
"Face it guys." Leah said. "She's not human... and if our pack is anything like the Fenrir, eventually we're going to be breeding ourselves some little Ingrids."
As Jake watched the church burn to the ground he huffed. "Right now... one is enough."
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As Yvanne brushed the hair out of Magnus's eyes, his breathing steadied.
"Is she alright?" his wolfblooded mate asked.
"Yeah... she's okay. I don't like her being this far away 'Vanne."
"I know." she replied. "I know."
This was all coming to a head, Magnus could tell. It was only a matter of time. And when it happened, he wanted his twin by his side, not on the other side of the world.
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4 days later Ingrid walked into a hospital room. Lydia lay on a bed, holding a wriggling blanket.
"She's beautiful." Ingrid said.
Lydia looked at her. "I called his parents. Now that she's born, they seem to have realized the mistakes they made. They want us to come back home. My husband is dead, but they want to try to start again with me... and with her."
"That's wonderful Lydia." Ingrid sat on the edge of the bed. "Are you going to be alright?"
"I am now. Now that... now that I know what I'm doing again."
Ingrid sat up and touched the little baby girl's forehead, murmured something in a language that Lydia was unfamiliar with. She noticed that her hair was all tucked up and hidden in a baseball cap with the Boston Redsox logo on it.
"Your name isn't Sydney, is it?" she asked.
"No." Ingrid replied.
"All those people who disappeared up at the church, Father Rossi and Sister Joseph killed them... didn't they?"
"Yes."Ingrid replied.
The two women were silent for a time.
"Am I, is she, in any danger because of this?" Lydia asked.
"I wouldn't think so. That world, if you try your best to avoid it, if you don't go looking for it, generally, it doesn't go looking for you unless you're very unlucky. But, if you notice anything, if you think you may be in danger, call Charlie. He'll get in contact with me and I'll come get you. Okay?"
Lydia nodded and held her newborn daughter tighter.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Ingrid said, still using her fake American accent.
Then she stood up and went to leave. Just before she got to the door, she turned around. "What's her name?"
"Ruth, I hated the name, but it was the name of my husband's favorite aunt. So... it's his last gift to her I guess. Her name."
"I think that's beautiful." Ingrid said and then she walked out the door and outside the hospital to where Seth was waiting.
She reached up and took her cap off. The temporary brown hair dye had washed out and it was back to it's vivid red shade, the curl was just starting to come back as well.
"Hey, you waited."
"Of course. How's the shoulder?" Seth asked.
Ingrid rotated it completely. "It's fine. I don't heal as fast as you do, but I heal plenty fast."
The two of them walked in a companionable silence.
"Thank you... you saved my life. I never could have fought off that vampire by myself. All I was hoping to do was slow it down enough for Lydia to get away."
"You're my imprint, of course I wasn't going to let that fucker hurt you anymore than he already had!" Seth exclaimed.
Ingrid stepped in front of him, stopping him with a hand on his chest. "Don't short change yourself. You would have done it for anybody, because that's the kind of person you are. You saved me because I was in trouble. Not merely because I'm your imprint. You saved me because you're a good man Seth... and you never needed the compulsion of an imprint to help you with that."
Seth quirked a half smile at her. "Thank you, that means a lot actually."
Ingrid walked ahead of him to her car. "So... you coming to Port Angeles with me?"
He shrugged and followed her to the passenger side. "Um... sure. Why are we going to P.A.?"
"Because the art store in Forks, as Quil would put it, sucks monkey balls. And I need to get some paints."
"I thought you were a photographer?" Seth asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"I am, but I still had to go to art school you know. I know how to paint and I need paints."
"Why do you need paints? I know all your commissions and projects right now and none of them include paint." he pressed.
"My aren't you the curious one."
"It's the canine in me... think of it like a dog with a bone. Woof, woof." Seth was smiling widely at her.
"The crest symbol on the front of your house desperately needs a new coat of paint. And yes, before you say anything, normally a tribal painter would do it. But I checked with Billy and he said that as your imprint, I qualify. So this is my thank you present."
Seth was humbled. To do this... it meant so much in the eyes of the Quiluete tribe. For her to paint his family's crest symbol on his home. It was a mark of acceptance so strong that his wolf nearly started rumbling in contentment.
"Ingrid, that's..."
"I know Seth. Look, I'm your imprint and you're my wolf. I'm not going to hold hands and go running to the alter with you and set about making babies. But I meant what I said about being friends. I owe you a debt Seth and friends pay their debts. Besides... you can feed me while I paint."
He laughed and turned on the radio. Alright then... lets go buy some paint.
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Okay, and with this chapter we are halfway done with this story. This closes Act 2 and next chapter will transition us to Act 3. It's already written, I just need to edit it. See you soon guys. No more months long waits. I'm pretty sure I can maintain an update schedule of 2 chapters a month from here on out.